Godwin, William An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness (14  February  1793) G.G.J. and J. Robinson

Godwin proposed 'Political Principles' to Robinson on 30 June 1791 and persuaded the publisher to support the project financially on 10 July. He relinquished his role on the New Annual Register in September and began a work which would take sixteen months to write and was eventually published, in two quarto volumes, on 14 February 1793, priced £1 16s. Three thousand copies were sold, an octavo edition in two volumes was published by Luke White in Dublin the same year and to satisfy demand Robinson had to purchase pirated octavo sheets from the Dublin printer to sell under his own imprint in London.

Robinson published a second edition under the title An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Morals and Happiness . This edition, including Godwin's revisions and sold in two octavo volumes for fourteen shillings, gives the date 1797 on its title page but actually appeared on 26 November 1796. Similarly, a third, revised edition, in two octavo volumes, is dated 1798 on its title page but appeared in December 1797. Godwin planned a fourth edition but this never materialised. Political Justice was translated into French by Benjamin Constant but withheld from publication. G.M. Weber's German translation was published in Würzburg in 1803 and a pirated second edition was published in Philadelphia by Bioren and Madan in 1796 and in New York in 1804.