Abstract
Among so many gorgeous masterpieces and splendid artefacts, the British Museum offers one of the grimmest, hair-raising scenes. Providentially preserved in peat over the centuries, Lindow Man was eventually discovered in Cheshire in AD 1984. His remains, realistically presented to the public in their pristine archeological state, are enhanced by a puzzling commentary: ‘unknown Briton ritually slaughtered, perhaps by Druids, more than 2000 yrs ago.’ Then comes a disconcerting commentary in the concise, elementary style of Sherlock Holmes addressing his dear Dr Watson: ‘Lindow Man’s death was not simple. First he was stunned by two blows on the head. Then he was killed by garrotting. When he was dead, the killers took a sharp knife and cut his throat.’ The British Museum finally warns all visitors against this shocking, ungentlemanly behaviour: ‘This complex sequence in the killing of a naked man is surely evidence for a savage ritual.’
Ultimi Britannorum... ultimi Romanorum Bolingbroke, Present State of the Nation, 17491
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Notes to Chapter 4: The Last of the Romans
Bolingbroke, CW, vol. III, p. 175.
J. Locke, Two Treatises of Government (London: Everyman, 1989), p. 140.
D. Hume, Essays..., 476.
PW, vol. I, pp. 305–6.
Ibid., vol. IV, p. 61.
Ibid., vol. N, p. 65.
C. Lévi-Strauss, Les structures élémentaires de la parenté (Paris: PUF, 1949), p. 592.
PW, vol. IV, p. 125.
D. Roche, Le siécle des Lumiéres en province, 2 vols (Paris and The Hague: EHESS and Mouton, 1978), passim.
Les devoirs d’un roi patriote (Paris: Desenne, 1790). There had been at least two previous French editions in 1750, supposedly in London and Edinburgh, though we cannot be certain.
Bolingbroke, CW, vol. I, p. 277.
Ibid., p. 314.
Ibid., p. 316.
Montesquieu, Oeuvres completes (Paris: Le Seuil, 1964), p. 1001.
R. Shackleton, Montesquieu: Biographie critique (Grenoble: Presses Uni-versitaires de Grenoble, 1977), p. 299 ff.
Gary Wills (ed.), The Federalist Papers (New York: Bantam Books, 1982), p. 244.
Ibid., pp. 244–5.
Ibid., p. 245. (Original emphasis)
W. Bagehot, The English Constitution (Glasgow: Collins, 1975), p. 59. 20. Bolingbroke, Historical Writings, ed. I. Kramnick (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), p. 3.
Bolingbroke, PW, vol. IV, p. 333.
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© 1997 Bernard Cottret
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Cottret, B. (1997). The Last of the Romans. In: Cottret, B. (eds) Bolingbroke’s Political Writings. Studies in Modern History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25805-5_4
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