Dare to be free: Revolt and Reform in Regency England

Dare to be free

Dare to be Free

This (slightly damaged) election leaflet was circulated during the 1774 parliamentary election in Warwick Borough. It rails against ‘placemen’ and vested interests in politics and repeatedly raises the ideas of liberty, independence and freedom for Britons, which the anonymous author of the leaflet argues have their roots in the Magna Carta and 1688 Glorious Revolution.

One of the demands of the author is for a return to triennial parliaments (i.e. elections every three years). These were first introduced in 1641, abolished in 1664 (after the restoration of the monarchy following the Civil War), and then briefly reintroduced between 1694-1716. The latter period, sometimes known as the 'Rage of Party', was a politically turbulent time, characterised by a rapid turnover of governments and rising factionalism between two new political groups - the Whigs and Tories.

This document is from a small collection of political ephemera included in the 'Miscellaneous collection'; document reference: MSS.21/1330/2Link opens in a new window.

More examples of election leaflets from the late 18th and early 19th century are included in our online collection of Warwickshire political ephemera, 1774-1874Link opens in a new window. This includes items from the archive collections of the Modern Records Centre and Warwickshire County Record Office.

The Commonwealth of Reason

The Commonwealth of Reason, 1795

Outline of William Hodgson's plan for “a Commonwealth, to be founded on the broad and durable basis of reason, liberty, fraternity, and equality”. This is the second edition, published towards the end of the author's two year prison sentence for sedition - the result of an argument over politics in a London coffee house in 1793. The book attacks the government, organised religion and the legal system as corrupt; declares 18 universal rights of men; and sets out Hodgson's highly utopian alternative plan for representative and executive government.

The engraving at the front of the book references both the French Revolution and the movement to abolish slavery, and shows two men - one black, the other white - facing each other. They are shown to be simultaneously holding hands and brandishing a pole with a liberty cap balanced on the top and a banner with an English translation of the French Revolutionary slogan 'Liberté, égalité, fraternité'. Despite the statement of equality the man on the right appears to have been portrayed as the dominant figure - he is smartly dressed and clasping the other man's hand.

The book is included in the University of Warwick Library Special Collections (reference: JB 1532 H63), and has been bound together with editions of Thomas Paine's 'The Age of Reason', part 1 (an early edition printed in 1795 by Daniel Isaac Eaton) and part 2 (a pirated first edition printed in 1795 by H.D. Symonds). Early publishers of 'The Age of Reason' were routinely prosecuted for sedition and blasphemy, and Thomas Paine's work became, in effect, a banned book - with no editions openly published in Britain between 1797-1818.

An Enquiry into the State of the Nation

An Enquiry into the State of the Nation, 1801

"A full and correct report" of a speech by the prominent Whig politician Charles James Fox, made against the backdrop of a European war. Fox attacks the foreign policies and military strategy of the government, headed by William Pitt the younger, and counters Pitt's accusation that his opponents were Jacobins - radical supporters of the French Revolution. The speech is trailed on the front cover of the pamphlet as suggesting that the people should “separate themselves” from the disgrace of their rulers, “equally incapable of making peace, as they were of conducting war" against Napoleon Bonaparte.

The speech was made in the House of Commons as part of the debate over a motion by the future Whig Prime Minister Charles Grey for "an enquiry into the state of the nation". A list of the "minority" - those who voted in favour of the defeated motion - is given at the back.

The pamphlet is, rather unexpectedly, included in the archives of the Staff Side of the National Whitley Council for the Civil Service (document reference: MSS.296/6/1/9), and can be read in full through the Modern Records Centre's online catalogueLink opens in a new window.

The Black Dwarf

‘The Black Dwarf’ was a weekly political and satirical magazine published in London. As well as attacks on the contemporary establishment, the publication also included articles and poems in support of reform, and copies of resolutions passed by meetings of reformers across the country. 'The Black Dwarf's editor, Thomas Jonathan Wooler, was arrested and charged with sedition on several occasions, and spent 18 months in Warwick gaol for his role in the unofficial election of Sir Charles Wolseley as an alternative Member of Parliament at an 1819 Birmingham reform meeting.

The first two volumes of 'The Black Dwarf' (1817 and 1818) are included in the University of Warwick Library Special Collections.

