Swift and … the Latin historians: Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), author of Gulliver’s Travels (1726) and a range of satirical works, first from a Whig perspective but subsequently as a Tory. Godwin read widely, but his principal Latin sources are Livy’s history of Rome, Ab urbe condita, Suetonius’ Twelve Caesars, and Tacitus’ Annals of Imperial Rome. He also drew extensively on the Greek historian Plutarch and his Lives.
Système de la Nature, Rousseau and Helvetius: three of the principal Encyclopédists of the French Enlightenment, baron d’Holbach (1723–89), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78), and Claude-Adrien Helvétius (1715–71). In addition to Holbach’s Système (1770), Godwin read widely in Rousseau’s works, especially the Discourses (1755), and his Social Contract and Émile (1762), and in Helvétius’ De l’homme, de ses facultés intellectuelles et de son éducation (1773).
the composition was begun … unremitted ardour: Godwin recorded the key events in his diary, and from the commencement of Political Justice kept a meticulous record of his reading, writing, and meetings. See The Diary of William Godwin, ed. Victoria Myers, David O’Shaughnessy, and Mark Philp (Oxford, 2010), <http://godwindiary.bodleian.ox.ac.uk>.
the Shibboleth of the constitution: Godwin refers to the rise of loyalist associations designed to support the government and combat what was perceived as a rising tide of popular demands for reform of the political system following the influence of the opening events of the French Revolution and the spread of ‘French principles’. In May 1792 a royal proclamation against seditious writing was issued, Thomas Paine (1737–1809) was prosecuted for his Rights of Man (1791, 1792), and a number of cases were brought against ordinary people for expressions of anti-monarchical sentiments.
from Sydney … Helvetius: Algernon Sidney (1623–83), author of Discourses Concerning Government (published posthumously in 1698); John Locke (1632–1704), author of Two Treatises of Government (1698); Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man (1791, 1792). On Rousseau and Helvétius, see second note to p. 4.
Bacchus … Cyrus: Bacchus, the Latin name for Dionysus, son of Zeus, who reputedly conquered far into Asia; Sesostris is a mythical Egyptian king, reported by Herodotus; Semiramis, according to legend, ruled Assyria and built Babylon; Cyrus (559–522 BCE) founded the Persian empire.
The expeditions of Cambyses … and of Xerxes against the Greeks: Cambyses, king of Persia (530–522 BCE), son of Cyrus, conquered Egypt in 525 BCE. He was succeeded by Darius I (521–486), who attempted to conquer Greece and was defeated at Marathon. His son Xerxes invaded again in 480 and was defeated at the battle of Salamis.
The conquests of Alexander … one million two hundred thousand men: Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE), king of Macedon, was arguably the greatest military leader in antiquity. Gaius Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE) conquered Gaul and made inroads into Germany and Britain, as well as winning the civil war generated by his refusal to surrender his military commands in 48 BCE.
Their wars in Italy … the Carthaginians two hundred: the wars between the Romans and the Etruscans lasted from the early fifth century BCE until the defeat of Pyrrhus in 275. The conflict with Carthage is referred to as the three Punic Wars, 264–241, 218–201, and 149–146 BCE.
The Mithridatic war: the Mithridatic Wars against Asia took place in 89–85, 83–81, and 74–63 BCE.
Sylla … and Marius: Lucius Sulla (138–78 BCE) used the troops from his command against Mithridates, king of Pontus, in 86 to start a civil war in Italy, in which he eventually triumphed in 82. Gaius Marius (157–86 BCE) vied with Sulla for command in the first Mithridatic War. Sulla had the support of the senate and the elite; Marius’ support came from the plebs. Sulla seized Rome, forcing Marius to flee. In 87 BCE, when Sulla was in the East fighting Mithridites, Marius led an army against Rome and then had himself declared consul. He inaugurated a savage revenge on his enemies before dying suddenly. When Sulla recaptured Rome in 83 BCE, he followed Marius’ example in exacting revenge on those who had supported his rival.
Mahomet … Charlemagne: Muhammad (c. 570–632), the Prophet. Charlemagne (747–814), king of the Franks and Holy Roman emperor.
the exploits of Aurungzebe … Spaniards in the new world: Aurangzeb (1618–1707), Mughal emperor of India; Genghis Khan (1162–1227), Mongol conqueror; Tamerlane (1336–1405), Turkic conqueror of Persia and northern India. The reference to Spanish conquerors is to Hernán Cortez (1485–1547), who destroyed the Aztecs in Mexico (1519), and Francisco Pizarro (c. 1475–1541), who destroyed the Incas in Peru (1532).
France was wasted … Louis the fourteenth: the Hundred Years War between England and France began in 1337 over the exclusion by Salic law of daughters from succession to the French throne and from English Plantagenet claims to the French throne. The French wars of religion (1562–98) included the unsuccessful siege of La Rochelle from December 1572 to June 1573 by the future Henri III. His mother, Catherine de’ Medici, had instigated the massacres of French Protestants on 24 August 1572, known as the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre. Religious tolerance was established by Henri IV under the Edict of Nantes in 1598. The Thirty Years War (1618–48) involved most of Europe in a struggle that evolved from religion to dynastic control. Louis XIV (1638–1715) was at war for all but fourteen of his seventy-two-year reign.
Cressy and Agincourt … Charles the first and his parliament: Crécy (1346) and Agincourt (1415) were two major English victories in the Hundred Years War. The Wars of the Roses over rival claims by the houses of York and Lancaster lasted from 1455 to 1485. Charles I’s reign ended with a war against parliamentary forces, which deposed and executed him in 1648.
No sooner was the constitution settled … the king of Prussia: the restoration of the monarchy in the person of Charles II in 1660, and the subsequent succession of the Catholic James II to the throne in 1685, resulted in the revolution of 1688, which deposed James and accepted William and Mary to the throne. This brought Britain into the Nine Years War (1688–97) and the War of Spanish Succession (1701–14). Conflict over the Habsburg monarchy produced the War of Austrian Succession (1741–8), and the Anglo-French (Hanover–Bourbon) conflict also produced the global Seven Years War (1756–63). Godwin also refers to John Churchill, first duke of Marlborough (1650–1722), politician and military leader, who played a major role in the War of Spanish Succession; Maria Theresa (1717–80), queen consort of the Holy Roman emperor and last ruler of the Habsburg empire, whose accession led Prussia to invade Silesia, prompting the War of Austrian Succession, and who sought to regain it in the Seven Years War; and Frederick the Great (1712–86), king of Prussia, who invaded Silesia on Maria Theresa’s accession to the throne.
choosing whether Henry the sixth or Edward the fourth … haughty Maria Theresa: an issue in the Wars of the Roses, a dynastic civil war between Lancastrians and Plantagenets between 1455 and 1485. The reference to Maria Theresa (see the preceding explanatory note) is to the War of Austrian Succession (1741–8) and the Seven Years War (1756–63).
the free-booter: a reference to Frederick of Prussia (1712–86).
