by the applause of my enemies in Scotland. Had you and I been
such fools as to have given way to jealousy, to have
entertained animosity and malignity against each other, and to
have rent all our acquaintance into parties, what a noble
amusement we should have exhibited to the blockheads, which
now they are likely to be disappointed of. All the people
whose friendship or judgment either of us value, are friends
to both, and will be pleased with the success of both, as we
will be with that of each other. I declare to you I have not
of a long time had a more sensible pleasure than the good
reception of your History has given me within this fortnight.
_25th January, 1759._
I am nearly printed out, and shall be sure to send you a copy
by the stage-coach, or some other conveyance. I beg of you to
make remarks as you go along. It would have been much better
had we communicated before printing, which was always my
desire, and was most suitable to the friendship which always
did, and I hope always will, subsist between us. I speak this
chiefly on my own account. For though I had the perusal of
your sheets before I printed, I was not able to derive
sufficient benefits from them, or indeed to make any
alteration by their assistance. There still remain, I fear,
many errors, of which you could have convinced me, if we had
canvassed the matter in conversation. Perhaps I might also
have been sometimes no less fortunate with you. Particularly
I could almost undertake to convince you, that the Earl of
Murray's conduct with the Duke of Norfolk was no way
dishonourable. . . .
Dr. Blair tells me that Prince Edward is reading you, and is
charmed. I hear the same of the Princess and Prince of Wales.
But what will really give you pleasure, I lent my copy to
Elliot during the holidays, who thinks it one of the finest
performances he ever read; and though he expected much, he
finds more. He remarked, however, (which is also my opinion,)
that in the beginning, before your pen was sufficiently
accustomed to the historic style, you employed too many
digressions and reflections. This was also somewhat my own
case, which I have corrected in my new edition.
Millar was proposing to publish me about the middle of March;
but I shall communicate to him your desire, even though I
think it entirely groundless, as you will likewise think,
after you have read my volume. He has very needlessly delayed
your publication till the 1st of February, at the desire of
the Edinburgh booksellers, who could no way be affected by a
publication in London. I was exceedingly sorry not to be able
to comply with your desire, when you expressed your wish that
I should not write this period. I could not write downward.
For when you find occasion, by new discoveries, to correct
your opinion with regard to facts which passed in Queen
Elizabeth's days, who, that has not the best opportunities of
informing himself, could venture to relate any recent
transactions? I must, therefore, have abandoned altogether
this scheme of the English history, in which I had proceeded
so far, if I had not acted as I did. You will see what light
and force this History of the Tudors bestows on that of the
Stuarts. Had I been prudent, I should have begun with it. I
care not to boast, but I will venture to say, that I have now
effectually stopped the mouths of all those villanous Whigs
who railed at me.
You are so kind as to ask me about my coming down. I can yet
answer nothing. I have the strangest reluctance to change
places. I lived several years happy with my brother at
Ninewells; and had not his marriage changed a little the state
of the family, I believe I should have lived and died there. I
used every expedient to evade this journey to London; yet it
is now uncertain whether I shall ever leave it. I have had
some invitations, and some intentions, of taking a trip to
Paris; but I believe it will be safer for me not to go
thither, for I might probably settle there for life. No one
was ever endowed with so great a portion of the _vis
inertiae_. But as I live here very privately, and avoid as
much as possible (and it is easily possible) all connexion
with the great, I believe I should be better in Edinburgh. . . . .
_London, 8th February, 1759._
. . . . As to the "Age of Leo the Tenth," it was Warton
himself who intended to write it; but he has not wrote it, and
probably never will. If I understand your hint, I should
conjecture, that you had some thoughts of taking up the
subject. But how can you acquire knowledge of the great works
of sculpture, architecture, and painting, by which that age
was chiefly distinguished? Are you versed in all the anecdotes
of the Italian literature? These questions I heard proposed in
a company of literati, when I inquired concerning this design
of Warton. They applied their remarks to that gentleman, who
yet, they say, has travelled. I wish they do not, all of them,
fall more fully on you. However, you must not be idle. May I
venture to suggest to you the Ancient History, particularly
that of Greece? I think Rollin's success might encourage you;
nor need you be in the least intimidated by his merit. That
author has no other merit but a certain facility and sweetness
of narration; but has loaded his work with silly
puerilities. . . . .
* * * * *
I forgot to tell you, that two days ago I was in the House of
Commons, where an English gentleman came to me, and told me
that he had lately sent to a grocer's shop for a pound of
raisins, which he received wrapped up in a paper that he
showed me. How would you have turned pale at the sight! It was
a leaf of your History, and the very character of Queen
Elizabeth, which you had laboured so finely, little thinking
it would so soon come to so disgraceful an end. I happened a
little after to see Millar, and told him the story;
consulting him, to be sure, on the fate of his new boasted
historian, of whom he was so fond. But the story proves more
serious than I apprehended: for he told Strahan, who thence
suspects villany among his apprentices and journeymen; and has
sent me very earnestly to know the gentleman's name, that he
may find out the grocer, and trace the matter to the bottom.
In vain did I remonstrate that this was sooner or later the
fate of all authors, _serius, ocyus, sors exitura_. He will
not be satisfied; and begs me to keep my jokes for another
occasion. But that I am resolved not to do; and, therefore,
being repulsed by his passion and seriousness, I direct them
against you.
Next week I am published; and then I expect a constant
comparison will be made between Dr. Robertson and Mr. Hume. I
shall tell you in a few weeks which of these heroes is likely
to prevail. Meanwhile, I can inform both of them for their
comforts, that their combat is not likely to make half so much
noise as that between Broughton and the one-eyed coachman.
_Vanitas vanitatum, atque omnia vanitas._ I shall still
except, however, the friendship and good opinion of worthy
men. I am, &c.
_London, 12th March, 1759._
MY DEAR SIR,--I believe I mentioned to you a French gentleman,
Monsieur Helvetius, whose book, "De l'Esprit," was making a
great noise in Europe. He is a very fine genius, and has the
character of a very worthy man. My name is mentioned several
times in his work with marks of esteem; and he has made me an
offer, if I would translate his work into English, to
translate anew all my philosophical writings into French. He
says that none of them are well done, except that on the
"Natural History of Religion," by Monsieur Martigny,[52:1] a
counsellor of state. He added, that the Abbé Prevôt,
celebrated for the _Memoires d'un homme d'Honneur_, and other
entertaining works,[52:2] was just now translating my
History. This account of Helvetius engaged me to send him over
the new editions of all my writings; and I have added your
History, which, I told him, was here published with great
applause; adding, that the subject was interesting, and the
execution masterly; and that it was probable some man of
letters at Paris may think that a translation of it would be
agreeable to the public. I thought that this was the best
method of executing your intentions. I could not expect that
any Frenchman here would be equal to the work. There is one
Carraccioli, who came to me and spoke something of translating
my new volume of History; but as he also mentioned his
intentions of translating Smollett, I gave him no
encouragement to proceed. The same reason would make me averse
to see you in his hands.
