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Majesty's Castle has been thought of; for devine services and sermons are in all the churches performed in French, and those few of us that understand French are often hindered from atending "because we are surrounded by the sea seven or eight hours every "tide; so, if our Chaplain is taken from us, they have onley considered "this garyson as those in Britain, that have not those inconveniences (6 we have The tender regard I have for our Chaplain and his numbrous fameley makes me pressing for your "protection to him."

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AMMUNITION for MILITIA of ARGYLE.

1715, September 26th. Accompt of Ammunition given out of the Castle of Inveraray for the use of the Militia of Argyle.

REMOVAL of ARMS to EDINBURGH.

1717, June 12th, Edinburgh. Letter from George. Carpenter, esq., Colonel of the King's own Regiment of Dragoons, Govenour of Minorca and Lieut-General and Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty's Forces in North Britain, to Colonel Oliver Brook, or the officer commanding five companies of General Wightman's Regiment at Glasgow; Giving orders and instructions for moving arms from Inveraray to Edinburgh Castle.

MONEYS COINED at the MINT.

1717, November 23rd, Mint Office. Copy of official letter from Sir Isaac Newton, knt., Master and Worker of His Majesty's Mint to the Rt. Hon. the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury: Prepared for and submitted to their Lordships in obedience to their Order of Reference of the 19th instant, requiring an Account of all gold and silver coyned in the last fifteen yeares, with statement of how much thereof hath been coyned out of plate upon publick encouragements, and of what copper money hath been newly coyned. With respect to the coinage of gold and silver, the writer says that "since Christmas "170 to the 19th instant there hath been coyned in gold 7,127,835 "pounds in tale recconing 44 guineas to a pound weight Troy and "21s. 6d. to a guinea; and in silver 223,380 pounds sterling, recconing "31. 2s. to a pound weight Troy, and that part of this silver, amounting "to 143,086 pounds sterling, was coyned out of English plate imported upon public encouragement in the yeares 1709 and 1711, another part amounting to 13,3421. was coyned out of Vigo plate in the years 1703 "and 1704, and another part amounting to 45,7321. was coyned from "silver extracted from our own lead ore, and the rest, amounting to 21,2201. was coyned chiefly out of old plate melted down by goldsmiths, "and some of it out of pieces of eight."

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ORDER for EXECUTION of LAWS against PAPISTS and NON-JURORS.

1722, May 9th, Council Chamber at St. James's. Official copy of a letter from Lords of the Council to his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, Custos Rotulorum for the county of Middlesex; Requiring his Grace "to signify his Majesty's pleasure to the Justices of the Peace of" the

said "County that they do with the utmost diligence put the laws in "execucion against papists, reputed papists and non-jurors, being

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dangerous to his Majesty's Government, and that they tender to "them the said Oaths and Declaracions and take from them their "horses and arms, and use their utmost endeavours to confine "them to their usual habitacions in such manner as by law is directed, "and that the said Justices do likewise use their utmost endeavours to prevent and suppress all riots, tumults and unlawfull assemblies . . .” the letter having been written, because "his Majestie hath received "repeated and unquestionable advices that several of his subjects, forgetting the allegiance they owe to his Majestie, as well as the "natural love they ought to bear to their country, have entered into a wicked conspiracy in concert with traitours abroad for raising a "rebellion in this kingdom, in favour of a popish pretender with a "traiterous design to overthrow our excellent constitucion in Church "and State."

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GEORGE I. to the DUCHESS-DOWAGER OF SAVOY.

1722-3, February 28th, St. James's Palace. Letter announcing the birth of the fourth daughter of the writer's "très chere Belle Fille la Princesse de Galles." Letter of secretarial penmanship, with autograph subscription and signature.

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CHARGES for building BLENHEIM PALACE and ST. PAUL'S
CATHEDRAL.

[circ. 1724.] Copy of a letter from Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, to a gentleman, whose name does not appear, touching the charges for building Blenheim Palace, and the disputes respecting the same. "And," says the writer, if it should come out, that the mony receivd "and paid on account of the building of St. Paul's exceeds that Blenheim, it will be of great use to have that fact clearly stated to "the Court. As likewise (but Lofft has already done that in his paper "for you) that 1,500l. a year was swallowed up by four officers at "Blenheim, that is, Joynes and Robart for controlling the works, and "Travers and Tailor as paymasters, all which offices were faithfully and "satisfactorily discharged by one man in the joint capacity of "Comptroller of the Works and Paymaster at St. Pauls for 1007. a year."

