CHAPTER V.

1745-1747. ÆT. 34-36.

Hume's Residence with the Marquis of Annandale--His

Predecessor Colonel Forrester--Correspondence with Sir James

Johnstone and Mr. Sharp of Hoddam--Quarrel with Captain

Vincent--Estimate of his Conduct, and Inquiry into the

Circumstances in which he was placed--Appointed Secretary to

General St. Clair--Accompanies the expedition against the

Court of France as Judge-Advocate--Gives an Account of the

Attack on Port L'Orient--A tragic Incident.

Hume's history of his residence with the Marquis of Annandale, is given

in the following brief terms, in his "own life." "In 1745, I received a

letter from the Marquis of Annandale, inviting me to come and live with

him in England: I found, also, that the friends and family of that young

nobleman were desirous of putting him under my care and direction, for

the state of his mind and health required it. I lived with him a

twelvemonth. My appointments during that time made a considerable

accession to my small fortune."

It might have been favourable perhaps to the dignity of his position in

the world of letters, that this episode in his history had never been

more fully narrated; for a philosopher conducting a litigation for £75

of arrears of salary, is apt to experience that diminution of respect in

the eyes of the public, which the prince of Condé discovered that a hero

suffered in those of his valet. Since, however, many statements have

been given to the world, connected with that part of Hume's life, and

many charges and countercharges among the persons connected with it are

preserved, it is necessary to give such a brief view of the whole

affair, as may enable the reader to estimate the respective merits of

the parties in the dispute. A collection of documents on the subject was

lately published by a gentleman to whom the literary history of Scotland

is indebted for many other services;[171:1] and from his book the

following statement is compiled.

The person with whom David Hume was thus connected was the last Marquis

of Annandale, on whose death that title became dormant. On the 5th of

March, 1748, he was found, on an inquest from the Court of Chancery in

England, to be a lunatic, incapable of governing himself and managing

his own affairs, and to have been so since 12th December, 1744, a few

months anterior to Hume's engagement with him. The correspondence does

not give the reader the notion of one reduced to so abject a mental

state, but rather that of a man nervously timid and reserved;

distrustful of himself and his ability to transact business with other

people, but not quite incapable of managing his affairs, though

exciteable, and liable to be driven into fits of passion by causes not

susceptible of being anticipated. A party to the correspondence, talking

of him as in an improved condition, says: "My Lord walked out with me

lately two or three miles, received and returned the compliments of the

hat of those we met, and without any shyness or reserve: and bears to

stand by, and hear me talk with any farmer or countryman. This is a vast

change for the better, and the greatest appearance that it will

continue."[172:1] He appears to have been haunted by a spirit of

literary ambition. Hume says in a letter to Lord Elibank, "I have copied

out half a dozen of epigrams, which I hope will give you entertainment.

The thought in them is indeed little inferior to that in the celebrated

Epigrams of Rousseau; though the versification be not so correct. What a

pity! I say this on account both of the author and myself; for I am

afraid I must leave him." And on another occasion he alludes at length

to a far more extensive literary achievement, a novel, which the

excited Marquis had written, and which those about him had found it

necessary to print, circulating a few copies, and advertising it in one

newspaper to allay any suspicions in the author's mind that a thousand

copies had not been printed. Hume says:

"You would certainly be a little surprised and vexed on receiving a

printed copy of the novel, which was in hands when you left London. If I

did not explain the mystery to you, I believe I told you, that I hoped

that affair was entirely over, by my employing Lord Marchmont and Lord

Bolingbroke's authority against publishing that novel; though you will

readily suppose that neither of these two noble Lords ever perused it.

This machine operated for six weeks; but the vanity of the author

returned with redoubled force, fortified by suspicions, and increased by

the delay. 'Pardie,' dit il, 'je crois que ces messieurs veulent être

les seules Seigneurs d'Angleterre qui eussent de l'esprit. Mais je leur

montrerai ce que le petit A---- peut faire aussi.' In short, we were

obliged to print off thirty copies, to make him believe that we had

printed a thousand, and that they were to be dispersed all over the

kingdom.

"My Lady Marchioness will also receive a copy, and I am afraid it may

give her a good deal of uneasiness, by reason of the story alluded to in

the novel, and which she may imagine my Lord is resolved to bring to

execution. Be so good, therefore, as to inform her, that I hope this

affair is all over. I discovered, about a fortnight ago, that one of the

papers sent to that damsel had been sent back by her under cover to his

rival, Mr. M'----, and that she had plainly, by that step, sacrificed

him to her other lover. This was real matter of fact, and I had the

good fortune to convince him of it; so that his pride seems to have got

the better of his passion, and he never talks of her at present."

The "novel" appears to have referred to some little event in its

author's private history. If there be a copy of it now any where

existing, it is to be feared that it wastes its fragrance on the desert

air, as the existence of so choice a flower of literature, were it in

the possession of any collector, could not fail to have been rumoured

through the bibliographical world.

The Marquis had previously been attended by a succession of hired

companions, of whom one was a man of considerable distinction, Colonel

James Forrester,[174:1] a person who, in the Scottish society of the

age, seems to have united some of the qualities of a Chesterfield to a

like proportion of those of a Beau Fielding. He was the author of "The

Polite Philosopher;" a lively little essay, sometimes published along

with Chesterfield's "Advice," in which the author is so much at ease

with his reader, that he discourses in prose or poetry as his own humour

dictates. Johnson said, with reference to the man and the book, that "he

was himself the great polite he drew;" and if it did not happen that his

coxcombry excited the poor invalid's irritable nerves to distraction, he

was probably an infinitely more suitable man for the office of companion

to the Marquis of Annandale, than David Hume.

The overtures to Hume were made by the Marquis himself; who was,

according to an expression used by Sir James Johnstone, when writing to

Hume, "charmed with something contained in his Essays." The place of

residence of the Marquis was Weldhall, near St. Alban's, in

Hertfordshire. Hume had to go to London to make the anticipatory

arrangements, and he commenced his companionship on 1st April, 1745. The

insurrection, headed by Prince Charles Edward in Scotland, commenced

four months afterwards; and there is perhaps nothing more curious in

the whole dispute than the indifference with which this matter, fraught

with so much importance to his countrymen, is spoken of by Hume; while

there could not probably be a better answer to those who afterwards

insinuated that he was a Jacobite, than an account of the manner in

which his thoughts were occupied during that struggle. He occasionally

complains that he is prevented from personally discussing, with the

individuals interested, the matters he is writing about, on account of

"the present unhappy troubles;" and the following portion of a letter to

Sir James Johnstone of Westerhall, the brother of the Marquis's

stepfather, written immediately after he had left his attendance on the

Marquis, is the only occasion in which he appears to show the least

sympathy in the conflict or its results.

"_Portsmouth, June 6, 1746._

"DEAR SIR,--I have always sympathized very cordially with you, whenever

I met with any of the names, wherein you was interested, in any of the

public papers; but I hope that one of the persons is now safe by his

escape, and the other protected by her sex and innocence.[176:1] We live

not now in a time, when public crimes are supposed to cancel all private

ties, or when the duties of relation, even though executed beyond the

usual bounds, will render the persons criminal. I am willing,

therefore, to flatter myself, that your anxiety must now be in a great

measure over, and that a more happy conclusion of so calamitous an

affair could not be expected, either for private individuals or for the

public. Some little time ago, we had here a conversation with regard to

L----, and other persons in her condition, when General St. Clair said,

that he heard, from some of the ministers, that the intentions of the

menaces, or even of the intended prosecutions (if they went so far,)

were not to proceed to execution; but only to teach our countrywomen

(many of whom had gone beyond all bounds) that their sex was no absolute

protection to them, and that they were equally exposed to the law with

the other sex. However, I doubt not but your friend has no occasion for

their clemency, whatever may be the case with the other ladies in the

same situation, who had particularly valued themselves upon their

activity and courage."

It is now necessary to enter on a subject, which one feels a natural

inclination to postpone, as long as the order of events will afford any

excuse for looking at other things: the treatment Hume experienced in

this his self-adopted slavery. He had to deal with a capricious

unreasonable employer; to that he would, in the circumstances,

philosophically reconcile himself. He states in one of his letters, that

he lived with him "in a more equal way of complaisance and good humour

than could well have been expected. Some little disgusts and humours

could not be prevented, and never were proposed to be of any

consequence." But he had another and a far more unpleasant person to

deal with, in a certain Philip Vincent, a captain in the navy,[178:1] a

relation of the Dowager-marchioness of Annandale. For some months

matters appear to have gone smoothly with all concerned. The following

letter to one of his esteemed friends, shows that Hume was consoling

himself for the probable dissipation of his hopes of a professorship, by

reflecting on his good fortune in being connected with so amiable and

excellent a man as Captain Vincent:--

[Illustration: handwritten letter, text of which follows]

HUME _to_ MATTHEW SHARP _of Hoddam_.[178:2]

"MY DEAR SIR,--I am informed that such a popular clamour has been raised

against me in Edinburgh, on account of scepticism, heterodoxy, and other

hard names, which confound the ignorant, that my friends find some

difficulty, in working out the point of my professorship, which once

appeared so easy. Did I need a testimonial for my orthodoxy, I should

certainly appeal to you; for you know that I always imitated Job's

friends, and defended the cause of Providence when [you] attacked it, on

account of the headachs you felt after a deba[uch.] But, as a more

particular explication of that particular seems superfluous, I shall

only apply to you for a renewal of your good offices with your

nephew, Lord Tinwal,[179:1] whose interest with Yetts and Allan may be

of service to me. There is no time to lose; so that I must beg you to be

speedy in writing to him, or speaking to him on that head. A word to the

wise. Even that is not necessary to a friend, such as I have always

esteemed and found you to be.

