‘Not Precedents to be Followed, but Examples to be Weighed’: John Thelwall and the Jacobin Sense of the Past

doi:10.4324/9781315652771-16

Chapter

‘Not Precedents to be Followed, but Examples to be Weighed’: John Thelwall and the Jacobin Sense of the Past

ABSTRACT

‘The politicians of the present day are not very fond of travelling far backwards. They love not (for very obvious reasons) to expiate much on the Saxon era’.