Arthur Murphy and Florida Peat: The Gray’s Inn Journal and versions of the apolitical

Abstract

In the introduction to this completed 'Works' (1786), Arthur Murphy (1727-1805) wrote: ‘Of the political papers which fell from my pen many years ago, I hope no trace is left’. Although Murphy’s career as a political propagandist in the late 1750s and early 1760s was relatively brief, the controversies which he both provoked and reacted to in the anti-Pitt 'The Test' (1756-1757) and the pro-ministerial The Auditor (1763-1763) dogged his literary career long after his resignation as the self-proclaimed ‘auditor’ of public opinion. Reading across a range of Murphy’s dramatic works and early political and popular journalism, we argue that Murphy’s negative view of popular political participation is intriguing for the way in which it exemplifies a fascinating mid-century political paradox. Although Murphy wished to restrict political participation, the mid-century expansion of political discussion that bolstered the opponent essay-sheet 'The North Briton' (1762-1763) forced him to engage an even larger readership, thus undermining his entire political philosophy. Focusing on the Florida Peat controversy, which disgraced Murphy as a political commentator, this article argues that the author’s studied and self-contradictory pose of being apolitical provides us with a valuably honest and paradoxical snapshot of political culture an (unknowing) point of radical change.