
ENGLISH
POLITICS
A B C D-Em En-F G H
I-L M-O P Q-S T U-Z
Walker, Clement. Relations and observations, historicall and politick, upon the Parliament, begun Anno Dom. 1640 ... together with an appendix, touching the proceedings of the Independent faction in Scotland. [London?], 1648. 4to (18.3 cm, 7.25"). A–T4t2V–Z4Aa2; [12], 174 pp. [with] An appendix to the History of Independency ... London, 1648. 4to. a–c4(-c4); [2], 20 pp. [with] Anarchia Anglicana: Or, the history of Independency. The second part. [London], 1649. 4to. A–Z4Aa–Kk4; [8], 256 pp.; 1 double-page plt. [with] The high court of justice; or Cromwells new slaughter house in England ... [London], 1651. 4to. A–I4; 71, [1 (blank)] pp. [with] M., T. The history of Independency. The fourth and last part. London: H. Brome & H. Marsh, 1660. 4to. A–R4; [8], 124 pp.
$1000.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
First edition under this title of the first two parts of this anti-Puritan history of the rivalry between the Presbyterian and Independent factions of Parliament, with early printings of the third and fourth parts. The brief introductory portion, originally titled The Mystery of the Two Juntos, was first published in 1647; after the second part (Anarchia Anglicana) appeared in the following year, Walker was sent to the Tower and died there shortly thereafter. The third (The High Court of Justice; or Cromwells New Slaughter House in England) and fourth part (History of Independency) are present here in 1651 and 1660 printings, respectively.
This variant reads “II. Bookes”on line 7 of the title-page; R4 is cancelled and not present here, as is the case in most copies. The second portion has a separate title-page printed in red and black, giving Anarchia Anglicana: Or, the History of Independency as the title and the pseudonymous Theodorus Verax as the author.
Relations: ESTC R205117; Wing (rev.) W334A. Appendix: ESTC R233193; Wing (rev.) W321A. Anarchia: ESTC R27579; Wing (rev.) W317. High Court: ESTC R207365;Wing (rev.) W325. History, fourth part: ESTC R18043; Wing (rev.) M81B. Fourth part: Issued as part of Wing W324, “and possibly separately” as well according to ESTC. Contemporary calf, covers framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, sometime rebacked with first leaves tipped (back) in; spine with new gilt-stamped title, sides rubbed and abraded. Front free endpaper lacking. Front pastedown with old institutional bookplate and pencilled notations, title-page with faded rubber-stamp (and with author’s name added in an early hand), back pastedown and lower edges of closed book rubber-stamped. Two title-pages with one short tear from outer edge each, not touching text; title-page verso with shadows of pencilled numerals. Lower and outer margins trimmed closely, in some cases touching catchwords, signature marks, or shouldernotes.
(War of the Spanish Succession). The humble address of both houses of Parliament, with her Majesties answer to the Commons address. Edinburgh: Heirs & Successors of Andrew Anderson, 1706. Folio (31 cm, 12.1"). [4 (1 blank)] pp.
$375.00
Following English successes at the battles of Turin and Ramillies, members of the House of Commons and House of Lords send their congratulations to Queen Anne, and encourage her efforts to unify England and Scotland. The Scottish Parliament had begun debate on the Treaty of Union just a few months prior to the December 1706 issue of this item, and would agree to it one month afterwards.
ESTC T36741. Now in a Mylar folder; edges uncut. Some creasing, with ink markings from press.
Warburton, Eliot, editor. Memoirs of Horace Walpole and his contemporaries; including numerous original letters chiefly from Strawberry Hill. London: Henry Colburn, 1851. 8vo (21.5 cm, 8.5"). 2 vols. I: Frontis., xi, [3], 506 pp. II: Frontis., [2] ff., 577, [1] pp.
