COMMONS

Autograph Letter Signed ('Onslow' [Earl of Onslow]) to an unnamed male recipient on servants

Author: 
William Hillier Onslow (1853-1911), 4th Earl of Onslow, British Conservative politician and Governor of New Zealand, 1889-1892.
Autograph Letter Signed ('Onslow' [Earl of Onslow]) to an unnamed male recipient
Publication details: 
23 June [no year]; 'by Richmond to Whitehall', on cancelled Clandon Park letterhead.
£38.00
Autograph Letter Signed ('Onslow' [Earl of Onslow]) to an unnamed male recipient

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'.

Autograph Signature, removed from letter.

Author: 
William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), British Liberal Prime Minister
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£25.00

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.'

Fragment of Autograph Letter to Palmer, with signature ('W E Gladstone') on frank.

Author: 
William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), British Liberal Prime Minister [Roundell Palmer (1812-1895), Earl of Selborne]
Publication details: 
20/07/35
£30.00

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'.

Typed Letter Signed ('Oliver Locker Lampson') to Dr E. E. Lewis.

Author: 
Oliver Stillingfleet Locker-Lampson (1880-1954), British Conservative Member of Parliament for North Huntingdonshire, Commander of an Armoured Car Unit in the First World War
Publication details: 
23 July 1913; on embossed House of Commons letterhead.
£100.00

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.

Two Autograph Drafts of reviews and one Autograph Letter Signed to Philip Dossé of Hansom Books, Artillery Mansions, 75 Victoria Street, London SW1.

Author: 
Tom Driberg [Thomas Edward Neil Driberg, Baron Bradwell of Bradwell-juxta-Mare] (1905-1976) [crossword puzzled]
Publication details: 
Both reviews undated [both c. 1974]. Letter of 14 March 1974; 601 Mountjoy House, Barbican, London, on cancelled House of Commons letterhead.
£100.00

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.

Four Autograph Letters Signed to [?] Macphail; copy, with MS corrections and additions, of proposed report on Bill by committee of the Faculty of Advocates; 'COPY LETTER, Mr P. W. Campbell, P.C.S., to Sir William S. Haldane, Crown Agent'; Bill.

Author: 
Charles Scott Dickson [Parliamentary Bill: Clerks of Session (Scotland) Regulation Acts, 1889 and 1912]
Publication details: 
The four letters, December 1812 to 1813; the Advocates' report, 14 January 1913, Advocates Library; Campbell's letter, 23 December 1912, Edinburgh; Bill, 9 December 1912.
£180.00

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.

A speech delivered in the House of Commons in the debate on the North American blockade, Tuesday, March 7, 1862.

Author: 
Sir Roundell Palmer, M.P., Her Majesty's Solicitor-General [the Earl of Selborne; American Civil War]
Publication details: 
London: James Ridgway, Piccadilly. W. 1862.
£150.00

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.'

Speech delivered in the House of Commons on the "Alabama" Question, on Friday, March 11, 1863.

Author: 
Sir Roundell Palmer, M.P., Her Majesty's Solicitor-General [the Earl of Selborne]
Publication details: 
London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co. 1863. [R. Clay, Son, and Taylor, Printers, London.]
£150.00

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.

Pamphlet, beginning with 'An exact list of those who voted against bringing in the Excise-Bill', followed by a section titled 'The Lords Protest', ending with an illustrated satirical poem, in two parts, titled 'Britannia Excisa: Britain Excis'd.'

Author: 
[Sir Robert Walpole; Excise Bill of 1733; Houses of Parliament; Parliamentary; Georgian political satire]
Publication details: 
[London, 1733.]
£320.00

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').

Autograph Letter Signed ('Walpole') to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Horatio Walpole (1723-1809), 4th Baron Walpole, 2nd Baron Walpole of Wolterton, created Earl of Orford in 1806
Publication details: 
09/10/67
£105.00

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.

Small archive of fourteen Typed Letters Signed and six Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Lawrence Chubb'), all addressed to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Lawrence Wensley Chubb (1873-1948), pioneer Anglo-Australian environmental campaigner, first Secretary of the National Trust
Publication details: 
Between 4 June 1913 and 19 January 1917; three on letterhead of the Coal Smoke Abatement Society, the others on letterhead of the Commons & Footpaths Preservation Society.
£250.00

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.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. Stansfeld') to Henry Fawcett.

Author: 
Sir James Stansfeld (1820-1898), English politician [Henry Fawcett (1833-1884), English economist and politician]
Publication details: 
Friday [no date] on House of Commons Library letterhead.
£28.00

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.'

