UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

Ruined by Pleasure?

Luxury in Eighteenth-Century British Discourse

by

David Zylberberg

A THESIS

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

CALGARY, ALBERTA

JUNE, 2008

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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada ABSTRACT

This thesis is an examination of the role of luxury in different aspects of eighteenth-century British discourse. It was widely discussed as the time and generally served as an argument about either the disadvantages or benefits of social and economic changes. In most circumstances, discussions of luxury were critical and dealt with concerns about the breakdown of social order, selfishness, food being expensive or military weakness in the face of war with France. In the latter part of the century, there were also a substantial number of books written by doctors about health and the preservation of it. They argued that luxury was personally dangerous and generally associated it with gout or indolence. This thesis examines numerous published books, pamphlets and magazines and shows how many different concerns about change were expressed in relation to luxury.

in ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my supervisor Warren M. Elofson for his insight, assistance and the high standard of writing he instills. My family deserves recognition for their years of support and encouragement. I would also like to thank my fellow students for helping make sense of my ideas, proofreading some chapters and challenging many of the arguments from my research.

iv DEDICATION

To the Zylberberg family, for creating an intellectually stimulating atmosphere throughout my life.

v TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval Page ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Dedication Page v Table of Contents vi INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER TWO Social Consequences of Luxury 13

CHATER THREE National Consequences of Luxury 33

CHAPTER FOUR Personal Consequences of Luxury 44

CHAPTER FIVE

Arguments in Favour of Luxury 65

CONCLUSION 78

BIBLIOGRAPHY 84

vi Introduction

Every period in human history could reasonably be described as one of change.

However, the social and economic changes that occurred in Britain between 1700 and

1830 were especially significant. The latter part of this period witnessed the Industrial

Revolution, which led to the radical transformation of human society. The earlier part

of this period was marked by gradual and significant increases in consumption, trade,

urbanization and population, along with growing efficiencies in government. This

period saw shifts in all aspects of life, each of which facilitated the Industrial

Revolution. Recently, Maxine Berg has argued that the increase in trade, which

underlay most of this transformation, was brought about by a desire for "novelties,

fashion goods and luxuries."1 Thus eighteenth-century Britain was a period of

significant change in which conspicuous consumption of a plethora of new goods was

one of the most obvious components.

In both England and France, luxury was a major topic of discourse in the eighteenth-century. Its significance led historian Paul Langford to suggest that "a history of luxury and attitudes to luxury would come very close to being a history of the eighteenth century." There were many similarities between the French and

English discourses, but this thesis is going to focus exclusively on the English. The discussion centring on luxury occurred in many different forms; from theatre reviews and cookbooks that promoted it to essays about its effects on society, to invective against its spread, to histories of the ancient world to books about health. Most of the

1 Maxine Berg, "In Pursuit of Luxury: Global History and British Consumer Goods in the Eighteenth Century" Past and Present 2004 (182): 92. 2 Paul Langford, A Polite and Commercial People: England 1727-1783, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990)3. 2

discourse on luxury was critical of it. This will form the subject of the first three

chapters of this thesis. Chapter 2 will deal with the discourse about luxury's

immorality and harmful effects on society. One of the most common arguments

against luxury was that it had led to the decline of the Roman Empire and was likely

to do the same thing to the British. This and concerns about its effects on the nation's

international prominence and power form the basis of chapter 3. Chapter 4 deals with

discussions of luxury's effects on individuals, particularly with concern to their

health. There were some arguments in favour of luxury. These, along with positive

portrayals of specific luxuries, are covered in chapter 5. Taken together, these four

chapters will deal with the major aspects of the discourse and examine its role in

eighteenth-century thought.

Luxury was seen to consist of different things depending upon the author's

understanding of its effects. Those who believed that it had positive effects upon the

economy by stimulating trade tended to understand it as material goods like clothing,

furniture or ornaments. The most famous examples of this are Bernard Mandeville's reference to the desire for a gown by the "poorest Labourer's Wife" and Adam

Smith's descriptions of the effects of a desire for a pair of diamond buckles.3 This is also the understanding of luxury used by historians who have studied its spread in the eighteenth century. On the other hand, those who were concerned about how it was damaging society tended to view luxury as a lifestyle. They understood it to involve extravagant meals, fashionable entertainments and general indolence. One contemporary author defined luxury as "an excessive and vicious Love of Pleasure, a

3 Bernard Mandeville, The fable of the bees: or, private vices publick benefits. (London: J. Roberts, 1714) 105, Adam Smith, An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. Vol. 2. (Dublin: Mr. Whitestone et al, 1776) 212. 3

preposterous Desire of avoiding those Labours to which all Mankind are born."4

When James Burgh was complaining about the spread of luxury, he cited increases in

"Races, Cock-Matches, Plays, Musick-Gardens, Balls, Assemblies, Operas, Concerts,

Masquerades, Breakfasting-houses, Ridottos, and Fire-works."5 This vision of luxury

is especially pronounced in the literature on its health effects, the frequent attacks

upon the theatre and in concerns about its effect on military power. Carriages were

also prominent in this understanding of luxury. Many of the complaints against them

focussed on how they were inherently slothful in comparison to walking or riding.

This fits the general view of luxury as a lazy and wasteful lifestyle. The distinctions

between these two visions are not perfect since some writers were critical about

increasingly showy clothing while others supported extravagant food and

entertainment. However, they provide insight into what authors were generally

referring to when they used the term 'luxury'. One thing that both the opponents and

supporters of luxury agreed upon was that it was much more common in London than

in smaller centres or rural areas.

Luxury was discussed by many people in different contexts throughout the eighteenth century. The major trends in the discourse shifted a few times between

1730 and 1790. Non-medical criticisms were most common in the thirties and early forties. In this period, they tended to be general invective against its harmful effects and complaints about the indolence that extravagant feasting caused. Articles about

4 "Occasional Thoughts on Luxury, its Causes and Effects" London Magazine; or Gentlemen's Monthly Intelligencer January 1736: 8. 5 James Burgh, Britain's remembrancer. Being some thoughts on the proper improvement of the present juncture. The character of this age and nation. A brief view from history, of the effects of the vices which now prevail in Britain, upon the greatest empires and states of former times. Remarkable deliverances this nation has had in the most imminent dangers; with suitable reflections. Some hints, shewing what is in the power of the several ranks of people, and of every individual in Britain, to do toward securing the state from all its enemies. The fifth edition. (Philadelphia: B. Franklin, 1747) 18. 4

how luxury caused the decline of the Roman Empire and concerns about it doing the

same to Britain were also relatively frequent in this period but they were most

prominent in the mid-fifties with the outbreak of the Seven Year's War. Generally

speaking, discussions of luxury waned in the late forties and early fifties, and then,

largely because of the war, proliferated later in the decade. It then ceased once again

to be a common subject until the debate about the price of provisions occasioned by

food shortages in 1766-67 and 1770-75. From the mid-fifties there was a major

increase in the number of books written about the preservation of health. Luxury was

often cited as a leading cause of weakness and disease. It was after 1750 that the few writings arguing for the economic benefits of luxury were written. And it was after

1760 that cookbooks, theatre reviews, and other works on the qualities of specific luxuries became a lot more prominent.

Although many different people wrote about luxury, criticisms of it tended to reflect the interests of the rural gentry. Frequent complaints were made about how it was leading middle and lower class people to consume like their superiors. These were generally about how social distinctions were being blurred and individuals were no longer performing their appropriate roles. Most attacks on luxury tended to focus on activities in the metropolis, while celebrating the simpler culture of rural Britain.6

The complaint that it was leading to high food prices in the sixties and seventies was the only major element in the discourse that was not influenced by landholding interests. However, those who raised this objection commonly asserted that in earlier less industrial times traditional British paternalism would not have allowed the poor

6 Arthur J. Weitzman, "Eighteenth-Century London: Urban Paradise or Fallen City?" Journal of the History of Ideas 36 (1975) 469-480, discusses perceptions of London in eighteenth-century discourse. He touches on luxury and the manner in which views on it reflected the authors attitudes to London. 5

to suffer as in current times. In so doing they were reflecting the values of a

conservative class that needed to articulate its importance militarily and as a home

grown guardian of virtue while sensing its decline in the face of urbanization and the

growth of commerce. The values of the landed classes are also evident in the medical

books that criticized luxury since these tended to celebrate clean air, simple food and

the lifestyles of rural Britain.

While the criticisms celebrated rural lifestyles, many of the works advocating it

focussed on urban culture. Theatre reviews were a London phenomenon. Most of the

cookbooks claimed they were instructing housekeepers in the better preparation of

dishes that were currently fashionable in London. Bernard Mandeville's Fable of the

Bees lauded the consumption, corruption and crimes of the City. Mandeville believed

these were the kinds of things that helped to provide for a vibrant, bustling urban

society with employment for large numbers of people. The material refinement that

David Hume praised also mainly involved urban elements. Hume credited foreign

delicacies associated with London wealth with spurring economic growth.8

Luxury was a subject by which writers discussed their feelings about changes

in society. The negative discourse tended to revolve around a number of stock subjects: moral decay, selfishness, indolence, effeminacy, physical weakness, the decline of the Roman Empire and anti-French sentiments. Despite their often- repetitive nature, these complaints reflected legitimate fears that society was

Ann Shackleford, The Modern Art of Cookery Improved: Or Elegant, Cheap, and Easy Methods, of Preparing Most of the Dishes Now in Vogue, (London: J. Newberry, 1767) iii, Francis Collingwood, The universal cook, and city and country housekeeper. (London: R. Noble, 1792) i, John Farley, The London art of cookery, and housekeeper's complete assistant. On a new plan. (London: J. Scatcherd and J. Whitaker, 1784) ii. These are some of the works that explicitly state their purpose and audience while others imply the same. 8 David Hume, "Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion" and "Of Commerce" in Essays and treatises on several subjects. (London: A Millar, 1758) 4, 155. 6

degenerating and that people were becoming weaker and less moral. Writings that

disseminated such views became particularly frequent when there were problems in

society. Sometimes this involved fears about loss in escalating military conflicts

while more frequently it centred on social problems. Conversely, the writings in

favour of luxury by authors such as Mandeville, Hume and Smith reflected a general

faith that economic growth was making Britain a better place in which to live.

Whether positive or negative, writings about luxury expressed individual attitudes to

the state of the British nation.

The medical discourse on luxury was indirectly related to the general one.

Outside of writings on Gout, it was non-existent during the earlier part of the century

when other complaints were most prevalent. However, as time passed doctors made

many of the same comments as others about how luxury was causing indolence and

disease. Their works frequently included moral overtones suggesting that the consumption of certain foods would lead to mental in addition to physical weakness.

Doctors tended to be more explicit in listing the specific products they were blaming.

French sauces, ragouts, tea and pastries were the most frequently singled out. The bulk of the medical attack on luxury occurred after it had become central in other discourse. Thus it kept the discourse current and helped to influence later strains of thought.

While luxury in the eighteenth century has been discussed by a number of historians, their analyses have generally suffered from the common practice of referring to it as the 'Luxury Debate'.9 The suggestion of an explicit debate is

9 This is a common shorthand to refer to the discourse of the period. Its effects are obvious in the works of Christopher Berry and Maxine Berg. Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger, "The Rise and Fall of generally derived from the French historiography, since there were more arguments in

favour of luxury in that country to counter those opposed to it. However, this is

misleading.10 Referring to it as a debate suggests that there were numerous people on

both sides arguing about the same things. This was certainly not the case in Britain. In

the thirties and forties, when general arguments against luxury were at their most

common, there were none being made in favour of its economic benefits. Even as the

century progressed and arguments in favour of luxury were sometimes made, the

different arguments focussed on disparate aspects of it. Nobody explicitly disputed

the medical notion that luxury was bad for the health of individuals and one searches

in vain to find a work offering the thesis that extravagant meals or entertainments

were beneficial to society.11 Moreover, few if any critics of luxury were concerned

with the clothing or household goods that Adam Smith and David Hume advocated as

stimulants to economic growth.12

Intellectual historians have produced most of the modern scholarship about the

discourse on luxury. They tend to focus on the arguments of the most famous writers,

the Luxury Debates," Luxury in the Eighteenth Century: Debates, Desires and Delectable Goods, Ed. Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), Christopher J. Berry, The Idea of Luxury; A Conceptual and Historical Investigation, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994) 126, Maxine Berg, Luxury and Pleasure in Eighteenth-Century Britain, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) x, Istvan Hont, "The Luxury Debate in the Early Enlightenment," The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought, eds. Mark Goldie and Robert Wokler, (2006) 1 See Hont, "The Luxury Debate in the Early Enlightenment," for a situation in which the term is somewhat more appropriate, although debated by other French historians. 1' William Falconer, M.D, F.R.S., Observations on Some of the Articles of Diet and Regimen Usually Recommended to Valetudinarians. (London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1778) is the only work at the time that could be taken to suggest luxury is good for the health of individuals. This pamphlet consists of mocking a number of the strict diets prescribed for the ill. Falconer also suggests that sugar is good for children since taste is the body's indication of what is beneficial for it. Because of the medical criticisms of luxury in his other works and the focus of this pamphlet on excessive asceticism, I have largely disregarded it as a general recommendation that luxury was beneficial to health. 12 Sarah Maza, "Luxury, Morality, and Social Change: Why There was no Middle-Class Consciousness in Prerevolutionary France," Journal of Modern History 69 (1997): 217 argued mat the term debate is a misnomer in the French context because there were always many more criticisms than defences. 8

like Mandeville, Smith or Hume, whose works continue to be frequently read.

Sometimes the scholarship discusses the position of luxury in the thought processes

of these men.13 John Sekora and Christopher Berry emphasize the most famous

eighteenth-century works on luxury in their books on the concept in European

civilization. Since these were largely favourable the books have skewed historical

understanding of the discourse. They have made the positive arguments seem more

prevalent then they really were.14 In the French context, John Shovlin has argued

quite rightly that the less famous works give more important insights into

contemporary mentalities.15 His examinations of these works has developed a

thorough representation that has yet to be matched among British scholars.

The production and consumption of material goods in eighteenth-century

Britain has also received a fair amount of study. Traditionally it was of interest to

economic historians wishing to understand the growth that led to the Industrial

Revolution. Recently it has been the subject of two edited collections and a

monograph by Maxine Berg. Berg has focussed on the production and sale of luxury

Examples include, Michael Kwass, "Spending and Saving in the Enlightenment," Historical Reflections 31 (2005): 49-70, Samuel J. Rogal, "John Wesley and the Attack on Luxury in England," Eighteenth-Century Life 1977 3: 91-94, Henry C. Clark, "Commerce, Sociability, and the Public Sphere: Morellet vs. Pluquet on Luxury" Eighteenth-Century Life 1998 22(2): 83-103, Anthony Brewer, "Luxury and Economic Development: David Hume and Adam Smith" Scottish Journal of Political Economy 1998 45 (1): 78-98, Davide Fiaschi and Rodolfo Signorino, "Consumption Patterns, Development and Growth: Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Thomas Robert Malthus" European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 2003 10 (1): 5-24, Neville Morley, "Political Economy and Classical Antiquity" Journal of the History of Ideas 59 (1998): 95-114, Andrew S. Cunningham, "David Hume's Account of Luxury" Journal of the History of Economic Thought 27 (2005): 231-250, M.G. Marshall, "Luxury, Economic Development and Work Motivation: David Hume, Adam Smith, and J.R. McCulloch," History of Political Economy 32 (2000) 631-648, Neil de Marchi "Adam Smith's Accommodation of'Altogether Endless' Desires" Consumers and Luxury: Consumer Culture in Europe 1650-1850, Ed. Maxine Berg and Helen Clifford, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999). 14 Berry, The Idea of Luxury, 125. 15 John Shovlin, The Political Economy of Virtue: Luxury, Patriotism, and the Origins of the French Revolution, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006) 3. 9

dining ware by Wedgewood and others. She has also brought to our attention

scholarship on plebeian clothing, vase purchasing and the importation of clothing

dyes.16 It is evident thus that significant rewards are likely to flow from the study of

specific consumer goods. However, Berg and her peers have tended to overlook

contemporary resistance to it. By and large she is content to tell us that "luxury

gradually lost its former associations with corruption and vice." This papers over

the transition from widespread condemnation to greater acceptance.

The medical attack on luxury has received the least attention from scholars.

David Harley's article on the moral condemnation of wet-nurses in seventeenth-

century Britain contains a quotation associating it with luxury.18 Although this

connection was important to early modern attitudes, Harley does not explore it. His

article remains one of the few to acknowledge luxury in medical discourse outside of

that on gout. Roy Porter examines the latter.19 In his Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A

Medical History of Humanity, he touches briefly on William Buchan's views and on

Maxine Berg, Luxury and Pleasure in Eighteenth-Century Britain, is the general history of the sale and consumption of luxury goods focussing on Wedgewood pottery. Elizabeth Eger "Luxury, Industry and Charity: Bluestocking Culture Displayed," Jenny Uglow "Vase Mania," John Styles "Custom or Consumption? Plebeian Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England," are all essays in Luxury in the Eighteenth Century: Debates, Desires and Delectable Goods, Ed. Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), Marcia Pointon "Jewellery in Eighteenth-Century England," Sarah Lowengard "Colours and Colour Making in the Eighteenth Century," Maxine Berg "New Commodities, Luxuries and Their Consumers in Eighteenth-Century England," are all essays in Consumers and Luxury: Consumer Culture in Europe 1650-1850, Ed. Maxine Berg and Helen Clifford, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999). 17 Maxine Berg and Elizabeth Eger, "The Rise and Fall of the Luxury Debates," Luxury in the Eighteenth Century, 7. 18 David Harley, "From Providence to Nature: The Moral Theology and Godly Practice of Maternal Breat-feeding in Stuart England," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 69 (1995): 213. 19 Roy Porter, "Gout: Framing and Fantasizing Disease," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 68 (1994): 1-28, especially 1-2, 12,18, Roy Porter and G.S. Rousseau, Gout: The Patrician Malady, (London: Yale University Press, 1998) 110-111. See also: Thomas Benedek, "Gout in Women: A Historical Perspective" Bulletin of the History of Medicine 1997 71 (1): 1-22. 10

the eighteenth-century transition away from Galenic medicine.20 However, he misses

the central place of luxury in Buchan's thought and the significance of universal

condemnations of it in medical writing.

Similarly, the place of food and diet in polemics against luxury has never been

properly examined. A few works have studied feasting, cookbooks, or other aspects

of haute cuisine.21 They have focussed almost entirely on the culture of consumption

and some of the ways in which British gastronomy differed from the French. As a

result, they have never dealt with the frequent polemics against extravagant dining.

Meanwhile, historians who have looked at the discourse on luxury have overlooked that food was the aspect of luxurious consumption that most upset critics. Maxine

Berg acknowledges that coffee, tea, and chocolate were important luxury products but has focussed all her deeper research on decorations, household goods and clothing.22

While most aspects of the discourse on luxury have not been adequately studied, some historians have probed elements of it. In their general histories of eighteenth- century British culture, John Brewer and Paul Langford acknowledge the importance of discourse about luxury. Langford claims that concerns about it were centred on the direction in which British society was heading.23 Brewer emphasizes that anxiety about it tended to occur during times of military and political crisis.

