WCP2645

Letter (WCP2645.2535)

[1]1

General Medical Council Office,

299, Oxford Street, London, W.

of 44 Marlborough Hill, N. W.

Nov. 3, 1883.

Dear Sir,

Please excuse my troubling you with a few lines, but having read your recent article2 in 'Macmillan' and Letter3 in the 'Daily News' I find you so exactly expressing what have been my views that I am anxious to ascertain if you can put me in the way of joining my association of earnest men for promoting such opinions. Some time since [2] I may mention, I became a member of the Democratic Federation, and attended one of their conferences, but was disappointed & disheartened to find what an utterly impractical set of people they appeared to be, standing aloof from all existing organisations and regarding Radicals as their bitterest foes. I found I could not act with people who seemed to repudiate all practical and legal methods of advancing reforms and appeared to me to be [3] desiring, and waiting for, only a Revolution to effect their objects. How [sic] Revolutions, my study of History gives me no love for: they generally end only in bad despotism.

Still while regretting the impractically of this particular Federation I am not content to stand by in inaction at this crisis. Though not strong in health I should be glad to find an opportunity to work in favour of the oppressed masses, and take the [4] liberty of writing to you in the hope that you can point out some association with which I could work.

You would greatly oblige me could you have time for sending me any information.

I am, Dear Sir, | yours faithfully | Henry E. Allen4 [signature]

A. R. Wallace Esq

In ARW’s handwriting, "Answd" “Land Nationalisation”.
Wallace, A. R. 1883. The "why" and the "how" of land nationalisation, II. Macmillan's Magazine 48 (October): 485-493.
Wallace, A. R. 1883. [Letter to the editor] The Poor in Town and Country. [dated 'Godalming, Oct. 30,' concerning rural to urban migration]. Daily News (London) (1 Nov. 1883), p. 6f.
Allen, Henry Ebenezer (1839-1911). Registrar of the General Medical Council.

Please cite as “WCP2645,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2645