Party Ideology and Popular Politics at the Accession of George IIIThis book is a reappraisal of English politics in the first decade of George III's reign. It sets out to explain how party politics changed, and what problems that created for the parliamentary elite. The issues of party, of patriotism as it manifested itself in the elder Pitt's political career, and of the relations between the notions of ministerial responsibility and the powers of the Crown are all used to illuminate the nature of political conflict. Special emphasis is placed on Burke's notions of party. The schisms created by this reconfiguration of party politics, Dr Brewer argues, had effects beyond Westminster. He discusses extra-parliamentary forms of political expression, notably the press, and goes on to show how the career of John Wilkes and the critique of British politics developed by American radicals gave focus to a variety of political discontents, and produced new arguments in favour of parliamentary reform. Throughout his study he emphasises the interplay between popular and parliamentary politics. His work is designed to show that the 'political nation' included many other than the parliamentary classes, and that the political conflicts of the period cannot be properly understood without a full examination of political ideology. |
Contents
Hanoverian politics and the 1760s 366 | 3 |
Historiography and method | 26 |
Whig and tory 3959 | 55 |
the emergence | 77 |
a case study in political argument | 96 |
Ministerial responsibility and the powers of the Crown | 112 |
The press in the 17608 | 139 |
Wilkes | 163 |
American ideology and British radicalism the case | 201 |
The politicians the press and the public | 219 |
The present discontents party ideology and public | 240 |
Afterword | 267 |
Notes | 273 |
325 | |
369 | |
Other editions - View all
Party Ideology and Popular Politics at the Accession of George III John Brewer No preview available - 1981 |
Party Ideology and Popular Politics at the Accession of George III John Brewer No preview available - 1976 |
Common terms and phrases
Address administration Almon American April argued argument Bedford Britain British Broadbottom Burke Bute Mss Bute's Cambridge Chronicle Charles Townshend Chatham club coalition Coffee Houses Colonies conduct constitution Correspondence corruption country-party ideology Crown debate December Devonshire Dowdeswell Duke Earl eighteenth-century electoral England English Faction Favourite February Fox-North Coalition Friends Gazetteer George Grenville George III Hardwicke historians History Horace Walpole House of Commons ibid f J. H. Plumb John Wilkes July king king's late Letter London Lord Bute Magazine Middlesex Middlesex election ministerial ministers monarchy Namier nation Newcastle newspaper North Briton Norwich Mercury November October Old Corps opposition organisation pamphlet papers Parliament parliamentary reform party patriot Pitt Pitt's political politicians popular Portland present principles provincial radical reign Remarks representation Rockingham royal Rudé Sheffield Mss taverns tion tory Townshend vols Walpole whig and tory Wilkes's Wilkite William