The fear that luxury and refinement were weakening the moral fibre of the nation persisted throughout the eighteenth century, but at times of national

20 Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity, (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997) 283, 302. 21 Holger Hoock, "From Beefsteak to Turtle: Artists' Dinner Culture in Eighteenth-Century London" Huntington Library Quarterly 2003 66(1-2): 27-54, Gilly Lehmann, "Politics in the Kitchen" Eighteenth-Century Life 1999 23(2): 71-83, Sandra Sherman, "Gastronomic History in Eighteenth- Century England" Prose Studies 2003 26(3): 395-413, 22 Maxine Berg "New Commodities, Luxuries and Their Consumers in Eighteenth-Century England," Consumers and Luxury, 65. 23 Langord, A Polite and Commercial People, 4, 11

crisis - during wars, rebellions and revolutions - the rumble of worry rose to a roar. During the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, at the loss of the American colonies, and with the outbreak of the French Revolution, as well as on every occasion when Britain went to war against France, critics agonized over the state of the nation. Was a bold, masculine, martial nation becoming effete and effeminate?24

Both of these historians gathered their knowledge by studying magazines, books and

pamphlets of the period. E.J. Clery, in a book on masculinity in eighteenth-century

Britain, adequately deals with the discourse on effeminacy. "The effeminate man ...

was either incapacitated by excessive food or drink, or by a surfeit of women, with

accompanying venereal disease, or in his dependency was like women, if not children

(i.e. requiring leading-strings)."25 However, none of these authors explored the

discourse in depth. Brewer misses the rhetoric about luxury making provisions

expensive in the late sixties and none of them deals with the medical literature.

Research into the history of sexuality in eighteenth-century Britain has produced a number of insights similar to the ones this thesis presents on medical thought. In Solitary Sex, Thomas Lacqueur describes the process by which masturbation came to be seen first as a moral problem and later as a health problem.

He explains that there were a number of diseases that were commonly understood to have been caused by excessive consumption, luxury or sexuality.26 His argument largely resembles that of chapter 4, although it does not deal with diet, which was of greater importance to eighteenth-century medical writers. Richard Sha illuminates the moralization of masturbation in the eighteenth-century. He emphasizes the belief that

John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination: English Culture in the Eighteenth Century, (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997) 82. 25 E.J. Clery, The Feminization Debate in Eighteenth-Century England: Literature, Commerce and Luxury, (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) 63. 26 Thomas W. Laqueur, Solitary Sex: A Cultural History of Masturbation, (New York: Zone Books, 2003) 16. 12 onanism was a symptom of luxury and disputes the idea of a clear progression from moral opposition to acceptance over the century.27 Although these two works deal with an aspect of the discourse on luxury that this thesis largely ignores, they offer numerous insights that complement those of chapter 4 and demonstrate the realms in which morality affected medical knowledge.

There is at present no major study dedicated solely to the discourse on luxury in eighteenth-century Britain. Other than the intellectual historians focussing on individual authors, the aforementioned works have all been dedicated to broader topics. This thesis examines a great array of contemporary materials on various topics related to luxury. These include books written by doctors on the preservation of health and on gout, a number of cookbooks and a host of pamphlets and articles about the price of provisions during the late sixties or early seventies. As well, several archival materials relating to the production of luxury goods and the consumption habits of propertied Britons are consulted. The breadth of materials, variety of topics discussed in relation to luxury and the recognition of the importance of the subject in eighteenth century discourse, will I hope make a contribution towards a greater understanding of British society as it bridged the divide between the early modern and modern periods.

Richard C. Sha, "Medicalizing the Romantic Libido: Sexual Pleasure, Luxury, and the Pubic Sphere" Nineteenth-Century Contexts 2005 27: 31, 34. 13

Chapter 2: Social Consequences of Luxury

Use of the term luxury carried a number of negative connotations in

eighteenth-century Britain and as a result the discourse on it was generally critical. It

was associated with numerous problems that ranged from making individuals indolent

and effeminate to ruining their fortunes, causing corruption, destroying the social

structure or leading to the high prices of provisions, which threatened famine during

the latter part of the century. This chapter addresses moral and social complaints

about luxurious lifestyles. In making their observations, writers implicitly compared their contemporary society to an imagined ideal. Generally this involved an idealized version of the rural past. In that respect their comments were conservative.

Some writings outlined the excess and merely implied the reasons for concern.

These commonly centred on food, entertainments or transportation. One example of this is a description of the Lord Mayor's Entertainment at Guildhall in the November

1761 issue of London Magazine. The feast, the reader is told, included a second service of a "fine roast; ortolans, quails, knotts, ruffs, pea chicks, &c. Nine dishes."

Nearly "100 cold ornamentals, and a grand silver epergne, filled with various kinds of shell fish in different colours," were placed on the table between each service and the meal included a total of 414 dishes.28 In 1756, a writer complained that "the ordinary distinction of fish, flesh, and fowl, are quite destroyed; and nothing comes upon table under its proper form and appellation. It is impossible to conceive what vast sums are

"Extract of a Letter from a Gentleman to his Friend in the County, containing a full and circumstantial Detail of many Particulars, concerning My Lord Mayor's How, and the Entertainment at Guildhall, &c." London Magazine November 1761: 601. 14

melted down into sauces!" In 1784 an author writing about luxury and dissipation in

Edinburgh remarked on the vast increase of stagecoaches and carriages over the previous twenty years and the proliferation of new professions like hairdressing.30

Writings such as these were not the most numerous. Far more focussed on the pernicious effects of luxury, often without specifying the specific items involved. One common argument was that luxury blurred gender distinctions by making men effeminate and women forward.31 Some noted the makeup, hairstyles and effort men were putting into looking fashionable.32 In his Essay Upon Publick Spirit John Dennis observed that luxury has not

only chang'd our Natures, but transform'd our Sexes: We have Men that are more soft, more languid, more passive than Women; Men, who like Women, are come to use Red and White, and part of the Nation are turning Picts again. On the other side we have Women, who as it were in revenge are turning masculine in their Desires, and Masculine in their Practices.33

In the 1750's and 1760's, this concern was prominent in the respective works of

Samuel Fawconer and John Brown. Fawconer claimed that "luxury is the natural parent of indolence, pusillanimity, and effeminacy," and that "our national effeminacy seems to have extinguished our national spirit."34 In his influential

Manners and Principals of the Times, Brown described effeminacy as one of the main

"Complaint of a Wife" London Magazine September 1756:440. 30 Theophrastus, "Letters on the Progress of Luxury and Dissipation in Edinburgh, During the Last Twenty Years" London Magazine, Enlarged and Improved, June 1784: 470. 31 Jack Schemer, "Abuses in relation to the Beau Monde, with Proposals for their Redress" London Magazine December 1743: 608 is the article that stated this concern most explicitly. 32 Manly, "Letter to Squire Stonecastle," London Magazine February 1734: 89. 33 John Dennis, An essay upon publick spirit; being a satyr in prose upon the manners and luxury of the times, the chief sources of our present parties and divisions. (London: Bernard Lintott, 1711) 15. Throughout this work I am sticking to the original spellings, capitalizations and punctuations as much as possible. These frequently differ from 21st century usage, particularly on works published before 1750, but are being left that way out of concern for authenticity. 34 Samuel Fawconer, An essay on modern luxury: or, an attempt to delineate its nature, causes, and effects. (London: James Fletcher, 1765) 50,45. 15

characteristics of his countrymen. He blamed it on the wealth produced in

international trade and the delicate upbringing of British youth.35 Brown observed an

"unmanly delicacy" in the aristocracy. He blamed disparate items in their lives

including "Splendid Furniture, a sumptuous Side-board," "long Train[s] of

Attendants," "elegant and costly Entertainment, for which Earth, Air, and Seas, are

ransacked," "the most expensive Wines of the Continent," and "the childish Vagaries

of a whimsical Desert."36 Effeminacy was a particular worry of those who criticized

luxury in part because it suggested a change away from traditional British masculinity

and the accompanying social order.

Another major concern about luxury was that it was leading people to focus their attention on sensual pleasure rather than the higher purposes of human existence. Many people appreciated the structure, asceticism, and consistency that they believed religion had given British society. The focus on pleasure was seen to be leading people away from the religion that had made Britain great. In 1742, Ephraim

Faithful complained that his peers were not concentrating on their true calling, but on luxury and more worldly matters. "Mens Irreligion and Vice will naturally produce

Injustice, Tyranny, Fraud, Luxury, and all other Vices that are destructive to the Body politick."37 A later writer, discussing the emphasis on pleasure among his contemporaries, claimed that "religion only can point out the way to obtain pleasure unallayed with pain."38 The influential Methodist leader John Wesley shared this anxiety. He instructed his followers to avoid ostentatious dress, complicated meals or

35 John Brown, An estimate of the manners and principles of the times. The fourth edition, (London: L. Davis and C. Reymers, 1757) 29-30, 161. 36 Brown, Estimate of the Manners, 37-38. 37 Ephraim Faithful, "To the Author of Common-Sense" London Magazine March 1742: 143-144. 38 The Rural Christian, "The Vanity of Earthly Pleasures" London Magazine Appendix 1779: 582. 16

fashionable entertainments because these distracted them from the austere life

dedicated to industry and biblical study that he considered proper. He described the

earliest Christians as people who "valued only inward greatness; they esteemed no

nobility, but nobleness of soul. They made no account of perishable goods, or of any

riches but spiritual. They utterly despised all that luxury had introduced." Wesley

also instructed his followers that they should be "saving all the time you can for the best purposes; buying up every fleeting moment out of the hands of sin and Satan, out

of the hands of sloth, ease, pleasure, worldly business: the more diligently, because the present are evil days, days of the grossest ignorance, immorality, and prophaneness."40

Wesley thus lamented that luxury made pleasure the highest aim of human existence and led to a reduction in religion, learning, charity and public spirit. A pamphlet about the trial of "Lady Luxury" expressed similar views. "A short Life is the most Eligible, and Self-Murder the best Privilege of a great soul," it proclaimed satirically, "and that Gaming, fine Cloaths, Equipage, high and poignant Sauces,

Infidelity, soft Beds, Dalliance, midnight Debaucheries, and the letting loose of all our Passions, are the true Springs from whence we are to draw every earthly

Felicity."41 A 1743 essay, regretted that compared to a previous epoch "there is more

Ostentation, but less Substance; more Pomp, but less Hospitality; more Expence and less Frugality; our publick Debts are encreas'd without our publick Credit; Publick

John Wesley, The Manners of the Antient Christians: Extracted From a French Author, (Bristol: William Pine, 1771)14-15. 40 John Wesley, The duty and advantage of early rising. (London: J. Paramore, 1783) 3. 41 The tryal of the Lady Allurea Luxury, before the Lord Chief-Justice Upright, on an information for a conspiracy. (London: F. Noble, 1757) 7-8. 17

Dependency without Publick Spirit; and publick Offices without publick

Oeconomy."42

A similar concern about luxury claimed that it was making men lazy and

therefore less happy, less productive and less socially useful than they should have

been.43 In 1756 a contributor to Gentleman's Magazine declared that "no other

disposition or turn of mind so totally unfits a man for all the social offices of life as

indolence. An idle man is a mere blank in the creation, he seems made for no end, and

lives to no purpose."44 Samuel Fawconer claimed that "luxury not only deprives us of

the power, but even checks the inclination, to do good. Wherever it prevails, the

social ties of friendship, charity, and hospitality are at an end." It "makes men selfish,

oppressive, and riotous."45 Sir George Mackenzie went even further, suggesting that

indolence could ultimately turn men into traitors. "The Luxurious are not only useless, but enemies to the Common Wealth wherin they live, useless, because they become effeminate and soft; unable to defend and improve their Native Country;

Enemies, because they debauch the Innocent, and assist the guilty."46 Later

"Of Luxury, Extravagance, and Modern Politeness" London Magazine January 1743: 34. For other complaints about how luxury was leading people away from their true priorities in life see: John Brown, On the pursuit of false pleasure, and the mischiefs of immoderate gaming: a sermon preach 'd at the abbey-church at Bath, (London: W. Bowyer, 1752) 3, "Shameful Modern Luxury" London Magazine May 1756: 225, "The Prevalence and Mischiefs of Luxury, with a pleasant Story of a Dutch Burgomaster" London Magazine October 1742: 493, "Causes of the Decay of Learning" London Magazine February 1736: 82. "Degeneracy of the People of England lamented" Gentleman's Magazine; or Trader's Monthly Intelligencer July 1746: 363, "Of Pleasure" Gentleman's Magazine April 1738: 196, Percival Stockdale, Three discourses: two against luxury and dissipation. One on universal benevolence. (London: W. Flexney, 1773) 9-10, John Trusler, The way to be rich and respectable, addressed to men of small fortune. (London: R. Baldwin, 1780) 25, Sir George Mackenzie, The Moral History of Frugality With its Opposite Vices, Covetousness, Niggardliness, Prodigality and Luxury, (Edinburgh: Andrew Chalmers and John Vallenge, 1691) 30. 43 Country Clergyman. Of luxury, more particularly with respect to apparel. Being the substance of two discourses, on I Tim. ii.9. (London: T. Green, 1736) 25 is one example. 44 "The Evil of Idleness" Gentleman's Magazine August 1756: 382. 45 Fawconer, An Essay on Modern Luxury, 38,45. 46 Mackenzie, Moral History of Frugality, 31. 18

commentators expressed similar views, with Charles Moore claiming that luxury led

to suicide.47 Someone writing under the pseudonym 'Aurelius' associated luxury with

every sort of evil: "a little rational consideration will enable us to discover the kindred

links between luxury, rapine, meanness, extravagance, misery, idleness, vice and

guilt: For they are all of one family, as scandalous as pernicious, and alike fatally

destructive in their effects."48 Other authors associated luxury with increases in

infidelity and scandalous clothing among women.49

One aspect of luxury that came under frequent criticism was fashionable

entertainments. Theatre was often criticized, especially in the early part of the century

and in the 1770's, for being a bad moral influence because it portrayed murderers, thieves and promiscuity positively.50 In addition it was criticized for causing young people to associate with criminal or sexually loose elements in the fashionable districts of London.51 Theatre wasted time and money, both of which could have been

Charles Moore, A full inquiry into the subject of suicide. Volume 1. (London: J.F. and C. Rivington, 1790)10-11. 48 Aurelius, London Magazine December 1764: 620. 49 "Causes of the Growth of Infidelity" London Magazine May 1733: 222, Sarah Meanwell "Letter" London Magazine July 1754: 323. 50 "Reasons of the Present Want of Taste" London Magazine August 1732: 225, Jockey, "The bad Consequence of Vicious Plays" London Magazine September 1750: 419, "The British Theatre" London Magazine May 1770: 227, "Lively Portrait of the Fashionable Luxuries" London Magazine February 1773: 68-70, "On Degeneracy of Taste" Gentleman's Magazine August 1732: 888, Arthur Bedford, MA, Serious Reflection on the Scandalous Abuse and Effects of the Stage in a Sermon Preach 'd at the Parish Church of St. Nicolas in the City of Bristol, On Sunday the 7' Day of January 1701/3, (Bristol: W. Bonny, 1705) 24-28, Arthur Bedford, M.A., The Evil and Danger of Stage-Plays: Shewing Their Natural Tendency to Destroy Religion and Introduce a General Corruption of Manners, (Bristol: W. Benny, 1706), Arthur Bedford, M.A., A Serious Remonstrance In Behalf of the Christian Religion Against the Horrid Blasphemes and Impieties which are still Used in the English Play- Houses, to the Great Dishonour of Almighty God, and in Contempt of the Statutes of the Realm, (London: John Darby, 1719), Brown, Estimate of the Manners and Principles, 45-46, Arthur Bedford, M.A, The Great Abuse ofMusick: In Two Parts, (London: John Wyatt, 1711) 105. 51 Tradelove, "A Letter humbly offered to the trading Citizens of London" London Magazine March 1735: 117, Gentleman's Magazine December 1733: 639-640, William Law, A.M, The Absolute Unlawfulness of the Stage Entertainment: Fully Demonstated, (London: W and J. Innys, 1726) 13, 19

better used in industry or charity.52 An unnamed writer in London Magazine wrote

about women who frequented operas and other entertainments. "What a comfortable

mate," he asked, would a man

find in one whose Mind had been thus poisoned with these most extravagant and luxurious Pleasures; what Decency and Oeconomy could you see in such a Family; what a fine Example would such a Mother give to her Children! She would be just such a Wife as Milton describes, - good for nothing but to rouse the Eye and provoke the Tongue. The poor Husband would be deafned with the incessant Praises of this Singer and that Dancer, for her idle and giddy Head could entertain no other Ideas.53

Theatre was the recipient of so many complaints because it embodied the

frivolousness and moral corruption that disturbed many authors.

Similar criticisms were made about other fashionable entertainments, like balls, masquerades and banquets. In 1750, a writer in London Magazine complained about the increasing number and variety of balls and their tendency to promote debauchery.

On masquerades he observed that, "the disguise proves they are founded in immorality and wickedness, receptacles of vice and conveniences of sin."54 In 1771,

Sir Richard Hill wrote a book about the evils of balls and their disagreement with the entire spirit of Christianity. A "weighty argument against Balls," he insisted, is

that they prevent people from looking into themselves, and cherish a vain, trifling, unchristian spirit; not only for the time being, but oftentimes for whole days and weeks before and after; as any unprejudiced person must allow, that has heard what wonderful satisfaction young Ladies frequently express at the thoughts of an approaching Assembly, and what studied preparations they make for their dress upon the Ball-night.55

52 Well-wisher to Great Britain. The ten plagues of England, of worse consequence than those of Egypt, (London: R. Withy and Co.) 24, Bedford, Scandalous Abuse and Effects of the Stage, 29. 53 "Of frequenting Opera's, Masquerades," London Magazine April 1735: 204-205. 54 "Reflections on the Venetian Ball" London Magazine May 1750: 223. 55 Sir Richard Hill, An address to persons of fashion, relating to balls: with a few occasional hints concerning play-houses, card-tables, &c. In which is introduced the character ofLucinda, a lady of the very best fashion, (Shrewsbury: J. Eddowes, 1771) 50. 20

Erasmus Jones suggested that balls and masquerades were a mistaken path to happiness and that they caused more pain than pleasure among their adherents.56

Another writer concluded, "that the multitude and variety of our publick diversions have corrupted and debauched many an honest man's wife or daughter, who would otherwise have preserved her virtue."57 Balls and masquerades were an easy target for criticism because they were expensive, publicly visible and increasingly common.

