[366:1] See the [letter] in the Appendix.
[366:2] There is evidence of the lasting hold which the Discourses had taken on the minds of the French, in the appearance of a new translation so late as 1766, with the title, "Essais sur le Commerce; le Luxe; l'argent; l'intérêt de l'argent; les impots; le crédit public, et la balance du commerce; par M. David Hume," published at Amsterdam in 1766, and Paris in 1767. Querard attributes this translation to a Mademoiselle de la Chaux. So far as we are entitled to judge of a translation into a foreign language, this one seems to be very spirited, speaking through French idioms and ideas, and ingeniously overcoming the very few conventionalisms which could not have been avoided by a native of Britain, speaking of British trade and finance.
CHAPTER IX.
1752-1755. Æt. 41-44.
Appointment as keeper of the Advocates' Library—His Duties—Commences the History of England—Correspondence with Adam Smith and others on the History—Generosity to Blacklock the Poet—Quarrel with the Faculty of Advocates—Publication of the First Volume of the History—Its reception—Continues the History—Controversial and Polemical attacks—Attempt to subject him, along with Kames, to the Discipline of Ecclesiastical Courts—The Leader of the attack—Home's "Douglas"—The first Edinburgh Review.
"In 1752," says Hume in his "own life," "the Faculty of Advocates chose me their librarian, an office from which I received little or no emolument, but which gave me the command of a large library."[367:1] We
have a very glowing account of the contest for this appointment from his own pen in the following letter:
"Edinburgh, February 4th, 1752.