The National, a Library for the People (London)

The National, a Library for the People is a radical cultural and political magazine. It was

founded and edited by William James Linton, an artisan wood-engraver and aspirant

poet. Linton was on the periphery of a circle of contributors to the radical Unitarian

Monthly Repository, whose narrow audience was dwindling.1 Lacking credence among

his middle-class associates, Linton instead embraced the radical working-class press,

producing a vehicle for his own poems and prose. James Watson printed, published and

(with his wife Eleanor) hand stitched the printed sheets together.2 Linton intended The

National to be "a sort of cheap library for the people,"3 mediating influential but perhaps

less accessible radical ideas to audiences whose means were severely restricted.4 Its

subjects include agitation for universal suffrage, slavery, women's rights, property, war,

religious authority, education and penal reform. Linton's singular vision did not accord

well with his audiences. His contributors lost interest in a periodical aimed at "the

unmonied", and The National closed at the end of June 1839. A full-page illustrated

frontispiece, blank on the reverse accompanies each issue. Unlike the copy in the

Working Class Movement Library, Salford, not all of the illustrations in the John Rylands

copy have the title printed on them, printed perhaps specifically for a single volume

edition rather than for individual numbers. Certainly James Watson was advertising The

National in both a single bound volume (priced five shillings) and individual numbers as

late as 1846.5

The National contains poetry, prose excerpts and memorable aphorisms culled from some

of the most influential radical and republican writers. These vary in length from a single

sentence, a paragraph perhaps, up to a page or two. The effect is to break up the layout

into a collage that attracts the eye of the reader to the pieces of text. It certainly makes

The National appear less daunting and more accessible than other periodicals. Linton

included prose by William Godwin, Robert Owen, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft,

and Frances Wright. Also poetry by Coleridge, Keats, John Milton, P.B. Shelley,

Tennyson and Wordsworth. The National must count as among the earliest periodicals

espousing Chartist beliefs to reprint Shelley's 'Song to the Men of England.' The

Northern Star reprinted Shelley's poem, from The National, 6 giving Shelley an early

Chartist audience way beyond that of The National's modest circulation. The National

had a regular political item and commented on issues such as the movement of the 1839

Chartist convention up to Birmingham, and activity leading up to the submission of the

first Chartist petition.

The illustrations (drawn and engraved by Linton) cover a variety of subjects. Some

celebrate key moments in radical history. One number has on the front the storming of

1 F.B. Smith, Radical Artisan. William James Linton 1812-1897 (Manchester: Manchester University Press,

1973): 17

2 W. J. Linton, James Watson. A Memoir of the Days of the Fight for a Free Press in England and of the

Agitation for the People's Charter (Manchester: Heywood, 1880 reprinted New York: Kelley, 1971): 59

3 ibid.

4 ibid.

5 Northern Star, October 24, 1846, p. 4

6 Northern Star, no. 74, 13 April 1839, p. 7

the Bastille; another has the Castle of Ehrenbreitstein, which Linton delights in describing

inside as a symbol of feudal power that had surrendered to the French republicans. Other

illustrations like the Seraglio of the Turkish Sultan, containing the Sultan's harem, point

to the subjection of women. Linton also engraved the spectacular interior of Winchester

Cathedral, introducing it into the homes of the 'unmonied,' while taking issue with a

religious authority that insisted on charging visitors for viewing privileges, thereby

excluding the poor. Other illustrations include sculpture by Michael Angelo and John

Flaxman, which transform high art into public art through a cheap, yet informative

periodical.

The Northern Star favourably reviewed The National, describing it as "judicious and

valuable… in the original articles a large amount of valuable instruction is conveyed

through a variety of elegant and pleasing mediums."7 Indeed the sheer diversity of

material Linton collected together makes The National, as F.B. Smith noted,

"extraordinary among radical ephemera of the Chartist period".8

Roy Vickers

7 Northern Star, no. 66, 9 February 1839, p. 7

8 F.B. Smith, Radical Artisan. William James Linton 1812-1897 (Manchester: Manchester University Press,

1973): 22