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The U.S. as a group of rebellious colonies

[BARRON, William].
Histoire de la fondation des colonies des anciennes republiques, adaptée à la dispute présentee de la Grande Bretagne avec ses colonies Americaines. Traduitee de l'Anglais. À la quelle on a ajouté trois lettres intéressantes sur la même dispute et les articles de l'Union d'Utrecht comparés aux articles de l'Union des colonies de l'Amérique Septentrionale.






Utrecht, J. van Schoonhoven, 1778. 8vo. Contemporary half calf, with red title label lettered in gold. (8), 247, (1 list of errata) pp.

First edition of the enlarged French translation of a historical work, attributed to William Barron (d.1803), a Professor at the University of St. Andrews, which originally was published in 1777 in London by Cadell, with the title History of the colonization of the free states of antiquity, applied to the present contest between Great Britain and the American colonies. The translator, Antoine Marie Cerisier (1749-1828) was born in France, but worked as a journalist and historian in Leiden. As a strong sympathizer of the Dutch Patriot movement he contributed many articles to the famous patriot Gazette de Leyde, edited by Prof. Johan Lusac. He also was the author of Le Destin de l'Amérique, influencing also the French 'patriots' drafting the 'Declaration of the Rights of Men and Citizen' of 1789.
As the present work, written at the height of the American War of Independence (1775-1783), is virtually pro-British, portraying the United States as a group of rebellious colonies - although it also contains letters by Cerisier, by Benjamin Franklin, and by Joseph Mandrillon, and an early draft of the Articles of Confederation, comparing them with the articles of the Union of Utrecht of 1579 -, the authorship of Cerisier remains doubtful. In the first chapters the author (Barron?) treats the political constitutions and colonial expansion of the Greek and Roman empires, followed by a comparison of the ancient colonisation with the colonial policy of Great Britain regarding their colonies in North America. The work, probably published under the patronage of the Court and Ministry, wanted  to show that Great Britain was fully justified by the precedents of antiquity in her attempt to tax the American colonies.
A German translation was published in the same year 1778 in Leipzig.

Fine copy.
Sabin 11701 (i.v. Cerisier); Howes B182; Muller, Americ. 1606; Adams 77-18b; Stevens, Rare Americana 104; Echeverria & Wilkie, French image 778/5, Errata, p. (1).

Related Subjects: 18th Century  America, North  Americana  History  Politics 

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