But though I have given this character of your work to
Monsieur Helvetius, I warn you, that this is the last time
that, either to Frenchman or Englishman, I shall ever speak
the least good of it. A plague take you! Here I sat near the
historical summit of Parnassus, immediately under Dr.
Smollett; and you have the impudence to squeeze yourself by
me, and place yourself directly under his feet. Do you imagine
that this can be agreeable to me? And must not I be guilty of
great simplicity, to contribute, by my endeavours, to your
thrusting me out of my place in Paris as well as at London?
But I give you warning that you will find the matter somewhat
difficult, at least in the former city. A friend of mine, who
is there, writes home to his father, the strangest accounts on
that head, which my modesty will not permit me to repeat, but
which it allowed me very deliciously to swallow.
I have got a good reason or pretence for excusing me to
Monsieur Helvetius, with regard to the translating his work. A
translation of it was previously advertised here.
_---- 20th, 1759._
I am afraid that my letters will be tedious and disagreeable
to you by their uniformity. Nothing but continued and
unvaried accounts of the same thing must in the end prove
disgusting. Yet since you will hear me speak on this subject,
I cannot help it, and must fatigue your ears as much as ours
are in this place, by endless and repeated, and noisy praises
of the "History of Scotland." Dr. Douglas told me yesterday,
that he had seen the Bishop of Norwich, who had just bought
the book, from the high commendations he heard of it from Mr.
Legge. Mallet told me that Lord Mansfield is at a loss whether
he shall most esteem the matter or the style. Elliot told me,
that being in company with George Grenville, that gentleman
was speaking loud in the same key. Our friend pretended
ignorance; said he knew the author, and if he thought the book
good for any thing, would send for it and read it. "Send for
it, by all means," said Mr. Grenville; "you have not read a
better book of a long time."--"But," said Elliot, "I suppose,
although the matter may be tolerable, as the author was never
on this side the Tweed till he wrote it, it must be very
barbarous in the expression." "By no means," cried Mr.
Grenville. "Had the author lived all his life in London, and
in the best company, he could not have expressed himself with
greater elegance and purity." Lord Lyttelton seems to think
that, since the time of St. Paul, there scarce has been a
better writer than Dr. Robertson. Mr. Walpole triumphs in the
success of his favourites the Scotch, &c. &c. &c.
. . . . . The great success of your book, beside its real
merit, is forwarded by its prudence, and by the deference paid
to established opinions. It gains also by its being your first
performance, and by its surprising the public, who are not
upon their guard against it. By reason of these two
circumstances, justice is more readily done to its merit;
which, however, is really so great, that I believe there is
scarce another instance of a first performance being so near
perfection.
_London, 29th May, 1759._
MY DEAR SIR,--I had a letter from Helvetius lately, wrote
before your book arrived at Paris. He tells me, that the Abbé
Prevôt, who had just finished the translation of my History,
paroit très-disposé à traduire l'Histoire d'Ecosse que vient
de faire Monsieur Robertson. If he be engaged by my
persuasion, I shall have the satisfaction of doing you a real
credit and pleasure; for he is one of the best pens in
Paris.[55:1] . . . . . .
Our friend Smith[55:2] is very successful here, and
Gerard[55:3] is very well received. The Epigoniad I cannot so
much promise for, though I have done all in my power to
forward it, particularly by writing a letter to _The Critical
Review_, which you may peruse. I find, however, some good
judges profess a great esteem for it: but _habent et sua fata
libelli_: however, if you want a little flattery to the
author, (which I own is very refreshing to an author) you may
tell him that Lord Chesterfield said to me he was a great
poet. I imagine that Wilkie will be very much elevated by
praise from an English Earl, and a knight of the Garter, and
an ambassador, and a secretary of state, and a man of so great
reputation. For I observe that the greatest rustics are
commonly most affected with such circumstances.
Ferguson's book[55:4] has a great deal of genius and fine
writing, and will appear in time. . . . .
In 1759, Adam Smith published his "Theory of Moral Sentiments." The
following letters embody Hume's appreciation of that work.
HUME _to_ ADAM SMITH.
_London, April 12, 1759._
DEAR SIR,--I give you thanks for the agreeable present of your
Theory. Wedderburn and I made presents of our copies to such
of our acquaintances as we thought good judges, and proper to
spread the reputation of the book. I sent one to the Duke of
Argyle, to Lord Lyttelton, Horace Walpole, Soame Jenyns, and
Burke an Irish gentleman, who wrote lately a very pretty
Treatise on the Sublime. Millar desired my permission to send
one in your name to Dr. Warburton.
I have delayed writing to you, till I could tell you something
of the success of the book, and could prognosticate, with some
probability, whether it should be finally damned to oblivion,
or should be registered in the temple of immortality. Though
it has been published only a few weeks, I think there appear
already such strong symptoms, that I can almost venture to
foretell its fate. It is, in short, this----
But I have been interrupted in my letter by a foolish
impertinent visit of one who has lately come from Scotland. He
tells me that the University of Glasgow intend to declare
Rouet's office vacant, upon his going abroad with Lord Hope. I
question not but you will have our friend Ferguson in your
eye, in case another project for procuring him a place in the
University of Edinburgh should fail. Ferguson has very much
polished and improved his Treatise on Refinement;[56:1] and
with some amendments it will make an admirable book, and
discovers an elegant and a singular genius. The Epigoniad, I
hope, will do; but it is somewhat up-hill work. As I doubt not
but you consult the Reviews sometimes at present, you will see
in _The Critical Review_ a letter upon that poem; and I desire
you to employ your conjectures in finding out the author. Let
me see a sample of your skill in knowing hands by your
guessing at the person.[56:2]
I am afraid of Kames' "Law Tracts." A man might as well think
of making a fine sauce by a mixture of wormwood and aloes, as
an agreeable composition by joining metaphysics and Scottish
law. However, the book, I believe, has merit; though few
people will take the pains of inquiring into it. But to return
to your book, and its success in this town, I must tell
you----
A plague of interruptions! I ordered myself to be denied; and
yet here is one that has broke in upon me again. He is a man
of letters, and we have had a good deal of literary
conversation. You told me, that you was curious of literary
anecdotes, and therefore I shall inform you of a few that
have come to my knowledge. I believe I have mentioned to you
already, Helvetius's book "De l'Esprit." It is worth your
reading, not for its philosophy, which I do not highly value,
but for its agreeable composition. I had a letter from him a
few days ago, wherein he tells me that my name was much
oftener in the manuscript, but that the censor of books at
Paris obliged him to strike it out.
Voltaire has lately published a small work called _Candide,
ou, l'Optimisme_. I shall give you a detail of it. But what is
all this to my book, say you? My dear Mr. Smith, have
patience: compose yourself to tranquillity; show yourself a
philosopher in practice as well as profession: think on the
emptiness, and rashness, and futility of the common judgments
of men; how little they are regulated by reason in any
subject, much more in philosophical subjects, which so far
exceed the comprehension of the vulgar.