$200.00

First edition of this life of the fourth Earl of Orford, the noted author and wit who established his own printing press at Strawberry Hill and his home in Twickenham; his novel The Castle of Otranto is credited with beginning the gothic movement in English literature. The New Cambridge Biography of English Literature attributes the editorship of the present work to R.F. Williams, despite Warburton’s presence on the title-page.Provenance: First and last leaves stamped by the Lyceum Library of Hull (founded in 1807, and later dispersed in a famous sale).
NCBEL, II, 1591. On Walpole, see the Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary half calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title labels and gilt-stamped floral decorations in compartments. Board edges rubbed, with the spine gilt somewhat dimmed. All page edges marbled to match the boards.
Elegant.
Ward, Robert Plumer. An essay on contraband: Being a continuation of the treatise of the relative rights and duties of belligerent and neutral nations, in maritime affairs. London: J. Wright & J. Butterworth (pr. by G. Woodfall), 1801. 8vo (19.5 cm, 7.75"). vii, [1 (blank)], 173–255, [1 (blank)] pp. (lacking i/ii, i.e., the half-title).
$150.00
Paginated continuously with Ward’s Treatise of the Relative
Rights and Duties, and apparently also issued as the second part of that
document, this work discusses international law regarding trade in wartime;
the 1793 stoppage by the English of
American
corn exportation to France is included and analyzed as
an example.
Goldsmiths'-Kress 18239; NSTC W529. Recent paper wrappers. Some
instances of light foxing and offsetting.

A Golden Life — A Little Golden Book??
Wellesley, Arthur, Duke of Wellington. The Wellington souvenir: A golden record! London: Simpkin & Marshall and Howlett & Son, 1852. 12mo (15.5 cm, 6.1"). 64 pp.; 4 plts. (incl. in pagination).
[SOLD]
Click the interior image above or the one below, for an enlargement.
Scarce sole edition of this commemorative biography
printed and with plates impressed entirely in gold. The work was issued on the occasion of Wellington's death, and we must guess that the publishers were exceedingly proud of it. The exclamation point of the title above is, yes, right there on the title-page!
Rare. OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 list no U.S. institutional holdings.
NSTC 2W12242. Publisher's maroon pebbled cloth, covers and spine gilt-stamped, rebacked preserving original spine; corners rubbed, spine darkened, covers institutionally pressure-stamped. All edges gilt. Title-page and first text page faintly rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution. One plate with tear from upper margin extending into image and two other leaves each with a tear not reaching text; some instances of damage where one leaf sometime adhered to another; general soiling. Faults obvious and to be noted, but — amazing. (23862)
England
to America:
FUHGEDDABOUDIT!
[Wheelock, Matthew]. Reflections
moral and political on Great Britain and her colonies. London: Pr. for T.
Becket & Co., 1770. 8vo. [3] ff., 66 pp.
$600.00

The author rejects all the colonists' arguments for independence, upholds
the king as supreme executive power from whom all other powers flow, and
favors small farms.
This is the sole edition.
Adams, American Controversy, 70-30; Sabin 103221. Sewing renewed;
an uncut copy as issued. Ex–Franklin Institute Library with stamps. Dusty.
Some chipping of edges of pages.
White,
John. The third and last letter to a gentleman dissenting from the Church
of England... The second edition. London: C. Davis, W. Craighton, & M. Cooper,
1745. 8vo (21.7 cm, 8.6"). [2], 85, [1] pp.
$450.00
Defense of various practices of the Church of England, although
the author acknowledges a certain want of discipline among his coreligionists;
the piece is followed by an appendix addressing the question of whether Dissenters
are being forced to act against their consciences in subscribing to the Church
Articles. This is a reissue of the first edition; in some copies, a 10-line
errata slip is pasted over the printed 3-line errata on p. 85, but this example
is as issued, with the printed errata only.
ESTC T25456. Sewn, signatures separating, now in a Mylar folder.
Edges untrimmed. Title-page with small numerical stamp and slight spotting;
title-page and page edges darkened; a copy dog-eared and bumped.
