WORDSWORTH, William. Two Addresses to the Freeholders of Westmorland. Kendal: Airey and Bellingham, 1818. First edition, signed and inscribed by William Wordsworth. Title, ‘Advertisement’ leaf with ‘To the Reader’ verso, 4pp. ‘Notes’ to rear, a word at p.59 crossed out and amended in manuscript in the margin. (Browning, heavy to title and ‘Notes’ leaves.) [Bound with:] Gould Francis LECKIE. Essay on the Practice of the British Government. London: A.J. Vaply and E. Lloyd, 1812. 1p. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Spotting and browning, marginal loss to b4.) [Bound with:] Charles Thomas LANE. The Coronation Oath. London: J. Hatchard and Son, 1828. Inscribed by the author to title, second edition. Title, 16pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Some heavy spotting.) [Bound with:] Public Dinner to David Urquhart, Esq., by the Town of Hull on the 26th December, 1838. London: H. Hooper, 1838. Title. (Light spotting.) [Bound with:] A Letter to the King. By One of the People. London: Roake and Varty, 1831. Title. (Spotting.) On the Draught of a New Constitution About to be Sent Up to the House of Peers. In a Letter to a Noble Lord. London: Roake and Varty, 1831. Half-title, title. (Light spotting.) [Bound with:] A Letter to the Right Hon. Lord Milton. By a Whig Commoner, on the Rejection of the Reform Bill in the House of Lords. London: Roake and Varty, 1831. Half-title, title. (Light browning.) [Bound with:] A Letter Respectfully Addressed to His Grace the Duke of Wellington, by A Whig Commoner, on the Question of Reform. London: Roake and Varty, 1831. Title, 1p. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Light browning.) [Bound with:] Friendly Advice to the Ministers. London: Roake and Varty, 1831. Title. (Toning.) [Bound with:] Friendly Advice, Most Respectfully Submitted to the Lords, on the Reform Bill. London: James Ridgway, 1831. Second edition. Title, 1p. advertisements. (Spotting to title.) [Bound with:] The Speech of the Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, on the Question that ‘The Reform Bill Do Pass’, Tuesday 22nd September, 1831. London: John Murray, 1831. Title, 16pp. publisher’s advertisements to rear. (Spotting to title.) [Bound with:] Substance of the Speech of the Right Honourable the Earl of Harrowby, in the House of Lords, October 4th, 1831: on the Motion that the Reform Bill Be Read a Second Time. London: Roake and Varty, 1831. Title. (Spotting.) [Bound with:] Reply to a Pamphlet, Entitled Speech of the Right Hon. Lord Brougham, Lord High Chancellor of England, Delivered in the House of Lords, on Friday, Oct 7, 1831. London: J. Hatchard and Son, 1831. Second edition. Title, 4pp. publisher’s advertisements. (Browning.) [Bound with:] Four Years of a Liberal Government. London: Henry Hooper, 1834. (Browning, text-block cracked at p.32.) 8vo (209 x 128mm.) Contemporary calf-backed marbled paper-covered boards, gilt lettering to spine (heavily rubbed, manuscript notes to front pastedown). Note: very rare. Wordsworth’s ‘Two Addresses…’ is inscribed: ‘John Hills, from the author, W. Wordsworth Esq, Rydal Mt.’ This pamphlet was part of Wordworth’s rigorous and psychologically complex intervention in the 1818 Westmorland election in which Lord Brougham took on the power of the Lowther family. That power was long entrenched and unlikely to be threatened by the reformer Brougham. Academically, there’s a measure of speculation why William involved himself so much in favour of the reactionary land-owning recumbent who didn’t particularly require his help.  (William and his sister, Dorothy, also set up a pro-Lowther news-sheet and canvassed personally in support of the Lowthers). John Wordsworth- the poet’s father- had been the legal steward for the Lowther family and the political machinations of his work had been the backdrop to William’s childhood and it had resulted in a long-standing financial debt to the Wordsworth’s that wasn’t paid until 1802- making Wordsworth’s political choice even more unlikely. It was a long way from the poet of ‘The Prelude’ who celebrated the liberty (‘Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive!’), the equality, and fraternity of the French revolution. It seems that William had seen in the Westmorland by-election a symbolic threat to England that he had seen overcome France after the revolution and this pamphlet is a significant insight into the trajectory of his political thought. Provenance: John Hills (ink inscribed to on the title from William Wordsworth).