Editing London Corresponding Society (section)

===United Britons===
The government's closure of peaceful avenues for reform agitation, and the prospect of French assistance, encouraged a radical rump to consider the threat implicit in the Copenhagen Fields address: to achieve universal male suffrage and annual parliaments by physical force. In this, they were supported by the United Irishmen.<ref name=":7" /> In the summer of 1797, following the [[Spithead and Nore mutinies]], in which the government had been quick to see the hand of radical societies, the Irish priest [[James Coigly]] arrived from Manchester. In Manchester Goigly and a cotton spinner from Belfast, James Dixon, had helped convert the town's Corresponding Society into the republican, United Englishmen. Bound by a test that promised to "Remove the diadem and take off the crown ... [and to] exalt him that is low and abuse him that is high".<ref name="Davis United Englishmen">{{cite ODNB |last1=Davis |first1=Michael |title=United Englishmen |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-95956 |year=2008 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/95956 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |access-date=10 November 2020}}</ref> the United men went on to organise in [[Stockport]], [[Bolton]], [[Warrington]] and [[Birmingham]].<ref name="Keogh 1998">{{cite journal |last1=Keogh |first1=Daire |title=An Unfortunate Man |journal=18th – 19th Century History |date=Summer 1998 |volume=5 |issue=2 |url=https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/an-unfortunate-man/ |access-date=21 November 2020}}</ref> Like the [[United Scotsmen]],.<ref name="Davis United Scotsmen2">{{cite ODNB|last1=Davis|first1=Michael|title=United Scotsmen|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/95551|year=2008|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/95551|access-date=10 November 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=McFarland |first=E. W. |title=Ireland and Scotland in the Age of Revolution: Planting the Green Bough |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0748605392 |location=Edinburgh}}</ref> in their constitutions the new societies were "direct copies of the United Irishmen".<ref>Williams (1968), 0. 107.</ref> 

Presenting himself as an emissary of the United Irish executive in Dublin, Coigly met with leading members of the LCS, among them the Irishmen [[Edward Despard]], the brothers Benjamin and [[John Binns (journalist)|John Binns]], William Henry Hamilton,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Quinn|first=James|date=2009|title=Hamilton, William Henry {{!}} Dictionary of Irish Biography|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/hamilton-william-henry-a3767|access-date=2022-02-12|website=www.dib.ie}}</ref> and Alexander Galloway who had succeeded as the Society's chairman when, in protest against the violent turn in rhetoric, [[Francis Place]] resigned. Meetings were held at Furnival's Inn, [[Holborn]], where United delegates from London, Scotland and the regions were reported to have committed themselves "to overthrow the present Government, and to join the French as soon as they made a landing in England"<ref name="Keogh 1998"/> (in December 1796 only weather had prevented a major [[French expedition to Ireland (1796)|French landing in Ireland]]).

In March 1798 Coigly was arrested in a party with O'Connor, Benjamin Binns, and [[John Allen (Irish nationalist)|John Allen]] at [[Margate]] just as they were to embark for France. Found on his person was an address (composed by Dr. Crossfield)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Whelan |first=Ferus |title=Dissent into Treason: Unitarian, King-killers and the Society of United Irishmen |year=2010 |isbn=9780863224102 |location=Dingle, Ireland |pages=211}}</ref> to the [[French Directory]] from the "United Britons". While its suggestion of a mass movement primed for insurrection had been scarcely credible, it was sufficient proof of the intent to invite and encourage a French invasion. Coigly was hanged in June.<ref name="Keogh 1998" />