Cornell University
Library
The original of tliis book is in
tlie Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029078776
Cornell University Library
B1497 .A32 1888
Letters of David Hume to William Strahan
olin
3 1924 029 078 776
Tsinf
The date shows when this vofaime was taken.
'■ for instruction or re"
search are limited to
four weeks to all b(fr-
rowers.
Periodicals of a gen-
eral character should
be returned as soon as
possible ; when needed
' *ji^lg([ttli|*nd two weeks a
Tj _^Qj|i^''*'^w^ '^4ct*l''^q'^^^t should
te ttiadfe\ ■ . ' 4
Likrtited iiorirpwers,
are allov^^d five vol- >
umes for two wee^,
with^ reneVal ' privi-
teges, \i(hea a book is F;
not needed' bjr ptbtets,' .
Books ndt needed
ggl^gl^^^^^ ^ during recessi periods
^J|^^f^t||MBf'fehould iae returned to
' ' ' the library, or arrange-
ments made for their
return during borrow-
er's absence,if wanted.
Books needed by
more than one person
are placed on the re-
serve list.
3
LETTERS OF DAVID HUME
G. BIRKBECK HILL
SonDon
HENRY FROWDE
MACMILLAN AND CO.
^VID HUN'
TO
WILLIAM STRAHAN
4- 2y/s~^
/-
\
/CORNELL
'■ UNIVERSITY
-^LIBRARY
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ARCHIBALD PHILIP
FIFTH EARL OF ROSEBERY
IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT
OF THE SERVICES WHICH HE HAS RENDERED
TO LITERATURE
BY SAVING THESE LETTERS
FROM DISPERSION
THIS WORK IS DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
In the summer of last year I was allowed to examine
this series of Letters ^ The interest with which I read
them made me long to save them from dispersion. Were
they once scattered by auction, their fate would be the
fate of the leaves of the Sibyl —
Numquam deinde cavo volitantia prendere saxo,
Nee revocare situs, aut jungere carmina curat.
The price that was asked for them, though large in
itself, was moderate when the importance of the collection
was considered. Yet for some weeks I almost despaired
of finding a purchaser. The funds at the disposal of
the Bodleian Library were altogether inadequate. At the
British Museum I should probably have met with suc-
cess, had not its grant been lately curtailed. By the
happy suggestion of the Master of Balliol College I
applied to the Earl of Rosebery. His lordship at once
consented to buy the whole collection. The obligation
under which he has thereby laid men of letters will, I feel
sure, be by them gratefully acknowledged. Unfortunately
' They belonged to Mr. F. Barker, of 43, Rowan Road, Brook Green,
a dealer in autographs, to whom I have expressed my acknowledg-
ments in my edition of BoswelPs Life of Johnson, for the permission
which he gave me to print some of Johnson's letters that were in his
possession. I may add that he has lent me also a large and curious
collection of letters written to William and Andrew Strahan, by men
of letters and publishers, chiefly Scottish. Of these I have made some
use in my notes to the present work. It would be a great pity if the
dispersion which threatens them were not averted.
vin
PREFACE.
the series is not quite perfect, for a few of the letters had
been sold separately by a previous owner. My efforts
to get copies of these have been so far fruitless.
In preparing ray notes I have made use of the col-
lection of Hume Papers in the possession of the Royal
Society of Edinburgh ^ I had hoped to find among them
the other side of the correspondence, but in this I was
disappointed. Only a few of Strahan's letters have been
preserved. Of one letter that was missing he happily had
kept a copy. Hume, with a levity which is only found in
a man who is indifferent to strict truthfulness, had charged
him with deception. The answer which was sent must
have startled that ease-loving philosopher from his com-
placency, and taught him a lesson which it was a disgrace
to him not to have learnt long before "-.
In my notes my aim has been not only to make
every letter clear, but also to bring before my readers
the thoughts and the feelings of Hume's contemporaries
in regard to the subjects which he discusses. ' Every
book,' he says, ' should be as complete as possible within
itself, and should never refer for anything material to
other books ^' If this rule is just, I could not but let
my notes swell under my hand, so varied and so interest-
ing are the matters touched on in his letters. On his
quarrel with Rousseau I dwell at considerable length.
The rank which the two men held in the republic of
letters was so high, the interest which their strife excited
was so great, and the spectators of the contest were so
eminent, that even at this distance of time it deserves to be
carefully studied. My endeavour has been not only to
examine the conduct of the two men *, but also to exhibit
the opinions which were entertained by all who were in
' My extracts from these papers are marked M. S. R. S. E.
" P°^*^ P- 266. 3 History of England, ed. 1802, ii. loi.
* Post, pp. 76-84.
PREFACE. ix
any way concerned i. The violence of Hume's feelings
towards the English which is shown in many of his letters ^
is curious enough to justify a long note ^ It was due it is
clear partly to a deep sense of slighted merit, and partly to
anger at what he describes as ' the mad and wicked rage
against the Scots *.' Violent as he was towards English-
men in general, still more violent was he towards the most
famous EngHshman of his time®. Why Lord Chatham
roused his anger I have attempted to explain "- The con-
fidence of Hume's belief that the country was on the eve
of bankruptcy', is one more proof how fallible may be the
judgment of even the first historian and the first economist
of his age*. His no less confident expectations about the
war with our American colonies were however speedily
justified by the event. From the outset he saw that con-
quest was impossible '. It will be seen that a few months
after his death some of these letters were shown to
George IIP". We may wonder whether the king's
obstinacy was for a moment shaken, when he read
the lines in which his highly-pensioned Tory historian
proved that only ' the oppressive arm of arbitrary power '
could crush the rebels ". How much it were to be wished
that he had seen also that other letter where Hume tells
how he had found the First Lord of the Admiralty, with
some loose associates, fishing for trout ' with incredible
satisfaction, at a time when the fate of the British Empire
was in dependence, and in dependence on him '^.'
If these Letters exhibit, as they too often do, Hume's
1 Post, pp. 86-92. ^ Post, pp. 114, 151, 247, 248, 255.
' Post, pp. 50-58. * Post, pp. 49, 58-63.
" Post, pp. 113, 134, 185, 289. " Post, p. 195, n. 29.
' Post, pp. 114, 161, 173, 185, 201, 217.
* The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and The Wealth of
Nations were not published till the last year of Hume's life {post,
P- 314)-
" Post, pp. 174, 288, 308. " Post, p. 367.
" Post, p. 289. " Post, p. 324.
X PREFACE.
' distempered, discontented thoughts,' his moral cowardice,
his vanity, and his unmanly complaints of the neglect of
the world, they show at the same time the noble industry
of the scholar. If from a love of ' ignoble ease ' he sup-
pressed Essays and Dialogues ^, yet it was not into ' peace-
ful sloth' that he sank. He more than once quotes 'a
saying of Rousseau's, that one half of a man's life is too
little to write a book and the other half to correct it^'
In truth, he never wearied of the attempt to bring his
works as near to perfection as possible, and it was from
his death-bed that his last corrections were sent ^-
Hume's spelhng I have retained, for it is interesting
both in its peculiarities and its blunders. That he had his
own views about orthography is shown hereafter *.
His brief Autobiography, which I have reprinted, will
be a convenient introduction to the study of his Letters.
In the letters from Adam Smith, one of which is new®,
and from Hume's brother and nephew, some account is
given of the publication of the manuscripts which he left
behind him.
I should treat the memory of an eminent man of letters
with injustice did I not express my great obligations to
Dr. Burton's Life of David Hume. I have also to thank
Sir James Fitzjames Stephen for his permission to print
an interesting letter on post-office franks " ; Dr. Andrews
for information about the Ohio Scheme''; Mr. James
Gordon, M.A., the learned Librarian of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh ; and Mr. G. K. Fortescue, of the British
Museum, who has helped me in many difficulties which
from time to time I encountered in editing these Letters.
G.B.H.
' Post, pp. 230, 233, 330-2, 346. 2 Post, p. 200.
^ Post, p. 342. * Post, p. 27. ■> Post, p. 351.
° Post, p. 189. T p^gf^ p jgg
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PACE
Hume's Life xvii
Adam Smith's Letter to William Strahan . . . xxxiv
Account of William Strahan xliii
LETTER
1. Nov. 30 [1756]. The History of England under the Stuarts;
Hume's bargain with the Edinburgh booksellers'; the
second volume apparently more whiggish than the first . i
2. Feb. I, 1757. The two volumes compared ; Essays and
Treatises, ed. 1758 ; Strahan's corrections ; dedication to
John Home 4
3. Feb. 15, 1757. Hume's bargain with Millar ; history the
most popular kind of writing ; Home's Douglas . . 13
4. Feb. 15, 1757. Index to the quarto edition of the Essays . 16
5. April 18, 1757. Corrections in this edition ; the bargain
with Millar concluded ; discounting bills in Scotland ;
Douglas 18
^- [1757-] Dr. Kurd's artifices 20
7. Sept. 3, 1757. Errata in the Essays 22
8. Oct. 15, 1757. Millar suspected of extortion .... 24
9. June 12, 1758. Revised edition of the History of the Stuarts;
Millar praised 25
10. [June or July, 1758.] History of England under the House of
rMfitor; the new method of spelling 26
11. Aug. 5, 1758. History of the Tudors completed ... 28
12. [Jan. or Feb. 1759.] Robertson's //j'storv o/"Sco^/a«rf; Andrew
Reid's corrections 29
13. [Nov. or Dec. 1760.] History of England from the Invasion
of Julius Coesar in progress ; Strahan's indolence ; Ac-
cession of George III ; the King's speech ... 31
14. Feb. 9, 1761. James Macpherson introduced to Strahan . 35
15. [March, 1762.] The different parts of the History to be so
accommodated as to form one work 39
16. Oct. 14, 1763. Hume's departure for France .... 40
xii CONTENTS.
PAGE
LETTER
17. March 20, 1764. French works for translation into English ;
Mme. Riccoboni ; the low price of stocks .... 41
18. April I, 1764. Mme. Riccoboni 45
19. April 18, 1764. Printing-presses in London ; the Dutch Am-
bassador 4"
20. Dec. 28, 1764. Mme. Riccoboni 47
21. Jan. 26, 1765. Strahan's account of public affairs ; general
tranquillity; French works published out of France;
mad rage against the Scotch; no motive for Hume to
continue his History 48
22. June 6, 1765. Desire to know the recent transactions in
England ; the King's birth-day kept in Paris ... 65
23. Aug. 4, 1765. Hume's fate involved in that of the Ministry . 69
24. [Early in 1766.] Arrival of Hume and Rousseau in London 73
25. [July 15, 1766.] Sir David Dalrymple ; Rousseau's frenzy . 74
26. [Oct.1766.] The Account of the Dispute with Rousseau; a cor-
rected copy of the //;sfor("2^-^'^5''^'^^ .... 84
27. Nov. 4, 1766. The translation of the French Account of the
Dispute ; additions to be made to it 97
28. [Nov. 1766.] Millar's complaint of neglect ; note to be added
to the Account • • 99
29. Nov. 13, 1766. Further directions about printing the Account loi
30. Nov. 25, 1766. Names suppressed in the French version of
the ^C(ro««/ given in the English version .... 102
31. [Spring of 1767.] Hume's occupations as Under-Secretary of
State 103
32. [Spring of 1767.] An appointment sought for Strahan ; a
challenge to Strahan ; raillery against Rousseau ; Vol-
taire's letter to Hume 106
33. [1767.] An application to Lord Hertford .... 111
34. [1767.] Applications to Lord Hertford and General Conway iii
35. [1767 ?] An Apology for not keeping an engagement . . 112
36. Oct. 25, 1769. Hume's life in Edinburgh ; his ambition ; the
English factious barbarians ; dangerous tempests brew-
ing ; the parliament and the populace ; the army ; Lord
Bute's experiments ; Pitt and his myrmidons ; danger of a
military government ; Duke of Grafton ; Hume's wishes
for a public bankruptcy, &c. ; unanimity in Scotland . 112
37. Jan. 25, 1770. Opening of the Session of 1770; the ministry
CONTENTS. xiii
LETTER PAGE
to be supported by the King ; advantage to be taken of
open violence ; Lord Chatham infamous .... 134
38. March 13, 1770. The City Address ; the Lord Mayor should
be impeached ; Dr. Armstrong's tragedy ; the ' detest-
able ' edition of the History 137
39. May 22, 1770. Lord Home's securities for a loan ; Strahan
charged with deception ; the close of the Session ; Scot-
land united ; Lady Grant 143
40. June 5, 1770. Cadell disbelieved ; a notable error of the
press ; Sir Archibald and Lady Grant ; the madness of
the English 150
41. June 21, 1770. More complaints about the 'detestable' edi-
tion 154
42. [Aug. 1770.] The historical age and nation ; Dr. Henry's
History of Great Britain ; ii\xni& a. good casm&t . . 155
43. Aug. ID, 1770. Dr. Henry introduced to Strahan . . . 159
44. Jan. 5, 1771. A nevj edition oi the Philosophical Pieces . . 159
45. Jan. 21, 1771. The Ohio Scheme; quick sale of the Philoso-
phical Pieces compared with the slow sale of the History;
Dr. Henry's History; threat of war with Spain; national
bankruptcy ; the Wilkites ; Hume's new house . . 160
46. March 11, 1771. Hume's industry in correcting his works ;
the ' detested ' edition of the History ; Lord North ; Beck-
ford ; Falkland's Islands ; Lord Chatham and the national
debt; the mob of London; Dr. Henry's History; Dal-
rymple's Memoirs; Sir Andrew Mitchell's death . . 172
47. March 25, 1771. The art of printing — its chief advantage ;
the forms of nonsense ; revised edition of the History ;
franks for letters ; Johnson's Falkland's Islands; timidity
and insolence of the Ministry ; the French annihilated ;
Lord Chatham compared with Richelieu ; Dalrymple an
historian ; Mrs. Macaulay 182
48. June 25, 1771. Revised edition of the History; Rousseau's
saying about books ; Warburton and his gang ; Lord
North's insolence and timidity ; powers of government
lost ; ' some invisible secret being ' ; national bank-
ruptcy 199
49. July 22, 1771. Revised edition of the i/wtorv . . . 212
50. Aug. 19, 1771. The Principles of Penal Law; landholders
versus stockholders ; public credit ready to fall at a
touch 216
xiv CONTENTS.
PAGE
LETTER
51. Aug. 23, 1771. A visit to Inverary; miscarriage of presenta-
tion copies of the History 221
52. Sept. 4, 1771. The paper and type for the new edition . 223
53. Sept. 18, 1771. The revision of the History a great amuse-
ment ; a letter from a Lausanne bookseller . . . 224
54. Nov. 12, [1771]. Dr. Franklin Hume's guest . . . .225
55. Jan. 2, 1772. Franks for the proof-sheets ; decline of the
faction in England; variety in folly; Lord Chatham's
gout; justice from posterity; Lord Lyttelton's Henry H 226
56. Jan. 25, 1772. The suppressed Essays 230
57. Feb. 7, 1772. The suppressed Essays; a note on the mar-
riage of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour .... 233
58. Feb. II, 1772. A missing sheet of the i/j'story . . . 234
59. Feb. 22, 1772. Strahan one of the learned printers ; the cor-
rection of the proofs an amusement ; an encomium on the
Princess Dowager ; the King and the East India Com-
pany; the Supervisors 235
60. Feb. 27, 1772. [William Strahan to David Hume ;] Life only
tolerable by labour ; the Princess Dowager ; the King
and the East India Company ; jealousy of the Scotch ;
barbarities in Bengal . 242
61- March 3, 1772. Our ^a/i/j government ; the licentiousness
of our patriots 247
62. March 5, 1772. Hume's new house ; proposed continuation
of the History 248
63. June 3, 1772. Captain Brydone ; St. Andrew's Square . 249
64. June 3, 1772. [David Hume to Thomas Cadell ;] New edi-
tions of the Essays and of the first four volumes of the
History 252
65. Jan. 16, 1773. Dr. Percy and the Northumberland House-
hold Book ; no intention to continue the History . . 252
66. Jan. 30, 1773. Dr. Percy ; a nonsensical passage in the His-
iory; Captain Brydone ; complaints of ill-treatment ; pro-
posed continuation of the History; England sunk in bar-
barism ; Stuart's Letters to Lord Mansfield . . . 255
67. Feb. 22, 1773. Proposed continuation of the History; when
is the new edition to be pubhshed ? 261
68. March 15, 1773. All faith lost in Strahan and Cadell . . 262
69. March 20, 1773. Dalrymple's Memoirs; James the Second's
Memoirs 264
CONTENTS. XV
LETTER PACE
70. March 19, 1773. [William Strahan to David Hume ;] Indig-
nation at Hume's attack on his truthfulness . . . 266
71. March 24, 1773. An apology to Strahan ; deceiving people
for their own good 270
72. Jan. 25, 1774- Colonel Stuart and the East India Company . 273
73. [Spring of 1774.] The law of copyright ; Lord Mansfield's
decision 274
74. April 2, 1774. Dr. Robert Wallace ; the booksellers' tacit
convention ; Lord Kames's Sketches 280
75. April 9, 1774. [William Strahan to David Hume ;] Dr. Wal-
lace's Works ; bargains between authors and booksellers ;
Hawkesworth's Voyages; Lord Kames's Sketches; the
booksellers' Copyright Bill 283
76. Oct. 26, 1775. Strahan a Member of Parliament ; Dr. Trail
and Dr. Wight ; sects whose names terminate in ian ; a
reported division in the ministry ; hopelessness of the
war with America ; an answer to Dr. Reid and Dr.
Beattie 287
77. Oct. 30, 1775. [William Strahan to David Hume ;] England
at the beginning of a war ; America lost, but can be re-
covered 304
78. Nov. 13, 1775. Hume's anxiety for the correctness of his
works ; a revised edition of the History ; the effects of
the loss of America on England ; Dr. Wight . . . 307
79. Feb. II, 1776. The revised edition ; the delay in publishing
Smith's Wealth of Nations ,- Gibbon's Decline and Fall
advertised 311
80. April 8, 1776. The Decline and Fall published ; Strahan and
Cadell as publishers ; report of a fire in their ware-
houses ; The Wealth of Nations published ; the armament
against America 314
81. April 20, 1776. Hume's departure for London . . . 319
82. May 2, 1776. Arrival at London ; state of Hume's health . 321
83. May 10, 1776. Good effect of the Bath waters ; Lord Sand-
wich and his friends at Speen Hill ; the fate of the nation
decided 323
84. June 8, 1776. Bad effect of the waters ; the History made as
perfect as possible ; ingratitude of the public ; History of
my own Life ; Dialogues on Natural Religion . . . 328
85. June 12, 1776. A codicil to Hume's will ; regard for what
xvi CONTENTS.
PACE
LETTER
happens after death ; the cause of his illness discovered ;
return to Edinburgh 337
86. July 27, 1776. Arrival at Edinburgh ; increase of the ill-
ness ; a dying man's corrections 339
87. July 30, 1776. A further correction ; the physicians report
a cure ; Dr. Robertson and Strahan agreed . . - 34^
88. Aug. 12, 1776. The last correction ; life a burthen . . 342
89. Sept. 2, 1776. [John Home of Ninewells to William Strahan ;]
Hume's death and wiW. ; disposition about his unpublished
works ; Adam Smith's proposed addition to the Life . 345,
90. Sept. 5, 1776. [Adam Smith to William Strahan ;] The codi-
cil to Hume's will ; his manuscripts ; the addition to the
Life 347
91. Nov. 26, 1776. [William Strahan to Adam Smith ;] Proposed
pubhcation of a selection of Hume's letters . . . 350
92. Dec. 2, 1776. [Adam Smith to William Strahan ;] Hume's
injunction about his papers ; the undistinguished pub-
hcation of letters 351
93. [Dec. 1776.] [Draft of a letter from Adam Smith to WilUam
Strahan ;] The probable effect of the publication of the
Dialogues on the sale of the History ; the Life to be pub-
lished separately 354
94. Jan. 30, 1777. [David Hume the nephew to William Strahan ;]
Information asked for about the proposed publication of
Hume's manuscripts . 355
95. Feb. 17, 1777. [John Home to William Strahan ;] Copies of
the History asked for ; the publication of the Dialogues ;
Hume's sentiments when dying with regard to futurity . 358
96. Feb. 25, 1777. [John Home to William Strahan ;] The sepa-
rate publication of Hume's Life 361
97. March 13, 1777. [John Home to William Strahan ;] David
Hume the nephew; the publication oi the. Dialogues ; the
suppressed Essays 362
98. Nov. 1, 1776. [James Hutton to Wilham Strahan ;] Proposal
to show some of Hume's letters to the King and Queen . 367
99. Nov. 6, 1776. [James Hutton to William Strahan ;] List of
the letters read by the King and Queen .... 368
Index 371
THE LIFE OF DAVID HUME, Esq.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF,
MY OWN LIFE.
It is difficult for a man to speak long of himself without
vanity, therefore I shall be short. It may be thought an in-
stance of vanity that I pretend at all to write my life ; but
this narrative shall contain little more than the history of my
writings, as indeed almost all my life has been spent in literary
pursuits and occupations. The first success of most of my
writings was not such as to be an object of vanity.
I was born the twenty-sixth of April, 1711, old style, at Edin-
burgh. I was of a good family, both by father and mother.
My father's family is a branch of the earl of Home's or
Hume's^; and my ancestors had been proprietors of the estate
which my brother possesses for several generations ^ My
mother was daughter of Sir Pavid Falconer, President of the
College of Justice : the title of Lord Halkerton came by succes-
sion to her brother.
My family, however, was not rich ; and, being myself a
younger brother, my patrimony, according to the mode of my
country, was of course very slender. My father, who passed
for a man of parts, died when I was an infant, leaving me with
^ Hume showed his family pride by selecting the Earl of Home as one of the
two witnesses to his will. For the spelling of the name see post, p. 9, «. 10.
' The estate, whi.ch lay very near Berwick, bore the name of Ninewells. ' It is
so named from a cluster of springs of that number. They burst forth from a
gentle declivity in front of the mansion, which has on each side a semicircular
rising bank, covered with fine timber, and fall, after a short time; into the
bed of the river Whitewater, which forms a boundary in the front.' Burton'i
Zi/ii o/ffume, i. 8.
xviii THE LIFE OF
an elder brother and sister, under the care of our mother, a
woman of singular merit : who, though young and handsome,
devoted herself entirely to the rearing and educating of her
children ^ I passed through the ordinary course of education
v/ith success, and was seized very early with a passion for
literature, which has been the ruling passion "^ of my life, and
the great source of my enjoyments. My studious disposition,
my sobriety, and my industry, gave my family a notion that the
law was a proper profession for me ; but I found an unsurmount-
able aversion to every thing but the pursuits of philosophy and
general learning; and, while they fancied I was poring upon
Voet " and Vinnius ■*, Cicero and Virgil were the authors which
I was secretly devouring ^
' Dr. Alexander Carlyle records the following anecdote, whicli he had from one
of ' Hnme's most intimate friends, the Honourable Patrick Boyle.' ' When
David and he were both in London, at the period when David's mother died,
Mr. Boyle found him in the deepest affliction, and in a flood of tears. He said to
him, " My friend, you owe this uncommon grief to your having thrown off the
principles of religion ; for if you had not, you would have been consoled by the
firm belief that the good lady, who was not only the best of mothers, but the most
pious of Christians, was now completely happy in the realms of the just." To
which David replied, " Though I threw out my speculations to entertain and
employ the learned and metaphysical world, yet in other things I do not think so
differently from the rest of mankind as you may imagine." ' Dr. A. Carlyle's
Autobiography, p. 273. With this anecdote we may contrast the following : Lord
Charlemont ' hinted ' to Hume, shortly after his return to England in 1 766, ' that
he was convinced he must be perfectly happy in his new friend Rousseau, as their
sentiments were, he believed, nearly similar. " Why no, man," said he ; " in that
you are mistaken ; Rousseau is not what you think him ; he has a hankering after
the Bible, and indeed is little better than a Christian in a way of his own." '
Memoirs of the Earl of Charlemont, ed. 1812, i. 230.
* The ' ruling passion ' comes from Pope's Moral Essays, i. 1 74 : —
' Search then the ruling passion : there alone
The wild are constant, and the cunning known.'
Johnson speaks of this as Pope's ' favourite theory,' and adds : — 'Of any passion,
thus innate and irresistible, the existence may reasonably be doubted.' Johnson's
Works, ed. 1825, viii. 293.
' Paul Voet, bom 1619, died 1677, a Dutch jurisconsult, published among other
works Commentarius in Institutiones imperiales. His son John, bom 1647, died
1 714, published Commentarius ad Pandectas. Npuv. Biog. G^n, xlvi. 335.
* Arnold Vinnen, bom 1588, died 1657. Francis Horner, in the plan which he
laid down for the study of the Scotch law in 1797, says : — 'I must study both
Heineccius and Vinnius.' Life of Horner, ed. 1843, i. 52.
' Hume, in a statement of his health which he drew up for a physician in the
year 1734, says : — 'Every one who is acquainted either with the philosophers or
critics knows that there is nothing yet established in either of these two sciences
DAVID HUME. xix
My very slender fortune, however, being unsuitable to this
plan of life, and my health being a little broken by my ardent
application, I was tempted, or rather forced, to make a very
feeble trial for entering into a more active scene of life \ In
1734, I went to Bristol, with recommendations to eminent mer-
chants ; but in a few months found that scene totally unsuitable
to me ^. I went over to France with a view of prosecuting my
studies in a country retreat ; and I there laid that plan of life
which I have steadily and successfully pursued. I resolved to
make a very rigid frugality supply rny deficiency of fortune,
and that they contain little more than endless disputes, even in the most funda-
mental articles. Upon examination of these, I found a certain boldness of temper
growing in me, which was not inclined to submit to any authority in these subjects,
but led me to seek out some new medium by which truth might be established.
After much study and reflection on this, at last, when I was about eighteen years
of age, there seemed to be opened up to me a new scene of thought, which
transported me beyond measure, and made me, with an ardour natural to young
men, throw up every other pleasure or business to apply entirely to it. The law,
which was the business I designed to follow, appeared nauseous to me, and
I could think of no other way of pushing my fortime in the world, but that of a
scholar and philosopher.' Burton's Hume, i. 31.
' In this same statement, after describing a weakness of spirits into which he
had fallen, which hindered him from 'following out any train of thought by one
continued stretch of view,' he continues : — ' I found that as there are two things
very bad for this distemper, study and idleness, so there are two things very good,
business and diversion ; and that my whole time was spent betwixt the bad, with
little or no share of the good. For this reason I resolved to seek out a more
active life, and though I could not quit my pretensions in learning but with my
last breath, to lay them aside for some time in order the more effectually to
resume them.' lb. p. 37. It is a curious coincidence that Hume and Johnson
were first attacked by melancholy at the same time. ' About the beginning of
September, 1729,' says Hume, ' all my ardour seemed to be in a moment ex-
tinguished.' lb. p. 31. 'While Johnson was at Lichfield,' writes Boswell, 'in
the college vacation of the year 1729, he felt himself overwhelmed with an
horrible hypochondria.' Boswell's Life of Johnson, Clarendon Press edition, i. 63.
We may compare with both these cases the melancholy into which John Stuart
Mill sank at about the same age, in the autumn of 1826. Mill's Autobiography,
ed. 1873, p. 133.
^ In the Memoirs of Hannah More, i. 16, it is stated that ' she was much
indebted for her critical knowledge to a linen-draper of Bristol, of the name of
Peach. He had been the friend of Hume, wlio had shown his confidence in his
judgment by entrusting to him the correction of his History, in which he used to
say he had discovered more than two hundred Scotticisms.' He told her that
' Hume was dismissed from the merchant's counting-house on account of the
promptitude of his pen in correction of the letters entrusted to him to copy.' The
narrative is not free from error, as it is stated in it that Hume resided two years in
Bristol.
b2
XX THE LIFE OF
to maintain unimpaired my independency, and to regard every
object as contemptible, except the improvement of my talents in
literature.
During my retreat in France, first at Rheims, but chiefly at
La Fleche, in Anjou, I composed my Treatise of Human Nature.
After passing three years very agreeably in that country, I came
over to London in 1737. In the end of 1738, I published my
treatise ', and immediately went down to my mother and my
brother, who lived at his country-house, and was employing
himself very judiciously and successfully in the improvement of
his fortune.
Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my Treatise
of Human Nature. It fell dead-born from the press^ without
reaching such distinction as even to excite a murmur among the
zealots. But being naturally of a cheerful and sanguine temper,
I very soon recovered the blow, and prosecuted with great
ardour my studies in the country. In 1742, I printed at Edin-
burgh the first part of my Essays, the work was favourably
received, and soon made me entirely forget my former disap-
pointment '. I continued with my mother and brother in the
' The publisher, John Noone, gave Hume ;£'50, and twelve bound copies of the
book for right to publish an edition of the first two volumes, of one thousand
copies. Dr. Burton, after praismg Noone's ' discernment and liberality,' con-
tinues : — ' It may be questioned whether in this age, when knowledge has spread
so much wider, and money is so much less valuable, it would be easy to find a
bookseller, who, on the ground of its internal merits, would give ;£'50 for an
edition of a new metaphysical work, by an unknown and young author.' Burton's
Hume, i. 66. The book had become so scarce by the time of Hume's death, that
the reviewer of his Life in the Anmial Register for 1776, ii. 28, thinks it needful,
he says, to give some account of it.
^ ' All, all but truth, drops dead-born from the press.
Like the last Gazette, or the last Address.'
Pope, Epil. Sat. ii. 226.
' Hume not only published these Essays anonymously, but feigned that they
were the work of a new author. Burton's Hume, i. 136. On June 13, 1742, he
wrote to Henry Home (afterwards Lord Karnes) : — ' The Essays are all sold in
London, as I am informed by two letters from English gentlemen of my ac-
quaintance. There is a demand for them ; and, as one of them tells me, Innys,
the great bookseller in Paul's Churchyard, wonders there is not a new edition, for
that he cannot find copies for his customers. 1 am also told that Dr. Buller
[the author of the Analogy] has everywhere recommended them.' lb. p. 143.
The first volume was published in 1741. They are mentioned in the list of books
for March, 1742, in the Gent. Mag., but are not reviewed. The Treatise of
Human Nature was not even mentioned.
DAVID HUME. xxi
Country, arid in that time recovered the knowledge of the Greek
language, which 1 had too much neglected in my early youth '.
In 1745, 1 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 sfnall fortune \ I then received
an invitation from general St Clair, to attend him as secretary
to his expedition, which was at first meant against Canada, but
ended in an incursion on the coast of France'. Next year,
' Hume, in a letter dated Feb. 19, 1 751, speaks of 'having read over almost all
the classics both Greek and Latin.' Burton's Hume, i. 326. See post, p. 322, n. 2,
for an instance of his inaccuracy as a Greek scholar.
' 'On March 5, 1748, the Marquis 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 Dec. 12, 1744-' Burton's Hrime, i. 171.
' He appears to have been haunted by a spirit of literary ambition.' He wrote a
novel ' of which,' says Hume, ' 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.' lb, p. 173. Hume was treated with great insolence by a
Captain Vincent, a cousin of the Marchioness-Dowager, whon> he suspected of
evil designs about the property. He was suddenly dismissed, and he was robbed
of a quarter's salary of ;f 75, which was clearly due to him. So late as the year
1 761 he was still urging his claim, by which time the accumulated savings of the
Annandale property amounted to jf 400,000. Whether he was paid or not is not
known. lb. p. 205. Dr. Thomas Murray, who in 1841 edited Letters of David
Hume, says (p. 80) ' that his claim was only resisted because the agents for the
estates did not regard themselves safe in making any payments, unless the debt
was established by legal evidence.'
So early as July 7, 1742, Horace Walpole had written; — 'Lord Annandale is
at last mad in all the forms ; he has long been an out-pensioner of Bedlam
College.' Letters, i. 185.
' The incursion on the coast of France in 1 746 was devised in the vain hope of
saving the Ministry from disgrace, who had delayed the departure of the expedition
against Canada till it was too late in the year. An attempt was first made against
Port L'Orient ; that disgracefully failing, a second was made against the peninsula
of Quiberon. A ship of war was destroyed, a small fort was dismantled, and two
little islands were held by our sailors for at least a fortnight. Lord Charlemont
was told by General St. Clair (Sinclair), that he had earnestly requested from the
War Office a set of accurate maps, as he was wholly unacquainted with the
country which he was to invade. When he unpacked them, ' they proved to be
sea-charts ! ' Memoirs of Charlemont, i. 16. Hume wrote to his brother : — ' The
general and admiral were totally unacquainted with every part of the coast,
without pilots, guides, or intelligence of any kind.' Burton's Hume, i. 213,
xxii THE LIFE OF
to wit 1747, I received an invitation from the general, to attend
him in the same station in his military embassy to the courts of
Vienna and Turin. I then wore the uniform of an officer, and
was introduced at these courts as aid-de-camp to the general,
along with Sir Harry Erskine, and Captain Grant, now General
Grant'. These two years were almost the only interruptions
which my studies have received during the course of my life : I
passed them agreeably, and in good company ; and my appoint-
ments, with my frugality, had made me reach a fortune which
I called independent, though most of my friends were inclined
to smile when I said so : in short, I was now master of near
a thousand pounds.
I had always entertained a notion that my want of success in
publishing the Treatise of Human Nature, had proceeded more
from the manner than the matter, and that I had been guilty
of a very usual indiscretion, in going to the press too early ^
I therefore cast the first part of that work anew in the Enquiry
concerning Human Understanding, which was published while I
was at Turin '. But this piece was at first little more successful
than the Treatise of Human Nature. On my return from Italy,
I had the mortification to find all England in a ferment, on
account of Dr Middleton's/Ve« Enquiry^, while my performance
' Lord Charlemont, who met Hume at Turin, thus describes him: — 'Nature,
I believe, never foimed any man more unlike his real character than David Hume.
. . . His face was broad and fat, his mouth wide, and without any other expression
than that of imbecility. His eyes vacant and spiritless, and the corpulence of his
whole person was far better fitted to communicate the idea of a turtle-eating
alderman than of a refined philosopher. His speech in English was rendered
ridiculous by the broadest Scotch accent, and his French was, if possible, still
more laughable. . . . His wearing an uniform added greatly to his natural
awkwardness, for he wore it like a grocer of the trained bands. Sinclair was sent
to the Courts of Vienna and Turin as a military envoy, to see that their quota of
troops was furnished by the Austrians and Piedmontese. It was therefore thought
necessary that his Secretary should appear to be an officer, and Hume was
accordingly disguised in scarlet.' Memoirs of Charlemont, i. 15. Horace Walpole,
writing of Sinclair's appointment, says:— 'He is Scotchissime, in all the latitude
of the word, and not very able.' Letters, ii. 100.
^ See/oi/, p. 302, n. 21.
' This work, which was published anonymously, and at first under the title of
Philosophical Essays on Human Understanding, is included in the list of books
for April in the Cent. Mag. for 1748. It is not reviewed. Hume's publishers put
a very moderate price on his philosophical works. This book was sold for three
shillings, and his Essays Moral and Political for half-a-crown. Ih. 1742, p. 168.
* A Free Enquiry into the miraculous powers which are supposed to have sub-
DAVID HUME. xxtii
was entirely overlooked and neglected. A new edition, which
had been published at London of my Essays, moral and poli-
tical, met not with a much better reception ^.
Such is the force' of natural temper, that these disappointments
made little or no impression on me. I went down in 1749, and
lived two years with my brother, at his country-house, for my
mother was now dead. I there composed the second part of
my essay, which I called Political Discourses, and also my
Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, which is another
part of my treatise that I cast anew. Meanwhile my book-
seller, A. Millar ', informed me that my former publications (all
sisted in the Christian Chui-ch from the earliest ages through several successive
centuries. Gent. Mag., December, 1748. Gibbon, describing how, in the year
'7S3> i° his undergraduate days at Oxford, 'he bewildered himself in the errors of
the Church of Rome," says : — ' It was not long since Dr. Middleton's Free Enquiry
had sounded an alarm in the theological world: much ink and much gall had
been spilt in the defence of the primitive miracles ; and the two dullest of their
champions were crowned with academic honours by the University of Oxford.
The name of Middleton was unpopular ; and his proscription very naturally led
me to peruse his writings, and those of his antagonists. His bold criticism, which
approaches the precipice of infidelity, produced on my mind a singular effect ; and
had I persevered in the communion of Rome, I should now apply to my own
fortune the prediction of the Sybil,
Via prima salutis.
Quod minime reris, Graia pandetur ab urbe'.
The elegance of style and freedom of argument were repelled by a shield of pre-
judice. I still revered the character, or rather the names of the saints and fathers
whom Dr. Middleton exposes ; nor could he destroy my implicit belief, that the
gift of miraculous powers was continued in the Church during the first four or five
centuries of Christianity. But I was unable to resist the weight of historical
evidence, that within the same period most of the leading doctrines of Popery were
already introduced in theory and practice; nor was my conclusion absurd, that
miracles are the test of truth, and that the Church must be orthodox and pure,
which was so often approved by the visible interposition of the Deity.' Gibbon's
Misc. Works, ed. 1814, i. 60. In his Vindication Gibbon says: — 'A theological
barometer might be formed, of which Cardinal Baronius and our countryman.
Dr. Middleton, should constitute the opposite and remote extremities, as the
former sunk to the lowest degree of credulity which was compatible with learning,
and the latter rose to the highest pitch of scepticism in anywise consistent with
religion.' lb. iv. 588.
' It was the third edition. With three editions in seven years Hume might have
been contented. ' In the first edition, source.
' ' Mr. Andrew Millar, bookseller in the Strand, took the principal charge of
conducting the publication of Johnson's Dictionary. . . . When the messenger who
carried the last sheet to Millar returned, Johnson asked him, " Well, what did he
' ^neid, vi. 96.
xxiv THE LIFE OF
but the unfortunate treatise) were beginning to be the subject
of conversation ; that the sale of them was gradually in-
creasing, and that new editions were demanded. Answers by
Reverends and Right Reverends came out two or three in a
year ' ; and I found, by Dr Warburton's railing, that the books
were beginning to be esteemed in good company. However, I
had fixed a resolution, which I inflexibly maintained, never to
reply to any body ' ; and not being very irascible in my temper,
say?" "Sir (answered the messenger) he said, thank God, I have done with
him." " I am glad (replied Johnson with a smile) that he thanks God for any
thing." . . . Johnson said of him, "I respect Millar, Sir; he has raised the price of
literature."' 'S>o%f!c\\i Johnson, \. 287. 'Talking one day of the patronage the
great sometimes affect to give to literature and literary men, "Andrew Millar,"
says Johnson, "is the Maecenas of the age."' Johnson's Works (1787), xi. 200.
Mr. Croker says that Millar was the bookseller described by Johnson on April 24,
1 779, as ' so habitually and equably dmnk that his most intimate friends never
perceived that he was more sober at one time than another.' Croker's Boswell, 8vo.
ed. p. 630. Drunkenness such as this seems inconsistent with 'the consummate
industry' which Nichols praised in him. Nichols adds : — ' He was not extravagant ;
but contented himself with an occasional regale of humble port at an opposite
tavern ; so that his wealth accumulated rapidly.' Nichols, Lit. Anec. iii. 387. By
his italicising ' not extravagant,' he implies no doubt that he was somewhat near.
In a note on Millar in my edition oi Boswell, i. 287, 1 have made an absurd blunder
in quoting, as if serious, a letter written by Hume in a spirit of wild extravagance.
See post, p. 149, n. 10, for the marriage of Millar's widow.
' One of the answers was by Johnson's friend, Dr. William Adams. When
Johnson and Boswell called on him in March 1776, at Pembroke College, of
which he was then Master, ' he told me,' says Boswell, ' he had once dined in
company with Hume in London ; that Hume shook hands with him, and said,
"You have treated me much better than I deserve"; and that they exchanged
visits. I took the liberty to object to treating an infidel writer with smooth
civility. . . . Johnson coincided with me, and said, "When a man voluntarily
engages in an important controversy, he is to do all he can to lessen his antago-
nist, because authority from personal respect has much weight with most people,
and often more than reasoning. If my antagonist writes bad language, though
that may not be essential to the question, I will attack him for his bad language."
Adams. " You would not jostle a chimney-sweeper." Johnson. " Yes, Sir, if it
were necessary to jostle him down." ' Boswell's /oAnsen, ii. 441.
' Hume forgets his reply to Rousseau (Jost, p. 84), and his note in his History
on ' a person that has written an Enquiry historical and critical into the Evidence
against Mary Queen of Scots ; and has attempted to refute the foregoing narrative.
It is in this note that he makes his famous assertion: — 'There are, indeed, three
events in our history which may be regarded as touchstones of party-men. An
English Whig, who asserts the reality of the Popish Plot, an Irish Catholic, who
denies the massacre in 1641, and a Scotch Jacobite, who maintains the innocence
of Queen Mary, must be considered as men beyond the reach of argument or
reason, and must be left to their prejudices.' History of England, ed. 1802, v. 504.
DAVID HUME. xxV
I have easily kept myself clear of all literary squabbles. These
sjonptoms of a rising reputation gave me encouragement, as I
was ever more disposed to see the favourable than unfavourable
side of things ; a turn of mind which it is more happy to
possess, than to be born to an estate of ten thousand a year.
In 1751, I removed from the country to the town, the true
scene for a man of letters'. In 1752, were published at Edin-
burgh, where I then lived, my Political Discourses, the only
work of mine that was successful on the first publication. It
was well received abroad and at home ^ In the same year was
published at London, my Enquiry concerning the Principles of
Morals ' ; which, in my own opinion, (who ought not to judge on
that subject,) is of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or
The 'person' was the Scotch Jacobite, Patrick Lord Elibank, to whom Hume
wrote a very bitter letter. Burton's Hume, ii. 352.
' ' I have the strangest reluctance to change places,' wrote Hume from London
on Jan. 35, 1759. Burton's ^k»««, ii. 50. This reluctance he expresses on other
occasions. He might have remained at Ninewells had not his brother ' plucked
up a resolution' and got married. Writing on March 19, 1751, he says : — 'Since
my brother's departure, Katty [his sister] and I have been computing in our turn,
and the result of our deliberation is, that we are to take up house in Berwick ;
where, if arithmetic and frugality don't deceive us (and they are pretty certain
arts), we shall be able, after providing for hunger, warmth, and cleanliness, to keep
a stock in reserve, which we may afterwards turn to the purposes of hoarding,
luxury, or charity.' Burton's Hume, i. 338. On June 22 he wrote from Nine-
wells : — ' While interest remains as at present, I have ,f 50 a year, a hundred
pounds worth of books, great store of linens and fine clothes, and near £100 in
my pocket ; along with order, frugality, a strong spirit of independency, good
health, a contented humour, and an unabating love of study. In these circum-
stances, I must esteem myself one of the happy and fortunate ; and so far from
being willing to draw my ticket over again in the lottery of life, there are very few
prizes with which I would make an exchange. After some deliberation, 1 am
resolved to settle in Edinburgh. . . . Besides other reasons which determine me to
this resolution, I would not go too far away from my sister, who thinks she will
soon follow me. . . . And as she can join £30 to my stock, and brings an equal
love of order and frugality, we doubt not to make our revenues answer.' lb. p. 342.
At the end of the year he was a candidate for the Chair of Logic in the University
of Glasgow, which was vacated by Adam Smith's transference to the Chair of
Moral Philosophy. He had, it is said, Edmund Burke for his competitor, but to
both of them was preferred one Mr. Clow. lb. p. 350. Adam Smith wrote to Dr.
William Ciillen : — 'Edin. Tuesday. November 1 751. ... I should prefer David
Hume to any man for a colleague ; but I am afraid the public would not be of my
opinion ; and the interest of the society will oblige us to have some regard to the
opinion of the public' Thomson's Life of Cullen, i. 606.
^ It is in the list of books in the Gent. Mag. for Feb. 1752, but is not reviewed.
' It was published in Dec. 1751. Gent. Mag. 1751, p. 574.
xxvi THE LIFE OF
literary, incomparably the best. It came unnoticed and un-
observed into the world \
In 1752, the Faculty of Advocates chose me their librarian;
an office from which I received little or no emolument, but
which gave me the command of a large library^. I then
formed the plan of writing the History of England, but being
frightened with the notion of continuing a narrative through
a period of 1700 years, I commenced with the accession of
the house of Stuart, an epoch when I thought the misrepre-
sentations of faction began chiefly to take place '. I was, I own,
sanguine in my expectations of the success of this work. I
thought that I was the only historian that had at once neglected
present power, interest, and authority, and the cry of popular
prejudices ; and, as the subject was suited to every capacity, I
expected proportional applause. But miserable was my disap-
pointment : I was assailed by one cry of reproach, disapproba-
tion, and even detestation : Enghsh, Scotch, and Irish, Whig
and Tory, churchman and sectary, freethinker and religionist,
patriot and courtier, united in their rage against the man who
had presumed to shed a generous tear for the fate of Charles I *
' It is not even mentioned in the Gent. Mag.
' In this post Hume succeeded Thomas Ruddiman, the learned grammarian of
Scotland ; ' whose farewell letter to the Faculty of Advocates, when he resigned
the office of their Librarian, should,' said Johnson, ' have been in Latin.' Bos-
well's Johnson, ii. 216. Hume describes the post as 'a petty office of forty or
fifty guineas a year.' He calls it also 'a genteel office.' Burton's Hume, i. 370.
In 1 754 he was censured by three of the curators — James Burnet (Lord Monboddo),
Sir David Dalrymple (Lord Hailes), and another — for buying three French books,
which they described as ' indecent, and unworthy of a place in a learned library.'
Writing about this to Adam Smith, he says : — ' Being equally unwilling to lose
the use of the books, and to bear an indignity, I retain the office, but have given
Blacklock, our blind poet, a bond of annuity for the salary. I have now put it
out of these malicious fellows' power to offer me any indignity, while my motive
for remaining in this office is so apparent.' lb. p. 393. See post, p. 352, ». 4.
In January, 1757, he resigned his office in the curtest of letters. lb. ii. iS.
' ' David Hume used to say that he did not find it an irksome task to him to
go through a great many dull books when writing his History. "I then read,"
said he, " not for pleasure, but in order to find out facts." He compared it to a
sportsman seeking hares, who does not mind what sort of ground it is that he goes
over further than as he may find hares in it. From himself.' Boswelliana, p. 263.
* Hume writing to his friend William Mure about the first volume of his
History says: — 'The first quality of an historian is to be true and impartial.
The next to be interesting. If you do not say that I have done both parties
justice, and if Mrs. Mure be not sorry for poor King Charles, I shall burn all my
papers and return to philosophy.' Burton's Hume, i. 409.
DAVID HUME. xxvii
and the Earl of Strafford ; and after the first ebuUitions of their
fury were over, what was still more mortifying, the book seemed
to sink into oblivion. Mr. Millar told me, that in a twelvemonth
he sold only forty-five copies of it '. I scarcely, indeed, heard
of one man in the three kingdoms, considerable for rank or
letters, that could endure the book ''. I must only except the
primate of England, Dr Herring^, and the primate of Ireland,
Dr Stone*, which seem two odd exceptions. These dignified
prelates separately sent me messages not to be discouraged.
' It is in the list of books in the Gent. Mag. for November, 1754, but is not
reviewed; Hume vyfrote to the Earl of Balcarres from Edinburgh, on Dec. 17 : —
' My History has been very much canvassed and read here in town, as I am told ;
and it has full as many inveterate enemies as partial defenders. The misfortune of
a book, says Boileau, is not the being ill spoke of, but the not being spoken of at
all. The sale has been very considerable here, about 450 copies in five weeks.
How it has succeeded in London, I cannot precisely tell ; only I observe that
some of the weekly papers have been busy with me. — I am as great an Atheist as
Bolingbroke ; as great a Jacobite as Carte ; I cannot write English, &c.' Burton's
Hume, i. 412. Hume seems at one time to have attributed the smallness of the
London sale to the fault of his Edinburgh bookseller, Baillie Hamilton. He
wrote to Millar on April 12, 1755 ; — ' I think the London booksellers have had a
sufficient triumph over him, when a book, which was much expected and was
calculated to be popular, has had so small a sale in his hands. To make the
triumph more complete I wish you would take what remains into your hands, and
dispose of it in a few months.' MS., R. S. E.
" Horace Walpole. writing of it on March 27, 1755, speaks of it as 'a book,
which though more decried than ever book was, and certainly with faults, I cannot
help liking much. It is called Jacobite, but in my opinion is only not George-
Abite ; where others abuse the Stuarts, he laughs at them : I am sure he does not
spare their ministers. Harding [the Clerk of the House of Commons], who has
the History of England at the ends of his parliament fingers, says that the Journals
will contradict most of his facts. If it is so, I am sorry; for his style, which is
the best we have in history, and his manner, imitated from Voltaire, are very
pleasing.' Letters, ii. 428. Johnson called Hume ' an echo of Voltaire.' Bos-
•wtWsJohnson, ii. 53.
* Horace Walpole, writing on Oct. 4, 1745, in the midst of the alarm caused
by the Young Pretender's victory at Preston- Pans, says : — ' The nobility are raising
regiments, and everybody else is — being raised. Dr. Herring, the Archbishop of
York, has set an example that would rouse the most indifferent ; in two days after
the news arrived at York of Cope's defeat, and when they every moment expected
the victorious rebels at their gates, the Bishop made a speech to the assembled
county, that had as much true spirit, honesty, and bravery in it as ever was penned
by an historian for an ancient hero.' Letters, i. 394. Herring was made Arch-
bishop of Canterbury in 1747.
* Horace V\'alpole says that Stone, ' with no pretensions in the world but by
being attached to the House of Dorset, and by being brother of Mr. Stone [sub-
governor to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George III], had been hurried through
xxviri THE LIFE OF
I was, however, I confess, discouraged ; and, had not the
war at that time been breaking out between France and Eng-
land, I had certainly retired to some provincial town of the
former kingdom, have changed my name, and never more have
returned to my native country'; but as this scheme was not
now practicable, and the subsequent volume was considerably
advanced, I resolved to pick up courage and to persevere.
In this interval, I published at London my Natural History
of Religion, along with some other small pieces ''' : 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
indiffereni reception of my performance.
In 1756, two years after the fall of the first volume, was
published the second volume of my History, containing the
period from the death of Charles I till the Revolution. This per-
formance happened to give less displeasure to the Whigs, and
was better received. It not only rose itself, but helped to buoy
up its unfortunate brother'.
two or three Irish bishoprics up to the very primacy of the kingdom, not only
unwarrantably young, but without even the graver excuses of learning or sancti-
mony.' Memoirs of George II, ed. 1822, i. 344.
' Hume wrote to a friend on April 20, 1756 : — 'Were I to change my habita-
tion, I would retire to some provincial town in France, to trifle out my old age,
near a warm sun in a good climate, a pleasant country, and amidst a sociable
people. My stock would then maintain me in some opulence; for I have the
satisfaction to tell you, dear Doctor, that on reviewing my affairs I find that I am
worth ^1600 sterling, which, at five per cent., makes near 1800 livres a year — that
is, the pay of two P"rench captains.' Burton's Hume, i. 437. Horace Walpole, writing
on March 28, 1777, says: — 'Have you read Hume's Life, and did you observe
that he thought of retiring to France, and changing his name, because his works
had not got him a name 1 Lord Bute called himself Sir John Stuart in Italy to
shroud the beams of a title too gorgeous ; but it is new to conceal a name that
nobody had heard of.' Letters, vi. 423.
^ For some Essays which he suppressed at this time see past, pp. 230-3, and
p. 346, n. 2.
^ Stefost, pp. 20, 200. Gibbon in his Decline and Fall, ed. 1807, iv. 86, thus
mentions ' the Warburtonian school ' :— ' The secret intentions of Julian are re-
vealed by the late Bishop of Gloucester, the learned and dogmatic Warburton;
who, with the authority of a theologian, prescribes the motives and conduct of the
Supreme Being. The discourse entitled Julian is strongly marked with all the
peculiarities which are imputed to the Warburtonian school.'
* See post, pp. 2, 4.
DAVID HUME. XXIX
But though I had been taught by experience that the Whig
party were in possession of bestowing all places, both in the
state and in literature, I was so little inclined to yield to their
senseless clamour, that in above a hundred alterations, which
further study, reading, or reflection, engaged me to make in the
reigns of the two first Stuarts, I have made all of them invariably
to the Tory side *. It is ridiculous to consider the English
constitution before that period as a regular plan of liberty.
In 1759, I published my History of the House of Tudor. The
clamour against this performance was almost equal to that
against the History of the two first Stuarts. The reign of Eliza-
beth was particularly obnoxious'''. But I was now callous
against the impressions of public folly, and continued very
peaceably and contentedly in my retreat at Edinburgh, to finish,
in two volumes, the more early part of The English History,
which I gave to the public in 1761, with tolerable, and but
tolerable, success".
' See post, p. 75, n. 4, for his complaint in his last illness of the design of the
Whigs to ruin him as an author. He forgets to point out that only four years
after the publication of his second volume, by the accession of George III, the
Tory writers were in a far more favourable position than the Whigs. See his Philo-
sophical Works, ed. 1854, iii. 74, for a long passage on Whigs and Tories, which he
suppressed in the later editions of his Essays. In it, speaking of the Tories, he had
said : — ' There are few men of knowledge or learning, at least few philosophers
since Mr. Locke has wrote, who would not be ashamed to be thought of that party.'
* Hume wrote to Dr. Robertson on Jan. 35, 1759: — '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 villainous Whigs
who railed at me.' Dugald Stewart's Life of Robertson, ed. 181 1, p. 342. Horace
Walpole wrote of it on March 1 5 : — ' I have not advanced far in it, but it appears
an inaccurate and careless, as it certainly has been a very hasty performance.'
Letters, iii. 216. It was brought out almost at the same time as Robertson's
History of Scotland, Voltaire's Candide, and Johnson's Rasselas.
^ Dugald Stewart says : — " Adam Smith observed to me, not long before his
death, that after all his practice in writing he composed as slowly and with as
great difficulty as at first. He added that Mr. Hume had acquired so great a
facility, that the last volumes of his History were printed from his original copy,
with a few marginal corrections. When Mr. Smith was composing, he generally
walked up and down his apartment, dictating to a secretary. All Mr. Hume's
works (I have been assured) were written with his own hand. A critical reader
may, I think, perceive in the different styles of these two classical writers the
effects of their different modes of study.' Life of Adam Smith, ed. i8n, p. 107.
' Home Tooke said that Hume wrote his History as witches say their prayers —
backwards.' Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers, p. 123.
XXX THE LIFE OF
But, notwithstanding this variety of winds and seasons to
which my writings had been exposed, they had still been
making such advances, that the copy-money given me by the
booksellers much exceeded any thing formerly known in Eng-
land \ I was become not only independent, but opulent, I
retired to my native country of Scotland, determined never
more to set my foot out of it ; and retaining the satisfaction of
never having preferred a request to one great man, or even
making advances of friendship to any of them. As I was now
turned of fifty, I thought of passing all the rest of my life in
this philosophical manner'^, when I received, in 1763, an in-
vitation from the Earl of Hertford, with whom I was not in the
least acquainted, to attend him on his embassy to Paris, with a
near prospect of being appointed secretary to the embassy;
and, in the mean while, of performing the functions of that
office ^ This offer, however inviting, I at first declined, both
because I was reluctant to begin connections with the great,
' See post, p. 33, n. 2. In 1767 writing to a friend he says: — 'Some push
me to continue my History. Millar offers me any price.' Burton's Hume,
ii. 39--
" ' When Mr. David Hume began first to be known in the world as a philoso-
pher, Mr. Thomas White, a decent rich merchant of London, said to him, " I am
surprised, Mr. Hume, that a man of your good sense should think of being a phi-
losopher. Why, I now took it into my head to be a philosopher for some time,
but tired of it most confoundedly, and very soon gave it up." "Pray, Sir," said
Mr. Hume, "in what branch of philosophy did you employ your researches?
What books did you read?" "Books?" said Mr. White; "nay, Sir, I read no
books, but I used to sit you whole forenoons a-yawning and poking the fire." '
BoswelUana, p. 221. See Burton's Hume, ii. 392, where Hume speaks of his
pleasure in ' idleness, and sauntering and society.' In reporting to a friend Lord
Hertford's invitation he said, ' he roi\ses me from a state of indolence and sloth,
which I falsely dignified with the name of philosophy.' Hume's Private Corres.
p. 70.
^ Hume wrote to a friend on Jan. 9, 1764: — 'When I came up to London,
I found that Mr. [afterwards Sir Charles] Bnnbury, a gentleman of considerable
fortune, and married to the Duke of Richmond's sister, had already been appointed
Secretary ; but was so disagreeable to the ambassador that he was resolved never
to see, or do business with his secretary, and therefore desired I should attend him,
in order to perform the functions.' Burton's Hume, li. 183. In another letter he
adds : — ' The King gave me a pension of ,f 200 a year for life, to engage me to
attend his Lordship. My Lord is very impatient to have me Secretary to the
Embassy ; and writes very earnest letters to that purpose to the Ministers. . . .
Mr. Bunbury has great interest. . . . The appointments of this office are above
£1000 a year, and the expense attending it nothing.' lb. p. 188. See J>ost,
pp. 40, 69, n. 1.
DAVID HtJME. xxxi
and because I was afraid that the civilities and gay company of
Paris would prove disagreeable to a person of my age and
humour ; but on his lordship's repeating the invitation, I
accepted of it. I have every reason, both of pleasure and
interest, to think myself happy in my connections with that
nobleman, as well as afterwards with his brother. General
Conway '.
Those who have not seen the strange effects of modes will
never imagine the strange reception I met with at Paris, from
men and women of all ranks and stations'*- The more I re-
siled ° from their excessive civilities, the more I was loaded with
them. There is, however, a real satisfaction in living at Paris,
from the great number of sensible, knowing, and polite company
with which the city abounds above all places in the universe.
I thought once of settling there for life.
I was appointed secretary to the embassy; and in summer
1765, Lord Hertford left me, being appointed Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland\ I was charge cH affaires till the arrival of the Duke
of Richmond, towards the end of the year. In the beginning of
1766 I left Paris', and next summer went to Edinburgh", with
the same view as formerly, of burying myself in a philosophical
retreat. I returned to that place not richer, but with much
more money, and a much larger income, by means of Lord
Hertford's friendship, than I left it'; and I was desirous of
trying what superfluity could produce, as I had formerly made
an experiment of a competency. But in 1767 I received from
Mr Conway an invitation to be under-secretary ; and this in-
vitation both the character of the person, and my connections
with Lord Hertford, prevented me from declining*. I returned
to Edinburgh in 1769 very opulent, (for I possessed a revenue
* See^ost, p. 69, «. I ; 103, n. 1.
' .See post, p. 50, n. 3.
' Johnson in his Dictionary gives resilience, and resiliency, but not resile.
* See post, p. 69, «. I.
" He passes over in silence his quarrel with Rousseau which took place in this
year {post, p. 74).
° See post, p. 86, n. i.
' Hume, I conjecturj, means to say that his invested property was not larger,
but that by the a^'.dition to his pension, which he owed to Lord Hertford's friend-
ship (post, p. 65), he had a much larger income. He had also a much larger
stock of uninvested money.
' Seejfiost, p. 103, «. 1,
xxxii THE LIFE OF
of one thousand pounds a year S) healthy, and though some-
what stricken in years, with the prospect of enjoying long my
ease, and of seeing the increase of my reputation '\
In spring, 1775, I was struck with a disorder in my bowels ^
which at first gave me no alarm, but has since, as I apprehend
it, become mortal and incurable. I now reckon upon a speedy
dissolution. I have suffered very little pain from my disorder ;
and, what is more strange, have, notwithstanding the great
decline of my person *, never suffered a moment's abatement of
my spirits ; insomuch that were I to name a period of my life
which I should most choose to pass over again, I might be
tempted to point to this later period °. I possess the same
ardour as ever in study, and the same gaiety in company. I
consider, besides, that a man at sixty-five, by dying, cuts off
only a few years of infirmities ; and though I see many symp-
toms of my literary reputation's breaking out at last with
additional lustre ", I knew that I could have but very few years
to enjoy it. It is difficult to be more detached from life than I
am at present,
' On Oct. 6, 1767, he wrote to his brother : — ' My income will be above jf iioo
a year, of which I shall not spend much above the half.' MS., R. S. E.
* Gibbon, only 'twenty hours before his death, happened to fall into a con-
versation, not uncommon with him, on the probable duration of his life. He said
that he thought himself a good life for ten, twelve, or perhaps twenty years.'
Gibbon's Misc. Works, ed. 1814, i. 422.
^ St&post, p. 322, n. 2.
' Six months before his death he had lost five stones' weight. Post, p. 312, k. i.
' Gibbon in his fifty-second year wrote : — ' 1 shall soon enter into the period
which, as the most agreeable of his long life, was selected by the judgment and
experience of the sage Fontenelle. His choice is approved by the eloquent his-
torian of nature [Buffon], who fixes our moral happiness to the mature season in
which our passions are supposed to be calmed, our duties fulfilled, our ambition
satisfied, our fame and fortune established on a solid basis. In private conversa-
tion that great and amiable man added the weight of his own experience ; and this
autumnal felicity might be exemplified in the lives of Voltaire, Hume, and many
other men of letters, I am far more inclined to embrace than to dispute this com-
fortable doctrine. I will not suppose any premature decay of the mind or body ;
but I must reluctantly observe that two causes, the abbreviation of time and the
failure of hope, will always tinge with a browner shade the evening of life.'
Gibbon's Misc. Works, i. 275.
" See post, p. 55, n. 7, and p. 329. In an interesting review of his Life and
Writings in the Annual Register tor 1776, ii, 31, it is said that by the time his
History was finished, 'his reputation was complete. He was considered as the
greatest writer of the age : his most insignificant performances were sought after
with avidity,'
DAVID HUME. xxxiii
To conclude historically with my own character. I am, or
rather was (for that is the style I must now use in speaking of
myself, which emboldens me the more to speak my sentiments)
I was, I say, a man of mild disposition, of command of temper,
of an open, social, and cheerful humour \ capable of attach-
ment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation
in all my passions. Even my love of literary fame, my ruling
passion, never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequent
disappointments '■*. My company was not unacceptable to the
young and careless, as well as to the studious and literary ; and
as I took a particular pleasure in the company of modest
women, I had no reason to be displeased with the reception I
met with from them. In a word, though most men, anywise
' ' Dr. Robertson nsed frequently to say that in Mr. Hume's gaiety there -was
something which approached to infantine^ Stewart's Life of Robertson, ed. 1811,
p. 211. Dr. Blair, in a letter to Hume's nephew dated Nov. 20, 1797, speaks of
' that amiable naivete and sprightly gaiety for which his uncle was so distinguished.'
M.S., R. S. E. Gray, writing to Dr. Beattie on July 2, 1 770, asks : — ' Is not that
naivetl and good-humour, which Hume's admirers celebrate in him, owing to this,
that he has continued all his days an infant, but one that unhappily has been
taught to read and write? ' Mason's Gray, ed. 1807, ii. 298. Dr. Burton tells how
at the beginning of Hume's last illness a woman called on him ' with the informa-
tion that she had been intrusted with a message to him from on High. " This is
> a very important matter, Madam," said the philosopher ; "we must take it with
deliberation ; — perhaps you had better get a little temporal refreshment before you
begin. Lassie, bring this good lady a glass of wine." While she was preparing
for the attack he entered good-humouredly into conversation with her ; and dis-
covering that her husband was a chandler, announced that he stood very much in
want at that time of some temporal lights, and intrusted his guest with a Very
large order. This unexpected stroke of business at once absorbed all the" good
woman's thoughts ; and forgetting her important mission she immediately trotted
home to acquaint her husband with the good news.' Burton's Hnme, ii. 457. See
post, p. 320.
' Goldsmith admitted to Walpole that he envied Shakespeare. Walpole's Letters,
vi. 379. Hume, in like manner, was jealous of Thomas a Becket. After men-
tioning the thousands of pilgrims to his tomb, he continues: — 'It is indeed a
mortifying reflection to those who are actuated by the love of fame, so justly
denominated the last infirmity of noble minds S that the wisest legislator and most
exalted genius that ever reformed or enlightened the world can never expect
such tributes of praise as are lavished on the memory of pretended saints, whose
whole conduct was probably to the last degree odious or contemptible, and whose
industry was entirely directed to the pursuit of objects pernicious to mankind.'
Hist, of Eng., ed. 1802, i. 422.
' ' That last infirmity of noble mind.'
Milton's Lycidas, 1. 7'-
xxxiv THE LIFE OF
eminent, have found reason to complain of calumny, I never was
touched, or even attacked, by her baleful tooth ; and though I
wantonly exposed myself to the rage of both civil and religious
factions, they seemed to be disarmed in my behalf of their
wonted fury. My friends never had occasion to vindicate any
one circumstance of my character and conduct : not but that
the zealots, we may well suppose, would have been glad to
invent and propagate any story to my disadvantage, but they
could never find any which they thought would wear the face
of probability'. I cannot say there is no vanity in making this
funeral oration of myself; but I hope it is not a misplaced
one; and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleared and
ascertained.
April 1 8, 1776.
Letter from Adam Smith, LL.D. to William Strahan, Esq.^
Kirkaldy, Fifcshire,
Nov. 9, 1776.
Dear Sir,
It is with a real, though a very melancholy pleasure, that I sit
down to give you some account of the behaviour of our late excellent
friend, Mr Hume, during his last illness.
Though in his own judgment his disease was mortal and incurable,
yet he allowed himself to be prevailed upon, by the entreaty of his
friends, to try what might be the effects of a long journey '. A few
days before he set out he wrote that account of his own life, which,
together with his other papers, he has left to your care. My account,
therefore, shall begin where his ends.
He set out for London towards the end of April, and at Morpeth
met with Mr John Home and myself, who had both come down from
London on purpose to see him, expecting to have found him at Edin-
burgh*. Mr Home returned with him, and attended him, during the
whole of his stay in England, with that care and attention which
might be expected from a temper so perfectly friendly and affec-
tionate. As I had written to my mother that she might expect me in
Scotland, I was under the necessity of continuing my journey. His
disease seemed to yield to exercise and change of air ; and, when he
' Lord Cockburn, in his Memoirs, ed. 1856, p. aoi, gives a curious instance how
thirty years after Hume's death the zealots of Edinburgh made use of the pre-
judices entertained against him to persecute Professor John Leslie.
^ Seeposi, pp. 346, 348. " Seefost) p. 319, n. 2. ' Seepost, ib.
DAVID HUME. xxxv
arrived in London, he was apparently in much better health than
when he left Edinburgh*. He was advised to go to Bath to drink the
waters, which appeared for some time to have so good an effect upon
him, that even he himself began to entertain, what he was not apt to
do, a better opinion of his own health ^. His symptoms however
soon returned with their usual violence, and from that moment he
gave up all thoughts of recovery, but submitted with the utmost cheer-
fulness and the most perfect complacency and resignation. Upon his
return to Edinburgh, though he found himself much weaker, yet his
cheerfulness never abated, and he continued to divert himself, as
usual, with correcting his own works for a new edition, with reading
books of amusement, with the conversation of his friends ; and some-
times in the evening with a party at his favourite game of whist. His
cheerfulness was so great, and his conversation and amusements ran
so much in their usual strain, that notwithstanding all bad symptoms,
many people could not believe he was dying. ' I shall tell your friend
colonel Edmondstone ',' said doctor Dundas to him one day, 'that
I left you much better, and in a fair way of recovery.' ' Doctor,' said
he, ' as I believe you would not choose to tell any thing but the truth,
you had better tell him I am dying as fast as my enemies, if I have
any, could wish, and as easily and cheerfully as my best friends
could desire.' Colonel Edmondstone soon afterwards came to see
him, and take leave of him ; and on his way home he could not for-
bear writing him a letter, bidding him once more an eternal adieu, and
applying to him, as to a dying man, the beautiful French verses in
which the Abbe Chaulieu, in expectation of his own death, laments
his approaching separation from his friend the Marquis de la Fare '-
Mr Hume's magnanimity and firmness were such, that his most
' See post, p. 321.
' Seepost, p. 323.
^ Colonel Edmondstoune of Newton had served in the Expedition against
France in 1746, when most likely he had become acquainted with Hume. Burton's
Hume, i. 212. On Aug. 6, 1776, Hume wrote to John Home the poet: — ' Poor
Edmondstoune and I parted to-day with a plentiful effusion of tears ; all those
Belzebubians * have not hearts of iron.' Mackenzie's Life of John Home, i. 65.
* ' Colonel Edmondstoune's letter has been preserved, and is as follows : —
" Linlithgow, Wednesday.
"My Dear, Dear David, — My heart is v^ry full. I could not see you this
morning. I thought it was better for us both. You can't die, you must live in the
memory of all your friends and acquaintances ^ and your works will render you
immortal. I could never conceive that it was possible for any one to dislike you
' ' Edmondstoune was a member of what was called the Ruffian Club ; men whose
hearts were milder than their manners, and their principles more correct than their
habits of life.'
" Seeposi, p. 9.
C 2
xxxvi THE LIFE OF
affectionate friends knew that they hazarded nothing in talking and
writing to him as to a dying man ; and that so far from being hurt by
this frankness, he was rather pleased and flattered by it. I happened
to come into his room while he was reading this letter, which he had
just received, and which he immediately showed me. I told him,
that though I was sensible how very much he was weakened, and
that appearances were in many respects very bad, yet his cheerful-
ness was still so great, the spirit of life seemed still to be so very
strong in him, that I could not help entertaining some faint hopes.
He answered, ' Your hopes are groundless. An habitual diarrhoea of
more than a year's standing would be a very bad disease at any age ;
at my age it is a mortal one. When I lie down in the evening I feel
myself weaker than when I rose in the morning ; and when I rise in
the morning weaker than when I lay down in the evening. I am
sensible, besides, that some of my vital parts are affected, so that
I must soon die.' ' Well,' said I, ' if it must be so, you have at least
the satisfaction of leaving all your friends, your brother's family in
particular, in great prosperity.' He said that he felt that satisfaction
so sensibly, that when he was reading, a few days before, Lucian's
Dialogues of the Dead, among all the excuses which are alleged to
Charon for not entering readily into his boat, he could not find one
that fitted him : he had no house to finish, he had no daughter to
provide for, he had no enemies upon whom he wished to revenge
himself ' I could not well imagine,' said he, ' what excuse I could
make to Charon, in order to obtain a little delay. I have done every
thing of consequence which I ever meant to do, and I could at no time
expect to leave my relations and friends in a better situation than that
in which I am now likely to leave them : I therefore have all reason
to die contented.' He then diverted himself with inventing several
or hate you. He must be more than savage who could be an enemy to a man of
the best head and heart ', and of the most amiable manners.
O toi, qui de mon ame es la chere moitie ;
Toi, qui joins la delicatesse
Des sentimens d'une maitresse
A la solidite d'une siire amitie,
David, il faut bientot que la Parque cruelle
Vienne rompre de si doux noeuds,
Et malgre nos cris et nos voeux
Bienlot nous essuierons ime absence eternel'e.
Adieu! Adieu!" M.S.,R.S.E:
Burton's Hume, ii. 510.
These lines were written seventeen years before Chaulieu's death. They are
entitled £pitre iJ M. Le Marquis De La Fare, qui ni avail demandi mon portrait,
en 1703. They were incorrectly quoted by Colonel Edmondatoune, but I have
corrected them in accordance with the text of the edition of 1774 oi Les CEuvres
de Chaulieu, tome i. p. 220. For David we find of course La Fare.
' 'Dr. Johnson added "something much too rough,"' both as to Mr. Himie's
head and heart, which I suppress.' Boswell's Life of Johnson, v. 30.
DAVID HUME. xxxvil
jocular excuses, which he supposed he might make to Charon, and
with imagining the very surly answers which it might suit the
character of Charon to return to them. ' Upon further consideration,'
said he, ' I thought I might say to him, " Good Charon, I have been
correcting my works for a new edition. Allow me a little time that
I may see how the public receives the alterations '." But Charon
wojild answer, " When you have seen the effect of these, you will be
for making other alterations. There will be no end of such excuses ;
so, honest friend, please step into the boat." But I might still urge,
" Have a little patience, good Charon, I have been endeavouring to
open the eyes of the public. If I live a few years longer, I may have
the satisfaction of seeing the downfall of some of the prevailing
systems of superstition." But Charon would then lose all temper
and decency. " You loitering rogue, that will not happen these many
hundred years. Do you fancy I will grant you a lease for so long a
term ? Get into the boat this instant, you lazy loitering rogue." '
But though Mr Hume always talked of his approaching dissolution
with great cheerfulness, he never affected to make any parade of his
great magnanimity. He never mentioned the subject but when the
conversation naturally led to it, and never dwelt longer upon it than
the course of the conversation happened to require ; it was a subject
indeed which occurred pretty frequently, in consequence of the in-
quiries which his friends, who came to see him, naturally made con-
cerning the state of his health. The conversation which I mentioned
above, and which passed on Thursday the 8th of August, was the last,
except one, that I ever had with him. He had now become so very
weak that the company of his most intimate friends fatigued him ; for
his cheerfulness was still so great, his complaisance and social dis-
position were still so entire, that when any friend was with him
he could not help talking more, and with greater exertion, than suited
the weakness of his body. At his own desire, therefore, I agreed to
leave Edinburgh, where I was staying partly upon his account, and re-
turned to my mother's house here at Kirkaldy, upon condition that he
would send for me whenever he wished to see me * ; the physician who
saw him most frequently, doctor Black', undertaking, in the mean
time, to write me occasionally an account of the state of his health.
On the twenty-second of August, the doctor wrote me the following
letter : —
' Since my last Mr Hume has passed his time pretty easily, but is
much weaker. He sits up, goes down stairs once a day, and amuses
himself with reading, but seldom sees any body. He finds that even
' Hume's final corrections were sent only thirteen days before his death
{post, p. 342).
^ See post, p. 344, n, 3, for Hume's thrift, in the case of a letter which he sent
to Adam Smith.
' See post, p. 343, n. 2.
xxxviii THE LIFE OF
the conversation of his most intimate friends fatigues and oppresses
him, and it is happy that he does not need it ; for he is quite free from
anxiety, impatience, or low spirits, and passes his time very well with
the assistance of amusing books.'
I received, the day after, a letter from Mr Hume himself, of which
the following is an extract : —
' My dearest friend, " ^'^^^''^^^Sh, August .3, 1776.
' I am obliged to make use of my nephew's hand in writing to
you, as I do not rise to-day.
[There is no man in whom I have a greater confidence than
Mr. Strahan, yet have I left the property of that Manuscript to my
nephew David, in case by any accident it should not be published
within three years after my decease. The only accident I could
foresee was one to Mr. Strahan's life, and without this clause my
nephew would have had no right to publish it. Be so good as to
inform Mr. Strahan of this circumstance.
You are too good in thinking any trifles that concern me are so
much worth your attention, but I give you entire liberty to make
what additions you please to the account of my life.]
I go very fast to decline, and last night had a small fever, which I
hoped might put a quicker period to this tedious illness ; but unluckily,
it has in a great measure gone off. I cannot submit to yoCir coming
over here on my account, as it is possible for me to see you so small
a part of the day ; but Dr Black can better inform you concerning the
degree of strength which may from time to time remain with me.
[My Dearest Friend,
David Hume.
P.S. It was a strange blunder to send your letter by the carrier.] '
Three days after I received the following letter from Dr Black :—
' Dear Sir 'Edinburgh, Monday, August 26, 1776.
' Yesterday, about four o'clock, afternoon, Mr Hume expired.
The near approach of his death became evident in the night between
Thursday and Friday, when his disease became excessive, and soon
weakened him so much, that he could no longer rise out of his bed.
He continued to the last perfectly sensible, and free from much pain
or feelings of distress. He never dropt the smallest expression of
mipatience ; but when he had occasion to speak to the people about
hmi, always did it with affection and tenderness. I thought it im-
proper to write to bring you over, especially as I had heard that he
had dictated a letter to you, desiring you not to come. When he
' The passages enclosed in brackets, which were not in the letter as published
by Adam Smith, are taken from the original in the possession of the Royal Society
of Edinburgh.
DAVID HUME. xxxix
became very weak it cost him an effort to speak, and he died in such
a happy composure of mind that nothing could exceed it ^.'
Thus died our most excellent, and never-to-be-forgotten friend ;
concerning whose philosophical opinions men will no doubt judge
variously, every one approving or condemning them according as
they happen to coincide, or disagree with his own ; but concerning
whose character and conduct there can scarce be a difference of
opinion. His temper, indeed, seemed to be more happily balanced,
if I may be allowed such an expression, than that perhaps of any
other man I have ever known. Even in the lowest state of his
fortune, his great and necessary frugality never hindered him from
exercising, upon proper occasions, acts both of charity and generosity.
It was a frugality founded not upon avarice, but upon the love of in-
dependency. The extreme gentleness of his nature never weakened
either the firmness of his mind, or the steadiness of his resolutions.
' Dr. W. CuUen wrote to Dr. Hunter on Sept. 17, 1776: — 'You desire an
account of Mr. Hume's last days, and I give it you with some pleasure, for
though I could not look upon him in his last illness without much concern, yet the
tranquillity and pleasantry which he constantly discovered did even then give me
satisfaction, and now that the curtain is dropped allows me to indulge the less
alloyed reflection. It was truly an example " des grands hommes qui sont morts
en plaisantant ' ; " and to me who have been so .often shocked with the horrors of
the superstitious on such occasions, the reflection on such a death is truly agree-
able. For many weeks before his death he was very sensible of his gradual decay,
and his answer to inquiries after his health was several times that he was
going as fast as his enemies could wish, and as easily as his friends could desire.
He was not however without a frequent recurrence of pain and uneasiness, but he
passed most part of the day in his drawing-room, admitted the visits of his friends,
and with his usual spirit conversed with them upon literature, politics, or whatever
else was accidentally started. In conversation he seemed to be perfectly at ease,
and to the last abounded with that pleasantry, and those curious and entertaining
anecdotes which ever distinguished him. This however I always considered
rather as- an effort to be agreeable, and he at length acknowledged that it became
too much for his strength. For a few days before his death he became more
averse to receive visits ; speaking became more and more difficult for him ; and
for twelve hours before his death his speech failed altogether. His senses and
judgment did not fail till the last hour of his life. He constantly discovered
ii strong sensibility to the attention and care of his friends, and amidst great
uneasiness and languor never betrayed any peevishness or impatience.' After re-
counting the anecdote about Lucian and the codicil to his will [^ost, p. 9, n. 10),
Dr. CuUen continues : — ' These are a few particulars, which may perhaps appear
trifling, but to me no particulars seem trifling that relate to so great a man. It is
perhaps from trifles that we can best distinguish the tranquillity and cheerfulness of
the philosopher, at a time when the most part of mankind are under disquiet,
anxiety, and sometimes even horror. I consider the sacrifice of the cock as a more
certain evidence of the tranquillity of Socrates than his Discourse on Immortality.''
Thomson's Life of Dr. CuUen, i. 607.
'In reference to a work so entitled, published at Amsterdam in 1732
xL THE LIFE OF DAVID HUME.
His constant pleasantry was the genuine effusion of good-nature and
good-humour, tempered with delicacy and modesty, and without even
the slightest tincture of malignity, so frequently the disagreeable
source of what is called wit in other men. It never was the meaning
of his raillery to mortify ; and therefore, far from offending, it seldom
failed to please and delight even those who were the objects of it. To
his friends, who were frequently the objects of it, there was not per-
haps any one of all his great and amiable qualities which contributed
more to endear his conversation. And that gaiety of temper, so
agreeable in society, but which is so often accompanied with frivolous
and superficial quahties, was in him certainly attended with the most
severe application, the most extensive learning, the greatest depth of
thought, and a capacity in every respect the most comprehensive.
Upon the whole, I have always considered him, both in his lifetime,
and since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a per-
fectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty
will admit '.
I am ever, dear Sir,
Most affectionately yours,
Adam Smith.
' Dr. Blair, in a letter to Strahan dated April lo, 1778, said: — 'Poor David!
what an irreparable blank does he make amongst ns here. Taking him all in all,
we shall never see the like '. Indeed, I cannot but agree with what Adam Smith
says of him in the last sentence of his printed letter to you.' Rosebery MS.
Boswell records on Sept. 16, 1777 :— 'I mentioned to Dr. Johnson that David
Hume's persisting in his infidelity when he was dying shocked me much. John-
son. " Why should it shock you, Sir 1 Hume owned he had never read the New
Testament with attention. Here then was a man who had been at no pains to in-
quire into the truth of religion, and had continually turned his mind the other way.
It was not to be expected that the prospect of death would alter his way of think-
ing, unless God should send an angel to set him right." I said I had reason
to believe that the thought of annihilation gave Hume no pain. Johnson. " It
was not so, Sir. He had a vanity in being thought easy. It is more probable
that he should assume an appearance of ease, than that so very improbable a thing
should be, as a man not afraid of going (as, in spite of his delusive theory, he can-
not be sure but he may go) into an unknown state, and not being uneasy at
leaving all he knew. And you are to consider that upon his own principle of
annihilation he had no motive to speak the truth." ' Boswell's Johnson, iii. 153.
Boswell had suggested to Johnson on July 9 of the same year that he should
'knock Hume's and Smith's heads together, and make vain and ostentatious
mfidelity exceedingly ridiculous.' lb. iii. 119. See ib. v. 30, n. 3, for Dr. Home's
Letter to Adam Smith, LL.D., On the Life, Death and Philosophy of his Friend,
David Hume, Esq. By one of the People called Christians.
'He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.'
Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2.
CHIEF EVENTS OF THE LIFE OF
DAVID HUME.
171 1. Birth, p. xvii.
1729. Attack of illness, p. xix, ;/. i.
1734. Enters a merchant's office in Bristol, p. xix.
„ Visits France, where he studies three years, p. xix.
1737. Visits London, p. xx.
1738. Treatise of Human Nature, p. xx.
1739. Returns to Ninewells, p. xx.
1741. Essays Moral and Political, vol. i. p. xx.
1742. „ „ „ vol. ii. p. XX.
1745. Lives with the Marquis of Annandale, p. xxi.
1746. Expedition to the Coast of France, p. xxi.
1747. Mission to Vienna and Turin, p. xxii.
1748. Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, p. xxii.
1749. Returns from Italy to Ninewells, p. xxiii.
1751. Removes to Edinburgh, p. xxv.
„ Candidate for the Chair of Logic at Glasgow, p. xxv, n. 1.
Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, p. xxv.
1752. Political Discourses, p. xxv.
„ Librarian to the Advocates' Library, p. xxvi.
1753. Gets a house of his own, p. 231, n. 3.
1754. The History of Great Britain. Vol. i. Containing the Reigns of
James I and Charles I, p. xxvi.
1755. Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soid suppressed,
p. 232, n. 8.
1756. The History of Great Britain, Vol. ii. From the .Death of
Charles I to the Revolution, p. xxviii.
1757. Resigns his office as Librarian, p. xxvi, n. 2.
„ Natural History of Religion, pp. xxviii, 19, n. i.
1758. Visits London, p. 29, n. i.
1759. History of England under the House of Tudor, pp. xxix, 29.
1761. Visits London, p. 33, n. 3.
„ History of England from the Invasion of Julius Ccesar to the
Accession of Henry VII, pp. xxix, 33, n. 2.
xlii CHIEF EVENTS OF THE LIFE OF DA VID HUME.
1762. Removes to James's Court, p. 116, n. 2.
1763. Attends Lord Hertford to Paris, pp. xxx, 40.
1765. Appointed Secretary to the Embassy, pp. xxxi, 69, ;;. i.
„ Pensioned, p. 33, n. 6.
1766. Returns to England and resides in London, pp. xxxi, 73.
„ Quarrel with Rousseau, pp. 74-103.
„ Returns to Edinburgh, pp. xxxi, 86, n. i.
1767. Returns to London as Under-Secretary of State, pp. xxxi, 103.
1768. Loses his office, p. 115, n. i.
„ Pension increased, p. 55.
1769. Returns to Edinburgh, p. 115, n. i.
1771. Visits Inverary, p. 221.
1772. Removes to St. Andrew's Square, p. 250, n. 3.
1773. Revised edition of the History of England, pp. 183, 212.
1775. Struck with a mortal illness, pp. xxxii, 312, n. i.
1776. Writes his Life, xxxiv.
„ Visits London and Bath, pp. 319, 323.
Death, pp. xxxiv, 345.
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF
WILLIAM STRAHAN,
William Strahan, Hume's correspondent, was born in
Edinburgh in the year 1715. ' His father, who had a small
appointment in the Customs, gave his son the education which
every lad of decent rank then received in a country where the
avenues to learning were easy, and open to men of the most
moderate circumstances '.' After having served his apprentice-
ship in his native town, he was enchanted, like so many of his
countrymen, by ' the noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever
sees,' and took 'the high road that leads to England ^' There
he carried on his trade with great success and rose to a posi-
tion of importance and afQuence. ' I remember,' wrote to him
his friend Dr. Franklin, ' your observing once to me, as we sat
together in the House of Commons, that no two journeymen
printers within your knowledge had met with such success in
the world as ourselves'.' It was in his coach that Dr. Johnson,
Boswell and blind Mrs. Williams, were one day carried to a
dinner at his brother-in-law's house in Kensington. ' A printer
having acquired a fortune sufficient to keep his coach was a
good topic for the credit of literature. Mrs. Williams said that
another printer, Mr. Hamilton, had not waited so long as Mr.
Strahan, but had kept his coach several years sooner. John-
son. "He was in the right. Life is short. The sooner that
a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better'.'" In 1770
Strahan purchased from Mr. George Eyre 'a share of the
patent for King's Printer ^' In the general election of 1774
he was returned to Parliament for the borough of Malmesbury,
and had the honour of having Charles Fox for his colleague.
' Nichols's Lit. Anec, iii. 391. ^ Boswell's Life of Johnson, i. 421;.
' Post, p. 64, K. II. * BoiweWi Johnson, ii. 226. ' Nichols's
Lit. Anec, iii. 392.
xliv A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF
In the succeeding Parliament he sat for Wooton Basset;
but having supported the Coalition Ministry he lost his seat
at the general election of 1784 ^ He outlived his friend David
Hume nearly nine years, and died on July 9, 1785.
That he was a man not only of great worth but of a strong
and cultivated understanding is shown by the men whom he
had made his friends and by the services which he rendered to
some of them. Garrick, it is true, thought that he ' was rather
an obtuse man ' — one not likely to be ' a good judge of an epi-
gram.' To which Johnson replied, ' Why, Sir, he may not be
a judge of an epigram ; but you see he is a judge of what is not
an epigram''.' That he was a good judge in general of the
merits of a book cannot be doubted. First in partnership with
Andrew Millar, 'the Maecenas of the age,' the man whom
'Johnson respected for raising the price of literature V and
then in partnership with Thomas Cadell, he published some of
the most important works of his time. When Elmsly, the
bookseller, 'declined the perilous adventure' of bringing out
the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, it was Strahan and
Cadell who ' undertook the risk of the publication.' It was by
Strahan's ' prophetic taste,' writes Gibbon, that the number
of the impression was doubled*. 'There will no books of
reputation now be printed in London,' wrote Hume to him,
'but through your hands and Mr. Cadell's ^' Though in this
statement there is somewhat of Hume's flattery, yet it is true
that they were the publishers of works not only of Gibbon and
of Hume, but of Johnson, Robertson, Adam Smith, Blackstone,
and Blair. Hume and Robertson availed themselves moreover
of his knowledge of English in the correction of their proofs.
'He was,' writes Dr. Beattie, 'eminently skilled in composi-
tion".' His services in this respect Hume more than once
gratefully acknowledges'. He ranks him indeed among the
learned printers, who, since the days of Aldus and Stephens,
had not been seen on the earth". He made him his literary
executor'. The long correspondence which he maintained
with him shows the value that he set on his letters. ' I have
' Nichols's Lit. Anec, iii. 393. = 'E.oi^AVsJoJmson, iii. 258. = lb. i. 287.
- Gibbon's Misc. Works, ed. 1814, i. 222. » Post, p. 314. « Forbes's Life of
Beattie, ed. 1824, p. 341. ' Post, pp. 214, 224, 231. « Post, p. 23:;.
» Post, p. 335, «. 14.
WILLIAM STRAHAN. xlv
always said without flattery,' he wrote to him, 'that you may
give instructions to statesmen '.' A denial of flattery, it is true,
means as little in Hume's mouth as it would have done in the
mouth of any of those French philosophers or men of letters in
whose society he so much delighted. Nevertheless the length
of many of his answers is a proof that he thought highly of
his correspondent's understanding and knowledge of public
affairs. 'Mr. Strahan loved much,' wrote Boswell, 'to be
employed in political negotiation ^'
He must have had an unusual breadth of character, for
he was the friend of men so unlike as Johnson and Hume,
as Franklin and Robertson. It was at his house that Johnson
and Adam Smith met when 'they did not take to each other ^'
He tried to get Johnson a seat in the House of Commons*,
and was ' his friendly agent in receiving his pension for him,
and his banker in supplying him with money when he wanted
it^' When Johnson wrote to Scotland, 'I employ Strahan,' he
said, ' to frank my letters, that he may have the consequence of
appearing a Parliament-man among his countrymen".' There
was a difference between the two men which kept them apart
for a few months, when it was healed by a letter from Johnson
and a friendly call from Strahan '- The warmth of the friend-
ship that existed between him and other eminent men of letters
is shown by their letters. Adam Smith writing to him signs
himself, 'Most affectionately yours V and so does Robertson'.
Beattie and Blair are scarcely less warm". Johnson indeed,
when among the Aberdeen professors, mocked at his intimacy
with Bishop Warburton, ' Why, Sir, he has printed some of
his works, and perhaps bought the property of some of them.
The intimacy is such as one of the professors here may have
with one of the carpenters who is repairing the college".' But
Beattie who had seen the correspondence that had passed
between the two men said that 'they were very particularly
acquainted '^' The manly indignation of his answer to Hume,
who had accused him of deception ", is not the letter of a man
' Post, p. 145. ' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 137. ' lb. iil. 331.
* lb. ii. 137. ' lb. ii. 137. ' lb. iii. 364. ' lb iii. 364.
» Post, p. 352. ' Letter dated Dec. 21, 1780, Barker MSS. '» Barker
MSS. " Boswell's Johnson, v. 92. " Forbes's Life of Beattie,
p. 341. " Post, p. 266.
xlvi A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF WILLIAM STRAHAN.
who was intimate with any one on unworthy terms. The
earnestness of the apology which Hume at once made to him is
a sure proof of the high value which he set on his friendship.
His portrait was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in those
troubled days when London was still under the scare of the
Gordon riots. During the week when the disorder was at its
height Sir Joshua's note-book records that he had sittings fixed,
among others, for Mr. Strahan. ' No wonder the appointments
between Monday and Thursday have a pen drawn through
them'.' Even if the great painter had had the calmness to go
on with his work in the midst of such confusion, the eminent
printer would not have kept the appointments. 'He had been
insulted,' writes Johnson, 'and spoke to Lord Mansfield of the
licentiousness of , the populace; and his Lordship treated it as
a very slight irregularity. ... He got a garrison into his house,
and maintained them a fortnight ; he was so frighted that he
removed part of his goods ^'
' Leslie and Taylor's Life of Reynolds, ed. 1865, ii. 302.
' 'Qo'SvitiVi Johnson, iv. 428, 435.
ERRATUM.
Page 94 , note 8. I failed to notice that Hume's Letter of May 15, 1 759, quoted
in this note, was written in a humorous strain. Dr. Warburton was the last man
in the world whose compliments he would have transmitted.
LETTERS OF HUME
LETTERS OF DAVID HUME.
LETTER I.
The History of England under the Stuarts.
I am entirely of your opinion, that Mr. Balfour's
ill humor on this Occasion has no manner of Foundation.
Mr. Millar seems to me to have all along us'd him very
well ; Only, I thought the Price offerd for the large Paper
Copies a little too low; and I see you have rais'd it. He
has disoblig'd me very much at present, by spreading
about a Story, that, when we made our Bargain for the
first Volume, I had promis'd he shoud have the second
at the same Price. This was demanded, and positively
refus'd by me : I only said, that I was not accustomd
lightly to change the People whom I dealt with ; but that
I woud not bind myself. Accordingly, when all the
Articles of our Bargain, even the most trivial, were written
over, I woud not allow this to be inserted. Baillie^
Hamilton, who is a very honest Man, remembers and
acknowleges this Fact. Indeed, it was very lucky I had
that Precaution : For if I had entangled myself in such a
Bargain, I never shoud have wrote a second Volume
which I coud not hope ever to see succeed in their
Management ^. I am very well pleas'd with the State of
the Sale ; and hope it is the Prognostic of good Success.
I certainly deserve the Approbation of the Public, from
my Care and Disinterestedness, however deficient in other
B
3 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Particulars. I shall regard myself as much oblig'd to
you, if you inform me of all the Objections, which you
hear made by Men of Sense, who are impartial, or even
who are not : For it is good to hear what is said on all
Sides. It was unlucky, that I did not pubHsh the two
Volumes together: Fools will be apt to say, that I am
become more whiggish in this Volume : As if the Cause
of Charles the i and James the 2 were the same, because
they were of the same Family''. But such Remarks as
these, every one, who ventures on the Public, must be
contented to endure *. Truth will prevail at last ; and if
I have been able to embellish her with any Degree of
Eloquence, it will not be long before she prevail.
I am D' S*"^ Your most obedient Servant
David Hume.
Edinburgh, 30 of A'ovem/ier, [1756].
P.S. — It is easy for me to see, that Mr. Millar has cer-
tainly offerd to take from Baillie Hamilton 900 copies at
nine Shillings ^ He never woud have offerd seven at
the beginning. It was a strange Infatuation in the Baillie
to refuse it.
Note I. ' Baillie, Bailie. A magistrate second in rank, in a royal
borough ; an alderman.' Jamieson's Diet, of the Scottish Language.
Note 2. In November 1754 he published The History of Great Britain.
Volume I. Containing the reigns of James I, and Charles I. quarto.
Price 14s. in boards ; in November 1756 the second volume from the
death of Charles I, to the Revolution ; in March 1759 The History of
England under the House of Tudor. 2 vols, quarto. Price £x in boards ;
and in November 1761 The History of England from the invasion of
Julius Ccesar to the accession of Henry VII. 2 vols, quarto. He had at
one time intended to carry down the first instalment of his work
beyond the Revolution. In a letter written in 1753 he says : — ' My
work divides into three very moderate volumes : one to end with the
death of Charles the First ; the second at the Revolution ; the third
at the Accession ; for I dare come no nearer the present times.'
Burton's Hume, i. 378. The following curious letter in my possession,
written by Gavin Hamilton, of the firm of Hamilton, Balfour & Neill,
Edinburgh booksellers, shews that a year later Hume intended to
make the Treaty of Utrecht the conclusion of his work. No doubt he
resolved to stop there to avoid the necessity of describing the
I.] PUBLICATION OF THE HISTORY. 3
Jacobite plot which was formed by some of Anne's ministers, and
was baffled by her sudden death. Such a matter was of too delicate
a nature to have much attraction for a man whose love of tranquillity
grew far more rapidly even than his years.
'Edinbr., 2^Janry, 1754.
' My dear Willie,
' in any important step I make, in bussines, I should rekon my
self very much out of my duty to you as on of my sincerest freinds if
I did not un bosome my self, lett this serve for preamble to what I am
going to say.
' I have within these ten days concluded a bargain that is rekoned
very bold by every body that hears of it, and some think it rash,
because they never heard of the like pass here ; tho' at the same time
I remain very well content with my bargain.
' John Balfour and I have agread to pay 1200^ sterling of coppy
money, for a single impression of a book, 'tis the history of great
britain composed by David Hume our scots authour. I print 2000
and have right to print no more, the calcul will stand thus, to print
3 quarto volls which it will make, will cost with advertisements and
incidents about 320 per voll : the book will sell at 15/ bound or ten
shillings to Bk. Sellers in sheets, but lett us rekon the London coppies
only producing 9 shilling, then 2000 coppies will yeald about 920^
sterling per voll after deducing 320^ for printing and 400^ to the
authour which is not payable very soon, there remains of profit for our
selves about 200^ per voll, which we are content to putt up with as we
are perswaded that this first impression will be short while in hands,
and this is the next question, how do you know that .' all I can say
to you in the bounds of a very short letter is that we have been at due
pains to inform our selves of the merit of the work and are well satis-
fyed one that head that it is the prittyest thing ever was attempted in
the English History, the three volls contians three grand periods,
the first from the union of the Crowns to the death of the king, the 2*
voll from the death of the king to the Revolution, and the last till the
treaty of Utrecht, the facts are well vouched and thrown together into
a ligl}t as to give the treu character of the times, it is neither whig
nor tory but truely imparshal.
' I am with sincerity, yours
' Gavin Hamilton.'
' To Mr. William Strachan
Printer in New street near Fleet street London.'
Whether this bookseller was related to Burns's Gavin Hamilton I
have not been able to ascertain.
It is clear from Hume's letter to Strahan that the bargain, as
described by Hamilton, was never completed. To the Edinburgh
firm he sold only the right of publishing the first edition of the first
volume. The second volume was brought out by Andrew Millar, the
great London bookseller, who became at length the owner of the
B 2
4 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
entire copyright of the whole History. Writing to Millar on April 12,
1755, Hume had said :— ' Baillie Hamilton is a very honest Man, and
far from being interested. But he is passionate and even wrong-
headed to a degree.' On May 27, 1756, he wrote :-' I agree that the
edition be 1750.' M.S.R.S.E. , , . •. ,t
Note 3. In his letter to Millar of April 12, 1755 he had said :— 1
have always said to all my acquaintaince that if the first Volume bore
a little of a Tory aspect, the second wou'd probably be as grateful to
the opposite Party. The two first Princes of the House of Stuart
were certainly more excusable than the two second. The constitution
was in their time very ambiguous and undetermin'd, and their Parlia-
ments were, in many respects, refractory and obstinate : But Charles
the 2°d knew, that he had succeeded to a very limited Monarchy :
His long Parliament was indulgent to him, and even consisted almost
entirely of Royalists ; yet he could not be quiet, nor contented with a
legal Authority. I need not mention the Oppressions in Scotland nor
the absurd conduct of K. James the 2"*. These are obvious and
glaring Points. Upon the whole, I wish the two Volumes had been
published together. Neither one Party nor the other would, in that
Case, have had the least Pretext of reproaching me with Partiality.'—
M. S. R. S. E.
Note 4. Both in his Autobiography and in his correspondence he
shews that he had but little of this kind of endurance.
Note 5. These must have been the unsold copies of the first
volume.
LETTER II.
On the Reception of Vol. II of the History.
Dear Sir,
Your Letter gave me a great deal of Satisfaction ;
and I am much oblig'd to you for it. I must own, that, in
my private Judgement, the first volume of my History is
by far the best ^ ; The Subject was more noble, and ad-
mitted both of greater Ornaments of Eloquence, and nicer
Distinctions of Reasoning. However, if the Public is so
capricious as to prefer the second, I am very well pleas'd ;
and hope the Prepossession in my Favor will operate
backwards, and remove even the Prejudices formerly
contracted ^-
I assure you, that, tho' Mr. Millar has probably had
11.] JOHN HOME. 5
an Intention of writing me to the Purpose he told you,
yet he never did it, and his Memory has fail'd him in this
Particular. On the contrary, he said to me, that he in-
tended to put this Volume of my philosophical Writings '^
into the same hands with the Dissertations*, which are
soon to be publish'd, who is, I think, one Bowyer ®. I did
not oppose him, because I thought, that was a Matter,
which it did not belong me to meddle with. However
you will see by the enclos'd, which I have left open, what
woud be my Choice in such a Case; and I hope hence-
forth he will never think of any but you, wherever any of
my Writings are concern'd.
I cannot think of troubling you so far in this new Edition
as I did in my History ; but I woud be extremely oblig'd
to you, as you go along to mark any Doubts that occur to
you, either with regard to Style " or Argument. Mr. Millar
thinks of making very soon another Edition in Twelves '',
and these Observations woud then serve me in good Stead.
These Writings have already undergone several Editions,
and have been very accurately examind every Impres-
sion * ; yet I can never esteem them sufficiently correct.
You will see by my Letter to Mr. Millar that I mention
a Dedication, which may perhaps surprize you, as I never
dealt in such servile Addresses " ; But I hope it will not
surprize you, when you hear it is only to a Presbyterian
Minister, my Friend, Mr. Hume, the Author of Douglas "-
I was resolv'd to do what lay in my Power to enable
a Youth ^^ of Genius to surmount the unaccountable
Obstacles, which were thrown in his Way^^. You will
probably see it publishd in a few Days. I hope the
Goodness of the Intention will apologize for the Singularity
of the undetaking [sic],
I am Dear Sir Your most obedient Servant
David Hume.
Edinburgh, i Feby., 1757.
6 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
Note I. The first volume contained the Reigns of James I, and
Charles I. Hume wrote to William Mure in 1757 (the exact date is not
given) : — ' I must own that I think my first volume a great deal better
than the second. The subject admitted of more eloquence and of greater
nicety of reasoning and more acute distinctions.' Burton's Hume, ii. 20.
Note 2. In his Autobiography he says of the second volume : —
' This performance happened to give less displeasure to the Whigs,
and was better received. It not only rose itself, but helped to buoy
up its unfortunate brother.' On the fly-leaf of the copy in the
Bodleian of vol. i. of the first edition I have found in the hand-writing
of the Rev. Charles Godwyn, Fellow of Balliol College, and a great
benefactor to the Bodleian Library, the following entry, interesting as
shewing the opinion formed of Hume at this time in England : — ' I
have heard much of Mr. Hume from persons who know him well,
and think him to be one of the oddest characters in the world. Con-
sider him as an historian and in private life there is not a better man
living. No man has more generous sentiments of social virtue. He
has great candour and humanity and the utmost regard for truth.
Consider him as a philosopher in his speculative capacity, there is not
a grain of virtue or religion in him. ... I am informed that he has
a great regard for the Church of England, and that if he was disposed
to make choice of a religion, he would give this the preference.
Written in the year 1757.'
Note 3. Hume refers, I believe, to the edition of his Essays and
Treatises which was published in one quarto volume in 1758 (perhaps
in the late autumn of 1757). He wrote to Millar on Dec. 4, 1756 : — ' I
am extremely desirous to have these four volumes [of Philosophical
lVritiMgs],-with that which you will publish this winter, brought into a
quarto volume.' Burton's Hume, ii. 4.
Note 4. See post, p. 18.
Notes. 'One Bowyer' was William Bowyer, 'confessedly the
most learned printer of the eighteenth century.' Nichols's Lit. Anec. i. 2.
Johnson wrote to Nichols on Oct. 20, 1784 : — ' At Ashbourne, where
I had very little company, I had the luck to borrow Mr. Bowyefs Life ;
a book, so full of contemporary history that a literary man must find
some of his old friends.' Boswell's Johnson, iv. 369.
Note 6. Hume, Scot of Scots though he was, spared no pains to clear
his style from Scotticisms. He laments ' his misfortune to write in the
language of the most stupid and factious barbarians in the world'
(post, Letter of Oct. 25, 1769) ; but none the less does he rebuke
Gibbon for composing his first work in French. ' Let the French,' he
writes, ' triumph in the present diffusion of their tongue. Our solid
and increasing establishments in America, where we need less dread
the inundation of barbarians, promise a superior stability and duration
to the English language.' Gibbon's Misc. Works, i. 204. Though he
never, like Mallet, ' cleared his tongue from his native pronunciation '
(Johnson's Works, viii. 464), but always spoke 'in a broad Scotch
II.] HUME'S STYLE. 7
tone,' yet his words were always English. ' He never used Scotch '
said one who as a young man had known him well. Burton's Hume,
ii. 440. Like most of the Scotch literary men of his day he had
studied English almost as laboriously as if it were wholly a foreign
tongue. Beattie {Lifehy Forbes, ed. 1824, p. 243) wrote on Jan. 5, 1778 : —
' We who live in Scotland are obliged to study English from books,
like a dead language, which we understand but cannot speak.' He
adds : — ' I have spent some years in labouring to acquire the art of
giving a vernacular cast to the English we write.' Johnson accused
Hume of Gallicisms. ' Why, Sir, his style is not English ; the struc-
ture of his sentences is French.' Boswell's Johnson, i. 439. Lord
Mansfield told Dr. A. Carlyle that ' when he was reading Hume and
Robertson's books, he did not think he was reading English.' Carlyle's
Auto. p. 516. Hume in the fourth chapter of his History of England,
expresses his deliberate preference for the foreign element in our
language. He speaks of ' that mixture of French which is at present
to be found in the English tongue, and which composes the greatest
and best part of our language.' Ed. 1802, i. 259. Francis Horner, in
his student days at Edinburgh, making ' a very rigid examination of
the style of Mr. Hume in his History,' says, ' I am astonished to find it
abound so much both in inaccuracies and inelegancies.' Memoirs of
Horner, i. 11. Mackintosh, speaking of Hume's philosophical works,
says : — ' In clearness and vivacity he surpassed all English specula-
tors. ... It must be owned that he not only copied the liveliness and
perspicuity of French writers, but the structure of their sentences ;
that he has frequently violated the rules of English syntax ; and what
is a more serious offence, that his style exhibits little of the idiom and
genius of the language ; it too often betrays a Scotchman whose
literary habits were formed in France.' Of the History he says : —
' The negligences of style, which are too frequent in this noble work,
may be left to the petty grammarian.' Life of Mackintosh, ii. 168.
Horace Walpole, on the other hand, speaking of the first volume of
the History, when it was as yet in its first unrevised edition, says that
' his style which is the best we have in history ... is very pleasing.'
Letters, ii. 429. Gibbon {Misc. Works, i. 122) writing after Hume's
death, records how in ' the repeated perusals ' of his History, ' the
careless inimitable beauties often forced me to close the volume with
a mixed sensation of delight and despair.' Hume sought the aid of
writers far inferior to himself in general powers in his eagerness to
refine his style. Mallet, Johnson's 'beggarly Scotchman,' treated him
with the insolence of a superior. Hume writing to Millar in 1756
about the second volume of his History says : — ' Notwithstanding Mr.
Mallet's impertinence in not answering my letter (for it deserves no
better a name), if you can engage him from yourself to mark on the
perusal such slips of language as he thinks I have fallen into in this
volume it will be a great obligation to me ; I mean that I shall lie
under an obligation to you ; for I would not willingly owe any to him.'
8 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Burton's Hume, ii. 3. Six or seven years later Mallet wrote to Hume
about the last two volumes of the History : — ' I have done at last what
nothing but the greatest regard for the writer and the truest friend-
ship for the man could have made me submit to ; I have gone over
both your volumes again with the eye and attention of a mere
grammarian. The task of looking after verbal mistakes or errors
against the idiom of a tongue, though not unnecessary, is trivial
and disgusting in the greatest degree ; but your work and you
deserved it of me.' lb. p. 142. So early as 1754, Hume sending
Wilkes a copy of the History ' asks his advice as to language, and
says : — " Notwithstanding all the pains I have taken in the study of
the English language, I am still jealous of my pen." ' Historical MSS.
