Editing London Corresponding Society (section)

==Political equality not social "levelling"==
From the outset, the LCS contended with the charge that a "full and equal representation of the people" in Parliament represented a "levelling" of all distinctions of rank and property.<ref name="Linebaugh and Rediker">{{cite book |last1=Linebaugh |first1=Peter |last2=Rediker |first2=Marcus |title=The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. |date=2000 |publisher=Beacon Press |location=Boston |isbn=9780807050071 |pages=270–272, 361}}</ref> This was delivered, and (with considerable Church and aristocratic patronage) circulated widely, in a short three-penny pamphlet ''Village Politics: Addressed to All the Mechanics, Journeymen, and Day Labourers in Great Britain'' (1793). Written by [[Hannah More]] as "Burke for Beginners", it is an imagined conversation in which a mason learns from a blacksmith that to declare for "Liberty and Equality" is to associate with "levellers" and "republicans", rogues who hide from him the simple truth that if everyone is digging potatoes on their half acre no one would be available to mend his broken spade.<ref>{{cite book |last1=More |first1=Hannah |title=Village Politics: Addressed to All the Mechanics, Journeymen, and Day Labourers in Great Britain |date=1793 |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hHQ4AAAAMAAJ |pages= 4, 6}}</ref>

Against this onslaught, the LCS produced "An Explicit Declaration of the Principles and View of the L.C.S". But for having to address the "frantic" notions of "alarmists", it claimed that those who would "restore the [[House of Commons]] to a state of independence" would never even conceive "so wild and detestable a sentiment" as "the equalisation of property". <blockquote>We know and are sensible that the Wages of every man are his Right; that Difference of Strength, of Talents, and of Industry, do and ought to afford proportional Distinction of Property, which, when acquired and confirmed by the Laws, is sacred and inviolable.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title = Selections from the Papers of the London Corresponding Society 1792–1799|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JD89AAAAIAAJ|publisher = Cambridge University Press|date = 1983|isbn = 9780521243636|first1 = Mary|last1 = Thale|first2 = London Corresponding|last2 = Society|pages = 4–8}}</ref></blockquote>The LCS did not pronounce on social questions, confident that key to addressing inequities lay in reform of the constitution. It was sufficient to observe that it was from the "partial, unequal, and therefore inadequate Representation, together with the corrupt method in which Representatives are elected," that "oppressive Taxes, unjust Laws, restrictions of Liberty, and wasting of the Public Money, have ensued."<ref>LCS, ''The London Corresponding Society's addresses and resolutions'', (reprinted, and distributed gratis) July, 1794, (London: LCS, 1794), 2</ref><ref>Hunt (2013), p. 6</ref>