ROMIEU (J. Cyprien). No more scaffolds! Ou de... Lot 648

ROMIEU (J. Cyprien). No more scaffolds! Ou de l'abolition immédiate et absolue de la peine de mort. Paris: Gustave Pissin, Delaunay, 1833. - In-8, 206 x 127: (2 ff.), 288 pp., (1 f.). Bradel-style marbled paper boards, smooth spine (modern binding). Very rare first edition of this work published following the debate provoked by the deputy Victor Destutt de Tracy, who presented a bill on August 17, 1830, calling for the abolition of the death penalty. The author is lawyer J. Cyprien Romieu. "The opinion he supports may, as he himself says, meet with adversaries; his sentiments cannot find contradicts. His book is conscientious, well-written, and worthy of being read by all those who have at heart to enlighten their souls on the true needs of humanity" (Revue du Midi, III, 1833, p. 240). His study is divided into two parts and 5 chapters: I. 1. De l'inviolabilité de la vie de l'homme et l'illégitimité de la peine de mort. - I. 2. The immorality of the death penalty. The executioner. - I. 3 On the uselessness of the death penalty and its drawbacks. - I. 4 On homicidal monomania and miscarriages of justice. - II. Political offenses. In the appendix, the author gives several supporting documents, including the petition of the wounded of July to the Chamber of Deputies, the King's reply to M. Charles Lucas on the abolition of the death penalty, as well as fragments of speeches by Charles Nodier and Victor Hugo on capital punishment, taken from the Revue de Paris of February and March 1832, etc. Rousseurs. Discreet sketch drawn in the right margin of the title. Note on verso, having smudged on recto: "V. l'ouvrage de Ch. Beriat de St Prix sur l'applicat. de la torture en France."