Here is a wonderful letter full of historic content and wrapped in a scarce stampless cover.

3 page Letter – Signed and Dated: August, 1850
Text as Follows:

My Dear Bill,

It is now sometimes Since I written you & knowing how much pleasure you must derive from hearing from home in any way – I take this opportunity – When I look back I can scarcely fancy you have been away so long – so few changes have taken place in my little world. How different yours must have been although one of the epochs of my life has just taken place – that of getting out of my apprenticeship – an event towards which all boys look forward to – for their five or seven years as the case may be. I am now almost getting a young man – & quite getting a small salary – what a delightful feeling a little independence is – I am of course remaining at the same place – although am anxious to change – as my prospects are but poor here – but there is no harm in staying till I am a little older – but unfortunately one often says the same, and procrastinates – until your habits get the better of your inclination and as now I have been giving you my own little history – let us talk of other people – you have of course heard of Edward Eldershaw’s wedding – done in a hurry – and a 3 months child – (Oh Ned) – however the poor little thing died about a month old – poor Edward must make a sorry living of it with his wife – his income is very small – Our brother John still courts Mary Butler – and openly talks about the marriage, etc. – But he is like poor Edward rather poor – Tom is at Exeter at a show – Harry & his wife seem very happy and content.

The great subject of conversation in London now is upon the admission of Jews into our parliament – Rothschild being elected for the city – & not being able to take the Christmas oaths he cannot take his seat – It is a very open question, some taking a religious & others a political view of it – so of course there are strong arguments on both sides – & a bill is to be brought forward next sessions to alter the oath – The fashionable thing in London now is the Hippopotamus – at the regents zoological gardens – it is the first ever brought to England – it is quite young – it is like a large ugly black pig with a big head & a large mouth – poor Mrs. Paul in trying to see it lost five pounds worth of charms and had her shawl torn – so you may imagine the furore and crowd that he causes – he and the Nepaulese ambassador are all the rage – I hope to hear from you at your leisure & believe to remain your affectionate Brother.

Richard

Historical Note on Lionel Rothschild

Lionel Rothschild was born in London in 1806. As a young man he served in the family banking business in the banking houses of his father and when his father died unexpectedly in 1836, Lionel found himself heir to the most successful London bank of the age. Between 1830 and 1836 four bills to remove the barriers to Jews entering parliament had failed to become legislation. In 1847 Lionel stood as a candidate for the City of London and, coming in third he was elected to one of the city's seats, coming in just behind Lord John Russell. During  the campaign, people had been aware that Lionel, if he was elected, would face the problem of having to take an oath on the Bible (both the Old and New Testaments), on "the true faith of a Christian". Once Lionel had been elected, Russell, the Prime Minister, introduced a Jewish Disabilities Bill, which would have overcome this problem, softening the requirement for a Christian oath. The Bill was duly passed in the Commons in February 1848, only to be thrown out by the House of Lords, not once but twice in 1848 and then again in 1849.

Determined to have the voters speak to the issue, Lionel resigned and stood again in 1849 in the resulting bye-election. He beat his opponent with a crushing majority, taking more than two thirds of the vote. But the problem of the oath remained unchanged. On 25 July 1850 a meeting of electors at the London Tavern resolved that Lionel should take up his seat in the House. Lionel duly turned up the next day. The Clerk of the Commons rose to invite Lionel to take the oath. Lionel demanded to swear on the Old Testament only. There were howls of protest from the Tory benches and Lionel was called upon to withdraw, which he did. He reappeared four days later and got right through the oath until the final clause where he had to swear 'upon the true faith of a Christian' at which point he had to withdraw, after declaring 'I omit these words as not binding on my conscience'.

The stalemate continued for a further eight years. In 1851, another Jewish Disabilities Bill was thrown out by the Lords. The following year, Lionel was re-elected for London for the third time. In each year from 1853 to 1857, with the exception of 1855, the Bill was put to the Lords and defeated. In 1857, Lionel went to the polls twice more. Re-elected, he resigned again when the Disabilities Bill was yet again defeated and was returned unopposed in the City. He had now had his election confirmed five times by the voters. 1858 brought a change of government. Benjamin Disraeli, the Leader of the House of Commons, himself of Jewish birth although converted to Christianity, and a great friend of the Rothschild family, was keen to avoid the position where his own Conservative Peers in the Lords should block the Jewish Disabilities Bill. The solution, the brainchild of the Earl of Lucan, was ingenious, neatly sidestepping the problem. A compromise was arrived at whereby each House of Parliament, Commons and Lords, was allowed to decide for itself the words which were used to administer the oath. The House of Lords agreed to this, weary of the battle and wary of their constitutional position if they were to be continually in opposition to the Commons. The Lords became, therefore, an irrelevance to the issue and Lionel's re-entry to the Commons followed without further protest.

 An eleven-year struggle thus ended with a simple ritual that nevertheless represented a major step forward in the long campaign for religious freedom and Jewish assimilation. Lionel remained MP for the City of London for sixteen years. The year after he took his seat, he was joined in the Commons by his brother, Mayer, who was elected MP for Hythe in Kent. In 1865 his son Nathaniel became MP for Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire where the Rothschild family owned a number of properties. The final irony of this situation was that in 1885, just six years after his death, it was Lionel's son, Nathaniel de Rothschild who became the first Jewish Peer to enter the House of Lords. Unlike most newly created peers he chose to retain his own name in his new title, becoming Lord Rothschild of Tring. The climate had changed and the battles of the 1850s were largely won.