TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE NATIONAL PETITION.
TEE presentation of the "National Petition," and its attendant circumstances, have in nowise modified the views respecting "the Movement" expressed in our last number; but that presentation is the event of the week, and as such it challenges a few remarks.
It is not easy to decide from appearances whether Chartism is at
present advancing or retrograding: Some of those who took a pro- minent part in the original Chartist movement have now identified themselves with the Complete Suffrage movement ; and division, it is generally assumed, indicates weakness. On the other hand, all "the points" of the Charter have been adopted by Mr. STURGE'S association, and an emulative spirit may make the members of the two bodies more indefatigable in their missionary endeavours than if they were acting as one mass. Again, the first move- ment of the organized Chartists brought them into collision with the law, and exposed them to disrespectful treatment : whereas now they are acting in compliance with constitutional forms ; and
their petition, emanating from an association, has been received
with marked attention, and its prayer deliberately discussed by the Legislature. In so far as the Chartists may be thus considered to be recognized as an existing political party in a country, they oc- cupy a more respectable and a safer position than they did: but they
may also, like some sects who in the time of the Ecclesiastical Re- formation (the Anabaptists for example) began as ferocious mad- men and sobered by degrees down into sagacious and respected citizens, only possess in their tamed condition power enough to command toleration, not to carry their principles into effect.
The procession which conveyed the petition to the House of Commons on Monday was not very numerous—three or four thou- sand at the most. It included a good many women, and also a good many ineffable devil-may-care-looking Irishmen ; but two- thirds of them were bale and for their station respectably-dressed mechanics, with every appearance of being perfectly in earnest. As to the numerical amount of the procession, indeed, it may be said that it was merely a gathering of a few of the working-men of London to accompany the delegates of the Convention—that re- presentatives of numerous bodies, intimately connected, though scattered over the whole island, were present : but it must also be remembered, that although the Charter was framed and launched in London, those most active in that work took no part in the procession. The petition itself, however, with its three million of signatures, is the main consideration. It has been said that it asserts many erroneous and absurd opinions. This may safely be conceded ; as also, that had any attempt been made either by the eclectic politi- cians of the Edinburgh or the dogmatists of the Westminster school to condense as full an exposition of their political and economical theories into as narrow compass, the document would probably have been found to contain quite as many crudities. In the still imperfect state of moral and economical science, it must be so. It would probably be found, if the inquiry were made, that scarcely one person who has signed the petition avows all the opinions therein expressed; yet defenders of every one of those opinions taken singly will be found in the present House of Com- mons. The petition, though utterly worthless as a political system, is important as an historical document—as a picture of the state of political opinion of a class of society, which had in former times everywhere, and still has in most countries, no political opinions at all. It proves that the "unenfranchised" are thinking—busily and pertinaciously thinking, and upon many subjects. Blunders abound, and even truths are rather stumbled upon by accident, and lightly entertained or let go ; but it is only through this pro- cess of blindfold groping that society attains to knowledge. With all its faults, there is nothing in this petition to occasion despondence in those who look forward with desire and hope to the increased political importance of the mass of the people. But, viewed as a means to an end, it is calculated to give a very low estimate of the talents of their leaders. They seem to have been labouring, and with much success, to raise up obstacles to the attainment of their own wishes. There is perhaps among all the heterogeneous topics introduced into the medley but one upon which all who sign it are agreed—the prayer to be admitted within the pale of the constitution, to the participation of the elective franchise; yet every one who has taken part in the getting up of the petition seems to have insisted upon having inserted into it, in addition to the assertion that the people ought to choose their own legislators, a stipulation that those legislators when chosen shall adopt his particular panacea for popular evils. The con- sequence is, that nostrums are recommended incompatible with each other, and the mere proposal to adopt which is sure to strike terror into the majority of the House of Commons, and lead them, if for no other reason, peremptorily to refuse the franchise to all who approve of them. In this respect it is apparent, either that the Chartist leaders are acting now with less intelligence than at first, or that the most intelligent among them have found their opinions overruled and have retired. The exclusive prayer of the Chartists at first was for the admission of all adult males to the elective franchise, accompanied with some regulations to insure free elections and the widest possible choice of representatives. They refuse to entertain any proposition that might identify them snore with one party of the holders of political power than another, lest by so doing they should open a door to irrelevant discussion, or create without necessity a prejudice against themselves in any
quarter. On this ground they refused to coaperate with the Anti- Corn-law agitation ; and by the uncalled-for violence with which they enforced this resolution, irritated and alienated a powerful class which might have been useful to them. And now they identify their cause with the assertion of a farrago of opinions, one or other of which, if seriously insisted upon, must frighten every possessor of property from their side. The immense multiplicity of incongruous themes introduced into their petition is calculated to defeat their ends in another way. Their prayer was to be heard at the bar of the House of Commons : this petition might have been fairly urged had they asked to be heard upon a definite question susceptible of proof; but it was impossible for the House of Commons to waste the time required for indispensable business, in order to listen to men talking upon every possible question, whether it was to be solved by facts capable of proof or not.
