FREETHINKER

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 4to. On creased and worn paper with postage folds. The recipient is not named. Large firm signature: ‘G. W. Foote’. He will be in Plymouth on 8 April, but is in London on 1 April. ‘Mr. Burrows is down for that date on your list, but as he is nearly always in London I dare say he could easily make an exchange.’ Should Burrows do so, Foote will be glad to comply with the recipient’s request.

Only two copies of any edition of this title on JISC: at the BL and Glasgow University. Cohen’s obituary in The Times describes him as ‘outstanding as a forthright, witty and courteous debater and lecturer’. This item is 30pp, 12mo. Stitched into wraps with title printed on the front and publicity material on the other three sides. Internally in good condition, lightly aged, in slightly spotted and worn wraps.

For information on Carlile - described by E. P. Thompson as a 'Showman of Free Thought' - and his 'moral wife' the suffragist Eliza Sharples, see their entries in the Oxford DNB. At the time of writing Carlile was in prison for refusal to pay the church rates. The proofs Carlile asks to be allowed to receive in the first letter are presumably those of his journal 'The Gauntlet'. The phrenologist 'Mr. Hohn' referred to in the second of the letters - the 'Mr. Holme' of the accompanying slip - is the German-born physician and phrenologist John Diederick Holm (d.1856).

4to, 2 pp. Good, on lightly-aged and worn paper. Thirty-seven lines of text. He finds himself 'very much in accord' with the views expressed by Walters in his address on 'The New Religion'. His 'chief difference' is 'a dislike to the use of the word "Religion." It has, to me, associations that are certain to rob it of all good.' As a 'working term', in Cohen's view, it lacks 'satisfactory power'. 'However, the great thing seems to me to keep churches & individuals on the move.