[Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon.] Manuscript [Autograph?] Letter, as Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, to Cardinal Wiseman, forwarding at the request of the Canadian government, via Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, a collection of papers.

1p., foolscap 8vo. On a bifolium, docketted by Wiseman on the reverse of the second leaf, 'Under Secy of State for Colonies'. On aged paper, with an unobtrusive closed tear neatly repaired with archival tape. The document reads: 'The Under Secretary of State presents his compliments to Cardinal Wiseman and, in compliance with the request of the Government of Canada, forwards herewith by direction of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton a copy of a collection which has been made under the direction of that Government of the Reports of the early Jesuit Missionaries in North America. | Colonial Office | 12th May 1859'. According to Wiseman's entry in the Oxford DNB, in 1847 he had been 'appointed pro-vicar apostolic of the London district, whose bishop, Thomas Griffiths, had died while Wiseman was in Rome. The specific purpose of Wiseman's immediate return was to explain to Lord Palmerston, the foreign secretary, the difficult situation facing the pope as a result of Austria's imposition of troops in the Papal States to counter the movement for Italian unification. In addition he was to inform the British government of the liberal reforms instituted by the pope'. From the Wiseman papers.