#william petty

[royaltyandpomp]

THE MARQUESS

William Petty, Marquess of Lansdowne (1737-1805)

[marq-de-laf]

Do you know anything about Lafayette's trip to London in '77? :)

Lafayette’s time in England is basically one big sneaky joke.

After a failed attempt to steal away to America, Lafayette was quickly confronted by the Parisian police and several in French security circles about his intentions. Only nineteen and still very uncertain about how he was going to get to the American colonies without being seized, Lafayette confessed his plans and promised (lied to) the French ministers not to pursue such plans further. 

Not entirely convinced, his family arranged for him to be sent to Adrienne’s uncle, the Marquis de Noailles, an ambassador in London to cool whatever earnestness about fleeing to America still remained. On February 16, 1777, Lafayette left for London and arrived a few days later. 

The irony of Lafayette’s time in England always amuses me. While in London (due to his station and his uncle-in-law’s connections), Lafayette met noted politician and art historian Horace Walpole. He danced at the home of Lord George Germain, minister of the American colonies, and met Lord Rawdon that night, who had just come back from his New York campaign. He met General Henry Clinton at an opera one evening and was introduced. At one point, he was even offered the opportunity to review the navy unit being prepped to sail to America, but declined to protect his uncle’s reputation once he had spirited off to the colonies. But the most ironic encounter was the day he was presented to King George III. While there, he raised a few eyebrows by sharing his approval of Washington’s successful Trenton campaign…and while that didn’t win him any favors with His Majesty, it did earn him the approval of several pro-American members of Parliament (William Petty, Richard FitzPatrick, etc).

While in England, Lafayette got the news that his intrigues had succeeded and his ship was ready to sail to America. Not wanting to seem overtly suspicious, he made up an excuse for his uncle-in-law and headed back to France. The young Marquis had, however, been expected at King George’s court, leaving the poor Marquis de Noailles to feed the English the line that Lafayette had taken sick and could not attend.

So, in essence, Lafayette spent about a month meeting everyone he was about to fight against.

[juliascheller]

Portrait de Sir William Petty by Isaac Fuller (details)

[alteriusnocte]

Sir William Petty by Isaac Fuller

[famousdeaths]

William Petty : Died December 16, 1687

Sir William Petty was an English economist, physician, scientist and philosopher. He first became prominent serving Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth in Irel...

Link: William Petty

[spectaculardistractions]

Now naturally the whole ascetic literature of almost all denominations is saturated with the idea that faithful labour, even at low wages, on the part of those whom life offers no other opportunities, is highly pleasing to God. In this respect Protestant Asceticism added in itself nothing new. But it not only deepened this idea most powerfully, it also created the force which was alone decisive for its effectiveness: the psychological sanction of it through the conception of this labour as a calling, as the best, often in the last analysis the only means of attaining certainty of grace. And on the other hand it legalized the exploitation of this specific willingness to work, in that it also interpreted the employer’s business activity as a calling. It is obvious how powerfully the exclusive search for the Kingdom of God only through the fulfilment of duty in the calling, and the strict asceticism which Church discipline naturally imposed, especially on the propertyless classes, was bound to affect the productivity of labour in the capitalistic sense of the word. The treatment of labour as a calling became as characteristic of the modern worker as the corresponding attitude toward acquisition of the business man. It was a perception of this situation, new at his time, which caused so able an observer as Sir William Petty to attribute the economic power of Holland in the seventeenth century to the fact that the very numerous dissenters in that country (Calvinists and Baptists) “are for the most part thinking, sober men, and such as believe that Labour and Industry is their duty towards God”.

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic

[spectaculardistractions]

Such cases are not isolated, but these traits are characteristic of many of the most important Churches and sects in the history of Protestantism. Especially Calvinism, wherever it has appeared, has shown this combination. However little, in the time of the expansion of the Reformation, it (or any other Protestant belief) was bound up with any particular social class, it is characteristic and in a certain sense typical that in French Huguenot Churches monks and business men (merchants, craftsmen) were particularly numerous among the proselytes, especially at the time of the persecution. Even the Spaniards knew that heresy (i.e. the Calvinism of the Dutch) promoted trade, and this coincides with the opinions which Sir William Petty expressed in his discussion of the reasons for the capitalistic development of the Netherlands. Gothein rightly calls the Calvinistic diaspora the seed-bed of capitalistic economy.

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic

[fuzzysparrow]

Who was the British Prime Minister at the end of the American War of Independence?

William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (1737-1805), was Prime Minister from 1782 to 1783 during the final months of the American War of Independence. Also known as the American Revolutionary War, it was a war fought between Great Britain and the original Thirteen Colonies in North America from 1775 to 1787.

The American Revolution came to an end in 1783 when a peace treaty was signed in Paris, France. In the Treaty of Paris, British King George III accepted the independence of the colonies and recognized the newly created nation as the United States of America.

Before the signing of the Treaty of Paris, Lord Shelburne agreed to negotiations, some of which took place in his study at Lansdowne House. Shelburne saw a chance to split the United States from France and to make the new country a valuable economic partner. He succeeded in securing peace with America.

Despite his handling of the end of the war, Shelburne earned distrust for his plans to reform the public service in Britain. In April 1783, he was forced to resign.