This essay considers the early literary projects of Edward Gibbon, and particularly the journalistic project he undertook with his friend Georges Deyver-dun in 1766-1767. For two annual issues, they wrote and published a French-language journal in London to inform continental readers about significant deve¬ lopments in British culture. With roots in the Huguenot republic of letters, and ambitions regarding France as well ; with articles on figures as various and important as Boswell, Adam Ferguson, Sterne and Walpole among others, plus an original contribution from Hume, the journal should have been a success. This essay analyses some of the reasons for its failure, and also examines the Mémoires Littéraires as part of the legacy of the dis...