The Grand Question, Whether War, or No War, with Spain, Impartially Consider'd: in Defence of the Present Measures Against Those that Delight in War.

London, Printed for J. Roberts, 1739.. FIRST EDITION. 8° in 4s, recent plain blue wrappers. Woodcut vignette on title-page, woodcut headpiece. Some light spotting and browning. Small hole in title-page with loss of one letter. 32 pp. *** FIRST EDITION; a Dublin edition appeared later the same year. By 1738 Spanish depredations on English merchant vessels in the West Indies, and the dramatic posturings of Captain Robert Jenkins, who claimed to have lost an ear to the Spaniards who stopped and searched his ship, had stirred English public opinion into a dangerously bellicose state. Written anonymously by the younger brother of Sir Robert Walpole, British prime minister from 1721-1742, The Grand Question essentially argues the prime minister's own position against a declaration of war against Spain. In the course of his argument that Great Britain should maintain peace with Spain, the author describes the requirements and probably unsuccessful outcome of British naval action against Spanish ships in the West Indies. These arguments proved unavailing against those who would avenge Jenkins's ear, and the War of Jenkin's Ear was declared in October 1739.Walpole (1678-1757), a Whig who served in the House of Commons for 54 years, was generally acknowledged to be a skilled diplomat and politician, although his famous nephew and namesake described him as "a dead-weight . . . One who knew something of everything but how to hold his tongue or how to apply his knowledge" (quoted in DNB).*** Sabin 28264 & 101144. Alden & Landis 739/329. Kress 4478. JFB (1994) W30. Dictionary of National Biography (microprint) II, 2183-4.