Ephemera

1. The Opium Trade and Sir Rutherford Alcock
by B. Fossett Lock of Lincoln’s Inn, Barrister-at-Law;- 1883?
Price : $1,500 Buy Now
​

    Pamphlet, Published in London : for the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade by Ward, Lock, & Co., 1883;- reprinted from the Contemporary Review, for April 1882;- Original light blue wraps, with title printed on the front and enclosed within a black line border. Ads for cheap editions of standard works to the back page and inside covers front and back. 24 pages in total.
    In 1844, Sir Rutherford Alcock was appointed consul at Fuchow in China, where, after a short official stay at Amoy, he performed the functions, as he expressed it, " of everything from a lord chancellor to a sheriff's officer." Fuchow was one of the ports opened to trade by the Treaty of Nanking, and Alcock had to perform an entirely new role with regard to the Chinese authorities. In doing so, he earned a promotion to the consulate at Shanghai. He worked there until 1846 and made it a special part of his duties to superintend the established Chinese government and lay out the British settlement, which had developed into such an important feature of British commercial life in China.
    Sir Rutherford Alcock advice was to cease opium cultivation and substitute the growing of 'wholesome grain crops' in B. Fossett Lock contended  in this book, the treaty with China 'was extorted by force of arms' The `opium wars' of the middle of the century have long been a familiar part of considerations of nineteenth-century opium use. But the most important Far Eastern influence on English opium use came not at this time, but in the last quarter of the century. The foundation of a fully fledged anti-opium movement in the 1870s opposing Britain's participation in the opium trade with China had its effect on perceptions of domestic opium use even though its primary focus was a Far Eastern and not an English one., The racial feeling aroused in anti-opium propaganda also found expression in the establishment of beliefs, largely erroneous about opium smoking and opium `dens' in the East End of London. It is with the shaping of attitudes towards domestic opium use by Far Eastern experience at the end of the century. In fine collectable condition. $1,500

2. THE THREE TRIALS OF WILLIAM HONE
Price : $2,500 Buy Now

For Publishing Three Parodies: Viz., The Late John Wilkes's Catechism, The Political Litany, and The Sinecurists' Creed, At Guidhall, London, Before Three Special Juries, and Mr. Justice Abbott on the First Day, December 18th, 1817, and Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough on the Two Last Days, December 19th and 20th

Published by The William Hone Society 1818;- 67 Old Bailey London;- 1st. Edition1818;- Original brown paper covers with black lettering to the spine and decoration. To the back cover ads  of other books of interests. This book is very Scarce/Rare.. no other 1st. Edition copies to be found. Fine and highly collectable. Fine collectable condition, all pages present. Scare/Rare.

Willism Hone published the Reformists' Register, using it to criticize state abuses, which he later attacked in the famous political squibs and parodies, illustrated by Cruikshank. In April 1817 three ex-officio informations were filed against him by the attorney-general,Sir William Garrow.  Three separate trials took place in theGuildhall before special juries on 18, 19 and 20 December 1817. The first, for publishing The Late John Wilkes's Catechism of a Ministerial Member (1817), was before Mr. justice Abbot (afterwards Lord Tenterden); the second, for parodying the litany and libeling the Prince Regent in The Political Litany (1817), and the third, for publishing the Sinecurist's Creed (1817), a parody on the Athanasian Creed, were before  Lord Ellenborough. 

The prosecution took the ground that the prints were harmful to public morals and brought the prayer-book and even religion itself into contempt. The real motives of the prosecution were political: Hone had ridiculed the habits and exposed the corruption of those in power. He went to the root of the matter when he wished the jury "to understand that, had he been a publisher of ministerial parodies, he would not then have been defending himself on the floor of that court." In spite of illness and exhaustion Hone spoke on each of the three days for about seven hours. Although his judges were biased against him, he was acquitted on each count, and the result was received enthusiastically by immense crowds inside and outside the court. Soon afterwards, a public collection was made on his behalf.

