Dr Derry shows that the three-month controversy over the Regency in 1788-9 was the first stage in the break-up of the old Whig party.

First published in 1977 this volume is the only account published in English in the 20th century to be exclusively devoted to an interpretation of Aristotle's political thought (as distinct from commentaries, translations and works on Aristotelean philosophy in general). It places Aristotle in his background of the Greek political experience.

How the philosophers and polemicists of eighteenth-century Britain used ridicule in the service of religious toleration, abolition, and political justice The relaxing of censorship in Britain at the turn of the eighteenth century led to an explosion of satires, caricatures, and comic hoaxes. This new vogue for ridicule unleashed moral panic and prompted warnings that it would corrupt public debate. But ridicule also had vocal defenders who saw it as a means to expose hypocrisy, unsettle the arrogant, and deflate the powerful. Uncivil Mirth examines how leading thinkers of the period searched for a humane form of ridicule, one that served the causes of religious toleration, the abolition of the slave trade, and the dismantling of patriarchal power. Ross Carroll brings to life a tumultuous age in which the place of ridicule in public life was subjected to unparalleled scrutiny. He shows how the Third Earl of Shaftesbury, far from accepting ridicule as an unfortunate byproduct of free public debate, refashioned it into a check on pretension and authority. Drawing on philosophical treatises, political pamphlets, and conduct manuals of the time, Carroll examines how David Hume, Mary Wollstonecraft, and others who came after Shaftesbury debated the value of ridicule in the fight against intolerance, fanaticism, and hubris. Casting Enlightenment Britain in an entirely new light, Uncivil Mirth demonstrates how the Age of Reason was also an Age of Ridicule, and speaks to our current anxieties about the lack of civility in public debate.

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of both the structures of 18th-century politics - national and local - and the major issues that provided the dynamics of a period that was far from static. The author considers the position not only in England, but also in Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The central emphasis of the book is on the interrelationship of political structure and content. Jeremy Black argues that power was not solely sought for its own sake, but also in order to advance or sustain particular policies and interests. He also stresses that this was true not only of Whitehall, Westminster and royal palaces centring around London; but also of parish vestries, town councils and commissions of the peace throughout the country. This study is intended as an introductory textbook for students. In addition to its analysis, the book acquaints students with the moost recent historiographical developments in the subject and the text is also supported by a section of documents.