1863 letters Charles Manby Institute Civil Engineers from John Scott Tucker? for Sale

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1863 letters Charles Manby Institute Civil Engineers from John Scott Tucker? For Sale

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1863 letters Charles Manby Institute Civil Engineers from John Scott Tucker?:
$120.95

An interesting pair of letters that were sent on 23rd & 25th July 1863 respectively, both addressed to Charles Manby.
They reference Blue Books (parliamentary papers) and Downing Street, \"I must class myself with them as I hope & indeed fear soon to do so at Downing St to oblige Mr G looking over my statements in the enclosed blue books (2), papers relating to the final explosion...\"I\'m presuming the \"Mr G\" was Gladstone as he was Chancellor under Lord Palmerston at the time. He also refers to sending the debate on the vote, whether he should have been forwarding these items or not I do not know, but he asks Manby to look over the statements he has made in the Blue Books.
The address appears to read 72 Ebury Street, in London, which may have been a lodging house at the time close to Parliament. There is mention of the Cape and the Colonies Secretary, and the general tone of the letters is of somebody quite unhappy with whatever situation is going on, at one point writing \"has been a devil of a row at the Cape lately & the Parliament there has smashed my Departmenrt & I am to be sent to the eight about...from its very settlement I had recommended stop the plan after I got out\"I think therefore that the author is John Scott Tucker, Colonial Engineer of The Cape, he who designed the lighthouse on Robben Island.The greeting to the recipient appears to read as \"Dia\", which I thought was a Portugese greeting, but I know that Manby was a French speaker himself. The writer mentions knowing Hawkswell (John Hawkshaw, President of the Institute of Civil Engineers and who would later be part of the Manby Testimonial Committee alongside Brunel and Stephenson) as they were at \"Walkers\" together (this will be the office of James Walker, where he laid out the Leipsic and Dresden Railway).
Charles Manby FRS FRSA (4 February 1804 – 31 July 1884) was Secretary of the Institution of Civil Engineersfrom November 1839 to 1856, and engineer of the first iron steamer to cross the English Channel. Fluent in French, he installed gas piping into Paris and advised on the construction of the Suez Canal. At the time of the letters, I believe he was also Honorary Secretary of \"The Engineer\".
There is a debossed Star of David on the letter fronts, though I can\'t find any Jewish connection.Please see photographs provided which serve as the best possible description.
I post all paper items protected and in proper card backed envelopes.
I never add additional folds, if the item is shown with a parcel postage price that is because it is oversized and will not fit in a small or large letter envelope.I\'m always happy to combine postage when I can.
I only ever use GSP for international shipping, if you are buying more than one item please wait until they provide you with a final invoice as they cannot combine shipping retropectively.
Thanks for looking.