"I live here very comfortably with the Marquis of Annandale, who, I

suppose you have heard, sent me a letter of invitation, along with a

bill of one hundred pounds, about two months ago. Every thing is much

better than I expected, from the accounts I heard after I came to

London; for the secrecy with which I stole away from Edinburgh, and

which I thought necessary for preserving my interest there, kept me

entirely ignorant of his situation.

"My lord never was in so good a way [before.] He has a regular family,

honest servants, and every thing is managed genteelly and with economy.

He has intrusted all his English affairs to a mighty honest friendly

man, Captain Vincent, who is cousin-german to the Marchioness. And as my

lord has now taken so strong a turn to solitude and repose, as he

formerly had to company and agitation, 'tis to be hoped that his good

parts and excellent dispositions may at last, being accompanied with

more health and tranquillity, render him a comfort to his friends, if

not an ornament to his country. As you live in the neighbourhood of the

Marchioness, it may give her a pleasure to hear these particulars. I

am,[180:1] &c.

"_Weldehall, near St. Albans_,

"_April 25, 1745._"

On the other hand, we find Captain Vincent, when he speaks of Hume,

saying, "I think it very happy that he is with my lord, and still more

so if he is constantly to remain with him, which I do not foresee but

that he may; and I must do him the justice to say, that after having had

time enough to weigh the temper, situation, and circumstances of the

person he has to deal with, he very candidly owned that it was what he

could cheerfully abide with." And again in August, "Mr. Hume is almost

wholly taken up with our friend personally, so that he can scarce have

the resource of amusement, or even of business, which is somewhat hard

upon a man of erudition and letters, whom indeed I think very deserving

and good natured; and whilst he can be his companion, there could not be

a better made choice of." The captain, in other letters, speaks of Hume

as "a very worthy and knowing man," and as "My friend Mr. Hume;" and

seems at one time to have wished that an annuity of £100 a-year should

be settled upon him, without reference to his continuance in his office,

and in addition to the salary he might receive while he did so. But the

dawn was soon afterwards overcast.

Hume, in the first place, disliked some of Captain Vincent's proposed

arrangements, as to the disposal of the person of the Marquis, and

seems to have soon suspected him of wishing to carry through designs

which would materially affect the interest of some of the Marquis's

relations. It is probable that a feeling of friendliness, or of duty,

may have prompted him to interfere. It may be so, and he may in reality

have done good; but the impression produced by the correspondence is,

regret that Hume did not at once retire in lofty scorn from the scene of

these paltry cabals.

Captain Vincent held a commission from the Marquis to "hire and dismiss

servants," and perform other like functions. It was in virtue of this

authority that he dealt with Hume; and he seems at first to have

thought, that in the person of the philosopher he had met with a sort of

superior and valuable member of the fraternity of upper-servants. Though

Hume had then written the works on which a large portion of his European

reputation was afterwards built, this man seems to have regarded his

literary abilities as merely an enhancement of the qualities which

suited him for his servile office. Looking upon himself as a member of

the family, he appears to have had much the same disposition to admit

that Hume's literary distinction put them on a par with each other, as

he might have had to admit that the display of an unexpected degree of

musical talent in the servants' hall would qualify one of its

frequenters to be hail-fellow well met with him in the dining-room.

Whether Hume was right or wrong in the suspicions he entertained of

Vincent, the conduct of Vincent to Hume was brutal, and that on his own

showing.

One of Hume's views, as to the proper treatment of the Marquis, was,

that the isolation of Weldhall was unsuitable to his condition: that he

should be in a a more cheerful residence, and one in other respects

more suitable; and the dispute appears to have been for some time

suspended on this peg. On the 31st October, Hume writes:--

"What is the mighty matter in dispute? Only about hiring a few carts to

remove the family to another house, in order to quit this; which, for

very good reasons, is infinitely disagreeable to your friend, very

dangerous, will be uninhabitable for cold during the winter season, and

costs £300 to £400 a-year, at least, to the family, more than is

requisite." And afterwards he says of Vincent:--"He said, when he was

here, that we shall live in this house till the lease was out, in spite

of all opposition."

In the letter from which the preceding passage is taken, he says to Sir

James Johnstone,--

"I must begin by complaining of you for having yoked me here with a man

of the Captain's character, without giving me the least hint concerning

it, if it was known to you, as, indeed, it is no secret to the world.

You seemed satisfied with his conduct, and even praised him to me; which

I am fully persuaded was the effect of your caution, not your

conviction. However, I, who was altogether a stranger, entered into the

family with so gross a prepossession. I found a man who took an infinite

deal of pains for another, with the utmost professions both of

disinterestedness and friendship to him and me; and I readily concluded

that such a one must be either one of the best, or one of the worst of

men. I can easily excuse myself for having judged at first on the

favourable side; and must confess that, when light first began to break

in upon me, I resisted it as I would a temptation of the devil. I

thought it, however, proper to keep my eyes open for farther

observation; till the strangest and most palpable facts, which I shall

inform you of at meeting, put the matter out of all doubt to me.

"There is nothing he would be fonder of than to sow dissension betwixt

my Lady and you, whom he hates and fears. He flatters, and caresses, and

praises, and hates me also; and would be glad to chase me away, as doing

me the honour, and, I hope, the justice of thinking me a person very

unfit for his purposes. As he wants all manner of pretext from my

conduct and behaviour, he has broken his word."

That these statements are not those of a secret foe emitting calumnies

in the dark, is made clear by the concluding terms of the letter, in

which the writer, instead of asking his correspondent to keep its

contents secret--a very common clause when people, thrown much in each

other's way, write about each other's conduct to third parties--says, "I

wish you would bring this letter south with you, that, if you will allow

it, I may show it to him,"--that is, to Vincent.

The excitement communicated to Hume's nerves on this occasion, is shown

by the following short letter to Sir James, so much at variance with the

usual character of his writings:--

"God forgive you, dear Sir, God forgive you, for neither coming to us,

nor writing to us. The unaccountable, and, I may say, the inhuman

treatment we meet with here, throws your friend into rage and fury, and

me into the greatest melancholy. My only comfort is when I think of your

arrival; but still I know not when I can propose to myself that

satisfaction. I flatter myself you have received two short letters I

wrote within this month; though the uncertainty of the post gives me

apprehension. I must again entreat you to favour me with a short line,

to let me know the time you can propose to be with us; for, if it be

near, I shall wait with patience and with pleasure; if distant, I shall

write you at length, that you and my Lady Marchioness may judge of our

circumstances and situation.--I am, Dear Sir, yours, with great

sincerity, D. H."

Unfortunately, the precise objects which the parties respectively

desired to accomplish cannot be distinctly ascertained, as the letters

generally refer to explanations which it will be necessary for the

parties to make when they meet, because the troubled character of the

times made private letters liable to be opened and inspected. Hume at

the same time, being in the midst of a considerable retinue of servants

under the control and management of his enemy, was in dread that spies

were set on his motions. Thus he says to Sir James Johnstone,--

"I did write you the very first occasion after I came out thither. But I

find my letters have great difficulty to reach you; for which reason I

shall put this into the post-house myself, to prevent such practices as

I suspect are used in this family. I have some reason also to think that

spies are placed upon my most indifferent actions. I told you that I had

had more conversation with one of the servants than was natural, and for

what reason. Perhaps this fellow had the same privilege granted him as

other spies, to rail against his employer, in order to draw in an

unguarded man to be still more unguarded. But such practices, if real,

(for I am not altogether certain,) can only turn to the confusion of

those who use them. Where there is no arbitrary power, innocence must

be safe; and if there be arbitrary power in this family, 'tis long since

I knew I could not remain in it. What a scene is this for a man

nourished in philosophy and polite letters to enter into, all of a

sudden, and unprepared! But I can laugh, whatever happens; and the

newness of such practices rather diverts me. At first they caused

indignation and hatred; and even (though I am ashamed to confess it)

melancholy and sorrow."

What a scene indeed!

The chief incidental light that can be thrown on the nature of the

suspicions which Hume entertained of Vincent, is derived from the

position of the person to whom the greater part of these letters were

addressed--Sir James Johnstone, who has already been alluded to as a

connexion of the Annandale family. His brother, Colonel John Johnstone,

had married the Marchioness-dowager, the mother of the Marquis, and by

her had three children. She was an heiress; and though the Scottish

estates, following an entail, were destined to pass to another family,

her own property would be inherited by the children of her second

marriage, on the death of the Marquis. The accumulated rents of his

estates, being movable property, would also be the subject of

succession, different from that of the entail; and therefore the

management of this property, during his imbecility, was a matter of much

moment to some of his connexions. The public had ample opportunity of

knowing the extent of these accumulated funds. They rose to the sum of

£415,000, and were the subject of long litigation both in England and

Scotland. The "Annandale cases" had a material effect in settling in

Britain the important principle which had been previously adopted over

the greater part of Europe, that the movable or personal estate of a

deceased person must be distributed according to the law of the country

where he had his domicile or permanent residence at the time of his

death.

It is pretty evident that Vincent had certain family projects in view in

connexion with the management of the estate, and that Hume wished to

defeat them. Before the outbreak of the quarrel, the latter had written

to Sir James:

"I shall endeavour to give you my opinion, which I am certain would be

yours, were you to pass a day amongst us. I am sorry, therefore, to

inform you, that nothing now remains but to take care of your friend's

person, in the most decent and convenient manner; and, with regard to

his fortune, to be attentive that the great superplus, which will remain

after providing for these purposes, should be employed by my Lady and

your nephews, as the true proprietors, for their honour and advantage."

Having written a civil letter to Vincent, stating that he desired the

intervention of Sir James Johnstone, and that he believed, in the mean

time, that the Marquis was satisfied with the engagement, and did not

wish him to be dismissed, he thus hints to Sir James his suspicions of

Vincent's views.

