Defending Liberty and Property: Monarchist Thought and Organizations in 1790s England

Öz

This study examines the impact of revolutionary and radical ideologies in 1790s England on public opinion, political consciousness and the evolution of monarchist thought within the societ. Through the analysis of primary sources such as brochures, pamphlets, books, sermons, letters, correspondences, and association declarations, the research demonstrates the influential role of monarchist organizations in the intellectual struggle against French Revolutionary ideology and in response to radicalism. The contextual backdrop of parliamentary debates focusing on freedoms, reforms, and property rights aligns with the political agenda of society. Adopting a comprehensive methodology, the study focuses on archival sources and contemporary printed materials, exploring them through the perspective of political, social, and cultural history. The study's hypothesis suggests that in the second half of the 18th century, the rise in popular political engagement was influenced by monarchism, particularly through certain organizations that became central in resisting the political and ideological shifts catalyzed by the French Revolution. Moreover, the study argues that the evolution of monarchy, examined within, was shaped by Enlightenment principles and moved away from traditional ancien régime ideology. The findings reveal an increased political participation in the 1790s, depicting the evolution of an ‘enlightened conservatism’ in parliamentary politics and political debates, rather than a political society transitioning from classical monarchy to a nation-state. Despite these organizations not reaching all segments of society, the active support received from the government and the literate population reflects the developmental trajectory of the monarchist movements. The study acknowledges the insufficient exploration of conservative thought within these associations. The monarchist conservatism of the late 18th century, shaped by Enlightenment rationalism, influenced political debates and left a lasting impact on British political culture.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Monarchism
• monarchist organisations
• ancien régime
• 1790s' England

Hürriyeti ve Mülkiyeti Savunmak: 1790’lar İngiltere’sinde Monarşist Düşünce ve Örgütlenmeler

Öz

Bu çalışma, 1790'ların İngiltere'sinde ortaya çıkan devrimci ve radikal ideolojilerin kamuoyundaki karşılığı ve toplumun politik bilinci üzerindeki etkisini ve monarşist düşüncenin evrimini incelemektedir. Broşürler, risaleler, kitaplar, vaazlar, mektuplar, yazışmalar, dernek bildirileri gibi birincil kaynaklar analiz edilerek, ideolojik tartışmalara ve radikalizme yanıt olarak ortaya çıkan monarşist örgütlenmelerin Fransız Devrimi ideolojisine karşı fikrî mücadelede etkili bir rol oynadığı ortaya koyulmaktadır. Parlamentodaki tartışmaların özgürlükler, reform ve mülkiyet hakkı konularında toplumun siyasi gündemiyle her zamankinden daha uyumlu olması çalışmanın konu bağlamını sağlamaktadır. Bütüncül bir metodolojiyi benimseyen çalışma arşiv kaynaklarını ve dönemin basılı materyallerini politik, toplumsal ve kültürel tarih perspektifleriyle incelemektedir. Çalışmanın hipotezi, 18. yüzyılın ikinci yarısında monarşist düşüncenin popüler siyasi katılımı arttırdığı ve bu süreçte Fransız Devrimine karşı politik ve ideolojik tepkinin merkezi haline gelen örgütlenmelerin önemli bir rol oynadığıdır. Ayrıca, bu çalışma içeriğini ve evrimini incelediği monarşizmin Aydınlanma düşüncesinden etkilendiğini ve geleneksel ancien régime ideolojisinden uzaklaştığını öne sürmektedir. Bulgular, 1790'larda artan politik katılım, klasik monarşiden ulus devlete dönüşen bir siyasi toplumdan ziyade, İngiliz anayasal geleneğini savunan bir ‘aydınlanmış muhafazakarlık’ın gelişim sürecini ortaya koymaktadır. Örgütlenmelerin toplumun tüm kesimlerine ulaşmamasına rağmen, hükümetten ve okuryazar kesimden aldığı aktif destek, monarşist hareketin gelişimini yansıtmaktadır. Çalışma, bu dernekler içinde muhafazakâr düşüncenin yeterince yer bulamamış olduğunu kabul etmektedir. 18. yüzyılın sonlarındaki monarşist muhafazakarlık, Aydınlanma rasyonalizmi etkisi altında siyasi tartışmaları şekillendirerek İngiliz siyasi kültürünü etkilemiştir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Monarşizm
• monarşist örgütler
• ancien régime
• 1790larda İngiltere

Kaynakça

1. A plain and earnest address to Britons, on the present state of public affairs in Great Britain and France. (1792). Ipswich: G. Jermyn.
2. Amyot, T. (1812). Speeches in parliament, of the right honourable william Windham; to which is prefixed, some account of his life. London.
3. Beedell, A. V. (1993). John Reeves’s prosecution for a seditious libel, 1795–6: a study in political cynicism. The Historical Journal, 36(4), 799–824. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00014515
4. Black, E. C. (1963). The association: British extraparliamentary political organization. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
5. British Library Additional Manuscripts [BL Add.Msc] Reeves Papers (1752-1829). Londra: British Library Manuscript Collections.
6. Burke, E. (1986). Reflections on the revolution in France, and on the proceedings in certain societies in London relative to that event. C. O. Conor, (Ed.). New York: Penguin.
7. Clark, J. C. D. (2000). English society 1688-1832. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8. Colley, L. (1992). Britons: forging the nation 1707-1837. New Haven: Yale University Press.

