History: Musings on patriots and patriotism

Doctor Johnson in his famous Dictionary, written in the mid-18th century, defined the word "Patriot" as follows:-

  "Patriot: One whose ruling passion is love of his country. It is sometimes used for a factious disturber of the government".

   Johnson's biographer James Boswell also records Johnson as saying, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". How did all this come about?

The words "Patriot" and "Patriotism" are derived from the Latin "Patria": the motherland. I cannot find any use of these words in British political discussion before the early 18th century, when they arise from the nature of Parliamentary politics. After the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688-9, Parliament met every year, there were frequent general elections, and it soon became apparent that no government could survive unless it commanded a majority in the House of Commons. Politicians competed for votes there, and the vitally important issues at stake (war and peace, taxation, the succession to the throne, religious toleration) meant that rival political parties soon developed there, and have continued ever since.  

  At the same time, however, older notions persisted. The government was still the King's government, in fact as well as in constitutional theory, for monarchs were still personally supportive of their ministers; and how could you be in organised opposition to the King's government without automatically opening yourself to accusations of treason? The concept grew up of "His Majesty's loyal opposition": that a political party could oppose the measures enacted by a government without being hostile to the Crown or the constitution. Probably the last openly disloyal opposition were the Jacobites, who wished to overthrow the Hanoverian dynasty and replace it with the exiled Stuarts, and rose in rebellion in 1715 and 1745; but in the 1790s opposition politicians were accused by government propagandists of being republican supporters of the French Revolution. Even without these extremes, it was widely considered that opganised opposition to the government (as distinct from criticism of individual measures) was contitutionally dubious.

  In this context, it was essential for any opposition to be more "patriotic" than the government: to claim that the government was leading the country towards disaster, and was probably also guilty of corruption whereas the opposition leaders could offer better and more honest policies. (To a great extent, this still apples!) In the 1730s, the ministry of Sir Robert Walople was faced with severe criticism from a group of young policians, William Pitt and his friends, whom he scornfully dubbed the "Boy patriots". This is the first use of the term that I have been able to find. 

 Later, in the 1760s, the early governments of George III were subjected to widespread allegations of corruption and unconstitutional behaviour. Once again, it was the opposition who claimed to be the true patriots. Doctor Johnson, a Tory who had been given a govenment pension and an honorary degree from Oxford by the new regime, reacted with scorn to these attacks; hence his double-edged definition.  

   One wonders what he would have made of current disputes: especially the widespread use of the Union Jack and the St. George's Cross by those hostile to the ministers!