brother, the count de P. who is two years younger, began
his discourse, and informed me that I had been long and im-
patiently expected in France ; and that he himself expected
soon to have great satisfaction from the reading of my fine
history. But what is more curious ; when I was carried
thence to the count d'A. who is but four years of age, I heard
him mumble something, which, though he had forgot in the
way, I conjectured from some scattered words to have been
also a panegyric dictated to him. Nothing could more sur-



xlviii DR. ROBERTSON'S

prise my friends, the Parisian philosophers, than this incident

******

* * It is conjectured that

this honour was payed me by express order from the D. who,
indeed, is not, on any occasion, sparing in my praise.

All this attention and panegyric was at first oppressive to
me ; but now it sits more easy. I have recovered, in some
measure, the use of the language, and am falling into friend-
ships, which are very agreeable ; much more so than silly,
distant admiration. They now begin to banter me, and tell
droll stories of me, which they have either observed them-
selves, or have heard from others ; so that you see I am be-
ginning to be at home. It is probable that this place will be
long my home. I feel little inclination to the factious barba-
rians of London ; and have ever desired to remain in the
place where I am planted. How much more so, when it is
the best place in the world ? I could here live in great abund-
ance on the half of my income ; for there is no place where
money is so little requisite to a man who is distinguished
either by his birth or by personal qualities. I could run out,
you see, in a panegyric on the people ; but you would sus-
pect, that this was a mutual convention between us. How-
ever, I cannot forbear observing, on what a different footing
learning and the learned are here, from what they are among
the factious barbarians above mentioned.

I have here met with a prodigious historical curiosity, the
Memoirs of King James the second, in fourteen volumes, all
wrote with his own hand, and kept in the Scots college. I
have looked into it, and have made great discoveries. It will
be all communicated to me ; and I have had an offer of access
to the secretary of state's office, if I want to know the de-
spatches of any French minister that resided in London.
But these matters are much out of my head. I beg of you
to visit lord Marischal, who will be pleased with your com-
pany. I have little paper remaining and less time ; and
therefore conclude abruptly by assuring you that I am,

Dear doctor,

Yours sincerely,

DAVID HUME.



CORRESPONDENCE. xlix

PROM MR. HUME TO DR. ROBERTSON.

London, 19th March, 1767.

MY DEAR SIR, You do extremely right in applying to
me wherever it is the least likely I can serve you or any of
your friends. I consulted immediately with general Conway,
who told me, as I suspected, that the chaplains to forts and
garrisons were appointed by the war-office, and did not be-
long to his department. Unhappily I have but a slight ac-
quaintance with lord Harrington, and cannot venture to ask
him any favour ; but I shall call on Pryce Campbell, though
not of my acquaintance, and shall inquire of him the canals
through which this affair may be conducted : perhaps it may
lie in my power to facilitate it by some means or other.

I shall endeavour to find out the unhappy philosopher you
mention, though it will be difficult for me to do him any
service. He is an ingenious man, but unfortunate in his
conduct, particularly in the early part of his life. The world
is so cruel as never to overlook those flaws ; and nothing but
hypocrisy can fully cover them from observation. There is
not so effectual a scourer of reputations in the world. I wish
that I had never parted with that Lixivium, in case I should

at any future time have occasion for it.

* * * * * *

* * A few days before my arrival in London,

Mr. Davenport had carried to Mr. Conway a letter of Rous-
seau's, in which that philosopher says, that he had never
meant to refuse the king's bounty, that he would be proud of
accepting it, but that he would owe it entirely to his ma-
jesty's generosity and that of his ministers, and would refuse
it if it came through any other canal whatsoever, even that
of Mr. Davenport. Mr. Davenport then addressed himself
to Mr. Conway, and asked whether it was not possible to
recover what this man's madness had thrown away? The
secretary replied, that I should be in London in a few days,
and that he would take no steps in the affair but at my desire
and with my approbation. When the matter was proposed
to me, I exhorted the general to do this act of charity to a
man of genius, however wild and extravagant. The king,
when applied to, said, that since the pension had once been
promised, it should be granted, notwithstanding all that had
passed in the interval. And thus the affair is happily
VOL. i. e



1 DR: ROBERTSON'S

finished, unless some new extravagance come across the phi-
losopher, and engage him to reject what he has anew applied
for. If he knew my situation with general Conway he pro-
bably would: for he must then conjecture that the affair could
not be done without my consent.

