Why was radical writer Thomas Paine significant?

• Tasks
• Background
• Teachers' notes
• External links
• Connection to Curriculum

Very few people had the right to vote in the late eighteenth century. Politics and the running of the government was limited to a small number of wealthy people and certain people later called radicals, questioned if this was the best way of government.

The most important radical writer at this time was Thomas Paine (1737-1809). Paine was born in Thetford in Norfolk and later moved to America where he played an influential role in drafting the Declaration of Independence. He later travelled to France and became involved in the French Revolution, working with the leaders to produce the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’. Paine wrote a book called ‘The Rights of Man’ which said that everybody should have the right to be involved in government. His book sold half a million copies and was read by many more. It was frequently used as the discussion topic for political groups called corresponding societies.

Thomas Paine supported the development of corresponding societies, which grew up across the country in the 1790s in Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow London, Perth, Norwich, Nottingham and Sheffield. The societies aimed to gain public support for parliamentary reform including annual parliaments and universal suffrage.

Using the original documents in this lesson, find out how Thomas Paine and other radicals demanded change in how the country was to be governed. How did the government respond?

---

Tasks

---

Background

The second half of the eighteenth century saw a blossoming of ideas concerning popular rights. In ‘The North Briton Radical’, a newspaper founded in 1762 by radical John Wilkes attacked on King George III and his Government. Wilkes was arrested on a general warrant: a document detailing the crime but not the name of the suspected criminal. Wilkes challenged the general warrant and eventually won his case. These events launched the cries of “Wilkes and Liberty!” and other popular slogans for free speech as a resistance to illegitimate power. Wilkes eventually fled to France but returned in 1768, becoming Member of Parliament for Middlesex. After a spell in prison and a series of expulsions and re-elections, Wilkes returned to popular campaigning arguing for the freedom for parliamentary debates to be reported and in favour of parliamentary reform.

This period was not marked by huge gains in rights but it re-introduced the idea of popular rights as an important aspiration. Parliament was pressurised to bring in a number of (unsuccessful) bills for reform. Pressure came from publications such as Major Cartwright’s Take Your Choice (1776), which argued for manhood suffrage, the secret ballot, annual elections and equal electoral districts.

Following the French Revolution, the idea that ‘political ‘rights’ meant the participation in the political process beyond the rights of the elite, became popular. The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine became the most famous expression of this idea and was very important for the corresponding societies. They began to meet at the same time that a revolution was taking place in France, during the late 1780s and the 1790s. The radicals, thought that citizenship came from universal ‘natural rights’. This meant that all men (though not necessarily all women) had a right to take part in politics, whatever their social class, political background or religious beliefs. They referred to each other as ‘citizens’. The government in Britain was worried that the corresponding societies might start a revolution. They became very concerned when the French revolutionaries executed their king. Many radicals were arrested and laws passed to ban corresponding societies and unions.

Thomas Hardy was a radical and the Secretary of the London Corresponding Society. It was the first radical group to be open to everyone. Their motto was that ‘our members be unlimited’. Hardy wanted to send a petition to Parliament in the hope that the political system would be reformed. Alarmed by the events in France and by the popularity of the London Corresponding Society, officials arrested Thomas Hardy in May 1794 for high treason. Shortly after Hardy’s arrest, supporters of the government attacked his home and the shock resulted in the death of his pregnant wife.

Along with the political clampdown against individual radicals, the Government faced the Royal Naval mutinies in 1797 and increased trade union activity. In quick succession the Government passed legislation against ‘unlawful oaths’ (naval mutineers had made such oaths to each other in 1797), corresponding societies and finally ‘combinations’ or trade unions.

Food prices rose and some common lands were enclosed in the second half of the eighteenth century. There were food riots from the 1750s to the 1770s and in the 1790s until 1801. Some historians have described those who took part in food riots as protecting their rights within a ‘moral economy’. These ideas also informed opposition to the continued reduction and removal of the common rights of the small farmer and landless workers. The loss of rights caused by enclosure resulted in various enclosure riots at places such as Charnwood Forest (1748-51), West Haddon (1765), Sheffield (1791), and Burton on Trent (1771-72). Such events also informed the democratic ideals of Thomas Paine and later movements such as the Chartists.

