August. On the 18th of October, the Company of Goldsmiths voted "twenty-five pounds a year, that gross mistake, in affirming, that there is not any one letter, that passed between Queen Mary of Scotland and Queen Elizabeth and her Ministers, preserved in any of our Archives or Repositories of public Papers; when, if he had ever looked into the press in that Office marked SCOTLAND, an hundred labels would have offered themselves to his sight, put on different bundles, and expressing them to be letters from those very persons to one another in different years from 1569 to 1587. In this Office are preserved the Letters of all our Embassadors in Foreign Courts, and the Dispatches of the Lords of the Privy Council, of the Clerks of the Council, and of our Secretaries of State to those Embassadors, in a constant series, from the time of Edward IV. down to the Revolution, in a regular order; besides a great number of original Treaties and other papers, which will be found exceeding useful for an English History. It will appear strange to every one, who considers how necessary these are for the right understanding of our negotiations abroad, and our transactions with foreign states, that no Historian hath yet made any use of the papers in this Office.It is highly fitting, that a writer of the History of any kingdom should be in a good measure acquainted with the constitution, history, interests, and situation of the countries adjoining, with which there is a continual intercourse of friendly or hostile transactions. The Records likewise of all Countries for the same reason furnish abundance of Memoirs for the History of their Neighbours. This I have found particularly in France, where the territories which our Kings held of that Crown obliged them to a perpetual Correspondence; as the oppressions which the provinces subject to England suffered from their Governors caused continual representations and complaints of grievances to the Kings of France or the Parlement of Paris, and gave occasion to those quarrels that broke out so often into open wars. I have likewise seen, in the Negotiations of the French Embassadors in England, much better accounts of passages in our Court, of the characters of the great men about it, and of transactions in this kingdom, than I have yet seen in any of our Histories. I have by me some transcripts of these Negotiations: I have read others; and as the French are careful to preserve in their families all the acts of their ancestors, it is easy enough to procure them for at least 200 years past. These materials for an History of England are mentioned, not only as the most necessary and useful for that purpose, but also as serving to point out the reason, why we have hitherto wanted a good one; which I would fain think to be, not so much a dread of the labour requisite for such a work, as the greatness of the expence in procuring these materials; an expence which no private person is able to support. But what a single man cannot do, may easily be done by a Society. The world for seven years, towards the charge of transcripts of records, negotiations, &c." and in December the world seems to be satisfied of the use of such Societies in other cases. There is one lately formed for the Encouragement of Learning; and as the very nature of the materials to be procured shews the necessity of another in the present case, it is hoped that a Society may be likewise formed to encourage the writing of an History of England; which, notwithstanding the great expence of the necessary materials, &c. will not perhaps cost more annually, than an Opera Subscription hath done of late years; though this serves only for the transient amusement of some winter evenings to particular persons, whereas a good History founded on such materials will be a lasting benefit to the publick. It may not be improper to observe farther, that no time should be lost in setting about such a work, because many materials are daily decaying and perishing; and those in private hands are subject to various accidents, besides that of fire, which lately made such destruction in the Cotton Library; and that, when a Work of this nature is undertaken upon public encou ragement, every private person who hath any useful materials for it will (as I have already experienced) be disposed to open his treasures, and communicate them for the public good, and for advancing the perfection of a Work that may do some honour to his country. T. CARTE." The preceding Proposals were dated March 4, 1736-7; the Advertisement, dated August 9, 1744, was thus expressed : "Six years are passed, since I published 4 general Account of the necessary Materials for a History of England, and of the Method wherein I proposed to carry on that Work. The vast expence of procuring those materials, too heavy for any private person to support, rendered it necessary to attempt the raising of a fund sufficient to defray it, by the contribution of public bodies as well as of particular persons for that purpose. It was proposed that the Contributors should form themselves