Document Record

Creator

Great Britain. Foreign Office.

Title

Great Britain. Foreign Office fonds : records pertaining to British North America
Lord Elgin Special Mission 1854

Identifier

lac_mikan_158582
MG 16 F O
R14354-0-9-E
Government
Canada-USA relations
oocihm.lac_mikan_158582

Document source

Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada

Language

English

Description

In 1782, certain administrative reforms in Great Britain led to the creation of the Foreign Office under the direction of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Initially, the staff of the Foreign Office was relatively small by modern standards, with the Secretary himself performing a wide variety of duties. Later in the 19th century, the demands of Victorian England required an expanding establishment. Its various departments may be divided more or less into political or non-political categories. The political departments conducted the diplomatic business of the office. The non-political departments comprised Consular, Commercial, Slave Trade and Africa, Chief Clerk, Treaty and Royal Letter, Library, Registry, and other miscellaneous departments. The Foreign Office of Great Britain merged into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1968. It conducted British relations with nearly all foreign states between 1782 and 1968.
This collection consists of correspondence in two main categories: accessions, births, marriages, or deaths of royal families and heads of state, and, royal letters of accreditation or recall, commissions, and related papers of British diplomatic representatives.

URL

https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_mikan_158582