French Revolution

[RichardB]

http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites...eon/ideas1.html

Extract :

The French Revolution also fostered the growth of radical clubs and debating societies. In 1791, the Sheffield Society for Constitutional Information was set up, supported by Joseph Gales, editor of the Sheffield Register. In January 1792, the London Corresponding Society was started in a pub in the Strand by Thomas Hardy, a 40-year-old Scottish shoemaker. Membership soon numbered about 70, and activities included debates, newsletters, pamphlets and petitions. On 26 October 1795, an open-air meeting in a field near Copenhagen House, Islington, London, drew between 40,000 and 100,000 people.

Such societies spread rapidly over Britain. At first, they defended the violence of the French Revolution and rejoiced in the military success of the revolutionary armies.