The Penal Statutes Abridged, And Alphabetically Arranged...
"An Alphabetical Common Place Book of the Penal Laws" Clark, George. The Penal Statutes Abridged, And Alphabetically Arranged. Calculated to Serve the Desirable End of an Alphabetical Common Place Book of the Penal Laws. Exhibiting at One View. The Nature of the Offence; The Penalty Annexed to it, For the First, Second and Third Offence; The Number of Witnesses and Magistrates Necessary to Conviction; The Application of the Penalty; The Manner of Prosecuting and Recovering the Penalty. To Which is Prefixed, A Collection of Maxims and Rules for the Proper Exposition of Statutes; The Whole Being Essentially Necessary for the Due Administration of Public Justice. The Second Edition, With Great Additions and Improvements, By George Wilson, Serjeant at Law. London: Printed for Fielding and Walker [et al.], 1777. xii, 315, [1] pp. 12mo. (6-3/4" x 3-3/4"). Contemporary calf, blind rules and fillets to boards, rebacked in period style with gilt-edged raised bands, blind tooling and lettering piece, blind tooling to board edges, hinges mended. Light rubbing and a few small scuffs and stains to boards, moderate rubbing to board edges, corners bumped and somewhat worn, faint offsetting and brief recent annotations to endleaves. Light toning to interior, light foxing in several places, partial crack in text block between pp. 134 and 135, a few leaves loosening very slightly but secure. A nice copy of a scarce title. $850. * Second, expanded edition. Arranged alphabetically and prefaced by 58 "maxims and observations," this digest of the penal statutes covers topics ranging from alehouses to bastardy to tithes. It was written as a response to the "disagreeably voluminous" nature of the penal codes for both lay and professional audiences. It was first published earlier the same year. The second edition is scarce. OCLC locates 6 copies, 5 in North America, all in law libraries (LA County, UC-Berkeley, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard), to which the ESTC adds 1 (York University). English Short-Title Catalogue (ESTC) N38509.
Price: $850.00
Book number 74197