A treatise on the police of the metropolis, explaining the various crimes and misdemeanors which at present are felt as a pressure upon the community; and suggesting remedies for their prevention. By a magistrate

London: printed by H. Fry, for C. Dilly, in the Poultry, 1796. First edition, 8vo, pp. xii, [2], 6-369, [3]; folding table; title page a little browned at the edges, some minor creasing and spotting, pin hole through the upper blank margin of the first quarter of the book (possibly where the ALs (see below) was pinned to the book for presentation), otherwise an uncut copy in original pink paper-backed marbled boards, printed paper label on spine (dusty, a little creased and slightly chipped). The first edition of Colquhoun's influential treatise on crime and policing in London, including a full discussion of the system of hulks, and transportation to (truncated) New South Wales. A second and third edition were printed in the same year, and six editions in all were printed in his lifetime. This is an important presentation copy to the Lord Chief Justice, Lloyd Kenyon, with an autograph letter signed from the Colquhoun to Kenyon requesting support for Colquhoun's proposed policing reforms based on his own practical experience as a magistrate in London. Colquhoun outlines the state of crime in London, the prison system and proposes the use of an organized police force and the active prevention of crime. Inscribed on the flyleaf "To The Right Honourable / Lord Kenyon from His Lordship's Obedient / humble Servant / The Author." Additionally inscribed by Kenyon at the top of the title page: "Kenyon - 21 Feb 1796 from the author" and with "Colquhoun Esq." next to "By a Magistrate." The letter is pasted to one corner of the front flyleaf and is dated 15 February 1796, (the same date as Colquhoun's printed advertisement at the beginning of the book) from Colquhoun's home at Charles Square, Hoxton (London), and begins: I take the earliest opportunity of requesting leave to present to your Lordship a Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis and on the Prevention of Crimes which I trust will be found to contain many prominent features of abuses as well as many suggestions for remedying such abuses consonant to those excellent maxims of virtues and morality which your Lordship so ably and so usefully inculcates in the high official situation which you fill with so much honour..." Colquhoun continues: "Presiding at the highest Criminal Tribunal in the Country it becomes my peculiar duty to convey to your Lordships one of the first copies of this work which has come from the press. (Inventory #: 66593)