Among Hone's most successful political satires were The Political house that Jack built (1819), The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder (1820), Ill favour of  Queen Caroline,  The Man in the Moon (1820) and The Political Showman (1821), all illustrated by Cruikshank. Many of his squibs are directed against a certain "Dr Slop", a nickname given by him to Dr.Sir John Stoddart  publisher of The Times. In researches for his defence he had come upon some curious and at that time little trodden literary ground, and the results were shown by his publication in 1820 of his Apocryphal New Testament, and in 1823 of his Ancient Mysteries Explained. In 1826 he published the Every-day Book, in 1827-1828 the Table-Book, and in 1829 the Year-Book. All three were collections of curious information on manners, antiquities and various other subjects.

These are the works by which Hone is best remembered. In preparing them he had the approval of Robert Southey and the assistance of Charles Lamb,  but they were not financially successful, and Hone was lodged in King’s Bench Prison for debt. Friends, however, again came to his assistance, and he was established in a coffee-house in Gracechurch Street; but this, like most of his business enterprises, ended in failure. Hone's attitude of mind had gradually changed to that of extreme devoutness, and during the latter years of his life, he became a follower of Rev. Thomas Binney and preached in Binney's Weigh House Chapel, Eastcheap.  In 1830 he edited Stutt’s  Sports and Pastimes of the people of England, and he contributed to the first number of the penny Magazine. He was also for some years sub-editor of The Patriot. He died at Tottenham and is buried at Dr Watts' Walk in  Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington. 

3. The Good of Peace and ill of VVarre,: 
set forth in a Sermon Preached in the Cathedrall Church of S. Paul, the last day of July, 1642.
By Ephraim Vdall, Rector of S. Austins, London.
Price : $3,500 Buy now

Published in London : by T. Badger, for Ph. Stephens and C. Meridith, and are to be sold at the gilded Lion and the Crane in Pauls Church-yard, 1642. 1st. Edition;- Original Pamphlet  of 1642. Complete with 40 pages. Lat page missing one third...other then that a rare/scarce pamphlet.

Ephraim Udall (died 1647) was an English Royalist divine.

Udall was son of John Udall. He was admitted a pensioner of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in July 1606, proceeded B.A. in 1609, and commenced M.A. in 1614. On 20 Sept. 1615 he was appointed perpetual curate of Teddington. On 27 Nov. 1634 he was presented to the rectory of St. Augustine Watling Street, London. For a long time he was regarded as one of the shining lights of the puritan party, but after the breaking out of the great rebellion in 1641 he declared himself to be in favour of episcopacy and the established liturgy. He was, in consequence of this, charged with being popishly affected, and the Long Parliament,  on 29 June 1643, made an order that he should be ejected from his rectory, and that the rents and profits should be sequestered for Francis Roberts,  a ‘godly, learned, and orthodox divine’. His house was plundered and his books and furniture were taken away. Afterwards his enemies sought to commit him to prison, and they carried his aged and decrepit wife out of doors by force and left her in the open street. Udall, who is described by  Anthony Wood  as ‘a man of eminent piety, exemplary conversation, profound learning, and indefatigable industry,’ died in London on 24 May 1647. Thomas Reeve preached his funeral sermon, which was published under the title of Lazarus his Rest (London, 1647).

4. The Religious & Loyal Protestation, 
of John Gauden Dr. in Divinity;
against the present declared purposes and proceedings of the Army and others; about the trying and destroying our soveraign Lord the King.: Sent to a Collonell, to bee presented to the Lord Fairfax, and his Councell of Warre, this fift of January 1648.
Price : $5,500 Buy now

Published by Richard Royston; London 1648;- Original Pamphlet 13 pages.;- Complete and in fine condition. Scarce/Rare, highly collectable. . I include also the Original Eikon Illustration of Charles I with this...Rare/scarce the two items.

John Gauden At the Restoration he was made Bishop of Exeter. He immediately began to complain to Edward Hyde, 1st. Earl of Clarendon,  of the poverty of the see, and based claims for a better benefice on a certain secret service, which he explained in January 1661 to be the sole invention of the Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of his sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings, put forth within a few hours after the execution of Charles I as written by the king himself. To which Clarendon replied that he had been before acquainted with the secret and had often wished he had remained ignorant of it. Gauden was advanced in 1662, not as he had wished to the See of Winchester,  but to Worcester. He died the same year.

