FAMINE

[William Smith O'Brien, Irish nationalist, a leader of the Young Ireland movement, deported to Van Diemen's Land by the British.] Autograph Signature and valediction on part of a letter.

Author: 
William Smith O'Brien [Liam Mac Gabhann Ó Briain] (1803-64), Irish nationalist Member of British Parliament, a leader of Young Ireland movement, convicted of sedition and deported to Van Diemen's Land
William S OBrien
Publication details: 
No place or date.
£30.00
William S OBrien

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Slip of paper, roughly 8 x 4.5 cm, cut from a letter. In fair condition, on lightly aged and discoloured paper, with several vertical postage folds. On one side good clear signature and valediction: ‘I remain, dear Sir / Faithfully Yours / William S OBrien’. On the other side, tantalizingly: ‘[...] part of England what [...] | [...] not her all to obtai[n] [...] | [...] sense of justice - [...]’

[Nassau William Senior, English political economist notorious for his supposed callousness during the Irish Potato Famine.] Autograph Signature (‘N W Senior’) to envelope addressed by him to ‘The / Lady Theresa Lewis / Kent House’.

Author: 
Nassau William Senior (1790-1864), English political economist notorious for his supposed callousness during the Irish Potato Famine
Nassau William Senior
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£100.00
Nassau William Senior

The claim that Benjamin Jowett reported Senior as saying that ‘the famine of 1848 in Ireland would not kill more than a million people, and that would scarcely be enough to do much good’ appears to have been made up by Cecil Woodham-Smith. It is certainly not mentioned in Senior’s entry in the Oxford DNB, along with the entry for the recipient Lady (Maria) Theresa Lewis (1803-1865), who lived in Kent House in Knightsbridge with her second husband Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Bart, her first husband having been the novelist Thomas Henry Lister (1800-1842).

[Lord John Russell, Whig and Liberal statesman, twice Prime Minister.] Autograph Signature to part of letter to Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Dillon, regarding his joining the royal household.

Author: 
Lord John Russell [John Russell, 1st Earl Russell] (1792-1878), Whig and Liberal statesman, twice Prime Minister, grandfather of Bertrand Russell [Rear-Admiral Sir William Dillon]
Lord John Russell
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£35.00
Lord John Russell

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. On both sides of 10.5 x 8 cm piece of paper, cut from a letter for an autograph hunter. On one side, in a larger than usual hand: ‘Your Obed Servt / J Russell’. Beneath the signature, in a tiny contemporary hand: 'Prime Minister'. At the foot is the name of the recipient: ‘Rr. Admiral / Sir Henry Dillon Kt.’ A fragment of the letter is on the reverse: ‘[...] Albert have any [wish?] on the subject of your being in the Queen’s Household, I shall no doubt hear from His Royal Highnesss. But untill [sic] I do so, I [...]'. See Image.

[Art Galleries of Europe; John Lewis Roget (1828-1908), 'Thesaurus compiler, Artist & Art Historian', son of P.M. Roget] Part pilgrimage through the Art Galleries of France and Belgium, part travel journal.

Author: 
John Lewis Roget (1828-1908), 'Thesaurus compiler, Artist & Art Historian', son of Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869), the celebrated compiler of 'Roget's Thesaurus'
Publication details: 
1872
£1,800.00

See images (not quite full pages). [Notebook; Art in Europe] 1872 Holland | Belgium | [Meuse?] | Paris, from one end of the notebook he travels from place to place i.e.

