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Before we can account for the failures of the chartist movement we must first understand who the chartists were and what their aims were. The chartists were made up of hard working, literate, working class men who wanted to be granted suffrage in order to improve the quality of their lives through democracy and the vote. William Lovett, one of the leaders and also secretary of the London Working Men’s Association, worked alongside Francis Place and Joseph Roebuck, a radical MP, to produce the “People’s Charter”. This document was produced as the basis for an Act of Parliament (Clive Behagg, 1991), and was made public in May 1838; it is also claimed that this date marks the beginning of Chartism (Harry Browne 1999). The Charter was made up of six points: 1. Suffrage for all men over the age of 21. 2. Voting by secret ballot. 3. Remove the necessity to own land for men wishing to stand for Parliament. 4. Members of Parliament to receive a salary. 5. Equal size electoral districts. 6. Annual Parliaments. The chartists handed a petition containing 1,208,000 signatures to Parliament in 1839, calling for the Ch