The public moralist versus ethnocentrism: John Stuart Mill's French enterprise

This article connects Mill's experience with France and the French with his theoretical vindication of the significance of studying foreign cultures and peoples, and offers an assessment both of the way in which he applied his views on this matter to his life‐long connection with France and of the overall part this enterprise had in his conception of his role as one of the ‘moral teachers of England’. It is argued that, whatever the merits of Mill's theory of half‐truths might be with regard to a number of philosophical or epistemological controversies, his application of it in the realm of the disputes and misunderstandings between nations is defensible and commendable.     

James Fitzjames Stephen,John Stuart Mill,and the Victorian Theory of Toleration

Due to his famous conflict with John Stuart Mill, James Fitzjames Stephen is often assumed to have been an opponent of toleration and intellectual freedom and a defender of authoritarian or reactionary principles. These assumptions are misleading. Stephen was, and was known in his time to have been, a champion of toleration. This essay provides a comprehensive overview of his writing on these themes, drawing from a wider array of texts than is usually considered in the study of the Stephen-Mill controversy. Contrary to popular belief, Stephen had a deep and multi-faceted argument in favor of toleration. As a critic of contending theories of toleration and freedom of discussion (especially Mill’s), Stephen was concerned to defeat what he saw as the resurgence of a priori principles in Victorian political philosophy and to combat the expansion of a proper notion of toleration to include a cluster of beliefs and attitudes of which he disapproved. In his approach to these issues Stephen was, arguably, as representative of Victorian thinking as the author of On Liberty.     

The Henrician legend revived: the Palatine couple and its public image in early Stuart England

By exploring the nature of the Palatine myth in Early Stuart England this article contributes to the debate on the religious and political polarisation in Europe in the decades before the Thirty Years War. In the battle of words that preceded the armed conflict of men, references to the national past and greatness were used and misused by the opposing sides as influential instruments of propaganda. The paper sets out to answer two basic questions. In what way was Frederick, the Palatine Elector, put within the context of English Protestant mythology? How did the public image of the Palatine Couple change after the disaster at the White Mountain?     

Protecting England and its Church: Lady Anne and the death of Charles Stuart

In 1666, the English physician Thomas Sydenham determined that patients with smallpox could remain contagious for 41 days, that apparent health was no indicator of contagiousness, and that children were the most susceptible of contracting the disease. Yet in 1677, when 12-year-old Lady Anne Stuart (later Queen Anne) contracted smallpox, only 21 days had passed when she was introduced to her 1-month-old stepbrother, Charles Stuart, heir to the throne and likely Catholic king. Charles Stuart subsequently contracted smallpox from Anne, and the infant died of the disease at a time of heightened paranoia regarding the succession of a Catholic heir. This paper assesses the motives, means, and opportunity that may have led to Anne’s meeting with her stepbrother. The intention is not to suggest or prove that a deliberate attempt was made to remove the Catholic heir, rather, the purpose is to explore the reasons, implications, and possibilities that such an act may have occurred. In a period that resounded with conspiracies and threats to the Protestant succession, Charles Stuart’s death, regardless of whether the infection was, or was not, caused with intent, demonstrates a reversal of common fears where the Catholic line was extinguished to the advantage of the Protestant succession. This paper examines Charles’s death and its implications against a background of contemporary medical knowledge, and while it does not suggest that there is unequivocal proof linking Anne as an unwitting agent in a conspiracy, the paper nonetheless assesses the body of evidence that links Anne to Charles Stuart’s death.