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40 CRAWFORD, William. Report on the Penitentiaries of the United States, Addressed to His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department. [London:] 1835 Monumental survey of the American penal system Second edition (first 1834) of the prison inspector’s monumental parliamentary document on the American prison system, the British equivalent of Tocqueville’s and Beaumont’s seminal Du système pénitentiaire aux Etats-Unis, et de son application en France , published two years previously. “In 1833 the Whig home secretary, Viscount Melbourne, sent Crawford to the United States to consider possible import of American penal ideas. Crawford found two systems in transatlantic prisons: on one hand there was the Auburn ‘silent system’ which allowed associated labour and dining, but prevented contamination by silence enforced by flogging; on the other hand was the Philadelphia ‘separate system’ which combined cellular confinement throughout sentence with visits from a battery of reformatory personnel, such as chaplains, teachers, and trade instructors, whose message of forgiveness would hopefully be well-received by prisoners softened by enforced solitude. Crawford was entranced by what he saw as the perfect prison system, and criticized the silent system which, in his view, led to vengefulness and hatred among prisoners. Separation alone, in his view, could deter by its awesome severity and reform by its irresistible impact on the individual conscience . . . With [Whitworth] Russell, who was an intransigent separatist, Crawford produced annual reports to parliament extolling the separate system and damning the silent. They castigated local magistrates for inertia, devised new law, certified new regulations, and crusaded unrelentingly against prison hulks” ( ODNB ). The construction of Pentonville prison in 1842 was the
architectural embodiment of Crawford and Russell’s beliefs; its single-cellular formation attracted worldwide attention, became a monument to English engineering, and dominated the 19th- and 20th-century prison system. Tall folio (340 × 213 mm). 20th-century blue cloth, red morocco label. Original blue paper wrappers bound in. 18 folding and single page plates. Wrappers and title page stained, contents browned with a little spotting, overall a very good copy. ¶ Randall McGowen, “The Well- Ordered Prison”, The Oxford History of the Prison, OUP, 1998, pp. 90–2. £1,750 [118791] 41 CRUMPE, Samuel. An Essay on the Best Means of Providing Employment for the People. Dublin: Printed by Bonham, published by Mercier & Co., 1793 First edition, first issue (preceding the London reissue). Samuel Crumpe (1766–1796) was awarded membership of the Royal Irish Academy for the present work, an early treatise on the best means to reduce unemployment among the people of Ireland. His analysis is heavily influenced by Adam Smith and Arthur Young. Provenance: The Lawes Agricultural Library, with their stamp and shelfmarks to pastedowns. The library was assembled in the early 20th century by Sir John Russell, director of the Rothamsted agricultural research institution in Hertfordshire, and ranked as one of the finest English collections of agricultural material. Octavo (212 × 127 mm). Contemporary tree calf, spine ruled in gilt with red morocco label. Half-title and final errata leaf present. Some insect damage to calf, spine chipped at foot, light wear around extremities, label peeling slightly, light creasing to some page corners, marginal wormhole to second half far from text; a very good copy in a very well preserved and attractive binding. ¶ ESTC T61140; Goldsmiths’ 15519; Kress B2472. £875 [129099]
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Peter Harrington
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