XVII.] STOLEN COPIES OF VOLTAIRE'S WORKS.

43

These are the proof Sheets corrected. The Translator must follow the Corrections on the Margins. What do you think of a French Edition also of the Original ?

Note I. Two days earlier Hume, writing to Millar, had asked him to send to him 'a copy of this new Book burnd by Order of the House of Commons.' M.S.R.S.E. Very likely he had heard of the book from the Earl of Hertford, to whom Horace Walpole had written on Feb. 24:- The events of the week have been a complaint made by Lord Lyttelton in your House of a book called Droit le Roy; a tract written in the highest strain of prerogative, and drawn from all the old obsolete law-books on that question. The ministers met this complaint with much affected indignation, and even, on the complaint being communicated to us, took it up themselves; and both Houses have ordered the book to be burned by the hangman.' Letters, iv. 198.

Note 2. Voltaire's Traité sur la Tolérance à l'Occasion de la Mort de Jean Calas was published at the end of 1763. Voltaire, in his letters written in December of that year, tells of the difficulties he had in getting it introduced from Switzerland into France. On Dec. 13 he wrote to D'Alembert :-' Vous ne savez pas combien il est difficile de faire parvenir de gros paquets par la poste. ... L'éditeur a pris, pour envoyer à Paris ses ballots, une route si détournée et si longue, qu'ils n'arriveront pas à Paris cette année.' In a postscript he adds :-'Les pauvres Cramer [his publishers at Geneva] ont été obligés de faire faire à leurs paquets le tour de l'Europe, pour arriver à Paris.' Euvres de Voltaire, ed. 1819-25, lxii. 252-4. On Dec. 31 he writes:'Deux paquets adressés à M. Damilaville sont restés entre les griffes des vautours. Il faut que le vôtre n'ait point échappé à leur barbarie, puisque je n'ai aucune nouvelle de vous; tout cela m'embarrasse. Je vois qu'on ne tolère ni la Tolérance ni les tolérans.' Ib. p. 259. On Feb. 13, 1764, he writes:-'Le petit livret de la Tolérance a déjà fait au moins quelque bien. Il a tiré un pauvre diable des galères, et un autre de prison. Leur crime était d'avoir entendu en plein champ la parole de Dieu prêchée par un ministre huguenot. Ils ont bien promis de n'entendre de sermon de leur vie.' Ib. p. 270. Later on he described the treatise as 'le catéchisme de quiconque a du bon sens et de l'équité.' Ib. lxiv. 315.

In 1757, when there was war with France, Hume was forced to seek a round-about mode of communication. He directs Millar to send three copies of his History and three of his Dissertations to Mons. De La Rouvière at Rotterdam, who 'is to send them as presents to Paris.' M. S. R. S. E.

Note 3. Mme. Riccoboni was born in 1714 and died in 1792. She belonged to a family of good position which was ruined by sharing in Law's speculations. For a short time she was on the stage, where

she met with but moderate success. Her husband who died in 1772 was an actor, and belonged to a family of actors. Among her novels were Les lettres de Fanny Butler, Les lettres de Julie Catesby, and L'histoire de Miss Jenny. Her last days were passed in great poverty. Nouv. Biog. Gen. xlii. 153. She was a correspondent of Garrick. Writing to him on May 15, 1765, she says:-'J'ai reçu hier par un libraire de Paris des compliments très-honnêtes d'une Madame Broock ou Brock, je ne m'en souviens plus. C'est la traductrice de Milady Catesby: elle écrit qu'elle en est à la quatrième édition. Cela est fort différent de Monsieur Becket, qui s'est ruiné avec Miss Jenny. Cette dame me fait demander la permission de m'envoyer ses ouvrages. J'avais dessein de lui faire tenir les miens; mais Monsieur Hume ne la connaissait point, et s'avisa de donner cette malheureuse Jenny à Monsieur Becket, qui en a fait un garde-boutique, un fond de magasin pour ses arrière-neveux.' Garrick Corresp. ii. 436. In the list of books in the Gent. Mag. for April and May 1760, p. 251, I find ‘Letters from Lady Catesby to Lady Henrietta Campley. From the French. Price three shillings. Dodsley.' According to the Dict. of Nat. Biog. vi. 420, this book soon reached a sixth edition. Mrs. Frances Brooke, the translator, was the author of The Siege of Sinope. She pressed Johnson to look over this play till at last he told her that she must correct it herself. But, Sir," said she, "I have no time. I have already so many irons in the fire." "Why, then, Madam," said he, "the best thing I can advise you to do is to put your tragedy along with your irons." Hannah More's Memoirs, i. 200.

666

Note 4. L'histoire de Miss Jenny Revel, écrite et envoyée par elle à Milady Comtesse de Roscommon. In the translation, The History of Miss Jenny Salisbury, addressed to the Countess of Roscommon.

Note 5. No doubt one of the couriers or messengers going between the French Embassy and London. See post, p. 45.

Note 6. Horace Walpole, writing from Paris on Sept. 22, 1765, says (Letters, iv. 407):—'There are swarms of English here, but most of them are going to my great satisfaction.'

Note 7. Hume wrote to Millar on April 8, 1762:-'I was extremely obliged to you for advancing the money in order to enable me to take part in the last subscription. I shall certainly keep it till the Peace, which seems now to be in a tolerable good way; and then I shall be a considerable gainer.' M. S. R. S. E. On Aug. 30 of the same year Robert Wood, the author of The Ruins of Palmyra and for some time an Under-Secretary of State, wrote to Hume:-'Shan't we see you next winter with a pair of quartos? You must make haste to put them into the funds, for scrip rises fast. Ramsay and little Hall talk of nothing else but their paper riches. We consider every shilling we put in as eighteen-pence the moment it goes to the Alley' ['Change Alley]. Letters of Eminent Persons to David Hume, p. 263. On Nov. 22 following, Hume wrote from Edinburgh to Millar :--' The Stocks are now very high; but I suppose will not come to their full

XVIII.]

