Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

The operatives employed in several factories near Huddersfield, who have been threatened with dismissal if they attended your glorious demonstration, having suffered much privation and misery, during the last two years, and desirous as we are of meeting every engagement, and as the winter is approaching, feel ourselves compelled to bow our necks to this yoke of Whig and Tory tyranny. Our committee has appealed for a general holiday. In vain have they told our tyrannical oppressors “that as plenty of goods are in the market, that by granting this boon they could sustain no pecuniary loss;” they have told them “that the black slaves have lately been emancipated, and that surely in this land of freedom one day’s cessation from labour will not be denied to those who labour much longer hours than did the West Indians in their state of bondage,” etc. But we are sorry to say that our committee appealed in vain, and in this country “the envy of surrounding nations and admiration of the world” – in this land of freedom – it is a paradox, but we are bondsmen and bondwomen, we are slaves to the circumstances which surround us. The bond of esteem and regard which formerly existed between us and our employers is destroyed. The old feeling of harmony is fled, oppression stalks across the land, and here we are under coercion, in fact, imprisoned… We are very poor, but our last penny will be paid in support of the expense, and our only consolation is that we can, in defiance of Whig or Tory, Malthusian, Jew, or bastiler, attach our names to the National Petition.

We are styled levellers, etc., but while we state why we do not swell the number, let it not be forgotten that when the Whigs struggled for power they told us that they only considered the Reform Bill as a step; that they would if obtained go on with us for more. They are opposed to our preparing to use physical force, but we have not forgotten that their master O’Connell taught us a lesson by his common song that he has seven millions at his back, nor have we forgotten that Brougham talked much about kings’ heads being rolled in the dust for the people to use as foot balls. That Lord Fitzwilliam, backed by another Brougham, advised the stoppage of payment of taxes if the Bill did not pass. That Messrs. Preston-Compositor-Baines and Co. of Leeds, marshalled under flags and banners representing the queen in breeches and the king in petticoats, with the crown falling from his head, and an executioner with his face covered with black crape and carrying a bloody axe, thus shewing that if their power was equal to their intention a revolution would have been effected, at all hazards. They effected their purpose and betrayed us. We are now fighting for our own rights. “God helps them that helps themselves,” and we are ready and resolved to stand by our “Order,” by our Brother Radicals. If our bodies are constrained, our very souls are in the cause, and we bid you God speed.

Comment

Comment

English radicalism split along class lines after the 1832 Reform Act, which increased the electorate by some 50% but excluded those owning less than £10 in property – some 80% of the adult male population. Middle class Whig “radicals” tended to embrace Malthus, justifying their economic success and enfranchisement in terms of competitive individualism, and the betrayal felt by working class radicals at the dissolution of the Birmingham Political Union led to Chartism. Here’s Frank Kitz 50 years later:

Only glancing at the robbery of millions of acres of common and public lands from the peasantry, and hindrances to locomotion and knowledge in the past — all contributory causes of poverty — let us fix our attention on a period which is regarded with affectionate interest by the middle class, that of the Reform Bill of 1832, and its pendant the Municipal Reform Act, 1834. The working class had aided the bourgeoisie to break the power of the ruling families and installed the middle class in office. “Help us,” said they, “and your enfranchisement is assured.”; “The Bill, the whole Bill,” they cried, and in truth the gulled workers got nothing but the Bill. Their reward was a most infamous cold-blooded Poor Law. They punished them for poverty created by their despoilers. Those whom O’Connell before his apostasy from the people’s cause, fittingly described as “the base brutal and bloody Whigs,” gave Malthus’s inhuman denial of the right of the poor to live, concrete expression in the Poor Law Amendment Act of the clay. Coleridge in his “Table Talk,” speaks of the practical father of this measure as follows: “I solemnly declare that I do not believe that all the heresies, sects, and factions, which the ignorance, or wickedness of men has given birth to, were altogether so disgraceful to man as a Christian philosopher, or statesman or citizen as this abominable tenet … but it is so vicious a tenet, so flattering to the cruelty, the avarice and sordid selfishness of most men that I hardly know what to think of the result.”

