“A return of the number of Newspaper Stamps issued to the several Newspapers in London, from 1 Ap. to 29 June, 1839, inclusive; specifying each Newspaper by name, and the number of Stamps issued each month during that period to each Newspaper.”
| April. | May. | June. | |
| Morning Chronicle | 180,000 | 210,000 | 140,000 |
| Morning Post | 85,000 | 90,000 | 80,000 |
| Morning Herald | 140,000 | 175,000 | 140,000 |
| Times | 330,000 | 330,000 | 430,000 |
| Courier | 29,000 | 33,000 | 27,000 |
| Globe | 72,000 | 90,000 | 72,000 |
| Standard | 83,000 | 80,000 | 101,000 |
| Sun | 111,000 | 105,000 | 105,000 |
| Evening Chronicle | 30,000 | 20,000 | 10,000 |
| Evening Mail | 25,000 | 50,000 | 35,000 |
| St. James’s Chronicle | 52,000 | 58,000 | 66,000 |
CHAPTER XI.
The Chartists—Their going to church—Dissolution of the Convention—Approaching marriage of the Queen—The Queen and lunatics—Raid on a Gaming House—Act of Penance.
This year Chartism was rampant and very militant. On 1 April there were riots at Devizes, on 3 May, seven men were arrested at Manchester for drilling, and, on the 25th of that month a great meeting was held on Kersall Moor, four miles from Manchester. On 4th July there were very serious riots at Birmingham, and again on the 15th. On the same date between 3,000 and 4,000 Chartists met on Clerkenwell Green to condemn the action of the authorities at Birmingham, and, towards the end of the month, numerous meetings were held in the North of England, and there were riots at Newcastle and Stockport. In August there was great unrest in the North, and some trials took place at Birmingham and Manchester for rioting and sedition.
A new, and somewhat unexpected method of agitation, was, about this time, adopted by the Chartists. They betook themselves, suddenly, to attendance in a body at public worship, taking early possession on the Sundays of the various cathedrals and parish churches, to the exclusion of the more regular attendants. On the afternoon of Sunday, 11 Aug., a party of them, about 500 in number, met together in West Smithfield, and walked in procession to St. Paul’s Cathedral. On arriving there, many of them refused to take off their hats; but, after some remonstrance from the Vergers, they submitted. The majority of them wore a little piece of red ribbon in their button holes, and conducted themselves quite peaceably. On the Sunday following, their brethren at Norwich
pursued a similar course at the Cathedral of that city, which was crowded almost to suffocation. The Bishop, who preached, took the opportunity to deliver an impressive remonstrance on the folly and danger of their proceedings. The Chartists behaved well in the Cathedral; but, at St. Stephen’s Church in the evening, they made a disturbance. The Chartists at Manchester, following the advice of Feargus O’Connor, attended the Old Church (now the Cathedral) in great numbers. The authorities, having been previously advised of their intention, had the military in readiness to act, should the Chartists behave in a disorderly manner: but they conducted themselves with great decorum. It is said that, previous to Divine Service, they handed the clergyman a Chartist text to preach from, but he selected as his text, “My house is the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves”; on announcing which, the Chartists rose, and quitted the church. The same tactics were followed in the principal towns all over the country, but, either from the success of them not being very apparent, or from the distastefulness of the method employed, the practice was not followed up for long—nor with any great regularity.
On the 14th Sep. the Chartist National Convention was dissolved; and, on the 20th Feargus O’Connor was arrested for sedition, on a Judge’s Warrant, at Manchester, and things were fairly quiet during the remainder of the year, with the exception of a serious Chartist riot, on 4 Nov., at Newport, in Monmouthshire, where many rioters were killed.
We have seen how, in the beginning of the year, the Sun had prophesied the marriage of the Queen and Prince Albert, for which it was duly pooh-poohed by the Times—but on 22 Aug., the Morning Post had the dreadful temerity to announce the same—and the Court Circular of 11 Oct. tells us, that “The Hereditary Prince (Ernest) and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, landed at the Tower, at 4 o’clock yesterday afternoon, from the Continent. Their Serene Highnesses were conveyed in two of the Royal landaus to the Royal Mews at Pimlico, and, shortly afterwards, left town
with their suite in two carriages and four, for Windsor Castle, on a visit to the Queen.”