Turning Point
O'Brien continued to be active in the Chartist movement and in 1840 he was arrested and charged with making a seditious speech in Manchester. He was convicted of sedition and sentenced to eighteen months in Lancaster Prison. When O'Brien was released from prison he found it difficult to continue working with Feargus O'Connor. The two men disagreed over the issue of Physical Force. Another source of dispute concerned parliamentary elections. O'Brien favoured the idea of putting up Chartist candidates whereas O'Connor preferred the tactic of putting pressure on the Whig government by threatening to vote for Tory candidates. O'Brien was involved in standing Chartist candidates against Government Ministers in key seats, particularly in standing against Lord Palmerston in Tiverton.
O'Brien finally broke with O'Connor when along with Henry Vincent and Robert Gammage he joined the Complete Suffrage Union. O'Brien continued to publish newspapers. He joined with his old friend Henry Hetherington to revive the Poor Man's Guardian in 1843 and this was followed by the National Reformer in 1844. These newspapers were not a financial success and by May, 1847, both papers had ceased publication.
After the failure of these two newspapers O'Brien concentrated on writing for other publications such as Reynold's Weekly and the Glasgow Sentinel. He also gave public lectures and in 1851 he opened the Eclectic Institute in Denmark Street, Soho, London, where adult education classes were offered in English, French, science and mathematics.
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