William Cobbett | Autograph letter signed, complaining about Yorkshire politics, 28 December 1832

William Cobbett

Autoghraph letter signed, to "Dear Sir" [?John Foster of Leeds]

complaining that "the whole county of York seems to be mad, or corrupt to the core", with its history of being "the hotbed of one sort of fanaticism or another", as reflected in the current election results in Leeds, 2 pages, 4to, integral blank, Bolt Court, Fleet Street [London], 28 December 1832, remains of guard, stain at head of first page, small tears at folds

William Cobbett (1763-1835), the great radical and promoter of agricultural reform, had a longstanding suspicion of the North of England. His outrage is here occasioned by the election of the young Thomas Babington Macaulay - later, of course, a renowned historian - as MP for Leeds in the first general election following the Great Reform Act.

PROVENANCE:

Christie's, London, 288 June 1995, lot 323