fjgi. ov SOME EUGirsH mstoRiAN's. 91 



that he compofed with greater facility than ordinary 

 men are able to converfe. By his own account, in the 

 admirable expedition of riunapliiy Clinker, it appears 

 that he very often "wrote merely for wages ; and on 

 fuch occafions, nothing above mediocrity can with reafon 

 be demanded. The continuation of his Englifh hiftory, 

 from 1748 to 1764, is a mere catchpenny chaos, with- 

 out even a fpark of merit. There is great reafon to 

 believe that he, or ra<her his, journeymen, copied at 

 random from fomebody elfe, moft of the quotations and 

 references arranged with fo much parade on the margin 

 of his text. 



Guthrie has left behind him more than one ponder- 

 ous fabric on BritiQi hiftory. He had fenfe, learning, 

 tandour, and induftry. He had an original manner, 

 and wifhed to think for himfelf : But to elegance, he 

 was an entire fti-anger, and to that happy choice of cir- 

 cumilances which forms an inftruclise hiftorian ; he 

 was often familiar without perfpicuity, and prolix with- 

 out completenefs. No writer is at prefent lefs popu- 

 lar. A geographical grammar has been printed under 

 his name ; but it is generally underftood, that he had no 

 (liare'in its compofition. 



In point of ftile, Mr. HuME may be ftudied as a per- 

 fecl model. Pure, nervous, eloquent, he is fimplp 

 without weaknefs, and fublime without effort. In the 

 ait of telling an humorous ftory, he can never be ex- 

 celled ; and when he chofe to exert himfelf, he was 

 even a confiderable matter of the pathetic : But it was 

 his misfortune to defpife accuracy of refearch, and fide- 

 lity of citation. He was a bitter Tory ; and while de- 

 tedion flafhed in his face, he commonly adhered to 

 whatever he had once written. His account of the 

 houfe of Stuart is not the ftatement of an hiftorian, but 

 the memorial of a pleader in a Court of Juftice. He 

 fometimes aflerts a pofitive falfehood, contradiiSted by 

 the very author whom he pretends himfelf to be quot- 

 ing ; but more commonly gains his purpofe, by fup- 



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