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III. Chartist Internationalism, 1845–18481

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Henry Weisser
Henry Weisser
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
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Extract

Chartist internationalism has usually been treated as a peripheral question in the consideration of some broader topic—the history of the labour movement or of Chartism or communism—or as an element in the background of some radical's biography. It has, however, played a much larger part for Marxist writers, particularly in its embodiment in the Fraternal Democrats, with whom Marx and Engels were for a time associated.

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Articles
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The Historical Journal , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , March 1971 , pp. 49 - 66
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

2 A central argument in Rothstein, Fiodor, From Chartism to Labourism (London, 1929),Google Scholar is that the truly vital elements of Chartism were internationalist. They had to be, from his point of view, because the class struggle had already developed in the Chartist era, and working-class internationalism had to exist as a natural part of the class struggle. Groves, Reg, But We Shall Rise Again, A Narrative History of Chartism (London, 1939), p. 161,Google Scholar wrote: ‘From the very commencement of the Chartist movement there was a considerable interest in International [sic] events. The Chartists manifested a democratic internationalism which laid the basis for the proletarian internationalism of later days.’ Morton, A. L. and Tate, George, The British Labour Movement, A History (London, 1956), p, 125,Google Scholar declared that the Chartists had ‘recognized the identity of the popular cause in all lands, and a whole series of organizations had existed to promote … international solidarity’, which had a ‘powerful and long standing…tradition’ in Britain. Stekloff, G. M., in History of the First International (New York, 1928),Google Scholar wrote: ‘The beginnings of internationalist sentiment and the awareness of the international solidarity of the workers developed in Britain, simultaneously with the development of class consciousness in general…’ (p. 9). Hermann Schlütter wrote: ‘it was the influence of the Fraternal Democrats and the influence that the communists in their ranks obtained over the Chartists, which was the cause of a sudden shift that took place in the Chartist movement. The change made communist doctrines as well as a clear comprehension of historical development come forth in the movement.’ Die Chartistenbewegung, Ein Beitrag zur sozialpolitischen Geschichte Englands (New York, 1916), p. 186.Google Scholar For similar expositions, see Foster, William Z., History of the Three Internationals, The World Socialist and Communist Movements from 1848 to the Present (New York, 1968), p. 45.Google Scholar There are interesting comments on the role of proletarian internationalism in history in Fundamentals of Marxism Leninism Manual (2nd rev. ed., Moscow, 1963) PP. 299, 304–6.Google Scholar

3 Northern Star, 28 Feb. 1848, p. 3.Google Scholar

4 Rothstein, Fiodor, From Chartism to Labourism, p. 135. Quoted from the Northern Star, 14 Feb. 1846.Google Scholar

5 Cole, G. D. H., in Chartist Portraits (London, 1941), pp. 269–70,Google Scholar insisted that Chartism arose ‘out of purely British conditions, and was for the most part led by men who had but a dim awareness of any affinity among the workers on the Continent … The masses who shouted and marched against the hated Bastilles and the hated power factories felt but dimly Harney's enthusiasm for continental revolutions; and even slogans of world-wide workers’ solidarity meant little to them. They threw up leaders made in their own image, and concerned more with the immediate local struggle than with either theories or world wide appeals ’ The main body of Chartists in the industrial areas were too much engaged with their own sufferings and oppressions to spare more than a cheer for continental victories–or, more often, for the victims of continental tyranny who were able to find asylum in Great Britain … Harney's perpetual … desire to regard British working–class action as merely part of a world-wide proletarian uprising were apt to seem unrealistic, and to make little appeal outside of a narrow circle of convinced revolutionaries.’ Briggs, Asa, in Chartist Studies (London, 1959), p. 290,Google Scholar declared: ‘Both Jones and Harney looked beyond the Channel and across the Atlantic to social movements abroad; they were prepared not only to analyse foreign social situations, but to propound a foreign policy of their own … The changing outlook of Chartist leaders … was not necessarily shared, however, by the old Chartist rank and file.’

