{"product_id":"tonna-charlotte-elizabeth-als-to-the-editor-of-the-record-1800243","title":"TONNA, Charlotte Elizabeth ALS to the editor of ‘The Record’","description":"\u003ch3 style=\"font-variant: small-caps\"\u003eAN EARLY REFERENCE TO THE RSPCA\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSingle folded sheet of writing paper (39.5 x 20cm approx), folded once vertically, with Tonna’s writing to four sides in a neat, flowing hand; signed to final leaf ‘Charlotte Elizabth’ and dated May 21 1835; sadly roughly cropped to foot with some loss of text; a few creases and ink stains, some contemporary; still a fascinating and important artefact. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCharlotte Elizabeth Tonna (1790 – 1846) was born in 1790 to the daughter of a reverend, and was raised in a strictly religious family. She married Captain George Phelan in 1813 and spent two years with him while he served with his regiment in Nova Scotia before returning to Ireland. The marriage was an unhappy one, prone to acts of violence, and Tonna began to write under the name ‘Charlotte Elizabeth’ to protect her writing from her husband. They separated in 1824 and she later remarried. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTonna began writing after her father’s death, in an attempt to support her mother. She believed that it was her mission in life to convert non-believers and protestants to Evangelical Protestantism, and so much of her work was religious, although later in life she began to write more widely on the subject of social change. In particular, she was passionate about the poor working conditions of female workers in London, and she also wrote about cotton mill child labour workers. Her concern for the social and economic conditions of women expressed in her writing helped gather support for passage of the London Factory Acts of 1844, 1847, and 1848, which regulated and improved the conditions of industrial workers. She was an early supporter of animal welfare and her \u003ci\u003eKindness to Animals, Or, The Sin of Cruelty Exposed and Rebuked\u003c\/i\u003e was published in 1845, shortly before her untimely death. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe present letter was written in 1835 to the editor of ‘The Record’, a prominent British evangelical religious and conservative newspaper which had been founded in 1828 and reported on ecclesiastical news, religious debates, social reform, missionary work, and general Victorian domestic and foreign news from an explicitly Christian perspective. Typical of her fervent passion for protestantism, the letter is strongly religious in tone, and she writes of animal cruelty: “I was not, until recently, aware how much is being attempted, how much actually done, to interpose between the tormentor and his defenceless victim”. She also refers to her abhorrence at the “fearful traffic in slaves some forty years ago” and quotes “the righteous man regardeth the life of his beast” - is not the blood the life? Is not their breath their life?” She concludes, “seeing, by your advertisement, that the annual meeting of the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals is postponed to June…I would earnestly beseech my fellow Christians to add yet this act of mercy to all”. She concludes by asking whether the paper might widely disseminate the publications of the society.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn early appeal for the humane treatment of animals and support of the newly-founded Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the first meeting for which had been held in 1824.  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSKU: \u003c\/strong\u003e1800243\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fold the Corner","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57198208319812,"sku":"1800243","price":595.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0943\/8711\/0212\/files\/1800243.jpg?v=1788626380","url":"https:\/\/foldthecornerbooks.co.uk\/products\/tonna-charlotte-elizabeth-als-to-the-editor-of-the-record-1800243","provider":"Fold the Corner Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}