would not be sitting if the people thought they could do no more than petition. This probably represents the view of the majority, at any rate of the working-class delegates, who regarded themselves as bound to make the Charter into law by any means whatsoever. MacDouall declared that if the Convention was not to proceed to ulterior measures, he would go home at once. A few delegates, led away by the revolutionary atmosphere attaching to the name of Convention, even dreamed of permanent sittings and Committees of Public Safety. The resolutions were rejected by thirty-six votes against six. Cobbett thereupon quitted the Convention. This was the first of many defections.[1]
How exaggerated a notion some of the delegates had of their own importance appears from the motion, passed on the 13th on the proposition of O'Brien, that the House of Commons be invited to meet the Convention at the Crown and Anchor Tavern on the 27th of February to disabuse the minds of the members of that House as to the character and intentions of the Convention.[2] Delegates wrote "M.C." after their names after the fashion of "M.P." They imagined that they had sufficient influence to meet the House of Commons on equal if not superior terms. They repeatedly argued that they had been elected by a much greater number of voters than those who sent men to Westminster, consequently they were entitled to at least as great a share of power as Parliament.
There was for the time being considerable hesitation about specifying the exact means to be adopted in the event of the rejection of the Petition by the Commons, but as the Petition was not yet presented there was no immediate need of a decision on that point. Meanwhile a declaration of war upon the Anti-Corn Law League and all its ways was proclaimed. This is one of the few questions upon which complete unanimity was displayed. O'Brien was the chief advocate of this policy, and made a speech in his best and most virulent style.[3]
Following this the Convention busied itself with the discussion of its procedure and rules. A week was thus spent, at the end of which a pamphlet was issued bearing the title "Rules and Regulations of the General Convention of the Industrious Classes, elected by the Radical Reformers of Great Britain and Ireland in Public Meetings assembled, to watch
