THE CONSTITUTION OF ENGLAND; OR AN ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT; in which it is Compared Both with the Republican Form of Government, and the Other Monarchies in Europe

London: G. Wilkie, J. Cuthell, J. Stockdale, [et al.], 1816. 8vo. Leaves 21 x 13 cm. [2], xxviii, 554 pages, plus frontispiece portrait of the author. Indexes to the text and the editor's footnotes. Contemporary quarter calf with raised bands and gilt spine decorations over marbled boards with calf tips. Light wear to extremities; rubbing and a few scuffs to boards; front joint very slightly started at the base, but the binding is solid. Marginal foxing to the frontispiece; title page a little tanned and with offsetting from the frontispiece; light scattered foxing throughout. Still, about very good. Later edition. Stated as "A New Edition, with supplemental notes, and a preface biographical and critical," but probably the third edition thus, the first such having been published in 1807 soon after de Lolme's death. The work originally appeared in French in 1771 with an edition in English following in 1775. A landmark study of the English constitution. Well-received in Britain and on the Continent, the work was frequently reprinted and was studied by the French philosophes and the American founders. Jean Louis De Lolme (1741-1806), a Geneva-born scholar, was an expatriate in England during the late 1760s and early 1770s. "His work on the English constitution was for several decades the principal authority on the subject. It was influential in the United States, where, for example, it was cited by both supporters and opponents of the 1787 federal constitution" (Oxford DNB). De Lolme discusses the American colonies briefly on pp. 518-520. While in London, he conversed with Franklin, who is quoted in the text and discussed in one of the footnotes. "The best defense of the political balance of three powers that was ever written" --John Adams (“Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America“, 1787, vol. I, p. 70). �