London: John Murray, 1841. First edition. Original cloth, gilt-lettered on the front, decorated in blind. Charles Bristed's copy, his ownership signature. The Election was "....not dispraised by Carlyle....is a pleasant exhibition of the humours of an election....comic but not farcical, and linked to a pretty story." (Richard Garnett in DNB). Sterling is most remembered today for being a friend of Thomas Carlyle, but he was influential in his time as member of the Cambridge Apostles and a critic of the Church as an institution. Bristed (1820-1874) was an American literary critic and writer on English university life. Hinges cracked, cords holding at the front hinge, only. Spine cloth worn with some loss. A few ink spots on each board. Even so, an attractive copy.