An Historical and Political Discourse of the Laws and Government

Book Description

1689. Bacon, Nathaniel [1593-1660]. [Selden, John (1584-1654)]. An Historical and Political Discourse of the Laws and Government of England, From the First Times to the End of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. With a Vindication of the Ancient Way of Parliaments in England. Collected from Some Manuscript Notes of John Selden by Nathaniel Bacon of Grays Inn, Esquire. London: Printed for D. Browne and A. Millar, 1689. Two parts in one volume, each with title page (dated 1682). First part preceded by general title page (dated 1689). [i], [xviii], 203; [4], 188, [5] pp. Folio (8" x 12"). Recent period-style quarter calf over specked boards, raised bands and original lettering pieces to spine, endpapers renewed. Attractive woodcut title-page ornaments, head-pieces, tail-pieces and decorated initials. Early owner signature to head of general title page. Occasional light foxing, interior otherwise fresh. * Fourth edition. "Bacon's Historical Discourse is a sort of constitutional history of England, showing much knowledge of the development of the institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, and pervaded by a strong spirit of hostility to the claims of the royal prerogative and to hierarchical pretensions. (...) The statement [that the present work was composed by Bacon from the manuscript notes of John Selden] seems to have no better foundation than a vague assertion of Chief Justice Vaughan, one of Selden's executors, that the 'groundwork' of the book was Selden's" (DNB). "The first edition having become so rare a second edition was secretly printed in 1672 which was suppressed. It was again secretly reprinted in 1682 and the publishers were prosecuted. The 1682 edition appears to have been reissued in 1689 with the 1682 imprint" (Sweet & Maxwell). Dictionary of National Biography I:836-837. Sweet & Maxwell, A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth 1:99(9).

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