H. T. Dickinson

The Eighteenth–Century Debate on the Sovereignty of Parliament

I hope to show in this paper that the national debate in the press and in parliament about the doctrine of the sovereignty of parliament is of crucial importance to a proper understanding of the politics and, still more, of the political ideology of eighteenth-century Britain. The significance that this doctrine had come to assume by the later eighteenth century becomes clearly apparent from any study of the dispute between Britain and the American colonies. In the final analysis the most serious point at issue between the mother country and her colonies rested on a fundamental disagreement over the nature and location of sovereignty. The majority of the ruling oligarchy in Britain saw parliament as the creator and interpreter of law and superior to any other rights or powers in the state. To the American colonists it appeared that the arbitrary and absolute power which Hobbes and Filmer had put in the hands of a king had been transferred to the whole legislature of King, Lords and Commons. In rejecting what they regarded as tyranny in another form, the colonists moved towards the concept of divided sovereignty with the people as the ultimate source of authority.

‘The Friends of America’: British Sympathy with the American Revolution

Among other struggles, the American Revolution was a constitutional conflict between American patriots and British imperialists who disagreed sharply and fundamentally in their understanding of the liberties of British subjects and their interpretation of the British constitution. What can reasonably be regarded as a civil war within the British Atlantic empire in the later eighteenth century was not simply a conflict in which two British peoples, on opposite sides of the Atlantic, disputed about their constitutional interpretations of the past and over their constitutional visions for the future. The constitutional issues were so complex and the consequences of victory or defeat so grave that the peoples on both sides of the Atlantic were also divided internally on the wisdom and justice of the arguments put forward by the American patriot and British imperialist leaders. On both sides of the Atlantic some people were quite unable to make up their minds or feared making the wrong choice and so they tried to remain neutral and awaited the outcome of the conflict without being directly involved in it. But there was also, on both sides of the Atlantic, a minority that opposed the views and repudiated the actions of the majority.

The Origins and Foundation of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich

This article examines the conditions that led to the overhaul of higher education in the Royal Navy from 1869 to 1873 and the factors leading to the establishment of a college at Greenwich. It explains how the impetus for reform, with its attendant increase in costs, was established by an admiralty administration acknowledged as one of the most financially retrenched of the century and demonstrates the extent to which political expediency was woven into the proper requirement for change.

Popular Conservatism and Militant Loyalism

Nearly all historians interested in the politics of the people in eighteenth-century Britain have concentrated much of their attention on the development of radical ideas and the rise of popular societies dedicated to parliamentary reform. In seeking to explain why radicalism failed, these historians have rarely acknowledged that the reform movement was simply not attractive to large numbers of the middling and lower orders. They have seen failure in terms of aristocratic hegemony and the willingness of the governing elite to use naked force or judicial persecution to frustrate any challenge to their authority. These explanations have failed to carry complete conviction, however, and so, more recently, alternative explanations have been sought. While not denying the power of the ruling elite or their control of the institutions of church and state, Professor Ian Christie has asserted that it was the pluralistic character of British society and the responsiveness of its political institutions that gave it the unique capacity to absorb both the pressures created by major socio-economic changes and the internal conflict generated by opposing interest groups.1 Professor Christie and other historians have also acknowledged the existence of a sophisticated conservative ideology, which defended the authority and privileges of the governing elite and praised the virtues of the existing constitution.2

The Representation of The People in Eighteenth-Century Britain

While today our first question about any system of representation would be to ask whether it is democratic, in eighteenth-century Britain the central question was whether it was constitutional. The primary concern of most of the population was not whether the whole adult population was directly and effectively represented in parliament, but whether the electoral system produced representatives who could ensure that the power of the executive was limited and restrained, the interests of the most important sectors of society were served, the rule of law was preserved, the liberties of the subject were protected, and MPs were accountable to those who chose them as their representatives. In the eighteenth century, most British people took great pride in their constitution that they regarded as the envy of the civilized world. To make a reality of the theoretical virtues of this constitution, to ensure that the executive power was neither absolute nor arbitrary, to preserve the rule of law, and to protect the liberties of the people, it was argued then that the House of Commons had to defend its privileges, maintain its independence of monarch and aristocracy, and represent the interests of the people.

Constitutional Documents of the United Kingdom 1782-1835

This print edition of Constitutions of the World from the Late 18th Century to the Middle of the 19th Century is the cost comprehensive collection of its kind, containing constitutional documents from 50 countries around the world from 1776-1849. This unique collection includes approximately 1,000 constitutional documents, human rights declarations and drafts of constitutions collected from archives and libraries from around the world by the German Research Foundation.

L'irlande à l'époque de la révolution française

On releve de nombreuses etudes historiques recentes portant sur l’Irlande a l’epoque de la Revolution francaise. Cette vague s’explique par la grande importance des evenements revolutionnaires francais sur une societe irlandaise tres divisee et par le fait que le bicentenaire de la montee et du declin du mouvement des Irlandais Unis, celui de la Grande Rebellion de 1798 et enfin de l’acte d’Union de 1800 entre la Grande-Bretagne et l’Irlande, ont donne lieu a de nombreux colloques et suscite un grand interet pour l’histoire irlandaise de la periode. Cet article s’attache a recenser cette litterature recente et a analyser la maniere dont les historiens percoivent le radicalisme et le loyalisme irlandais des annees 1790, la rebellion de 1798 et le debat contradictoire sur l’acte d’Union de 1800.