Justin Croft : Antiquarian Books

BACON, Francis, Sir. ~ Essays, or counsels, civil and moral. By Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, And Lord High Chancellor of England.

Glasgow: R. Urie, 1752.

A nice eighteenth-century Glasgow edition of the most read work by the father of the English renaissance. view more...

£190.00

US$369.49*

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BAILEY, Samuel. ~ Discourses on various subjects; read before literary and philsophical societies.

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1852.

First edition. view more...

£275.00

US$534.79*

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BAILEY, Samuel. ~ The rationale of political representation. By the author of Essay on the formation of opinions, &c. &c.

London: R. Hunter, 1835.

First edition. Bailey is best-known as one of the most persistent critics of David Ricardo, but his works of the 1830s are concerned with representation, the most pressing issue of the decade. "The politics displayed in these works are those of a moderate utilitarian radical with a strong objection to state interference" (Oxford DNB). view more...

£450.00

US$875.11*

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BARNES, Joshua. ~ Gerania: a new discovery of a little sort of people anciently discoursed of, called pygmies· With a lively description of their stature, habit, manners, buildings, knowledge, and government, being very delightful and profitable. By Joshua Barnes, of Emanuel College, Cambridge.

London: W.G. for Obadiah Blagrave, 1675.

First edition: the first book in English on pygmies. It's author was a contemporary of Milton's at Cambridge and became a prominent Hellenist. Although pure fantasy, Gerania was influential and is believed to have influenced Swift's invention of Lilliput: "[Swift] may have read Joshua Barnes's description of a race of "Pygmies" in his Gerania of 1675" (Ency. Brit.)Gerania is one of the best examples of English seventeenth-century utopian literature. Linking history, classical antiquity and pseudo-ethnology, Barnes gives a fanciful account of an expedition to the head of the Ganges to find the 'blameless pygmies' mentioned in Homer's Iliad, painting a delightful, if idealised, vision of their Eden-like existence: "Their Habit was of the woolly Moss of Trees, most artificially cemented with Gum, and interspersed with delectable Posies; about their Necks they wore pleasant chains of odiferous Flower, the smell of which was their chiefest aliment…" "Barnes... leapt into the project of connecting classical and biblical antiquity, beginning with Gerania (1675), an English prose account of an expedition to visit the 'blameless pygmies' mentioned in Homer's Iliad. Their harmonious community resembled Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, but its laws had been established by Homer himself, a wandering sage versed in Greek, Persian, and Hebrew philosophy, as well as Christianity avant la lettre" (Haugen in ODNB). view more...

£1500.00

US$2917.04*

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BAYLEE, John T. ~ Statistics and facts in reference to the Lord's-day...

London: Seeleys and J.H. Jackson, 1852.

First edtion. Baylee was clerical secretary of the Society for promoting the due observance of the Lord's-day. view more...

£200.00

US$388.94*

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BERNARDIN DE SAINT-PIERRE, Jacques-Henri. ~ Chaumière Indienne...

Paris: P. Fr. Didot le jeune, 1791.

First edition, with the words "De l'imprimerie de Monsieur" preceding the imprint and with 130 pages. There are copies on papier velin (cf. the British Library copy, which lacks a half-title) and paper with vertical chain-lines, as in ours. A pirate edition of the same year has the same words preceding the imprint, but only 94 pages. Chaumière Indienne tells the story of a Englishman of the Royal Society seeking enlightenment through his travels to distant lands. "Born in Le Havre, [Bernardin de Saint-Pierre] took a delight even as a child in romantic day-dreaming, and after reading Robinson Crusoe set sail for Martinique at the age of 12." He later studied under the Jesuits, became a military engineer and something of nomad. "He became a geographer in Malta, a journalist in Holland, and engineer in Russia, in Warsaw and Vienna he lived by his wits; in Mauritius he appears to have lived as something of an opportunist. On his return to Paris he became a friend of J.-J. Rousseau, whose personality and philosophy were to have a profound influence on him" (New Oxford Companion to French Literature). view more...

£300.00

US$583.41*

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[BERRY, Mary.] ~ A comparative view of the social life of England and France, from the restoration of Charles the second, to the French Revolution.

London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1828.

First editions. Berry, Horace Walpole's protegée and later editor, here provides a richly detailed account of English society from Mid-Georgian to mid-Victorian and of France in the same period. There are especially valuable accounts of Napoleon, Mme de Sta'l, and Princess Caroline. Both works are scarce. view more...

£450.00

US$875.11*

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BLANC, Louis. ~ Organisation du travail... IV édition considérablement augmentée, précédée d'une introduction, et suivée d'un compte-rendu de la maison Leclaire...

Paris: Cauville Frères, 1845.

First published in 1839, this edition is of particular interest for the supplements, containing the 1843 accounts of the maison Leclaire, one of the first French companies to offer its employees a proportional share in profits. The accounts did not appear in later issues. view more...

£100.00

US$194.47*

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(BLIND EDUCATION). ~ Report of the Catholic Blind Asylum, 59, Brunswick Road, Liverpool, (established in 1841,) read at the annual meeting of the subscribers and friends at the asylum on Monday, the 9th February, 1863, The very Rev. Canon Walmsley president of the institution in the chair; with a statement of the accounts, and list of subscribers, & c.

Liverpool: M. Rourke, Printer, South John Street, 1863.

The eighteenth annual report of the Liverpool Catholic Blind Asylum for children (for the year 1862). Includes also the rules and regulations for the government of the Asylum, founded in 1841 by the very reverend Dr Thomas Youens. view more...

£65.00

US$126.41*

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BREREWOOD, Edward. ~ Recherches curieuses sur la diversité des langues et religions, par toutes les principales parties du Monde. Par Ed. Brerewood, Professeur à Londres, et mises en François par I. de la Montagne.

Paris: Olivier de Varennes, 1640.

