choose (borresco referens!) to let him drop into hell in the next. On various topics connected with the personal character of Buchanan, his reasoning is not very much superior to that of his egregious biographer: nor is this to be imputed to his want of acuteness, but to his eagerness in defending opinions which had been fiercely attacked, and which in reality were indefencible.

The political tendency of his preface and notes was so far from being agreeable to the admirers of Buchanan, that an association, consisting of Mr. Anderson, the Rev. George Logan, and many other adherents of the Whig party, was speedily formed at Edinburgh for the express purpose of vindicating their favourite author in a new edition of his works. Their efforts however proved abortive, and the task of editorship devolved into more able hands. Ten years after the appearance of Ruddiman's edition, another was published by Dr. Peter Burman of Leyden; a most indefatigable and useful labourer in the province

r Ruddiman's Animadversions, p. 13.

• Chalmers, p. 74.

of philology. Arrested by the frequent and wide variance between the author and his jure divino editor, Burman had nearly been induced to relinquish his undertaking, and to advise his printer Langerak to procure assistance from Scotland, where the authenticity of the facts could best be ascertained. Of the new edition meditated at Edinburgh he was likewise apprized; though it does not appear, as some authors pretend, that the associated critics made him a voluntary offer of private assistance. The printer however urging him to proceed without waiting for this vindicatory edition, he at length republished the works of Buchanan, together with Ruddiman's preface, notes, dissertation, and other appendages. The annotations which he himself subjoined are almost entirely of the philological kind. His other engagements did not permit him to undertake the office of superintending the press; and accordingly his edition is somewhat less correct than that of Ruddiman. The general value of his predecessor's labours he acknowledges in terms of due respect ;" but he occasionally rejects

Sine controversia ab omnibus eruditis insignem iniit

his particular opinions in a manner which that learned man was disposed to regard as contemptuous; and some of his expressions relative to British literature, and to the country of Buchanan, were such as could not easily be forgotten. Two years afterwards, when Ruddiman edited the poems of Dr. Pitcairne," he eagerly embraced an opportunity of asserting the honour of his native land; and the same topics were yet fresh in his recollection when he resumed his long labours at the venerable age of eighty-one. "It came very ill from a Dutch professor," he remarks, " to undervalue a people or country, to whose valour his republick is so much indebted for its flourishing condition, and from whose troops it has received so much benefit and advantage. And I will add too that it was both ingrate and impertinent in him to speak to the disadvantage of a country, from whence so many young noblemen and gentlemen year

gratiam, vir et rerum patriarum scientia, et elegantioris doctrinæ copiis instructissimus, Thomas Ruddimannus; cum hanc in se provinciam, plenam tædii et molestiarum, suscipere non recusaret." (Burmanni Praf. in Buchananum.)

Edinb. 1727, 12mo.

ly repaired to him, for improvement in their studies; and by whom, no doubt, he was liberally rewarded for his instructions. But as Mr. Burman was glad, as I am told, to own himself in the wrong, to several Scots gentlemen, who had been his dis tiples, and has been pretty roundly chastised for it by others, I shall say no more of it in this place." To these circumstantes I merely allude as characteristic of the excellent old man, and without any very strong inclination to adopt the full measure of his resentment. The inhabitants of every country have been undervalued in their turn; and few nations of ancient or modern Europe have experienced greater injustice than that to which Burman himself belonged.

These are the only collective editions of Buchanan which have hitherto appeared; but it was justly remarked by the learned professor that, with the exception of Erasmus, no modern writer had so frequently visited the press. His works have been

Z

Ruddiman's Further Vindication, p. 54.

"Ut inter recentiores scriptores," says Burman, “qui a renatis literis nomen ullum sunt consecuti, si unum Erasmum

published in every possible form, and with all the attention usually bestowed on those of an ancient classic. The edition quoted in the subsequent memoirs is uniformly that of Ruddiman. The incorrectness and variations of the earlier impressions have afforded his commentators no inconsiderable exercise; and although he flourished after the invention of printing, they have fre quently had recourse to the aid of manuscripts. A new and splendid edition of the works of Buchanan might reflect the highest credit on the Edinburgh press. It ought to contain the two Scotish compositions.excluded by Ruddiman and Burman, together with such fugitive pieces as may yet be recovered. Several unpublished poems ascribed to Buchanan, occur among the Cotton MSS. preserved in the British Museum; but some of them have been mutilated by the unfortunate conflagration of 1731.

excipias, nullus ostendi posset, qui toties præla fatigaverit, et tam perpetuo per omnia tempora tenore famam et gloriam te, nuerit. Nullum ego, si ab antiquioribus decesseris, celebrari umquam audivi aut legi, qui cum Buchanano contendere possit; aut cujus scripta tam assidua doctorum virorum manu versata, et etiam in publicis et privatis scholis pueris et adolescentibus ediscenda fuerint data."?