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Didn't check the author of this one 'til I reached the end and saw your sig! :D Chartists take Britain by storm, seems your "England isn't as impervious to revolutionary activity as often suggested" thoughts are on the move again. Will definitely be keeping up with this one, especially since I've recently re-installed Ricky and VIP, and I've always played with the idea of making the working classes uppity and making an AAR of it - but I found even if you could get socialists in power the buggers just get fat and turn liberal for your troubles. Also, in game terms will the Chartists be a socialist party or anarcho-liberal? And will the Syndicalists return??

Good to see you active on the forums again :)

Evans
 
That was a great update. I just read the wiki article on the Chartists to get background for this AAR.

And 1,640,000 signatures in October 1837. Weren't there only about 18,000,000 people in the whole country back then? If so, that's a good 10% of the population.
 
I doubt the authorities will react well, but I wonder what will be the spark that starts it all...
 
Methinks a movement of that size wont react kindly to aggression, and if they get favourable 'media coverage' (or what passed for it in those days) and something pisses of the general populace enough for them to distrust the government they may not get stamped out. Which I guess would be the option taken if this weren't an AAR about the Commonwealth.
 
Eams - This is of course going to be important, but we will see...

Phargle & Jingles - The totals are actually in line with the number of (real) signatures that the three Chartist petitions historically got. What I've mostly done is sped everything up, owing to a series of historical tweaks. If people are lucky, I might write a general survey saying exactly what has happened so my scenario differs from real-history, but at the moment everything is just going to be hinted!

Evans - :D Good to see you around too! The Vicky ideology-bit and the impact of game mechanics will become apparent a bit later - it is obviously going to get slightly complicated.

GeneralHannibal - The next update should shed slightly more light on this...
 
The Wider Crisis
October 1837
__________________________________________________________________________________


times.jpg


October 22nd 1837


This newspaper would like to reiterate that the present disturbances occurring across the country lend incontrovertible weight to the arguments in favour of the maintenance of the stamp duty on the printed word. The prevalence of scurrilous and virulent publications, printing every sort of calumny and slander towards the hallowed institutions of the nation and her respectable population, filling the minds of the barely-literate lower orders with unreasoned hatred and impossible hopes, shows that political and economic dependability must be a prerequisite for any responsible public organ. We would hope that a blind eye is turned to this proliferation no-longer, and that a concerted effort is made to seize the illegal presses and end the proliferation of the unstamped.

***

SirRobertPeel.jpg

LONDON. We now reach the twenty-second month of the Ministry of Sir Robert Peel, with the seemingly interminable continuance of deadlock in Parliament. While the Conservatives remain the largest party in the Commons, they by no means hold anything approaching a majority, and must continue to rely upon Royal support for the maintenance of their Government. The Rump of the Whigs, still in disarray after the Public Disgrace of Lord Melbourne, are split three-ways: between those who attempt to form a Loyal Opposition; those who are inclined to bear up His Majesty’s Government upon occasion; and those who abstain from all commitments. The Radicals and Irish Representatives, while they number barely one hundred and fifty, have taken to a most villainous policy of concerted obstruction, ensuring that legislative debate remains fruitless and the passions of the public are stoked and inflamed. The present Ministry feels that it cannot call a new election, out of fears – correct in our view - of outbreaks of disorder during the campaign and an avalanche of Radical candidates after. Yet we hope that strong and decisive action be taken soon, for the health of His Majesty remains uncertain, and the authorities and peacekeepers in the localities become ever-more fearful under the apparent absence of clear leadership from the centre.

***

gillraypostire.jpg

DUBLIN. Agrarian outrages continue across Kilkenny and Sligo, with twenty-seven members of the Irish Constabulary slain this month alone. In spite of this, Daniel O’Connell, MP, continues to restate his shameful demands for the Repeal of the Act of Union. Dublin Castle is justly determined to maintain a firm hand.

