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DAVID HART'S WEBPAGE

 

The Digital Library of Liberty & Power
Recent Additions in L'An IV (2023)

[See additions made in L'An I (2020), L'An II (2021), L'An III (2022), and the Archive of Material added 2011-2019]
[Additions by topic: Classical Liberalism | Anglo-American | French | German | Levellers |
Class Analysis | Images of Power | Papers | Strategy | War & Peace ]

[Updated: 25 September, 2023]

The Guillaumin Collection

The "Guillaumin Collection" of great books about liberty and power contains 122 titles by 64 authors.

In 2023 we celebrate the anniversaries of the following authors and texts:

  1. the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio Edition in 1623 of the plays of William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
  2. the 400th anniversary of the birth of Algernon Sidney (1623-1683) whose posthumous work is Discourses concerning Government (1698)
  3. the 300th anniversary of the birth of Adam Smith (1723-1790), who wrote The Wealth of Nations (1776) and The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759, 1790)
  4. the 300th anniversary of the birth of Adam Ferguson (1723-1797), who wrote An Esssay on the History of Civil Society (1782)
  5. the 300th anniversary of the publication of the first edition of the collected Cato’s Letters (1723-24) by John Trenchard (1662-1723) and Thomas Gordon (1691-1750)
  6. the 200th anniversary of the publication of Benjamin Constant’s work on economics Commentaire sur l’ouvrage de Filangieri (1822-24)
  7. the 100th anniversary of the death of Vilfredo Pareto (1845-1923) who wrote Traité de sociologie générale (1917)
  8. the 50th anniversary of the death of the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973). 2022 was the 100th anniversary of the publication of his seminal critque of socialism Die Gemeinwirtschaft (1922). We have the second edition of 1932 online in German. We also have the 1936 translation Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis.

 

 

 

 

50 Years and Counting ...

This year is also the 50th anniversary of my discovery of classical liberal/libertarian ideas when I was still in high school here in Sydney. Here are 20 of those books. Several are pretty battered:

 

 

From left to right they are (with links to online versions where available): Etienne de la Boetie, The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude (1570s); Frédéric Bastiat, Economic Sophisms (1846-48); Frédéric Bastiat, Economic Harmonies (1851); Frédéric Bastiat, Selected Essays on Political Economy (1845-1850); Gustave de Molinari, "The Production of Security" (1849) in French and English; Gustave de Molinari, Les Soirées de la rue Sainte-Lazare (1849); Herbert Spencer, Social Statics (1851); Lysander Spooner, No Treason and Letter to Thomas Bayard (1870); Lysander Spooner, Collected Works; Albert Jay Nock, Our Enemy, the State (1935); Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged (1957); Morris and Linda Tannehill, The Market for Liberty (1970); Richard and Ernestine Perkins, Precondition for Peace and Prosperity: Rational Anarchy (1971); Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State (1970); Murray N. Rothbard, Power and Market: Government and the Economy (1970); Murray N. Rothbard, For a New Liberty (1973); Murray N. Rothbard, "The Anatomy, of the State" (1965); Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State and Utopia (1974); the Workers Party. Platform (1975).

What are missing from this photo is Roy Childs, “An Open Letter to Ayn Rand: Objectivism and the State” (1969) (which I have lost in my travels), Ludwig von Mises, Socialism (1922, 1936, 1951) which I gave away at some point, and John Hospers Libertarianism: A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow (1971) which I sold when I moved countries..

I reflected on the successes and failures of the liberty movement over the past 50 years in this blog post: “The State of the Libertarian Movement after 50 Years (1970-2020): Some Observations” (25 March, 2021)

ADDITIONS IN 2023 / L'AN IV

September 2023

Adam Smith (1723-1790)

Charles Comte (1782-1837)

Charles Dunoyer (1786-1862)

Blog posts:

  1. “The Great Books of Liberty – the “Guillaumin Collection” (25 September, 2023)

Talks and Papers:

  • I was intereviewed by Ross Cameron on TNT Radio about “The Great Books of Liberty – the ‘Guillaumin Collection’ ”
  • “Putting the ‘Political’ back into Adam Smith’s Political Economy: Smith on Power and Privilege, Faction and Fanaticism, and Corruption and Conspiracies”. A paper given at the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia conference (20 Sept. 2023) held at the University of Canberra. There is an outline of the paper and the full paper itself.

Additions to the Library:

  • I have edited an anthology of Adam Smith's writings on class and the state, most of which appeared in my recent paper on “Putting the ‘Political’ back into Adam Smith’s Political Economy: Smith on Power and Privilege, Faction and Fanaticism, and Corruption and Conspiracies”. I thought it might be useful to bring them under one roof as AS's thinking on this topic is not well known. The 73 quotes or extracts are grouped under the major headings I used in that paper. The items come from AS's three main works - TMS (1759, 1790) - 41 items, LJ (1763 and 1766) - 8 items, and WN (1776) - 24 items. I have created my own "close replica" editions of TMS (1790) and WN (1776) to which I link the quotes.
  • The English translation of Ludwig von Mises, Die Gemeinwirtschaft (1922): Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (1936) in in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • It was 40 years ago that I started at the University of Cambridge working on my PhD on Charles Comte (1782-1837) and Charles Dunoyer (1786-1862). I began reading in earnest the articles in their magazine le Censeur européen (1814-20) and their major books such as Comte’s 6 volume work on law and property (1826-34) and Dunoyer’s ever expanding work on industry and labour (1825-45). A central part of their work was a theory of “industry” and class, whereby an exploiting and parasitic ruling class lived off the “industrious” work of slaves, other coerced laborers, and taxpayers until the “industrial class” began to throw off the yoke of exploitation and create a new, fully free society. This struggle for liberation of the industrial classes was a stop-start process which was still underway during their lifetime. The following works of theirs are online:
    • my anthology of their writings from Le Censeur européen: “enhanced HTML”; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    • Dunoyer’s L’Industrie et la morale (1825) in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
    • see also a revised and upgraded version of my PhD, Class Analysis, Slavery and the Industrialist Theory of History in French Liberal Thought, 1814-1830: The Radical Liberalism of Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer (1990, 1994, 2013 version) in "enhanced HTML".
    • and my paper on "The Paris School" of political economcy in which they played an important part and my collection of key texts of the school
   

     

New this month to the eBook Collection on Liberty and Power - [ToC]

       

August 2023

 

Blog posts:

  1. “From Bayeux to Guernica: The Depiction of Power, Destruction, and Suffering in War Art” (19 August, 2023)

