The Rise and Fall Of the late Projected Excise, Impartially Consider'd. By a Friend to the English Constitution.

First edition written after the Excise Crisis earlier that year, which was the first major parliamentary crisis Sir Robert Walpole's ministry faced in the House of Commons. To subsidise a reduction in land tax, Walpole proposed substituting excise duties for customs duties on tobacco and wine. After the Excise Bill was withdrawn, Concanen published this defence of Walpole's policy. Matthew Concanen (1701-49), an Irish poet, playwright, and political writer, "quickly established a reputation as a political pamphleteer, and contributed to papers such as the Daily Courant, the London Journal, and the British Journal" (DIB). Concanen's literary efforts on behalf of the Whig government had been rewarded in 1732 with his appointment to attorney general of Jamaica. ESTC T63487. Octavo in half sheets (187 x 123 mm), pp. 3-61, [3]. Bound without half-title. Woodcut headpiece, initial, and tailpiece. Disbound with fragments of spine present. Attribution to Concanen pencilled to title page. Light soiling externally, stab-holes from where previously bound, marks to a couple of pages. In very good condition.…