In
January 1792 a group of four men, including Thomas
Hardy, a London shoemaker, began meeting to discuss the possibility
of forming a group of working men in order to campaign for the vote.
On the 25th January 1792 they held a public meeting on parliamentary
reform. Only eight people attended but the men decided to form a group
called the London Corresponding Society. Early members included John
Thelwall, John Horne Tooke, Joseph
Gerrald, Olaudah
Equiano
and Maurice Margarot.
As well as campaigning for the vote, the strategy was to create links
with other reforming groups in Britain. Thomas
Hardy was appointed as treasurer and secretary of the organisation.
The society passed a series of resolutions and after being printed
on handbills, they were distributed to the public. These resolutions
also included statements attacking the government's foreign policy.
A petition was started and by May 1793, 6,000 members of the public
had signed saying they supported the resolutions of the London Corresponding
Society.
By the
summer of 1793 the London Corresponding Society had made contact with
parliamentary reform groups in Manchester,
Sheffield, Nottingham,
Derby, Stockport and Tewksbury. At the end
of 1793 Thomas Muir and the supporters of
parliamentary reform in Scotland began to organise a convention in
Edinburgh. The Society sent two delegates Joseph
Gerrald and Maurice Maragot,but the
men and other leaders of the convention were arrested and tried for
sedition. Several of the men, including Gerrald and Maragot, were
sentenced to fourteen years transportation.
The reformers were determined not to be beaten and Thomas
Hardy, John Horne Tooke and John
Thelwall began to organise another convention. When the authorities
heard what was happening, Hardy and the other two men were arrested
and committed to the Tower of London and charged with high treason.
The men's trial began at the Old Bailey on 28th October, 1794. The
prosecution, led by Lord Eldon, argued that
the leaders of the London Corresponding Society were guilty of treason
as they organised meetings where people were encouraged to disobey
King and Parliament. However, the prosecution was unable to provide
any evidence that Hardy and his co-defendants had attempted to do
this and the jury returned a verdict of "Not Guilty".
The government continued to persecute supporters of parliamentary
reform. Habeas Corpus was suspended in
1794, enabling the government to detain prisoners without trial. The
Seditious Meetings Act made the organisation of parliamentary reform
gatherings extremely difficult. Finally, in 1799, the government persuaded
Parliament to pass a Corresponding Societies Act. It was now illegal
for the London Corresponding Society to meet and the organisation
came to an end.
James Gillray,
Corresponding Society Meeting (October, 1795)
(1)
Resolutions passed by the London Corresponding Society in January,
1793.
(I) That nothing but a fair, adequate and annually renovated representation
in Parliament, can ensure the freedom of this country.
(II) That we are fully convinced, a thorough Parliamentary Reform,
would remove every grievance under which we labour.
(III) That we will never give up the pursuit of such Parliamentary
Reform.
(IV) That if it be a part of the power of the king to declare war
when and against whom he pleases, we are convinced that such power
must have been granted to him under the condition, that he should
ever be subservient to the national advantage.
(V) That the present war against France, and the existing alliance
with the Germantic Powers, so far as it relates to the prosecution
of that war, has hitherto produced, and is likely to produce nothing
but national calamity, if not utter ruin.
(VI) That it appears to us that the wars in which Great Britain has
engaged, within the last hundred years, have cost her upwards of three
hundred and seventy million! not to mention the private misery occasioned
thereby, or the lives sacrificed.
(VII) That we are persuaded the majority, if not the whole of those
wars, originated in Cabinet intrigue, rather than absolute necessity.
(VIII) That every nation has an unalienable right to choose the mode
in which it will be governed, and that it is an act of tyranny and
oppression in any other nation to interfere with, or attempt to control
their choice.
(IX) That peace being the greatest blessing, ought to be sought most
diligently by every wise government.
(X) That we do exhort every well wisher to this country, not to delay
in improving himself in constitutional knowledge.
(2)
The secretary of the Tewksbury Corresponding Society sent a letter
to Thomas Hardy in July, 1794.
The
burning of Thomas Paine's effigy, together with the effects of the
present war, has done more good to the cause than the most substantial
arguments for universal suffrage.
(3)
Lord Braxfield explained why he had to sentence Thomas
Muir and the other leaders of the Convention in Edinburgh to be
transported to Australia for fourteen years.
The
British constitution is the best that ever was since the creation
of the world, and it is not possible to make it better. Yet Mr. Muir
has gone among the ignorant country people and told them Parliamentary
Reform was absolutely necessary for preserving their liberty.
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