160
Browns estimate of the manners and principles of the times.
12
mo.
1815 Catalogue, page 95. no. 49, as above.
BROWN,
John.
An Estimate of the manners and principles of the times. By Dr. Brown, author of the Essays on Lord Shaftesbury’s characteristics, &c . . .
Dublin: printed for
G. Faulkner,
J. Hoey, and
J. Exshaw,
mdcclvii
. [1757.]
HN388 .B84 1757
12mo. 66 leaves: A-E
12, F
6.
This edition not in Lowndes or the
Cambridge Bibl. of Eng. Lit.
Jones, page 54.
John Brown, 1715-1766, known as “Estimate Brown”, was a native of Northumberland, England. The first edition was published in London
in 1757 and several editions were printed in the same year. A second part appeared in 1758. The Dublin edition was probably
pirated.
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J. 161
An historical essay on the English constitution.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 98. no. 158, as above.
[RAMSAY,
Allan.]
An historical essay on the English constitution: or, an impartial inquiry into the elective power of the people, from the
first establishment of the Saxons in this kingdom. Wherein the right of Parliament, to tax our distant provinces, is explained,
and justified, upon such constitutional principles as will afford an equal security to the colonists, as to their brethren
at home. Where annual election ends, there slavery begins.
London: printed for
Edward and Charles Dilly in the Poultry.
m.dcc.lxxi
. [1771.]
JN214 1771 .R2
8vo. 114 leaves in fours, the last with the publishers’ advertisements.
Halkett and Laing III, 52.
Not in Lowndes.
Sweet & Maxwell II, 13, 28.
Original sheep. Initialled by Jefferson at sig. I and T. With the Library of Congress 1815 bookplate.
Allan Ramsay, 1713-1784, the eldest son of the poet, was by profession a portrait painter. This is one of four political pamphlets which were published anonymously, and was first issued in 1765.
Allan Ramsay was, in fact, not the author of this pamphlet, which has always been attributed to him.
Dr. Trevor Colbourn of Pennsylvania State University writes:
“There is no question but that the Historical Essay on the English Constitution was not written by Allan Ramsay. The reasons for this are many: there is virtually nothing in the Historical Essay, in either style or content, that permit [sic--Ed.] a man of Ramsay’s historical and political persuasion to be author. It is known that Ramsay wrote An Essay on the English Constitution,published I think in 1766, and my examination of that, compared with the Historical Essay, allows no further doubt on that score. Alistair Smart, in his very fine biography, The Life and Art of Allan Ramsay, makes the same point more extensively in a long footnote, p. 141, also referring to the qualms raised earlier by Herbert Butterfield in George III, Lord North, and the People, p. 349n. Smart notes that Ramsay made no claim to the authorship of the Historical Essay and it is understandable. I would go further than Smart’s statement (“almost certainly not by Ramsay”) and insist that the Historical Essay positively was not by Ramsay, and as Dr. Caroline Robbins now suggests, was probably by Obadiah Hulme of Yorkshire.
“Dr. Robbins discovered an inscription in the Historical Essay in the University of Pennsylvania library, indicating that this copy belonged to Joseph Bretland, an Exeter unitarian minister, who mingled in radical circles. Bretland wrote in the book that it was written by Obadiah Hulme, relation to Nathaniel Hulme, physician to the Charter House. And Dr. Robbins has since discovered that there was an Obadiah Hulme who, as Bretland suggested, died in 1791; the Gentlemen's [sic--Ed.] Magazine of 1791 reports the death the death of Obadiah Hulme, author of the Historical Essay. Of course this could have been the same source for Bretland, and might be quite unreliable, but it is the best lead yet. Oddly no contemporary admirers of the Historical Essay, be they Jefferson, Adams or Cartwright, had any idea of the identity of the author.”
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J. 162
Stuart’s historical dissertation on the antiquity of the Eng. constñ.
1815 Catalogue, page 104. no. 159, as above, 8vo.
STUART,
Gilbert.
An historical dissertation concerning the antiquity of the English constitution. By Gilbert Stuart, LL.D. . . . The
second edition, corrected.
London: printed for
T. Cadell, successor to Mr. Millar; and
A. Kincaid, and
W. Creech,
Edinburgh,
mdcclxxi
. [1771.]
JN131 .S8 1771
8vo. 154 leaves, list of Corrections on the recto of the last leaf, otherwise blank.
This edition not in Lowndes.
Sweet & Maxwell I, 89, 66 (with date 1770).
Original calf. Initialled by Jefferson at sig. I and T and with a slip of paper inserted, probably as a bookmark, with notes in his hand of names of towns. With the Library of Congress 1815 bookplate.
Gilbert Stuart, 1742-1786, Scottish historian and reviewer. This work, for which the author received the degree of Doctor of Laws from Edinburgh
University, was originally published anonymously in 1768. This second edition is dedicated to Lord Mansfield.
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