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Marchamont Nedham & the Origins of Liberal Republicanism
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the practice of Italy” the Florentine’s contention that,”because some men are wicked and perfidious, I must be so too”; and he does insist, as is only just, that “the ancient Heathen would have loathed” Machiavelli’s argument. But Nedham then suddenly reverses course by slyly adopting the teaching of “that unworthy book of his, entitled ‘The Prince,’” and he turns this teaching to the advantage of the distrustful modern populism pioneered by the very same author in his Discourses on Livy. To this end, Nedham quotes at considerable length from “that unworthy” tract lest his compatriots fail to recognize what he calls “the old court Gospel,” and he warns them against neglecting to keep watch on “the great ones of the world” who tend, he says, to be quite attached to the “doctrine” preached in The Prince. “If the right of laws be the way of men,” Nedham observes, and if “force [be that] of beasts and great ones, then it concerns any nation or people to secure themselves, and keep great men from degenerating into beasts, by holding up of law, liberty, privilege, birth-right, elective power, against the ignoble beastly way of powerful domination.” If the people are to be proper guardians for their liberty, he concludes, they must be alert to the machinations of those who “sometimes resemble the lion, and sometimes the fox,” and they must “cage the lion, and unkennel the fox, and never leave till they have stript the one, and unraised the other.”
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To Machiavelli’s republican legacy, Marchamont Nedham made two profound contributions
that would be taken up by John Locke and the radical Whigs and passed on to their admirers in England’s colonies in the New World. He subordinated Machiavellian ferocity to the traditional English insistence on the individual’s right to life, liberty, and property, and he thereby transformed that ferocity into a spirit of vigilance aimed at restraining those entrusted with governance.
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Cf. Nedham, The Excellencie of a Free State 141-47, 163-72, with Machiavelli, Il principe 15-18, in Tutte le opere 280-84. See also Mercurius Politicus 112 (22-29 July 1652) and 113 (29 July - 5 August 1652).
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11
the practice of Italy” the Florentine’s contention that,”because some men are wicked and
perfidious, I must be so too”; and he does insist, as is only just, that “the ancient Heathen would
have loathed” Machiavelli’s argument. But Nedham then suddenly reverses course by slyly
adopting the teaching of “that unworthy book of his, entitled ‘The Prince,’” and he turns this
teaching to the advantage of the distrustful modern populism pioneered by the very same author
in his Discourses on Livy. To this end, Nedham quotes at considerable length from “that
unworthy” tract lest his compatriots fail to recognize what he calls “the old court Gospel,” and he
warns them against neglecting to keep watch on “the great ones of the world” who tend, he says,
to be quite attached to the “doctrine” preached in The Prince. “If the right of laws be the way of
men,” Nedham observes, and if “force [be that] of beasts and great ones, then it concerns any
nation or people to secure themselves, and keep great men from degenerating into beasts, by
holding up of law, liberty, privilege, birth-right, elective power, against the ignoble beastly way
of powerful domination.” If the people are to be proper guardians for their liberty, he concludes,
they must be alert to the machinations of those who “sometimes resemble the lion, and
sometimes the fox,” and they must “cage the lion, and unkennel the fox, and never leave till they
have stript the one, and unraised the other.”
44
To Machiavelli’s republican legacy, Marchamont Nedham made two profound contributions
that would be taken up by John Locke and the radical Whigs and passed on to their admirers in
England’s colonies in the New World. He subordinated Machiavellian ferocity to the traditional
English insistence on the individual’s right to life, liberty, and property, and he thereby
transformed that ferocity into a spirit of vigilance aimed at restraining those entrusted with
governance.
________________________
44.
Cf. Nedham, The Excellencie of a Free State 141-47, 163-72, with Machiavelli, Il principe 15-18, in Tutte le
opere 280-84. See also Mercurius Politicus 112 (22-29 July 1652) and 113 (29 July - 5 August 1652).
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