----Non si quid turbida Roma,
Elevet, accedas: examenve improbum in illâ
Castiges trutinâ: nec te quaesiveris extra.
A wise man's kingdom is his own breast; or, if he ever looks
farther, it will only be to the judgment of a select few, who
are free from prejudices, and capable of examining his work.
Nothing, indeed, can be a stronger presumption of falsehood
than the approbation of the multitude; and Phocion, you know,
always suspected himself of some blunder, when he was attended
with the applauses of the populace.
Supposing, therefore, that you have duly prepared yourself for
the worst by all these reflections, I proceed to tell you the
melancholy news, that your book has been very unfortunate; for
the public seem disposed to applaud it extremely. It was
looked for by the foolish people with some impatience; and the
mob of literati are beginning already to be very loud in its
praises. Three bishops called yesterday at Millar's shop in
order to buy copies, and to ask questions about the author.
The Bishop of Peterborough said, he had passed the evening in
a company where he heard it extolled above all books in the
world. The Duke of Argyle is more decisive than he used to be
in its favour. I suppose he either considers it as an exotic,
or thinks the author will be serviceable to him in the
Glasgow elections. Lord Lyttelton says that Robertson, and
Smith, and Bower,[58:1] are the glories of English literature.
Oswald protests he does not know whether he has reaped more
instruction or entertainment from it. But you may easily judge
what reliance can be put on his judgment, who has been engaged
all his life in public business, and who never sees any faults
in his friends. Millar exults and brags that two-thirds of the
edition are already sold, and that he is now sure of success.
You see what a son of the earth that is, to value books only
by the profit they bring him. In that view, I believe it may
prove a very good book.
Charles Townsend, who passes for the cleverest fellow in
England, is so taken with the performance, that he said to
Oswald he would put the Duke of Buccleuch under the author's
care, and would make it worth his while to accept of that
charge. As soon as I heard this, I called on him twice, with a
view of talking with him about the matter, and of convincing
him of the propriety of sending that young nobleman to
Glasgow: for I could not hope, that he could offer you any
terms which would tempt you to renounce your professorship;
but I missed him. Mr. Townsend passes for being a little
uncertain in his resolutions; so perhaps you need not build
much on his sally.
In recompense for so many mortifying things, which nothing but
truth could have extorted from me, and which I could easily
have multiplied to a greater number, I doubt not but you are
so good a Christian as to return good for evil; and to flatter
my vanity by telling me, that all the godly in Scotland abuse
me for my account of John Knox and the Reformation. I suppose
you are glad to see my paper end, and that I am obliged to
conclude with--Your humble servant.[58:2]
HUME _to_ ADAM SMITH.
_London, 28th July, 1759._
DEAR SIR,--Your friend, Mr. Wilson,[59:1] called on me two
three days ago when I was abroad, and he left your letter. I
did not see him till to-day. He seems a very modest, sensible,
ingenious man. Before I saw him, I spoke to Mr. A. Millar
about him, and found him very much disposed to serve him. I
proposed particularly to Mr. Millar, that it was worthy of so
eminent a bookseller as he, to make a complete elegant set of
the classics, which might set up his name equal to the
Alduses, Stevenses, or Elzevirs; and that Mr. Wilson was the
properest person in the world to assist him in such a project.
He confessed to me that he had sometimes thought of it; but
that his great difficulty was to find a man of letters, who
could correct the press. I mentioned the matter to Wilson, who
said he had a man of letters in his eye: one Lyon, a nonjuring
clergyman at Glasgow. He is probably known to you, or at least
may be so; I would desire your opinion of him.
Mr. Wilson told me of his machines, which seem very ingenious,
and deserve much encouragement. I shall soon see them.
I am very well acquainted with Bourke, who was much taken with
your book. He got your direction from me, with a view of
writing to you, and thanking you for your present; for I made
it pass in your name. I wonder he has not done it: he is now
in Ireland. I am not acquainted with Jenyns; but he spoke very
highly of the book to Oswald, who is his brother in the board
of trade. Millar showed me, a few days ago, a letter from Lord
Fitzmaurice; where he tells him, that he has carried over a
few copies to the Hague, for presents. Mr. York was very much
taken with it, as well as several others who had read it.
I am told that you are preparing a new edition, and propose to
make some additions and alterations, in order to obviate
objections. I shall use the freedom to propose one; which, if
it appears to be of any weight, you may have in your eye. I
wish you had more particularly and fully proved that all kinds
of sympathy are necessarily agreeable. This is the hinge of
your system, and yet you only mention the matter cursorily, in
p. 20. Now, it would appear that there is a disagreeable
sympathy, as well as an agreeable. And, indeed, as the
sympathetic passion is a reflex image of the principal, it
must partake of its qualities, and be painful where that is
so. Indeed, _when we converse with a man with whom we can
entirely sympathize_, that is, where there is a warm and
intimate friendship, the cordial openness of such a commerce
overpowers the pain of a disagreeable sympathy, and renders
the whole movement agreeable. But, in ordinary cases, this
cannot have place. An ill-humoured fellow; a man tired and
disgusted with every thing, always _ennuié_, sickly,
complaining, embarrassed; such a one throws an evident damp on
company, which I suppose would be accounted for by sympathy,
and yet is disagreeable.
It is always thought a difficult problem to account for the
pleasure received from the tears, and grief, and sympathy of
tragedy, which would not be the case if all sympathy was
agreeable. An hospital would be a more entertaining place than
a ball. I am afraid that, in p. 99, and 111, this proposition
has escaped you, or, rather, is interwoven with your
reasonings in that place. You say expressly, "It is painful to
go along with grief, and we always enter into it with
reluctance." It will probably be requisite for you to modify
or explain this sentiment, and reconcile it to your system.
My dear Mr. Smith, you must not be so much engrossed with your
own book as never to mention mine. The Whigs, I am told, are
anew in a rage against me, though they know not how to vent
themselves; for they are constrained to allow all my facts.
You have, probably, seen Hurd's abuse of me. He is of the
Warburtonian school; and, consequently, very insolent and very
scurrilous; but I shall never reply a word to him. If my past
writings do not sufficiently prove me to be no Jacobite, ten
volumes in folio never would.
I signed, yesterday, an agreement with Mr. Millar; where I
mention that I proposed to write the History of England, from
the beginning till the accession of Henry VII.; and he engages
to give me £1400 for the copy. This is the first previous
agreement ever I made with a bookseller.[61:1] I shall execute
this work at leisure, without fatiguing myself by such ardent
application as I have hitherto employed. It is chiefly as a
resource against idleness that I shall undertake this work;
for, as to money, I have enough; and as to reputation, what I
have wrote already will be sufficient, if it be good; if not,
it is not likely I shall now write better. I found it
impracticable (at least fancied so) to write the History since
the Revolution. I am in doubt whether I shall stay here and
execute the work; or return to Scotland, and only come up here
to consult the manuscripts. I have several inducements on both
sides. Scotland suits my fortune best, and is the seat of my
principal friendships; but it is too narrow a place for me;
and it mortifies me that I sometimes hurt my friends. Pray
write me your judgment soon. Are the bigots much in arms on
account of this last volume? Robertson's book has great merit;
but it was visible that he profited here by the animosity
against me. I suppose the case was the same with you. I am,
dear Smith, yours sincerely.[61:2]
In 1758 and 1759, much alarm was caused throughout Britain by a
threatened invasion from France. Hume seems to have "improved" this
state of matters, in the following letters, imparting wild and
exaggerated news. His writing in such a tone, at such a juncture, is an
example of his entertaining the same contempt for panics as for popular
feeling in other forms. There is no address on the first of the letters.
