Lettres d'un François à un Hollandois, au sujet des différends survenus entre la France & la Grande-Bretagne, touchant leurs possessions respectives dans l'Amérique septentrionale

First edition, here in its 12mo issue; the 4to edition is more commonly encountered (cf. Sabin 50563. See Gagnon 1217, Lande 656 and Higgs 1032. Not in Kress, Goldsmiths or Einaudi. The NUC records 4 copies of the 4to edition.)

Contemporary half brown sheepskin over boards with vellum tips, spine in five compartments tooled in blind with garland motifs, paper-covered boards, red-speckled edges; an old binding with a later spine.

"A review of the causes of Anglo-French hostilities in America, from a French point of vue, and with the intention of persuading the Dutch correspondent of England's aggressiveness" Cf. James Ford Bell Library catalogue, p. 359.

The work was attributed to Jacob-Nicolas Moreau by Joseph Sabin, although this attribution has not been adopted by French catalogues.

This pamphlet contains an important refutation of The British Merchant, or, Commerce preserved, an English periodical published by C. King which began to appear in 1513-1514 and was reprinted in 1753 in Dresden and Paris.

There also exists a large-paper 4to edition printed in Paris at the same date, and by La Rive. Bibliographers disagree as to the precedence to be accorded to either issue; in fact, it has never been clearly established. The compiler of the James Ford Bell Library catalogue describes our issue as "another edition", whereas the NUC lists it first.

This 4to issue appears in fact to be considerably less scarce.

Be that as it may, the work constitutes a valuable source on the economic causes of the conflict between France and England in Canada, immediately prior to the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War, which would prove fatal to the first French colonial empire.

Bound at the end: "Parallèle de la conduite du Roi avec celle du Roi d'Angleterre, Electeur d'Hanovre, relativement aux affaires de l'Empire, & nommément à la rupture de la capitulation de Closter-Seven par les Hanovriens" printed in Paris at the Imprimerie royale in 1758 (xlviij and 138 pp.).

12mo issue (another 8vo issue was published simultaneously) of this official propaganda tract, setting out and explaining the French position following the renewed participation of Hanoverian troops in the conflict.

Following the battle of Hastenbeck (26 July 1757), won by Marshal d’Estrées against the Anglo-Hanoverian forces commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, the Convention of Kloster-Zeven (9 September 1757) was signed, providing for a cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of Hanoverian troops to Stade and beyond the Elbe, and the return home of the Hessian and Brunswick contingents. Citing the depredations committed by Marshal de Richelieu’s troops in Hanover, the Court of London never ratified the Convention, which enabled it to redeploy the Hanoverian forces immediately after Rossbach.

Provenance: from the library of a member of the Bauffremont-Courtenay family in the 19th century, with armorial bookplates laid down on the front endpapers (cf. OHR 2443), and a bookseller’s label pasted above one of the ex-libris.