[Jacquerie]

It was through one of Bernard Bailyn's books a few years ago that I learned of Trenchard and Gordon's Cato's Letters. What a hoot! Those two stuck it to an incredibly corrupt English government that almost destroyed the kingdom via South Sea stock euphoria.

More importantly, it was through Cato's Letters that colonial Americans learned the lessons of Locke and Sidney.

Thanks to Cato's Letters, by 1776 the philosophical concepts and maxims of the Declaration of Independence were old hat.

[snarkpup]

It was through one of Bernard Bailyn's books a few years ago that I learned of Trenchard and Gordon's Cato's Letters.

You're probably referring to The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution.

The English Libertarian Heritage, edited by David Jacobson, contains excerpts from Cato's Letters and their other series The Independent Whig. Free downloads of both (unabridged) are available here:

Online Library of Liberty—John Trenchard

A two-volume hardcover version of Cato's Letters is also available from the same source. I am not aware of any readable and unabridged modern printed editions of The Independent Whig; but the online version is public domain and can be printed and spiral bound by your local print shop for about what a book would cost.

The Independent Whig is a scathing review of the corruption that organized Christianity had degenerated into in both England and on the Continent. The theme was that religion only works as a means of promoting civic morality when it is not used as a power base.