Chapter XIII: 1763-1764. Æt. 52-53 (2)

MY DEAR SECRETARY,--I have delayed for some time answering
your letter, in expectation of being able to tell you what is
to become of me; whether I am to return home, or remain abroad
some years longer. Though I believe the latter will happen, I
cannot speak of it with certainty, as I left it to Lord B. to
determine for me; and he has not, as yet, given me any answer.
I write to you at present to consult you about an acquaintance
of yours, Mr. V----, who is here with Lord Abingdon, and who
thinks of returning to England, May next. You'll be so good as
to determine for him what character he is to assume on his
arrival, whether that of a clergyman or a layman. I suppose
you know he is in orders, but he is very very low church. To
speak plain language, I believe him to be a sort of disciple
of your own; and, though he does not carry matters quite so
far as you, yet you have given him notions not very consistent
with his priestly character; so that you see you are somewhat
bound to give him your best advice. V---- is a very
good-natured, sensible, honest follow, without any fortune. My
young man has a great liking for him, and has all the
inclination in the world to serve him; but he neither knows
what to ask for him, and is not sure if his father would ask
any thing at present. We are as much in the dark as to what
passes in England, as if we lived in Siberia. As you know
probably something of the matter, without entering into
politics, you may give us some hints to direct us in what
manner to act, and whether we may not be of more use to our
friend in acting as auxiliaries than principals. You'll
determine whether a man of probity can accept of a living, a
bishoprick, that does not believe all the Thirty-nine
Articles; for you only can fix him: he has been hitherto
irresolute. If [I am not] mistaken, he seems rather inclined
not to be a clergyman; but you know as well, and better than I
do, how difficult it is to get any tolerable civil employment.
I mean any patent place; while as soon as you can
conveniently, and if you should determine for his being a
clergyman, throw in something consolatory on his being obliged
to renounce white stockings the rest of his life. I wait with
impatience to hear of your being made secretary to the
embassy. Shall a descendant of Gospatrick, Earl of
Northumberland, remain in the character of under-secretary? I
hope not; though I am afraid our cursed politics at home will
occasion some delay. Lord Mount Stuart offers his compliments
to you, and thanks you for the pleasure your History gave him.
You scrub, do you think we have so little taste or curiosity
as not to have your History complete? We have two copies, one
to lend, and another for our own use; they were sent us
immediately on the publication; it is almost the only book he
takes pleasure in reading. He has read it once, and has got
through four volumes the second time. By the bye, what is this
M{c}Caulay history? I saw in the newspapers an extract of a
preface that seemed to me to be the rhapsody of a crazy head.
I hear it is in opposition to your History. We have her sister
here, who seems to be a good sort of woman, a Mrs. Buckingham.
I wish your time would allow you to come here: you have a
great many friends; among the rest a Madame Tronchin, wife to
the procureur-general, a virtuous, generous, charitable, good
woman. She has learned English since I have been here, and can
read your History with as much ease as her own language. Her
husband is a man of merit, a man of genius; but knows you only
by the translations of your works. Mallet, Professor
Bertrand, and many others, even ministers, are your friends;
even the Christians acknowledge your merit as an historian.
The Christians here are the friends of Rousseau: those that
are not, have been his persecutors; but it was not for his
religious principles. They were afraid of his breeding
disturbance in their state. I wish you could do something for
Rousseau without his knowing it. Print his works in England
for his benefit. You did not, I suppose, receive my letter on
that subject. I never received that from you, which you say
you enclosed to Sir Harry Erskine. Adieu, yours,

J. E.[187:1]

HUME _to_ COLONEL EDMONDSTOUNE.

"DEAR EDMONDSTOUNE,--I was just projecting to write a long letter to you, and another to Mr. V----, when your last obliging epistle came to hand. I immediately put pen to paper, to assure you that the report is entirely groundless, and that I have not lost, nor ever could have lost, a shilling by Fairholm's bankruptcy. Poor John Adams is very deeply engaged with him; but I had a letter last post from Dr. Blair, which informs me that he will yet be able to save fifteen or sixteen thousand pounds. I am glad to give you also this piece of intelligence.

"What! do you know that Lord Bute is again all-powerful, or rather that he was always so, but is now acknowledged for such by all the world? Let this be a new motive for Mr. V---- to adhere to the ecclesiastical profession, in which he may have so good a patron; for civil employments for men of letters can scarcely be found: all is occupied by men of business, or by parliamentary interest.[187:2]

"It is putting too great a respect on the vulgar, and on their superstitions, to pique one's self on sincerity with regard to them. Did ever one make it a point of honour to speak truth to children or madmen. If the thing were worthy being treated gravely, I should tell him, that the Pythian oracle, with the approbation of Xenophon, advised every one to worship the gods--νομω πολεως. I wish it were still in my power to be a hypocrite in this particular. The common duties of society usually require it; and the ecclesiastical profession only adds a little more to an innocent dissimulation, or rather simulation, without which it is impossible to pass through the world. Am I a liar, because I order my servant to say, I am not at home, when I do not desire to see company?

