it" offered him,
at low rates, as a guerdon to merit.

Fact No. 2, which alone concerns us here,--and which, in its three
successive stages, does curiously cohere with itself and with other
things,--comes, therefore, not by direct light, which indeed, by the
nature of the case, would be impossible. Not by direct light, but by
various reflex lights, and convergence of probabilities old and new,
which become the stronger the better they are examined; and may be
considered as amounting to what is called a moral certainty,--"certain"
enough for an inquiry of that significance. To a kind of moral
certainty: kind of moral consolation too; only One individual of Adam's
Posterity, not Three or more, having been needed in these multifarious
acts of scoundrelism; and that One receiving payment, or part payment,
so prompt and appropriate, in the shape of a permanent cannon-ball at
his ankle.

This is the one profit my readers or I have yet derived from the late
miraculous Resuscitation of MATINEES ROYALES; the other items of profit
in that Enterprise shall belong, not to us in the least measure, but to
Bonneville, and to his well or ill disposed Coadjutors and Copartners in
the Adventure. Adieu to it, and to him and to them, forever and a day!

PEACE-NEGOTIATIONS HOPEFUL TO FRIEDRICH ALL THROUGH WINTER; BUT THE
FRENCH WON'T. VOLTAIRE, AND HIS STYLE OF CORRESPONDING.

This Winter there was talk of Peace, more specifically than ever.
November 15th, at the Hague, as a neutral place, there had been, by the
two Majesties, Britannic and Prussian, official DECLARATION, "We, for
our part, deeply lament these horrors, and are ready to treat of Peace."
This Declaration was presented November 15th, 1759, by Prince Ludwig of
Brunswick (Head General of the Dutch, and a Brother of Prince Ferdinand
our General's, suitable for such case), to the Austrian-French
Excellencies at the Hague. By whom it had been received with the due
politeness, "Will give it our profoundest consideration;" [DECLARATION
(by the two Majesties) that they are ready to treat of Peace, 15th
November, 1759, presented by, &c. (as above); ANSWER from France, in
stingy terms, and not till 3d April, 1760: are in _London Gazette;_ in
_Gentleman's Magazine,_ xxix. 603, xxx. 188; in &c. &c.]--which indeed
the French, for some time, privately did; though the Austrians privately
had no need to do so, being already fixed for a negative response to the
proposal. But hereby