Two Tracts on Civil Liberty, the War with America, and the Debts and Finances of the Kingdom

This is a combined publication of two pamphlets published by the Welsh philosopher Richard Price. In early 1776 he published 'Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, the Principles of Government, and the Justice and Policy of the War with America'. Sixty thousand copies of this pamphlet were sold within days; and a cheap edition was issued which sold twice as many copies. It is said that his pamphlet had a part in determining the Americans to declare their independence. A second pamphlet on the war with America and the debts of Great Britain, followed in the spring of 1777. Price was a consistent critic of war in general and the corrupting effects of growing government debt.