An Essay on the English Constitution
- Cato (author)
- Jack P. Greene (collection editor)
This essay is a 1770 political pamphlet written under the pseudonym “Cato. Published during the heated transatlantic constitutional debates preceding the American Revolution, the pamphlet examines the nature and foundations of the English constitution — particularly questions of parliamentary sovereignty, representation, and the rights of British subjects — in the context of Britain’s contentious relationship with its American colonies.
Like many pamphlets of this era authored under Roman pseudonyms, it engages with Whig constitutional traditions to argue about the proper limits of legislative authority.
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The text of these 18th century pamphlets has been converted by machine from scanned PDFs of the original microfilm copies. While the text has been machine-proofed, transcription errors may still remain. For example, the 18th-century long S, ſ , may be rendered as “f,” some words may be incorrectly transcribed, and there may be repeated words or phrases.