The first volume, commencing with the documents of the year 1201, was published in 1704; the twentieth volume, ending with the papers of 1654, was given to the world in 1735. As hiftoriographer thefe were not the only labours of Rymer: he left an unpublished collection, relating to the government and hiftory of England, from the year 1115 to 1698, in fifty-eight volumes, which the prudence of the house of peers directed to be placed in The British Mufeum, with the Cottonian manufcripts. Of men who have done great public fervices, we naturally wish to know fomething of the origin and the end. Thomas Rymer was born in the north of England; was educated at Cambridge; and, intending to make the law his profeffion, he entered himself a ftudent of Gray's Inn. He firft appeared as a poet and a critic in 1678; when he published Edgar, an heroic tragedy, which had fcarcely preferved his name; and Reflections on Shakespeare, in 1693, which have drawn on him Warburton's indignation. On the decease of Shadwell, the great Mac Flecnoe of Dryden, in 1692, who, at once, celebrated King William's birth, as Laureat, and recorded King William's actions, as hiftoriographer, the laurel was placed on the brow of Tate, and the pen of hiftorian was delivered into the hand of Rymer. While collecting THE FOEDERA, he also employed himself, like a royal historiographer, in detecting the falfhood and afcertaining the truth of hiftory †. He lived to publifh fifteen There is a lift of this great collection in the feventeenth volume of the Fadera: and fee Ayicough's Catalogue of the Museum MSS. vol. i. N° 4573-4630. He publifhed, in 1702, his firft letter to Bifhop Nicholfon: "Wherein, as he fays, King Robert III. of Scotland is, beyond all difpute, freed from the imputation of baftardy." He foon after published his fecond letter to Bishop Nicholfon; " containing an hiftorical deduction of the alliances between France and Scotland: whereby the pretended old league with Charlemagne is difproved, and the true old league is afcertained." After his decease, there was published, in 1714, a fmall treatife "Of the Antiquity, Power, and fifteen folio volumes of the public conventions; and Robert Sanderson, who had thus been Rymer's co- A new edition of the firft feventeen volumes was and Decay of Parliaments." And in the fame year," Some A 4 keeper; keeper; and, on account of his knowledge and his industry, he was, by the recommendation of lord Hallifax, who was then chairman of a committee of the House of Lords, appointed to methodize the records, on the death of Petyt, with a falary of £. 200 a year. This he enjoyed till his decease, in 1748, at the age of eighty-feven.-Such were the able and induftrious men to whom we owe the Fadera, a work which is at once infinitely useful, and highly honourable to the British nation. The bookfellers at the Hague published a third edition of the Fadera in 1739, having contracted the twenty volumes into ten. In this edition the documents are tranflated into French, and printed in the oppofite column; and fome other papers of less usefulness are added. With De Bure, I am inclined to confider this edition as the beft; because, with equal accuracy, it contains more matter in less space. Thus much with regard to thofe collections of treaties, which were published by authority. The reign of Queen Anne first saw a collection of treaties, which was published by private individuals, without authority. Two volumes appeared in 1710, which began with treaties of very early date, but of no validity, and comprehended documents rather hif torical than diplomatic. A third volume was added, in 1713, without greater regard to selection, arrangement, or precifion. And when these treaties were republished by the London bookfellers, in 1732, a fourth volume was added, containing fuch additional documents as recent events had produced. In 1772, two small volumes of treaties were published, beginning with the grand alliance, of 1689, and ending with the declarations of 1771, which concluded our difpute with regard to Falkland Islands. A fupplemental volume was added in 1781, comprehending public papers, from 1495 to 1734, fome of greater and fome of lefs value. Thefe treaties were republifhed in 1785, arranged in chronological order, and expanded with additional matter; yet, comprehending fomething that is useless amongst much that is good. During that active period, from the Revolution, in 1688, to recent times, our several treaties were fingly published, as they were made, with commentaries, which fometimes explained, but oftener obfcured them, though the pens of our profoundeft fcholars were employed, with bifhop Hare at their head. How early foreign nations began to publifh their treaties, I am unable to tell. The articles of the twelve years truce, between Spain and the United Netherlands, which were concluded in April, 1609, were immediately printed by authority. The momentous treaties of the fubfequent age were fucceffively published, as they were produced by various events. But the first collection of public conventions, which comprehended the interefts of the European nations, was published at Hanover, in 1693, by the illuftrious Leibnitz, in two folio volumes, under the title of Codex juris gentium diplomaticus. Leibnitz, who was born at Leipfic, in 1646, raised himself by his genius and his labours to eminence among the high, and died in 1716, at the age of feventy. During a bufy age of frequent negotiation, the pub lic curiofity demanded fresh gratification. In 1700, four folio volumes of National Agreements were published, under the inspection of James Bernard, who was born in Dauphiné; and, retiring into Switzerland and Holland, after the revocation of the edict of Nantz, became profeffor of philofophy at Leyden, and died in 1718. Thus, in the ardour of the public, and the interefts of the bookfellers, was laid the foundation of the CORPS UNIVERSEL DIPLOMATIQUE DU DROIT • That famous truce was printed at Bruffels, by Rutger Velpius, the printer to the court, in 1609, quarto. I have this tract in my collection. DES GENS. The labours of Bernard were expanded and improved by the cares of Du Mont. This vaft collection appeared in 1726. Du Mont was alfo a French refugee, who, after ferving in the armies of France, retired to Holland, and became hiftoriographer to the Emperor: after various publications, he died in 1726, having acquired the rank of Baron. The bookfellers at Amfterdam, willing to gratify the public tafte, and to promote their own gains, found other workmen, when they determined to furnish a SUPPLEMENT to the CORPS DIPLOMATIQUE. The celebrated Barbeyrac gave them, in 1739, a large volume, comprehending the ancient Treaties, from the Amphictyonic times to the age of Charlemagne, which he had extracted from the authors of Greece and Rome, and from the monuments of antiquity. This is a work of vast and curious erudition. The performances of Bernard and Du Mont were only the labours of the hand: the volume of Barbeyrac was the elaborate production of the head. John Barbeyrac, who must not be confounded with his uncle Charles Barbeyrac, was born at Beziers, became profeffor of law firft at Laufanne, and afterwards at Groningen, and finifhed his ufeful courfe, in 1747. The bookfellers had fkilfully refolved to divide their intended publication into three parts: the firft was the hiftorical and chronological collection of Barbeyrac, which has been already mentioned, and which was defigned as an introduction to the diplomatic code; the fecond was properly the Supplement, being an extenfion and continuance of the voluminous works of Bernard and Du Mont; and the third part was to confift of the ceremonial of the courts of Europe. The performance of the two laft parts was given to ROUSSET, the hiftoriographer of the Prince of Orange, whofe diligence and whofe knowledge qualified him eminently for a task thus arduous and deli cate. A complete collection of General Treaties must confift of the following books: 1ft. Leibnitz's Codex, |