ABSTRACT
Public attitudes to private morality shifted markedly, as is demonstrated by the case of Queen Caroline and the resolute attack on the double standard for men and women associated with it. Two eighteenth-century Evangelical writers, William Cowper and Hannah More, were influential in setting the terms for the characterization of domesticity and sexual difference. The tenderness and respect with which women were treated in England, it was argued, were the mark of England's advanced state of civilization, and the brightest ornament of that civilization was its 'domestic virtue'. Cowper is easily the most quoted writer in the local records from both areas, mentioned specifically by twenty-three people and usually occupying a place of honour. Cowper's critique of the free play of the market, factories built with blood, trade conducted with the sword, men combined in associations for self-interest, is connected to his strong paternalist inclinations.