Gaming, which was understood to be increasingly popular in the eighteenth century, came under similar criticism. Although gambling may not appear to be a luxury, its more fashionable variations were described as such by eighteenth-century polemicists. One author concluded that it was "the most pernicious of all amusements to society, for it is agreed, that no practice amongst us hath so effectually destroyed our good qualities, or so absolutely increased and confirmed our bad ones."58 Gaming was also seen as an incredible waste of time.59 A number of people were worried that it was leading individuals to financial loss, bankruptcy or poverty and that this was causing many other problems. They believed it led to "Street-Robberies,

Bankruptcies, and Self-Murders, which are as naturally produced by the Impunity of

Erasmus Jones, Luxury, pride and vanity, the bane of the British nation, (London: J. Roberts, 1736) 32. 57 "A Letter from a Gentleman in the Country to his Friend in Town" London Magazine March 1751: 130. 58 "Essay on Gaming" London Magazine October 1780: 453. 59 "Of Gaming" London Magazine November 1736: 616-617. "The Amusements of the Bath, and Extravagance of our modern Gaming" London Magazine December 1737: 684, "Monstrous Excess of Gaming" London Magazine May 1754: 226-227, R.J., "Thoughts on Gaming" London Magazine June 1778: 266, "On Card-Playing" The London Magazine, Enlarged and Improved April 1785: 270-271, Jonas Hanway, Observations on the causes of the dissoluteness which reigns among the lower classes of the people; the propensity of some to petty larceny: and the danger of gaming, concubinage, and an excessive fondness for amusement in high life, &c, (London: J. and F. Rivington, 1772) 82, 21

such Nurseries of Vice, as the Disorders of Dutch Seamen are by the lawless

Debaucheries of the Long Cellar."60

Excessive spending was considered by many to be the common problem derived

from all luxury as it culminated in the loss of individual fortunes and the ruin of

family wealth. It was understood that generally speaking contemporary fashions were

causing people to spend beyond their means and that the consequent bankruptcies

precipitated suicides in the most extreme cases.61 In a number of letters to London

Magazine, individuals told stories of how they had dissipated their means in

expensive dining, theatre or gaming.62 "Luxury," remarked Samuel Fawconer, in a

well-known essay, "is the bane of private property, as it tends to the prejudice of our

fortune, and the injury of our family. As industry and frugality are a kind of national wealth, so is luxury of artificial poverty."63 This attitude was backwards looking in

"The Mischiefs of Gaming" London Magazine June 1736: 313. See also, "On Gaming, Lotteries, Idleness, Business, &c." Gentleman's Magazine October 1731: 441-442, Henry Fielding, "From an Enquiry into the Cause of the late Increase of Robbers, &c." Gentleman's Magazine January 1751: 4, Moore, Charles. A full inquiry into the subject of suicide. Volume 2. (London: J.F. and C. Rivington, 1790) 286. 61 "Why such frequent Bankruptcies?" New London Magazine May 1786: 238, Moore. A full inquiry into the subject of suicide. Volume 2, 291, "Journal of the Proceedings and Debates in the Political Club" London Magazine April 1746: 164. John Wesley, A serious address to the people of England, with regard to the state of the nation. (London: R. Hawes, 1778) 27 explains that luxury causes tradesmen and shopkeepers to spend all their money so they have no insurance for bad times and end up going bankrupt. 62 "Vanity and Extravagance in Dress" London Magazine May 1732: 82, "Complaint of a Wife" London Magazine September 1755: 439-440, Tom Truecase, London Magazine April 1740: 181, Deborah Ginger, Gentleman's Magazine April 1759: 164. The names used by authors and writing styles suggest that some might be satires created for polemical purposes. Whether fictional or not, they make arguments about the impact of luxury on contemporary society and form part of the discourse. 63 Fawconer, An Essay on Modern Luxury, 34. For more examples of this type of complaint see: "The Apprentices Looking-Glass" London Magazine December 1732: 465, "Of Benevolence and Friendship" April 1733: 192, "Of Luxury and Corruption" London Magazine March 1735: 127, "Occasional Thoughts on Luxury, its Causes and Effects" London Magazine January 1736:8, "Causes of the Poverty of the Country" London Magazine February 1737: 87, "The fatal Consequences of Luxury" London Magazine July 1742: 347, "Of Luxury, Extravagance, and Modern Politeness" London Magazine January 1743: 34-35, Lycurgus, "Horrible Mischiefs of Gin-Drinking" London Magazine March 1751: 130, Civis London Magazine September 1754: 409, Britannicus, "Profligacy of the present Times" London Magazine May 1758: 224, Aurelius, London Magazine December 1764: 621, "Modern Manners, a Sketch" London Magazine July 1773: 332, John Brown, On the pursuit of 22

that it sought the preservation of the industrious values that had underscored social prominence in the past.

Because luxury was believed to impoverish people, it was also seen as a leading

cause of political corruption. It was feared that people would become so dependent upon their high lifestyles that they would find ways to pay for greater excesses, regardless of their financial situation.64 "He that is extravagant will quickly become poor, and poverty will enforce dependence, and invite corruption; it will almost always produce a passive compliance with the wickedness of others."65 Brown emphasized the connection between luxury and political corruption in his Thoughts on Civil Liberty, Licentiousness and Faction and he suggested in his more famous

Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times that no other "effect"

can naturally arise from the Vanity, Dissipation, and Rapacity of a dissolute People? For in a Nation so circumstanced, 'tis natural to imagine, that next to Gaming and Riot, the chief Attention of the great World must be turned on the Business of Election-jobbing, of securing Counties, controuling, bribing, or buying of Burroughs, in a word, on the Possession of a great Parliamentary Interest?66

It was feared that individuals would become so dependent upon physical pleasures that they would ignore encroachments upon their political liberty. Historian

false pleasure, and the mischiefs of immoderate gaming: a sermon preach 'd at the abbey-church at Bath, (London: W. Bowyer, 1752) 3-4. 64 "Luxury throughout the whole Year" London Magazine May 1743: 239, "Journal of the Proceedings and Debates in the Political Club" London Magazine May 1745: 218-219, An Old Rake, "The most effectual Method for preventing Robberies" London Magazine May 1758: 222, "Recommendation of Frugality" London Magazine November 1781: 523, R. Freeman, "In Praise of Frugality" Gentleman's Magazine May 1738: 255, Sir George Mackenzie, The Moral History of Frugality 1, The tryal of Lady Allurea Luxury 91, 65 "Necessity of Frugality" London Magazine October 1750: 467. 66 Brown, Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times, 119, see also Brown, John. Thoughts on civil liberty, on licentiousness, and faction. (Newcastle Upon Tyne: J. White and T. Saint, 1765) 67 "Of Modern Politeness" London Magazine February 1741: 81, "Lively Portrait of the Fashionable Luxuries" London Magazine February 1773:68, A Serious Address to the Electors of Great-Britain: In Which The Conduct and Deigns both of the Court and Country Parties are Impartially Represented and Consider 'd: And such Gentlemen Pointed out, as are most Deserving of the Favour of the 23

Lawrence Klein touched on this when he explained that eighteenth-century Britons associated political liberty with virtue. "When virtue was given a sociological cast, it conjured an image of a people whose manners were simple, austere, martial and frugal."68 For this reason, many of the concerns over luxury were related to fears of the loss of political liberty and the degradation of British society. A writer using the pseudonym 'Britannicus' lamented: "how miserable must any nation be, where luxury and corruption are so far encouraged, that the vices of the people are deemed necessary for the support of the state! Where a corrupt faction impoverish the kingdom to enrich themselves."69

A number of writers complained that luxury was contributing to growing inequality by causing the wealthy to impose higher burdens upon the lower classes.70

One explained that "the Poverty of the Country proceeds, in a very great Measure, from the Residence of the chief Nobility and Gentry in this Town; where they live in the utmost Extravagance, and but rarely go into the Country with any other Design than to squeeze a Supply of Money out of their Tenants."71 Adam Dickson objected to the immorality of this trend during a period of food shortages. "Surely those persons are lost to all sense of shame, who, rich and idle, can behold the poor and industrious taxed to support their luxury and extravagance, and who, instead of bestowing any blessing upon the laborious hands that feed them, are always ready

Electors, in the Approaching Choice of their Representatives. (London: Mrs. Nutt, 1740) 23, "The fatal Consequences of Luxury" London Magazine July 1742: 347, 68 Lawrence E. Klein, "Liberty, Manners, and Politeness in Early Eighteenth-Century England," The Historical Journal 32 (1989) 603-604. 69 Britannicus, London Magazine July 1751: 308. 70 "Of Luxury, Extravagance, and Modern Politeness" London Magazine January 1743: 34, Reasons for the late increase of the poor-rates: or, a comparative view of the price of labour and provisions. (London: J. Dodsley, 1777) 28. 71 "An Enquiry into the Causes of the Poverty of the Country" Gentleman's Magazine February 1737: 104. 24

upon every occasion to squeeze and to oppress them." Unnecessarily heavy rents

were blamed for reducing the incentives to work among the poor and as part of the

disintegration of the traditional paternalism that mediated upper class spending and

ensured the survival of the lower orders.73 Historian Paul Langford has noted that,

despite economic growth, there was growing inequality during the later eighteenth-

century. This seems to suggest that such commentary was not unjustified.74

A number of writers were concerned that luxury was leading to the loss of traditional martial and social values among the upper classes. Some complained that the elite were no longer setting a proper example for the rest of the country. An author in London Magazine of March 1738 stated this very explicitly.

But we may little expect such Diversions to be encourag'd by Persons of Distinction, among our common People, when their own are sunk to so low an Ebb. Cards and Dice are at present the chief Sports of our Quality of both sexes: Quadrille and Hazard are the Business of their Life, instead of the Amusement of an idle Hour. For what but Vice and Intrigue can the Masquerade Meetings be calculated? What Improvement can be receiv'd from the Pantomimes of Master Lun, or the Rope Dancing and Tumbling of Mons. Le Brun at our Theatres? Are our modern pretty Fellows of the Army to have their Courage excited by the Squall of an Eunuch, or our Connoiseurs in Taste to have their Sentiments refin'd by the immodest Caper of a French Dancing Woman?76

Adam Dickson, An essay on the causes of the present high price of provisions, as connected with luxury, currency, taxes, and national debt. (London: E. and C. Dilly, 1773) 93. 73 "Lawyers, Taxes, &c" London Magazine March 1733: 110-111, "Causes of the Poverty of the Country" London Magazine February 1737: 87, "Monthly Chronologer" London Magazine December 1742: 622, Publicus, "The Distresses of the lower Classes among the People" London Magazine May 1774: 229, Dennis, An essay upon publick spirit, vi. 74 Langford, A Polite and Commercial People 68. 75 "New Thoughts upon Luxury" London MagazineNovember 1772: 539, "Modern Manners, a Sketch" London Magazine July 1773: 331-332, A New Correspondent, "Essay on Luxury" London Magazine October 1774: 481, Hive, Jacob. Reasons offered for the reformation of the House of Correction in Clerkenwell, (London: J. Scott, 1757) 8, Brown, An Estimate of the Manners and Principles, 25, 76 "The Importance of regulating the Diversions of the People" London Magazine March 1738: 140. 25

This author opined that, compared to those traditionally enjoyed by the English

nobility, frivolities of this nature lacked both respectability and social utility.77

Another author lamented that "true nobility now consists in splendid titles, gay

equipages, and princely palaces," rather than wisdom, generosity or valour.78 The

more extreme opinion was that modern aristocrats were impossible to distinguish in

morals or actions from the inferior ranks of society.79 It was also felt that spending on personal pleasure was replacing the traditional hospitality of English nobles. Percival

Stockdale explained that "luxury and dissipation destroy practical and active benevolence; for they multiply our wants to an immeasurable number; and the more we want, the less we shall bestow."80

Other observations about luxury destroying the social structure concentrated on ordinary members of society. These noted that it was making the poor weaker or less inclined to work. All originated with the belief that having a large number of industrious poor people is good for society and anything that reduces their industry or

01 increases the price of their labour was harmful. Many writers complained that the poor were copying the wealthy in their indolence, spending and tastes to the extent

For others concerned with this see: "Humorous Description of the Manners and Fashions of London" London Magazine April 1734: 196, "The Amusements of the Bath, and Extravagance of our modern Gaming" London Magazine December 1737: 684, "Shameful Modern Luxury" London Magazine May 1756: 226, Dennis, Essay Upon Publick Spirit, 13, Jonas Hanway, Observations on the causes of the dissoluteness which reigns among the lower classes of the people, 78. 78 "Modern Manners" London Magazine January 1773: 30. 79 "The Description of London" London Magazine May 1734: 247. 80 Percival Stockdale, Three discourses, 14. See also, "Of Modern Politeness" London Magazine February 1741:81. 81 M.J. Daunton, Progress and Poverty: An Economic and Social History of Britain 1700-1850, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995) 177 and John Sekora, Luxury: The Concept in Western Thought, Eden to Smollett, (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977) 284 express this view in addition to it being reflected in the primary sources cited in this paragraph. 26

that they too had become "profligate and extravagant." Some writers had specific

grievances regarding rural Britons' imitation of London fashions. "Every village must

now have a publick assembly; every handycraftsman must have his horse and

country-house, and every tradesman's wife her routs."83 These authors argued that the

poor were living better than they were supposed to and that this was dangerous to the

social order. Some feared that the luxury of the poor would reduce trade through an

increase in the price of British goods but most were concerned with a breakdown in traditional social roles.

In addition to the general alarm about the poor living too well, there were paternalistic writers who feared that luxurious habits were wasting the resources of poor people. It was felt that many were spending money on extravagancies that would have been better spent on hearty food or clothing for their families. Some writers objected to poor Britons' insistence on eating finer than their continental counterparts since this was either causing them to waste money or increasing the price of their labour. 'Philanthropos' worried about the "abundance of people in low life cannot be content unless their expences, in a variety of instances, are equal to theirs, who are in a much superior situation." Joseph Wimpey complained that "a Frenchman would be as well content with a piece of bread and an onion, or half a sprat, and a draft of water

"Modern Manners, a Sketch" London Magazine July 1773: 332 for quotation. See also An Old Rake, London Magazine March 1751: 130, "Shameful Modern Luxury" London Magazine May 1756: 225, Henry Fielding, "From an Enquiry into the Cause of the late Increase of Robbers, &c." Gentleman's Magazine January 1751: 3, A Serious Address to the Electors of Great-Britain 15-17, Hanway, Jonas. The defects of police the cause of immorality, and the continual robberies committed, particularly in and about the metropolis: with various proposals for preventing hanging and transportation: llikewise [sic] for the establishment of several plans of police on a permanent basis, (London: J. Dodsley, 1775) 273, 83 Britannicus, "Profligacy of the present Times" London Magazine May 1758: 223. 84 Philalethes, "Case between the Clothiers and the Weavers" Gentleman's Magazine May 1735: 234- 235, Anti Pyrobolos, "Effects of Firework-shows, Jubilees, &c." Gentleman's Magazine May 1741: 221, Fawconer, An Essay on Modern Luxury 24-25, Jones, Luxury, Pride and Vanity, 5, Hanway, Observations on the Causes of Dissoluteness, 72-73, 27 or poor cyder, as an Englishman would with the same quantity of much finer bread, and a pound or two of beef, or half a shoulder of mutton, and a pot or two of porter."85 While other habits were objected to merely because of expense, consumption of tea was also criticized for being new, foreign and lacking utility. An article in London Magazine observed "that the poor people in England diminish their little pittance of income, and hurt their health, by indulging in this expensive oriental luxury," rather than spending their money on bread and meat.86 Others charged that tea was replacing cheaper and heartier breakfasts or causing poor women to waste afternoons drinking sociably instead of working.87

Many writers worried that the tendency of middle class people to imitate their superiors was blurring social distinctions and impeding productivity. "The Hours of a

Play-house, must undoubtedly interfere with the Hours of. . . Business; and it is next to impossible but that the Minds of the Youth . .. must be seduc'd and misled, must be relaxed and unbent, and set above, as they think, the mechanick Business by which they are to get an honest Livelyhood."88 Many writers were upset that middle class luxury was increasing to such an extent that it resembled that of the aristocracy of

Philanthropes, "Hint to the Poor" London Magazine February 1766: 62, Joseph Wimpey, An essay on the present high price of provisions. Wherein is shewn, and fully explained, the particular causes that enhance the price of each species of them. (London: T. Davies, 1772) 11. 86 -Regis & Philo-Patriae, "A Political Essay on Tea" London Magazine January 1765: 42. 87 Simon Mason, The good and bad effects of tea consider'd. Wherein are exhibited, the physical virtues of tea; (London: M. Cooper, 1745), "Lively Portrait of the Fashionable Luxuries" London Magazine February 1773: 70. 88 "of Plays" London Magazine December 1733: 619, see also: Tradelove, "A Letter humbly offered to the trading Citizens of London" London Magazine March 1735: 117, Old Rake, London Magazine March 1751: 130, "Account of the Masquerade" London Magazine October 1768: 548, "On Theatric Entertainments" Gentleman's Magazine December 1733: 639-640, "Of Publick Cricket-Matches" Gentleman's Magazine September 1743: 486, Deborah Ginger, Gentleman's Magazine April 1759: 163-164, Jones, Luxury, Pride and Vanity, 4, 28

previous generations. John Trusler eloquently summed up anxieties about the

decline of traditional British values.

The great degree of luxury to which this country has arrived, in recent years, is not only astonishing but almost dreadful to think of. Time was, when those articles of indulgence, which now every mechanic aims at possession of, were enjoyed only by the Baron or Lord of a district. Men were happy to be the vessels or dependents of that Lord, and prided themselves in little but their submission and allegiance. This was the state of things during feudal government: but as, on the increase of trade, riches increased, men began to feel new wants, they became gradually less hardy and robust, grew effeminate as their property increased, and sighed for indulgences they never dreamed of before.90

The majority of these concerns about middling class consumption noted that clothing

and lifestyle had previously been appropriate to one's social position. "Dress should

be properly adapted to the Person, as in Writing, the Style must be suited to the

Subject. I am far from objecting to the Magnificence of Apparel, in those whose Rank

and Fortune justify and allow it," was a common attitude among these critics.91 Such

opinion was centered on the beliefs that only certain people deserved luxurious

consumption and that the social fabric that had made Britain wealthy, virtuous and powerful was at risk. It was also a reflection of the fear among the rural gentry about the decline of their social prominence with the increased wealth of urban commercial people.

"Of Modern Politeness" London Magazine February 1741: 81, "The Prevalence and Mischiefs of Luxury, with a pleasant Story of a Dutch Burgomaster" London Magazine October 1742: 494, "Lively Portrait of the Fashionable Luxuries" London Magazine February 1773: 70, Theophrastus, "Letters on the Progress of Luxury and Dissipation in Edinburgh, During the Last Twenty Years" London Magazine, Enlarged and Improved June 1784: 471, "Objections to the Bible answer'd" Gentleman's Magazine January 1734: 13-14, Peter Moderation, "The present mode of living among the Citizens exposed" Gentleman's Magazine May 1766: 219-220, J.N. "Modern Taste of Tradesmens Daughters, exploded" Gentleman's Magazine January 1773: 15, 90John Trusler, The way to be rich and, 5. 91 "Of Dress" London Magazine March 1737: 129, see also: "Of Luxury and Corruption" London Magazine March 1735: 127, Civis, London Magazine September 1754: 410, "A National Race" London Magazine June 1755: 277, Aurelius, London Magazine December 1764: 619-621, Jones, Luxury, Pride and Vanity, 12, Country Clergyman. Of luxury, more particularly with respect to apparel, 18, 29

There were a few periods in the eighteenth century when high food prices led to

shortages among the poorer members of society. The most pronounced of these were

1766-67 and 1770-75.92 During these times there were numerous pamphlets and

magazine articles written about the causes of the current high prices of provisions.

Many causes were suggested, including the national debt, the banking system and

enclosure but luxury was the most frequently seen as the culprit.93 In earlier food

shortages, there had been a few pamphlets on the subject but they focussed on ways

for poor people to survive by eating cheaper or different foods.94 The inquiries into

the causes and morality of expensive provisions were new to the sixties. Some writers

complained that wealth was being unevenly divided and that there was a moral

problem with "the astonishing sums which we see continually thrown up upon dogs,

horses, equipages, entertainments, play-houses, gaming tables, side-boards of plate, jewels, laces, pictures, and a thousand other idols, while the nation is over the head in

debt, and thousands of sober, honest, industrious families are destitute of common necessaries."95 The increasing number and extravagance of carriages came under

Langford, A Polite and Commercial People, 442, notes that 1709, 1727, 1728, 1740 were the only bad harvests in first half of century. 1756 and 1757 had shortages and food riots while things were particularly bad in 1766-1767 and 1770-1775. These years tend to correspond to the discourse on luxury and food shortages. 93 For Enclosure see: Wimpey, An essay on the present high price of provisions, 38-39, An address to the P-t, in behalf of the starving multitude. Pointing out the causes of the present high price of provisions: with easy and effectual methods how to make them cheap. (London; R. Baldwin, 1766) 28, Josiah Tucker, The causes of the dearness of provisions assigned; with effectual methods for reducing the prices of them. Humbly submitted to the consideration of Parliament. (Gloucester: R. Raikes, 1766) 14-15, For National Debt see: Soame Jenyns, Thoughts on the causes and consequences of the present high price of provisions. (London: J. Dodsley, 1767), for Banking System see: Dickson, An Essay on the causes of the present high price of provisions, 35-36,47. 94 Examples of this include: Doctor of Medicine, Provision for the Poor: In Time of Dearth and Scarcity, (Edinburgh: James Watson, 1699), R. S., Doctor of Medicine. Provision for the poor in time of dearth & scarcity. Where there is an account of such food as may be easily gotten when corns are scarce, (Edinburgh: James Watson, 1709), Richard Bradley, A philosophical enquiry into the late severe winter, the scarcity and dearness of provisions, (London: J. Roberts, 1729). 95 Thomas Bentley, A warning to Britons of all ranks; especially the King, the Parliament, and the Clergy. (London: 1794) 3. For general moral complaints about inequality, see also: Publicus, "The 30

attack since it must have led to a significant increase in the number of horses on the

island. Adam Dickson calculated that land, which could have provided food for the

families of 200,000 labourers, was being used to raise oats or provide pasture for the

animals.96 Others insisted that extravagant diets were causing the consumption of

foods, which required an excessive amount of land to produce.

