[drop head title:] The Craftsman against Pensions.

Bookseller Notes

An issue of 'The Craftsman' which had originally been published on the 7th December 1728 and is here published as a broadside. In essence, this is an attack on the notion that 'there is no such thing as Society', given the wholly selfish pursuit of Government pensions and positions. The author brings forward the example of the Huguenots, who had settled in England, and by dint of industry had greatly increased the nation's riches: some who came were too old to work, and King William established a Pension of 15,000 for their maintenance, but even that was now being grubbed up by greedy politicians.Amhurst is best known for his satires on the Univeristy of Oxford. 'That Amhurst, after the success of the Terrae-filius, with its whig sympathies, should then edit (for Bolingbroke and Pulteney) the leading anti-Walpole newspaper, The Craftsman, epitomizes not only a mercurial element in his personality but also a tendency to self-destructiveness and a rigid opposition to governing authorities. He conducted (under the pseudonym Caleb D'Anvers) The Craftsman from its inception in December 1726 until the Pulteney circle was accommodated to the government in 1737. Estimates of The Craftsman's circulation vary from an improbable 10,000 to a niggardly 500 copies (Kramnick), but there is some agreement that it was the most important periodical of its day. While Bolingbroke and Pulteney were the major writers for the journal it is clear that Amhurst produced a good deal of the material himself' (ODNB).The Craftsman is very scarce as a periodical, and of this broadside, there are but 2 copies recorded in ESTC, BL, anmd the Clark.