British Politeness and the Progress of Western Manners

An Eighteenth-Century Enigma

Bibliographic Data

ID9401749
AuthorsPaul Langford, Paul R Langford (0000-0002-6368-4724, Swansea University, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume7
Pages53-72
Publication date1997-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Royal Historical Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0080-4401 • E-ISSN: 1474-0648
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3679270
OpenAlexW2051098167
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited17

IN March 1802, the peace treaty of Amiens was signed, resulting in a two-way flow of travellers across the English Channel. Among those arriving at Dover was Joseph Fiévée, printer by trade, littérateur by vocation, and latterly politican by profession. It is said that he was commissioned by Bonaparte himself to report on affairs in London. In any event, his findings were published in the Mercure and reprinted in a work whose title, Lettres sur l'Angleterre, et réflexions sur la philosopkie du XVIIIe siècle , challenged comparison with the most famous of French commentaries on England, that of Voltaire. It reads as polemic rather than analysis, confronting what Fiévée took to be serious errors made by his countrymen when they wrote about Britain. But little of the book was what one might expect of such a work. Fiévée was not primarily interested in British politics, law and government, but in the character and manners of the people. His conclusions may be summed up in one of his many generalizations. ‘If civilization ... is the art of rendering society pleasing, agreeable and congenial, the English constitute the least civilised nation of Europe.’

Art · Character (mathematics · Civilization · Humanities · Literature · Politeness · Political science · Politics · Treaty · Classics · European Political History Analysis · Historical and Literary Studies · History · Law · Political Theory and Influence

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