The second would reach its destination nearly at the same time with the
account of Rodney's destruction of the flat-bottomed boats intended for
the invasion.
"_15th May, [1759.]_
"DEAR SIR,--If you pass by Edinburgh, please bring me two pounds of
rapee, such as Peggy Elliot uses to take. You will get it at Gillespy's
near the Cross.
"Mrs. Mallet has her compliments to you, and begs you to procure her a
collection of Scotch pebbles. I assured her that I should inform you of
her desire, and also that you would not fail to execute it.
"We hear that you are to be expelled the university with disgrace. Even
the most partial of your friends here are obliged to allow that you
deserve it.
"We expect over forty thousand French, with the first fair wind. They
will probably settle the ministry; for, at present, the Pitts and the
Legges, and the Grenvilles, are all going by the ears.
"We live in hopes of seeing you soon. My compliments to Smith, whose
book is in a very good way.
"Dr. Warburton presents his compliments to you. Yours sincerely,"
&c.[62:1]
HUME _to_ MR. RUAT.[62:2]
"_6th July [1739.]_
"DEAR RUAT,--I am very much obliged to you for the desire you express to
Miss Elliot of hearing from me; and particularly your wishing to be
informed, by me, of any news that pass. As soon as I knew, certainly,
how to direct to you, I have sat down to write; and, though the
occurrences are no way extraordinary which I can communicate, they
shall all be strictly, and literally, and certainly true; and you may
venture to tell them as such to all the idle people that frequent
Buxton.
"This morning, there arrived an express from Admiral Hawke's fleet,
giving an account that the French fleet had sallied out of Brest, with
twenty-four ships of the line, and had engaged the English fleet, in a
desperate and bloody battle, from morning to night, which ended in a
total victory on our side. There are seven of the French ships sunk and
burnt, and four taken. There are two of our capital ships sunk, and the
admiral's ship was blown up, with its whole company, not one of whom is
saved. Prince Edward, in the Phœnix, behaved to admiration; but,
towards the end of the engagement, an unlucky cannon ball carried away
both his legs, by which it is feared we shall loose that promising young
prince. Our friend, poor Dr. Blair, would not go below deck, but stood
by the prince's side during the whole engagement, till his head was
carried off by a double-headed shot.
"About three hours after the arrival of this express, there arrived
another from the west, giving an account of the landing of the French in
Torbay, to the number of twenty thousand foot, and five thousand horse.
They believe already, in London, that they are sixty thousand strong.
The panic is inconceivable. The people in the country are hurrying up to
town; those in the town are hurrying down to the country. Nobody thinks
of resistance. Every one believes the French, Popery, and the Pretender,
to be at their heels.
"What adds to our general confusion is, the discovery of treachery in
our councils. Mr. Pitt is sent to the Tower, for holding a secret
correspondence with the French:--his ciphers and letters are taken. Mr.
Wood, our friend, (if he can be said to deserve that name,) is thrown
into a dungeon; and there will be certain proofs to convict him of that
treachery.
"In order to prepare the way for this blow, the perfidious French had
employed somebody to blow up the magazine in the Tower. I heard the
explosion this morning about five o'clock. All London is covered with
rubbish, and stones and brick, and broken arms. There fell into our back
court a shattered musket, and the bloody leg of a man. I thought the day
of judgment was come when I first heard the explosion, and began
seriously to think of my sins.
"These events will, all of them, make a figure in future historians; and
it is happy for these gentlemen, who are, or ought to be, very
scrupulous with regard to matters of fact, that they can so well
reconcile the true and the marvellous.
"As to private news, there is little stirring; only Dr. Warburton turned
Mahometan, and was circumcised last week. They say he is to write a
book, in order to prove the divine legation of Mahomet; and it is not
doubted but he will succeed as well as in proving that of Moses. I saw
him yesterday in the Mall with his turban; which really becomes him very
well.
"Poor Andrew Millar is declared bankrupt; his debts amount to above
£40,000, and it is said his creditors will not get above three shillings
in the pound. All the world allow him to have been diligent and
industrious; but his misfortunes are ascribed to the extravagance of his
wife, a very ordinary case in this city.
"Miss ----, yesterday morning declared her marriage with Dr. Armstrong;
but we were surprised in the afternoon to find Mr. Short the optician,
come in and challenge her for his wife. It seems she has been married
privately for some time to both of them. Her sister has been much more
prudent, whom we find to have confined herself entirely to gallantry,
and to have privately entertained a correspondence with three gallants.
I am, dear Ruat, with great truth, your most sincere friend and humble
servant."[65:1]
About the commencement of November, Hume returned to Scotland, for he
writes to Millar on 18th December that he has been six weeks in
Edinburgh. He states, that he is correcting his "History of the
Stuarts;" and says, "I fancy that I shall be able to put my account of
that period of English history beyond controversy. As soon as this task
is finished, I undertake the ancient English history. I find the
Advocates' Library very well provided with books, in this period: but
before I finish, I shall pass a considerable time in London, to peruse
the manuscripts in the Museum."[65:2]
On his return he left behind him, to be published in London, the two
volumes of his "History of England, under the House of Tudor," of which
he says in his "own life,"--"The clamour against this performance was
almost equal to that against the History of the two first Stuarts. The
reign of Elizabeth was particularly obnoxious."
He had now published the whole of that department of his History, from
which his opinions on the later progress of the British constitution can
be derived; and the epoch of this publication calls for some notice of
the manner in which subsequent inquirers have found that he performed
his task.[65:3] He was not like such writers as Clarendon and Brady,
the interested or prejudiced advocate of the crown against the people;
and we must look for the causes of his erroneous views in what he did
not know, or did not believe, rather than in what he wilfully
misrepresented. In his "Essay on Commerce," published in 1752, we find
him thus foreshadowing the principle on which he was to treat the
History of Britain:--"Lord Bacon, accounting for the great advantages
obtained by the English in their wars with France, ascribes them chiefly
to the superior ease and plenty of the common people among the former;
_yet the government of the two kingdoms was at that time pretty much
alike_." This assertion has been satisfactorily proved to be erroneous.
The spirit of credulity in historical inquiry makes out every thing
ancient to be better and greater than its modern representative. The
spirit of scepticism questions whatever is said in favour of antiquity.
The sceptic cannot throw doubt on the existing wonders of modern times.
