COMMONS

8vo, 16 pp Disbound. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with the final page a little discoloured. Ownership inscriptions of 'Charles Hall Hemphill' and 'James | May 1837'. A significant work: a milestone in the history of copyright law. According to the eleventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, this speech introducing Talfourd's Copyright Bill 'was considered the most telling made in the House during that session'. No copy listed on COPAC, and WorldCat lists three copies (all foreign).

12mo, 2 pp. Twenty-two lines. Text clear and complete. Regarding his footman Alfred McCloud, who has obtained with the recipient 'as Messenger'. I have taken no steps to fill his place till now & in the middle of the London Season it may be very inconvenient to be without a footman'. His butler is 'taking immediate steps to secure a man', but he would 'be glad to know how far you could meet my convenience in waiting for A. McCloud until I am suited'.

First (1893) pamphlet: 8vo, 5 pp. Text clear and complete. On high-acidity paper with chipping to margins. A couple of leaves detached. Law Society stamped at head of title page. Full title reads: 'Siam. No. 1 (1893). Copies of Despatches from Her Majesty's Ambassador at Paris relative to the Agreement between Great Britain and France for constituting a Neutral Space between their Possessions in Indo-China. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. December 1893.' Almost all the despatches are between Jules Develle and the Marquis of Dufferin.

On piece of paper roughly 2.5 x 7.5 cm. Mounted on piece of 7.5 x 13 cm card. In fair condition, with both card and paper aged and slightly discoloured. Good firm underlined signature ('W E Gladstone'). The card carries the following caption, in a contemporary hand: 'Autograph of | The Right Honorable William Ewart Gladstone, M.P., | Premier Minister and | Chancellor of the Exchequer.'

Part of a letter, cut away for an autograph collector, roughly 5.5 x 10.5 cm. The recto carries the franked address, trimmed close, reading 'London July twenty 1835. | Roundell Palmer Esq | Mixbury | Birmingham [corrected in another hand to 'Magdalen Colle | Oxford'], signed in bottom left-hand corner 'W E Gladstone'.

One page, folio. Very good on lightly creased paper. Headed 'FIGHTING FUND' and listing the members of the 'PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE' (including Lampson as Honorary Secretary, and the Duke of Westminster and Earl of Malmesbury). Communication of twenty-seven lines, with decided proto-fascistic overtones.

Printed in small type on both sides of a leaf of laid paper, roughly 31 x 20 cm. Text clear and complete. On aged, worn and grubby paper. Closed tear to upper corner (not affecting text). At head of first page: '[39] Numb. 17'. At head of second page: '[40]'. The Queen's letter, of 28 lines, is placed in the midst of a report of the House's business.

Printed on one side of a leaf of laid paper, roughly 30 x 19 cm. The address itself is 45 lines long. Text clear and complete. On aged, grubby and worn paper with closed tear to margin (not affecting text). A response to the Queen's 'Speech from the Throne', expressing happiness at 'the Succession of the House of Hanover, as limited by Parliament, upon which the future Security of Our Religion, Laws, and Liberties, depends'. Also refers to 'the Just and Honourable Peace Your Majesty has in View', and 'the best Way to bring this Treaty [of Utrecht] to Good Effect'.

Printed on both sides of a piece of laid paper roughly 31.5 x 20 cm. Text clear and complete. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-creased paper with slight wear to extremities. Begins: 'AN Ingrossed Bill for the further Security of His Majesty's Person and Government, and the Succcession of the Crown to the Heirs of the late Princess Sophia, being Protestants, and for extinguishing the Hopes of the Pretended Prince of Wales, and his Open and Secret Abettors, was read the Third time, and several Amendments were made by the House to the Bill.

8vo, [ii] + 7 + [i] pp. Five leaves. Stapled and unbound. Fair, on lightly-aged and creased paper, with the two staples slightly rusted. The title of the Bill continues '[...] on the occasion of public processions and meetings in public places.' It was 'Presented by Secretary Sir John Simon, supported by Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, Mr. Secretary Elliot, Sir Kinglsey Wood, Mr. Attorney-General, and Mr.