Talks and Papers:

  • “From Bayeux to Guernica: The Depiction of Power, Destruction, and Suffering in War Art” (18 Aug. 2023) [PDF of lecture slides]

Additions to the Library:

  • David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40): "enhanced HTML" of the 1st ed. of 1739-40 and a facs. PDF of the 1896 reprint by Selby-Bigge; ebook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • building upon Roy Child's "Open Letter,” the following year Morris and Linda Tannehill applied Objectivist theory to a more detailed critique of the state and provided a comprehensive picture of what a true “laissez-faire society” might look like in The Market For Liberty (1970): "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • Roy Childs, "An Open Letter to Ayn Rand: Objectivism and the State" (1969) in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF.
  • Some time ago I created a list of the works of Frédéric Bastiat in chronological order by date of publication or composition. I have a draft of a new version of the list which is in the form of sortable tables - one for essays and books and another for his correspondence. You can sort by ID number, date of publication, title, and its location on the website. It is a companion piece to my edition of his Oeuvres complètes listed below, to which my new list links.
  • It is not commonly known that Bastiat wrote three different versions of his famous essay on “LÉtat” (The State):
    • a very short version in his small newspaper Jacques Bonhomme which he and a few mates handed out on the streets of Paris in June 1848;
    • a longer version he wrote for a high-brow journal, the Journal des Débats in September 1848, which has been ignored by Bastiat scholars and was not included in the OC
    • and a third even longer version which was published as a pamphlet (along with his essay on money “Maudit Argent” in 1849, probably in April when a new election was under way. This version has been ignored by Bastiat scholars and was not included in the OC. I have now put online the complete book L’État. Maudit Argent (1849) - "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    • I also have an essay on the differences between these three versions - [to come]
  • I am building my own edition (in French) of The Works of Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) (about) which eventually will be in chronological order by date of composition or publication (list only). The texts will be in the “enhanced HTML” format with original page numbers and the citation tool. This collection replaces an earlier one from Wikisource which unfortuinately had defective pagination and other problems. I have also found much cleaner copies of the facs. PDFs which i first downloaded and edited in 2010! The various components will go online as I complete them. It will be a composite collection made up of the following material:
  • I also plan the following:
    • a reconstructiuon of the "definitive edition" of Harmonies économiques as Bastiat may have envisioned it by incuding drafts, chapters, and lectures which Paillottet missed
    • some anthologies of Bastiat's writings based upon themes with an introduction by me, such as
      • his dozen or so "Anti-Socialist Pamphlets" written during the height of the 1848 Revolution when socialism appeared to be a threat
      • his writings on "La Spoliation, la Classe, et l'État" (Plunder, Class, and the State) which might have been "volume 3" of his expanded treatise on "Harmonies" and "Disharmonies" - Introduction (an old version which I am revising); and the new Anthology in "enhanced HTML"
   

[Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)

Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780)

Cantillon, Richard (1680s-1734)

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

New this month to the eBook Collection on Liberty and Power - [ToC]

   

July 2023

Blog posts to Reflections on Liberty and Power:

  1. “The intellectual antecedents of the idea of “anarcho-capitalism” (31 July, 2023) <>.
  2. “The Class Structure of the Modern Welfare/Administrative State" (6 July, 2023)
  3. “The Key Ideas behind Classical Liberal Class Analysis” (5 July, 2023)

Talks and Papers:

  • An interview by Ross Cameron on TNT Radio on “The intellectual antecedents of the idea of “anarcho-capitalism” (30 July, 2023)
  • “On Seeing and Not Seeing the True Cost of Government Intervention” (June 2023)
  • “A Classical Liberal approach to understanding ‘Class’ and ‘Class Conflict’ in Australia” (July 2023): PDF of lecture slides
  • "The Menagerie of War Art: From Bayeux to Guernica" (August 2023)
  • "Who controls the "Political Machine"? Adam Smith on Faction, Interests, and Men of System" (Sept. 2023)

Additions to the Library:

  • new to the library is an important mid-18th century work on “commerce”, or rather economics in general, by the Irish-French author Richard Cantillon (1680s-1734). It was published anoymously in London to escape the wrath of the French censors: Essai sur la nature du commerce en général (An Essay on the Nature of Commerce in General) (1755). In "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • the classic work on English common law: William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, in 4 volumes (1765-1769). I have combined them into a single file - in “enhanced HTML” and facs. PDF [vol1 - vol2 - vol3 - vol4]; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • another edition of Erasmus which appeared in 1917, The Complaint of Peace (1521). The translation used was from an English edition which appeared during the Napoleonic Wars in 1802, or “The First Year of General Peace.” In "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub. The 1802 edition is in facs. PDF.
  • an updated version of a modernized version of an English translation of Erasmus’s Dulce Bellum Inexpertis (war is sweet to those who have not experienced it)(1517) which was published in 1534 as Bellum Erasmi (Erasmus on War). Note that this 1917 edition was published 400 years after its first appearance and when the First World War was underway and with a new title “Erasmus Against War”. In "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • an updated version of a 1905 edition of Erasmus’s Enchiridion Militis Christiani (The Manual of the Christian Knight) (1501). It is a modernized version of William Tyndale’s 1533 translation. In "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • new to the library is Alexis de Tocqueville’s unfinished history of the old regime and the French Revolution, L’Ancien Régime et la Révolution (1856): in “enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • an updated version of John Toland’s critique of the system of “party government” which had emerged since 1688 when King William of Orange replaced the Stuarts. His critique was taken up by Trench and Gordon in Cato’s Letters (1722-23), especially the idea that, once given power to rule over others, the government will continue to expand that power until it is resisted (as in 1776 in North America). See the quote below. John Toland, The Art of Governing by Partys: Particularly, in Religion, in Politics, in Parlament, on the Bench, and in the Ministry (1701). In “enhanced HTML” and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • James Mill (1773-1836) was one of the leaders of the “Reform Party” in England which lobbied to introduce democratic reforms so that the new middle class could have some say in the level of taxation and the amount and kind of economic regulation. They achieved this with the passage of the First Reform Act of 1832. Part of the campaign was the writing of essays for the major “Reviews” of the period: The British Review, The Westminster Review, and The London Review. See James Mill, An Anthology of Essays written for the Reviews (1815-1836) in facs. PDF and “enhanced HTML”; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub

Quote from John Trenchard, “The encroaching Nature of Power, ever to be watched and checked,” Cato's Letters (Saturday, February 9, 1723):

We know, by infinite examples and experience, that men possessed of power, rather than part with it, will do any thing, even the worst and the blackest, to keep it; and scarce ever any man upon earth went out of it as long as he could carry every thing his own way in it; and when he could not, he resigned. ...

