commonwealthmen

The Oxford Companion to Irish History | 2007 | 700+ words | Copyright

commonwealthmen, also ‘true Whigs’ or ‘real Whigs’, a minority tradition in political writing and activism emphasizing the radical element in Whig ideology. Though influenced by 17th‐century republican writers like James Harrington and Algernon Sidney, commonwealthmen generally advocated a mixed constitution of monarchy, aristocracy, and parliament. They showed some interest in parliamentary reform, strictly confined to securing the better representation of property owners. But their main concern was with parliamentary control of the executive, combined with civic virtue, as the only barriers against corruption and despotism. Their writings form one strand in the origin of late 18th‐century American, British, and Irish radicalism. The best‐known Irish commonwealthmen were Toland, Hutcheson, and the circle round Molesworth, though Swift, as he made clear in the fifth Drapier's Letter, could in some respects claim to be part of the same tradition.

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