The conservative reaction to the French revolution grew solidly from 1792 and reached a watershed in the summer and autumn of 1794 with the arrest in May and the trial in October for High Treason of Thomas Hardy, who founded the London Corresponding Society in 1792, John Horne Took (1736-1812), who founded the Society for Constitutional Information in 1790, and in November of the radical orator John Thelwall (1764-1834). The charge of High Treason carried a penalty of death by hanging but not until death, followed by castration, the bowels to be drawn out and burned before the victim’s eyes, and the body to be quartered and usually impaled for public view in various parts of the city.
The trial of Horne Took provoked …
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Treason Trials". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 January 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1136, accessed 23 November 2024.]
