Welsh Journals

CHARTISM IN WELSH COMMUNITIES* WHEN I first became interested in this subject several years ago, I was struck by one very obvious point-that Welsh Chartism was somehow associated with violence, failure and the magic year 1839. So I began by asking the question-why should this be so? The responsibility for this impression can be divided equally between contemporary and modern writers. Respectable people in the mid- nineteenth century made an enormous fuss of the Chartist risings at Llanidloes and Newport in 1839.1 The press and the churches generally stressed the evil and stupidity of this violence, although some of them were prepared to blame English agitators for the troubles. Or, given the character of the Welsh, a more likely candi- date for blame was the Devil. To several clergymen the Newport rising of November 1839 was conclusive proof that the mass of Welshmen in the new industrial towns were almost beyond salvation. In sermon after sermon the Chartists were denounced as criminals and atheists. In an ecstasy of emotion and self-righteousness, half-a-dozen Welsh ministers rushed into print. The Reverend Evan Jenkins of Dowlais caught the mood of the moment; in a popular pamphlet of 1840 he traced Chartism back through history-back further than Carlyle-and concluded that the first fallen Angel had been a Chartist. Edward Dowling, the Whig editor of the Mon- mouthshire Merlin, opposed Jenkins's politics, but joined his attack on working class radicals. He also wrote a pamphlet in 1840, entitled significantly The Rise and Fall of Chartism in Monmouthshire, its purpose being to show how violence had ruined Welsh Chartism. To strengthen his comforting thesis, Dowling-and for that matter most of the editors of Welsh newspapers-did their best to reduce the post-1839 Chartist movement to insignificance. They ignored, mocked or disguised Chartist activities in the '40s and '50s.3 This paper shows few changes from the original given at the colloquium. The reader seeking detailed information should consult David Williams, John Frost (1939); Angela V. John, 'The Chartist Endurance: Industrial South Wales, 1840-68', Morgannwg, XV (1971); and O. R. Ashton, 'Chartism in Mid-Wales', The Montgomeryshire Collections, Vol. 62, Part 1 (1971). There is also a splendid summary by David Williams, entitled 'Chartism in Wales', in Asa Briggs (ed.), Chartist Studies (1959). The most useful newspapers for this study are the Northern Star, The People's Paper, Western Vindicator, The Cambrian, Udgorn Cymru, The Advocate and Merthyr Free Press and Merthyr Guardian. The present writer has also consulted documents in the British Museum, the Public Record Office, the Newport Public Library and the Cardiff Central Library. 1 See, for instance, E. Hamer, The Chartist Outbreak at Llanidloes (1867), and B. Brough, A Night with the Chartists (1847). The latter was published anonymously. I Chartism Unmask'd (1840). 3 This was a common complaint in Chartist circles. The climax of disillusionment with reporting was reached in 1848. See G. J. Harney's articles on 'Press-gang warfare' in the Northern Star during the early summer of that year.