First edition in French of Enquiries touching the diversity of languages, and religions through the cheife parts of the world (London, 1614). This is a translation of the most important of Brerewood's many works, an enterprising early study of linguistics and ethnology. It is known especially for Brerewood's thesis that America had been peopled principally from Asia and thus that the native Americans were in fact of Asian descent. It evidently attained some currency in France and there are several sevnteenth-century editions in French.The author's intention was to classify the cultures of the known world according to a fourfold division (Christians, Muslims, idolaters and Jews) and to understand the historical origins of Christianity. Reflecting the author's profession as mathematician and professor of astronomy at Gresham College, the work is an interesting exercise in quantifying proportionally the relative influence over the globe of each of the dominant cultures. He concludes that if the known regions of the earth are divided into "30 equall parts" the Christian part was five, the Muslim six, the idolators' nineteen, with Judaism dispersed among them all. view more...

£480.00

US$933.45*

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BREREWOOD, Edward. ~ Enquiries touching the diversity of languages, and religions through the cheife parts of the world...

London: for John Bill, 1614.

First edition of the most important of Brerewood's many works, an enterprising early study of linguistics and ethnology. It is known especially for Brerewood's thesis that America had been peopled principally from Asia and thus that the native Americans were in fact of Asian descent.The author's intention was to classify the cultures of the known world according to a fourfold division (Christians, Muslims, idolaters and Jews) and to understand the historical origins of Christianity. Reflecting the author's profession as mathematician and professor of astronomy at Gresham College, the work is an interesting exercise in quantifying proportionally the available data as to the relative influence over the globe of each of the dominant cultures. He concludes that if the known regions of the earth are divided into "30 equall parts" the Christian part was five, the Muslim six, the idolators' nineteen, with Judaism dispersed among them all.Brerewood died in 1613 and like all his works, Enquiries touching the diversity of languages was published posthumously by his nephew to whom the author bequeathed his manuscripts. view more...

£3000.00

US$5834.09*

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BROUGHAM and VAUX, Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron. ~ The present state of the law. The speech of Henry Brougham, Esq., M.P., in the House of Commons, on Thursday, February 7, 1828, on his motion, that an humble address be presented His Majesty, praying that he will graciously be pleased to issue a commission for inquring into the defects occasioned by time and otherwise in the laws of this realm, and into the measures necessary for removing the same.

London: Henry Colburn, 1828.

First edition of Brougham's famous six-hour speech (the longest in the history of the Commons) which kick-started the long-overdue reform of the British legal system. In the course of the speech "he exposed flaws in virtually every area of law (omitting only chancery reform and the criminal law) and staked his claim to be parliament's prime champion of law reform. Brougham's speech struck the perfect note. He showed himself to be committed to a widescale reform of the legal system, while resisting Bentham's iconoclasm. In preparing the speech he had in fact received much guidance (and many manuscripts) from Bentham, who still considered Brougham as the man best placed... to advance his projects for codification and the abolition of the common law" (Oxford DNB).Though the recipient's name has been erased, this copy has a presentation inscription by Elizabeth Vassall Fox, Lady Holland, the celebrated literary and political hostess. It provides an interesting sidelight on her political sympathies. view more...

£125.00

US$243.09*

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BRUCE, Alexander. ~ The Tutor's Guide: or, The Principles of the Civil and Municipal Laws and Customs, Relating to Pupils and Minors, and their Tutors and Curators. Laid down in an easy and natural Method, In Three Parts, viz. I. Of Tutors. II. Of Curators. III. Of Things common to Both...

Edinburgh: by Mr. Robert Freebairn, 1714.

First and only edition. A treatise on the responsibilities of guardians in Scots law, as derived from the Institutes of Justinian, from Roman law in general and from feudal custom. It relates mainly to the treatment of children's rights in society, but there are also provisions for the guardianship of the insane and the immoral (notably prostitutes). As in other areas of Scottish law Jews and Roman Catholics are expressly debarred from the office of 'tutor' or guardian. view more...

£375.00

US$729.26*

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[BRÉGHOT DU LUT, Claude, Antoine PERICAUD and Pierre-Alexandre GRATET-DUPLESSIS.] ~ Recueil de la chevauchée, faicte en la ville de Lyon: La dixseptiesme de Novembre 1578. Avec tout l'Ordre tenu en icelle.

Lyon: [J.M. Barret], [1829].

One of 100 copies on papier vélin of this critical edition of a sixteenth-century verse account of what, in English, would be called a 'skimmington ride' (a spontaneous and noisy procession to ridicule an erring husband or wife). The text had first been printed in the Collection de pièces relatives à l'histoire de France, but this version contains an interesting introduction with a brief survey of the appearance of the skimmington ride in English literature: Butler's Hudibras, the Tour of Doctor Syntax ("encore peu connu en France, mais qui a eu beaucoup de succès dans son pays natal") and Scott's Fortunes of Nigel. view more...

£50.00

US$97.23*

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BUCHAN, David Stewart Erskine, Earl of, ~ Essays on the lives and writings of Fletcher of Saltoun and the poet Thomson: biographical, critical, and political. With some pieces of Thomson's never before published. By D.S. Earl of Buchan.

London : printed for J. Debrett, 1792.

First edition of these essays in which Buchan praised the ancient Scottish constitution and criticized the corruptions he detected in the present British constitution. view more...

£150.00

US$291.70*

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(CARADOC, Saint, of Llancafarn.) ~ Die Historie van Walles, in sich haltend derer Printzen von Walles Leben und Thaten, von Cadwalader ... biss auf Lhewelinum ... Vormahls geschrieben in Brittischer Sprache von Caradoco Lhancarvanensi; nachmahls von D. Powel in Englisher publiciret, und von Mr. Wynne vermehret; ietzo aber aus dieser ins Teutsche gebracht.

Coburg: Paul Gunther Pforenhauer, 1725.

First edition in German of the Welsh medieval Chronicle of the Princes, commonly known as the Chronicle of Caradoc of Llancarfan. The German version is taken from the English translation by H. Lhoyd, edited by David Powel, first printed in 1584 and later augmented by William Wynne. The German translation is by Philipp Georg Huebner and is dedicated to Anton Ulrich, Duke of Saxony.Sabin notes of the first English edition that "a special interest in this work for the American collector consists in its relation of the most ancient 'Voyage and Discovery of the West Indies, performed by Madoc, the sonne of Owen Guined, prince of North Wales, anno 1170'" (Sabin 40914). This episode is found also in the German edition. view more...