The immediate result was that the working class were stirred to the heart. The perfidy of the authors was the theme and incentive of the noble band who founded first the Working Men’s Association and afterwards the Chartist Movement.

The working class were ground down with taxation to pay the enormous debt incurred by their rulers in the liberticidal struggle with the French Republicans; they were the victims of a fiscal policy framed to fill the rapacious maws of place-hunters. Starvation stared them in the face, and whilst the country was being covered with railways, canals and mills, the results of the inventive brains of the Arkwrights, Stephensons and Fultons of Labour, there arose on every hand grim bastilles intended for their incarceration when broken down in the unequal struggle for life.

Protests were not wanting against this cruelty; the power and eloquence of the working-class leaders were directed against its authors, and fierce and threatening demonstrations were the consequence. The poetry of Elliott, the fiery eloquence of Harney and O’Connor were allied with the patient work of Lovett and the politic utterances of Sir Richard Phillips, to break down this Law, but to no avail. And how do we stand to day in relation to this stupendous crime committed against the most helpless, and at the same time most worthy, section of the community, the struggling poor? They are crowded in thousands within the hideous cheerless walls of the modem bastilles. Man and Wife separated, imprisoned, deprived of liberty, fed upon food that is always coarse and frequently rotten. Let us peer into these wards crowded with aged and infirm men and women, and ask who are they who are condemned to pass the remnants of their lives in these infernos ? They are the mothers, and fathers of the working-class, who have by their toil contributed to make England’s commercial greatness (Kitz 1885/11).

The reference to France hints at a solution to today’s transcription challenge:

Probably “bastiler,” which I think in Chartist parlance undiscovered by the OED was someone who imprisoned libertarians – and the fate of the original Bastille was well known. For the page in the Northern Star with this entry also has the Heckmondwike delegation’s large green silk flag which, under the device “Unity,” bore the following inscription:

Universal Suffrage
No New Poor Law
No Bastile Punishment

The rest of the list sounds like William Cobbett rabbiting on about the Jews and the jobbers.

I haven’t looked up the Brougham/Fitzwilliam/etc refs to 1832, but thought Fitzwilliam had retired by then. I often struggle to understand in this period of bicephalous rule of the Leeds Mercury whether references to Edward Baines are to the father or the son – perhaps users didn’t differentiate.

Re “their master O’Connell taught us a lesson by his common song that he has seven millions at his back”: unfortunately “song” appears simply to mean that he often claimed the support of virtually the entire population of Ireland – e.g., in the Irish parliament on 15 January 1838 on the subject of tithes, “I speak the voice of seven millions. Why should not the son of Grattan say to you that which he has told you?” (Cusack 1875).

Re the location, Cris Yelland comments:

Detractors of Hartshead Moor East service station, and its defenders (Letters, 23 October), have missed the fact that it stands on the site of Peep Green, the moorland area where Chartists held huge outdoor meetings in 1838, 1839 and 1848. The meeting in May 1839 is thought to be the largest political gathering held in Britain up until then, with 250,000 people. Which is nice to think of over your cup of coffee.

Here are Katrina Navickas’ data for Peep Green/Hartshead Moor meetings:

	name	broad type	date	day	attendance	source
	UE nocturnal meetings	radical	01/08/1801			Bradford, 35D77, 7 Aug 1801
	nocturnal meetings	radical	01/09/1801			The Times, 24 Sep 1801
	plan for Luddite attack	trade union	22/02/1812	Saturday
	reform	reform	01/04/1832		15000	Kod, p.323
	card setters	trade union	01/04/1833		1500	LM, 4 May 1833
	anti-poor law/Feargus O'Connor	Chartist	16/05/1837	Tuesday	250000	Leeds Times, 20 May 1837; Epstein, Lion of Freedom, p.47; LM 20 May 1837
	elect delegates for General Convention	Chartist	15/10/1838	Monday	7000	the Times, 18 Oct 1838; NS 16 Oct 1838; MG 17 Oct 1838
	Chartist	Chartist	01/05/1839	Monday		Benjamin Wilson,
	elect delegates	Chartist	02/05/1839	Tuesday		NS 25 May 1839
	Chartist meeting	Chartist	12/03/1848			RB Harrison's diary

