help imagining that Mr. Hume must have endeavoured to take advantage of what he faid, and confrued it in favour of his own purpofe? It is not improper to add, that after my rupture with Mr. Hume, I wrote an account of it to my coulin.

In fine, it is faid in the fame paper, that I am apt to change my friends. No great fubtlety is necefiary to comprehend what this reflection is preparative to. But let us distinguish facts. I have preferved fome very valuable and folid friends for twenty five to thirty years. I have others whole friendship is of a la ter date, but no Reis valuable, and which if I live, I may prefeive ftill longer. I have not found, indeed, the fame fecurity in general among thofe friendfhips I have made with men of letters. I have for this reafon fometimes changed them, and fhall always change them, when they appear fufpicious; for I am determined never to have friends by way of ceremony: I have them only with a view to fhew them my affection.

If ever I was fully and clearly convinced of any thing, I am to convinced that Mr. Hume furnished the materials for the above paper.

But what is still more, I have not only that abfolute conviction, but it is very clear to me that Mr. Hume intended I fhould: for how can it be fuppoled that a man of his fubtlety fhould be to imprudent as to expofe himself thus, if he had not intended it? What was his defign in It? Nothing is more clear than this. It was to raife my refentment to the highest pitch, that He might frike the blow he was preparing to give me with greater eclat. He knew he had nothing more to do than to put me in a paffion, and I fhould be guilty of a number of abfurdities. We are now arrived at the critical moment which is to thew whether he reafoned well or ill.

It is neceflary to have all the prefence of mind, all the phlegm and refolution of Mr. Hume, to be able to take the part he hath taken, after all that has paffed between us. In the embarraffinent I was under, in writing to general Conway, I could make use only of obicure expreffions; to which Mr. Hume, in quality of my friend, gave what interpretation he pleased. Suppofing therefore, for he knew very well to the contrary, that it was the Dec. 1766.

circumftance of fecrecy which gave me uneafinefs, he obtained the promise of the general to endeavour to remove it: but before any thing was done, it was previoufly neceffary to know whether I would accept of the penfion without that condition, in order not to expose his majesty to a fecond refufal.

This was the decifive moment, the end and object of all his labours. An anfwer was required; he would have it. To prevent effectually indeed my neglect of it, he fent to Mr. Davenport a dúplicate of his letter to me; and, not content with this precaution, wrote me word, in another billet, that he could not poffibly ftay any longer in London to ferve me. I was giddy with amazement, on read ing this note. Never in my life did I meet with any thing fo unaccountable.

At length he obtained from me the fo much delived anfwer, and began prefently to triumph. In writing to Mr. Davenport, he treated me as a moniter of brutality and ingratitude. But he wanted to do Atill more. He thinks his meafures well taken; no proof can be made to appear against him. He demands an explanatition; he shall have it, and here it is.

That laft ftroke was a master-peice. He himself proves every thing, and that beyond reply.

I will fuppofe, though by way of impoffibility, that my complaints against Mr. Home never reached his ears; that he knew nothing of them; but was as perfectly ignorant as if he had held no cabal with thofe who are acquainted with them, but had refided all the while in China ‡. Yet the behaviour paffing directly between us; the laft ftriking words, which I faid to him in London; the letter" which followed replete with fears and anxiety ; my perfevering filence (till more expreflive than words; my public and bitter complaints with regard to the letter of Mr. d'Alembert; my letter to the fecretary of fate, who did not write to me, in anfwer to that which. Mr. Hume wrote to me himself, and in which I did not menNOTE.

How was it poffible for me to guess at fuch chimerical suspicions ? Mr. Davenport, the only perton of my acquaintance who then faw Mr Rouffeau, affores me, that he was perfectly ignorant of them himself. Mr. HUME. tion

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tion him; and in fine my refufal, without deigning to addrefs myself to him, to acquiefce in an affair which he had managed in my favour, with my own privity, and without any oppofition on my part all this must have spoken in a very forcible manner, I will not fay to any perfon of the leaft fenfibility, but to every man of common fente.

Strange that, after I had ceafed to correfpond with him for three months, when I had made no answer to any one of his letters, however important the fubject of it, furrounded with both public and private marks of that affliction which his infidelity gave me ; a man of fo enlightened an understanding, of fo penetrating a genius by nature, and fo dull by defign, fhould fee nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing, be moved at nothing; but without one word of complaint, juftification, or explanation, continue to give me the moft pretling marks of his good will to ferve me, in fpight of myfelf! He wrote to me affectionately, that he could not stay any longer in London to do me fervice, as if we had agreed that he fhould ftay there for that purpofe! This blindness, this infenfibility, this perfeverance, are not in nature; they must be accounted for, therefore, from other motives. Let us fet this behaviour in a still clearer light; for this is the decifive point.

