The .. MAKING ~ ofthe ENGLISH WORKING CLASS by E. P.Thompson 1o VINTAGEBOOKSADivisionof RandomHouse NEW YORK CONTENTS Preface PartOne:THELIBERTYTREE IMembers Unlimited IIChristian and Apollyon III"Satan's Strongholds" IVThe Free-born Englishman VPlanting theLiberty Tree PartTwo:THECURSEOFADAM VIExploitation VIIThe FieldLabourers VIIIArtisansandOthers IXTheWeavers XStandardsandExperiences i.Goods ii.Homes iii.Life iv.Childhood XIThe TransformingPower of theCross i.MoralMachinery ii.TheChiliasm of Despair XIICommunity i.Leisureand Personal Relations ii.The Ritualsof Mutuality iii.The Irish iv.Myriads of Eternity 9 17 26 55 77 102 189 213 234 269 314 314 318 322 331 350 350 375 401 401 418 429 444 ], ;,;I;8THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS PartThree:THEWORKING-CLASSPRESENCE XIIIRadical Westminster 45 1 XIVAn Army of Redressers 4'72 PREFACEi.The BlackLamp 472 ii.The Opaque Society 484 T HISBOOKlIASaclumsytitle,but it is.onewhichmeetsits iii.The Lawsagainst Combination 497 purpose.Making,becauseitisastudyinanactiveprocess, iv.Croppers and Stockingers 521 which owes as much to agency as to conditioning. The working v.SherwoodLads 552classdidnotriselikethesunatanappointedtime.Itwas vi.ByOrder of the Tradepresent at its own making. 575 Class,rather than classes, for reasons which it is one purpose ofXVDemagogues andMartyrs603 this book toexamine. There is,of course, adifference."Worki.Disaffection603ingclasses"isadescriptiveterm,whichevadesasmuchasit ii.Problems of Leadership607defines.It ties loosely together a bundle of discrete phenomena. iii.Hampden Clubs631There weretailorshereandweaversthere,andtogetherthey iv.Brandreth and Oliver make up the working classes. 649 ByclassIunderstandan historicalphenomenon, unifyinga v.Peterloo66g number of disparateandseeminglyunconnectedevents,both intherawmaterialofexperienceandinconsciousness.Ivi.The Cato Street Conspiracy 700 XVIClassConsciousness 7IIemphasisethatitisanhistoricalphenomenon.tdonotsee i. The Radical Culture 7II classasa"structure",nore v ~ nasa"category", but assomethingwhichinfacthappens(andcanbeshowntohaveii.WilliamCobbett 746 happened) in human relationships.iii.Carlile,Wade and Gast 762 11,Morethanthis,thenotionofclassentailsthenotionof iv.Owenism 779historicalrelationship.Likeanyotherrelationship,itisa v."A Sort of Machine"807fluencywhich evadesanalysis if weattempt tostop it deadat anygivenmomentandanatomiseitsstructure.ThefinestBibliographical Note833 meshedsociologicalnetcannotgiveusapurespecimenof Acknowledgements 837class,any more than it can giveus one of deference or oflove. The relationship must alwaysbe embodied in real people andIndex838 inarealcontext.Moreover,wecannothavetwodistinct classes,each withan independent being,and thenbring them intorelationship with each other. We cannot have love without lovers,nor deferencewithout squiresand labourers.Andclass happenswhensomemen,asaresultof commonexperiences (inheritedor shared),feelandarticulatetheidentityof their interests as between themselves. and as against other men whose interests are different from(and usually opposed to)theirs. The classexperienceislargelydetermined.bytheproductive relationsinto'whichmenareborn--orenterinvoluntarily. ..I 10THEMAK.INGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS Class-consciousnessisthewayi.nwhichtheseexperiencesare handledinculturalterms:embodiedintraditions,valuesystems,ideas,andinstitutionalforms.If theexperience appearsasdetermined,class-consciousnessdoesnot.Wecan seealogicintheresponsesofsimilaroccupationalgroups undergoingsimilarexperiences,butwecannotpredicateany law.Consciousnessof classarisesinthesamewayindifferent times and places,but never' in just the same way. Thereistodayanever-presenttemptationtosupposethat classisathing.ThiswasnotMarx'smeaning,inhisown historicalwriting,yettheerrorvitiatesmuchlatter-day "Marxist"writing."It",theworkingclass,isassumedto havearealexistence,whichcanbedefinedalmostmathematically-so many men who stand in acertain relation to the means of production. Once this isassumed it becomespossible to deduce the class-consciousness which "it" ought to have(but seldom does have) if "it" was properly aware ofits own position andreal interests.There isacultural superstructure,through which this recognition dawns in inefficient ways. These cultural "lags" anddistortionsareanuisance,sothat it iseasytopass fromthistosometheoryof substitution:theparty,sect,or theorist,whodiscloseclass-consciousness,notasit is,but asit ought to be. ButasimilarerroriscommitteddailyontheotherSIdeof theideologicaldivide.Inoneform,thisisaplainnegative. SincethecrudenotionofclassattributedtoMarxcanbe faultedwithoutdifficulty,itisassumedthatanynotionof classisapejorativetheoreticalconstruct,imposeduponthe evidence. It is denied that class has happened at all.In another form,andbyacuriousinversion,itispossibletopassfroma dynamictoastaticviewof class."It"-the workingclassexists,and can be defined with someaccuracy asacomponent of thesocialstructure.Class-consciousness,however,isabad thing,inventedbydisplacedintellectuals,sinceeverything whichdisturbstheharmoniousco-existenceofgroupsperformingdifferent"socialroles"(andwhichtherebyretards economicgrowth)istobedeploredasan"unjustifieddisturbance-symptom".1Theproblemistodeterminehowbest "it"canbeconditionedtoacceptitssocialrole,andhowits grievancesmay bestbe"handled and channelled". 1Anexample of this approach, coveringthe period of thisbook,istobe found intheworkof acolleagueof ProfessorTalcottParsons:N.J.Smelser,Social Clumgein theIndustrialR.volulion(1959)' PREFACEIl' If werememberthat classisarelationship,and not athing, wecannotthinkinthisway."It"doesnotexist,eitherto haveanidealinterestorconsciousness,ortolieasapatient ontheAdjustor'stable.Norcanweturnmattersupontheir heads,ashasbeendone byoneauthoritywho(inastudyof class obsessively concerned with methodology,tothe exclusion of theexaminationof arealclasssituationinareal historicalcontext)hasinformedus: Classesarebasedon the differencesin legitimatepower associated with certain positions, i.e. on the structure of social roles with respect to their authority expectations .... An individual becomes a member of aclassby playing asocialrolerelevantfromthepoint of view of authority .... He belongs to a class because he occupies a position inasocialorganisation;i.e.classmembershipisderived fromthe incumbency of asocial r61e.1 Thequestion,of course,ishowtheindividualgottobein this"socialrole",andhowtheparticularsocialorganisation (withitsproperty-rightsand structureof authority) gotto.be there. And these are historical questions. If we stop history at a given point, then there are no classes but simply amultitude of individualswithamultitudeof experiences.Butif wewatch these men over an adequate period of social change, we observe patterns in theirtheir ideas, and their institutions. Class is defined by men as they live their own history, and, in the end,thisisitsonlydefinition. If Ihave showninsufficientunderstanding of themethodologicalpreoccupationsofcertainsociologists,neverthelessI hopethisbookwillbeseenasacontributiontotheunderstanding ofclass. For Iam convinced that we cannot understand classunlesswe seeit asa socialand cultural formation,arising fromprocesseswhichcanonlybe studiedastheyworkthemselvesout over aconsiderablehistorical period.This book can beseenasabiographyof theEnglishworkingclassfromits adolescence until its early manhood. In the years between1780 and1832most English working people came to feelan identity of interestsasbetweenthemselves,andasagainsttheirrulers andemployers.This ruling classwasitself much divided,and infactonlygainedincohesionoverthesameyearsbecause certainantagonismswereresolved(orfadedintorelative insignificance)inthefaceofaninsurgentworkingclass. 1R.Dahrendoff, Classand ClassConflictinIndustrial $Ix:iIfY(1959), pp.1413-9. "-. 13 12THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS Thustheworking-classpresencewas,in1832,themost significant factorinBritishpoliticallife. Thebookiswrittenin thisway.InPartOneIconsider thecontinuingpopulartraditionsinthe18thcenturywhich influencedthecrucialJacobinagitationoftheI79Os.In Part TwoImovefromsubjectivetoobjectiveinfluences-the experiences of groups of workersduring the Industrial Revolu tionwhichseemtometobeof especialsignificance.Ialso attempt an estimate of the character of the new industrial workdiscipline,and the bearing upon this of theMethodist Church. InPartThreeIpickupthestoryofplebeianRadicalism, and carry it through Luddism tothe heroicageat thecloseof the Napoleonic Wars. Finally, I discuss some aspects of political theory and of the consciousness of class in the1820Sand1830s. Thisisagroupof studies,on relatedthemes,ratherthan a consecutivenarrative.InselectingthesethemesIhavebeen conscious,at times,of writingagainst theweight of prevailing orthodoxies.There istheFabian orthodoxy, in which the great majorityofworkingpeopleareseenaspassivevictimsof laissezfaire,withtheexceptionofahandfulof far-sighted organisers(notably,FrancisPlace).There isthe orthodoxy of theempiricaleconomichistorians,inwhichworkingpeople areseenasalabourforce,asmigrants,orasthedatafor statisticalseries.There is the"Pilgrim'sProgress"orthodoxy, inwhichtheperiodisransackedforforerunners-pioneersof the Welfare State, progenitorsofa Socialist Commonwealth, or (more recently)early exemplars of rational industrial relations. Each of these orthodoxies has a certain validity. All have added toour knowledge.My quarrel with the firstand second isthat they tend to obscurethe agency of working people,the degree towhichthey contributed,by conscious efforts,tothemaking of history.My quarrel with thethird isthat it reads history in thelightof subsequentpreoccupations,andnotasinfact J.t occurred.Onlythesuccessful(inthesenseofthosewhose aspirations anticipated subsequent evolution)are remembered. The blind alleys,the lost causes,andthe losersthexnselvesare forgotten. Iamseekingtorescuethepoorstockinger,theLuddite cropper,the"obsolete"hand-loomweaver,the"utopian" artisan,andeventhedeludedfollowerof JoannaSouthcott, fromthe enormous condescension of posterity. Their crafts and traditionsmayhavebeendying.Theirhostilitytothenew PREFACE industrialismmayhavebeenbackward-looking.Theircommunitarian ideals may have been fantasies. -Their insurrectionaryconspiraciesmayhavebeenfoolhardy.Buttheylived through these times of acute social disturbance,and we did not. Their aspirations were valid in terxnsof their own experience; a n d ~if they were casualties of history,they remain, condemned in their own lives,as casualties. Our onlycriterionof judgementshouldnotbewhetheror notaman'sactionsarejustifiedinthelightof subsequent evolution.Afterall,wearenotattheendof socialevolution ourselves.Insomeof thelostcausesof thepeopleof the IndustrialRevolutionwemay discoverinsightsinto socialevils which we have yet to cure. Moreover,this period now compels attentionfortwoparticularreasons.First,itwasatimein whichtheplebeianmovementplacedanexceptionallyhigh valuationuponegalitariananddemocraticvalues.Although weoftenboast our democraticwayof life,theeventsof these critical years are far too often forgotten or slurred over .. Second, the greater part of the worldtoday isstill undergoing problexns ofindustrialisation,andoftheformationofdemocratic institutions,analogousinmanywaystoourownexperience duringtheIndustrialRevolution.Causeswhichwerelostin Englandmight,in AsiaorAfrica,yetbe won. Finally,anoteof apologytoScottishandWelshreaders. Ihaveneglectedthesehistories,notoutof chauvinism,but outof respect.It isbecauseclassisaculturalasmuchasan economic formation that Ihave been cautious as to generalising beyondEnglishexperience.