Gulliver’s Travels, Part IV Ch. v: Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Part IV, ‘A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms’, ch. v, in which Gulliver tries to explain the resort to war by European states.
Locke on Government … Burke’s Vindication of Natural Society: John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (1694), I. i. 1, p. 1; II. vii. 91, pp. 233–4; Edmund Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society (1756).
Locke … J. J. Rousseau: John Locke, An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (1690); David Hartley, Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations (1749); Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile; ou, De l’éducation (1762).
as Newton has done respecting matter: Isaac Newton (1642–1727), philosopher and scientist.
Mainwarings, the Sibthorpes, and the Filmers: Godwin’s three references are to defenders of the divine right of kings: Roger Maynwaring [Manwaring] (1589/90?–1653); Robert Sibthorpe (d. 1662); and Robert Filmer (1588?–1653), now the best known (thanks to Locke’s attack on him in the first of his Two Treatises of Government), who defended absolute monarchy in his Patriarcha; or, The Natural Power of Kings (1680).
Lord Kaimes: Henry Home, Lord Kames, Loose Hints upon Education, chiefly concerning the Culture of the Heart (Edinburgh, 1781).
Archdeacon Paley: William Paley, The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy (1785); Godwin refers to the seventh edition (1790).
excommunication and interdict: excommunication is an ecclesiastical punishment wholly excluding a person from the Church; an interdict restricted their participation to certain sacraments only. The medieval Church used both to pressure monarchs to accept their authority. Most dramatically, the emperor Henry IV had to stand for three days barefoot in the palace courtyard at Canossa dressed as a penitent before being accepted back into the Church by Pope Gregory VII.
the Bramin widows of Indostan: referring to the Hindu practice, for those from the high caste of the Brahmin, of suttee, in which the widow was burnt upon the funeral pyre of her husband. ‘Indostan’ was a common eighteenth-century term for the Indian subcontinent.
The doctrine of transubstantiation: the Catholic belief that in Holy Communion the bread and wine are in substance transformed into the body and blood of Christ.
Logan … p. 69: John Logan, Elements of the Philosophy of History (Edinburgh, 1781). Godwin misquotes Logan’s account of Sparta under Lycurgus: ‘The people were arrested in the first stage of improvement. A bold hand was put forth to that spring which is in society, and stopt its motion’ (pp. 69–70).
the character of the game laws: game laws restricted rights to take certain fish and animals, generating the activity of poaching and the draconian punishments exacted for the offence. These laws, and the Black Act of 1723, feature in Godwin’s novel Things As They Are; or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794).
the late revenue laws of France: under France’s Ancien Régime, prior to the legislation of 4 August 1789, feudal privileges exempted the nobility from most tax.
the proud satrap: a satrap was a provincial governor in ancient Persia, a byword for despotism in the eighteenth century, thanks in part to Montesquieu’s De l’esprit des lois (1748) and Lettres persanes (1721).
induced Hartley: David Hartley, Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations (1749), i. 308, suggests that picture writing was ‘perhaps communicated originally to Adam by God’.
Was the language of Anaxarchus … himself: Anaxarchus of Abdera (fourth century BCE). Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers in Ten Books 9. 59, reports that Nicocreon, tyrant of Salamis, had Anaxarchus pounded to death in a mortar, which he suffered with composure.
Mutius Scœvola and archbishop Cranmer … flames: Gaius Mucius Scaevola was a legendary Roman hero who, having tried to kill Lars Porsena, king of Clusium, in 508 BCE, thrust his left hand into a fire to demonstrate his indifference to pain. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer (1481–1556) was burnt at the stake for treason but thrust the hand with which he had signed his recantation into the flames first as if to purge it.
‘impossible to establish … climates’: the thought, although more equivocally expressed, is from Montesquieu’s De l’esprit des lois (1748), book 14.
Indostan: ‘Indostan’ was a common eighteenth-century term for the Indian subcontinent.
Diodorus Siculus describes … and Aristotle: Diodorus Siculus, author of Bibliothēkē historikē (Library of History), in forty books, written between 60 and 30 BCE; see 5. 27–32. Aristotle (384–322 BCE), Greek philosopher; see his Politics 2. 1269b25–7, where the reference is to the Celts and homosexuality.
Hume’s Essay on National Characters: David Hume, Essays, Moral, Political and Literary (1772).
‘he, that will not give just occasion … political power’: Godwin truncates the quotation and eliminates punctuation and Locke’s use of capitals, but is faithful to Locke’s claim.
‘Society and government … a necessary evil’: the claim opens the second paragraph of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (1776), his clarion call for American independence from Britain.
the illustrious archbishop of Cambray: François de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon, archbishop of Cambray (1651–1715), author of Les Aventures de Télémaque, fils d’Ulysse (1699). The book describes the education of Telemachus by his tutor Mentor (who is Athena in disguise). It was immensely influential in French political thought throughout the eighteenth century. Godwin’s ‘case’ of choosing between Fénelon and his mother has entered philosophical discourse as ‘the famous fire cause’. See, for example, Brian Barry, Justice as Impartiality (Oxford, 1995), sect. 37.
the Rev. Jonathan Edwards: Jonathan Edwards, Essay on the Nature of True Virtue (1778). Edwards was an American preacher and a major contributor to the mid-century evangelical revival in America.
Swift’s Sermon on Mutual Subjection: Jonathan Swift, Three Sermons: I. On Mutual Subjection. II. On Conscience. III. On the Trinity (1744).
Lycurgus … to render his death a source of additional benefit: Lycurgus (c. 390–c. 325 BCE), Spartan statesman, who determined on starving himself to death having served the state to his fullest possible extent. Godwin draws on Plutarch’s Lives, ‘Lycurgus’ 29.
Codrus, Leonidas and Decius: Codrus, the legendary king of Athens who stole into the enemy Dorian camp in disguise in order to provoke a quarrel that would lead to his death because he had learned that an oracle had declared that the Dorians would defeat the Athenians if they spared their king. King Leonidas led the Spartan three hundred at Thermopylae in 480 BCE, which sought to delay the advance of a massive Persian force. Decius was a Roman consul who fought to the death in battle with the Latins in 340 BCE.
the much admired suicide of Cato: Marcus Porcius Cato (Cato the Younger, 95–46 BCE) was a Roman senator and epitome of republican virtue, who committed suicide during the civil war to avoid surrendering to the victorious Julius Caesar. His death is the centrepiece of Joseph Addison’s play Cato: A Tragedy (1713), which Godwin cites on several occasions.
‘that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church’: Tertullian (c. 160–225), Apologia 17. 1.
