[STUART CHARLES]: (1779-1845) British Diplomat, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal and Brazil 1810-14, British Ambassador to France 1815-24, 1828-30 and British Ambassador to Russia 1841-44. A small collection of A.Ls.S., Ds.S. etc., 22 pages (total), 4to and folio, various places (mainly Lisbon), 1811-1813, all relating or sent to Charles Stuart, including a L.S. by Ripon (?), 9th February 1813, regretting that it will not be possible to comply with a demand from the Portuguese Minister for 'an issue of Two thousand pairs of Boots from the British Magazines' and a second L.S., 27th March 1813 submitting a list of the names of persons employed in bakeries and asking that Stuart 'intercede with the Military authorities for a protection, permanently to ensure these men against enlistment for the army, an object truly desirable, and indeed indispensably necessary for the regular manufacture of Bread for the consumption of His Majesty's Forces'; a L.S. by Jeffery, 5th February 1812, concerning the duties paid on cargoes of fish, 'I beg to observe that the Merchants Messrs. Leigh & McMahon were compelled to execute whatever Bonds were imposed, to prevent the Cargoes of Bacalhao perishing by detention; but they were then given to understand that payment would not be enforced until the question should be decided by the Court of Brazils. My advice to the Merchants to resist the payment was founded on the reasonable expectation that as no duties were charged upon British Goods admitted into the Brazils for re-exportation, in consequence of the exemption from duties of Brazil produce warehoused in British Ports, for a similar purpose; and that the original Baldeacao duty of four per cent, was completely done away, not conceiving it possible that the same exemptions would be desired in Portugal' and expressing his astonishment at the 'gross and severe expressions' made by the officers of the Customs, and a second L.S., 3rd February 1813, regarding a complaint by the importers of British manufactured cotton goods in relation to the duties being charged by the officers of India House for warehouse rent; an A.L.S. by Richard Crompton, Town Adjutant, 1st January 1812, concerning two German officers, one in the Spanish service but now in England, and the other seemingly not in service but to be found in a German hotel in Largo de St. Paulo 'or in Bretts Hotel in the same place where he usually dines'; a L.S., 16th February 1813, concerning American vessels; an A.L.S., signed by the author with his initials, London, 23rd March 1813, asking for the salary of a member of the Commissariat in Portugal to be increased to 10 shillings a day and also reporting 'Whitbread cut a very poor figure in the House of Commons last night after what had fallen from Lord Ellenborough who in the course of the speech personified him under the characters of ignorance & presumption concluding by the words "from whatever quarter the assertion comes it is....false as hell. He is to explain himself in the H of Commons to-morrow. The Princess is universally abused & the Prince does not meet with much better treatment. I do not think either of them would be very well received if they were to appear in public. Lord Castlereagh & the Prince are said to have had some very high words in consequence of the former not defending the Prince when attacked by Wortley Stuart in the House. He stood up to the Regent most manfully'; an A.L.S. by Warren Peacocke, 11th February 1813, requesting a Government order for the construction of fourteen forges at the Royal Arsenal, and a second A.L.S. by Peacocke stating that an individual complained of is no longer employed by the British Commissariat and that he is 'not aware of anything that should prevent his being amenable to the laws of the Country which it appears he has so wantonly outraged' ; a L.S. by an official of the Audit office at Somerset Place, 29th January 1812, enquiring about a payment of £277,450 for various bills of exchange, etc. Some age wear, generally G to VG, 12 €125-190