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The London Corresponding Society (LCS) was a federation of local reading and debating clubs that in the decade following the French Revolution agitated for the democratic reform of the British
Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
. In contrast to other reform associations of the period, it drew largely upon working men (artisans, tradesmen, and shopkeepers) and was itself organised on a formal democratic basis. Characterising it as an instrument of French revolutionary subversion, and citing links to the insurrectionist
United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association, formed in the wake of the French Revolution, to secure Representative democracy, representative government in Ireland. Despairing of constitutional reform, and in defiance both of British ...
, the government of
William Pitt the Younger William Pitt (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, p ...
sought to break the Society, twice charging leading members with complicity in plots to assassinate the King. Measures against the society intensified in the wake of the naval mutinies of 1797, the 1798 Irish Rebellion and growing protest against the continuation of the war with France. In 1799, new legislation suppressed the Society by name, along with the remnants of the United Irishmen and their franchise organisations, United Scotsmen and the United Englishmen, with which the diminishing membership of the LCS had associated.


Early influences and foundation of the society

In the last decades of the 18th century the percolation of Enlightenment thinking and the dramas of American independence and the French Revolution stimulated in Britain, as elsewhere in Europe, new clubs and societies committed to principles of popular sovereignty and constitutional government. In the north of England the Non-Conformist, principally Unitarian, currents in the new disenfranchised mill towns and manufacturing centres, supported the
Society for Constitutional Information The Society for Constitutional Information was a British activist group founded in 1780 by Major John Cartwright, to promote parliamentary reform and knowledge of the English constitution. It was an organisation of social reformers, many of who ...
(SCI). This had been founded by, among others, Major John Cartwright, author of ''Take Your Choice'' (1776) which called for manhood suffrage, the secret ballot, annual elections and equal electoral districts. In 1788, prominent Unitarian members of the CIS,
Richard Price Richard Price (23 February 1723 – 19 April 1791) was a British moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer and pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the F ...
and
Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, Unitarian, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher, English Separatist, separatist theologian, Linguist, grammarian, multi-subject educator and Classical libera ...
among them, formed the Revolution Society. Ostensibly convened to commemorate the
centennial A centennial, or centenary in British English, is a 100th anniversary or otherwise relates to a century. Notable events Notable centennial events at a national or world-level include: * Centennial Exhibition, 1876, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ...
of the
Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII, James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II, Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange ...
of 1688, the society called for the repeal of the Corporation Act 1661 and
Test Act 1673 The Test Acts were a series of penal laws originating in Restoration England, passed by the Parliament of England, that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Catholics and nonconformist Prote ...
on the grounds that "the right of private judgement, liberty of conscience, trial by jury, freedom of the press and freedom of election ought ever to be held sacred and inviolable". After 1792 the radical momentum shifted from the Revolution Society back to the SCI and, more decidedly, to a new London society. During the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
,
Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...
, a Scottish shoemaker in London, was convinced of the American cause by the pamphlets of Dr.
Richard Price Richard Price (23 February 1723 – 19 April 1791) was a British moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer and pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the F ...
, a Unitarian minister and prominent reformer. A gift of the pamphlet library of the SCI, including a reprint of a proposal from a "Correspondence Committee" of the Irish Volunteer movement to restore "the purity and vigour" of the Irish constitution through parliamentary reform, persuaded him of the need for a workingman's reform club. At the first meeting of his "Correspondence Society" on 25 January 1792, Hardy led seven friends in a discussion that determined that "gross ignorance and prejudice in the bulk of the nation was the greatest obstacle to obtaining redress" from the "defects and abuses that have crept into the administration of our Government"; and that to remove that obstacle it should be the aim of those subscribing:
to instil into he publicin a legal and constitutional way by means of the press, a sense of their rights as freemen, and of their duty to themselves and their posterity, as good citizens, and hereditary guardians of the liberties transmitted to them by their forefathers.
Hardy is said to have been distinguished in radical company by never speaking "but to the purpose at hand" and by his "high organising ability". In promoting the new society, Hardy and his friends rode a wave of popular political engagement lifted by the two-part publication (March 1791, February 1792) of
Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In ...
's '' Rights of Man''. Selling as many as a million copies, Paine's reply to
Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January ew Style, NS1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish Politician, statesman, journalist, writer, literary critic, philosopher, and parliamentary orator who is regarded as the founder of the Social philosophy, soc ...
in defence of the French Revolution (and of Dr. Richard Price) was "eagerly read by reformers, Protestant dissenters, democrats, London craftsman, and the skilled factory-hands of the new industrial north".


