Letter to Mr. Longworth

Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava (1826-1902) was Governor General of Canada from 1872-78, giving his name to an Ontario county as well as numerous streets throughout the province. As well as other positions, he was ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1881 to 1884. The tactful, perhaps flattering language, Lord Dufferin uses in this letter to quell rumours of a Turkish attrocity provides an example of how he became one the most successful diplomats of his time. The letter is directed to John Augustus Longworth, British consul in Trabzon, a city on the Black Sea coast.