or that of the Duke of Guise. Hence-"forth I can have nothing to do with you "but in arms, and I will admit no inter"course between us which is not in the "highest degree hostile."

The Duke de Crillon answered :—

"SIR-Your letter restores each of us "to our place; it confirms me in the high "esteem I have always had for you. I ac"cept your last proposal with pleasure."

Sir Horace Mann shewed me the original letter which General Murray wrote to him. upon the subject, from which I made this

extract..

42. The Pretender wished for in AmerIĆA,

The Abbe Fabroni, rector of the University of Pisa, assured me that, at the commencement of the American war, he had seen letters from the Bostonians to the Pre-tender, inviting him to come and put himself at their head. I knew that the Duke de Choiseul had a design to send that Prince to America in the year 1760; but I cannot help doubting whether such determined republicans as the Bostonians would have

wished to have a prince of the House of Stuart for their Chief.

43. THE BOSTONIANS TIRED OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.

These Bostonians, a long time ago, entertained the design of withdrawing themselves from the authority of England: for M. de Bougainville told me, that when he was in Canada, he translated a letter from them to M. de Montcalm, in which they proposed to give themselves up to France.

44.

CHARACTER OF THe Pretender.

The Pretender was not so destitute of understanding as he was said to be. I have seen him several times, and had once a conversation of two hours with him. He spoke several languages well, and seemed to be extremely well acquainted with the political interests of the Courts of Europe. That which he praised least was the Court of France, of which he complained on many accounts. Besides the manner in which they had acted towards him in the expedi tion of 1745, he said that it was at the per

suasion of France that he married a princess of Stolberg; and that the Duke d'Aiguillon, who was then Minister for Foreign Affairs, had promised him, upon consideration of their marriage, a pension of 250,000 livres, which was never paid him.

45. HANNIBAL'S PASSAGE INTO ITALY.

I have studied, with Polybius in my hand, the route which Hannibal made in Italy. I cannot conceive how there should be two opinions upon the subject. Polybius was a soldier he had great abilities. He said that he made a journey over the Alps, expressly to ascertain the march of the Carthaginian general. He had conversed with the Roman generals who had carried on the war against that great man: he must have talked with the inhabitants of the Alps who had seen the army pass: his evidence is therefore unexceptionable. He says, that Hannibal passed by the country which is at the confluence of the Isire and the Rhone, or the Viennois; that thence he traversed the country of the Allobroges, which is Dauphiné, and part of Savoy; that he

descended from the Alps into the plains which are washed by the Po, and that the first city he took was Turin. Thus, according to Polybius, Hannibal took the same route which is still pursued at the present day; except that, instead of going by Mount Cenis, he passed by the mountain of Exiles. What leads me to believe this is, that all authors agree in saying, that the General, in order to encourage his army, shewed them, from the summit of a mountain, the fine fields of the country which they were going to conquer. Now, from conversations which I have frequently had with several Piedmontese officers, who are well acquainted with the Alps, I learn that it is only from the summit of the mountain of Exiles that such a view could be offered to the army. Livy agrees in making Hannibal descend by the Exiles; but he is wrong when he makes him enter by the valley of Briançon.

46. HANNIBAL DISSOLVING the Alps. From the desire of making every thing marvellous, it has been represented as a

wonder, that Hannibal had (to use the expression of some authors) dissolved the Alps with vinegar. That wonder, however, is reduced to a very simple process. It no doubt happened then, as it frequently does now, that great masses of rocks fell from the tops of the mountains, rolled into the valley, and stopped up the roads. Livy only says, that, in such cases, Hannibal had a great fire kindled round the rock; and that when it was heated he had a great quantity of vinegar poured upon it, which, insinuating itself into the veins of the rock (opened by the heat and calcined), softened it, and facilitated the means of breaking it easily. Some years ago, M. Dupla, curate of Montgaillard in the country of Foix, renewed the experiment of Hannibal; and by the same process, made a road of a hundred fathoms long, and twelve feet wide, through a hard rock, inaccessible and surrounded by precipices. This road now leads from the town of Foix to Devernajon, and other neighbouring places, and is of the greatest use to that part of the province.