[ George Rose, Tory politician. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('G Rose') to unnamed recipient [ H. S. Alves? ], commenting in detail on a naval tract he has sent him.

3pp., 4to. In good condition, each of the two leaves in neatly-trimmed remains of a windowpane mount. Headed 'Private' by Rose and 'Rec[eiv]ed' by the recipient, who has sent Rose a copy of a tract he has written on naval matters. (The reference in the letter to Lord Melville, who was Lord of the Admiralty from 1812 to 1827, may suggest Melville's secretary H. S. Alves as the recipient.) The letter begins: 'I have been so much occupied in pulling together the Statement I made last Thursday on the Corn Laws as to have been prevented, till this Morning, from casting my Eye over your Tract that I received a few Days ago from Mr Murray. | I consider the Copy sent to me as only a Revise, & that the Impression is not worked off, & have therefore suggested some very trifling Corrections in the Margin; but the Paper sinks the Ink so much that I doubt if those will be intelligible.' Thirty lines of observations on various passages from the book follow, dealing with matters including impressment and the naturalisation of foreign sailors. Rose concludes by explaining that his observations are 'very hastily made in the Course of an Hour or two', and undertaking to 'attend Lord Melville & you at the Time you mention'. For more information regarding this interesting and important figure, see Roland Thorne's entry on him in the Oxford DNB, which concludes with the assessment: 'His claims to statesmanlike importance, nurtured by his attachment to Pitt, were offset by the scorn reserved by his political opponents [e.g. William Cobbett] for a successful arriviste, but were bolstered by his advocacy in parliament of the interests of the unemployed and the poor'.