If one nation is far beyond another in arts, arms, civilization, or
wealth, the facts cannot be denied; but when he looks back into past
ages, the pliability of the evidence admits the influence of the
levelling principle of scepticism, the tendency of which is to make all
mankind seem much alike; and Hume, who would not have ventured to say
that in his own day the constitutions of France and England were very
much alike, considered it but a piece of proper caution to discard as
fallacious the evidence that there was any great difference between them
in former times.
Unquestionably the doubting or inquiring spirit is a valuable quality in
a historian; for the narratives of human affairs are full of
falsehoods, which it is the philosophical historian's function to
discard. But the sifting will not be satisfactory, if the materials
subjected to it have not been largely and laboriously collected; and the
charge against Hume is, that he applied it to imperfect data. Where the
data are insufficient, credulity and scepticism are merely the
counterparts of each other, and produce erroneous results nearly alike.
Those who proclaimed Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, to be a liar, for
statements which have now been authenticated, believed in the account
given of a fictitious people, in an impudent forgery, called
Psalmanazer's Formosa, which would not now impose for a moment on any
educated person. Our enlarged knowledge of the matters to be subjected
to sceptical analysis, has now, in both cases, brought us to the right
conclusion.
An inquirer into the structure of the earth, who should know nothing of
its crust but the sandy plains of Germany, would, were he of a sceptical
spirit, discredit all those geological wonders which the most sceptical
of scientific men now believe.[68:1] In relation to some parts of the
British constitution, Hume was in the position of such an investigator.
His early prejudice against the study of the law, prevented him from
being fully acquainted with a science, the knowledge of which is
essential to any man who would clearly develop the progress of our
constitution,--the common law of England. He did not understand its
stubborn immovable nature, its solid impregnable masonry, against which
the ambitious violence of monarchs, and the fury of popular tumults
raged in vain. From the day when Gascoigne committed Henry V. to prison,
to that when surly tyrannical old Sir Edward Coke argued face to face
with King James against the interference of the prerogative with the
independent authority of his court, those who were the honest
administrators of the common law held that they were no man's servants,
and no man's masters, but the sworn expounders of a settled rule of
action, which no power within the realm could sway. It might be full of
strange conceits, of passages hard to determine, of unreasonable and
often cruel rules: but what this oracle bade them, that were they bound
to do, be the consequences what they might.
To a mere onlooker, this system appeared to be clumsy and barbarous, and
unendowed with that philosophical symmetry which characterized the rival
system of the civil law. It required that one should have a full
knowledge of its massive structure, and passive power of resistance, to
appreciate its value in a country where king, nobles, and common people,
were alike characterized by party spirit, courage, and restless
activity. A philosopher, indulging in a distant contemplation, would at
once prefer the nice philosophical adaptation to the wants of a state,
and the fine logical structure, with which a despotic power, able to
manipulate the laws at its own will, had endowed the system of
Justinian; and if he found that the administrators of the rude common
law waged a determined war against this philosophical code, his
contempt for the one, and his admiration of the other, would be likely
to be increased. But there is no doubt that the advocates of the common
law were right in resisting the introduction of the pliant principles of
the civilians. If it be true that the common law, and the constitution
which grew along with it, embodied no philosophical principle of
liberty, it is also true that they embodied no philosophical principle
of despotism, such as that which was ready made in the Justinian
legislation. The theories of passive obedience, and the sacredness of
the monarchical character, were strangers to it; and these doctrines, so
attractive to those who profit by them, were introduced by the
civilians. In presence of the unbending operation of the common law, and
dependent on a surly suspicious parliament, the sovereign might yet, if
he were a man of talent and courage, be very powerful and very
tyrannical: but he had none of those attributes through which the
ingenuity of the civilians had divested him of all the moral failings,
so far as they were accompanied with the moral responsibilities of a
human being. He was often a "most dread sovereign:" but it was for these
novel doctrines, the fruit of the reading of the clergy and the
ecclesiastical lawyers, to invest him with the attributes of "sacred
majesty."
The supporters of the common law, and of the old popular rights, strove
to keep the law above the king. Those who drew their constitutional
principles from the civilians and canonists, desired to place the king
above the law. They accomplished their object in name, but not in fact,
by incorporating with the constitutional law those fictions, that the
king never dies, is not responsible, does not require to appear by his
attorney, suffers no laches, &c. But in reality the old principles which
made the king merely the head of a community, all of whom were subjected
to the law, substantially held its ground; for, in so far as the monarch
was exempted from responsibilities, in the same proportion was he
deprived of any powers which he could exercise otherwise than through a
responsible minister.
There was in Hume a like want of appreciation of the value of
parliamentary forms and privileges, and a corresponding indifference
about their violation. He had not sufficiently studied the Journals of
the Commons, and did not trace the rise and development of that system
of procedure which has protected our own liberties, and afforded a model
for the legislative assemblies of all free nations.[71:1] It was in the
Long Parliament, and under the eye of the able men of business who then
held the lead, that this noble system was brought to perfection; but the
reader whose historical information is derived solely from Hume, knows
little of its value. Thus unconscious of the practical importance of the
rights and privileges of the English people, he did not sympathize with
those who expected alarming consequences from their infringement. He
involved those who put the protection of their legal rights to the issue
of the sword, in the same contemptuous estimate with the fanatics whom
he charged with convulsing the state about religious differences of no
essential moment. In either case the event at issue was of so little
importance in his estimation, that he had small charity for those who
made it a vitally important concern.[72:1] But in all these matters we
look back on Hume with the light of later times. To appreciate his
services to constitutional history, we must, while we keep in view the
successful labours of later inquirers, remember how little had been done
by his predecessors. The old chroniclers, such as Hall and Holingshed,
scarcely ever deign to descend from the pride, pomp, and circumstance of
glorious war, to mention constitutional matters; and perhaps, in an
impartial estimate, it will be admitted that in the gradual progress
towards a better appreciation of what is truly valuable in British
history, no one writer has taken so great a stride as Hume.
FOOTNOTES:
[3:1] MS. R.S.E.
[5:1] MS. R.S.E.
[5:2] In a small book, called "Letters on Mr. Hume's History of Great
Britain," Edinburgh, 1756, known to have been written by Daniel
Macqueen, D.D., the chief object is to prove that Hume has not treated
the Roman Catholic religion with sufficient severity, and to supply this
defect in his History. In a few remarks at the end, however, Dr.
Macqueen had the merit of suggesting many of the constitutional
criticisms on Hume, which were afterwards followed out.
[6:1] A sketch of Hume's character and habits, in _The Edinburgh
Magazine_ for 1802, professing to be by one who was personally
acquainted with him, is discredited, by its containing a statement that
he had joined the Roman Catholic Church when he was in France. The
reader will remember that, almost from the moment of his setting foot on
foreign soil, he censures the Roman Catholics, in his letters to his
friends; and nothing could be mentioned more at variance with a known
character, than this writer's assertion, which seems to rest on some
imaginative parallel between the personal history of Hume and that of
Gibbon. As the reader may desire to read the sketch thus condemned, and
to judge for himself of its applicability to Hume, it is here given.