£800.00

US$1555.76*

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CARLYLE, Thomas. ~ Occasional discourse on the nigger question.

London: Thomas Bosworth, 1853.

Presentation copy of the first separate edition (first printed as Occasional discourse on the negro question in Fraser's Magazine, December, 1849) inscribed in the author's holograph and signed "T.C." to Thomas Erskine (probably the Scottish theologian). The essay represents perhaps the most extreme example of the hardening of Carlyle's political opinions towards the end of his life and has been debated ever since. Carlyle's opinion was that all humanity had a moral imperative to work. Against a background of declining productivity among the West Indian sugar plantations after the abolition of slavery Carlyle insisted that if the employees (mainly freed slaves and their children) would not work, then they must be made to work. In this short single work Carlyle established himself as a formidable (if much reviled) opponent of liberalism. view more...

£1300.00

US$2528.10*

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CARUS, Carl Gustav. ~ Vorlesungen über Psychologie, gehalten im Winter 1829/30 zu Dresden...

Leipzig: Gerhard Fleischer for Adolf Frohberger, 1831.

First edition of one of Carus's pioneering works in the emerging science of psychology. The author's major contribution was in exploring the psychology of the unconscious and he is considered the precursor of Jung (who acknowleged his debt to Carus) in this field. The author was a prolific figure who wrote on many aspects of psychology, medicine and philosophy. He was an accomplished landscape artist in the Romantic tradition and had studied under Caspar David Friedrich. He was also a friend of Nietzsche, Humboldt and Goethe.The Vorlesungen über Psychologie is especially notable for its wide frame of reference outside the discipline of medicine. Many of Carus's examples are drawn from literature, with a special emphasis on the works of Shakespeare: in the course of his argument he refers variously to Hamlet, Macbeth, Henry IV, Romeo and Juliet and Othello. view more...

£225.00

US$437.56*

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(CHARTISM). The rise and fall of Chartism in Monmouthshire. ~

[Newport: John O'Dwyer for] A.H. Bailey in London... "to be had of all the principal booksellers in Monmouthshire, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Dublin, Edinburgh and throughout the kingdom generally", 1840.

First edition of this very scarce Newport-printed account of the Monmouth rising and its genesis, the most violent episode in the history of Chartism. Twenty-four Chartists were killed by soldiers or died later of their injuries: more than twice the death toll of the Peterloo Massacre. view more...

£350.00

US$680.64*

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(CIVIL LIST.) ~ The Devil's menagerie of state paupers. An alphabetical list of places, pensions, sinecures, grants, and compensations.

[London: Glover, 1832.]

First edition of this very scarce exposé of individuals receiving state pensions and other favours, with marvellous woodcut illustrations. The engraved title gives "No 1" at its foot. The British Library record also gives a second issue of the same year. view more...

£475.00

US$923.73*

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[CLINTON, Henry Pelham, Duke of Newcastle.] ~ Thoughts on times past tested by subsequent events.

London: T. and W. Boone, 1837.

First edition. A collection of a number of the Duke's principal pamphlets and letters on political events. The 4th Duke was associated with the Tory "Ultras" staunchly supporting the traditional establishment of Church, Country and State. He was a vehement opponent of policies such as Catholic Emancipation, and also of electoral reform. This stance led to attacks on his property during the Reform Bill Riots of 1831. Nottingham Castle was burnt to the ground and his residences at Clumber, Nottinghamshire and Portman Square, London, also had to be fortified against the mob. The Duke's opinions were not altered, however; he had been accustomed to exercising his political influence in areas where he was the major landholder, and complained bitterly that the Reform Bill had lost him the patronage and influence of six boroughs, including Aldborough, Yorkshire and Newark, Nottinghamshire. view more...

£150.00

US$291.70*

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COBBETT, William. ~ Cobbett's paper against gold: containing the history and mystery of the Bank of England, the funds, the debt, the sinking fund, the bank stoppage, the lowering and raising of the value of paper-money; and shewing, that taxation, pauperism, poverty, misery and crimes have all increased, and ever must increase, with a funding system. No.1[-15].

[London]: W. Molineux, [1817.]

First published in the Political Register 1810-15; then in two vols in 1815; then in parts (as here) in 1817. At the opening of the nineteenth-century Cobbett "became increasingly obsessed with financial issues, especially the national debt and the government's increasing reliance upon paper money. He opposed these trends for the rest of his days, regularly decrying government debts and paper currencies in his writings, notably in his Paper Against Gold (1815). By the early 1820s Cobbett was convinced that the debt was too large ever to be paid off, and accordingly vowed to roast himself on a gridiron if the government could restore payment in specie without defaulting on the debt (henceforth Cobbett and his critics included sketches of gridirons in their writings and cartoons)" (Oxford DNB). view more...

£200.00

US$388.94*

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COBBETT, William. ~ Cobbett's two-penny trash; or politics for the poor. Vol.1 [parts 1-12]; [Vol. 2 parts 1-12].

London: by the author, 1831-2.

First edition, a complete run (there was no issue for March 1832). Cobbett's earlier Political Register had been denounced as "two-penny trash", a name he gladly adopted for this later work. view more...

£700.00

US$1361.29*

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COLQUHOUN, Patrick. ~ A treatise on the commerce and police of the river Thames: containing an historical view of the trade and port of London; and suggesting means for preventing the depredations thereon, by a legislative system of river police. With an account of the functions of the various magistrates and corporations excercising jurisdiction on the river; and a general view of the penal and remedial statutes connected with the subject...

London: for Joseph Mawman, 1800.

First edition of this celebrated treatise by the Benthamite reformer and pioneer of the London police forces. view more...

£350.00

US$680.64*

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(COMMERCE.) ~ Tarif générale, ou comptes faits pour faire et recevoir des paimens en monnaies et espèces des Pays-Bas, de Brabant, de Hollande, de Liége, de Luxembourg, de France, d'Allemagne et d'Angleterre. Calculé d'après la loi du 28 septembre 1816 et les décrets des 18 août, 12 septembre 1810, et 30 novembre 1811. Suivi 1. De tableaux de monnaies anciennes et étrangères...