Organisation and membership


Democratic structure

From the beginning, the LCS was viewed with suspicion by the British government, and was infiltrated by spies on the government payroll. In addition to domestic subversion, the state authorities feared collaboration with French agents, against whose entry and circulation within the country they had introduced the Aliens Act 1793. Partly in response to the surveillance, and in express "imitation of the societies in and about
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
" whose cutlers had repudiated deference to Whig constitutionalists, the society adopted a decentralised, democratic structure. The LCS organised in "divisions" each comprising neighbourhood "tithings" of not more than ten members. Each division met twice a week to conduct business and discuss historical and political texts. In contrast to some of Whig-establishment reform clubs, the organisation allowed all subscribers to participate in open debate, and to elect members to leadership positions such as tithing-man, divisional secretary, sub-delegate, or delegate.Hunt, Jocelyn B. 
Understanding the London Corresponding Society a Balancing Act between Adversaries Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke
'. Thesis. University of Waterloo, 2013. pp. 1–13
Rules also ensured that discussion was not monopolised.
Francis Place Francis Place (3 November 1771, London – 1 January 1854, London) was an English social reformer described as "a ubiquitous figure in the machinery of radical London." Background and early life He was an illegitimate son of Simon Place and M ...
recalled that "no one could speak a second time n a subjectuntil every one who chose had spoken once". The LCS issued its first public statement in April 1792. In addition to Sheffield (the " Faubourg Saint Antoine to an English Revolution") sister societies existed, or by 1793 had sprung to life, in
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
,
Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...
, and
Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...
.


Social composition

By May 1792 the LCS comprised nine separate divisions, each with a minimum of thirty members. The height of its popularity in late 1795 it may have had between 3,500 and 5000 member organised in 79 divisionsIain Hampsher-Monk, ''The Impact of the French Revolution: Texts from Britain in the 1790s''. Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 263. In contrast to the SCI with its annual 4
guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...
subscription, in levying just a
penny A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is ...
a week the LCS opened its proceedings to workers of almost every condition. Those, however, who as independent tradesmen were not subject to the political disapproval of employers took the leading role. They were the committeemen.
ohnAshley, a shoemaker, ohnBaxter, a journeyman silvermith; ohnBinns, a plumber, John Boyne, a Holborn bookseller, Alexander Galloway, a mathematical machine- maker . . ., Thomas Evans, a colourer of prints and (later) a patent brace-maker, Richard Hodgson, a master hatter, John Lovett, a hairdresser, ohnLuffman, a goldsmith, ohnOxlade, a master book-binder ...
While the LCS remained primarily a forum for "a politically conscious and articulate artisan population", men of a more prominent social and professional standing did join, drawn in many cases from existing debating societies. They brought with them important political connections and skills. Barristers such as Felix Vaughan and attorneys like Joseph Gerrald (who had practiced law in
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, and there associated with Paine) were especially useful given near continuous entanglement of members in court proceedings. Among the physicians were SCI member James Parkinson, a prolific propagandist, and John Gale Jones, an accomplished orator. But the Society's egalitarian constitution accorded them no definitive preference. Hardy in particular was wary of placing them in positions of authority lest ordinary members be discouraged from "exerting themselves in their own cause".


Male fraternity

Women participated in some of popular debating societies from which the LCS recruited. For short periods they created their own, bringing to public notice demands for equal education, equal rights and protection of female occupations. While it counted among its members men like Thomas Spence and Dr William Hodgson (''The Female Citizen'') who did advocate political rights and equality for women, the LCS appears to have been a male fraternity. The venues in which its divisions met – taverns and coffee houses – were predominantly male spaces, and reference to women in records of their proceedings are few. In August 1793, the Society's General Committee approved a motion calling for the formation of a female Society of Patriots. By September, a government spy reported that there was a Society of Women meeting in Southwark. The LCS arranged to send two of its delegates to instruct them. But it does not appear that female patriots were ever admitted as members to the LCS itself. Women did turn out for major LCS demonstrations.


