[Richard Holt Hutton, journalist and theologian.] Two Autograph Letters Signed, from the Spectator office, to Rev. F. Daustini Cremer, justifying a statement made by him about a rumour regarding Sir William Harcourt.

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Both letters closely written. Both folded for postage. The letters concern the following statement in the Spectator, 6 February 1875: ‘Rumour says that Sir William Harcourt has ascertained from his friend, Mr. Disraeli, that while he will treat the Marquis of Hartington with all the respect due to the leader of a great party, he could not have accorded that deference to Mr. Forster. If rumour does not speak falsely, we could wish that the meeting of the Reform Club had received that very significant message.’ ONE (9 March 1875): 4pp, 12mo. Fifty-seven lines. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged, with slight wear and discoloration at head and foot. Begins: ‘If the statement you refer to in the Spectator of Feby. 6, - which I prefixed by “Rumour says,” - be utterly unfounded, why has Sir William Harcourt never denied it in the press? I personally heard the statement made, I do not say on their own evidence, but as a matter of public notoriety among members of the House, by more than one member of the House of Commons.’ He proceeds to defend his position at length. Includes the following observation: ‘I know that he read the statement - not for the first time from you now, for I heard that he commented on it somewhat warmly to an intimate friend of my own, & then expressed or implied an intention of writing to the Spectator on the subject’. TWO (16 March 1875): 1p, 16mo. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Continues the argument: ‘If newspapers never mentioned at all anything of that nature, how much would appear in the newspapers? For my own part till I see Sir William Harcourt’s contradiction of the rumour, I shall continue to believe that it iwas by no means [false?]’.