6 Thousands of Poles came to Western Europe, particularly France and England, after the failure of the uprising of November 1830. It can be argued that the Polish exiles became the greatest stimulant for British working-class interest in foreign affairs from 1831 to 1848. The Polish cause served as a magnificent source of entertainment and a grand diversion, for Polish heroism and martyrdom contrasted so vividly with Russian barbarism–in England if not on the Vistula. The Polish national cause came to stand for the struggle of light and justice against tyranny. Polish exiles were bitterly divided among themselves, and British workers slowly learned to discriminate among them. Finally, some groups of Chartists and certain left-wing Polish exiles came to mutually stimulating understandings with each other. For information about the Polish exiles in London, see the following articles by Brock, Peter: ‘Polish Democrats and English Radicals, 1832–1862: A Chapter in the History of Anglo–Polish Relations’, Journal of Modern History, xxv, 2 (06 1953) 139–56;CrossRefGoogle Scholar‘The Polish Revolutionary Commune in London’, Slavonic and East European Review, xxxv, 84 (12 1956), 116–28;Google Scholar‘The Birth of Polish Socialism’, Central European Affairs, XIII, 3 (10 1953), 213–31;Google Scholar‘Polish Socialists in Early Victorian England: Three Documents’, The Polish Review, vi, 1–2 (1961).Google Scholar See also Weisser, Henry, ‘Polonophilism and the British Working Class, 1830–1845’, The Polish Review, xii, 2 (Spring 1967), 78–96;Google Scholar‘The British Working Class and the Cracow Uprising of 1846’, The Polish Review, xiii, 1 (Winter 1968), 3–19.Google Scholar

7 Brettschneider, Werner, Entwicklung und Bedeutung des deutschen Friihsozialismus in London (Konigsberg, 1936), pp. 37–40, comes closest to making this claim.Google Scholar

8 Karl Schapper, Heinrich Bauer and Joseph Moll came to London in 1839, after participating in an unsuccessful uprising in France. Louis Philippe's government was happy to get them out of the country. Engels, Friedrich, Germany: Revolution and Counter-Revolution (New York, 1933), p. 120;Google ScholarLehning, A., The International Association, 1855–1859, A Contribution to the Preliminary History of the First International (Leiden, 1938), p. 10;Google ScholarForder, Herwig, Marx und Engels am Vorabend der Revolution (Berlin, 1960), p. 128.Google Scholar From the Chartists’point of view, Wilhelm Weitling was the most important visiting Continental theorist to arrive before 1848. For information about him, see Wittke, Carl, The Utopian Communist, A Biography of Wilhelm Weitling, Nineteenth Century Reformer (Louisiana State University, 1950).Google Scholar

9 Dutt, Palme, ‘Chartism and the Fight for Peace’, Labour Monthly (June 1939), p. 373;Google ScholarFörder, , Marx und Engels am Vorabend der Revolution, p. 128.Google Scholar

10 Brettschneider, , Entwicklung und Bedeutung des deutschen Friihsozialismus in London, p. 42;Google ScholarRothstein, , From Chartism to Labourism, p. 28;Google ScholarStekloff, G. M., History of the First International, p. 14.Google Scholar

11 Buonarroti, for instance, considered himself a secular Loyola. See Eisenstein, Elizabeth L., The First Professional Revolutionist: Filippo Michelle Buonarroti, A Biographical Essay (Harvard, 1959).Google Scholar

12 The secret society that most influenced the German exiles who arrived in London in 1839 was the Société des Saisons. It probably differed little from the other French–based secret societies that flourished in the early nineteenth century. Whether or not these societies were linked and involved in a European-wide conspiracy is a matter for historical debate and speculation. As it might be expected, sources are difficult to interpret and reliable sources are few in number. See Eisenstein, The First Professional Revolutionist; Wittke, , The Utopian Communist, p. 29;Google ScholarLehning, , The International Association, pp. 9–10;Google ScholarEngels, , Germany: Revolution and Counter-Revolution, p. 120.Google Scholar Two contemporary accounts are: Frost, Thomas, The Secret Societies of the European Revolution, 1776–1876, 1 vols. (London, 1876);Google ScholarWermuth, D. Jur. and Stieber, D. Jur., Die Communisten Verschworungen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1853).Google Scholar

