Autograph letter signed by John Campbell Duke of Argyll dated 1898

[GLADSTONE, William Ewart]; CAMPBELL, John 9th DUKE OF ARGYLL (1807–1900). Autograph letter signed about Prime Minister William Gladstone. 
 
2pp on his embossed Inveraray Castle stationery. May 16, 1898. 180 × 115 mm. Light creasing and a few spots but a very good example.
 
In this short letter, Argyll writes in reply to decline a request to write publicly about William Ewart Gladstone, then close to death: “Sir, I regret that I am unable to comply with your request. My relations with Mr Gladstone were far too personal and intimate to enable me at this sad time, to write about him.” Gladstone was gravely ill at Hawarden Castle, surrounded by his family, and died four days after this letter was written.
 
Campbell had been one of Gladstone’s most loyal Liberal colleagues in government serving as his Governor of Canada, before parting from him over Irish Home Rule, yet the personal bond evidently remained.