unfortunate person, by one false step taken, even against his true principles, very early in life, but a man of consummate sagacity, great experience, and profound learning. He is about to present to the republic of letters next winter a work of great utility, which has cost him twenty years' application, upon the principles of Political Economy. I have perused part of it, and I know it will afford Mr. Pitt great pleasure, and me great instruction.

This ingenious uncle of mine told me one day in conversation, that after having lived fifty years, and gone through almost all the geographical and literary world, three things only had surmounted his most sanguine expectations, the amphi

tinent, and at Rome received such civilities from Prince Charles, as had a material effect upon the tenor of his future life. In 1745, he renewed his connection with the Pretender; but being despatched on a mission to the French court, he escaped the ultimate perils of the campaign. The penalty of his rashness was an exile of eighteen years. At the peace of 1763, he was tacitly permitted to return home, and resume possession of his estates; and in 1772, he received his full pardon. (See vol. i. p. 214.) His "Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy" appeared in 1767, in two volumes quarto. Besides this, he published, "A Plan for introducing an Uniformity of Weights and Measures,"—"Observations on Beattie's Essay on Truth,' "Critical Remarks on the Atheistical Falsehoods of Mirabeau's System of Nature," and "A Dissertation concerning the Motive of Obedience to the Law of God." An inflammation, commencing with a toe-nail too nearly cut, put an end to his valuable life in 1780. His works, with a memoir, were published in six volumes 8vo., in 1806, by his son, the present Sir James Steuart.

theatre at Verona, the church of St. Peter's at Rome, and Mr. Pitt in the House of Commons.

A brother of mine (') is just arrived from our colonies of East and West Florida, and gives me but a very unfavourable account of the capabilities of those countries. He brought me likewise a curious account of a negro conqueror, who has subdued a great part of Africa lying near our settlements, and has occasioned the building of our new fort on that coast. He carries eight Arabic secretaries, who record his feats in that language. My brother has also conversed with Commodore Byron's officers, and confirms the accounts of the Patagonian giants. (2)

(1) This brother was the hon. Thomas Erskine, the future lord high chancellor of England. He was born in 1748, and at a very early age was allowed to enter the naval service as a midshipman. After a service of four years, he quitted the navy, and entered the army as an ensign. "On Monday, April 6, 1772," says Boswell, "I dined with Dr. Johnson at Sir Alexander Macdonald's, where was a young officer in the regimentals of the Scots Royal, who talked with a vivacity, fluency, and precision so uncommon, that he attracted particular notice. He proved to be the honourable Thomas Erskine, who has since risen into such brilliant reputation at the bar in Westminster-hall. He told us, that when he was in the island of Minorca, he not only read prayers, but preached two sermons to the regiment."

(2) Commodore Byron had just returned to England from his disastrous voyage round the world. His "Narrative of his Sufferings on the Coast of Patagonia" appeared in 1768. To his proverbial ill-luck his illustrious grandson alludes, in his beautiful Epistle to his Sister

"A strange doom is thy father's son's, and past
Recalling, as it lies beyond redress;

Revers'd for him our Grandsire's fate of yore -
He had no rest at sea, nor I on shore."

I was much delighted by the accounts of the Duke of Grafton's spirited apology in the House of Lords. It appears to me to have been such a testimony as I should have wished to have given in that assembly. I am, with the most sincere regard and respect,

Your most faithful and

obedient servant,

CARDROSS.

GENERAL BURGOYNE (') TO MR. PITT.

SIR,

Pay-office, Whitehall, June 27, 1766.

IN addressing myself to you, I am aware how commonly it is the error of a sanguine temper to

(1) In 1762, general Burgoyne acted as brigadier-general of the British forces sent out for the defence of Portugal against France and Spain. At this time, he was member for Midhurst, and in 1768 was chosen for Preston, which town he represented during five successive parliaments. In 1775, he was appointed to a command in America; and in 1777, distinguished himself by the capture of Ticonderoga, but was afterwards compelled to surrender to General Gates, at Saratoga. "Dreadful news indeed!" writes.Gibbon to Mr. Holroyd, on the 4th of December, an English army of nearly ten thousand men laid down their arms, and surrendered prisoners of war. They had fought bravely, and were three days without eating: Burgoyne is said to have received three wounds." In 1779, he was dismissed the service, for refusing to return to America, pursuant to the terms of his convention, by which he did not consider himself bound in honour to abide; but in 1782, he was restored to his rank, appointed commander-in-chief in Ireland, and sworn of the privy-council. He married Lady Charlotte Stanley, daughter of Edward, eleventh Earl of Derby; and died at an advanced age, in 1792. Besides some pamphlets, in defence of his public conduct, he wrote several popular dramatic pieces.

make my very your favour. most desirable

overlook, in the eagerness of expectation, the pretensions upon which the expectation is founded; but, overpowered by my own zeal and confident in your candour, I presume to lay before you a design I am about to execute, and with a due sense of the honour I solicit, to humble suit to you, for a mark of I have long thought that the employment for a soldier, next to that of serving under great men with a participation of their councils, was to visit the scenes where extraordinary military talents have been exerted. Men of genius in their profession, like the poet or the orator, will catch the ideas and the style of the works they study, with this advantage which the closet cannot afford, that the presence of objects where signal transactions have passed sets every circumstance of them before the eyes, and leaves an indelible impression upon the mind. Those of an inferior cast, and who like me must fail of high attainments, have at least in such contemplation the consciousness of a good intention, and reap delight with an effort towards utility.

Upon this principle, Sir, I have obtained his Majesty's consent, to take a view of the theatre of the late war in Germany. In the course of my progress, I shall probably have an opportunity to

His comedy of" The Heiress," which appeared in 1786, obtained for him a flattering notice in the 'Baviad and Mæviad'

"Burgoyne, perhaps, unchill'd by creeping age,
May yet arise, and vindicate the stage;
The reign of nature and of sense restore,
And be whatever Terence was before."

pay my respects to Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick; and I am inexpressibly earnest in my ambition to carry an introduction to the first general of the age, from the statesman under whose auspices he conquered. In this part of the world, as in every other, the most honourable credential an Englishman, in my opinion, can carry about him is a testimony of being thought worthy of the countenance of the first citizen of his country, - by whose councils she was retrieved, when sinking in debility and despondency, and rose to a state of strength and glory, by as rapid a progress as that whereby, since his withdrawing, her credit and her powers have declined. This sort of pride, Sir, has long been so near my heart, that I have seldom thought of my regiment being raised under your protection, without finding it imposing upon my understanding; and I have been very apt to consider a measure of government as a mark of personal patronage.

I could add, Sir, a long strain of professions, without deviating from sincerity. I might expatiate on the diffidence I have felt, almost amounting to self-reproach, when from the compulsion of my mind, I have differed from you in parliament; and on the pride with which, under another conviction, I should have faced the frowns or persecution of men in power to be enrolled among your friends. But my design was only so far to express the profound respect I bear you, as to make my request for your recommendation