[ Spoof Act of Parliament, ridiculing seaside revelry, with illustrations. ] The Social Parliament. Act the Second. Anno XIo et XIIo Victoriae Reginae. By Albert Smith. An Act for Promoting the Public Health in Towns and Elsewhere.

Author: 
Albert Smith [ Albert Richard Smith (1816-1860) ] [ Victorian seaside resorts ]
Publication details: 
London: Published by David Bogue, 86, Fleet Street; and sold everywhere. December 1848. [ Savill & Edwards, Printers. 4, Chandos-street, Covent Garden. [ London. ] ]
£320.00
SKU: 20422

8pp., 8vo. On two bifoliums, unstitched and unbound. Aged and worn. A spoof of an Act of Parliament, priced at threepence, with parody of the royal coat of arms at the head of the first page, with motto 'Throw Physic To The Dogs | The Mixture As Before'. Paragraph synopses in the margins, with around 40 caricature illustrations. A lighthearted satire on drunken seaside revelry ('The Popular Revolutionary Air of “We won't go Home till Morning” to be forthwith suppressed.' and 'Cheap Cigars and the Snobs who smoke them, to be put down.'). The first five synopses read: 'Laments the Time wasted, in the last Session, by debating Bores', 'The Railway Librarians to have great Power in bringing the Act into general Popularity and Operation', 'No Comparison between the Contents of Doctors' Bottles and London Porter, or fine Old Port.', 'All Accidents prejudicial to Public Health may be immediately Abolished.', 'Cupboard in Bachelors' Rooms, subject to the Inspection of Commissioners.' Scarce: the only copy traced on OCLC WorldCat or COPAC at the Wellcome Institute. Smith produced two other 'Acts'.