Failure of the early reform movements

• Reform movements before the French Revolution:

  • Pitt felt that the rotten boroughs needed to be abolished and attempted but failed to reform in 1785
  • radical thinkers in Britain before the French Revolution

  > John Wilkes (from 1760s)

  > Christopher Wyvill (1780)

  > John Cartwright (1776-1824)

  > Thomas Spence (1775)
• Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832):

  • highly influential writer and philosopher
  • as a lawyer - advocated for the reform of prisons and a law reform
  • utilitarianism
  • advocated for rational change —> founded influential Westminster Review in 1823
  • Influenced the founders f the University College London
• Westminster Review:

  • Spread the principles of philosophical radicalism
  • Believed in universal suffrage (women too) and the secret ballot
• John Wilkes (1725-1797):

  • Outspoken
  • 1763 -> pamphlet called ’The North Briton’
  • expelled in 1769 —> ground of seditious and obscure libels
  • 1764 ——> he was expelled
  • 1771 -> influence city of London to reduce restrictions
• Christopher Wyvill (1740-1822):

  • Yorkshire squire clergyman
  • a main instigator for county reforms
  • 1779 —> Yorkshire Association => press for curbs on government expenditure and patronage
  • secretary and then chairman
  • stopped after the American War ended
• Major John Cartwright (1740-1824):

  • advocate for radical reform of British Parliament
  • his brother was the inventor of the Power Loom —> a contributor to luddism
  • 1776 -> ‘take your choice’ => called ’The Legalisiative Rights of the Commonly Vindicted’
  • Attain universal suffrage -> became his mission
  • 1778 —>> conceived the project of a political association = 1780 the Creation of the Corresponding society
• Thomas Spence (1750 - 1814):

  • British phamphleteer known known for his early advocacy of the socialisation of land
  • self-taught radical teacher from Newcastle
  • produced + sold radical pamphlets + helped to form the London Corresponding Society
  • arrested and imprisoned 5 times
  • believed in abolishing landlords and aristocrats
  • universal suffrage = men and women
  • Assisting the poor -> especially children
  • life of persecution + poverty was an inspiration to other radicals
  • 1817 -> Spencean Philanthropist outlawed
• Different strands of radicalism which often conflicted:

  • Moralists and nonconformist thinkers objected to corruption with politcal processes -> wanted it to be uniformed —>Joseph Priestley and Richard Price
  • Bentham who argued for the greatest happiness for the greatest number
  • Cartwright —> noble age of Britain for the Normans
  • Many only advocated for universal male suffrage
  • Too vast and not centralised
• Yorkshire:

  • Landowners complained about high taxes
  • to exert greater control over the government, they advocated annual general elections
  • Another 100 MP’s from the counties
• They didn't work well together