ENGLAND “WILL NOT BE FOND OF MAKING ANOTHER AMERICAN WAR IN IRELAND” (EDMUND BURKE): RARE VOLUME OF ESSAYS ON CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION, WITH BURKE’S SEMINAL LETTER TO SIR HERCULES LANGRISHE, 1792
BURKE, Edmund, LA MARCHE, Jean Francois de, et al. [Six Pamphlets on Catholic Emancipation.]. London and Dublin: 1782-1793. Octavo, contemporary half brown calf, burgundy morocco spine label, marbled boards: pp. (5), 2-163, (1); (2), 3-20; (3), 2-72; (3), 2-47, (1); (3), 4-88; (3), ii-xxvii, (2), 2-191.
First edition, a scarce collection of major essays (1782-1793) on Catholic emancipation in a period of revolution, featuring Burke’s powerful essay declaring Catholic exclusion from constitutional rights “a serious evil” and numerous additional writings, including the influential works of Irish leaders such as Napper Tandy and Wolf Tone, scarce in contemporary marbled boards.
In the late 1780s the governments of Ireland and England “steadily regained confidence following the end of the American war… [but] after the collapse of the ancien regime in France, nothing would ever be the same… The controversy over the new French regime provided the central dividing issue in Irish politics” (McBride, Scripture Politics, 165-7). With Britain entering a long war with France, “the American Revolution, and especially the Declaration of Independence, had made an impact upon Ireland… [as] Irish leaders began to acquire popular support for their attempts to widen the sphere of toleration” (O’Gorman, Edmund Burke, 82). This major contemporary collection of influential writings on religious freedom and, specifically, on the rights of Roman Catholics, contains a seminal essay by Edmund Burke, essays by Thomas Potts and Jean Francois de La Marche, several anonymous writings, and a key series of Tracts that speak to progress signaled by the Parliament’s Quebec and Catholic Relief Acts of 1774 and 1778, and the Catholic Relief Act of 1829.
Burke’s Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe offers one of his finest writings in its argument for the enfranchisement of Roman Catholics. He firmly states that their exclusion from constitutional rights “seems to me a serious evil… This way of proscribing men by whole nations… I can never believe to be politic or expedient, much less necessary for the existence of any state or church in the world” (19, 37). Interestingly, just as “Burke was preaching with unrivalled power the danger of tampering with the framework of the existing British Constitution, he argued that the Constitution of Ireland could not but be better strengthened by introducing gradually and carefully a Catholic element of property and education into political life” (Lercky, 135). As his biographer Cruise O’Brien notes, Burke “did more than anyone else to secure legislative redress for the benefit of Irishmen.” Burke’s essay is aided here by an especially scarce assemblage of Tracts that includes writings by James Napper Tandy, colorful leader of the United Irishmen, together with Theobold Wolf Tone’s 1791 Argument on Behalf of the Catholics of Ireland, which “made many converts to the Catholic cause (McBride, 169).
The collection includes:
*[POTTS, Thomas]. An Inquiry into the Moral and Political Tendency of the Religion Called Roman Catholic. London: Printed for G.G.J. and J. Robinson… and R. Faulder, 1790.
*[LA MARCHE, Jean Francois de]. Lettre de M. L’Evêque de Leon aux Ecclesiastiques Francois Réfugiés en Angleterre. Londres: J.P. Cochlan, 1793.
*Anonymous. An Address to the President of the Protestant Association… On the State and Behavior of English Catholics. London: Printed for R. Faulder, 1782.
*Anonymous. Reflections on the Oaths Which Are Tendered to the Subject in this Country. London: Printed for J. Debrett, 1787.
*BURKE, Edmund. A Letter… To Sir Hercules Langrishe, Bart. MrP. On the Subject of Roman Catholics in Ireland, And the Propriety of Admitting Them to the Elective Franchise. London: Printed for J. Debrett, 1792.
*(NAPPER TANDY, James, et al.). Tracts on Catholic Affairs. Viz. Presbyterio Catholicon &c…. Dublin / London: Richard White / John Stockdale, 1792. This scarce collection of largely first editions features the first London edition, first printing, of Burke’s Letter, the preferred edition with Burke’s corrections of errors in the Dublin edition printed several weeks earlier. Lettre (1793) with title-page vignette displaying the badge of the Order of the Garter. Address to the President (1782) and Tracts (1792) without half titles. Goldsmith I:15432. ESTC T90019, T123892, N29418, T037951, T210850. Armorial bookplate. Contemporary marginalia.
Text fresh with light foxing, mainly to preliminaries, slight edge-wear and rubbing to contemporary marbled boards, contemporary calf expertly restored. An extremely good copy of this historic collection.