Radical Self-education and First Authorship

Abstract

Chapter one argues that, between 1790–95, the teenage Robinson was the epitome of the British ‘juvenile enlightenment’ (Kathryn Gleadle). Barred from the English universities because of his Dissenting allegiance – orthodox Presbyterian turning liberal Unitarian – he became, with the help of Colchester Dissenters and their libraries, a self-taught polymath. In early 1795, he published his first article, entitled ‘On the Essential and Accidental Characteristics of Informers’, in the radical Norwich journal The Cabinet. In an original move based on David Hume’s logic and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s approach to the law, Robinson here urges his readers to divert to the law the hatred with which informers (people passing information on to the authorities) are commonly met. This chapter analyses in detail Robinson’s unpublished manuscript diaries and earliest surviving correspondence, and explores the ingenious ways in which he engaged with the on-going ‘Revolution Controversy’ (Marilyn Butler).