Com. 4th Report, p. 401. As late as 1775, in the last year of his life, he
set two young Scotch lads, fresh from an English school, the task of
detecting the Scotticisms in his account of Harold. Caldwell Papers, i.
39. The following from a letter to a Scotch doctor settled in London,
is an instance of the points on which he sought assistance : — ' You
know that the word enough or enuff, as it is pronounced by the
English, we commonly in Scotland, when it is applied to number,
pronounce enow. Thus we would say : — " Such a one has books enow
for study, but not leisure enuff." Now I want to know whether the
English make the same distinction.' Burton's Hume, i. 384. It will
be seen hereafter how grateful he was to Strahan for the assistance
which he gave him in correcting his style. ' Strahan,' says Dr.
Beattie, ' was eminently skilled in composition, and had corrected (as
he told me himselfj the phraseology of both Mr. Hume and Dr.
Robertson.' Forbes's Beattie, p. 341. Dr. Burton gives instances of
the corrections in the second edition of the History. Life of Hume, ii.
79. See ante, Adam Smith's letter for the humorous way in which
Hume a few days before his death joked about his love of making
corrections. He was ready in his turn to help others in refining their
style. Dr. Franklin wrote to him from Coventry, on Sept. 27, 1760 :—
' I thank you for your friendly Admonition relating to unusual Words
in the Pamphlet. It will be of service to me. The pejorate and the
colonise, since they are not in common use here, I give up as bad.'
Franklin goes on to regret that we cannot 'make new words when
we want them by composition of old ones whose meanings are
already well understood,' as uncomeatable for inaccessible.' M. S. R. S. E.
Hume was shewn in manuscript Reid's Inquiry into the Human Mind.
Though it was an attack on his own philosophy, yet in reading it ' he
kept,' he says, ' a watchful eye all along over the style,' so that he
might point out any Scotticisms. Burton's Hume, ii. 154. When
Boswell told Johnson that ' David Hume had made a short collection
of Scotticisms, " I wonder," said Johnson, "that he should find them " '
BoawtWs Johnson, ii. 72. In this list (given in Hume's Phil. Works, ed.
1854, 1. cxu) some expressions were included which were good
English at the time, and others which pass current now, as :—
II.] SCOTTICISMS. 9
Scotch. English.
Friends and acquaintances. Friends and acquaintance.
Incarcerate. Imprison.
Tear to pieces. Tear in pieces ^-
In the long run. At long run.
'Tis a question if. 'Tis a question whether.
Simply impossible. Absolutely impossible.
Nothing else. No other thing.
There, where. Thither, whither.
Defunct. Deceased.
Adduce a proof. Produce a proof.
In no event. In no case.
Common soldiers. Private men.
To open up. To open, or lay open.
On a sudden. Of a sudden.
It was this laborious study of English by Scotch authors that explains
Churchill's lines on Dr. Armstrong's Day :
' Where all but barren labour was forgot,
And the vain stiffness of a Letter' d Scot.'
Churchill's Poems, ed. 1766, ii. 330.
A passage in Dugald Stewart's Life 0/ Robertson, which was published
in 1801, places in the strongest, and I may add the strangest light the
difBculties under which a Scotch writer still laboured. ' The influence,'
he says, ' of Scottish associations, so far as it is favourable to antiquity,
is confined to Scotchmen alone, and furnishes no resources to the
writer who aspires to a place among the English classics. Nay, such
is the effect of that provincial situation to which Scotland is now
reduced, that the transactions of former ages are apt to convey to our-
selves exaggerated conceptions of barbarism from the uncouth and
degraded dialect in which they are recorded.' Within four years
after this was written Scott was to publish his Lay of the Last Minstrel,
and within thirteen years his Waverley.
Note 7. In duodecimo.
Note 8. Impression is defined by Johnson as Edition; number
printed at once; one course of printing.
Note 9. Johnson was like Hume in this. ' The loftiness of his
mind prevented him from ever dedicating.' Boswell's yb/i«so«, ii. i.
Boswell on the contrary dedicated his chief works. ' For my own part,'
he wrote, ' I own I am proud enough. But I do not relish the stateli-
ness of not dedicating at all.' lb. n. 2.
Note 10. The author of Douglas signed himself John Home, as
did most of that name. ' The practice of writing Hume,' says David
Hume, ' is by far the most ancient and most general till about the
Restoration, when it became common to spell Home contrary to
the pronunciation.' Burton's Hume, i. 7. Sir Walter Scott, in a
review of Home's Works, says : — ' The word is uniformly, in Scotland,
' ' Tear him to pieces ; he's a conspirator.' Jttlitts Ccesar, iii. 2.
lO LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
pronounced Hume \ and in ancient documents we have seen it
written Heume, Hewme, and Hoome.' Quarterly Review, No. 71,
p. 170. He should have added that a Scotchman's pronunciation of
Hume is not the same as an Englishman's.
The historian was not able to persuade his elder brother, the
Laird of Ninewells, to adopt his mode of spelling. To the poet
' he at one time jocularly proposed that they should determine the
controversy by casting lots. "Nay," says John, "this is a most
extraordinary proposal, Mr. Philosopher ; for if you lose, you take
your own name, and if I lose, I take another man's."' Home's
Works, i. 164. Hume went on joking with him to the last about the
spelling. When, accompanied by Home, he was returning to Edin-
burgh to die, after his fruitless journey to Bath, he sent a card
of invitation to Dr. Blair which began : — ' Mr. John Hume, alias
Home, alias The Home.' To his will he added as a codicil : —
' I leave to my friend Mr. John Home of Kilduif ten dozen of my old
claret, at his choice, and one single bottle of that other liquor called
port. I also leave to him six dozen of port, provided that he attests
under his hand, signed John Hume, that he has himself alone finished
that bottle at two sittings. By this concession he will at once
terminate the only two differences that ever arose between us
concerning temporal matters.' lb. p. 163. Home, like almost all
Scotchmen, drank claret. 'On the enforcement of the high duty
on French wine ' in Scotland, he made the following epigram : —
' Firm and erect the Caledonian stood,
Old was his mutton and his claret good.
" Let him drink port," an English statesman cried —
He drank the poison, and his spirit died.' lb. p. 164.
Wilkes in The North Briton, No. 12 (date of Aug. 22, 1762) makes
no distinction between the names, no doubt intentionally. He
writes : — ' There is one Scottish pension I have been told of which
afforded me real pleasure. It is Mr. Hume's ; for I am satisfied
that it must be given to Mr. David Hume, whose writings have
been justly admired both abroad and at home, and not to Mr. John
Hume, who has endeavoured to bring the name into contempt by
putting it to two insipid tragedies and other trash in the Scottish
Miscellanies' Hume's pension was not given till 1764. Burton's
Hume, ii. 191. For Home's pension see below, n. 12. Johnson in
his Life of Collins writes Home's name Hume. Works, viii. 403.
Note II. Home was thirty-four years old.
Note 12. Home's tragedy was finished in 1754. In the first sketch
of the play Young Norval was Young Forman. ' Even after the first
representations [at Edinburgh] the name Randolph was substituted
for Barnet, which had struck some of the English part of the audience
as producing a bad effect from its being the same with that of the
village near London.' Home's Works, i. 36, 101. Hume writing
about the play to Spence on Oct. 15 of that year, says :— ' As you are
II.} HOME'S 'DOUGLAS.' II
a Lover of Letters, I shall inform you of a Piece of News which will
be agreeable to you : We may hope to see good Tragedies in the
English Language. A young man called Hume, a clergyman of this
Country, discovers a very fine Genius for that Species of Composition.'
Spence's Anecdotes, p. 452. To Adam Smith he wrote: — 'When it
shall be printed (which will be soon) I am persuaded it will be
esteemed the best, and by French critics the only tragedy of our
language.' Burton's Hume, ii. 17. It was in this same year, 1754,
that in the Appendix to the Reign of James I, writing of Shakespeare,
he says : — ' His total ignorance of all theatrical art and conduct,
however material a defect, yet, as it affects the spectator rather than
the reader, we can more easily excuse, than that want of taste which
often prevails in his productions, and which gives way only by
intervals to the irradiations of genius.' Adam Smith was not inferior
to his friend in perversity of taste. He regretted that in comedy the
English writers had not followed the model of the French school in
the use of rhyme. Dugald Stewart's Life of Adam Smith, p. 71.
Wordsworth had some justification for describing Adam Smith as
' the worst critic, David Hume not excepted, that Scotland, a soil to
which this sort of weed seems natural, has produced.' Wordsworth's
Works, ed. 1857, vi. 367. H. C. Robinson (Diary, i. 311) records,
though evidently with imperfect recollection, a saying of Coleridge
about Hume's preference of the French tragedians to Shakespeare : —
' Hume comprehended as much of Shakespeare as an apothecary's
phial would, pladed under the falls of Niagara.' Burns however was
no better than Hume or Smith. In one of his Prologues he says of
Scotland : —
' Here Douglas forms wild Shakespeare into plan.'
Douglas was refused by Garrick to whom it was first offered.
' After reading it, he returned it with an opinion that it was totally
unfit for the stage.' Dr. A. Carlyle's Auto. p. 304. It was brought
out in Edinburgh in the end of 1756, and met with the greatest
success. Among the clergy however a flame was kindled, for not
only was the author a minister, but at the performance several minis-
ters were present. The Presbytery of Edinburgh published a paper
' lamenting the extraordinary and unprecedented countenance given
of late to the playhouse in that city.' The Presbytery of Glasgow, on
Feb. 2. 1757, the day after the date of Hume's letter in the text, sup-
ported their brothers in Edinburgh in the following manner : —
' Having good reason to believe that this paper refers to the following
melancholy but notorious facts, that one who is a minister of the
Church of Scotland did himself write and compose a stage-play,
entitled The Tragedy of Douglas, and got it to be acted on the theatre
at Edinburgh ; and that he, with several other ministers of this
church were present, and some of them oftener than once, at the
acting of the said play before a numerous audience : The Presbytery
being deeply aifected with this new and strange appearance do think
13 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
it their duty,' etc. Gent. Mag. 1757, p. 89. One of these ministers
was punished by a six weeks' suspension, ' owing a mitigated sen-
tence to his plea that, though he attended, he concealed himself as
well as he could to avoid giving offence.' Dr. A. Carlyle's Auto.
p. 315. Dr. Carlyle writing of himself says : — ' I had attended the
play-house, not on the first or second, but on the third night of the
performance, being well aware that all the fanatics and some other
enemies would be on the watch, and make all the advantage they
possibly could against me. But six or seven friends of the author,
clergymen from the Merse [Home's country] having attended re-
proached me for my cowardice ; and above all the author himself
and some female friends of his having heated me by their upbraidings
I went on the third night, and having taken charge of the ladies I
drew on myself all the clamours of tongues and violence of persecu-
tion which I afterwards underwent.' lb. p. 314. Home, who was
threatened with an ecclesiastical prosecution, 'gave in a demission
of his office on the following 7th of June, and withdrew from the
Church.' lb. p. 325. Some years before he had been introduced
to Archibald, Duke of Argyle, who said to him : — ' Mr. Home, I am
now too old to hope for an opportunity of doing you any material
service myself ; but I will do you the greatest favour in my power
by presenting you to my nephew, the Earl of Bute.' Home's Works,
i. 33. The value of Lord Bute's friendship was now seen. Home
from this time 'lived very much with him, and was in habits of
intimacy with his young pupil, the Prince of Wales [afterwards
George HI].' lb. p. 50. A few days before he left the Church he
had received a pension of ^100 a year from the Princess Dowager of
Wales. Walpole's Letters, iii. 78. Four years later George HI in
the very beginning of his reign ' settled on him a pension of ^300 per
annum from his privy purse.' Not long afterwards he gave him a
post worth the same sum. Home's Works, i. 58.
Churchill in The Prophecy of Famine (Poems, ed. 1766, i. 103) in-
troduces, among the Scotch who flocked to London,
' Home, disbanded from the sons of prayer
For loving plays.'
He continues : —
'Thence simple bards, by simple prudence taught.
To this wise town by simple patrons brought,
In simple manner utter simple lays.
And take with simple pensions simple praise.' lb. p. 103.
Home made a generous use of his money. ' " His house," said Dr.
Adam Ferguson, " was always as full of his friends as it could hold,
fuller than in modern manners it could be made to hold." Hume
told Ferguson he should lecture his friend on his want of attention
to money-matters. "I am afraid I should do so with little effect,"
he answered ; "and to tell you the truth, I am not sure if I don't like
III.] VOLTAIRE AND HOME. 13
him the better for this foible." ' Home's Works, i. 59. It was a foible
from which Hume, who in early life had had to practise ' very rigid
frugality ' (ante, Hume's Auto), remained singularly free. When Lord
Elibank, who was somewhat parsimonious, heard of the pension, he
said, ' It is a very laudable grant, and I rejoice at it ; but it is no more
in the power of the King to make Adam Ferguson or John Home
rich than to make me poor.' lb. p. 54.
Some years before Hume dedicated his Dissertations to Home,
Collins had inscribed to him his Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlands.
' Home, thou return'st from Thames, whose naiads long
Have seen thee lingering with a fond delay,
'Mid those soft friends, whose hearts, some future day.
Shall melt, perhaps, to hear thy tragic song.'
In 1760 Voltaire brought out his comedy L'^cossaise under the
veil of a translation of a piece by John Home. In the preface he
says : — ' La comedie dont nous presentons la traduction aux amateurs
de la litterature est de M. Hume, pasteur de I'eglise d'Edimbourg,
deja connu par deux belles tragedies jouees a Londres : il est parent
et ami de ce celebre philosophe M. Hume qui a creuse avec tant
de hardiesse et de sagacite les fondemens de la metaphysique et de
la morale. Ces deux philosophes font egalement honneur a I'Ecosse,
leur patrie.' CEuvres de Voltaire, ed. 1819. v. 12.
LETTER III.
Bargaining with Millar the bookseller.
Dear Sir,
I have wrote apart a Letter, which you may send to
Mr. Millar: I shall here add a Word to Yourself; and
ask a little of your Advice. Some time ago, I wrote
to Mr. Millar, that if he was inclin'd to purchase the full
Property of these two Volumes of History, I wou'd part
with it, if he wou'd make me a proper Offer. He desir'd
me to name my Terms. I ask'd 800 Guineas ^ ; but have
not yet receiv'd an answer from him. I own to you, that
the Demand may appear large; but if Mr. Millar and
I reason upon the same Principles it will not appear
unreasonable. I think History the most popular kind
of writing of any^ the Period I treat of the most in-
14 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
teresting, and my Performance will I hope rise in Credit
every day. We have so little, or rather nothing of this
kind that has the least Appearance either of Impartiality =*
or Eloquence, that I cannot doubt but in the long run
it will have a considerable Success. Now I was offerd
800 Pounds for the first Edition alone by Baillie Hamilton ;
and he propos'd to have reasonable Profits after paying me
that Sum : I cannot think but all the subsequent Editions
must be at least equal in Value to the first alone. This is
the View in which the Aifair appeard to me : If it
appears to you in the same Light, I doubt not but you will
express your Mind to him. If you think my Demand un-
reasonable, I shall be oblig'd to you for telling me so, and
for giving me your Reasons. For tho' it is not probable,
that I shall fall much, if any thing, of that Demand : Yet if
I see it impracticable for me to obtain it, I shall endeavor
to contrive some other Method, by which I may adjust
Matters with Mr. Millar in case of a second Edition.
It is chiefly in order to avoid the Trouble and Perplexity of
such Schemes that I desire at once to part with all the
Property.
I am Dear S'' Your most obedient humble Servant
David Hume.
15 Feby., 175?.
P.S. — You will certainly like my Friend's Play*. It was
acted here with vast Success. And reads as well as it
acts. Mr. Millar woud tell you the Accident, which
occasiond many copies of the Dissertations to be sold
without the Dedication ^. It has given me some Vexation.
However there is no Remedy.
Note I. Hume, as I have shewn {ante, p. 3), had sold only the
copyright of the first edition of the first volume to the Edinburgh
booksellers. The first edition of the second volume he had sold to
Millar, for ^^700, it seems. Writing to him on Sept. 3 of this year
about the History of England under the Tudors, which at that time he
thought would be comprised in one somewhat bulky volume, he
ni.] HISTORY THE FAVOURITE READING. 15
says : — ' I am willing to engage with you for the same price, vis.
seven hundred pounds, payable three months after the publication.'
Burton's Hume, ii. 37. What he now wishes to sell is the copyright
of the first two volumes of the House of Stuart. As Hamilton and
Balfour had agreed to pay ^1200 for three volumes it maybe assumed
that they paid ^^400 for one. For the second volume, if my supposi-
tion is right, Hume received ^700. If he was paid 800 guineas, i. e.
£&^o for the entire property in the two volumes, his total payment
for the House of Stuart amounted to ^1940. Robertson was oiFered by
Hamilton and Balfour ^500 for one edition of his History of Scotland.
Burton's Hume, ii. 42. For his Charles V he was to receive from
Cadell and Strahan ;£3400, with ^400 more in case of a second
edition. Robertson to Strahan, May 27, 1768. Barker MSS. See
post. Letter of June 21, 1770, for Hume's complaint of Hamilton's
extravagance.
Note 2. Addison, Bolingbroke, and Johnson had pointed out the
inferiority of English historians. Hume wrote in 1753 : — ' You know
that there is no post of honour in the English Parnassus more
vacant than that of history.' Burton's Hume, i. 378. Gibbon {Misc.
IVorks, i. 122) writing of the year 1759 says : — ' The old reproach
that no British altars had been raised to the Muse of history w^as
recently disproved by the first performances of Robertson and Hume.'
Though Hume complained of the slow sale of his own History, yet
he wrote in 1769 : — ' People now heed the theatre almost as little as
the pulpit. History now is the favourite reading, and our friend
[Robertson] the favourite historian.' Burton's Hume, ii. 421. Robert-
son's History of Scotland went through fourteen editions in thirty-
four years. Stewart's Life of Robertson, p. 326. ' The first impres-
sion of Gibbon's Decline and Fall was exhausted in a few days ; a
second and third edition were scarcely adequate to the demand.'
Gibbon's Works, i. 223. See post. Letter of Aug. 1770, where Hume
says : — ' I believe this is the historical age and this the historical nation.'
Note 3. Horace Walpole, Whig though he was, wrote of Hume's
first volume {Letters, ii. 428) : — ' It is called Jacobite, but in my opinion
is only not George-Abite : where others abuse the Stuarts he laughs
at them : I am sure he does not spare their ministers.' This was
before Hume had made, as he tells us in his Autobiography, ' above a
hundred alterations in the reigns of the two first Stuarts, all of them
invariably to the Tory side.' Rousseau wrote in August, 1762 : — ' M.
Hume est le plus vrai philosophe que je connaisse, et le seul
historien qui jamais ait ecrit avec impartialite. II n'a pas plus aime
la verite que moi, j'ose le croire ; mais j'ai mis quelquefois de la
passion dans mes recherches, et lui n'a mis dans les siennes que
ses lumieres et son beau g6nie.' Hume's Private Corres. p. 25. Voltaire
begins a brief notice of Hume's History by saying :— ' Jamais le
public n'a mieux senti qu'il n'appartient qu'aux philosophes d'ecrire
I'histoire.' He continues : — ' M. Hume, dans son histoire, ne paralt
1 6 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
ni parlementaire, ni royaliste, ni anglican, ni presbyterien ; on ne
decouvre en lui que Thomme equitable.' He ends : — ' La fureur des
partis a long-temps prive I'Angleterre d'une bonne histoire comme
d'un bon gouvernement. Ce qu'un tory ecrivait etait nie par las
whigs, dementis a leur tour par les torys. . . . dans le nouvel his-
torien on decouvre un esprit superieur a sa matiere, qui parle des
faiblesses, des erreurs et des barbaries, comme un medecin parle
des maladies epidemiques.' (Euvres de Voltaire, ed. 1819-25, xxv. 517.
Note 4. Douglas. ' The play had unbounded success for a great
many nights in Edinburgh. . . . The town was in an uproar of exult-
ation that a Scotchman had written a tragedy of the first rate, and
that its merit was first submitted to their judgment.' Dr. A. Carlyle's
Auto. p. 311.
Note 5. Hume wrote to Millar on Jan. 20, 1757, that some of the
poet's friends ' were seized with an apprehension that the dedication
of my Dissertations to him would hurt that party in the Church with
which he had always been connected, and would involve him, and
them of consequence, in the suspicion of infidelity.' Burton's Hume,
ii. 18. A little later he wrote to Mr. Mure : — ' Pray whether do you
pity or blame me most with regard to this dedication of my Dis-
sertations to my friend, the poet ? I am sure I never executed
anything which was either more elegant in the composition or
more generous in the intention ; yet such an alarm seized some
fools here (men of very good sense, but fools in that particular),
that they assailed both him and me with the utmost violence, and
engaged us to change our intention. I wrote to Millar to suppress
that dedication ; two posts after I retracted that order. Can any-
thing be more unlucky than that in the interval of these four days
he should have opened his sale, and disposed of 800 copies without
that dedication, whence I imagined my friend would reap some
advantage, and myself so much honour ? ' lb. ii. 21. In the Dedication
Hume addressing Home says:— 'You possess the true theatric
Genius of Shakespeare and Otway, refined from the unhappy Barbar-
ism of the one and Licentiousness of the other.'
LETTER IV.
The Quarto Edition of the Essays.
Edinburgh, 15 Feby., 1757.
I suppose you have now begun, and are somewhat
advanc'd in the Quarto Edition of my Essays. I intend to
make an Index to it 1, and for this Reason have desir'd that
IV.] FOUR OF HUME'S FRIENDS. 17
the corrected Sheets may be sent me by the Post. I must
also desire you to send them from time to time, as they are
printed off; that, if there be any Mistakes in the Press
(and some are unavoidable) I may be able to make a more
full Errata. Please send under a Cover as many as a
Frank will admit ^i And if you want Franks, either
Mr. Millar or you may send Covers directed to me to
Mr. Mure ^, Mr. Oswald*, Mr. Elliot "> or S'"" Harry Erskine'^-
You may chuse either of them whose House lye most
convenient. I fancy Mr. Mure may have most Leizure.
I am S'' Your most humble Serv'
^___ David Hume.
Note I. On Dec. 18, 1759, Hume writing to Millar about the His-
tory of the Tudors, says : — ' I think that an Index will be very proper,
and am glad that you free me from the Trouble of undertaking that
Task, for which I know myself to be very unfit.' M. S. R. S. E.
Note 2. See post, note on Letter of March 25, 1771.
Note 3. William Mure of Caldwell, one of Hume's correspondents,
who was in 1761 made a Baron of the Exchequer in Scotland. Bur-
ton's Hume, i. 152. He was at this time Member for Renfrewshire.
Pari. Hist. XV. 321.
Note 4. James Oswald, Member for the Kirkaldy Burghs, at this
time a Commissioner of Trade and Plantations. lb. p. 322. Horace
Walpole, writing of an important division in Parliament just before
Sir Robert Walpole's fall, says of the Opposition : — ' They have
turned the Scotch to the best account. There is a young Oswald,
who had engaged to Sir R. but has voted against us. Sir R. sent a
friend to reproach him ; the moment the gentleman who had engaged
for him came into the room, Oswald said, " You had like to have led
me into a fine error ! did you not tell me that Sir R. would have
the majority?'" Letters, i. 121. He was one of Hume's closest
friends. See Burton's Hume, i. 156.
Note 5. Gilbert Elliot of Minto, Member for Selkirkshire, after-
wards third baronet of that name, and father of the First Earl of
Minto. See post, Letter of March 13, 1770.
Note 6. Sir Henry Erskine was Member for the Crail Boroughs.
Horace Walpole, writing on March 13, 1751, says that ' Erskine, who
had just come into Parliament, was laying a foundation for the next
reign by attacking the Mutiny Bill.' Letters, ii. 242. In Jan. 1756 he
was dismissed the army {ib. p. 498) ; but a few days after the acces-
sion of George III, Walpole, calling him ' the favourite of the favourite,'
— that is to say of Lord Bute — says that he is to be rewarded with
c
1 8 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
the command of a regiment. lb. iii. 359. He and Hume had attended
General St. Clair in his military embassy to the Courts of Vienna
and Turin. Ante Hume's Autobiography. Hume describes him
paying court to his constituents in 1754. ' I was lately told that one
day last winter he went to pay a visit to a deacon's wife, who
happened in that very instant to be gutting fish. He came up to
her with open arms, and said he hoped madam was well, and that
the young ladies her daughters were in good health. " Oh, come
not near me," cried she, " Sir Harry ; I am in a sad pickle, as nasty
as a beast." " Not at all. Madam," replied he ; " you are in a very
agreeable neglige." "Well," said she, "I shall never be able to
understand your fine English." "I mean. Madam," returned he,
" that you are drest in a very genteel deshabille." ' Burton's
Hume, i. 397.
LETTER V.
The Bargain with Millar concluded.
I have receiv'd the two first Sheets of the Quarto
Edition of my philosophical Writings ; and am very well
satisfy'd with it. Please only to tell the Compositor, that
he always employ a Capital after the Colons. Here follow
a few Alterations, which I desire you to make on the last
published Volume or four Dissertations which are to be
inserted in different Places of the Quarto Volume.
[These alterations, as they are minute and can only be understood
by a reference to the printed volume, I think it needless to print]
Please to get a Copy of the Dissertations from Mr. Millar
and make these Alterations. Observe also that the two
Dissertations, which are to be inserted among the Essays,
are to be entitled Essays. The other two are to be
inserted in the Places as directed 1.
I am very well pleas'd to finish the Bargain with Mr.
Millar. I hope we shall both find our Account in it. I
believe his Off"er may be reckond very reasonable and
even frank and generous. We have only a small Difference
about the time of Payment, which I hope will easily be
adjusted. If it be not convenient for him to pay the Money
in May next, I wou'd delay it till the 2°-^ of August, which
v.] ' BANK-CREDITS' IN SCOTLAND. 19
is our Lambas term ^, and woud endeavour to get his Bill
discounted, tho' that Practice be not very common in
Scotland ^.
I hope the Douglas has had a good Success in London *.
The Public will certainly at first be divided. That Sim-
plicity both of Fable and Style are Novelties on the
English Stage, and will no doubt meet with Opposition ;
but they must prevail, I think, at last '-
I am Sir Your most obedient Servant
David Hume.
NlNEWELLS^ NEAR BERWICK, 1?: April, 1?57.
P.S. — I return to Edinburgh in a few days.
Note I. In Feb. 1757, Hume published the four Dissertations,
entSA&A The Natural History of Religion ; Of the Passions ; Of Tragedy,
Of the Standard of Taste, separately in a duodecimo volume, price three
shillings. Gent. Mag. 1757, p. 94. He included them in the quarto
edition of his Essays and Treatises which was published either at the
end of that year or the beginning of the next. It was the latter two
of the Dissertations that were inserted among the Essays. See post,
Letters of Jan. 25 and Feb. 7, 1772, for the two Essays which Hume
had suppressed.
Note 2. ' Lammas, a name for August i. Anglo-Saxon, hldf-mcesse,
literally, 'loaf-mass.' A loaf was on this day offered as a first-fruits of
harvest.' Skeat's Etym. Diet.
Note 3. Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations, published in 1776,
describes the great change caused in Scotland ' within these five-and-
twenty or thirty years by the erection of new banking companies
in almost every considerable town, and even in some country vil-
lages.' After explaining the Scotch system of ' cash accounts ' he
goes on to say : — ' The facility of discounting bills of exchange, it
may be thought, indeed gives the English merchants a conveniency
equivalent to the cash accounts of the Scotch merchants. But the
Scotch merchants, it must be remembered, can discount their bills of
exchange as easily as the English merchants ; and have besides the
additional conveniency of their cash accounts.' Ed. 1811, ii. 32, 38.
Hume in his Essay Of the Balance of Trade describes the same system
under the name of a Bank-Credit.
Note 4. In the Gent. Mag. for March 1757 nearly seven columns
are given to an abstract of the story of the tragedy. Dr. A. Carlyle
(Auto. p. 325) says that 'it was acted in Covent Garden (for Garrick,
though now the author's friend, could not possibly let it be performed
in his theatre [Drury Lane] after having pronounced it unfit for
c a
20 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
the stage), where it had great success. It still maintains its ground,
[written about the year 1800,] has been more frequently acted, and
is more popular than any tragedy in the EngUsh language.' The
speech in it that begins ' My name is Nerval,' is perhaps all of it
that is now remembered.
Note 5. Hume, writing of Home's earlier tragedy Agis, said :—
' The author, I thought, had corrupted his taste by the imitation of
Shakespeare, whom he ought only to have admired.' He con-
tinues :— 'But the same author has composed a new tragedy [Douglas]
on a subject of invention ; and here he appears a true disciple of
Sophocles and Racine. I hope in time he will vindicate the English
stage from the reproach of barbarism.' Burton's Hume, i. 392.
Note 6. Ninewells was the estate of which ' Hume's ancestors
had been proprietors for several generations.' It was now held
by his elder brother, John Home. It lies so close to Berwick, that
Hume may be said to have missed being an Englishman by only
a mile or two. Yet, according to Ramsay of Ochtertyre, before the
Rebellion of 1745 ' the people of Northumberland and the Merse,
who spoke dialects of the same language, and were only separated
by a river, had little more intercourse than those of Kent and Nor-
mandy-' Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century, ii. 213.
Ninewells takes its name ' from a cluster of nine springs, that burst
forth from a gentle declivity in front of the mansion, which has
on each side a semi-circular rising bank, covered with fine timber,
and fall, after a short time, into the bed of the River Whitewater,
which forms a boundary in the front.' Burton's Hume, i. 8.
LETTER VI.
Dr. Hurd's Artifices.
[Edinburgh, 1757.]
D"* S'"
I am positive not to reply a single Word to
Dr. Hurd ; and I also beg of you not to think of it. His
Artifices or Forgeries, call them which you please, are
such common things in all Controversy that a man woud
be ridiculous who woud pretend to complain of them ; and
the Parsons in particular have got a Licence to practice
them. I therefore beg of you again to let the Matter pass
over in Silence \ I have deliverd to Mr. Becket a Volume
of Essays ^.
I am yours D. H.
VI.] HURD AND WARBURTON. 21
Note I. Remarks on Mr. David Hume's Essay on the Natural His-
tory of Religion, by a Gentleman of Cambridge, in a Letter to the Rev.
Dr. W., is advertised in the list of books for May 1757. Cent. Mag.
1757, p. 243. The book was written by Warburton and Hurd. On
Feb. 7 of this' year Warburton, writing to Hurd about Hume's Essay,
says : — ' 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. . . . They say this man has several moral qualities. It may
be so. But there are vices of the mind as well as body ; and a
wickeder heart, and more determined to do public mischief, I think I
never knew.' Letters from a late Eminent Prelate to one of his Friends,
p. 239. In a second letter he writes that he is ' beating out of the
mass ' an answer to Hume, to which Hurd is ' to give the elegance of
form and splendour of polish. ... 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. . . . The address will remove it from me ;
the author, a Gentleman of Cambridge, from you ; and the secrecy in
printing from us both.' lb. p. 241.
The publication of Hume's Autobiography was at once followed by
a republication of the Remarks. Speaking in it of his Natural History
of Religion, Hume had said : — ' 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.' To the new
edition of the Remarks was prefixed 'the following Advertisement
from the bookseller to the reader :
' " The following is supposed to be the pamphlet referred to by the
late Mr. David Hume as being written by Dr. Hurd. Upon my
applying to the Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry [Hurd] for his
permission to republish it, he very readily gave me his consent.
His Lordship only added, he was sorry he could not take himself the
WHOLE infamy of the charge brought against him ; but that he should
hereafter, if he thought it worth his while, explain himself more
particularly on that subject,
"T. Cadell."'
Annual Register, 1777, ii.9.
?,ix3.-!iA, March, 'i'jl'j.
Hume at once suspected that Warburton had had a hand in the
pamphlet. On Sept. 3 he wrote to Millar: — 'I am positively as-
sured that Dr. Warburton wrote that letter to himself, which you sent
me ; and indeed the style discovers him sufficiently. I should answer
him ; but he attacks so small a corner of my building, that I can
abandon it without drawing great consequences after it.' At the end
of the letter Hume adds :— ' I should not be displeased that you read
33 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
to Dr. Warburton the paragraph in the first page with regard to him-
self. The hopes of getting an answer might probably engage him to
give us something farther of the same kind ; which at least saves
you the expense of advertising. I see the Doctor hkes a Hterary
squabble.' Burton's Hume, ii. 35. On July 28, 1759, in a letter to
Adam Smith, mentioning some more ' abuse ' by Hurd, he says : —
' He is of the Warburtonian school ; and consequently very insolent
and very scurrilous ; but I shall never reply a word to him.' lb. p. 60.
Johnson shews why even Warburton might be left unanswered by
those whom he attacked. ' When I read Warburton first, and
observed his force and his contempt of mankind, I thought he had
driven the world before him ; but I soon found that was not the case ;
for Warburton by extending his abuse rendered it ineffectual.' Bos-
well's Johnson, v. 93. Speaking of his controversy with Lowth he
said : — ' I do not know which of them calls names best.' lb. ii. 37.
On the publication of Hume's Autobiography, Horace Walpole
wrote to Mason : — ' It is a nothing, a brief account of his disappoint-
ments on his irrehgious works making no noise at first, and his
historic making some. He boasts that in the latter he dared to revive
the cause of despotism— a great honour truly to a philosopher ; and
he speaks of your friend. Bishop Hurd, with a freedom that I dare to
say the whole Court will profess to his Lordship they think monstrous
rudeness. My Lord H[ertford], whose piety could swallow Hume'j
infidelity, will be shocked now that he should have employed such
a brute.' Letters, vi. 420. See ante in Hume's Autobiography, his
'fixed resolution never to reply to any body,' and/os/, Letter of June
25, 1771 for a fresh attack on ' Warburton and his gang.'
Note 2. Perhaps a corrected copy of his Essays and Treatises on
Several Subjects, of which a new edition was published in the following
year. ' Mr. Becket ' is probably Thomas Becket, the bookseller, who
had been, and perhaps still was, one of Millar's assistants. See
Nichols's Lit. A nee. iii. 387. He had apparently some connection with
the Scotch, for he published Macpherson's Ossian. He may at this
time have been on a visit to Edinburgh.
LETTER VII.
Errata in the Essays.
I hereby send you the Index, Title-Page, and all the
Preface, which I intend ; being only a short Advertisement,
to be inserted in any Corner: For I do not think it
deserves a Page to itself. The Errata are many of them
VII.] ERRATA IN THE ESSAYS. 23
small Alterations, which I coud not forbear making myself
in the Style.
There are only two Errata which are material, those in
page 455 and 459, where your Compositor has made me
say the direct contrary to my meaning. I know, that such
Mistakes are altogether unavoidable ; but yet, if it were
not too much Trouble, I coud wish, that they were
corrected with the Pen, before pubHcation ^.
I am so sensible of your great Care in this Edition, that
I have desird Mr. Millar to give you one of the Copies,
which he delivers to me on every Edition, and I beg of
you to accept it as a small Testimony of my Regard.
I am Sir Your most obedient Servant
David Hume.
Edinburgh, 3 Sept., 1757.
Note I. The Advertisement or Preface is as follows : — ' Some
Alterations are made on the Titles of the Treatises, contained in
the following Volume. What in former Editions was called Essays
moral and political, is here entitled Essays, moral, political, and literary.
Part I. The political Discourses form the second Part. What in
former Editions was called, Philosophical Essays concerning human
Understanding, is here entitled An Enquiry concerning human Under-
standing. The four Dissertations lately published are dispersed thro'
different Parts of this Volume.'
Note 2. The mistakes occur in the following passages in Sections
viii and ix of An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals : —
'The most profound metaphysics, indeed, might be employed in
explaining the various kinds and species of wit ; and many classes of
it, which are now received on the sole testimony of taste and
sentiment, might, perhaps, be resolved into more general principles.
But this is sufficient for our present purpose, that it does not aflect
taste and sentiment, and bestowing an immediate enjoyment, is a
sure source of approbation and affection.' The word not that I have
italicised should be omitted.
' 'Tis sufficient for our present purpose, if it be allowed, what surely
without the greatest absurdity cannot be disputed, that there is some
benevolence, however small, infused into our bosom ; some spark of
friendship for human kind ; some particle of the dove, kneaded into
our frame, together with the elements of the wolf and serpent. Let
these generous sentiments be supposed ever so weak ; let them be
sufficient to move even a hand or finger of our body ; they must still
24 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
direct the determinations of our mind, and where everything else is
equal, produce a cool preference of what is useful and serviceable to
mankind, above what is pernicious and dangerous.' Sufficient is a
misprint for insufficient. In the copy in the British Museum the
corrections with the pen have not been made.
LETTER VIII.
Millar suspected of Extortion.
Edinburgh, 15 Octr., 1757.
Dear S'"
I have sent you a Letter of mine to Mr. Millar open,
because I desire you to peruse it, and to give me your
Opinion, as a Friend, of the Contents of it. Mr. Millar
departs somewhat from an Offer he made me last Spring for
a new Volume of History ^ If the Reason be just which
he assigns, the slow Sale of the former Volumes, I own
I shoud be extremely discouragd to proceed. But tho' I
have never had any Reason to complain of him, some
People in my Situation woud be apt to suspect, that, after
I had gone some Length in composing the Work, he
intends to extort it from me at somewhat a lower Price ;
which is so ungenteel a Method of Proceeding that I cannot
allow myself to believe it, and it woud much discourage me
from dealing with him. Your general Character and the
Instances, which I have receivd of your Friendship, assure
me of your Candor, and make me have recourse to you on
this Occasion. Can I believe, that he has any real Reason
for coming down of the Offer which he formerly made me?
I have sent you along with this, an ostensible Letter, of
the Nature of those you desird me to write. I hope
Mr. Millar did not forget to deliver you the Copy of
my last Volume, as I desird him. I need not put you
in mind to put a Wafer in my Letter to Mr. Millar.
I am D' S'' Your most obedient Servant
David Hume.
IX.] HISTORY OF THE TUDOBS. 25
Note I. Hume had written to Millar on Sept. 3 : — ' I am pretty
certain that I shall be able to deliver to you the manuscript [of the
History of England under the Tudors] about a twelvemonth hence . . .
You seemed desirous that we should mutually enter into articles
about this volume ; which I declined, till I should be so much
advanced as to be sure of my resolution of executing it, and could
judge with some certainty of the bulk.' He goes on to ask for ;£7oo.
Burton's Hume, ii. 37.
LETTER IX.
Second Edition of the History of England under the Stuarts-
Dear S'"
I am oblig'd to you for the Letter with which you
favord me. I fancy, you woud have found part of it
answerd, before I receivd it. This day three Weeks, I
sent up the second Volume of my History^ by the Stage
Coach to Mr. Millar, which is probably put into your
hands by this time. The Alterations I make on this
Volume are not very considerable; those I make on the
first Volume are more so, particularly in the Reign of
James, which requires to be changd in many Places, in
order to adjust it to this previous Volume ^, which I am now
composing, and which is nearly finishd. It is for this
Reason, I coud wish Mr. Millar woud make a new Edition
of both at once, and I have told him my Sentiments on
that head. His Resolution will probably depend on the
Number of Copies, which remain of the first Volume ^ ; but
as there were only 250 thrown off more than of the Second,
I fancy there cannot be many on hand, after all the second
are sold off. For there is always a considerable Defalcation
in the Sale of second Volumes *-
I am really concernd for what you tell me of Mr. Millar's
being 111, tho I hope his Ailment will only be slight. I
know few who woud make a greater Loss to this Country,
26 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
especially to the young Men of Letters in it=- I propose
to see you about the Autumn, when I hope to commence
a personal Acquaintance with you.
I am D"' S" Your most obedient humble Servant
David Hume.
Edinr., 12 June, 1758.
Note I. The History of Great Britain under the Stuarts, of which
Hume was preparing a second edition. The first volume, requiring
as it did more alterations, was not sent up till six weeks later (post,
p. 28).
Note 2. By 'this previous volume' he means the second volume
of The History of England under the Tudors. The History of the Reign
of James J having been published before the History of the Reign of
Elizabeth was begun had now to be so altered that one volume might
be 'adjusted' to the other.
Note 3. Millar had bought from Hamilton and Balfour the unsold
copies of the first volume.
Note 4. Hume says that when the two volumes of a work are
brought out at different times not so many copies are taken of the
second as of the first.
Note 5. For Johnson's praise of Millar, see ante, note on Hume's
A iitobiography.
LETTER X.
The new Method of Spelling.
[June or July, 1758.]
Dear S'"
I am glad to find that Mr. Millar and I have agreed
about reprinting the first Volume of my History i. I shall
soon send you up a corrected Copy of it ; and in the mean
time you may proceed in printing the second Volume.
The Title of it will be History of Great Britain under the
House of Stuart, in two Volumes ^ As the Title of the other
Volume will be History of England under the House of
Tudor. By this Means they will be different Works ; and
some few Repetitions which will be unavoidable in this
Method of composing them, will be the more excusable.
X.] THE NEW METHOD OF SPELLING. 27
I had once an Intention of changing the Orthography in
some particulars : But on Reflection I find, that this new
Method of Spelling (which is certainly the best and most
conformable to Analogy) has been followd in the Quarto
Volume of my philosophical Writings lately publishd ; and
therefore I think it will be better for you to continue the
Spelling as it is ^-
I woud not give you the Trouble of sending me the
Sheets. I shall see you in London before the Publication ;
and shall then be able to correct any Errata that may
have escapd you.
I am D'' S' Your most humble Servant
David Hume.
Note I. Millar, as was seen in the last letter, wras hesitating about
reprinting the first volume of the History of the Stuarts, of which
more copies had been printed than of the second volume.
Note 2. The original title of the first published portion of his work
had been The History of Great Britain, Volume I. Containing the reigns
of James I and Charles /.
Note 3. Hume writing to Millar on June 20, 1758 about a volume
of Sketches and Essays that Dr. Armstrong published anonymously,
says : — ' I find the ingenious author, whoever he be, ridicules the
new method of spelling, as he calls it ; but that method of spelling
honor, instead of honour, was Lord Bolingbroke's, Dr. Middleton's,
and Mr. Pope's ; besides many other eminent writers. However, to
tell truth, I hate to be any way particular in a trifle ; and therefore
if Mr. Strahan has not printed off above ten or twelve sheets, I
should not be displeased if you told him to follow the usual, that is,
his own way of spelling throughout.' Burton's Hume, ii. 43. Boling-
broke and Pope certainly did not always follow the new spelling.
In the Patriot King, ed. 1750, I find indeed splendor, but also honour
and favour. In the second edition of The Dunciad, Pope follows the
old spelling, as also in the first edition of Seventeen Hundred and
Thirty Eight. He spells however again, agen. In turning over a
page or two of the first volume of the first edition of Hume's History
I came on such spelling as tho', thro'-ouf, knomlege, spred, ardor,
splendor, favor, rigor, labored. Boswell in the Preface to his Tour
to Corsica, published in 1767, writes : — ' Of late it has become the
fashion to render our language more neat and trim by leaving out
k after c, and ;( in the last syllable of words which used to end
in our.'
a 8 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
LETTER XI.
The History of England under the Tudors completed.
Dear S""
I sent off last Tuesday by the Stage Coach a
corrected Copy of the first Volume of my History directed
to you, and it will probably be with you as soon as this.
There is only a small Correction more, which you will
please to make. At Page loo. Line i6; Add this Note.
Rushworth Vol. i. p. 82.
On Tuesday come Sennight the 15 of this Month, the
Manuscript Copy of my new Volume ^ will be put into the
Stage Coach, in two white Iron Boxes, directed to you.
As there are in the same Boxes a few Papers on private
Business, you will please to leave the Boxes unopened till
I come to London, which will probably be about the End
of this Month or beginning of the next. I go up on Horse-
back ^, which is the Reason why I send the Manuscript
before me.
I shall be sure to see you as soon as I arrive, and hope
then to commence a personal Acquaintance with you, and
to return you thanks for the many Instances, which I have
receivd of your Attention and Friendship.
I am D"" S" Your most obedient humble Servant
David Hume.
Edinburgh, 5 of August, 1758.
Note 1. The History of England under the House of Tudor. It was
published in two volumes quarto early in the following year. See
Gent. Mag. 1759, p. 133.
Note 2. Dr. A. Carlyle [Auto. p. 302) tells how John Home three
years earlier started on the same journey on horse-back, with his
' tragedy in one pocket of his great coat and his clean shirt and night
cap in the other.' His friends, alarmed lest the tragedy should be
lost, persuaded him to buy a pair of leather bags. In the spring of
1758 Carlyle accompanied his eldest sister to London. ' It is to be
noted,' he writes, ' that we could get no four-wheeled chaise till we
came to Durham. Turnpike roads were only in their commencement
in the north.' lb. p. 331. ' The first toll,' says Hume, 'we read of in
XII.] ROADS IN SCOTLAND. 39
England for mending the highways was imposed in the reign of
Edward III. It was that for repairing the road between St. Giles's
and Temple-bar.' Ed. 1802, ii. 496. ' The morning of the Perthshire
election in 1761 1 heard James, Duke of Athole, say that in 1713, when
he was chosen member of Parliament, there was a great meeting,
yet his father's coach was the only carriage there,' Scotland and
Scotsmen, ii. 88.
LETTER XII.
Dr. Robertson's History of Scotland.
[Jan. or Feb. 1759.]'
Dear Sir
On the Conclusion of this Work, I thank you for your
Care, Exactness, DiHgence and Dispatch ; and have put
my angry Letter into the Fire, where, partly by its own
heat, partly by that of the burning Coals, it was immediately
consumd to Ashes.
I had a Letter from Dr. Robertson, who is very earnest
with me to have a Copy of my Volume as soon as possible,
promising not to show it to a mortal, till publication. I
have obtain'd Mr. Millar's Consent'''; and therefore desire
you to bind in boards a Volume of large Paper as soon as
possible, and send it to the Stage Coach, directed to
Mr. Robertson Minister of the Gospel at Edinburgh, near
the head of the Cowgate ^. The Stage Coach sets up near
you * ; so I must beg you to take this Trouble.
Mr. Andrew Reid ^ was so good as to look over some
Sheets for me, but has so blotted them with Corrections that
he has renderd it useless for me. I must therefore beg of
you to bind in boards another compleat Copy of small
Paper, and to send it to my House as soon as it is ready.
I am yours
David Hume.
Friday.
Note I. This letter, I have little doubt, was written on the conclu-
sion of the History of England under the House of Tudor. That it was
written, not in Edinburgh, but in London, is clear from the letter
30 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
itself. Hume had gone thither towards the end of 1758, to see this
portion of his work through the press. Robertson, who was on the
eve of pubUshing his History of Scotland, would be most eager to see
how his friend had dealt with that period in which the affairs of
England and Scotland became so much involved. Here there was
some danger of a rivalry between the two friends. ' I was exceedingly-
sorry,' wrote Hume to Robertson on Jan. 25, 1759, ' not to be able to
comply wdth your desire, when you expressed your wish that I should
not write this period.' Stewart's Robertson, p. 341. In the same
letter he says :— ' I am nearly printed out, and shall be sure to send
you a copy by the stage-coach, or some other conveyance.' The only
ground of hesitation I had in fixing the date is that Hume speaks of
' my volume,' whereas the History of the Tudors was in two volumes.
In the last letter, however, he speaks of it as ' my new volume.' He
cannot be speaking of his History of the Stuarts which was indeed
published a volume at a time, for he was in Edinburgh when both
volumes were brought out. Dr. Burton is in error when he states
(Life of Hume, ii. 65) that Hume on his return to Scotland about the
beginning of November, 1759, left behind him the History of the Tudors
for publication. It had already been shewn (ib. p. 52) that the book
was published in the previous spring.
Hume wrote to Robertson about the beginning of March : — ' 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 as much noise as that between Broughton and the
one-eyed coachman.' Stewart's Robertson, p. 345. In the concluding
volumes of his History he pays Robertson the compliment of speaking
of him as ' an elegant historian.' Ed. 1802, ii. 486.
Note 2. Millar, no doubt, without obtaining Hume's consent, had
shewn a copy also to his old assailant Warburton ; who wrote to
Hurd on March 3 of this year :— ' Hume has out-done himself in this
new History in showing his contempt of Religion. ... If his history
be well received, I shall conclude that there is even an end of all
pretence to religion. But I should think it will not ; because I fancy
the good reception of Robertson's proceeded from the decency of it.'
Letters from a late Eminent Prelate, p. 282.
Note 3. Dr. A. Carlyle, writing of September, 1759, says that ' he
supped one night with the celebrated Dr. lYanklin at Dr. Robertson's
house, then at the head of the Cowgate, where he had come at Whit-
sunday, after his being translated to Edinburgh. Dr. Franklin had
his son with him ; and there were David Hume, Adam Smith, and
two or three more.' ' Franklin,' he adds, ' was a silent man ; ' but
'his son was open and communicative, and pleased the company
better than his father.' Carlyle's Auto. p. 394. Sir Walter Scott's
father had married the year before, and had taken a house at the
XIII.] ROBERTSON'S HOUSE IN THE COWGATE. 31
head of the College Wynd which led up from the Cowgate to the
College. Here Scott was born on Aug. 15, 1771. Lockhart's Scott,
ed. 1839, i. 19. Robertson was not made Principal of the College till
1762.
Note 4. Boswell writing in May, 1775, about his departure from
London for Scotland says : — ' Dr. Johnson went with me to the inn in
Holborn, where the Newcastle fly sets out.' Letters of Boswell, p. 196.
New Street, in which Strahan lived, is close to Holborn.
Note 5. ' Andrew Reid, a man not without considerable abilities,
and not unacquainted with letters or with life, undertook to persuade
Lyttelton, as he had persuaded himself, that he was mafeter of the
secret of punctuation ; and as fear begets credulity he was employed,
I know not at what price, to point the pages of Henry the Second.'
Lyttelton's fear was of hostile critics. He published his book ' with
such anxiety as only vanity can dictate.' Johnson's Works, viii. 492.
LETTER XIII.
The early History, and the Accession of George III.
[^November or December, 1 760.] '
Dear S'"
You gave me a sensible Satisfaction by writing
to me ; and tho I am a little lazy myself in writing (I mean,
Letters : For as to other kinds of writing, your Press can
witness for me, that I am not lazy) there is nothing gives
me greater Pleasure than hearing from my Friends, among
whom I shall be always fond of ranking Mr. Strahan. You
have probably heard from Mr. Millar, that I am wholly
engrossd in finishing my History^; and have been so
above a twelvemonth. If I keep my Health, which is very
good and equal to any Fatigue, I shall be able to visit you
in eight or nine Months ; and then you may expect to
have a very troublesome Dun upon you, in making
Demands of a regular Visit of your Devil ^ ; and I shall be
able to cure you of some Indolence, which as our Friend
opposite Catherine Street in the Strand * complains to me,
is growing upon you. If this Indolence comes from Riches,
I hope also to cure it another way, by gaining your
Money at Whist; tho' really the Person abovementiond
32 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
is a Proof that Indolence is no immediate or necessary
Effect of Riches : So that I fancy it is born with you ; and
that there is no hopes of curing you. However, it will
give me some Satisfaction to come to you in case of any
Negligence, and first scold you and then gain your Money,
in order to punish you.
I am sorry, both on your Account and Mr. Rose's ^, for
whom I have a great Regard, that it shoud be absolutely
impossible for me, till my present Undertaking is finishd,
to have any hand in what he proposes to me. If I had
leizure, I shoud certainly comply with his Request: He only
disobliges me in mentioning any other Acknowlegement,
than his being sensible of my Inclination to obhge him.
Is this new Reign to be the Augustan Age ** ? or have
the Parsons got entire Possession of the young Prince ' ?
I hear that they brag much of their Acquisition ; but
he seems by his Speech to be a great Admirer of his
Cousin of Prussia* , who surely is no Favourer or Favourite
of theirs '. I wonder how Kings dare be so free : They
ought to leave that to their Betters ; to Men who have
no Dependance on the Mob, or the Leaders of the Mob.
As to poor Kings they are' obligd sometimes to retract and
to deny their Writings.
I was glad to observe what our King says, that Faction
is at an End and Party Distinctions abolish'd". You
may infer from this, that I think I have kept clear
of Party in my History; that I think I have been much
injurd when any thing of that Nature has been imputed to
me, and that I now hope the public Ear will be more open
to Truth : But it will be a long time first ; and I despair of
ever seeing it ^^
I beg my compliments to Mrs. Strahan, and all your
Family, and am Dear Sir with great Sincerity,
Your most obedient Servant
David Hume.
XIII.] ACCESSION OF GEORGE III. 33
Note I. The reference below to the King's Speech shows that this
letter was written shortly after Nov. 18, 1760.
Note 2. Hume was finishing the last part of his History, the first
as it now stands — The History of England from the Invasion of Julius
Ccesar to the Accession of Henry VII. On July 28, 1759, he had written
to Adam Smith : — ' 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 VH ; and he engages
to give me ^1400 for the copy. This is the first previous agreement
ever I made with a bookseller. I shall execute this work at leisure,
without fatiguing myself by such ardent application as I have hitherto
employed.' Burton's Hume, ii. 60. Francis Horner records : — ' I
have heard from very good authority that when Hume was engaged
in the composition of his History, he generally worked thirteen hours
a day.' Horner's Memoirs, i. 175. It was published at the end of
1761. ' The copy-money given me by the booksellers,' writes Hume
in his Autobiography, ' much exceeded anything formerly known in
England. I was become not only independent, but opulent.' Horace
Walpole wrote of these volumes on Dec. 8, 1761 {Letters, iii. 465) : — ' I
not only know what has been written, but what would be written.
Our story is so exhausted that, to make it new, they really make
it neiu. Mr. Hume has exalted Edward the Second and depressed
Edward the Third. The next historian, I suppose, will make James
the First a hero and geld Charles the Second.'
Note 3. On June 29 of the following year, 1761, Hume wrote from
Ninewells that he was ' so far on his road to London.' Burton's
Hume, ii. 90. That he was in London as late as Sept. 2 is shown by
a letter in his Private Correspondence, p. 4. He went up, no doubt, to
carry his two new volumes through the press. The Devil was the
printer's devil, or messenger who would bring the proofs. See
Boswell's Johnson, iv. 99, for ' a very respectable author who married
a printer's devil.'
Note 4. Our friend was Andrew Millar. His first shop, when he
started business in a very small way, was close to St. Clement's
Church. Nichols, Lit. Anec. vi. 443. He had afterwards moved to
the shop that had been occupied by ' Jacob Tonson, the friend and
bookseller of Dryden, at " Shakspeare's Head, over against Catherine
Street in the Strand," now No. 141 (since rebuilt). Millar was a
Scotchman, and distinguished his house by the sign of " Buchanan's
Head." ' Cunningham's Hand-Book of London, ed. 1850, p. 475.
Note 5. Perhaps Dr. William Rose, of Chiswick, ' the eminent
schoolmaster and critic, and one of Andrew Millar's literary
counsellors. He was largely concerned in the Monthly Review.'
Nichols, Lit. Anec. iii. 386.
Note 6. George HI began to reign on Oct. 25, 1760. ' The acces-
sion of George the Third to the throne of these Kingdoms,' wrote
Boswell, 'opened a new and brighter prospect to men of literary
D
34 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
merit, who had been honoured with no mark of royal favour in
the preceding reign.' Boswell's Johnson, i. 372. For Hume it was
indeed the Augustan age. In 1765 he was appointed Secretary
to the Embassy at Paris, having for nearly two years performed the
duties of that office (ante, Auto), and in 1767 he was made one of the
Under-Secretaries of State. In 1765 a pension of /400 a year was
settled on him. Burton's Hume, ii. 289. In 1751 his income was
only ^50 a year, while he had ' a hundred pounds' worth of books,
great store of linens and fine clothes, and near ;^ioo in his pocket.'
lb. i. 342. ' In 1769 I returned to Edinburgh,' he writes, ' very opulent,
for I possessed a revenue of ^1000 a year.' Ante, Auto. Johnson
received a pension of ^^300 a year, Beattie of ;^20o, and Home of
^300 with an appointment. Adam Smith was made a Commissioner
of Customs, and Robert Burns a ganger. The hack-partisan, Sheb-
beare, who had written himself into the pillory under George II,
wrote himself into a pension under George III.' Boswell's yoAwsow,
ii. 112, n. 3. Gray, Goldsmith, Shenstone, Smollett, Sterne and Cowper
lived and died unpensioned.
Note 7. ' Nov. 4, 1760. The Archbishop [Seeker] has such hopes
of the young King that he is never out of the circle. He trod upon
the Duke's [Duke of Cumberland] foot on Sunday in the haste of his
zeal ; the Duke said to him, " My Lord, if your Grace is in such
a hurry to make your court that is the way." ' Walpole's Letters,
iii. 359. ' Nov. 24, 1760. The Archbishop, who is never out of the
drawing-room, has great hopes from the King's goodness that he shall
make something of him, that is something bad of him.' Lb. p. 365.
Note 8. ' My good brother and ally the King of Prussia [Frederick
the Great], although surrounded with numerous armies of enemies,
has with a magnanimity and perseverance almost beyond example
not only withstood their various attacks, but has obtained very con-
siderable victories over them.' King's Speech on opening Parliament,
Nov. 18, 1760. Pari. Hist. xv. 983. Horace Walpole, writing six
days later about his forthcoming Anecdotes of Painting, says {Letters,
iii. 365) :— ' It neither flatters the King of Prussia nor Prince Fer-
dinand . . . ; how should it please ? '
Note 9. Johnson, writing in 1756 of the general toleration of
religion granted by Frederick, says :— ' It is the great taint of his
character that he has given reason to doubt whether this toleration is
the effect of charity or indifference, whether he means to support
good men of every religion, or considers all religions as equally
good.' Johnson's Works, vi. 443. Voltaire, describing the life at
Potsdam, says:— II n'entrait jamais dans le palais ni femmes ni
pretres. En un mot Frederic vivait sans cour, sans conseil, et sans
culte.' (Euvres de Voltaire, ed. 1819-25, Ixiv. 210. In La Loi Natu-
relle (written about 1751) Voltaire writes : —
' Nous le lui rendons bien : nous damnons k la fois
Le peuple circoncis, vainqueur de tant de rois,
XIV.] HUME'S VIEWS OF THINGS AND PERSONS. 35
Londres, Berlin, Stockholm, et Geneve ; et vous-meme,
Vous etes, 6 grand roi ! compris dans I'anatheme.
En vain par des bienfaits signalant vos beaux jours,
A I'humaine raison vous donnez des secours,
Aux beaux-arts des palais, aux pauvres des asiles,
Vous peuplez les deserts, vous les rendez fertiles ;
De fort savans esprits jurent sur leur salut
Que vous 6tes sur terre un fils de Belzebuth.'
Ih. X. 97.
Note 10. ' That happy extinction of divisions and that union and
good harmony which continue to prevail amongst my subjects afford
me the most agreeable prospects.' Pari. Hist. xv. 985. Horace Wal-
pole, writing three weeks later, says :— ' I have a maxim that " the
extinction of party is the origin of faction." ' Letters, iii. 370. In 1783
Boswell and Johnson were discussing how it was that ' this has been
a very factious r^ign.' Boswell's Johnson, iv. 200.
Note II. In 1756 Hume wrote to Dr. Clephane : — ' With regard to
politics and the character of princes and great men I think I am very
moderate. My views of things are more conformable to Whig prin-
ciples, my representations of persons to Tory prejudices. Nothing
can so much prove that men commonly regard more persons than
things as to find that I am commonly numbered among the Tories.'
Burton's Hume, ii. 11. On May 15, 1761, he wrote to the Countess
De Boufflers : — ' The spirit of faction which prevails in this country,
and which is a natural attendant on civil liberty, carries ever5fthing to
extremes on the one side as well as on the other ; and I have the
satisfaction to find that my performance has alternately given dis-
pleasure to both parties.' Priv. Corresp. p. 2. See ante in his Auto-
biography for the alterations made by him in his History of the Stuarts
' invariably to the Tory side.' The student who reflects on the light
that has of late years been thrown on the history of England under
the Stuarts will smile at Hume's self-complacency when he writes : —
' I have been very busy in adding the Authorities to the Volumes of
the Stuarts. ... I fancy that I shall be able to put my account
of that Period of English History beyond controversy.' Letter of
Dec. 18, 1759. M. S. R. S. E. In his Autobiography, written shortly
before his death, he says :— ' I see many symptoms of my literary
reputation's breaking out at last with additional lustre.'
LETTER XIV.
James Macpherson introduced to Mr. Strahan.
Dear Sir,
I cannot give you a better Return for your obliging
Letter than by introducing to your Acquaintance, the
D 2
36 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Bearer, Mr. M'^pherson, who translated some Fragments
of Highland Poetiy, which have been extremely well
receivd by the Public, and have probably come to your
Hands. He has also translated a larger Work, a narrative
Poem of great Antiquity, which lay in Obscurity, & woud
probably have been bury'd in oblivion, if he had not retrievd
it. He proposes to print it by Subscription, and his
Friends here are already very busy in procuring him
Encouragement. He goes up to London with the same
Intention ; and you may readily believe, that I advis'd him
to think of nobody but our Friend, Mr. Millar, in disposing
of the Copy. He will probably need yolir Advice in
several Particulars, and as he is an entire Stranger in
London, you will naturally of yourself be inclind to assist
him. He is also' very worthy of your Friendship ; being a
sensible, modest young Fellow, a very good Scholar, and
of unexceptionable Morals. I have advis'd him to be at
first on a Footing of Confidence with you ; and hope you
will receive him as one who merits your Friendship ^.
I am Dear S" Your most obedient Servant
David Hume.
Edinburgh'^, 9 Feby. 1761.
Note I. James Macpherson, in the summer of 1760, published
Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in the Highlands. Gray, who
had seen some of them in manuscript, wrote : — ' I am gone mad
about them ; they are said to be translations (literal and in prose)
from the Erse tongue, done by one Macpherson, a young clergyman
in the Highlands. ... I was so struck with their beauty that I writ
into Scotland to make a thousand inquiries ; the letters I have in
return are ill-wrote, ill-reasoned, unsatisfactory, calculated (one
would imagine) to deceive, and yet not cunning enough to do it
cleverly. In short the whole external evidence would make one
believe these fragments counterfeit ; but the internal is so strong on
the other side that I am resolved to believe them genuine spite of the
Devil and the Kirk. ... In short this man is the very demon of
poetry, or he has lighted on a treasure hid for ages.' Mason's Gray,
ed. 1807, ii. 163. He reproached Mason with ' the affectation of not
admiring,' who says in a note :— ' It was rather a want of credulity
than admiration that Mr. Gray should have laid to my charge.' lb.
XIV.] MACPHERSON'S ' OSSIAN.' 37
p. 170. Hume, in a letter dated Aug. 16, 1760, which was shown
to Gray, says : — ' Certain it is that these poems are in every body's
mouth in the Highlands, have been handed down from father to son,
and are of an age beyond all memory and tradition . . . Everybody in
Edinburgh is so convinced of this truth, that we have endeavoured to
put Mr. Macpherson on a way of procuring us more of these wild
flowers. He is a modest, sensible, young man, not settled in any
living. . . . We have therefore set about a subscription of a guinea
or two guineas a-piece, in order to enable him to undertake a mission
into the Highlands, where he hopes to recover more of these frag-
ments.' Burton's Hume, i. 463. Dr. A. Carlyle {Auto, p. 276) told
Hume that he had met but two people in Scotland who doubted
their authenticity. Gibbon even so late as 1776 quotes Ossian in the
first volume of the Decline and Fall, eh. vi, though he admits that
'something of a doubtful mist still hangs over these Highland
traditions.' Horace Walpole at first was a believer. On April 14,
1761, he wrote : — ' My doubts of the genuineness are all vanished.'
Letters, iii. 395. Eight months later, when the first volume of Ossian
was published, his doubts returned as convictions : — ' Fingal is come
out; I have not yet got through it; not but it is very fine— yet I
cannot at once compass an epic poem now. It tires me to death to
read how many ways a warrior is like the moon, or the sun, or
a rock, or a lion, or the ocean. Fingal is a brave collection of similes,
and will serve all the boys at Eton and Westminster for these twenty
years. I will trust you with a secret, but you must not disclose it ;
I should be ruined with my Scotch friends ; in short I cannot believe
it genuine.' lb. p. 466. In a long review of this volume in the
Annual Register for 1761, ii. 276, we are told that ' the venerable
author and his elegant translator have mutually conferred immortality
on each other.' The reviewer perhaps was Burke. The following
passage is not unworthy of his pen. ' The editor has recovered from
the obscurity of barbarism, the rust of fifteen hundred years, and
the last breath of a dying language, these inestimable relics of the
genuine spirit of poetry.' Johnson from the first scorned them as
forgeries and as froth. ' Sir,' he said, ' a man might write such stuff
for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it.' Boswell's Johnson,
i. 396, M. 3. To Macpherson, who had threatened him in 'a foolish
and impudent letter,' he wrote : — ' I hope I shall never be deterred
from detecting w^hat I think a cheat by the menaces of a ruffian.'
lb. ii. 298. Blair foolishly flattered himself at one time that he had
convinced Johnson. He wrote to Hume on July i, 1765 : — ' Have not
I silenced all infidelity and even scepticism concerning Fingal in the
Appendix to my Dissertation ... I have converted even that barbarian
Sam. Johnson by it, who as L[ord] Elibank tells me owns himself
now convinced. Will you still have any scruples ? ' M.S. R. S. E.
Hume in time changed his opinion both of Macpherson and his
poems. ' I have scarce ever known,' he wrote in 1763, ' a man more
38 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
perverse and unamiable.' Burton's Hume, i. 470. Dr. A. Carlyle
says that ' Hume at first gloried in Ossian's poems, but on going to
London he went over to the other side, and loudly affirmed them to
be inventions of Macpherson.' Dr. A. Carlyle's Auto. p. 276. From
London, Hume wrote to Dr. Blair on Sept. 19, 1763 : — ' I often hear
them totally rejected with disdain and indignation, as a palpable and
most impudent forgery. This opinion has indeed become very
prevalent among the men of letters in London.' Burton's Hume,
i. 465. He wrote an Essay on the Authenticity of Ossian's Poems,
though he never published it, perhaps out of regard for his friend
Dr. Blair, who stood forth as Macpherson's champion, perhaps from
his unwillingness to expose a Scotchman. In it he says : — ' I think
the fate of this production the most curious effect of prejudice, where
superstition had no share, that ever was in the world. A tiresome,
insipid performance, which, if it had been presented in its real form
as the work of a contemporary, an obscure Highlander, no man
could ever have had the patience to have once perused, has, by
passing for the poetry of a royal bard who flourished fifteen centuries
ago, been universally read, has been pretty generally admired, and
has been translated in prose and verse into several languages of
Europe. Even the style of the supposed English translation has
been admired, though harsh and absurd in the highest degree;
jumping perpetually from verse to prose, and from prose to verse ;
and running, most of it, in the light cadence and measure of Molly
Mog. Such is the Erse epic which has been puffed with a zeal
and enthusiasm that has drawn a ridicule on my countrymen.' lb.
i. 471.
Macpherson flourished by his roguery. He had a pension which
Horace Walpole in one place puts at ^600 a year and in another
place at ^800, for ' supervising the newspapers ' {Journal of the Reign
of George HI, ii. 17, 483) ; he sat for a time in Parliament (Wheatley's
Wraxall's Memoirs, v. 218), and he was buried in Westminster
Abbey (Stanley's Westminster Abbey, ed. 1868, p. 298).
Note 2. A MS. letter of Hume of this time that I have seen is
dated 'Edinburgh, Jacksland, 1st Jany. 1761.' 'Jack's Land,' says
Dr. Burton, ' was a tenement in the Canongate, right opposite to
a house in which Smollett occasionally resided with his sister. The
term "Land" applied to one of those edifices— some of them ten
or twelve stories high— in which the citizens of Edinburgh, pressed
upwards as it were by the increase of the population within a narrow
circuit of walls, made stair-cases supply the place of streets, and
erected perpendicular thoroughfares. A single floor was a century
ago [written in 1846] sufficient to accommodate the family of a
Scottish nobleman.' Life of Hume, i. 343.
XV.] THE HISTORY AS ONE WORK. 39
LETTER XV.
On ' accommodating' the different Parts of the History.
\ March, 1762.]
D« Sir,
I return you thanks for the favourable Sentiments
you express, in which I am sensible there is great Partiality ;
a Circumstance, however, which renders them the more
obliging. I do not expect ever to live and see the Com-
pletion of your Prophecy ^.
I send you the second Volume of the Stuarts^. Mr.
Millar tells me, that he intends to throw off a small Number
of 250 to compleat the Sets ; and at the same time a larger
number of 750, on Medium paper, which he intends likewise
for a new Edition of the Tudors and this antient History.
Now I am going to propose to you an Improvement, if
it be practicable. I always intended, that the whole six
Volumes shoud be printed and shoud read as one con-
tinued Work, and that the Chapters shoud go on without
Interruption from beginning to end. In that Case, the
first Chapter of James I, is the forty fifth of the whole.
Could you not therefore without any difficulty alter the
Types for the last 750 Copies, so as to accommodate the
Work to this Alteration. There needs only to change the
beginning of the Chapter & the marginal Title, which may
be done without Trouble. Unless this be done at present,
I do not know when we shall be able to bring them to an
Uniformity ^.
I am Dear S'' Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Note I. What was the nature of the prophecy I have not been
able to ascertain.
Note 2. Hume wrote to Millar on March 15, 1762 : — ' I am running
over both the ancient history and the Tudors, and shall send you
them up by the wagon as soon as they are corrected. Please tell
Mr. Strahan to keep carefully this copy I send up, as well as that
40
LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
which I left of the Stuarts; for if you intend to print an octavo
edition next summer, it will be better to do it from these copies
which are corrected than from the new edition, where there will
necessarily be some errors of the press.' Burton's Hume, ^. 130.
The copy which he tells Millar he is sending up is no doubt the
second volume of the Stuarts' mentioned in the letter to Strahan.
It is not 'the ancient history' or 'the Tudors,' for both of these he is
correcting, nor one of the volumes of 'the Stuarts,' which he had left
in London corrected on his visit in 1761. It must therefore be the
second volume, and the letter must have been written at the same
time as the one to Millar.
Note 3. Hume wrote to Millar on March 18, 1764 :— ' I shoud be
glad to know how j'our new Method of publishing Volume by Volume
has succeeded.' M. S. R. S. E. Whether he is speaking of the edition
of his own History in eight volumes published in 1763, or of some
other book, I do not know.
The first uniform edition of the History was that of 1763 in 8 vols,
octavo ; in 1770 a quarto edition was published, also in 8 vols.
LETTER XVI.
Hume's Departure for France.
Mr. Hume's Compliments to Mr. Strahan : He sets out
Morrow for France ^j but wishes to put Mr. Strahan in
Mind, of what he promisd, to correspond with him at Paris.
His Direction is under Cover to Lord Hertford, Northum-
berland House in the Strand.
Wednesday.
Mr. Worral ^ had a Laws of Jamaca ^.
Oct. 14, 1763.
Note I. Hume wrote from Edinburgh to Adam Smith on Aug. 9,
1763 : — ' I have got an invitation, accompanied with great prospects
and expectations, from Lord Hertford, if I would accompany him,
though at first without any character, in his embassy to Paris. I
hesitated much on the acceptance of this offer, though in appearance
very inviting ; and I thought it ridiculous at my years to be entering
on a new scene, and to put myself in the lists as a candidate of
fortune. But I reflected that I had in a manner abjured all literary
occupations ; that I resolved to give up my future life entirely to
amusements ; that there could not be a better pastime than such
a journey, especially with a man of Lord Hertford's character ; and
XVII.] EASE BETTER THAN DIGNITY. 41
that it would be easy to prevent my acceptance from having the least
appearance of dependance.' Burton's Hume, ii. 157. Writing from
London on Sept. 13, after mentioning all the advantages of the
position, he continues : — ' But notwithstanding all these consider-
ations, shall I tell you the truth ? I repine at my loss of ease and
leisure and retirement and independence ; and it is not without a
sigh I look backwards, nor without reluctance that I cast my eye
forwards.' lb. p. 161. On Nov. 9 he wrote from Fontainebleau : —
' I am sensible that I set out too late and that I am misplaced ; and I
wish twice or thrice a-day for my easy chair and my retreat in James's
Court. Never think, dear Ferguson, that as long as you are master
of your own fireside and your own time you can be unhappy, or
that any other circumstance can make an addition to your enjoyment.'
lb. p. 173. In an undated letter he says : — ' Thus you see my present
plan of life sketched out, but it is unsuitable to my age and temper ;
and I am determined to retrench and to abandon the fine folks before
they abandon me.' lb. p. 181.
Note 2. John Worrall kept a book shop in Bell Yard, Temple
Bar ; and his brother Thomas one at Temple Bar. Nichols, Lit.
Anec. iii. 739.
Note 3. In the list of books in the Gent. Mag. for November 1739,
p. 608, is entered The Jamaica Laws from 1681 to 1737. Printed by
J. Basket. Folio, price ^1 is.
LETTER XVII.
French Works for Translation into English.
Dear Sir,
I have long expected to hear from you and to learn
your Sentiments of English Politics^, according to the
Promise you made me on parting : Perhaps, you have as
long expected to hear from me ; and thus while we stand
upon Ceremony, our Correspondence is never likely to
begin. But I have now broke the Ice, and it will be your
Fault, if our Commerce of Letters does not continue.
I have been on the Watch this Winter for any publica-
tion, which might answer in an English Translation, and
have even fix'd a Correspondence with one of the Licencers
of the Press to give me early Intelligence; but there
has nothing appeard, which I thought woud answer, except
43 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Voltaire's Treatise of Toleration, of which only a very few
stolen copies came here, and it was impossible for me
to procure one ^.
Are you acquainted with the Merit of Madame Riccoboni's
Novels ? She is the Author of Lady Juliette Catesby, and
others which have been very well receivd both in France
and England ; and are indeed wrote with great Elegance
and Decency ^ She has just now in the Press a Novel*,
wrote upon English Manners, from which great Success is
expected. Woud you think it worthy of being translated ?
I coud get from her some Sheets of it, which I woud send
you by a Courier', and which woud secure you the
Property : The rest I woud send by any Traveller, of
whom Numbers set out every day*.
As she is a Woman of Merit, but poor, any small
Present, proportiond to the Success of the Work, I shall
only mention in general, and shall leave the Amount of it
to your own Discretion afterwards.
Please to direct to me, under Cover to the Earl of
Hertford, and send your Letters to Northumberland House
in the Strand.
I am Dear Sir
Your affectionate Friend and humble Servant
David Hume.
Paris, ^o March, 1764.
P.S.— Pray inform me, if you can, of the Reason of this
continued low Price of Stocks'' : They say, that Money is
as scarce in private Transactions. But what is the Reason
of that, after the Peace has been establishd for above
a twelve month ?
Since I wrote the above, I have procurd the two first
printed Sheets, from Mad^ Riccoboni. They will secure
you the Property, if you think proper to have them trans-
lated, which I think they very much deserve. The whole
will make two small Volumes.
XVII.] STOLEN COPIES OF VOLTAIRE'S WORKS. 43
These are the proof Sheets corrected. The Translator
must follow the Corrections on the Margins. What do
you think of a French Edition also of the Original ?
Note I. Two days earlier Hume, writing to Millar, had asked him
to send to him 'a copy of this new Book burnd by Order of the
House of Commons.' M.S.R.S.E. Very likely he had heard of the
book from the Earl of Hertford, to whom Horace Walpole had
written on Feb. 24 : — ' The events of the week have been a complaint
made by Lord Lyttelton in your House of a book called Droit le Roy ;
a tract written in the highest strain of prerogative, and drawn from
all the old obsolete law-books on that question. The ministers met
this complaint with much affected indignation, and even, on the com-
plaint being communicated to us, took it up themselves ; and both
Houses have ordered the book to be burned by the hangman.' Letters,
iv. 198.
Note 2. Voltaire's Traite sur la Tole'rance a t Occasion de la Mori de
Jean Calas was published at the end of 1763. Voltaire, in his letters
written in December of that year, tells of the difficulties he had in
getting it introduced from Switzerland into France. On Dec. 13 he
wrote to D'Alembert : — ' Vous ne savez pas combien il est difScile de
faire parvenir de gros paquets par la poste. . . . L'editeur a pris, pour
envoyer a Paris ses ballots, une route si detournee et si longue, qu'ils
n'arriveront pas a Paris cette annee.' In a postscript he adds : — ' Les
pauvres Cramer [his publishers at Geneva] ont ete obliges de faire
faire a leurs paquets le tour de 1' Europe, pour arriver a Paris.'
(Euvres de Voltaire, ed. 1819-25, Ixii. 252-4. On Dec. 31 he writes : —
' Deux paquets adress^s a M. Damilaville sont restes entre les
griffes des vautours. II faut que le votre n'ait point echappe k leur
barbarie, puisque je n'ai aucune nouvelle de vous ; tout cela m'em-
barrasse. Je vols qu'on ne tolere ni la Tole'rance ni les tolerans.' lb.
p. 259. On Feb. 13, 1764, he writes : — ' Le petit livret de la Tole'rance
a deja fait au moins quelque bien. II a tire un pauvre diable des
galeres, et un autre de prison. Leur crime etait d'avoir entendu en
plein champ la parole de Dieu prechee par un ministre huguenot,
lis ont bien promis de n'entendre de sermon de leur vie.' lb. p. 270.
Later on he described the treatise as ' le catechisme de quiconque a
du bon sens et de I'equite.' lb. Ixiv. 315.
In 1757, when there was war with France, Hume was forced to
seek a round-about mode of communication. He directs Millar to
send three copies of his History and three of his Dissertations to
Mons. De La Rouviere at Rotterdam, who 'is to send them as
presents to Paris.' M. S. R. S. E.
Note 3. Mme. Riccoboni was born in 1714 and died in 1792. She
belonged to a family of good position which was ruined by sharing
in Law's speculations. For a short time she was on the stage, where
44 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
she met with but moderate success. Her husband who died in 1772
was an actor, and belonged to a family of actors. Among her novels
were Les lettres de Fanny Butler, Les leitres de Julie Catesby, and
L'histoire de Miss Jenny. Her last days were passed in great poverty.
Nouv. Biog. Gen. xlii. 153. She was a correspondent of Garrick.
Writing to him on May 15, 1765, she says :— ' J'ai regu hier par un
libraire de Paris des compliments tres-honnetes d'une Madame
Broock ou Brock, je ne m'en souviens plus. C'est la traductrice de
Milady Catesby : elle ecrit qu'elle en est a la quatrieme edition. Cela
est fort different de Monsieur Becket, qui s'est mine avec Miss Jenny.
Cette dame me fait demander la permission de m'envoyer ses ouvrages.
J'avais dessein de lui faire tenir les miens ; mais Monsieur Hume ne
la connaissait point, et s'avisa de donner cette malheureuse Jenny a
Monsieur Becket, qui en a fait un garde-boutique, un fond de magasin
pour ses arriere-neveux.' Garrick Corresp. ii. 436. In the list of
books in the Gent. Mag. for April and May 1760, p. 251, I find ' Letters
from Lady Catesby to Lady Henrietta Campley. From the French.
Price three shillings. Dodsley.' According to the Did. of Nat.
Biog. vi. 420, this book soon reached a sixth edition. Mrs. Frances
Brooke, the translator, was the author of The Siege of Sinope. She
pressed Johnson to look over this play till at last he told her that she
must correct it herself. ' " But, Sir," said she, " I have no time. I
have already so many irons in the fire." " Why, then. Madam," said
he, "the best thing I can advise you to do is to put your tragedy
along with your irons." ' Hannah More's Memoirs, i. 200.
Note 4. L'histoire de Miss Jenny Revel, e'crite et envoye'e par elle a
Milady Comtesse de Roscommon. In the translation. The History of
Miss Jenny Salisbury, addressed to the Countess of Roscommon.
Note 5. No doubt one of the couriers or messengers going between
the French Embassy and London. See post, p. 45.
Note 6. Horace Walpole, writing from Paris on Sept. 22, 1765,
says {Letters, iv. 407) : — ' There are swarms of EngUsh here, but most
of them are going to my great satisfaction.'
Note 7. Hume wrote to Millar on April 8, 1762 : — ' I was extremely
obliged to you for advancing the money in order to enable me to take
part in the last subscription. I shall certainly keep it till the Peace,
which seems now to be in a tolerable good way ; and then I shall be
a considerable gainer.' M. S. R. S. E. On Aug. 30 of the same year
Robert Wood, the author of The Ruins of Palmyra and for some
time an Under-Secretary of State, wrote to Hume : — ' Shan't we see
you next winter with a pair of quartos ? You must make haste to
put them into the funds, for scrip rises fast. Ramsay and little Hall
talk of nothing else but their paper riches. We consider every
shiUing we put in as eighteen-pence the moment it goes to the Alley'
['Change Alley]. Letters of Eminent Persons to David Hume, p. 263.
On Nov. 22 following, Hume wrote from Edinburgh to Millar : — ' The
Stocks are now very high ; but I suppose will not come to their full
XVIII.] THE PRICE OF STOCKS. 45
height this twelvemonth, and till then I fancy you will not think it
prudent in me to sell out.' Burton's Hume, ii. 140. On Sept. 3, 1764,
he wrote to Millar from Paris : — ' The lowness of stocks surely pro-
ceeds not from any apprehension of war ; never was a general peace
established in Europe with more likelihood of its continuance ; but I
fancy your stocks are become at last too weighty, to the conviction of
all the world. What must happen if we go on at the same rate during
another war ? ' lb. p. 232. Millar replied early in 1765 : — ' It is generally
believed that Mr. Grenville is a good manager of the finances and in
general means well ; as a proof of it, our stocks have been creeping
up daily, and it is now generally believed that 3 per cent, will soon
come to par if aifairs continue peaceable.' lb. p. 265. In Feb. 1762,
the 3 per cent, consols were as low as 62, Gent. Mag. 1762, p. 96 :
by November they had risen to 86. lb. p. 554. On March 20, 1764,
the day on which Hume wrote, they were at 85. lb. 1764, p. 148. In
March 1737, during the long peace of Walpole's ministry. Sir John
Barnard in a motion for the reduction of interest said : — ' Every one
knows that even those public securities which bear an interest of 3 per
cent, only now sell at a premium in 'Change Alley.' Pari. Hist. x. 74.
LETTER XVIII.
Madame Riccoboni's Novel.
Mr. Hume's Compliments to Mr. Strahan. He sent him
the two first Sheets of this Work, which he hopes
Mr. Strahan receivd. In case he has not, Mr. Hume
recommends it to Mr. Strahan to be translated into English.
It is a work of Mad" de Riccoboni, so well known by the
Letters of Lady Juliette Catesby. Mr. Hume will send
over the other Sheets as they come from the Press. He
desires Mr. Strahan to write to him. His Direction is
under Cover to Lord Hertford at Northumberland House
in the Strand.
Paris, i of April, 1764.
This Sheet may come to Mr. Strahan's hand before the
two others : As this goes by a Messenger ^ ; the other by
General Clerk ^.
Note I. Messenger. See ante, p. 44, n. 5.
Note 2. Hume, writing on April 26 of this year, says : — ' It is
46 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
almost out of the memory of man that any British has been here on a
footing of familiarity with the good company except my Lord Holder-
ness. ... I may add General Clarke, who was liked and esteemed by
several people of merit, which he owed to his great cleverness and
ingenuity, and to his surprising courage in introducing himself.'
Burton's Hume, ii. 194. Dr. A. Carlyle, who met Clarke at Harrogate
in 1764, gives a very different account of him (Auto. p. 451) : — 'He
was a very singular man, of a very ingenious and active intellect,
though he had broke short in his education by entering at an early age
into the army ; and having by nature a copious elocution, he threw
out his notions, which were often new, with a force and rapidity
which stunned you more than they convinced. He applied his war-
like ideas to colloquial intercourse, and attacked your opinions as he
would do a redoubt or a castle, not by sap and mine, but by open
storm. I must confess that of all the men who had so much under-
standing he was the most disagreeable person to converse with
whom I ever knew. . . . You must contradict him and wrangle with
him, or you had no peace.'
LETTER XIX.
The Printing- Presses in London : Medicine for the Dutch
Ambassador.
Dear S'"*
I receivd Yours, for which I am much obhgd to
you: It gave me great Insight into the Affairs you
mention.
I am desird by some People here to enquire how many
Presses there may be in London. I suppose it must be an
Affair more of Conjecture than of exact Calculation ^
I send you over three other Sheets. The Work seems
to be very fine. The Author cannot exactly tell how many
Pages each Volume will contain ; but two Volumes of such
large Print in 12°, must make but a small Book.
I am Yours sincerely
D. H.
Paris, 18 April, 1764.
P.S.— Since I wrote the above, I have again seen Madame
Riccoboni, who tells me that she is now near a Certainty
with regard to the Size of her Work. It will be 4 Volumes
XX.] PROFOUND TRANQUILLITY IN LONDON. 47
in twelves of about 240 pages each. The Dutch Ambassador
has desird me to procure him the enclosd Medicine. The
whole must not be bought nor sent at a time. Send only
so many as may make a small Packet, which a Courier may
carry. Pack them up carefully under Cover to Lord
Hertford, and send them to Northumberland House in the
Strand. Pardon this Trouble.
Note I. Strahan replied on July 10 : — ' It is not easy to say how
many presses there are in London, but as near as I can guess they
are from 150 to 200—150 is pretty near the truth, I mean such as [are]
constantly employed.' M. S. R. S. E. He adds : — ' At present, and
indeed ever since Wilkes's aifair was finished, we have been in a
state of most profound tranquillity. The Names of Pitt and Wilkes
and Liberty and Privilege are heard no more. . . . Lord Bute still
holds his usual Influence at Court and is very likely to do so long ; for
the King (if I may use the expression) doats upon him. Certain it is,
he does nothing without his Advice and Approbation.' Wilkes, on
Feb. 21 of this year had been convicted of re-publishing No. 45 of the
North Briton, and of printing and publishing an Essay on Woman. As
he did not appear to receive judgment he was outlawed and was at
this time in Paris.
LETTER XX.
Madame Riccoboni's Novel.
Dear Sir,
I see sometimes Mad° Riccoboni, who is extremely
surpriz'd, that Mr. Becket answers none of her Letters,
sends her none of the Copies which she bespoke, informs
her nothing of the Success of her Book, and in short takes
no manner of Notice of her ^. I beseech you make him
write, or write yourself for him, if he continues obstinately
negligent. I owe Mr. Becket three Pounds, which I shall
either pay him in London, or pay M'*° Riccoboni for him,
in case the Success of her Book has been such, as to
entitle her to any Recompence. You or Becket may write
her in English. Her Direction is Rue Poissoniere au dela
48 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
le boulevard. I am somewhat in a hurry, which will
apologize for the Shortness of my Letter. I am always
much oblig'd to you, when you have Leizure to write
to me ^ ; being very sincerely Dear Sir
Your most obedient Servant
David Hume.
Paris, 28 of Deer. 1764.
Note I. T. Becket was the publisher of the translation of Mme.
Riccoboni's new novel. On Aug. 31, 1765 she wrote to Garrick : —
' J'ai remis a Mr. Foley la petite somme dont j'etais redevable a Mr.
Becket. Remerciez-le bien pour moi, I charge you. Je ne lui ecris
point, dans la crainte qu'il ne se fasse lire ma lettre par son traducteur,
qui y trouverait une foule de maledictions contra lui. Jenny est
pitoyable ; une traduction lache, froide, pleine de contresens, de
repetitions, de plates epithetes, snowy hands, the fountain of love, fy,
eh, fy ! rien de plus long, de plus maussade, ce n'est ni mon style ni
mes ideas.' Garrick Corresp. ii. 457. In ' fy, eh, fy ' she is imitating
Garrick. Boswell describes him as saying on one occasion : — ' You
are, perhaps, the worst — eh, eh ! ' Boswall's Johnson, ii. 83 ; and on
another occasion ; — ' What ! ah ! is Strahan a good judge of an epi-
gram ? ' lb. iii. 258.
Note 2. On Jan. 11, 1765 Strahan replied: — 'Mme. Riccoboni's
book does not sell at all. Of course we must be losers. . . . We have
been all this summer in a state of profound tranquillity . . . Wilkes's
last latter hath made very little impression, and serves only to bolt
the door against himself, and seal his expulsion from his country.'
M. S. R. S. E. Wilkes's letter was addressed to the Electors of
Aylesbury, dated Oct. 22, 1764, and first printed in Paris. Almon's
Wilkes, iii. 85.
LETTER XXL
Session of 1765 : Rage against the Scots.
Paris, 26 of /any. i^es-
Dear S'"'
I receivd both your Letters, which gave me great
Satisfaction. Your Accounts of things are the fullest and
most candid I meet with ; and if your Leizure allowd you,
you coud not do me a greater Satisfaction, than to continue
them, when any thing remarkable occurs. I think there is
XXI.] ' THE RAGE AGAINST THE SCOTS.' 49
all the Probability that this will prove a quiet Session ^ ;
and there is a general Tranquillity establishd in Europe ^ ;
so that we have nothing to do but cultivate Letters : There
appears here a much greater Zeal of that kind than in
England ^ ; but the best & most taking works of the French
are generally publishd in Geneva or Holland, and are in
London before they are in Paris * : So that I cannot have
an Opportunity of serving you in the way I coud wish. I
am sorry, that the last Publication ^ has not been success-
full. I only saw the Beginning and judged from the
Authors Character. The Beginning is much the best
of the Work. I have not lost view of continuing my
History *- But as to the Point of my rising in Reputation,
I doubt much of it ' : The mad and wicked Rage against
the Scots, I am told, continues and encreases, and the
English are such a mobbish People as never to distinguish.
Happily their Opinion gives me no great Concern '. I see
in your Chronicle ^ an Abridgement of a Treatise on the
Constitution ^° ; which Treatise seems to be nothing but an
Abridgement of my History ; yet I shall engage, that the
Author has not nam'd me from the beginning to the end of
his Performance. On the whole, I can have no Motive of
Ambition or Love of Fame to continue my History:
Money in my present Circumstances is no Temptation : If
I execute that Work, as is probable, it must be for Amuse-
ment to myself, after I am tir'd of Idleness. My Health
and Spirits are as good at present as when I was five and
twenty. Believe me. Dear S'', with great Sincerity,
Your affectionate Friend and humble Servant
David Hume.
My Compliments to D"". Franklin ".
Note I. Sir Gilbert Elliot wrote to Hume on March 25, 1765 : —
' Our business here draws to a close. To-morrow Mr. Grenville opens*
' In the J'arl. Hist. xvii. 164, we read: — 'April 10, 1771. Lord North opened
his budget.'
E
50 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
the budget, as it is usually called.' M. S. R. S. E. So quiet indeed
was the Session that it closed as early as May 25. The King in his
speech on that day said : — ' The dispatch which you have given with
so much zeal and wisdom to the public business enables me now to
put a period to this Session of Parliament. ... I have seen with the
most perfect approbation that you have employed this season of tran-
quillity in promoting those objects which I have recommended to your
attention ; and in framing such regulations as may best enforce the just
authority of the legislature, and at the same time secure and extend
the commerce, and unite the interests of every part of my dominions.'
Pari. Hist. xvi. 78. It was in this quiet Session that the American
Stamp Act was carried. Burke, in his Speech on American Taxation,
in 1774, answering the statement that the opposition shown to it in
Parliament had encouraged the Americans, said : — ' As to the fact of
a strenuous opposition to the Stamp Act, I sat as a stranger in your
gallery when the Act was under consideration. Far from anything
inflammatory, I never heard a more languid debate in this House. No
more than two or three gentlemen, as I remember, spoke against the
Act, and that with great reserve and remarkable temper. There was
but one division in the whole progress of the Bill ; and the minority
did not reach to more than 39 or 40. In the House of Lords I do not
recollect that there was any debate or division at all.' Payne's Select
Works of Burke, i. 140.
The House of Lords was not however careless of the tranquillity of
America. On March 6 of this year the keeper of the Sun Tavern, in
the Strand, was summoned to their bar, and examined about an
exhibition in his house of two Indian Warriors. He assured their
Lordships 'that they had their meals regularly and drank nothing
stronger than small beer.' The House resolved : ' That the bringing
from America any of the Indians who are under his Majesty's protec-
tion, without proper authority for so doing, may tend to give great dis-
satisfaction to the Indian nations, and be of dangerous consequence to
his Majesty's subjects residing in the Colonies.' Pari. Hist. xvi. p. 51.
Note 2. Horace Walpole wrote to Sir Horace Mann on March 26
of this year :— ' I don't remember the day when I was reduced to com-
plain in winter and Parliament-tide of having nothing to say. Yet it
is this kind of nothing that has occasioned my long silence. There
has not been an event, from a debate to a wedding, capable of making
a paragraph. Such calms often forerun storms.' Letters, iv. 337.
Though he was in Parliament at the time, yet he only once mentions
the debates on the Stamp Act. On Feb. 12, he wrote :— 'There has
been nothing of note in Parliament but one slight day on the American
taxes.' lb. p. 322.
Note 3. Hume wrote to Blair on April 6 of this year :— ' There is a
very remarkable difference between London and Paris, of which I
gave warning to Helvetius when he went over lately to England, and
of which he told me on his return he was fully sensible. If a man
XXI.] RESPECT FOR LEARNING IN FRANCE. 51
have the misfortune in the former place to attach himself to letters,
even if he succeeds, I know not with whom he is to live, nor how he
is to pass his time in a suitable society. The little company there
that is worth conversing with are cold and unsociable ; or are warmed
only by faction and cabal ; so that a man who plays no part in public
affairs becomes altogether insignificant ; and if he is not rich he
becomes even contemptible. Hence that nation are relapsing fast
into the deepest stupidity and ignorance. But in Paris a man that
distinguishes himself in letters meets immedia'.ely with regard and
attention.' Burton's Hume, ii. 268. When he was in London in 1767,
while thanking Dr. Blair for offering to introduce him to Dr. Percy,
he says : — ' It would be impracticable for me to cultivate his friend-
ship, as men of letters here have no place of rendezvous ; and are
indeed sunk and forgot in the general torrent of the world.' lb. p.
385-
Grimm, writing on Jan. i, 1766, on the eve of Hume's return to
England, says : — ' M. Hume doit aimer la France ; il y a regu
I'accueil le plus distingue et le plus flatteur. Paris et la cour se sont
dispute I'honneur de se surpasser. . . . Ce qu'il y a encore de plaisant,
c'est que toutes les jolies femmes se le sont arrache, et que le gros
philosophe ecossais s'est plu dans leur societe. C'est un excellent
homme que David Hume ; il est naturellement serein, il entend
finement, il dit quelquefois avec sel, quoiqu'il parle peu ; mais il est
lourd, il n'a ni chaleur, ni grace, ni agrement dans I'esprit, ni rien qui
soit propre a s'allier au ramage de ces charmantes petites machines
qu'on appelle jolies femmes.' Corresp. Lit. v. 3.
Goldsmith wrote in 1759 in The Present State of Polite Learning, ch.
vii : — ' The fair sex in France have also not a little contributed to pre-
vent the decline of taste and literature, by expecting such qualifications
in their admirers. A man of fashion at Paris, however contemptible
we may think him here, must be acquainted with the reigning modes
of philosophy as well as of dress to be able to entertain his mistress
agreeably. The sprightly pedants are not to be caught by dumb
show, by the squeeze of a hand, or the ogling of a broad eye ; but
must be pursued at once through all the labyrinths of the Newtonian
system, or the metaphysics of Locke.' Dr. Moore, in his View of
Society and Manners in France, i-j^g (i. 24), says : — ' Many of the
eminent men of letters are received at the houses of the first nobility
on the most liberal footing. You can scarcely believe the influence
which this body of men have in the gay and dissipated city of Paris.
Their opinions not only determine the merit of works of taste and
science, but they have considerable weight on the manners and senti-
ments of people of rank, of the public in general, and consequently
are not without effect on the measures of government.' He points
out the influence of the fashionable world on the men of letters,
'whose air, behaviour and conversation are equally purified from
the awkward timidity contracted in retirement, and the disgusting
£ 3
52 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
arrogance inspired by university honours or church dignities. At Paris
the pedants of Moliere are to be seen on the stage only.' lb. p. 26.
Mrs. Barbauld says:— 'I beheve it is true that in England genius
and learning obtain less personal notice than in most other parts of
Europe.' She censures 'the contemptuous manner in which Lady
Wortley Montagu mentioned Richardson :— ' The doors of the Great,'
she says, ' were never opened to him.' Richardson Corresp. i. clxxiv.
Horace Walpole wrote from Paris on Sept. 22, 1765 :— ' For literature,
it is very amusing when one has nothing else to do. I think it rather
pedantic in society; tiresome when displayed professedly; and
besides in this country one is sure it is only the fashion of the day.
Their taste in it is worst of all : could one believe that when they read
our authors Richardson and Mr. Hume should be their favourites ?
The latter is treated here with perfect veneration. His History, so
falsified in many points, so partial in many, so very unequal in its
parts, is thought the standard of writing.' Letters, iv. 408. ' The vene-
ration ' with which he was received Hume describes to Robertson, on
Dec. I, 1763 : — ' Do you ask me about my course of life ? I can only
say, that I eat nothing but ambrosia, drink nothing but nectar, breathe
nothing but incense, and tread on nothing but flowers. Every man
I meet, and still more every lady, would think they were wanting in
the most indispensable duty, if they did not make to me a long and
elaborate harangue in my praise. What happened last week, when I
had the honour of being presented to the D[auphi]n's children at
Versailles, is one of the most curious scenes I have yet passed
through. The Due de B[erri] the eldest [afterwards Lewis XVI] a boy
of ten years old, stepped forth, and told me how many friends and
admirers I had in this country, and that he reckoned himself in
the number from the pleasure he had received from the reading of
many passages in my works. When he had finished, his brother,
the Count de P[rovence], [afterwards Lewis XVHI] who is two
years younger, began his discourse, and informed me that I had
been long and impatiently expected in France ; and that he himself
expected soon to have great satisfaction from the reading of my fine
History. But what is more curious ; when I was carried thence to
the Count d'A[rtois] [afterwards Charles X], who is but four years of
age ', I heard him mumble something, which, though he had forgot it
in the way, I conjectured from some scattered words to have been
also a panegyric dictated to him.' Stewart's Robertson, p. 353.
The Marquis of Tavistock wrote to the Duke of Bedford from Paris
on April 6, 1764 : — ' I have lived so much with French people that it's
a wonder I have not yet seen the illustre Hume, for there is nobody so
fete by the fine ladies as he is.' Correspondence of John, Duke of
Bedford, iii. 261. The esteem in which Richardson was held at this
time is shown by a letter of the Marquis de Mirabeau, the author of
' The three princes were nine, eight, and six years old.
XXL] HUME WORSHIPPED IN PARIS. 53
L'ami des Homntes, to Hume, dated Aug. 3, 1763. He writes ; — ' Je
vous avoue que le plus digne des hommes selon moi, Richardson seul
m'aurait souvent fait regreter de ne savoir pas I'anglais.' M.S.R.S.E.
Lord Charlemont, after stating that ' no man from his manners was
surely less formed for French society than Hume,' attributes his
reception to the fact that 'free thinking and English frocks were the
fashion, and the Anglomanie was the ton du pays' He tells the
following anecdote of the first Lord Holland who about this time
visited Paris. 'The French concluded that an Englishman of his
reputation must be a philosopher, and must be admired. It was
customary with him to doze after dinner, and one day at a great
entertainment he happened to fall asleep. " Le voila ! " says a
Marquis, pulling his neighbour by the sleeve, " Le voila qui pense .' " '
He adds that, though Hume's conversation could give little pleasure to
French men, still less to French women, 'yet no lady's toilette was
complete without Hume's attendance. At the Opera his broad
unmeaning face was usually seen entre deuxjolis minois.' Memoirs of
the Earl of Charlemont, i. 234.
In one respect Hume had owned that authors were far better
off here than on the other side of the Channel. After describing
to Elliot in 1762 his comfortable flat in James's Court, for which
he had paid ^500, he continues : — ' On comparing my situation
with poor Rousseau's, I cannot but reflect how much better book-
sellers we have in this country than they in France.' Stewart's
Robertson, p. 360. Voltaire, in his review oi Julia Mandeville, says : —
' Pour peu qu'un roman, une tragedie, une comedie ait de succes a
Londres, on en fait trois et quatre editions en peu de mois ; c'est que
I'etat mitoyen est plus riche et plus instruit en Angleterre qu'en
France, &c.' (Euvres de Voltaire, xliii. 364.
Little more than a year before Hume wrote that 'the little company
in London that is worth conversing with are cold and unsociable,'
Reynolds and Johnson had founded their famous club. Boswell's
Johnson, i. 477. Nearly ninety years after he had complained of the
want of zeal in England for the cultivation of letters, Darwin was
lamenting the indifference to science. Writing in 1854 about an
unsolicited grant by the Colonial Government of Tasmania towards
the expenses of Sir. J. Hooker's Flora of Tasmania, he says : — ' It is
really a very singular and delightful fact, contrasted with the slight
appreciation of science in the old country.' Life of Darwin, i. 394.
Note 4. See ante, p. 43, n. 2, for an explanation of this.
Note 5. Mme. Riccoboni's novel.
Note 6. Hume's History closes with the Revolution. The following
extracts from his letters show that a continuation of it was for some
years in his thoughts.
'Edinburgh, March 10, 1763. I am in a good measure idle at
present ; but if I tire of this way of Life, as is probable, I shall
certainly continue my History, and have no Thoughts of any other
54 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
work. But in this State of AflFairs, I suppose your People of Rank and
Quality woud throw the Door in my Face because I am a Scotsman.'
M. S. R. S. E.
' Edinburgh, 12 March, 1763. I am engaged in no work at present ;
but if I tire of idleness, or more properly speaking, of reading for my
amusement, I may probably continue my History. My only dis-
couragement is that I cannot hope to finish this work in my closet, but
must apply to the great for papers and intelligence, a thing I mortally
abhor.' Burton's Hume, ii. 146.
' Edinburgh, 28 March, 1763. I may perhaps very soon gather silently
together the books which will enable me to sketch out the reigns of
King William and Queen Anne, and shall finish them afterwards, to-
gether with that of George I, in London. But to tell you the truth, I
have an aversion to appear in that capital till I see that more justice
is done to me with regard to the preceding volumes. The languishing
sale of this edition makes me conjecture that the time is not yet come;
and the general rage against the Scots is an additional discouragement.'
lb. ii. 147. (Seven weeks after this letter was written Boswell, on
being introduced to Johnson, said : — ' I do indeed come from Scotland,
but I cannot help it.' Boswell's Johnson, i. 392.)
' Paris, 14 Jany. 1765. I am now in a situation to have access to all
the families which have papers relative to public affairs transacted in
the end of the last and beginning of this century. . . . The rage and
prejudice of parties frighten me ; and above all, this rage against the
Scots, which is so dishonourable, and indeed so infamous to the English
nation. We hear that it increases every day without the least ap-
pearance of provocation on our part. It has frequently made me
resolve never in my life to set foot on English ground. I dread if I
should undertake a more modern history the impertinence and ill
manners, to which it would expose me.' Burton's Hume, ii. 264.
' [1766.] Some push me to continue my History. Millar offers me
any price. All the Marlborough papers are offered me ; and I beHeve
nobody would venture to refuse me. But cut bono ? Why should I
forego idleness and sauntering and society, and expose myself again
to the clamours of a stupid factious public ? ' lb. ii. 392. (The
Marlborough papers had been in Mallet's possession. For more than
twenty years ' he had a pension from the late Duke of Marlborough
to promote his industry,' in publishing them. On his death in
1765 it was found that he had not even touched them. Boswell's
Johnson, v. 175.)
' Oct. 6, 1767. When Mr. Conway was on the point of resigning,
I desird him to propose to the King that I might afterwards have the
liberty of inspecting all the public Offices for such Papers as might
serve to my purpose. His Majesty said that he was glad I had that
object in my Eye ; and I should certainly have all the Assistance in his
Power.' David Hume to John Home of Ninewells. M. S. R. S. E.
' 8 Oct. 1766. I shall probably do as you advise, and sketch out the
XXI.] CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY. $^
outlines of the two or three subsequent reigns, which I rnay finish at
London.' Burton's Hume, ii. 393.
' London, 27 Nov. 1767. The king himself has been pleased to
order that all the records and public offices shall be open to me, and
has even sent for some papers from Hanover, which he thought would
be useful.' Private Corresp. p. 250.
' London, 26 April, 1768. Lord Hertford told me that he and his
brother [General Conway] had made a point with the King and the
ministers, that in consideration of my services I should have some
further provision made for me, which was immediately assented to,
only loaded with this condition by the King, that I should seriously
apply myself to the consummation of my History.' lb. p. 257.
' London, 24 May, 1768. The King has given me a considerable
augmentation of my pension, expressing at the same time his expecta-
tion that I am to continue my History. This motive, with my habits
of application, will probably engage me in this undertaking, and occupy
me for some years.' lb. p. 261.
Strahan wrote to Sir A. Mitchell on April i, 1768 :— ' Mr. D. Hume
dined with me to-day. He is now applying in good earnest to the
continuation of his History, having collected very considerable mate-
rials.' M. S. R. S. E. On May 14, 1768, Boswell, whom Hume had
lately visited, wrote : — ' David is going to give us two more volumes
of History, down to George H. I wish he may not mire himself in the
Brunswick sands. Pactolus is there.' Letters of Boswell, p. 151. On
Dec. 9, WTiting from Edinburgh, Boswell says : — ' Mr. Hume is not to
go to Paris ; he is busy with the continuance of his History.' lb.
p. 159. Hume relapses once more into indolence. He writes to
Strahan on May 22, 1770 : — ' I am fully determined never to continue
my History, and have indeed put it entirely out of my power by
retiring to this country for the rest of my life.' Two years later his
determination is not quite so strong. ' If I find my time lie heavy on
my hands, I may, for my amusement, undertake a reign or two after
the Revolution. But I believe, in case of my composing any more, I
had better write something that has no Reference to the affairs of
these factious Barbarians.' Post, Letter of March 5, 1772. His amuse-
ment apparently does not require any fresh composition, for at the
beginning of the next year he writes : — ' Considering the treatment I
have met with, it would have been very silly for me at my years
to continue writing any more, and still more blamable to warp my
principles and sentiments in conformity to the prejudices of a stupid,
factious nation, with whom I am heartily disgusted.' Post, Letter of
Jan. 30, 1773.
Note 7. Dr. J. H. Burton, writing of the years 1765-6, says : —
' Allusion has occasionally been made to the difficulty of satisfying
Hume with any amount of literary success. His correspondence
with Millar is a long grumble about the prejudices he has had to
encounter, and their influence on the circulation of his works ; while
56 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Lettet
the bookseller, by the most glowing pictures of their popularity, is
only able to elicit a partial gleam of content.' Burton's Hume, ii. 263.