Brussels: M.-E. Rampelbergh, [n.d. c. 1816].

A commercial ready-reckoner for European merchants with attractive woodcuts of current and historic coins and with numerous vellum page tabs for easy reference. view more...

£125.00

US$243.09*

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COTTU, Charles. ~ On the administration of criminal justice in England; and the spirit of English government... translated from the French.

London: for Richard Stevens and Charles Reader, 1822.

First complete edition in English (a much abbreviated version had appeared in the Pamphleteer in 1821). An important sympathetic account of the English system of criminal law, especially trial by jury. In 1821, Cottu, a French magistrate and founder of the Societé de l'Amèlioration de Prisons, was commissioned by the French government to study English criminal justice. The resulting work was not only an attempt to reform the "barbarous" French system but was also an expert first-hand account of English justice. It was widely read and translated. view more...

£400.00

US$777.88*

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[COYER, Gabriel François, Abbé.] ~ Chinki, histoire cochinchinoise qui peut servir à d'autres pays.

"Londres," 1768.

First edition, presumed first issue. Appearing in the same year as Voltaire's l'Homme aux 40 écus, Chinki was often attributed to Voltaire. Another issue of the same year contains a subtitle claiming the work as a sequel to Voltaire. The plight of the peasant Chinki at the hands of his Cochinchinese masters is a thinly veiled critique of the economic policies of the French state before Turgot. Several other issues appeared in the same year with the false London imprint: they were probably all printed inside France. view more...

£400.00

US$777.88*

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CURWEN, John Christian. ~ Hints on agricultural subjects, and on the best means of improving the condition of the labouring classes... second edition, improved and enlarged.

London: for J. Johnson and B. Crosy, 1809.

Second edition, enlarged (first published 1808 under the title Hints on the economy of feeding stock and bettering the condition of the poor ). Curwen founded the Workington Agricultural Society in 1805, which had a profound affect on agricultural improvement in the Cumberland region. He was also an active parliamentarian who supported Catholic emancipation, parliamentary reform, and the repeal of the corn laws. This copy has an intriguing provenance, bearing the bookplate of Josiah Spode and a manuscript note by Spode Junior, presumably to be identfied as the pioneer Stoke potter and his son. view more...

£250.00

US$486.17*

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[DALRYMPLE, David, Sir.] ~ Proposals for carrying on a certain public work in the city of Edinburgh.

[Edinburgh, 1752.]

First edition of a humorous and scatological skit on Sir Gilbert Elliot, Lord Minto's Proposals for carrying on certain public works in the city of Edinburgh which had appeared in the same year: the pioneering work of Enlightenment urban improvement which persuaded the town council to begin its celebrated building projects. Dalrymple's rather ungenerous pamphlet is concerned principally with sewers and the public "necessary-house" and it has recently been argued that while satirical in tone it was actually meant seriously. Dalrymple demonstrated a longstanding and enlightened interest in public health and hygiene as part of the regeneration of human societies (Patrick Cadell sub. Dalrymple, Oxford DNB). view more...

£550.00

US$1069.58*

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[DAVENANT, Charles.] ~ A discourse upon grants and resumptions. Showing how our ancestors have proceeded with such ministers as have procured to themselves grants of the crown-revenue; and that the forfeited estates ought to be applied towards the payment of the publick debts... the second edition.

London: for James Knapton, 1700.

Second edition, published in the same year as the first, of this protest against the policy of gifting forfeited lands away by the crown and proposing precedents for their resumption. Contains the 8-page postscript clarifying an apparent criticism of the Duke of Leeds. view more...

£350.00

US$680.64*

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DRUMMOND, Henry, editor. ~ On the condition of the agricultural classes of Great Britain and Ireland. With extracts from the parliamentary reports and evidence, from 1833 to 1840. And remarks by the French editor, published at Vienna...

London: John Murray, 1842.

First edition in English, very scarce, of this translation of De l'agriculture et de la condition des agriculteurs en Irlande et dans la Grande Bretagne (1840), based on the parliamentary commission of 1833-6. The first volume is entirely devoted to Ireland and the second to Great Britain. The second volume contains much of banking interest in addition to the agricultural materials. view more...

£450.00

US$875.11*

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DUNCKLEY, Henry. ~ The charter of the nations; or, free trade and its results: an essay on the recent commercial policy of the United Kingdom, to which the council of the National Anti-Corn Law League awarded their first prize.

London: W. and F.G. Cash and M'Glashan in Dublin and Menzies in Edinburgh, 1854.

First edition, presentation copy. The Anti-Corn Law League offered prizes for essays showing the results of the repeal of the corn-law and the free-trade policy, and Dunckley, a pioneering journalist of social causes, gained the first prize of £250 for this work view more...

£200.00

US$388.94*

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DUSAULX, Jean. ~ De la Passion du Jeu, depuis les temps anciens jusqu'a nos jours.

Paris: De l'Imprimerie de Monsieur, 1779.

First edition of this scarce study on the sociology of gambling by French writer and ex-gambler Jean Dusaulx (1728-1799). Tormented throughout his life by a passion for games, Dusaulx wrote this work drawing from his own experiences and sorrows and rendered a very personal and outspoken discourse on gambling by outlining the philosophical, political, historical and moral problems associated with gaming during the eighteenth century. All levels of French society were gripped by gambling during the Enlightenment, the royal courts held regular games; and hosts frequently acted as bankers for games to entertain their guests. Dusaulx, satirists, chroniclers and moralists criticised and blamed the government's political and financial interests for the spread of gambling and the decline of public morals. Dusaulx in this text advised banishing the pack of cards all together and re-establishing a sense of honour and sociability. The second work comprises a discussion on the introduction of state lotteries, which Dusaulx argues implicitly sanctions and encourages private gambling and the governments which organise them, contribute to the moral degradation of their subjects. The study is mainly concerned with gambling in France though there are other interesting chapters involving stories of gambling in other countries, including a translation of the Emperor of China's edicts on gambling. view more...