[John Lewis Roget (1828-1908), 'Thesaurus compiler, Artist & Art Historian', son of P.M. Roget] Pen & Ink AND Pencil; IRELAND Sketches] Ireland 1850 (

Author: 
John Lewis Roget (1828-1908), 'Thesaurus compiler, Artist & Art Historian', son of Peter Mark Roget (1779-1869), the celebrated compiler of 'Roget's Thesaurus'
Publication details: 
1850
£1,500.00

See images. [Pen & Ink AND Pencil; IRELAND] Ireland 1850 (title on spine), large folder, 41 x 28cm, hf-lea., marbled bds, comprising: a. [Pen & Ink Drawings] Recollections of Ireland (title) in folder, 6pp. fol., light brown cartridge paper, inc. titlepage which has one sketch, 17.5 x 8.5cm. The other five pages all have multiple small sketches, many caricature, ranging from 17.5cm x 8.5 to 2 x 3cm, 8 on [p.2], 13 on [p.3], 8 on [p.4], 10 on [p.5].

['What are we to do with our “monstrous Regiment” of Women?': Sir Charles Trevelyan, Liberal politician.] Autograph Letter Signed, to W. A. Lock, giving his views on women and ‘German Immigrants’.

Author: 
Sir Charles Trevelyan [Sir Charles Edward Trevelyan] (1807-1886), Liberal politician and administrator in India, notorious for his response to the Irish potato famine
Trevelyan
Publication details: 
‘Treasury. / 8 Dec 1882’.
£220.00
Trevelyan

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin neat strip from windowpane mount adhering to edges. Folded twice for postage. Twenty-four hands of text in secretary hand, addressed to ‘W. A. Lock Esqre’, and signed in autograph ‘Sir C Trevelyan’. He thanks him for his ‘very interesting Letter’, and hopes he will ‘never think it necessary to make any excuse for writing to me [other such?]’. He has asked ‘Mr. Farr’ for ‘any observations he might have to offer on the early part of it; and his answer is enclosed’ (not present).

[ The Lancashire Cotton Famine, 1861-1865. ] Autograph Letter from 'John Whittaker | "A Lancashire Lad."' to J. B. Langley

Author: 
John Whittaker of Wigan, journalist [ pseudonym 'A Lancashire Lad' ] [ The Lancashire Cotton Famine, 1861-1865; Wigan Standard newspaper ]
Publication details: 
'"Standard" Office | Wigan | May 27th. 1862.'
£150.00

For the background to this letter see William Otto Henderson, 'The Lancashire Cotton Famine 1861-65' (1934) and Angela V. John, 'By the Sweat of their Brow' (2013). Between 14 April and 16 October 1862 Whittaker published a dozen letters on the 'Lancashire Distress' in the London Times, under the pseudonym of 'A Lancashire Lad'. Edwin Waugh, in his 'Home Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk During the Cotton Famine' (1867), describes Whittaker as 'one of the first writers whose appeals through the press drew serious attention to the great distress in Lancashire during the Cotton Famine.

Printed 'Clarion Pamphlet, No. 13': 'The Coming Fight with Famine.' [ 'Can England feed herself?' ]

Author: 
William Jameson [ The Clarion Newspaper Company, London; allotments; Land Nationalisation Society ]
Publication details: 
Published by the "Clarion" Newspaper Company, Limited, 72, Fleet Street, London, E.C. 1896.
£75.00

12pp., 8vo. In faded green printed wraps. Disbound. In good condition, on aged high-acidity paper. Beneath the drophead title on p.1: 'Can England feed herself?' Now scarce.

[ '"Clarion" Pamphlet. - No. 9'] 'Land Lessons for Town Folk.' [ Three essays: 'Why Should London Grow?', 'Guardian Angels' and 'Cockneyfied Socialism'. ]

Author: 
William Jameson [ The Clarion Newspaper Company, London; Victorian allotments; Land Nationalisation Society ]
Publication details: 
Published by the "Clarion" Newspaper Company, Limited, 72, Fleet Street, London, E.C. 1896.
£50.00

12pp., 8vo. In faded green wraps with full title and advertisements. Disbound. On aged high-acidity paper, in brittle wraps with back cover detached. P.1 is headed '"Pioneer" Pamphlets. - No. 1.', followed by a numbered list of the three essays. Now scarce.