It is shown hereafter (Letter of March 13, 1770) that Millar's pictures
were more glowing than correct. Nevertheless, Hume's success as a
writer was so great that ' Millar offered him any price ' for the
continuation of his History. At the close of his life he wrote in his
Autobiography:— 'I see many symptoms of my literary reputation's
breaking out at last with additional lustre.'
Note 8. The violence of Hume's feelings towards the English is
not seen in his earlier correspondence. He had even at one time
thought of settling in London. On Jan. 25, 1759, he wrote :—
' I used every expedient to evade this journey to London ; yet it is
now uncertain whether I shall ever leave it.' Burton's Hume, ii, 50.
On July 28 in the same year he wrote: — '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 rny fortune best, and
is the seat of my principal friendships ; but it is too narrow a place
for me.' lb. p. 61. (Boswell in like manner ' complained to Johnson
that he felt himself discontented in Scotland, as too narrow a sphere.'
Boswell's Johnson, iii. 176.)
A great change was wrought in Hume by the storm of abuse which
burst on his countrymen when the new King put himself and the
nation in the leading-strings of the Earl of Bute. Though he had
written the History of England, he never seemed to understand for
one moment the anger that was stirred up in a proud people, when
their Great Commoner had to jdeld to the favourite of a Palace, with
his vile system of ' King's friends ' and secret ' influence.' Some
indulgence must be extended to him as a man, though not perhaps as
a philosopher, on account of the disappointment which he himself
had suffered through his origin. As will be seen {post, p. 58) he
was refused the high office of Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland merely because he was born north of the Tweed. His
return from France, which followed close on this humiliation, still
further embittered his feelings. In that country his genius had
been recognised to the full. ' Few people,' wrote Dr. Blair to him,
' have been more fortunate than you ; you have enjoyed in France
the full blaze of your reputation and fame ; you have tasted all the
pleasures of a court and of public life ; and after receiving every
tribute due to letters and to merit, you retire before it was too late to
your own philosophic ease and tranquillity.' Blair to Hume, Oct. 8,
1765. M. S. R. S. E. Philosophic ease was not by any means enough.
His ruling passion, as he himself owned in his Autobiography, was
' love of literary fame.' To him might be applied, though not in all
its extent, what Johnson said of Richardson : — ' He could not be
contented to sail quietly down the stream of reputation, without
longing to taste the froth from every stroke of the oar.' (Piozzi's
XXI.] HUME'S RAGE AGAINST THE ENGLISH. SI
Anecdotes, p. 184.) He returned to our shores one of the most famous
men in Europe, and he at once passed from ' the full blaze * to that
dim and uncertain glimmer which was all that genius could throw
round itself here. Had he been content with the company of men of
letters, his love of fame might perhaps have been satisfied ; but
he was used to the homage of men and women of rank and fashion
in the most famous drawing-rooms of Paris. Princes no longer made
him addresses, nor did fine ladies ' believe him implicitly,' (Walpole's
Letters, iv. 426). His vanity, I believe, was wounded just as was
Rousseau's, when that philosopher found how quickly a great writer
sinks into insignificance in London. Both men were wanting in
that humour which ' holds the world but as the world,' and in
the midst of disappointments and neglect smiles at them and at
itself.
In the extracts from his letters given in Note 3 the bitterness of
his feelings has been seen. The following passages show that it did
not lessen with growing years : —
' Paris, I Dec. 1763. It is probable that this place will long be my
home. I feel little inchnation to the factious barbarians of London.'
Burton's Hume, ii. 178.
' Paris, 27 March, 1764. I have been accustomed to meet with
nothing but insults and indignities from my native country^.' lb.
p. 191.
' Paris, 26 April, 1764. The taste for literature is neither decayed
nor depraved here, as with the barbarians who inhabit the banks of
the Thames.' lb. p. 196.
' Paris, 22 Sept. 1764. From what human motive or consideration
can I prefer living in England than in foreign countries ? I believe,
taking the continent of Europe from Petersburgh to Lisbon and from
Bergen to Naples, there is not one who ever heard of my name, who
has not heard of it with advantage, both in point of morals and
genius. I do not believe there, is one Englishman in fifty who, if he
heard I had broke my neck to-night, would be sorry. Some, because
I am not a Whig ; some because I am not a Christian ; and all
because I am a Scotsman. Can you seriously talk of my continuing
an Englishman '^ ? Am I, or are you, an Englishman ? Do they
not treat with derision our pretensions to that name, and with
hatred our just pretensions to surpass and govern them ? ' lb. p. 238.
' Paris, 14 Jany. 1765. The rage and prejudice of parties frighten
me ; and above all this rage against the Scots, which is so dishonour-
able, and indeed so infamous to the English nation. We hear that it
increases every day without the least appearance of provocation on
' By native country he means Great Britain, as distinguished from France.
° His correspondent, Sir Gilbert Elliot of Minto, had written to him: — 'Love
the French as much as you will; but above all continse still an Englishman.' lb.
p. 235-
58 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
our part. It has frequently made me resolve never in my life to
set foot on English ground.' lb. p. 265.
' Paris, Aug. 23, 1765. I have a reluctance to think of hving among
the factious barbarians of London ; who will hate me because I am a
Scotsman, and am not a Whig, and despise me because I am a man
of letters. . . . Lord Hertford, on his arrival in London, found great
difficulty of executing his intentions in my favour'. The cry is loud
against the Scots ; and the present ministry^ are unwilling to support
any of our countrymen, lest they bear the reproach of being con-
nected with Lord Bute.' lb. p. 290.
' Paris, Nov. 5, 1765. London is the capital of my own country ;
but it never pleased me much. Letters are there held in no honour ;
Scotsmen are hated ; superstition and ignorance gain ground daily.'
lb. p. 292.
It was my duty, as editor of Boswell's Life of Johnson, to gather in
a Concordance Johnson's sayings against the Scotch. I shall feel
more confidence among my friends of that race, when I show them
that Hume in his abuse of the English as much surpassed Johnson
in violence as he was inferior to him in wit. On one occasion, and on
one alone, do I find him writing as an Englishman. In a letter to
the Abbe Morellet, dated London, July 10, 1769, he says : — ' The
Abbe Galliani goes to Naples ; he does well to leave Paris before
I come thither ; for I should certainly put him to death for all the ill
he has spoken of England. But it has happened, as was foretold by
his friend Caraccioli, who said that the Abbe would remain two
months in this country, would speak all himself, would not allow
an Englishman to utter a syllable, and after returning would give the
character of the nation during the rest of his life as if he were perfectly
well acquainted with them.' Burton's Hume, ii. 428.
He urges indeed his brother to give his eldest son an English
education, so that he may not, by staying in Scotland, ' acquire such
an accent as he will never be able to cure of.' lb. p. 403. In
his History moreover he recognises the advantage of a union of the
two nations. So early as the reign of Edward I. he speaks of it as 'a
project so favourable to the happiness and grandeur of both Kingdoms.'
He describes that King's attempt to seize the Scottish crown, as
a ' great object, very advantageous to England, perhaps in the end no
less beneficial to Scotland, but extremely unjust and iniquitous in
itself.' Ed. 1802, ii. 246, 250.
I do not find that Hume's friends among his countrymen shared
in the violence of his dislike. On the contrary some of them re-
monstrated with him. Sir Gilbert Elliot wrote to him in the autumn
of 1764 :— ' Notwithstanding all you say, we are both EngUshmen ; that
^ He had intended to take Hume to Ireland as his Secretary, in his post of Lord
Lieutenant.
^ The Rockingham Ministiy.
XXI.] CLAMOUR AGAINST THE SCOTCH. 59
is, true British subjects, entitled to every emolument and advantage that
our happy constitution can bestow. Do not you speak and write and
publish what you please ? and though attacking favourite and popular
opinions, are you not in the confidential friendship of Lord Hertford,
and intrusted with the most important national concerns ? Am not I a
member of Parliament . . . . ? Had it not been for the clamour of a
Scott, perhaps indeed I might have been in some more active, but not
more honourable or lucrative situation. This clamour we all know
is merely artificial and occasional. It will in time give way to some
other equally absurd and ill-founded, when you, if you will, may become
a bishop and I a minister.' Burton's Hume, ii. 240. In the same month
Millar sent him the following extract from a letter which he had re-
ceived from Adam Smith, who was at Paris :— ' Though I am very
happy here, I long passionately to rejoin my old friends, and if I had
once got fairly to your side of the water, I think I should never cross
it again. Recommend the same sober way of thinking to Hume. He
is light-headed, tell him, when he talks of coming to spend the re-
mainder of his days here or in France. Remember me to him most
affectionately.' M.S.R.S.E.
On Feb. 25 of the following year (1765) Millar wrote : — ' You are
totally mistaken about any prejudice against the Scots in general
here. I find no difference of respect to particulars. The cry was
raised and is continued only with a view to distress Lord Bute whom
they heartily hate, and it would have been happy for his Country he
had never been born ; his particular friendship being placed on weak
or designing men is a misfortune and the certain [?] aftectation and
manner is disgusting.' lb. John Crawfurd wrote to Hume on Jan. 20,
1767 : — ' What you say of your being detested as a Scotsman, and
despised as a man of letters is melancholy nonsense.' lb. Boswell, ' a
very universal man ' as he was, we find associating with Churchill only
two or three months after that scurrilous but most vigorous writer had
bitterly assailed Scotland in his Prophecy of Famine. It was by 'the
witty sallies ' of him and of a libeller equally gross, John Wilkes, that
the young Scotchman ' was enlivened ' on the morning on which he
first called on Johnson. Boswell's Johnson, i. 395. On the other
hand, Boswell's friend, George Dempster, a Member of Parliament
well known in his day, writing to him in 1775 about Johnson's Journey
to the Western Islands, shows how strong the English antipathy was.
He says : — ' I hope the book will induce many of Dr. Johnson's
countrymen to make the same jaunt, and help to intermix the more
liberal part of them still more with us, and perhaps abate somewhat of
that virulent antipathy which many of them entertain against the
Scotch ; who certainly would never have formed those combinations
which he takes notice of, more than their ancestors, had they not
been necessary for their mutual safety, at least for their success, in a
country where they are treated as foreigners.' lb. v. 408. Neverthe-
less the great popularity of the Scotch authors, Blair, Beattie, Robert-
6o LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
son, and Hume himself; the 'extraordinary applause' that was given
to Beattie in the Theatre at Oxford, when on July 9, 1773 he received
his degree of Doctor of Laws, show that, however strong may have
been the general feeling against the race, it did not necessarily extend
in all its force to individuals.
That the provocation was very great that Hume as a Scotchman
received cannot be denied. That much of the attack was provoked,
as I have said, by the favour shown to his countrymen by the King's
Scotch favourite, is equally true. Johnson, who was disposed to
think well of the Earl of Bute, from whom as Prime Minister he had
received his pension, said of him : — ' Lord Bute showed an undue
partiality to Scotchmen. He turned out Dr. Nichols, a very eminent
man, from being physician to the King, to make room for one of his
countrymen, a man very low in his profession. He had Wedder-
burne and Home to go on errands for him. He had occasion for people
to go on errands for him ; but he should not have had Scotchmen ; and
certainly he should not have suffered them to have access to him
before the first people in England.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 354. There
was however another and a less worthy ground for the general ill-will
of the English towards the North Britons. There was a jealousy of
the success which the Scotch were fairly winning in almost every
path of life. The knowledge which they had gained in their schools
and universities, ' countenanced in general,' to use Johnson's words,
' by a national combination so invidious that their friends cannot
defend it,and actuated in particulars by a spirit of enterprise so vigorous
that their enemies are constrained to praise it, enabled them to find,
or to make their way to employment, riches, and distinction.' Johnson's
Works, ix. 158.
The following anecdote, recorded by Jefferson in his Diary, illus-
trates this Scotch occupation of England : — ' The confederation of the
States, while on the carpet before the old Congress, was strenuously
opposed by the smaller States, which feared being swallowed up by
the larger ones. We were long engaged in the discussion ; it pro-
duced great heats, much ill-humour, & intemperate declarations from
some members. Dr. Franklin at length brought the debate to a close
with one of his little apologues. He observed that " at the time of the
Union of England and Scotland the Duke of Argyle was most violently
opposed to that measure, and among other things predicted that, as the
whale had swallowed Jonah, so Scotland would be swallowed by
England. However (said the Doctor) when Lord Bute came into the
Government, he soon brought into its administration so many of his
countrymen, that it was found in the event that Jonah swallowed the
whale." This little story produced a general laugh, and restored good
humour, and the article of difficulty was passed.' Life of Franklin, eA.
by J- Bigelow, 1879, iii. 299.
Having shown Hume's rage against the English, I will now give a
few instances of ' the mad and wicked rage against the Scots.' WilkeSj
XXI.] CHURCHILL AND WILKES. 6x
in the North Briton, No. xiii. (Aug. 28, 1762), in a passage which he
says comes from Howell, writes : —
'As for fruit for their grandsire Adam's sake they [the Scotch]
never planted any ; and for other trees, had Christ been betrayed
in this country (as doubtless he should, had he come as a stranger)
Judas had sooner found the grace of repentance than a tree to hang
himself on.' This attack he follows up with such abuse as the follow-
ing : — ' Jany. 22, 1763. A Scot hath no more right to preferment in
England than a Hanoverian or a Hottentot.' lb. No. 34.
' April 2, 1763. The restless and turbulent disposition of the Scottish
nation before the Union, with their constant attachment to France and
declared enmity to England, their repeated perfidies and rebellions
since that period, with their servile behaviour in times of heed
and overbearing insolence in power, have justly rendered the very
name Scot hateful to every true Englishman.' Wilkes goes on to
attack Lord Bute for ' his gross partiality to his own beggarly country-
men '.' Jb. No. 44.
Churchill's Prophecy of Famine, published in 1763, is full of scurrilous
passages such as : —
' Oft have I heard thee mourn the wretched lot
Of the poor, mean, despis'd, insulted Scot.'
Works, ed. 1766, i. 105.
'Jockey, whose manly high-bon'd cheeks to crown
With freckles spotted flam'd the golden down,
With mikle art could on the bagpipes play.
E'en from the rising to the setting day;
Sawney as long without remorse could bawl
Home's madrigals and ditties from Fingal.
Oft at his strains, all natural tho' rude.
The Highland Lass forgot her want of food,
And whilst she scratch'd her lover into rest
Sunk pleas'd, though hungry, on her Sawney's breast.'
lb. i. III.
In his last poem, written in 1764, on his departure from England, he
says, speaking of the Muses : —
' If fashionable grown, and fond of pow'r
With hum'rous Scots let them disport their hour;
Let them dance fairy-like, round Ossian's tomb ;
Let them forge lies and histories for Hume ;
Let them with Home, the very Prince of verse,
Make something like a tragedy in Erse.'
lb. ii. 328.
F. Greville, writing to Hume from Brussels on Sept. 24, 1764, about
' that wretch Churchill,' says : — ' My own heart glowed at the honest
' Johnson in 1I754 had said that Bolingbroke 'left half a crown to a beggarly
Scotchman to draw the trigger after his death.' Bosweirsyff,4«j»K, i. 268,
62 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
indignation he seems to have excited in your breast, and you flatter
me very much in pouring it out so freely before me.' M. S. R. S. E.
Walpole wrote on Nov. 15 of the same year : — ' Churchill, the poet, is
dead— to the great joy of the Ministry and the Scotch.' Letters, iv.
291. Beattie, in some lines written shortly after Churchill's death,
did what he could to pay back the poet's insults. They end : —
' Sacred from vengeance shall his memory rest ?
Judas, though dead, though damned, we still detest.'
The ' rage ' continued for years after Bute's retirement from office,
for the secret 'influence' was still suspected. Dr. A. Carlyle (Auio.
p. 509) says that in 1769 Garrick, who was bringing out a new play by
John Home, 'justly alarmed at the jealousy and dislike which pre-
vailed at that time against Lord Bute and the Scotch, had advised the
author to change the title of Rivine into that of The Fatal Discovery, and
had provided a student of Oxford who appeared at the rehearsals as
the author, and wished Home of all things to remain concealed till the
play had its run. But John, whose vanity was too sanguine to admit
of any fear or caution, and whose appetite for praise rebelled against
the counsel that would deprive him for a moment of his fame, too
soon discovered the secret, and though the play survived its nine
nights, yet the house evidently slackened after the town heard that
John was the author.' Murphy, in his Life of Garrick, p. 295, says of
Home's play : — ' The names of the persons of the piece are grating to
an English ear. Kastreel, Dunton, Connon, and the like are exotics
beneath the dignity of tragedy. The play might as well be written in
Erse.' Dr. Blair, on the other hand, as became the champion of
Ossian, writing to Hume on March 11, 1769, says : — ' I have this morn-
ing received The Fatal Discovery by post. I sit down to read it with
great greediness. What made Home give it such a foolish Novel kind
of name ? Rivine ought to have been the name of the play.'
M. S. R. S. E. We may pause a moment to reflect on the vast
change in sentiment that has been wrought since the days when a
Highland name was thought sufficient to damn a play. Now, not
only Lowlanders, but even Englishmen, when they go to ' the moun-
tains of the North ' are proud to disguise themselves in a dress which
their forefathers in Edinburgh or in London, in the days of David
Hume and John Home, would have looked on with a feeling of
scorn not altogether unmingled with fear. Perhaps by the end
of the twentieth century the descendants of the Orangemen of
Belfast and Londonderry, and people of rank and fortune from
England, when they go to shoot and fish in the wilds of Kerry or
Connemara, will hope in their long frieze coats, their knee breeches,
and their worsted stockings, to be taken for the children of the soil.
Johnson, when he was surrounded by the M'Craas with their 'very
savage wildness of aspect and manner,' and felt that ' it was much
the same as being with a tribe of Indians,' if any one had told him that
in another hundred years English gentlemen would be proud to be
XXI.] HORACE WALPOLE AND THE SCOTCH. 63
mistaken for Highlanders, in all probability would have replied : —
' Sir, you lie, and you know that you lie.' It was less than twenty
years before the date of Hume's letter that Ray, in his History of the
Rebellion of 1745 (p. vii), describes the Young Pretender's army as
' the barbarians that over-run the country.'
To return from this digression to the main subject of this note.
Smollett in Humphry Clinker, published in 1771, (Letter of July 13),
describes how ' from Doncaster northwards all the windows of all the
inns are scrawled with doggrel rhymes in abuse of the Scottish nation.'
Lord Shelburne wrote : — ' I can scarce conceive a Scotchman capable
of liberality, and capable of impartiality.' Fitzmaurice's Shelburne, iii.
441. Of Lord Mansfield he wrote that ' like the generality of Scotch
he had no regard to truth whatever.' 76. i. 89. Horace Walpole was,
in his old age, as violent against the Scotch as Hume against the
English. ' June 14, 1780. What a nation is Scotland ; in every reign
engendering traitors to the State, and false and pernicious to the
Kings that favour it the most ! National prejudices, I know, are very
vulgar ; but, if there are national characteristics, can one but dislike
the soils and climates that concur to produce them ? ' Letters, vii. 400.
' Feb. 5, 1781. Pray look into the last Critical Review but one ; there
you will find that David Hume in a saucy blockheadly note calls
Locke, Algernon Sidney, and Bishop Hoadly despicable writers. I
believe that ere long the Scotch will call the English lousy ! and that
Goody Hunter will broach the assertion in an Anatomic lecture. Not
content with debasing and disgracing us as a nation by losing
America, destroying our Empire, and making us the scorn and prey
of Europe, the Scotch would annihilate our patriots, martyrs, heroes
and geniuses. Algernon Sidney, Lord Russell, King William, the
Duke of Marlborough, Locke, are to be traduced and levelled, and with
the aid of their fellow-labourer Johnson, who spits at them while he
tugs at the same oar, Milton, Addison, Prior and Gray are to make way
for the dull forgeries of Ossian, and such wights as Davy and Johnny
Home, Lord Karnes, Lord Monboddo, and Adam Smith ! — Oh ! if you
[Mason the Poet] have a drop of English ink in your veins, rouse and
revenge your country ! Do not let us be run down and brazened out
of all our virtue, genius, sense and taste by Laplanders and Boeotians,
who never produced one original writer in verse or prose.' lb. p. 511.
A curious contrast to the violence of Walpole's attack is afforded
by a passage in a letter written in the spring of 1759, in which Hume
informs Robertson of the great popularity of the History of Scotland.
' Mr. Walpole,' he says, ' triumphs in the success of his favourites, the
Scotch.' Stewart's Life of Robertson, p. 180. A justification for Hume's
statement is found in Walpole's own letters ; for on March 25 of
this year he wrote to Sir David Dalrymple : — ' I could not help
smiling, Sir, at being taxed with insincerity for my encomiums on
Scotland. They were given in a manner a little too serious to
admit of irony, and (as partialities cannot be supposed entirely
64 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Lettet
ceased) with too much risk of disapprobation in this part of the
world, not to flow from my heart. My friends have long known my
opinion on this point, and it is too much formed on fact for me to
retract it, if I were so disposed.' Letters, iii. 217. This was written, be
it observed, while George II was King, and the Earl of Bute nothing
more than the favourite of the Princess Dowager of Wales.
See post, Letters of Oct. 25, 1769 ; March 5, 1772 ; Jan. 30, 1773.
Note 9. In 1756 Johnson ' accepted of a guinea for writing the in-
troduction to The London Chronicle, an evening newspaper. . . . This
Chronicle still subsists,' continues Boswell, ' and from what I observed,
when I was abroad, has a more extensive circulation upon the Conti-
nent than any of the English newspapers. It was constantly read by
Johnson himself.' Boswell's Johnson, i. 317. Boswell wrote to
Johnson on March 12, 1778 : — ' The alarm of your late illness dis-
tressed me but a few hours ; for I found it contradicted in The London
Chronicle, which I could depend upon as authentic concerning you,
Mr. Strahan being the printer of it.' lb. iii. 221.
Note 10. ' An Essay on the Constitution of England, ^T\Q.& IS. 6d. T.
Becket and P. de Hondt, London ' : London Chronicle, Jan. 5, 1765. In
the number for Jan. 10 three columns of extracts are given.
Note II. Franklin had met Hume when he visited Edinburgh in
1759. Dr. A. Carlyle's Auto. p. 395. Later on he stayed in his house
in James's Court for several weeks, lb. p. 437. Dr. Carlyle does not
mention the year of his second visit, but I have little doubt that it was
in 1771. See post. Letter of Nov. 12, 1771. Franklin's friendship with
his brother-printer Strahan, which had been long and close, was
broken by the American War. Strahan, who was a strong supporter
of Lord North's ministry, received from his old friend the following
letter :—
'Philad". July 5, 1775.
' Mr. Strahan,
'You are a Member of Parliament, and one of that Majority which
has doomed my Country to Destruction. — You have begun to burn
our Towns, and murder our People, — Look upon your Hands ! — They
are stained with the Blood of your Relations ! You and I were long
friends. — You are now my Enemy, — and
' I am, yours,
' B. Franklin.'
[Franklin's Memoirs, ed. 1818, iii. i.]
Their friendship was renewed when peace was made between the
two countries. Franklin wrote to Strahan in 1784 : — ' I remember
your observing once to me, as we sat together in the House of
Commons, that no two journeymen printers within your knowledge
had met with such success in the world as ourselves. You were then
at the head of your profession, and soon afterwards became a
Member of Parliament. I was an agent for a few provinces, and now
act for them.' lb. p. 172.
XXII.] THE KING'S BIRTH-DA Y IN PARIS. 65
LETTER XXII.
The King's Birth-day kept in Paris.
Dear S^R
There have some Transactions pass'd with you
of late ^, which much excite our Curiosity at a Distance ;
but I do not wish that you woud write me your Opinion
freely about them, unless you can get a private hand, by
whom you can send your Letter ^.
I shall be much obligd to you, if you will be so good as
to insert the following Article in the Chronicle ^, and give
it about to the other Papers.
'Paris. On Tuesday the fourth of June, being the
Anniversary of his Majesty's Birth day, the Earl of Hert-
ford, Ambassador from England, invited all the English of
Rank and Condition in this Place, to the Number of
seventy Persons, who dind with him and celebrated that
Solemnity. The Company appeard very Splendid, being
almost all drest in new and rich Cloaths on this Occasion ;
the Entertainment was magnificent, and the usual Healths
were drunk with great Loyalty and Alacrity by all
present *.'
I am sorry it is not allowd me to communicate to you any
more interesting Intelligence ; but be assurd of my Regard,
and excuse my abrupt Conclusion, as I write in a Hurry.
I am Dear Sir Yours most sincerely
David Hume.
Paris, 6tk of June, 1765.
Note I. The Grenville Ministry which had been formed on April
16, 1763, was succeeded by the Rockingham Ministry on July 13,
1765. The nature of the transactions which excited Hume's curiosity
at a distance can be seen in the following extracts : —
' May 25, 1765. My last, I think, was of the i6th. Since that we
have had events of almost every sort. A whole administration
dismissed, taken again, suspended, confirmed ; an insurrection ; and
we have been at the eve of a civil war. Many thousand weavers
F
66 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
rose on a bill for their relief being thrown out of the House of Lords
by the Duke of Bedford. For four days they were suffered to march
about the town with colours displayed, petitioning the King, sur-
rounding the House of Lords, mobbing and wounding the Duke
of Bedford, and at last besieging his house, which with his family
was narrowly saved from destruction. At last it grew a regular siege
and blockade ; but by garrisoning it with horse and foot literally,
and calling in several regiments the tumult is appeased. Lord Bute
rashly taking advantage of this unpopularity of his enemies, advised
the King to notify to his Ministers that he intended to dismiss them,
— and by this step, no succedaneum being prepared, reduced his
Majesty to the alternative of laying his crown at the foot of Mr. Pitt
or of the Duke of Bedford ; and as it proved at last, of both. The
Duke of Cumberland was sent for, and was sent to Mr. Pitt, from
whom, though offering almost carte blanche, he received a peremptory
refusal. The next measure was to form a Ministry from the Oppo-
sition. Willing were they, but timid. Without Mr. Pitt nobody
would engage. The King was forced to desire his old Ministers to
stay where they were. . . . Here are all the great and opulent noble
families engaged on one side or the other. Here is the King insulted
and prisoner, his Mother stigmatised, his Uncle affronted, his
Favourite persecuted. It is again a scene of Bohuns, Montforts and
Plantagenets. . . . When I recollect all I have seen and known, I
seem to be as old as Methuselah ; indeed I was born in politics, —
but I hope not to die in them. With all my experience, these last
five weeks have taught me more than any other ten years.' Walpole
to Mann. Letters, iv. 370-2.
'June 26, 1765. You have known your country in more perilous
situations, but you never knew it in a more distracted one in time of
peace than it is in at present. Nor had I ever more difficulty to
describe its position to you. Times of party have their great outlines
which even such historians as Hollingshed or Smollett can seize.
But a season of faction is another guess thing. It depends on
personal characters, intrigues and minute circumstances, which make
little noise and escape the eyes of the generality. The details are as
much too numerous for a letter as, when the moment is past, they
become too trifling and uninteresting for history.' lb. p. 377.
Burke, writing on May 18 to Henry Flood, said : — ' Nothing but an
intractable temper in your friend Pitt can prevent a most admirable
and lasting system from being put together ; and this crisis will shew
whether pride or patriotism be predominant in his character ; for
you may be assured that he has it now in his power to come into
the service of his country upon any plan of politics he may choose to
dictate, with great and honourable terms to himself and to every
friend he has in the world ; and with such a stretch of power as will
be equal to everything but absolute despotism over the King and
kingdom. A few days will shew whether he will take this part,
XXII.] OPENING LETTERS IN THE POST OFFICE. 67
or that of continuing on his back at Hayes, talking fustian, excluded
from all ministerial, and incapable of all parliamentary service ; for
his gout is worse than ever, but his pride may disable him more
than his gout. These matters so fill our imaginations here that with
our mob of six or seven thousand weavers who pursue the Ministry,
and do not leave them quiet or safety in their houses, we have little
to think of other things.' Burke's Private Corres. i. 80.
Dr. Blair wrote to Hume in Paris on July i [1765] : — ' Our Political
Revolutions here would amaze you. . . . All that seems to be certain
is that L. B. [Lord Bute] is worsted and [the King] made a
prisoner. If the present Estabhshment take any root, it will probably
end in his relapsing altogether into the condition of a private man
and amusing himself with his Wife and his Children ; now that
they have found the ways of subduing him.' M. S. R. S. E.
Macaulay, in his second Essay on the Earl of Chatham (ed. 1874,
iv. 318), describing his conduct at this time says : — ' And now began
a long series of errors on the part of the illustrious statesman, errors
which involved his country in difficulties and distresses more serious
even than those from which his genius had formerly rescued her.
His language was haughty, unreasonable, almost unintelligible. The
only thing which could be discerned, through a cloud of vague and
not very gracious phrases, was that he would not at that moment
take office.'
Note 2. In the letter writers of this age distrust is very often
shewn of the Post Office. Such passages as the following are not
unfrequently met with : — ' London, April 19, 1748. I know that most
letters from and to me are opened.' Lord Chesterfield to Mr. Day-
roUes. Chesterfield's Misc. Works, iv. 47.
' London, June 8, 1757. The public, perhaps at the moment I write
this, is at the crisis of its fate\ But I say no more. For at the Post
Office, it is said, they use a liberty without licence (just the contrary
of what is done everywhere else, where they use licence without
liberty) to open people's letters.' Warburton to Hurd. Letters from
a late Eminent Prelate, ed. 1809, p. 244.
' London, June 26, 1765. You know, my dear Sir, I never expect
you to answer me on these delicate subjects [a threatened change
of Ministry]. I even send this by a safe conveyance to Lord
Hertford at Paris, as I did a former one which I hope you received.'
Horace Walpole to Mann. Letters, iv. 378.
' London, Aug. 29, 1766. I am told there is a great fracas at the
Post Office about a letter from the Duke of Bedford to the Duke
of Grafton [the Prime Minister] having been opened. Mr. Saxby is
named as the person doing it, and is under strict examination, I hear,
to name who set him on to do it. . . . Sept. 2. Saxby is turned out
of an office of £j.2oo a year for opening the Duke of Bedford's letter,
' The Pitt and Newcastle Miaistry was forming.
F 2
68 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
it is said, to the Duke of Grafton.' Mr. Lloyd to Mr. Grenville.
Grenville Papers, iii. 311. The editor quotes a Private Memorial to
Mr. Grenville, when Prime Minister, from Mr. Anthony Todd, the
Secretary to the General Post Office, dated August 1763, containing
an account of ^5810 Secret Service Money applied to the payment
of the allowances on the Secret List for one year. A request was
made that the allowance of one Mr. Bode might be increased, 'for
engraving the many seals we are obliged to make use of.' On this
Secret List Mr. Todd's name is entered for ^750, with ^25 added,
'for distributing these allowances.' His regular salary was only
;^20o (Court and City Register for 1765, p. 129). It must have been
raised later on, for on June 17, 1783, Mr. Pitt in the Debate on his
Bill for Reform of Abuses in the Public Offices, ' speaking of fees
mentioned the place of the Secretary of the Post Office, who with a
salary of five or six hundred pounds made an annual income of
upwards of three thousand. Mr. Pitt stated this to arise from his
having two and a half per cent, on all packets [packet-boats] ; and in
the last year of the war he said ;£i40,ooo had been expended in
packets, so many were either lost at sea or taken.' Pari. Hist, xxiii.
951. I was puzzled at finding in the Secret List the Bishop of Bath
and Wells as the recipient of .^500 a year ; but after some search
I solved the mystery by discovering the following mention of him
by Horace Walpole in 1741 : — ' Old Weston of Exeter is dead. Dr.
Clarke, the Dean, Dr. Willes, the decipherer, and Dr. Gilbert of
Llandaff are candidates to succeed him. Sir R[obert Walpole, the
Prime-Minister] is for Willes, who, he says, knows so many secrets
that he might insist upon being made Archbishop.' Letters, i. 116.
His death is thus mentioned in the Gent. Mag. for Dec. 1773,
p. 582 : — ' In Hill Street, Berkeley Square, aged 80, Dr. Edward
Willes, Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, and joint Decipherer (with
his son Edward Willes, Esq.) to the King. He was consecrated
Bishop of St. David's in 1742, and translated to the see of Bath and
Wells in 1743.' Edward Willes is entered on the Secret List as
receiving £y>o, and Thomas Willes ^^300.
' Dublin, May 19, 1769. To avoid the impertinence of a post-office
I take the opportunity of sending this by a private hand.' Earl of
Charlemont to Burke. Burke Corres. i. 167.
' Gregories, July 9, 1769. Might I presume to suggest that just at
this time he [the Duke of Richmond] may possibly expect to hear
from your lordship by the first safe conveyance. If the letter be
given to his porter it will be sent by the coach to Goodwood.' Burke
to the Marquis of Rockingham. lb. p. 176.
If we may trust Hume the correspondence of private life was safe.
He wrote to the Countess de Boufflers in 1775 : — ' No private letters
are ever opened here.' Hume's Private Corres. p. 282.
At this time the posts to France left London on Tuesday and
Friday in every week, and arrived in London from France on Monday
XXIII.] WILKES IN PARIS. 69
and Friday. Their punctual- arrival must of course have depended
on a favourable wind. Court and City Register for 1765, p. 132.
Note 3. It was inserted in the Chronicle of June 13.
Note 4. On June 5 of the previous year Wilkes wrote from Paris,
where he was living in exile :— ' Lord Hertford gave yesterday a
grand dinner to all the English here except one, and to the true Irish
Whigs; nor, like a good courtier, did he omit the new converts,
the Scotch. ... I am the single Englishman not invited by the am-
bassador of my country on the only day I can at Paris shew my
attachment to my Sovereign, as if I was disaffected to the present
establishment. ... To say the truth, I passed the day much more to
my satisfaction than I should have done in a set of mixed or suspicious
company ; a fulsome dull dinner ; two hours of mighty grave con-
versation to be purchased (in all civility) by six more of Pharaoh —
which I detest as well as every other kind of gaming.' Almons
Memoirs of Wilkes, iii. 124-7.
LETTER XXIII.
Faction in England.
COMPEIGNE, /Lof Ausrt., 176^.
Dear S'^ ^j s , .
Your Letter is the most satisfactory and most im-
partial Account of the present Transactions, which I have
met with from any hand. I give you thanks for it. I
had long entertain'd Hopes, that, being here in a foreign
Employment, we lay much out of the Road of Faction ;
and that your Ministry in England might toss and tumble
over one another, without affecting us; but I see we
are now involvd to a certain degree, and must run the
Fate of the rest. It is probable I shall be soon in England
when I shall have an Opportunity of conversing with you
and thanking you more fully ^ I am glad to hear better
Accounts of Mr. Millar.
Yours
D. H.
Note I. On July 13, 1765, Hume received his commission under the
Great Seal as Secretary to the Embassy at Paris. On June 3, on
hearing of the appointment, he had written to Elliot :— ' In spite of
70 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Atheism and Deism, of Whiggism and Toryism, of Scotticism and
Philosophy, I am now possessed of an ofiSce of credit, and of £\2ixi a
year.' Burton's Hume, ii. 281. The fall of the Grenville Ministry made
a great change in his fortune. His patron, the Earl of Hertford, was
offered by the Marquis of Rockingham the post of Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland. For some time the Earl hesitated between Ireland and
Paris. 'He takes the former,' wrote Walpole on July 30 (Letters, iv.
388), 'not very gladly, but to accommodate his brother, and his
nephew, Grafton.' His brother, General Conway, and the Duke of
Grafton were the two Secretaries of State in the new Ministry.
Hume was left to represent the Ambassador till the arrival of the
Duke of Richmond, Lord Hertford's successor, in November, 1765.
Horace Walpole, who visited Paris in the interval, wrote on Sept. 26
{lb. p. 409) : — ' Lady Hertford is gone and the Duke of Richmond not
come ; consequently I am as isole z& I can wish to be.' He lodged in
the same hotel as Hume, and often met him ; yet he makes very
little mention of him in his letters. The two men had but little in
common.
For some time it seemed that Hume was to have a still higher
office. ' Lord Hertford had assured him that he would not accept of
the Lord-Lieutenancy unless he were allowed the naming of the
Secretary.' He had now heard that ' the office was destined for him-
self in conjunction with Lord Hertford's son. Lord Beauchamp.'
Burton's Hume, ii. 287. On Aug. 4, Hume wrote to his brother from
Compiegne : — ' My Sallary [as Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant] will
be about 2000 a year. . . . This is an office of Credit and Dignity, and
the Secretary has always an unquestioned Claim, whenever his Term
expires, of being provided for in a handsome Manner. Thus you see
a splendid Fortune awaits me ; yet you cannot imagine with what
Regret I leave this Country. It is like Stepping out of Light into
Darkness to exchange Paris for Dubhn. ... I shall probably have it
in my Power to do Service to my Friends, particularly to your young
Folks. For as to you and myself it is long since we thought our
Fortunes entirely made. ... I shall remain all the Winter and
Spring in Ireland ; and no more for two Years.' M. S. R. S. E.
Before the end of the month he learnt that the office was not for
him. He wrote to his brother : — ' Lord Hertford, on his arrival in
London, found great difficulty of executing his intentions in my
favour. The cry is loud against the Scots ; and the present Ministry
are unwilling to support any of our countrymen, lest they bear the
reproach of being connected with Lord Bute. For this reason Lord
Hertford departed from his project ; which he did the more readily,
as he knew I had a great reluctance to the office of Secretary for
Ireland, which requires a talent for speaking in public to which I was
never accustomed. I must also have kept a kind of open house, and
have drunk and caroused with the Irish, a course of living to which
I am as little accustomed.' Burton's Hume, ii. 290.
XXIII.] THE SECRETARYSHIP FOR IRELAND. 71
In a letter to Adam Smith, dated Nov. 5, after mentioning 'the
Rage against the Scots,' he adds : — ' Perhaps the Zeal against Deists
entered for a share.' In the same letter he describes the office as
one ' of great Dignity, as the Secretary is in a manner prime Minister
of that Kingdom.' M. S. R. S. E.
Two years later we find Junius mocking at ' a Scotch secretary
teaching the Irish people the true pronunciation of the English
language.' In a note it is stated that it was Sir Gilbert Elliot, Hume's
friend, who was meant. Letters of Junius, ed. 1812, ii. 474.
When the Earl of Chesterfield was made Lord Lieutenant in the
year 1745, he chose for his Secretary ' one " who was," he said, " a very
genteel pretty young fellow, but not a man of business.'' On the first
visit his Secretary paid him, he told him, " Sir, you will receive the
emoluments of your place ; but I will do the business myself, being
determined to have no first Minister." ' Chesterfield's Misc. Works,
i. 255. We may wonder whether Hume, if he had been appointed,
would, like Windham, have felt ' some modest and virtuous doubts,
whether he could bring himself to practise those arts which it is
supposed a person in that situation has occasion to employ. " Don't
be afraid. Sir (said Johnson, with a pleasant smile,) you will soon
make a very pretty rascal." ' Boswell's Johnson, iv. 200. Among the
Hume Papers belonging to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, I found
the following letter written to him the year before by one Mr.
O'Conor.
London, February lotk, 1764.
'Sir!
' The Author of the annexed printed Letter, is an Irish Gentle-
man, who is highly concerned, that so great a Man as Mr. Hume
should be ranked among the Foes of Ireland. He Observes, that
you mention the Irish with Scorn and Contempt, whenever they fall
in your way, not only in your history, but even in your Miscellanies.
Prejudices against this or that Nation, are prejudices unworthy of a
philosopher, who knows that all men are formed by nature of the
same materials, and who ought to be the Common friend and protec-
tor of his Species.
The Author's intention was, that his friend in London should pre-
sent you this letter in Manuscript, but his Friend being informed, that
you ^id not reside in London, published [it] in the Gentlemen's
Musaeum' for April and May of the year '63.
' How far the reasonings contained in the annexed Letter, will con-
tribute to change your Opinion, with respect to the Conduct of the
Irish ever since they were reduced under the Yoke of England, I
cannot determine. But I hope these reasonings will have a favorable
Effect. Mr. Hume is not only a great man, but he is a good man, but
he is an upright man. He will therefore expunge from his History,
' The Universal Museum, or Gentleman's and Ladies' Polite Magazine of His-
tory, Politicks and Literature. Vol. i. was published in 1762.
7a LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
the ill-grounded Censures, which he has thrown upon the unfortunate
Irish. He will cure the Wounds, that he has inflicted upon this most
distressed Nation under the Sun.
' Grant, Sir, by way of Supposition, that the Charge you bring in
your History against the Irish is false. On this hypothesis what has
not Mr. Hume to account for ? — the Roman Cathohc Irish have been
for seventy years past, the Continual Objects of political Calumny.
Hence it is that all the Batteries of Law are perpetually playing against
them. Hence it is that Penal Laws are enacted to beggar them, to
corrupt them, to divide them, to force them to become Apostates,
perjurers and Informers, for the Destruction of each Other.
'To consider the present Roman Catholic Irish in a proper Light,
you must consider them. Sir, as a people half murthered, chained to
the ground, and constantly trod upon in this situation, by a troop of
wanton Oppressors. Shall the illustrious Mr. Hume join in the
horrid Cruelty by propagating and swelling the political Lie that has
always been, and continues to be, the Cause of it ? If a Reparation
of Honour be due to a Private Person who is injured by a false impu-
tation, how much more sacred does this Debt become, when a w^hole
Nation is Calumniated, when Thousands yet unborn are destined to
feel the effects of the Slander.
' The Case between you. Sir, and Ireland stands thus : you have
fastened the Chains, you have widened the wounds of an expiring
people, upon the authority of some English historians who thought
themselves interested in robbing the Irish of their reputation, as well
as of their lands.
' Had the Account which you give come from an inferior Hand — it
would do little hurt— but coming from the hands of Mr. Hume, one of
the first Geniuses of the Age he lives in, it arms not only the Preju-
dices of England, but the Prejudices of the whole Human Race,
against the forlorn Irish.
' For the justness and force of the reasoning contained in the
annexed Letter, the Author appeals to your own bosom. You will
therefore. Sir, it is hoped, do something to repair the Injury you
have done a Nation that never did, that never could offend you.
Your bookseller, A. Millar, is on the point of giving a new edition of
your History. Something by way of Appendix may be added to
atone for the Mistakes that have crept into the first Editions, and to
prevent the growing Mischiefs of a popular Error, which has obtained
the sanction of the \sic\ great Name.
' I expect. Sir, that you will honour me with an Answer, which I
shall transmit to the Irish Gentleman who wrote the annexed Letter.
You will please to address it to Mr. Daniel O'Conor, At the Bull and
Gate, in Holborn, London.
' I am with the greatest Respect and Attachment Sir
' Your most obedient and most humble Servant
'Daniel O'Conor.'
XXIV.] ROUSSEAU'S VISIT TO ENGLAND. 73
LETTER XXIV.
The Arrival of Hume and Rousseau in London.
[London, early in 1766.]
Dear Strahan
Is it not strange that you and I have not yet met ^ ?
I have been so hurry'd both with my own Affairs and with
Mon' Rousseau's, that I can excuse myself: But I own
that I hopd your Leizure woud allow you to come hither.
I go out of town to morrow and Sunday ^ : As soon as I
come back I propose to beat up your Quarters. My
Compliments to Mrs. Strahan.
Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Buckingham Street, York Buildings ',
Mrs. Adams's. Friday.
Note I. Grimm, writing on Jany. i, 1766, says that Rousseau came
to Paris on Dec. 17, and was to leave for England with Hume on
Jany. 4. Corres. Lit. v. 3. The travellers were detained some days
at Calais by contrary winds. They arrived in London on the 14th.
In the London Chronicle the following notices are given of their
arrival. 'Jan. 14. Yesterday [Monday] David Hume Esq., arrived
in London from Paris.' p. 48. ' Jan. 16. Monday last arrived in town
the celebrated Jean Jacques Rousseau.' p. 50. It seems highly pro-
bable, as Strahan the printer of the paper was Hume's friend, that it
was by Hume's own wish that it was not made known that they came
together.
Rousseau, speaking of his arrival in England, says : — ' J'y apportais
I'estime universelle at le respect meme de mes ennemis.' CEuvres de
Rousseau, ed. 1782, xxiv. 338. It was on Feb. 15 of this same year
that Johnson said of him : — ' I think him one of the worst of men ; a
rascal who ought to be hunted out of society, as he has been. Three
or four nations have expelled him ; and it is a shame that he is pro-
tected in this country. . . . Rousseau, Sir, is a very bad man. I
would sooner sign a sentence for his transportation than that of any
felon who has gone from the Old Bailey these many years. Yes, I
should like to have him work in the plantations." ' Boswell's John-
son, ii. II.
Note 2. Perhaps Hume paid the visit which he thus describes : —
' I had accompanied Mr. Rousseau into a very pleasant part of the
county of Surrey, where he spent two days at Colonel Webb's ; Mr.
74 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
Rousseau seeming to me highly delighted with the natural and soli-
tary beauties of the place. Through the means of Mr. Stewart
therefore I entered into treaty with Colonel Webb for the purchasing
the house, with a little estate adjoining, in order to make a settlement
for Mr. Rousseau.' A Concise Account of the Dispute between Mr.
Hume and Mr. Rousseau, p. ii.
Note 3. ' York Buildings, in the Strand, so denominated from the
Archbishop of York's house there, purchased by Nicholas Heath the
Archbishop, about the year 1556, of the Bishop of Norwich ; but
afterwards coming to John, Duke of Buckingham, he demised the
house and garden to several builders, and they erected there several
handsome streets and alleys, in which his name and title are recorded,
viz., John Street, Villars Street, Duke Street, Off (.' Of) Alley, and
Buckingham Street. However these streets together are still
denominated York Buildings.' Dodsley's London and its Environs,
ed. 1 761, vi. 369.
LETTER XXV.
Hume's Quarrel with Rousseau.
[London, /a/)/ 15, 1766.]
All I can say of S'' David Dalrymple is that he is now a
Lord of the Session, and passes by the Name of Lord
Hales or New-hales, I know not which \ He is a godly
Man ; feareth the Lord and escheweth Evil, And works out
his Salvation with Fear and Trembling 2. None of the
Books Sir David publishes are of his writing : They are
all historical Manuscripts, of little or no Consequence ^ I
go to Woburn * for three or four days.
I have got a Letter from Rousseau, which woud make
a good eighteen penny Pamphlet. I fancy he intends
to publish it^. It is perfect Frenzy*; consequently sets
my Mind quite at Ease '.
Yours
D. H.
Note I. The fifteen Scotch Judges, or Lords of Session, 'have,'
writes Boswell, ' both in and out of Court the title of Lords from the
name of their estates.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 291, n. 6. Lord Cock-
burn, writing in 185a, says :— ' This assumption of two names, one
XXV.] LORD HAILES. 75
official and one personal, and being addressed by the one and sub-
scribing by the other, is wearing out, and will soon disappear.' Cock-
burn's Jeffrey, i. 365. Dalrymple took the title of Lord Hailes. His
grandfather, who had bought the family mansion, then lately erected,
had given it the name of New Hailes, to distinguish it, no doubt, from
some older house. See Scotland and Scotsmen, i. /[ii note. Boswell
informed Johnson of ' Sir David's eminent character for learning and
religion.' Johnson thereupon ' drank a bumper to him, " as a man of
worth, a scholar, and a wit." " I have," said he, " never heard of him
except from you ; but let him know my opinion of him ; for as he
does not shew himself much in the world, he should have the praise
of the few who hear of him." ' Boswell's Johnson, i. 432, 451.
When Johnson visited Scotland he met Dalrymple and was highly
pleased with him. lb. v. 48. Later on he revised at his request the
proofs of his Annals of Scotland, which he described as ' a new mode
of history. . . . The exactness of his dates raises my wonder.' lb. ii.
383-
Note 2. Hume, in his Scriptural phrases, apparently has in mind
Job ii. 3, and Philippians ii. 12. Dalrymple was one of ' the malicious
fellows,' who, as Curators of the Advocates' Library, had ' struck
out of the catalogue, and removed from the shelves as indecent
books, and unworthy of a place in a learned library,' three French
works which Hume, when Librarian, had purchased. See ante,
my note on Hume's Autobiography.
Note 3. ' Dr. Johnson had last night [Aug. 15, 1773] looked into
Lord Hailes's Remarks on the History of Scotland. Dr. Robertson and
I said it was a pity Lord Hailes did not write greater things. His
Lordship had not then published his Annals of Scotland' Boswell's
Johnson, v. 38. Hume wrote from London to Sir Gilbert Elliot, on
July 5, 1768 : — ' I have seen a book newly printed at Edinburgh,
called Philosophical Essays ; it has no manner of sense in it, but is
wrote with tolerable neatness of style ; whence I conjecture it to be
our friend. Sir David's.' Burton's Hume, ii. 414. Elliot having
informed him that James Balfour was the author, Hume replied : — ' I
thought Sir David had been the only Christian that could write
English on the other side of the Tweed.' lb. p. 418.
Note 4. Hume wrote to Dr. Blair on July 15, 1766 : — ' I go in a few
hours to Woburn' [the seat of the Duke of Bedford]. Burton's
Hume, ii. 345. He had been introduced by the Countess de Boufflers
to the Duke and Duchess, ' who have,' he wrote, ' been essentially
obliged to her in their family concerns. She wrote the Duke about a
fortnight ago that the time was now come, and the only time that pro-
bably ever would come, of his shewing his friendship to her by assist-
ing me in jny applications [to be made Secretary to the Embassy]; and
she would rest on this sole circumstance all Ms professions of regard
to her. He received her letter while in the country, but he wrote her
back that he would immediately hasten to town, and if he had any
76 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
credit with the King or Ministry, her solicitations should be complied
with.' lb. p. 279. Hume, in his last illness, complained to John
Home of the design of the Whigs to ruin him as an author. ' Amongst
many instances of this he told me one which was new to me. The
Duke of Bedford (who afterwards conceived a great affection for
him) by the suggestions of some of his party friends ordered his son,
Lord Tavistock, not to read his History of England.' lb. ii. 500.
Note 5. So early as the summer of 1762, Hume touched with pity
for Rousseau, ' who was obliged to fly France on account of some
passages in his Entile, had offered him a retreat in his own house, so
long as he should please to partake of it.' At the same time he tried
to procure him a pension from George HI. ' It would,' he wrote to
Gilbert Elliot, ' be a signal victory over the French worth a hundred
of our Mindens ^, to protect and encourage a man of genius whom they
had persecuted ^.' At this same time Rousseau was writing to the
Countess de Boufflers : — ' Ainsi successivement on me refusera
partout I'air et I'eau. . . . Dans I'etat oil je suis, il ne me reste qu'a
me laisser chasser de frontiere en frontiere, jusqu'a ce que je ne
puisse plus aller. Alors le dernier fera de moi ce qu'il lui plaira '.'
To Hume he wrote on Feb. 19, 1763 from Motiers Travers, where he
was under the protection of the exiled Earl Marischal of Scotland : —
' Que ne puis-je esperer de nous voir un jour rassembles avec Milord
dans votre commune patrie, qui deviendrait la mienne ! Je benirais
dans una societe si douce les malheurs par lesquels j'y fus conduit, et
je croirais n'avoir commence de vivre que du jour qu'elle aurait
commence. Puisse-je voir cet heureux jour plus desire qu'esp6r6 !
Avec quel transport je m'ecrierais, en touchant I'heureuse terre oil
sont nes David Hume et le Mar^chal d'Ecosse,
" Salve fatis mihi debita tellus !
Hie domus, haec patria est ''." '
No further correspondence passed between the two philosophers till
the middle of the year 1765, when Hume who was at Paris was in-
formed that Rousseau wished to seek under his protection an asylum in
England. ' I could not,' writes Hume, ' reject a proposal made to me
under such circumstances by a man so celebrated for his genius and
misfortunes *.' He brought him over to England, and treated him with
the greatest kindness. ' I must own,' he wrote, ' I felt an emotion of
pity mixed with indignation, to think a man of letters of such emi-
nent merit should be reduced, in spite of the simplicity of his manner
' The French were beaten at Minden by the English and Hanoverian army on
Aug. 1, 1759. ' All we know is,' wrote Horace Walpole on the gth, ' that not one
Engh'shman is killed, nor one Frenchman left alive.' Letters, iii. 244.
' A Concise Account, p. 2, and Stewart's Robertson, p. 359.
■' Hume's Private Corres. p. 11.
' lb. p. 59. The quotation is from the Aineid, vii. 120-a.
° A Concise Account, p. 5.
XXV.] ROUSSEAU'S SUSPICIONS OF HUME. 77
of living, to such extreme indigence ; and that this unhappy state
should be rendered more intolerable by sickness, by the approach of
old age, and the implacable rage of persecution. I knew that many
persons imputed the wretchedness of Mr. Rousseau to his excessive
pride, which induced him to refuse the assistance of his friends ; but I
thought tliis fault, if it were a fault, was a very respectable one. Too
many men of letters have debased their character in stooping so low
as to solicit the assistance of persons of wealth or power, unworthy
of affording them protection ; and I conceived that a noble pride, even
though carried to excess, merited some indulgence in a man of
genius, who, borne up by a sense of his own superiority and a love of
independence, should have braved the storms of fortune and the
insults of mankind ^'
Hume was generous and even delicate in more than one scheme
which he formed to help his friend. But while he was still planning,
Mr. Davenport, ' a gentleman of family, fortune, and worth,' offered
his house at Wooton in the County of Derby. That Rousseau's
dignity might be saved, he consented to receive thirty pounds a year
for his board and that of his housekeeper "-
Through Hume's intercession, the King moreover agreed to grant
him a pension on condition that it should not be made public. To
this Rousseau at first willingly assented'. But all the while the
black clouds of suspicion were once more gathering in his mind. In
the St. James's Chronicle was published a letter, as malicious as it was
witty, addressed to him in the name of Frederick the Great, but really
written by Horace Walpole. The Prussian King is made to offer
him a shelter, and to conclude : — ' Si vous persistez a vous creuser
I'esprit pour trouver de nouveaux malheurs, choisissez les tels que
vous voudrez. Je suis roi, je puis vous en procurer au gre de vos
souhaits : et ce qui surement ne vous arrivera pas vis-a-vis de vos
ennemis, je cesserai de vous persecuter quand vous cesserez de
mettre votre gloire a I'dtre *.' Rousseau suspected Hume of having
had a hand in its publication. He became sullen even before he left
London for Wooton. In a letter dated April 3, Hume describes a
curious scene with him ' which proves,' he says, ' his extreme sensibi-
lity and good heart.' Rousseau had charged him with sharing in a
good-natured contrivance, by which Mr. Davenport hoped to save
him part of the expense of the journey to Derbyshire. Hume in vain
protested his ignorance. ' Upon which M. Rousseau sat down in a
very sullen humour, and all attempts which I could make to revive the
conversation and turn it on other subjects were in vain. After near
an hour, he rose up, and walked a little about the room. Judge of my
surprise when, all of a sudden, he sat down upon my knee, threw his
' A Concise Account, p. 9. ^ lb. p. 13, and Private Carres, p. 161.
' A Concise Account, p. 18.
* Walpole's letters, iv. 463. A translation is given in the London Chronicle of
April 5, 1766.
78 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
arms about my neck, kissed me with the greatest ardour, and bedewed
all my face with tears ! " Ah ! my dear friend," exclaimed he, " is it
possible you can ever forgive my folly? This ill-humour is the
return I make you for all the instances of your kindness towards me.
But notwithstanding all my faults and follies, I have a heart worthy
of your friendship, because it knows both to love and esteem you '." '
Hume referring to this outburst of feeling in a letter to Rousseau
says : — ' I was very much affected, I own ; and, I believe, there
passed a very tender scene between us. You added, by way of com-
pliment, that though I had many better titles to recommend me to
posterity, yet perhaps my uncommon attachment and friendship to a
poor unhappy persecuted man would not altogether be overlooked^.'
The following day Rousseau went to Wooton, while Hume, who
remained in London, went on busying himself about the pension.
Rousseau had suddenly objected to its being kept secret, and had
written a letter to General Conway in which he seemed to decUne it
altogether. To Hume's letters he returned no answers. ' I thought,'
said the complacent philosopher, ' that my friend, conscious of having
treated me ill in this affair, was ashamed to write to me ''.' What were
the feelings which up to this time he had entertained of Rousseau, is
shewn in the following extracts from his correspondence.
Hume to the Countess de Boufflers.
' Edinburgh, July i, 1762.' After speaking of ' my esteem, I had
almost said veneration, for the virtue and genius of M. Rousseau,' he
continues : — ' I assure your Ladyship there is no man in Europe of
whom I have entertained a higher idea, and whom I would be
prouder to serve ; . . . I revere his greatness of mind, which makes
him fly obligations and dependance ; and I have the vanity to think,
that through the course of my life I have endeavoured to resemble
him in those maxims *.'
Hume to Elliot.
' Edinburgh, July 5, 1762.' Speaking of Rousseau's writings he
says : — ' For my part, though I see some tincture of extravagance
in all of them, I also think I see so much eloquence and force of
imagination, such an energy of expression and such a boldness of
conception, as entitles him to a place among the first writers of the
age^'
Hume to the Countess de Boufflers.
' Edinburgh, Jan. 22, 1763.' After pointing out some faults in
Rousseau's Treatise of Education, he continues : — ' However it carries
still the stamp of a great genius ; and what enhances its beauty, the
stamp of a very particular genius. The noble pride and spleen and
indignation of the author bursts out with freedom in a hundred places,
and serves fully to characterize the lofty spirit of the man ^'
^ Private Carres, p. iji. 'A Concise Account, p. 85.
' lb. p. 26. * Private Carres, p. 8.
° Stewart's Robertson, p. 358. ' Private Carres, p. 56,
XXV.] HUME'S PRAISE OF ROUSSEAU. 79
Hume to the Countess de Boufflers.
' London, Jan. 19, 1766. My companion is very amiable, always
polite, gay often, commonly sociable. He does not know himself
when he thinks he is made for entire solitude. . . . He has an excel-
lent warm heart ; and in conversation kindles often to a degree of
heat which looks like inspiration. I love him much, and hope that I
have some share in his affections ^.'
Hume to the Marchioness de Barbantane.
' Feb. 16, 1766. M. Rousseau's enemies have sometimes made
you doubt of his sincerity, and you have been pleased to ask my
opinion on this head. After having lived so long with him, and seen
him in a variety of lights, I am now better enabled to judge ; and
I declare to you that I have never known a man more amiable
and more virtuous than he appears to me : he is mild, gentle, modest,
affectionate, disinterested ; and above all, endowed with a sensibility
of heart in a supreme degree. Were I to seek for his faults, I should
say that they consisted in a little hasty impatience, which, as I am
told, inclines him sometimes to say disobliging things to people that
trouble him : he is also too delicate in the commerce of life : he is
apt to entertain groundless suspicions of his best friends ; and his
lively imagination working upon them feigns chimeras, and pushes
him to great extremes. I have seen no instances of this disposition,
but I cannot otherwise account for the violent animosities which
have arisen between him and several men of merit, with whom
he was once intimately acquainted ; and some who love him much
have told me that it is difficult to live much with him and preserve
his friendship ; but for my part, I think I could pass all my life in his
company without any danger of our quarrelling ^.'
Hume to his brother John Home.
' Lisle Street, March 22, 1766. Rousseau left me four days ago. . . .
Surely he is one of the most singular of all human Beings, and one
of the most unhappy. His extreme Sensibility of Temper is his
Torment ; as he is much more susceptible of Pain than Pleasure.
His Aversion to Society is not Affectation as is commonly believd.
When in it, he is commonly very amiable, but often very unhappy.
And tho' he be also unhappy in Sohtude, he prefers that Species of
sufiFering to the other. He is surely a very fine Genius. And of all
the Writers that are or ever were in Europe, he is the Man who has
acquird the most enthusiastic and most passionate Admirers. I have
seen many extraordinary Scenes of this Nature '.'
Hume to the Countess de Boufflers.
' Lisle Street, April 3, 1766. The chief circumstance which hinders
me from repenting of my journey is the use I have been to poor
Rousseau, the most singular, and often the most amiable man in
the world. . . . Never was man who so well deserves happiness so
' Private Corres. p. 125. " lb. p. 142. ' M. S. R. S. E.
8o LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
little calculated by nature to attain it. The extreme sensibility of
his character is one great cause; but still more the frequent and
violent fits of spleen and discontent and impatience, to which, either
from the constitution of his mind or body, he is so subject. He
is commonly, however, the best company in the world, when he will
submit to live with men. . . . For my part I never saw a man, and
very few women, of a more agreeable commerce. ... It is one of his
weaknesses that he likes to complain. The truth is, he is unhappy,
and he is better pleased to throw the reason on his health and
circumstances and misfortunes than on his melancholy humour and
disposition ^.'
Hume to M. . (A French friend.)
' Lisle Street, ce 2 de Mai, 1766. II a un peu la faiblesse de vouloir
se rendre interessant, en se plaignant de sa pauvrete et de sa
mauvaise sante ; mais j'ai decouvert par hasard qu'il a quelques
ressources d'argent, petites a la verite, mais qu'il nous a cach^es,
quand il nous a rendu compte de ses biens. Pour ce qui regarde sa
sante, elle me paralt plutdt robuste qu'infirme, a moins que vous
ne vouliez compter les acces de melancolie et de spleen auxquels
il est sujet. C'est grand dommage : il est fort aimable par ses
manieres ; il est d'un coeur honnete et sensible ; mais ces acces
I'eloignent de la societe, le remplissent d'humeur, et donnent quel-
quefois a sa conduite un air de bizarrerie et de violence, qualites qui
ne lui sont pas naturelles ^.'
Hume to the Countess de Boufflers.
'Lisle Street, May 16, 1766. I am afraid, my dear Madam, that
notwithstanding our friendship and our enthusiasm for this philo-
sopher, he has been guilty of an extravagance the most unaccountable
and most blamable that is possible to be imagined.' After describing
Rousseau's letter to General Conway, in which he declined to receive
a pension unless it were made pubUc, Hume continues : — 'Was ever
anything in the world so unaccountable ? For the purposes of
life and conduct and society a little good sense is surely better
than all this genius, and a little good humour than this extreme
sensibihty ^.'
Not a whit discouraged by Rousseau's extravagance and sullen
silence, he went on doing his best to overcome the only difiSculty
that remained about the pension, by getting the condition of secrecy
removed*. In the midst of his self-complacency, while he was,
no doubt, flattering himself with the thought that he had attained the
highest degree of merit which can be bestowed on any human
creature, by possessing ' the sentiment of benevolence in an eminent
degree ^' the fat good-humoured Epicurean of the North received,
one day in June, a ruder shock than has perhaps ever tried a
^ Private Carres, pp. 148-153. " li. p. 161. ' fi. p. 169.
* A Concise Account, p. 28. ' Hume's Phil, Works, ed. 1854, iv. 243.
XXV.] HUME'S MANLY INDIGNATION. 8 1
philosopher's philosophy. A letter was brought to him from
Rousseau. The postage, in spite of his early training in ' a very
rigid frugality!,' he paid no doubt with cheerfulness and even with
alacrity. His friend's prolonged silence 'he still accounted for
by supposing him ashamed to write to him =.' That feehng of shame
must surely at last have given way to an outburst of gratitude, when
he had learnt of the generous efforts which had been made, and
successfully made, in his behalf. 'Je vous connais. Monsieur,'
wrote his brother philosopher, 'et vous ne I'ignorez pas . . . Touche
de votre generosite, je me jette entre vos bras ; vous m'amenez
en Angleterre, en apparence pour m'y procurer un asyle, et en
effet pour m'y deshonorer. Vous vous appliquez k cette noble
ceuvre avec un zele digne de votre coeur, et avec un art digne de
vos talens. II n'en fallait pas tant pour reussir; vous vivez dans
le grand monde, et moi dans la retraite ; le public aime a etre tromp6
et vous etes fait pour le tromper. Je connais pourtant un homme
que vous ne tromperez pas, c'est vous-meme '.'
Hume, startled from his pleasing dreams, replied in a letter of
manly indignation. ' You say that I myself know that I have been
false to you ; but I say it loudly, and will say it to the whole world,
that I know the contrary, that I know my friendship towards you
has been unbounded and uninterrupted, and that though instances of
it have been very generally remarked both in France and England,
the smallest part of it only has as yet come to the knowledge of
the public. I demand that you will produce me the man who will
assert the contrary; and above all, I demand that he will mention
any one particular in which I have been wanting to you. You owe
this to me; you owe it to yourself; you owe it to truth and honour
and justice, and to everything that can be deemed sacred among
men *.' Rousseau took three weeks to rejoin, and then sent Hume
his justification in an ' enormous letter '.' He thus describes ' the
very tender scene' that had passed between them". 'Apres le
souper, gardant tons deux le silence au coin de son feu, je m'apergois
qu'il me fixe, comme il lui arrivait souvent, et d'une maniere dont
I'idee est difficile a rendre. Pour cette fois, son regard sec, ardent,
moqueur, et prolonge devint plus qu'inquietant. Pour m'en de-
barrasser, j'essayai de le fixer a mon tour; mais en arretant mes
yeux sur les siens, je sens un fremissement inexplicable, et bientot
je suis force de les baisser. La physionomie et le ton du bon David
sont d'un bon homme, mais ovi, grand Dieu ! ce bon homme
emprunte-t-il les yeux dont il fixe ses amis? L'impression de ce
regard me reste et m'agite ; mon trouble augmente jusqu'au saisisse-
ment : si I'^panchement n'eCit succede, j'etouffais. Bientot un violent
remords me gagne ; je m'indigne de moi-meme ; enfin dans un
' Ante, Autobiography. ' A Concise Account, p. 26.
3 CEuvres de Rousseau, ed. 1782, xxiv. 337. * A Concise Account, p. 31.
» A Concise Account, p. 33. ° Ante, p. 77.
G
8a LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
transport que je me rappelle encore avec ddices, je m'elance a
son cou, je le serre etroitement ; suifoqu^ de sanglots, inond6 de
larmes, je m'ecrie d'une voix entrecoupee : Non, non, David Hume
n'est pas un traitre ; s'il tCdait le meilleur des hommes, il faudrait
qu'il en fut le plus noir. David Hume me rend poliment mes
embrassemens, et tout en me frappant de petits coups sur le dos,
me r^pete plusieurs fois d'un ton tranquille : Quoi, mon cher Mon-
sieur/ Eh, mon cher Monsieur .' Quoi done, mon cher Monsieur / II
ne me dit rien de plus ; je sens que mon coeur se resserre ; nous
aliens nous coucher, et je pars le lendemain pour la province '.'
Hume, in that he had brought him to England, had been, Rousseau
says, in some sort his protector and his patron. How he treated this
patron, when once he had seen through his malicious tricks, he next
shews. In this part of his narrative he closes each paragraph with
words which Marmontel justly describes as 'Cette tournure de
raillerie qui est le sublime de I'insolence '.'
' Premier soufflet sur la joue de mon patron. II n'en sent rien.'
' Second soufflet sur la joue de mon patron. II n'en sent rien.'
'Troisieme soufflet sur la joue de mon patron, et pour celui-la,
s'il ne le sent pas, c'est assur^ment sa faute ; il n'en sent rien ^'
Voltaire in Les honneteUs litteraires, published in 1767, thus ridicules
this passage : — ' Ah ! Jean-Jacques ! trois soufflets pour une pension !
c'est trop !
"Tudieu, I'ami, sans nous rien dire,
Corome vous baillez des soufflets." '
{Amphitryon, acte i®'.)
' Un G^nevois qui donne trois soufflets a un ^cossais ! cela fait
trembler pour les suites. Si le roi d'Angleterre avait donne la
pension, sa majesty aurait eu le quatrieme soufflet. C'est un homme
terrible que ce Jean-Jacques *.'
It seems astonishing to us, perhaps because we have the key to
Rousseau's character, that Hume did not see that this narrative, if it
bore the marks of genius, bore quite as much the marks of madness.
He should have remembered old Bentley's saying : — ' Depend upon
it, no man was ever written down but by himself'.' ' Que craindriez-
vous ? ' wrote to him the Countess de BoufBers. ' Ni Rousseau, ni
personne ne pent vous nuire. Vous etes invulnerable, si vous ne
vous blessez pas vous-mdme'.' But Hume was wanting in that
happy humour which enables a man, in the midst of the most violent
attacks, to laugh at the malicious rage of his adversary. It was the
same want of humour which made him take so much to heart the
coarse abuse which Lord Bute's ministry brought upon the Scotch.
' (Euprfs de Sousseau, xxiv. 354.
" (Euvres de Marmontel, ed. 1807, iii. 12.
' (Euvres de Rousseau, xxiv. 365, 367.
' (Euvres de Voltaire, ed. 181 9-15, xxv. 9a.
' Boswell's/cinfflx, v. 274. « Private Corres. p. 194,
XXV.] HUME'S DREAD OF ROUSSEAU. 83
Johnson with half a dozen strong words would have rent the fine
but flimsy web of suspicion which Rousseau had woven ; and would
never have troubled his head about it again. But Hume was too
much troubled by his 'love of literary fame — his ruling passion,'
as he himself avowed it. He and his enemy were in the very front
rank of European writers ; Voltaire perhaps alone equalled them
in fame. Rousseau, in the days of their friendship, had addressed
him as ' le plus illustre de mes contemporains dont la bonte surpasse
la gloire \' And now, to use the words of Hume's champions, ' the
news of this dispute had spread itself over Europe V There was
a fresh terror added. Rousseau, he says, 'who had first flattered
him indirectly with the figure he was to make in his Memoirs,
now threatened him with it.' ' A work of this nature,' Hume con-
tinues, 'both from the celebrity of the person, and the strokes of
eloquence interspersed, would certainly attract the attention of the
world; and it might be published either after my death, or after
that of the author. In the former C3s,e, there would be nobody who
could tell the story, or justify my memory. In the latter, my
apology, wrote in opposition to a dead person, would lose a great
deal of its authenticity'.' The Apology was accordingly published.
The justification was complete, but the end was missed. For
Hume's memory, which would have proved invulnerable to the
attack, has suffered from the vanity which prompted the defence.
In the brief memoir which he has left us of his life we observe
without surprise that he passes over in silence his quarrel with
Rousseau. It may be that he was unwilling to give his enemy
a chance of escaping that ' perpetual neglect and oblivion ' to which
he maintained that he had been consigned *. It is far more probable
however that, like some other conqijerors, he grew to be ashamed
of the quarrel into which he had entered, and of the victory which he
had won.
Note 6. Hume writing to Blair on July 15, 1766, expresses himself
in almost the same words. He writes : — ' To-day I received a letter
from Rousseau, which is perfect frenzy. It would make a good
eigh teen-penny pamphlet ; and I fancy he intends to publish it. . . ,
I own that I was very anxious about this affair, but this letter has
totally relieved me.' Burton's Hume, ii. 345-6. Rousseau thus
describes his letter to Lord Marischal : — ' Je voudrais vous envoyer
copie des lettres, mais c'est un livre pour la grosseur.' CEuvres de
Rousseau, xxiv. 382.
Note 7. How little his mind was at ease is shewn by the very
' CEuvres de Rousseau, xxiv. 317. 'A Concise Account, p. vii.
' lb. p. 92.
* Hume wrote to Adam Smith on Oct. 8, 1767 : — 'Thus Rousseau has had the
satisfaction during a time of being much talked of for his late transactions ; the
thing in the world he most desires ; but it has been at the expense of being
consigned to perpetual neglect and oblivion.' Burton's Hume, ii. 378,
G 2
84 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
long account of the affair which he wrote on this same 15th of July to
the Countess De Boufflers. In it he says :— ' I must now, my dear
friend, apply to you for consolation and advice in this affair, which
both distresses and perplexes me It is extremely dangerous for
me to be entirely silent. He is at present composing a book, in
which it is very likely he may fall on me wdth some atrocious lie. . . .
My present intention therefore is to write a narrative of the whole
affair. . . . But is it not very hard that I should be put to all this
trouble, and undergo all this vexation, merely on account of my
singular friendship and attention to this most atrocious scelerat ? . . .
I know that I shall have Mme. de Barbantane's sympathy and
compassion if she be at Paris.' Hume's Private Corres. p. 181.
LETTER XXVI.
Humes Account of his Quarrel with Rousseau.
[Edinburgh, Oct. 1766'.]
Dear S'"-
My Friends at Paris have thought it absolutely
necessary to publish an Account which I sent them, of my
Transactions with Rousseau, together with the original
Papers : The Affair had made a great Noise every where,
and he had been such a Fool, as to write Defiances against
me to all parts of Europe ; so that the Justification of
my Character they thought requir'd a Publication, which,
however, is very- much against my Will, coud it have been
prevented^. The whole will compose a pretty large
Pamphlet, which, I fancy, the Curiosity of the Public will
make tolerably saleable. I desire you to take upon you
the printing and publishing of it ; and if any Profit result
from it to you, I shall be very happy ; reserving the after
property and Disposal of the Pamphlet to myself. You
will take in what Bookseller you please ^ ; Becket* or
Caddel ^ or any other : For Mr. Millar woud not think
such a Trifle worthy of his Attention.
I shall immediatly send you up a Copy of the original
XXVI.] TRANSLATION OF HUME'S PAMPHLET. 85
Manuscript, which is partly English, partly French ; but
more of the latter Language, which must be translated. I
shall employ Mr. Coutt's Cover®. The Method the
Translator must proceed is this ' : My Friends at
Paris are to send me over in a Parcel ten Copies, which
will be deliverd to Miss EUiot*. I have desird her to
send them to you ; open the Parcel and take out one Copy
for your own Use. Get a discreet and careful Translator ^ :
Let him compare exactly the French Narration with my
English : Where they agree, let him insert my English :
Where they differ, let him follow the French and translate
it: The Reason of this is, that I allowd my Friends
at Paris to make what alterations they thought proper ^^ ;
and I am desirous of following exactly the Paris Edition.
All my Letters must be printed verbatim, conformable
to the Manuscript I send you.
My Parisian Friends are to add a Preface of their own
composing, which must be translated : Add, by way
of Nota bene, that the Original Letters will all be deposited
in the Musaeum^^. The Reason of this is, that Rousseau
has been so audacious as to write, that I dare not publish
his Letters without falsifying them '^^.
If you think, that a Republication of the French Edition
will answer the Expence, I am also willing you should
doit".
Of the remaining nine Copies, send one to Lord Hert-
ford, lower Grosvenor Street, another to Mr. Secretary
Conway, another to Horace Walpole, Arlington Street ",
another to Lady Hervey^^, St. James Place. Send the
remaining five to me by any private hand or by the
Waggon.
Mr. Kincaid" tells me, that two Years ago he sent en-
closd in a Parcel of Yours a corrected Quarto Copy of my
History to be deliverd to Mr. Millar. Yet Mr. Millar told
me in London that he had never seen any such thing. I
86 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
suppose he has forgot and will be able to find it upon Search.
Try, if you can recollect and put him in mind of it ".
I am Dear S'' Your most obedient humble Servant
David Hume.
Note I. Hume returned to Edinburgh late in this summer.
Millar writing to him from Kew Green, on Oct. 4, says : — ' I could
scold you most heartily if you were here, and so could Mrs. Millar,
for breaking your appointment with friends that love you sincerely,
when they had provided a turtle, and a fine haunch of forest venison
for your entertainment, and to be disappointed of you and Geo. Scott
two such heroes was too much, though we had tolerable heroes : both
your losses was very mortifying, and I am sure to more cordial
friends you could not go, though perhaps to more powerful.' Hume
replied from Edinburgh, on Oct. 21 : — ' I hope to be often merry with
you and Mrs. Millar in your House in Pall Mall ; and I wish both of
you much Health and Satisfaction in enjoying it.' M. S. R. S. E.
A son of Hume's friend, Baron Mure, gives the follovsring descrip-
tion of the historian and Sir James Stewart on their return to Edin-
burgh. 'They came home from Paris about the same time. I
remember, as a boy of five or six years old, being much struck with
the French cut of their laced coats and bags ', and especially with the
philosopher's ponderous uncouth person equipped in a bright yellow
coat spotted with black.' Caldwell Papers, i. 38.
Note 2. The following extracts shew the opinions formed by
Hume and others as to the expediency of publication : —
Hume to Blair.
' London, July i, 1766. I know you will pity me when I tell you that
I am afraid I must publish this to the world in a pamphlet, which
must contain an account of the whole transaction between us. My
only comfort is that the matter will be so clear as not to leave to any
mortal the smallest possibility of doubt. You know how dangerous
any controversy on a disputable point would be with a man of his
talents. I know not where the miscreant will now retire to, in order
to hide his head from this infamy.' Burton's Hume, ii. 344.
Adam Smith to Hume.
'Paris, July 6. I am thoroughly convinced that Rousseau is as
great a rascal as you and as every man here believes him to
be ; yet let me beg of you not to think of publishing anything to
the world. . . . Expose his brutal letter, but without giving it out of
your own hand, so that it may never be printed ; and if you can,
laugh at yourself, and I shall pawn my life that before three weeks
are at an end this little affair, which at present gives you so much
uneasiness, shall be understood to do you as much honour as any-
' Johnson defines Bag as An ornamental purse of silk tied to men's hair.
XXVI.] OPINIONS AS TO PUBLICATION. 87
thing that has ever happened to you. . . . M. Turgot and I are both
afraid that you are surrounded with evil counsellors, and that the
advice of your English literati, who are themselves accustomed to
publish all their little gossiping stories in newspapers, may have too
much influence up6n you.' lb. p. 350.
Hume to the Countess de Boufflers.
' Lisle Street, July 15. This is a deliberate and a cool plan to stab
me. . i . Should I give the whole account to the public, as I am
advised by several of my friends, particularly Lord Hertford and
General Conway, I utterly ruin this unhappy man. . . . Notwith-
standing his monstrous offences towards me, I cannot resolve to
commit such a piece of cruelty even against a man who has but too
long deceived a great part of mankind. But on the other hand it is
extremely dangerous for me to be entirely silent. He is at present
composing a book in which it is very likely he may fall on me with
some atrocious lie. I know that he is writing his memoirs, in
which I am sure to make a fine figure. . . . My present intention is to
write a narrative of the whole affair ... to make several copies . . .
to send a copy to Rousseau, and tell him in what hands the other copies
are consigned ; that if he can contradict any one fact he may have it
in his power.' Hume ends by calling him 'this most atrocious
sce'k'rat.' Private Corres. p. 180.
D'Alembert to Voltaire.
' [Paris] 16 de juillet. II [Hume] se prepare a donner toute cette
histoire au public. Que de sottises vont dire a cette occasion tons les
ennemis de la raison et des lettres ! les voila bien k leur aise ; car
ils dechireront infailliblement ou Rousseau, ou M. Hume, et peut-etre
tons les deux. Pour moi,je rirai, comme jefais de tout, et je tacherai
que rien ne trouble mon repos et mon bonheur.' (Euvres de Voltaire
(ed. 1819-25), Ixii. 383.
D'Alembert to Hume.
' Paris, July 21. [D'Alembert sends Hume the oprinion of Turgot,
Morellet, Marmontel and other friends who had met at the house of
Mile, de I'Espinasse.] 'Tous unanimement, ainsi que Mile, de
I'Espinasse et moi, sommes d'avis que vous devez donner cette his-
toire au public avec toutes ses circonstances.' Burton's Hume, ii.
354-
Horace Walpole.
'Then [towards the middle of July] arrived Rousseau's long
absurd letter to Mr. Hume, which most people in England, and I
amongst the rest, thought was such an answer to itself that Mr. Hume
had no occasion to vindicate himself from the imputations contained
in it. The gens de lettres at Paris, who aim at being an order, and who
in default of parts raise a dust by their squabbles, were of a different
opinion, and pressed Mr. Hume to publish on the occasion. Mr.
Hume however declared he was convinced by the arguments of his
friends in England, and would not engage in a controversy. Lord
88 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Mansfield told me he was glgd to hear I was of his opinion, and had
dissuaded Mr. Hume from pubhshing.' Walpole's Works, ed. 1798,
iv. 253.
Favart to Garrick.
' Paris, Ce 24 juillet. Tout le monde litt^rairese d^chaine contre le
philosophe de Geneve.' Garrick Corres. ii. 484.
The Countess de Boufflers to Hume.
' Ce 25 [Juillet] a Paris. Votre douceur, votre bonte, I'indulgence
que vous avez naturellement, font attendre et desirer de vous des
efforts de moderation qui passent le pouvoir des hommes ordinaires.
Pourquoi se hater de divulguer les premiers mouvements d'un coeur
grievement blesse, que la raison n'a pu encore dompter? . . . Mais
vous, au lieu de vous irriter contre un malheureux qui ne pent vous
nuire, et qui se ruine entierement lui-meme, que n'avez-vous laisse
agir cette pitie genereuse, dont vous etes si susceptible ? Vous
eussiez evite un 6clat qui scandalise, qui divise les esprits, qui flatte
la malignite, qui amuse aux depens de tous deux les gens oisifs et
inconsideres, qui fait faire des reflexions injurieuses, et renouvelle les
clameurs contre les philosophes et la philosophie. . . . Vous ne serez
pas son delateur apres avoir ete son protecteur. De semblables
examens doivent precdder les liaisons, et non suivre les ruptures.'
Hume's Private Corres. pp. 188-194.
Horace Walpole to Hume.
' London, July 26. Your set of literary friends are what a set of
literary men are apt to be, exceedingly absurd. They hold a con-
sistory to consult how to argue with a madman ; and they think it
very necessary for your character to give them the pleasure of seeing
Rousseau exposed, not because he has provoked you, but them. If
Rousseau prints you must ; but I certainly would not till he does.'
Walpole's Works, ed. 1798, iv. 258, and Letters, v. 7.
Mme. Riccoboni to Garrick.
' Paris, Ce 10 Aotit. La rupture de M. Hume et de Jean-Jacques a
fait un bruit terrible ici. Les gens de lettres sont pour M. Hume ; et
les personnes sensees ne le soupgonnent point d'avoir tort.' Garrick
Corres. ii. 488.
Hume to the Abbe Le Blanc.
' Lisle Street, Leicester Fields, 12 of Aug. 1766. I am as great a
Lover of Peace as he [Fontenelle], and have kept myself as free from
all Uterary Quarrels : But surely, neither he nor any other Person
was ever engaged in a Controversy with a Man of so much Malice, of
such a profligate Disposition to Lyes, and such great Talents. It is
nothing to dispute my style or my Abilities as an Historian or a
Philosopher : My Books ought to answer for themselves, or they are
not worth the defending. To fifl;y Writers, who have attacked me on
this head, I never made the least Reply : But this is a different Case :
Imputations are here thrown on my Morals and my Conduct ; and
tho' my Case is so clear as not to admit of the least Controversy, yet
XXVI.] OPINIONS AS TO PUBLICATION. 89
it is only clear to those who know it.' Morrison Autographs, ii.
318.
Lord Marischal to Hume.
' Potsdam, Aug. 15. You did all in your power to serve him ; his
ecart afflicts me on his account more than yours, who have, I am sure,
nothing to reproach yourself with. It will be good and humane in
you, and like Le Bon David, not to answer.' Burton's Hume, ii. 354.
Hume to Adam Smith.
[No date, probably London, about the middle of August.] ' I shall
not publish them unless forced, which you will own to be a very great
degree of self-denial. My conduct in this affair would do me a great
deal of honour, and his would blast him for ever, and blast his writ-
ings at the same time ; for, as these have been exalted much above
their merit, when his personal character falls they would of course
fall below their merit. I am however apprehensive that in the end I
shall be obliged to publish.' lb. ii. 349.
Hume to the Marchioness de Barbantane.
' Lisle Street, Aug. 29, 1766. You will see that the only possible
alleviation of this man's crime is that he is entirely mad ; and even
then he will be allowed a dangerous and pernicious madman, and of
the blackest and most atrocious mind. The King and Queen of
England expressed a strong desire to see these papers, and I was
obliged to put them into their hand. They read them with avidity,
and entertain the same sentiments that must strike every one.
The king's opinion confirms me in the resolution not to give them to
the public, unless I be forced to it by some attack on the side of my
adversary, which it will therefore be wisdom in him to avoid.' Private
Corres. p. 210.
Rousseau to Lord Marischal.
' [Wooton] 7 Septembre. II [Hume] a marche jusqu'ici dans les
tenebres, il s'est cache, mais maintenant il se montre a decouvert.
II a rempli I'Angleterre, la France, les gazettes, 1' Europe entiere,
de cris auxquels je ne sais que repondre, et d'injures dont je me
croirais digne si je daignais les repousser.' CEuvres de Rousseau,
xxiv. 393.
Voltaire to Damilaville.
' [Ferney] 15 Octobre. II [Hume] prouve que Jean-Jacques est un
maitre fou, et un ingrat petri d'un sot orgueil ; mais je ne crois pas
que ces verites meritent d'etre publiees ; il faut que les choses soient
ou bien plaisantes, ou bien interessantes pour que la presse s'en mele.
. . . Je pense que la publicity de cette querelle ne servirait qu'a faire
tort a la philosophie. J'aurais donne une partie de mon bien pour
que Rousseau eat et6 un homme sage ; mais cela n'est pas dans sa
nature; il n'y a pas moyen de faire un aigle d'un papillon: c'est
assez, ce me semble, que tous les gens de lettres lui rendent justice,
et d'ailleurs sa plus grande punition est d'etre oublie.' CEuvres de
Voltaire, liii. 492.
90 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
Baron Grimm.
'"Paris, 15 Octobre, j:766. II y a environ trois mois qu'on regut a Paris
les premieres nouvelles de te brouillerie de J.-J. Rousseau avec M.
Hume. Excellente pature pour les olstfei -^ussi une declaration de
guerre entre deux grandes puissances de I'Europe n'aorait -p«-fair£
plus de bruit que cette querelle. Je dis a Paris ; car a Londres, 011 il
y a des acteurs plus importans a siffler, on sut a peine la rupture
survenue entre I'ex-citoyen de Geneve et le philosophe d'i^cosse ; et
les Anglais furent assez sots pour s'occuper moins de cette grande
affaire que de la formation du nouveau ministere et du changement du
grand nom de Pitt en celui de Comte de Chatam (sic).' Correspondance
Litteraire de Grimm et de Diderot, ed. 1829, v. 191. (Grimm adds that
several of Hume's friends in France wrote to him for no other purpose
but to dissuade him from making the quarrel public. lb. p. 193.)
Voltaire to Hume.
' Ferney, 24 Octobre. A dire vrai, monsieur, toutes ces petites
miseres ne meritent pas qu'on s'en occupe deux minutes ; tout cela
tombe bientat dans un eternel oubli. ... II y a des sottises et
des querelles dans toutes les conditions de la vie. . . . Tout passe ra-
pidement comme les figures grotesques de la lanterne magique. . . .
Les details des guerres les plus sanglantes perissent avec les soldats
qui en ont ete les victimes. Les critiques memes des pieces de theatre
nouvelles, et surtout leurs eloges sont ensevelis le lendemain dans
le n6ant avec elles et avec les feuilles periodiques qui en parlent. II
n'y a que les dragees du sieur Kaiser qui se soient un peu soutenues.*
(Euvres de Voltaire, liii. 503.
Hume to Horace Walpole.
' Edinburgh, Nov. 4. I would give anything to prevent a publica-
tion in London (for surely the whole affair will appear perfectly
ridiculous) ; but I am afraid that a book printed at Paris vsnll be trans-
lated in London, if there be hopes of selling a hundred copies of it.
For this reason, I fancy it will be better for me to take care that a
proper edition be published.' Walpole's Works, iv. 262.
Horace Walpole to Hume.
' [London] Nov. 6. You say your Parisian friends extorted your
consent to this publication. I believe so. Your good sense could not
approve what your good heart could not refuse. You add, that they
told you Rousseau had sent letters of defiance against you all over Europe.
Good God ! my dear Sir, could you pay any regard to such fustian ?
All Europe laughs at being dragged every day into these idle quarrels,
with which Europe only [the rest of the sentence is too coarse for
quotation]. Your friends talk as loftily as of a challenge between
Charles the Fifth and Francis the First. What are become of all the
controversies since the days of Scaliger and Scioppius of Billingsgate
memory ? Why they sleep in oblivion, till some Bayle drags them out
of their dust, and takes mighty pains to ascertain the date of each
author's death, which is of no more consequence to theworld than the
XXVI.] HUME^S RELUCTANCE TO PUBLISH. 91
day of his birth. Many a country squire quarrels with his neighbour
about game and manors, yet they never print their wrangles, though
as much abuse passes between them as if they could quote all the
Philippics of the learned \' Walpole's Letters, v. 23.
Bishop Warburton to Hurd.
' Prior Park, Nov. 15, 1766. As to Rousseau I entirely agree with
you that his long letter to his brother philosopher, Hume, shews him
to be a frank lunatic. His passion of tears — his suspicion of his
friends in the midst of their services — and his incapacity of being set
right, all consign him to Monro "- You give the true cause too of this
excess of frenzy, which breaks out on all occasions, the honest neglect
of our countrymen in their tribute to his importance. . . . The merits
of the two philosophers are soon adjusted. There is an immense
distance between their natural genius ; none at all in their excessive
vanity. . . . However the contestation is very amusing ; and I shall be
very sorry if it stops now it is in so good a train. I should be well
pleased particularly to see so seraphic a madman attack so insuffer-
able a coxcomb as Walpole ; and I think they are only fit for one
another.' Letters from a late Eminent Prelate, p. 385.
Hume to Horace Walpole.
' Edinburgh, Nov. 20. I readily agree with you that it is a great
misfortune to be reduced to the necessity of consenting to this publi-
cation ; but it had certainly become necessary. Even those who at
first joined me in rejecting all idea of it wrote to me and represented
that this strange man's defiances had made such impression, that I
should pass universally for the guilty person, if I suppressed the
Story. ... I never consented to anything with greater reluctance in
my life. Had 1 found one man of my opinion I should have per-
severed in my refusal. ... I am as sensible as you are of the ridicule
to which men of letters have exposed themselves by running every
moment to the public with all their private squabbles and alterca-
tions ; but surely there has been something very unexpected and
peculiar in this affair. My antagonist by his genius, his singularities,
his quackery, his misfortunes and his adventures, had become more
the subject of general conversation in Europe (for I venture again on
the word) than any person in it. I do not even except Voltaire, much
' Walpole, writing from Paris on Nov. 21, 1765, had spoken with scorn both of
Hume and Rousseau. ' I desire,' he says, ' to die when I have nobody left to laugh
with me. I have never yet seen or heard anytlring serious that was not ridiculous.
Jesuits, Methodists, philosophers, politicians, the hypocrite Rousseau, the scoffer
Voltaire, the encyclopedists, the Humes, the Lytteltons, the Grenvilles, the atheist
tyrant of Prussia, and the mountebank of history, Mr. Pitt, all are to me impostors
in their various ways.' Walpole's Letters, iv. 441 .
^ ' Sure I should want the care of ten Monroes.'
Pope, Imitations of Horace, 2 Epist. ii. 70.
Monroe was Physician to Bedlam Hospital.
gOr LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
less the King of Prussia and Mr. Pitt.' Walpole's Works (ed. 1798),
iv. 266. 'i
Hume to the Countess de Boufflers.
' Edinburgh, Dec. 2. It was with infinite reluctance I consented
to the last publication. I lay my account that many people will
condemn me for it, and will question the propriety or necessity
of it; but, if I had not published, many people would have con-
demned me as a calumniator and as a treacherous and false
friend. There is no comparison between these species of blame ;
and I underwent the one to save me from the other.' Private Corns.
p. 229.
Note 3. Strahan, I think, had no shop. His chief business was
that of a printer, but he was also a publisher. In that capacity he
would need to ' take in a Bookseller ' as his partner in the venture.
Thus Johnson's Political Tracts bear at the foot of the title page : —
' Printed for W. Strahan ; and T. Cadell in the Strand.' While
Cadell's address is given, Strahan's is not.
Note 4. It was published by Becket and his partner under the
following title : — A Concise and Genuine Account of the Dispute between
Mr. Hume and Mr. Rousseau ; with the Letters that passed between them
during their Controversy. As also the Letters of the Hon. Mr. Walpole
and Mr. D'Alembert, relative to this extraordinary Affair. Translated
from the French. London. Printed for T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt,
near Surry-street, in the Strand. MDCCLXVI. Becket was the pub-
lisher of Ossian, and, it should seem, not over-scrupulous. 'What
does Becket mean,' wrote Boswell, ' by the Originals of Fingal and
other poems of Ossian, which he advertises to have lain in his
shop .' ' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 294.
Note 5. Thomas Cadell was born at Bristol in 1742. In 1758
he was apprenticed to Andrew Millar. In 1765 he became his
partner, and in 1767 his successor. In conjunction with Strahan
he published the Histories of Robertson and Gibbon, the later
editions of Hume's Works, and some of the later Works of Johnson.
They were part proprietors also of Blackstone's Commentaries.
Gibbon described him as 'that honest and liberal bookseller.'
Stewart's Robertson, p. 366. It was at his house that the dinner
was given, at which Hume, by his own request, met 'as many of
the persons who had written against him as could be collected.'
Rogers's Table Talk, p. 106. In 1793 he retired, ' leaving the business
which he had established, as the first in Great Britain,' to his son
Thomas, and to William Davies. In 1798 he was elected. Alderman
of Walbrook Ward. He died on Dec. 27, 1802. See Nichols's Lit
Anec. iii. 388, 696; vi. 441 ; and Diet, of Nat. Biog. viii. 179. He was
not related to Scott's publisher, Robert Cadell of Edinburgh, though
it was 'from the respectable house of Cadell and Davies in the
Strand, that appeared in the course of January 1802, the first two
volumes of the Minstrelsy, which may be said to have first introduced
XXVI.] JAMES COUTTS THE BANKER. 93
Scott as an original writer to the English public' Lockhart's Scott,
ed. 1839, ii. 79.
Note 6. James Coutts, a banker in the Strand, was member for
Edinburgh City {Pari. Hist. xv. 1099), and so could frank letters. He
wrote to Hume, probably soon after his election in 1762, a modest
letter in which he complains of his unfitness for his new position.
He says : — ' With all pleasures there are great mixtures of mortifi-
cation, and every instant my limited education stares me more and
more in the face. I have hardly lookt on any but Manuscript folios
since I was 14. You'll say from idleness or want of taste. I say no,
but from too much business and bad health. My constitution will
probably be always unfit for deep study; but pray is there no
remedying this great defect a little without much study, for rather
as {sic) suffer such mortifications I had better continue a Banker
still, which I'm convinced would enable me better to purchase Merse
Acres. But seriously I wish you would give me some advice on this
head, what abridgements to read, &c.' In another letter to Hume
(also undated) he writes : — ' Coll. Graeme and Mr. Drummond Blair
are candidates for Perthshire ; the former will carry it unless the
Pretender dies, and leaves some old fools at liberty to take the oaths.'
M.S.R.S.E.
Note 7. Hume sent Strahan a copy of the manuscript which he
had placed in the hands of his French friends for publication in
France. It contained his own narrative, and such part of his corre-
spondence with Rousseau as he had preserved. Rousseau's letters
to him were in French, and his to Rousseau in English. Each of the
translators therefore had but a portion of the document to translate.
The French editors, however, had his leave to make whatever
alterations in his account they pleased. All these alterations are,
he says, to be adopted, and his own narrative in such passages is
not to be followed. In his next letter he gives contrary directions ;
for by that time he had seen the Paris editions and been displeased
with some of the changes. His French translator was Suard, who
translated Robertson's Charles V (Stewart's Robertson, p. 218).
Gibbon, writing in 1776 about the first volume of his Decline and Fall,
which had lately appeared, says : — ' To-morrow I write to Suard,
a very skilful translator of Paris, who was here in the spring with
the Neckers, to get him (if not too late) to undertake it.' Gibbon's
Misc. Works, ii. 176. It was, no doubt, at this visit to London that
'Suard at Reynolds's saw Burke for the first time, when Johnson
touched him on the shoulder, and said, "Le grand Burke."' Bos-
well's Johnson, iv. 20, n. i. When in 1774 he was admitted into the
French Academy, Voltaire wrote to him: — 'Je vais relire votre
Discours pour la quatrieme fois.' (Euvres de Voltaire, Ivi. 387. It
was to him that Mrs. Montagu made her clever reply, when Voltaire's
' invective ' against Shakespeare was read at the Academy. He said
to her : — ' Je crois, Madame, que vous etes un peu fachee de ce que
94 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
vous venez d'entendre.' She replied, ' Moi, Monsieur, point du tout !
Je ne suis pas amie de M. Voltaire.' Walpole's Letters, vi. 394.
Note 8. 'I shall lodge in Miss Elliot's, Lisle Street, Leicester
Fields,' Hume wrote on June 29, 1761. Burton's Hume, ii. 90. She
was, I fancy, the lady for whose creature comforts he wished to
provide in a letter written from London on May 15, 1759. ' If you
pass by Edinburgh, please bring me two pounds of rapee, such
as Peggy Elliot uses to take. You will get it at Gillespys near
the Cross.' The letter which thus begins with Peggy Elliot and her
snuff ends with compliments to Adam Smith, and from Dr. War-
burton, lb. p. 62. She is again mentioned in an amusing letter
dated July 6 of the same year, in which Hume shows his imagination
in inventing extravagant news. ' Miss: Elliot,' he writes, ' yesterday
morning declared her Marriage with Dr. Armstrong [the Poet] ; 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.' M. S. R. S. E,
No doubt she was a decent elderly body, the last person to give
grounds for any scandal.
Note 9. The English translator was scarcely up to his work, as
the following passages show.
' Comme tout est melig d'inconveniens dans la vie, celui d'etre trop
bien est un de ceux qui se tolerent le plus ais6ment.' (Euvres de
Rousseau, xxiv. 323.
' As there is nothing in life without its inconvenience, that of being
too good is one of those which is the most tolerable.' A Concise
Account, p. 15.
' Peu de temps apres notre arrivee a Londres, j'y remarquai dans
les esprits a mon 6gard un changement sourd qui bientdt devint
tres-sensible.' (Euvres de Rousseau, xxiv. 348.
'A very short time after our arrival in London I observed an
absurd change in the minds of the people regarding me, which soon
became very apparent.' A Concise Account, p. 42.
Note 10. With some of these alterations Hume was displeased.
Writing to Horace Walpole he says : — ' Several passages in my
narrative in which I mention you are all altered in the translation,
and rendered much less obliging than I wrote them.' He suspected
D'Alembert of having had this done through malevolence towards
Walpole. Walpole's Works, ed. 1798, iv. 262, 7.
Note II. Hume wrote to the Librarian of the British Museum on
Jany. 23, 1767 : — ' I was obliged to say in my Preface that the
originals would be consigned in the Museum. I hope you have
no objection to the receiving them. I send them by my friend
Mr. Ramsay. Be so good as to give them the corner of any drawer.
I fancy few people will trouble you by desiring a sight of them.'
The Trustees refused to accept them. Dr. Maty wrote to Hume
on April 22 : — ' I longed to have some conversation with you on the
XXVI.] THE ORIGINALS OF THE PAMPHLET. 95
subject of the papers, which were remitted to me by the hands of
Mr. Ramsay, and, as our Trustees did not think proper to receive
them, to restore them into yours.' They are in the possession of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh. Burton's Hume, ii. 359-360. Dr. Maty
was Under- Librarian of the Museum. He became Principal Librarian
in 1772. Knight's Eng. Cyclo. of Biog. iv. 153. Perhaps the refusal
to receive the papers was due to idleness. The Librarian may have
dreaded troublesome visitors. How badly the Museum was managed
eighteen years later is shown by W. Hutton in \iS& Journey to London,
p. 114. He paid two shillings for a ticket of admission, and was then
'hackneyed through the rooms with violence,' being allowed just
thirty minutes to see everything.
Note 12. 'Wooton, le 2 Aout. M. Hume ^crit, dit-on, qu'il veut
publier toutes les pieces relatives a cette affaire. C'est, j'en reponds,
ce qu'il se gardera de faire, ou ce qu'il se gardera bien au moins
de faire fidelement. . . . Plus je pense ^ la publication promise par
M. Hume, moins je puis concevoir qu'il I'ex^cute. S'il I'ose faire,
a moins d'enormes falsifications, je predis hardiment, que malgre
son extreme adresse et celle de ses amis, sans meme que je m'en
mele, M. Hume est un homme demasqu^. Rousseau to M. Guy.
(Euvres de Rousseau, ed. 1782, xxiv. 387.
The following is the note which was added to the translation of
the pamphlet : — 'The original letters of both parties will be lodged in
the British Museum ; on account of the above-mentioned defiance
of Mr. Rousseau, and his subsequent insinuation that if they should
be published they would be falsified.' A Concise Account, p. viii.
Note 13. It was published under the title of Expose succinct de la
contestacion qui ^est e'leve'e entre M. Hume et M. Rousseau, avec les
pieces justificatives. Londres, 1766, 12". British Museum Catalogue.
Note 14. 'I was born,' writes Horace Walpole, 'in Arlington
Street, near St. James's, London, September 24, 1717, O. S.' Letters,
i. Ixi. Writing on Dec. i, 1768, he says : — ' From my earliest
memory Arlington Street has been the ministerial street. The Duke
of Grafton is actually coming into the house of Mr. Pelham, which
my Lord President is quitting, and which occupies too the ground
on which my father lived ; and Lord Weymouth has just taken
the Duke of Dorset's.' lb. v. 136. On Nov. 6, 1766, having received
Hume's pamphlet, he wrote to him : — ' You have, I own, surprised
me by suffering your quarrel with Rousseau to be printed, contrary
to your determination when you left London, and against the advice
of all your best friends here ; I may add, contrary to your own
nature, which has always inclined you to despise literary squabbles,
the jest and scorn of all men of sense. . . . You have acted, as I
should have expected if you would print, with sense, temper, and
decency ; and, what is still more uncommon, with your usual
modesty. I cannot say so much for your editors. But editors and
commentators are seldom ipodest. EJven to this day that race ape
96 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
the dictatorial tone of commentators at the restoration of learning,
when the mob thought that Greek and Latin could give men the
sense which they wanted in their native languages. But Europe^ is
grown a little wiser, and holds these magnificent pretensions now
in proper contempt.' lb. v. 23.
Note 15. Lady Hervey was the widow of John, Lord Hervey,
whom Pope, in the Prologue to the Satires (1. 305), attacked as Sporus
with a brutality that defeated itself. Her brother-in-law was ' Harry
Hervey,' of whom Johnson said : — 'He was a vicious man, but very
kind to me. If you call a dog Hervey I shall love him.' Boswell's
Johnson, i. 106. She was the Mary Lepell whom Pope introduces in
his Answer to the Question of Mrs. Howe, What is prudery?
' 'Tis an ugly envious shrew.
That rails at dear Lepell and you.'
Elwin and Courthorpe's Pope, iv. 447.
Mr. Croker (Memoirs of Lord Hervey, i. xxiv.) quotes the following
verse from a ballad on her : —
' For Venus had never seen bedded
So perfect a beau and a belle.
As when Hervey the handsome was wedded
To the beautiful Molly Lepell.'
Swift wrote to Arbuthnot on Nov. 8, 1726 : — ' I gave your service to
Lady Harvey. She is in a little sort of a miff about a ballad that
was writ on her to the tune of Molly Mogg, and sent to her in the
name of a begging poet.' Swift's Works, ed. 1803, xvii. 97.
Horace Walpole, writing to her from Paris on Sept. 14, 1765,
says : — ' Mr. Hume, that is the Mode, asked much about your Lady-
ship.' Letters, iv. 405. It was Hume very likely who lent her
Home's tragedy over which she wept, as Scott tells us in his
review of that poet's Works : — ' We have the evidence of the ac-
complished Earl of Haddington, that he remembers the celebrated
Lady Hervey (the beautiful Molly Lapelle of Pope and Gay)
weeping like an infant over the manuscript of Douglas.' Quarterly
Review, Ixxi. 204. On Sept. 22, 1768, Walpole mentioning her death,
says : — ' She is a great loss to several persons ; her house was one
of the most agreeable in London ; and her own friendliness, good
breeding and amiable temper had attached all that knew her. Her
sufferings with the gout and rheumatism were terrible, and yet never
could affect her patience or divert her attention to her friends.'
Letters, v. 129.
Note 16. Alexander Kincaid, Printer and Stationer to his Majesty
for Scotland, died on Jany. 21, 1777, in his year of office as Lord
Provost of Edinburgh. Gent. Mag. 1777, p. 48. Dr. Blair vsrrote to
Strahan on Jany. 28, 1777 : — ' I am just come from the burials of our
' Walpole in italicising Europe refers to Hume's statement that ' Rousseau had
sent letters of defiance all over Europe.' Ante, pp. 90, 91.
XXVII.] KINCAID, THE EDINBURGH BOOKSELLER. 97
friend poor Kincaid. He was interred with all the public honours
which could be given him ; and his funeral was indeed the most
numerous and magnificent procession I ever saw here. The whole
inhabitants were either attendants or spectators.' Barker MSS.
Sir Alexander Dick, writing to Joseph Spence in 1762, says that
Kincaid, who had been dining at his house, ' mentioned freely that
the bulk of the clergy of this country [Scotland] buy few books,
except what they have absolute necessity for.' Spence's Anecdotes,
ed. 1820, p. 463. This is some confirmation of Johnson's attack on
' the ignorance of the Scotch clergy.' Boswell's Johnson, v. 251.
Note 17. Hume, writing to Millar from Paris on April 23, 1764,
about a new edition of his History, says : — ' You were in the wrong
to make any edition without informing me ; because I left in Scotland
a copy very fully corrected with a few alterations, which ought to
have been followed. I shall write to my sister to send it to you.'
Burton's Hume, ii. 201. On Oct. 21, 1766, he wrote to him : —
' Kincaid sent you the corrected copy in a parcel of Strahan's.
This circumstance is entered by Kincaid in his minute book of
16 of Oct. 1764. When in London I asked you about this copy, and
you told me that you had never heard of it. I suppose this is only
a defect of memory. ... If you recover it, be so good as to send it me
by the wagon.' M. S. R. S. E. Hume seems to imply that Millar
was not telling the truth. Later on he learnt that on another matter
he had lied to him {post. Letter of March 19, 1773). On Nov. 2 Millar
replied that he had the corrected copy. M. S. R. S. E.
LETTER XXVII.
Further Directions about printing the Pamphlet.
Dear S'^
I have receiv'd by the Post a Copy of the Paris
Edition of the Pamphlet I mention'd to you. I wish
it were possible not to print an Edition in London, because
the whole Affair will appear perfectly ridiculous^ to the
English : But as I am afraid this is impossible, I believe
it is better for me to take care, that a true Edition be
printed. I committ that matter to your Care.
