Description
The first edition of An Examination of the Rights of the Colonies, upon Principles of Law, attributed to English judge, Sir John Wilson.
Octavo, [4], 42pp. Rebound in stiff paper boards, bound along the spine with cloth, handwritten title on front cover. Dampstain affecting half title and title page, blue ink transfer to front pastedown. Includes half-title, but lacks rear advertisement for “Books, Richard Dymott, Book-Binder.”
(Sabin 23372) ( ESTC T57093)
The armorial bookplate of Bibliotheca Lindesiana on the front pastedown. A scarce work, with only 3 known copies appearing at auction.
“An Examination of the Rights of the Colonies” was published in the aftermath of the Stamp Act, reflecting a cautious legal view of the imperial crisis. Rather than supporting the radical claim that Parliament had no authority over colonial taxation, English judge Sir John Wilson argued from English constitutional principles that the colonies were indeed subject to Parliamentary sovereignty. While he acknowledged that colonists were entitled to the rights of Englishmen, he stressed that those rights did not exempt them from taxation by Parliament, and that their relationship to the Crown and the empire required obedience to its laws.
