( Kapital-i, in 'I, myself', now spels Il as in isle or aisle.
Leter y spels ryd for reed or read and partys for parties.
Leter w spels swn for soon. )
In 1876, uon hundred yers after the Amerikan Deklaration of Independens of ther nation,
the author, of a deklaration of independens of his klas, publish'd his lIf story.
The working klas organiser, William Lovett rowt the famus 'six points' of the
Pepl's Charter, 'for the equal representation of the pepl':
Universal Sufraj; Equal Representation; Anual Parliments; No Property
Qualifikation; Vot by Balot, and Payment of Members.'
( Lovett klyrly owns thys ideas wer not orijinal to himself. )
It yus'd to be the kustom to say that al thys points but anual parliments wer achyv'd,
long after Chartism disapyr'd.
The US Hous of Representativs has bienial parliments.
That erly radikalism has not byn rylIs'd jeneraly, tho.
Leiter, som rylis'd that equal representation requir'd voting to be kounted proportionaly. Larjly, the partys hav taken for themselvs monopolys of the proportional kount. The result has byn that al pepl ar equal but partys ar mor equal than others.
Partys hav favor'd list systems that tryt vots as ther own personal property to alokat as they plys to the kandidats on ther lists. This lak of demokratik prinsipl has brot about any number of arbitrary elektoral fixes, pretending to be 'PR' or 'som form of proportional representation.'
In other words, voting systems that yus party lists ar akin to the old property qualifikation
laws, in al ther irational holds over others.
William Lovett kritisis'd the anomalys of Hous-hold Sufraj for
the thousand legal quibbles of house, tenement, land, rating, and taxing which have rendered the Reform Bill a nullity; and which have wasted a countless amount of time and money in the vain attempt to unravel their legal and technical mysteries. And that they might be assured that the adoption of a Household Suffrage would not settle the great question of representative right; for the excluded classes would keep up and prolong the agitation, and be more and more clamorous as the injustice towards them would be more apparent.
Much the saim kan be said for so-kal'd proportional representation that only extends a Partisan Sufraj of the proportional kount to the exklusion of every other posibl prefer'd personal karakteristik that kandidats poses, by ayj, sex, rais, kryd, work, klas, languaj, personality tIp or wat-ever.
LIk hous-hold sufraj, voting systems of the world hav bekom a kaos of legal quibls and teknikal mysterys. This is especialy tru of list vots, wich ar so much foder for the partys to sher out the syts betwyn themselvs. Party lists usurp the gIding prinsipl of the voters' rIt to elekt kandidats ( that is suplI'd by the transferabl voting system, in a proportional kount ).
William Lovett inkluded Femal Sufraj in his draft of a Bil. He leiter regreted that other
Chartists talk'd him out of it, as tu unrylistik an aim.
Of the Working Mens Asociation,
wich he founded in 1836, he says:
And as our object is universal, so ( consistent with justice ) ought to be our means to compass it; and we know not of any means more efficient, than to enlist the sympathies and quicken the intellects of our wives and children to a knowledge of their rights and duties; for, as in the absence of knowledge, they are the most formidable obstacles to a man's patriotic exertions, so when imbued with it will they prove his greatest auxiliaries. Read, therefore, talk, and politically and morally instruct your wives and children; let them, as far as possible, share in your pleasures, as they must in your cares;
The modern Amerikan movment of Kids Voting shows that edukating children in politikal isyus and making voting a family afair inkryses turn-out.
In 1837, Lovett prepar'd 'what we believe to be a loyal and outspoken address' to the nwly
enthron'd Queen Victoria. She was warn'd of the fals kounsel of Wig and Tory. With ther
exklusiv interests, they wud divid her from her pepl.
This was lIk an antisipation of Disraeli's Tory Demokrasy and Radikalism but with the
working klas taking the initiativ to alI with the chyf aristokrat. Victoria, lIk Wellington,
how-ever, was no belyver in universal sufraj.
Six yers after the 1832 Reform Bil, Lovett's elektion adres said:
But it has been urged, as a plea to keep up exclusive legislation, that the people are too ignorant to be trusted with the elective franchise. Are Englishmen less enlightened than Americans? - and has the exercise of their political liberty proved them not to have deserved it? - Nay, in our country, are the unrepresented as a body more ignorant than the present possessors of the franchise? - Can they possibly return more enemies to liberty, more self-interested legislators than are returned by the present constituency to Parliament? The ignorance of which they complain is the offspring of exclusive legislation, for the exclusive few from time immemorial have ever been intent in blocking up every avenue to knowledge. POLITICAL RIGHTS necessarily stimulate men to enquiry - give self-respect - lead them to know their duties as citizens - and, under a wise government, would be made the best corrective of vicious and intemperate habits.
