“France.—­Mezeray, Voltaire.

“Spain.—­I chiefly derived my knowledge of old Spanish History from a book called the Atlas, now obsolete.  The modern history, from the intrigues of Alberoni down to the Prince of Peace, I learned from its connection with European politics.

“Portugal.—­From Vertot; as also his account of the Siege of Rhodes,—­though the last is his own invention, the real facts being totally different.—­So much for his Knights of Malta.

“Turkey.—­I have read Knolles, Sir Paul Rycaut, and Prince Cantemir, besides a more modern history, anonymous.  Of the Ottoman History I know every event, from Tangralopi, and afterwards Othman I., to the peace of Passarowitz, in 1718,—­the battle of Cutzka, in 1739, and the treaty between Russia and Turkey in 1790.

     “Russia.—­Tooke’s Life of Catherine II., Voltaire’s Czar
     Peter.

“Sweden.—­Voltaire’s Charles XII., also Norberg’s Charles XII.—­in my opinion the best of the two.—­A translation of Schiller’s Thirty Years’ War, which contains the exploits of Gustavus Adolphus, besides Harte’s Life of the same Prince.  I have somewhere, too, read an account of Gustavus Vasa, the deliverer of Sweden, but do not remember the author’s name.

“Prussia.—­I have seen, at least, twenty Lives of Frederick II., the only prince worth recording in Prussian annals.  Gillies, his own Works, and Thiebault,—­none very amusing.  The last is paltry, but circumstantial.

     “Denmark—­I know little of.  Of Norway I understand the
     natural history, but not the chronological.

     “Germany.—­I have read long histories of the house of
     Suabia, Wenceslaus, and, at length, Rodolph of Hapsburgh and
     his thick-lipped Austrian descendants.

     “Switzerland.—­Ah!  William Tell, and the battle of
     Morgarten, where Burgundy was slain.

     “Italy.—­Davila, Guicciardini, the Guelphs and
     Ghibellines, the battle of Pavia, Massaniello, the
     revolutions of Naples, &c. &c.

     “Hindostan—­Orme and Cambridge.

     “America.—­Robertson, Andrews’ American War.

     “Africa—­merely from travels, as Mungo Park, Bruce.

     “BIOGRAPHY.

     “Robertson’s Charles V.—­Caesar, Sallust (Catiline and
     Jugurtha), Lives of Marlborough and Eugene, Tekeli, Bonnard,
     Buonaparte, all the British Poets, both by Johnson and
     Anderson, Rousseau’s Confessions, Life of Cromwell, British
     Plutarch, British Nepos, Campbell’s Lives of the Admirals,
     Charles XII., Czar Peter, Catherine II., Henry Lord Kaimes,
     Marmontel, Teignmouth’s Sir William Jones, Life of Newton,
     Belisaire, with thousands not to be detailed.