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Letter from George Balfour of the House of Commons (embossed heading) to C G Williams, Leigh House, Lower Heath, Hampstead, London, 16 Nov 1934. Replying to a query about Public Acts [of Parliament] passed since the National Government came in [in 1931]: 'There are some 170 Acts ... But in over fifty Acts where some distinct question of political principle enters I can find some half-dozen Conservative Acts, three times as many Socialist Acts, while the remainder are a mixture of the two with Socialism predominant ... As I have frequently said ... it is time for Conservatives to consider in what direction we are going.'

Signed by Balfour. Marked: 'Personal and Confidential' in MS.

The collection comprises correspondence, research notes, publications and drafts compiled by Alan Clinton during research for his book Printed Ephemera: Collection, Organisation, Access published by Clive Bingley in 1981 (1976-1980); Correspondence, organisational documents, ephemera, handwritten notes and other material regarding Clinton's involvement with the Oxford University Labour Club and other groupings, including the Socialist Labour League, his time serving on Islington Council, various publications and articles (1964-1990), Trotskyist and other left-wing pamphlets and journals, 1960s-1980s, including Workers Press and Newsline.

Papers of Ted Crawford, [1966-1978] comprise periodicals including Workers News, c 1975; Israc, 1969 May-1971 March (incomplete), 1970 March; Socialist Appeal, 1978 March-April; The Spark, 1971 September, November; The Bulletin [United States edition], 1970 July -August; The Bulletin [British edition], 1974; Marxist Bulletin, 1975-1976; pamphlets, especially about Israel, including "Les Democarties Populaires - sont elles des etats socialistes", Paris, 1966.

Subject files include NALGO Action Group, 1968-1982; Victory for Socialism, c1960; International Socialists / Socialist Workers Party Internal Bulletins, 1967-1982, and papers, circulars, 1963-1982; Chile Committee for Human Rights, 1973-1983; liberation struggles in the developing world, 1966-1986; National Union of Teachers rank and file movements, c 1971-1988; Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) local groups, Youth CND groups, Committee of 100, 1958-1971; Exeter University student activism, 1948-1958; Student Labour Federation, 1950-1959; National Association of Labour Student Organisations, 1950-1956; Socialist Labour League bulletins, circulars, 1959-1960. Periodicals include Socialist Fight, 1960-1963; Workers Fight, 1969-1975; The Newsletter, 1958-1968; Young Guard, 1961-1966; Socialist Challenge, c1978-1981; Socialist Review, 1952-1959

Marriage certificates, passbooks, passports, family correspondence, posters, sketch of D. H. Lawrence.

Papers of Charles Lahr, documenting many of Lahr's activities, especially during the 1920s and 1930s. These include his involvement in the publishing business, and bookselling activities. Most of the correspondence is related to social and family matters. There are various typescripts related to the activities of the Blue Moon Press available, some of them with manuscript corrections and signed by the authors. A file of newspaper cuttings consisting mainly of reviews of published works provides additional information on the publishing activities in London at the time. Most of the correspondence lack important details such as dates or clear identification of writer. Some of the correspondence has been annotated for Ms Oonagh Lahr before she handed the collection to the University of London. Some of the annotations were written in pencil on the same documents while other notes are attached with the originals. Where these give added information to that in the documents, these notes have been kept with the originals. Some of the photographs have notes written on their reverse identifying some of the persons featuring in them. This was also done by Ms Oonagh Lahr.Esther Lahr clearly played a significant role in the running of both the bookshop and the various publishing ventures in which Charles Lahr engaged. Correspondence addressed to her is listed in a separate section of this catalogue.

Personal correspondence of Charles Lahr, 1925-1970, including references to Lahr's family and politics, and business correspondence relating to the Blue Moon Press and ordering books. Correspondents include: Rhys Davies; Guy Alfred; Pearl Binder; Hugo Dewar; Christopher Grieve; Oswell Blakeston.

Letter from Karl Heinrich Marx of 7 Modena Villas, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill, London to J M Ludlow, Esq, 10 Apr 1869. Controverting Ludlow's article in the Fortnightly Review: 'You say first that Lassalle propogated my principles in Germany and say then that I am propagating "Lassallian principles" in England. ... Lassalle has taken from my writings almost literally all his general theoretical developments ... I have nothing whatever to do with his practical applications.'

Autograph, with signature.

