Collection of 32 political tracts bound in four volumes

London, 1714-1742

4 vols  |  8vo  |  195 x 120 mm

Complete contents: George Ridpath. Parliamentary right maintain’d, or, The Hanover succession justify’d... [London?] 1714. [10], 262 p. The longer of two editions published the same year. ESTC T43664.  ---  The character of the Parliament, commonly called the Rump… London: Booksellers of London and Westminster, 1721. iv, 38 p.  One of three issues that year, all preceded by an edition ca. 1701. ESTC T30436.  ---  George Granville, Baron Lansdowne. A letter from a noble-man abroad to his friend in England. London, 1722. 8 p. One of three editions, all issued in 1722. ESTC T63012.  ---  A guide to the electors of Great-Britain, beings lists of all those members in the last Parliament who voted for and against such bills… London: S. Popping, 1722. [2], 28, [2] p. First and only edition. ESTC T116130.  ---  A compleat history of the late septennial Parliament… London: J. Peele, 1722. viii, 9-78, [2] p. First edition, the issue with publication date in Roman numerals. ESTC N4975.  ---  John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon. Advice and considerations for the electors of Great Britain. London: J. Peele, 1722. 32 p. First and only edition. ESTC N5817.  ---  The reasonableness of parliamentary proceedings by attainders, banishments, pains and penalties in cases of high treason… London: T. Payne, 1723. [4], 48 p. First and only edition. ESTC T46341.  ---  Nathaniel Gould. An essay on the publick debts of this kingdom… London: J. Peele, 1726. viii, 120 p. Third edition, published the same year as the first. ESTC T33407.  ---  Henry Carey. A learned dissertation on dumpling, its dignity, antiquity, and excellence, with a word upon pudding… London: J. Roberts, 1726. [4], 25, [7] p. Second edition, published the same year as the first. ESTC T165707.  ---  Karl Josef von Palm. Translation of the memorial presented in Latin to the King of Great-Britain by Mons. de Palm… [London, 1727]. 8 p. The longest of three editions from the same year, this with an added “Letter from the Count de Sinzendorf.” ESTC N45674.  ---  William Thomas. To Robert Walpole, Esq. [London? 1716?]. 8 p. One of four editions, all undated and likely issued the same year. ESTC N13807.  ---  To the army and people of England. [London? 1715]. 4 p. One of three editions from the same year, all undated. ESTC T64364.  ---  The history of Benducar the Great, prime minister to Muley Mahomet and Muley Moluch, emperors of Morocco… London: C. Davies, [1742?]. viii, 9-56 p. First and only edition. ESTC N8850.  ---  A collection of the proceedings in the House of Commons against the Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Albans, Lord Chancellor of England, for corruption and bribery… London: A. More, [1721]. 24 of 32 p. One of two editions issued in 1721 without an edition statement, and so likely one of the earliest. ESTC T73.  ---  Remarks on a late book intitled An essay on the publick debts of this kingdom… London: A. Moore, 1727. vi, 58 p. First edition. ESTC T85641.   ---  A true and exact list of the right honourable the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons of Great Britain, with a blank margin to insert any alterations that may happen… London: Eman. Matthews, 1727. 88 p. The only 1727 edition. ESTC T51795.  ---  Daniel Defoe. The evident advantages to Great Britain and its allies from the approaching war… London: J. Roberts and A. Dodd, 1727. [4], 44p. + [2] leaves of plates. One of two editions, the other published at Northampton the same year. ESTC T2617.  ---  Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke. The occasional writer numb. 1, with an answer paragraph by paragraph. London: A. Moore, 1727. 31, [1] p. The first of four numbers, one of several editions published in its first year. ESTC T67242.  ---  Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke. The occasional writer. London: J. Gray, 1727. 16 p. Another edition of #1. ESTC T220477.  ---  Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke. The occasional writer, &c. containing ***’s letter and a reply to it, paragraph by paragraph. London: S. Grey, [1727]. 30, [2] p. Not an edition of #1, but without issue number. ESTC T41914.  ---  Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke. The occasional writer no III, to the same. London: A. Moore, 1727. 31, [1] p. Apparently the only edition of #3. ESTC T67236.  ---  The occasional paper number 1, an essay on bigotry. London: R. Burleigh, 1716. [2], 18, [2] p. The first of multiple numbers published through 1719; also known as the Bagwell Papers. ESTC P202 (serial), N48951 (individual).  ---  Reasons shewing the necessity of reducing the army… London: A. Moore, 1728. [4], 44 p. First and only edition. ESTC T66763.  ---  The benefits and advantages gain’d by the late septennial parliament… London: A. Moore, [1722]. [2], 34 p. Second edition. ESTC T128136.  ---  A letter to a member of Parliament in the north… London: R. Walker, [1729?]. xv, [1], 17-30, [2] p. Third edition. ESTC T108698.  ---  The necessity of a plot, or, Reasons for a standing army. [London? 1720?]. 16 p. First and only edition. ESTC T39722.  ---  George Lyttelton. Farther considerations on the present state of affairs at home and abroad… London: T. Cooper, 1739. [4], 60 p. First edition. ESTC T35390.  ---  Caleb D’Anvers (pseudonym). French counsels destructive to Great-Britain… London: J. Brett, 1739. [2], iv, 3-87, [1] p. First and only edition. ESTC T100271.  ---  William Wyndham. A letter from an absented member to a friend at Westminster shewing his reasons for retiring into the country… London: J. Standen, 1739. 26 p. First and only edition. ESTC T10662.  ---  Caleb D’Anvers (pseudonym). A letter to the right honourable Sir R-- W--- &c. upon the present posture of affairs… London: J. Bret, 1739. 30, [2] p. First and only edition. ESTC T128415.  ---  Philocles. A letter to a noble lord in answer to a letter to a member of Parliament for bringing in a bill to revise, amend, or repeal certain obsolete statutes, commonly called the ten commandments… London: T. Cooper, 1739. 71, [1] p. First edition. ESTC T60496.  ---  A hue and cry after part of a pack of hounds which broke out of their kennel in Westminster… London: F. Style, 1739. [4], 16 of 28 p. First edition. ESTC T3990. 