(IhaveconsideredtheIrish,not in Ireland, but as immigrants to England.) The Scottish record, inparticular,isquiteasdramatic,andastormented,asour own.TheScottishJ acobinagitationwasmoreintenseand moreheroic.ButtheScottishstoryissignificantlydifferent. Calvinism was not the same thing asMethodism, althoughit is difficulttosaywhich,intheearly19thcentury,wasworse. We had no peasantry in England comparable tothe Highland migrants.Andthepopularculturewasverydifferent.Itis possible,atleastuntilthe182OS,toregardtheEnglishand Scottish experiencesasdistinct, sincetradeunionand political links were impermanent and immature. ThisbookwaswritteninYorkshire,andiscolouredat timesby West Riding sources.My gratefulacknowledgements 14THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS areduetotheUniversityof LeedsandtoProfessorS.G. Raybould forenabling me,someyearsago,tocommencethe researchwhichledtothisbook;andtotheLeverhulme TrusteesfortheawardofaSeniorResearchFellowship, which has enabled me to complete the work. Ihave also learned a great deal frommembers of my tutorial classes,with whom I have discussedmany of the themes treated here. Acknowledge menLsareduealsototheauthoritieswhohaveallowedme toquotefrommanuscriptandcopyrightsources:particular acknowledgementswillbefoundatthe end of the volume. Ihavealsotothankmanyothers.Mr.ChristopherHill, ProfessorAsaBriggs,andMr. John Savillecriticisedpartsof the book in draft,although they are in no sense responsible for myjudgements.Mr.R.J.Harrisshowedgreateditorial patience, when the book burst the bounds ofa series for which it wasfirstcommissioned.Mr.Perry Anderson,Mr.DenisButt, Mr.RichardCobb,Mr.Henry Collins,Mr. Derrick Crossley, Mr.TimEnright,Dr.E.P.Hennock,Mr.RexRussell,Dr. JohnRex,Dr.E.Sigsworth,andMr.H.O.E.Swift,have helped me at different points. I have also to thank Mrs. Dorothy Thompson,an historian to whomIam related by the accident of marriage.Eachchapter hasbeendiscussedwithher,andI have been well placed to borrow not only her ideas but material fromhernotebooks.Hercollaborationistobefound,notin thisorthatparticular,but inthewaythewholeproblemis seen. Halifax,August1963 PartOne THELIBERTYTREE "YouarewrestlingwiththeEnemiesof thehuman Race, not for yourself merely, for youmay not see the fullDayof Liberty,but forthe Child hanging at the Breast." Instructionsof theLondonCorresponding Societytoitstravellingdelegates,1796 "The Beast&the Whore rule without control." WILLIAMBLAKE,1798 CHAPTERONE MEMBERSUNLIMITED "THATTHENUMBERof ourMembersbeunlimited."This isthe firstof the "leading rules" of the London Corresponding Society,as citedby itsSecretary when hebeganto correspond withasimilarsocietyin SheffieldinMarch1792.1Thefirst meetingoftheLondonsocietyhadbeenheldtwomonths before in atavern off the Strand ("The Bell"in Exeter Street) andnine"well-meaning,soberandindustriousmen"were present.ThefounderandfirstSecretary,ThomasHardy, later recalled this meeting: After havinghadtheirbread and cheeseand porter forsupper,as usual,andtheirpipesafterwards,withsomeconversationonthe hardness of the times and the dearness ofall the necessaries oflife ... the business forwhichthey hadmet wasbroughtforward-ParliammtaryReform-an importantsubjecttobedeliberateduponand dealt withby suchaclassof men. Eight of the ninepresent became founder-membersthat night (the ninth thQught it over and joined thenext week)and paid theirfirstweeklysubscriptionof onepenny.Hardy(whowas alsoTreasurer)went back to his home at NO.9 Piccadilly with theentire fundsof theorganisation in hispocket:Bd.towards paperforthepurposeofcorrespondingwithlike-minded groups in the country. Withinafortnighttwenty-fivememberswereenrolledand the sum in theTreasurer'shandswas 4S.Id.(Six months later morethan2,000memberswereclaimed.)Admissionto membershipwassimple,thetestbeing an affirmativereplyto three questions, ofwhich the most important was: Areyouthoroughlypersuadedthatthewelfare of thesekingdoms require that every adult person, in possession ofhis reason,and not incapacitatedbycrimes,shouldhaveavoteforaMemberof Parliament? 1M",w of Thomas Har4:J WritUn~ Himslif (,832), p.16 _______Jll..!I!._.."_" ._...... ".. " ~ .._.._.__... _... _ .&. 1918THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS Inthefirstmonthof itsexistencethesocietydebatedforfive nights in successionthe question-"Have we,who are Tradesmen,Shopkeepers,andMechanics,anyrighttoobtaina ParliamentaryReform?"-turningitover"ineverypointof viewinwhichwewerecapableof presentingthesubjectto our minds".They decidedthattheyhad. Twoyearslater,on.12May1794,theKing'sMessenger, twoBowStreet Runners,the private secretary toHome Secretary Dundas,and other dignitariesarrived at NO.9Piccadilly toarrestThomasHardy,shoemaker,onachargeofhigh treason.The Hardys watched whiletheofficersransackedthe room,brokeopenabureau,rummaged. amongMrs.Hardy's clothes(shewaspregnantandremainedinbed),filledfour largesilkhandkerchiefswithlettersandacom-sackwith pamphlets,booksand manuscripts.On the same day aspecial message fromthe King was brought to the House of Commons, concerningtheseditiouspractices9ftheCorresponding Societies;andtwodayslateraCommitteeof Secrecyof the House wasappointed toexaminethe shoemaker's papers. TheshoemakerwasexaminedseveraltimesbythePrivy Councilitself.Hardy leftlittlerecord of theseencounters;but oneofhisfellowprisonersentertainedhisreaderswitha dramatic reconstruction of his own interrogation by the highest council in the land."I was calledin,"related John Thelwall, "andbeheldthewholeDramatisPersonaeintrenchedchin deep in Lectures and manuscripts ... all scattered about in the utmost confusion."The Lord Chancellor, the Home Secretary, andthe PrimeMinister(Pitt)wereall present: Attorney-General (piano).Mr. ThelwaIl, what is your Christian name? T.(somewhatsullenly). John. Att. Gen.(piano still).. With two 1'sat the end or with one? T.Withtwo-but itdoesnot signify.(Carelessly,butrathersullen,or so.)You neednot give yourself any trouble.Ido not intend to answer any questions. Pitt. What does hesay?(Dartinground,very fiercely,fromtheotherside of theroom,and seating himself bythesideof theChaTlCellor.) Lord ChaTlCellor(withsilver softness,almost melting toa whisper).He does not meantoanswer any questions. Pitt.What isit?-What isit?-What? (fiercely) ...1 1Tribune,4April1795.Compare the Privy Council's own record of Thelwall's examination: "Being askedby theClerk of the Council how he spelt hisName-Al1l!wered:Hemightspellita c c o ~ i n gtohisowndiscretionforthathe should answer no Questions of any kind.."T.S.11.3509 f.83. MEMBERSUNLIMITED John Thelwall then turned his back on the august company and "began to contemplate adrawing in water-colours". The Prime Ministerdismissedhimandsummonedforinterrogationa fourteen-year-oldlad,HenryEaton,whohadbeenliving with the Thelwalls. But the boy stood his ground and "entered into apolitical harangue, in which he used very harsh language againstMr.Pitt;upbraidinghimwithhavingtaxedthe people to an enormous extent ...".1 By the standards of the next 100 years the antagonists appear tobestrangelyamateurishanduncertainoftheirroles,rehearsingincuriouslypersonalencountersthemassiveimpersonalencountersofthefuture.2 Civilityandvenomare mixed together;there is still room foracts of personal kindness alongsidethemalice of classhatred. Thelwall,Hardy, and ten otherprisonerswerecommittedtotheTowerandlaterto N ewgate. While there, Thelwall was foratime confined in the charnel-house;andMrs.Hardy diedinchildbir-thasaresult of shock sustained when her home was besiegedby aChurch andKing"mob.ThePrivyCouncildeterminedtopress through withthechargeof hightreason:andthefullpenalty foratraitorwasthatheshouldbehangedbytheneck,cut down while still alive,disembowelled(and his entrailsburned beforehisface)andthenbe4eadedandquartered.AGrand Jury of respectableLondoncitizenshadnostomachforthis. Afteranine-daytrial,Hardy wasacquitted(onGuyFawkes Day,1794).The Foreman of the Jury faintedafterdelivering his"NotGuilty",whiletheLondoncrowdwentwildwith enthusiasm and dragged Hardy in triumph through the streets. AcquittalsforHorneTookeandThelwall(andthedismissal of the other cases)followed.But the celebrations of the crowd were.premature.For inthenext yearthe steady repressionof reformers--or "Jacobins"-was redoubled.And by the end of thedecadeit seemedasif theentireagitationhadbeendispersed.TheLondonCorrespondingSocietyhadbeenoutlawed. Tom Paine's Rights of Manwas banned.Meetings were prohibited.Hardywasrunningashoe-shopnearCovent Garden, appealing to old reformerstopatronise him in tribute tohispastservices.JohnThelwallhadretiredtoan isolated farminSouthWales.Itseemed,afterall,that"tradesmen, 1MorningPost,16May 1794. 2Later, whenJohn Binns,the Jacobin, was imprisoned without trial in Gloucester Castle, the Home Secretary, his wife, and two daughters, paid him a social visit. 20THEMAKINGOFTHEWOR.KINGCLASS shopkeepers,and mechanics"hadno right to obtain aParliamentary Reform. The LondonCorrespondingSocietyhasoftenbeenclaimed as the first definitely working-class political organisation formed inBHtain.Pedantryapart(theSheffield,DerbyandManchestersocietieswereformedbeforetheSocietyinLondon) this judgement requires definition.On the onehand, debating societiesin whichworkingmentookpart existedsporadically in London fromthe time of the American War.On the other hand,itmaybemoreaccuratetothinkof theL.C.S.asa "popular Radical" society than as"working-class". Hardy wascertainlyan artisan.Bornin1752,he had been apprenticedasashoemakerinStirlingshire:hadseensomethingof thenewindustrialismasabricklayerattheCarron Iron Works (he was nearly killed when the scaffolding collapsed whenhewasatworkonironmasterRoebuck'shouse);and hadcometoLondonasayoungman,shortlybeforethe AmericanWar.Hereheworkedinoneofthosenumerous trades where a journeyman looked forwardtobecoming independent,withlucktobecomingamasterhimself-asHardy eventually became."He married the daughter of a carpenter and builder.Oneofhiscolleagues,aChairmanof theL.C.S., wasFrancisPlace,onhiswaytobecomingamaster-tailor. The linebetweenthe journeymenandthe .smallmasterswas oftencrossed-the JourneymenBootandShoemakersstruck againstHardyinhisnewroleasasmallemployerin1795, while Francis Place, before becoming a master-tailor, helped to organiseastrikeof JourneymenBreeches-makersin1793. '1/And the line betweenthe artisanof independent status(whose workroomwasalsohis"shop")and' thesmall shopkeeperor tradesmanwaseven fainter.Fromhereit wasanother stepto theworldof self-employedengravers,likeWilliam Sharpand WilliamBlake,ofprintersandapothecaries,teachersand journalists,surgeonsandDissentingclergy. At one end, then, the London Corresponding Society reached outtothecoffee-houses,tavernsandDissentingChurchesoff Piccadilly, Fleet Street and the Strand, where the self..educated