uielefsly fpent, fince our conftitution has
a good defence in a well-regulated militia,
officered by men who love their country:
and a militia fo regulated, may in due
time be the means of thinning the formid-
able ftanding army, if not of extinguifhing
it. Captain * * * is one of the worthier!:,
as well as talleft men in the kingdom ; but
he, and his Socrates, Dr. Johnfon, have fuch
prejudices in politics, that one muft be upon
one's guard in their company, if one wifhes
to preferve their good opinion. By the way,
the Dean of Gloucefter has printed a work,
which he thinks a full confutation of Locke's
Theory of Government ; and his fecond vo-
lume will contain a new Theory of his own :
of this, when we meet. The difappointment
to which you allude, and concerning which
you fay fo many friendly things to me, is
not yet certain. My competitor is not yet
nominated : many doubt whether he will be;
I think he will not, unlefs the Chancellor
life—V. i u
290
fhould prefs it ftrongly. It is ftill the opi-
nion and wifh of the bar, that I fhould be
the mam I believe, the minifter hardly
knows his own mind. I cannot legally be
appointed till January, or next month at
fooneft, becaufe I am not a barrifter of five
years ftanding till that time : now many
believe that they keep the place open for me
till I am qualified. I certainly wifh. to have
it, becaufe I wifh to have twenty thoufand
pounds in my pocket before I am eight-and-
thirty years old ; and then I might contribute
in fome little degree towards the fervice of
my country in Parliament, as well as at the
Bar, without felling my liberty to a patron,
as too many of my profeflion are not afham-
ed of doing ; and I might be a Speaker in the
Houfe of Commons in the full vigour and
maturity of my age; whereas, in the flow
career of Weftminfter-Hajl, I fhould not
perhaps, even with the beft fuccefs, acquire
the fame independent ftation, till the age at
which Cicero was killed. But be affured,
my dear lord, that if the minifter be offended
291
at the ftyle in which I have fpoken, do
ipeak, and will fpeak, of public affairs, and
on that account fhould refufe to give me the
judgefhip, I mall not be at all mortified,
having already a very decent competence,
without a debt, or a care of any kind. I
will not break in upon you at Warley unex-
pectedly; but whenever you find it moft
convenient, let me know, and I will be with
you in lefs than two hours.
Dean TUCKER to Mr. JONES.
DEAR SIR Gloucester, December 31, 1778.
I have the pleafure to acquaint
you, that your packet and letter arrived fafe
laft night; for both which, I am very much
obliged to you. I cannot fay that your re-
marks have wrought much conviction in
me, (in fome places they have,) but they have
had what 1 efteem a better effect, that is,
they will make me more cautious and circum-
fpect in fome of my expreffions; and they
will oblige me to bring more proofs and illuf.
trations of fome points than I thought were
U 2
293
needful. In all thefe refpeds, your friendly
remarks have done me much greater fervice
than unmeaning compliments; and as to
your differing fo widely in opinion from me,
your frank declaration of this difference
proves you the honefter man, and the more
to be efteemed. I am, &c.
ADAM PRINCE CZARTORYSKI to
Mr. JONES.
SIR J Warsaw, Xov. 26, 1778.
It is the fate of thofe who,
tike you, are an ornament to the literary
world, to be known to thofe who are per-
fectly unknown to them; each is entitled to
call to them for light, and this I hope will be
a fufficient apology for my intruding upon
you, and interrupting thofe ftudious hours
which you confecrate with fo much fuccefs to
the inftruction of your readers.
I was happy enough of late to hit upon
your Effay on the Poetry of the Eaftern na-
tions, and your Hiftory of the Perfian Ian*
293
guage. I found that you had made up in
thefe two works a quarrel of a very old ftand-
ing between erudition and tafle; you have
brought them to meet together in fuch a
friendly manner, that one who had never
read but your writings, would be apt to think
they always went hand in hand.
I have been applying myfelf fince a few
years to the ftudy of Eaftern languages;
though I cannot flatter myfelf with having
made as yet any confiderable progrefs in that
branch of learning. Your mofl excellent
Grammar of the Perfian language, which
gave birth to Mr. Rjchardfon's one of the
Arabic, executed upon the fame plan, are the
agreeable guides which I follow in that diffi-
cult journey; to them I owe to be refcued
out of the hands of Erpenius, Guadagnola,
and the reft of thofe unmerciful gentlemen
who never took the leaft trouble about clear-
ing the road, or plucking out one fingle thorn
from the many with which the paths of the
ftudy of Eaftern languages are covered.
