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Trelawny Diaries 1858-1865: The Parliamentary Diaries of Sir John Trelawny, 1858-1865
camden fourth series; volume 40 greeny-cream colour cover with balck on the spine with gold gilt lettering to the spine. Text is clean bright and tight.
355 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1990
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August 11, 2021
This is admittedly a very specific book. It's not about the famous Bishop John Trelawney (of Sogn of the Western Man Fame), but one of his heirs and descendants a few centuries later. I was primarily interested in this book to see if there was anything relevant to Cornish history however once I got the book and opened it (after lazing in the dust of my bookshelf for several years) I discovered there would be little of practical use to me in that area, apart from him actually being Cornish the fact he represented the parliamentary constituency of Tavistock meant that I immediately realised there would be little regarding Cornwall within.
Trelawney was a Radical loosely attached to the Liberal Party (in modern terms we would say to the left of it but those distinctions don't seem to have been part of the political consciousness in those days). He doesn't appear to go so far as demanding universal suffrage like the Chartists (whom he mentions) however he does demonstrate that he is in favour of extending suffrage to 'working men'. One of his main bugbears appears to be religious freedom and tolerance and he does express some sympathies with certain peoples oppressed by the British Empire (relatively, considering the times)
I would suggest this book to a reader who wanted to glean a little insight into politics of the 1800's of that period. Free trade liberalism vs conservativism is in full swing in the British Parliament with much mention of Gladstone and Disreali in Trelawney's accounts. We also get to see how the inner workings of parliament went in those days, unfortunately not enough has changed. We do see debates about religious tolerance (Catholics are still discriminated against in law), we can also see with this particular perspective how the seeds of future large historical events are sown such as universal suffrage struggles and hence the birth of the labour party and the struggle for Irish, partial, independence (I'll also extend that to Indian independence/partition) as these issues are discussed in their proto-forms.
Trelawney was a Radical loosely attached to the Liberal Party (in modern terms we would say to the left of it but those distinctions don't seem to have been part of the political consciousness in those days). He doesn't appear to go so far as demanding universal suffrage like the Chartists (whom he mentions) however he does demonstrate that he is in favour of extending suffrage to 'working men'. One of his main bugbears appears to be religious freedom and tolerance and he does express some sympathies with certain peoples oppressed by the British Empire (relatively, considering the times)
I would suggest this book to a reader who wanted to glean a little insight into politics of the 1800's of that period. Free trade liberalism vs conservativism is in full swing in the British Parliament with much mention of Gladstone and Disreali in Trelawney's accounts. We also get to see how the inner workings of parliament went in those days, unfortunately not enough has changed. We do see debates about religious tolerance (Catholics are still discriminated against in law), we can also see with this particular perspective how the seeds of future large historical events are sown such as universal suffrage struggles and hence the birth of the labour party and the struggle for Irish, partial, independence (I'll also extend that to Indian independence/partition) as these issues are discussed in their proto-forms.
Displaying 1 of 1 review