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 colleges for students of twelve years upwards; and normal schools for teachers. Illuminating are the remarks upon educational method, as representing a reaction against the memory-cram of Lancaster and Bell. Illuminating, too, is the remark that cleanliness and punctuality are to be enforced "as the best means of amalgamating class distinctions."

Shortly afterwards, in December 1837, the Association issued an Address to the Reformers of Great Britain and Ireland. This was in reply to an address by the Birmingham Union, which had recently declared for the democratic reform of Parliament. With this Address the London Working Men's Association made its second great step towards the foundation of the Chartist agitation.

The first step had been taken early in the same year. On the last day of February a public meeting was called under the Association's auspices in the famous Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand. This was the first public appearance of the Association and created a great stir. All the principal members spoke. Feargus O'Connor and John Bell were present, not, we are assured, with the goodwill of the promoters of the meeting. A petition to the House of Commons was the result. This petition was the basis of the People's Charter. The preamble lays down

&hellip; that obedience to laws can only be justly enforced on the certainty that those who are called on to obey them have had, either personally or by their representatives, a power to enact, amend or repeal them. That all those who are excluded from this share of political power are not justly included within the operation of the laws: to them the laws are only despotic enactments and the legislative assembly from whom they emanate can only be considered parties to an unholy compact devising plans and schemes for taxing and subjecting the many. &hellip; That the universal political right of every human being is superior and stands apart from all customs, forms, or ancient usage: a fundamental right not in the power of man to confer or justly to deprive him of [sic]. That to take away this sacred right from the person and to vest it in property is a wilful perversion of justice and common sense, as the creation and security of property are the consequences of society, the great object of which is human happiness. That any constitution or code of laws formed in violation of man's political and social rights are [sic] not rendered sacred by time nor sanctified by custom.

Conversely, a constitution of this kind could only be maintained by force and fraud.

The prayer of the petition contained the "six points of the