autograph letter signed to Major William Owen Lanyon, C.M.G. [later Sir William Owen Lanyon, Administrator of the Transvaal]

Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, British statesman who made Canada a confederation but failed to create a federation of South Africa; Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Interesting matter relating to South African affairs. He encloses (not present) a passage of Lanyon's from the Government Gazette. 'I do not ask you for any explanations, for I am quite satisfied both from the statement itself, which seems to be made in no unfriendly spirit and from all those circumstances in your own past career which have marked you out for the important task on which you will be shortly engaged and which I hope will lead you on to continued success, that there is nothing which calls for real explanation.' Hopes that 'you recognise the extreme importance of every officer connected with government in a Colony keeping absolutely [free from] any speculation of this nature which however honest & pure [his] intentions may be are always liable to misrepresentation & misunderstanding [...] I need not say how strongly this applies to such a Colony as that to which you are going & where I fear that a different practice has too often been allowed to prevail'. A couple of small pieces of gummed paper from album still adhering.