Tower in 1810 for contempt of Parliament, but lived
to see the Reform Bill of 1831 passed into law, and died a Tory. Cobbett
spent two years in prison, and became M.P. for Oldham in 1832. What Cobbett
did with pen--and no man at that day wrote with greater ability for the
common people, or with greater acceptance--Hunt did on the platform. Both
strove to arouse the working class to demand enfranchisement. Hunt presided
at the mass meeting at Peterloo, by Manchester, in 1819--an entirely
peaceful meeting which was broken up by the military with some loss of
life--and was sent to prison for two years for doing so. He also was
elected M.P. (for Preston) in the first reformed Parliament.

Again the Government tried coercion, and after Peterloo, for the next few
years, intimidation and numerous arrests kept down all outward
manifestation of the reform movement.

In spite of this, the movement could not be stayed. Each year saw political
indifference changed to positive desire for enfranchisement, and the
British public, which, in the main, had been left untouched by the vision
of a democracy and the call for a national convention and a new
constitution, became impatient for the reform of Parliament and the
representation of the manufacturing interest.

THOMAS SPENCE (1750-1814)

The name of Spence must be mentioned amongst those who preached the
democratic idea at the close of the eighteenth century. A Newcastle
schoolmaster, Spence, in 1775, expounded his "Plan" for land
nationalisation on the following lines:--

"The land, with all that appertains to it, is in every parish made the
property of the Corporation or parish, with as ample power to let, repair,
or alter all or any part thereof, as a lord of the manor enjoys over his
lands, houses, etc.; but the power of alienating the least morsel, in any
manner, from the parish, either at this or any time thereafter, is denied.
For it is solemnly agreed to, by the whole nation, that a parish that shall
either sell or give away any part of its landed property shall be looked
upon with as much horror and detestation as if they had sold all their
children to be slaves, or massacred them with their own hands. Thus are
there no more or other landlords in the whole country than the parishes,
and each of them is sovereign lord of its territories.

"Then you may behold the rent which the people have paid into the parish
treasuries employed by each parish in paying the Parliament