"I must own it was with excessive reluctance I wrote so softening and

obliging a letter to this man; but as I knew that such a method of

proceeding was conformable to your intentions, I thought it my duty to

comply. However, I easily saw it would all be vain, and would only

fortify him in his arrogance. Do you think that _the absolute possession

of so ample a fortune_, to which this is the first requisite step, is a

prize to be resigned for a few fair words or flattering professions? He

deals too much in that bait himself ever to be caught with it by others.

"I think this is the last opportunity that will ever offer of retrieving

the family and yourself (as far as you are concerned with the family,)

from falling into absolute slavery to so odious a master. If, in the

beginning, and while he is watched by jealous eyes, he can attempt such

things, what will he not do when he has fixed his authority, and has no

longer any inspector over him?

"'Tis lucky, therefore, that this, as it seems the last, is so good an

opportunity. Nothing was ever so barefaced as his conduct. To quarrel

with me, merely because I civilly supported a most reasonable project;

to threaten me with his vengeance, if I opened my lips to you concerning

your friend's affairs; to execute that threat, without a pretext, or

without consulting you; these steps give us such advantages over him as

must not be neglected.

"I hope you will not take it amiss, if I say, that your conduct, with

regard to your friend, and to those who have at different times been

about him, has all along been too gentle and cautious. I had

considerably shaken the authority of this man (though I had no authority

myself,) merely by my firmness and resolution. He now assumes more, when

he observes your precautions.

"But, as I do not believe that, though your firmness may daunt him, it

will ever engage him to loose hold of so fine a prize, it will be

requisite to think of more effectual remedies. Happily there is time

enough both to contrive and to execute. For, though he makes me the

offer of present payment, (which I hope you observed,) in order to

engage me to leave you presently, he shall not get rid of me so easily."

Hume appears, with a marvellous degree of self-restraint--marvellous in

a man of independent spirit--to have felt that it was his duty not to be

driven from his post by the insults of Vincent. He says to Sir James

Johnstone, when apparently wearied out, "I fancy he must prevail at

last; and I shall take care not to be a bone of contention betwixt you,

unless you think I am the most advantageous piece of ground on which you

can resist him." His opinion, that the interests of the other relations

were concerned in his resisting Vincent's designs, is confirmed by the

following letter, also addressed to Sir James Johnstone:--

"He [Vincent] desired you should intermeddle as little as possible in

these affairs; adding, that he intended, by keeping my Lord's person and

his English affairs in his own hands, to free my Lady from all slavery

to you.

"Ever since, no entreaties, no threatenings have been spared to make me

keep silence to you; to which my constant answer was, that I thought not

that consistent with my duty. I told him freely, that I would lay all

the foregoing reasons before you, when you came to London, and hoped you

would prevail with him to alter his opinion. If not, we should all

write, if you thought proper, to my Lady Marchioness, in order to have

her determination. The endeavouring, then, to make me keep silence to

you, was also to keep my Lady in the dark about such material points,

since I could not have access to let her know the situation of our

affairs, by any other means.

"He offered to let me leave your friend in the beginning of winter, if I

pleased, provided I would make no opposition to his plan,--that is,

would not inform you; for I was not capable of making any other

opposition. He added, he would allow me my salary for the whole year,

and that he would himself supply my place, leave his house in London,

and live with your friend. Can all this pains be taken, merely for the

difference betwixt one house and another?

"An evening or two before his departure from Weldehall, he offered me

the continuance of the same friendship, which had always subsisted

betwixt us, if I would promise not to open my lips to you about this

matter.

"The morning of his departure, he burst out all of a sudden, when the

subject was not talked of, into threatenings, and told me, that, if I

ever entered upon this subject with you, I should repent it. He went out

of the house presently, and these were almost his last words."

The circumstance of these "threatenings" is amply confirmed by a letter

of Vincent himself, addressed to the Marchioness; an admirable specimen

of the outpouring of a vulgar and insolent mind:--

"I will venture to say I have the knack of parrying and managing him,

but that Mr. Hume, who is so extraordinarily well paid, only for his

company, and lodged and lives, that, if it was at his own expense, he

could not do it for £200 a-year, should be gloomy and inconsolable for

want of society, and show, for this good while past, little or no sign

of content or gratitude to me for all I have done, and the best

intentions to serve him, and principally promoted his being in this

station, and repeatedly offered to come out frequently during the winter

and stay two or three days at a time, whilst he should be in town. I

shall do so, but nowise in consideration to him, but out of tenderness

and regard to our friend. Mr. Hume is a scholar, and I believe an honest

man; but one of his best friends at Edinburgh at first wrote me, he had

conversed more with books than the world, or any of the elegant part of

it, chiefly owing to the narrowness of his fortune. He does not in this

case seem to know his own interest, though I have long perceived it is

what he mostly has a peculiar eye to. Hereafter I shall consider him no

more than if I had never known him. Our friend in reality does not

desire he should stay with him. I don't see his policy in offering to

oppose my pleasure, and think it very wrong in him to mention his

appealing to Sir James Johnstone. I dare say your ladyship thinks as I

do, that it is unbecoming for me to be in a subservient state, in such a

case, to any body. I am very zealously disposed to be accountable to

you; both regard, civility, justice, long friendship and acquaintance,

as well as near relationship, are all the motives in the world for it;

and I hoped my being concerned would produce all possible good effects

in your having constant, true, and satisfactory accounts, as well as

that, in due time, those advantages in your own affairs might be

accruing, which you are so justly entitled to, and which I have before

declared to be one of the main ends to be accomplished, and which I

believe you think I could effect better than another. It is not one of

the most pleasing circumstances that, in the situation of our friend, it

is an inlet to strangers, taken in by accident, to be too much

acquainted with private family affairs. I certainly desire that Sir

James and I should be in good correspondence, and I believe he is

satisfied of that; but this man, taking it into his head to thwart my

methods, and all to gratify his own desire of being near town in the

winter forsooth, after the offer I have made of giving him relief

sometimes, and as nothing will satisfy some dispositions, I shall, at

the end of the year, close all accounts, in which there will be done

what was never done before, a complete state of the receipt and the

expense, and then very willingly desire to be excused from having any

farther concern. Most certainly I would do every thing in my power to

serve and oblige you; but if you desire the continuance of my care,

please to write to Sir James to signify occasionally to Mr. Hume that

the management is left to me, and not to a stranger, who, if he is not

satisfied, is at his liberty to remove from such attendance."

This illustration of character would be incomplete without a passage in

a subsequent letter, in which, after Hume had ceased to attend on the

Marquis, Vincent characterizes the sort of person who would be a

desirable successor.

"If any proper person is about him again whilst I am concerned, terms

for their behaviour must be specified, and as they wax fat and are

encouraged, they must be discreet enough and reasonable in their nature,

so as not to kick. Such deportment would engage any good offices of

mine, in favour of a worthy man, fit for the purpose, which, I confess,

is very hard to find, and possibly my Lord will not care to have any

body put upon him by way of terms of continuance."

That the iron of this bondage entered into his soul, is apparent in many

passages of Hume's letters. He regretted that he had left independence

in a humble home, for dependence in a lordly mansion: he regretted that

he had been led to meddle with intrigues, in which a vulgar selfish man,

who knew the world, was far more than a match for a profound

philosopher. How wise it had been for him had he never deserted the

humble prospects of an independent life, the following complaints,

addressed to Lord Elibank, testify:--

"Meanwhile, I own to you, that my heart rebels against this unworthy

treatment; and nothing but the prospect of depending entirely on you,

and being independent of him, could make me submit to it. I have fifty

resolutions about it. My loss, in ever hearkening to his treacherous

professions, has been very great; but, as it is now irreparable, I must

make the best of a bad bargain. I am proud to say that, as I am no

plotter myself, I never suspect others to be such, till it be too late;

and, having always lived independent, and in such a manner as that it

never was any one's interest to profess false friendship to me, I am not

sufficiently on my guard in this particular. . . . . My way of living is

more melancholy than ever was submitted to by any human creature, who

ever had any hopes or pretensions to any thing better; and if to

confinement, solitude, and bad company, be also added these marks of

disregard, . . . . I shall say nothing, but only that books, study,

leisure, frugality, and independence, are a great deal better."

The filling up of the cup of his slights and injuries, and the

termination of his servitude, is thus described by Hume; and one reads

it with a feeling of relief, as an event long protracted, and for the

occurrence of which the reader of the narrative is impatient. He says,

writing to Sir James Johnstone, on 17th April, 1746,--

"You'll be surprised, perhaps, that I date my letters no longer from

Weldehall; this happened from an accident, if our inconstancies and

uncertainties can be called such.

"You may remember in what humour you saw your friend a day or two before

you left us. He became gay and good-humoured afterwards, but more

moderately than usual. After that, he returned to his former

disposition. These revolutions, we have observed, are like the hot and

cold fits of an ague: and, like them too, in proportion as the one is

gentle, the other is violent. But the misfortune is, that this prejudice

continued even after he seemed, in other respects, entirely recovered.

So that, having tried all ways to bring him to good humour, by talking

with him, absenting myself for some days, &c., I have at last been

obliged yesterday to leave him. He is determined, he says, to live

altogether alone; and I fancy, indeed, it must come to that. As far as I

can judge, this caprice came from nobody, and no cause, except physical

ones. The wonder only is, that it was so long a-coming."

