The English Jacobins

Reformers in Late 18th Century England

Carl Cone

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138535473
• eBook ISBN: 9781351304146
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

The English Jacobins is a full-scale study of the English reformers of the late eighteenth century, called ""Jacobins"" by their enemies who feared a repetition of the radical excesses of revolutionary France. Cone describes the rise of reform organizations during the controversy in Parliament over John Wilkes, who attempted to blow up Parliament in the 1760s, and he charts the progress of these organizations until they were disbanded, temporarily, after the sedition trials of 1794.

Analyzing the goals and accomplishments of the reformers, Cone stresses that they worked for constitutional and civil not social or economic changes. The reformers were, in fact, more interested in restoring ""Anglo-Saxon"" liberties and the benefits of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 than in carrying out the ideas of Rousseau or borrowing from the example of the Paris Commune. If there were foreign influences on the English radicals, these were provided by former American colonists who had used committees of correspondence and constituent assemblies to such good effect against the monarchy.

Cone considers the fluctuating fortunes of the reformers. At various times the radicals had important allies in Parliament, like Charles James Fox and William Pitt, and included in their number such accomplished figures as Richard Price, the moral philosopher, and Joseph Priestley, the chemist, as well as dissenting ministers. The ""Jacobins"" achieved their greatest publicity when Tom Paine replied to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France with his own Rights of Man and in the pamphlet war that followed. This intriguing work connects The American Revolution with the British Reform Movement, while documenting an important period in British history.

INDEX

Abercromby, Lord Alexander, 174

Abolition of the Slave Trade, Society for the, 74, 75

Act of 1430, franchise qualification in, 32n; property and political literacy in, 4

Act of 1710, 31, 42

Act of 1832 (Reform Bill), 129, 130, 212–14; property qualifications defined in, 4

Act of Settlement (1701), line of succession and, 26–27

Act of Uniformity, 8n; purpose of, 22

Adams, Daniel, 207; arrest of, 195

Adams, John, 68n

Adair, James, 46

Advice to the Privileged Orders (Barlow), 123

Agreement of the People, Levellers’ view expressed in, 7

Aikin, John, 52

Aikin, Lucy, on Dissenters, 13

Alfred the Great (King of England), 3

Almon, John, 7

American Revolution, 42, 61, 76, 119

Anabaptists, 8n, 13

Anderson, James, trial of, 156

Anglicans, political monopoly of, 22–23; maintenance of Test and Corporation Acts and, 75

Annual Register, 13, 41, 45, 204, 220, 222

Answer to the Declaration of the Friends of the Liberty of the Press (tract), 148

Anti-Popery, Dissenters and, 13

Application Committee, 85; repeal of Test and Corporation Acts and, 86

Areopagitica (Milton), 138

Armada (Spanish), defeat of, 7, 8

Army Council, 7

Barlow, Joel, 123, 136

Barrere (Citizen), 160

Bastille (Paris), fall of, 73; repercussion in England, 80

Baxter, John, 200

Beaufoy, Henry, 78n; Test and Corporation Acts opposed by, 76

Beckford, William, on representation, 40–41

Belpar Society for Constitutional Information, 118, 125

Berry, Walter, 157–58

Bill of Rights (1689), 84; Parliament’s authority in, 26; signing of, 18

Binns, John, acquittal of, 222; radicalism of, 198, 211, 217; Two Acts and, 221

Birmingham Riots (1791), 111–12, 114

Blackstone, Sir William, 33; on House of Commons, 30–31; on wage earners, 7

Boddington, Samuel, 90, 113

Boswell, James, 48

Boulton, James, on Paine, 101

Bowles, John, 147

Braxfield, Lord, 156, 186; Edinburgh Convention and, 182–83, 185; Muir’s trial and, 173–74

Briellat, Thomas, trial of, 144–45, 187

Bright, John, 6

Bristol (Engl...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• PREFACE
• I ASSUMPTIONS
• II THAT HAPPY CONSTITUTION
• III TAKE YOUR CHOICE
• IV THE GLORIOUS HARVEST OF LIBERTY
• V THE PAMPHLET WAR
• VI THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE PEOPLE
• VII CHURCH AND KING
• VIII IN CONVENTION ASSEMBLED
• IX WE ARE NOT INTIMIDATED
• X AFTER THE TRIALS
• APPENDIX A
• APPENDIX B
• BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
• INDEX