5 - The Persistence of Dependence

Summary

Chapter 5 begins to trace the process by which the entire Whig vision of civil society and the free state was discredited and rejected. First the Whig view of civil society was challenged and ridiculed. They had attempted to claim that no one is condemned to live in subjection to the mere will and power of anyone else. But in addition to ignoring the continued existence of slavery, this assurance was shown to overlook the overwhelming extent to which women were still obliged to live in servitude. This point was made in a wave of protests by Judith Drake, Mary Astell, Sarah Chapone and other pioneering feminist writers. The account given by the Whigs of the administration of justice was likewise dismissed with ridicule. Here the three great novelists of the 1740s -- Fielding, Smollett and Richardson -- made an important contribution that has arguably been too little recognised. The chapter concludes by examining their satirical commentaries on Whig complacencies, in which they focused on the corruption and ignorance of Justices of the Peace, the widespread contempt for the law, and the incapacity of the government to secure the safety of the people.