s; they made twelve dozen or more in two days, and the
heads were sent to the lodgings of Hill and Jackson. Wilkinson wrote for
instructions how to deal with these men; also for a warrant to arrest
Gales. On 20th May Dundas sent down warrants for the arrest of Gales, W.
Carnage, H. Yorke (_alias_ Redhead), W. Broomhead, R. Moody, and T.
Humphreys; he also issued a warrant against Williams, a gun-engraver, of
the Tower, in London.[317]

In Birmingham, as we have seen, the two magistrates, Carles and Spencer,
were out and out loyalists; and, as they wrote to Dundas on 23rd May
1794 that there was not enough evidence to warrant a search for arms, we
may infer that the Midland capital caused the authorities less concern
than rebellious Sheffield. But even at Birmingham, with its traditions
of exuberant loyalty, there were grounds for concern. John Brook, the
mayor, informed Dundas that there were many malcontents in the
neighbourhood, especially at Dudley.

Turning to the East, we find signs that Norwich seethed with discontent.
From that city had come the first suggestion of a General Convention of
the People. On 5th March 1793 one of the thirty Societies of Norwich
wrote up to the London Corresponding Society advocating that step, which
Hardy and his colleagues approved "so soon as the great body of the
people shall be courageous and virtuous enough to join us in the
attempt." I have found no proof that either at Norwich or in London
these Societies used illegal methods. The seditious placards posted up
at Norwich may have been the work of some fanatic or of an _agent
provocateur_. But it is very doubtful whether the holding of a People's
Convention in the manner proposed was not an act of defiance to
Parliament, and therefore seditious. Individual members certainly came
within the ban of the law. Thus, Dundas received tidings that two
members of Hardy's Society, named Stone and Meakins, were circulating
seditious writings in Essex. When arrested they had with them one or
two military books, copies of the revolutionary song, _Ca ira_, and
similar papers;[318] but this fact does not incriminate the Society at
large. In fact, the reports as to the purchase of arms and secret
drillings are not very convincing. To take a few instances: information
was sent to the Home Office that a man named Kitchen had sixty pikes in
his house in George Street, near York Buildings; also that men were
drilled secretly at the house of Spence,