Autograph Letter Signed ('Granville') from Liberal Foreign Secretary Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville, to a 'Baron', stating his position on whether Louis Napoleon's 'mischievous motions' will bring about war in Europe.

Author: 
Granville George Leveson-Gower (1815-1891), 2nd Earl Granville, Liberal Home Secretary, 1851-1852 [Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (1808-1873), Napoleon III, Emperor of the French; France]
Publication details: 
Bruton St [Mayfair, London]. 20 February 1852.
£90.00
SKU: 12580

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Of great interest, as giving the informal position of the British Home Secretary on what was at the time the most important problem facing him. Granville would only last as Foreign Secretary for a week after writing this letter, as Russell's Liberal Government would fall on 27 February. Ironically, his elevation to the post of Foreign Secretary the previous Boxing Day had been due to Russell forcing Palmerston's resignation over his unauthorized recognition of Louis Napoléon's coup d'état. The letter is addressed to 'My dear Baron'. He is returning 'the two papers' which he sent him, with '1000 thanks', and agrees with everything he has to say 'about European Affairs, and the President's disposition, excepting that he will be forced by circumstances into war.' For his part, Granville is 'inclined to believe the reverse'. Granville admits that Louis Napoleon's 'vague ambition, his fatalism, and his fervid idea that the nephew ought to carry out the uncle's ideas all tend to lead L. N. into war', but he hopes that the 'encreasing necessity of improving confidence among the Communist Classes of France, and the difficulty of getting any European Power to rely on him, will have some effect [...] in counteracting his own mischievous motions'. He considers that if Louis Napoleon 'hurrahs the army and the nation to war they will follow, but he will not be forced by them to do so'. Granville considers that it 'would be for his own good, and also for that of Belgium and England, if he would recall Changarnier, Thiers &c &c -'.