Home > London Corresponding Society

The society aggravated the establishment with its opposition to the wars with France and was deeply infiltrated by spies. A meeting of reform group leaders in Edinburgh in December 1793 was broken up and a number of men were arrested and tried for sedition, the LCS representatives - Gerrald and Maragot were sentenced to fourteen years transportation. Undaunted, the remaining LCS leaders met with other reformist groups, including the Society for Constitutional Information , in 1794 to discuss a further national convention as well as producing a large number of pamphlets and periodicals.

In May 1794 the government took more action: certain of the society leaders were arrested and Hardy, John Thelwall and John Horne Tooke were tried for treasonIn law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to one's nation. A person who reneges on an oath of loyalty or a pledge of allegiance, and in some way willfully cooperates with an enemy, is considered to be a traitor . Oran's Dictionary of the Law ( 1983) defi in October, but were acquitted. The society was not quietened by these efforts and into 1795 there were a number of large meetings, including one near Copenhagen House attended by around 100,000 people. Also the king'sThis article treats the generic title monarch . For the origins of the word king and its English use, see Germanic king. For other meanings of the word, see Monarch (disambiguation A monarch is a type of ruler or head of state. The word derives from Greek carriage was stoned as he went to open parliament. The government responded with the so-called Two Acts - an extension of the treason laws with the Treasonable Practices Act and also the repressive Seditious Meetings Act ; detention without trial had already been in force since 1794 when habeas corpusIn the common law legal system, habeas corpus Latin for "you must have the body" or more liberally "produce the body", is a prerogative writ requiring the government to produce in court a person in its custody and justify his or her confinement. Known as was suspended.

In March 1796 leading LCS men John Binns and John Gale Jones were arrested. Into 1798 the society became increasingly split and in 1799 it and several other radical groups were declared illegal. The LCS effectively ended then, although it maintained a vague, informal existence for a little time after.