Report of the Trial of the Action, Bogle Versus Lawson, For a Libel...
Presentation Copy of a Landmark 19th Century Financial Swindle [Trial]. Hughes, W. Hughes, Editor. The Times" Testimonal: Report of the Trial of the Action, Bogle Versus Lawson, For a Libel Published in "The Times" London-Newspaper, Tried at the Summer Assizes for the Country of Surrey, Held at Croydon, Monday, August 16, 1841, Before the Right Honourable Sir Nicholas Conyngham Tindal, Knt. Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, And a Special Jury; Together with the Proceedings of a Public Meeting of Merchants, Bankers and Others, Held at the Mansion House, London, Friday, October 1, 1841, On the Subject of Such Action, And of the Committee then Appointed; And Also a List of Subscribers to "The Times" Testimonial. Published by the Committee. London: John Hatchard and Son, Henry Butterworth and Pelham Richardson, 1842. 186 pp. Octavo (8-1/2" x 5"). Stab-stitched pamphlet bound in contemporary cloth, gilt title to spine ("Bogle v Lawson") and front board ("3d. Edition/ Times Testimonial/ for/ A. Dobie Esqr/ 1842"). Light rubbing, dampstaining to boards, fading to spine, spine ends and corners bumped and lightly worn, front hinge cracked, later owner bookplate (Geoffrey G. Briggs) and bookseller ticket to front pastedown, later (illegible) owner signature dated 1961 to front free endpaper. Moderate toning to interior. Presentation inscription "Alexander Dobie Esq. With the best comps & thanks of The Editor, 1st January 1842." to head of half-title. A remarkable association copy of a landmark case. $750. * Third and final edition, inscribed to Dobie, who is thanked warmly in the preface "for affording [Hughes] access to the original documents in the cause, as well as for correcting the evidence from the notes of the short-hand writer" (40). A sensational case of a million-pound plot to defraud Continental bankers by forged letters of credit. The plot was exposed by a Times of London correspondent in a letter published on 26th May 1840. The naming of Allan George Bogle (who was almost certainly involved) triggered this libel action against John Joseph Lawson, the printer and publisher of the Times. Bogle won the case, but thanks to Dobie's skilled defense, his victory was costly. The jury granted him a mere farthing in damages and ordered him to pay his own hefty legal expenses. The case exposed.
Price: $750.00
Book number 74908