Observations on the Means of Providing Naval Timber

London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807. Ex-Library. Very Good. Cloth. Signed by Author(s). First Edition. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. First edition. 8vo. New cloth binding, gilt titles. 43 pp. Scarce pamphlet, only two in COPAC, none in LOC. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR, "Sir Frederic Eden Bart." on title page. Essay that discusses the scarcity of oak suitable for ships, followed by a discussion of the reformation of the Poor Laws which deserve consideration: specifically, the appropriation of land to be rented by labourers, the organization of friendly societies, and the promotion of education. Use of statistics throughout. "His sole claim to fame, however, is the investigation which he made into the state of the labouring classes in England. He was led to the subject by the high prices of 1794 and 1795. Being a man of means, and earnestly interested in the subject, he performed the work with great thoroughness. He visited and studied several parishes personally; he had many correspondents, clergymen and others; and, for the rest, he secured the services of 'a remarkably faithful and intelligent person, who has spent more than a year in travelling from place to place for the express purpose of obtaining exact information agreeably to a set of queries with which I furnished him' (pref. to The State of the Poor). The three volumes which he published in 1797 (the year before Malthus published the first edition of the 'Essay on Population'), when he was only thirty-one years of age, form one of the classical works in economical literature, and are so rich in valuable facts, not to be found elsewhere, that they can never pass out of date. Karl Marx has said that Eden is 'the only disciple of Adam Smith during the eighteenth century that produced any work of importance'" (DNB) Appears to be author's copy with correction and at one time in the Library of Congress. Pages tanned and chipped along edges, light stain to half title. Good in new binding..