Letters Addressed to the Abbe Raynal, on the Affairs of North-America, in Which the Mistakes of the Abbe's Account of Revolution in America are Corrected and Cleared Up. Also: Letter to the Addressers on the Late Proclamation

Book Description

London:: J. Ridgway,. 1792.. Very good +. Small 8vo, introduction (ii), first Letter, 46pp, second Letter, 40pp, marbled end papers. One half deep red calf covers with red marbled boards. Titles in gilt on red leather spine with raised bands. Leather in beautiful condition, with only slightest rubbing at base of spine. Internally, very good, with red leather owner bookplate inside front cover with initials "WAR"; and with light scattered fox spotting. The first Letter is Thomas Paine's response to the Abbe Raynal's account of the American Revolution, in which Paine corrects the Abbe's misconceptions and distortions of the war. Howes P25, Sabin 58222. The second Letter concerns a defense of Paine's work "Rights of Man" in which he writes, "And it will hereafter be placed in the history of extraordinary things, that a pamphlet should be produced by an individual, unconnected with any sect or party, and not seeking to make any, and almost a stranger in the land, that should compleatly frighten a whole Government, and that in the midst of its most triumphant security. Such a circumstance cannot fail to prove, that either the pamphlet has irresistible powers, or the Government very extraordinary defects, or both. The nation exhibits no signs of fear at the Rights of Man; why then should the Government, unless the interest of the two are really opposite to each other, and the secret is beginning to be known?" Howes P28

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