What were the Characteristic Features of the Augustan Age of Queen Anne?

The reign of Queen Anne had many achievements to its credit. England made rapid strides towards opulence and prosperity inspite of the war of Spanish succession and other problems. In short, the reign of Queen Anne had the following outstanding features.

1. Most Flourishing Country:

The reign of Queen Anne saw opulence and prosperity stalking into the country. It is true that during the war prices were soaring high and taxation was grinding. Foreign trade was also largely neglected or unatten-dended to the farmers still believed in open field system of farming.

About one fourth of the cultivable land was still uncultivated. Nevertheless, considerable property was perceptible in the early 18th century. But in this growing prosperity a large share was contributed by commerce and industry besides agriculture. It is said that trade increased
three times in her reign as compared to the seventeenth century.

2. Industrial Progress:

In the industrial field also the nation developed and progressed. The British foreign trade was expanding in the reign of Anne because of the progress being made in the field of industry.

It was almost a minor industrial revolution. The cloth industry was of prime importance. New cloth markets were opened. The French protestant refugees who came to England brought the germs of silk Industry. Industrial enterprise received a fill up the establishment of the bank of England and the reform of coinage. Iron and coal industries also throve.

Thus a new class of small capitalists began to prosper. However, bad roads obstructer transportation and the people were obliged to take to coastal shipping and navigation.

3. Huge and -populous London:

London’s population had grown and its size had become enormous. So many new buildings came up. London was now about twenty times greater, bigger and more populous than other town of England. However, London was still a place of sharp contrasts. One could still find criminals and bad character of Bedlam and elsewhere and the horrors of the under World.

One could at the sometimes find ravishing ladies crowding and beautifying the Mall and the great houses. St. Paul’s Cathedral was being renovated. It was completed by the year 1717. The London Bridge was now embellished with new structures and buildings. The London tower was a prison and a zoo too. London became the most active port of the World. Besides being a seat of government.

In the words of Ashley, “But poetry and architecture were the outstanding native Art. The ‘Queen Anne’ style of architec­ture was enhanced by elegant furniture’ by the carvings of the Dutchman, Grinling Gibbons and by grandfather clocks of oriental design that still survive. For the well-to-do it was a world worth living in.

4. Religious life:

In the year 1700 another statute came into being against the Roman Catholics. Throughout the Reign of Queen Anne, hostility towards occasional conformity continued. In brief the chief features in the religions field were the following:

(i) Dr. Sachyverell’s sermons and his trial:

Dr. Sachyverell was a Tory divine. He was a hot headed and rash person; through very popular. He preached two sermons on the perils of Ealse Bretherea in church and state. Both were violent political sermons and were preached at London and Derby. In the sermons Sachevere II preached:

(a) That Toleration Act should be denounced as that imperilled the prestige and safety of the Church of England;

(b) That the existing ministry was a band of associated malignant, bent on persecuting the church and betraying the constitution. Godolphine was described as Volpone or the old Fox; and

(c) That Revolution was the most unrighteous change and that resistance to the king could not be justified.

These sermons were published and -sold. The ministry impeached Dr. Saceover II for misdemeanour and he was tried by the House of Lords. He was prohibited from preaching for three years. This was regarded as a triumph for the Tories. The Doctor became more popular. Now he was used for electionee­ring.

(ii) Queen Anne’s Bounty (1704):

This was started in 1704 by Queen Anne to relieve the poor clergy. It was provided that the ‘first fruits of the benefices of the English clergy; which had been annexed to the crown by Henry VII should be handed over to a body of commissioners who were to use them for the augmentation of poor livings.

(iii) Occasional conformity Act (1710):

According to the Test Act and the corporation Act on one could hold an office in a corporation (even membership) or any civil and military office under the crown unless he received the Sacrament in accordance with the rites of the church of England Numerous non-confor­mists were compelled to perform these rituals in order to retain their jobs and positions.

Then later on, they attended their own places of worship. These people were known as occasional conformists and their practice ‘Occasional conformity’. This practice continued till 1710, when it was abolished by an act, passed to that effect.

(iv) Schism Act (1714):

The Schism Act was passed in 1714. The object of the Act was to crush non-conformists and so gain favour and support of the High Church Tory Party. The Bill for the Act was initiated by St. John. It created rapture between the two Tory leaders.

The Bill provided that no person should keep a school, either public or private, or act as a tutor, unless he was a member of the Church of England and licensed by the Bishop, and had subscribed to the oath of Allegiance and Supremacy, Harley, Earl of Oxford, did not support the Bill because he has himself a non-conformist.

