A Short History of English Liberalism Part 17

[79] _Ibid._, iii. 365.

[80] Letter to Lord Holland, 12th October, 1792.

[81] _Speeches_, vi. 383.

[82] M. Halevy suggests that the Wesleyan revival, which began in the middle of the eighteenth century, was largely if not wholly responsible for the social changes. But, except in so far as it increased dissent in religion, the liberating influence of Wesleyanism was small. The Wesleyans are, to this day, the most conservative of Nonconformists, and their mystical piety was utterly opposed to the rationalistic freethinking of the Revolution.

[83] Arthur Young's _Annals_, xxv. _pa.s.sim._

[84] 39 Geo. III, c. 81; 39 & 40 Geo. III, c. 106.

[85] _Letters to his Son_, 19th December, 1767.

[86] Walpole's _George III_, iii. 197; Chesterfield's _Letters_, 12th April, 1768.

[87] _Annual Register_, 1770, 72.

[88] _Annual Register_, 1769, 125.

[89] _Annual Register_, 1769, 197 _et seq._

[90] Stephen's _Memoirs of Horne Tooke_, _pa.s.sim._

[91] William Knox, in a letter to Grenville, _Grenville Papers_, iv. 336.

Knox wrote the pamphlet _State of the Nation_, to which Burke replied in his celebrated _Observations_.

[92] For the views of Fox, see Lord Russell's _Correspondence of C. J.

Fox_, I. 146; Walpole's _Last Journals_, ii. 241; and for those of the elder Pitt, _Chatham Correspondence_, ii. 367. The Duke of Richmond set up a claim to an old French peerage, by way of preparing an asylum for himself when George III had finally established his despotism. Burke's _Correspondence_, ii. 112.

[93] _Speech at Bristol previous to the Election_ (1780). The union between English reformers and American rebels was marked by deeds as well as words.

In 1770 the a.s.sembly of South Carolina subscribed 1,500 to the Society of the Friends of the Bill of Rights. _A. R._ 1770, 224.

[94] _A. R._ 1780, 51. See also Sir George Savile's _Address to the Freeholders of York_, 169.

[95] _A. R._ 1780, 55.

[96] Watson's _Anecdotes of His Own Time_.

[97] _Parl. Hist._, xxix. 509.

[98] See, for instance, Luxford's case, mentioned by Fox in _Parl. Hist._, xxix. 557, and contrast the judge and the juries in William Hone's trials (1817).

[99] See the speech of Calcagus to the British, in Tacitus' _Agricola_, c.

30.

[100] In her _Vindication of the Rights of Woman_ (1792).

[101] _Political Arithmetic_ (1774), 95.

[102] _Thoughts on Scarcity_ (1795).

[103] _Wealth of Nations_, Bk. IV., cix.

[104] _Reports_, 1806, iii. 2.

[105] _On Civil Liberty_ (1776), 72.

[106] _Political Justice_ (1793), ii. 190.

[107] _Memoir of Major Cartwright_, i. 244.

[108] I use the term "Radicals" for these early extremists because it is the most convenient. But the word was not actually introduced till the end of the French War in 1816.

[109] P. 3.

[110] P. 22.

[111] P. 37.

[112] _Memoir_, i. 191.

[113] In 1793 the Society published a _Report on the State of the Representation_, which showed that 309 members were returned by private patronage, 163 of them by Peers (_Annual Register_, 1793).

[114] _Parl. Hist._, x.x.xi. 793.

[115] _Speeches_, v. 97, 115 (1795).

[116] _Hansard_, I. x.x.xviii. 1118. The voting on Burdett's resolution was 106 to 0. _Ibid._, 1185.

[117] _Speeches_, 17th May, 1794.

[118] The minority in the Commons ranged between forty and sixty. In the Lords it was sometimes only three or four.

[119] _Appeal to the Nation_ (1812), 78.

[120] _A Problem_ (1824).

[121] Preface to _Rights of Man_, Part II.

[122] Part I.

[123] _Ibid._, Conclusion.

[124] Part II., Preface.

[125] Part II., c. i.

[126] See for example the resolutions of the London Wards in the _Annual Register_, 1792.