AMERICA. Historical, Statistic, and Descriptive

London: Fisher, Son, & Co., [1841]. 3 volumes. First Edition. With engraved frontispiece portrait, numerous engraved two page illustrations, a great profusion of engravings within the text and a fine folding map. 8vo, very handsomely bound by Bayntun of Bath, England in polished mottled tan calf, the spine panels intricately gilt in compartments separated by raised bands, central gilt ornamental devices of American eagles within the elaborately gilt panels, two compartments with citron lettering labels gilt, the covers all richly gilt with gilt tooled borders and elaborate corner pieces in gilt, top edges gilt, gilt tooled board edges, turnovers richly gilt, marbled endleaves. xvi, 504; [viii] 563; [xii], 596, index. A very fine and handsome set, beautifully bound, with just a slight bit of rubbing to the extremities, and some light evidence of age. A beautiful set. FIRST EDITION, LUXURIOUSLY BOUND AND SIGNED BY BAYNTUN OF BATH, ENGLAND. J.S. Buckingham was a renown author and traveller. He was born at Flushing, near Falmouth, on 25 Aug. 1786, and when only in his tenth year commenced a seafaring life. While on his third voyage he was taken prisoner by the French and for several months confined at Corunna as a prisoner of war. After passing much of his early life at sea, he turned his attention to literature. In October 1818 he established at Calcutta a newspaper called the ‘Calcutta Journal.’ The boldness with which he censured the abuses of the Indian government led to his expulsion from India and the suppression of the paper by the temporary governor-general, Mr. John Adam, in April 1823. The first number of this paper appeared on 2 Oct. 1818, the last on 26 April 1823. Its suppression entailed great pecuniary loss. Redress was recommended by a select committee of the House of Commons in August 1834; it was not until long afterwards that the East India Company acknowledged the injustice of the proceedings by granting him a pension of 200l. a year. He published accounts of the lands which he visited on his way to and from India.
In December 1832 he was elected M.P. for the new borough of Sheffield in the first reformed parliament, and for that constituency he continued to sit until the dissolution in July 1837. In the House of Commons he took especial interest in social reforms, advocating the abolition of flogging in the army and navy, and of the impressment of seamen, and the adoption of means to prevent destruction of life and property at sea.
Having retired from parliament, in October 1837 he commenced an extensive tour through America, which occupied him nearly four years. His intention was to take advantage of the good traveling that was available in the country at the time, and to present America, through his many engagements over a preriod of years, in its best and truest. His books on America presented a departure from much of the literature which had preceded. Buckingham was a most voluminous writer; his books which relate his journeys in foreign countries contain much valuable matter, both descriptive and statistical.
As a lecturer he was, however, better known, and for many years he was in the habit of travelling through the country and delivering lectures upon the places which he had visited, and on a variety of other subjects. He was a man of great kindness of heart and liberality of opinion, a fluent speaker, and possessed of a lively imagination. DNB
In 1842 he published an additional two volume work on America relating to the Slave Staters