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which Hume details; but that "which you say of Laurie Black-St. "wood is very like what he relates "of Wier. Would it be too much "trouble to ask of you to let me ** know whether Hume's statement "of Wier is a correct one?^

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"C. J. FOX."

Extract from a second Letter to Mr.
Laing.

"Many thanks to you, my dear Sir, for yours of the 10th. I have found the place in Ralph, "and a great deal more important matter relative to the transactions of those times, which is but slightly touched by other historians. I am every day more and "more surprised, that Ralph should "have had so much less reputation as an historian than he seems to deserve.

"I had detected the trick of "Hume's theatrical and false re"presentation of Charles the First "hearing the noise of his scaffold, "but did not know that he had had "Herbert's authentic account 'so "lately under his eye: In general, "I think you treat him (Hume) "too tenderly. He was an excel"lent man, and of great powers of mind, but his partiality to kings" "and princes is intolerable. Nay, "it is, in my opinion, quite ridicu"lous, and is more like the foolish "admiration which women and children sometimes have for kings,

1. I will trouble you freely when "I shall have further questions to "ask; but I should take it very ill "if you were so to confine your an"swer to mere matter of reference,

as

"as not to give me your opinion, "when you form any, upon the "points in question."

"A correspondence ensued, from which it appears that he took indefatigable pains to investigate the authority for every assertion in the writers he consulted, and to correct the slightest variation in their accounts, though apparently of little importance. Before he drew any inference whatever, the weight of evidence was so carefully balanced in his mind, that the authority for each particular circumstance was separately examined, and distinctly ascertained. Indeed, the necessity and even use of such extreme circumspection, such scrupulous sifting of his most minute materials, might at first sight appear questionable. But many parts of the work are sufficient to prove that such labours were far from being fruitless. An instance is easily selected. His enquiries concerning the seizure and execution of the Earl of Argyle, are contained in the correspondence with Mr. Laing, and they are of the nature I have described; but on reading his narrative of those events, the advantages he derived from the circumstantial minuteness of his ma

pherson and Sir J. Dalrymple had explained and conducted their respective publications, and which he always considered as unsatisfactory. His complaints of both these authors were frequent; and the more he examined and studied their books, the more he perceived the necessity of making some further researches. He was anxious, if possible, to consult the original documents from which their extracts were made; and he was at first apprehensive, that nothing short of an examination of all the manuscripts of the Scotch college at Paris, could enable him to determine the degree of credit due to the extracts of Macpher son. But he must very soon have despaired of obtaining that satisfac tion, for he had strong reasons to suspect, even before his journey to Paris in 1802, that the most valu able part, if not the whole of them, had been destroyed. Three important points, however, might yet be ascertained:-1st, Of what the ma nuscripts, so long preserved in the Scotch college at Paris, actually con sisted;-2ndly, To what part of them either Carte or Macpherson had access;-3dly, Whether any portion, copies, or fragments, of the papers were still in existence. The

terials, will not be found less strik-result of his enquiries will be best

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ing, than his diligence in procuring
and analyzing them.
"One of the earliest and greatest
difficulties that he encountered in
the course of his labours, arose from
the manner in which Mr. Mac-

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given in his own words, though upon
the first point he had ascertained
something more than appears
the following extract of his letter
to Mr. Laing..

"Among Mr. Fox's papers was found a list of "the works' which were placed "in the Scotch college at Paris, soon after the death of James the Second, and were "there at the time of the French Revolution." It is as follows:

"Four volumes folio, six volumes quarto-[Memoirs in James the Second's own hand writing, beginning from the time that he was sixteen years of age).

"Two thin quarto volumes-[Containing letters from Charles the Second's minis ters to James the Second (then Duke of York), when he was at Brussels and în Sçetland, MS.].

"Two thiu quarto volumes-[Containing letters from Charles the Second to his bre ther, James Duke of York, MS.].