"How could you imagine that I was under-secretary to Lord Hertford, or that I could ever be prevailed on to accept of such a character? I am not secretary at all, but do the business of secretary to the embassy without any character. Bunbury has the commission and appointments: a young man of three or four and twenty, somewhat vain and ignorant, whom Lord Hertford refused to accept of, as thinking he would be of no use to him. The king gave me a pension of £200 a-year for life, to engage me to attend his lordship. My lord is very impatient to have me secretary to the embassy; and writes very earnest letters to that purpose to the ministers, and, among the rest, to Lord Bute. He engaged me, somewhat against my will, to write also to such of my friends as had credit with that favourite, Oswald, Elliot, Sir Harry, and John Hume. The king has promised that my Lord Hertford shall soon be satisfied in this particular; and yet, I know not how, I suspect that some obstacle will yet interpose; though nothing can be more scandalous, than for a man to enjoy the revenue of an office, which is exercised by another. Mr. Bunbury has great interest, being married to a sister of the Duke of Richmond, and sister-in-law to Lord Holland. The appointments of this office are above £1000 a-year, and the expense attending it nothing; and it leads to all the great employments. I wait the issue with patience, and even with indifference. At my years, and with my fortune, a man with a little common sense, without philosophy, may be indifferent about what happens. I am, dear Edmondstoune, yours sincerely."[189:1]

HUME _to_ GILBERT ELLIOT _of Minto_.

"_Paris, 27th March, 1764._

"MY DEAR SIR,--I believe I need not inform you how little I have been inclined to solicit the great, or even my own friends, for any thing that regards my own fortune. I may venture to say, that, hitherto, I have never once made any application of this nature: and you may wonder that now, at my years, when the greatest part of life is past, and I may esteem myself, in other respects, pretty much at my ease, I should submit to prefer requests which I declined at an age when ambition ought naturally to be stronger, and when my circumstances much more powerfully called for assistance. But the step I take at present is at Lord Hertford's desire; who, being determined to make it a point that I should have the credentials and appointments of secretary to the embassy, expressed his wish that I should apply to all my own friends on the same subject. My obligations to him are so great, that, even were I more reluctant, I could not have declined compliance; and surely I can have but small reluctance to apply to you, one of my best friends, with whom I have long lived in a course of intimacy and good correspondence.

"I remember that the last time I had the pleasure of seeing you, you said, that I no doubt wondered how it happened, that while the prime minister and favourite, who inclined to be a Mæcenas, and who bore me no ill will, was surrounded by all my most particular friends, I should never have experienced any good effects from their credit. I own that I never was surprised; not from any diffidence in them, but from some obvious objections. Now all these objections are removed by Lord Hertford's friendship. Nobody, henceforth, need be afraid to patronize me, either as a Scotchman or a Deist. This circumstance encourages me in my present application to my friends.

"Surely it is impossible to give them a juster and more plausible cause to support than mine. I do the functions here of secretary to the embassy: Is it not scandalous that another should live in London and draw the salary?

"Is it for the credit of government, that such abuses should appear to foreign nations? Is it good policy to send an ambassador to the most important of all foreign employments, and yet declare that he has so little credit at home, as not to have the choice of his own secretary.

"I shall not say that the partiality I meet with here will make these abuses more remarked, than if another person, less known, were concerned. But surely the government puts me in a situation which ought to render me entirely useless to my Lord Hertford, by refusing me a character which should have appeared necessary, in order to gain me admittance into company.

"Allow me to inform you of another circumstance, which renders my prevailing on this point the most material step to my future fortune. When I came to London, and found, contrary to Lord Hertford's opinion, that Mr. Bunbury was likely to keep his appointments, I declined going abroad, unless something certain was fixed in my favour. My lord said, that he would obtain me, from the public, a settlement of £200 a-year for life, or would give me as much from his private fortune. He applied to the king, who agreed; to Mr. Grenville, who also consented, two days before we came off. My pension was fixed on the most precarious footing of all pensions, by a simple order from the treasury to their secretary. Yet Mr. Grenville told my lord, that this was equivalent to a settlement for life. My lord believes so still; though I said nothing, perhaps from a foolish delicacy, as the time of our departure so near approached, and it was difficult then to correct the blunder. Were I to return to England, on my present footing, I should regard this pension as absolutely insignificant--not worth two years' purchase; and never could form any plan on the supposition of its duration. But had I obtained the rank and character of secretary to the embassy, there are certain pensions annexed, by custom, to certain employments; and I believe I might more depend upon it.

