[Earl of Shaftesbury [Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury], Conservative politician, philanthropist and reformer.] Autograph Letter Signed to R. G. Laker, on the subject of 'penny banks', praising the management of the one at St Austell.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. With regard to the subject of the letter, the 'penny banks' that were established in mid-Victorian England to encourage thrift among the working classes, see J. W. Dirring's thesis 'The Organization and Practice of Banking in Cornwall, 1771-1922', which states that ' the Penryn Penny Bank (founded in 1861), [...] was forced to stop payment in February [1879] with its funds inaccessible in the failed Cornish Bank'. 2pp, 12mo. In good condition, lightly aged and creased, with postage folds, one of which has as short closed tear at edge. Presumably writing to one of the trustees of the St Austell penny bank, he begins: 'Dear Sir / The principle of the Penny banks is excellent in itself; but success depends, under God, on the care and prudence of those who manage them. / And that, I doubt not, has been the case at St Austell -'. He ends by returning the kind wishes in Laker's letter.