Mr. Hume must neceffarily have acted in this affair, either as one of the firft or lait of mankind. There is no medium.

It remains to determine which of the two it hath been.

He

Could Mr. Hume, after fo many inftances of dildain on my part, have ftill the aftonishing generolity as to perfevere fincerely to ferve me? He knew it was impollible for me to accept his good offices, to long as I entertained for him fuch fentiments as I had conceived. had himself avoided an explanation. So that to ferve me without juttifying himfelf, would have been to render his fervices ufelefs; this therefore was no generofity. If he fuppofed that in fuch circumitances I fhould have accepted his fervices, he must have fuppofed me to have been an infamous fcoundrel. It was then in behalf of a man whom he fuppofed to be a coundrel, that he fo warmly folicited a pention from his majesty.

Can any thing be fuppofed more extravagant?

But let it be fuppofed that Mr. Hume, conftantly purfuing his plan, fhould only have faid to himself, this is the moment for its execution; for, by preffing Rouffeau to accept the pention, he will be reduced either to accept or refufe it. If he accepts it, with the proofs I have in hand against him, I fhali be able compleatly to difgrace him: if he refuses, after having accepted it, he will have no pretext, but muit give a reafon for fuch a refufal. This is what I expect; if he accufes me he is ruined.

If, I fay, Mr. Hume reafoned with himself in this manner, he did what was confitent with his plan, and in that cate very natural; indeed this is the only way in which his conduct in this affair can be explained, for upon any other fuppofition it is inexplicable: if this be not demonftrable, nothing ever was fo. The critical fituation to which he had now reduced me, recalled ftrongly to my mind the four words I mentioned above; and which I heard him fay and repeat, at a time when I did not comprehend their full force. It was the first night after our departure from Paris. We flept in the fame chamber, when, during the night, I heard him feveral times cry out with great vehemence, in the French language, Je tiens J. J. Rousseau. [I have you, Rouffeau.] I know not whether he was awake or aficep 1.

The expreflion was remarkable, coming from a man who is too well acquainted with the French language, to be mistaken with regard to the force or choice of words. I took thofe words however, and I could not then take them otherwife than in a favourable fenfe: notwithstanding the tone of voice in which they were spoken, was ftill lefs favourable than the expreffion. It

NOTE.

I cannot answer for every thing I may fay in my fleep, and much less am I confcious whether or not I dream in French. But pray, as Mr. Rouffeau did not know whether I was alleep or awake, when I pronounced thofe terrible words, with fuch a terrible voice, how is he certain that he bimfelf was well awake when he heard them? Mr. HUMB.

is indeed impoffible for me to give any idea of it; but it correfponds exactly with thofe terrible looks I have before mentioned. At every repetition of them I was feized with a fhuddering, a kind of horror I could not refift; though a mo. ment's recollection restored me, and made me fmile at my terror. The next day all this was fo perfectly obliterated, that I did not even once think of it during my ftay in London, and its neighbourhood. It was not till my arrival in this place, that fo many things have contributed to recall these words to mind; and indeed recall them every moment.

These words, the tone of which dwells on my heart, as if I had but just heard them; thofe long and fatal looks fo frequently cat on me; the patting me on the back, with the repetition, of O, my dear Sir, in answer to my fufpicions of his being a traitor: all this affects me to fuch a degree, after what preceded, that this recollection, had I no other, would be fufficient to prevent any reconciliation or return of confidence between us; not a night indeed paffes over my head, but I think I hear, Rouffeau, I bave you, ring in my ears as if he had just pronounced them.

Yes, Mr. Hume, I know you have me; but that only by mere externals: you have me in the public opinion and judgment of mankind. You have my reputation, and perhaps my fecurity, to do with as you will. The general prepoffellion is in your favour; it will be very eafy for you to make me pafs for the monster you have begun to reprefent me; and I already fee the barbarous exultation of my implacable enemies. The public will no longer fpare me With out any farther examination, every body is on the fide of those who have conferred favours; becaufe each is delirous to attract the fame good offices, by d fplaying a fenfibility of the obligation. I forefee readily the confequences of all this, particularly in the country to which you have conducted me; and where, being without friends, and an utter stranger to every body, I lie almost entirely at your mercy. The fentible part of mankind, however, will comprehend that I must be fo far from feeking this affair, that nothing more difagreeable or terrible could poffibly have happened to me in my pre

fent fituation. They will perceive that nothing but my invincible averfion to all kind of falfhood, and the poffibility of my profeffing a regard for a perfon who had forfeited it, could have prevented my diffimulation, at a time when it was on to many accounts my intereft. But the fenfible part of mankind are few, nor do they make the greatest noife in the world.