13 To German exiles and German historians it is or was variously known as the Londoner Arbeiterbildungsverein or Londoner Bildungsverein or Deutsche Bildungsverein für Arbeiter or Deutsche Bildungs-Gesellschaft für Arbeiter. Karl Schapper, Heinrich Bauer and Joseph Moll were its principal founders. At first, membership was scanty, but during the lifespan of the Fraternal Democrats it probably was around 700, according to Engels, , Germany: Revolution and Counter-Revolution, p. 124.Google Scholar These sources note the membership of Harney, and Jones, : Saville, John (ed.), Ernest Jones, Chartist (London, 1952), p. 84;Google ScholarForder, H., Marx und Engels am Vorabend der Revolution, p. 128.Google Scholar There is much information about this organization in Fehling, August, Karl Schapper und die Anfänge der Arbeiterbewegung bis zur Revolution von 1848 (Rostock, 1922).Google Scholar

14 Even the busiest of collectors and compilers of documents could find little on the subject, thus tempting historians to fill in the gaps themselves. See, for instance, Griinberg, Karl (ed.), Archiv für die Geschichte des Socialismus und Arbeiterbewegung, vols, vii and x (Leipzig, 1919 and 1921).Google ScholarNicolaevsky, B., who wrote ‘Toward a History of the Communist League, 1847–1852’, International Review of Social History, i (1956), 234–52,CrossRefGoogle Scholar found material for this article ‘not only meager in quantity, but … also extremely inadequate as to quality’. A good source for the earliest history of the Communist League is the brief account by Engels in Germany: Revolution and Counter-Revolution. Engels claimed that some of the London leaders of the League of the Just had come to see the inadequacy of other varieties of socialism at the same time that they began to realize the correct ness of Marxist ‘scientific ‘communism. When Marx and Engels were invited to join the League of the Just and help in its transformation the German artisans lost some of their colourful, conspiratorial trappings—a small loss in exchange for everlasting fame. See also Mayer, Gustav, Friedrich Engels—A Biography (London, 1936), p. 4;Google ScholarFörder, , Marx und Engels am Vorabend der Revolution, p. 128.Google Scholar For a recent Soviet assessment of the Communist League, see the essay by Kandel, E. and Lewiowa, S., ‘Marx und Engels als Erzieher der ersten proletarischen Revolutionäre’, in Kandel, E. (ed.), Marx und Engels und die ersten proletarischen Revolutionäre (Berlin, 1965).Google Scholar

15 Linton, W. J., European Republicans, Recollections of Mazzini and His Friends (London, 1892), P. 55.Google Scholar

16 Mazzini's relations with the Chartists are taken up below, pp. 62–3.

17 Lehning, A., ‘Discussions à Londres sur le Communisme Icanen’, Bulletin of the International Institute for Social History (1952), p. 94;Google ScholarNettlau, Max, ‘Zu Marx ‘und Engel's Aufenthalt in London, Ende 1847’, Griinberg, Karl (ed.), Archiv für die Geschichte des Socialismus und Arbeiterbewegung, viii, 392.Google Scholar Two Frenchmen, Dr Camille Berrier-Fontaine and Jean Michelot, were ‘regulars’ at meetings of the Fraternal Democrats. They shared the fate of the Polish ‘regular’, Louis Oborski, who usually had his speeches appear in the Northern Star in a severely abbreviated form. There are brief sketches of both of these French members of the Fraternal Democrats in Maitron, Jean (ed.), Dictionnaire Biographique du Mouvement Ouvrier Français, Première Partie, 1789–1864. BerrierFontaine is described in Tome 1, p. 204 (Paris, 1964);Google Scholar Michelot in Tome iii, p. 95 (Paris, 1966).