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COMMISSIONS for PURCHASE of BOOKS.

1725, November 2nd, Hague. Letter from David Randie to Bryan Fairfax, esq., one of the Commissioners of his Majesty's Customs, at his house in Panton Square, London; Giving particulars of the prices of books which the writer has been commissioned by Mr. Bryan Fairfax to buy for him.

1749, April

FIREWORKS in ST. JAMES'S PARK.

A description of the machine and firework to be exhibited in Saint James's Park Thursday the 27th of April 1749, on

account of the General Peace, signed at Aix la Chappelle, 7th October 1748. Probably prepared by an official hand for the use of his Majesty George II. during the display of fireworks, about which Horace Walpole wrote to Sir Horace Mann on May 3rd 1749, this manuscript in a floreated paper wrapper was at one time in the library of George III., whose book-plate appears on the inside of the opening leaf of the cover.

DECLARATION of JAMES, DUKE OF MONMOUTH.

1767, June 3rd. Copy (made on the said day, of a manuscript copy made for Dr. Thomas Percy, and belonging on the said day to Dr. Gregory Sharpe, Master of the Temple) of "The declaration of "James Duke of Monmouth and the Noblemen, Gentlemen and others, "now in arms for Defence and Vindication of the Protestant Religion, "and Laws Rights and Privileges of England from the invasion made upon them: and for the delivering the Kingdom from the Usurpation "and Tyranny of James Duke of York." A copy of the famous Declaration, that agrees almost to word and letter with the printed copy in "The Western Martyrology or Bloody Assizes, 1705.”

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AFFLICTION of a MARYLAND APPRENTICE.

1775, April 21st, Maryland. Curious and painful letter, written from Maryland U.S.A. by Samuel Freeman, to a friend in England, in which the writer describes his miserable condition as the servant, bound for four years' service, of a small planter in Maryland, who is treating him with extreme harshness and cruelty. "On the 21st of last October" says the writer, "I got up early in the morning, not "thoro' sensible but very near distracted and apply'd at one Daniels Office at No. 5 Cook's Court, Camomile Street, Bishopgate, for a passage to Maryland in North America, and went on board same day "the Sophia, Captain Carmichael, and after a passage of eight weeks "arrived at Baltimore. In the passage I was treated very genteely by "the Captain, and wanted for nothing. On the day of the 26th "December then following, I was sold (contrary to my expectation) to a planter up in the country about 14 miles fram any town for four years for 301. for my passage, where I am treated more like a dog "than a Christian." The letter gives a vivid picture of the suffering and wrongs sometimes endured by an English emigrant to an American Plantation, who, in consideration of a free passage, had agreed to become the bondservant for a term of years to any planter, to whom he should be assigned by the owner of the ship, by which he made the voyage to the colony.

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PROPOSALS for CULTIVATION of WASTE LANDS.

1796, January 11th, Whitehall. Letter from Sir John Sinclair to ; Accompanying some enclosed "Observations explanatory of "the nature and principles of two bills to be brought into parliament, for "the cultivation and improvement of the waste lands, commons, and 66 common fields of the Kingdom," with respect to which legislative proposals Sir John wishes to have the opinions of his correspondent and "the magistrates of the county." The writer also observes, "I have "the pleasure of adding that there is every prospect of procuring an object which has been so anxiously wished for, namely a General

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"Inclosure Bill

The principle (sic) of the bill is to "render it unnecessary to make application for private Acts, which are "attended with such expence, and to facilitate inclosures by voluntary agreement amongst the parties interested."

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JEAN JACQUES CASANOVA to the GRÄFIN VON DER RECKE.

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1798, April 30th. Dux. Speaking in a later paragraph with more disagreeable flippancy of his broken health, the literary adventurer remarks in the opening lines of the epistle. "Il m'est impossible, divine Elise, de resister davantage à vos trop pressantes instances. Si je ne peux pas vous recevoir, je dois du moin me justifier. Je "suis administré et pour vu de tous les passeports spirituels necessaires " à un chretien pour entrer apres cette vie terrestre dans le sejour des "bien-heureux immortels; mais je ne voudrois pas que des circonstances se melassent de cet assez serieux voyage. La mort est une dette qu'il "est permis à un homme d'honneur de ne pas payer volontiers, car ce "n'est pas lui qui l'a contracté mais la maitresse nature sans "permission. Voici donc la raison historique qui me defend de recevoir "des visites." The letter is signed-" Casanova mourant.”

