Table of Contents
Foreword xi
I. Introduction 1
The Name of a Commonwealthman 1
Ideas 5
Dissemination of the Ideas 14
Measure of Achievement 17
II. Some Seventeenth-Century Commonwealthmen 19
Links with the Interregnum 19
Neville and Harrington 28
Sidney 38
Ludlow and Nedham 43
Milton and Marvell 47
III. The Whigs of the Revolution and of the Sacheverell Trial 52
Whig and Commonwealthman in ’88 52
Locke and Newton 54
James Tyrrell and Richard Cumberland,
Bishop of Peterborough 68
John, Lord Somers, and the Whigs of the
Sacheverell Trial 74
The Old and the New Whigs 82
IV. Robert Molesworth and His Friends in England, 1693-1727 84
‘‘Old Whigs’’ 84
Robert Molesworth’s Life and Friends 87
An Account of Denmark 94
Projects and Reforms 105
Trenchard and Gordon, Two Independent Whigs 111
Toland and Shaftesbury 121
V. The Case of Ireland 130
Liberal Ideas Before Grattan and Tone 130
William Molyneux and His Case of Ireland 133
Brisk Asserters of Irish Liberties: King, Maxwell, Dobbs,
and Swift 139
Reflections and Resolutions Proper for the Gentlemen of Ireland:
Molesworth, Madden, Berkeley, Prior 151
Civil and Religious Liberty 160
VI. The Interest of Scotland 172
Scotland in 1700 172
Buchanan and Fletcher 174
Francis Hutcheson and Adam Smith 180
Ferguson, the Rankenians,Wallace 194
Later Republicans at Aberdeen and Glasgow—Blackwell,
Ogilvie and Millar 205
VII. The Contribution of Nonconformity 216
Unpopularity, Schism, and Decline 216
Schism: Barrington and Bradbury 228
Historians, Preachers, and Tutors 233
Neal—The Historians and Journalists 233
Foster 237
Watts 240
Grove 245
Doddridge 249
Poets, Publishers, Laymen 252
VIII. Staunch Whigs and Republicans of the Reign of George II
(1727–1760) 265
Complacency and Politics 265
Parliamentmen, Historical, Constitutional, and
Legal Commentators 272
Anglican Innovators and Reformers—The Hoadlyites 289
Edmund Law and John Brown 297
Thomas Pownall’s Principles of Polity 304
IX. Honest Whigs Under George III, 1761–1789 313
Character of Radicalism in the Period 313
The Blackburne Connection 317
Price, Priestley, and Some Other Dissenters 327
Political Disquisitions, Societies, and Associations 348
X. Conclusion 369
Bibliographical Commentary 381
Acknowledgments 391
Notes 397
Index 441
