£200
4to, pp. iv, 129, [i]. Half-title only as issued. Extracted from a volume. A little light spotting. A portion of original spine leather remaining. Two textual corrections in an early hand (neither in the errata list), ownership inscription of Sir Wm. Forbes to first leaf.
A scarce entry in the running print battles that accompanied proposals to build Edinburgh's South Bridge: following a pamphlet attributed to the architect James Brown that suggested funding the bridge and other improvements through a reform of property taxes, the Faculty of Advocates refused to waive their relevant privileges to enable that scheme. This substantial publication, by the wealthy lawyer Walter Ross (1738-1789), responds to their refusal by compiling the history of the special treatment of the College of Justice and arguing that the refusal overstepped their bounds. Nonetheless the building of South Bridge was eventually financed by a different approach at the instigation of Lord Provost James Hunter Blair.
