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

2 1/2 pages 8vo , 11 Carlton House Terrace, 1 May 1866

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 parliamentary reform since the first Reform Act was passed in 1832. It would ultimately fail, splitting the Liberal party into two factions and resulting in the resignation of Russell's Liberal government on 26 June 1866. At that time Gladstone wrote in his diary ""Finished in Downing Street. Left my keys behind. Somehow it makes a void." However, as Gladstone holds the record for the most number of terms served as Prime Minister to date (his first term started in 1868), the "void" mentioned would be filled over the subsequent decades. The defeat at the time was a crushing one, however, and Derby, Disraeli and the Conservatives, having successfully split the liberals and quashed their Reform Bill, brought forward their own a year later. It passed and became the 1867 Reform Act, extending the franchise by 938,427 - an increase of 88% - by giving the vote to male householders and male lodgers paying at least £10 for rooms. 

Folds, otherwise in very good condition.

Stock Code: 228608