[Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Liberal politician and author.] Autograph Letter Signed ('G O Trevelyan') to 'Dear George' [George Harvey], declining to contribute a piece to the North American Review, as he must concentrate on 'writing a history'.

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter begins: 'Dear George, | The idea contained in your letter is very interesting, and I am honoured to be thought of in connection with it. I am now reading Stevenson's letters, (admirable they are,) and I know from his dealings with American magazines and publishers that the terms offered by the Review are extremely handsome. But I am very late in the day, - in my day, - to be a writing a history; [i.e. his history of the American War of Independence, which appeared in six volumes between 1899 and 1914] and all my time and thought must be given to it, if I am to have any hope of completing it.' He concludes by stating that this will be his answer not only to Harvey's 'kind letter', but to 'all proposals, - political and literary - that are made'.