THE PRICE OF STOCKS.

45

height this twelvemonth, and till then I fancy you will not think it prudent in me to sell out.' Burton's Hume, ii. 140. On Sept. 3, 1764, he wrote to Millar from Paris:-'The lowness of stocks surely proceeds not from any apprehension of war; never was a general peace established in Europe with more likelihood of its continuance; but I fancy your stocks are become at last too weighty, to the conviction of all the world. What must happen if we go on at the same rate during another war?' Ib. p. 232. Millar replied early in 1765:- It is generally believed that Mr. Grenville is a good manager of the finances and in general means well; as a proof of it, our stocks have been creeping up daily, and it is now generally believed that 3 per cent. will soon come to par if affairs continue peaceable.' Ib. p. 265. In Feb. 1762, the 3 per cent. consols were as low as 62, Gent. Mag. 1762, p. 96: by November they had risen to 86. Ib. p. 554. On March 20, 1764, the day on which Hume wrote, they were at 85. Ib. 1764, p. 148. In March 1737, during the long peace of Walpole's ministry, Sir John Barnard in a motion for the reduction of interest said :-'Every one knows that even those public securities which bear an interest of 3 per cent. only now sell at a premium in 'Change Alley.' Parl. Hist. x. 74.

LETTER XVIII.

Madame Riccoboni's Novel.

Mr. Hume's Compliments to Mr. Strahan. He sent him the two first Sheets of this Work, which he hopes Mr. Strahan receivd. In case he has not, Mr. Hume recommends it to Mr. Strahan to be translated into English. It is a work of Made de Riccoboni, so well known by the Letters of Lady Juliette Catesby. Mr. Hume will send over the other Sheets as they come from the Press. He desires Mr. Strahan to write to him. His Direction is under Cover to Lord Hertford at Northumberland House in the Strand.

PARIS, I of April, 1764.

This Sheet may come to Mr. Strahan's hand before the two others: As this goes by a Messenger1; the other by General Clerk 2.

Note 2. Hume, writing on April 26 of this year, says :-'It is

almost out of the memory of man that any British has been here on a footing of familiarity with the good company except my Lord Holderness. . . . I may add General Clarke, who was liked and esteemed by several people of merit, which he owed to his great cleverness and ingenuity, and to his surprising courage in introducing himself.' Burton's Hume, ii. 194. Dr. A. Carlyle, who met Clarke at Harrogate in 1764, gives a very different account of him (Auto. p. 451) :—' He was a very singular man, of a very ingenious and active intellect, though he had broke short in his education by entering at an early age into the army; and having by nature a copious elocution, he threw out his notions, which were often new, with a force and rapidity which stunned you more than they convinced. He applied his warlike ideas to colloquial intercourse, and attacked your opinions as he would do a redoubt or a castle, not by sap and mine, but by open storm. I must confess that of all the men who had so much understanding he was the most disagreeable person to converse with whom I ever knew. . . . You must contradict him and wrangle with him, or you had no peace.'

LETTER XIX.

The Printing-Presses in London: Medicine for the Dutch Ambassador.

DEAR SIR

I receivd Yours, for which I am much obligd to you: It gave me great Insight into the Affairs you mention.

I am desird by some People here to enquire how many Presses there may be in London. I suppose it must be an Affair more of Conjecture than of exact Calculation1.

I send you over three other Sheets. The Work seems to be very fine. The Author cannot exactly tell how many Pages each Volume will contain; but two Volumes of such large Print in 12o, must make but a small Book. I am Yours sincerely

PARIS, 18 April, 1764.

D. H.

P.S. Since I wrote the above, I have again seen Madame Riccoboni, who tells me that she is now near a Certainty with regard to the Size of her Work. It will be 4 Volumes

XX.]

PROFOUND TRANQUILLITY IN LONDON.

47

in twelves of about 240 pages each. The Dutch Ambassador has desird me to procure him the enclosd Medicine. The whole must not be bought nor sent at a time. Send only so many as may make a small Packet, which a Courier may carry. Pack them up carefully under Cover to Lord Hertford, and send them to Northumberland House in the Strand. Pardon this Trouble.

...

Note I. Strahan replied on July 10:-'It is not easy to say how many presses there are in London, but as near as I can guess they are from 150 to 200-150 is pretty near the truth, I mean such as [are] constantly employed.' M. S. R. S. E. He adds :-'At present, and indeed ever since Wilkes's affair was finished, we have been in a state of most profound tranquillity. The Names of Pitt and Wilkes and Liberty and Privilege are heard no more. . . . Lord Bute still holds his usual Influence at Court and is very likely to do so long; for the King (if I may use the expression) doats upon him. he does nothing without his Advice and Approbation.' Feb. 21.of this year had been convicted of re-publishing No. 45 of the North Briton, and of printing and publishing an Essay on Woman. As he did not appear to receive judgment he was outlawed and was at this time in Paris.

Certain it is,
Wilkes, on

DEAR SIR,

LETTER XX.

Madame Riccoboni's Novel.

I see sometimes Made Riccoboni, who is extremely surpriz'd, that Mr. Becket answers none of her Letters, sends her none of the Copies which she bespoke, informs her nothing of the Success of her Book, and in short takes no manner of Notice of her1. I beseech you make him write, or write yourself for him, if he continues obstinately negligent. I owe Mr. Becket three Pounds, which I shall either pay him in London, or pay Mde Riccoboni for him, in case the Success of her Book has been such, as to entitle her to any Recompence. You or Becket may write her in English. Her Direction is Rue Poissoniere au dela