SPEECH ON THE RETROCESSION OF THE TRANSVAAL IN 1881, AND ON THE CAUSES OF THE PRESENT DIFFICULTIES IN SOUTH AFRICA, On the Occasion of Unveiling a Bust of the late Rt. Hon. William Ewart Gladstone, at the Liverpool Reform Club, on December 4th, 1899

Liverpool: Liverpool Reform Club, 1899. Hardcover. Very good. Typed letter signed (TLS) by Rathbone to Samuel Ashton Thompson-Yates tipped in at the front, with Thompson-Yates’ bookplate on the front pastedown. Octavo: [20] pp. The first part of a sammelband, accompanied by five additional offprints: Percy A. Molteno’s "A Plain Statement of Facts: The South African Crisis, No. 1" (London: The Times, July 10, 1899); “A Boer Parson on the War: Reprinted from the Echo”; Percy A. Molteno’s “The South African Crisis: To the Editor of The Times” (London: The Times, no year); Frederick Courteney Selous’ “Letters Contributed to the Times by Mr. F.C. Selous, (truncated) The Well-Known Traveller and Sportsman” (London: South Africa Conciliation Committee, 1899); [and] John Hobson’s “How the Press was Worked Before the War” (London: South African Conciliation Committee, 1899). In a one-half red calf over marbled paper binding by Co-Operative Bookbinder’s, London, with gilt-stamped titles and decorations, four raised bands, and marbled endpapers. Some mild foxing; else very good or better.

The Second Boer War was a conflict between the British Empire and two Boer republics in South Africa which lasted between October 1899 and 1902. The war ended when the British wore down Boer resistance and offered the Transvaal and Orange Free State independent status within the British Empire. The material in this sammelband represents the opinions of Englishmen opposed to the British war effort. Rathbone (1819-1902) was an English merchant and businessman noted for his philanthropic and public work, as well as a Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons representing several constituencies between 1868 and 1895. He was also closely involved in the formation of University College Liverpool (1882), which became the University of Liverpool, serving as president of the college in 1892. The letter mounted in this volume from Rathbone to Thompson-Yates speaks to the history and growth of the school, and offers regrets for Rathbone’s inability to attend Thompson-Yates’ speech to the medical students in 1899. (Inventory #: 77931)