[Rarebooks] fa: CRIM.-CON. & ADULTERY 1796-1800

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, July 17. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/zoeqkgt

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA

THREE TRIALS FOR CRIM. CON. (i.e. ADULTERY) 1796-98 Countess of Westmeath &c.
The Rt. Hon. Geo. Fr. Nugent, Earl of Westmeath v. Hon. Augustus C. Bradshaw for crim. con. with the Rt. Hon. Mary-Anne, Countess of Westmeath. Dublin, 1796. [BOUND WITH:] The Proceedings against Mr. Joseph Carter, Lacemanm, Lombard Street, for Criminal Conversation with the Wife of Mr. George Hayes, Lieutenant in the Navy… in the Court of Common Pleas, Westminster, on Tuesday, December 4, 1798. [AND:] The Proceedings against Sir Thomas Turton, for Criminal Conversation with the Wife of Mr. Dunnage… in the Court of King's Bench, june 14, 1796. Disbound 8vo; [1]-36; [81]-124 pp.
Three accounts of adultery trials, disbound from a nonce volume of similar trials and proceedings, to which the previous owner has added a type-written contents leaf and the title-page (trimmed) of an entirely different work, Trials for Adultery: or, The History of Divorces (1780). Some minor spotting and soiling (most noticeable on the first leaf of the text), else clean, the leaves firmly bound together. Lacking title-pages and preliminaries, if called for, but textually complete. The first mentioned was a particularly notorious affair, resulting in the earl of Westmeath receiving £10,000 in damages from his wife's lover, Augustus Bradshaw, MP, a former friend of the earl's. The Solicitor General states in his opening remarks, "The crime was of a nature as injurious to society as to the individual, and peculiarly so, as it was perpetrated in that rank of life which, while it aggravated the guilt, was most likely to render the example pernicious." The third mentioned is notable for the appearance of Mr. (later Lord) Erskine as counsel for the plaintiff.


TWO SPEECHES on the CRIME OF ADULTERY & ADULTERY BILL 1800 • Lord Auckland &c.
Substance of the Speeches of Lord Auckland, in the House of Lords, May 16th and 23d, 1800; in Support of the Bill for the Punishment and More Effectual Prevention of the Crime of Adultery. London: Printed for J. Wright, 1800. Disbound 8vo; 38, [2] pp. Tear to the upper fore-corners of the first two leaves, not affecting text, ink stain to the fore-edge, else clean and bright. Auckland vigorously defends the "harsh" bill he had introduced which would have criminalized the act of adultery and provided punishments.
WITH:
Substance of the Bishop of Rochester's Speech, in the House of Peers, Friday, May the 23d, 1800, in the Debate upon the Third Reading of the Bill for the Punishment and more effectual Prevention of the Crime of Adultery. London: Sold by James Robson, Printed by J. Smeeton, 1800. Disbound 8vo; 33 pp.; very crisp and clean. "My Lords, I really believe, that neither this Bill, nor any other you can frame, will restrain the passions of this swinish seducer…"