MR. A. STUART TO MR. ASTLE.

London, March 16th, 1792.

In consequence of your letter desiring information concerning Sinclair's History of Scotland, I have examined various memorandums taken by me while abroad, and find that, when I was last at Paris in 1789, the Principal of the Scots College showed to me the manuscript history kept there, written by William Sinclair, which consists of about 1000 pages: it begins about the year 1437; but I do not find in my memorandums any mention of the time when it ends. Mention is made of this manuscript History of Sinclair in the Scottish Historical Library, by Bishop Nicolson, page 55, where he says that it was brought from Italy to the Scotch College at Paris.

I do not recollect to have seen at the Scotch College other histories of Scotland wrote after that of Sinclair.

I am glad to learn from your letter, that there will soon appear a curious collection of seals of the kings and magnates of Scotland with your historical remarks; these I shall be very impatient to peruse, and likewise to see the drawings of the seals.

I have delayed for a few days sending this answer to your letter, because I have from day to day intended to make a morning excursion to

* Andrew Stuart Esq., M.P. for Weymouth, was author of a Genealogical History of the Stuarts, &c. &c.

your villa, for the purpose of having the pleasure of a little conversation with you, but have so often been disappointed by various interruptions that I could not think of longer delaying to write to

you.

DR. JAMES ANDERSON TO MR. PINKERTON.

Edinburgh, March 24th, 1792.

It is a rule with me never to thank any one, unless when I feel myself obliged to them. I thank you sincerely for your judicious remarks on the plan for the repository of printed papers. The circumstance you mention had escaped me: and it would have been a great omission. I so much detest every kind of fraud, that I too hastily considered anonymous publications as too nearly allied to things of that class. I now see they may occasionally serve to support the liberty of the press; and, though this privilege may, and must occasionally be abused, yet it is much better to tolerate that abuse, than to lose the great benefit it brings. The freedom of the press is indeed the great palladium of liberty, without which all other devices to preserve it are idle chimeras. It is, with regard to the body politic, exactly the same as health is with regard to the natural body. The vigour that each of these bestows is naturally productive of abuses; but without them there could be no vigour or energy of any sort. Let authors, then, let printers also, conceal them

selves, if they please; but let them do it at their peril. Let a receiving-place be made at every office, like that at the post-office now, into which may be dropped the copy required. In this case the printer cannot have the security of a receipt ; but, if the work should been tered in the register, he will be safe from the penalty, should it even be afterwards discovered that he had been the printer. This, properly expressed, would altogether remove the difficulty.

Lord Buchan told me yesterday you wish to have some papers copied from the Advocates' Library-wishing me to find a person for transcribing them, which I shall take care to have done. I have it little in my power to assist literary persons in any way, which I regret; but wherever I can do it I do it with pleasure; where I cannot I never undertake it at all. This is exactly what I wish from others: you may therefore freely let me know any thing of the sort you wish for here. It shall either be done, or you shall be frankly told it cannot.

you

I thank for your wish to forward my literary journal. I now begin to tread with somewhat more firmness than I did; but I only begin. There is nothing I would have such a desire for as to have the rummaging of the porte-feuille of some men who had grown old in the practice of writing; for in such a repository many good things would be found, that otherwise run a risk of being lost. Such a person as Daines Barrington; but he publishes rather fast, and sometimes things that are crude enough; so that not so much could

be expected there, as from the collection of Horace Walpole (Lord Orford will always be an inferior title). This extraordinary man is, I think, the greatest character of the present day. I read some of his works when I was very young with great delight; and it is but of late that I met with his Castle of Otranto, with which I was enchanted. The wildness of the scenery, and the total abstraction from every other object for the time, produced an effect greatly resembling the fascinating charms of Shakspeare. I hear people complain every day of the want of power of the language in which they write; but, to a man of strong genius, there never appears to be any want at all. With tools that other people will say are good for nothing, he produces the finest models of perfection in arts. I am perfectly satisfied it is want of genius only that makes little men so often complain. If I could fall upon any plan of being introduced to the acquaintance of these or such men, I think I should derive infinite advantage from it; while at the same time I did them a service. Men of fine talents often hit off a beautiful thing, which it is not worth their while to publish by itself—it is thrown by and neglected: it is left unfinished, the principal thoughts only being carelessly jotted down for remembrance. Were such little pieces to be drawn forth occasionally and finished by the author, it would form an agreeable mental recreation: such an exercise is like renewing the acquaintance with the friends of our early years; with this difference, that friends, as time advances, acquire

VOL. I.

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new connexions and bad habits, that produce in them a disagreeable change; but no such change is here produced. On the contrary, the scenes which occasioned these thoughts are recollected with all their charms; and the works themselves which are thus produced, will have the maturity of age superadded to the vigor of youth. If this be neglected, it is probable that many of these pieces will be afterwards ushered to the light with all their sins upon their head, "unhouseled, unanointed, unanealed;" which would be effectually prevented, could I have the good fortune to get such persons prevailed with to draw them. forth gradually, as occasion offered and inclination prompted, for this miscellany. I have got a good many very useful, and some very good things thus, from my worthy friend, G. Dempster, from Earl Buchan, and Lord Gardenston, which I shall occasionally insert; but these men, in point of literary excellence, are far inferior to what I aim at. Could you help me to you would do me an infinite favor indeed. I cannot ask from yourself, as I know you have too much to do, at your time of life, to think of such a thing.

any thing of this nature,

I have met with one very important fact of late respecting the rearing of the silk-worm, which, if it shall be confirmed by future experiments, will remove all the difficulties I have had on that head. I learn from Miss Rhodes, that they may be kept entirely on lettuce, without a single blade of the mulberry leaf, and spin upon that food as excellent a thread as on any other. She had suspected it