William Lovett and the National Association for the Political and Social Improvement of the People

Historical Journal

Volumn 42, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 1027-1050

  Stack, David ^a  

^a QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0040587812     PISSN: 0018246X     EISSN: 14695103     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X9900878X     Document Type: Article

References (162)

1. W. Lovett, To the political and social reformers of the United Kingdom (London, 1841), p. 2.
2. W. Lovett, Life and struggles of William Lovett; in his pursuit of bread, knowledge, and freedom; with some short account of the different associations he belonged to and of the opinions he entertained (London, 1876), pp. 263, 247.
3. See also British Library (BL) Add. MSS, Place papers, 35, 151, fo. 116.
4. See Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser, 10 Apr. 1841, 17 Apr. 1841, 24 Apr. 1841, 1 May 1841, 8 May 1841, 15 May 1841.
5. BL Add. MSS 37, 774. Minutes of the National Association (hereafter Minutes), 120ct. 1841 and 19 Oct. 1841.
6. National Association Gazette; the rights of man and the rights of woman (hereafter NAG), 30 July 1842.
7. W. Lovett, First annual report of the National Association for Promoting the Political and Social Improvement of the People (London, 1843), pp. 2-6.
8. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 342.
9. Ibid., pp. 380-3.
10. M. Taylor, 'Rethinking the Chartists: searching for synthesis in the historiography of Chartism', Historical Journal, 39 (1996), pp. 479-95.
11. R. Young, Damin's metaphor: nature's place in Victorian culture (Cambridge, 1985), p. 186;
12. R. Cooter, The cultural meaning of popular science (Cambridge, 1984), p. 2.
13. B. Taylor, Eve and the new Jerusalem: socialism and feminism in the nineteenth century (London, 1983), pp. 26-7.
14. A. Desmond, 'Artisan resistance and evolution in Britain, 1819-1848', Osiris, 3 (1987), p. 89.
15. F. E. Manuel, 'From equality to organicism', Journal of the History of Ideas, 17 (1956), pp. 54-69;
16. F. E. Manuel, The prophets of Paris (Cambridge, MA, 1962);
17. Cooter, The cultural meaning;
18. R. Cooter, 'Phrenology: the provocation of progress', History of Science, 14 (1976), pp. 211-34.
19. See also W. F. Bynum, 'Time's noblest offspring: the problem of man in the British natural historical sciences, 1800-1863' (Ph. D. thesis, Cambridge, 1974), ch. 4.
20. R. Cooter, 'The power of the body: the early nineteenth century', in B. Barnes and S. Shapin, eds., Natural order: historical studies of scientific culture (London, 1979).
21. Although he does recognize that Lovett's Elementary anatomy and physiology was 'surprisingly well received as a teaching aid, even though the very act of opening up the human body to plebian gaze was provocative, given the clerical distaste for human dissection and contemporary fears for the moral consequences of anatomical self-knowledge among the "corruptible" labouring classes'. Desmond, 'Artisan resistance and evolution', p. 92.
22. See also A. Desmond, 'Lamarckism and democracy: corporations, corruption and comparative anatomy in the 1830s', in J. R. Moore, ed., History, humanity and evolution: essays for J. C. Greene (Cambridge, 1989).
23. A notable exception is L. S. Jacyna, 'Immanence or transcendence: theories of life and organisation in Britain, 1790-1835', Isis, 74 (1983), pp. 311-29. Jacyna shows how the debate on immanence or transcendence in biology affected the radical perspective on the clash between society and government.
24. For a review of recent trends
25. see R. Price, 'Historiography, narrative, and the nineteenth century', Journal of British Studies, 35 (1996), pp. 220-56. For an attempt to extend them
26. see G. Stedman Jones, 'The determinist fix: some obstacles to the further development of the linguistic approach to history in the 1990s', History Workshop Journal, 42 (1996), pp. 19-35.
27. M. Staum, 'Physiognomy and phrenology at the Paris Athéné e', Journal of the History of Ideas, 56 (1995), pp. 443-62. For a similarly positive view of British phrenology
28. see D. de Giustino, Conquest of mind: phrenology and Victorian social thought (London, 1975), p. 64.
