Reply to Irwin:

First & only edition. The anonymous reply by an officer of the East India Company to Eyle Irwin's (d.1817) An Enquiry into the Feasibility of the Supposed Expedition of Buonaparte to the East (1798). In this treatise Irwin, born in Calcutta to an officer of the Company, had downplayed Napoleon's purported ambition to conquer British possessions in Asia.

Without wishing to 'damp the universal joy' which had infected the public mood following Nelson's victory at the Nile earlier in the year, the anonymous author of the Reply sounds a more cautionary note, urging his readers not to allow their current enthusiasm to become reckless jingoism. Diagnosing the issue as an 'aversion to bestow praise on an enemy', the author predicted that an alliance of French and Russian forces could undertake a joint invasion of India, a threat which almost came true but for Napoleon's reluctance to expose his already army tired army to defeat.

ESTC records copies at only four locations in the British Isles (BL, Derry and Raphoe Diocesan Library, King's College London, and the Royal Irish Academy), and a further six in North America (Kansas, Missouri, NYPL, Rutgers, UTS, and Virginia).

First and only edition, 8vo (22 x 14.5 cm); armorial bookplate of Sir Archibald Grant of Monymoske to front pastedown, dated advertisement, half title, occasional light spotting; morocco back marbled boards, title in gilt to spine, corners lightly rubbed; 53 [1]pp. A very good copy.

ESTC T44625.