[4][3] During his convalescence Champion was taken to the slums of London's East End by Percy Frost, a friend from his school days at Marlborough College and the son of a wealthy clergyman, where they witnessed the poverty that existed there.

By June 1883 he and James L. Joynes (who had been schooled at Eton College) were editing The Christian Socialist: A Journal for Thoughtful Men, a publication of the newly-formed Land Reform League.

[11][10] In 1884 The Modern Press acquired and financed a periodical called To-day: The Monthly Magazine of Scientific Socialism which had been published since April 1883, edited by Ernest Belfort Bax and James L. Joynes.

[14][15] By 1883 Champion was the secretary of the Democratic Federation, a political organisation whose chairman was Henry M. Hyndman, a journalist from a wealthy middle-class background who had been converted to socialism after reading Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto.

In The Democrat journal of 12 December 1885 the journalist and member of the SDF executive council, Charles L. Fitzgerald, denounced Hyndman and Champion for their irresponsibility and for "trying to run the Federation in military style".

The respected trade unionist Tom Mann described him as "a man of vigorous individuality" who would sometimes "act upon his own initiative" and "commit the organisation to plans and projects without consultation".

Mann concluded that Champion "was profoundly convinced that his judgment was right" and when situations arose necessitating decisive action "he could not endure to wait several days before the committee met".

[27] Champion's biographer, John Barnes, makes the point that his subject favoured open-air meetings and demonstrations as a way of focussing attention on particular issues and playing "upon the anxieties of the governing class", with such occasions satisfying "his desire for action, and his taste for theatre".

His final lecture, 'Constructive Socialism', proposed reforms such as "a more democratic parliament, free elementary education, an eight-hour day, graduated income-tax, nationisation of railways, and taxing of mining royalties".

[26] Champion's article in the September 1887 issue of Common Sense, titled 'The Future of Socialism in England', set forth his criticisms of the SDF, renounced the use of force, and advocated the putting up of socialist candidates for parliament.

[41] Champion was one of the speakers at a rally in Hyde Park on 28 July 1889 after the newly-formed National Union of Gas Stokers and General Labourers, headed by Will Thorne, gained an eight-hour day for its members.

[42] In a report of a meeting of striking dock-workers in September 1889, a journalist for The Times observed that Champion's "influence is not great among the men, to whom cool reason and a cultivated accent do not appeal".

[48] In November 1889 Ernest Parke, the editor of a radical weekly journal The North London Press, named Henry FitzRoy, the Earl of Euston, as one who had fled abroad to escape being charged in the scandal.

It was later revealed that the article, "siding with a suspect aristocrat... against a hard-working, well-meaning editor, who favoured trade unionism", had been written by Maltman Barry, but Champion stood by his sub-editor and accepted editorial responsibility.

[50] In April 1890 an article by Champion was published in the monthly journal The Nineteenth Century; titled 'The Labour Movement: A Multitude of Counsellors', it was written under the pseudonym 'Blake the socialist'.

Champion's biographer, John Barnes, suggests that the socialist crusader's visit to Australia was made in order to "recover lost prestige and authority as a labour leader".

On the same day he attended the Victorian Legislative Assembly and presented a letter of introduction to Alfred Deakin, the leading liberal politician in Victoria, who showed him over the houses of parliament.

[55][56] Champion's arrival in Australia had been preceded by a series of articles written by him, titled 'The Labor Movement in England', published in Melbourne's The Age newspaper from late June to mid-July 1890.

[57] Champion arrived bearing letters of introduction "to the leading labour organisers in Australia" from his colleague John Burns, the respected British unionist and hero of the 1889 London dock strike.

It was reported that the attending union members "warmed towards Mr. Champion as reference was made to his connection with the London Dock strike, and when he resumed his seat the building resounded with hearty applause".

Champion's address to the crowd was described as "a good speech, clever, forcible, just the right length, but the speaker lacks the quality which all the others possess, of personal interest in the movement".

he implied that the heroes of the British trade-union movement, John Burns and Tom Mann (who Champion described as "my personal friends"), would fully endorse his views on the Australian dispute.

[70][71] Other disparaging rumours and accusations began to circulate about Champion within the labour movement (such as him being an accredited correspondent of the London Times and having enrolled as a special constable to assist the police in the case of disturbances by striking workers).

The committee chairman John Hancock explained that "they found it useless to maintain the fight any longer", especially with unemployed unionists from Sydney "coming to Melbourne and taking the positions of the men on strike".

After discussing the matter a resolution was passed declining to hear him, but to ask him "to put any statement he wished to make in writing", citing as a reason "the injury Mr. Champion had done to the labor cause in this colony".

In The Age of 17 November 1890 his article 'Experience Teaches' described the recent strike as a "fiasco" and denounced the labour leaders Trenwith, Hancock and William Murphy for their "shortsightedness" and their adoption of a "suicidal course".

[92] The Labour Elector in its new incarnation was largely written by Maltman Barry, at first published weekly but in May it became a monthly due to "the continued and serious illness of Mr. Champion, and his resultant inability to contribute to these columns".

[111] Although he was generally shunned by trade unions and other working-class organisations, Champion was in demand as a public speaker on a range of political and social topics to middle-class clubs and societies.

Champion ran as a liberal on a protectionist platform against two opponents, the Conservative sitting member John White (described as "a seasoned enemy of the working classes and consistent reactionary on every progressive movement") and Thomas Ashworth, the president of the Victorian Free Trade Association.

[136] On the eve of the election an anonymous pamphlet was circulated questioning Champion's army career and claiming he had been discharged for disloyalty, a tactic that was particularly effective in the context of the prevailing jingoism aroused by the Boer War.