The evidence in favor of Gauden's authorship rests chiefly on his own assertions and those of his wife (who after his death sent to her son John a narrative of the claim), and on the fact that it was admitted by Clarendon, who should have had means of being acquainted with the truth. Gauden's letters on the subject are printed in the appendix to vol. iii. of the Clarendon Papers.

The argument is that Gauden had prepared the book to inspire sympathy with the king by a representation of his pious and forgiving disposition, and so to rouse public opinion against his execution. In 1693 further correspondence between Gauden, Clarendon, the Duke of York,  and Sir  Edward Nicholas  was published by  Arthur North,  who had found them among the papers of his sister-in-law, a daughter-in-law of Bishop Gauden; but doubt has been thrown on the authenticity of these papers. Gauden stated that he had begun the book in 1647 and was entirely responsible for it. But it is contended that the work was in existence at  Naseby, and testimony to Charles's authorship is brought forward from various witnesses who had seen Charles himself occupied with it at various times during his imprisonment.

It is stated that the MS. was delivered by one of the king's agents to Edward Symmons, rector of Raine, near Bocking, and that it was in the handwriting of  Oudart, Sir Edward Nicholas's secretary. The internal evidence has, as is usual in such cases, been brought forward as a conclusive argument in favor of both contentions.

Doubt was thrown on Charles's authorship in john Milton’s Eikonoklastes  (1649), which was followed almost immediately by a royalist answer, The Princely Pelican. Royall Resolves Extracted from his Majestys Divine Meditations, with satisfactory reasons that his Sacred Person was the only Author of them (1649). The history of the whole controversy, which has been several times renewed, was dealt with in  Christopher Wordsworth’s  tracts in a most exhaustive way. He eloquently advocated Charles's authorship. Since he wrote in 1829, some further evidence has been forthcoming in favor of the Naseby copy.

A correspondence relating to the French translation of the work has also come to light among the papers of Sir Edward Nicholas. None of the letters show any doubt that King Charles was the author. S. R. Gardiner (Hist. of the Great Civil War, iv, 325) regards  Charles Doble’s articles[ as finally disposing of Charles's claim to the authorship, but this is by no means the attitude of other writers.

If Gauden was the author, he may have incorporated papers, &c., by Charles, who may have corrected the work and thus been joint-author. This theory would reconcile the conflicting evidence, that of those who saw Charles writing parts and read the MS. before publication, and the deliberate statements of Gauden.

5. Killing no Murder 
by William Allen
Price : $2,750 Buy now

Published in Edinburgh 1741;- Killing No Murder was published under the pseudonym 'William Allen' but the authorship is largely attributed to one of three individuals or some combination of the three. The individuals generally attributed with authorship are (in order): Colonel Silius, Edward Sexby or William Allen. Original pamphlet of 1741. Rare/Scarce all 26 pages with a Postscript on the back page.

The first section of the text reads as follows:

"To his Highness, Oliver Cromwell.

To your Highness justly belongs the Honour of dying for the people, and it cannot choose but be unspeakable consolation to you in the last moments of your life to consider with how much benefit to the world you are like to leave it. 'Tis then only (my Lord) the titles you now usurp, will be truly yours; you will then be indeed the deliverer of your country, and free it from a bondage little inferior to that from which Moses delivered his. You will then be that true reformer which you would be thought. Religion shall be then restored, liberty asserted and Parliaments have those privileges they have fought for. We shall then hope that other laws will have place besides those of the sword, and that justice shall be otherwise defined than the will and pleasure of the strongest; and we shall then hope men will keep oaths again, and not have the necessity of being false and perfidious to preserve themselves, and be like their rulers. All this we hope from your Highness's happy expiration, who are the true father of your country; for while you live we can call nothing ours, and it is from your death that we hope for our inheritances. Let this consideration arm and fortify your Highness's mind against the fears of death and the terrors of your evil conscience, that the good you will do by your death will something balance the evils of your life."

