Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet | Page 4

contact with one class of the poor than
any of them. How deeply he felt for the agricultural poor, how
faithfully he reflected the passionate and restless sadness of the time,
may be read in the pages of "Yeast," which was then coming out in
"Fraser." As the winter months went on this sadness increased, and
seriously affected his health.
"I have a longing," he wrote to Mr. Ludlow, "to do something--what,
God only knows. You say, 'he that believeth will not make haste,' but I
think he that believeth must make haste, or get damned with the rest.
But I will do anything that anybody likes--I have no confidence in
myself or in anything but God. I am not great enough for such times,
alas! 'nè pour faire des vers,' as Camille Desmoulins said."
This longing became so strong as the crisis in April approached, that he
came to London to see what could be done, and to get help from Mr.
Maurice, and those whom he had been used to meet at his house. He
found them a divided body. The majority were sworn in as special
constables, and several had openly sided with the Chartists; while he
himself, with Mr. Maurice and Mr. Ludlow, were unable to take active
part with either side. The following extract from a letter to his wife,
written on the 9th of April, shows how he was employed during these
days, and how he found the work which he was in search of, the first
result of which was the publication of "those 'Politics for the People'
which made no small noise in their times"--
"April 11th, 1848.--The events of a week have been crowded into a few

hours. I was up till four this morning--writing posting placards, under
Maurice's auspices, one of which is to be got out to-morrow morning,
the rest when we can get money. Could you not beg a few sovereigns
somewhere to help these poor wretches to the truest alms?--to words,
texts from the Psalms, anything which may keep even one man from
cutting his brother's throat to-morrow or Friday? Pray, pray, help us.
Maurice has given me a highest proof of confidence. He has taken me
to counsel, and we are to have meetings for prayer and study, when I
come up to London, and we are to bring out a new set of real "Tracts
for the Times," addressed to the higher orders. Maurice is à la hauteur
des circonstances--determined to make a decisive move. He says, if the
Oxford Tracts did wonders, why should not we? Pray for us. A glorious
future is opening, and both Maurice and Ludlow seem to have driven
away all my doubts and sorrow, and I see the blue sky again, and my
Father's face!"
The arrangements for the publication of "Politics for the People" were
soon made; and in one of the earliest numbers, for May, 1848, appeared
the paper which furnishes what ground there is for the statement,
already quoted, that "he declared, in burning language, that the People's
Charter did not go far enough" It was No. 1 of "Parson Lot's Letters to
the Chartists." Let us read it with its context.
"I am not one of those who laugh at your petition of the 10th of April: I
have no patience with those who do. Suppose there were but 250,000
honest names on that sheet--suppose the Charter itself were all
stuff--yet you have still a right to fair play, a patient hearing, an
honourable and courteous answer, whichever way it may be. But my
only quarrel with the Charter is that it does not go far enough in
reform. I want to see you free, but I do not see that what you ask for
will give you what you want. I think you have fallen into just the same
mistake as the rich, of whom you complain--the very mistake which
has been our curse and our nightmare. I mean the mistake of fancying
that legislative reform is social reform, or that men's hearts can be
changed by Act of Parliament. If any one will tell me of a country
where a Charter made the rogues honest, or the idle industrious, I will
alter my opinion of the Charter, but not till then. It disappointed me

bitterly when I read it. It seemed a harmless cry enough, but a poor,
bald constitution-mongering cry as ever I heard. The French cry of
'organization of labour' is worth a thousand of it, but yet that does not
go to the bottom of the matter by many a mile." And then, after telling
how he went to buy a number of the Chartist newspaper, and found it in
a shop which sold "flash songsters," "the Swell's Guide," and "dirty
milksop