had been asked to listen to the story as a work of fiction, and his answer was the best compliment Mackenzie could receive to his fidelity to the probabilities of character.[274] FOOTNOTES: [255] Burton's _Life of Hume_, ii. 492. [256] _Ibid._, ii. 493. [257] Hill's _Letters of Hume to Strahan_, p. 330. [258] Burton's _Life of Hume_, ii. 494. [259] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library. [260] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library. [261] _Hume Correspondence,_ R.S.E. Library. [262] Hume's brother always spelt his name with an _o_. [263] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library. [264] _Ibid._ [265] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library. [266] _New York Evening Post,_ 30th April 1887. Original in possession of Mr. Worthington C. Ford of Washington, U.S.A. The first draft of this letter, in Smith's handwriting but without the last paragraph and the signature, seems to have been preserved by him as a copy for reference, and having been sent by him with his other Hume letters to the historian's nephew, is now in the Royal Society Library, Edinburgh. [267] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library. [268] _New York Evening Post_, 30th March 1887. Original in possession of Mr. Worthington C. Ford of Washington, U.S.A. [269] _Hume Correspondence_, R.S.E. Library. [270] Hill's _Letters of Hume_, p. 351. [271] Wendeborn, _Zustand des Staats, etc., in Gross-britannien_, ii. 365. [272] _Caldwell Papers_, i. 41. [273] Burton's _Hume_, ii. 451. [274] See Mackenzie's "La Roche," and Mackenzie's _Works of J. Home_, i. 21. CHAPTER XX LONDON AGAIN--APPOINTED COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS