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[DOUGLAS, John]. Letter Addressed to Two Great Men, on the Prospect of Peace. , 1760.
Price: US$825.00 + shipping
Description: [DOUGLAS, John]. A Letter Addressed to Two Great Men, on the Prospect of Peace; and on the Terms Necessary to be Insisted upon in the Negotiation, London, Printed. Boston: Reprinted, by B. Mecom, 1760. One of two Boston editions printed in the same year. 55,[1]pp. 1/2-title. period-style calf-backed marbled boards. Title page supplied in facsimile, very old water stain to several pages, scattered foxing and toning, else very good. HOWES L-276. Evans 8585. This edition printed by Benjamin Franklin's nephew, Benjamin Mecom. First published in London the same year, this work predicts victory in the Seven Years' War, and urges Prime Minister Pitt to negotiate a treaty retaining Quebec, Nova Scotia, Louisburg and Cape Breton Islands for the British. England had seized this real estate from France. Arguing "the infinite consequence of North America" to England, he favors France's total exclusion from Canada in order to prevent "their Elbowing all our Colonies round about." "The discussion of this question provoked Franklin to compose his famous pamphlet, `The Interest of Great Britain Considered.'"
Seller: G.S. MacManus Co., ABAA, Bryn Mawr, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$28000.00 + shipping
Description: 8vo., (8 x 5 inches). With pages 57-58. Modern quarter red morocco gilt. First edition. At the time of its publication, the authorship of this pamphlet was attributed to Franklin, although in the nineteenth century it was credited to Richard Jackson. In 1966 "The Papers of Benjamin Franklin" returned it to Franklin's oeuvre: "in recent years Franklin's authorship has been reestablished in the minds of all but a few doubters, though, as Franklin himself seems to have acknowledged, he received some help from his friend and ally Jackson." Franklin anticipates a British victory in the French and Indian wars and debates which territory is more important for Great Britain to retain: Canada or sugar-rich Guadelope. Most interesting is a passage where Franklin discusses the possibility of the colonies may grow and this "may render them dangerous. Of this I own, I have not the least conception, when I consider that we have already fourteen separate governments . and if we extend . shall probably have as many more . Those we now have, are not only under different governors, but have different forms of government, different laws, different interests, and some of them different religious persuasions and different manners. Their jealousy of each other is so great that however necessary an union of the colonies has long been, for their common defence and security against their enemies, . yet they have never been able to effect such an union among themselves . Nothing but the immediate command of the crown has been able to produce even the imperfect union but lately seen there, of the forces of some colonies." (pp.39-40). Ford 268; Howes J-26; Sabin 35450. Catalogued by Kate Hunter
Seller: Arader Galleries - AraderNYC, New York, NY, U.S.A.