like the Constitutional Society and the Royal Society mentioned below. Burke claims to write from a detached and impartial standpoint though he believes he has on his side the best English opinion. The Constitutional Society was founded in 1780 by John Cartwright (1740-1824), a naval officer, who afterwards became a major of Militia. It included many Whig noblemen and circulated not only the works of earlier writers on liberty like Sidney and Locke, but more extensively those of contemporary pamphleteers. The abolition of slavery the emancipation of Greece, and the liberation of Spain from its absolute government, were among the objects for which Cartwright worked. — A.J. Grieve