WALLACE (Robert). Dissertation historique et politique sur la population des anciens tems, comparée avec celle du nôtre, dans lequel on prouve qu'elle a été plus grande autrefois qu'elle ne l'est de nos jours. Amsterdam and Paris, Rozet, 1769. In-8, marbled calf, spine decorated, marbled edges (Binding of the period). First edition of the second French translation, published by Marc-Antoine Eidous fifteen years after that of Élie de Joncourt. The theory of demographic decline by the Scottish pastor Robert Wallace (1697-1771) influenced the thinking of Malthus and Montesquieu. The second part of the book contains a discussion of the ideas set out by David Hume in the eleventh of his Political Essays, "De la populosité des nations antiques." A fine copy, despite two worn corners and a slight nick to a spine.