Abstract

This dissertation examines the political thought of Adam Ferguson. It shows how Ferguson defended the ideal of empire throughout his work. In doing this it demonstrates how Ferguson drew upon the traditions of republicanism and natural law to arrive at a concept of civil liberty. For Ferguson this was the benefit of British rule. ;In his Essay on the History of Civil Society, Ferguson imagined Scotland before to the Union as an ancient republic founded upon public virtue. Here Ferguson's views were broadly republican. But they were also informed by the Scottish practice of manrent. Hence his community existed as "bands" or as a "knot of friends." An analysis of Ferguson's relations with the House of Atholl reveals how strong an influence this traditional Scottish political culture was upon Ferguson in his early years. ;Yet the tradition of natural law that Ferguson learnt as a client of Lord Milton and at the University of Edinburgh did much to instill within him a respect for law and order. As seen in his concept of civil society, liberty arose, not out of the exchanges of public life, but from the security government provided to its subjects. Using the trichotomy germane to Roman law argument, Ferguson showed in his Essay how civil man acquired property which justice protected . ;As Secretary to the Carlisle Peace Commission in 1778, Ferguson developed this thesis in response to the turmoil in America. The rebels, he believed, could be brought to heel by extending to them civil liberty. Once installed in Georgia, Ferguson's model of civil society proved--at least temporarily--successful. ;India was an even greater success. Underwritten by Henry Dundas in the India Act of 1784, civil liberty, envisaged here in the protection of persons and property, had finally come to the subcontinent. Implemented by his former student Governor-General John MacPherson, Ferguson's system served as the cornerstone of British rule in India. This is how Scots such as Ferguson used natural law in defense of the British empire.