abounds above all cities in the universe. I thought once of settling there for life."

"I was appointed secretary to the embassy; and in summer 1765, lord Hertford left me, being appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, I was chargé d'affaires till the arrival of the duke of Richmond, towards the end of the year. In the beginning of 1766, I left Paris; and next summer went to Edinburgh, with the same view as formerly, of burying myself in a philosophical retreat. I returned to that place, not richer, but with much more money, and a much larger income, by means of lord Hertford's friendship, than I left it; and I was desirous of trying what su perfluity could produce, as I had formerly made an experiment of a competency. But in 1767, I received from Mr. Conway an invitation to be under-secretary; and this invitation, both the character of the person, and my connexions with lord Hertford, prevented me from declining. I returned to Edinburgh in 1769, very opulent (for I possessed a revenue of £1000 a year), healthy and though somewhat stricken in years, with the prospect of enjoying long my ease, and of seeing the increase of my repu tation."

One of the most remarkable transactions in Mr. Hume's life, was his dispute with Rousseau, in consequence of his having obtained the offer of a pension from the king of England for that very extraordinary man. He had previously procured for him a retreat, conformably to the wishes that Rousseau had expressed, at Wooton, in Derbyshire; from whence, soon after his arrival there, he received from him the following letter, in which there is some reference to a contrivance to accomodate Rousseau with a carriage down there at a small expence, and which was adopted in order to avoid hurting his delicacy:

Wooton, March 22, 1766.

"You see already, my dear patron, by the date of my letter, that I am arrived at the place of my destination; but you cannot see all the charms which I find in it; to do this, you should be acquainted with the situation, and be able to read my heart. You ought however to read at least those of my sentiments with respect to you, and which you have so well deserved. If I live in this agreeable asylum as happy as I hope to do, one of the greatest pleasures of my life will be, to reflect that I owe it to you. To

make another happy, is to deserve to be happy one's self. May you therefore find in yourself the reward of all you have done for me! Had I been alone, I might perhaps have met with hospitality, but I should have never relished it so highly as I now do, in owing it to your friendship. Retain still that friendship for me, my dear patron; love me for my sake, who am so much indebted to you! love me for your own, for the good you have done me. I am sensible of the full value of your sincere friendship; it is the object of my ardent wishes; I am ready to repay it with all mine, and feel something in my heart which may one day convince you that it is not without its value. As for the reasons agreed on between us, I shall receive nothing by the post, you will be pleased, when you have the goodness to write to me, to send your letters to Mr. Davenport. The affair of the carriage is not yet adjusted, because I know I was imposed on; it is a trifling fault, however, which may be only the effect of an obliging vanity, unless it should happen to be repeated. If you were concerned in it, I would advise you to give up, once for all, these little impositions, which cannot proceed from any good motive, when converted into snares for simplicity. I embrace you, my dear patron, with the same cordiality which I hope to find in you.

"J. J. R."

It having been agreed upon between Mr. Hume and Mr. Rousseat, not to lay each other under any restraint by a continued correspondence, the only subject of their future letters was the obtaining a pension from the king of England; which was then in agitation; and of which affair Mr. Hume gives us the following concise relation :

"As we were conversing together one evening at Calais, where we were detained by contrary winds, I asked Mr. Rousseau, if he would accept of a pension from the king of England, in case his majesty should be pleased to grant him one? To this he replied, it was a matter of some difficulty to resolve on; but that he should be entirely directed by the advice of my lord Marshall. Encour aged by this answer, I no sooner arrived in London, than I addressed myself to his majesty's ministers, and particularly to general Conway, secretary of state, and general Græme, secretary and chamberlain to the queen. Applications was accordingly made to their majesties, who with their usual goodness consented, on condition only, that the affair should not be made public. Mr. Rousseau and I both wrote to my lord Marshall; and Mr. Rous

sean expressly observed in his letter, that the circumstance of the affair's being to be kept secret was very agreeable to him. The consent of my lord Marshall arrived, as may readily be imagined: soon after which, Mr. Rousseau set out for Wooton; while the business remained some time in suspense, on account of the indisposition of general Conway.

"In the mean time, I began to be afraid, from what I had observed of Mr. Rousseau's disposition and character, that his natural restlessness of mind would prevent his enjoyment of that repose, to which the hospitality and security he found in England invited him. I saw with infinite regret, that he was born for storms and tumults; and that the disgust which might succeed the peaceful enjoyment of solitude and tranquillity, would soon render him a burthen to himself and every body about him. But as I lived at the distance of an 150 miles from the place of his residence, and was constantly employed in doing him good offices, I did not expect that I myself should be the victim of this unhappy disposition."

