CHARTISM.
"The People's Charter," drafted by Francis Place, the radical tailor, was issued in 1838. Its six points were universal (i.e., manhood), suffrage, election by ballot, payment of mem bers, annual parliaments, equal electoral dis tricts and the abolition of property qualification for members. This purely political program gathered to itself the whole of the working class discontent which hitherto had taken other forms. In 1839 the north of England was saved from a revolutionary rising by the ability of Sir Charles Napier; and Chartism was crushed by the imprisonment of its leaders. It survived till 1848, when the continental revolutions fanned it again into flame, but it expired after the failure of a monster meeting at Kensing ton, London, which was to inaugurate the British revolution. Meanwhile the agitation for the abolition of the Corn Laws, which was suc cessful in 1846, had attracted to the Liberal party a great measure of labor support, and with the disappearance of Chartism, the first period of revolt terminated.
Labor in Alliance with The abolition of the Corn Laws was followed by a series of years of expanding trade and growing wealth; the narrow Whig oligarchy was grad ually replaced by a broader Liberalism which conferred the suffrage on the workmen of the towns in 1867, and on those of the rural dis tricts in 1884. John Bright (q.v.), the tribune of the people, and Joseph Chamberlain (q.v.), the idol of radical Birmingham, were the real leaders of the working classes up to 1886, and Gladstone generally held their allegiance from 1868 till his retirement in 1894. The trade unions had during this period established them selves as national institutions, and the standing Parliamentary committee of their annual con ference was in constant friendly communication with Sir William Harcourt (q.v.), Sir Henry James (now Lord James) (q.v.), A. J. Mun della and other leading Liberals. George Odger was one of the first working-class aspirants to Parliament, but he died before the day of vic tory. In 1874, Thomas Burt (q.v.), the North umberland miner, was elected for Morpeth, a position he still retains in 1916, and his remark able career has been honored in his old age by the high dignity of a seat in the Privy Council.
In the same election another Labor candidate, Alexander Macdonald, was successful. At first the Liberals opposed these upstarts; but their claims were soon admitted, while their harmless respectability and valuable special knowledge were generally acknowledged. Eleven Trade Unionists were elected in 1885; in 1886, 9; in 1892, 15; in 1895, 12; 3 more were successful at bye-elections between this date and 1900; there were 52 in 1906, and only 39 in 1916. Meanwhile Henry Broadhurst, a stone-mason, was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs in 1885, and ThOmas Burt, the miner, was Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade from 1892 to 1895.
It may be said that almost all these men were elected as Liberals. The distinction be tween them and the others of their party was that they had been manual workers, they had entered Parliament as nominees of their fellow workmen, and usually their election expenses were paid and their maintenance was provided by the funds of their trade unions. But in fact the classification, though definite, is not determined by any one factor. Working men were elected during this period in considerable numbers to town councils, school boards, county councils and other local governing au thorities, and many were appointed justices of the peace, that is members of the unpaid courts of first instance.
The New Revolt.—The origin of the re vival of independence in politics dates from 1884, when the modern Socialist movement be gan in England. In this year the Social Demo cratic Federation, founded a short time before by H. M. Hyndman, became distinctively social ist, and the adhesion to its ranks of William Morris (q.v.), the poet and artist, brought it into immediate prominence. Several Socialist candidates were put in the field at the election of 1885, but they all failed to secure more than a few dozen votes, except John Burns, (q.v.), who polled 598 votes at Nottingham, but, of course, was defeated.