Report of the departmental committee on the protection of wild birds. Presented to Parliament by command of His Majesty.

Author: 
Committee on the protection of wild birds [ORNITHOLOGY]
Publication details: 
London: Published by His Majesty's Stationery Office. 1919.
£50.00

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.

Autograph Note Signed ('Charles Oman') to unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman (1860-1946), British military historian and Member of Parliament
Publication details: 
1 April 1930; on embossed letterhead of the House of Commons Library.
£25.00

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'.

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Stephen Lushington (1782-1873), English jurist, abolitionist, helped Lady Byron divorce the poet, and acted for Queen Caroline in her trial before the House of Lords
Publication details: 
2 April 1869; on letterhead of 18, Eaton Place, S.W. [London].
£25.00

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'.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
General Charles Grey
Publication details: 
W[indso]r. C[a]stle | Feb. 14. 1859'.
£32.00

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'.

Autograph Letter Signed to J. Cotterell.

Author: 
Sir William Tite
Publication details: 
No date [but between 1855 and 1868]: 'House of Commons | Wednesday' on embossed House of Commons letterhead.
£36.00

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.

Two typed Letters Signed, successively to G[eorge]. K[enneth]. Menzies and W. Perry, Secretaries, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Alfred Charles Bossom, 1st Baronet [British Art in Industry Exhibition, 1935; Royal Society of Arts; Royal Academy]
Publication details: 
22 June and 1 October 1935; both on House of Commons embossed letterheads, and from 5, Carlton Gardens, S.W.1.
£100.00

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.

Printed governmental circular (in form of facsimile of manuscript) addressed to 'The Town Clerk' (with 'Town of Maidstone' in manuscript).

Author: 
Henry Hobhouse [MAIDSTONE, KENT]
Publication details: 
Copy | Whitehall July 1827.'
£56.00

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.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
Sir Courtenay Peregrine Ilbert
Publication details: 
7 November 1894; on letterhead '67, GLOUCESTER PLACE, | PORTMAN SQUARE, W.'
£36.00

Parliamentary legislative draftsman (1841-1924), Benjamin Jowett's literary executor. Three pages, 12mo. Very good, with traces of glue to blank verso of second leaf of bifoliate. Docketed in pencil. 'Miss Flora Shaw has asked me whether I could send you an early copy of the paper which I am to read at the Imperial Institute to-morrow afternoon. | The paper has not been printed, & the only spare copy which I have is the rouggh copy from which I had another typed for my own use. | I fear that this is very illegible.

Anno Regni Georgii II. Regis Magnae Britanniae, Franciae, & Hiberniae, quarto ('An Act to prevent Frauds in the Revenue of Excise, with respect to Starch, Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate.' p.3).

Author: 
Great Britain, Act of Parliament, George II
Publication details: 
1731; London: Printed by the Assigns of His Majesty's Printer, and of Henry Hills deceas'd.
£50.00

24 pages, 16mo. In poor condition: grubby and with wear to extremities and closed tear to second leaf. Pencil marks to verso of last leaf. Stitched into grubby, worn vellum binding, bearing pencil and ink notes at front and rear.

Three Autograph Letters Signed to [G. K. Menzies,] the Secretary, The Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke
Publication details: 
12 February 1918; 14 June [mistakenly given as July] 1918; 18 June 1918; all on letterhead '5 WESTERN TERRACE, | BRIGHTON.'
£56.00

Dilke, the 2nd Baronet (1843-1911), was a disgraced politician and author. All items 12mo and very good. All three docketed, bearing the Society's stamp, and signed 'C. Wentworth Dilke'. The first item is addressed to Menzies personally and the other two to 'The Secty.' ITEM ONE: one page. He has received the letter of 9 February and is 'pleased to send you a subscription though not much in town'. ITEM TWO: two pages. Would like to know 'whether ladies are admitted as guests and how often'.

"Army (Annual) [...] Bill 132": "A bill to provide, during twelve months, for the discipline and regulation of the army."

Author: 
House of Commons
Publication details: 
Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 17 March 1904."; "PRINTED BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, | PRINTERS TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY."
£22.00

Five leaves, folio. One page blank. Unbound and stitched as issued. Good, but creased and foxed, with slight wear to extremities. Comprising bill (four pages), schedule, memorandum, arrangement of clauses.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male correspondent.

