PBA Galleries

28pp. plus [4] pp. of advertisements. (12mo) 19x11.9 cm (7½x4¾”), held together with string.

This copy is interesting in a book publishing sense.  The ads are made up of titlepages of other publications by Robert Bell, the printer.  This pamphlet defending the Society of the Cincinnati was probably written by Stephen Moylan, one of the founders of the Society.

Moylan calls a free press "the PILLAR that supports the whole fabric of freedom"; but, he observes, "The fairest blossom is the reptile's food," and a licentious press has gorged itself on a slander of the noble Society.  That slander, Howes informs, was a pamphlet published anonymously by Aedanus Burke earlier in 1783, attacking the Society.  The Plan for Establishing the Society or Order of the Cincinnati, created in the year of this publication, is reproduced here, and the author defends the Society with skill and wit.