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Rethinking Partisanship in the Conduct of the Chartist Trials, 1839–1848*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
Extract
Between 1839 and 1848, the government and legal authorities in England and Wales were confronted with a popular movement of unprecedented size and energy. The numbers involved in active protest and in actual or potential disorder were much greater, and they were diffused over a wider geographical area and longer timespan, than any other protest movement up to recent times. Many departments of the political and legal system were engaged at some level in dealing with Chartist activity, from the Crown and Home Office to the local magistrates and special constables.
In 1839 committals for protest crimes comprised 5 percent of all committals to the assizes and quarter sessions. The figures for 1842 and 1848 were 7.5 percent and 4.5 percent, respectively. In some areas the percentage was much higher. Committals for indictable riotous offenses in Lancashire in 1842 totaled 12 percent of all committals, and those in Staffordshire 19.5 percent. Nearly 2,000 Chartists were committed for trial at the assizes alone. About four times that number passed through the lower courts. Just under 90 percent of Chartists tried at the assizes were convicted.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1997
Footnotes
*
I wish to thank Dorothy Thompson and Douglas Hay for their comments on this article.
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