There is a stroke of generosity in his thus attributing the impulse to

physical causes, and not only abstaining from an accusation of his

enemy, but expressly exempting him from all blame. The readers of the

correspondence have not probably all seconded the charitable exemption;

and the exulting tones in which Vincent speaks of the dismissal, foster

the suspicion that he had paved the way for it. He says, on the 19th

April,--

"This day was a fortnight, my Lord told Mr. Hume to be gone, and that in

terms which I shall not repeat; the Monday following, the same

directions were renewed in a very peremptory manner, attended with such

expressions of resentment, that I advised Hume to go away the next day,

which he did, the 8th; and on the 15th I went out thither, and had told

my Lord before, that, if he could be reconciled to have him return, I

was very willing to contribute towards it, which proposal was not in

the least agreed to. . . . . Hume has not for many months stomached

depending in any respect upon my decision, who was originally the cause

of his being received at all, and had very great difficulty, long since

and at different times, to get my Lord to bear him. He has mistaken the

point; for there is nothing irritates his Lordship so much, as the

thought of any one showing some tokens of authority, and looking on what

he says as caprice, and of no consequence; and I really believe it is

some such notion as this, which has produced so thorough an aversion."

There are two different views that may be taken of Hume's motives for

not having at once resigned his appointment, at the very commencement of

the train of indignities to which he was subjected. Whoever anticipates

that a man who had tutored his mind by the rules of philosophy, and who

lived an upright and independent life, may be actuated by some better

views than those of mere pecuniary aggrandizement, will give him credit

for having believed it to be his duty to watch over certain interests of

the Annandale family at the sacrifice of his own feelings. Those who,

strongly disapproving of his opinions as a philosopher, believe them to

be therefore the dictate of a corrupted mind, will probably search for

base and selfish motives; and will have little difficulty in identifying

them with a pure love of gain, sufficiently strong to absorb all

gentlemanly feeling and all spirit of independence. The favourable and

charitable view admits of no direct demonstration on which an opponent

could not be able to throw doubt; and, the circumstances being stated,

each reader is left to form his own opinion.

There is one thing that Hume never attempts to conceal--his feeling that

the situation was in a pecuniary point of view advantageous to him, and

his consequent desire to preserve it for his own sake, so long as he

could do so with honour. That it should be so is one of those

inconsistencies often exhibited in fine geniuses, which ordinary men of

the world find it difficult to appreciate. It frequently proceeds from

this circumstance, that, not being acquainted with the ordinary beaten

tracks towards wealth and independence, which other men so easily find;

yet desiring the latter, although perhaps they care not for the former

endowment, they lay hold with avidity on any guide that is likely to

lead them, by however devious and unpleasant a path, to the desired

object. Men whose minds are much occupied with abstract subjects, if

they be poor and desire to be free of unpleasant obligations, are thus

apt to grasp at trifling rights with a pertinacity which has the air of

selfishness. They feel a timidness of their own ability to make way in a

bustling active world; and, conscious that it would be vain to compete

with hard-headed acute men of business in the enlargement of their

fortune, treat with an undue importance any comparatively trifling

claims and advantages; while the sagacious world, which sees before it

so many more advantageous paths to the objects of men's secondary

ambition, ridicules their much ado about nothing. It was Hume's first

and chief desire to be independent. That if he had enjoyed a choice of

means, to be the hired companion of the Marquis of Annandale would have

been among the last on which he would have fixed, will easily be

believed. But this occupation was the only method of gaining a

livelihood that offered itself at the time; it was an honest one, and

the disagreeable circumstances attending the means were overlooked in

the desirableness of the end.

It is necessary, also, along with the account of Hume's efforts to gain

a humble livelihood, to keep in mind the state of society in Scotland at

that time. The union with England had introduced new habits of living,

which made the means of the smaller aristocracy insufficient for the

support of their younger children. On the other hand, England was

jealous of Scottish rivalry in foreign trade: neither agriculture nor

manufactures had made any considerable progress in Scotland; while

Indian enterprise was in its infancy, and Scottish adventurers in the

East had not yet found a Pactolus in the Ganges. At that period the

gentleman-merchant, manufacturer, or money dealer; the civil engineer,

architect, editor, or artist, were nearly unknown in Scotland. The only

form in which a man poor and well born could retain the rank of a

gentleman, if he did not follow one of the learned professions, was by

obtaining a commission in the army, or a government civil

appointment.[196:1]

Here ended the channels to subsistence along with gentility, and he who

had none of these paths open to him, and had resolved to make an

independent livelihood by his own talents or labour, had at once, as the

German nobles frequently do in the present day, to abandon his rank, and

become a shopkeeper or small farmer, probably with the intention of

returning to the bosom of his former social circle when he had realized

an independence, but more commonly ending his days with the

consciousness that he was, in the words of Henry Hunt, "the first of a

race of gentlemen who had become a tradesman." Any lawyer who pays

attention to the statistics of the Scottish decisions in mercantile

cases, during the earlier part of the eighteenth century, will have

noticed how frequently it occurs that the younger sons of some good

family are mentioned as fulfilling the humblest duties of village

tradesmen.[197:1] The practice is now comparatively unknown. The well

educated gentleman's son, if he be brought up to commerce, connects

himself with those more liberal departments of it, in which he may reap

the advantage of his education and training. To the practice which

distinguished the period of depression above alluded to, aided perhaps

by the spirit of clanship, we may owe the existence of so many

aristocratic names among the humbler tradesmen in Scotland. In England

the nomenclature of a city directory will as surely indicate the court

and the tradesmen end of the town, as the Norman name used to indicate

nobility and the Saxon vassalage. We do not find Edward Plantagenet

keeping an oyster shop, or Henry Seymour cobbling shoes; but it would

not be difficult to exemplify these humble occupations, in the regal

names of a Robert Bruce or a James Stuart. In his essay on "The Parties

of Great Britain," published in 1741, Hume alludes to the absence of a

middle class in Scotland, where he says there are only "two ranks of

men," "gentlemen who have some fortune and education, and the meanest

starving poor: without any considerable number of the middling rank of

men, which abounds more in England, both in cities and in the country,

than in any other quarter of the world."[198:1]

The history of the miserable quarrels and intrigues connected with

Hume's residence in the Annandale family, is a sad picture, not only of

the position of the individual, but of his class,--the poor scholars,

the servile drudges for bread. The modern literary labourer--or hack, as

he is called by those who deem the word labourer too respectable to be

employed on such an occasion--may look from the narrow bounds of his own

independent home, with a feeling of sincere though not boastful

superiority on David Hume, living in the splendid bondage of a peer's

mansion. But in drawing the comparison on which the reflection rests,

let him keep in view the state of literature and of society at that

period, and ask where lay the hopes of the literary labourer? If he

remained in the less conspicuous walks of learned industry, and became a

divine or a teacher, there was before him the career of Parson Adams,

taking his pot and pipe with the upper servants; or that of the

threadbare tutor, subjected to the caprice and insolence of young men,

who, if they do not happen to be endowed with a high tone of sentiment,

must imbibe from all around them this feeling, that they are as far

beyond the parallel of rank of their instructor, as the Brahmin is

beyond that of the Pariah; or, thirdly, he might be the hired victim of

a semi-maniac, whose few rays of remaining reason are but sufficient to

indicate his own immeasurable superiority to the bought attendant of his

humours. These were the resources of the man who distrusted the power of

his own genius to soar into the higher flights of original literature;

the man, who might perhaps be too conscientious, not to say also too

timid, to throw the chance of his being able to meet his obligations to

society and to perform his social duties, on the chance of his

succeeding in the race for literary distinction.

But suppose the race run and gained, and the laurels on the victor's

brow,--for what, then, has all been risked, all encountered? True, Hume

himself became one of the distinguished few who gained both fame and

fortune; but in the ordinary case, if the former were achieved, the

latter did not follow; and in seeking the types of literary distinction

in his age, Fielding, Goldsmith, and Johnson are the names that rise

before us. Was the garden in which these flowers bloomed so genial that

we would have others transplanted thither?

Let not, then, the considerate and charitable reader overlook all these

palliations of the motives which may have induced a great man to humble

himself and bear so much contumely. Let us suppose that he who reads

this narrative is an editor of a newspaper, with a salary of say two or

three hundred a-year; or that he writes articles for the periodicals,

and neither in name nor in reality bound to any one, gets the fair price

of his independent labour; or that he is a teacher in an active

commercial academy, who, after the harassing labours of the day, can

retire to the bosom of his own family, without fearing the frown or

desiring the smile of any great man,--let him, if such should be his

lot, indulge, in all its luxury, the consciousness of his superior

independence and happier fate; but in looking from its elevation to

David Hume, a bondman in the house of an insane lord, let compassion

rather than contempt tinge his estimate of the illustrious victim's

motives, and let him thank the better times, that with all the drudgery

of his lot, its disappointed aspirations, and the bitterness of

unavailing efforts to raise it to a higher and more justly-respected

position in the eye of the world, have yet enabled him to quaff the

sweet cup of independence.

Before entirely leaving the subject of Hume's connexion with the Marquis

of Annandale, it is necessary to take a view of his conduct regarding a

pecuniary dispute which arose out of the transaction. The terms of the

agreement were very distinctly set forth by Captain Vincent in the

following letter:--

"SIR,--You desire to have a letter from me, expressing all the

conditions of the agreement concluded betwixt us, with regard to your

living with the Marquis of Annandale. In compliance with so reasonable a

request, I hereby acknowledge that, by virtue of powers committed to me

by the said Marquis, and with the approbation and consent of his

Lordship and Sir James Johnstone, I engaged that my Lord should pay you

three hundred pounds sterling a-year, so long as you continued to live

with him, beginning from the first of April, one thousand seven hundred

and forty-five: also that the said Marquis, or his heirs, should be

engaged to pay you, or your heirs, the sum of three hundred pounds, as

one year's salary, even though the Marquis should happen to die any time

in the first year of your attendance, or should embrace any new scheme

or plan of life, which should make him choose that you should not

continue to live out the first year with him. Another condition was,

that, if you should, on your part, choose to leave the Marquis any time

in the first or subsequent years, you should be free to do it; and that

the Marquis should be bound to pay you your salary for the time you had

attended him, and also the salary for that quarter in which you should

leave him, in the same manner as if that quarter should be fully

expired.

