The Administration of the Colonies: Wherin their Rights and Constitution are Discussed and Stated, with the The Administration of the British Colonies Part The Second. 2 Volume Set

Thomas Pownall

London : Printed for J. Walter, 1768

[Unique American Colonial Themed Binding] 2 Volumes. Bound in fine modern leather, with unique American, colonial decoration.  Gilt paneled leather binding.  Morocco leather inset with gilt tree with 13 red apples and green leaves.  Thirteen gilt stamped stars upon a blue leather field.  Leather and gold Union Jack motif inlaid on spines. Marbled end sheets. 

Vol. I, 1768: [iii]-xxxi, [1], 318, 73 pp; Vol. II, 1774: ix, 308 pp. Fine bindings and covers. Vol. I lacks half-title. Blindstamp from the New York Bar Association to title page and next page to each volume. Pen number to verso of title pages. Erratum pasted to verso of Vol. II. Contemporary signature to title pages. Very sparse contemporary pen marks to margins, toning to pages. Fourth and best edition with volume II issued with the 1774 Fifth edition preface dated November 1774 and which offers a Plan of Pacification. 

This was one of the most influential books on the American colonies written before the Revolution. Pownall had a distinguished career as an enlightened colonial administrator and served as governor of several British American colonies. He also gave serious consideration to the business of governing the colonies, writing the present work on his return from North America. Pownall felt that imperial form was necessary, arguing that the colonies would only be bound to Britain by a sound and equitable economic balance. A moderate man with sympathy for the Americans, he issued successive editions of his widely read book, with revisions, through a seventh edition in 1777. Pownall writes: "The whole train of events, the whole course of business, must perpetually bring forward into practice, and necessarily in the end, into establishment - either an American or a British union - There is no other alternative." HOWES P539. Pownall spent the years 1753-61 in America, and in 1768 was elected to Parliament, where he drew attention to the reluctance of the Colonies to be taxed without consent and opposed the oppressive measures of the ministry. The Appendix is in two Sections, dated 1756 and 1759, in which the author outlines French dominion in America and the prospect of English and French expansion.  SABIN 64817. AMERICAN CONTROVERSY 64-16d.  HOWES P539.