"ANECDOTES OF DAVID HUME, ESQ.
"_By one who personally knew him._
"David Hume was a man of parts, natural and acquired, far
superior to most of mankind; of a benevolent heart, a
friendly, kind disposition, and a real affection for all his
connexions. No man is without his failings; and his great
views of being singular, and a vanity to show himself superior
to most people, led him to advance many axioms that were
dissonant to the opinions of others, and led him into
sceptical doctrines only to show how minute and puzzling they
were to other folk; in so far, that I have often seen him (in
various companies, according as he saw some enthusiastic
person there) combat either their religious or political
principles; nay, after he had struck them dumb, take up the
argument on their side with equal good humour, wit, and
jocoseness, all to show his pre-eminency. For the justness of
these observations, I appeal to his life, wrote by himself,
and published by his friend and admirer, Adam Smith, where you
see he was so chagrined at no notice of, or answer being made
to, his Essays, and was so disappointed, that he proposed to
retire to Saumure, or some other part of France, to be lost to
the unheeding world; and, in short, be a perfect hermit. But,
on being answered by a bishop, on some of his dogmas, and
other favourable circumstances flattering him that he would at
last be conspicuous, he gave up the project, and was first a
companion, for some time, to the Marquis of Annandale; then
librarian to the Advocates here; after that, secretary to
General Sinclair at Turin (who was, under pretence of an
ambassador to his Sardinian Majesty, a spy, as his conduct was
dubious to the allies, against Louis XV.;) afterwards, by
General Conway's interest, secretary to Lord Hertford at
Paris; left there chargé d'affairs; and, finally, one of the
under secretaries of state for about half a year. After which
he settled in Edinburgh for life, and made all his friends and
connexions happy by the possession of so worthy a man.--Thus
far I have given my real sentiments of the man, and can only
now regret that he was so weak as to write his life in the
style he did.
"I must add, that he was a cheerful and most agreeable
companion, well informed, and who accommodated himself to the
company; and, for all his abstruse learning, was never happier
than in a select company of ladies and friends, and fond to
engage in a party at whist, of which game he was a complete
adept, and, of consequence, successful. He never played deep;
never above a shilling, one, two, or three; and I have known
him come into Edinburgh for some weeks, pay his residence
there, and get a recruit of clothes and necessaries out of his
gains; nay, sometimes to have a pound or two to give in
assistance to a necessitous relation; and carry back to his
brother's house, at Ninewells, the cash he brought with him
from that place, in order to defray the expenses of his visit
to the metropolis. General Scott of Balcomie, who was a good
judge in these matters, was so convinced of his superior skill
at whist, that I was assured he offered David his purse to
gamble at London; and that he would give him £1000 a-year if
he would communicate his winnings. This he refused with
disdain, saying, he played for his amusement; and though
General Scott would give him ten times more per annum, he
would be accessary to no such fraudulent doings.
"It was very remarkable, that, though from study and reading
the purest authors in the English language he learnt to write
in a correct and elegant style, yet, in conversing, he spoke
with the tone, idiom, and vulgar voice of the commonalty in
the Merse or Berwickshire. This, I presume, arose from his
having been greatly, in his early years, about his brother's
house, conversing with servants, &c.; and having no ear
(though a foreign or even a dead language, which he acquired
by grammar and rules, he wrote pointedly,) it was impossible
for him to attain, in speaking, any other dialect of the Scots
than that he caught in his childhood: besides, he had but a
creeping voice, rather effeminate than manly.
"I could give you several anecdotes with regard to him; I
shall content myself with one. One day when he was advancing
some irreligious maxims in a sarcastical style, I said to him,
'L----, David, ye are much altered in your sentiments since
you professed yourself a sincere Roman Catholic, confessed
yourself to the priests, declared yourself a sincere penitent,
got absolution, and even extreme unction.' He was much
offended at this, as he believed none knew, in this country,
that all this had happened to him at Nice. He answered in a
huff, 'I was in a high fever then, and did not know what I
said, or they did with me.' I replied, 'You put me in mind of
Patie Birnie's answer to the minister of Kinghorn, who,
stumbling o'er him in a passage dead drunk, said, 'Ah! Patie,
is this your promise that you would never be fu' again, if the
Lord spared you?'--'Wow,' quo' Pate, 'I wonder to hear ane of
your honour's sense mind what ony body says in a red raving
fever; I kent naithing of what was ga'en.' David and I, for
years after, were tolerable good friends, but never so cordial
as before. G. N." [These initials are supposed to be those of
George Nichol, M. P.]
[9:1] Hume was inclined to admire the polity of the Church of England,
on grounds peculiar to himself. The tendency of his remarks on the
wealth and dignity of that establishment, is to hold that heaping riches
and honours on a clergy, by occupying their minds in pomps and vanities,
diverts a certain portion of the spirit of priestcraft from its natural
propensity to subdue or annoy the rest of the community, and is on the
whole a judicious investment of a considerable proportion of the wealth
and honours which may happen to be at the command of a state. Adam
Smith's opinion, on the other hand, was, that the people are best
protected against the influence of priestcraft, by allowing no sect to
have a superiority over others, and by leaving the clergy of different
denominations to expend their zeal in fighting with each other.
[11:1] Original at Kilravock.
[13:1] Scroll in Hume's handwriting, Minto MSS.
[13:2] Four Dissertations: The Natural History of Religion; Of the
Passions; Of Tragedy; Of the Standard of Taste. 8vo, A. Millar. Hume, in
his "own life," says they were published in the interval between the
first and second volumes of his History.
[14:1] In a copy which I possess, after p. 200, the end of the third
dissertation, there are four strips of paper, the remains of half a
sheet cut away. This occurs in signature K, and signature L begins with
the fourth dissertation.
[14:2] Vol. i. p. 246.
[15:1] A simple example tells at once the whole philosophy of this view.
In an unhealthy community, a workman dies after he has been ten years
married, and leaves a widow and children dependant on the public. In a
healthy community, he lives for twenty years after his marriage, and
leaves children grown up and able to provide for themselves.
In general, the aim of all remarks on Hume's writings in the present
work is expository, not controversial. The reader desirous of having
every light thrown on Hume's opinions, will care nothing about mine; but
where, as in the present case, he seems to have gone astray from his own
leading principles, it appeared to be right to notice the aberration.
[16:1] This letter is not dated.
[18:1] MS. R.S.E.
[18:2] He persisted in spelling the poet's name thus.
[19:1] MS. Advocates' Library. A good example of the same thing being
done in two ways, is afforded by comparing Hume's resignation with that
of his venerable predecessor, Ruddiman. The latter is a document of
considerable length, and ends in the following strain:--"But though I
can be no longer serviceable to the honourable Faculty in that my former
capacity, yet there is one duty still in my power, and which can never
be dispensed with; and that is, that from the deep and most grateful
sense which I shall always retain of your great and manifold favours, I
should earnestly pray to Almighty God for the honour, prosperity, and
flourishing state of your most learned and useful society; that ye may
continue a great ornament to those high courts, of which you are
members; and that in them, and every where else, ye may shine forth with
that splendour and dignity, that unblemished character for justice and
probity, and the faithful discharge of all those duties your honourable
profession has laid upon you, for which you are so remarkable; and which
the superior name and rank you bear in the world, give your country just
ground to expect of you.
