The First National Petition: The Great Reform Act Of 1832

The First National Petition was written by the Chartist movement and presented to the ‘Honourable commons of the United Kingdom’ on the 14th of June 1839, in response to the failure 1832 Great Reform Act and other government measures of the 1830s. The source can be seen to have a number of key themes occurring throughout the petition related to social, economic and political issues as well the reference to religion in the petition.

To place the National Petition in context, it was the first action taken by the predominately working class movement, the Chartists. Chartism takes its name from the Peoples Charter that was published in 1838 by the London Working Men’s Association and demanded their six points of the charter to be accepted.

The outcome of The Great Reform Act of 1832 was considered as a ‘form of betrayal of the working class.’ Consequently, it is not surprising the petition directly refers the act to have ‘bitterly and basely deceived’ those relying on it. The tone of the petition seems to change when it comes to the act, from an empathetic tone when mentioning the issues to a much more aggressive and exasperated one. This can suggest the failure of the act was a major drive for the movement, considering they have described it as a form of betrayal and become agitated when they mention it in the petition. In addition, the petition goes on to compare the act to a ‘fruit which looked so fair…has turned dust and ashes’, which can emphasise the act was supposed to be a form of hope for them, but has completely been destroyed. The petition further adds ‘the interests of many has been neglected’ which suggests that people supporting the petition were not pleased by the government and ‘the foolishness of our rulers’ has caused them distress and this ‘state of things must not be permitted to continue…without very seriously endangering stability of the throne.’ . To some extent this could be interpreted as a threat of revolution towards the government and would have worried the government, because at the same time, mainland Europe was facing a wave of revolutions and uprises. In this sense, the

For instance, one example from the petition in reference to religion and God states ‘Heaven has dealt graciously by the people; but the foolishness of our rulers has made the goodness of God of none effect.’ Furthermore, the chartist movement used a range of religious tactics, such as by the 1840s they had over fifty chartist churches and linked their struggle with Jesus and his companions. This helped attract the masses because nineteenth century Britain was a very religious country and thus by bringing in God to the movement, made it much more