Constituency : Leicester 1862-84
The radicals in Parliament got a new playmate at the beginning of 1862 when Peter came in at Leicester to replace the deceased John Biggs. Peter had contested a by-election at Leicester in 1861 but lost out to the Tories. This time he got in unopposed.
Peter was the son of a silk merchant and a nephew of Samuel Courtauld. He was educated at a Unitarian school run by his cousin. He went on to become a partner in Courtaulds and consequently a wealthy man but that didn't dampen his radical fire. He was active in the Anti-Corn Law League. He became friendly with Mazzini to the extent of making a hiding place in his home for him. He first stood unsuccessfully for Newcastle-upon-Tyne in a by-election in 1858.
Peter was a libertarian secularist who supported abolition of church rates and separation of church and state. He was described as being "anti-everything". He joined the Emancipation Society formed in 1862 to support the Northern cause. In 1863 he used his wealth to open the Aubrey Institute on his own property to remedy the gaps where people had had a poor education. Garibaldi stayed there during his 1864 visit. In 1865 he joined the Reform League to support manhood suffrage and payment of MPs , becoming its vice-president and appearing on its platforms during the agitation of 1866-7. He tried to achieve union with the more moderate Reform Union. He joined Mill on the Jamaica Committee.
Peter ticked all the radical boxes - female suffrage, repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act, land tenure reform, abolition of the game laws and flogging in the army, opposition to compulsory vaccination and censorship. The hostile Leicester Daily Post described him as "the very embodiment of faddism ". Peter's response was to buy the radical newspaper The Examiner in 1873.
Peter leaned towards republicanism and in 1871 supported Charles Dilke's motion opposing a dowry and annuity to Princess Louise.
Peter never gave money to any public cause in Leicester so that he could never be accused of buying the seat. Because of his libertarianism he was reluctant to address the issue of frame rents in Leicester which bore hard on some of his poorer constituents.
Peter's ventures were aided and abetted by his wife Clementia who set up her own pen and Pencil Club to support radical artists and writers.
In 1873 Peter moved from London to Brighton to improve his health. There he set up working men's clubs including the Nineteenth Century Club to promote radical secularism. He was finally forced to retire in 1884.
In 1886 Peter refused to support Home Rule and joined the Liberal Unionists.
He died in 1891 aged 72.
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