(CHARLOTTE AUGUSTA, Princess of Wales, 1796-1817) NEWSPAPER.
24pp folio. Four pence tax stamp. Disbound. Paginated pp2265 to 2289, without pages 2267 and 2268 which are also lacking in another copy seen. The front page announces: 'Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte Augusta, daughter of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and Consort of His Serene Highness the Prince Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg, was delivered of a still-born male child, at nine o'clock last night, and about half-past twelve Her Royal Highness was seized with great difficulty of breathing, restlessness, and exhaustion, which alarming symptoms increased till half-past two this morning, when Her Royal Highness expired, to the inexpressible grief of His Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, of her illustrious Consort the Prince Leopold, and of all the Royal Family.' Page 2269 onwards is number 17303 of the London Gazette published on November 8th, and recording the orders of the court for going into mourning.
Periodical; (Part I) Nos. I-XVI, complete; Part II Nos. I-XIV; 6pp. index to both parts; lacking pp. 13-16 from pt. IV, pp. 1-6 from pt. V and pp. 1-2 from pt. IX. Contemp. half calf, at some time well rebacked retaining orig. spine. Ownership inscr. 'Andrews' on leading free e.p. ESTC T147431, 2 vols, 'Fourth Edition' I-XVI, vol. II, I-X. All collections of this rare radical periodical are erratic; vol. I is relatively common, but issues from vol. II are rare. The best run appears to be ESTC P2734 at Durham Nos. 1-XIV and I-XXX (although no other location goes beyond XVI nos. in the second volume). This weekly publication, beginning life as Hog's Wash before changing title to Politics for the People, included contributions written by the prominent radical Thomas Spence and was published by Daniel Eaton, the leading radical publisher who was prosecuted seven times for his publications. Politics for the People lays a fair claim to be the most important periodical of the reform movement, helping to maintain the survival of a free press in the 1790s. Thomas Spence, 1750-1814, was a revolutionary radical advocating the common ownership of land, universal suffrage, financial provision for the unemployed, an end to aristocracy and landlords, self-governing parishes, and the rights of children. Like Eaton, he suffered several periods of imprisonment. Daniel Isaac Eaton, 1753-1814, was a fearless publisher and self-proclaimed 'patriotic bookseller'; his address to the public in Part II., No. I, was written from Newgate where he was incarcerated on a charge of sedition, prior to his acquittal, for publishing John Thelwall's article comparing King George to a tyrannical farmyard cockerel, entitled King Chaunticlere; or The Fate of Tyranny, as it appears here in the issue of Politics for the People for November 8th, 1793.