About
the Author
John
Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton -- First Baron Acton of Aldenham
-- was born in Naples, Italy on January 10, 1834. The son
of a beknighted Englishman and a Rhenish Countess, Lord
Acton studied history at the University of Munich: he was
not permitted to attend Cambridge because he was a Catholic.
Lord
Acton was elected to the House of Commons in 1859 and was
offerred a peerage in 1869. He was appointed Regius Professor
of Modern History at Cambridge University in 1895. Extremely
well read, and having an intellect that is revered to this
day, it is he who authored the now often quoted statement
that "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts
absolutely."
About the Speech
In
this speech, Lord Acton provides an intriguing history
of the interplay of forces that eventually gave way to
the
birth
of freedom
during
the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in Britain, and to the
better protection of it in America following its Declaration
of Independence. It is a story both of the struggle between
the church and monarchs for power. It is a story of growing
philosophical insight, from St. Thomas Aquinas to John
Locke. Explaining as he does that by 1770, England had
been returned almost to the state of affairs that preceded
that freedom-bearing Glorious Revolution of 1688, Lord
Acton praises the constitutional accomplishments of America
following the publication of Thomas Paine's Rights of Man
and following America's Declaration of Independence in
1776.
Ultimately,
Lord Acton concludes that the two forms of government that
have allowed freedom to develop around
the globe are a Republic and a Constitutional Monarchy.
It is regrettable that Lord Acton did not live to witness
the fact that tyranny (i.e., government with unlimited
authority) too can survive and thrive under each system.
The world over, we now have examples of countries in which
the whims of a majority, or of a dictator acting alone,
are met with no legal bounds. This is particularly the
case
where
there
exists
no bill
of rights, or where
the judiciary co-operates with the legislature or the government
to erode the protections intended by such a bill.
Given
as it was only months after his February 28, 1877 speech
to the Bridgnorth Institute - "The
History of Freedom in Antiquity" - this speech provides a history that arguably
takes over where the former speech left off. As with the
former speech, it is essential reading for any person who
wants to understand both the history of individual freedom,
and the nature of that concept.