Add MS 34412-34471

THE AUCKLAND PAPERS: correspondence and papers, political and private, of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland. together with a few earlier diplomatic papers collected by him, and some later correspondence, chiefly of his son and successor George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland; 1660-1861. William Eden was born in 1744, and was created Baron Auckland in Ireland in 1789, and Baron Auckland of West Auckland in 1793; he died in 1814. He was Under Secretary of State (Northern department), 1772-1778; Member of the Board of Trade, 1776-1782; Joint Commissioner to treat with the revolted Colonies, 1778-1779; Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Under Treasurer, 1780-1782 ; Joint Vice Treasurer of Ireland, 1783 Envoy at Paris, 1785-1787 ; Ambassador at Madrid, 1788-1789 Ambassador at the, Hague, 1789-1793 ; Postmaster General, 1798- 1804; and President of the Board of Trade, 1806-1807. His correspondence begins when he was a boy at Eton, in 1761. During the time that he was Under Secretary of State it deals largely with the American rebellion and the proceedings of American spies and agents in England and France. The Irish and diplomatic portions are especially full and important; in the former. case, not only while he was Chief Secretary, but more particularly in 1798, when, although holding no office in Ireland, he was in constant communication with Edward Cooke, Under Secretary, and others in Dublin. Aniong the papers bearing upon his negotiations for a commercial treaty with France in 1786 are a large number of samples of dress-stuffs and other fabrics; and minutes of evidence on the subject taken before the Board of Trade in the same year are contained in a separate volume (Add.

34,462). While he was ambassador at the Hague in the critical period 1789-1793, the correspondence of several other English ministers abroad passed through his hands, and transcripts of many of their despatches are included. Numerous letters and memoirs of Eden himself, originals, drafts and copies, occur throughout. Some portion of the collection was published in The Journal and Correspondence of William, Lord Auckland, with preface, etc., by his son R. J. Eden, 3rd Lord Auckland, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1860-62, 4 vols. The correspondence of George Eden is chiefly private or in connection with his office of President of the Board of Trade (1830-1834), more particularly with respect to commercial negotiations with France. None of his Indian correspondence, when he was Governor-General (1835-1842), is included. Sixty volumes. Paper. Folio and Quarto. With the exception of Vols. LI.-LX., which deal with special subjects, the whole collection is arranged chronologically in a single series. The names of all the writers are given in the Index. For a volume of selected letters, 1768-1827, see also Add. 29,475.