[Williams, David]. Lessons to a young prince, by an old statesman, on the present disposition in Europe to a general revolution. The fourth edition. With the addition of a lesson on the mode of studying and profiting by reflections on the French Revolution, by the right honourable Edmund Burke. London: H.D. Simmons, 1790. 8vo (19 cm, 7.5"). [2], iv, [2], 159, [1 (adv.)] pp.; 6 plts.
$500.00
Fourth edition of this political primer (printed in the same year as the original publication), written by the founder of the Royal Literary Fund and addressed to the Prince of Wales, later George IV. A teacher, author, and minister, Williams visited France repeatedly and was actually made a French citizen in 1792; the Lessons reflect his unhappiness with the machinations of Fox, Pitt, and Sheridan as well as his admiration of some of the results of the American and French revolutions. The work is illustrated with an engraved frontispiece portrait of the prince, done by A. Van Assen, and with five charts depicting arrangements of political power in England and America at various time periods.
ESTC T167984. On Williams, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, LXI, 390–93. Removed from a nonce volume. Occasional spots of foxing with some offsetting around plates; some leaves dog-eared.
[Wilson, George, of Manchester]. The constitutional right to a revision of the land-tax. Being the argument on a case submitted to counsel on behalf of the National Anti-Corn league. London: [Pr. by A. Sweeting for] The National Anti-Corn-Law League, 1842. 8vo (20 cm, 7.875"). [2] ff., 55, [2], [1 (blank)] pp., [1 (blank)] f.
$250.00
Wilson here makes a learned argument, beginning with Anglo-Saxon law, and covering medieval law and the nature of feudal tenure, against the real-estate tax in the England and against the unjust collection of that tax by the exchequer. This was an especially urgent matter in the mid–19th century as landholders and farmers were doubly burdened by the combination of low grain prices and high taxes, and were increasingly losing political clout to rising industrial and urban interests.
Goldsmiths'-Kress 32703.2; NSTC 2R11046 & 2W25177. In recent wrappers; previously removed from nonce volume. Light soiling and staining on outer pages. Closely trimmed by binder with lost of part of last line on last two pages. Inked number on title-page.
Printed
for the Foundation
Wilson,
Woodrow. Cabinet government in the United States...with an introductory
note by Thomas K. Finletter. Stamford: The Overbrook Press, 1947. [6 (3 blank)],
v–xii, [2 (blank)], 31, [1] pp.
$150.00


One of one thousand copies, printed in Caslon Old Face on rag paper, for the Wilson Foundation.
Cahoon, 56. Boards, printed label. Fine, without printed dust jacket, as issued.
[Wolcot,
John]. A poetical epistle to a falling minister; also, an imitation of
the twelfth ode of Horace. By Peter Pindar. Dublin: P. Byrne, 1789. 8vo (20.7
cm, 8.1"). [2], 22 pp.
$200.00
First Irish printing, following the first London edition of the same year, of these two vitriolic satires directed against William Pitt. Pitt, as well as the king, was a fruitful subject for Pindar’s scathing attacks; here the poet defends the prince while describing Pitt and his allies in terms that border on the offensive.
ESTC T121646; NCBEL, II, 695. Removed from a nonce volume and now in a Mylar folder. One corner creased; first and last page lightly spotted, otherwise clean.
Wyvill, Christopher. A summary explanation of the principles of Mr. Pitt’s intended bill for amending the representation of the people in Parliament...second edition. London: John Stockdale, 1785. 8vo (23 cm, 9"). 31, [9] pp.
$150.00
Uncut, untrimmed copy: Second edition of this analysis of Pitt’s speech regarding redefining of voting and representation among the “decayed boroughs,” written by the founder of the Yorkshire County Association, a group engaged in active lobbying of Parliament for governmental reform. The last eight pages of the pamphlet advertise other publications by Stockdale.
ESTC T11040. Sewing almost entirely gone, now in a Mylar folder. Title-page stamped by a now-defunct institution, with numeral inked in an early hand in upper margin; three other pages stamped. Pages uncut; some corners dog-eared.
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