Manhood Suffrage Committee
The Reform Act of 1867 extended borough boundaries and enfranchised some inhabitants who had previously been disqualified from voting. However, very few miners had suffrage conferred upon them. Whilst some anomalies were resolved in the barrister's courts, there was agitation in support of addressing the discrepancies between borough and county qualifications in order to secure the vote for miners living both within and outside the borough limits. The various trade societies joined forces with the Miners' Union and formed the Manhood Suffrage Committee, which was chaired by Joseph Cowen. It was decided that the most effective means of influencing public opinion was for the miners, trades, and friendly societies to process, with banners, from the Central Station, Newcastle to a rendezvous on the Town Moor. Thus, on Saturday 12th April, 1873, nearly eighty thousand people gathered to argue for an extension of suffrage, re-distribution of Parliamentary seats, and support for Liberal candidates at the forthcoming general election.11
The Committee successfully re-politicised the miners following the conscious political abstinence that had followed the Chartism movement of the 1840s. It also brought together reformers from both the middle and working classes and it was with considerable support from the workers that Cowen was elected to Parliament in 1874. Appeals for continued agitation were well-met through the creation of flyers, regional platforms for speakers (including Cowen), and the holding of miners' galas. In July 1873, George Otto Trevelyan introduced a proposal for a county household suffrage which Prime Minister Gladstone intimated support for. Household suffrage would give the vote to the male heads of every ('respectable') household. Responding to the political climate, Cowen became Chair of a reconstituted Northern Reform League and the objective was changed from achieving manhood suffrage to the achievement of household suffrage, which was seen as a tactical stepping stone. The borough and county franchises were not equalised until 1884.12
