London 24 April 1764

Dear Sir

Your favr of the 18th I recd on Sunday and that of the 26th of March early yesterday. The letter dated 26th March has been lost. This last was answered before and the box addressed as you desired, and I hope safe arrived. Hume had been serving as a British chargé d’affaires in Paris since November 1763.

I have just reprinted ye Tudor’s in small 4to These two quartos (“Tudors”) comprise the fourth edition of volumes 3–4 of Hume’s 6-volume History of England. Millar ordered a modest 250 copies of volume three from the printer William Strahan this same month; no print record survives for volume four. and I beleive I shall the Stewarts in that seize soon when those facts yo mention of Charles II and James II may be inserted. In August 1766, Strahan printed 1,500 copies of a 10-leaf set of cancelled quarto pages, comprising Hume’s insertions on Charles II and James II. These cancelled pages were pasted onto existing quarto stock (ordered from Strahan in 1762 and 1763), to be issued by Thomas Cadell as “A New Edition, Corrected” in six quarto volumes. Cancelled quarto pages were also bound in with octavo volumes printed by William Bowyer in 1763. I fancy he was a man of veracity tho’ a great bigot. Hume and Millar had shared their historical opinions before. In February and March 1755, Millar had engaged Hume in an extensive discussion over the relative merits of Charles I’s explanations of a royalist commission to Ireland during the Civil War. This correspondence involved Thomas Birch, who politely disagreed with Hume’s faith in Charles’s denials of involvement. See F. Waldmann, ed., Further Letters of David Hume (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Bibliographical Society, 2014), 29–33. I am astonished at ye latter part of your Paragraph viz. “I shall certainly never think of adding another line to it. I am too much yr freind to think of it. Sure this cannot be the great Philosopher Mr Hume, yr Dissipations has I fancy made you idle, but This I am sure of you can in no Instance in yr Life be of ye Title of use to me as by continuing yr history and I think also to ye Public. Hume elicited this plea in the conclusion of his letter to Millar of 18 April: “I pass my time very agreeably here; tho’ somewhat too much dissipated for one of my Years & Humour.” See J. Y. T. Greig, ed., Letters of David Hume (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1932) vol. 1, 433, 434. If Fame and ye Testimony of the Judicious & sensible of all Nations is any Motive and also Interest these you have Strong on yr Side and I am sure for my self the latter is ye greatest yo can do me think yo as you will, On 19 January 1768, Hume wrote to Adam Ferguson: “[I] am tempted, by the Importunity of Friends, to think of continuing my History . . . Andrew Millar, very naturally, thinks money will be a great Temptation to me: Others, equally silly, talk to me of Fame: Some, with no less Reason, of Truth . . . The Devil is in it, if I have not learned by this time, how little disposd the World is to receive Truth; of how little Value their Opinion is; and what a moderate Fortune is sufficient, for all the Necessaries of Life.” See V. Merolle, ed., The Correspondence of Adam Ferguson (London: Chatto, 1995) vol. 1, 79. but I know yr Pride is illeg. ^hurt^ by certain People I had allmost called them fools that has Thought of another person for writing yt History de Novo. de Novo, i.e., afresh. Lord Bute had recently encouraged Hume’s friend William Robertson to write a competing history of England, to which Robertson was giving some consideration. Bute made this proposal shortly after Hume completed his final volume in 1761; Lord Chesterfield had made a similar suggestion to Robertson earlier. On 28 March 1763, Hume blamed Bute for turning English opinion against Scottish authors, suggesting Bute “is obligd to make me some Compensation for this”. See also J. McKelvey, “William Robertson and Lord Bute”, Studies in Scottish Literature 6 (1968–9) 238–47. Back in 1753, when Millar had asked Hume whether Robertson’s History of Scotland would compete with his History of England, Hume had replied: “Some part of his Subject is common with mine; but as his Work is a History of Scotland, and mine of England, we do not interfere; it will rather be an Amusement to the Reader to compare our Method of treating the same Subject.” See E. C. Mossner, Life of David Hume, (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1980) 396. but I would dispise such and go on as you originaly intended In a letter of 5 January 1753 to his friend Dr John Clephane, Hume had described his project as “a History of Britain, from the Union to the present time”. See Greig, Letters of David Hume, vol. 1, 170. As late as January 1773, Strahan would write to him, “I altogether dispair of seeing a continuation of your History from yourself”, discussing with Hume the suitability of John Dalrymple, John Douglas, James Macpherson, or Andrew Stuart, as authors of a continuation. Reports of Hume’s definitive refusal to continue his History were not published until shortly after his death. The New Evening Post quoted Hume to Strahan: “I must decline not only this offer, but all others of a literary nature for four reasons: because I’m too old, too fat, too lazy, and too rich.” See Mossner, 556. as I am perswaded the Person employed would gladly decline the Invidious Task imposed on him.

As to Coke’s Institutes it is very dear I paid 6:16:6 for it Hume had requested for an acquaintance the first volume of Edward Coke’s four-part Institutes of the Laws of England, frequently printed to 1719. A New and Correct Catalogue (London: np, 1767) priced a complete set at £7.10.0. See Greig, ed., Letters of David Hume, vol. 1, 434. and It was ye only copy to be had of ye best Edition in London, the others are very defective and sure when a Work of value is wrote for is wrote for, i.e., is requested. I shd send ye best as you shouldas you should, i.e., as you should have—“I should send the best, as you would wish, since you did not fix a specific price.” fixed the price I could not guess by the other Books wrote for but yt Person would chuse the best. i.e., if the customer does not stipulate fixed prices, I assume they want the best. but it may be retd retd, i.e., returned. and all I desire The Charges should be paid by the person. The Charges, i.e., the shipping charge, not the purchase price. There is an Edition yt is sold for abt 2:2: or l/45 1/45, i.e., £/45 or 45 shillings, thus £2.5.0. but People here consider it as of litle value in comparision of that Sort.

Sir John ^Gordon^ Sir John Gordon of Invergordon (1707–83) was notorious for litigating against challengers for his Parliamentary seat (Cromartyshire); he also made numerous proposals for amending legal rights concerning tenant farmers in Scotland. See History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754–1790, ed. L. Namier et al., (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1964) vol. 2, 515–6; J. M. Bulloch, The Families of Gordon of Invergordon &c. (n.s.: Ross-shire Printing, 1906). called when I came so far, to desire I would remind you of what he mentioned to you before you left this place to procure if possible a Compleat Collection of all the remonstrances of the Parliments of Paris ^France^ during this King’s reign. and if you are so kind as oblidge him in yt respect to send them over to me with ye Charge wc shall be repaid with Thanks. Millar was interrupted in his letter by Sir John Gordon calling and asking him to remind Hume about Gordon’s request for documents from Paris. Millar now tells Hume to send these to his shop, with a note of the associated costs, which Sir John will repay.

I knew ye Paragraph of Mrs Mallet’s before I recd yrs The Woman is wrong in ye head. Lucy Elstob Mallet, second wife of the poet David Mallet. “I saw a few days ago Mrs Mallet, who seems to be going upon a strange project of living alone in a Hermitage, in the midst of the Forrest of Fontainbleau.” See Greig, ed., Letters of David Hume, vol. 1, 434. Dr Pringle advises me to go next Month to Harrowgate Harrogate, a fashionable spa in Yorkshire, 210 miles from London on the Great North Road. for 6 Weeks to compleat my cure begun last Summer and I beleive Mrs Millar and I shall go next month. She joins wt me in our Most affectionate Complements to you and I ever am