London Corresponding Society
United for a Reform of Parliament 1795
London Corresponding Society
The London Corresponding Society (LCS) was founded in London by Thomas Hardy. It's aim was to act as the co-ordinating centre for local supporters of the Constitutional Society throughout the country and quickly expanded to become the largest radical organisation in England.
The LCS campaigned largely on a platform of parliamentary reform calling for annual parliaments and universal male suffrage. Members were drawn primarily from the manufacturing trades such as tailors, shoemakers, printers and weavers.
The chief tactic of the society was to persuade ordinary working men and women to support parliamentary reform through non-violent ‘moral force’ achieved by issuing regular publications. Between 1792 and 1798 the LCS published over 80 separate tracts outlining the case for reform.
The LCS nevertheless endured long periods of attack from the government. The organisation was infiltrated by spies and informers from its earliest days and in May 1794 thirteen members were indicted for treason, three of whom stood trial. Thereafter the government implemented a sequence of Sedition and Treason Acts that effectively destroyed the society by threatening arrest and imprisonment for outspoken critics of the state or crown.
The London Corresponding Society (LCS) was founded in London by Thomas Hardy. It's aim was to act as the co-ordinating centre for local supporters of the Constitutional Society throughout the country and quickly expanded to become the largest radical organisation in England.
The LCS campaigned largely on a platform of parliamentary reform calling for annual parliaments and universal male suffrage. Members were drawn primarily from the manufacturing trades such as tailors, shoemakers, printers and weavers.
The chief tactic of the society was to persuade ordinary working men and women to support parliamentary reform through non-violent ‘moral force’ achieved by issuing regular publications. Between 1792 and 1798 the LCS published over 80 separate tracts outlining the case for reform.
The LCS nevertheless endured long periods of attack from the government. The organisation was infiltrated by spies and informers from its earliest days and in May 1794 thirteen members were indicted for treason, three of whom stood trial. Thereafter the government implemented a sequence of Sedition and Treason Acts that effectively destroyed the society by threatening arrest and imprisonment for outspoken critics of the state or crown.