[Sir James Mackintosh, Scottish historian and politician.] Autograph Letter Signed thanking an unnamed peer for gaining him access to the Duke of Marlborough’s papers, and expressing a zeal for investigating the history of the Glorious Revolution.

A prescient note regarding his projected history of the Glorious Revolution, in which Mackintosh expresses the desire to ‘leave the ground somewhat more clear to a successor of greater talents’. And this is indeed what he did: his history was not published during his lifetime, but his voluminous notes proved invaluable to Thomas Babington Macaulay in writing his great history. See the two men’s entries in the Oxford DNB. 2pp., 12mo. Twenty-four lines of text. In fair condition, on lightly aged paper, with short closed tear to one edge. Signed ‘James Mackintosh’. A note from Lord Lansdowne has informed him that ‘Your Lordship has been pleased to use your good offices with the Duke of Marlborough to permit me to examine his Papers for the purposes of my intended History’. He expresses his ‘warmest gratitude for so great a benefit which is neatly enhanced by the offer of access to your own valuable collections [respecting?] the last forty years of which I have long known the importance’. He hopes to receive the recipient’s opinion and advice, and states that he has ‘such a zeal to investigate the subject thoroughly as will leave the ground somewhat more clear to a successor of greater talents’.