Parr_,
vol. i. p. 216-281, to which I refer the curious reader for some
very singular particulars. The facts, as there delineated, are
simply these:--A secret correspondence was carried on between
Professor White and Mr. Badcock, a dissenting minister of
Devonshire, who furnished the greater part of the materials of
these lectures; which materials, copied out by Professor White,
with a few emendations and additions, were sent to Dr. Parr as
the exclusive composition of the Professor. Several of the
lectures are wholly Badcock's, by the express admission of Dr.
White; and the undeniable evidence of a douceur of 500l. from
the Professor to Mr. Badcock, is a sufficiently solid proof of
the value in which the former held the labours of the latter.
There could be no violation of any great moral feeling in the
transaction thus simply considered; for the labourer was worthy
of his hire; but the evasive subtleties and shuffling
subterfuges by which the literary intercourse was stubbornly
denied, and attempted to be set aside, by Professor White, is
matter of perfect astonishment! In the mean while, Dr. Parr
steadily continued his critical labours, believing that the
Professor sought no _aid_ but his _own_. He revised, added, and
polished at his entire discretion; and while it is allowed that
_one-fifth_ at least, of these lectures are the work of his
learned hand, he undoubtedly gave to the whole its last and most
effectual polish. The history which belongs to his discovery of
the collateral aid of Badcock, is curious and amusing; but can
have no place here. It does great credit to the head and heart
of Dr. Parr. Thus the reader will observe that no small interest
is attached to the volume from which the ensuing extracts are
made: a volume, full, doubtless, of extensive and learned
research, and exhibiting a style remarkable alike for its
consummate art and harmonious copiousness."

* * * * *

WEALTH OF HENRY VII.

The hoard amassed by Henry, and "most of it under his own key and
keeping, in secret places at Richmond," is said to have amounted to near
1,800,000 l., which, according to our former conjectures, would be
equivalent to about 16,000,000 l.; an amount of specie so immense as to
warrant a suspicion of exaggeration, in an age when there was no control
from