[HILLIARD D'AUBERTEUIL (Michel-René). Histoire de l'administ - Lot 35

[HILLIARD D'AUBERTEUIL (Michel-René). Histoire de l'administration de Lord North, ministre des Finances en Angleterre, depuis 1770 jusqu'en 1782, et de la guerre de l'Amérique septentrionale, jusqu'à la paix: suivie du Tableau historique des finances d'Angleterre, depuis Guillaume III [roi de 1689 à 1702] jusqu'en 1784. À Londres, et se trouve à Paris, chez l'auteur, Couturier, 1784. 3 volumes in an in-8 volume, 18 [erroneously numbered xx without missing]-276-(4 of which those on the versos are white)-180-80 pp. in marbled brown basane, spine decorated with brown fillets and motifs, red edges (modern binding in the taste of the period). ORIGINAL EDITION of this history, loosely based on an anonymous English work that was published twice in London under two different titles, The History of Lord North's administration (1781) and A View of the history of Great-Britain, during the administration of Lord North (1782). Michel-René Hilliard d'Auberteuil has produced here a much revised translation, to which he has personally added a history of the American War of Independence and a historical table of England's finances. At the time, Charles-Alexandre de Calonne, the Comptroller General of Finances, was banning almost all publications dealing with financial issues, and the work was almost censored: the Tableau, submitted to the authorities in August 1783, obtained tacit authorization with difficulty, and the Histoire proper, submitted in December 1783, was initially refused in January 1784, before finally obtaining tacit authorization in March 1784. Benjamin Franklin, who read and corrected some of the work's proofs, contributed to its distribution by sending, at the author's request, several copies to Robert Livingston in the United States. Copper-engraved fold-out map outside text. Michel-René Hilliard d'Auberteuil, who was probably born in Rennes in 1740 and died in the West Indies in 1785 or 1789, led a turbulent life about which little information is available. He stayed in Saint-Domingue for ten years (from around 1765 to the end of 1775) and returned to France, where the publication of his first work, dedicated to Saint-Domingue and critical of the colonial administration, earned him prosecution. A Voltairean, anticlerical spirit and member of the Neuf Soeurs lodge, his bold ideas earned him the hostility of the authorities. He was expatriated for a time to the English colonies in North America, then returned to Europe. By 1784, he was in prison, probably on the orders of the Duc de Castries, Minister of the Marine and Colonies, again because of his first work. New proceedings were brought against him in 1786 by Calonne, without success, and he left for the West Indies, where he is believed to have been murdered. He left several important works on North America. RARE. PROVENANCE: LE GENERAL HENRI CRUBLIER DIT D'OPTERRE (signatures ex-libris on the faux-titres of the first 2 volumes). General during the French Revolution, deputy to the Legislative of which he was one of the secretaries, Henri Crublier dit d'Opterre (1739-1799) took part as an engineer officer in the American War of Independence: ARRIVING IN AMERICA IN 1780, HE SERVED UNDER ROCHAMBEAU'S ORDERS: stationed at Newport, he took part in the reconnaissance of New York and West Point, and participated in the siege of Yorktown.