Luxury, which has so universally obtained in all degrees of people, is the true cause of the immoderate demand and consumption of all kinds of meat, fowls, butter, &c. Compare the consumption of these articles fifty years ago, with the consumption now, in a family of the same class, and you'll find the quantity nearly doubled. Our improvements in agriculture, and skill in providing artificial pasture for cattle have been great during the period above mentioned; but by no means equal to the increased consumption; it therefore can be no wonder, that the prices of those commodities have been constantly increasing.97

In 1773, the renowned Methodist John Wesley wrote a pamphlet on the causes

of the high price of provisions, in which he complained that oats were expensive

because of the significant numbers of horses being bred. Farmers he said "can turn

Distresses of the lower Classes among the People" London Magazine May 1774: 228, Soame Jenyns, Thoughts on the causes and consequences of the present high price of provisions, 3. 96Adam Dickson, An essay on the causes of the present high price of provisions, 23-25. For arguments about horses see also: "Account of the Dearness of Provisions" London Magazine July 1772: 338, Political speculations; or, an attempt to discover the causes of the dearness of provisions, and high price of labour, in England: with some hints for remedying those evils. (London: J. Almon, 1767) 16- 17, Amicus Patriae. A letter to the Right Honourable Lord North: attempting to shew the causes and the remedies of the high price of provisions, upon a new plan. (London: W. Brown, 1772) 12, Thomas Elbridge Rooke, Considerations on the present dearness of provisions and corn, in Great-Britain; with thoughts on a suitable remedy, so as not to oppress the landed or trading interest, (Devizes: T. Burrough, 1772) 6-7, John Arbuthnot of Mitcham, An inquiry into the connection between the present price of provisions, and the size of farms. With remarks on population as affected thereby. (London: T. Cadell, 1773) 56-57, Jonas Hanway, Observations on the causes of the dissoluteness which reigns among the lower classes of the 85, Wimpey, Essay on the Present High Price of Provisions, 20-21. Langford, A Polite and Commercial People, 448 recognizes this aspect of the discourse as well. 97 A letter address 'd to the Right Honourable Brass Crosby, Esq; Lord Mayor of... London, respecting the present high price of provisions. (London: T. Payne, 1771) 11, For similar complaints see: Arbuthnot,, An inquiry into the connection, 47, 55, Reasons for the late increase of the poor-rates: or, a comparative view of the price of labour and provisions. (London: J. Dodsley, 1777), Thomas Elbridge Rooke, Considerations on the present dearness of provisions and corn, in Great-Britain, 9- 14, Jenyns, Thoughts on the causes and consequences of the present high price of provisions, 11-13, Dickson, An essay on the causes of the present high price of provisions, 22-23, Wimpey, An essay on the present high price of provisions, 45, 62, "Causes of Depopulation" London Magazine May 1774: 227, "Account of the Dearness of Provisions" London Magazine July 1772: 338-339, 31 their Land to far better Account, by breeding Horses alone. - Such is the Demand not only for Coach and Chaise Horses ... but much more for bred Horses."98 Wesley also suggested that grain was expensive because large amounts of it were diverted from the production of bread to the distillation of spirits." He claimed as well that luxury was making land more expensive because gentlemen needed ever increasing revenues to pay for their lifestyles.100 High dining was the worst culprit since it increased elite consumption.

Another Cause, (the most terrible one of all, and the most destructive both of personal and social Happiness) why not only Beef, Mutton, and Pork, but all kinds of Victuals are so dear, is Luxury. What can stand against this? Will it not waste and destroy all that Nature and Art can produce? If a Person of Quality will boil down three dozen of Neat's tongues, to make two or three Quarts of Soup, (and so proportionately in other things) what wonder that Provisions fail? - Only look into the Kitchens of the Great, the Nobility and Gentry, almost without exception.101

Throughout eighteenth-century discourse luxury was blamed for a number of social problems ranging from effeminate manners to bankruptcy, corruption or food shortages. As a cultural change, it was blamed for leading people away from their traditionally virtuous social roles. In some cases it was blamed for blurring social distinctions that were understood to have previously provided order and an honoured position for the rural gentry. In other cases it was blamed for making the upper classes selfish so that they lost their traditional paternalism, dissipated their children's inheritances or drove the price of food out of the reach of poorer people. The vast majority of the authors were comparing the effects of luxury on present society

John Wesley, Thought on the Present Scarcity of Provisions, (London: R. Hawes, 1773) 10-11. Wesley, Present Scarcity of Provisions, 9. } Wesley, Present Scarcity of Provisions, 14. ' Wesley, Present Scarcity of Provisions, 13. 32 against an imagined past where people worked harder, men were more masculine, social roles were more rigidly defined and paternalism kept the poor from suffering too much. As a result, all of these concerns about luxury were expressions of the authors' hesitancy about the manner in which society was changing. They reflect different viewpoints and conflicting fears but the totality of them served to make luxury seem an almost universal social and economic problem. 33

Chapter 3: National Consequences of Luxury

The strength, vitality and martial glory of nations were topics of major interest in eighteenth-century Britain. This was partly because of the frequent wars with

France and expansion of the British Empire. The discourse centring on these topics was influenced by a classical notion that a nation's power was of supreme importance to the individuals that composed it. Luxury played a role in this discourse in a number of ways. Sometimes it involved xenophobic complaints about the decline of British culture due to the influence of French or Italian customs. In other instances it involved concern about the purchase of continental luxury goods affecting the balance of trade and weakening Britain. It was also commonly believed that luxury had led to the decline of the Roman Empire by weakening individuals and corrupting the government. As a result, there were many comparisons between the progression of luxury in ancient Rome and modern Britain, usually written to express fears about the decline of the British Empire. The writers regularly expressed their belief that luxury was a destructive force that endangered military prowess and imperial glory.

They generally approved either of the present nation or an idealized version of its recent past, but were fearful about its future.

A number of writers worried about the decline of British prominence due to the consumption of continental luxury goods and the adoption of foreign entertainments.

The popularity of Italian customs was of concern since the Italian peninsula was viewed as effeminate, militarily weak and politically fractured.102 John Dennis contrasted the manners of contemporary Italy with the valour, honour and public

Isaac de Pinto, An essay on luxury. Written originally in French, (London: T. Becket and P.A. De Hondt, 1766) 21, "Luxury the Ruin of States" London Magazine April 1735: 185, "Reflections on the Venetian Ball" London Magazine May 1750: 222. 34 spirit of republican Rome. "Tis impossible to give any reason of so great a

Difference between the Ancient Romans, and the Modern Italians but only Luxury, and the Reigning Luxury of Modern Italy, is that soft and effeminate Musick which abounds in the Italian Opera."103 Opera and other fashionable entertainments were the most criticized Italian influences on British culture during the eighteenth century.104

John Brown wrote a book on how contemporary manners affected readiness for war in which he lamented how "these leading Characters of false Delicacy influence our other Entertainments, and be attended with a low and unmanly Taste in Music. That divine Art, capable of inspiring every thing that is great or excellent, of ouzing every nobler Passion of the Soul, is at length dwindled into a Woman's or an Eunuch's effeminate Trill."105

Even more writers expressed alarm at the influence of French customs. Like the

Italians, the French were seen as an overly refined, effeminate nation more interested in producing new sauces or perfecting pleasure than with virtue or liberty.106 They were seen as "vain, trifling, changeable, and insincere," as well as "Luxurious and effeminate."107 Polemicists believed that French food was overly complex and lacked the simple qualities of traditional British cooking. "Their Fowl is good and well larded," they admitted, "but their other Meat is generally so adulterated with Sauces,

John Dennis, An essay on the opera's after the Italian manner, which are about to be establish 'd on the English stage: with some reflections on the damage which they may bring to thepublick. (London: John Nutt, 1706) 5th page of preface. John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination, 370 deals with the attack on luxury and contrast in the discourse between traditional British simplicity and Italian effeminacy. His arguments on this subject are similar to my observations and the points made in this paragraph. 105 John Brown, An estimate of the manners and principles of the times, 45-46. See also:105 John Dennis, An essay upon publick spirit, 22. 106 Michele Cohen, Fashioning Masculinity: National Identity and Language in the Eighteenth Century, (London: Routledge, 1996) 6-7. 107 "The Character of the French Nation," London Magazine April 1773: 187. See also: Brown, Estimate of the Manners and Principles, 135-136, 35

that 'tis impossible to determine whether what one eats is Beef, Mutton or Veal."108

Britain and France were at war for large portions of the eighteenth century, leading at

least one author to complain that the importation of French luxuries was creating a

negative balance of trade and financing the enemy.109 There were also concerns about

the practice of imitating the customs of the enemy. One author in London Magazine

commented:

This is the Case of a present prevailing Extravagancy; I mean the ridiculous Imitation of the French, which is now become the epidemical Distemper of this Kingdom: I behold, with Indignation, the sturdy Conquerors of France dwindled into the imperfect Mimicks, or ridiculous Caracaturas of all its Levity. The Travesty is universal; poor England produces nothing fit to eat, or drink, or wear: Our Cloaths, our Furniture, nay our Food too, all is to come from France;110

There was considerable apprehension that essential elements of British character and

virtue were being lost by copying French fashions. For example, David Hume wrote to Edward Gibbon criticizing a recently published book because it was written in

French, which he described as an overly flowery language whose prominence was going to fade in comparison to English.111 Some writers who had similar views, added the caveat that French luxury was conducive to despotism since it made people

108 Gentleman lately residing at the English ambassador's at Paris. An account of Paris, and places adjoining. Giving an account of the royal family of France, the government of France, (London: John Morphew, 1710) 24. See also: An enquiry into the melancholy circumstances of Great Britain: more particularly in regard to the oeconomy of private families and persons, gentlemen, clergy, (London: W. Bickerton, 1740) 31-32, Philo Clericus "An Essay Upon Christmas-Pye" London Magazine December 1733: 629, "Royal Cookery: or the first Kings were Cooks" London Magazine May 1736: 256, 109 &c, London Magazine April 1755: 160-162. 110 "Extravagancy of following the French Fashions" London Magazine November 1738: 552. See also: "Of Dress" London Magazine August 1732: 239, A. Fullbottom, London Magazine April 1733: 173, "Royal Cookery: or the first Kings were Cooks" London Magazine May 1736: 256, "To Caleb D'Anvers" London Magazine October 1737: 558, Norman, London Magazine April 1739: 197, "Lively Portrait of the Fashionable Luxuries" London Magazine February 1773: 69, An enquiry into the melancholy circumstances of Great Britain, 10, 111 David Hume, "Letter to Edward Gibbon, October 24,1767" Gibbon Papers XIII, British Library Additional Manuscripts 34886, folios 42-43. 36

servile to whomever provided it. One author suggested that "Fantasticalness in dress,

if introduced by a foreign nation, pressages the bringing in the politicks and religion

of that nation."112

Educated people in eighteenth-century Britain generally believed that simple

virtue had provided for the rise of all great empires and that luxury had caused their

decline. This view was prominent in histories of the ancient world and as invective in

works about the effects of luxury on contemporary society. In the late seventeenth-

century, Sir George Mackenzie argued that desert climates necessitated frugality and

that in the ancient world this had enabled desert peoples to conquer their luxurious neighbours.113 In 1740 an unnamed pamphleteer made this argument in relation to the greatness of Ancient Israel and Egypt. "Palestine and Egypt enjoyed Liberty when the

Natives were frugal and industrious; the Climate made them the richest People in the

Universe; but when Luxury had effeminated the Inhabitants, they fell a Prey to arbitrary Turkish Government, the Country grew depopulated, and is at this Day the poorest in the World."114 The same argument was frequently made with great force in dealing with the history of ancient Persia and Mesopotamia. The power of Assyria and Babylon had declined because of the luxurious culture of their ruling classes, and the Persian conquest was attributed to the virtuous and simple manners of Cyrus and his followers.115

By these excellent Customs the Persians preserv'd their Liberty and Empire not quite 250 years, reckoning from the Death of Cyrus the

112 Gentleman's Magazine February 1731: 56. See also: "The antient and present State of France" London Magazine November 1733: 576-577, "The Characteristicks of our present political State" London Magazine March 1758: 116, Gentleman's Magazine July 1733: 359, Brewer, Pleasures of the Imagination, 84. 113 Sir George Mackenzie, The Moral History of Frugality, 8. 114 An enquiry into the melancholy circumstances of Great Britain, 38. 115 James Burgh, Britain's remembrancer, 9-10. 37

Great; for they dwindled away soon after, and so fell off from Virtue, that they were scarce known to be the same People. Their Decay and Ruin are attributed to loss of publick Spirit; despising of virtuous Poverty; a Luxury in their Way of Living; a servile Compliance to Power and Greatness; the bad Education of their Princes; and a Breach of Treaties, and a want of Faith in all publick Engagements.116

All the ancient Greek city-states were subject to such analysis. An author in London

Magazine argued that while those states "preserved their Integrity and Temperance, they likewise maintain'd their Liberties in full Vigour, and kept all the neighbouring

Princes in Awe."117 Ultimately, however it was luxury that had occasioned their ruin.118 One pundit focused on a particular form of luxury in explaining the later development. "Too great an Attention to Theatrical Entertainments," he opined, had

"enervated the bravest and wisest people" diverting "their Thoughts from the

Consideration of the publick Good, which certainly ought to be the principal Object of a brave and free People.119

The same sorts of assessments were frequently applied to the Roman Empire.120

Whilst Virtue, Temperance, and Contempt of Riches continued to be the ruling Passions of that People, all Opposition fell before them, and Rome, from inconsiderable Beginnings, became the most flourishing Commonwealth, that the World ever saw. But when Luxury, Avarice and Corruption had erazed these generous Principles out of their Minds,

"Luxury destructive of Governments" Gentleman's Magazine October 1734: 549. For similar arguments on ancient Persia see: Isaac de Pinto, An essay on luxury, 17, Burgh, Britain's remembrancer, 10, "Causes of the Ruin of States" London Magazine October 1734: 539. U7 "Tjjg Prevalence and fatal Consequences of Luxury and Corruption" London Magazine May 1741: 244. 118 "Dreadful Effects of Luxury" London Magazine January 1756: 16. See also: "Luxury and Corruption the Ruin of Athens and Rome" London Magazine July 1736: 366. ii9 "Of frequenting Opera's, Masquerades," London Magazine April 1735: 234. See also, "Of the present Degeneracy of the Stage" London Magazine August 1737: 432. 120 Historian Andrew Cunningham found these arguments about ancient luxury to be extremely important in the contemporary discourse. "The association of luxury with the military decline of Rome, and of the absence of luxury with the martial strength of Sparta, was arguably the greatest single reason for its poor reputation among many eighteenth-century writers ("David Hume's Account of Luxury" Journal of the History of Economic Thought 27 (2005): 240. 38

a visible Alteration immediately ensued, and the Work of Ages was destroy'd in the Course of a few Years.121

"The Roman Commonwealth," historically "the most powerful as well as best contrived for Duration, first lost its own Liberties, and afterwards its Dominion over other Nations, by Luxury and Corruption."122 Erasmus Jones summed up the general understanding of Roman society in his book, Luxury, Pride and Vanity. "Such was the Progress of Luxury among the Romans; and exactly as it grew, their Power and

Reputation decreased."123

The most prominent work of Roman History in eighteenth-century Britain was

Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon was not always critical of luxury, finding that its existence among elites, "in their dress, their table, their houses, and their furniture," was "the only means that can correct the unequal

"Luxury and Corruption the Ruin of Athens and Rome," London Magazine July 1736: 367. 122 "Causes of the Ruin of States" London Magazine October 1734: 539. 123 Erasmus Jones, Luxury, pride and vanity, 61. For other examples of this argument see: "Luxury the Ruin of States" London Magazine April 1735: 184, "A Short History of Roman Luxury" London Magazine January 1736: 27-28, "Proposals offered to the Consideration of Parliament, for subjecting all tickets issued at the Theatres, to the Stamp-Duty" London Magazine April 1736: 139, Phileleutherias, London Magazine May 1737: 227, "The People's Regard to Magistracy, and what occasions their Contempt of it" London Magazine May 1739: 229, "The Prevalence and fatal Consequences of Luxury and Corruption" London Magazine May 1741: 244, "Journal of the Proceedings and Debates in the Political Club" London Magazine May 1746: 217, Algernon Sidney, "Of Corruption" London Magazine August 1747: 350-351, "The Ruin of Rome, a Warning to all Kingdoms and States" London Magazine February 1750: 78, "Nations ruined by Bribery and Corruption" London Magazine July 1750: 322, "Journal of the Proceedings and Debates in the Political Club" London Magazine April 1754: 157, "Dreadful Effects of Luxury" London Magazine January 1756: 16 "Grandeur or Strength of Mind in Public Characters" London Magazine September 1782: 411, "Luxury destructive of Governments" Gentleman's Magazine October 1734: 549, Courtly Grub, "National Poverty a Blessing" Gentleman's Magazine December 1735: 717, R. Freeman, "Sending young Gentlemen too early to travel, an Error in Education" Gentleman's Magazine April 1737: 221, Caius, "Affinity between the Roman and British Empires" Gentleman's Magazine September 1780: 406, Mackenzie, The Moral History of Frugality, 26, Fawconer, An Essay On Modern Luxury, 52, Societe oeconomique de Berne. Essays on the spirit of legislation, in the encouragement of agriculture, population, manufactures, and commerce. Translated from the original French, (London: W. Nicoll, 1772) 143, An enquiry into the melancholy circumstances of Great Britain 10, John Brown, Thoughts on civil liberty, 68-77. Burgh, Britain's Remembrancer, 11, M.J. Daunton, Progress and Poverty, 362 is a secondary source that notes this discourse. 39

distribution of property." Although Gibbon was not generally opposed to luxury,

he found that its spread among soldiers led to military defeat and the loss of empire.

He criticized the army of Septimius Severus as "elated by success, enervated by

luxury, and raised above the level of subjects by their dangerous privileges, they soon

became incapable of military fatigue, oppressive to the country, and impatient of a

just subordination."125

Edward Montagu's Reflections on the Rise and Fall of the Antient Republicks

dealt with the relationship between luxury and ancient nations more explicitly than

any other book. Montagu's thesis was that every one of the legendary ancient

republics had risen to prominence because of simple manners and a prioritization on

military glory. In addition, he found that when their habits became more lax and

luxury was allowed to grow among their people, these republics suffered a decline

and eventual conquest. He made this argument with respect to Sparta, Athens,

Thebes, Carthage and Rome.126

Whilst the people, following the pernicious example of their superiors, contracted such a dastardly effeminacy, join'd to an utter inability to support the fatigues of war, as quickly threw them into the hands of the first resolute invader. Thus the Assyrian empire sunk under the arms of Cyrus with his poor but hardy Persians. The extensive and opulent empire of Persia fell an easy conquest to Alexander and a handful of Macedonians; and the Macedonian Empire, when enervated by the luxury of Asia, was compell'd to receive the yoke of the victorious Romans.127

Edward Gibbon, The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Volume the first. (London: W. Strahan, 1776) 54. 125 Gibbon, Decline and Fall, 126. 126 Edward Wortely Montagu, Reflections on the rise and fall of the antient republicks. Adapted to the present state of Great Britain. (London: A. Millar, 1759) 35-36, 160-161, 176, 223. 127 Montagu, Reflections on the rise and fall of the antient republicks, 221-222. 40

Montagu concluded with a chapter comparing Britain in the eighteenth century to

Rome or Carthage during their periods of decline. "Let us throw but one glance upon the present situation of these once glorious Republicks, and we cannot help reflecting upon the final and direful catastrophe, which will eternally result from the prevalence of ambitious and selfish faction supported by corruption. . . Should faction again predominate and succeed in its destructive views, and the dastardly maxims of luxury and effeminacy universally prevail amongst us - Such too will soon be the fate of

Britain."128

Some writers elaborated on Britain's degradation by comparing the habits of their present countrymen to those of their counterparts in earlier epochs. John Dennis found sixteenth-century men to be more "just, generous, sincere, faithful, laborious,.

