Natural Law and Natural Rights in Nineteenth Century Britain

This thesis challenges the view of many historians that the natural law and natural rights tradition, while flourishing in the Enlightenment period, disappeared in nineteenth-century Britain with the expansion of the role of positive law, only to reappear post-World War II in human rights discourse. The focus of historians of political thought on canonical figures, Jeremy Bentham, John Austin, and John Stuart Mill, all of whom were antagonistic to the natural law and rights tradition has led them to fail to appreciate not only the continued role of natural law and rights but its development of a post-Enlightenment accommodation with positive law, resulting in a more pragmatic understanding of natural law. The examination of non-canonical figures who were nevertheless important in their time reveals the continued role of natural law as positive law expanded. The thesis is developed through the analysis of figures in areas where natural law was significant: Jurisprudence; the Law of Nations or International Law; and Spiritual Life. Jurisprudence was the area in which theorists of natural law mounted direct opposition to the theories of Jeremy Bentham, John Austin, and John Stuart Mill. The writers investigated include Charles Foster, an early nineteenth century proponent of natural law through his writings and lectures; the Scotsman, James Lorimer, writer and lecturer on jurisprudence and law of nations; and the Irish Catholic lawyer Denis Caufeild Heron. In International Law the advocates of natural law theory were Robert Phillimore, judge of the High Court of Admiralty; Travers Twiss and George Bowyer as civil lawyers; and James Lorimer. Writers on Natural Law in Spiritual Life, included Henry Drummond, lecturer and ecclesiast; George Combe, phrenologist; and John Seeley, historian; who were in conflict with churchmen over the church’s exclusive right to interpret religious teaching and the appropriate relationship between natural law and religion

Academic Discipline or Literary Genre? The Establishment of Boundaries in Historical Writing

SERIOUS PRACTITIONERS OF THE HISTORICAL discipline in late nineteenth-century Britain mistrusted their culture\u27s practice of framing the nation\u27s contemporary greatness in terms of former glories. In the view of the new professional historians, it was essential to negotiate a boundary between their own professional work and that of amateurs, with science on one side and literature on the other. The stakes were high. John Robert Seeley thought the writings of men of letters, particularly Macaulay and Carlyle, had “spoiled the public taste,” by being so delightful to read that “to the general public no distinction remains between history and fiction….deprived of any, even the most distant association with science, [history] takes up its place definitively as a department of belles lettres” (“History and Politics” 292). He and others wanted a new generation of students whose work would appear in serious publications which would no more appeal to the general public than Newton\u27s Principia. A scientific training would prepare historians not only to research, write, and teach British history properly, but also to encounter the work of their peers as critical readers and knowledgeable reviewers. The boundary between popular and professional history (or between narrative and scientific approaches to the past) was often invoked by people like Seeley. A sharp dichotomy made for a compelling rhetoric of modernization and improvement. Earlier histories had been written inaccurately though patriotically, by gentlemen of letters for the general reader. Macaulay\u27s essays, for example, had first appeared in the Edinburgh Review, and the great quarterlies continued to publish historical narratives that were unsatisfactory by modern standards. Equally unacceptable was the tradition of introducing children to their nation\u27s past with such romanticized narratives as Little Arthur\u27s History of England. Maria Callcott was the anonymous author of this much-reprinted and often-maligned work. Now, applying to the discipline the principles of Leopold von Ranke and a newly rigorous approach which resonated with the broader contemporary culture of science, history-writing was to be limited to trained professionals, so that it might be made precise, verifiable, and reliable, even at the expense of narrative appeal. One colleague paraphrased Seeley\u27s views pungently: “To make sure of being judged by competent judges only, we ought to make history so dull and unattractive that the general public will not wish to meddle with it” (Freeman 326)

Natural Law and Natural Rights in Nineteenth Century Britain

This thesis challenges the view of many historians that the natural law and natural rights tradition, while flourishing in the Enlightenment period, disappeared in nineteenth-century Britain with the expansion of the role of positive law, only to reappear post-World War II in human rights discourse. The focus of historians of political thought on canonical figures, Jeremy Bentham, John Austin, and John Stuart Mill, all of whom were antagonistic to the natural law and rights tradition has led them to fail to appreciate not only the continued role of natural law and rights but its development of a post-Enlightenment accommodation with positive law, resulting in a more pragmatic understanding of natural law. The examination of non-canonical figures who were nevertheless important in their time reveals the continued role of natural law as positive law expanded. The thesis is developed through the analysis of figures in areas where natural law was significant: Jurisprudence; the Law of Nations or International Law; and Spiritual Life. Jurisprudence was the area in which theorists of natural law mounted direct opposition to the theories of Jeremy Bentham, John Austin, and John Stuart Mill. The writers investigated include Charles Foster, an early nineteenth century proponent of natural law through his writings and lectures; the Scotsman, James Lorimer, writer and lecturer on jurisprudence and law of nations; and the Irish Catholic lawyer Denis Caufeild Heron. In International Law the advocates of natural law theory were Robert Phillimore, judge of the High Court of Admiralty; Travers Twiss and George Bowyer as civil lawyers; and James Lorimer. Writers on Natural Law in Spiritual Life, included Henry Drummond, lecturer and ecclesiast; George Combe, phrenologist; and John Seeley, historian; who were in conflict with churchmen over the church’s exclusive right to interpret religious teaching and the appropriate relationship between natural law and religion

Volume 5, Number 3 - December 1924

Volume 5, Number 3 - December 1924. 66 pages including covers and advertisements. Contents McCormick, John L., Midnight Mass Curran, Robert E., James C. Gibbons Murray, Stephen M., Real Life Conlon, James C., William L. Murphy Dale, T. J., The Quitter Clouthier, E. George, Christmas Carroll, Thomas P., In Behalf of Poesy McGonagle, J. C., A Christmas Letter Lynch, James E., Late Fall Fitzpatrick, John F., War An Absolete Custom Fanning, Frank J., The Grocers Boy\u27s Reply. There\u27s a Point to This Ruba, John W., The Great and Small Barry, T. Henry, The Observer Editorials Fitzpatrick, John J., College Chronicle Conlon, James C., Exchange Norton, Vernon C., Athletic