Coercion

• 1. Constraint, restraint, compulsion; the application of force to control the action of a voluntary agent.

1495 Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 36 Pream., Such..releasses..were made by compulcion, cohercion and emprisonement. 1531 ELYOT Gov. I. viii, That a noble childe, by his owne naturall disposition, and nat by coertion, may be induced to receiue perfect instruction in these sciences. 1537 Inst. Chr. Man Lvb, Noo man may kyll, or use suche bodily cohercion, but onely princis. a1600 HOOKER Eccl. Pol. VIII. iii. §4 To fly to the civil magistrate for coercion of those that will not otherwise be reformed. 1651 HOBBES Leviath. III. xlii. 270 Winning men to obedience, not by Coercion, and Punishing; but by Perswasion. 1791 COWPER Iliad XX. 185 By strong coercion of our arms subdued. 1859 MILL Liberty i. 21 The moral coercion of public opinion. 1876 GREEN Short Hist. vi. 283 Justice is degraded by..the coercion of juries. 1879 G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE Riding Recoll. ii. (ed. 7) 17 Judicious coercion, so employed that the brute obeys the man without knowing why.

b. Forcible restraint of (action).

1827 HALLAM Const. Hist. (1876) III. xviii. 388 A more uniform administration of justice in ordinary cases, a stricter coercion of outrage.

c. The enforcement or execution of an ecclesiastical sentence. Obs.

1546 Act 37 Henry VIII, c. 17 in Oxf. & Camb. Enactm. 23 May laufully execute and exercise all manner of jurisdiccion commonly called ecclesiasticall jurisdiccion and all censures and coertions apperteyninge..unto the same. a1676 HALE Common Law (J.), The coercion or execution of the sentence in ecclesiastical courts, is only by excommunication of the person contumacious.

• 2. Government by force, as opposed to that which rests upon the will of the community governed; the employment of force to suppress political disaffection and the disorder to which it gives rise. In modern English politics, chiefly applied to the suspension of ordinary constitutional liberties, and other exceptional legislation, from time to time applied to Ireland. Coercion Act, Coercion Bill: popular name for the Act of Parliament of 1833 and various subsequent ones. As the word has had, in later times, a bad flavour, suggesting the application of force as a remedy, or its employment against the general sense of a community, it is now usually avoided by those who approve of the action in question.

1798 A. O'CONNOR in Madden United Irishmen Ser. II. (1843) II. xiv. 322 The recall of Lord Fitzwilliam..the renewal of the reign of terror and coercion. 1832 SIR C. NAPIER Life in Pall Mall G. (1887) 19 Oct. 9/1 Coercion, damnable coercion! What has been the ruin of Ireland but this accursed coercion. 1833 PALMERSTON in Bulwer Life (1870) II. x. 148 Few absolute Governments could by their own authority establish such a system of coercion as that which the freely chosen representatives of the people are placing at the command of the Government of this country. 1880 W. E. FORSTER Let. Gladstone 23 Nov. in Life II. vi. 272 Like myself..driven with the utmost reluctance to take the side of coercion. 1888 DUKE OF ARGYLL Let. in Times 9 Nov. 9/6 The cant which brands as ‘coercion’ that which is the duty of every Government. attrib. 1834 PALMERSTON in Bulwer Life (1870) II. 205 The Coercion Bill will pass without much difficulty. 1848 W. J. O'N. DAUNT Recoll. O'Connell II. App. 306 The Coercion Act of 1833 was passed by an English Parliament in defiance of a majority of Irish members. 1875 M. F. CUSACK Sp. Liberator I. Introd. 9 One of his most powerful speeches was on the subject of Coercion Laws for Ireland. 1880 W. E. FORSTER Let. Gladstone 26 Dec., My draft Coercion, or, as it may be called..Protection Bill. 1881 Ibid. 20 Nov., My replacement by some one not tarred by the coercion brush.

• 3. Physical pressure; compression.

1830 HERSCHEL Stud. Nat. Phil. III. i. (1851) 233 Hay..reduced to such a state of coercion as to be easily packed on board transports. 1853 KANE Grinnell Exp. xl. (1856) 370 We have passed, by the inevitable coercion of ice from the highest regions of Arctic exploration..to the lowest. 1863 FR. KEMBLE Resid. Georgia 38 This violent coercion and tight bandaging.

• 4. The faculty or power of coercing or punishing; ‘coercitive power’ or ‘jurisdiction’. (So L. coercitio.) Obs.

[c1189 HERBERT DE BOSEHAM Vita S. Thomæ III. xxiv. in Materials Becket (Rolls) III. 268 Sacrosancta ecclesia..duos habet reges..duas jurisdictiones et duas coertiones.] 1523 LD. BERNERS Froiss. I. ccxii. 259 [They are] to be at the jurysdiction and cohercyon of the Churche of Rome. 1649 BP. HALL Cases Consc. III. vi. 279 In vaine is that power which is not inabled with coertion. 1700 TYRRELL Hist. Eng. II. 907 They submitted themselves to the Jurisdiction and Coertion of the Archbishop.

b. fig. Conviction, power to compel assent.

1768 STERNE Serm. iv. 67 The single hint of the Camel and what a very narrow passage he has to go, has more coercion in it, than all the seesaws of philosophy.