journeymanmightrubshoulderswiththeprinter,theshopkeeper,theengraver or the youngattorney.Attheotherend, totheeast,andsouthoftheriver,ittouchedthoseolder working-class communities-the waterside workers ofWapping, J MEMBER.SUNLIMITED21 the silk-weavers of Spitalfields,the old Dissenting stronghold of Southwark.For 200 years"Radical London"has always been moreheterogeneousandfluidinitssocialandoccupational definitionthantheMidlandsorNortherncentresgrouped aroundtwoorthreestapleindustries.Popularmovementsin Londonhaveoftenlackedthecoherenceandstaminawhich resultsfromtheinvolvementofanentirecommunityin common occupationaland socialtensions.On the other hand, theyhavegenerallybeenmoresubjecttointellectualand "ideal"motivations.Apropagandaof ideashashadalarger audience than in the North. London Radicalism early acquired a greater sophistication fromthe need to knit diverse agitations into a common movement. New theories, new arguments, have generally firsteffecteda junction withthe popularmovement inLondon,andtravelledoutwardsfromLondontotheprovincial centres.. TheL.C.s.wasajunction-point of thissort.Andwemust rememberthatitsfirstorganiserlivedinPiccadilly,notin Wapping or in Southwark.But there are features,in eventhe brief d,escription of its firstmeetings,which indicate that a new kind of organisation had come .into being-features which help US!todefine(inthecontextof1790-1850)thenatureof a "working-classorganisation".Thereistheworkingmanas S9tretary.Thereisthelowweeklysubscription.There isthe interminglingof economicandpoliticalthemes-"thehardnessofthetimes"andParliamentaryReform.Thereisthe functionof themeeting,bothasasocialoccasionandasa centreforpoliticalactivity.Thereistherealisticattentionto procedural formalities.Above all,there isthe determination to propagateopinionsandtoorganisetheconverted,embodied intheleadingrule:"Thatthenumberof ourMembersbe unlimited." Today we might pass over such a rule as a commonplace: and yet it is one of the hinges upon which history turns.It signified the end to any notion of exclusiveness, ofpolitics asthe preserve of anyhereditaryeliteorpropertygroup.Assenttothisrule meant thatthe L.C.S.wasturning itsback uponthe centuryold identification of politicalwith property-rights-turning its backalsoupontheRadicalismofthedaysof "Wilkesand ' ~ ~Liberty", when "the Mob" did not organise itself in pursuance i ~ " ofitsownendsbutwascalledintospasmodicactionbya v ~ ~ . , faction--evenaRadicalfaction-tostrengthenitshandand 23 22THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS frighten the authorities. To throw open die doors to propaganda and agitation in this"unlimited" way implied anew notion of democracy,which cast asideancient inhibitions and trusted to self-activating and self-organising processes among the common people.Sucharevolutionarychallengewasboundtoleadon tothe chargeof hightreason. Thechallengehad,of course,beenvoicedbefore-bythe I 7th-centuryLevellers.Andthematterhadbeenarguedout betweenCromwell'sofficersandtheArmyagitatorsinterms which look forwardto the conflicts of theI790s.Inthe crucial debate,atPutney,ltherepresentativesof thesoldiersargued thatsincetheyhadwonthevictorytheyshouldbenefi;tby beingadmittedtoagreatlyextendedpopularfranchise.The claim of the Leveller Colonel Rainborough is well known: For reallyIthink that the poorest he that isin Englandhath a life to live,asthe greatest he;and therefore truly,sir,Ithink it's clear, that every man that isto live under a government ought firstby his ownconsenttoput himself underthatgovernment .... Ishould doubt whetherhewasan Englishmanorno,that shoulddoubt of thesethings. ThereplyofCromwell'sson-in-law,GeneralIreton-the spokesmanof the"Grandees"-was that"nopersonhatha right to an interest or share in the disposing of the affairs of the kingdom... thathathnotapermanent fixedinterestinthis kingdom." When Rainborough pressed him, Ireton grew warm in return: All the main thing that Ispeak for,isbecause Iwouldhave an eye toproperty.Ihopewedonotcometocontendforvictory-but let everymanconsider withhimself that hedonot gothat wayto take away all property.For here isthe case of the most fundamental partof theconstitutionof thekingdom,whichif youtakeaway, youtakeawayallby that. "If youadmitanymanthat "hathabreathandbeing,"he continued,amajorityof theCommonsmightbeelectedwho hadno "local andpermanent interest"."Whymaynotthose men vote against all property? ... Show me what you will stop at; wherein you will fenceany man in aproperty by this rule." Thisunqualifiedidentificationofpoliticalandproperty rights brought angry expostulations.From Sexby1A.S.P.Woodhouse,Puritanismand Liberty(1938),pp.53et seq. MEMBERSUNLIMITED Therearemanythousandsof ussoldiersthathaveventuredour lives;wehave had little propriety in thekingdom astoour estates, yet wehave had abirthright.But it seems now,except aman hath a fixedestate in this kingdom, he hath no right ... I wonder we were somuch deceived. AndRainboroughbrokeinironically: Sir,Iseethat it isimpossibletohavelibertybut allproperty must be takenaway.If it be laid downforarule... it must beso.But Iwouldfainknowwhat thesoldier hath foughtforallthiswhile? Hehath foughttoenslavehimself,togivepowertomen of riches, men of estates,tomake him aperpetual slave. To whichIreton andCromwell repliedwithargumentswhich seem like prescient apologetics for the compromise of 1688. The common soldierhadfoughtforthreethings:thelimitationof the prerogative of the Crown to infringe his personal rights and libertyof conscience:therighttobegovernedbyrepresentatives,eventhoughhehadnopartinchoosingthem:andthe "freedomof tradingtogetmoney,togetestatesby"-and of enteringuponpoliticalrightsinthisway.Onsuchterms, "Liberty may be had and property not be destroyed." For100yearsafter1688thiscompromise-the oligarchyof landedandcommercialproperty-remainedunchallenged, althoughwithathickening' textureof corruption,purchase, and interestwhosecomplexitieshavebeen lovinglychronicled bySirLewisN amierandhisschool.TheLevellerchallenge wasaltogetherdispersed-althoughthespectreof aLeveller revivalwasoftenconjuredup,astheScyllatotheCharybdis of PapistsandJacobitesbetweenwhichthegoodshipConstitution must steer her colirse.But until the last quarter of the 18th century the temperate republican and libertarian impulses of the "Eighteenth-CenturyCommonwealthsman"seemtobe transfixed withinthe limitsof Ireton's definition.l 'Toreadthe controversiesbetweenreformersandauthority,andbetween differentreforminggroups,intheI790SistoseethePutney Debates come to life once again. The "poorest he" in England, the man with a"birthright", becomesthe Rights of Man:while the agitation of "unlimited" members was seenby Burke as the threatofthe"swinishmultitude".Thegreatsemi-official agency forthe intimidation of reformers was called the Association for"Protecting Liberty and Property against Republicans 1See Caroline Robbins, The Eighleenth-CenturyC0"!"l0nwealthsman (Harvard, 1959). 25 ~ 4THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS andLevellers".The moderateYorkshirereformer,the Reverend Christopher Wyvill,astowhose devotiontherecanbe no question,neverthelessbelievedthatareformontheprinciple of universalsuffrage"couldnotbeeffectedwithoutaCivil War": Intimes-ofwarmpoliticaldebate,theRightofSuffrage communicatedtoanignorantandferociousPopulacewouldlead totumultandconfusion....Mteraseriesof Electionsdisgraced bythemost shameful corruption,or disturbedbythe most furious commotion, we expect that the turbulence or venality of the English Populacewouldat lastdisgusttheNationsogreatly,thattoget ridof theintolerableevilsof aprofligateDemocracy,theywould take refuge ... under the protection of Despotic Power.l "If Mr Paine should be able to rouze up the lower classes,"he wrote in1792,"their interference willprobably bemarkedby wild work,and all we now possess,whether in private property or public liberty,will be at the mercy of alawlessand furious rabble."2 It istheolddebatecontinued.The sameaspirations,fears, andtensionsarethere:buttheyariseinanewcontext,with new language and arguments,and a changed balance offorces. Wehavetotrytounderstandboththings-thecontinuing traditionsandthecontextthat haschanged.Toooften,since everyaccountmuststartsomewhere,weseeonlythethings whicharenew.Westartat1789,andEnglishJacobinism appears asaby-product of the French Revolution.Or we start in1819and withPeterloo,andEnglish Radicalism appearsto beaspontaneousgenerationoftheIndustrialRevolution. Certainly theFrench Revolution precipitated anew agitation, andcertainlythisagitationtookrootamongworkingpeople, shapedbynewexperiences,inthegrowingmanufacturing districts.Butthequestionremains-whatweretheelements precipitated so swiftly by these events? And we find at once the long traditions of the urban artisansandtradesmen,sosimilar to the menu peupte or "little people" whom Dr. George Rude has showntobethemostvolatilerevolutionaryelementinthe Parisian crowd.s We may seesomething of the complexitiesof thesecontinuingtraditionsif weisolatethreeproblems:the 1C. Wyvill to JohnCartwright,16December1797,in Wyvill'sPoliJicalPapers (York,1804), V, pp. 38[-2. mIbid., V,p.23. 3SeeG.Rude,TheCrowd in the F,enchRevolulilm(1959). MEMBERSUNLIMITED traditionof Dissent,anditsmodificationbytheMethodist revival:thetraditionmadeupof allthoseloosepopular notions which combine inthe idea of the Englishman's "birthright";andtheambiguoustraditionofthe18th-century "Mob",of whichWyvillwasafraidandwhichHardywas tryingtoorganiseintocommittees,divisions,andresponsible demonstrations. CHAPTERTWO CHRISTIANANDAPOLLYON DISSENTISAmisleadingterm.Itcoverssomanysects, somanyconflictingintellectualandtheologicaltendencies, finds somany different forms in differing social milieu. The aid dissentingsects-Independents,Presbyterians,Congregationalists,Quakers,andBaptists-showcertainsimilaritiesof developmentaftertheGloriousRevolution.Aspersecution gavewaytogreatertoleration,thecongregationsbecameless zealousand moreprosperous.Where the clothiersand farmers of the Spen Valley had met, in 1670, in secret and at night, in a farmhousecalled"YeCloses"or"inthebarnnearChapel Fold",100 years later we findasturdy church with aprosperousdeacon,JosephPriestley,whoconfidedinhisdevotional diary such entries asthis: The world smiles.Ihad someagreeableengagementsbythispost. WhatshallIrendermyLord,wasmylanguagewhenIwentto Leeds.Ideterminedtogivefourorfiveloadsof wheattoChrist's poor.Had much reason to complain this day that Idid not setGod beforemein allmythoughts.Find it difficultinthehurry of business.... And the next week: Thfs morning I ... dined with a company of officers who all appeared tobeignorantofthewayof salvation.Ihadsomepleasurein reading 45thIsiah .... Ordered brother Obadiah togivea load of wheat amongChrist'spoor.l ThisPriestleywasstillaCalvinist,albeitasomewhatguiltstrickenone.