Politics and the Apocalypse: The Republic and the Millennium in Late-Eighteenth-Century English Political Thought

Abstract

Politics and the Apocalypse: The Republic and the Millennium in Late-Eighteenth-Century English Political Thought JACK FRUCHTMAN, JR. Until quite recently, the convention of historical scholarship has been that eighteenth-century English political thought and Georgian religious beliefs were two separate and unrelated areas of investiga­ tion. In the past few years, a number of important studies have chal­ lenged this convention. Convincing works by Clarke Garrett, Mar­ garet C. Jacob, and J. G. A. Pocock on England and Nathan O. Hatch and Henry F. May on America have all in varying degrees set the political debates of the eighteenth century in theological contexts.1 The present essay seeks to extend the points of some of these earlier works by demonstrating that in late-eighteenth-century England, a mode of millennialist political thought was articulated in the lan­ guage of the "classical republican" (or "Old Whig," "Country," or "Commonwealthman") tradition. More particularly, the political thought of two late-eighteenth-century Dissenting ministers, Richard Price (1723-91) and Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), exemplified this convergence of classical republicanism and Christian millennialism in a manner which is here referred to as republican millennialism. Like their Whig predecessors of the late seventeenth and early 153 154 / FRUCHTMAN eighteenth centuries, Price and Priestley believed that English gov­ ernment was infected with corruption where unequal representation, coupled with the overpowering influence of the crown, had led to the establishment of government by a few who had reduced the many to dependence. This dependence had called into question the ability of the ideally autonomous citizen to realize a genuine repub­ lican form of government. In so doing, it had also compromised the fragile balance of King, Lords, and Commons (based on the classical paradigm of the one, the,few, and the many), which was so necessary for the continued existence of the republic in time.3 But there was a broad difference separating the Old Whigs of the seventeenth century and these Dissenters of the late-eighteenth. This difference was principally embodied in their vision of the coming hu­ man, political, and social perfection in the millennium through the providential control of history. This vision uniformly both deter­ mined and colored the political ideology of Dissent, as expressed by Price and Priestley. As two millennialists deeply immersed in scrip­ tural prophecy, they understood the future course of history and God's control of that history beyond the realm of mortal men. Republican millennialism gave to these Dissenting ministers and publicists a ready explanation of the true meaning and significance of all political events. It made the historical process itself seem compre­ hensible, because within an apocalyptic context it was possible to see how progress occurred and what responsibilities fell to the citizenry to ensure that progress to the millennial moment in time when the godly kingdom of universal peace and happiness would be forever established on earth. Moreover, change was to occur in men as indi­ viduals as well, and not only in society, as men's individual and col­ lective consciousnesses developed and improved. As a result, men would become prepared for the millennium and the truths which were to be revealed at that moment. For the human mind to be read­ ied for these truths, an open society had to be created which permit­ ted expression and inquiry to be free from the political encumbrances which hindered the mind's advance. Free inquiry and open debate were the very bases of an enlightened educational process.4 The re­ publican millennialists thus believed that God had delegated to the individual as civic man the responsibility to organize the political forms of government in a republican manner which would be con­ ducive to the mind's progressive development. For Price and Priestley, the republic and the millennium were never two separate and discreet categories of thought. The arrival of the republic coincided with the inauguration of the millennial period. Politics and the Apocalypse / 155 The republic was always the ideal goal for men to achieve, for once attained, it meant that they had also accomplished their final libera­ tion. The republic that they were to build was a replication of the classical idea of mixed...