A SEAMAN'S GOVERNING PRINCIPLES
[A manuscript essay on the principles of government].
[s.i.].
[s.n.], [1782].
Quarto.
Manuscript on paper. [34]ff, excluding blanks. Contemporary vellum. Rubbed, heavily marked and discoloured. Internally clean and crisp.
An unpublished manuscript essay that compartmentalises the foundational principles of governments into three distinct classes, 'the despotic, monarchical and republican', each characterised by 'fear, honour and virtue'.
'The principle of the despotic government is Fear. When the emperor feels his authority relax'd - when he cannot govern with a nod, or strike motionless with a frown the first kindlers of Sedition, his Empire and his life are no longer secure, his precarious throne already totters'.
The author explores the origins of the British government, 'a mixture of monarchy and democracy', concluding with a warning of the dangers of factionalism 'which at this time would prove not only dangerous, but ungrateful to a prince, who disdaining the arts of Machiavellian policy, erects his government on the wide basis of constitutional liberty and glories in the very name of Briton'.
The manuscript was written by William Plumbe, evidently a seaman, and humbly dedicated to Royal Navy officer John Dalrymple (1722-1798) 'the production of a few leisure hours on Board his M: S: Union under your command'. Dalrymple, Captain of HMS Union from 1779 to 1782, saw action during the American Revolutionary War at the Second Battle of Ushant and the Battle of Cape Spartel.
An informed and stimulating essay, the product of a man no doubt influenced by - and indeed seemingly in the midst of - the tumult of the ongoing conflict with revolutionary America, and troubled by the uncertainties surrounding the future of British government.
£ 950.00
Antiquates Ref: 27530
'The principle of the despotic government is Fear. When the emperor feels his authority relax'd - when he cannot govern with a nod, or strike motionless with a frown the first kindlers of Sedition, his Empire and his life are no longer secure, his precarious throne already totters'.
The author explores the origins of the British government, 'a mixture of monarchy and democracy', concluding with a warning of the dangers of factionalism 'which at this time would prove not only dangerous, but ungrateful to a prince, who disdaining the arts of Machiavellian policy, erects his government on the wide basis of constitutional liberty and glories in the very name of Briton'.
The manuscript was written by William Plumbe, evidently a seaman, and humbly dedicated to Royal Navy officer John Dalrymple (1722-1798) 'the production of a few leisure hours on Board his M: S: Union under your command'. Dalrymple, Captain of HMS Union from 1779 to 1782, saw action during the American Revolutionary War at the Second Battle of Ushant and the Battle of Cape Spartel.
An informed and stimulating essay, the product of a man no doubt influenced by - and indeed seemingly in the midst of - the tumult of the ongoing conflict with revolutionary America, and troubled by the uncertainties surrounding the future of British government.