Noted members

The society had an early celebrity recruit, the ex-slave, free West-Indian black and
abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...
,
Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano (; c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa (), was a writer and abolitionist. According to his memoir, he was from the village of Essaka in present day southern Nigeria. Enslaved as a child in ...
. In 1791–92, Equiano was touring the British Isles with his autobiography, ''
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano ''The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African'', first published in 1789 in London,
, or Gustavus Vassa the African''. Drawing on abolitionist networks he brokered connections for the LCS, including what may have been the society's first contacts with the
United Irishmen The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association, formed in the wake of the French Revolution, to secure Representative democracy, representative government in Ireland. Despairing of constitutional reform, and in defiance both of British ...
. In
Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...
(where civic outrage had defeated plans to commission vessels for the
Middle Passage The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of Africans sold for enslavement were forcibly transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manu ...
) Equiano was hosted by the leading United Irishman, publisher of their Painite newspaper the ''Northern Star'', Samuel Neilson. Paine subscribed to the Society; as did the radical poet
William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...
;
Joseph Ritson Joseph Ritson (2 October 1752 – 23 September 1803) was an English Antiquarian, antiquary known for editing the first scholarly collection of Robin Hood ballads (1795). After a visit to France in 1791, he became a staunch supporter of the idea ...
the noted antiquarian and founder of modern vegetarianism; and Basil William Douglas, Lord Daer, who held concurrent membership of the Society for Constitutional Information and the Scottish Association of the Friends of the People.


London's sans-culottes

Despite such notables, the government were assured by their most trusted informer, "'Citizen' Groves", that the real body of the club was made of "the very lowest order of society". They took little persuading that within the LCS English
Jacobins The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential List of polit ...
were leading on the equivalent to the
sans-culottes The (; ) were the working class, common people of the social class in France, lower classes in late 18th-century history of France, France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their ...
of the revolutionary Paris sections. Some of the working class membership did take the republican doctrines of Paine to their extreme, posing the claims of an absolute political democracy against those of monarchy and aristocracy. Of these radical democrats, the most renowned was Thomas Spence. Originally from
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...
, where he had protested the
enclosure Enclosure or inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or "common land", enclosing it, and by doing so depriving commoners of their traditional rights of access and usage. Agreements to enc ...
of
commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...
, Spence re-issued as ''The Real Rights of Man'' a penny pamphlet he had produced in 1775, ''Property in Land Every One's Right''. His vision was of a society based on common ownership of land administered democratically, by men and women alike, at the parish level. In 1797, in response to
Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In ...
's ''Agrarian Justice,'' he wrote ''The Rights of Infants'' which, in the course of vindicating the right of children to freedom from want and abuse, proposed an unconditional and universal basic income.


Political equality not social "levelling"

From the outset, the LCS contended with the charge that a "full and equal representation of the people" in Parliament represented a "levelling" of all distinctions of rank and property. This was delivered, and (with considerable Church and aristocratic patronage) circulated widely, in a short three-penny pamphlet ''Village Politics: Addressed to All the Mechanics, Journeymen, and Day Labourers in Great Britain'' (1793). Written by
Hannah More Hannah More (2 February 1745 – 7 September 1833) was an English religious writer, philanthropist, poet, and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, who wrote on moral and religious subjects. Born in Bristol, she taught at ...
as "Burke for Beginners", it is an imagined conversation in which a mason learns from a blacksmith that to declare for "Liberty and Equality" is to associate with "levellers" and "republicans", rogues who hide from him the simple truth that if everyone is digging potatoes on their half acre no one would be available to mend his broken spade. Against this onslaught, the LCS produced "An Explicit Declaration of the Principles and View of the L.C.S". But for having to address the "frantic" notions of "alarmists", it claimed that those who would "restore the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
to a state of independence" would never even conceive "so wild and detestable a sentiment" as "the equalisation of property".
We know and are sensible that the Wages of every man are his Right; that Difference of Strength, of Talents, and of Industry, do and ought to afford proportional Distinction of Property, which, when acquired and confirmed by the Laws, is sacred and inviolable.
The LCS did not pronounce on social questions, confident that key to addressing inequities lay in reform of the constitution. It was sufficient to observe that it was from the "partial, unequal, and therefore inadequate Representation, together with the corrupt method in which Representatives are elected," that "oppressive Taxes, unjust Laws, restrictions of Liberty, and wasting of the Public Money, have ensued."


