Autograph Letter Signed ("W. E. Gladstone") to J. P. Potter, MP

£425 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Signed

A letter to a fellow liberal MP written at a critical period for the Liberal party during the second wave of parliamentary reform. The letter specifically references the speech given by Gladstone, renowned orator (who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer), which had closed the second reading debate on the Liberals’ 1866 Reform Bill: “I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter and to assure you that in declining to give any answer to hypothetical questions with respect to any Clause of the Franchise Bill, I have been governed simply by the general rule which makes it so necessary in the present[?] entangled situation of affairs … Our institutions with regard to the franchise are really only to be inferred from these speeches which have touched particularly on the point; principally I think my own introduction, 2d reading, and amendment, and Mr Milner Gibson’s on the amendment…” Gladstone argued in favour of “[t]he extension of the franchise within safe and proper limits” (i.e. he was not petitioning for universal suffrage, not by a long-shot, but he was hoping to open up voting to more men, thus giving fairly representation to the working classes, which often (usually) lost out to the ruling and middle classes). One of the questions he asked during this speech, “What has happened since 1832?… The working people have been having a less and less share in the representation” and the 1866 Bill intended to address this. The 1866 Reform Bill was the first attempt at parliamenta

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