Debates Relative to the Affairs of Ireland in the Years 1763 and 1764
by Sir James Caldwell
Sir James Caldwell (c. 1720-1784), was deeply involved in the economic and political affairs of Ireland. "He maintained a wide correspondence with a great variety of public figures in Ireland and Britain and wrote some twenty-five pamphlets on aspects of the political, economic and military affairs of Ireland."[1] Debates Relative to the Affairs of Ireland in the Year 1763 and 1764 is a prime example of his "considerable ability" as an author.[2] He kept excellent records due in part to "his unrelenting, but unsuccessful pursuit of an Irish peerage":[3]
"...I now suffer the anguish of disappointment and stand exposed as the Dupe of Sport or artifice, an insignificant retainer of state, cajoled and neglected, flattering myself with importance like the fly upon the wheel, officiously busy to render service that is despised and ridiculously elated with the hope of reward that never was intended to be conferred..."[4]
Caldwell was posthumously recognized for his widely acclaimed work on the debates of the Irish House of Commons. It is considered to be in the primacy of parliamentary literature in part because it was written from Caldwell's memory of his attendance of the sessions.[5]
Bibliographic Information
Author: Sir James Caldwell
Title: Debates Relative to the Affairs of Ireland in the Years 1763 and 1764 Taken by a Military Officer to Which are Added, an Inquiry How Far the Restrictions Laid Upon the Trade of Ireland, by British Acts of Parliament, are a Benefit or Disadvantage to British Dominions in General, and to England in Particular, for Whose Separate Advantage They Were Intended, with Extracts of Such Parts of the Statutes as Lay the Trade of Ireland under Those Restrictions
Published: London, 1766.
Edition:
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound in original calf with title in gilt on spine. Purchased from Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries, Ltd.
View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.
External Links
References
- ↑ Mervyn Busteed, "Sir James Caldwell, c.1720-84: An Anglo-Irish Landlord in the Age of Improvement," Irish Studies Review 9, no.3 (2001), 320.
- ↑ David O'Donoghue, The Geographical Distribution of Irish Ability (Dublin: O'Donoghue and Co., 1906), 142.
- ↑ Busteed, "Sir James Caldwell," 321.
- ↑ J.B. Cunningham, Castle Caldwell and its Families (Belleek: Water Gate Press, 1980), 81.
- ↑ John Almon, Biographical, Literary and Political Anecdotes of Several of the Most Eminent Persons of the Present Age (London: Printed for T.N. Longman, and L.B. Seeley ..., 1797), 1:20.
