To F. P. Cobbe? 18 March [1873?]1
[16 Montague Street, London.]
March 18—
Madam.
Sir J. Lubbock whom I met accidentally, informed me yesterday that he had received from a you a petition to be presented to the House, signed by myself alone; & has asked me whether I intended this, adding that the words your petitioners were prefixed, so that it was informal.—2 As I have never closely attended to the subject it would be simply absurd in me to allow a the petition bearing my sole signature to be presented, & therefore I must request you to erase my name unless you obtain additional signatures.— My motive in signing was solely my general belief that women are not treated treated with full justice in this [country]; & I fear that without more definite knowledge I was not justified in attaching my signature.3
Apologies for this but, I have the h. to remain
Footnotes
Bibliography
Blackburn, Helen. 1878. Some of the facts of the women’s suffrage question. London: Central Committee of the National Society for Women’s Suffrage.
Hansard parliamentary debates: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com
House of Commons Reports on Public Petitions: Appendices to the votes and proceedings of the House of Commons, 1817–1890: with reports of the Select Committee on Public Petitions 1833–1900. [Cambridge]: Chadwyck-Healey. [1982.]
Mitchell, Sally. 2004. Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian feminist, journalist, reformer. Charlottesville, Va.: University of Virginia Press.
Summary
CD has discovered correspondent intends to present a petition to the House of Commons on which CD’s is the sole signature. Asks that his name be erased unless other signatures are added.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-8814
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Frances Power Cobbe
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 96: 168
- Physical description
- ADraft 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 8814,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-8814.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21