Press Gangs (1 results)

[4], x, 42pp, half title. 8vo. A fine uncut & partially unopened copy. Stitched as issued in original sugar paper wrappers. ESTC T102369, 4 copies only (BL, LSE, Newberry, U.S. Naval Academy). Originally published in four 6d issues by James Oglethorpe in 1727-1728, it is now 'republished to keep up in the people of the present age the knowledge and spirit of their predecessors'. Although referred to as the seventh edition this is the earliest collected edition. In this 1777 reprint, authorship is credited to 'some of the most respectable Members in the Opposition' (p. v). They probably contributed mainly to the appendix; and doubtless they furnished ideas and suggestions for the central essay. But apparently Oglethorpe wrote the essay, edited the appendix, and later wrote the introduction. In this 'seventh' edition he added an introduction; and in the 'eighth' he added a letter from his friend Granville Sharp. In The Sailors Advocate Oglethorpe attacked the injustices that were suffered by the sailors of the Royal Navy, particularly their forcible recruitment by press-gangs. The navies of France, Holland, and Sweden, Oglethorpe made clear, relied upon no such practice. But in spite of the Briton's fabled constitutional rights, the British Admiralty had, under the plea of alleged necessity, continually utilized this method of recruitment, citing legal precedents to sanction the practice. The immediate occasion of The Sailors Advocate, however, was the opening address of King George II to Parliament, on January 23, 1728. Possibly at the suggestion of his former secretary, Samuel Molyneux, who was now an M.P. and a Lord of the Admiralty, King George informed Parliament that he wished 'to see the Foundation laid of so great and necessary a Work, as the Increase and Encouragement of our Seamen in general, that they may be invited, rather than compelled by Force and Violence, to enter into the Service of their Country'. Ref: Publications of James Edward Oglethorpe. Ed. R.M. Baine. University of Georgia Press, 1994.