University of Virginia Library

Conclusions

Godwin has been identified as having a distinctive style in the materials
examined, which cover much of his writing life. The two main features of
his style are that he generally has a much higher lexical richness score than
any of the other writers analyzed, and that he makes much less use of the core
vocabulary than many of his contemporaries. Of the two pamphlets in question,
Reflexions sits within the boundaries of Godwin's other writings in all
the charts and in all examinations provides positive indications that he is the
likely author. Investigation of the pamphlets of other writers at the time
certainly offers no other candidate. This is significant, since the external evidence
for the authorship of Reflexions is the weaker of the two pamphlets
under consideration. The focus of this examination has been Law because
it is the better attested of the two pamphlets, yet it appeared to be outside
the boundary of Godwin material in one crucial respect, that of lexical richness.
However, further analysis revealed that Law sits well within the norms
for Godwin's use of the core vocabulary and shares with Reflexions very
similar use or non-use of marker functional vocabulary, and that lexical
vocabulary is present at the phrasal level linking Godwin's known work with
both Law and Reflexions. The low lexical richness score has been identified
as having its source in the unusually high level of repetition contained in the
central portion of the pamphlet, which is a function of the way the author
has chosen to lay out the argument. This authorial decision has greatly reduced
the amount of vocabulary items relative to the length of text, not only
in respect of Godwin's work, but also in relation to what would be expected
in any text of a similar length. This means that the statistical scores, without
the large historical segments and the regular references to parliamentary
procedures, could be expected to be more like Defence and Strictures. In the
light of all these factors, it is our opinion that there is sufficient internal
evidence from this investigation to support the contemporary manuscript
ascriptions and the related evidence in Godwin's diary, and to attribute authorship
of both anonymous pamphlets to Godwin.

These two pamphlets on the Regency Crisis are important additions to
the canon of Godwin's works.[14] They are significant for what they reveal
about both his developing political views and his consistent resourcefulness
as a pamphlet writer. They demonstrate that his practical engagement with
contemporary British politics did not lessen towards the end of the 1780s,
as is often thought, but that he continued to support the Foxite Whigs right
up to the spring of 1789. At the same time, they indicate just how much Godwin
was preoccupied with constitutional questions on the eve of the French
Revolution, two years before he began writing Enquiry. Finally, Godwin's
Regency pamphlets, in their mixture of abstract speculation and engagement

with concrete political questions, adumbrate a central feature of his thought
as it developed through the 1790s, and beyond. As experiments in combining
speculative and practical politics, Law and Reflexions help to explain how
Godwin became the author of not only Enquiry but also Strictures, his most
successful intervention in contemporary politics, in which he demolished the
government's case of high treason brought against twelve leading radicals in
1794.

APPENDIX
List of codes and word counts of all texts used in the computer analysis

                                       

Works by William Godwin	Words	Works by Thomas Paine	Words	Law, Reflexions, Regency pamphlets, and other texts	Words
WG1=Defence	8576	TP1=CommonSense1	2161	Law	10317
WG2=Instructions	13074	TP2=CommonSense2	3484	Reflexions	8377
WG3=Imogen1	7389	TP3=CommonSense3	2646	[WG]=ShortView	2656
WG4=Imogen2	9553	TP4=CommonSense4	3865	JLDL=Observations	2650
WG5=Imogen3	5963	TP5=Crisis7	7942	[JM]=Arguments	2228
WG6=Imogen4	5700	TP6=Crisis11	7964	CL1=Letters1	4598
WG7=Imogen5	7635	TP7=Crisis15	2457	CL2=Letters2	3550
WG8=Imogen6	9325	TP8=Rights2.1	1737	CL3=Letters3	2047
WG9=Strictures	7315	TP9=Rights2.2	776
WG10=Hist. Rom.	5174	TP10=Rights2.3	5257	RP1=Add. Observ.	10756
WG11=Enquiry5.1	3306	TP11=Rights2.4	8435	RP2=Discourse	8693
WG12=Enquiry5.7	1651	TP12=Reason1.1	1140	JT=Sermon	2956
WG13=Enquiry5.8	3079	TP13=Reason1.8	1728	MW=Vindic.9	4539
WG14=Enquiry5.14	2217	TP14=Reason2.1	1832	JP=Phlogiston	5598
WG15=Enquiry5.15	4538	TP15=Reason2.9	1940	MWS=LastMan1.1	5941
WG16=Thoughts1	3550
WG17=Thoughts4	4721
WG18=Thoughts9	4078
WG19=Thoughts23	3810