Pitt The Younger

Today I'm a guest on fellow Pen & Sword author Catherine Curzon's wonderful Georgian blog. William Pitt the Younger was a reforming spirit in his early days as a politician, but changed his mind in the aftermath of the turbulent French Revolution and war with France. Pitt became an implacable opponent of parliamentary reform, and his spies kept close watch on the corresponding societies which grew up to discuss Radical ideas like those of Thomas Paine.

Images: France; Freedom. Britain: Slavery

An unusual opposition print, 1789. On the left can be seen Jacques Necker, the French finance minister, in a land of 'Freedom’; on the right, Pitt rules over a land of ‘Slavery’. Courtesy Library of Congress, LC-USZC2-3583

Britannia between Scylla & Charybdis

Pitt steers a small boat carrying Britannia, The Constitution, towards a castle with a flag inscribed "Haven of Public Happiness". They are pursued by ‘sharks’ Sheridan, Fox, and Dr Priestley (the Radical). James Gillray, 1793.Courtesy Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-3137

Thomas Paine

Paine by John Kay.

Another 'person of interest' to the British government was Thomas Paine (1737–1809), the son of a Thetford staymaker. His writings were truly revolutionary. His first great work, Common Sense (1776), was a plea for American independence.

His second major work, Rights of Man (part I) was a riposte to Edmund Burke’s Reflexions on the Revolution in France (1790), a powerful attack on French revolutionary ideals, and a plea for maintaining the current status quo.

Edmund Burke

But it was the second part of Paine’s Rights of Man (1792) which arguably had the largest influence on men’s thinking. He attacked the institution of monarchy: ‘Man has no power over posterity in matters of personal right; and therefore no man, or body of men, had, or can have, a right to set up hereditary government...we cannot conceive a more ridiculous figure of government, than hereditary succession’. 

He advocated the abolition of the poor laws. The state should provide for the poor, babies and old people. To add fuel to the flames, Paine’s Age of Reason (1794–5) lambasted organized religion.

Paine’s pioneering ideas spread like wildfire. His works had a massive circulation and were eagerly adopted by the Society of Constitutional Information (which he had joined), and by the so-called ‘corresponding societies’.

Tom Paine laces Britannia into a revolutionary corset.

In May 1792, Paine's Rights of Man was banned by the British government, but this act of censorship simply boosted sales of his work. Pitt's government now charged Paine with seditious libel; he fled to France, but was found guilty in absentia. Britain now became a very dangerous place for those who wanted to disseminate Paine's works, as we shall see.  

Illustrations: Thomas Paine, Kay's Original Portraits, courtesy the Internet Archive. 

Edmund Burke. Collotype after the painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Dr Johnson’s Mrs Thrale, T.N. Foulis, 1910. Author’s collection. 

'Fashion before ease'. Gillray cartoon, 1793, courtesy Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-3146.

 

Book Giveaway - Regency Spies!

I hope you all had a lovely peaceful Christmas and New Year! What better way to beat those January blues than a book giveaway? There's a chance to win a free signed copy of my new book Regency Spies on Goodreads! The competition, open to UK residents only, ends on 10 February 2016.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Regency Spies

by Sue Wilkes

Giveaway ends February 10, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Happy Christmas Everyone!

Hugh Thomson illustration for the Graphic, 1889.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my readers! I look forward to sharing more secret histories from the world of Regency Spies in 2016!

The Spies

'Presentation of colours' to the militia. 

 Lord Liverpool once commented: ‘Spies and informers had been at all times employed by all governments, and ever must be’. The Home Office’s espionage or ‘missionary’ system was a significant expense for government. 

It spent thousands of pounds annually paying its own spies, and reimbursing local magistrates for their spies.

What kind of person was recruited as a spy? In London, the famous Bow Street Runners often undertook intelligence-gathering. In the provinces, lawyers were sometimes pressed into service (some notorious spies like Leonard McNally in Ireland, which rebelled in 1798, were legal professionals). 

Thomas Reynolds - a United Irish spy.

Army and navy officers and militia-men were also asked, or volunteered to, infiltrate the meetings of Radicals, workers’ societies and revolutionary groups, and root out potential traitors on the home front.

In the industrial districts, some impoverished workers were only too happy to earn good money informing on their neighbours. 

This period was very profitable for the Regency spies, but their lives were at risk if people realized they were being betrayed. On Saturday 9 May 1812, a Lancashire militia-man and his sweetheart died in sinister circumstances. Sergeant John Moore of the 1st Manchester Local Militia and his cousin Margaret were thrown into the Rochdale Canal, near Manchester, where they drowned. A Manchester spy, John Bent, later confirmed to the authorities that the locals had discovered that Moore ‘was an informer’.  

Fun And Games!

Gallop post-haste to my Jane Austen blog to find out more about a Regency kissing game!

Britons To Arms! Spa Fields 1816.

Spa Fields Chapel in the 1780s.

One group of particular interest to Britain's spymasters were the Spencean Philanthropists. These revolutionaries were followers of Thomas Spence. Spence believed that ‘the land is the people’s farm’. Land should belong to all, not just the ‘landed monopoly’. 

Spence's Plan. HO40/9, 1817.

After Spence's death in 1814, a new society was set up by his adherents, which included former LCS members Thomas Evans and his son Thomas, who were earning a living as brace-makers in the Strand. 

The Spenceans held weekly meetings at pubs in the metropolis. Their members included Dr James Watson, ‘a respectable surgeon and apothecary’, his son Jem or 'Young Watson', John Hooper, Thomas Preston – and Arthur Thistlewood, a brooding, dangerous man. 

In the autumn of 1816, the Spenceans wrote to Radical orator Henry Hunt, asking him to address a meeting at Spa Fields. Hunt, a very popular speaker, was sure to draw a large crowd. The Spenceans could use the meeting to test public support for their plans to overthrow the government. 

Hooper and Thistlewood.

The Spenceans told Hunt that they planned to hold a meeting ‘of the distressed inhabitants of the metropolis’ at Spa Fields on Monday 15 November.  They would prepare a memorial to the Prince Regent detailing the people's grievances and asking for relief. Hunt agreed to go. But when he arrived in London, and the Spenceans showed him the speech which they wanted him to read out, Henry was aghast:‘The whole affair was made up of Spencean principles, relating to the holding of all the land in the kingdom to be one great farm, or something of that sort’. It was ‘treasonable matter’. At last Hunt agreed to chair the meeting provided there was no mention of Spencean ideas. He wanted to concentrate on the reform of parliament - the introduction of universal (male) suffrage and annual parliaments. 

Shortly before the meeting, 5,000 handbills were distributed in London: 'Britons To Arms! The whole country waits the Signal  from London to fly to Arms! Hasten break open Gunsmiths and other likely places to find Arms!... Stand True or be Slaves for Ever!' (HO 40/3/3, f.901, 1816). 

Although this meeting passed off peacefully, the next one, on 2 December, was a very different affair. The government's spies reported that the Spenceans planned to attack the Bank of England and and the Tower of London (very similar to the Despard plot).

So on the appointed day, troops and police were out in force in London. Dr Watson’s son Jem was first to address the crowd. He climbed on a coal-waggon decorated with tri-coloured flags: the emblem of the French revolution. 


When Hunt turned up at 1pm to address the 10,000-strong crowd, Young Watson was already heading towards Smithfield with several 
hundred men. Jem shot a customer, Mr Platt, while raiding a gunsmith’s shop. Several shops were attacked, and a mob rampaged through the streets until stopped by the troops and cavalry.The Spenceans were now wanted men...

The Home Office received regular updates as the riot was taking place. HO40/10.

Tricoloured flags.