It is the nature of power to be ever encroaching, and converting every extraordinary power, granted at particular times, and upon particular occasions, into an ordinary power, to be used at all times, and when there is no occasion; nor does it ever part willingly with any advantage. From this spirit it is, that occasional commissions have grown sometimes perpetual; that three years have been improved into seven, and one into twenty; and that when the people have done with their magistrates, their magistrates will not have done with the people.
   

James Mill (1773-1836)

John Toland (1670-1722)

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)

New this month to the eBook Collection on Liberty and Power - [ToC]

       

June 2023

Blog posts:

  1. [to come]

Talks and Papers:

  • [to come]

Additions to the "Guillaumin Collection" (both new and upgraded older titles):

  • The German/Swiss equivalent of Robin Hood is Wilhelm Tell who inspired his region to rebel against the Austrian tyrant Hermann Gessler. Here we have another example of a writer, the great German playwright Friedrich Schiller ((1759-1805)), turning to the theme of resistance to tyranny during the French Revolutionary period, in Wilhelm Tell (1804): in facs. PDF [B&W 4.7MB and colour 96MB] and “enhanced HTML”; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • The English radical Joseph Ritson (1753-1803) collected and edited an important collection of stories, poems, and songs about the legendary 12th century outlaw Robin Hood. His collection appeared in 1795 and his sympathies for the French Revolution came out in his interpretation of a “libertarian” Robin Hood who stood up for the ordinary people against their exploitation by the king, the feudal lords, and the church. His book was republished in 1832 (when the First Reform Act was enacted in England) and then again in 1885. We have put online the 1885 edition: Joseph Ritson, Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, now Extant, Relative to that Celebrated English Outlaw (1885) in facs. PDF and “enhanced HTML”; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub. A good example of his interpretation of a libertarian Robin Hood is in Note 17: where he defends Robin Hood's right to "remedy the wrongs" he sees around him:

    “But who,” exclaims Dr. Fuller, having cited this passage, “made him a judge? or gave him a commission to take where it might be best spared, and give where it was most wanted?” That same power, one may answer, which authorises kings to take where it can be worst spared, and give it where it is least wanted. Our hero, in this respect, was a knight-errant; and wanted no other commission than that of Justice, whose cause he militated. His power, compared with that of the king of England, was by no means either equally usurped or equally abused: the one reigned over subjects (or slaves) as a master (or tyrant), the other possessed no authority but what was delegated to him by the free suffrage of his adherents, for their general good: and as for the rest, it would be absurd to blame in Robin what we should praise in Richard. [p. 35] The latter, too, warred in remote parts of the world against nations from which neither he nor his subjects had sustained any injury; the former at home against those to whose wealth, avarice, or ambition he might fairly attribute not only his own misfortunes, but the misery of the oppressed and enslaved society he had quitted. In a word, every man who has the power has also the authority to pursue the ends of justice, to regulate the gifts of fortune, by transferring the superfluities of the rich to the necessities of the poor; by relieving the oppressed, and even, when necessary, destroying the oppressor. These are the objects of the social union, and every individual may, and to the utmost of his power should, endeavour to promote them.

  • Although Adam Smith (1723-1790) instructed his friends to burn all his papers the notes taken by one of his students of his lectures on jurisprudence given in 1763 surfaced in the 19th century and were edited and published by Edwin Cannan: Adam Smith, Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue and Arms (1763, 1896) - in facs. PDF and “enhanced HTML”; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • Massive in size and massive in influence is the Dutch legal theorist and historian Hugo Grotius’s treatise De iure belli ac pacis (On the Laws (or Rights) of War and Peace) (1625). The various editions can be seen here. We have the English translation of 1738 which includes the very lengthy and detailed notes by the French jurist Jean Barbeyrac. This long text has over 6,000 footnotes and 1,288 margin notes: Hugo Grotius, The Rights of War and Peace, in Three Books. Wherein are explained, the Law of Nature and Nations, and the Principal Points relating to Government (1738) in facs. PDF and “enhanced HTML”; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
  • Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense (1776) became a bestseller and helped galvanize the American people into seeking political independence from Great Britain. This “Englishman” did not put his name to the first edition which is the one we have here. It is hard to find as most places publish later editions which were expanded with commentary and other things. As you can see from the title page, it looks like it has been through a revolution: [Thomas Paine], Common Sense: Addressed to the Inhabitants of America (1776) in facs. PDF and “enhanced HTML”; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
  • Advocates of liberty do not only base their arguments on political, economic, and moral theory but also on humor, especially satire. Voltaire’s “philosophic tale” Candide (1759) immediately comes to mind as a classic enlightened and liberal critique of the old regime in Europe. He also wrote an ever expanding "Philosophic Dictionary" which was mixture of bitter criticism and angry satire of the society in which he lived. We put online one version of his Dictionary in March this year. Here is an updated version of the American satirist Ambrose Bierce’s (1842-1914) The Devil’s Dictionary (1911): in “enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub. It should be noted that Bierce also wrote his own version of Aesop's Fables which he called Fantastic Fables (1899). Here is an example of his “dictionary definition” of “Politics” and a “Politician”:
    • POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
    • POLITICIAN, n. An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized society is reared. When we wriggles he mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As
  • As I noted in February 2022 when I put several different versions of Aesop’s Fables online his stories about foolishness and gullibility, as well as injustice and predatory behaviour, were used by later editors and translators to draw their own often politically motivated moral lessons for readers. Here we have an edition with comments by an English Whig, Samuel Croxall (c. 1690-1752), who was an advocate for individual liberty and limited “constitutional”monarchy. His edition (1722) was reprinted many times during the 18th and 19th centuries. The best version in HTML we could find was the 1814 edition:
  • The English Anglican priest and enlightened philosopher William Wollaston (1660-1724) wrote an influential work on “natural religion” (i.e. not “revealed”) in which he coined the expression “the pursuit of happiness” which Jefferson used in the American Declaration of Independence” (1776). Wollaston says “the pursuit of happiness by the practice of reason and truth” (p. 90). Also in The Religion of Nature Delineated (1722, 1759) is a powerful defence of the natural right to property which is “antecedent to all human laws” (pp. 234 ff.)
  • The Irish philosopher Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746) was Professor of Moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow and had a big influence on members of the Scottish Enlightenment such as Adam Smith. His distinction between “perfect rights” (life, property, contract, and personal liberty) which can be enforced by the use of coercion, and “imperfect rights” (a range of moral obligations towards others) which cannot, is an important one. See pp. 278-80 in
  • After exposing the political corruption within the British state and criticizing its policies of war and empire directly (with John Trenchard) in the magazines The Independent Whig (1720) and then Cato’s Letters (1720-23) following Trenchard's death in 1723 Thomas Gordon turned to a more indirect method of doing much the same thing. His translations of the works of the Roman historians Gaius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust) (86 – c. 35 BC) and Publius Cornelius Tacitus (c. AD 56 – c.120) were accompanied by lengthy “discourses”, firstly 491 pp. on Tacitus (1728) and later 202 pp. on Sallust (1744). Together they make up the treatise on politics and power which Gordon never wrote. He did however write a short 48 page pamphlet in 1747 called “An Essay on Government”. See:
  • James Tyrrell’s “Disquisition of the Law of Nature” (1692) was part translation, part abridgment, and part “rephrasing” of Richard Cumberland’s treatise De legibus naturae (On Natural Laws) (1672). Tyrrell was a member of John Locke’s circle and the book is part of their attempt to “refute” Thomas Hobbes’ use of natural law principles to defend the absolute power of the sovereign, and to defend Lockean notions about “the consent of the governed.”
    • James Tyrrell, A Brief Disquisition of the Law of Nature according to the Principles and Method laid down in Cumberland's Latin Treatise on that Subject (1692): in “enhanced HTML” and facs. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • Vicesimus Knox, The Spirit of Despotism (1795). In "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • Randolph Bourne, Untimely Papers (1919). A collection of Bourne's essays on war and the state written between June 1917 and 1918, including his unfinished fragment on "The State". In "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • Herbert Spencer, The Man versus the State (1884): in "enhanced HTML" and fac. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • Albert Jay Nock, Our Enemy, The State (1935): in "enhanced HTML" and fac. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub

