The Chartist Movement 1838 - 1848

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• 1. The 1848 Petition
• 2. Demonstration in London
• 3. The Chartist story
• 4. A national movement
• 5. Chartist legacy
• 6. Find out more
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Demonstration in London

The government decided to ban the proposed procession with the petition to the House of Commons. The Chartist leader, O'Connor, complied with this ban. This was not - as his many enemies were keen to observe after the event - because he was a frightened blusterer, but because he knew that in any confrontation with soldiers it would be the demonstrators who would be killed or wounded. The petition was eventually conveyed from Kennington Common to the House of Commons by three cabs, with O'Connor and the other Chartist leaders walking alongside.

'The propertied classes now sought to present the Chartist petition and demonstration of 1848 as a 'fiasco'.'

No part of the Chartist petition of 1848 survives - though a fragment of an earlier one does - but within two days of its presentation O'Connor was informed that the number of genuine signatures on it was far fewer than the six million the Chartists claimed. In 17 hours, 13 clerks had apparently counted 1.9 million signatures; O'Connor expressed scepticism that such a task could have been completed by such a small number of people in such a short time. If pseudonyms such as 'Victoria Rex' and 'No Cheese' were used, this did not necessarily mean these signatures were forgeries; for some Chartists it was necessary to keep their identities secret from employers.

The propertied classes now sought to present the Chartist petition and demonstration of 1848 as a 'fiasco'. This was the line taken by the newspapers in the days after the event, and was confirmed in Charles Kingsley's 'Alton Locke' (1850). Despite this, Chartists such as Thomas Clark, who had walked alongside the cabs carrying the petition, looked back on the events of 1848 with great pride. Their intentions had been peaceful; the aggressive militarisation of the capital had been unnecessary.

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Published: 2002-05-01