Scrapbook of material, printed and manuscript, by and relating to Robert Owen, collected and in part copied by William Pare, and annotated by him throughout, 1819-1855. The manuscript items include:
Copy by Pare of a receipt, 4 Aug 1819, for £500 from Robert Owen to Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, annotated by Pare in 1872.
Copy of a letter from Pare to Owen, 1829.
Copy of letter from Owen to Sir Robert John Wilmot-Horton, 3rd Bt, 1831, with a covering letter from H. Belstead to Pare of 1839.
Notes made from the Leeds Mercury, [1833-1834], written in ink over pencilled jottings (in Pare's hand?) on single leaf of an account book.
Account by Pare of a visit by Owen on 21 Mar 1834 to female convicts at Newgate prison about to be transported, written on a manuscript copy of Owen's address to them.
Holograph draft of Owen's address 'to the government and population of the United States of North America', 6 June 1837.
Two architectural plans of Harmony Hall, East Tytherley, Hampshire, 1839.
Letter from Dr. John Borthwick Gilchrist to Owen, 21 Mar 1839.
Holograph draft by Owen of the address of the Congress of the Association of All Classes of All Nations, and of the National Community Friendly Society to the General Convention of the Industrious Classes 'now sitting at Birmingham', 16 May 1839.
Holograph draft by Owen beginning 'The influence which may be obtained by society over the young mind', 1839.
Holograph draft by Owen of his address 'to intending emigrants and those who are dissatisfied with the present condition of society', 1839.
Single sheet headed 'Social Congress' and endorsed 'Journal', being an account of proceedings of the Congress of the Association of All Classes, 1839.
Incomplete holograph draft of address made by Owen on 'home colonization', at the Birmingham Congress [of the Association of All Classes], 25 May 1839.
Draft of Pare's address to Owen on his 68th birthday, 1839, with Owen's holograph reply.
Extract from The Chronicle, 18 Nov 1841.
Draft inscriptions, partly in Owen's hand, for the towers at Harmony Hall, 1841.
Memorial to Owen from the unemployed tradesmen of Glasgow, 15 Dec 1842.
Copy by Pare of a description of Owen in the Aberdeen Banner, 31 Dec 1842.
'Twelve question to be answered, according to promise, by Mr Owen in Mr Robertson's Hall this present evening', 30 Dec 1842.
Incomplete holograph draft by Owen on 'Causes remote and proximate of the present evils of society', [1843].
Letter of John Finch to Owen, 9 Mar 1843.
'Address [to Queen Victoria] of the members of branch 63 of the Rational Society and the inhabitants of Tower Hamlets in a public meeting assembled at their institution, Whitechapel, 10 Apr 1843, with covering letter by the Secretary, Thomas Marshall, to Owen, 15 Apr 1843.
Copy of the petition to Queen Victoria by the inhabitants of Halifax, 1843.
Bill made out to Owen for his stay at the Royal Hotel, Dundee, from 3-9 Jan, with his own annotations.
'Address to her most gracious Majesty, from a meeting called by public advertisement, in Sydney's Building, Bradford, 16 Feb 1843, signed by Owen who acted as chairman.
Address to Queen Victoria by the Congress of the Rational Society, 25 May 1843, signed by Owen as President of the Society.
Address of the participants of the first Concordium, held at Allcott House, Ham Common, Surrey, 28 Apr 1843, with 17 signatures.
Copy of two letters to The Times from Samuel Wilderspin, concerning infant schools, 6 Aug 1846.
Copies of letters by Owen to George William Frederick Howard, Viscount Morpeth (later 7th Earl of Carlisle), on progress in the United States, and to Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey, on 'education and employment of the industrious classes', 1846.
Holograph draft of an address by Owen on 'The requisites for the permanent happiness of mankind', [1848].
Copy of a letter from Owen to [William] Cox, written from Paris and describing the revolution, June 1848.
Letter from William Offord to Owen, concerning members of Offord's family living with William Evans, 8 May 1855.
Incomplete holograph draft by Owen beginning 'The distress of the country has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished', [1848].
Draft [by Owen] entitled 'The convictions of Robert Owen, founder of the Rational System of Society, on the past, present and future state of the population of the world'.
Anecdote about the reaction of Thomas Say, Professor of Natural History, on reading Owen's works while in North America, [1851].
Silhouette sketch of Owen signed by Augustin Amant Constant Fidele Edouart, 1838.
Miscellaneous printed items include: sketches of Owen, prints of New Lanark, memorial card and order of Owen's funeral procession, printed programme of the 100th anniversary of his birth, 16 May 1871, and newspaper cuttings.

(1) Letter from Karl-Heinz Pfeffer of Leipzig W 31, Margpergerstrasse 27, to J H P Pafford, 5 Oct 1938. Discussing the political situation in Europe, including the Czech 'problem' and Nazi Germany's hopes for peace, etc. Autograph, with signature.

(2) Cutting from The Times, 24 Sep 1938, originally enclosed in item (1).

(3) Note by Pafford about Pfeffer, 15 Jun 1970.

Notes, press cuttings, pamphlets and journals compiled and collected by Caroline Elizabeth Playne for her research and publications, including material regarding the war effort in the First World War in Britain, France, Germany and other countries, pacifism, censorship and propaganda and the internment of aliens in Britain, along with publications of pacifist groups, such as the National Peace Council, the No-Conscription Fellowship and the Union of Democratic Control, socialist pamphlets and official publications, 1907-1924.