Additions to the Library:

  • Thomas Gordon, An Essay on Government (1747): "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub (to come)
  • Æsop’s Fables. Embellished with One Hundred and Eleven Emblematical Devices. [Trans. by Samuel Croxall, 1722] (London: Carpenter and Son, 1814): in “enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub (to come).
   

Albert Jay Nock (1870-1945)

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Randolph Bourne (1886-1918)

Vicesimus Knox (1752-1821)

 

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746)

William Wollaston (1660-1724)

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

New this month to the Guillaumin eBook Collection on Liberty and Power - [ToC]

     

May 2023

Blog posts:

  1. [to come]

Talks and Papers:

  • [to come]

Additions to the "Guillaumin Collection" (both new and upgraded older titles - now 91 and counting):

  • Editor's Note: I have redesigned various aspects of the Guillaumin Collection.
    1. the “look” of the books in order to make these rather dense texts more readable online. The texts are now 600px wide (instead of 750), there is more spacing between the lines and the paragraphs, and the background colour is an off-white (based on the ideas of Edward Tufte). The general purpose of the Collection remains the same, namely to create a “near replica” of the original classic text which is suitable to be read online, searched, and downloaded and used for study and analysis.
    2. how the texts in the collection are listed. They are now in a table which can be sorted by author name, title, and date published. I have also added a picture of the author where this available, in order to remind us that these were real people who lived, thought, and wrote at a specific time and place.
  • New titles added to the Library:
    1. the 1777 revised and corrected edition of Montesquieu (1689-1755), De l' Esprit des Lois (1st ed. 1748) in four volumes:
      1. T1: Avertissement et al.; Livres I-XII - "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; ebook HTML, PDF. and ePub
      2. T2: Livres XIII-XXI - "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; ebook HTML, PDF. and ePub
      3. T3: Livres XXII-XXIX - "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; ebook HTML, PDF. and ePub
      4. T4: Livres XXX-XXXI; Défense de L’Esprit des Lois; Lysimaque; Table des matières - "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; ebook HTML, PDF. and ePub
    2. even more Milton - his demolition job of the claims by King Charles to be a leHTMgitimate ruler by divine right and the wisdom of his policies and his behaviour while in office. The King justified his right to rule and his regime in a book he wrote shortly before his trial and death Eikon Basilike (”the King’s image”) (1649). Milton quickly responded with a devastating smashing of that “image” in Eikonoklastes (the Image Breaker). A 1904 reprint of the King’s book is online (in “basic HTML”). We have the second revised edition of Milton’s work published in 1650 in “enhanced HTML” and facs. PDF (both the 1649 edition in colour and the 1650 in B&W); and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub. See also my essays on the “image” of royalty as seen by Charles and Thomas Hobbes.
      1. “Making and Breaking the Image of King Charles I” RLP (27 May, 2021)
      2. “Thomas Hobbes’ Iconography of the Leviathan State” RLP (18 December, 2020)
    3. some more Milton, this time defending the Commonwealth (i.e. the republic) as the Stuart monarchy was being restored in 1660: John Milton, The Readie and Easie Way to establish a Free Commonwealth; and the Excellence therof com par'd with the Inconveniencies and Dangers of readmit­ting Kingship in this Nation (1660). In "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; also in eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
    4. John Milton (1608-1674) wrote The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates in 1649 to to justify the overthrow and execution of King Charles I. It was revised and edited by James Tyrrell and republished 40 years later at the time of the accession of William III to the throne. This version was entitled "Pro populo adversus tyrannos: or The sovereign Right and Power of the People over Tyrants, Clearly Stated and plainly Proved". In "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; also in eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
    5. a work by one of the late 16th century opponents (or “fighters”) of "tyrannical" monarchical power, the French diplomat and “Monarchomach”, Hubert Languet (1518–1581). Interestingly, it was translated into English in 1648 when opposition to the English crown by the Levellers and republicans was reaching its peak. It was first published in Latin in 1579 and in Edinburgh in order to escape the wrath of the French censors: “Stephan Junio” (Bruto Celta - the French Brutus), Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos: A Defence of Liberty Against Tyrants. Or, of the Lawful Power of the Prince Over The People, and of the People over the Prince (1648). In "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; also eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    6. a work by another member of the Scottish Enlightenment John Millar (1735-1801): John Millar, The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks: Or, An Inquiry into the Circumstances which give rise to Influence and Authority, in the different Members of Society (1806) - in enhanced HTML and facs. PDF ; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
    7. a work by the Scottish political theorist and early “sociologist” Adam Ferguson (1723-1797) who had an impact on Friedrich Hayek’s theory of spontaneous order: Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1782) - in enhanced HTML and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
    8. The English radical John Wade (1788-1875) wrote detailed analysis of the groups and "factions" (“classes”) which ruled the British state and benefited in various ways from access to this power. Beginning in 1819 and revised repeatedly up until 1835, his “Black Book of Corruption and Abuse” gave the names, dates, and specific amounts of those who benefitted. We have online the edition of 1835 and its companion Appendix. It is a model of what classical liberal class analysis can do and is something which should be applied to every state in the modern era. One of the glories of his work was the inclusion in 1831 of a cartoon showing the plundering of “Gulliver” by all the different vested interests who had privileged access to state power. [small version below; larger version here.]
