As a lover of man

states should be checked in their career. kind I bewail it; but as a subject of Great Britain, I must wish that their dependence on it should continue. If the wisdom of Government can terminate the contest with honour instantly, that would be the most desirable issue. This, however, I take to be now impossible; and I will venture to foretell, that if our leaders do not at once exert the power of the British Empire in its full force, the struggle will be long, dubious, and disgraceful. We are past the hour of lenitives and half exertions. If the contest be protracted, the smallest interruption of the tranquillity that now reigns in Europe, or even the appearance of it, may be fatal.

"It is lucky that my American History was not finished before this event. How many plausible theories that I should have been entitled to form, are contradicted by what has now happened!"

To this extract, I shall only add a few sentences from a letter written to the same correspondent, about the affairs of America, nine years before, at the time of the repeal of the Stamp Act.

A

"I am glad to hear the determination of the House of Commons concerning the Stamp Act. I rejoice, from my love of the human species, that a million of men in America have some chance of running the same great career which other free people have held before them. I do not apprehend revolution or independence sooner than these must and should come. very little skill and attention in the art of governing may preserve the supremacy of Britain as long as it ought to be preserved. You can do me no favour more obliging, than that of writing me often an account of all occurrences in the debates on this affair. I am much interested in the subject; very little in the men who act on either side. I am not weak enough greatly to admire their virtues, nor so factious as to adopt their passions."

VOL. X.

L

SECTION IV.

CONTINUATION OF THE SAME SUBJECT.-HISTORICAL DISQUISITION CONCERNING INDIA.-GENERAL REMARKS ON DR. ROBERTSON'S MERITS AS AN HISTORIAN.

IN consequence of the interruption of Dr. Robertson's plans produced by the American Revolution, he was led to think of some other subject which might, in the meantime, give employment to his studious leisure. A letter, dated July 1778, to his friend the Rev. Mr. Waddilove, (now Dean of Ripon,) contains some important information with respect to his designs. at this period.

"The state of our affairs in North America is not such as to invite me to go on with my History of the New World. I must wait for times of greater tranquillity, when I can write and the public can read with more impartiality and better information than at present. Every person with whom I conversed in London confirmed me in my resolution of making a pause for a little, until it shall be known in what manner the ferment will subside. But as it is neither my inclination nor interest to be altogether idle, many of my friends have suggested to me a new subject, the History of Great Britain from the Revolution to the Accession of the House of Hanover. It will be some satisfaction to me to enter on a domestic subject, after being engaged so long on foreign ones, where one half of my time and labour were employed in teaching myself to understand manners, and laws, and forms, which I was to explain to others. You know better than anybody how much pains I bestowed in studying the constitution, the manners, and the commerce of Spanish America. The Review contained

in the first volume of Charles V. was founded on researches still more laborious. I shall not be involved in the same painful inquiries, if I undertake the present work. I possess already as much knowledge of the British Government and laws as usually is possessed by other persons who have been well educated and have lived in good company. A minute investigation of facts will be the chief object of my attention. With respect to these, I shall be much aided by the original papers published by Sir John Dalrymple and Macpherson, and lately by Lord Hardwicke. The Memoirs of Noailles, concerning the French negotiations in Spain, contain very curious information. I have got a very valuable collection of papers from the Duke of Montague, which belonged to the Duke of Shrewsbury, and I am promised the large collection of the Duke of Marlborough, which were formerly in the hands of Mr. Mallet. From these and other materials I hope to write a History which may be both entertaining and instructive. I know that I shall get upon dangerous ground, and must relate events concerning which our political factions entertain very different sentiments. But I am little alarmed with this. I flatter myself that I have temper enough to judge with impartiality; and if, after examining with candour I do give offence, there is no man whose situation is more independent."

Whatever the motives were which induced him to relinquish this project, it is certain that it did not long occupy his thoughts. From a letter of Mr. Gibbon, it would appear to have been abandoned before the end of the year 1779. The passage is interesting, not only as it serves to ascertain the fact, but as it suggests a valuable hint with respect to a different historical subject.

"I remember a kind of engagement you had contracted to repeat your visit to London every second year, and I look forwards with pleasure to next spring when your bond will naturally become due. I should almost hope that you would bring with you some fruits of your leisure, had I not been informed that you had totally relinquished your design of continuing Mr. Hume's History of England. Notwithstanding the just and

deep sense which I must entertain (if the intelligence be true) of our public loss, I have scarcely courage enough to blame you. The want of materials, and the danger of offence, are two formidable obstacles for an historian who wishes to instruct, and who is determined not to betray his readers. But if you leave the narrow limits of our island, there still remain, without returning to the troubled scene of America, many subjects not unworthy of your genius. Will you give me leave, as a vague and indigested hint, to suggest the History of the Protestants in France; the events are important in themselves, and intimately connected with the great Revolutions of Europe; some of the boldest or most amiable characters of modern times, the Admiral Coligny, Henry IV., &c., would be your peculiar heroes; the materials are copious, and authentic, and accessible; and the objects appear to stand at that just distance which excites curiosity without inspiring passion. Excuse the freedom, and weigh the merits (if any) of this proposal."1

As I have had very little access to see any of Dr. Robertson's answers to the letters of his correspondents, I am ignorant what reply he made to this suggestion of Mr. Gibbon, as well as of the circumstances that induced him to lay aside his plans with respect to the History of England. It is impossible, however, not to feel much regret that he did not carry them into execution. In spite of the obstacles which Mr. Gibbon mentions, there can be little doubt that the work would have been an important accession to English literature, and, in all probability, from the interesting nature of the subject, the most popular of his performances. The intrigues of the different factions during the reign of Queen Anne would have afforded an ample field for the exercise of his cool and discriminating judgment; the campaigns of Marlborough deserved such an historian, while the literature and philosophy of that memorable period would have given full employment to those critical powers which he so eminently possessed, and of which he has unfortunately left no monument behind him. The slight sketches of this kind, interspersed with the narrative of Mr.

1 See Note F.

Hume's History, have always been favourite passages with readers of taste; and, if I may be permitted to judge from Dr. Robertson's conversation, he would not, in this species of composition, have been surpassed by any of his contemporaries.

I have not heard of any other work that he projected after this period. He seems, indeed, soon to have abandoned all thoughts of writing any more for the public, and to have indulged the idea of prosecuting his studies in future for his private amusement. His circumstances were independent; he

was approaching to the age of sixty, with a constitution considerably impaired by a sedentary life; and a long application to the compositions he had prepared for the press, had interfered (it is presumable) with much of the gratification he might have enjoyed, if he had been at liberty to follow the impulse of his own taste and curiosity. Such a sacrifice must be more or less made by all who devote themselves to letters, whether with a view to emolument or to fame; nor would it perhaps be easy to make it, were it not for the prospect (seldom, alas! realized) of earning by their exertions that learned and honourable leisure which he was so fortunate as to attain. He retired from the business of the ecclesiastical courts about the same time; and, for seven or eight years, divided the hours which he could spare from his professional duties between the luxury of reading and the conversation of his friends.

The activity of his mind, in the meantime, continued unimpaired; and the habits of study he had so long been accustomed to, gave a certain scope and connexion even to his historical recreations. To one of these, which, from its accidental connexion with some of his former works, engaged his attention more closely than his ordinary pursuits, the public is indebted for a valuable performance, of which the materials seem almost insensibly to have swelled to a volume, long after his most intimate friends imagined that he had renounced all thoughts of the press. The Disquisition concerning Ancient India, which closed his historical labours, took its rise (as he himself informs us)" from the perusal of Major Rennell's Memoir for illustrat