THE TWO NATIONS! THE VIEW FROM BELOW

So which was it to be? Was society according to James Mackintosh structured around a distinct and virtuous ‘middle class’, or was it fundamentally composed only of rich and poor – eternally torn between the two, the whole two, and nothing but the two? In our sociologically trained ears, this apparent contradiction rankles; but Mackintosh's writing was not hampered by such considerations. At this early moment in our story, the political implications of such different portrayals of society had not yet been as rigidly circumscribed as they were to become later in the decade; and thus Mackintosh could resort to both in the same text, if they could be of service. And indeed, in mid-1791, vacillating between enchantment with the French Revolution and wariness lest the whole thing would be carried too far, Mackintosh's uncertain political views could indeed be served by both.

The potential political alignment of a ‘middle-class’-based vision of society has been laid out in the previous chapter. Mackintosh's alternative social scheme, a binary one which allowed no room or effective role for a ‘middle class’, also carried in it the seeds of its own political message.