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Description and Holding Information
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Ridgeway, 1812, Speeches of Lord Erskine, 1v., misc. speeches
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Speeches of Lord Erskine when at the bar, on miscellaneous subjects: (collected by James Ridgeway): 246p, London, pr. for J. Ridgeway, 1812. (A table
of contents starts on p. iv. Thomas Erskine 1750-1923, the youngest son of a Scottish Earl, rose from a relatively impoverished background to become
a prominent barrister and eventually Lord Chancellor of Great Britain. Although an indifferent parliamentarian, he was an accomplished court pleader.
The main collection of Erskine’s speeches, in four volumes also edited by James Ridgeway, was published in 1810 and is also offered on this site. That
collection includes his famous defenses of William Davies Shipley, dean of St. Asaph and later John Stockdale, both for seditious libel. His defense
of the former led to the Libel Act of 1792, which established the principle that juries, not judges, decided the question of whether or not a
publication constituted a libel. Perhaps his most famous case in the area of freedom of the press was his defense in 1792, during the reign of George the
Third, of Thomas Paine, author of The Rights of Man. This single-volume work was intended to cover other speeches by Erskine viewed by Ridgeway as not
being of similar import. They are not, however, without human interest. An example is a case where Erskine successfully defended on the grounds of
insanity one Hadfield who had shot at, with intent to kill, King George the Third.)
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Title:
Speeches of Lord Erskine : when at the bar, on miscellaneous subjects.
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OCLC Number:
60714337
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Available Volumes
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| Name | Fiche Count | Online | Paper Backup |
| Volume 1 | | Yes | Yes |
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