greatest strength. If you consent to this, as Mr. Nichols wishes that no time may be lost, I shall begin to prepare materials for the prospectus, and send them to you when convenience suits. This will be the more easy, as in the year 1788 I published in the Gentleman's Magazine twelve "Letters to the people of Great Britain, on the cultivation of their national history," pointing out the deficiencies in this line of study. Among others, I mentioned that in the Saxon Chronicle not less than fifty pages may be found in manuscripts in the Museum, which are wanting in Gibson's edition, a book consisting of only 244 pages.

But I must repeat that all our hopes of success depend on your name alone. I humbly request that you will let me know your sentiments on the occasion at your convenience.

MR. GIBBON TO MR. PINKERTON.

July 25th, 1793.

It gave me real concern that on last Tuesday se'nnight, the day appointed for our interview, I was not able, as I had forewarned Mr. Nichols to return in due time from Twickenham to town; and, when I arrived about three o'clock, I was indeed in such a state of mental and corporeal dissolution as would have rendered me very unfit

for any literary conversation. On my first visit to London, we shall easily repair what I will presume to style our common loss. In the mean while, I cannot lose a moment in thanking you for your obliging letter of the 23rd instant: I feel all the weight of your testimony, all the value of your praise; and I feel it the more strongly, as it proceeds from a writer whose acute mind has been long exercised in criticism, and whose independent spirit has never been lavish of applause.

On the principal subject of your letter, I shall explain myself with the frankness becoming your character and my own. Above twelve years ago, in a note to the third volume of my History, I expressed the surprise and shame which I had long entertained, that, after the example and success of the other countries of Europe, England alone, with such superior materials, should not have yet formed a collection of her original historians. I still persevere in the same sentiments, which I repeated in my last conversation with Mr. Nichols, in the full confidence that the work would be acceptable to the public, and honorable to all the persons at whose expense or by whose labor it should be executed. I might doubt whether any single editor, however learned or laborious, could perform a task of such magnitude and variety with sufficient dispatch to satisfy the impatience of the world: yet I am not much a friend to republics of any kind; nor, in the choice of a sole or chief artist, do I know of any one so well qualified as yourself, by your previous studies, your love of historic truth, your Herculean

industry, and the vigorous energies of your mind and character. The best judges must have acknowledged your merit; and your rising fame will gradually extinguish the early prejudices and personal animosities which you have been, perhaps, too careless of provoking.

Thinking as I do, and called upon in so pressing and particular a manner by yourself and Mr. Nichols, it is incumbent on me to explain, for how much I can undertake. I will embrace every opportunity, both public and private, of declaring my approbation of the work, and my esteem for the editor. I shall be always ready to assist at your secret committee, to offer my advice with regard to the choice and arrangement of your materials, and to join with you in forming a general outline of the plan. If you proceed in drawing up a prospectus, I will consider it with my best attention, nor shall I be averse to the crowning your solid edifice with something of an ornamental frieze. When the subscription is proposed, I shall underwrite my name for at least six copies; and I trust that a large contribution from a moderate fortune will be received as a sincere and unequivocal mark of approbation. But you seem to wish for somewhat more; the public use of my name, as curator or superintendant of the work; and on this delicate and ambiguous point you must allow me to pause. My name (qualecunque sit) I could not lend with fairness to the public or credit to myself, without engaging much farther than I am either able or willing to do. Our old English historians have never been

the professed object of my studies: my literary occupations, or rather amusements, lead me into a very distant path; and my speedy return to the continent (next spring at the latest) will preclude all opportunities of regular inspection or frequent correspondence. There is besides another difficulty, of which Mr. Nichols will be sensible, and which arises from a long and satisfactory connexion with my friend and bookseller, Mr. Cadell.

I shall have the pleasure of seeing you in town next month, or at the latest in September; nor do I conceive that in an enterprise of some years, the delay of a few weeks can be of any importance. Indeed I am of opinion that if the work, as I hope and trust, should proceed, a previous and private application should be made to the King, &c., and that no proposals should be offered to the public at large, till they were supported by the judgment and liberality of the most respectable characters in the country.

I should be happy to hear from you, if any ideas should occur to you concerning the common subject of our wishes.

MR. PINKERTON TO THE EARL OF BUCHAN.

Hampstead, Sept. 23rd, 1793.

I have a thousand pardons to beg for an interruption of correspondence, owing partly to many

literary avocations, partly to bad health, partly to domestic disquiets, which have forced me to change my former mode of life, and to enter into the holy state of matrimony: I should look upon myself as ungrateful, if I were deficient, in any respect, to your lordship, from whom I have received so many favors. I would write to your lordship oftener, but you forget to mention how your letters are franked; and, as I am at some distance from town, I cannot always get at franks. This very want of a fixed address to your lordship, and my aversion to subject my trifles to the expense of postage, sometimes influence my indo

lence.

I shall be glad to know how our Scotish literature proceeds amid these turbulent times. To important literary works there seems a pause here at present.

Mr. Gibbon is now here till spring. He has done me the honor to enter into a correspondence with me concerning a great literary design, not yet fit to be disclosed. Of my History of Scotland about a quarter is finished; and I expect to conclude in two or three years. The work will be very new and different from the former, on account of great additional matter discovered in almost every reign. The style I pay great attention to; but I study the ancient simplicity of narrative, mingled, I trust, with some degree of grandeur and grace, more than the modern turgidity. Lord Orford, who has read what I have done, is highly pleased: to Bishop Percy I read a part; and he expressed great satisfaction at the