Public Order in the Age of the Chartists, by F.C. Mather

[p023] Briggs. Macmillan. 42s. Public Order in the Age of the Charti He (Os Mather. Manchester University Press. 32s. 6d. Asa Briggs has edited a collection of studies of various aspects of the Chartist movement. The main part of the book is a series of articles about the development of Chartism during the 30s and 40s of the last century in different areas of the coun- try, under differing conditions. In Manchester, for instance, where the textile industry was organized on capitalist lines, there was a sharp division between the mill-workers and the employers. From the be- ginning the Chartists in Lancashire were fundamentally opposed to the Anti-Corn Law League of the em- ployers, “suspecting them of wishing to reduce wages. Many threads were drawn together in the Chartist move- ment—the disillusionment of those workers who had helped the middle class to political power with the 1832 Reform Bill; the movement for the 10-hour day; the agitation against the Poor Law of 1834. This same general pattern followed in the main industrial areas, particu- larly the Midlands, and the industrial town of Wales, such as Llanelly and Merthyr Tydfil. The developing in- dustrial town of Leeds, however, was an exception. Here the movement was in the hands of craftsmen and small traders, who had a long tradi- tion of co-operation in political action with the middle-class radicals, As a result of this, Chartism never grew to be a mass working-class movement in Leeds. It is made clear ‘that Chartism never attracted agricultural labourers in great numbers, although there was chronic insecurity in agricultural em- ployment. Perhaps the deadening effects of the brutal repression of the Last Labourers’ Revolt of 1830 were still powerful. Where there was developing industry, such as that in agricultural implements in Suffolk, centres of Chartism grew up. In some areas of declining indus- try—such as the declining cloth in- dustry, run on a domestic basis, in south-west England, Chartism also flourished for a time, but it took on an almost reactionary colour, with agitation against the introduction of machinery and_ technical develop- ments. O’Connor, the famous ‘physi- cal force man’ of the Chartists, ap- pealed to such backward elements with his Utopian land plan, by which subscribers drew lots for pieces of land in proportion to the number of shares they held. The whole plan rested on very insecure economic and legal foundations, and O’Connor was

[p024] 1960 1 part rticles artism e last coun- where ed on sharp orkers e be- ishire 2 the em- shing were nove- those iddle 1832 r the ainst owed ‘ticu- strial and 5 in- was nent and vadi- tical cals. ever lass ism rers was em- ling the rere was in Ik, us- AUTUMN BOOKS always careful to point out that the scheme had nothing to do with Socialism. Summing up, Asa Briggs quotes Lenin’s description of the Chartist movement: ‘the first broad and politi- cally-organized proletarian-revolution- ary movement of the masses’, and emphasises the growing consciousness among the Chartists of the need for independent working-class organiza- tions. In the first issue of Harney’s Red Republican the Chartists were said to ‘have progressed from the idea of a simple political reform to the idea of social revolution’. An increased international con- sciousness was shown—‘the interests of working men in all countries of the world are identified’. The leading statesmen of the day saw the demand for universal suff- rage as revolutionary—‘incompatible with the very existence of civiliz- ation which rested on the security of property’. The middle class sought to prevent the working class from creating its ewn independent political organiza- tions, by seeking for collaboration with the more prosperous workers. But in this sense the Chartist move- ment did not fail, in that it laid the tradition for such independent organ- izations in the future. * * * F. C. Mather sees the Chartist movement merely as a menace to public otder. He criticizes the lack of severity of local magistrates in putting down the Chartists, and points out that the central govern- ment saved the day by intervening with troops. This is an excellent eulogy of the embryo police force of the period— the serious student of Labour history, however, must see this book as a clumsy attempt to convey the feel- ing of the ruling class of the period against the Chartists. PAT BICKERS. Spain