England in 1819

Trial for an assault on the 16th of August 1819

On 16th of August 1819, an estimated 60,000-80,000 men, women and children gathered in St Peter's Field, Manchester, to attend a meeting in support of parliamentary reform to be addressed by the orator Henry Hunt. In the weeks before, contingents from local towns and villages had practiced marching on the moors to ensure that the procession would be orderly. As the day started there was a party atmosphere as groups paraded into the centre of Manchester, accompanied by music and carrying banners with slogans in support of universal suffrage and liberty.

Many in the local establishment regarded the reformers as a potentially revolutionary threat to the established order, and regarded the practices on the moors to be the drilling of a paramilitary army. In preparation for riot or armed rebellion, the Manchester magistrates had arranged for a large military contingent to be on standby, including members of the Manchester Yeomanry (a volunteer militia unit captained by a local millowner), the 15th Hussars (a regular army unit) and the Cheshire Yeomanry (another local militia unit). Despite the peaceful conduct of the gathering, local magistrates read the Riot Act and sent in the Manchester Yeomanry, on horseback and armed with sabres, to arrest the speakers. As the crowd panicked, the Chairman of the magistrates sent in the 15th Hussars and Cheshire Yeomanry, to 'rescue' the Manchester Yeomanry from the unarmed demonstrators. Individuals holding banners were particularly targeted by the swordwielding cavalrymen.

The total number of deaths caused by the events in St Peter's Field is unknown but is estimated to be between 10-20, hundreds more were injured. The first casualty of the day was a 2 year old child - William Fildes - killed after he was knocked from the arms of his mother by a member of the Manchester Yeomanry.

The immediate government response to Peterloo was to crack down on dissent by passing six punitive laws - the Training Prevention Act (making non-governmental military training illegal), the Seizure of Arms Act (giving local magistrates the right to search private property for weapons, including powers of confiscation and arrest), the Misdemeanors Act (speeding up court proceedings), the Seditious Meetings Act (criminalising public meetings of more than 50 people on "church or state" matters unless they had authorisation from a magistrate), the Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act (increasing sentences for writers), and the Newspaper and Stamp Duties Act (increasing and extending taxation on newspapers and journals). Leading figures involved with the St Peter's Field meeting, including James Wroe, editor of the Manchester Observer, and Henry Hunt, the headline speaker, were arrested and convicted of sedition. Ordinary demonstrators could also suffer retribution - cases of refusal of medical treatment and dismissals from employment were cited in the aftermath of the massacre.

Newspapers, including The Times, had reporters present at St Peter's Field and as reports of the massacre spread public condemnation was widespread. The name 'Peterloo', mockingly coined by James Wroe, was used to contrast the actions of soldiers at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with the events four years later at St Peter's Field. Critical pamphlets, such as those issued by William HoneLink opens in a new window, sold widely and commemorative souvenirs - including handkerchiefs, pottery and medals - were bought as symbols of support for reform.

In 1822 Thomas Redford, a Middleton hatter, brought a court case against members of the Manchester Yeomanry for injuries from a sabre received during the Peterloo Massacre. The trial became, in effect, a public enquiry into the events of 16 August 1819. The published report of the case includes detailed eyewitness statements by participants on both sides and a map (shown below) of the site. The defendants were found not guilty, as the public meeting at St Peter’s Field was considered to be an illegal gathering, and their costs were found by the government. This copy of the report is included in the University of Warwick Library Special Collections; (reference: DA 537 R3), and can be read in full through Warwick Digital CollectionsLink opens in a new window.

These are the People all tatter’d and torn

This volume - 'Hone's popular political tracts' - is a bound collection of satirical pamphlets by the author and publisher William Hone dating from 1820-1822, most of which have been illustrated by George Cruikshank. In 1817 Hone was arrested for sedition and prosecuted, in a series of politically motivated cases, on charges of blasphemy. His acquittal by three separate juries, despite a very hostile judge, is seen as a marking a turning point for press freedom in Britain.

The image below is from ‘The Political House that Jack Built’Link opens in a new window, 1820, and depicts the 1819 Peterloo Massacre.

'Hone's popular political tracts' is included in the University of Warwick Library Special Collections (reference: JA 4.H6), and can be read in full through Warwick Digital CollectionsLink opens in a new window. 'The three trials of William Hone, for publishing three parodies', Hone's 1818 report of his arrest and trial, is also included in Library Special Collections (reference: KB 65.H6Link opens in a new window).

