The Long Eighteenth Century

by Frank O'Gorman

  A Confessional Regime?

  A most critical review of J. C. D. Clark’s position as expressed in English Society will be found in Enlightenment and Dissent, 7 (1988), especially pp. 98–100 and by P. Corfield, ‘Georgian England: One State, many faiths’, History Today, 45 (1995). An interesting restatement of Clark’s position is offered in his paper, ‘England’s Ancien Regime as a Confessional State’, Albion, 21(3) (1989). However, R. Mayhew’s Landscape, Literature and English Religious Culture, 1660-1800 (2004) in effect upholds what may be termed a ‘Clarkian’ approach. Further relevant discussions include G. V. Bennett, The Tory Crisis in Church and State, 1688-1730 (1975); W. Gibson, Religion and Society in England and Wales: The Confessional State in Eighteenth Century England (1995); D. Hempton, ‘Religion in British Society, 1740-90’, in J. Black, ed., British Politics and Society from Walpole to Pitt (1990).

  W. Gibson’s The Church of England, 1688-1832, Unity and Accord (2001) has dispelled many of the older criticisms of and prejudice against, the Church of England while David Hempton’s Religion and Political Culture in Britain and Ireland: From the Glorious Revolution to the Decline of Empire (1996) emphasizes the extent to which the established church and its activities acted as a powerful vehicle for national unity, in spite of its regional variations. On the issue of anti-Catholicism see C. Haynes, Pictures and Popery: Art and Religion in England, 1660-1760 (2002), which modifies the traditional picture presented by C. Haydon, Anti-Catholicism in Eighteenth Century England (1993). Further works on the Church of England include C. Clay, ‘The Greed of Whig Bishops? Church Landlords and Their Lessees, 1660–1760’, Past and Present, 87 (1980); R. Currie, A. Gilbert and L. Horsley, Churches and Churchgoers: Patterns of Church Growth in the British Isles Since 1700 (1977); A. D. Gilbert, Religion and Society in Industrial England (1976); D. R. Hirschberg, ‘Episcopal Incomes and Expenses, 1660–1760’, in R. O’Day and F. Head, eds, Princes and Paupers in the English Church, 1500–1800 (1981); E. G. Rupp, Religion in England, 1688–1791 (1991); P. Virgin, The Church in an Age of Negligence: Ecclesiastical Structure and Problems of Church Reform, 1700–1840 (1989); A. Warner, Church and Society in Eighteenth Century Devon (1969). On Scotland, see C. Brown, Religion and Society in Scotland since 1707 (1997). N. Sykes, Edmund Gibson: Bishop of London (1926); Church and State in England in the Eighteenth Century (1934) retains much of interest.

  A European Regime?

  Many aspects of the discussion of an ancient regime in eighteenth-century Britain underlined the similarities between Britain and her continental neighbours. Tony Claydon’s Europe and the Making of England, 1660-1760 (2009 edn) argued powerfully the case for these similarities while S. Conway has pointed to common patterns in finance and trade. Both countries were set on a course of ‘improvement’ and shared many of the same patterns of social life at all levels, not least in social manners and enthusiastic travel on the Grand Tour. Britain, Ireland and Continental Europe in the Eighteenth Century (2011). See also A. Thompson, Europe and the Making of England (2007). Even advocates of imperial consciousness as a force in British society are careful to argue that such sentiments only tend to dominate in the second half of the century. P. Monod, Imperial Island: A History of Britain and its Empire (2009).

  The case for an ancien régime was set out by J. C. D. Clark’s English Society (1985), and in Revolution and Rebellion (1986). Among the most vigorous critiques of the thesis is R. Porter, ‘English Society in the Eighteenth Century Revisited’, in J. Black, ed., British Politics and Society from Walpole to Pitt (1990). See also J. Innes, ‘Jonathan Clark, Social History and England’s “Ancien Regime”’, Past and Present, 181 (1987). Also valuable is G. S. Rousseau, ‘Revisionist Polemics: J.C.D. Clark and the Collapse of Modernity in the Age of Johnson’, in P. Korshin, ed., The Age of Johnson, vol. III (1989). Shorter discussions may be found in J. Black, ‘England’s Ancien Regime’, History Today, 38 (1988) and F. O’Gorman, ‘Recent Historiography on the Hanoverian Regime’, Historical Journal, 29 (1986). The whole of Albion, 21(3) (1989) was devoted to discussion of the ‘ancien régime’ thesis.

  Stressing the importance of religious perceptions, Tony Claydon’s Europe and the Making of England (2007) emphasizes British fascination with European culture and institutions.

