Still is the story told,
How well Sibthorpius kept the Bridge,
And how the mob were sold.
From The Puppet-Showman’s Album.
The six points demanded by the Chartists in 1848, were: Universal Suffrage, Vote by Ballot, Annual Parliaments, Payment of the Members, the Abolition of the Property Qualification, and Equal Electoral Districts.
Forty years ago these proposals were considered terribly revolutionary, and when the leaders of the movement—Ernest Jones, Fergus O’Connor, Vincent and Stephens—proposed to hold a mass meeting at Kennington, and march to Westminster, it was feared there would be a riot. Special constables were enrolled in large numbers, and strong measures were taken by the police, but little actual disturbance occurred. Colonel Sibthorp, a very eccentric M. P., was especially violent in his denunciations of the Chartists, but it need scarcely be said that the poem is entirely imaginary as to the fight at Westminster Bridge, and the part he took in it.
The Fight for the Championship.
(As told by an ancient Gladiator
to his Great-Grandmother.)
Big Heenan of Benicia,