The 1794 Treason Trials (William Pitt), were intended to cool the British radical movement
of the 1790s. Over thirty radicals were arrested; three were tried for high treason, especially:
Thomas Hardy, John Horne Tooke and John Thelwall (in the cartoon satire, above).
In a repudiation of the government's policies, they were acquitted by three separate
juries in November 1794 to public rejoicing. The treason trials were an extension of
the sedition trials of 1792 and 1793 against parliamentary reformers in both England
and Scotland.
British Government spies had penetrated the Society for Constitutional Information,
and and reported talk of a convention rather than parliamentary reform. France supported
an invasion and Thomas Hardy and John Thelwall were arrested and papers of the London
societies were confiscated. William Pitt, appointed a secret committee of the House of
Commons to examine these confiscated papers. The purpose of these actions by Wiliam Pitt
were to terrorize people, and indeed the people disbanded out of fear because of this and
similar actions taken by William Pitt: habeas corpus was suspended.
In October 1795, crowds threw refuse at the king and insulted him, demanding a
cessation of the war with France and lower bread prices, Parliament passed the
"gagging acts" (the Seditious Meetings Act and the Treasonable Practices Act, the "Two
Acts"). As a consequence of these "Two Acts", it was almost impossible to have a
public meeting and speech at such meetings was severely curtailed!
William Pitt used methods such as midnight raids, search and seizure without warrants,
suspension of habeus corpus 1,
the right to confront an accuser (witness against him or her in a criminal action):
exclusion of hearsay. This includes the right to be present at the trial as well as
the right to cross-examine the accuser (the prosecution's witnesses), extrajudicial
jailings, and being "sent to Coventry" (person no longer exists: "disaparado", disappeared).
The purpose of these witch-trials was to dampen Jacobean views and actions (oppose an
British version of the French Revolution). Bluestocking Mary Wollstonecraft "A Vindication
of the Rights of Woman" and Thomas Paine in his "Rights of Man" became of central interest.
In what way was Pitt's Terror relevant to Jane Austen? Pitt was very concerned by anything that
might cause social instability in England (as well as English Colonies). The French Revolution
as well as poverty could cause social instability. French citizens might come from France to
England and spread Jacobin views. French citizens might come from France to England as spies.
Poverty could be expressed as social instabilty as seen in the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots.
Pitt's terror was an attempt to intimidate any one that might cause social unrest to be
expressed as social instability (whether that be a conscious objective or an unconscious objective).
The fear that such intimidation produced could intimidate those that opposed the social structure.
If Jane Austen came out too strongly in opposition to the effects of "pluralism" and "absenteeism",
and the direct effects of "pluralism" and "absenteeism" in English social life, this would be
viewed as an attack upon the stability of English society. Pitt might attack such writings.
Furthermore, the Bluestockings were people (not necessarily only women) that felt that women
could be viewed as more than sexual chatter-boxes (to be bought and sold just as men were) and
such women could be serious writers, painters, authors, poets,
sculpters, historians, linguists, opera singers, Shakespearian theatre actresses, etc. Thus
Bluestockings such as Jane Austen, Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Montagu, Catherine Macauley,
etc. wanted to change the social structure in England, thus were challenging the stability of
English society. The political threat of Jane Austen's views might very well have attracted
Pitt's attention and to focus an attack on Jane Austen. Better to be subtle in the expression
of her views, or even silent. Can you think of a reason why it is difficult
to find Jane Austen's explicit political views about slavery and marital problems in society?.
1
Habeus corpus: A writ requiring a person under arrest to be brought before
a judge or into court, especially to secure the person's release unless
lawful grounds are shown for their detention. Thus when habeus corpus is
suspended, a person may be jailed without legal cause.
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