(Nodoubt"brotherObadiah"wasaCalvinist too.)But his younger cousin, alsoa Joseph Priestley, was at this timestudyingattheDaventry Academy,wherehesadlydisappointedhiskinsmenandchurchbybeingtouchedbythe spiritof therationalenlightenment,becomingaUnitarian,a scientist,andapoliticalreformer.It wasthisDr.Priestley 1 Frank Peel, Nonconformit:JinSpenValley(Heckmondwike,IBgI), p.136. CHRISTIANANDAPOLLYON'27 whosebooksand laboratory were destroyed by a"Church and King" mob in Birmingham in1791. Thatisathumb-nail sketchof onepart of theDissenting tradition.Theirlibertyof consciencetolerated,butstilldisabledinpubliclifebytheTestandCorporationActs,the Dissenterscontinuedthroughout thecentury towork forcivil and religious liberties. By the mid-century many of the younger educatedministerspridedthemselvesontheirbroad-minded rationaltheology.TheCalvinistself-righteousnessofthe persecutedsectwasleftbehind,andtheygravitatedthrough ArianandSocinianHher;esy"towardsUnitarianism.From Unitarianism it was only a further step to Deism,although few took this step until theI790s;and even fewer in the second half of the 18th century wished or dared to make a public avowal of scepticism-in1763theseventy-year-oldschoolmaster,Peter Annet,wasimprisonedandstockedfortranslatingVoltaire andforpublishing"free-thinking"tractsinpopularform, whileshortlyafterwardsthescepticalRobinHooddebating societywascloseddown.ItwasfromSocinianorUnitarian positions that liberal principles were argued: the famous figures areDr.Price,whoseOhservationsonCivilLiherry(1776)at the timeoftheAmericanWarachievedtheremarkablesaleof 60,000within a fewmonths, andwho lived to enrage Burke by his sermon in welcometo the French Revolution; Dr. Priestley hiInself;andascoreoflesserfigures,severalofwhomThomas Cooper of Bolton and William Frend of Cambridgetook an active part inthe reformagitation of the1790s.1 Sofarthestoryseemsclear.Butthisisdeceptive.These liberalnotionsprevailedwidelyamongdissentingclergy, teachers,andeducatedcitycommunities.Butmanyofthe ministershadlefttheircongregationsbehind.Itwasthe PresbyterianChurch,inwhichtheimpulsetoUnitarianism wasmoststronglyfelt,whichwasdeclininginstrengthmost markedlyinrelationtootherDissentinggroups.Inthemid18thcenturythePresbyteriansandtheIndependents(taken together)were strongest in the south-west (Devonshire,Dorset, Gloucestershire,Hampshire,Somerset,Wiltshire),inthe industrialnorth(notablyLancashire,Northumberlandand Yorkshire), in London,and in East Anglia(notably Essexand 1SeeAnthonyLincoln,SocWlaJldPoliticalIdeasof EnglishDissent,176j-183() (Cambridge,1938),andR.V.Holt,TheUnitarianContributiontoSocialProgress inEngland(1938).For briefer surveys,seeRobbins,op. cit.,Ch. VII and H.W. Carless Davis,TheAge ofGrll)! and Peel(Oxford,1929), pp.49-58. 2928THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLAss Suffolk).TheBaptistscontestedsomeofthesestrongholds, andwerealsowell-rootedinBedfordshire,Buckinghamshire, Kent,Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire.Thus the Presbyterians and Independents would appear to have been strongest inthecommercialand woolmanufacturingcentres,while the Baptistsheldgroundinareaswherepettytradesmen,small farmersand rural labourers must have made up apart of their congregations.1 It wasinthegreatestoftheolderwoollen centres,the West Country,thatthebroad-minded,"rational" religionwhichtendedtowardsthedenialof Christ'sdivinity andtoUnitarianismbothmadeitsmostrapidadvancesand lostittheallegianceof itscongregations.InDevonshire,by theendof the18thcentury,morethantwentyPresbyterian meeting-houses had been closed,and thehistorians of Dissent, writing in1809,declared: Devonshire,thecradle of arianism,has been the grave ofthe arian dissenters;andthere isnot leftin that populous county a twentieth part of thepresbyterianswhoweretobefoundatthetimeof her birth.1I But elsewherethestorywasdifferent.In mattersof church organisation the Dissenting sectsoften carried the principles of self-governmentandoflocalautonomytothebordersof anarchy.Anycentralisedauthority-evenconsultationand associationbetweenchurches-was seenas"productive of the great anti-christian apostasy," An apostasy sofataltothecivilandreligiouslibertiesof mankind, andparticularlytothoseof thebraveoldpun.tansandnonconformists,that the very words synodand session,council and canon, yet make both the ears of a soundProtestant Dissenter to tingle.1IWheretheCalvinisttraditionwasstrong,asin partsof LancashireandYorkshire,thecongregationsfoughtbackagainst the drift towards Unitarianism; and stubborn deacons, trustees and Obadiahs tormented the lives of their ministers, investigatingtheirheresies,expellingthemorbreakingawaytoform morerighteoussects.(ThomasHardy gained someof hisfirst experiencesof organisationinthefactionalstrugglesofthe 1D. Bogue andJ. Bennett, Historyof Dissenters(1809),III, p.333estimate that in 1760 the "principal strength" ofDissent ofall varieties was among tradesmen and insomecounties farmers,while"mechanicsof alldescriptionscomposedalarge portionof theircongregatioI)llin towns,andlabourersin husbandryincountry villages." 2Ibid.,IV,p.319. 3J. Ivirney,Historyqfthe EnglishBaptists([830),IV,p.40. CHRISTIANANDAPOLLYON Presbyterian congregation in Crown Court, off Russell Street.) Butwhatof "Christ'spoor",towhomDr.PriceofferedenlightenmentandDeaconPriestleyloadsof wheat?TheSpen Valley lay at thecentre of athickly-populatedand expanding manufacturingdistrict-,--hereonemighthaveexpectedthe Dissenting Churches to have reaped at last the reward fortheir endurance in the years of persecution. And yet "Christ's poor" seemed littletouchedby either theEstablishedChurch or old Dissent."AwilderpeopleIneversawinEngland,"John WesleynotedinhisJournal,whenherodethroughnear-by HuddersfieldinI757:"themen,women,andchildrenfilled the street as we rode along,and appeared just ready to devour us." The rationalChristianity of the Unitarians,withitspreferencefor"candour"and its distrust of "enthusiasm", appealed to someof then;adesmenand shopkeepersof London,and to similargroupsil'J.thelargecities.Butitseemedtoocold,too distant,toopolite,and toomuchassociated with the comfortable values of aprospering classtoappeal to the city or village poor. Its very language and tone served as abarrier: "No other preachingwilldoforYorkshire,"JohnNelsontoldWesley, "buttheoldsortthatcomeslikeathunderclapuponthe conscience.Fine preaching d o ~ smoreharmthan goodhere." AndyetoldCalvinismhaderecteditsownbarrierswhich inhibitedanyevangelisticzeal.Thepersecutedsectonlytoo easilymadeavirtueof itsownexclusiveness,and thisinturn reinforcedthehardesttenetsof Calvinistdogma."Election," ran one article of the Savoy Confession(1658),"was not out of the corrupt lump or mass ofmankind foreseen ..""Christ's poor" and the "corrupt lump" were of coursethe same people: from another aspectthe"wildness" of the poor was asignthat they livedoutwiththebounds o ~grace.TheCalvinistelecttended tonarrow into akinship group. Andtherewereotherreasonsforthisprocess.Somego right back to the defeat of the Levellers in the Commonwealth. When the millennial hopes forarule of the Saints were dashed to the ground,there followeda sharp dissociationbetweenthe temporal and spiritual aspirations ofthe poor man's Puritanism. Already in1654,beforethe Restoration,theGeneral Associationof theGeneralBaptistsissuedamanifesto(aimedatthe Fifth Monarchy men in their ridst) declaring that they did not "knowanyground forthesaints,assuch,toexpectthatthe 30THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS RuleandGovernmentof theWorldshouldbeput intotheir hands"until the Last Judgement.Until suchtime it wastheir portion "patiently to suffer from the world ... than anywhere toattaintheRuleand Governmentthereof".1Attheendof theCommonwealth,the rebellioustradition of Antinomianism "curvedback fromallitsclaims".Wheretheardent sectaries hadbeenzealous-indeed,ruthless-socialgardeners,they were now content to say:"let the tares(if tares)alone with the wheat ..."2 Gerrard Winstanley, the Digger, helps us to understandthemovementof feeling,turningaway fromthe"kingdom without"tothe"kingdom within": The living soul and the creating spirit are not one, but divided,the onelookingafterakingdomwithouthim,theotherdrawinghim tolookand wait forakingdomwithinhim,whichmothandrust dothnot corrupt and thievescannot break throughand steal.This isakingdomthat willabide,the outward kingdommust betaken fromyou.s Anunderstandingof thiswithdrawal-and of whatwaspreserved despitethewithdrawal-is crucial to an understanding of the 18thcenturyandof acontinuingelementinlaterworkingclasspolitics.Inonesense,thechangecanbeseeninthe differentassociationscalledupbytwowords:thepositive energyofPuritanism,theself-preservingretreatofDissent. But we must also see the way in which the resolution of the sects to"patiently suffer from the world" while abstainingfromthe hope of attaining to its"Rule and Government"enabled them to combine political quietism with a kind ofslumbering Radicalism-preservedintheimageryof sermonsandtractsandin democraticformsof organisation-whichmight,inanymore hopeful context, break into fire once more. We might expect to findthismostmarkedamongtheQuakersandtheBaptists. BytheI790s,however,thenumberedfewer than20,000intheUnitedKingdom-seemlittlelikeasect whichoncecontainedsuchmenasLilburne,FoxandPenn. Theyhadprosperedtoomuch:hadlostsomeof theirmost energeticspiritsinsuccessiveemigrationstoAmerica:their hostilitytoStateandauthorityhaddiminishedtoformal symbols-therefusaltoswearoathortobarethehead:the 1A.C.Underwood,HistoryojtM EnglishBaptists(1947), pp. 84.-5. 2G.Huehns,Antinomianismin EnglishHistory(1951),p.146.. 8FireintMBushin Selections . fromGerrardWinstanlf!)',ed.L. Hamilton (1944), PP30-1 CHRISTIANANDAPOLLYON 31 continuingtradition,atitsbest,gavemoretothesocialconscienceof themiddleclassthantothepopularmovement.In themid-centurytherewerestillhumblecongregationslike that which met in the meeting-house in Cage Lane, Thetfordadjoining the gaol, with its pillory and stocks-where young Tom Paine received(byhis own avowal)"an exceeding good moral education".ButfewQuakersseemtohavecomeforward whenPaine,inI79I,combinedsomeof theirownnotionsof servicetohumanitywiththeintransigenttoneofRightsof MaT].InI792theYorkshireQuarterlyMeetingofFriends urged onitsmembers"true quietude of mind" in the "state of unsettlementwhichatpresentexistsinournation".They shouldnotuniteinpoliticalassociations,norshouldthey promote "a spirit of disaffection to the King and to the Governmentunder.whichweliveandenjoymanyprivilegesand favourswhichmerit our grateful subjection thereto".1 Their forebears had notacceptedSUbjection,norwouldthey haveadmittedthewordgrateful.Thetensionbetweenthe kingdoms"without"and"within"impliedarejectionof the rulingpowersexceptatpointswhereco-existencewasinevitable:andmuchniceargumenthadonceturnedonwhatwas "lawful"totheconscienceandwhatwasnot.The.Baptists, perhaps,showedthegreatestconsistency:andtheyremained mostCalvinistintheirtheologyandmostplebeianintheir following.AnditisaboveallinBunyanthatwefindthe slumberingRadicalismwhichwas preservedthroughtheI 8th centuryandwhichbreaksoutagainandagainip.the19th. Pilgrim'sProgressis,with Rights of Man,one of the two foundationtextsof the English working-classmovement:Bunyan and Paine,withCobbett and Owen,contributedmosttothe stock of ideasandattitudeswhichmakeupthe rawmaterial of the movementfrom1790-1850.Manythousandsof youthsfound in Pilgrim'sProgresstheir adventure story,and wouldhave agreedwithThomasCooper,theChartist,thatitwastheir "book of books" . 2 "Iseekaninheritanceincorruptible,un,defiled,andthat fadethnotaway... laidupinheaven,and safethere... to bebestowed,atthetimeappointed,onthemthatdiligently seekit.Readitso,if youwill,inmybook."HereisWinstanley'skingdomwhich"mothandrustdothnotcorrupt", 1RufusM. Jones,TheLaterPeriodsoj Qyakerism(1921),I, p. 315. 