He indulged into violent alter action with his rival St. John, Bolingbroke. The result was the Queen dismissed. Harley from office. He was substituted by Bolingbroke (St. John) as the Chief Minister to the Queen.

(v) The spirit of Toleration:

The spirit of toleration was a distinctive feature of the 18th century which is a departure from what was witnessed in the Seventeenth century. A major contribution in this connection r was made by the writings of John Locke.

His ethical and philosophical ideas were contained in his Essay concerning Human Understanding of 1960; his political philosophy was propounded in two ‘Treaties on Government’ of 1960 and his case for freedom of thought in three ‘Letters on Toleration’ besides.

Hobbes had written his ‘Leviathan’ and Sir Robert Filmier, his “Patri-archa”. Locke wrote, “The great and chief end of men uniting in commonwealth, and putting themselves under government, is the Preservation of the property; to which in the state of nature there are many things wanting”. The state became a gigantic limited liability company in the words of Laski. Because of checks and balances the state refrained from sinking into tyranny.

(vi) The Scholars and the Press:

The empirical utilitarian liberal and rational approach to life of Locke was reflected in the works of the contemporary writers. The important ones were Daniel Defore, Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison and Alexander Pope. This group compromised the pillars of the Augustan Age Daniel Defoe wrote ‘Shortest way with the Dissenters’ and ‘Robinson Crusoe’ Steel wrote, “The Tatler Magazine! Swift wrote ‘Tale of a Tub in 1704, Pope wrote ‘The Rape of the Lock’ and ‘Essay on criticism”.

If i7th century was known for its poetry, the reign of Queen Anne was that of prose. In the words of Ramsay Muir, “The reign of Queen Anne is always accounted as a great literary epoch. But it was essentially an age of prose, limpid, persuasive and sweetly reasonable, as in Addison’s and Steele’s essays or grimly sardonic as i.e., Swift’s great satires”. The origins of modern news paper can also be traced to the reign of Anne.

The ‘Tatler’ was a thrice weekly periodical started by Steele in 1709. This was succeeded by the spectator’. Daniel Defoe brought out ‘The Review’. The first daily Newspaper. The Daily Courant’ was started at the out set of Queen Anne’s reign. A provincial press was also started. A good pamphlet “The conduct of the Allies’ was published by Dean Swift.

(vii) Whigs and Tories:

During the reign of Queen Anne there was not so much of discord between the monarchy and the Parliament as was noticeable during the previous reigns on the other hand it was rather the period of harmony where the monarch and Parliament understood each other.

Healthy conventions were developed for party system and cabinet form of Government, The reason was that Queen Anne quietly accepted the position of a constitutional sovereign which the Revolution had given her.

She did try to exert herself and perfectly reconciled herself to the situation in which she had been placed. However, Anne’s tenure as Queen is remarkable for the fierce rivalry and contest between the Whig and Tory narties.

The Word ‘Whig’ was a nickname which was given to a Scottish insurgent, Presbyterian originally. The out awed Roman Catholics of Ireland were given the either ‘Tory’. These two names came to be attached to the political parties of the time.

(a) In the field of religion:

The Whigs supported Religious Toleration. They were slightly tilted towards Non- conformists. This was so in spite of the fact that protestant succession was in danger.

They accused the Tories of trying to set up Stuart Dynasty in England once again by brushing aside the Act of settlement. The Tories, on the other hand, raised the cry that, “the church was in danger. ‘The Tories were the strongest supporters of the Whigs bitterly. The Whigs were charged, by the Tories, with an attempt to destroy the established church.

(b) In the field of polities:

The Whigs considered the king only as an official, responsible to the people for his acts and likely to be dethroned by them if he refused to act in a constitutional manner.

The Tories believed in the divine right of kings and in the principle of non resistance. For them king was not at all responsible to the people for his acts of commission and commission. God alone could take him to task for his willful faults. Even a tyrant should be accepted with a smile that he has been sent by Him.

At the time of William’s occasion, the Tories preferred Princess Anne, since they felt that she had a better hereditary right to the throne. The Tories were with the Whigs in the Spanish War of succession in the earlier stages; best later backed out. They did so probably due to transcendental successes of the Duke of Marlborough.

Soon after the conclusion of the treaty of Utrecht, Anne fell ill. Finally on 1 August 1714. She died and with her death ended the Stuart Monarchy.

Anne was the last of the sovereigns to veto and Act of Parliament and the last to preside over the cabinets. Thus, with the death of Anne, a remarkable phase ended in the history of England’.