QUEEN VICTORIA CREATES ANOTHER LIBERAL PEER

Letter from Robert Grosvenor to Lionel de Rothschild. 19 August [1857]. RAL 000/848.
It was the House of Lords who continued to refuse to pass the Jewish Disabilities Bill which would have allowed Jewish MPs to enter Parliament through an alteration in the oath of abjuration. In this letter Grosvenor, the MP for Middlesex from 1847-1857, tells Lionel that Queen Victoria has decided to elevate him to the peerage in order to increase the number of Liberals in the upper chamber. Grosvenor was created Baron Ebury on 10 September 1857. Grosvenor's son, Robert Wellesley Grosvenor did not take over his father's seat, although he later became MP for Westminster from 1865 to 1874.

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Private & Confidential

19^th August [1857]

Dear Baron Rothschild

You have so much interest in the representation of the County of Middlesex and have been so long my supporter, and friend, that I wish to give you my early intelligence, that the Queen has been graciously pleased to propose to place another ally to your cause in the House of Lords in the person of myself; which of course will render a new election for the County necessary, before long; Hayter is desirous my son should come forward and I should of course be very much flattered should the Electors make such a proposition but it is a very arduous post, and not lightly either to be offered or undertaken.

May I ask you not to mention this piece of information for a day or two.

I remain dear Baron Rothschild

Very truly yours

R. Grosvenor