.., frugal, liberal, temperate, [and] hospitable" than his contemporaries.129 Around the outbreaks of the two major mid-century wars there were writers who feared that luxurious habits were likely going to end in military defeat. The most famous example of this is John Brown's Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times, which discussed the loss of martial values and increase of effeminacy among the

Montagu, Reflections on the rise and fall of the antient republicks, 384. 129 Dennis, Essay Upon the Publick Spirit, 8. See also: "Our old Constitution and present Degeneracy" London Magazine April 1749: 185, "Proposals offered to the Consideration of Parliament, for subjecting all tickets issued at the Theatres, to the Stamp-Duty" London Magazine April 1736: 168- 169, "Royal Cookery: or the first Kings were Cooks" London Magazine May 1736: 256, "Of the present Degeneracy of the Stage" London Magazine August 1737: 432, "Luxury throughout the whole Year" London Magazine May 1743: 239, "Reflections on the Venetian Ball" London Magazine May 1750: 222, "A Letter from a Gentleman in the Country to his Friend in Town" London Magazine March 1751: 125, Britannicus, London Magazine May 1752: 227, Britannicus, "Profligacy of the present Times" London Magazine May 1758: 223, Philo-Britanniae, "Folly of Building Great Cities" London Magazine July 1762: 350, "The old English Way of Living" Gentleman's Magazine September 1731: 377, Burgh, Britain's Remembrancer, 15-17,41, "Degeneracy of the People of England lamented" Gentleman's Magazine July 1746: 363.Benevolus, Gentleman's Magazine, November 1752: 507 41

English. James Burgh asked his readers if "the favourite Pleasures that so wholly ingross and bewitch a Christian Nation," had brought it down to the point where "we cannot live without them, even while an Enemy is laying waste our Country, and expected every Hour at our very Gates?" These writings articulated explicit concerns about a decline in British values and its effects on the military. They embody a real fear among educated people that urbanization and lives devoted to pleasure were undermining the most valued elements of traditional British society.

Two of the most interesting examples of this type of reasoning came from writers commenting on changes in British diet. During the late thirties, an author referring to himself as 'South Briton' wrote an article about the effects of tea. He feared that it was weakening individuals, thereby compromising their military power.

If this unwholesome Weed is not in some Degree prohibited by the Government, I can expect Nothing less, in one Generation more, but that we must hire Foreigners, as they do in Spain, to do our hard Labour; and for the Defence of the Nation. I leave any one to judge what Soldiers we are like to have. The Spaniards very likely had felt the Force of English Beer within this last 20 Years, if the Use of it had not been exchanged for warm Water bewitch'd with Indian Poyson.132

In 1754, 'Goliah English' wrote an article about roast beef. He understood this dish to represent Britishness, physical strength and simple military values. Thus he was disturbed that the aristocracy were eschewing it in favour of extravagant French creations and he feared that this signified the loss of all that was good about his own

John Brown, Estimate of the Manners and Principles, 144-145, An enquiry into the melancholy circumstances of Great Britain. 131 Burgh, Britain's Remembrancer, 28. See also: Britannicus, "Profligacy of the present Times" London Magazine May 1758, 223, "Proposals offered to the Consideration of Parliament, for subjecting all tickets issued at the Theatres, to the Stamp-Duty" London Magazine April 1736: 169, Britannicus, London Magazine April 1745: 181, "A Letter from a Gentleman in the Country to his Friend in Town" London Magazine March 1751: 125-126, Philo-Britanniae, "Folly of Building Great Cities" London Magazine July 1762: 351, A Serious Address to the Electors of Great-Britain, 45-46, "Dreadful Effects of Luxury" London Magazine January 1756: 17. 132 South Briton, "Observations on the Effects of Tea" Gentleman's Magazine April 1737: 214. 42 country. In face of the pending war with the French, his work implied that military success was being compromised by elite preferences. While these two works are generally indicative of concerns about luxury, they also highlight the importance of diet to notions of British identity. They associated roasted meats, beer and simply- cooked vegetables with traditional values while seeing wine, tea and complicated dishes as signs of luxury and moral decay.

Much of the rhetoric against luxury in eighteenth-century Britain was related to national elements. Some writers had xenophobic complaints about the influence of

French or Italian customs. Linda Colley argues that British identity was formed during this period out of fears of French invasions and opposition to Catholicism.134

The opposition to French luxury influenced this process by differentiating between

British virtue and continental dissoluteness. Many other writers were fascinated by national glory, fearing that luxury would lead to military defeat or the loss of international prominence at the outbreak of major mid-century wars.135 Many of these were influenced by the understanding that luxury led to declines in the fortunes, glory and empires of Rome and other ancient nations. Some writers took this thesis further and developed universal rules about how luxury impoverished nations, corrupted them and led them to decline.136 All of these concerns, like those explored in chapter

Goliah English, London Magazine June 1754: 270. It is reasonable to view his concerns in relation to the Seven Year's War since the North American front broke out in 1754, the same year as the article was written. 134 Linda Colley, "Britishness and Europeanness: Who are the British Anyway?" Journal of British Studies 31 (1992): 309-29. 135 John Brewer has observed that concerns about luxury were prominent around the outbreak of the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven-Years War. He noted fears "that luxury and refinement were weakening the moral fibre of the nation." John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination, 82. 136 "Occasional Thoughts on Luxury, its Causes and Effects" London Magazine January 1736: 8, "The Danger of Corruption in a State" London Magazine April 1739: 194, Britannicus, London Magazine May 1752: 227, "Luxury the Ruin of States" London Magazine April 1735: 184, "Of frequenting 43

2, were the product of people's apprehensions about increasing urban consumption.

They associated Britain's wealth, virtue and power with its traditional rural society.

As a result, they worried that the replacement of traditional British fare with French dishes was threatening the nation's international prominence. Traditionalist writers were proud of their country's military power, which they warned was being eroded.

Opera's, Masquerades," London Magazine April 1735: 205, "The fatal Consequences of Luxury" London Magazine July 1742: 347, "Luxury the Ruin of a Nation" Gentleman's Magazine April 1735: 185, Britannicus, "Profligacy of the present Times" London Magazine May 1758: 223, "Causes of the Rise, Progress and Destruction of Commerce" London Magazine November 1732: 407-408, "Of Luxury and Corruption" London Magazine March 1735, 127, "The Prevalence and fatal Consequences of Luxury and Corruption" London Magazine May 1741: 244-246, "Dreadful Effects of Luxury" London Magazine January 1756: 15, "A New Correspondent, "Essay on Luxury" London Magazine October 1774: 481, "Luxury destructive of Governments" Gentleman's Magazine October 1734: 549, Burgh, Britain's Remembrancer, 13-14. 44

Chapter 4: Personal Consequences of Luxury

Previous chapters have shown that luxury was condemned for its immorality, wastefulness, contribution to food shortages, foreshadowing of national decline, inherent foreignness and weakening of British values. In addition, numerous writers were critical of its effects on consumers as individuals. Many of these criticisms were general ones that associated luxury with sloth, indolence, reduced mental faculties and the inability to experience pleasure. In addition, some people criticized luxury as the cause of numerous diseases, particularly gout. In the second half of the century, there was a significant increase in books written by doctors about the preservation of health. The association of luxury with diseases appeared in diverse works but was an especially prominent feature of these. The medical condemnation of luxury forms an important element of the discourse on it and, along with other concerns about the effects of luxury on individuals, forms the topic of this chapter.

In its condemnations, luxury was frequently associated with lethargy and an inability to experience any real sensations. On this topic, A.F.M. Willich noted that

"with the constant increase of refinement and luxury, a certain weakness and indisposition, whether real or imaginary, has infected society in the character of a gentle epidemic."137 Samuel Fawconer claimed that the luxurious, "seldom deny themselves any gratification," and that as a result, "luxury impairs the faculties of the soul, clouds the understanding, renders the will listless and inactive, stupefies the judgement, [and] blunts the edge of our spirits."138 William Cadogan, in his highly

1 A.F.M. Willich, Lectures on diet and regimen: being a systematic inquiry into the most rational means of preserving health and prolonging life. Together with physiological and chemical explanations, (London: T.N. Longman, 1799) 2. l38Samuel Fawconer, An essay on modern luxury, 4, 33. 45 influential Dissertation on the Gout, associated luxury with laziness, claiming that

"Indolence, blunting all our sensations, naturally leads us to Intemperance: we want the whip and spur of luxury to excite our jaded appetites."139 Similarly, an unnamed writer in London Magazine claimed that it "emasculates our minds, and makes us regardless of every thing but what relates to the gratification of its incessant and insatiable demands."140 Another claimed that it "stupifies the senses, and makes men tame."141

One of the other major concerns with the effects of luxury on individuals was that it diverted them from the main purposes in life and made them incapable of experiencing true pleasure. One such argument was made with the suggestion that peasants gained more enjoyment from their simple meals than the wealthy did from luxurious ones because over the course of time, ordinary food did not over stimulate them.142 John Wesley argued that the desire for grander and more luxurious things could only provide short-term enjoyment and that it was insatiable.143 William

Cadogan found that luxury left people in a state from which "the body is less able to free itself, and wants more aid from art."144 Other writers emphasized that the gratification of sensual desires, often gastronomic, "pall and stupify their enjoyment to such a measure, that the most exquisite and necessary bodily pleasures lose that relis." Still others claimed that animals and less civilized humans were happier

13 William Cadogan, A dissertation on the gout, and all chronic diseases, jointly considered, as proceeding from the same causes; what those causes are; and a rational and natural method of cure proposed. Addressed to all invalids. (London: J. Dodsley, 1771) 39. HO "j)readful Effects of Luxury" London Magazine: or Gentlemen's Monthly Intelligencer January 1756: 15. 141 "Luxury pernicious to Persons and States" London Magazine December 1749: 537. 142 Untitled Letter on Wants and Desires, London Magazine February 1755: 72. 143 John Wesley, The important question: a sermon on Matt. xvi. 26. (London: J. Paramore, 1782) 17- 18. 144 Cadogan, Dissertation on the gout, 43. 46 because they were able to enjoy the simple pleasures of daily existence.145 In 1732 an author in London Magazine argued that luxury inhibits true sensual pleasure. "Reason tells us that Temperance, or living within our Constitutions and Fortunes, is the Basis and Root of all Virtue and Happiness. If some say, they can't do this, or they won't do it; all we have to say to them is, that they neither can, nor will be happy."146

Separate from the numerous concerns about its effects on mental faculties, many writers associated luxury with ill health and disease. Some of those who expressed this view were not medical experts. In his Essay on Modern Luxury,

Samuel Fawconer, observed that

The present pleasure of sense is more the object of attention, than health of body, and soundness of mind. And hence, plain wholesome diets, which are the preservatives of health, are disregarded for such as are high-seasoned and inflaming; by which the mind is impaired, the body weakened, and the span of this mortal life contracted.147

Writers in the Gentleman's Magazine suggested that the large numbers of childhood diseases were the product of delicate care or that the consumption of tea, an imported luxury, had made the English unfit for manual labour.148 A direct association of luxury with illness appeared in London Magazine when an author claimed of the craze for extravagant meals that "these glorious Toils are crown'd with the just

Rewards of all Chronical Distempers; the Gout, the Stone, the Scurvy, and the Palsy

"Appetite over-indulg'd tends to Misery" London Magazine August 1755: 376, "Some Account of a small Volume, just Published, under the Title of, A Comparitive View of the State and Faculties of Man, with those of the Animal World" Gentleman's Magazine or Trader's Monthly Intelligencer September 1765: 417-418.

146 njj^

People, and their Offspring, from Temperance and Sobriety, than there is from

Gluttony and Drunkenness."150

One of the most influential and widely read authors of the period was the

Methodist preacher John Wesley. His book Primitive Physick included remedies for diseases but was mainly a guide for physical health. Although he introduced his work with the Christian message that there had been no weakness or sickness prior to the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, he emphasized practical measures to enable people to live healthier. In doing so he was expressing the belief that God's Will involved long life, procreation and industry on Earth.151 Wesley's basic rule was that

"nothing conduces more to health, than abstinence and plain food with due labour."152

To this he added condemnations of a number of specific dietary luxuries such as "all pickled, or smoked, or salted food, and all high-season'd is unwholesome," while urging people to "[a]bstain from all mixt, all high-season'd food."153 Wesley stated that the consumption of tea caused nervous disorders and had given him a paralytic shaking of the hand while at Oxford. In short, it was a poison that weakened those who consumed it.154 Wesley was one of the writers who most explicitly articulated

"Of Taste, modern Table-Talk, and Luxury in Eating" London Magazine February 1738: 71. l50Beraard Mandeville, The fable of the bees, 88. 151 John Wesley, Primitive Physick: Or, an Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases, (London: William Pine, 1770) iii. 152 Wesley, Primitive Physick, xvii. 153 Wesley, Primitive Physick, xvi, xvii. 154 Wesley Primitive Physick xviii, Wesley, John. A letter to a friend, concerning tea. (Bristol: Felix Farley, 1748)7,4, 13. 48 the connection between luxury and illness. His works on this and other topics were widely read and highly influential.

During the second half of the century, there was a major increase in books written by physicians about the preservation of health. The association between luxury and physical weakness was a prominent feature of these. This required a shift in medical thinking. One major change was the declining influence of Galenic medicine and humoural theory in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

Galenic medicine had been the dominant medical paradigm for several centuries. It was based upon the notion that there were different elements that composed the world and that people could have one of four different constitutions to reflect those elements. Health was maintained through a proper balance of elements and was particular to one's age, sex, occupation and constitution. This led to a high level of relativism in which nothing was universally unhealthy, though it might be inappropriate for the individual or circumstance. Thus, for instance, John Archer's

Every Man his own Doctor (1673) focussed on the humoural properties of different foods and who they suited with minimal outright condemnation of any particular items.155 Nicholas Culpepper's 1696 work, Culpepper's School ofPhysick, tended to associate sexual behaviour with health risks but did not condemn other things associated with luxury. In terms of diet and disease, Culpepper followed a humoural theory and merely indicated which foods were proper to which constitutions.156

John Archer, Every Man His Own Doctor, (London: John Archer, 1673) examples include discussion of veal on 21 and discussion of bread on 42 with many others in between. 156 Nicholas Culpepper, Culpepper's School ofPhysick, Third Edition, (London: R. Bently, 1696) for examples see discussion of diet of sanguine persons on 192 or discussion of ale on 204. 49

To eighteenth century observers, extravagant meals and feasts were among the

most obvious forms of luxury. They came under a lot of criticism from doctors

writing about the best methods of preserving health and preventing illness. Thomas

Curteis' Essay on the Preservation and Recovery of Health was one of the first.

Curteis found gastronomy to be harmful to health though he was not excessively

harsh in his condemnation.

That the great variety of elaborate Compositions, so much in vogue with those of the highest Accomplishments, that they can scarce relish any thing but what is A-la-mode (whether deriv'd to us from neighbouring Courts, as a part of the Vices we so greedily imbibe, or of more Domestic Invention) tho' the Ingredients are many times no less differing than Fire and Water; are only calculated for the Meridian of Epicurism, and at best superfluous, or rather destructive of those Ends to which they are imaginarily adapted. For 'tis scarce reasonable to expect that there should be as amicable an agreement of so many contrary Parts, either in that first Eliquation in the Stomach, or the subsequent Depuration and intermixing with the Blood, as when we choose to take up with one single Dish of the most plain and easy preparation; or two at the most, between which there is the nearest affinity.15

Curteis' emphasis on the benefits of eating small numbers of simple dishes, the ease

of digestion as a measurement of health, and the harmful effects of gastronomy were

to be expanded by later writers.

As the century progressed, a number of medical writers asserted in no uncertain

terms that luxury was harmful to health. "O Fatal Luxury!" Timothy Bennet declared

in the thirties, "How many Miseries and Diseases, complicated many a load, now the

chief Articles of our temporal Inheritance, and the sure Forerunners of an immature

Fate, owe their Source to Luxury, to Idleness and Fulness of Bread; and are intail'd

Thomas Curteis, Essays on the preservation & recovery of health: in two parts. (London: Richard Wilkin, 1704) 29-30. 50

upon latest Posterity." In the forties, George Cheyne observed that "we see Luxury,

inordinate Lechery, Riot and Laziness, first incrassat, then inflame, and at last mortify

and putrify human and animal Bodies; and Abstinence, a low and cool Regimen,

Exercise and Air, lighten, enliven and volatize them."159 In 1750, Thomas Short, a

medical doctor writing about the causes of a declining population, blamed increased prosperity and trade for leading to "Luxury and Debauchery, Intemperance and

Licentiousness, which insensibly waste our Health, Strength, and Time."160

Another important aspect of medical works on luxury and health was the condemnation of specific foods. In a work mostly dedicated to coffee, tea and chocolate, Daniel Duncan demonstrated his concerns with the effects of ragouts. He described men's bowels as a barrel of powder and he insisted that "Voluptuousness by its warm Ragouts and fiery Liquors which compose the true Phlegeton, sets fire to the Mine." "Men," he believed "liv'd a great while longer when they were not acquainted with Ragouts."161 Duncan was influenced by humoural theory. He later explained that ragouts and sugar increased the body's heat and that this was particularly dangerous among the voluptuous since they already had an excess of heat. Three decades later, when Timothy Bennet condemned the health consequences of luxurious foods, all traces of humoural theory and accompanying

Timothy Bennet, An essay on the gout; in which a method is propos 'd to relieve the hereditary, and to cure the acquir'd, (London: Richard Ford, 1734) 132. George Cheyne, An essay on regimen. Together with five discourses, medical, moral, and philosophical: serving to illustrate the principles and theory of philosophical medicin, (London: Geo. Strahan, 1742) 145. 1 Thomas Short, New observations, natural, moral, civil, political, and medical, on city, town, and country bills of mortality. To which are added, large and clear abstracts of the best authors who have wrote on that subject. With an appendix on the weather and meteors. (London: T. Longman, 1750) 123-124. Daniel Duncan, Wholesome advice against the abuse of hot liquors, particularly of coffee, chocolate, tea, Done out of French. (London: H. Rhodes, 1706) 17, 21. 162 Duncan, Wholesome Advice, 80, 83. 51 relativism were gone. It "may be universally affirm'd, that all salt, pickled, spic'd, smoak'd, high-seasoned Things, as they are the Inventions of Vice and Luxury, abhorrent to Nature, . . ., are always detrimental."163 In specifically associating a number of refined foods with ill health, Duncan and Bennet were at the forefront of a trend that became prevalent in medical thought after 1755.