  CHAPTER 7. PATRIOTISM AND EMPIRE, 1756–1789

  Commerce and Empire

  Several of the studies listed for Chapter 1, under ‘Economy’ (Daunton, Allen and Mokyr) may profitably be consulted. Other principal texts, however, include P. Monod, Imperial Island: History of Britain and its Empire (2009); P. Marshall, A Free though Conquering People: Eighteenth Century Britain and its Empire (2003).

  On the origins and early development of the empire, see W. Speck’s most valuable essay ‘Britain and the Atlantic World’ in H. Dickinson’s Companion (2002). Major works on this topic are D. Armitage, The Ideological Origins of the British Empire (2000); J. Greene, Peripheries and Center: Constitutional Development of the Extended Polities of the British Empire and United States (1986); B. Orr, Empire on the English Stage, 1660-1714 (2001); S. Hornsby, American Frontier: Spaces of Power in Early Modern British America (2001). Older works include R. Davis, The Industrial Revolution and Britain’s Overseas Trade (1979); P. O’Brien, Power with Profit: The State and the Economy, 1688–1815 (1991); D. Baugh, ‘Maritime Strength and the Atlantic Community: The Uses of Grand Marine Empire’, in L. Stone, ed., An Imperial State at War: Britain 1689–1815 (1946); R. F. Thomas and D. N. McLoskey, ‘Overseas Trade and Empire, 1700–1860’, in R. C. Flood and D. N. McLosky, eds, The Economic History of Britain since 1700, I: 1700–1860 (1981); J. H. Parry, Trade and Dominion: The European Overseas Empires in the Eighteenth Century (1971). An interesting and original approach may be found in R. Drayton, Nature’s Government: Science, Imperial Britain and the ‘Improvement’ of the World (2000).

  William Pitt and the Seven Years’ War, 1756–1763

  Some important observations are directed at William Pitt’s reputation in Marie Peter’s ‘The Myth of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, great imperialist: Part I: Pitt and Imperial Expansion, 1738-63’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 21 (1993), pp. 31–4. The best of the old biographies of Pitt is by A. von Ruville (1907), which is much less Whiggish than the more popular treatment by Basil Williams (1913). Of more modern works, that by S. Ayling, The Elder Pitt (1976), is less prone to hero worship than P. Brown, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham (1978). Recent biographies include Pitt the Elder by J. Black (1992), who plays up Pitt’s role in winning the Seven Years’ War, as contrasted with the more sceptical treatment of R. Middleton, The Bells of Victory: The Pitt-Newcastle Ministry and the Conduct of the Seven Years War (1985). A more balanced, yet still independent view of Pitt is given in M. Peters, Pitt and Popularity: The Patriotic Minister and Public Opinion during the Seven Years War (1980) and in her full biography of The Elder Pitt (1998). See also P. Langford, ‘William Pitt and Public Opinion, 1757’, English Historical Review, 88 (1973); J. P. Greene, ‘The Seven Years War and the American Revolution: The Causal Relationship Reconsidered’, in P. Marshall and G. Williams, eds, The British Atlantic Empire Before the American Revolution (1980). On the conduct of the Seven Years, War in general, see R. Middleton, The Bells of Victory: The Pitt–Newcastle Ministry and the Conduct of the Seven Years War; H. Boscawen, The Capture of Louisberg, 1758 (2011). M. Eder, Crime and Punishment: the Royal Navy of the Seven Years War (2004). There are biographies of Henry Pelham, A Whig in Power: the Political Career of Henry Pelham, J. Wilkes (1964), and of The Duke of Newcastle, R. Browning (1975).

  The origins of the American Revolution, 1756–1776

  The best introduction to this subject is may be found in the essays in P. J. Marshall and G. Williams, eds, The British Atlantic Empire before the American Revolution (1980). Of fundamental importance is P. J. Marshall, ed., The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. II (1998). See also D. Armitage and M. Braddick, eds, The British Atlantic World, 1500
-1800 (2003). There are some interesting interpretive ideas in I. Steele, ‘The British Parliament and the Atlantic Colonies to 1760; new approaches to enduring questions’, Parliamentary History, 14 (1995), pp. 212–46. I. R. Christie, Crisis of Empire: Great Britain and the American Colonies, 1754–83 (1984) is still a helpful introductory account and useful further ideas will be gleaned from K. Wilson, The Sense of the People, and L. Colley, Britons. Good, standard accounts of the origins of the Revolution will be found in P. Langford, A Polite and Commercial People: England, 1727–1783 (1989); J. A. Henretta, Salutary Neglect: Colonial Administration under the Duke of Newcastle (1972). For a more detailed account of relations with the colonies, see also I. R. Christie and B. W. Labaree, Empire or Independence, 1760–1776 (1976). A good, general account from the American standpoint is M. Jensen, The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution, 1763–76 (1968). Valuable ideological context is given in E. Gould, The Persistence of Empire: British Colonial Culture in the Age of the American Revolution (2000); H. V. Bowen, Elites, Enterprise and the Making of the British Overseas Empire, 1688-1775 (1996) and D. Armitage, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (2000). (Armitage interestingly discusses in chapters 4 to 6 the developing linkages between the idea of an empire of the seas and the preservation of liberty.) See also, M. Geiter and W. Speck, Colonial America: From Jamestown to Yorktown (2002). Also of considerable use is the collection edited by H. Dickinson, British Pamphlets of the American Revolution (2010 edn).

