Profile Major Works Resources

James Anthony Lawson, 1817-1887.

James Anthony Lawson was third holder of the Whately Professor of Political Economy at Trinity College Dublin, from 1841 to 1846. 

After his tenure as an economist, Lawson became a barrister, then rising to solicitor general and attorney general for Ireland, and later became a judge in the Common Pleas division of the High Court of Ireland.  At the height of the Land League agitation,  empowered by a new act of parliament, Judge Lawson controversially handed out convictions on agitators accused of agrarian crimes (previously seen as political crimes, they were rarely convicted before).  Patrick Delaney, a former convict, member of the "Irish Invincibles" secret society, was caught stalking Lawson with a revolver in the streets of Dublin on November 11, 1882 and charged with conspiracy to murder Lawson.  He was subsequently sentenced to ten years.  Delaney had been previously implicated in the notorious Phoenix Park Murders in May, 1882, and his arrest for Lawson's case helped spur the government to track down the remaining killers.

 

  

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Major Works of James A. Lawson

  • Five Lectures on Political Economy delivered before the University of Dublin in Michaelmas term 1843, 1844 [bk]
  • "On the Connexion between Statistics and Political Economy", 1848,  Papers Read Before the Dublin Statistical Society [bk]
  • "On the policy of direct or indirect taxation", 1849, Transactions of the Dublin Statistical Society
  • "Statistics to illustrate the kinds of business which Joint Stock Companies are suited to carry on, especially with respect to investments in land, read Feb 1852", 1852, Papers Read Before the Dublin Statistical Society [bk]
  • "The Over-population fallacy considered", 1849, Papers Read Before the Dublin Statistical Society [bk]
  • "Report on the Patent Laws", 1851, Papers Read before the DSS [bk]
  • On the Present State of the Law and Practice in Ireland with Respect to Wills and the Administration of Assets, 1852 [bk]
  • "On the Agricultural Statistics of Ireland, read Apr 1854", Papers Read before the DSS, [bk]
  • "Address delivered at the opening of the 11th Address of the Society", 1858, J of DSS (Mar), p.142
  • Hymni usitati Latine redditi: with other verses, 1883 [bk]?

 
HET

 
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Resources on James A. Lawson

  • The Endowment of Maynooth neither morally right nor politically expedient, a letter addressed to James Anthony Lawson, LL.D., Q.C., in reply to his address to the electors of the University of Dublin, and his speech at the election, by Rev. Edward Nagle, 1857 [bk]
  • Queen vs. Delaney, Jan 2, 1883, described Irish Law Journal, (Jan 6, 1883  p.2),described in Irish Law Time, Mar 17, 1883, p.143
  • Wikipedia

 

 
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