negotiated for Whitaker and himself a Doctor of Laws' degree; and they
were now in the titular possession of all the fame which a dozen
pieces could bestow! In "The English Review" broke forth all the
genius of Stuart in an unnatural warfare of Scotchmen in London
against Scotchmen at Edinburgh. "The bitter herbs," which seasoned it
against Blair, Robertson, Gibbon, and the ablest authors of the age,
at first provoked the public appetite, which afterwards indignantly
rejected the palatable garbage.

But to proceed with our _Literary Conspiracy_, which was conducted by
Stuart with a pertinacity of invention perhaps not to be paralleled in
literary history. That the peace of mind of such an industrious author
as Dr. HENRY was for a considerable time destroyed; that the sale of a
work on which Henry had expended much of his fortune and his life was
stopped; and that, when covered with obloquy and ridicule, in despair
he left Edinburgh for London, still encountering the same hostility;
that all this was the work of the same hand perhaps was never even
known to its victim. The multiplied forms of this Proteus of the
Malevoli were still but one devil; fire or water, or a bull or a lion;
still it was the same Proteus, the same Stuart.

From the correspondence before me I am enabled to collect the
commencement and the end of this literary conspiracy, with all its
intermediate links. It thus commences:--

"_25 Nov. 1773._

"We have been attacked from different quarters, and Dr. Henry in
particular has given a long and a dull defence of his sermon. I
have replied to it with a degree of spirit altogether unknown in
this country. The reverend historian was perfectly astonished, and
has actually invited the Society for Propagating Christian
Knowledge to arm in his cause! I am about to be persecuted by the
whole clergy, and I am about to persecute them in my turn. They
are hot and zealous; I am cool and dispassionate, like a
determined sceptic; since I have entered the lists, I must fight;
I must gain the victory, or perish like a man."

"_13 Dec. 1773._

"David Hume wants to review Henry; but that task is so precious
that I will undertake it myself. Moses, were he to ask it as a
favour, should not have it; yea, not even the man after God's own
heart."

"_4 March, 1774._

"This month Henry is utterly demolished; his sale is stopped, many
of his copies are returned; and his old fri