ABSTRACT
Radicalism in the 1790s was nourished from two sources: an older English tradition and the political philosophy of the European Enlightenment. The counterblast to radicalism in Britain in the 1790s was multi-faceted; it involved the press, the Church of England, local government and the militia among others. Radicalism was silenced in 1795 expertly and with some ease. In truth, the open radical societies had no response once their arguments on reform had failed to move property owners throughout Britain. Landowners were more or less united in the belief that their patrimony was threatened and that a united front was necessary. Against the might of property the vigorous and optimistic lucidity of Thomas Paine was totally inadequate weaponry. Little thought was given to any strategy if aristocrats, rendered redundant by the reasoning of Paine, sought to combat his reason with their repression and to defend not only themselves but European civilisation as they understood it.
