MY DEAR SIR,

March 12, 1779...

I give you many thanks for your most obliging and valuable present, and feel my self extremely honoured by this mark of of your friendship. My first leisure will be employed in an attentive perusal of an author, who had merit enough to fill up a part of yours, and whom you have made accessible to me with an ease and advantage, which one so many years disused to Greek literature as I have been, could not otherwise have, Isæus is an author of whom I know nothing but by fame; I am sure that any idea I had from thence conceived of him, will not be at all lessened by seeing him in your translation. I do not know how it has happened, that orators have hitherto fared worse in the hands of the translators, than even the poets; I never could bear to read a translation of Cicero. Demosthenes suffers I think somewhat less;-but he suffers greatly; so much, that I must say, that no English reader could well conceive from whence he had acquired the reputation of the first of orators. I am satisfied that

there is now an eminent exception to this rule, and I sincerely congratulate the public on that acquisition. I am, with the greatest truth and regard, my dear Sir,

Your most faithful and obliged humble servant, EDMUND BURKE

Of the incidents in the life of Mr. Jones during the years 1778 and 1779, I have no particular information;

formation; we may suppose his time and attention to have been principally engrossed by his professional duties and studies, and the political circumstances of the times. His own letters, always interesting, and often instructive, with those of his correspondents, contain all that I know of him during this period; the latter afford additional evidence of the esteem in which his learning, abilities, and principles were held by men of high reputation in the rank of literature.

Mr. SWINNEY to Mr. JONES.

SIR;

Pera of Constantinople, January 1, 1778. So high an opinion do I entertain of your humanity and politeness, as to persuade myself you will readily pardon the liberty I have taken of sending you a Persian and Grecian manuscript. If, on perusal of one or the other book, you shall meet with a single passage that may contribute either to your instruction or amusement, my purpose will be fully answered.

Among the real curiosities I have seen at Constantinople, is a public museum, erected at the sole expence of a most learned Grand Visir, whose name and title was Rajib Pacha. This collection contains about two thousand Arabian, Persian, and Turkish manuscripts, which, the learned say, contain vast stores of erudition. It is not improbable but I may be able, on some favourable occasion, to procure you a copy of the catalogue; and then, should you be disposed to have any of

the

the manuscripts copied, I intreat you will confer the honour upon me of executing the commission.; People assure me, but I dare not say whether with good authority or no, that the entire Decades of Livy, and the complete History of Curtius, are contained in that very precious repository: if so, who knows but majesty itself (so superlatively happy are we in a monarch who favours the arts and sciences!) may graciously condescend to command a copy of them?

Be pleased to accept of my warmest wishes for your health, prosperity, and very long life: and believe me to be (what I sincerely am) a lasting admirer of your abilities; and at the same time, dear Sir, &c. SIDNEY SWINNEY.

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Dr. STUART to Mr. JONES.

MY DEAR SIR;

3d October, 1778:

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your most obliging letter. It is impossible for me to express the value in which I hold the favourable sentiments you have conveyed to me; and above all, that strain of cordiality and friendship which accompany them. The loss of that long letter or dissertation, into which my performance was about to entice you, is a matter of infinite regret to me: but I hope that the object which then engaged more particularly your attention, and which was so worthy of it, is now within your reach; that the fates are to comply with your desires, and to place you in a scene where so much honour and so many laurels are to be won and gathered.

It affects me with a lively pleasure, that your taste has turned with a peculiar fondness to the studies of law and government on the great scale of history and manners. They have been too long in the management of enquirers; who were merely metaphysicians, or merely the retainers of courts. Their generous and liberal nature has been wounded and debased by the ininuteness of an acute but useless philosophy, and by a mean and slavish appetite for practice and wealth. It is now fit that we should have lawyers who are orators, philosophers, and historians.

But while I entreat you to accept my best thanks for your excellent letter, and express my approba→ tion of those studies of which you are enamoured, permit me, at the same time, to embrace the opportunity of making known to you the bearer of these lines. Dr. Gillies, of whom you may have heard as the translator of Lysias, has been long my warm friend and I have to recommend him to you as the possessor of qualities which are still more to his honour than extensive learning and real genius. Men who leave their compatriots behind them in the pursuits of science and true ambition, are of the same family, and ought to be known to one another.

Do me the favour, my dear Sir, to continue to afford me a place in your memory, and believe me that I shall always hear of your prosperity, your reputation, and your studies, with a peculiar and entire satisfaction.

I am now, and ever, yours, &c.

GILB. STUART.

P. S. In January or February, I am to send into the world a new work, in which I treat of the public law, and the Constitutional History of SCOTLAND. And, wherever you are, I am to transmit you one of the first copies, by Mr. Murray, of Fleet-Street.

Dean TUCKER to Mr. JONES.
DEAR SUR;

Gloucester, September 21, 1778. -When you first honoured me with your acquaintance, perhaps you was not aware what a troublesome correspondence you was bring ing yourself into. Be that as it may, I will now beg leave to avail myself of the permission which you kindly granted me of consulting you on some points. Several copies of my last tract have been in the University upwards of a fortnight; and it is probable that by this time some have vouchsafed to read it. What therefore I wish to know is, whether, in the judgment of those who have given it a perusal, I have confuted Mr. Locke's system in such a manner, that they are convinced his must be wrong, whatever else may happen to be right.. If this is not the case, that is, if I have not totally: confuted Mr. Locke, I need proceed no farther, for mine can have no chance to be true, if his is still supposed to be the only true one; and I shall very willingly give up the pursuit. But, if I have demolished his scheme, I have so far cleared the way to make room for my own, and in that case, I have one or two points to consult you about.