ABSTRACT
The third of the greater London societies, the Whig Friends of the People, had been founded to make reform respectable and safe. Its caution had early brought it into collision with Cartwright and the Constitutional Society. In the winter 1792-93 it began to address a remonstrance to Hardy and his friends for their indiscreet intervention in foreign affairs. The Corresponding Society warmly retorted that the Friends of the People were equally suspect of not being loyal to the cause which they professed. But this criticism of the addresses to France was confirmed by the proceedings in the House of Commons in the following spring. The object of the political revival in 1792 had been to bring pressure to bear on the politicians by organising public opinion. By the spring of 1793 a sheaf of petitions was ready, and the old method was put to the test. The Corresponding Society sent one with 1,300 signatures. Fox was invited to present it ; but, while he did not refuse, he pointed out that he was an opponent of universal suffrage. Francis was apparently a supporter; at any rate he consented to take the place of Fox. Thirty petitions from Norwich, Sheffield, Nottingham, Glasgow, and all parts of
England and Scotland, were presented. Some were refused ; the Norwich petition because it was printed ; the Sheffield petition because it contested the right of the House of Commons to the title of “ the Commons of Great Britain,” by which convention forced the petitioners to address it. On May the 6th, a two days’ debate was opened by Grey, who presented a long argument in the form of a petition from the Friends of the People. I t was based on a detailed report which had been drawn up by a committee of the Society earlier in the year. The report was a searching exposure of the corruption of electoral politics, the monopoly of borough owners, and the increase of taxation. No specific remedies were suggested, but Grey asked the House for a committee to consider the petitions in general.