Silius Titus 

Colonel Titus was a politician and one of two individuals who claimed authorship of the work. Titus' claim could stand on its own merit due to the highly sarcastic nature of the document—a trait often attributed to Titus. In response to claims that he often "made sport of the House" and didn't take matters seriously, Titus remarked that things were not to be taken seriously simply because they were dull.Titus' tone can be seen throughout the document and on that alone, many attribute the work to him before he admitted to writing it. Additionally,  Charles II of England  awarded Titus the title of Gentleman of the Bedchamber for his service in authoring the work.

Edward Sexby 

Sexby had returned to England to try where  Miles Sindercomb had failed in exacting the call for assassination found in Killing No Murder. He travelled to where Oliver would be pronounced king and he sat waiting for a close target. One of Oliver's guards fond out Sexby was awaiting to assassinate the king and upon seeing an empty carriage with no king, Sexby killed himself to avoid being imprisoned by the guards who had found him.

William Allen 

While it was often assumed that the document was written under a pseudonym, another theory suggested that William Allen, a former New Model Army trooper and Republican who had ties with Edward Sexby and Thomas Sheppard, had penned the document. The trio (Allen, Sexby and Sheppard) had agitated Cromwell in the past by expressing their concerns about the Army's attitude toward Parliament. It is possible that Allen, therefore, wrote the document brazenly himself before he died but is more likely named as the author as retribution from one of the other two authors.

6. A Penegyrick on
Oliver Cromwell and his VICTORIES;- by Edmund Waller
With Three Poems on his Death; Written by Mr. Dryden, Mr. Sprat, and Mr. Waller.
Price : $2,500 Buy now

Published in London by H. Hills 1709 - Small 8vo,  24 pages, dis-bound Original Pamphlet, a very good copy, 1st. edition thus; the idea of collecting poems on the death of Cromwell is, of course, the publisher’s, H. Hill’s own idea, but all the poems had been previously published, and appear here in this unauthorised printings. Edmund Waller's poem first appeared in 1655, though apparently no separate printings between that and this. This Original Pamphlet is Scare/Rare in such fine collectable condition, no other copy to be found. The three Poets are Edmund Waller, 1606 – 1687 was an English poet and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1679;- John Dryden 1631 – 1700 was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who was made England's first Poet Laureate in 1668;- Thomas Sprat 1635 – 1713, was an English churchman, Bishop of Rochester from 1684, the  poem was To the happy Memory of the late Usurper, Oliver Cromwell. ... Pindarick Odes.

7. [CALCRAFT, WILLIAM. 1800-1879.]
Life and Recollections of Calcraft the Hangman.
[London: 1880.]
Price : $ 9,500 Buy now

30 parts. 4to (257 x 195 mm). 30 full page engravings. Original illustrated self-wrappers. 

Missing parts 2, 4, 27, 28, 29- Still very Scarce/Rare. Very Highly Collectable; In fine condition;-

Calcraft's career was one of dubious distinction. He served the longest term of any English executioner (45 years from 1829-1874), he carried out the last public as well as the first private execution in England, and was the last salaried executioner. Infamous for employing the short rope method of hanging, Calcraft was something of a celebrity in his day. Several unauthorized penny dreadfuls about his life were published in his lifetime, and crowds of up to 30,000 turned out for his executions The present penny dreadful biography of Calcraft recounts as well the stories of many of the criminals he personally executed, and includes an engraving illustrating a different murder as the first leaf to each part. It was brought out the year after Calcraft's death.

William Calcraft Executioner

In 1800 in Little Baddow in Essex, a sadist was born. His name was William Calcraft and he was to become one of the Uk’s most notorious executioners, favouring the short-drop method of hanging.

Calcraft started his working life as a cobbler and a night watchman at Reid’s Brewery in Clerkenwell before being employed by Newgate Prison in London as a flogger, meting out punishment to juvenile offenders. Calcraft was forced to take this position in exchange for a pardon from the Crown after being charged with a felony. His mentor was none other than the infamous hangman “Old Tom” Thomas Cheshire, who taught Calcraft the ways of the rope. Upon Old Toms death in 1828, Calcraft was offered the position of public executioner by the Corporation of London and Middlesex.

Top of page