Chartists
W. E. Kilburn, 'The Great Chartist Meeting, 10 April 1848', daguerreotype, The Royal Collection (c) 2006 HM Queen Elizabeth II. 
W. E. Kilburn, 'The Great Chartist Meeting, 10 April 1848', daguerreotype, The Royal Collection (c) 2006 HM Queen Elizabeth II.
These rare images are copyright and must not be downloaded or reproduced without permission. For copies and licenses to use these images please contact www.royalcollection.org.uk/picturelibrary.
The royal collection is very well worth a visit, for tickets and other information please visit www.royalcollection.org.uk
The Chartists were a political movement which was named after the "People's Six Points Charter". This charter or petition called for:
- universal manhood suffrage
- annual parliaments
- payment of Members of Parliament
- vote by ballot
- equal electoral districts
- and the abolition of property qualifications for Members of Parliament (then �300 in land)
Huge meetings were held in support of the Charter. Although the Charter was signed my many thousands of people Parliament turned down the proposals three times - 1839, 1842, and 1848.
One of these Chartist Meetings was held on Kennington Common (now Kennington Park) on 10th April 1848. The establishment became very worried about this meeting, with potentially thousands of angry protestors congregating so close to Westminster. They called in 8,000 soldiers and 150,000 special constables in case of rioting. These were not needed as the meeting ended peacefully. After the Kennington meeting the organizers claimed 300,000 people were present but the Government claimed it was only 15,000 with various newspapers estimating it to be between 20,000 and 50,000.
The Chartist leaders claimed that the 1848 petition to Parliament contained about 5.7 million signatures but on close inspection by MP's it only held 1,975,496 with many of these clear forgeries. Partly as a result of the exaggerated claims and irregularities the proposals were laughed out of Parliament. The movement soon disbanded. It was only decades later that the Chartist aims became a reality.