[ Lord John Manners on the 'Cornwall Lewis - Ferrand affair'. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('John Manners.') [ to the editor Henry Reeve ] discussing the proposed publication in the Greville Memoirs of a reference to 'the forgotten scandal'.

Author: 
Lord John Manners [ from 1888 John James Robert Manners, 7th Duke of Rutland ] (1818-1906), Conservative politician and poet [ Henry Reeve (1813-1895), editor of the Greville Memoirs ]
Publication details: 
On letterhead of Belvoir Castle, Grantham. 17 January 1886.
£50.00
SKU: 20706

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Docketed in pencil at top right of first page: '17 Janry. 1886. Ld J. Manners re Ferrand corres'. He gives the volume and page number of 'the sole reference to the Cornwall Lewis – Ferrand affair in the Greville Memoirs'. He does not consider that this 'necessitates the publication of the correspondence relating to the settlement which Mr. Heyward & I afterward accomplished'. Before 'giving an absolute opinion' Manners would like to see 'the whole passage in which you would propose to relate the story.' The 'present generation would attach little or no meaning to it, and it might be unwise to unearth the forgotten scandal by publishing the correspondence', In a postscript he gives his coming address as 3 Cambridge Gate, Regent's Park. The entries in the Oxford DNB for the Tory MPs Sir George Cornewall Lewis (1806-1863) and William Ferrand (born Busfeild, 1809-1889) do not refer to the subject of this letter, but the matter is described in Roger Swift's 2017 biography of Charles Pelham Villiers: 'Villiers also defended the Poor Law Commissioners in the face of criticisms from the provinces and within Parliament. In 1842, when William Ferrand, the Tory MP for Knaresborough and a leading critic of the New Poor Law, engaged in a long-running and vitriolic dispute with the Commissioners in general, and George Cornewall Lewis in particular, […] Villiers defended the Commissioners in Parliament. Ferrand, however, persisted with his allegations of impropriety to the extent that, in 1846, Cornewall Lewis threatened to file a criminal investigation against him for conspiracy and falsehood. The matter was resolved in May 1847, due in part to Roebuck's intervention in the Commons in support of Villiers and Lewis.'