... pieces concerning the movement were composed in English literature. As aforementioned, the French Revolution initially enjoyed a great deal of credence in this country, particularly amongst lower middle class rebels and intellectuals, being as it was based upon promotion and progress via intelligence rather than by birthright. An example of this is shown in the following quotation from the poet Robert Southey in 1789, who was known to have harboured notions of radicalism:- '...Few persons but those who have lived in it can conceive or comprehend what the memory of the French Revolution was, nor what a visionary world seemed to open upon those who were just entering it. Old things seemed passing away, and nothing was dreamt of but the regeneration of the human race.' Despite the many articles which appeared during these early phases of the Reformation heaping praise upon it, in 1790 Edmund Burke's seminal text 'Reflections on the ...

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