On the 17th November, 1795 was a meeting intended to congratulate the king (George III) on his recent evasion from attack. After the mayor, James Harvey, had arrived, he was swiftly followed by a large crowd and the room was soon filled to capacity. A group among those present moved an amendment to beseech the King to discontinue the war with republican France for the sake of national peace. Included in this group were Robert Lovell, Quaker poet, Thomas Beddoes and Coleridge. Coleridge raised his voice against the mayor for refusing to address the suggested amendments and was finally allowed to say a few words. The paradox, Coleridge claimed was that the ‘very means which the government had taken to prevent Jacobinical principles, were calculated to produce them’. Then meeting, having descended into complete disorder, was disbanded.
Thomas Beddoes, in reaction to the meeting, wrote a pamphlet entitled ‘A Word in the Defence of the Bill of Rights against the Gagging Bill’, which appeared the following day from Cottle’s bookshop.
