The who was intimate with any one on unworthy terms. earnestness of the apology which Hume at once made to him is a sure proof of the high value which he set on his friendship. His portrait was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in those troubled days when London was still under the scare of the Gordon riots. During the week when the disorder was at its height Sir Joshua's note-book records that he had sittings fixed, among others, for Mr. Strahan. 'No wonder the appointments between Monday and Thursday have a pen drawn through them'. Even if the great painter had had the calmness to go on with his work in the midst of such confusion, the eminent printer would not have kept the appointments. He had been insulted,' writes Johnson, and spoke to Lord Mansfield of the licentiousness of the populace; and his Lordship treated it as a very slight irregularity. . . . He got a garrison into his house, and maintained them a fortnight; he was so frighted that he removed part of his goods".' ... 1 Leslie and Taylor's Life of Reynolds, ed. 1865, ii. 302. 2 Boswell's Johnson, iv. 428, 435. ERRATUM. Page 94, note 8. I failed to notice that Hume's Letter of May 15, 1759, quoted in this note, was written in a humorous strain. Dr. Warburton was the last man in the world whose compliments he would have transmitted. LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. LETTER I. The History of England under the Stuarts. DR SIR I am entirely of your opinion, that Mr. Balfour's ill humor on this Occasion has no manner of Foundation. Mr. Millar seems to me to have all along us'd him very well; Only, I thought the Price offerd for the large Paper Copies a little too low; and I see you have rais'd it. He has disoblig'd me very much at present, by spreading about a Story, that, when we made our Bargain for the first Volume, I had promis'd he shoud have the second at the same Price. This was demanded, and positively refus'd by me: I only said, that I was not accustomd lightly to change the People whom I dealt with; but that I woud not bind myself. Accordingly, when all the Articles of our Bargain, even the most trivial, were written over, I woud not allow this to be inserted. Baillie 1 Hamilton, who is a very honest Man, remembers and acknowleges this Fact. Indeed, it was very lucky I had that Precaution: For if I had entangled myself in such a Bargain, I never shoud have wrote a second Volume which I coud not hope ever to see succeed in their Management 2. I am very well pleas'd with the State of the Sale; and hope it is the Prognostic of good Success. I certainly deserve the Approbation of the Public, from my Care and Disinterestedness, however deficient in other B 1 Particulars. I shall regard myself as much oblig'd to you, if you inform me of all the Objections, which you hear made by Men of Sense, who are impartial, or even who are not: For it is good to hear what is said on all Sides. It was unlucky, that I did not publish the two Volumes together: Fools will be apt to say, that I am become more whiggish in this Volume: As if the Cause of Charles the I and James the 2 were the same, because they were of the same Family 3. But such Remarks as these, every one, who ventures on the Public, must be contented to endure. Truth will prevail at last; and if I have been able to embellish her with any Degree of Eloquence, it will not be long before she prevail. I am Dr Sir Your most obedient Servant DAVID HUME. EDINBURGH, 30 of November, [1756]. P.S.-It is easy for me to see, that Mr. Millar has certainly offerd to take from Baillie Hamilton 900 copies at nine Shillings. He never woud have offerd seven at the beginning. It was a strange Infatuation in the Baillie to refuse it. Note 1. Baillie, Bailie. A magistrate second in rank, in a royal borough; an alderman.' Jamieson's Dict. of the Scottish Language. Note 2. In November 1754 he published The History of Great Britain. Volume I. Containing the reigns of James I, and Charles I. quarto. Price 145. in boards; in November 1756 the second volume from the death of Charles I, to the Revolution; in March 1759 The History of England under the House of Tudor. 2 vols. quarto. Price £1 in boards; and in November 1761 The History of England from the invasion of Julius Cæsar to the accession of Henry VII. 2 vols. quarto. He had at one time intended to carry down the first instalment of his work beyond the Revolution. In a letter written in 1753 he says:- My work divides into three very moderate volumes: one to end with the death of Charles the First; the second at the Revolution; the third at the Accession; for I dare come no nearer the present times.' Burton's Hume, i. 378. The following curious letter in my possession, written by Gavin Hamilton, of the firm of Hamilton, Balfour & Neill, Edinburgh booksellers, shews that a year later Hume intended to make the Treaty of Utrecht the conclusion of his work. No doubt he resolved to stop there to avoid the necessity of describing the |