Give me leave to be ftill more beholden to
294
you j and as you learned men are the leading
ftars of the unlearned, I beg you'll beftow a
few moments of your leifure upon anfwering
fome queftions which may perhaps appear
very trifling in the eyes of a man of your
extenfive knowledge.
I have always been at a lofs to form any
conjecture upon the following fubject, which
is, by what chance fo many words from
other European languages, or at leaft ufed in
our European languages, are got into the
Perfian: as for inftance, jivan, pudder,
mader*, the Engliih, bad y the German, doch-
ter, der, bend, together with a deal of our
Sclavonian, efpecially in the arithmetical
numbers, which, even in the manner of pro-
nouncing them, are exactly the fame, fuch as
pendfed, fchefied\, &c. I mould be greatly
obliged to you likewife, if by your means I
could be informed, whether the Dictionary
of Meninfki, propofed to be reprinted at Ox-
ford, is already come out; whether it con-
tains a great many additions which are not
* Youth, father, mother. •(• 500 and 600.
2.9j
to be found in the edition of 1680; laftly,
whether Mr. Richardfon has publifhed the
fecond volume, Englifh and Arabic, of his
Dictionary. As to our poor countryman,
Meninlki, he has not met with the reward
which he had a right to expert*; after
having wafted his health and fortune in the
finifhing of his work, he died unnoticed at
Vienna ; and his daughter ended her life in
the fame city a few years ago, very ill ufed
by thofe who had advanced money to her fa-
ther, for the publifhing of his work. You
live in a country where fuch a fin would be
* From the short account given of Meninski in the
Biographical Dictionary, it appears, that he was no less
distinguished for his extensive erudition and profound
knowledge of languages, particularly Oriental, than by
the propriety of conduct, and abilities displayed by hi-m
in various official situations to which he had risen by his
merit. His first station was that of first interpreter to
the Polish embassy at the Porte, and from this he was
gradually advanced to the rank of a counsellor of war to
the Emperor at Vienna, and first interpreter of Oriental
languages. He died at Vienna at the age of 75, in 1698,
eighteen years after the publication of his famous and
useful work, the Oriental Thesaurus. The compilers of
this account do not notice the circumstances mentioned
by Prince Czartoryski.
296
ranked among the mortal ones. Baron Re-
viczki, fojuftlyand honourably mentioned in
your works, has been refjding here for feveral
years, as minifter of the Court of Vienna;
we have often made the wiih, that fomething
could tempt you to take our part of the
world in your way. Jf that mould ever
happen, I would confider it as a moft agreea-
ble circumftance for me, if you could be pre-
vailed upon to accept of my houfe during
your ftay, and confider it as your own. I
know what advantages we might reap from
fo ufeful and agreeable an intereourfe, and
would make it our bufinefs not to let time lay
heavy upon your hands. I mufl (before I
end) exprefs to you the fenfe of pleafure
which I felt as a Pole, in reading that paflage
of your preface which concerns our country:
it bears the Itamp of humanity and fpirit.
Now, after having repeated my excufes for
having been fo forward, and perhaps fo tedious,,
I am, with all poflible regard, &c.
Adam Prince Czartoryski,
General of Podolia.
!97
Mr. JONES to PRINCE ADAM
CZARTORYSKI.
Lamb's Buildings, Tempi?, London, Feb. 17, 1119.
Nothing could be more honour-
able to me than your letter, nothing more
flattering than the fentiments which you ex-
prefs in it; but I am fo little ufed to con-
yerfe or correfpond with Princes, and have fo
long been accuftomed to the plainnefs of the
ancients, that I mould addrefs your Highnefs
with more facility in Latin than in any mo-
dern idiom. Yet as you not only perfectly
underftand my native language, but even
write it (I ipeak fincerely) with elegance, I
will try to anfwer you in Englifh, with Ro-
man fimplicity.
It gives me great pleafure, that my juvenile
compofitions have been at all ufeful or enter-
taining to you. What higher reward can a
writer defire, than the approbation of fuch a
reader? In fuppofing, however, that you in-
terrupt my ftudious hours which I am confe-
crating to literature, allow me to fay, that,
293
unhappily for me, you are a little miftaken.
My laft four years have been fpent in forenfic
labours, which, however arduous, are no lefs
pleafing than reputable, and would be per-
fectly congenial with my temper and difpofi-
tion, if they did not wholly preclude me from
refuming my former ftudies. It is poffible,
however, that I may foon fucceed to a high
judicial office in Bengal, where the vacations
will give me leifure to renew my acquaint-
ance, which I now am obliged to intermit,
with the Perfian and Arabian claffics.