£950.00

US$1847.46*

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(EDUCATION, America). [GALLATIN, Albert.] ~ Inaugural address of the Hon. Albert Gallatin, LL.D. on taking the chair as President of the New York Historical Society, Tuesday Evening, Feb 7th, 1843.

New York: Printed for the Society by James P. Wright, 1843.

First edition. Gallatin was the fourth and longest-serving United States Secretary of the Treasury. He was also a founder of New York University. view more...

£25.00

US$48.62*

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(EDUCATION, America). [LATHROP, John.] ~ Inauguaration of Hon. John H. Lathrop, LL.D. chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, at the capitol, Madison, January 16, 1850.

Milwaukee: Sentinel and Gazette Power Press Print, 1850.

First edition. A report of the proceedings appeared in the Madison Express: "The inauguration of the Chancellor of the Wisconsin University, which came off Wednesday last at the Assembly Hall, was indeed one of the most imposing and impressive scenes we have witnessed in Wisconsin. The Gallery was filled at an early hour, to overflowing with ladies whose gay attire, intelligent and cheerful faces, seemed to impart an additional charm to the occasion..." Our pamphlet includes the "Address on behalf of the Regents by A. Hyatt Smith" (pp. 5-17). view more...

£30.00

US$58.34*

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(EDUCATION, America). DAY, Thomas. ~ A historical discourse delivered before the Connecticut Historical Society and the citizens of Hartford, on the evening of the 26th day of December, 1843.

Hartford: Press of Case, Tiffany and Burnham, 1844.

First edition. view more...

£20.00

US$38.89*

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(EDUCATION, America). DICKINSON, Daniel S. ~ An address to the Hermean Society of Geneva College.

Geneva, N.Y: I & S.H. Parker, 1848.

First edition. view more...

£30.00

US$58.34*

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(EDUCATION, America). EDWARDS, Tryon. ~ Christianity, A philosophy of principles: An address delivered before the Adelphic Union of Williams College, August 17, 1841.

Troy, New York: N. Tuttle, 1841.

First edition. view more...

£30.00

US$58.34*

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(EDUCATION, America). GOULD, Benjamin Apthorp Jr. ~ An American University. An oration before the Connecticut Beta of the phi beta kappa fraternity at Trinity College, Hartford, 1856, July 15.

Hartford: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1856.

First edition. Having graduated at Harvard College in 1844, Gould studied mathematics and astronomy under C. F. Gauss at Göttingen, Germany, and became the first American to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy. He later discovered the southern portion of a belt of bright stars on the edges of the Milky Way now called the Gould belt in his honour view more...

£40.00

US$77.79*

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(EDUCATION, America). KIMBALL, Richard B[urleigh.] ~ The true life of the scholar: an address delivered before the literary societies of Dartmouth College Hanover, N.H., July 24, 1844.

New York: George Ambrose & Co., 1844.

First edition. Kimball, a New York lawyer, went on to become a minor novelist and also wrote about student life in Paris and Munich. view more...

£30.00

US$58.34*

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(EDUCATION, America). MASON, Cyrus. ~ The growth and prospects of the University of the City of New York: A discourse before the Alumni Association delivered at the University Place Church on the evening before commencement.

New York: Bartlett & Welford, 1847.

First edition. Mason, professor of Political Economy was a founding member of NYU, named as a member of council in the charter of 1831. view more...

£40.00

US$77.79*

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(ENGLAND). BLACK, Adam and Charles, publishers. ~ Black's Guide to England and Wales containing plans of the principal cities, charts, maps, and views, and a list of hotels.

Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1870.

£45.00

US$87.51*

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ERSKINE, John. ~ An institute of the law of Scotland. In four books. In the order of Sir George Mackenzie's Institutions of the law... In two volumes...

Edinburgh: for John Bell, 1773.

First edition, very scarce, of one of the principal Scottish Enlightenment treatises on the law. John Erskine of Carnock, who has been called 'the lawyer of common sense' (DNB) wrote only two works but "both of these were of very great importance". The first, The principles of the law of Scotland (1754) was intended only as a manual for his students while the second, the Institute of the law of Scotland is a far more substantial volume, published from his manuscript after his death (1768). "The 'Institutes' are divided into four books. The first treats of law in general, of the courts of Scotland, and of the relations between husband and wife, parent and child, minors and their tutors and curators, and master and servant; the second treats chiefly of heritable rights; the third of contracts and successions; the fourth of actions and crimes." It was reprinted numerous times in the following centuries. view more...

£975.00

US$1896.08*

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[FENN, Ellenor]. [Mrs.] LOVECHILD. ~ First lessons in English grammar with questions and exercises adapted to the capacities of young children.

Paris: Truchy's French and English Library, 1836.

Presumably, this is a later edition of The Child's Grammar (1798), though our title is not listed in Carol Percy's bibliography of Ellenor Fenn's works. Many of Fenn's works published under the psuedonyms of "Mrs Teachwell"and "Mrs Lovechild" were directed towards young girls and women. She wrote an entire series entitled "Mrs. Teachwell's Library for Young Ladies" and most of these works focus on how to teach and outline Fenn's idea of proper reading materials for the young. view more...

£95.00

US$184.75*

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(FRIENDLY SOCIETIES). ~ Rules and orders to be observed by the Union Society, Macclesfield. Founded January 28th 1783... revised by the committee.

Macclesfield: P. Hall, 1817.

A very rare set of Friendly Society regulations, with additonal evidence of their operation in the form of slips and notes of payment to a member. Though the history of this form of co-operative insurance goes back to early times it is considered to have formally begun in England with the Acts encouraging their formation of the late eighteenth-century. Thousands of such societies sprang up at the opening of the nineteenth century. Though initially encouraged, they were also viewed with suspicion in some quarters as hot-beds of political sedition. The Macclesfield rules are notable in this respect, being insistent on the exclusion of all topics of political or religious dispute in meetings, anyone contravening was to be either fined or expelled. view more...

£400.00

US$777.88*

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FÉNELON, François de Salignac de La Mothe-, ~ Instructions for the education of a daughter, by the author of Telemachus. To which is added a small tract of instructions for the Conduct of Young Ladies of the Highest Rank. With Suitable Devotions Annexed. Done into English, and revised by Dr. George Hickes. The second edition.