      1. John Wade, The Black Book: An Exposition of Abuses in Church and State, Courts of Law, Municipal Corporations, and Public Companies (1835) - enhanced HTML and facs. PDF ; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
      2. John Wade, John Wade, Appendix to the Black Book: An Exposition of the Principles and Practices of the Reform Ministry and Parliament: the Church and the Dissenters; Catastrophe of The House of Lords; and Prospects of Tory Misrule (1835) - enhanced HTML and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
    9. three posthumous works by John Dalberg-Acton (1834-1902), the "historian of liberty": Lectures on Modern History (1906). In facs. PDF and "enhanced HTML"; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
    10. John Dalberg-Acton, The History of Freedom and Other Essays (1907). In facs. PDF and "enhanced HTML"; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
    11. John Dalberg-Acton, Historical Essays & Studies (1907). In facs. PDF and "enhanced HTML"; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
    12. James Mill (1773-1836), father of J.S., defends the "benefits of commerce" during the Napoleonic Wars : Commerce Defended. An answer to the arguments by which Mr. Spence, Mr. Cobbett, and others, have attempted to prove that commerce is not a source of national wealth (1808). In facs. PDF and "enhanced HTML"; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
    13. the German language version of Eugen Richter, Sozialdemokratische Zukunftsbilder. Frei nach Bebel (1893) to add to the English translation which I have had online for some time, Pictures of the Socialistic Future (Freely adapted from Bebel) (1907). In facs. PDF and "enhanced HTML"; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
    14. Antoine Destutt de Tracy (1754-1836) was an arch-foe of Napoléon who branded him an "idéologue". He wrote the Traité d'économie politique (1823). In "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and in eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    15. James Tyrrell (1642-1718) was a close friend of John Locke and wrote his own crotique of defenders of the divine right of kings like "Sir" Robert Filmer: James Tyrrell, Patriarcha non Monarcha. The Patriarch Unmonarch’d … and the true Principles of Government and Property asserted (1681). In "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and in eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    16. The Dutch lense grinder and political philosopher Benedict (or Baruch) de Spinoza (1632-1677) was an advocate of religiouos toleration and limted government. The posthumously published “Tractatus Politicus” 1677) (in Latin) is a good short statement of his views: B.d.S. (Baruch de Spinoza), in Opera posthuma (1677) - "enhanced" HTML and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub. A late 19th century English translation can be found here.
    17. John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (1863). In "enhanced" HTML and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub. Mill and Bentham were the main proponents of the "utilitarian" defence of limited government and free markets which became a rival to the "natural rights" defence whose main advocates in the 19th century were Thomas Hodgskin and Herbert Spencer.
  • Older titles upgraded to the new "enhanced HTML" format:
    1. In 1792 Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) wrote his “attempt” to lay out the principles one would need to strictly limit the power of the state: Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Gränzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen (1792). The full work was never published in his lifetime and only appeared in print in German in 1851. It was very quickly translated into English in 1854, just in time to influence John Stuart Mill as he was writing On Liberty (1859): Wilhelm von Humboldt, The Sphere and Duties of Government (1854) in “enhanced HTML” and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
    2. John Trenchard (1662-1723) and Thomas Gordon (1691-1750) wrote a series of “letters” by “Cato” (144 in all) to journals between 1720-23 in which they criticized the corruption, stupidity, and immorality of the British government. They were enormously popular, especially in the American colonies, and went through many editions. We have online the 6th corrected edition of 1755:
      1. all “four volumes in one” - in “enhanced HTML”
      2. Volume 1: November 5, 1720 to June 17, 1721 - in “enhanced HTML” and facs. PDF ; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
      3. Volume 2: June 24, 1721 to March 3, 1722 - in “enhanced HTML” and facs. PDF ; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
      4. Volume 3: March 10, 1722 to December 1, 1722 - in “enhanced HTML” and facs. PDF ; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
      5. Volume 4: December 8, 1722 to December 7, 1723 - in “enhanced HTML” and facs. PDF ; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    3. James Mill, 12 Essays in the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1824). In facs. PDF and "enhanced HTML"; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
    4. The 1891 English translation of Spinoza's "chief works", including "The Political Treatise", has been upgraded to "enhanced HTML" and eBooks added to the collection: HTML, PDF, and ePub
   

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677)

Eugen Richter (1838-1906)

James Mill (1773-1836)

John Millar (1735-1801)

Adam Ferguson (1723-1797)

Hubert Languet (1518-1581)

John Milton (1608-1674)

New this month to the Guillaumin eBook Collection on Liberty and Power - [ToC]

April 2023

 

Announcements:

  • After working on the life and thought of Charles Comte (1782-1837) for 40 years I finally came across an image of him for the first time last week. It is a medallion from a collection in Le Louvre. It was made in 1833, presumably after he was elected to the Académie des sciences morales et politiques (the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences) after it was re-established in 1832 following the coming to power of the July Monarchy.
  • Last month I was appointed an Adjunct Research Fellow with the Business School at the University of Western Australia, where I am now a "person" with a "profile"

Blog posts:

  1. [to come]

Talks and Papers:

  • [to come]

Additions to the "Guillaumin Collection" (now 63 titles in 84 volumes, and counting):

