Rare pamphlet by Thomas Erskine, the first Baron Erskine (1750-1823). Erskine had just finished an eight-year stint in the British Army when he published his "Observations." He seems to allude to the gathering storm in the American colonies at the conclusion of the text: "Liberty already sits on the western cliffs of Albion, pruning her wing for the vast flight of the Atlantic, beyond whose foam her infant sons are stretching forth their eager arms to embrace her." Erskine became a lawyer in later years; in 1792 he defended Thomas Paine, unsuccessfully, against a charge of seditious libel. In 1806 he was made Lord High Chancellor.