(SCOTTISH ROYAL BOROUGHS). ~ A Bill Proposed to be submitted to the consideration of Parliament [drop-head title], for Correcting the Abuses, and supplying the Defects, in the internal Government of the Royal Boroughs, and in the manner of accounting for the Property, Annual Revenues, and Expenditure of the same, in that Part of Great Britain called Scotland. Prepared by The Committee of Delegates, [Edinburgh: 1787.]
[bound with:] Memorial for The Burgesses and Inhabitants of the Royal Boroughs of Scotland, associated for the purpose of correcting the Abuses, and supplying the Defects in the Internal Government of these Boroughs. Humbly submitted to the members of the legislature. [Edinburgh: 1789.]
2 pamphlets bound together, 4to (260 × 205 mm.), pp. 24; 6, [2] (final blank). First leaf of the first pamphlet rather dusty, traces of an old vertical crease where both pamphlets were once folded. Disbound.
Rare. The first item is known in two editions, both probably of the same year: ours and another entitled ‘The Heads of a Bill...’ The second item is a defensive memorandum also relating to the ancient constitutional liberties in the Scottish boroughs granted by charter and legitimised by immemorial custom. These antiquated liberties had been under continual scrutiny since the middle ages, but were more clearly threatened by the atmosphere of political reform of the 1780s. I. ESTC lists only the British and Huntington Library copies only, and the National Library of Scotland copy of the variant title only; II: Copies at the British Library, National Library of Scotland and the Library Company of Philadelphia only