LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2008 Feb Grand Format Book & Manuscript #682  / 

56628

Cobbett The Bloody Buoy.

Currency:USD Category:Books / Antiquarian & Collectible Start Price:150.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 - 400.00 USD
Cobbett The Bloody Buoy.
<B>[William Cobbett]. </B></I><B><I>The Bloody Buoy</B></I></B></I><B>,</B></I> thrown out as a Warning to the Political Pilots of America; or, a Faithful Relation of a Multitude of Acts of Horrid Barbarity, such as The Eye never witnessed, the Tongue never expressed, or the Imagination conceived, until the Commencement of The French Revolution. Illustrated with Four Striking Copper-Plates. The Second Edition; With additional Notes, and a copious Appendix. By Peter Porcupine. Philadelphia: Printed for, and sold by, Benjamin Davies, and William Cobbett, 1796.<BR><BR>Second edition. Twelvemo (5.3125 x 3.0625 inches). xii, [15]-362 pp. (correct collation). Engraved frontispiece by Smithers and two (of three) engraved plates: "Shooting of men, women, and children: Drowning men and women tied naked together: called republican marriages" (facing p. 71) and "The Guillotine in the square of the Revolution, where 70 persons were sometimes executed in one day" (facing p. 194).<BR><BR>Contemporary tree sheep. Spine decoratively tooled in gilt in compartments with red morocco gilt lettering label. Board edges tooled in gilt. Head of spine chipped, joints tender. Light to moderate foxing and browning, as usual, and a few small marginal stains. Frontispiece offsetting onto title-page. Early ink signature on front free endpaper. A very good copy.<BR><BR>"The object of the following work was, and is, to give the people of this happy land a striking and experimental proof of the horrible effects of anarchy and infidelity" (Introduction).<BR><BR>"William Cobbett thought that an overly sympathetic United States press had done too little to expose 'the horrible effects of anarchy and infidelity' in the French Revolution. France, he charged, had embraced the 'destructive doctrine of equality,' 'destroyed all ideas of private property,' and effaced from the people's minds 'every principle of the only religion capable of keeping mankind within the bounds of justice and humanity.' As proof of the consequences Cobbett listed dozens of graphic examples of murder, mutilation, cannibalism, and sexual assault from French publications that were largely ignored. The doctrines and dangers of the French Revolution, he warned, were being spread to America by 'troublers of society of every description' and were being applauded in the press and public assemblies. Cobbett predicted that unless Americans acted with zeal in the cause of their country they could expect to see their churches turned into stables, their waters tinged with blood, 'and even the head of our admired and beloved President rolling on a scaffold'" (Jeffery A. Smith, <I>War & Press Freedom: The Problem of Prerogative Power</B></I>, pp. 80-81).<BR><BR>Sabin 13873.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Books & Catalogs (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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