Add MS 37348-37352

WHITWORTH PAPERS. Vols. I.-V. Correspondence of Charles Whitworth, as Resident at Ratisbon during the deliberations of the Diet upon the proposal of the Emperor Leopold to declare war with France, and later; 28 Feb. (O.S.), 1702-22 Nov. (N.S.), 1704. With numerous papers, MS. and printed. War was finally declared 6 Oct. 1702, with the consent of the various states represented at the Diet, with the exception of the Elector of Bavaria, who, espousing the cause of France, seized Ulm and Memmingen in September. The letters are chiefly drafts or copies of Whitworth's dispatches to James Vernon and (after 5 June, 1702) Sir Charles Hedges, Secretaries of State, the few original letters of Hedges being short and, as a rule, merely formal acknowledgments. Whitworth left Ratisbon in Sept. 1703, his letters from that time being dated from Vienna, whither he had been sent during the temporary absence of George Stepney, Envoy to the Imperial Court. On the latter's return in Mar. 1704, Whitworth still writes occasionally to Hedges, and, after May, to the new Secretary of State, Robert Harley, finally leaving Vienna for Russia on 25 Nov. 1704. Vols. IV., V. also contain drafts of some of Whitworth's letters to the Duke of Marlborough at the seat of war. Five volumes.