Lettre à l’Auteur du Mercure politique.
3. [BRISSOT
de WARVILLE, Jacques Pierre.]
Lettre à l’auteur du Mercure politique. Par les auteurs du Traité intitulé: De la France et des Etats-Unis. A
Bouillon.
m. dcc. lxxxvii
. [1787.]
8vo. 16 leaves including the last blank; dated from Amsterdam, 20 Juillet, 1787.
Not in Barbier.
Not in Sabin.
On the title-page Jefferson has written in ink:
par M. de Warville (the full name added by another hand).
The letter begins:
Permettez-nous, Monsieur, de répondre à une accusation que vous avez dirigée contre nous dans votre Mercure politique du 30
Juin dernier, page 222 . . .
and concerns the alleged fortune of Warren Hastings.
For the
Traité intitulé: De la France et des Etats-Unis by Étienne Clavière and Jacques Pierre Brissot de Warville, see no. 3609.
[2991]
La Crise de l’Europe. par S
r. John Sinclair.
4. SINCLAIR,
Sir John.
La Crise de l’Europe, ou Pensées sur le systême que les différentes puissances de l’Europe, & en particulier la Neutralité
armée devroient suivre dans la conjoncture présente. Traduit de l’
Anglois.
m. dcc. lxxxiii
. [1783.]
18 leaves in twelves, including the half-title.
Barbier I, 819 (du chevalier Sinclair Webster. 1763, in-12).
On the half-title Sir John Sinclair has written:
A Monsieur--Monsieur Jeffers[
on]
a l’auteu[
r] (partly cut into by the binder), and on the title-page, following the word
Anglois, he has written:
De la Chevalier Sinclair Ulbster, membre de Parlem[
ent]
d’Angleterr[
e] (cut into with some letters missing).
Other works by Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster appear in this catalogue. The cause of Barbier’s error is obvious, and he must
have seen a similarly inscribed copy.
[2992]
271
Tracts. Britain & America. viz............................................
}
Price on the importance of the American revolution.
}
8
vo.
Price on the nature of Civil liberty................................
}
1815 Catalogue, page 105. no. 245, Tracts, Britain and America, by Price, 8vo.
Jefferson’s copies of these two tracts, bound together for him, are no longer in the Library of Congress. There were at one
time four copies in this Library of the first tract, E211 .P945, but no copy can now be found.
PRICE,
Richard.
Observations on the importance of the American Revolution, and the means of making it a benefit to the world. By Richard Price . . .
London: printed [for
T. Cadell] in
1784.
No copy of this edition was seen for collation. At the end of the tract is a letter written by the late M. Turgot, Comptroller-General
(in the Years 1774, 1775, and 1776,) of the finances of France. It contains observations in which the United States are deeply
concerned, addressed to Mr. Price, and dated from Paris, March 22d, 1778. The dedication to the Free and United States of America is dated July 6, 1784.
According to all the Library of Congress catalogues, Jefferson had the first edition of this pamphlet.
That Jefferson had a copy of the first edition is proved by a letter written by him to Richard Price, dated from Paris, February 1, 1785:
The copy of your Observations on the American Revolution which you were so kind as to direct to me came duly to hand, and I should have acknoleged the receipt of it but that I awaited a private conveiance for my letter, having experienced much delay and uncertainty in the posts between this place and London. I have read it with very great pleasure, as have done many others to whom I have communicated it. the sprit which it breathes is as affectionate as the observations themselves are wise and just. I have no doubt it will be reprinted in America and produce much good there. the want of power in the federal head was early perceived, and foreseen to be the flaw in our constitution which might endanger its destruction . . . the apprehensions you express of danger from the want of powers in Congress, led me to note to you this character in our governments, which, since the retreat behind the Delaware, and the capture of Charlestown, has kept my mind in perfect quiet as to the ultimate fate of our union; and I am sure, from the spirit which breathes thro your book, that whatever promises permanence to that will be a comfort to your mind . . .
(Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings, Series II, Vol. XVII, page 325.)
In 1785 Dr. Price sent
him a copy of the second edition, printed in that year. On March 21, 1785, he wrote to Jefferson from Newington Green a letter
beginning:
“I received with peculiar pleasure the favour of your letter by D
r Bancroft, and I return you my best thanks for it. Your favourable reception of the pamphlet w
ch: I desired D
r Franklin to present to you cannot but make me happy; ”
