"MY DEAR SIR,--Not finding your young gentlemen in church last Sunday, I went to see them, when I found them both confined to the house with a light fever, which has since turned out the measles in form, but with all the most favourable symptoms. I find Mr. Liston very attentive and very careful; the young gentlemen are attended by the physician of the academy. I use the freedom to tell Lady Hertford the way in which they are governed; she tells me she would not act otherwise in the case of her own children; so that Mrs. Murray,[281:1] if you please to communicate to her this intelligence, can have no reason for anxiety. Gilbert has a greater quantity than Hugh, and greater strength to bear them. "You know, I suppose, that I am appointed secretary to the embassy, though I have not yet received my credential letter: the present confusions in the court may perhaps retard them for some time; but Mr. Grenville has informed the ambassador that the matter is concluded, and the king has given his consent; so that in spite of Atheism and Deism, of Whiggism and Toryism, of Scoticism and Philosophy, I am now possessed of an office of credit, and of £1200 a-year: without dedication or application, from the favour alone of a person, whom I can perfectly love and respect. I find it has cost my lord a very hard pull; and when I consider the matter alone, without viewing the steps that led to it, I am sometimes inclined to be surprised how it has happened. "Shall I tell you another circumstance that is not disagreeable to me; a certain lady, who is at present in London, hearing there was some delay, wrote in the most earnest terms to the Duke of Bedford, desiring his interest in my favour; he answered her he would soon be in London, and if he then possessed any credit or authority, she might depend upon the success of her friend. You know that he is not a man that makes vain professions, nor is he a man easy to be refused. If you guess the lady, you will conclude that it will not cost me a great effort to be grateful. The share you have also been pleased to take is not forgot, and strengthens our ancient friendship. I am, my dear sir, yours sincerely."[282:1] It is probable that this appointment was impeded by more difficulties than Hume himself could see, or his friends make him aware of. His being a Scotsman of itself made it then unpopular, and in his case there were other reasons likely to weigh with statesmen who looked in the direction of popularity. We are told that "the printers of the _London Evening Post and Gazetteer_, were called before the House of Lords, on a complaint made by the Earl of Marchmont, for printing a letter (written by Wilkes,) reflecting on the Earl of Hertford, ambassador at Paris, for employing David Hume the historian as his secretary, and representing the embassy as totally of Scotch complexion."[282:2]