J.S. Mill and Protestant Nonconformity

Abstract

J.S. Mill’s reform politics and the politics of most Protestant Nonconformists had a good deal in common. They shared an anti-clerical bias, a commitment to religious liberty, an advocacy of free trade, a hostility to unearned distinction, and a leaning towards moral idealism. Yet Mill took issue with the stance taken by many Nonconformists on the question of drink, and his promotion of ‘secular’ education was not aligned with the Nonconformist preference for ‘non-sectarian’ instruction. This chapter, without neglecting the reasons why they often occupied common ground, argues that Mill’s criticisms sprang from a metropolitan sensibility averse to the provincialism of Protestant Dissent. It also seeks to show that rather narrow political considerations governed Mill’s assessment of Nonconformity’s significance before 1840, whereas social and cultural issues chiefly shaped his perspective on Dissent in the decades that followed. A fundamental change in Mill’s standing within the political and intellectual culture of his time decisively influenced this shift in perspective.