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It is of no use to refuse to look our difficulties in the face. The fact is, that, be it from listlessness, ignorance, want of thought, incapacity to reason as to political causes and effects, or satisfaction with things as they are, the great majority of the working men of the metropolis are altogether indifferent as to representation. They feel certain evils, and they complain of them, but they do not apply themselves to consider whence they proceed.
In the country, we believe, it is far otherwise. . . . We are sorry to have to report that
in the metropolis, where the lead should have been taken, there is nothing doing; and unless the
metropolis be set working, all agitation elsewhere is useless. It is here that the seat of Government
is. A demonstration in the streets of London comes before the very eyes of those who make the laws. An atmosphere of
agitation here does not dissipate without first involving the two Houses of Legislation
in its influence. A hundred demonstrations in the country are only heard of through the newspapers of the
factions, which invariably describe them as contemptible, diminish the numbers, and
caricature the speeches.
FROM ‘Prospects of our cause', The Chartist, 30 June, 1839.
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