A Proposal for Making an Effectual Provision for the Poor, for Amending Their Morals, and for Rendering Them Useful Members of the Society. To Which is Added, a Plan of the Buildings Proposed, With Proper Elevations. Drawn by an Eminent Hand.
London: A. Millar, 1753.
Price: $1,000.00
About the item
First edition. Engraved folding plate by J. Mynde after plans by Thomas Gibson. iv, 91, [1, ads] pp. 8vo. Modern half calf. Covers lightly rubbed, 2 6-inch closed tears to plan and smaller repairs to margins, repair to top outer corner of title, stab holes. Cross III, p. 325; Rothschild 854. Provenance: Louis & Anne Marie Davidson (bookplate).
Item #308069
First edition of Fielding's proposal, in the face of the inadequacies of the Poor Laws, to establish country workhouses to shelter, educate and employ the poor. The Proposal builds on Fielding's Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers (1751), in which he hinted that he had a plan to ensure universal employment of the poor. A work "remarkable … in its design to attempt the rehabilitation of an entire class of people" (Battestin, Henry Fielding: A Life, p. 568). In this copy A1 and A2 correspond to Rothschild 854.