General Conway soon after received a letter from Mr. Rousseau, which appeared both to him and Mr. Hume, to be a plain refusal of the pension, as long as the article of secrecy was insisted on but as Mr. Hume knew that Mr. Rousseau had been acquainted with this conduct from the beginning, he was the less surprized at his silence towards him. He thought that his friend, conscious of having treated him ill in this affair, was ashamed to write to him; and having prevailed on general Conway to keep the matter still open, he wrote a very friendly letter to Mr. Rousseau, exhorting him to return to his former way of thinking, and to accept of the pension.

Mr. Hume waited three weeks in vain for an answer; he thought this a little strange, and even wrote to Mr. Davenport; but having to do with a very odd sort of man, and still accounting for his sil ence by supposing him ashamed to write to him, he was resolved not to be discouraged, nor to lose the opportunity of doing him an essential service, on account of a vain ceremonial. He ac cordingly renewed his applications to the ministers; and was so happy as to be enabled to write the following letter to Mr. Rousseau:

Lisle-Street, Leicester-Fields, June 19, 1766.

"As I have not received any answer from you, I conclude, that you persevere in the same resolution of refusing all marks of his majesty's goodness as long as they must remain a secret. I have therefore applied to general Conway to have this condition removed; and I was so fortunate as to obtain his promise, that he would speak to the king for that purpose. It will only be requisite, said he, that we know previously from Mr. Rousseau, whether he would accept of a pension publicly granted him, that his majesty may not be exposed to a second refusal. He gave me authority to write to you on that subject; and I beg to hear your resolution as soon as possible. If you give your consent, which I earnestly intreat you to do, I know that I could depend on the good offices of the duke of Richmond, to second general Conway's application; so that I have no doubt of success.

"I am, my dear sir,

"Yours, with sincerity,

"D. H."

In a few days after, Mr. Hume received the following letter:

MR. ROUSSEAU TO MR. HUME.

Wooton, June 29, 1766.

"I imagined, sir, that my silence, truly interpreted by your own conscience, had said enough; but since you have some design in not understanding me, I shall speak. You have but ill-disguised yourself. I know ́you, and you are not ignorant of it. Before we had any personal con nections, quarrels, or disputes; while we knew each other only by literary reputation, you affectionately made me the offer of the good offices of yourself and friends. Affected by this generosity, I threw myself into your arms; you brought me to England, apparently to procure me an asylum, but in fact, to bring me to dishonor. You applied to this noble work with a zeal worthy of your heart, and a success worthy of your abilities. You needed not have taken so much pains: you live and converse with the world; I with myself in solitude, The public love to be deceived, and you were formed to deceive them. I know one man however, whom you cannot decieve; I mean yourself. You know with what horror my heart rejected the first suspicion of your designs. You know I embraced you with tears in my eyes, and told you, if you were not the

best of men, you must be the blackest of mankind. In reflecting on your private conduct, you must say to yourself sometimes, you are not the best of men; under which conviction, I doubt much if ever you will be the happiest.

"I leave your friends and you to carry on your schemes as you please; giving up to you, without regret, my reputation during life; certain, that sooner or later, justice will be done to that of both, As to your good offices in matters of interest, which you have made use of as a mask, I thank you for them, and shall dispense with profiting by them, I ought not to hold a correspondence with you any longer, or to accept of it to my advantage in any affair in which you are to be the mediator. Adieu, sir, I wish you the truest happiness; but as we ought not to have any thing. to say to each other for the future, this is the last letter you will receive

from me.

" J. J. R."

To this letter, Mr. Hume immediately sent the following reply:

MR. HUME TO MR. ROUSSEAU.

June 26, 1766.

"As I am conscious of having ever acted towards you the most friendly part, of having always given the most tender, the most active proofs of sincere affection; you may judge of my extreme surprise on perusing your epistle! Such violent accusations, confined altogether to generals, it is as impossible to answer, as it is impossible to comprehend them. But affairs cannot, must not remain on that footing. I shall charitably suppose, that some infamous calumniator has belied me to you. But in that case, it is your duty, and I am persuaded it will be your inclination, to give me an opportunity of detecting him, and of justifying myself; which can only be done by your mentioning the particulars of which I am accused. You say, that I myself know that I have been false to you; but I say it loudly, and will say it to the whole world, that I know the contrary, that I know my friendship towards you has been unbounded and uninterrupted, and that though instances of it have been very generally remarked, both in France and England, the smallest part of it only has as yet come to the knowledge of the public. I demand, that you will produce me the man who will assert the contrary; and above all, I demand, that he will mention any one particular in which I have been wanting to you. You owe this to me; you owe it to yourself; you owe it to truth, and honor, and justice, and to every thing that can be deemed sacred among men. As