The editorial project ‘British Envoys to Germany’ was initiated with the aim of shedding new light on official British perceptions of German affairs and the states of the German Confederation, and thereby contributing to the historiography of nineteenth-century Anglo-German relations. As hoped at the outset, the diplomatic dispatches proved to be a valuable source, providing insights into many aspects of nineteenth-century history. The quantity and quality of reporting, the informative and often subtle nature of the dispatches, and the freedom of their authors to report on topics other than the political made working on the dispatches a challenging and often very enjoyable task. The selection in this series gives an idea of the richness of the thousands of letters stored at The National Archives, and a visit to Kew is recommended to anyone who wants to ‘delve’ into the nineteenth-century diplomats' world and Anglo-German relations at that time.

The publication of this concluding instalment would not have been possible without the constant support of many people. Special thanks go to Arthur Burns, and his predecessor as literary director of the Royal Historical Society, Jon Lawrence. I am particularly grateful to the Society for publishing this, and the preceding three volumes, as part of the Fifth Camden Series. Peter Wende, who initiated the series with Sabine Freitag, Hagen Schulze, co-editor of volume III, and the German Historical Institute's present director, Andreas Gestrich, ensured the institutional support by providing not only the funding but also the necessary academic freedom. Thanks are also due to the members of the Institute's advisory board for their trust and confidence, which enabled us to bring the project to a successful conclusion. The fact that a further series – a two-volume edition that covers the British diplomatic reports from the German Kaiserreich – has been agreed to would seem to indicate that our efforts have not been entirely in vain.

I would also like to thank our colleagues at and beyond the GHIL, as well as our friends and families, who have supported us over the years. Angela Davies and Jane Rafferty were invaluable in deciphering nineteenth-century handwriting, and generations of GHIL interns supported us at various stages of the editorial process. At Cambridge University Press, my thanks go to Gwenda Edwards and especially to our copy-editor, Hester Higton, for all their help and for turning the manuscript into a book. Critical debate of the project and its editorial principles has played a crucial role and I would like to single out the participants of our students' workshops at Birkbeck College and the Universities of Cambridge, East Anglia, and St Andrews. They discussed the diplomatic dispatches with interest and scrutiny, showing us that this edition not only provides a historical source that makes German history and Anglo-German relations accessible to non-German speakers but enables questions of international and diplomatic history to be examined in a new and innovative way. As with the previous volumes, the assistance of the staff at The National Archives in Kew as well as at many other archives, libraries, and institutions in Germany and the United Kingdom was indispensable, not least in our search for sometimes seemingly marginal details. Permission to use digital photography at The National Archives greatly facilitated the preparation of this volume and is something we see as a huge leap forward in the co-operation between scholars and archives.

And finally I would particularly like to thank my two co-editors of this volume, Chris Manias and Torsten Riotte. Our collaboration was always productive, marked first and foremost by collegiality and friendship. This book is the result of our joint efforts.