Not So Very Unreasonable Eh?Chartism
Print Type: Engraving
Date: April 1848
Publisher: Punch or the London Charivari
Origin: British
Dimensions: 8 x 11"
Notes & Literature: Thomas Duncombe was born in Yorkshire in 1796. His father was a large landowner and a member of an aristocratic family that included the Earl of Carlisle and Baron Feversham. After his education at Harrow School Duncombe joined the Coldstream Guards.
While in the army Duncombe met General Ronald Ferguson, a soldier with radical political views. Thomas Duncombe was influenced by Ferguson's ideas and when he retired from the army in 1819 he began to look for a seat in the House of Commons. After two unsuccessful attempts, Duncombe was eventually elected to represent Hertford in June 1826.
In the House of Commons Duncombe became a strong supporter of parliamentary reform. However, as a result of the 1832 Reform Act, Duncombe lost his Hertford seat. Duncombe now joined Thomas Wakley at Finsbury. This was one of the largest constituencies in Britain and included Holban, Islington, Stoke Newington and Clerkenwell. Duncombe and Wakley shared similar political ideas and Richard Cobden once described them as "the kid-glove democrats and the unscientific radicals of the Finsbury School".
Thomas Duncombe was one of the few members of the House of Commons who was willing to argue the case for universal suffrage. Like Thomas Wakley and John Fielden, Duncombe made it clear that he considered it is responsibility to represent the views of the working people as well as those who had actually voted for him.
A close friend of William Lovett, Duncombe argued that the Chartists were not revolutionaries but reasonable men who deserved the vote. In April 1842 Duncombe agreed to present the Chartist petition signed by over 3 million people to Parliament. In his account of the debate that followed, Robert Gammage claimed that Duncombe's speech was "noble and manly, and elicited the warm esteem of men of all parties".
Condition Report: Few edge tears not effecting margins. Verso blank.
Subject References: English British Cartoon Political Historical Social Events