London: Printed for Richard Taylor & Co., 1808. First edition. 8vo (191 x 114 mm). 2 folding tables (pages closely trimmed, some soiling throughout.) Modern blue morocco ruled in gilt. Untraced in Kress or in Goldsmith's.


Regarded as the founder of modern utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was an English philosopher and jurist whose writings considerably influenced 18th and 19th century social welfare reforms as well as advances in women's rights, English school systems, and British social law. Scotch Reform was printed as a series of letters addressed to first to First Lord of the Treasury Lord Grenville and then to Lord Chancellor John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, and discusses numerous potential reforms to the English and Scottish court systems, among them the role of juries and the value of oral and recorded testimonies.

Rare. We trace only one other singular copy of this work sold at auction.