  The most authoritative account of the British political context is the work of P. D. G. Thomas, Revolution in America: Britain and the Colonies, 1763-76 (1992) and the same author’s British Politics and the Stamp Act Crisis: The First Phase of the American Revolution, 1763–67 (1975) and The Townshend Duties Crisis: The Second Phase of the American Revolution, 1767–77 (1987). The British political context is also discussed in J. Derry, British Politics and the American Revolution (1976); K. Perry, British Politics and the American Revolution (1990). Two further vital texts are P. Lawson, George Grenville: A Political Life (1984) and P. D. G. Thomas, ‘George III and the American Revolution’, History, 70 (1985). Thomas’s essay successfully argues the case that George III was a cautious and moderate monarch.

  The American War of Independence, 1776–1783

  Several of the works mentioned in the last section overlap into this one in their coverage of the American War of Independence. These include Marshall, Christie and Geiter and Speck. The best concise account of the American Revolution is now that of S. Conway, The British Isles and the War for American Independence (2000) supplemented with the essays contained in H. Dickinson, ed., Britain and the American Revolution (1998). P. Mackesy, The War for America, 1775–83 (1965) remains an Authoritative Item, but much has been added to the story of the war in the last five decades, not least the growing emphasis on the War of American Independence as a global conflict. See, for example, S. Conway, The American Revolutionary War (2013). On the conduct of the war, further titles include A. O’Shaughnessy, The Men Who Lost America: British Commanders during the American Revolutionary War and the Preservation of the Empire (2013); P. D. G. Thomas, Lord North (1976); R. A. Bowler, Logistics and the Failure of the British Army in America, 1773–83 (1975); G. Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence (1978). See also J. R. Alden, The American Revolution, 1775–83 (1954); R. W. Von Alstyne, The Rising American Empire (1960); M. Beloff, ed., The Debate on the American Revolution (1949). For British opinion during the war, compare D. M. Clark, British Opinion and the American Revolution (1930) with J. E. Bradley, Popular Politics and the American Revolution in England (1986), who argues for considerable resistance to the war. See also C. Bonwick, English Radicals and the American Revolution (1977). On India, consult H. Bowen, M. Lincoln and N. Rigby, eds, The Worlds of the East India Company (2002). See also P. Marshall, The Making and Unmaking of Empire: British India and America, 1750-83 (2009 edn); P. Carson, The East India Company and Religion, 1698-1858 (2012).

  On the making of peace, see P. Maier, From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765–78 (1972). R. B. Morris, The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence (1965) is still useful. J. P. Greene takes an interesting theme in his Evaluating Empire and Confronting Colonialism in Eighteenth Century Britain (2013). Recent writers have insisted upon the European context of the peace negotiations of 1782–3. From this perspective the Peace of Paris was primarily the settlement of European balance of power issues, not merely those to do with Anglo-American relations. H. Scott, ‘Britain as a European Great Power in the Age of the American Revolution’, in H. Dickinson, ed., Britain and the American Revolution (1998) and A. Stockley, Britain and France at the Birth of America: the European Powers and the Peace Negotiations of 1782-83 (2001).

  CHAPTER 8. THE AGE OF GEORGE III, 1760–1789

  George III and the Politicians, 1760–1770

  The politics of the first half of the reign of George III have attracted a considerable literature. Convenient summaries will be found in texts such as those by Christie, Wars and Revolutions, Holmes and Szechi, Age of Oligarchy, Williams and Ramsden, Ruling Britain, Foord, His Majesty’s Opposition, B. Hill, Parliamentary Parties and P. Langford, Propertied Englishman. The traditional, classic discussions of the politics of the new reign are those by L. B. Namier, England in the Age of the American Revolution, 2nd edn (1961) and The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III, 2nd edn (1982), together with the critique of H. Butterfield, George III and the Historians (1957). See also R. Pares, George III and the Politicians (1953).

  Useful modern surveys which build on these foundations include B. W. Hill, British Parliamentary Parties, 1741–1832 (1985); J. Brewer, Party Ideology and Popular Politics at the Accession of George III (1976); G. H. Gutteridge, English Whiggism and the American Revolution (1966); J. Derry, British Politics and the American Revolution (1976); K. W. Schweizer, Lord Bute: Essays in Re-interpretation (1988); M. J. Turner, British Politics in an Age of Reform (1999).

