An American on Twitter recommended that I look at
Cato's Letters - I'd heard of them, but had never taken the time to dig. Even though they were written in 1720s England (
Wikipedia here) by
John Trenchard and
Thomas Gordon, they were a regular reference in 1770s America for the British 'colonists' who were preparing for a new Revolution.
This was the era when Ulster-Scots emigration to America began at full speed, starting in 1718 and surging throughout the century to around 200,000 people. Cato's Letters are a fascinating new insight into the era, and of how liberty-oriented communities in 1720s Britain regarded the corrosive corruption of their own ruling classes.
"How did they behave towards King William, whom they themselves invited over? As soon as he gave liberty of conscience to Protestant dissenters; let them see that he would not be a blind tool to a priestly faction, but would equally protect all his subjects who were faithful to him; had set himself at the head of the Protestant interest, and every year hazarded his person in dangerous battles and sieges for the liberty of England and of Europe, against the most dreadful scourge and oppressor of mankind that ever plagued the earth"
Presumably that "scourge and oppressor" was the genocidal Louis XIV of France. The following extract describes how the Church of England establishment had first benefited from the achievements of 1688, but later, out of self-interest, eroded those achievements away –
"It is certain that there was almost every where a general detestation of popery, and popish principles, and a noble spirit for liberty, at or just before the Revolution; and the clergy seemed then as zealous as the foremost.
But when the corrupt part of them found themselves freed from the dangers which they complained of, and could not find their separate and sole advantage in the Revolution, they have been continually attacking and undermining it; and since they saw that it was impossible to persuade those who were witnesses and sufferers under the oppressions of the former governments, wantonly, and with their eyes open, to throw away their deliverance, they went a surer and more artful way to work, though more tedious and dilatory; and therefore have, by insensible degrees, corrupted all the youth whose education has been trusted to them, and who could be corrupted; so that at the end of near forty years, the Revolution is worse established than when it began.
New generations are risen up, which knew nothing of the sufferings of their fathers, and are taught to believe there were never any such."
The Cato Institute (
online here) says this of the letters: "These essays popularised (John) Locke's ideas and were profoundly influential in both England and America. They are the inspiration for the Cato Institute. Published anonymously in the
London Journal from 1720 to 1723, the 144 letters provide a compelling theoretical basis for freedom of conscience and freedom of speech. Virtually half the private libraries in the American colonies contained bound volumes of
Cato’s Letters."
Cato's Letters are another treasure trove in understanding the era between the two Revolutions of 1688 and 1776, and how they connect to each other. The
Letters are online at
Libertyfund.org, as text-searchable PDFs via the links below (click on the download button, and then the 'eBook PDF' button)