"You see how materially my interests are concerned. I have wrote to others of my friends, Sir Harry, Oswald, and John Hume, in the same style, that an effort may be made, all at once, in my favour. I own that, notwithstanding all the plausible appearances, my hopes of success are but moderate. I have been accustomed to meet with nothing but insults and indignities from my native country; but if it continue so, 'ingrata patria, ne ossa quidem habebis.' I am, my dear sir, yours sincerely."[192:1]

When the fame of Hume's reception in Paris had reached Scotland, some of his countrymen, who had not previously been very solicitous to court his notice, discovered that an introduction to him would be a valuable acquisition. The correspondence shows that the expectations of such persons were very large, and that if their names connected them with the aristocracy of Scotland, it could not fail that they should be at once put at their ease in the midst of the brilliant circle in which Hume was moving. The following may be taken as an instance of these attempts. On the 6th April, 1764, Blair writes:

"This letter will be presented to you by Colonel L----, brother to the Earl of L----; who, going on a trip to Paris, is very ambitious of being introduced to your acquaintance. You will find him a very honourable, good-natured, well-behaved young man, of an amiable disposition and character. As I have been much connected with the L---- family, who were my first patrons in the ecclesiastical way, I was very glad to have it in my power to do them this favour at their desire; and will reckon myself much obliged to you for any civilities you show the Colonel."[192:2]

Blair was not the sole medium through whom this gentleman was recommended. Wallace writes, on 3d April, with all due ceremony: "The occasion of my writing at present this short letter, is a desire from the friends of the family of L---- here, asking me to write you by this night's post, and acquaint you that the Honourable Alexander L----, Esquire, son to the late Earl of L----, lieutenant-colonel of Colonel Carey's regiment of foot, is going to Paris, and will probably be in it before this reaches you, and wishes you may be acquainted, before he comes, who he is." Taking the effect of these imposing denominations for granted, Mr. Wallace continues:--"I dare say you will introduce him to the good company where you are, and will be ready to put him on the best methods of enjoying and improving himself at Paris."

In Hume's answer to this application, we may trace some desire to reprove any notion that he was a person so insignificant as to feel highly honoured by an acquaintance with an Honourable, and bound as a matter of simple etiquette to receive his proffers with grateful eagerness.

HUME _to_ DR. BLAIR.

"_Paris, 26th April, 1764._

"MY DEAR SIR,--Before I was favoured with yours, I had seen Colonel L----, who waited on me, as is usual with the British who come to Paris. I returned his visit, and introduced him to the ambassador, who asked him to dinner among seven or eight of his countrymen. You will be surprised, perhaps, when I tell you that this is the utmost of the civilities which it will ever be possible for me to show Mr. L----. For as to the ridiculous idea of foreigners, that I might introduce him to the good company of Paris, nothing can be more impracticable. I know not one family to which I could present such a man, silent, grave, awkward, speaking ill the language, not distinguished by any exploit, or science, or art. Were the French houses open to such people as these, they would be very little agreeable, considering the immense concourse of strangers to this place. But it is quite otherwise. The people are more scrupulous of receiving persons unknown, and I should soon lose all credit with them, were I to prostitute my recommendations of this nature. Your recommendations have great weight with me; but if I am not mistaken, I have often seen Colonel L----'s face in Edinburgh. It is a little late he has bethought himself of being _ambitious_, as you say, of being introduced to my acquaintance. The only favour I can do him, is to advise him, as soon as he has seen Paris, to go to a provincial town where people are less shy of admitting new acquaintance, and are less delicate judges of behaviour. It is almost out of the memory of man, that any British has been here on a footing of familiarity with the good company except my Lord Holderness, who had a good stock of acquaintance to begin with, speaks the language like a native, has very insinuating manners, was presented under the character of an old secretary of state, and spent, as is said, £10,000 this winter, to obtain that object of vanity. Him, indeed, I met every where in the best company: but as to others--lords, earls, marquises, and dukes--they went about to plays, operas, and ----. Nobody minded them; they kept company with one another; and it would have been ridiculous to think of bringing them into French company. I may add General Clarke, who was liked and esteemed by several people of merit, which he owed to his great cleverness and ingenuity, and to his surprising courage in introducing himself. I enter into this detail with you, that people with whom I am much more connected than with the L. family, may not, at any time, be surprised that I am able to do so little for them in this way, and may not form false ideas of the hospitality of the French nation. But I fancy there will not arrive at Paris many people who will have great claims of past civilities to plead with me.

"What you tell me of John Adams gives me great consolation. I had heard of the alarming news of his connexions with Fairholm, and things were put in the worst light. I was just ready to write to Ferguson to get from him a just state of the case; but if he has £15,000, or £18,000 remaining, his industry will recover him, and he may go on in his usual way of beneficence and generosity. That family is one of the few to whose civilities I have been much beholden, and I retain a lively sense of them.

"Our friend, I mean your friend, Lord Kames, had much provoked Voltaire, who never forgives, and never thinks any enemy below his notice. He has accordingly sent to the _Gazette Literaire_, an article with regard to the 'Elements of Criticism,' which turns that book extremely into ridicule, with a good deal of wit.[195:1] I tried to have it suppressed before it was printed; but the authors of that Gazette told me, that they durst neither suppress nor alter any thing that came from Voltaire. I suppose his lordship holds that satiric wit as cheap, as he does all the rest of the human race; and will not be in the least mortified by his censure.

"The taste for literature is neither decayed nor depraved here, as with the barbarians who inhabit the banks of the Thames. Some people, who had read your dissertation, affirmed to me, that it was the finest piece of criticism, incomparably, to be found in the English tongue. I know not if you have read the 'Poetique de Marmontel:' it is worth your perusal. Voltaire has published an edition of Corneille, and his notes and dissertations contain many fine things. There is a book published in Holland, in two volumes octavo, called 'De la Nature.' It is prolix, and in many parts whimsical; but contains some of the boldest reasonings to be found in print. There is a miscellany in three volumes duodecimo published here, where there are many good pieces. It is perhaps more amusing to me, than it will be to you; as there is scarce a poem in it whose author I do not know, or the person to whom it is addressed.