Yes, Mr. Hume, you have me by all the ties of this life; but you have no power over my probity or my fortitude, which, being independent either of you or of mankind, I will preferve in pight of you. Think not to frighten me with the fortune that awaits me. I know the opinions of mankind; I am accustomed to their injuftice, and have learned to care little about it. If you have taken your refolution, as I have reason to believe you have, be affured mine is taken also. I am feeble indeed in body, but never poffeffed greater ftrength of

mind.

Mankind may fay and do what they will, it is of little confequence to me. What is of confequence, however, is, that I fhould end as I have begun ; that I fhould continue to preferve my ingenu oufnefs and integrity to the end, whatever may happen; and that I fhould have no caufe to reproach myfelf either with meanness in adverfity, or infolence in profperity. Whatever difgrace attends, or misfortune threatens me, I am ready to meet them. Though I am to be pitied, I am much lefs fo than you, and all the revenge I fhall take on you, is, to leave you to the tormenting confcioufnels of being obliged in fpight of yourself, to have a relpect for the unfortunate perfon you have oppreffed.

In cloting this letter, I am fimprized at my having been able to write it. If it were pollible to die with grief, every line was fufficient to kül me with forrow. Every circumftance of the affair is equally incompreherible. Such conduct as yours hath been, is not in nature: it is contradictory to itself, and yet it is' demonitrable to me that it has been fuch as I conceive. On each fide of me there is a bottomlefs abyfs! and I am loft in one or the other.

If you are guilty, I am the most unfortunate of mankind; if you are innoСсссс 2

Thirdly, As I thought the story much to your honour, I told it to leveral of my friends here. I even wrote it to Mde. de Boufflers at Paris. I believe no one will imagine, that I was preparing be fore-hand an apology, in cafe of a rapture with you; which, of all human events, I thould then have thought the moft incredible, efpecially as we were fe parated almoft for ever, and I still continued to render you the molt effential fervices.

Fourthly, The ftory, as I tell it, is confiftent and rational: there is not common

fenfe in your account. What! becaufe fometimes, when abfent in thought, I have a fixed look or ftare, you fufpect me to be a traitor, and you have the affurance to tell. me of fuch black and ridiculous fufpicions! Are not molt ftudious men (and many of them more than I) subject to such reveries or fits of absence, without being expofed to such fufpicions? You do not even pretend that, before you left London, you had any other fold grounds of fuspicion against me.

I shall enter into no detail with regard to your letter: the other articles of it are as much without foundation as you yourself know this to be. I fhall only add, in general, that I enjoyed about a month ago an uncommon pleasure, when I reflected, that through many difficulties, and by moft atiduous care and pains, I had, beyond my moft fanguine expectations, provided for your repofe, honour and fortune. But I foon felt a very fenfible uncalinefs when I found that you had wantonly and voluntarily thrown away all thele advantages, and was become the declared enemy of your own repofe, fortune, and honour: I cannot be furprized after this that you are my enemy. Adieu, and for ever, I am Sir, yours,

D. H.

To all thefe papers, I need only fubjoin the following letter of Mr. Walpole to me, which proves how ignorant and innocent I am of the whole matter of the King of Pruflia's letter.

but I do affure you, with the utmost truth, that it was feveral days before you left Paris, and before Rouleau's arrival there, of which I can give you a strong proof; for I not only fuppreffed the letter while you ftaid there, out of delicacy to you, but it was the reafon why, out of delicacy to myteif, I did not go to fee him, as you often propofed to me; thinking it wrong to go and make a cordial visit to a man, with a letter in my pocket to laugh at him. You are at full liberty, dear Sir, to make ufe of what I fay in your julification, either to Rouleau or any body elfe. I fhould be very forry to have you blamed on my account: I have a hearty contempt of Rouffeau, and am perfectly indifferent what any body thinks of the matter. If there is any fault, which I am far from thinking, let it lie on me. No parts can hinder my laughing at their poffeffor, if he is a mountebank. If he has a bad and most ungrateful heart, as Rouffeau has fhewn in your cafe, into the bargain, he will have my scorn likewife, as he will of all good and fenfible men. You may trust your fentence to fuch, who are as respectable judges as any that have pored over ten thousand more volumes.

Yours moft fincerely,

H. W.

Thus I have given a narrative, as concife as poffible of this extraordinay affair, which I am told has very much attracted the attention of the public, and which contains more unexpected incidents than any other in which I was ever engaged. The perfons to whom I have fhewn the original papers which authenticate the whole, have differed very much in their opinion, as well of the ufe I ought to make of them as of Mr. Rouffeau's prefent fentiments and ftate of mind. Some of them have maintained, that he is altogegether infincerc in his quarrel with me, and his opinion of my guilt; and that the whole proceeds from that exceffive pride which forms the basis of his character, and which leads him both to feek the eciat of refufing the King of England's bounty, and to thake off the intolerable burthen of an obligation to me by every facrifice of honour, truth and friend up, as well as of intereft. They found their fentiments on the abfurdity of that first fupponition on which he grounds his

anger