Liberty's Apostle - Richard Price, His Life and Times

Paul Frame

Description

Born in the village of Llangeinor, near Bridgend in south Wales, Richard Price (1723–91) was, to his contemporaries, an apostle of liberty, an enemy to tyranny and a great benefactor of the human race. His friend Benjamin Franklin described aspects of his work as ‘the foremost production of human understanding that this century has afforded us’. A supporter of the American and French Revolutions, Price corresponded with the likes of Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Mirabeau and Condorcet. In November 1789 he publicly welcomed the start of the French Revolution and thus inspired not only Edmund Burke to write his rebuttal in Reflections on the Revolution in France, but also the Revolution Controversy, ‘the most crucial ideological debate ever carried on in English’. Price also brought to world attention the Bayes-Price Theorem on probability, which is the invisible background to so much in modern life, and wrote a fundamental text on moral philosophy. Yet, despite all this and more, he remains little-known beyond academia, a situation that this biography helps to rectify. Liberty’s Apostle tells his life story through his published works and, fully for the first time, his now published correspondence with a host of eighteenth century celebrities. The life revealed is of a truly remarkable Welshman and, as Condorcet remarked, of ‘one of the formative minds’ of the eighteenth century Enlightenment.

Introduction: Rediscovering Richard Price
1 A Background of Dissent
2 A London Life
3 The Virtues of Virtue
4 The Equitable Life
5 Science and Society
6 Freedoms Denied
7 Price, Franklin and the Honest Whigs
8 On a Perilous Edge
9 Revolution In America
10 Reaction at Home and Abroad
11 Reform and Contribution at Home
12 Peace with America
13 Advising Ireland, Scotland and America
14 Pitt and the Sinking Fund
15 The Watershed Years
16 Revolution in France
17 On the Love of Our Country
18 Burke and his Reflections
19 The Close

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique
• Éthique et morale
• Ethique et morale
• Ethics
• Philosophy
• Philosophie et théologie
• Moral Philosophy

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 20 mars 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783162178
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 19 Mo

