The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Voltaire
• List of Plates
• Short Studies On English Topics. With Notes On the Peopling of America.
• The English Parliament.
• The English Constitution.
• English Commerce.
• Inoculation.
• Chancellor Bacon.
• Locke.
• Suicide.
• English Tragedy.
• On the English Comedy.
• On Courtiers Who Have Cultivated Learning.
• The Earl of Rochester and Mr. Waller.
• Prior; That Singular Poem Called “hudibras”; and Dean Swift.
• On Pope.
• The Royal Society and Academies.
• On Cromwell.
• The Misfortunes of Charles I.
• Oliver Cromwell.
• England Under Charles II.
• The English Theatre. 1
• Plan of the Tragedy of Hamlet.
• Plan of “the Orphan.”
• The Several Revolutions In the Tragic Art.
• A Discourse On Tragedy.
• The Religion of the Quakers.
• The Church of England.
• The Presbyterians.
• The Socinians, Or Arians, Or Antitrinitarians.
• The Peopling of America.
• Fernando CortÉs.
• The Conquest of Peru.
• The Negro.
• The French In America.
• The French Islands, and the Buccaneers, Or Freebooters.
• Possessions of the English and Dutch In America.
• On Paraguay.
• The Changes That Have Happened In Our Globe.

VOLTAIRE

SHORT STUDIES IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SUBJECTS

Vol. XIX — Part II

Voltaire recorded his views upon the English people and government in a series of “Philosophic Letters,” which were published in France and in England in 1733. According to Parton, Lafayette declared that it was his reading of these letters that made him a republican at nine years of age, and to them Rousseau “attributed in great measure the awakening of his late–maturing intelligence.” The author had to tone the letters down to get them passed by the censor. His praise of English liberty of thought and speech even then proved too irritating to the authorities. The book was denounced as heretical, in May, 1734. Every known copy was confiscated. The publisher was sent to the Bastille; a lettre de cachet was issued against the author; his house was searched, and the Parliament of Paris had the book publicly burned by the executioner. A few later pieces have been included here.