"It is very silly to form distant schemes: but I am fixed at Paris for some time, and, to judge by probabilities, for life. My income would suffice me to live at ease, and a younger brother of the best family would not think himself ill provided for, if he had such a revenue. Lodgings, a coach, and clothes, are all I need; and though I have entered late into this scene of life, I am almost as much at my ease, as if I had been educated in it from my infancy. However, sickness, or the infirmities of age, which I may soon expect, may probably make me think of a retreat: But whether that will be better found in Paris or elsewhere, time must determine. I forbid myself all resolution on that head.

"I shall indulge myself in a folly, which I hope you will make a discreet use of: it is the telling you of an incident which may appear silly, but which gave more pleasure than perhaps any other I had ever met with. I was carried, about six weeks ago, to a masquerade, by Lord Hertford. We went both unmasked; and we had scarce entered the room when a lady, in mask, came up to me and exclaimed:--'_Ha! Monsr. Hume, vous faites bien de venir ici a visage découvert. Que vous serez bien comblé ce soir d'honnêtetés et de politesses! Vous verrez, par des preuves peu équivoques, jusqu'à quel point vous êtes chéri en France._' This prologue was not a little encouraging; but, as we advanced through the hall, it is difficult to imagine the caresses, civilities, and panegyrics which poured on me from all sides. You would have thought that every one had taken advantage of his mask to speak his mind with impunity. I could observe that the ladies were rather the most liberal on this occasion. But what gave me chief pleasure was to find that most of the eulogiums bestowed on me, turned on my personal character, my naïvéte, and simplicity of manners, the candour and mildness of my disposition, &c.--_Non sunt mihi cornea fibra._ I shall not deny that my heart felt a sensible satisfaction from this general effusion of good will; and Lord Hertford was much pleased, and even surprised, though he said, he thought that he had known before upon what footing I stood with the good company of Paris.

"I allow you to communicate this story to Dr. Jardine. I hope it will refute all his idle notions that I have no turn for gallantry and gaiety,[197:1]--that I am on a bad footing with the ladies,--that my turn of conversation can never be agreeable to them,--that I never can have any pretensions to their favours, &c. &c. &c. A man in vogue will always have something to pretend to with the fair sex.

"Do you not think it happy for me to retain such a taste for idleness and follies at my years; especially since I have come into a country where the follies are so much more agreeable than elsewhere? I could only wish that some of my old friends were to participate with me of these amusements; though I know none of them that can, on occasion, be so thoroughly idle as myself.

"I am persuaded you will find great comfort in my house, which, in every respect, is agreeable. I beg of you and Mrs. Blair, (to whom I desire my compliments,) that you would sometimes pay some attention to my sister, who is the person that suffers most by my absence. I am, dear sir, yours very sincerely."[198:1]

Blair writes, on the 15th November, assuring Hume that he is fully conscious of the unreasonableness of expecting him to introduce those who are accredited to him, to the good company of Paris. He says, that his own friend expressed himself as "very well satisfied" with Hume's behaviour towards him; and perhaps he had a better reception than the letter to Blair might seem to indicate. At all events, Blair seems not to have been discouraged, for he immediately introduced the son of the provost of Glasgow, travelling for his health, and Arthur Masson, a teacher of languages, recommending them to such good offices as Hume finds himself at liberty to bestow on them. It is clear, in short, that he had not been successful in frightening his friends from requesting him to perform offices of kindness and courtesy, or from trusting that he would perform them. The following passage, in Blair's letter, is evidence of the popularity of the Literary classes of the university of Edinburgh, during the middle of last century.

My class was, last season, in such reputation that I gave a
second course in summer, at the desire of a body of the
medical students. I am just about to open for this
winter--with what success I cannot tell; for I tremble for it
every season. Against next season I intend to print a synopsis
of my lectures. In the medical school, a revolution is at a
crisis, which is important to us. Dr. Rutherford wants to
demit in favour of Frank Hume; a measure pushed by Lord
Milton, Baron Mure, and John Home; the coalition of three
formidable powers: but which we college people dread as boding
us no good; and are much more inclined to another scheme, of
placing Cullen in Rutherford's chair, and bringing Dr. Black,
from Glasgow, into the chair of chemistry, which would greatly
promote the reputation of our college, and which has all the
popularity on its side at present.

How unimportant these things seem to you now? I hear much,
from time to time, of your continuing, nay, increasing
celebrity and fame. You are just the high mode, they tell
us--the very delice of all the good company at Paris.

In a letter to Millar, chiefly in reference to some English law books, which Hume had engaged to obtain for a French lawyer, he recurs to the Memoirs of King James. He seems to have indolently adopted the notion that there were few chances of his having an opportunity of making additions to his History of the Stuarts. He did live, however, to see more than one new edition of it: but the references in them to the treasure he had discovered at Paris, are extremely meagre. Another letter immediately follows, in which we find that his anticipations of new editions are already outrun by the demands: and we find in his, as in many other cases, where permanent fame has been reached, that the excitement of expectant authorship has declined long before its visions are realized; and that their fulfilment comes at last on minds sobered down to indifference.

