(FRENCH REVOLUTION). ~ Discours, addressé a un certain peuple sur sa situation présente... ‘a Londres: se vend chez W. Richardson’ [but probably continental], 1789.
8vo (225 x 140 mm)., pp. viii, 99, [1]; uncut and unopened in the original decorated paper wrappers. A very good copy.
A rare Revolutionary pamphlet, probably addressed to a Dutch audience, first published the year before, and in this second edition, provided with a new preface in light of the ‘happy events’ of the Revolution which ‘obligent le zèle et la bonne foi de l’auteur... de donner ici, comme dans un postscrit, ou supplément, les corrections et additions que la justice et le changement des circonstances rendent nécessaires’ (p. iii). The pagination in both editions, however, is identical.
The author analyses the effects of a revolution in France by looking at the changes it would make under three headings – ‘La Justice, l’utilité, la facilité’; gives a spirited criticism of the Ancien régime and joyously lauds the actions of his revolutionary comrades.
The ‘Londres’ imprint is probably false, even though the book may well have been sold by Richardson. The typography suggest and origin in the Netherlands (the recent origin of this copy). Both editions are rare. ESTC locates 4 copies of the first (Christ Church Oxford, John Rylands, Huntington, Colorado), but only one of the second (British Library). The CCFr lists a single copy of the first edition only (Bn) and none of the second.