Ferguson's book goes on here with great success. A few
days ago I saw Mrs. Montague, who has just finished it with
great pleasure: I mean, she was sorry to finish it, but had
read it with great pleasure. I asked her, whether she was
satisfied with the style ? whether it did not savour somewhat
of the country? Oh yes, said she, a great deal: it seems
almost impossible that any one could write such a style ex-
cept a Scotsman.

I find you prognosticate a very short date to my adminis-
tration: I really believe that few (but not evil) will be my
days. My absence will not probably allow my claret time to
ripen, much less to sour. However that may be, I hope to
drink out the remainder of it with you in mirth and jollity.
I am sincerely yours, usque ad aras,

DAVID HUME.



MB. GIBBON TO DR. ROBERTSON.

Bentinck-street, Nov. the 3rd, 1779.

* * * * . * * .

WHEN I express my strong hope that you will visit Lon-
don next spring, I must acknowledge that it is of the most
interesting kind. Besides the pleasure which I shall enjoy
in your society and conversation, I cherish the expectation of
deriving much benefit from your candid and friendly criticism.
The remainder of my first period of the Decline and Fall, etc.
which will end with the ruin of the western empire, is already
very far advanced ; but the subject has already grown so much
under my hands, that it will form a second and third volume
in quarto, which will probably go to the press in the course of
the ensuing summer. Perhaps you have seen in the papers,
that I was appointed some time ago one of the lords of trade ;
but I believe you are enough acquainted with the country to
judge, that the business of my new office has not much inter-
rupted the progress of my studies. The attendance in parlia-



CORRESPONDENCE. li

ment is indeed more laborious ; I apprehend a rough session,
and I fear that a black cloud is gathering in Ireland.

Be so good as to present my sincere compliments to Mr.
Smith, Mr. Ferguson, and, if he should still be with you, to
Dr. Gillies, for whose acquaintance I esteem myself much in-
debted to you. I have often considered, with some sort of
envy, the valuable society which you possess in so narrow a
compass.

I am, dear sir, with the highest regard,

Most faithfully yours,

E. GIBBON.

MR. GIBBON TO DR. ROBERTSON.

London, September 1, 1783.

DEAR SIR, Your candid and friendly interpretation will
ascribe to business, to study, to pleasure, to constitutional in-
dolence, or to any other venial cause, the guilt of neglecting
so valuable a correspondent as yourself. I should have thank-
ed you for the opportunities which you have afforded me of
forming an acquaintance with several men of merit who de-
serve your friendship, and whose character and conversation
suggest a very pleasing idea of the society which you enjoy at
Edinburgh. I must at the same time lament, that the hurry
of a London life has not allowed me to obtain so much as I
could have wished, of their company, and must have given
them an unfavourable opinion of my hospitality, unless they
have weighed with indulgence the various obstacles of time
and place. Mr. Stewart I had not even the pleasure of
seeing; he passed through this city in his way to Paris, while
I was confined with a painful fit of the gout, and in the short
interval of his stay, the hours of meeting, which were mu-
tually proposed, could not be made to agree with our re-
spective engagements. Mr. Dalzel, who is undoubtedly a
modest and learned man, I have had the pleasure of seeing ;
but his arrival has unluckily fallen on a time of year, and
a particular year, in which I have been very little in town.
I should rejoice if I could repay these losses by a visit to
Edinburgh, a more tranquil scene, to which yourself, and
our friend Mr. Adam Smith, would powerfully attract me.

