The True Interest and Political Maxims of the Republick of Holland and West-Friesland. In Three Parts. The First Treating of Liberty in General. Of Manufactures. Fisheries. Traffick Navigation. Part 11. and 111. Of a Free Navigation, and clearing the Seas. Of the natural Strength and Fortifications of Holland. And Of its Interest in all Respects as to the Government of a Single Person. Written by John de Witt, and other Great Men in Holland.

First English edition, 8vo (200 x 120 mm), lvi, 492, [4] pp., engraved portrait frontispiece of De Witt, with the half-title on the recto, light damp-staining on lower margins of the first 8 leaves, with the 2 blank leaves at end, contemporary panelled calf, some light cracking to upper joint, spine gilt in compartments, lightly chipped at head and tail of spine, red morocco label, a very good copy. This work is a translation of Courtís ìAanwissing der heilsams politike Gronden en Maximen van de Republike van Hollandî, of 1699, which is in turn is an unauthorised revision and enlargement of his ìInterest van Holland.î of 1662. This translation wrongly attributes the work to Johan de Witt. The work had been circulated in manuscript and was published, without de la Court's permission, by de Witt ìwithout doubt one of the greatest, if not the greatest statesman of his ageî- Palgrave. Provenance: From the library of the Earls of Macclesfield with the libraries neat blind-stamp, and the South Library bookplate (1860). Einaudi, 1370; Goldsmith, 3864; Kress, 2344