Junius Brutus did right in putting his sons to death: Lucius Junius Brutus, according to tradition Roman consul in 509 BCE, whose sons sought the restoration of the Tarquins, whom the republic had expelled following the rape of Lucretia. Brutus saw through the responsibilities of his office by overseeing the execution of his sons. The French revolutionary artist Jacques-Louis David captures the republican spirit of the scene in his painting The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of his Sons (1789), of which Godwin may well have been made aware by his friend the artist James Barry (1741–1806).
Clement, Ravaillac, Damiens and Gerard: Jacques Clement (1567–89) assassinated Henri III of France in 1589; François Ravaillac (1578–1610) assassinated Henri IV of France in 1610; Robert-François Damiens (c. 1715–1757) attempted the assassination of Louis XV of France in 1757; Gerard may refer either to Balthazar Gérard (1558–84), who assassinated William of Nassau, prince of Orange, or to John Gerard (1632–54), who was executed for plotting the death of Oliver Cromwell.
the fires of Smithfield … the daggers of Saint Bartholomew: Smithfield refers to the execution by burning of Protestant clergy at Smithfield under Mary I (1553–8). Godwin treats these as effectively the English analogue to the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre of French Protestants in Paris, instigated by Catherine de’ Medici on 24 August 1572.
The inventors of the Gunpowder Treason: the Gunpowder Plot was a plan by Catholic conspirators to blow up the House of Lords while King James I was addressing it on 5 November 1605 so as to facilitate the restoration of a Catholic monarchy. Those primarily responsible were Guy Fawkes (1570–1606), Robert Catesby (c. 1573–1605), Sir Everard Digby (c. 1578–1606), Thomas Percy (1560–1605), Ambrose Rookwood (c. 1578–1606), Francis Tresham (1567?–1605), Robert Winter (d. 1606), and John (1568?–1605) and Christopher Wright (1570?–1605).
Calvin … Servetus: Jean Calvin (1509–64), French theologian and Protestant reformer in Geneva, had Michael Servetus (1511–53), a Spanish physician and theologian, burnt at the stake in Geneva for denying the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus Christ.
All government is founded in opinion: David Hume, ‘Of the First Principles of Government’, in Essays, Moral and Political (1772): ‘It is therefore, on opinion only that government is founded.’
‘On a dit … sanction.’ Raynal, Revolution d’Amerique: the abbé Guillaume-Thomas-François Raynal, Révolution de l’Amérique, par M. l’abbé Raynal, auteur de l’histoire philosophique et politique des établissemens, et du commerce des européens dans les deux Indes (London, 1781), 34.
Rights of Man, page 1: Thomas Paine, Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr Burke’s Attack on the French Revolution (London: J. S. Jordan, 1791), 5.
religious rights of Confucius, of Mahomet: Confucius, Master Kongfuze (551–479 BCE), Chinese philosopher; Muhammad (c. 570–632), the Prophet.
Euclid: (c. 300 BCE), Greek mathematician and founder of geometry through his Stoicheia (Elements).
scandalum magnatum: the slander of great men. This was a particular form of defamation involving words spoken defaming a peer spiritual or temporal, a judge, or other dignitary of the realm defined under the statutes 3 Edward I, c. 34; 2 Richard II, c. 5; and 12 Richard II, c. 11. The offence was not formally abolished until 1887.
positive law with its Procrustes’s bed: Procrustes was a legendary brigand who required any traveller on the road from Athens to Eleusis who accepted his hospitality to sleep on his bed. Those too short were stretched, those too tall were trimmed. Theseus is credited with laying Procrustes on his own bed and shortening him by cutting off his head.
the usurpation of Cromwel … Caligula: Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658), who played a central role in the defeat of Charles I and the suppression of Ireland in the English civil war, becoming president of the Council of State in 1649 and lord protector from 1655. Caligula (Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, 12–41) was notorious for his erratic despotism; he was eventually assassinated.
Hume’s Essays. Part II. Essay xii: David Hume, Essays, Moral and Political (1772), ‘Of the Original Contract’.
Du Contract Social: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Du Contract social; ou, Principes du droit politique (1762). The original reads: ‘Les deputés du peuple ne sont donc ni ne peuvant, être ses réprésentans …’.
Westminster … the Royal Exchange: Westminster is on the west side of the city of London. Blackwall is on the east side of the city of London and was a common place for ships to dock. The Royal Exchange is at the heart of the City.
In the case of ship money under king Charles the first: ship money was levied on coastal towns for the upkeep of the Navy. In 1635 Charles I sought to impose it upon inland towns, which led to great opposition. The tax was ended by Parliament in 1641.
Esprit des Loix: Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu, De l’esprit des lois (1748).
an Asiatic cadi: a cadi was a local judge under the Ottoman empire.
Sterne’s Sermons: Laurence Sterne, The Sermons of Mr Yorick (1759), iv, Sermon XII, ‘The Abuses of Conscience Considered’.
A quaker refuses to pay tithes: tithes were a payment to support the Established (Anglican) Church. Many associated with religious dissent resented their payment, which was enforced by ‘tithe proctors’.
Vie de M. Turgot: Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet, Vie de Monsieur Turgot (1786), 217.
‘Nay my good lord … and umpire of itself’: John Home, Douglas: A Tragedy (1757), IV. i. 54. Godwin adapts the quotation, or draws on another unidentified source.
the grand monarque: Louis XIV, king of France (1643–1715).
Quixote plan: a visionary and impractical plan, based on Cervantes’ novel Don Quixote (1605–15).
Solon, the Athenian lawgiver: Plutarch, Lives, ‘Solon’ 15. 2. In the eighteenth century Solon was consistently cited, alongside Lycurgus, as one of the great legislators of the ancient world.
Hume’s Essays. Part II. Essay xii: see second note to p. 84.
the single instance of lord Strafford: Thomas Wentworth, first earl of Strafford (1593–1641), was executed on Parliament’s insistence and with Charles I’s extremely reluctant acquiescence.
listed field: a field prepared for a tilting or jousting tournament.
Sydney and Locke and Montesquieu and Rousseau: Godwin has referred to these writers before (see first notes to pp. 12 and 95). Both John Locke (1632–1704) and Algernon Sidney (1623–83) were more practically engaged in resistance to James II’s succession in 1685. Locke spent time abroad and Sidney was executed for treason.
like the first Brutus: Lucius Junius Brutus, traditionally recognized as the founder of the Roman republic, and celebrated as such by Livy, Ab urbe condita 2. 10. Godwin has already mentioned his supervision, as consul, of the execution of his two sons for conspiring to return the Tarquin monarchy to power.
De l’Homme, Préface: Claude-Adrien Helvétius, De l’homme, de ses facultés intellectuelles et de son éducation (1773), pp. vi–vii.
the conspirators, kneeling at the feet of Cœsar: Godwin doubtless read Plutarch and Suetonius’ lives of Julius Caesar, but he was also well acquainted with Shakespeare’s play, III. i. 32–76; in 1812 he attended the play on three occasions in as many months. The principal assassin was Marcus Junius Brutus (c. 85–42 BCE).
