(Vol. ii., p. 375.)
Your correspondent J. MT. has great reason to congratulate himself on the
possession of the singularly curious tract which he describes, and which
gives an autobiography of this extraordinary adventurer. I am not aware of
any other copy in any public or private collection. I have a 4to. tract in
nineteen pages, evidently printed abroad, the title of which is--
"Balthazar Gerbier, Knight,
to
All Men that love Truth."
{305}
This gives a very interesting life of him by himself, perfectly distinct
from, and containing many particulars not given in the tract possessed by
your correspondent, which also contains matter not in the above. I have
likewise another tract, privately printed in Holland in English, French,
and Dutch, in fifteen pages 12mo., the English title to which is--
"A true Manifest,
By S^r B. Gerbier.
Anno
1653."
In this, which gives some curious particulars as to "Mr. Hughe Peeters,"
and the book entitled _The Nonsuch Charles_, he refers to another "little
manifest" published on the 2nd day of October, 1652, "that the world might
take notice that he was not at all invested with any foreigne engagement."
Of the tract so referred to, I regret to say no copy is known. None of the
other three tracts appear to have been seen by Horace Walpole, who had
collected a great number of Gerbier's pamphlets, and also the MS. next
mentioned, which, at the Strawberry Hill sale, came together into my
possession. The MS. contains the original appointments of Sir Balthazar to
the offices he held while in England, a pedigree of his family beautifully
emblazoned, and a large quantity of MS., prose and poetry, in his
autograph; including a most extensive collection of projects and proposals,
which seem to have been equally at the service of England or France. The
best account we have of Gerbier is that which Horace Walpole has supplied
in the _Anecdotes of Painting_ (see _Works_, vol. iii. p. 189.); but his
diplomatic negotiations, and his career as an artist and adventurer, never
forgetting his academy at Whitefriars and Bethnal Green, would furnish
matter for a very amusing volume. The general biography, however, to which
he would be most appropriately remitted, and which is still a desideratum
in literature, is that which is proposed by Dr. Johnson, in Chalmers's
admirable parody:
"I think a good book might be made of scoundrels. I would have a
_Biographia Flagitiosa_, the Lives of Eminent Scoundrels from the
earliest accounts to the present day."