...in a letter to the Right Rev. William White, D.D. to which are added, Some Observations by N. H. Julius, M.D. of Hamburg. 8vo, 24pp. Lacking original wraps and whipstitched down the spine with the remnant of an old manuscript note affixed with wax in the corner. Library Co Philadelphia "R.B." blindstamp, contents unmarked. Very slight vertical crease through volume.

An early publication by reformer Francis Lieber, who had worked with Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont compiling information for 'On the Penitentiary System in the United States' and translating the English edition published in 1833. Lieber became a prominent reformer who championed the concept of "institutional liberty," and the role of the state as a moral agent responsible for both discipline and the advancement of individual rights. He argues, "knowledge is, in itself, in most cases, neither good nor bad; arithmetic will assist a defaulter, as much as an industrious man who works for his family, as a knife may serve the murderer..." but notes "That domestic education--the rearing of the young in sound morality, the fear of God, and with the all-important example of virtue in their parents before their eyes--is of vital importance to every society, and can never be supplanted." He also writes about "the immoderate use of opium in various shapes, chiefly by way of laudanum, in families, and especially with infants, without the advice of proper physicians," advancing a nuanced element of the usual discussion on the relationship between intemperance and crime.