The persistence of party: ideas of harmonious discord in eighteenth-century Britain

Indeed, Walters’ contentions concerning representation in chapter three and the issue of ‘parliamentary Erastianism’ in chapter two are likely to spark further discussion in the field. Furthermore, there remains more to be said on the influence of these debates beyond political thought and into political praxis, which the author evokes with reference to Whig and Tory debates and parliamentary activity from the 1670s to the 1690s. However, the focus on printed debates instead of manuscript material may tend to obscure some of the further complexities which Walters illustrates in this reassessment of the place of the Covenants in England after 1660.