The English Jacobins by Carl Cone

Author:Carl Cone [Cone, Carl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Europe, Great Britain
ISBN: 9781351304153
Google: mmRQDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-09-29T01:31:22+00:00

Note

* The Friends nevertheless had moved beyond the position of the old Yorkshire Association. The plan which they envisaged included a ratepayer franchise in the boroughs.

CHAPTER VII

CHURCH AND KING

DURING the winter of 1792–1793 the government and the country showed their heightening concern with radical activities. Apart from the prosecution of Paine, who was outlawed, the government was not yet engaging in acts of direct coercion. It was stating its position, expressing its state of mind, and in certain instances laying the groundwork for repression. In the words of a contemporary Tory historian, “it appeared to government that the time was come when further delay would have been a criminal dereliction of their duty to the nation.”

Parliament was not in session when on December 1 the King issued a proclamation supplementary to that of May 21. A continuing spirit of tumult and disorder, the efforts of “evildisposed” persons and of incendiary societies conjoined with one another and in correspondence with foreigners, meaning Frenchmen, persuaded him of the need to prepare for forceful actions. Accordingly His Majesty was embodying the militia in ten counties. Behind the proclamation were overt evidences of discontent in the country corroborating urgent reports that for some months had been coming in to the Horne Secretary and the Treasury Solicitor from alarmed magistrates who deplored the inadequacies of the civil power. The emphasis upon domestic troubles did not preclude the possibility of having to use the militia to repel invasion. The worsening of relations with France and the fact that the first calls were made upon the militia of the south-eastern counties could not be disregarded. By May 1793 when England had been at war for three months, the call-up was completed.

As required by statute when the militia was embodied, the King directed Parliament to meet in a fortnight. Throughout the kingdom but in London especially arose expressions of gratitude for the royal concern for social order. Just a week earlier a scuffle in Cornhill broke out over the dispersal of a debating society being addressed by John Thelwall, the popular orator and member of the LCS. The London Common Council voted their thanks to the new Lord Mayor, Sir James Saunderson, for his vigorous action in preserving order. Although they were already expressing their loyalty in declarations of the City Companies, on December 5 some 1500 of the City business elite issued from Merchant Taylors Hall a declaration of attachment to the ancient constitution of King, Lords, and Commons. The claims eventually of eight thousand signatures were not exaggerated. Dissenters were among the signers who fretted about levelling threats to the security of property. Three were members of the Newington Green meeting, formerly ministered to by the late Dr. Price and now employing as morning preacher the militantly reformist Reverend Dr. Joseph Towers. He was active in the SCI and as a writer on political subjects.

The London business community should not be considered Birchite prototypes because they declared for social order and the constitution. Criticism of the inequality of representation and demands for reform were expressed at the Merchant Taylors meeting.

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