29. Cooter, 'The power of the body', p. 80;
30. Manuel, 'From equality', p. 53.
31. Staum, 'Physiognomy and phrenology', pp. 445, 462.
32. G. Combe, The constitution of man considered in relation to external objects (London, 1828).
33. A. Combe, The principles of physiology, applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education (Edinburgh, 1834), pp. 3-6.
34. T. Southwood Smith, The philosophy of health; or, an exposition of the physical and mental constitution of man, with a view to the promotion of human longevity and happiness (London, 1835);
35. T. Hodgkin, Lectures on the means of promoting and preserving health, delivered at the Mechanics Institute, Spitalfields (London, 1835).
36. See S. Shapin, 'The politics of observation: cerebral anatomy and social interests in the Edinburgh phrenology disputes', Sociological Review Monograph, 27 (1979), pp. 139-78.
37. The whole of the Constitution, Combe commented, could be read as an introduction to an essay on education, for if the views contained within it were correct man's education had barely begun. Combe, Constitution of man, pp. 293-4.
38. J. West, A history of the Chartist movement (London, 1920), pp. 287-8.
39. D. Goodway, London Chartism, 1838-1848 (Cambridge, 1982), p. 36.
40. M. Hovell, The Chartist movement (Manchester, 1925), p. 236;
41. R. H. Tawney, 'Introduction', to Lovett, Life and Struggles, p. xxviii.
42. In 1846 this came to a head in a dispute over the appointment of a schoolmaster for the Association's proposed day school. Lovett's refusal to appoint George Jacob Holyoake, because his atheism broke the Association's pledge on avoiding theological controversy, led Holyoake's supporters, such as C. D. Collet, to charge Lovett with dereliction of duty. After a protracted dispute Lovett was vindicated, but resigned anyway.
43. See Lovett, Life and struggles, pp. 326-8; Minutes, 8 Sept. 1846, 15 Sept. 1846, 22 Sept. 1846, 29 Sept. 1846, 20 Oct. 1846, 21 Oct. 1846, 28 Nov. 1846, 3 Nov. 1846, 15 Dec. 1846.
44. J. Wiener, William Lovett (Manchester, 1989), p. 97.
45. NAG, letters from 'A Washerwoman' and Sarah Fuller, 7 May 1842.
46. NAG, 'Total abstinence', 2 Apr. 1842.
47. See also 'Beer drinking', 29 Jan. 1842.
48. R. D. Storch.'The problem of working-class leisure. Some roots of middle-class moral reform in the industrial north: 1825-1850', in A. J. Donajgradzki, ed., Social control in nineteenth-century Britain (London, 1977).
49. Lovett, First annual report, p. 6; anon., Receipts and expenditure of the National Association for Promoting the Political and Social Improvement of the People (London, 1843);
50. NAG, 23 July 1842.
51. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 90.
52. W. Lovett and J. Collins, Chartism: a new organisation of the people, embracing a plan for the education and improvement of the people, politically and socially; addressed to the working classes of the United Kingdom, and more especially to the advocates of the rights and liberties of the whole people as set forth in the 'People's Charter'. Written in Warwick gaol (Leicester, 1969; 1st edn, 1840), p. 118.
53. Ibid..
54. W. Lovett, Elementary anatomy and physiology, for schools and private instruction; with lessons on diet, intoxicating drinks, tobacco, and disease (London, 1851), pp. 122-3.
55. Lovett and Collins, Chartism, p. 66.
56. Ibid., p. 67.
57. W. Lovett, Social and political morality (London, 1853), p. 4.
58. Ibid., p. 34.
59. Lovett and Collins, Chartism, pp. 63-4.
60. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 147.