"This is the last best testimony and assurance I can give, of my most
sincere gratitude, warm affection, and high regard to the honourable
Faculty; and that I am, now, and always, my much honoured patrons and
masters, your most obliged, most humble, and most dutiful servant,--
Dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos regit artus
"T. RUDDIMAN."
[20:1] These two distichs are taken from separate parts of the fourth
book of Ovid's "Tristia." The first is accurate, but the second is
evidently a variation of the following:
Sic ubi mota calent viridi mea pectora Thyrso
Altior humano spiritus ille malo est.
[22:1] _Literary Gazette_, 1822, p. 636. MS. R.S.E.
[23:1] In a work by Dr. John Brown, called, "An Estimate of the Manners
and Principles of the Times," 1757, there is the following passage:--"A
certain historian, of our own times, bent upon _popularity_ and _gain_,
published a large volume, and omitted no opportunity that offered to
disgrace religion. A large impression was published, and a small part
sold. The author being asked why he had so larded his work with
irreligion, his answer implied:--'He had done it that his book might
sell.' It was whispered him, that he had totally mistaken the spirit of
the times;--that no allurements could engage the _fashionable_ infidel
world to travel through a large quarto; and that, as the few readers of
quartos that yet remain lie mostly among the serious part of mankind, he
had offended his best customers, and ruined the sale of his book. This
information had a notable effect; for a second volume, as large and
instructive as the first, hath appeared; not a smack of irreligion is to
be found in it; and an apology for the first concludes the whole."--P.
57.
Dr. Brown's book is said to have been very popular, and to have run to a
seventh edition in a few months. It is rather singular that the edition
marked as the seventh, has precisely the same matter in each page, and
the same number of pages as the first.
[24:1] The letter does not appear to have been preserved.
[25:1] MS. R.S.E.
[25:2] Elliot had been made a Lord of the Admiralty in 1756.
[27:1] Viz. of Edinburgh.
[29:1] Minto MSS.
[29:2] The title of the Epigoniad does not, unfortunately, convey any
associations to the general English reader, who requires to be told that
it is derived from Ἑπίγονοι, or descendants, in allusion to those of
the warriors who had been slain at the first siege of Thebes; and the
main incident of the poem is the subsequent sacking of that city. It is
not difficult for the reader of the better parts of the Epigoniad to
imagine, that he is perusing Pope's translation of Homer. When an
approach was thus made to a model so famous, all was supposed to have
been gained; and it was thought that a work had been produced which
would stand beside the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is hardly necessary, at
the present day, to ask, whether the highest genius will produce an
immortal poem out of the machinery of another age and nation, and
appealing to sentiments which have no response in the habits or feelings
of the people to whom its author appeals? We read the great national
poems of other countries in their own language, because we thus endow
ourselves, as far as it is possible, with the feeling and ideas of those
to whom the poem was addressed. We read spirited translations, because
they are an attempt to represent to us, in our own tongue, that which is
grand in another language; and our interest is like that with which we
view the portrait of a great man. We thus encounter Ulysses, Agamemnon,
and Menelaus in the Iliad, with the interest of excited curiosity; and
those who cannot read the original, are content to make acquaintance
with persons whom a great genius has made so famous, even through a rude
translation. But few cared to meet them reappearing in Wilkie's
imitation; nor, however forcible may be his expressions, or flowing his
versification, do we feel very vividly the horrors of Cacus' den, and
the destructive ire of the Cyclops, or sympathize in the torments of
Hercules, from the Centaur's poisoned robe, when they are described in
the Epigoniad.
[31:1] The paper is reprinted from _The Critical Review_, in the
Appendix to Ritchie's Life of Hume.
[33:1] These fictions were to a considerable extent superseded by an
act, so late as the year 1833; 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 74.
[34:1] In 1757 Adam Ferguson became tutor to the family of Lord Bute.
[34:2] Minto MSS.
[35:1] Warburton writes as follows to Hurd:--"As to Hume, I had laid it
aside ever since you was here; I will now, however, finish my skeleton.
It will be hardly that. If, then, you think any thing can be made of it,
and will give yourself the trouble, we may, perhaps, between us, do a
little good, which, I dare say, we shall both think worth a little
pains. If I have any force in the first rude beating out of the mass,
you are best able to give it the elegance of form and splendour of
polish. This will answer my purpose; to labour together in a joint work
to do a little good. I will tell you fairly, it is no more the thing it
should be, and will be, if you undertake it, than the Dantzic iron at
the forge is the gilt and painted ware at Birmingham. It will make no
more than a pamphlet; but you shall take your own time, and make it your
summer's amusement, if you will. I propose it to bear something like
this title:--'_Remarks on Mr. Hume's late Essay, called The Natural
History of Religion; by a Gentleman of Cambridge, in a Letter to the
Rev. Dr. W._' I propose the address should be with the dryness and
reserve of a stranger, who likes the method of the letters on
Bolingbroke's Philosophy, and follows it here against the same sort of
writer, inculcating the same impiety, naturalism, and employing the same
kind of arguments. The address will remove it from me; the author, a
gentleman of Cambridge, from you; and the secrecy in printing from us
both."--_Letters from a late Eminent Prelate to one of his Friends_, p.
240. In the immediately preceding letter, we find him saying, "I will
trim the rogue's jacket, at least sit upon his skirts, as you will see
when you come hither, and find his margins scribbled over."
Thus were concocted the "Remarks on Mr. David Hume's Essay on the
Natural History of Religion, addressed to the Rev. Dr. Warburton,"
(1757) wherein the candid author, in pursuance of his instructions,
says, "Of my _person_, indeed, I must have leave to make no discovery;
and to tell you the truth, I have taken such effectual precautions, as
to that particular, that I will venture to say you will never know more
of me than you do at present." The original notes are to be found in the
quarto edition of Warburton's works. Hume says, in his "own life," of
the Natural History of Religion, "Its public entry was rather obscure,
except only that Dr. Hurd wrote a pamphlet against it, with all the
illiberal petulance, arrogance, and scurrility which distinguish the
Warburtonian school. This pamphlet gave me some consolation for the
otherwise indifferent reception of my performance."
[37:1] Probably "An Essay towards a General History of Feudal Property
in Great Britain, under several heads," 1757-8, by Mr. afterwards Sir
John Dalrymple.
[38:1] MS. R.S.E.
[39:1] _Scots Magazine_ for 1802, p. 978.
[40:1] These analogies are taken from the technicalities of Scots law.
The southern reader may as well be informed, that Prescription stands
for "The Statute of Limitations" in Scotland; that a summons is the writ
by which the plaintiff brings the defendant into court; and that "the
lords' row," is the roll of cases in the Court of Session.
