POLITICIAN

2pp., 12mo. 55 lines of closely-written text, with a few minor emendations. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper, with 'John Fonblanque' in another hand at foot of first page. The document begins: 'I have been considering whether the Distinction that we notices this morning in the Description of the Heir sometimes as Lord & sometimes not may not fornish another Criticism for distinguishing Barons by Tenure from Barons by Writ'. He proceeds to argue the point learnedly.

1p., 16mo. On bifolium. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'Monsieur De la Salle | avoué'. Regarding a payment for his part 'dans l'aff. janvier'.

On an irregular slip of paper, laid down on a landscape 12mo leaf. In very good condition, with light signs of age and wear. Beneath Schouw's signature, in an early nineteenth-century hand: 'Joachim Frédéric Schouw, célèbre botaniste, président de la chambre des députés, né 1789.' To the right of the signature and inscription is a simple line portrait of Schouw's head and shoulders, in the same hand as the French inscription.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Docketed: '20 August 1835 | Lord Auckland to R L'. Reads 'Lord Auckland would be much obliged to Mr Lambert if he would call here tomorrow soon after two o'clock -'.

1p., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter reads: 'Sir | It gives me sincere Pleasure to learn that The Information against you was quashed. The Offence charged, does not come either within The Letter or The Spirit of my Act. I am only vexed that you have had so much Trouble.' Taylor's connection with the Metropolitan Paving Act of 1817, led to it being referred to as 'Michael Angelo Taylor's Act', but it is unclear which act he is referring to in this letter.

1p., 4to. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed by hand to 'My dear Watson'. He thanks him for his 'charming letter', adding that the 'generous encouragement of all our friends is a great help to my wife and myself in undertaking this great duty and service to the Empire'. Concluding in autograph, he writes: 'I see you are still on yr. march, so come & pay us a visit in India | Yrs. sincerely | Willingdon'.

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter begins: 'Want of health induced me to retire from Parliament in opposition to the wishes of my kind constituents and hurrying me from Town as soon as my votes had been given for the Liberal candidates at the Kent Surrey Essex and Middlesex Elections - unavoidably deprived me of the interesting though mournful pleasure of attending your final lecture at Finsbury Chapel.

1p., 4to. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Reads: 'Sir Henry Parnell presents his Compliments to Mr Mandel, & begs to acknowledge the receipt of his letter. But he has not leisure at present to examine the contents of it. | Feb: 22: 1828'.

On both sides of a 9 x 11 cm piece of paper. Very good, with a piece of mount adhering to one corner. Recto reads: 'Neither Fanny nor I can resist the great kindness of your note. If what you write be so consolatory it is natural to expect still more gratification from seeing you. I cannot go till Monday after Lectures. But unless I should be prevented by a relapse which I hope is not probable [...]'. Verso reads: '[...] Afftly | J Mackintosh'.

1p., 12mo. Good, on lightly aged and worn paper. The note reads: 'Ld Liverpool encloses a draft value 57 .. 12. 2 to Mr Broster he begs Mr Browster will acknowledge the receipt of this by a letter addressed as above'.

The collection is in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Zetland's letters total 26pp., 8vo; 19pp., 12mo; 1p., 16mo. The theme is the painting and engraving of a portrait of Zetland by Slocombe, and the correspondence casts an interesting light on the relations between patron and artist in late nineteenth-century England, with the drafts of Slocombe's two letters, and his accounts for painting and engraving, adding to its value.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Reads: 'Sir | I have been requested by the Earl of Wilton, who is indisposed, to say that he shall be glad to contribute fifty Pounds to the Metropolitan Society & I shall be happy to do the same, & am, Sir | Yr obedt. Servt. | Grosvenor'.

2pp., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'Miss A. de G. Evans'. He thanks her for sending the book, adding: 'Both your kindness and the subjects to which it refers have made me very desirous to lose no time in examining it: and if, when I am able do to this, I find that I have any thing to say which can be useful (it will be no reproach to the work if I have not) you may depend upon hearing from me.' From the papers of Sir Francis Henry Evans (1840-1907), who served as Liberal MP for Southampton, 1888-1895 and 1896; and Maidstone, 1901-1906.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium, with the blank second leaf laid down on page removed from album, which bears on the reverse a biography of Windham in a nineteenth-century hand. The letter begins: 'Dear Robert | I have seen the Pr. of Wales, & have written to the D. of Clarence, as well as to some others - It just occurs to me, that you shd get at University the address of Simpson formerly Tutor there who has a living somewhere in Dorsetshire, & endeavour to learn whether he is likely to be affected by the <?> question. Some of those on the spot will perhaps write, & explain why I have not.

2pp., 12mo. On paper with mourning border. Headed by Gladstone 'Private'. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The letter concerns Lord FitzMaurice's motion of no confidence in the government, held in the House of Commons the following day. (The resolution, which had been introduced following British reversals in the Boer War, was defeated by 352 votes to 139.) Gladstone writes that he hopes that he was not 'too "stiff"' with Evans. 'The situation at the time was a bit acute, 70 men asking for that wh. I knew to be impossible.

