Sir George Fottrell placed a number of newspaper cuttings in his journal, most of which have not been reproduced. Some passages of text, chiefly those listing the contents of memoranda or parliamentary bills, have also been excised and referenced. Wherever possible, the journal has been cross-referenced with the documentary evidence to which it relates. Fottrell's statements have been explored by means of editorial notes based on manuscript, newspaper, and secondary sources. Their veracity has been tested wherever possible, with attention being drawn to any statement of fact that is proven to have been inaccurate. Biographical notes are largely confined to the period covered by the journal and minor spelling mistakes and other errors in the text have been silently corrected. Occasional stylistic infelicities have been left unaltered, though in some places punctuation and capitalization have been added for reasons of clarity and consistency. Latin phrases, foreign words, and the titles of publications have been printed in italics and missing words have been written in full within square brackets.

In the case of the documents reproduced in this volume, only minor corrections have been necessary and the small amount of material excised from the text has been summarized. The names and addresses of the recipients of the letters, greetings, and signatures, etc. have been omitted and the relevant information included in the title of the document.

A list of abbreviations is provided on p. xi of this volume.