2See Q. D.Leavitl, Fictionand tMReadingPublic(1932),Ch.II. 32THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASSCHRISTIANANDAPOLLYON33 hereisthemillenniumof theSaints,whomustBut when this monster turns upon CHRISTIAN("with a"patientlysufferfrom"thisworld.Hereisthe"lamentablefulcountenance")heturnsouttobeveryliketheperplexed cry"-"What shall Ido ?"-of thosewholostatPutney,andcountry magistrates who tried, with alternating arguments and whohad no share in the settlement of 1688.Here isOld Manthreats, to make Bunyan promise to desist from field-preaching. POPE,whom Christian feelsthat his forebearshave tamed, andAPOLLYON,openshismouth-whichwas"asthemouthof a who hasnow"grown socrazyand stiff inhis joints",that helion"-for averymuted roar:"I amwillingtopassbyall,if can do little but sit in his cave's mouth, saying to the pilgrims nowthouwiltyetturnagainandgoback."Only whenper"You will never mend till more of you be burned"-"grinningsuasionhasfaileddoeshestraddle"overthewholebreadth ... as they go by, and biting his nails because he cannot comeof theway"anddeclare:"Iswearbymyinfernalden,that at them." Here is the inner spirituallandscapeof the poor man'sthou shalt gono further."And it isAPOLLYON'Ssubtlety which Dissent-of the"tailors,leather-sellers,brewers,enables him to find allies among CHRISTIAN'S own company and weaversandtinkers"whowereamongBaptistpreachers1- fellowpilgrims. These-and they are by far the most numerous alandscape seeming all the more lurid, suffused with passionateanddeceptive-arethesecondsourceof threattoCHRISTIAN'S energyandconflict,fro!p.thefrustrationof thesepassionsinincorruptible inheritance;one by one,Bunyanbrings forward theouterworld:Beelzebub'sCastle,thegiantsBloody-man,allthe slippery arguments of comfort and compromise preparMaul,andSlay-good,theHillDifficulty,DoubtingCastle,ingthewayforanaccommodationbetweenAPOLLYONand Vanity Fair, the Enchanted Ground; away "full of snares, pits,Dissent.There isMr.By-endsof Fair-speech:andMr.Holdtraps,andgins".HereareChristian'saristocraticenemiesMr.Money-love,and Mr. Save-all,all pupils of "a "the Lord Carnal Delight, the Lord Luxurious, the Lord DesireschoolmasterinLove-gain,whichisamarkettowninthe of Vain Glory,myoid Lord Lechery, Sir Having Greedy, withcountyof Coveting,inthenorth".ItisMr.By-endswho all the rest of our nobility". And here isthe Valley of Humilia condemns those"that are righteous overmuch" : tioninwhichBunyan'sreadersweretobefound:"a Valley BY-ENDS.Why,they... rushontheir journeyallweathers;andIthat nobody walks in,but thosethat loveapilgrim's life".It amforwaitingforwindandtide.Theyareforhazardingallfor isMERCYwho says: Godat aclap;andIam fortaking all advantagestosecuremy life Ilovetobe in such places wherethere isnorattling with coaches,and.estate.They are forholding their notions,though all other men nor rumbling with wheels;methinks,here one may,without muchareagainstthem;butIam forreligioninwhat,andsofarasmolestation,be thinking what he is,whence he came,what he hastimes,andmysafetywillbearit.Theyareforreligionwhenin done ... here one may think, and break at heart, and melt in one'sragsandcontempt;butIam forhim when he walksin hisgolden spirit,until one's eyes become like"the fishpoolsof Heshbon" .slippers,in the sunshine,with applause. MR.HOLD-THE-WORLD.Aye,andholdyoutherestill,goodMr. And it isGREAT-HEARTwhoreplies,with the spiritual pride of By-ends.... Let usbe wiseas serpents; it isbest to make hay when thepersecutedandunsuccessful:"It istrue Ihavegone the sun shines.... throughthisValleymanyatime,andneverwasbetterthan MR.SAVE-ALL.Ithinkthatweareallagreedinthismatter,and when here." thereforethere needsnomorewordsabout it. Buttheworldof thespirit-of righteousnessandspiritual MR. MONEY-LOVE.No,there needs no more wordsabout thismatter, liberty-is constantly under threat from the other world. First,ini:leed;forhethatbelievesneitherScripturenorreason(and you it isthreatened by the powers of the State: when we encounterseewehaveboth onour side),neitherknowshisownliberty,nor APOLLYON we seem to be in aworld offantasy:seekshisownsafety. Hewasclothedwithscales,likeafish(andtheyarehispride), It isasplendid passage, foreshadowing somuch inthe develophehadwingslikeadragon,feetlikeabear,andout of hisbelly ment of 18th-century Dissent. Bunyan knew that inasenseMr.came fire and smoke.... By-end'sfriendsdidhavebothScriptureandreasonontheir ]. R.M. Jones,StutJiesinMysti&o.l.&ligion(1923),P.{is,Seealso J.Lindsay, side:heworkedintohisapologiatheargumentsof security,JoImBIUI;pan(1937). 35 34THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS comfort,enlightenmentandliberty.Whattheyhavelostis theirmoralintegrityandtheircompassion;theincorruptible inheritance of the spirit, it seems,could notbe preserved if the inheritance of struggle was forgotten. ThisisnotallthatPilgrim'sProgressisabout.AsWeber noted, the "basic atmosphere" of the book is one in which "the after-lifewasnot onlymoreimportant,but inmany waysalso morecertain,thanalltheinterestsof lifeinthisworld". 1 And this reminds usthat faith ina life to come served not asaconsolationtothepoorbutalsoassomeemotionalcompensation forpresent sufferingsand grievances:it waspossible notonlytoimaginethe"reward"of thehumblebutalsoto enjoysomerevengeupontheir oppressors,by imaginingtheir tormentstocome.Moreover,instressingthepositivesin Bunyan'sil11agerywehavesaidlittleof theobviousnegatives -theunction,thetemporalsubmissiveness,theegocentric pursuit of personal salvation-with which they are inseparably intermingled;and this ambivalencecontinuesinthelanguage ofhumbleNonconformityfarintothe19thcentury.The storyseemedtoBamfordtobe"mournfullysoothing,like that of alightcoming fromaneclipsedsun".Whenthecontextishopefuland massagitationsarise,theactiveenergies of thetradition aremost apparent:Christiandoesbattle with Apollyonintherealworld.Intimesofdefeatandmass apathy,quietismisintheascendant,reinforcingthefatalism ofthepoor:ChristiansuffersintheValleyofHumiliation, farfromtherattlingofcoaches,turninghisbackonthe Cityof Destructionand seekingthewaytoalIpiritualCity of Zion. Moreover, Bunyan, in his fear ofthe erosion ofthe inheritance by compromise,added tothe forbiddingPuritan joylessness his ownfigurativeportrayalof the"straightandnarrow"path, whichemphasisedthejealoussectarianismoftheCalvinist elect.By1750thoseverysectswhichhadsoughttobemost loyal to "Christ's poor" were least welcoming to new converts, leastevangelisticin temper.Dissentwascaught inthetension between opposing tendencies,both ofwhich led away from any popular appeal:on the one hand, the tendency towards rational humanitarianismandfinepreaching-toointellectualand genteelforthepoor;ontheotherhand,therigidElect,who 1M.Weber,TheProtestantEthicandtheSpiritiii Capitalism(I 930),pp.109- 10, 227.SeealsoA.Kettle,IntroductiontotheEnglishNovel(1951),pp.44-5 CHRISTIANANDAPOLLYON mightnotmarryoutsidethechurch,whoexpelledallbackslidersandheretics,andwhostoodapartfromthe"corrupt mass"predestinedtobedamned."TheCalvinismofthe former,"Halevynoted,"wasund.ergoingdecomposition,the Calvinism ofthe latter petrifaction."1 Even Bunyan's Baptists were deeply divided in thisway,the "Arminian"GeneralBaptistslosinggroundtothezealouslyCalvinistParticularBaptists(withtheir strongholdsinNorthamptonshire,Bedfordshire,Lincolnshire)whoseveryCalvinism,however,preventedthepropagationof thesect.2Itwas notuntil1770that theParticular Baptistsbegantobreakout of thetrap of their own dogma,issuingacircular letter(from Northamptonshire)which offered a formula by which evangelism and the notion of election might be reconciled: "Every soul that comestoChristtobesaved.. istobe encouraged .. The coming soulneednot fearthat he isnot elected,fornone but such would be willing tocome."But the revival wasslow; anditwascompetitionwiththeMethodists,ratherthanan innerdynamic,whichdrovetheBaptistsbacktothepoor. When,in theI760s,Dan Taylor,aYorkshirecollier whohad workedinthepitfromtheageof fiveandwhohadbeen convertedbytheMethodists,lookedaround foraBaptist sect with an evangelistictemper,.he could findnothing that suited. Hebuilthisownmeeting-house,diggingthestoneoutof the moorsabove Hebden Bridge and carrying it on his own back;3 thenhewalkeddown fromthe weavingtownshipof Heptonstall(aPuritan strongholdduring theCivilWar)toLincolnshireandNorthamptonshire,makingcontactwithrestive Baptist groups,and finallyforming(in1770)the BaptistNew Connexion.Travellinginthenextyears25,000milesand preaching 20,000 sermons he isa man to be remembered by the sideof WesleyandWhitefield;buthecamefromneitherthe ParticularnortheGeneralBaptistsocieties:spiritually, perhaps,hecamefromBunyan'sinheritance,butliterally he just came out of theground. Weshouldrememberboth Dr.PriceandDan Taylor;and weshould recallthattheydid enjoy liberty of conscience,they werenotthreatenedbytheInquisitionorthedungeonof the 1See Halevy's excellent summary, A History oftheEnglishPeople in1815(Penguin wn.), III, pp.28-32,40-8. 2Bogue andBennett,op.cit.,III,pp.332-3;Ivemay,op.cit.,III,pp.160ff. a JohnWesleynotesinhisJOl/r1Ul1 (31July1766)that"renegadeMethodists, ;t{;\firstturningCalvinist,thenAnabaptisthavemade confusionatHeptonstall". IJli .. ".' ,~ ~ !(~ " 36THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS "ScarletWhoreofBabylon".lTheveryanarchyofOld Dissent, with its self-governing churches and its schisms,meant that the most unexpected and unorthodox ideas might suddenly appear-in aLincolnshire village,aMidlands market-town,a Yorkshire pit. In the Somerset woollentown of Frome (Wesley noted in his Journalin1768)there was"a mixture of men of all opinions,Anabaptists,Quakers,Presbyterians; Arians,Antinomians,Moraviansandwhatnot".Scottishtradesmenand artisansbrought other sectsinto England;inthelastdecades of the18th century the Glasites or Sandemanians made alittle headway,with their zealouschurch discipline,their belief that the"distinctions of civillife[were]annihilated inthe church" andthatmembership impliedsomecommunityof goods,and -in theviewof critics-theirinordinatespiritualprideand "neglectof thepoor,ignorant,perishingmultitude".2Bythe endofthecentury,therewereSandemaniansocietiesin London,Nottingham,Liverpool,WhitehavenandNewcastle. Theintellectualhistoryof Dissentismadeupof collisions, schisms,mutations; and one feelsoftenthat thedormant seeds ofpolItical Radicalism lie within it, ready to germinate whenever plantedinabeneficentandhopefulsocialcontext.Thomas Spence,whowasbroughtupinaSandemanianfamily, deliveredalecturetotheNewcastlePhilosophicalSocietyin 1775which contained in outline his whole doctrine of agrarian Socialism; and yet it was not l,1,ntilthe I790S that he commenced hisseriouspublicpropaganda.TomPaine,withhisQuaker background, had shown little sign ofhis outrageously heterodox politicalviewsduringhishumdrumlifeasanexcisemanat Lewes; the context was hopeless,politics seemed amere species of"jockeyship".Withinoneyearof hisarrivalinAmerica (November1774)hehadpublishedCommonSenseandthe Crisisarticleswhichcontainalltheassumptionsof Rightsoj Man."I haveanaversiontomonarchy,asbeing toodebasing tothedignityofman,"hewrote."ButInevertroubled