with Life; and who, alas! once little thought, that this Testimony of Veneration would be all the Tribute of Gratitude left in his Power to render to the most exalted of Minds and the kindeft of Hearts.

ORIGINAL PREFACE

ΤΟ

That Part of the MEMOIRS which ends with the BATTLE off LA HOGUE.

HE following Memoirs were undertaken

TH

by the advice of the Perfon to whose memory they are infcribed. He used to call himself a fugitive from the mufes: And indeed, amidst his vast variety of business, he still facrificed to them in fecret. He advised me also not to trust to printed books for materials, but to get access to original papers. I followed advices. which to me had the authority of commands, because they were always kind, and always juft; and I procured materials in England, Scotland, and France, far fuperior to what any fingle perfon has hitherto been able to obtain.

I am nevertheless conscious that they are not equal to the dignity of the fubject. There are fome family-memoirs in London of great authority, which I wifhed much to have feen; but it

required a train of folicitation to get access to them, to which no man of common pride could fubmit.

Notwithstanding the advantages I have had, I found myfelf under great difficulties in giving a Review of the reign of Charles II. because that Prince made mere tools of his minifters, and even of his brother. The beft key to the fecrets of his reign lies in the dispatches of Barillon the French ambaffador, which are in the Depot des Affaires Etrangeres at Verfailles. Mr. Stanley gave me a letter of introduction to the Duc de Choiffeul, in expreffions which did honour to him who wrote it. Lord Harcourt and Mr. Walpole, confidering the caufe of letters to be the caufe of England, feconded my requeft. The Duc de Choiffeul, with that liberality of fentiment which diftinguishes almost every Frenchman of high rank, gave directions that 1 fhould have copies of the papers I wanted. But Monf. Durand, in whofe cuftody they were, having been, laft fummer, fent minister to Vienna, I have not yet received the papers; and in the mean time, as I have been very careless in giving away copies of the Memoirs to which that Review is now prefixed, fome of these have been loft. It is ufual for men to urge the fear of their works being pirated, as an affected excufe for their publishing at all: But, in my cafe, it is really a just one for publishing before this Review

Review was as complete as I wished to have made it.

I have generally quoted the papers, of which I have either the originals or the copies in my poffeffion; others, I mean thofe of king James, although of the highest authority of all, I have not quoted, because I have no extracts. Since the first edition of the Memoirs was published in Scotland, I have fortunately fallen upon a collection of papers in London, which vouch almost all the new facts that are to be found in them. The papers I mean are thofe of the late Mr. Carte, now in the poffeffion of Mr. Jernegan, who married his widow. They confift of very full notes, extracted from the memoirs of James. the Second, now in the Scots College at Paris, written by that Prince's own hand, and of many original state-papers, and copies of others of the court of St. Germains. The extracts from the memoirs are in Mr. Carte's hand-writing, and he had an order for all thefe different papers from the Stuart family. I could have eafily made a fecond volume of the papers in my hands; but am not fond of taxing the public for what only the curious in the hiftory of their country care to read. However, if the public exprefs, any defire to fee them, they fhall ftill be published; and, if I receive Barillon's difpatches foon enough, they fhall be printed with the rest.

Every man who keeps good company, and does not combat every one he meets about his political principles, muft hear many circumftances from men of different parties, which are not to be found in printed books, relative to a period fo late and fo interefting as that of which I have endeavoured to give an account; and these anecdotes are often better founded than facts which have been published. For a lie may live for a day, or a year; but it will hardly pafs from father to fon for near a century. In the course of my inquiries, I have often found a current report, of which no one can tell the origin, authenticated by a number of original papers. Some circumftances, therefore, which are in the mouths of all, although in no one's library, I have introduced into these Memoirs ; where I did fo, I have often expreffed it; where I have not, it has arifen from an inattention which, perhaps, may be excused in one who writes only when he cannot better employ or amufe himself.

In order to give variety to the narration, and to avoid making reflections myfelf, I have often thrown what people thought, into what they faid. This, though warranted by the example of almost all the ancient hiftorians, and the greatest of the moderns, may, in this age, give an appearance of infidelity to the narrative. But I Aatter myself a reader of tafte will easily perceive