Country Party (Britain)
Encyclopedia
In Britain in the era 1680-1740, especially in the days of Robert Walpole
(1720s to 1740s), the Country Party was a coalition of Tories and disaffected Whigs. It was a movement rather than an organized party and had no formal structure or leaders. It claimed to be a nonpartisan force fighting for the nation’s interest—the whole “Country”--against the self-interested actions of the Court Party, that is the politicians in power in London. Country men believed the Court party was corrupting Britain by using patronage to buy support and was threatening English liberties and the proper balance of authority by shifting power from Parliament to the prime minister. It sought to constrain the Court by opposing standing armies, calling for annual elections to Parliament (instead of the seven year term in effect), and wanted to fix power in the hands of the landed gentry rather than the royal officials, urban merchants or bankers. It opposed any practices it saw as corruption. Its members sometimes called themselves "Old Whigs". The Country party attracted a number of influential writers (such as Jonathan Swift
, an Old Whig and Samuel Johnson
, a Tory) and political theorists. The ideology of the party faded away in England but became a powerful force in the American colonies, where its tracts strongly motivated the Patriots
to oppose what the Country Party had exposed as British tyranny and to develop a powerful political philosophy of Republicanism in the United States
.
was especially influential in stating the need and outlining the machinery of a systematic parliamentary opposition. Such an opposition he called a "country party" which he opposed to the court party. Country parties had been formed before, for instance after the king's speech to Parliament in November 1685, but Bolingbroke was the first to state the need for a continual opposition to the government. To his mind the spirit of liberty was threatened by the court party's lust for power.
Liberty could only be safeguarded by an opposition party that used "constitutional methods and a legal course of opposition to the excesses of legal and ministerial power…". He instructed the opposition party to "Wrest the power of government, if you can, out of the hands that employed it weakly and wickedly" This work could be done only by a homogeneous party "…because such a party alone will submit to a drudgery of this kind". It did not suffice to be eager to speak, keen to act. "They who affect to head an opposition ,…, must be equal, at least, to those whom they oppose…" The opposition had to be of a permanent nature to make sure that it would be looked at as a part of daily politics. It had to contrast, on every occasion, the government He considered a party that systematically opposed the government to be more appealing than a party that occasionally opposed the government.This opposition had to prepare itself to control government.
in the Thirteen Colonies
and used the Country Party ideas to help form Republicanism in the United States
.
Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC , known before 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain....
(1720s to 1740s), the Country Party was a coalition of Tories and disaffected Whigs. It was a movement rather than an organized party and had no formal structure or leaders. It claimed to be a nonpartisan force fighting for the nation’s interest—the whole “Country”--against the self-interested actions of the Court Party, that is the politicians in power in London. Country men believed the Court party was corrupting Britain by using patronage to buy support and was threatening English liberties and the proper balance of authority by shifting power from Parliament to the prime minister. It sought to constrain the Court by opposing standing armies, calling for annual elections to Parliament (instead of the seven year term in effect), and wanted to fix power in the hands of the landed gentry rather than the royal officials, urban merchants or bankers. It opposed any practices it saw as corruption. Its members sometimes called themselves "Old Whigs". The Country party attracted a number of influential writers (such as Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
, an Old Whig and Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
, a Tory) and political theorists. The ideology of the party faded away in England but became a powerful force in the American colonies, where its tracts strongly motivated the Patriots
Patriot (American Revolution)
Patriots is a name often used to describe the colonists of the British Thirteen United Colonies who rebelled against British control during the American Revolution. It was their leading figures who, in July 1776, declared the United States of America an independent nation...
to oppose what the Country Party had exposed as British tyranny and to develop a powerful political philosophy of Republicanism in the United States
Republicanism in the United States
Republicanism is the political value system that has been a major part of American civic thought since the American Revolution. It stresses liberty and inalienable rights as central values, makes the people as a whole sovereign, supports activist government to promote the common good, rejects...
.
Country persuasion
Hoppit (2000) argues that around 1700 instead of a Country "party" England had a Country persuasion. The main points of agreement were demands that the government should be frugal and efficient, opposition to high taxes, a concern for personal liberty, a quest for more frequent elections, a faith that the local militia would substitute for a dangerous standing army, and a desire for such moral reforms as temperance in an age of drunkenness, and less Sabbath breaking. The Country leaders stressed the civic duty of the upper class to engage in politics to strengthen the national interest.Bolingbroke
Henry St John, 1st Viscount BolingbrokeHenry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke was an English politician, government official and political philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his atheism. In 1715 he supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 which sought to overthrow the...
was especially influential in stating the need and outlining the machinery of a systematic parliamentary opposition. Such an opposition he called a "country party" which he opposed to the court party. Country parties had been formed before, for instance after the king's speech to Parliament in November 1685, but Bolingbroke was the first to state the need for a continual opposition to the government. To his mind the spirit of liberty was threatened by the court party's lust for power.
Liberty could only be safeguarded by an opposition party that used "constitutional methods and a legal course of opposition to the excesses of legal and ministerial power…". He instructed the opposition party to "Wrest the power of government, if you can, out of the hands that employed it weakly and wickedly" This work could be done only by a homogeneous party "…because such a party alone will submit to a drudgery of this kind". It did not suffice to be eager to speak, keen to act. "They who affect to head an opposition ,…, must be equal, at least, to those whom they oppose…" The opposition had to be of a permanent nature to make sure that it would be looked at as a part of daily politics. It had to contrast, on every occasion, the government He considered a party that systematically opposed the government to be more appealing than a party that occasionally opposed the government.This opposition had to prepare itself to control government.
