In an early
post, “Canada and John Locke’s Two
Treatises” (published July 20, 2012)[1]
I wrote that Locke’s trinity of “Peace, Safety, and publick good of the people”
comes close to Canada’s “Peace, order and good government” but the textual
resemblance had not been developed by Janet Ajzenstat in her book, Canadian Founding: John Locke and Parliament
(2007).[2] While I remain skeptical as to the influence
of Locke on the beginnings of Canada, there is some evidence to suggest that
our Constitutional motto may have found an antecedent in the 3rd
Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713), who knew Locke and was himself a product of
the Glorious Revolution. He employs the
trinity “order, peace, and concord.”[3] But it was his grandfather, the 1st
Earl of Shaftesbury (1621-1623), who is recognized in history as the benefactor
of Locke, and who also helped shape his political imagination, given the Earl’s
opposition to the court of the Roman Catholic King, Charles II.[4]
Western
culture is replete with references or allusions to the Trinity – since
Augustine, of course – and I have discussed the matter variously elsewhere. A
more modern equivalent, stemming from Communism, might be the ubiquity of the
five-year plan. At any rate, it is worth
exploring the Trinity in a Canadian context; perhaps one might begin with the
influence of Augustinian predestination (via Calvin) on the colonial impulse.
[1] See my list of ‘Popular Posts’ on
the homepage.
[2] John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Peter Laslett (Cambridge;
Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 353.
[3] Lord Shaftesbury, Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times,
etc., Vol. II, ed. John M. Robertson (London: Grant Richards, 1900 [Scholar
Select Reprint], p. 144. First published in 1711.
[4] See John Dunn, Past Masters: Locke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), pp.
3-6,8-9.
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