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pect of soon returning to England, immediately wrote to Rousseau, and made him an offer of his services. To this letter he received the following answer.

"SIR,

Strasburgh, Dec. 4, 1765.

"Your goodness affects me as much as it does me honour. The best reply I can make to your offers is to accept them, which I do. I shall set out in five or six days to throw myself into your arms. It is the advice of my lord Marischal. my protector, friend, and father: it is the advice also of madame * *, whose good sense and benevolence serve equally for my direction and consolation; in fine, I may say it is the advice of my own heart, which takes a pleasure in being indebted to the most illustrious of my contemporaries, to a man whose goodness surpasses his glory. I sigh for a solitary and free retirement, where I may finish my days in peace. If this be procured me by means of your benevolent solicitude, I shall then enjoy at once the only good my heart desires, and the pleasure of being indebted for it to “I am, sir, with all my heart, &c."

you.

Rousseau having obtained a passport by the aid of his friends, repaired to Paris, and afterwards accompanied Mr. Hume to England. Many were the plans devised for obtaining a comfortable residence for him after his arrival, some of which are detailed in the Exposé inserted in the appendix. For upwards of two months,' says Hume, I employed myself and my friends in looking out for a situation which might be agreeable to him. We gave way to all his caprices, excused all his singularities, indulged him in all his humours; in short, neither time nor trouble was spared to procure him what he desired; and although he rejected most of the projects I had formed for his establishment, I thought myself sufficiently recompensed for my trouble, by the gratitude, and even affection with which he appeared to repay my solicitude.'

Mr. Davenport, a gentleman of family, fortune, and worth, had a house at Wooton, in the county of Derby, where he himself seldom resided. This house he offered to Rousseau, who finally agreed to live there at a very moderate board.

On his arrival at Wooton he wrote to Mr. Hume the following letter:

"Wooton, March 22, 1766.

"You see already, my dear patron, by the date of my letter, that I am arrived at the place of my destination; but you cannot see all the charms which I find in it; to do this, you should be acquainted with the situation, and be able to read my heart. You ought, however, to read there my sentiments with respect to you, sentiments which you have so well deserved. If I live in this agreeable asylum as happy as I hope to do, one of the greatest pleasures of my life will be, to reflect VOL. VIII.

that I owe it to you. To make another happy is to deserve to be happy one's self May you, therefore, find in yourself the reward of all you have done for me! Alone, I might perhaps have met with hospitality, but I should never have relished it so highly as I now do, in owing it to your friendship. Retain still that friendship for me, my dear patron; love me for my sake, who am so much indebted to you; love me for your own, for the good you have done. I am sensible of the full value of your sincere friendship: I ardently wish it I am ready to repay it with all mine, and feel something in my heart which may one day convince you that it is not without its value. As, for the reasons agreed on between us, I shall receive nothing by the post, I beseech you, when you have the goodness to write to me, to send your letters to Mr. Davenport. The affair of the carriage is not yet adjusted, because I know I was imposed on; it is a trifing fault, however, which may be only the effect of an obliging vanity, unless it should happen to be repeated. If you were concerned in it, I would advise you to give up, once for all, these little impositions, which cannot proceed from any good motive, when converted into snares for simplicity. I embrace you, my dear patron, with the same cordiality I hope to find in you."

Some days afterwards Mr. Hume received another letter from Rousseau, as follows:

"Wooton, March 29, 1766.

"You will see, my dear patron, by the letter which Mr. Davenport will have transmitted you, how I find myself situated in this place, according to my wishes. I might, perhaps, be more at my ease if I were less noticed; but the solicitude of so polite a host as mine is too obliging to give offence; and as every thing in life is mingled with inconvenience, that of being too good is one of those which is the most tolerable. I find a much greater inconvenience in not being able to make the servants understand me, and particularly in my not understanding a word of what they say. Luckily mademoiselle le Vasseur serves me as an interpreter, and her fingers speak better than my tongue. There is one advantage, however attending my ignorance, which is a kind of compensation; it serves to tire and keep at a distance impertinent visitors. The minister of the parish came to see me yesterday, who, finding that I spoke to him only in French, would not speak to me in English, so that our interview was almost without the interchange of a word. I have taken a fancy to this expedient, and shall make use of it with all my neighbours, if I have any. Nay, if I should learn to speak English, I will converse with them only in French, especially if I were so happy as to find they did not understand a word of that language. It is an artifice much of the same kind with that which the negroes say the monkies practise, who, though they are capable of speech, will not be prevailed upon to talk, lest they should be set to work.

"It is by no means true, that I agreed to accept of a model from Mr. Gosset as a present. On the contrary, I asked him the price;

which he told me was a guinea and a half, adding that he intended to present me with it; an offer I did not accept. I beg of you, therefore, to pay him for it, and Mr. Davenport will be so good as repay you the money. If Mr. Gosset does not consent to this, it must be returned to him, and purchased by some other hand. It is designed by M. du Peyrou, who long since desired to have my portrait, and caused one to be painted in miniature, which is not at all like me. You were more fortunate in this respect than he, but I am sorry that, by your assiduity to serve me, you deprive me of the pleasure of discharging the same friendly obligation with regard to yourself. Be so good, my dear patron, as to order the model to be sent to Messrs. Guipand and Hankey, Little St. Helen's, Bishopsgate-street, in order to be transmitted to M. du Peyrou by the first safe conveyance. It has been a frost ever since I have been here: the snow falls daily, and the wind is cutting and severe; notwithstanding all which I had rather lodge in the hollow trunk of an old tree in this country, than in the most superb apartment in London. Good day, my dear patron. I embrace you with all my heart."

