The Fifty Years' Struggle of the Scottish Covenanters, 1638-88
Edinburgh, Edmonston and Douglas, 1861 (third edition).
Quarto, xii, 390 (last blank), iv ('Critical Notices') pages.
Original morocco-grain cloth; spine lettered and ruled in gilt, sides bordered in blind; cloth a little marked, and rubbed and bumped at the extremities, with the spine lightly worn and sunned; edges uncut (and unopened from page 349); scattered foxing (generally light); a few other mild signs of age and handling; a very good copy.
Provenance: George Fife Angas, with his signature in full in pencil at the head of the title page, and with his occasional pencilled emphases and two references on the rear free endpaper. As in several other works we have handled from Angas' personal collection, these annotations speak to his thinking about government and religion, in particular to the relationship between colony and metropole. The final chapter, which deals explicitly with these questions in its examination of the British Empire since the revolution of 1688, has the greatest concentration of Angas' emphases, and it is hard not to see in this his concern for the liberties and moral character of the early colony of South Australia. The final lines of the book appear to have impressed Angas: 'Our empire has not half accomplished her mission. Heaven's light points the way, and a Voice from the cloud proclaims, "O Britain! continue to be the nurse of Freedom! THE MIGHTY MOTHER OF FREE COLONIES, AND OF THE FUTURE FREE EMPIRES OF THE WORLD!"'. Loosely inserted is a slip of paper giving details of later provenance of the book.
Item #139478
Price (AUD):
$1,100.00