[Miles, William Augustus]:

A LETTER TO THE PRINCE OF WALES, ON A SECOND APPLICATION TO PARLIAMENT, TO DISCHARGE DEBTS WANTONLY CONTRACTED SINCE MAY, 1787. TO WHICH IS ADDED, SEVERAL OTHER LETTERS RELATIVE TO THE SUBJECT. FIRST AMERICAN, FROM THE SIXTH LONDON EDITION.

Boston: From the Apollo Press, in Boston, for Wiliam [sic] P. Blake, at the Boston Bookstore, 1795. xv, [16]-59, [1 blank] pp. New stitching, untrimmed. Contemporary owner's signature, "John Wilson's." Scattered light spotting, evenly toned, else Very Good.

The Dictionary of National Biography attributes authorship to Miles [1753-1817], the British political writer. Six London editions, as well as this Boston one, were printed in 1795. The public gobbled them up.
"The debts of the Prince of Wales had, by 1787, reached formidable proportions. In an effort to regularise the situation, the House of Commons voted the sum of 161,000 pounds for payment of his creditors and an additional 60,000 pounds for the completion of Carlton House; and the Prince promised that he would never incur debts in the future. Characteristically, his promise proved worthless. By 1795 his debts, all accumulated since the attempted settlement made in 1787, amounted to C630,000. On this occasion the management of the Prince's financial affairs was entrusted to a body of Commissioners: the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Master of the Rolls, the Master of the King's Household and the Surveyor of Crown Lands. Those to whom the Prince owed money submitted statements of their claims and received a bond for the payment, in regular instalments over a period of time, of what was due to them, with interest. The claims, lodged by a veritable army of creditors, survive in the Public Records Office." [Oliver Millar, George IV When Prince of Wales: His Debts to Artists and Craftsmen. 128 The Burlington Magazine 586-592. August 1986].
Evans 28968. ESTC W19540 [5 locations - AAS, Harvard, LCP, MA Hist. Soc., OH State U]. Item #37825

Price: $450.00