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Diplomatic History

Collection of four very important and meaningful manuscript letters by Leopold II

Congo / Kongo – Leopold II of Belgium (1835-1909) – King of the Belgians and Owner / Absolute Ruler of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.

Collection of four very important and meaningful manuscript letters by Leopold II to his administrator and Foreign Minister of the Congo – Free-State, Baron Adolphe de Cuvelier (1860-1931) with a total of 16 pages filled with Leopold’s instructions on pressing issues regarding a warning about an imminent visit by the Rector of the Mill-Hill Missionaries [probably Herbert Alfred Henry Vaughan (1832 – 1903)] and Leopold’s qualification of the visit of being detrimental to the Congo Free State (″ne travaillent pas pour l’État”). Leopold continues in another letter to talk about the hostile positions of english officials (consuls) and missionaries (″que les consuls anglais et les missionnaires anglais se conduisent bien mal envers l’État”). Interestingly, Leopold also touches on the nuisance of the german press criticizing Belgian Railway Lines and he is of the opinion that this is all happening in order to force the german parliament [″Reichstag”] to finance the building of the Tanganyika Railway [between Dar es Salaam and Kigoma]: (″cherche à effrayer l’opinion [en] Allemagne à propos de mes chemins de fer afin d’obtenir du Reichstag des fonds pour la ligne allemande vers le Tanganika”.

16 pages of MLS, Manuscript Letters (signed) on 10 leaves of Leopold’s official stationery “Château de Laeken” and “Palais de Bruxelles”. Laeken / Brussels, Château de Laeken [Palace of Laeken], 1901 – 1906. The leaves with different sizes (13,5 cm x 9 cm) and (18 cm x 11,5 cm). Excellent condition. Unsigned. Tremendously rare to find original letters by Leopold II on the open market in which the Colonial Free State and the protection against inquisitive visitors is discussed in such clear and instructive fashion. Leopold’s correspondence with Adolphe de Cuvelier shows how he is very much trying to still protect and influence the narrative of his Colonial Slavery Outpost even in the final years of his life.

EUR 4.800,-- 

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Moshamm, Franz Xaver / Louis-Guillaume Otto, comte de Mosloy - Europäisches Gesandschaftsrecht.

[Otto, Louis-Guillaume, Comte de Mosley] Moshamm, Franz Xaver von [d.i. Franz Xaver von Moshammer, Ritter von Mosham].

Europäisches Gesandschaftsrecht [European Law for Emissaries / Ambassadors / Minister Plenipotentiary / Histoire du Droit de Corps Diplomatique Européennes] / [Provenience: From the library of Germano-French Diplomat, Louis-Guillaume Otto, comte de Mosloy, with his Exlibris / Bookplate].

Landshut, Franz Seraph Hagen, 1805. Octavo. [2], VIII, 467 Seiten. Hardcover / Dekoratives Maroquin des frühen 19.Jahrhunderts, mit floraler Rückenvergoldung. Wunderbare Ausgabe in sehr guter Erhaltung mit nur geringen Gebrauchsspuren. Ehemaliges Exemplar aus der Bibliothek der ‘Académie Diplomatique Internationale’ in Paris. Durchgehend stockfleckig. Von grosser Seltenheit und mit sehr interessanter Provenienz. Das Buch stammt aus der Privatbibliothek des französischen Diplomaten, Louis-Guillaume Otto, Comte de Mosloy, Schüler des bedeutenden Rechtslehrer’s Christoph Wilhelm Koch (1737-1813), der als der letzte Rechtslehrer der alten Straßburger Hochschule gilt. Louis-Guillaume Otto wird in biographischen Quellen als Deutsch-Franzoesischer Diplomat benannt und hat sich zur Zeit der Publikation des vorliegenden Werks von Moshammer, am Bayrischen Hofe in Muenchen als Gesandter Napoleon’s befunden, wo Otto’s Wirken grossen Eindruck auf Napoleon ausuebte und zu seiner Befoerderung und spaeteren Berufung als Botschafter Frankreich’s am Wiener Hof (1810) fuehrte. In Wien erlangte Otto grosse Bedeutung fuer Napoleon indem er fuer Ihn die Hochzeit mit Marie-Louise von Österreich verhandelte. Historisch belegt ist auch Otto’s Bekanntschaft mit Metternich, welcher ebenfalls Schüler von Christoph Wilhelm Koch war. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist die Ausgabe des hier vorliegenden Gesandtschaftsrechts von grosser historischer Bedeutung, da Provenienz und Funktion des Buchtitels nicht nur im direkten Zusammenhang mit der juristischen Ausbildung von Otto und Moshamm sondern auch mit Otto’s Berufung als Gesandter, Diplomat und Botschafter unter Napoleon in Verbindung steht.

EUR 4.800,-- 

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Stuart de Rothesay, Charles Stuart, Baron (1779-1845) / Hay, Robert William (1786–1861) /

Stuart de Rothesay, Charles Stuart, Baron (1779-1845) / Hay, Robert William (1786-1861) / Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (1780 – 1831) [Baron de Rousseau – French Orientalist and French Consul at Tripoli] / Alexander Gordon Laing (1794 – 1826) [Scottish explorer and the first European to reach Timbuktu] / Hanmer Warrington / Foreign Secretary for Prime Minister Wellington, George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen [Lord Aberdeen].

Original, unpublished and meaningful letter by British official and Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, Sir Robert William Hay, addressed with urgency to former secret agent in Spain and Portugal, Sir Charles Stuart de Rothesay, Scottish nobleman, and English ambassador to France (1815-1830); alerting Ambassador Charles Stuart of Hay’s arrival in Paris and his wish to ask him if he has “anything to communicate to me in regard to that Royal [Baron] Rousseau, The Barbary Consul”. Hay is in this letter preparing Stuart in order to investigate the situation around the death of explorer Alexander Gordon Laing in Africa. Under-Secretary for the Colonies, Sir R[obert] W.Hay, who had been informed about the situation around Laing’s missing Journals per private letter from the British Consul in Tripoli, Hanmer Warrington, announces his arrival in Paris to protest to the French government and advices ambassador Stuart:″I conclude that he [Baron Jean-Baptiste Rousseau] is by this time out of guarantiae, but I hope that by ensuing at Paris he will only get out of the frying Pan with the fire”. Hay continues: “I hope you will go with me (in case it be necessary) to the Minister, whoever he may be, in [?] Departement this ….were incredibly false for it. The French Govt. are really disposed & prosecute the Enquiry bon a fide. I think that same may acq…[….]…..on the other hand, if the French Govt. do not enter into y. enquiry with a good spirit, it will be in Rousseau’s …..to baffle me with the utmost facility in all our attempts to get at the truth. I spoke to Lord Aberdeen [George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Foreign Secretary for Prime Minister Wellington] on the day I left London, & he gave me full permission to conduct measures with you for the …of this affair. Yours very truly R.W.Hay”.

[London], [1829]. 5 octavo – pages on 2 sheets, folded. Excellent condition. Signed by Hay and dated probably “Monday, 19 Oct. [1829]”.

EUR 3.500,-- 

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