The Conventions and Pitt's "Reign of Terror"


The first Edinburgh Convention

At the end of November 1792 the LCS published an ''Address of the London Corresponding Society to the other Societies of Great Britain, united for obtaining a Reform in Parliament'' expressing confidence in the prospects for obtaining a reformed, democratic franchise through "moral force". A national convention was called for
Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
in December. The LCS delegates' host in the Scottish capital, and perhaps the most radical delegate present, Thomas Muir of the Society of the Friends of the People, himself said nothing that was not strictly constitutional. An address which he presented from the United Irishmen (largely drawn up by
William Drennan William Drennan (23 May 1754 – 5 February 1820) was an Irish physician and writer who moved the formation in Belfast and Dublin of the Society of United Irishmen. He was the author of the Society's original "test" which, in the cause of ...
) was made acceptable to the Convention only by redacting any suggestion of "Treason or Misprison of Treason against the Union f Scotlandwith England". Beginning with the title "Convention", and including an oath to "live free or die", the "imitation of French forms" did cause the authorities some alarm. Minor prosecutions were instituted.


The Edinburgh treason trials

By the time LCS delegates attended their second reform convention in Edinburgh in October 1793, the political climate had changed dramatically. From 1 February 1793
the Crown The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...
was at war with the new
French Republic France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
. Any association with Paris or defence of its policies, foreign or domestic, was now regarded as treasonable. In May 1793 the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
refused by 282 votes to 41 even to consider petitions asking for reform. At a time when reformers were beginning to mobilise a broad swath of opinion in Britain in favour of a reformed Parliament and a strictly constitutional monarchy, they were being forced, by their early embrace of the French revolution, to defend policies in France they did not advocate at home: the execution of the king and of regime opponents, the confiscation of the property of the Church and nobility. Following the institution of the
Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...
, the French Republic paid no heed to the entreaties in Paris of Thomas Muir or, from his place in the French National Convention, of Thomas Paine. After Muir returned to Scotland, he was charged with treason. Although the prosecutorial evidence amounted to little more than a presentation of his political views, in August 1793 a jury of landlords upheld the charge. Muir was sentenced to 14 years transportation. Convicted of sedition, the same fate befell the secretary of a second Edinburgh convention in October, 1793, William Skirving, and the two LCS delegates. Joseph Gerrald and LCS chairman Maurice Margarot had been elected as delegates to the convention by the LCS's first open-air meeting, attended by some 4,000 persons in a field off the Hackney Road. Gerrald had published earlier in the year
A Convention the Only Means of Saving Us from Ruin
'' With ancient precedents sought in the Anglo-Saxon ''mycelgemot'' (popular assemblies) and ''wittengamot'' (delegated representatives), the pamphlet's laid out a three-stage sequence, from local gatherings to regional delegations to national convention. There was the scarcely disguised suggestion that such a convention would have a representative legitimacy greater than the corrupted, unreformed Parliament. As the son of a wine importer, Margarot (who alone survived to return to England in 1810) had continental connections, including residence in Paris during the first year of the revolution. These allowed the authorities to draw upon him the suspicion of being a French spy.


