diately, the impulse of private friendship; but I am not entirely without a hope, that I may at the same time render some small service to my country.

When Mr. Fox's Historical Work first appeared, I felt that degree of interest in it which my long experience of his splendid talents, and of the particular bent of his powerful mind to political and historical subjects, naturally produced. From the Prefatory Discourse of his Noble Relation, as well as from his own Introductory Chapter, I was led to expect, that he would be scrupulously exact in weighing the evidence for every fact which he related; that he was, (to use the language of the Noble Editor,) "before he drew any inference whatever, " to balance the weight of evidence in his mind; to "examine separately, and distinctly to ascertain, the

authority for each particular circumstance of his "narrative." I was the more induced to trust this promise of fidelity, from his professing to decline the relation of any but great public events, without deviating into enquiries concerning private manners, the pursuits of literature, or the acquisitions of science, in the period of which he treated; subjects on which authentic documents are less easily procured, and greater latitude of opinion is naturally allowed.

As I proceeded in the Work, I confess I was considerably disappointed in this expectation: Accustomed as I have been to official accuracy in statement, I thought I perceived facts sometimes mistaken or mis-stated, and deductions formed on very insufficient grounds. This was, however, only a sort of general indeterminate feeling, with which the strain of the Work impressed me; but, when I came to a particular part of his narrative, I felt a stronger and more painful conviction of the Author's failure in point of accuracy of representation. In his history of the ill-fated expedition of the Earl of Argyle, he has adopted a representation of the conduct of Sir Patrick Hume, that places it in a light, the injustice of which struck me forcibly, on the perusal; and it was, as it appeared to me, easy to be disproved, by authentic materials in my possession. This was my sole motive at first for deciding to publish on the subject.

The adoption of such severe and unmerited reflections on the ancestor of a man, by whom I was during a great part of my life treated with the kindness and affection of a parent, would not allow me to remain silent. The late Earl of Marchmont at his death deposited with me, his sole

executor, as a sacred trust, all the MSS. of his family, with an injunction to make use of them, if I should ever find it necessary (a): This necessity seems to me now to exist, and powerfully to call on me for a vindication of the character of his ancestor. I allude to the censure, contained in the third chapter of Mr. Fox's Work (6), on Sir Patrick Hume, afterwards the first Earl of Marchmont, and grandfather of my friend the late Earl; affecting equally the honour, the courage, and the talents of that eminent man. Those virtues and talents his Sovereign had acknowledged and rewarded; but honours are of little value, if not sanctioned by the suffrage of the country, and the approbation of good men. Such suffrage, and such approbation, had hitherto attended the honours

(a) This last Earl was keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland, and was distinguished for learning, for brilliancy of genius, and for parliamentary experience: He was elected for the town of Berwick, in 1734; the same year in which the late Lord Chatham, and the first Lord Lyttleton entered on their parliamentary lives; and with them distinguished himself remarkably in the House of Commons soon after he took his seat there. He died in January 1794, in his 86th year. The estimation in which he was held by his cotemporaries, early in his life, may be judged of by his close and intimate friendship with Lord Cobham and Sir William Wyndham, (the former of whom gave his bust a place in the Temple of Worthies at Stow,) and by the mention of him in Mr. Pope's well-known inscription in his grotto at Twickenham.

(b) Mr. Fox's Historical Work, p. 193, 197, 198, 212.

of Sir Patrick; but these the censure which Mr. Fox has adopted was calculated to tarnish, or to destroy, if suffered to pass uncontradicted; and having the materials for this contradiction in my hands, I felt it a duty I could not resist to lay them before the world.

Sir Patrick Hume, from an anticipation, as it would appear, of the obloquy which is apt to be fastened on men concerned in unfortunate enterprizes, drew up, during his residence in Holland, before he was joined there by his family, a Narrative of the Rise, Progress, and Issue of the Expedition of the Earl of Argyle, in as far as he was himself concerned, which is the paper I am anxious to publish; the authority of the document must rest in a great measure on the character of its author, which hitherto has afforded no mean argument for the veracity of the relation; but it appears to me to possess, besides, intrinsic qualities which entitle it to our belief; a simplicity, a moderation, and an agreement with the acknowledged virtues, as well as weaknesses of the principal persons whose actions it relates, with other internal evidence of truth, which the reader cannot fail to observe. Mr. Fox himself confesses, in general, the impetuosity and opinionativeness of Argyle, although they were

redeemed by a gallantry of spirit, a candor of mind, and a kindness of heart which Sir Patrick's Narrative always ascribes to him, when he would take time to consider coolly the propositions of his companions in arms, or the claims of his friends and fellow sufferers. But in adopting the opinion he states, or rather in applying the censure of the Earl of Argyle, respecting Sir Patrick Hume, he omits to make allowance for the precipitancy in the former, which the prudence of the latter must have compelled him frequently to resist ; and it seems to have been very unfortunate for their common safety that Sir Patrick had not the power of more effectually counteracting that tendency to precipitation in the Leader.

Sir Patrick's sagacity and prudence, no less than the sincerity of his attachment to the cause of freedom and of the constitution, have hardly ever been denied ; although Mr. Fox seems to sanction the reflection thrown upon his conduct by the Earl, whom he decorates as the hero of that part of his narrative; yet in the general estimation of his character, he does not venture to contradict the common opinion of the time, and gives Sir John Cochran credit for the sincerity of his motives, and the honesty of his intentions, from the circumstance "of his having always