George E. Harris (1819-1890)
George Edwin Harris was one of the more active and independent-minded of the O'Brienites, noted particularly for his involvement alongside Karl Marx in the International Working Men's Association, but also a contributor to O'Brienite-minded journals and a committed internationalist. At various times in his life he was a tailor, a bookseller and a clerk. Unlike his good friend and political ally Martin Boon, he was not a pamphleteer - and perhaps because of that, he has attracted little detailed attention.
In 2015, I bought second-hand a bound copy of The Working Man for 1862-3, with Harris's ownership signature and various markings in the margins indicating his authorship of articles written anonymously or pseudonymously. I blogged about that - and particularly Harris's account of welcoming the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin to London. Eighteen months later, that prompted Harris's great-great-granddaughter to get in touch - and I have now acquired Harris's personal papers. There are perhaps sixty or so letters or draft articles - including copies of a few letters from writers and politicians of distinction (Garibaldi, Mazzini, O'Brien, Hugo, Blanc) which had been sold at auction.
The manuscripts include letters or notes from John Stuart Mill, Robert Owen, Ernest Jones, Charles Bradlaugh, Eleanor Boon and Josiah Warren among others. There are notes which refer both to Carl [sic] Marx and to Engels, and letters from the US which tend to bear out Marx's suspicion that Harris was in touch with a libertarian-minded section of the IWMA in New York.
I have listed all the letters and other items in Harris's papers (scroll down for that list) and hope to research them further and to offer a fuller account of Harris's life and political activity - I am posting here some of the gems among these papers.
And how remarkable that in 2016, the papers of a leading radical political figure of 150 years earlier have come to light for the first time. As far as I am aware, they have never been consulted or cited by any historian or researcher.
The portraits below, still in the family, are believed to be of George Edwin Harris and his wife Frances.
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The sepia photograph depicts a daughter of George and Frances Harris, Augusta Jane, with two of her daughters. Augusta (1849-1915) was one of the couple's four children. She married James de Grey, and they had six children. The two women shown in the photo are the oldest of the siblings, Charlotte Eva Augusta (1882-1959) and May Frances (1886-1974).
Delyse, who sent me this photograph and from whom I obtained the archive, is Charlotte's grand-daughter. (Charlotte is the woman holding the book). Delyse says: 'James de Grey married Augusta Jane Harris in 1881 when he was 52 and she was 32. He was a widower at the time. They went on to have six children in rapid succession, between 1882 and 1891. My Grandmother, Charlotte Eva Augusta was born in 1882, and my Great Aunt, May Frances (the other lady standing) was born in 1886. James de Grey died at the beginning of 1902, aged 72.' |
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An indication of how central G.E. Harris was to the O'Brienite movement can be found in the announcement in the National Reformer (the issue dated 1 January 1865) of O'Brien's death - contributed by Harris:
... a letter from John Stuart Mill
Harris has apparently written to Mill to ask him to attend an event to celebrate the life and political career of the French revolutionary, Robespierre - whose admiring biography O' Brien had written -
Mill replies: 'I beg you to make my acknowledgements to the Council of the National Reform League for the honour of the invitation; but though there is reason to believe that Robespierre was better than his reputation, that many acts in which he had no share have been imputed to him in order to screen others, and that the men by whom he was overthrown were many of them worse men than himself, he yet participated in, and justified, too many atrocities and his name is the symbol of too much that disgraced and ruined the French Revolution to allow of my joining in any demonstration in honour of him.'
Ouch!
Ouch!
... a letter from Victor Le Lubez
Harris sent what appears to have been a similar invitation to honour Robespierre to Victor Le Lubez, a young French emigre who persuaded Karl Marx to get involved in the IWMA. Le Lubez's reply stands in marked contrast to that of Mill:
Le Lubez writes: 'I regret exceedingly that I hadn't your letter in time to enable me to attend at your Soiree, last Friday. I thank you for your kind invitation and I thank the Council of "the National Reform League" for their cosmopolitan ideas which prompt them to do homage to a countryman of mine whom I greatly admire for his ardent love of Liberty and his incorruptibility. / As it happened, last Sunday I was engaged at a meeting in honour of the services rendered to humanity by Thomas Paine, which caused my absence at the "Hall of Science" so that I only received your kind invitation this day. / In the hope of having the pleasure to meet you, Gentlemen, at some such demonstration.'
... a note from Charles Bradlaugh
A brief handwritten note from Charles Bradlaugh, a leading figure in Victorian radicalism, the most prominent freethinker and Republican, and from 1880 until his death in 1891 an MP for Northampton
Bradlaugh appears to be arranging to buy from Harris bound volumes of The Reasoner, a freethought journal established by George Jacob Holyoake in the mid-1840s which continued publication into the 1870s
... a letter from Robert Owen
One more indication of the wealth of Harris's political contacts - a letter from Robert Owen in 1852:
Owen's letter was written from Cox's Hotel, Jermyn Street, on 20th January 1852:
'Having left Spring Grove + been much from home + occupied in public measures that leave me no time to attend to other business. I have been prevented replying to your letter, + I regret today that I have so many similar communications that it is painful to me to reply to them.
'It is impossible for me to attend to individual applications such as yours for all my time and means are expended in unceasing endeavour to terminate the system + remove the causes which continually produces the distress of which you + millions complain + suffer.
'And suffer from the ignorance of society; for there is no other cause that anyone should be unemployed who is willing to work + this ignorance must be overcome before you + other sufferers be relieved. As soon as this ignorance can be overcome it will be discovered that there is, or may be immediately provided an abundance of production beneficial to all + for a much greater population than the world can have for many hundreds years. And this subject I hope to have brought before parliament early the coming session, in order that speedy relief may be given to those like yourself + many others who now so unjustly + unwisely are made to suffer poverty from unwilling idleness.
'Regretting that I cannot assist those individuals who apply to me.'
'Having left Spring Grove + been much from home + occupied in public measures that leave me no time to attend to other business. I have been prevented replying to your letter, + I regret today that I have so many similar communications that it is painful to me to reply to them.
'It is impossible for me to attend to individual applications such as yours for all my time and means are expended in unceasing endeavour to terminate the system + remove the causes which continually produces the distress of which you + millions complain + suffer.
'And suffer from the ignorance of society; for there is no other cause that anyone should be unemployed who is willing to work + this ignorance must be overcome before you + other sufferers be relieved. As soon as this ignorance can be overcome it will be discovered that there is, or may be immediately provided an abundance of production beneficial to all + for a much greater population than the world can have for many hundreds years. And this subject I hope to have brought before parliament early the coming session, in order that speedy relief may be given to those like yourself + many others who now so unjustly + unwisely are made to suffer poverty from unwilling idleness.
'Regretting that I cannot assist those individuals who apply to me.'
... notes from Ernest Jones
The Harris papers included three signed notes from Ernest Jones (1819-1869), one of the most prominent of the later leaders of the Chartist movement whose political influence persisted after the decline of Chartism. He was also a political journalist, a poet and a novelist.
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The notes from 1852 and 1862 - above - are fairly cursory. That from January (I think) 1865 is more interesting - Jones appears to be declining Harris's request to subscribe to a fund in memory of Bronterre O'Brien, who had died the previous month:
'I am truly sorry I cannot meet your views either by subscribing, or by writing an appeal - + for the following reasons; the first, because I really cannot afford to subscribe, or I would with pleasure; the second, also because I do not know enough of the history of Mr O'Brien's latter years to make the appeal an effective one. The appeal, I know, could not be in better hands than your own.'
'I am truly sorry I cannot meet your views either by subscribing, or by writing an appeal - + for the following reasons; the first, because I really cannot afford to subscribe, or I would with pleasure; the second, also because I do not know enough of the history of Mr O'Brien's latter years to make the appeal an effective one. The appeal, I know, could not be in better hands than your own.'
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... a long letter from Josiah Warren
Perhaps the most intriguing letter is that from the American individualist and libertarian Josiah Warren (1798-1874) - sometimes described as the first American anarchist. The latter dates from 1863 and indicates a strong personal and political bond with Harris. . In later years - much to Marx's annoyance - Warren was in touch with several London-based O'Brienite members of the First International.
There's a second long letter from Warren among the papers, dating from 1871, but both the address and signature have been snipped out and the words on the other side are, frustratingly, missing.
There's a second long letter from Warren among the papers, dating from 1871, but both the address and signature have been snipped out and the words on the other side are, frustratingly, missing.
This letter from Warren was addressed from Cliftondale Massachusetts on 21 April 1863:
'Dear Harris
No indeed! "the zephyr cord" has not "cracked" nor given any signs of weakness but I have been very much absorbed of late in a certain enterprise necessary to our purposes, that has left me scarcely time to eat, but I got through with it only yesterday at the same time I got your kind contribution of "the Commonwealth of the 28 March. What smart little sheet of the 1st March (having lost the paper I cannot get the name) I am very glad indeed to see such an approach to the tract system, and especially to see that you have another earnest [word indistinct] in the work! We have no such competent writers [words indistinct] in this country on our themes.
No, I have not received any thing even any paper from you since you have from me! On some the papers sent, I saw that you had directed them to Cliftondale, Boston: this may possibly account for it - leave the Boston out and direct as above. It is equally a long time since I have had any thing from friend Cuddon but I suppoe that like me he feels that the talking is pretty much done up between us and that now we want the practical application of our themes.
I am learning something all the time: for the last forty years I have been puzzled to know which was the best end to begin at to get our tangled skein into order - it is so large and has so many / straggling ends I could not select the right one to ensure a smooth regular run, but I have, I think found it now, in individuality itself. That is, as we cannot think of more than one (individual) thing at the same time, our most successful way will be to present only one idea or one element of our proposed revolution to the public or to students at once: but that idea should really be the first one in order - it should be the germination of what ought to follow, this I think, is the Principle of Equivalents. If this idea is once well understood and made familiar, each mind will almost arrive naturally to all those conclusions on other subjects, which, if presented by us before they had arrived at them themselves step by step, would be rejected by them as Utopian visions. So I have concluded to travel among the people and say to them, "I have brought you a new subject, nut it is of such magnitude I shall not attempt to explain t all at once. It requires time and study on your part, but I will say that it strikes at the root of all speculations on land, provisions, fuel, building materials, Labor and everything else It give rise to a new kind of money setting aside the common money by degrees until it shall become worthless. It leads to the investment of every one who desires it, with a home of his or her own, and self employment and pecuniary independence. It leads to laying out new towns and cities where the land shall be bought and sold for it cost adding only pay for the labor of buying and selling as other useful labor is paid for by the day or hour. Many other great results which naturally follow which I cannot now make plain to you: indeed the statement of them would only bewilder you, but I will put into your hands a few tracts explaining the first step or principle which leads to these results and I invite you to take this principle into your keeping and under your special care and criticism; and, with pen or pencil in your hand, and write down your thoughts as you proceed and let me have the privilege of reading them, and perhaps publishing them, and when this principle has become familiar to you I will then present another and then another till the five or six new elements of social life have become familiar and then you will be prepared to regulate your intercourse by your intelligence. The conclusions that I have drawn from these principles after forty years study and experiments would appear very visionary to you if presented now and therefore withhold all opinions; I simply invite your attention to facts in nature which you will find mixed up in every transaction of your lives, but which from the very fact of their constant occurrence, like the inhaling of the atmosphere or the circulation of the blood or the value of water, the value of them as vital elements has been overlooked.
Something like the foregoing I would say to a new audience and then I would distribute among them the tract or tracts explaining the Principles of Equivalents / and would ask them to excuse me from talking any further but again invite them to study and try to understand that principle and let me know what they see in it, if they see any thing, and then I would go to a new place and do the same thing.
I am thoroughly satisfied that it is entirely useless or at least inexpedient to enter into any controversies whatever about this matter. We always reason from what we already know or think and what people already know or think is of no use in this great matter. They must get new data - new premises to reason from, before their conclusions can be trusted or listened to with any benefit.
The "polytechnicon" works entirely to my satisfaction: I look at it as the true starting point from which all else will radiate in the right times, places and proportions. Friend Cuddon, I should think, would be just the right one to commence a branch and we could immediately interchange valuable services.
The Voice will not be heard after this week. It is going down. We are going into the tract system. Tracts distributed gratuitously are not poisoned by the mercenary taint.
The enterprise I alluded to in the beginning of this letter is printing from writing, instead of setting and owning type. The first work (except my music work) is a system of shorthand or phonography that is to be put to press today. I send a page proof.
The Investigator I consider behind the age and think it worth little trouble to write for it. I am taking notes which may be published some time but I don't know: but we must begin with the practical and let theories follow facts.
I shall send a tract now and then, as they may come out. Please show this to friend Cuddon so that he may know that I am still alive notwithstanding so long an interval of dead silence.
I should like to see all the products of Mr. Jones in your admirable little paper. Could you send me a few more of that number of the 1st of March? I should like to distribute them.'
'Dear Harris
No indeed! "the zephyr cord" has not "cracked" nor given any signs of weakness but I have been very much absorbed of late in a certain enterprise necessary to our purposes, that has left me scarcely time to eat, but I got through with it only yesterday at the same time I got your kind contribution of "the Commonwealth of the 28 March. What smart little sheet of the 1st March (having lost the paper I cannot get the name) I am very glad indeed to see such an approach to the tract system, and especially to see that you have another earnest [word indistinct] in the work! We have no such competent writers [words indistinct] in this country on our themes.
No, I have not received any thing even any paper from you since you have from me! On some the papers sent, I saw that you had directed them to Cliftondale, Boston: this may possibly account for it - leave the Boston out and direct as above. It is equally a long time since I have had any thing from friend Cuddon but I suppoe that like me he feels that the talking is pretty much done up between us and that now we want the practical application of our themes.
