Autograph letter signed by John Stuart Mill from the House of Commons dated 1866

MILL, John Stuart (1806-1873). Autograph Letter in the third person, signed, to the Chairman of the Committee of Selection. House of Commons embossed paper, 18 June 1866.
 
180 x 110 mm, single sheet folded on embossed House of Commons stationery, with integral blank leaf. Old horizontal and vertical folds, otherwise very good.
 
A parliamentary letter written during Mill's brief tenure as Liberal MP for Westminster. Presenting his compliments to the Chairman of the Committee of Selection, Mill explains that, having "attained the age of sixty on the 20th of May last", he wishes to be exempted from service on Election Committees. 
 
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) entered Parliament in 1865 and quickly became one of the most distinguished members of the House of Commons. During his single term he championed proportional representation, Irish land reform, and, most famously, women's suffrage, proposing an amendment to the Reform Bill of 1867 that would have replaced the word "man" with "person".  
 
A scarce parliamentary autograph of one of the defining figures of the nineteenth century, with Mill being better known for his landmark works in philosophy and economics.