Contrary to my former Directions, I now desire you not
to follow the Paris Edition in my Narrative ; but exactly the
Enghsh Copy which I sent you in Manuscript ^- There is
H
98 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
only one Passage, where I desire a Sentence to be inserted :
It is a little before the Copy of the King of Prussia's letter
to Rousseau *. I there say, ' But I little expected, at the
Distance of 150 Miles* and employing myself constantly in
his Service, to be the Victim of his Rage and Malevolence.'
Add, 'An Incident happened about this time, v^^hich set
this Disposition of M. Rousseau in a full Light. There
had been a feigned Letter of the King of Prussias,' etc.^
There is a very material Note, ommitted by the Editors
of the Paris Edition, which I desire you to insert. I send
you a Copy of it, with Directions for inserting it*. I
suppose all along, that you have receivd the Paris Edition
by this time : Otherwise I woud have sent it you.
I am D' S"' Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Edinburgh, 4 of Nov., 1766.
P.S. — I need not tell you that Rousseau's long Letter to
me is to be translated from the Paris Edition with all the
Notes. The other Letters may be translated indifferently
either from that Edition or from my Manuscript.
Note I. He used the same words in the letter that he wrote to
Horace Walpole on the same day. See ante, p. go.
Note 2. He apologises to Walpole for the omission in the Paris
edition of a compliment to his ' usual politeness and humanity.' He
continues : — ' I have wrote to Becket the bookseller to restore this
passage, which is so conformable to my real sentiments ; but whether
my orders have come in time, I do not know as yet.' Walpole's
Works, iv. 267.
Note 3. See ante, p. 77.
Note 4. Hume was at that time in London, and Rousseau at
Wooton in Derbyshire.
Note 5. This insertion was not made.
Note 6. Rousseau had charged Hume with opening his letters.
(Euvres de Rousseau, xxiv. 354. Hume, in a note on this, says : — ' The
story of M. Rousseau's letters is as follows. He had often been
complaining to me, and with reason, that he was ruined by postage
at Neuf-chatel, which commonly cost him twenty-five or twenty-six
louis d'ors a year, and all for letters which were of no significance,
being wrote, some of them by people who took that opportunity of
XXVIII.] ROUSSEAU'S CORRESPONDENCE. 99
abusing him, and most of them by persons unknown to him. He was
therefore resolved, he said, in England to receive no letters which
came by the post. . . . When he went to Chiswick the postman
brought his letters to me. I carried him out a cargo of them. He
exclaimed, desired me to return the letters and recover the price of
postage. I told him that, in that case, the clerks of the Post Office
were entire masters of his letters. He said he was indifferent, they
might do with them what they pleased. I added that he would by
that means be cut off from all correspondence with all his friends.
He replied, that he would give a particular direction to such as he
desired to correspond with. But till his instructions for that purpose
could arrive, what could I do more friendly than to save at my own
expense his letters from the curiosity and indiscretion of the clerks
of the Post OfSce ? I am indeed ashamed to find myself obliged to
discover such petty circumstances.' A Concise Account, p. ^i. In the
French translation, instead of this note the following is given : — ' Ces
imputations d'indiscretion et d'infidelite sont si odieuses, et les
preuves en sont si ridicules, que je me crois dispense d'y repondre.'
P. 68.
LETTER XXVIII.
Millar's Complaint of Neglect.
Dear S""
I had a Letter from Mr. Millar, complaining of my
giving to any other besides him the Publication of my
Account of this ridiculous Affair, between Rousseau and
me^. I am certainly in the wrong, not to have conjoind
him, if I coud have imagind, that he woud have thought
it worthy of his Attention. I wish you may find it worth
while ; but I fancy 500 Copies will be more than sufficient
to gratify the Curiosity of the Public ^. It is necessity, not
choice, that forces me on this Publication.
If it be not too late, add the following short Note to
Page 59 of the Paris Edition, at these words : Des ce
moment les imprimes ne parlerent plus de moi que d'une
maniere equivoque ou malhonnete. So then, I find I am to
answer for every Article of every Magazine and Newspaper
printed in England^ : I assure Mr. Rousseau I woud rather
answer for every Robbery committed on the high way ; and I
H 2
lOO LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
am entirely as innocent of the one as the other. If you have
already printed the Page to which this Note refers, print
the Note apart, as an Ommission or Erratum*. I doubt
not but you have already got the Paris Edition otherwise
I coud send it you.
I am Yours etc.
D. H.
Note I. Millar wrote to Hume on Nov. 2 : — ' I will tell you honestly
that I was much hurt yesterday with yours to Mr. Strahan which he
showed me when in Town about Messrs. Beckett or Cadell being
employed by you in publishing this absurd dispute of Rousseau with
you, as you imagined it ^vould not be worth my while. Can you
imagine anything however so trifling in which your name is concerned
not worth my while ? Surely [ ? ] I never did. Dr. Lowth thought
differently in a more delicate affair and even one less in point of
value '- In truth the money that will be got I do not value but in the
the eye of the World where I have so cordial a friendship, to see
others names and not mine looks as you were offended.'
Hume sent the following reply ; misdating it Oct. 8 ; it is endorsed
by Millar, ' David Hume's 8 Nov. 1766 ' :—
' Your letter gave me a great deal of Uneasyness, by letting me see,
that I had, innocently and undesignedly given you Uneasyness. I
assure you, that I believe I have made a very trifling Present to Mr.
Strahan and what will scarce be worth his Acceptance. I fancy, that
500 Copies of the Account of that ridiculous Affair between Rousseau
and me will be more than sufficient to satisfy the Curiosity of the
Public at London. The Pamphlet will not appear as coming from my
hand but as a Translation of the Paris Edition ; and as Becket has
commonly the first Copies of French Books, it will be thought quite
natural to come from his Press. If I had imagin'd, that it woud have
given you the least satisfaction to be the Publisher it shoud never
have been sent to any other hand.'
On Nov. 22, Millar wrote that he ' had asked Strahan to have his
name put to the translation of the pamphlet, as people thought that
there was some difference between himself and Hume. Strahan
agreed, but Becket refused.' He adds that 3000 copies of the History
had been sold in the last three years, and ' between 20 and 30 sets
this and last week.' M. S. R. S. E.
Note 2. The pamphlet is in the list of books published in November
of this year, Gent. Mag. 1766, p. 545. I cannot find that it reached a
second edition.
Note 3. Rousseau, after describing how well he had been received
' Millar published for Lowth in 1759 An Answer to an Anonymous Letter to
Dr. Lowth, concerning the Late Election of a Warden of Winchester College.
XXIX.] ROUSSEAU'S VANITY. lOl
on his arrival in England, continues : — ' Tout-a-coup, et sans aucune
cause assignable, ce ton change, mais si fort et si vite que dans tous
les caprices du public, on n'en voit gueres de plus etonnant. Le
signal fut donn6 dans un certain Magasin, aussi plein d'inepties que
de mensonges, ou I'Auteur bien instruit, ou feignant de I'etre, me
donnait pour fils de Musicien. Des ce moment les imprimes ne
parlerent plus de moi que d'une maniere equivoque ou malhonndte.'
He goes on to hint that the change was due to Hume. CEuvres de
Rousseau, xxiv. 348. According to Lord Charlemont the change was
due to a very simple and natural cause : — 'When Rousseau first
arrived in London, he and his Armenian dress were followed by
crowds, and as long as this species of admiration lasted he was con-
tented and happy. But in London such sights are only the wonder
of the day, and in a very short time he was suffered to walk where he
pleased, unattended, unobserved. From that instant his discontent
may be dated.' Memoirs of the Earl of Charlemont, i. 230.
Note 4. It was printed as an erratum.
LETTER XXIX.
Further Directions about Printing the Pamphlet.
Dear S'"
As I have not heard from you ; I suspect that you
have not yet got the Paris Edition of my Pamphlet. I
have therefore sent you the Manuscript of Rousseau's long
Letter with all the Notes such as I wish them to be
printed ; excepting the Note which I sent you in a Paper
apart, and which must be inserted. Mr. Rousseau's Notes
must be printed in Itahcs to distinguish them from mine ' ;
and you must advertise the Reader of this Precaution, in
order to prevent Confusion. Even tho' you shoud have
got the Paris Edition rather follow the Manuscript, if it be
not too late. The Paris Editors have added a Preface and
a Declaration of M. D'Alembert ^, and a Latin Motto ^ at
the End. You must not pubhsh the Pamphlet without
these. If you have not got that Edition I shall send it
you ; tho' I wish you coud rather get it in London.
I am Dear S' Yours sincerely
David Hume.
13 A^ovr., 1766.
103 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Note I. They were distinguished, not by italics, but by the author's
name at the end of each note.
Note 2. Rousseau had accused D'Alembert of being the author of
the letter from the King of Prussia and of maintaining a secret
correspondence with Hume. D'Alembert denied both one and the
other, A Concise Account, p. 94.
Note 3. ' Perdidi beneficium. Numquid quae consecravimus per-
didisse nos dicimus ? Inter consecrata beneficium est ; etiamsi male
respondit, bene coUocatum. Non est ille qualem speravimus ; simus
nos quales fuimus ei dissimiles.' Seneca, De Beneficiis, lib. vii. cap.
19. /A. p. 93.
LETTER XXX.
Complaints of Strahan's Negligence.
Nothing coud more surprize me, Dear Strahan, than
your Neghgence with regard to this silly Pamphlet I sent
you. You have never been at the Pains once to answer one
of my Letters with regard to it ; tho' certainly I intended
you a Friendship by sending it to you : You never
informd me, that Becket had got over a Copy from Paris :
You have never conveyd any of my Directions to the
English Translator ; but the greatest Enormity of all, and
what covers me with Shame and Confusion, is your printing
the Name of two Ladies, who had expressly forbid it;
and that under Pretence, that the same Reason did not
hold for concealing them in London as in Paris : As if it
were impossible, that any Piece of Intelligence coud pass
from the one Place to the other. How your Compositor
came so much as to know the Name of Md" de Boufflers
I cannot so much as imagine: He has surely read it
thro my Razure and so has inserted it. What do you
think of that Practice ? I have scarce met with anything
that has given me more Displeasure \
I am Dear Sir Your most obedient Servant
David Hume.
Edinburgh, 25 of Nov., 1766.
XXXI.] NAMES SUPPRESSED IN THE PAMPHLET. 103
Note I. Rousseau in his letter of Dec. 4, 1765, quoted in Hume's
narrative, says : — ' It is the advice also of Madam . . . .' On which
there is the following footnote : — ' The person here mentioned
desired her name might be suppressed. French editor. As the
motive to the suppression of the lady's name can hardly be supposed
to extend to this country, the English translator takes the liberty to
mention the name of the Marchioness de Verdelin.' A Concise
Account, p. 6. Mde. de Boufflers is mentioned on p. 86 as one of
Hume's correspondents. Writing to her on Dec. 2, 1766, he says : —
' I had erased your name ; but it seems not so but that it was legible ;
and it is accordingly printed. The bookseller, the printer, and the
compositor all throw the blame on each other for this accident.'
Private Corres. p. 230.
Grimm writing on Oct. 15, 1766 says : — ' Les personnes dont les
noms sont supprimes dans ce procfes sont madame la comtesse de
Boufflers et madame la marquise de Verdelin.' Corres. Lit. v. 197.
LETTER XXXI.
Hume's Occupations as Under Secretary.
[Spring of 1767.]
Dear S'"
I was sorry not to be at home, when you did me the
Favour to call on me the other day: My occupations^
prevent my calling on you : But if you be any day at this
End of the Town, the best way is to call on me at
Mr. Conway's House, where I am every forenoon 2, and
commonly between 10 and 3 : It is in little Warwick
Street ^ : You'll do me a Pleasure in allowing me at any
time half an hour's Conversation with you.
I am Dear Sir Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Friday, Forenoon '.
Note I. Hume wrote to the Countess de Boufflers from London on
March i, 1767 : — ' There has happened, dear Madam, a small change
in my situation and fortune since I wrote to you. I was then very
deeply immersed in study, and thought of nothing but of retreat and
indolence for the rest of my life, when I was surprised with a letter
from Lord Hertford, urging me to come to London, and accept of the
office of Depute-Secretary of State under his brother [General
104 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Conway]. As my Lord knew that this step was contrary to the maxims
which I had laid down to myself, he engaged my Lady Hertford to
write me at the same time, and to inform me how much she and my
Lord desired my compliance. I sat down once or twice to excuse
myself; but I own, I could not find terms to express my refusal of a
request made by persons to whose friendship I had been so much
obliged. ... I do not suspect myself at my years, and after such
established habits of retreat, of being ensnared by this glimpse of
Court favour to commence a new course of life, and relinquish my
literary ambition for the pursuit of riches and honours in the state.
On the contrary, I feel myself at present like a banished man in a
strange country ; I mean, not as I was while with you at Paris, but as
I should be in Westphalia or Lithuania or any place the least to my
fancy in the world.' Private Corres. p. 235. Horace Walpole writes
in his Memoirs of the Reign of George III, ii. 414 : — ' It happened at this
period [Feb. 1767] that Mr. Conway, who talked of nothing but resign-
ing, became in want of a secretary, William Burke quitting his
service to follow his cousin Edmund into Opposition. My surprise
was very great when Mr. Conway declared his resolution of making
David Hume, the historian, who had served his brother, Lord Hertford,
in the same capacity at Paris, his secretary. [Walpole's surprise was
not so much at the appointment of Hume, as at the indication it gave
that Conway had no intention to resign.] ... I was pleased with the
designation of Hume, as it would give jealousy to the Rockinghams,
who had not acted wisely in letting Burke detach himself from Mr.
Conway ; and I prevailed on Lady Hertford to write a second letter,
more pressing than her lord's, to Mr. Hume to accept. The philoso-
pher did not want much entreaty.'
Hume in a letter to Blair dated April i, 1767, thus describes his
occupations : — ' My way of life here is very uniform, and by no means
disagreeable. I pass all the forenoon in the Secretary's house from
ten till three, where there arrive from time to time messengers that
bring me all the secrets of the Kingdom, and indeed of Europe, Asia,
Africa and America. I am seldom hurried ; but have leisure at
intervals to take up a book, or write a private letter, or converse with
any friend that may call for me ; and from dinner to bed-time is all
my own. If you add to this that the person [General Conway] with
whom I have the chief, if not only transactions, is the most reason-
able, equal-tempered, and gentleman-like man imaginable, and Lady
Aylesbury [the General's wife] the same, you will certainly think I
have no reason to complain ; and I am far from complaining. I only
shall not regret when my duty is over, because to me the situation
can lead to nothing, at least in all probability; and reading and
sauntering and lounging and dosing, which I call thinking, is my
supreme happiness. I mean my full contentment.' Burton's Hume,
ii. 384. The cup of his philosophic happiness was never destined to
be full. Like ordinary men he had his unsatisfied longings. His
XXXI.] HUME'S ASPIRATIONS. 105
' full contentment,' should have come in the following year, when he
was consoled for the loss of the easy dignity and the emoluments of
an English Under-Secretary of State by a handsome pension con-
ferred by the English King, and paid by the English people. It was
then that his ' lounging and dosing, which he called thinking,' his
'supreme happiness,' thus found expression. '22nd July, 1768.
There are fine doings in America. O ! how I long to see America and
the East Indies revolted, totally and finally, — the revenue reduced to
half, — public credit fully discredited by bankruptcy, — the third of
London in ruins, and the rascally mob subdued ! I think I am not
too old to despair of being witness to all these blessings.' Burton's
Hume, ii. 417.
Note 2. Boswell, who was careful to clear his writings of Scotti-
cisms, in the third edition of his Life of Johnson in at least four places
changed forenoon into morning. Boswell's Johnson, ii. 283, n. 3.
Hume in one of his early letters says : — ' I last summer undertook a
very laborious task which was to travel eight miles every morning,
and as many in the forenoon to and from a mineral well.' Burton's
Hume, i. 34.
Note 3. Little Warwick Street opened out of Cockspur Street,
Pall Mall.
Note 4. This letter must have been written soon after Hume's
arrival in London, at the end of February, 1767. Adam Smith,
writing to him on the following June 7, addresses his letter : — ' To
David Hume Esq. Under Secretary for the Northern Department, at
Mr. Secretary Conway's house, London.' M. S. R. S. E. In the
Court and City Register for 1765, p. 108, is a list of Ambassadors
and Ministers which shews how the business with foreign countries
was divided between the two Secretaries of State : —
Southern Province. Northern Province.
France. Vienna.
Spain. Copenhagen.
Sardinia. Poland.
Constantinople. Prussia.
Naples. Hague.
Florence. Russia.
Venice. Hamburg, Bremen and Lubeck.
Swiss Cantons. Diet of the Empire at Ratisbon.
Portugal. Brussels.
Elector of Cologne and Circle of
Westphalia.
Stockholm.
106 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
LETTER XXXII.
An Appointment sought for Strahan.
[Spring of 1767.]
Dear S'"
I spoke to Lord Hertford on Sunday Evening : I
know not if what I said woud have any Influence ; but he
seemd to think, that the Determination of that Question
woud depend on the Lords who had been active in
conducting the Affair, viz: Marchmont^, Sandes^ and
Bautitout^: I know not by what means you can have
Access to them.
I send you a Volume of OUvet's Cicero * at Mr. Millar's
Desire, who proposes instantly to begin an Edition of my
Essays in that Form, as a Forerunner to the like Edition
of my History^. Let us see a Sample of your English
Press : I do not believe you can make such a Book ; and
I give you a Defiance. Pray return the Book carefully,
after you have carefully survey'd it.
If Becket has a few Copies to spare of the French
Edition of my Controversy with Rousseau, I shoud be glad
to have three or four of them.
There was a good pleasant Paper, inserted, I believe in
your Chronicle ^, about three months ago. It containd
Rousseau's Articles of Charge against me, and then some
good humourd Raillery against him and Voltaire and me '.
I shoud be glad to have two or three Copies of it, if you
can readily find them.
I know not if Becket printed Voltaire's Letter to me ^,
but if he did he may perhaps have two or three Copies to
spare, which woud oblige me.
I am D' S'' Yours sincerely
D. H.
Note I. Hugh, third Earl of Marchmont, the friend and executor
of Pope. He is the ' Polwarth * in Pope's Seventeen Hundred and
XXXII.] THE EARL OF MARCHMONT. 107
Thirty Eight (ii. 130), and the ' Marchmont ' of his Grotto. ' Were
there no other memorials,' writes Boswell, ' he will be immortalised
by that line of Pope in the verses on his Grotto : —
" And the bright flame was shot through Marchmont's soul." '
Life of Johnson, iv. 51. See ib. iii. 392 for Johnson's interview with
him. He was at this time Keeper of the Great Seal for Scotland.
Court and City Register, 1765, p. 140. Boswell recommends his pro-
nunciation of English as a proper model for a Scotch gentleman.
' His Lordship told me,' he says, ' with great good humour that the
master of a shop in London, where he was not known, said to him,
"I suppose. Sir, you are an American." "Why so. Sir?" said his
Lordship. "Because, Sir," replied the shopkeeper, "you speak
neither English nor Scotch, but something different from both, which
I conclude is the language of America." ' Ib. ii. 160. Boswell's re-
commendation contrasts oddly with Colonel Barre's ' ridiculous de-
scription ' of Marchmont's pronunciation. In a debate on Dec. 13,
1770, on a difference between the two Houses, the Members of
the House of Commons having been turned out of the House of
Lords, Barre said : — ' It seemed as if the mob had broke in ; and they
certainly acted in a very extraordinary manner. One of the heads of
this mob — for there were two — was a Scotchman. I heard him call
out several times, "Clear the Hoose ! Clear the Hoose." The face
of the other was hardly human ; for he had contrived to put on a nose of
an enormous size, that disfigured him completely, and his eyes started
out of his head in so frightful a way, that he seemed to be undergoing
the operation of being strangled.' The Scotchman was the Earl of
Marchmont and the other peer the Earl of Denbigh. Cavendish
Debates, ii. 162. See also Chatham Corres. iv. 58. For Lord Denbigh
see post, Letter of May 10, 1776.
Note 2. Samuel Sandys, first Baron Sandys, who was known in
his House of Commons days as 'the Motion-maker.' Smollett's
History of England, ed. 1800, iii. 16. Horace Walpole describes him
as 'a republican, raised on the fall of Sir Robert Walpole to be
Chancellor of the Exchequer, then degraded to a peer and cofferer ',
and soon afterwards laid aside.' Letters, i. 104. Sir Denis Le
Marchant, in a note on Walpole's Memoirs of George HI, iv. 119, says
that Sandys ' had been placed at the Board of Trade in 1760. He
seems to have regarded the post as a sinecure — as indeed it in a great
measure became by the withdrawal -of the West Indies from the de-
partment.'
Note 3. Norborne Berkeley, Lord Bottetourt. Horace Walpole,
writing on Aug. 9, 1768, about a visit to London, says : — ' I saw no-
thing there but the ruins of loo. Lady Hertford's cribbage, and Lord
Bottetourt, like patience on a monument, smiling in grief. He is
' ' A principal officer of his majesty's Court, next under the Comptroller.' John-
son's Dictionary.
I08 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
totally ruined and quite charmed. Yet I heartily pity him. To
Virginia he cannot be indifferent; he must turn their heads somehow
or other. If his graces do not captivate them, he will enrage them to
fury, for I take all his douceur to be enamelled on iron.' Letters, v.
ii6. On Aug. 14, Walpole wrote : — ' There is a disagreeable affair at
home, resulting from the disquiets in America. Virginia, though not
the most mutinous, contains the best heads and the principal boutes-
feux'^. It was thought necessary that the Governor should reside
there. It was known that Sir Jeffery Amherst [the governor] would
not like that. ... At the same time, Lord Bottetourt, a court favourite,
yet ruined in fortune, was thought of by his friend. Lord Hillsborough.
This was mentioned to Sir Jeffery with the offer of a pension. He
boggled at the word pension ; but neither cared to go to his govern-
ment, nor seemed to dislike giving it up.' lb. p. 120. Walpole in
his Memoirs of George III, iii. 151, describes Bottetourt as ' of the Bed-
chamber and a kind of second-rate favourite. He had engaged in an
adventure with a company of copper-workers at Warmley. They
broke. In order to cover his estate from the creditors he begged a
privy seal, to incorporate the Company, as private estates would not
then be answerable. The King granted his request, but Lord
Chatham, aware of the deception, honestly refused to affix the Seal to
the Patent.' In the end 'he did acquiesce in resigning the Seal
for a short time, that, being put into commission, it might be set to
the grant.' (See also the Chatham Corres. iii. 306-322.) Such was
the swindler who on the eve of the outbreak with America was sent
there as Lieutenant and Governor-General of Virginia. ' Whom,'
asked Burke, ' have they selected in these perilous times to soothe
the animosity, and reconcile the differences that now unhappily sub-
sist between our colonies and the mother-country ? I need not name
the man ; everybody knows him as a projector, as one who by ■wild
and chimerical schemes has not only so embarrassed his own affairs
as to render his stay in this country impracticable, but brought
irretrievable ruin upon many others.' Pari. Hist. xvi. 723. He
died in Virginia on Nov. 9, 1770, ' greatly lamented by the whole
colony.' Ann. Reg. xiii. 191. Junius described him as 'a cringing,
bowing, fawning, sword-bearing courtier who had ruined himself by
an enterprise, which would have ruined thousands if it had succeeded.'
Letters of Junius, ed. 1812, iii. 109. He it is, I believe, whom Churchill
introduces in the following couplet :—
' Dashwood is pious, Berkley fixed as fate,
Sandwich (Thank Heav'n) first Minister of State.'
Poems, ed. 1766, ii. 118.
I have little doubt that ' the affair ' which these three Lords were
'conducting' was connected with the printing of the Rolls of Parlia-
ment, and the Journals of the House of Lords. Nichols says that in
' Boute-feux, Incendiaries.
XXXII.] A HUMOROUS INDICTMENT. 109
1767 William Bowyer was made printer, being ' principally indebted
for the appointment to the Earl of Marchmont.' Lit. Anec. in. ■^g. In
a curious inscription written by Bowyer under his own bust in
Stationers' Hall it is stated, that 'he was appointed to print the
Journals of the House of Lords, at near LXX Years of age, by the
patronage of a noble Peer.' 76. p. 293. \n the Journals of the House
of Lords, xxxi. 509, there is an order on March 9, 1767, to leave to a
Sub-committee, to which these three Lords belonged, the question
of printing the Rolls and the Journals. /6. p. 429.
Note 4. Gibbon describing his student days at Lausanne, says of
the writings of Cicero : — ' The most perfect editions, that of Olivet,
which may adorn the shelves of the rich, that of Ernesti, which
should lie on the table of the learned, were not within my reach.'
Gibbon's Misc. Works, i. 89.
Note 5. A new edition of Hume's Essays and Treatises in 2 vols,
quarto was published by A. Millar, London, and A. Kincaid and A.
Donaldson, Edinburgh, in 1768. A quarto edition of his History in
8 vols, was published in 1770.
Note 6. See ante, p. 64, n. 9.
Note 7. This paper, I have little doubt, is one quoted in Burton's
Hume, ii. 340. Voltaire is only once mentioned. It begins : —
' Heads of an Indictment laid by J. J. Rousseau, philosopher,
against D. Hume, Esq.
' I. That the said David Hume, to the great scandal of philosophy,
and not having the fitness of things before his eyes, did concert a
plan with Mess. Tronchin, Voltaire and D'Alembert to ruin the said
J. J. Rousseau for ever, by bringing him over to England, and there
settling him to his heart's content.
' 2. That the said David Hume did, with a malicious and traitorous
intent, procure, or cause to be procured, by himself, or somebody else,
one pension of the yearly value of ^100 or thereabouts, to be paid to
the said J. J. Rousseau, on account of his being a philosopher, either
privately or publicly, as to him the said J. J. Rousseau should seem
meet.
' 3. That the said David Hume did, one night after he left Paris, put
the said J. J. Rousseau in bodily fear, by talking in his sleep ;
although the said J. J. Rousseau doth not know whether the said
David Hume was really asleep, or whether he shammed Abraham ^,
or what he meant.'
Dr. Burton adds that this paper ' has the appearance of having
been written by a Scottish lawyer.'
Note 8. Dr. Burton thinks that this letter only reached Hume
through the press. At all events there is no trace of it among his
manuscripts. Life of Hume, ii. 358. Rousseau had accused Voltaire of
having written a letter against him, which was published as Voltaire's at
1 'To shaniAbram : to feign sickness, a phrase in use among sailors.' Munay's
New Eng. Diet.
no LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
London, under the title of Lettre au dodeur Jean-Jacques Pansophe.
The author was M. Bordes, of Lyons. (Euvres de Voltaire, liii. 497.
An English translation, published by Payne, is in the list of publica-
tions in the Gent, Mag. for April, 1766, p. 192. See also lb. p. 563.
Hume himself at first had no doubt of its authenticity. On May 16,
1766, some weeks before Rousseau's outbreak against him, he wrote
to the Countess de Boufflers : — ' You have probably seen Voltaire's
letter to our exotic philosopher. I fancy it will rouse him from his
lethargy. These two gladiators are very well matched ; it is like the
combat of Dares and Entellus in Virgil \^neid. v. 362-484]. The
sprightliness and grace, and irony and pleasantry of the one vidll be
a good contrast to the force and vehemence of the other.' Private
Corres. p. 171. Rousseau, after charging Voltaire with being the
author of the letter, continues : — ' Le noble objet de ce spirituel
ouvrage est de m'attirer le mepris et la haine de ceux chez qui je me
suis refugi6.' (Euvres de Rousseau, ed. 1782, xxiv. 368. Voltaire
replied to this accusation in a letter addressed to Hume, dated
' Ferney, 24 Octobre.' He says : — ' II m'a fait I'honneur de me mettre
au nombre de ses ennemis et de ses persecuteurs. Intimement
persuade qu'on doit lui elever une statue . . . il pense que la
moitie de I'univers est occupee a dresser cette statue sur son piedestal,
et I'autre moitie a la renverser.' (Euvres de Voltaire, liii. 497. See
ante, p. 90, for another extract from this letter. Grimm, writing
on Nov. I, 1766, says : — ' M. de Voltaire a fait imprimer une petite
' lettre adressee a M. Hume, oil il a, pour ainsi dire, donne le coup de
grace a ce pauvre Jean-Jacques. Cette lettre a eu beaucoup de
succes a Paris, et elle a peutetre fait plus de tort a M. Rousseau que
la brochure de M. Hume.' Corres. Lit. v. 211. An English transla-
tion was published by S. Bladon in Paternoster Row, 1766. It is
curious in all the translations to finA Jean Jacques turned into John
James. ' The great soul of John James ' reads as comically as ' la
grande ame de Jean-Jacques ' reads naturally.
We find no more mention of Rousseau in Hume's letters to Strahan.
On Oct. 8 of this year (1767) he wrote to Adam Smith : — ' Thus
you see, he is a composition of whim, affectation, vsdckedness, vanity,
and inquietude, with a very small, if any, ingredient of madness. He
is always complaining of his health ; yet I have scarce ever seen a
more robust little man of his years. . . . The ruling qualities above
mentioned, together with ingratitude, ferocity, and lying, — I need not
mention eloquence and invention— form the whole of the composi-
tion.' Burton's Hume, ii. 377. When we consider the judgments,
wide as the poles asunder, which Hume passed on Rousseau, we are
the more ready to allow that, as regards him at all events, Dr.
Carlyle was right when he said : — ' David Hume, like Adam Smith,
had no discernment at all of characters.' Dr. A. Carlyle's Auto.
p. 278.
XXXIV.] HUME'S TALK OF COURT-LIFE. ill
LETTER XXXIII.
An Application to Lord Hertford.
[i?67.]
Dear Strahan
It was not possible for me to get an Opportunity
last Night of speaking to Lord Hertford^; I shall try if
I can be more fortunate this Evening ; and I shall as soon
as possible, give you Information : A Moment will be
sufficient, as I have only to put him in Mind of his
Engagements — Yours
D. H.
Sunday Forenoon.
Note 1. Dr. Alexander Carlyle gives us a glimpse of Hume as an
Under-Secretary of State. He met him at a dinner where there
were some people connected with the Court. He says : — ' The con-
versation was lively and agreeable, but we were much amused with
observing how much the thoughts and conversation of all those in
the least connected were taken up with every trifling circumstance
that related to the Court. ... It was truly amusing to observe how
much David Hume's strong and capacious mind was filled with infan-
tine anecdotes of nurses and children.' Carlyle's Auto. p. 518.
Fox wrote of Hume : — ' He was an excellent man, and of great
powers of mind ; but his partiality to kings and princes is intolerable :
Nay, it is in my opinion quite ridiculous ; and is more like the foolish
admiration which women and children sometimes have for Kings
than the opinion, right or wrong, of a philosopher.' Edinburgh Review,
No. xxiv, p. 277.
LETTER XXXIV.
Applications to Lord Hertford and General Conway.
Dear Strahan
I have been so happy as to prevail in my Appli-
cations both to Lord Hertford and to General Conway^:
I doubt not but Charles Townsend ^ will be favourable to
you. Pray, are you thinking of this new Dress in which
you promis'd to put me ? Shall I pretend to rival Cicero
in Garb and Accoutrements ^.
Yours
D. H.
Monday Forenoon.
lia LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Note I. Hume took advantage of his position to pay a compliment
to an old friend. Writing to Dr. Blair on May 27, 1767 he says : —
' Tell Robertson that the Compliment at the End of General Conway's
Letter to him was of my composing without any Orders from him.
He smild when he read it ; but said it was very proper and sign'd
it. These are not bad Puffs from Ministers of State, as the silly
World goes.' M. S. R. S. E. Robertson earlier in the year had
asked Hume to use his influence with General Conway about an
appointment to some military chaplaincy. Stewaxt's Life of Robert-
son, ed. 181 1, p. 355.
Note 2. Charles Townshend was Chancellor of the Exchequer
when this letter was written, and, to use Burke's words, still ' lord of
the ascendant.' (Payne's Burke, i. 146.) He died in office on Sept.
4, 1767.
Note 3. Hume is referring to the proposed new editions of his
works. See ante, p. 106.
LETTER XXXV.
An Apology for not keeping an Engagement.
[1767?]
Mr. Hume asks Mr. Strahan ten thousand Pardons :
When Mr. Strahan was so kind to ask him to dine with him
on Monday, he was already engagd several days before,
but had forgot it. Meeting yesterday with the Gentleman,
he put him in mind of it, and insisted that the prior
Engagement was to him So that he hopes Mr. Strahan
will be so good as to excuse him.
Sunday.
LETTER XXXVL
Hume in Edinburgh : Tempests brewing in Public Affairs.
Dear S'"
I never enjoyed myself better, nor was in better
spirits, than since I came down here ^. I live as I please,
spend my time according to my fancy, keep a plentiful
table for myself and my friends ^ amuse myself with
XXXVI.] STUPID AND FACTIOUS BARBARIANS. 1 13
reading and society, and find the generality of the people
disposed to respect me more on account of my having
been well receiv'd in greater and more renowned places ^ :
But tho' all this makes my time slide away easily, it is
impossible for me to forget that a man who is in his 59*
Year has not many more years to live *, and that it is time
for him, if he has common Sense, to have done with all
Ambition. My Ambition was always moderate and confind
entirely to Letters ® ; hut it has been my Misfortune to write
in the Language of the most stupid and factious Barbarians
in the World^ ; and it is long since I have renounced all
desire of their Approbation, which indeed coud no longer
give me either pleasure or Vanity.
As to my Notion of public Affairs, I think there are
very dangerous Tempests brewing, and the Scene thickens
every moment ''. The Government has, no doubt, great
Resources, if they employ them with Prudence and Vigour
and Unanimity. But have we any reason to think they
will do so? The Parliament will certainly be * * -x-
by the Populace every day next winter*- If they bear
it, they degrade * * * and draw on * * * . If they
punish, they will still more enrage the Faction, and give
a Pretence for the Cry that Liberty is violated ^ Are we
sure, that the popular Discontent may not reach the Army,
who have a Pretence for Discontents of their own 1°. The
General in chief is a weak man, and fond of low popularity^' :
It is true, you have a very honest Chancellor '^ and a very
courageous Chief Justice '*, who will be a great Ressource
in difficult times. But is it certain that Lord Bute will
abstain from tampering and trying some more of his pretty
Experiments '* ? What if he take it in his head to open the
Door to Pitt and his Myrmidons, who will, no doubt, chain
the King for ever, and render him a mere Cypher '^- Our
Government has become an absolute Chimera : So much
* [MS. torn.]
I
114 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Liberty is incompatible with human Society : And it will
be happy, if we can escape from it, without falling into
a military Government, such as Algiers or Tunis ". The
Matter will only be worse, if there be no shooting or
hanging next Winter " : This Frenzy of the people, so
epidemical and so much without a Cause, admits only
of one Remedy, which however is a dangerous one, and
requires more vigour than has appeard in any minister
of late ^^. I have a very good Opinion of the Duke of
Grafton but his Youth deprives him of Experience and
still more of Authority ^'. I dare [not vejnture to play the
Prophet, but think you are in great Danger. I see * * *
low : Have the People sense enough to see their Danger,
and to withdraw from that precarious Security. If they
coud see it in time, and catch the Alarm, it woud be a
great Ressource to Government : But this is more than
can reasonably be expected from them.
You say I am of a disponding Character : On the
contrary, I am of a very sanguine Disposition. Notwith-
standing my Age, I hope to see a public Bankruptcy '*', the
total Revolt of America ^\ the Expulsion of the English
from the East Indies^-, the Diminution of London to less
than a half ^^, and the Restoration of the Government to
the King^*, Nobihty, and Gentry of this Realm. To adorn
the Scene, I hope also that some hundreds of Patriots ^*
will make their Exit at Tyburn, and improve English
Eloquence by their dying Speeches^". I think, indeed,
that no body of common Sense coud at present take the
Road of Faction and Popularity, who woud not upon
occasion have joind Catiline's Conspiracy^'; and I have
no better opinion of the Gentleman you call my Friend ^*.
Pray have you seen Lord Stormont since he came
home -' ? Did he enquire after you ?
I think, if you throw off the Errata as it is printed, it will
do very well. It is not long for 8 Volumes ^^ ; and they
XXXVI.] HUME'S RETURN TO EDINBURGH. \1$
are not all Errors of the Press. You mention nothing
of the small Edition of my Essays, whence 1 conclude it is
not going forward ^^. I am Dear S" Yours sincerely and
beg the continuation of your Friendship, tho' it shoud be
our Lot not to pass much of our time together. I wish
much to see you possessd of some Farms in this Country ^"^ ,
where there is great Unanimity at present, and a Desire to
support Government ^^.
D. H.
Edinburgh, 25 of Oct., 1769.
Note I. By Conway's resignation (Jan. 20, 1768), Hume lost his
office. ' I returned to Edinburgh in 1769,' he writes in his Auto-
biography, ' very opulent, for I possessed a revenue of ^1000 a year,
healthy, and though somewhat stricken in years, with the prospect
vDf enjoying long my ease, and of seeing the increase of my reputa-
tion.' He had stayed on in London till the suntmer of 1769. Writing
on Dec. 23, 1768 to the Countess de Boufflers to apologise for not
paying a visit to Paris, he said : — ' The truth is, I have, and ever had,
a prodigious reluctance to change myplace of abode.' Private Carres.
p. 263. On March 28, 1769, he wrote to Dr. Blair at Edinburgh : — ' I
intend to visit you soon, and for good and all. Indeed I know not
what detains me here, except that it is so much a matter of indifference
where I live ; and I am amused with looking on the scene, which
really begins to be interesting.' Burton's Hutiie, ii. 424. It was during
this stay in London that he called on Boswell in Half-Moon Street,
Piccadilly. ' I am really the great man now,' wrote Boswell to the
Rev. W. J. Temple, on May 14, 1768. ' I have had David Hume in the
forenoon, and Mr. Johnson in the afternoon of the same day visiting
me. . . . David Hume came on purpose the other day to tell me that
the Duke of Bedford was very fond of my book, and had recom-
mended it to the Duchess. David is really amiable ; I always regret
to him his unlucky principles, and he smiles at my faith ; but I have
a hope which he has not, or pretends not to have. So who has the
best of it, my reverend friend .'' Letters of Boswell, p. 151. On Aug. 20,
1769, Hume wrote to Adam Smith from Edinburgh : — ' I am glad to
have come within sight of you, and to have a view of Kirkaldy from my
windows ; but as I wish also to be within speaking terms of you, I
wish we could concert measures for that purpose. I am mortally
sick at sea, and regard with horror and a kind of hydrophobia the
great gulf [The Firth of Forth] that lies between us.' "Burton's Hume,
ii. 429. In Humphry Clinker (letter of Aug. 8), Matthew Bramble's
sufferings are described in his sail across this ' great gulf of seven
miles. ' I am much of the honest Highlander's mind (said he) after
I Z
Il6 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
he had made such a passage as this : his friend told him he was
much indebted to Providence. " Certainly (said Donald), but by my
saul, mon, I'se ne'er trouble Providence again, so long as the brig of
Stirling stands." '
Note 2. On Oct. i6, 1769, nine days earlier than the date of the
letter in the text, Hume had written to Sir Gilbert Elliot :— ' I live
still, and must for a twelvemonth, in my old house in James's Court,
which is very cheerful, and even elegant, but too small to display
my great talents for cookery, the science to which I intend to addict
the remaining years of my life ! I have just now lying on the table
before me a receipt for making soupe a la reine, copied with my own
hand ; for beef and cabbage (a charming dish), and old mutton and
old claret nobody excels me. I make also sheep-head broth in a
manner that Mr. Keith speaks of it for eight days after ; and the Due
de Nivernois ^ would bind himself apprentice to my lass ^ to learn it.'
Stewart's Robertson, p. 361. Gibbon wrote to Holroyd at Edinburgh
on Aug. 7, 1773 : — ' You tell me of a long list of dukes, lords, and
chieftains of renown to whom you are introduced ; were I with you,
I should prefer one David to them all. When you are at Edinburgh,
I hope you will not fail to visit the stye of that fattest of Epicurus's
hogs, and inform yourself whether there remains no hope of its
recovering the use of its right paw.' Gibbon's Misc. Works, ii. no.
Boswell writing on June 19, 1775, says : — ' On Thursday I supped
at Mr. Hume's, where we had the young Parisian, Lord Kames, and
Dr. Robertson, an excellent supper, three sorts of ice-creams. What
think you of the northern Epicurus style ? I can recollect no con-
versation. Our writers here are really not prompt on all occasions,
as those of London.' Letters of Boswell, p. 203. The 'three sorts of
ice-creams ' were in those days a great luxury ; for Lord Cockburn,
writing of Edinburgh twenty or thirty years later, says : — ' Ice, either
for cooling or eating, was utterly unknown, except in a few houses of
the highest class.' Hume's old claret would not have been so costly as
in England, for in Scotland claret was exempted from duty till about
1780. Cockburn's Memorials, p. 35. On April 17, 1775, Hume vnrote
to the Countess de Boufflers : — 'I have been always, and still am,
very temperate. The only debauches I ever was guilty of were
those of study ; and even these were moderate ; for I was always
very careful of my health by using exercise.' Private Corres., p. 282.
The house in James's Court he had bought in 1762. On July 5 of that
year he wrote to Elliot : — ' I have hitherto been a wanderer on the face
of the earth, without any abiding city : But I have now at last pur-
chased a house which I am repairing; though I cannot say that I have
' The Due de Nivernois had been ambassador in England in 1762. Walpole's
Letters, iv. 17. Walpole calls him ' a namby-pamby kind of pedant, with a peevish
petite santi^ Ib.y. 131.
'' ' Formerly a common name in Scotland for a cook-maid.' Note by Stewart.
XXXVI.] THE HOUSE IN JAMES'S COURT. 117
yet fixed any property in the earth, but only in the air : For it is the
third storey of James's Court, and it cost me 500 pounds. It is some-
what dear, but I shall be exceedingly well lodged.' Stewart's
Robertson, p. 360. During his residence in France, more than once,
in the midst of all his good fortune and his grand society, he re-
gretted his snug quarters. From Fontainebleau, where he suffered,
he says, more from flattery than Lewis XIV ever had in any three
weeks of his life, he wrote to Dr. Ferguson : — ' Yet I am sensible that
I set out too late, and that I am misplaced ; and I wish twice or thrice
a day, for my easy chair and my retreat in James's Court.' Burton's
Hume, ii. 173. Dr. Blair was his tenant for part of this time. Hume
wrote to him in the spring of 1764 : — ' I am glad to find that you are
my tenant. You have got an excellent house for its size. It was
perfectly clear of vermin when I left it, and I hope you will find it
so. . . . Never put a fire in the south room with the red paper. It is
so warm of itself that all last winter, which was a very severe one, I
lay with a single blanket ; and frequently upon coming in at mid-
night, starving with cold, have sat down and read for an hour, as if I
had had a stove in the room. The fires of your neighbours will save
you the expense of a fire in that room '.' M. S. R. S. E. On Dec. 28,
1765, writing to Blair, he said :. — ' If you leave my House as you
thought you would, Nairne may have it for 35 pounds as we agreed.'
M. S. R. S. E. This perhaps was the rent for the house furnished, as
Hume had left it when he started for Paris. In his will he be-
queathed the life-rent of it to his sister, ' or in case that house be sold
at the time of my decease, twenty pounds a year during the whole
course of her life.' Hume's Philosophical Works, ed. 1854, i. xxx.
Blair in a letter dated May 13 [1766], says that he is on the point of
leaving. M.S.R.S.E.
By a house in Edinburgh, it must be remembered, a single story,
or half a story, was commonly meant. In one single building there
were generally many freeholds separately held. Sir John Pringle,
writing to Hume from London on Nov. 2, 1773, about an Edinburgh
house, says : — ' I will not answer for the clearness [of my reply], as I
apprehend some danger in misunderstanding one another from the
different terms in use here and in Scotland at present. When I left
it, we had luckily neither parlours, nor first and second floors to con-
found us.' lb.
Dr. Robert Chambers, in his Traditions of Edinburgh, ed. 1825, i.
219, says that ' till the building of the New Town James's Court was
inhabited by a select set of gentlemen. They kept a clerk to record
their names and their proceedings, had a scavenger of their own,
clubbed in many public measures, and had balls and assemblies
among themselves.' Hume's flat was on the northern side of the
' Perhaps it was these fires which caused the conflagration by which this most
interesting house was burnt down in 1857.
Il8 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Court, where the houses were built on so steep a slope, that he who
from the south had entered on a level with the pavement found on
going to the windows at the north that he was looking down from
the fourth story. Below him he could have seen the topmost
branches of a fine row of trees. ' How well,' says Lord Cockburn,
' the ridge of the old town was set off by a bank of elms that ran
along the front of James's Court, and stretched eastward over the
ground now partly occupied by the Bank of Scotland.' Memorials,
p. 292. They and many another stately group fell before ' the Huns,'
who in Edinburgh in the early part of the present century ' massacred
every town tree that came in a mason's way.' lb. p. 291.
Boswell, when Johnson visited him in 1773, was living on the
ground floor of the same house, on a level with the Court. 'Boswell,'
wrote Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, 'has very handsome and spacious
rooms ; level with the ground on one side of the house, and on the
other four stories high.' Piozzi Letters, i. 109. Dr. Burton is mis-
taken in thinking that the flat in which Johnson was received was
the very one which had been occupied by Hume. He quotes a
paper, apparently undated, drawn up by Hume for defending an
action brought against him by a builder for repairs. In this it is
stated that ' at Whitsuntide last, Mr. Boswell, advocate, left Mr.
Hume's house in James's Court ; and Lady Wallace, dowager, came
to it.' The document goes on to say that the Boswells had lived
two years in the house. If Boswell lived two years in this flat it
must have been later on, for Hume left it for St. Andrew's Square
little more than a year before Johnson's visit. Dr. Burton says : — ' I
have ascertained that by ascending the western of the two stairs
facing the entry of James's Court to the height of three stories, we
arrive at the door of David Hume's house, which, of the two doors
on that landing place, is the one towards the left.' Life of Hume, ii.
137. It has been suggested to me that Dr. Burton was misled by
Hume's statement that he lived ' in the third story,' and that he
should have counted the stories from the outside. My correspondent
says : — ' If you enter from the Mound, that is from the north side,
then the house is on the third story, as stories in Scotland are not
reckoned from the pavement flat, but from the one immediately
above it.' I feel convinced however that Hume did not live on the
pavement flat. In the first place, we have Dr. Burton's positive
statement, which was, he says, founded on 'information com-
municated by Joseph Grant, Esq.' In the second place, Hume, in
the letter to Elliot quoted above, says that his house ' is the third
story.' As he did not say on which side of the Court it stood, he
could never have expected his correspondent to know that it was
one of those houses in which the third story was also the sixth. In
the third place, in the fist of occupants in 1773, given in Chambers's
Traditions of Edinburgh, ed. 1825, i. 220, it is stated that while Bos-
well occupied the floor level with the pavement, Dr. Gregory Grant
XXXVI.] THE HOUSE IN JAMES'S COURT. 119
lived on the fourth floor. Now Dr. Blair when Hume's tenant wrote
to him on Oct. 8, 1765 : — ' I have got two rooms in Dr. Grant's house
above me for Mr. Percy's accommodation '.' M. S. R. S. E. Of course
Dr. Grant's house would have been above him, had he been living
on the pavement level ; but it seems likely that he meant the flat
just above. In 1773 the third floor, according to Chambers's list, was
occupied by Alexander Wallace, Esq., Banker. It was to this floor
that, when ' Mr. Boswell, the advocate, left in Whitsuntide, Lady
Wallace, dowager, came.' Whether she was related to the banker I
do not know. It is possible that Hume's tenant was not Johnson's
biographer, but his cousin, Claude James Boswell, also an advocate,
afterwards Lord Balmuto. If, however, it was James Boswell, then
his two years' tenancy must have fallen between the end of 1773 and
the summer of 1776. It is strange nevertheless that if he ever lived
in Hume's old house he should have made no mention of it.
The two stories of this house in a few years saw a remarkable set
of inmates and visitors. Round about Hume, and Boswell, and Blair
the best society of Edinburgh gathered. Adam Smith had his chamber
in Hume's flat * ; Benjamin Franklin was his guest for several weeks
together ' ; it wras here that a shelter was offered to Rousseau '. It
was here that Paoli visited Boswell in 1771 ^, and that Johnson held his
levees in 1773 ". Some memorial surely should be raised to tell both
citizen and stranger of the past glories of this long-neglected Court.
Note 3. Hume enjoyed also the advantage of having been sought
by a man of ' the decorum and piety of Lord Hertford.' Writing on
Sept. 1, 1763, soon after his appointment as his Lordship's Secretary,
he says : — ' Elliot said to me that my situation was, taking all its
circumstances, the most wonderful event in the world. I was now a
person clean and white as the driven snow ; and that were I to be
proposed for the see of Lambeth no objection could henceforth be
made to me.' Burton's Hume, ii. 159.
Note 4. Gibbon, in his fifty-second year, wrote : — ' This day may
possibly iDe my last ; but the laws of probability, so true in general,
so fallacious in particular, still allow about fifteen years ''.' He lived
about five more. Gibbon's Misc. Works, i. 274.
Note 5. Hume writing of his twenty-fourth year, says in his Auto-
biography : — ' I resolved to make a very rigid frugality supply my
deficiency of fortune, to maintain unimpaired my independency, and
' Mr. Percy, the son of the Earl of Northumberland, was his pupil.
^ Post, Letter of Feb. 11, 1776, note i.
' Dr. A. Carlyle's Autobiography, p. 437.
' Ante, p. 76, n. 5. ° Chambers's Traditions of Edinburgh, i. 221.
" '&oifi€CC'i, Johnson, v. 395.
' According to the tables drawn up by Dr. William Ogle on the basis of the
death-rates of 1871-80 the laws of probability allow a man of Gibbon's age about
eighteen years. Whitaker's Almanack, p. 346.
lao LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
to regard every object as contemptible except the improvement of
my talents in literature.'
Note 6. Hume just two years earlier, wrote to dissuade Gibbon
from composing in French :— 'Let the French triumph in the present
diffusion of their tongue. Our solid and increasing establishments
in America, where we need less dread the inundation of Barbarians,
promise a superior stability and duration to the English language.'
Gibbon's Misc. Works, i. 204. Franklin, writing to Hume from
Coventry on Sept. 27, 1760, says : — ' I hope with you that we shall
always in America make the best English of this Island our standard,
and I believe it will be so. I assure you it often gives me pleasure
to reflect how greatly the audience (if I may so term it) of a good
English writer will, in another century or two, be increased by the
increase of English people in our colonies.' Life of Franklin, ed. by
J. Bigelow, i. 412. Franklin's reflections would have been far less
pleasurable could he have foreseen the meanness of this vast audi-
ence of the future. He was honest enough to think that each man
has some right to enjoy the fruits of his own labour. He would have
been the last man to rob English writers of their fairly-earned reward
by refusing them a copy-right. Once, when upholding in Congress
a law of libel, he said that he was willing to give up his right of
throwing dirt at other people, would other people give up their right
of throwing dirt at him. In like manner he would have urged the
Americans to give up their right of robbing Englishmen, when he
saw that Englishmen were willing to give up their right of robbing
Americans. I speak with some feeling, for 1 have learnt that Messrs.
Harper of New York are ' reprinting ' my edition of Boswell's Life of
Johnson.
Note 7. Wilkes had withdrawn to France in 1763. By not ap-
pearing to the indictments which were laid against him, towards
the end of 1764, he was outlawed. ' An exile from his country, distrest
in his circumstances, and in a great measure abandoned by his friends,
he seemed not only totally ruined, but also nearly forgotten.' Ann.
Reg. 1769, i. 58. Had the pardon for which in 1766 he sued from the
prime-minister, the Duke of Grafton, been granted, he might have
sunk altogether into oblivion. Had he been offered the bribe of
a pension or a place, he would have ceased to be ' a Wilkite ' many
years earlier than he did. He was however treated, not only with
neglect, but with some indignity. In December, 1767, he published a
letter to the Duke of Grafton in which he accused him and Chatham
of being the tools of Bute. The public attention and pity were once
more roused. ' They began to think his suffering out of measure,
and to reflect that he was at any rate a victim to the popular cause.'
lb. p. 59. In defiance of his sentence of outlawry, he returned to
England on the dissolution of Parliament, and in March, 1768, stood
for the City of London. He was unsuccessful, rather, it seems, through
the cowardice than the ill-will of the electors. He at once set up for
XXXVI.] WILKES AND LIBERTY RIOTS. 121
the County of Middlesex, and was returned by a great majority. The
Londoners flocked to Brentford to hear the declaration of the poll.
' There has not been so great a defection of the inhabitants from
London and Westminster to ten miles distance in one day, since the
Lifeguardman's prophecy of the earthquake which was to destroy
both those cities in the year 1750.' Ih. 1768, i. 86. Strahan, describing
these transactions in a letter to Sir Andrew Mitchell, dated April i,
1768, says : — ' During the continuance [of the poll for London] he
appeared every day on the hustings, though he was more than once
arrested there at the instance of his private creditors. But he found
bail for his appearance, braved it out to the last, and was attended by
a considerable mob every day. When he found the poll going
against him, he publicly gave out he would stand for Middlesex.
There he was likely to stand a better chance, an incredible number
of petty freeholders of that County from Wapping, and its environs,
immediately declared for him, and on the day of election, he carried
it with ease, and with very little disturbance at Brentford ; though
the whole road thither was lined with a mob who insulted every one
who would not join in the Cry of Wilkes and Liberty. This success im-
mediately reached London, and occasioned such an intoxication in
the mob — men, women, and children — that they spread themselves
from Hyde Park Corner to Wapping, and broke everybody's win-
dows who refused to illuminate their houses ; among the rest, those
of the Mansion House of the Lord Mayor, who happened that night
to sleep in the Country, were quite demolished ; and though a party
of soldiers were at length sent for by the Mayoress from the Tower,
they, when they came (so general was the infatuation) seemed more
disposed to assist the mob than to disperse them. You will not
easily believe it, but it is true, that the Dukes of Grafton and
Northumberland, and many others of the first nobility, nay some of
the Royal Family itself (viz. the Princess Amelia and the Dukes of
Gloucester and Cumberland) were mean enough to submit to illu-
minate their windows upon this infamous occasion, in obedience to
the orders of a paltry Mob, which a dozen of their footmen might
easily have dispersed. If you ask me why was not Wilkes secured
on his arrival, and before he had acquired his present consequence ?
— the answer is plain, the Ministry were part of them timid, and
part of them secretly his friends. The outlawry, says the present
Attorney General [De Grey] cannot be defended, because of some
informalities in the passing of it ; and his predecessor [Norton] who
did pass it, is in opposition. The Duke of Grafton, though then in
Town, is now at Newmarket, the Chancellor at Bath, the rest
electioneering in different parts of the country, or skulking in town ;
but not one of them disposed to prevent this insult to their Master
or to issue orders for a party of the Guards (and a small one would
have been sufScient) to clear the streets.
' The next night, the same illuminations were again insisted on,
122 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
and the same insolence, with the same impunity, was repeated.'
M. S. R. S. E.
' It is really on extraordinary event,' wrote Dr. Franklin on
April i6, ' to see an outlaw and exile, of bad personal character, not
worth a farthing, come over from France, set himself up as a candi-
date for the capital of the kingdom, miss his election only by being
too late in his application, and immediately carrying it for the prin-
cipal county. The mob (spirited up by numbers of different ballads
sung or roared in every street) requiring gentlemen and ladies of all
ranks, as they passed in their carriages, to shout for Wilkes and
liberty, marking the same words on all coaches vsrith chalk, and No.
45 on every door ; which extends a vast way along the roads in the
country.' Franklin's Memoirs (ed. 1833), iii. 306. Wilkes, after being
allowed his liberty for nearly three months, was committed to the
King's Bench on his outlawry. The mob carried him off in triumph
on his way to prison, taking the horses out of his carriage and
drawing it themselves. He gave himself up the same day to the
marshal. Ann. Reg. 1768, i. 100. On May 10, at a riot in St. George's
Fields, before his prison gates five or six people were shot dead by
the soldiers, and about fifteen wounded. lb. p. 108. On June 8
Wilkes's outlawry was reversed ; lb. p. 121 ; but on June 18 judg-
ment was pronounced on him for the charges of which, in February
1764, he had been convicted in his absence ; namely the republication
of the North Briton, No. 45, and the publication of the Essay on
Woman. He was sentenced to two fines of five hundred pounds
each and to two terms of imprisonment of ten and twelve months
each. lb. p. 127. When two of the soldiers who had fired on
the crowd were put on their trial, the anger of the people was
roused by the alleged mockery of justice. They were still more
angered by 'a letter of a Secretary of State recommending an
effectual and early use of the military power ; and by another from
the Secretary at War, thanking the soldiers for their alacrity, and
promising them protection ; and these words being attended with
pecuniary rewards publicly given, the populace were actuated with
the highest degree of fury and resentment.' lb. 1769, i. 62. Mean-
while 'the disorders in the Colonies increased to such a degree as to
grow every day more alarming. . . . Moreover it was said that the
weakness of Government had encouraged the neighbouring States to
treat us with contempt and indifference.' lb. p. 63.
London during the first six months of 1768 was, to quote Dr. Frank-
lin's words, ' a daily scene of lawless riot. Mobs patrolling the streets
at noon-day, some knocking all down that will not roar for Wilkes
and liberty ; . . . coal-heavers and porters pulling down the houses
of coal-merchants that refuse to give them more wages ; sawyers
destroying saw-mills ; sailors unrigging all the outward-bound ships,
and suffering none to sail till merchants agree to raise their pay ;
watermen destroying private boats and threatening bridges ; soldiers
XXXVI.] RIOTS IN LONDON IN 1 768. 123
firing among the mobs, and killing men, women, and children.'
Franklin's Memoirs, 1818, iii. 307. ' We have independent mobs,'
wrote Horace Walpole on May 12, ' that have nothing to do with
Wilkes, and who only take advantage of so favourable a season. The
dearness of provisions incites, the hope of increase of wages allures,
and drink puts them in motion. ... I cannot bear to have the name
of Liberty profaned to the destruction of the cause ; for frantic
tumults only lead to that terrible corrective, Arbitrary Power, —
which cowards call out for as protection, and knaves are so ready to
grant.' Letters, v. 99. The Annual Register for this year describes
among other riots one on April 18, in which three persons were
killed by shots, and several dangerously wounded (i. 96) ; a second,
on the 25th, in which ' several lives were lost ' {ib. p. 99) ; a third, on
May 10 — the one before Wilkes's prison, mentioned above ; a fourth,
on May 25, in which ' many lives were lost' {ib. p. 114) ; a fifth, on
June 2, in which two captains of ships were so beaten that their
lives were despaired of (ib. p. 119) ; a sixth, on June 4, in which ' the
coal-heavers and sailors had a terrible battle, when many were
wounded on both sides ' {ib. p. 120) ; a seventh, on June 7, ' another
great fray, in which several sailors lost their lives ' (ib. p. 121) ; and
an eighth, on June 13, a fight between the coal-heavers and the
military, ' wherein several were hurt on both sides ' (ib. p. 124). In
the end nine coal-heavers were hanged, and for a time there was
peace. Ib. pp. 137, 139. The High Sheriff of Hertford, at the sum-
mer assizes, ' sent a turtle for the table of the judges, with burgundy
instead of the common present of claret, and gave for a reason, that
in these licentious times he could not treat His Majesty's chief
ministers of justice with too much respect.' Ib. p. 153.
On Feb. 3, 1769, Wilkes was expelled the House of Commons, and
declared incapable of being elected. On Feb. 16 he was a second
time, and on March 16 a third time, elected without opposition ; his
election in each case was declared void. On April 13, being elected
for the fourth time by a great majority, the poll taken for him was
declared null and void, and the seat was given to his opponent. Pari.
Hist. xvi. 437, 546. There was much less rioting in 1769. Neverthe-
less on March 22 the King issued a Proclamation, in which it was
. stated that ' disorderly persons had in a most daring and audacious
manner assaulted several merchants and others, coming to our
palace at St. James's, and had committed many acts of violence and
outrage before the gates of our palace.' Ann. Reg. 1769, i. 229. Less
than a month before the date of Hume's letter, some riotous
weavers, armed with guns and pistols, attacked a party of soldiers
who had been sent against them. Two weavers and one soldier
were killed and several were wounded. Ib. p. 136. Five of the
weavers were hanged. Ib. pp. 159, 162. Even the Lord Mayor's Feast
was troubled. Of all the Ministers and great officers of state invited,
Lord Chancellor Camden alone attended ; and in the procession
124 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
only ' five aldermen appeared without dread of popular disgrace.'
lb. p. 149.
The Middlesex election had roused the whole country. ' The
remotest counties,' says Burke, ' caught the alarm. . . . The nation
was in a great ferment during the whole summer — the like had
scarcely been ever remembered.' Ann. Reg. 1770, i. 56, 58. Horace
Walpole, on his return to London from France, wrote on Oct. 13 : —
' I arrived the night before last ; and do not find any reason to
change my opinion on the state of this country. It approaches by
fast strides to some great crisis, and to me never wore so serious
an air, except in the Rebellion.' Letters, v. 196.
Note 8. Sir James Macdonald wrote to Hume on May 18, 1765 : —
'The silk-weavers got a bill passed in the House of Commons to
prevent more effectually the importation of foreign silks, which the
Duke of Bedford threw out in the House of Lords. The next day
above ten thousand of these people came down to the House,
desiring redress, with drums beating and colours flying. They
attacked the Duke of Bedford in his chariot, and threw so large a
stone at him that, if he had not put up his hand and saved his head
by having his thumb cut to the bone, he must have been killed. He
behaved with great resolution and got free of them, since which time
he has remained blockaded in his own house, and defended by the
troops. Yesterday the same number of weavers assembled again at
the House of Lords, where the horse and foot guards were to secure
the entry for the Peers. The mob were ranged before the soldiers,
and their colours were playing in the faces of his Majesty's troops.
The degree of security with which these people commit felony seems
to me the most formidable circumstance in the whole. ... It is really
serious to see the legislature of this country intimidated by such a
rabble, and to see the House of Lords send for Justice Fielding, to
hear him prove for how many reasons he ought not to do his duty.
The Duke of Bedford is still in danger of his life if he goes out of his
house.' Letters 0/ Eminent Persons to David Hume, p. 55.
Note 9. Boswell records the following conversation on April 10,
1783 : — ■' Boswell. " This has been a very factious reign, owing to
the too great indulgence of Government." Johnson. "/ think so,
Sir. What at first was lenity, grew timidity. Yet this is reasoning
a posteriori, and may not be just. Supposing a few had at first been
punished, I believe faction would have been crushed ; but it might
have been said that it was a sanguinary reign. A man cannot tell
a priori what will be best for Government to do.' Boswell's Johnson,
iv. 200.
Note 10. Their ' pretence ' had some foundation. Dr. Brocklesby,
Physician to the Army, the friend of Johnson and Burke, in his
(Economical and Medical Observations reviewed in the Gent. Mag. for
1763, pp. 602, 634, says ' that more than eight times as many soldiers
fall by fever as by battle.' The military hospitals ' sweep off the
kXXVL] THE SOLDIERS AND THE RIOTERS. 125
men like a perpetual pestilence. ... A cruel parsimony frequently
devotes many lives to destruction. . . . Soldiers frequently contract
inveterate rheumatisms and lose the use of their limbs merely for
want of an addition to their clothing. ... As it is frequently fit that
the sick should be kept upon half diet, his unexpended pay should
always come into his own pocket, which at present is seldom the
case. He might then be able to procure shoes and stockings, the
want of which frequently occasions a relapse in weakly men.' Dr.
Franklin, describing on May 14, 1768, the riot in St. George's Fields
in which the soldiers shot six people dead, continues : — ' Several of
the soldiers are imprisoned. If they are not hanged, it is feared there
will be more and greater mobs ; and if they are, that no soldier will
assist in suppressing any mob hereafter. The prospect either way
is gloomy. It is said the English soldiers [English as distinguished
from the Scotch] cannot be confided in to act against these mobs,
being suspected as rather inclined to favour and join them.' The
soldiers who had fired on the mob belonged to a Scotch regiment.
Franklin's Memoirs (ed. 1833), iii. 310.
Note II. The Marquis of Granby was Commander in Chief from
Aug. 1766 to Jan. 1770. His popularity is shown by the number of
taverns that still bear his sign. ' It was cruel,' wrote Lord Chester-
field on his appointment, ' to put a boy [he was 45 years old] over
the head of old Ligonier.' Letters to his Son, iv. 248. Junius, who
had attacked him in his life-time, after his death wrote : — ' His mis-
takes in public conduct did not arise from want of sentiment or want
of judgment, but in general from the difficulty of saying No to the
bad people who surrounded him.' Chatham Corres. iii. 478. Horace
Walpole writing of the division on the address of Thanks on Jan. 9,
1770, says : — ' The most serious part is the defection of Lord Granby
[the Commander-in-Chief] ; for though he has sunk his character by
so many changes, a schism in the army would be very unpleasant,
especially as there are men bad enough to look towards rougher
divisions than parliamentary.' Letters, v. 214.
Note 12. Charles Pratt, first Earl Camden, was Lord Chancellor
from July, 1766, till his dismissal by the Duke of Grafton in Jan.,
1770. In the London Chronicle of Oct. 26, 1769 (the day after the date
of Hume's letter), the following paragraph appeared : — ' Yesterday
the Lord Chancellor was done at Jonathan's upon the ratio of sixty to
forty guineas that he resigns before Christmas ; and at night his
Lordship was done at Arthur's upon the ratio of three to one that
he resigns before Saturday se'nnight.'
Note 13. Hume wrote of Lord Mansfield on July 5, 1768 : — ' Lord
Mansfield said to me that it was impossible for him to condemn
Wilkes to the pillory, because the Attorney-General did not demand
it. Yesterday he represented to the Spanish Ambassador that
moderate sentence as a refinement in politics, which reduced the
scoundrel the sooner to obscurity. It would be a strange cause
126 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
which he could not find plausible reasons to justify.' Burton's Hume,
ii. 415. Horace Walpole, writing on Nov. 13, 1766, says:— 'Lord
Mansfield was reduced to make a speech against prerogative— y&%
yes ; and then was so cowed by Lord Camden, and the very sight of
Lord Chatham, that he explained away half he had said.' Letters,
V. 28. On Dec. 18, 1770, Walpole wrote :— ' If we having nothing
else to do after the holidays, we are to amuse ourselves with worrying
Lord Mansfield, who between irregularities in his Court, timidity,
and want of judgment, has lowered himself to be the object of hatred
to many, and of contempt to everybody.' lb. p. 270. In the Memoirs
of George III, iv. 187, Walpole speaks of his ' pusillanimity ' and
' abject spirits.' Strahan writing to Hume on Jan 13, 1770, after men-
tioning that Mansfield's nephew. Lord Stormont, had called on him,
continues : — ' I took that opportunity of lamenting his Uncle's want
of courage ; which if joined to his great abilities might at this junc-
ture be of such eminent service to this country. He said nobody
acted more strictly up to the plan of conduct he prescribed to him-
self. I replied, I was no judge of that ; but I was certain his allowing
Wilkes to insult him upon the Bench, and his deigning to vindicate
himself against the accusations of that scoundrel, could not be con-
sistent with any plan whatever. At least to me it was wholly in-
comprehensible. There was no answering this. And I chose not to
push the matter further. You will probably think I pushed it too
far. Perhaps I might, but it came naturally into the conversation.'
M.S.R.S.E.
Note 14. Lord Bute's training and character suited an experi-
menter. Johnson described him as ' a theoretical statesman — a book-
minister.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 353. Lord Shelburne wrote of
him : — ' He panted for the Treasury, having a notion that the King
and he understood it from what they had read about revenue and
funds while they were at Kew.' Fitzmaurice's Shelburne, i. 141. His
' project of Government,' as Burke termed it, is described in Thoughts
on the Cause of the Present Discontents, Payne's Burke, i. 12-14.
Though he resigned ofSce in April, 1763, his influence was long felt
and perhaps still longer dreaded. Mr. Grenville, the Prime Minister,
on May 22, 1765, in the name of the Cabinet offered to the King
certain points as indispensably necessary for carrying on the public
business. The first of these was ' that the King's Ministers should
be authorised to declare that Lord Bute is to have nothing to do in
His Majesty's Councils or Government, in any manner or shape
whatever.' Grenville Papers, iii. 41. To this the King assented. lb.
p. 185. In the following November Jenkinson (afterwards first Earl
of Liverpool) ' owned to Mr. Grenville that the intercourse in writing
between His Majesty and Lord Bute always continued, telling him
that he knew that the King wrote him a journal every day of what
passed, and as minute a one as if, said he, " your boy at school was
directed by you to write his journal to you." ' lb. p. 220. Hume
XXXVI.] LORD BUTE'S SECRET INFLUENCE. 127
wrote on Aug. 13, 1767, when he was still an Under-Secretary of
State : — ' I am told that Lord Townshend openly ascribes his own
promotion [to the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland] entirely to the
friendship of Lord Bute. Charles Fitzroy lately in a great meeting
proposed Lord Bute's health in a bumper. It will be a surprise to
you certainly if that noble Lord should again come into fashion, and
openly avow his share of influence, and be openly courted by all the
world.' Burton's Hume, ii. 407.
Strahan, at the end of his letter of April i, 1768, after saying that
he thinks that the banishment of Lord Bute from England is probable,
continues : — ' The case of this nobleman is really singular ; divested
of power, he retains all the odium of Prime Minister. Having long
since most injudiciously pushed into office, and as injudiciously
retired from the political theatre, he hath ever since exercised the
power of recommending, or rather nominating every succeeding
Ministry. These have by turns spurned at and renounced their
maker, and what is truly remarkalple, though he has had no influence in
their Councils, though he has all along never dared to interpose, even
so far as occasionally to serve an humble retainer or dependant, yet,
being well known to have named the men, he has made himself in
the public opinion ultimately responsible for their measures; and
will ere long, if I am not mistaken, be made the scapegoat of all their
misconduct ; so that in the end, his master's favour, of which he
appears to have little known how to avail himself, will cost him dear.'
M.S.R.S.E.
It was on March 2, 1770, that Lord Chatham, in the House of Lords,
' spoke of the secret influence of an invisible power ; of a favourite,
who notwithstanding he was abroad was at this moment as potent
as ever ; who had ruined every plan for the public good, and
betrayed every man who had taken a responsible office. . . . There is,'
he added, ' something behind the throne greater than the King him-
self.' Pari. Hist. xvi. 842-3.
Note 15. Hume wrote on March 28, 1769 : — ' I am well assured
that Lord Chatham will, after the holidays, creep out from his retreat
and appear on the scene.
" Depositis novus exuviis, nitidusque juventa,
Volvitur ad solem et Unguis micat ore trisulcis."
I know not if I cite Virgil exactly', but I am sure I apply him
right. The villain is to thunder against the violation of the Bill of
Rights in not allowing the county of Middlesex the choice of its
member ! Think of the impudence of that fellow, and his quackery —
and his cunning— and his audaciousness ; and judge of the influence
he will have over such a deluded multitude.' Burton's Hume, ii. 422.
' ' Quum positis novus exuviis nitidusque juventa
Volvitur, aut catulos tectis aut ova relinquens,
Arduus ad solem, et Unguis micat ore trisulcis.'
Georgia, iii. 437.
128 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Horace Walpole wrote on March 24, 1769 : — ' If the Scotch who
cannot rest in patience without persecuting Wilkes, and who have
neither known how to quiet or to quell him, prompt new violence, the
nation will call out for Lord Chatham and Lord Temple. . . . For
a little more power men risk what they possess, and never discover
that the most absolute are those which reign in the hearts of the
people. Were Cardinal Richelieu, Cromwell, or Lewis XI more
despotic than Mr. Pitt at the end of the last reign ? And then he had
the comfort of going to bed every night without the fear of being
assassinated ^.' Letters, v. 149. On July 9, 1769, Burke wrote to the
Marquis of Rockingham ; — ' The Court alone can profit by any move-
ments of Lord Chatham, and he is always their resource, when they
are run hard.' Burke's Corres. i. 179. On Oct. 29 (four days after
the date of Hume's letter) he wrote to the same Lord : — 'Though,
according to Lord Camden's phrase. Lord Chatham has had a wonder-
ful resurrection to health, his resurrection to credit and consequence,
and to the power of doing mischief (without which his resurrection
will be incomplete), must be owing to your Lordship and your
friends.' lb. p. 202.
Johnson in a paragraph which was struck out of his Taxation no
Tyranny by ' men in power ' suggests that King William may be
sought for by the Whigs of America, if they erect a monarchy.
Boswell's Johnson, ii. 314. See post. Letters of Jan. 25, 1770 ; March
25, 1771, and Oct. 26, 1775, for Hume's attacks on Lord Chatham.
Note 16. Burke, in Present Discontents (p. 45), written at the end of
1769, says :— ' Good men look upon this distracted scene with sorrow
and indignation. Their hands are tied behind them. They are de-
spoiled of all the power which might enable them to reconcile the
strength of Government with the rights of the people. They stand
in a most distressing alternative. But in the election among evils
they hope better things from temporary confusion than from estab-
lished servitude. In the meantime, the voice of law is not to be
heard. Fierce licentiousness begets violent restraints. The military
arm is the sole reliance ; and then, call your constitution what you
please, it is the sword that governs. The civil power, like every
other that calls in the aid of an ally stronger than itself, perishes by
the assistance it receives.'
Horace Walpole wrote on Jan. i, 1770 : — ' Is the Crown to be
forced to be absolute ! Is Caesar to enslave us, because he conquered
Gaul ! ... Is eloquence to talk or write us out of ourselves ! or is
Catiline to save us, but so as by fire ! . . . Despotism, or unbounded
licentiousness, can endear no nation to any honest man. The French
can adore the monarch that starves them, and banditti are often
attached to their chief; but no good Briton can love any constitution
' Burke, in the Ann. Reg. for 1 761 (i. 47), had said that ' under Mr. Pitt for the
first time administration and popularity were seen united.'
XXXVI.] THE NATION IN A FERMENT. 129
that does not secure the tranquillity and peace of mind of all.' Letters,
V. 213. See post, Letter of Nov. 13, 1775.
Note 17. The ' shooting ' and the ' hanging,' fortunately for
liberty, were not sure to be on the same side. Professor Dicey points
out that ' the position of a soldier may be, both in theory and practice,
a difficult one. He may, as it has been well said '■, be liable to be shot
by a court-martial if he disobeys an order, and to be hanged by a judge
and jury if he obeys it.' Law of the Constitution, ed. 1886, p. 311. Hume,
in the midst of the riots of the previous year, writing to a French
lady, had expressed himself with much more calmness than he now
did : — ' London, 24th May, 1768. There have been this spring in
London a good many French gentlemen, who have seen the nation
in a strange situation, and have admired at our oddity. The elections
have put us into a ferment ; and the riots of the populace have been
frequent ; but as these mutinies were founded on nothing, and had no
connexion with any higher order of the state, they have done but
little mischief, and seem now entirely dispersed.' Private Corres. p.
262. Dr. Blair wrote to Hume from Edinburgh on March 11, 1769 : —
'John [Bull] seems to have lost altogether the little sense he had;
and I do suspect blood must be drawn from him before he settles.
We look on the distant scene with calmness ; procul a Jove, procul a
fulmine ; but to live in the midst of it I would really think disagree-
able.' M.S.R.S.E.
Note 18. Burke describes how 'the nation had been in a great
ferment during the whole summer — the like had scarcely been ever
remembered.' After giving the opinions of each party he continues : —
' The minds of all men were occupied on the one side and the other
with these considerations, and great expectations were formed con-
cerning the manner in which these great points would be handled
in the Speech from the Throne. The Speech began by taking notice
of a distemper that had broke out among the horned cattle. . . . No
notice whatsoever was taken of the great domestic movements, which
had brought on, or followed, the petitions. The public were much
surprised at the silence concerning the petitions, and at the solemn
mention of the horned cattle, which filled the place of that important
business. It became even a subject of too general ridicule.' Ann.
Reg. 1770, pp. 58-9.
Johnson in The False Alarm, published in Jan. 1770, while he
attacks those ' who have been so industrious to spread suspicion and
incite fury from one end of the kingdom to the other,' and calls the
disturbances ' this tempest of outrage,' yet proposes no rash reme-
dies. ' He cannot favour the opposition,' he says, ' for he thinks it
wicked, and cannot fear it, for he thinks it weak. . . . Nothing is
necessary at this alarming crisis but to consider the alarm as false.
To make concessions is to encourage encroachment. Let the Court
' Professor Dicey is perhaps quoting Lord Hervey's words. See Memoirs of
Lord Hervey, ii. 135, 142.
K
130 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
despise the faction, and the disappointed people will soon deride it.'
Works, vi. 156, 178.
Note 19. The Duke was thirty-four years old. Horace Walpole
wrote on June 16, 1768 : — ' What can one say of the Duke of Grafton,
but that his whole conduct is childish, insolent, inconstant, and
absurd — nay, ruinous ? Because we are not in confusion enough, he
makes everything as bad as possible, neglecting on one hand, and
taking no precaution on the other. I neither see how it is possible
for him to remain Minister, nor whom to put in his place. No
government, no police, London and Middlesex distracted, the
Colonies in rebellion, Ireland ready to be so, and France arrogant
and on the point of being hostile ! . . . the Duke of Grafton, like an
apprentice, thinking the world should be postponed to a whore
and a horse-race.' Letters, v. 106. Junius, in his Letter of April 10,
1769, describes the Duke as ' a singular instance of youth without
spirit.' Hume had written on July 22 of the year before, when the
Duke was in power : — ' I fancy the Ministry will remain ; though
surely their late remissness, or ignorance, or pusillanimity, ought to
make them ashamed to show their faces, were it even at Newmarket.'
Burton's Hume, ii. 417. When the Duke resigned Walpole wrote : —
' A very bad temper ; no conduct, and obstinacy always ill-placed,
have put an end to his Grace's administration.' Letters, v. 223.
Note 20. It is probable that a man who boasted of his ' rigid
frugality ' and enjoyed his opulence had before this sold out the
stock, for the rise of which he had been so anxious (ante, p. 42).
In his last illness 'he maintained that the national debt must be
the ruin of Britain.' Burton's Hume, ii. 497. Thirty-three years
earlier, in 1737, so prosperous had been the country that Sir John
Barnard brought in a bill to reduce the interest of the National
Debt from four to three per cent. Sir Robert Walpole opposed
it, chiefly through 'fear of disobliging the moneyed men in the
House of Commons.' Though the Bill at first was supported by
a great majority (220 to 157), yet Walpole 'by making use of all
his oratory to persuade and all his Exchequer knowledge to puzzle '
got it thrown out by a majority nearly as great. The Debt at that
time amounted to almost fifty million pounds. Lord Hervey's
Memoirs, ii. 325-330.
Note 21. March, 1765. Stamp Act passed. Ann. Reg. 1765, i. 38.
March, 1766. Stamp Act repealed. lb. 1766, i. 46.
June, 1767. Tea duties established. Pari. Hist. xvi. 376.
Sept. 1768. Convention met at Boston. Ann. Reg. 1768, i. 73.
Sept. 1768. Troops sent from England to support the Govern-
ment arrived on the day the Convention broke up. lb. p. 74.
March, 1770. ' Terrible engagement between the soldiery and the
towns-people of Boston ; four persons killed on the spot.' lb. 1770,
i. 99.
Dec. 1773. Tea thrown into the sea at Boston. lb. 1774, i. 49.
XXXVI.] FALL IN INDIAN STOCK. 131
Sept. 1774. General Congress met at Philadelphia. lb. 1775, i. 23.
April, 1775. ' First blood drawn at Lexington.' lb. i. 126.
June, 1775. Battle of Bunker's Hill. lb. i. 134.
Horace Walpole on Aug. 4, 1768, after describing a riot at Wapping,
continues : — ' Well ! but we have a worse riot, though a little farther
off. Boston— not in Lincolnshire, though we have had a riot even
there— but in New England, is almost in rebellion, and two regiments
are ordered thither. Letters are come in that say the other provinces
disapprove ; and even the soberer persons there. In truth it is believed
in the City that this tumult will be easily got the better of.' Letters,
V. 114.
Note 22. Burke, after telling of the peace made with Hyder Ali
on April 3, 1769, continues : — ' The consequences of this unfortunate
war in the Carnatic were not confined to the East Indies ; the alarm
was caught at home, where the distance of the object and the
uncertain knowledge of the danger, having full room to operate upon
the imagination, multiplied the fears of the people concerned in a most
amazing degree. India stock fell above 60 per cent, in a few days.'
Ann. Reg. 1769, i. 52. It was not till nearly a month after the date
of Hume's letter that certain news of the peace was received. Gent.
Mag. 1769, p. 557. Horace Walpole wrote on July 19, 1769: — 'The
East India Company is all faction and gaming. Such fortunes are
made and lost every day as are past belief. Our history will appear
a gigantic lie hereafter, when we are shrunk again to our own little
island. People trudge to the other end of the town to vote who
shall govern empires at the other end of the world.' Letters, v. 177.
Note 23. Hume wished for the diminution of London because
he dreaded its power, exerted as it was at this time against the
combination of Court and Parliament. ' The Common-Council was,'
to use Johnson's phrase, ' too inflammable.' Boswell's Johnson,
ii. 164. Johnson in 1775 ' owned that London was too large ; but
added, " It is nonsense to say the head is too big for the body. It
would be as much too big, though the body were ever so large ; that
is to say, though the country were ever so extensive. It has no
similarity to a head connected with a body." ' lb. ii. 356. In 1778
' he laughed at querulous declamations against the age, on account
of luxury — increase of London,' etc- lb. iii. 226.- A line in Horace
Walpole's Letter of July 19, 1769 (Letters, v. 177), shows why the
power of London had so often been dreaded. ' London,' he says,
' for the first time in its life, has not dictated to England.'
Note 24. ' Hall, the author of Crasy Tales, said he could not bear
David Hume for being such a monarchical dog. " Is it not shocking,"
said he, " that a fellow who does not believe in God should believe
in a King ? " ' Boswelliana, p. 210. ' " Sir," said Dr. Johnson, " Hume
is a Tory by chance, as being a Scotchman ; but not upon a principle
of duty, for he has no principle. If he is anything, he is a Hobbist." '
Boswell's Johnson, v. 272.
K 2
13a LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Note 25. Hume wrote to the Countess de Boufflers on June 19,
1767 :— ' You know that ministerial falls are very light accidents
in this country ; a fallen minister immediately rises a patriot, and
perhaps mounts up to greater consideration than before.' Private
Corres. p. 246. Lord Hervey writing of the year 1727 says : — 'Both
Whigs and Tories were subdivided into two parties ; the Tories into
Jacobites and what were called Hanover Tories ; the Whigs into
patriots and courtiers, which was in plain English " Whigs in place "
and " Whigs out of place." ' Lord Hervey's Memoirs, i. 5. Johnson
in the fourth edition of his Dictionary, published in 1773, introduced
a second definition of patriot : — ' It is sometimes used for a factious
disturber of the government.' In 1775 'he suddenly uttered, in a
strong determined tone, an apophthegm at which many will start : —
" Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." ' Boswell's Johnson,
ii. 348.
Note 26. Had Hume's wish been gratified, he would scarcely
have been satisfied with the result ; for according to Johnson,
' Mr. Wilkes and the freeholders of Middlesex might all sink into
non-existence without any other effect, than that there would be
room made for a new rabble and a new retailer of sedition and
obscenity. The cause of our country would suffer little ; the rabble,
whencesoever they come, will be always patriots, and always sup-
porters of the Bill of Rights.' Johnson's Works, vi. 169.
Hume had expressed wishes fully as violent before. Thus on
July 22, 1768, he wrote to Elliot : — ' O ! how I long to see America
and the East Indies revolted, totally and finally — the revenue reduced
to half, — public credit fully discredited by bankruptcy,— the third of
London in ruins, and the rascally mob subdued. I think I am not
too old to despair of being witness to all these blessings.' Burton's
Hume, ii. 417. On Oct. 16, 1769, he wrote : — ' I am delighted to see
the daily and hourly progress of madness, and folly, and wickedness
in England. The consummation of these qualities are the true
ingredients for making a fine narrative in history, especially if
followed by some signal and ruinous convulsion, — as I hope will
soon be the case with that pernicious people ! ' lb. p. 431.
Lord North would have laughed at Hume's violence : ' On Nov. 13,
1770, in his speech on the Address he said ; — ' Can any mortal, who
does not read the Persian Tales as a true history, believe that
because we have little political squabbles among ourselves the
people will throw off at once their allegiance, their interest and
their honour, abandon their lawful sovereign and offer their necks to
a foreign yoke? This surely is the raving of a madman or the
dream of an idiot. He that has sense to feed himself, or reason
to distinguish rags and straw in a cell of Bedlam from the trappings
of royalty, can never draw so monstrous a conclusion.' Pari. Hist.
xvi. 1050. How different from Hume's were Horace Walpole's
feelings as he viewed the troubled scene. Less than a fortnight
XXXVI.] WILKES BURNT IN EFFIGY. 133
later he wrote :— ' I sit on the beach and contemplate the storm, but
have not that apathy of finding that
" Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis \" etc.
I love the constitution I am used to, and wish to leave it behind me ;
and Roman as my inclinations are, I do not desire to see a Caesar on
the stage, for the pleasure of having another Brutus ; especially as
Caesars are more prolific than Brutuses.' Letters, v. 201.
Note 27. In the debate of March 19, 1770, on the Remonstrance
from the City, ' Lord Barington said it was so far from being an act
of the City of London, that it could not properly be said to be the
act of the poor people to whom it was once read, but of a set of
Catilines only, who had no view but to draw all men from law and
allegiance. Mr. Beckford, the Lord Mayor, was stung by this keen
reproach ; and to recriminate said that there were people out of the
City who were ready to cut throats, and had an army at hand for
that purpose.' Pari. Hist. xvi. 899.
Note 28. Who this friend was I have not been able to ascertain.
Note 29. When Lord Stormont, in 1779, was made Secretary
of State, Horace Walpole wrote : — ' He has a fair character, and
is a friend of General Conway; but he is a Scot and Lord Mansfield's
nephew, which the people mind much more than his character.'
Letters, vii. 266. His ' return home ' was perhaps from a visit to
Italy in 1768. On May 12 of that year Horace Walpole wrote to
Sir Horace Mann at Florence : — ' I am much obliged to Lord Stor-
mont for his kind thoughts, and am glad you are together. You will
be a comfort to him, and it must be very much so to you at this time,
to have a rational man to talk with instead of old fools and young
ones, boys and travelling governors.' lb. v. 100.
Note 30. An edition of Hume's History in 8 vols. 4to. was published
by Cadell in 1770.
Note 31. An edition in 4 vols, small 8vo. was published by
T. Cadell, London, and A. Kincaid and A. Donaldson, Edinburgh,
in 1770.
Note 32. Sir Gilbert Elliot wrote from Minto on July 11, 1768,
to Hume at London : — ' Farming, I find, is very expensive — day's
wages now at a shilling.' Burton's Hume, ii. 416. 'In 1756,' says
Ramsay of Ochtertyre, ' a labourer's wages were generally sixpence
a day in summer.' Scotland and Scotsmen, ii. 211.
Note 33. ' April 25, 1768. Extract of a letter from Edinburgh : —
" A number of apprentice boys, amounting to several hundreds,
assembled here, and carried on their shoulders a figure which they
called Mr. Wilkes. After parading the streets, and shouting Wilkes
and Liberty, they carried him to the Grassmarket, where they chaired
the mock hero on the stone where the common gallows is usually
fixed at executions. After making a fire they committed the effigy
' Lucretius, ii. 1.
134
LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
to the flames." ' Ann. Reg. 1768, i. 99. Burke, after mentioning how
few Addresses in support of the Ministers were obtained in England
in the summer of 1769, continues :—' It was invidiously observed
that Scotland was much more ready in expressing the most perfect
satisfaction in the conduct and character of the Ministers. Addresses,
which filled the Gazette for several weeks, came from every town
and from almost every village in that part of the kingdom.' lb.
i77o> i- 57-
LETTER XXXVII.
The Opening of the Session of I'jjo.
Dear Strahan
I am extremely oblig'd to you for your account of
the Debate in the house of Peers ^ : It is very judicious
and accurate and impartial, as usual. I now begin to
entertain strong hopes, that the King will weather this
Tempest 2, and that the Infamy of Calumny, Faction,
Madness and Disorder will at last fall on those heads, who
merit it. The Ministry are much better advis'd not to give
nor even to take Provocation ^, than they seem to have
been by the Paper of Ruflf heads * which you sent me last
Autumn. And as every obnoxious Person is turnd out*,
the King's Resolution is visible to support his Ministry, and
men will either acquiesce or return to the ordinary,
parliamentary Arts of Opposition ". I apprehend, however,
that, before the Session ends, this abandon'd Faction, not to
be foild without hopes, will have recourse to the violence
of the Mob, in expectation of provoking the Ministry
to commit some Imprudence : Their greatest Imprudence
woud be remissness on that Occasion. Open Violence
gives such a palpable Reason for the severe Execution of
the Laws, a thing much wanted, that it ought immediately
to be laid hold of, and it will have a very salutary Effect ^
The part which Chatham acts, after all the Favours and
XXXVII.] THE HOUSE OF COMMONS DEFIED. 135
Distinctions which he has receivd from the Crown, is
infamous, like himself*.
I send you enclos'd an answer to one of Cadells. It is
open, that you may read it, as the matter concerns you, no
less than him.
I am Dear S" Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Edinburgh, 2c^ Jan., lyyo.
Note I. The Session opened on Jan. 9, 1770. 'The debates,' wrote
Burke, ' were carried on with a warmth and acrimony of expression
before unknown in that assembly.' Ann. Reg. 1770, i. 60. Strahan,
who was a spectator in the House of Lords on the opening night, sent
Hume a long report of the Debate. See Letters of Eminent Persons
to David Hume, p. 91.
Note 2. Horace Walpole, writing on Jan. 10 of the victory of the
Ministers in both Houses, said : — ' Where so many caldrons full of
passions are boiling, they are not extinguished by one wet sheet of
votes.' Letters, v. 214.
Note 3. ' Burke on the Address had attacked the House itself, and
hinted that the majority was so guilty that they did not dare to take
notice of the insults offered to them, and the reproaches cast on them.
On the Report he added that he was conscious he had deserved to
be sent to the Tower for what he had said ; but knew the House did
not dare to send him thither. Sir George Saville used the same
language. Lord North took notice of it, but said he supposed Sir
George had spoken in warmth. " No," replied Saville coolly, " I
spoke what has been my constant opinion ; I thought so last night, I
thought the same this morning. I look on this House as sitting illegally
after their illegal act [of voting Luttrell representative for Middlesex].
They have betrayed their trust. I will add no epithets," continued
he, " because epithets only weaken ; therefore I will not say they
have betrayed their country corruptly, flagitiously, and scandalously ;
but I do say they have betrayed their country ; and I stand here to
receive the punishment for having said so." Mr. Conway, sensible
of the weight of such an attack from a man so respectable, alarmed
at the consequences that would probably attend the punishment of
him . . . took up the matter with temper, wisdom, and art. . . . Had
the Ministers dared to send Saville to the Tower, the Cavendishes
and the most virtuous and respectable of his friends would have
started up, would have avowed his language, and would have de-
manded to share his imprisonment. A dozen or twenty such
confessors in the heat of a tumultuous capital would have been no
indifferent spectacle ; the great northern counties were devoted
to them. Then, indeed, the moment was serious. Fortunately there
were none but subordinate Ministers in the House of Commons, not
136 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
one of whom chose to cast so decisive a die^- The House sat
silent under its ignominy— a punishment well suited to its demerits ;
and the sword was not called in to decide a contest in which Liberty
and the Constitution would probably have been the victims.' Wal-
pole's Memoirs of George III, iv. 38. Burke began his reply to Lord
North by saying :— ' The noble lord who spoke last, after extending
his right leg a full yard before his left, rolling his flaming eyes, and
moving his ponderous frame, has at length opened his mouth. I was
all attention. After these portents I expected something still more
awful and tremendous. I expected that the Tower would have been
threatened in articulated thunder ; but I have heard only a feeble re-
monstrance against violence and passion ; when I expected the
powers of destruction to " cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war,"
an overblown bladder has burst, and nobody has been hurt by the
crack.' Pari. Hist. xvi. 720.
Note 4. Owen Ruflfhead is best known by his Life of Pope. John-
son speaking of it said : — ' He knew nothing of Pope and nothing of
poetry.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 166. In a letter to Strahan, dated
Parade, Hot Wells, Aug. 24, 1769, Ruffhead writes: — 'As to the
Pamphlet, I heartily wish you had corrected the inaccuracies you
pointed out to me. ... I think it would be advisable to advertise it
as a second edition, but leave it wholly to you.' Barker MSS. He
had lately been appointed one of the Chief Secretaries to the Trea-
sury. He died on Oct. 25, 1769. Gent. Mag., 1769, p. 511.
Note 5. Horace Walpole, writing on Jan. 18 of the dismissal of
the Ministers, says : — ' Nothing proves the badness of generals like
an ill use of a great victory. Ours have not hurt their own success
by neglecting to pursue it, but by pursuing it too far. Lord Hunting-
don was turned out the next day, not for having joined the enemy,
but merely for having absented himself.' After recounting some
of the dismissals or resignations, Walpole continues : — ' You may
imagine how these events have raised the spirits and animosity of
the Opposition.' Letters, v. 216. Burke in the Ann. Reg., 1770, i. 63,
under the date of Jan. 17, says : — ' The whole of administration
seemed to be falling to pieces. A violent panic prevailed.' On the
28th the Duke of Grafton resigned, and was succeeded as First
Minister by Lord North. ' He is,' wrote Walpole on Jan. 30, ' much
more able, more active, more assiduous, more resolute, and more
fitted to deal with mankind.' Letters, v. 223.
Note 6. Johnson on April 14, 1775, said to Boswell, speaking
of Lord North's Ministry: — 'You must have observed, Sir, that
administration is feeble and timid, and cannot act with that authority
and resolution which is necessary. Were I in power I would turn
out every man who dared to oppose me. Government has the
' Lord North was there, as Chancellor of the Exchequer— in a month's time to
be Prime Minister.
XXXVIIL] THE EARL OF CHATHAM. 137
distribution of ofSces that it may be enabled to maintain its
authority.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 355.
Note 7. Hume wrote from Edinburgh on April 5, 1770 : — ' I am
sorry to inform you that all we statesmen in this town condemn
loudly the conduct of you statesmen in London, especially in
allowing those insolent rascals, the mayor and sheriffs, to escape
with impunity. We were much disappointed not to find them
impeached, and a bill of pains and penalties passed upon them.
The tumults which might have ensued in London we thought
rather an advantage ; as it would give Government an opportunity
of chastising that abominable rabble.' Burton's Hume, ii. 435.
Note 8. ' Praise enough
To fill th' ambition of a private man.
That Chatham's language was his mother tongue,
And Wolfe's great name compatriot with his own.
Farewell those honours, and farewell with them
The hope of such hereafter. They have fall'n
Each in his field of glory ; one in arms
And one in council. Wolfe upon the lap
Of smiling victory that moment won.
And Chatham, heart-sick of his country's shame.'
Cowper's Poems, ed. 1786, ii. 57.
Burke in the Ann. Reg. for 1770, i. 66, speaking of this time, says : —
' The Earl of Chatham now seemed disposed to recover that almost
boundless popularity which he once possessed, and which, in conse-
quence of a subsequent conduct, he had in a great measure lost.'
See ante, p. 127, n. 15. In the debate on the Address Chatham had
said : — ' The English people are loud in their complaints ; they
proclaim with one voice the injuries they have received ; they de-
mand redress, and depend upon it, my Lords, that one way or other
they will have redress. They will never return to a state of tran-
quillity until they are redressed ; nor ought they.' Pari. Hist. xvi.
652. On Jan. 22 he went still further : — ' If the breach in the con-
stitution be effectually repaired, the people will of themselves return
to a state of tranquillity. If not — may discord prevail for ever ! '
lb. p. 748.
LETTER XXXVIIL
The City Address : the ' detestable ' Edition of the History.
Dear Strahan
Tho' I have renouncd the World, I cannot forbear
being rouzd with Indignation at the Audaciousness, Im-
pudence, and Wickedness of your City Address^. To
138 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
punish it as it deserves woud certainly produce a Fray;
but what signifies a Fray, in comparison of losing all
Authority to Government. There must necessarily be
a Struggle between the Mob and the Constitution ; and it
cannot come on at a more favourable time nor in a more
favourable Cause. I wish therefore, (I cannot say I hope)
that vigorous Measures will be taken ; an impeachment
immediately voted of the Mayor and his two SherrifTs for
high Crimes and Misdeamenours, and the Habeas Corpus
suspended till next meeting of Parliament ^- Good God !
what abandon'd Madmen there are in England !
You have suspended my Chronicle on account of
Sir Gilberts vacating his seat^. I am of a Club* here
that get down News papers and Pamphlets from London
regularly : So that you wont need to send me the Chronicle
any more. Please only to let me know the Charge of it,
together with other Articles I owe you.
I am sorry to hear that Dr. Armstrong has printed his
Tragedy among his Miscellanies^. It is certainly one
of the worst pieces I ever saw ; and totally unworthy of
his other Productions. I shoud have endeavourd to dis-
suade him from printing it, had he been a man advisable.
But I knew, that he keeps an Anger against Garrick
for above twenty Years for refusing to bring it on the
Stage ; and he never since woud allow him to be so much
as a tolerable Actor ". I thought therefore it was wiser not
to meddle in the Affair.
I have had a Letter from Mr. Cadell, which is very
obliging : I agree to the reprinting in any form you and
he please, and I believe ten volumes in large Octavo will
be best. But I find, that I have been cutting a great way
before the point, and that I am scarce ever likely to see an
End of that detestable Edition ''. I really have no reason
to believe seriously, that the half of it is yet sold, or that the
Book has at present any sale at all worth speaking of:
XXXVIII.] STRAHAN CHARGED WITH DECEPTION. 139
Such a habit you and he have got during seven Years past
of deceiving me by false Intelligence, that I am determind
never to believe a word either of you says on that head ^.
For Instance you both told me when I left London, that
there remaind not 700 Copies : He has since wrote me that
before the meeting of Parliament he had disposd of 200 of
these : In his last Letter he says, that the Sale still con-
tinues rapid. I must therefore suppose that before the
month of May next, there woud not be 300 in your Ware-
houses, which is a little enough Number (or too little) for a
Book which woud take near a twelvemonth in reprinting.
But he speaks still of a distant Period for beginning the
new Edition. You see, therefore, that these Stories are
totally inconsistent. I need only say, that I have a Copy
corrected, and I believe considerably improvd at your
Service, whenever you please to call for it. I am no-
wise impatient to have another Edition : I only show you
that I had taken my Measures, in consequence of the
Intelligence conveyd to me ; and I shall add, that, if the
Book has really any Sale, it woud probably be the Interest
of the Proprietors to run the Risque of losing some of that
odious Edition rather than encumber the Market any
longer with it. But of this you are the best Judges.
I am Dear Strahan Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Edinburgh, 13 March, 1770.
Note I. On July 5, 1769, the City presented a petition to the King,
' to which he made no answer, and immediately turned about to the
Danish Minister, and delivered the petition to the Lord in Waiting.'
Ann. Reg. 1769, i. 113. On March 14, 1770, the City, indignant at
receiving no answer, presented ' a Remonstrance and Petition praying
for the dissolution of Parliament and the removal of evil Ministers.'
Ann. Reg. 1770, i. 79, 80. Horace Walpole, writing to Mann the next
day, says : — ' The manifesto on which all seems to turn is the Re-
monstrance from the City. You will have seen it in the public
papers, and certainly never saw a bolder declaration both against
King and Parliament. Sixteen aldermen have protested against it,
140 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
but could not stop it. The King, after some delay, received it
yesterday on his throne. . . . The crisis is now tremendous. Should
the House of Commons, or both Houses, fall on the Remonstrance,
as it in a manner dares them to do, it is much to be apprehended
that not only the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs will uphold their act, but
that many lords and members will avow them, and demand to be
included in the same sentence. The Tower, crammed with such
proud criminals, will be a formidable scene indeed. The petitioning
counties will certainly turn remonstrants. An association among
them is threatened, and a general refusal by the party of paying the
land-tax. In short rebellion is in prospect and in everybody's
mouth. ... It is not yet, I hope, too late for wisdom and temper to
step in. I sigh when I hear any other language. The English may
be soothed — I never read that they were to be frightened.' Letters,
v. 229.
In a debate on May 4 Lord Chatham made a remarkable contri-
bution to English history. ' My Lords,' he said, ' when I mentioned
the Livery of London, I thought I saw a smile of ridicule upon some
faces. . . . The Livery of London, my Lords, were respectable at the
time of Caesar's invasion.' Pari. Hist. xvi. 968.
Note 2. Horace Walpole wrote on March 20 {Letters, v. 230, where
the date March 16 is wrong) : — ' Sir T. Clavering moved to address the
King. . . . The House, you may imagine, was full of resentment, and
at eleven at night the Address was carried by 271 to 108. . . . The
great point is still in suspense — what to do with the offenders. The
wisest, because the most temperate method that I have heard sug-
gested is, to address the King to order a prosecution by the Attorney-
General. Two others that have been mentioned are big with every
mischief — the Tower or expulsion. Think of the three first magis-
trates of the City ^ in prison, or of a new election for London ! I pray
for temper, but what can one expect when such provocation is
given ? . . . March 23. Lord North's temper and prudence has pre-
vailed over much rash counsel ; and will, I hope, at last defeat the
madness of both sides.'
Note 3. Sir Gilbert Elliot, third Baronet and father of the first
Earl of Minto, was Hume's correspondent for many years. He is
described in Scotland and Scotsmen of the Eighteenth Century, i. 364.
Boswell, when considering the English accent which a Scotch gentle-
man should aim at attaining, says : — ' I would give as an instance of
what I mean to recommend to my countrymen the pronunciation of
the late Sir Gilbert Elliot.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 160.
In Elliot's MS. Journal for 1770 is the following entry : — ' Feb. 3,
Went to Court . . . Lord North made me the offer of the Treasurer-
ship of the Navy ; said the King wished I might accept, as many
persons were doubtful. Though hazardous, I did accept on the spot.'
Walpole's Memoirs of George HI, iv. 87, n. i. By his appointment
' The Lord Mayor and the two Sheriffs.
XXXVIII.] THE 'DETESTABLE EDITION! 141
he vacated his seat for Roxburgh, but a new writ being ordered on
March 8, he was re-elected. Pari. Hist. xvi. 452. No doubt Hume's
Chronicle had been franked by Elhot. Till his re-election he lost his
privilege, but I am surprised that he could not frank as a Minister.
Note 4. I am afraid that this cannot be the famous Poker Club, ' of
which Andrew Crosbie was chosen Assassin, in case any officer of
that sort should be needed; but David Hume was added as his
Assessor, without whose assent nothing should be done, so that
between plus and minus there was likely to be no bloodshed.' Dr. A.
Carlyle's Auto. p. 420. These ' Poker men ' met, I think, only for
conviviality.
Note 5. Dr. Armstrong's Miscellanies were published in 1770, in
2 vols. i2mo. His tragedy was The Forced Marriage. Churchill
attacked him in the last lines that he wrote. Speaking of the Muses
he says : —
' Let them with Armstrong, taking leave of sense,
Read musty lectures on Benevolence,
Or con the pages of his gaping Day,
Where all his former fame was thrown away,
Where all but barren labour was forgot ;
And the vain stiflFness of a Letter'd Scott.'
Churchill's Poems, ed. 1766, ii. 329.
Note 6. See Boswell's Johnson, i. 75, n. 2, for the anger of ' Mr. Haw-
kins, the Poetry Professor,' against Garrick. A much better poet,
W. J. Mickle, the author of the Ballad of Cumnor Hall, ' inserted in
the Lusiad an angry note against Garrick, who had rejected a tragedy
o his.' Shortly afterwards he saw him act for the first time. The
play was Lear. ' During the first three acts he said not a word. In
a fine passage of the fourth he fetched a deep sigh, and turning to a
friend, " I wish," said he, " the note was out of my book." ' Bishop
Home's Essays, ed. 1808, p. 38. See also Boswell's Johnson, v. 349,
n. I.
Note 7. The ' detestable edition ' was that of 1763 in 8 vols. 8vo.
When it came out, Hume showed no dissatisfaction with it. On
March 12, 1763, he wrote to Elliot : — ' In this new edition I have
corrected several mistakes and oversights, which had chiefly pro-
ceeded from the plaguy prejudices of Whiggism, with which I was
too much infected when I began this work.' Burton's Hume, ii. 144.
On Sept. 3, 1764, he wrote to Millar that he thought the edition very
correct. lb. p. 232. Six years later his tone was changed. On
June 21, 1770, he wrote of it to Strahan : — ' I suppose you will not
find one book in the English language of that size and price so ill
printed.' Mr. Fortescue, of the British Museum, informs me, that ' it
is printed in a small worn-out-looking type on a yellow thin blotting-
paper; it is bad, but not so strikingly bad as Hume's language
implies.' His discontent would not have shown itself— perhaps
would not have been felt— had the edition been a small one or been
142 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
rapidly sold. He was never weary of correcting his own writings. ' I
am,' he wrote to Strahan {post, Letter of March 25, 1771), 'perhaps
the only author you ever knew, who gratuitously employed great in-
dustry in correcting a work, of which he has fully alienated the
property.' His last corrections he made less than a fortnight before
his death {post, Letter of Aug. 12, 1776). Millar, whom Johnson
praised as 'the Maecenas of the age' (Boswell's Johnson, i. 278,
n. i), in his ' rapaciousness ' had printed so large a number of
copies of this edition of 1763 that they were not all sold ten years
later {post. Letter of March 19, 1773). He deceived Hume not only
as to the number printed, but also sold. In this concealment, though
not apparently in any actual deception, he induced Cadell and
Strahan to share {post, ib.). He overreached himself, for Hume
would write no more. ' That abominable edition,' he writes {post,
Letter of Jan. 30, 1773), ' has been one cause why I have thrown my
pen aside for ever.' Soon after it was brought out he had begun to
prepare for its successor, but he grew angry in his impatience long
before his publishers were willing to print an octavo edition. On
April 24, 1764, Millar had written to him : — ' I have just reprinted the
Tudors in small 410., and I believe I shall the Stewarts in that size soon.'
M. S. R. S. E. To this Hume, replying in a letter dated ' Paris, April
[? May] 23, expressed his displeasure at the news : — ' You were in
the wrong to make any edition without informing me ; because I left
in Scotland a copy very fully corrected, with a few alterations^, which
ought to have been followed. I shall write to my sister to send it
you, and I desire you may follow it in all future editions, if there be
any such.' He goes on to mention one important alteration, and
adds : — ' I have some scruple of inserting it on your account, till the
sale of the other editions be pretty considerably advanced.' Burton's
Hume, ii. 201. It must have been, I suppose, this same scruple which
kept him from making all these corrections in the fine edition in
8 vols, quarto which was published in 1770. That some corrections
were made is shown post in his Letter of June 21, 1770.
