Chartists treason trial. 19th-century artwork of a courthouse with Chartists (far right) being tried for treason by judges (left), barristers (foreground), and a jury (background). Chartism was a political movement in the UK that failed to achieve reforms such as extending the vote and right to be a Member of Parliament to the working classes. Following a People's Charter of 1838, national conventions, petitions, public unrest, general strikes, trials, and parliamentary votes took place. The movement died out in the 1850s. Artwork from 'History of the Chartist Movement' (Robert George Gammage, 1894).