A Treatise on the Police and Crimes of the Metropolis; Especially..

1829. With a Chapter on Female Crime [Wade, John (1788-1875)]. A Treatise on the Police and Crimes of the Metropolis; Especially Juvenile Delinquency, Female Prostitution, Mendicity, Gambling, Forgery, Street-Robberies, Burglary and House-Breaking, Receiving of Stolen Goods, Counterfeiting the Coin, Exhumation, Cheating and Swindling, Adulteration of Food, &c. Also an Account of the Courts of Justice and Prisons of London; And an Inquiry into the Causes of the Increase of Crime; The Tendency of the Debtor Laws; And into the Present State of the Licensed Victualler's Trade: With Suggestions for the Improvement of the Protective Institutions of the Metropolis, And the Prevention of Offences. By the Editor of the "Cabinet Lawyer;" Of "A Digest of Facts and Principles on Banking and Commerce;" Of "An Account of Public Charities," &c. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1829. xx, 389, [2] pp. Publisher's advertisement to last 2 pp. Octavo (8-3/4" x 5-1/2"). Later buckram, blind fillets, gilt title and paper shelf label to spine, endpapers renewed, edges rouged. Light rubbing to boards and extremities, corners just bumped and lightly worn, library bookplate and borrowing record to pastedowns. Light toning to interior, light foxing and soiling in a few places, embossed library stamp to title page, which has small annotations to both sides, first leaf detached, crack in text block between pp. 382 and 383. $450. * Only edition. An interesting work on crime in London, with chapters covering everything from general principles of policing and defects in the force to grave robbery to tavern keepers. Notably included is a detailed discussion of female crime, including the "General Character of Metropolitan Females" (dubious, marked by a "laxity of manners"). OCLC locates 5 copies of this title in North American law libraries (Harvard, Yale, University of Notre Dame, Northwestern, Tulane). Sweet & Maxwell, A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth 2:368.