London: for Jonah Bowyer, 1708.

Second edition, first published the previous year. Fénelon's treatise on the education of daughters in French polite society was translated for the use of the English by an anonymous friend of Bishop George Hickes for the specific use of a noble lady, her name disguised in the text as 'Antiope', and her daughters and published by Hickes. Chapters include "The use of Histories for Children", "Beauty and Ornaments", "Wit and Delicacy", "Housewifery and neatness", "Care of Health" and "Reading and Choice of Books." view more...

£225.00

US$437.56*

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GATTEY, François. ~ Éléments du nouveau systême métrique, suivis des tables de rapports des anciennes mesures agraires avec les nouvelles...

Paris: Bailly and Rondonneau, 'An X' [1801].

First edition of an important practical guide to the new metric system, designed to counteract the persistence of local customary measurements in the regions of France and containing numerous tables for conversion from the old measures to the new. François Gattey was, with Legendre, one of the members of the convention established in 1795 to enact the definitive adoption of the metric system."One of the most significant results of the French Revolution was the establishment of the metric system of weights and measures....On June 19, 1791, a committee of 12 mathematicians, geodesists, and physicists met with Louis XVI, who gave his formal approval. The next day, the king attempted to escape from France, was arrested, returned to Paris, and was imprisoned; a year later, from his cell, he issued the proclamation that directed two engineers, Jean Delambre and Pierre Méchain, to perform the operations necessary to determine the length of the metre. The intervening time had been spent by the scientists and engineers in preliminary research; Delambre and Méchain now set to work to measure the distance on the meridian from Barcelona, Spain, to Dunkirk in northern France. The survey proved arduous; civil and foreign war so hampered the operation that it was not completed for six years. While Delambre and Méchain were struggling in the field, administrative details were being worked out in Paris. In 1793 a provisional metre was constructed from geodetic data already available. In 1795 the firm decision was taken to enact adoption of the metric system for France. The new law defined the length, mass, and capacity standards and listed the prefixes for multiples and submultiples. With the formal presentation to the assembly of the standard metre, as determined by Delambre and Méchain, the metric system became a fact in June 1799. The motto adopted for the new system was 'For all people, for all time'" (Ency. Brit.). view more...

£250.00

US$486.17*

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[GRANT, Anne.] ~ Essays on the superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland: to which are added, translations from the Gaelic; and letters connected with those formerly published. In two volumes...

London: [J. Hay & Co. Edinburgh] for Longman, Hurst [and others] and John Anderson in Edinburgh, 1811.

First edition. Essays on the superstitions of the Highlanders found favour among readers with a taste for the poetry of Burns and Scot, as well as among Romantics who looked to the Scottish Highlands for evidence of a society uncorrupted by the vices of modern society. Anne Grant was born in Glasgow, but spent her childhood in America and is best known for her 'Memoirs of an American Lady' (1808). view more...

£220.00

US$427.83*

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GREGG, William Rathbone. ~ Essays on political and social science, contributed chiefly to the Edinburgh Review.

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1853.

First edition in book form of these influential essays. Gregg was son of a Cheshire millowner and was commissioner of Customs and comptroller of the Stationery Office. The collection includes essays on social philosopy, taxation, investments, the working classes, socialism, labour relations and electoral reform. A scarce work. view more...

£400.00

US$777.88*

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GRENVILLE, [William Wyndham Grenville, Baron]. ~ Substance of the speech of the Right Hon. Lord Grenville, in the House of Lords, November 30, 1819. On the Marquis of Lansdowne's motion, that a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the state of the country, and more particularly into the distresses and discontents prevalent in the manufacturing districts, and the execution of the laws with respect to the numerous meetings which have taken place. Pp. [iv] (half title and title), 62, [2] (advert).

London: John Murray, 1820.

An interesting collection of speeches by leading lights of British politics given between 1819-1822. The majority relate to distresses of the countryside and the manufacturing districts. view more...

£175.00

US$340.32*

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HAEBERLIN, Franz Dominicus. ~ Analecta medii ævi ad illustranda jura et res Germanicus.

Nuremberg & Leipzig, 1764.

First edition. A digest of the laws, customs and charters relating to the privileges of the Hanseatic League, the alliance of trading guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly over the Baltic and North Seas in the medieval period. Nearly half of the work relates to representation of the League in England and the charters granted by English kings. view more...

£150.00

US$291.70*

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[HARDY, Thomas.] ~ The patriot. Addressed to the people, on the present state of affairs in Britain and in France. With observations on Republican government, and discussions of the principles advanced in the writings of Thomas Paine.

Edinburgh: for J. Dickson and G. Nichol in London, 1793.

First edition of a rather reactionary consideration of Paine's republicanism which includes notice of the earlier critique by John Quincy Adams. A second edition appeared later in the same year. Hardy was a Scottish cleric, not to be confused with the radical Thomas Hardy, founder of the London Corresponding Society. Their positions cannot have been much farther apart. view more...

£150.00

US$291.70*

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HELPS, Alfred, Sir. ~ The claims of labour. An essay on the duties of the employers to the employed.

London: William Pickering, 1844.

First edition. view more...

£65.00

US$126.41*

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HOBBES, Thomas, translated by Paul Heinrich Dietrich von HOLBACH. ~ De la nature humaine, ou exposition des facultés, des actions & des passions de l'ame, ... Par Thomas Hobbes: ouvrage traduit de l'anglois.

'Londres' [i.e. Amsterdam], [s.n.], 1772.

First edition in French of Humane Nature: or, The fundamental elements of policie. Being a discoverie of the faculties, acts, and passions of the soul of man, from their original causes... Holbach considered the essay, which first appeared in English in 1650 (he incorrectly states 1640 in his introduction) as one of Hobbes best works. The Londres imprint is false and work was published in Amsterdam by Marc-Michel Rey. view more...