18 Fehling, Karl Schapper und die Anfange der Arbeiterbewegung bis zur Revolution von 1848; Lewiowa, S., ‘Karl Schapper’, in Kandel, E. P. (ed.), Marx und Engels und die ersten proletarischen Revolutionäre, pp. 77–80.Google Scholar

19 Northern Star, 15 Nov. 1845, p. 7.Google Scholar

20 Northern Star, 14 Feb. 1846.

21 Northern Star, 28 Feb. 1848, p. 3.Google Scholar

22 Engels, , Germany: Revolution and Counter-Revolution, p. 120.Google Scholar

23 George Howell in his sketch of Ernest Jones, contained in the ‘Diary and Newspaper Clippings about Ernest Jones, Chartist, Poet and Orator’, Columbia University Microfilms.

24 Jones wanted Europe rebuilt with ‘normal ‘boundaries, so that true ‘racial’ nations could be formed, or, as he put it, somewhat grotesquely, ‘kingdoms’ had to be replaced with ‘kindoms’. The most succinct account of his views on the subject of nationality is an article in the Labourer, ii, 212–15.

25 G. D. H. Cole, Chartist Portraits, contains an interesting chapter on Harney. There is a recent, full and scholarly account of his life: Schoyen, A. R., The Chartist Challenge: A Portrait of George Julian Harney (London, 1958).Google Scholar The treatment of Harney by both of these historians has been called into question by a recent Marxist study by Kunina, W., ‘George Julian Harney’, in Kandel, E. P. (ed.), Marx und Engels und die ersten proletarischen Revolutionäre.Google Scholar Kunina claims that both failed to present the didactic influence of Marx and Engels properly, and that Cole treated Harney as a ‘white raven ‘amongst the Chartists (pp. 545–6).

26 According to Read, Donald, Press and People, 1790–1850—Opinion in Three English Cities (London, 1961), p. 101,Google Scholar the Star had a maximum circulation in 1839, when it sold well over 30,000 per week. By 1842, this had dropped to 12,000. Harney announced his strong commitment in the Northern Star of 4 May 1844, p. 4. Taking account of the role of the Northern Star in the world in the 13 Nov. 1847 edition, p. 3, Harney wrote: ‘We have been the first to denounce oppression … and to vindicate the oppressed, no matter what their country or religion …Happily we have not labored in vain. In France, Germany, in Switzerland and the United States, the Northern Star is known and respected as the organ of British democracy, the advocate of universal liberty and the defender of the rights of all men, without regard to colour, clime or creed.’

27 See Hovell, Mark, A History of the Chartist Movement (Manchester, 1950), p. 96;Google ScholarRead, , Press and People, 1790–1850, p. 101;Google ScholarGammage, R. G., The History of the Chartist Movement (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1894), p. 25.Google Scholar Perhaps the most damaging single critical item, from the point of view of a historian of the Fraternal Democrats' activities, appeared in The National Reformer and Marx Weekly Review of Home and Foreign Affairs, 16 Jan. 1847, P. 47.Google Scholar This was one of J. Bronterre O'Brien's newspapers.

28 A good example of this can be found in a controversy with Thomas Cooper. See the Northern Star, 25 Apr. 1846, p. 7.Google Scholar For an example of a controversy at a meeting of the Fraternal Democrats, see the Northern Star, 27 July 1846, p. 5.Google Scholar

29 Compare Rheinische Jahrbücher zur gesellschaftlichen Reform, ii (Bellevue-bei-Constanz, 1846), 1–20Google Scholar with the Northern Star, 27 Sept. 1845, p. 5.Google Scholar

30 See Lovett, William, Life and Struggles of William Lovett in His Pursuit of Bread, Knowledge and Freedom (London, 1920), vols. 1 and 11.Google Scholar

