286 ROBERTSON. 



not any longer come into conflict with his friend Mr. 

 Hume, whose work would have been all published 

 many years before the new ' History' could appear. His 

 former objection of Mr. Hume's ' History' being then in 

 progress when a similar plan was pressed upon him by 

 the booksellers had thus been removed ; and though he 

 declined on any account to lay down his clerical cha- 

 racter, and withdraw from his station in the church, he 

 had yet no objection, if he could still retain his con- 

 nexion with that venerated establishment, to be relieved 

 from the parochial labours connected with the cure of 

 souls ; and provided Edinburgh should continue to be his 

 place of residence, he purposed passing each year two 

 or three months in London for the benefit of the 

 collections offered to be placed at his service. It is 

 probable that the retirement of Lord Bute from office, 

 which happened soon after, put an end to this import- 

 ant negotiation ; important in a very high degree to 

 the literature, and, indeed, to the constitutional inte- 

 rests of the country. Nothing more seems to have 

 resulted from the correspondence except the reviving 

 in his favour the place of historiographer for Scotland, 

 to which he was appointed in 1764. But who that 

 values the accuracy of historical narration, and sets a 

 right estimate upon the benefits derived to our political 

 system from a thorough investigation of the records 

 and the events of former times, during which our 

 mixed government was slowly formed and gradually 

 matured, can avoid deeply lamenting that the subject 

 of English history had not fallen into the hands of 

 him who was, by a competent judge, though a rival 

 author, justly called " the most diligent and most 



