Moral reflexions on the ministry of Card. Alberoni. Translated from the Spanish.: Humbly inscrib'd to the Right Hon. the Lord Harrington, one of His Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, &c. &c.

Attempted 'fake-news' to influence British opinion during the War of Polish Succession?

viii, pages numbered [9]-62

Title-page and rear free end-paper a little darkened. Title-page with a small bookseller's notation in pencil. Slight fraying to rear lower edge of original cover. Very good condition.

ESTC: T041409. The Gentleman's Magazine: or Monthly Intelligencer, vol. 5 for the year 1735, gives the date of publication as January 1735.

Dedicated to Lord Harrington, then Secretary of State for the Northern Department (later the Foreign Office) under Prime Minister Robert Walpole, this is purportedly a partial translation of a Spanish work entitled, "Meditaciones Morales sobre las Reynas, Ministros, y Confessores del Rey nuestro Sennor, desde su veneda hasta estos Tiempos ; puestas en luz para la mayor Instruction y Edificacion de todos Hombres de Intendimento en nuestra querida aunque pobre y affligida Ispagna." No date or author for this work is given and an extensive search of online databases has failed to find any reference to confirm the existence of such a work.

This supposed partial translation comes from an anonymous writer in "want of Employment in a retreat I seldom stir from", who accordingly "bestow'd some time in learning Spanish" from "such Books as I might the easier understand". Having said this the quality of the translation, if that is what it is, would have to be classed as of very good quality, i.e., not that of an auto-didact.

The bulk of the text concerns Giulio Alberoni (1664– 1752), Italian cardinal and statesman in the service of Philip V of Spain, and his influence upon Spanish diplomacy and domestic policy, "who it seems exceeded all others as well in Power as in the Abuse of it."

The introductory dedication points out to Harrington that he had been a spectator to "most of the Facts my author in this Extract relates or hints at". Indeed as plain William Stanhope, he acquired the Harrington title in 1730, he had served as a diplomat in Spain. Given that Alberoni had fallen from grace and was ordered to leave Spain in 1719, it might be wondered why anyone should feel the need to produce a short publication about him in 1735? Apart from vilification of Alberoni, and tangentially his protegee the Duke of Ripperda the short-lived Prime Minister of Spain, there may be a clue in the request to Harrington in the dedication that "should You find them [i.e. the account of Spanish diplomacy and policy] to be true and worthy the Attention of THEIR MAJESTIES [i.e. King George II and Queen Caroline], You are likewise in a Station to make them cast a favourable Eye upon them, which is the Height of my Ambition." That this publication was produced in the midst of the War of Polish Succession (1733-1735), which ranged Spain and France against the Austrian Habsburgs, likely provides the relevant context to the intentions of the 'translator' and likely author of the so-called extract.

British diplomatic policy during this period was beset by division between those who wanted to stay out of the conflict, and bellicose pro-Austrians willing to intervene amongst whom were King George II and, initially, Harington. That Britain had remined neutral was in large part due to the stance of Prime Minister Walpole. The role that Britain should play if not as a combatant, then as an arbiter, was open to political jockeying for position. In February 1734 the British and Dutch had already offered to mediate peace talks between the various combatants. Publishing a text highlighting the weaknesses and past corruption of Spanish polity would, at this time, most likely be designed to give sustenance to the cause of promoting sympathy for the plight of Austria.

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