ABSTRACT
On 3 June 1824 an advertisement appeared in the Morning Chronicle, inserted by "a number of gentlemen", inviting those who supported "the care and education of the INFANT CHILDREN of the LABOURING CLASSES" to a general meeting for considering the best means of extending the system of infant schools. Ladies and gentlemen, it added, who were desirous of satjsfying themselves about the nature and advantage of existing schools were invited to visit those at Quaker Street and Vincent Square. 1 The advertisement was also circulated in the form of a leaflet which was printed, obviously at Wilderspin's instigation, by the Philanthropic Society, St. George's Fields. 2
The gathering was duly held on 7 June at the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen Street, the central meeting place of the philanthropic movement before the opening of Exeter Hall in the early 1830s. The hall was described by an American visitor, the Rev. Nathaniel Wheaton, as "an elegant apartment, capable of holding one thousand persons"; it had a gallery and organ at one end for concerts and a platform at the other. 3 "A very numerous and highly respectable meeting", observed the Courier, "among which were not less than seven or eight hundred elegantly dressed ladies".4 Many of these, the Chronicle stated, were members of the Society of Friends. 5 The expenses of the meeting, according to Wilderspin, were covered by Joseph Wilson.6
