James Gillray, Copenhagen House, 1795. In the left-centre foreground of this hand-coloured etching, a female retailer in a headscarf sells gin at a meeting of the London Corresponding Society, a debating society that advocated for the democratic reform of parliament, inspired by the French Revolution. On the far left, three chimney sweeps, whose brass caps bear the names of their masters, add their own names to a list of well-known political rebels. The gin barrel upon which they sign reads: “Real Democratic Gin by Thelwall & Co.”, a reference to John Thelwall, the radical journalist and political reformer who co-founded the Society. The association with gin here is probably due to its low cost and ready availability to the poor, making it a democratic and accessible form of intoxication.