Item #19532 The Trial of James Whiting, John Parsons, and William Congreve for a Libel against the Hon. G. C. Berkeley, Rear Admiral of the Red, and one of the Representatives in Parliament for the County of Glocester; by a Special Jury . . . June 27th, 1804. Taken in Short Hand by Mr. Gurney, Together with the Letters and Papers which are referred to in the course of the Trial. Libel, James Whiting, John Parsons, defendants William Congreve, Nautical.

The Trial of James Whiting, John Parsons, and William Congreve for a Libel against the Hon. G. C. Berkeley, Rear Admiral of the Red, and one of the Representatives in Parliament for the County of Glocester; by a Special Jury . . . June 27th, 1804. Taken in Short Hand by Mr. Gurney, Together with the Letters and Papers which are referred to in the course of the Trial.

Buckingham: Printed and Sold by J. Seeley, 1804. First edition. Removed pamphlet, 7.94 x 5.13 inches, 132 pages. Traces of old calf spine; foxed, somewhat soiled and a bit worn; a very good copy. Item #19532

"The following Trial, with the Papers which accompany it, require no comment from Rear Admiral Berkeley. He has published them with a view of shewing his Brother Officers and the Navy, that solely for the purpose of vindicating his character, he courted this inquiry." Admiral George Cranfield Berkeley (1753-1818) had the command of the Marlborough on the Glorious First of June and was badly wounded in the head and the thigh; the printer and publishers of the weekly newspaper The Royal Standard published an account in 1804 accusing Berkeley of cowardice at the 1794 action, as well as dereliction of duty of Brest in 1800. With much testimony not only to Berkeley's personal conduct on the 1st of June, but a certain amount of clinical detail from the witnesses on the textures of naval battle. Berkeley asked for £5000 in damages and was granted £1000. McCoy W207. An ex-library copy, with two violet ink stamps to the title page for the Association of the Bar Library of the City of New York, with their light embossed stamp to the leaf after that. A couple early ink autograph annotations at the head of two leaves.

Price: $150.00