B. Frere has sent me a box full of his brothers papers, – I have as many bundles fastened with red tape before me, as if I were at the head of a public office, & am a great deal busier with them than if I were paid two or three thousand a year for my work. These papers will carry on my narrative

very satisfactorily to the time when those which I had from M Wellesley begin. But I shall very likely spring some other mines when I come to town.

Sir Robert Inglis has given me the first & third volume of the Chronicas de la Provincia de Rel. Desc. Da S Francisco en las Islas Philipinas, China, Japon &c

– printed in their Convent at Manila from whence this imperfect set was brought by some curioso in Sir W Drapers

expedition. Sir R. purchased them the other day at the sale of a relations books.

The first vol. contains a fuller description of the Philippines than I have seen in any other work. There is a great deal of curious matter in the book, – as indeed there is in almost all books of this kind. The good matter is mingled in them as it is in our county histories, – & the rubbish is better worth raking.

I have also added to my stores the two volumes of the earlier Edda published at Copenhagen in 1784 & 1818

– a third is soon expected to compleat the work. Were it only for its copious glossaries it would be exceedingly curious, but the poems themselves are of the most curious kind. At the same time I obtained a Bibliotheca Danica

– I wish it had included Swedish as well as Norwegian & Islandic <Icelandic> authors.

Like you, it is not often that I meet with any one who can enter into my pursuits. People come to look at me as a live poet, little thinking how compleatly I have ceased to exist as such, & that I have as little inclination to write verses, as to play at pottle

or whip a top. Now that I am left to myself & to my ordinary xxxx habits, I take every night after supper with my blackcurrant rum (thanks be to your friend Hoblyn

for introducing me to that xxx admirable tincture!) – a composing dose of Dutch looking thro the huge work of Aitzema,

from which I shall make no inconsiderable gleanings. It is an invaluable repository of facts for the greater part of the 17^th century; & a great deal which it contains is not to be found elsewhere.

The other day I finished the Life of Philippes de Mornay,

better known among us by that name, than by his title of Du Plessis. The book is heavy, but it shows how much intrigue was mixed up with the affairs of the Hugonots, – & Du Plessis himself seems to have been a perfect example of integrity. – When I come to you in the spring I shall set upon your Sully.

By that time I shall have pretty nearly finished the earlier Memoirs as far as my set goes.

I have written to the Marquis, & made my excuses for not having done so sooner. The Doctor left me with heavy arrears of correspondence, & business of every kind. I have worked steadily since his departure – but it was too late for the Q.R. & there will be nothing of mine in the next number.

Between ourselves that journal will be in great danger, whenever Gifford drops it, or drops off. It has got itself into deserved disgrace by its silence <& its notice> concerning Lord Byron;

& many persons are offended as you & I have been, by its irritating papers concerning America,

& [MS obscured]per of its criticism. A New Quarterly has been thought of & if an unfit person were to succeed Gifford, – or if his successor were to commit the same faults, – I have no doubt it would be started. If I would undertake the management, a bookseller of sufficient capital would move into the West end of the town from the city, (Mawman

is the man) secure to me 500£ a year, give me half the profits above that sum, whatever they might be, & vest the copyright in me; – & coadjutors enough are ready to bear a part. This has been intimated to me, for my consideration. I am not inclined to make so great a sacrifice of worthier pursuits, as would be required; – & would much rather see the existing QR in the hands of an editor who would make it what it ought to be.