The Friends of the People were a eighteenth century organisation that sought radical political reform in Great Britain. They sought wider electoral enfranchisement than existed at the time.
Formed by a group of Whigs in April1792 (3 Whig Peers and 28 Whig MPs joined), by November of that year 87 branches of the organisation had been formed. Charles Grey was the leadiing figure and he stressed that the organisation would not engage in activities that would promote public disturbacnces. However many of the members were quite radical and some of their activities caused leading parliamentary reformers concern.
The Friends of the People caused divisions inside the Whigs as well. On June 4, 1792John Cartwright (a Friends of the People member) made a speech praising Thomas Paine's book, The Rights of Man. Four Whig MPs resigned from the Whig group in parliament.
The group continued to try and reform the electoral system through Parliament but met with a continued lack of success. The prime ministerWilliam Pitt argued that reform would give encouragement to those who sought to emulate the French Revolution. Realising that they had little chance of success the leaders of the society wound down the Friends of the People and radical activity moved on to become the preserve of other newer organisations (such as the United Irishmen and the United Scotsmen).
The Society in England was aristocratic and exclusive, in contrast to the Friends of the People in Scotland who increasingly drew on a wider membership, before government clampdowns at the onset of the Napoleonic Wars ended the Societies.
In April1792 The Society of the Friends of the People, Associated for the Purpose of Obtaining a Parliamentary Reform was formed by a group of advanced young Whigs on the initiative of Lord Lauderdale, Charles Grey and Philip Francis.
In Scotland The Friends of the PeopleSociety in Edinburgh was founded in July 1792 with lower subscription rates than the English Society, attracting a wider membership which made it more like the London Corresponding Society.
The Society of the United Scotsmen was formed in the late eighteenth century and sought widespread political reform in Scotland.
It grew out of previous radical movements such as the Friends of the PeopleSociety, and was inspired by the events of the French and American revolutions.
Societies of United Scotsmen had been in existence from the early 1790s, but it was only upon a delegation of United Irishmen arriving in Scotland to muster support for their cause did the United Scotsmen become more organised and more overtly revolutionary.
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