See the Parmenides: Plato’s Parmenides is a complex dialogue in which Plato’s voice is, unusually, expressed through Parmenides rather than through Socrates. The dialogue involves a critical examination and reformulation of the doctrine of the Forms, articulated by Socrates in Plato’s Republic.
Apologia, Cap. xlvi: Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus (194–216), Apology 46. 8–9.
wise enough like Epicurus: Epicurus (341–271 BCE), Greek philosopher and founder of the Epicurean school, which was committed to achieving happiness through the proper understanding of nature and the pursuit of pleasure. Mental pleasures were deemed to be far greater than physical.
Vie de Voltaire: Théophile Imarigeon Duvernet, La Vie de Voltaire (1786), 46.
A Calvin will burn … a Digby generate the gunpowder treason: on Calvin, see note to p. 63; on the Gunpowder Plot, see third note to p. 62.
Tully: a common shorthand for Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE), Roman orator and statesman.
the Pretender in the year 1745: the Pretender was Bonnie Prince Charlie, Charles Edward Stuart (1720–88), the son of James II of England (James VII of Scotland), who sought to return to the throne in a rebellion in 1745 led from Scotland, known as the ‘Forty-Five. Following its failure, Charles returned to exile in France. The source of Godwin’s story is unclear.
Vie de Voltaire, Par M***, throughout: Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat, marquis de Condorcet, Vie de Voltaire (1791).
Did Themistocles … the battle of Marathon: Themistocles (c. 524–459 BCE), the Athenian statesman who oversaw the resistance to Persian invasion and commanded the Athenian fleet at the successful battle of Salamis. Plutarch’s life of Themistocles reports that, when asked about his change of behaviour during the war that culminated in the battle of Marathon, with the Greeks led by Miltiades, he replied that he could not sleep at night for thinking of Miltiades’ triumph. The place of ‘love of fame’ as a motive in virtuous conduct was returned to serially by Godwin, both in his philosophical writing and in his analysis of himself.
Milton’s devil to be a being of considerable virtue: John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) famously sustains the reader’s appreciation of Satan’s cause.
Epictetus or a Cato: Epictetus (c. 50–120), a Stoic philosopher, born a slave, who was later freed. He emphasized the independence of mind and the power of the human will to conquer circumstance. Cato the Younger (95–46 BCE) was similarly a model Stoic.
Cœsar and Alexander: Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE) and Alexander III of Macedon, known as Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE).
doctor Johnson: Samuel Johnson (1709–84), literary critic and wit. His cutting comment on Gilbert West (1703–56) and his translation of Pindar (published in 1749) is criticized by Godwin as an instance of someone attacking others to inflate their own sense of eminence.
Swift has thrown upon Dryden … Rousseau and Voltaire: Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) was the cousin of John Dryden (1631–1700), but he ridicules him in his Battle of the Books (1704). Both were poets and satirists. François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694–1778) had been a friend and supporter of Rousseau until the latter’s attacks on the theatre, which prevented Voltaire from establishing a theatre in Geneva.
a Cynic: the passage is not entirely clear but Godwin does not mean by a Cynic someone who pours scorn on pretensions of selflessness. Rather, he identifies the Cynic (and its associated school of morality that derives from Diogenes, 412/404–323 BCE) with the critique of social convention and a reliance on the teachings of nature that has much in common with the Stoics and is not that distant from aspects of Godwin’s own position.
the kingdom of Portugal: Portugal’s monarchy had been remodelled, after the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, under the guidance of the marquess of Pombal (1699–1782), who combined autocratic methods with Enlightenment concerns to reduce the power of the aristocracy and Church and to stimulate commercial life. Pombal fell from grace after the death of Joseph I in 1777, leading to a strengthening of aristocracy and Church and a resistance to pressures to establish a parliament.
in Hume’s Enquiry concerning Human Understanding: David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1772), later published in 1777 with his Dissertation on the Passions, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, and The Natural History of Religion.
Xerxes … waves of the Hellespont: Herodotus reports in his Histories 7. 35 that Xerxes, commanding the Persian forces invading Greece, ordered his men to give the Hellespont three hundred lashes and to sink a pair of shackles into the sea—even to brand it—for a storm in which the Persian bridges were destroyed.
Jonathan Edwards’s Enquiry into the Freedom of the Will: Jonathan Edwards, A Careful and Strict Enquiry into the Modern Prevailing Notions of that Freedom of the Will, which is supposed to be Essential to Moral Agency (Boston, 1754), II. x. 99. See also note to p. 54.
sensorium: the sensorium refers to the seat of sensation in the brain, although it is also sometimes used to mean the brain itself.
the celebrated Hartley: David Hartley, Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations (1749).
Speech upon Oeconomical Reform: Edmund Burke, Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq., Member of Parliament for the City of Bristol, on presenting to the House of Commons (on the 11 of February, 1780) a plan for the better security of the independence of Parliament, and the oeconomical reformation of the civil and other establishments (1780). Lasting three and a half hours and judged by many to be one of Burke’s best speeches, it drew a packed House of Commons.
See Watson on Time: William Watson, A Treatise on Time (1785).
Emile, Liv. II: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile; ou, De l’éducation (1762), book II, vol. i, p. 121. Godwin adapts the passage.
Like Pedaretus in ancient story: Plutarch, Lives, ‘Lycurgus’ 25.
Regulus’s interest … a tormenting death: Marcus Atilius Regulus, Roman consul, was captured by Carthaginians in the First Punic War. He was sent back to Rome to negotiate a peace, having promised to return if he failed. He advised the Romans to continue the war but returned to Carthage to die from torture in captivity. Horace, Odes 3. 5.
Cato in the play: Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy (1713), II. i. 99–100.
peculium: private property, commonly used to refer to property passed from father to son.
Henry the fourth … to a throne: Henri IV (1553–1610), as Henri III of Navarre, was spared in the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre of 1572 on condition that he become a Catholic. For three years he was held a virtual prisoner in the French court before escaping, after which he renounced his false confession. However, he renounced Protestantism and accepted the Catholic faith in 1593. He was crowned king of France in 1594. Elizabeth I (1533–1603), daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, was declared illegitimate in 1536; she was reinstated as a potential heir to the throne in 1544. She was imprisoned under the rule of her half-sister Mary I, but succeeded her in 1558.
Alfred: Alfred the Great (849–99) was the Anglo-Saxon king of Wessex, but was forced by the Danish invasion of 878 to hide in the marshes of Athelney.
Frederic and Alexander: Frederick I Barbarossa (c. 1123–1190), Holy Roman emperor; Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE), king of Macedon.
