ABSTRACT
In December, 1837, the Birmingham Political Union declared for Universal Suffrage and took measures for mobilising the masses in the Midlands and the North of England. The committee meetings of the Political Union were held regularly every week, and testified to the indefatigable and feverish activity at the centre of the movement. The movement extended everywhere so rapidly that the committees of the working men’s associations in the provinces applied to the London Working Men’s Association to send down agitators to the North of England in order to organise the masses of working men who had taken up the movement. The London Working Men’s Association was also deeply persuaded of the necessity for the international solidarity of the working men and of all oppressed peoples. The impression which the Charter made upon the working men’s associations throughout the country was extremely favourable. The publication of the Charter came at a time when the country was already seething with political agitation.
