[COLLECTION OF BRITISH ACTS, INCLUDING TWO RELATING TO THE FINANCIALLY DEVASTATING SOUTH SEA BUBBLE, AS WELL AS ACTS PUNISHING THE LEADERS OF THE ATTERBURY PLOT, WHICH SOUGHT TO OVERTHROW KING GEORGE I]. [Contained in:] ANNO REGNI GEORGII REGIS MAGNA BRITANNIA, FRANCIA, & HIBERNIA, NONO. AT THE PARLIAMENT BEGUN AND HOLDEN AT WESTMINSTER, THE NINTH DAY OF OCTOBER, ANNO DOM. 1722.BEING THE FIRST SESSION OF THIS PRESENT PARLIAMENT

[South Sea Company]

Verlag: Printed by John Baskett, London, 1723

4,[2],287-735,[4]pp. Quarto. Slightly later reverse calf, tooled in blind, spine with raised bands and gilt morocco label. Worn at corners and spine ends, some splitting at joint extremities. Endpapers soiled and stained; text toned, with scattered foxing and staining. Very good. This volume bears the bookplate on the front pastedown of Lewis Morris (1671-1746), Chief Justice of New York and the first Governor of New Jersey. The bookplate features the Morris family coat of arms and their motto: "Tandem Vincitur." Present herein are thirty-one British Acts passed during the first session of the Parliament of 1722-23 (the ninth year of the reign of George I), lacking only the lengthy Act for a British Land Tax, which is paginated 7-286 (British acts of this period, although issued separately, were paginated continuously). Among the most significant acts present are two pertaining to the South Sea Company. Founded in 1711 as a joint- stock company, its stock rose quickly and to dizzying heights before the bubble burst, sending the stock crashing in 1720. The speculation mania ruined many English investors, and was the greatest financial crisis and public scandal in English history. The two acts contained herein were an attempt by Robert Walpole to manage the economic crisis, which not only resulted in a large number of bankruptcies, but made the ministry very unpopular. They are "An Act for Reviving and Adding Two Millions to the Capital Stock of the South-Sea Company." and "An Act for further Enlarging the Times for Entering, Hearing, and Determining Claims on the Estates vested in the Trustees of the South-Sea Company." In these measures Walpole rescheduled the debts and arranged some compensation, which helped the return to financial stability. There are a number of other interesting acts passed in this session, including one for better securing and ascertaining the duties on tobacco, and to prevent fraud in its exportation. Several acts relate to the so-called Atterbury Plot, a Jacobite plan to overthrow the Hanoverian King George I and to replace him with the "Old Pretender," James III. Three acts "inflict pains and penalties" on conspirators Francis Atterbury, John Plunket, and George Kelly, and others lay "a tax on Papists," and require Catholics who refused to take the oaths "for the security of His Majesty's Person and Government" to register their names and estates. Other laws provide for the improvement of roads, piers, and harbors, while others relate to the coining of money and poor relief. ESTC locates only four copies in the United States, at Columbia University Law Library, Cornell, Rice, and UCLA. ESTC N50234. KRESS S3083, S3084. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers WRCAM48448

Bibliografische Details

Titel: [COLLECTION OF BRITISH ACTS, INCLUDING TWO ...
Verlag: Printed by John Baskett, London
Erscheinungsdatum: 1723