A collection of English political tracts spanning twenty-six years, many satirical, largely focused on current affairs, bound together in four volumes. Those published by “A. Moore” are false imprints, the name generally understood at the time to be a fictitious one.  ¶  Carey’s Learned dissertation on dumpling includes at end one of the earliest appearances of his poem “Namby Pamby,” a term that remains in use today and originated from these satirical verses on Ambrose Philips. The advertisements that follow are equally rich, including a proposal “for printing by subscriptions the antiquities of Grub-Street” (“some copies will be printed on vellum, rul’d and illuminated”). “Subscribers are taken-in by the authors…” On the final page, a Grub Street author offers his services, who will “furnisheth at a minute’s warning” any verse “adapted to all manner of persons and professions, ready written, with blanks to insert the names of the parties address’d to…He taketh any side of a question and writeth for or against, or both, if required…He writeth for those who cannot write themselves, yet are ambitious of being authors, and will, if required, enter into bonds never to own the performance.”  ¶  The History of Benducar the Great, satire partially at the expense of Muslims, “depicts its target [Robert Walpole] as a Moroccan vizier, and catalogues the events of his early career through a flimsy veil of oriental metaphor” (Jones).  ¶  The collection even offers something for the Americana collector: Daniel Defoe’s tract (ESTC T2617) includes maps of Havana Harbor and Panama’s Portobelo.  ¶  Some of these are rather scarce. The Defoe pamphlet, for example, we find at auction most recently in 1975.

PROVENANCE:  Engraved bookplate of John Ward (with the Ward family crest) on each front paste-down, his ownership initials on titles of the 1739 volume, and a manuscript table of contents at the front of each volume. Gaps in the chronological coverage between volumes suggest these are part of what was once a larger collection; table of contents in the 1739 volume call for a final tract no longer present.  ¶  The bookplate is not that of John Ward of Capesthorne, M.P., nor is it likely that of John Ward the mathematician (active 1698-1709, died ca. 1730), but more probably John Ward the Gresham College academic (1679?-1758). Ward served as a clerk in the navy office, later opened his own school, and was made professor of rhetoric at Gresham in 1720. He was a member of a society that discussed published work on law, became a member of the Royal Society under Isaac Newton’s presidency, was a director of the Society of Antiquaries, and served as an inaugural trustee of the British Museum. Not active in politics himself, and presumably with little influence in that world, these tracts would represent the interests of a political outsider in early 18th-century British politics, showing a taste that ranged from relatively objective reporting to scathing satire—an appetite not unlike that of many consumers of political news today.  ¶  Occasional textual corrections and other markings. Some anonymous figures identified in the margins of A compleat history of the late septennial Parliament and A hue and cry (partially trimmed). Intriguing contemporary note on last page of Occasional paper no 1: “Pamphlets lookt over N. 1”.

CONDITION:  Contemporary quarter leather and blue paper-covered boards.  ¶  A collection of the proceedings (ESTC T73) lacking the final gathering of 8 pages; A hue and cry (ESTC T3990) lacking the final 12 pages; E gathering bound after F in A true and exact list (ESTC T51795); ESTC calls for [2] additional pages of prelims in Occasional paper no 1 (ESTC N48951), so ours possibly lacking a half-title; p. 1 of Farther considerations (ESTC T35390) skinned, affecting some text; French counsels (ESTC T100271) with some marginal worming, not affecting any text; scattered dampstaining and soiling. Spines worn, with some surface-level crumbling; some loss at spine ends of the 1739 volume, minor chipping to some other spines; boards moderately soiled and some dampstained.  ¶  All boards and text blocks firmly intact. Not a bad set at all, and together a valuable collection that somehow resisted the dispersive vagaries of time.

REFERENCES:  See ESTC numbers above  ¶  Emrys D. Jones, “A Man in Love,” Intimacy and Celebrity in Eighteenth-Century Literary Culture: Public Interiors (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), p. 182; Dictionary of National Biography, v. 59 (on Ward); Michael Treadwell, "On False and Misleading Imprints in the London Book Trade, 1660-1750," Fakes and Frauds (Oak Knoll, 1996), p. 41-43 (on A. Moore)

Item #156