The Transition in English Historical Writing, 1760–1830

340 Pages·1933·40.851 MB·English

by  Thomas Preston Peardon

STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND
PUBLIC LAW
Edited by the
FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
NUMBER 390
THE TRANSITION IN ENGLISH
HISTORICAL WRITING
1760-1830
BY
THOMAS PRESTON PEARDON

THE TRANSITION IN ENGLISH
HISTORICAL WRITING
i760—1830
BY
THOMAS PRESTON PEARDON, Ph.D.
Instructor in Barnard College
Columbia University
NEW YORK
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
London : P. S. King & Son, Ltd.
1933

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am indebted chiefly to Professor Carlton J. H. Hayes
who read my manuscript carefully and made many sugges¬
tions for improvement; to my wife, Celeste Comegys Pear-
don, for much assistance, especially in typing part of the
manuscript and in reading proof; and to Mr. Hermann F.
Robinton whose careful reading of the proof saved me from
a number of errors both typographical and of a more serious
kind. To Professors Austin P. Evans, Hoxie N. Fairchild,
Dixon Ryan Fox, William Haller, David S. Muzzey, Geroid
T. Robinson and Robert Livingston Schuyler, I am also
grateful for their criticism. It is only fair to add, however,
that since I have not always adopted the suggestions I have
received from those mentioned above, the responsibility for
the facts and opinions in this monograph rests on me alone.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
Introduction . 9
CHAPTER II
Rationalist History, 1780-1800. 34
CHAPTER III
Party History from Hume to 1800 : The Tory Emphasis. 69
CHAPTER IV
Signs of Change, 1760-1800: I, Primitivism. 103
CHAPTER V
Signs of Change, 1760-1800: II, Medievalism and Pietism. 127
CHAPTER VI
The Rise of Nationalist History. 161
CHAPTER VII
Party History from 1800 to 1827: The Whig and Liberal Emphasis. 183
CHAPTER VIII
Romanticist History, 1800-1830. 214
CHAPTER IX
From Roscoe to Lingard. 253
CHAPTER X
The Change in Attitude Towards the Sources of National History. 284
Bibliography . . 3H
Index . 333
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CHAPTER I
Introduction
English historical writing in the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries merits attention on two grounds. In
the first place, if this period, especially the years between
Gibbon’s last volumes (1788) and Hallam’s Middle Ages
(1818), was not fertile in great historians, it saw a success-
sion of works of respectable merit, and a distinct revival
after 1800. Secondly, it marks the transition from the
“rationalist-’ ideals of historical writing exemplified by
Hume, Robertson and Gibbon to the very different ideals of
the nineteenth century. In tracing this change, which it is
the main purpose of the present essay to do, it is easier to
set a terminal date than to find an exact beginning. By
1830 the basic elements in the nineteenth-century conception
of history—romantic enthusiasm for the study of the past,
nationalist zeal in portraying it, and the use of “ scientific ”
methods in ascertaining the facts about it—had already found
considerable expression among historians. Moreover,
shortly after this date at least, the public records, funda¬
mental sources of historical study in the last hundred years,
were first adequately cared for and their importance properly
realized. Meantime, also, the Tory view of political his¬
tory, which had received classic exposition from the pen of
Hume, was being definitely superseded by a Whig interpreta¬
tion which became almost equally classic in the Victorian era.
But when we turn to seek the beginning of the change
which had gone so far by 1830, one great difficulty presents
itself. Students of literary history have long recognized that
9
TRANSITION IN ENGLISH HISTORICAL WRITING
IO
“ the more we investigate below the surface [of the eigh¬
teenth century], the clearer traces do we find of the Romantic
movement, which is implicit in a constant series of writers
from Dyer and Thomson to Chatterton and Blake.” 1 In
precisely the same way, if we look below the surface of the
great period from 1754 to 1788 when Hume, Robertson and
Gibbon reigned so gloriously, we find vigorous dissent from
their type of historical outlook. For this reason, therefore,
the first five chapters of this essay, while mainly concerned
with writers who flourished between 1780 and 1800, will
give some attention to those of an earlier date.2 In the
remaining chapters we shall deal chiefly with trends visible
among historians of the first thirty years of the last century.
The conception of history fashionable among the eigh¬
teenth-century rationalists is too familiar to need detailed
description. But its main features should be summarized
briefly for purposes of reference. History was believed to
be the teacher of private virtue and correct public policy, and
the justification for its study lay in this pragmatic value.
For this purpose modern history, as being most nearly ana¬
logous to present conditions and most easily studied, was
apt to be regarded as far more important than the history
of earlier periods. Indeed, while classical history always
enjoyed some of the respect it had won from the human¬
ists, primitive ages, as ages of barbarism, and medieval
civilization, as the product of ignorance and superstition,
were held unworthy of the investigation of enlightened
men or at best worth examining solely as the introduc¬
tion to modern civilization. The historian was to write
1 T. Seccombe, The Age of Johnson (1748-1798) (3rd edition reprinted,
London, 1928), p. xvi.
2 For the significance of the year 1780 in the periodization of literary
history, see O. Elton, Survey of English Literature, 1780-1830 (London,
1920), vol. i, p. 9 et seq.
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