Should my appointment take place, I mall fet
a high value on your correfpondence, and
will not fail to fend both your Highnefs, and
my friend, Baron Reviczki, (to whom I will
write very foon,) fome wreaths of flowers
from the banks of the Ganges.
In anfwer to your queftions, I muft in-
form your Highnefs, that the project of re-
printing Meninfki here is entirely dropt ; but
Richardfon is indefatigable, and advances as
expeditioufly as poffible with the fecond part
of his dictionary. How fo many European
L 299
words crept into the Perfian language, I
know not with certainty. Procopiui', I
think, mentions the great intercourie, both
in war and peace, between the Perfians and
the nations in the north of Europe and Afia,
whom the ancients knew by the general name
of Scythians. Many learned inveftigators
of antiquity are fully perfuaded, that a very
old and almoft primaeval language was in ufe
among thefe northern nations, from which
not only the Celtic diale&s, but even the
Greek and Latin, are derived ; in fact we
find vrotTyf and ^t^ in Perfian, nor is $vy turfy
fo far removed from dockter, or even ©j^*
and nomen from nam, as to make it ridi-
culous to luppofe, that they fprang from the
fame root. We muft confefs that thefe re-
fearches are very obfcure and uncertain ; and
you will allow, not fo agreeable as an ode of
Hafez, or an elegy of Amr'alkeis. How
happy mould I be, my dear Prince, if on
my return from India, I could vifit Poland,
accept the kind invitation of your Highnefs,
and enjoy the promifed pleafure of your con-
300
verfation and friendship. My good genius
forbids me wholly to defpair of that happi-
nefs ; and the fperata voluptas fuavis amici-
tice, which enabled Lucretius to endure any
toil, and to fpend the ftarry nights, as he
fays, in contemplation, mail have a fimilar
effect on, &c,
William Jones.
Dr. STUART to Mr. JONES.
$1Y DEAR SIR, Ftb. 12, 1779.
I beg you to accept my new
work, as a mark of my beft observance. The
fubjects are very important, very curious, and
very new, but the materials upon which I
was to operate were very imperfect. Indeed*
1 fear much, that a propriety of intention is
all my merit, and from that, I think, I am
to draw little glory; for it is common to me
with writers who are the weakeit, and moll
trifling. Yet, if your eye can trace any evi-
dence in this trifle to oppofe my apprehenr-
lions, I mail be very happy. All the humi-
lity of my doubts will go away. In two re-
fpects, I expofe myfelf very much to cerifure.
301
I have attacked the nobile ojfichtm of the court
of feflion ; and I have vindicated the freedom
of the Scottifh government from the mif-
reprefentations of Dr. Robertfon, the hiflo-
riographer of Scotland. With a thoufand
people, thefe things are the greateft of all
crimes. It is in England, and not in this
country, that I am to find thofe readers who
will be perfectly impartial. I entreat you to
accept my moll fincere wifhes for your pro-
fperity, and that you will believe me, with
the moll entire refpecl:, my dear Sir, &c.
Gjlb. Stuart,
Dr. STUART to Mr. JONES.
Dr. Stuart prefents his bell com-
pliments to Mr. Jones.
I beg to have the pleafure to fubmit to
your infpecYion a fmall Treatife, which I
have publilhed a few years ago, as an intro-
duction to an extenfive work on the laws
and conftitution of England, which I have
long meditated, and have in part executed.
If you like my ideas, I {hall account myfeJf
302
extremely fortunate. If they do not ftrike
you as of importance and interefting, I fhall
think that I have employed my leifure with-
out advantage. Your line of ftudy has led
you to enquire into the hiftory of Englifh
manners and jurifprudence. The little work
which accompanies this note, is perfectly
within this line; and as I have the moft en-
tire confidence in your penetration and can-
dour, I mould be happy to know your opinion
of it. I fhould then be in a ftate to form a
refolution, whether I ought to give order and
method to the materials I have collected in
the view of profecuting a fubjecl, which I
may perhaps have undertaken without having
properly confulted my forces. You will do
me the favour to excufe this trouble.
* C. REVICZKI to Mr. JONES.
Warsaw, March I 7, 1779.
I lately received through
Mr. your two laft learned publica-
tions ; a moft agreeable and convincing proof
* Appendix, No. 35.
303 <
of your affectionate remembrance of me.