"These were the conditions of our agreement about the end of February

last, on your first coming up to London for the purposes here mentioned,

and which I have committed to writing for your satisfaction and

security, this first day of September, at Weldehall, four miles south of

St. Alban's, in the county of Hertford, and in the year one thousand

seven hundred and forty-five."

Vincent, in continuation, and for Hume's information, gives him a copy

of the agreement, under which one of his predecessors in office, by name

Peter Young, had been engaged; an agreement, containing terms rather

more favourable to the stipendiary than those of which Hume had

consented to accept. And he concludes,--

"You see the latter part of Mr. Young's agreement are more advantageous

terms than the latter part of yours; but I have done as much as I

thought reasonable and proper for me, and as much as you desired. I make

no doubt but, in any contingency, all the Marquis's friends and

relations, would be far from reducing your conditions less than that of

others in the same case, as, in my opinion, and I dare believe in

theirs, your character and conduct would rather entitle you to a

preference."

Hume had in the mean time received a present of £100 from the Marquis of

Annandale, no reference to which is made in the agreement, and which he

considered as a gratuity to induce him to leave Scotland, and enter on

those negotiations with Lord Annandale and his friends, which ended in

his being engaged, but might have ended otherwise; as an indemnity, in

short, for the time wasted and the trouble taken in the preliminary

arrangements. Indeed, it will have been noticed in his letter to Mr.

Sharp, quoted above,[202:1] that this gratuity was sent by the Marquis

along with the invitation to Hume to repair to London and hold a

conference on the subject. Hume, then, was engaged at £300 a-year, with

the condition that for any broken quarter a full quarter's salary should

be paid. His engagement commenced on 1st April, 1745. It terminated on

the 15th April, 1746. He thus considered himself entitled to £300 as a

year's salary, and to £75 as the salary of the quarter, of which fifteen

days had run. In the mean time, however, just after the expiry of the

first year, it had occurred to the magnanimous Vincent, that though

better terms than those given to Hume, had been obtained by the Peter

Youngs and others, Hume's salary was twice as much as it should be, and

ought to be reduced by a half. Hume, as if he had been subdued in

spirit, by the life he had been leading--feeling as if his lot were

cast, and his fate fixed--oblivious of the glorious dreams of ambition

that had dawned on him ten years earlier in life and were yet to be

realized, seems to have calmly contemplated this pecuniary reduction,

and to have been inclined to agree to it if it should form the prelude

to a permanent engagement. He thus wrote to the mother of the Marquis.

"I had the honour of a letter from my Lord Marquis last spring, inviting

me to London, which I accordingly obeyed. He made me proposals of living

with him; and Mr. Vincent, in concert with Sir James Johnstone,

mentioned at first the yearly salary of £300 as an allowance which they

thought reasonable; because my Lord had always paid so much to all the

other gentlemen that attended him, even when his way of living, in other

particulars, was much more expensive than at present. Since that, Mr.

Vincent thinks this allowance too much, and proposes to reduce it from

£300 to £150. My answer was, that whatever your Ladyship and my Lord

should think my attendance merited, that I would very willingly accept

of. As he still insisted on the reasonableness of his opinion, I have

used the freedom to apply to your Ladyship, to whose sentiments every

one, that has the honour of being connected with the family of

Annandale, owe so entire a deference. I shall not insist on any

circumstances in my own favour. Your Ladyship's penetration will easily

be able to discover those, as well as what may be urged in favour of Mr.

Vincent's opinion. And your determination shall be entirely submitted to

by me."

At the same time he appears to have submitted his grievances to the

consideration of his kind friend Henry Home, who, in a letter to Sir

James Johnstone, expresses views which will probably meet with more

sympathy than those announced by Hume himself.

"_Kames, 14th April, 1746._

"SIR,--I have a letter from Mr. David Hume lately, which surprised me

not a little, as if there were a plot formed against him to diminish his

salary. For my part, I was never hearty in his present situation; as I

did not consider the terms offered as any sufficient temptation for him

to relinquish his studies, which, in all probability, would redound more

to his advantage some time or other. For this reason, though I had a

good deal of indignation at the dishonourable behaviour of the author of

this motion, yet underhand I was not displeased with any occasion, not

blameable on my friend's part, to disengage him. I thought instantly of

writing him a letter not to stay upon any terms after such an affront;

but, reflecting upon your interest in this matter, I found such an

advice would be inconsistent with the duty I owe you, and therefore

stopped short till I should hear from you. I'm well apprized of the

great tenderness you have for your poor chief; and it is certainly of

some consequence that he should have about him at least one person of

integrity; and it should have given me pain to be the author of an

advice that might affect you, though but indirectly. At the same time, I

cannot think of sacrificing my friend, even upon your account, to make

him submit to dishonourable terms; and, therefore, if you esteem his

attendance of any use to the Marquis, I beg you'll interpose that no

more attempts of this kind be made. For I must be so free to declare

that, should he himself yield to accept of lower terms, which I trust he

will not be so mean-spirited to do, he shall never have my consent, and

I know he will not act without it."

The Marchioness declined to interfere, and thus the award by which Hume

agreed to abide was not made. He had thus began the first quarter of a

new year under the old agreement, and he had not consented either to

abandon the terms of that agreement for the time that was running, or

even to make new terms applicable to any subsequent period, though he

had shown a disposition to accept, under certain circumstances, of these

new terms. His abrupt dismissal, however, put an end to the negotiation;

and, as the terms of his agreement entitled him to the £75 if he had

chosen to throw up his appointment, he thought he was not the less

entitled to the money that he had been dismissed, and that the

ignominious and insulting treatment connected with his dismissal should

not be any inducement to him to abandon his claim. He could not lose

sight, moreover, of the circumstance, that to place the parties more at

their ease in dealing with him, he had abandoned his claims on the

professorship in Edinburgh. It is true that he had small chance of

obtaining it, but that chance, such as it was, he was desired by the

friends of the Marquis to abandon, and he did so. The question with him

then was, how much injury he should allow to be added to the insults he

had received. The £300, for his year's services, were paid. The payment

of the £75, for the subsequent quarter, was resisted.

On the 9th June, 1746, Henry Home wrote a sensible and kind letter on

the subject to Sir James Johnstone, in which he laid down the law of the

case, that Hume's claim of salary for the broken quarter must be on the

old agreement, and could not be "upon the footing of a proposal or

offer, which never came the length of a covenant, and which, therefore,

never had any effect;" and he says,--"The question then is, whether he

is entitled to £75, for the broken quarter, or only to £37, 10s. The

thing is a mere trifle to the Marquis of Annandale, but of some

importance to a young gentleman who has not a large stock; and supposing

the claim to be doubtful, I have great confidence in your generosity,

that for a trifle you would not choose to leave a grudge in the young

gentleman's mind, of a hardship done to him.

"But to deal with you after that plain manner which I know you love, I

will speak out my mind to you, that in strict justice, and in the direct

words of the agreement, Mr. Hume is entitled to £75."

Hume never entirely abandoned this claim. He was not in a position to

urge it forward immediately after his dismissal, as another and more

agreeable official appointment called him abroad. So late as 1760 and

during the next ensuing year, we find him urging his demand, and

allusion is made to an action having been raised in the Court of

Session. "The case," says Dr. Murray, "must have been settled

extrajudicially or by reference; for, after a careful search in the

minute book of the Court of Session, we do not find that it was ever

enrolled."

There has been a general tendency to consider this pertinacious

adherence to a pecuniary claim, as a proceeding unworthy of a

philosopher. In any ordinary man, whether wise or foolish after the

wisdom of the world, such conduct would have appeared but just and

natural; but a philosopher is presumed to have no more respect for money

and its value, than the generous and sympathizing gentleman on the

stage, who on the impulse of the moment, always tosses a heavy purse to

somebody, without having any more distinct notion of its contents than

the admiring audience can have. Hume's notions of these matters were

different. "Am I," he said, "in a condition to make the Marquis of

Annandale a present of £75, that of right belongs to me." It is true

that in the interval between the debt being incurred, and his insisting

on its payment, he had by frugality and industry made himself

independent. In 1747, he tells us that he was possessed of £1000, and in

1760, his fortune had probably considerably increased, though the

sources of emolument which made him subsequently worth £1000 a-year, had

not been then opened up. The surplus of the Marquis of Annandale's

estate had in the mean time accumulated in the manner that has been

already mentioned, and Hume probably thought it was an action more truly

worthy of a philosopher, to make over his salary of librarian to the

poor blind poet Blacklock, than to abandon a claim of £75, justly due

by an estate which had developed a surplus of £400,000.

* * * * *

Early in the year 1746, Hume received an invitation from General St.

Clair, "to attend him as a secretary to his expedition, which was at

first meant against Canada, but ended in an incursion on the coast of

France."[208:1] Before his departure, and while he expected to have to

cross the Atlantic, he wrote the following letter, addressed to "Mr.

Alexander Home, Advocate, His Majesty's Solicitor for Scotland, at

Edinburgh." The concluding remarks evidently relate to the state

prosecutions following on the insurrection in Scotland.

"_Portsmouth, May 23, 1746._

"DEAR SOLICITOR,--A letter you have good reason to expect from me,

before my departure for America; but a long one you cannot look for, if

you consider that I knew not a word of this matter till Sunday last at

night, that we shall begin to embark from hence in two or three days,

and that I had very ingeniously stripped myself of every thing, by

sending down my whole baggage for Scotland on Sunday morning. Such a

romantic adventure, and such a hurry I have not heard of before. The

office is very genteel--10s. a day, perquisites, and no expenses.

