"IF THE ABUSES OF GOVERNMENT SHOULD, AT ANY TIME, BE GREAT AND MANIFEST… I ASK, WHAT PRINCIPLES ARE THOSE WHICH OUGHT TO RESTRAIN AN INJURED AND INSULTED PEOPLE… FROM ALTERING THE WHOLE FORM OF THEIR GOVERNMENT?": EXCEEDINGLY RARE FIRST EDITION OF JOSEPH PRIESTLEY'S SEMINAL ESSAY ON THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT, 1768
(CONSTITUTION) PRIESTLEY, Joseph. LL.D.F.R.S. An Essay on the First Principles of Government; And on the Nature of Political, Civil, and Religious Liberty. London: J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall, T. Cadell… in the Strand; and J. Johnson, 1768. Octavo, period-style paneled calf gilt, red morocco spine label, raised bands; pp. (i-iii), iv-vii, (viii), (1), 2-191, (1).
First edition of the profoundly influential work by Priestley, the English scientist and philosopher who defied his countrymen to support the American Revolution, a close friend of Franklin and Jefferson—who owned a copy of Priestley's Essay and considered "this one of the books which furnish the principles of our constitution"—a defining work of the Enlightenment that went beyond Locke in its argument for "political, civil and religious liberty."
England's Joseph Priestley was "one of the most remarkable thinkers of the 18th century" (Rivers, Joseph Priestley, 1-2). He made history as the scientist who isolated oxygen and sparked a different history in his defiant support for the American Revolution. Equally, if not more notably, Priestley was an Enlightenment philosopher who, "like John Stuart Mill after him… gloried in diversity; uniformity, he said, is 'the characteristic of the brute creation.' These reflections were more fully worked out in an Essay on the First Principles." Here Priestley developed an argument in which "the preservation of civil liberty was the crucial political issue. Deciding who should participate in government—who, that is, should possess political, as distinct from civil, liberty—was, he thought, a practical matter to be settled by considering what groups in the community are most likely, if they possess political power, to act for the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Such groups remain entitled to power only as long as they continue so to act" (Encyclopedia of Philosophy VI:452).
Priestley's convictions "drew heavily on Locke, especially on the right of rebellion against tyranny… two principles underlay Priestley's radicalism: belief in the inherent equality of all men and an unshakable faith in mankind's capacity for self-improvement, indeed in the perfectibility of man… But he went beyond Locke in his political thought and writing" (Ginsberg, Priestley, Jefferson and Adams, 93). Priestley wrote in the preface to this Essay of those who urged him to put his thoughts on paper, because: "It appeared to them that… I had placed the foundation of those most valuable interests of mankind on a broader and firmer basis… than was adopted by Mr. Locke." Key to Priestley's work is separating "political liberty (participation in legislation and government) and civil liberty" which he describes as extending "no farther than to a man's own conduct, and signifies the right… to be exempt from the control of the society, or its agents." Priestley also looks closely at the rights of resistance and rebellion, observing: "if the abuses of government should, at any time be great and manifest, if the servants of the people, forgetting their masters, and their masters' interest, should pursue a separate one of their own… if the oppressions and violations of right should be great, flagrant and universally resented… I ask, what principles are those, which ought to restrain an injured and insulted people from asserting their natural rights, and from changing, or even punishing their governors, that is their servants, who had abused their trust; or from altering the whole form of their government?" (cited in Dutille, Right of Resistance).
After Priestley was ultimately "hounded out of England" and moved to America in 1794, his unorthodox views again made him a target, this time under the Alien and Sedition Acts. President John Adams, however, intervened, praising Priestley as "this great, this learned, indefatigable, most excellent and extraordinary man" (Wills, Head and Heart, 134). Jefferson, whose regard for Priestley was even more immense, once observed: "'His antagonists think they have quenched his opinions by sending him to America, just as the pope imagined when he shut up Galileo in prison that he had compelled the world to stand still" (Hayes, 463). Jefferson owned a copy of Priestley's Essay and often included it "in his recommended reading lists." In an 1802 letter to Priestley, Jefferson "mentioned this as one of the books which would furnish the principles of our constitution and their practical development" (Sowerby 232). First edition, with rear advertisement leaf. "Priestley's Essay on the First Principles of Government; and on the Nature of Political, Civil and Religious Liberty was advertised as just published in the London Chron., April 7-9, and was reviewed by Kippis in the Monthly Review; or Literary Journal XXXIX (Dec., 1768)" (Founders Online). ESTC T33366. CBEL II:956. Bookplate of Cornelius Walford (1827-85), statistician and writer on insurance; bookplate of Auchlochan House in Lanarkshire.
Faint foxing to title page, small marginal repair to B5, marginal repair to last leaf. A very good, handsomely bound copy.