HENRY HUNT AND ENGLISH WORKING-CLASS RADICALISM, 1812-1832 * J> o William J? Neman 1 M Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY RECOMMENDED FOR ACCEPTANCE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY FEBRUARY 19^0 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT The career of Henry Hunt (1773-1835) as an early nineteenth- century agitator is significant for his increasingly direct appeal to the working-classes of England and for his ennuncia- tion of a program of working-class political ends. It was from this combination of activities that Hunt drew his leader­ ship and thereby helped bring to birth the political movement of the English workers. An evaluation of his leadership must, however, take into consideration not only this achievement but also the extent to which Hunt solved the tactical problems which faced his movement. In this connection the examples of *? later working-class movements are helpful for they make it Ci possible to erect a standard of working-class tactics. Marx t and the Fabians presented a framework of action using a method of social analysis which enabled them to recognize -v- their economic and political situation at a given moment / € More important, this analysis created assurance of eventual S' f . ! success* <£ o Henry Hunt was bom into the rural Toryism of the ^ Wiltshire farming class. Although he later turned to other n fields of endeavor and other opinions, he retained the b 0 v /< O.. L. ^ r- ^ o C/ X- Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. independent spirit of the yeoman. It was this independence which brought him into conflict with his betters of the country-side and forced him to go‘to Bristol to search for a living. There he discovered his powers as a mob orator. In the Bristol elections of 1812 using the Radical creed as his weapon of attack against a corrupt Whig-Tory political bargain, he proved his ability to attract an audience if not their votes It was at this same time that the Radical Movement was being resurrected in London by the efforts of Sir Francis Burdett, William Cobbett, and Major Cartwright. These men with their v eighteenth-century concepts of political action accepted Hunt as one of their group. By l8l5 Hunt had moved from Toryism to Radicalism. But he was not to stop there. In the economic and social stress of post-Waterloo Ihgland he found an opportunity to develop a new brand of Radicalism - a brand which looked to the workers as the source of its support and inspiration. The condition of the workers in the years l8l5-19 deteriorated rapidly under the double impact of depression and unemployment and the introduction of the new machines of the industrial revolution. It was to the hungry workers of the North, who were turning to political action through their Hampden Clubs, that Hunt began to address himself. In the Spa Fields meetings Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of 1816-17 he brought to his working-class followers a political program of universal suffrage, annual parliaments, and the ballot. This was an appeal to class consciousness and for class rights. Splitting with the Radical leader Burdett on the issue of working-class suffrage, he became the embodiment of the hopes of the workers for relief from poverty through constitutional means. The government was quick to use its force against this movement and succeeded in stamping it out in the spring of 1817, but it flamed up again in 1819. It was in this year and on St. Peters Helds at Manchester that Hunt's leader­ ship reached its peak of glory and effectiveness. But, Peterloo massacre brought an abrupt end to working-class Radicalism. Hunt was arrested and imprisoned for two years. He was never again able to stand forward as the undisputed leader of the masses. The years after 1819 may have been an anti-climax, but the earlier period of fruitful activity had sown well the seeds of a working-class movement. Hunt had been willing to champion the workers when no one else had been. He gave them a program which appealed to them as a class and in terns of their class interest. This was his achievement. His failure was his inability to create a schemework of tactics which Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ~ embodied a concept of optimistic action. He told the -workers -what was theirs by right but did not promise them that they would achieve their goal. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CONTENTS PREFACE page I THE ARENA OF ACTION: ENGLAND, 1815 The Eighteenth Century Heritage The Nineteenth Century in Embryo The Three-Cornered Class Struggle The Issue of the Day II A STANDARD OF WORKING-CLASS TACTICS The Purpose of a Standard of Tactics Marxian Tactics Fabian Tactics What Is Required of a Working-Class Leader III HUNT THE FARMER Wiltshire in the Late Years of the Eighteenth Century Hunt’s Youth IV THE REVIVAL OF RADICALISM The Political Foundations of the New Radical Movement Burdett Leads the Revived Movement Cobbett Moves from Toryism to Radicalism Cartwright Attempts to Organize Radicalism V HUNT BECOMES A RADICAL POLITICIAN Hunt and the Whigs: First Steps in Politics, 1802-6 Bristol Politics in the Early Years of the Nineteenth Century Hunt in Bristol Politics, 1807 Hunt Attends County Meetings Romilly and the Middle Class of Bristol The.Bristol Election of June-July, 1812 The Bristol Election of October, 1812 VI HUNT MAKES HIS NAME, 1815-17 Post-War Economic Problems Preparations for a Working-Class Agitation, 1816 The First and Second Spa Fields Meetings, November-Deeember, 18165 Spa Fields and the North The Hampden Clubs Meeting; London, January, 1817 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. VII GAGGING ACTS AND WESTMINSTER ELECTIONS 378 The Passing of the Gagging Acts Westminster Elections, 1818-19 VIII PETERLOO lp.6 The Radical Agitation of 1818-19 The Days before the Peterloo Meeting; Peterloo Massacre; The Trial of Hunt Hunt in London after Peterloo; Working-Class Radicalism after Peterloo Tory Reactions to Peterloo! Fear of Revolution The "Whig Reaction to Peterloo: Rejection of the Workers Middle-Class Reactions to Peterloo: "ELoody Neros Rip Open their Mother’s Womb.” IX THE YEARS AFTER PETERLOO: CONCLUSIONS 526 The Great Northern Political Union, 1821-23 Hunt and the Reform Bill Crisis Conclusions - An Estimate of Hunt1s Tactical Leadership BIBLIOGRAPHY Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE Henry Hunt has long been one of the neglected figures of British labor history. The nineteenth century followed Francis Place in briefly considering and then quickly condemning him as a worthless dema­ gogue. To an era seeking political democracy the safe way, he was a force for evil and better forgotten. Further, he was looked upon as an ephemeral bubble floating on the sea of agitation; his most important accomplishment was his momentary fame as the persecuted speaker at Peterloo. To the historians of the nine­ teenth century Hunt's activities had nothing to recommend; stirring the people to demand their rights in the eyes of Victorian orthodoxy could only lead to incalculable harm. Cobbett at least was a writer of undoubted genius; Place was essentially a Liberal. But Hunt was simply daemonic. More, recent historical writing has admitted that Hunt was sincerely interested in the welfare of the workers, and that vain though he was, he at least ventured the danger of speaking for Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. them. let, even this more friendly tone has failed to bring forth an appreciative estimate of his impor­ tance in shaping British labor politics. Hunt was neither an evil force, nor ephemeral. He was the first great leader, along with Cobbett, of the English working class. In the following pages an effort will be made to portrajr and evaluate his role in first, the establishment and development of a political working-class movement, and second, the process by which he gave to this movement a program of universal suffrage, annual parliaments, and the ballot. These -were the demands which became the doc­ trinal groundwork of the working-class movements which followed Hunt's agitation. But Hunt was a leader, not a thinker. An evalua­ tion of his leadership must be based, therefore, on his ability to solve the tactical problems which faced him; in this way a study of Hunt becomes a study in vrorking-class tactics. To organize effectively and solidify his movement Hunt had not only to present a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.