London Corresponding Society: Reform & Repression
Attempts to increase the number of voters in Britain had been made since the 1760s, but these efforts had come to nothing. The Society for the Promotion of Constitutional Information had been established by Major John Cartwright in 1784 as part of the campaign for parliamentary reform, but with the onset of the French Wars, many of the reform clubs had ceased to operate.
Early British Reform Movements
Thomas Paine encouraged the re-establishment of the Society for the Promotion of Constitutional Information in 1791. The result was the setting up of Corresponding Societies throughout Britain, the first one appearing in Sheffield, followed the next month by the London Corresponding Society.
Founding the London Corresponding Society
The increasingly popular Rights of Man by political thinker Thomas Paine inspired a shoemaker, Thomas Hardy, to found the LCS in January 1792 as a society including “all descriptions and classes of men” to carry out a radical reform of parliament. Moreover, Hardy quickly realized that the general public needed to be educated on the subject of their political rights, and the LCS’s secondary aim became to provide cheap, accessible publications and open meetings to the masses. Hardy was quickly joined by founding members:
- John Frost
- Maurice Margarot
- Joseph Gerrald
Aims and Vision of the LCS
Frost and Hardy envisioned a world where men of all classes could have their say; where enlightened thought and debate could be enjoyed without limit and where no man, regardless of his trade or birthright, was afraid to make his voice heard.
Strategy, Growth, and Connections
As well as campaigning for the vote, the strategy was to create links with other reforming groups in Britain. By the summer of 1793, the London Corresponding Society had made contact with parliamentary reform groups in:
- Manchester
- Sheffield
- Nottingham
- Derby
- Stockport
- Tewkesbury
The Society welcomed these like-minded groups until, within 18 months, 6000 people had signed a petition in support of the aims of the LCS. This could not be allowed to go unchecked, of course, and the law soon came calling on Frost and Hardy.
State Repression and Legal Challenges
During a convention of group leaders in Edinburgh in October 1793, a number of attendees were arrested and placed on trial for treason. The following year, yet more members of the Society were arrested, yet this time none of the charges of treason stuck. The government continued to persecute supporters of parliamentary reform. Habeas Corpus was suspended in 1794, enabling the government to detain prisoners without trial.
Restrictive Laws Against Reformers
To make things even more difficult for these organizations, the Treasonable Practices Act and the Seditious Meetings Act were passed. Although this did not outright criminalize the Society, it placed considerable restrictions on its actions.
The End of the LCS and Its Legacy
By 1798, small groups were forming away from the main Society and, though it struggled on for some time, the successful passage of the Corresponding Societies Act in 1799 proved the last nail in the coffin. The Act effectively outlawed any further meeting of the LCS, and the Society and its affiliated groups faded into history, though their ideals and aims lived on in those who had been members.