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By Root 1735 0

at the outbreak of the English Civil War (1642), he soon distinguished himself in battle and assumed a decisive and highly efficacious role in all military operations for the Parliamentary forces. When the Parliamentary party split, he took the side of the minority Independents against the aristocratic Presbyterians and advocated a more vigorous prosecution of the war. He successfully remodeled the army according to principles of strict self-discipline and religious fervor. After the execution of Charles I and abolition of the monarchy (1649), he was named Chairman of the Council of State of the new Commonwealth. With extreme severity, he quelled royalist uprisings in Ireland and Scotland, and, after the adoption of the Instrument of Government (1653), accepted the title of Lord Protector of the united kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Despite repeated squabbles with Parliament and an increasingly tyrannical style of government, he managed to conduct coherent foreign policy, increasing English power and prestige abroad while insuring prosperity at home. For his role in the execution of the king, he was posthumously attainted(1660), disinterred, and hanged.

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p. 140. It is not…to be wondered at thatMr. Jenkinsonin ushering into the House of Commons a bill…: Charles Jenkinson (1729–1808), Twenty-first Baron Hawkesbury and First Earl of Liverpool, was a member of the British Parliament from 1761 until 1786. He was a confidant of George III and held various high administrative posts in the governments of Grenville, North, and Pitt, through which he developed a reputation for sound financial judgment. While a member of Parliament in 1783, Jenkinson introduced legislation establishing commercial relations between Britain and the United States.

p. 140n. Encyclopediaarticle "Empire": Publius is citing the famous French compendium of knowledge edited (1745–1772) by Denis Diderot and Jean LeRond d’Alembert, the Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers. Rousseau, Voltaire, and Montesquieu, among other well-known authors, contributed essays to the work.

p. 143. in the situation of aPolish diet, where a single veto has…put a stop to all their movements: First convened in 1467 by Casimir IV, king of Poland, the Polish diet was a legislative body composed of nobles and clergy. By 1572, upon the death of Sigismund II, the nobles obtained complete control of Polish government. In addition to electing the monarch, individual members of the diet exercised a liberum veto, an absolute negative on any proposed legislation. The consequent weakness of the Polish government is often cited as the cause of its partition in the late eighteenth century between Russia, Prussia, and Austria.

p. 145. The Earl of Chesterfield…in a letter to his court…: Philip Dormer Stanhope (1694–1773), Fourth Earl of Chesterfield, was an English courtier, orator, and wit. Elected to Parliament in 1715, he acquired a reputation as the most brilliant debater of the time. He held several high administrative posts, including ambassador to Holland (1728–1732), lord lieutenant of Ireland(1745), and principal secretary of state (1746–1748). He was a friend of many of the leading lights of the period, including Pope, Swift, Voltaire, and Montesquieu. As an author, he is known for his Letters to His Son, which appeared in 1774.

p. 145. And in Sweden, the parties were alternately boughtby France and England…: Publius refers to the bloodless coup d’état of Gustavus III (1746–1792) against Sweden’s unpopular nobility. Soon after his accession to the throne in 1771 Gustavus conspired with Swedish military officers to arrest the chief members of the States-General and to force the remainder to accept a new constitution. Although the revolution succeeded, antagonism between the nobles and the king continued, culminating in the latter’s assassination in 1792.

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p. 163. The Peloponnesian confederates…demandedLysander…to command the combined fleets: Lysander(d. 395 BC) was a Spartan military leader