familiarly of his near prospect of dying. His mother, it seems, died under the same symptoms; and it appears so little necessary, or proper, to flatter him, that no one attempts it. I never observed his understanding more clear, or his humour more pleasant or lively. He has a great aversion to leaving the tranquillity of his own house, to go in search of health among inns and hostlers. And his friends here gave way to him for some time; but now think it necessary that he should make an effort to try what change of place and air, or anything else Sir John Pringle may advise, can do for him. I left him this morning in the mind to comply in this article, and I hope, that he will be prevailed on to set out in a few days. He is just now sixty-five.
"I am very glad that the pleasure you give us, recoils a little on yourself, through our feeble testimony. I have, as you suppose, been employed, at any intervals of leisure or rest I have had for some years, in taking notes or collecting materials for a history of the destruction that broke down the Roman republic, and ended in the establishment of Augustus and his immediate successors. The compliment you are pleased to pay, I cannot accept of, even to my subject. Your subject now appears with advantages it was not supposed to have had, and I suspect, that the magnificence of the mouldering ruin will appear more striking, than the same building, when the view is perplexed with scaffolding, workmen, and disorderly lodgers, and the ear is stunned with the noise of destructions and repairs, and the alarms of fire. The night which you begin to describe is solemn, and there are gleams of light superior to what is to be found in any other time. I comfort myself, that as my trade is the study of human nature, I could not fix on a more interesting corner of it, than the end of the Roman republic. Whether my compilations should ever deserve the attention of any one besides myself, must remain to be determined after they are farther advanced. I take the liberty to trouble you with the enclosed for Mr Smith, (Dr Adam Smith,) whose uncertain stay in London makes me at a loss how to direct for him. You have both such reason to be pleased with the world just-now, that I hope you are pleased with each other. I am, with the greatest respect, dear sir, your most obedient and humble servant, Adam Ferguson." This letter is not only valuable from its intrinsic worth and the reference it has to the composition of the History of the Roman Republic, but from its presenting, connected by one link, four of the greatest names in British literature. Mr Ferguson, however, was interrupted in the prosecution of his historical labours, having been, through the influence of his friend Mr Dundas, afterwards lord Melville, appointed secretary to the commissioners sent out to America in the year 1778, to negotiate an arrangement with our revolted colonies in that continent The following historical detail will show the success of this mission:—
"In the beginning of June, 1778, the new commissioners arrived at Philadelphia, more than a month after the ratification of the treaty with France had been formally exchanged. The reception they met with was such as men the most opposite in their politics had foreseen and foretold. Dr Ferguson, secretary to the commission, was refused a passport to the Congress, and they were compelled to forward their papers by the common means.
"The commissioners, at the very outset, made concessions far greater than the Americans, in their several petitions to the king, had requested or desired greater, indeed, than the powers conferred upon them by the act seemed to authorize. Amongst the most remarkable of these, was the engagement to agree that no military force should be kept up in the different states of America, without the consent of the general congress of the several assemblies to concur in measures calculated to discharge the debts of America, and to raise the credit and value of the paper circulation to admit of representatives from the several states,
