Debating societies emerged in London in the early eighteenth century, and were a prominent feature of society until the end of the century. The origins of the debating societies are not certain, but by the mid-18th century, London fostered an active debating culture. Topics ranged from current events and governmental policy, to love and marriage, and the societies welcomed participants from all genders and all social backgrounds, exemplifying the enlarged public sphere of the Age of Enlightenment.
At the end of the century, the political environment created by the French Revolution led to the tightening of governmental restrictions. The debating societies declined, and they virtually disappeared by the beginning of the nineteenth century. However, a select few societies survived to the present day, and new societies formed in recent years have been boosted by promotion via the internet and social media, giving debating in London a new lease on life.
Scholarship on London's debating societies is hindered by the lack of records left by the societies,Mary Thale, "London Debating Societies in the 1790s," The Historical Journal 32, no. 1 (March 1989): 58–9. but the work of historian Donna T. Andrew, among others, has contributed to the field.
Debating Societies and the Enlightenment See main article: Age of Enlightenment
The Enlightenment is a period of history identified with the eighteenth century. Arising throughout Europe, Enlightenment philosophy emphasised reason as the foremost source of authority in all matters, and was simultaneously linked to increased secularisation and often political upheaval. The most obvious example of this link is the French Revolution of 1789. The Enlightenment in France is tightly associated with the rise of the salons and the academies, institutions which have been intensely studied by many notable historians.See Antoine Lilti, "Sociability and Mondanité: Men of Letters in the Parisian Salons of the Eighteenth-Century," French Historical Studies 28, no. 3 (Summer 2005): 415–45; Dena Goodman, The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment (Cornell: Cornell University Press, 1994). The English Enlightenment has historically been largely associated with the rise of coffeehouse culture, a topic also investigated by many historians.See Brian William Cowan, The Social Life of Coffee: The Emergence of the British Coffeehouse (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005). More recent scholarship has identified early elements of the Enlightenment in other European countries, such as the Low Countries.See Jonathan Israel, Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650–1750 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
The Public Sphere
While the Enlightenment was an incredibly diverse phenomenon that varied from country to country, one aspect common to each country was the rise of the "public sphere". The concept of the public sphere was articulated by Jürgen Habermas, a German sociologist and philosopher. Habermas saw in the eighteenth century the rise of new realm of communication that emphasised new areas of debate, as well as a surge in print culture.James Van Horn Melton, The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001). This new arena, which Habermas termed the "bourgeois public sphere," was characterised as separate from traditional authorities and accessible to all people, and could therefore act as a platform for criticism and the development of new ideas and philosophy.Thomas Munck, The Enlightenment: A Comparative Social History 1721–1794 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). While the degree to which the salons and academies of France can be considered part of the public sphere has been questioned, the debating societies of London are undoubtedly part of the Enlightened public sphere. The relatively unrestricted print industry of late seventeenth century England, as well as the Triennial Act 1694 that required elections of the British Parliament at least every three years, fostered a comparatively active political climate in eighteenth century England, in which the debating societies were able to flourish.Van Horn Melton, The Rise of the Public in Enlightenment Europe 20-1.
Origins of debating societies in London While there were comparable societies in other parts of Europe,Munck, The Enlightenment, 68-9. as well as in other British cities, London was home to the largest number of independent debate societies throughout all of the eighteenth century. This prominence was largely due to prior existence of clubs that had been created for various other reasons, the concentration of population in the capital, as well as other Enlightened philosophical developments.Thale, "London Debating Societies in the 1790s," 58.
Philosophical origins The Enlightenment saw an increasing emphasis on the concept of "politeness".Paul Goring, The Rhetoric of Sensibility in Eighteenth-Century Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 31–59. Perhaps most obvious in the salons of Paris, polite discourse was seen as a way for the rising middle class to access the previously unattainable social status of the upper classes. In England, politeness came to be associated with elocution. Paul Goring argues that "elocutionary movement" arose initially from a desire to make sermons more interesting and attainable. He notes that periodicals such as The Tatler and The Spectator, the quintessential reflections of British public opinion, often criticised Anglican ministers for their oratory.Goring, The Rhetoric of Sensibility in Eighteenth-Century Culture, 35-6. Goring also points out that, in spite of the burgeoning print culture of the eighteenth century, oratory was still the most effective way of communicating with a public that was basically only half literate in 1750.Goring, The Rhetoric of Sensibility in Eighteenth-Century Culture, 32-3.