  • Magna Carta (1215): This is my second "side-by-side" or "parallel" edition of the Magna Carta (Great Charter of Liberties) (1215). The first one contained the text of the Charter in a “vertical” parallel edition, with the original Latin on the left and an English translation on the right. The source text comes from McKechnie's edition and commentary from 1914 [HTML and facs. PDF]. My second version is a “horizontal” parallel edition which places the Latin text on top, with the English translation below. See the “enhanced HTML” and eBook HTML, PDF, ePub.
  • A facs. PDF of Dunoyer's book L’Industrie et la morale considérées dans leurs rapports avec la liberté (Industry and Moral Theory considered in their Relationship with Liberty) (1825) was one of the first books I put online when I began this website - 27 June, 2010. I have finally got around to adding other versions: "enhanced HTML", a cleaner version of the facs. PDF, and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
  • Last year I put together an anthology of the writings of Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer from their very important journals Le Censeur (1814-15) and Le Censeur européen (1817-19). It was over 400 pages long and contained 35 articles, essays, and book reviews. This collection is now in “enhanced HTML” with the citation tool and original page numbers to help scholars cite them. See also the eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub versions. I am currently working on the larger theoretical books they wrote after their journal was closed down by the censors and they were forced into exile. Comte and Dunoyer were part of the “Paris School” of political economy and the social theory they developed at this time was known as “Industrialism” which was the foundation for their classical liberal theory of class analysis, on which I have also written [short version - long version].
  • Some more 1st edition Shakespeare, this time poetry:
    1. Venus and Adonis (1594): in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    2. Sonnets (with A Lovers Complaint) (1609): in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • Frédéric Bastiat died before he could complete his treatise on economics, Harmonies économiques. He published a version with 10 chapters in 1850 [facs. PDF]. His friends published a fuller version in 1851 from the papers Bastiat had left when he died. It is in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF [B&W and colour]; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
  • Thomas Paine, Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke’s attack on the French Revolution (1791): in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • Edmund Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society: or, a View of the Miseries and Evils arising to Mankind from every Species of Artificial Society (1756): in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub

Additions to the Library:

Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

[Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)

William Shakespeare
(1564-1616)
       

New this month to the Guillaumin eBook Collection on Liberty and Power - [ToC]

 

March 2023

Blog posts:

  1. [to come]

Talks and Papers:

  • [to come]

Additions to the "Guillaumin Collection" (now 56 titles in 77 volumes, and counting):

  • Ludwig von Mises’ great demolition job of the practicality (or even possibility) of a centrally planned economy (“socialism”) was published first as an essay in 1920 [in German and English] and then as a fully-fledged book in 1922. A revised edition was published 10 years later in 1932. We celebrated the centenary in 2021/22 with the first edit of our online version. Now I have returned to the text and upgraded it to the “enhanced HTML” version [and facs. PDF] along with its accompanying eBook formats:
    • Ludwig Mises, Die Gemeinwirtschaft: Untersuchungen über den Sozialismus (The Communal or Shared Economy: Investigations into Socialism) (1st ed. 1922, revised second ed. 1932): eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • Two collections of essays on political, historical, and economic topics by David Hume (1711-1776):
  • The precocious essay by a young 20 year old student, soon to be a magistrate in the French state, Étienne de la Boétie (1530-1563) on "Discours de la servitude volontaire" (A Speech on Voluntary Servitude") (1552-53) is now in "enhanced HTML" and eBook formats. La Boétie's discussion of how power is wielded, why the majority of people obey the minority who wield power, and how they might resist that power through civil disobedience, caught my attention again in October 2020 when obedience to Covid servitude was becoming entrenched and seemingly permanent. I put online a collection of editions of his work and wrote a short essay on the cover art of these books. It has now been added to my library of classic works on liberty and power. I have three editions:
    • an 18th century Enlglish translation which captures very well the rhetorical side of La Boétie's "speech": Stephen de la Boetie, Discourse of Voluntary Servitude (1735), in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, ePub
    • a version published in 1853 by Payen based upon the contemporary Mesme manuscript version: Notice Bio-Bibliographique sur La Boëtie L'ami de Montaigne (1853) in facs. PDF, "enhanced HTML"; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    • an edition in modern French from 1922 by Paul Bonnefon: Discours de la servitude volontaire : suivie du Mémoire touchant l'édit de janvier 1562 (1922) in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, ePub
  • The 4 volume expansion (yet again) of Voltaire's Philsophic Dictionary, this time called Questions sur l’Encyclopédie, par des amateurs (Questions about the Encyclopedia (posed) by some amateurs) (1774). The eBook versions of this work have enabled us to return to Voltaire's original scheme to make this "Dictionary" of Resaon and Liberty truly "portable":
    • vol1 “A - Bibliothèque”, 109 articles in eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    • vol2 “Bien (Souverain) - Elie et Enoch”, 106 articles in eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    • vol3 “Eloquence - Intolérance,” 99 articles in eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    • vol4 “Juif - Zoroaster,” 127 articles in eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • The expanded 1769 edition of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique, now called La Raison par alphabet (Reasoning by means of the alphabet), along with one of his most important political "dialogues" between "A", "B" and "C" - in "enhanced HTML", facs. PDF [vol1 and vol2], and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • the 1763 edition of Voltaire's Traite sur la Tolérance - in "enhanced HTML", facs. PDF, and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.

Additions to the Library:

