-The name of Roberts became a terror to the mineowners ... such was the dread of this -lightning attorney general-, who seemed to be everywhere at once- - Friedrich EngeIs, The Condition of the Working Classes.W. P Roberts (1806-1871) was a founder and leading member of the Chartist movement. He was the first lawyer to campaign on behalf of labour, and to use the judicial system to defend workers- rights. His efforts on behalf of the miners earned him the title -the miners- attorney-. In the 1840s and 1850s his fame throughout the north of England made him the subject of popular ballads. Though he was never a socialist, he acted as solicitor to Marx and Engels.In addition to providing a splendid portrait of W. P Roberts, this book casts new light on the position of working people in Victorian society, on the development of trade unions, on Chartism and the co-operative movement, and on industrial law. It deals in detail with the Victorian authorities- extraordinary efforts to control s