9. Cookson, J. E. (1998). The British armed nation, 1793-1815. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
10. Copeland, T. W. (Ed.). (1967). The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Vol. VI. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
11. Debrett, J. (1792). The parliamentary register, or history of the proceedings and debates of the house of commons. London.
12. Dickinson, H. T. (1977). Liberty and property: political ideology in eighteenth-century Britain. London: Routledge.
13. Dickinson, H. T. (1985). British radicalism and the French Revolution. Oxford: Blackwell.
14. Dickinson, H. T. (2002). A Companion to Eighteenth-Century Britain. Oxford: Blackwell&Wiley.
15. Dickinson, H. T. (Ed.) (1989). Britain and the French Revolution, 1789-1815. New York: St. Martin Press.
16. Dozier, R. R. (1983) For King, Constitution and Country: The English Loyalists and the French Revolution. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
17. Duffy, M. (1996). William Pitt and the Origins of the Loyalist Association Movement of 1792. Historical Journal (39), 943-962.
18. Eccleshall, R. (1990). English conservatism since the Restoration: an introduction and anthology. London: Routledge.
19. Ehrman, J. (1969). The Younger Pitt. The Years of Acclaim. London: Constable Press.
20. Ehrman, J. (1983). The Younger Pitt: The Reluctant Transition. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
21. Epstein, J. (1994) Radical Expression: Political Language, Ritual and Symbol in England, 1790-1850. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
22. Equality, as Consistent with the British Constitution, in a Dialogue Between a Master-Manufacturer and One of His Workmen. (1792). London: J. Sewell.
23. Ginter, D. E. (1966). III. The loyalist association movement of 1792–93 and British public opinion. The Historical Journal, 9 (2), 179-190. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00026510
24. Goodrich, A. (2005). Debating England’s aristocracy in the 1790s: pamphlets, polemics and political ideas. New York: Boydell Press.
25. Goodwin, A. (1979). The Friends of Liberty: The English democratic movement in the age of the French Revolution. London: Routledge.
26. Gregory, J ve Stevenson, J. (Eds.). (2007). The Routledge companion to Britain in the eighteenth century 1688–1820. London: Routledge.
27. Hole, R. (1989) Pulpits, politics, and public order in England 1760-1832. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
28. Iain H.M. (Ed.). (2005). The impact of the french revolution: texts from Britain in the 1790s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
29. Invasion of Britain. An address to the people of great britain, on the subject of a french invasion. By a patriot. (1798). London: Fairburn.
30. Köktaş, M. (2016). 18. yüzyıl aydınlanma düşüncesinde siyaset ve özgürlük. Turkish Studies (11), 837-854. http://dx.doi.org/10.7827/TurkishStudies.927.
31. Langsam, W. C. (1945). Emperor Francis II and the Austrian “Jacobins,” 1792-1796. American Historical Review, 50 (3), 471-490.
32. Lawrence, S. (2004). Windham, William (1750–1810). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-1001330
33. Liberty and property preserved against republicans and levellers. (1792). John Bull's Second Answer to His Brother Thomas. Vol II. London: J. Sewell.
34. Loyal Association of the Hundreds of Hoxne and Hartsmere. (1793). A letter addressed to the ınhabitants of Great Britain, shewing them the dangerous tendency of libellous publications, and guarding them against being imposed upon by the false representations such writings contain. Ipswich: J. Bush.
35. Macleod, E. V. (1998). A War of Ideas: British Attitudes to the Wars Against Revolutionary France 1792-1802. London: Routledge.
36. Mitchell, A. (1961). The association movement of 1792-3. The Historical Journal, 4(1), 56–77. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3020381
37. Mori, J (1997). William Pitt and the French Revolution 1785-1795. New York: St. Martin Press.
38. O'Gorman, F. (1967). The Whig Party and the French Revolution. Londra: Macmillan &Co.
39. O'Gorman, F. (1997). The Long Eighteenth Century: British Political and Social History 1688-1832. Arnold Press.
40. Phillips, J. A. (1982). Electoral behavior in unreformed england: plumpers, splitters, and straights. Princeton University Press.
41. Philp, M, (Ed.). (1991). The French Revolution and British popular politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
42. Philp, M. (1995). Vulgar Conservatism, 1792-3. The English Historical Review (435), 42-69.
43. Philp, M. (2002). English Republicanism in the 1790s. Journal of Political Philosophy, 6 (3), 235-262. DOI:10.1111/1467-9760.00054.
44. Philp, M. (2014). Reforming ideas in Britain: politics and language in the shadow of the French Revolution, 1789–1815. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
45. Reeves, J. (1795). Thoughts on the English government. Addressed to the quiet good sense of the people of England. London.
46. Royle, E. ve Walvin J. (1982) English Radicals and Reformers 1760-1848. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.
47. Russell, C. (1991). The fall of the British monarchies 1637-1642. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
48. Stockdale, J. (1792). A letter to Mr. Pain [sic], on his late publication. London.
49. Ten Minutes Caution, From a Plain Man to His Fellow Citizens. (1792). Londra.
50. The Englishman's Political Catechism. (1792). Exeter: R. Trewman and Son.
51. The Parliamentary history of England. From the earliest period to the year 1803. (1806). London: T. C. Hansard.
52. The Times, 30 Kasım 1792
53. The True Briton, 6 Şubat 1793.
54. Yeşil, F. (2011). Devlet İnşasının Bir Aracı Olarak İhtilal Propagandası (1789-1801). Toplumsal Tarih (214), 16-30.