The London treason trials

The weight of repression substantially reduced popular societies in the provinces. In London, Hardy and Margarot's successor as chairman, John Baxter, undaunted, had drawn up addresses to "the friends of peace and parliamentary reform" and to "His Majesty" calling for an end to the war against France.
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
, William Pitt, responded by having the papers of the London societies seized and examined by a secret committee of the House of Commons.Iain Hampsher-Monk. "Civic Humanism and Parliamentary Reform: The Case of the Society of the Friends of the People." (Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 70–89). ''Journal of British Studies'', 1979. In May 1794, hard on the committee's "Report on Radical and Reform Societies", charges of treason were laid against thirty leading radicals including Hardy, Thomas Spence, the dramatist Thomas Holcroft, the poet, public lecturer and journalist John Thelwall, and sometime parliamentary candidate
John Horne Tooke John Horne Tooke (25 June 1736 – 18 March 1812), known as John Horne until 1782 when he added the surname of his friend William Tooke to his own, was an English clergyman, politician and Philology, philologist. Associated with radical proponen ...
. Their trials in November misfired. The juries in London were not as ready as those in Edinburgh to accept the mere expression of political opinion as evidence of plots against King and Parliament. When the evidence running to four printed volumes failed to impress in the case of Hardy, the courts were unable to take seriously the charges against his associates: Horne Tooke jeered at the
Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...
and clowned in the dock, and the
Lord Chief Justice The Lord or Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary of England and Wales and the president of the courts of England and Wales. Until 2005 the lord chief justice was the second-most senior judge of the English a ...
slept through the prosecution's summary against Thelwall. The process did deliver Hardy a blow: during his trial his wife was attacked in their home by a loyalist "Church and King mob" and subsequently died in childbirth. On his release, Hardy did not return to his position in the Society. Beginning in the course of these trials further arrests were made. Paul Thomas LeMaitre, John Smith, George Higgins and Dr. Robert Thomas Crossfield, were indicted as accomplices in the so-called " Popgun Plot", an alleged conspiracy to assassinate
King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
by means of a poison dart fired from an
airgun An air gun or airgun is a gun that uses energy from compressed air or other gases that are mechanically pressurized and then released to propel and accelerate projectiles, similar to the principle of the primitive blowgun. This is in contr ...
.Emsley, Clive (2000). The Pop-Gun Plot, 1794. In: Davis, Michael T. ed. ''Radicalism and Revolution in Britain, 1775–1848: Essays in Honour of Malcolm I. Thomis.'' London: Macmillan, pp. 56–68. In May 1796, their cases similarly collapsed. The reformers were not allowed to celebrate their victory. The LCS bookseller John Smith provocatively renamed his shop ''The Pop Gun'', and sold a pamphlet that explained that the government required three instruments: 1) soldiers ("by profession slaughterers"), 2) clergymen (who "hallow with the sanction of Divinity state robbery"), and 3) lawyers (who "thrive on misery" and are the "tyrants of property"). He was given two years hard labour on bread and water for seditious libel. In advance of the treason trials, habeas Corpus had been suspended and six members of the Society detained, including Thomas Spence. Invoking the presence of "a traitorous and detestable conspiracy ... formed for subverting the existing laws and constitution, and for introducing the system of anarchy and confusion which has so fatally prevailed in France", in May 1794 Parliament had allowed the Privy Council to direct detentions "any law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding"


Radicalisation and dissolution


The final rally

In the summer of 1795, weariness with the war combined with failed harvests to trigger renewed protest—including an attack on the Prime Minister's residence in
Downing Street Downing Street is a gated street in City of Westminster, Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In a cul-de-sac situated off Whiteh ...
. The Society was growing again: from 17 divisions in March to 79 in October. General Meetings were attended by tens of thousands. The LCS called a "monster meeting" for 26 October 1795 at Copenhagen Fields,
Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...
. Veteran reformers
Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, Unitarian, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher, English Separatist, separatist theologian, Linguist, grammarian, multi-subject educator and Classical libera ...
, John Thelwall and
Charles James Fox Charles James Fox (24 January 1749 – 13 September 1806), styled ''The Honourable'' from 1762, was a British British Whig Party, Whig politician and statesman whose parliamentary career spanned 38 years of the late 18th and early 19th centurie ...
, joined Hardy's successor as LCS secretary John Ashley (another shoemaker); chairman John Binns (a plumber's labourer), John Gale Jones (surgeon), and William Duane (Irish-American editor of ''The Telegraph'') in addressing crowds estimated at upwards of 200,000. For the Society, Binns and Ashley declared that should the British nation, in the face of "the continuation of the present detestable War, the horrors of an approaching Famine, and above all, the increased Corruption, and Inquisitorial measures, demand strong and decisive measures", the London Corresponding Society would be "the powerful organ" ushering in "joyful tidings of peace ... universal suffrage and annual parliaments". Three days later,
George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...
, in procession to the state
Opening of Parliament The State Opening of Parliament is a ceremonial event which formally marks the beginning of each Legislative session, session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. At its core is His or Her Majesty's "Speech from the throne, gracious speech ...
, had the windows of his carriage smashed by crowd shouting "No King, No Pitt, No war".


The "Gagging Acts"

Seizing upon this incident, and in response to their earlier humiliation in the courts, the government introduced the so-called "Gagging Acts" of 1795. The Seditious Meetings Act 1795 and the
Treason Act 1795 The Treason Act 1795 (sometimes also known as the Treasonable and Seditious Practices Act) () was one of the Two Acts introduced by the British government in the wake of the stoning of King George III on his way to open Parliament in 1795, the ...
made writing and speaking as much treason as overt acts, and made inciting hatred of the government a "high misdemeanour". They also required licences for public meetings, lectures and reading rooms. These restrictions, with the encouragement given to magistrates to use public order powers to close taverns and bookshops regarded as centres of radical activity, wound down the Society's extensive publishing programme—some eighty separate pamphlets and broadsides and two periodicals —and, in general, "hamstrung" its propaganda activity. The rally in LCS membership and activity in the summer of 1795 was brief. The problem was not alone Pitt's "reign of terror".


