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II. The Whig Exclusionists: Pamphlet Literature in the Exclusion Campaign, 1679–81

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2011

O. W. Furley
O. W. Furley
Affiliation:
Lecturer in History, Makerere College, The University College of East Africa
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Extract

The Exclusion Controversy of 1679–81 echoes many of the constitutional issues debated before and during the Civil War, just as it anticipates many of the arguments used to support the 1688 Revolution. If the attempt to exclude James, Duke of York, from the succession to the throne was abortive, it still provides an important key to contemporary opinion about the vital political problems of the century; and at this time when the structure, indeed the very existence of the early Whig and Tory parties is being questioned, the Exclusion Controversy can be shown in one respect at least to have had a markedly unifying effect on the former party, as demonstrated in its literature. The attempt at Exclusion was the supreme effort of Shaftesbury to rally the early Whig party, and it was accompanied by an intensive propaganda campaign, issuing forth a steady stream of pamphlets, most of which are still extant. Some of the best of these have been printed in Somer's Tracts, The Harleian Miscellany and State Tracts: A Collection of Treatises relating to the Government, Privately Printed in the Reign of Charles II, 1693; while others are now very rare, and single copies may be found only in the British Museum or Bodleian Library, or in such repositories as the City Guildhall Library, London. Together with the Tory replies, they form a list of nearly two hundred titles, not as vast a collection as the Civil War produced, but one to compare favourably with the volume of pamphlets occasioned by the Restoration and the Revolution.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Historical Journal , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , 1957 , pp. 19 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1957

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References

1 Walcott, R., in his English Politics in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 1956)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, does much to rectify the rigid division of all matters into Whig and Tory camps from the late 1670's onwards, and argues that the existence of parties on a national basis at this time was tenuous in the extreme.

2 Valuable contributions on some aspects are: E. Lipson, ‘The Elections to the Exclusion Parliaments, 1679–81’, E[nglish] H[istorical] R[eview], XXVIII (1913), Mrs E. George,‘Elections and Electioneering, 1679–81’, E H R. XLV (1930). For a general survey see Miss B. Behrens, ‘The Whig Theory of the Constitution in the Reign of Charles II’, C[ambridge] H[istorical] j[ournal], VIII, no I (1941) None of these, however, deals specifically with Exclusion

3 Examen (London, 1740), 88.

4 Southwell to Ormonde, Nov. 1679. H[istorical] M[anuscripts] C[ommission], Ormonde MSS IV, 560

5 Memoirs of the Life of Anthony, Late Earl of Shaftesbury (London, 1683).Google Scholar

6 See J Ferguson, Robert Ferguson the Plotter (Edinburgh, 1887), passim.

7 These publishers are coupled with Shaftesbury in The Present Interest of England (London, 1683).

8 See the notice of Settle in Dictionary of National Biography.

9 Clerc, Le, Life and Character of Mr. John Locke (London, 1706), 8;Google Scholar letters of Humphrey Prideaux (London, Camden Society, 1875), 115.Google Scholar

10 Shaftesbury Papers, P[ublic] R[ecord] O[ffice], Bundle VI, B. 399 and 392.

11 I am indebted to Mr P. Laslett for pointing out that Shaftesbury's name may be connected with the publishing in 1680 of William Lawrence's Marriage by the Moral Law, and particularly with the third part of it, ‘The Right of Primogeniture’ (London, 1681), a book justifying Monmouth's illegitimate succession, which Lawrence sent to Shaftesbury with an accompanying letter, 25 Oct. 1680 (Shaftesbury Papers, P.R.O. Bundle VI, A. 355).

12 Plain Dealing is a Jewel (London, 1682).

13 Printed as a pamphlet: A Speech Lately Made by a Noble Peer. Christie, W. D., Life of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (London, 1871), 11, App. VI, no. 7.Google Scholar

14 Elkanah Settle, The Character of a Popish Successor (London, 1681).

15 Ferguson was usually taken to be the author of the Appeal, a fact which is not certain, but probable.

16 The Great and Weighty Considerations relating to the Duke of York…Considered (London, 1680).

17 H.M.C. House of Lords MSS. 1678–8, 195.

18 At the Merchant Taylors’ Hall, Oct..1679. Newsletter, H.M.C. Le Fleming MSS., 163.

19 A Seasonable Memento for All that have Voices in the Choice of a Parliament (1681), and An Address to the Honourable City of London (1681).

20 A. Grey, Debates [of the House of Commons] (London, 1763), VII, 446–59.

21 North, Roger, Lives of the Norths (London, 1890), III, 160.Google Scholar

22 Ibid, I, 354–5.

23 An Answer to A Character of a Popish Successor (London, 1681).

24 See J. G. A. Pocock, ‘Robert Brady, 1627–1700. A Cambridge Historian of the Restoration’, C.H.J. X, no. 2 (1951), for a survey of Whig and Tory versions of history on this question.

25 A Short Way to a Lasting Settlement (1683).

26 Captain Thorogood: His Opinion of the Point of Succession (London, 1679), and Three Great Questions concerning the Succession (1680)

27 MS. transcript of speeches in Jan.. 1681, British Museum, 816, m. 2 (2).

28 An Impartial Account of the Nature and Tendency of the Late Addresses (London, 1682–3).

29 Mr P. Laslett has set out to prove that Locke wrote his Second Treatise in the years 1679–81: see his article,’ The English Revolution and Locke's Two Treatises of Government’, C.H.J. XII, no. 1 (1956).

30 See Some Remarks upon a Late Piece called ‘Julian the Apostate’ (1682), and A Letter from a Gentleman of Quality in the Country to his Friend, upon His Being Chosen a Member to Serve in the Approaching Parliament (London, 1679).

31 See The Wine Cooper's Delight (London, 1681), and The Power of Parliaments in the Case of Succession (1681).

32 There is, however, one curious attempt to credit Monmouth with kingly healing powers: see His Grace the Duke of Monmouth Honoured in his Progress in the West of England, in an Account of a Most Extraordinary Cure of the King's Evil (London, 1680).

33 See Grey, Debates, VII, 425–59.

34 Memoirs of Sir Temple, William: Works (London, 1770), II, 501–2.Google Scholar

35 Observations upon a Late Libel (1681), ed. Macdonald, H. (Cambridge, 1940).Google Scholar His attribution of authorship to Halifax is reasonable.

36 A Plea for Succession, in Opposition to Popular Exclusion (London, 1682).

37 Grey, Debates, VIII, 167.

38 The pamphlets published during Shaftesbury's trial or at his death make fascinating reading, and deserve some space in any future biography of the Earl; the only reference I have found to Exclusion is in Raieleigh Redivivus (London, 1683). It mentions the second Exclusion Bill, and modestly describes Shaftesbury as ‘one of those lords who voted for it in the House of Lords’.