e2



lii DR. ROBERTSON'S

But this project, which, in a leisure hour, has often amused
my fancy, must now be resigned, or must be postponed, at
least, to a very distant period. In a very few days (before
I could receive the favour of an answer) I shall begin my
journey to Lausanne in Switzerland, where I shall fix my
residence, in a delightful situation, with a dear and excel-
lent friend of that country; still mindful of my British
friends, but renouncing, without reluctance, the tumult of
parliament, the hopes and fears, the prejudices and passions
of political life, to which my nature has always been averse.
Our noble friend, lord Loughborough, has endeavoured to
divert me from this resolution ; he rises every day in dig-
nity and reputation ; and if the means of patronage had not
been so strangely reduced by our modern reformers, I am
persuaded his constant and liberal kindness would more than
satisfy the moderate desires of a philosopher. What I cannot
hope for from the favour of ministers, I must patiently ex-
pect from the course of nature ; and this exile, which I do
not view in a very gloomy light, will be terminated in due
time, by the deaths of aged ladies, whose inheritance will
place me in an easy and even affluent situation ; but these
particulars are only designed for the ear of friendship.

I have already despatched to Lausanne, two immense cases
of books, the tools of my historical manufacture; others I
shall find on the spot ; and that country is not destitute of
public and private libraries, which will be freely opened for
the use of a man of letters. The tranquil leisure which I
shall enjoy, will be partly employed in the prosecution of
my history ; but although my diligence will be quickened
by the prospect of returning to England, to publish the last
volumes (three, I am afraid) of this laborious work, yet I
shall proceed with cautious steps to compose and to correct,
and the dryness of my undertaking will be relieved by mix-
ture of more elegant and classical studies, more especially
of the Greek auth&rs. Such good company will, I am sure,
be pleasant to the historian, and I am inclined to believe
that it will be beneficial to the work itself. I have been
lately much flattered with the praise of Dr. Blair, and a
censure of the abbe de Mably ; both of them are precisely
the men from whom I could wish to obtain praise and cen-
sure, and both these gratifications I have the pleasure of



CORRESPONDENCE. liii

sharing with yourself. The abbe appears to hate, and affects
to despise, every writer of his own times, who has been well
received by the public ; and Dr. Blair, who is a master in
one species of composition, has displayed, on every subject,
the warmest feeling and the most accurate judgment. I will
frankly own that my pride is elated, as often as I find myself
ranked in the triumvirate of British historians of the pre-
sent age ; and though I feel myself the Lepidus, I contem-
plate with pleasure the superiority of my colleagues. Will
you be so good as to assure Dr. A. Smith of my regard and
attachment. I consider myself as writing to both, and will
not fix him for a separate answer. My direction is, A mon-
sieur, monsieur Gibbon a Lausanne en Suisse. I shall often
plume myself on the friendship of Dr. Robertson, but must
I tell foreigners, that while the meaner heroes fight, Achilles
toas retired from war ?

I am, my dear sir,

Most affectionately yours,

E. GIBBON.



FROM MR. GIBBON TO DR. ROBERTSON.

Lord Sheffield's, Downing-street,
March 26, 1788.

DEAR SIR, An error in your direction (to Wimpole-
street, where I never had an house) delayed some time the
delivery of your very obliging letter, but that delay is not
sufficient to excuse me for not taking an earlier notice of
it. Perhaps the number of minute but indispensable cares
that seem to multiply before the hour of publication, may
prove a better apology, especially with a friend who has him-
self passed through the same labours of the same consum-
mation. The important day is now fixed to the eighth of
May, and it was chosen by Cadell, as it coincides with the
end of the fifty-first year of the author's age. That honest
and liberal bookseller has invited me to celebrate the double
festival, by a dinner at his house. Some of our common
friends will be present, but we shall all lament your absence,
and that of Dr. Adam Smith ; (whose health and welfare will
always be most interesting to me;) and it gives me real con-



liv DR. ROBERTSON'S

cern that the time of your visits to the metropolis has not
agreed with my transient residence in my native country. I
am grateful for the opportunity with which you furnish me of
again perusing your works in their most improved state ; and
I have desired Cadell to despatch, for the use of my two Edin-
burgh friends, two copies of the last three volumes of my
history. Whatever may be the inconstancy of taste or fashion,
a rational lover of fame may be satisfied if he deserves and
obtains your approbation. The praise which has ever been
the most nattering to my ear is, to find my name associated
with the names of Robertson and Hume ; and provided I
can maintain my place in the triumvirate, I am indifferent
at what distance I am ranked below my companions and
masters.

