An Historicall Discourse of the Uniformity of the Government of England. The first part. From the first Times till the Reigne of Edward the third.
London: Printed for Mathew Walbancke at Grayes-Inne-Gate, 1647. First edition, 8vo, (xvi), 323, (13) pp. Engraved second title showing a map of Britain, light damp staining to the first 5 leaves. Booklabel of Kimbolton Castle Library to the paste down. Contemporary speckled calf, spine dull, joints recently repaired with a new maroon label. "Bacon's greatest service to anti-Stuart causes... probably written using notes collected by John Selden. Published... to justify the Long Parliament's war against Charles I, with a continuation appearing in 1651, the work has been referred to as 'the English Francogallia'... [it] argued with unrelenting force an anti-royalist ideology of enormous persuasive power. This was the radical ancient constitution which... was first fully articulated during the civil wars by polemicists such as William Prynne and Bacon himself. Early a mainstay of the Long Parliament's cause, the ideology consisted of the following propositions: first, while government in general was from God, the particular form came from the people... Writing a summation of his work in 1651, Bacon re-emphasized the continuity of an elective and contractual monarchy and a parliament which oversaw its proper functioning. With a salute to both past and present he wrote at the very end of his tract: 'as I found this nation a commonwealth, so I leave it, and so it may be forever'" (ODNB). Wing B348B. The true first edition, as opposed to the 1872 reprint, with "Grayes-Inn-Gate" in the imprint, second state with the publisher's name spelt "Walbancke." Item #52110
Price: £900.00