giad to give you any fatisfaction in my power. Your plain dealing, in efpoufing the caufe of your friend, pleases me infinitely more than thofe narrow hearted back-bitings, of which fome other gentlemen here, at Weimar, have given me inconteftible proofs. I love franknefs, and shall be always glad to fhew it, if I have been induced into error or given offence inadvertently. So much for Mr. Robifon. As for the other points of which you complain, much may be faid on both fides. Pray do not imagine, Sir, that I would be foolish enough to bid defiance to the whole miniftry and administration of your country. I have given proofs enough that I am a firm adherent to all measures which will crush anarchy and re-establish a firm and loyal government in France. I have been an avowed admirer of Pitt, till that unhappy period when he haughtily refused all pacific openings with Bonaparte. I cannot deny, that from that period I deteft a warfare which feems rather calculated to forge golden chains than to deliver us from iron ones. It is poffible that I have been influenced and biaffed by these internal convictions in writing the lines with which you are diffatisfied. But millions of my poor countrymen (numbers of whom are now butchered only for the English intereft) are now sharing my opinions, and would tell it in far harfher terms, if they could give words and utterance to their fentiments. You tell me I am mifguided in calling Barruel falarié; but be pleased to obferve, that I did not fay he was payed on purpofe for diffeminating fuch lies and calumnies, but only that he had a falary. Now you cannot be ignorant what great fums are weekly difburfed, by your government, to the Catholic priests who took fhelter in your country. Pray is that no falary? I am far from blaming the true elevated generofity of England in adminiftering any help to any description of men driven from their country. But Barruel emigrated voluntarily, having collected materials for his atrocious work, part of which were furnished him by his fellow-alarmifts, the Jefuits of Vienna; and that he was countenanced and encouraged by the highest approbation, he himself told repeatedly; all which fhall be fhewn by letters I have received from Vienna and London. A very interesting one is printed in the prefent number of the Mercury. You will remember likewife, Sir, that Barruel's work has been quoted and referred to with the highest encomiums in the British Senate, by fuch members who fide with the miniftry, and on fuch occafions as were highly derogatory to the intereft of the German literati. All this proves, pretty well, that he is a party writer of the most fervid kind, and that only I intended to affert. Perhaps I have employed fome improper expreffions, and, in that cafe, I am ready to acknowledge my fault, and to infert some few lines, on the impoffibility that miniftry would bribe partizans in order to write for their interests, if you will make it good by fuch proofs as will convince Germans. Thefe, Sir, are my brief confeffions, which I fhall give more at large if fome proper opportunity offers. If real injury be done, I fhall be ready to make all poffible amends for it. I am neither head-ftrong nor felf-conceited, and shall be exceedingly indebted to you, if by your

APPENDIX, VOL. VI.

Ss

able

able vindications some men very low, in general opinion, may be raised and cleared of all foul afperfions, imprudence, or malignity may have thrown on their characters. Animofity cannot agree with impartial truth. I fhall make a fhift to lay it afide, and hope you will follow my example. Accordingly, I fhall call you my friend as before, and am, and ever will be, with the highest esteem,

I HAVE been prevented, by various avocations, from returning an immediate answer to yours, of the 17th, which I received on Tuefday laft. When I took the liberty of making a few remarks on your poftfcript, in the April Mercury, I was far from intending to call in queftion your right to form a different opinion from me on the fubjects in queftion. I readily approve of the motives which have prompted you to defend the afhes of your friend, against the afperfions of foreigners, and I intended only, on my part, to find fault with the manner in which you treated Mr. Robifon and the British administration, as, from your mode of expreffion, it appeared to me calculated only to excite the contempt of the whole German nation against the one, and their indignation, mixed with contempt, against the other. It is certainly very unfortunate for the intérefts of truth, and of that mutual moderation which it is the intereft, as well as the duty, of all men to cherish, that our paffions fo often mislead us into unjust and unneceffary warmth, which too generally prevents all poffibility of accommodation. This is a cenfure to which I fufpect all parties, to which, perhaps, all men are more or less liable. There is certainly no other means for accounting for the unjuft calumnies of certain perfons, in Edinburgh, against Mr. Robifon, as if, because he is in bad health, he had therefore loft his judgment; as if, because he has written against what he conceived to be an abuse of science, he were, therefore, an enemy of true fcience; and as if, because he abhors the French Revolution, he were, therefore, the champion of flavery. I had obferved fome hollow whispers to this effect before I left Scotland, and I cannot help obferving, that they who circulated them, or communicated them to you, would have acted with infinitely higher honour, and would have ferved more efficaciously the interefts of truth, and of the German literati, if by demanding of you, and others, the neceffary information, they had entered into an open and honourable conteft with the profeffor himself. I am by no means enlifting myself here as the champion of Mr. Robifon's book. It is his character, as a gentleman and a scholar only, which I feel myself entitled to defend, and whatever particular errors he may have fallen into, I maintain that an impartial perufal of his