I am learning something all the time: for the last forty years I have been puzzled to know which was the best end to begin at to get our tangled skein into order - it is so large and has so many / straggling ends I could not select the right one to ensure a smooth regular run, but I have, I think found it now, in individuality itself. That is, as we cannot think of more than one (individual) thing at the same time, our most successful way will be to present only one idea or one element of our proposed revolution to the public or to students at once: but that idea should really be the first one in order - it should be the germination of what ought to follow, this I think, is the Principle of Equivalents. If this idea is once well understood and made familiar, each mind will almost arrive naturally to all those conclusions on other subjects, which, if presented by us before they had arrived at them themselves step by step, would be rejected by them as Utopian visions. So I have concluded to travel among the people and say to them, "I have brought you a new subject, nut it is of such magnitude I shall not attempt to explain t all at once. It requires time and study on your part, but I will say that it strikes at the root of all speculations on land, provisions, fuel, building materials, Labor and everything else It give rise to a new kind of money setting aside the common money by degrees until it shall become worthless. It leads to the investment of every one who desires it, with a home of his or her own, and self employment and pecuniary independence. It leads to laying out new towns and cities where the land shall be bought and sold for it cost adding only pay for the labor of buying and selling as other useful labor is paid for by the day or hour. Many other great results which naturally follow which I cannot now make plain to you: indeed the statement of them would only bewilder you, but I will put into your hands a few tracts explaining the first step or principle which leads to these results and I invite you to take this principle into your keeping and under your special care and criticism; and, with pen or pencil in your hand, and write down your thoughts as you proceed and let me have the privilege of reading them, and perhaps publishing them, and when this principle has become familiar to you I will then present another and then another till the five or six new elements of social life have become familiar and then you will be prepared to regulate your intercourse by your intelligence. The conclusions that I have drawn from these principles after forty years study and experiments would appear very visionary to you if presented now and therefore withhold all opinions; I simply invite your attention to facts in nature which you will find mixed up in every transaction of your lives, but which from the very fact of their constant occurrence, like the inhaling of the atmosphere or the circulation of the blood or the value of water, the value of them as vital elements has been overlooked.
Something like the foregoing I would say to a new audience and then I would distribute among them the tract or tracts explaining the Principles of Equivalents / and would ask them to excuse me from talking any further but again invite them to study and try to understand that principle and let me know what they see in it, if they see any thing, and then I would go to a new place and do the same thing.
I am thoroughly satisfied that it is entirely useless or at least inexpedient to enter into any controversies whatever about this matter. We always reason from what we already know or think and what people already know or think is of no use in this great matter. They must get new data - new premises to reason from, before their conclusions can be trusted or listened to with any benefit.
The "polytechnicon" works entirely to my satisfaction: I look at it as the true starting point from which all else will radiate in the right times, places and proportions. Friend Cuddon, I should think, would be just the right one to commence a branch and we could immediately interchange valuable services.
The Voice will not be heard after this week. It is going down. We are going into the tract system. Tracts distributed gratuitously are not poisoned by the mercenary taint.
The enterprise I alluded to in the beginning of this letter is printing from writing, instead of setting and owning type. The first work (except my music work) is a system of shorthand or phonography that is to be put to press today. I send a page proof.
The Investigator I consider behind the age and think it worth little trouble to write for it. I am taking notes which may be published some time but I don't know: but we must begin with the practical and let theories follow facts.
I shall send a tract now and then, as they may come out. Please show this to friend Cuddon so that he may know that I am still alive notwithstanding so long an interval of dead silence.
I should like to see all the products of Mr. Jones in your admirable little paper. Could you send me a few more of that number of the 1st of March? I should like to distribute them.'
... a letter from Harriet Burton
Harriet Burton appears to have been active in a dissident New York branch of the First International along with Victoria Woodhull. Again, this is evidence of the links between American members of the International and London-based O'Brienites:
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This letter was written from Paris on 22 August 1872:
'Please excuse the temerity which a stranger in a strange land must sometimes use, and which I trust may not be amiss on the present occasion that of writing to you without an introduction - or of introducing myself to you. I am secretary of the I.W.A. of Section 12 of N.Y. and was appointed delegate from the first general congress that met in Philadelphia in July to that which is to meet in London in September.
'Mrs. Woodhull has given me a letter of introduction to you and as I cannot visit London until the time of the meeting of the Congress, I write to ask definitely in regard to the time of the assembly and where it would be best for me to stop on my arrival, also if the friends of the I.W.A. societies entertain foreign delegates +c. +c. during the session of the meeting. I left N.Y. in company with my sister and have now been ten days in Paris hoping to meet Paulina Wright Davis from whom I was expecting to learn everything necessary in regard to the Communists here and also in regard to the General Congress. Any information in regard to the Congress, or to the persons in Paris, or London interested in the great cause of progress for the masses of working men and women will be most thankfully received by one whose life is devoted to the cause of human progress. Please write immediately. ...'
'Please excuse the temerity which a stranger in a strange land must sometimes use, and which I trust may not be amiss on the present occasion that of writing to you without an introduction - or of introducing myself to you. I am secretary of the I.W.A. of Section 12 of N.Y. and was appointed delegate from the first general congress that met in Philadelphia in July to that which is to meet in London in September.
'Mrs. Woodhull has given me a letter of introduction to you and as I cannot visit London until the time of the meeting of the Congress, I write to ask definitely in regard to the time of the assembly and where it would be best for me to stop on my arrival, also if the friends of the I.W.A. societies entertain foreign delegates +c. +c. during the session of the meeting. I left N.Y. in company with my sister and have now been ten days in Paris hoping to meet Paulina Wright Davis from whom I was expecting to learn everything necessary in regard to the Communists here and also in regard to the General Congress. Any information in regard to the Congress, or to the persons in Paris, or London interested in the great cause of progress for the masses of working men and women will be most thankfully received by one whose life is devoted to the cause of human progress. Please write immediately. ...'
... two letters from Eleanor Boon
Martin Boon - there's a full biographical note here and blogs including photos here - was a fellow O'Brienite and a collegue of Harris on the General Council of the International Working Men's Association. Early in 1874, Boon emigrated to South Africa, leaving behind his wife, Eleanor, and their children. One assumes he wanted to make his way in his adopted country and then send money for his family to join him - which eventually they did. These two letters from Eleanor to George Harris demonstrate how difficult she found life without her husband's support and income.
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The earlier of Eleanor's letters was written from her home in Croydon on 30th January 1874, very shortly after her husband's departure:
'I was glad to hear from you + Mrs Harris + daughter. Many thanks for all your good wishes - I dare say you felt the parting with my dear husband very much. I assure you my life at present is one of loneliness and great anxiety. I do not expect any news from Martin for another five or six weeks. I will let you know immediately I hear from him.
'I thank you much for conveying the letter to Mr Mottershed he replied and sent me £1- It just came in time for I am dreadfully pinched for means. A few pounds have been subscribed by friends and forwarded by Messrs Rogers & [mark unclear] and really had it not been for this I do not know how I should have got on for poor Martin only left me a few shilling, and all the taxes have come in but with a little pinching I have managed so far.
'Mr Mottershed wrote a rather peculiar letter, he informed me that "I had no occasion to have reminded him of the small debt, as he was troubled with a conscience and always payed [sic] just debts, but as I pleaded (here came in some Latin) which I do not pretend to) however I suppose he meant to say as I pleaded misery + poverty so strong he felt compelled to send something which his troubled conscience would have made rather later had he not heard from me so soon. - Do you know I should rather like to see this gentleman. I fancy he is rather comical or else very thin-skinned but I hope for the sake of his own feelings that he is not the latter for he may not relish my letter in reply - as you know I always speak my mind - Evidently he is very busy putting every thing in good order at Preston - I hope our Nation will not forget to put monuments to the memory of these industrious gentlemen - Oh by the by he stated in his letter he well knew what it was to leave a wife and young children - I told him I hoped he always left her provided for - However, you will excuse my little fun about this gentleman. You and I understand each other on these points, but to be serious - The Bread + Butter question once more arises, my means are nothing, I have a beautiful Rocking Horse worth £2 - 5 - now could it be raffled for do you think? How degraded I feel myself asking these things, to think I should ever come to this - I wonder if there are any more troubled consciences who might put down a shilling each in chance for this beautiful horse Write and tell me what you tink - You know once there was a "Blanket" to be raffled for a much grander scheme + purpose.
'Adieu - Love to Mrs. Harris + daughter'
'I was glad to hear from you + Mrs Harris + daughter. Many thanks for all your good wishes - I dare say you felt the parting with my dear husband very much. I assure you my life at present is one of loneliness and great anxiety. I do not expect any news from Martin for another five or six weeks. I will let you know immediately I hear from him.
'I thank you much for conveying the letter to Mr Mottershed he replied and sent me £1- It just came in time for I am dreadfully pinched for means. A few pounds have been subscribed by friends and forwarded by Messrs Rogers & [mark unclear] and really had it not been for this I do not know how I should have got on for poor Martin only left me a few shilling, and all the taxes have come in but with a little pinching I have managed so far.
'Mr Mottershed wrote a rather peculiar letter, he informed me that "I had no occasion to have reminded him of the small debt, as he was troubled with a conscience and always payed [sic] just debts, but as I pleaded (here came in some Latin) which I do not pretend to) however I suppose he meant to say as I pleaded misery + poverty so strong he felt compelled to send something which his troubled conscience would have made rather later had he not heard from me so soon. - Do you know I should rather like to see this gentleman. I fancy he is rather comical or else very thin-skinned but I hope for the sake of his own feelings that he is not the latter for he may not relish my letter in reply - as you know I always speak my mind - Evidently he is very busy putting every thing in good order at Preston - I hope our Nation will not forget to put monuments to the memory of these industrious gentlemen - Oh by the by he stated in his letter he well knew what it was to leave a wife and young children - I told him I hoped he always left her provided for - However, you will excuse my little fun about this gentleman. You and I understand each other on these points, but to be serious - The Bread + Butter question once more arises, my means are nothing, I have a beautiful Rocking Horse worth £2 - 5 - now could it be raffled for do you think? How degraded I feel myself asking these things, to think I should ever come to this - I wonder if there are any more troubled consciences who might put down a shilling each in chance for this beautiful horse Write and tell me what you tink - You know once there was a "Blanket" to be raffled for a much grander scheme + purpose.
'Adieu - Love to Mrs. Harris + daughter'
The second letter from Eleanor was written five or six weeks later, by which time she had heard from Martin, newly arrived in Cape Town
'I heard from Mr. Boon yesterday morn[in]g- he had been very ill and obliged to keep his bed the first week of the voyage - The letter was posted at Cape Town and they stayed there long enough to allow him to see something of the place. He says everything looked so sunny + promising more than he anticipated, but he was bound for Port Elizabeth Algoa Bay and from there would write again which I may expect on the 13th of this month
'If you have any message to him let me know by the 13th as I shall write for the mail on the 15th of this month
'I hope you are all well - I have struggled on so far and anxiously hope to get out in April. ...
'PS Convey the news to as many as you can and send me all messages for him by the 13th of this month
'Mr Boon desires his best regards to all enquiring friends'
'I heard from Mr. Boon yesterday morn[in]g- he had been very ill and obliged to keep his bed the first week of the voyage - The letter was posted at Cape Town and they stayed there long enough to allow him to see something of the place. He says everything looked so sunny + promising more than he anticipated, but he was bound for Port Elizabeth Algoa Bay and from there would write again which I may expect on the 13th of this month
'If you have any message to him let me know by the 13th as I shall write for the mail on the 15th of this month
'I hope you are all well - I have struggled on so far and anxiously hope to get out in April. ...
'PS Convey the news to as many as you can and send me all messages for him by the 13th of this month
'Mr Boon desires his best regards to all enquiring friends'
... a note from Alexander Herzen in French
Alexander Herzen (1812-1870) was a Russian philosopher, writer and socialist. He left Russia in 1847 and moved to London in 1852 staying in the city for well over a decade. He was active in the First International
... and a note in French from Felix Pyat
Felix Pyat (1810-1889) was a French socialist who lived in exile in England through the 1850s and '60s. He was prominent in the Paris Commune of 1871. This note appears to date from 1855.
'An Address to the French, and other Exiles' from 1855
This is a wonderful four-page address to London's political emigres offering solidarity but also a prescription for change. In places it reads as a manifesto - anti-statist, libertarian and fiercely egalitarian. It was issued over the name of George E. Harris and appears to be in his hand.
The document is dated 31st December 1855 - and here are some xtracts:
Opens: 'An Address to the French, and other Exiles, - Fugitives from Political Persecution
'The few individuals who, some weeks ago, formed themselves into a Committee to advocate the cause of the Political Exiles from Foreign Countries, and who have now invited those residing in London to this social gathering, take the opportunity of publicly expressing a few words of sympathy, and, perchance of encouragement, to the proscribed of all Nations, many of whom are doubtlessly present with us this evening; and at the same time, they beg to offer a few observations on the present prospects of Democracy.'
Laments 'the gross political Flunkeyism into which the mass of the English people have fallen! Wealth and Power, - no matter how, ir in whom personified, are the only gods worshipped by the Upper and Middle Classes; and we fear, too, that the vast mass of the poor themselves have become infected with the same demoralizing idolatry.' Reference to 'our class - the proletaires - the unprivileged - the unrepresented'. Endorses Italian unity and Polish and Hungarian independence.
'We believe that the safest course for the People to pursue, when the destiny of nations is once again in their hands, will be, - not to combine different states, but to separate them into distinct nationalities, and to fix the natural line of race and language as their true boundaries, - that being not only just to the peoples themselves, but the only means of putting an end to international strife, and of bringing about the abolition of standing armies ...'
Quotes Victor Hugo: '"the least amount of governing must be the formula of the future"'
'... The land must be made to revert to its rightful inheritors - the people, as public property; never again to be alienated to private individuals'. Money must be made the representative of wealth ... and not as usurers, money-gamblers, and speculators may determine, for their unholy purposes.' Proposes a labour theory of value.
Comments on 'the uselessness, if not folly of any longer attributing national calamities exclusively to Kings, , Emperors, or Cabinet Ministers, who are together with the venal scribes, and the hireling priests and soldiers, little more than the tools of the propertied class.' And critical by name of Louis Napoleon. Ends: 'Vive la Republique sociale & democratique!'
The document is dated 31st December 1855 - and here are some xtracts:
Opens: 'An Address to the French, and other Exiles, - Fugitives from Political Persecution
'The few individuals who, some weeks ago, formed themselves into a Committee to advocate the cause of the Political Exiles from Foreign Countries, and who have now invited those residing in London to this social gathering, take the opportunity of publicly expressing a few words of sympathy, and, perchance of encouragement, to the proscribed of all Nations, many of whom are doubtlessly present with us this evening; and at the same time, they beg to offer a few observations on the present prospects of Democracy.'
Laments 'the gross political Flunkeyism into which the mass of the English people have fallen! Wealth and Power, - no matter how, ir in whom personified, are the only gods worshipped by the Upper and Middle Classes; and we fear, too, that the vast mass of the poor themselves have become infected with the same demoralizing idolatry.' Reference to 'our class - the proletaires - the unprivileged - the unrepresented'. Endorses Italian unity and Polish and Hungarian independence.