HUME _to_ ANDREW MILLAR.

"_Paris, 18th March, 1764._

"I have lived such a life of dissipation as not to be able to think of any serious occupation. But I begin to tire of that course of life. I have, however, run over King James's Memoirs, and have picked up some curious passages, which it is needless to speak of till we have occasion for a new edition, which I suppose is very distant."

"_Paris, 18th April, 1764._

"DEAR SIR,--All the discoveries I made in King James's Memoirs, make against himself and his brother; and he is surely a good enough witness on that side: but I believe him also a man of veracity, and I should have put trust in any matter of fact that he told from his own knowledge. But this it is needless for us to talk any more about; since, I suppose, you have got copies enough of my History, already printed, to last for your lifetime and mine. I shall certainly never think of adding another line to it. I am too much your friend to think of it. . . . I beg my sincere compliments to Mrs. Millar. I saw a few days ago Mrs. Mallet, who seems to be going upon a strange project, of living alone, in a hermitage, in the midst of the forest of Fontainbleau. I pass my time very agreeably here; though somewhat too much dissipated for one of my years and humour."[201:1]

"_Paris, 23d April, 1764._

"I was very much surprised with what you tell me, that you had made a new edition in quarto, of my History of the Tudors, and might probably do the same with that of the Stuarts. I imagined that the octavo edition would for a long time supersede the necessity of any quarto edition; and I wonder that of the ancient history did not first become requisite. You were in the wrong to make any edition without informing me; because I left in Scotland a copy very fully corrected, with a few alterations, which ought to have been followed. I shall write to my sister to send it you, and I desire you may follow it in all future editions, if there be any such. I shall send you from here the alterations, which my perusal of King James's Memoirs has occasioned; they are not many, but some of them, one in particular, is of importance. I have some scruple of inserting it, on your account, till the sale of the other editions be pretty considerably advanced. You have not yet informed me how many you may have upon hand. I suppose a very considerable number. Father Gordon of the Scots College, who has an exact memory of King James's Memoirs, was so kind as to peruse anew my History during the Commonwealth, and the reigns of the two brothers; and he marked all the passages of fact, where they differed from the Memoirs. They were surprisingly few; which gave me some satisfaction; because as I told you, I take that prince's authority for a plain fact to be very good.

"I never see Mr. Wilkes here but at chapel, where he is a most regular, and devout, and edifying, and pious attendant; I take him to be entirely regenerate. He told me last Sunday, that you had given him a copy of my Dissertations, with the two which I had suppressed;[202:1] and that he, foreseeing danger, from the sale of his library, had wrote to you to find out that copy, and to tear out the two obnoxious dissertations. Pray how stands that fact? It was imprudent in you to intrust him with that copy: it was very prudent in him to use that precaution. Yet I do not naturally suspect you of imprudence, nor him of prudence. I must hear a little farther before I pronounce."[202:2]

Millar, writing on 5th June, gives the following account of his conduct as to the suppressed dissertations.

"I take Mr. Wilkes to be the same man he was,--acting a part.
He has forgot the story of the _two_ dissertations. The fact
is, upon importunity, I lent to him the only copy I preserved,
and for years never could recollect he had it, till his books
came to be sold; upon this I went immediately to the gentleman
that directed the sale, told him the fact, and reclaimed the
two dissertations which were my property. Mr. Coates, who was
the person, immediately delivered me the volume; and so soon
as I got home, I tore them out and burnt them, that I might
not lend them to any for the future. Two days after, Mr.
Coates sent me a note for the volume, as Mr. Wilkes had
desired it should be sent to him to Paris; I returned the
volume, but told him the two dissertations, I had torn out of
the volume and burnt, being my property. This is the truth of
the matter, and nothing but the truth. It was certainly
imprudent for me to lend them to him."

The interest taken by Hume, as by all his contemporary fellow-countrymen, in the Douglas cause, has already been noticed. As the inquiry which had taken place in France had not been long concluded, and was the object of discussion in the Court of Session, the adherents of the exiled royal house, and other Scottish families residing in Paris, naturally took such a deep interest in the proceedings, as the following letter explains.

HUME _to_ BARON MURE.

"_Paris, 22d June, 1764._

"MY DEAR BARON,--A few days ago I dined with the Duchess of Perth, which was the first time I had seen that venerable old lady, who is really a very sensible woman. Part of our conversation was upon the Douglas affair.

