"Adieu to Liberty and Property": Sir Nicholas Morice, Humphry Morice, and the Defense of a Tory Political Economy in the Age of Walpole.

Like any broad political dichotomy, the contrast between a Tory land-based and a Whig labor-based political economy can conceal nuances within individual commitments and actions. Devon squire and Tory MP Sir Nicholas Morice's letters to his cousin, London slave merchant and Whig MP Humphry Morice, demonstrate this. Sir Nicholas often amiably derided Humphry's mercantile urbanity, and more acidly mocked Humphry's friendship with Robert Walpole. Yet this posed no obstacle to Humphry assisting Sir Nicholas when Walpole came to appear, at least to Sir Nicholas, as a threat to the customary rights of landholders generally and the Morice interests in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]