A Treatise Upon the Laws of England Now in Force for the Recovery...
In a Handsome Contemporary Chippendale Binding Prujean, John. A Treatise Upon the Laws of England Now in Force for the Recovery of Debt, Pointing Out the Many Abuses of Them; Together with a Plan for Administering More Speedy and Equitable Justice to Creditors and to Debtors. By John Prujean, Esq. of Gray's-Inn; And Dedicated, With Permission, To His Grace the Duke of Norfolk. London: Printed for the Author: And Sold by J. Sewell [et al.], 1791. xix, [1], 135, [1] pp. With a half-title. Octavo (8-1/4" x 4-3/4"; 20.9 x 12.1 cm). Contemporary Chippendale-style gilt-paneled tree calf, gilt ornaments to corners, gilt spine with lettering piece, gilt tooling to outer and inner board edges, marbled endpapers, silk ribbon bookmark. Light rubbing and a few small, shallow nicks and scratches to boards, moderate rubbing to extremities, joints starting at ends, chipping to spine ends, corners bumped and worn. Light toning to interior, negligible light foxing to a few leaves, internally clean. A handsome copy. $1,500. * Only London edition, published simultaneously in Dublin the same year. Throughout the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, bankruptcy reform was one of Britain's most urgent economic and social issues. In this trenchant treatise, Prujean-a barrister of Gray's Inn-sharply dissects the systemic abuses of contemporary debt recovery and insolvency laws, urgently advocating for their complete overhaul. He argues passionately that current punishments, such as the ruinous cycle of debtor's prisons or forced exile, are fundamentally unjust, economically counterproductive, and entirely ineffective as deterrents. Furthermore, Prujean exposes how existing statutes actively incentivize predatory, frivolous, and outright fraudulent claims. In their place, he proposes a sophisticated "Plan" for administering swift, equitable justice, which includes the appointment of specialized commissioners tasked with rigorously auditing the legitimacy of bankruptcy suits to protect both honest debtors and desperate creditors. This copy is distinguished by its highly desirable, contemporary Chippendale-style binding. Popularized in the 1780s and 1790s, these bindings were heavily influenced by the "elegant neoclassicism" sweeping the British decorative arts. They are characterized by elaborate gilt-bordered panels and classically inspir.
Price: $1,500.00
Book number 82405