The political progress of britain; or an impartial account of the Principal Abuses in the Government of this Country, from the Revolution in 1688. The whole tending to prove the ruinous Consequences of the popular System of War and Conquest. Part first.

London: Printed for T. Kay...and Robertson & Berry...Edinburgh, 1792. First part, all published. 80pp. Contemporary half-calf, marbled paper boards, gilt supralibros of The Society of Writers to the Signet to both boards. Extremities rubbed, joints split, boards held by cords only. Paper shelf-label pasted to FEP, manuscript contents to recto of FFEP, title page and final leaf dust-soiled, occasional spotting. The second printing (with a London imprint, rather than Edinburgh as with the first) of a pamphlet by Scottish political writer and radical James Thomson Callender (1758-1803), an inflammatory critique (with a strong Scottish nationalist flavour) of British imperialism, war, and corruption. First published in February 1792 in the Edinburgh Bee, a further seven parts were planned though never printed, nevertheless the pamphlet issues of the work became very successful, rivalling Thomas Paine's recently published Rights of Man in its radicalism. The Scottish authorities, anxious to arrest the seditious author, attempted to incriminate Callender forcing him into exile, first to Dublin, then to Philadelphia. The Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet is a private organisation of Scottish solicitors, dating back to 1594, and part of the College of Justice. The Society maintains the Category A listed Signet Library, part of the Parliament House complex in Edinburgh. This printing is scarce outside of North America, with ESTC records only two copies in the British Isles (NLS and Trinity College Dublin). ESTC T173344.. 8vo.