otherswithmynotionstillverylately,noreverpublisheda 1Dissent's tenn forErastianism-in thefirstplacethe Papacy andthe Roman iurch,butoftenattachedtotheChurchof Englandoranychurch accusedof prostituting its spiritual virtuetoreasonsof 'Stateandworldlypower.Cobbett finnlybelieved whenIwasaboy,thatthePopewasaprodi;eelhad been made red by being dipped blood of Protestants." PoliticalI8 ~ H . BogueandBennett,op.IV,pp.theirseverity,the Sandemanianswerekssbigotedothersomesocialobservances,andapproved of CHRISTIANANDAPOLLYON37 syllableinEnglandinmylife."Whathadchangedwasnot Paine, but the context in which he wrote. The seedof Rights oj ManwasEnglish:but only the hope brought by the American and FrenchRevolutionsenabled it tostrike. Ifsome sect of Old Dissent had set the pace of the evangelical revival-insteadofJohnWesley-then19th-centuryNonconfonnitymighthaveassumedamoreintellectualand democraticform.Butit wasWesley-HighToryinpolitics, sacerdotal inhisapproachtoorganisation-who firstreached "Christ'spoor",breakingtheCalvinisttaboo withthesimple message:"Youhavenothing to dobut savesouls." Outcasts of men,toyouIcall, Harlots,and publicans,andthieves! He spreads hisarmstoembraceyouall; Sinners aloneHis gracereceives: Noneed forhimtherighteoushave; He camethelosttoseekand save. Come,0:tnyguilty brethren,come, Groaning beneath your loadof sin! Hisbleeding heart shall makeyouroom, His open sideshalltake you in; He callsyou now,invitesyouhome: Come,0my guilty brethren,come. There is, ofcourse, a certain logic in the fact that the evangelical revival should have come from within the Established Church. ThePuritanemphasisupona"calling"was(asWeberand Tawneyhaveshown)particularlywelladaptedtotheexperienceofprosperingandindustriousmiddleclassorpetty bourgeoisgroups.ThemoreLutherantraditionsof Anglican Protestantismwerelessadaptedtoexclusivedoctrinesof "election";whileastheestablishedChurchit hadapeculiar charge over the souls ofthe poor-indeed, the duty to inculcate inthemthevirtuesof obedienceandindustry.Thelethargy andmaterialismof the18th-centuryChurchweresuchthat, intheendandagainstWesley'swishes,theevangelical revivalresulted. inthedistinctMethodistChurch.Andyet Methodismwasprofoundlymarkedbyitsorigin;thepoor man'sDissentof Bunyan,of DanTaylor,and-later-of the PrimitiveMethodistswasareligionojthepoor;orthodox Wesleyanismremained asit hadcommenced, a religion forthe poor. 39 38THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS Aspreachersandevangelists,Whitefieldandotherearly field-preachersweremoreimpressivethanWesley.But it was Wesleywhowasthesuperlativelyenergeticand skilfuliser,administrator,and law-giver.He succeeded in combining inexactlytherightproportionsdemocracyanddiscipline, doctrine and emotionalism; his achievement lay not so much in thehystericalrevivalistmeetings(whichwerenotuncommon in the century ofTyburn) but in the organisation ofself-sustainingMethodistsocietiesintradingandmarketcentres,and in mining,weaving,and labouring communities,thedemocratic participation of whosemembersinthelifeof the Church was bothenlistedandstrictlysuperintendedanddisciplined.He facilitated entry to these societies by sweeping away all barriers of Jlectariandoctrines.Inordertogainadmission,hewrote, Methodists-donot impose... any opinions whatever.Let them holdparticular or general redemption, absolute or conditional decrees;let them be ChurchmanorDissenters,PresbyteriansorIndependents,itisno obstacle.. ,,TheIndependentor Anabaptist[may]usehisown modeof worship;somaytheQuaker,andnonewillcontendwith himabout it., , , One condition,and oneonly,isrequired,-a real desiretosavetheirsouls,l ButoncewithintheMethodistsocieties,theconvertedwere subjectedtoadiscipline which challenges comparison with the morezealousCalvinist sects.WesleywishedtheMethodiststo bea"peculiar people";toabstainfrommarriageoutsidethe societies;tobe distinguishedbytheirdressandbythegravity of theirspeechandmanners;toavoidthecompanyevenof relatives"\Vhowerestillin"Satan'skingdom".Memberswere expelled forlevity,forprofanity and swearing,forlaxattendanceatclassmeetings.Thesocieties,withtheirconfessional band-meetings,classes,watch-nightsandvisiting,madeupa lay order within which, as Southey noted, there was a "spiritual police"constantlyalertforanysignof relapse.2 The"grass roots"democracy,bywhichthesocietieswereofficeredby tradesmenand working people,extended notatalltomatters ofdoctrineorChurchgovernment.InnothingdidWesley breakmoresharplywiththetraditionsof Dissentthaninhis oppositionto localautonomy,and in theauthoritarian ruleof himself and of hisnominated Ininisters. 1 R.Southey,Life III and theRiseof Methodism,(18g0edn.),p.545. 2Ibid.,pp.382,545. CHRISTIANANDAPOLLYON And yet it was often in areas with along Dissenting tradition -Bristol,theWestRiding,Manchester,Newcastle-that Methodism made most rapid headway among the poor. In the I760s,twoIniles from Heckmondwike, where Deacon Priestley andObadiahwerestillsupportingachurchofCalvinist Independents, John Nelson, a Birstall stone-mason, was already drawing great congregations of clothing workers and miners to hearthenewmessageof personalsalvation.Onhiswayto workatthequarryNelsonwouldpasstheoldDissenting minister'shouse,exchangetexts,andarguethedoctrinesof sin,redemptionbygraceandpredestination.(Suchdisputationsbecamemorerareinlater yearsasorthodoxMethodist theologybecamemore. opportunist,anti-intellectual,and otiose.)NelsonhadbeenconvertedwhileinLondon,when hearing John WesleypreachinMoorfields.His Journalisvery different fromthat of Deacon Priestley: One night... IdreamedthatIwasinYorkshire,inmyworking clothes goinghome;andasIwentbyPaulChampion's,Ihearda mighty cry, as of a multitude of people in distress .... All on a suddentheybegantoscreamandtumbleoveroneanother;Iasked, what wasthe matter;and theytoldme,Satan waslet looseamong them.... ThenIthoughtIsawhimintheshapeof aredbull, runningthroughthepeople,as ,abeastrunsthroughthestanding corn, yet did not offer to gore any of them, but made directly at me, as ifhe would run his horns into my heart.Theq.I cried out, "Lord, helpme!"andimmediatelycaughthim bythehorns,andtwisted himon hisback,setting myright footon hisneck,inthepresence of athousandpeople .... Fromthisdreamheawokeperspiringandexhausted.On anothernight"my wasfilledwithsuchasenseof God's love,asmade me weep before him": IdreamedIwasin Yorkshire,goingfromGomersal-Hill-Topto Cleckheaton;andaboutthemiddleof thelane,IthoughtIsaw Satan comingtomeet me in the shape of a tall,black man,and the hair of his head like snakes;/... But I went on, ript open my clothes, andshewedhimmynakedbreast,saying,"See,hereistheblood of Christ."Thenl thoughthefledfrommeasfastasaharecould run. John Nelsonwasverymuchinearnest.He waspressedinto the Army,refusedtoserve,heandhiswifeweremobbedand stonedintheirwork.Butit occurstoone,nevertheless,that 43 42THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS orin conversation speak lightly or irreverently of theGovernment."l Thus,atthislevelMethodismappearsasapolitically regressive,or"stabilising",influence,andwefindsomeconfirmationof HaUvy'sfamousthesisthat Methodismprevented revolutioninEnglandintheI790s.But,atanotherlevel,we are familiarwiththe argument that Methodism wasindirectly responsibleforagrowthintheself-confidenceandcapacity fororganisation of workingpeople.Thisargument wasstated, as early as1 8 ~ : w ,by Southey: PerhapsthemannerinwhichMethodismhasfamiliarizedthe lower classestothe work of combining in associations,making rules fortheirowngovernance,raisingfunds,andcommunicating from onepart of thekingdomtoanother,maybereckonedamongthe incidental evilswhich haveresulted fromit.... And,morerecently,ithasbeendocumentedinDr.Wearmouth'sinterestingbooks;althoughreadersof themwilldo welltorememberSouthey'simportantqualification-"but in thisrespectit ha&onlyfacilitatedaprocesstowhichother causeshadgivenbirth".2Mostofthe"contributions"of Methodismtotheworking-classmovementcameinspiteof andnot becauseof theWesleyanConference. Indeed,throughouttheearlyhistoryof Methodismwecan seeashapingdemocraticspiritwhichstruggledagainstthe doctrinesandthe organisational formswhich Wesley imposed. Laypreachers,thebreakwiththeEstablishedChurch,selfgoverningformswithinthesocieties-onallthesequestions Wesleyresistedortemporisedorfollowedaftertheevent. Wesley couldnot escapetheconsequencesof hisownspiritual egalitarianism. If Christ's poor cametobelievethat their souls were as good as aristocratic or bougeois souls then it might lead them on to the arguments of the Rights if Man.The Duchess of Buckinghamwasquicktospotthis,andobservedtothe Methodist Countess of Huntingdon: 1CitedinHalevy,op.cit.,III,p.49.Halevyaddsthecomment:"Such conduct ensured that .. the unpopularity ofJacobin principles did not prejudice theMethodist"However,sinceJacobinprinciplesweregaining in popularity in! 792pp.102-I3below),itismore truethat theMethodist propagandawasdesignedtomaketheseprinciplesunpopular,andthatthiswas prejudicialtothe liberties of the English people.See alsoE. Hobsbawm's critique of HaJevy,"Methodism andthe Threat of Revolution",HistoryToday,February, 1957 Il Southey, op.cit.,p.571. CHRISTIANANDAPOLLYON IThankYourLadyshipfortheinformationconcerningthe Methodist preachers; their doctrines are most repulsive and strongly tinctured with impertinence and disrespecttowardstheir Superiors, in perpetually endeavouringtolevel all ranks andtodoaway with all distinctions.It ismonstrous tobetold youhave a heart assinful asthe common wretchesthat crawl onthe earth.l Smolletthadpointedoutmuchthesamething,inthehigh . comedyof acoachman,HumphreyClinker,preachingtothe London rabble. And-for their part-hundreds oflay preachers who followedin John Nelson's footstepswere learning this in a differentway.AgainandagainEstablishmentwriters thisfear.Ananti-Jacobinpamphleteer,inI 800,laid uponthe"beardlessboys,and mechanics or labourers" preachedinSpaFields,Hackney,andIslingtonGreen. thepreachersof thesectshefoundaDealerinOld aGrinder,aSheep's-HeadSeller,aCoach-painter, Mangle-maker,aFootman, aTooth-drawer, a Peruke-maker .'a.ndPhlebotomist,aBreeches-maker,andaCoal-heaver.The . Bishop of Lincoln saw in this adarker threat: "the same means might,withequalefficacy,beemployedtosapandoverturn tliestate,aswellasthe church."1! And from preaching to organisation. There are two questions here:the temporary permeation of Methodism by some of the self-governingtraditionsofDissent,andthetransmissionto working-classsocietiesof formsof organisationpeculiartothe MethodistConnexion.Forthe first,Wesley didnotonly (asis sometimessupposed)takehismessageto"heathen"outside theexistingchurches;healsoofferedanoutletforthelandlocked emotions ofOld Dissent. Therewere Dissenting ministers, andwholecongregations,whojoinedtheMethodists.Some passedthroughthe' revival,onlytorejointheirownsectsin disgustatWesley'sauthoritariangovernment;whilebythe I790SDissentwasenjoyingitsownevangelisticrevival.But othersmaintainedasomewhatrestivemembership,inwhich their oldertraditions struggled withinthe sacerdotal Wesleyan forms.For the second,Methodism provided not only the forms of theclassmeeting,themethodicalcollectionof pennysubscriptionsandthe"ticket", sofrequentlyborrowedby radical and trade union organisations, but also an experience ofefficient 1Cited in]. H. Whiteley, ,Wesl.ry'sEngland(1938),p.328. II W.H.Reid,TheRiseandDissolutianof theInfidelSocietiesof theMetropolis (1800),pp.45-8. 