book

book will exhibit him in an honourable point of view, both as a man, a citizen, and a philofopher. Of his abilities as a fcholar, and of his qualities as a man or a gentleman, you may receive the most ample information from his numerous fcholars and acquaintance, and from every impartial man who knows him. If the laft fix volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica (a work which has had an immenfe fale in Britain and America) have reached Germany, the numerous, extenfive, and interefting articles which will there be found, and which came from his pen, as I know perfonally, when he laboured under the fevereft bodily diftrefs, will amply prove the nature, the extent, and accuracy of his acquirements, and that he who wrote them cannot be the contemptible being which he has been represented to you. I by no means intended to change your opinion with respect to Mr. Pitt's conduct in rejecting the propofals of peace made by Bonaparte: but whilft I allow a full liberty to others to form what opinion they please, and am ever difpofed to give them credit for fincerity and honest views, I demand, in return, that the fame juftice be paid to Mr. Pitt and his adherents. The conduct of Bonaparte, fince November laft, has, in general, been highly refpectable, and, perhaps, it is fo much his intereft to continue, as he has thus begun, that peace might have been fafely made with him. Still, however, the British government cannot be feverely blamed; cannot juftly be exhibited as the enemy of the human race, or as wishing to bind the world in chains of gold, if it doubts the fincerity of a man, whose character has been fullied by numerous acts of cruelty, of falsehood, and want of principle, and who seems, from his private letters, to be still refolutely determined to feize the firft favourable opportunity of realizing his baffled fchemes of ambition. War is ever a dreadful refource, but it may eafily be conceived that a government may, without any crime, rather determine on the profecution of a war already exifting, than, by granting a refpite to a deceitful and ambitious enemy, run the risk of a renewal of it a few months after, at every disadvantage. Certain I am that the prefent war has cruelly deranged thofe patriotic projects of Mr. Pitt, in which he was defirous of placing the chief glory of his administration, I mean the leffening of the national debt: nor after the numerous unhappy changes which have fucceffively taken place in France for fome years back, can it be deemed furprizing if he refufes to truft himself, all at once, to the faith of an ufurper of so short a date, whose former conduct fo little correfponds to his prefent profeffions. Nor do I imagine it can be juftly faid, that the war is, at present, continued for the intereft of England. Auftria, had the nothing to fear or hope herself, or if decent terms had been propofed, would have made her peace and laughed at the English intereft, as fhe did once already. Germany, unquestionably, fuffers feverely, and if the French proceed as they have done fince the campaign commenced, it will be to be lamented that fhe did not accept the offers of Bonaparte. But even virtuous statesmen may have thought it worth their while to attempt to humble, if poffible, the haughty fpirit of Republican

Ss 2

France,

France, which, by difuniting, ha too often infulted, the German nation, and which, by retaining her conquefts to the Rhine, will continue to be a powerful and dangerous neighbour. By expreffing these hints, I am far from withing that you fhould give your affent to them; but I would contend, that the minifter, who is directed by fuch or by fimilar motives, though he may be wrong, may, at the fame time, be both fincere and honeft. The French Revolu tion has fo fhaken the foundations of fociety that it is fcarcely to be wondered at if ftatesmen dread even its fhadow, till they shall find themfelves completely free from its influence. I cannot agree with your explanation of the word falarié. I cannot allow, that because the French priefts are preferved from ftarving by the British government, thofe of them who write on the revolution can be juftly denominated the penfioned minions of the crown. I have no faith in Barruel's integrity, that is, i believe that the violence of his party spirit throws a malignant meaning over facts which are perfectly innocent. But I am very much inclined to believe, that fuch a man must have been driven from France; and I think, in his hiftory of the fufferings of the clergy, he afferts and proves as much; fince his life was frequently in the moft imminent danger, That he might affert his being countenanced and encouraged by the highest approbation is eafily conceived. If he waited on any of the minifters, and gave an account of his intended work, they, of courfe, had it not in their power to contradict him his information, if juft, muft appear to them to be curious and interefting, and they might tell him to proceed, which the vanity of an author, mixed, perhaps, with the fanaticifin of party, might transform into the highest approbation. I by no means conceive it neceffary to prove to the conviction of GERMANS, that the British miniftry does not bribe literary partizans, because I presume that it belongs first to the accufer to make good his accufation before any defence can juftly be required. I can only fay, that the ftrongest probabilities are on my fide, and that I know fome of the warmeft and ableft advocates of adminiftration who never received a fixpence, nor the moft diftant mark of approbation, from Mr. Pitt or any of his colleagues; and perhaps a foreigner, whom you know, and with whose independence you are well acquainted, may furnifh you with fome facts on the fame fubject, which may convince you that the British miniftr is not fo apt to bribe writers, nor even to protect them, as is generally prefumed. In the courfe of next week I fhall fend you, if I can get them tranflated into German, fome remaks in vindication of Mr. Robifon, to be inferted in the New German Mercury. In writing my former letter, I had. not the fmallest intention of exciting your animofity or my own. I was hurt, indeed, at the manner in which you treated Mr. Robifon, and in which you fpoke of my country; but I confidently expected from your juftice and your love of truth. that you would hearken to the other fide of the queftion. I therefore accept, and shall expect, the continuance of your friendship. And am, &c.

JAMES WALKER.

ΤΟ

THE SIXTH VOLUME.