Diogenes: Diogenes of Sinope (412/404–323 BCE), Greek philosopher and Cynic, who embraced poverty and was acutely critical of prevailing social institutions and norms. The main source for his life and beliefs is Diogenes Laertius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 6. 20–81.
vitriolised inhabitants of the planet Mercury … sun: references to mythical beings that could survive the intense heat of Mercury or of fire.
Pyrrho: Pyrrhon (c. 365/360–c. 275/270 BCE), Greek philosopher and founder of Scepticism. Diogenes Laertius describes him as holding that ‘there is nothing really existent, but custom and convention govern human action … He led a life consistent with this doctrine, going out of his way for nothing, taking no precaution, but facing all risks as they came, whether carts, precipices, dogs or what not, and, generally, leaving nothing to the arbitrament of the senses’: Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 9. 61–2.
madame de Genlis … duke d’Orleans: Stéphanie Félicité, comtesse de Brulart [formerly comtesse de Genlis], Lessons of a Governess to her Pupils; or, Journal of the Method Adopted by Madame de Sillery-Brulart in the Education of the Children of m. d’Orleans (1792), ii. 6–7, 3–4 respectively. Sancho Panza is the earthy, literate companion of Don Quixote in Cervantes’s novel.
jure divino: divine right. Daniel Defoe satirized the tradition of the divine right of kings in his Jure divino: A Satyr (1706), a twelve-book poem in heroic couplets.
Tragedy of Jane Shore, Act III: Nicholas Rowe, The Tragedy of Jane Shore (1714), III. i. 139–40.
Shakespeare: Henry the Eighth, Act III: III. ii. 384.
Dudley earl of Leicester: Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester (c. 1532–1588). David Hume describes Dudley as being able to conceal from Elizabeth his ‘odious vices’: The History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688 (1767), v. 84.
Cecil earl of Salisbury: Robert Cecil, first earl of Salisbury (c. 1563–1612).
Howard earl of Nottingham: Charles Howard, second Baron Howard of Effingham and first earl of Nottingham (1536–1624). David Hume describes how Nottingham and Cecil encouraged Essex in grandiose claims so as to lead to his downfall: History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688 (1767), v. 420–1.
Leçons d’une Gouvernante, Tome I: Godwin cites Mme de Sillery-Brulart, Lessons of a Governess to her Pupils (1792), i. 208, 50, 217.
In the riots in the year 1780: a reference to the anti-Catholic riots of June 1780, known as the Gordon Riots, the most violent disruption of public order in London during Godwin’s lifetime.
self love to be the first mover of all our actions: Godwin refers to François, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80), author of Réflections ou sentences et maxims morales (1665).
Cato: Marcus Porcius Cato (95–46 BCE).
Plutarch’s Lives: Cicero wrote a pamphlet, Cato, to which Caesar replied with Anticatones, which is no longer extant. The episode is discussed by Plutarch, Lives, ‘Caesar’ 54, and in Cicero’s letter to Atticus, Astura, 9 and 11 May 45 BCE, 12. 40–1.
congé à élire: leave to elect, as in the royal writ given to a chapter to elect a named priest to a vacant seat.
Considérations sur le Gouvernement de Pologne, Chap. VIII: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Considérations sur le gouvernement de Pologne (1755), ch. viii, para. 8.
the parliament effected … Hanover: a reference to the revolution of 1688, when James II was overthrown for his Catholicism and William and Mary of Orange were established on the throne. The house of Hanover came to the throne in the person of George I in 1714 after the death of Queen Anne, the last of the Stuart monarchs, in virtue of the Act of Settlement 1701. The interpretation of this is a major element in the ‘revolution controversy of 1790–1793’ and in particular in Burke and Paine’s disagreements: Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), 26–7, 32–4, and Thomas Paine’s critical account in his Rights of Man (1791, 1792), 7–14.
to bind themselves … to this settlement: Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), 33.
Pharaoh’s frogs … kneading troughs: Exod. 8: 3: ‘And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading troughs.’
‘bow the head … Rimmon’: 2 Kgs. 5: 18.
honourable appellation of tyrant: the word tyrannos was used to describe illegally usurped monarchies, with the seventh and sixth centuries BCE being known as the age of the tyrants. It was not, however, understood as an especially poor or violent form of government. That negative connotation becomes attached in the age of democracy in the fourth century BCE.
‘The eaglet … his fire’: John Home, Douglas: A Tragedy (1757), scene iii, pp. 28 and 32 (adapted).
Regulus or a Cato: these examples are used earlier in the text, for example in Book II, Chapter II, Appendix I, and Book IV, Chapter IX.
the writings of Cicero … ‘optimates’: Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BCE), Roman orator and statesman, who rose from relatively humble origins and was known as a ‘new man’ in contrast to the optimates, that is, members of the traditional Roman ruling class who dominated all high offices of state.
Rights of Man: Thomas Paine, Rights of Man (1791), 71: ‘the idea of hereditary legislators is as inconsistent as hereditary judges, or hereditary juries; and as absurd as an hereditary mathematician, or an hereditary wise man; and as ridiculous as an hereditary poet-laureat’.
Tragedy of Douglas: see first note to p. 101.
ignis fatuus: will-o’-the-wisp, a phosphorescent light on swampy ground at night, an illusion.
the elector of Hanover … king of France: Georgian monarchs in Britain, 1714–1837, were also electors of Hanover and arch-treasurers of the Holy Roman Empire and maintained a claim on the French throne that dated back to 1328 but was relinquished under the Peace of Amiens in 1802.
Bolingbroke: Henry St John (1678–1751), a Tory leader, negotiated the Peace of Utrecht in 1712 and was made Viscount Bolingbroke. He became a supporter of the Jacobite cause and went into exile to join the Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie.
lord Kimbolton … duke of Buckinghamshire: Godwin’s cases relate to real ones of men ascending to higher titles and abandoning former nomenclature. Lord Kimbolton was Edward Montagu (1602–71), second earl of Manchester, who was elevated to the peerage as Lord Kimbolton by Charles I in 1626, became Viscount Mandeville when his father was created earl of Manchester, and subsequently inherited his father’s title. He went on to become a parliamentarian army officer. Godwin’s second case is that of John Sheffield (1647–1721), third earl of Mulgrave from 1658, first marquess of Normanby from 1694, and first duke of Buckingham and Normanby from 1703.
Mr St. John: a further reference to Bolingbroke, who is treated dismissively in Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, prompting one of his critics to say, ‘This spurning of Bolingbroke in his grave, reminds me of the fable of the ass kicking a dead lion, at whose voice, says the writer, when living he would have been panic stricken’: The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, viii, The French Revolution 1790–1794, ed. L. G. Mitchell (Oxford, 1989), 175.
