In 1966 J. H. Plumb published his Ford lectures, given at Oxford the year before, as The Growth of Political Stability in England, 1675-1725. Plumb had to write a great deal in order to support himself and his mother, and some of his work was ephemeral. No one would bother to take The First Four Georges, which he told me he wrote in six weeks, as history. It was amusing, it sold well that Christmas, and with the royalties Plumb was able to buy himself a house. Political Stability, on the other hand, based on his own doctoral thesis and the work of his students, was a much more serious affair. It is still well worth reading and it is still well worth pondering. Plumb felt that all history was local history, an account of the struggles between Montagus and Capulets for prestige and power. He had such a low view of human nature that one of the first things he taught his students was never to use the word treason in reference to seventeenth-century politicians. The word was inappropriate-or, perhaps, everyone did it and therefore it was not worthy of comment. After the Restoration and particularly after 1688 the central government was much larger than before 1640, with places to give out in the Customs, the Excise, the Army, the Navy, the Church-4,500-odd Church places rather than the 54 claimed by Professor Roberts-and the law. Being a J.P. might not pay more than a per diem, but it was important socially. Titles paid nothing and were even more valuable. Hence the necessity, for Montagus and Capulets, of going to Court where these goodies were handed out. Given the background of their local hatreds and the basic fact that there were too many claimants competing for the available number of loaves and fishes, courtiers organized themselves not so much on regional lines-Men of Kent v. Welshmen, for example, which might have been perfectly reasonable in economic terms-as on party ones. Issues and ideals meant very little. Lord Russell would take French money while accusing Charles II of doing the same thing; Charles II and in 1685-86 James II persecuted Catholics while sharing their faith. The name of the game was 'jobs, influence, profit, the control of spoils (Plumb, Growth, p. 154). Professor Roberts takes a higher view of human nature, bless his heart, and that is only reasonable for the son of a missionary. More power to him. But how can he hope to understand the history of the 1740s, for example, if he refuses to acknowledge that the politicians thought more of power than of winning the war? Just what were they doing when they resigned office in February of 1746, with a hostile army as yet undefeated on British soil? Here is another period where we must not use the word treason, because everyone was being
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May 13, 2024
Raphaël Chiappini + 2
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