Be pleased to present my best respects to Mr. Pinkerton, and to Mr. Elmsley-alas! I cannot say to worthy James Ingram.

MR. PINKERTON TO THE EARL OF BUCHAN.

Knightsbridge, May 20th, 1788.

The bad state of your health, with which General Melville had made me acquainted long ago, gives me sincere concern; but I hope that the present spring, as a pleasant and convalescent season, will soon restore your lordship to your pursuits, to your friends, and your country.

I could not conceive, my lord, that Lindsay's piece should be so immodest. But it only forms one out of six poems meant to be published together; and all the obscene parts shall be castrated: so I hope still that your lordship will have no cause to regret that the collection is inscribed to you. But, as I am at present occupied with Barbour, (as a relaxation from historical pursuits,) I must defer that collection for a year or two; and your lordship will have time enough to think of the matter.

When your lordship can attend to literary affairs, I should be much obliged if you would cause some of your correspondents near the spot to take a small map, or bird's-eye view, of the whole island of Icolmkill, as I wish to engrave it for the Vita Sanctorum Scotia, now in the press.

General Melville said he would write to your lordship concerning a small literary scheme I proposed to him, namely, to have a catalogue taken and printed of all the Gaelic manuscripts found in Scotland.

I dare say your lordship may know some person proper to undertake another scheme for illustrating our antiquities: to wit, a dictionary of names of places in Scotland, where antiquities and curiosities are to be seen, with brief descriptions of towns, &c. This, though a mere compilation, would be highly useful to travellers and others, and might be thrown into one or two small volumes.

A traveller informs me that Mr. Cummyng neglects the manuscripts of the Antiquarian Society shockingly; and, in particular, that Drummond of Hawthornden's are all in confused heaps. I hope your lordship will think the honor of the Society concerned in removing this charge, though also common to the Advocates' Library. If Drummond's answer to Camden be among these manuscripts, Mr. Nichols, I am sure, would gladly pay for a copy to print in the Bibliotheca Topographica.

DR. JOHN ANDERSON TO MR. PINKERTON. Glasgow, Aug. 5th, 1788.

I thank you heartily for your letter of the 9th of June last. It would have been answered sooner, but I was out of town; and the toasts and

subject of conversation for the Revolution Club were not ready till yesterday.*

TOASTS AND SUBJECTS OF CONVERSATION

FOR NOV. 5TH, 1788.

1. To the immortal memory of James II. King of Great Britain, who produced the best system of political liberty that has ever existed, though he possessed a violent desire, and the greatest advantages for rendering himself absolute!

2. May the Ministers of those times never be forgotten: Feversham, Jefferies, Kirk, Wright, Lauderdale, Hatton, Sharp, Aberdeen, Queensberry, Perth, &c. !

3. Never-fading honor to the memory of such as suffered for supporting the rights of human nature: Pilkington, Ward, Russell, Sydney, Barnardistone, Rosewell, the grandson of the great Hampden; the 251 persons condemned at Taunton, Mrs. Grant, Lady Lisle, Prideaux, Cornish, Coke, Compton, Halifax, Nottingham, Mordaunt, Jones, Montague, Charleton, Nevil, &c.; the twelve Magistrates of Edinburgh, More, Argyll, Weir, Spencer, Baillie, Carstairs, Burnet, &c.; the 2000 persons who were outlawed under the pretence of holding intercourse with rebels; the multitudes who were put to death without any trial!

4. Blessed be the memory of the Prince of Orange, who saved his own country from ruin, restored the liberties of Britain, and supported the independency of Europe; who was the friend of civil liberty, of religious toleration, of the brave, and of the honest, even among his enemies!

5. Everlasting renown, in all the nations of the earth, to the Convention of Scotland, which voted, That King James, by his mal-administration and his abuse of power, had forfeited all title to the crown, and therefore they made a tender of it to the Prince and Princess of Orange; while the Convention of England only voted, That he, having violated the fundamental laws of the constitution, and withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, had abdicated the government, and that the throne was thereby vacant.

6. Health to consistent Jacobites, who ought to respect the

They are made so as to please all the members, and to be free of asperity, in language at least, as

character of the Prince of Orange, because he meddled not with the affairs of Britain till called to do it by the King, in order to support his ruinous conduct, and because, upon their own principles, he that has the reversion of power, or of wealth, has a right to hinder the present possessor, if he attempts to destroy it. Health likewise to inconsistent Jacobites, who now pray for their lawful sovereign; acting right, but reasoning wrong, upon their own principles. May both be thankful that the British government, since the Revolution, has not been like that of their favorite kings! for, if it had, they, for their contumacy, would have been hanged, or banished, or fined, or imprisoned, or tortured with screw thumbkins and iron boots.

7. May the Whigs never be Tories in practice! but remember that true liberty and the happiness of the people is the only just object of government; particular families being elevated for that end alone. May they never forget that the excellence of the British constitution consists in the checks which the three parts of it give to each other; in the ease with which the minister, that is, the actual sovereign, can be displaced or punished, without touching the King, or altering the succession; and in preserving the hereditary succession, by which the ambition of such as Cæsar and Cromwell is constantly suppressed!

8. The Habeas Corpus; no torture; toleration in religion; the liberty of the press; and may the people in Scotland be allowed a proof of "the truth of the reproach, and of the damage sustained," as well as in England !

Halkerston's

9. May all the old leaves fall off the old tree. cow; Kinless Rascals; Patting! What will the Ministry think of this?

10. The trial of civil causes in Scotland by juries as well as in England, from which there will arise the most important consequences. The people will be better acquainted with the laws of their country, and respect them more. The force of the evidence will be better ascertained, because taken before

much as possible; and every thing mentioned is admitted by D. Hume and all the defenders of the Stuart family. The sixth article relates to the Episcopal clergy of the old church at present existing in Scotland, who have lately made a figure in the newspapers. The majority of them. pray for the King since April last; but Bishop Rose and some of the presbyters protested against

those who are to judge of it. Partiality and indolence in the bench will be checked by the jury, and those faults in the jury will be checked by the judges, while they will acquire that exalted reverence which is peculiar to English judges, in consequence of their acting with a jury.

11. The aid of counsel, open doors, the presence of friends, pen, ink, and paper, exculpatory proof to every accused person; and may all such as refuse these means of defence be opposed and despised by every good man!

12. Long live our sovereign George III., who is an example to his subjects of private virtues; who is the friend of liberty, the patron of the sciences, the support of the elegant arts, and the encourager of the useful arts, and of every thing that can make his people happy!