Publication Date: 1853
Seller: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., ABAA ILAB, Clark, NJ, U.S.A.
Inscribed by the Author to His Wife Hill, Frederic [1803-1896]. Crime: Its Amount, Causes, And Remedies. London: John Murray, 1853. xvi, 443 pp. Octavo (8-3/4" x 5-1/2"). Recent cloth, calf lettering piece to spine, endpapers renewed. Light soiling, light rubbing to lettering piece. Moderate toning to interior, light foxing to a few leaves, presentation inscription from the author to his wife at head of title page. $400. * Only edition. The author was a prison inspector in Scotland who had trained as a lawyer but chosen not to practice. He argues that criminality is not an innate character trait. It is the result of poverty, poor education, addiction and bad laws. These are the beliefs that inform his approach to punishment and imprisonment. The tender inscription from Hill to his wife reads: "To Mrs Frederic Hill who assisted/ much in writing this work and on/ whose birth-day it was completed/ from her affectionate husband/ The Author." Sweet & Maxwell, A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth 2:166.