SOURCE: "The Charter and its Origin," in The Chartist Movement, edited by T. F. Tout, Longmans, Green & Co., 1918, pp. 1-7.

In the following essay,Hovell outlines the evolution of the Chartist movement, from its "working class" origins to its "radical" end.

The Chartist Movement, which occupied so large a space in English public affairs during the ten years 1838 to 1848, was a movement whose immediate object was political reform and whose ultimate purpose was social regeneration. Its programme of political reform was laid down in the document known as the "People's Charter," issued in the spring of 1838. Its social aims were never defined, but they were sufficiently, though variously, described by leading men in the movement.

It was a purely working-class movement, originating exclusively and drawing its whole following from the industrialised and unpropertied working class which had but recently come into existence. For the most part it was...