Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
19 November 2010
Eighteenth Century Plot to Overthrow British Government
The French Revolution of 1789-
passions of English people hoping for a
chance to wrest power from privileged elites
In December 1792, schoolteacher Thomas Spence arrived in London from his home in
Newcastle. Spence had been 
greatly influenced by the writing of Thomas Paine (right),
in particular his 1791 book The Rights of Man.
Thomas Spence Expanded on Paine’s Ideas
When he arrived in London, Thomas Spence began agitating for a more egalitarian society; he wanted to bring socialism to Britain.
Spartacus Educational describes some of his activities: “He wrote books, pamphlets and produced a journal, Pigs Meat, where he argued for the radical transformation of society. The publication of this material resulted in him enduring several periods of imprisonment.”
Spence said the land of Britain belonged to all the people not just the wealthy landowners. One of his rallying cries was that “if all the land in Britain was shared out equally, there would be enough to give every man, woman, and child seven acres each.”
He and his followers met in London pubs and at night they would chalk slogans on walls such as “The Land is the People’s Farm” and “Spence’s Plan and Full Bellies.”
Peaceful Agitation Sidelined by Arthur Thistlewood
When Thomas Spence died in 1814, his friends and followers formed The Society of Spencean Philanthropists to press for his ideals to become realities.
The group eventually came under the control of Arthur Thistlewood who thought a more robust strategy than chalking slogans on walls and writing pamphlets was called for. Thistlewood wanted a violent revolution to overthrow the government, just as the people of France had done.
By now, the Spencean society was well known to the authorities and several government spies infiltrated the group and reported on its activities. One of these informants was George Edwards who may well have provoked the Spenceans into cooking up a plot to attack the government.
Cato Street Hayloft Raided
In early 1820, the British government got wind of Arthur Thistlewood’s plans to assassinate the British Cabinet. It was time to act.
On the evening of February 23, 1820, police raided a stable in Cato Street, where
Thistlewood and his co-
One of them, a butcher named James Ings,told police how the plot was to unfold.
Britain’s National Archives says that Ings would be the first to enter Lord Harrowby’s house in Grosvenor Square where the Cabinet was meeting for dinner. He was to be “armed with a pair of pistols, a cutlass, and a knife. He intended to behead every member of the Cabinet, then take away the heads of Lords Castlereagh and Sidmouth in bags to display them on spikes on Westminster Bridge.”
Trial and Sentencing of Cato Street Conspirators
Justice moved swiftly in those days. On April 28, 1820, Thistlewood and four of his cronies were found guilty of high treason, the trial being described in detail in The Newgate Calendar.
Then “the Lord Chief Justice passed sentence in the usual form upon them, directing that, after they should have been hanged, their heads should be severed from their bodies, and their bodies divided into four quarters, which should be at the disposal of his Majesty.”
In a cartoon of the day, citizens celebrate the execution of the Cato Street Conspirators whose heads appear atop of their Maypole.
Three days later Thistlewood and his companions met the hangman. According to executedtoday.com, “The crowd was reportedly vocally supportive of the condemned.”
Other members of the gang were transported to the colonies for life.
© Canada and the World, October 2010
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THOMAS
SPENCE’S PLAN
By today’s standards, what Spence and his followers wanted could hardly be described as radical:
1. The end of aristocracy and landlords;
2. All land should be publicly owned by 'democratic parishes', which should be largely
self-
3. Rents of land in parishes to be shared equally amongst parishioners;
4. Universal suffrage (including votes for women) at both parish level and through a system of deputies elected by parishes to a national senate. However, Spence was not completely liberated as he did not believe that women should be allowed to stand for national public office;
5. A 'social guarantee' extended to provide income for those unable to work; and,
6. The 'rights of infants' to be free from abuse and poverty.
Thomas Spence Society
In the wake of the Cato Street Conspiracy, the poet Lord Byron completed a work inspired by an attempt to overthrow the dominating rulers of Venice in 1355. However, his words could be applied equally to Arthur Thistlewood and his colleagues and the many who followed, battling against tyrany and oppression.
“They never fail who die in a great cause: the block may soak their gore:
Their heads
may sodden in the sun; their limbs
Be strung to city gates and castle walls —
But still
their Spirit walks abroad. Though years
Elapse, and others share as dark a doom,
They
but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts
Which overpower all others, and conduct
The
world at last to Freedom.”