"That lady, as well as all the company, as well as every body of common sense here, shows her entire conviction of that imposture; and there was present a gentleman, an old friend of yours, a person of very good understanding and of undoubted honour, who laid open to us a scene of such deliberate dishonesty on the part of her grace of Douglas and her partisans, as was somewhat new and surprising. I suppose it is all known to poor Andrew,[203:1] whom I heartily love and pity. 'Tis certain, that the imposture is as well known to her grace and her friends, as to any body; and Hay, the Pretender's old secretary, the only man of common honesty among them, confessed to this gentleman, that he has frequently been shocked with their practices, and has run away from them to keep out of the way of such infamy; though he had afterwards the weakness to yield to their solicitations. Carnegy knows the roguery as well as the rest; though I did not hear any thing of his scruples. Lord Beauchamp and Dr. Trail, our chaplain, passed four months last summer at Rheims, where this affair was much the subject of conversation. Except one curate, they did not meet with a person, that was not convinced of the imposture. Mons. de Puysieuls,[204:1] whose country seat is in the neighbourhood, told me the same thing. Can any thing be more scandalous and more extraordinary than Frank Garden's behaviour?[204:2] Can any thing be more scandalous and more ordinary than Burnet's. I am afraid, that notwithstanding the palpable justice of your cause, it is yet uncertain whether you will prevail.

"I continue to live here in a manner amusing enough, and which gives me no time to be tired of any scene. What between public business, the company of the learned and that of the great, especially of the ladies, I find all my time filled up, and have no time to open a book, except it be some books newly published, which may be the subject of conversation. I am well enough pleased with this change of life, and a satiety of study had beforehand prepared the way for it: however, time runs off in one course of life as well as another, and all things appear so much alike, that I am afraid of falling into total Stoicism and indifference about every thing. For instance, I am every moment to be touching on the time when I am to receive my credential letters of secretary to the embassy, with a thousand a-year of appointments. The king has promised it, all the members have promised it; Lord Hertford earnestly solicits it; the plainest common sense and justice seem to require [it]: yet have I been in this condition above six months; and I never trouble my head about the matter, and have rather laid my account that there is to be no such thing.

"Please to express my most profound respects to Mrs. Mure, and my sense of the honour she did me. If I have leisure before the carrier goes off, I shall write her, and give her some account of my adventures; but I would not show her so little mark of my attention as to write her only in a postscript. I am, dear Baron," &c.[205:1]

The correspondence with Madame de Boufflers was occasionally resumed, when Hume or she was absent from Paris. How well the philosopher could upon occasion accommodate himself to the taste of a French lady of the court, the following may suffice to show.

HUME _to the_ COMTESSE DE BOUFFLERS.

_Compiegne, 6th July, 1764._

We live in a kind of solitude and retirement at Compiegne; at
least I do, who, having nothing but a few general acquaintance
at court, and not caring to make more, have given myself up
almost entirely to study and retreat. You cannot imagine,
madam, with what pleasure I return as it were to my natural
element, and what satisfaction I enjoy in reading, and musing,
and sauntering, amid the agreeable scenes that surround me.
But yes, you can easily enough imagine it; you have yourself
formed the same resolution; you are determined this summer to
tie the broken thread of your studies and literary amusements.
If you have been so happy as to execute your purpose, you are
almost in the same state as myself, and are at present
wandering along the banks of the same beautiful river, perhaps
with the same books in your hand, a Racine, I suppose, or a
Virgil, and despise all other pleasure and amusement. Alas!
why am I not so near you, that I could see you for half an
hour a day, and confer with you on these subjects?

But this ejaculation, methinks, does not lead me directly in
my purposed road, of forgetting you. It is a short digression,
which is soon over: and that I may return to the right path, I
shall give you some account of the state of the court; I mean
the exterior face of it; for I know no more; and if I did, I
am become so great a politician, that nothing should make me
reveal it. The king divides his evenings every week after the
following manner: one he gives to the public, when he sups at
the grand convent;[206:1] two he passes with his own family;
two in a society of men; and, to make himself amends, two he
passes with ladies, Madame de Grammont, usually, Madame de
Mirepoix, and Madame de Beauveau. This last princess passed
three evenings in this manner at the Hermitage immediately
before her departure, which was on Monday last. I think her
absence a great loss to that society; I am so presumptuous as
to think it one to myself. I found her as obliging and as
friendly as if she had never conversed with kings, and never
were a politician. I really doubt much of her talent for
politics. Pray what is your opinion? Is she qualified,
otherwise than by having great sense and an agreeable
conversation, to make progress in the road to favour? and are
not these qualities rather an encumbrance to her? I have met
her once or twice, with another lady, in whose favour I am
much prepossessed; she seems agreeable, well behaved,
judicious, a great reader; speaks as if she had sentiment, and
was superior to the vulgar train of amusements. I should have
been willing, notwithstanding my present love of solitude, to
have cultivated an acquaintance with her, but she did not say
any thing so obliging to me as to give me encouragement. Would
you conjecture that I mean the Countess of Tessé? I know not
whether you are acquainted with that lady. But I shall never
have done with this idle train of conversation; and therefore,
to cut things short, I kiss your hands most humbly and
devoutly, and bid you adieu.[207:1]

FOOTNOTES:

[158:1] MS. R.S.E.

[159:1] Walpole says, "The decorum and piety of Lord Hertford occasioned men to wonder, when, in the room of Bunbury, he chose for his secretary the celebrated freethinker, David Hume, totally unknown to him; but this was the effect of recommendations from other Scots, who had much weight with Lord and Lady Hertford." _Walpole's Memoirs of George III._ i. 264.