'We believe that the safest course for the People to pursue, when the destiny of nations is once again in their hands, will be, - not to combine different states, but to separate them into distinct nationalities, and to fix the natural line of race and language as their true boundaries, - that being not only just to the peoples themselves, but the only means of putting an end to international strife, and of bringing about the abolition of standing armies ...'
Quotes Victor Hugo: '"the least amount of governing must be the formula of the future"'
'... The land must be made to revert to its rightful inheritors - the people, as public property; never again to be alienated to private individuals'. Money must be made the representative of wealth ... and not as usurers, money-gamblers, and speculators may determine, for their unholy purposes.' Proposes a labour theory of value.
Comments on 'the uselessness, if not folly of any longer attributing national calamities exclusively to Kings, , Emperors, or Cabinet Ministers, who are together with the venal scribes, and the hireling priests and soldiers, little more than the tools of the propertied class.' And critical by name of Louis Napoleon. Ends: 'Vive la Republique sociale & democratique!'
Radical leaflets
The are a handful of radical leaflets among the papers - of which those posted here are the most interesting.
The French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) was a hero of Bronterre O'Brien's - one of his followers, John Radford, named a son Maximilien after Robespierre. As you will see above, Harris invited John Stuart Mill to address a gathering in celebration of Robespierre - an invitation which Mill declined.
George Julian Harney (1817-1897) was a Chartist who remained active, particularly as a political journalist, after the eclipse of Chartism. He lived and worked in the United States from 1863 to 1877 but returned to England on his retirement and continue to write and commentate from a radical perspective.
The French revolutionary Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) was a hero of Bronterre O'Brien's - one of his followers, John Radford, named a son Maximilien after Robespierre. As you will see above, Harris invited John Stuart Mill to address a gathering in celebration of Robespierre - an invitation which Mill declined.
George Julian Harney (1817-1897) was a Chartist who remained active, particularly as a political journalist, after the eclipse of Chartism. He lived and worked in the United States from 1863 to 1877 but returned to England on his retirement and continue to write and commentate from a radical perspective.
Catalogue of the papers of George Edwin HARRIS (1819-1890), O'Brienite activist and propagandist and financial secretary of the International Working Men's Association
Acquired by Andrew Whitehead from Delyse Plunkett, Harris's great-great-granddaughter, in August 2016
A: Copies of letters to Harris sold before August 2016
From Robert Dudley Baxter at 6 Victoria Street, Westminster Abbey, SW - 11 Feb 1871
1ff, says he has no pamphlets on tax but his book on the 'Income of the Nation' is available. Signed 'R.D. Baxter'
Harris's address: 3 Camellia St, Wandsworth Rd, S
Robert Dudley Baxter (1827-1875) was an economist and statistician who wrote widely on tax and national income, including National Income: the United Kingdom (1868).
From Louis Blanc at 13 George St, Portman Square, undated, 1f
'Dear citizen,
'I have received your letter and the card enclosed therein. I will do my best to avail myself of the committee's kind invitation, for which I beg you will be so good as to express to them my heartfelt thanks.'
From Ambrose Caston Cuddon, 73 Falkland Road, Kentish Town, 10 April 1874, 2ff
2ff, signed 'A.C. Cuddon'
'We are going to publish my lectures, at least the first + trust all and I want your advice + assistance. I was last week near unto death, but thank God I am pretty well now, yet half blind + deaf weak + infirm.
'Mr. Remington is bedridden without hope of recovery, his death will be a sad affair to us.
'Mrs. Remington is worn out with fretting anxiety. She sends her love to Mrs. Harris and prays her as soon as she can to come to her assistance. Excuse this abrupt + boggling writing. I cannot clearly see the paper or the pen owing to the badness of my spectacles as well as my eyes.'
From Guiseppe Garibaldi at Prince's Gate, Kensington - 21 April 1864
1ff, signed 'G. Garibaldi'
'Dear Friends, / Pray accept my heartfelt thanks for your sympathy and affection. I shall be happy to see you again on a better occasion, when it will be possible for me to injoy [sic] at leasure [sic] the hospitality of your noble country. For the present I feel obliged to leave England. Again and again my gratitude to you all.'
From Francois-Victor Hugo at ? - 10 April 1864
1ff, in French, signed 'Francois-V. Hugo'
Replying for his father [Victor Hugo] turning down an invitation
From Victor Hugo at Hauterville House, Guernsey - 25 December 1855
2ff, in French signed 'Victor Hugo
Accompanied by an English translation in ? George Harris's hand:
'Very Honourable Coreligionist / We are, my sons + myself, profoundly touched by the cordial invitation which has been transmitted to us by you, in the name of the English democrats of London. It will be a lively regret for us not to pay a visit to you during this season of the year, and in the state of health in which I find myself personally. / Offer, I pray you, our thanks and our regrets to your friends, and to ours. On the 31st December we shall be in heart with you, and we will make, at the same time with you, prayers that the opening year may go out the last year of despotism, and the first year of universal liberty.'
- Victor Hugo at Hauterville House - 30 December 1864
2ff, in French, signed 'Victor Hugo'
Accompanied by an English translation, ? not in the same hand as above, and preceded by underlined note: 'Letter from victor Hugo on hearing of the Death of J. Bronterre O'Brien M.A.'
'Your excellent and touching letter reached me today - Friday 30th Dec. The interment of your much regretted fellow-citizen takes place on Saturday, and our mail from Guernsey does not depart again for England till Monday 2nd January. Judge of the impossibility in which I am of replying in ? ? to your eloquent appeal. I reply to you immediately: - but my letter - and it is for me a profound regret - is sure to reach you too late. I shoud have seized with earnestness this occasion of proving that national differences do not exist for the democrat and of blending a French voice with English voices at the tomb of a man of courage and virtue: progress, democracy and liberty have lost much in losing the valiant and generous man whom you deplore, Let is not however mourn without hope. The dead such as OBrien live, for they leave behind them their example.'
The novelist Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a political exile from 1851 to 1870 and lived in Guernsey from 1855 to 1870.
From William Maccall at Bexley Heath, Kent - 25 September 1869
4ff, signed 'W. Maccall'
Not easily legible letter - Maccall complains that 'my health has been bad and my spirits have been worse', about a possible 'gathering of the clans' in October.
- William Maccall at Bexley Heath, Kent - 6 March 1874
4ff, signed 'W. Maccall'
Another not easily legible letter - about his publication Newest Materialism [1873], 'I suppose that like all my other ventures it will be a failure. So hopeless habitually am I that I cannot be disappointed. Mentions Cuddon, a 'worthy old man'. Discusses the merits of communism - 'I believe the Communists of Paris to be the noblest men at this moment existing in the World'.
From Joseph Mazzini - 15 December 1855
1ff, signed 'Joseph Mazzini'
'Will you be so kind to thank for me the Committee and tell them that through various causes, [ ? ] of which I had expressed in a letter to the chairman of the St Martin's Hall Polish anniversary meeting, I have determined to never take any part in any public manifestation concerning the exiles.'
From Bronterre O'Brien at 32 Liverpool Street, King's Cross, 4 June 1859, 1f, signed 'J.B. O'Brien'
'Many thanks for your prompt compliance with my request. My son also bids me thank you from him.
'I hope you will able to give me a call this evening, when your work is over - I shall be sure to be at home.
'Not a line from Ireland today! - though I had a right to expect communications from two parties. There is evidently a foul conspiracy to cheat me, but how to deal with it at present I know not.'
From John Ruskin, undated, 1f
'You had better not trouble yourself to get more of my books at present - there is no more polit econ. in them. Pre Raphaelitism is on other subjects altogether.
'I hope to get ? some more polit econ, soon.'
From William White at 30 Sherslow Road, Hampstead NW - 14 August 1867
1ff Says a cheaper edition of the Life of Swedenborg will appear soon. 'Many a book I go without, simply because I cannot afford it, and I should never dream of publishers taking pity on me, and making my desire with a gift.' Signed 'Wm White'
B: Copies of printed items sold before August 2016
Front cover only copied of The Last Discourse of Maximillian Robespierre (F. Farrah: 1867) translated by the late James Bronterre O'Brien, published by the National Reform League to mark the 65th birth anniversary of O'Brien
C: Letters to George Harris
From John Bagnall Bebbington at 5 Sidney Rd, Homerton, 15 September 1862, 3ff, signed 'J.B. Bebbington'
'Thanks for your kind letter. I enclose prospectus. The shares are nominally 10/- but the second 5/- in all probability will never be wanted. The 5/- should be forwarded to Mr Adams at 274 Strand.
'I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you at the meeting we propose to call on or about Sunday next. / It will probably be n Sunday evening when I shall take the chair for Mrs Law at her lecture at the Hall of Science + say something publicly about the paper. But Mr Adams will let you know. on the 25th. I am off to Scotland to deliver some lectures.
'I am afraid friend Cuddon's article is rather heavy. Maccall states the doctrines of Individualism with wondrous force - but even in his hands they do not become popular. But I will look it through again in the course of the week. I wish he or some one / would send a good fulminating article anent the late worldly J.B. Caul. I suppose Palmerston and the Holy Ghost are laying their heads together to decide who the next Archbishop is to be. Or is the job over?'
- John Bagnall Bebbington at 5 Sidney Rd, Homerton, 26 June 1863, 4ff but incomplete and so no signature
About a missing article from Harris - who is repeatedly referred to in the third person. 'When reading it over it struck me as a very good and clear paper. I should have used it, but Maccall overwhelmed me so with matter which he insisted on my inserting at once.'
Mentions the Propagandist - 'I have no intention to restart it. It was altogether too disasterous to me. Had I toadied Holyoake and insisted that Bradlaugh was the greatest man of the day I should have done better with it. ... I am inclined to regard the "party of freethought" as having gone to the dogs.' Says his review in issue no. 6 'destroyed the paper'.
John Bagnall Bebbington, a secularist, was the editor of the Propagandist, which he established in May 1862 and stopped publication in October. William Maccall was the main contributor. The Propagandist was sharply critical of Holyoake and what was apparently its final issue took issue with Bradlaugh's performance in a debate with a clergyman.
From Eleanor Boon at 7 South End, Croydon, 30 January 1874
4ff, signed 'Eleanor Boon'
'I was glad to hear from you + Mrs Harris + daughter. Many thanks for all your good wishes - I dare say you felt the parting with my dear husband very much. I assure you my life at present is one of loneliness and great anxiety. I do not expect any news from Martin for another five or six weeks. I will let you know immediately I hear from him.
'I thank you much for conveying the letter to Mr Mottershed he replied and sent me £1- It just came in time for I am dreadfully pinched for means. A few pounds have been subscribed by friends and forwarded by Messrs Rogers & [mark unclear] and really had it not been for this I do not know how I should have got on for poor Martin only left me a few shilling, and all the taxes have come in but with a little pinching I have managed so far.
'Mr Mottershed wrote a rather peculiar letter, he informed me that "I had no occasion to have reminded him of the small debt, as he was troubled with a conscience and always payed [sic] just debts, but as I pleaded (here came in some Latin) which I do not pretend to) however I suppose he meant to say as I pleaded misery + poverty so strong he felt compelled to send something which his troubled conscience would have made rather later had he not heard from me so soon. - Do you know I should rather like to see this gentleman. I fancy he is rather comical or else very thin-skinned but I hope for the sake of his own feelings that he is not the latter for he may not relish my letter in reply - as you know I always speak my mind - Evidently he is very busy putting every thing in good order at Preston - I hope our Nation will not forget to put monuments to the memory of these industrious gentlemen - Oh by the by he stated in his letter he well knew what it was to leave a wife and young children - I told him I hoped he always left her provided for - However, you will excuse my little fun about this gentleman. You and I understand each other on these points, but to be serious - The Bread + Butter question once more arises, my means are nothing, I have a beautiful Rocking Horse worth £2 - 5 - now could it be raffled for do you think? How degraded I feel myself asking these things, to think I should ever come to this - I wonder if there are any more troubled consciences who might put down a shilling each in chance for this beautiful horse Write and tell me what you tink - You know once there was a "Blanket" to be raffled for a much grander scheme + purpose.
'Adieu - Love to Mrs. Harris + daughter'
- from Eleanor Boon to 'Mr + Mrs Harris', from 7 South End, Croydon, 8 March 1874
4ff, signed 'Eleanor Boon'
'I heard from Mr. Boon yesterday morng- he had been very ill and obliged to keep his bed the first week of the voyage - The letter was posted at Cape Town and they stayed there long enough to allow him to see something of the place. He says everything looked so sunny + promising more than he anticipated, but he was bound for Port Elizabeth Algoa Bay and from there would write again which I may expect on the 13th of this month
'If you have any message to him let me know by the 13th as I shall write for the mail on the 15th of this month
'I hope you are all well - I have struggled on so far and anxiously hope to get out in April. ...
'PS Convey the news to as many as you can and send me all messages for him by the 13th of this month
'Mr Boon desires his best regards to all enquiring friends'
From Charles Bradlaugh from Sunderland Villa Park, Tottenham, undated
Single small piece of paper, signed 'Bradlaugh' or possibly 'C Bradlaugh'
'I will take your Reasoner volumes at your own price.'
Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891) was the leading figure in Victorian freethought and Republican movements and was the founder of the National Secular Society. He was an MP for Northampton from 1880 until his death.
On behalf of Lord Brougham from 55 George Square, Edinburgh, undated
Single piece of paper, embossed with address and a coat of arms, scrawled hurriedly:
'Lord Brougham thanks Mr Harris for his letter+ wishes the work of Mr Warren to be sent here by Post.'
Lord Brougham (1778-1868) was a Whig and Reform-minded politician, later the Rector of Edinburgh University
From Luke Burke, all from 5 Albert Terrace, (Church Road), Acton
July 4th 1865, 3ff
'I shall receive with pleasure Dr Ferguson's work and am happy to find that he + yourself have taken so much interest in my views.
'Were I [ ? ] "The Future" as I proposed, in the early part of the year, I should have given Dr. Ferguson's book a very careful review but I presume it will have no hearing in the work which I have for the present [ ? ] for "The Future", viz: the Ethnological Journal. Circumstances seem / to promise a better [ ? ] for this work, + I shall manage to throw into it a large fraction of my views, directly or indirectly.
'I send you a Prospectus, and shall address, to your care, a copy of the 1st number, which I shall be obliged by your sending to Dr. Ferguson when you have an opportunity.