£1250.00

US$2430.87*

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HONE, William. ~ The three trials of William Hone, for publishing three parodies; viz. the late John Wilkes's cathechism, the Political litany, and the Sinecurist's creed; on three ex-officio informations, at Guildhall, London, during three successive days, December 18, 19, & 20, 1817...

London: by and for the author, 1818.

William Hone, political writer and satirist became a champion of people's rights and freedom of speech following these celebrated trials for blasphemy. Each of the accounts was issued individually in multiple editions of the same year, Hone then issued them collectively using whatever sheets he had to hand, this copy has part titles for the sixteenth, fourteenth, and fourteenth editions respectively. view more...

£125.00

US$243.09*

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HUME, David. ~ The life of David Hume, Esq. Written by himself.

London: for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell, 1777.

First edition, first issue (with the reading "myself" on p. 29), Hume's final summation of his life and philosophy and the work he intended as his "funeral oration" (p. 35). Printed at the end is the Letter from Adam Smith to the publisher William Strahan on Hume's final days. view more...

£950.00

US$1847.46*

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HUME, David. ~ Le Génie de M. Hume, ou analyse de ses ouvrages, dans laquelle on pourra prendre une idée exacte des mœurs, des usages, des loix, et du gouvernement du peuple Anglois.

"Londres & se trouve à Paris, Chez Vincent" [printed at Paris], 1770.

First and only edition, apparently the last of numerous French translations of Hume's works to be published in his lifetime. It contains excerpts from his Essays (arranged thematically) and History of England (arranged chronologically). It was evidently aimed at a wider audience than the philosophical and appears as much a guide to the peculiarities of the British as to Hume's philosophy. view more...

£525.00

US$1020.97*

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HUNT, Henry. ~ To the radical reformers, male and female, of England, Ireland, and Scotland.

"Ilchester Bastile, 26th day, 7th month, 2nd year of the Manchester massacre, without retribution or enquiry, April 11" [London: Thomas Dolby,] 1821.

Two rare issues of Henry Hunt's radical addresses from Ilchester jail, where he was imprisoned for his part in various reform meetings and the events leading to the Peterloo Massacre. At least 47 separate issues were printed, and they were later published as an addenda to Hunt's Memoirs. view more...

£200.00

US$388.94*

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INGLIS, Henry David. ~ The Channel Islands: Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, &c: (the results of a two year's residence).

London: Whittaker, Treacher, Arnot, 1834.

First edition of a scarce work which ran to several editions. Inglis, son of an Edinburgh advocate, was a prolific travel writer. His monograph on the Channel Islands was prepared during a two-year stint as editor of the Jersey Newspaper The British Critic. view more...

£450.00

US$875.11*

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(IRELAND.) NICHOLLS, George. ~ Poor laws - Ireland. Three reports by George Nicholls, Esq., to her Majesty's principal secretary of state for the home department,

London: by W. Clowes and sons, 1838.

First edition. Nicholls examined the state of affairs in Belgium and Holland before making his recommendations, which were strenuously in favour of the introduction of Poor laws in Ireland. view more...

£250.00

US$486.17*

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(JOSEPH II, Holy Roman emperor.) ~ The emperor's new code of criminal laws. Published at Vienna, the 15th of January, 1767. Translated from the German, by an officer.

Dublin: John Rea for Moncrieffe, White, Byrne, and Moore, 1787.

A very good collection of three scarce tracts on the subjects of liberty and free-speech. I. [Joseph II]. First Dublin edition, printed in the same year as the first Austrian (and first London) editions of Joseph II's Allgemeines Gesetz über Verbrechen und derselben Bestrafung: the enlightened legal code which famously abolished the death penalty and judicial torture. The "Josephine code" as it became known was a milestone in the reform of European legal procedure and was widely applauded by liberals across Europe.II. [Paine]. First New York edition (and probably first American edition, though a Philadelphia imprint is dated the same year). Paine's letter (first printed in London the previous year) referred to the royal proclamation against seditious writings, issued May 21, 1792, directed particularly against the second part of Paine's Rights of man. As the half title here indicates the Letter was effectively "a third part to Rights of Man, in which he insisted that representative government relies upon a prior right of manhood suffrage—a principle he had not previously clarified (partly, it seems, to avoid drawing attention to the limits on the franchise within the French constitution). The Letter also set out a plan for a British convention to provide for a reform of parliament, a proposal which issued the following year in reform societies taking an increasingly confrontational attitude to the government, and subsequently in draconian sentences being handed down to delegates of the British Convention held in Scotland at the end of 1793 by Lord Justice Clerk and Judge Braxfield and in the arrest and indictment for treason of leading English radicals in the summer of 1794" (Oxford DNB).III. [Muir]. The second American edition of one of the most vigorously-debated trials associated with the movement towards free-speech in the later eighteenth-century. Muir was arrested for his participation in the meetings of the radical Society of Friends of the People at Edinburgh and subsequently convicted of sedition and made an example of by conservative enemies of reform, being sentenced to transportation. His sentence was widely protested against in Europe and America and his case was discussed in Parliament. This second American edition contains an Appendix in which one such parliamentary discussion is related. The trial was first printed at Edinburgh in 1793. view more...

£2000.00

US$3889.39*

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[JOUVE, Joseph.] ~ Histoire de Zénobie, impératrice-reine de Palmyre. Par M Euvoi de Hauteville, B.D.C. &c [pseud].

Paris: frères Estienne, 1758.

First edition. The ancient city of Palmyra (in present-day Syria) as an ideal of splendour and stability had recently been revealed to western readers by the publication of Robert Wood's spectacular Ruins of Palmyra (1753). The Ruins had been published simultaneously in England and France to great acclaim and became a major source for an emerging classicism in art and architecture. According to the introduction to Histoire de Zénobie, the work was the inspiration for this lively histoire romancée of the life of Palmyra's famous warrior-queen. Zenobia ruled the city at the height of its power, extending her dominion across vast areas of the Middle East and leading a rebellion against her erstwhile Roman allies. The work reflects not only the contemporary vogue for all things oriental but also the enduring fascination for the figure of an all-powerful female leader of legendary virginity. view more...

