GASCOYNE-CECIL

1p., folio. In three columns of small print, on a sheet of 37.5 x 23 cm paper. With three manuscript emendations. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with a couple of short closed tears at margins along folds. The present item is excessively scarce. There is no record of its existence on either OCLC WorldCat or COPAC, nor does it feature in Harold E. Raugh Jr's 'British Military Operations in Egypt and the Sudan: A Selected Bibliography' (2008). The document is anonymous, but its author is clearly an ADC, and there is a strong possibility that it was Lord Edward Cecil.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly aged and worn paper. Addressing the recipient as 'Sir', he thanks him for his 'many very valuable suggestions', but fears that 'there seems some danger that a Vigilance Committee such as you describe, wd be regarded as & wd. be very likely to become, a Caucus - the very thing we protest against so strongly'. In addition, it would 'embitter party rivalry in the Union & would greatly increase the difficulty of destroying all cliques & getting the best men as officers of the Union no matter to what section of what party they may belong'.

12mo, 3 pp. Good, on lightly-aged and creased paper. Recomending shares in three companies of which he is chairman, before discussing personal matters. 'Evelyn is prospering as much as an expectant & comparatively briefless barrister can [...] Arthur Balfour is doing very well - & is holding his own - & more than his own - spite of misrepresentation - downright falsehood - & the tricks which politicians in these days seem so proud'. Laments the 'standard of morality', and apologises for the 'long sermon'.

4to, 3 pp. 42 lines of text. Good, on aged paper. He is sorry not to have known about Niggeman's bank holiday visit to Hatfield House: 'it would have been an immense pleasure to us all to see you. Do come down and pay us a private call some other time.' The 'points' she makes 'are just the kind of thing we want to know'. Salisbury did not 'go round the Hosue with the visitors, for I did not wish to embarrass the guides; but clearly there is a good deal more organisation needed before our machinery works smoothly'.

12mo: 1 p. Good. Purple receipt stamp in top left-hand corner. 'Lord Salisbury requests Messrs. Williams & Norgate to send him Harnack's "Die Chronologie der Altchristlichen Literatur bis Eusebius". Also another volume he published 3 or 4 years ago on the same subject - the "Geschichte".' One presumes that the present British Prime Minister is equally cultured.