 

---

Teachers' notes

Students use sources from The National Archives to explore how the radicals campaigned for the ‘representation of the people’.

The first source to be examined is a handbill from the London Corresponding Society in 1793. It shows how the radicals petitioned to make their arguments to Parliament. The hand bill shows how they used printed material to publicise their ideas. The existence of the society itself and others like it suggests that radicals met together to discuss the importance of political rights. Their purpose was to persuade and educate people about reform. It is also worth discussing the tone of the petition, which is highly respectful.

The second source is a printed account from the London Corresponding Society about the arrest of Thomas Hardy, 12 May 1794. Why was he seen as a threat to the government? What was the Government’s attitude to radicalism and the London Corresponding Society? The source could also provide the opportunity to discuss the role of the press and how these events were reported differently by radicals and government. Teachers can discuss the meaning of the catalogue code ‘TS’ meaning Treasury Solicitor. This suggests that the document was part of a collection of legal papers relating to the trial of Thomas Hardy for treason and as any material produced by the London Corresponding Society would be of interest to government lawyers.

Finally, students look at a short extract from Thomas Paine’s ‘The Rights of Man’. Definitions of political terms mentioned are given with the transcript. Here students can read first hand Paine’s ideas and the arguments he used to defend them. It is a chance to explore why the government at the time did not find them acceptable.

Finally, using a source from outside The National Archives, James Gillray’s political cartoon ‘Fashion before Ease;—or,—A good Constitution sacrificed for a Fantastick Form’, 1793 allows students to consider visual evidence on Thomas Paine. The students can deconstruct the symbolism of the image working with the meaning of the caption. Paine’s ‘Rights of Man’ would reshape the British constitution to give Britannia more of a French form- this is because Paine is shown wearing the French revolutionary red bonnet with the tricolore cockade or rosette. Thomas Paine had also been a stay maker before he took to politics. The spelling of Paine as ‘Pain’ in the notice on the cottage is probably a pun to highlight the uncomfortable corset required to reshape Britannia according to French fashion.

James Gillray’s satirical prints were often displayed in shops or coffee houses in the late eighteenth century. The prints, costing three shillings each, were aimed at an educated, wealthy metropolitan audience. The Prince of Wales, frequently caricatured, collected them.

You may want to split the lesson for students working individually or use the document sources in paired/group work. Finally students should be encouraged to think about the limitations of looking at this evidence to evaluate any understanding of the demand for reform to the political system.

All sources are transcribed and difficult language defined in square brackets.

Please note that content in this lesson has been redeveloped from content in our Power Politics & Protest focussed topic website which has been archived as the interactive parts no longer work.

Sources

Illustration image:  Portrait of Thomas Paine, circa 1791 by Laurent Dabos (1761–1835) a French painter of portraits and of historical and genre subjects. NPG 6805 © National Portrait Gallery

Source 1: London Corresponding Society handbill, 1793, Catalogue ref: TS 24/3/34

Source 2: Extract from a printed account by the London Corresponding Society on the arrest of Thomas Hardy, 12 May 1794, Catalogue ref: TS 24/3/33

Source 3a: Extract from the second part of ‘The Rights of Man’ by Thomas Paine, 1792, Catalogue ref: TS 24/3/10, pp.18-19

Source 3b: Political cartoon by James Gillray entitled: ‘Fashion before Ease;—or,—A good Constitution sacrificed for a Fantastick Form’, London, Published by H. Humphrey, 1793. © Library of Congress

---

External links

Read more detail on trial of Thomas Hardy

The Thomas Paine National Historical Association

British Library article with documents on the impact of the French revolution in Britain

Video from Royal Holloway, University of London: Who was Pitt the Younger? Pitt and Parliamentary Reform

Connection to Curriculum

Key stage 4

AQA GCSE History: Britain: Power and the people: c1170 to the present day:

Key stage 5

Edexcel GCE History: Protest, agitation and parliamentary reform in Britain, c1780–1928

OCR GCE History: From Pitt to Peel: Britain 1783–1853

Back to top