[Sir John Pope Hennessy, Irish politician and colonial administrator [Hong Kong; Mauritius]] A Collection of documents, re. his libel case re. Mauritius Governorship (see Note below).

Small archive comprising five informative legal documents, large collection of Letters (34) written to his lawyer with bearing on his Libel Suit against The Times (see Note below), 10 telegrams from Hennessy apparently related to the case. DOCUMENTS: a. Between Sir John Pope-Hennessy […] Plaintiff and George Edward Wright [The Times] […] Memorandum of Fees [High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, Memorandum of Fees to the undersigned [signed Green] in the matter of the Commission addressed by the Honourable Court in the above cause on the 14th July 1888 to Voley G. Ducray, as Commissioner for Defendant & Victor K/vern [Mayor of Port Louis] as Commissioner for Plaintiff which Commission reached Mauritius on the 23rd August 1888, Four Pages, folio, bifolium, inc. multiple attending and swearing, etc; b. Three pages, folio, manuscript, Sir J P Hennessy v. Wright (presumed publisher of The Times (libel)) Documents to be produced [...], long list including [Fair?] prints of Minutes of [Mauritian] Council from 1886-1888 [...] Governor's Despatches [various despatches and letters]; c. Secretarial Letter Signed Edward Wingfield, at that time Assistant Under-Secretary of State at the Colonial Office, Three pages, folio, 14 Nov. 1888, referring to an application for a subpoena for the production of certain documents by Hennessy's lawyers. Lord Knutsford [Secretary of State for the Colonies] has issued a list of documents the production of which he doesn't object, and one which he does object to, ETC; d. Another letter signed by Wingfield, two pages, fol., 19 July 1888, reporting on documents that Lord Knutsford has directed be transmitted to the Officer administering the Government of Mauritius. ETC.; e. One page note from Downing Street , Robert Herbert on behalf of the Secretary of State for the Colonies [Lord Knutsford] allowing the production of some letters written by Pope Hennessy and the lawyer, Harrison; f.10 Telegrams to his lawyer, Harrison, March-November1888, culminating in the triumphant My sincerest thanks to you for this happy result; g. 34 (thirty-four) Autograph Letters Signed by Pope Hennessy to his lawyer Harrison, March to November 1888, with allusions to the libel action (Lord Knutsford and Mauritius), all but one 12mo, bifoliums, usually three or four pages of his sprawling hand. One letter, two pages, folio, headed Rostellan Castle, 8 July 1888, the most detailed on the affair, as follows: My dear Harrison | I am quite satisfied with the Appeal Court, & the balance of advantage is clearly with us. | Your draft letter to Lord K[nutsford, Secretary of State for the Colonies] has been copied, signed & sent off by this mail. I did not alter a word. It is dated 6 July 1888. | If you could see despatch no. 168 of the 10th of May 7 its enclosures at the Colonial Office, I think you would see that it is the despatch in which I sent a letter [?] & the report of what took place in Council about it. But, unless I saw the original I cannot be quite certain. | After all perhaps the O Donnell case [see Note b.], by its contrast in every way, will have improved ours when the public come to know the latter. | I enclose for your private & confidential eye a note I got yesterday from Lord Knutsford, as it shows the production of documents incident has not rendered him unfriendly.Notes: a. See James Pope-Hennessy, Verandah, p. 298, for an account of this libel suit and its ultimate end in a withdrawal of charges re document tampering by The Times; b. Frank Hugh O'Donnell, who had been accused of Fenianism in the Times articles, took a libel case against the newspaper's editor John Walter, without consulting Parnell. The case was dismissed on 5 July 1888, but the additional allegations raised during the O'Donnell v. Walter trial precipitated the creation of a special commission established by statute.