On the whole, then, although there is nothing in the circumstances attending this petition, or the discussion originated upon it, to lead to the inference that Chartism is retrograding, there is nothing to show that it is making very rapid or decided progress. Chartism is not used here, as frequently it is, to designate the vague sense of suffering and desire of relief so widely diffused through the country. That state of things is one great cause of the pro- gress of Chartism among the working men, but it is not Chartism itself. Chartism is faith in the power of good political institutions to remove all or most of the evils which beset society, and the belief that the best political institutions are those which intrust the election of legislators to the whole or nearly the whole of the popula- tion. Chartists are political fanatics, who attribute to constitu- tions of government a power far beyond what they possess, so far as the world's experience has yet reached. Good, rational po- litical institutions, are a necessary condition of human comfort, but not the only one. Still it is frequently by the fanaticism of one- idea'd men that good is worked out piecemeal; and it may be that the narrow-minded bigotry of those who expect every thing from political organization is destined to be the means of hitching society one step forward to a better condition. Two considerations conspire to show that an extension of the franchise is likely to benefit (though not to the extent enthusiasts imagine) both governors and the governed. If nothing else, the multitude will gain by the pos- session of the franchise greater attention to their complaints, and better-directed, more continuous efforts to alleviate their condition : there will be more reality in the practical philanthropy of rulers. On the other hand, the possessors of political power will be ren- dered more secure. Nothing so much endangers the stability of political institutions—rendering thereby all commerce, all personal security, precarious—as the existence of a numerous class excluded from the privileges of free citizenship. Its members can have no affection for their rulers : they attribute all their sufferings to them in times of pressure, and yield them no gratitude in times of suc- cess. Ever discontented, they are the ready tools of the ambitious and malignant. United by the bonds of common exclusion, they are ever ready to act en mane against those who possess political power. There are within the body of the unenfranchised the germs of as many political parties as exist among the already enfranchised ; but a factitious unity is created by their exclusion from the pale of the constitution. They are leagued to force their way within it : once there, each section would pursue its own special interests apart, and often at variance with each other. Enfranchised, the opera- tives would not be one great interest ready to engulf all the others : unenfranchised, they are leagued by a common sense of what they think wrongs, to thwart and harass all the others.
These views will be acted upon when the majority of the wealthy become convinced of the additional security to be derived from the extension of the suffrage, and when the majority of the poor are united to demand it. Such opinions are steadily diffusing them- selves. Making every allowance, the signatures to the National Peti- tion must represent nearly a million of men who are either already heads of families or will be in the course of a few years. What they are really agreed upon asking in earnest are the "six points" of the Charter. This is no new demand : those points were asked in 1776, by Major CARTWRIGHT ; in 1780, by the Dukes, Earls, and Viscounts at the head of the Society for Constitutional In- formation; they constitute the political creed of most of the dis- ciples of BENTHAM; the two extremest points (Annual Parliaments and Universal Suffrage) were the professed objects of the London Corresponding Society of 1792. All those panics consisted of members of the titled or untitled aristocracy, teaching the masses their doctrines ; but now the scholars have set up for themselves. The organized and affiliated scribes who have got up the Na- tional Petition consist almost exclusively of the labouring classes. The unenfranchised are no longer a mere mob, hallooing in the wake of aristocratic politicians; they are no longer mere unreflecting instruments lashed into a temporary excitement by the harangues of demagogues who do not belong to their order : they are thinking, whether it be to the purpose or not, and have taken their own busi- ness into their own hands. As to those of the enfranchised who for the sake of increased stability and other reasons would rejoice to see the Chartists admitted to participate in their political privileges, they too are giving signs of life, though languidly. The Complete Suffrage Association has already been alluded to. A Metropolitan Reform Association has been formed, and is issuing tracts, which display an acquaintance with the history of previous efforts for the attainment of its object, more intimate and accurate than could have been attained except through personal participation in them ; and it appears animated by a spirit free from exaggerated enthu- siasm. The united consequence of all these separate associations will be the growth of an extensive body of public opinion in favour of a great extension of popular privileges. And when some rousing event—perhaps an overwhelming commercial crisis in England, or the contagious impulse of a democratical revolution in a neigh- bouring country—occurs to give rise to a new movement, the opinion formed under these auspices will dictate the form which it is to assume and the course which it is to pursue.
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