two gentlemen, which nearly terminated in an open rupture.

Mr. Hume to Mr. Walpole.
'Dear Sir,

When I came home last night, I found on my table a very long letter from d'Alembert, who tells me, that on receiving from me an account of my affair with Rousseau, he summoned a meeting of all my literary friends at Paris, and found them all unanimously of the same opinion with himself, and of a contrary opinion to me with regard to my conduct. They all think I ought to give to the public a narrative of the whole. However, I persist still more closely in my first opinion, especially after receiving the last mad letter. D'Alembert tells us, that it is of great importance for me, to justify myself from having any hand in the letter from the King of Prus sia. I am told by Crawford, that you had wrote it a fortnight before I left Paris, but did not shew it to a mortal for fear of hurting me; a delicacy of which I am very sensible. Pray recollect if it was so. Though I do not intend to publish, I am collecting all the original pieces, and I shall connect them by a concise narrative. It is necessary for me to have that letter, and Rousseau's answer. Pray, assist me in this work. About what time, do you think, were they printed?

what a set of literary men are apt to be, exceedingly absurd. They hold a consistory to consult how to argue with a madman; and they think it very necessary for your character, to give them the pleasure of seeing Rousseau exposed; not because he has provoked you, but them. If Rousseau prints, you must; but I certainly would not, till he does.

I cannot be precise as to the time of my writing the King of Prussia's letter; but I do assure you with the utmost truth, that it was several days before you left Paris, and before Rousseau's arrival there, of which I can give you a strong proof, for I not only suppressed the letter while you 'staid there, out of delicacy to you; but it was the reason why, out of delicacy to myself, I did not go to see him, as you often proposed 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 use of what I say in your justification, either to Rousseau, or to any body else. I should be very sorry to have you blamed on my account; I have a hearty contempt of Rousseau, and literati of Paris think of the matter. am perfectly indifferent what the If there is any fault, which I am far from thinking, let it lie on me. No parts can hinder my laughing at their possessor, if he is a mounte→ bank. If he has a bad and most un

grateful heart, as Rousseau has shewn in your case into the bargain, he will of all good and sensible men. he will have my scorn likewise, as You may trust your sentence to such, who are as respectable judges as any that have pored over ten thousand more volumes.

Yours, &c,

P. S. I will look out the letter and

and the dates as soon as 1 go to Strawberry-hill.'

"All hopes of accommodating the unfortunate difference between Hume and Rousseau having vanished, it soon came to the knowledge of the public, who felt an interest in it, proportioned to the celebrity of the personages concerned. Both parties thought it incumbent on them to justify themselves; and, with this view, Rousseau wrote letters to several of their common friends, detailing all the circumstances of his story.

"The extensive correspondence which Rousseau had on the Continent, enabled him to circulate every where his complaint, and he generally affected the greatest anxiety that all letters to him should have an envelope addressed to another, lest they should be kidnapped or opened. He wrote to M. Guy, a bookseller at Paris, who was engaged in printing his Dictionary of Music; and in this, as in all his other letters, he accused Hume of having entered into a league with his enemies to betray and defame him, and chal lenged him to print the papers which had passed between them. Guy communicated the letter to several persons at Paris, and a translation of it was inserted in the newspapers at

London.

"The publicity of this accusation overcame the scruples which Mr. Hame felt in laying the matter before the world, as longer silence might be construed to his disadvantage. In the beginning of the rupture, he had deemed it a duty which he owed to his friends, to draw up and communicate to them a narrative of his connections with Rousseau; but he had hitherto resisted their solicitations to print it. This narrative was now translated into French, and published by his

friends at Paris. It was immedi ately translated into English under Hume's own eye, who took the precaution to deposit all the original letters in the British Museum.

"The literary world, as it may be supposed, took part in this dispute between two characters so celebrated as Hume and Rousseau; and although the conduct of the latter was universally condemned, a few took up the pen in his defence. In November 1766, there was published at Paris a pamphlet under the title of Observations sur l'Expasé succinct de la Contestation qui s'est élévéc entre M. Hume et M. Rousseau; and in the same year was pub lished at London, and translated into French, Justification de J. J. Rousseau dans la Contestation qui lui est survenue avec M. Hume. There also appeared at London A Letter to the Hon. Horace Walpole concerning the Dispute betreen Mr. Hume and M. Rousseau. The Parisian press gave to the public Reflexions sur qui s'est passé au Sujet de la Rupture de J. J. Rousseau et de M. Hume; and also a very long tract, entitled Plaidoyer pour et contre J. J. Rousseau et le Docteur D. Hume, Historien Anglois : avec des Anecdotes interessantes relative au sujet : ouvrage moral et critique, pour servir de suite aux autres de ces deux grands hommes. In the first part of this work, the author is exceedingly severe against Hume, but he afterwards softens a little as to him, and attacks Rousseau at great length. It is written in a sprightly style, and is rather interesting. He appears, however, to be totally unacquainted with Hume's character, and confesses and laments his ignorance of our historian's works: the word Docteur, prefixed to Hume's name in the title, is a faint evidence of this. He is inclined, on the

whole,

whole, to ascribe Rousseau's conduct à un dereglement de son esprit-et non pas à la perversité de son cœur.

