An Essay on Civil Government In Two Parts: Part I: An Enquiry into the Ends of Government, and the Means of Attaining Them. Part II: On the Government and Commerce of England; with Reflections on Liberty, and the Method of Preserving the present Constitution.

$4,500.00

Item Number: 90461

London: Printed for R. Willock, At Sir Isaac Newton's Head, 1743.

First edition of this bold attack on the Whig administration of Robert Walpole. Octavo, bound in full contemporary calf with gilt tooling to the spine, gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, all edges speckled red, rebacked. In very good condition. Armorial and contemporary bookplates to the pastedown. Exceedingly rare.

A passionate attack on the recently fallen Whig administration of Robert Walpole, An Essay on Civil Government expresses a conservative view on civil government with a pointed criticism of John Locke's philosophies involving the rejection of patriarchal authority, the purely civil authority of the magistrate, the right of resistance and taxation.