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3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged, with white paper stub from mount still adhering. From the distinguished autograph collection of Richard Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton). The letter begins: 'Mon cher Ministre, | J'ai lu avec un vif interêt l'écrit que vous avez eu la bonté de me communiquer'. He had told him, the other day, that it was 'une belle question à traiter', and he was certain that the recipient would deal with it 'supérieurement'.

Both docketed and bearing the Society's stamp. Letter One (12mo, 2 pp, good): Discussing the syllabus of the Royal Society's Spanish examinations. Ends: 'I think that there is need of arriving at some uniform standard of difficulty and of arrangement of the papers set.' Letter Two (4to, 4 pp, good, with top left-hand corner of first leaf torn away, though not affecting text): A long defence of an examination paper set by him against the criticisms of 'Mr Frank J. Allen', who has sat it. 'Mr. Allen, to me it seems as if he does not know his own language, he writes Castilian with two lls.

On piece of paper roughly 5 x 8 cms. The signature is clear and firm, on a piece of lightly discoloured grubby paper, with a spike hole to the right (not affecting any text). Reads '[in another hand] Bernardino Rivadavia | [signature] Bernardino | Rivadavia' | [in another hand, in pencil] President of Buenos Ayres'. Laid down on irregular shaped piece of paper removed from autograph album, on which is written, in a nineteenth-century hand 'President of Buenos Ayres'.