Omar … the Alcoran: Omar, or Umar (d. 644), second Muslim caliph and a supporter of Muhammad. By ‘Alcoran’ Godwin means to indicate the Qur’ān, or Koran.
government was instituted … an usurpation: Godwin’s source is obscure. The thought can be found in Renaissance texts such as Guicciardini’s Dialogo e discorsi del reggimento di Firenze (1527), but also formed part of the doctrine of the monarchomachs such as François Hotman (1524–90) and George Buchanan (1506–82).
as in Holland: a reference to the appointment in the Netherlands of the stadholder (or chief executive officer) by the ruling council (an aristocratic body) rather than by popular election.
Aristocracy may … as in ancient Rome: the Polish diet drew on deputies of the nobility; Venice’s ruling body, the senate, was chosen from the nobility, all of whom were members of the Great Council. Godwin wrote a History of the Internal Affairs of the United Provinces from the Year 1780, to the Commencement of Hostilities in June 1787 (1787), which followed the principle of internal election. See Godwin’s comments on Rome in the subsequent paragraph.
except the two Gracchi: Tiberius Gracchus (d. 133 BCE) and Gaius Gracchus (d. 121 BCE) were tribunes of the people who sought to secure reform but were killed for their pains.
the patricians told of Brutus … Cicero: a far from exhaustive list of Roman nobility who committed themselves to the public good. Those not previously cited by Godwin include: Marcus Valerius Corvus (c. 360–300 BCE); Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus (d. 491 BCE); Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus (fl. 458 BCE); Marcus Furius Camillus (fl. 386 BCE); Gaius Fabricius Luscinus (fl. 280–270 BCE); Marcus Atilius Regulus (fl. 265–256 BCE). The families he mentions are the Gens Fabii (fl. 479 BCE); Gens Decii (fl. 340–270 BCE); Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Maior (236–183) and his son Publius Cornelius Scipio Emilianus Africanus Minor (c. 185–129 BCE). Lucius Licinius Lucullus (c. 114–57 BCE) was a supporter of Sulla, and Marcus Claudius Marcellus defeated the Gauls in the third century BCE.
Appius Claudius: a patrician leader appointed in 451 BCE to draw up a legal code who was renowned for his aristocratic arrogance.
Aristides constantly called the Just: Aristides ‘the Just’ (d. c. 468 BCE). Plutarch, Lives: ‘Aristides’ 7, recounts the tale of Aristides being asked by a man to write ‘Aristides’ on the ostraca used to vote for ostracizing. When he asked why, the man replied that he knew nothing about Aristides but was fed up with hearing him constantly referred to as ‘the Just’.
Pisistratus and Pericles: Peisistratus (c. 600–527 BCE), tyrant (technically, sole absolute ruler) of Athens but remembered as a moderate ruler; Pericles (c. 495–429), leader of Athens during the Peloponnesian Wars.
the imprisonment of Miltiades … Phocion: Miltiades (c. 550–489 BCE), the victor of Marathon, was the subject of several legal actions; Aristides was ostracized in 482 BCE; Phocion was a fourth-century BCE general under whose rule Athens lost Piraeus and who was condemned to death when democracy was restored in 318 BCE.
fire and brimstone: Rev. 19: 20, 20: 10, 21: 8. See also Gen. 19: 24 and Deut. 29: 23.
‘the smoke … ever and ever’: Rev. 14: 11.
second letter to Malesherbes: Rousseau’s Lettres originales … à M. de Malesherbes were written in 1762 and published in 1779, appearing in English in 1799. Malesherbes was the French censor who had helped Rousseau with the publication of Émile in Paris (under the name of a Dutch publisher). Malesherbes took a considerable risk in helping Rousseau and the two men remained friends, with Rousseau’s letters to him being major exercises in self-analysis that would culminate in Rousseau’s Les Confessions, completed in 1776 and published in 1782.
Lycurgus, as he observes … regulations: Godwin’s source is Plutarch, Lives, ‘Lycurgus’ 29. 2–4.
several successive productions of Mr Necker: Jacques Necker (1732–1804), French finance minister 1788–9, author of A Treatise on the Administration of the Finances of France (1784), An Essay on the True Principles of Executive Power in Great States (1792), and several other works.
Burke’s Reflections: Burke’s exact phrase is ‘In the groves of their [the revolutionaries’] academy, at the end of every visto, you see nothing but the gallows’: Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), 115.
wantonness with which … extremities: Godwin’s critical comments on the French were balanced with equally critical comments on the English on the eve of war in 1793 in his ‘Essay Against Re-opening the War with France’, in Political and Philosophical Writings (London, 1993), vol. ii.
making every man … a soldier: conscription was introduced in France partially in July 1792, and then in the levée en masse of 23 August 1793.
Fabius: Quintus Fabius Verrucosus, Cunctator (c. 275–203 BCE), Roman consul who fought a defensive campaign against Hannibal in Italy by avoiding direct engagement.
Ciceronis … Secundus, init.: Cicero, Academica 2, a set of imaginary dialogues in which Lucullus (c. 110–57 BCE) defends Antiochus by attacking scepticism regarding military skills, and Cicero defends it.
Galileo: Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher.
assembly of notables in 1787: with the aim of raising additional finance to avoid state bankruptcy, the king’s chief minister, Charles-Alexandre de Calonne (1734–1802), called an Assembly of Notables, but the assembly proved incapable of agreement. A second assembly was called the following year, but was no more successful. Their dismissal led to the convoking of the Estates General and the beginning of the French Revolution.
English house of commons: Godwin is praising the multiple readings of legislation in Parliament, which he frequently attended to observe.
the dictator of the ancient Romans: a Roman magistrate appointed with extraordinary military and judicial powers for a limited period to avert or meet a crisis. The office changed character as Rome expanded its empire, and it was abused under Sulla and Marius, and again under Caesar.
Amphictyonic council of Greece: a religious association of ancient Greek communities which met twice a year and managed the temples at Delphi and conducted the Pythian games. It had political importance because it could declare sacred wars on those who violated its laws, including laws of war.
a Cato and a Brutus: see first and third notes to p. 59.
that in reality: this sentence remains unfinished in all three editions of the Enquiry.
Gulliver’s Travels, Part II, Chap. VI: Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Part II, ‘A Voyage to Brobdingnag’, ch. vi, pp. 111–12, in which Gulliver fails to persuade the king of the excellences of government in England: ‘He [the king] said, he knew no reason why those, who entertain opinions prejudicial to the public, should be obliged to change, or should not be obliged to conceal them. And as it was tyranny in any government to require the first, so it was weakness not to enforce the second: for a man may be allowed to keep poisons in his closet, but not to vend them about for cordials.’
Mably: Gabriel Bonnot de Mably (1709–85), De la législation; ou, Principes des lois (1776); Observations sur le gouvernement et les lois des États-Unis d’Amérique (1784).
the thirty-nine articles: these are contained in the Book of Common Prayer and set out the Church of England’s position on matters of dogma. Candidates for holy orders were required to subscribe to the Articles until 1865. The Test and Corporation Acts (initially passed in 1672) made membership of the Church of England (and subscription to her dogmas) a prerequisite for holding public office until 1828.
