John Toland (1670-1722): Selected Works

New Editions of the Works of John Toland (1670-1722)

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An Account of the Courts of Prussia and Hanover (1705)

Even after more than 300 years, John Toland's Account of the Courts of Prussia and Hanover remains highly readable and continues to be cited by historians of the period. It gives us an engaging and accessible picture of life in those German courts, and of the people who inhabited them at the turn of the 17th to 18th Century.

Toland travelled to Hanover in 1701, with Lord Macclesfield's delegation, to deliver the Act of Succession to the Electress Sophia. The Act named Sophia and her Protestant descendants as heirs to the British throne, should Queen Anne die without leaving a successor.

Toland was well received by Sophia, who also introduced him to the court philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. The following year, he visited the court of Berlin, where he was received by the Electress’s daughter, the Queen in Prussia, Sophia Charlotte.

His impressions and observations of those visits are recorded in this Account and faithfully preserved in this new edition, which has previously been available only in facsimile reproductions.

An Account of the Courts of Prussia and Hanover by John Toland (1670-1722)

Non-fiction, historical, European history, early 18th century, contemporary account

79 pages including foreword, chronology, list of members of the courts of Prussia and Hanover in 1705

First published in London, England in 1705. This edition published in Ireland in 2013 by The Manuscript Publisher

ISBN: 978-0-9576729-1-8

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Price €7.99 plus P&P - €3.35 for delivery within Ireland/Northern Ireland; €5.60 for overseas delivery

Also available in print-on-demand from CreateSpace

Also available in E-book from Amazon

Currently available in Kindle edition on Amazon websites including Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (links open in new window)

Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews in Great Britain and Ireland (1714)

Reasons for naturalizing the Jews in Great Britain and Ireland, On the same foot with all other Nations. Containing also A Defence of the Jews against All vulgar Prejudices in all Countries.

First published in 1714, shortly after the succession of George I to the British throne, Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews in Great Britain and Ireland is widely seen as a landmark work in the movement for emancipation and equal citizenship of the Jewish people.

While some would argue that the case being presented by Toland is best understood in the context of British political life of the time, it is generally agreed that it represents a remarkable work: one that, in many ways, is well ahead of its time.

We see Toland as a skilled and fearless commentator; one who accepted nothing at face value but always brought an independent mind to bear on any issue he tackled:

"a dog will run at a stone, when he dares not attack the man that threw it."

"I am not ignorant how much the world is governed by prejudices, and how farr some, who wou'd not be counted of the vulgar, are yet sway'd by vulgar errors. ... But one rule of life, which is willingly admitted, nay, and eagerly pleaded by all Societies in their own case (tho miserably neglected in that of others) is, not to impute the faults of a few to the whole number."

The Foreign and Protestants Naturalization Act of 1709 allowed immigrants to claim British citizenship upon swearing an oath of allegiance to the British throne, and taking the sacrament in a Protestant church. In this pamphlet Toland is calling for the same privileges to be extended to the Jews.

This edition of John Toland's pamphlet has been faithfully reproduced from the original, with an introduction, editor's notes and a chronology of Toland, his life and times. Previously available only in facsimile reproductions, the text has been reset using a modern typeface but with original spelling, emphasis and formats preserved.

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Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews in Great Britain and Ireland by John Toland (1670-1722)

Non fiction, essay, political science. 68 pages. Paperback.

First published in London in 1714. This edition published in Ireland in 2012 by The Manuscript Publisher

ISBN: 978-0-9571157-8-1

Available to Buy Online

Price €7.99 plus P&P - €3.35 for delivery within Ireland/Northern Ireland; €5.60 for overseas delivery

Also available in print-on-demand from CreateSpace

Also available in E-book from Amazon

Currently available in Kindle edition on Amazon including Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (links open in new window)

Reviews, etc for Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews in Great Britain and Ireland

Read Dr. Jordi Morillas' review on Books by J.N. Duggan. See News section.

Toland was one of the most enigmatic Irishmen ... He was widely regarded during his life and long after as a philosopher, renegade and maverick. Many of his ideas are considered radically ahead of their time and the publishers argue that his pamphlet on the Jews of Ireland and Britain is an example of this. It was written in 1714, in the aftermath of the establishment of the Hanoverian succession, in which the British parliament naturalised the family and its descendents, and of the earlier 1704 Act which facilitated the naturalisation of the Huguenot protestants forced to flee France. At a time when it was unthinkable in most European countries that Jews be considered citizens, Toland used these two precedents to argue on behalf of British Jews. - Books Ireland, March 2013

Only the horrors of Nazism could eclipse from our memories the horrors of European and, in particular, British Jewish history. Brought to England by William the Conqueror in 1070, they were tolerated - although, on default of any payment, they were promptly arrested, with their wives, children and servants - until the reign of Richard I, when they were murdered under charges such as "bewitching the King". 500 jews, besieged in a tower of the Royal Palace, their ransom having been refused, and to avoid greater cruelty from their enemies, killed their wives and children and then burnt themselves and the tower. Measures to force Jews to ransom themselves included one eye being pulled out and every day, a tooth. Under the pretence of stealing and crucifying a child - a frequently used pretence - eighteen were hanged. It got steadily worse. 700 were hanged under King Henry III, then, 260, after being drawn at horsetails. Their synagogues were pulled down, 16,511 were banished and their houses sold to enrich the exchequer. After 220 years, Cromwell allowed them back, and under Charles II, all their children under six were detained in 'convert-houses'.

Apart from these gory tales, Toland's 1714 appeal argued that Jews created as well as managed business. Expelling them cost Spain and Portugal dearly, while Holland gained, benefitting from irrigation, learning, population increase and in Amsterdam and the Hague "whole streets of magnificent buildings". They would not be a financial drain as they always took care of their own poor. They had no history of proselytising, either violently or non-violently. The author John Toland, the first man to be called a freethinker, was born into an Irish-speaking Donegal family. After his first book was banned and burnt in Dublin, he left Ireland, became a Whig and was close to the Hanovers. Long an advocate of 'general naturalisation', his arguments are as valid now as in his day. - Books Ireland, May 2013

Special Offer on John Toland Titles

3 for the price of 2 on Books by and about John Toland (1670-1722)

- An Account of the Courts of Prussia and Hanover by John Toland. RRP €7.99
- John Toland: Ireland's Forgotten Philosopher, Scholar ... and Heretic. RRP €5.99
- Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews in Great Britain and Ireland by John Toland. RRP €7.99

Get all three titles for just €15.98 plus P&P - €4.35 for delivery within Ireland/Northern Ireland; €7.15 for overseas delivery

This offer applies to the print edition only but e-book editions of these titles are available to buy on Kindle and Smashwords

Signed copies of Books by J.N. Duggan are available to buy exclusively from our Online Book Shop

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