This pasaj is stil relevant. Publik apathy is the lojikal out-kom of politiks being mayd an exklusiv profesion by politicians syking a karyr out of it. Most governments hav denI'd the voters an efektiv choice of representativs and individual polisys. Insted, voters ar patronised by the tak-it-or-lyv-it manifestos of the partys. No surpris, if so many people desId to lyv it.
In 1840, Lovett founded the National Asociation for siens and tekniks edukation, artistik rekreations, librarys, kultural sosiety with the aim:
to rescue our brethren from the thralldom of their own vices, and from servilely imitating the corruptions and vices of those above them.
The profound truth of this observation is revyl'd in Thorstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class.
Lovett's adreses tend to be burden'd with the grais nouts of heroik retorik. But they hav perseption and klarity, and, if repetitius, ar at lyst forsful. In other words, they ar in Tom Paine's stIl, ernest with a desperat houp.
The lak of much sens of humor may be exkus'd by the kondition of the eitynth
and nIntynth sentury English working klas. Lovett himself was luky to find work at last
among furnitur-makers. For a wIl, this aristokracy of labor resented his presens in
ther klos'd shop.
English furnitur was akuratly joiner'd but lak'd stIl. French furnitur was superbly
artistik but yu kud praktikly throw the drawers in. So, Lovett tels us, with a rer departur
from seriusnes.
Lovett sher'd Paine's abhorens of fysikal fors to gain uon's ends. The katastrofes of violent revolution hav prov'd them rIt. Lovett was a 'moral fors' Chartist simply bekaus fors is amoral or without prinsipl:
We are of the opinion that whatever is gained in England by force, by force must be sustained; but whatever springs from knowledge and justice will sustain itself.
In 1844, as sekretary to the Demokratik Frends of Al Nations, he klaim'd:
Let but the same daring mind and resources which have so often warred with tyranny, and so often been worsted in the conflict, be once morally applied and directed, and citadels, armies, and dungeons will soon lose their power for evil.
This was to prov tru of the down-fal of Yst Europ's komunist uon-party staits. ( Tho, it
syms the evils, of ethnik strIf, also hav byn liberated. And koruption also thrIvs on
being privatis'd. )
Absolutism dreds 'uon word of truth'. And pionyr English reformers batl'd
against the tax on nolej, thru a stamp-duty'd pres; against social klas edukation; and
against sekret diplomasy's war konspirasys.
The reformers had ther romantik hot-heds for revolutionary sekresy. Lovett rekal'd of the 1831 National Union of the Working Klases and Others:
we had no trifling number of such characters; and night after night was frequently devoted to prevent them, if possible, from running their own unreflecting heads into danger, and others along with them.
This mentality is wel exemplify'd in A Radical Song, wich reflekts a blud-thirsty
demoralisation after the Napoleonik wars. Its 'frydom' is of the fry-bwter, the buly and the
yob. Spyking of the Devil, uon lIn ( uon kan wel belyv in the lIt of history ) ryds:
And should he prepare us in hell a warm berth,
We'll forestall him by making a hell upon earth.
Lovett belyv'd in the moral fors of being bold and onest in a just kaus, as wud enlist
publik sympathy, rather than be sekretiv and exIt suspicion and persekution.
In 1845, Lovett's National Asociation adres ryson'd against anti-demokratik
kondukt, as a myns to a profes'd demokratik end, by the fysikal-fors Chartists.
In his 1838 Irish adres, he komplain'd
that the principles we advocate have been retarded, injured, or betrayed by leadership, more than by the open hostility of opponents.
Lovett's 1836 Belgian adres was the first international working mens adres. Many
folow'd, both to Europ and North Amerika. Uon such spych to the French mayd fIv points,
wich deserv as much historik rekognition as 'the six points' of the Pepl's Charter.
The fIv points ar a prototIp of the United Nations Charter:
1) a protest against al war as against morality, relijon and human hapines;
2) a Konferens of Nations, with representativs chosen by the pepls
to setl national dispyuts by arbitration;
3) war expenses to go to edukation and the improvment of the pepl;
4) 'to set an exampl to other nations of that justis, forberans, morality and
relijon they prych to ther own pepl.'
5) to set bounds of justis to teritorial aquisition.
Another fertil idea, from Lovett, was a Jeneral Asociation of Progres to unIt reformers in ther divers aims, rather than lyv them divided and wyk.
From 1849, Lovett turn'd most of his atention to edukation. For exampl, he didnt think speling shud be taut as an irksom and disagryabl task but as a gaim and amusment. He nw that to lern work that is yusful it had best be enjoyabl for its own saik.
R H Tawney's introduktion to The Life and Struggles of William Lovett is a dilijent sumary.
Richard Lung.