GIANTS IN THOSE DAYS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 871, 13 April 1956, Page 13

GIANTS IN THOSE DAYS

ENGLISH RADICALISM, 1762-1785: The Origins, by S. Maccoby; Allen and Unwin. English price 45/-. DRE: MACCOBY is a collector of pamphlets, handbills, periodicals, and cartoons published in the last two centuries. Combining these with research into thé manuscripts held by the libraries and museums of the United Kingdom, he ‘has -collected enough material to make five published volumes of what the dustcover calls "A History of the British Left from 1762 to 1914." The first three volumes covered 1832 to 1914. This one, sub-titled "The Origins," begins with John Wilkes and ends with the return of Warren Hastings from India. In addition, there are special chapters on workmen and their employers, the challenge of the church, opinion on rent and landlords and philanthropy to the "oppressed." While the years covered may indeed be the earliest period for which Dr. Maccoby has material, it is presumptuous to suggest that English radicalism began in the second half of the 18th century. The same kind of fundamental error is behind the suggestion that this is the history of the British Left. It is no such thing. In fact, the words of the radical (which seems to be synonymous with "oppositionist") are seldom related in a significant way to the forces which made the words so apt. _ Nevertheless, the words themselves are refreshing and most readers will enjoy the quotations which introduce each chapter. Adam Smith is an example: "Both ground-rents, and the ordinary rent of land, are a species of tevenue which the owner in many cases enjoys without any care or attention of his own" (1776). This was the time of Junius, Burke, Bentham, Johnson, Paine, Blackstone, Gibbon-each a giant. And the pamphleteers were perhaps encouraged by" them. However that may be, we cannot. duplicate them nearly two centuries

later.

W. B.

Sutch