[41:1] Original in the possession of the Cambusmore family.
[43:1] MS. R.S.E.
[43:2] The Painter. The "Sketches and Essays on various subjects," were
written by Armstrong.
[43:3] MS. R.S.E.
[45:1] Minto MSS.
[45:2] It appears, however, from a letter to Smith, farther on, that an
attempt had been made to procure a chair for Ferguson, in Edinburgh,
which had failed.
[46:1] John Stevenson was appointed professor of logic and metaphysics
in 1730.
[47:1] MS. R.S.E.
[47:2] Without date.
[47:3] Original in possession of Sir Henry Jardine.
[48:1] Note B.
[48:2] It is also remarkable, that there is not one letter from
Robertson among the MSS. R.S.E., or in any known collection.
[52:1] Perhaps this may be a mistake for M. Mérian, the name of the
author of a translation of this essay, published in 1759.
[52:2] See above, p. 408. See the letters of Helvetius in the Appendix.
He does not seem to have translated any of Hume's works, his proposed
reciprocity treaty not having been concluded. He appears to have had
considerably more at heart the being chosen a member of the Royal
Society of London, as a means of restoring his lost popularity at home.
[55:1] A translation was published in 1764, by Besset de la Chapelle.
[55:2] Theory of Moral Sentiments.
[55:3] Essay on Taste.
[55:4] See next page.
[56:1] Stewart says this is the work subsequently published under the
title of "An Essay on the History of Civil Society." But this may be
doubted: see Hume's Remarks on it at the time of publication.
[56:2] See above, p. 30.
[58:1] This association of names is evidently intended as a sarcasm on
Lord Lyttelton's taste.
[58:2] Stewart's Life of Smith.
[59:1] Probably Mr. Wilson, type-founder, Glasgow; the father of the art
in Scotland.
[61:1] He did not consider his agreement about the Treatise of Human
Nature a "previous" one, as the book was written. See vol. i. p. 65.
[61:2] _Literary Gazette_, 1822, p. 665. Original MS. R.S.E.
[62:1] MS. R.S.E.
[62:2] See this gentleman, who was a professor in Glasgow, mentioned
above, p. 59, where his name is spelt Rouat.
[65:1] MS. R.S.E.
[65:2] MS. R.S.E.
[65:3] An account of all the books in which the constitutional
principles of the history have been ably impugned, would only be
reminding the reader of many works with which he is probably already
familiar. But among the marked productions of this series, if he desire
to have a calm appreciation of the merits of Hume's historical
criticism, by those who have gone over the same ground, he will peruse
the historical works of Hallam, and the treatises of Dr. Allen,
including his articles in _The Edinburgh Review_, and his "Inquiry into
the Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative." If, however, he wish to
have all Hume's tergiversations sifted and exposed with forensic
acuteness, and the zeal of an able and vigilant prosecutor,--to have
before him, in short, the whole "case" of the British constitution
against Hume, let him read Brodie's "History of the British Empire." It
will gratify all the admirers of his book to know, that Mr. Brodie is
occupied in the preparation of a new edition of his great work, which
will, no doubt, be marked by all the same qualities which distinguished
the first, increased by farther study and enthusiastic research. It is a
singular incident in literary history, that immediately after the
appearance of the first edition, filled as it is with a prodigious array
of notes and references, the subject was gone over by Godwin in his
"History of the Commonwealth," with but slight reference to Mr. Brodie's
book; but in such a manner, from the structure of his narrative and
otherwise, as to show that he had scarcely any other book before him.
This is not the place for a discussion of Mr. Brodie's charges against
Hume: they are honestly supported by references, and will stand or fall
on their own merits. But there is one instance in which Mr. Brodie's
acuteness has led him farther than every one can follow him. Thus,
speaking of a particular passage of Hume, he says, "he has given the
very words of Perinchief, whom he yet durst not quote; and his
pencil-marks are still at the place in the copy belonging to the
Advocates' Library." This statement, to the effect that there exists
evidence of Hume having read passages which he has designedly avoided
citing, is frequently repeated; and if one would absolutely assure
himself that Hume had read the passages, by reference to the copies of
the books in the Advocates' Library, he finds one or two scores drawn
across the margin with a pencil! The distinguished historical critic,
who has noticed this circumstance, must make some allowance for the
inferior acumen of ordinary readers, if they should fail to discover why
this simple score must of necessity be David Hume--his mark.
Mr. Brodie's book is particularly valuable as a criticism on Hume's
notions of the old prerogative in relation to the Star Chamber, the
Court of High Commission, Martial Law, Impressments, and Forced Loans.
[68:1] Locke gives an admirable illustration of the sceptical spirit
working on imperfect data, in the following anecdote. "It happened to a
Dutch ambassador, who, entertaining the King of Siam with the
particularities of Holland, which he was inquisitive after, amongst
other things, told him, that the water in his country would sometimes,
in cold weather, be so hard, that men walked upon it, and that it would
bear an elephant if he were there. To which the king replied, 'Hitherto
I have believed the strange things which you have told me, because I
look upon you as a sober fair man: but now I am sure you lie.'"--_On the
Understanding_, book iv. chap. 15, § 5.
[71:1] The forms of voting and coming to a decision in the British
Parliament have been adopted by other countries, not from any partiality
towards our systems, but because in this we seem to have approached
abstract perfection; and the framers of codes, after all endeavours to
make forms of like excellence, are obliged to have recourse to those
which have been followed for centuries in St. Stephen's. In the French
Assemblies, ingenuity was frequently exercised in vain to devise some
plan by which, after a series of proposals had been made, and debated
upon, the sense of the meeting in regard to them might be ascertained
and recorded without the record being liable to be questioned as
inaccurate. In the English system, the matter is at once solved. Each
proposed resolution is made and put on record before the discussion
begins, and however many different proposals there may be in relation to
the subject of debate, they must be all put in writing, and each one
must be singly, and without intermixture with the others, adopted or
rejected by a vote of the house.
[72:1] He seems to have afterwards soothed himself with the reflection
that his historical speculations were in favour of the stability of a
fixed government, and opposed to innovating principles. In a letter to
Madame de Boufflers, dated 23d Dec. 1768, he says:--
"Indeed, the prospect of affairs here is so strange and melancholy, as
would make any one desirous of withdrawing from the country at any rate.
Licentiousness, or rather the frenzy of liberty, has taken possession of
us, and is throwing every thing into confusion. How happy do I esteem
it, that in all my writings I have always kept at a proper distance from
that tempting extreme, and have maintained a due regard to magistracy
and established government, suitably to the character of an historian
and a philosopher! I find, on that account, my authority growing daily;
and indeed have now no reason to complain of the public, though your
partiality to me made you think so formerly. Add to this, that the
king's bounty puts me in a very opulent situation. I must, however,
expect that, if any great public convulsion happen, my appointments will
cease, and reduce me to my own revenue: but this will be sufficient for
a man of letters, who surely needs less money both for his entertainment
and credit, than other people."--_Private Correspondence_, p. 266.