[Gregory Thurston Bedell, Bishop of Ohio.] Letter in a secretarial hand, signed ('G. T. Bedell | Bishop of Ohio.') to the Lord Mayor of London [Sir Henry Isaacs], sending a cheque for $100 'to your collection for "the China Famine Relief Fund"'.

Author: 
Gregory Thurston Bedell (1817-1892), third Episcopal Bishop of Ohio [Sir Henry Isaacs, Lord Mayor of London; The China Famine Relief Fund, 1889]
Publication details: 
From Nice, France. (On letterhead of the Diocese of Ohio.) 25 January 1889.
£45.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged and creased paper. Reads: 'Dear Sir, and His Honor, the Lord Mayor of London. | Your appeal has this hour met my eye. Be so good as to add the enclosed $100, to your collection for "the China Famine Relief Fund." Messrs. Brown, Shipley, & Co, are in the habit of cashing my check on Bank of New York; it it is desired.' With oval stamp of the City bankers Brown Shipley & Co., and initaled note of the converted sum, '£20 7s 3d'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W F Butler') from Sir William Francis Butler, Irish officer in the British Army, to an unnamed correspondent, discussing the 'great mediaeval Sin' that was committed by the English in Ireland.

Author: 
Sir William Francis Butler (1838-1910), Irish officer in the British Army in the Red River and Asante [Ashanti] campaigns, member of the Irish privy council and supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell
Publication details: 
On letterhead of North Camp, Aldershot. 13 May 1894.
£80.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'My dear Sir'. England and Ireland are not named in the letter, but subject of the letter is clear from the context. He has read 'with very great pleasure' the pamphlet which the recipient sent him. 'You are correct in surmising that for the present at least I take no part in the political question of the day - but my views show no change'.

[Broadside] Public Notice [anticipating distress in Ireland, announcing 'facilities and advantages in obtaining loans under the Land Improvement Acts.'

Author: 
Edward Hornsby, Secretary; [Land Improvement; Ireland; 1879]
Publication details: 
Office of Public Works, Dublin, 22 November 1879.
£145.00

Broadside, two pages, folio ,fold mark, two small closed tears, mainly good. It comprises (recto) details of 'facilities and advantages in obtaining loans under the Land Improvement Acts.' And (verso) a schedule of the unions in the Counties (Donegal to Sligo) with the handwriten addition of Mallow and Kanturk. Note: The Irish National Land League was founded at the Imperial Hotel in Castlebar, the County town of Mayo, on 21 October 1879.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Manchester') from George Montagu, 6th Duke of Newcastle, to [Rev. Alexander] Dallas, regarding a projected visit to Galway, Ireland.

Author: 
George Montagu, 6th Duke of Newcastle
George Montagu, 6th Duke of Newcastle
Publication details: 
9 September 1852; Kimbolton.
£56.00
George Montagu, 6th Duke of Newcastle

12mo, 3 pp. Fair, on lightly-aged paper. Not knowing whether Dallas is returned, he draws 'a bow at a venture', hoping that his 'arrows are not "bitter words"'. He intends to visit Galway, and asks Dallas to 'write me a line to mark out the desirable points to visit & a few hints as to where to stop'. He will be staying with William Cooper of Markree Castle, County Sligo. In 1842 Dallas established the Irish Church Missions, 'Soupers' which were particularly active in Galway during the Potato Famine.

Autograph Frank with address to R. Byham.

Author: 
Sir Thomas Nicholas Redington
Publication details: 
Undated, but with dated 6 and 7 December 1846 on postmarks.
£18.00

Irish administrator and Member of Parliament (1815-62). Consists of the front of the envelope, the dimensions of which are roughly five inches by three. Addressed to 'R. Byham Esq. | Ordnance Office | Pall Mall | London', and signed 'Th Redington'. Two postmarks in red ink: the first, in a circle, appears to read 'PAID | NW | 6 DE | 1846'; the second, in a circle topped with a crown, appears to read 'PAID | DE 7 | 1846'.

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