Coleridge and Contemporary Radicalism: The Bristol Lectures (1795) and The Watchman (1796)

Abstract

Coleridge began lecturing in Bristol in late January or early February 1795. Over the course of the year he gave eleven lectures, five of which were published. The first of these, A Moral and Political Lecture, appeared in print almost immediately, but, although the next two were given at about the same time, they were not published until December 1795, when they appeared together under the title, Conciones ad Populum. Or Addresses to the People. This work contained a revised version of A Moral and Political Lecture, and another piece entitled ‘On the Present War’. The immediate context of all three lectures was the buoyant reformist atmosphere produced by the acquittal of Thomas Hardy, John Thelwall, Horne Tooke and their associates in the treason trial of November 1794, the scarcity and hardship attributed by many writers (including Coleridge) to an unjust and unnecessary war, and the government’s growing nervousness about popular unrest, which led it to continue the suspension of Habeas Corpus in February 1795. Coleridge’s three lectures advocated the combination of reform and enlightenment that was a common feature of radical argument in the 1790s. In later lectures and in parts of The Watchman, he added a new dimension to his radicalism by stressing the moral, political and social significance of private property.KeywordsPrivate PropertyPolitical ReformReligious FreedomSlave TradeJewish StateThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.