In 1758 Sir Richard Manningham found "a too luxurious and high Way of

Living" to be one of the causes of the Plague.164 During the population crisis of the late 1760's, Dr. Thomas Short wrote a work on the apparent decline of English population over the preceding decades. He found that one of the causes was "luxury in Dress, Diet, Drink, Revelling, unseasonable Hours, and Debauchery; these are slow, but sure backdoors for Disease and Death to surprize the Thoughtless and

Secure."165 Later, William Falconer found that luxury was generally "unfavourable to health" since it weakened the body.166 Dr. James Graham, in a work mainly interested in procreation, insisted that it was "incumbent upon us to restore that manly firmness and vigour, which, from the depravity of human nature, by luxury and dissipation, have for more than a century been lost."167 A final example of the general condemnation of luxury in medical writing comes from Dr. William Smith's A Sure

Guide in Sickness and Health. "The greatest part of that black catalogue of diseases,

Benet, Essay on the Gout, 12-13. 164 Sir Richard Manningham, A discourse concerning the plague and pestilential fevers: plainly proving, that the general productive causes of all plagues of pestilence, are from some fault in the air: or from ill and unwholesome diet, (London: J. Robinson, 1758) 37. 165 Thomas Short, A comparative history of the increase and decrease of mankind in England, and several countries abroad, (London: W. Nicoll, 1767) 22. 166 William Falconer, Remarks on the influence of climate,. (London: C. Dilly, 1781) 508. 167 James Graham, Dr. Graham's famous work! A lecture on the generation, increase, and improvement of the human species; interspersed with receipts for the preservation and exaltation of personal beauty and loveliness, and for prolonging Human Life Healthily and Happily, (London: 1784) 5-6. 52 which ravage human life, is the offspring of the tenderness, the luxury and the corruptions introduced by the vices and false refinements of civil society."

While there was a general criticism of luxury in medical works of the second half of the eighteenth-century, there were also condemnations of specific prepared foods as detrimental to health. Many of these focussed on the same complicated dishes of French influence that were of interest to the polemical writers. Someone using the sobriquet 'Gentleman of the Faculty' argued that pastries and piecrusts were unwholesome while meats that had been fried, dried or cooked in pastries were hard of digestion. The same writer also complained that the sauces that accompanied fish made them less wholesome than they should be and that eating cream with fresh fruits caused them to coagulate and become hard to digest.169 Dr. William Smith was disturbed by the need for using spices in the preparation of dishes and generally pointed out that people were better off eating few dishes at a meal.170 John Hill suggested that all strongly flavoured things were bad since they did not sit well upon the stomach.171 John Trusler maintained that spices tended to cause fever, salt made food difficult to digest, prepared meat dishes were less wholesome than simpler ones and that a variety of dishes at a meal caused people to overeat.172 He generalized that

"many are the causes of ill health, but the principal one is the variety and excess of

William Smith M.D., A sure guide in sickness and health, in the choice of food, and use of medicine, (London: J. Bew, 1776) 41. Gentleman of the Faculty. Concise observations on the nature of our common food, so far as it tends to promote or injure health. (London: W. Justins, 1787) 18, 24, 25, 31-32. See also, Smith, Hugh. The family physician: being a collection of useful family remedies. Together with plain and full directions for administering them, and properly nursing the sick, where the advice of a physician is difficult to be procured. (London: G. Kearsly, 1772) 3 on plain meat being healthier than French dishes and 4 on sauces for fish and seafood making them unhealthy. 170 William Smith, A Sure Guide in Sickness and Health, 77-81. 171 John Hill, The old man's guide to health and longer life: with rules for diet, exercise, andphysick, (London: R. Baldwin, 1764) 16. 172 John Trusler, An easy way to prolong life, by a little attention to what we eat and drink. (London: J. Bell, 1780)43-44,49,38,35. 53 food."173 Francis de Valangin, a doctor writing about the management of health through diet, shared the sentiments of many of the writers complaining about the decline of British society.

The Tables of our Ancestors were spread with wholesome food, intended to satisfy their Hunger, which was their best Sauce; and their innocent Liquors were calculated to quench their Thirst; but Men of the present Age study how to tickle their Palates with Variety, Profusion, and pungent Sauces; and he that drinks most of intoxicating strong Liquors, is esteemed the best Companion.174

John Leake worried about the gastronomic impact of complex dishes. He argued that food was healthier in its natural state before luxury caused it to be replaced by highly flavoured dishes that were unhealthy because their seasonings heated the blood.175

William Cadogan wrote a highly influential book on the Gout in 1771. In it he noted that overcooked meat is less healthy so that "upon this principle the English cookery is to be preferred to the French, who stew and roast to rags." In addition, he argued that heavy sauces were unhealthy because, like pickles, their preservatives prevented digestion. He also claimed that "sweets of every kind, puddings, cakes, pastry, creams, confections" and other baked goods should not be eaten because they did not digest well.177 James Mackenzie shared these views, as evidenced by his suggestion that eating many kinds of food in the same meal would cause flatulence and "pervert

173 Trusler, An easy way to prolong life, 5. 174 Francis de Valangin, A treatise on diet, or the management of human life; by physicians called the six non-naturals, viz. I. The air. II. Food. III. Excretions and retentions. IV. Motion and rest. V. Sleep and watching. VI. The affections of the mind. (London: J. and W. Oliver, 1768) 11-12. 175 John Leake, Medical instructions towards the prevention, and cure of chronic or slow diseases peculiar to women: especially, those proceeding from over-delicacy of habit called nervous or hysterical; (London: R. Baldwin, 1777) 406-407. See also Morland, John, M.D. A rational account of the causes of chronic diseases. (London: S. Hooper, 1774) 49-50 in which he claims that French cookery robs food of its natural wholesomness and shortens lives. 176 William Cadogan, A dissertation on the gout, 54. 177 Cadogan, A dissertation on the gout, 56-59. 54

digestion."178 A writer in Gentleman's Magazine claimed that "pastry meat, and fruit pies, and puddings are also extremely pernicious, the dough is often unleavened, ill baked, and greasy, and it is stuffed with either fat or sour ingredients, which render the ill qualities of the dough more active."179

The most prominent English medical writer of the eighteenth-century was

William Buchan. His works shared many of the concerns about luxury and French

sauces. As Roy Porter notes, Buchan was a doctor who sought to make health more available to the general public and stressed a healthy lifestyle over expensive and complicated remedies.180 His most widely read book was Domestic Medicine, much of which was dedicated to advice about diet, lifestyle and the care of infants. He argued that:

the arts of cookery render many things unwholesome, which are not so in their own nature. By jumbling together a number of different ingredients, in order to make a poignant sauce, or rich soup; the composition proves almost a poison. All high seasoning, pickles, etc, are only incentives to luxury, and never fail to hurt the stomach. It were well for mankind if cookery, as an art, were intirely prohibited. Plain roasting or boiling is all that nature points out, and all that the stomach requires. There alone are sufficient for people in health, and the sick have still less need of a cook.181

178 James Mackenzie, "Rules for Preserving Health" London Magazine January 1759: 17. 179 "An Account of the most usual Causes of popular diseases, of the danger of the common methods that are taken before a Physician is called in, and plain directions what is proper to be done, from Dr. Tyssot's advice to the people lately published" Gentleman's Magazine May 1765: 216. 180 Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, 283. 181 William Buchan, M.D., Domestic Medicine; or, the Family Physician: Being an Attempt to Render the Medical Art more generally useful, by shewing people what is in their own power both with respect to the Prevention and Cure of Diseases. Chiefly Calculated to recommend a proper attention to Regimen and Simple Medicines. (Edinburgh: Balfour, Auld, and Smellie, 1769) 68. 55

Buchan shared many common concerns about specific foods. He was particularly

apprehensive about strongly flavoured, spiced and preserved meats, and he believed

that pastries were indigestible.182

One dietary item that was particularly controversial among medical writers of

the period was tea. Tea was considered a luxury product due to its expense, the

distance from which it had to be imported and the fact that its popularity had

originated among the aristocracy and diffused down through society. Admittedly

there were a number of medical writers who considered tea harmless or even

beneficial.183 However, far more denied this. Some of the complaints about tea

revolved around its tendency to make people jittery, nervous and energetic.184 John

Coakley Lettsom recited the story of an acquaintance who was affected this way. "If

drank in the forenoon, it affects his stomach with an uneasy sensation for several

hours afterwards, and entirely takes away his appetite for food at dinner." If he drinks

one cup in the afternoon, "it affects him in the same manner, and deprives him of

sleep for three or four hours, through the succeeding night."185 The most common

complaint about tea was that its consumption was replacing traditional hearty English

meals. Lettsom wrote that:

Buchan Domestic Medicine 26, Buchan, William. Observations concerning the diet of the common people, recommending a method of living less expensive, and more conducive to health, than the present, (London: A. Strahan, 1797) 27. 183 Thomas Short, A dissertation upon tea, explaining its nature and properties by many new experiments; and demonstrating from philosophical principles, the various effects it has on different constitutions. To which is added The natural history of tea. (London: W. Bowyer, 1730) 60. Hill, Old Man's Guide, 13, Peter Anthony Motteux, A poem in praise of tea. (London: 1701), J. Ovington, An essay upon the nature and qualities of tea. (London: John Chantry, 1705), 4 Buchan, Observations concerning the diet of the common people, 18. John Coakley Lettsom, The natural history of the tea-tree, with observations on the medical qualities of tea, and effects of tea- drinking. (London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1772) 48, 61-62. 185 Lettsom, Natural History of the Tea-Tree, 46. 56

it seems not unreasonable therefore to suppose, that as the diet of our ancestors was more generous, their exercises more athletic, and their disease more generally, the produce of a rich blood, than are observable in the present times; that these debilitating effects before mentioned may in part be attributed to the use of Tea, as no cause appears to be so universal and so probable.186

Simon Mason observed that breakfasts of tea and bread were much less substantial than the traditional ones of meat and ale. He regretted the change and ascribed it to luxurious suppers that made people incapable of hearty meals in the morning.187

William Buchan complained that customs associated with tea drinking accounted for much more bread being consumed in the country often "without one hearty meal" over the course of the day. He suggested that "tea will introduce a total change of constitution in the people of this country. Indeed it has gone a great way towards affecting that evil already. A debility, and constant irritability of fibre, are become so common, that not only women, but even men, are affected with them."188

Another realm in which luxury was criticized for its health consequences was with respect to the nursing and raising of young children. Wet nursing was an aspect of high living that was considered unnatural. Historian David Harley has found that there was a significant moral element to seventeenth-century discourse about the importance of women nursing their own children.190 In the eighteenth-century, medical people praised breast-feeding as a healthy and natural function.191 Buchan

186 Lettsom, Natural History of the Tea-Tree, 53. 187 Simon Mason, The good and bad effects of tea consider 'd, 17-28. 188 Buchan, Observations Concerning the Diet of the Common-People, 18. 189 Benevolus, Gentleman's Magazine November 1752: 507-508. 190 David Harley, "From Providence to Nature: The Moral Theology and Godly Practice of Maternal Breast-feeding in Stuart England," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 69 (1995): 213. 191 John Maubray, The female physician, containing all the diseases incident to that sex, in virgins, wives, and widows; together with their causes and symptoms, (London: Stephen Austen, 1730), Hugh Smith, The Family Physician, William Cadogan, An essay upon nursing, and the management of 57 wrote that "were a child permitted to suck its mother as soon as it shows an inclination for the breast, it would need no other physic."192 He and others commonly argued that children's diets should be simple and avoid sweets, pastries, alcohol and other luxuries of which parents tended to be fond.193 Cadogan argued that there were

"many Faults in the Quality" of the food being fed to infants.

It is not simple enough. Their Paps, Panada's Gruels, &c. are generally enriched with Sugar, Spice, and sometimes a Drop of Wine; neither of which they ought ever to taste. Our Bodies never want them: they are what Luxury only has introduced, to the Destruction of the Health of Mankind. It is not enough that their Food be simple, it should be also light. Several People, I find, are mistaken in their Notions of what is light; and fancy that most kinds of Pastry, Puddings, Custards, &c. are light, that is, light of Digestion. But there is nothing heavier in this Sense than unfermented Flour and Eggs boil'd hard, which are the chief Ingredients of those Preparations.1 4

Medical writers also emphasized that a wet nurse's food should be simple and avoid luxuries like strongly flavoured meats because these would cause her to provide children with infected milk.195

Luxurious diets and extravagant dishes came under increasing criticism from medical writers throughout the eighteenth century. The universal nature of the condemnations of luxury and specific luxurious foods was distinct from the relativism of early modern medicine. It was part of a transition from Galenic medicine toward a modern conception of health and the body.196 It evinces the degree to which doctors

children, from their birth to three years of age. By a physician. In a letter to one of the governors of the Foundling Hospital. (London: J. Roberts, 1748). 192 Buchan, Domestic Medicine, 21. 193 Buchan, Domestic Medicine 23-28, William Smith, A Sure Guide in Sickness and Health, 45, Buchan, Observations Concerning the Diet of the Common People, 41. 194 Cadogan, An Essay upon Nursing, 17. 195 Maubray, The Female Physician, 333. 196 Richard C. Sha, "Medicalizing the Romantic Libido: Sexual Pleasure, Luxury, and the Pubic Sphere" Nineteenth-Century Contexts 2005 27: 34, and Roy Porter, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, deal with aspects of that transition. 58

were influenced by popular moral rhetoric. This is a subject that has largely been

overlooked by historians.197

Along with diet, entertainment and nightlife were also of major interest to anti-

luxury polemicists. Here too we see the coming together of popular and medical

thought. A specific fear about nightlife, operas, gambling and masquerades was that

they affected the hours during which people were asleep.198 James Mackenzie, in his

Rules for Preserving Health, claimed that "he who sleep long in the morning, and sits

up late at night, inverts the order of nature, and hurts his constitution, without gaining

any time, and he who will do it merely in compliance with the fashion, ought not to

repine at a fashionable state of bad health."199 John Hill argued that "lying in bed in

the morning, to make up for a want of sleep in the night, is every way extreamly

wrong."200 And William Buchan proclaimed that "no piece of indolence hurts the

health more than the modern custom of lolling a-bed too long in a morning." "Nature

points out night as the proper time for sleep. Those who think it too vulgar to sleep in

that season, seldom enjoy health. Nothing more certainly destroys the constitution

than night-watching."201

A dearth of sleep was then one of several forms of luxury that were understood

to weaken the body and promote illnesses. Of the latter the Gout was of greater

Richard C. Sha, "Medicalizing the Romantic Libido" 38, has one sentence in an article dealing with luxury and sexuality that notes the existence of similar arguments in relation to dietary luxury. Otherwise, there is nothing that deals with this topic in relation to diet and minimal work on medicine and diet in eighteenth-century Britain. 198 Gentleman of the Faculty. Concise observations on the nature of our common food, 56, James Makittrick Adair, An essay on regimen, for the preservation of health, especially of the indolent, studious, delicate and invalid; illustrated by appropriate cases; (Air: J. and P. Wilson, 1799) 54, Thomas Short, New Observations on Bills of Mortality, 73-74. 199 James Mackenzie, "Rules for Preserving Health," London Magazine January 1759: 19. 200 John Hill, The old man's guide to health, 27-28. 201 Buchan, Domestic Medicine, 103, 79. 59

concern in medical literature and popular culture during the eighteenth-century than

in any other era.202 Gout involves painful swelling of joints from the "deposition of

sodium urate" caused by an excess of uric acid in the blood.203 Because its exact

cause was unknown, some writers denied that it was the direct result of a luxurious

lifestyle.204 However, most believed that it was caused by the excessive consumption

of decadent foods and wines.205 In the early part of the century, George Cheyne

observed that Gout sufferers were always the wealthy members of society who had

enjoyed "the Richest Delicacies, the most Delicious Wines, and the most Enticing

Vices."206 One of the more prominent works on the subject was The Honour of the

Gout, written under the pseudonym Philander Misaurus. It suggested that the disease

was a blessing since its painful symptoms caused men to avoid luxury, excess and

debauchery.207 As the century progressed, these associations continued from authors

like Nicholas Robinson who found that it arose "from a too great Indulgence, in

202 Roy Porter and G.S. Rousseau, Gout: The Patrician Malady, 49. 203 Roy Porter and G.S. Rousseau, Gout: The Patrician Malady, 4. 204 Abraham Buzaglo, A treatise on the gout; wherein the inefficacy of the usual treatment in that dreadful disorder is demonstrated; (London: H. Sharp, 1778). Murray Forbes, A treatise upon gravel and upon gout, in which the sources of each are investigated, and effectual means of preventing, or of removing these diseases, recommended. (London: T. Cadell, 1787). Richard Ingram, The gout. Extraordinary cases in the head, stomach, and extremities; with physical and chirurgical remarks and observations, (London: Paul Vaillant, 1767). 205 Buchan, Domestic Medicine, 455, William Smith, A Sure Guide in Sickness and Health, 151, Francis Spilsbury, Free observations on the scurvy, gout, diet, and remedy, (London: J. Wilkie, 1780) 14, John Cheshire, The gouty man's companion, or a dietetical and medicinal regimen: as well on the approach, as in the state, and in the declination of the gout, (Nottingham: g. Ayscough, 1747) 97, Sir Richard Blackmore, Discourses on the gout, rheumatism, and the king's-evil, (London: John Pemberton, 1735) 52-53, John Hill, The management of the gout, in diet, exercise, and temper; with the virtues of burdock root, (London: R. Baldwin, 1771) 7, John Marten, The dishonour of the gout: or, a serious answer to a ludicrous pamphlet, lately publish 'd, entitled, The honour of the gout; (London: J. Isted, 1737) 25, Thomas Thompson, An historical and critical treatise of the gout: shewing, not only the uncertainty, but danger and presumption of all philosophical systems and hypotheses inphysick. (London: G. Hawkins, 1742) 206 George Cheyne, Observations concerning the nature and due method of treating the gout, for the use of my worthy friend, Richard Tennison, (London: G. Strahan, 1720) 97-98. 207 Philander Misaurus. The honour of the gout: or, a rational discourse, demonstrating that the gout is one of the greatest blessings which can befal mortal man; (Dublin: George Faulkner, 1727). The whole work deals with this theme but it is explicitly laid out on 9-10. 60

Meats and Drinks of a high Relish, and fine Flavour."208 Thomas Short observed,

"Gout must increase, whilst its Parents, Luxury, Idleness, Whoredom, and

Drunkenness abound so much."209

The most influential work on Gout during the eighteenth century was William

Cadogan's A Dissertation on the Gout, first published in 1771. Cadogan made a significant impact upon medical thought with his observation that "nine in ten of all the chronic diseases in the world, particularly the gout, owe their first rise to intemperance."210 He singled out wine, condiments and extravagantly prepared dishes.211 His work was controversial and generated a number of pamphlets in response from both those who agreed and those who disagreed with him. He also emphasised the healthiness of a simple lifestyle in discussions of bleeding and other painful medical practices used in the treatment of Gout. "Is it not strange that men should seek and prefer these violent artificial methods to the simple, easy, pleasant and constant action of nature, and chuse rather to take a vomit or a purge than a walk, and wear a perpetual blister than make the least use of their limbs?"212 Cadogan's work gave great strength to the prevalent view of late eighteenth-century medicine that luxury was physically damaging to those who partook in it.

