[360:3] Among those who were eager to peruse these documents, Hume says, writing to Madame de Barbantane, "The King and Queen of England expressed a strong desire to see these papers, and I was obliged to put them into their hands. They read them with avidity, and entertain the same sentiments that must strike every one. The king's opinion confirms me in the resolution not to give them to the public, unless I be forced to it by some attack on the side of my adversary, which it will therefore be wisdom in him to avoid." Private Correspondence , p. 210.
[361:1] He says, in a subsequent letter,—"What are become of all the controversies since the days of Scaliger and Scioppius, of Billingsgate memory? Why, they sleep in oblivion, till some Bayle drags them out of their dust, and takes mighty pains to ascertain the date of each author's death, which is of no more consequence to the world than the day of his birth. Many a country squire quarrels with his neighbour about game and manors, yet they never print their wrangles, though as much abuse passes between them, as if they could quote all the Philippics of the learned." We have an instance of what he considered a really important dispute, when he was baffled in his attempt to get his nephew, Lord Orford, married to Miss Nicol, "the vast fortune." "Thus," he says, "had I placed him in a greater situation than even his grandfather hoped to bequeath to him,—had retrieved all the oversights of my family,—had saved Houghton, and all our glory." "I have been forced," he says, writing to Horace Mann, "to write a narrative of the whole transaction; and was with difficulty kept from publishing it."—Letters , ii. 401.
[362:1] He did not lose the opportunity afforded by the publication of his pamphlet, for again expressing his contempt of men whose sole claim to notice rested on the greatness of their genius: "For Monsieur D'Alembert," he says, "I said that I was mighty indifferent about seeing him. That it was not my custom to seek authors, who are a conceited troublesome set of people." And hearing that Fréron, the same who was so sharp a thorn in Voltaire's side, had made some remarks on him, which displeased the Duchesse de Choiseul, he says, "I immediately wrote to Paris, to beg the duchess would suffer Fréron and D'Alembert, or any of the tribe, to write what they pleased, to get what money they could by abusing me."
[365:1] This is repeated in a letter to Robertson, of 19th March, and is followed by the statement, "The King, when applied to, said, that since the pension had once been promised, it should be granted, notwithstanding all that had passed in the interval. And thus the affair is happily finished, unless some new extravagance come across the philosopher, and urge him to reject what he has anew applied for."—Stewart's Life of Robertson.
[365:2] MS. R.S.E.
[366:1] The letter is in the usual editions of Rousseau's works, dated 30th April.
[366:2] The pamphlets produced in England on this subject, were not nearly so numerous as those published in France. Fuseli, whose mind was well suited for such a paradoxical championship, wrote "A defence of M. Rousseau, against the Aspersions of Mr. Hume, Monsieur Voltaire, and their associates." The other pamphlet alluded to in the letter, was, perhaps, "A letter to the Honourable Horace Walpole, concerning the dispute between Mr. Hume and M. Rousseau," by the Rev. Ralph Heathcote, D.D. Hume says, in a letter to Madame de Boufflers, "Agreeably to the licence of this country, there has been a great deal of raillery on the incident, thrown out in the public papers, but all against that unhappy man. There is even a print engraved of it: M. Rousseau is represented as a Yahoo, newly caught in the woods; I am represented as a farmer, who caresses him and offers him some oats to eat, which he refuses in a rage; Voltaire and D'Alembert are whipping him up behind; and Horace Walpole making him horns of papier mâché. The idea is not altogether absurd."—Private Correspondence , p. 234.
[367:1] MS. R.S.E.
[370:1] Walpole, whose capacity for acquiring information on such matters was unrivalled, seems to have at least made a near approach to the discovery of this point. He says in his narration, "The chief cause of his disgust has been a long quarrel between his housekeeper and Mr. Davenport's cook-maid, who, as Rousseau affirmed, had always dressed their dinner very ill, and at last had sprinkled ashes on their victuals."
[371:1] MS. R.S.E.