THE SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.
THE Marchmont Papers consist of a diary, and various letters to and from the three Earls of MARCHMONT, the first of whom was Sir PATRICK Hums, the friend of the unfortunate Earl of ARGYLE, the companion of RUSSELL and SIDNEY, a great pro- moter of the Revolution, and a supporter of its principles. The third and last was in his day a strenuous and powerful opponent of Sir ROBERT WALPOLE ; he lived to extreme old age, and died only a few years previous to the French Revolution. He left all his papers, including those of his predecessors, to the late Right Honourable GEORGE ROSE, with the liberty of disposing of them as he might think proper. The only use Mr. Ross made of them was in his Observations on Mr. Fox's History of James the Second, wherein they enabled him to vindicate the conduct of PATRICK the first Earl of Marchmont. His son, the editor of the present work, has made a copious selection from them. Future historians of the last century must necessarily have recourse to this collec- tion. The documents are of the highest character for authenticity, and throw light upon numerous transactions of interest from the period of CHARLES the Second to the year 1750..
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