"AM I NO JUDGE! HAVE I NO JUDICIAL POWER WHILE OFFICIO!"

[BURROUGHS, Samuel]. The Legal Judicature in Chancery Stated. London: Printed for J. Walthoe, 1727. Octavo, early 20th Century full calf, raised bands, black morocco spine label. $750.

First edition, this copy presented by judge and politician Sir Edwin Widdrington Byrne to fellow judge Sir Archibald Levin Smith shortly after the latter's appointment as Master of the Rolls; one letter from each laid in, with Smith's letter expressing forceful opposition to Burroughs' thesis.

Sole edition of this response to A Discourse of the Judicial Authority Belonging to the Master of the Rolls in the High Court of Chancery by Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke. Burroughs, who had previously published a well-received history of the Court of Chancery, rebuts Yorke's argument that the Master of the Rolls possessed independent judicial authority and argues that the position, along with the other masters in chancery, was subordinate to the chancellor—much to the annoyance of the recipient of this copy, newly appointed as Master of the Rolls himself.

This copy was given by Edwin Widdrington Byrne to Archibald Levin Smith after Smith took office in October of 1900, with an inked inscription from Byrne on the front free endpaper and pencil annotations in Smith's hand on the back free endpaper. Two autograph letters signed are laid in, one from Byrne to Smith noting the book's provenance from Byrne's father and before him from "a queer old practitioner named Lowe… the dread of old Lord Eldon," also mentioning the delay in sending the book "owing to the binder having kept it so long"; the other letter from Smith replying to Byrne with gratitude for the book but disdain for its argument ("Am I no Judge! … I deny that I hold any commission from the Lord Chancellor"), both dated in December of 1900. Two final publisher's advertisement leaves not present. ESTC T95693. Harvard Law Catalogue I, 280. Sweet & Maxwell I, 337. Pencil underlining and marks of emphasis (including one marginal comment of "Bosh"), and a handful of early inked annotations including one on title page.

Text with light foxing to a few leaves, spine and upper edges lightly sunned. A handsome, wide-margined copy with interesting provenance.