8vo. 16pp. Recent half-calf, marbled paper boards, lettered in gilt to spine. A trifle rubbed, library shelf- labels to upper board. Ink-stamps and manuscript shelf-marks of Nottingham Public Libraries to verso of title page, terminal leaf reinforced at gutter. Presentation copy, inked inscription to head of title: 'With the Author's compliments'.

The rare, provincially published sole-edition of antiquary and political manager William Dickinson's (bap. 1756, d. 1822) impassioned appeal for the introduction of measures for the prevention of civil unrest.

Amongst Dickinson's recommendations - rather presciently compiled mere weeks prior to the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion - are methods for the more efficient protection of local depositories of firearms and gunpowder from the 'temptations to insurrection'.

In cataloguing those groups of persons he believes most given to insurrection, including 'Republicans' and 'Artizans' (the latter 'foremost in the ranks of rebellion'), Dickinson specifically attacks poachers: 'Used to consider the fowls of the air, the fishes of the water, and even the beasts of the field, as a common property, and particularly expert in the use of fire arms, I scarcely know a description of men more obnoxious to suspicion'.

ESTC records copies at just three locations; Nottingham Public Libraries (i.e. this copy), NT, and Oxford.