len on the volume! On
the death of Serassi, his papers came to the hands of the Duke of Ceri,
a lover of literature; the transcript of the yet undiscovered original
was then revealed! and this secret history of the manuscript was drawn
from a note on the title-page written by Serassi himself. To satisfy the
urgent curiosity of the literati, these annotations on Tasso by Galileo
were published in 1793. Here is a work, which, from its earliest stage,
much pains had been taken to suppress; but Serassi's collecting passion
inducing him to preserve what he himself so much wished should never
appear, finally occasioned its publication! It adds one evidence to the
many which prove that such sinister practices have been frequently used
by the historians of a party, poetic or politic.

Unquestionably this entire suppression of manuscripts has been too
frequently practised. It is suspected that our historical antiquary,
Speed, owed many obligations to the learned Hugh Broughton, for he
possessed a vast number of his MSS. which he burnt. Why did he burn? If
persons place themselves in suspicions situations, they must not
complain if they be suspected. We have had historians who, whenever they
met with information which has not suited their historical system, or
their inveterate prejudices, have employed interpolations, castrations,
and forgeries, and in some cases have annihilated the entire document.
Leland's invaluable manuscripts were left at his death in the confused
state in which the mind of the writer had sunk, overcome by his
incessant labours, when this royal antiquary was employed by Henry the
Eighth to write our national antiquities. His scattered manuscripts were
long a common prey to many who never acknowledged their fountain head;
among these suppressors and dilapidators pre-eminently stands the crafty
Italian Polydore Vergil, who not only drew largely from this source,
but, to cover the robbery, did not omit to depreciate the father of our
antiquities--an act of a piece with the character of the man, who is
said to have collected and burnt a greater number of historical MSS.
than would have loaded a wagon, to prevent the detection of the numerous
fabrications in his history of England, which was composed to gratify
Mary and the Catholic cause.

The Harleian manuscript, 7379, is a collection of state-letters. This
MS. has four leaves entirely torn out, and is accompanied by this
extraordinary memorandum, signed by t