Thomas Perronet Thompson, an English political reformer, born in Hull, March 15, 1783, died Sept. 6, 1869. In 1803 he entered the navy as midshipman, and in 1806 went into the army as second lieutenant. In 1808 he was made governor of Sierra Leone. One of his first acts was to issue a proclamation for the suppression of the slave trade in the colony; and the opposition raised against him by the slave traders caused his recall. He arrived in England in 1810, returned to the army, and served in the peninsular campaign of 1813, in France in 1814, and afterward in the Pindaree campaign in India. In 1819, having learned Arabic, he accompanied Sir William Keir Grant in the expedition up the Persian gulf, and assisted in the negotiation of the treaty with the Arab tribes, by which the slave trade was declared piracy. In 1854 he was made major general. In 1814 he published a work entitled" On a Constitution." He was one of the contributors to the "Westminster Review " on its establishment in 1824, and five years afterward became joint proprietor, writing for it constantly till 1836. His "Corn Law Catechism" (1827) was the most effective attack upon the protectionist system. He was several times elected to parliament.

A selection from his miscellaneous writings was published (6 vols., 1842).