Abstract
THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH DISSENTERS' involvement in and contribution to the cause of liberty is well established. Possessed of an insecure toleration, still victimized by the Test and Corporation Acts and subjected to sporadic persecution, the Dissenters fought a century-long campaign for religious and civil liberties.' During the course of the campaign the cause of liberty gradually expanded to include liberties of all varieties and liberty for others as well as Dissenters. As Joseph Priestley indicated, the dynamics of the generalization of the cause were obvious: So long as we continue Dissenters, it is hardly possible that we should be other than friends to civil liberty, and all the essential interests of our fellow-citizens.2 By their steadfast advocacy of liberty the Dissenters played a role in the rise of British radicalism.' They also contributed to the radical cause by helping to shape the intellectual radical tradition of Whiggery.4 With
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