6 Windsor Villas | Plymouth | 15 November 1857
My dear Tyndall,
As we are to have a new Reform Bill1 many in accordance with my own view are desirous to introduce what we term an ‘Educational Franchise’—that is to say a Franchise based upon
Education and intelligence without regard to money qualification. By this we imagine the case of order and good Government would be greatly promoted—You will receive a pamphlet on this subject,2 if upon consideration you find you can add your name to the enclosed list I am certain you would never regret it—The Memorial3 will be supported by influential and intelligent men and I suspect not opposed by any.
I venture to put into your hands my last paper in the Phil. Magazine4—That perhaps may be superfluous, still I should wish you to possess a separate copy: I can not but believe that it contains some points on Statical Electricity of no small importance to our views of the probable nature and operation of Electrical Force. I am sure that there is no such thing as an insulated charged conductor—that is ‘per se’ The metal or other conducting surface is the mere coating or means of Electrical accumulation on some diaelectric in contact with it—that is the reason why a hollow conducting body appears to contain as they say—as much Electricity as a solid body of the same dimensions and form—See pages 8 and 9—
always most faithfully yours | W. Snow Harris
J. Tyndall Esq. Ph D F.R.S.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/2/474
LT Typescript Only
new Reform Bill: probably a reference to Palmerston’s 7 May 1857 promise to introduce a bill to ‘extend the franchise to classes of persons now unmeritedly excluded from that privilege’ (HC Deb, 7 May 1857, vol. 145, cols 66–7). See also R. Saunders, Democracy and the Vote in British Politics, 1848–1867: The Making of the Second Reform Act (London: Routledge, 2011), ch. 4, pp. 101–30.
a pamphlet on this subject: Parliamentary Reform: The Educational Franchise (London: T. Hatchard, 1853). The pamphlet was initially published in 1853 and then reissued in 1857.
The Memorial: possibly the memorial in appendix A of H. Fortescue (Viscount Ebringon), The Legal Profession and the Educational Franchise (London: C. Roworth and Sons, 1858), p. 6. However, the signatories of the memorial are not shown.
my last paper in the Phil. Magazine: W. Snow Harris, ‘Researches in Statical Electricity’, Phil. Mag., 14 (1857), pp. 81–100; and 14 (1857), pp. 176–83.
Please cite as “Tyndall1454,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on