The fingular erudition with which your
works abound, not only delighted me ex-
ceedingly, but almoft excited my inclination
to refume thofe ftudies which I had almoft
forgotten. Prince Adam Czartoryfki, who
has cultivated Oriental literature not unluc-
cefsfully, had already afforded me an oppor-
tunity of perilling your life of Nadir Shah,
He particularly pointed out the paffages in
the diflertation, in which you make fuch
honourable mention of me, and for which I
am indebted to your partiality alone. I re-
gret the lofs which the republic of letters
muff fuffer from your defertion, and determin-
ation to devote yourfelf to the altar of The-
mis: but I truft that Melpomene, under
whofe aufpices you were born, will com-
pel you to return to your allegiance. I
am heartily tired with a reiidence of feven
years on the banks of the Viflula: but the ter-
mination of the German war will, I hope, re-
ftore me to a more pleafing fituation. How
much more agreeable would it be to me, if
504
fortune would allow me to gratify my incline
ations, by palling my days in England, near
you ! But to whatever place my deftiny may
lead me, my affection for you will continue
unabated. Farewell.
Mr. JONES to Lord ALTHORP.
Temple, Feb. 4, 1780.
The public piety having given
me this afternoon what I rarely can obtain, a
ihort intermiflion of bufinefs ; can I employ
my leifure more agreeably than in writing to
my friend ? I fhall fend my letter at random,
not knowing whether you are at Althorp or
at Buckingham, but perfuading myfelf that it
will find you without much delay. May I
congratulate you and our country on your
entrance upon the great career of public life ?
If there ever was a time when men of fpirit,
fenfe, and virtue, ought to ftand forth, it is
the prefent. I am informed, that you have
attended fome country meetings, and are on
fome committees. Did you find it neceflary
or convenient to fpeak on the ftate of the
305
nation ? It is a noble fubjecl:, and with your
knowledge as well as judgment, you will
eafily acquire habits of eloquence ; but habits
they are, no lefs than playing on a mufical
inftrument, or handling a pencil : and as the
beft muficians and fineft painters began with
playing fometimes out of tune and drawing
out of proportion, fo the greater}, orators muft
begin with leaving fome periods unfinished,
and perhaps with fitting down in the middle
of a fentence. It is only by continued ufe
that a fpeaker learns to exprefs his ideas with
precifion and foundnefs, and to provide at
the beginning of a period for the conclufion
of it ; but to this facility of fpeaking, the
habit of writing rapidly contributes in a won-
derful degree. 1 would particularly imprefs
this truth upon your mind, my dear friend,
becaufe I am fully convinced that an English-
man's real importance in his country, will
always be in a compound ratio of his virtue,
his knowledge, and his eloquence ; without
all of which qualities little real utility can re-
iult from either of them apart ; and 1 am no
L'jc—V. I, X
506
lefs perfuaded, that a virtuous and knowing
man, who has no natural impediment, may
by habit acquire perfect eloquence, as cer-
tainly as a healthy man who has the ufe of
his mufcles, may learn to fwim or to fcate.
When fhall we meet, and where, v that we
may talk over thefe and other matters ? There
are fome topics which will be more properly
tlifcuffed in converfation than upon paper, I
mean on account of their copioufnefs; for
believe me I mould not be concerned, if all
that I write were copied at the port-office,
and read before the King in council. * * *
* * * At the fame time I folemnly declare,
that I will not enlift under the banners of a
party ; a declaration which is I believe ufe-
lefs, becaufe no party would receive a man,
determined as I am, to think for himfelf. To
you alone, my friend, and to your interefts,
I am firmly attached, both from early habit
and from mature reafon, from ancient affec-
tion unchanged for a fingle moment, and
from a full conviction that fuch affection was
well placed. The views and wifhes of all
307
other men, I will analyze and weigh with
that fufpicion and flownefs of belief, which
my experience, fuch as it is, has taught me ;
and to be more particular, although I will
be jealous of the regal part of our conftitu-
tion, and always lend an arm towards re-
training its proud waves within due limits,
yet my moft vigilant and ftrenuous efforts
fhall be directed againft any oligarchy that
may arife ; being convinced, that on the po-
pular part of every government depends its
real force, the obligation of its laws, its wel-
fare, its fecurity, its permanence. I have
been led infeniibly to write more ferioufly
than I had intended ; my letters fhall not
always be fo dull ; but with fo many public
caufes of grief or of refentment, who can at
all times be gay ?
