Byron (George Gordon, Lord) (1788-1824) unpublished Autograph Letter and the only known letter from Lord Byron to Major John Cartwright (1740-1824) dated June 26th 1813, apologising for not being able to meet him and Sir F. in London "Dear Sir, It is with great regret I find that it will be necessary for me to leave London tomorrow morning - and thus be prevented the pleasure I had promised myself in meeting you & Sir F. tomorrow. I was not aware of this till the post came in this morning, which must be my apology for not acquainting you with the circumstances before. I am truly yrs B". Addressed verso to Major Cartwright, 17 James Street, Westminster; a single folded sheet with three edges gilt, 23cm x 18.6cm

From a private Gloucestershire estate.

John Cartwright (1740-1824) was an English politician and political reformer and was posthumously known as the Father of Reform.

In his early career, he had served as a Naval Officer and served under Lord Byron's grandfather - Admiral John Byron between 1765 and 1770 on the Newfoundland Station. As a politician, he was a supporter and sought the attainment of Universal male suffrage. One of his supporters and co-radicals was Sir Francis Burdett, 5^th Baronet (1770-1844) and it appears likely that the Sir F. referred to in this letter is Burdett. Cartwright also advocated the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of Greece and was the brother of the poet and inventor Edmund Cartwright. Just 25 days prior to the date of the letter, Lord Byron had given his last of only three speeches to the House of Lords in support of Major Cartwright: "My Lords, the Petition which I now hold for the purpose of presenting to the House, is one which I humbly conceive requires the particular attention of your Lordships, inasmuch as, though signed but by a single individual, it contains statements which (if not disproved) demand most serious investigation. The grievance of which the petitioner complains, is neither selfish nor imaginary. It is not his own only, for it has been, and is still felt by numbers. No one without these walls, nor indeed within, but may to-morrow be made liable to the same insult and obstruction, in the discharge of an imperious duty for the restoration of the true constitution of these realms, by petitioning for reform in parliament. The petitioner, my Lords, is a man whose long life has been spent in one unceasing struggle for the liberty of the subject, against that undue influence which has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished ; and whatever difference of opinion may exist as to his political tenets, few will be found to question the integrity of his intentions. Even now oppressed with years, and not exempt from the infirmities attendant on his age, but still unimpaired in talent, and unshaken in spirit— ” frangas non flectes”—he has received many a wound in the combat against corruption ; and the new grievance, the fresh insult of which he complains, may inflict another scar, but no dishonour. The Petition is signed by John Cartwright, and it was in behalf of the people and parliament, in the lawful pursuit of that reform in the representation, which is the best service to be rendered both to parliament and people, that he encountered the wanton outrage which forms the subject matter of his Petition to your Lordships. It is couched in firm, yet respectful language—in the language of a man, not regardless of what is due to himself, but at the same time, I trust, equally mindful of the deference to be paid to this House. The petitioner states, amongst other matter of equal, if not greater importance, to all who are British in their feelings, as well as blood and birth, that on the 21st January, 1813, at Huddersfield, himself and six other persons, who, on hearing of his arrival, had waited on him merely as a testimony of respect, were seized by a military and civil force, and kept in close custody for several hours, subjected to gross and abusive insinuation from the commanding officer, relative to the character of the petitioner; that he (the petitioner) was finally carried before a magistrate and not released till an examination of his papers proved that there was not only no just, but not even statutable charge against him; and that, notwithstanding the promise and order from the presiding magistrates of a copy of the warrant against your petitioner, it was afterwards withheld on divers pretexts, and has never until this hour been granted. The names and condition of the parties will be found in the Petition. To the other topics touched upon in the Petition, I shall not now advert, from a wish not to encroach upon the time of the House; but I do most sincerely call the attention of your Lordships to its general contents—it is in the cause of the parliament and people that the rights of this venerable freeman have been violated, and it is, in my opinion, the highest mark of respect that could be paid to the House, that to your justice, rather than by appeal to any inferior court, he now commits himself. Whatever may be the fate of his remonstrance, it is some satisfaction to me, though mixed with regret for the occasion, that I have this opportunity of publicly stating the obstruction to which the subject is liable, in the prosecution of the most lawful and imperious of his duties, the obtaining by Petition reform in parliament. I have shortly stated his complaint; the petitioner has more fully expressed it. Your Lordships will, I hope, adopt some measure fully to protect and redress him, and not him alone, but the whole body of the people insulted and aggrieved in his person, by the interposition of an abused civil, and unlawful military force between them and their right of petition to their own representatives."

According to Byron's journals, returning from the House, he called on Thomas Moore, and, while the latter was dressing for dinner, walked up and down the next room, "spouting in a sort of mock heroic voice, detached sentences of the speech he had just been delivering. 'I told them,' he said, 'that it was a most flagrant violation of the Constitution—that, if such things were permitted, there was an end of English freedom, and that—' 'But what was this dreadful grievance?' asked Moore. 'The grievance?' he repeated, pausing as if to consider, 'oh, that I forget.'" (Project Gutenberg).

What took him away from London on the 27th June was a visit by his sister Augusta Leigh. He had invited her to Lady Davy’s to meet Madame de Stael.

Byron mentions his speech in parliament in various letters and his journal, e.g. in a letter to John Murray dated June 2, 1813: “Dear Sir, I presented a petition to the house today … favour me for a few minutes with the Times & Herald to look on their hostile report…” and in a journal entry for Dec 1, 1813 “Stanhope and I stood against the whole House and mouthed it valiantly – and had some fun and a little abuse for our opposition”

It appears that later Byron and Cartwright fell out in later life as an 1819 letter to Hobhouse states (Letter to John Cam Hobhouse August 20^th, 1819) “…The “Venerable Cartwright” too – why did you not shorten that fellow’s longevity? … I have no notion of an old fool like that drivelling defiance and coughing a challenge at his youngers and his betters, …”

The petition Cartwright had proposed to the house was to bring into force the right to petition for the ‘reform’ of parliament (meaning the reform of pocket boroughs and the reapportioning of representation more nearly in accord with population. No actual reconstruction of parliament took place until the reform bill of 1832 (Marchand, Leslie, Byron: A Biography, London: John Murray, 1957, p. 390).