[159:2] The change of ministry on which Lord Bute ceased to be minister, and negotiations were held with Pitt. Hume does not appear to have had any intercourse with Lord Bute while he was in office. In a letter to Blair, of 6th October, which will be found in the Appendix on the "Ossian Controversy," he says, "John Hume [Home] went to the country yesterday with Lord Bute. I was introduced the other day to that noble lord at his desire. I believe him a very good man; a better man than a politician."

[160:1] Copy R.S.E. The original is in possession of Colonel Mure.

[163:1] MS. R.S.E.

[164:1] Extract of a letter from Dr. Carlyle to the Rev. Thomas Hepburn, dated 5th September, 1763, in Thorpe's Catalogue of Autographs, for 1833. It would be vain to inquire whither the original has now found its way.

[165:1] In 1762, Blacklock had received a presentation, as minister to the parish of Kirkcudbright. His induction was opposed on the ground of his blindness; and a bitter litigation ensued in the church courts, while the parishioners, having taken up the matter as vital in a religious view, persecuted him with all the savage and relentless cruelty of fanaticism. "No liberal and cultivated mind," he says, in reference to this dispute, "can entertain the least hesitation in concluding that there is nothing, either in the nature of things, or even in the positive institutions of genuine religion, repugnant to the idea of a blind clergyman. But the novelty of the phenomenon, while it astonishes vulgar and contracted understandings, inflames their zeal to rage and madness."

[167:1] Blair, writing to Hume on 29th September, says, "Horace need not make you at all blush in your present expedition. If I mistake him not very much, he paid more court to Mæcenas than ever you would have done to any great man. His _principibus placuisse viris_ was a favourite passion. Besides that, Horace understood human life too well to refuse such an opening into high amusement as is now before you: and most certainly, as you well observe, the farther we advance in life, we need more to have the scene varied."--(MS. R.S.E.)

[167:2] MS. R.S.E.

[167:3] As a specimen of the flattering testimonials which Hume occasionally received from France, the following letter from M. Trudaine de Montigny, a young Frenchman who attained to considerable distinction, is given:

(_Translation._)

"_Paris, 16th May, 1759._

"I pass my time, both in town and country, in a circle of
gentlemen, of whom some are acquainted with English, others
not. They had been highly pleased with some portions of your
works, which had been translated; and among others with your
'Political Discourses,' where they found the practical views
of a citizen, united with the profound reflections of a
politician, and the perspicacity of a philosopher. To put the
whole circle in a position to judge for themselves of the
merit of these works, I undertook, in the course of a country
jaunt which we took all together, to translate your 'Natural
History of Religion.' I chose this piece because it appeared
to me to contain a complete exposition of philosophy on this
subject. I was well rewarded for my pains, by the pleasure I
found I gave to all the world. Madame Dupré de St. Maur, who
has honoured me with the kindest friendship from my infancy,
told me she wished much that you were made acquainted with
this feeble effort. M. Steward, whom I met with M. Helvetius,
and who wished much to hear the perusal, promised to send it
to you."

Madame Dupré de St. Maur writes, on 16th May, 1759, that Montigny had received Hume's acknowledgment, which produced more effect on him than any piece of good fortune he had hitherto experienced. "I partook," she says, "of his joy the more sensibly, as I had in a great measure inspired him with confidence to send you his translation, in the persuasion that great men are the most indulgent."--MS. R.S.E.

We find the tone of this letter frequently responded to in the correspondence of Grimm with his German patrons, though the Baron does not always coincide in the praises he has to record. Andrew Stuart, known by his letters to Lord Mansfield, who before 1763 was much employed in France in connexion with the Douglas cause, and appears to have been admitted into the best company there, writes to Sir William Johnstone on 16th December, 1762: "When you have occasion to see our friend, David Hume, tell him that he is so much worshipped here, that he must be void of all passions, if he does not immediately take post for Paris. In most houses where I am acquainted here, one of the first questions is, Do you know Mons{r}. Hume, whom we all admire so much? I dined yesterday at Helvetius's, where this same Mons{r}. Hume interrupted our conversation very much."--(MS. R.S.E.)

* * * * *

The following note, from the impetuous Alexander Murray, responds to the same strain:--

"MY DEAR HUME,--The great desire that several French gentlemen
of my acquaintance have of being known to you, which happiness
I have promised to procure them, makes me ardently beg the
favour of you to do me the honour to dine with me any day next
week (Monday excepted,) that you please to appoint. Your
rencounters with the men, my dear friend, give me no sort of
pain; but I freely own to you I am under some uneasiness how
you will acquit yourself with the fair sex, whose impatience
of knowing you is not to be expressed. The day you dine with
me you will meet some folks who admire your productions as
much as any of your own countrymen, and perhaps comprehend
your sublime ideas as well as they do. I beg leave to assure
you that no body loves and admires you more than your most
sincere friend and humble servant."--(MS. R.S.E.)

"_Saturday Morning._"

[169:1] Some words obliterated.

[170:1] A word or two obliterated.

[171:1] A translation was published in 1764, by M. A. Eidous; there was another in 1774, by Blavet.

