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The election saw Viscount Melbourne’s liberal Whig government remain in power, but with a large fall in the number of Whig seats, leaving Robert Peel’s Conservatives closing in behind their narrow majority (Peel would be victorious in the next election). The election, as always, had been conducted by open ballot, leading to accusations of voter intimidation and bribery. Cobden writes that the result of the election, and the abuses of the ballot without secrecy, had made the case for the adoption of a secret ballot irrefutable: “The result of the elections has brought to light such a mass of fraud, violence & degradation on the part of the electors, that it only requires to be collected & judiciously applied to place the majority of secret voting in an irresistible point of view . . . I am anxious to see a society organised in London for the express purpose of advocating the cause of the ballot”. Cobden moves to set out the case for this society, and how it would promote its cause, hiring an individual to tour the country defending the secret ballot and demonstrating its use as it existed in other countries. The secret ballot would become a major pillar of the reform movement in Britain, and one of the six demands of the Chartists, until its eventual adoption in 1872. A full transcript is available upon request. 4 pages quarto (page size 246 × 198 mm), integral address label, same-day postmark, remnants of original wax seal; letter tipped onto card backing. Small chip to second leaf with minor loss to lettering, closed tear to same reinforced with paper on verso without loss. In very good condition. £2,250 [145140] 28 CONDORCET, Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, marquis de. Vie de Monsieur Turgot. London: [no publisher,] 1786 from the library of empress joséphine True first edition of Condorcet’s life of Turgot, Gerits’s Edition A; a superb copy from the library of Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais, with her Bibliothèque de la Malmaison stamp on the title page and her initials to the spine. Condorcet, secretary to the Académie and a prolific author, was a strong supporter of Turgot, who had attempted to implement physiocratic ideas as the French finance minister from 1774 to 1776. “Contrary to what is suggested by the title, this book was not a biography but rather an exposé of Turgot’s educational, political, and economic ideas. In fact, Stanley Jevons has called it one of the earliest works on ‘économie pure’” (Gerits). Seven editions of Condorcet’s Vie de Monsieur Turgot appeared within two years, making it one of the best-selling works of economics of its day. The first four editions all bear a London
imprint dated 1786, though Gerits notes that it seems that all but Edition A were printed in France. Octavo (202 × 125 mm). Contemporary speckled quarter calf, smooth spine ruled in gilt with red morocco label, monogram “JB” gilt-tooled to penultimate compartment, paste paper sides, red silk bookmarker. Spine ends and corners a touch worn, a few light spots to title leaf, scattered marginal pencil marks; a notably fresh and crisp copy, beautifully bound. ¶ Einaudi 1217; Goldsmiths’ 13128; Kress B.1032; Sraffa 1062 (“first edition, first issue”). Anton Gerits, “Condorcet’s Vie de Monsieur Turgot” , Harvard Library Bulletin 3 (4), Winter 1992–93, pp. 35–37. £9,750 [126469]
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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