Remember me kindly to your brothers. Tell Frank I ask him ten thousand

pardons. Let Mr. Dysart, and Mrs. Dysart know of my good wishes. Be

assured yourself of my friendship. I cannot leave Europe without giving

you one instance of it, and so much the greater that with regard to any

other person but you, it would be a dangerous one. In short, I have

been told, that the zeal of party has been apt sometimes to carry you

too far in your expressions, and that fools are afraid of your violence

in your new office. Seek the praise, my dear Sandy, of humanity and

moderation. 'Tis the most durable, the most agreeable, and in the end

the most profitable.

"I am, dear Sandy, yours most sincerely.

"For God's sake, think of _Willy Hamilton_."[209:1]

At the same time we find him writing to Henry Home, and speculating on

the possibility of himself joining the military service.

"As to myself, my way of life is agreeable; and though it may not be so

profitable as I am told, yet so large an army as will be under the

general's command in America, must certainly render my perquisites very

considerable. I have been asked, whether I would incline to enter into

the service? My answer was, that at my years I could not decently accept

of a lower commission than a company. The only prospect of working this

point would be, to procure at first a company in an American regiment,

by the choice of the colonies. But this I build not on, nor indeed am I

very fond of it.[209:2] D. H."

The person to whom we thus find Hume acting in the capacity of

secretary, was the Honourable James St. Clair, one of those commanders

whose fortune it is to have passed through a long life of active

military service, without having one opportunity of performing a

distinguished action; for though, on the present occasion, the path to

honour appeared to be at last opened to him, it was closed by the

mismanagement of others. He was the second son of Henry Lord St. Clair.

His elder brother being engaged in the rebellion of 1715, was attainted

by act of Parliament. The father left the family estates to General St.

Clair, who, with a generous devotion to the hereditary principle,

conveyed them to his elder brother, on that gentleman obtaining a pardon

and a statutory removal of the disabilities of the attainder. He

obtained the rank of colonel on 26th July, 1722, of major-general on

15th August, 1741, and of lieutenant-general on 4th June, 1745. During

the last named year he was quarter-master general of the British forces

in Flanders. He was for many years a member of Parliament, having been

elected for the Dysart burghs in 1722, and subsequently for the counties

of Sutherland and Fife. He died at Dysart on 30th November, 1762.[210:1]

The marine force connected with the proposed expedition was commanded by

Admiral Richard Lestock, a man whose professional fate was in some

respects of a like character with that of his military colleague. The

intended object of the armament was an attack on the French possessions

in Canada, and steps had been taken to second its efforts on the other

side of the Atlantic, by bringing together a British American force. But

the indolence or negligence of the authorities at home, delayed the

departure of the fleet until it was too late to attempt such an

enterprise; and then, as if to furnish a vivid illustration of weak and

blundering counsels, that all these preparations might not be thrown

away, the force prepared for operations in America was sent to attempt a

descent on the coast of France.

The naval force, consisting of sixteen ships of the line, eight

frigates, and two bomb-ketches, accompanied by five thousand eight

hundred land troops, including matrosses and bombardiers, set sail from

Plymouth on 14th September.[211:1] Its destination was the town of Port

L'Orient, then a flourishing port, as the depot of the French East India

Company, which has since fallen to decay in common with the great

establishment with which it was connected. The history and fate of the

expedition will be best described in Hume's own words. It afforded no

harvest of military glory to either country; and while it is but

slightly described by our own historians, it is scarcely ever mentioned

by those of France. National partiality will hardly make any lover of

the true glory of his country regret that such an attempt was a failure.

The method of conducting war by descents upon an enemy's coast, is a

relic of barbarism which it is to be hoped the progress of humanity and

civilisation will not permit either false enthusiasm or the auspices of

a great name to revive among the nations of Europe. It is precisely the

warlike tactic of the scalping knife--the wreaking against the weak that

vengeance which cannot reach the strong. The rules of civilized war are

to strike such blows as will annihilate the power of an enemy's

government, with the least injury to the peaceful inhabitants of the

country. Descents on a coast do much injury to individuals--they do

little harm to the enemy's government. It is a system by which the vital

parts are not attacked until they suffer by exhaustion from the injuries

done to the extremities. Such expeditions do a grievous injury to our

enemies, to accomplish a very small good to ourselves. But if they

cannot be avoided, the next step of mercy is to make them effectual by

energetic and well-organized measures which render resistance hopeless,

and subject the places attacked only to the modified license of a

well-disciplined army. The blunders that made the present attempt as

contemptible as it was cruel, are amply recorded by Hume, and may be a

lesson of the responsibility incurred by those who fit out warlike

expeditions.

In this expedition Hume not only acted as secretary to the general, but

was appointed by him judge advocate of all the forces under his command,

by a commission "given on board his majesty's ship Superb, the third day

of August, 1746,"[212:1] in virtue of the power which the commander of

an army possesses to fill up a vacancy in that office. The mixed

ministerial and judicial duties of a judge advocate require a general

knowledge of the great principles of law and justice, with a freedom

from that technical thraldom of the practical lawyer which would be

unsuitable to the rapidity of military operations; and there can be

little doubt that these delicate and important functions were in this

instance committed to one in every way capable of performing them in a

satisfactory manner.

Some of Hume's permanent friendships appear to have been formed during

this expedition. General Abercromby, with whom we will afterwards find

him corresponding, was quarter-master general, Harry Erskine was deputy

quarter-master, and Edmonstoune of Newton was a captain in the Royal

Scottish regiment. Of the operations of the expedition, and some other

incidents of deep interest connected with it, he sent the following

narrative to his brother, John Hume, or Home, of Ninewells.

HUME _to his Brother_.

"Our first warlike attempt has been unsuccessful, though without any

loss or dishonour. The public rumour must certainly have informed you

that, being detained in the Channel, till it was too late to go to

America, the ministry, who were willing to make some advantage of so

considerable a sea and land armament, sent us to seek adventures on the

coast of France. Though both the general and admiral were totally

unacquainted with every part of the coast, without pilots, guides, or

intelligence of any kind, and even without the common maps of the

country; yet, being assured there were no regular troops near this whole

coast, they hoped it was not possible but something might be

successfully undertaken. They bent their course to Port L'Orient, a fine

town on the coast of Britanny, the seat of the French East India trade,

and which about twenty years ago was but a mean, contemptible village.

The force of this town, the strength of its garrison, the nature of the

coast and country, they professed themselves entirely ignorant of,

except from such hearsay information as they had casually picked up at

Plymouth. However, we made a happy voyage of three days, landed in the

face of about 3000 armed militia on the 20th of September, marched up

next day to the gates of L'Orient, and surveyed it.

"It lies at the bottom of a fine bay two leagues long, the mouth of

which is commanded by the town and citadel of Port Louis, or Blavet, a

place of great strength, and situated on a peninsula. The town of

L'Orient itself has no great strength, though surrounded by a new wall

of about 30 foot high, fortified with half moons, and guarded with some

cannon. They were in prodigious alarm at so unexpected an attack by

numbers which their fears magnified, and immediately offered to

capitulate, though upon terms which would have made their conquest of no

significancy to us. They made some advances a few hours after, to abate

of their demands; but the general positively refused to accept of the

town on any other condition than that of surrendering at discretion. He

had very good reason for this seeming rigour and haughtiness. It has

long been the misfortune of English armies to be very ill-served in

engineers; and surely there never was on any occasion such an assemblage

of ignorant blockheads as those which at this time attended us. They

positively affirmed it was easily in their power, by the assistance of a

mortar and two twelve pounders, in ten hours' time, either to lay the

town and East India magazine in ashes, or make a breach by which the

forces might easily enter. This being laid before the general and

admiral, they concluded themselves already masters of the

town,and[214:1] needed grant no terms. They were besides afraid that had

they taken the town upon terms, and redeemed it for a considerable sum

of money, the good people of England, who love mischief, would not be

satisfied, but would still entertain a suspicion that the success of his

majesty's arms had been secretly sold by his commanders. Besides,

nothing could be a greater blow to the French trade than the destruction

of this town; nor what[214:2] could imprint a stronger terror of the

English naval power, and more effectually reduce the French to a

necessity of guarding their coast with regular forces, which must

produce a great diversion from their ambitious projects on the

frontiers. But when the engineers came to execution, it was found they

could do nothing of what they had promised. Not one of their carkasses

or red hot balls took effect. As the town could not be invested either

by sea or land, they got a garrison of irregulars and regulars, which

was above double our number, and played 35 pieces of cannon upon us

while we could bring only four against them. Excessive rains fell, which

brought sickness amongst our men that had been stowed in transports

during the whole summer. We were ten miles from the fleet, the roads

entirely spoilt, every thing was drawn by men, the whole horses in the

country being driven away. So much fatigue and duty quite overcame our

little army. The fleet anchored in a very unsafe place in Quimperlay

Bay. For these and other reasons it was unanimously determined to raise

the siege on the 27th of September; and to this measure there was not

one contradictory opinion either in the fleet or army. We have not lost

above ten men by the enemy in the whole expedition, and were not in the

least molested either in our retreat or re-embarkation. We met with a

violent storm on the 1st of October, while we were yet very near the

coast, and have now got into Quiberon Bay south of Belle-Isle, where we

wait for a reinforcement of three battalions from England. There are

five or six of our transports amissing. After our French projects are

over, which must be very soon because of the late season, we sail to

Cork and Kingsale.

