[ book tip by Katy Barrett ] In the 1720s, an ill, penniless, French poet arrived in London. An exile from France for offending the establishment, he discovered that he rather liked what he found in England. In Letters Concerning the English Nation, Voltaire proceeded to outline and analyse the religious, political, commercial, and artistic qualities that, for him, marked Britain out.

What does it mean to be British? This is a vexing question at the moment. From MPs' expenses, to the Iranian elections, to the 'Credit Crunch', the touchstones of our lives are shifting and calling into question what it is that the UK stands for. I think Voltaire may give us an answer …  Voltaire's style is whimsical and anecdotal yet presents a serious discussion of parliamentary democracy, benign monarchy, religious toleration, commercial entrepreneurship, and artistic freedom. It was this combination, and the defence of it, which Voltaire eulogised as necessary for any government. Implicitly his Letters also therefore criticised the French regime which had exiled him, and which he longed to reform.

The picture which Voltaire drew helped to inspire the 'enlightenment' reform of Europe, a movement in which he was vocal and active. When combined with his delightful prose style, Voltaire's campaigns for reform make him still a household name. Candide may be his better-known work, but Letters Concerning the English Nation laid out for the philosophers the convictions that Candide would lay out to 'the people'. 

Those qualities which Voltaire so treasured in eighteenth-century Britain are still crucial to us today. They are at the heart of the types of challenges posed by MPs' expenses and yet they get buried under media frenzy. Perhaps it takes a trip to the eighteenth century to remind us what really matters?

[ Favourite quote ] 'Take a view of the Royal-Exchange in London, a place more venerable than many courts of justice, where the representatives of all nations meet for the benefit of mankind. There the Jew, the Mahometan, and the Christian transact together as tho’ they all professed the same religion, and give the name of Infidel to none but bankrupts … If one religion only were allowed in England, the government would very possibly become arbitrary; if there were but two, the people wou’d cut one another’s throats; but as there are such a multitude, they all live happy and in peace.'

[ book info ] Voltaire, : Letters Concerning the English Nation. (Book language: English/French) Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999 (1733). ISBN: 0-19-283708-7.