Add MS 88906/12/4

Personal letters and papers relating to significant moments in Lansdowne’s official career.

1. Letters on his resignation as Under Secretary for India, 1880.

2. Letters on his appointment as Governor-General of Canada, 1883. Includes a cutting from the Montreal Post attacking Lansdowne for the ill-treatment of tenants on his Irish estates, together with memoranda by Lansdowne defending his conduct, and further correspondence on the strength of Fenian opinion in Canada.

3. Papers relating to Lord Salisbury’s offer of a Cabinet post, including a draft of Lansdowne’s letter declining the offer, 1887.

4. Letters on his appointment as Viceroy of India, including Lord Salisbury’s letter offering him the appointment, and a draft of his reply; 1887-1888.

5. Letter from Lord Rosebery offering him a Knighthood of the Garter on the death of Lord Grey; 1894.

6. Letters of congratulation on his appointment as Foreign Secretary, 1900.

7. Letter from Lord Salisbury announcing his resignation as Foreign Secretary, with a draft of his reply, 1900; and letters from A.J. Balfour and the Duke of Devonshire on Lord Salisbury’s resignation as Prime Minister, with a retained copy of Lansdowne’s letter to Balfour agreeing to remain at the Foreign Office, 1902.

8. Letters of congratulation on the conclusion of the Entente Cordiale, with a letter from Lansdowne to his wife referring to ‘my little French success’, 1904.