BOOK I, FOUNDERS OF THE SLOANE Courten Papers, in MS. Sloane, 3515. others. And at length the cost of the reprisals exceeded their yield. In this case, and throughout it, as in so many other and graver cases, the policy of CHARLES THE SECOND's ministers was a policy of the passing exigence. Principle had always to vail to expediency. The Dutch were permitted, after all, to insert their favorite extinction clause in the Treaty of Breda (21 July, 1667). Five years later, the Privy Council advised the King that it is just and reasonable for your Majesty to insist upon reparation for the debt and damages' sustained by the seizure, in 1643, of the Bona Esperanza and her consort. New Letters of Marque led to the capture of more vessels, duly provided with a diversity of flag; and to the imprisonment, in England, of the captors, before trial or inquiry. Meanwhile, CAREW himself was seized abroad, and put into a Dutch prison. And, at length, in 1676, the States of Holland sent express orders to their courts of judicature, directing that no further progress shall be made in the pending suits,' grounding the order upon the proviso in the treaty of 1667, as extinctive of all claims and pretensions, whatsoever, advanced by Englishmen against Dutch citizens, be the foundation and history of such claims what they might. This decree, therefore, operated in bar, as well of the claims of the representatives of Sir William COURTEN, for the debt of Peter BOUDAEN, as of those arising out of the seizure of the ships of the East India Fleet. It was estimated that the COURTEN claims then pending in the Courts of Holland amounted, in the aggregate, to £380,000 sterling.* In May, 1683, a petition was presented to the English government, in which humble prayer was made that that * This, of course, is the statement, ex parte, of the claimants. BOOK I, Chap. VI. FOUNDERS OF THE MUSEUM. government would be graciously pleased to perpetuate the memory of Sir William COURTEN and of Sir Paul PINDAR, by setting up their statues in marble under the piazzas of the Royal Exchange-Sir William COURTEN's at the end SLOANE of the "Barbadoes walk" at the one side, and Sir Paul PINDAR'S at the end of the "Turkey walk" of the other side for encouragement to all merchants, in future ages, to take examples by them for loyalty and fidelity to their For Feritatis, King and country.' 1683. (B. M.) SECOND VISIT TO FRANCE, AND HIS TRAVELS. COURTEN did his best to avoid any personal share in CORTE'S those unceasing turmoils, and to keep in the quiet paths of a studious retirement. But he presently found that, in order to secure his end,' he must needs do as his father had done before him. He must leave England, either for Italy or for France. When his mind was made up to exile, it was also made up to the relinquishment of his name. William COURTEN became, even to his nearest relatives, William CHARLETON.' The friendships he had already formed at Montpelier, in his youth, and the local charms of that city for a studious man, incited him to revisit his old retreat. But he made no permanent abode there. He took long tours, in France, in Germany, and in Italy; adding everywhere both to the stores of his knowledge and to the presses and cabinets of his library and museum. It was during his second stay at Montpelier that he formed his life-long friendships with a famous Frenchman, Joseph PITTON DE TOURNEFORT, and with a more famous Englishman, John LOCKE. Here also began his acquaintance with Dr. (afterwards Sir) Hans SLOANE. It was at SLOANE's instance that he made his solitary BOOK I, THE FOUNDERS OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM. Philosoph. RETURN TO appearance as an author, in the shape of a communication to the Royal Society, which was laid before them in 1679, and afterwards printed in the Philosophical Transactions, under the title: Experiments and Observations of the Effects of several sorts of Poisons upon Animals, made at Montpelier. Thirteen or fourteen years were thus passed. And then, to the natural yearning of an exile, there came the strong reinforcement of the call of large collections for a settled abode. There are few claims to fixity of tenure better grounded than are those of a Museum or a Library. The return was not easy, but the difficulties were faced. It is probable that he came back to England in the summer of 1684. He did not then own one acre of that land of which his father had inherited so respectable a breadth in half a dozen counties. He had not long arrived before one of his nearest friends wrote him a letter, which seemed to bode ill for his prospects of a peaceable life. The