into a Society, and choose a Treasurer, for receiving their respective contributions, and for issuing out money to defray the necessary charges of transcripts, &c. in such form, manner, and propor tion, as shall be directed in a General Meeting of the Society, or by a Committee of Contributors chosen out of the whole Body for those purposes, as well as for overseeing the progress of the Work.' As it is highly fitting that every Contributor should have entire satisfaction given him in all those respects, it was provided in the instrument drawn up to be signed by the Subscribers, that Reports thereof should be made from time to time by the Committee to the General Assembly; and each Contribu tor, in case he found any ground of exception, should be at liberty to withdraw his contribution whenever he pleased or should think fit to notify the same. The Undertaker of that History, for which the most important and chargeable materials were to be thus provided, had engaged in it out of no motive - but Companies of Grocers and Vintners subscribed twenty-five pounds a year each for the same purpose. -- but public spirit, and with no view but that of doing service to his Country. He was ready to bring all the knowledge he had acquired in the different studies of his life, and all the observations he had made in the course of thirty years searching into the Records, the Antiquities, and the History of this Nation; and to employ all his time and labour for the future, towards carrying on the said Work: but he resolved to touch none of the Contributors' money; and the Regulations above mentioned shew plainly, that he had no view of any private advantage to himself, The world in general was so well satisfied of the fairness of the Proposals, and so fully convinced of the necessity of a general contribution for raising a fund answerable to the expences requisite for procuring the materials mentioned in the said General Account, that a great many Noblemen and Gentlemen, actuated by a public spirit rarely equalled in any country, subscribed their twenty and ten guineas a year, for the space of seven years, towards the charges of the said materials, and of the amanuenses necessary for the greater dispatch of the Work.But, as the sums subscribed by particular persons did not appear sufficient for the needful expences, it was thought proper to take in the assistance of Corporate Bodies, and to apply particularly to the City of London, in which the most generous encouragers of all publie works have been ever found, and whose example might probably have a proper influence upon others. The State of the Case, and the Account of the necessary Materials, were accordingly communicated to the greatest part of the Representative Body of that City; and there seemed a general disposition in all parties to encourage the undertaking, and to subscribe a considerable yearly sum in the name of the City. But the affair of the Mansion-house having at that time given occasion to various disputes, and raised great animosities among the Citizens, it was thought advisable by those who were most zealous in promoting the subscription (which at any other time would not, in their opinion, meet with the least opposition) to defer the motion to a more favourable opportunity. - "Till that opportunity offered, I resolved to go on with the work at my own expence; which has been much greater than is proper for me to mention, or can be easily conceived by others: and have dedicated to it all the time I have since had to command. I went to Paris, where, through the humanity and friendship of the learned Abbé Sallier, keeper of the Royal Library, I had an opportunity of perusing all those materials for an English History, which are taken notice of in the General Account, p. 23. He lent me all the manuscripts of that Library, which I had occasion for; and, upon my simple note of receipt, sent them home to my lodgings, by four or five, and sometimes more, volumes at a time; so desirous are they abroad to make their Libraries use Mr. Carte's Proposals for printing his "History of England" were circulated in 1746; and the first useful to the world; and such a facility do learned men meet with in that Country, in having the most curious manuscripts, that can contribute to any public work they have undertaken, communicated to them, with all the saving of time and circumstances of convenience that they can desire. There I read over several volumes of original Letters wrote by our English as well as other Princes of Europe to the Kings of France, the instructions given to French Embassadors sent into England and other countries, Dispatches of their Ministers of State, abundance of other Memoirs relative to cur History, and several antient Chronicles and Annals of English affairs, which are to be seen in that Library, the best furnished with manuscripts of any in Europe. There I copied Robert Wace's History of the Dukes of Normandy and the Conquest of England, from a manuscript of the Author's age; and a great many Treaties between the Crowns of France and Scotland, and