[172:1] _Literary Gazette_, 1822, p. 648. Corrected from the original MS. R.S.E.

[172:2] The Poker Club, which had then existed for some time, and was continued for some years after Hume's death. Its name is supposed to have been bestowed on it, on account of its services in stirring the intellectual energies of the members.

[174:1] The name Adam used to be thus altered in the Scottish vernacular. The person here alluded to is evidently John Adam the architect, and the "Willie," his son William, who became Lord Chief Commissioner of the Jury Court in Scotland, and died in 1839.

[175:1] _Literary Gazette_, 1828, p. 683.

[176:1] MS. R.S.E.

[176:2] Madame Belot, whose translation of the "History of the House of Tudor," was published in 1763, as "Histoire de la Maison de Tudor, &c. par Madam B * * *." She published a translation of the earlier period of the History, in 1765. Grimm charges Madame Belot with preposterous blunders as a translator; and gives, as an instance, her rendering Hume's allusion to the _Polish aristocracy_, by the words, _une aristocratie polie_. Of this lady, a curious periodical work, called "Mémoires Secrets, pour servir a l'Histoire de la République des lettres en France," says, of date 26th May, 1764, that, after having lived a life of wretched poverty, scantily supported by the produce of her translations from the English, she was then living with the President Mesnieres, whose taste is considered singular as "cette dame est peu jeune: elle est laide, seche et d'un esprit triste et mélancolique." Such were then the rewards of female authorship in France!

[177:1] This hint was not adopted. Robertson's work was translated by Suard.

[178:1] There can have been no reason for this abbreviation of the title of the Dauphin and his children, but the circumstance that the letter was liable to be seen in France, and a full statement might be considered disrespectful. The first-named was the Duc de Berri, afterwards Louis XVI.; he was then nine years old. The Count de P. was the Comte de Provence, afterwards Louis XVIII., born in 1755. The Count D'A, was the Comte d'Artois, afterwards Charles X., who died in 1836. Hume has underrated his age, which was six; he was born in 1757. Thus were these children, who made their little speeches to the historian of Charles I., all destined to be, successively, kings of France, and to experience a too intimate acquaintance with such scenes as they found depicted in his "fine history!"

[179:1] These volumes were lost during the French Revolution. It is said that an attempt was made to convey them to St. Omers; but having to be committed, for some time, to the care of a Frenchman, his wife became alarmed lest the regal emblems on the binding might expose the family to danger from the Terrorists. The narrative proceeds to say, that she first cut off the binding and buried the manuscripts, but that being still haunted by fears, she exhumed and burned them. See the introduction by Dr. Staniers Clarke, to "The Life of James II." believed to be an abridgment of these manuscripts. Hume is not consistent as to the number of volumes.

[179:2] Stewart's Life of Robertson.

[180:1] This letter is not dated.

[181:1] MS. R.S.E.

[182:1] Lord Marischal's attainder having been reversed, he had visited Scotland, for the purpose of purchasing one of his estates. He thus communicates the result to Hume in a letter of 23d February.

"I thank you for forwarding my cousin's letter. I wish, now that I am Laird of Inverury, that he were my son, and of my name. I bought my estate farthest north. There was no bidder against any one; and great applause of the spectators." MS. R.S.E.

[184:1] Edmondstoune appears to have been residing at Geneva, as guardian to Lord Mount-Stuart, Lord Bute's son.

[184:2] Sic in MS.

[184:3] See it noticed in vol. i. p. 405, in connexion with the right of resistance.

[187:1] MS. R.S.E.

[187:2] Sic in MS.

[189:1] Original in possession of the Cambusmore family.

[192:1] Minto MSS.

[192:2] The letter proceeds to say, "Our little society here continues much on the footing you left it; only that we find frequent occasions of regretting the blank you make amongst us. In our college we are making a great improvement. In consequence of a bargain made with J. Russel, Bruce, the Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations, goes out; Balfour of Pilrig moves into his place; Ferguson into the chair of Moral Philosophy; and Russel into that of Natural. Is not this clever?" He then states, that "The taste for French literature grows more and more amongst us," and hopes he will send any new publication which has merit. He concludes with mentioning the bankruptcy of the Fairholms, and the circumstance of Mr. Adam's involvement in it.

[195:1] See Tytler's Life of Kames, vol. ii. p. 148.

[197:1] See Vol. I. p. 232.

[198:1] MS. R.S.E. The latter part of the letter is printed in the _Literary Gazette_ for 1822, p. 712.

[201:1] MS. R.S.E.

[202:1] See above, p. 14.

[202:2] MS. R.S.E.

[203:1] Andrew Stuart, see above, p. 168.

[204:1] Puisieux?

[204:2] Francis Garden, afterwards a judge of the Court of Session, with the title of Lord Gardenstone. He was senior, and James Burnet, afterwards Lord Monboddo, was junior Scottish counsel for Mr. Douglas in the Tournelle process in France.

[205:1] Copy in R.S.E. The original is in possession of Colonel Mure.

[206:1] Perhaps an error in transcribing _au grand couvert_?

[207:1] Private Correspondence, p. 83-85.