hey were, would have stimulated rather
than suppressed the societies, and, instead of silencing the
revolutionists, have provoked a rising.

At the early period the Jacobin and the home-bred Radical might combine
against government. A manifesto of the Corresponding Societies begins by
declaring that 'all men are by nature free and equal and independent of
each other,' and argues also that these are the 'original principles of
English government.'[133] Magna Charta is an early expression of the
Declaration of Rights, and thus pure reason confirms British tradition.
The adoption of a common platform, however, covered a profound
difference of sentiment. Horne Tooke represents the old type of
reformer. He was fully resolved not to be carried away by the enthusiasm
of his allies. 'My companions in a stage,' he said to Cartwright, 'may
be going to Windsor: I will go with them to Hounslow. But there I will
get out: no further will I go, by God!'[134] When Sheridan supported a
vote of sympathy for the French revolutionists, Tooke insisted upon
adding a rider declaring the content of Englishmen with their own
constitution.[135] He offended some of his allies by asserting that the
'main timbers' of the constitution were sound though the dry-rot had
got into the superstructure. He maintained, according to Godwin,[136]
that the best of all governments had been that of England under George
I. Though Cartwright said at the trial that Horne Tooke was taken to
'have no religion whatever,' he was, according to Stephens, 'a great
stickler for the church of England': and stood up for the House of Lords
as well as the church on grounds of utility.[137] He always ridiculed
Paine and the doctrine of abstract rights,[138] and told Cartwright that
though all men had an equal right to a share of property, they had not a
right to an equal share. Horne Tooke's Radicalism (I use the word by
anticipation) was that of the sturdy tradesman. He opposed the
government because he hated war, taxation and sinecures. He argued
against universal suffrage with equal pertinacity. A comfortable old
gentleman, with a good cellar of Madeira, and proud of his wall-fruit in
a well-tilled garden, had no desire to see George III. at the
guillotine, and still less to see a mob supreme in Lombard Street or
banknotes superseded by assignats. He might be jealous of the great
nobles, but he dreaded mob-rule. He could denounce abuses, but he could
not desire anarchy. He i