Editing London Corresponding Society (section)

===Social composition===
By May 1792 the LCS comprised nine separate divisions, each with a minimum of thirty members. The height of its popularity in late 1795 it may have had between 3,500 and 5000 member organised in 79 divisions<ref name=Monk263>Iain Hampsher-Monk, ''The Impact of the French Revolution: Texts from Britain in the 1790s''. Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 263.</ref><ref name="Davis 2008" /> In contrast to the SCI with its annual 4 [[Guinea (coin)|guinea]] subscription, in levying just a [[penny]] a week the LCS opened its proceedings to workers of almost every condition. Those, however, who as independent tradesmen were not subject to the political disapproval of employers took the leading role.<ref>''Selections From The Papers Of The London Corresponding Society'', Cambridge University Press 1983, p. xix {{ISBN|9780521089876}}</ref> They were the committeemen.<blockquote>[John] Ashley, a shoemaker, [John] Baxter, a journeyman silvermith; [[John Binns (journalist)|[John] Binns]], a plumber, John Boyne, a Holborn bookseller, Alexander Galloway, a mathematical machine- maker . . ., [[Thomas Evans (conspirator)|Thomas Evans]], a colourer of prints and (later) a patent brace-maker, Richard Hodgson, a master hatter, John Lovett, a hairdresser, [John] Luffman, a goldsmith, [John] Oxlade, a master book-binder ... <ref>{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=E. P. |title=The Making of the English Working Class |publisher=Penguin, Pelican Books |year=1968 |isbn=9780140210002 |location=Harmondsworth |pages=171}}</ref></blockquote>While the LCS remained primarily a forum for "a politically conscious and articulate artisan population",<ref name="Davis 2008">{{cite ODNB |last1=Davis |first1=Michael |title=London Corresponding Society |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-42297 |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/42297 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |access-date=6 December 2020}}</ref> men of a more prominent social and professional standing did join, drawn in many cases from existing debating societies.<ref name="Thale 1989">{{cite journal |last1=Thale |first1=Mary |title=London Debating Societies in the 1790s |journal=The Historical Journal |date=1989 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=57–86 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00015302 |jstor=2639817 |s2cid=162874936 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2639817 |access-date=8 December 2020}}</ref> They brought with them important political connections and skills. Barristers such as [[Felix Vaughan]] and attorneys like [[Joseph Gerrald]] (who had practiced law in [[Philadelphia]], and there associated with Paine) were especially useful given near continuous entanglement of members in court proceedings. Among the physicians were SCI member [[James Parkinson]], a prolific propagandist, and [[John Gale Jones]], an accomplished orator. But the Society's egalitarian constitution accorded them no definitive preference. Hardy in particular was wary of placing them in positions of authority lest ordinary members be discouraged from "exerting themselves in their own cause".<ref name="Davis 2008" />