61. National Library of Scotland (NLS) Combe MS 7334, fo. 88.
62. Emphasis added. Ibid. 7302, fos. 46-7.
63. Ibid. 7391, fo. 566, and 7294, fo. 35.
64. Ibid. 7302, fos. 44-5.
65. Minutes, 2 May 1843, 25 Apr. 1843, 7 Mar. 1843.
66. See A. Desmond, The politics of evolution: morphology, medicine and reform (Chicago and London, 1989), pp. 168-9.
67. W. J. Fox, Lectures addressed chiefly to the working classes (3 vols., London, 1845).
68. T. Hodgskin, Peace, law and order: a lecture delivered in the hall of the National Association, on 29 September 1842 (London, 1842).
69. Hodgkin, Lectures, pp. 405, 416-20.
70. Lovett and Collins, Chartism, p. 67.
71. Lovett, Social and political morality, p. 35.
72. Ibid., pp. 4-5.
73. Lovett, Elementary anatomy and physiology: 'For as the muscles of the body are enlarged and strengthened by judicious exercise, so are the different portions of the brain' p. 124.
74. Fox, Lectures, 111, p. 176.
75. NAG, 30 July 1842.
76. Lovett, To the social and political reformers, p. 3.
77. See also J. Epps, Horae phrenologicae, being three essays: I on morality; II on the best means of obtaining happiness; III on veneration (London, 1829), p. 24.
78. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 257.
79. See W. Lovett, Letter from Mr. Lovett to Messrs Donaldson and Mason: containing his reasons for refusing to be nominated secretary of the National Charter Association (London, 1841).
80. See W. Lovett, A proposal for the consideration of the Friends of Progress (London, 1847);
81. W. Lovett, Proposal for forming a People's League (London, 1848); anon. [W. Lovett], The People's League; to the people of London and its vicinity (London, 1848).
82. Lovett, Proposal for forming a People's League.
83. For Lovett's valedictory history of the early Chartist movement see W. Lovett, An address to the Chartists of the United Kingdom by the National Association for Promoting the Political and Social Improvement of the People (London, 1845), p. 4.
84. Lovett, To the political and social reformers, p. I;
85. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 175.
86. See J. H. Parry, A letter to Feargus O'Connor, Esq. farmer and barrister; on the plan of organisation issued by the Birmingham Conference, September 1843 (London, 1843), p. 5.
87. Lovett, Letter from Mr. Lovett to Messrs Donaldson and Mason, p. 3.
88. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 433.
89. Epps, Horae phrenologicae, p. 101. Epps accused O'Connor of a 'despotism of the lungs', J. Epps, Diary of the late John Epps, MD, Edin., embracing autobiographical records; notes on passing events; homoeopathy, general medicine; politics and religion, etc. (London, 1875), p. 400.
90. Lovett, An address to the Chartists of the United Kingdom, p. 7.
91. See Northern Star, 1 May 1841 and 8 May 1841.
92. See ibid., 8 May 1841 and 11 Sept. 1841.
93. See, for example, a series of letters by 'Argus'. NAG, 30 Mar. 1842, 7Apr. 1842, 14 May 1842, and 28 May 1842.
94. Lovett, Letter from Mr Lovett to Messrs Donaldson and Mason, p. 3.
95. NAG, 30 July 1842.
96. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 257.
97. Ibid., pp. 583, 442, 96-7.
98. See also Lovett, To the social and political reformers, p. 3;
99. and Lovett, First annual report, p. 6.
100. Lovett, Anatomy and physiology, p. 140;
101. Lovett, Social and political morality, pp. 43-4.
102. Fox, Lectures, III, p. 185.
103. Lovett, Anatomy and physiology, pp. 138-9.
104. Lovett, Social and political morality, pp. 43-4.
105. Ibid., p. 42;
106. Lovett, Anatomy and physiology, p. 143.
107. Lovett, Anatomy and physiology, p. 144.
108. W. Lovett, Address from the members of the National Association for Promoting the Political and Social Improvement of the People, to the working classes of France, on the subject of war (London, 1844), p. 6.
109. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 100.
