6. Payment of Members. This programme, when
promulgated, was enthusiastically received throughout the country,
immense meetings being held in various places in its support. In
Birmingham, meetings were held every Monday evening on Holloway Head,
then an open space. On the 13th of August, 1838, there was a "monster
demonstration" here, and it was computed that 100,000 persons were
present. A petition in favour of the charter was adopted, and in a
few days received nearly 95,000 signatures. The former political
leaders--G.F. Muntz, George Edmonds, and Clutton Salt--became all at
once exceedingly unpopular, as they declined to join in the agitation.
Torchlight meetings were held almost nightly in various parts of the
country, and a Government proclamation was issued prohibiting them.
Some of the leaders of the movement were arrested. There was evidently
some central organisation at work, for a curious system of annoyance
was simultaneously adopted. In all parts of the country the Chartists,
in large and well-organised bodies, went, Sunday after Sunday, as soon
as the doors were opened, and took possession of all the seats in the
churches, thus shutting out the regular congregations.
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