  • The manuscript of the young French Magistrate Étienne de la Boétie (1530-1563) on “La Servitude Volontaire” (Voluntary Servitude or Slavery) (written 1553) was privately circulated because of its radical content and was published in various pirated editions by French Protestants who opposed persecution by the French Catholic state. His friend Montaigne published a version which is the version which most people know. However, a copy of the original manuscript was in the possession of one of his contemporary critics Henri de Mesmes which was published in 1853 in a form which kept most of the original spelling. In 1922 Paul Bonnefon published a new stand alone version with fully modernized spelling.
  • Two collections of essays on political, historical, and economic topics by David Hume (1711-1776):
  • Voltaire kept expanding his "Philosophical Dictionary" in every new edition (and there were many) before his death in 1778. The most complete collection published in his lifetime was called Questions sur l’Encyclopédie, par des amateurs (Questions about the Encyclopedia (posed) by some amateurs) which was published anonymously in Geneva in 1774. Later editors of his works continued this practice of constant expansion and revision and it has become difficult to track what Voltaire wrote and when. The recently completed 8 volume edition of the Questions sur l’Encyclopédie (2008-2018) by the Voltaire Foundation in Oxford might shed some light on this problem. Note that 2024 will be the 250th anniversary of the publication of this book. I have been collecting and putting online my own edition of this nelgected although very important work:
    1. as the "Philosophic Dictionary" grew in size it was no longer "portatif" (portable). It went from 73 articles in 244 pages in 1764, [facs. PDF only]
    2. to the newly named and expanded work “La Raison par Alphabet” of 1769 with 116 articles in 577 pages - "enhanced HTML", facs. PDF [vol1 and vol2], and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    3. to a much, much larger work now called "Questions sur l’Encyclopédie, par des amateurs" first published in 9 volumes in 1770-71, and then in four volumes as part of an anonymous "Collection complette des oeuvres de Mr. de * * *" in 1774. This version of his "Dictionary" had a total of 441 articles in 2,120 pages. I am currently working on an enhanced HMTL edition of the 4 volume 1774 edition.
      1. the 1770-71 edition of Questions sur l’Encyclopédie, par des amateurs only in facs. PDF: vol1 - vol2 - vol3 - vol4 - vol5 - vol6 - vol7 - vol8 - vol9
      2. the 4 volume 1774 edition in "enhanced HTML" of vol1 - vol2 - vol3 - vol4 ; and facs. PDF of vol1 - vol2 - vol3 - vol4 - with eBook versions to come
      3. to help find your way around this large work, see the combined Tables of Contents of the 4 volumes with links to the relevant sections
    4. Editor's Note: I have been using a very poorly coded and presented HTML version of "Questions sur l’Encyclopédie" put online by the Voltaire Foundation in Oxford and the ARTFL Project at the University of Chicago as part of their "TOUT VOLTAIRE" ("All of Voltaire") project. They claim that the edition they have online is the 4 volume 1774 edition from the Collection complette but additional material has been inserted (probably from other editions) without acknowledgement, the very numerous sub-headings have been left out, the order of the articles has been changed from the 1774 edition, the spelling has been modernised (which is partly useful and partly not), italicised words have not been italicised, the margin notes and footnotes have not been problerly coded and positioned, and they have not bothered to include the original page numbers of the book (which makes scholarly citation very difficult). I have done my best to rectify these serious problems.
  • Voltaire's revised and expanded version of the Dictionnaire philosophique (1st ed. 1764) with a new name and one of his more imporatant political "dialogues": Voltaire, La Raison par alphabet. Sixième édition revuë, corrigée & augmentée par l’Auteur. (n.d., n.p., 1769). Première Partie A-I; Seconde Partie L-V; “L’A,B,C, Dix-sept Dialogues traduit de l’anglais.” - "enhanced HTML", facs. PDF [vol1 and vol2], and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • Voltaire's "curious dialogue" between "A", "B", and "C" was first published in London in 1762 under the guise of a "translation" (in order to avoid the censors): Voltaire, L’A, B, C, Dialogue curieux. Traduit de l’Anglais de Monsieur Huet (London: Robert Freeman, 1762). in facs. PDF only. See also the version in the Oeuvres complètes of 1879 - only in facs. PDF.
  • A three volume collection of Voltaire's Dialogues et entretiens philosophiques (Dialogues and Philosophical Conversations) (1899): vol1 facs. PDF - vol2 facs. PDF - vol3 facs. PDF.

François-Marie Arouet (“Voltaire”) (1694-1778)

David Hume (1711-1776):

Étienne de la Boétie
(1530-1563)

Ludwig Mises (1881-1973)
       

New this month to the Guillaumin eBook Collection on Liberty and Power - [ToC]

February 2023

Blog posts:

  1. [to come]

Talks and Papers:

  • [none at the moment]

Additions to the "Guillaumin Collection" (now 49 titles in 65 volumes, and counting):

  • A favourite of mine is one of Richard Overton's many "verbal arrows" directed at "all tyrants and tyranny" in general while he was being held in prison. It is one of the great statements of "self-ownership" and the right to individual liberty which stems from it: Richard Overton, An Arrow Against all Tyrants and Tyrany, shot from the Prison of New-gate into the Prerogative Bowels of the Arbitrary House of Lords and all other Usurpers and Tyrants Whatsoever (12 Oct. 1646). It is part of my Leveller Tracts Collection and is now in "enhanced HTML", facs. PDF, and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
  • Milton's poem about rebellion and obedience: Paradise Lost. A Poem in Twelve Books. The Second Edition. Revised and Augmented (1674) - in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • On a similar theme see John Milton, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates: Proving, That it is Lawfull, and hath been held so through all Ages, for any who have the Power, to call to account a Tyrant, or wicked KING, and after due conviction, to depose and put him to death; if the ordinary MAGISTRATE have neglected or deny’d to doe it. And that they, who of late, so much blame Deposing, are the Men that did it themselves. (1650) - "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • In his book An Essay on the Trial by Jury (1852) Spooner states in the opening lines (p. 5) the role he thought juries had and should play in protecting Anglo-American liberty:

    "For more than six hundred years—that is, since Magna Carta, in 1215—there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what was the moral intent of the accused; but that it is also their right, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge of the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust or oppressive, and all persons guiltless in violating, or resisting the execution of, such laws.

    Unless such be the right and duty of jurors, it is plain that, instead of juries being a “palladium of liberty”—a barrier against the tyranny and oppression of the government—they are really mere tools in its hands, for carrying into execution any injustice and oppression it may desire to have executed."