England in 1819

The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was in Italy when news of the Peterloo Massacre reached him in 1819. The attack by cavalrymen on peaceful demonstrators in Manchester prompted Shelley to write one of his best known poems - 'The Masque of Anarchy', as well as this less frequently reproduced attack on Britain's rulers. The laws of sedition and libel meant that these poems were not published until the 1830s, when the political landscape had started to change (and after Shelley's death in 1822). In 1819, calling the king "old, mad, blind, despised, and dying" could have landed both poet and publisher a prison sentence.

'England in 1819' was first published in 1839, in a four volume collection of Shelley's works edited by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, writer and widow of Percy Bysshe Shelley. The University of Warwick Library Special Collections include all four volumes of the collected works (reference: PR5420.V3Link opens in a new window). Several additional extracts from the 1839 collected works have also been copied - the 1819 poems 'The Masque of Anarchy'Link opens in a new window and 'Song to the Men of England'Link opens in a new window, and Mary Shelley's 'Note on poems of 1819'Link opens in a new window (if you are unable to access the text in pdf format, please contact us).

Political Hobbys

Political Hobbys, 1819

Two anonymous cartoons published by the Cheapside bookseller Thomas Tegg in 1819.

The first is split into two panels. On the left a debauched Prince Regent is shown riding a startled kitchen servant, whilst his estranged wife Caroline of Brunswick looks on in the doorway (a reference to his regular mistress Lady Hertford is included in the speech bubble); the cartoon also references the Prince Regent's lavish expenditure in Brighton and his bribing of cartoonists to not caricature him. In the panel on the right, the Prince Regent's father King George III is shown sitting on a new ‘hobby’ (an early bicycle) cushioned by £10,000 a year, whilst in the background an ordinary Briton stands beside his starving family outside their hovel and condemns the huge social inequality (quoting Hamlet).

The second shows the Chancellor of the Exchequer Nicholas Vansittart, on the road to ruin, running John Bull down on a 'hobby' in the shape of a money bag (marked with references to new taxes and establishment corruption). In the background, under a signpost pointing to 'America' or 'starvation', people flee to an anchored ship. In the speech bubble, the Chancellor suggests that poor Britons should leave the country - either through voluntary emigration to America or through a criminal sentence of transportation - probably for theft - to Australia (Botany Bay).

These, and three other prints by Tegg featuring 'hobbys', are included in the Cyclists' Touring Club archive (document reference: MSS.328/C/June 2007/Box 26Link opens in a new window).

Combination

Journeymen Cabinet Makers of Belfast, 1788-1830

Many branches of national trade unions were preceded by local trades clubs, such as this 'Cabinet Club' formed by Belfast cabinet makers. Journeymen were skilled workers who had served an apprenticeship but who were not 'masters' (employers). One of the earliest trade union documents in our archives, this book includes the rules, a list of members and some minutes of meetings of the Belfast craft union. The volume is one of several items produced by early woodworkers' trade clubs which were collected by the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers (document reference: MSS.78/TC/Bel/1/1). It can be read in full through our online catalogueLink opens in a new window.

Meeting of trades unionists in Copenhagen Fields, 1834

Meeting of trades unionists in Copenhagen Fields, Islington, 21 April 1834

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries trade unionism (or the 'combination' of workers in an attempt to improve their wages and working conditions) was seen by many in authority to be a form of Jacobinism - a subversive, potentially revolutionary activity that could threaten the state and social order. In 1799 the government of William Pitt the younger passed the Combination Act (reinforced in 1800) which banned "unlawful combinations of workmen" - outlawing trade unionism and collective bargaining. In 1824 the Combination Act was repealed, but unions, though legal, were still regarded by the authorities to be a threat to property and the state.

In the early 1830s rural poverty, worsened by enclosure (the transfer of land held in common by the community to landowners by Acts of Parliament) and the introduction of labour-saving (and unemployment-causing) machinery, sparked protests and rioting across southern and eastern England. The riots of 1830, named after the fictional figurehead Captain Swing, included the destruction of machinery, arson attacks, mutilation of livestock and the sending of threatening letters, but caused no loss of human life and few casualties. Suspected rioters were however punished severely with death sentences (most of which were later commuted to transportation), transportation (forced labour in a British colony - usually Australia - for either life or a set period of years), or imprisonment.

