Author:
Francis Napier, 10th Lord Napier and 1st Baron Ettrick (1819-1898), Scottish diplomat, Ambassador to United States [William Nassau Lees (1825-1889), orientalist; Lord Mayo, Viceroy of India]
Publication details:
16 January [1878]. Ravensbury, Ascot, Berkshire.
See Napier's entry in the Oxford DNB (he is not to be confused with Lord Napier of Magdala). On the death of Lord Mayo in 1872, Napier acted as Viceroy of India for a little over three months, before the arrival of Mayo's successor Sir John Strachey. The present letter was written in the first months of 1878, six years after Mayo's death, follows the publication in The Times of a letter Napier had written defending Mayo's policy regarding the 'defence of Khelat and Affghanistan [sic]', against the criticisms of Mayo's predecessor as Viceroy, Lord Lawrence (previously Sir John Lawrence).