45 44THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLAS.S centralisedorganisation-at districtaswellasnational levelwhichDissenthadlacked.(ThoseWesleyanAnnualConferences,withtheir"platform",theircaucusesatworkonthe agendas,andtheircarefulmanagement,seemuncomfortably likeanother"contribution"to the Labourmovementof more recent times.) Thuslate18th-centuryMethodismwastroubledbyalien " democratictendencieswithin itself,whileatthesametimeit wasservingdespiteitselfasamodelof otherorganisational forms.Duringthe.lastdecadeof Wesley'slifeinternaldemocraticpressureswererestrainedonlybyreverenceforthe founder'sgreatage-andbythebeliefthattheoldautocrat could not be far from entering upon his "great reward".There wereascoreof demandsbeingvoicedindissidentsocieties: foranelectedConference, forgreaterlocalautonomy, forthe finalbreakwiththeChurch,forlayparticipationindistrict andquarterlymeetings.Wesley'sdeath,whenthegeneral radicaltide wasrising,waslikea"signal gun".Rival schemes of organisationwerecanvassedwithaheatwhichisassignificantaswerethemattersunderdispute."We the conduct of persecuting Neros,and all the bloody actions of the greatWhoreof Babylon,andyet inourmeasure,wetread in their steps," declared Alexander Kilham in apamphlet entitled TheProgressojLiberty,1Andhesetforwardfar-reaching proposalsforself-government,whichwerecanvassedthroughouttheConnexion,bymeansofpamphlets,andinclass meetingsandlocalpreachers'meetings,andwhosediscussion mustitselfhavebeenanimportantpartoftheprocessof democraticeducation.2 In1797KilhamledthefirstimportantWesleyansecession, theMethodistNewConnexion,whichadoptedmanyof his proposals for a more democratic structure. The greatest strength oftheConnexionwasinmanufacturingcentres,and(itis probable)among the artisans and weavers tinged with Jacobinism.3 Kilhamhimselfsympathisedwiththereformers,and \, 1TheProgressof Liberty Amongst thePeopleCalled Methodists(Alnwick,1795). 2SeeAnAppealtotheMembersof theMethodistConnexion(Manchester,1796); E.R.Taylor,MethodismandPolitics,1791-1851(Cambridge,1935),Ch.2;W. J.Warner,TheMovement intheIndustrial Revolution(1930), pp.128-31. 3Kilham'ssupportwasstronginSheffield,Nottingham,Manchester,Leeds, Huddersfield, Plymouth Dock, Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham, Burslem, Maccles field,Bolton,Wigan,Blackburn,Oldham,Darlington,Newcastle,Alnwick, Sunderland,Ripon,Otley,Epworth,Chester,Banbury.SeeE.R.Taylor,op. cit.,p.81; J.Blackwell,Life of AlexanderKilham(1838),pp.290,343 CHRISTIANANDAPOLLYON although hispolitical convictions were kept in the background, his opponents in the orthodox Connexion were at pains to bring them forward."We shall loseall the turbulent disturbers of our Zion," the Conference addressed the members of the Church in Ireland,whenaccountingforthesecession:"allwhohave embracedthesentimentsof Paine...".InHuddersfieldthe membersoftheNewConnexionwere.knownasthe"Tom PaineMethodists".Wemayguessatthecomplexionof his following froman account of the principal Kilhamite chapel in Leeds,withacongregationof 500"inthemidstof adense, poor,andunrulypopulation,atthetopof EbeneezerStreet, wherestrangersof themiddleclasscouldnotreasonablybe expectedtogo".Andinseveralplacesthelinkbetweenthe NewConnexionfLndactual Jacobin organisation ismorethan amatterof inference.InHalifax,attheBradshawchapel,a readingclubanddebatingsocietywasformed.Thepeopleof thisweavingvillagediscussedintheirclassmeetingsnotonly Kilham'sProgressoj LibertybutalsoPaine'sRightsojMan. Writingfortyyearslater,thehistorianof HalifaxMethodism still could not restrain hisabomination of "that detestable knot of scorpions"who,intheend,capturedthechapel,excluded thecircuit minister,bought the site,and continued it as a'']acobin" chapel oftheir own.1 TheprogressoftheNewConnexionwasunspectacular. Kilhamhimself died in1798,andhisfollowingwasweakened by the general political reaction of the laterI790s.By181 Ithe NewConnexioncouldclaimonly8,000members.Butits existenceleadsonetodoubtHaUvy'sthesis.OnWesley'S deathit wasestimatedthatabout 80,000peoplemadeupthe Methodist societies.Even if wesupposethat every one of them sharedtheToryprinciplesof theirfounder,thiswasscarcely sufficienttohave stemmed arevolutionarytide.In fact,whateverAnnualConferencesresolved,thereisevidencethatthe RadicalgroundsweVof1792andI793extendedthrough DissentgenerallyandintomostMethodistsocieties.The Mayorof Liverpoolmayhave shownsoundobservationwhen he wrotetotheHomeOfficein1792: InalltheseplacesarenothingbutMethodistandotherMeeting houses and ... thus the Youth of the Countery are training up under 1J.Blaf.:kwell,.op.cit.,p.339;E.R.Taylor,op.cit.,p.85; J. Wray,"Facts Illustrative of MethodisminLeeds"[c.1835],MS. inLeedsReferenceLibrary;J.U.Walker,WesleyanA1ethodismillHalifax(Halifax,1836),pp.216-23. 46THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS theInstructionof aSetof MennotonlyIgnorant,butwhomI believewehaveof latetooMuchReasontoimagine,areinimical toOur Happy Constitution.l I twasinthecounter-revolutionaryyearsafter1795that Methodismmademost headway amongst working peopleand actedmostevidentlyasastabilising orregressivesocialforce. Drained ofits more democratic and intellectual elements by the Kilhamitesecession,andsubjectedtosevererformsofdiscipline,itappearsduring these years almost asanew phenomenon-and as One which may be seen as theconsequence of political reactionasmuch asit wasacause.2 Throughoutthewholeperiodof theIndustrialRevolution, Methodism never overcamethistensionbetween authoritarian and democratic tendencies.It isin the seceding sects-the New Connexion and (after1806)the Primitive Methodists-that the secondimpulsewasfeltmoststrongly.Moreover,asDr. Hobsbawmhaspointedout,whereverMethodismwasfound itperformed,initsrupturewiththeEstablishedChurch, certainofthefunctionsofanti-clericalismin19th-century France.:I In the agricultural or mining village,the polarisation of chapel and Church might facilitate a polarisation which took politicalor industrial forms.For yearsthetensionInight seem tobecontained;butwhenit didbreakout itwassometimes chargedwithamoralpassion-wheretheoldPuritanGod of Battlesraisedhisbannersonceagain-which secularleaders could rarely touch. So long as Satan remained undefined and of nofixedclassabode,Methodismcondemnedworkingpeople toakind of moral civil war-between the chapel and the pub, the wickedandtheredeemed,tpelostand the saved.Samuel BamfordrelatedinhisEarlyDqysthemissionaryzealwith heand his companions would tramp to prayer-meetings in neighbouring villages "where Satan had as yet many strongholds"."Theseprayerswerelookeduponassomanyassaults on'thepowersofthePrinceoftheAir'."(Asimilarzeal inspired,on the other sideof the Pennines,thenotablehymn: "OnBradfordlikewiselookThoudown,/WhereSatankeeps hisseat.")OnlyafewyearslaterCobbetthadtaughtthe weaversofuplandLancashiretolookforSatan,notinthe' ale-housesofarivalvillage,butin"theThing"andOld 1Cited inJ. L.and B.Hammond,TheTownLabourer(2nd edn.,1925),p.270. 2Seebelow,Chapter Eleven. 3E. J. Hobsbawm, PrimitiveRebels(1959), p.146. CHRISTIANANDAPOLLYON47 Corruption. It wassuch a swiftidentification of Apollyonwith LordLiverpooland OlivertheSpy whichledtheweaversto Peterloo. Twootherfeaturesof theDissentingtraditionshouldbe noted. While neither was of great influence in the18th century, bothassumednewsignificanceafter1790.Inthefirstplace, there is a continuous thread ofcommunitarian ideas and experiments,associatedwiththeQuakers,Camisards,andinparticular the Moravians.It was'in Bolton and Manchester that a fermentinasmallgroupof dissidentQuakersculminatedin the departure,in1774,of "Mother Ann"andasmall party to foundthe firstShaker communities in theUnited States; forty yearslaterRobertOwenwastofindencouragementinthe successof theShakers,whoseideashepopularisedinsecular form.lTheMoravians,towhom Wesleyowedhisconversion, never became fullynaturalised in England in the18th century. AlthoughmanyEnglishpeopleenteredtheircommunitiesat Fulneck(Pudsey),andDukinfieldandFairfield(nearManchester),aswellastheMoravian congregation in London, the societiesremaineddependentuponGermanpreachersand adIninistrators.WhilethefirstMethodistsocietiesarosein associationwiththeMoravianBrotherliood,thelatterwere distinguishedfromtheformerbytheir"stillness",their avoidance of "enthusiasm", and their practical communitarian values;"the calm, soft,steady, sweetand impressive character of theservice[atFulneck]wassuchasappearedasakindof rebuketothe earnestness,noise,anduproarof a revivalmeeting".Theinfluenceof theMoravianswasthreefold:first,throughtheireducationalactivities-Richardj;;Oastlerand JamesMontgomery(theRadicalpoetand editor ofthe Sheffield Iris)were educated at Fulneck; second, through theevidentsuccessof theircommunities,which-alongwith thoseof theShakers-wereoftencitedbyearly19th-century Owenites;andthin},throughtheperpetuationwithinthe Methodistsocieties-longafterWesleyhaddisownedthe Moravianconnection---oftheyearningforcommunitarian ideals expressed in the language of "brotherhood"and "sisterhood".2 !1~,Thecommunitariantraditionwassometimesfoundin ii:1SeeW.H.G.Armytage, HeavensBelow(1961),I,Chs.3 and 5. !( 2SeeC.W.Towison"MoravianandMethodist(1957);Armytage,0p.cit.I, Ch.6; J.Lawson,LetterstotheIounganProgressinPUdstry(Stanningley,1887), Ch.15;C.Driver,ToryRadical(Oxford,1946), pp.15-17. ',JI":i,." ..t'I, . : 48THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS associationwithanotherundergroundtradition,thatof millennarianism.The wildersectariesof theEnglishRevolution-RantersandFifthMonarchyMen-werenevertotally extinguished,withtheirliteralinterpretationsof theBookof Revelation and their anticipations of a New Jerusalem descending fromabove.TheMuggletonians(or followersof Ludowic Muggleton)werestillpreachinginthefieldsandparksof Londonattheendof the18thcentury.TheBoltonsociety from which the Shakers originated was presided over by Mother JaneWardleywhopacedthemeeting-room"withamighty trembling", declaiming: Repent.For the Kingdom of G:>disat Hand. The new heaven and new earth prophesied of old isabout to come .... And when Christ appearsagain,andthetruechurchrisesin fullandtranscendant glory,thenallanti-Christiandenominations-thepriests,the church,thepope-will be swept away.l Anydramatic. event,suchastheLisbonearthquakeof1755, arousedapocalypticexpectations.Therewas,indeed,a millennarialinstabilitywithintheheartof Methodismitself. Wesley,who wascredulousto adegreeabout witches,Satanic possession,andbibliomancy(orthesearch forguidancefrom textsopenedatrandomintheBible),sometimesvoiced premonitions asto the imminence ofthe Day ofJudgement. An early hymn of the Wesleysemploysthe customary millennarial imagery: Erect Thy tabernaclehere, The New Jerusalemsenddown, Thyself amidst Thy saintsappear, Andseat uson Thy dazzlingthrone. Beginthe great millennialday; Now,Saviour,with ashout descend, Thy standard in theheavensdisplay, Andbring the joy which ne'er shall end. Evenif literalbelief inthemillenniumwasdiscouraged,the apocalyptic manner of Methodist revival meetings inflamed the imaginationandpreparedthewayfortheacceptanceof chiliastit prophets after1790.In London,Bristol and Birmingham smallcongregationsof theSweden borg ianChurch of the lE.D.Andrews,ThePeopleCalled Shakers(New York,1953), p. 6. CHRISTIANANDAPOLLYON 49 NewJerusalemwerepreparingsomeartisansformoremtellectualandmysticalmillennarialbeliefs. 