page_title: Society of the Friends of the People
section_title: William Pitt's Reign of Terror
hierarchical_section_title: Society of the Friends of the People / Friends of the People in England / Disbandment of the Society / William Pitt's Reign of Terror
caption_attribution_description: The republican solidarity of Joseph Priestley and Thomas Paine; indicated by the grinning devil that links them. Etching by I. Cruikshank, 1792. Iconographic Collections Keywords: arms and armor; DEVIL; paine, thomas, 1737-1809; priestley, joseph, 1733-1804; Isaac Cruikshank; Caricatures; Joseph Priestley; Thomas Paine; republicanism; etchings
context_page_description: The Society of the Friends of the People was an organisation in Great Britain that was focused on advocating for Parliamentary Reform. It was founded by the Whig Party in 1792.
  The Society in England was aristocratic and exclusive, in contrast to the Friends of the People in Scotland, who increasingly drew on a wider membership. Members wanted parliamentary representatives to reflect the population of Great Britain, which could be achieved by making voting more accessible, by granting more men the right to vote, and by making it possible for a broader variety of men to take part in the government.
  The Society disbanded in the mid 1790s as a result of conservative reaction against radical political movements.
context_section_description: The Revolution in France sparked fear in the leaders of other European countries. They saw reformists and radicals as having the potential to completely overturn the government and destroy the nation. As a result, William Pitt, the British Prime Minister at the time, wanted to destroy reform in England to avoid an uprising like the French revolution. Instead of using violence to combat reform, he used legislation. He suspended the Habeas Corpus Act in 1794. In 1795, he passed the Seditious Meetings Act and the Treason Act; combined, these prevented any meetings that were "seditious and unlawful" and required that a magistrate was notified if a meeting were to occur that included 50 or more people. The Newspaper Publication Act 1798 required that all printing presses be registered in order to prevent the publication of material that criticised the government.
caption: Caricature of Republican Solidarity, by Isaac Cruikshank 1792
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