Marrin's Bookshop

Item Description

3 pamphlets bound together, each with separate pagination and register. 8vo. (first two titles in fours) 8.25 x 5.5 inches. Third pamphlet lacks O1 signature, p.171-72, but this is included in facsimile. Some half-titles and advertisements have been omitted by the binder. Bound in original half-calf, over marbled boards; spine in compartments with gilt bands, with contrasting maroon title label, gilt (Pamphlets). Extremities worn and a little foxing at the beginning of first pamphlet and some margin stains on the third, which has edge loss on the last page, just touching the the text. Top edge of second pamphlet has removed inscription and one correction in text and lower margin manuscript phrase (p.91) in the third ; otherwise a generally clean and crisp interior. Printed label of Thomas Hammond Foxcroft, with crest above and his signature on title page of first title. Manuscript list of the the three pamphlets also on front pastedown. Contents: 1. ERSKINE THOMAS, A VIEW OF THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE PRESENT WAR WITH FRANCE, by The Honourable Thomas Erskine. The Fifteenth Edition. Printed for J. Debrett, Piccadilly. 1797. [ii] + 138 pp. ESTC T177169; 2. [WRAXALL, NATHANIEL WILLIAM], A SHORT REVIEW OF THE POLITICAL STATE OF GREAT BRITAIN At the Commencement of the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-Seven. The Sixth Edition, with Additions. Printed for J. Debrett, opposite Burlington-House, Piccadilly. 1787. [ii] + 86 pp. ESTC T72018; 3. [PIGOTT, CHARLES] THE JOCKEY CLUB; OR A SKETCH OF THE MANNERS OF THE AGE. Part the Second. The Second Edition. Printed for H. D. Symonds, Paternoster-Row. 1792. [x] + 186 pp. (lacks pp. 171-72; facsimile included). ESTC N29110. Thomas Erskine (1750-1823), was a Scottish Whig lawyer and politician who defended the radicals prosecuted by the government in the 1790s. This text is part of an extensive pamphlet war on the French Revolution and subsequent execution of Louis XIV and war with France. Here he is attacking the views of Edmund Burke (1729-97), who had started the controversy with his Reflections on the Revolution in France in 1790, as expressed in his Letters on the Prospect of a Regicide Peace (1796). The Present War with France was a bestseller and thirty five editions were published in 1797. As first baron, Erskine served in the office of Lord High Chancellor, 1806-07. The Short Review was published anonymously, but is known to be the work of Sir Nathaniel William Wraxall (1751-1831), author and politician, who was created first baronet in 1813. After early employment by the East India Company, 1769-82, he returned home, travelled extensively in Europe and served as a Tory MP for three different constituencies, 1780-94, being later chiefly known for his published European memoirs. This pamphlet is a dispassionate review of the state of Britain in 1787 with some linked observations on other European states. The Jockey Club was also published anonymously, but is known to be the work of Charles Pigott (d.1794), satirist and radical. The work, using partly disguised names, satirises fashionable society and the conduct of life of the upper classes (the actual Jockey Club was founded in 1750). The first part was published in 1792 and there was also a third part and another work by Pigott, The Female Jockey Club (1794).