The fall of Paine

As an immediate leader of popular opinion there had been no rival to Paine. But following the purge and mass execution of the
Girondins The Girondins (, ), also called Girondists, were a political group during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnards, they initiall ...
in June 1793, in France Paine found himself a prisoner of the revolution he had defended. In prison, and prior to an obscure American exile, he had produced his second great work, published in 1796 and 1797. ''The Age of Reason'' submitted the Christian bible and churches to the same type of deconstructive logical analysis that ''The Rights of Man'' had applied to the monarchy and aristocracy. The social historian G. D. H. Cole noted that only "the broadest-minded Unitarian could tolerate it, and the dissenters Non-Conformists">Nonconformist (Protestantism)">Non-Conformistswho till then had been consistent if timid recruits to the reform movement, were henceforth as horrified as the bishops themselves". Already in 1795 disgruntled Methodists had withdrawn from the LCS to form the Friends of Religious and Civil Liberty. Prominent among them was Richard Lee, a bookseller reputedly expelled from the LCS for refusing to stock Paine's newest work and yet subsequently prosecuted for publishing the regicidal handbill ''King Killing'', and Edward Iliff's ''A summary of the duties of citizenship, written expressly for the members of the London Corresponding Society''.


United Britons

The government's closure of peaceful avenues for reform agitation, and the prospect of French assistance, encouraged a radical rump to consider the threat implicit in the Copenhagen Fields address: to achieve universal male suffrage and annual parliaments by physical force. In this, they were supported by the United Irishmen. In the summer of 1797, following the
Spithead and Nore mutinies The Spithead and Nore mutinies were two major mutinies by sailors of the Royal Navy in 1797. They were the first in an increasing series of outbreaks of maritime radicalism in the Atlantic World. Despite their temporal proximity, the mutinies ...
, in which the government had been quick to see the hand of radical societies, the Irish priest
James Coigly Father James Coigly (''aka'' James O'Coigley and James/Jeremiah Quigley) (1761 – 7 June 1798) was a Roman Catholic priest in Ireland active in the republican movement against the British Crown and the kingdom's Protestant Ascendancy. He ...
arrived from Manchester. In Manchester Goigly and a cotton spinner from Belfast, James Dixon, had helped convert the town's Corresponding Society into the republican, United Englishmen. Bound by a test that promised to "Remove the diadem and take off the crown ... nd toexalt him that is low and abuse him that is high". the United men went on to organise in
Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...
, Bolton, Warrington and Birmingham. Like the United Scotsmen,. in their constitutions the new societies were "direct copies of the United Irishmen". Presenting himself as an emissary of the United Irish executive in Dublin, Coigly met with leading members of the LCS, among them the Irishmen Edward Despard, the brothers Benjamin and John Binns, William Henry Hamilton, and Alexander Galloway who had succeeded as the Society's chairman when, in protest against the violent turn in rhetoric,
Francis Place Francis Place (3 November 1771, London – 1 January 1854, London) was an English social reformer described as "a ubiquitous figure in the machinery of radical London." Background and early life He was an illegitimate son of Simon Place and M ...
resigned. Meetings were held at Furnival's Inn, Holborn, where United delegates from London, Scotland and the regions were reported to have committed themselves "to overthrow the present Government, and to join the French as soon as they made a landing in England" (in December 1796 only weather had prevented a major French expedition to Ireland (1796), French landing in Ireland). In March 1798 Coigly was arrested in a party with O'Connor, Benjamin Binns, and John Allen (Irish nationalist), John Allen at Margate just as they were to embark for France. Found on his person was an address (composed by Dr. Crossfield) to the French Directory from the "United Britons". While its suggestion of a mass movement primed for insurrection had been scarcely credible, it was sufficient proof of the intent to invite and encourage a French invasion. Coigly was hanged in June.


