Impact of Radical Reformers Themselves

Impact of Radical Reformers Themselves 

The Impact of Thomas Paine and The Rights of Man 

• Wrote the Rights of Man in 1791 
• Reached a wide audience in Britain and France as it was easy to understand, sold 200,000 copies in its first two years 
• 1792 however government issued proclomation against the book under seditious writings act 
• Paine fled to France in 1792, reducing his influence 
• Failed to stir the masses, no revolution took place due to Napoleonic Wars from 1795 to 1815 

John Cartwright and the Hampden Clubs 

• In 1812 major John Cartwright formed Hampden Club in london and called for universal suffrage 
• From 1816 encouraged regional clubs, sprang up all over the country 
• Meeting in 1817, set out aims of annual parliaments and universal suffrage,…