Thus we find that, _seven years_ after Des Maizeaux had inconsiderately betrayed his sacred trust, his remorse was still awake; and the sincerity of his grief is attested by the affecting style which describes it: the spirit of his departed friend seemed to be hovering about him, and, in his imagination, would haunt him to the grave. The nature of these manuscripts; the cause of the earnest desire of retaining them by the widow; the evident unfriendliness of her conduct to Des Maizeaux; and whether these manuscripts, consisting of eight octavo volumes with their transcripts, were destroyed, or are still existing, are all circumstances which my researches have hitherto not ascertained. FOOTNOTES: [14] _Van Effen_ was a Dutch writer of some merit, and one of a literary knot of ingenious men, consisting of Sallengre, St. Hyacinthe, Prosper Marchand, &c., who carried on a smart review for those days, published at the Hague under the title of "Journal Litteraire." They all composed in French; and Van Effen gave the first translations of our "Guardian," "Robinson Crusoe," and the "Tale of a Tub," &c. He did something more, but not better; he attempted to imitate the "Spectator," in his "Le Misanthrope," 1726, which exhibits a picture of the uninteresting manners of a nation whom he could not make very lively. _De Limiers_ has had his name slipped into our biographical dictionaries. An author cannot escape the fatality of the alphabet; his numerous misdeeds are registered. It is said, that if he had not been so hungry, he would have given proofs of possessing some talent. [15] I find that the nominal pension was 3_s._ 6_d._ per diem on the Irish civil list, which amounts to above 63_l._ per annum. If a pension be granted for reward, it seems a mockery that the income should be so grievously reduced, which cruel custom still prevails. [16] This letter, or petition, was written in 1732. In 1743 he procured his pension to be placed on his wife's life, and he died in 1745. He was sworn in as gentleman of his majesty's privy chamber in 1722--_Sloane MSS._ 4289. [17] There is a printed catalogue of his library. [18] This information is from a note found among Des Maizeaux's papers; but its truth I have no means to ascertain. HISTORY OF NEW WORDS.