Extrait

WALES AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
General Editors: Mary-Ann Constantine and Dafydd Johnston‘Richard Price, D.D. F.R.S.’, engraving by Thomas Holloway, 1793,
after a painting by Benjamin West.WALES AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Liberty’s Apostle
Richard Price, his Life and Times
PAUL FRAME
UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS
2015© Paul Frame, 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form
(including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and
whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication)
without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the
copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should
be addressed to The University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place,
Cardiff CF10 4UP.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-78316-216-1
e-ISBN 978-1-78316-217-8
The right of Paul Frame to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by
him in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
Typeset in Wales by Eira Fenn Gaunt, Cardiff
Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, WiltshireFor my brother Jonathan
and to the memory of our parents
Gwen and Geoff FrameWALES AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
The French Revolution of 1789 was perhaps the defining event of the
Romantic period in Europe. It unsettled not only the ordering of society
but language and thought itself: its effects were profoundly cultural, and
they were long-lasting. The last twenty years have radically altered our
under standing of the impact of the Revolution and its aftermath on British
culture. In literature, as critical attention has shifted from a handful of major
poets to the non-canonical edges, we can now see how the works of women
writers, self-educated authors, radical pamphleteers, prophets and loyalist
propagandists both shaped and were shaped by the language and ideas of
the period. Yet surprising gaps remain, and even recent studies of the ‘British’
reaction to the Revolution remain poorly informed about responses from
the regions. In literary and historical discussions of the so-called ‘four nations’
of Britain, Wales has been virtually invisible; many researchers working in
this period are unaware of the kinds of sources available for comparative
study.
The Wales and the French Revolution Series is the product of a four-year
project funded by the AHRC and the University of Wales at the Centre
for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. It makes available a wide range of
Welsh material from the decades spanning the Revolution and the subsequent
wars with France. Each volume, edited by an expert in the field, presents a
collection of texts (including, where relevant, translations) from a particular
genre with a critical essay situating the material in its historical and literary
context. A great deal of material is published here for the first time, and all
kinds of genres are explored. From ballads and pamphlets to personal letters
and prize-winning poems, essays, journals, sermons, songs and satires, the
range of texts covered by this series is a stimulating reflection of the political
and cultural complexity of the time. We hope these volumes will encourage
scholars and students of Welsh history and literature to rediscover this
fascinating period, and will offer ample comparative scope for those working
further afield.
Mary-Ann Constantine and Dafydd Johnston
General EditorsTheologian, philosopher, mathematician;
Friend to Freedom as to Virtue;
Brother of Man;
Lover of Truth as of God;
His eminent talents were matched by his integrity,
Simplicity, and goodness of heart;
His moral dignity by his profound humility.
Few have been more useful in their generation,
Or more valued by the wise and good;
None more pure and disinterested.
Honoured be his name!
Imitated his example!
Inscription on Richard Price’s memorial in
Newington Green chapel, London.
Give me Dr. Price’s political principles and I will move all kings out of their
thrones, and all subjection out of the world.
John William Fletcher, American Patriotism Further
Confronted with Reason, Scripture and the Constitution:
Being Observations on the Dangerous Politicks Taught
by the Rev. Mr. Evans and the Rev. Dr. Price. With a
Scriptural Plea for the Revolted Colonies (Shrewsbury,
1776).Contents
List of Figures and Plates xi
Preface xv
Acknowledgements xvii
List of Abbreviations xix
Introduction: Rediscovering Richard Price 1
1. A Background of Dissent 7
2. A London Life 15
3. The Virtues of Virtue 27
4. The Equitable Life 43
5. Science and Society 59
6. Freedoms Denied 67
7. Price, Franklin and the Club of Honest Whigs 81
8. On a Perilous Edge 95
9. Revolution in America 109
10. Reaction at Home and Abroad 123
11. Reform and Contribution at Home 141x CONTENTS
12. Peace with America 151
13. Advising Ireland, Scotland and America 159
14. Pitt and the Sinking Fund 177
15. The Watershed Years (1786–8) 187
16. Revolution in France 205
17. On the Love of our Country 219
18. Burke and his Reflections 231
19. The Close 243
Notes 255
Select Bibliography 283
Index 299 Figures and Plates
Frontispiece ‘Richard Price, D.D. F.R.S.’, engraving by Thomas
Holloway, 1793, after a painting by Benjamin West ii
Fig. 1 Tynton, the Price family home at Llangeinor,
south Wales 9
Fig. 2 Memorial to Richard Price’s paternal grandparents
in Bettws church, south Wales 11
Fig. 3 ‘Stoke Newington Church, 1750’, unattributed
engraving in Walter Thornbury, Old and New
London (London, n.d.) 21
Fig. 4 Price’s home in Newington Green 22
Fig. 5a ‘Newington Green Chapel in 1860’, unattributed
photograph 23
Fig. 5b Newington Green chapel today 23
Fig. 6 Title page of A Review of the Principal Questions and
Difficulties in Morals (1758; 3rd edn., London, 1787) 28
Fig. 7 Richard Price’s certificate of election to the Royal
Society, December 1765 45
Fig. 8 The Bayes-Price theorem on probabilities 46
Fig. 9 ‘William Morgan’, engraving by William Say, 1803,
after a painting by George Hounsom 48xii FIGURES AND PLATES
Fig. 10 Title page of Observations on Reversionary Payments
(1771; 4th edn., London, 1783) 51
Fig. 11 ‘Watkin Lewes Esqr Presenting the Addresses
from the Counties of Pembroke, Carmarthen, and
Cardigan, to the Lord Mayor, Alderman Wilkes,
and Alderman Oliver in the Tower’, unattributed
engraving 71
Fig. 12 ‘The Royal Society’s House in Crane Court’,
unattributed engraving in Walter Thornbury,
Old and New London (London, n.d.) 82
Fig. 13 Title page of Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty
(1776; 3rd edn., London, 1776) 110
Fig. 14 ‘Declaration of Independence, July 4th 1776’,
engraving by Asher Brown Durand after a painting
by John Trumbull 120
Fig. 15 ‘Edmund Burke, Esq.r’ by ‘J. Chapman sculp’, 1798,
and published by J. Wilkes 127
Fig. 16 ‘The Politician’ (Benjamin Franklin), engraving by
J. Ryder, 1782, after a painting by Stephen Elmer 130
Fig. 17 Title page of Observations on the Importance of the
American Revolution and the Means of Making It
a Benefit to the World (London, 1784) 165
Fig. 18 ‘The Right Honourable William Pitt’, drawn by
L. Jackson and engraved by H. Meyer, 1810, after
a painting by I. Hoppner 179
Fig. 19 Letter from Richard Price to his wife Sarah 188
Fig. 20 ‘Mirabeau L’Ainé’ (Honoré Gabriel Riquetti,
Comte de Mirabeau), engraved by Jacques-Louis
Copia, c.1791, after a painting by Louis-Marie Sicardi 207FIGURES AND PLATES xiii
Fig. 21 ‘The Marquis de Lafayette Presiding over the French
National Assembly, 13–14th July 1789’, unattributed
French engraving, c.1830 212
Fig. 22 Title page of A Discourse on the Love of our Country
(London, 1790) 220
Fig. 23 Price’s tomb in Bunhill Fields cemetery,
City of London 247
Fig. 24 Details from Richard Price memorial railings,
Llangeinor, south Wales 252
Plate 1a ‘Richard Price, D.D. F.R.S.’ by
Benjamin West, 1784
Plate 1b ‘Benjamin Franklin’, 1783, after Joseph Duplessis
Plate 2a ‘Joseph Priestley’ by Ellen Sharples, c.1797
Plate 2b ‘William Petty, 1st Marquis of Lansdowne (Lord
Shelburne)’, 1766, after Sir Joshua Reynolds
Plate 3a ‘Mary Wollstonecraft’ by John Opie, 1797
Plate 3b ‘John Horne Tooke’ by Thomas Hardy, before 1791
Plate 4a ‘Smelling out a rat; or the atheistical-revolutionist
disturbed in his midnight “calculations”’ attributed
to James Gillray, 1790
Plate 4b ‘The doctor indulged with his favourite scene’
by Isaac Cruikshank, December 1790(?)
Preface
In his preface to The Honest Mind: The Thought and Work of Richard Price,
the late D. O. Thomas warned that the most intrepid biographer faced a
daunting prospect and ‘herculean task’ in trying to do justice to all the details
of Price’s achievements. The question of whether I have done them justice
or not I am happy to leave to the judgement of the reader, but the herculean
nature of the task has been made far less daunting thanks to the diligent
scholarship and wide-ranging nature of David Thomas’s own publications
1on Price. To these, and in particular the three volumes of Price’s collected
correspondence which Thomas edited with Bernard Peach, I owe the greatest
debt. Shortly before he died David told me that one reviewer of these
volumes had criticized them for the number and detail of the footnotes they
contain. I am simply thankful for them.
Mention must also be made of David’s wife, Beryl Thomas, who in
deciphering Price’s private shorthand journal has provided this and any
future biographer with a rare insight into Price’s deeper personality and
character; something generally hidden in his correspondence and published
works. My profound thanks also