Benjamin Robins during 1739-1742: ‘called to a publick employment... a very honorable post'

Abstract

The paper surveys some of the political and economic influences at work in English society in the 1730s, as background to the activities of Benjamin Robins, F.R.S., at the time when he was preparing his classic book on The Principles of Gunnery (1742). He was also involved in politics himself, as author of several anonymous pamphlets and reports between 1739 and 1742, and as secretary of a Parliamentary committee of enquiry into the conduct of Sir Robert Walpole.