For the moment, they were unsuccessful.

Cartwright, with his Constitutional Societies, might capture the support of an eccentric peer like the Duke of Richmond; but the vast majority remained, if irritated, unconvinced.

It needed the realization that the new doctrines were part of a vaster synthesis which swept within its purview the fortunes of Europe and America before they would give serious heed; and even then they met antagonism with nothing save oppression and hate.

Yet the doctrines remained; for thought, after all, is killed by reasoned answer alone.

And when the first gusts of war and revolution had passed, the cause for which they stood was found to have permeated all classes save that which had all to lose by learning.
We must not, however, commit the error of thinking of Price and Priestley as representing more than an important segment of opinion.