'I do not yet despair of re-establishing "The Future", + it will be easy to do so, if I can make the Ethnological Journal a success.
'I should have been glad to / have seen more of Dr. Ferguson than I did, but we are both very busy.
'I am now residing at Acton, some five miles out of town, when you will have the kindness to direct to me.'
- from Luke Burke, July 12 1865, 4ff
'Your favour + Dr, Fergusons Book have safely reached me. The work I am sorry to say is quite out of the line of the Ethnological Journal. In the Future, I certainly should have noticed it, although I am not myself a spiritualist in this sense of the term.
'I am sorry that you have to rank yourself among the self-sacrificing strugglers, for I know [ ? ? ] well what all that means / However we must be what nature intends us to be, whether convenient or inconvenient. Those who have sympathy must necessarily struggle for others as well as for themselves.
'I am very much obliged to you for your offer to push the Journal, + send you by this Post a copy together with some more circulars. I shall have extreme difficulty in overcoming the preliminary difficulties, working as I am obliged to do almost single handed + cramped at / all points by want of funds, but if I can get over the first six months, I think it will hardly fail of success.
'The Session of the Ethnological Society cloased with the last meeting. It recommences in November. I shall then have great pleasure in sending you tickets for the meetings, or when I see you I will tell you how to [ ? ] afterwards. We are always glad to have visitors. ...
'P.S. I should have been glad to see more of Dr, Ferguson. But I know he was very busy + I did not care to trouble him with my scepticism. I have lent his Book to one of my most intimate + dearest friends who will devour it with the greatest avidity.'
- from Luke Burke, 2 November 1865, 4ff
'I enclose a card of our nights of meeting. I have no introductory cards by me, + so must ask you to present my own card. You will present it not in the Hall, but on the first floor where you will find an attendant to whom you will give it + who will ask you to write yur name in a book with / mine opposite.
'Unless you happen to know me personally you had better ask the attendant to point me out or call me, as I should not otherwise have the pleasure of recognising you.
'After this meeting we can make a proper arrangement for future attendance.
'The Journal has been favourably received / in good quarters but is not moving as fast as I could wish otherwise. My name not being on the cover my old readers with a few exceptions either know nothing about it or do not know of my connection with it. This month however my name is on the cover + as the season has commenced I hope mire vigorous efforts will be made /in its favour. ...'
- from Luke Burke, 19 November 1865, 3ff
'I have been unable to get any cards to send you. They seem to be all exhausted. If you bring your friends with you, nothing is needed but to mention my name, or simply for all of you to sign your names in the Book as introduced by me. I enclose, however one or two cards of my own in case some of your friends / may not be able to come at the same time as yourself' Coming meeting is on the ages of archaeology.
- from Luke Burke, 24 November 1865, 4ff
'Can you coonveniently come + see me on Sunday evening next? I have some questions to ask you relative to somepossible arrangements. If nothing comes of it, we can at least have the pleasure of a chat. Do not stand upon any ceremonies. We are strugglers like yourself and can make all due allowances. / ...
'As this is my business, you must allow me to be chargeable with your travelling expenses.' Gives directions on the North London line or alternatively the Metrpolitan line, with also the option of an omnibus.
- from Luke Burke, 1f, 11 December [no year given] to 'My dear Mr Harris'
'Pray excvuse the liberties I have taken with you MS. Some of the corrections are trifles but I attach importance to the omission of your remarks on the Anthropoligicals.
'Tomorrow is out Ethnological night, but I hope you will not venture there, as it is running risks. I hope you are improving.'
- from Luke Burke, 2ff, undated, to 'My dear Mr Harris'
'Thanks for your letter. I am really grieved to find you have been so unwell. This is a hard time of year to be racketting about + you must take care. I shall send the back nos. to Col. Clinton
'I am very much obliged for the Notice [ ? ] the Journal: with one or two omission it will answer very well indeed. I must omit your remarks on the Anthropologicals for various reasons. I must not be too severe on them. At all events I must hit them myself / and as you are writing this notice in my favour, it would be like taking an unfair advantage of them. I retain your Paper for the moment as I am to [sic] busy to revise it. You shall have it on Monday. I trust you will be well enough next week to come down here, but you must not go about too soon.
'Mrs Burke thanks you for the pattern + is very sorry to hear you are so unwell.'
Luke Burke was an anthropologist and ethnologist. He seems to have first published the Ethnological Journal in 1848 and it was at various times revived.
Colonel Clinton was a contributor to the Reasoner and an advocate of women's suffrage
Samuel Ferguson's volume of poems Lays of the Western Gaels was published in 1865, for which Trinity, Dublin awarded him an honorary doctorate
From Harriet Burton from Paris, 22 August 1872
2ff, signed 'Mrs. H. Bernard Burton'
'Please excuse the temerity which a stranger in a strange land must sometimes use, and which I trust may not be amiss on the present occasion that of writing to you without an introduction - or of introducing myself to you. I am secretary of the I.W.A. of Section 12 of N.Y. and was appointed delegate from the first general congress that met in Philadelphia in July to that which is to meet in London in September.
'Mrs. Woodhull has given me a letter of introduction to you and as I cannot visit London until the time of the meeting of the Congress, I write to ask definitely in regard to the time of the assembly and where it would be best for me to stop on my arrival, also if the friends of the I.W.A. societies entertain foreign delegates +c. +c. during the session of the meeting. I left N.Y. in company with my sister and have now been ten days in Paris hoping to meet Paulina Wright Davis from whom I was expecting to learn everything necessary in regard to the Communists here and also in regard to the General Congress. Any information in regard to the Congress, or to the persons in Paris, or London interested in the great cause of progress for the masses of working men and women will be most thankfully received by one whose life is devoted to the cause of human progress. Please write immediately. ...'
From G.H. Clinton, from Royston, Herts - 2ff, 1 March 1863
'I hope you will excuse me for proposing to call on you last week and, after all, not waiting on you ...' Mentions Mr Coombs and Mrs Marshall.
'Mr Cuddon has forwarded Jos. Warren's letter to me. That man may be a marvel - but he is a very marvel of dimness as to a first step towards Equity, he so vaunts the worth of.'
- from G.H. Clinton, Royston, Herts - 1f, 3 April 186[?]3
'I am very happy to hear a better account of Mrs H. Yor report alarmed me much. ...'
From Emma Hardinge in Chelsea, no year given
8ff signed 'Emma Hardinge' from 'Manor House, 7 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea', 9 December [no year given]
'I see in the Sp. Times of today a statement concerning the publication of a letter of mine in the "National Reformer" - I have not seen that paper & cannot therefore say what letter it may be, but I can recall to mind no letter which would seem likely & to [ ? ] the personal tone which the Editor of / Spiritual Times has thought proper to adopt towards me, I presume that be the one alluded to. If I am wrong you must forgive my mistake - If it is the one in question pray let me suggest to you the exceeding wrong [ ? ] should all [ ? ] of each other & society generally were one to go & print private / letters without the consent of the writers - whoever may have done this has violated the ordinary laws of courtesy most [ ? ] - [ ? ] of us write for publication without an amount of care rarely bestowed on off hand letters - &[ ? ] a strange all is this treatment right.
'I am unaware of ever having deliberately wronged anyone or increased their anxiety consequently. I am / disposed to think the printing of the letter referred cannot have been [ ? ] rather inconsiderately than [ ? ? ] here I must insist that the .
'I forbid its reprinting or reproduction in any form - I do not [ ? ] to make so poor + foolish an affair + [ ? ] to write about to the Editor of the "National Reformer" nor throw up // to him the little foolish spiteful feeling which Mr. Powell displays in seeking to attack me. Heaven alone knows for what cause, as I never had any words with him, always felt kindly towards him, & never had the least idea that he could do otherwise to me - but if Mr. Cooper whom I firmly believe to be a good man chooses to let his paper / be made a vehicle for Mr. Powell + [ ? ] such feelings towards me it is no affair of mine - only I choose justice to be done + am accustomed to require it very firmly justice required that no private correspondence not [ ? ] intended for publication shall be printed without the leave of the writer first obtained. If that / letter has been published it is a breach of ordinary courtesy + ordinary confidence + I now forbid any further use to be made of it,
'I think my dear sir if you feel any personal interest in the Editor of the Sp. Times [ ? ] than [ ? ] your own affair (provided it is your letter that has been printed) that you had better [ ? ] this matter instantly. I don't care or waste / time in the petty quarrels of envy or cliqueship but I won't allow my name or letters to be tampered with.
'Let this matter go no farther. I have lost your address. You must therefore excuse me for writing to you at this place.'
Emma Hardinge or Emma Hardinge Britten (1823-1899) was a key figure in the spiritualist movement who was also political active and was, when in the US, a keen supporter of Abraham Lincoln. She was also a founder member of the Theosophical Society. Her archive is available online.
James Henry Powell was at one point editor of the Spiritualist Times; Robert Cooper was the publisher of the Spiritualist Times
From Samuel ? Harris at [address unclear], 12 March 1860
4ff, opening 'My Dear Cousin', and all but first page written cross-hatched so difficult to decipher
'I take this opportunity to answer yours, which I have been putting off until the present time, but really your case is such that I can hardly form any opinion what is best to be done in the matter. Yours is most assuredly a "hard", "reckless", "Tyrannical", case as ever came under my observation. I hardly know any term bad enough to express it. I cannot imagine for a moment what could induce the villain, whoever it may be. Whether Male, or Female, to have written such an epistle, to have held out hopes to you, that was never to be realised and to cause you so much anxiety and expense, surely my dear cousin a day of Retribution must meet these Polished Villains. Retribution, Justice must assuredly some day overtake them. The Wicked do not always go unpunished no, not even in this world. I am sure My Dear Cousin I offer you my sincerest sympathy one can only hope that happier days are yet in store fr you. Altho your Sun may be Clouded now, it may yet break through with [illegible] splendour, don't be disconcerted there must be most assuredly some recompense for those who every [illegible] Mourn. I am glad [illegible] feel proud that my Sister gave you a reception equal to her means, which you know are very limited, however you appear to be pleased about it, whatever it might have been, and I feel pleased that she has done her duty as far as she is concerned but I have from her since you was down there. With respect to writing to Mr. [illegible], as also gladly do it but, I think a more influential member than myself (of the Family) would do much better than myself. I am alienated from the Whole Fraternity of the family as not one of the family have even deigned to write me a line since I left Cornwall (yourself excepted) now nearly 35 Years since, so you may imagine in what estimation I am held by them, but I bless God I have got as independent a spirit as any of them, and can resent an insult as quick, you may depend upon it. I have left my native country and kindred "without regret", and I suppose never to return again so that you see I am an isolated creature altogether, and perhaps should I go down then I might meet with a worse reception from them than yourself, it appears to me that some people are sent into the world to injure others, however this much I know they are not scrupulous to injure the feelings of others. Can you form any idea who was the writer of the Letter. I don't think much of the reception your "Half-Sister" gave you, but I suppose she is a polished young Lady, and of course [illegible] in [illegible] but I have no doubt my Sister gave you a brief [illegible] of her life. I believe she never speaks to her, and both she and Aunt greatly persecuted her in every shape, but I have to doubt she told you it is now nearly Thirty years since the last time I was in Cornwall, so that I know very little about the Family, but in conclusion I have read your letter over carefully several times since I really can offer no opinion upon it for I am quite lost in amazement of such deceit Hypocrisy, and Villainy that you have been Tormented with, but it is evident that whoever wrote the Letter whether he was a Father in Christ (I should think he was a Father the Devil) well knew your life story. I am sorry to hear that Mrs. Harris and Children are unwell but hope ere this that they are restored to perfect health again. We are all pretty well with the exception of Harriett. She is very very unwell. I don't think she will be long for this world we think she in a conmsumption. The Physician said last week that it would be useless to give her any more medicine for the present, once see what effect that would have upon her Sarah the last letter we had from her was at Tonbridge Wells but thought to be in London she desires her kindest respects to you they are still Travelling she was very well Emily gets on very well we expect her home at Midterm, Mr Sam and Mary send their best respects to cousin Edwin. Sam is learning Algebra and Drawing and Latin but I suppose he will soon leave School. I am thinking to learn him the Trade of Coach Building his mind seems for it. I must now draw to a close as the [illegible] out in a few minutes. My Wife and Children all join in kindest remembrance and believe me to be most truly Yours sincerely'
From Alexander Herzen at 1 Peterboro Villas, Finchely New Road, St John's Wood, undated
1ff, signed 'Alex. Herzen', in French
'Permettez moi par votre intermediare de remercier [illegible] le comite de l'invitation an bas [illegible] - et en [illegible] temps de vous prier de m'envoyer 5 single ticket pour le banquet du 31 Decembre dans le School Room, Cowper St. - je remettrai le [illegible] au selon ou je vous l'enverrai immediatement - comme vous me le dire, / [illegible] mes salutations fraternally.'
Alexander Herzen (1812-70) was a Russian socialist and agrarian populist who lived in exile in London from 1852 to 1864
From[ or on behalf of] Frederick Seager Hunt at 134 Semour Place, Marylebone, 3 July 1886
2ff, scruffy, , 'Dear Sir', signed 'F. Seager Hunt'
'The polling day for the Western Division of Marylebone having been fixed for Monday next the '5' inst. I venture to ask you not to fail to record your vote on my behalf as one this occasion each voter will be of real importance.
'The extraordinary crisis through which the country is passing and the consequent necessity for the voice of the electors being heard upon the great question of the hour causes me to make this appeal.'
Frederick Seager Hunt (1838-1904) was a Conservative polititician elected MP for Marylebone West in 1885 and re-elected in 1886 and 1892.
From Ernest Jones at ? , 20 November 1852
1ff, signed 'Ernest Jones'
'My Dear Harris, / 1, Your mother in law can remove any furniture bona fide her own property, before Rentday, / 2, you are liable to Wood for all the Rent that Barnes may not have paid to him during your occupancy. / 3, No Bill of Sale protects against distress for Rent. / 4, I hope to see you on Tuesday evening at 8 p.m. at Iron's Coffee House, 118 Broadwall, Stamford St, Blackfriars Road. Pray don't fail.'
- Ernest Jones at 55 Cross Street, Manchester, 6 December 1862
2ff, signed 'Ernest Jones'
'I was very glad to hear from you, + in reply wishing you every good wish of the season, regret I have no copy of the ? to send you - but it was published by Routledge, + is now to be had there at one shilling per volume. / It must have been a mistake of some one in Mr Routledge's office, that caused your messenger to return without a copy.'
