Murray, Sir Alexander The True Interest of Great Britain, Ireland and our Plantations

Murray, Sir Alexander The True Interest of Great Britain, Ireland and our Plantations or a Proposal for making such an Union between Great Britain and Ireland, and all our Plantations, as that already made betwixt Scotland and England ... And a New Method of Husbandry by Greater and Lesser Canals ... With Proposals for Removing the Hurtful Parts of the Heretable Courts and Jurisdictions. [Part 2:] A Letter and Remonstrance, etc. To the Right Honourable Philip Lord Hardwicke [and others] ... In Relation to a Petition, and some Proposals which he addressed last Sessions to both Houses of Parliament. Wherein the Miserable State of Scotland, from the Slavish Dependance of the People on a Few Families, and the Great Danger thence arising to Great Britain, are considered. With a New Method of improving all the Different Products of our Lands and Waters, and paying off the National Debts. [Part 3:] An Apology to the Reader. London: Printed for the Author, 1740. 3 parts in 1 volume, folio (37.4 x 22.5cm), contemporary marbled boards, rebacked, vellum tips, viii 52 [2] 20 8 pp., 13 engraved plates and maps (all but one folding; 2 hand-coloured), all edges untrimmed, a few short closed tears to central intersection of map folds, two more extensive closed tears in 'The Map of the Baronry of Stobbo' and 'The Canal Explain'd', similar closed tear along intersection of folds in 'A Display of the Coasting Lines of Six Several Maps of North Britain', Minto bookplate to paste-down endpaper[ESTC T102909; Kress 4515 and 4514 for parts 1 and 2] Qty: (1) Note: ESTC traces 8 copies in UK libraries Sir Alexander Murray was a Scottish politician, landholder in Ardnamurchan in the Scottish Highlands, and erstwhile Jacobite who was imprisoned for his support of 'The Old Pretender'. An important work of British imperial history, The True Interest of Great Britain was largely ignored at the time of its publication, with arguments such as Murray's not being considered by Parliament until the 1760s, with growing 'concerns' regarding America. Murray's proposition was significant in two ways: firstly, he considered Ireland's relationship to Britain, an unusual concept in contemporaneous literature. Secondly, he advocated for the acceptance of colonial citizens into British organised society, with physical representation at Westminster. According to Murray, this should be conducted on the same basis as the Union of Parliaments between Scotland and England. Barbara C. Murison writes: "Murray's vision of empire was of an organization which must give the colonies greater influence at its centre," where "...all Foreigners were to receive 'a suitable measure' of the Iura Civitatis Britannicae...'" Murray thus considered the British Empire and its citizens in a different light to many of his contemporaries, foreshadowing some later Enlightenment thinking. Literature: Murison, Barbara C. Roads Not Taken: Alternative Views of the Empire, pp.18-35, [in] Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, May 2018, vo. 38, No. 1