1804.) 
To the Editor of the Mouthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
Is your Magazine for March and June 
laft, you have publifhed letters trom 
Mr.: Browne Moftyn and J. W. on the 
fubject af the Papers formerly in pofleffion 
of the Scotch College, at Paris. What 
follows feems a proper fequei to thefe let- 
ters, as it tends to reétify fome miltakes 
admitted through inadvertence or muifin- 
formation. The reader isdehred to direct 
his attention, in the firft place, to Mr. B. 
Moftyn’s letter in your Magazine for 
March. What James II. depofted -in 
the Scotch College, at Paris, was not en- 
trufied to Principai Gordon, but to Prin- 
cipal Lewis Innes. Principal Gordon, 
bern in 1712, was inftituted Principal of 
the Scotch College in 1753, and could not 
theretore be the confidential agent of 
James If. who died in 17013 ner could 
he be the perfon entrufted, in the firft in- 
fiance, with the depofit. 
This depofit conifted—firlt, OF James 
WI.’s Memoirs, giving an account of all 
public and private traafactions which 
came to his knowledge, or in which he, 
from the age of 15 to 16838, was per- 
fonally concerned. ‘Thefe Memoirs mace 
up four thin folio and fix thin quarto vo- 
lumes, in James’ own hand writing, and 
in the form of a diary. 
2dly. Of two thin quartos, containing 
fome letters from Charles I. and his 
Queen, but principally from Charles II. 
to James, while Duke of York. 
g¢ly. OF two thick quartos, ecntain- 
ing letters to James, while at Bruflels and 
Edinburgh, from his friends in England, 
This was the whole of the depofit made 
by James If. and was only part of the 
collection fent from Paris to St. Omer’s, 
in the beginning of 1793. This collec- 
t-on comprifed befides—firft, A thin folio 
of original letters from Mary, Queen of 
Scots, to Beatoun, aichbihhop of Glaf 
gow, her ambaffador at the court of 
France, with her laft will, in fix folio 
piges, in her own hand-writing.—2dly 
Many charters granted by different Scot- 
tith kings, trom David I. to James V. 
—3dly. S-veral old books, ptin.ed er ma- 
nuicript, befides the two which Mr. B. 
Moftyn relerved for himfelfi—athly. A 
thick manufcript folio, the Scotch Col- 
lege Regifter, from 1321, the year of its 
foundation, to 1730. The four immedi- 
ately preceding articles were the property 
of the Scotch College, totally unconneét- 
ed with James IT.’s depofit. 
This detail of the colleétion feat from 
Monruty Mac, No. 118. 
Papers of the Scots College at Paris. - 9 
Paris to St. Omer’s is given, in order to 
rernove a miftake which runs through the 
whole of Mr. B. Moftyn’s letter. It 
feems there to be taken for granted, that 
every article of that collection was depos 
ited by James If. in the Scotch College. 
The motive for fending this colleétion 
from Paris to St. Omer’s, was not an ap- 
prehenfion of danger to which it might be 
expofed in Paris, and from which it would 
be exempted in St. Omer’s. It wag fent 
to the latter place, with a view of con. 
veying it thence to Great Britain. But 
graning that the removal was a proper 
meafure, there was an unfortunate delay 
either at Paris or St. Omer’s; for war 
broke out between Great Britain ard 
France, before the conveyance of the col- 
lection from St. Omer’s to Great Britain 
was attempted. 
The reader will now be pleafed to caft 
his eye on J. W.’s letter, in your Maga- 
zine for June. ‘That letter contains al 
moft as many miftakes as words. Mr. 
Carte had not an allowance of a thoufand, 
but of a hundred a year; not from noble- 
men and gentlemen, but from the Univer. 
fity of Oxtord, and for the purpo% of 
writing the Hiftory of England, not of 
tranicribing the papers in the Scotch Col- 
lege relating to Eneglifh hiftory. Mr. 
Carte, it is true, being a keen jacobite 
and a ftaunch nonjuring clergyman, had 
leave to inake extraéts from James ITI.’s 
Memoirs. Thefe extraéts he left by his 
will to his widow, on whofe deceafe they 
were ta be depofited in the Bodleian li- 
brary, or fome library of the Oxford Uni. 
veifity. 
From Carte’s widow, or Mr. Jerning-. 
ham, her fecond hufbind, Mr. Cadell, it 
is faid, for 200]. procured Mr. Macpher- 
fon the ufe of thefe extraéts, when com. 
pofing his Hiftory. The whole, at leaft 
the moft material parts of thefe extraéts, 
are to be found printed in the appendix 
to that Hiftory; the original extraéts, in. 
Carte’s hand-writing, are now at Ox« 
ford. | 
It is to be obferved, that Carte made 
his extra€ts uotin the words of James's 
Memoirs, but in his owns and that he 
often comoreffed in a few lines whole 
pazes oi the original. Hence his extra&s 
are of much lefs value than they would 
have been, had they been prefented to the 
reader literally, as exprefled by Jamies. 
In this laft fhape they would have fup-. 
plied, in fome degree, the lofs of the ori« 
ginal Memoits. 
Londin, Fune 18, 1204. 
C r fi TRIP 
