A Fine Collection of American Literature and History

The Speech Of Edmund Burke, Esq; on Moving his Resolutions for Conciliation with the Colonies, March 22, 1775
London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1775. First edition. 4to. (iv), 65 pp.; includes half-title. Original limp blue wrappers, original thread intact, wrappers creased and worn; soft crease throughout text from when once folded; all edges untrimmed; three engravings depicting Burke laid in; in blue cloth slip case and chemise. Howes B-979; Adams 75-17a; Sabin 9296

A handsome and unsophisticated first edition of Edmund Burke's speech given before Parliament urging reconciliation between Great Britain and her revolting 13 North American colonies--rare in original wrappers. "The proposition is Peace. Not Peace through the medium of War; not Peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negociations; not Peace to arise out of universal discord, fomented, from principle, in all parts of the Empire; not Peace to depend on the Juridical Determination of perplexing questions; or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries of a complex Government. It is simple Peace; sought in its natural course, and in its ordinary haunts.--It is Peace sought in the Spirit of Peace; and laid in principles purely pacific." Burke's speech was made in response to Prime Minister Lord North's Propositions for Conciliating the Differences with America, passed by the House of Commons in February, 1775, that sought conciliation by the rescinding of taxes and other duties to colonial governments who agreed to provide for the common defense and the administration of justice. Burke criticized this plan as a means to divide the colonies, and here requests that Parliament repeal many of the laws that enflamed colonial tensions. Ultimately neither would prove successful, as Burke's conciliation was rejected, and in less than a month hostilities would break out at Lexington and Concord, on April 19.

Together with:

Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London...
London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1790. Second edition, second impression. 8vo. iv, 356 pp. Quarter-green paper over stiff blue paper wrappers, spine partially perished and worn; all edges untrimmed; contemporary ownership signature ("Th. Cotton") on front paste-down; in green cloth chemise and fall-down-back box. Todd 53c; ESTC N48331

Together with:

An Account of the European Settlements in America...
London: Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, 1758. In two volumes. The Second Edition, with Improvements. 8vo. Illustrated with two engraved folding frontispiece maps. Full contemporary speckled calf, stamped in gilt, rebacked with original red morocco spine labels laid down; red speckled edges; Queens Borough Public Library perforated stamps on title-page, library ink stamp on A2 in each volume; armorial book-plate on front paste-down of first volume; Long Island Collection, The Queens Borough Library book-plate on front paste-down of second volume. Howes B-974; Sabin 9282