Arminian tenets: those derived from the anti-Calvinist Jacobus Arminius (1560–1609), who rejected predestination and affirmed the role of the will in salvation.
predestinarian sentiments: sentiments held by those who believed that salvation was predetermined by God and could not be influenced by the individual’s will or works.
the victims of Circe: the goddess Circe turned Odysseus’ men into swine in Odyssey 10. 239–40 but left their minds unchanged.
the elder Cato: Marcus Porcius Cato, the Censor (234–149 BCE), who criticized Carneades and Diogenes, Athenian ambassadors in 155 BCE and renowned Sceptics, for their influence on Roman youth: Plutarch, Lives, ‘Cato’ 22–3.
the genius of Shakespeare: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), playwright and poet. Godwin discusses Shakespeare in his Enquirer (1797), Essay XII, sect. ii, and was a devotee of his plays, especially the tragedies and the histories. For example, according to his diary he saw Macbeth on thirty occasions, Hamlet on thirty-three.
the dreams of Ptolemy: Claudius Ptolemaeus (c. 100–c. 178), Greek astronomer and mathematician; the most prominent astronomer before Copernicus and Kepler in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
the dogmas of the Athanasian creed: a Christian statement of belief used from the sixth century in which the equal status of the three persons in the Trinity is affirmed. The creed is so named because it was believed to derive from the beliefs of Athanasius (298–373).
Swift says: see first note to p. 312.
Zoroaster and Confucius: Zoroaster, also referred to as Zarathustra or Zardusht (c. 630–c. 533 BCE), Persian prophet and religious leader; Confucius, Master Kongfuze (551–479 BCE), Chinese philosopher.
everlasting abjuration of monarchy?: the Constitution of 1791 was completed on 3 September 1791; the king accepted it and swore an oath of allegiance to it in the National Assembly on 14 September: ‘to maintain with all their power the Constitution of the kingdom decreed by the National Constituent Assembly in the years 1789, 1790 and 1791, to propose and to consent to nothing during the course of the legislature which might be injurious thereto, and in all matters to be faithful to the nation, to the law, and to the King’. All citizens were required to swear a similar oath. On 10 August 1792 the king was suspended, and the monarchy was abolished on 21–2 September 1792; a National Convention was summoned to draw up a new constitution.
When the law was repealed … a very arbitrary manner: the Act for the Further Relief of Protestant Dissenting Ministers and Schoolmasters 1779 (19 George III, c. 44) relieved Dissenters of the requirement to subscribe to some of the Thirty-Nine Articles (see note to p. 318). The ‘amatory eclogues of Solomon’ refers to Song of Songs (or the Song of Solomon), a book of the Old Testament.
the Alcoran … sacred books of the Hindoos: the Qur’ān, or Koran, the sacred book of Islam; the Talmud, a collection of law and doctrine of the Jewish people; the Hindu texts are the Rig Veda, the Sama Veda, the Yajur Veda, and the Atharva Veda.
the federal oath … ‘to be faithful … the king’: see first note to p. 330.
Jesuitism and hypocrisy: Jesuitism is a reference to the Society of Jesus, formally suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773, and to their reputation as scheming, deceitful, or dissembling.
church-wardens in particular: churchwardens were required to promise, according to the best of their skill, to present ‘such things and persons as to your knowledge are presentable by the laws ecclesiastical of this realm’: Richard Burn, The Justice of the Peace, and Parish Officer, i (1772), 328.
St. George’s Fields to-morrow in arms: St George’s Fields in Southwark was the site of rioting by supporters of John Wilkes following his imprisonment (for an article in the North Briton criticizing King George III), leading to the death of six or seven protesters. It was also the place of assembly for the Gordon rioters in 1780, and in October 1795 it was used as a place of assembly to drum up popular support for reform and the end of the war with France, an occasion that Godwin refers to in his Considerations on Lord Grenville’s and Mr Pitt’s Bills (1795), the bills being prompted in part by disturbances following the meeting in which the king’s coach was attacked.
fundamental and adscititious: a distinction between basic and not inherent or essential.
two successive national assemblies of the ordinary kind: see the French Constitution of 1791, Title VII, ‘Of the Revision of Constitutional Decrees’, Art. 2: ‘When three successive legislatures have expressed a uniform wish for the amendment of some constitutional article, there shall be occasion for the requested revision’ (‘Lorsque trois législatures consécutives auront émis un vœu uniforme pour le changement de quelque article constitutionnel, il y aura lieu à la révision demandée’). Further articles specify requirements or additional representatives and the constitution of an Assembly of Revision.
Rights of Man: in Rights of Man Thomas Paine writes, ‘I readily perceive the reason why Mr Burke declined going into the comparison between the English and French constitutions, because he could not but perceive, when he sat down to the task, that no such thing as a constitution existed on his side of the question’: Rights of Man (1791), 54.
the national convention … considered as law: the Estates General of 1789 adopted for themselves the title National Assembly in June 1789, and then, in July, the title National Constituent Assembly. The Constituent Assembly presented the Constitution of 3 September 1791, and, following the elections to the Legislative Assembly between 29 August and 5 September, the Legislative Assembly formally replaced the Constituent Assembly.
a very small number of articles: in fact, the Constitution was some forty pages long.
Amphictyonic council: see note to p. 305.
We study Aristotle or Thomas Aquinas … impregnated with their absurdities: Aristotle (384–322 BCE), Greek philosopher; St Thomas Aquinas (1225–74), theologian; St Robert Francis Bellarmine (1542–1621), theologian; Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634), jurist and judge. Godwin may be making a general point about a lack of critical engagement with authors, but he may also be pointing to a set of writers associated with Scholasticism and the Counter-Reformation, save in Coke’s case.
sending a sack of wool … in Spain: from 1367 to 1824 it was illegal to export wool to France, as a way of protecting the English woollen industry. The practice of smuggling wool was known as owling. In Spain censorship was extensive until the fall of the Spanish monarchy in 1812.
Oeconomical Reform: adapted from Speech of Edmund Burke … on the 11 of February, 1780 (1780), 66–7. See note to p. 178.
what Eudamidas did … his mother by another: Eudamidas of Corinth. Godwin’s source is likely to be Lucian’s Toxaris, an account of friendship in which the case of Eudamidas is celebrated. The account formed the basis for Nicolas Poussin’s depiction of the scene in Testament d’Eudamidas (1644–8), of which the British Museum has a print by Jean-Jacques Lagrenée from the 1760s. Both Diderot and Napoleon commented on the painting and its praise of friendship.
the burghers of the Netherlands … Austrian yoke: a revolt against Austrian rule in the Netherlands began in 1787. See Godwin’s History of the Internal Affairs of the United Provinces (1787).
sortition, by ballot or by vote: Godwin distinguishes lot, the secret expression of preferences, and the open statement of preferences.