110. Lovett, Social and political morality, pp. 5-6.
111. See also W. Lovett, An address from the National Association for Promoting the Political and Social Improvement of the People to the working classes of the United Kingdom, on the subject of the militia; adopted by a political meeting at the National Hall, February 11, 1846 (London, 1846), p. 5;
112. W. Lovett, An humble apology for peace by the National Association for Promoting the Political and Social Improvement of the People; in reply to 'An humble apology for war' which appeared in the 'The Liverpool Journal' (London, 1844), p. 4.
113. Lovett, Address...to the working classes of France, p. 2.
114. W. Lovett, The peace principle, the great agent of social and political progress: being a short review of the peace doctrines of the 'Family Herald' (London, 1849), pp. 8-9.
115. Ibid., p. 9.
116. See also Lovett, Address...to the working classes of France, p. 8;
117. Lovett, An address... on the subject of the Militia, pp. 5-6.
118. W. Lovett, An address from the National Association for Promoting the Political and Social Improvement of the People to the working classes of America, on the war spirit that is sought to be excited between the two countries (London, 1846), p. 3.
119. Lovett, Humble apology, p. 2.
120. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 174n.
121. NAG, 1 Jan. 1842.
122. W. Lovett, Woman's mission (1856), p. 15.
123. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 379.
124. Lovett, Woman's mission, pp. 17-19;
125. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 438.
126. Lovett, Woman's mission, pp. 17-19;
127. see also Southwood Smith, Philosophy of health, pp. 10-11, 7-8;
128. A. Combe, A treatise on the physiological and moral management of infancy (Edinburgh, 1840), p. 27.
129. Lovett, Woman's mission, pp. 8-12.
130. NAG, 8 Jan. 1842.
131. Taylor, Eve and the New Jerusalem, pp. 124-6.
132. NAG, 28 May 1842 and 19 Mar. 1842.
133. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 439.
134. See NAG, 23 Apr. 1842 and 30 Apr. 1842.
135. Ibid., 8 Jan. 1842.
136. Ibid., 21 May 1842.
137. M. Wollstonecraft, A vindication of the rights of woman (London, 1792). On the susceptibility of feminism to organistic arguments see F. Alaya, 'Victorian science and the "genius" of woman', Journal of the History of Ideas, 38 (1977), pp. 261-80.
138. J. Wilson, Influences of the corn laws, as affecting all classes of the community, and particularly the landed interests (London, 1839), p. 44.
139. Cooter, 'The power of the body', passim.
140. NAG, 16 July 1841.
141. W. Lovett, Justice safer than expediency: an appeal to the middle classes on the question of the suffrage (London, 1848), pp. 3-4.
142. NAG, 2 July 1842.
143. Ibid., 14 May 1842.
144. Ibid..
145. Lovett, To the political and social reformers, pp. 3-4.
146. Lovett, An address to the Chartists, p. 6;
147. NAG, 19 Feb. 1842.
148. NAG, 30 Apr. 1842.
149. Parry, Letter to Feargus O'Connor, p. 12.
150. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 382.
151. Ibid., p. 293; Minutes, 1 Aug. 1843.
152. Minutes, 29 Aug. 1843.
153. Ibid., 1 Oct. 1844, 19 Nov. 1844, 18 Aug. 1846, 8 Sept. 1847.
154. Ibid., 30 Jan. 1844
155. NLS Combe MS 7302, fos. 44-5.
156. Minutes, 19 Nov. 1844 and 22 Dec. 1846.
157. Thus leading Cooter to conclude that physiology could only provide 'an exhilarating illusion of freedom': Cooter, 'The power of the body', p. 85.
158. See Patrick Joyce, Visions of the people: industrial England and the question of class, 1840-1914 (Cambridge, 1991), on the language of mutuality in post-Chartist discussions of 'capital' and 'labour'.
159. NAG, 16 July 1842;
160. Lovett, Life and struggles, p. 415.
161. Taylor, 'Rethinking the Chartists', p. 493.
162. R. Young, 'Malthus and the evolutionists: the common context of biological and social theory', Past and Present, 43 (1969), p. 109, 'an approach might be developed which routinely considers social and political factors in scientific research and scientific factors in social, economic and political history'.