A group of letters from Smith to Roundell Palmer begin this reel. Some were written during Smith's Oxford years. These are followed by an exchange with William E. Gladstone during the preparation of a legislative bill to implement the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into the state of the universities, which Smith had served as assistant secretary- treasurer. A series to Richard Cobden in the early 1860's dealt with the Irish question, disestablishment, and the abolition of religious tests in the universities. Smith's sympathy with the Union in the American Civil War led to his corresponding with several Americans before and after his visit to the United States and Canada in the fall of 1861. A number of detailed accounts of the journey were addressed to Cobden. Americans Smith wrote to were George Bancroft, John Murray Forbes, Charles Greely Loring, Charles Eliot Norton and William H. Seward. The illness and death of his father led Smith to sever his tie with Oxford, and he turned his attention to the Jamaica Committee and the political campaign in the fall of 1868 before leaving England. The first months of Cornell University's operation were recorded in informal accounts to English friends. After a few months in America Smith began to write and speak about diplomatic and economic relations among England, Canada, and the United States.

Also includes the catalogue of contents for this colleciton.