A Treatise on the Law of Homicide, and of Larceny at Common Law

1799. armorial bookplate of Cadwallader David Colden. armorial bookplate of Cadwallader David Colden. A Copy of a 1799 Treatise on Larceny and Homicide Law Owned by a Distinguished 19th-Century New York Lawyer and Politician Bevill, Robert [d.1824]. A Treatise on the Law of Homicide, And of Larceny at Common Law. London: Printed for W. Clarke and Son, 1799. [xiv], 287 pp. Octavo (9" x 5-3/4"; 22.8 x 14.6 cm). Contemporary calf, blind fillets to boards, lettering piece and blind fillets to spine. Light rubbing and some minor nicks and scuffs to boards, moderate rubbing to extremities with some wear to spine ends and corners, rear joint cracked, armorial bookplate of Cadwallader David Colden to front pastedown, inscription, presumably his, to front free endpaper, Colden's signature in pencil to head of title page. Moderate toning and light foxing to text, faint dampstaining in a few places. A nice copy of a scarce title. $2,500. * Only edition. Bevill was a barrister of the Inner Temple. "I have collected everything to be found in the books which appeared to be material; and I have endeavoured to extract all the principles by which the law, as to these offenses, is governed: and although no direct authority can be cited in support of one of these principles, in the form in which I have stated them, yet when every part of the subject is examined, I feel some confidence, that they will be found correct" [iii-iv]. A member of a distinguished New York City family, Colden [1769-1834] was a mayor of New York City from 1818-1821, a U.S. Representative from New York from 1821-1823 and a member of the New York State Senate from 1825 to 1827. The inscription on the front free endpaper reads: "Murder is a killing of malice-/ Malice is where there is a felonious and deliberate interest/ to do bodily harm by probable means." English Short-Title Catalogue N14026.