ABSTRACT
The most celebrated Chartists in Australia were those martyrs' who had been transported for their part in leading a Chartist uprising at Newport in Monmouthshire in 1839: John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones. Chartism was one of Britain's most successful, if unheralded, exports. Among the crowds milling around the tense streets of Manchester were William Griffin and James Cartledge. Griffin had been living in Manchester since September 1840 when he took up the position of regional correspondent for the most important Chartist newspaper, the Northern Star. Chartist Land Associations were first mooted in 1840, reflecting the widespread adherence to a vision of a society based on agricultural small-holdings among the urban working people who made up the core of the movement. Many former Chartists prospered in the better Britains' of the southern seas and exposing a traitor might have involved unwanted and unnecessary disruption for accuser as well as accused.
