Thomas Erskine and Trial by Jury (Signed and Inscribed)

First edition, first printing.  Signed and inscribed by the author on the title page.  xxviii, 252pp.  Laminated stiff card covers.  8vo.  A little gentle edge wear to card covers else volume is neat, clean, bright and tight throughout. Thomas Erskine was a lawyer and Whig politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  He was involved in many high profile trials of the era, often defending radicals and protestors - including Thomas Paine, John Horne Took and Thomas Hardy, before rising to the position of Lord Chancellor.  Later in life, after serving as Lord Chancellor and being unable to return to the bench, he took up the cause of animal welfare, introducing a Bill to prevent cruelty.