31 See the issues of the Northern Star of 9 Sept. 1843, P. 4; 4 May 1844, P. 1; 22 June 1844, p. 4.Google Scholar

32 For the background of British and Continental working-class activities consult Lehning, A., The International Association, 1855–1859, pp. 1–12.Google Scholar A detailed account of an earlier meeting is found in Watson, J., Young Germany, An Account of German Communism, and a Report of the proceedings at a Banquet Given by the English Socialists to Commemorate Wilhelm Weitling's Arrival in England… (London, 1844).Google Scholar

33 Northern Star, 21 Mar. 1846. This issue gives an account of new rules for the Fraternal Democrats and indicates that until then the society had existed without any.

34 In 1848, most of its foreign members became embroiled in Continental revolutions, and by the time some of them returned to London, the Fraternal Democrats no longer comprised an international body, out of fear for a new Alien Act. There was a society by that name after 1848, and run by Harney, but it was composed entirely of Englishmen. See Rothstein, , From Chartism to Labourism, pp. 143–4,Google Scholar and Harney's retrospective article in The Democratic Review of British and Foreign Politics, History and Literature (Nov. 1849), p. 201.Google Scholar

35 According to the rules issued in March 1846, names of members were to be enrolled ‘for the purpose of maintaining the character of the assembly and preventing the intrusion of improper persons’. Henceforth, new members had to be recommended by two members, who would be held responsible for ‘the democratic principles and moral character’ of their nominees. Still, any mem ber could invite a ‘friend’ to take part in the proceedings, providing that the friend's name was known to the chairman of the meeting. The only officers were six secretaries, one British, one German, one French, one ‘Slavonic’, one ‘Scandinavian’, and one Swiss, elected ‘for the purpose of authenticating all documents issued to the public’. Other officers were declared unnecessary because the Fraternal Democrats were not ‘a society or a party, but merely an assemblage of men belonging to different countries’, meeting together for ‘the purpose of mutual information’. (Northern Star, 21 Mar. 1846, p. 1.Google Scholar) In 1847, contributions of, first, a halfpenny weekly, and then an annual shilling fee were levied. The order of business was in the standard, parliamentary form. In order to handle financial matters and reports, a committee of the general secretaries plus one additional member from each country was created. This was as far as the Fraternal Democrats were ever institutionalized. See the Northern Star, 18 Dec. 1847, p. 4.Google Scholar

36 The official reasons for the founding of the Fraternal Democrats were explicitly stated in an ‘Address of the Fraternal Democrats to the Democrats of All Nations’, which appeared in the Northern Star of 26 Sept. 1846, p. 1.Google Scholar

37 Northern Star, 17 July 1847, p. 3.Google Scholar

38 ‘Address to the Working Class of Great Britain and the United States’, Northern Star, 7 Mar. 1846, p. 6;Google Scholar ‘Address to the Democrats of All Nations’, Northern Star, 26 Sept. 1846, p. 1;Google Scholar ‘Address to the Democrats of Europe’, Northern Star, 22 Sept. 1847, p. 1;Google Scholar ‘Address to the National Diet of Switzerland’, Northern Star, 18 Dec. 1847, p. 5;Google Scholar ‘Address to the Democrats of Great Britain’, Northern Star, 8 Jan. 1848, p. 1;Google Scholar ‘Address to the Proletarians of France’, Northern Star, 5 Feb. 1848, p. 1.Google Scholar

