At Newcastle-on-Tyne, however where Harney, Dr. Taylor, and other advocates of extreme measures were the speakers, the speeches were censored by the chairman. James Craig spoke of agitating the bricks and mortar, Harney of marching on London, Taylor and Lowery of the advantages of a general strike of colliers.[1] Generally speaking, however, the Whitsuntide campaign gave the authorities little real ground for uneasiness, though the panic, generated by the frequent assemblies of Chartists and the wild rumours which were abroad, was in no way abated.
The campaign was continued throughout June 1839, but there was increasing evidence of disaffection in the Chartist ranks. On May 15 James Craig of Ayr quitted the Convention with leave of absence. He had been regarded as a stalwart and promising leader, but apparently he had lost his nerve. He fell into a sordid squabble with his former constituents about his salary as delegate, and the Chartist body in that neighbourhood was split into fragments.[2] R. J. Richardson resigned towards the end of May because his Manchester supporters were either unable or unwilling to pay him the five pounds weekly which had been promised as his salary. Apparently a rival, Christopher Dean by name, had been preferred to him.[3] Halley, the Scottish delegate, who had always been so powerful an advocate of sober measures, took advantage of the adjournment of the Convention to sever his connection with it, for which, curiously enough, he was denounced in person by Richardson himself.[4] Not only resignations but arrests thinned the ranks of the Convention. About the beginning of June Carrier of Trowbridge was arrested, and on the 8th MacDouall. The latter was committed on the charge of attending a seditious meeting at Hyde towards the end of April, when he had advised his audience to make use of arms if soldiers were called out, sentiments which were greeted with pistol-shots. MacDouall thereupon squabbled with his Ashton constituents, seemingly because he was suspected of desiring that part of the fund raised for Stephens's
- ↑ Northern Liberator. May 25, 1839.
- ↑ Northern Star, September 7, 1839. Additional MSS. 34,245, A, p. 447: B, pp. 36, 58.
- ↑ Dean's credentials: "Stephens Squair (i.e. Stevenson Square, Manchester). We the men of Manchester in Public assembled have Duly elected Cristipher Dean, Operative stone Mason, as a fitt and proper person to Represent us in the People's Convention. Sign in be halfe of the meating. William Rushton, Chairman." Additional MSS. 34,245, A, p. 201, April 4.
- ↑ London Dispatch, July 7, 1839.