On Nov. 26, 1764, Millar wrote to him : — ' The sale of the Stewarts
has been more than the others. They came out first, and the rest
some years after, which was the cause ; but there are above 2500
complete sets sold in 4to. of the lowest sale [?] vols. [?], but upwards
of 3000 of the Stewarts ; of the 8vo. history near 2000, and of the 8vo.
Essays, 400. They were only published in May last. I was asked
the question [how many editions had been published] at St. James's
the other day, when I said I considered your Works as Classics ;
that I never numbered the editions as I did in books we wished to
puif. This I said before many clergy.' M. S. R. S. E? Hume, who
' By ' corrections ' he seems to mean changes in words, and by ' alterations '
changes in statements. Millar does not seem to have made any use of this corrected
volume. See ante, p. 85.
" Dr. Blair, writing to Strahan on April 10, 177S, about his Sermons, says; —
XXXIX.] THE SALE OF THE HISTORY. T43
a year and a-half before had complained of ' the languishing sale '
(Burton's Hume, ii. 148), was so much pleased with the news, false
as it undoubtedly was, that he told Millar that he would write the
continuation. On Oct. 19, 1767, he wrote to him ; — ' I intend to give
up all my leisure time to the correction of my History, and to con-
trive more leisure than I have possessed since I came into public
office. I had run over four volumes ; but I shall give them a second
perusal, and employ the same, or greater accuracy, in correcting the
other four.' lb. p. 409. On Feb. 21, 1770, he wrote to Elliot : — ' I am
running over again the last edition of my History, in order to correct
it still further. I either soften or expunge many villainous, seditious
Whig strokes, which had crept into it. I wish that my indignation
at the present madness, encouraged by lies, calumnies, imposture,
and every infamous act usual among popular leaders, may not throw
me into the opposite extreme. I am however sensible that the first
editions were too full of those foolish English prejudices, which all
nations and all ages disavow.' lb. p. 434.
It must be allowed that Hume's expectations of the sale of a Xvork
in eight volumes octavo were by no means low. He wrote to Millar
on Oct. 8, 1766 I — ' I own that the quick sale of my Philosophy sur-
prizes me as much as the slow sale of my History. You have scarce
dispos'd of 2000 copies in three years.' M. S. R. S. E. The population
of England and Wales is about three and a-half times as large as it
was when Hume wrote this. It is as if an historian of the present
day should expect to sell 2,300 copies of an equally extensive work
every year.
Note 8. See post, Letters of March 15, 19, 24, 1773.
LETTER XXXIX.
Lord Home : End of the Session : Lady Grant.
Edinburgh, 22 May, 1770.
Dear Sir
A few days ago, Lord Home ^ told me, that, in conse-
quence of a new Arrangement of his Affairs, he shou'd
stand in need of a large Sum of Money, which he propos'd
to bring from England at lower than legal Interest^; and
he hop'd his Friend, Strahan, woud be able to assist him
on that Occasion. I said, that, tho' Mr. Strahan was a
' In some late publications you have a way of saying on the title-page, A New
Edition ; but I would much prefer your going on with the succession of editions,
which certainly tends to buoy up a volume of Sermons.' Rosebery MSS.
144 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
rich Man, yet he had such great Enterprizes in hand, that
I did not beheve he had much ready Money to lend. My
Lord replyed, that he expected more your good Offices
than your Money, and that he was too well acquainted with
the Opinion, entertained by the World of his Situation, to
hope for borrowing Money at low Interest upon his own
Security : But that Mr. Hay of Drumelzier and Mr. Gavin
of Langtoun propos'd to bind with him ^ : Upon which he
took my Promise, that I shoud write to you upon the
Subject. It is certain that Mr. Hay is a Man of above
4000 pounds a year clear, and Mr. Gavin above 5000;
and both of them frugal Men, so that there cannot be
better Security in Britain ; and that they intend to bind
with him. My Lord's Writer *, who is a man of Character,
assur'd me. I think, therefore, that the Scheme is far from
being inadmissible. I wish really, (as you no doubt do
yourself) that you coud assist him on the Occasion ; but in
all cases, I must beg the favour of you to write me an
ostensible Letter, which may satisfy him that I have not
neglected his Request.
I find, that your great Reluctance to write me on a
certain Subject^ proceeds from your Unwillingness to
retract every thing that you have been telling me these
seven Years : But your Silence tells me the Truth more
strongly than any thing you can say. Besides, I know
not why you shoud have a Reluctance to retract. What
you told me was for a good End, in order to excite
my Industry, which might be of Advantage both to
myself and the Proprietors of the former Volumes.
And if there has been any Misconduct with regard to
the Octavo Edition, you are entirely innocent of it. So
that I see not any Reason why I may not now be told the
Truth; especially as you see, that I am fully determind
never to continue my History, and have indeed put it
entirely out of my power by retiring to this Country, for
XXXIX.I ENGLAND FACTIOUS ; SCOTLAND UNITED. 145
the rest of my Life. However, this is as you think proper :
Only, it is needless for Mr. Cadel to give me Accounts,
which are presently refuted by the Event. I say this with-
out the least resentment against him, who is a very obliging,
and I believe a very honest man.
Nothing coud be more agreeable than your political
Intelligence. I have always said, without Flattery, that
you may give Instructions to Statesmen. We are very
happy, that this Session is got over without any notable
disaster". Government has, I believe, gain'd Strength;
tho' not much Authority nor Character by its long suffering
and forbearance. But the Request of the Country Gentle-
men, who joind them, was a very plausible Motive''';
besides, I am told, that their Lawyers, particularly Lord
Mansfield*, deserted them on this Occasion. But these
are Matters that very little- concern me ; and except from
Indignation at so much abominable Insolence, Calumny,
Lyes, and Folly, I know not why I shoud trouble my
head about them : These Objects too, being at a distance,
affect me the less. We are happily in this Country united
as in a national Cause®, which indeed it has become, in
some measure, by the Virulence of this detestable Faction.
We expect to see Lady Grant soon in this Country ; and
I suppose, that I must pay my Respects to her Ladyship.
I intend to give her her Ladyship very often, that she may
at least have some Pennyworths for her Money 1°.
I suppose the Edition of my Essays in Twelves ^^ is now
finishd or nearly so. As soon as it is finishd, pray, put
Mr. Cadel in mind to send me six Copies in any Parcel to
Balfour or Kincaid.
I am Dear Strahan Yours sincerely
David Hume.
P.S.— Please to tell Mr, Cadel that if a Volume of the
Didionaire de Commerce ^^ comes over for me from Paris, he
pay a Guinea for it, which I shall refund him.
146 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Note I. Hume in his Autobiography says : — ' My father's family is a
branch of the Earl of Home's or Hume's.' The common ancestor
' lived,' he writes, ' in the time of James the First and Second of
Scotland.' Burton's Hume, i. 3. A cousinship that is separated by
a gulf of three hundred years is remote, but in Scotland counts for
something, and, no doubt, had its influence on Hume. The Earl
about whom he wrote is described in the peerage as the Rev.
Alexander, ninth Earl. He was one of the witnesses to Hume's
will.
Note 2. 'A statute passed in 1545 limited the rate of interest to 10
per cent, per annum ; in 1624 the rate was lowered to 8 per cent. ; in
1660 to 6 per cent., and in 1713 to 5 per cent.' Penny Cycle, ed. 1838,
xii. 506. Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations, published in 1776,
says : — ' In a country such as Great Britain, where money is lent to
government at three per cent., and to private people upon good
security at four and four and a half, the present legal rent, five per
cent., is perhaps as proper as any.' Ed. 1811, ii. 121. This passage
must have been written some time before publication, for in the
spring of 1776 government could not have raised a loan on such easy
terms, the Three per Cents, having fallen to 86. Gent. Mag. 1776, p.
96. By the spring of 1779, Lord North, according to Horace Walpole,
' was happy to get money on the loan under eight per cent.' Letters,
vii. 181.
Note 3. They would become sureties with him.
Note 4. Writer to the Signet, who answers to the Attorney or
Solicitor in England.
Note 5. See ante, p. 139.
Note 6. Parliament rose on May 19. Pari. Hist. xvi. 1028. Horace
Walpole wrote to Mann on May 24 : — ' Not only the session is at an
end, but I think the Middlesex election too, which my Lord Chatham
has heated and heated so often over that there is scarce a spark of
fire left. . . . Thus has the winter, which set out with such big black
clouds, concluded with a prospect of more serenity than we have seen
for some time. . . . Disunion has appeared between all parts of the
Opposition, and unless experience teaches them to unite more
heartily during the summer, or the Court commits any extravagance,
or Ireland or America furnishes new troubles, you may compose
yourself to tranquillity in your representing ermine [Mann was the
English representative at Florence], and take as good a nap as any
monarch in Europe.' Letters, v. 238.
Burke wrote on Aug. 15, 1770 :— ' As to our affairs, they remain as
they have been ; the people in general dissatisfied ; the government
feeble, hated, and insulted ; but a dread of pushing things to a danger-
ous extreme, while we are seeking for a remedy to distempers which
all confess, brings many to the support, and most to a sort of ill-
humoured acquiescence in the present Court scheme of administra-
tion,' Burke's Corres. i. 230.
XXXIX.] LORD MANSFIELD'S WEAKNESS. 147
Note 7. Horace Walpole, writing on March 23, 1770, about the
City Remonstrance {ante, p. 139, n. i), says :— ' The House, you may be
sure, resented the insult bifered to them, and the majorities have
been very great ; yet has there been no personal punishment or
censure, or dubbing of martyrs. The Country Gentlemen have even
declared that they will support the Court in no violence. This ia
very happy at a time when the first overt act of violence on either
side may entail long bloodshed upon us.' Letters, v. 231. See also
Walpole's Memoirs of George III, iv. 107. On May 23, the day after
the date of Hume's letter, ' Beckford, the Lord Mayor, to the astonish-
ment of the whole Court added a few words' to an Address presented
to the King by the City. lb. p. 154.
Note 8. Junius, in his Letter to Lord Mansfield of Nov. 14, 1770,
speaking of the debate on the Middlesex Election, says : — ' As a
Lord of Parliament you were repeatedly called upon to condemn or
defend the new law declared by the House of Commons. You
affected to have scruples, and every expedient was attempted to
remove them. The question was proposed and urged to you in a
thousand different shapes. Your prudence still supplied you with
evasion ; your resolution was invincible. For my own part, I am not
anxious to penetrate this solemn secret. I care not to whose wisdom
it is entrusted, nor how soon you carry it with you to your grave.'
Horace Walpole says 'that Lord Mansfield, being called upon for
his opinion on Luttrell's case in the Middlesex election, declared his
opinion should go to the grave with him, having never told it but to
one of the Royal Family ; and being afterwards asked to which of
them, he named the Duke of Cumberland — a conduct and confidence
so absurd and weak, that no wonder he was long afterwards taunted
both with his reserve, and with his choice of such a bosom-friend.'
The Duke of Cumberland was the King's brother, Henry Frederick.
Memoirs of George III, iv. 102. Walpole, describing on Aug. 31, 1770,
the dearth of news, says : — ' We have lived these two months upon
the poor Duke of Cumberland, whom the newspapers, in so many
letters, call The Royal Idiot' Letters, v. 254.
Note 9. Boswell, in his account of the dinner at the Messieurs
Dilly's, where Johnson met Wilkes, says : — ' Amidst some patriotic
groans, somebody said, " Poor old England is lost." Johnson. " Sir,
it is not so much to be lamented that Old England is lost, as that the
Scotch have found it." Wilkes. " Had Lord Bute governed Scot-
land only, I should not have taken the trouble to write his eulogy,
and dedicate Mortimer to him." ' Boswell adds as a note to Johnson's
saying : — ' It would not become me to expatiate on this strong and
pointed remark, in which a very great deal of meaning is condensed.'
Boswell's Johnson, iii. 78. It was this finding of England, and the
anger raised by it in the English, that made the King's cause a
national cause to the Scotch. The Scotchman, John Stuart, Earl of
Bute, was the head of the King's Friends. Burke, speaking in 1769 to
L 3
148 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. ^ [Letter
Earl Temple about the union of parties, said that ' he believed no
union could be formed of any effect or credit, which was not com-
pacted upon this great principle— "that the King's men should be
utterly destroyed as a corps." ' Burke's Corres. i. 216. ' They are,'
he says in the Present Discontents, ' only known to their Sovereign by
kissing his hand for the offices, pensions, and grants, into which they
have deceived his benignity. May no storm ever come which will
put the firmness of their attachment to the proof; and which, in the
midst of confusions and terrors and sufferings, may demonstrate the
eternal difference between a true and severe friend to the Monarchy,
and a slippery sycophant of the Court ! Quantum infido scurrae
distabit amicus.' Payne's Burke's Select Works, i. 51. Lord Bute uses
the designation ' the King's friends ' in a letter to George Grenville,
dated March 25, 1763. ' I do not know,' writes the editor of the
Grenville Papers (ii. 33), ' whether Lord Bute invented it, but this is
the first time I find it used in this correspondence.'
Churchill, in his Prophecy of Famine, gives expression to the
national feeling in England when he says : —
' To that rare soil where virtues clust'ring grow,
What mighty blessings doth not England owe ?
What waggon-loads oi conrsLge, wealth, and sense
Doth each revolving day import from thence .'
To us she gives, disinterested friend.
Faith without fraud, and Stuarts without end.'
Churchill's Poems (ed. 1766), i. 102.
' What a nation is Scotland,' wrote Horace Walpole at the end of the
Gordon Riots (Letters, vii. 400), ' in every reign engendering traitors
to the State, and false and pernicious to the Kings that favour it the
most.' The burning of Wilkes's effigy by the Apprentices of Edin-
burgh is a strong sign of the popular feeling. The votes of the Scotch
members in the House of Commons give no sure indication, for at this
time ' there were probably not above 1500 or 2000 county electors in
all Scotland ; a body not too large to be held, hope included, in Govern-
ment's hand. The election of either the town or the county member
was a matter of such utter indifference to the people, that they often
only knew of it by the ringing of a bell, or by seeing it mentioned next
day in a newspaper.' Codkhxim's Life of Lord Jeffrey,!.']^. The borough
members were elected by the town-councils. ' By the constitution
of all the Royal Burghs in Scotland (above 60 in number) each town-
council elected its successor ; which in practice meant that they all
elected themselves. The system of self-election was universal.'
Cockburn's Memorials of His Time, p. 319. Cockburn believes that
' the first example of popular election in Scotland ' was that of the
Police Commissioners of Edinburgh. The date is not given, but it
was in the early part of the present century. lb. p. 199. ' In 1816 a
meeting was held to petition Parliament against the continuance of
the property and income tax. This was the first respectable meeting
XXXIX.] SCOTLAND FREE FROM PARTY SPIRIT. 149
held in Edinburgh, within the memory of man, for the avowed pur-
pose of controlling Government on a political matter.' lb. p. 302.
In 1826, Sir Walter Scott, writing to Sir R. Dundas, said : — ' The
whole burgher class of Scotland are gradually preparing for radical
reform — I mean the middling and respectable classes ; and when a
burgh reform comes, which perhaps cannot be long delayed, Minis-
ters will not return a member for Scotland from the towns. The
gentry will abide longer by sound principles ; for they are needy and
desire advancement for their sons, and appointments, and so on.'
Lockhart's Scott, ed. 1839, ^i"- 297-
Adam Smith, while asserting that ' the spirit of party prevails less
in Scotland than in England,' finds the explanation in its ' distance
from the capital, from the principal seat of the great scramble of
faction and ambition, which makes them enter less into the views of
any of the contending parties, and renders them more indifferent and
impartial spectators of the conduct of all.' Wealth of Nations, ed. 1811,
iii. 444. See ante, p. 61.
Note 10. Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk, the second baronet,
married for his fourth wife Mrs. Millar, widow of Andrew Millar,
Esq., of London. Burke's Peerage and Baronetage. She was the
widowof the rich bookseller from whose ' rapaciousness ' Hume com-
plained that he was suffering. Dr. Alexander Carlyle had met her
and Millar at Harrogate in 1773. He describes how ' all the baronets
and great squires ' there paid him civility, so as to get the loan of his
newspapers. ' Yet when he appeared in the morning in his old well-
worn suit of clothes, they could not help calling him Peter Pamphlet ;
for the generous patron of Scotch authors, with his city wife and her
niece, were sufficiently ridiculous when they came into good com-
pany. It was observed, however, that she did not allow him to go
down to the well with her in the chariot in his morning dress, though
she owned him at dinner-time, as he paid the extraordinaries.' Dr.
A. Carlyle's Autobiography, p. 434. The 'extraordinaries' were the
wine &c. not included in the ' ordinary,' which was only fixed at a
shilling a head ; though, says Carlyle, ' we had two haunches of
venison twice a week during the season. Breakfast cost gentlemen
only twopence apiece for their muffins, as it was the fashion for
ladies to furnish tea and sugar.' She was not Lady Grant when
Hume wrote, for she was not married till the next day (Gent. Mag.
1770, p. 239). Sir Archibald Grant was born in 1696. From the
letters which this aged bridegroom wrote to Strahan on his way
home I get the following extracts : —
'Bamaby Moor, Saturday, 26th May, 1770, 7 p.m.,
and to stay all night : 148 miles from London.
' At 4 this afternoon we past the Trent. I promised to write from
north side of it. . . . Weather hath been propitious. Roads and fields
delightful!. Blossoms of fruit, hedges and whins, all which I intro-
duced into the Hanbery (?), regalled the sight and smell. . . . Much
I50 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
improvement of the comons going forward ; tho' shameful! there is
not more, when we want both money and wood — little of this last
where we have past.'
'Minto House, Edinburgh, 1st June, 1770.
' Faction exists here with equal zeal, tho' not equal importance or
consequences.'
'Monymusk [Aberdeenshire], 22nd June, I77°-
' No notion here of factions.' Barker MSS.
Note II. The edition of 1770, in four volumes, was not in ' twelves '
(duodecimo), but in small octavo.
Note 12. Grimm, on June 15, 1770, mentioning 'I'immense Dic-
tionnaire du Commerce promis par 1' Abbe Morellet,' adds, ' qui ne se
fera vraisemblablement jamais.' The editor says in a note : — ' La
conjecture de Grimm s'est verifiee. II n'a paru du Didionnaire du.
Commerce promis par Morellet que le prospectus, qui forme i vol. in
8°.' Carres. Lit. vi. 492.
LETTER XL.
Cadell disbelieved : Sir Archibald Granf s Plantations.
Edinburgh, ijune, 1770.
Dear S""
Even according to Mr. Cadel's present account,
which I have not the least Reason to give any Credit to,
you have copies enow ^ to serve you for many Years' Sale ;
and I give over all thoughts of any new Edition. Only,
if such a thing shoud happen, I think it proper to inform
you, that I have a Copy by me, corrected in many places,
especially in the four first Volumes '^- This shall be sent
you on demand either by myself, if alive, or by my Brother
or Heirs; and I wish that no Edition be made without
following it. I shall never make any more Enquiries about
the Matter: I did not even make any Enquiries at this
time; but receiving from Mr. Cadel some inconsistent
Accounts, which he had sent me voluntarily of himself, I
took Occasion to mention them to you. As he finds his
Credit runs very low with me in that particular (tho' I
believe him a very honest man) he may spare himself the
XL.] SIR ARCHIBALD AND LADY GRANT. 151
trouble of saying any thing farther concerning it. I wish
Millar had savd the Expence of this Magnificent Quarto
Edition ^, which can serve to no purpose but to discredit
the Octavo ; and make the sale, if possible, still more slow.
There is a notable* Error of the Press in this last Quarto
of my Essays, which confounds and perplexes the Sense ;
and being so easily corrected, I wish you woud give orders
for that purpose. It is Vol 2. p. 395. 1. i. for useful read
usual ^. A boy with his pen in half an hour coud go thro
all the Copies. It is the very first Line of the third
Appendix. I beg of you not to forget this Request. I
have writ to Cadel to the same purpose. It is in the
second page of Sheet E. e. e.®
I have seen Lady Grant. I am told, that she and
Sir Archibald hold as much amorous play and dalliance'' , as
ever Adam and Eve did in paradise ; and they make every
body in love with the marryd State. It will be a curious
Experiment whether his sly Flattery or her tenacious
Avarice will get the better : I conjecture, that the contest
is begun already. I took occasion to mention to her
Sir Archibald's extensive and noble Plantations * ; but she
told me, that she thought that Planting was his Folly, and
that people ought to take care, lest their concern for
Posterity shoud hurt themselves '. Thus she will check
the poor man in the only laudable thing he has ever
done".
I wish you woud be so good as to send me an account
of the Debt I owe you, which, tho' it be but a trifle, I coud
wish to pay ".
The Madness and wickedness of the English (for do not
say, the Scum of London) appear astonishing, even after all
the Experience we have had. It must end fatally either to
the King or Constitution or to both '^.
You say nothing to me of the new Edition of my Essays
in 12°, and of my desire to have six copies of it whenever
153 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
it is finishd. Perhaps, you have stopd short in that work,
and I think you much in the right in so doing.
I am Dear Strahan Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Note I. See ante, p, 8, for Hume's distinction between enough
and enow.
Note 2. See ante, p. 97, n. 17.
Note 3. See ante, p. 141, n. 7.
Note 4. Notable as applied to men was still struggling between
the two meanings of remarkable, memorable, observable, and careful,
bustling. ' I expressed,' writes Northcote, ' to Sir Joshua my curiosity
to see Dr. Goldsmith. Soon afterwards Goldsmith came to dine
with him, and immediately on my entering the room. Sir Joshua,
with a designed abruptness, said to me, " This is Dr. Goldsmith ;
pray why did you wish to see him ? " I was much confused by
the suddenness of the question, and answered in my hurry ; " Because
he is a notable man." This, in one sense of the word, was so very
contrary to the character and conduct of Goldsmith, that Sir Joshua
burst into a hearty laugh, and said that Goldsmith should in future
always be called the notable man. What I meant to say was,
that he was a man of note or eminence.' Northcote's Li/e of
Reynolds, i. 249.
Gibbon describes his great-grandmother as ' an active and notable
woman.' Misc. Works, i. 15. In The Spectator, No. 150, in the
description of the men of business in Charles the Second's reign,
we read : — ' I have heard my father say, that a broad-brimmed hat,
short hair, and unfolded handkerchief were in his time absolutely
necessary to denote a Notable Man.' While in this meaning the
word has dropped quite out of use, in the other also it was, I believe,
uncommon, till it was brought into favour some thirty years ago by
writers of the School of Mr. Carlyle and Mr. Ruskin.
Note 5. The Third Appendix — the Fourth according to Hume's
subsequent arrangement — begins : — ' Nothing is more usual than for
philosophers to encroach upon the province of grammarians.' Hume's
Phil. Works, ed. 1854, iv. 382.
Note 6. Each sheet of a book is distinguished by a letter, or
signature as it is technically called. J, V, and W are not used.
When the end of the Alphabet is reached, the letters are doubled,
and, if that does not suffice, are trebled. In a quarto, with only
eight pages to each sheet, the Alphabet is soon run through. E. e. e-
is found on p. 393.
Note 7. ' Youthful dalliance.' Paradise Lost, iv. 338.
Note 8. Johnson in his Journey to the Hebrides says : — ' It may be
doubted whether before the Union any man between Edinburgh
and England had ever set a tree. Of this improvidence no other
XL.] THE LOVE OF PLANTING IN SCOTLAND. 153
account can be given than that it probably began in times of tumult,
and continued because it had begun.' Works, ix. 8. Sir Archibald's
country, being on the borders of the Aberdeenshire Highlands,
would have remained insecure even longer than the district south
of Edinburgh. ' The love of planting,' says Sir Walter Scott, ' which
has become almost a passion, is much to be ascribed to Johnson's
sarcasms.' Croker Corres. ii. 34. Sir Archibald had done his planting
before Johnson visited Scotland. There were, however, earlier
sarcasms than Johnson's. Wilkes, in 1762, in The North Briton,
No. 13, had said that 'in that country Judas had sooner found the
grace of repentance than a tree to hang himself on' (ante, p. 61).
Churchill, in 1763, in The Prophecy of Famine, describes how in
Scotland,
' Far as the eye could reach no tree was seen.
Earth clad in russet scorned the lively green.'
Churchill's Works, ed. 1766, i. in.
Note 9. Addison, in The Spectator, No. 583, after recommending
planting ' to men of estates, not only as a pleasing amusement, but
as it is a kind of virtuous employment,' continues : — ' I know when
a man talks of posterity in matters of this nature, he is looked upon
with an eye of ridicule by the cunning and selfish part of mankind.
Most people are of the humour of an old fellow of a college, who,
when he was pressed by the society to come into something that
might redound to the good of their successors, grew very peevish.
" We are always doing (says he) something for posterity, but I would
fain see posterity do something for us." '
Note 10. He had served on the Committee of the House of Com-
mons which in 1729 examined into the state of the gaols. Hogarth's
picture of the Examination of Bambridge was painted for him,
and his portrait, no doubt, is given among the Committee men.
Anecdotes of William Hogarth, ed. 1833, p. 350.
Note II. Very likely the debt for the Chronicle {ante, p. 138).
Note 12. Horace Walpole wrote to Mann ten days later :— ' This
is a slight summer letter, but you will not be sorry it is so short,
when the dearth of events is the cause. Last year I did not know
but we might have a Battle of Edgehill by this time. At present,
my Lord Chatham could as soon raise money as raise the people ;
and Wilkes will not much longer have more power of doing either.
You could not have a better opportunity for taking a trip to England.'
Letters, v. 242.
154 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
LETTER XLI.
Complaints of the i']6) Edition of the History.
Dear S'"
I am not in the least angry with Mr. Cadel : On
the contrary, were I to go to the press with any new work
(which it is utterly impossible I ever shoud) he is one
of the first persons I shoud apply to for publishing it. But,
pray, recollect, that a few weeks before I came down, he
told me in your house of his regret that he shoud ever
have been forced by Mr. Millar to deceive me ; but that now
I might entirely depend upon the Truth of his Information ;
there were less than 700 of the 8™ Edition upon hand.
.But after a twelvemonth's rapid sale, as he pretends,
he acknowledges nine hundred and fifty, and I question
not but there is above double the Number.
There has been a strange Fatality to depress the repu-
tation of that book : First the Extravagance of Baillie
Hamilton ^, then the Rapaciousness of Mr. Millar : But this
last is most incurable. I suppose you will not find one
Book in the Engfish Language of that Size and Price
so ill printed ^, and now since the pubHcation of the Quarto,
however small the Sale of the Quarto may be, it shows, by
its corrections and additions, the Imperfection of the 8™ so
visibly, that it must be totally discredited. Had it been
thought proper to let me know the real State of the
8™ Edition, I never shoud have consented to the printing of
the Quarto. I suppose the Proprietors will at last be
oblig'd to destroy all that remains of the 8^° ; I mean, if
there appear any hopes of the Sale's ever reviving. If
Mr. Millar had been alive, his own Interest, as well as the
Shame for his Miscarriage, woud have brought him to that
Resolution. There remains only the former Motive with
the Proprietors.
XLIL] HENRVS HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 155
I return the Sheet of the Essays which is very elegantly
printed^- The numerous Editions of that work, which
is much less calculated for public Sale, may convince you
of the Propriety of moderate Editions. I hope Mr. Cadel
will send me down six copies as soon as the Edition
is finishd, that I may have the Satisfaction of seeing one of
my Works without Disgust.
I am Dear S*"" Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Edinburgh, 21 June, 1770.
Note I. Gavin Hamilton had been a partner in the firm of
Hamilton, Balfour and Neill which in 1754 brought out the first
volume of Hume's History. Hamilton wrote to Strahan on Aug. 26,
1762, to say that he had 'parted business with Mr. Balfour. I am
not to concern myself any further in bookselling, but the paper mill
is become my sole property. I have likewise gone out of the printing
house ; but whether Mr. Balfour will continue with Mr. Neill or
not I cannot guess. ... It is agreed betwixt us that the matter be
kept a secret for some time, and my name is to continue in trade.'
Barker MSS.
Note 2. See ante, p. 141, n. 7.
Note 3. The edition of 1770 in 4 vols. 8vo. is a beautiful piece
of printing.
LETTER XLIL
The Historical Age : Br. Henry's History.
\_Aug. 1770.]
Dear Strahan
I believe this is the historical Age^ and this the
historical Nation ^i I know no less than eight Histories
upon the Stocks in this Country ; all which have different
Degrees of Merit, from the Life of Christ, the most sublime
of the whole, as I presume from the Subject, to Dr. Robert-
son's American History, which lies in the other Extremity ^.
You will very soon be visited by one, who carries with
him a Work, that has really Merit : It is Dr. Henry, the
Author of the History of England, writ on a new Plan * :
156 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
He has given to the World a Sheet or two, containing his
Idea °, which he will probably communicate to you. I have
perus'd all his Work, and have a very good Opinion of it.
It contains a great deal of Good Sense and Learning,
convey'd in a perspicuous, natural, and correct Expression.
The only discouraging Circumstance is its Size : This
Specimen contains two Quartos, and yet gives us only the
History of Great Britain from the Invasion of Juhus Caesar
to that of the Saxons : One is apt to think that the whole,
spun out to the same Length, must contain at least a
hundred Volumes : And unhappily, the beginning of the
Work will be for a long time very uninteresting, which
may not prepossess the World in its favour. The Per-
formance however has very considerable Merit; and I coud
wish that you and Mr. Cadel may usher it in to the Public ".
I wish that Dr. Robertson's Success may not have renderd
the Author too sanguine in his pecuniary Expectations ^ :
I dare advise nothing on that head, of which you are
the better Judge. I shoud only think, that some Plan,
which woud reserve to the Author the Chance of profiting
by his good Success and yet not expose the Booksellers
to too much hazard, might be the most suitable. You
know, that I have been always very reservd in my Recom-
mendations ; and that when an Author, tho much connected
with me, has producd a Work, which I coud not entirely
approve of, I rather pretended total Ignorance of the
Matter, than abuse my Credit with you. Dr. Henry is not
personally much known to me, as he has been but lately
settled in this Town, but I cannot refuse doing Justice to
his Work : He has likewise personally a very good
Character in the World, which renders it so far safe to
have dealings with him^. For the same Reason, I wish
for his Sake that he may conclude with you °. You see I
am a good Casuist, and can distinguish Cases very nicely.
It is certainly a wrong thing to deceive any body, much
XLII.] THE AGE OF SCOTCH HISTORTANS. 157
more a Friend; but yet the Difference must still be
allowd infinite between deceiving a man for his Good and
for his Injury ^''.
I am Dear S^' Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Note I. See ante, p. 15, n. 2.
Note 2. Hume is speaking only of the Scotch.
Note 3. Among these Histories were Robertson's History of
America and Henry's History of Great Britain, and probably Sir
John Dalrymple's Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, Monboddo's
Origin and Progress of Language, and Karnes's Sketches of the History
of Man. Lord Hailes's Annals of Scotland may have been begun
by this time (see Boswell's Johnson, ii. 278), and also Adam Fer-
gusoh's History of the Roman Republic (see Gibbon's Misc. Works,
ii. 163) and Watson's History of Philip II. Burke, speaking of this
last book in a debate on Nov. 6, 1776, said : — ' I have been reading a
work given us by a country that is perpetually employed in pro-
ductions of merit.' Pari. Hist, xviii. 1443.
Boswell writing of the spring of 1768 says : — ' Dr. Johnson's
prejudice against Scotland appeared remarkably strong at this tiine.
When I talked of our advancement in literature, " Sir," said he,
"you have learnt a little from us, and you think yourselves very
great men. Hume would never have written History, had not
Voltaire written it before him. He is an echo of Voltaire.'' Bos-
well. " But, Sir, we have Lord Kames." Johnson. " You have
Lord Kames. Keep him ; ha, ha, ha ! We don't envy you him.
Do you ever see Dr. Robertson ? " Boswell. " Yes, Sir." Johnson.
" Does the dog talk of me ? " Boswell. " Indeed, Sir, he does, and
loves you.'' Thinking that I now had him in a corner, and being
solicitous for the literary fame of my country, I pressed him for
- his opinion on the merit of Dr. Robertson's History of Scotland. But
to my surprise he escaped. — " Sir, I love Robertson, and I won't talk
ofhisbook.'" Boswell's /o^wsow, ii. 53. The Z«/?q/'C^n's< was perhaps
The History of Christ, by Thomas Brown, published in London in 1777.
Note 4. 'I have heard,' said Dr. Johnson on April 29, 1778,
' Henry's History cf Britain well spoken of. I am told it is carried
on in separate divisions, as the civil, the military, the religious
history. I wish much to have one branch well done, and that is
the history of manners, of common life.' Boswell's Johnson, iii. 333.
Note 5. Boswell writing to Temple on June 19, 1770, says that he
has just received the Prospectus of the History. ' Mr. Henry,' he
continues, ' argues strongly for his extensive plan ; but will it not
be too much like the Dictionary of Arts and Sciences in an historical
form ? Mr. Hume, when I spoke to him of it, before I saw the plan,
seemed to think it would be much of the nature of a book published
158 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
a few years ago, Anderson's History of Commerce. ... I am to consider
the plan at leisure, and give Mr. Henry my opinion.' Letters of
Boswell, p. 166.
Note 6. Henry was injured by Gilbert Stuart, the malignant
editor of the Edinburgh Magazine and Review, who ' had vowed that
he would crush his work,' and refused to insert a review of it by
Hume, because it was laudatory. Had he rejected it for its hypocrisy,
he might have had some justification. Hume, joining Robertson
with Henry, and pointing out that they were both ministers of
religion, continues : — ' These illustrious examples, if any thing, must
make the infidel abashed of his vain cavil's, and put a stop to that
torrent of vice, profaneness and immorality, by which the age is
so unhappily distinguished. . . . One in particular [Blair], with the
same hand by which he turns over the sublime pages of Homer
and Virgil, Demosthenes and Cicero, is not ashamed to open with
reverence the sacred volumes ; and with the same voice by which,
from the pulpit, he strikes vice with consternation, he deigns to
dictate to his pupils the most useful lessons of rhetoric, poetry, and
polite literature.' Burton's Hume, ii. 470-1.
Note 7. ' Dr. Robertson said, " Henry erred in not selling his
first volume at a moderate price to the booksellers, that they might
have pushed him on till he had got reputation. I sold my History
of Scotland 3i. a moderate price, as a work by which the booksellers
might either gain or not ; and Cadell has told me that Millar and he
have got six thousand pounds by it. I afterwards received a much
higher price for my writings. An author should sell his first work
for what the booksellers will give, till it shall appear whether he is
an author of merit, or, which is the same thing as to purchase money,
an author who pleases the public." ' Boswell's Johnson, iii. 333. I
have seen a MS. letter from Robertson to Strahan, dated May 27,
1768, in which he says : — ' I do agree to accept from Mr. Millar,
Bookseller in Pall Mall, or, in case of his declining it, from yourself,
of the sum of ^3400 for the copyright of my History of Charles V. in
three volumes quarto, and of your engagement to pay me ^400 more
in case of a second edition. The terms of payment to be afterwards
settled.' Barker MSS. It is of this History that Southey is speaking
when he mentions 'the thousand and one omissions for which
Robertson ought to be called rogue, as long as his volumes last.'
Life and Correspondence of Southey, ii. 318.
Note 8. Lord Cockburn in his Memorials, p. 51, gives an interesting
account of Dr. Henry's peaceful death. ' He wrote to Sir H. Mon-
creiff that he was dying, and thus invited him for the last time —
"Come out here directly. I have got something to do this week,
I have got to die." '
Note 9. The History was published by Cadell. The first volume
appeared in 1771, and the fifth, which brought the narrative to the
accession of Henry VH, in 1785. The author died in 1790, leaving a
XLIV.] DR. HENRY INTRODUCED TO STRAHAN. 159
sixth volume (down to the accession of Edward VI) almost completed.
It was published in 1793. The work went through many editions,
and was translated into French. Knight's Cyclo. of Biog. and
Lowndes' Bibl. Manual.
Note 10. See/05/, Letter of March 24, 1773.
LETTER XLIII.
Dr. Henry's Introduction to Strahan.
Dear S"*
This Letter will be deliverd to you by Dr. Henry,
concerning whom and whose work, I have wrote you by
the Post : I have rather chosen that Method of conveying
my Sentiments than by a Letter of Recommendation, which
are often understood to be formal things and carry less
weight with them. You will there see, that my Esteem
of Dr. Henry and his Performance are very sincere and
cordial.
I am Dear S"*
Your most obedient and most humble Servant
David Hume.
Edinburgh, 10 of August, 1770.
LETTER XLIV.
A new Edition of the Philosophical Pieces.
Mr. Hume's CompHments to Mr. Strahan. Wishes him
a good New Year : He has receivd the six Copies of his
philosophical Pieces \ for which he thanks him : They
are very elegantly printed, and correctly, tho' there are
some few unavoidable Errors. He has sent him an Errata,
which he desires Mr. Strahan to annex if not inconvenient.
Edinburgh, 5 of Jan", 1771.
Note I. Copies, no doubt, of his Essays and Treatises of the edition
of 1770.
l6o LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
LETTER XLV.
The Ohio Scheme: Threat of War with Spain.
Dear S'"
I am very glad to have heard from you, and have
sent you my Letter to Lord Hertford ^ under a flying
Seal^. I wish you good Success in your Project; tho' I
cannot easily imagine how an Estate on the Ohio can ever
turn to great Account. The Navigation down the Mississipi
is indeed expeditious and safe, except at the Mouth ; but
the return is commonly so slow, by the violence of the
Current, that the Communication of that Country with the
rest of the World, will always be under great Obstructions,
and be carry'd on under considerable Disadvantages. But
these Matters you have undoubtedly weighd and calculated,
from better Information than I have had access to ^.
There was an Error in the page in the Errata I sent you,
which I have corrected and I return you the Copy. I own,
that this quick Sale of my philosophical Writings is as
unexpected as the slow Sale of my historical, which are so
much better calculated for common Readers*. But this
proves only, that factious prejudices are more prevalent in
England than religious ones. I shall read over several
times this new Edition ; and send you a corrected Copy by
some safe hand. With regard to the History, I only
desire to hear from you three or four Months before you
put it to the Press.
Dr. Henry's History is undoubtedly liable to the Ob-
jection you mention. It will be of enormous Size ; and he
himself, tho' a laborious Man, never expects to finish it.
I think also the Price he demanded exorbitant^. It is
however writ with Perspicuity and Propriety of Style, as
XLV.;] AN INFATUATED MINISTRY. 161
I told you ; but neither sprightly nor elegant " ; and it is
judicious, but not curious : There is danger of its appear-
ing prolix to ordinary Readers : The Subject of his next
Volume will be still more uninteresting than that of his
first'.
I am totally detachd from all concern about pubhc
Affairs ; and care not though all the Ministry were at the
Devil*. This Spanish War^ is so enormously absurd,
unjust, and unreasonable that I think it never had its
parralel. If we be savd from it, it will not be owing to our
own prudence, but to the determind Resolution of the
King of France ^^, who acts a very laudable part : But his
Brother of Spain is as freakish and as obstinate as a Mule^';
and our Ministry are more afraid of the despicable London
Mob than of all Europe '^ : Had they punishd that insolent
Rascal, Beckford^^, as he deserved; we shoud have been
in no danger of a Spanish War ^* ; or rather of a general
War : For Hostilities never continue limited between two
Nations ; but soon draw in all their Neighbours : In which
case, France begins with declaring a public Bankruptcy ^' ;
and we make it ^^ the third Year of the War. An Event
which is indeed inevitable " ; but might have been delay'd,
had it not been for this Quarrel about Falkland Island.
You think we shall have peace : I am glad to hear it ; but
cannot allow myself to think, that any Chance will save
Men so infatuated as our Ministry 1*. It is a pleasure
however that the Wilkites '^ and the Bill of Rights-men ^^
are fallen into total and deservd Contempt '^^. Their Noise
is more troublesome and odious than all the Cannon that
will be fird on the Atlantic.
I am here employ'd in building a small House ^^: I
mean a large House for an Author: For it is nearly
as large as Mr. Millar's in Pall-mall ^'. It is situated in our
new Square ^* ; where I hope to receive you, on your first
Excursion to this Country. I beg my Compliments to
M
]63 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Sir John Pringle ^' : I think you are not Hkely to send us
any thing worth reading this Winter.
I am Dear Strahan Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Edinburgh, 21 of Jan., i7?i.
Note I. The Earl of Hertford at this time was Lord Chamberlain.
Note 2. Hume, in one of his French letters, says : — 'Je vous adresse
cette lettre a cachet volant, sous I'enveloppe de M. de Montigny.'
Hume's Private Corres. p. 223. Littre defines cachet volant as ccKhet
qui n' adhere qu'au pit supe'rieur ctune lettre sans la fermer.' Hume's
enclosed letter had his seal fixed on the upper side. After Strahan
had read the letter he would close it by dropping some wax on the
lower side, and bringing the two sides together with the seal upper-
most. Envelopes were not generally used in England till the intro-
duction of Penny Postage in 1840.
Note 3. Strahan replied on March i : — ' I was favoured with yours,
inclosing your very genteel letter to Lord Hertford, which I delivered
to his Lordship. He received me very politely ; and I found no
difficulty in impressing him with a just notion of the importance of
the subject I wanted to talk to him about. He was as fond of it, or
rather more so, than I was, and for his own sake will do what lies in
his power to forward it. The project is no less than the forming a
new government upon the Ohio. The country is by much the best
and mildest in all our portion of America, and being situated at no
great distance from any of our Colonies, will, when once settled, fill
very fast from the overflowings of them all. The land carriage is by
no means so great an obstacle as you seem to imagine, it being
already, by means of other rivers in dififerent parts of the country, so
much shortened as to be considerably lower already than it is in the
internal provinces of England. — The policy, however, of such a
settlement respecting the Mother Country, is not yet decided ; and
the affair is still under consideration. I expect it will soon be
determined one way or other, and I have some reason to think it will
end as we wish it to do, as every objection that hath yet been offered
to the scheme can be most satisfactorily answered. Meanwhile, it is
not proper to say anything about it ; but if it succeeds, I shall give
you a very particular detail of the whole matter, and how I came to
have any concern in it. — Lord Hertford is very fond of the idea of
having a large tract of country in America, and is otherwise very
attentive to the improvement of his fortune, having, I am well as-
sured, profited greatly by the late increase of the price of stocks.'
M.S.R.S.E.
Smollett gives the following account of an earlier attempt to form a
company for settling this country ; — ' The tract of country lying along
the Ohio is so fertile, pleasant, and inviting, and the Indians, called
XLV.] THE OHIO SCHEME. 163
Twightees, who inhabit those delightful plains were so well-disposed
towards a close alliance with the English, that as far back as the year
1716 Mr. Spottiswood, Governor of Virginia, proposed a plan for
erecting a company to settle such lands upon this river as should be
ceded to them by treaty with the natives.' The scheme dropped
through, but ' it was revived immediately after the Peace of Aix-la-
Chapelle [1748] when certain merchants of London, who traded to
Maryland and Virginia, petitioned the Government on this subject,
and were indulged not only with a grant of a great tract of ground to
the southward of Pennsylvania, which they promised to settle, but
also with an exclusive privilege of trading with the Indians on the
banks of the River Ohio.' The French, who had pushed their posts
down the river, began to harass the English traders. George
Washington, then holding the rank of Major, was sent writh a letter
to the Commander of one of the French forts, ordering him ' to de-
part in peace.' The summons was not complied with. A border
warfare went on, which was only brought to an end by the expulsion
of the French from all the northern part of the American Continent.
History of England, ed. 1800, iii. 375-8. Johnson's description of the
conquered country is curious : — 'Large tracts of America were added
by the last war to the British dominions. . . . They, at best, are only
the barren parts of the continent, the refuse of the earlier adven-
turers, which the French, who came last, had taken only as better
than nothing.' Works, vi. 202. In writing this, he was thinking no
doubt chiefly of Canada, which elsewhere he had described as 'a
region of desolate sterility.' lb. p. 129.
After the peace a fresh company was formed, of which I have
obtained much information from the kindness of Dr. Israel W.
Andrews, President of Marietta College, Ohio. In 1769, Thomas
Walpole, Benjamin Franklin and others petitioned the King for the
right to purchase 2,400,000 acres (a district about as big as Kent,
Surrey and Sussex) between the Ohio River and the Alleghany
Mountains. Walpole was a London banker, and the Company and
the grant were often called by his name. The Company called itself
the Grant Company, and the colony was to be called Vandalia. The
Privy Council referred the petition to. the Lords Commissioners for
Trade and Plantations, who two years after sent in an adverse report
by their President, Lord Hillsborough. Franklin made an elaborate
reply, which was read in. Council on July i, 1772. The petition was
at once granted, and Lord Hillsborough resigned. Horace Walpole
wrote on July 23, 1772 :— ' We have had the only perfect summer I
ever remember; hot, fine, and still very warm without a drop of
rain. . . . Not a cloud even in the political sky, except a caprice of
Lord Hillsborough, who is to quit his American Seals, because he
will not reconcile himself to a plan of settlement on the Ohio, which
all the world approves.' Letters, v. 401. Franklin, writing to his son
on Aug. 17, says : — ' You will hear it said among you, I suppose^ that
M 2
1 64 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
the interest of the Ohio planters has ousted Lord Hillsborough ; but
the truth is, what I wrote you long since, that all his brother-
ministers disliked him extremely, and wished for a fair occasion
of tripping up his heels ; so seeing that he made a point of defeating
our scheme, they made another of supporting it, on purpose to
mortify him, which they knew his pride could not bear.' Memoirs of
Franklin, ed. 1833, iii. 320. It took time to arrange the details, but at
length the price of the land was agreed upon, the plan of govern-
ment marked out, and the patent made ready for the seals, when
the Revolution broke out, and the whole project came to an end.
In the Journal of the Continental Congress for May i, 1782, there
is the report of a Committee on a petition of some of the members
of the Company. The Committee recommended that in case these
lands should be ceded to the United States— they were claimed by
Virginia — and the purchasers who remained loyal to the States
should relinquish all claims to them, Congress should reimburse
them for their outlay. These lands however never became a part
of the public domain, but remained in the possession of Virginia.
There is nothing to show that any remuneration was made even to
those who became American citizens. The English shareholders
undoubtedly lost whatever they had expended.
Note 4. Hume, no doubt, compared the sale of his History with
that of Robertson's Scotland, which went through six editions in
twelve years. His constant discontent is contemptible when we call
to mind his boast, when speaking of his History, that the copy-money
given him by the booksellers much exceeded anything formerly
known in England [ante, Autobiography). They of course would not
have paid him so well, had not his works had a great sale. For the
two volumes of his History from Julius Caesar to Henry VII he was
to receive ;£i400. For the Lives of the Poets Johnson by his contract
was paid £200, though another hundred was added by the book-
sellers.
Note 5. Strahan wrote to Hume on March i of this year : — ' The
price Dr. Henry expected for his History was in my estimation so
much beyond its value that I carefully avoided making him any offer
at all.' M.S.R.S.E.
Note 6. Boswell says of it : — ' The language will not, as far as I
think, be so flowing and elegant as that of some writers to whom our
taste is habituated ; but it seems to be distinct, and sufficiently
expressive.' Letters of Boswell, p. 166.
Note 7. The first volume of Dr. Henry's History begins with the
invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar and ends with the arrival of the
Saxons ; the second volume ends with the landing of William the
Conqueror. Hume more than once shows his disgust at having to
write the wars of the Saxons. ' What instruction or entertainment
can it give the reader,' he asks, ' to hear a long beadroll of barbarous
names, Egric, Annas, Ethelbert, Ethelwald, Aldulf, Elfwold, Beorne,
XLV.] OCCUPATION OF FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 165
Ethelred, Ethelbert, who successively murdered, expelled, or in-
herited from each other, and obscurely filled the throne of that
kingdom [East Anglia] ? ' History of England, ed. 1802, i. 47. Never-
theless he said that ' the Life of Harold was the portion of his
History which he thought the best ; and on the style of which he had
bestowed most pains.' Caldwell Papers, i. 39.
Note 8. ' The Ministry is dissolved. I prayed with Francis and
gave thanks.' Such is Johnson's pious entry in his Journal, when
nearly twelve years later Lord North's Ministry came to an end.
Boswell's Johnson, iv. 139. It lasted from Feb. 10, 1770 to March 20,
1782.
Note 9. There was only a threat of war. In 1765 Commodore
Byron had taken formal possession of Falkland's Islands in the
name of his Britannic Majesty. A settlement was made at Port
Egmont in West Falkland in Jan. 1766. The French in Feb. 1764
had established themselves on East Falkland. Two years later they
ceded their settlement to the Spanish. In Nov. 1769 Captain Hunt
of the Tamar frigate warned off the coast a Spanish schooner which
was taking a survey of the islands. The Governor of the Spanish
settlement gave a like warning to the English captain. In Feb. 1770
two Spanish frigates with troops on board arrived, and warnings
were again interchanged by the commanders. Captain Hunt at
once sailed with the news for England, where he arrived on June 3.
Only a few days later, five Spanish frigates, carrying a train of artillery,
appeared before Port Egmont. The English had only a sloop of
16 guns. A few shots were fired, but resistance was seen to be
impossible ; a flag of truce was hung out, and articles of capitulation
signed. The English were to depart with drums beating and colours
flying, and to carry off all their stores ; but their departure by the
terms of the capitulation was delayed a few weeks. 'The most
degrading of all the circumstances attending this transaction, and
particularly a new, and to all appearance, wanton insult to the British
flag was, that for the better security of this limitation the sloop was
deprived of her rudder.' The news of this reached London on
Sept. 24. Ann. Reg. 1771, i. 4-12; Gent. Mag. 1770, p. 439; Johnson's
Works, vi. 185-192.
Horace Walpole wrote to Mann on Oct. 4, 1770: — 'Seeing such
accounts of press-gangs in the papers, and such falling of Stocks,
you will wonder that in my last I did not drop a military syllable. . . .
England that lives in the north of Europe, and Spain that dwells in
the south, are vehemently angry with one another about a morsel of
rock that lies somewhere at the very bottom of America — for modern
nations are too neighbourly to quarrel about anything that lies so
near them as in the same quarter of the globe. Pray, mind ; we
dethrone Nabobs in the most north-east corner of the Indies ; the
Czarina sends a fleet from the Pole to besiege Constantinople ; and
Spain huffs and we arm for one of the extremities of the southern
1 56 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
hemisphere. It takes a twelvemonth for any one of us to arrive
at our object, and almost another twelvemonth before we can learn
what we have been about. Your patriarchs, who lived eight or nine
hundred years, could afford to wait eighteen or twenty months for
the post coming in, but it is too ridiculous in our post-diluvian
circumstances. By next century, I suppose, we shall fight for the
Dog Star and the Great Bear. The Stocks begin to recover a little
from their panic. . . . Oct. 6. I still know nothing of the war. Vast
preparations everywhere go on, yet nobody thinks it will ripen. . . .
Seamen flock in apace ; the first squadron will consist of sixteen
ships of the line.' Walpole's Letters, v. 259-261.
When Parliament met, 40,000 seamen were voted and a large ad-
dition to the army, while the land-tax was raised to four shillings
in the pound. Ann. Reg. i'j']i, i. 40-1. By the end of November
all hope of avoiding a war was nearly given up, and our ambassador
at Madrid was ordered to withdraw. Jb. p. 45. Happily for peace,
the navies both of England and of Spain were in a wretched
condition (Walpole's Memoirs of George III, iv. 204-5) i while France
was almost powerless through want of money (lb. p. 213). 'Deso-
lation and confusion reign all over France,' wrote Walpole on
Dec. 29. ' They are almost bankrupts, and quite famished.' Letters,
V. 275. It was the overthrow of the French ministry, as was
commonly believed, which secured peace. On Jan. i, 1771, Walpole
describes its fall in terms that almost startle the reader. 'The
general persuasion is that the French Revolution will produce peace
— I mean in Europe — not amongst themselves.' lb. p. 276. ' What
effect,' writes Johnson, ' the revolution of the French Court had upon
the Spanish counsels, I pretend not to be informed. Choiseul had
always professed pacific dispositions ; nor is it certain, however it
may be suspected, that he talked in different strains to different
parties.' Works, vi. 194. Burke says that ' Choiseul hurried on
war,' and that it was thought that the tottering state of his power
led to peace. Ann. Reg. 1771, p. 45. Walpole believed that it was
only as a last desperate resource that he urged war. ' He had found
that his disgrace was determined ; he had no support but the King
of Spain. . . . Despair decided. Could he obtain his master's consent
to declare war, he himself might be necessary. . . . He marched forty
thousand men to the coast opposite to England, and by that rash
step brought on his own fall.' Walpole's Memoirs of George III,
iv. 243. Writing to Mann on the evening of Jan. 22, 1771, the
day after the date of Hume's letter, Walpole says : — ' I had sealed
my letter, as you will perceive ; and break it open again in a great
hurry, to tell you the Peace was signed last night, and declared
in the House of Commons to-day.' Letters, v. 281. On Feb. 22 he
wrote : — ' This treaty is an epoch ; and puts a total end to all our
preceding histories. Long quiet is never probable, nor shall I guess
who will disturb it ; but whatever happens must be thoroughly new
XLV.] THE KING OF SPAIN. j6>j
matter ; though some of the actors perhaps may not be so. Both
Lord Chatham and Wilkes are at the end of their reckoning, and
the Opposition can do nothing without fresh fuel.' lb. p. 282.
Johnson's Falkland's Islands was written at the request of the
Ministry to justify the peace. He ridiculed the notion of going to
war for ' a bleak and gloomy solitude, an island thrown aside from
human use, stormy in winter and barren in summer; an island
which not the southern savages have dignified with habitation.'
Johnson's Works, vi. 198. One of his finest pieces of writing is
the passage in which he describes the horrors of war. lb. p. 199, and
Boswell's Johnson, ii. 134.
Note 10. ' Dec. 29, 1770. It is now said that on the very morning
of the Duke's disgrace the King reproached him, and said, " Monsieur,
je vous avals dit que je ne voulais pas la guerre." ' Horace Walpole
to Mann. Letters, v. 275.
Note II. 'King Carlos,' writes Horace Walpole on Nov. 18, 1771,
' hates us ever since Naples.' Letters, v. 349. When he was King of
the two Sicilies, an English fleet, in the year 1742, had threatened
Naples with bombardment, unless within an hour the King signed a
treaty of neutrality in the War of the Succession to the House of
Austria. (Euvres de Voltaire, xix. 80. In the summer of 1770 a satire
was published on him in London, so ' ludicrous and ironic ' that some
Spaniards resolved to murder the printer, and were with difficulty
prevented by their Ambassador, who told them they would infallibly
be hanged. They said they could not die in a better cause. The
Ambassador was inexpressibly hurt, and told our Ministers he did
not know how to write the account to his Court ; but wished the
insult might not cause a war.' Walpole's Memoirs of George III, iv.
169. The King is described in this satire as an idiot, who, when the
weather stopped his hunting, was amused by winding up three or
four dozen watches, till his mental faculties were fatigued by the
operation. He then took to lashing a horse that was worked on the
tapestry of the room till he fell on the ground worn out with the
effort. lb. p. 372.
Note 12. Burke wrote to the Marquis of Rockingham on Sept. 8,
1770 r — ' They [the Court party] are well acquainted with the dif-
ference between the Bill of Rights {post, p. 171, n. 20) and your Lord-
ship's friends, and they are very insolently rejoiced at it. They
respect and fear that wretched knot beyond anything you can readily
imagine, and far more than any part, or than all the other parts
of the Opposition. The reason is plain ; there is a vast resemblance
of character between them. They feel that if they had equal spirit
and industry they would in the same situation act the very same
part. It is their idea of a perfect Opposition.' Burke's Corres. i. 237.
Johnson a few months later wrote : — ' To fancy that our government
can be subverted by the rabble whom its lenity has pampered into
impudence is to fear that a city may be drowned by the overflowings
l68 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
of its kennels.' Works, vi. 213. Later on he more than once accused
Lord North's Ministry of cowardice. In March, 1776, when talking
to Boswell about the bill for a Scotch militia, ' he said :— " I am glad
that Parliament has had the spirit to throw it out. You wanted
to take advantage of the timidity of our scoundrels " (meaning, ' I
suppose, the Ministry).' Boswell's Johnson, iii. i. At another time
he described them as ' a bunch of imbecility.' lb. iv. 139. See also
ib. iv. 200.
Note 13. See ante, p. 139, n. i, for the Remonstrance of the City of
London presented by Lord Mayor Beckford and Sheriffs on March
14, 1770, and p. 147, n. 7, for the unwillingness of Parliament to sup-
port Government in any personal punishment of the Remonstrants.
On May 23 {ante, ib.) the City had presented a second Address
to the King. The answer which they received was a repetition of
the King's dissatisfaction with the former Address. Whereupon
Beckford, ' to the amazement of the Court, and with a boldness and
freedom perhaps peculiar to himself, made an immediate and spirited
reply, which he concluded in the following words : — " Whoever has
already dared, or shall hereafter endeavour by false insinuations and
suggestions, to alienate your Majesty's affections from your loyal
subjects in general, and from the City of London in particular, and to
withdraw your confidence to, and regard for, your people, is an
enemy to your Majesty's person and family, a violator of the public
peace, and a betrayer of our happy constitution as it was established
at the glorious and necessary Revolution." ' Ann. Reg. 1770, i. 203 ;
1771, i. 15. In a note on Boswell's /oA^sow, iii. 201, I have examined
the statement by Home Tooke that ' Beckford got so confused that
he scarcely knew what he had said,' and that Tooke thereupon wrote
and sent to the newspapers the speech which was published. I had
not noticed the following passage in the Ann. Reg. for 1771, i. 15,
which, written as it no doubt was by Burke, no friendly witness,
conclusively proves that Tooke lied. 'This answer was variously
judged. Those who paid a high regard to the decorums of the Court
declared it indecent and unprecedented to reply to any answer of
the King. But in the City his spirit was infinitely applauded. Both
parties concurred in admiring the manner in which he delivered him-
self.' Lord Chatham wrote to Beckford on May 25 : — ' In the fulness
of the heart the mouth speaks ; and the overflowing of mine gives
motion to a weak hand, to tell you how truly I respect and love the
spirit which your Lordship displayed on Wednesday. The spirit of
Old England spoke that never-to-be-forgotten day. . . . Adieu then
for the present (to call you by the most honourable of titles) true
Lord Mayor of London ; that \s, first magistrate of th& first city of the
world ! I mean to tell you only a plain truth, when I say, your
Lordship's mayoralty will be revered till the constitution is destroyed
and forgotten.' Chatham Corres. iii. 462. Beckford died a month
later— on June 21. Ann. Reg. 1770, i. 119. Horace Walpole wrote
XLV.] THE DISTRESS IN FRANCE. 169
on July 26 : — ' Instead of Wilkes having been so, it looks as if Beck-
ford had been the firebrand of politics, for the flame has gone out
entirely since his death,
" And corn grows now where Troy town stood : *'
both country gentlemen and farmers are thinking of their harvest,
not of politics and remonstrances.' Letters, v. 252. ' " Where," asked
Johnson, "did Becldbrd and Trecothick learn English? . . . That
Beckford could speak it with a spirit of honest resolution even to his
Majesty, as ' his faithful Lord-Mayor of London,' is commemorated
by the noble monument erected to him in Guildhall."' Boswell's
Johnson, iii. 201.
Note 14. ' There was perhaps never much danger of war or of
refusal, but what danger there was, proceeded from the faction.
Foreign nations, unacquainted with the insolence of common councils,
and unaccustomed to the howl of plebeian patriotism, when they
heard of rabbles and riots, of petitions and remonstrances, of dis-
content in Surrey, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire, when they saw the
chain of subordination broken, and the legislature threatened and
defied, naturally imagined that such a government had little leisure
for Falkland's Islands ; they supposed that the English when they
returned ejected from Port Egmont, would find Wilkes invested with
the protectorate ; or see the mayor of London, what the French have
formerly seen their mayors of the palace, the commander of the
army and tutor of the king ; that they would be called to tell their
tale before the common council ; and that the world was to expect
war or peace from a vote of the subscribers to the Bill of Rights.'
Falkland's Island. Johnson's Works, vi. 213. Horace Walpole wrote
on March 23, 1771 : — ' France luckily has little leisure to join with
King Carlos or King Brass Crosby [the Lord Mayor] — their con-
fusions and King Lewis's weakness seem to increase every day.'
Letters, v. 287.
Note 15. Wilkes had written to Earl Temple from Paris so early
as Aug. 29, 1763 : — ' The distress in the provinces is risen to a great
height. Paris is as gay as usual. The five last years the Govern-
ment have been at the expense of several public shows in the
city, &c. for the people. The most sensible men here think that
this country is on the eve of a great revolution.' Grenville Papers,
ii. 100. Strahan wrote to Hume on March i, 1771 : — ' Luckily for
this nation, the situation of France is such, that we may reasonably
hope to be able to avoid a war for some time to come. Indeed, if
we are not much misinformed, the popular discontents there are
becoming very serious. Perhaps they may come exaggerated to us ;
but this I am certain of, that their finances are in such disorder
that it requires not only the utmost sagacity and ability, but some
very bold political stroke, to put them upon a tolerable footing.'
M.S.R.S.E.
On June 20, Horace Walpole writing about France says {Letters,
170 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
V. 307) :— ' Their politics, some way or other, must end seriously,
either in despotism, a civil war, or assassination. Methinks it is
playing deep for the power of tyranny. Charles Fox is more
moderate ; he only games for an hundred thousand pounds that
he has not.' On July 30 he wrote from Paris {ib. pp. 317-319) :—
' The distress here is incredible, especially at Court. The King's
tradesmen are ruined, his servants starving, and even angels and
archangels cannot get their pensions and salaries, but sing, " Woe !
woe ! woe ! " instead of Hosannas. . . . The Comptroller-General dis-
penses bankruptcy by retail, and will fall, because he cannot even
by these means be useful enough. They are striking oif nine
millions from la caisse militaire, five from the marine, and one from
the affaires e'trangeres\ yet all this will not extricate them. You
never saw a great nation in so disgraceful a position. Their next
prospect is not better; it rests on an imbecile [Lewis XVI] both
in mind and body.'
Note 16. Hume, I think, has in his mind the French idiom faire
banqueroute.
Note 17. Hume in October 1769 had hoped to live to see a public
bankruptcy in England. He should have become more cheerful as
it seemed so close at hand, but he is as discontented as ever. Burke
describes the causes which the year before ' concurred, notwith-
standing the vast weight of our debts and taxes, to make a war
in general not wholly unacceptable.' Ann. Reg. 1771, i. 14. The
Three per Cent. Consols, which at the beginning of 1770 had been
at 86, by the end of the year had fallen to 78. Gent. Mag. 1770,
pp. 48, 592. On Jan. 28, 1771, they had risen to 84 (ib. 1771, p. 48),
and on March i to nearly 89 {ib. p. 144, where Feb. i is evidently a
misprint for March i).
Note 18. Strahan replying to Hume on March i, said : — ' You
seem much out of humour with the Ministry. Upon my word, as far
as I am able to judge, they have acted pretty well of late ; though I
must own their timidity regarding our domestic incendiaries is
altogether inexcusable. However, bating this great fault (and great
I allow it is). Lord North in particular has acted his part very well ;
he speaks with courage and firmness in the House, and with temper
too. In short, I think he gains ground in the public opinion every
day. I firmly believe he means well. And I wish the present
Ministry to stand their ground, purely because they are the present
Ministry; for, as I told your friend Lord Hertford when I had the
honour to wait upon him, the King has changed his Ministers so very
often since his Accession, that another change would be almost equal
to a dethronement.' M. S. R. S. E.
Note 19. George III told Lord Eldon that at a Levee 'he asked
Wilkes after his friend Serjeant Glynne. " My friend. Sir ! " says
Wilkes to the King; "he is no friend of mine." "Why," said the
King, "he was your friend and your counsel in all your trials.''
XLV.] THE BILL OF RIGHTS MEN. 17 1
" Sir," rejoined Wilkes, " he was my counsel — one must have a
counsel ; but he was no friend; he loves sedition and licentiousness
which I never delighted in. In fact, Sir, he was a Wilkite, which I
never was." The King said the confidence and humour of the man
made him forget at the moment his impudence.' Twiss's Life of Lord
Eldon, ed. 1844, ii. 356.
Note 20. The Society of the Supporters of the Bill of Rights met
for the first time at the London Tavern on Feb. 20, 1769. Its objects
were ' to raise an effectual barrier against such oppression [as Mr.
Wilkes had suffered], to rescue him from his present incumbrances,
and to render him easy and independent.' By the end of the
following year ' the accounts of the Society stood thus : —
' Debts of Mr. Wilkes discharged, upwards of - ;^i2,ooo.
Election expenses ... - £2,gjz-
Two fines - - - - ;^i,ooo.
To Mr. Wilkes for his support - - ^1,000.
Debts compounded ... - £(>,(x2-l.'
When this result was obtained 'a considerable party in the Society
thought the object of its institution was accomplished. Mr. Wilkes
and his friends thought otherwise. The Society had not, they said,
made him easy and independent, according to the original engagement.
. . . Many seceded, and at length the Society dissolved.' Almon's
Memoirs of Wilkes, iv. 7-14. Burke wrote on Aug. 15, 1770 : — ' I am
glad that you find some entertainment in the Thoughts [on the Cause
of the Present Discontents']. They have had in general (I flatter my-
self) the approbation of the most thinking part of the people. . . .
The party which is most displeased is a rotten subdivision of a
faction amongst ourselves, who have done us infinite mischief by the
violence, rashness, and often wickedness of their measures. I mean
the Bill of Rights people.' Burke's Carres, i. 229.
Note 21. ' Jan. 15, 1771. Wilkes and Parson Home [afterwards
Home Tooke] write against each other ; Alderman Sawbridge is
dying [this is a mistake, as he was Lord Mayor in 1775-6] ; and in
short Lord Chatham, like Widdrington in Chevy Chace, is left almost
alone to fight it out upon his stumps.' Walpole's Letters, v. 278.
' Feb. 22. Both Lord Chatham and Wilkes are at the end of their
reckoning, and the Opposition can do nothing without fresh fuel. . . .
For eight months to come, I should think we shall have little to talk
of, you and I, but distant wars and distant majesties. For my part,
I reckon the volume quite shut in which I took any interest. The
succeeding world is young, new, and half unknown to me.' lb. pp.
282,4.
Note 32. On Oct. 2, 1770, Hume had written : — ' I am engaged in
the building a house, which is the second great operation of human
life ; for the taking a wife is the first, which I hope will come in
time.' Burton's Hume, ii. 436.
Note 23. Hume wrote to Millar on Oct. 21, 1766 ;— ' I hope to be
.172 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
often merry with you and Mrs. Millar in your House in Pall Mall.'
M.S.R.S.E.
Note 24. St. Andrew's Square.
Note 25. When Boswell was taking Johnson to his father's house,
' I was very anxious,' he writes, ' that all should be well ; and begged
of my friend to avoid three topics, as to which they differed very
widely ; Whiggism, Presbyterianism, and — Sir John Pringle. He said
courteously, " I shall certainly not talk on subjects which I am told
are disagreeable to a gentleman under whose roof I am ; especially I
shall not do so to jvoM^/a'Ae*"." ' Boswell's /o/msow, v. 376. A quarrel
nevertheless took place. ' In the course of their altercation Whiggism
and Presbyterianism, Toryism and Episcopacy were terribly buf-
feted. My worthy hereditary friend Sir John Pringle never having
been mentioned happily escaped without a bruise.' lb. p. 384. See
also ib. iii. 65, and post, Letter of May 2, 1776.
LETTER XLVI.
The ' detested Edition ' .• Lord North : the National Debt :
Dalrymple's History.
Dear S'"
You will have a Copy of my philosophical Pieces
corrected in a few weeks by a safe hand, who will deliver
them to Miss Elliot ^ She will inform you by a Penny
post Letter ^ of their Arrival. I have perusd them carefully
five times over; yet the Corrections I make are not of
Importance. Such is the Advantage of frequent Im-
pressions !
It vexes me to the last Degree, that, by reason of this
detested Edition of my History, I shoud have so distant or
no prospect of ever giving a correct Edition of that Work ^-
I assure you, if Mr. Millar were now alive, I shoud be
tempted to go over to Dubhn*, and to pubhsh there an
Edition, which I hope woud entirely discredit the present
one. But as you are entirely innocent in the Conduct of
this Affair, I scruple to take that Resolution. The worst
of it is, that Affairs have been so manag'd as to leave me in
entire Ignorance of the State of the Sale ; tho' I am now
confident, that, as you see evidently I am resolv'd never to
XL VI.] LORD NORTH. 173
engage again with the pubhc, you will no longer have any
Scruple to tell me the whole Truth of the Matter.
But to leave this Subject, which is so very vexatious, and
to talk of public affairs ; I am much inclind to have the
same good opinion of Lord North, which you express ^ :
His taking the Helm in such a Storm ^ and conducting it
so prudently, prepossesses one much in his favour : I am
also assurd, that he was the last in the Ministry who
woud give up the Resolution of punishing that insolent
Fellow, Beckford and the City of London''. But to me,
his Conduct of the Spanish Affair appears rash, insolent
and unjust. The publication of the Spanish Papers con-
firms me farther in that Opinion. It appears, that the
Spaniards had never abandond the Settlement, made by
the French, which was prior to ours ' ; and consequently
that their right was in every respect undisputable. And as
the Court of Spain offerd from the first to disavow the
Governor of Buenos Ayros ', if we woud disavow Hunt ^°,
to run the Danger of a War which woud have thrown all
Europe, and almost the whole Globe into a Ferment, must
be regarded as an unpardonable Temerity. We were
savd from that Disaster by nothing but the extreme Love
of Tranquillity in the French King^^, an Incident which no
Human Prudence coud forsee. But what must we think
of the Effrontery of the Patriots, who rail at Lord North
for Tameness and Pusillanimity ? They did not probably
know the secret, otherwise they woud have exclaimd with
better Reason against his Rashness and Imprudence.
I wish I coud have the same Idea with you of the
Prosperity of our public Affairs. But when I reflect, that,
from 1740 to 1761, during the Course of no more than
21 Years, while a most pacific Monarch sat on the Throne
of France ^^, the Nation ran in Debt about a hundred
Millions ^^ ; that the wise and virtuous Minister, Pitt, could
contract more Incumbrances, in six months of an unneces-
174 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
sary War, than we have been able to discharge during
eight Years of Peace ^* ; and that we persevere in the same
frantic Maxims; I can forsee nothing but certain and
speedy Ruin either to the Nation or to the public
Creditors ^^. The last, tho' a great Calamity, woud be a
small one in comparison ; but I cannot see how it can be
brought about, while these Creditors fill all the chief
Offices and are the Men of gt-eatest Authority in the
Nation ". In other Respects the Kingdom may be thriving :
The Improvement of our Agriculture ^^ is a good Circum-
stance ; tho' I believe our Manufactures do not advance ;
and all depends on our Union with America, which, in the
Nature of things, cannot long subsist". But all this
is nothing in comparison of the continual Encrease of our
Debts, in every idle War, into which, it seems, the Mob of
London^' are to push every Minister. But these are
all other Peoples Concerns ; and I know not why I shoud
trouble my head about them.
I maintaind and still maintain that Henry's History has
merit ^ ; tho' I own'd and still own, that the Length of the
Undertaking is a great Objection to its Success ; perhaps
an insuperable one. But what shall we say to Sir John
Dalrymple's new History ^\ of which, I see, you are one of
the pubHshers? He has writ down that he has been
offerd 2000 pounds for the Property of it : I hope you
are not the Purchasers ; tho' indeed I know not but you
might be a Gainer by it : The ranting, bouncing Style of
that Performance may perhaps take with the Multitude ^^.
This however I am certain of, that there is not one
new Circumstance of the least Importance from the
beginning to the End of the Work ^^. But really I doubt
much of his Veracity in his Account of the Offer : I shoud
be much obligd to you for your Information on that head.
Never let the Bargain made by Dr. Robertson be thought
extravagant ^*, if this be true. I shoud add a great Number
XLVI.] POSTAL CHARGES. T75
of Cyphers to bring up the Knight's Performance to an
equal Value with that of the Doctor.
I very much regret with you Sir Andrew Mitchels
Death ^^ : He was a worthy, well-bred, agreeable man. If
the Prince, at whose Court he resided, us'd him ill of late
Years, he richly deserves the Epithet you give him^*.
Sir Andrew's chief Fault was his too great Attatchment to
that prince.
I am Dear S'"^ Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Edinburgh, ii of March, 1771.
Note I. See ante, p. 94, n. 8.
Note 2. The Penny Post was not so extensive as it had once
been. In 1710, for instance, ' any letter, or parcel not exceeding one
pound weight or ten pounds value, was conveyed for one penny to
and from all parts within the Bills of Mortality, to most towns within
ten, and to some within twenty miles round London, not con-
veniently served by the General Post.' Chamberlayne's Present
State of Great Britain, 1710, p. 281. In 1765 'the port of every letter
or packet [weight not mentioned] within the Cities of London or
Westminster, the Borough of Southwark and their Suburbs, was
one penny upon putting in the same ; and a second penny upon
the delivery of such as are directed to any place beyond the said
Cities, Borough and Suburbs, and within the district of the Penny-
Post Delivery.' Court and City Register, 1765, p. 133. In 1801 the
postage was raised to twopence, and from that time we find mention
of the Twopenny Post. The term 'Suburbs' had a very limited
signification ; for it was not till 1831 that the limits of this delivery
were extended to all places within three miles of the General Post
Office. Ninth Report of the Commissioners of the Post Office, 1837,
p. 4.
The general postage of the country was gradually raised. In 1710
a letter of a single sheet was conveyed 80 miles for twopence ; an
ounce weight of letters for eightpence. Above 80 miles for three-
pence, and an ounce for one shilling. In every 24 hours the post
went 120 miles. Chamberlayne's Present State, p. 281. By a scale
established in 1764 these charges of twopence and threepence were
raised to threepence and fourpence. To Edinburgh and Dublin
the charge was sixpence ; to New York, one shilling ; to the West
Indies, eighteen-pence. Court and City Register for 1765, pp. 131-133,
The postage was still further raised in 1784, 1797, 1801, 1805, and 1812,
when it reached its maximum. From that year a letter carried over
I'jS LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
80 miles was charged ninepence ; over 300 miles, thirteen-pence.
Penny Cyclo. xviii. 455.
Note 3. Strahan in his letter of March i had in vain said : — 'The
octavo edition of your History must undoubtedly soon be cleared ;
of which I shall be sure to give you timely notice.' Hume refused
to be convinced, or even comforted.
Note 4. In the proceedings in the House of Lords on the question
of Literary Property, Lord Camden, on Feb. 22, 1774, arguing against
a perpetuity, in fact almost against any copyright whatever, said : —
' It was not for gain that Bacon, Nevrton, Milton, Locke instructed
and delighted the world ; it would be unworthy such men to traffic
with a dirty bookseller for so much a sheet of a letter-press. . . .
Knowledge and science are not things to be bound in such cobweb
chains ; when once the bird is out of the cage . . . volat irrevocabile —
Ireland, Scotland, America, will afford her shelter.' Pari. Hist.
xvii. 1000. How Scotland afforded her shelter I do not under-
stand, for that country must have come under the Copyright Act
of the eighth of Queen Anne. In fact in it provision is made for
a Court of Arbitration composed of Englishmen and Scotchmen
(post, Letter Ixxiii). Ireland, I believe, was not included till the
Act of 41 Geo. III. c. 107, in which protection is granted for books
printed ' in any part of the United Kingdom, or British European
dominions.' Provision is made at the same time for the delivery
' of two copies of all books entered at Stationers' Hall, for the use
of the libraries of Trinity College and the King's Inns, Dublin.'
Statutes at Large, xliii. 316, 320. Up to that time an Irish bookseller
could reprint for the Irish market a book published in Great Britain.
In one respect he was at a disadvantage. Dean Swift writing to
B. Motte, a London bookseller, on May 25, 1736, said : — ' One thing
I know, that the cruel oppressions of this kingdom by England are
not to be borne. You send what books you please hither, and the
booksellers here can send nothing to you that is written here. As
this is absolute oppression, if I were a bookseller in this town,
I would use all the safe means to reprint London books, and run
them to any town in England that I could, because whoever offends
not the laws of God, or the country he lives in, commits no sin.'
Swift's Works (ed. 1803), xx. 17 ^.
Gibbon, writing of the first volume of the Decline and Fall,
published in 1776, says : — ' The first impression was exhausted in
a few days ; a second and third edition were scarcely adequate to
the demand ; and the bookseller's property was twice invaded by
the pirates of Dublin.' Misc. Works, i. 223.
' Mr. Justice Willes, in the case of Millar v. Taylor {post. Letter Ixxiii, n. i),
said : — ' In the case of Motte v. Falkner, 28th November, 1735, an injunction was
granted for printing Pope's and Swift's Miscellanies. Many of these pieces were
published in 1701, 1702, 1708.' Burrow's Reports, iv. 2325.
XLVI.] DUBLIN EDITIONS OF ENGLISH BOOKS. 177
Hume having sold the copyright of his History to London book-
sellers could not publish a rival edition in Great Britain. In Ireland
however he was outside the reach of the Act. There he could
reprint his work with such great improvements, that 'it would
discredit the present edition.' It would be smuggled into England
to the great injury of Strahan and Cadell. The following undated
letter to William Mure, most likely written in 1756 on the publi-
cation of the second volume of the History of Great Britain under
the Stuarts, shows that Hume and his publishers were intending at
that time to bring out a Dublin edition : — ' The first Quality of
an Historian is to be true and impartial ; the next to be interesting.
If you do not say that I have done both Parties justice, and if
Mrs. Mure be not sorry for poor King Charles, I shall burn all my
Papers, and return to Philosophy. . . . We shall make a Dublin
Edition ; and it were a Pity to put the Irish farther wrong than
they are already. I shall also be so sanguine as to hope for a
second Edition, when I may cor[rect] '. You know my Docility.'
M.S.R.S.E.
Note 5. Strahan had written : — ' One word of politics more, and
I have done. You seem to think we are in a much worse way than
we really are. I admit the inexcusable timidity of the Ministry,
in suffering so many and so great insults which no Government
ought to overlook. But notwithstanding all our follies and all our
misconduct the nation in general is actually in a thriving condition.
The Opposition is melting away to nothing, and every day falling
more and more into contempt. Wilkes is hardly ever heard of
but in a way very little to his credit. The boldest of his adherents
are either tired out and have deserted him, or they are no more.
In short a steady, able, honest Minister (and such I hope Lord
North may prove to be) may yet support this country long in honour
and credit. Wealth pours in upon us from a thousand channels,
particularly the East Indies, which adds perhaps too much to our
luxury, and that may at length prove fatal. But this is a poison
which operates slowly, and many events may occur to check its
progress, without endangering the general welfare and security of
the State.' M.S.R.S.E.
On Oct. 27, 1775, Hume writing of the disturbances in America,
said : — ' Tell him [Lord Home] that' Lord North, though in appear-
ance a worthy gentleman, has not a head for these great operations.'
Burton's Hume, ii. 479. Gibbon, in describing the eight sessions in
which he sat in Parliament, says : — ' The cause of government was
ably vindicated by Lord North, a statesman of spotless integrity,
a consummate master of debate, who could wield with equal dex-
terity the arms of reason and of ridicule.' Misc. Works, i. 221.
Johnson described his Ministry as 'neither stable nor grateful to
' The MS. is here imperfect.
N
178 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
their friends,' and as ' feeble and timid.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 348,
355-
Note 6. In the latter half of January, 1770, the Lord Chancellor
Camden had been dismissed, the new Lord Chancellor Yorke had died
suddenly — by his own hand it was commonly believed — the Speaker
of the House of Commons had died two days later, the popular
Commander in Chief Lord Granby had resigned, and his resignation
had been followed by many others ; and at last the Prime Minister
himself, the Duke of Grafton, ' in a very extraordinary moment
indeed, in the midst of his own measures, in the midst of a session
and undefeated,' resigned also. ' It was impossible,' wrote Horace
Walpole, ' to choose a more distressful moment than he selected for
quitting ; and had the scale turned on Wednesday [Jan. 31, when
the Opposition had flattered themselves with victory in a division],
I do not know where we should have been. The House of Commons
contradicting itself, a reversal of the Middlesex election, a dissolution
of Parliament, or the King driven to refuse it in the face of a majority !
I protest I think some fatal event must have happened. . . . The
people are perfectly quiet, and seem to have delegated all their
anger to their representatives— a proof that their representatives had
instructed their constituents to be angry. . . . Yet I am far from thinking
this Administration solidly seated. Any violence, or new provo-
cation, may dislodge it at once. When they could reduce a majority
of an hundred and sixteen to forty in three weeks, their hold seems
to be very slippery.' Letters, v. 223, 225. See ante, p. 136, n. 5.
Note 7. In the Debate of March 15, 1770, on the Remonstrance
of the City, ' Lord North spoke in a very high style. . . . Speaking
of the Lord Mayor, he called him "that worthy magistrate, if I
may still call him worthy after this action of his." ' Pari. Hist. xvi.
876. General Conway made a strong speech ' against lenity '
{ib. p. 888) ; but ' the danger of still increasing the public ill-
humour and discontent by taking violent measures against so re-
spectable a body as the Corporation and Citizens of London ' (Ann.
Reg. 1770, i. 81) deterred the Ministers. See ante, p. 147, n. 7, and
p. 185.
Note 8. See ante, p. 165, n. 9.
Note 9. The Spanish Ambassador ' owned that he had from
Madrid received intelligence that the English had been forcibly
expelled from Falkland's Islands by Buccarelli, the Governor of
Buenos Ayres, without any particular orders from the King of
Spain. But being asked whether in his Master's name he disavowed
Buccarelli's violence, he refused to answer without direction.' John-
son's Works, vi. 192.
Note 10, Captain Hunt of the Tamar [ante, p. 165, n. 9). The
Spanish Ambassador ' proposed a convention for the accommodation
of differences by mutual concessions, in which the warning given to
the Spaniards by Hunt should be disavowed on one side, and the
XLVI.] DANGER OF NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY. 179
violence used by Buccarelli on the other. This offer was considered
as little less than a new insult, and Grimaldi [the Spanish Minister
at Madrid] was told that injury required reparation.' lb. p. 193.
Note II. See ante, p. 167, n. 10.
Note 12. Lewis XV.
Note 13. In 1736 the debt of England amounted to about 50
millions ; in 1748, at the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, to 78 millions ;
in 1756, to 75 millions ; in 1763, at the Peace of Paris, to 139 millions.
In the next twelve years it was reduced by somewhat more than
10 millions. In Lord North's administration it rose from 129 to 268
millions. Penny Cyclo. xvi. 100. See ante, p. 130, n. 20.
Note 14. Lord Chatham, in the House of Lords on Nov. 22, 1770,
said : — ' My Lords, while I had the honour of serving his Majesty I
never ventured to look at the Treasury but at a distance ; it is a
business I am unfit for, and to which I never could have submitted.'
Pari. Hist. xvi. 1106.
Note 15. Burke, in his Speech on American Taxation on April 19,
1774, said : — ' Do you forget that, in the very last year, you stood on
the precipice of general bankruptcy ? . . . The monopoly of the most
lucrative trades, and the possession of imperial revenues, had brought
you to the verge of beggary and ruin.' Payne's Burke, 1. 103. In a
note which Hume, shortly before his death, added to the third Ap-
pendix in his History (v. 475), he says : — ' It is curious to observe that
the minister in the war begun in the year 1754 was in some periods
allowed to lavish in two months as great a sum as was granted by
Parliament to Queen Elizabeth in forty-five years. The extreme
frivolous object of the late war, and the great importance of hers, set
this matter in still a stronger light. Money too we may observe was
in most particulars of the same value in both periods. She paid
eightpence a day to every foot soldier. But our late delusions have
much exceeded anything known in history, not even excepting those
of the Crusades. For I suppose there is no mathematical, still less
an arithmetical demonstration, that the road to the Holy Land was not
the road to Paradise, as there is that the endless increase of national
debts is the direct road to national ruin. But having now completely
reached that goal, it is needless at present to reflect on the past. It
will be found in the present year, 1776, that all the revenues of this
island north of Trent and west of Reading are mortgaged or antici-
pated for ever. Could the small remainder be in a worse condition,
were those provinces seized by Austria and Prussia ? There is only
this difference, that some event might happen in Europe which
would oblige these great monarchs to disgorge their acquisitions.
But no imagination can figure a situation which will induce our
creditors to relinquish their claims, or the public to seize their
revenues. So egregious indeed has been our folly, that we have
even lost all title to compassion in the numberless calamities that are
awaiting us.' 'The late war' with 'its extreme frivolous objects' of
K 3
l8o LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
the great Tory historian, was the war by which, according to the
great Whig historian, ' the first Englishman of his time had made
England the first country in the world.' Macaulay's Essays, ed. 1874,
ii. 195.
Note 16. See post, Letter of Aug. 19, 1771.
Note 17. The Annual Register for this year under the title of Useful
Projects has six entries about agriculture. Arthur Young's first work,
A Six Weeks' Tour through the Southern Counties, was published in
1768. At this time he and Burke were corresponding about growing
carrots, fattening pigs, etc. Burke's Corres. i. 248, 257, 262.
Note 18. A passage in Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America,
spoken on March 22, 1775, shows that even by that date few people
saw what was clear to Hume now. After considering three way§ of
dealing with ' the stubborn spirit ' of the Colonists, Burke continues :
— ' Another has indeed been started, that of giving up the Colonies ;
but it met so slight a reception, that I do not think myself obliged to
dwell a great while upon it. It is nothing but a little sally of anger ;
like the frowardness of peevish children, who, when they cannot get
all they would have, are resolved to take nothing.' Payne's Burke,
i. 187.
Note 19. The ' mob of London ' with Hume means the large
majority of the Common Council and of the citizens in general.
Note 20. See ante, p. 155.
Note 21. Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland ; the firstvolume of
which was published in 1771, the second in 1773, and the third, under
the title of Vol. ii. parts 3 and 4, in 1788.
Note 22. ' " This Dalrymple," said Dr. Johnson, " seems to be an
honest fellow ; for he tells equally what makes against both sides.
But nothing can be poorer than his mode of writing, it is the mere
bouncing of a schoolboy. Great He ! but greater She ! and such
stuff." ' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 210. At another time he attacked ' the
foppery of Dalrymple.' lb. p. 237. See also ib. v. 402-404 for John-
son's unceremonious treatment of the Baronet and imitation of his
style.
Note 23. Hume judged the work more kindly when it was attacked
by the Whigs. ' Have you seen Sir John Dalrymple ? ' he wrote on
April 10, 1773. ' It is strange what a rage is against him on account
of the most commendable action in his life. His collection is curious ;
but introduces no new light into the civil, whatever it may into the
biographical and anecdotical history of the times.' Burton's Hume,
ii. 467. Horace Walpole, who was angry with Dalrymple for his
attack on Algernon Sidney, wrote on March 2, 1773 : — ' Need I tell
you that Sir John Dalrymple, the accuser of bribery, was turned out
of his place of Solicitor of the Customs for taking bribes from
brewers ? ' Letters, v. 441. On May 15 he wrote : — ' There are two
answers to Sir John Dalrymple, but not very good. The best
answer is what he made himself to George Onslow, whom he told on
XLVL] SIR ANDREW MITCHELL. i8i
warning [sic] him for traducing the immortal Sidney, that he had other
papers which would have washed him as white as snow. With this
Sir John has been publicly reproached in print and has not gainsaid
it.' lb. p. 462.
Note 24. See ante, p. 14, n. i.
Note 25. Sir Andrew Mitchell, the English Minister at Berlin, died
in that town on Jan. 28, 1771. Ann. Reg. 1771, i. 176. Boswell, when
on his travels, writing to him on Dec. 26, 1764, says : — ' My most
intimate friend, the friend of my youth, and the comfort of my being,
is a Mr. Temple [the grandfather of the present Bishop of London].'
After asking Mitchell to get Temple employment he continues : —
' Sir, I beg and entreat of you to give me your interest. You are the
only man in Britain, except my Sovereign, whom I would ask a
favour of. . . . If you can aid me, you will most truly oblige a worthy
fellow, /or such I am.' Letters of Boswell, p. 56. Voltaire, writing from
Lausanne on Jan. 5, 1758, says : — ' Le roi de Prusse, en parlant a
M. Mitchel, ministre d'Angleterre, de la belle entreprise de la flotte
anglaise sur nos cotes, lui dit : — " Eh bien ! que faites-vous a pre-
sent t " " Nous laissons faire Dieu," repondit Mitchel, " Je ne vous
connaissais pas cet allie," dit le roi. " C'est le seul a qui nous ne
payons pas de subsides," repliqua Mitchel. "Aussi," dit le roi,
" c'est le seul qui ne vous assiste pas." ' QLuvres de Voltaire,!., i. 'La
belle entreprise ' was the disastrous expedition against Rochefort in
September, 1757. Smollett's History of England, ed. iSooy iv. 88.
Note 26. What ' the epithet ' was is seen in the following extract
from Strahan's letter : — ' Poor Sir Andrew Mitchel ! — my last Letter
which was a very long one and in which I pressed his coming home
very earnestly, was written the day after he died — Alas ! little did I
then think I was addressing myself to his Shade. I wish most
heartily he had come to Britain, and enjoyed himself a few Years ;
for I have reason to think he was not very happy at Berlin for some
years past. You know the Character of the Hero of that Country
who perhaps has not his Equal in Europe — mayhap there never
existed a greater Scoundrel.' M. S. R. S. E.
Mitchell, a little more than a year before his death, makes the
following complaint of a slight put on him by the King : —
'Berlin, Dec. 23, 1769.
' Happening last Thursday morning, at the public levee, to stand
near the French minister, the King of Prussia passed by me without
speaking to me, which I the more particularly take notice of, as it
is the first, and indeed the only time that this Monarch, during my
very long mission at this Court, has behaved to me in this manner.'
Bisset's Memoirs of Sir A. Mitchell, ii. 389. A year later he writes : —
' Dec. 29, 1770. Last Wednesday the King of Prussia, at his public
levee, after kindly enquiring concerning the state of my health, asked
me abruptly, Shall we have peace or war ? ' lb. p. 391. This was
Mitchell's last despatch. Mr. Carlyle, writing of the year 1756,
l8a LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
says :— ' One wise thing the English have done : sent an Excellency
Mitchell, a man of loyalty, of sense and honesty, to be their Resident
at Berlin. This is the noteworthy, not yet much noted. Sir Andrew
Mitchell ; by far the best Excellency England ever had in that
Court. An Aberdeen Scotchman, creditable to his Country : hard-
headed, sagacious ; sceptical of shows ; but capable of recognising
substances withal, and of standing loyal to them, stubbornly if need-
ful ; who grew to a great mutual regard with Friedrich, and well
deserved to do so ; constantly about him, during the next seven
years ; and whose Letters are among the perennially valuable Docu-
ments on Friedrich's History.' History of Friedrich II, ed. 1864,
iv. 537-
LETTER XLVII.
The Art of Printing: Revised Editions: Dr. Johnson's
Pamphlet : The Earl of Chatham : Sir John Dalrymple.
Dear S'"'
This will be deliver'd to you, along with a corrected
Copy of my philosophical Pieces by Dr. Robertson. I
remind you to send me six Copies, as usual. This is the
last time I shall probably take the pains of correcting that
work, which is now brought to as great a degree of accuracy
as I can attain ; and is probably much more labour'd ^ (I
know not with what degree of success) than any other
production in our Language I This power, which Printing
gives us, of continually improving and correcting our
Works in successive Editions, appears to me the Chief
Advantage of that Art. For as to the dispersing of Books,
that Circumstance does perhaps as much harm as good ^ :
Since Nonsense flies with greater Celerity, and makes
greater Impression than Reason; though indeed no par-
ticular Species of Nonsense is so durable. But the several
Forms of Nonsense never cease succeeding one another;
and Men are always under the Dominion of some one
or other *, though nothing was ever equal in Absurdity and
Wickedness to our present Patriotism ^.
I long much for an Opportunity of bringing my History
XLVII,] HUME'S INDUSTRY AS A REVISER. 183
to the same degree of Accuracy. Since I was settled
here, I have, from time to time, given Attention to that
Object ; though the Distance and Uncertainty of the new
Edition threw a damp on my Industry : But I shall now
apply seriously to the Task; and you may expect the
Copy about August®. I beseech you do not make this
Edition too numerous, like the last. I have heard you
frequently say, that no Bookseller woud find profit in
making an Edition which woud take more than three Years
in selling. Look back, therefore, and learn from Mr. Millar's
Books what has been the Sale for the last six Years ; and
if you make the usual Allowance for a Diminution during
the ensuing three, from the Number of Copies already
sold, I am persuaded you will find 1500, a number large
enough, if not too large "^ : Be not over-sanguine. An
Error on the one hand is more easily corrected than one
on the other. I am perhaps the only Author you ever knew,
who gratutiously (sic) employ'd great Industry in correcting
a Work, of which he has fully alienated the Property ; and
it were hard to deny me an Opportunity of exercising my
Talents ; especially as this practice turns so much to
the Advantage of the Bookseller.
I have another Proposal to make you in the same View.
I have found by Experience that nothing excites an Author's
Attention so much as the receiving the Proofs from the
Press, as the Sheets are gradually thrown off. Now I
have had an Opportunity of passing the last four Volumes
of my History more than once through this Scrutiny, the
most severe of any : The first four Volumes * have only
been once reviewd by me in this manner. I shall send
you the whole Copy" about the time above mention'd, and
the last four Volumes you may throw off at your Leizure :
But the Sheets of the first four, I shoud wish to receive by
the Post five times a week. They will make about 250
Sheet and might be finishd in thirty weeks". For this
1 84 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Purpose I shall apply to Mr. Fraser, my former CoUegue
in the Secretary's Office, who will supply you with Franks,
and such as are not confind to the usual Weight of two
Ounces ^^ The corrected Copies I shall send under his
Cover ; and you will only have to send for them to the
Secretary's Office, the same as if I were in London.
Mr. Fraser is as regular as an astronomical Clock, and will
never dissappoint you. I am almost as regular ; and you
may give Orders to your People to be the same.
This Affair, therefore, being, I presume, settled to mutual
Satisfaction, I come to give you thanks for the Perusal of
Mr. Johnson's Pamphlet ^^, which is a good one, and very
diverting from the Peculiarity and Enormity of the Style ^'.
One sees he speaks from the Heart, and is movd with
a cordial Indignation against these Ruffians. There is,
however, one material Circumstance, which either he did
not know, or did not think fit to mention ; namely, that the
French had regularly settled Falkland Island full three
Years before us, and upon Remonstrances from the Court
of Madrid, gave up their Right and Colony to the Spaniards,
who never had abandond that Settlement ^*. Their Right,
therefore, was prior and preferable to ours. For as to our
ridiculous Right from the first Dicovery \sic\, allowing the
Facts to be true ; will any one say, that a Sailor's seeing a
Montain from the Top mast head ^^, conveys a Title to a
whole Territory, and a Title so durable, that even tho'
it be neglected for two Centuries, it still remains with the
Nation. Our Ministry, therefore, have acted a Part most
unjust, most insolent, and most imprudent ; and which the
Spaniards will deservedly remember long against us. But
this Conduct proceeds entirely from the Timidity of our
Ministry, who dread more the contemptible Populace
of London ^' than the whole House of Bourbon. I am
curious to see how they will get out of the present Scrape ^^ ;
though their past Measures prognosticate nothing good
XLVIL] CHATHAM COMPARED WITH RICHELIEU. 185
for the future. I say still, had they punishd Beckford",
disfranchisd the City ^', and restord the Negative to the
Court of Aldermen^", they woud have prevented the
present and many future Frays : But still it is not too
late ; though it may very soon become so.
When I blame the Insolence of our Ministry with regard
to Spain, I must at the same time confess, that we do right
to swagger and bounce and bully on the present Occasion :
For we have not many Years to do so, before we fall into
total Impotence and Languor ^^. You see, that a much
greater and more illustrious People, namely the French ^^,
seem to be totally annihilated in the midst of Europe ^^ ;
and we, instead of regarding this Event as a great Calamity,
are such Fools as to rejoice at it^*. We see not that the
same Catastrophe or a much worse one is awaiting us
at no distant Period. The monarchical Government of
France (which must be replac'd^^) will enable them to
throw off their Debts ^ ; ours must for ever hang on our
Shoulders, and weigh us down like a Mill-stone ^''.
I think that Mr Johnson is a great deal too favourable
to Pitt, in comparing him to Cardinal Richelieu ^^. The
Cardinal had certainly great Talents besides his Audacity :
The other is totally destitute of Literature, Sense, or the
Knowledge of any one Branch of public Business. What
other Talent indeed has he, but that of reciting with
tolerable Action and great Impudence a long Discourse in
which there is neither Argument, Order, Instruction,
Propriety or even Grammar ^'. Not to mention, that the
Cardinal, with his inveterate Enmities ^°, was also capable
of Friendship : While our Cut-throat ^^ never felt either
the one Sentiment or the other ^^. The Event of both
Administrations was suitable. France made a Figure
during near a Century and a half upon the Foundations
laid by the one ^^ : England — as above ; if I be not much
mistaken, as I wish to be "''.
1 86 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
I was pretty sure that Sir John Dalrymple was an
Historian ^^, with regard to the Price offerd him for his
Book. So then, his Pride is interested in being esteem'd
as good a Writer as Dr. Robertson ! I am diverted with
conjecturing what will be the Fate of this strange Book :
Will it run a few Years ? Or fall at once dead born from
the Press^^l I think the last Event more probable, not-
withstanding the Precedent of Mrs. Macaulay^', and
notwithstanding the Antitheses and Rant and Whiggery
of which it is full. After you have offerd him 750 pounds,
my Pride, in case I shoud write another Volume, woud
make me demand the Equivalent of a parliamentary
Subsidy ^* ; I think without Vanity, my Book will at least
be equal in Value to Falkland Island ^^.
But I have writ you a Letter as long as an Essay ; and
for fear of making it a Treatise, I shall conclude by telling
you, that I am with great Sincerity
Dear S'"' Your most obedient humble Servant
David Hume".
Edinburgh, 25 of March, j'j'ji.
Note I. Johnson describes Savage's Wanderer as 'a poem
diligently laboured and successfully finished.' Works, viii. 131.
' Johnson. " It appears to me that I labour when I say a good
thing." BoswELL. " You are loud, Sir ; but it is not an effort of
mind." ' Boswell's Johnson, v. 77.
Note 2. Pope surpassed even Hume in unwearying industry of
revision. ' He examined,' says Johnson, ' lines and words with
minute and punctilious observation, and retouched every part with
indefatigable diligence, till he had left nothing to be forgiven. . . .
His declaration that his care for his works ceased at their publication
was not strictly true. His parental attachment never abandoned
them ; what he found amiss in the first edition he silently corrected
in those that followed.' Johnson's Works, viii. 323. Lord Lyttelton,
too, was by no means inferior to Hume. So many corrections did he
make in his History of Henry II thai, 'his ambitious accuracy is known
to have cost him at least a thousand pounds. He began to print in
1755. Three volumes appeared in 1764, and the conclusion in 1771.'
To the third edition ' is appended, what the world had hardly seen
before, a list of errors in nineteen pages.' lb. p. 492.
XLVn.] VARYING FORMS OF FOLLY. 187
Note 3. ' The mass of every people,' said Johnson, ' must be
barbarous where there is no printing, and consequently knowledge
is not generally diffused. Knowledge is diffused among our people
by the newspapers.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 170.
Note 4. See post, Letter of Jan. 2, 1772, where Hume says : — ' The
people never tire of folly, but they tire of the same folly.' Horace
Walpole has the same thought. Thus he writes : — ' Dec. 16, 1764.
It is idle to endeavour to cure the world of any folly, unless we
could cure it of being foolish.' Letters, iv. ^o'^. 'Feb. 7, 1772. I begin
to think that folly is matter, and cannot be annihilated. Destroy its
form, it takes another. The Reformation was only a re-formation.
It is happy when attempts to serve or enlighten mankind do not pro-
duce more prejudice to them. What are the consequences of the
writings of the philosophers, and of the struggles of the Parliaments
in France ? Despotism ! Lawyers have been found to support it, and
priests will not be wanting. Methinks it would be a good text for
the gallows, " upon this hang all the law and the prophets." ' lb. v.
374. ' Sept. 9, 1773. I have had another letter from you [Sir Horace
Mann], with the total demolition of the Jesuits. . . . Well ! but here
is a large vacuum in the mass of folly, — what will replace it ? I ask
upon a maxim of mine, that it is idle to cure men of a folly, unless one
could cure them of being foolish.' lb. p. 502.
Hume, speaking of the Lutherans, says : — ' The quick and surprising
progress of this bold sect may justly in part be ascribed to the late
invention of printing and revival of learning. Not that reason bore
any considerable share in opening men's eyes with regard to the im-
postures of the Romish Church ; for of all branches of literature
philosophy had as yet, and till long aftenvards, made the most incon-
siderable progress ; neither is there any instance that argument has
ever been able to free the people from that enormous load of absurdity
with which superstition has everywhere overwhelmed them.' ^25-
tory of England (ed. 1802), iv. 37.
Note 5. See ante, p. 132, n. 25.
Note 6. Strahan must have at last convinced Hume that 'the
detested edition ' would not last much longer. On July 23 he sent
him word that ' a new type was casting for the History' M.S.R.S.E.
Note 7. Gibbon, writing of his Decline and Fall, says : — ' So
moderate were our hopes that the original impression had been
stinted to five hundred, till the number was doubled by the prophetic
taste of Mr. Strahan. The first impression was exhausted in a few
days.' Misc. Works, i. 222. Each of the ten editions of the Rambler
published in Johnson's lifetime consisted, according to Hawkins, of
1250 copies. Boswell's Johnson, i. 213, n. i.
Note 8. See ante, p. 150.
Note 9. Copy is generally used of manuscript for printing, but here
it is used of the corrected printed edition.
Note 10. An octavo sheet consists of sixteen pages. He wished
l88 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
to receive rather more than eight sheets (128 pages) a week. There
were at this time five posts a week between London and Edin-
burgh, on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday,
To Oxford there was a post every day but Sunday; to Brighton,
on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday; to France, on Tuesday
and Friday ; to Flanders, on Tuesday and Friday ; to Spain and
Portugal, on Tuesday. Court and City Register for 1765, pp. 130-2.
' Within my recollection,' writes Sir Walter Scott, ' the London post
was brought north in a small mail-cart ; and men are yet alive [in
1824], who recollect when it came down with only one single letter
for Edinburgh, addressed to the Manager of the British Linen Com-
pany.' Scott's Works, ed. i860, xxxvi. 77. In 1710 there were posts
from London to Scotland every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
Chamberlayne's Present State of Great Britain, p. 280.
Note II. Mason asked Horace Walpoleon Sept 9, 1772,10 forward
to him some letters of Gray. ' Send them to Mr. Eraser at Lord
Suffolk's office [Lord Suffolk was a Secretary of State] to be
forwarded to me ; you may be assured of their coming safe, for
Eraser is punctuality and care itself.' Letters, v. 406. On Nov. 23,
1773, he wrote : — ' Any pacquet how large soever will be sent me from
Eraser.' lb. vi. 14. Hume found Eraser much less obliging than he
had expected (post, Letter of Jan. 2, 1772). I have seen a letter
franked by Hume, when he was Under-Secretary ; ' Free, Da :
Hume,' being inscribed on the outside.
In the Gent. Mag. for April 1764, p. 182, are given Heads of the Act
for preventing frauds in franking. Before a Parliamentary Committee
it had appeared that the postage of freed letters amounted, one year
with another, to ^170,000, and that the clerks in the Office of the
Secretaries of State had made from ^800 to ^1200 a year each, — one
in particular had made .^1700 by franking newspapers, etc. By the
new Act the privilege of Members of either House was confined
to the Session and to forty days before and after it. The weight
of the packet was not to exceed two ounces, the whole of the
address was to be in the member's writing, and to be attested by his
signature.
Before this regulation was made the signature only was required,
as is shown in Hume's letter of Feb. 15, 1757 [ante, p. 17), where
he tells Strahan to send covers already directed to certain members
to be franked. In the signature which people of importance and im-
portant people still write on the envelopes of their letters, we have, I
believe, a trace of the old privilege of franking.
A member of Parliament not only sent, but also received his letters
free of postage. Hume at one time used to address letters to the
Admiralty, to be forwarded thence to Strahan. Strahan wrote back :
■ — ' When you write, you may as well send it by the mail, for the
porters at Lord Sandwich's office require as much for bringing a
letter to me from thence as the postage comes to.' M. S. R. S. E.
XL VII.] FRANKING LETTERS. 189
Later on the maximum weight was reduced to one ounce, at which
it remained till 1840, when franking was abolished. It was stated
that the official franks ' had been used to free a great coat, a bundle of
baby-linen and a piano-forte.' Life of Sir Rowland Hill, i. 241. How
troublesome to an unhappy Under-Secretary of State this privilege
of unlimited franking might become, is shown in the following curious
extract from a letter which I had the honour to receive from Mr.
Justice Stephen soon after the publication of my Life of Sir Rowland
Hill.
' Judges' Lodgings, Lancaster Assizes,
Northern Circuit, Jan. 17, 1881.
' . . . I may tell you as a small point which may interest you that my
father used to look upon the penny postage as an unspeakable deliver-
ance. He had (as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies) the curse
of an unlimited power of franking. As he was good-natured all
his friends and all his most distant acquaintances sent him endless
letters to frank. As he was also extremely conscientious he always
wrote the whole address with his own hand and signed his name in
the corner according to law. He once told me that he had made a
calculation that at about the busiest time of a most laborious life he
spent as much time in addressing letters in this way as would have
kept him at work six hours a day for the whole month of February in
every year. I well remember as a child seeing him sit down to
direct a great pile of 20 or 30 letters with which he had as much to do
as you or I.'
Note 12. Thoughts on the late Transactions respecting Falkland's
Islands.
Note 13. 'The conversation now turned upon Mr. David Hume's
style. Johnson : " Why, Sir, his style is not English ; the structure
of his sentences is French. Now the French structure and the
English structure may, in the nature of things, be equally good.
But if you allow that the English language is established, he is wrong.
My name might originally have been Nicholson as well as Johnson ;
but were you to call me Nicholson now, you would call me very
absurdly." ' Boswell's Johnson, i. 439.
Note 14. See ante, p. 165, n. 9.
Note 15. ' In the fatal voyage of Cavendish (1592) Captain Davis
.... as he was driven by violence of weather about the Straits of
Magellan, is supposed to have been the first who saw the lands now
called Falkland's Islands, but his distress permitted him not to make
any observation.' Johnson's Works, vi. 181.
