“ and I am willing to infer from it that this effusion of my zeal will not be ill received in America . . .”
The postscript reads: “I have desired D
r Franklin to convey to you a copy of an edition of my Observations &c. w
ch: has been just published here. You will find that I have made considerable additions by inserting a translation of M
r Turgot’s letter and also a translation of a French tract convey’d to me by D
r Franklin. The Observations are the very Same except two or three corrections of no particular consequence, and an additional
note in the Section on the dangers to w
ch: the Am
n: States are exposed.”
The French tract referred to was “a Translation of the will of M. Fortuné Ricard, lately published in France” by Charles Joseph Mathon de la Cour, 1738-1793, French philanthropist, author and artist.
The
Testament de M. Fortuné Ricard
was published in 1785, evidently before March 21, the date of Price’s letter to Jefferson. It is a matter of interest that
it was “convey’d” to Price by Benjamin Franklin whose
La Science du Bonhomme Richard
(the translation of
The Way to Wealth
) was first published in Paris in 1757. In 1822 and later years, editions of these two books were published together,
La science du bonhomme Richard suivie du Testament de Fortuné Ricard.
For Jefferson’s copy of Mathon de la Cour’s work see in chapter 25.
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PRICE,
Richard.
Observations on the nature of civil Liberty, the principles of Government, and the justice and policy of the war with America.
To which is added an Appendix, containing a state of the national debt, an estimate of the money drawn from the public by
the taxes, and an account of the national income and expenditure since the last war . . . By Richard Price, D.D. F.R.S.
London: printed for
T. Cadell, in the Strand,
m.dcc.lxxvi
. [1776.]
AC901 .M5 vol. 742
68 leaves; the 4 leaves in the first signature contain the half-title, with the price,
two shillings; the title; the advertisement; and the list of contents; with
Published by the same Author, on the verso (4 numbered books).
Several thousand copies of this tract, for which the author was presented with the freedom of the City of London, were sold
within a few days, and a number of editions were issued. It is said to have had considerable influence on the American colonists,
and to have encouraged them in declaring their independence. For another edition see no. 3109.
[2994]