The most explicit argument about the health consequences of luxury arose from those writers who claimed that the rural poor were healthier than urban dwellersbecause they were not exposed to its pernicious effects. Nicholas Robinson

208 Nicholas Robinson, An essay on the gout, and all gouty affections incident to affect mankind. Comprizing the various natures, symptoms, and causes, thro' every branch and stage of the disease; (London: J. Fuller, 1753) 129. 209 Thomas Short, New Observations on Bills of Mortality, 211. 210 Cadogan, A Dissertation on the Gout, 40. 211 Cadogan, A Dissertation on the Gout, 43-52. 212 Cadogan, A Dissertation on the Gout, 2>1. 61 found that Gout in particular "generally shuns the low, beggarly Cottages of poor, mean, indigent people; and flies to the Courts and Palaces of the Lords and Generals, of the Princes and Potentates of the Earth, who live in Magnificence, regale in

Splendor, and fare delicately every Day."213 The rural poor were healthier due to the quality of their diet, simplicity of their lifestyle and regular hours of sleep.214 A contributor to London Magazine observed that "the irregular modes of life, the luxuries, debaucheries, and pernicious customs, which prevail more in towns than in the country," significantly shorten life.215 Francis de Valangin commented that:

many common Labourers, who in the remote parts of this Island earn about ten pence a Day, live to a very great Age in a perfect State of Health, upon leguminous foods and divers kinds of pulse; but when any of them come to London, where they can earn two or three times more than in the Country, and where they live more luxuriously; they are often afflicted with a Train of Disorders which forces them into Hospitals, and destroys many.216

This type of argument became more and more common in the second half of the century as part of the general concern about health.

Authors such as William Buchan, Adam Smith and Thomas Short observed that the rural poor generally had more children and experienced a lower rate of infant

Nicholas Robinson, An Essay on the Gout, 5. For other examples of writers suggesting that Gout does not affect the poor or less advanced societies see: Cadogan, A Dissertation on the Gout, 19, Cheyne, Observations concerning the nature of the Gout, 96-97, John Hill, The Management of the Gout, 9. 214 William Falconer, M.D. F.R.S., An Essay on the Preservation of the Health of Persons Employed in Agriculture, and on the Cure of he Diseases Incident to that way of Life. (Bath: R. Crutwell, 1789) 2-4, Thomas Short, A Comparative History of the Increase and Decrease of Mankind in England, 21, Martin, Martin. A voyage to St. Kilda, the remotest of all the Hebrides; or, Western Isles of Scotland. Giving an account of the very remarkable inhabitants of that place, (London: R. Griffith, 1749) is a travel narrative in which the simple lifestyle of the island is generally commented on and it is observed on 37-38 that they have few diseases. 215 "Difference in the Probabilities of Longevity between living in the Country and in great Cities" London Magazine March 1772: 122. 216 Francis de Valangin, A Treatise on Diet, 99-100. 62

morality than others due to their simple and natural lifestyle. John Smith was

particularly succinct in making this case. "Fewer Children die in the Country than in

71 R great Cities, where Luxury in Diet doth more abound." In his Essay on Nursing William Cadogan stated that

in the lower Class of Mankind, especially in the Country, Disease and Mortality are not so frequent, either among the Adult, or their Children. Health and Posterity are the Portion of the Poor, I mean the laborious: the Want of Superfluity confines them more within the Limits of Nature: hence they enjoy Blessings they feel not, and are ignorant of their Cause. The Mother who has only a few Rags to cover her Child loosely and little more than her own Breast to feed it, sees it healthy and strong, and very soon able to shift for itself; while the puny Insect, the Heir and Hope of a rich Family, lies languishing under a Load of Finery, that overpowers his Limbs, abhorring and rejecting the Dainties he is cramm'd with, 'till he dies a Victim to the mistaken Care and Tenderness of his fond Mother.219

Recently, the topics of luxury and the moralization of medical literature have

been studied in relation to the history of sexuality. In Solitary Sex, Thomas Laqueur

has described the process by which masturbation came to be seen as a cultural and

moral problem in the early eighteenth century. By the middle of the century, doctors

were associated onanism with a great variety of health problems.220 Samuel Solomon

found that "what it is most liable to produce, is barrenness, by causing an indifference

to the pleasure of Venus; and, in time, a total inability or inaptitude to the act of generation itself." S.A.D. Tissot, a prominent doctor, gave examples of cases in

217 Buchan, Domestic Medicine, 97, Adam Smith, An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nation,. 116, Thomas Short, A Comparative History of the Increase and Decrease of Mankind in England, i. 218 Smith, John. The curiosities of common water: or the advantages thereof, in preventing and curing many distempers. Gather'd from the writings of several eminent physicians, and also from more than forty years experience. (London: John and Barham Clark, 1724) 32. 219 Cadogan, Essay on Nursing, 7. 220 Thomas W. Laqueur, Solitary Sex, 16. 221 Samuel Solomon, A guide to health, or, advice to both sexes in a variety of complaints. With an essay on the venereal disease, gleets, seminal weakness; and that destructive habit called Onanism; 63

which onanism caused epilepsy or even death. Thomas Short suggested that

excessive venery emasculated and weakened men, William Buchan claimed that non-

marital sex led to early deaths and James Graham referred to ejaculation as a

"paralytic stroke."223 Although onanism is not obviously connected to luxury, the

eighteenth-century rhetoric on its harmful physical effects was the subject of similar

hypotheses and some people, including the artist Isaac Cruikshank, emphasized an

association between the two.224

As discussed in previous chapters, most of the discourse on luxury revolved

around fears over the degradation of British values, the risks of losing wars with

France or to concerns about changes in the social order and the increasing price of provisions. However, some people also accused luxury of debasing men by making them lazy, indolent, unintelligent or unable to enjoy the true pleasures of a proper existence. This was part of an anxiety about the destructiveness of luxury that tended to focus on the unhealthiness of those who indulged. Although these allegations were made by a number of writers in different settings, the most common involved the countless doctors writing in the latter part of the century who found luxury to be the

likewise, an address to parents, tutors, and guardians of youth. Ninth edition. (London: Samuel Solomon, 1796) 26.1 came across all of the primary sources relating to Onanism and venery while doing my research for this chapter and before learning of Dr. Laqueur's work. 222 S.A.D Tissot, Onanism: or, a treatise upon the disorders produced by masturbation: or, the dangerous effects of secret and excessive venery. Translated from the last Paris edition by A. Hume, M.D. (London: A. Hume, 1766) 17-19. 2 Thomas Short, A comparative history of the increase and decrease of mankind in England, 22, William Bucahn, Observations concerning the prevention and cure of the venereal disease. Intended to guard the ignorant and unwary against the baneful effects of that insidious malady, (London: T. Chapman, 1797) 60-61, James Graham, Dr. Graham's Famous Work! 26. For more works specifically on Onanism, see E. Sibly, The medical mirror; or, treatise on the impregnation of the human female. Shewing the origin of diseases, and the principles of life and death. (London: E. Sibly, 1796), or W. Farrer, A short treatise on onanism; or, the detestable vice of self-pollution. Describing the variety of nervous and other disorders, that are occasioned by that shameful practice, or too early and excessive venery, and directing the best method for their cure. (London: Fletcher and Co., 1767) 224 Laqueur, Solitary Sex, 346. 64 cause of many diseases. Some of this was connected with the eighteenth-century fascination with Gout, but numerous writings dealt with other health problems. The bulk of the medical works were written in the latter part of the century while the non­ medical ones were more prominent earlier. This suggests that the arguments of the latter became generally accepted as the century wore on. This questions the traditional view that luxury became less objectionable over the course of the century.

That the authority of physicians condemned luxury also evinces a growing tendency to focus on individuals rather than society in general. 65

Chapter 5: Arguments in Favour of Luxury

Previous chapters have dealt with the numerous arguments that were made

against luxury in eighteenth-century Britain. Although these formed the bulk of the

discourse, some people did support luxurious consumption. Some simply debated

whether specific products or activities were luxurious and deserving of the

implications. Other writers argued that it was good for society by emphasizing the

role of luxuries, generally household goods, in the expansion of trade and

manufacturing that was turning Britain into the wealthiest nation in the world. The

most famous of these writers, Bernard Mandeville, David Hume and Adam Smith,

have been widely read for centuries. However, the majority of support for luxurious

consumption involved the numerous people who purchased expensive goods, ate

luxurious meals or attended fashionable entertainments without considering the

effects on society. Their attitudes are reflected in theatrical reviews, cookbooks and

sales records in which the quality of luxuries are evaluated without addressing the

concerns of moralists about them. This chapter is going to deal with these positive

portrayals, arguments in favour of and consumption of luxury goods. It is going to

emphasize how all of these countered the general trends in discussions about luxury.

The most prominent support for luxury came from people who consumed new material goods because they liked them. In most cases this involved the purchase of

items without comment. Historians have documented a marked increase in the number and quality of cooking and eating utensils and of furniture throughout

England between 1675 and 1725.225 By 1750, the appearance in middle class homes

225 Loma Weatherill, Consumer Behaviour and Material Culture in Britain, 1660-1760, (London: Routledge, 1988) 26-27, 90. 66

of carpets, marble chimneys, hardwood doors, mahogany furniture and imported

trinkets signalled a major transformation in consumption patterns.226 A craze for

ornamental vases occurred in the late sixties and early seventies. Lawrence James

points out that there was a rapidly growing demand for elegant carriages in the latter

part of the century, partly caused by middle class yearnings for status symbols.228

Maxine Berg has observed a general increase in demand for novelties and other

luxury goods. Thus, we know that the consumption of luxury goods increased

throughout the century seemingly oblivious to the numerous ominous warnings about

it.

Individual consumers clearly disregarded the discourse on luxury. Robert

Murray Keith was a prominent British diplomat and plenipotentiary to the Austrian

court in the 1770's. During these years he spent lavishly on luxuries including an

eighty pound mahogany cabinet, a six hundred pound green coach, a three hundred

and sixty pound order of cape wine and a thirty-three pound set of three large silver

candlesticks in 1775.229 In 1772, Keith ordered an expensive terrine from Boulton

Fothergill. Throughout the correspondence about this dish, both sides emphasized the

quality and uniqueness they expected from the finished product.230 The term 'luxury'

Langford, A Polite and Commercial People, 70. 227 Jenny Uglow "Vase Mania," Luxury in the Eighteenth Century, 151. 228 Lawrence James, The Middle Class: A History, (London: Little Brown, 2006) 156. 229 George Elkington "Letter to R.M. Keith October 17, 1772" Hardwicke Papers Volume CL V: Correspondence of R.M. Keith 1752-September 1772, British Library, Additional Manuscripts 35503, folios 236-237, George Elkington, "Letter and Invoice to R.M. Keith" Hardwicke Papers Volume CLVI: Correspondence of R.M. Keith October 1772-January 1773, British Library Additional Manuscripts 35504, folios 128-131, Richard Wilkinson, "Letter to Sir Robert Keith 17 August 1775," Hardwicke Papers Volume CLXI, British Library Additional Manuscripts 35509, folio 29, Boulton Fothergill, "Letter to Sir Robert Keith, November 10, 1775" Hardwicke Papers CLXI, British Library Additional Manuscripts 35509, folios 234-235. 230 Boulton Fothergill, "Letter to R.M. Keith August 6 1772," Hardwicke Papers CLV: Correspondence ofR.M. Keith 1752-September 1772, British Library, Additional Manuscript 35503, 67

is absent from their writings. A similar attitude towards consumption was evinced by

Felix Cottrell, a young propertied gentleman, who commented on the quality of

utensils. "The knives and forks are both the best I ever saw;" he noted after seeing the

engraving of a new set.231 The same emphasis on the quality of individual luxury

products also emanates from the correspondnce correspondence of producers like

potter Josiah Wedgewood.232

During this period attendance at theatres and other fashionable entertainments

also increased particularly in London.233 The most common evocations of the

prevailing sentiment among theatre goers appeared in critical reviews, which

commented on artistic qualities and stayed clear of moral judgements.234 During the

1780's, London Magazine ran numerous celebratory reviews of operas. One critic

described Ranelagh Gardens, a popular centre for masquerades among fashionable

Londoners, as "one of those public places of pleasure which is not to be equalled in

Europe." It is, he said, "the resort of the people of the first quality."235

folios 234-235, Boulton Fothergill, "Letter to R.M. Keith 23 August 1772," Hardwicke Papers CLV, British Library ADD 35503, folios 238-239. 231 Felix Cottrell, "Letter to W. Trumbull, July 8, 1709," Trumbull Papers, British Library Additional Manuscript 72518, folios 79-80, Felix Cottrell, "Letter to W. Trumbull, 1712" Trumbull Papers, British Library Additional Manuscript 72518, folios 19-20. 232 Wedgewood Correspondence, John Rylands University Library, English Manuscripts 1101-1105, see especially Josiah Wedgewood, "Letter to Timothy Booth, January 1765," MSS 1101, folio 37, Josiah Wedgewood, "Letter to John Wedgewood, July 22, 1765" MSS 1101, folio 82, Josiah Wedgewood, "Letter to Thomas Bentley January 14, 1766" MSS 1102, folio 162, Untitled Description of Products and Procedures 1768, MSS 1103, folios 353-358, Josiah Wedgewood, "Letter to Thomas Bentley, 6 February 1769" MSS 1104, folios 431-434. 233 John Brewer, The Pleasures of the Imagination, 60-61, Ann Bermingham, "Introduction" Ed. Ann Bermingham and John Brewer, The Consumption of Culture 1600-1800: Image, Object, Text, (New York: Routledge, 1995) 3. 234 "The British Theatre" London Magazine June 1767: 265-268, "The English Theatre" The London Magazine, Enlarged and Improved, December 1783: 557. 235 "Opera-House" The London Magazine, Enlarged and Improved, March 1785: 219, "Description of Ralelagh Gardens" New London Magazine November 1787: 578. Another indication of this moral indifference towards fashionable entertainments comes when Felix Cottrell made a passing reference to the previous night's masquerade in a letter to his aunt. Felix Cottrell, "Letter to Lady Judy Trumbull," Trumbull Papers, British Library, Additional Manuscripts 72518, folio 41. 68

Most of the commentary in favour of extravagant foods came in the form of cookbooks, a valuable record of the type of cuisine desired by wealthier people. They varied in the degree of luxury described. Historian Gilly Lehmann argues that English cookbooks of this period tended to emphasize a simpler style with less refined sauces than their French counterparts.236 This argument seems justified when one thinks of the great emphasis on sauces and complex preparations in French cookbooks like

Menon's Professed Cook.237 While the most widely read English cookbooks contained some recipes for simply prepared meats and vegetables, they also included numerous complex dishes that resembled their French counterparts. Ann

Shackleford's Modern Art of Cookery was dominated by recipes for complicated dishes like 'Ducks a la Mode,' 'Pigeons in Paste' and Trifle.238 While Hannah

Glasse's Art of Cookery is simpler, and in that sense, more British, it still presented many sauces with large amounts of spices and butter. It also contains recipes for pickles and cakes, demonstrating that the author considered luxurious foods to be normal.239 Other cookbooks, like Francis Collingwood's Universal Cook or John

Farley's London Art of Cookery, were filled with recipes for ragoos and other complex French sauces.240 The early pages of Ann Cook's Professed Cookery celebrated the plain roasting of meat and mocked the adding of excess numbers of

236 Gilly Lehmann, "Politics in the Kitchen" Eighteenth-Century Life 1999 23(2): 71, 78. 237 Menon. The professed cook: or, the modern art of cookery, pastry, and confectionary, made plain and easy. Consisting of the most approved methods in the French as well as English cookery, R. Clermont Trans. (London: W. Davis, 1776) 238 Ann Shackleford, The Modern Art of Cookery Improved, 21, 25, 208. 239 By a Lady (Hannah Glasse), The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy: Which far Exceeds any Thing of the Kind yet Published, (London: W. Stahan, 1774) 55, 109, 268,275. 240 Francis Collingwood, The universal cook, and city and country housekeeper. (London: R. Noble, 1792) 17-18 for ragoo but see whole cookbook, John Farley, The London art of cookery, and housekeeper's complete assistant. On a new plan. (London: J. Scatcherd and J. Whitaker, 1784) 79-80 for ragoo but again see whole work, Borella, The court and country confectioner: or, the house­ keeper 's guide; to a more speedy, plain, and familiar method of understanding the whole art of confectionary, (London: G. Riley, 1772) is another work focussed on luxurious cuisine. 69 flavours to a carp dish. However, later sections of the book proceeded into more complex servings like baked apple pastries or 'White Fricassey of Chicken', a dish served in a spiced cream sauce and garnished with pickled mushrooms.241 William

Henderson's The Housekeepers Instructor is a fairly simple cookbook but it included recipes for fried battered cucumber in a rich sauce, numerous kinds of pastries and serving a grand total of twenty-five dishes for dinner parties.242 Other cookbooks that focussed on simpler, more traditional British fare tended to have recipes for sugar and butter laden pastries.243 All of these cookbooks imply an acceptance of extravagant meals, their common enjoyment by wealthier Britons and a tendency to disregard the rhetoric of moralists.

A few writers argued the benefits to society that derived from luxurious consumption. The best known, and one of the earliest was Bernard Mandeville. In

1705, he published The Grumbling Hive, a poem in which he argued that private vices were responsible for Britain's international stature and flourishing economy. This work was a direct attack against French Archbishop Fenelon's The Bees, a poem that made all the most common arguments against luxury.244 Like Fenelon's poem, it consisted of a satirized account of a beehive that readers clearly understood to

Ann Cook, Writer on Cookery. Professed cookery: containing boiling, roasting, pastry, preserving, pickling, potting, made-wines, gellies, and part of confectionaries. With an essay upon the lady's art of cookery: together with apian of house-keeping. The third edition (London: Ann Cook, 1760) 1, 50, 70, 146. 242 William Augustus Henderson, The housekeeper's instructor; or, universal family cook. Being an ample and clear display of the art of cookery in all its various branches. (London: W. and J. Stratford, 1790)85-86, 170, 194,385. 243 Elizabeth Raffald, The experienced English house-keeper, for the use and ease of ladies, house­ keepers, cooks, &c. Wrote purely from practice, (Manchester: J. Harrop, 1769) 248, Elizabeth Moxon, English housewifry exemplified in above four hundred and fifty receipts, giving directions in most parts of cookery, (Leedes: Griffith Wright, 1758) 124, E. Spencer, The modern cook; and frugal housewife's compleat guide to every branch in displaying her table to the greatest advantage, (Newcastle Upon Tyne: E. Spencer, 1782) 78-80, 244 Istvan Hont, "The Luxury Debate in the Early Enlightenment," The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought, eds. Mark Goldie and Robert Wokler, 7-8 of essay. 70

represent Britain. Mandeville repudiated all of the attacks on luxury, claiming that it

"Employ'd a Million of the Poor/ And odious Pride a Million more."245 The luxurious

life styles of the wealthy, Mandeville insisted, required large numbers of people to

produce the extra food, new fashions and non-essential household goods that were in

vogue. He also explained that the demand for exotic goods was a driving force in the

expansion of Britain's maritime trade.246 In the second half of The Grumbling Hive,

Britain becomes virtuous, eschewing luxury as well as other vices such as corruption

and dishonesty. At that point its trade and wealth decline until "So few in the vast

Hive remain,/ The hundredth Part they can't maintain." In other words a revival of

moral standards would ruin the economy, impoverish most people and cause Britain

to lose her position as an international power. "Fools only strive/ To make a Great an

honest Hive," because "Fraud, Luxury and Pride must live,/ Whilst we the Benefits

receive."248

In 1714 Mandeville published a new edition of his poem, now called The Fable

of the Bees, to which he added over two hundred pages of prose commentary. Here he

argued that humans are animals "and naturally follow the bent of their own

Inclinations, without considering the good or harm."249 Since men are naturally

inclined to indolence, pride, luxury and avarice were necessary to inspire them to

work.250 He made an example of the "poorest Labourer's Wife" who cut back on her

family's food intake and worked harder in order to afford more fashionable clothes.

