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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
The purpose of this essay is to explore the possibility of a democratic revolution in England just prior to the Franco-British War of 1793. I hope to correct, in a minor way, one of the assumptions held by R. R. Palmer in his analysis of the progress of democratic revolution in England.
Palmer presented his thesis in The Age of the Democratic Revolution, which appeared in two volumes, in 1959 and 1964. Here Palmer proposed a new interpretation of the major political developments of Western Europe.
It is argued that this whole civilization was swept in the last four decades of the eighteenth century by a single revolutionary movement, which manifested itself in different ways and with varying success in different countries, yet in all of them showed similar objectives and principles.
Palmer's synthesis of these objectives and principles can be summed up in his title: this was the Age of the Democratic Revolution, which “signified a new feeling for a kind of equality, or at least a discomfort with older forms of stratification and formal rank.” All western countries underwent this revolution, including England.
Palmer's treatment of Britain places a responsibility upon historians of that country to determine whether this new interpretation clarifies or obscures the development of events. If there was a single democratic revolution, how and when was it manifested in England, and what were the causes of its failure? Were the Wilkesite, County Association, and workingmen's association movements the background of the gradualist reform movements of the nineteenth century, or the background of a revolution that failed in the eighteenth? Answers to these questions will not be derived easily, and the purpose of this essay is not nearly so ambitious. I intend to explore only the possibility of a revolution in England in 1792.
Paper read at the Conference on British Studies, Pacific Northwest Section, University of Calgary, March 4, 1972.
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24 H. O., 42/22, Nepean to Lord Hood, October 1, 1792, fols. 42-43.
25 H. O., 42/23, “List of areas, reports and numbers of arms collected for people not connected with government …,” December 7, 1792, fols. 181-245.
26 It is difficult to arrive at an exact figure of the numbers of weapons ordered by non-governmental purchasers. Most of the difficulty stems from a large order for 300,000 stands of arms placed with Galton and Son and John Whatley. If these two manufacturers entered the contract jointly, the number of weapons noted by Nepean's tabulation would stand at 465,000. If each manufacturer had an order for 300,000, as some agents seemed to imply in their reports, 765,000 would be the correct figure. There is also mention of 130,000 stands of arms only by their destination, Maastricht. If this latter is part of either large order, or of the single order, the figure would stand at 635,000 or 335,000.
27 H. O., 42/21, Brooke to Nepean, September 21, 1792, fol. 64; Brooke to Nepean, September 28, 1789 [sic], fol. 107.
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31 Ibid., Townshend to Dundas, November 5, 1792, fols. 278-278A; Townshend to Nepean, November 11, 1792, fol. 353.
32 Ibid., T. Powditch to Pitt, November 3, 1792, fols. 265-267. One means of maintaining discipline within their ranks was to drive reluctant seamen or officers, stripped naked, through the town.
33 Ibid., Grenville to Townshend, November 2, 1792, fol. 243.
34 Ibid., Nepean to Burdon, November 5, 1792, fol. 274.
35 Ibid., Reedman to Nepean, November 8, 1792, fols. 312-313.
36 Ibid., Nepean to Reedman, November 13, 1792, fols. 345.
37 Ibid., Nepean to Col. DeLancey, November 13, 1792, fols. 366-368.
38 Ibid., Powditch to Pitt, November 3, 1792, fols. 247-253, 265-267.
39 Ibid., J. Reynolds to Grenville, November 9, 1792, fol. 330.
40 Ibid., Townshend to Nepean, November 11, 1792, fols. 353-354
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