without it, and by any way short of it, "I pray God literally to teach my hands to war, and my fingers to fight." . . . . I preach a startling truth; I preach a sweeping truth; I preach the truth, which will, if they choose to suffer it, set things right, without hurting any body. If they will not suffer the truth— if they will neither have it, nor forbear from hindering it, then I preach a truth which will be the means, I hope, of destroying them root and branch. It is time the prisoners were let loose; it is time the dungeon was broken open; it is time the Bastile was burnt down; it is time that every workingman in England had the means, and there are the means, and they are not far off him, and the Government is beginning to find it out, and is arming the pensioners; but, unluckily for the devils who arm the pensioners, the pensioners are training the people. . . . You have a right, every working man amongst you has the right to as much for your labor as will keep you and your families.1

For some time the idol of the masses, Stephens, however, lost his influence as soon as his criticism of the Chartist demands became pronounced. It was his heresy in politics that drove him to the Chartists and it was the same heresy that barred him from their ranks. The chief protagonist and pillar of insurrectionism, he was the first to be singled out for persecution by the government and to be denounced by the leaders of the movement. The cult of physical force, however, always had more than one high priest.

George Julian Harney, unlike Stephens, devoted his ubiquitous activity to the exclusive agitation for the Charter. He was but twenty years of age when he plunged into the tempestuous sea of the Chartist movement. He came with a halo of martyrdom, having suffered imprisonment, when yet quite a boy, for selling unstamped literature. Brought up

1 The London Democrat, June 8, 1839.

under extremely adverse circumstances, he cultivated a feeling of antagonism towards the powers that be. He could not boast of a thorough education, but he possessed great natural abilities. He was the man who better than any other of the Chartist leaders could in time read the handwriting on the wall, displaying a deep understanding of the social fabric and a keen insight into the rôle which the working class was destined to play. In many of his writings, he foreshadowed the subsequent principles of scientific Socialism. At the beginning of his career, however, he was the most violent agitator of physical force. He was the secretary of the "London Democratic Association" and, at the age of twenty-two, was the chief writer for The London Democrat which was started on the 13th of April, 1839, to preach the gospel of insurrection. Assuming the name of Friend of the People, he hailed the spirit of Marat with a courage which only youth could inspire:

Hail! spirit of Marat! Hail! glorious apostle of Equality!! Hail! immortal martyr of Liberty!!! All Hail! thou whose imperishable title I have assumed; and oh! may the God of Freedom strengthen me to brave, like thee, the persecution of tyrants and traitors, or (if so doomed) to meet, like thee, a martyr's death! 1

His style, not refined as that of Bronterre nor as florid as that of O'Connor, was more poignant than that of either of them. His exhortation to revolt was direct. Stephens suggested that " Englishmen have the right not only to have arms, but to take them up in defence of their lives, their wives and children, for their homes and their hearths." " Harney made it his "arduous task" to urge war with traitors, "war to the knife." In his paper he printed

1 The London Democrat, April 13, 1839.

2 4 Sermon Preached at Primrose Hill, on Sunday, May 12, 1839.

"Scenes and Sketches from the French Revolution," depicting events and leaders of the movement," in order that the present generation may derive a lesson from the deeds of the past," learn to avoid the errors, and, in the revolution "which will speedily take place" in England, " imitate the heroic, God-like deeds of the sons of republican France." He called upon the poor and oppressed, the young and the brave, "to strike the home blow, the final blow, the death blow for old England and Freedom," and assuring them that no army could withstand a million of armed men, he exhorted the workingmen to be armed and prepared to exercise their "first and holiest right, the sacred right of insurrection":

Men of the East and West, men of the North and South, your success lies with yourselves, depend upon yourselves alone, and your cause will be triumphant . . . Prepare! Prepare!! Prepare!!! Listen not to the men who would preach delay. The man who would now procrastinate is a traitor, and may your vengeance light upon his head. . . . Let me exhort you to arm. . . . Arm to protect your aged parents, arm for your wives and children, arm for your sweethearts and sisters, arm to drive tyranny from the soil and oppression from the judgment-seat. Your country, your posterity, your God demands of you to arm! Arm!! Arm!!!... Come, then, men of the North, from your snow-capped hills; come, then, men of the South, from your sunlit valleys; come to the gathering; unite, fraternize, arm, and you will be free.1

As a speaker, Harney was far below the mark. But he always had a sufficient stock of "strong words ", which were in great demand by the masses, and his rôle was more of an agitator than of a leader.2

1 The London Democrat, April 20, 1839.

2 Cf. R. G. Gammage, History of the Chartist Movement, Newcastleon-Tyne and London, 1894, pp. 29-30.

Henry Vincent, "the English Demosthenes ", was another man who helped blow the embers of popular discontent into a consuming flame of revolt. The son of a poor silver-smith, he was compelled to earn his livelihood at the age of eleven. Unable to give him a good education, his father inculcated in him, however, a love for freedom and justice. Vincent became interested in politics in 1828, when he was but fifteen years of age. He was subsequently an active member of the Political Unions at Hull and London and was one of the members who were deputed by the London Working Men's Association to agitate for the Charter. He was a popular orator of great skill and he used his talents to rouse the passions of the people. Judging by the portrait drawn of him by one of the Chartists, he was the most graceful and winning orator on the Chartist side:

With a fine mellow flexible voice, a florid complexion, and excepting in intervals of passion, a most winning expression, he had only to present himself in order to win all hearts over to his side. His attitude was perhaps the most easy and graceful of any popular orator of the time. For fluency of speech he rivaled all his contemporaries, few of whom were anxious to stand beside him on the platform. His rare power of imitation irresistibly drew peals of laughter from the gravest audience. His versatility, which enabled him to change from the grave to the gay and vice versa, and to assume a dozen various characters in almost as many minutes, was one of the secrets of his success. With the fair sex, his slight handsome figure, the merry twinkle of his eye, his incomparable mimicry, his passionate bursts of enthusiasm, the rich music of his voice, and above all, his appeals for the elevation of woman, rendered him a universal favorite.1

1 Gammage, op. cit., p. II.

While the list of the leaders and agitators during the first stages of the movement is by no means complete, special mention must be made of John Frost, the "martyr magistrate", who ventured to carry the propaganda of revolt into practice and who subsequently won the hearts of all liberty-seeking people.

The son of humble parents, Frost was born on the 25th of May, 1786, at Newport. In his boyhood, he displayed great abilities. His early education, however, was quite limited, as he lost his father while he was yet in cradle and was brought up by his grandfather, a boot and shoe maker, who cherished the hope of making his grandson useful in his business. After sending him to school in Bristol for a few years, he indentured John to his business. The boy was released, however, through the interference of an uncle, and, at the age of sixteen, was apprenticed to a tailor. Later he became an assistant to a woolen draper in Bristol. At the age of twenty, he went to London, where he worked at the latter trade. At the solicitations of his mother, he returned to Newport and established himself as a draper and tailor. In 1822 a certain Mr. Protheroe, an influential politician of Newport, sued Frost's uncle for an alleged debt of £150. The suit was decided in favor of Protheroe. As bail for his uncle, Frost threatened to expose Protheroe unless his loss were refunded to him. This threat was construed by the court as an attempt at extortion, and to avoid the payment of £1000 damages awarded against him, Frost sold his whole stock, paid all his creditors, with the exception of one relative who had him arrested for a debt of £200. He then surrendered himself as insolvent. In the meantime, an action for libel was brought against him on the ground that he had alluded to the jury as having been packed' and to the witnesses as perjurers. For this, he paid the penalty of six months' confinement in Goldbath