- Ernest Jones at Manchester, 12 ? January 1865
2ff, signed 'Ernest Jones'
'I am truly sorry I cannot meet your views either by subscribing, or by writing an appeal - + for the following reasons; the first, because I really cannot afford to subscribe, or I would with pleasure; the second, ?also because I do not know enough of the ? history of Mr O'Brien's latter years to make the appeal an effective one. The appeal, I know, could not be in better hands than your own.'
Ernest Jones (1819-1869) was a prominent Chartist and a Manchester member of the IWMA.
From J. Baxter Langley, 29 [?? July] 1858
1f on headed paper of The People's Paper / The London News', signed 'J Baxter Langley'
'By some oversight the copy of your last week's letter is mislaid. I believed I had given it to the printers but he cannot find it. This is my explanation for the omission of the first part.'
- from J. Baxter Langley, 30 July 1858
3ff on headed paper of The People's Paper / The London News', signed 'J Baxter Langley'
'I return your letter to Mr. Jones; I have, of course treated it as confidentially shown to myself only. I trust + believe that there is no foundation for the latter suspicions. I am obliged to you for your expressions of confidence. The course I have to pursue is a very difficult one. I am desirous of showing the most even-handed justice to all - but some persons will take advantage of my fairness while others actually condemn me for my impartiality. I may remark in passing that this remark is true of Mr E. Jones with reference to your first letter wh., he considered, ought not to have been inserted. I believe in a fair field + no favour - + no limit to discussion of principles - with a careful regard to the exclusion of personalities. - With reference to the movement for Reform + the rousing of the popular apathy on the subject - you ? though you will "individualize" may do us some service. You need not swear by our creed or identify yourself with us unless you can do so without sacrificing your principles. We may cry that the enemy are seeking to disunite us and destroy our hopes - let us at any rate afford them no help. If you cannot fight in our lines - pray let us look upon you as a guerilla chief in amity.'
John Baxter Langley (1819-92) was a prominent radical and adult educationist.
From John Stuart Mill at Blackheath, 12 April 1864
2ff, signed 'J.S. Mill'
'I beg you to make my acknowledgements to the Council of the National Reform League for the honour of the invitation; but though there is reason to believe that Robespierre was better than his reputation, that many acts in which he had no share have been imputed to him in order to screen others, and that the men by whom he was overthrown were many of them worse men than himself, he yet participated in, and justified, too many atrocities and his name is the symbol of too much that disgraced and ruined the French Revolution to allow of my joining in any demonstration in honour of him.'
From M. ? Murrin of 7 Lower Uxbridge St, Notting Hill, 17 June 1863, black bordered paper, 2ff
'Dear Friend
'this Morning I recvd a letter from mr William and he sent me £2: 10s and if you will be so kind as to answe [sic] his letter and return him thanks and you know what to tell him better than I do Dear Friend I hope you and Mrs Harris and all / of your family is quite well and when I see you I will [ ? ] you for your trouble ...'
From William ? Neal no date or address
4ff signed 'William Neal' to 'Dear Harris', address and date torn out roughly with loss of text on reverse [marked by XXX]
'The superscription of your letter was so like the hand of another friend that I was in hope it was really his - I say "in life" - because, to tell you the truth - I have been induced to lend him my acceptance for £30 due in about 10 days - and, as he is now in Scotland, I am somewhat anxious lest he should "forget" to make provision for "that sum". If he dont / XXX bout the "last XXX the casual's XXX - back! - XXX ding my disappt. felt a consolation in hearing from you - knowing that in you - I have a true + sympathising friend, let whatever may befal me! - And really, I get sometimes, so dreadfully suicidal, that you need not be surprised to hear of a " [ ? ] guest" on my miserable corpus, - my present mode of life, and prospects being to the last degree, unsatisfactory. I am utterly sick of this place - Moreover - changes are about to occur - and I fear my interests will be totally overlooked altho' / I have wasted nearly 30 years in altogether useless occupations, so far as myself or the world is concerned! Yet I know not what to look to for a subsistence, and feel conscious of a manifest inability+ unfitness to struggle with the hard facts of the world. -
'I am selfishly boring you with my own affairs - without any reference to your's - so will stop short. I trust you will succeed in your wishes at Brighton, I should probably have gone thither as an excursionist yesterday - Let me know when you can, how long you are likely to remain there. I have never seen Brighton, and you being in the / place would be an additional inducemnt for me to pay it a visit. -
'I wish you would endeavour to ascertain what prospect there is for a lodging house about 2nd or 3rd [ ? ] at Brighton - I know a widow who has thoughts of trying one there - and any hnts would be of service to her. I should like to know if there are many houses to let - amount of rent - average size - + c - and what is usually paid for furnished apartments - whether they let in the winter + c - I should feel obligated by the information.
'I have seen Taylor recently - and he promised to pass some evening last week with me - but didn't - He asked very kindly after you. Cuddon does not call - why I know not. Farewell, for the present - and believe me, ever ...
'[on front page] PS. Have you seen any notice of Burke's 'The directorate' in Burke's papers? I think I told you I had sent a copy to him for ///'
William Neal may be the London tailor of that name who wrote to Robert Owen about an establishment conspiracy to kill him in 1834
From John Orris, from 146 Albany St, Regents Park, 11 July 1865, 2ff
Your note of yesterday came duly to hand, and its kindly atmosphere was felt and appreciated by us all. You will pardon me for using the word atmosphere. I like spirit better, but atmosphere slipped from my pen, and I let it stand: for there is a mighty pholosophy [sic] of atmospheres, yet to be understood.
'I cannot at this moment, do more than say, Deo volonte. We shall all be happy to accept your kind invitation to tea, o, Sunday evening week, next. Meantime I trust your little escapade into the country will refresh you in mind and body. My dear friend, there / is a great work to be done in our day, for our humanity, by those who have the insight, and the largeness of outward view to see the real issues of the hour, and the courage to meet them.
'For years in America, I have felt this, but the mere pressure of the foot on English ground, has but sadly deepened the impression. The revolution took its rise in America, but I cannot think it is to end there - nor do I think, the real revolution in society which must come has much more [ ? ] begun in my own country. Trusting we shall yet speak together of many things. I close with kinds regards to your wife + family. ...'
On behalf of Sir Morton Peto, from 9 Great George St, Westminster, 15 August 1862, 1f
Encloses a cheque for £10 as instructed by Peto 'as a Contribution to the funds of the Working Men's International Committee ...'
Sir Morton Peto (1809-1889) was an enterpreneur and at the time of this note was the Liberal MP for Finsbury
From Felix Pyat, 'au citoyen Harris' from London, 22 December, ?1855
1f, signed 'Felix Pyat'
'Cher Citoyen
'J'ai recu la cordiale invitation que m'avez fait l'honneur de m'addresser au nom du comite. Si je n'etait oblige de quitte Londres pour quinze jours, je serais heuereux d'aller m'asseoir a votre table, de prendre part a vos agapes republicaines a votre communion democratique. Mais n'importe! Malgre mon absence force, ma pensee sera avec vous quand meme, en ca de fete au le peuple anglais traiter a aussi les allies en les hotes les proscrit, comme l'aristocratie traite les hots et allies les proscripteurs.
'Salut et fraternite'
Felix Pyat (1810-1889) was a prominent French socialist who spent about twenty years living in exile in England.
From J. Russell, Covent Garden Theatre, 14 August 1867, 1f
'... I have placed your name on the free list for yourself + friend during the concerts'.
From [name illegible, perhaps Williams], 8 Fig Tree Court, 24 December 1863, 3ff, paper with black border
'Madam,
'You need not apologize for troubling me; I am very sorry for you + will do what I can for you. I have sent your letter to / the Company + asked them to carry out the recommendation of the [ ? ]
'I will also raise your case to friends.
'I send you a trifle out of my own pocket ...'
'/ [As a PS] Can you send me a short account of your case and your condition, number of family and ages, written in plain simple language, without attempting the use of fine language; excuse this hint.'
Letter from James [?] Sambrick, from [?] Trebawith, 11 April 1860, 3ff
'I dare say you have been expecting to here [sic] from me before this the reason of delay is I have been anxious to find out the writer of this [ ? ] letter I have no doubt but it is a feign hand I sent it to Mullion to a friend of mine to have his opinion I have also had other opinions We all seem to be of one man as to the writer
'Pray who gave you my address when you were at Mullion have you ever had / any communication with Mr Nicholas of that Place if you have what did he say to you have you got his hand writing if you have not I will send it to you if you think Proper then you can compare and judge for yourelf the man whoever did it is a bad man it seems to me like double revenge + spite on the Part1st exposing the dead + trying to vex + agravate [sic] Mr. Shepherd + to fill your mind with anxiety Put you to expence [sic] + c and try to Put the trck on me I will use every means in my Power to find out the chap
'I don't know that you can blame Mr Shepherd so much no doubt but he was vexed / you say on your last some Parson have told youI wished to have [ ? ] you when at St [?]Kekrene I am quite shure [sic] I have never said any such thing to anyone believe me there are bad People who interest themselves in this matter to do mischief'
From Josiah Warren, from Cliftondale, Mass., 21 April 1863
4ff, signed 'Josiah Warren'
'Dear Harris
No indeed! "the zephyr cord" has not "cracked" nor given any signs of weakness but I have been very much absorbed of late in a certain enterprise necessary to our purposes, that has left me scarcely time to eat, but I got through with it only yesterday at the same time I got your kind contribution of "the Commonwealth of the 28 March. What smart little sheet of the 1st March (having lost the paper I cannot get the name) I am very glad indeed to see such an approach to the tract system, and especially to see that you have another earnest [word indistinct] in the work! We have no such competent writers [words indistinct] in this country on our themes.
No, I have not received any thing even any paper from you since you have from me! On some the papers sent, I saw that you had directed them to Cliftondale, Boston: this may possibly account for it - leave the Boston out and direct as above. It is equally a long time since I have had any thing from friend Cuddon but I suppoe that like me he feels that the talking is pretty much done up between us and that now we want the practical application of our themes.
I am learning something all the time: for the last forty years I have been puzzled to know which was the best end to begin at to get our tangled skein into order - it is so large and has so many / straggling ends I could not select the right one to ensure a smooth regular run, but I have, I think found it now, in individuality itself. That is, as we cannot think of more than one (individual) thing at the same time, our most successful way will be to present only one idea or one element of our proposed revolution to the public or to students at once: but that idea should really be the first one in order - it should be the germination of what ought to follow, this I think, is the Principle of Equivalents. If this idea is once well understood and made familiar, each mind will almost arrive naturally to all those conclusions on other subjects, which, if presented by us before they had arrived at them themselves step by step, would be rejected by them as Utopian visions. So I have concluded to travel among the people and say to them, "I have brought you a new subject, nut it is of such magnitude I shall not attempt to explain t all at once. It requires time and study on your part, but I will say that it strikes at the root of all speculations on land, provisions, fuel, building materials, Labor and everything else It give rise to a new kind of money setting aside the common money by degrees until it shall become worthless. It leads to the investment of every one who desires it, with a home of his or her own, and self employment and pecuniary independence. It leads to laying out new towns and cities where the land shall be bought and sold for it cost adding only pay for the labor of buying and selling as other useful labor is paid for by the day or hour. Many other great results which naturally follow which I cannot now make plain to you: indeed the statement of them would only bewilder you, but I will put into your hands a few tracts explaining the first step or principle which leads to these results and I invite you to take this principle into your keeping and under your special care and criticism; and, with pen or pencil in your hand, and write down your thoughts as you proceed and let me have the privilege of reading them, and perhaps publishing them, and when this principle has become familiar to you I will then present another and then another till the five or six new elements of social life have become familiar and then you will be prepared to regulate your intercourse by your intelligence. The conclusions that I have drawn from these principles after forty years study and experiments would appear very visionary to you if presented now and therefore withhold all opinions; I simply invite your attention to facts in nature which you will find mixed up in every transaction of your lives, but which from the very fact of their constant occurrence, like the inhaling of the atmosphere or the circulation of the blood or the value of water, the value of them as vital elements has been overlooked.
Something like the foregoing I would say to a new audience and then I would distribute among them the tract or tracts explaining the Principles of Equivalents / and would ask them to excuse me from talking any further but again invite them to study and try to understand that principle and let me know what they see in it, if they see any thing, and then I would go to a new place and do the same thing.
I am thoroughly satisfied that it is entirely useless or at least inexpedient to enter into any controversies whatever about this matter. We always reason from what we already know or think and what people already know or think is of no use in this great matter. They must get new data - new premises to reason from, before their conclusions can be trusted or listened to with any benefit.
The "polytechnicon" works entirely to my satisfaction: I look at it as the true starting point from which all else will radiate in the right times, places and proportions. Friend Cuddon, I should think, would be just the right one to commence a branch and we could immediately interchange valuable services.
The Voice will not be heard after this week. It is going down. We are going into the tract system. Tracts distributed gratuitously are not poisoned by the mercenary taint.
The enterprise I alluded to in the beginning of this letter is printing from writing, instead of setting and owning type. The first work (except my music work) is a system of shorthand or phonography that is to be put to press today. I send a page proof.
The Investigator I consider behind the age and think it worth little trouble to write for it. I am taking notes which may be published some time but I don't know: but we must begin with the practical and let theories follow facts.
I shall send a tract now and then, as they may come out. Please show this to friend Cuddon so that he may know that I am still alive notwithstanding so long an interval of dead silence.
I should like to see all the products of Mr. Jones in your admirable little paper. Could you send me a few more of that number of the 1st of March? I should like to distribute them.
Fraternally yours'
- ? Josiah Warren in the US, 26 May ? 1871
2ff letter, signature and most of address cut out as if for an autograph book, with loss of text.
'... is so long since any word has passed between us, I must write something even if it is of little or no consequence. But we never know what is of consequence till we learn the consequences.
I regret I did not know of the celebration of Robert Owen's birth day in season to have sent a few words in deep sympathy with the occasion; but I send it now and must ask you to give it or send it into the proper hands. I have addressed to Mr. Dare, but not knowing his address, cannot send it directly to him.
Thanks for your punctual forwarding of those valuable papers - when I have read them, I send them to valuable correspondents. I sometimes think that one "Workman" is not worth sending to you and wish I had something better. I have lately sent you a couple of pamphlets on Money, Railraods, Mines, Land, Taxation +c, +c, and will send more if you wish. I could not send them to the "Republican" because they give no address. I glory in the "Land + Labour Leagues and the "International Associations". They have shown more real statesmanship in the two past years than all the governments in the world have ever shown!