With

"

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"of the principal persons of the College. And this leads me to a

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point of more importance to me. Principal Gordon thought, when "I saw him at Paris, in October, 1802, that all the papers were "lost. I now hear from a well-in"formed person, that the most ma "terial, viz. those written in James's own hand-writing, were indeed "lost, and in the way mentioned by Gordon, but that the Narra"tive, from which only Macpher"son made his extracts, is still ex

"With respect to Carte's extract, "I have no doubt but it is faithfully copied; but on this extract it is "6 necessary to make an observation, "which applies to all the rest, both "of Carte's and Macpherson's, and "which leads to the detection of an imposture of the latter, as impu"dent as Ossian itself. The ex"tracts are evidently made, not from a journal, but from a narra'tive; and I have now ascertained beyond all doubt, that there were "in the Scotch College two distinct manuscripts, one in James's own "hand, consisting of papers of dif"ferent sizes bound up together,

"

"

and the other a sort of historical narrative, compiled from the "former. The narrative was said to have been revised and corrected, as to style, by Dryden the poet, (meaning probably Charles Dryden, the great poet's son) and it was not known in the College whether it was drawn up in "James's life, or by the direction of his son, the Pretender. I doubt whether Carte ever saw the ori "ginal journal, but I learn, from undoubted authority, that Macpherson never did; and yet to read his Preface, page 6 and 7, (which pray advert to) one would have supposed, not only that he bad inspected it accurately, but that all his extracts at least, if not Carte's also, were taken from it, Macplierson's impudence in at tempting such an imposition at a time when almost any man could have detected him, would have been in another man, incredible, if the internal evidence of the extracts themselves against him were not corroborated by the testimony

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isting, and that Mr. Alexander "Cameron, Blackfriars Wynd, Edin"burgh, either has it himself, or "knows where it is to be found.".

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The above information was correct. There is strong presumptive evidence, that the Manuscripts of King James the Second, were destroyed, but the Narrative, as described, was then, and is now, in the hands of Dr. Cameron, Roman Catholic Bishop in Edinburgh. It could not be in possession of a per son who is better qualified to judge of its merits, and on whose fidelity, should he be induced to print it, the public might more implicitly rely. I am indebted to his accuracy and friendship, for some additional infor mation respecting the manner in which the Manuscripts of the Scotch College were lost. As the facts are in themselves curious, I lay before the reader his succinct and interesting relation of them, contained in a letter to me, dated Edinburgh, March 2, 180S...

"Before Lord Gower, the British "Embassador, left Paris, in the be

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It is the opinion of the present possessor of the narrative, that it was compiled m the original documents by Thomas Innes, one of the superiors of the "Col and author of a work entitled, A Critical Essay on the ancient Inhabitants of

tland.

"luable

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luable papers, (King James's Ma-fears increased, and the Manu ***nuscripts, &c.) and deposit them scripts were taken up and reduced in some place of safety in Britain." to ashes. -*** I know not what answer was re"turned, but nothing was done. Not long thereafter, the Principal came to England, and the care of "every thing in the College devolv-thenticated by a proces verbale. **ed on Mr. Alexander Innes, the

only British subject who remained in it. About the same time, Mr. "Stapelton, then President of the "English College of St. Omer, afterwards Bishop in England, went to Paris, previously to his retiring ** from France, and Mr. Innes, who *had resolved not to abandon his "post, consulted with him about the means of preserving the manuscripts. Mr. Stapelton thought, if he had them at St. Omer, he ** could, with small risk convey them "to England. It was therefore re"solved, that they should be care

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This is the substance of the ac count given to Mr. Innes, and re"ported by him to me in June, 1802, in Paris. I desired it might be au

"

A letter was therefore writtent to St. Omer, either by Mr. Innes, or * by Mr. Cleghorn, a lay gentleman, who had resided in the English College of St. Omer, and was per sonally acquainted with the Frenchman, and happened to be at Paris **at this time. The answer given to this letter was, that the good man,

under the pressure of old age and "other infirmities, was alarmed by "the proposal of a discussion and

investigation, which revived in his "memory past sufferings, and might, "perhaps, lead to a renewal of them,