  More specialized studies of the king include the classic biography by John Brooke, King George III (1972) which may be contrasted with several modern works such as G. Ditchfield, George III: an Essay in Monarchy (2002); D. Jarrett, Memoirs of George III, 4 vols (2000); D. Watkins, The Architect King: George III and the Cultural Life of the Enlightenment (2004). See also N. Smith, The Royal Image and the English People (2001).

  Politics and Party 1770–1789

  Books from the section above by Christie, Derry, Holmes and Scecgi, Hill and Turner are relevant here. General accounts will also be found in M. Turner’s The Age of Unease: Government and Reform in Britain, 1782-1832 (2000). More detailed studies include J. Brooke, The Chatham Administration, 1766–68 (1956); P. Langford, The First Rockingham Administration (1973); B. Donoughue, British Politics and the American Revolution (1773–75) (1964); I. R. Christie, The End of North’s Ministry (1958); P. D. G. Thomas, British Politics and the Stamp Act Crisis, 1763–67 (1975); J. A. Cannon, The Fox–North Coalition: Crisis of the Constitution (1969); F. O’Gorman, The Rise of Party in England, 1760-82 (1975) and the same author’s The Emergence of the British Two-Party System, 1760-1832 (1982); W. Elofson, The Rockingham Connection and the Second Founding of the Whig Party (1996); D. Ginter, Whig Organization in the General Election of 1790 (1967); J. Derry, The Regency Crisis and the Whigs (1963); L. G. Mitchell, Charles James Fox and the Disintegration of the Whig Party 1782–94 (1971); F. O’Gorman, The Whig Party and the French Revolution (1967); Edmund Burke: His Political Philosophy (1973); P. Brown, The Chathamites (1967); J. Bradley, Popular Politics and the American Revolution in England (1986) and H. Bowen, Revenue and Reform: The Indian Problem in British Politics, 1757–73 (1991).

  Authoritative recent biographies are rather thin on the ground. The best of them are J. Brooke, George III (1972); P. D. G. Thomas, Lord North (1976); P. Whiteley, Lord North: the Pr
ime Minister who lost America (1996); M. Duffy, The Younger Pitt (2003); J. Ehrman, The Younger Pitt: The Years of Acclaim (1969); P. Lawson, George Grenville: A Political Life (1984). See also R. Hoffman, The Marquis; A Study of Lord Rockingham, 1730-82 (1973); B. Kemp, Sir Francis Dashwood an Eighteenth Century Independent (1967), J. Norris, Shelburne and Reform (1963); N. Aston and C. C. Orr, eds, An Enlightened Statesman in Whig Politics: Lord Shelburne in Context (2011); V. Irvine, The King’s Wife: George IV and Mrs. Fitzherbert (2005); D. Wilkinson, The Duke of Portland: Politics and Party in the Age of George III (2003). There is a useful collection of biographies in H. von Thal, The Prime Ministers (1974).

  Reform Politics, 1763–1789

  On the origins of reform, see H. T. Dickinson, ‘The Precursors of Political Radicalism in Augustan Britain’, in C. Jones, ed., Britain in the First Age of Party (1987); L. Colley, ‘Eighteenth Century Radicalism before Wilkes’, TRHS, 5th series, 31 (1981); R. E. Richey, ‘The Origins of British Radicalism: The Changing Rationale for Dissent’, Eighteenth Century Studies, 7 (1973–6). Seminal early works on the reform movement are still valuable. See G. Rude, Paris and London in the Eighteenth Century (1973). Useful outlines of the early reform movement may be found in J. Cannon, Parliamentary Reform, 1640-1832 (1973); E. Royle and J. Walvin, English Radicals and Reformers, 1760–1848 (1982); D. G. Wright, Popular Radicalism: The Working Class Experience, 1780–1880 (1988); E. Black, The Association (1963).

  On Wilkes, see J. Sainsbury, John Wilkes: the Lives of a Libertarian (2011); J. Brewer, Party Ideology and Popular Politics at the Accession of George III (1976); K. Wilson, The Sense of the People (1995); G. Rudé, Wilkes and Liberty (1962); P. Thomas, John Wilkes: a Friend to Liberty (1996); I. R. Christie, Wilkes, Wyvill and Reform (1962); G. Nobb, The North-Briton (1939); J. A. Cannon, Parliamentary Reform, 1660–1832 (1972); A. Clark, Scandal: the Sexual Politics of the British Constitution (2006); H. T. Dickinson, ‘Radicals and Reformers in the Age of Wilkes and Wyvill’, in J. Black, ed., British Politics and Society from Walpole to Pitt, 1742–89 (1990); J. Brewer, ‘English Radicalism in the Age of George III’, in J. G. A. Pocock, ed., Three Revolutions, 1641-1688 and 1776 (1980).