Americans
The writings of the Country Party were eagerly devoured by some Americans, who came to fear the corruption of the British Court as the greatest threat to American liberties. They formed American Patriot causePatriot (American Revolution)
Patriots is a name often used to describe the colonists of the British Thirteen United Colonies who rebelled against British control during the American Revolution. It was their leading figures who, in July 1776, declared the United States of America an independent nation...
in the Thirteen Colonies
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...
and used the Country Party ideas to help form Republicanism in the United States
Republicanism in the United States
Republicanism is the political value system that has been a major part of American civic thought since the American Revolution. It stresses liberty and inalienable rights as central values, makes the people as a whole sovereign, supports activist government to promote the common good, rejects...
.
Further reading
- Bailyn, Bernard. The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967). ISBN 0-674-44301-2
- Colbourn, Trevor. The Lamp of Experience: Whig History and the Intellectual Origins of the American Revolution (1965) online version
- Hutson, James H. "Country, Court, and Constitution: Antifederalism and the Historians," William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 38, No. 3 (Jul., 1981), pp. 337–368 in JSTOR
- Jones, J.R. Country and court: England, 1658-1714 (Arnold, 1978) ISBN 0713161035
- Kramnick, Isaac. Republicanism and Bourgeois Radicalism: Political Ideology in Late Eighteenth-Century England and America (1990)
- Kramnick, Isaac. Bolingbroke and His Circle: The Politics of Nostalgia in the Age of Walpole (1992)
- Murrin, John M. "The Great Inversion, or Court versus Country: A Comparison of the Revolution Settlements in England (1688-721) and America (1776-1816)," in J.G.A. Pocock, ed., Three British Revolutions: 1641, 1688, 1776 (Princeton UP 1980), 368-455
- Robbins, Caroline. The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman: Studies in the Transmission, Development, and Circumstance of English Liberal Thought from the Restoration of Charles II until the War with the Thirteen Colonies (1959, 2004). table of contents online
- Ward, Lee, The Politics of Liberty in England and Revolutionary America (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
- Zagorin, Peter. "The Court and the Country: A Note on Political Terminology in the Earlier Seventeenth Century," English Historical Review, Vol. 77, No. 303, Apr., 1962 pp 306+ in JSTOR
See also
- Henry St John, 1st Viscount BolingbrokeHenry St John, 1st Viscount BolingbrokeHenry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke was an English politician, government official and political philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his atheism. In 1715 he supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 which sought to overthrow the...
(1678–1751) - Cato's LettersCato's LettersCato's Letters were essays by British writers John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, first published from 1720 to 1723 under the pseudonym of Cato , the implacable foe of Julius Caesar and a famously stubborn champion of republican principles....
- Commonwealth menCommonwealth menThe Commonwealth men, Commonwealth's men, or Commonwealth Party were highly outspoken British Protestant religious, political, and economic reformers during the early 18th century. They were active in the movement called the Country Party...
- Richard CumberlandRichard Cumberland (philosopher)Richard Cumberland was an English philosopher, and bishop of Peterborough from 1691. In 1672, he published his major work, De legibus naturae , propounding utilitarianism and opposing the egoistic ethics of Thomas Hobbes.Cumberland was a member of the latitudinarian movement, along with his friend...
(1632–1718) - Andrew Fletcher (1655–1716)
- Thomas GordonThomas Gordon (writer)Thomas Gordon was a Scottish writer and Commonwealthman.Along with John Trenchard, he published The Independent Whig, which was a weekly periodical. From 1720 to 1723, Trenchard and Gordon, wrote a series of 144 essays entitled Cato's Letters, condemning corruption and lack of morality within the...
(1692–1750) - James Harrington (1611–1677)
- Thomas Hollis (1720–1774)
- Francis HutchesonFrancis Hutcheson (philosopher)Francis Hutcheson was a philosopher born in Ireland to a family of Scottish Presbyterians who became one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment....
(1694–1746) - Samuel JohnsonSamuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
(1709–1784) - John Millar (1735–1801)
- William MolyneuxWilliam MolyneuxWilliam Molyneux FRS was an Irish natural philosopher and writer on politics.He was born in Dublin to Samuel Molyneux , lawyer and landowner , and his wife, Anne, née Dowdall. The second of five children, William Molyneux came from a relatively prosperous Anglican background...
(1656–1698) - Richard PriceRichard PriceRichard Price was a British moral philosopher and preacher in the tradition of English Dissenters, and a political pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the American Revolution. He fostered connections between a large number of people, including writers of the...
(1723–1791) - RepublicanismRepublicanismRepublicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
- ShaftesburyAnthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of ShaftesburyAnthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury was an English politician, philosopher and writer.-Biography:...
(1671–1713) - Jonathan SwiftJonathan SwiftJonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
(1667–1745) - John Trenchard (writer)John Trenchard (writer)John Trenchard , English writer and Commonwealthman, belonged to the same Dorset family as the Secretary of State Sir John Trenchard.Trenchard was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and became a lawyer...
, (1662–1723) - Whig (British political party)
- WhiggismWhiggismWhiggism, sometimes spelled Whigism, is a historical political philosophy that grew out of the Parliamentarian faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The whigs' key policy positions were the supremacy of Parliament , toleration for Protestant dissenters, and opposition to a Catholic on the...