[Rarebooks] FA: Colquhoun's TREATISE ON THE COMMERCE AND POLICE OF THE RIVER THAMES - 1800

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, May 13. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/7gb7wuv

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


Patrick Colquhoun: A Treatise on the Commerce and Police of the River Thames: Containing an Historical View of the Trade of the 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 exercising Jurisdiction on the River; and a general View of the Penal and Remedial Statutes connected with the Subject. London: Printed for Joseph Mawman, in the Poultry, successor to Mr. Dilly, MDCCC [1800].  FIRST EDITION (ESTC'S variant 1, with pp.322 and 383 having press figures 1 and 2 respectively). Thick 8vo (22 cm) in full period tree calf, gilt-stamped morocco spine label; [4], xxxiv, 593, [1], 609-676, [20] pp.; with a folding map and two folding tables. ESTC T140607.

A comprehensive survey of crime and commerce on the River Thames, from the Medway to the East India Docks and beyond, assembling a vast and fascinating array of statistics on late-Georgian trade, labor, shipping, smuggling, etc. The author, Patrick Colquhoun, a Scottish magistrate, statistician, and police and legal reformer, had first made his name  with his groundbreaking Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis (1796), a work critical to the development of what would become Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Force in 1829. Colquhoun himself is credited with founding the Thames River Police, the first organized preventive police force in England.

Bookplate of the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen on the front paste-down, with their ink stamp on the title-page and shelving number in gilt on the spine; no other library markings. Some light rubbing and wear to the corners, front external joint cracked but board is secure; mild foxing and a small stain to the folding map which has been trimmed within the border at the bottom; occasional light spotting elsewhere; contents otherwise very clean and fresh, firmly bound.