Examples of the Interposition of Providence in the Detection and Punishment of Murder. Containing above thirty cases, in which this dreadful crime has been brought to light, in the most extraordinary and miraculous manner; collected from various authors, antiquarian and modern.

FIELDING, Henry.

Published by Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand. 1752, 1752

About this Item

[ii], iii, [i], 94pp. 12mo. Trimmed quite close but without loss. Contemp. speckled calf, borders in blind, morocco spine label; some wear with loss to bottom 3cm of spine, nonetheless a pleasing copy. Cross iii, 324. A monitory pamphlet published as a measure towards stemming an increase in violent crime. The work, as the imprint suggests, was aimed at a popular audience: 'Price bound One Shilling, or Ten Shillings a Dozen to those who give them away'. Evidently, Fielding was successful, a first print run of 2,000 copies being quickly followed by another (from the same type) of 1,000. Despite the large print run, copies in commerce are decidedly rare, the last copy selling at auction in 2015, the copy before that in 1947. Fielding includes 33 examples of crimes dating from the stories in Plutarch to the very contemporary sensational case of Mary Blandy who murdered her father and was hanged in April 1752. In the first example, Fielding begins by lamenting the rise in murders, caused by 'the general neglect ( I wish I could not say contempt) of religion': 'That the most dreadful crime of murder hath of late encreased in a very deplorable degree in this kingdom, is a fact which every man must confess, and which every good man must very bitterly lament. Till this age, indeed, cruel and bloody actions were so seldom heard of in England, that when they happened, they appeared as prodigies, and raised not only the detestation, but the arts of fraud, knavery and theft, we haVe long since been equal to any of our neighbours; but Murder is very lately begun, perhaps is even now beginning to be common among us'. A rare title by Fielding, 1707-54, playwright, novelist, magistrate and founder of the Bow Street Runners, acknowledged as London's first professional police force.

Seller Inventory # 102804

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Examples of the Interposition of Providence in the Detection and Punishment of Murder. Containing above thirty cases, in which this dreadful crime has been brought to light, in the most extraordinary and miraculous manner; collected from various authors, antiquarian and modern.
• Publisher: Printed for A. Millar, in the Strand. 1752
• Publication Date: 1752