reader is enlightened without being oppressed, by the perspicuous brevity of the prefaces and notes. But a multitude of obstacles and delays seem to have impeded the progress of the uudertaking; and the Historians of France had only attained to the twelfth century, and the thirteenth volume, when a general deluge overwhelmed the country, and its ancient inhabitants. I might here conclude this enumeration of foreign studies, if the Scriptores Rerum Danicarum of Langebeck and his successors, which have lately appeared at Copenhagen, did not remind me of the taste and munificence of a court and country, whose scanty revenues might have apologised for their neglect.

It is long, very long indeed, since the success of our neighbours, and the knowledge of our resources, have disposed me to wish, that our Latin memorials of the middle age, the Scriptores Rerum Anglicarum, might be published in England, in a manner worthy of the subject and of the country. At a time when the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has intimately connected me with the first historians of France, I acknowledged (in a note) the value of the Benedictine collection, and expressed my hope that such a national work would provoke our own emulation. My hope has failed, the provocation was not felt, the emulation was not kindled; and I have now seen, without an attempt or a design, near thirteen years, which might have sufficed for the execution. During the greatest part of that time I have been absent from England: yet I have sometimes found opportunities of introducing this favourite topic in conversation with our literary men, and our eminent booksellers. As long as I expatiated on the merits of an undertaking, so beneficial to history, and so honourable to the nation, I was heard with attention; a general wish seemed to prevail for its success; but no sooner did we seriously consult about the best means of promoting that success, and of reducing a pleasing theory into a real action, than we were stopped, at the first step, by an insuperable difficulty-the choice of an editor. Among the authors already known to the public, none, after a fair review, could be found, at once possessed of ability and inclination. Unknown, or at least untried abilities could not inspire much reasonable confidence: some were too poor, others too rich, some too busy, others too idle: and we knew not where to seek our English Muratori; in the tumult of the metropolis, or in the shade of the university. The age of Herculean diligence, which could devour and digest whole libraries, is passed away; and I sat down in hopeless despondency, till I should be able to find a person endowed with proper qualifications, and ready to employ several years of his life in assiduous labour, without any splendid prospect of emolument or fame.

The man is at length found, and I now renew the proposal in a higher tone of confidence. The name of this editor is Mr. John Pinkerton; but as that name may provoke some resentments, and revive some prejudices, it is incumbent on me, for his reputation, to explain my sentiments without reserve; and I have the satisfaction of knowing that he will not be displeased with the freedom and sin

cerity of a friend. The impulse of a vigorous mind urged him, at an early age, to write and to print, before his taste and judgment had attained to their maturity. His ignorance of the world, the love of paradox, and the warmth of his temper, betrayed him into some improprieties, and those juvenile sallies which candour will excuse, he himself is the first to condemn, and will perhaps be the last to forget. Repentance has long since propitiated the mild divinity of Virgil, against whom the rash youth, under a fictitious name, had darted the javelin of criticism. He smiles at his reformation of our English tongue, and is ready to confess, that in all popular institutions, the laws of custom must be obeyed by reason herself. The Goths still continue to be his chosen people, but he retains no antipathy to a Celtic savage; and without renouncing his opinions and arguments, he sincerely laments that those literary arguments have ever been embittered, and perhaps enfeebled, by an indiscreet mixture of anger and contempt. By some explosions of this kind, the volatile and fiery particles of his nature have been discharged, and there remains a pure and solid substance, endowed with many active and useful energies. His recent publications, a Treatise on Medals, and the edition of the early Scotch poets, discover a mind replete with a variety of knowledge, and inclined to every liberal pursuit ; but his decided propensity, such a propensity as made Bentley a critic, and Rennell a geographer, attracts him to the study of the history and antiquities of Great Britain, and he is well qualified for this study, by a spirit of criticism, acute, discerning, and suspicious. His edition of the original Lives of the Scottish Saints, has scattered some rays of light over the darkest age of a dark country: since there are so many circumstances in which the most daring legendary will not attempt to remove the well-known landmarks of truth. His Dissertation on the Origin of the Goths, with the Antiquities of Scotland, are, in my judgment, elaborate and satisfactory works; and were this a convenient place, I would gladly enumerate the important questions in which he has rectified my old opinions concerning the migrations of the Scythic or German nation from the neighbourhood of the Caspian and the Euxine to Scandinavia, the eastern coasts of Britain, and the shores of the Atlantic ocean. He has since undertaken to illustrate a more interesting period of the history of Scotland; his materials are chiefly drawn from papers in the British Museum, and a skilful judge has assured me, after a perusal of the manuscript, that it contains more new and authentic information than could be fairly expected from a writer of the eighteenth century. A Scotchman by birth, Mr. Pinkerton is equally disposed, and even anxious, to illustrate the history of England he had long, without my knowledge, entertained a project similar to my own; his twelve letters, under a fictitious signature, in the Gentleman's Magazine (1788), display the zeal of a patriot, and the learning of an antiquarian. As soon as he was informed, by Mr. Nicol the bookseller, of my wishes and my choice, he advanced to meet me with the generous ardour of a volunteer, conscious of his strength, desirous of exercise, and careless of reward;