£450.00

US$875.11*

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KAMES, Henry HOME, Lord. Mathieu Antoine BOUCHAUD, translator. ~ Essais historiques sur les loix, traduits de l'Anglois, par Mr. Bouchaud... avec des notes et une dissertation du traducteur.

Paris: [Quillau for] Vente, 1766.

First edition in French. In his introduction to this translation of Kames' first two "Essays on several subjects concerning British antiquities", Bouchaud explains how he has somewhat reorganized his original and added his own extensive critical and expository notes, as well as a 103 page dissertation on the law of property (the subject of the second essay) "Observation sur la loi Cincia". Bouchaud omitted Kames' essays on the history of British law, which he judged would be of little interest to a French audience - but the very different reception of even the more general essays (translated here) in Britain and France marks the gulf between two different traditions of jurisprudence. view more...

£850.00

US$1652.99*

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KNIGHT, Richard Payne. ~ An analytical inquiry into the principles of taste.

London: C. Mercier for T. Payne, 1805.

First edition of an important work in the history of aesthetics, by one of the respected arbiters of eighteenth-century taste. It is also an important work in the philosophy of sensory perception, following Hume's formulation "Beauty is no quality in things themselves: it exists merely in the mind, which contemplates them, and each mind perceives a different beauty." There are excellent discussions of Burke, Hume and Reynolds, among others. A noted collector, Knight was a member of Society of Dilettanti and devoted a great deal of study to classical Greece. view more...

£500.00

US$972.35*

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LEBRUN. ~ Manuel des jeux de calcul et de hasard; ou, Nouvelle académie des jeux.

Paris: Roret, 1828.

First edition of this very scarce manual of games which includes chess, draughts, roulette and numerous card-games. There are quite substantial materials on chance and probability in games. It was reprinted several times in the nineteenth-century with the later editions having one or more folding plates. No plate is called for in this first edition. view more...

£300.00

US$583.41*

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LESTER, C. Edwards. ~ The glory and the shame of England...

New York: Harper & brothers, 1841.

First edition. view more...

£135.00

US$262.53*

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LOCH, James. ~ An account of the improvements on the estates of the Marquess of Stafford, in the counties of Stafford and Salop, and on the estate of Sutherland. With remarks.

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1820.

First edition. Loch was a central figure in the improvement and modernization of agricultural and industrial property in Victorian Britain. Educated at Edinburgh and profoundly influenced by the philosophies of Adam Smith (through the teaching of Dugald Stewart) he pursued a hugely succesful career as manager of estates to some of the most prominent landowners of England and Scotland. His methods were controversial, not least on the Sutherland estates, his most audacious project. He was in favour of the highland clearances and pursued them with vigour in the belief that rural Scotland would thereby be released from feudal squalor. view more...

£450.00

US$875.11*

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(LONDON). ~ Hardwicke's shilling handy book of London, an easy and comprehensive guide to everything worth seeing and hearing in and around the metropolis. Compiled from authentic sources and personal inquiry. New edition, illustrated.

London: Robert Hardwicke, n.d., [c. 1872].

£15.00

US$29.17*

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(LONDON). BANKS, John Henry, & Co. ~ A Balloon View of London [as seen from Hampstead].

London: "published as the act directs, May 1st 1851, by, Banks & Co... Effingham Wilson," 1851.

The very scarce first edition of Banks's famous Balloon View, issued to coincide with the opening of the Geat Exhibition: and depicting Crystal Palace in its orginal site in Hyde Park. The map was frequently reissued in following decades and the first edition is now very hard to find. view more...

£2000.00

US$3889.39*

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(LONDON). COBBETT, R[ichard] S[tuteley]. ~ Memorials of Twickenham: parochial and topographical.

London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1872.

First edition. view more...

£30.00

US$58.34*

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(LONDON). HERBERT, Henry, publisher. ~ London (illustrated). A complete guide to the places of amusement, objects of interest, parks, clubs, markets, docks, principal railway routes, leading hotels, and also a directory, in a concise form, of first class reliable houses in the various branches of trade. Seventh year of publication.

London: Henry Herbert & Co, 1878.

A very attractive and scarce Victorian guide to London, copiously decorated and illustrated and especially interesting for the series of photographic illustrations by Elliot and Fry, mainly depicting current luminaries of the London stage (Mesdames Albani and Marie Roze, the Bateman sisters, J.B. Buckstone, D. James and T. Thorne, Henry Neville, Miss Ada Swanborough, the Vokes sisters, the Girards, Miss Heath, Lydia Thompson, Edward Righton and Moore & Burgess (managers of the Saint James Minstrel troupe). view more...

£250.00

US$486.17*

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(LONDON). KELLY, publisher. ~ Kelly's map of the suburbs of London.

London: Kelly's Directories Ltd, n.d. [c.1870].

£60.00

US$116.68*

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(LONDON). LEIGH, Samuel, publisher. ~ Leigh's new picture of London, or, A view of the political, religious, medical,literary, municipal, commercial and moral state of the British metropolis presenting a luminous guide to the stranger on all subjects connected with general information, business, or amusement to with are subjoined a description of the environs, and a plan for viewing London in eight days.

London: for Leigh and Son, and Baldwin and Craddock, 1834.

£150.00

US$291.70*

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(LONDON). MOGG, E[dward]. ~ Mogg's London and its Environs for 1855, Exhibiting a Circle of Three Miles from the General Post Office. And an index to three thousand places.

London: W Mogg, [1855].

£400.00

US$777.88*

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(LONDON). NEVILL, Ralph and Charles Edward JERNINGHAM. ~ Piccadilly to Pall Mall, manners, morals, and man.

London: Duckworth & Co., 1908.

First edition. view more...

£35.00

US$68.06*

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(LONDON). SLADEN, Douglas. ~ Sladen's London and its Leaders (illustrated).

London: Sands & Co, [1902].

First edition of a fascinating survey of Edwardian London society. It includes lists of leading hostesses (with portraits), leading Americans, the nobility, fashionable hotels and restaurants and so on. view more...

£45.00

US$87.51*

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Justin Croft : Rare & Fine Antiquarian Books - Specialist in antiquarian books, especially in the field of social sciences

Social Sciences