"While we lay at Ploemeur, a village about a league from L'Orient,

there happened in our family one of the most tragical stories ever I

heard of, and than which nothing ever gave me more concern. I know not

if ever you heard of Major Forbes, a brother of Sir Arthur's. He was,

and was esteemed, a man of the greatest sense, honour, modesty,

mildness, and equality of temper, in the world. His learning was very

great for a man of any profession; but a prodigy for a soldier. His

bravery had been tried, and was unquestioned. He had exhausted himself

with fatigue and hunger for two days, so that he was obliged to leave

the camp and come to our quarters, where I took the utmost care of him,

as there was a great friendship betwixt us. He expressed vast anxiety

that he should be obliged to leave his duty, and fear lest his honour

should suffer by it. I endeavoured to quiet his mind as much as

possible, and thought I had left him tolerably composed at night; but,

returning to his room early next morning, I found him, with small

remains of life, wallowing in his own blood, with the arteries of his

arm cut asunder. I immediately sent for a surgeon, got a bandage tied to

his arm, and recovered him entirely to his senses and understanding. He

lived above four-and-twenty hours after, and I had several conversations

with him. Never a man expressed a more steady contempt of life, nor more

determined philosophical principles, suitable to his exit. He begged of

me to unloosen his bandage, and hasten his death, as the last act of

friendship I could show him: but, alas! we live not in Greek or Roman

times. He told me that he knew he could not live a few days: but if he

did, as soon as he became his own master, he would take a more

expeditious method, which none of his friends could prevent. 'I die,'

says he, 'from a jealousy of honour, perhaps too delicate; and do you

think, if it were possible for me to live, I would now consent to it,

to be a gazing-stock to the foolish world. I am too far advanced to

return. And if life was odious to me before, it must be doubly so at

present.' He became delirious a few hours before he died. He had wrote a

short letter to his brother, above ten hours before he cut his arteries.

This we found on the table."

"_Quiberon Bay in Britanny, Oct. 4, 1746._"

"P.S.--The general has not sent off his despatches till to-day, so that

I have an opportunity of saying a few words more. Our army disembarked

on the 4th of October, and took possession of the peninsula of Quiberon,

without opposition. We lay there, without molestation, for eight days,

though the enemy had formed a powerful, at least a numerous, army of

militia on the continent. The separation of so many of our transports,

and the reinforcements not coming, determined us to reimbark, and return

home, with some small hopes that our expedition has answered the chief

part of its intended purpose, by making a diversion from the French army

in Flanders. The French pretend to have gained a great victory; but with

what truth we know not. The admiral landed some sailors, and took

possession of the two islands of Houat and Hedie, which were secured by

small forts. The governor of one of them, when he surrendered his fort,

delivered up his purse to the sea officer, and begged him to take care

of it, and secure it from the pillage of the sailors. The officer took

charge of it, and, finding afterwards a proper opportunity to examine

it, found it contained the important sum of ten sous, which is less than

sixpence of our money."[217:1]

"_October 17._"

As Niebuhr was an eye-witness of the battle of Copenhagen, so Hume also

had thus an opportunity of observing some practical warlike operations,

though they were on a much smaller scale, and were witnessed in much

less exciting circumstances than those which attended the position of

the citizen of Copenhagen. Thus, although not themselves soldiers, these

two great historians swell the list, previously containing the names of

Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Guicciardini, Davila, and Rapin, of

those historians of warfare who have witnessed its practical operation.

Voltaire, when the accuracy of his description of a battle was

questioned by one who had been engaged in it, bid the soldier keep to

his profession of fighting, and not interfere with another man's, which

was that of writing; but there is little doubt, that the person who

would accurately describe military manoeuvres, will have his task

facilitated by having actually witnessed some warlike operations, on

however small a scale, and however unlike in character to those which he

has to describe. Scott considered that he had derived much of his

facility as a narrative historian from his services in the Mid-Lothian

yeomanry; and Gibbon found that to be an active officer in the Hampshire

militia was not without its use to the historian of the latter days of

Rome.

It is pretty clear that Hume looked upon these operations, not only as

events likely to furnish him with some critical knowledge of warlike

affairs, but with the inquiring eye of one who might have an opportunity

of afterwards narrating them in some historical work. In the appendix

there will be found a pretty minute account by Hume, of the causes which

led to the failure of the expedition, in a paper apparently drawn up as

a vindication of the conduct of General St. Clair. It does not appear

to have been printed, although it seems to have been designed for the

press. It contains the following passage: "A certain foreign writer,

more anxious to tell his stories in an entertaining manner than to

assure himself of their reality, has endeavoured to put this expedition

in a ridiculous light; but as there is not one circumstance in his

narration that has truth in it, or even the least appearance of truth,

it would be needless to lose time in refuting it."

The following passage in a letter to Sir Harry Erskine, dated 20th

January, 1756,[219:1] shows that he here alludes to Voltaire: "I have

been set upon by several to write something, though it were only to be

inserted in the Magazines, in opposition to this account which Voltaire

has given of our expedition. But my answer still is, that it is not

worth while, and that he is so totally mistaken in every circumstance of

that affair, and indeed of every affair, that I presume nobody will pay

attention to him. I hope you are of the same opinion." But if Voltaire

ever wrote on this subject, it must have been in one of those works of

which he took the liberty of determinedly denying the authorship, for

there appears to be nothing bearing on the subject in the usual editions

of his published and acknowledged works, and in his "Précis du Siecle de

Louis XV.," he passes over the expedition with the briefest possible

allusion.

We find Hume, on the return of the expedition, writing the following

letter to Henry Home. It contains some curious notices of its writer's

views and intentions, and betrays a sort of irresolution as to his

subsequent projects, which seems to have haunted him through life. It is

here that we find the first allusion to his historical studies. The

extracts from his notes, or adversaria, printed above, show that he had

read much in history, but chiefly in that of the ancient nations. It

does not appear that he had yet paid any marked attention to British

history.

HUME _to_ HENRY HOME.

"DEAR SIR,--I am ashamed of being so long in writing to you. If I should

plead laziness, you would say I am much altered; if multiplicity of

business, you would scarce believe me; if forgetfulness of you and our

friendship, I should tell a gross untruth. I can therefore plead nothing

but idleness, and a gay, pleasurable life, which steals away hour after

hour, and day after day, and leaves no time for such occupations as

one's sober reason may approve most of. This is our case while on shore,

and even while on board, as far as one can have much enjoyment in that

situation.

"I wrote my brother from the coast of Britanny; giving him some account

of our expedition, and of the causes of our disappointment. I suppose he

received it after you had left the country, but I doubt not he has

informed you of it. We were very near a great success, the taking of

L'Orient, perhaps Port Louis, which would have been a prodigious blow to

France; and, having an open communication with the sea, might have made

a great diversion of their forces, and done great service to the common

cause. I suppose you are become a great general, by the misfortune of

the seat of war being so long in your neighbourhood. I shall be able

when we meet to give you the just cause of our failure. Our expedition

to North America is now at an end; we are recalled to England, the

convoy is arrived, and we re-embark in a few days. I have an invitation

to go over to Flanders with the general, and an offer of table, tent,

horses, &c. I must own I have a great curiosity to see a real campaign,

but I am deterred by the view of the expense, and am afraid, that living

in a camp, without any character, and without any thing to do, would

appear ridiculous. Had I any fortune which would give me a prospect of

leisure and opportunity to prosecute my _historical projects_, nothing

could be more useful to me, and I should pick up more literary knowledge

in one campaign, by living in the general's family, and being introduced

frequently to the duke's, than most officers could do after many years'

service. But to what can all this serve? I am a philosopher, and so, I

suppose, must continue.

"I am very uncertain of getting half pay, from several strange and

unexpected accidents, which it would be too tedious to mention; and if I

get it not, shall neither be gainer nor loser by the expedition. I

believe, if I would have begun the world again, I might have returned an

officer, gratis; and am certain, might have been made chaplain to a

regiment gratis; but[221:1] . . . . . . . I need say no more. I shall

stay a little time in London, to see if any thing new will present

itself. If not, I shall return very cheerfully to books, leisure, and

solitude, in the country. An elegant table has not spoiled my relish for

sobriety; nor gaiety for study; and frequent disappointments have taught

me that nothing need be despaired of, as well as that nothing can be

depended on. You give yourself violent airs of wisdom; you will say,

_Odi hominem ignavâ operâ, philosophicâ sententiâ_. But you will not

say so when you see me again with my Xenophon or Polybius in my hand;

which, however, I shall willingly throw aside to be cheerful with you,

as usual. My kind compliments to Mrs. Home, who, I am sorry to hear, has

not yet got entirely the better of her illness. I am," &c.[222:1]

We find Hume corresponding also with Oswald and Colonel Abercromby, as

to his claim of half-pay for his services as Judge Advocate in the

expedition; and this subject we find him occasionally resuming down to

so late a period as 1763, when he speaks of "insurmountable

difficulties," and fears he must "despair of success."[222:2] It must be

admitted that when he thought fit to make a pecuniary claim he did not

easily resign it. His correspondent, Colonel Abercromby of Glassauch,

has already been mentioned as having held a command in the expedition.

He was afterwards one of Hume's intimate friends. Besides his rank in

the army, he held the two discordant offices of king's painter in

Scotland, and deputy-governor of Stirling castle. He was elected member

of parliament for the shire of Banff in 1735,[222:3] and Hume's letters

contain congratulations on his re-election in 1747, along with some

incidents in his own journey towards Scotland.

"_Ninewells. 7th August, 1747._

"DEAR COL{L}.--I have many subjects to congratulate you upon. The honour

you acquired at Sandberg, your safety, and your success in your

elections. You are equally eminent in the arts of peace and war. The

cabinet is no less a scene of glory to you than the field. You are a

hero even in your sports and amusements; and discover a superior genius

in whist, as well as in a state intrigue or in a battle.

"I hope you recover well of your wound, and I beg of you to inform me. I

should be glad to know what became of Forster, and whether Bob Horne got

the majority. I write to you upon the supposition of your being at

London; because Dr. Clephane wrote me some time ago, that you was just

setting out for it. If that be the case please make my most humble

compliments to Mrs. Abercromby.

