Liberty’s ‘Terror’
Cheap Repository Tracts , for instance, a series of rebuttals of Thomas Paine, sold ten times as well as the Rights of Man, Part II . 17
As news of the bloody September Massacres in 1792 spread, many moderate and liberal reformers toned down the zeal with which they had initially lauded the Revolution. After the execution of Louis XVI in 1793, they further endeavoured to demonstrate their commitment to achieving reform non- violently and within the confines of the law. In Liverpool and Durham, for instance, radicals turned up to association meetings in sizeable numbers and professed loyalty to the English constitution, 18 while the London Corresponding Society always protested that their members would assist in repelling any French invasion. 19 Evidently, this made it difficult to justify an excessive crackdown. This is not to say that an English radical threat in the 1790s was non-existent; in fact, the escalation of violence in France seemed to have emboldened some. Pitt and his government did face a genuinely sinister menace: Henry Redhead Yorke, for instance, dabbled in violent extremism, calling for the assassination of the Prime Minister, 20 while threats from militant groups such as the Loyal Lambeth Association, which under the guise of a loyalist militia aimed to achieve parliamentary reform by armed force, 21 were alarmingly real. Largely, however, these were anomalies; the prevailing aversion to violently radical ideals explains, to some extent, the lack of litigation. Moreover, governmental actions, both intentional and inadvertent, did much to dissuade radicals from acting on even the most unorthodox sentiments they held, thereby reducing the need and justification for increased prosecution. The new legislation itself seemed to act as a deterrent: with only a single prosecution under the combined ‘Two Acts’, 22 it can be inferred that even the most committed radicals were wary of the full force of the law. Exemplary punishment, whether deliberate or merely a by- product of the system, likewise played into this deterrence. On 12 July 1797, shoemaker Richard Fuller was convicted under the Seduction from Allegiance Act for ‘maliciously endeavouring to incite . . . Matthew Lowe to commit an act of mutiny’. During a trip from London to Kew in June, the Coldstream Guardsman was approached by Fuller who proceeded to show to him ‘seditious hand - bills’. Neither his illiteracy, which was attested to by at least eight witnesses, nor the fact that ‘he was strongly recommended to mercy by the Jury, on account of the transaction having happened’ only two days after Royal Assent was given to the bill, could save the shoemaker from execution. 23 As the only man convicted under the new act, it seems plausible that the severity and swiftness of his sentencing discouraged others; though it is unclear how widely known the case was, he was imprisoned at Newgate and thus it is probable that he was publicly executed there. 24 The use of exemplary punishment was
17 Eric J. Evans, William Pitt the Younger (1999), 60. 18 Mitchell, 63. 19 Derry, Age of Fox, 74.
20 See the entry on Pitt in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed R. Thorne (1986), available at http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/pitt-hon-william-1759- 1806. Accessed on 11 July 2021 21 Austin Gee, The British Volunteer Movement, 1794-1814 (2003), 146. 22 Duffy, 151. 23 Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 14 July 2021), July 1797, trial of RICHARD FULLER (t17970712-54). 24 Home Office: Criminal Registers of Prisoners in Middlesex and the City, September 1796 – September 1797, London Lives , 1690-1800 , NAHOCR700020057 (www.londonlives.org, version 2.0, 12 July 2021), The National Archives (UK), Image 57 of 172
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