25-мәтін

The Making of a Chartist

For three years trade had been getting worse and worse, and the price of bread higher and higher. This difference between the earnings of the working class and the price of their food brought disease and death. Whole families starved. It is hard to find words to describe the distress of thousands and thousands in the terrible years of 1839 (eighteen thirty-nine), 1840 (eighteen forty) and 1841 (eighteen forty-one). An idea now sprang up among the workers, that originated in the Chartists, but which was at last cherished as a darling child by many and many.

They could not believe that the government knew of their misery. They preferred to think it possible that the nation was ruled by men who were ignorant of its real state. Besides, the starving multitudes had heard, that the very existence of their distress had been denied in Parliament, yet it soothed their hearts to think that if their misery were revealed to its very depth, some remedy would be found.

So a petition was written, and signed by thousands in the bright spring days of 1839 (eighteen thirty-nine), imploring Parliament to hear witnesses, who could tell of the misery in the manufacturing districts. The petition was carried by delegates to London. The delegates were life-worn, gaunt and hunger-stamped.

One of them was John Barton. Barton was a Manchester worker. He was glad and proud of being chosen. He was no longer young, he had a grown-up daughter, but he had never been to London. He thought he would be able to speak of the great distress of the people. He hoped greatly, but vaguely to the result of the petition. He knew that the petition carried the last hopes of many people. (by E. Gaskell)