The figure of 7,000 for this rally is a gross underestimate if the following is true: “The procession which started from the rallying point at Millsbridge, and which was led, by Mr. O’Connor to the Moor, covered, in dense columns, more than a mile and a half of the main road.” 2414m column length * 10m road width * 2pax/m2 = 48,280 pax for this component alone – probably a substantial overestimate but perhaps suggesting that the true figure was somewhere between 50K and 100K – well short of the Northern Star‘s partisan 300K+, but still very impressive, and no doubt daunting for the powers that were.

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Original

Northern Star Office, Monday Evening, October 15th, 1838.
This has been a high day in the history of Yorkshire. Early in the morning the merry sounds of martial music roused the sleepers from their beds, throughout the length and breadth of the whole Riding, to look round upon the mighty preparations for the cool and peaceful, but determined and not-to be-mistaken fiat of a British People, in the strength of their intelligence and virtue, pouring forth their united energies of mind, and making known their will-that will, which when directed toward the holy fane of freedom, needs but to be known to be obeyed. Many circumstances conspired to overrule the people’s ardour; the clouds hung heavily, and seemed big with rain the whole morning, and for some hours before the time of meeting an almost continuous drizzling threatened a fearful drenching to the hardy veterans in the cause of right, who, not in thousands only, but in myriads, lined the respective streets of every town, and filled all the main roads with patient demonstrants of British virtue, shewing its capability of sustaining equally the war of the material elements, and the determined opposition of interested and unrighteous men. Many instances have come to our knowledge of individuals who have been personally threatened with loss of employment, and of whole shops upon whom the like base intimidation has been practised and there can be no doubt, that many, many thousands were forced, however, unwillingly, by the press of circumstances, to make principle succumb, and with heavy hearts repair to the drudgery of their taskmasters, when their eyes looked lingeringly and wistfully after their more happy neighbours who tripped it gaily through the drizzling rain. Every effort which malice and ingenuity could devise, was resorted to to prevent the people from assembling in such numbers, as might adequately import their strength and resolution. ‘Twill not be thought that we colour this too highly, when the letters of the imprisoned slaves of Huddersfield, to the Chairman of the meeting, has been read. The demon of discord and dishonesty has done his worst: and, with all the unlooked-for aid of bad weather also, has signally failed to effect any perceptible intimidation upon the mass of the brave men of the West Riding. Judging by the swarms which lined the whole road, and was being continually augmented as each bye-lane poured out its tributary streams from the adjoining villages, one would have supposed that all Yorkshire was literally on foot. The procession which started from the rallying point at Millsbridge, and which was led, by Mr. O’Connor to the Moor, covered, in dense columns, more than a mile and a half of the main road. We never beheld a more enlivening scene than the arrival of this great body of freemen upon the place of meeting; one shout loud and long seemed to rend the air, as the new comers mingled with their fellows, who had previously arrived. Of the whole scene it is impossible to give any thing like a description. Any sight so cheering and so invigorating, we never before beheld. Of numbers we feel it difficult to make even a guess. So much nonsense has been lately talked about the numbers of large meetings, that we shall not pretend to estimate this. Suffice it to say, it was the largest meeting Yorkshire ever saw. The last meeting on Peep Green against the Poor Law Amendment Act was estimated at 300,000; and all who have seen both, acknowledge that it dwindles into nothingness, when compared with the meeting of to-day. The meeting closed at four o’clock, and will dwell in the memory of all who witnessed it as long as memory may last.

The scene was rendered not less inspiring by the many excellent bands of music. There were so many, and from so many places, that we have no room to enumerate them. The following is the best account which in so hasty a manner can be given of the numerous flags and banners which, together with the music, served to enhance the imposing array.

