3 Review(s)

Equally revered and reviled, the radical John Horne Tooke (1736-1812) enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as a political firebrand. Having attended Eton and St John's College, Cambridge, he explored careers in the church and law before finally gaining recognition as a vehement advocate of political reform. This acclaimed two-volume biography by Alexander Stephens (1757-1821) was published in 1813, incorporating personal correspondence and presenting its subject as 'a firm friend to the laws and liberties of his native country'. Volume 2 covers the period 1777-1812 and leads the reader through Horne's two periods of imprisonment, two parliamentary election campaigns, the rise of the Society for Constitutional Information and the publication of his final pamphlet, A Warning to the Electors of Westminster (1807). This volume concludes with an account of his final years of ill health, his death and his political legacy.