Geoffrey Bindman QC follows John Thelwall’s fight for justice
The struggle for justice never ends. Too often, as today, the actions and failures of the government itself are responsible for undermining justice and the rule of law. Examples can be found throughout our history.
In 1792, by which time the French revolution had caused consternation among the ruling elite, the London Corresponding Society (LCS)—perhaps the first working class political organisation—was founded by Thomas Hardy , a Piccadilly shoemaker, to campaign for universal suffrage and regularly elected parliaments. John Thelwall, a former trainee lawyer disillusioned with the law, became an early member and soon achieved prominence by his powerful oratory and charismatic energy (depicted in the image above by cartoonist James Gillray). Prime Minister William Pitt and his colleagues in government perceived Thelwall and his fellows as a threat to security. They were—to quote a commentator—“wretches, vagabonds, and evil-minded men who were inflaming the minds of the ignorant, secretly providing them with arms, seditiously plotting to destroy the government of king, Lords and Commons in order to replace the constitution with French anarchy.”
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