Turn against United conspiracy, and final suppression

On 30 January 1798, the LCS had issued an Address to the United Irishmen, declaring that "If to Unite in the Cause of Reform upon the Broadest Basis be Treason .... We, with you, are Traitors". Yet the disillusionment with France was widespread and by the time of Coigly's arrest the majority view was that the entire business of coordinating with the Directory and the United Irish was a destructive diversion. The Central Committee of Delegates suspected that the government exaggerated the threat of a French invasion, but agreed that in the event members would join their local, government-approved, militias. On 19 April 1798, just as this was being resolved in a pub in Drury Lane, the committee was raided by the police. Together with parallel raids on corresponding societies in Birmingham and Manchester, a total of 28 persons were arrested, among them Thomas Evans, Edward Despard, John Bone, Benjamin Binns, Paul Le Maitre, Richard Hodgson and Alexander Galloway. The next day, Pitt renewed the suspension of habeas corpus absolving the government of the need to present evidence of complicity in Coigly's mission. The prisoners were held without charge until hostilities with France were (temporarily) halted with the Treaty of Amiens in 1801. According to
Francis Place Francis Place (3 November 1771, London – 1 January 1854, London) was an English social reformer described as "a ubiquitous figure in the machinery of radical London." Background and early life He was an illegitimate son of Simon Place and M ...
(who, for the good name of the LCS and the reform movement as a whole, had threatened to inform on United conspirators) this stroke extinguished the society. Members made no attempt to meet again, not even in any division and abandoned their delegates. A final act of Parliament, the Unlawful Societies Act 1799 (39 Geo. 3. c. 79), "for the more effectual suppression of societies established for seditious and treasonable Purposes; and for better preventing treasonable and seditious practices", referenced and banned the LCS by name, along with the United Englishmen, the United Scotsmen, the United Britons, and the United Irishmen. Despard, who had protested a betrayal of the United Britons as "dishonourable", was executed for treasonable association with their remnants—the so-called Despard Plot—in 1803.


Legacy

In ''The Making of the English Working Class'' (1963), in which he proposes to "rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddites, Luddite cropper, the 'obsolete' hand-loom weaver, [and] the 'utopian' artisan ... from the enormous condescension of posterity", E. P. Thompson identified the London Corresponding Society as a key incident in the emergence of a "working-class consciousness" in England. It was a waypoint in the developing sense among English working people that they have "an identity of interests as between themselves, and as against other men whose interests are different from (and usually opposed to) theirs". At the same time, it is suggested that the LCS demonstrated, as Hardy had wished, that the working class was "capable of civility, rational thought, informed debate, and peaceable assembly". These were achievements that prefigured and contributed to the popular agitation that secured passage of the The Reform Bills, 19th century Reform parliamentary bills. Francis Place survived to be active in the agitation for the first of these, the Reform Act 1832. In 1839, Place was invited by the London Working Men's Association to become one of the London delegates to the National Convention of what might be considered as the ''industrial'' working-class continuity of the Correspondence movement of the 1790s, the Chartism, Chartists.'Introduction', in ''London Radicalism 1830–1843: A Selection of the Papers of Francis Place'', ed. D J Rowe. London, 1970), pp. vi–xxviii. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-record-soc/vol5/vi-xxviii [accessed 8 December 2020]


Selected members

* John Baxter * John Binns *
William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...
* Edward Despard * Basil William Douglas * William Duane *
Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano (; c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa (), was a writer and abolitionist. According to his memoir, he was from the village of Essaka in present day southern Nigeria. Enslaved as a child in ...
* Thomas Evans * Joseph Gerrald
William Hamilton
*
Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...
* wikisource:Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Hodgson,_William_(1745-1851), William Hodgson * John Gale Jones * Maurice Margarot *
Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In ...
* James Parkinson *
Francis Place Francis Place (3 November 1771, London – 1 January 1854, London) was an English social reformer described as "a ubiquitous figure in the machinery of radical London." Background and early life He was an illegitimate son of Simon Place and M ...
*
Joseph Ritson Joseph Ritson (2 October 1752 – 23 September 1803) was an English Antiquarian, antiquary known for editing the first scholarly collection of Robin Hood ballads (1795). After a visit to France in 1791, he became a staunch supporter of the idea ...
* Thomas Spence * John Thelwall


References

{{reflist


External links


The London Corresponding Society Archive
at marxists.org
Introduction , British history onlineSheffield Constitutional Society
Organizations established in 1792 1792 establishments in England Political repression in the United Kingdom Protests in the United Kingdom History of social movements Political advocacy groups in England