ABSTRACT
After 1868 no more is heard of the London Working Men’s Association as the protagonist of a national movement for working-class representation. Thus, while the election of working men was defined as the primary object of the L.R.L., it was also authorized, where it thought fit, to support other candidates favourable to working-class claims. The objects of the Labour Representation League, as set forth in its original prospectus, included, as we have seen, other things besides the registration of working-class voters and the election of representatives to Parliament and other public bodies. The League’s next opportunity occurred in Southwark early in 1870 Southwark was a constituency in which there was a large working-class electorate, including a considerable number of Irish labourers. At the General Election, which followed at once, thirteen working-class or Labour candidates went to the poll, not counting Bradlaugh, who made his second attempt at Northampton.