number of creditors,' wrote Richard SALWEY to him, on the 18th August, 1684, 'is incredible, for the debts are standing, and multiplied to children and grandchildren, who, so long as the parchment and the wax can be preserved, will not forego their hopes nor attempts. And I fear your late so public station will daily expose you, and that you will at every backstairs and turning be pulled by the sleeve and provoked. Nor yet do I know of any danger consequent in any suit that can be commenced, except putting you to Charlton; great trouble and like expenses;-and I fear you have not a superfluous bank to defray the charge.' Salwey to MS. Sloane, 3962, f. 191. *This allusion I am unable to explain. It is quite an exceptional phrase in the Courten correspondence. But, possibly, 'station' may be understood as meaning merely place of residence. He BOOK I, Chap. VI. OF THE COURTEN, however, was not seriously molested. established himself in London as the occupant of a large THE suite of chambers in Essex Court, Middle Temple. Here FOUNDERS his collections were conveniently arranged, and they had SLOANE space to expand. Ere long we find mention of his Museum as filling ten rooms. MUSEUM. COURTEN Of the cost at which it had been gathered, there are now MUSEUM. no adequate and authenticated materials for forming an estimate. But in those days the man who himself travelled on such a quest had a vast advantage over the man-howsoever better provided with what in the sixteenth century was called purse-ability-who sent other men to travel in his stead. In COURTEN's days no dealers explored the Continent as an ordinary incident of their calling. The wreck, too, of such a fortune as that of the COURTENS Was not contemptible. When living in France (1677-79) our collector appears to have had an income of about fifteen Courten hundred pounds a year, accruing from money invested in Ms. Sloane, mortgages and in annuities. Although his chief collections were of his own gathering, he had many helpers. Among them was the future inheritor of his Museum, Hans SLOANE. In the year 1687, when about to set out on his voyage to the West Indies, SLOANE wrote to him: 'I design to send you what is curious from the several islands we land at,—which will be most of our plantations.' The writer was then a young man. Probably his acquaintance with COURTEN was at that time of not greater standing than eight or nine years, but he writes of the obligations COURTEN had then already conferred upon him: 'I am extremely obliged to you, beyond any in the world.' The use this Collector made of his treasures was as liberal as the zeal with which he had amassed them was indefati Papers, in 3962; 303. Sloane to 'Charlton;' b., 308. Ibid. BOOK I, THE OF THE SLOANE MUSEUM. EVELYN'S VISIT TO gable. The friend whose correspondence has just been quoted said, after COURTEN'S death, that he was wont to show his Museum very freely, and to make his stores contribute, in various ways, 'to the advancement of the glory of God, the honour and renown of the country, and the no small promotion of knowledge and the useful arts.' Many notices are extant-scattered here and there in the Diaries and among the correspondence of the day—of visits made to COURTEN's Museum by men who were able to judge of what they saw. Those notices confirm the general statement made by SLOANE, and show the comprehensiveness of the collector's tastes as well as the geniality of his character. Two such notices have an especial interest, which is not lessened by the fact that both of them are to be found in diaries that are well known. They record the visits to Essex Court of JOHN EVELYN, and of John THORESBY. EVELYN paid his first visit in charming company. It was made in December, 1686. He thus tells of it in his journal: I carried the Countess of SUNDERLAND to see the rarities of one Mr. CHARLTON, in the Middle Temple, who showed us such a collection as I had never seen in all my travels abroad-either of private gentlemen, or of princes. It consisted of miniatures, drawings, shells, insects, medals, minerals; all being very perfect and rare of their kind; especially his books of birds, fishes, flowers, and shells, drawn and miniatured to the life. He told us that one book stood him in three hundred pounds. It was painted vol. ii, p. 260. by that excellent workman whom the late GASTON, Duke of Diary, &c., (Edit. of 1854.) .. Orleans, employed.* This gentleman's whole collection, gathered by himself [while] travelling over most parts of * This volume undoubtedly passed into the Sloane Collection, but is not so described as to be identified quite satisfactorily. ป |