Charles Leslie: High Church Political Theology in the Literary Marketplace

Abstract:Charles Leslie, nonjuring Church of Ireland clergyman, enjoyed considerable literary success from 1704 to 1709 with his newspaper, The Rehearsal. Published weekly initially then biweekly, it was read all "over the nation" (Bishop of Salisbury, 1710), and contributed to a revival of Tory and High-Church positions during Queen's Anne's reign. Described by J. C. D. Clark as "one of the most able intellects in the Stuart cause" (1985), Leslie is usually seen as "preeminent" among the "resisters to modernity" (Robert D. Cornwall, 2010), a patriarchalist opponent of Locke, and upholder of revelation in the Age of Reason. This essay focuses instead on tensions between Leslie's Augustinian ideology and his "billingsgate" or market-place language. What concessions were involved in defending and promoting High Church patriarchalism in a world of coffee-house wit and scandalous newspapers? Examination of Leslie's strategy in shaping public opinion necessarily brings into question his relationship with the culture of sensibility, and a range of wider questions relating to enlightenment, ontology and aesthetics. His efforts to renegotiate High Church ideology within a culture beset with radical transformations in the conditions of mediation provide the crux of this essay.