39 Actually, Marx and Engels began to work with some of the Chartists who became British members of the Fraternal Democrats before the organization emerged. Schoyen, , The Chartist Challenge, p. 130;Google ScholarMarx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich, Reminiscences of Marx and Engels (Moscow, n.d.), pp. 192–3;Google ScholarAveling, E., ‘George Julian Harney, A Straggler of 1848’, Social Democrat (1897);Google ScholarCole, , Chartist Portraits, p. 61.Google Scholar There are only brief references to the role of Marx and Engels before 1848 in Collins, H. and Abramsky, C., Karl Marx and the British Labour Movement (London, 1965), pp. 4–11.Google Scholar There is a detailed account of this activity in Kandel, E. and Lewiowa, S., ‘Marx und Engels als Erzieher der ersten proletarischen Revolutionäre’, in Kandel, E. (ed.), Marx und Engels und die ersten proletarischen Revolutionäre.Google Scholar A few of the letters in Black, Frank Gees and Black, Renee Métivier, eds., The Harney Papers (Assen, 1969)Google Scholar deal with the relationship of Harney with Marx and Engels before 1848. See items 247, 248 and 249, pp. 239–247.

40 Engels, Germany: Revolution and Counter-Revolution, p. 124;Google ScholarMarx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich, Selected Correspondence (London, 1941), p. 38;Google ScholarCole, , Chartist Portraits, p. 285.Google Scholar

41 Marx and Engels declared that the Northern Star was the English newspaper that knew the true condition of the parties in England, and was uniquely sympathetic with workers throughout the world because it was free from national and religious prejudice. (From the ‘Address of the German Democratic Communists of Brussels to Mr Feargus O'Connor’, which appeared in the Northern Star of 18 July 1846, p. 8.Google Scholar It is reproduced in Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels Werke, iv (Berlin, 1959), 25.Google Scholar) Engels wrote in La Réjorme, a French radical newspaper, that the Fraternal Democrats had ‘openly come out against any act of oppression, no matter who may attempt to commit it …’and they did not ‘allow themselves to be exploited for the benefit of England's Free Trade Manufacturers’. From Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels on Britain (London, 1954), p. 152,Google Scholar from La Réforme, 22 Nov. 1847. Marx and Engels were often privately unimpressed by Harney, and annoyed at his promiscuous enthusiasm for revolutions. They eventually labelled him ‘Citizen hip-hip-hurrah’. The references to Harney in Marx and Engels’correspondence are brief and matter of fact, usually, particularly for the period when the Fraternal Democrats were in existence. See Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels Werke. vol. xxvii (Berlin, 1959).Google Scholar

42 See the letter of Marx, to Proudhon, , Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Selected Correspondence, pp. 32–3,Google Scholar and Wittke, , The Utopian Communist, p. 114.Google Scholar

43 The most detailed source of information about this society is Bertrand, Louis, Histoire de la Démocratie et du Socialisme en Belgique depuis 1830, vol. 1 (Brussels and Paris, 1906).Google Scholar There is also an article by Haenisch, Walter, ‘Karl Marx and the Democratic Association of 1847’, Science and Society, A Marxian Quarterly, vol. ii, no. 1 (Winter 1937).Google Scholar The Association Democratique described itself as a society ‘having for its purpose the union and brotherhood of all people … without distinction as to country or profession’. It was, like the Fraternal Democrats, primarily an educative, propagandistic body. It sent out addresses to newspapers and governments, and its rules called for the use of manifestoes, addresses and petitions. Its membership tended to be drawn from middle-class intellectuals much more than that of the Fraternal Democrats. Compare Kandel, E. and Lewiowa, S., ‘Marx und Engels als Erzieher der ersten proletarischen Revolutionäre’, in Kandel, E. (ed.), Marx und Engels und die ersten proletarischen Revolutionäre, pp. 12–14.Google Scholar

44 Shortly after the meeting, on 11 December 1847, the Northern Star published the official reply of the Fraternal Democrats to the proposal for affiliation and informed the Belgian organization that ‘English democracy’ would surely be present at any future ‘Democratic Congress’. A week later, on 18 December 1847, the Star announced that the Fraternal Democrats had passed a resolution agreeing to the request of the Association Démocratique to hold a congress in Brussels on 25 September 1848, and another in London in 1849. Of course, the revolutions of 1848 upset all of these plans.

