Dalrymple, Alexander

4to (10 1/4 x 81/4 in.; 260 x 210 mm). Three engraved charts; some light browning. Modern speckled calf in period style, black gilt morocco labels. Lacks the contents leaf, as usual, but half title present.

Sabin 18336. Spence 335.

Contains in its preface Dalrymple's appeal to Lord North to allow him official approval to make a voyage of discovery in the South Atlantic to investigate the reports of Halley, Bouvet, La Roche, and Leon, and search for and establish a colony at Halley's Cape Circumcision.  There is a most interesting section which contains a surprisingly modern constitution for the new colony:

1) "...there shall be a Tax of Batchelors or Maidens possessing lands and houses...which shall go the maintenance of orphans...."

2) "No coin but Copper Money as in China and accounts kept in decimals."

3) "Women are not debarred from public office, but may enjoy their rights in the public assembly on the same footing as men."

4) "No Person shall exercise the Profession of Law, by counsel or otherwise, for hire or fee, on penalty of forfeiture of all his property and perpetual imprisonment."

5) "No person to be imprisoned for debt, or for any offence, but such as make their being left at liberty dangerous to society."

Dalrymple had intended to expand the work further, but decided to collect such articles as he had assembled on the subject, for he was about to set sail for India.  The various accounts contained within the book are printed in different places (for example, the "Extrait du Voyage" is obviously of French origin, while Dalrymple's brother, James, saw the Lyon journal through the press in Scotland).