There are two important means of expressing dissent in Great Britain around 1790. The first involves the production of political pamphlets, the second the creation of societies for the promotion of political reform. The two methods are, or course, linked, as the members of the societies produce pamphlets, and the pamphlets are read and discussed in the societies.
Tom Paine's Rights of Man (1791, 1792) stands out as the most influential pamphlet of the period.
The most active societies are the Society for Constitutional Information,, the London Corresponding Society, the Sheffield Society for Constitutional Infomation and the Society of the Friends of the People, the aims of all of which societies centred around education of the masses and political reform. In response the government issued a proclamation against seditious writings on 21 May 1792.
Both pamphlets and societies are targeted by the government of George III / William Pitt in a series of bills in what was, in effect, a sustained effort to curtail free speech, targeting not only writers and speakers but also printers, and culminates in the Treason Trials of 1794 and the suspension of the Habeas Corpus act in 1798.
Godwin's Political Justice appeared just after, and a few days after the execution of Louis XVI, an event which alientated many supporters of the French Revolution in England.
The real centre of dissent is Tom Paine, who has already inspired the American Revolution with his firebrand words, and, by 1790 is in the process of involving himself in the French Revolution. His book, The Rights of Man, (1791,1792) is the classic inspirational text for all those who cherish basic human rights for all, and oppose tyranny.
Godwin's Political Justice appeared just after, and a few days after the execution of Louis XVI, an event which alientated many supporters of the French Revolution in England.
William Godwin is at the height of his fame at the time Wordsworth makes his acquaintance in February 1795. He comments: 'If temporary fame ever was an object worthy to be cultivated by the human mind, I certainly obtained it in a degree that has seldom been exceeded' (Moorman, William Wordsworth, p263). At their first meeting, Wordsworth is, according to Godwin's diary, in company with Frend, Holcroft, Losh, Tweddell, and Dyer among others, a group with strong links to Cambridge and its associated gentlemanly radicalism and dissent.
Wordsworth meets Godwin eight further times during the next several weeks, and he seems at first to be attracted to Godwin's ideas, but is soon disillusioned, realising that they are, in fact, nothing more than puffs of air. Godwin is an amusing man, sometimes a witty man, sometimes a surprisingly tender man, but not a profound man. It is particularly surprising that he is treated with such seriousness by later commentators.
We fear God, we look up with awe to kings; with affection to parliaments; with duty to magistrates; with reverence to priests; and with respect to nobility. Why? Because when such ideas are brought before our minds, it is natural to be so affected
On the 8th of June 1809, death came – Death, almost his only friend. At his funeral no pomp, no pageantry, no civic procession, no military display. In a carriage, a woman and her son who had lived on the bounty of the dead – on horseback, a Quaker, the humanity of whose heart dominated the creed of his head – and, following on foot, two negroes filled with gratitude – constituted the funeral cortege of Thomas Paine. (Robert G Ingersoll, Thomas Paine, 1892, Project Gutenberg).
A proper man.
Ingersoll notes further:
He could have died surrounded by clergymen, warriors and statesmen. At his death there would have been an imposing funeral, miles of carriages, civic societies, salvos of artillery, a nation in mourning, and, above all, a splendid monument covered with lies.
He chose rather to benefit mankind. (ibid)
The events of the French Revolution acted as the focus for a pamphlet war in Great Britain, stimulating opinion on both sides. Edmund Burke, who had written against his own government during the American War of Independence, now, surprisingly, writes against the French Revolution. His Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) takes the position that