During the period from 1815 to 1842, the standard of living for the middle classes had improved dramatically and the rich had held their own, while the working classes saw their standard of living at best hold steady—perhaps decline. In 1842 public charities assisted 15 percent of the population, and private ones supported a great many more. According to Richard D. Altick, the first decade of Queen Victoria’s reign (1837-47) was “the most harrowing and dangerous of the entire century” (Altick, p. 89). Despair and disenfranchisement (the working classes could not vote) fueled a growing radicalism called “chartism,” its name derived from a “People’s Charter” presented to Parliament. Chartism led to strikes and riots in 1839, 1842, and 1848, after which it weakened. On the whole, Dickens sympathized with the chartists, who advocated the following six points in their “People’s Charter”:
1. Annual meetings of Parliament
2. The right to vote for all men
3. Removal of property qualifications for men running for the House of Commons
4. Secret ballots
5. Equally divided electoral districts
6. Salaries for members of Parliament
An underlying social belief in unfettered market forces prevented the government from putting any brakes on them to ease the miseries of the poor.
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