Author: 
George John Shaw-Lefevre, Baron Eversley
Publication details: 
23 June 1900; on letterhead '18. BRYANSTON SQUARE. W.'
£30.00

Liberal statesman (1831-1928). One page, 12mo. Grubby and discoloured, and with some staining to blank reverse from previous mounting. Reads 'Dear Sir | I have been reading the evidence given before the Committee of the House of Commons on the Undersized Fish Bill: It may perhaps interest you to read an article which I have written as the result in the Fortnightly Review for this month (June).' Signed 'G Shaw Lefevre'.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Mr Meades'.

Author: 
Arthur Wellesley Peel, 1st Viscount Peel
Publication details: 
25 July 1906; Sandy [Bedfordshire].
£36.00

Speaker of the House of Commons (1829-1912). Two pages, 12mo. On mourning paper. Folded once. In very good condition. Thanks his correspondent for the letter of condolence on the 'heavy calamity' of the loss of his daughter Eleanor. 'You knew dear Ella so well - that you can imagine how much her high spirits & her genuine and unselfish nature are missed here - and how irreparable is the loss to me and to her mother & sisters.' Signed 'Peel'. He is been touched by 'the sympathy of friends (which is abundantly given)'.

Three Typed Letters Signed and one Autograph Letter Signed (all four to Mrs Cecil Roscoe), and one printed menu signed for a dinner at the House of Commons.

Author: 
Sir Henry (Harry) Ernest Brittain
Publication details: 
1921-45.
£50.00

British journalist and Conservative politician (1873-1974). The typed text is entirely legible, but the collection is in extremely poor condition - badly damp-damaged and frayed, and with much of the menu consumed by insects. ITEM ONE: TLS, 4 May 1944, 'KIRKLANDS, | HEADLEY, HANTS.', on letterhead of the Incorporated Sales Managers' Association, one page, 4to. Green-ink signature severely faded by damp. He has returned 'after a very successful three weeks' mission with Western Command'.

Signed Letter in secretarial hand to Francis B[roxholme]. G[rey]. Jenkinson[, House of Commons Clerk].

Author: 
Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke [CHILD LABOUR; COAL MINING]
Publication details: 
19 April 1900; on letterhead '76, Sloane Street, S.W.'
£80.00

Second baronet (1843-1911), politician and author. Three pages, 12mo. In good condition although grubby and with a few stains. 'My Coal Mines Prevention of Child Labour Underground Bill grew out of the Eight Hours debate and a challenge to the Coal Owners, so I did not put metalliferous mines in, and excluded them by any title. There are very few boys under 13 in them, but the principle might be the same'. He has been consulted on the matter by the Home Office, and has spoken to Lord Grey about it.

Fragment of Autograph with Signature; and bookplate.

Author: 
William Cowper, Clerk of the Parliaments [BOOKPLATES]
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£100.00

Cousin (1690-1740) of the poet of the same name. Both fragment and bookplate are pasted to a piece of thin, discoloured card. The fragment, which is roughly 5 inches by 2 inches, is grubby annd rubbed. It reads, in Cowper's hand '13th July Exhibited to us under the Commission agt. Thomas Park | Wm Cowper'. Beneath this the signatures of 'Fr. Rookes' and 'Rd Maddock'. The bookplate (roughly 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2, in good condition although somewhat grubby) is armorial, with the motto beneath reading 'FAX . MENTIS. HONESTAE. GLORIA | William Cowper Esqr.

Anonymous printed petition to one of the Houses of Parliament.

Author: 
Sir Robert Peel [restoration of the Gold Standard, 1821]
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£50.00

4 pages, 8vo. Pagination: [1] 2-3 [4]. A frail survival: paper grubby, discoloured and dogeared, with a few closed tears and some fraying to extremities, but the text clear and legible. A space at the beginning of the document for the insertion of the petitioner's name in manuscript has been left blank. Begins: 'The Petition of and all other Owners of Land subject to Mortgages, and other pecuniary payments charged on it before its depreciation in consequence of the return to the present Gold Currency, by which the value of every denomination of Money is so much increased'.

Life of Thomas Wrightson 1839-1921.

Author: 
Jocelyn B. Wrightson, ed.
Publication details: 
[152 Kensington Church Street, London:] Privately printed at the Favil Press. [1939]
£150.00

4to. [vi] + 131 pages. In original yellow binding, grubby and stained, gilt on spine faded. Handsome production on fine paper. Frontispiece, 18 illustrations and pedigree. PRESENTATION COPY from the editor (the subject's son) to his mother-in-law, with accompanying letter (1 page, 16mo, 29 December 1939, on letterhead 'NEASHAM HALL, NR. DARLINGTON.').

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