Note 16. Lord North, two days after the date of Hume's letter, was
in great danger from this populace. Horace Walpole wrote on
March 30, 1771 : — ' A prodigious mob came from the City with the
Lord Mayor on Wednesday. . . . The two Foxes [Charles Fox was at
this time a Junior Lord of the Admiralty] were assaulted and dragged
out of their chariot, and escaped with difficulty. Lord North was
I90 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
attacked with still more inveteracy ; his chariot was torn to pieces,
and several spectators say there was a moment in which they thought
he must be destroyed The Ministers are more moderate
than their party who demand extremities. Young Charles Fox,
the meteor of these days and barely twenty - two, is at the head
of these strong measures. . . . The King was excessively hissed
yesterday as he went to the House.' Letters, v. 292. Mr. Calcraft,
describing to Lord Chatham the debate that followed, said : — ' Lord
North disclaimed going out [of office], though he wished much for
ease and retirement. He added, that nothing but the King or the
mob, who were near destroying him to-day, could remove him ; he
would weather out the storm ; but his pathetic manner and tears
rather confirmed than removed my suspicions of his very anxious,
perplexed situation.' Chatham. Corresp. iv. 138.
Note 17. ' The present scrape ' was ' a ridiculous contest with
a set of printers ' (to use Burke's words, Ann. Reg. 1771, i. 62) into
which the Government and the House of Commons had recklessly
plunged. Burke, in writing the history of this affair, begins by re-
marking on the licentiousness of the periodical publications at this
time. Both political parties were equally guilty of ' the most gross,
the most shameful, and the most scandalous abuse. . . . Distinction of
character seemed at an end ; and that powerful incentive to all public
and private virtue, of establishing a fair fame and of gaining popular
applause, which to noble minds is the highest of all rewards, seemed
now to be totally cut off, and no longer to be hoped for.' lb. p. 60.
He agrees with Horace Walpole, who finds the chief source of this
evil in 'the spirit of the Court, which aimed at despotism, and
the daring attempts of Lord Mansfield to stifle the liberty of the
press. His innovations had given such an alarm that scarce a jury
would find the rankest satire libellous.' Memoirs of George III, iv.
167. 'While an evil so destructive to all virtue was either over-
looked or encouraged ' (Ann. Reg. p. 60), the House of Commons
suddenly made an attempt to enforce their standing order against the
publication of their debates.
On Feb. 22 Horace Walpole had written to Mann : — ' For eight
months to come I should think we shall have little to talk of, you and
I, but distant wars and distant majesties ' (ante, p. 171, n. 21). On
March 22, just one month later, he writes : — ' I was in too great
a hurry when I announced peaceable times, and half took leave of you
as a correspondent. The horizon is overcast again already ; the wind
is got to the north-east and by Wilkes; and without a figure the
House of Commons and the City of London are at open war. It
is more surprising that Wilkes is not the aggressor — at least Folly
put new crackers into his hand. Two cousins, both George Onslow
by name, the son and nephew of the old Speaker, took oifence at
seeing the debates and speeches of the House printed, and the more
as they had both been much abused. They complain, and the
XLVII.] HOUSE OF COMMONS AND THE CITY. 191
House issues warrants for seizing the printers, and addresses the
King to issue a proclamation for apprehending them. Out comes a
Proclamation, and no great seal to it. The City declares no man shall
be apprehended contrary to law within their jurisdiction. The
printers are seized ; Wilkes, as sitting Alderman, releases one ; the
Lord Mayor, Wilkes, and another Alderman deliver another, and
commit the messenger of the House of Commons to prison. The
House summons the Lord Mayor to appear before them and answer
for his conduct, but as he is laid up with the gout allow him to come
on Monday last, or to-day, Friday. He gets out of bed and goes on
Monday. Thousands of handbills are dispersed to invite the mob to
escort him, but not an hundred attend. . . . He is too ill to stay, and
is allowed to retire. Wilkes is summoned too ; writes a refusal to
the Speaker, unless he is admitted to his seat. The Speaker will
not receive his letter, nor the House hear it, though read, and again
order him to attend.' Walpole's Letters, v. 286. ' March 26. The die
is cast. The army of the House of Commons has marched into the
City, and made a prisoner ; but as yet no blood is spilt ; though I own
I expected to hear there was this morning when I waked. Last
night, when I went to bed at half an hour after twelve, I had just
been told that all the avenues to the House were blockaded, and had
beaten back the peace-officers, who had been summoned, for it was
toute autre chose yesterday, when the Lord Mayor went to the House
from what it had been the first day. He was now escorted by a
prodigious multitude, who hissed and insulted the members of both
Houses. . . . Well ! what think you now ? When so many men
have ambition to be -martyrs, will the storm easily subside ? Oh ! Sir
Robert, my father, would this have happened in your days ? I can
remember when on the Convention [with Spain, in 1739] Sir William
Windham, no fool for that time, laboured to be sent to the Tower,
and my father told him in plain terms he knew his meaning and
would not indulge it. . . . My father's maxim, Quieta non movere,
was very well in those ignorant days. The science of government
is better understood now— so, to be sure, whatever is, is right.'
lb. pp. 291-2.
Lord Chatham wrote on March 21, 1771 : — ' The storm thickens
admirably well, and these wretches called Ministers will be sick
enough of their folly (not forgetting iniquity) before the whole busi-
ness is over. If I mistake not it will prove very pregnant, and one
distress generate another; for they have brought themselves and
their Master where ordinary inability never arrives, and nothing but
first rate geniuses in incapacity can reach ; I mean a situation where-
in there is nothing they can do which is not a fault.' Chatham Corresp.
iv. 119. Mr. Calcraft wrote to Chatham on March 24: — 'The Minis-
ters avow Wilkes too dangerous to meddle with. He is to do what
he pleases ; we are to submit. So his Majesty orders ; he will have
" nothing more to do with that devil Wilkes." ' lb. p. 122. The
193 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
difficulty was evaded in the most ignominious manner. The House
ordered Wilkes to appear on Aprils, and then 'adjourned itself to the
ninth.' Ann. Reg. 1771, i. 70.
The Lord Mayor and Alderman Oliver were sent to the Tower,
where they remained till the prorogation of Parliament on May 8.
On their release ' the City was grandly illuminated.' Ann. Reg. 1771,
i. 104. A Committee of the House had meanwhile inquired into the
obstructions to the execution of the orders. It recommended the
consideration of the expediency of the House ordering that Miller,
the printer of the Evening Post, should be taken into custody. The
report was received with a roar of laughter. Pari. Hist. xvii. 202, 211.
Nothing was done, and the freedom of the newspaper press was se-
cured. The Post had been Squire Western's paper. ' " Sister,''
cries the Squire, " I have often warned you not to talk the Court
gibberish to me. I tell you, I don't understand the lingo ; but I can
read a Journal or the London Evening Post. Perhaps indeed there
may be now and tan a verse which I can't make much of, because
half the letters are left out ; yet I know very well what is meant
by that, and that our affairs don't go so well as they should do,
because of bribery and corruption.' Tom Jones, Bk. vi. ch. 2. Burke
notices the abandonment of this half-disguise in his account of
the licentiousness of the press. The attacks were made without
' the usual cautions of drawing characters, and leaving it to the
sagacity of the reader to trace out the resemblance.' Ann. Reg.,
1771, i. 60.
Note 18. See ante, p. 138.
Note 19. I cannot find that any one went so far as to propose to
disfranchise the City. General Conway in the Debate on March 15,
1770, said : — ' If the Livery of London are daring enough to censure
this House, shall it be said that a British House of Commons has
been afraid to censure the Livery of London ? ' Pari. Hist. xvi. 891.
Note 20. ' Had the negative been restored the Remonstrance to the
King in March 1770 would never have been voted ; for at the Court
of Common Council 3 Aldermen and 109 Commoners voted for it,
and 15 Aldermen and 61 Commoners against it.' Gent. Mag. 1770,
p. 109.
Note 21. Hume twenty-five years earlier, in 1746, had written : —
' 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. . . I shall not be much disappointed if this prove the last
Parliament worthy the name we shall ever have in Britain.' Burton's
Hume, i. 224. He had more reason for his gloominess now. Lord
Chatham, writing on March 24, 1771, one day earlier than the date of
Hume's letter, said : — ' The scene is unexampled, and England
XLVIL] HOSTILITY OF ENGLISH AND FRENCH. 193
devoted to ruin ; Bengal news calamitous.' Chatham Corresp. iv. 125.
Eleven years later, a few weeks before the fall of Lord North's
Ministry, the City of London in an Address to the King ' used these
stunning and memorable words : — " Your armies are captured ; the
wonted superiority of your navies is annihilated, your dominions are
lost." ' Walpole's Journal of the Reign of George III, ii. 483. A few
months later (Aug. 4, 1782) Johnson wrote : — ' Perhaps no nation not
absolutely conquered has declined so much in so short a time. We seejii
to be sinking.' Boswell's Johnson, iv. 139, n. 4. Horace Walpole,
writing on May 13, 1780, says {Letters, vii. 364), ' It is my opinion that
the vigour of this country is worn out and is not likely to revive.
I think it is pretty much the same case with Europe. ... Is not the
universal inactivity of all religions a symptom of decrepitude .' '
Note 22. See ante, p. 50, n. 3, and p. 56, n. 8, for Hume's prefer-
ence of the French. ' What I gained by being in France,' said
Johnson, ' was learning to be better satisfied with my own country.'
Boswell's Johnson, iii. 352.
Note 23. See ante, p. 169, n. 15, for the hopeless confusion of the
French finances.
Note 24. Hume, in a remarkable passage in his History, describes
the hatred which existed between the English and French. ' The
fatal pretensions of Edward III,' he says, ' left the seeds of great
animosity in both countries, especially among the English. For it is
remarkable that this latter nation, though they were commonly the
aggressors, and by their success and situation were enabled to com-
mit the most cruel injuries on the other, have always retained a
stronger tincture of national antipathy ; nor is their hatred retaliated
on them to an equal degree by the French. That country lies in the
middle of Europe, has been successively engaged in hostilities with
all its neighbours, the popular prejudices have been diverted into
many channels, and among a people of softer manners they never
rose to a great height against any particular nation.' History of Eng-
land, ed. 1802, ii. 398.
Horace Walpole, on his return from France in Sept. 1771, describ-
ing the state of things under the new Chancellor, Maupeou, says : —
' For the misery of his people, and for the danger of his successors
(if he escapes himself) the King, I think, will triumph over his
country. . . . The Chancellor is very able, very enterprising, and
after being the most servile flatterer proves the most inhuman
tyrant. Everybody is pillaged, and numbers ruined. The army is
much reduced, and if corruption does not prevent it, their finances will
soon be in good order. The besotted old Bien-aime' [Lewis XV]
neither desires this increase of power, nor feels for the sufferings it
occasions ; but shudders for his own life, and yet lets Abigail [Mme.
Dubarry], who has still less sense than himself, plunge him mto all
these difficulties and shame. This street-walker has just received
the homage of Europe. The holy Nuncio, and every Ambassador
194 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter-
but he of Spain, have waited on her, and brought gold, frankincense
and myrrh. . . . This prospect is by no means unfavourable to us.
France and Spain on cool terms ; the army no longer the favourite
object,— perhaps disgusted— certainly dispirited ; ... the Vive le Rot
certainly extinguished for the present ; . . . a government dissolved
and not resettled ; and to crown all, a divided and rival Ministry.'
Letters, v. 332-334.
Note 25. Through the weakness of Lewis XV the monarchical
government existed little more than in form. The Rot was almost as
much extinguished as the Vive le Roi. But with ' a Dauphin more
unpromising ^ ' to follow, Hume's must was rather an article of faith
than of reason. Dr. John Moore, who visited Paris in 1772, was struck
by the loyalty of the French. ' Roi,' he says, ' is a word which con-
veys to tlie minds of Frenchmen the ideas of benevolence, gratitude,
and love ; as well as those of power, grandeur and happiness. They
flock to Versailles every Sunday, behold him with unsated curiosity,
and gaze on him with as much satisfaction the twentieth time as the
first. . . . They repeat with fond applause every saying of his which
seems to indicate the smallest approach to wit, or even bears the mark
of ordinary sagacity. . . . When they hear of the freedom of debate
in Parliament, of the liberties taken in writing or speaking of the con-
duct of the King, or measures of government, and the forms to be
observed before those who venture on the most daring abuse of
either can be brought to punishment, they seem filled with indigna-
tion, and say with an air of triumph, " C'est bien autrement chez
nous. Si le Roi de France avait affaire a ces Messieurs-la, il leur
apprendrait a vivre." ' View of Society in France, i. 36, 37, 43.
Note 26. One method of throwing off their debts is described by
Horace Walpole in his letter of Sept. 7 of this year : — ' The worst
part is that by the most horrid oppression and injustice their finances
will very soon be in good order — unless some bankrupt turns
Ravaillac [the murderer of Henry IV of France], which will not sur-
prise me.' Letters, v. 330.
Note 27. Walpole wrote on Feb. 25, 1779 : — ' It was but yesterday
Lord North could tell the House he had got the money on the loan,
and is happy to get it under eight per cent.' Letters, vii. 181. The
poor-rate also was beginning to weigh the country down like another
mill-stone. An able writer in the Gent. Mag. for Aug. 1769 (p. 373),
in a paper entitled A College of Labour, says ; — ' It is a melancholy
truth, that notwithstanding the heavy load of other taxes the poor's rate
within half a century past has increased throughout the kingdom in a
quadruple ratio to what it was ever formerly known to increase in the
same period of time ; and that it now equals, if it does not surpass,
the whole revenue upon land.'
Note 28. ' This surely is a sufficient answer to the feudal gabble of
a man, who is every day lessening that splendour of character which
' Walpole's Letters, v. 333.
XLVIL] HUME'S DISLIKE OF CHATHAM. 195
once illuminated the kingdom, then dazzled, and afterwards inflamed
it ; and for whom it will be happy if the nation shall at last dismiss him
to nameless obscurity, with that equipoise of blame and praise which
Corneille allows to Richelieu, a man who, I think, had much of his
merit and many of his faults : —
" Chacun parle a son gre de ce grand Cardinal ;
Mais, pour moi, je n'en dirai rien ;
II m'a fait trop de bien pour en dire du mal ;
II m'a fait trop de mal pour en dire du bien." '
Johnson's Works, vi. 197.
Corneille's lines are well rendered by the saying of ' Old Andrew
Fairservice, that there were many things ower bad for blessing, and
ower gude for banning like Rob Roy.' Scott's Works, ed. i860, viii.
380.
Note 29. Burke, writing on July 9, 1769, about a visit of Lord
Chatham to St. James's, says : — ' It is not yet known whether he was
sent for, or went of his own mere motion. ... If he was not sent for,
it was only humbly to lay a reprimand at the feet of his most gracious
master, and to talk some significant, pompous, creeping, explanatory,
ambiguous matter in the true Chathamic style, and that's all.' Burke's
Corresp. i. 173.
Boswell, writing on June 19, 1775, says : — ' On Wednesday last I
dined at Sir Alexander Dick's. Mr. Hume was there. He said Mr.
Pitt was an instance that in this country eloquence alone, without any
other talents or fortune, will raise a man to the highest office.' Letters
of Bosivell, p. 203. Much of Hume's violence against Chatham was, I
suspect, due to wounded vanity. Lord Charlemont says in his
Memoirs, i. 236 : — ' Nothing ever gave Hume more real vexation than
the strictures made upon his History in the House of Lords by the
great Lord Chatham. Soon after that speech I met Hume, and
ironically wished him joy of the high honour that had been done him.
•' Zounds, man," said he, with more peevishness than I had ever seen
him express ; " he's a Goth ! he's a Vandal ! " ' I have not found any
other mention of Chatham's speech.
Note 30. ' Richelieu, grand, sublime, implacable ennemi.' Voltaire,
La Henriade, vii. 340.
Note 31. When Hume writes of Chatham as ' our cut-throat,' we
recall the splendid passage in which Burke has enshrined his
memory. 'Another scene was opened, and other actors appeared
on the stage. The state, in the condition I have described it, was
delivered into the hands of Lord Chatham— a great and celebrated
name ; a name that keeps the name of this country respectable in
every other on the globe. It may be truly called,
Clarum et venerabile nomen
Gentibus, et multum nostrae quod proderat urbi. '
Sir, the venerable age of this great man, his merited rank, his
' Lucan, Ix. 202.
O 3
196 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Lettei'
superior eloquence, his splendid qualities, his eminent services, the
vast space he fills in the eye of mankind ; and more than all the
rest, his fall from power, which, like death, canonizes and sanctifies
a great character, will not suffer me to censure any part of his
conduct.' Burke, On American Taxation, April 19, 1774. Payne's
Burke, i. 144. Yet in a note which Burke made more than eighteen
years later he calls Chatham 'that grand artificer of fraud,' and
continues :— ' It is pleasant to hear him talk of the great extensive
public, who never conversed but with a parcel of low toad-eaters.
Alas ! alas ! how different the real from the ostensible public man !
Must all this theatrical stuffing and raised heels be necessary for the
character of a great man .' Oh ! but this does not derogate from
his great splendid side. God forbid ! ' Memoirs of Rockingham,
ii. 195.
Note 32. Burke, describing on May 25, 1779, 'the very blind
submission ' which Lord Chatham had always expected, con-
tinues : — ' It is true that he very often rewarded such submission
in a very splendid manner, but with very little marks of respect
or regard to the objects of his favour; and as he put confidence
in no man, he had very few feelings of resentment against those who
the most bitterly opposed, or most basely betrayed him.' Burke's
Corresp. ii. 277.
Note 33. Hume in his History of England, ed. 1802, vi. 233, thus
sums up the results of Richelieu's administration: — 'The people,
while they lost their liberties, acquired by means of his adminis-
tration, learning, order, discipline, and renown. That confused
and inaccurate genius of government of which France partook in
common with other European Kingdoms, he changed into a simple
monarchy.'
Note 34. 'All Mr. Pitt's sentiments were liberal and elevated.
His ruling passion was an unbounded ambition, which, when
supported by great abilities and crowned with great success, make
(sic) what the world calls " a great man." He was haughty, im-
perious, impatient of contradiction, and over-bearing ; qualities
which too often accompany, but always clog, great ones. . . . His
eloquence was of every kind, and he excelled in the argumentative
as well as in the declamatory way. But his invectives were terrible,
and uttered with such energy of diction, and stern dignity of action
and countenance, that he intimidated those who were the most
willing and the best able to encounter him. Their arms fell out
of their hands, and they shrunk under the ascendant which his
genius gained over theirs.' Character of Mr. Pitt by Lord Chester-
field. Chesterfield's Works. Appendix to vol. iv. p. 64.
' No man was ever better fitted than Mr. Pitt to be the minister
in a great and powerful nation, or better qualified to carry that
power and greatness to their utmost limits. There was in all his
designs a magnitude, and even a vastness, which was not easily
XLVII.] CHATHAM'S GREATNESS. 197
comprehended by every mind, and which nothing but success could
have made to appear reasonable. . . . Under him for the first tim^
administration and popularity v^rere seen united. Under him Great
Britain carried on the most important war in which she ever was
engaged, alone and unassisted, with greater splendour and with
more success than she had ever enjoyed at the head of the most
powerful alliances. Alone this island seemed to balance the rest
of Europe.' Burke in the Ann. Reg. for 1761, i. 47.
Horace Walpole wrote on May 11, 1778, the day of Chatham's
death : — 'Well ! with all his defects Lord Chatham will be a capital
historic figure, France dreaded his crutch to this very moment.'
Letters, vii. 60. The House of Lords, by a majority of one, decided
not to attend his funeral. Pari. Hist. xix. 1233. In the 66 volumes
of Voltaire's Works, his name, I believe, is not once mentioned. In
the copious Index I find only ' Pitt {Andre') : quaker retire dans les
environs de Londres, auquel I'auteur alia rendre visite.'
Note 35. Horace Walpole offered one day to read to Sir Robert
in his retirement, 'finding that time hung heavy on his hands.
" What," said he, " will you read, child ? " Mr. Walpole considering
that his father had long been engaged in public business, proposed
to read some history. " No," said he, " don't read history to me ;
that can't be true." ' Prior's Life of Malone, p. 387. Dalrymple
boasted (ante, p. 174) that he had been offered ^2000 for his History.
This letter shows that the amount was only ;£750.
Note 36. ' All, all but truth, drops dead-born from the press.'
Pope Epil. to Sat. ii. 226.
Hume in his Autobiography \.€i^% how his Treatise of Human Nature
' fell dead-born from the press.'
Dalrymple's book passed through several editions.
Note 37. ' Dec. 29, 1763. Have you read Mrs. Macaulay ? I am
glad again to have Mr. Gray's opinion to corroborate mine, that it is
the most sensible, unaffected, and best history of England that
we have had yet.' Horace Walpole to Mason, Letters, iv. 157. It
was of her that Johnson said, on hearing that she had begun 'to
sit hours together at her toilet and even put on rouge :— " It is better
she should be reddening her own cheeks than blackening other
people's characters." ' Boswell's Johnson, iii. 46. See ib. i. 447,
for Johnson's proposal that that ' sensible, civil, well-behaved fellow-
citizen, her footman ' should sit down and dine with them.
Note 38. Hume, while he was engaged on his History of the Stuarts,
wrote to a friend in the Government for information about ' the old
English subsidies' ' I cannot,' he continues, ' satisfy myself on that
head ; but I find that all historians and antiquarians are as much at a
loss.' Burton's Hume, i. 380. In his History (ed. 1802, vi. 174) he
says : — ' In the eighth of Elizabeth a subsidy amounted to ;^i20,ooo.
In the fortieth, it was not above ^78,000. It afterwards fell to
J/lo,ooo, and was continually decreasing.'
198 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Utter
Note 39. See ante, p. 165, n. 9, for Johnson's account of the
worthlessness of Falkland's Islands.
Note 40. To this letter Strahan sent the following reply :—
'London, May 25, 1771.
' Dear Sir,
'. . . The proofs for the first four volumes shall be regularly
transmitted to you as you desire ; but this had better be done by
common franks than by Secretary Eraser. We shall never want above
two ounces at a time ; and if they are returned to his office, it will be
troublesome to him, as well as to me, to send so great a distance for
them. It will be very easy for either you or I to procure a number of
covers, half directed — To David Hume, Esqre. Edinbr. — and half to Will.
Strahan, Kin^s Printer, London. — These are neither of them long ad-
dresses, and we either of us know a score of members that will readily
oblige us. If I am not mistaken this book will be wanted before this
edition is finished. But if it is, so much the better, that the Public
may know that it is out of print. The impression is to be 1500 and
no more, which is of all others the most proper number ; nor is it the
interest of the proprietors to print more at a time. . . . The offer of
;^750 to Sir J[ohn] D[alrymple] turns out to have been more than the
real value of it, as the sale of it seems to be already over here. Not
above 1000 are yet sold, which was the number first printed, 220 of
which arrived here after the second edition was finished. So that
will probably stick on hand for a great while to come. If you write
another volume, which the best judges of writing are daily enquiring
after, you may demand what you please for it. It shall be granted.
We cannot indeed afford a sum equal to a Parliamentary subsidy, but
you shall not be offered so little as the value of Falkland Islands,
which in my mind is a mere trifle. I heartily wish you would
seriously think of setting about it. It is the only thing wanting to fill
up the measure of your glory as the Great Historian and Philosopher
of the Eighteenth Century. But you certainly do not see this matter
in the same light I do, otherwise you would not hesitate one moment
in continuing a Work, which (imperfect as it is in point of time) will
remain for ever the Standard History of this country. I am afraid
too, that when you are universally known to have given up all
thoughts of this yourself, we shall be pestered with continuations from
some of our hackney writers, who will be fond of building upon your
foundation, and adding their names to one that is like to be as im-
mortal as the language he writes in, or the country he has made the
subject of his pen. . . .
' The circumstance you mention about the prior settlement of Falk-
land Island by the French is not at all known here, as far as I can
find, to this moment. However, that matter is now at an end ; at
least for the present ; nor do I see the smallest reason to fear our
being threatened with a war either with France or Spain soon. If
we are weak, so are they ; if we are divided among ourselves, so are
XLVIIL] STRAHAy'S VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 199
the French ; if we are poor, and in debt, so are the French ; with this
difiference, that we have still some credit left, they have none. You
know the condition and character of their present King ; the Dauphin
[afterwards Lewis XVI] is not much better than a driveller. Put all
these circumstances together, and I leave it to you to determine
whether or not we are not upon a fair comparison, in a much better
situation than our most formidable enemies. Add to all this that our
trade is really in a flourishing state, that our Colonies are growing
very considerable without the smallest fear of a separation from us ;
and that from all Quarters of the Globe, wealth is daily pouring into
this country, of which you see the most convincing proofs, not only in
this Capital, but over the whole Kingdom, in some degree or another
... If the folly and absurdity of the canaille of London doth not re-
ceive a check (and a very little matter would effectually do it) it is
impossible to say where it may terminate. But, in truth, it is more
contemptible than people at a distance can possibly conceive or
believe. The bustle is chiefly, almost solely, in the newspapers.
Our rascally leaders of sedition are cutting one another's throats.
Wilkes and Home now entertain the Town with bespattering one
another, and probably before next session they may be totally
extinguished. — Time, steadiness and perseverance in those in power
may of itself do wonders. In short I look upon the condition of this
country, considering things in an enlarged point of view, and com-
paring our affairs with those of all the other principal Powers of
Europe, contemplating the resources we actually possess in cases of
extremity, the state of agriculture, which is daily advancing in a
variety of ways, our numerous and most extensive manufactures,
which are by no means on the decline ; I say, considering all these
things, I will venture to pronounce the British Empire, still on the
increase in power, riches and consideration.
' I wish you saw things in the same light, and am, whether you do
so or not, with the utmost esteem and attachment
' Dear Sir your faithful and Ob* Ser',
' William Strahan.'
M. S. R. S. E.
LETTER XLVIIL
Correcting Books : Warburton and his Gang : Lord NorUis
Timidity : Powers of Government lost.
Edinburgh, 25 of June, 1771.
Dear S'"
I have receivd both your favours, for which I am
2C0 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
oblig'd to j^ou. I shall be able to send off by the Waggon,
in less than a Month, a corrected Copy of my History; and
shall write you at the time, that you may send for it, if it
be not immediatly sent to you. It gives me a sensible
pleasure, that I shall now have an Edition of that work,
corrected nearly to my mind^. I have taken incredible
pains on this Edition. It puts me in mind of a saying
of Rousseau's, that one half of a man's life is too httle
to write a Book and the other half to correct it ^- Most of
my Corrections fall upon the Style; tho' there are also
several Additions and Amendments in the Subject and in
the facts ^.
I have got about a hundred Franks directed to you ; and
we shall proceed in the manner you desire. I think, how-
ever, it will not be amiss to have some of Mr. Eraser's, for
large Parcels ; and for this purpose you may send him the
enclos'd, with twenty Covers, which he will not grudge to
frank to you *. The rest you may get from your Acquaint-
ance ^ or mine. Lord Beauchamp ", Mr. Wedderburn '',
Mr. Pulteney*, Mr. Adam", Mr. Stewart of Buckingham
Street ^^ &c., informing them by a short Note of the reason
of your applying to them.
I return you Warburton's Letter ", which diverted me.
He and all his gang, the most scurrillous, arrogant, and
impudent Eellows in the world, have been abusing me
in their usual Style these twenty Years, and here at last he
pretends to speak well of me. It is the only thing from
them, that coud ever give me any mortification. We have
all heard of the several Schools of Painters and their
peculiar manners. It is petulance, and Insolence and
abuse, that distinguish the Warburtonian School, even
above all other Parsons and Theologians'^. Johnson is
abusive in Company, but falls much short of them in
his writings'^. I remember Lord Mansfield said to me
that Warburton was a very opposite man in company to
XLVIII.] LORD NORTH'S CONDUCT EXPLAINED. 20i
what he is in his Books; then, replyd I, he must be the
most agreeable Companion in Europe, for surely he is the
most odious Writer ^^.
I wish to tempt you into a Discourse of PoHtics, because
I get Information from you. I own, that I am inchnd
to have a good Opinion of Lord North, but his Insolence
to the House of Bourbon ^^, and his Timidity towards the
London Mob appear unaccountable. Only consider how
many Powers of Government are lost in this short Reign ^^.
The right of displacing the Judges was given up^'; General
Warrants are lost '* ; the right of Expulsion the same " ;
all the co-ercive Powers of the House of commons aban-
don'd ^° ; all Laws against Libels annihilated ^^ ; the
Authority of Government impair'd by the Impunity granted
to the Insolence of Beckford, Crosby, and the common
CounciP^: the revenue of the civil List diminishd^^- For
God's sake, is there never to be a stop put to this in-
undation of the Rabble ^* ? We shall have fine work next
Elections, if the people above and below continue in the
same dispositions, the one insolent and the other timid ^'.
For my part, I can account for Lord North's Conduct only
by one supposition. He will not expose himself even
in the best cause to the Odium of the populace, because he
feels that he has no sure hold of the Cabinet, but depends
for all his power on some invisible secret Being, call him
Oberon, the fairy or any other, whose Caprices can in
a moment throw him off, and leave him no Resources either
in popularity or authority ^^. In this Light his caution
is excusable : He bulhes Spain and France^' and quakes
before the Ward of Farringdon without ^* ; because, if he
shoud be suddenly displaced, he will still retain it in his
power to become popular and formidable. But all these
Inconveniencies are slight, in comparison of our public
Debts, which bring on inevitable Ruin, and with a
Certainty which is even beyond geometrical, because it
2C2 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
is arithmetical. I hope you have more Sense than to trust
a shining to that egregious bubble ^'.
I am Dear S'' Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Note I. Strahan had written to Hume on May 25:— 'I hope to
make a beautiful edition, as we have got an excellent paper for it,
much better than is generally used, being bespoke on purpose for the
work.' M. S. R. S. E. Even with this edition Hume was not satis-
fied. In the last year of his life he writes : — ' I am as anxious of
correctness as if I were writing to Greeks or French ; and besides
frequent revisals which I have given my History since the last
edition, I shall again run over it very carefully.' Post, Letter of Nov.
13, 1775-
Note 2. See post, Letters of Sept. 18, 1771, and Nov. 13, 1775,
where Hume repeats this saying.
Note 3. Hume wrote to Sir Gilbert Elliot on Feb. 21, 1770 :— ' I
am running over again the last edition of my History, in order to
correct it still further. I either soften or expunge many villanous,
seditious Whig strokes, which had crept into it. I wish that my
indignation at the present madness, encouraged by lies, calumnies,
imposture, and every infamous act usual among popular leaders,
may not throw me into the opposite extreme. I am, however,
sensible that the first editions were too full of those foolish English
prejudices, which all nations and all ages disavow.' Burton's Hume,
ii. 434. Such a passage as this may be illustrated by the following
extract from Mackintosh's brief Character of Hume : —
'Some remains perhaps of a love of singularity, some taint of
sceptical theory affecting his practical sentiments, much tranquillity
of temper and love of order, with the absence of ardent sensibility,
contributed to give Mr. Hume a prejudice against most of the pre-
dominant prejudices of his age and country ; combined with a
residence in France they led him to prefer the faultless elegance of
our neighbours to the unequal grandeur of English genius, and pro-
duced the singular phenomenon of a History of England adverse to
our peculiar national feelings, and calculated, not so much to preserve
the vigour, as to repress the excesses of that love of liberty which
distinguishes the history of England from that of the other nations of
Europe.' Life of Mackintosh, ii. 169.
Note 4. See ante, p. 188, n. 11. The covers were the pieces
of paper in which the proofs were to be inclosed. Each cover
would bear Hume's address in Fraser's handwriting, attested by
his signature.
Note 5. Hume in his list of Scotticisms gives ' Friends and ac-
quaintances ' ; the English form being ' Friends and acquaintance.'
XL VIII.] MR. WILLIAM PULTENEY. 303
Ante, p. 9. Johnson, I think, never uses the plural form acquaint-
ances, though he gives it in his Dictionary. It is used by Bacon in
Essay xviii. ed. 1629, i. 100 : — ' What acquaintances they are to
seeke.' In the same Essay we find 'those of his acquaintance
which are of most worth.'
Note 6. Viscount Beauchamp was the eldest son of the Earl of
Hertford, late Ambassador to France (ante, p. 40, n. i), and now
Lord Chamberlain. Hume, on his going to Paris as Lord Hertford's
Secretary in 1763, wrote : — ' I find that one view of Lord Hertford in
engaging me to go along with him is, that he thinks I may be useful
to Lord Beauchamp in his studies.' Burton's Hume, ii. 161.
Note 7. Alexander Wedderburne (afterwards Lord Loughborough
and Earl of Rosslyn), having deserted his party, had been made
Solicitor General on Jan. 23 of this year.
Note 8. Mr. William Pulteney, the second son of Sir James John-
stone, Baronet, was member for Cromartie and Nairn. Pari. Hist.
xvi. 451. He had been Secretary of the Poker Club, and so was well
known to Hume. Dr. A. Carlyle's Auto. p. 420, and ante, p. 141,
n. 4. Horace Walpole, writing on Oct. 29, 1767, of the death of
General Pulteney, brother of the famous William Pulteney, Earl of
Bath, says : — ' General Pulteney is dead, having owned himself worth
a million, the fruits of his brother's virtues ! ' After mentioning some
bequests Walpole continues : — ' All the vast rest, except a few very
trifling legacies, he leaves to his cousin Mrs. Pulteney, a very worthy
woman, who had risked all by marrying one Johnstone, the third son
of a poor Scot, but who is an orator at the India House, and likely to
make a figure now in what house he pleases.' Letters, v. 70. Hume, in
a letter to Suard dated Brewer Street, March 10, 1769, shows that ' the
poor Scot's third son ' could make a generous use of his wealth. He
writes : — ' Poor Stuart has lost his cause which he had laboured with
such assiduity, such integrity, and such capacity. (See post, p. 239,
n. 9.) Never was any sentence more unjust : but the cause had
become so complicate, that it had gone beyond the comprehension of
almost all our Peers ; and it was in the power of Lord Mansfield,
who had shown a violent partiality from the beginning, to twist and
turn it as he pleased and to command the plurality of votes. If the
event was in one respect disastrous and extraordinary for Stuart, it
was in another as fortunate and extraordinary. On rising next
morning he found on his table a bond of annuity for 400 pounds a
year, sent him by a friend, a man of sense, who had no interest in
the cause, but who chose this opportunity to express his esteem and
affection for Stuart. The person who has done this noble action is
Pulteney ; you may have seen him at Paris with Stuart ; he then
bore the name of Johnstone.' Morrison Autographs, ii. 318.
Note 9. Robert Adam, Architect to the Board of Works, and
Member for Kinross and Clackmannan. Pari. Hist. xvi. 451. The
Adelphi in the Strand, which by its affected name commemorates
204 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
the fact that it was built by brothers, was a vast speculation shared
between him and some of his brothers. Hume, writing of the great
crash in the commercial world in 1772, says : — ' Of all the sufferers I
am the most concerned for the Adams. But their undertakings were
so vast that nothing could support them. . . . To me the scheme of the
Adelphi always appeared so imprudent, that my wonder is how they
could have gone on so long.' Burton's Hume, ii. 460.
Note ID. Mr. Stewart had been of service to Hume in his search
for lodgings for Rousseau. A Concise Account, etc. p. 9. He must
have held some post which gave the right to use the official frank.
There is mention of a John Stewart, Esq., in the Chatham Corresp. i.
214-5.
Note II. ' Aug. 23, 1773. Dr. Gerard told us that an eminent printer
was very intimate with Warburton. Johnson. " Why, Sir, he has
printed some of his works, and perhaps bought the property of some
of them. The intimacy is such as one of the professors here may
have with one of the carpenters who is repairing the College."
" But," said Gerard, " I saw a letter from him to this printer, in
which he says that the one half of the clergy of the Church of Scot-
land are fanatics and the other half infidels." Johnson. "Warburton
has accustomed himself to write letters just as he speaks, without
thinking any more of what he throws out.". . . He told me, when we
were by ourselves, that he thought it very wrong in the printer
to show Warburton's letter, as it was raising a body of enemies
against him. He thought it foolish in Warburton to write so to the
printer ; and added, " Sir, the worst way of being intimate is by
scribbling." ' Boswell's Johnson, v. 92.
Note 12. Horace Walpole, writing on Jan. 22, 1764, about Churchill's
' new satire called The Duellist,' speaks of the ' charming abuse on
that scurrilous mortal. Bishop Warburton.' Letters,\M. 171. Churchill
describes the Bishop as a man,
' Who was so proud that should he meet
The twelve Apostles in the street,
He'd turn his nose up at them all.
And shove his Saviour from the wall ;
Who was so mean (meanness and pride
Still go together side by side)
That he would cringe, and creep, be civil.
And hold a stirrup for the Devil,
If in a journey to his mind,
He'd let him mount and ride behind.'
Churchill's Poems, ed. 1766, ii. 79.
Johnson, speaking to George III of the controversy between Lowth
and Warburton, said : — 'Warburton has most general, most scholastic
learning ; Lowth is the more correct scholar. I do not know which
of them calls names best.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 37. On another
occasion Johnson said : — ' When I read Warburton first, and observed
XLVIIL] BISHOP WARBURTON. 20.5
his force, and his contempt of mankind, I thought he had driven the
world before him ; but I soon found that was not the case ; for War-
burton by extending his abuse rendered it ineffectual.' lb. v. 93. Gib-
bon wrote of him : ' The learning and the abilities of the author [of the
Divine Legation of Moses\ had raised him to a just eminence ; but he
reigned the dictator and tyrant of the world of literature. The real
merit of Warburton was degraded by the pride and presumption with
which he pronounced his infallible decrees ; in his polemic writings he
lashed his antagonists without mercy or moderation, and his servile
flatterers (see the base and malignant Essay on the Delicacy of Friend-
ship [by Hurd]) exalting the master critic far above Aristotle and
Longinus, assaulted every modest dissenter who refused to consult
the oracle and to adore the idol.' Gibbon's Misc. Works, i. 209. See
ante, p. 21, n. i.
Note 13. This letter was most likely written in Hume's house
in James's Court. Two years later on, Johnson, in the same house
though not in the same flat, after scoffing at Hume's scepticism,
' " added something much too rough " both as to his head and heart
which,' continues Boswell, ' I suppress.' Boswell's Johnson, v. 30.
Johnson in one or two passages falls not far short of the War-
burtonian School. Thus, in his attack on Wilkes, he says : — ' The
character of the man ... I have no purpose to delineate. Lam-
poon itself would disdain to speak ill of him of whom no man speaks
well. It is sufficient that he is expelled the House of Commons, and
confined in gaol, as being legally convicted of sedition and impiety.'
Works,yi\. 156. Of /m«;'ms he writes : — "What," says Pope, "must be
the priest where a monkey is the god ? " What must be the drudge
of a party of which the heads are Wilkes and Crosby, Sawbridge and
Townsend ? ' lb. p. 206.
Note 14. Boswell has thus recorded this anecdote in his Bosiuel-
liana, on the authority of ' Mr. David Hume ' : — ' Warburton was
a prodigious flatterer of Lord Mansfield, and consequently a favourite.
David Hume was one day speaking violently against him to his
Lordship, who said : — " Upon my word, Mr. Hume, he is quite a
different man in conversation from what he is in his books." " Then,
my Lord," said Hume, " he must be the most agreeable man in
the world." Boswelliana, p. 268. Strahan, replying to Hume on
July23, said :— ' What his [Warburton's] reasons may be I know not,
but I have heard much of his launching out in your praise for some
time past, sometimes indeed in my hearing, and with much more
seeming cordiality and heartiness than I ever heard him bestow
on any other writer. ... As a companion he is certainly one of
the most tractable men I ever saw. So far from being insolent
or overbearing, you can hardly get him to contradict you in anything.'
M. S. R. S. E.
Note 15. By the Opposition Lord North was charged not with
insolence to the House of Bourbon but with timidity towards it.
ao6 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME, [Letter
Lord Chatham, writing on Jan. 22, 1771, looks upon the Convention
with Spain as ' the most abject and dangerous sacrifice of the rights of
England that ever was submitted to.' The following day he writes :
— ' I still fear that England will prove itself a nation of slaves, in the
present consummation of insult and ignominy, heaped upon them by
an abandoned and flagitious Court.' Chatham Corresp. iv. 77, 82.
Burke, in the Ann. Reg. for 1771, i. 51, stating the views of the
Opposition, says :— ' The whole transaction was described as a stand-
ing monument of reproach, disgrace, and dishonour, which, after an
expense of some millions, settled no contest, asserted no right, ex-
acted no reparation, and afforded no security.' Junius, in his Letter
of Jan. 30, 1771, asks, ' Where will the humiliation of this country
end ? ' and goes on to attack ' the treachery of the King's servants,
particularly of Lord North.' Johnson's Falkland's Islands is a defence
of the Ministry for not having ' snatched with eagerness the first
opportunity of rushing into the field, when they were able to obtain
by quiet negotiation all the real good that victory could have
brought us.' Works, vi. 200. ' The honour of the public,' he adds,
' is, indeed, of high importance ; but we must remember that we
have had to transact with a mighty King and a powerful nation, who
have unluckily been taught to think that they have honour to keep or
lose, as well as ourselves.' lb. p. 208.
Note 16. On April 14, 1775, Dr. Johnson said : — ' Sir, the great
misfortune now is that government has too little power Our
several ministries in this reign have outbid each other in conces-
sions to the people. Lord Bute, though a very honourable man, —
a man who meant well, — a man who had his blood full of prerogative,
— was a theoretical statesman, — a book-minister, — and thought this
country could be governed by the influence of the Crown alone.
Then, Sir, he gave up a great deal. He advised the King to agree
that the Judges should hold their places for life, instead of losing
them at the accession of a new King. Lord Bute, I suppose, thought
to make the King popular by this concession, but the people never
minded it ; and it was a most impolitic measure. There is no reason
why a Judge should hold his office for life, more than any other
person in public trust. A Judge may be partial otherwise than
to the Crown ; we have seen Judges partial to the populace.
A Judge may become corrupt, and yet there may not be legal
evidence against him. A Judge may become froward from age.
A Judge may grow unfit for his office in many ways. It was
desirable that there should be a possibility of being delivered
from him by a new King. That is now gone by an Act of Parlia-
ment ex gratia of the Crown. Lord Bute advised the King to give up
a very large sum of money, for which nobody thanked him. It was
of consequence to the King, but nothing to the public among whom
it was divided.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 352.
Note 17. ' At the commencement of the reign of George III the
XLVIII.] GENERAL WARRANTS. 207
independence of the Judges was still further secured. Although
the Statute 12 and 13 Will. III. c. 2, s. 3, enacted that their com-
mission should be no longer " Durante bene placito," but " Quamdiu
se bene gesserint," yet, by a most extraordinary interpretation, it
was decided at the accession of Queen Anne that their patents
terminated at the demise of the Crown ; and the practice had been
adopted in the two following reigns. The inconvenience arising
from this decision, which necessitated a renewal of the patents of all
the judges as the first act of a reign in order to prevent a total failure
of justice, had been partially remedied by the statute 6 Anne, c. 7,
s. 8, which enacted that all officers, including the Judges, should act
upon their former patents for the space of six months after any
demise of the Crown, unless sooner removed by the next successor.
Now, however, by the express recommendation of George III, full
effect was given to the statute of William by an Act of Parliament
passed in the first year of his reign, chapter 23, continuing the
Judges in their office, notwithstanding the demise of the Crown.'
Foss's Judges of England, ed. 1864, viii. 198. The Earl of Hardwicke,
in his speech on this measure, stated that on the Accession of Anne
two Judges were left out ; on the Accession of George I, three Judges ;
and on that of George II, one Judge. Pari. Hist. xv. 1009. Horace
Walpole describes the measure as 'one of Lord Bute's strokes of
pedantry. The tenure of the Judges had formerly been a popular
topic ; and had been secured as far as was necessary. He thought
this trifling addition would be popular now, when nobody thought or
cared about it.' Memoirs of George III, i. 41.
Note 18. On April 30, 1763, Wilkes, as author of The North Briton,
No. 45,- had been arrested on ' a general warrant directed to four
messengers to take up any persons without naming or describing
them with any certainty, and to bring them, together with their
papers.' Such a warrant as this Chief Justice Pratt (Lord Camden)
declared to be ' unconstitutional, illegal, and absolutely void.' ' If it
be good,' he said, ' a Secretary of State can delegate and depute
any one of the messengers, or any one even from the lowest of
the people, to take examinations, to commit or release, and, in fine,
to do every act which the highest judicial officers the law knows can
do or order.' Ann. Reg. 1763, i. 145. 'Johnson would not admit the
importance of the question concerning the legality of general
warrants. " Such a power," he observed, " must be vested in
every government, to answer particular cases of necessity ; and
there can be no just complaint but when it is abused, for which
those who administer government must be answerable. It is a
matter of such indifference, a matter about which the people care
so very little, that were a man to be sent over Britain to offer them
an exemption from it at a halfpenny a piece, very few would
purchase it." This was a specimen of that laxity of talking which
I have heard him fairly acknowledge.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 72.
308 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Lelter
Note 19. Hume is speaking, no doubt, of expulsion from the
House of Commons. Yet Wilkes had been expelled on Feb. 3, 1769
{Pari. Hist. xvi. 545), and on Feb. 17 he had been declared ' incapable
'of being elected a member to serve in the present Parliament.'
lb. p. 577. He was elected four times, once in March 1768 at the
General Election ; and three times after his expulsion, on Feb. 16,
March 16, and April 13, 1769 (Almon's Memoirs of Wilkes, iv. 4) ;
but his seat was given to Colonel Luttrell, who had only received
296 votes against 1143. The power of expulsion therefore did not
seem lost, even if the right were. Hume perhaps saw that such
a storm had been raised by the Middlesex election, that no Ministry
would ever dare to follow the bad precedent that had been set. He
may have been struck too by the fact that Lord Chancellor Camden
had declared in the House of Lords his belief, that 'the incapaci-
tating vote was a direct attack upon the first principles of the con-
stitution,' and had gone on to say ' that if, in giving his decision
as a Judge, he was to pay any regard to that vote, or any other vote
of the House of Commons in opposition to the known and established
laws of the land, he should look upon himself as a traitor to his
trust.' Pari. Hist. xvi. 644. It is true that this speech was followed
by his dismissal from office, but he was supported in his statement
of the law by the strongly-worded Protest of forty-two dissentient
Lords.
The whole aim of Johnson's False Alarm was 'intended,' as
Boswell says, ' to justify the conduct of Ministry and their majority
in the House of Commons, for having virtually assumed it as an
axiom, that the expulsion of a Member of Parliament was equivalent
to exclusion.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. iii. Wilkes for the fifth time
was returned for Middlesex in the General Election of November
1774, ' without a shadow of opposition from the Court. . . . The dispute
concerning that single seat had produced to them more troubles,
vexation, and disgraces, than the contest with the twelve united
Colonies of America. It would have been an imprudence of the
grossest kind to mix these disputes in the present crisis ; and thus
after near fourteen years' struggle it was thought the best way to
leave him master of the field.' Ann. Reg. 1775, i. 39. Some
opposition, it seems, had been intended, for Horace Walpole wrote
on the day Parliament met—' St. Parliament's day,' he styles it : —
' Mr. Van is to move for the expulsion of Wilkes ; which will dis-
tress, and may produce an odd scene.' Letters, vi. 157. On May 3,
T782, on Wilkes's motion all the resolutions of the House respecting
the Middlesex election were ordered, by a majority of 115 to 47, ' to
be expunged from the Journals of this House, as being subversive
of the rights of the whole body of electors of this kingdom.' Fox
opposed the motion, as he held that ' it was for the good of the
people of England that the House should have a power of expelling
any man, whom the representatives of the people of England thought
XLVIII.] CITY AND HOUSE OF COMMONS. 209
unworthy to sit among them :' this was a privilege too valuable to
be given up.' Pari. Hist. xxii. 1407.
Note 20. Burlce in the Ann. Reg. for the following year (177a,
i. 81) points out the causes by which the House of Commons ' had
lost much of its influence with the people and of the respect and
reverence with which it was usually regarded. . . . Much of this may
be attributed to the ill-judged contest with the printers [ante, p. 190,
n. 17] and the ridiculous issue of that affair. . . . Many of the Ad-
dresses which had been presented to the City Magistrates during
their confinement in the Tower were direct libels upon that Assembly,
and in other times would have been severely punished as such. . . .
The printers, now that the impotency of the House was discovered,
laughed at an authority which had been so much dreaded, before
it was wantonly brought to a test that exposed its weakness. This
discovery being made, the eifect naturally followed ; and in the
succeeding session the votes of the House, a thing before unknown
and contrary to its orders, were printed in the public newspapers
without notice or inquiry ; and thus the point in contest was ap-
parently given up by the House.'
Note 21. Horace Walpole states that ' Lord Mansfield's innovations
had given such an alarm that scarce a jury would find the rankest
satire libellous.' Memoirs of George III, iv. 168. Lord Mans-
field, in trials for libel, maintained ' that a libel or not a libel was
a matter of fact to be decided by the bench, and the question to
be left to the jury was only the fact of printing and publishing.'
Adolphus's History of England, i. 441. By Fox's Libel Bill, which
was carried in 1792, it was declared that it was the function of the
jury in cases of libel to be judges of law as well as of fact. Pari.
Hist. xxix. 1537. See Junius's Letter to Lord Mansfield of Nov. 14,
1770, in which he says : — ' When you invade the province of the
jury in matter of libel, you in effect attack the liberty of the press,
and with a single stroke wound two of your greatest enemies.'
Note 22. Strahan, in his next letter, dated July 23, was able to
send more comforting news about the citizens. He wrote: — 'You
see our Lord Mayor, after advertising for a fortnight to invite the
whole Livery and all the mob in London to attend him, hath pre-
sented another wise and modest Remonstrance. The papers give
you a splendid account of the Cavalcade. But whatever they may
tell you, I assure you from ocular demonstration, that it made a
most pitiful and paltry figure. A number of people were indeed
brought into the streets to gaze at him, and the few Aldermen and
Common Council-men that accompanied him, but only about a dozen
blackguards followed and holloed him, whose feeble applause was
much more than overbalanced by the hisses of the honest spectators,
who seemed to be inflamed with just indignation at seeing one of the
best and most unexceptionable of Princes teased and abused by a
little, pitiful, desperate and abandoned Junto, whom as individuals
aiO LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
no reputable man would choose to associate with.' M.S.R.S.E.
In Strahan's own paper, The London Chronicle, for July ii, 1771,
it is stated that the cavalcade was composed of the Lord Mayor, five
Aldermen, the two Sheriffs, with upwards of one hundred of the
Common Council, in about fifty carriages, and that 'it proceeded
amidst the greatest acclamations of the people.'
Note 23. The King in his speech on opening Parliament on Nov.
15, 1763, announced his intention to apply to the public service the
money arising from the sale of the prizes vested in the Crown, and
of the lands in the islands in the West Indies that were ceded by
the Treaty of Paris. Pari. Hist. xv. 1339. The total amount was
upwards of ^900,000. In addition, he gave up the hereditary
revenues of the Crown, and accepted instead the fixed sum of
/8oo,ooo a year. According to Blackstone the public was a gainer
by ^100,000 a year. In the year 1777 ^800,000 being found insufficient
was increased to ^900,000. Boswell's Johnson, ii. 353, n. 4. Burke,
however, in his Present Discontents, says that in 1770 the whole
revenue of the Crown was ' certainly not much short of a million,' not
counting the sums that the King drew from his possessions in
Germany. Payne's Burke, i. 47. Nevertheless in 1769 application
was made to Parliament for the payment of the debts of the Civil
List, which amounted to over ^500,000. Pari. Hist. xvi. 602. Accord-
ing to Burke, George II, though during the last fourteen years of
his reign he had received less each year than his grandson, never-
theless at his death left ^170,000 to his successor. Payne's Burke, i.
68. With all the extravagance of George Ill's reign there was little
splendour. ' I believe it will be found,' said Burke in 1770, ' that the
picture of royal indigence which our Court has presented until this
year has been truly humiliating. Nor has it been relieved from this
unseemly distress but by means which have hazarded the affection of
the people, and shaken their confidence in Parliament.' lb. p. 47.
Note 24. Johnson had said this same spring in his Falkland's
Islands: — 'To fancy that our Government can be subverted by the
rabble, whom its lenity has pampered into impudence, is to fear that
a city may be drowned by the overflowings of its kennels.' John-
son's Works, vi. 213.
Note 25. It was the people above who were timid, and the people
below who were insolent.
Note 26. Hume is hinting at the Earl of Bute, or the Dowager
Princess of Wales, or both. Strahan replied to him on July 23 : — ' It
hath been long said, you know, that somebody behind the curtain
has been a constant check upon the ostensible Ministers during this
reign.' M. S. R. S. E. On March 2, 1770, Lord Chatham in the
House of Lords attacked ' the secret influence of an invisible power ; '
that 'something behind the throne greater than the King himself;'
that 'favourite, who had betrayed every man who had taken a respon-
sible office. There was no safety, no security against his power and
XLVIII.] WILKES ELECTED SHERIFF. 311
malignity. He himself had been duped when he least suspected
treachery, at a time when the prospect was fair, and when the
appearances of confidence were strong.' Pari. Hist. xvi. 842-3. On
March 25, 1771, Alderman Townsend in the House of Commons said
that many who supported the Ministers were 'only solicitous to
gratify the ambitious views of one aspiring woman, who, to the dis-
honour of the British name, is well known to direct the operations of
our despicable Ministers. Does any gentleman wish to know to what
woman I allude ; if he does, I will tell him ; it is to the Princess
Dowager of Wales.' Ih. xvii. 135. Colonel Barre wrote the next day
to Lord Chatham : — ' It is very extraordinary that this language had
no more apparent effect either on the House or the Ministry, than if
it had been held concerning the mal-administration of the Duke of
Saxe Gotha, or any even pettier Prince of the House of Saxony.'
Chatham Corres. iv. 134.
Note 27. See ante, pp. 161, 173.
Note 28. Wilkes was elected Alderman of the Ward of Farringdon
Without on Jan. 27, 1769, while he was still in prison. On his release
he was sworn in, on April 24, 1770. Almon's Memoirs of Wilkes, iv. i,
15. Horace Walpole wrote on May 6 : — ' I don't know whether
Wilkes is subdued by his imprisonment, or waits for the rising of
Parliament, to take the field ; or whether his dignity of Alderman has
dulled him into prudence, and the love of feasting ; but hitherto he
has done nothing but go to City-banquets and sermons, and sit at
Guildhall as a sober magistrate.' Letters, v. 235. On June 24, 1771,
he was elected Sheriff. ' Being suspected of partiality to the French,
he ordered that no French wine should be given at his enter-
tainments.' Almon's Wilkes, iv. 172, and Ann. Reg. 1771, i. 149.
Dr. Johnson lived in Wilkes's Ward, but not being a Freeman of the
City he had no vote. Horace Walpole wrote on July 6, a few days
after Wilkes's election as Sheriff: — 'Does there not seem to be a
fatality attending the Court whenever they meddle with that man ?
Does not he always rise higher for their attempting to overwhelm
him ? What instance is there of such a demagogue, subsisting and
maintaining a war against a King, Ministers, Courts of Law, a whole
Legislature, and all Scotland, for nine years together ? Massaniello
did not, I think, last five days. Wilkes, in prison, is chosen Member
of Parliament, and then Alderman of London. His colleagues betray
him, desert him, expose him, and he becomes Sheriff of London. I
believe, if he were to be hanged, he would be made King of England
— I don't think King of Great Britain (the Scots hate him too much).'
Letters, v. 313. Strahan's letter to Hume of July 23 is in the begin-
ning so curiously like Walpole's, that it can scarcely be doubted that
both men are repeating words they have heard. He says : — ' With
regard to Wilkes, there seems to be a Fatality attending the
Ministry whenever they meddle with him. In the late election
for Sheriffs they should have taken no part at all. ■ , . Monday and
P2
213 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Tuesday the election was plainly going against Wilkes, and he would
most certainly have lost it. But the miscarriage and consequent pub-
lication of Mr. R.'s ' letter had precisely the effect I apprehended, and
set the London mob in a flame.' M. S. R. S. E.
Sir John Pringle, writing to Hume on Feb. 25, 1776, tells an
amusing story of the election for Chamberlain of the City, for
which Wilkes was the unsuccessful candidate. He says : — ' One of
Hopkins's party upbraided Mr. Wilkes by telling him, that he had
made his friends upon polling go home, and after changing their coats
return to the Hall, and vote a second time. " My friends do so ! "
replies Wilkes ; " Impossible ! My friends have only one coat to their
back.'" M.S.R.S.E.
Junius, in his letter of April 3, 1770, mocks at ' the blustering pro-
mises of Lord North,' and tells how he had taken fright at the very
moment when Welbore Ellis, set on by him, was going to move to pro-
secute the Lord Mayor and SheriflFs. ' All their magnanimous threats
ended in a ridiculous vote of censure, and a still more ridiculous
address to the King. This shameful desertion so afflicted the generous
mind of George the Third, that he was obliged to live upon potatoes
for three weeks, to keep off a malignant fever. Poor man ! quis
talia fando temperet a lacrymis ! '
Note 29. The three per cents. Consols, on the day on which Hume
wrote, were at 81J. Gent. Mag. 1771, p. 288.
LETTER XLIX.
New Edition of the History.
Edinburgh, 22 of July, 1771.
Dear S""
On Saturday last, the 20*'' of the Month, I deliverd
to the Newcastle Waggon ^ the eight corrected Volumes of
my History, directed to Mr. Cadell. I chose to direct the
parcel to him rather than to you, because his Shop was
easier found ^, and the Waggoner told me, that he often
carry'd up Parcels to him. Please to tell Mr. Cadel, that
he may call for it, if it be not deliverd to him about three
' Mr. R. was Mr. Robinson, ' the Secretary of a Public Office.' A letter in
which he canvassed for Aldermen Plumbe and Kirkman was delivered by mistake
to the wrong person. ' Its publication won a great many votes for Aldermen
Wilkes and Bull.' London Chronicle, June 29, 1771.
XLIX.] HUME'S FREQUENT CORRECTIONS. a 13
Weeks hence. You will see that I have made many con-
siderable Improvements, most of them in the Style ; but
some also in the matter. I fancy you might be able to send
me a proof Sheet about a month hence ; and I shoud have
been here ready to receive it ; But I am assurd that Lady
Aylesbury^ and Mr. Conway are to be with the Duke of
Argyle this Summer; which will oblige me to leave the
Town for a fortnight and go to Inverara*. But I shall
fix to you precisely the day when I shall be ready to re-
ceive the first proof Sheet ; and you may depend upon my
punctuality afterwards. Mean-while, you may proceed to
print the last four Volumes at your own convenience. You
told me that you proposd to make this new Octavo Edition
in ten Volumes °. Each four of the Quarto must therefore
be divided into five ^, and you may cast them accordingly.
I woud have you mind nothing but to finish the Chapter
with each Volume, without forgetting the Index '. You
may send me down the Quarto Sheet with the Proof
Sheet; and where it contains any Note that is to be
printed at the End I shall return it by the Post ^ I hope
the Sale of the Quarto is pretty well advancd : For
this new Edition may a little discredit it. I know not
whether the former purchasers may complain of my
frequent Corrections ; but I cannot help it, and they run
mostly upon Trifles ; at least they will be esteemd such by
the Generality of Readers, who little attend to the extreme
Accuracy of Style. It is one great advantage that results
from the Art of printing, that an Author may correct his
works, as long as he lives ^ But I have now done with
mine for ever, and never shall any more review them,
except in a cursory manner ^''. I expect for my pains six
Copies, over and above the six that are due me by Agree-
ment ^^ I believe I coud have writ more than a Volume
with much less trouble than I have bestow'd on these. If
you have leizure to peruse the Sheets, and to mark on the
314 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Margin any Corrections that occur to you, it will be an
Addition to the many Obligations of the same kind, which
I owe to you ^^. But this I cannot expect, considering the
many Avocations which you have, unless it prove an Amuse-
ment to you in this dead time of the Year. I fancy this
Edition will not be pubhshd till after the new Year ^^. As
soon as the new Edition of my philosophical Pieces is
printed ^*, I shall be obligd to you to have six Copies of it.
It is a great Relief to my Spirits, that I have at last
a near Prospect of being fairly rid of that abominable
Octavo Edition of my History.
I am Dear S" Your most obedient humble Servant
David Hume.
Note I. Smollett in Roderick Random (ch. viii) describing his
hero's journey from Scotland to London in 1739, says : — ' There is
no such convenience as a waggon in this country, and my finances
were too weak to support the expense of hiring a horse ; I deter-
mined therefore to set out with the carriers, who transport goods
from one place to another on horseback ; and this I accordingly put
in execution, on the first day of November, 1739, sitting upon a
pack-saddle between two baskets ; one of which contained my goods
in a knap-sack. By the time we arrived at Newcastle upon Tyne, I
was so fatigued with the tediousness of the carriage, and benumbed
with the coldness of the weather, that I resolved to travel the rest of
my journey on foot.' After having walked many days he hears one
evening at a small town 'that the waggon from Newcastle for London
had halted there two nights ago, and that it would be an easy matter
to overtake it, if not the next day, at farthest the day after the next.'
(Ch. X.) By walking at a great pace all the next day he caught it up
in the evening. It seems likely that when the waggon began to go
beyond Newcastle to Edinburgh it still kept its old name of the New-
castle Waggon. Churchill in 1763, in The Prophecy of Famine, speak-
ing of Scotland, says : —
' What waggon-loads of courage, wealth and sense
Doth each revolving day import from thence.'
Poems, ed. 1766, i. 102.
Hume, on Nov. 22, 1762, directing Millar to send him some books,
says : — ' Be so good as to embark three copies in any parcel you send
to Edinburgh. The peace will now make the intercourse of trade
more open between us.' Burton's Hume, ii. 140. Now that there
was peace with France and Spain, there was no longer any dread of
XLIX.] CONVEYANCE OF PARCELS BY CARRIERS. 2 15
foreign cruisers. Johnson, even in time of peace, did not care to
liave anything sent to him by sea. He wrote to Boswell on Jan. 29,
1774 : — ' If anything is too bulky for the post, let me have it by the
carrier. I do not like trusting winds and waves.' Boswell's Johnson,
ii. 272. Boswell writing on Dec. 2 had told him that next week his
box should be sent him by sea. lb. p. 270. It did not arrive till the
very end of January. lb. p. 272. An undergraduate of Queen's
College, Oxford, was charged in the year 1778 two guineas for the
conveyance of his box by carrier from a Cumberland village north of
Carlisle to Oxford. Letters of Raddiffe and James, p. 46.
Note 2. Cadell's shop was in the Strand ; Strahan's printing-
house was in New Street, Fetter Lane ; where his descendants, the
Messrs. Spottiswoode, still carry on the business.
Note 3. General Conway, Horace Walpole's cousin and corre^
spondent, ' married Catherine Campbell, Dowager Countess of Ayles-
bury, daughter of John, Duke of Argyle, by his wife, Mary Bellenden
the beauty, and was the father by Lady Aylesbury of an only child,
Mrs. Darner the sculptor, to whom Walpole left Strawberry Hill.'
Walpole's Letters, i. 38, n. i.
Note 4. Inverary, the Duke of Argyle's castle, where Johnson
and Boswell dined two years later. Boswell's Johnson, v. 355.
Note 5. It was published in eight volumes.
Note 6. As the quarto edition had been in eight volumes, four of
its volumes would form five of the proposed edition.
Note 7. Strahan was not, for the sake of uniformity in size, to give
part of a chapter in one volume, and part in another ; and he was not
to forget that in the last volume room must be left for the Index.
Hume, like an honest man, made sometimes, if not always, his own
Index. On Sept. 3, 1757, he wrote : — ' I have finished the Index to
the new collection of my pieces ; this Index cost me more trouble
than I was aware of when I began it.' Burton's Hiiuic, ii. 36. See
ante, p. 17, n. 1.
Note 8. The quarto sheet was the copy corrected by Hume, from
which the new edition was to be printed. It sometimes happened
that it contained a foot-note which in the new edition was to be
printed among the notes at the end of each volume. In that case
Hume, after correcting his proof-sheet, would return also the quarto
sheet.
Note 9. See ante, p. 182.
Note 10. See ante, p. 202, n. i.
Note II. See post. Letter of March 15, 1773. Johnson for ' a very
few corrections in the Lives of the Poets was presented with a hundred
guineas ' (Boswell's Johnson, iv. 35, n. 3) ; but this must be looked
upon as a kind of ' conscience money ' on the part of the booksellers,
who had made a great sum by their bargain with him.
Note 12. Dr. Beattie says that ' Mr. Strahan was eminently
skilled in composition and the English language, excelled in the
2l6 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
epistolary style, had corrected (as he told me himself) the phrase-
ology of both Mr. Hume and Dr. Robertson.' Forbes's Life of
Beattie, ed. 1824, p. 341.
Note 13. It was not published till 1773.
Note 14. See post, second Letter of June 3, 1772.
LETTER L.
The Principles of Penal Law: Landholders
versus Stockholders.
Dear S'«
I have now the Prospect of being settled, so as to be
able to attend the Correction of the Proof Sheets. If you
can, therefore, contrive to send me one which will arrive
on Saturday Sennight the 31 of August, you shall have it
returnd by Course of Post ; and I shall never after fail to
return one every post, which will be five times a week. I
am obhg'd to you for humouring me in this particular.
I have receiv'd a Present of a new Book, from the
Author, The Principles of penal Law ^. The Direction of it
seems to be writ in your hand; and Cad el is one of the
Publishers. If the Author does not propose to keep
his Name a Secret, I shoud be glad to know it : For the
Book is very ingenious and judicious. In all cases, if you
know the Author, make him my Compliments and give
him my Thanks. I did not imagine, however, that so
ingenious a Man woud in this age have had so much weak
Superstition, as appears in many passages^. But these
perhaps were inserted only from Decency and Prudence :
And so the World goes on, in perpetually deceiving them-
selves and one another ^
I am always oblig'd to you for your poUtical Speculations :
But I cannot agree with you, that, if matters came to a
fair and open Strugle between the Land-holders and the
Stock-holders, the latter woud be able to reduce the former
L.] HYPOCRISY A DUTY. 317
to any Composition *. The Authority of the Land-holders
is soHdly estabHshd over their Tenants and Neighbours :
But what Stock-holder has any Influence even over his
next Neighbour in his own Street ? And if public Credit
fall, as it must by the least Touch ', he woud be reduc'd to
instant Poverty, and have authority no-where. My only
apprehensions are, with regard to the public, that this open
Struggle will never happen, and that these two Orders
of Men are so involvd with each other by Connexions
and Interest, that the public Force will be allowd to go to
total Decay, before the violent Remedy, which is the only
one, will be ventur'd on^. But this Event will depend
much on Accidents of Men and times ; and the Decision
will not probably be very distant : The first War will put
the Matter to a tryal, I fancy about the third or fourth Year
of it, if we exert ourselves with our usual Frenzy'. You
may judge, from our late Treatment of the House of
Bourbon, whether we can regard the present Peace as
very durable.
I am Dear S'' Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Edinburgh, 19M of Augst., 1771 '
Note I. The author was WilUam Eden, afterwards first Lord
Auckland. '^\<Ai(A€ % Literary Anecdotes, \\\.x\f). A second edition was
pubUshed this same year.
Note 2. Horace Walpole speaks of Eden as ' that superlative jack-
ass ' (Letters, vii. 426), and as ' a most wicked coxcomb,' who ' had not
sense or judgment enough to cloak his folly ' (lb. viii. 204). I have
not done more than glance through the book. The superstitious
passages I failed to discover, but I came on much that would not have
been unworthy of Bentham or Romilly.
Note 3. Hume was not unwilling at times to assist in this universal
deception. In 1764 he was consulted about a young man, whom,
says his correspondent, ' to speak plain language I believe to be a
sort of disciple of your own ; ' but whose hope of advancement lay in
his taking orders in the English Church. Hume wrote back : —
' What ! do you know that Lord Bute is again all-powerful, or rather
that he was always so, but is now acknowledged for such by all the
21 8 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
world ? Let this be a new motive for Mr. V— to adhere to the
ecclesiastical profession, in which he may have so good a patron ; for
civil employments for men of letters can scarcely be found ; all is
occupied by men of business, or by parliamentary interest. It is
putting too great a respect on the vulgar and on their superstitions
to pique one's self on sincerity with regard to them. Did ever one
make it a point of honour to speak truth to children or madmen ? If
the thing were worthy being treated gravely, I should tell him that
the Pythian oracle, with the approbation of Xenophon, advised every
one to worship the gods — co/ko) TroXeus'. I wish it were still in my
power to be a hypocrite in this particular. The common duties of
society usually require it ; and the ecclesiastical profession only adds
a little more to an innocent dissimulation or rather simulation, with-
out which it is impossible to pass through the world. Am I a liar,
because I order my servant to say, I am not at home, when I do not
desire to see company ? ' Burton's Hume, ii. 185-7.
Johnson recognises ' the universal conspiracy of mankind against
themselves ; ' but though he may have yielded at times to the tempta-
tion of deceiving himself, he would never deceive others. As regards
children and servants he was wide as the poles asunder from Hume.
' Accustom your children,' said he, ' constantly to a strict attention to
truth, even in the most minute particulars. If a thing happened at
one window, and they, when relating it, say that it happened at
another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them ; you do not
know where deviation from truth will end.' Boswell's Johnson, iii.
228. ' He would not allow his servant to say he was not at home
when he really was. " A servant's strict regard for truth (said he)
must be weakened by such a practice. A philosopher may know
that it is merely a form of denial ; but few servants are such nice
distinguishers. If I accustom a servant to tell a lie for me, have I not
reason to apprehend that he will tell many lies for himself} " ' lb. i.
436. See post, Letter of March 24, 1773.
Note 4. Strahan, in his letter of July 23, had said : — ' But suppos-
ing what you seem to apprehend to be unavoidable, if matters come
to a public bankruptcy, it will not so materially effect the general
prosperity of the nation as you and many others imagine. . . . But
not to enter further into the consequences of an event, of which
history affords no precedent, I think I may venture to say that the
Stockholders will not tamely submit to be the only sufferers. The
Debt is in fact a Debt upon the lands of Great Britain, these are the
real Security, supported by the faith of the Legislature. It is impos-
sible to conceive that the public creditors would suffer the land-
holders to enjoy their full property, and undiminished by taxes too,
whilst they were robbed of their all.' M. S. R. S. E.
Hume, in a note on his Essay Of Public Credit, published nineteen
years earlier, had said : — ' I have heard it has been computed that all
' Memorabilia, i. 3. I.
L.] LANDHOLDERS VERSUS STOCKHOLDERS. 319
the creditors of the public, natives and foreigners, amount only to
17,000. These make a figure at present on their income ; but in case
of a public bankruptcy would in an instant become the lowest, as well
as the most wretched of the people. The dignity and authority of the
landed gentry and nobility is much better rooted ; and would render
the contention very unequal, if ever we come to that extremity. One
would incline to assign to this event a very near period, such as half
a century, had not our fathers' prophecies of this kind been already
found fallacious, by the duration of our public credit so much beyond
all reasonable expectation. When the astrologers in France were
every year foretelling the death of Henry IV, These fellows, says he,
must be right at last. We shall therefore be more cautious than to
assign any precise date ; and shall content ourselves with pointing
out the event in general.' Hume's Phil. Works, ed. 1854, iii. 398. It
was between the land-holders and the stock-holders that the struggle
would lie, if it ever took place, because the land tax was at this time
the chief war tax. It had been raised from three shillings to four
shillings in the pound only eight months before on the threat of a
war with Spain. Pari. Hist. xvi. 1330. Lord Macaulay, in describ-
ing the origin of the land-tax, says : — ' The rate was, in time of war,
four shillings in the pound. In time of peace, before the reign of
George the Third, only two or three shillings were usually granted ;
and during a short part of the prudent and gentle administration of
Walpole, the Government asked for only one shilling. But, after the
disastrous year in which England drew the sword against her
American Colonies, the rate was never less than four shillings.'
History of England, ed. 1874, vi. 325. A passage in Lord Sheffield's
speech on April 2, 1798, on Pitt's Bill for the Redemption of the
Land Tax shows his fear, that if the struggle of which Hume speaks
were to take place, the land-holders would be the suiTerers. He
says : — 'This was such a favourite tax that, he understood, as soon as
it was sold, there was an intention of laying a new land-tax. Unfor-
tunately for the country, those whose odious task it was to propose
taxes did not always extend their knowledge beyond the bills of
mortality. They were too much in the hands of monied men, who
were so full of expedients relative to the funds, that they could
seldom think of the interior circumstances of the country.' Pari.
Hist, xxxiii. 1374.
Note 5. Lord North, in his speech on the Budget for 1771, said : —
' Trade flourishes in all parts of the kingdom ; the American disputes
are settled ; and there is nothing to interrupt the peace and
prosperity of the nation but the discontents which a desperate
faction is fomenting by the basest falsehoods and with the most
iniquitous views.' Pari. Hist. xvii. 165. In 1772, speaking on the
Budget, he said : — ' At present there is the fairest prospect of the
continuance of peace that I have known in my time. . . . The
hypothesis of a ten years' peace is by no means chimerical. The
220 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
pacific dispositions of the French King, who regulates the motions of
our great rival and antagonist, are well known. What then hinders
us from cherishing this hope ? I know I shall be laughed at for
forming any calculation upon so precarious an event. . . . We see
some, though no very certain prospect of gradually reducing the
national debt.' lb. p. 489.
Note 6. Hume, at the end of chap. xxi. of his History, says :— ' The
first instance of debt contracted upon parliamentary security occurs in
this reign [Henry the Sixth's]. The commencement of this perni-
cious practice deserves to be noted ; a practice the more likely to
become pernicious, the more a nation advances in opulence and
credit. The ruinous effects of it are now become but too apparent,
and threaten the very existence of the nation.' Perhaps Johnson
had heard this sentence quoted when, 'speaking of the National
Debt,' he said to Dr. Maxwell, ' it was an idle dream to suppose that
the country could sink under it. Let the public creditors be ever so
clamorous, the interest of millions must ever prevail over that of
thousands.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 127. (See ante, p. 68.)
Adam Smith speaks of 'the enormous debts which at present
oppress, and will in the long run probably ruin all the great nations
of Europe.' ' The practice of funding,' he continues, ' has gradually
enfeebled every nation which has adopted it.' After describing its
effects on different nations he asks : — ' Is it likely that in Great
Britain alone a practice which has brought either weakness or
dissolution into every other country should prove altogether inno-
cent .' ' Further on he adds : — ' When national debts have once been
accumulated to a certain degree, there is scarce, I believe, a single
instance of their having been fairly and completely paid. The libera-
tion of the public revenue, if it has ever been brought about at
all, has always been brought about by a bankruptcy ; sometimes
by an avowed one, but always by a real one, though frequently
by a pretended payment.' Wealth of Nations, ed. 1811, iii. 392, 418,
420.
Note 7. A statement by Johnson in 1783, when the Debt had been
raised by the American War from 129 to 268 millions, shows what a
feehng of security there was even then in the stock-holders. He
says : — ' It is better to have five per cent, out of land than out of
mone}', because it is more secure ; but the readiness of transfer and
promptness of interest make many people rather choose the funds.'
Boswell's Johnson, iv. 164.
Lord North on May i, 1772, speaking of the Stocks, said : — Look
back 25 years, and you will find that it is only since that period that
they sold for less than their original value.' Pari. Hist. xvii. 489.
At the time he was speaking they were at 88. Gent. Mag. 1772, p.
200. The second Pitt, on April 2, 1798, said ' the present price of
three per cents, is about fifty.' Pari. Hist, xxxiii. 1367. They were
that year as low as 47. The year before, in the alarm of the Mutiny
LI.] SIR WALTER SCOTT. 32 [
at the Nore, they had fallen to 48 (Ann. Reg. 1797, ii. 162), when
Hume's forebodings seemed likely to come true.
Note 8. Walter Scott was four days old when Hume wrote this
letter. He was born at a short distance from James's Court, on
August 15, 1771, in a house belonging to his father, at the head of the
College Wynd.
LETTER LI.
Miscarriage of Presentation Copies of the History.
Inverara, 23 Augst., I'j'ji '-
Dear S'"
I own, that I am, at this time, very much out of
humour, and with you. Near two Years ago, I wrote
to Lady Aylesbury ^, that I had orderd a new Edition of
my History and Essays to be sent her : You wrote to me,
that they were sent; but she tells me, that she never
receiv'd them, and was continually in expectation of them.
By what Accident this has happen'd, appears to me totally
unaccountable ; and the more so, as I know, that a Copy
which I desird to be sent to Lord Hertford came safe
to hand. I beseech you to send a Copy immediatly to
Mr. Conway in little Warwick Street Charing Cross, and
to enquire how the former Mistake happend : For I am
certain, that it proceeded not from your Fault, notwith-
standing the ill-humour with which I begun my Letter.
But I desird, at that time, that a Copy shoud also be sent
to Lady Holderness ^ ; and I am also suspicious that this
Copy has miscarryd by the same Accident ; and the more
so, as she never wrote me that she had receivd it, which
she woud naturally have done. If you be not sure, that
this Copy has been deliverd, please to inform me, that
I may enquire ; or rather, send a new Copy, relating the
former Accident, and desiring that this Copy be returnd, in
case the former Copy was deliver'd. I shall be in Town
223 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
at the time which I appointed, and ready to receive the
Proof Sheets.
I am Dear S''' Your most obedient humble Servant
David Hume.
(Written below in another hand)
Detr. f>th, 1769'.
Note I. In Nichols's Literary History, i. 141, the following passage
occurs in a letter by Daniel Wray, dated Oct. 15, 1771 : — ' Have you
heard of the Congress at Inverary ? . . . Though fifty beds were
made, they were so crowded that even David Hume, for all his
great figure as a Philosopher and Historian, or his greater as a
fat man, was obliged by the adamantine peg-maker ^ to make one of
three in a bed.' Hume also visited Inverary in September, 1775.
Burton's Hume, ii. 475.
Note 2. See ante, p. 215, n. 3.
Note 3. The Earl of Holdernesse had been a Secretary of State
from 1751 to 1761. Hume wrote from Paris on April 26, 1764 : —
' It is almost out of the memory of man that any British has been
here on a footing of familiarity with the good company except my
Lord Holdernesse, who had a good stock of acquaintance to begin
with, speaks the language like a native, has very insinuating
manners, was presented under the character of an old Secretary
of State, and spent, as is said, ^10,000 this winter to obtain that object
of vanity. Him, indeed, I met everywhere in the best company.'
Burton's Hume, ii. 194. Horace Walpole had written four months
earlier to the Earl of Hertford, the English Ambassador at Paris : —
' I have not mentioned Lady Holdernesse's presentation, though I by
no means approve it, nor a Dutch woman's lowering the peerage of
England. Nothing of that sort could make me more angry, except
a commoner's wife taking such a step ; for you know I have all
the pride of
—A citizen of Rome, while Rome survives^.'
Letters, iv. 152. The Earl had married ' in Holland a niece of Mr.
Van Haaren, with ^50,000.' Gent. Mag. 1743, p. 612. Walpole wrote
to George Montagu from Paris on Sept. 7, 1769 : — ' I could certainly
buy many things for you here that you would like, the reliques
of the last age's magnificence ; but since my Lady Holdernesse
invaded the Custom House with an hundred and fourteen gowns,
in the reign of that two-penny monarch George Grenville, the ports
' ' Si figit adamantinos
Sumtuis verticibus dira Necessitas
Clavos.' Horace, 3 Odes, xxiv. 5.
' ' A senator of Rome, while Rome survived.' Addison's Caio, Act v. sc. 4.
LII.] DR. WILLIAM HUNTER. 223
are so guarded, that not a soul but a smuggler can smuggle anything
into England ; and I suppose you would not care to pay seventy-five
per cent, on second-hand commodities.' Letters, v. 184.
Note 4. This entry, which is, I believe, in Strahan's hand, pro-
bably gives the date on which the copy of the History had been sent
to Lady Holdernesse.
LETTER LII.
The new Edition of the History.
Dear S'"
I write you in a great hurry ; and can only tell you,
that I like the Paper and Type very much, only I think
that this Size of T3^e woud have suited better a Duodecimo
than a large Octavo : However it will do very well.
I see the Cause of the Mistake with regard to Lady
Aylesbury's Copy. Some body by Mistake has substituted
Dr. Hunter^ in her place : But I never thought of making
the Doctor a present, tho I have a great regard for him.
Let Lady Aylesbury's Copy therefore be sent to her at
Little Warwick Street Charing Cross.
I return the Sheet corrected ; and am very sorry, that
you cannot promise me to be regular: I dedicate my
time entirely to it, and coud wish to have a Sheet regularly
every post.
I find that any other Frank except Mr. Erasers^ will not
suffice, both for the Proof Sheet and the Sheet of the
Quarto ; especially, if you return the corrected Sheet ^,
which I wish, though it be not absolutely necessary.
I am Dear S''' Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Edr., 4 of Septr., 1771.
Note I. No doubt Dr. William Hunter, Professor of Anatomy in
the Royal Academy, the eldest brother of John Hunter, the surgeon.
Dr. A. Carlyle in his Auto., p. 345, describes seeing him in 1758 at
a Club of Scotch physicians which met at the British Coffee house.
224 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
' Hunter was gay and lively to the last degree, and often came in to
us at nine o'clock fatigued and jaded. He had had no dinner, but
supped on a couple of eggs, and drank his glass of claret ; for though
we were a punch club, we allowed him a bottle of what he liked best.
He repaid us with the brilliancy of his conversation. His toast was,
" May no English nobleman venture out of the world without a
Scottish physician, as I am sure there are none who venture in."
[Horace Walpole, Letters, iii. 229, speaks of him as 'the man-
midwife.'] ... By his attendance on Lady Esther [Hester] Pitt he
had frequent opportunities of seeing the great orator when he was
ill of the gout, and thought so ill of his constitution that he said more
than once to us, with deep regret, that he did not think the great
man's life worth two years' purchase ; and yet Mr. Pitt lived for
twenty years.' See post, Letter of June 12, 1776, for John Hunter.
Note 2. See ante, p. 188, n. 11.
Note 3. Hume wished to receive by each post a quarto sheet of
the old edition from which the new edition was printed, a fresh
proof sheet, and also an old proof sheet after the compositors had
attended to his last corrections. The weight of the packet would be
such that only Mr. Eraser's frank would pass it free through the
post.
LETTER LIII.
The Revision of the History a great Amusement.
Edr., 18 of Seftr., 1771.
Dear S'"
I thank you for your Corrections, which are very
judicious ; and you see that I follow them for the greatest
part. I shall be obhgd to you for continuing them as far
as your Leizure will permit. For tho' I know, that a man
might spend his whole Life in correcting one small Volume \
and yet have inaccuracies in it, I think however that the
fewer the better, and it is a great Amusement to me to
pick them out gradually in every Edition.
I had a Letter lately from a Bookseller in Lausanne, who
tells me, that he intends to publish a Translation of some
of my philosophical Pieces ; and desires to know the best
Edition. If the last in large Octavo be finishd, I shoud
point it out to him ; and shoud likewise be willing to send
LIV.] DR. FRANKLIN. 2Z5
him a Copy of it, if any of our Booksellers have any
Communication with Geneva or Lausanne. I shoud be
glad to learn from you what answer I can make him.
I am Dear S"' Yours sincerely
David Hume.
P.S. — I wish you coud come up to our Agreement of a
Sheet every post ^.
Note I. See ante, p. 200.
Note 2. See ante, p. 183.
LETTER LIV.
Dr. Franklin Hume's Guest.
Dear Strahan
Your remarks are always very judicious and just ;
and I am much obligd to you. You see I have adopted all
of them this sheet. Dr. Franklin left me a few days ago
for the west ; but I expect him again in a few days ^
Yours &c.
D. H.
12 of Novr. [1771].
Note I. Franklin, writing from London on Jan. 13, 1772, says : —
' I have now been some weeks returned from my journey through
Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and the North of England.' Franklin's
Works, ed. 1887, iv. 428. He had visited Edinburgh also in the
autumn of 1759. See ib. iii. 39 ; Thomson's Life of Cullen, i. 139 ; and
ante, p. 30, n. 3.
Hume wrote to Adam Smith on Feb. 13, 1774:— 'Pray, what
strange accounts are these we hear of Franklin's conduct.' I am
very slow in believing that he has been guilty in the extreme degree
that is pretended ; though I always knew him to be a very factious
man, and faction, next to fanaticism, is of all passions the most
destructive of morality. How is it supposed he got possession of
these letters ? I hear that Wedderburne's treatment of him before
the Council was most cruel, without being in the least blameable.
What a pity ! ' Burton's Hume, ii. 471.
Franklin had ' obtained and transmitted to Boston ' some letters
'written,' to use his own words, 'by public officers to persons in
236 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
public stations on public affairs, and intended to procure public
measures.' Ann. Reg. 1773, i. 152. He was accused, altogether
falsely he maintained, of having got possession of these letters by
treachery. He used them to show that the Governor and Lieutenant-
Governor of Massachusetts Bay were enemies to the Colony. The
Assembly petitioned the King for their removal. The petition was
referred to the Privy Council, before which Franklin was ordered to
attend with counsel on Jan. 29. Wedderburne, the Solicitor-General,
attacked him with great severity. He concluded his invective by
saying:— 'Amidst these tranquil events here is a man who, with
the utmost insensibility of remorse, stands up and avows himself the
author of all. I can compare him only to Zanga in Dr. Young's
Revenge : —
" Know, then, 'twas I —
I forged the letter— I dispos'd the picture —
I hated — I despis'd — and I destroy."
I ask, my Lords, whether the revengeful temper attributed to the
bloody African is not surpassed by the coolness and apathy of the
wily American.' Chatham Corresp. iv. 323. Franklin was dismissed
from his office of Deputy Postmaster-General for the Colonies.
Dr. Priestley says that when Franklin appeared before the Privy
Council, ' he was dressed in a suit of Manchester velvet ; and Silas
Dean tbld me, that when they met at Paris to sign the treaty between
France and America, he purposely put on that suit.' Priestley's
Works, XXV. 395.
LETTER LV.
Variety in Folly. Pitt's Gout: Posterity.
Dear S'"
I have writ this Post to Eraser 1, whose Conduct
has very much dissappointed me. But if he delays a
moment, we can easily do without him. You need only
send me the Proof Sheet under any Erank^, Dr. Erank-
hn's^ or Mr. Pulteneys or Mr. Wedderburn's or Lord
Beauchamps or Mr. Conway's * (Who I hope, by the bye,
has receivd the Copy of my History). The other Sheets,
are in a great measure superfluous : Especially as I have
a Copy of the Edition, from which this is taken.
I am glad to find, that the abominable Eaction in England
LV.] JUSTICE DONE BY POSTERITY. 337
is declining^. The People never tire of Folly, but they
tire of the same Folly ^ : And if their Leaders fall into the
Contempt they deserve, it will be very great indeed. I
hope that Pitt will have the Gout this whole Session and I
pray it may be a hearty and sincere one ''.
I do not think, that you will be able to pubhsh this
Season; unless the printing of the four last Volumes
be well advancd. But as I have at last been able to get
one correct Edition of that work, I am more indifferent. I
am sensible, it is an idle Amusement; but still it is an
Amusement to think that Posterity will do me more
Justice than the present Age ', whose Suffrage indeed coud
not have given me great Vanity.
I wish you saw (as I hope you will) my new House and
Situation in S* Andrews Square ' : You woud not wonder
that I have abjurd London for ever.
I am Dear S*' Yours sincerely
David Hume.
2djany., 1772.
P.S. — Lord Lyttleton has been so good as to send me
the two last Volumes of his Henry H ^o. It woud flatter
his Lordship to say that it is truly a Christian Per-
formance ^^.
Note I. See ante, p. 188, n. 11.
Note 2. If only the proof sheet were sent the packet would not
exceed two ounces— the limit of weight for an ordinary frank
{ante, ib.).
Note 3. Franklin, I conjecture, had the right of franking either
as Deputy Postmaster-General for the Colonies, or as Provincial
Agent in England for several of the Colonies.
Note 4. For these names, see ante, p. 200. It is curious to see
Franklin and Wedderburne, who in two years were to be opposed
to each other in so memorable a scene, thus brought together.
Note 5. Burke wrote on July 31, 1771 : — ' As to news, we have
little. After a violent ferment in the nation, as remarkable a
deadness and vapidity has succeeded. The Court perseveres in the
pursuit, and is near to the perfect accomplishment of its project ; but
Q2
228 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
when the work is perfected, it may be nearest to its destruction, for
the principle is wrong, and the materials are rotten.' Burke's Corres.
i. 256. In the Ann. Reg. for 1772, i. 82, describing the autumn,
he says that the general apathy had not yet much pervaded London.
'The citizens said that Government . had set its face particularly
against the City of London, in a manner that had been unknown
since the Revolution. . . . That it had for some time acted, as if they
were in an actual state of warfare with her.'
Horace Walpole wrote on Dec. 15 : — ' We are so much accustomed
to politics, that people do not know how to behave under the present
cessation. We can go into the City without being mobbed, and
through Brentford without " No. 45 " on one's coach-door. Wilkes
is almost as dead as Sacheverell, though SheriflF.' Letters, v. 359.
On Jan. 14, 1772, he wrote : — ' The Parliament meets next week.
There will, I think, be little to do, unless an attempt to set aside the
subscription of the clergy to the Thirty-nine Articles should stir up
a storm. Religious disputes are serious ; and yet can one care about
shades of nonsense ? ' lb. p. 369.
Note 6. See ante, p. 187, n. 4.
Note 7. Lord Chatham, writing eight days after the date of
Hume's letter, mentions ' some sensations which begin to remind
me of a winter account of gout to be balanced after a summer of
more health than I have known these twenty years.' Chatham
Corres. iv. 186. Hume's prayer was only partly granted : Chatham
was this session troubled with gout, but not so severely as in many
other years. lb. pp. 201, 3, 8, 217, 8. . Burke in his Speech on American
Taxation, on April 19, 1774, describing Chatham's second Ministry,
says : — ' If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or if any other cause
withdrew him from pubhc cares, principles directly the contrary
[of his own] were sure to predominate.' Payne's Burke, i. 145. In a
letter dated Sept. 14, 1775, Burke doubts like Hume whether all Lord
Chatham's attacks of gout were sincere. ' Acquainted as I am,' he
writes, 'with the astonishing changes of Lord Chatham's consti-
tution (whether natural or political) I am surprised to find that he is
again perfectly recovered. But so it is. He will probably play
more tricks.' Burke's Corres. ii. 63.
Note 8. Hume wrote to Elliot on May 11, 1758 : — ' Vanitas vani-
tatum, atque omnia vanitas, says the Preacher ; the great object of us
authors, and of you orators and statesmen, is to gain applause ; and
you see at what rate it is to be purchased. I fancy there is a future
state to give poets, historians, philosophers their due reward, and to
distribute to them those recompenses which are so strangely shared
out in this life. It is of little consequence that posterity does them
justice, if they are for ever to be ignorant of it, and are to remain in
perpetual slumber in their literary paradise.' Burton's Hume, ii. 44.
' Posterity,' wrote Johnson, ' is always the author's favourite.' Piozsi
Letters, ii. 14.
LV.] LORD LYTTELTON. 249
Note 9. Hume had not yet moved into his new house. See post,
p. 250, n. 3.
Note 10. The first three volumes of Lyttelton's Henry II appeared
in 1764, and the conclusion in 1771. Lyttelton had begun to print it
in 1755. Johnson's Works, viii. 492. It was said that 'it was kept
back several years for fear of Smollett.' Boswell's Johnson, iii. 33.
Hume, writing on April 20, 1756, says : — ' We hear of Sir George
Lyttelton's History, from which the populace expect a great deal ;
but I hear it is to be three quarto volumes. " O, magnum, horribilem
et sacrum Libellum '." This last epithet of sacrum will probably be
applicable to it in more senses than one. However, it cannot well
fail to be readable, which is a great deal for an English book now-a-
days.' Burton's Hume, i. 433.
Note II. ' Lyttelton had, in the pride of juvenile confidence, with
the help of corrupt conversation, entertained doubts of the truth
of Christianity ; but he thought the time now come when it was
no longer fit to doubt or believe by chance, and applied himself
seriously to the great question. His studies, being honest, ended
in conviction.' Johnson's Works, viii. 490. Horace Walpole, de-
scribing on Oct. 19, 1765 the dulness of Parisian society, says : —
' Good folks, they have no time to laugh. There is God and the
King to be pulled down first ; and men and women, one and all, are
devoutly employed in the demolition. They think me quite profane
for having any belief left. But this is not my only crime ; I have
told them, and am undone by it, that they have taken from us to
admire the two dullest things we had. Whisk (whist) and Richardson.
■ — It is very true, and they want nothing but George Grenville to
make their conversations, or rather dissertations, the most tiresome
upon earth. For Lord Lyttelton, if he would come hither, and turn
free-thinker once more, he would be reckoned the most agreeable
man in France— next to Mr. Hume, who is the only thing in the
world that they believe implicitly ; which they must do, for I
defy them to understand any language that he speaks.' Letters,
iv. 425.
Hume wrote to Adam Smith on July 14, 1767 : — ' Have you read
Lord Lyttleton ? Do you not admire his Whiggery and his Piety ;
Qualities so useful both for this World and the next ? ' M. S. R. S. E.
Hume could hardly have meant that Whiggery was good for the
next world ; for Johnson ' always said that the first Whig was the
devil ' ; and Boswell, after mentioning the altercation that passed
between that stout old Whig, his father, and the Tory Johnson,
continues : — ' I must observe, in justice to my friend's political
principles, and my own, that they have met in a place where there is
no room for Whiggism.' Boswell's Johnson, iii. 326, v. 385.
' Dii magni, horribilem et sacrum libellum.' Catullus, xiv. 12.
' Gods ! an horrible and deadly volume 1 ' Ellis,
230 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Lettir
LETTER LVI.
Humes Suppressed Essays.
Dear S"'
I have called on Dr. Millar and he on me ; but have
never met with him, because tho' this place be not large ^,
I live in a manner out of Town, and am very seldom in it ^.
My Sister^ also has been dangerously ill of late, which
has kept me more out of Company. But I am told by a
Friend, that Dr. Millar said to him, there was a Bookseller
in London, who had advertisd a new Book, containing,
among other things, two of my suppress'd Essays. These
I suppose are two Essays of mine, one on Suicide another
on the Immortality of the Soul, which were printed by
Andrew Millar about seventeen Years ago, and which from
my abundant Prudence I suppress'd and woud not now
wish to have revivd. I know not if you were acquainted
with this Transaction. It was this : I intended to print
four Dissertations, the natural History of- Religion, on the
Passions, on Tragedy, and on the metaphisical Principles
of Geometry. I sent them up to Mr. Millar; but before
the last was printed, I happend to meet with Lord Stan-
hope *, who was in this Country, and he convincd me, that
either there was some Defect in the Argument or in
its perspicuity ; I forget which ; and I wrote to Mr. Millar,
that I woud not print that Essay ^ ; but upon his remon-
strating that the other Essays woud not make a Volume, I
sent him up these two, which I had never intended to
have publishd. They were printed ; but it was no sooner
done than I repented; and Mr. Millar and I agreed to
suppress them at common Charges, and I wrote a new
Essay on the Standard of Taste, to supply their place.
Mr. Millar assurd me very earnestly that all the Copies
were suppress'd, except one which he sent to Sir Andrew
Mitchel ^, in whose Custody I thought it safe. But I have
LVI] A RASCALLY BOOKSELLER. 231
since found that there either was some Infidelity or
Negligence in the case; For on Mr. Morehead's Death',
there was found a Copy, which his Nephew deliverd up
to me. But there have other Copies got abroad ; and from
one of these, some rascally Bookseller is, it seems, printing
this Edition *. I am not extremely alarmd at this Event,
but if threatening him woud prevent it, I woud willingly
employ that means. I am afraid all will be in vain ; but if
you know him, be as good as try what can be done ; and
also learn from what hand he had the Copy. I believe an
Injunction in Chancery might be got against him; but
then I must acknowledge myself the Author and this
Expedient woud make a Noise and render the Affair more
pubHc. In a post or two, I may perhaps get you more
particular Intelligence of the Booksellers Name.
I am extremely obligd to you for the Pains you take
about correcting my Sheets; and you see that I almost
always profit by it.
Yours sincerely
David Hume.
/any. 25, 1772.
Note I. Robert Chambers, in his Tradition's of Edinburgh, ed. 1825,
i. 21, speaking of this time says, on the authority of ' an ancient native
of Edinburgh, that people all knew each other by sight. The appear-
ance of a new face upon the streets was at once remarked, and
numbers busied themselves in finding out who and what the stranger
was.'
Note 2. He had not yet moved into his new house, which was out-
side the town. See post, p. 250, n. 3. Perhaps he spent most of his
time there looking after the workmen. On Oct 2, 1770, he had written
that he could not leave Edinburgh, as he was building a house. ' By
being present, I have already prevented two capital mistakes which
the mason was falling into ; and I shall be apprehensive of his falling
into more, were I to be at a distance.' Burton's Hume, ii. 436.
Note 3. Hume writing to a friend in 1753 says : — ' About seven
months ago I got a house of my own, and completed a regular family ;
consisting of a head, viz. myself, and two inferior members, a maid
and a cat. My sister has since joined me, and keeps me company.
With frugality I can reach, I find, cleanliness, warmth, light, plenty.
23a LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
and contentment. What would you have more ? Independence ? I
have it in a supreme degree. Honour ? that is not altogether want-
ing. Grace ? that will come in time. A wife ? that is none of the
indispensable requisites of life. Books ? that is one of them ; and I
have more than I can use.' Burton's Hume, i. 377.
Note 4. Philip, second Earl Stanhope. ' He had great talents, but
fitter for speculation than for practical objects of action. He made
himself one of the best— Lalande used to say the best— mathe-
maticians in England of his day, and was likewise deeply skilled in
other branches of science and philosophy. The Greek language was
as familiar to him as the English ; he was said to know every line of
Homer by heart. In public life, on the contrary, he was shy, un-
gainly, and embarrassed. So plain was he in his dress and deport-
ment, that on going down to the House of Lords to take his seat,
after a long absence on the Continent, the door-keeper could not
believe he was a peer, and pushed him aside, saying, " Honest man,
you have no business in this place." " I am sorry, indeed," replied
the Earl, " if honest men have no business here." ' Mahon's History
of England, ed. 1838, iii. 242. Horace Walpole wrote on March 4,
1745 :— ' Earl Stanhope has at last lifted up his eyes from Euclid, and
directed them to matrimony.' Letters, i. 344.
Note 5. This Essay must have been destroyed by Hume.
Note 6. See ante, p. 181, n. 25. Hume wrote to Millar on May 27,
1756 : — ' I have no objection to Mr. Mitchels having a copy of the
Dissertations' M. S. R. S. E.
Note 7. The death of William Morehead, Esq., in Cavendish
Square, on June 12, 1766, is recorded in the Gent. Mag. for that year,
p. 295. He may have been the man mentioned by Hume.
Note 8. Hume wrote to Millar on June 12, 1755 : — ' There are
four short Dissertations which I have kept some years by me, in
order to polish them as much as possible. One of them is that
which Allan Ramsaj' mentioned to you. \The Natural History of
Religion.] Another, of the Passions ; a third, of Tragedy ; a fourth,
Some Considerations previous to Geometry and Natural Philosophy.'
Burton's Hume, i. 421. ' In 1783,' says Dr. Burton, Lb. ii. 13, ' a work
was published in London called Essays on Suicide and the Ltnmortality
of the Soul, ascribed to the late David Hurne, Esq., never before published ;
with remarks intended as an antidote to the poison contained in these
performances, by the Editor. The editor and his antidote are now both
forgotten ; but the style of Hume and his method of thinking were at
once recognised in these Essays, and they have been incorporated
with the general edition of his works. . . . That Hume wrote these
Essays, and intended to publish them, is thus an incident in his life
which ought not to be passed over ; but it is also part of his history
that he repented of the act at the last available moment, and sup-
pressed the publication.' Dr. Burton says that ' many copies of the
first edition bear marks of having been mutilated. In a copy which
LVII.] WILKES AND THE SUPPRESSED ESSAYS. 233
I possess,' he adds, '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.' (For signature see ante, p. 152, n. 6.) On April 23,
1764, Hume wrote to Millar from Paris : — ' I never see Mr. Wilkes
here but at chapel, where he is a most regular, and devout, and
edifying, and pious attendant ; I take him to be entirely regenerate.
He told me last Sunday, that you had given him a copy of my Disser-
tations, with the two which I had suppressed ; and that he, foreseeing
danger from the sale of his library, had wrote to you to find out that
copy, and to tear out the two obnoxious dissertations. Pray how
stands that fact ? It was imprudent in you to intrust him with that
copy : it was very prudent in him to use that precaution. Yet I do
not naturally suspect you of imprudence, nor him of prudence. I
must hear a little farther before I pronounce.' Millar wrote back on
June 5 : — ' I take Mr. Wilkes to be the same man he was, — acting a
part. He has forgot the story of the two Dissertations. The fact is,
upon importunity, I lent to him the only copy I preserved, and for
years never could recollect he had it, till his books came to be sold ;
upon this I went immediately to the gentleman that directed the sale,
told him the fact, and reclaimed the two Dissertations which were
my property. Mr. Coates, who was the person, immediately
delivered pie the volume ; and so soon as I got home, I tore them
out and burnt them, that I might not lend them to any for the future.
Two days after, Mr. Coates sent me a note for the volume, as Mr.
Wilkes had desired it should be sent him to Paris ; I returned the
volume, but told him the two Dissertations I had torn out of the
volume and burnt, being my property. This is the truth of the
matter, and nothing but the truth. It was certainly imprudent for me
to lend them to him.' Burton's Hume, ii. 202. Wilkes wrote to Earl
Temple that Cotes had sold his books in 1764 for ^427. Grenville
Papers, iv. 16. Cotes, who was his agent, seems to have robbed him.
lb. p. 3, note.
LETTER LVII.
The Suppressed Essays : A Note to be added to the History.
•j of Fely., 1772.
Dear S'"
I suppress'd these Essays, not because they coud
give any Offence, but because, I thought, they coud
neither give Pleasure nor Instruction : They were indeed
bad Imitations of theagreeable Triffling q/" Addison \ But
234 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
if any one think otherwise, and chuse to preserve them, I
have no Objection.
Pray, recollect : Did not I send you up a Passage to be
inserted in the Reign of Henry VIII, and which I desird
you to pin upon the Leaf of the Volume? It ought
to have been printed in the last Sheet, and is now too
late : But it may be added as a Note. Or is the whole an
Illusion of mine, founded on my intending to send it you.
The Passage contains a short Extract from an Act of
Parliament, concerning the Marriage of the King with
Jane Seymour, whom the Parliament recommends to him
as a Piece of pure Flesh and Blood, very proper to bring
him Heirs ^ If you have not this Passage, I shall send
you another Copy of it.
Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Note I. It is a curious description of Essays on Suicide and on the
Immortality of the Soul to call them imitations of the agreeable trifling
of Addison.
Note 2. The note was added on p. 459 of vol. iv. of this edition.
In the edition of 1778 it is given as a footnote on p. 163 of the same
volume. It is as follows : — ' The parliament, in annulling the King's
marriage with Anne Boleyn, gives this as a reason, " For that his
highness had chosen to wife the excellent and virtuous lady Jane,
who for her convenient years, excellent beauty, and pureness of flesh
and blood, would be apt, God willing, to conceive issue by his high-
ness." ' Hume does not give his reference. Much the same was said
by Lord Chancellor Audley in his speech on June 8, 1537. Part.
Hist. i. 529.
LETTER LVIII.
A Missing Sheet of the History.
Dear S'"
The Sheet you mention I deliverd with my own
Hands on Friday the 31 of Jan^ to John Balfour \ who
promis'd to send it with his own Letters to the Post house.
LIX.] STRAHAN'S ASSISTANCE TO HUME. 335
It is by his unpardonable Negligence it is lost. I shall
rate him about it ; but if you do not receive it this post or
the next, you will be so good as send me another copy
which I shall not entrust to him in returning it.
I am Dear S'' Yours most faithfully
D. H.
Feby. 11, 1772.
P.S.— I am very well pleas'd that the Sheet is found ;
and also, that I did not know it, till I had writ a very
scolding Letter to John Balfour for his losing it.
Note 1. John Balfour was an Edinburgh bookseller {ante, p. 2,
n. 2). On July 10, 1780, he wrote to Strahan : — ' Bookselling is at
so low a pass that I have sometimes had thoughts of giving it up ; it
is a laborious business, at present without any profit, and it is only
the hope of its amending that makes me continue.' Barker MSS.
LETTER LIX.
Learned Printers: Princess Dowager: George III and
the East India Company.
'Edinburgh, 22 of Feby., 1772.
Dear S'"
As we are drawing near a Conclusion^, I cannot
forbear giving you many and hearty thanks, both for your
submitting to so troublesome a Method of printing and
for the many useful Corrections you have sent me. I
suppose, since the days of Aldus ^, Reuchlin^, and Stevens *
there have been no Printers who could have been useful
to their Authors in this particular. I shall scarcely ever
think of correcting any more ; tho' I own that the receiving
of the Sheets regularly by the post has been an Amuse-
ment and Occupation to me, which I shall have a Difficulty
to supply. I fancy I must take to some kind of Com-
position in its place.
Pray, have you gone any length in printing the other
Volumes, or are you now to begin. In this case, you can
236 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
scarcely publish this Season. But as you have probably
a very large fount ^ of this Type, I hope you are pretty
well advancd. I need not put you in mind of sending me
a dozen Copies of the History, and half a dozen of the
philosophical Pieces.
Your Encomium on the Princess Dowager^ is elegantly
written, and contains a very proper and spirited Repre-
hension of the scurrillous and scoundrel Patriots who had
so long abus'd her ''. I wonder what they will now do for a
Pretence to their Sedition.
I have lately heard a Story, extremely to the King's
Advantage ; which I shoud be glad to find confirmd. I am
told, that this parliamentary Enquiry into the Proceedings
of the East India Company did not originally proceed from
the Ministry, but from the King himself, who was shockd
with the Accounts he receivd of the Oppressions exercisd
over the poor Natives, and demanded a Remedy *. I wish
it may be possible to provide any, that will be durable. I
trust much in the Integrity of Andrew Stuart^ (who, they
say, will certainly be one of the Supervisors^") for the
carrying of such a Plan into Execution.
I hear also that there is an Intention of appointing
Professor Ferguson'^ Secretary to the Commission.
Surely there is not a man of greater Worth in the World ^^.
If you have a Vote or Interest, I beseech you, employ it all
in his favour, as well for his Advantage as for that of
Humanity.
I am Dear S'' Faithfully Yours
David Hume.
Note I. Hume is speaking of only the first four volumes of the
reprint of his History. See ante, p. 183.