12mo, 4 pp. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Peel is visiting Yonge's neighbourhood and he begins by describing the planned lodging arrangements. 'Shawford sounds very tempting the only drawback being railway journesy backward & forward.' He thanks Yonge for the 'hospitable' offer regarding staying at Otterbourne: 'whoever be our party I think it would be best not to troube you - best to come over to Otterbourne for lunch or tea as may be agreeable to you'. He will write again once his daughters 'have made up their minds'.

All three items lightly aged but good. Driberg has written 'TOM DRIBERG' at the head of the first page of both reviews. First Review (8vo, 7 pp) with slight wear at head (not affecting text) of first four leaves; last three leaves on House of Commons letterheads. With corrections. The subject is Daphne Fielding's 'The Rainbow Picnic' (1974). Second Review (8vo, 7 pp, on House of Commons letterheads) of four books about crossword puzzles, including Roger Millington's 'The Strange World of the Crossword' (1974). With corrections.

Dickson (born 1850) was Tory M.P. for Glasgow, Lord Advocate and Lord Justice Clerk. The four letters, all 12mo and all on House of Commons Library notepaper, are dusty and creased. Three are dated (30 and 31 December and 2 January) and signed; the other letter is undated and initialed. LETTER ONE: 'I spoke to the Lord Advocate to-day & he then definitely informed me that the Lord President entirely approved of the Bill.' LETTER TWO: 'I have spoken to the Advocate about the date of the committee stage & we will I believe have some weeks yet.

Octavo: 29 + [2] pp. Unbound, stabbed and stitched. Slightly dogeared, on grubby, lightly-spotted paper. Loss to top right-hand corner of title-leaf (not affecting text). Two pages of advertisements at rear, headed 'Important pamphlets, etc. Recently published by James Ridgway, Piccadilly.'

Octavo: 28 pp. Unbound, stabbed and stitched. Slightly dogeared, on grubby, lightly-spotted paper. Loss to top right-hand corner of title-leaf (not affecting text). Marked up in ink in a contemporary hand. COPAC lists copies at the British Library, Manchester and National Library of Scotland. The 'Alabama Question' related to what indemnity should be paid by Great Britain for damage done to United States commerce by the Alabama and other confederate cruisers built in British ports.

On both sides of a piece of laid paper roughly 39 x 24 cm. Good, on lightly creased paper with a little chipping and a few closed tears to extremities. Seventy-three items are listed, ranging from 'Proclamation of Election in Counties' to 'Certificate of Appointment', under six headings: 'Under Sheriffs (in Counties)', 'Returning Officers in Cities and Boroughs', 'Election Auditors', 'Election Agents in Counties', 'Election Agents in Cities and Boroughs' and 'Clerks to Justices in Cities and Boroughs'. Reverse gives four 'Specimens of Poll Books'.

4to: 3 pp. A bifolium, mounted onto a larger piece of paper by a strip along the inner margin of the verso of the second leaf. Separated horizontally into two parts by a central tear which has been neatly repaired with archival tape, but with the 39 lines of text clear and entire. A signficant letter regarding the political climate in the County of Norfolk in the period preceding the general parliamentary election of 1768.

Ten pages printed on a total of the six leaves of three folio bifoliums (leaf dimensions roughly 40.5 x 25 cm). The first part, apparently intended to fold around the others, is unpaginated, and printed on the recto of the first leaf and the verso of the last leaf of the bifolium. Each page consists of a list, divided into three columns of small print, giving details of the vote, with the names of the members, their constituencies, and a key revealing biographical information (e.g. 'Privy-Counsellors' [sic] and 'for and against Maintaining the Hessian Troops').

The collection is in good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. The fourteen typed letters are all 4to, 1 p; the autograph letters are all 12mo, three of them of two pages and three of one page. Largely concerned with a lecture given by Chubb to the R.S.A. in 1916 on 'the Preservation of Footpaths & Rights of Way', for which Chubb requests '1,000 or 1,250 cards of admission'. The subject, Chubb comments (21 July 1915), 'seems in itself sufficiently important and interesting to warrant special treatment, and in lecturing I mostly keep footpaths & commons quite separate.

