REFLEXIONS UPON THE PRESENT STATE OF ENGLAND, AND THE INDEPENDENCE OF AMERICA

Day, Thomas

Published by Printed for J. Stockdale, London, 1782

[4],102pp. Modern red morocco by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, spine gilt, t.e.g. Inking error during printing on p.33, costing about nine words in the final three lines of text. Small old institutional stamp on titlepage, else very clean internally. Very good. The second edition, published the same year as the first, and printed from the same setting of type as the first edition. Day (1748-89) was a remarkably intelligent and provocative Englishman. The DNB states that he was "A holder and practitioner of strange ideas, a perpetual optimist and a profound pessimist, a philanthropist and a misanthrope, an opponent of organized charity but a soft touch for those on the cadge, a preacher and an iconoclast, and above all a recluse who found it almost impossible to keep out of the limelight, Day was a strange bundle of contradictions." In 1773 he co- wrote THE DYING NEGRO, a long poem narrating the tale of a runaway slave, and in 1776 he published another poem, THE DEVOTED LEGIONS, in support of the cause of the American colonists and critical of English government policy. In the present work Day asserts that England must make peace with the colonists, and implores the government to make a peace treaty with the American representatives currently in London. At the time Day happened to be acting as an unpaid private secretary to Henry Laurens, one of the American peace negotiators. AMERICAN CONTROVERSY 82-28b. SABIN 18986. HOWES D164. Seller Inventory # WRCAM44743

Bibliographic Details

Title: REFLEXIONS UPON THE PRESENT STATE OF ENGLAND...
Publisher: Printed for J. Stockdale, London
Publication Date: 1782