  • See Spooner, An Essay on the Trial by Jury (1852) - "enhanced HTML"', facs. PDF, and eBook HTML, PFDF, and ePub.
  • Spooner followed these provocative pamphlets with a pair of forthright letters to sitting politicians - Senator Thomas Bayard from Delaware and President Grover Cleveland - telling them very "frankly" that they had no legitimate right to hold office and exercise power over others and therefore that they were “usurpers and criminals”. See Letters to Senator Thomas Bayard (1882) and President Grover Cleveland (1886): Bayard facs. PDF and Cleveland PDF; "enhanced HTML"; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
  • A bracing corrective to the views of Hamilton, Jay, and Madison on the American Constitution is provided by the American radical individualist Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) who argued in a series of pamphlets written between 1867 and 1870 that is was "no treason" to withold or withdraw one's consent to be governed by a particular government or constititution. He argued that in most cases people living today had never been asked for, or given their consent to be subject to this constitution; or if they had done so, they were within their rights to withdraw that consent and leave at any time, just like they had the right to join or not join, or leave a church or a sporting club. The three pamphlets on No Treason are in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDFs for each individual pamplet : No. 1 - No. II - No. VI; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
  • I have written an introduction to the Guillaumin Collection describing how the texts are coded and formatted (and why), the various electronic versions the texts are in, and their source.
  • Thomas Paine's Rights of Man. Part the Second. Combining Principle and Practice (1792) in "enhanced HTML", facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • Little known in his lifetime, Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Gränzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen (Some Ideas in an Attempt to determine the Limits of the Functions of the State) only came to light in the 1850s. He wrote it as a series of essays in 1792 during the French Revolution, a couple of which were published at the time. He did not publish the complete book in his lifetime, perhaps fearing how radical it was now that he had become a senior public servant in the Prussian education system. It was eventually published in 1851 in German and was quickly translated into English in 1854, just in time to have an impact on John Stuart Mill who acknowledged Humboldt's influence on his thinking in On Liberty which was published in 1859.
  • One of the great debates about the perennial problem of "the proper sphere of government" (as Herbert Spencer put it) was in 1787-88 between "The Federalists" (who were really "The Centralists") and "The Anti-Federalists" (who were really the "True Federalists") about the new American Constitution. The corrective to the mainstream pro "Federalist" approach is Lysander Spooner's series of pamphlets on "The Constitution of No Authority" (1867-70) amd his letters to Senator Bayard (1882) and President Cleveland (1886).
  • To put only one side of this debate online, I have added my "enhanced HTML" version of the first edition of The Federalist (1788) even though my sympathies lie with the "True Federalists" and not Hamilton et al. I have used the copies held by the Library of Congress (owned by Thomas Jefferson) and the Boston Public Library. I was surpised to find that the LoC copy (vol. 2) is missing 12 pages and this is not stated on their website. So I had to also use the Boston PL version as well. I presume the people in Congress have read one of the founding documents of their government and noticed this fact - but perhaps not ...
  • I also note how hard it was to find a corrected HTML version of the text with the original page numbers. The University of Michigan hosts the Evans Early American Imprint Collection which has a copy which includes this vital information, but it has several serious flaws which make it hard for the user. Again I found this surprising given the text's status as a "holy text" of the American founding. For example, the "footnotes" are not included in or alongside the text (they are "pop ups") and there were 389 uncorrected "gaps" in the text which were easily corrected by comparing the HTML against the facs. PDFs. The proof-readers seemed to be uncertain that the word "leg(?)slature" might be "legislature". Multiply this stupidity by nearly 400 and you get the picture.
  • the mature Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was wrapping up his long and productive life with the publication of his two magna opera:
  • an early work by Herbert Spencer, The Proper Sphere of Government (1843) where he shows his radical or "true liberal" colours - in facs. PDF, the "enhanced HTML", and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
  • Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792) - "enhanced HTML" and eBook HTML, PDF, ePub. The HTML is of the London editon of 1792, but I couldn't find a facs. PDF of this edition but I do have that of the Boston edition of 1792. (with different page numbering)
  • Frédéric Bastiat's Sophismes économiques:
    • the first edition of Sophismes économiques (1846) in facs. PDF [B&W 4.2 MB] and [colour 39.4 MB]; “enhanced” HTML, and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    • the first edition of the sequel Sophismes économiques. Deuxième Série. (1848) in facs. PDF [colour 45.5 MB and B&W 5.1 MB]; “enhanced” HTML, and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    • and a “2 volumes in 1” version in “enhanced” HTML only
    • My edition of the two series of “Sophismes Économiques” is in memory of Michel Leter who edited a volume for “La Bibliothèque classique de la Liberté” for Les Belles Lettres publisher in Paris in 2005 (reissued in 2009). The volume also includes an insightful Preface, “Frédéric Bastiat et les fondements littéraires de l’analyse économique,” pp. 7-38. I should also mention his pioneering essay on “L’École de Paris” of which Bastiat was an important member: Michel Leter, “Éléments pour une étude de l’École de Paris (1803-1852)," in Histoire du libéralisme en Europe, eds. Philippe Nemo and Jean Petitot (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2006), pp. 429-509. [See my own essay on the Paris School and my collection of their key texts.]
  • Another addition to the "Guillaumin Collection" of enhanced HTML texts: William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness (1793)  - in enhanced HTML and eBooks in HTML, PDF, ePub and the zipped collection.
  • I have also created an "enhanced HTML" version of a modern edition of the plays of Shakespeare based on the Oxford edition of 1916. Because of its size and complexity I have split the plays into three parts, based upon the categories used in the First Folio edition:
  • This year is a good year for celebrating some anniversaries of important authors by adding some of their works to the Guiillaumin Collection of enhanced HTML and eBook formats. For example 2023 is:

Additions to the Library:
   

William Shakespeare
(1564-1616)

William Godwin (1756-1836)

[Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

Lysander Spooner (1808-1887)

John Milton (1608-1674)

New this month to the Guillaumin eBook Collection on Liberty and Power - [ToC]

January 2023

 

Blog posts:

  1. [to come]

Talks and Papers:

  • [none at the moment]

Additions to the "Guillaumin Collection":

Additions to the Main Library:

  • I have added a new feature to my collection which I have been working on for some time, namely to be able to easily link to a key passage in a text you want to cite in an essay or article. It uses Java script called "Wombat" which is a Java-based "standalone client-side URL rewriting system", and which is most appropriate for someone living and working in Australia. [See the Wikipedia article on wombats and their very determined digging and burrowing behaviour.] It takes the unique paragraph IDs I have inserted into the text and packages them in a full URL which links directly to that paragraph, which you can copy and paste into your essay. I have tested it on a work by the Australian radical liberal politician and political theorist Bruce Smith (1851-1937) as it seemed important to continue the Australian theme. You can see the results here. A description of what it does follows:
    • I have added unique paragraph IDs into the texts which allows the user to identify and select a paragraph for citation purposes. First click on the selected paragraph, then choose to the left of the paragraph the "anchor" icon (for the URL which provides a direct link to that paragraph), or the "star" icon (for the full bibliographical citation based upon the style selected at the top of the page, along with the URL for that paragraph). See the illustrated "How to use the Citation Tool" for details.
    • I have also inserted and highlighted the page numbers of the original edition, if you wish to cite in the old fashioned way. You can also download and read the facsimile PDF of the original edition of the text.
  • to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Adam Smith (1723-1790) I have put online the following:
  • the French political theorist and economist Benjamin Constant (1767-1830) wrote two versions of his defence of limited constitutional government, Principes de politique, applicables à tous les gouvernements représentatifs (Principles of Politics which are Applicable to all Representative Governments), a long one between 1806-10 which he couldn't publish in his lifetime given the problem of censorship (the manuscript was eventually published in 1980, a copy of which can be found here), and a shorter one in 1815 as Napoleon's dictatorship was crumbling and the newly restored Monarchy was getting established. We now have the 1815 edition in standard HTML, facs. PDF and eBooks in HTML - PDF - ePub [and zipped as a collection].

 

"Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat" (2000)
Fatso was a key figure in Roy and H.G.'s mockery of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
   

Benjamin Constant
(1767-1830)

Adam Smith (1723-1790)

Bruce Smith (1851-1937)

New this month to the Guillaumin eBook Collection on Liberty and Power - [ToC]