"Two or three days ago, Lord Hertford wrote a very earnest letter to Mr. Grenville in my favour. I know well that, if you find an opportunity, you will second his application. The Saxon minister at the court, told my lord, that Mr. Wroughton was soon to leave Dresden. My lord has proposed that Bunbury be sent thither: if he refuses, it will be a proof that he is resolved to undertake no public service, but scandalously to live at home, and enjoy a large salary, which should belong to another. Surely if Mr. Grenville bore me never so little good-will, as a supposed Tory, he must allow this reasoning to be unanswerable.
"You have now with you Sir James Macdonald, who is too good for you, for I am afraid you will not know to value him. He leaves an universal regret behind him at Paris, among all who were acquainted with him, and in none more than myself. I am, dear sir, your faithful humble servant."[272:1]
In the following letter to Millar, we find Mallet and the Life of Marlborough, that had been promised and paid for, again the subject of speculation. Hume, though he had at one time been induced to believe that part of the work was written, seems to have on the whole indulged himself in scepticism, which, in this case at least, was well founded. The letter is dated 4th May.
"MY DEAR SIR,--As soon as I heard of poor Mallet's death,[273:1] my curiosity was excited to know, whether he had really proceeded any length in his work, or whether, as many people imagine, and as is somewhat my opinion, he had never wrote a line nor taken a note with regard to it. I beg you would make some inquiry upon that subject. The widow will be able to inform you. I should be glad to know whether any lights could be got from that quarter for the continuance of my work."[273:2]
"DEAR SIR,--I went, on Wednesday last, to be present at the examination of the Abbé Choquart's school, with which I was very well satisfied; especially for the part your young folks had in it. There were several people present who came to hear their children and relations; and when Gilbert was going through some demonstrations of geometry, with a very good grace, I asked some who sat next me, whether they could perceive him to be a foreigner? They all declared that they could not; and were very much surprised when I told them that he had not yet been in the country six months. Hugh retains still a little of a foreign accent, but it is wearing out gradually. Mr. Liston speaks so well as to be able to pass himself for a Gascon!