we have discussed, in several conversations, every material point that relates to the general plan and arrangement of the work; and I can only complain of his excessive docility to the opinions of a man much less skilled in the subject than himself. Should it be objected that such a work will surpass the powers of a single man, and that industry is best promoted by the division of labour, I must answer, that Mr. Pinkerton seems one of the children of those heroes, whose race is almost extinct; that hard assiduous study is the sole amusement of his independent leisure; that his warm inclination will be quickened by the sense of a duty resting solely on himself; and that he is now in the vigour of age and health; and that the most voluminous of our historical collections was the most speedily finished by the diligence of Muratori alone. I must add, that I know not where to seek an associate; that the operations of a society are often perplexed by the division of sentiments and characters, and often retarded by the degrees of talent and application; and that the editor will be always ready to receive the advice of judicious counsellors, and to employ the hands of subordinate workmen.

Two questions will immediately arise, concerning the title of our historical collections, and the period of time in which it may be circumscribed. The first of these questions, whether it should be styled the Scriptores Rerum Britannicarum, or the Scriptores Rerum Anglicarum, will be productive of more than a verbal difference the former imposes the duty of publishing all original documents that relate to the history and antiquities of the British islands; the latter is satisfied with the spacious, though less ample field of England. The ambition of a conqueror might prompt him to grasp the whole British world, and to think, with Cæsar, that nothing was done while any thing remained undone.

Nil actum reputans dum quid superesset agendum.

But prudence soon discerns the inconvenience of increasing a labour already sufficiently arduous, and of multiplying the volumes of a work, which must unavoidably swell to a very respectable size. The extraneous appendages of Scotland, Ireland, and even Wales, would impede our progress, violate the unity of design, and introduce into a Latin text a strange mixture of savage and unknown idiom. For the sake of the Saxon Chronicle, the editor of the Scriptores Rerum Anglicarum will probably improve his knowledge of our mother tongue; nor will he be at a loss in the recent and occasional use of some French and English memorials. But if he attempts to hunt the old Britons among the islands of Scotland, in the bogs of Ireland, and over the mountains of Wales, he must devote himself to the study of the Celtic dialects, without being assured that his time and toil will be compensated by any adequate reward. It seems to be almost confessed, that the Highland Scots do not possess any writing of a remote date; and the claims of the Welsh are faint and uncertain. The Irish alone boast of whole libraries, which they sometimes hide in the fastnesses of their country, and sometimes transport to their colleges abroad: but the vain and

credulous obstinacy with which, amidst the light of science, they cherish the Milesian fables of their infancy, may teach us to suspect the existence, the age, and the value of these manuscripts, till they shall be fairly exposed to the eye of profane criticism. This exclusion, however, of the countries which have since been united to the crown of England must be understood with some latitude: the Chronicle of Melross is common to the borderers of both kingdoms: the Expugnatio Hiberniæ of Giraldus Cambrensis contains the interesting story of our settlement in the western isle; and it may be judged proper to insert the Latin Chronicle of Caradoc, (which is yet unpublished,) and the code of native laws which were abolished by the conqueror of Wales. Even the English transactions in peace and war with our independent neighbours, especially those of Scotland, will be best illustrated by a fair comparison of the hostile narratives. The second question, of the period of time which this collection should embrace, admits of an easier decision; nor can we act more prudently, than by adopting the plan of Muratori, and the French Benedictines, who confine themselves within the limits of ten centuries, from the year 500 to the year 1500 of the Christian æra. The former of these dates coincides with the most ancient of our national writers; the latter approaches within nine years of the accession of Henry VIII., which Mr. Hume "I considers as the true and perfect æra of modern history. From that time we are enriched, and even oppressed, with such treasures of contemporary and authentic documents in our own language, that the historian of the present or a future age will be only perplexed by the choice of facts, and the difficulties of arrangement. Exoriatur aliquis—a man of genius, at once eloquent and philosophic, who should accomplish, in the maturity of age, the immortal work which he had conceived in the ardour of youth.

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INDEX.