Great Britain. Laws & Statutes

Fine collection of 90 issues of laws relating to the American Revolution and aftermath, including the Stamp Act and its Repeal, the Townshend Acts, the Tea Acts, and the Intolerable Acts. London: Mark Baskett or Charles Eyre & William Strahan, 1764-1786

90 numbers, folio (12 x 7 3/4 in.; 305 x 196 mm), woodcut royal arms on each title, disbound; very clean. In numbered mylar envelopes.

Fine extensive run of public acts of the British Parliament in the years prior to, during, and after the Revolution.

Of inestimable value for research, this series provides the official text of such brazen usurpations of colonial prerogatives as the Stamp Act (March 1765, no. 9) imposing the first direct tax on the colonies payable to England and not to local legislatures (repealed in March 1766, no. 10), the Quartering Act (March 1765, no. 11 with nine emendations) requiring colonists to house British troops and supply them with food, the Declaratory Act (March 1766, no. 21) stating the British Government had total power to legislate any laws governing the colonies, the Townshend Revenue Act (June 1767, no. 22) imposing a new set of taxes on commodities, the Tea Acts (1767 ff. with emendations, nos. 26-30) maintaining a threepenny per pound import tax on tea arriving in the colonies, and the Intolerable Acts (1774, nos. 34-40) including the Boston Port Bill, to name just a few.

This is not a complete run of the acts of Parliament, as the compiler concentrated on the American Revolution and later laws dealing with Britain's relations to the new-made country, performing a useful service to the researcher saved the task of searching for acts and later responses to or repeals of those acts.

A copy of the typed index will be provided on request.