HUTCHINSON, John Hely.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Commercial Restraints of Ireland considered. First edition, inscribed (possibly in a secretarial hand), "By the Right Honourable John Hely Hutchinson, Provost of Trinity College Dublin, Secretary of State, Privy Councillor".This copy belonged to Arthur Annesley, Lord Valentia (1744-1816), with his signature on the half-title. Hutchinson, who had practised at the Irish bar since 1747, acted as Valentia's counsel in 1772, when the Westminster Parliament had annulled his English titles and he was fighting in Dublin to secure recognition of his Irish peerage - a campaign which, as the signature "Lord Valentia" attests, was ultimately successful.It subsequently passed into the library of the Society of Writers to the Signet, Scotland's oldest and largest body of solicitors. The society's library was founded in 1722, and its 19th-century pressmark ticket is on the front pastedown.By 1779, the British government had enacted extensive legislation restricting the export of Irish goods to Britain, thereby stifling the development of Irish industry. The previous year, an economic downturn had struck the country, and the Irish Volunteers, taking advantage of British forces being tied up in America, pressed vigorously for free trade with Britain. Hutchinson, then Principal Secretary of State for Ireland, was among those whose professional advice was sought on the question. He responded with what Lecky described as "one of the best specimens of political literature produced in Ireland

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