ABSTRACT
After hearing Disraeli's speech on the Reform Bill to the Edinburgh working men in 1867, George Eliot's publisher John Blackwood suggested to her that she too might do 'a first rate address to the Working Men on their new responsibilities'. 1 Begun on 22 November, the 'Address' was finished on 4 December 1867 (Journal); Blackwood expressed himself delighted with its style and sentiment, but added, not surprisingly, 'I wish the poor fellows were capable of appreciating it.' 2