12mo, 2 pp. On foxed and aged paper. He has not seen Fawcett that night, despite 'looking out' for him. He would like to talk with him before the following Monday, and if Fawcett writes, he can visit him 'at any time'. 'I can easily drive over, if you will give me your new address.'

44 pages. Folio. Unbound. In poor condition: first and last leaf fraying, torn and separated. An important document: a landmark in the history of environmentalism. The committee members were the Hon. E. S. Montagu (Under Secretary of State for India), Lord Lucas (Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture), Frank Elliott of the Home Office, E. G. B. Meade-Waldo, W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, Hugh S. Gladstone and the appropriately-named W. Eagle Clarke.

One page, 12mo. Good but with paperclip spotting at head (not affecting text). Three-line quotation clearly sent in response to a request for an autograph. 'Broadmindedness, so called, is generally no more than the silly fear of being thought narrow-minded - | [signed] Charles Oman'.

12mo: 1 p. On recto of first leaf of bifolium. Very good. Shaky hand. Clearly responding to a request for an autograph. Reads '[signed] Stephen Lushington | April 2 69'.

12mo: 3 pp. Good, but with the leaves of the bifolium separated, and reattached with three tissue mounts. 'It is impossible to trace the obstructiveness of the Postal department to any particular officials; they stand shoulder to shoulder, defiant and impenetrable, like a square of infantry'. Nevertheless Heaton has 'succeeded in getting some reforms of importance inserted in the Post Office Acts Amendment Bill'. Mentions 'permission to send circulars in unclosed envelopes' and briefly discusses the postage of newspapers to the Colonies.

8vo (each leaf roughly foolscap) bifolium: 3 pp. Well printed on good thick watermarked laid paper. Good, though a little grubby and lightly creased. Thirty-five pieces of business (signed in type by 'CHARLES ABBOT, Speaker'), from the 'Strensham (Worcester) Inclosure Act Amendment' to the 'Irish Lunatic Poor Committee', followed by seven Notices of Motions, ten Orders of the Day and the second reading of a Private Bill ('Dublin Gas Light Bill').

Twelve pages on six folio leaves, apparently disbound from the 1803 reprint of the Journals of the House of Commons, and paginated 351-362. Discoloured, and with chipping to extremities (not affecting text). Summarises the statements of various individuals concerning the matter. The first of the four appendices is 'A Rental of the Estates late Lord Derwentwater's, in the Counties of Northumberland and Cumberland. To be sold before the Commissioners and Trustees for the Forfeited Estates, on Thursday the Eleventh Day of July next, 1723.

Grey (1804-1870) was successively Private Secretary to Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. Three pages, 12mo. Good, on grubby paper discoloured with age. He acknowledges receipt of the letter of the twelfth inst. 'The recovery of any <?> which shd revert to the Crown, is, I apprehend, a matter for the Treasury to look to - as it is for the Gnt. to consider the provisions which it is expedient to adopt in any measure of the nature of that to which you allude.' He is commanded by Albert to thank his correspondent for the 'kind attention which has prompted you to make this communication'.

British architect and politician (1798-1873), Member of Parliament for Bath, 1855-73. Three pages, 12mo. Very good, but with two stubs from previous mounting adhering to inner margin of verso of second leaf of bifoliate.

English politician (1881-1965) and architect, much of whose work was done in the United States. Both letters two pages, quarto. Both letters docketed (the first heavily so), bearing the Society's stamp, and with pin and staple holes in top left-hand corner. Second letter good, first lightly creased and grubby. Revealing documents relating to the Royal Society's 'British Art in Industry' exhibition, held at the Royal Academy in 1935. The Society's website describes this as a 'resounding success', but as these letters show, the matter was not so clear cut.

Hobhouse (1776-1854) was a Privy Councillor in 1828, and Keeper of the State Papers, 1826-54. Quarto. One page. Very good, on first leaf of bifoliate. Folded twice. On watermarked Whatman paper of 1827. Facsimile signature 'H. Hobhouse'. Begins 'The King having been pleased to comply with the prayer of an humble Address presented to His Majesty in pursuance of a Resolution of the House of Commons [...] for a Return of all Towns Cities Places of Jurisdiction within England & Wales' and ending 'I am directed by Mr.