London Corresponding Society

The London Corresponding Society was a Radical organization based in London, England comprising primarily artisans, tradesmen, and shopkeepers. At its peak, the society boasted roughly 3,000 dues-paying members who shared the goal of reforming the British political system. Formed in 1792 by Thomas Hardy, the society’s key mission was to ensure universal suffrage for British men and annual parliaments. Due to the perceived French revolutionary influence on the society and its calls for a relatively radical reformation, promising widespread upheaval, it was bitterly opposed by the government of William Pitt the Younger. It was accused twice of plotting to assassinate the King, and its key leaders were put on trial in 1794 for treason. However, due to the transparent falsity of the government’s claims those leaders, including Hardy, John Thelwall, and John Horne Tooke were all acquitted. After exerting "undue influence" on the European political climate in the last decade of the 18th century, the LCS and other organizations like it were outlawed by a 1799 Parliamentary Act, and efforts to maintain an underground organization were stymied by their outlaw status and financial troubles and mismanagement.