The United Kingdom and Human Rights - College of Social ...

44 The United Kingdom and Human Rights Thinking
Lord Shelburne, First Marquis of Lansdowne (1737-1805) and his
creatures, Price and Priestley. Burke dreaded revolutionary activity in
England and sought to demolish any claim that the 1688 revolution
might be read in such a way as to justify that of 1789. See Pocock,
Virtue, Commerce and History, Chaps. 9 and 10. See also my second
Lecture.
24
Bentham attacked American natural rights theory in a pamphlet in
1776 and in his An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
(1789). His Anarchical Fallacies, although written in about 1795, was
only published in 1816 and in English in 1843. Apart from direct
communication by Bentham to his circle, that text did not influence
thinking at the time. Bentham's critique of Blackstone as confused
conservative was far more effective and echoed throughout the 19th
century. But legal historians and lawyers have appreciated Blackstone's
elegant style, his mastery of exposition in systematically
describing the constitution and law of England (for the first time
since Bracton had done so 500 years earlier), his influence on legal
education in England and America and his subtle criticisms of the
legal system. There are balanced assessments in A. V. Dicey's
Inaugural Lecture of 1909, reprinted as "Blackstone's Commentaries,"
Cambridge Law Journal (1932), Vol. IV, 286-307, and in W. S.
Holdsworth, A History of English Law, (Methuen, 1938), Vol. XII,
pp. 702-737. Blackstone observed that the constitution was not in
fact so perfect as he had "endeavoured to describe it; for if any
alteration might be wished or suggested in the present frame of
parliaments, it should be in favour of a more complete representation
of the people": Commentaries, Vol. 1, p. 171. He explained that he
had not descended "to the invidious task of pointing out such
deviations and corruptions, as length of time, and a loose state of
national morals, have too great a tendency to produce. The
incurvations of practice are then the most notorious, when compared
with the rectitude of the rule; and to elucidate the cleanness of the
spring conveys the strongest satire on those who have polluted or
disturbed it."
25
The General Theory in The Collected Writings of ]. M. Keynes,
(Macmillan, 1972), Vol. vii, p. 383. Keynes emphasised that longdead
controversies and long-exploded sophistries still permeate our
atmosphere of thought and "dogma forged in the 17th and 18th
centuries to throw down Kings and prelates" had literally entered
the nursery: Essays in Persuasion (on laissez-faire) Vol. ix, p. 280.
26
Because they were less well-known abroad, I have not talked about
Scottish judicial decisions, which were always more enlightened than
those in England. Professor Smith's Hamlyn Lecture demolished the
popular superstition that Lord Mansfield in Somersett's Case (1772) 20