18542 — (Paris?), 1758. Vignette on title. (2), vi, (4), 565, (1, advertisment), lxiii, (1, blank), (1, errata) pp. 8vo. Contemporary marbled calf, spine gilt with raised bands. INED 3400bis; Higgs 1869; Perry, From Theology to History, appendices 11 (listing a 12mo edition only); Sauvy, Quelques démographes ignorés, 362 ff; Conlon 58:966; not in Kress; not in Goldsmiths; not in Einaudi. First edition. According to Sauvy the work was originally published as Paradoxes intéressans sur la cause et les effets de la révocation de l'Edit de Nantes, le dépopulation et la répopulation du royaume, l'intolérance civile et rigoureuse d'un gouvernement, pour servir .... and 'sur certains exemplaires, le titre est modifié Apologie de Louis XIV.' According to Conlon however, the Paradoxes intéressans.... is the re-edition of the present work. Caveirac, fanatically intolerant, furnished the Bishops of Languedoc, consulted by Voyer d'Argenson, with the arguments calculated to reject the alleviation of the fate of the Protestants. The principal reason given for this softening being the depopulation and impoverishment which resulted from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the abbot was led to study the general problem of depopulation and he did so with care. We find ourselves, then, not before a scholar seeking truth, but before an advocate seeking the argument necessary for a demonstration" (Sauvy, op.cit, our translation).'L'auteur fait un grand étalage d'érudition et de science en matière d'économie politique. La Dissertation offre des recherches curieuses' (Michaud). The Lettre d'un patriote was written by Antoine Court. - Very good copy.