Unaddressed fragment of a letter written by Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London, which possibly refers to the parliamentary debates on the slave trade in 1788. An extract reads 'There will undoubtedly in so very complex a business in which so many interests are involved, be a great diversity of opinion on this [illegible] other Points. But they are now submitted to the wisdom of Parliament, and most of them will I hope this Evening be settled to your entire satisfaction'.

Papers of Al Richardson and Jim Higgins, [1884-2003], comprising: Spartacists League / Workers Vanguard pamphlets and papers, 1964-2001; International Socialists minutes, circulars, discussion papers, 1960s-1970s; Workers Power bulletins, circa 1975-1992; Socialist Review minutes, 1952-6; Workers Socialist League papers, c. 1977-1983; Socialist Labour League minutes, circulars, pamphlets, 1960s; International Marxist Group papers, 1963-1967; Trotskyite journals and pamphlets from the United States, United Kingdom, Chile, India, Sri Lanka, France, New Zealand, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Italy,and other countries, 1930s-2003; Workers Fight, 1987-2003; Post Office Engineering Union minutes, journals, correspondence, 1960s-1970s; drafts of autobiography of Harry McShane and interviews with him, c1970s.

Miscellaneous correspondence; poster regarding anarchist bomb in Liege, c 1910; miscellaneous photographs including John Burns (c 1906), crowd at Trafalgar Square after Zinoviev letter controversy, 1924; ephemera including trade union membership cards.

Includes Peace News, 1940; Action, 1939; Peace Pledge Union pamphlets and leaflets including Peace Service Handbook, Can We Make Peace with the Dictators, A Call to Women to Resist War by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Conscripting Christianity, God or the Nation by John Middleton Murry, The Meaning of Rearmament by Max Plowman, The Human Person and Society by Eric Gill; War Resisters' International, British Union, Friends' Home Service Committee, National Peace Council, Independent Labour Party Women's Peace Campaign leaflets. Typescript of questions asked at Tribunal. Defence that is no defence by C. Joad, The Crime of conscription by E. I. Watkin, Common Sense Christianity and War by Gerald Vann; The Church and War by Evelyn Underhill, Law in War-Time by D. N. Pritt, Bombs Babies and Beatitudes by Donald Attwater, A review of the proceedings of the Appellate Tribunal (December 1939); The Phantom Broadcast by James Avery Joyce. Christian pamphlets include A Christian Substitute for Armaments by Leyton Richards. Also includes The London Tribunal Questions the C.O., War and the Colonies: a policy for socialists and pacifists (Pacifist Research Bureau), This Way Lies Peace! by George Hartley and Joseph Rowntree (Northern Friends Peace Board), Blessed are the Peacemakers (Council of Christian Pacifist Groups). To Conscientious Objectors placed on the military service register, leaflet by Central Board for Conscientious Objectors; other leaflets include Vera Brittain's Letter to Peace Lovers.

(1) Letter from Randall Carline Swingler of the Left Review, 2 Parton Street, London to Thomas Sturge Moore, c1938. Asking him to contribute an article to the Left Review. Sturge Moore's draft reply appears on the reverse.

(2) Letter from Randall CarlineSwingler of the Left Review to Thomas Sturge Moore, c1938. Enclosing the final proof [missing] of Sturge Moore's article Fashions in art and literature.The article appeared in the April 1938 issue.

(3)Letter from John Edgell Rickword of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Hampstead Branch, 47 South Hill Park to Thomas Sturge Moore, 15 Feb 1938. Asking him to chair a lecture.

Manuscript volume containing a treatise [by Jean Baptiste Paifer], 1803, on the possibility of a state without usury, poverty, famine or shortages, entitled 'Versuch einen Staat vor wucher, armuth und hungersnoth oder Getraide-mangel ohne kösten für das aerarium auf immer in sicherheit zu setzen'. Includes a dedicatory preface to 'Frans den Zweyten' [Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor].

Letter from Josiah Tucker of Gloucester to Dr [William] Heberden, 11 Nov 1775. Asking Heberden's brother to call on 'Cadell in ye Strand' [i.e. Thomas Cadell the elder, publisher] to enquire about the fate and non-appearance of 800 copies of Tucker's Address and Appeal to ye Landed Interest [discussing possible independence for the American colonies], sent with a presentation list, ten days before. 'I pressed Cadell to be as expeditious as he co[ul]d, in order that the pamphlet might be published at least some days before Mr Burke was to make his famous motion ... The cold, or whatever is ye name of this new disorder, so rife at London, now begins to spread at Glocester [sic]: but I think, at present, it chiefly attacks young people. Another epidemic disorder, Electioneering, has attacked all ranks universally; and spares neither age, nor sex. What is most remarkable in this case is, that many of those, who were formerly notorious Jacobites, are now fierce Republicans: so that, form maintaining, that one Family has an indefeasible right to ye Throne, on ye extinction of that Family, we are to have no Throne at all'. Autograph, with signature.