This chapter synthesizes the unifying theme across the different domains by mapping each conflict onto the egalitarian–libertarian debate: does autonomous constituent self-rule demand ensuring that all constituents enjoy a baseline substantive opportunity to contribute to public governance, or require noninterference with the application of private power and constituent preferences (including by powerful or privileged constituents who will enjoy disproportionate practical influence over politics)? The Conclusion also describes the two related trends in current Supreme Court lawmaking that threaten contestation over freedom. There is the threat – most clearly expressed in Bush v. Gore – that purely tribal partisanship will overdetermine election law outcomes and displace rather than frame the debate over freedom. Second, the parallel rise of the use of summary modes of disposition further erodes the opportunities for philosophical engagement by the bench.

The benefit concert was an offshoot of the Restoration tradition whereby an individual or group of individuals would receive the proceeds from one night’s performance in the playhouse. Musical entertainments were added as bait to increase attendance. Starting in the 1690s, the benefit concert flourished with the proliferation of dedicated concert spaces (York Buildings) as well as repurposed onces (Hickford’s Dancing School and Stationers’ Hall). In this essay, I will show the significant role English composers and their music played in these benefit concerts from the 1690s to 1714. Through an examination of newspaper advertisements and other suriving sources I will reconstruct the repertory for these benefits, demonstrating the continued importance of native music and musicians even as foreign composers and performers flooded the market.