245 Mandeville, Fable of the bees, 9. 246 Mandeville, Fable of the Bees, 15. 247 Mandeville, Fable of the Bees 18. 248 Mandeville, Fable of the Bees, 19. 249 Mandeville, Fable of the Bees, 24. 250 Mandeville, Fable of the Bees, 175. 71

This increased her productivity and employed the local tradespeople from whom she purchased goods.251 Mandeville did acknowledge that luxurious eating was relatively unhealthy. Consequently his arguments dealt mainly with the consumption of material goods. To him "the greatest Excesses of Luxury are shewn in Buildings,

Furniture, Equipages, and Cloaths."252

For many decades, The Fable of the Bees remained highly controversial. A number of pamphlets were published attacking its assertions that humans were like every other species of animals and that their base instincts drove the economy. It was also criticized for denying the altruism, reason and social virtues that were generally celebrated.253 Religious writers objected to Mandeville for his worldliness and encouragement of vain pleasures.254 The Fable of the Bees was especially controversial because it clearly illustrated Mandeville's indifference to the immoral aspects of luxury.255 The controversy the two versions of this poem created demonstrates the radical nature of Mandeville's arguments.

The Grumbling Hive was published at the beginning of the century and for a long time remained the only major work arguing for the economic advantages of luxury. However, there were writers who insisted that contemporary Britain was a better place to live in than it had been in any previous period. This was an essential disagreement with the conservative views of polemicists. This faith in progress came from those authors who believed "that Liberty flourishes amongst us in its full Vigour

251 Mandeville, Fable of the Bees, 105-106. 252 Mandeville, Fable of the Bees, 90. 253 William Law, Remarks upon a late book, entituled, The fable of the bees, or private vices, publick benefits. In a letter to the author. (London: William and John Innys, 1725) 254 T. Tod, Observations on Dr. McFarlan 's Inquiries Concerning the State of the Poor, (Edinburgh: James Donaldson, 1783) 95, Law, Remarks upon Fable of the Bees, 12. Mandeville's ideas were particularly controversial because of other works in which he rejected Christianity. 55 Maxine Berg and Helen Clifford, " Introduction" Consumers and Luxury, 3. 72 at present."256 In 1756, the Earl of Chesterfield mocked people who complained about

"these sad times! The degenerate age!"257 This and his contention that contemporary society was at least as good as any previous one had been, was in direct disagreement with most eighteenth century moralists. Chesterfield's opinion placed him in the minority but it certainly did not make him unique. In July 1777 'A Modern' in

London Magazine opined that

If one of our ancestors, who died not above half a century ago, was to rise from his grave, what pleasure and surprize would it give him, to see such an appearance of improvement and refinement in those persons and ranks, which in his time bore such evident marks of rusticity; to find those citizens and farmers, or their children, his old neighbours or tenants, who formerly were proud of the appellation of honest Tom or industrious John, now dignified with the title of esquires; and their wives and daughters, formerly attentive to domestic employments, such as brewing, baking, preparing the family meals, mending linen, and such like servile drudgeries, now at their tambour frames, giving their opinion of the best cosmetics, or attending their singing, dancing, music, or French masters! This honest old Antediluvian, happy at the increase of the wealth and improvements of his descendants, would shrink into the grave, ashamed of his grotesque appearance in the midst of such refinement and delicacy.2

Some suggested that luxury was beneficial to Britain for other reasons. An author named Philemon argued that gaiety created by frivolties led to a better atmosphere in London.259 Others followed a more precisely Mandevillian approach advising that luxury was responsible for the employment of many people. John

Truster suggested that in "a state where luxuries are prohibited, men would be, in a

256 "Remarks on a certain Pamphlet" London Magazine January 1735: 30, See also: "Review of the History of England, to the Time of the Norman Conquest" London Magazine August 1734: 421. 257 Earl of Chesterfield "Human Nature not degenerated" London Magazine October 1756: 491. 258 A Modern, "On Luxury" London Magazine July 1777: 368. 259 Philemon, "In Praise of Gaiety" London Magazine March 1743: 235-236. 73

great measure, idle."260 A few writers emphasized that this was because luxury

inspired people to work harder in order to live a more extravagant lifestyle than was

necessary for survival.261 The American thinker Benjamin Franklin, who was widely

read in Britain, made similar assertions. He suggested that domestic luxury products

encouraged economic growth and served to redistribute money from the wealthy

towards the majority. In addition, the importation of foreign luxuries was good for the

economy because production had to increase in order to trade for them.262 Franklin

believed that luxury encouraged industry and that in contemporary urban areas "the

quantity of industry and prudence among mankind exceeds the quantity of idleness

and folly."263 These rather rare affirmations were optimistic about society's future. To

a considerable degree they resemble the attitudes of modern economists.

Another argument in favour of luxury centred on the difficulty in

distinguishing it from necessity. It emerged after 1760 as writers wondered how to

separate the problems caused by frivolous lifestyles from the inherent human desire to

improve one's condition.264 In 1781, John Trusler emphasized that the distinction was

meaningless since any advancement, including warmer clothing or walls, were

considered luxurious by those who survived without them. Christopher Berry has

observed that debate over this distinction formed an important part of the discourse

260 John Trusler, Luxury no political evil, but demonstratively proved to be necessary to the preservation and prosperity of states. Addressed to the British senate. (London: R. Baldwin, 1781) 4. 261Isaac de Pinto, An essay on luxury, 27-28, Cassini, "Pleasure the great Spur of human Actions" London Magazine October 1773; 491-492. 262 B. Franklin, "Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind, peopling of Countries, &c." Gentleman's Magazine November 1755: 485. 263 Dr. Franklin, "Observations on Luxury, Idleness, and Industry" The New London Magazine July 1792: 322. 264 De Pinto, An Essay on Luxury, 1 makes this argument as he attempts to define the topic of luxury and observes that all improvements in life must be considered luxuries. 265 Truler, Luxury no Political Evil, 9-10. 74 on luxury. He considers the debate to have been an important element of the transition from early modern to modern views.266 The distinction between luxury and necessity troubled Josiah Wedgewood as a producer of fine pottery. He was disturbed by the idea that his dinnerware should be considered a luxury product despite its obvious use in the household. He "never had any idea that ornamental ware should not be of 'some use.'"267 In all of these situations, there was an emphasis on luxuries as non-essential material goods of some utility. The writers who propagated this emphasis opposed the polemicists who defined luxury as unnecessary consumption.

They also advocated for its economic benefits since labour was required to fulfill the constant human desire to better material conditions.

David Hume was one of the most influential thinkers of the second-half of the eighteenth-century. In his essay "On Commerce" he advocated for the economic benefits of luxury. For Hume, increased trade was essential in order to increase human happiness and national greatness.268 He specified that the prospect of a wide range of manufactured goods inspired people to work harder than was necessary for their bare survival. Hume also supported the importation of foreign luxuries because international trade brought increases in domestic manufacturing.269 Andrew

Cunningham has produced evidence that Hume's attitudes to luxury changed over the years and were more nuanced than generally appreciated. In early pamphlets, Hume

Christopher J. Berry, The Idea of Luxury, 177. 267 Josiah Wedgewood, "Letter to Thomas Bentley, 3 September 1770" Wedgewood Correspondence, John Rylands University Library, English Manuscript 1105, folios 726-733. 268 David Hume, "Of Commerce," Essays and treatises on several subjects. (London: A Millar, 1758) 150. 269 Hume, "Of Commerce," 154-155. 75 questioned luxury's effect on military resolve. As well, he was never comfortable with the society it created.270 Even so, he advocated for its economic benefits.

Hume believed that human happiness consisted of a combination of "action, pleasure, and indolence."271 Luxury led to happiness by producing pleasure, offering indolence and spurring action to generate it. In the same essay, Hume questioned the distinction between luxury and necessity, suggesting that luxurious goods were no less moral than their simpler counterparts.272 He also argued that political liberty increased at the same time as luxury in Britain and he refuted the often repeated theory that luxury caused the decline of the Roman Empire. Although he understood that "Luxury, when excessive, is the source of many ills," he explicitly dismissed most of the contemporary complaints about it.274 As a result, he was one of the few writers to advocate the benefits of luxury while at the same time directly addressing the issues raised by those who wrote against it. All of Hume's works are characterized by a belief that contemporary society was superior to its predecessors.

David Hume's younger Scottish colleague Adam Smith expressed similar views. Like Hume, Smith disliked the ostentatious display and frivolousness that defined luxurious excess. He also shared some of the conservative support for ordered social roles and in The Theory of Moral Sentiments he argued that luxury was only acceptable among those who were entitled to it because of their social

2 Andrew S. Cunningham, "David Hume's Account of Luxury" Journal of the History of Economic Thought 27 (2005): 231-235. 271 David Hume, "Of Luxury," Essays and treatises on several subjects, (London: A Millar, 1758) 158. 272 Hume, "Of Luxury" 157-158. 273 Hume, "Of Luxury" 161, 162. 274 Hume, "Of Luxury" 164. 275 Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, (London: A. Millar: 1759) 478, Anthony Brewer, "Luxury and Economic Development: David Hume and Adam Smith" Scottish Journal of Political Economy 1998 45 (1): 78-98. 76 standing. He criticized Mandeville and was concerned about the loss of paternalism and selfish impulses that were inherent in luxurious consumption.277 Despite his doubts about its motives, however, Smith tended to support luxurious consumption because of its economic benefits. His Investigation into the Nature and Causes of the

Wealth of Nations was a highly influential book in which he examined the workings of the economy that were making Britain wealthier than any other nation had ever been. He credited the desire for luxury goods with spurring the increase in trade and search for economic efficiency. In one of his most famous statements, Smith discussed the reasons why elites had switched from a feudal support of retainers towards a modern market economy.

All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind. As soon, therefore, as they could find a method of consuming the whole value of their rents themselves, they had no disposition to share them with any other persons. For a pair of diamond buckles perhaps, or for something as frivolous and useless, they exchanged the maintenance, or what is the same thing, the price of the maintenance of a thousand men for a year, and with it the whole weight and authority which it could give them. The buckles, however, were to be all their own, and no other human creature was to have any share of them; whereas in the more ancient method of expence they must have shared with at least a thousand people. With the judges that were to determine the preference, this difference was perfectly decisive; and thus, for the gratification of the most childish, the meanest and the most sordid of all vanities, they gradually bartered their whole power and authority.278

The Wealth of Nations explained and celebrated the economy that Smith understood to have resulted from such trifles. For instance, in one section he explained how this desire to trade for foreign luxuries had necessitated improvements in domestic

Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, 478. 277 Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, 349, Adam, Smith, An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. Vol. 2. (Dublin: Mr. Whitestone et al, 1776) 203-204. 278 Smith, Wealth of Nations, Volume 2, 203-204. 77 production.279 Throughout his work, Smith credited luxury with creating the economic system he admired while remaining morally ambivalent about many of its effects.

The positive and benign portrayals of luxury contrasted with the majority of the discourse on the subject. Other than Bernard Mandeville's controversial poem at the beginning of the century, they were produced after 1750. While they praised its benefits, these authors remained ambivalent about luxury's moral impact on society.

Meanwhile, there were consistent increases in luxurious consumption throughout the century, demonstrating that many people were relatively unconcerned with its effects.

Moreover, theatrical reviews and cookbooks did reflect a growing acceptance of luxury throughout the century. The people portrayed in this chapter generally approved of the manner in which their lives were changing or they focussed on living their lives and pursuing the materials and activities they enjoyed. Their attitudes foreshadowed a decidedly modern confidence in progress and understanding of economics.

Smith, Wealth of Nations, Volume 2, 191. 78

Conclusion

Arguments about luxury in eighteenth-century Britain were invariably commentary on changes that were occurring in society. Many writers explicitly identified social trends that they believed were harming society. Others implied that

Britain was degenerating and that this was likely to cause problems in the near future.

Those writers who were more accepting of luxury also discussed change since they referred to the economic benefits of increased consumption. In most of the major phases of the discourse, it is obvious what authors were reacting to. There was a major interest in how luxury related to military readiness and national glory in the late-thirties and mid-fifties. These are times characterized by the tensions leading respectively to the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven-Years War. Both were major conflicts that spawned great fears about the loss of British influence and the possible decline of the Empire. Such concerns were prominent in Brown's Estimate of the Manners and Principles of the Times, which warned that luxury was weakening the moral and physical fibre of the army. The same emotions are evident in the numerous historical works about the decline of the Roman Empire that were published in the 1750's.

Another aspect of the discourse related to obvious social developments was the concern that luxury was raising the price of provisions in the mid sixties and early seventies. There were particularly bad harvests in 1766, 1767 and then 1770 through

1774. Food was more expensive during this period with wheat averaging fifty-nine shillings per imperial quarter in 1767 and over fifty shillings between 1772 and 1774.

This compares to an average price of thirty-seven and a half shillings between 1750 79 and 1764 and thirty-two and a half shillings in the 1740's. The sixties and seventies also had fairly severe unemployment, causing hardship and food shortages among poor people.281 Critics of luxury attempted at such times to understand causation and they assumed a link between a significant increase in luxurious consumption and the most severe food prices of the century.

Luxury became a central feature of literature on Gout from the mid thirties. This was likely a response to increases in the incidence of the disease and observations that it only afflicted wealthy people with lavish lifestyles. Luxury did not become an important feature of general medical writings until after 1760. One of the reasons it took this long was the continuing influence of the relativist humoural tradition on medical thought. As well, there were a number of things going on in Britain that may have led doctors to fear the effects of luxury. Although population was actually rising at the time, it was commonly understood to be declining and people were seeking explanations. Since there were obvious increases in conspicuous consumption and the urban birthrate was lower than that in rural areas, luxury could reasonably be seen to be the cause. Health was also declining for most Britons during the second-half of the century. Furthermore, as a number of historians have noted, rural Britons were

28 Paul Langford, A Polite and Commercial People, 442-443. 281 Roger A.E. Wells "The Development of the English Rural Proletariat and Social Protest, 1700- 1850," Journal of Peasant Studies 1977 6: 119. 282 Langford, A Polite and Commercial People, 449 explains that people did not recognize the significant population increase that was going on after 1750. James Graham, Dr. Graham 's famous work and Thomas Short, A comparative history of the increase and decrease of mankind in England are some of the works that explicitly grappled with why population was declining and how to rectify it. 283 John Komlos, "The Secular Trend in the Biological Standard of Living in the United Kingdom, 1730-1860" Economic History Review 1993 46(1): 128, Carole Shammas, "The Eighteenth-Century English Diet and Economic Change" Explorations in Economic History 1984 21 (3): 254. Both of these articles use height of males as an indication of the quality of their diet during formative years. Shammas points out that British soldiers were significantly shorter than their American counterparts during the American War in an article that mainly deals with the specific articles of British proletarian 80

healthier and regional differences tended to correlate to their distance from

London.284 This suggests that there was some basis for the argument that the rural

poor were healthier than others because they were less exposed to luxury. These real

changes in health occurred as material consumption and luxury increased and this

explains the connection made between the two in medical thought.

The few writings in defence of luxury came mostly from people who enjoyed an

increase in wealth as the century progressed. This was usually in the second half of

the century, after a long period of improvement in material goods. In that era writers

seldom expressed earlier concerns about luxury leading to national decline. After the

War of Austrian Succession and the Seven-Years War, Britain established itself as the

most powerful nation in Europe. Since these conflicts led to growing concerns about

luxury as a cause of national decline in France, it is likely that they alleviated some of

the fears about the incompatibility of commercial wealth and military power in

Britain.285 Moreover, while the amounts of material goods in the Kingdom increased

throughout the century, the second half was generally better for the upper, literate

classes.

The temporal aspect of the discourse that is hardest to explain is the large

number of writings against luxury that appeared in the thirties and early forties. In

most of its contexts, this was not related to the wars of the period. It also appears not

consumption. Komlos studied heights of boys entering the army and noticed a small decline every decade after 1750 and a number of regional variations. 284 Gregory Clark, Michael Huberman and Peter H. Lindert, "A British Food Puzzle, 1770-1850" Economic History Review 1995 48(2): 228, Komlos, "The Secular Trend in the Biological Standard of Living in the United Kingdom, 1730-1860": 139-142. Again using height as an indicator of health, the first article notes that rural Britons were taller than urban ones at this time while the second one deals with regional differences. It noted that boys were shortest in the south-east, while being taller in Ireland, Scotland and the north-west. 285 John Shovlin, The Political Economy of Virtue, 49-51 discusses the effects of these wars on French discourse about luxury. 81

to be have been related to bad harvests or the suffering of poor people since these

were generally good years for them as, relatively speaking, food prices were low and

urban dwellers and agricultural labourers were better off than at other times.286 John

Shovlin argues that the lower-level rural nobility were responsible for most of the

writings against luxury in eighteenth-century France.287 Given the conservative nature

of the discourse, the frequent references to an idyllic rural and militarist past and the

fact that rural landowners were doing comparatively badly, I would argue that they

were behind much of the invective in this early period. Since this was a particularly

vocal group suffering from low food prices in the thirties and forties, this explains the

prevalence of complaints about change at that time.

The changes that influenced writers and the fears they generated varied greatly.

The fears about the decline of rural landowners in the thirties bear few similarities to

the numerous writings about the suffering of poor people in the seventies. Both relate

to fears that social and dietary changes would lead to military defeat. The observation

of doctors that people were becoming less healthy due to consumption was related to

all of these factors. Doctors also tended to believe that traditional rural society had

been healthier than that which was developing in the eighteenth century. Some

worried about the suffering of poor people or physical weakness resulting from

changes in diet. Although they lashed out at different and sometimes contradictory

things, all of the negative authors saw luxury as a component of what was wrong in

their world. One way or another their conservatism encouraged them to conclude that

286 Roger A.E. Wells "The Development of the English Rural Proletariat and Social Protest, 1700- 1850," 117-118. 287 Shovlin, The Political Economy of Virtue, frequently refers to reasons why this class would be upset by developments involving luxury. First and most explicitly states this on 8. 82 new forms of consumption, especially opera, carriages, tea and ragouts, were making people weaker, effeminate, less martial and immoral.

The discourse on luxury illuminates what segments of the educated population thought about the cultural changes of the period. It helps to illustrate how people understood their world and reacted to such matters as war and the declining health of poorer people. It also allows new insight into the manner in which medical discourse was influenced by common moral attitudes. Most importantly, it demonstrates frequent apprehensions about a society that was transforming towards industrialization.

John Shovlin has argued that the French discourse on luxury helped lead to the revolution that began in 1789, by undermining support for the aristocracy and government institutions among lower-level elites. It cannot be suggested that the

English discourse produced similarly immense consequences. However, it did form an important link in the transition from humoural medicine to more absolute theories.

It was also important in helping people distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable methods of consumption. All subjects that made up this discourse, made a significant impact on the development of English national identity. Paul Langford's book Englishness Identified suggests that industriousness, xenophobia, a love of red meat and desire for rural life were important national characteristics. All were prominent in the discussion on luxury. If, as Langford believes, national identity was forged between 1650 and 1850, the concerns about excess consumption and French

288 Shovlin, The Political Economy of Virtue. This is his main thesis and is particularly evident in the introduction 1-12 and conclusion 213-219. 289 Paul Langford, Englishness Identified: Manners and Character 1650-1850, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000) 29-31, 222-223, 49, 86. 83 influences must have been contributing factors. This seems to have augmented the popular belief that earlier social orders had produced a virtuous and free people.

According to E.P. Thompson the inclination to look back towards traditions of independence and fairness was highly influential in the formation of working class consciousness.290 While recent historians contest some of Thompson's conclusions it is evident that the discourse on luxury played a role in shaping the ideals that working people embraced in their various struggles during the nineteenth century. In the final analysis then it is difficult to find a major social or economic development in the long eighteenth century that this discourse did not either affect or reflect on some significant level.

290 E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, (London: Penguin Books, 1991) Throughout he talks about libertarian elements in early working class politics. He also frequently discusses that protests sought to return to an earlier fairer system during the period. One explicit discussion about this involves the notion that liberty was the right of 'free-born Englishmen' due to the Glorious Revolution. This is best expressed on page 85. As for attitudes seeking a return to an earlier fair system, this is most evident in Thompson's portrayal of Luddism on pages 530-542. Bibliography

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