Letter from Jane Cobden Unwin to Herbert Henry Asquith, 2 August 1916
STRAND. August 2nd 1916. Dear Mr.Asquith, You probably may not
remember me, but in days
gone by, in your first wife's
life time, we used to meet.
Now, after these many years,
I bring myself to your
remembrance to entreat
you to use your great influence
to obtain at this eleventh
hour the reprieve of Roger
Casement - will it not be 2 an evil beginning for the
new regime in Ireland if
it should start under the
shadow of his scaffold? His death will in no way
help forward the Irish Cause,
, an act of clemency in
sparing his life may —
Surely his work for the natives
both in the Congo, & in Peru,
should not be forgotten at this
time. I cannot but believe
that at the eleventh hour
both America and England
will hear with relief of such
an act of clemency - Yours sincerely, Jane Cobden Unwin. Are we not drifting into
what Mr. John Bright described
as the ever recurring ever
failing remedy of Coercion
in Ireland? —
Copy of a letter written from Jane Cobden Unwin (1851-1947), suffragist and wife of publisher Thomas Fisher Unwin, to Herbert Henry Asquith (1852-1928), then Liberal Prime Minister of Great Britain. The letter is a response to an appeal for clemency for Sir Roger Casement (1864-1916) who was under a sentence of death having been arrested in Kerry on the eve of the Easter Rising. It is an appeal for clemency for Casement and points out that no progress will be made in the Irish question by executing Casement and argues against coercion of Ireland. A campaign had been launched featuring many prominent figures such as W.B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw to secure a reprieve for Casement but he was hanged on 3 August 1916, the day after this letter was written.
How to cite
Letters 1916, published by the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Vienna, 2026 (https://letters1916static.github.io/letters1916-static/item__5482.html)
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- Letter from Jane Cobden Unwin to Herbert Henry Asquith, 2 August 1916
- Place
- 3 Adelphi Terrace, Strand, London, UK
- Mentioned in
- Letter from Jane Cobden Unwin to Herbert Henry Asquith, 2 August 1916