In 1832, in the small Dorset village of Tolpuddle, an agreement was made at a meeting between the masters and working men that wages would be raised to the same levels as were paid in neighbouring districts - to 10 shillings a week. By the end of the year this agreement had been broken, with the support of the local magistrate, and wages were instead lowered - first to 8 shillings a week, then to 7, and finally to 6. In 1833, under a sycamore tree on Tolpuddle village green, local workers met and formed a union - the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers - and members later privately performed initiation ceremonies, giving membership of the union a form of ritual.

The ritual of initiation gave the authorities an opportunity to crush the newly formed union. Using a rarely used piece of legislation - the 1797 Unlawful Oaths Act - six of the most prominent founders of the union were arrested and charged with the 'administration of unlawful oaths'. The men were the brothers George and James Loveless, James Brine, James Hammett, Thomas Standfield and his son John Standfield. Most of the arrested men were regarded as a double threat to the established order - as well as being trade unionists, the majority of the arrested men were also religious dissenters - lay preachers or members of the congregation at the local Methodist chapel.

On 14 March 1834 the six men were tried at the Assize court at Dorchester and each sentenced to seven years transportation. The jury included the local MP (and brother in law of the Home Secretary) William Ponsonby and several magistrates who had signed warrants for the arrest of the defendants.

The case prompted major protests across the country. This print (a later copy of an engraving first published in 1834) shows the huge crowds which met peacefully at Copenhagen Fields, Islington, on 21 April 1834, to appeal against the sentence. The demonstration was organised by the Central Committee of the Metropolitan Trade Unions and included a procession through London to Kennington Common with a wagon carrying a petition with over 200,000 signatures (shown in the engraving). The Home Secretary Lord Melbourne refused to accept the petition, although it was successfully delivered a week later.

The engraving by W. Summers was dedicated to Thomas Wakley, MP, a leading campaigner on behalf of the 'Dorchester labourers' (later known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs), by the publisher, Isaiah Saunders. This version of the print is included in the archives of the National Union of Vehicle Builders (document reference: MSS.631/8/7).

The Dorchester Labourers’ Farm Tribute, 1838

The 'Dorchester labourers' - now better known as the Tolpuddle Martyrs - were shipped to Australia in 1834 to serve their sentence of seven years transportation for organising a trade union for farm labourers. Transportation didn't just mean exile, the sentence included forced or hard labour. Conditions under which the convicts worked - the food, shelter and levels of physical punishment received - depended on the nature of the employer to whom the prisoners were assigned.

Protests against the conviction of the Tolpuddle Martyrs finally pressured the government to pardon the men in 1836, though it took months for news of the pardons to reach the Australian authorities and for the Tolpuddle Martyrs to be finally released.

After their release, the London Dorchester Committee was set up to raise funds to buy or rent small farms for the pardoned men. The farms were intended to remove the men "from the power of their former persecutors", "obtain a comfortable subsistence for themselves and families" and to "afford a monument testifying the people's sympathy with the victims of a hypocritical, labour-oppressing, and irresponsible government". This list of subscriptions, dated August 1838, names some of the people and organisations who were contributing to the fund, including Working Men's Associations in Cheltenham, Ipswich and Cirencester, groups of tinworkers, shoemakers, bricklayers' labourers, smiths and carpenters, the proceeds of a ball at Stratford on Avon, and £2 from R. Loveless, presumably a relation of George and James Loveless, two of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. The total balance of funds raised is stated to be £606 15s 11d, a huge sum in 1838 but some way short of the fundraisers' final aim of £1200.

This printed circular, together with several others relating to the Tolpuddle Martyrs, is included in the archives of Operative Society of Masons, Quarrymen & Allied Trades of England & Wales, bound together with the union's fortnightly reports (document reference: MSS.78/OS/4/4/1).

Friendly Society of Iron-Moulders, 1846

Hand-book of the Friendly Society of Iron-Moulders, 1846

This handbook was created "for the guidance of the secretaries and travellers of the Friendly Society of Iron-Moulders" in 1846.

Before the creation of the welfare state trade unions provided a basic benefits system for working people. The handbook gives information about welfare provision given to members of the union who were travelling to find work, including payments for mileage travelled, a bed for the night and food.

At the heart of the industrial revolution, the ironmoulders were early adopters of trade unionism. The Friendly Iron Moulders' Society was established in 1809. In 1837 it held its first delegate conference in Manchester and changed its title to the Friendly Society of Operative Iron Moulders of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (the name would be altered again in 1846 and 1855). In 1920 it amalgamated with the Amalgamated Society of Coremakers of Great Britain and Ireland and the Associated Iron Moulders of Scotland to form the National Union of Foundry Workers.

