John Thelwall

John Thelwall

John Thelwall (born July 27, 1764 in London , † February 17, 1834 in Bath ) was a radical political British speaker and author.

life and work

John Thelwall was born in Covent Garden . He came from a Welsh family and was the son of the silk merchant Joseph Thelwall, who died in 1772. This created economic problems for the family. Young John had to leave school when he was 13. Since his mother had not given up the silk trade, he was supposed to support the family.

Thelwall's passion for books was great as a child. Initially, this passion had more disadvantages than advantages: it caused constant tension in the family, as his mother punished him with contempt for it. This interest in learning later led to the termination of his training as a tailor. At 18, Thelwall started working for a law firm. His independent disposition also prevented success here. He preferred to read philosophers and poets than legal treatises and legal texts. He hated copying "bureaucracy". He decided to become independent and live on his scriptures.

Thelwall's career as an editor and journalist was successful, but the high point of this period was his political activity. Thelwall's change began with the French Revolution . He got involved in politics and began to give radical democratic speeches and published them in magazines and newspapers. Thelwall became known in radical London circles. In 1792 he was instrumental in founding the London Corresponding Society . Following a lawsuit against other members of the London Corresponding Society , Thelwall organized protests and speeches with Society members John Horne Tooke and Thomas Hardy, for which the three were charged. They were arrested and held first in the Tower of London , later in Newgate Prison, and acquitted in December 1794. Since part of the British government still considered him a very dangerous person, Thelwall was subject to reprisals from now on, which did not prevent him from 1795-96 to publish The Tribune , a magazine in which he above all expresses his political views to the general public could. King George III In 1795, adopted the Two Acts prepared by Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger (called Gagging Acts in radical circles ). These determined that every suggestion of revolution should be treated as treason (Treason Act) and that every political meeting needs judicial permission (Seditious Meetings Act). This forced Thelwall to change the subject of his speeches. From then on, he discussed Roman history , which allowed him to bypass the censorship and think about history itself. Nevertheless, the pressure from the government was so great that Thelwall had to leave London in 1798. Thelwall made his political speeches all over England and always faced opposition. After risking his life several times, he decided to step back from politics.

In 1800 John Thelwall returned to the scene as an elocution teacher , a merging of the roles of speech therapist and rhetoric teacher . Thelwall's first wife died in 1816 and three years later he was married to Cecile Boyle. This later wrote his biography "The life of John Thelwall". With the funds from his successful teaching activity, Thelwall bought the magazine "The Champion" in 1818 to spread his reform theories. This venture was unsuccessful and resulted in significant losses because Thelwall's themes and style did not fit the magazine's bourgeois reading society. Thelwall did not allow himself to be discouraged and began again to give lectures and classes in speech science and education . He died during one of his travels in Bath, in the west of England.

reception

One of his most famous theses includes his declaration of war on all wars, except for the wars of defense.

Works (selection)

• Poems on Various Subjects. 1787.
• Incle and Yarico. 1787.
• The Incas. 1792.
• An essay towards a definition of animal vitality. 1793.
• The peripatetic; or, Sketches of the Heart, of Nature and Society; in a Series of Politico-Sentimental Journals. 1793.
• Poems written in close confinement in the Tower and Newgate. 1795.
• The Natural and Constitutional Right of Britons to Annual Parliaments, Universal Suffrage, and the Freedom of Popular Association. 1795.
• The Tribune. 1795-96.
• The Rights of Nature Against the Usurpations of Establishments. 1796.
• Sober Reflections on the Seditious and Inflammatory Letter of the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord. 1796.
• Poems chiefly written in retirement ... with a prefatory memoir of the life of the author. 1801.
• The Fairy of the Lake. 1801.
• The Daughter of Adoption. 1801.
• Poem and Oration on the Death of Lord Nelson. 1805.
• Treatment of Cases of Defective Utterance. 1814.

• Judith Thompson (Ed.): John Thelwall: selected poetry and poetics. Palgrave Macmillan, New York City 2015, ISBN 978-1-137-34482-3 .

literature

• C. Boyle: The life of John Thelwall. London 1837.
• G. Claeys (Ed.): The Politics of English Jacobinism Writings of John Thelwall. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-271-01347-8 .
• F. Felsenstein, M. Scrivener (Eds.): Incle and Yarico and The Incas: Two Plays by John Thelwall. Farleigh Dickinson University Press, Madison 2006, ISBN 0-8386-4101-6 .
• S. Poole (Ed.): John Thelwall: radical romantic and acquitted felon. Pickering & Chatto, London 2009, ISBN 978-1-85196-973-9 .
• M. Scrivener: Seditious Allegories: John Thelwall and Jacobin Writing , Penn State Press, 2001, ISBN 0-271-02109-8 .

swell

1. ^ Thomas Seccombe: John Thelwall. In: Leslie Stephen, Sidney Lee (Eds.): Dictionary of National Biography. Smith Elder & Co., London 1885-1900, p. 110.
2. ↑ The question of Thelwall's treatment of the story goes deeply in Steve Poole: Not precedents to be Followed, but Examples to be Weighed. In: S. Poole (Ed.): John Thelwall: radical romantic and acquitted felon. Pickering & Chatto, London 2009, ISBN 978-1-85196-973-9 .