With regard to my present work, I am inclined to believe
that it surpasses in variety and entertainment at least the
second and third volumes. A long and eventful period is
compressed into a smaller space, and the new barbarians, who
now assault and subvert the Roman empire, enjoy the advan-
tage of speaking their own language, and relating their own
exploits.

After the publication of these last volumes, which extend
to the siege of Constantinople, and comprise the ruins of an-
cient Rome, I shall retire (in about two months) to Lau-
sanne, and my friends will be pleased to hear that I enjoy in
that retreat, as much repose, and even happiness, as is con-
sistent, perhaps, with the human condition. At proper in-
tervals, I hope to repeat my visits to England ; but no change
of circumstance or situation will probably tempt me to desert
my Swiss residence, which" unites almost every advantage that
riches can give, or fancy desire. With regard to my future
literary plans, I can add nothing to what you will soon read
in my preface. But an hour's conversation with you, would
allow me 'to explain some visionary designs which sometimes
float in my mind ; and, if I should ever form any serious re-
solution of labours, I would previously, though by the imper-
fect mode of a letter, consult you on the propriety and merit
of any new undertakings. I am, with great regard,
Dear sir,

Most faithfully yours,

E. GIBBON.



CORRESPONDENCE. Iv

FROM MAJOR RENNELL TO DR. ROBERTSON.

London, 2nd July, 1791.

* AFTER reading your book twice, I may with
truth say, that I was never more instructed or amused than
by the perusal of it ; for although a great part of its subject
had long been revolving in my mind, yet I had not been able
to concentrate the matter in the manner you have done, or to
make the different parts bear on each other.

The subject of the Appendix was what interested the pub-
lic greatly ; and was only to be acquired (if at all) by the
study or perusal of a great number of different tracts ; a task
not to be accomplished by ordinary readers.

It gives me unfeigned pleasure to have been the instru-
ment of suggesting such a task to you ; and I shall reflect
with pleasure, during my life, that I shall travel down to
posterity with you ; you, in your place, in the great road of
history ; whilst I keep the side-path of geography. Since I
understood the subject, I have ever thought that the best his-
torian is the best geographer ; and if historians would direct
a proper person, skilled in the principles of geography, to em-
body (as I may say) their ideas for them, the historian would
find himself better served, than by relying on those who may
properly be styled map-makers. For, after all, whence does
the geographer derive his materials but from the labours of
the historian? ********



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.



I DELIVER this book to the world with all the diffi-
dence and anxiety natural to an author on publishing
his first performance. The time I have employed, and
the pains I have taken, in order to render it worthy
of the public approbation, it is, perhaps, prudent to
conceal, until it be known whether that approbation
shall ever be bestowed upon it.

But as I .have departed, in many instances, from
former historians, as I have placed facts in a different
light, and have drawn characters with new colours, I
ought to account for this conduct to my readers ; and
to produce the evidence, on which, at the distance of
two centuries, I presume to contradict the testimony of
less remote, or even of contemporary historians.

The transactions in Mary's reign gave rise to two
parties, which were animated against each other with
the fiercest political hatred, embittered by religious
zeal. Each of these produced historians of consider-
able merit, who adopted all their sentiments, and de-
fended all their actions. Truth was not the sole
object of these authors. Blinded by prejudices, and
heated by the part which they themselves had acted
in the scenes they describe, they wrote an apology for
a faction, rather than the history of their country.
Succeeding historians have followed these guides al-



Iviii PREFACE.

most implicitly, and have repeated their errours and
misrepresentations. But as the same passions which
inflamed parties in that age have descended to their
posterity; as almost every event in Mary's reign has
become the object of doubt or of dispute ; the eager
spirit of controversy soon discovered, that without some
evidence more authentic and more impartial than that
of such historians, none of the points in question could
be decided with certainty. Records have therefore
been searched, original papers have been produced,
and public archives, as well as the repositories of pri-
vate men, have been ransacked by the zeal and cu-
riosity of writers of different parties. The attention
of Cecil to collect whatever related to that period, in
which he acted so conspicuous a part, hath provided
such an immense store of original papers for illustrat-
ing this part of the English and Scottish history, as
are almost sufficient to satisfy the utmost avidity of an
antiquary. Sir Robert Cotton, whose library is now
the property of the public, made great and valuable
additions to Cecil's collection ; and from this magazine,
Digges, the compilers of the Cabbala, Anderson, Keith,
Haines, Forbes, have drawn most of the papers which
they have printed. No history of Scotland, that merits
any degree of attention, has appeared since these col-
lections were published. By consulting them, I have
been enabled, in many instances, to correct the inac-
curacies of former historians, to avoid their mistakes,
and to detect their misrepresentations.

