London Corresponding Society1
The London Corresponding Society (lcs) was a reform group active from 1792 to 1798. It can best be described as ‘Jacobin’, though British Jacobinism was a very different animal from its French namesake. Its aim was universal suffrage and annual elections to the House of Commons and it pursued these aims by public education and lobbying. It was egalitarian (though it never criticised the king nor advocated ‘levelling’) and was dedicated to promoting the po- litical voice of the ordinary man (the ordinary woman did not figure in their concept of ‘universal suffrage’), and everywhere directed its propaganda and recruitment activity towards the poor and the working people. It was not a working-class organisation however. It was eventually shut down by the government using spies, provocateurs and police using the sedition and treason laws backed by horrific punishments. Its suppression was closely followed by the introduction of the Combination Laws in 1799, forcing both Jacobinism and trade unionism underground. At its peak in December 1795, the lcs had 3,000 members, and had established correspondence with over 80 like-minded reform groups around Britain and made face-to-face contact with many of them. Its leaders were charged with responsibility for the organising all the seditious activity in the kingdom. In- deed, the government had cause for concern, as working class communities across Britain eagerly followed the military successes of the French army and many were turning their minds towards armed revolt amidst increasing eco- nomic hardship and government repression. But the lcs had no such inten- tions; although granting themselves a leading role in the Reform movement, they were exclusively focussed on educational and political means of struggle. The lcs was a part of an upsurge of radical democratic reform activity, and although it did not instigate a Jacobin revolt, it did play a very important role in leading the reform movement and because of its situation in London it was uniquely placed to do so. The legacy of the lcs resurfaced 40 years later when the Chartists united radical democratic reform with the labour movement. An examination of the operation of the lcs contributes to our theme because the lcs has left us a considerable amount of information about its internal opera- tions, both via government spies and from the minutes of its meetings assidu- ously maintained despite the very real threat of repression. The lcs was very
1 My principal sources for this chapter are Thompson, E.P. (1963), The Making of the English Working Class, and Thale, M. (1983). Selections from the Papers of the London Corresponding Society 1792–1799, and lcs documents from the National Library of Australia.
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The Personalities of the lcs The lcs was founded in 1792 by Thomas Hardy, originally a poor journey- man shoemaker, who had opened his own shop in 1791, thus becoming an employer. Hardy was the first Secretary of the lcs and a co-signatory of all its publications. Hardy retired from agitation after his trial for treason, returning to his life as a master shoemaker. Notwithstanding his fame as a democratic reformer, in 1795, his employees in the Journeymen Boot and Shoemakers conducted a strike against him in his capacity as their employer. He died in poverty in 1832. John Thelwall was born poor, but his love of books and writing prevented him from completing his apprenticeship as a tailor. He was radicalised by the French Revolution and thereafter dedicated his life to agitating for demo- cratic reform. The police described him as most the dangerous man in Britain. Thelwall willingly embraced the label of ‘Jacobinism’:
I adopt the term Jacobinism without hesitation: 1. Because it is fixed upon us, as a stigma, by our enemies.… 2. Because, though I abhor the sangui- nary ferocity of the late Jacobins in France, yet their principles…are the most consonant with my ideas of reason, and the nature of man. james thelwall, The Rights of Nature, 1796
Hardy, Thelwall and John Horne Tooke were tried for treason in 1794, but all three were acquitted and carried through the streets of London by a wildly enthusiastic crowd. At the time, the full penalty for high treason was to be “hanged by the neck, cut down while still alive, disembowelled (and his entrails burned before his face) and then beheaded and quartered” (Thompson, 1963, p. 17). This was the kind of risk members of the lcs were taking, but the jury of respectable London citizens had no stomach for such a sentence. Thelwall subsequently eked out a living as an itinerant lecturer. Maurice Margarot already had a long history of agitation for reform and was in France at the time of the Revolution. He returned to London to become Chairman of the lcs and with Hardy was a co-signatory of its publications until 1794. He was sentenced to 14 years and transported to New South Wales in May 1794 together with three others. He returned to Britain in 1811 but died in poverty in 1815.