Note 2. ' The politest nations of Europe have endeavoured to vie
with one another for the reputation of the finest printing If we look
into the Commonwealths of Holland and Venice, we shall find that in
this particular they have made themselves the envy of the greatest
monarchies. Elzevir and Aldus are more frequently mentioned than
LIX.] DEATH OF THE PRINCESS DOWAGER. 237
any pensioner of the one or doge of the other.' Addison, The
Spectator, No. 367.
Note 3. ' Si on demande quel fut dans notre Europe le premier
auteur de ce style bouffon et hardi, dans lequel ont ecrit Sterne,
Swift et Rabelais, il parait certain que les premiers qui s'etaient
signales dans cette dangereuse carriere avaient ete deux Allemands
nes au quinzieme siecle, Reuchlin et Hutten. lis publierent les
fameuses Lettres des gens obscurs, longtemps avant que Rabelais
dediat son Pantagruel et son Gargantua au cardinal Odet de Chatil-
lon.' Qi^uvres de Voltaire, ed. 1819-25, xlii. 431. I have failed to
discover anything that shows that Reuchlin was a printer.
Note 4. ' Eodem anno [mdlix] vivis exemptus est Robertus Ste-
phanus Parisiensis typographus regius . . . cui non solum Gallia sed
universus Christianus orbis plus debet, quam cuiquam fortissimorum
belli ducum ob propagatos fineis patria unquam debuit ; majusque ex
ejus unius industria quam ex tot praeclare bello et pace gestis, ad
Franciscum decus et nunquam interitura gloria redundavit.' Thu-
anus, ed. 1620, i. 708. Robert Stephens, or Stephanus, was born at
Paris in 1503, died at Geneva in 1559. 'Thuanus asserts that the
Christian world was more indebted to him than to all the great
conquerors it had produced, and that he contributed more to im-
mortalize the reign of Francis I than all the renowned actions of
that prince.' Chalmers, Biog. Diet, xxviii. 371.
Note 5. A fount or font of type is ' a complete assortment of types of
one sort, with all that is necessary for printing in that kind of letter.'
Chambers's Ety. Diet. It is not defined in Johnson's Dictionary.
Strahan had cast a fresh fount for this edition (ante, p. 187, n. 6).
Note 6. She died on Feb. 8. Her name is given in the Index of
Names in the Gentleman's Magazine for that year as ' Wales Princess.'
Horace Walpole wrote of her on Feb. 12 : — ' Nothing ever equalled
her resolution. She took the air till within four or five days of her
death, and never indicated having the least idea of her danger, even
to the Princess of Brunswick, though she had sent for her. Although
she had convulsions the day before she expired, she rose and dressed
to receive the King and Queen, and kept them four hours in indif-
ferent conversation, though almost inarticulate herself; said nothing
on her situation, took no leave of them, and expired at six in the
morning without a groan. She could not be unapprised of her
approaching fate, for she had existed upon cordials alone for ten days.'
Letters, v. 374. Of Strahan's encomium, which was in the London
Chronicle for Feb. 11, I will give a few extracts : — 'She is now in a
state far superior to mortal praise or blame, where the lying and
malignant voice of faction cannot reach her; and it will now be
discovered and believed that never was a more amiable, a more
innocent, or a more benevolent Princess. That she interfered in the
politics of this country and influenced the King in affairs of state, we
will venture to say was utterly void of foundation. . . . Though she
238 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
constantly read all the public papers, the unmerited abuse with
which they frequently abounded never excited in her the least
emotion of anger or resentment. . . . She was for many years the
very idol of the people of England.'
Note 7. See ante, p. 210, n. 26, for Alderman Townsend's attack
on her in the House of Commons on March 25, 1771. Horace Wal-
pold wrote on March 15, 1770 : — ' As a prelude to what was to follow,
rather as the word of battle. Lord Chatham some days ago declared
to the Lords, that there is a secret influence (meaning the Princess)
more mighty than Majesty itself, and which had betrayed or clogged
every succeeding Administration. His own had been sacrificed by
it. In consequence of this denunciation, papers to which the North
Britons were milk and honey have been published in terms too
gross to repeat. The Whisperer and The Parliamentary Spy are their
titles. Every blank wall at this end of the town is scribbled with the
words. Impeach the King's Mother ; and in truth I think her person in
danger.' Letters, v. 229.
Note 8. Horace Walpole wrote to Mann on Feb. 12, 1772 : — ' The
East Indies are going to be another spot of contention. Such a scene
of tyranny and plunder has been opened as makes one shudder !
The heaven-born hero^. Lord Clive, seems to be Plutus, the daemon
who does not give, but engrosses riches. There is a letter from one
of his associates to their Great Mogul, in which our Christian ex-
presses himself with singular tenderness for the interests of the
Mahometan religion ! We are Spaniards in our lust for gold, and
Dutch in our delicacy of obtaining it.' Letters, v. 375. On March 5 he
wrote : — ' We have another scene coming to light, of black dye indeed.
The groans of India have mounted to heaven, where the heaven-born
General Lord Clive will certainly be disavowed. Oh ! my dear sir,
we have outdone the Spaniards in Peru ! They were at least
butchers on a religious principle, however diabolical their zeal. We
have murdered, deposed, plundered, usurped — nay, what think you of
the famine in Bengal, in which three millions perished, being caused
by a monopoly of the provisions by the servants of the East India
Company ? All this is come out, is coming out — unless the gold that
inspired these horrors can quash them.' lb. p. 378. On March 27 he
added : — ' The House of Commons is going to tap the aifairs of India,
an endless labyrinth ! We shall lose the East before we know half its
history. It was easier to conquer it than to know what to do with it.
If you or the Pope can tell, pray give us your opinion.' lb. p. 379.
The Select Committee of Enquiry into the East India Company
was not appointed till April 13, 1772. Ann. Reg. 1772, i. 103. The
King in his speech of Jan. 21, on opening Parliament, had said : — ' The
concerns of this country are so various and extensive as to require
' According to Horace Walpole {Memoirs of the Reign of George II, ed. 1822,
ii. 276), Pitt, in a debate on the army estimates on Dec. 14, 1757, had described
Clive as ' that man, not born for a desk — that heaven-bom general.'
LIX.] MAL- ADMINISTRATION IN INDIA. 239
the most vigilant and active attention, and some of them, as well
from remoteness of place as from other circumstances, are so
peculiarly liable to abuses and exposed to danger that the inter-
position of the legislature for their protection may become necessary.'
Pari. Hist. xvii. 233. In the Correspondence of George III with Lord
North (i. 81) is given the following letter : — ' Queen's House, Jan. 6,
1772, 15 min. pt. 5 p.m. Lord North, — The sketch of the Speech meet
with my approbation. When the sentences are a little more rounded
... I doubt not but it will make a very good one.' On this the editor
remarks : — ' The sentences are rounded, and almost without meaning.'
That so far from being without meaning, one of them was full of the
weightiest meaning, implying at it did a parliamentary enquiry of the
highest importance, is shown not only by Hume's mention of this
enquiry seven weeks before it was appointed, but also by the
Annual Register, 1772, i. loi, and 1773, i. 67. In the latter Burke
says : — ' The mal-administration in India, with all its consequences,
were \sic\ suffered to pass without notice or observation ; and we
have already seen in the transactions of the year 1772 that, though
the affairs of the Company were evidently alluded to at the opening
of the session in the speech from the throne, they were nevertheless
suffered to lie over till near its close, when a bill was brought in by
the deputy-chairman for enlarging the controlling powers of the
Company with respect to their servants in India. The bill came to
nothing in that session. But a member, though in the King^s service,
not connected with Ministry, whether with or without their consent, at
length awakened their attention to this object. This gave birth to the Select
Committee, which was armed with full powers for all the purposes of
enquiry.' The passage which I have printed in italics is some
evidence of the truth of the report which had reached Hume.
Note 9. Andrew Stuart was the author of Letters to the Right Hon.
Lord Mansfield. In them he attacked that Judge for his conduct in
the famous Douglas cause, when it came, on appeal, before the
House of Lords. That this work, which was never on sale, had been
written for publication is shown by the followmg passage in Strahan's
letter to Hume of Jan. 25, 1773 : — ' The Letters have been in Lord
Mansfield's hands this fortnight, but I have not yet heard how he is
affected by them. This will appear in due time. They are not yet
made public, only distributed among his friends, but will be pub-
lished in a few days.' M. S. R. S. E. Johnson speaking about them
to Boswell on April 27, 1773, said : — ' They have not answered the
end. They have not been talked of ; I have never heard of them.
This is owing to- their not being sold. People seldom read a book
which is given to them.' Boswell's Life of Johnson, ii. 229. Horace
Walpole had written about it on Jan. 25 : — ' There is a book you will
see that makes and intends to make noise enough. . . . Indeed it is
admirable, and it must be confessed that a Scot dissects a Scot with
ten times more address than Churchill and Junius. They know
240 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
each other's sore places better than we do.' Letters, v. 430. On
May 37 he wrote :— ' The book will be a great curiosity, for after all
the author's heroism, fear or nationality have preponderated, and it
will not be published.' lb. p. 466.
Hume, who was as strong against the successful litigant as Boswell
was for him, of course sided with Andrew Stuart. ' I was struck,'
he wrote on March 28, 1769, ' with a very sensible indignation at the
decision of the Douglas cause, though I foresaw it for some time. It
was abominable with regard to poor Andrew Stuart, who had con-
ducted that cause with singular ability and integrity ; and was at
last exposed to reproach which unfortunately never can be wiped
off.' Burton's Hume, ii. 423. According to Lord Campbell (Lives of
the Chancellors, ed. 1846, v. 494), Stuart took so ill the attack made on
him in court by Thurlow, who was engaged as counsel on the other
side, that he sent him a challenge. ' Thurlow wrote back for answer
that the desired meeting Mr. Stuart should have, but not till the
hearing of the appeal was concluded. . . . They met in Kensington
Gardens, and shots were exchanged — happily without effect. Mr.
Stuart afterwards declared that Mr. Thurlow advanced and stood up
to him like an elephant.' Lord Campbell adds in a note : — ' A gentle-
man still alive, who remembers the duel well, says that Thurlow, on
his way to the field of battle, stopped to eat an enormous breakfast
at a tavern near Hyde Park Corner.' Dr. Burton {Life of Hume,
ii. 425) says that it was not with Thurlow but with Wedderburne
that Stuart fought. He corrects this statement in Letters of Eminent
Persons to David Hume, p. no. Neither he nor Lord Campbell gives
any reference. Stuart was member for Lanarkshire in the Parlia-
ment elected in Nov. 1774. Pari. Hist, xviii. 29. In 1779 he and
Gibbon became colleagues as Lords Commissioners of Trade and
Plantations. lb. 7, 29.
Note 10. It was not, says Burke, till the year 1767 that the affairs
of the East India Company were first introduced into Parliament.
Ann. Reg. 1773, i. 63. This introduction was regarded as a startling
innovation. ' The novelty of an English minister of state venturing
to interfere, as an officer of the Crown, in a matter of private property
excited in the highest degree the attention of all sorts of people.' lb.
1767, i. 43. By an annual payment by the Company to the Government
of ;£4oo,ooo a year a respite was purchased from state interference. lb.
i. 43 ^ In 1769, in the alarm caused by the news of Hyder All's suc-
cesses in war, India stock had fallen above 60 per cent, in a few days.
The Directors, ' to put a stop to the abuses and mismanagements
which had so much disgraced the Company's government in India,'
' The pagination of the Annual Register is so clumsy that it is not always easy
either to give or to find a reference. In the number from which I am quoting
page 43 is found three times. My first reference is to the first page 43, my second
to the second, which is separated from it by only eight pages and is distinguished
by an asterisk.
LIX.] DR. ADAM FERGUSON. 341
appointed three men 'who should be invested with extraordinary
powers, and sent to India under the character of Supervisors, with
full authority to examine into and rectify the concerns of every
department, and a full power of control over all their other servants
in India.' Ann. Reg. 1769, i. 53. The ship in which they sailed was
never heard of. ' The fate of these gentlemen,' wrote Burke, ' was
undoubtedly one of the greatest misfortunes that could have befallen
the Company.' lb. 1773, i. 66. It was brought to the brink of
bankruptcy and ruin, and could not keep up its payment to the
government. In their alarm at the appointment of the Parliamentary
Committee the Directors resolved to send out new Supervisors. The
resolution came too late. In Dec. 1772 a bill was rapidly carried
through Parliament restraining the Company for six months from
sending out any such Commission of Supervision. lb. p. 73, and
Pari. Hist. xvii. 651. Before the time had run out the Regulating
Act was carried through both Houses, and Warren Hastings was
appointed first Governor-General. ' Thus,' writes Burke, ' this
memorable revolution was accomplished. From, that time the
Company is to be considered as wholly in the hands of the minis-
ters of the Crown.' Ann. Reg. 1773, i. 105. Andrew Stuart was not
named one of the four Councillors who were to assist the Governor-
General. But among them was one who was a still bitterer enemy
of Lord Mansfield — Philip Francis, the author of the Letters of Junius.
Note II. The Rev. Dr. Adam Ferguson, Professor of Natural
Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. He had been tutor
to the family of Lord Bute, and so had influence at Court. Burton's
Hume, ii. 34, 45. Hume wrote to Adam Smith on Nov. 23 of this
year : — ' Ferguson has returned, fat and fair, and in good humour,
notwithstanding his disappointment, which I am glad of.' lb. p. 461.
It was at his house that Scott, a lad of fifteen, saw Burns. Lockhart's
Life of Scott, ed. 1839, i. 185. Scott in his review of John Home's
Works records the following anecdote of him : — ' Dr. Adam Ferguson
went as chaplain to the Black Watch or 42d Highland Regiment,
when that corps was first sent to the Continent. As the regiment
advanced to the Battle of Fontenoy, the commanding officer. Sir
Robert Monro, was astonished to see the chaplain at the head of
the column, with a broadsword drawn in his hand. He desired him
to go to the rear with the surgeons, a proposal which Adam Fergu-
son spurned. Sir Robert at length told him that his commission did
not entitle him to be present in the post which he had assumed.
" D — n my commission," said the warlike chaplain, throwing it
towards his Colonel. It may easily be supposed that the matter
was only remembered as a good jest ; but the future historian of
Rome shared the honours and dangers of that dreadful day, where,
according to the account of the French themselves, " the Highland
furies rushed in upon them with more violence than ever did a sea
driven by a tempest." ' Quarterly Review, Ixxi. 196.
243, LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Lord Cockburn in his Memorials, p. 49, describes him in his old
age as ' a spectacle well worth beholding. His hair was silky and
white ; his eyes animated and light-blue ; his cheeks sprinkled with
broken red like autumnal apples, but fresh and healthy ; his lips thin
and the under one curled.' In middle age he had had a severe
paralytic attack, which so reduced his animal vitality that he always
wore a good deal of fur. ' His gait and air were noble ; his gesture
slow ; his look full of dignity and composed fire. He looked like
a philosopher from Lapland. His palsy ought to have killed him
in his fiftieth year ; but rigid care enabled him to live uncrippled,
either in body or mind, nearly fifty years more. Wine and animal
food besought his appetite in vain ; but huge messes of milk and
vegetables disappeared before him, always in the never failing cloth
and fur. . . He always locked the door of his study when he left it,
and took the key in his pocket ; and no housemaid got in till the
accumulation of dust and rubbish made it impossible to put the evil
day off" any longer ; and then woe on the family. He shook hands
with us boys one day in summer 1793, on setting off in a strange sort
of carriage, and with no companion except his servant James, to
visit Italy for a new edition of his history. He was then about
seventy-two, and had to pass through a good deal of war ; but
returned in about a year younger than ever.' He was born in 1724
and died in 1816.
Note 12. Johnson would certainly have charged Hume with joining
in what he calls ' the Scotch conspiracy in national falsehood ' (Bos-
well's Johnson, ii. 297) ; and with sharing in that ' national combina-
tion, so invidious that their friends cannot defend it,' which is one of
the chief means ' which enables them to find, or to make their way to
employment, riches, and distinction' {Works, ix. 158). No man was
better than Hume at magnifying the merits of a countryman. As
Ferguson was unsurpassed in the whole world in worth, so ' Wilkie
[the author of the Epigoniad\ was to be the Homer, Blacklock the
Pindar, and Home the Shakespeare or something still greater of his
country.' Burton's Hume, ii. 32.
[William Strahan to David Hume.]
LETTER LX.
Life tolerable only by Labour : the Princess Dowager : Bengal.
Dear Sir
The approbation of those whose praise is real fame is,
in the very nature of the thing, extremely desireable. Judge
then how very acceptable your last kind letter was to me;
in which you acknowledge my small merits in a very generous
LX.] LABOUR A BLESSING. 243
and good-natured way, and much above what they have any
title to. . . . The reading a sheet of your History every day
with care and precision, thougli I at first imposed it upon
myself as a task, soon became a most agreeable amusement. . . .
You say the correcting the sheets has been an amusement
to yourself, and an occupation which you will now find a
difficulty to supply. This I can easily believe. And here
let me make one observation, which I dare say has frequently
occurred to yourself, because it is founded on experience and
a knowledge of the human mind. — To render life tolerable,
and to make it glide away with some degree of satisfaction,
it is necessary that a small part at least of almost every day be
employed in some species of real or imaginary business. To
pass our whole time in amusement and dissipation leaves a
depression upon the spirits infinitely less bearable than perhaps
the hardest labour ^ The sentence of. In the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread, pronounced against Adam after his fall, as
a punishment, is an apparent mistake, which I am not scholar
enough to rectify, but which I hope will not escape future
commentators ^ — My application of this doctrine you will easily
guess, which is no other than to add this to the other motives
I have formerly taken the liberty to urge, to persuade you to
the continuation of your History ; in which, if you will make
some progress, however trifling, every day, I will venture to
say you will find your immediate account in it, in point of ease
and cheerfulness and general flow of spirits. Fame which
in some sense may be considered as a future reward, I will
not mention. The various and complicated miseries to which
mankind are subjected, the loss of those who are deservedly
dear to us, the precariousness of our own existence ; in short
the contemplation of every thing around us, demands a con-
stant diversion of our attention to some object or other". As
far as my experience goes I have generally, if not always
found happiness to dwell not with men of much leisure and
retirement, but with those who had a little less time than
they had employment for. — But if after all I can't persuade
you to betake yourself to this kind of composition, I am
sincerely sorry for it ; but will not venture, by still further
urging it, which I could easily do, to trespass upon your
patience any longer.
R 2
244 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
The half dozen of your Philosophical Pieces shall soon be
sent you; and a dozen of your History, as you desire, as
soon as it is finished ; which will not be for some time, having
hitherto made little progress in the four last vols., as almost
the whole fount, and a very large one it is, has been occupied
in the four first. For to keep them going, it was necessary,
not only to have the sheets constantly passing to and fro, but
some composing, and some printing off, which all together
engrossed a vast quantity*. However, I will dispatch them
as soon as I can.
I am very happy that you approve of what I said of the
Pr. Dowager. It was written in a great hurry upon slips of
paper just as the Chronicle was going to press. The repre-
hension it contains of our worthy^ Patriots is surely well
merited. — But to show you the obstinacy of John Bull, hardly
any other newspaper copied it, nor has a sentence in her
favour been written in any of them by any other person'.
Though I am far from being of a desponding disposition,
I almost begin to think, that if we go on at home vilifying
and abusing all order and government, and abroad spreading
famine and pestilence among those whom chance has sub-
jected to our dominion ', we shall soon become ripe for
destruction.
What you have heard of the King is very true, so I have
taken the hint, and inserted it, as you will see by the enclosed,
in to-night's Chronicle*. I have also taken occasion to do
justice to the character of Mr. Stuart'. What I say of him
/ know to be true. — ^And they say he certainly goes to India in
that capacity. I have not heard Professor Ferguson named;
nor am I acquainted with him, else I should have paid my
respects to him at the same time, — and which, if you will
enable me, I can with rather more propriety do upon a future
occasion. For John Bull would not fail commenting upon
two Scotchmen being praised at once in a paper printed by
a Scotchman.— My vote'" and any little interest I have, you
may be assured shall be employed in behalf of a gentleman
so warmly recommended by you. Our operations in Bengal
demand a strict and speedy scrutiny. The barbarities com-
mitted upon that unhappy people are really unexampled in
the history of all civilized nations, that of the Spaniards on the
LX.] RETIRING FROM BUSINESS, 245
discovery of America" only excepted.— You see how little
efficacy the purest precepts of Christianity itself have with
mankind, when opposed to the Auri sacra fantes^'^.
I beg the continuance of your Friendship, which I prize
above many Lacks of Rupees, and am with unalterable Esteem
and Attachment,
Dear Sir Your faithful & obedient Serv'
Will. Strahan.
London, Feby. 27, 1772.
Note I. Boswell records an anecdote of a tradesman 'who having
acquired a large fortune in London retired from business, and went
to live at Worcester. His mind being without its usual occupation,
and having nothing else to supply its place, preyed upon itself, so
that existence was a torment to him. At last he was seized with the
stone ; and a friend who found him in one of its severest fits having
expressed his concern, " No, no. Sir," said he, " don't pity me ; what
I now feel is ease compared with that torture of mind from which it
relieves me." ' Boswell's Johnson, iii. 176. See ib. ii. 337 for
Johnson's story of an ' eminent tallow-chandler ' in retirement.
Note 2. Strahan was like the old lieutenant in Tom Jones who,
when asked by Tom how the practice of duelling could be reconciled
with the precepts of Christianity, replied : — ' I remember I once put
the case to our chaplain over a bowl of punch, and he confessed there
was much difSculty in it ; but he said, he hoped there might be
a latitude granted to soldiers in this one instance ; and to be sure, it
is our duty to hope so ; for who would bear to live without his
honour ? No, no, my dear boy, be a good Christian as long as you
live ; but be a man of honour too, and never put up an affront ; not
all the books, nor all the parsons in the world shall ever persuade
me to that. I love my religion very well, but I love my honour more.
There must be some mistake in the wording of the text, or in the
translation, or in the understanding it, or somewhere or other. But
however that be, a man must run the risk, for he must preserve his
honour.' Tom Jones, Bk. vii. ch. 13.
Note 3. Strahan is perhaps repeating the advice which his friend
Johnson so often enforced. ' To have the management of the mind
is a great art,' he said, and he often showed Boswell how it was to be
done. Boswell's Johnson, ii. 440.
Note 4. As Strahan was to forward to Hume five sheets of proofs
every week, there could not have been less than ten sheets, or 160
pages, always ' passing to and fro.' At the same time there were
the perfect sheets which the printers were striking off, as well as
those at which the compositors were still at work.
Note 5. Perhaps Strahan by italicising ' worthy ' implies those of
the London Aldermen who were among ' the Patriots ' ; for worthy
246 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
was the honourable appellation generally applied to them. See ante,
p. 178, n. 7.
Note 6. The Gentleman's Magazine in the number for March,
p. 122, praised her in terms not less extravagant than Strahan's.
Nay it went farther, and spoke of Frederick Prince of Wales as ' the
best of husbands.'
Note 7. See ante, p. 238, n. 8. Horace Walpole, writing on
April 9 of this year about Charles Fox's dissolute life and ' manly
reason,' says : — ' We beat Rome in eloquence and extravagance ;
and Spain in avarice and cruelty ; and, like both, we shall only serve
to terrify schoolboys, and for lessons of morality ! " Here stood
St. Stephen's Chapel; here young Catiline spoke; here was Lord
Clive's diamond-house ; this is Leadenhall Street, and this broken
column was part of the palace of a company of merchants who were
sovereigns of Bengal ! They starved millions in India by monopolies
and plunder, and almost raised a famine at home by the luxury
occasioned by their opulence, and by that opulence raising the price
of everything, till the poor could not purchase bread." Conquest,
usurpation, wealth, luxury, famine— one knows how little farther
the genealogy has to go ! ' Walpole's Letters, v. 381.
Note 8. 'We are assured that a parliamentary enquiry into the
conduct of the East India Company in Bengal was originally pro-
posed by his Majesty himself, who was greatly shocked with the
accounts he received of the oppressions exercised over the poor
natives. It is indeed abundantly notorious that the behaviour of our
countrymen in that extensive and once rich and populous region has
been for some years past so cruel and barbarous as to call aloud to
Heaven itself for a most speedy and effectual remedy.' London
Chronicle, Feb. 27, 1772.
Note 9. ' We hear that all parties who have any influence in the
conduct of our India affairs are unanimous in their choice of Andrew
Stuart, Esq. of Berkeley-square to be one of the Supervisors. A
Gentleman every way well qualified for that most important office ;
as he possesses &c.' lb. We may be reminded by Strahan's puff
of his countrymen of what Johnson says in his Life of Mallet: — 'It
was remarked of Mallet that he was the only Scot whom Scotchmen
did not commend.' Works, viii. 464.
Note 10. Strahan must be speaking of his vote at the India House,
for he was not in Parliament till November, 1774.
Note II. ' In the same year, in a year hitherto disastrous to man-
kind, by the Portuguese was discovered the passage of the Indies,
and by the Spaniards the coast of America.' Johnson's Works,
vi. 233.
Note 12. Virgil, yEneid, iii. 57.
' Gold-hunger cursed.' Morris.
LXI.] OUR HAPPY GOVERNMENT. 247
LETTER LXI.
The Licentiousness of Patriots.
Dear S'"
If the Press has not got further than the i6oth page
of the sixth Volume, Line penult., there is a Passage
which I shoud desire to have restord. It is this : The
full prosecution of this noble Principle into all its natural
Consequences has, at last, through many contests, produced
that singular and happy Government which we enjoy at
present"^.
I own that I was so disgusted with the Licentiousness
of our odious Patriots, that I have struck out the words,
and happy, in this new Edition ; but as the English Govern-
ment is certainly happy, though probably not calculated
for Duration, by reason of its excessive Liberty, I believe
it will be as well to restore them : But if that Sheet be
already printed, it is not worth while to attend to the
matter. I am as well pleas'd that this Instance of Spleen
and Indignation shoud remain.
I am Dear S*' Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Edinburgh, 3 of March, 1772.
Note I. The passage was restored, and ' Government ' remained
'happy.' See Hume's History, ed. 1802, vi. 144. In the preceding
sentence he had been describing the declaratory bill against mo-
nopolies passed in the year 1624. He continues :— ' It was there
supposed that every subject of England had entire power to dispose
of his own actions, provided he did no injury to any of his fellow-
subjects ; and that no prerogative of the King, no power of any
magistrate, nothing but the authority alone of laws could restrain
that unlimited freedom. The full prosecution &c.'
248 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
LETTER LXII.
The proposed Continuation of the History.
Dear S'°
I am much oblig'd to you for your Attention in
returning me the Proof Sheets : But I never doubted of
your Exactness in following my Corrections which were
also, in part, your own ^. I had unfortunately bespoke
most of the Smith Work of my new house ; but I still
found a small Job to give Mr. Richardson, who seems to
me a clever young Fellow. I remove in little more than
two Months. If I find my Time lie heavy on my hands, I
may, for my Amusement, undertake a reign or two after
the Revolution ^ : But I believe, in case of my composing
any more, I had better write something that has no
Reference to the Affairs of these factious Barbarians ^.
I am Dear S'"" Yours sincerely
D. H.
5 of March, 177^.
Note I. Strahan, no doubt thinking of Hume's suspicions of him —
his ' want of faith ' as he called it — had returned him the proof sheets
of his History, so that he might see that all his corrections had been
followed.
Note 2. Gibbon on Aug. 7, 1773, wrote to his friend Holroyd at
Edinburgh : — ' You tell me of a long list of dukes, lords, and chieftains
of renown to whom you are introduced ; were I with you, I should
prefer one David to them all. When you are at Edinburgh, I hope
you will not fail to visit the sty of that fattest of Epicurus's hogs, and
inform yourself whether there remains no hope of its recovering the
use of its right paw.' Gibbon's Misc. Works, ii. no. See post, p. 253,
for Hume's resolution to write no more.
Note 3. Hume's abuse of the English recalls a passage in Bos-
well's Life of Johnson, iii. 170, where Boswell says : — ' I ventured to
mention [to Dr. Johnson] a person who was as violent a Scotsman
as he was an Englishman ; and literally had the same contempt
for an Englishman compared with a Scotsman that he had for a
Scotsman compared with an Englishman ; and that he would say of
LXIII.] CAPTAIN BRYDONE'S TRAVELS. iJi.f)
Dr. Johnson, " Damned rascal ! to talk as he does of the Scotch."
This seemed for a moment " to give him pause." It perhaps pre-
sented his extreme prejudice against the Scotch in a point of view
somewhat new to him, by the effect of contrast'
LETTER LXIII.
Captain Brydone: Humes House in St. Andrew's Square.
Dear S""
You will please to send this Letter to Mr. Cadel,
which I have left open for your Perusal.
There is a Friend of mine, Cap" Braiden, who has writ,
in the form of Letters, his Travels thro Sicily and Malta ^ :
They are very curious and agreeable ; and I as well as
others of his Friends have advisd him to publish them ;
and I also advisd him, to carry them to you. If you read
them I hope we shall agree in Opinion. I conjecture
they may make one Volume a little less than a Volume of
the Spectator^.
I am Dear S'' Yours sincerely
David Hume.
St. Andrews Square', 3 of June, 1772.
Note I. Captain Patrick Brydone published in the spring of 1773
(Gent. Mag. 1773, p. 242) his Tour through Sicily and Malta, in a Series
of Letters to William Beckford, Esq. of Somerly in Suffolk. Boswell
(Life of Johnson, ii. 468) mentions ' an antimosaical remark introduced
into Captain Brydone's entertaining tour, I hope heedlessly, from a
kind of vanity which is too common in those who have not sufficiently
studied the most important of all subjects.' Brydone had met at
Catania a Canon, Recupero by name, who had measured in a draw-
well ' the strata of lavas, with earth to a considerable thickness over
the surface of each stratum. Recupero has made use of this as
an argument to prove the great antiquity of the eruptions of his moun-
tain [Etna]. For if it requires two thousand years or upwards to
form but a scanty soil on the surface of a lava, there must have been
more than that space of time betwixt each of the eruptions which
have formed these strata. . . He tells me he is exceedingly em-
250 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
barrassed by these discoveries in writing the history of the moun-
tain ;— that Moses hangs like a dead weight upon him, and blunts all
his zeal for enquiry; for that really he has not the conscience to
make his mountain so young as that prophet makes the world. What
do you think of these sentiments from a Roman Catholic divine ?
The bishop, who is strenuously orthodox — for it is an excellent see-
has already warned him to be upon his guard, and not to pretend to
be a better natural historian than Moses.' Brydone's Tour, ed. 1790,
i. 141. Johnson remarked on this passage : — ' Shall all the accumu-
lated evidence of the history of the world, shall the authority of what
is unquestionably the most ancient writing be overturned by an
uncertain remark such as this ? ' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 468. At
another time he said : — ^' If Brydone were more attentive to his
Bible he would be a good traveller.' lb. iii. 356.
Cowper, writing to Joseph Hill on April 20, 1777, says :— ' Thanks
for a turbot, a lobster, and Captain Brydone ; a gentleman who re-
lates his travels so agreeably that he deserves always to travel with
an agreeable companion.' Cowper's Works, xv. 38.
Horace Walpole, describing on Oct. 10, 1780 an evening that he
had spent at a lady's house, says : — ' Lord and Lady North were
there, en cour pleniere, with .... and Brydone, the Sicilian traveller,
who having wriggled himself into Bushy [Lord North's house] will,
I suppose, soon be an envoy, like so many other Scots.' Letters, vii.
451. Mr. Scott of Gala describes a conversation which he had with
Sir Walter Scott in the autumn of 1831, who had come to London on
his way to the Mediterranean. ' " I paid a visit," said Sir Walter, " to
my friend Whittaker [the bookseller] to ask him for some book of
travels likely to be of use to me on my expedition to the Mediter-
ranean. Here's old Brydone accordingly, still as good a companion
as any he could recommend. Brydone was sadly failed during his
latter years. Did you ever hear of his remark on his own works ? "
" Never." " Why his family usually read a little for his amuse-
ment of an evening, and on one occasion he was asked if he would
like to hear some of his travels to Sicily. He assented, and seemed
to listen with much pleasure for some time, but he was too far gone
to continue his attention long, and starting up from a doze exclaimed,
"That's really a very amusing book, and contains many curious
anecdotes. I wonder if they are all true." ' Lockhart's Life of Scott,
ed. 1839, X. 109.
Note 2. Almost all the editions of The Spectator were in eight
volumes, octavo.
Note 3. Hume had moved from James's Court in the Old Town to
his new house in the New Town. ' I charge you,' he wrote to a
friend, ' not to think of settling in London, till you have first seen our
New Town, which exceeds anything you have seen in any part of the
world.' Burton's Hume, ii. 462. Samuel Rogers, who visited Edin-
burgh in July, 1789, made the following entry in his Journal : — 'July 16,
LXIIL] ST. DAVID'S STREET. 25 1
1789. Adam Smith said that Edinburgh deserved little notice ; that
the old town had given Scotland a bad name ; that he was anxious
to move into the new town. . . . He said that in Paris as well as in
Edinburgh the houses were piled one upon another.' Early Life of
Samuel Rogers, p. 92. The new town was laid out on the plan of ' the
ingenious architect,' Mr. Craig, nephew of the poet Thomson. Bos-
well's Johnson, iii. 360. Hume was one of the earliest settlers. His
house, which he had been nearly two years in building [ante, p. 171,
n. 22), looks northward into St. Andrew's Square and westward into
St. David Street, or as he wrote it St. David's Street. Dr. J. H. Bur-
ton says that the street got its name from the daughter of Chief
Baron Ord, ' a witty young lady, who chalked on the wall of Hume's
house the words " St. David Street." The allusion was very ob-
vious. Hume's "lass" [maid-servant], judging that it was not
meant in honour or reverence, ran into the house much excited,
to tell her master how he was made game of. " Never mind, lassie,"
he said ; " many a better man has been made a saint of before." ' Bur-
ton's Hume, ii. 436. I have noticed that his earlier letters written
from his new house he dates ' St. Andrew's Square.' This address
he gives in his letter of Sept. 20, 1775 (Burton's Hume, ii. 475) ; but
on Oct. 27 of the same year he writes ' St. David's Street ' {ib. p. 478).
It is likely that Miss Ord had christened the street in the interval.
Hume's adoption of the new name shows that he was pleased with it.
Perhaps his is the only instance of a man who preferred to name his
house, not after the fashionable square into which the front of it
looked, but after a side street. In the codicil to his will, dated August
7, 1776, he shows his kindness for the young lady : — ' I leave to Mrs.
Anne Ord, daughter of the late Chief Baron, ten guineas to buy a
Ring, as a Memorial of my Friendship and Attachment to so amiable
and accomplished a Person.' M. S. R. S. E. The Court of Exchequer
of Scotland, of which the Judges were the High Treasurer of Great
Britain, with a Chief Baron and four other Barons, was established by
the 6th Anne, cap. 26. Penny Cyclo. x. no. Lord Cockburn in his
Memorials, pp. 295-300, describing the introduction into Scotland in
the year 1816 of a Jury Court in civil cases, says : — ' One great outcry
against this Court at first was excited by our being required to adopt
the English unanimity of juries. We had been accustomed to it for
above a century in the Exchequer, which was an English Court. But
its sittings were solely in Edinburgh, and its verdicts were of a penal
nature.' Writing of the year 1830 he says {ib. p. 466) : — ' Nobody
could dream of making judicial work out of our Exchequer sufficient
to give occupation even to a single judge.'
253 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
(Letter enclosed to Mr. Cadell.)
LETTER LXIV.
The new Editions of the Essays and History.
Edinburgh, 3 of June, 1772.
Dear S'«
I have receivd a Copy of the new Edition of my
Essays ^ and the four first Volumes of my History, with
both which I am very well pleasd with regard to the
Paper and Print. I have carefully perusd the Essays, and
find them very correct, with fewer Errors of the Press,
than I almost ever saw in any book ; and I give you, as
well as Mr. Strahan, thanks for the care that has been
taken of them. The four Volumes of History passd thro'
my own hands ; so that nothing needs be said of them. I
fancy the other Volumes will not be finishd ; so as to be
pubhsh'd this Season ; but they will be ready early in the
Winter ^.
I am Dear S'' Your most obedient humble Servant
David Hume.
Note I. Of this edition I cannot find any mention in any catalogue.
Strahan in his letter of Feb. 27 of this year (ante, p. 244) speaks of it
as nearly ready.
Note 2. By ' the other Volumes ' Hume means the last four
volumes of his History. The whole work was ready for publication
in the following March.
LETTER LXV.
Dr. Percy offended by a Passage in the History.
Edinburgh, 16 ofjany., 1773.
Dear Sir
You have been guilty of a small Indiscretion in
allowing a Copy of my new Edition to go out before the
LXV.] THE PERCY HOUSEHOLD BOOK. 253
Publication: For I had a Letter yesterday from Mr.
Piercy^ complaining tho' in obliging terms, of the Note
with regard to the old Earl of Northumberland House-
hold book ; as if it were a Satyre on that particular
Nobleman, which was by no means my Intention : I only
meant to paint the manners of the Age ^. I reply'd to him,
that I fancy'd it was too late to correct my Expressions ;
for that the Work was probably in the hands of the public.
I hope it is ; or at least beg it may be soon. I know I
have no right to demand any account of your Sales : I
only entreat you to tell me precisely, as far as you can,
the time of your publication ; and also when you can send
off the Copies for me. You told me in a former Letter
that you heard I was continuing my History : I beg of
you to believe that such an extravagant and absurd Idea
never once enterd into my head.
I am very sincerly Yours
D. H.
Note I. Dr. Thomas Percy, afterwards Dean of Carlisle and
Bishop of Dromore, the author of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.
He spelt his name Percy, and not Piercy. He wrote to Hume : — ' The
name is not, nor ever was, properly written Piercy.' M. S. R. S. E.
Hume however keeps to his own way of spelling. Mr. H. B.
Wheatley in the Preface to his edition of the Reliques says (p. Ixxi) :
— ' Percy's father and grandfather were grocers, spelt their name
Piercy, and knew nothing of any connection with the noble house of
Northumberland.' The Bishop boasted however of being the heir
male of the ancient Percies. Boswell had examined the proofs of
this claim, and says, ' Both as a lawyer accustomed to the considera-
tion of evidence, and as a genealogist versed in the study of pedigrees,
I am fully satisfied.' Boswell's Johnson, iii. 271. Percy, for the
honour of his line, some years later on withstood Johnson, as he now
withstood Hume. Johnson had praised Pennant's Tour in Scotland.
' Percy,' says Boswell, 'could not sit quietlyand hear a man praised who
had spoken disrespectfully of Alnwick Castle and the Duke's pleasure
grounds, especially as he thought meanly of his travels.' The result
was an explosion, in which Johnson cried out,— ' Hold, Sir ! Don't
talk of rudeness; remember, Sir, you told me (puffing hard with
passion struggUng for a vent) I was short-sighted. We have done
with civility. We are to be as rude as we please.' lb.
254 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letters
Note 2. Hume at the end of his chapter on the reign of Henry VH
says : — ' It must be acknowledged, in spite of those who declaim so
violently against refinement in the arts, or what they are pleased to call
luxury, that as much as an industrious tradesman is both a better man
and a better citizen than one of those idle retainers who formerly de-
pended on the great families ; so much is the life of a modern nobleman
more laudable than that of an ancient baron.' History of England, ed.
1802, iii. 400. As a note he added (p. 460) the extract from the House-
hold Book of the fifth Earl of Northumberland. Dr. Percy, in a letter to
Hume dated Jan 5, 1772 [an error for 1773], complaining that he
called ' the management of the Earl's family niggardly,' maintains
that ' what might appear extremely penurious now, might at that time
have been exceedingly liberal.' To prove this he proposes to
examine the accounts of other households, and begs Hume ' to
suspend his asperities till the next edition.' Hume, as is shown by
his next letter to Strahan, overcome by Percy's ' very obliging
manner ' and wishful to avoid giving the family ' great offence,' has
the note reprinted. What was struck out besides niggardly I do
not know. Enough however remains to have stirred up the Percy
blood, had any great quantity of it flowed in the veins of the modern
Percies. 'My Lord,' he writes, 'passes the year in three country
seats, all in Yorkshire ; but he has furniture only for one. He carries
everything along with him, beds, tables, chairs, kitchen utensils, all
which we may conclude were so coarse that they could not be spoilt by
the carriage. Yet seventeen carts and one waggon suffices for the
whole. ... It is amusing to observe the pompous and even royal
style assumed by this Tartar chief: he does not give any orders,
though only for the right making of mustard, but it is introduced with
this preamble. It seemeth good to us and our council.' lb. p. 463.
In the Errata to the edition of 1773 Hume still further ' suspends his
asperities ; ' but in the last edition, in two instances, he shows that it
was merely a suspense. He writes: — 'After the words this time,
read, it was Henry Algernon Percy, fifth earl of Northumberland, a
nobleman no less distinguished by his personal merit than by the
greatness of his family, one of the noblest in Europe.' This correc-
tion is omitted in the edition of 1778. In the description given on p.
462 of the linen in the Earl's household he had said : — ' This linen
was made into eight table-cloths for my lord's table, and one table-
cloth for the knights. This last, I suppose, was washed only once a
month.' In the Errata he says ' dele these words.' They are never-
theless allowed to stand in the edition of 1778. It was not by accident
that this was done, for some of the corrections in the same passage
were made in the later edition.
LXVI.] CONTINUATION OF HUME'S HISTORY. Z^S
LETTER LXVI.
Brydone's Travels: Hume's Continuators : Tristram
Shandy: Andrew Stuart.
Edinburgh, ^ojany, 1773.
Dear S'"
I find you must reprint all that Note about the
Northumberland House-hold Book. The Alterations I
make are very little material ; but being requir'd in a very
obliging manner by Dr. Piercy, and, I suppose, by the
Family 1, I could not now refuse them, without giving
them great Offence, which I wish to avoid.
I have likewise sent you one Addition to the Errata.
The Passage at present is Nonsense, tho' I find it has
escap'd me in three Editions, notwithstanding it was
printed right at first". Be so good as to insert it in its
proper place ; as I suppose the Errata is not printed.
I never, that I remember, mention'd to Cap" Braidon
any particular Sum which he might expect ^, as I receivd
his Manuscript in Parcels and coud form no Estimate of
its Bulk. His Journey over Mount Etna is the most
curious part of it ; and I wish it be not anticipated by a
late German Work which is translated, but I have not
read it*. I recommended to Mr. Braidon to obliterate
some Levities, too much in the Shandean Style °, which
he promis'd to do. I do hope with these Corrections, it
will be thought a good readable Book and curious *.
Considering the Treatment I have met with ', it woud
have been very silly for me at my Years to continue
writing any more ; and still more blameable to warp my
Principles and Sentiments in conformity to the Prejudices
of a stupid, factious Nation, with whom I am heartily dis-
gusted '. I wish my Continuators ' good Success ; tho' I
256 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
believe they have sence enough not to care whether they
meet with it or not. Macpherson has Style and Spirit ; but
is hot-headed, and consequently without Judgement^".
The Knight^^ has Spirit, but no Style, and still less Judge-
ment than the other. I shoud think Dr. Douglas ^^, if he
woud undertake it, a better hand than either. Or what
think you of Andrew Stuart ^^ ? For as to any English-
man, that Nation is so sunk in Stupidity and Barbarism
and Faction that you may as well think of Lapland ^* for
an Author. The best Book, that has been writ by any
Englishman these thirty Years (for Dr. Franklyn is an
American) is Tristram Shandy, bad as it is ^°. A Remark
which may astonish you ; but which you will find true on
Reflection ^''.
I admire very much this Work of Andrew Stuart";
tho I was at first exceedingly alarmd at the Imprudence
of the Attempt. I am less so, after perusing it ; tho still
it appears imprudent, according to the vulgar Rule of
estimating these Matters.
I woud have you publish this new Edition as soon as it
is ready ; and rather submit to some Loss than allow the
Book to be any longer discredited by that abominable
Edition ^^, which has given you and me so much Vexation,
and has been one Cause why I have thrown my Pen aside
for ever.
Believe me ever Yours
D. H."
Note I. The Duke of Northumberland had little concern in the
matter, for he was not a Percy, but a Smithson. He had married the
great-grand-daughter of the eleventh and last Earl of Northumber-
land. Horace Walpole wrote on Feb. 25, 1750 : — ' Sir Hugh Smith-
son and Sir Charles Windham are Earls of Northumberland and
Egremont, with vast estates ; the former title, revived for the blood
of Percy, has the misfortune of being coupled with the blood of a man
that either let or drove coaches— such was Sir Hugh's grandfather ! '
Letters, ii. 196. The name of Sir Hugh Smithson I have often read
on the list of benefactors to the poor in the parish church of Totten-
LXVL] HUME'S UNMANLY COMPLAINTS. 257
ham High Cross. The district in that parish ridiculously called
Northumberland Park, for there neither is nor ever was a park, takes
its name from a house which belonged to the Smithsons.
Note 2. This passage is, I think, the following, in which Hume de-
scribes Lewis XIV's liberality in rewarding literary merit :— 'Besides
pensions conferred on learned men throughout all, Europe, his
academies were directed by rules and supported by salaries : A
generosity which does great honour to his memory ; and in the eyes
of all the ingenuous part of mankind will be esteemed an atonement
for many of the errors of his reign.' Ed. 1773, viii. 330. Ingenuous is a
misprint for ingenious. In the first edition I find ingenious, but in the
quarto edition of 1770 ingenuous.
Note 3. Strahan had written to Hume on Jan. 25 :— ' I have at
length agreed, but after much difficulty with Capt. Brydon. You had
raised his Expectations so very high, and so much beyond the real
Worth of the Book, which will hardly make two Octavo Volumes
very loosely printed, that he could not be satisfied with the very
utmost the Size and Nature of the Book would admit of You spoil all
young Authors by leading them to expect Prices only due to Veterans
in Literature, and Men of established Reputation.' M. S. R. S. E.
Note 4. Travels through Sicily and part of Italy, by Baron Riedesel.
Translated from the German by John Forster. London, 1773.
Note 5. Johnson the year before, speaking of a book of travels,
had said that it was an imitation of Sterne. Boswell's ybA«50«, ii. 175.
Note 6. As an example of Brydone's style I will quote the follow-
ing story : — ' Do you remember old Huet — the greatest of all
originals ? One day, as he passed the statue of Jupiter in the Capitol,
he pulled off his hat, and made him a bow. A Jacobite gentleman
who observed it asked him, why he paid so much respect to that old
gentleman. " For the same reason," replied Huet, " that you pay so
much to the Pretender. Besides," added he, " I think there is rather
a greater probability that his turn will come round again than that of
your hero. I shall therefore endeavour to keep well with him, and
hope he will never forget that I took notice of him in the time of his
adversity." ' Vol. i. p. 158.
Note 7. He had been appointed to high offices, and had retired on
a pension of ^400 a year, with a request from the King that he would
continue his History (ante, p. 55). He had been paid for it, as he
boasted, at a higher rate than any previous writer (ante, p. 33, n. 2),
and for its continuation he was told that the booksellers were ready
to give him whatever sum he chose to name (ante, p. 54). These un-
manly complaints are in striking contrast with Johnson's content-
ment. ' I asked him,' writes Boswell, ' if he was not dissatisfied with
having so small a share of wealth, and none of those distinctions in
the state which are the objects of ambition. He had only a pension
of three hundred a year. Why was he not in such circumstances
as to keep his coach ? Why had he not some considerable office ?
258 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
JoHNSon. " Sir, I have never complained of the world ; nor do I think
that I have reason to complain. It is rather to be wondered at that I
have so much." ' Boswell's Johnson, iv. 116.
Note 8. Three years later Hume wrote to Gibbon, on reading the
first volume of the Decline and Fa// :—' Whether I consider the
dignity of your style, the depth of your matter, or the extensiveness
of your learning, I must regard the work as equally the object of
esteem ; and I own, that if I had not previously had the happiness of
your personal acquaintance, such a performance from an English-
man in our age would have given me some surprise. You may smile
at this sentiment, but as it seems to me that your countrymen, for
almost a whole generation, have given themselves up to barbarous and
absurd faction, and have totally neglected all polite letters, I no longer
expected any valuable production ever to come from them.' The
high position that Hume held among men of learning is shown by
what Gibbon has recorded :— ' A letter from Mr. Hume overpaid the
labour of ten years.' Misc. Works, i. 224.
Hume has the less excuse for the outburst in the text against the
factiousness of the English, as Strahan in his last letter, dated Jan. 25,
had said : — ' Our pretended patriots are either asleep or appear to
be so. In short Wilkes and Liberty are heard of no more.'
M.S.R.S.E.
Note 9. Strahan had written to Hume on Jan. 25 : — ' After what
you now tell me I altogether despair of seeing a continuation of your
History from yourself; but I have some notion it may be done by
some other hand ; perhaps Sir John Dalrymple or Mr. Macpherson.'
M. S. R. S. E. The latter volumes of Smollett's History have been so
generally taken by the booksellers as a continuation of Hume, that it
is commonly believed that he was, as an historian, merely his ' con-
tinuator.' He had however published his Complete History of Eng-
land from the descent of Julius Ccesar to the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle,
1748, before Hume had done more than bring out the History of Eng-
land under the Stuarts. Hume however had completed his work
before Smollett, with the help of William Guthrie, published the five
concluding volumes which carried down his History to the year 1765.
0.1 March 12, 1759, Hume wrote to Dr. Robertson, whose History of
Scotland had just been published : — ' 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.' Burton's Hume, ii. 53.
This was not Hume's real opinion. He knew his superiority as an
historian to Smollett, who in fourteen months had written the history
of eighteen centuries. Writing to Millar on April 6, 1758, Hume said :
— ' I am afraid that the extraordinary run upon Dr. Smollett has a
little hurt your sales. But these things are only temporary.'
M.S.R.S.E.
Note 10. Hume wrote to Adam Smith on April 10, 1773 : — ' Have
LXVI.] S/Ji JOHN DALRYMPLE. 259
you seen Macpherson's Homer 'i It is hard to tell whether the attempt
or the execution be worse. I hear he is employed by the booksellers
to continue my History. But, in my opinion, of all men of parts he
has the most anti-historical head in the universe.' Burton's Hume,
ii. 467. See ante, p. 36, n. i, and post. Letter of Nov. 13, 1775.
Note II. Sir John Dalrymple of Cranston was more than a
knight; he was a baronet. See ante, p. 180, n. 22, for Johnson's
criticism of his Memoirs. He ridiculed his style also when he and
Boswell were on their way to his house, where they had been invited
to dine and spend the night. They had loitered so much that they
could not, they saw, arrive in time for dinner. ' When I talked,' writes
Boswell, ' of the grievous disappointment it must have been to him
that we did not come to the feast that he had prepared for us, (for he
told us he had killed a seven-year old sheep on purpose,) my friend got
into a merry mood, and jocularly said, " I dare say. Sir, he has been
very sadly distressed : Nay, we do not know but the consequence
may have been fatal. Let me try to describe his situation in his own
historical style : . . . — " Dinner being ready, he wondered that his
guests were not yet come. His wonder was soon succeeded by im-
patience. He walked about the room in anxious agitation ; sometimes
he looked at his watch, sometimes he looked out at the window with
an eager gaze of expectation, and revolved in his mind the various
accidents of human life. His family beheld him with mute concern,
' Surely (said he with a sigh) they will not fail me.' The mind of man
can bear a certain pressure ; but there is a point when it can bear no
more. A rope was in his view ; and he died a Roman death." ' lb.
V. 403. There is a hit at him in the Pari. Hist. xvii. 963, in the
report of the proceedings in the Lords on the question of literary
property on Feb. 7, 1774. He was heard as counsel for the de-
fendants, ' and spoke for two hours and a half, and seemed to exhaust
in this one speech all the knowledge, metaphysical, legal, chemical,
and political he possesses.'
Note 12. Dr. John Douglas, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, whom
Goldsmith in Retaliation describes as ' The scourge of impostors, the
terror of quacks.' See Boswell's Johnson, i. 228, 407. In Samuel
Rogers's Table Talk, p. 106, it is recorded that ' Hume told Cadell,
the bookseller, that he had a great desire to be introduced to as
many of the persons who had written against him as could be
collected. Accordingly, Dr. Douglas, Dr. Adams, etc., were invited
by Cadell to dine at his house, in order to meet Hume. They came ;
and Dr. Price, who was of the party, assured me that they were all
delighted with David.' Dr. Douglas had edited the Correspondence of
the second Earl of Clarendon and of his brother the Earl of Rochester,
etc. Hume wrote to Millar on Oct. 27, 1760 : — ' I am very much
pleased with what you tell me, that the Clarendon Papers have fallen
into Dr. Douglas's hands, especially as Dr. Robertson tells me he
intends to publish them.' Burton's Hume, ii. 87.
S 2
2.60 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Note 13. See ante, p. 239, n. 9. Hume suggests none but Scotch-
men. Even Goldsmith is not mentioned, though he was not an
Englishman and 'a factious barbarian,' and though his 'History^ if
we may trust Johnson, ' is better than the verbiage of Robertson, or
the foppery of Dalrymple.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 236.
Note 14. See ante, p. 63, for a letter in which Horace Walpole,
writing of the Scotch, says : — Do not let us be run down and brazened
out of all our virtue, genius, sense, and taste by Laplanders and
Boeotians, who never produced one original writer in verse or prose.'
Letters, vii. 511. At the time when Hume wrote of England that 'you
may as well think of Lapland for an author,' there certainly was a dearth
of eminent writers who were Englishmen by birth. In the previous
ten years had died Churchill, Young, Sterne, Chatterton and Gray.
Johnson, Warburton, Blackstone, Horace Walpole, and Lord Chester-
field were living, but the fame of the last two chiefly rests on their
Letters which were not as yet published. Cowper, Crabbe, Gibbon,
Jeremy Bentham, and Miss Burney had begun to publish before
another ten years had run out. Wordsworth and Coleridge, though
born, were still too young even 'to lisp in numbers.' Burke, Gold-
smith, and R. B. Sheridan, who brought out his first play two years
later, must be excluded as they were Irish by origin. Scotland
boasted of Hume, Boswell, Adam Smith, Robertson, Beattie, Blair,
Henry, Henry Mackenzie, Reid, the Dalrymples, Ferguson, Kames
and Monboddo ; but many of these, instead of lasting as ' northern
lights,' have turned out to be ' mere farthing candles ' (Boswell's John-
son, V. 57). Smollett had been dead rather more than a year. Burns
was a boy of fourteen, and Scott an infant.
Note 15. Johnson said of Sterne's great work : — ' Nothing odd will
do long. Tristram Shandy did not last.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 449.
Horace Walpole spoke of it as ' a very insipid and tedious perform-
ance ' ; ' the dregs of nonsense, which have universally met the
contempt they deserve.' Letters, iii. 298, 382. Goldsmith in the
Citizen of the World (Letter 74) called the author ' a bawdy block-
head.' Speaking of him to Johnson, he said he was ' a very dull
fellow ' ; to which Johnson replied, ' Why, no. Sir.' Boswell's
Johnson, ii. 222. Voltaire looked on Sterne as 'le second Rabelais
d' Angleterre ' ; Swift being the first. (Euvres de Voltaire, ed. 1819-25,
xxxiv. 513.
Note 16. The exception of Franklin has a somewhat comical effect
when we call to mind that in ' these thirty years ' had been published
Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandison, Tom Jones and Amelia, the great
Dictionary, the Rambler and Rasselas, Collins's Odes, and all Gray's
Poems. It is highly probable however that Hume, who was a
thorough Frenchman in his love of paying pretty compliments,
thought that this passage would be shown to Franklin. Strahan had
added as a postscript to his last letter, which Hume had just
received : — ' Dr. Franklin, who sits at my elbow, desires to be affec-
LXVll.] THE DECLINE OF LITERATURE. 261
tionately remembered to you and to your worthy sister, who was
so kind to him.' M. S. R. S. E.
Hume, writing to Adam Smith on April i, 1776, about the first
volume of Gibbon's Decline and Fall, said : — ' I should never have
expected such an excellent work from the pen of an Englishman.
It is lamentable to consider how much that nation has declined in
literature during our time.' Burton's Hume, ii. 487. Voltaire, the
year following, in a short criticism on the French translation of
Tristram Shandy, said : — ' II etit €t€ a d^sirer que le predicateur n'eut
fait son comique roman que pour apprendre aux Anglais a ne plus se
laisser duper par la charlatanerie des romanciers, et qu'il eut pu
corriger la nation qui tombe depuis long-temps, abandonne I'etude
des Locke et des Newton pour les ouvrages les plus extravagans et
les plus frivoles.' CEuvres de Voltaire, xlii. 430.
Note 17. Andrew Stuart's Letters to Lord Mansfield. See ante,
p. 239, n. 9. Hume on Feb. 24 of this year, advising Adam Smith to
buy this work, says : — ' They have, they say, met with vast success
in London. Andrew has eased his own mind, and no bad effects are
to follow. Lord Mansfield is determined absolutely to neglect them.'
Burton's Hume, ii. 466. ' Dr. Johnson maintained that this publica-
tion would not give any uneasiness to the Judge. " For (said he)
either he acted honestly, or he meant to do injustice. If he acted
honestly, his own consciousness will protect him ; if he meant to do
injustice, he will be glad to see the man who attacks him so much
vexed ! " ' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 475.
Note 18. See ante, p. 141, n. 7.
Note 19. Hume is so full of his own affairs that he forgets to con-
gratulate Strahan on the following piece of family news in a letter
dated Jan. 25 : — ' My son George is now Vicar of Islington, with an
income of between ^300 and ^400 a year ; a populous and increasing
parish, within half an hour's walk of my own house. The purchase
however cost a good deal of money, though less than these things
usually come to.' M. S. R. S. E. It was to George Strahan's vicarage
that 'Johnson went sometimes for the benefit of good air.' Bos-
well's Johnson, iv. 271.
LETTER LXVII.
Proposed Continuation of the History.
Edinburgh, 22 of Feby., 1773.
Dear S™
On reviewing your last Letter and recollecting my
Answer to it, I am afraid some mistake might arise
between us. No doubt, any body, either from their own
263 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Inclination or from your Application, may undertake to
write any part of English History they please ; and I can
have no Objection to it : But that this Work should be
pubhshd as a Continuation of mine, I see liable to con-
siderable Objections; and it is necessary for me to deliberate
well upon it. If it be either much better or much worse
than mine, it might be improper, for my own credit, to
consent to it ; and as long as both the Performance and
the Author are unknown to me, I cannot without farther
deliberation go so far. I beg, therefore, that this Matter
may be fully understood between us, and that nothing I
have said may be interpreted as my Approbation of a
Scheme, which is totally unknown to me.
I desire much to ask you a Question, which, if the
Matter depended solely on you, I know you coud answer
me in a moment. But as it is, you can easily, by consult-
ing your Partners, be able to give me Satisfaction in it.
In short, I wish to know precisely, whether you intend to
publish the new Edition this Season or the Season after,
or any subsequent Season. It is needless to say any
thing about the Index which coud have been ready long
ago. I beg it of you, I even conjure you, to give me at
last some Answer which I can depend on. I promise you,
that this is the last time I shall write to you on the Subject.
I am Dear S'"^
Your most humble and most obedient Servant
David Hume.
LETTER LXVIII.
All Faith lost in Cadell and Strahan.
Edinburgh, 15 of March, 1773.
Dear S'"
The Number of Copies of my History, which I
desir'd to have, was twelve. I agreed with Mr. Millar
LXVIII.] HUME COMPLAINS OF DECEPTION. 263
verbally to reserve six on every new Edition ; but as I had
taken uncommon Pains on this Edition, I proposd twelve,
which you very frankly agreed to ^ : I desire one copy to
be sent to Lord Beauchamp ^ with my Comphments, and
the rest to be shipt oflf to this Place with the first con-
venient Opportunity.
You and Mr. Cadel had so much lost all faith with me,
that indeed I thought it was impossible for you any longer
to deceive me ^ : Yet when you mention'd a new Edition,
I own I was so simple as to believe, that all the old one
was nearly sold off. This woud have been very blame-
able in you, if you had proposd any other End than that of
seducing me into the continuing of my work, which you
thought, and probably with Reason, woud have been for
my own Advantage in more respects than one. But how-
ever the Consequence is, that I am now at a Loss, and
ever shall remain so, what I am to think and beheve :
And many Questions, interesting to me, which I wishd to
ask you, woud, I find, be entirely vain and fruitless ; and
therefore I shall forbear them, since I can give no manner
of credit to the Answers. A very little time will make me
totally indifferent about these Matters, which is the State
of Mind that I have nearly attain'd already. I only desire
that before you begin any new Edition of any of my
Writings, you give me Information some time beforehand.
I am Dear S'' Your most obedient Servant
David Hume.
Note I. See ante, p. 213.
Note 2. See ante, p. 203, n. 6.
Note 3. See ante, pp. 144, 150, 154.
264 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
LETTER LXIX.
Dalrymple's Memoirs : Memoirs of King James II.
Edinburgh, 20 of March, 1773.
Dear S'"
I have read twice over all Sir John Dalrymple's
new Publication ^, which contains many curious Papers ^ ;
but it gives me great Satisfaction to find, that there is not
one single Mistake in my History, either great or small,
which it gives me occasion to correct. I could only wish
to have an Opportunity of adding one Note in order to
correct a mistake into which Sir John is very anxious to
lead his Readers, as if the French Intrigues had had a
sensible Influence in the Determinations of the English
Parliament ' : And I believe it is not too late even yet to
annex it. I remember Mr. Millar added a similar Note to
the last Octavo Edition drawn from K. James's Memoirs*;
and it was inserted in more than the half of the Copies.
I have sent you the Note, which I beg may be printed on
a Leaf apart, and annexd to all the Copies afterwards
disposd of, and even sent to all the Booksellers that have
purchasd any considerable Numbers, as well as joind to
my own Copies.
I hear you have given Sir John 2000 pounds for the
Property of this Volume, which I scarcely believe *. The
Book is curious, but far from being agreeable Reading;
and the Sale will probably be all at first. I again repeat
my Entreaties that this Note may be annexd.
I am Dear S'"" Very sincerely Yours
David Hume.
Note I. This letter, though written a day later than Strahan's
answer to Hume's letter of the 15th, had not, of course, been received
by Strahan when he wrote. I therefore give it before the next letter
in the series.
LXIX.] sm JOHN DALRYMPLE'S MEMOIRS. 26 $
Note 2. This must be the second volume of Dalrymple's Memoirs
of Great Britain and Ireland, for the first was published in the spring
of 1771 {ante, p. 174). This work excited great anger among the
Whigs. ' I mentioned,' records Boswell on April 3 of this year, ' Sir
John Dalrymple's Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, and his
discoveries to the prejudice of Lord Russell and Algernon Sidney.
Johnson. " Why, Sir, everybody who had just notions of govern-
ment thought them rascals before. It is well that all mankind now
see them to be rascals. . . . This Dalrymple seems to be an honest
fellow ; for he tells equally what makes against both sides.' Boswell's
Johnson, ii. 210.
Hume, in the note mentioned in the next sentence of his letter,
says : — ' It is amusing to observe the general, and I may say national
rage, excited by the late discovery of this secret negotiation [with
the French Court] ; chiefly on account of Algernon Sidney, whom
the blind prejudices of party had exalted into a hero. His ingratitude
and breach of faith in appljdng for the King's pardon, and imme-
diately on his return entering into cabals for rebellion, form a conduct
much more criminal than the taking of French gold. Yet the former
circumstance was always known, and always disregarded. But
everything connected with France is supposed in England to be
polluted beyond all possibility of expiation. Even Lord Russell,
whose conduct in this negotiation was only factious, and that in an
ordinary degree, is imagined to be dishonoured by the same dis-
covery.' History of England, ed. 1802, viii. 43.
In a letter to Adam Smith dated April 10, 1773, Hume says : —
' Have you seen Sir John Dalrymple ? It is strange what a rage is
against him, on account of the most commendable action in his life.
His collection is curious ; but introduces no new light into the civil,
whatever it may into the biographical and anecdotical history of
the times.' Burton's Hume, ii. 467. Horace Walpole wrote on
March 2:— 'Need I tell you that Sir John Dalrymple, the accuser
of bribery, was turned out of his place of Solicitor of the Customs
for taking bribes from brewers ? ' Letters, v. 441. A fortnight later
he wrote : — ' The town and the newspapers have so fully discussed
the book, that I neither listen to the one nor read the other. If it is
comfortable to any scoundrel to find himself in better company than
he expected, to be sure he has nothing to do but to be introduced by
Sir John Dalrymple into History.' lb. p. 451.
Note 3. Hume corrects Dalrymple's mistake in the following
words : — ' Sir John Dalrymple has given us from Barillon's dis-
patches in the Secretary's office at Paris a more particular detail of
these intrigues.' Hume hereupon gives a list of the men with whom
they were carried on, and continues : — ' Of these Lord Russel and
Lord HoUis alone refused to touch any French money. All the
others received presents or bribes from Barillon. But we are to
remark that the party view of these men and their well-founded
266 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letlcr
jealousies of the King and Duke engaged them, independently of the
money, into the same measures that were suggested to them by the
French ambassador. The intrigues of France therefore with the
Parliament were a mighty small engine in the political machine.'
History of England, viii. 43.
Note 4. Hume wrote to Dr. Robertson from Paris on Dec. i,
1763 ; — ' I have here met with a prodigious historical curiosity, the
Memoirs of King James H in fourteen volumes, all wrote with his
own hand, and kept in the Scots College. I have looked into it, and
have made great discoveries.' Burton's Hume, ii. 179. ' These
volumes,' adds Dr. Burton, ' were lost during the French Revolution.
It is said that an attempt was made to convey them to St. Omers ;
but having to be committed for some time to the care of a French-
man, his wife became alarmed lest the regal emblems on the binding
might expose the family to danger from the Terrorists. She first
cut off the binding and buried the manuscripts, but being still
haunted by fears she exhumed and burned them.' Some of these
volumes had narrowly escaped destruction a little more than a hundred
years earlier, when the London house of the minister of the Grand
Duke of Tuscany was sacked in the Revolution of 1688. Macaulay's
History of England, ed. 1873, iii. 300. The note which Hume had
added to his History is given in vol. viii. p. 4 of the edition of 1802.
Note 5. The same statement had been made, but falsely, about
Dalrymple's first volume. See ante, p. 174. Perhaps the price
mentioned is that for the whole work. Dalrymple, when plead-
ing on May 10 of this year at the bar of the House of Commons
against the Booksellers' Copyright Bill, said :— 'It had been thrown
out against him, that after having sold for ;£2ooo the copy of a
book, which had the misfortune universally to displease, although
it was universally read, he had taken an active part to destroy
the value of the very property which he had so disposed of.' Pari.
Hist. xvii. 1092.
[William Strahan to David Hume '.]
LETTER LXX.
Strahan' s Indignation at Hume's attack on his Truthfulness.
London, March 19, 1773.
Dear S'"
Yours of the 15* I received today, which does not a little
surprise me. After having been most unfeignedly attached to
' Strahan fortunately kept a copy of his answer to Hume, for the original is not
preserved among the Hume Papers in the possession of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh.
LXX.] STRAHAN'S JUSTIFICATION OF HIMSELF. 267
you ever since I had the pleasure of your acquaintance ; after
having done every thing in my power to oWige you ; after
having given the most careful attention to your works when
under my press, for which I received your repeated ackowledge-
ments ; and after having behaved to you in the most open,
candid, and ingenuous manner upon every occasion since I
became a proprietor in your works ; I did not, I could not
expect to be told by you, after all, that I was a lying scoundrel,
who had constantly deceived you, to whom you could give no
manner of credit.
Such it seems, is now your deliberate opinion both of Mr.
Cadell and myself Produce, I call upon you, and have a right
so to do, one single instance to support the heavy charge you
bring against us ; concealing from you, at the desire of the late
Mr. Millar, the number of the 8vo. edition of your History alone
excepted ^ ; which we did purely at his request, having then no
interest, nor the least shadow of interest, to deceive you in that
or any other particular.
I own that I am quite astonished at the style of your last
letter, which is such as should be directed to one of the most
worthless of the human race, and to such only.
Do not imagine, however, that I mean to enter into a laboured
defence of myself Far from it. I have nothing to apologize
for ; nothing have I said or done respecting you, that I now
wish unsaid or undone. — Some recent cause of disgust, how-
ever groundless, you have conceived ; but as my whole conduct
respecting you has all along be so more than blameless, this
cause, whatever it may be, is to me a perfect mystery. — I told
you faithfully, from time to time, how many were left on hand
of the 8vo. edition. You told me in a late letter that we had
better submit to some loss, than allow the book to be discredited by
that abominable edition I — All proper haste was made to finish
and publish it. In my last I told you not above 100 Copies
were left ; this was so very true, that upon enquiry today, I
find they are exactly 76, which we can either destroy, or sell
abroad ; they are no object ^ But why do I trouble either you
or myself to give you any detail upon this or any other subject ;
which, as you very politely tell me, is entirely vain and fruitless,
as you can give no manner of credit to my answers.
Had not Mr. Cadell and I, from the moment we were free
268 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
agents* and concerned in your works, done everything we
could devise for your satisfaction and honour ; had we not
invariably refused to have any interest in any thing that had
a tendency to discredit or displease you; in particular Dr.
Beattie's book''; had we not on many occasions — But I scorn
to instance more particulars — we might have looked for this
treatment from you, from which the most blameless conduct on
our part has not been able to defend us.
True it is (and this does not depend on my veracity else I
would not have mentioned it) that I have said and done every
thing in my power to persuade (or, if you please, to seduce^) you
to continue your History, from a full conviction, as you express
it in your last, that it would have been for your own advantage in
more respects than one''. — Your answer was constantly in the nega-
tive ; of late, that such an absurd and extravagant idea never entered
your head^ ; and that you had thrown your pen aside for ever ". —
Whether I did well in thus repeatedly obtruding my advice
upon you, and you in as repeatedly rejecting it, time only can
discover. I know I meant well ; that to me is great cause of
satisfaction. — And now I cease to trouble you on this head for
ever.
I had forgot that you desired 12 copies of this edition. They
shall be directly sent you ; and as many more as you shall
hereafter desire are at your service. Your request respecting
future editions of your Works shall be duly attended to. I
shall only add, that at no period of my life could I have
patiently borne the unmerited treatment you have given me ;
you will not therefore wonder, that having now, by my own
industry, attained to a state of independence, and I will venture
to say by a conduct umimpeachable, it should not sit very easy
upon my stomach '",
Some time or other you will perhaps discover with certainty,
whether I am or not
Your faithful and Obed* Serv*
W. S.
Note I. Strahan wrote to Hume on May 14, 1769, in answer to a
letter which I have not seen :— ' I received your note yesterday. You
are in truth the greatest sceptic I ever met with. I have again and
again assured you (as I hereby do once more) that you shall most
certainly have as many copies of this 410. edition of your History as
LXX.]' BEATTIE'S ESSAY ON TRUTH. 269
you choose to have. Not one of them shall go out of my hands till
you are satisfied. The moment the index and titles are printed off
the six copies you now ask for shall be sent you. But to send you
them before that, would only be a needless incumbrance. If you had
a single grain of faith in my promise, you would not only believe this,
but believe also, what I have often told you, that everything regard-
ing your Works in future shall be regulated by your own will and
directions ; — in the manner of printing ; — in the number of impres-
sions ; — and in ever3rthing wherein your interest or fame may be
affected. Do learn to put a little confidence in me ; nor imagine that
because I was induced to deceive you a little in regard to the number
printed of the last 8vo. edition, that I am to make a practice of doing
so. In that I was only the mouth of another person, who was after-
wards sorry he had occasion to conceal the number of the impression
from you.' M. S. R. S. E.
Note 2. See ante, p. 256.
Note 3. This is perhaps one of the earliest instances that can be
found of this use of the word object ; a use sanctioned, so far as I know,
by no correct writer.
Note 4. They had become free agents when Millar in 1767, retiring
from business, left Cadell as his successor. Cadell and Strahan were
not, I think, partners in business generally, though they undertook
many publications in common.
Note 5. Beattie's book is his Essay on Truth, in which that amiable
poet was supposed to have confuted Hume. The University of Ox-
ford rewarded him by the degree of Doctor of Civil Law, and
Reynolds painted him in his Doctor's gown, with his Essay under
his arm, preceded by the Angel of Truth who is beating down the
vices, Envy, Falsehood, etc. These were represented by a group of
figures, among whom, it was said, could be discovered the likenesses of
Hume and Voltaire. Goldsmith reproached the painter with 'de-
grading so high a genius as Voltaire before so mean a writer as Dr.
Beattie ; for Dr. Beattie and his book together will, in the space of
ten years, not be known ever to have been in existence, but your
allegorical picture and the fame of Voltaire will live for ever to your
disgrace as a flatterer.' Northcote's Life of Reynolds, ed. 1819, i. 300.
Sir William Forbes in his Life of Beattie, ed. 1824, p. 81, says that he
and Mr. Arbuthnot were commissioned by Beattie to sell the
manuscript of the Essay. They were met by a positive refusal from
the bookseller to whom they applied (no doubt Cadell) ; who offered
however to publish it at the author's risk. To this they knew that
Beattie would never agree. They thereupon, resorting to a friendly
artifice, became themselves the purchasers of the copyright of the
first edition, giving fifty guineas for it, but concealing the fact from
the author. ' Had it not been,' writes Forbes, ' for this interference
of ours, perhaps the Essay on Truth, on which all Dr. Beattie's future
fortunes hinged, might never have seen the light. It also strongly
270 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
marks the slender opinion entertained by the booksellers at that
period of the value of a work which has since risen into such well-
merited celebrity.' Beattie, on receiving a draft for the money, wrote
to Forbes on Oct. 26, 1769: — 'The price does really exceed my
warmest expectations ; nay I am much afraid that it exceeds the real
commercial value of the book; and I am not much surprised that
[Cadell or Strahan] refuses to have a share in it, considering that he
is one of the principal proprietors of Mr. Hume's works, and in con-
sequence of that may have such a personal regard for him as would
prevent his being concerned in any work of this nature.' lb. p. 83.
In less than four years Beattie's defence of orthodoxy was rewarded
by a pension of ^200 a year {ib. p. 151) ; just half what his antagonist
' the infidel pensioner Hume ' ' received from the same Court. So
rapid was the sale of the Essay that Cadell and Strahan must have
felt that, in refusing it, they had made a great sacrifice to their friend-
ship for Hume. It reached a fourth edition in two years and a half.
Forbes's Beattie, p. 134. Strahan in 1783, when Hume was no
longer living, published Beattie's Dissertations. Ib. p. 301.
Note 6. This is the word that Hume had used (ante, p. 263).
Note 7. See ante, p. 263.
Note 8. See ante, p. 253.
Note 9. See ante, p. 256.
Note 10. Just one month later Boswell records : — ' On Monday,
April 19, Dr. Johnson called on me with Mrs. Williams, in Mr.
Strahan's coach, and carried me out to dine with Mr. Elphinston
[Strahan's brother-in-law] at his academy at Kensington. A printer
having acquired a fortune sufficient to keep his coach was a good
topic for the credit of literature.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 226.
LETTER LXXI.
An Apology to Strahan.
Edinburgh, 24M of March, 1773.
Dear S"
If my Letter surprizd you, I assure you yours no
less surprizd me ; and gave me no little Concern. You
know, that I have frequently accus'd you no less than
Mr. Millar and Mr. Cadell, of always representing the fair
side of things to me ^ ; and you have frequently remarkd
that I was totally incredulous concerning the Representa-
^ TAosvieWs Johnson, ii. 317.
LXXL] HUME'S JUSTIFICATION OF LYING. l-jl
tions you made me. If your End had been to circumvent
me, or take any Advantage of me to my Loss, you M'ould
have been very blamable. But as your Purpose plainly
was and coud be no other, than to put me in good humour
with the Public, and engage me into what must prove
both profitable and amusing to me, I thought the Crime
very venial ; as I told you in my Letter : And though I
wishd that the Truth had always been told me, I neither
was disobligd at you nor entertaind in the least a bad
opinion of you ^- On the contrary, there is no man of
whom I entertain a better, nor whose Friendship I desire
more to preserve, nor indeed any one to whom I have
owd more essential Obligations. You may judge then of
my Uneasyness when I found that I had unwittingly and
unwillingly given you so much Disgust. But how coud
you take it amiss, that I had told you in a Letter what I
had so often told you without offence by words? Your
protracting of this Edition, which you told me two Years
ago was demanded^, was a sure means of renewing my
former Jealousy. — But I shall not enter into any farther
Detail on this Subject which is needless : But what I
think extremely needful for my own Peace of Mind is to
renew my Professions of that Friendship and Esteem,
which I do and always will bear to you ; and to beg of
you very earnestly a Renewal of those Sentiments which
you always professd towards me, and whose Sincerity
I have seen in a hundred Instances. I do not remember
any Incident of my Life, that has given me more real
Concern, than your Misapprehension of me, which, I
hope, a little Reflection without any Explication on my
part woud have sufficd to remove. Sick People and
Children are often to be deceivd for their Good * ; and I
only suspected you of thinking that peevish Authors, such
as I confess I am, are in the same Predicament. Was the
reproaching you with this Idea, so great an Offence, or
273 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
SO heavy an Imputation upon your Faith and moral
Character? I again beg of you to be assurd of my
sincere Sentiments on this head, and entreat the Con-
tinuance or rather the Renewal of your Friendship; a
Word which I once hop'd woud never have enter'd into
our Correspondence^.
I am with great Truth & Regard Dear S"
Your most obedient humble Servant
David Hume.
Note I. See ante, pp. 138, 144, 150, 154.
Note 2. See ante, p. 217, n. 3, for the base advice which he gave to
a young clergyman. The indifference that Hume shows to truth
illustrates, though it does not justify, Lord Shelburne's harsh sa5ang
that ' the generality of Scotchmen had no regard to truth whatever.'
Fitzmaurice's Life of Shelburne, i. 89. Johnson limited this untruth-
fulness to their 'disposition to tell lies in favour of each other.'
Boswell's Johnson, ii. 296. Dr. A. Carlyle, who was a man of great
virtue, records without any sign of shame, a lie which he told in the
General Assembly of the year 1766, by which the House, which had
been disturbed by the sudden death of one of its members, was
composed, and went on with its voting. Though he knew that the
man was dead, he ' gave out that there were hopes of his recovery.'
Carlyle's Autobiography, p. 467.
Note 3. Strahan had written to Hume on March i, 1771 : — ' The
octavo edition of your History must undoubtedly soon be cleared.'
On May 25 of the same year he wrote, speaking of the new edition
which he was going to print : — ' If I am not mistaken, this book will
be wanted before this edition is finished.' M. S. R. S. E.
Note 4. ' I deny,' said Johnson, ' the lawfulness of telling a lie to
a sick man for fear of alarming him. You have no business with
consequences ; you are to tell the truth. Besides, you are not sure
what effect your telling him that he is in danger may have. It may
bring his distemper to a crisis, and that may cure him. Of all lying,
I have the greatest abhorrence of this, because I believe it has been
frequently practised on myself Boswell's Johnson, iv. 306. Miss
Burney heard George III in one of his attacks of madness say : — ' I
am nervous, I am not ill, but I am nervous ; if you would know what
is the matter with me, I am nervous. But I love you both very well,
if you would tell me truth. I love Dr. Heberden best, for he has not
told me a lie ; Sir George [Baker] has told me a lie — a white lie, he
says, but I hate a white lie ! If you will tell me a lie, let it be a black
lie.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, ed. 1842, iv. 289. See ante, p. 217, n. 3,
for a passage in which Johnson insists on the importance of ac-
LXXII.] THE INDIA HOUSE. 373
customing children to a strict attention to truth ; and ante, p. 156,
where Hume declares himself ' a good Casuist.'
Note 5. Johnson also had a difference with Strahan, that lasted from
March till the end of July, 1778, when he wrote to him ; —
'Sir,
' It would be very foolish for us to continue strangers any longer.
You can never by persistency make wrong right. If I resented too
acrimoniously, I resented only to yourself. Nobody ever saw or
heard what I wrote. You saw that my anger was over, for in a day
or two I came to your house. I have given you longer time ; and I
hope you have made so good use of it as to be no longer on evil terms
with. Sir,
' Your &c.,
' Sam. Johnson.'
' On this,' said Mr. Strahan, ' I called upon him ; and he has since
dined with me.' Boswell's Johnson, iii. 364.
What eifect Hume's letter had on Strahan there is nothing to show.
There seems however to have been an interruption in their corre-
spondence for ten months.
LETTER LXXII.
Colonel Stuari and the India House.
St. Andrews Square, 25 ofjany.^ 1774.
Dear Strahan
I write to you in a great hurry and with great
Earnestness : It is to beg your Vote and Interest in the
India house for Coll. Stuart, Brother to our Friend,
Andrew^, whose Appointment to command in Bombay
is in danger of being over-haul'd by the Court of Pro-
prietors ^. This woud be a most invidious Measure, very
cruel to the Collonel' and all his Friends. I know that on
Andrew's Account, you woud interest yourself against it ;
but as he thinks, that my Entreaties woud add something
to your Zeal, I hereby join them in the most earnest
manner, tho' indeed rather to satisfy him, than that I think
they will be any- wise necessary ^,
I am &c.
David Hume,
274 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Note I. See ante, p. 239, n. 9.
Note 2. The Home Government of the East India Company
consisted at this time of a Court of Proprietors, and a Court of
Directors elected by the Proprietors. Four Courts of Proprietors, or
General Courts, were held regularly in each year. The quaUfication
for a vote in the Court of Proprietors was raised by Lord North's
Regulating Act of 1773 from ^500 to ^1000 of stock. ' According to
the Constitution the supreme power was vested in the Court of Pro-
prietors. ... To act under their ordinances and manage the business
of routine was the department reserved for the Court of Directors.
. . . Nevertheless all power has centered in the Court of Directors,
and the government of the Company has been an oligarchy in fact.
So far from meddling too much, the Court of Proprietors have not
attended to the common affairs even sufficiently for the business of
inspection.' Mill's Hist, of British India, ed. 1858, iii. 2, 348.
Note 3. ' Feb. 1, 1774. The following question was at a General
Court of Proprietors of East India Stock determined by ballot : —
" That it is the opinion of this Court, that it be recommended to the
Court of Directors to appoint Col. Robert Gordon Commander-in-
Chief of the Forces at the Presidency of Bombay, by rescinding the
late appointment of Col. Stuart to that command."
For the question 347 ) 111 ■ v >
Against it . . 192 ) J J 55-
Gent. Mag. 1774, p. 90.
Colonel Stuart therefore lost his appointment ; but the following letter
about him from Andrew Stuart to Hume, dated July 10, 1775, seems
to show that he was not long in receiving another : — ' It is still in the
power of a General Court of Proprietors to overturn what has been
established by the Court of Directors with so much unanimity. . . . We
have every reason to believe that in a Court of Proprietors we should
now carry the point by a very splendid majority.' M. S. R. S. E. I
cannot find that this time any adverse vote was taken in the Court of
Proprietors.
LETTER LXXIJI.
The Law of Copyright.
[Spring of 1774.]
Dear S'"
I have writ you an ostensible Letter on the Subject
of hterary Property, which contains my real Sentiments,
so far as it goes. However, I shall tell you the truth ; I
do not forsee any such bad Consequences as you mention
LXXIIL] THE LAW OF COPYRIGHT. 275
from laying the Property open'^. The Itahans^ and French
have more pompous ^ Editions of their Classics since the
Expiration of the Privileges than any we have of ours :
And at least, every Bookseller, who prints a Book, will
endeavour to make it as compleat and correct as he can.
But when I said, that I thought Lord Mansfield's Decision
founded on a vain Subtlely *, I did not consider the matter
in that Light, but only on a simple Consideration of the
Act of Q. Anne. The Essay ^ I mentioned is not so con-
siderable as to [be] printed apart ; yet any pyrated Edition
woud be reckond incompleat that did not contain it.
Yours
D. H.
Note I. On Feb. 22, 1774, a decision was given in the House of
Lords on the question of literary property or copyright, by which, to
use the words of the Annual Register (xvii. i. 95), ' Near ^200,000
worth of what was honestly purchased at public sale, and which was
yesterday thought property, is now reduced to nothing. . . . The
English booksellers have now no other security in future for any
literary purchase they may make but the statute of the 8th of Queen
Anne, which secures to the author's assigns an exclusive property
for 14 years, to revert again to the author, and vest in him for 14
years more.' Boswell tells how an Edinburgh bookseller, Alexander
Donaldson by name, ' had for some years opened a shop in
London, and sold his cheap editions of the most popular English
books, in defiance of the supposed common-law right of Literary
Property.' Boswell's Johnson, i. 437. How strictly this copyright
had been maintained is shown in the judgment pronounced by Lord
Camden, who says : — ' Shakespeare's works, which he left carelessly
behind him in town when he retired from it, were surely given to the
public if ever author's were ; but two prompters, or players behind
the scenes, laid hold of them, and the present proprietors pretend to
derive that copy from them, for which the author himself never
received a farthing.' Pari. Hist. xvii. 1000. William Johnston, a
retired bookseller, in the evidence which he gave two or three weeks
later before a Committee of the House of Commons, said that he had
held in whole or in part the copyright of Camden's Britannia, Dry-
den's Works, Locke's Works, and Steele's Tatler, and that, by the
threat of filing a bill in Chancery, he had restrained a Coventry
bookseller from publishing an edition of The Pilgrim's Progress,
lb. p. 1082. Lord Cainden, who as Chancellor for some years enjoyed
T 2
276 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
an income which was reclconed at ^13,000 a year-, took a very
lofty view of the position of authors. ' Glory (he said) is the reward
of science, and those who deserve it scorn all meaner views. I speak
not of the scribblers for bread, who teaze the press with their
wretched productions ; fourteen years is too long a privilege for their
perishable trash. It was not for gain that Bacon, Newton, Milton,
Locke instructed and delighted the world ; it would be unworthy such
men to trafSc with a dirty bookseller for so much a sheet of a letter-
press.' lb. p. 1000. Dunning (afterwards Lord Ashburton), ' the great
lawyer,' as Johnson called him '*, in his speech for the booksellers had
said : — ' Authors formerly, when there were few readers, might get
but small prices for their labour ; that however had not of late years
been the case. Hume's History of England and Dr. Robertson's
History of Scotland had been amply paid for. . . . How was this
difference to be accounted for .' Not from any uncommon generosity
in the booksellers, not from any superiority in point of merit in the
books, but from the idea of a common-law right prevailing, and from
that idea being established by the determination of the Court of
King's Bench in the case of Millar v. Taylor.' lb. p. 967. I suspect
that the Whig ex-Chancellor Camden, when he sneered at those
authors 'who traffic with a dirty bookseller,' aimed a blow, which was
not too covert to be seen, at the Tory historian, David Hume, and
perhaps at the Tory King's-Printer, William Strahan.
The booksellers and authors had been 'hoist with their own petar.'
Up to the passing of the statute of Anne they had by common law a
perpetual copyright. That Act was passed, not to limit their right,
but to give them additional powers for enforcing it. In ' one of the
Cases given to the Members in 1709 in support of their application for
a bill,' it was stated : — ' . . . By common law a bookseller can recover
no more costs than he can prove damage : But it is impossible for
him to prove the tenth, nay perhaps the hundredth part of the
damage he suffers ; because a thousand counterfeit copies may be
dispersed into as many different hands all over the kingdom, and he
not be able to prove the sale of ten. Besides, the defendant is always
a pauper ; and so the plaintiff must lose his costs of suit. Therefore
the only remedy by the common law is to confine a beggar to the
Rules of the King's Bench or Fleet ; and there he will continue the
evil practice with impunity. We therefore pray that confiscation of
counterfeit copies be one of the penalties to be inflicted on offenders.'
Burrow's Reports of Cases in the Court of King's Bench, iv. 2318. In
the preamble to the Act we read :— ' Whereas printers .... have
of late frequently taken the liberty of printing . . , . books and other
writings, without the consent of the authors or proprietors of such
books and writings, to their very great detriment, and too often to
the ruin of them and their families ; for preventing therefore such
* Walpole's Memoirs of George III, iv. 45.
' 'SosweWs Johnson, iii. 128.
LXXIIL] THE LAW OF COPYRIGHT, 277
practices for the future, and for the encouragement of learned men
to compose and write useful books,' &c. Statutes at Large, xii. 82.
Blackstone, in the first edition of the second volume of his
Commentaries published in 1766, says : — ' But exclusive of such copy-
right as may subsist by the rules of the common law, the statute
8 Anne c. 19 hath protected by additional penalties the property of
authors and their assigns for the term of fourteen years ; and hath
directed that, if at the end of that term the author himself be living,
the right shall then return to him for another term of the same
duration.' ii. 407.
The booksellers do not seem to have made much use of the new
Act, but to have had recourse, as before, to the Court of Chancery.
William Johnston, in his examination before the Committee, ' being
asked why it was not the custom of those who are possessed of copy-
right to enter them in the books of the Stationers' Company ? He
said, he could only answer for himself, that he never thought the
penalties prescribed by the Act of the eighth of Queen Anne
were worth contending for, as a much shorter and more complete
relief might be had by filing a bill in Chancery.' Pari. Hist. xvii. 1085.
It was not till the year 1769 that in the case of Andrew Millar v.
Robert Taylor 'the old and often litigated question concerning
literary property received a determination in the Court of King's
Bench.' Burrow's Reports, iv. 2303. Taylor had reprinted Thomson's
Seasons, of which Millar had bought the various copyrights between
the years 1727-9. Millar laid his damages at ^{^200. The Jury brought
in a special verdict, assessing the damages at one shilling with forty
shillings cost. The Lord Chief Justice Mansfield and Justices Willes
and Aston held that the perpetual copyright had not been taken
away by the Statute of Anne. Justice Yates differed from them.
Lord Mansfield prefaced his judgment by a statement which may
well excite our wonder. He had now presided over his Court for
more than twelve years, yet he was able to say: — 'This is the first
instance of a final difference of opinion in this Court, since I sat
here. Every order, rule, judgment and opinion has hitherto been
unanimous.' 'This,' says the Editor, 'gives weight and dispatch to
the decisions, certainty to the law, and infinite satisfaction to the
suitors. And the effect is seen by that immense business which
flows from all parts into this channel ; and which we who have long
known Westminster Hall behold with astonishment.' Burrow's
Reports, iv. 2395.
By this decision the claim of the booksellers for a perpetual
copyright seemed to be established ; but the matter came before
the House of Lords in the case of Donaldsons v. Becket and others,
upon an appeal from a decree of the Court of Chancery founded
upon this judgment. lb. p. 2408. There they found to their dismay
that the very weapon which their predecessors had forged against
their enemies threatened them now with what in their first alarm
278 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
seemed almost a deadly wound. They at once began to take
measures to protect their property. On Feb. 28 they presented a
petition to the House of Commons praying for relief. A Committee
was appointed to take evidence, and on their report leave to bring in
a Copy-right Bill was carried by 54 to 16. Burke was a teller for
the majority and Fox for the minority. The smallness of the
numbers seems to show great indifference to literature on the part
of the members. The Bill was carried through the Commons, the
highest total number on any division being 83, and Fox being per-
sistent and violent in his opposition. It was lost in the Lords by 21
to II. Pari. Hist. xvii. 1077, 1089, 1402. Burke, in one of his
speeches, said : — ' The learned advocate has told us that glory is
the only reward sought by the Scotch booksellers ; let them have
their glory, — let the petitioners have [their] property — we will not
quarrel about terms.' lb. p. 1102. Very likely the ' ostensible letter'
of which Hume speaks is the one mentioned by Mr. Mansfield, one
of the counsel for the London booksellers; who at the bar of the
House of Commons, on May 13, said : — ' I have by me letters of
Mr. Hume, Dr. Robertson, &c., containing the warmest wishes to the
petitioners, lamenting the late decision of the House of Peers as
fatal to literature, and hoping that the booksellers might get speedy
relief.' lb. 1098.
In the Act of Anne there was a provision which I have not seen
anjrwhere noticed. A Court of Arbitration was established in case
' any bookseller shall set a price upon any book as shall be conceived
by any person to be too high and unreasonable.' The Court was to be
composed of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Chancellor, Bishop
of London, the two Chief Justices, Chief Baron, Vice-Chancellors
of Oxford and Cambridge, Lord President of the Sessions, Lord
Justice General, Lord Chief Baron, and the Rector of the College
of Edinburgh. They were to have ' full power to limit and settle the
price of books from time to time, according to the best of their judg-
ments, and as to them shall seem just and reasonable.' Statutes at
Large, xii. 84. This provision was repealed by 12 G. II. c. 36. Bur-
row's Reports, iv. 2390.
Note 2. Baretti in his Account of Manners and Customs of Italy,
published in 1768, says : — ' It is the general custom for our authors
to make a present of their works to booksellers, who in return
scarcely give a few copies when printed. . . . Our learned stare when
they are told that in England there are numerous writers who get
their bread by their productions only.' vol. i. p. 236. He was, he
said, ' the first man that ever received copy-money in Italy.' Boswell's
Johnson, iii. 162.
Note 3. Pompous still retained the meaning of 'splendid, mag-
nificent, grand ' ; to adopt Johnson's definition. In his Rasselas
(Clarendon Press ed. p. no) he says: — 'The most pompous monu-
ment of Egyptian greatness . . . are the Pyramids.'
LXXIII.] THE LAW OF COPYRIGHT. 279
Note 4. Hume must, be speaking of the judgment delivered by
Lord Mansfield in the Court of King's Bench in the case of Millar v.
Taylor, for he declined speaking on the appeal ; ' it being very
unusual, from reasons of delicacy, for a peer to support his own
judgment upon an appeal to the House of Lords.' Burrow's Reports,
iv. 2417. Lord Camden, in attacking the arguments maintained on
the side of the booksellers, talks of the ' variety of subtle reasoning
and metaphysical refinements, by which they have endeavoured to
squeeze out the spirit of the common law from premises in which
it could not possibly have existence.' Pari. Hist. xvii. 992. He
adds : — ' I pass over the flimsy supposition of an implied contract
between the bookseller who sells, and the public which buys the
printed copy ; it is a notion as unmeaning in itself as it is void of
a legal foundation.' lb. p. 1000. There had been 'subtle reasoning
and metaphysical refinements' on both sides. Mr. Justice Aston
said : — ' It has been ingeniously, metaphysically, and subtilly argued
on the part of the Defendant, " That there is a want of property in the
thing itself."' Burrow's Reports, iv. 2336. Mr. Justice Yates had
asked : — ' Now where are the indicia or distinguishing marks of ideas ?
What distinguishing marks can a man fix upon a set of intellectual
ideas, so as to call himself the proprietor of them ? They have no
ear-marks upon them ; no tokens of a particular proprietor.' lb. p. 2366.
To this Lord Mansfield replied : — ' If the copy belongs to an Author
after publication, it certainly belonged to him before. But if it
does not belong to him after, where is the Common Law to be found
which says " there is such a property before " ? All the metaphysical
subtilties from the nature of the thing may be equally objected to the
property before. It is incorporeal : It relates to ideas detached from
any physical existence. There are no indicia : Another may have
had the same thoughts upon the same subject, and expressed them
in the same language verbatim,' &c. lb. p. 2397. Johnson, who all
along held that there was no such common-law right of literary
property as was supposed, nevertheless 'was very angry that
the booksellers of London, for whom he uniformly professed much
regard, should suffer from an invasion of what they had ever con-
sidered to be secure ; and he was loud and violent against Mr.
Donaldson. "He is a fellow who takes advantage of the law to
injure his brethren ; for, notwithstanding that the statute secures
only fourteen years of exclusive right, it has always been understood
by the trade, that he who buys the copyright of a book from the
author obtains a perpetual property ; and upon that belief numberless
bargains are made to transfer that property after the expiration of
the statutory term." ' Boswell's Johnson, i. 437. The London book-
sellers protected themselves by an 'honorary copyright, which,'
wrote Boswell in 1791, 'is still preserved among them by mutual
compact.' lb. iii. 370.
Note 5. See ppsty where Hume in his letter of June 8, 1776,
3 So LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
says : — ' Two posts ago I sent you a Copy of the small Essay whieh
I mentioned.' No doubt this Essay is the one entitled Of the Origin
of Government, which first appears in the edition of 1777. Hume's
Philosophical Works, ed. 1854, iii. 34.
LXXIV.
Dr. Wallace^ s Manuscript: Lord Karnes's Sketches.
St. Andrews Square, 2 of April, 'i-Tj^.
Dear Sir
There is a Subject which I was desird to mention
to you, but which I delay'd, till your Application to Parlia-
ment were finishd, that you might know on what footing
your literary Property was to stand ^ : It is with regard to
Dr. Wallace's manuscript, which was certainly finishd for
the Press and which I think a very good Book ^ : I told his
Son about four or five months ago, before the Decision of
the House of Peers, that he ought not to expect above 500
pounds for it ; and he has return 'd so far to my Sentiments,
as to leave the Matter entirely to me; I shoud wish to
know, therefore, what you think you cou'd afford. I
imagine this Decision will not very much alter the Value
of literary Property: For if you coud, by a tacite con-
vention among yourselves^, make a Property of the
Dauphin's Virgil, without a single Line in Virgil's hand,
or Ruaeus's or the Dauphin's *, I see not why you may not
keep Possession of all your Books as before. However,
this Decision throws you into some Uncertainty, and you
may be cautious for some time in entering on any con-
siderable Purchase.
Lord Kaims's Sketches® have here been published
some weeks ; and by the Reception it has met with, is not
likely to be very popular, according to the prodigiously
sanguine Expectations of the Author. But after his
Elements of Criticism® met with some Success, I shall
LXXIV.] DR. ROBERT WALLACE. 381
never venture to make any Prophecy on that head. I
am glad to hear, that in your Bargain with him, you had a
saving Clause to ensure you against Loss^. Cou'd any
such Clause be devis'd with regard to Dr. Wallace's
Book? In the mean time, I ask 500 pounds for it*; as
you desire that a positive Demand shoud always be made,
which is indeed but reasonable. It is about half the Size
of Lord Kaims's Sketches ; and is better writ
I am Dear S'' yours sincerely
David Hume.
Note I. See ante, p. 275, n. i. Hume seems to think that as such
feeble opposition had been shown when the Copyright Bill was
brought in, it was certain to be carried. I cannot find what was the
length of time during which the booksellers claimed that the ex-
clusive property in a book should continue. Leave was moved to
bring in a Bill ' for relief of booksellers and others, by vesting the
copies of printed books in the purchasers of such copies from authors
or their assigns, /or a time therein to he limited.' Pari. Hist. xvii. 1086.
Note 2. The Rev. Dr. Robert Wallace published in 1752 Disser-
tations on the Populousness of Mankind in Ancient and Modern Times,
as a reply to Hume's Essay of the Populousness of Ancient Nations.
Hume describes it as ' an answer full of politeness, erudition, and
good sense.' Phil. Works, ed. 1854, iii. 410. ' Malthus admitted that
Dr. Wallace was the first to point distinctly to the rule, that to find
the limits of the populousness of any given community, we must look
at the quantity of food at its disposal.' Burton's Hume, i. 364. He is
mentioned in Humphry Clinker (ed. 1792, iii. 6) as one of ' the authors
of the first distinction,' of which Edinburgh that ' hot^bed of genius '
could boast, and in Dr. A. Carlyle's Autobiography (p. 239) as having
had a great part in establishing in Scotland the Ministers' Widows'
Fund. By one of the letters of his son, George Wallace, in the
Barker MSS. I learn that the work which he had left finished at his
death was a Treatise on Taste. Though a minister of the Scotch
Church he had even written notes on Gallini's Treatise on Dancing.
Home's Works, i. 17. Ramsay of Ochtertyre says that soon after
Wallace became a preacher somebody ' in a large company of Episco-
palians regretted so genteel a young man should be a Presbyterian
minister. " Oh," said George Home of Argaty ; " that puts me in
mind of what I heard a wife say t'other day to her neighbour, on her
regretting that a handsome lad should be made a town-officer — ' Have
a little patience ; ere seven years he will be as ill-looking as the
worst-favoured of them.' " So low was their opinion of Presbyterian
accomplishments.' Scotland and Scotsmen, ii. 552.
28 a LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter-
Note 3. For this ' tacit convention,' or ' honorary copyright/ see
ante, p. 279, n. 4. The witnesses against the Copyright Bill com-
plained that ' they were not admitted to the Booksellers' sales.' Pari.
Hist. xvii. 1093.
Note 4. The title-page of the Delphine Virgil is as follows : — P. Vir-
gilii Maronis Opera. Interpretatione et Notis illustravit Carolus Ruceus,
Soc. Jesu. Jussu Christianissimi Regis, ad Usum Serenissinti Delphini.
For Ruseus— Charles De La Rue — see Chalmers's Biog. Did. xxvi.
454. According to Lowndes, Bibl. Man., ed. 1871, p. 2776, the first
English edition of the Delphine Virgil was puljlished in 1686. It
was frequently reprinted. W. Johnston the bookseller, in his
examination before the Committee of the House of Commons {ante,
p. 275, n. x), ' being asked, whether he did not claim a copyright in
some of the editions of the classics In Usum Delphini, said, No such
right was ever claimed, so as to exclude any other person who chose
to print them ; that he had purchased the right of printing in part
some of those classics, but never supposed that right protected by
any law, nor considered it in any other manner than as the purchase
of an honorary right, which he explained to be a maxim held by the
trade not to reprint upon the first proprietor.' Pari. Hist. xvii. 1079.
By ' a single line in Virgil's hand ' &c. Hume clearly means in his
handwriting.
Note 5. Sketches of the History of Man. Johnson criticised some
statements in it. See Boswell's Johnson, iii. 340, 351.
Note 6. ' Johnson. " The Scotchman has taken the right method
in his Elements of Criticism. I do not mean that he has taught us
anything ; but he has told us old things in a new way.'' Murphy.
" He seems to have read a great deal of French criticism, and wants
to make it his own ; as if he had been for years anatomising the
heart of man, and peeping into every cranny of it." Goldsmith.
" It is easier to write that book than to read it." ' Boswell's Johnson,
ii. 89. At an earlier time Johnson had said of it : — ' Sir, this book is
a pretty essay, and deserves to be held in some estimation, though
much of it is chimerical.' lb. i. 393. George Wallace told Boswell
that when Charles Townshend read it, he said : — ' This is the work
of a dull man grown whimsical.' Boswelliana, p. 278.
Lord Cockburn in his Memorials, p. 117, describes Kames as 'an
indefatigable and speculative, but coarse man. When he tried Mat-
thew Hay, with whom he used to play at chess, for murder, he
exclaimed, when the verdict of guilty was returned, " That's check-
mate to you, Matthew." ' According to Ramsay of Ochtertyre, ' Lord
Elibank, Lord Kames, and Mr. David Hume were considered as
a literary triumvirate, from whose judgment, in matters of taste and
composition, there lay no appeal.' Scotland and Scotsmen, i. 319.
Note 7. The Sketches sold too well for any loss to be incurred.
They passed through several editions.
Note 8. The success not only of himself and Robertson, but of
LXXV.] AUTHORS AND BOOKSELLERS. 383
such authors as Blair, Sir John Dalrymple, John Home, Adam Fer-
guson, and Macpherson, seems to have made Hume think that there
was scarcely any limit set to the price that ' the factious barbarians '
of the South would pay an author, if only he had the good luck to be
born north of the Tweed, and had taken the trouble to ' unscottify '
his diction.
[Strahan to Hume.J
LETTER LXXV.
Bargains between Authors and Booksellers.
April <), 175-4'.
D« Sir
I am favoured with yours in regard to Dr. Wallace's
book, to which I know not what to say in reply. It may
probably be worth the money demanded for it, for anything
I know to the contrary, because I have not seen a syllable of
it ; but when I consider the subject, the nature of which is not
very saleable, and the character of the Author, who though
a man of most excellent dispositions, and good abilities, never
in his lifetime produced anything that was so received by the
public, as could in any manner justify such a price as £500 for
a work of his, of the size of a small quarto volume, I cannot
hesitate a moment to decline the purchase. — What was got by
his Essay on the Numbers of Mankind I know not ; but his
Characteristics of Great Britain"^ Mr. Millar and I bought for
£30, and I believe we did not make £10 of it. Not that I mean
to undervalue the present performance ; but when I have no
other guide to go by, it is natural enough to reason from
analogy, and to estimate one work by former publications of the
same writer. The prices demanded, and indeed given of late
for copies ', hath had a most strange effect upon our present
Authors, as every one is abundantly apt to compare his own
merit with his contemporaries, of which he cannot be supposed
to be an impartial judge. — Mr. G. Wallace carries this idea
farther, and asserts what to me is the greatest of all paradoxes,
viz. 'That little will ever be made by any work for which
much is not given.' — I wish I could not produce so capital
an exception to this rule * as Hawkesworth's Voyages ; the
284 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME, [Letter
event of which purchase, if it does not cure Authors of their
delirium, I am sure will have the proper effect upon book-
sellers ". — I will not take into the account the present uncertain
state of literary property in general. There is no occasion for
it. The simple question here is, Is it likely that 2000 of this
book will sell in a few years at the price of a guinea bound ;
because unless that number are likely to be disposed of at that
price, it can never bear so large as sum as £500*.
As for Lord Kaimes's book, neither Mr. Cadell nor I had any
hand in the purchase. It was entirely transacted between his
Lordship and Mr. Creech'. But the saving clause removed
every objection to our having a concern in it, as we had no
trouble about it ; but in the present case, to agree to give £500,
even with a saving clause, would be undertaking all the trouble
attending the publication with a moral certainty of getting
nothing for our pains. After all, I wish not, neither does
Mr. Cadell, to undervalue any man's performance, so it is
better, perhaps, to decline it in our Names altogether, without
giving the Reasons above assigned. — Or if you please, as
Mr. G. Wallace's expectations from the book were so sanguine
that he conceived hopes of getting £2000 for it, we will print it,
run all risk of paper, print, etc., and give him half the neat *
profits : and as in this way, it will be evidently our own interest
to promote the sale, he need not doubt our doing everything in
our power to promote it '.
Lord Kaimes's book will be published here next week, and
1 doubt not but it will sell. It is light summer reading, and
not unsuitable to the taste of the present times. It is not the
intrinsic merit of any work that ensures the sale; but many
other circumstances which men of true judgment and solid
learning are apt to overlook '".
Our Literary Property Bill will be brought in next week, as
soon as the parliament reassembles. We hope at least to get
something. I wrote to Dr. Robertson for his sentiments above
a fortnight ago, but have yet received no answer, which I
wonder at ".
I am ever, with the most sincere Esteem, dear Sir,
Yours etc.
The Delphin Classics are of that species of books that will
never be pirated, and would indeed never be printed in Britain
LXXV.] COPYRIGHT NOT ALWAYS NEEDED. 385
at all, unless by a large company of booksellers, faithful to one
another, by whose joint trade an impression may be sold off in
a reasonable time, so as to indemnify them for the expense,
with some little profit'". — For such books we want no pro-
tection ; nor for large works, voluminous Dictionaries, School
books, etc., which no interloper will ever meddle with ; but for
your light and more saleable productions, of two or three
volumes in V2fi.. the profit on which is sure, and the risk
small, the charge of an impression amounting to a small
sum.