Any further correspondence upon **the subject seemed useless, espe cially as Linstructed Mr. Innes to go to St. Omer, and clear up every doubt," in a formal and legal manner, that some authentic de"cument might be handed down to posterity concerning those valu able manuscripts. I did not fore see that war was to be kindled up anew, or that my friend Mr.Fases was to die so soon. "Mr. Cleghorn, whom I mentioned above, is at present in the Catholic seminary of Old Hall Green, Puckeridge, Hertfordshire. "He can probably name another gentleman who saw the Manu"scripts at St. Omer, and saved

fully packed up, addressed to a "Frenchman, a confidential friend "of Mr. Stapelton, and remitted *by some public carriage. Some other things were put up with the "Manuscripts. The whole arrived without any accident, and was laid "in a cellar. But the patriotism of "the Frenchman becoming suspici" “ous, perhaps upon account of his connection with the English Col-" lege, he was put în prison; and his wife, apprehensive of the consequences of being found to have "English manuscripts, richly bound, " and ornamented with royal arms, "in her house, cut off the boards, "and destroyed them. The Manu"scripts thus disfigured, and more "easily huddled up in any sort of *bundle, were secretly carried, with

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some small things, (but uncon "nected with the Manuscripts) which he carried away in his

papers belonging to the French-pocket, and has still in his pos "man himself, to his country house; "session. and buried in the garden. They were not, however, permitted to. "remain long there; the lady's

I need not trouble your Lordship with my reflections upon this relation; but I ought not to omit

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that

"that I was told, sometimes, that all "the Manuscripts, as well as their "boards, were consumed by fire in "the cellar in which they had been "deposited upon their arrival at St. "Omer.".

"The gentleman alluded to in the latter part of the above letter, is Mr. Mostyn, from whom Mr. Butler of Lincoln's Inn very kindly procured a statement of the particulars relating to this subject, in the year 1804, and transmitted it to Mr. Fox. It contains in substance, though with some additional circumstances and slight variations, the same account as Mr. Cameron's, up to the period of the writer's leaving St. Omer, which was previons to the imprison ment of the Frenchman. *

"

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are taken, and his inferences drawn. This made him particularly desirous of examining the Original Letters of Barillon; and he was not without hopes that many other papers in the Depot des Affaires Etrangères, might prove equally interesting aud important. It was obvious, however, that during war, he could not have personal access to such documents. He was therefore on the point of applying, through some. private friends at Paris, for a copy of such letters as he could distinctly describe to his correspondent, when the restoration of peace enabled him to repair thither; and the liberality of the French government, opened. to him the archives of the Foreign, Affairs without reserve, and afford"Mr. Fox, in a letter to Mr. ed him every facility and conveniLaing, remarks, that, to know ence for consulting and copying such that a paper is lost, is next best to papers as appeared to him to be ma "getting a sight of it, and in some terial, He lost no time in availing instances nearly as good. So, himself of this permission, and. many rumours have been circulated, while he remained at Paris, he passand so many misapprehensions pre-ed a great part of every morning at vailed, respecting the contents and the fate of the manuscripts formerly deposited and the Scotch College at Paris, that it is hoped the above accont; the result of the Historian's researches, will not be deemed out. of its place in a preface to a history of the times to which those manuscripts related, on pi0 AM »

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the Depot des Affaires Etrangères, accompanied by his friends Lord St. John, Mr. Adair, and Mr. Trotter, who assisted him in examining and transcribing the original papers.

The correspondence of Barillon did not disappoint his expectations. He thought the additional informa tion contained in those parts of it, The Septch College papers were which Sir John Dalrymple had omitnoty however, the only, nor even ted to extract or to publish, so im the chief object of Mr. Fox's histo- portant, that he procured copies of rical enquiries at Paris. He had re-them all; he observed to one of his marked, that Sir John Dairymple correspondents, "my studies at Paris frequently quotes, or rather re" have been useful beyond what I can fers to," documents in the Depot describe and his expression to des Affaires Etrangères, without me was, that "Barillon's letters printing the letter, or extracting the passage from which his statements

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were worth their weight in gold." It should seem that he discovered

Mr. Mostyn's letter to Mr. Butler, was published in one of the magazines, it would therefore be superfluous to reprint it. The name of the Frenchman was Mr. Charpentier, and his country house was at St. Momelin, near St. Omer.

MS. Correspondence.

+ MS. Correspondence.

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