We had an interesting Convention in New York City two weeks ago where most of the active Labor and Land Reformers acted good parts. "The New England Labor Reform League" as far as they have [five lines of text affected by excision of signature on the other side] formulas so new, require to lay in the mind like a seed in the ground and take time to germinate and expand. At the Convention in New York, much to my surprise, a gentleman, (Mr. Wm. Hanson, of Almeira, St. Y.) who had read my works, but who I had never before seen) got up an [sic] announced to the audience that it was only about ten months that he had read my works and Heywood's "Yours as Mine"; but that they had given him the light he had all along been wanting -
He then went on and gave such a clear and telling description of the Cost principle and its practical applications in every day life that the audience seemed intensely interested, and although I had intended to speak to the same purpose, he had done the work so completely, and even so much better than I could, I had nothing to do but to thank him most heartily and to sanction all he had said. This is what I mean by "natural Co-operation", or Cooperation with Combina [text missing] self so efficiently illustrated so [txt missing]
Since I have written this last [text missing] letter has been handed me from an energetic correspondent in the West, saying "the more I think of your plans the more I like them, and believe them to be the surest to secure success. I visited a community out west and told them wherein they would fail (according to your views) their president said I was correct and they were then about to break up. "Now," (he says) I think I can control from 5 to 50000 acres of choice lands, which I could sell on good terms to industrious people, and if you will help to get the people, I will secure the lands where we can build up a city of stength" +c, +c. If you agree to this, I will go to work at once and secure the lands without delay." Of course I will co-operate with him to the best of my ability on one condition: that having secured the land he shall bind himself, heirs and assigns to keep the price of the lands fixed and unaltered for ten years. excepting taxes and other "costs". Labor bestowed, not to be paid above ---- [sic] pounds of corn per hour. When these preliminaries are settle you shall hear from me again.
There are two other propositions before us for settling colonies in the south.
Let friend Cuddon see this if convenient, and make any other [word indistinct] of you may think best. ...
P.S. Read the note addressed to Mr. Dare before sending it to him.'
Note re Working Man, 1861, 1f
'335 Strand July 31st 1861
'A friendly meeting of the supporters of the "Working Man", cooperative Newspaper will be held on Friday evening Augt. 2nd 1861 at the office of Mr G.S. Ireland'
'The Editor would be glad of the company of Mr Harris.
'1/2 pst 8'
Letter from correspondent with illegible signature [? Jobubaus Agneau], 4ff, 25th May 1872 [[? could this be John Sketchley who was a contributor to the International heard and had close links with Germany]]
On black-bordered paper, addressed to Harris at 3 Camellia St, Wandsworth Rd and from 8A, Aulage, Heidelberg, Germany
'I have this morning received your letter of the 19th instant.
'You are one of the right sort + no mistake that you are.
'As how my International Herald pleased you so much I do not doubt you will "rejoice evermore" over No 8 which I hope to get this afternoon, that is to say, if Riley is as good as his word - I have primed him / handsomely.
'He seems to me, from his letter, + public writings, to be a "trump" + I hope you + others who read his invaluable paper will send round the hat ] ? ] the Internationals so as to enable him first to keep his weekly paper going, + next to make it a daily.
'He has told me everything. I have helped him to the / fullest extent of my power, + shall always write for him gratis. but he + I cannot do everything ourselves.
'He can show you some photographs of one. I shall send him your letter in a few days + yu can tell him whether or not you want any of it published by him.
'Show him this letter + he will give you a copy of 'Bold Musings' + a copy the 2nd Edition - his Edition ( [ ? ? ] ) of 'An Appeal / to Reason'.
'I consider myself hence-forward a Shepherd [ ? ] International to fold them in the fold of reason. I am willing to be chief shepherd until some other better man is found, in which case, I will abdicate in his favour + become his faithful 'colley' (Scotch) dog.
'The world is as mad now as it was when Shakespeare said 'All England was mad' in Hamlet.
''Go to' un'marry' as Shakespeare should have said
'Yours [ ? ] otherworldly'
According to the catalogue listing Charles Bradlaugh's library, Bold Musings: an attempt to create fundamental changes in public opinion was an anonymous wrk, unpublished, of 1871
[in margin of final page] 'P.S. I written Shittezen (Citizen) in Old Jewry that New Jerusalem for [ ? ] adieu (Reason comfort you) J.U.A.'
'[additional note as if a PS on front] You may do what you like with this letter.'
Letter from correspondent with illegible signature [? Mary S ...], no address or date
2ff, on thin tissue paper
'Your interesting letter is received. I am unable to answer it, or to judge of your conditions - that a man so able in many ways as you evidently are, should be out of work, is a very painful fact to me - but this country is full of painful facts more especially in the industrial sphere - i pray that you may find productive occupation, most earnestly I am still unable to look forward to any time of seeing you - The little help I could give is where I cannot get / at it yet, and on the whole I feel very sad for you - If I get health I shall try to see you and be of some use If not I can only pray for you - With love to the dear wife and daughter from truly your friend ...
'PS I have a letter from Dr F - He is better in health and has an office under Government, has been to Philadelphia + lectured and gave Powells family the proceeds of his Lectures - which was a God send -Hs charities nearly "swamp" him -'
Two letters (incomplete) from an unidentified correspondent [perhaps John Mills] writing from 217 North 2nd Street, Philadelphia
- dated 21 November 1872 and to 'Citizen Harris', 4ff
'I received yours of the 6th day 11th month - 72 - by the style of date I judge - you belong to the Friends - (Quakers so called) of all events - I realize you as my brother in the cause of humanity - he who shares his cup & crust with a stranger from a strangers Land - belongs to the school - of humanity - and though - poor in this worlds goods - is rich in soul - by the enjoyment of relaizing he has done the best he could to aid his fellow beings.
'for which I give you credit in the case of - Willm. West - I received - one letter from West - and communicated - immediately to Col Blood - Woodhull & Clafins New York - sending Col Blood the letter of Wests - so that he should read the statements therein contained - thog [sic] West had not received any remittance / 2 from him - I requested - Col. Blood to return the letter to one - which he did - after keeping it about 2 weeks - and all the communication I got from Col. Blood - was - Wests has returned - and I suppose he will write to you in full
'In relation to sending West money Col Blood says -
'To Citizen John Mills
'I am very sorry that it is impossible - for me to render Citizen West - any assistance
'I had some promised [ ? ] failed - our means to help in the cause were exhausted when we got his passage over, Money - that was promised was witheld after he left and I cannot get it. I hasten to say this much and will write you more another time when I have read Mr Wests Letter
'J.H. Blood
'- You can see by the above that the promise - to West was not fulfilled /
'but West in his return furnished the Federal Council in New York with his report - but they did not take any action on it to publish it - - A few days [ ? ] to the Meeting of our Sec 26 Nov 4 West forwarded to me his report of the proceedings of the Hague Congress - it was read before the Section - and held over for further consideration - I wrote to West - to get him to write to D.E Cronin. Editor of the Binghampton Times N.Y - a Lecture of Cronins I forwarded to you - to endeavour to get Cronin tp rint it - a [ ? ] which - I have not yet received any reply -
'The Reports of the proceedings of the Hague Congress - had all been published in the New York Papers - long before West returned and the Federal Council in New York - at its last sitting in Septr - rejected the action of that Congress - in bestowing power in the Genl Council to suspend Sections and Federation /at will, An official letter states the views of the N.Y Fedl. Council - appeared in the Le Socialiste - a French Paper - published by Sec 2 of NY - - I shall be in possession next week of - the translation of the same and will in due time forward it to you - the Members of Section 26 claim the right of the [ ? ] in all work pertaining - to the propaganda of our ideas - bearing in mind that the work done is in accord with the general principles of the I.WA - - if we War against - the Despostisms [sic] of Governments - - we must be very careful - in our new movement that we do not erect a despotism of our own making - Carl Marx and his coworkers we look upon as men who want to rule, not to work and the moving elements in sec 26 - ar men who for more than 20 years to my knowledge have hauled - for the Labour Question for freedom for the slave in fact / ' [nothing further]
William West was one of the leading figures in the dissident Section 12 of the IWMA in New York
Col. J.H. Blood was the husband of Victoria Woodhull, the leading figure in Section 12
- dated 28 December 1873 to 'Citizen Harris' 6ff
'The Year of 73 is fast drawing to a close - has the Worlds progress advanced any by our labors I trust it has, although unseen by us in the work done. Yet I hope not unflet - by others - for whom the work was done - of the I.W.A Movement - I cannot speak very flatteringly - the Lamp is still burning with us and now and then a gleam - a flicker of light is seen to burst forth - amidst - the noise and howlings - of the working class - among those - who - when - Work is plenty - and times (so called) good never utter a phrase of discontent - never ut a shoulder to the wheel to get the Labor waggon out of the rut - into which it is sticking fast - for the benefit of Monopolies -
'Yet as I.W.A.'s - our voices are heard - - and munitions given to those - who howl when bad times / 2 come to their doors - to the good mass of the Working Masses who never - hear - or care to hear the truth - relative to conditions which surround them - if the Vortex of Poverty - into which he may - as by our Jay Cooke process - - of manipulating Railroad and Bank Stock - be suddenly plunged - - tis - weary work George to engage - but still for that tis good to do the work for we realize within ourselves the fact - that the day will dawn - when better, purer and holier conditions - for man will exist - they [sic] day will dawn - in spite of Priests - National Rulers in the thoughtless - head - of the unthinking Majority of the producing masses - - The Physical Sciences - have riven asunder the supposed - everlasting bonds which held society - in its supposed ultimate and perfect mode of action - the world of thought cannot be chained - so easy as is the lightning - the unseen forces of nature - are continually pushing onward - the great movement of human progress no place for standing still - no room / 3 space or nook in the past for mankind - to retrograde into and hide themselves - therefore let us watch - let us work - for light more light to enable us to see how to preform our task, aright for the good of all - present and future
'- I am now becoming interested in the Grange, The Farmers Movement against Railroad - and all other Monopolies - - these Granges - (social organizations of Men & Women) for the Women are included - are beginning to be felt to be a power here - mearly - every State in the Union has its State Grange - for the government - direction of the Granges - in each state - I hope much of good - from this - for the future of the whole people of the United States - it I hope will prove a death blow to Railroad Monopply - and the whole train of monopolies that follow in its wake
'The next movement here which devolved on us to get on foot and in marching order - is the combination - of all the various trades - Manufactures and Artizans / 4 We need organisation here as much as you do in the Old World Our Republic - is but a poor exhibit of Justice in all our dealings - with each other - the same Law of producing and distributing wealth - has - governed here - as has governed with you - hence what use to expect other than the same results - the few growing immensely rich - the many - becoming - poorer and more dependent - on the Capitalists - whose wealth has been created out of their honest toil and arduous Labor
'Our Lands - here have been voted away - by the Millions of acres to Railroad speculators - and yet the people - in the mass - do not see the evil - do not know that tis a crime for a man - or a body of men - or a National Government - to give and bestow, in perpetuity - the right - to hold and possess - any of the primary elements - which are necessary for mans support- at all times in all ages the uses - only of the elements, belong to mankind - but the elements as a whole belong - to the uses of all /
'5 And now Bro George allow me to call your attention to another subject -
'On July 29 of this Year I forwarded to W.H. Riley 282 Strand - Editor if Interl herald - a Postal order for 5 dollars to be made payable at the nearest Post Office Department to that locality the No. of the Order was - 5577 - issued by the Phila Post office - I have never heard from him -I requested Riley to send me 6 copies of Martin Books Work - How to Nationalize the Commons & Waste Lands also - 2 or 3 - of John Stuart Mills Biography - if I recollect alright - twas a small cheap pamphlet - the remainder of the 5 dollars to be place to my credit as subscriptions to the Interl Herald - when time serves you enquire of Riley - about this matter for I have never received the Works in question - which I wanted to circulate among some of our wiseacres here - to give them a little more lighthen I know they poss / 6 I have I believe forwarded to you regularly the Weekly of Woodhull & Claflins - realizing as I do - that you relish the diet therein contained - as you remarked - tis the most fearless outspoken Paper we have on the progressive track - and the day will come - when - Victoria C. Woodhull will not be sneered at as she is now by many professed reformers - Thos Paine has been ignored by the great majority here - as a benefactor to this country - alas for their weakness Jefferson - Washington Paine and others - who toiled in the Revolution - for a good Government never dreamt of the damnable selfishness that reigns - over this country as the present time - in the shape of Monopoly - greed for riches - and the harvesting of the products of the toil of the masses who produce all the wealth
'Now I want you to forward to me - 2 copies of Boons [ ? ] 1 copy - Constitution of Switzerland /' [nothing further - last page seems more hurriedly written and last para in a much fainter ink]
W.H. Riley was the editor of the International Herald
Martin Boon was an O'Brienite pamphleteer, member of the Genral Council of the IWMA and friend and colleague of Harris
Victoria Woodhull was a key figure in Section 12 of the IWMA in New York, a spiritualist, proto-feminist and candidate for the US presidency
Letter from unidentified correspondent, Chatham Place, Liverpool, 23 June 1875, 4ff, incomplete
'I was glad to see the well known hand once more I will answer your questions at once + gossip after
'Mr Wilson! I have my doubts whether he is in the land of the living but when I saw him last it was in Chiswell St at the Type Foundry (Caxton's)
'Riley! I have lost sight of him as you have. I am almost afraid to inquire for these hnest enthusiastic menthey are overwhelmed v=by the lfoods of selfishness + starved of [ ? ] by the ice of indifference adound the,
'Boon! I wrote to him but it is [ ? ] if my letter ever reached him.
'One question. What hope is there? Every working man who is saving him 10 20 50 pounds is looking forward to their third heaven of compound interest. + as they are the / cleverest + shrewdest they are a power against us
'Interest! Interest!! Interest!! + its Mephistopholes, Compound Interest, looking at history I see that Usury has been the active agent in bringing Empires + Nations to ruin Thru them National Debt's mortgaging the labour of generations unborn. but Our National Faith + c + c. Look at Spain. never will the Spaniard recover till they / boldly repudiate + throw the foreign loan mongers overboard You and I paying interest on the gold lace of Marlboroughs officers + o the Cloudsley [ ? ] 74s sort in the Scilly Islands. look at Turkey borrowing money at 12 Pcent to pay Interest. + M.Ps calling on us to interfere to get them their dividdends + then that Foreign Loan Committee [ ? ]to send out fleets + armies to get in their dividends! as f'
Letter from Alfred [surname illegible] from 11 Millman St, Bedford Row, 1f, undated but probably December 1855
'Dear Citizen,
'I will certainly attend the new year's eve soiree to which you have had the kindness to invite me. Nothing can please me more than to meet with you in order to push on the alliance of the peoples I should say the alliance of the oppressed; for, unfortunately we are not (the exiles) the only oppressed people in England. let us hope that the end of the oppression shall come for all in the same time.