45 These are just a few of the sources that record the meeting: Dolléans, Edouard, Le Chartisme, 1830–1848 (Paris, 1913), pp. 398–401;Google ScholarWest, Julius, A History of the Chartist Movement (London, 1920), p. 324;Google ScholarLehning, , The International Association, pp. 13–14;Google ScholarRothstein, , From Chartism to Labourism, p. 134;Google ScholarCollins, H. and Abramsky, C., Karl Marx and the British Labour Movement, p. 9.Google Scholar

46 Northern Star, 4 Dec. 1847, p. 1.Google Scholar

47 Even almost all of Engels’speech was given over to this topic. Marx's contribution to the meeting was a very small percentage of that reported. Out of the long columns of speeches and resolutions printed on the first page of the Northern Star, Marx contributed only three paragraphs. Historians' interest, of course, has centred on them.

48 Place Collection, B.M., Add. MSS 27,819; Place Collection Newspaper Clippings, vol. LI. Portions are reproduced in Lovett, , Life and Struggles, pp. 59, 102, 162, 308–9;Google Scholar see also Lehning, , The International Association, p. 5.Google Scholar

49 A statement of the principles of the organization may be found in the ‘Address to the Friends of Humanity and Justice Among All Nations’. The complete version is in the British Museum, under the heading ‘London, Miscellaneous Organizations’. It is reproduced in part in Lovett, , Life and Struggles P. 315.Google Scholar

50 Lovett, , Life and Struggles, p. 315.Google Scholar

51 Conklin, R. J., Thomas Cooper the Chartist (Manila, 1935);Google ScholarCooper, Thomas, The Life of Thomas Cooper (London, 1875).Google Scholar

52 For the censuring of Thomas Cooper, see the Northern Star, 27 June 1846, p. 5.Google Scholar

53 Their condemnation was part of an address from the Association Démocratique prepared by Marx, Engels and Gigot. It appeared in the Northern Star of 18 July 1846, p. 8.Google Scholar

54 The purposes of the League were given in a lengthy address that appears in the Reasoner (May 1846), no. 52. A more succinct version is in the Reasoner (Oct. 1847), no. 73. For accounts of the activities of the People's International League see The People's Press and Monthly Historical News paper, 2 Aug. 1847, pp. 210–12, 1 Feb. 1848, p. 24;Google ScholarThe Times, 7 June 1847, p. 4, 16 Nov. 1847, p. 6.Google Scholar

55 Linton, W. J., Memories (London, 1895), p. 100;Google ScholarEuropean Republicans: Recollections of Mazzini and His Friends (London, 1892), p. 62.Google Scholar

56 Conklin, , Thomas Cooper the Chartist, p. 322;Google ScholarSchoyen, , The Chartist Challenge, p. 153.Google Scholar

57 For a detailed explanation of the distinct nature of London Chartism, see Rowe, D. J., ‘The Failure of London Chartism’, The Historical Journal, xi, 3 (1968), pp. 472–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarThompson, E. P. also offers an explanation in The Making of the English Working Class, pp. 193, 611–12.Google Scholar

58 An exception would be The Labourer, edited by Jones and O'Connor. The Northern Liberator, published in Newcastle, may also be considered something of an exception.

59 Weisser, Henry, ‘The Role of Feargus O'Connor in Chartist Internationalism, 1845–1848’, The Rocky Mountain Social Science Journal, vi (04 1969), pp. 82–90.Google Scholar

60 Northern Star, 24 July 1847, p. 1.Google Scholar For other examples, see the Northern Star, 17 July 1847, P. 1; 15 Nov. 1845, p. 1; 26 Feb. 1848, p. 1.Google Scholar

61 According to the Northern Star, 6 June 1846, p. 5,Google Scholar he held the money for the Fraternal Democrats and the Democratic Committee for Poland's Regeneration—an offshoot of the former group.

62 For example, see the Northern Star, 26 Sept. 1846, p. 1.Google Scholar