doors. I sought for your name without success; but you exist in Spain in many secret and select retreats.

I have the pleasure to tell you that Spain is regulating all her ancient documents of American and Arabic knowledge. A copy of a letter which Andrew Stuart, at the instigation of the Trustees of the British Museum, wrote to the Pope on the subject of the papers in the Vatican, was sent to me at Madrid. I gave it to our Minister and the Archbishop of Toledo, and we shall in time have a catalogue of the Spanish papers. I can also inform you that the Arabian Code is no fiction, as can be now perfectly established. The malice of a rival monk has, with that of some good Christian zealots at Rome, attacked the authenticity of the work. Sir William Hamilton and I have had proofs of its being a genuine work. The details are too long for a letter. The Court is not splendid. The King has a great deal of the look and character of his brother of Naples. The etiquette of his palace forbids him to associate with almost any one familiarly. The Queen, you know, is all powerful; with strong traits of character, and governed by one passion, she has found the secret of governing all around her; her husband through religion and love, and the rest through fear, hope, and the Inquisition.

The Conde de Aranda you have I suppose seen. He was very hospitable and civil to me; the King too was gracious. It would have made you smile to have seen your giant * surrounded by the little grandees of Spain. They are indeed a little race; but the great body of the nation have won my attachment and esteem. They are a decent, sincere, and dignified people. Except the bankers and lawyers in Madrid, and the commercial people in the sea-ports, the people have not yet a taint of revolution-ideas. With the Countess de Aranda you would be in love. She is very like your nut-brown Sylva. There is a singular privilege in the house of her father; it is that he has a right to create a grandee of Spain of the first order. He generally makes his son.

Poor Florida Blanca is in prison on the frontiers of France, and nearly in the same strict custody with that which our friend Gil Blas suffered at Segovia. He had great views, was an active minister, and

* Mr. Gibbon used to call the writer the Gentle Giant.

4Q 2

has

has done much good to his country. He had managed the last famous meeting of the Cortes, which secured to the Queen certain powers, and he then fell the victim of his own management.

The person who has won most of my esteem and regard in Spain is the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo. He was Archbishop of Mexico; wrote a history of Cortez's expedition, which the Inquisition thought too free. He gave me a copy of it, being, he said, the only one remaining. He made me visit Toledo, and was really friendly to me. Speaking of religion, he said there was but one, and the word explained itself, religo; it kept society together. His revenues are about 100,000l. a-year, and he has opened his purse as far as it can go, to the unfortunate French clergy.

From Madrid I took my route to Valencia, where I passed some pleasant and instructive hours with the Count O'Reilly. I found him remarkably well informed, with great activity of mind, and a good deal of the genius of your friend Burke, tempered by long experience in affairs. The day I left Valencia for Barcelona, I visited the ancient Saguntum. Nature could not have formed a nobler place for defence, nor a more noble conquest for Hannibal to start from his transalpine journey. From Barcelona, resembling one of our best trading ports, I embarked for Genoa,

No. LXIII.

M. NECKER à M. GIBBON.

Rolle, Mars 19, 1793.

Nous comptons, Monsieur, quitter Rolle vers la fin du mois. La santé de Madame Necker la rend impatiente de changer d'air, et nous irons plus ou moins long tems nous établir à Copet. Nous avons toujours en perspective d'aller passer quelques jours avec vous, et nous prendrons le moment où nos idées sur l'avenir seront plus arrêtées. Peut-être aurions-nous le plaisir de vous recevoir auparavant; il y auroit bien de ' grace à vous à en user ainsi. Ón a toujours plus besoin d'un ami tel que vous. Il nous en coûte véritablement de renvoyer à un autre

la

esd

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moment

moment le plaisir que nous nous proposions, mais nous l'aurons sans cesse en perspective, et je laisserai alors à Madame Necker la satisfaction de vous l'annoncer. Je lui ai promis, foi de votre raison, de votre indulgence, et de votre amitié, que vous approuverez ce petit dérangement, et que vous ne serez pas moins disposé à nous recevoir avec bonté dans un autre moment.

