Synopses & Reviews
The eighteenth century produced a remarkable array of thinkers whose influence in the development of free societies and free institutions is incalculable. Among these thinkers were Mandeville, Hutcheson, Smith, Hume, and Burke. And their time is known as the Age of Johnson. Samuel Johnson: Political Writings contains twenty-four of Johnsons essays on the great social, economic, and political issues of his time. These include “Taxation No Tyranny”—in which Johnson defended the British Crown against the American revolutionaries—and “An Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain,” “Thoughts on the Coronation of King George III,” and “The Patriot,” which is one of Johnsons principal writings during the American Revolution. In his introduction, Donald J. Greene writes, “it may help to understand [Johnsons] political thinking if we view it in the tradition of what might be called ‘skeptical (or ‘radical or ‘empirical) conservatism, the essential feature of which is distrust of grandiose a priori theory and dogma as the basis for political action.” The Liberty Fund edition is a paperback version of Volume 10 in The Yale Johnson.
Table of Contents
Preface vii
Contents ix
List of Illustrations xi
Introduction xiii
Chronological Table xxxix
Short Titles xlv
Pamphilus on Condolence (1738) 3
Eubulus on Chinese and English Manners (1738) 14
Marmor Norfolciense (1739) 19
A Compleat Vindication of the Licensers of the Stage (1739) 52
A Debate between the Committee and Oliver Cromwell (1741) 74
O.N. on the Fireworks (1749) 111
Further Thoughts on Agriculture (1756) 116
An Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain (1756) 126
Remarks on the Militia Bill (1756) 151
Observations on a Letter from a French Refugee in America (1756) 167
Observations on the Russian and Hessian Treaties (1756) 177
Observations on the Present State of Affairs (1756) 184
Review of Lewis Evans, Analysis of a General Map of the Colonies in America (1756) 197
Reviews of Pamphlets on the Case of Admiral Byng (1756) 213
Speech on the Rochefort Expedition (1757) 261
Observations in the Universal Chronicle (1758) 266
The Bravery of the English Common Soldiers (1760?) 278
Introduction to Proceedings of the Committee on French Prisoners (1760) 285
Thoughts on the Coronation of King George III (1761) 290
Considerations on Corn (1766?) 301
The False Alarm (1770) 313
Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland's Islands (1771) 346
The Patriot (1774) 387
Taxation No Tyranny (1775) 401
Index 457