Autograph Letter Signed from the radical Thomas Cooper to fellow-Chartist William Lovett, announcing a course of lectures and criticising the Irish Chartist Feargus O'Connor. With printed handbill advertising a course of Cooper's lectures in Holborn.

Letter: 1p., 4to. Bifolium. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with slight damage to second leaf, the reverse of which is addressed to 'Mr. Wm. Lovett | National Hall | 242, Holborn', with postmarks in black and red ink. Cooper begins: 'Dear Lovett | Please announce, in your bill that | "Mr. Thomas Cooper, Author of the "Purgatory of Suicides" | will deliver | Two Orations | against shedding Human Blood, | under any circumstances; | and in explanation and defence of the | misrepresented doctrine of "Non-resistance."' Cooper states that he intends 'to publish - and that as soon as the discourses are delivered.' [Cooper's 'Two orations against taking away human life under any circumstances, and in explanation, and defence, of the misrepresented doctrine of non-resistance, delivered at the National Hall, Holborn, February 25 and March 4, 1846' was published in the same year by Chapman Brothers of London.] Changing the subject to the Irish Chartist Feargus O'Connor, Cooper continues: 'Egad! but this peaceful war is doing more to bring O'Connor to the right-about than anything that could be done. In spite of his twisting I tell him to his face at each meeting that I have heard him spout physical force - and though he denies it, the meetings receive his denial with suspicious silence.' Cooper concludes: 'Say nothing of this to any one, at present. Let the pill work.' Handbill: 1p., 12mo. Fair, on lightly aged and worn paper. Printed with border, in a range of types and point sizes. Headed: 'National Hall, | 242, High Holborn. | Subjects of Orations | to be delivered on | Sunday Evenings | during the last Quarter of 1847, | by | Thomas Cooper, | Author of the "Purgatory of Suicides."' Thirteen lectures are announced between 3 October and 26 December, with topics including 'The Italian Question: Conduct of the New POPE, and State of the Spanish Peninsula, generally', 'Influence of the Political Writings of WILLIAM GODWIN', 'Life and Writings of Major CARTWRIGHT', and 'HENRY HUNT, and the "Peterloo Massacre."' No copy of this handbill on COPAC or WorldCat.