Baxter also quotes from the Lockeian Bill of Rights of 1689, he copies it out in full, a passage which provides that "'subjects who are
protestants, may have arms for their defence'". On the basis of their
right to natural liberty, Baxter supports the revolts of the Negro slaves
in Jamaica in 1760. Calling the French Revolution of 1789 "an event more
important in its consequences than anything ... found in history", and seeing the revolutionaries as a "virtuous band of patriots", Baxter argues that "the principles of despotism were too deep-rooted" in France "to
be cleansed by anything short of an entire change". By implication, he is
not recommending anything so drastic for England. This is also suggested
by the fact that he reserves his most enthusiastic support for the
American rebels. Their rebellion stemmed from their patriotism. They
"united professions of allegiance with the necessity of self-defence", and their declaration of rights was based on the principles of life,
liberty and property "handed down from their ancestors, consonant with the
spirit of the British constitution". They had drawn their arguments from
"charters" based on the documents of British liberty. So, the colonists' war with the mother country was "a horrid ... civil war".
Baxter, then, supports political violence but, in the Anglo-
Saxon world, for purposes of rebellion rather than revolution* Even here, only as a last resort, and only when it is carried out by the people
in the true spirit of the principles of the British Constitution. Baxter
goes so far as to give some respect and legitimacy to the 18th century mob. Through an involved bit of etymology, and though law, he traces the word
'mob' back to Saxon times where he says it was called 'mot' thereby being
associated with the Saxon word for parliament - "Wittenagmot". Yet
though he gives the mob and the people this respectability he recognises
they can be deceived and misled. In the popular uprisings against Henry
VIII they were misled by a prior disguised as a mechanic, called "captain
Cobler". Baxter seems to distinguish between the hired mob and the
popular mob but when he writes of the mob riots of 1768 which he says were due to the "distress of the poor", he comments that "much mischief was done,
Baxter, A New and Impartial History, 462-3.
•k
and l i v e s l o s t i n d i f f e r e n t p l a c e s ” , t h u s sho wi ng g e n e r a l d i s a p p r o v a l . S i m i l a r l y , he condemns t h e Gordon r i o t s , r e f e r r i n g t o " t h e s e m i s g u i d e d p e o p l e ” and t o " o u t r a g e s ” . He t a k e s up a p o s i t i o n s i m i l a r t o t h e g e n t l e m e n o f t h e R a d i c a l b u t c o n s t i t u t i o n a l S o c i e t y f o r C o n s t i t u t i o n a l I n f o r m a t i o n when he seems t o s e p a r a t e t h e mob from t h e p e o p l e and
j o i n s t h e S . C . I . i n s a y i n g t h a t " i f t h e r e h a d b e e n t h e s m a l l e s t c o u r a g e among t h e p e o p l e , o r i f t h e y h ad b ee n p r o v i d e d w i t h f i r e - a r m s , t h i s
d r e a d f u l r i o t m i g h t have been s u p p r e s s e d i n t h e b e g i n n i n g w i t h o u t c a l l i n g 9
i n m i l i t a r y f o r c e ” . I n p a r t i c u l a r , B a x t e r d e p l o r e s t h e d e s t r u c t i o n o f Lord M a n s f i e l d ’ s l i b r a r y , m a n u s c r i p t s and p a i n t i n g s . He shows t h e same s k i l l e d a r t i s a n ' s c o n s c i o u s n e s s o r l o v e o f f i n e t h i n g s when he l a m e n t s t h e f i r i n g o f Dr es d en by t h e A u s t r i a n s , r e m a r k i n g D r e s d e n , "one o f t h e most e l e g a n t towns o f E u r o p e ” w i t h " l o f t y a n d m a g n i f i c a n t h o u s e s ” was a p l a c e where " t h e most f a s h i o n a b l e an d w e a l t h y c l a s s o f p e o p l e r e s i d e d " and where " a number o f a r t i s t s c a r r i e d on a v a r i e t y o f m a n u f a c t u r e r s " .
I t i s c l e a r B a x t e r i s n o t a t a l l e a g e r t o u s e p o l i t i c a l v i o l e n c e a g a i n s t e i t h e r men o r p r o p e r t y . B a x t e r t h e s u p p o s e d ’ e x t r e m i s t ' even shows a q u a l i f i e d b u t g e n u i n e s u p p o r t f o r t h e v e r y m o d e r a t e r e f o r m s o f t h e Rockingham a d m i n i s t r a t i o n i n 1782. They wer e b a s e d on sound p r i n c i p l e s , he s a y s . I n a l l , i t can be c o n c l u d e d t h a t J o h n B a x t e r , l i k e Major C a r t w r i g h t and o t h e r l e a d i n g R a d i c a l s , would h a v e p r e f e r r e d , t o u s e B a x t e r ' s own p h r a s e , " a r e v o l u t i o n i n s e n t i m e n t " t o any p o l i t i c a l o r s o c i a l
r e v o l u t i o n , e s p e c i a l l y one b r o u g h t a b o u t by v i o l e n c e .
