At length, after an absence of nearly five years, he was permitted to return to England about the beginning of sum mer 1758. In the interval, his father had formed a new connection by marriage, and our learned stranger was re ceived with a degree of kindness which filled him with satisfaction. After two years passed in study or amuse ment, his father and he rashly offered their services in the Hampshire militia, in which they were appointed major and captain, and kept under arms and in constant service for nearly two years. During this time, young Gibbon, though deeply disappointed at the sacrifice lie had made, and of which he had by no means anticipated the extent, endeavoured to acquire a knowledge both of the art of war and of British tactics, and acknowledges, with great honesty, that "the captain of the Hampshire militia has not been useless to the historian of the Roman empire! 1Vhen at Lausanne, he meditated, and began, the com position of a small work, entitled Essai sur l'Etude de la Literature, which he finished in England, and published, with a dedication to his father, in 1761. This work was written in French, a language in which his daily habits of conversation and study when at Lausanne, had rendered him more adroit than in his vernacular tongue. His chief object in this coup d'essai, was to revive on the continent, and especially in France, the decaying taste for the lan guages and literature of Greece and Rome. This juve nile production was well received, both at home and abroad. After the peace of 1763, he again went to the continent, and on his way to his favourite Lausanne he vi sited Paris, where he remained for three months, and was introduced to the acquaintance of D'Alembert, Diderot, and many other of the literati of the day. Having passed through Dijon and Besancon, he arrived at Lausanne in May 1762, and, fascinated with the renewal of the scenes, studies, and associates of his early years, he remained there till the following spring. Having prepared himself, by extensive study, for a projected tour through Italy, he set out in April 1764, and going by Parma and Florence, proceeded through Sienna to Rome, on entering which re nowned city he was almost overwhelmed with emotions of enthusiasm. It was at Rome, on the 15th of October, that, as he sat musing amidst the ruins of the capital, while the bare-footed friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that, as he informs us, he conceived the idea of writing the Decline and Fall of the Roman Em pire ! lie proceeded south to Naples, revisited Rome and Paris, and arrived at his father's house in June 1765. Every spring he attended the monthly meeting of the militia, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel comman dant. Wearied with the details of this service, he re signed his cowman(' in 1770. An annual visit at Buriton, from his much-loved friend M. Deyverdun of Lausanne, formed the most agreeable enjoyment of his life during this period; and, with the aid and encouragement of that learned and elegant scholar, he proceeded some length in preparing a history of the rise and progress of liberty and independence in his adopted country, Switzerland. The great difficulty of procuring materials, and his ignorance .of the German language, induced him to desist from the completion of this interesting design. In 1767 and 1768, he in his turn materially assisted M. Deyverdun in the publication of a work intended to be annual, entitled, Memoirs Litcraires de la Grande Bretagne. This work, of which the third volume was nearly ready, was discon tinued, in consequence of M. Deyverdun agreeing to ac company on his travels as tutor, a young friend of Mr Gib bon's. The next publication of Mr Gibbon, is an able and spirited, but most severe answer to that chapter in War burton's " Divine Legation of Moses," which represents the sixth book of the /Eitel(' as containing a veiled account of the initiation of ./F.neas, in the character of at lawgiver, into the Eleusinian mysteries. This essay was published in English anonymously early in 1770 ; and the author, with ingenuity, shews, that the sixth book is not an allegRy, but a fable founded on the popular belief, and that there is not a shadow of probability in the hypothesis of Warburton. The Bishop and his friends remained si lent under this attack, and the voice of the learned pro nounced that Gibbon was master of the field.
The grand project of " the history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,". which had been formed in the interesting circumstances already alluded to, was ever present to the mind of the author, though its execution was for some time delayed ; and the embarrassment of his father's affairs, as well as the decline of his health, pre vented Mr Gibbon from pursuing his studies with his usual ardour. In November 1770 his father died, and during the two succeeding years, the arrangement of his affairs occupied much of his time and attention. Finding him self at length comfortably settled in a house in London, furnished with a valuable library, and havingI pre pared for the task, he entered seriously on the osi tion of his great work ; and when he publishe first volume in quarto, his success was so great, that the first impression was exhausted in a few days, and a second and third edition were speedily called for. Letters of compli-t ments flowed in upon him from various quarters. These were speedily succeeded by the strictures, attacks, and confutations of those who were offended with his 15th and 16th chapters, which contain an unfair and insidious ac count of the rise and progress of Christianity. The prin cipal assailants were Dr Watson, now Bishop of Landaff, Taylor of Norwich, Mr Milner of Hull, Lord Hales, Mr Davies of Oxford, and Dr Priestley. That he was much stung by these publications, he does not attempt to deny. But the only one of them which he answered from the press was the pamphlet of Mr Davies,' because, as Mr Gibbon alleges, he had attacked not so much the faith as the fidelity of the historian. This answer is entitled, Vindication of some Passages in the 15th and 16th Chap ters of the History, &e. and if he does not spew great can dour in his defence, the praise of ingenuity and learning will not be denied to him. After the lapse of a consider able interval, the second and third volumes were publish ed. The three last volumes, chiefly composed at Lausanne, were printed in England, and published in May 1788, In 1774, Mr Gibbon was returned as a member of par liament from the borough of LeSkeard, and was a uniform but silent supporter of administration during the American war. Timidity, he says, was fortified by pride, and even the success of his pen discouraged the trial of his voice. He held his seat during eight sessions, and seems to have en joyed the confidence, and occasionally assisted the councils, of the administration. Through the favour of Lord North, of whom Gibbon always speaks with high respect and es teem, he was appointed one of the lords commissioners of trade and plantations, and had thus a clear addition to his income of between 7001. and 8001. a year. The board was abolished in the following session by a small majority of votes in the house of Commons, but was soon afterwards revived. Mr Gibbon held the place for three years, that is, till the board was abolished by Mr Burke's bill. Mr Gibbon having got into next parliament, through Lord North's influence, for Lymington, tells us, that he uni formly supported the famous coalition between that minis ter and Mr Fox from a principle of gratitude. This con fesSion, to be sure, though hardly becoming the dignity of a historian, or the morality of a philosopher and patriot, who may be expected to act in a public cause, not from private feeling, but from conviction, does yet sound as a weakness leaning to virtue's side ; but most unfortunately for his reputation, even as a friend, he adds: " My vote was counted in the day of battle, but I saes overlooked in the division of the spoil. There were many claitnants more deserving and more importunate than myself." A more unblushing and more unvarnished acknowledgment of venality we do not recollect to have seen ; and we must confess that it lessens Mr Gibbon, in our moral estimate, to a degree that is painful to contemplate. One wonders that the man who had the meanness thus to act, had the can dour to acknowledge such meanness in a memoir designed for the public eye. But, in truth, with all the extent of his learning, and all the force of his genius, he does not ap pear to have discovered the unworthiness of thus betraying the interests of his country for a private end.