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JOANNA SOUTHCOTT, the RELIGIOUS VISIONARY.

sa

1804-1820. Four letters by Joanna Southcott (two of them in the handwriting of her amanuensis Ann Underwood, and a third in the handwriting of Jane Townley), dated respectively April 7th 1804, August 6th 1805, November 8th, 1805, and April 25th, 1810; together with a letter by the hand of George Turner, an enthusiastic disciple of the illiterate visionary, who raised herself from the condition of servant girl to that of a religious teacher with a hundred thousand believers in her prophetical quality.

LORD NELSON to LADY HAMILTON.

1805, September 16th, Victory off Portland. Characteristic letter from Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton, in which the writer declares he loves and adores the addressee "to the very excess of the passion," bids her kiss dear dear Horatia a thousand times for him, and observes “I "write this letter and I fear I shall too soon have an opportunity of sending it, for we are standing near Weymouth, the place of all others "I should wish to avoid, but if it continues moderate I hope to escape "without anchoring, but should I be forced I shall act as a man and your Nelson, neither courting or ashamed to hold up my head before "the greatest monarch in the world. I have, thank God, nothing to be "ashamed of."

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SERJEANTS AT LAW and COURT OF COMMON PLEAS,

1834, April 24th, St. James's.-Mandate (on parchment) under the sign-manual of William IV., addressed to Lord Brougham and Vaux, the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, ordering and directing "that the “right of practising, pleading, and audience in the Court of Common "Pleas during term time shall upon and from the first day of Trinity now next ensuing cease to be exercised exclusively by the Serjeants

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"at Law and that upon and from that day" the King's Council learned in the Law and all other Barristers at Law shall and may according to their respective rank and seniority have and exercise equal right and privilege of practising pleading and audience in the said Court of Common Pleas at Westminster; It being also ordered that Vitruvius Lawes, Thomas D'Oyley, Thomas Peake, William St. Julien Arabin, John Adams, Thomas Andrewes, Henry Storks, Ebenezer Ludlow, John Scriven, Henry John Stephen, Charles Carpenter Bompas, Edward Goulburn, George Heath, John Taylor Coleridge and Thomas Noone Talfourd, Serjeants-at-Law, shall from henceforth according to their respective seniority amongst themselves have rank, place, and audience in all our Courts of Law and equity next after John Balguy esquire, one of the King's Council learned in the Law.

XI. D'EON PAPERS.

Though he is not to be rated with the historical celebrities of his period, but should rather be described as a curious impostor, the Chevalier Charles Genevieve Louise Auguste André Thimothée D'Eon de Beaumont made during many years so great a figure and stir in France and England, that his papers possess enough of historical interest to justify me in speaking of them at the close of my report on Mr. J. Eliot Hodgkin's collection of manuscripts. In the opening stages of his career, by turns a soldier and a diplomatist in the service of Louis XV. of France, he had. distinguished himself by courage and soldierlike address in at least one affair of military moment, and had displayed diplomatic tact in a delicate negotiation at the Court of Russia, before he came to this country in 1763 as the secretary of the French ambassador, the Duc de Nivernois, after whose return to France in the same year he figured for a brief time as minister-plenipotentiary of Louis XV. in London. Indignant at the slight put upon him by the appointment of the Count de Guerchy to succeed the Duc de Nivernois, albeit he was invited to act as the new ambassador's secretary, he turned resentfully on both the minister and his sovereign, and revealed matters touching the French Court, which he should have kept from publicity, whilst he assailed De Guerchy with satire, that moved the Court to seek protection from the Court of King's Bench. From that time the Chevalier D'Eon passed by degrees from discredit to scandalous disrepute, though, even to the year of his death in poverty and extreme old age in London, he continued to receive some measure of countenance and pecuniary aid from persons, whom he had interested in his brighter time, and who to the last were more disposed to regard him with amusement and pity than to judge him severely for his failings. Having in his earlier time assumed the character and dress of a woman, whilst he was serving Louis XV. in Russia, he in the later stages of a discreditable career found his chief employment and delight in the persistent imposture, that caused many people to think him a woman, until a post mortem examination put an end to all doubt about his sex.

D'EON'S FIRST JOURNEY to PETERSBURG.

1756, May 21st. Passport granted by Louis XV. to D'Eon, in view of the Chevalier's first journey from Paris to Petersburg.-A document of some importance to inquirers who would fix the date of a journey about which biographers have differed.