384 SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 



" To GEO. ROSE, ESQ., TREASURY CHAMBERS. 



" MY DEAR SlR, "Soho Square, March 2nd, 1787. 



"By an Arret, dated April 23, 1775, M. Turgot took 

 off all kinds of droits from books imported under the most 

 general description, as " relies ou meux ou neufs" I wish 

 I had his Eloge, in which the compliments paid him on 

 the occasion are pretty. I have sent to borrow it from Lord 

 Lansdowne's library, but his Lordship has not yet risen after 

 the fatigues of last night. The exemption is still continued, 

 as may be seen in the Recueil des Droits, printed last year. 



" Far be it from me to press the subject. I shall always 

 consider literature as under great obligations to Mr. Pitt, 

 who scrupled not a moment to forbid the additional tax 

 intended by the compilers of the rate-book; but sure he 

 might, by giving up a very small receipt, oblige a numerous 

 body whose claim of exemption has been acceded to by the 

 French nation, which circumstance, however, I only wish to 

 bring forward as my apology for the trouble I have given. 



" Should it be thought expedient to continue the tax upon 

 bound books, lest the bookbinders might suffer, a clause 

 allowing a quarter of a hundred instead of under ten pounds 

 for each man's private books would make strangers easy; and 

 in that case, if the unbound were quite given up, with only 

 the proviso against books of which editions are extant, printed 

 in England, we should be secured from piracy, and a small 

 portion indeed of revenue sacrificed. 



"In France those who attempt to import a pirated edition 

 are very roughly handled by other laws. 

 " Believe me, dear Sir, 



" Most faithfully, 

 "Your obliged humble servant, 



"Jos. BANKS." 



" MR. PARKINSON, j u i y lyth, 1809. 



"I am not certain that I well understand what Mr. 

 Lacy has been doing in his capacity of Inspector; his aim I 

 conclude in surcharging my tenant at a higher rent than my 

 farms are let for, is a trick by which he expects to obtain an 



