THOROLD

While his entry in the Oxford DNB notes that Birrell was a loyal supporter of Gladstone in the early part of his parliamentary career, it does not allude to his intimate involvement during that period in what would now be called the public relations of his party, as evidenced by this correspondence, which comes from the papers of Arthur George Liddon Rogers (1864-1944), son of the editor of the economist Thorold Rogers, and written while Rogers was Secretary of the Liberal Publication Department, a position to which he was appointed in November 1891.

An interesting and empassioned letter, highlighting one aspect of the debate over the class inequalities present in mid-Victorian England. See Thorold’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 8pp, 12mo. On two bifoliums. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Signed ‘A. W. Thorold’. The recipient is not named. He begins by stating that his speech at Islington lasted twenty-five minutes, as opposed to the report in the journal he has sent him, which ‘could be easily spoken in two’, and does not give a ‘fair notion of its point and aim’.

1p., 12mo. Good, on aged paper. De Paepe's grasp of the English language is not firm, but he makes himself understood. He has seen Rogers' 'new scientific book' 'Six Centuries of Work and Wages' advertised in 'many English papers'.