'[ ? ], Dear Citizen, my best [ ? ] to the members of your committee.'
Letter from John [surname illegible] from 9 South Terrace, Halton, Hastings, 18 September 1862, 2ff
'I am so racked with [ ? ? ] that all criticism of poetry is out of question completely. I should condemn most sweepingly, of course.
'I most write to tell you I have accepted the invitation of the Huddersfield people to be their minister for twelve months, + that I leave here on Saturday. That will make a visit to Fairlight impossible.
'The Fitzwilliam Street Church / is the name of my future place. That will find me after the 71st Sunday in October, when I shall be happy to renew correspondence.
'For the present, farewell!'
The Unitarian church on Fitzwilliam Street in Huddersfield opened in 1854 - it is now a Roman Catholic church serving the Polish community
Single sheet part of a letter, undated and unsigned, 2ff
'exactly know when the shoe pinches - It is the Land ( [ ? ] not on the horizon yet) + we are now on the eve of a great revolution, similar to 1832 when the Borough mongers went to the Wall - Let Gladstone or any other recognised leader throw down the gauntlet to the Landlords + you would soon see - what you wd. seoon ss Let him "burn his boats" declare war against Landlords + they -
'I am wonderful as to health owing to this warm winter.
'Captain Maxse has sent me some 20 of his Social Revolt. He is a first rate man but in [ ? ] "dull as the [ ? ? ] that grows on [ ? ] Bank" /
'Can you put up the folk then to inciting the [ ? ] Tax people to go in for a Land Tax - { ? ? ] might go. + old Bright have his cheap Breakfast table
'This high range of Prices. You see doubtless that they reduce all fixed charges in [ ? ] The National Debt is 100 millions lighter (+ Interest thereon). The Fundholder goes with his £3. 10 - into the National Stock + finds he gets less beef, bread, clothes, fuel All necessities - less luxuries - [ ? ] of all other fixed charges
'100 millions of sovereign (Australian gold) accounts for Gladstones boasted surplus+ no permanent legerdemain, but I have sent all this to RH'
Captain Frederick Maxse (1833-1900) was a naval officer turned radical liberal and published The Causes of Social Revolt in 1873
Note, largely illegible, on House of Commons notepaper
Signature perhaps of N. Kendall - note appears to be an apology for not responding promptly to a letter
D: Letters by or apparently in the hand of George Harris or his wife
Letter (or draft letter) in Harris's name to an unnamed woman
Addressed 'Dr Madam', from '116 Gt Dover Street, Southwark, SE' dated 11 December 1865. Extensively corrected - signed 'G.E. Harris'
'Yours of the 9th has come to hand this morning. The letter alluded to is the one you addressed to me. If, my dr. Madam, I have been guilty (as yr. letter implys) of a "breach of courtesy", I trust I have not the less served "Truth and Justice". Moreover, I should not have used that letter otherwise than a private one had you not said in it "Sir, you can make what use you please of this letter."
'As to my want of sympathy with "strangers" coming to these shores I can leave that to the judgment of others - those whose noble spirits have bade them suffer exile for years past. As regards Mr Powell or the Spiritual Times, I have nothing in particular to do with either. I have merely known Mr. P. for many years past and that is all - I have also come into contact with him at the so-called Spiritual Lyceum & if I have not and, perhaps, can not speak, or think or act, or view { ? } as the more fortunate spiritualist does, I have ever attempted to do my best as becomes a common simple fellow. Mr Cooper (I highy respect & c) is a man whose nature will win him esteem from all { ? ] seeks. And mow my dr. Madam, what can I do to prevent Mr Powell { ? } his individuality in the matter? I regret to hear you say he is actuated by vindictiveness. I will see him today and speak to him - but as I take your present communication as a private one and shall treat it as such, I will you give me permission to shew it to him at a future hour as as to l as a greater inducement to him for with-olding further publication? I'll wait your reply to this. I am sincerely grieved if by inadvertence on either side I have caused you pain, and am willing to allow myself to be considered the head and front of the offending, but whilst I do this I must not hold to too great reverence for mere "courtesy", knowing there is a greater and a sterner work to be done, [ ? ] you my success.'
Letter from Harris to Mr McArthur
Single sheet, addressed from 22 Camillia Street, Wandsworth Road, S, date 10 Septemebr 1868 and signed 'Geo. Harris'
'One of your Canvassers having favored one with a call (this morning) soliciting my suffrage in your interest at the approaching election, and. as at present, I withold pledging myself to any candidate, I have taken the liberty of intruding upon you and to canvas your opinions upon the enclosed address. I have your address, and from its general tenour feel assured you will not withold vouchsafe giving the accompanying address your [ ? ] conisderation, and as candidly point out tome whatever errors + fallacies you perceive in it calculated to prevent the efficient motion of a true [ ? ] economy or to contravene he era of political Justice? I am glad to find that the old party cry of "taxation without representation is tyranny", has nearly passed away, soon, it shall have gone altogether. But as in the past, so in the future, this must be a thing of growth, of development - of "education" in its widest sense. At the same time I express my belief that "representation" without a correct knowledge of the essentials of what constitutes the fundamental basis of an equitabe state of social well-being is "tyranny" also. I would the time for canvassing had gone, and that men would begin to know their duties and do it. ...'
William McArthur (1809-1887) was a businessman and Liberal politician who was first elected to Parliament in the 1868 general election as an MP for Lambeth. He was later Lord Mayor of London and was knighted in 1882.
Copy of a letter intended for publication, 1872 - probably in Harris's hand
'Copy of a letter addressed to the "Eastern Post" 17th March 1872. - Suppressed.
'The Reports of the International W. M.'s Association. To the Editor of the E.P.
'Sir, In reading the report of the "International Working Men's Association" which appears in the E.P. of the16th inst: I was not at all surprised to find that "Citizen Engels stated that the published report of last week's meeting gave a completely erroneous account of what he had said respecting Italy." A pretty admission this Sir, certainly, if it be true, - seeing that the report referred to by "Citizen Engels" bears the "Official" signature of the "General Secretary". Now I think a very serious question is involved, and that it becomes us individually as Englishmen to observe great care and discrimination ere we accept as gospel such "erroneous accounts" even when officially sent forth through the medium of the press. Moreover, when the public are left in the dark as to what should be substituted for this "completely erroneous account", - certainly small boast can be made of the success of mankind under such conditions and under the direction or guidance of such a Society.
'Without any approach to uncharitableness I will even veture so far as to say that, nine tenths of the remainder of these "accounts" referred to by "Citizen Engels" are merely grown-up abortions, half made before birth, and worse distorted by an ignorant and obsequious official whose chief characteristic appears to be a detestableand an abusive ambition.
'I hold it to be imperative that the reports of the International W.M.A. should be prepared by a more precise knowledge, more refined instinct - with greater prudence and judgement than any other association, and that its weekly bulletins should be clearly and concisely written instead of the hodge-podge scribbling now done in its name.'
The secretary of the IWMA at this time was John Hales. Harris's resignation as a member of the IWMA council was recorded at the meeting on 16 April 1872. At the council meeting of 12 March 1872, Engels had complained about the accuracy of the minutes and said he wishes a letter of his be published in the Eastern Post correcting his remarks.
Poem: undated and apparently in the hand of Frances Baxter (wife of G.E. Harris)
'They tell me that he love's me not / Nor does he heed my Prayer / They say the past is quite forgot / He woo's a Girl more fair
'And fairer far, I trust she'll prove / Not only to the eye / But in fidelity and love / All other charm's outvie
'In ev'ry joy may they partake / Which is bestow'd on life / May he a loving Husband make / And she a virtuous Wife / Frances Baxter
'Written to teaze / pray excuse the nonsense'
E: Documents, draft articles and similar - authorship unclear
Resolution to the 'French and other exiles', 1855
4ff, London 31 December 1855, 'By order of the Committee, Geo. E. Harris, Secretary'
Lengthy hand-written document [the letters above from Victor Hugo and Mazzini clearly relate to this event]
Opens: 'An Address to the French, and other Exiles, - Fugitives from Political Persecution
'The few individuals who, some weeks ago, formed themselves into a Committee to advocate the cause of the Political Exiles from Foreign Countries, and who have now invited those residing in London to this social gathering, take the opportunity of publicly expressing a few words of sympathy, and, perchance of encouragement, to the proscribed of all Nations, many of whom are doubtlessly present with us this evening; and at the same time, they beg to offer a few observations on the present prospects of Democracy.'
Laments 'the gross political Flunkeyism into which the mass of the English people have fallen! Wealth and Power, - no matter how, or in whom personified, are the only gods worshipped by the Upper and Middle Classes; and we fear, too, that the vast mass of the poor themselves have become infected with the same demoralizing idolatry.' Reference to 'our class - the proletaires - the unprivileged - the unrepresented'. Endorses Italian untiy and Polish and Hungarian independence.
'We believe that the safest course for the People to pursue, when the destiny of nations is once again in their hands, will be, - not to combine different states, but to separate them into distinct nationalities, and to fix the natural line of race and language as their true boundaries, - that being not only just to the peoples themselves, but the only means of putting an end to international strife, and of bringing about the abolition of standing armies ...'
Quotes Victor Hugo: '"the least amount of governing must be the formula of the future"'
'... The land must be made to revert to its rightful inheritors - the people, as public property; never again to be alienated to private individuals'. Money must be made the representative of wealth ... and not as usurers, money-gamblers, and speculators may determine, for their unholy purposes.' Proposes a labour theory of value.
Comments on 'the uselessness, if not folly of any longer attributing national calamities exclusively to Kings, , Emperors, or Cabinet Ministers, who are together with the venal scribes, and the hireling priests and soldiers, little more than the tools of the propertied class.' And critical by name of Louis Napoleon. Ends: 'Vive la Republique sociale & democratique!'
Letter or draft letter from W. Townshend to the Daily Telegraph, 1871
Single sheet signed (and apparently in the hand of) W. Townshend, 'A Member of the International Council', from 12 Little Marylebone Street, W, 22 November 1871'
'Mr Hodson Pratt and the Paris Internationals.
'To the Editor of the Daily Telegraph.
'Sir,
'As Mr. Hodson Pratt at the Society of Arts, on Monday evening last, is reported to have "declared as the result of a recent visit to Paris, that the Internationists do not heistate to avow that Cooperation was their direct enemy", permit one small space in yr. journal to contradict most emphatically Mr P's statement.
'It is not true that the Internationalists (whether in Paris or elsewhere) avow cooperation to be their direst enemy", - quite the reverse - what they avow as their direst enemy is that a certain class of busy-no-bodies take it upon themselves to falsify and misrepresent the aims of others after they have made overtures to the Council of the International in London to do "any little commission for them when about to visit Paris" and such overtures have been respectfully declined. I do not mean to insinuate anything f a competition in this but if Mr Pratt can take this hint he will understand why it is that while the Internationalists may "hesitate" ere they commit themselves to run on his "narrow guage", - they do not in any sense view co-operation as their "direst enemy".'
William Townshend was a veteran O'Brienite active in the IWMA
Hodson Pratt (1824-1907) was an advocate of co-operation and of international arbitration
Letter or draft letter re the International and Professor Fawcett, undated but probably April-May 1872
1f, in two different hands, unsigned and not clear whetehr complete
'The Council of the International and Professor Fawcett
"At every mouth his teeth a sinners love, E'en like a mill; so that within his jaws
Were three of them at once tormented sore." Dante
'Sir
'In the "National Reformer's "Rough notes and readings" Apl 28th: we are informed that "the members of the great General Council of the International have now turned their wrath on Professor Fawcett & c": and that "the persons who signed the document from which we extract this deserve strong reprobation".
'Now, Sir, the document alluded to contains a quotation from a certain poet, and as I have had the misfortune or blessing of hearing other poets denounced in certain quarters I am not surprised to find the Professor similarly denounced. - but for one to suppose that any one of the "private" members of said Council to be unacquainted with the "Inferno" of Dante would be to commit an egregious error if not rank blasphemy. The "declaration" (copy enclosed) declares itself to have been "unanimously adopted" at a full meeting of the Council" - whatever the phraseology may mean in the eyes of Englishmen I know not, except that thirty seven names are attached thereto with an additional thirteen (secretaries) which I may term "the ministry" - reckoning pleneries [sic], plurists and all - making an aggregate of fifty. Lest I may make a mistake I will not stop here to analyze "a full meeting"; what I desire briefly to deal with is the question affecting Mr Fawcetts conduct in the House of Commons on the 12th. April 1872 when an attempt was made to call in the aid of "brute" and "penal force" to persecute and suppress freedom of thought and public discussion. In this instance I have to deal with the man independent of and separate from his "voluntary patronage" or public writings, - and as an Englishman and an Internationalist, I honestly and heartily thank him for the fence he made on that occasion. With his views on political economy as published I am most avowedly in "extreme" opposition - but these must clearly and distinctly understood, and can be attacked in a separate, rational, and independent manner, - and I am well assured that my late confreres - the English portion at least - are as well acquainted with the professor's writings as they are with those of J.S. Mill or of Dante. For myself I did not think it required eighteen Englishmen and one English woman to prepare a lengthy document to confute an A.B.C, of the upper ten-dom of Parliamentary quidnuncs [the word: ignoramuses deleted], whose misleading statements perhaps, after all, are mainly attributable to the "Official" Statements put forth weekly in the Eastern Post.
'Here is a sample, - in the E.P. March 16th. 1872 it was officially announced that "Citizen Engels stated that "the published report of last week's meeting gave a completely erroneous account of what he had said respecting Italy". - and I ask, if this be true in his case in relation to Italy, how stands it with the reports of other secretaries concerning other countries? Glancing at the names of "Foreign" Secretaries attached to this"declaration", I see is there not also something "rotton [sic] in the State of Denmark" whose secretary was lately accused in N.R. of attending the Royal "ranee show" at St. Paul's, - where is he and what has he to say to this declaration?'
