Encyclopedias: Spartacus Educational: Reform of Parliament: Vincent Dowling

Description: Appointed first reporter for the Observer Newspaper in 1791. Recruited as a Home Office Spy with a government subsidy to the paper. Was paid to record what was said at an 1816 meeting of the Society of Spencean Philanthropists, a group advocating revolution, after which he reported the Spenceans were planning to overthrow the British government.