Sir Lionel Sackville-West

Lionel Sackville-West (1827–1908), a son of the fifth Earl De La Warr, entered the Foreign Office in 1845. Successive postings took him through Lisbon, Naples, Stuttgart, Berlin, Turin, and Madrid before he became secretary at Paris under Lord Lyons in 1868. During the Franco-Prussian War he accompanied Lyons to Tours; in 1871 he briefly remained in charge in Paris during the Commune. ¹

After leading the missions in Argentina and Spain, Sackville-West became minister in Washington in 1881. Fisheries were a recurring dispute. Joseph Chamberlain and Charles Tupper joined him in negotiations that produced the February 1888 fisheries treaty, which the United States Senate rejected. A temporary licensing arrangement nevertheless allowed American vessels to use Canadian and Newfoundland ports. ¹

His mission ended over a letter soliciting advice about the 1888 presidential election. Its purported author, Charles F. Murchison, claimed to be a naturalized American who placed British interests first. Sackville-West replied privately that President Cleveland’s position on Canada should be understood in the electoral context, enclosing a newspaper endorsement of Cleveland. Secretary Thomas Bayard regarded the reply and subsequent newspaper statements as interference in American politics. His January 1889 account defended the dismissal as a question of diplomatic conduct, regardless of whether the original appeal was fraudulent. ²

The dispute also exposed disagreement over recalling an envoy. In October 1888 American minister Edward Phelps asked Lord Salisbury to recall Sackville-West. Salisbury wanted fuller information and an opportunity for explanation, and distinguished British recall from American dismissal. Washington ended the minister’s recognition on 30 October. Sackville-West had inherited his brother’s title and Knole that month; he retired from diplomacy in 1889 and died at Knole in 1908. ^{3, 1}