You ask me respecting what accounts have been published of the revolutions in S America.

A great many very bad ones I believe; those which I have seen abound in gross errors, & are written under the strongest prejudices. Two volumes by a true-bred Yankee, Brackenbridge by name, which cost me six shillings at one of the cheap shops in Holburn, contain more about Buenos Ayres than I have seen elsewhere:

The Report of the American Commissioners I have not seen: but it would probably (reading it with due allowance) be found to contain more information than any other work which has yet appeared.

I believe nothing has been published concerning Peru & that side of the continent, but what these works contain. The books relating to Venezuela come chiefly from disappointed adventurers, – men not quite bad enough for the service in which they engaged: & they give a much clearer view of their own worthlessness & the barbarity of all parties, than of the course of events.

I can hear of no accounts of what has past in the Nuevo Reyno, Popayan & Quito.

Two Spanish volumes about Mexico were printed in London in                    , & I obtained a copy when I was told there were not above half a dozen reserved for sale here.

It pretended to be history, but proved to be little better than controversial matter not worth the trouble of unravelling. An English Book concerning that country was lately advertised.

– Your general view I believe to be perfectly just. And there is this additional cause for mournful reflection, that had the colonists quietly waited for the course of events, & contented themselves with that comparative freedom of trade which could not have been withheld from them, they would at this time have obtained all they have been struggling for, & without the dreadful price which has been paid for it.

You will see that I had written thus far before yours of the 31^st arrived. Whatever part of this money Hartley may think proper to remit to his mother, would, I am perfectly sure, be retained by her for his use, in the belief that it will then be expended with more consideration than if it were in his own hands.

I suppose he excuses himself for not having written a single line to her, in reply to her urgent letters, since his disappearance, by the thought of having the issue of this negociation to communicate. If there were any intention of the whole family settling together, this sum might be most usefully expended in furtherance of such a plan. But I am not aware that any thought of the kind has been entertained; but if M^r Gillman

is tired of his inmate (which I suspect he is) it may possibly arise. There are a good many obstacles in the way. Hartley, we learn from M^r Gillman, is as impatient of advice as of controul; insomuch that to save his father from the discomfort & grief which his ill habits occasioned, Gillman formed the pleasant intention of transferring him to me, upon a plea that his mother might have some influence over him. His schoolmaster at Ambleside wrote to invite him for a month or six weeks,

& I do not yet know whether the wish which Wordsworth has expressed for himself & me, of not seeing him at this time, will prevent him from accepting the invitation. But on <concerning> that part of Gillmans scheme which would have quartered him upon me, I was compelled to tell his mother that it could not be. – You will judge from this how unlikely it is that father & son should continue long together, even if present circumstances should induce them to make the experiment. Mrs C. would very unwillingly embark in it, from a sure foresight of the anxieties in which it would involve her. It is a case in which I should neither advise nor disadvise except as concerning Sara, who is best where she is; & whom I should who ought neither to be exposed to the disquietudes & disgusts which she would inevitably meet with, nor to some of the society into which she would be thrown But as to this money, it must take its chance. Hartley will most probably follow a good impulse, & send as much of it to his mother as may remain when his own embarrasments are cleared off. It will give him an excuse for his hard-hearted silence, & be joyfully received as such by her; – & the money itself be for his own use, in time of need. He has now precluded himself from any other way of life than the precarious one <for> which his pen may qualify him: & Jamieson writes word that he reconciles it to himself by the convenient doctrine of fatalism.

I ought & meant to have written to you long since. You asked me about the Kings Library.

It ought to be much better furnished than it is with foreign books. One would wish that every foreigner who visits it should find there what in his own country would be a good collection of the works in his language. You know I believe that I intend as well as hope, one day to publish some Sketches of Monastic History.

There is no library in G Britain which contains materials for such a work: & yet I need not point out to you what important topics it involves. Your friend

would do good service to the Library if he procured these materials for it, before they are destroyed. For exceedingly curious as the books of monastic history are, their value is not yet known in the market, & when convent libraries are dispersed, these books are consumed for waste paper.

I should have expected John May on Saturday next, but for his last letter. Say to him that we look for him & his son

in July – but I shall write to him shortly. I will not wish you were to be of his party, – because it would be ill husbandry of our pleasures to have two friends at a time, – & of such pleasures I have learnt to be an economist. You will come, I trust, some time or other; – only bear in xx mind, that these things are sometimes put off too long: & that Keswick would not be same place to you, if you were to come a few years hence, & find me in the Churchyard.

– I am very sorry to hear of M^rs C.s

continued ill health.