Ephemeral invective from the Middle Hill Press of Sir Thomas Phillipps. Rare.

[Sir Thomas Phillipps] / [Middle Hill Press]. Is not Mr. Edmund Beales a Roman Catholic, If he is, we know what he wants— The Papists to rule over us. [Cheltenham]: [Middle Hill Press], [likely 1866 or 1867]. [11.3 x 7.7 cm], [1] f. letterpress slip. Minor toning, top edge folded over and with sewing holes.
 
 
A very rare (2 copies worldwide) propagandistic slip printed at the Middle Hill Press of the eccentric bibliomaniac Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872). The text attacks Edmond Beales (1803-81), the President of the Reform League and a central figure in the British reform movement, attempting to link his name to a shadowy Popish plot. The piece likely was printed around the time of Beales’ Hyde Park rallies of 1866 and 1867.
 
The handbill’s brevity, dubious logic, shoddy punctuation, and pointed acerbity will be familiar to anyone who has ever encountered its descendants in the form of media like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, or the comments section of the local online newspaper.
 
“Phillipps was one of the greatest (and perhaps the most voracious) of all book and manuscript collectors” (Tanselle, “Preface,” in Holzenberg, p. xi), and beginning in 1822 his delightful, often bizarre Middle Hill Press produced hundreds of items of true literary, bibliographic, antiquarian, local-historical, and genealogical importance, all the while mixing letterpress with experimental lithographic, anastatic and photographic techniques. Phillipps also used his press to handle the business needs of his estate (e.g., blank forms), to engage in local squabbles and political disputes (often in the form of anti-Catholic invective), and to print items of all sorts in very small batches for his own amusement or for informal distribution to friends (or enemies) of his choosing. He often used his press casually, just as today we might use a photocopy machine, digital scanner, or household printer. 
 
 
OCLC & KVK locate two examples of this item: Grolier Club and Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
 
*E. Holzenberg, The Middle Hill Press: A Checklist of the Horblit Collection, p. 116, no. 416.