New France and Old England

Abstract

The development of British attitudes towards the French Revolutions, between the autumn of 1789 and the end of the Constituent Assembly two years later, perhaps owed more to domestic politics than to events across the Channel. With the exception of Burke, none of the leading politicians in Britain had any apprehension that the revolution was likely to pose a threat to British interests or stability and the issues raised in France were viewed from a British perspective. Fox saw it as directed primarily against the excessive power of the monarchy, a cause with which he had a good deal of personal sympathy. The inspiring events of 1789 helped to revive the fortunes of the two British associations that campaigned for the widening of the franchise and the reform of Parliament, the Society for Constitutional Information and the London Revolution Society, whose ‘revolution’ was that of 1688. Both of these were led by respectable if eccentric members of the political establishment such as Earl Stanhope and Home Tooke, and their activities were as irreproachable as they had hitherto been ineffectual. When Dr Price preached his famous sermon to the Revolution Society on 4 November 1789 he expressed the hope that the French Revolution would encourage the movement for parliamentary reform in Britain by its example.