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Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour

This classic study is one of the few books to explore extensively the many facets of envy—“a drive which lies at the core of man’s life as a social being.” Ranging widely over literature, philosophy, psychology, and the social sciences, Professor Schoeck— a distinguished sociologist and anthropologist—elucidates both the constructive and destructive consequences of envy in social life. Perhaps most important, he demonstrates that not only the impetus toward a totalitarian regime but also the egalitarian impulse in democratic societies are alike in being rooted in envy.

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A Sermon Preached before the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts

Preaching before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in February of 1773, Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, sought to ease tensions between Britain and her colonies by reminding both sides of their common Christianity, their interests in trade, the benefits of science and the principles of good governance, noting that the successes of the Americans in these endeavors “ought to be to us an ever memorable proof, that the true art of government consists in not governing too much.”

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Plain English: A Letter to the King

This text is among the most entertaining responses to Samuel Johnson and reveals a powerful link between a sense of natural justice on the one hand and pragmatic common sense on the other. Siding with the Americans in their right to self-government, the author nevertheless excoriated such popular radicals as John Wilkes as false patriots even while lambasting the high-born defenders of imperial administration, noting that “Human statutes, that run counter to the statutes of nature, are absurd.”

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Writings on Standing Armies

The questions of where to locate, in whose hands to place, and how to exercise the state’s powers of deadly military force inform a perennial topic in political theory and coalesce into a recurrent problem in political practice. Liberty Fund presents Writings on Standing Armies, a newly collected, authoritative edition of the most important pamphlets on the “standing armies” controversy of 1697–98. In addition, these writings express a subtext that is of equal and enduring importance: the transforming effects exerted by the prolonged possession of power on individuals and administrations.

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The Regulations Lately Made Concerning the Colonies, and the Taxes Imposed upon Them, considered

This essay is among the most articulate defenses of Parliament’s supremacy over the colonies on matters of trade and taxation. It defended the Stamp Act on both policy and constitutional grounds, advocating a late mercantilist position in favor of a “wise and proper use of the colonies” as being “the principal Object of a British Minister’s care.” Constitutionally, it argued that all subjects, regardless of location, were virtually represented by Parliament.

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A Letter to the Gentlemen Of The Committee of London Merchants, Trading to North America

This essay inverts the Grenville administration’s arguments, asserting that a true understanding of the Atlantic trade proves that a reduction of income supporting the circulation of goods must reduce commerce overall. This was in addition to the fact that “as Liberty is the grand Incentive to Industry and Commerce…a Decay of both would ensue the Loss of it.” The writer then cautions that nullification of colonial charters might well eventuate in the loss of English liberty at home.

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A speech, intended to have been spoken on the bill for altering the charters of the colony of Massachusett’s Bay

This text shows a strong familiarity with religious and legal thought, referencing England’s constitutional development, including the relationship of Parliament to Ireland as well as the evils arising from the management of India by the East India company. Grounded in the theological universalism of its day, the essay contended that “That just God, whom we have all so deeply offended, can hardly inflict a severer punishment, than by committing us to the natural consequences of our own conduct.”

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American Independence The Interest and Glory of Great Britain

This text presents a fusion of natural law, natural rights and contemporary Christian universalism, contending that the American colonies are deserving of their own governance on grounds of “the plain maxims of the law of nature, and the clearest doctrines of Christianity.” The primary end of the work is to show that “The Americans, in common with the whole race of man, have indisputably an inherent right to liberty,” and that the “the rights of sovereignty reside in the people themselves.”

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America Vindicated from the High Charge of Ingratitude and Rebellion

The author of “America Vindicated” presented arguments and word choices very similar to an essay written by the American New York jurist William Smith (1728-1793). This piece presents a strong refutation of Parliamentary Supremacy and virtual representation on the grounds that actual representation must be considered a fundamental part of the British constitution: The text calls for reform by creating a general colonial parliament.

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The Right of the British Legislature to Tax the American Colonies Vindicated; and the Means of Asserting that Right Proposed

This essay makes the case for the unitary nature of the authority of the King-in-Parliament as representative of all domains under British authority, disputing the American claim, with specific reference to Benjamin Franklin, that the colonies were outside “the realm.” Thus, Gray argues, “All the sovereignty the king has over the colonies he has as being sovereign of the British nation.” As such, the colonies were to be considered as subject to the “supreme legislative body” of Parliament.

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