Oeuvres politiques de Jacques Harrington, écuyer. Contenant la République d’Océana, les Aphorismes et autres Traités du même Auteur, précédées de l’Histoire de sa vie, écrite par Jean Toland, traduit de l’anglois
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- Oeuvres politiques de Jacques Harrington, écuyer. Contenant la République d’Océana, les Aphorismes et autres Traités du même Auteur, précédées de l’Histoire de sa vie, écrite par Jean Toland, traduit de l’anglois translation has paratext
Summary (extracted citations)
p. xiv: 'Une traduction literale ne pouvait être offerte de nos jours à des lecteurs François. En évitant ce défaut, j'ai sur-tout pris soin de ne point nuire au sens, de le suivre avec une scrupuleuse attention. J'ai cherché quelquefois à conserver la tournure originale de l'auteur; à laisser entrevoir le siècle dans lequel il écrivoit. Si j'ai fait quelque sacrifice, c'est, sans doute, à l'élégance de la phrase, mais ce n''est a jamais été qu'en faveur de la vérité & de la clarté'.
Notes
Epigraph taken from Cicero's De Republica.
In his preface, the translator compares the French and English Revolutions (the Civil War). Deplores the bloody path both revolutions have taken and the tyranny they have brought about (Cromwell and Robespierre). Contrasts this with the reasonable course followed by the American revolutionaries. The translator was inspired to study and translate Harrington because of Robert Adam's praise for him in his Défense des constitutions américaines (1792, Buisson, annotated by Jacques-Vincent Delacroix), where he had quoted extensively from the beginning of Oceana on the need for a balance of powers in a free government.
He has intended the translation to aid the drafters of the French Constitution of 1795 and regrets it appeared too late to do so. Those who read Harrington, "s'apercevront facilement de la distance à laquelle nous sommes de ses principes". The tyranny of "the French protector", and many violations of the freedom of the press, kept him from publishing the work. Real republics have complete freedom of the press and allow for reasonable criticism of the government.
The translator criticizes the new French Constitution, comparing it to a theatre, whereas Harrington's system is more like a temple. He thinks, with Harrington, that it is necessary to install a Senate with certain aristocratic elements in order to protect the people against political charlatans. Property ownership should be given more weight in the representative system.
The translation is not a literal one as the translator finds Harrington's style obscure and archaic. He has therefore mostly concentrated on rendering the meaning of the text. Oceana has been translated integrally, the other tracts have been shortened here and there to make them more concise. A number of circumstantial tracts, consisting mostly of repetition, have been omitted.