Sixth edition of this work of French propaganda, commissioned by Colbert de Torcy to prompt English withdrawal from the Grand Alliance during the War of the Spanish Succession. This copy is in the handsome binding of Louis-Charles de Machault d'Arnouville (1667-1750), lieutenant general of the Parisian police and member of the Grand Conseil under Louis XV. His son, Jean-Baptiste de Machault d'Arnouville (1701-1794), served as Louis XV's Controller-General of Finances. In Les Interets, Jean-Baptiste Dubos (1670-1742) draws on his extensive knowledge of English politics to play on contemporary suspicions of Dutch conspiracies pushing English involvement in the war. Joseph Klaits notes that when the English did decide to withdraw from the Grand Alliance in 1711, "they needed to do little more in the propaganda tracts they commissioned than revive and update the apprehension of the Dutch that was one of Dubos' themes in Les Interets de l'Angleterre" (p. 176). Given this anti-Dutch approach, it is interesting to note that many of the other editions in 1703-04, including the present, were published in Amsterdam. As with these other editions, the present claims to be a translation of a mysteriously acquired work by an English MP. Dubos is best-known as a founder of modern aesthetics and an exponent of Lockean empiricism. As in Les Interets, he was also a diplomat and propagandist, helping to negotiate a peace treaty between France and the Netherlands during the war. Joseph Klaits, Printed Propaganda under Louis XIV: Absolute Monarchy and Public Opinion, 1976. Duodecimo (157 x 86 mm). Contemporary armorial binding of polished dark green morocco, spine ruled, decorated, and lettered in gilt, and with raised bands, covers with triple-rule panel and supralibros of Louis-Charles de Machault d'Arnouville blocked in gilt, turn-ins in gilt, marbled endpapers, edges gilt, green silk bookmarker. Letterpress folding genealogical table. Title page printed in red and black and with woodcut vignette. Small contemporary manuscript "Par l'abbé du bos" to title page. 20th-century "J.R.P." bookplate to front pastedown. Very light bumping and wear, minor browning and foxing to endpapers and contents, small section neatly cut out from upper outer corner of initial blank: an excellent copy.
