Birmingham Reform petition.

Page printed in the "Scots Times", with the Birmingham Reform petition. These kind of petitions and the accompanying mass meetings, put pressure on politicians to concede manhood suffrage. This petition enumerates some of reforms that are called for: Universal Suffrage, the Secret Ballot, Annual Parliament Elections. This petitions were part of a working-class movement for political reform in Britain, called Chartism, which existed from 1838 to 1858. Support for the movement was at its highest in 1839, 1842, and 1848, when petitions, like this one, signed by millions of working people, were presented to the House of Commons.

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