******
In the memoirs of Mr. Jones, the year
feventeen-hundred-and-eighty forms an in-
terefting aera, in which his occupations were
diverfified, his profpecls extended, and his
hopes expanded, more than at any former
X 2
308
period of his life. His profeiftonal practice
had greatly increafed, and fuggefted the fair-
eft hopes of progrefiive enlargement, and
augmented profit : but as his views were
more particularly directed to the vacant feat
on the bench of Fort William, in Bengal,
and as, from the kindnefs of Lord North,
he was authorized to expect the early attain-
ment of it, he was lefs folicitous to procure
an augmentation of bufinefs, which, in the
event of fuccefs in his India purfuits, he mult
altogether abandon. In this ftate of fufpenfe,
the political events of the times, received a
more than ordinary fhare of his attention :
he did not however enrol himfelf with any
party; but looking up to the conftitution and
liberty of his country, as the objects of his
political adoration, he cultivated an extenfive
acquaintance with men of all parties, and of
the firft rank and talents, without any facriiice
of principle or opinion. No man had ever
more right to apply to himlelf the cha-
racter of " nuliius addictus jurare in verba
u magiltri." With refpeft to the American
309
war, he early adopted fentiments upon it un-
favourable to the juftice of the Britiih caufc,
and this opinion, once formed, would natu-
rally acquire ftrength from the protraction of
the conteft, which he lamented with the feel-
ings of a true patriot and friend to humanity.
Thefe reflections dictated a very animated
and claflical Ode to Liberty, which he com-
pofed in Latin, and printed in March ; it
ftrongly difplays his genius, erudition, feel-
ings, and political principles *.
Sir Roger Newdigate having declared his
intention of vacating his feat in parliament, as
reprefentative of the Univerfity of Oxford,
Mr. Jones was induced by a laudable ambi-
tion, and the encouragement of many refpect-
able friends, to come forward as a candidate.
The following letters will explain his hopes,
his conduct, and difappointment on this oc-
cafion .
* Works, vol. x. p. 393. This ode was published
under the title of Julii Melesigoni ad libertatem. The
assumed name is formed by a transposition of the letters
of Gulielmus Jonesius.
310
Mr. GARTWRIGHT to Mr. JONES.
Sir; May s, nso.
It is with pleafure I obferve
the public papers mention you as one of the
candidates to reprefent the Univerfity of
Oxford at the enfuing election. As a literary
fociety, the rank you hold in the republic of
letters ought certainly to point you out as one
of the firft objects of her choice. But it is
not merely upon this principle that I feel my-
felf interefled in your fuccefs: exclufive of
that veneration with which I look up to fu-
perior talents, I have an additional motive
(which indeed ought to fuperfede every
other) in the very high opinion I have formed
of your integrity. If in this opinion I mould
be miftaken, your own writings have greatly
contributed to miflead me. You will per-
ceive, Sir, my reafon for troubling you with
this letter is to defire that when you make out
a lift of your friends upon this occafion, my
name may be admitted into the number. I
311
am, Sir, with truth, your very fincere well-
wifher, &c.
Edmund Cartwright.
l Mr. JONES to the Rev. E. CART-
WRIGHT.
Lamb's Building?, Temple, A fay 16, 1780.
DEAR SIR;
Since my friends have de-
clared me a candidate for the very honourable
feat which Sir Roger Newdigate intends to
vacate, 1 have received many flattering tefti-
monies of regard from feveral reipeclable
perfons; but your letter, dated May 8th,
which I did not receive till this morning, is,
without a compliment, the faireft and moll
pleafing fruit of the competition in which I
am engaged. The rule of the Univerfity,
which is a very noble one, forbidding me to
folicit votes for myfelf, I have not been at
liberty even to apply to many perlbns whom
it is both a pleafure and honour to know.
Your unsolicited approbation is a great re-
ward of my paft toil in my literary career,
512
and no (mall incentive to future exertions.
As to my integrity, of which you are pleafed
to exprefs a good opinion, it has not yet been
tried by any very flrong temptations ; I hope
it will refift them if any be thrown in my way.
This only I may fay (and I think without a
boaft) that my ambition was always very much
bounded, and that my views are already at-
tained by profeflional fuccefs adequate to my
higheft expectations. Perhaps I fhall not be
thought very unambitious, if 1 add, that my
great object of imitation is Mr. Selden, and
that if I could obtain the fame honour which
was conferred on him, I fhould, like him, de-
vote the reft of my life to the fervice of my
conftituents and my country, to the practice
of an ufeful profeffion, and to the unremitted
ftudy of our Englifh laws, hiftory and litera-
ture. To be approved by you, and fuch men
as you (if many fuch could be found), would
be a fufficient reward to, &c.
William Jones.
Permit me to add an ode printed (but not
publimed) before the prefent competition,
313
and at a time when I fhould have been cer-
tainly made a judge in India, by the kindnefs
of Lord North, if any appointment had taken
place. It proves fufficiently that no views or