Joseph Gerrald and LCS chairman Maurice Margarot had been elected as delegates to the Convention by the LCS's first open-air meeting, attended by some 4,000 persons in a field off the Hackney Road. Gerrald had published earlier in the year "A Convention the Only Means of Saving Us from Ruin." With ancient precedents sought in the Anglo-Saxon "mycelgemot" (popular assemblies) and "wittengamot" (delegated representatives), the pamphlet’s laid out a three stage sequence, from local gatherings to regional delegations to national convention. There was the scarcely disguised suggestion that such a convention would have a representative legitimacy greater than the corrupted, unreformed Parliament.