First edition of a political satire in the guise of an oriental fable, criticizing the peace policy and wasteful expenditures of the Vizier [Walpole] in perpetuating ‘his ill-got Power’ in the prelude to the war with Spain, and implicating him in the death of Achmet [the Earl of Scarborough], the trusted councillor of the Sultan [George II]. Cajoled by his beloved Fatima [the widow of the Duke of Manchester], who has been deceived by the Vizier’s party, Achmet betrays the state secret that war is to be declared; but he cannot bear the disgrace of this treachery, and commits suicide on the eve of their intended marriage. His suicide is a fact, the attributed motive is much less certain.

Beasley 61; G.E.C., The Complete Peerage, VIII, 374n., and XI, 510-11.

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