When it was first proposed, that Rousseau should take his residence in Britain, it was also in view with his friends to procure a pension of a 100l. a-year to him from his majesty; but the arrangement of this was likely to be much impeded by the peculiar sensibility of Rousseau's temper. As Hume and he were conversing together one evening at Calais, where they were detained on their way to England by contrary winds, our historian asked him, if he would accept of a pension from the king in case his majesty should grant it. He replied, that it was a matter of some difficulty to resolve on; but that he would be entirely guided by the advice of lord Marischal.

Encouraged by this answer, Hume, immediately on his arrival in London, stated the matter to his majesty's ministers, and particularly to general Conway, secretary of state, and general Græme, secretary and chamberlain to the queen. Application was accordingly made to their majesties, who readily assented, on condition that the transaction should not be made public. The reason of this stipulation was, that these great personages did not chuse to appear publicly to countenance the author of obnoxious writings. Hume afterwards wrote to lord Marischal, to whom Rousseau also wrote, and expressed himself highly pleased with the conditional article of secrecy. Lord Marischal, as it will easily be supposed, sent his approbation, and Rousseau set out for Wooton, the completion of the affair being retarded by the indisposition of general Conway.

"In the mean time," observes Mr. Hume, "I began to be afraid, from what I had observed of M. Rousseau's disposition and character, that his natural restlessness of mind, would prevent his enjoying that repose, to which the hospitality and secu

rity he found in England invited him. I saw with infinite regret, that he was born for storms and tumults, and that the disgust which might succeed the peaceful enjoyment of solitude and tranquillity, would soon render him a burden to himself and every body about him. But as I lived at the distance of a hundred and fifty miles from the place of his residence, and was constantly employed in doing him good offices, I did not expect that I myself should be the victim of this unhappy disposition." The late lord Orford, better known as Horace Walpole, happened to be at Paris, while Hume resided there; and his turn for pleasantry led him to exercise it at the expense of Rouspoor senu, in the following letter written in the name of the king of Prussia.

"MY DEAR JEAN JACQUES,

"You have renounced Geneva, your native land. You have been driven from Switzerland, a country of which you have made such boast in your writings. In France you are outlawed: come then to me. I admire your talents, and amuse myself with your reveries; on which, however, by the way, you bestow too much time and attention. It is high time to grow prudent and happy: you have made yourself sufficiently talked of for singularities little becoming a truly great man show your enemies that you have sometimes common sense: this will vex them without hurting you. My dominions offer you a peaceful retreat; I am desirous to do you good, and will do it, if you can but think it such. But if you are obstinate in refusing my assistance, you may expect that I shall say not a word about it to any one. If you persist in perplexing your braines to find out new misfortunes chuse such as you like best; I am a king, and can make you as miserable as you can wish; and, what your enemies certainly never will, I will cease to persecute you, when you are no longer vain of persecution.

"Your sincere friend,

"FREDERICK."

Although this letter had been written three weeks before the departure of the two philosophers from the French capital, its author, out of regard to Hume, concealed it from him, although they lodged in the same hotel. Walpole afterwards showed it to his friends, and copies of it being taken, the epistle was handed about and spread over Europe. "It was," says Hume, "in every body's hands when I saw it, for the first time, in London. I believe every one, who knows any thing of the liberty of this sountry, will allow that such a piece of raillery could not even by the utmost influence of king, lords, and commons, by all the authority ecclesiastical, civil, and military, be kept from finding its way to the press."

It was accordingly published in the St. James's Chronicle, and a few days afterwards the following piece appeared in the same paper.

M. Rousseau to the Author of the St. James's Chronicle.

Wooton, April 7, 1766.

"SIR, "You have been wanting in that respect which every private person owes to crowned heads, in publicly ascribing to the king of Prussia a letter full of extravagance and baseness; by which circumstance alone you might be very well assured he could not be the author. You have even dared to subscribe his name, as if you had seen him write it with his own hand. I inform you, sir, that that letter was fabricated at Paris; and, what rends and afflicts my heart, the impostor has his accomplices in England.

"In justice to the king of Prussia, to truth, and to myself, you ought therefore to print the letter I now write you, and to which I set my name; by way of reparation for a fault, which you would undoubtedly reproach yourself for, if you knew of what atrociousness you have been made the instrument. Sir, I make you my sincere salutations."

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However much Mr. Hume might regret, that his friend should have condescended to notice a puerile jeu d'esprit in a newspaper, he never could have surmised that he himself would have been accused of being the writer of it. "I am surely," says he, "the last man in the world, who, in common sense, ought to be suspected yet, without even the pretence of the smallest proof of probability, I am, of a sudden, the first man, not merely suspected, but fixed upon to be the publisher: I am, without any inquiry. or explanation, insulted in a public journal: I am, from the dearest friend, converted into a treacherous and malignant enemy; and all my present and past services are at once adroitly cancelled. Were it not ridiculous to employ reasoning on such a subject, and with such a man, I might ask M. Rousseau, why I am supposed to have any malignity against him! My actions, in a hundred instances, had sufficiently demonstrated the contrary; and it is not usual for favours conferred to beget ill will in the person who confers them."

Two days after the last letter of Rousseau to Hume (29th March) in which he employs the most fulsome adulation, he wrote to M. d'Ivernois, in a very different style, his sentiments of our author; and it appears from the following passage of his letters to that gentleman, that at the time this philosopher was overwhelming Mr. Hume with ardent expressions of gratitude, he had conceived against him the most absurd suspicion and violent animosity.

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