1 Althoughhistoriansandsociologistshaverecelltlygiven moreattentiontomillennarialmovementsand fantasies,their significance has been partly obscured by the tendency to discuss themintermsofmaladjustmentand"paranoia".Thus ProfessorCohn,inhisinterestingstudyofThePursuittif the Millennium,isable-by asomewhat sensational selection of the evidence-to proceed to generalisations as to the paranoiac and megalomaniacnotionof"theElect",andthe"chronically impairedsenseofreality"of"chiliastically-mindedmovements."Whenmessianicmovementsgain masssupport-It is as though units of paranoia hitherto diffused through the population suddenly coalesce to form a new entity: a collective paranoiac fanaticism. 2 Onedoubtssuchaprocessof"coalescence".Givensucha phenomenon,however,thehistoricalproblemremains-why shouldgrievances,aspirations,orevenpsychoticdisorders, "coalesce"intoinfluentialmovementsonlyatcertaintimes and in particular forms? What wemust not do isconfuse pure"freaks"and fanatical aberrationswiththeimagery--ofBabylonandtheEgyptian exileandt h ~CelestialCity,andthecontestwithSatan-in whichminoritygroupshavearticulatedtheirexperienceand projectedtheiraspirationsforhundredsof years.Moreover, the extravagant imagery used by certain groups does not always revealtheirobjectivemotivationsandeffectiveassumptions. Thisisadifficultquestion;whenwespeakof "imagery"we meanmuchmorethanfiguresofspeechinwhichulterior motiveswere"clothed".Theimageryisitselfevidenceof powerful subjective motivations, fully as "real" as the objective, fully aseffective, as we see repeatedly in the history of Puritanism,intheirhistoricalagency.It isthesignof howmenfelt and hoped, loved and hated, and of how they preserved certain valuesinthevery'textureof theirlanguage.Butbecausethe luxuriating imagerypointssometimestogoalsthatare clearly lFor Wesleyanism,seeSouthey, op.cit.,p.367; Joseph Nightingale,Portraiture of Methodism(1807),pp.443ff.; J.E.Rattenbury,TheEw;haristicHymnsif John andCharlesWesley(1948),p.249.ForSwedenborgianism,Bogueand,Bennett, op.cit.,IV,pp.126-34;R.Southey,LettersfromEngland(1808),III,pp.113 ff.For the end of 17th-century millennarialism, see Christopher Hill "John Mason and the End of the World", in Puritanism and Revolution(1958). Forindications of the !8thrcentury tradition, see W. H. G. Armytage, op. cit.,I,4 2N. Cohn,ThePursuit iftheMillennium(1957), p. 312. 50THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS illusory, this does not mean that wecan lightly conclude that it indicatesa"chronically impaired senseof reality".Moreover, abject"adjustment"tosufferingandwantattimesmayindicateasenseof realityasimpairedasthatof thechiliast. Wheneverweencountersuchphenomena,wemusttryto distinguishbetween the psychic energy stored-and releasedinlanguage,howeverapocalyptic,andactualpsychoticdisorder. Throughout the Industrial Revolution wecan seethis tension betweenthe"kingdomwithout"andthe"kingdorpwithin" in the Dissent of the poor, with chiliasm at one pole, and quietismat the other.For generations the most commonly available education came by way of pulpit and Sunday School,the Old TestamentandPilgrim'sProgress.Betweenthisimageryand thatsocialexperiencetherewasacontinualinterchangeadialoguebetweenattitudes and reality whichwassometimes fruitful,sometimesarid,sometimesmasochisticinitssubmissiveness,but rarely "paranoiac". The history of Methodism suggeststhatthemorbiddeformitiesof "sublimation"arethe mostcommonaberrationsofthepoorinperiodsofsocial reaction;whileparanoiacfantasiesbelongmoretoperiods whenrevolutionaryenthusiasmsarereleased.Itwasinthe immediateaftermathoftheFrenchRevolutionthatthe millennarial current, solong underground, burst into the open withunexpectedforce: FortherealChiliast,thepresentbecomesthebreachthrough whichwhat waspreviouslyinwardburstsout suddenly,takeshold of the outer world and transforms it.1 Imageandrealityagainbecameconfused.Chiliasmtouched Blakewithitsbreath:itwalkedabroad,notonlyamongthe JacobinsandDissentersof artisanLondon,butinthe mining andweavingvillagesof theMidlandsandthenorthandthe villagesof the south-west. Butinmostmindsabalancewasheldbetweenouterexperienceandthekingdomwithin,whichthePowersofthe World could not touch and which was stored with the evocative languageof theOldTestament.ThomasHardywasasober, evenprosaic,man, with ameticulous attentiontothepractical detail of organisation. But when recalling his own trial forhigh treason,it seemedthemostnaturalthing in theworldthat he 1 Karl Mannheim, Ideologyand Utopia(1960 edn.), p.193.See below pp.116,19 and382-8... CHRISTIANANDAPOLLYON51 shoulddrawupontheBookof Kingsforthelanguagewhich most common Englishmen understood: The people said"what portion have wein David? neither havewe inheritance in the son ofJesse.To your tents,0Israel. ... So Israel rebelled againsttheHouseof David untothisday." No easy summarycan be offered asto the Dissenting tradition whiehwasoneoftheelementsprecipitatedintheEnglish Jacobin agitation.It isitsdiversitywhichdefiesgeneralisation andyetwhichis,initself,itsmostimportantcharacteristic. In the complexity of competingsectsand seceding chapelswe haveaforcing-bedforthevariantsof19th-centuryworkingclassculture.HereareUnitariansorIndependents,witha smallbut influential artisan following,nurtured inastrenuous intellectualtradition.TherearetheSandemanians,among whom William Godwin's father wasaminister;the Moravians withtheircommunitarianheritage;theInghamites,the Muggletonians,theSwedenborgiansectwhichoriginated ina hairdresser'soffColdBathFieldsandwhichpublisheda Magazineof HeavenandHell.HerearethetwouldDissenting ministerswhomHazlittobservedstuffingraspberryleaves in their pipes, in the hope of bringing down Old Corruption by boycotting all taxed articles. There are theGalvinist Methodist immigrantsfromWales,andimmigrantsbroughtupinthe CovenantingsectsofScotland-AlexanderSomerville,who becameafamousanti-CornLawpublicist,waseducatedasa strictAnti-Burgherinafamilyof Berwickshire field-labourers. There isthe Zachariah Coleman,thebeautifullyre-createdheroofTheRevolutioninTanner'sLane,with hisportraitsofBurdett,Cartwright,andSadler'sBunyan onthe wall:"he wasnotaranter or revivalist,but whatwas called a moderate Calvinist; that is to say, he held to Calvinism as his undoubted creed, but when it came to the push in actual practicehemodifiedit."Andtherearecurioussocieties,like theAncientDeistsof Hoxton,whospokeof dreamsand(like Blake)of conversationswithdepartedsoulsandAngels,and who(likeBlake)"almost immediatelyyieldedtothestronger impulse of the French Revolution" and became "politicians".1 Libertyofconsciencewastheonegreatvaluewhichthe commonpeoplehad preservedfromtheCommonwealth.The countrysidewasruledbythegentry,thetownsbycorrupt 1w.H.Reid, op. cit., p.90. I 5352THEMAKINGOFTHEWORKINGCLASS corporations,thenationbythecorruptestcorporationof all: butthechapel,thetavernandthehomeweretheirown. Inthe"unsteepled"placesof worshiptherewasroomfora freeintellectuallifeandfordemocraticexperimentswith "membersunlimited".AgainstthebackgroundofLondon Dissent,withitsfringeof deistsandearnestmystics,William Blakeseemsnolongerthecrankyuntutoredgeniusthathe mustseemtothosewhoknowonlythegenteelcultureof the time.l On the contrary,he isthe original yet authentic voice of alongpopulartradition.If someoftheLondonJacobins werestrangelyunperturbedbytheexecutionofLouisand MarieAntoinetteit wasbecausetheyrememberedthattheir own forebearshad onceexecuted aking.Noone withBunyan intheirbonescouldhavefoundmanyofBlake'saphorisms strange: The strongestpoisonever known Came fromCaesar'slaurel crown. Andmany,likeBlake,feltthemselvestornbetweenarational Deismandthespiritualvaluesnurturedforacentury inthe "kingdomwithin".WhenPaine'sAgeqf Reasonwaspublished in the years of repression,many must have felt with Blake when heannotated the finalpage of theBishop of Llandaff's Apology fortheBible(written in reply toPaine): It appears to me Now that Tom Paine isa better Christian than the Bishop. WhenweseeDissentinthiswayweareseeingitasan intellectual tradition:out of thistradition came many original ideas and original men. But we should not assume that the "Old Dissenters"asabodywerewillingtotakethepopularside. ThomasWalker,theManchesterreformer,who-aChurchman himself-had laboured hard forthe repeal of the Test and CorporationActs-wascontemptuousof theirtimidity: Dissenters... haveasabodyconstantlyfallenshortof theirown principles; ... through fear or someother motive they have been so stronglytheadvocatesof anOverstrainedModerationthatthey haveratherbeentheenemiesthanthefriendsof thosewhohave 1DavidV.inhisBlake,ProphetagainstEmpire(Princeton,1954),has helpedustoseeBlakethiscontextand-in doing so-hasthrownmuchlight upon the intellectual lifeof Jacobin London.See also(forBlake's "Ranting" and Mugglelonian,forebears)A.L.Morton,TheEverlastingGospel(1958). CHRLST1ANANDAPOLLYON venturedthemostandeffectedthemostfortherightsofthe people. l i i Weseehere,perhaps,atensionbetweenLondonandthe industrial centres.The DissentersatManchester, themembers of theOldMeetingat BirminghamortheGreatMeetingat Leicester, included some of the largest employers in the district. Theirattachmenttocivilandreligiouslibertywenthandin hand withtheirattachmenttothedogmasoffree trade.They contributedagooddeal-andespeciallyinthe1770sand 1780s-to formsof extra-parliamentary agitation and pressuregrouppoliticswhichanticipatethepatternofmiddle-class politicsofthe19thcentury.Buttheirenthusiasmforcivil liberty melted away with the publication of Rightsqf Manand in very fewof themdid it survivethe trialsand persecution of theearly1790s.In London,and in pocketsin the greatcities, many of the Dissentingartisansgraduated inthe sameperiod fromDissentthroughDeismtoasecularideology."Secular.ism", Dr.Hobsbawm has written, istheideologicalthreadwhichbindsLondonlabourhistory together,fromtheLondon JacobinsandPlace,throughtheantireligiousOwenitesandco-operators,theanti-religiousjournalists andbooksellers,throughthefree-thinkingRadicalswhofollowed Holyoakeand flockedtoBradH:mgh'sHall of Science,totheSocial DemocraticFederationandtheLondonFabianswiththeirunconcealeddistasteforchapelrhetoric. \l Nearlyallthetheoristsof theworking-classmovementarein thatLondontradition--orelse,likeBraytheLeedsprinter, they are analogues of the skilled London working men. Butthelistitselfrevealsadimensionthatismissingthe moral forceof the Luddites,of Brandreth and young Bamford,of theTenHour men,of NorthernChartistsandI.L.P. And someof thisdifferenceintraditionscanbetracedtothe religious formationsof the18th century. When the democratic revivalcame in the Jastyearsof thecentury,OldDissenthad lostmuch of itspopular following,andthoseartisans who still adhered to it werepermeated by the values of enlightened selfinterestwhichledon,insuchamanasFrancisPlace,tothe ashall receivean equitable and impartial sentence ....1 The millennarial spirit which visitedWisbech and Liverpool indicatedarestiveness,whichauthoritydecriedas"thespirit of innovation",anindefinitesocialoptimism of the credulous whichwaskintotherevolutionaryaspirations