Henry Fawcett (1833-1884) was an economist and Liberal MP and minister, blind, a supporter of women's suffrage and the husband of Millicent Garret Fawcett
Poem / political rhyme 1874, authorship unclear
[written on a long thin piece of paper, extending onto rear; handwriting similar to that of W. Townshend]
[title underlined] The Son of Saint Crispin / in /The House of St Stephen's / Dedicated without permission / to / Gorge Rodger [ ? ] / By / Juvenal the Younger. / 1874'
Hurrah for the lad that's to govern / the Nation,
And rightly distribute the hacks:-
With his classical polish, he'll quickly abolish
The burden we bear on our backs!
2
For, "when the shoe pinches" there's no one / on earth
Who can find out so well as our Friend,
And e'en at the last, thro the years that / are past,
He has manfully brought out his end.
3
His measures, when once he before had a seat
Were fitted for freedom of play.
He shew'd us a pattern - and aided our / feet
On this weary and troublesome way.
4
To Balmoral folks like a footman he's loyal,
(Inscribe that, ye boys, on your banners!)
To stick to a Sovereign's better by far
Than depend thro one's life upon tanners.
5
Tho not (as I know) either Shaker or beau,
Yet he lends his support to the dance;
But Blucher and Wellington's names he will / back
Against the light-footed heroes of France.
6
Not mean does he rank as a Chemist, I / trow;
And fair for a Tutor he bids
For closely in youth, has he studied / ox-hides,
And he carefully brings on the "Kids".
7
His clever and wonderful work on "the Trees"
His bent would declare as botanic -
But his essays on pumps have afforded / a proof
That he's equally good a mechanic.
8
As a Judge of a size (most remarkable thing!)
He sat on the Bench when a lad!
Then labor'd in turn, at the saving of soles
Before they had "gone to the bad".
9
Tho Bunion and Brad-Law to differ may / seem
And in doubt ever keep us from landing,
He has studied them both - and affirmed / that they jar
From the want of a right understanding
10
With the proud Upper Ten he has nothing / to do
But tenderly stoops to the lonely
The case of the down-trod he lifts from / the dust,
When he finds their condition is holey.
11
While some will their Peabody lift to the skies,
And his deeds may "philanthrop" call
We'll vote for the chap who can Peabody cap -
For he leaves us - while living - his awl!
12
Some think that his labors will come to the / ground,
We think he must wax and increase
In calf and morocco his works have been / bound
And he ranks with the sages of Greece
[reverse]
13
His Shakesperian weltinge and blind-stabb'd / around
With each "Lear" he sends forth a shrill whistle,
His H's are "most orrible" as he delineates / London "Hactors"
And "saws the wind" so with a bristle.
14
Then off to Hyde Park - for to hear him / harangue
Twas bootless to raise an objection
Ye friends, on the tramp who have / "nothing to wear"
In extremities seek his protection.
Note: St Crispin was the patron saint of shoemakers - St Stephen's House refers to Parliament; George Odger, a shoemaker, stood for Parliament unsuccessfully three times over 1868-70 and was later secretary of the TUC's parliamentary committee
Poem/song lyrics, authorship unclear
3ff, probably in the same had as the 'Gorge Rodger'item
[underlined] 'The School Board Election, Political Portraits of Notorious Men.
'The Water Patriot of Finsbury. Tune Jeremy Diddler
'Come men and women now and hearken
I mean by words to counsel darken
I mean to show a little light
Tis thus surprises ever grow
And what I mean, I'll shortl show
Tis true the poor but little know
I mean to take the poor in tow
They want a Leader, don't you see
And that is what I mean to be.
Fierce and hnest, brave and bold
Who can't be bought. nor yet be sold!
Now, Cocks of Finsbury! every one
A champion's here who can't be done -
Your children all must sure be taught
Their market value else is naught
My gamer on School Board for us to sit
I'm just the cover with power and wit!
Thus, up spoke Sam, the man so mighty,
Who "Toffy£ makes and named Brighty.
Who shook the nation by his talking
And saved his bacon by his !walking"!
He's now prepared the young to teach
And. - Virtue and Water loud to preach.
With solemn face and Funeral look
Just as a Drone might need a book -
Sam talks about the "Rights of Man"
And then begins to show his plan, -
How he, the nation's saviour should be
If he the nation's saviour could be?
But, first, says Sam, "pray raise some money"
For public men like Bees, like honey
For in proportion as you pay
In such proportion Asses bray -
And I'm quite prepared to roar
Just as you pay and no more.
In square or street, in lane or town,
I'm ready to spout if you'll dub down. -
Nonsense, - not reason, - what you may -
There's one condition, that you pay.
That's loyalty, and sense, and reason. -
No pay, I say - is remapant treason!
You say in Finsbury I was sold
And that I took the Quaker's gold
What rot! I only was well paid
For a [ ?] solemn thing well said,
An ounce or two of common sense
Is surely worth a Quaker's pence?
Besides, who needs too oft be told
That virtue is the child of Gold.
To be ill dress'd and short of cash
And not be vile is rankest wash.
I love to sit besied a swell
And all my dreams of pride to hell.
How I entracne each gaping throng
And picture up each poor man's wrong: -
Show how the labouring wretch is paid
With bread and water who use the spade.
While tinker, tailor, and cobler too
Ne'er gets more, than half their due!
I tell them how if I was chief
I'd soon make honest every thief:
Beef and Butter and wages plenty -
And nothing like a cupboard empty.
"That's it", they cry, - "he's hit it pat" -
Just so, - then gentlemen show the Hat.
Shoving the Hat is just my game
I laugh at those who cry, "For Shame!"A sweet tooth every man has got
Show me the man who has it not?
Mine's cash, so now I'm here to lead you
Give me a chance and sure I'll bleed you.
Give me your vote? make me your chief?
Try Brighty's mixture and get relief? -
Thirteen pence halfpenny, stamp included:-
Buy once, and once you'll be deluded.
I follow Politics as a trade
And cent per cent must sure be made.
Trust me, my friends, all, every one, -
And if you trust, by Jove you're done -
So Samuel thought and Samuel said
And cent per cent, our Samuel made -
Samuel, - whose language is every flighty -
Samuel, whose surname is of - Brighty!
Samuel Brighty was a prominent member of the Reform League in the Clerkenwell area and later a member of the vestry and its sanitary committee and gave evidence to the RC on the Housing of the Working Classes
Political rhyme, unattributed and undated
1ff, small size
'Disraeli's Cheekiness
They say that Dizzy's brow recedes,
And that his chin is very small.
Such space the cheek bold brazen needs
Why should there be chin, brow at all.'
'Voltaire often concluded his letters by saying:- "Let us crush the infamous thing":- and I feel inclined to put always at the end of mine:- "Let us annihilate the execrable charlatan Disraeli."'
Notes, unattributed and undated, 2ff
In pencil on a paper with some ? earlier writing in ink and in pencil
'This book is as full of blunders as a man's life is of incidents. It is a strange mixture of Anthropology and attempted poetry.' Apparently relating to a work my 'Mr. Powell'
Text of a speech, 'Money & Moneylords', in a neat hand, 34ff and probably complete, undated but probably early 1870
On numbered sheets in more than one hand; written on one side, reverse largely being ledgers of James Badcock, Manufacturer, 6 Westmoreland Building, City, some sheets dated 1870, some being of High Northcote, Stationer & Fancy Box Manufacturer, 18 St. John Road, dated 1870 and of Dr. to J.H. Jarman, 18 Noble Street, 1870 [both mentioning J. Badcock]
f2: 'The "Land and Labour League", of which the society meeting at this huse forms a tranch, have set out before the public, a very broad and comprehensive platform ...'. makes a link - 'Money and Moneylords! land and Landlords!'
f5: 'holding that private property in land to be based in injustice and theft'
f7: 'Is not their political economy rooted in rifles, and bullets, and bayonets, and bludgeons, and brute force, and all the tortures of the prison house? Such Sir, are the powers by which the Landlords and the Moneylords hold sway ...', and quotes from a song of 'the late Ernest Jones'; attached slip as insert in a different hand (? Harris's) , apparently an extratc from a speech of lord Salisbury as reported by Reynold's
f11: attached slip as insert in a different hand (? Harris's), quotes from John Ruskin
f14: refers to John Taylor's 'Essay on Money'
f19: passing reference to a speech of 'Mr Lowe' in the Commons
f27: towards bottom, hand changes [and the tone becomes less historical and more polemical]
f29: 'Let us never forget that labour alone is the source of all wealth.
f31: '... as the Tories support the Landed interest, so the Whigs seek a class alliance with the moneyed interest. Both these factions then are the deadly and dastardly enemies of the labouring population. ...'
f32: 'So long as the capitalist and producer occupy places akin to those of master and slave, so long will society be in a state abnormal to a true condition of morals. Power induces oppression and avarice, on the one hand, and dependence and want of self respect on the other, both alike fatal to moral growth. The capitalist made greedy by success, makes his money a means of robbing / the producer of his rightful earnings. ...'
Draft article, or a copy, in a neat hand (not Harris's) 8ff, very incomplete
Sheets numbered 19 to 26, from a longer work, these about words and their emaning, religion, government and society - to be followed by extracts from Mill's On Liberty. A fairly clean copy so perhaps copied out from an original, All written on oe side of paper only - verso mainly blank but some with notes crossed out and dated 1863
Draft article foolscap 5ff for the Republican
Note on verso: 'THE COMING HOLY WAR / Fourth Paper - For Republican No. 14 / E.L. Garbett / 7 Mornington Road . N.W.' The article is entitled: 'VI. Industrial Marriage Organzation' setting down what seem to be rules for an ideal society about birts, deaths and marriage
Promisory note, April 1865, on slip of stamp paper
To pay in three month time £14 and 6 pence to Richard Kennett - and name of a solicitor in Uttoxeter
F: Printed items
Pamphlet: Edwin Burgess, Letters on the Taxation of the Land: and Miscellaneous Poems, 1871
90pp pamphlet printed (but apparently not published) by Austin & Co., off Fleet Street. An opening 'word of explanation' states that the letters and poems were first published in journals at Racine, Wisconsin, in 1859-60. 'The author, Mr. E. BURGESS, formerly a London workman, had made his home in that city where the subjects of Land Traffic and Occupancy were presented to his mind. During a long, painful , and eventually mortal sickness in his adopted country, he retained the warm sympathy he had always felt with what he thought the cause of justice, especially in relation to that class of the community whose lot it is to live by labour.'
More than half the pamphlet given over to poems, nine in the section 'political poems ' and a much larger number as 'fugitive pieces'.
Edwin Burgess - more details available here: https://earthsharing.org/library/burgess-edwin_letters-on-taxation-1859-00/
Pamphlet: J.P. Proudhon's extraordinary views on God, undated
4ff, now two separate sheets; some minor markings of the text. Reasoner Tract no. 42, translated from Sophisms of Political Economy, apparently early 1850s. States: 'the first duty of an intelligent and free man is to chase unceasingly from his mind and his conscience the idea of God'.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865) was a French anarchist and mutualist
Leaflet: Maximilian Robespierre, 'Declaration of the Rights of Man ...', undated
Single sheet, cA5, folded to four pages, poor quality paper with poor printing, entitled 'Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen'. Acknowledges O'Brien's translation of Buonarrotti. No indication of publisher.
Handbill: 'Sympathy with France', undated c1870
Single sheet, cA5 - texts of four resolutions to be put at a meeting at St James's Hall about the Franco-Prussian war and supporting Gambetta and the restoration of the French Republic. Proposers include Odger, Applegarth, Howell, Potter and Eccarius.
Leaflet: Geo. Julian Harney, 'Appeal for France', 1871
Single sheet folded to four pages, by Harney in Boston and dated 1 January 1871 - announcing setting up a committee in Boston to help meet 'the bitter needs and deep distress of the unhappy people of France', with commentary on the current situation. [David Goodway advises that this appears to be previously unknown to Harney scholars.]
Handbill: 'Testimonial to Mr John Radford ...', 1874
Single sheet, slightly smaller than A4. soliciting donations for John Radford on his departure with family to the United States, 1874 (he travelled to the O'Brienite colony in Kansas and was the most prominent of the O'Brienites to make his permanent home there). This is a corrected proof copy.
'For nearly a quarter of a century, he has laboured as a devoted and untiring advocate of every progressive movement, as also one of the few whose subscription towards every good object could be confidently reckoned upon.'
'It is intended to make the Presentation at a Farewell Tea and Soiree ...'
Issued from the Eclectic Institute, 18 Denmark Street, Soho, over twenty names - including Harris and the other leading O'Brienites.
Handbill: 'Farewell to the Pioneers', undated
Single sheet, slightly smaller than A5, poem by F.W. Dyer entitled 'Farewell to the Pioneers or Labor's Band of Hope'. Five stirring and highly political verses, clearly supporting emigration to the United States - and perhaps linked to the O'Brienites' Kansas colony project.
Handbill: 'Columbia Salvator Oppressi!', undated
Single sheet, slightly smaller than A5 and matching the item above, poem by F.W. Dyer entitled 'Columbia, Salvator Oppressi! (Columbia, the Saviour of the Oppressed)' - three verses, again political and urging emigration to the US.
G: Cuttings and Ephemera
Portrait of 'M.R. Delany, Esq. M.D.', not later than 1862, perhaps a plate from a book or journal.
Martin Delany (1812-1885) was one of the first black students at Harvard Medical School and was a major in the Civil War; he was an abolitionist and is credited with originating the pan-Africanist slogan "Africa for Africans". He visited England in 1860.
Newspaper cutting, September 1865, expulsion of M. Rogeard from Belgium, apparently for a publication in French listing the 'seven scourges' of modern society: permanent army; salaried clergy; irremovable magistracy; centralised administration; police; prostitution; and organised pauperism.
Louis-Augustin Rogeard (1820-1896) was a Communard and a journalistic collaborator of Felix Pyat
Newspaper cutting, small, undated c1866-7, reprinting a short item from a New York paper about Disraeli of an anti-semitic nature
Entrance slip, 'Entrance South-West Tower / France', dated 29 November 1862, signed H. Bernard [?], agent or exhibitor, Muller [perhaps to the International Exhibition in the Royal Horticultural Society grounds South Kensington]
Envelope, opened and empty, addressed to Harris at 3 Northumberland St, Marlebone, with a probably later note in an infirm hand: 'Aug: 17/85 Receipt for 47/- on 94 shars [?] in Company to be formed from the Hony United Mining Co'
[ENDS]