The Snare In The Constitution: Defoe And Swift On Liberty

The Snare in the Constitution: Defoe and Swift on Liberty By Zouheir Jamoussi BRITISH LIBRARY DOCUMENT SUPPLY CENTRE 2 2 SEP 2009 m09/. 31694 CAMBRIDGE SCHOLARS PUBLISHING TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements List xii of Abbreviations INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM The Two Religious Foes The Dissenters under the Restoration Kings The Common Enemy: Popery Collusion of the Two Enemies of the Church? Religious Tension after the Revolution Limited Toleration and Liberty of Conscience The Controversy over Occasional Conformity Attempts to Repeal the Test Act The Perils of the Dissenters' Political Alliances Defoe's Minimizing of the Dissenters' Political Weight Freethinkers Religion, Education, and Liberty Religion and Government Summary CHAPTER TWO: CIVIL LIBERTY The Debate on the Divine and Human Foundations of Government The Drapier's "Reversible" Book Chest Jus Divinum Royal Prerogative and the Law Jure Divino Tyranny The Doctrine of Passive Obedience and Non-resistance Political Contradictions of the Church Progress of Constitutionalism Human Foundation of Government Limited Monarchy William III: The Liberator xiii 1 17 18 29 56 59 59 viii Table of Contents Post-revolution Encroachments on the Constitution.... Snares in the Constitution? "Best" but Vulnerable Constitution The Foundations of Parliamentary Representation Elections The Party System The Mob The Monarch, the Parliament and the Constitution The Kentish Petition Affair The Standing Army Issue The Hanoverian Succession Suspension of Laws Corruption, "the Last Deadly Symptom of Agonizing Liberty" CHAPTER THREE: SWIFT AND DEFOE ON IRELAND AND SCOTLAND Swift and Ireland Banished to "a Country of Slaves" Thwarted Career Ambitions Banishment Constitutional Ambiguities Some Historical Landmarks The People of Ireland Legislative Dependence The Executive Employment Was Ireland an English Colony? Economic Oppression Rural Oppression Absenteeism Trade A Patriot in Spite of Himself The Copper Coin Crisis and The Drapier 's Letters Assessments of Swift's Irish "Patriotism" Defoe on Ireland Defoe and the Union of England and Scotland Unsettled Relations since the Union of the Crowns (1603) Defoe's Ill-disguised Secret Mission to Scotland Nationalists' Objections to the Union The Question of Procedure The Snare in the Constitution: Defoe and Swift on Liberty 89 ix Opposition to an Incorporating Union The Church of Scotland and the Union Trade Defoe's Response to the Scottish Nationalists Force of Argument or Argument of Force Diagnosis, Prognosis and Liberty on Prescription "Strange Way of Arguing" The Charge of Anglo-centricism Self-criticism: the Ideal and the Real Swift on Scotland 224 227 227 230 147 ]47 Liberty of Writing and of Speech as Guardian of all Liberties The Case of England Consciousness of Abuse and of the Need for Limitation "Inconveniencies arising from general Blessings" Censorship and Repression as Obstacles to Truth, Learning and Information Censors and Judges The Charge of Libel and Sedition Anonymity 243 The Church and the Press The State and the Press The Parties and the Press Defoe and Swift as Agents and Victims of Repression Defoe's and Swift's Calls for Censorship and Repression Defoe and Swift as Victims of Repression 256 265 267 268 190 Two Representations of Possession Crusoe and Things Crusoe and Territory Liberty and Isolation 274 Liberty and Contract The Snare in the Constitution: Defoe and Swift on Liberty Table of Contents Moll, Roxana, and Women's Liberty Mobility and Confinement Mobility and Liberty Mobility and Availability Geographical and Social Mobility Progress and Transgression Deprivation of Liberty Prison