Xerxes … the waves of the sea: see note to p. 162.
Thus in England … is the judge: the attorney-general, a crown appointment, is the chief law officer who is responsible for the prosecution of offences on behalf of the Crown; but judges also held their appointment under the Crown, casting doubt on the independence of the judicial process.
the posse comitatus: sheriffs and magistrates could call on the assistance of any number of adult males to pursue offenders, constituting a posse comitatus, or ‘power of the county’.
the temerity to kill Marius!: Plutarch, Gaius Marius 39. 2. The scene is depicted by Germain-Jean Drouais in Marius à Minturnae (1786).
Beccaria, Dei Delitti e delle Pene: Cesare Beccaria Bonesana, Dei delitte e della pene (On Crimes and Punishments; 1764), ch. 27, ‘Dolcezza delle pene’ (Of the Mildness of Punishment). Godwin seems to have worked directly with the Italian text. A number of English translations were of a French edition that had changed the text dramatically.
‘Questa … d’ogni secolo.’ Dei Delitti e delle Pene: Cesare Beccaria Bonesana, Dei delitti e delle pene (1767), ch. 8, ‘Divisione dei delitti’ (Divisions of Crimes), para. 1.
malice prepense: malice aforethought—an intentionally wrong act. For example, the crime of murder (which assumes an intention wrongfully to kill) is distinguished from both accidental death and an action that intended harm (or was negligent with respect to harm caused) but that did not intend the consequent death (which is termed manslaughter). Manslaughter can be an intentional act, and a wrong act, but the wrong for which the defendant is tried (the killing) was not the wrong that the defendant intended.
‘Questa … ogni delitto’: Cesare Beccaria Bonesana, Dei delitti e delle pene (1767), ch. 7, ‘Errori nella misura delle pene’ (Errors in the Measurement of Punishments), para. 1.
Old Bailey: the City of London Sessions House was at the Old Bailey near the Fleet Prison. The current Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey was built nearby on the site of Newgate Prison in 1902.
Sir Walter Raleigh … the vanity of history: Sir Walter Ralegh (1552–1618), imprisoned in the Tower of London 1603–16 and executed in 1618. Godwin’s source is obscure.
like quakers … obey them: a tenet of the Quakers was pacifism and passive resistance. See also note to p. 96.
The people of England … the Restoration: Richard Cromwell (1626–1712), elected lord protector following the death of his father, Oliver, dissolved Parliament and abdicated. The following year General George Monck (1608–70) entered London with a Scottish army and dissolved Parliament. A convention was elected which offered the crown to Charles II.
The Roman people … the Sacred Mountain: a reference to the secession of the plebs from Rome in 495 BCE and their establishment of a separate assembly and magistracy in a fortified camp on the Sacred Mount across the Anio three miles from Rome: Livy, Ab urbe condita 2. 32.
‘Thou shalt not inflict … a Roman’: Acts 22: 25: ‘Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned?’
Mr Howard: John Howard (1726–90), prison reformer and philanthropist.
The first settlement of Rome … vagabonds: Livy, Ab urbe condita 1. 8, describes Romulus as opening his settlement as an asylum for fugitives, ‘all of them wanting nothing but a fresh start’.
ex post facto law: a law criminalizing an act after the fact.
The fable of Procrustes: see note to p. 78.
Summum jus summa injuria: Cicero, De officiis 1. 10. 33.
The object of this vanity … applause of beholders: Godwin here seems powerfully influenced by Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality among Men (1755).
Swift’s Sermon on Mutual Subjection: Jonathan Swift, Three Sermons: On Mutual Subjection; On Conscience; On the Trinity (1744).
I Cor. Chap. III. Ver I, 2: ‘And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.’
Burke’s Reflections: Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), 113, where he proclaims that the age of chivalry is indeed gone.
Ogilvie’s Essay … Nature and Providence: Godwin’s footnote cites William Ogilvie (1736–1819), An Essay on the Right of Property in Land (1781); Plato, Republic; Thomas More, Utopia (1516); Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726); Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, De la législation; ou, Principes des loix (1776); Robert Wallace, Various Prospects of Mankind, Nature, and Providence (1761).
Mandeville; Fable of the Bees: Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees; or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits (1714).
Coventry … Essay II: Henry Coventry, Philemon to Hydaspes … in four parts (3rd edn, 1753), Part II, p. 96; no reference to The Fable of the Bees is made in the first two editions. David Hume, Essays, Moral, Political and Literary (1772), II. ii, ‘Of Refinement in the Arts’.
tax-gatherers … secretaries: all minor officials with reputations for officiousness and petty tyranny.
the system of Epicurus: Epicurus (341–270 BCE), Greek philosopher who combined hedonism with asceticism.
magazines: storehouses.
of weaving engines, of steam engines: Edmund Cartwright (1743–1823) developed the power loom in 1784–6 and a spinning machine in 1789–90; James Watt (1736–1819) developed steam engines in partnership with Matthew Boulton (1728–1809) from 1775.
Franklin conjectured, that ‘mind … matter’: Benjamin Franklin (1706–90). Godwin’s note 2 on page 453 refers to his authority for the quotation.
no Spartan … manual labour: Spartans survived by exploiting the Helots, original inhabitants of Lacedaemonia: Plutarch, Lives, ‘Lycurgus’ 24. 2–3.
memorable saying of Themistocles, ‘God … favour than strangers!’: Plutarch, Lives, ‘Themistocles’ 5. 4.
Smith’s Wealth of Nations: Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), i. 6–7.
Wallace … and Providence, 1761: Robert Wallace, Various Prospects of Mankind, Nature and Providence (1761), 46, Prospect II, ‘The Model of a Perfect Government, not for a Single Nation Only, but for the Whole Earth’.
Dr Price … William Morgan: Godwin gives as his source Dr Richard Price (1723–91), dissenting theologian and moral philosopher, whose sermon ‘Discourse on the Love of our Country’ (1789) was a principal focus of Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). His nephew William Morgan (1750–1833) was an actuary and pioneer of life insurance, whom Godwin met on the occasion of Price’s sermon and two years later while writing his Enquiry. See first explanatory note to page 000 (page 000 above).
Cranmer and Mucius Scœvola: see note to p. 39.
Theseus and Achilles: according to Greek myth, Theseus was a friend of Heracles and a king of Athens before the Trojan War, in which Achilles was the main Greek hero. The war is dated to c. 1250 BCE.
Macbeth, Act V: V. iii. 40–7, to which Macbeth replies, ‘Throw physic to the dogs. I’ll have none of it.’
Addison’s Cato, Act IV: Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy (1713), IV. iv. 142.