Conservative aspects of the chartist press

Abstract

In the later 1830s and early 1840s British political life was undergoing the first stages in the drama of a struggle for universal sufferage. A politically oriented movement known as Chartism had arisen and its ideology was based on the tenets of modern mass participation democracy. Since then it has been cited as a revolutionary movement. An attempt to evaluate this judgment is the focus for this study.

Chartism was not only unique in promoting the initial (through unsuccessful) mass movement for democratic change in Great Britain, it was also the first to employ a truly popular political press. Breakthroughs in printing technology and relaxation of the rigid press censorship of the Napolenic period allowed this era to inaugurate a state of affairs in which three factors were to govern and shape political affairs: politicians, public opinion, and an informed press to help form this public opinion. This is a particularly relevant aspect of Chartism because it was the first political movement in Britain to employ the press in the popular cause. They produced a lasting records of their thought whereas previously mass political movements were transient affairs leaving only scattered remnants of their ideology which was often shrouded in ledgend and hyperbole. With the Chartist movement all this changed and an historian can objectively analyze its ideology from a perspective of events judged worthy of comment by the editors of their radical press. What follows is an explication of the attachment of these so-called revolutionary figures to doctrines more easily associated with reactionary social figures and the ultra-Tory faction. An attempt will be made to outline the nature of this connection and to analyze what it meant for democracy in Great Britain in this period of social upheaval.