Published by Primary Source Microfilm

The years between 1760 and 1860 witnessed some of the most climatic events in modern history--events that led to profound social and economic changes throughout Europe. In England, a host of radical and anti-radical societies were formed with the intention either to subvert or defend the "Ancient Constitution."

This revealing archival collection relating to these societies has gathered together the minutes of the Whig Westminster Committee of Association (1780-1785), many of which are signed by the committee's chairman, Charles James Fix, and the minutes of its sub-committee, signed by Richard Brinsley Sheridan; declarations, resolutions and original letters by members of reactionary societies such as the Association for Preserving Liberty and Property Against Republicans and Levellers, one of a host of such anti-radical bodies which sprang up in the wake of the French Revolution; full surviving records of the meetings at the Commercial Coffee House, Temple Bar, October 14-December 31, 1831, of the Committee of the National Union of the Working Classes, kept by W. Benbow.

8 reels