L'addresse de ma fille est à Juniper Hall, viá London. Je vous ai addressé, il y a trois jours, une lettre de cette dame, qui ne sçait encore ce qu'elle fera. Son mari est à Paris, mais sans caractère diplomatique: il nous laisse ignorer s'il a dessein de venir ici, et il n'a écrit qu'une lettre fort courte à Madame Necker.

SIR,

No. LXIV.

Dr. VINCENT to Mr. GIBBON.

Dean's-yard, July 20th, 1793. I AM happy that any accidental circumstance should have introduced me to a correspondence with Mr. Gibbon, and I trust you will excuse me a delay of one moment, which I wish to employ in expressing my respect for your works. With all the prejudices that men of my profession have, and ought to have, against particular parts, I confess with the highest satisfaction the pleasure and instruction I have received from every thing that is critical and historical; out of the numerous body of authors you have made use of, I have always followed your narration with such as I could procure: your fidelity, accuracy, and the happy use you have made of them, has taught me an attention I was not master of before, out of many instances I mention Ammianus as the first.

And now, Sir, permit me to inform you that from Dr. Nichol's book, which is in my possession, you were entered at Westminster School, in the second form, in January 1748, the precise day is not noticed, but probably from the 10th to the 16th, it was the same year I was entered myself in the September following. The time of your

quitting the school cannot appear from this book, but by calculating

the removes, I should think you might fix it accurately yourself. Your is noticed, as is that of all the others in Dr. N.'s book, which makes you 9 years old in 1748.

age

If there is any other inquiry that I can promote, I shall be happy to receive your commands.

DR. Vincent is able to assure Mr. Gibbon, from his own entrance in the same year, that the year of Dr. Nichol is certainly 1748, and he thinks he can bring to Mr. Gibbon's remembrance, facts that will fully satisfy his own mind. Boyle, afterwards Earl of Orrery, was one of the principal actors in Ignoramus, represented in December, 1747, and would of course continue Captain till Whitsuntide 1748. Fury succeeded him. These are such remarkable epochs in the chronology of boys, that few forget them. Dr. Vincent is sure of his own memory likewise, when he asserts that he remembers Mr. Gibbon in the 2d form, and at Mrs. Porten's house in 1748, as he lived next door with Hutton the nonjuror.

If Mr. Gibbon should still have any doubts, Dr. V. will not think any thing a trouble, which may contribute to remove them.

No. LXVI.

Mr. PINKERTON to Mr. GIBBON.

SIR,

London, 23d July, 1793.

I HOPE you will pardon this intrusion, after our appointment at Mr. Nicol's, which I was very sorry the extreme heat of the day constrained you to defer, as it would have given me the greatest of plea

sures

sures to have been known to you. Indeed I have expressed upon many occasions, that I regarded you as the first of living authors; and perhaps the only one in the world who has united genius, erudition, philosophy, eloquence, all in the most consummate degree. After this you may judge how severe the disappointment was to me; and as I hear that you will not be in town for some time, I hope you will forgive my impatience in writing to you.

It gave me extreme satisfaction to learn the proposed scheme of publishing our ancient historians, under the auspices of the greatest of modern historians, and whose name alone would ensure success to the work, and occasion the revival of an important study, too much and too long neglected in this otherwise scientific country. Your favourable mention of me as reviser flattered me much, for magnum laudari a laudatis. I should not only exert all my industry in collating MSS. revising the press, &c. but should execute my labours con amore, as on the favourite object of long pursuit: but all this would be nothing without your name, which is a tower of strength; and as Mr. Nicol expressed his hope that you would consent to give your advice, as to the authors employed, and other important points, so he and I warmly join (and I hear the literary voice of present and future nations accord with ours) in the request that you will allow your name to appear as superintending the work, or as the Latin, I believe, would express it, curante, &c. It is also hoped that you will spare a few hours to clothe the Prospectus, upon which much depends, with your powerful eloquence, which, like a coat of mail, unites the greatest splendour with the greatest strength.

If you consent to this, as Mr. Nicol wishes that no time may be lost, I shall begin to prepare materials for the Prospectus, and send them to you when your 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 MSS. 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