"Even the fair sex stood forward in defence of their favourite man of feeling; and a lady at Paris signalized herself in a pamphlet, which was rewarded with the thanks of Rousseau: it was entitled La Vertu rengée par l'Amitié, ou Recueil de Lettres sur J. J. Rousseau, par Madame ***. Voltaire, on the other side, addressed a letter to Mr. Hume, in which he assailed the unfortunate Genevese with all the acuteness of his satire, and the brilliancy of his wit.

"While occupied in composing an elaborate review of this controversy, and gravely weighing the conduct of both parties, we accidentally met with the fellowing jeu d'esprit in the St. James's Chronicle, the newspaper in which the translation of the celebrated letter of the king of Prussia first appeared. Before inserting it, however, we may premise, that it does not seem possible for any unprejudiced person to suppose that Mr. Hume could entertain the slightest malevolence towards his protégé, or that the concern he took in his behalf originated from any other motive than the most generous philanthropy. We may bewail the eccentricity of mind which could conjure up suspicions like those entertained by Rousseau, and give consequence to empty trifles; but justice and honour call on us to condemn the man who could convert these into premeditated crimes, and found on them injurious accusations against innocencenay, more, against the very person who had loaded him with benefits. It must be owned, that symptoms of a crazy intellect were at times perceptible in the conduct of Rousseau: his caprices, his brutal rude

ness, his eternal wrangling with all who came in contact with him as friends and benefactors, were forcible indications of a species of mental derangement. We may, therefore, relax a little from the austere laws of criticism, and indulge in a harmless jocularity, now, perhaps, the best medium through which this singular dispute can be contemplated.

"The humourous production alluded to is in the form of an indictment, as follows:

Heads of an Indictment laid by J. J. Rousseau, philosopher, against D. Hume, Esq.

"1. That the said David Hume, to the great scandal of philosophy, and not having the fitness of things before his eyes, did concert a plan with Messrs. Fronchin, Voltaire, and D'Alembert, to ruin the said J. J. Rousseau for ever, by bringing him over to England, and there settling him to his heart's content.

2. That the said David Hume did, with a malicious and traitorous intent, procure, or cause to be pro cured, by himself, or somebody else, one pension of the yearly value of 1007. or thereabouts, to be paid to the said J. J. Rousseau, on account of his being a philosopher, either privately or publicly, as to him the said J. J. Rousseau should seem meet,

"3. That the said David Hume did, one night after he left Paris, put the said J. J. Rousseau in bodily fear, by talking in his sleep; although the said J. J. Rousseau doth not know, whether the said David Hume was really asleep, or whether he shammed Abraham, or what he meant.

"4. That, at another time, as the said David Hume and the said J. J. Rousseau

Rousseau were sitting opposite each other by the fire-side in London, he, the said David Hume, did look at him, the said J. J. Rousseau, in a manner of which it is difficult to give any idea that he, the said J. J. Rousseau, to get rid of the embarrassment he was under, endeavoured to look full at him, the said David Hume, in return, to try if he could not stare him out of countenance; but in fixing his eyes against his, the said David Hume's, he felt the most inexpressible terror, and was obliged to turn them away, insomuch that the said J. J. Rousseau doth in his heart think and believe, as much as he believes any thing, that he the said David Hume is a certain composition of a white-witch and a rattle-snake.

"5. That the said David Hume on the same evening, after politely returning the embraces of him, the said J. J. Reusseau, and gently tapping him on the back, did repeat several times, in a good-natured easy tone, the words, Why, what, my dear sir! Nay, my dear sir! Oh my dear sir!-From whence the said J. J. Rousseau doth conclude, as he thinks upon solid and sufficient grounds, that he the said David Hume is a traitor; albeit he, the said J. J. Rousseau, doth acknowledge, that the physiognomy of the good David is that of an honest man, all but those terrible eyes of his, which he must have borrowed; but he the said J. J. Rousseau vows to God he cannot conceive from whom or what.

"G. That the said David Hume hath more inquisitiveness about him than becometh a philosopher, and did never let slip an opportunity of being alone with the governante of Lim the said J. J. Rousseau.

7. That the said David Hume

did most atrociously and flagitiously put him the said J. J. Rousseau, philosopher, into a passion; as knowing that then he would be guilty of a number of absurdities.

"8. That the said David Hume must have published Mr. Walpole's letter in the newspapers, because, at that time, there was neither man, woman, nor child, in the island of Great Britain, but the said David Hume, the said J. J. Rousseau, and the printers of the several newspapers aforesaid.

"9. That somebody in a certain mazagine, and somebody else in a certain newspaper, said something against him the said John James Rousseau, which he, the said J. J. Rousseau, is persuaded, for the rea son above-mentioned, could be nobody but the said David Hume,

"10. That the said J. J. Rous seau knows, that he, the said David Hume, did open and peruse the let ters of him the said J. J. Rousseau, because he one day saw the said David Hume go out of the room, after his own servant, who had, at that time, a letter of the said J.J. Rousseau's in his hands; which must have been in order to take it from the servant, open it, and read the contents.

11. That the said David Hume did, at the instigation of the devil, in a most wicked and unnatural manner, send, or cause to be sent, to the lodgings of him, the said J. J. Rousseau, one dish of beef-steaks, thereby meaning to insinuate, that he, the said J. J. Rousseau, was a beggar, and came over to England to ask alms; whereas be it known to all men by these presents, that he, the said John James Rousseau, brought with him the means of subsistence, and did not come with an empty purse; as he doubts not but