Add MS 43039-43358

THE ABERDEEN PAPERS.

Correspondence and papers, official and private, of George Gordon, afterwards (1818) Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, K.G., K.T., Prime Minister (b. 1784, d. 1860). From the death of his father in 1791 until he succeeded his grandfather as Earl in 1801 he was styled Lord Haddo. Full details of his career will be found in The Earl of Aberdeen, 1893, by his youngest son, the Hon. Sir Arthur Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Baron Stanmore 1893, the Colonial Governor, and also in Lady Frances Balfour, The Life of George, Fourth Earl of Aberdeen, 2 Vols. 1923, in which extracts from these papers are printed. Cf. also Brit. Mus. Quart., vii, 1932-1933, pp. 68-70. By an autograph codicil to his will (written in Nov. 1857) Lord Aberdeen left the sole custody and disposal of his papers to his son Arthur, with discretion to publish the whole or part thereof subject to certain conditions which included supervisory powers (during their respective lives) to the statesmen Sir James R. G. Graham, 2nd Bart., of Netherby, and W. E. Gladstone (cf. Add. MS. 49270, f. 140). The printing of these papers (for private circulation only) began during Lord Aberdeen's lifetime, one volume, containing the correspondence for the years 1841-1843, being printed by Harrison and Sons of London in 1858. During the period 1858-1888 the majority of the correspondence was privately printed by Lord Stanmore in a series of volumes produced at irregular intervals and in various parts of the world (some of them

printed by the Colombo Govemment Press) from transcripts made for this purpose and now incorporated as Vols. CCXIX-CCXCVI of the Aberdeen Papers (Add. MSS. 43257-43334). W. E. Gladstone opposed the publication of the correspondence (cf. Add. MS. 44320, ff. 99-111); and although in July 1883 two volumes (covering the years 1850-1855) were sent to Henry Reeve and one of them was reviewed by him in the Edinburgh Review, clviii, July-Oct. 1883, pp. 547-577, Gladstone still maintained his objections in 1891 (cf. Add. MS. 44322, f. 111), and the privately printed volumes remained, in fact, unpublished when the Aberdeen Papers were presented to the British Museum. Subsequent to the publication of Lord Stanmore's biography of his father, a few of the documents of earlier date mentioned in it were accidently burnt, and some others had been previously destroyed by Lord Stanmore himself (cf. his letter, 1 Sept. 1862, to W. E. Gladstone, Add. MS. 44320, f. 7); thirteen volumes are now Vols. LXXV-LXXXVII of the Stanmore Papers (Add. MSS. 49273-49285), and two diaries (for 1803-1804) and a note-book on Greek classical antiquities, etc., were presented by Lord Stanmore to the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities in the British Museum. Papers of members of Lord Aberdeen's family (e.g. the correspondence of his brother the Hon. Sir Robert Gordon, G.C.B., the diplomatist, Add. MSS. 43209-43222) are also included, with the exception of those of his youngest son, Lord Stanmore, which were presented to the Museum (now Add. MSS. 49199- 49285) by George Arthur Maurice Hamilton-Gordon, 2nd Baron Stanmore (who also added Vols. CLXXXII-CLXXXIV, Add. MSS. 43220-43222, to the present collection). Other Aberdeen Papers are in Add. MS. 51043. Three hundred and twenty volumes. Folio (unless otherwise stated). Classified as follows:-

A. Royal Correspondence, etc., 1813-1860 (43039-43055).

B. Correspondence with Prime Ministers, 1827-1860 (43056-43072).

C. Correspondence as Ambassador to Austria, 1813-1814 (43073-43079).

D. Correspondence as Foreign Secretary, 1828-1830 (43080-43122).

E. Correspondence as Foreign Secretary, 1841-1846 (43123-43187).

F. Correspondence relating to Home Affairs, 1808-1860 (43188-43208).

G. Private papers of Lord Aberdeen and his family (43209-43228), viz.:-

Section I. Correspondence of the Hon. Sir Robert Gordon, G.C.B., 1809-1847 (43209-43222).

Section II. Correspondence with other members of the family, 1800-1859 (43223-43228).

H. General Correspondence, 1801-1860 (43229-43256).

I. Letter Books, 1813-1860 (43257-43334).

J. Diaries, 1802-1819, 1828-1835 (43335-43341).

K. Miscellanea (43342-43354).

L. Printed Cabinet Memoranda (43355-43358).

The names of the writers are given in the Index to this Catalogue.

Presented (together with a set of the privately printed volumes referred to above and other printed material now transferred to the Department of Printed Books) by John Campbell Gordon, 7th Earl of Aberdeen and (1916) 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair.