HARRINGTON or HARINGTON, JAMES English political philosopher, was born in January 1611, the son of Sir Sapcotes Harrington of Rand, Lincolnshire, and great-nephew of the first Lord Harington of Exton (d. 1615) . In -1629 he entered Trinity college, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner. One of his tutors was the famous Chillingworth. After several years spent in travel, and as a soldier in the Dutch army, he returned to England and lived in retirement till 1646, when he was appointed to the suite of Charles I., at that time being conveyed from New castle as prisoner. Though republican in his ideas, Harrington won the ding's regard and esteem, and accompanied him to the Isle of Wight. He roused, however, the suspicion of the parliamentarians and was dismissed. After Charles's death Harrington wrote his Oceana, a work which pleased neither party. By order of Crom well it was seized when passing through the press. But, by the favour of the Protector's favourite daughter, Mrs. Claypole, the work was restored to him, and appeared in 1656, dedicated to Cromwell. The views embodied in Oceana, particularly that bear ing on vote by ballot and rotation of magistrates and legislators, Harrington and others (who in 1659 formed a club called the "Rota") endeavoured to push practically, but with no success. In November 1661, by order of Charles II., Harrington was arrested on a charge of conspiracy, and was thrown into the Tower. No public trial could be obtained, and when at length his sisters obtained a writ of habeas corpus he was secretly removed to St. Nicholas island off Plymouth. He died on Sept. I1, 1677, and was buried next to Sir Walter Raleigh in St. Margaret's, West minster.
The Oceana is the exposition of an ideal constitution, "Oceana" being England, and the lawgive 7 Olphaus Megaletor, Oliver Crom well. The main ideas are : that the determining element of power in a state is property generally, property in land in particular ; and that the executive power ought not to be vested for any consid erable time in the same men or class of men. Harrington recom mends an agrarian law, limiting the portion of land held to that yielding a revenue of £3,000, and consequently insisting on particu lar modes of distributing landed property. As a means to the second object he lays down the rule of rotation by ballot.
His Works were edited with biography by John Toland in i 7oo ; Toland's edition, with additions by Birch, appeared in 1747, and again in 1771. Oceana was reprinted by Henry Morley in 1887. See H. F. Russell-Smith, Harrington and his Oceana (1914) . Harrington has often been confused with his cousin Sir James Harrington, a member of the commission which tried Charles I., and afterwards excluded from the acts of pardon.