But many important papers have escaped the notice
of those industrious collectors ; and, after all they have
produced to light, much still remained in darkness,



PREFACE. lix

unobserved or unpublished. It was my duty to search
for these, and I found this unpleasant task attended
with considerable utility.

The library of the faculty of advocates at Edinburgh,
contains not only a large collection of original papers
relating to the affairs of Scotland, but copies of others
no less curious, which have been preserved by sir Ro-
bert Cotton, or are extant in the public offices in Eng-
land. Of all these the curators of that library were
pleased to allow me the perusal.

Though the British Musaeum be not yet open to the
public, Dr. Birch, whose obliging disposition is well
known, procured me access to that noble collection,
which is worthy the magnificence of a great and po-
lished nation.

That vast and curious collection of papers relating
to the reign of Elizabeth, which was made by Dr.
Forbes, and of which he published only two volumes,
having been purchased since his death by the lord
viscount Royston, his lordship was so good as to allow
me the use of fourteen volumes in quarto, containing
that part of them which is connected with my subject.

Sir Alexander Dick communicated to me a very valu-
able collection of original papers, in two large volumes.
They relate chiefly to the reign of James. Many of
them are marked with archbishop Spotiswood's hand ;
and it appears from several passages in his history, that
he had perused them with great attention.

Mr. Calderwood, an eminent presbyterian clergyman
of the last century, compiled an history of Scotland
from the beginning of the reign of James the fifth to
the death of James the sixth, in six large volumes ;



Ix PREFACE.

wherein he has inserted many papers of consequence,
which are nowhere else to be found. This history has
not been published ; but a copy of it, which still re-
mains in manuscript, in the possession of the church
of Scotland, was put into my hands by my worthy
friend, the reverend Dr. George Wishart, principal
clerk of the church.

Sir David Dalrymple not only communicated to me
the papers which he has collected relating to Gowrie's
conspiracy; but, by explaining to me his sentiments
with regard to that problematical passage in the Scot-
tish history, has enabled me to place that transaction
in a light which dispels much of the darkness and con-
fusion in which it has been hitherto involved.

Mr. Goodall, though he knew my sentiments with
regard to the conduct and character of queen Mary to
be extremely different from his own, communicated to
me a volume of manuscripts in his possession, which
contains a great number of valuable papers copied
from the originals in the Cottonian library and paper
office, by the late reverend Mr. Crawford, regius pro-
fessor of church history in the university of Edinburgh.
I likewise received from him the original register of
letters kept by the regent Lennox during his adminis-
tration.

I have consulted all these papers, as far as I thought
they could be of any use towards illustrating that pe-
riod of which I write the history. With what success
I have employed them to confirm what was already
known, to ascertain what was dubious, or to determine
what was controverted, the public must judge.

I might easily have drawn, from the different reposi-



PREFACE. Ixi

tories to which I had access, as many papers as would
have rendered my Appendix equal in size to the most
bulky collection of my predecessors. But I have sa-
tisfied myself with publishing a few of the most curious
among them, to which I found it necessary to appeal as
vouchers for my own veracity. None of these, as far
as I can recollect, ever appeared in any former collec-
tion.

I have added a ' Critical dissertation concerning the
murder of king Henry, and the genuineness of the
queen's letters to Bothwell.' The facts and observa-
tions which relate to Mary's letters, I owe to my friend
Mr. John Davidson, one of the clerks to the signet,
who hath examined this point with his usual acuteness
and industry.



PREFACE TO THE ELEVENTH EDITION.

IT is now twenty-eight years since I published the
History of Scotland. During that time I have been
favoured by my friends with several remarks upon it;
and various strictures have been made by persons, who
entertained sentiments different from mine, with re-