Ossian Collection > Life and letters of James Macpherson

226 JAMES MACPHERSON.
Thomas Carte, and Macpherson drew from the
same source. In 1743 Carte, also a fervent
Jacobite, had issued proposals for a complete
history of civil life in England, for which he ob-
tained a large number of subscribers, and made
the most extensive research. But the time had
not yet arrived when it was safe to present a
picture of the Revolution in Jacobite colours ;
the rising of '45 intervened ; and Carte fell a
victim to the strength of his political sympathies.
When his first volume appeared in 1747, it
contained a reference to a case of king's evil,
which, as Carte asserted, had been cured by the
Pretender in France ; and this unfortunate thrust
brought the author and his work to the ground.
Although he persevered and pubhshed two more
volumes, the work was uncompleted at his death
in 1754. Amongst the papers which he left
was a series of valuable extracts from docu-
ments preserved in the Scots' College at Paris.
Some of these Macpherson purchased from his
widow for £300. He also derived great assist-
ance from the use of some ten volumes of
papers relating to the house of Brunswick, dis-
covered and purchased by Matthew Duane.^
1 Nicholls' Lit. Anecd., ii. 574 ; iii. 497.