LEEDS.
“Peterloo Blood-stained Banner, with a representation of the Yeomen cutting down the people with their Sabres.
Reverse.
“Murder demands Justice.”
EMBLEMATICAL FLAG.
INSCRIPTION.
“Who devour widow’s houses, and for pretence make long prayers.”
TOWNSHIP OF GOMERSAL-FLAG.
INSCRIPTION.
“The earth is the right of men. He that will not work neither shall he eat.”
LARGE FLAG.
INSCRIPTION.
“Birstal Radical Association.”
Reverse.
Universal Suffrage-Vote by Ballot-Annual Parliaments-No Property Qualification-Equal Representation.
LARGE BANNER.
INSCRIPTION.
“We consulted with ourselves and rebuked the nobles and the rulers and said unto them, “Ye exact usury every one of his brother: and set a great assembly against you.”
EAST BIERLEY.
“They that would be free themselves must strike the blow.”
LARGE GREEN SILK FLAG;
WHITE EDGES.
INSCRIPTION
“Universal Liberty and Peace.”
LARGE FLAG: CAP OF LIBERTY
INSCRIPTION.
“Taxation without Representation is Tyranny.”
Reverse.
“No Corn Laws to cramp our industry: a full
and fair Representation in every Country.”
Reverse.
Canons are the arguments of Despots.”

[Etc. etc. Remarks by chairman.]

MR. PITKETHLY, of Huddersfield, then read a letter from the Radicals of that place, of which the following is a copy:-
TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE WEST-RIDING MEETING TO BE HELD ON HARTSHEAD MOOR, ON THE 15th INSTANT.
Huddersfield, 13th, October, 1838.
SIR, The operatives employed in several factories near Huddersfield, who have been threatened with dismissal if they attended your glorious demonstration, having suffered much privation and misery, during the last two years, and desirous as we are of meeting every engagement, and as the winter is approaching, feel ourselves compelled to bow our necks to this yoke of Whig and Tory tyranny. Our committee has appealed for a general holiday. In vain have they told our tyrannical oppressors (for nothing less can we call such men,) “That as plenty of goods are in the market, that by granting this boon they could sustain no pecuniary loss;” they have told them “that the black slaves have lately been emancipated, and that surely in this land of freedom one day’s cessation from labour will not be denied to those who labour much longer hours than did the West Indians in their state of bondage,” &c., but we are sorry to say that our committee appealed in vain: and in this country “The envy of surrounding nations and admiration of the world”-in this land of freedom-it is a paradox, but we are bondsmen and bondwomen, we are slaves to the circumstances which surround us. The bond of esteem and regard which formerly existed between us and our employers is destroyed. The old feeling of harmony is fled, oppression stalks across the land, and here we are under coercion, in fact, imprisoned. Thousands of us in fretful agony, robbed of the pleasure of accompanying our brethren to the field of action-of joining with our fellow men in the great and glorious demonstration on Peep Green, next Monday. Thus oppression has turned a joyous day into a day of “sadness and sorrow.” Instead of spending the proudest day of our lives at the meeting-we are as if the cold land of death had swept from us our nearest and dearest friends. We are very poor, but our last penny will be paid in support of the expense, and our only consolation is that we can, in defiance of Whig or Tory, Malthusian, Jew, or bastiler, attach our names to the National Petition. When the Yellows, the Whig reptiles, sent[?] to Wakefield to enter the wedge of reform, they stopped their factories without asking us. Mockery they will support, but reality is to them as gall and wormwood.

