An Abridgment of Penal Statutes [With] An Appendix to Addington's.

The "Bloody Code" at a Glance: A Rare, Signed Bow Street Magistrate's Guide with the Elusive 1802 Bath Appendix Addington, Sir William [d.1811]. An Abridgment of Penal Statutes, Which Exhibits at One View The Offences, And the Punishment or Penalties, In Consequence of Those Offences, The Mode of Recovering, And Application of the Penalties, The Number of Witnesses, And the Jurisdiction Necessary to the Several Convictions, And the Chapters and Sections of the Enacting Statutes, Including the Fifth Session of the Seventeenth Parliament, 1795. With Large Additions and Annotations: To Which are Subjoined, Extracted from Reporters of the Best Authority, And Inserted Under Their Proper Heads, A Great Variety of Adjudged Cases. And to the Whole is Annexed, A Table of Contents. London: Printed for the Author, By Cooper and Graham, 1795. 861, [91] pp. [Bound with] An Appendix to Addington's Abridgment of Penal Statutes, In Which are Noticed Such as Have Been Repealed, And Such as Have Been Enacted Since the Publication of the Said Work in 1795, To the Dissolution of the Parliament in the Present Year 1802 [Caption Title]. [Bath: Keenes, Printers, (1802)]. 7, [1] pp. Bound after second leaf of Abridgment. Quarto (11-1/2" x 9"). [Copy] N.[o. 191 in script] and signed on the title page by the author, "WAddington," and on page 191. Early owner's signature to foot of title, "W.C. Medlycott." Modern burgundy quarter simulated calf over contrasting tan cloth, gilt-lettered spine. Text block edges untrimmed; endpapers renewed. Minor staining to first two leaves with negligible loss to a few words on title page. Light internal toning and occasional foxing, but overall a very good, wide-margined copy. $650. * This expansive work is a definitive primary source for the social and judicial history of late 18th-century England. While labeled as the "Fourth Edition," it is bibliographically identified as the sixth-and most mature-iteration of Addington's personal commonplace book. Written by a veteran Bow Street Magistrate, the text maps the intricate web of the "Bloody Code," utilizing a rigorous tabular format to categorize nearly four thousand articles by offense, penalty, and the specific "Mode of Recovery" required for conviction. The Abridgment functions as a window into the era's social anxieties, meticulo.…