The document is included in the archives of the Friendly Society of Iron Founders of England, Ireland & Wales, one of several collections of iron and steel trade union archives held at the Modern Records Centre, and can be read in full through our online catalogueLink opens in a new window.

Reform!!!

The People’s Manual, 1831

In 1831 and 1832 three attempts were made to pass the Reform Bill, a piece of legislation which contained measures to extend the franchise and tackle abuses in the political system. The first, in a House of Commons with a Tory (largely anti-reform) majority but a Whig (pro-reform) Prime Minister, floundered in March 1831. In response, the Prime Minister Lord Grey called a general election and the Whigs won a landslide victory, regarded as a public mandate for political reform. The second Reform Bill passed through the House of Commons and was referred up to the House of Lords, who rejected it in October 1831. The rejection triggered public violence, including riots in Bristol, Nottingham, Birmingham and Derby (residences of several of the Peers who had opposed the Bill were targeted). The House of Commons passed a motion of confidence in the government, a new session of parliament was called and a third attempt was made to pass the Reform Bill. The period between the introduction of the third Bill in December 1831 and its passing into law in June 1832 was one of great political turbulence - Prime Minister Lord Grey resigned and was replaced by the Duke of Wellington, after the King refused to stack the House of Lords with new Whig peers who would support reform; faced with public agitation, a run on the banks and a failure to get enough support to form a Tory government, the Duke of Wellington in turn resigned; and the King recalled Lord Grey to form a new Whig ministry, with the tacit agreement that new lords could be appointed to get the Bill through parliament. With the encouragement of the Duke of Wellington, and before the composition of the upper chamber could be changed, the recalcitrant lords finally passed the Bill, and the Reform Act received royal assent on 7 June 1832.

'The People's Manual' was circulated in 1831, following the defeat of the second Reform Bill in the House of Lords. The pamphlet contains a series of short, hostile biographical profiles of the 199 Peers who had blocked the legislation.

The manual is included in the University of Warwick Library Special Collections (reference: DA540.P3) and can be read in fullLink opens in a new window through our online collection of Warwickshire political ephemera, 1774-1874.

Reform!!!

Between 1831 and 1832 the Whig government brought three Reform Bills (which included a limited extension of the franchise and measures to reduce electoral corruption) before parliament. The third Bill finally became law on 7 June 1832.

This pamphlet by the cartoonist George Cruikshank was produced in support of the first Bill and is an updated version of the 1819 pamphlet ‘The Political House that Jack Built’ (illustrated by Cruikshank and published by William Hone). Whilst the earlier pamphlet attacked the Prince Regent as a profligate, fat dandy who was complicit in the killing of his subjects at Peterloo, this version praises his successor William IV as “Old England’s Patriot King”.

'Reform!!!' is included in the University of Warwick Library Special Collections (reference: DA 540.R3), and is available to read in full through our online collection of (mostly Warwickshire) political ephemeraLink opens in a new window from 1774-1874.

Seymour's comic scrap sheets, c.1831

Seymour's comic scrap sheet, c.1831

Scraps were sheets of paper with a series of printed illustrations, sold so that the buyer could cut out images and paste them into a book (hence the term 'scrapbook') or decorate an object with them. The images most associated with scraps date from the Victorian era and frequently feature frolicking children, fluffy animals and floral displays. These earlier versions from c.1831 take a less cutesy approach and instead contain reformist political cartoons, including images in support of the Reform Bill and attacks on the King, Tory politicians and the established church. The campaign for the abolition of slavery also gets an ambiguous nod, with an image disparagingly comparing the treatment of a caricatured black slave with the "starving white" Briton.

Two sheets are included in a small collection of ephemera dating from 1761-1905 (document reference: MSS.21/3769Link opens in a new window).

God Grant the People’s Right!

A reformer’s take on ‘God Save the King’, published in Warwick during the late 1820s or early 1830s. The song includes criticism of the Duke of Wellington, then leader of the Tory Party and an opponent of the Reform Bill.

This document is from a small collection of political ephemera in the 'Miscellaneous collection'; document reference: MSS.21/1330/94Link opens in a new window.

More examples of political song sheets and other election ephemera from the late 18th and early 19th century are included in our online collection of Warwickshire political ephemera, 1774-1874Link opens in a new window. This includes items from the archive collections of the Modern Records Centre and Warwickshire County Record Office.