first edition
1795 · London
by [GREAT BRITAIN] CARTWRIGHT, John
London: D.I. Eaton, 1795. First Edition. Octavo (20.5cm.); disbound; 19pp. Dampstaining along textblock extremities, else Very Good and sound. One of two 1795 printings of this pamphlet, less common than that published by J. Johnson. Petition composed while the author, known today as "the Father of Reform," was "confined, in the condition of a cripple, to the house," to be read at a meeting with the sheriff of the County of Lincoln regarding two bills proposed by Lord Grenville and William Pitt the Younger, on sedition and treason. The first bill treated "treasonable and seditious practices and attempts," while the second proposed "more effectual preventing seditious Meetings and Assemblies," Cartwright stating that if the King allowed the introduction of these bills "into criminal law of England such a change...must, if successful, removed from [Cartwright's] mind every idea of his living under a free government" (p. 4). ESTC N19010. (Inventory #: 46145)