"If the Colonel be still detained abroad by any accident, I must beg it

of you, Mrs. Abercromby, to take these compliments to yourself, and to

keep this letter till the Colonel comes over, for it is not worth while

to pay postage for it. I suppose, madam, that Lady Abercromby informed

you of our happy voyage together, and safe arrival in Newcastle: your

young cousin was a little noisy and obstreperous; our ship was dirty;

our accommodation bad; our company sick. There were four spies, two

informers, and three evidences, who sailed in the same ship with us. Yet

notwithstanding all these circumstances, we were very well pleased with

our voyage, chiefly on account of its shortness, which indeed is almost

the only agreeable circumstance that can be in a voyage. I am, &c."

"To the royal in Bergen-op-zoom?[223:1] Have they lost any officers? I

hope Guidelianus[223:2] is safe? I hope Fraser is converted?"

In his correspondence with Oswald on the same matter of his half-pay,

his remarks on public affairs are very desponding. He says,--

"I know not whether I ought to congratulate you upon the success of

your election,[224:1] where you prevailed so unexpectedly. I think the

present times are so calamitous, and our future prospect so dismal, that

it is a misfortune to have any concern in public affairs, which one

cannot redress, and where it is difficult to arrive at a proper degree

of insensibility or philosophy, as long as one is in the scene. You know

my sentiments were always a little gloomy on that head; and I am sorry

to observe, that all accidents (besides the natural course of events)

turn out against us. What a surprising misfortune is this

Bergen-op-zoom, which is almost unparalleled in modern history! I hear

the Dutch troops, besides their common cowardice, and ill-discipline,

are seized with an universal panic. This winter may perhaps decide the

fate of Holland, and then where are we? I shall not be much disappointed

if this prove the last parliament, worthy the name, we shall ever have

in Britain. I cannot therefore congratulate you upon your having a seat

in it: I can only congratulate you upon the universal joy and

satisfaction it gave to every body."[224:2]

FOOTNOTES:

[171:1] Letters of David Hume, and extracts from letters referring to

him, edited by Thomas Murray, LL.D., author of "The Literary History of

Galloway." Edinburgh, 1841, 8vo, pp. 80. Dr. Murray says of these

letters: "The originals are supposed to have been deposited, about

eighty years ago, in the hands of a legal gentleman in Edinburgh, as

documents for a law-suit, to which the latter portion of them refers.

Since his death, they have, we believe, passed through several hands

without having attracted any particular attention, or, perhaps, without

having ever been read. They ultimately came into the possession of a

gentleman who appreciated their value, and who, several years ago, did

me the honour of presenting them unconditionally to me."

[172:1] The Marquis is said to have afforded the first example of his

state of mind, in the manner in which he gave a ball at Dumfries. He had

the floor covered with confections, as a garden walk is laid with

gravel. A lady who was alive a few years ago, remembered having seen him

walking about at Highgate, near London; when he was probably in a more

confirmed state of insanity than even his intercourse with Hume

exhibits: a keeper walked before him, and a footman behind. The latter

would occasionally tap his Lordship on the shoulder, and hand him a

snuff-box, whence he would take a pinch. He was a very handsome man. He

had a sister, who exercised so much influence over him, that in her

presence a keeper could be dispensed with.

[174:1] The following, discovered by a friend in an old newspaper, is so

amusing, and so descriptive of the man who was Hume's predecessor in

office, that I cannot resist inserting it:--

_On_ CAPTAIN (BEAU) FORRESTER'S _travelling to the Highlands of Scotland

in winter, anno 1727, incog._

O'er Caledonia's ruder Alps

While Forrester pursu'd his way,

The mountains veil'd their rugged scalps,

And wrapt in snow and wonder lay!

Each sylvan god, each rural power,

Peep'd out to see the raree-show;

And all confess'd, that, till that hour,

They ne'er had seen so bright a beau.

Nay yet, and more I dare advance,

The story true as aught in print,

All nature round, in complaisance,

And imitation, took the hint.

The fields that whilome only bore

Wild heath, or clad at best with oats,

Despis'd these humble weeds, and wore

Rich spangled doublets, and lac'd coats.

The hills were periwigg'd with snow;

Pig-tails of ice hung on each tree;

The winds turn'd powder-puffs; and, lo,

On every shrub a sharp toupee!

With silver clocks the river gods

Appear'd; and some will take their oath,

Or lay at least a thousand odds,

The clouds saliving spit white froth.

The youth abash'd thus to survey

So rude a scene himself outdo,

His sprightly genius to display,

Resolv'd on something odd and new:

All things he found were grown genteel,

Which made him deem it a-propos,

To be alone in dishabile,

A Forrester, and not a beau.

_Edinburgh Courant_, Oct. 3, 1781.

[176:1] The baronet's daughter, Margaret, had married the Earl of

Airley's eldest son, Lord Ogilvy, who, having engaged in the rebellion,

had fled to the continent after the battle of Culloden. His wife,

however, was among the prisoners; and in June 1746, she was committed to

Edinburgh Castle. In the ensuing November she escaped; and having joined

her husband in France, she died there, in 1757, at the age of

thirty-three. _Douglas's Peerage of Scotland_, vol. i. p. 35.

[178:1] He had obtained this rank in 1729. Beatson's Political Index.

[178:2] Matthew Sharp, born 18th Feb. 1693, was the second son of John

Sharp of Hoddam, by his wife Susan, daughter of John Muir of

Cassencarrie, ancestor of Sir John Muir Mackenzie of Delvin, Bart. Mr.

Sharp joined the Jacobite insurgents in the year 1715, and made his

escape to Scotland, after the rout at Preston, in the disguise of a

pig-driver. He then repaired to France, where he finally took up his

residence at Boulogne. In the year 1740 his elder brother George died,

and Mr. Sharp succeeded to the estate of Hoddam. He returned to his

native country, and died, unmarried, at Hoddam castle, in the year 1769.

[179:1] Charles Erskine of Tinwald, third son of Sir Charles Erskine of

Alva, Bart., a Lord of Session, with the style of Lord Tinwald. His

first wife was Grizel, daughter of John Grierson of Barjarg, by

Catherine, eldest sister of Matthew Sharp of Hoddam. Lord Tinwald's

third daughter Jane, married to William Kirkpatrick, second son of Sir

Thomas Kirkpatrick of Closeburne, Bart. was mother of Charles

Kirkpatrick, to whom Matthew Sharp bequeathed his estate of Hoddam.

[180:1] Original in the possession of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq.

This letter is printed in _The Edinburgh Annual Register_ for 1809, p.

552.

[196:1] So much had it been considered a legitimate object of the

education of a young gentleman to bring him up to the expectation of a

government office, that in the "Institute of the Law of Scotland," the

posthumous work of John Erskine, who had been appointed professor of

Scots law in the university of Edinburgh in 1737, it is mentioned as one

of the duties of the guardian of a young man of good family with a small

patrimony, to "advance a yearly sum, far beyond the interest of his

patrimony, that he may appear suitably to his quality, while he is

unprovided of any office under the government by which he can live

decently." B. i. Tit. 7. § 25.

[197:1] Walpole gives a curious illustration of the poverty of the

Scottish nobility, before "the forty-five," saying of Lord Kilmarnock,

"I don't know whether I told you that the man at the tennis court

protests that he has known him dine with the man that sells pamphlets at

Storey's gate, and says he would have often been glad if I would have

taken him home to dinner. He was certainly so poor that in one of his

wife's intercepted letters, she tells him she has plagued their steward

for a fortnight for money, and can only get three shillings. Can any one

help pitying such distress?" Walpole's Letters, ii. 144.

Goldsmith found the holder of a Scottish Peerage keeping a glove shop,

and in the case of Lord Mordington, who had been arrested for debt, and

claimed his privilege in the Common Pleas, "the bailiff made affidavit,

that when he arrested the said lord, he was so mean in his apparel, as

having a worn out suit of clothes and a dirty shirt on, and but sixpence

in his pocket, he could not suppose him to be a peer of Great Britain,

and of inadvertency arrested him." Fortescue's Reports, 165. This family

was peculiarly celebrated, Lady Mordington having raised the question,

whether a Scottish peeress who kept a tavern was protected by privilege

of peerage from being amenable to the laws against keeping disorderly

houses.

[198:1] He had an example connected with his own neighbourhood, if not

with his own family, of the practice of the gentry following handicraft

trades. George Hume, son of the minister of his native parish,

Chirnside, who was connected with his own family, followed the humble

occupation of a baker in the Canongate, and rose to the dignity of

deacon of his trade. Ill-natured tradition says, that the philosopher

disliked the vicinity to himself of this living illustration of the

depression of the Scottish aristocracy, and occasionally put himself to

some trouble to avoid meeting him on the street; but this tradition is

not consistent with Hume's manly character.

[202:1] P. 179.

[208:1] My own Life.

[209:1] MS. R.S.E.

[209:2] Tytler's Life of Kames, i. 123.

[210:1] Douglas's Peerage, ii. 501-502.

[211:1] Campbell's Naval History, iv. 324. Appendix, A. It appears that

Rodney commanded one of the ships, the Eagle.

[212:1] MS. R.S.E.

[214:1] Sic in MS.

[214:2] Ibid.

[217:1] MS. R.S.E.

[219:1] In the possession of Cosmo Innes, Esq.

[221:1] Mr. Tytler says, "The blank is in the manuscript, the reader

will be at no loss to supply it."

[222:1] Tytler's Life of Kames, 125.

[222:2] Memorials, &c. 76.

[222:3] Beatson, Parliamentary Register.

[223:1] In allusion to the Royal Scottish Regiment--Bergen-op-zoom had

been taken by storm on 16th Sept.

[223:2] This name--probably latinised from some joke known only to the

parties, applies to Col. Edmonstoune of Newton.

[224:1] For Fifeshire.

[224:2] Memorials, &c. p. 54.