ABSTRACT
During the agitation of the Chartists and their volunteers in 1836, 1837, and 1838, the Whig government adopted a passive attitude. On the eve of the dissolution of the Convention John Frost explained the situation in Wales to his more intimate friends, and declared that Chartism was compromised in that part of the country unless something was done without delay. But Wales could not take isolated action; the North of England and the Midlands must also join in the insurrection at the same time. The Charter, with its six points, the National Petition, with its five points, borne aloft on pikeheads and rendered glaringly visible to the people by the flaming torchlights of the nocturnal meetings, could not fail to force upon the national conscience the condition-of-England question. Ernest deals with the story of a peasants’ revolt in Germany, but the conditions and the atmosphere in the midst of which the revolt is fought out are English.