***

punchpetitioncartoon.jpg

MANCHESTER. At a large public meeting attended by a great section of the middling classes of the city, Richard Cobden of the Manchester Corporation has most disgracefully claimed that the agitation for the so-called Petition for the People’s Charter would offer a potential means to affect ‘the end of overly onerous duties and the evils of protection, and the promotion of liberty of commerce and the winning of the cheap loaf, in the face of the unrepresentative nature of the present minority government.’ It appears however that the ruffians who make up the Charter Leagues remain ill-disposed towards the cause which he espouses. We hope – in the name of good sense and for the sake of public order - that Mr. Cobden and other local figures will refrain from such irresponsible and fruitless demagoguery in the future.

***
 
Yeah the Newpaper writing is good. So, the country is slowly building itself to rip apart, and the conservatives sit and do little. Sounds nasty in Ireland especially... 27 police officers killed? Ouch!
 
This has the potential to be extremely interesting.

*subscribes*
 
So very much subscribed. Me-sa loves Sarmatia's alt-history confabulations - yes, 'cause they're too good to come out of any sane mind. :p
 
Great update. I particularly enjoyed the newspaper perspective as well. I also liked the remark about the barely-literate classes being unduly influenced by dodgy publications. Literacy has its drawbacks, for the elites that is :)
 
Fascinating stuff, Sarmatia, though I mourn that revolution appears at hand, judging from the first post. :(
 
Many thanks - good to know people like the newspaper reports, as I want to give as many different POVs as possible to have the whole scenario well-rounded and prevent things getting too samey.

:D And I must remember to use the word "confabulation" more in future...
 
If twenty-seven dead constables have died, then I wonder how many casualties there were on the "other side".
On a sad note, I'm watching Jeeves and Wooster again, and fear that there will be no place for such characters in your Britain :(
 
On a sad note, I'm watching Jeeves and Wooster again, and fear that there will be no place for such characters in your Britain :(

Alas, probably not, but we shall see - after all, a lot can happen in a hundred years...
 
The Oldham Outrages
11 November 1837
__________________________________________________________________________________

Elisabeth Pothelswaite, The Way of Freedom: Learnbook for the Under-Elevens (Manchester, 1917)

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And so, boys and girls, we come to that fearful day! You remember well, for what good little child would not, that the Great Struggle for The Charter had, in but a few months, swept across the land. The General Convention of the Industrious Classes – what a long and hard name, but a worthy one! – had met. It was filled with all the Hard Working Folk of the Isles – coal-diggers from the valleys of Wales, tailors from the busy streets of London, carpenters from mighty Birmingham, spinners from heaving Manchester, millers from cold and wet Scotland, why even shoeless cotters from the bogs of Ireland. All were alike and all were Brothers and Sisters, cheering their love for The Charter.

When the Happy Meeting had ended, they went back to their homes to spread the news of The Charter, and O’Connor, and The Six Points (which we have all of course Learned by Heart).

In Oldham too they heard the call for The Charter – for Right, and for Freedom, and for Never Being Hungry again. And the men, and the ladies, and the children met in the streets, and sang songs and danced and merried themselves in the Hope of their coming Freedom.

But the horsemen and the constables – the tools of the Steam Lords and that Despot Peel – saw them, and were frightened. Yes, children … they were fearful of what they saw in the Joy of The People, and sought to stamp it out beneath their boots.

So, they turned on them – their own Brothers and Sisters – and cut them down.

Men, like your own fathers!

Women, like your mothers and grandmothers!

And children, like your brothers, sisters, friends – nay, even like yourselves!

All were put to the sabre, the hoof and the gun.

---​

The Tyrants hoped that the dreadful flowing of blood would drown the Hopes of The People.

But boys and girls, we know that it did not.

The Blood of the Martyrs of Oldham nourished them, and made them know, if any more knowing was needed, that Enough was Enough. There could be no reasoning with the Tormenters and the Oppressors.

As if with One Voice and One Hand, the People of Britain – the diggers, the tailors, the carpenters, the spinners, the millers, the cotters - raised themselves, and moved to cast their Despots down.

Let us Cheer – Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!


***