His p r a i s e o f t h e p e o p l e , shows B a x t e r t o be a t r u e r e p u b l i c a n . But i s he a r e p u b l i c a n i n t h e more modem a nd J a c o b i n i c a l s e n s e o f w a n t i n g t o do away w i t h t h e monarchy a s w e l l ? At f i r s t s i g h t i t seems
s o . In h i s H i s t o r y , t h e r e i s a p l a t e which shows t h e e x e c u t i o n o f Louis XVI i n a l l i t s g o r y d e t a i l . Th er e i s a l s o B a x t e r ' s r ema rk t h a t i t was " a s t e r n o b s e r v a t i o n o f M i l t o n " t h a t t h e t r a p p i n g s o f monarchy "were more t h a n s u f f i c i e n t t o d e f r a y t h e wh ole e x p e nc e o f a r e p u b l i c " . On t h e f a c e o f i t , t h e i n s t i t u t i o n o f monarchy u n d e r m i n d e d one o f t h e c e n t r a l t e n e t s o f R a d i c a l i s m " c h e a p g o v e r n m e n t " . A k i n g me a nt a c o u r t , and a c o u r t meant l u x u r y and c o r r u p t i o n . Yet t h e a b s e n c e o f a k i n g d i d n o t mean t h e r e was a r e p u b l i c . The p e r i o d o f t h e Commonwealth was n o t a " p u r e r e p u b l i c " b u t "an i nf amo us m i l i t a r y g o v e r n m e n t , t h e w o r s t o f a l l t y r a n n i e s " . The
H i s t o r y , 802.
9.
1 0.
political system of "military violence" is far worse, in Baxter's mind, than the existence of a monarchy. Yet there is some doubt whether the monarchy is a necessary component in the polity. The independence of Scotland was preserved despite the fact that Edward III kept the King of Scotland a prisoner for eleven years.
Apart from the expenses of court, the English monarchy also meant foreign influence - either Norman (French) or Germanic. A strong theme in the Saxon myth, is the post-Conquest kings' disdain for their own people and for their reliance on foreign parties. Richard II is said to have stated that he would rather rely, "nay even submit himself" to his cousin, the King of France, than "truckle to his own subjects". George II,
"sacrificed the blood and treasure of Great Britain". In short, foreign kings meant foreign interests; foreign interests meant foreign wars, high taxes, and, worst of all, standing armies. Yet Baxter does not even blame George II entirely. "We do not so much blame the prince", he says,
"as we should detest a succession of venal ministers". The king or queen is often the people's defence against the court and aristocracy. In Stephen's time, the nobles' castles "were become the receptacles of
licensed robbers". Stephen restored peace. So, he was "received with the warmest demonstrations of loyalty by the people". Henry V is praised by Baxter for, at the beginning of his reign, wanting "to bury all party distinctions". Individual monarchs are fitted into Baxter's types of heroes and villains. The monarch as hero is fitted in to the political tradition of the patriot king; as villain, he becomes a despot. Richard II is "without virtue, without moral personality". Although William III is accused of setting up corruption as a system, of his wife Mary,"the nation ever retained highest respect for her memory".
A patriot king or queen performed his or her duties according to the principles of an elective or constitutional monarchy. When Richard II was deposed, Baxter says, parliament exercised the "right of election". This right he traces back to Saxon times; "according to the spirit of the constitution, succession to the throne was originally elective". After the Norman Conquest, succession to the crown became "either elective or hereditary or a mixture of both. But the people's support was always sought in order to give the contending claimants legitimacy. Even
William the Bastard did not rule by the right of conquest but because he was "elected by the will of the people in general". William claimed to rule through the bequest of Edward the Confessor, "and he readily agreed to preserve to the English all the rights and liberties of the nation".
The election of a monarch was done, that is to say it ought to be done, by either the people or their representatives and it was justified by "ancient usage". Under the Saxons, both king and nobility were
elected for life by freeholders who assembled once a year. That
hereditary right was not the doctrine even after the conquest is confirmed, in particular, by the wars between Stephen and Matilda. Through the
Revolution and the Bill of Rights, "the existence of a compact between the king and the people was confirmed beyond all dispute, as well as the right of. the latter to dismiss even the highest officer in the state if he should be found to abuse the trust reposed in him". The monarchy, then, had its place in the English constitution. In the period of the English Civil War, Baxter supports "the moderate presbyterians" as against the rigid presbyterians for the former sought to "re-establish both the king and parliament in their constitutional authority, privileges and freedom". Baxter presents the old theory of the balance of powers in which "the king is at the head of the executive authority; the parliament make the laws, and are a check upon the royal prerogative".
But "all government is derived from the people and was originally chosen for their good". Sovereignty is ultimately theirs - through parliament. Parliament, though, cannot always be trusted to reflect the will of the people. So Baxter favours the 1694 bill for triennial parliaments which gave the king the power to dissolve parliaments every three years or "sooner if he thought proper". Baxter retains royal power as the
guardian and symbol of the people’s rights. Yet, of course, he is also distrustful of the monarchy. He refers to the 1701 bill of succession which restricted the right of the king to make war. War was an act of will. Baxter revives the arguments of a previous time and contrasts the king's will against the reason and custom of the p e o p l e . ^
Since the Enlightenment and Burke and Paine, there is a
strong tendency to see reason and custom as dialectical opposites. In the Saxon myth, reason and custom get interwoven. Gothic Radicalism does not see the English constitution as the slow accretion of custom and experience over time; neither does it argue there is no constitution and that custom and experience do not count. The Gothicist Radicals use reason, somewhat fetishistically, as a tool with which to examine the foundations of
custom. Reason is used to discover and separate the 'true' constitution
11.
from the 'false'. Reason is the tool or gnosis. Reason is gnosis since history is a mystery. In this way, history becomes myth. According to