WADE-GORDON CORRESPONDENCE

Cambridge University Library Add. MS. 8128 comprises material relating to the visit of General Charles George Gordon (1833-85) (hereafter 'General Gordon') to China in 1880. It was bought by the Library at the sale of Henry Bristow, Ltd., at Ringwood, Hampshire, on the 21st January 1977 (cat. 222, no. 47).

It mainly consists of correspondence between Gordon's brother Sir Henry William Gordon (1818-87) (hereafter 'H.W. Gordon'), author of Events in the Life of Gordon (London, 1886), and the diplomat (later to be the first professor of Chinese at Cambridge) Thomas Francis Wade (1818-95).

In 1880 General Gordon returned to China, having received a telegram from Sir Robert Hart, commissioner of customs in Peking. His mission was to advise the Chinese government on the threat of war with Russia, and he visited his old friend Li Hung-Chang. The letters in this collection relate to the controversy as to what exactly happened at this time. For example, H.W. Gordon claimed that Wade and others had encouraged Li Hung-Chang to rebel against the goverment in Peking, while Wade denied this. The collection will thus be valuable for historians of this affair.