Printed Address, To the Electors of Dundee, 28 December 1909, Board of Trade, Whitehall Gardens, London, 28 December 1909; [Together with] Printed Address, To the Electors of Dundee, 23 November 1910.

CHURCHILL, Winston S.

Edité par Dundee: John Leng & Co., 1909 & 1910

A propos de cet article

First editions of these two addresses by Churchill to his Dundee constituents during the 1910 elections, centred on the momentous constitutional battle between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. These ephemeral pieces are very rare. In November 1909, the Lords rejected the "People's Budget" proposed by Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. The bill called for higher taxes on the wealthy to pay for a limited scheme of unemployment and worker's health insurance. The bill, and the intransigence of the House of Lords, became the central issue in two general elections held in 1910 (the first in January and the second in December). In the first address, Churchill decries the Lords' veto and invokes Lincoln's famous formulation from the Gettysburg Address: "The people can be trusted. They are of age. If at one end of our political system we have a hereditary House of Landlords and great capitalists, wielding an absolute veto over legislation and finance. [then] government of the people, by the people, for the people will have become a nineteenth century daydream". The Spectator published brief extracts and a comment on this address; "Mr. Winston Churchill's election address, when shorn of its purple platitudes, is chiefly remarkable for its denunciation of the Peers" (quoted in Cohen). The January 1910 election resulted in the Liberals forming a coalition government dependent upon their Labour Party and Irish Nationalist allies. The Lords approved a slightly modified version of the People's Budget in April 1910, but the Liberals were determined to strike down the veto power of the upper chamber and made it the issue of the year's second general election. In his second address (November 1910), Churchill is more combative and impatient. "No one can persuade the Tory Party to give up their Veto. They regard themselves as the ruling caste. They treat us as if we were a conquered race. They cannot bring themselves. to part from that unfair Veto. You will have to take it from them. You will have to take it from them now. You will have to take it from them for ever. One good wrench, and out it comes!" The growing political unrest in the country forced the Lords to yield and it consented to the Parliament Act of 1911, which significantly reduced its power. Cohen A30 & A33.1. Two works, quarto, bifolium and single sheet respectively. Browned and spotted, creased where formerly folded, splits along creases and closed tears repaired (into text without loss), 1910 Address chipped around extremities. Good copies of these fragile publications.

N° de réf. du vendeur 71650

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Printed Address, To the Electors of Dundee, 28 December 1909, Board of Trade, Whitehall Gardens, London, 28 December 1909; [Together with] Printed Address, To the Electors of Dundee, 23 November 1910.
• Éditeur: Dundee: John Leng & Co., 1909 & 1910