Editing London Corresponding Society (section)

===Democratic structure===
From the beginning, the LCS was viewed with suspicion by the British government, and was infiltrated by spies on the government payroll. In addition to domestic subversion, the state authorities feared collaboration with French agents, against whose entry and circulation within the country they had introduced the [[Aliens Act 1793]].<ref>{{Cite web|title = The 1905 Aliens Act {{!}} History Today|url = http://www.historytoday.com/anne-kershen/1905-aliens-act|website = www.historytoday.com|access-date = 2015-12-18}}</ref> Partly in response to the surveillance, and in express "imitation of the societies in and about [[Sheffield]]" whose cutlers had repudiated deference to Whig constitutionalists,<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=William |first=Gwyn A. |title=Artisans and San-Culottes: Popular Movements in France and Britain during the French Revolution |publisher=Edward Arnold |year=1968 |isbn=0713154179 |location=London |pages=58–59}}</ref> the society adopted a decentralised, democratic structure. The LCS organised in "divisions"<ref name=":0" /> each comprising neighbourhood "tithings" of not more than ten members. Each division met twice a week to conduct business and discuss historical and political texts.<ref>{{Cite news|title = Divided We Grow|url = http://www.lrb.co.uk/v25/n11/john-barrell/divided-we-grow|newspaper = London Review of Books|date = 2003-06-05|access-date = 2015-12-12|issn = 0260-9592|pages = 8–11|first = John|last = Barrell}}</ref>  

In contrast to some of Whig-establishment reform clubs, the organisation allowed all subscribers to participate in open debate, and to elect members to leadership positions such as tithing-man, divisional secretary, sub-delegate, or delegate.<ref name=":0">Hunt, Jocelyn B.&nbsp;''[https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/7273/Hunt_Jocelyn.pdf?sequence=1 Understanding the London Corresponding Society a Balancing Act between Adversaries Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke]''. Thesis. University of Waterloo, 2013. pp. 1–13</ref> Rules also ensured that discussion was not monopolised. [[Francis Place]] recalled that "no one could speak a second time [on a subject] until every one who chose had spoken once".<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Place|first=Francis|title=The Autobiography of Francis Place: 1771–1854|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1972|isbn=9780521083997|location=Cambridge|pages=131, 180–181}}</ref>

The LCS issued its first public statement in April 1792.<ref>Williams (1968), p. 68</ref> In addition to Sheffield (the "[[Faubourg Saint-Antoine|Faubourg Saint Antoine]] to an English Revolution")<ref name=":6" /> sister societies existed, or by 1793 had sprung to life, in [[Manchester]], [[Norwich]], and [[Stockport]].<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=A. W. |date=1955 |title=Irish Rebels and English Radicals 1798-1820 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/650175 |journal=Past & Present |issue=7 |pages=78–85 |issn=0031-2746}}</ref>