The Chartist Circular . Its principal paper, the Northern Star , founded in , soon equalled the circulation of the Times . Articles published in the Northern Star were read out for the illiterates in workshops and pubs in every industrial area. Hundreds of thousands of workers attended mass meetings held during – .
The People's Charter, prepared by William Lovett of the London Working Men’s Association, detailing William Lovett the six key points that the Chartists believed were necessary to reform the electoral system, was presented and deliberated in these meetings. The six key points were: . Universal suffrage. .
Voting by ballot, to prevent intimidation. . No property qualification for candidates. .
Payment of members elected to the House of Commons, as it would enable the poor people to contend for office and contest elections. . Equal electoral districts and equal representation. .
Annual parliaments. Panicked by rumours that there would be a popular uprising, the government sent the army to the industrial areas. In the workers struck work in Lancashire and marched from factory to factory stopping the work, and extending and intensifying their action. In , in the wake of a wave of revolutions that swept Europe, subsequent to the February Revolution of that year in France, masses of workers prepared again for confrontation.
The state stood firm with the backing of the lower middle class. The Chartist leaders also vacillated, when the , strong crowd at Kennington, south London, began to melt away. In the meantime the government arrested most of them and turned half of London into an armed camp. Chartism comprised a mixture of different groups holding different ideas.
Its leaders were divided between those who believed in winning over the existing rulers, and those who believed in overthrowing them. Though Chartism was not successful, its main demands, which were not conceded in the Reform Act, were later incorporated in the Parliamentary Reform Acts of and . July Revolution ( ) On July , the Bourbon king Charles X issued four ordinances dissolving the Chamber of Deputies, suspending freedom of the