Small sprig (6cm long), pinned to 8 x 5 cm piece of ruled paper, torn from a notebook. The paper carries the note by Stevens: 'Grave of Daniel Webster | August 1859.' Placed in a 9.5 x 12 cm envelope, docketted in pencil: 'From Daniel Webster's grave | M. F. B'. Marie de Grasse Stevens, daughter of the Hon. Samuel Stevens of Albany, New York, friend and colleague of Daniel Webster, and widow of Irving Van Wart, married the English banker Francis Henry Evans in 1872. She became Lady Evans on his being knighted in 1893. From the Evans papers.

4pp., 4to. 75 lines of neatly-written text. On creased aged paper, with a few closed tears (one of them 11cm long). He begins by praising Bonham-Carters 'objective & informed comments on American opinion' ('I hope you will feel encouraged to publish more of your findings'). 'But gratitude & a thirst for information & about American politics are not my only reason [sic] for writing. I wish you were in England, for I would very much enjoy an exchange of views with you about the position of the Party.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. With mourning border. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. At the time of writing the biography of the Liberal politician Hugh Culling Eardley Childers (1827-1896) by his son Col. Edmund Spencer Eardley Childers (1854-1919) had just been published, and Welby begins by thanking the Colonel for the gift of the book.

1p., 12mo. On aged and creased paper, with loss to one corner (not affecting text). He will 'look for such witnesses as might be disposed to give evidence before the Committee Mr. Torrens [the Irish Liberal politician William Torrens McCullagh Torrens (1813-1894)] has obtained, to enquire into the operation of your extradition laws'.

1p., 12mo. An autograph note, apparently written at the head of the detached fly-leaf of a book. Fair, on aged paper, laid down on a torn page from an autograph album. Reads: 'This is a Curious & very Scarce Book. - | Madrid 1st. July 1777. | [signed] John Talbot Dillon | Knt. & Baron of the S. R. Empire.' The abbreviation stands for 'Sacred Roman Empire'.

1p., 4to. Eighteen lines. On creased and lightly-aged paper. On 21 February 1924, in the House of Commons, Lansbury 'asked the Secretary of State for War if his attention has been called to the fact that the Officers' Association have sent in a claim to the Army Council for compensation on behalf of Lieutenant C. H. Glendinning, 3rd Battalion Royal Irish Rifles, on the grounds of the false imprisonment, conspiracy and persecution to which this officer was subjected whilst serving in India during 1917'.

1p., 12mo. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with short closed tear to one edge and traces of mount on blank second leaf of bifolium. Signature slightly smudged. Brassey writes that he has been 'detained at the House of Lords, where I have been acting as chairman of a private committee', and as a result 'found it impossible to go down to the Albert Docks yesterday afternoon'. The letter almost certainly relates to the Albert Dock Seaman's Hospital, which was officially opened the following year, as a branch of the Dreadnought Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich.

1p., 12mo. With mourning border. (On his father' sdeath in October Derby had acceded to the title.) The letter reads: 'Lord Derby presents his compliments to the secretary of the Royal Zoological Society, and beign desirous of becoming a member of that body, would be much obliged to the secretary if he would inform him which steps are necessary to be taken for that object.'

1p., landscape 12mo. On creased and aged paper. The name of the recipient is not given. In reply to his letter 'I acquaint you that my return to Parliament for the Borough of Armagh is dated the 15th of December 1832 and that I have not been a Member of Parliament prior to the above period'.

1p., 4to. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Bryce writes that he has not forgotten Hackett's 'invitation to the American Booksellers Association's banquet' in New York, but that it is unlikely that he will be able to attend 'seems to be extremely small, so that I must ask you not to announce me as being present.

4to, 1 p. Eleven lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Laid down on a leaf removed from an album. Stuart has sent him copy from his newspaper, with the remark of some un-named clergyman that "Teetotalism, at any rate in hard times like these, is dangerously likely to help on unrest and revolution". Far from being the 'cause of revolution', teetotalism enables people, in Joynson-Hicks's view, 'to save money which they would otherwise spend on alcoholic liquor', and so 'helps them to acquire a stake in the country and so forces a real bulwark against revolution.'

Folio, 1 p. Twenty-six lines. Text clear and complete, with three minor autograph corrections. On wove paper with an American watermark. Good, on aged paper.

12mo, 1 p. Ten lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. He does not have 'sufficient information' to give an opinion on the question his unnamed correspondent refers to, 'namely whether a 5 days a week system would be preferable to Miners to an uniform 8 hours a day work'. The question is 'quite new' to him, and he 'must reserve an opinion till I know more about the subject'. Later in 1892 Shaw-Lefevre would be appointed First Commissioner of Works in Gladstone's government.

12mo, 3 pp. 30 lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. His 'answer to Mr. King' is that 'under the present system the Post Office is completely under the control of the Treasury, and the Post Master General is little more than a clerk of the Treasury. The Treasury looks at the questions submitted to them from the point of view of the Exchequer and with a view to obtaining a continually growing revenue from the Post Office'. Suggestions for improvement of the service are 'continually & systematically refused'.

12mo, 2 pp. 24 lines. Text clear and complete. He finds, 'upon reconsideration', that the conversation he referred to that afternoon took place two days later, and regrets that he gave Barrow 'the unnecessary trouble of sending for papers in error; & possibly attributing an inattention to the Gentleman employed at the time as a Reporter'.