even England, which are not printed in Rymer. There I perused all the Letters and Negotiations of the French Embassadors in England mentioned in the Catalogue at the end of my General Account, from the year 1396 to 1660, and those of Signor Valarezzo, and other Venetian Embassadors at the Court of England in the time of King James I.; all which are preserved in that Library; except some few, which I met with in private hands, or copied from other libraries. — Of this last sort are the Negotiations of M. D'Effiat in 1624 and 1625, of M. de Monstreuil from 1646 to 1650, and of Antoine de Neuville Sieur de Bordeaux from 1652 to 1660, which I copied from the Manuscripts in the Library of S. Germain des Prez. The three brothers Antoine, Francois, and Gilles de Noailles, ancestors of the present Mareschal of that name, were embassadors here, during all the reign of Queen Mary and the first year and half of Queen Elizabeth. Their letters and negotiations are only to be found in the Cabinet of the Mareschal de Noailles; and are so very valuable that Anisson, the bookseller on the Quay des Augustins at Paris, offered his Grace thirty thousand livres for a copy thereof, in order to print them. The Mareschal refused the offer; yet, by a wonderful generosity, allowed me to take a copy of all those Negotiations, without any condition, but the obliging one of sending him a copy of my History, when it was published. The Letters and Negotiations of Bertrand de Salignac Sieur de la Mothe-Fenelon, who resided eight years at the court of Queen Elizabeth, and was embassador here from the beginning of A. D. 1569 to 1576, are only in the hands of the present Marquess de Fenelon. They take up five large volumes closely wrote in folio, and contain an infinite number of curious passages; particularly in relation to Queen Mary of Scotland, a great many of whose letters are there inserted. The Marquess coming, in the Lent of 1740, from his embassy in Holland, to pass three "volume was actually completed in December 1747; when unluckily the credit of the whole was over three or four weeks at Paris in settling his private affairs, I applied to him for the use of those Volumes, which he very kindly granted; and I would gladly have copied them entirely: but, he expecting every day to be ordered back to the Hague, I was apprehensive that I should not have time enough for a transcript, and was therefore forced to content myself with making extracts of all the material passages and principal circumstances therein, though I yet made them as ample as the time would allow. I was, for another reason, full as cogent, I mean the want of ability to defray the charge of entire transcripts, obliged to take up with the like extracts of the Negotiations of several of the Embassadors mentioned in the aforesaid list; that is, of such as resided here in settled times; for as to those who resided at this Court in times of revolution, as Mess's de Noailles at the time of the Reformation, and Messrs de Sabran, de Monstreuil, and de Bordeaux, who were here during the confusions and usurpations that happened between 1641 and 1660, I have been ever careful to take entire copies of their Negotiations. As for the last seven or eight French embassadors in England after the year 1660 mentioned in the aforesaid list, their Negotiations are not in the King of France's Library, nor even in the hands of any of their descendants; for I spared no pains in enquiring after them among every branch of their families. P. Le Long indeed, in his Bibliotheque Historique de la France, says of those of M. de Colbert in 1672, and of M. de Colbert Croissy in 1668 and 1669, that they were in the Library of the late M. de Colbert Croissy, Bishop of Montpelier: but M. de Torcy himself, to whom that Prelate had left his library, on condition of paying a sum of money to an Hospital, and to whom I applied for them, told me it was a mistake; and that they had been delivered up to Louis XIV. (which I am persuaded was the general practice in that Prince's reign), and were now only to be found in the Depot pour les affaires etrangeres. This Depot answers to our Paper Office in England, and is under the direction of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who appoints the Keeper of it. It is kept over the West Gatehouse of the Old Louvre, in several chambers; there being a distinct one allotted to the negotiations of each Country. That for England is full of treaties, negotiations, and letters of einbassadors at the court of London, from the time of Philip Augustus to the present age. These are kept in great order, and very well preserved; not tied up in bundles (as those in our Paper Office are) but always ready for use, bound up in volumes, with very good tables to each volume, and a general table to the whole, so well digested, that a Minister may, by looking into it and calling for the volumes to which it refers, inform himself in an hour's time of all that has ever been transacted or determined, with regard to any disputed claim, right, possession, place, or cere |