I am satisfied that there is now an eminent exception to this rule; and I sincerely congratulate the public on that acquisition. I am, with the greatest truth and regard, my dear sir, your most faithful and obliged humble servant,

EDMUND BURKE.

SIR,

XLIX.

From Mr. Swinney.

Pera of Constantinople, Jan. 1, 1778. So high an opinion do I entertain of your humanity and politeness, as to persuade myself you will readily pardon the liberty I have taken, of sending you a Persian and Grecian manuscript. If, on perusal of one or the other book, you should meet with a single passage that may contribute either to your instruction or amusement, my purpose will be fully answered.

Among the real curiosities I have seen at Constantinople, is a public museum, erected at the sole expense of a most learned grand vizir, whose name and title was Rajib Pacha. This collection contains about two thousand Arabian, Persian, and

Turkish manuscripts, which, the learned say, contain vast stores of erudition. It is not improbable but I may be able, on some favourable occasion, to procure you a copy of the catalogue; and then, should you be disposed to have any of the manuscripts copied, I entreat you will confer the honour upon me of executing the commission. People assure me (but I dare not say whether with good authority or no), that the entire Decades of Livy, and the complete History of Curtius, are contained in that very precious repository; if so, who knows but majesty itself (so superlatively happy are we in a monarch who favours the arts and sciences!) may graciously condescend to command a copy of them!

Be pleased to accept of my warmest wishes for your health, prosperity, and very long life; and believe me to be (what I sincerely am) a lasting admirer of your abilities, and, at the same time, dear sir, &c.

SIDNEY SWINNEY,

October 3, 1778.

MY DEAR SIR, I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of your most obliging letter. It is impossible for me to express the value in which I hold the favourable sentiments you have conveyed to me; and above all, that strain of cordiality and friendship which accompany them. The loss of that long letter or dissertation, into which my performance was about to entice you, is a matter of infinite regret to me; but I hope that the object which then engaged more particularly your attention, and which was so worthy of it, is now within your reach; that the fates are to comply with your desires, and to place you in a scene where so much honour and so many laurels are to be won and gathered.

It affects me with a lively pleasure, that your taste has turned with a peculiar fondness to the studies of law and government on the great scale of history and manners. They have been too long in the management of inquirers, who were merely metaphysicians, or merely the retainers of courts:

their generous and liberal nature has been wounded and debased by the minuteness of an acute but useless philosophy, and by a mean and slavish appetite for practice and wealth. It is now fit that we should have lawyers who are orators, philosophers, and historians.

But while I entreat you to accept my best thanks for your excellent letter, and express my approbation of those studies of which you are enamoured, permit me, at the same time, to embrace the opportunity of making known to you the bearer of these lines. Dr. Gillies, of whom you may have heard as the translator of Lysias, has been long my warm friend; and I have to recommend him to you as the possessor of qualities which are still more to his honour than extensive learning and real genius. Men who leave their compatriots behind them in the pursuits of science and true ambition, are of the same family, and ought to be known to one another.

Do me the favour, my dear sir, to continue to afford me a place in your memory; and believe me, that I shall always hear of your prosperity, your reputation, and your studies, with a peculiar and entire satisfaction.

I am now, and ever, yours, &c.

GILB. STUART,

P. S. In January or February, I am to send into the world a new work, in which I treat of the

Public Law, and the Constitutional History of Scotland; and, wherever you are, I am to transmit you one of the first copies, by Mr. Murray, of Fleetstreet.

LI.

DEAR SIR,

From Dean Tucker. *

Gloucester, September 21, 1778.

WHEN you first honoured me with your acquaintance, perhaps you was not aware what a troublesome correspondence you was bringing yourself into. Be that as it may, I will now beg leave to avail myself of the permission which you kindly granted me of consulting you on some points. Several copies of my last tract have been in the university upwards of a fortnight; and it is probable that by this time some have vouchsafed to read it. What, therefore, I wish to know, is, whether, in the judgment of those who have given it a perusal, I have confuted Mr. Locke's system in such a manner, that they are convinced his must be wrong, whatever else may happen to be right. If this is not the case—that is, if I have not totally confuted

• Josiah Tucker, D.D. dean of Gloucester.