The "British elocutionary movement" is linked to Thomas Sheridan, an Irish actor turned orator and author who was an avid proponent of educational reform. A contemporary of Jonathan Swift, Sheridan began his public career with the publishing of British Education; Or, The Source of the Disorders of Great Britain in 1756, which attacked the current practices of education that continued to emphasise Greek and Roman literature, and argued for a new system that instead concentrated on the study of English and elocution.W. Benzie, The Dublin Orator: Thomas Sheridan's Influence on Eighteenth-century Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (Menston: Scolar Press Limited, 1972), 4. Understandably, Sheridan's work was controversial, and his popularity in London society began to climb.
In 1762, Sheridan published A Course of Lectures on Elocution, a collection of lectures he had given throughout the previous years.Benzie, The Dublin Orator, 35. These lectures insisted upon a standardised English pronunciation, and emphasised the public speaker as a powerful agent of cultural change. Sheridan also contended that improved oratory would contribute to the stability and strength of the nation of Great Britain, a relatively new ideological concept that reflected the growing interest in nationalism.Goring, The Rhetoric of Sensibility in Eighteenth-Century Culture, 34, 91–2. Sheridan was a noted public speaker in his own right, and his lectures on oratory were well attended throughout Britain. Subscribers to Sheridan's lectures at clubs, universities, and theatres paid a substantial amount (one guinea) to hear the Dublin orator;Goring, The Rhetoric of Sensibility in Eighteenth-Century Culture, 99. these lectures, which coincided with the debating societies, reflect the growing interest in public speaking during the eighteenth-century.Donna T. Andrew, "Popular Culture and Public Debate: London 1780," The Historical Journal 39, no. 2 (June 1996): 406.
Structural origins Along with the growing emphasis on politeness and elocution, Donna Andrew suggests four main institutional precursors of the formal debating societies of later eighteenth-century London. First of these were convivial clubs of fifty or more men who met weekly in pubs to discuss politics and religion.Andrew, "Popular Culture and Public Debate", 406; see also Iain McCalman, "Ultra-Radicalism and Convivial Debating Clubs in London, 1795–1838", The English Historical Review 102, no. 403 (April 1987): 309–10. An example of this type of club was the Robin Hood Society. The nineteenth century author John Timbs notes:John Timbs, Clubs and Club Life in London (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1967), 168.
The "baker" was Caleb Jeacocke, president for 19 years. By the 1730s, the Robin Hood Society was flourishing, and by the 1740s was joined by a similar society known as the Queen's Arms.Donna T. Andrew, Introduction to London Debating Societies, 1776–1799, (London Record Society, 1994), vii. Other possible origins of the debating societies were the "mooting clubs" established by law students to practice rhetoric and the skills needed for the courtroom, and the "spouting clubs" designed for young actors to practice their delivery.Andrew, "Popular Culture and Public Debate", 406 and Introduction to London Debating Societies, viii. The last possible forerunner of the debating societies given by Andrew is the Oratory of John Henley, commonly known as "Orator Henley".Andrew, "Popular Culture and Public Debate", 406. Andrew gives the name as "William Henley", but that must be a lapse of writing. Paul Goring gives much greater detail on the philosophy and practices of Orator Henley. Originally a preacher in the Anglican church, Henley founded his Oratory in 1726 with the principal purpose of "reforming the manner in which such public presentations should be performed."Goring, The Rhetoric of Sensibility in Eighteenth-Century Culture, 63. He made extensive use of the print industry to advertise the events of his Oratory, making it an omnipresent part of the London public sphere.
Henley was also instrumental in constructing the space of the debating club: he added two platforms to his room in the Newport district of London to allow for the staging of debates, and structured the entrances to allow for the collection of admission. These changes were further implemented when Henley moved his enterprise to Lincoln's Inn Fields. The public was now willing to pay to be entertained, and Henley exploited this increasing commercialisation of British society.Goring, The Rhetoric of Sensibility in Eighteenth-Century Culture, 65-6. Indeed, commercial interests continued to inform and shape London debating societies in the years following Henley's Oratory. Henley's addresses initially focused on elocution and religious subject matter, but became increasingly directed towards entertainment. Andrew also notes the influence of entertainment on the early debating societies. She cites The Temple of Taste, a venue advertised as including music, poetry, lectures, and debate, as another possible precursor to the more formal debating societies of the later eighteenth century.Andrew, "Popular Culture and Public Debate", 406.
In his research on British coffeehouse culture, Brian Cowan briefly examines the Rota Club, a group founded by republican James Harrington in 1659 that met in Miles' Coffeehouse in the New Palace Yard. Attended by Samuel Pepys and John Aubrey, among other notables, the Rota club was designed to debate and discuss the politics of the time. Admission was required, and it was definitely aimed towards the "virtuosi" of society, but it is definitely possible that the Rota inspired the later debating societies.Cowan, The Social Life of Coffee, 96-8. Timbs calls the Rota "a kind of debating society for the dissemination of Republican opinions."Timbs, Clubs and Club Life in London, 13.