together similar bodies. Stringent as they were, they did not prevent reckless and revolutionary persons from entering and disturbing the unity of the Association. The total number of members admitted between June 1836 and 1839 was 279, exclusive of 35 or more honorary members. It is unlikely that the total strength was ever greater than 200. The subscription was one shilling per month, sufficiently considerable to exclude many would-be members. The receipts rose to £20 in the quarter ending June 28, 1837, and there was a surplus of 4s. 8d. After this the Association quitted the peaceful waters of quiet educational activity and launched out on the stormy ocean of public agitation.[1]
The earliest proceedings of the Association were concerned with the appointment of committees and sub-committees to investigate and report upon various subjects of working-class interest. One committee inquired into the composition of the House of Commons and published a famous report, called The Rotten House of Commons, towards the end of 1836. Another committee inquired into the condition of the silk-weavers of Spitalfields, and a manuscript report, drawn up by Richard Cray, found its way into the archives of the Chartist Convention of 1839.[2] It has no claim whatever to scientific accuracy, but is noteworthy as a pathetic description of the decay of a once reputable class of artisans, and as a specimen of popular anti-capitalistic thought. A third committee about this time drew up an address of sympathy with the Belgians, then endeavouring to establish their autonomous constitution. Another committee, in which, as we may justifiably surmise, Lovett was the chief, published the Address and Rules of the London Working Men's Association for benefiting Politically, Socially, and Morally the Useful Classes. It was principally an exhortation to their fellows in the country to found similar societies. They must use caution in selecting members, excluding the drunken and immoral. For real political education a selected few is better than a carelessly gathered multitude; a mere exhibition of numbers must be avoided—how different this from the mass demonstrations of 1831–32! Failure and disappointment may be the immediate reward, but knowledge and enlightenment will conquer in the end. Before an educated people Government must bow. These admirable