We are styled levellers, &c., but while we state why we do not swell the number, let it not be forgotten that when the Whigs struggled for power they told us that they only considered the Reform Bill as a step; that they would if obtained go on with us for more. They are opposed to our preparing to use physical force, but we have not forgotten that their master O’Connell taught us a lesson by his common song that he has seven millions at his back, nor have we forgotten that Brougham talked much about kings’ heads being rolled in the dust for the people to use as foot balls. That Lord Fiztwilliam, backed by another Brougham, advised the stoppage of payment of taxes if the Bill did not pass. That Messrs. Preston-Compositor-Baines and Co. of Leeds, marshalled under flags and banners representing the queen in breeches and the king in petticoats, with the crown falling from his head, and an executioner with his face covered with black crape and carrying a bloody axe, thus shewing that if their power was equal to their intention a revolution would have been effected, at all hazards. They effected their purpose and betrayed us. We are now fighting for our own rights. “God helps them that helps themselves,” and we are ready and resolved to stand by our “Order,” by our Brother Radicals. If our bodies are constrained, our very souls are in the cause, and we bid you God speed.
Signed for and on behalf of the Prisoners,
JOHN POWLETT, Secretary.

[Speeches etc.]

1601 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Antisemitism (6) ·
• Baines, Edward (1774–1848) (7), Nonconformist editor and proprietor of the Leeds Mercury, politician, author of historical and geographic reference works ·
• Baines, Edward (1800–90) (3), nonconformist editor (1834-) and proprietor (1848-) of the Leeds Mercury, Liberal MP for Leeds (1859-74), advocate of child factory labour and opponent of state education ·
• Bastille (1) ·
• Birmingham Political Union (1) ·
• Catholic emancipation (5) ·
• Chartism (5) ·
• Cobbett, William (1763-1835) (6), populist pamphleteer, journalist, politician and farmer ·
• Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834) (2), poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian; with Wordsworth, founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets ·
• Commonweal (newspaper) (1) ·
• Daniel O’Connell (3) ·
• Elliott, Ebenezer (1781-1849) (2), Masbrough-born poet ("the Corn Law rhymer") and manufacturer ·
• Feargus O’Connor (1) ·
• Forced labour (1) ·
• Frank Kitz (1) ·
• French Revolution (7) ·
• French Revolutionary Wars (8) ·
• George Julian Harney (1) ·
• George Stephenson (2) ·
• Gomersal (3) ·
• 📌Hartshead Moor Top (1) ·
• 📌Hartshead Moor services (2) ·
• He who does not work, neither shall he eat (1) ·
• Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux (2) ·
• Henry Grattan (1) ·
• Holiday (5) ·
• 📌Huddersfield (29) ·
• Hunger (9) ·
• Ireland (24) ·
• Jews (12) ·
• Labour economics (2) ·
• Leeds Mercury (18), leading Whig newspaper founded by John Hirst in 1718, bought by Nonconformist-Liberal Edward Baines in 1801 and used to advocate some types of social and political reform, remained in the family for two more generations ·
• 📌Leeds (235) ·
• Levellers (2) ·
• London Working Men’s Association (1) ·
• Malthusianism (2) ·
• Milnsbridge (1) ·
• Municipal Corporations Act 1835 (6) ·
• Northern Star (Chartist newspaper) (3) ·
• Parliament of Ireland (1) ·
• Paul the Apostle (2) ·
• 📌Peep Green (1), site of a huge Chartist meeting on 21 May 1839 ·
• Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 (4) ·
• Popular sovereignty (3) ·
• Poverty (16) ·
• Radicals (UK) (4) ·
• Rain (14) ·
• Reform Act 1832 (11) ·
• Richard Arkwright (2) ·
• Richard Phillips (publisher) (1) ·
• Robert Fulton (1) ·
• Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 (2) ·
• Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (1) ·
• Slavery (20) ·
• Socialist League (UK, 1885) (1) ·
• Storming of the Bastille (1) ·
• Tories (1678-ca. 1760, ca. 1783-1834) (11), political faction and, later, party, supported divine right of kings, opposed state-sponsored Catholicism, succeeded by the Conservative Party ·
• West Indies (8) ·
• West Riding of Yorkshire (147) ·
• Whigs (1678-1859) (21), political faction and, later, party, supported parliamentarism, various forms of elite liberalism, manufacturing interests, opposed Catholic emancipation, succeeded by the Liberal Party ·
• William Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam (3) ·
• William IV (3) ·
• William Lovett (1) ·

All tags.

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