A DRAMATIC IRISH RAPE TRIAL, WITH LEONARD MACNALLY FOR THE DEFENSE: FIRST EDITION, 1800

(MACNALLY, Leonard). SMITH, Edward. Smith's Trial. A Full and Authentic Report of the Trial… for a Rape Alleged to Have Been Committed on the Body of Miss Sarah Rawson. Dublin: Printed for W. Wilson, 1800. Octavo, later half red morocco, marbled boards. $1500.

Scarce first edition of the detailed transcript of the trial of Edward Smith, accused of assaulting Sarah Rawson and holding her captive in the officers' barracks for three days; with MacNally's cross-examination, and an engraved plate depicting Smith pulling Rawson into the bushes.

In the question of whether Miss Rawson was ravished by Ensign Smith of the Durham Fencibles or enjoyed a three-day-long consensual interlude with him in his quarters, Smith was defended by Leonard MacNally—the infamous barrister, playwright and founding member of the United Irishmen turned informant for the British government. The DNB called MacNally "an astute and eloquent advocate and a powerful cross-examiner," and his implacable questioning of the testimony given by Rawson and others, as recorded here, contributed substantially to the verdict of "not guilty." A Cork printing appeared in the same year. ESTC N23571.

Interior generally clean, an excellent copy of a very uncommon item.