If your commendations of Henry's History are well founded,
is not his work an exception to your own general rule, that no
good book was ever wrote for money"?
Note I. It is strange that Strahan makes no mention of Gold-
smith's death, which had taken place five days earlier. I cannot find
any mention of Goldsmith by Hume.
Note 2. Characteristics of the Present Political State of Great Britain.
London, 1758. Gent. Mag. 1758, p. 135.
Note 3. By ' copies ' Strahan means ' the copyright of books still
in manuscript.' See ante, p. 266, n. 5, for the ;^20oo paid to Sir John
Dalrymple for his Memoirs. Compared with this the .^3400 paid to
Robertson for his Charles F seems moderate (ante, p. 14, n. i).
Note 4. Strahan's logic is at fault. It is no exception to the rule
laid down by Wallace to show that a work for which much was given
produced little. All that he asserted was, that a great gain can only
be made by a great outlay. He did not maintain that every great
outlay will produce a great gain.
Note 5. Malone says that ' Hawkesworth was introduced by Gar-
rick to Lord Sandwich [the First Lord of the Admiralty], who,
thinking to put a few hundred pounds into his pocket, appointed him
to revise and publish Cook's Voyages. He scarcely did anything to
the MS., yet sold it to Cadell and Strahan for ^6000.' Prior's Life of
Malone, p. 441. It had been published the year before in 3 vols.
quarto, at a price of three guineas. Gent. Mag. 1773, p. 286. Thurlow,
in speaking against the Copyright Bill on March 24, 1774, said ' that
Hawkesworth's book, which was a mere composition of trash, sold
for three guineas by the booksellers' monopolizing.' Pari. Hist. xvii.
p. 1086. Charles Darwin for the first edition of his Naturalists Voyage
round the World ' received payment only in the form of a large number
of presentation copies ; he seems to have been glad to sell the copy-
right of the second edition to Mr. Murray for .^150.' Life of Darwin,
ed. 1887, i. 337.
Note 6. Gavin Hamilton, the Edinburgh bookseller, in his letter
286 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
about the first volume of Hume's History, says : — ' The book will sell
at fifteen shillings bound, or ten shillings to booksellers in sheets.'
In a calculation which he makes he reduces the ten shillings to nine,
and then says that there will remain ^400 profit to the author and
£■2.00 to the publisher. Ante, p. 3. At this same rate a book sold
bound at a guinea would produce ;^56o profit to the author and
;^28o to the publisher. The calculations therefore of Hamilton and
Strahan do not differ much. See Boswell's Johnson, ii. 424, for an
interesting letter by Johnson on the book-trade.
Note 7. Lord Cockburn in his Memorials, pp. 108, 169, describes
' the famous shop of William Creech, the bookseller. Its position in
the very tideway of all our business made it the natural resort of
lawyers, authors, and all sorts of literary idlers, who were always
buzzing about the convenient hive. All who wished to see a poet or
a stranger, or to hear the public news, the last joke by Erskine, or
yesterday's occurrence in the Parliament-House, or to get the publica-
tion of the day or newspapers — all congregated there ; lawyers,
doctors, clergymen, and authors.'
Burns celebrated him in Verses written at Selkirk. In the last stanza
but one he says : —
' May I be slander's common speech ;
A text for infamy to preach ;
And lastly streekit out to bleach
In winter snaw;
When I forget thee ! Willie Creech,
Tho' far awa.'
Note 8. Johnson defines neat in its third meaning as 'pure, un-
adulterated, unmingled : in the cant of trade.' The only instance
he gives of its use is as applied to liquors. He does not give' the
word under its modern spelling, net.
Note 9. George Wallace, writing to Strahan on Sept. 23 of this
year, says : — ' I have caused a skilful person to make an accurate
computation to assist me in judging of the value of the book. . .
Probably it will swell to 500 pages, and might be decently sold
to gentlemen at a guinea. By the computation each copy costs 3s. ■^d.
prime, and if sold to the trade at 15s., an impression consisting of
1000 copies would fetch .£580 of profit or thereby, of which I am
told I ought to get about ;^400. The deuce is in it, if after Kaims's
Elements have come to & fifth edition, three have sold of Ferguson's
Society, and three of Macpherson's History, one shall not sell of this
Treatise.' Barker MSS.
Note 10. ' We talked of the uncertainty of profit with which
authors and booksellers engage in the publication of literary works.
Johnson. " My judgment I have found is no certain rule as to the sale
of a book." ' Boswell's Johnson, iv. 121.
Note II. Dr. Robertson must have written his 'sentiments' soon
after : for Mr. Mansfield at the bar of the House of Commons and
LXXVL] STRAHAN'S INFLUENCE SOUGHT. 287
Lord Lyttelton in the House of Lords each said that he had a letter
from him. Pari. Hist. xvii. 1098, 1400.
Note 12. By such ' a company of booksellers ' — eight in number —
was Johnson's Dictionary published. Boswell's Johnson, i. 183. It
was a company ' of about forty of the most respectable booksellers in
London' who undertook the publication of the Lives of the Poets,
lb. iii. III.
Note 13. I do not know where Hume lays down this general rule.
It is the very opposite of Johnson's, that ' no man but a blockhead
ever wrote except for money.' Boswell's Johnson, iii. 19.
LETTER LXXVI.
Dr. Wight and Dr. Trail: Folly of the War with the
Colonies: Dr. Reid and Dr. Beattie.
Edinburgh, id of Octr., 1775.
Dear S""
I have often regreted the Interruption of our Cor-
respondence ' : But when you ceas'd to be a speculative
Pohtician and became a practical one ^, I coud no longer
expect you woud be so communicative or impartial as
formerly on that head ; and my object with regard to
Authorship, was, for a time, at an End. The Reason of
the present Trouble is of a different kind : Dr. Trail ^, the
Professor of Divinity at Glasgow, is dead ; and Dr. Wight,
the present Professor of Church History, is a Candidate
for the Office : The Place is filled by a Vote of the Pro-
fessors : You are understood to have great Influence
with Wilson, the Professor of Astronomy * : And I in-
terest myself extremely in Dr. Wight's Success ^ : These
are my Reasons for writing to you. But I must also tell
you my Reasons for interesting myself so much in Dr.
Wight's Behalf He is a particular Friend of mine : He
is very much connected with all mine and your particular
Friends in the Church^: He is a very gentleman-hke
agreeable Man : And above all, he is (without which I
•shoud not interest myself for him) a very sound and
a88 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
orthodox Divine. The case of Dr. Trail, (his predecessor,
as I hope) was somewhat particular with regard to
Orthodoxy : He was very laudably a declar'd Enemy to
all Heretics, Socinians, Arians, Anti-trinitarians, Arminians,
Erastians, Sabellians, Pelagians, Semi-pelagians : In short,
of every Sect, whose Name terminated in ian '', except
Presbyterian, to whom he had a declar'd and passionate
Attachment. He said, that it signify'd nothing to pick out
a little straggling Absurdity, here and there, from the
System ; while the whole immense Chaos, sufficient to
over-whelm Heaven and Earth, still remain'd entire, and
must still remain. But in Prosecution of these Views
(which one cannot much blame) he mix'd a little of the
Acrimony of his own Temper ; and, perhaps undesignedly,
sent away all the Students of Divinity very zealous Bigots,
which had a very bad Effect on the Clergy of that Neigh-
bourhood *. Now, I shall answer for Dr. Wight, that his
Pupils shall have all the Orthodoxy, without the Bigotry,
instill'd into them by his Predecessor. I believe Dr.
Robertson will write you on the same Subject ; and I beg
you woud not lose any time in applying to Mr. Wilson,
in case he shoud take any other Engagements, tho we do
not yet hear of any other Candidate.
I must, before we part, have a little Stroke of Politics
with you, notwithstanding my Resolution to the contrary.
We hear that some of the Ministers have propos'd in
Council, that both Fleet and Army be withdrawn from
America, and these Colonists be left entirely to them-
selves". I wish I had been a Member of His Majesty's
Cabinet Council, that I might have seconded this Opinion.
I shoud have said, that this Measure only anticipates the
necessary Course of Events a few Years ; that a forced
and every day more precarious Monopoly of about 6 or
700,000 Pounds a year of Manufactures i", was not worth
contending for ; that we shoud preserve the greater part
LXXVL] WAR WITH AMERICA A FOLLY. 289
of this Trade even if the Ports of America were open to
all Nations; that it was very likely, in our method of
proceeding, that we shoud be disappointed in our Scheme
of conquering the Colonies " ; and that we ought to think
beforehand how we were to govern them, after they were
conquer'd. Arbitrary Power can extend its oppressive
Arm to the Antipodes; but a limited Government can
never long be upheld at a distance, even where no Dis-
gusts have interven'd ^^ : Much less, where such violent
Animosities have taken place. We must, therefore, annul
all the Charters ^^; abolish every democratical Power
in every Colony; repeal the Habeas Corpus Act with
regard to them; invest every Governor with full dis-
cretionary or arbitrary Powers ; confiscate the Estates of
all the chief Planters " ; and hang three fourths of their
Clergy ^^- To execute such Acts of destructive Violence
twenty thousand Men will not be sufficient; nor thirty
thousand to maintain them, in so wide and disjointed a
Territory^". And who are to pay so great an Army?
The Colonists cannot at any time, much less after re-
ducing them to such a State of Desolation : We ought
not, and indeed cannot, in the over-loaded or rather over-
whelm'd and totally ruin'd State of our Finances ". Let
us, therefore, lay aside all Anger ; shake hands, and part
Friends ". Or if we retain any anger, let it only be
against ourselves for our past Folly; and against that
wicked Madman, Pitt ; who has reducd us to our present
Condition "- Dixi ^''.
But we must not part, without my also saying some-
thing as an Author. I have not yet thrown up so much
all Memory of that Character. There is a short Adver-
tisement ^^ which I wish I had prefix'd to the second
Volume of the Essays and Treatises in the last Edition. I
send you a Copy of it. Please to enquire at the Ware-
house, if any considerable Number of that Edition remain
u
29° LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
on hands ; and if there do, I beg the favour of you, that
you woud throw off an equal Number of this Advertise-
ment, and give out no more Copies without prefixing it to
the second volume. It is a compleat Answer to Dr.
Reid 22 and to that bigotted silly Fellow, Beattie ^s.
I believe that I have formerly mentibn'd to you, that no
new Editions shoud be made of any of my Writings,
without mentioning it to me ; I shall still have some Cor-
rections to make. By Calculation, or rather Conjecture
from former Sales, the last Edition of my History shoud
be nearly sold off: Pray inform yourself whether it be
not so : And how many remain on hand ^*.
I am with great Sincerity Dear Sir
Your affectionate humble Servant
David Hume.
Note I. This interruption had lasted for more than a year and a-
half. When Hume resumed it he was already some way advanced in
an illness which at first, he says, gave him no alarm, but which in ten
months more was to carry him oif.
Note 2. Strahan had been elected for Malmesbury in the Parlia-
ment that met on Nov. 29, 1774. Pari. Hist, xviii. 24. One cause
of the interruption of the correspondence might have been want of
time on his side. In one of his earlier letters he said : — ' I have
borrowed two hours from my pillow to write to you.' M. S. R. S. E.
Note 3. Hume, in writing from Paris on June 22, 1764, mentions
a Dr. Trail as ' our chaplain ' — chaplain to the Embassy, that is fo say.
Burton's Hume, ii. 204. Horace Walpole mentions the same clergy-
man in a letter to Conway on Jan. 22, 1756. ' Your brother [Lord Hert-
ford] has got a sixth infanta ; at the christening t'other night Mr. Trail
had got through two prayers before anybody found out that the child
was not brought down stairs.' Letters, ii. 499.
Note 4. Dugald Stewart, in his Life of Thomas Reid (ed. 181 1, p.
426), speaking of the appointment of that philosopher to the chair at
Glasgow University vacated by Adam Smith, says : — ' The Wilsons
(both father and son) were formed to attach his heart by the similarity
of their scientific pursuits, and an entire sympathy with his views
and sentiments.' In a note (p. 528) Stewart adds : — ' Alexander
Wilson, M.D., and Patrick Wilson were well known over Europe by
their observations on the Solar Spots.'
Note 5. Dr, A. Carlyle, writing of Dr. Wight's appointment in 176a
LXXVL] HUME AND THE CLERGY. 291
to the chair of Church History at Glasgow, says :— ' As he was my
near relation, his advancement, in which I had a chief hand, was very
pleasing ; and as he was the most agreeable of all men, his coming
near me promised much enjoyment.' Carlyle's Auto. p. 424. See lb.
P- 395-
Note 6. ' Hume took much to the company of the younger clergy,
not from a wish to bring them over to his opinions, for he never
attempted to overturn any man's principles, but they best understood
his notions, and could furnish him with literary conversation.
Robertson and John Home and Bannatine and I lived all in the
country, and came only periodically to the town. Blair and Jardine
both lived in it, and suppers being the only fashionable meal at that
time, we dined where we best could, and by cadies [errand boys]
assembled our friends to meet us in a tavern by nine o'clock ;
and a fine time it was when we could collect David Hume, Adam
Smith, Adam Ferguson, Lord Elibank, and Drs. Blair and Jardine,
on an hour's warning. I remember one night that David Hume
came rather late to us, and directly pulled a large key from his
pocket, which he laid on the table. This, he said, was given him by
his maid Peggy (much more like a man than a woman) that she
might not sit up for him, for she said, when the honest fellows came
in from the country, he never returned home till after one o'clock.
This intimacy of the young clergy with David Hume enraged the
zealots on the opposite side, who little knew how impossible it was
for him, had he been willing, to shake their principles.' Carljde's
Auto. p. 274.
Note 7. Hume wrote to his friend. Dr. Clephane, on Sept. 3, 1757:
— ' I am charmed to find you so punctual a correspondent. I always
knew you to be a good friend, though I was afraid that I had lost
you, and that you had joined that great multitude who abused me,
and reproached me with Paganism, and Jacobitism, and many other
wretched isms, of which I am only guilty of a part.' Burton's
Hume, ii. 38.
Note 8. Dr. Traill was unlike the Professor under whom Dr. A.
Carlyle studied at Edinburgh ; of whom he writes : — ' There was one
advantage attending the lectures of a dull professor — viz., that he
could form no school, and the students were left entirely to them-
selves, and naturally formed opinions far more liberal than those
they got from the Professor. This was the answer I gave to Patrick,
Lord Elibank, when he asked me one day, many years afterwards,
what could be the reason that the young clergymen of that period so
far surpassed their predecessors of his early days in useful accom-
plishments and liberality of mind — viz., that the Professor of Theology
was dull, and Dutch, and prolix.' Carlyle's Auto. p. 56.
Note 9. Parliament had met on Oct. 26. Horace Walpole wrote
on Nov. 14 :— ' The Parliament grants whatever is asked ; and yet a
great alteration has happened in the Administration. The Duke of
U2
293 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Grafton has changed sides, and was turned out last Friday.' After
mentioning other changes he continues :— ' The town is impatient to
see whether this change of men implies any change of measures. I
do not see why it should, for none of the new Ministers have ever in-
clined to the Americans.' Letters, vi. 280. There was no yielding in
the King, who on Oct. 15 had written to Lord North : — ' Every means
of distressing America must meet with my concurrence, as it tends to
bringing them to feel the necessity of returning to their duty.' Corres.
of George III with Lord North, i. 274.
Note 10. Hume is speaking of the trade in English manufactures
only. The elder Pitt, on Jan. 14, 1766, said : — ' I will be bold to
affirm, that the profits to Great Britain from the trade of the Colonies
through all its branches is two millions a year. This is the fund that
carried you triumphantly through the last war. The estates that were
rented at £2000 a year threescore years ago are at .£3000 at present.
Those estates sold then for from fifteen to eighteen years' purchase ;
the same may be now sold for thirty. You owe this to America.'
Pari. Hist. xvi. 105. A writer in the Gent. Mag. for 1768, p. 514, who
signs himself F. B. (Benjamin Franklin, I suspect), gives the declared
exports from England, exclusive of Scotland and Ireland, to America
as ;^2,072,ooo a year, and the imports as ;f 1,081,000. He considers
however that the exports really amounted to ^3,000,000. It was the
object of the writer to make these as large as possible. (In 1886 the
exports from the United Kingdom amounted to ^'37,600,000, and the
imports to ^81,600,000. Whitaker's Almanac, p. 517.)
Great Britain, among other restrictions, would not allow the
Americans to erect steel furnaces, or to export from one province to
another, whether by land or by water, hats or woollen goods of their
own make. She assumed to herself the exclusive right of supplying
them with all goods from Europe. Smith's Wealth of Nations, ed.
1811, ii. 424, 426. Sir John Pringle, in a postcript to a letter to Hume,
dated London, July 8, 1775, told him that a sensible man from the
Colonies had complained of the trouble the Americans were put to in
being forced ' at all times (even in time of war) to come with their
cargo of wine taken up in Spain or Portugal to the Isle of Wight, or
other English ports, unload it and put it again on board, before they
could carry it home. The porters at such places could only gain
while the Provincials were unnecessarily the sufferers.' Sir John
had written at the bottom of his letter : — ' Burn the enclosed P.S.'
M. S. R. S. E. Adam Smith condemns such a system as this in the
following w^ords : — ' To found a great empire for the sole purpose of
raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project
fit only for a nation of shopkeepers. It is however a project altogether
unfit for a nation of shopkeepers ; but extremely fit for a nation
whose government is influenced by shopkeepers. Such statesmen,
and such statesmen only, are capable of fancying that they will find
some advantage in employing the blood and treasure of their fellow-
LXXVl.] THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 295
citizens to found and maintain such an empire.' Wealth of Nations, u.
471.
Note II. ' We most carefully distinguish between the effects of the
colony trade and those of the monopoly of that trade. The former
are always and necessarily beneficial ; the latter always and neces-
sarily hurtful. ... If the colony trade ... is advantageous to Great
Britain, it is not by means of the monopoly, but in spite of the
monopoly.' Wealth of Nations, ed. 1811, ii. 462, 464. Mr. E. J. Payne
in his History of European Colonies, p. 127, says : — ' The immediate
effect of the independence of America was felt in its destroying the
Navigation Act, and opening the commerce of the United States
to the world. The shipping of the United States increased fivefold
in twenty years ; the trade with England increased in the same pro-
portion.'
Note 12. Burke, on March 22 of this year, in his speech on Con-
ciliation with America, had said : — 'Three thousand miles of ocean lie
between you and them. No contrivance can prevent the effect of this
distance in weakening Government. Seas roll, and months pass,
between the order and the execution ; and the want of a speedy
explanation of a single point is enough to defeat a whole system.
You have, indeed, minged ministers of vengeance, who carry your bolts
in their pounces to the remotest verge of the sea. But there a power
steps in, that limits the arrogance of raging passions and furious
elements, and says, " So far shall thou go., and no farther." Who are
you, that you should fret and rage, and bite the chains of Nature ?
Nothing worse happens to you than does to all nations who have
extensive Empire ; and it happens in all the forms into which Empire
can be thrown.' Payne's Burke, i. 183.
Note 13. The Charter Governments were Connecticut, Rhode
Island and Massachusetts. The charter of Massachusetts, which had
been adjudged to be forfeited in 1684, was restored by William III
with its privileges greatly maimed. Bancroft's History of the United
States, ed. i860, ii. 127 ; iii. 80. New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey,
North and South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia were Royal Colonies.
Maryland and Pennsylvania with Delaware were Proprietary Govern-
ments. Encyclo. Britan., ninth ed. xxiii. 730. ' The Charter Colonies
in which the Governors were chosen annually by popular election,
and the Proprietary Governments had no dependence on the execu-
tive government of England, and they transacted their business with
it through agents of their own, resident in England.' Payne's
European Colonies, p. 106. In Massachusetts however, after 1684, the
Governor was appointed by the King. Bancroft's History, iii. 80.
In a collection of Memorandums found among Hume's papers is
entered ; — ' The Charter Governments in America, almost entirely
independent of England.' Burton's Hume, i. 127. In his History,
viii. 330, he says : — ' King Jame& recalled the Charters by which the
liberties of the Colonies were secured ; and he sent over Governors
294 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
invested with absolute power.' Tlie Charter of Connecticut was
hidden in the hollow of an oak, where it was kept till James's tyranny
was overpast. Bancroft's History, ii. 432.
Note 14. So devoted were the planters of Virginia to the cause of
freedom, that at a meeting of delegates held on August i, 1775, ' they
resolved from the first of the following November not to purchase
any more slaves from Africa, the West Indies, or any other place.'
Ann. Reg. 1775, i. 13. This blow was struck not at the slave-trade,
but at British Commerce. It was of men such as these that Johnson
said : — ' How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among
the drivers of negroes ? ' Boswell's Johnson, iii. 201. At the same
meeting it was resolved that there should be no exportation of
tobacco or any other goods to England.
Note 15. Burke, in the Ann. Reg. for 1775, i. 16, mentions ' a very
ill-timed proclamation ' issued on August 4 of this year by the Governor
of Massachusetts Bay, ' for the encouragement of piety and virtue etc'
'The people of that province had always been scoffed at for a
Pharisaical attention to outward forms, and to the appearances of
religious piety and virtue. ... In this proclamation hypocrisy being
inserted among the immoralities against which the people were
warned, it seemed as if an act of state were turned into a libel on the
people; and this insult exasperated greatly the rage of minds already
sufficiently discontented.' The clergy, no doubt, would not only
catch the flame but spread it.
The Bishop of Peterborough, preaching before the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel on Feb. 16, 1776, described 'the distresses
and persecutions of the American episcopal clergy.' Gent. Mag. 1776,
p. 171.
Note 16. The King in his speech on opening Parliament on Oct.
26, speaking of the increase in the land forces, said : — ' I have also
the satisfaction to inform you, that I have received the most friendly
offers of foreign assistance.' Pari. Hist, xviii. 696. Horace Walpole
writing the next day describes this statement as a falsehood. ' They
talk of foreign Powers offering them troops ; is begging being offered}
and if those foreign Powers are not Russia, but little Hesse, etc., are
those foreign Powers} ' Letters, vi. 275. He is partly in error how-
ever, as there is no mention of Powers. It was from Russia that the
King hoped to get troops. Burke ends a letter to the Duke of Rich-
mond, dated Sept. 26, 1775, by saying : — ' I beg pardon for this long
and unmanaged letter. I am on thorns. I cannot, at my ease, see
Russian barbarism let loose to waste the most beautiful object that
ever appeared upon this globe.' Burke's Corres. ii. 75.
Gibbon wrote to Holroyd on Oct. 14 : — ' When the Russians arrive
(if they refresh themselves in England or Ireland) will you go and
see their camp ? We have great hopes of getting a body of these
Barbarians. In consequence of some very plain advances King
George, with his own hand, wrote a very polite letter to sister Kitty
LXXVI] RUSSIAN MERCENARIES SOUGHT. 295
[Empress Catherine II] requesting her friendly assistance. Full
powers and instructions were sent to Gunning [our Ambassador at
St. Petersburg] to agree for any force between five and twenty
thousand men, carte blanche for the terms ; on condition, however, that
they should serve, not as auxiliaries, but as mercenaries.' Gibbon's
Misc. Works, ii. 139. No man knew better than Gibbon the character
of these savage mercenaries whom the King hoped to pour in a
devastating flood over our settlements. He had investigated the
causes of ' the abject slavery ' in which the Russians lived. lb. v. 531.
Yet in Parliament he gave his constant support to the Ministry. ' I
took my seat,' he says, ' at the beginning of the memorable contest
between Great Britain and America, and supported with many a
sincere and silent vote the rights, though not perhaps the interest, of
the mother-country.' lb. i. 220. The Prussians in the wars of
Napoleon, after having experienced the French in their country as
enemies and the Russians as allies, used to say : — ' Better the French
as enemies than the Russians as friends.' George III, it should
seem, was acting more in sorrow than in anger. In his Speech from
the Throne he said : — ' When the unhappy and deluded multitude,
against whom this force will be directed, shall become sensible of
their error, I shall be ready to receive the misled with tenderness
and mercy.' Pari. Hist, xviii. 696. The Russians, however, were
not to be had. On Nov. 3, the King wrote to Lord North : — ' The
letter of the Empress is a clear refusal, and not in so genteel a
manner as I should have thought might have been expected from her.
She has not had the civility to answer in her own hand, and has
thrown out some expressions that may be civil to a Russian ear, but
certainly not to more civilised ones.' George Ill's Corres. i. 282. On
Nov. II, the King mentions a contract with a Lieut.-Colonel Scheither
who is to raise troops in Germany at ten pounds per man. ' He
need not go far for recruits,' he adds, ' as the moment he acts openly
he may have as many Hessians and Brunswickers as he pleases.' lb.
p. 292. On Jan. 18, 1776, Gibbon wrote : — ' You know we have got
eighteen thousand Germans from Hesse, Brunswick, and Hesse
Darmstadt. I think our meeting [of Parliament] will be lively; a
spirited minority and a desponding majority. The higher people are
placed, the more gloomy are their countenances, the more melancholy
their language. You may call this cowardice, but I fear it arises from
their knowledge (a late knowledge) of the difficulty and magnitude of
the business.' Gibbon's Misc. Works, ii. 142. Eleven days later he
wrote : — ' I much fear that our Leaders have not a genius which can
act at the distance of three thousand miles. You know that a large
draught of Guards are just going to America ; poor dear creatures ! '
lb. p. 143.
Note 17. The three per cent, consols were at 88 on Oct. 26. Gent.
Mag. 1775, p. 504. See ante, p. 179, n. 15.
Note 18. Hume, had written twenty-one years earlier : — ' Specu-
296 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Lettei
lative reasoners, during that age [the age of James I], raised many
objections to the planting of those remote colonies ; and foretold that,
after draining their mother-country of inhabitants, they would soon
shake off her yoke, and erect an independent government in America.
But time has shown that the views entertained by those who en-
couraged such generous undertakings were more just and solid. A
mild Government and great naval force have preserved, and may still
preserve during some time, the dominion of England over her
colonies.' History of England, vi. 188. In a fine passage in the first
edition of this same volume of his History, which he afterwards had
the shame of suppressing, he said : — ' The seeds of many a noble state
have been sown in climates kept desolate by the wild manners of the
ancient inhabitants ; and an asylum secured in that solitary world
for liberty and science, if ever the spreading of unlimited empire, or
the inroad of barbarous nations, should again extinguish them in this
turbulent and restless hemisphere.' Burton's Hume, ii. 74.
Boswell wrote on June 19 of this year: — 'Yesterday I met Mr.
Hume. He said it was all over in America ; we could not subdue the
colonists, and another gun should not be fired, were it not for de-
cency's sake ; he meant in order to keep up an appearance of power.
But I think the lives of our fellow-subjects should not be thrown
away for such decency. He said we may do very well without
America, and he was for withdrawing our troops altogether, and
letting the Canadians fall upon our colonists. I do not think he makes
our right to tax at all clear.' Letters of Boswell, p. 204.
On Nov. 9 Walpole wrote : — ' I think this country undone, almost
beyond redemption. Victory in any war but a civil one fascinates
mankind with a vision of glory. What should we gain by triumph it-
self? Would America laid waste, deluged with blood, plundered,
enslaved, replace America flourishing, rich, and free ? Do we want
to reign over it, as the Spaniards over Peru, depopulated ? Are
desolate regions preferable to commercial cities ? But if the Provin-
cials conquer, are they, like lovers, to kiss and be friends? Who
are the heroes, where are the statesmen, that shall restore us to the
position in which we stood two years ago ? ' Letters, vi. 279.
Adam Smith, who shared most of Hume's thoughts, after showing
that ' under the present system of management Great Britain derives
nothing but loss from the dominion which she assumes over her
colonies,' continues : — ' To propose that she should voluntarily give up
all authority over her colonies, and leave them to elect their own
magistrates, to enact their own laws, and to make peace and war as
they might think proper, would be to propose such a measure as
never was, and never will be adopted by any nation in the world. . . .
The most visionary enthusiasts would scarce be capable of proposing
such a measure, with any serious hopes at least of its ever being adopted.
If it was adopted however. Great Britain would not only be immediately
freed from the whole annual expense of the peace establishments of
LXXVL] HORACE WALPOLE'S VISIONS OF AMERICA. 297
the colonies, but might settle with them such a treaty of commerce as
would eifectually secure to her a free trade, more advantageous to
the great body of the people, though less sp to the merchants, than
the monopoly which she at present enjoys. By thus parting good
friends, the natural affection of the colonies to the mother country,
which perhaps our late dissensions have well-nigh extinguished,
would quickly revive. It might dispose them not only to respect for
whole centuries together that treaty of commerce which they had
concluded with us at parting, but to favour us in war as well as in
trade, and instead of turbulent and factious subjects to become our
most faithful, affectionate, and generous allies.' Wealth of Nations, ed.
181 1, ii. 475. A few pages further on he continues: — 'The persons
who now govern the resolutions of what they call their continental
congress feel in themselves at this moment a degree of importance
which perhaps the greatest subjects in Europe scarce feel. From
shopkeepers, tradesmen, and attorneys they are become statesmen
and legislators, and are employed in contriving a new form of govern-
ment for an extensive empire, which, they flatter themselves, will
become, and which indeed seems very likely to become, one of the
greatest and most formidable that ever was in the world.' lb. p. 485.
More than five years earlier than the date of Hume's letter, on
May 6, 1770, Horace Walpole had written : — ' The tocsin seems to be
sounded to America. I have many visions about that country, and
fancy I see twenty empires and republics forming upon vast scales
over all that continent, which is growing too mighty to be kept
in subjection to half a dozen exhausted nations in Europe. As the
latter sinks and the others rise, they who live between the eras will
be a sort of Noahs, witnesses to the period of the old world and
origin of the new. I entertain myself with the idea of a future senate
in California and Virginia, where their future patriots will harangue
on the austere and incorruptible virtue of the ancient English ! will
tell their auditors of our disinterestedness and scorn of bribes and
pensions, and make us blush in our graves at their ridiculous pane-
gyrics. Who knows but even our Indian usurpations and villanies
may become topics of praise to American schoolboys ? As I believe
our virtues are extremely like those of our predecessors the Romans,
so I am sure our luxury and extravagance are too.' Letters, v. 235.
Patrick Henry had ended his brief but noble speech before the
Convention of Delegates on March 28 of this year, 1775, by saying : —
' It is in vain. Sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry
peace, peace — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun !
The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the
clash of resounding arms ! Our brethren are already in the field !
Why stand we here idle .' What is it that gentlemen wish .' What
would they have ? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be pur-
chased at the price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it. Almighty God !
I know not what course others may take ; but as for me, give me
298 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
liberty or give me death ! ' American Orations, i. 23. A letter written
to Franklin, who had returned to America, by a Mrs. Greene of War-
wick, Rhode Island, in the following July, shows by the use of the
one word 'home' how strong was the tie which had bound the
Colonies to the Old Country. She writes : — ' Do come and see us,
certain ! Don't think of going home [i. e. to England] again. Do sit
down and enjoy the remainder of your days in peace.' Letters to
Benjamin Franklin, p. 67.
Note 19. When Hume calls Lord Chatham a madman he is no
doubt referring to the miserable state of health into which that
statesman had fallen eight years earlier. Hume wrote to the
Countess de Boufflers on June 19, 1767: — 'You ask the present
state of our politics. Why, in a word, we are all in confusion.
This, you'll say, is telling you nothing new; for when were we
otherwise ? But we are in greater confusion than usual ; because
of the strange condition of Lord Chatham, who was regarded as
our first minister. The public here, as well as with you, believe
him wholly mad ; but I am assured it is not so. He is only fallen
into extreme low spirits and into nervous disorders, which render
him totally unfit for business, make him shun all company, and, as
I am told, set him weeping like a child upon the least accident.
Is not this a melancholy situation for so lofty and vehement a spirit
as his ? And is it not even an addition to his unhappiness that
he retains his senses ? ' Hume's Private Corres. p. 243. Horace
Walpole had written on April 5 of the same year: — 'There is a
misfortune not so easily to be surmounted, the state of Lord Chat-
ham's health, w^ho now does not only not see the Ministers, but
even does not receive letters. The world, on the report of the
Opposition, believe his head disordered, and there is so far a kind
of colour for this rumour, that he has lately taken Dr. Addington,
a physician in vogue, who originally was a mad doctor.' Letters,
v. 45. On Sept. 9 he wrote : — ' For Lord Chatham, he is really or
intentionally mad — but I still doubt which of the two.' lb. p. 63.
Junius, in a letter signed Correggio, dated Sept. i6 of this same year,
describes him as ' a lunatic brandishing a crutch, or bawling through
a grate, or writing with desperate charcoal a letter to North America.'
Letters of Junius, ed. 1812, ii. 474.
In charging Chatham with having reduced his country to its
present condition Hume, I believe, is thinking of the effects of the
great war of conquests carried on under his Ministry. 'The fine
inscription on the monument of Lord Chatham in Guildhall records,'
says Lord Macaulay, 'the general opinion of the citizens of London,
that under his administration commerce had been "united with and
made to flourish by war." ' Essays, ed. 1874, ii. 193. Before long it was
found that commerce can no more be made to flourish by war than by
any other form of robbery. Adam Smith, after stating that ' the last
war, which was undertaken altogether on account of the colonies,
LXXVI.] CHATHAM'S WAR-TAX. 299
cost Great Britain upwards of ninety millions,' continues : — ' The
rulers of Great Britain have, for more than a century past, amused
the people with the imagination that they possessed a great empire
on the west side of the Atlantic. This empire, however, has hitherto
existed in imagination only. It has hitherto been, not an empire,
but the project of an empire ; not a gold mine, but the project of
a gold mine ; a project which has cost, which continues to cost, and
which, if pursued in the same way as it has been hitherto, is likely
to cost immense expense, without being likely to bring any profit ;
for the effects of the monopoly of the colony trade, it has been
shown, are to the great body of the people mere loss instead of
profit. It is surely now time that our rulers should either realise
this golden dream, in which they have been indulging themselves
perhaps as well as the people, or that they should awake from it
themselves, and endeavour to awaken the people.' Wealth of Nations,
ed. 181 1, iii. 446-8. In another passage, speaking of the sums which
England had laid out upon the defence of her colonies, he says : —
'The late war [the war in which under Pitt England made her
greatest conquests] was altogether a colony quarrel ; and the whole
expense of it, in whatever part of the world it might have been laid
out, whether in Germany or the East Indies, ought justly to be stated
to the account of the colonies. It amounted to more than ninety
millions sterling.' lb. ii. 474.
Burke, in his Speech on American Taxation on April 19, 1774,
after describing how by the old and wise policy England had never
meddled with the taxation of America, continues : — ' This nation
never thought of departing from that choice until the period imme-
diately on the close of the last war. Then a scheme of government
new in many things seemed to have been adopted.' After telling
how twenty new regiments were raised, he continues : — ' When this
huge increase of military establishment was resolved on, a revenue
was to be found to support so great a burthen. Country gentlemen,
the great patrons of economy, and the great resisters of a standing
armed force, would not have entered with much alacrity into the
vote for so large and so expensive an army, if they had been very
sure that they were to continue to pay for it. But hopes of another
kind were held out to them ; and, in particular, I well remember
that Mr. Townshend, in a brilliant harangue on this subject, did
dazzle them by playing before their eyes the image of a revenue
to be raised in America.' Payne's Burke's Select Works, i. 121. In
an earlier speech, after describing Chatham as ' a being before whom
" thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers (waving his hand
all this time over the Treasury Bench, which he sat behind) all veil
their faces with their wings," ' apostrophising him, he exclaimed,
' Doom not to perdition that vast public debt, a mass seventy millions
of which thou hast employed in rearing a pedestal for thy own statue,'
Chatham Corres. iii. 145.
300 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Lettet
. In the Protest of some of the Peers on the Cyder Bill (March 30,
1763) mention is made of ' the great load of taxes which have been
found necessary in support of a just, prosperous, and glorious war.'
Pari. Hist. XV. 1314. A tax on the Colonies had not yet been pro-
posed, and it had been found necessary to increase 'the odious
excise ' by including cyder under it. George Johnstone wrote to
Hume on March 22 [1763] : — ' We are in a bustle here. I am just
going to the House of Commons. The subject is a tax on wine and
cyder. . . . Pitt has pay'd Grenville so severely that whenever he now
rises there is a general laugh. He imitated his manner so perfectly
both in his words and gesture that the original is sure to call the
picture to our mind. . . . The Opposition have raised the cry of No
excise, and Liberty and the Constitution, and Oh my country against
the mode of collecting the cyder duty.' M.S.R.S.E. Pitt had
attacked the laws of excise as odious. ' Mr. Grenville contended
that the tax was unavoidable " Where," he asked, " can you lay
another tax of equal efficiency ? " And he repeated several times,
" Tell me where you can lay another tax — tell me where ? " Upon
which Mr.. Pitt, in the words of a song at that time popular, replied
in a musical tone, " Gentle shepherd, tell me where." The effect on
the house was irresistible, and settled on Mr. Grenville the appellation
of " the gentle shepherd." ' Chatham Corres. ii. 216.
Horace Walpole wrote on Nov. 9, 1775, a fortnight after the date of
Hume's letter: — 'I probably have little time to be witness to the
humiliations that are approaching. Father Paul's Esto perpetua / was
more the prayer of a good man than of a wise one. Countries are
but great families, that rise from obscurity to dignity and then
degenerate. This little island, that for many centuries was but a
merchant, married a great fortune in the last war, got a title, grew
insolent and extravagant, despised its original counter, quarrelled
with its factors, kicked its plebeian wife out of doors, and thought, by
putting on an old red coat, to hector her relations out of the rest of
her fortune, which remained in their hands as trustees. Europe,
that was jealous of this upstart captain's sudden rise, encouraged
him in his folly, in hopes of seeing him quite undone. End of
volume the first. The second part is in the press.' Letters, vi. 279.
' It must be owned,' writes Lord Macaulay, ' that the expense of the
war never entered into Pitt's consideration. Perhaps it would be
more correct to say that the cost of his victories increased the pleasure
with which he contemplated them. . . . He was proud of the sacrifices
and efforts which his eloquence and his success had induced his
countrymen to make. The price at which he purchased faithful
service and complete victory, though far smaller than that which his
son, the most profuse and incapable of war ministers, paid for
treachery, defeat, and shame, was long and severely felt by the
nation.' Macaulay's Essays, ed. 1874, ii. 194.
Note 20. Hume spoke in vain ; the nation was not with him.
•LXXVI.] ADDRESSES TO THE CROWN. 301
Burke, writing a month earlier of the ruin of the country, ' which, if
I am not quite visionary, is approaching with the greatest rapidity,'
continues : — ' I am sensible of the shocking indifference and neutra-
lity of a great part of the nation. But a speculative despair is un-
pardonable, where it is our duty to act. . . . The people are not
answerable for their present supine acquiescence ; indeed they are
jiot. God and nature never made them to think or to act without
guidance and direction. They have obeyed the only impulse they have
received.' Burke's Corres. ii. 71-2. On Feb. 2 of the year before,
describing ' the supineness of the public,' he had said : — ' Any re-
markable highway robbery at Hounslow Heath would make more
conversation than all the disturbances of America.' lb. i. 453.
Dr. Burton gives a letter by Hume, written a day later than the
one in the text, which seems to be in answer to a request to join
in one of the Loyal Addresses to the Crown on the revolt of the
Colonies. He says : — ' Here is Lord Home teasing me for an address
from the Merse [Hume's native district], and I have constantly re-
fused him. Besides, I am an American in my principles, and wish
we would let them alone to govern or misgovern themselves, as they
think proper : the affair is of no consequence, or of little consequence
to us. If the County of Renfrew think it indispensably necessary for
them to interpose in public matters, I wish they would advise the
King, first to punish those insolent rascals in London and Middlesex,
who daily insult him and the whole legislature, before he thinks of
America. Ask him, how he can expect that a form of government
will maintain an authority at three thousand miles' distance, when it
cannot make itself be respected, or even be treated with common
decency, at home. Tell him, that Lord North, though in appearance
a worthy gentleman, has not a head for these great operations ; and
that if fifty thousand men and twenty millions of money were in-
trusted to such a lukewarm coward as Gage, they never could
produce any effect. These are objects worthy of the respectable
county of Renfrew ; not mauling the poor infatuated Americans in
the other hemisphere.' Burton's Hume, ii. 478. The General As-
sembly of the Church of Scotland was far behind Hume in political
wisdom. Dr. Blair, writing in the summer of 1776, says of that
body : — ' We have sent a dutiful and loyal Address. A violent debate
was expected upon it. However it did not follow. The factious were
afraid to show themselves ; though the words unnatural and dangerous
rebellion went very ill down with them.' M. S. R. S. E.
Horace Walpole, writing from Paris on Oct. 10, about his return to
England, says : — ' I am not impatient to be in a frantic country that is
stabbing itself in every vein. The delirium still lasts ; though, I be-
lieve, kept up by the quacks that caused it. Is it credible that five or
six of the great trading towns have presented addresses against the
Americans ? I have no doubt but those addresses are procured by
those boobies the country gentlemen, their members, and bought of
30a LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
the Aldermen ; but is it not amazing that the merchants and manu-
facturers do not duck such tools in a horse-pond ? ' Letters, vi. 266.
On Oct. 28, two days after the date of Hume's letter, he wrote from
London : — 'At my return I found everything in great confusion.
The Ministers had only provoked and united — not intimidated,
wounded, or divided America. Errors in or neglect of execution
have rendered everything much worse ; and at this instant they are not
sure that the King has a foot of dominion left on that continent. . . The
Ministers say that it will take sixty thousand men to re-conquer
America. They will as soon have sixty thousand armies. Whether
they can get any Russians is not even yet certain. . . Distress and
difficulties increase every day, and genius does not increase in pro-
portion.' lb. p. 277.
Note 21. Hume here uses Advertisement in the same sense as the
French Avertissement, which is defined by Littr6, Preface mise a la
tete d'un livre. Johnson, in speaking of the Lives of the Poets, says : —
' My purpose was only to have allotted to every poet an Advertise-
ment, like those which we find in the French Miscellanies, contain-
ing a few dates and a general character.' Boswell's Johnson, iv. 35.
In this Advertisement, which is placed at the beginning oi An
Inquiry concerning Human Understanding, Hume, speaking of his
Treatise of Human Nature, says that ' he had projected it before he
left College,' and that ' sensible of his error in going to the press too
early, he cast the whole anew in the following pieces. . . . Yet several
writers, who have honoured the author's Philosophy with answers,
have taken care to direct all their batteries against that juvenile work,
which the Author never acknowledged, and have affected to triumph
in any advantage which they imagined they had obtained over it ; a
practice very contrary to all rules of candour and fair dealing, and a
strong instance of those polemical artifices which a bigoted zeal
thinks itself authorised to employ. Henceforth the Author desires
that the following Pieces may alone be regarded as containing his
philosophical sentiments and principles.' In a review of Hume's
Life in the Ann. Reg. 1776, ii. 28, Seattle is reproached with ob-
taining a pension by levelling all his arguments against Hume's
'juvenile production.'
Note 22. Reid's Inquiry into the Human Mind was meant as a
refutation of Hume's philosophy. Nevertheless in his anxiety not
to misrepresent the meaning of his adversary, and in his reliance on
his candour, he asked leave, through their common friend Dr. Blair,
to submit his reasonings to his examination. ' I wish,' wrote Hume
in reply, 'that the parsons would confine themselves to their old
occupation of worrying one another, and leave philosophers to argue
with temper, moderation, and good manners.' When however he
had read part of the manuscript, he wrote to the author in terms
of high praise of its philosophy, and added : — ' As I was desirous to
be of some use to you, I kept a watchful eye all along over your
LXXVI.] HUME AND DR. BEATTIE. 303
style ; but it is really so correct, and so good English, that I found
not anything worth the remarking. There is only one passage in
this chapter, where you make use of the phrase hinder to do, instead
oi hinder from doing, which is the EngUsh one.' Stewart's Life of
Reid, pp. 417, 418.
Note 23. Strahan wrote to Hume on June 3, 1776, when the
philosopher was near his end : — ' Even your enemies relent, and I
will venture to say, wish your recovery. Creech of Edinburgh writes
me that he had just then (May 29) received a letter from Dr. Beattie
in which was the following paragraph : — '' I am sincerely sorry to
hear of Mr. Hume's bad health. There will be several things in this
Edition which I am pretty sure would not offend him, if he were to
see them, which I heartily which he may. The Essay is corrected in
almost every page — superfluities retrenched — inaccuracies corrected —
and many harsh expressions softened." Does not this look like repent-
ance ?' Beattie, in his Preface, mentions Hume's ' Advertisement to a
new edition of his Essays, in which he seems to disown his Treatise of
Human Nature, and desires that those Essays, as then published,
may be considered as containing his philosophical sentiments and
principles. . . . He certainly merits praise for thus publicly disowning,
though late, his Treatise of Human Nature ... In consequence of his
Advertisement, I thought it right to mitigate in this edition some of
the censures that more especially refer to that work.' Forbes's Life
of Beattie, ed. 1824, p. 231. Hume perhaps would never have made
the idle attempt to have one of his greatest works suppressed, as it
were, nearly forty years after its publication, had he foreseen that it
would lead to his being partially absolved and pubhcly praised by
Dr. Beattie. When three years after their author's death the Dia-
logues on Natural Religion were published, Beattie felt himself an
injured man. In a letter to Mrs. Montagu he says : — ' During the last
years of Mr. Hume's life his friends gave out that he regretted his
having dealt so much in metaphysics, and that he never would write
any more. He was at pains to disavow his Treatise of Human Nature
in an Advertisement which he published about half a year before his
death. All this, with what I then heard of his bad health, made my
heart relent towards him ; as you would no doubt perceive by the pre-
face to my quarto book. But immediately after his death, I heard that
he had left behind him two manuscripts,' etc. Beattie concludes with
the following anecdote, which he had from Dr. Gregory : — ' Mr. Hume
was boasting to the doctor that among his disciples in Edinburgh he
had the honour to reckon many of the fair sex. " Now, tell me," said
the doctor, "whether, if you had a wife or a daughter, you would
wish them to be your disciples. Think well before you answer me ;
for I assure you, that whatever your answer is, I will not conceal it."
Mr. Hume with a smile, and some hesitation, made this reply : — " No ;
I believe scepticism may be too sturdy a virtue for a woman." ' Life
of Beattie, ed, 1824, p. 264. The knowledge that the answer would
304 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
not be concealed would not have been an inducement to Hume to
avow his real sentiments.
A writer in the Gent. Mag. for 1777, p. 159, records the following
anecdote: — 'Of Beattie's Essay on Truth Mr. Hume is reported to
have said, " Truth ! there is no truth in it ; it is a horrible large he in
octavo." '
Note 24. Strahan rephed that about 400 copies of the History were
left in stock, and that he intended 'to put it to press again the ensuing
summer.' M. S. R. S. E. The next edition was pubhshed in 1778.
[William Strahan to David Hume.J
LETTER LXXVII.
The War with the Colonies : The Rousing of the British Lion.
' . . . And now a word or two of politics. The increased
liberty of the press, which gives you the substance of almost
every debate, is the sole cause of my being less communicative,
and as for my impartiality, notwithstanding a little change in my
situation, it is noway diminished. But I differ from you, toto
ccelo,viith regard to America. I am entirely for coercive methods
with those obstinate madmen : And why should we despair of
success ? — Why should we suffer the Empire to be so dismem-
bered, without the utmost exertions on our part ? I see nothing
so very formidable in this business, if we become a little more
unanimous, and could stop the mouths of domestic traitors, from
whence the evil originated \ — Not that I wish to enslave the
Colonists, or to make them one jot less happy than ourselves ; but
I am for keeping them subordinate to the British Legislature, and
their trade in a reasonable degree subservient to the interest of
the Mother Country ; an advantage she well deserves, but
which she must inevitably lose, if they are emancipated as you
propose. I am really surprised you are of a different opinion.
Very true, things look oddly at present, and the dispute hath
hitherto been very ill-managed ; but so we always do in the
commencement of every war. So we did most remarkably in
the last^ It is perhaps owing to the nature of our Government,
which permits not of those sudden and decisive exertions
frequently made by arbitrary Princes, But so soon as the
LXXVIL] ANARCHY IN AMERICA. 305
British Lion is roused, we never fail to fetch up our leeway ", as
the sailors say. And so I hope you will find it in this important
case. We had two exceeding long debates in the House last
Thursday and Friday. Till \ after 4 in the Morning the first
Day, and ^ after i the second. Much was said on both sides,
but the Address was at length carried by 278 to 108 *, and I
hope this decision will be followed by the most vigorous
exertions both by sea and land. — At present I believe we have
totally lost America ; but a proper disposition of our fleet, and
the troops we shall, even without foreign assistance (except
the Hanoverians^) be able to send thither, will speedily recover
it. Perhaps it may be still a difficult task, but it is worth doing
all in our power to accomplish. And a little perseverance on
our part will unavoidably throw the Americans into confusion
among themselves, even were we to stand upon the defensive,
and only block up their ports. They cannot subsist without
trade ; they must export their corn, or it is useless, and
they must have cloathing for themselves and negroes ", and
a thousand other necessaries and conveniences of life from
Europe. Their present anarchy is already, and must every
day become more and more intolerable. I have not time just
now to launch out into particulars. But the Newspapers will
make up the deficiency. Your friend General Conway has
declared with the minority. . . . When we have subdued the
Colonists, it will require little force to keep them in order ; for
all the men of property among them are in their hearts with
us, and they will insensibly slide back into their former situa-
tion. . . .—M.S.R.S.E.
London, Oci. 30, 1775.
Note I. Johnson in his Taxation no Tyranny, published in the
spring of this year, had said : — ' The Americans had no thought of
resisting the Stamp Act, till they were encouraged and incited by
European intelligence from men w^hom they thought their friends,
but who were friends only to themselves. On the original contrivers
of mischief let an insulted nation pour out its vengeance. With what-
ever design they have inflamed this pernicious contest, they are
themselves equally detestable. If they wish success to the colonies,
they are traitors to this country ; if they wish their defeat, they are
traitors at once to America and England. To them, and them only,
must be imputed the interruption of commerce and the miseries of
X
3o6 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
war, the sorrow of those that shall be ruined and the blood of those
that shall fall.' Johnson's Works, vi. 260.
Note 2. ' The war [of 1756] began in every part of the world with
events disastrous to England, and even more shameful than dis-
astrous . . . The nation was in a state of angry and sullen despond-
ency, almost unparalleled in history ... At this time appeared
Brown's Estimate, a book now remembered only by the allusions in
Cowper's Table Talk and in Burke's Letters on a Regicide Peace. It
was universally read, admired, and believed. The author fully con-
vinced his readers that they were a race of cowards and scoundrels ;
that nothing could save them ; that they were on the point of being
enslaved by their enemies, and that they richly deserved their fate.
Such were the speculations to which ready credence was given at
the outset of the most glorious war in which England had ever been
engaged.' Macaulay's Essays, ed. 1874, ii. 179.
The following extracts from Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his
Friends show the despondency into which at that period had fallen a
man versed in affairs of state : — ' Oct. 13, 1756. I wish well to my
species in general, and to my country in particular ; and therefore
lament the havock that is already made, and likely to be made, of the
former, and the inevitable ruin which I see approaching by great
strides to the latter.' Misc. Works, iv. 211. ' Nov. 26, 1756. I now
quietly behold the storm from the shore, and shall only be involved,
but without particular blame, in the common ruin. That moment,
you perceive, if you combine all circumstances, cannot be very
remote. On the contrary, it is so near, that were Machiavel at the
head of our affairs, he could not retrieve them ; and therefore it is very
indifferent to me, what minister shall give us the last coup de grace.'
lb. p. 191. ' Christmas Day, 1757. [After alluding to ' three plans '
which he had suggested.] This, at least, I am sure of, that they are
our last convulsive struggles, for at this rate we cannot possibly live
through the year 1759.' lb. p. 205.
Note 3. This mixed metaphor of the British Lion and leeway
recalls the time of which Ovid sang —
' Nat lupus inter oves ; fulvos vehit unda leones.' Mela. i. 304.
Note 4. Horace Walpole, describing the attack on the Court in
this debate, said : — 'Mr. Conway in a better speech than ever was
made exposed all their outrages and blunders; and Charles Fox
told Lord North that not Alexander nor Caesar had ever conquered
so much as he had lost in one campaign. Even his Lordship's
friends, nay the Scotch, taunt him in public with his laziness.' Letters,
vi. 278.
Note 5. The King in his Speech from the Throne said that he had
sent Hanoverian troops to Gibraltar and Minorca to replace the
British forces that had been despatched to America. This measure
was attacked as unconstitutional not only by the regular Opposition,
but by several members who called themselves Independent; be-
LXXVm.] REVISALS OF THE HISTORY. 307
longing, as they did, to that powerful party which in the last two
reigns had as strongly opposed the Court as in the present reign
they supported it. Ann. Reg. 1776, i. 64.
Note 6. Johnson, in his Taxation no Tyranny, with his hatred of
slavery had written : — ' It has been proposed that the slaves should
be set free, an act which surely the lovers of liberty cannot but com-
mend. If they are furnished with firearms for defence, and utensils
for husbandry, and settled in some simple form of government
within the country, they may be more grateful and honest than their
masters.' Works, vi. 260. In the mouths of the Ministers and their
supporters this would have been an idle threat ; for theirs was the
party which upheld not only slavery but the slave-trade.
LETTER LXXVIII.
Hume' s Anxiety for the Correctness of his Works: the Effects
of the Loss of America,
Edinburgh, I'iofNbvr., 1775.
Dear S'"
Your Memory has fail'd you. The last Quarto
Edition of my philosophical Pieces in 1768 was in two
Volumes, and this Advertisement may be prefixed to the
second Volume. There was another Quarto Edition in
one Volume six or seven Years before ^ ; but that Edition
must be all sold off, as you have made four or five Editions
since ^ Your Correction is certainly just ; and I had
evidently been guilty of an Error in my Pen.
I am glad to find there is a Prospect of a new Edition of
my History. I was indeed apprehensive, that the blind
Rage of Party had entirely obstructed the Sale of it. I am
as anxious of Correctness ^ as if I were writing to Greeks
or French ; and besides frequent Revisals, which I have
given it since the last Edition, I shall again run over it
very carefully, and shall send you a corrected Copy.
About six Weeks hence, I shall send off by the Waggon
the four first Volumes ; and shall direct them to Mr. Cadel's
Shop, which will be more easily found than your House*.
X 2
3o8 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
The Other four Volumes shall follow at Leizure. I re-
member an Author 5, who says, that one half of a man's
Life is too little to write a Book ; and the other half to
correct it. I think, that I am more agreeably, employ'd for
myself in this manner, and perhaps more profitably for
you, than if I were writing such Volumes as Macpherson's
History^, one of the most wretched Productions that ever
came from your Press.
/ am. sorry, that I cannot agree with you, in your hopes of
subduing and what is more difficult, of governing America '.
Think only of the great Kingdom of France which is within
a days sailing of the small Island of Corsica ; yet has not
been able, in eight or nine Years, to subdue and govern it,
contrary to Sentiments of the Inhabitants *. But the worst
Effect of the Loss of America, will not be the Detriment to
our Manufactures, which will be a mere trifle^, or to our
Navigation, which will not be considerable^'^ ; but to the
Credit and Reputation of Government, which has already but
too little Authority. You will probably see a Scene of
Anarchy and Confusion open'd at home, the best Consequence
of which is a settled Plan of arbitrary Power^^ ; the worst,
total Ruin and Destruction^"^.
I am extremely oblig'd to you for your Letter to Pro-
fessor Wilson. I am afraid, however, that all Efforts in
favour of Dr. Wight will be in vain. It seems, Dr. Hunter
supports a Friend of his ; and nothing can be refusd him
by the University^^.
I am Dear S'"" Yours most sincerely
David Hume.
Note I. There was a quarto edition in one volume in 1758.
Note 2. The editions of 1760, 1764, 1768, 1770, 1772.
Note 3. Hume had written ' careful of correctness,' but had scored
' careful ' out. Johnson in his Dictionary gives an example from
Granville oi anxious followed not hy for or about but by o^— ' anxious
of neglect.' Hume's anxiety was for correctness of style.
LXXVIII.] THE WAR WITH AMERICA POPULAR. 309
Note 4. See ante, p. 215, n. 2.
Note 5. Rousseau, according to Hume's previous statement. See
ante, p. 200.
Note 6. ' The History of Great Britain from the Restoration to the
Accession of the House of Hanover. By James Macpherson, Esq. ;
2 vols, quarto, ffl, 2s. Cadell.' Gent. Mag. 1775, p. 192. Horace
Walpole, writing on April 14, 1775, said : — ' For Macpherson, I
stopped dead short in the first volume ; never was such a heap of
insignificant trash and lies. One instance shall suflice : in a letter
from a spy to James II there is a blank for a name ; a note
without the smallest ground to build the conjecture on says, " pro-
bably the Earl of Devonshire." Pretty well ! Yet not content, the
honest gentleman says in the index, "The Earl of Devonshire is
suspected of favouring the excluded family." Can you suspect such
a worthy person of forgery ? could he forge Ossian ? ' Letters, vi. 202.
Macpherson had published an Introduction to the History of Great
Britain and Ireland, which soon reached a third edition. To this
work Gibbon pays one of his stately compliments, some years after
he had been warned by Hume that the author of Ossian was a literary
forger. He says : — ' In the dark and doubtful paths of Caledonian
antiquity I have chosen for my guides two learned and ingenious
Highlanders, whom their birth and education had peculiarly qualified
for that ofSce. See . . . and Introduction to the History of Great Britain
and Ireland, by James Macpherson, Esq.' Decline and Fall, ed. 1807,
iv. 244.
Note 7. Strahan had most people with him in the belief that
America would be subdued. Horace Walpole wrote from Paris on
Sept. 6, 1775 : — ' You may judge whether they do not stare at all we
are doing ! They will not believe me when I tell them that the
American War is fashionable, for one is forced to use that word to
convey to them an idea of the majority.' Letters, vi. 248. Burke
wrote on Sept. 24 : — ' I confess that from every information which I
receive . . . the real fact is, that the generality of the people of
England are now led away by the misrepresentations and arts of the
Ministry, the Court, and their abettors ; so that the violent measures
towards America are fairly adopted and countenanced by a majority
of individuals of all ranks, professions, or occupations in this country.
... I am indeed more and more convinced that it behoves us as
honest and honourable men to take the step of a protestation after
Parliament has met. It is unusual. It would doubtless occasion
much speculation. It would have some effect upon the public at large,
when they see men of high rank and fortune, of known principles
and of undoubted abilities, stepping forwards in so extraordinary a
manner to face a torrent, not merely of ministerial or Court power,
but also of almost general opinion.' Burke's Corres. ii. 68.
Note 8. Genoa ceded Corsica to France in 1768. In 1769 Pascal
Paoli left the island and sought a refuge in England. Voltaire in his
310 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
chapter on Corsica, in his Siecle de Louis XV, written at all events as
late as 1774, speaks as if the conquest of the country were complete.
He says : — 'Ainsi done, en cedant la vaine et fatale souverainete d'un
pays qui lui etait a charge. Genes faisait en eifet un bon marche, et
le roi de France en faisait un meilleur, puisqu'il etait assez puissant
pour se faire obeir dans la Corse, pour la policer, pour la peupler,
pour I'enrichir, en y faisant fleurir I'agriculture et le commerce . . .
II restait a savoir si les hommes ont le droit de vendre d'autres
hommes ; mais c'est une question qu'on n'examina jamais dans
aucun traite.' (Euvres de Voltaire, xix. 365.
Note 9. See ante, p. 288.
Note 10. Hume wrote to Adam Smith on Feb. 8, 1776 :— ' The
Duke of Buccleugh tells me that you are very zealous in American
affairs. My notion is that the matter is not so important as is
commonly imagined. If I be mistaken, I shall probably correct my
error when I see you, or read you. [The Wealth of Nations was on
the eve of publication.] Our navigation and general commerce may
suffer more than our manufactures.' Burton's Hume, ii. 483. See
ante, p. 292, n. 10, for the restrictions placed on American trade in the
hope of benefiting the trade of England. By one of ' the principal
dispositions of the Navigation Act,' writes Adam Smith, ' all ships, of
which the owners, masters, and three-fourths of the mariners are
not British subjects are prohibited, upon pain of forfeiting ship and
cargo, from trading to the British settlements and plantations.' Wealth
of Nations, ed. 1811, ii. 252. He considered 'the regulations of this
famous act,' though some of them 'may have proceeded from national
animosity, as wise as if they had all been dictated by the most deliberate
wisdom.' lb. p. 254. If America became free this exclusive navigation
would of course at once be lost to England, but Hume had little fear
of the consequence. Thirty-three years earlier, in his Essay entitled
Of the Jealousy of Trade, he had written : — ' I shall venture to acknow-
ledge that, not only as a man but as a British subject, I pray for the
flourishing commerce of Germany, Spain, Italy, and even France
itself.' Essays and Treatises, ed. 1770, ii. iii.
Note II. See ante, p. 128, n. 16.
Note 12. Horace Walpole, writing a fortnight later to Mason the
poet, said : — ' What shall I say more ? talk politics ? no ; we think too
much alike. England was, Scotland is — indeed by the blunders the
latter has made one sees its Irish origin, — but I had rather talk of
anything else. I see nothing but ruin, whatever shall happen ; and
what idle solicitude is that of childless old people, who are anxious
about the first fifty years after their death, and do not reflect that in
the eternity to follow, fifty or five hundred years are a moment, and
that all countries fall sooner or later.' Letters, vi. 284. See ante,
p. 179, n. 15.
Note 13. Dr. William Hunter, the famous physician, had taken
his Doctor's degree at Glasgow. Perhaps it was already known that
LXXIX.] ADAM SMITH AND GIBBON. 311
he intended to make a munificent bequest to the University. Knight's
Biog. Did. iii. 526. Dr. James Baillie was elected. Dr. Wight suc-
ceeded Baillie in 1778. Caldwell Papers, ii. 260.
LETTER LXXIX.
Last Corrections of the History : Smith's Wealth of Nations:
Gibbon's Decline and Fall.
Edinburgh, ii of Fehy., 1776.
Dear S""
Last Monday, I sent to the Newcastle Waggon the
four first Volumes corrected of my History. They are
directed to Mr. Cadell. You will see by the Margins, that
I have not been idle : And as the Corrections have cost
me a great deal of care and Attention, I am anxious that
the Books be safely deliver'd. They may arrive about
three Weeks hence ; about which time, if Mr. Cadell does
not receive them, I beg, that he would take the trouble of
enquiring about them ; and as soon as they come to hand,
let me know of it by a Line. The other Volumes will be
ready, whenever the Press demands them ; of which you
will be so good as to inform me in time.
I hope you will employ one of your most careful Com-
positors in this Edition : For as it is the last, which, at
my Age and in my State of Health \ I can hope to see, I
wish to leave it correct. I think that it will not be pru-
dent in you, to make this Edition more numerous than the
former one.
I wonder what Smith means by not publishing ^. I am
glad to see my Friend Gibbon advertised ^ : I am confi-
dent it will be a very good Book ; though I am at a Loss
to conceive where he finds materials for a Volume from
Trajan to Constantine *. Be so good as to make my
Compliments to him : The Book has not yet arrived here.
I am Dear Sir Very sincerely
Your most obedient humble Servant
David Hume^
3ia
LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Note I. Hume had written to Adam Smith three days earlier :—
' By all accounts you intend to settle with us this spring ; yet we
hear no more of it. What is the reason ? Your chamber in my house
is always unoccupied. I am always at home. I expect you to land
here. I have been, am, and shall be probably in an indifferent state
of health. I weighed myself t'other day, and find I have fallen five
complete stones. If you delay much longer, I shall probably disap-
pear altogether.' Burton's Hume, ii. 483.
Note 2. In the letter from which the extract in the last note is
taken Hume said : — ' I am as lazy a correspondent as you, yet my
anxiety about you makes me write. By all accounts your book has
been printed long ago ; yet it has never been so much as advertised.
What is the reason ? If you wait till the fate of America be decided,
you may wait long.' So early as 1770 Smith seems to have thought
of publishing his great work, for Hume wrote to him on Feb. 6 of that
year, hearing that he was going up to London : — ' How can you
so much as entertain a thought of publishing a book full of reason,
sense, and learning to those wicked abandoned madmen ? ' Burton's
Hume, ii. 433. It is announced in the London Chronicle for Saturday,
March 9, ' This day was published elegantly printed in 2 vols. 4to.
price ^i i6s. in boards. An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of
the Wealth of Nations. By Adam Smith, LL.D. & F.R.S. Formerly
Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow. Printed
for W. Strahan ; and T. Cadell in the Strand.' Adam Smith, it will be
noticed, here gives the full additions to his name. When seventeen
years earlier he was publishing his Theory of Moral Sentiments, he
wrote to Strahan : — ' In the titles both of the Theory and Dissertation
call me simply Adam Smith, without any addition either before or
behind.' Original Letters of Adam Smith, published in the New York
Evening Post, April 30, 1887.
In the Gentleman's Magazine the publication of the Wealth of
Nations passed unnoticed. In the Annual Register (1776, ii. 241) it
is indeed reviewed ; but while sixteen pages are given in the same
number to Watson's Reign of Philip II, for it little more than two can
be spared.
Note 3. Gibbon wrote to Holroyd on Jan. 18 of this year: — 'We
proceed triumphantly with the Roman Empire, and shall certainly
make our appearance before the end of next month.' Gibbon's
Misc. Works, ii. 142, In the London Chronicle for Tuesday, Feb. 20, it
is announced as 'published this day, elegantly printed in quarto,
price one guinea in boards.' Horace Walpole had received his copy
before Feb. 14. Letters, vi. 307. Writing to Mason on Feb. 18, he
said : — ' Lo, there is just appeared a truly classic work ; a history, not
majestic like Livy, nor compressed like Tacitus ; not stamped with
character like Clarendon ; perhaps not so deep as Robertson's Scot-
land, but a thousand degrees above his Charles; not pointed like
Voltaire, but as accurate as he is inexact ; modest as he is tranchant,
LXXIX.] GIBBON'S DECLINE AND FALL. 313
and sly as Montesquieu without being so recherche. The style is as
smooth as a Flemish picture, and the muscles are concealed and only
for natural uses, not exaggerated like Michael Angelo's to show the
painter's skill in anatomy ; nor composed of the limbs of clowns
of diiferent nations, like Dr. Johnson's heterogeneous monsters.
This book is Mr. Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire. He is son of a foolish Alderman, is a Member of Parlia-
ment, and called a whimsical one, because he votes variously as his
opinion leads him ; and his first production was in French, in which
language he shines too. I know him a little, never suspected the
extent of his talents, for he is perfectly modest, or I want penetra-
tion, which I know too, but I intend to know him a great deal
more.' lb. 310. Five years later Walpole described how Gibbon had
quarrelled with him, because he would not give him incense enough
about his second volume. He continues : — ' I well knew his vanity,
even about his ridiculous face and person, but thought he had too
much sense to avow it so palpably. The History is admirably written
. . . but the style is far less sedulously enamelled than the first
volume, and there is flattery to the Scots that would choke anything
but Scots, who can gobble feathers as readily as thistles. David
Hume and Adam Smith are legislators and sages, but the homage is
intended for his patron, Lord Loughborough. So much for literature
and its fops.' lb. vii. 505.
Gibbon, after describing ' a valiant tribe of Caledonia, the Attacotti,
who are accused by an eye-witness of delighting in the taste of
human flesh,' continues : — ' If in the neighbourhood of the com-
mercial and literary town of Glasgow a race of cannibals has really
existed, we may contemplate in the period of the Scottish history the
opposite extremes of savage and civilised life. Such reflections tend
to enlarge the circle of our ideas, and to encourage the pleasing hope
that New Zealand may produce in some future age the Hume of the
Southern Hemisphere.' Decline and Fall, ed. 1807, iv. 249. On p. 122
of the same volume, referring to the Wealth of Nations, he says : —
' This I am proud to quote as the work of a sage and a friend.'
Note 4. The first edition was in quarto, each volume containing as
much as two volumes of the octavo edition.
Note 5. On March 18 Hume wrote to his brother historian that
letter of which Gibbon said that ' it overpaid the labour of ten years.'
Gibbon's Misc. Works, i. 224. See ante, p. 258, n. 8.
314 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
LETTER LXXX.
Publication of the Wealth of Nations and of the Decline and
Fall: the Armament for America.
Edinburgh, 8 of April, I'j'jG.
Dear Sir
I am employed in finishing the Corrections of the
four last Volumes of my History, and these Volumes will
probably be sent you by the Waggon next week. You
have certainly Occupation enough on the four first till
their Arrival. I beg that after the four first are printed off
a Copy of the new Edition of them may be sent me by
the Waggon, that I may return you the Errata.
I am very much taken with Mr. Gibbon's Roman His-
tory which came from your Press, and am glad to hear
of its success. There will no Books of Reputation now
be printed in London but through your hands and Mr.
Cadel's^. The Author tells me, that he is already pre-
paring a second Edition. I intended to have given him my
Advice with regard to the manner of printing it ; but as I
am now writing to you, it is the same thing. He ought
certainly to print the Number of the Chapter at the head
of the Margin, and it woud be better if something of the
Contents coud also be added. One is also plagued with
his Notes, according to the present Method of printing the
Book : When a Note is announced, you turn to the End
of the Volume ; and there you often find nothing but the
Reference to an Authority : All these Authorities ought
only to be printed at the Margin or the Bottom of the
Page ^. I desire, that a Copy of my new Edition shoud be
sent to Mr. Gibbon, as wishing that a Gentleman, whom I
so highly value, shoud peruse me in the form the least
imperfect, to which I can bring my work ^-
We heard that yours and Mr. Cadell's Warehouses had
been consumed by fire : I intended to have written you
LXXX.] GIBBON'S DECLINE AND FALL. 315
on the Occasion, but as I received a Letter from you a
few Posts after, in which you mentioned nothing of the
Matter, I concluded the Rumor to be false. Dr. Robert-
son tells me, that there was some Foundation for the
Report ; but that your Loss was inconsiderable ; and that
your Copies were insured *. I shoud not have been sorry,
if some Bales of my Essays had been in the Number ; as I
think I coud make some Improvements in a new Edition.
Dr. Smith's Performance is another excellent Work
that has come from your Press this Winter; but I have
ventured to tell him, that it requires too much thought to
be as popular as Mr. Gibbon's °.
If your Ministry have as much Reflection and Combi-
nation of thought as to make a successful Expedition on
the other Side of the Atlantic with 40,000 men, they will
much disappoint my Expectations. They seem to have
gone wrong already by the Lateness of their Embarka-
tions ^. But we shall see, which is the utmost that can be
said in most Affairs of this Nature.
I am Dear S'' Yours sincerely
David Hume '.
Note I. Gibbon, speaking of the publication of the first volume of
his History, says : — ' After the perilous adventure had been declined
by my friend, Mr. Elmsly, I agreed upon easy terms with Mr.
Thomas Cadell, a respectable bookseller, and Mr. William Strahan
an eminent printer; and they undertook the care and risk of the
publication, which derived more credit from the name of the shop
than from that of the author. So moderate were our hopes that the
original impression had been stinted to five hundred, till the number
was doubled by the prophetic taste of Mr. Strahan. ... I am at
a loss how to describe the success of the work, without betraying the
vanity of the writer. The first impression was exhausted in a few
days ; a second and third edition were scarcely adequate to the
demand ; and the bookseller's property was twice invaded by the
pirates of Dublin. My book was on every table, and almost on every
toilette.' Misc. Works, i. 222. The preface to the third edition is
dated May i, 1777. Cadell and Strahan were publishing for Johnson,
Blackstone, Hume, Robertson, Adam Smith, and Blair, as well as for
Gibbon.
31 6 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Note 2. Hume's wish that ' something of the contents ' should be
added at the head of the margin is scarcely reasonable ; as the side
marginal entries are numerous, often two or three on a page. In the
third edition (perhaps also in the second edition, a copy of which
I have not been able to find) his advice about the notes is followed.
They are transferred to the foot of each page.
Note 3. Gibbon, in the Journal that he kept when he was serving
with the militia, entered on Nov. 2, 1761 : — ' I read Hume's History of
England to the Reign of Henry VII, just published, ingenious but
superficial.' Misc. Works, i. 139. He was but twenty-four years old
when he made this entry. The superficiality was not in any way re-
moved by all Hume's laborious revisions. The author of the Decline
and Fall would have found still more to condemn, though perhaps
still more to admire, than had been discovered by the young officer
of militia in his quarters at Devizes.
Note 4. ' March 2. About nine at night a fire broke out in the
warehouse of Messieurs Cox and Bigg, Printers, in the Savoy, and
notwithstanding every possible effort to stop its progress, the ware-
house, the printing-office, and the dwelling-houses of the two partners
were in a short time consumed, together with two warehouses filled
with books belonging to Mr. Cadell, and Mr. Elmsly of the Strand.'
Ann. Reg. 1776, i. 124.
Note 5. Hume wrote to Adam Smith on April i, 1776 : — ' Euge !
Belle ! Dear Mr. Smith, — I am much pleased with your performance,
and the perusal of it has taken me from a state of great anxiety. It
was a work of so much expectation, by yourself, by your friends, and
by the public, that I trembled for its appearance, but am now much
relieved. Not but that the reading of it necessarily requires so much
attention, and the public is disposed to give so little, that I shall still
doubt for some time of its being at first very popular.' Burton's
Hume, ii. 486. Hume's ' trembling ' may have been not only that of
a friend, but almost of a parent. ' In the Essays on Political Economy,'
writes Mackintosh, ' it is very evident that Hume was the true master
of Smith.' Mackintosh's Life, ii. 248.
Boswell, who had arrived in London from Scotland on March 15,
and who called on Johnson the next day, records : — ' I mentioned Dr.
Adam Smith's book on The Wealth of Nations, which was just pub-
lished, and that Sir John Pringle had observed to me, that Dr. Smith,
who had never been in trade, could not be expected to write well on
that subject any more than a lawyer upon physic. Johnson. " He is
mistaken. Sir : a man who has never been engaged in trade himself
may undoubtedly write well upon trade, and there is nothing which
requires more to be illustrated by philosophy than trade does." '
Boswell's Johnson, ii. 430. On April 28 Boswell wrote to his friend
Temple : — ' Murphy says he has read thirty pages of Smith's Wealth,
but says he shall read no more. Smith too is now of our Club. It
has lost its select merit.' Letters of Boswell, p. 233. Boswell, in a note
LXXX.] THE WEALTH OF NATIONS. 317
to the Tour to the Hebrides, somewhat condescendingly says : — ' I
value the greatest part of the Wealth of Nations' Boswell's Johnson,
V. 30, n. 3.
Adam Smith wrote to Strahan on Nov. 13, 1776 : — ' I have received
300 pounds of the copy money of the first edition of my book. But
as I got a good number of copies to malce presents of from Mr. Cadell,
I do not exactly know what balance may be due to me.' On Oct. 26,
1780, he wrote : — ' I had almost forgot I was the author of the inquiry
concerning the Wealth of Nations, but some time ago I received a
letter from a friend in Denmark telling me that it had been translated
into Danish.' Smith goes on to ask Cadell to send three copies of
the second edition to Denmark, and continues : — ' At our final settle-
ment, I shall debit myself with these three Books. I suspect I am
now almost your only customer for my own book. Let me know,
however, how matters go on in this respect.' Original Letters of
Adam Smith in the New York Evening Post, April 30, 1887.
Romilly, writing from London on Aug. 20, 1790, a few weeks after
Adam Smith's death, says : — ' I have been surprised, and I own
a little indignant, to observe how little impression his death has made
here. Scarce any notice has been taken of it, while for above a year
together, after the death of Dr. Johnson, nothing was to be heard of
but panegyrics of him. Lives, Letters, and Anecdotes, and even at this
moment there are two more Lives of him about to start into existence.'
Life of Romilly, ed. 1840, i. 404. One of these Lives no doubt was
Boswell's, and the other, perhaps. Murphy's. One of Gibbon's cor-
respondents, writing from Madrid in 1792, told him that ' the Wealth
of Nations had been condemned by the Inquisition, on account of "the
lowness of its style and the looseness of the morals which it in-
culcates." Nevertheless the Court had permitted an extract from it to
be published.' Gibbon's Misc. Works, ii. 479.
Dugald Stewart, in a note which he added in 1810 to his Life of
Adam Smith (p. 130), says : — ' By way of explanation of what is
hinted at in the foot-note, p. 77, I think it proper for me now to add,
that at the period when this Memoir was read before the Royal
Society of Edinburgh, it was not unusual, even among men of some
talents and information, to confound studiously the speculative doc-
trines of Political Economy with those discussions concerning the first
principles of Government which happened unfortunately at that time
to agitate the public mind. The doctrine of a Free Trade was itself
represented as of a revolutionary tendency ; and some who had for-
merly prided themselves on their intimacy with Mr. Smith, and on
their zeal for the propagation of his liberal system, began to call
in question the expediency of subjecting to the disputations of philo-
sophers, the arcana of State Policy, and the unfathomable wisdom of
the feudal ages.'
Lord Cockburn, in his Memorials, p. 45, writing of Edinburgh in
the closing years of last century, says ; — ' The middle aged seemed to
3l8 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
me to know little about the founder of the science [of Political
Economy], except that he had recently been a Commissioner of
Customs, and had written a sensible book. The young, by which I
mean the liberal young of Edinburgh, lived upon him. With Hume,
Robertson, Millar, Montesquieu, Ferguson, and De Lolme he sup-
plied them with most of their mental food.' Cockburn adds that
when Dugald Stewart in the winter of 1801-2 gave his first course of
lectures on Political Economy, ' the mere term " Political Economy "
made most people start. They thought that it included questions
touching the constitution of governments ; and not a few hoped to
catch Stewart in dangerous propositions. It was not unusual to see
a smile on the faces of some when they heard subjects discoursed
upon, seemingly beneath the dignity of his Academical Chair. The
word Corn sounded strangely in the moral class, and Drawbacks
seemed a profanation of Stewart's voice.' lb. p. 174.
Note 6. See post, p. 327, n. 14.
Note 7. Strahan must have given Gibbon a copy of a part of this
letter, for a long extract from it is published in Gibbon's Misc. Works,
ii. 161. Answering Hume on April 12, Strahan wrote : — ' What you
say of Mr. Gibbon's and Dr. Smith's books is exsictly just. The former
is the most popular work ; but the sale of the latter, though not near
so rapid, has been more than I could have expected from a work
that requires much thought and reflection (qualities that do not
abound among modern readers) to peruse to any purpose '....'
If this Ministry cannot land the number of men you mention in
America, or very near that number, which from the great difBculty of
procuring transports for that purpose, I am afraid they will not ; and
if the army there is not able to make a very considerable impression
this summer, we shall be in the most awkward and disagreeable
situation that can be conceived. Delay amounts to Defeat; and the
expense of a single campaign in the unhappy contest is beyond
all conception enormous. Besides, if things do not go well with
us there this summer, it will throw us into such confusion at home as
nearly to overset (not the Ministry only, that is often of little conse-
quence) but the Government itself. So that our rulers have now
much at stake which I hope they will not fail to keep in view. I am
hopeful, and upon that hope rests my chief dependence, that the
Colonists, tired of the total stoppage of all trade and improvements,
and weary of the anarchy under which they now groan, will do half
the work for us.' M. S. R. S. E.
' The Wealth of Nations reached its sixth edition by the year 1791, and its
ninth by the end of the century. The first two editions were in two volumes
qnarto, and the numerous succeeding ones at first in three volumes, and later on in
four volumes octavo. It was not till 1839 ''**' ^" edition in one volume was
published. Lowndes's Bib. Man. ed. 1871, p. 2417, and Brit. Mus. Cata.
LXXXL] HUME STRUCK WITH MORTAL ILLNESS. 319
LETTER LXXXL
Hume's Departure for London.
Edinburgh, 20 of April^, 1776.
Dear Strahan
My Body sets out to-morrow by Post for London ^ ;
but whether it will arrive there is somewhat uncertain. I
shall travel by slow Journies. Last Monday, I sent off by
the Waggon, directed to Mr. Cadel, the four last Volumes
of my History. I bring up my philosophical Pieces cor-
rected, which will be safe, whether I dye by the Road or
not^.
I am Dear Sir Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Note I. Hume had finished his far too brief Autobiography two
days eariier.
Note 2. Sometime in the spring of this year Dr. Black, Hume's
physician, sent Adam Smith the following letter : — ' I write at present
chiefly to acquaint you with the state of your friend David Hume's
health, which is so bad that I am quite melancholy upon it, and as I
hear that you intend a visit to this country soon, I wish, if possible,
to hasten your coming, that he may have the comfort of your com-
pany so much the sooner. He has been declining several years, and
this in a slow and gradual manner, until about a twelvemonth ago,
since which the progress of his disorder has been more rapid. . . .
His mother, he says, had precisely the same constitution with him-
self, and died of this very disorder ; which has made him give up
any hopes of his getting the better of it. . . . Do not however say
much on this subject to any one else ; as he does not like to have it
spoke of, and has been very shy and slow in acquainting me fully
with the state of his health.' Burton's Hume, ii. 488. Hume's friends
urged him to go to London, partly in the belief that the journey would
do him good, and partly to get fresh medical advice. Black however
had not thought well of the journey. On April 12, Hume wrote to
John Home the dramatist : — ' Dr. Black (God bless him) tells me that
nothing is so improper for me as leaving my own house, jolting
about on the road, or lying in inconvenient inns, and that I shall die
with much more tranquillity in St. David [? David's] Street than any-
where else. Besides, where can I expect spiritual assistance so
consolatory ? When are you to be down ? Bring Smith with you,'
320 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Caldwell Papers, i. 35. ' He set out,' he said ' merely to please his
friends.' Works of John Home, i. 169. Meanwhile Adam Smith had
started for Scotland, with Home. At Morpeth 'they would have passed
Hume, if they had not seen his servant, Colin, standing at the gate of
an inn.' lb. 168. Leaving Smith to continue his journey alone. Home
turned back, and accompanied his friend first to London, then to
Bath, and afterwards to Edinburgh. They travelled in a post-chaise,
by such easy stages that Hume took eleven days in going from
Edinburgh to London. On Thursday, April 25, Home records in an
interesting diary ' which he kept of the journey : — ' Left Darlington
about nine o'clock, and came to Northallerton ^ The same delightful
weather. A shower fell that laid the dust, and made our journey to
Boroughbridge more pleasant. Mr. Hume continues very easy, and
has a tolerable appetite ; tastes nothing liquid but water, and sups
upon an egg. He assured me that he never possessed his faculties
more perfectly ; that he never was more sensible of the beauties of
any classic author than he was at present, nor loved more to read.
When I am not in the room with him he reads continually. The post-
boys can scarcely be persuaded to drive only five miles an hour, and
their horses are of the same way of thinking. The other travellers,
as they pass, look into the chaise, and laugh at our slow pace. This
evening the post-boy from North Allerton, who had required a good
deal of threatening to make him drive as slow as we desired, had no
sooner taken his departure to go home than he set off at full speed.
" Pour se de'dommager," said David.' lb. p. 171. Home says that they
arrived in London on Wednesday, April 31 [sic). Wednesday was
May I. Hume describing his journey to Dr. Blair, says of Home's
turning back to keep him company : — ' Never was there a more
friendly action, nor better placed ; for what between conversation
and gaming (not to mention sometimes squabbling), I did not pass
a languid moment.' Burton's Hume, ii. 505. The 'gaming' was
picquet. ' Mr. David,' writes Home, ' was very keen about his card-
playing.' Home's Works, i. 169.
Henry Mackenzie describes Home as ' a man of infinite pleasantry
as well as great talents, whose conversation, perhaps beyond that of
any other of the set, possessed the charm of easy natural attractive
humour. His playful vivacity often amused itself in a sort of mock
contest with the infantile (if I may use such a phrase when speaking
1 This Diary was published by Henry Mackenzie in the Appendix to his Life
of Home. By a narrow edge of paper left between pages 1 80 and 181, it is easy to
see that there has been a suppression. If the manuscript is still in existence,
it would be interesting to see what the passage is that has been suppressed.
' Johnson had passed a night here less than three years earlier. Writing to
Mrs. Thrale on Aug. 12, 1773, he said; — 'We dined at York, and went on to
Northallerton, a place of which I know nothing but that it afforded us a lodging
on Monday night, and about two hundred and seventy years ago gave birth to
Roger Ascham.' Piozni Letters, i. 105.
LXXXII.] HUME'S JOURNEY TO LONDON. 321
of such a man) simplicity of David Hume, who himself enjoyed the
discovery of the joke which had before excited the laugh of his com-
panions around him.' Home's Works, i. 14. He was a good companion
for a sick man ; for Dr. Robertson used jokingly to say that ' he in-
vested his friends with a sort of supernatural privilege above the
ordinary humiliating circumstances of mortality. " He never," said
the Doctor, " would allow that a friend was sick till he heard of his
death." ' lb. p. 7. His kindness is shown in the following anecdote :
— ' The lady John Home had married not being very remarkable for
her personal attractions, David Hume, it is said, asked him " how he
could ever think of such a woman ? " Home, who was a man of great
goodness and simplicity of character, replied, " Ah, David ! if I had
not, who else would have taken her ? " ' Caldwell Papers, ii. 179.
Sir Walter Scott, who in his fourth year had been taken to Bath
for his health, and had stayed there about a year (about 1775), says : —
' My residence at Bath is marked by very pleasing recollections. The
venerable John Home was then at the watering-place, and paid
much attention to my aunt and to me.' Lockhart's Scott, ed. 1839, i. 30.
Note 3. ' Newcastle, Wednesday, 24th ApriL Mr. Hume not quite
so well in the morning — says that he had set out merely to please his
friends ; that he would go on to please them ; that Ferguson and
Andrew Stuart (about whom we had been talking) were answerable
for shortening his life one week a-piece ; for, says he, you will allow
Xenophon to be good authority ; and he lays it down, that suppose a
man is dying, nobody has a right to kill him. He set out in this vein,
and continued all the stage in his cheerful and talking humour.'
Home's Works, i. 169.
LETTER LXXXII.
Hume's Arrival in London.
Brewer Street', 2 of May, i']'j6.
Dear S'^
I arrived here j'^esterday very much improved by
my Journey. I have seen no body but Sir John Pringle,
who says that he sees nothing alarming in my Case ^ ; and
I am willing, and consequently ready to believe him. I
intend to call on you this forenoon, and shall leave this in
case I miss you. I know not yet what Sir John intends
to do with me ; so am ignorant how long I shall remain in
Y
333 LETTERS OF DA VI D HUME. [Letter
London: But wish much to have a Conversation with
you ; I shall never eat a meal from my own Fireside ; but
all the Forenoons and Afternoons will be at my Disposal.
It will do me Service to drive to your House ; so that you
need only appoint me by Message or Penny Post'' an hour
any day.
I am Dear S"" Yours sincerely
David Hume.
P.S. — I lodge at Mrs. Perkins, a few doors from Miss
Elliots *, and next door to Mr. Forbes the Surgeon. The
Afternoons, if equally convenient for you, will rather be
more convenient to me, to call on you.
Note I. Brewer Street, Golden Square, where he had lodged in
March, 1769 (ante, p. 203, n. 8).
Note 2. Hume wrote to Dr. Blair from Bath on May 13 : — ' You
have frequently heard me complain of my physical friends, that they
allowed me to die in the midst of them without so much as giving a
Greek name to my disorder ; a consolation which was the least I had
reason to expect from them. Dr. Black, hearing this complaint, told
me that I should be satisfied in that particular, and that my disorder
was a hemorrhage, a word which it was easy to decompose into ai^uos
\sic\ and pr^ywjii.. But Sir John Pringle says, that I have no hemor-
rhage, but a spincture \sic\ in the colon, which it will be easy to cure.
This disorder, as it both contained two Greek appellations and was
remediable, I was much inclined to prefer ; when, behold ! Dr.
Gustard tells me that he sees no symptoms of the former disorder,
and as to the latter, he never met with it and scarcely ever heard
of it.' Burton's Hume, ii. 504. Dr. Norman Moore, the Warden of
the College of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, has kindly furnished me
with the following note on this passage : —
' Hume seems to have had a cancerous growth in the large intestine,
followed by a secondary cancerous growth in the liver.
' The word sphincter is used for a circle of muscular fibres closing
an orifice, but as this term is inapplicable to a diseased structure, I
think Hume's word spincture is written for stricture. A new growth
(cancer) of the colon would be certain to cause a stricture or nar-
rowing of the intestine, and is frequently followed by one or more
tumours in the liver. The natural history of new growths of this kind
and the sequence of primary cancer of the intestine and secondary
cancer of the liver was imperfectly known in Hume's time ; but it is
LXXXIII.] HUME'S ILLNESS. 323
probable that John Hunter had some insight into the matter, for
Charles Bernard, in Queen Anne's time, had already noticed the
occasional recurrence of cancer after operation ; the first step in the
observation of the natural history of cancer. Hume's age, the dura-
tion of his illness, and the interval between Hunter's observation of
the disease in his liver and his death, are all consistent with the
opinion that he died of cancer of the intestine, followed by secondary
cancer of the liver.'
Note 3. See ante, p. 175, n. 2.
Note 4. Miss Elliot, I suppose, is, the ' Peggy Elliot ' formerly of
Lisle Street (ante, p. 94, n. 8), with whom Hume used to lodge.
LETTER LXXXIII.
The Bath Waters.' Journey to Bath ; First Lord of the
Admiralty at Speen Hill.
Bath, 10 of May, 1776.
My Dear S"'
I was very sorry not to see you again before I left
London, both because I did not see you again and because
of the Cause, your being confin'd. I arriv'd here on
Wednesday Evening; improv'd, as before, by the Journey;
And the short Trial which I have made of the Waters,
seems to succeed wonderfully. Dr Gustard ^, with whom
I am much taken, says, that he never saw a Case so much
what may be calld a Bath Case, and in which he is more
assur'd of the Patients Recovery. To tell the Truth, I
feel myself already so much reliev'd, that, for the first
time these several Months, I have to day begun to open
my Mind to the Expectations of seeing a few more Years :
But whether this be very desirable at my Age I shall not
determine. I have not ventur'd to write any thing to Sir
John Pringle till we have made a further Trial.
You have probably or soon will have some Letters
directed to me under your Cover ^. Please direct them to
this Place. I hope you will be able to give me the same
Y 2
334 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
good Accounts of your Health that I have given you of
mine. I beheve, I told you, that I had sent to the Newcastle
Waggon at Edinburgh, near four Weeks ago, the corrected
Copy of the four last Volumes of my History, directed to
Mr. Cadell. The great Pains, that these Corrections cost
me, make me anxious to hear of their safe Arrival.
When we pass'd by Spine hill ^ near Newbury we found
in the Inn Lord Denbigh *, who was an Acquaintance of
my Fellow Traveller °. His Lordship inform'd him, that
he. Lord Sandwich ^, Lord Mulgrave '', Mr. Banks ^, and
two or three Ladies of Pleasure had pass'd five or six
Days there ^, and intended to pass all this Week and the
next in the same Place ; that their chief object was to enjoy
the trouting Season ^^ ; that they had been very successful ;
that Lord Sandwich in particular had caught Trouts near
twenty Inches long, which gave him incredible Satisfaction;
but that for his Part, being a greater Admirer of Sea Fish,
in which Bath abounded, and hearing that Friday was the
great Market day there for Fish, he commissiond my
Friend to send him up by the London Fly^^ a good Cargo
of Soles, John Dories, and Pipers ^^, which wou'd render
their Happiness compleat. I do not remember in all my
little or great Knowlege of History ^^ (according as you
and Dr Johnson can settle between you the Degrees of my
Knowlege) such another Instance ; and I am sure such a
one does not exist : That the first Lord of the Admiralty,
who is absolute and uncontrouled Master in his Depart-
ment, shou'd, at a time when the Fate of the British
Elnpire is in dependance, and in dependance on him, find
so much Leizure, Tranquillity, Presence of Mind and Mag-
nanimity, as to have Amusement in trouting during three
Weeks near sixty Miles from the scene of Business, and
during the most critical Season of the Year. There needs
but this single Fact to decide the Fate of the Nation.
What an Ornament woud it be in a future History to
LXXXIII.] MINISTERS AT SPEEN HILL. 325
open the glorious Events of the ensuing Year with the
Narrative of so singular an Incident".
I am Dear Sir Yours sincerely
David Hume.
Note I. ' Dr. Gusthard was the son of a minister of Edinburgh ;
being of good abiUty and a winning address he had come into very
good business.' Dr. A. Carlyle's Auto. p. 534. Hume's employment
of a Scotch physician both in London and Bath calls to mind ' the
pleasant manner ' in which Garrick maintained to Boswell the nation-
ality of the Scotch. ' Come, come, don't deny it ; they are really
national. Why, now, the Adams are as liberal-minded men as any
in the world ; but I don't know how it is, all their workmen are
Scotch. You are, to be sure, wonderfully free from that nationality ;
but so it happens that you employ the only Scotch shoe-black in
London.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 325.
Note 2. See ante, p. 188, n. 11.
Note 3. Clarendon, in his account of the second Battle of New-
bury, fought on Oct. 27, 1644, between Charles I and the Earl of
Manchester's army, tells how ' the right wing of the enemy's horse
advanced under the hill of Speen, with one hundred musketeers in
the van, and came into the open field, where a good body of the
King's horse stood, which at first received them in some disorder.'
History of the Rebellion, ed. 1826, iv. 584.
Note 4. Basil, sixth Earl of Denbigh, born 1719. Horace Walpole
wrote on May 19, 1756 :-^' My Lord Denbigh is going to marry a
fortune, I forget her name ; my Lord Gower asked him how long the
honey-moon would last. He replied, " Don't tell me of the honey-
moon ; it is harvest-moon with me." ' Letters, iii. 13. On Jan. 22, 1761,
Walpole wrote : — ' Lord Denbigh is made Master of the harriers,
with two thousand a year. Lord Temple asked it, and Newcastle
and Hardwicke gave into it for fear of Denbigh's brutality in the
House of Lords.' lb. p. 373. For an instance of his brutality, see
ante, p. 106, n. i. It was his father who asked his kinsman, Henry
Fielding the novelist, ' how it was that he spelled his name " Field-
ing," and not " Feilding," like the head of the house ? " I cannot tell,
my Lord," said he, " except it be that my branch of the family were
the first that knew how to spell." ' Thackeray's English Humou^sts,
ed. 1858, p. 282.
Note 5. John Home.
Note 6. John, fourth Earl of Sandwich, at this time First Lord of
the Admiralty. See Boswell's Life of Johnson, iii. 383, for the murder
of his mistress. Miss Ray, in 1779, by the Rev. Mr. Hackman.
Note 7. Constantine John, second Baron Mulgrave, a junior Lord
of the Admiralty. When a Captain in the Navy he had commanded
an expedition for the discovery of a North-East Passage. Wraxall
336 -LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
(Memoirs, ed. 1815, ii. 125) says that ' he possessed two distinct
voices ; the one strong and hoarse, the other weak and querulous.
So extraordinary a circumstance probably gave rise to a story of
his having fallen into a ditch in a dark night, and -calling for aid in his
shrill voice. A .countryman coming up was about to assist him ; but
Lord Mulgrave addressing him in a hoarse voice, the peasant ex-
claimed, " Oh ! if there are two of you in the ditch, you may help
each other out of it." '
Note 8. Perhaps Henry Bankes, M.P. for Corfe Castle, one of the
Commissioners of Customs. He died on Sept. 23 of this year. Gent.
Mag. 1776, p. 436.
Note 9. Lord Denbigh and Lord Sandwich were each 57 years
old. Mr. Bankes, if this was Henry Bankes, was still older, as his
father had been dead 62 years. Lord Mulgrave was only 32.
Note 10. They were fishing in
' The Kennet swift, for silver eels renowned.'
Pope's Windsor Forest.
' The trout of the Kennet have long been celebrated for their size
and flavour ; Fuller speaks of them in his Worthies. The editor of
the Magna Britannia mentions the trout of the Kennet as being of a
prodigious size, and speaks of one 45 inches in length taken at New-
bury.' Lysons' Berkshire, p. 195. Fuller speaks of them as follows : —
' Trouts. This is a pleasant and wholesom Fish, as whose feeding
is pure and cleanly, in the swiftest streams, and on the hardest
gravell. Good and great of this kind are found in the River of
Kennet, nigh Hungerford, though not so big as that which Gesner
affirmes taken in the Leman-lake, being three cubits in length.'
Fuller's Worthies, ed. 1662, i. 81.
Note II. 'When I left school,' says Lord Eldon, 'in 1766 to go to
Oxford, I came up from Newcastle to London in a coach, then
denominated on account of its quick travelling, as travelling was then
estimated, a fly ; being, as well as I remember, nevertheless three or
four days and nights on the road.' Life of Lord Eldon, ed. 1846, i. 39.
In Chamberlayne's Present State of Great Britain, 1710, p. 281, there
is the following account of the Flying Coaches as they were in the be-
ginning of the century ; — ' Besides this excellent Convenience of con-
vejdng Letters and Men on Horse-back, there is of late an admirable
Commodiousness both for Men and Women of better Quality, to
travel from London to almost any Town of England, and to almost all
the Villages near this great City, and that is by Stage-Coaches,
wherein one may be transported to any Place, sheltered from foul
Weather and foul Ways ; and this is not only at a low Price, as
about a Shilling for every five Miles, but with such speed as that the
Posts in some Foreign Countries make not more Miles in a Day ; for
the Stage-Coaches, called Flying Coaches, make 50 or 60 Miles in a
Day, as from London to Oxford or Cambridge ; sometimes 70, 80, and
100 Miles, as Southampton, Bury, Cirencester, Norwich, &c.'
LXXXIII.] THE WAR WITH AMERICA. 337
Note 12. For a description of this fish, see F. Buckland's Natural
History of British Fishes, p. 104.
Note 13. Johnson, on April 30, 1773, said that he had not read
Hume's History. Boswell's Johnson, ii. 236. If Dr. Thomas Camp-
bell's Diary can be taken as genuine (see ib. ii. 338, n. 2), he said on
April 5, 1775, that ' he defied any one to produce a classical book written
in Scotland since Buchanan. Robertson, he said, used pretty words,
but he liked Hume better ; and neither of them would he allow to be
more to Clarendon than a rat to a cat.' Ib. v. 57, n. 3. Had Hume
arrived at Bath a few days earlier he might have met Johnson and
Boswell, who had been there on a visit to the Thrales. Ib. iii. 45.
Note 14. Horace Walpole wrote to Mann on April 17 : — ' You
need not be too impatient for events. The army that was to overrun
the Atlantic continent is not half set out yet ; but it will be time
enough to go into winter-quarters. What we have heard lately
thence is not very promising. The Congress, that was said to be
squabbling, seems to act with harmony and spirit ; and Quebec is
not thought to be so safe as it was a month ago. However, that is the
business of the Ministers ; nobody else troubles his head about the
matter. Few people knew much of America before ; and now that
all communication is cut oif, and the Administration does not think
itself bound to chant its own disappointments, or the praises of the
enemy, we forget it as much as if Columbus had not routed it out of
the ocean.' Letters, vi. 327. On May 17 he wrote: — 'As I knew no
more than the newspapers would tell you, I did not announce to you
the retreat of the King's army from Boston. Great pains were taken,
and no wonder, to soften this disgrace. . . The American war begins
to lose its popularity.' Ib. p. 336. Two years later, on May 31, 1778,
he wrote to Mason : — ' Lord Sandwich has run the gauntlet in the
Lords for all the lies he has told all the winter about the fleet, and
does not retire ; but I am sick of repeating what you must be sick of
reading. An invasion will have some dignity ; but to see a great
country gambol at the eve of ruin like a puppy on a precipice ! Oh !
one cannot buffoon like Lucian when one wants to speak daggers like
Tacitus, and couch them in a sentence without descending to details.'
Ib. vii. 72.
Burke, writing on April 22, 1776, shows that the public could be as
careless even as Ministers of the affairs of the nation. The trial of the
Duchess of Kingston for bigamy had been going on. ' All affairs
totally suspended with all sorts of people. We forgot, for a while,
war and taxes, and everything else ; though the budget will be
opened on Wednesday.' Burke's Corres. ii. 102. On May 4 he
writes of General Howe's retreat to Halifax : — ' In that nook of penury
and cold the proud conqueror of America is obliged to look for
refuge.' Ib. p. 103. On May 30 he writes : — ' The party is at present
very high ; but it is the glory of the Tories that they always flourish
in the decay, and perhaps by the decay, of the glory of their country.
328 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Our session is over, and I can hardly believe by the tranquillity of
everything about me that we are a people who have just lost an
empire. But it is so. The present nursery revolution, I think,
engages as much of our attention. [There had been a change of
Governor, Sub-governor, Preceptor, and Sub-preceptor to the Prince
of Wales and Prince Frederick].' lb. p. 107.
On Nov. 8, soon after the opening of Parliament, Mr. Luttrell moved
an Address to the King for the removal of Lord Sandwich from office.
He said ' that the absolute management of the maritime power of the
British empire was too important a trust to be committed to a bon
vivant of Lord Sandwich's levity of disposition and known depravity
of conduct, especially now the piping hours of jubilee and dalliance
were at end.' Lord Mulgrave defended his chief. ' The British
nation,' he said, 'had never known a First Commissioner of the
Admiralty equal to the present in capacity and meritorious services.'
The motion was negatived without a division. Pari. Hist, xviii. 1449-54.
The absence of a division is accounted for by ' the partial secession '
from the House of a great number of the Opposition. Being over-
whelmed in the divisions on which they had ventured, they contented
themselves with ' attending the House in the morning upon private
business ; as soon as a public question was introduced they took a
formal leave of the Speaker, and immediately withdrew.' Ann. Reg.
1777, i. 48.
Lord Sandwich, according to the reports in the London Chronicle,
took part in the debates on May 9, 10, and 16. He could easily have
gone up to town and returned betw^een the loth and the i6th. Lord
Denbigh was in the House of Lords on the i6th. Boswell this same
spring left London for Bath — nearly twice the distance of Speen
Hill — on a visit of pleasure on April 26, and was back again by May i.
Boswell's Johnson, iii. 45, 51.
LETTER LXXXIV.
The Bath Waters injurious : Complaints of Injustice :
Hume's Autobiography: Dialogues on Natural Religion.
Bath, 8 of June, 1776.
My Dear S'"
You will be sorry to hear, that I must retract all the
good Accounts, which I gave you of my Health. The
Waters, after seeming to agree with me, have sensibly a
bad Effect, and I have entirely dropped the Use of them.
LXXXIV.] COMPLAINTS OF INJUSTICE. 339
I wait only Sir John Pringle's Directions before I
leave this place ; and I shall, I believe, set out for the
North in a few days ^. If any Letters for me come under
your Cover, be so good as to detain them, till I can inform
you of my Route.
I am glad to find, that you have been able to set about
this New Edition in earnest. I have made it extremely
correct ; at least I believe that, if I were to live twenty
Years longer, I shoud never be able to give it any further
Improvements. This is some small Satisfaction to me in
my present Situation ; and I may add that it is almost the
only one that my Writings ever afforded me : For as to
any suitable Returns of Approbation from the Public, for
the Care, Accuracy, Labour, Disinterestedness, and
Courage^ of my Compositions, they are yet to come.
Though, I own to you, I see many Symptoms that they
are approaching^. But it will happen to me as to many
other Writers : Though I have reached a considerable
Age, I shall not live to see any Justice done to me *. It is
not improbable, however, that my Self-conceit and Pre-
possessions may lead me into this way of thinking ^-
As soon as this Edition is finished, please to send a
Copy of all the ten Volumes^ to Sir John Pringle, the
same to Mr. Gibbon', a Copy of the History to Mistress
Elliott * in Brewer Street ; six Copies of the whole to me
in Edinburgh or to my Brother there in case of my Death '.
If this Event shall happen, as is probable, before the
PubHcation of this Edition, there is one Request I have to
make to you : Before I left Edinburgh, I wrote a small
piece (you may believe it woud be but a small one) which
I call the History of my own Life " : I desire it may be
prefixed to this Edition : It will be thought curious
and entertaining. My Brother or Dr. Adam Smith will
send it to you, and I shall give them Directions to that
Purpose.
33° LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
I am also to speak to you of another Work more im-
portant : Some Years ago, I composed a piece, which
woud make a small Volume in Twelves. I call it Dia-
logues on natural Religion : Some of my Friends flatter
me, that it is the best thing I ever wrote. I have hitherto
forborne to publish it, because I was of late desirous to
live quietly, and keep remote from all Clamour: For
though it be not more exceptionable than some things I
had formerly published ; yet you know some of these
were thought very exceptionable; and in prudence, per-
haps, I ought to have suppressed them. I there introduce
a Sceptic, who is indeed refuted, and at last gives up the
Argument, nay confesses that he was only amusing him-
self by all his Cavils " ; yet before he is silenced, he
advances several Topics, which will give Umbrage, and
will be deemed very bold and free, as well as much out of
the common Road. As soon as I arrive at Edinburgh, I
intend to print a small Edition of 500, of which I may give
away about 100 in Presents; and shall make you a
Present of the Remainder, together with the literary
Property of the whole, provided you have no Scruple, in
your present Situation, of being the Editor: It is not
necessary you shoud prefix your Name to the Title Page.
I seriously declare, that after Mr. Millar and You and Mr.
Cadell have publickly avowed your Publication of the
Enquiry concerning human Understanding'^'^, I know no
Reason why you shoud have the least Scruple with regard
to these Dialogues. They will be much less obnoxious to
the Law", and not more exposed to popular Clamour.
Whatever your Resolution be, I beg you wou'd keep an
entire Silence on this Subject. If I leave them to you by
Will, your executing the Desire of a dead Friend, will
render the publication still more excusable^*. Mallet
never sufferd any thing by being the Editor of Boling-
broke's Works ^'-
LXXXIV.] HUME'S COWARDICE. 331
Two posts ago, I sent you a Copy of the small Essay
which I mentioned ^''-
I am Dear S"' with great Regard and Sincerity
Your most obedient humble Servant
David Hume.
Note I. 'They may say what they will,' wrote Horace Walpole
nearly ten years earlier, 'but it does one ten times more good to
leave Bath than to go to it.' Letters, v. 19.
Note 2. Hume's courage had not grown with increase of days and
prosperity, as the following extracts from his letters show. Writing
in 1754 of the first volume of his History of England under the Stuarts,
he says : — 'A few Christians only (and but a few) think I speak like a
Libertine in religion ; be assured I am tolerably reserved on this head.
Elliot tells me that you had entertained apprehensions of my dis-
cretion : what I had done to forfeit with you the character of prudence
I cannot tell, but you will see little or no occasion for any such impu-
tation in this work. I composed it ad populum, as well as ad clermn,
and thought that scepticism was not in its place in an historical pro-
duction.' Burton's Hume, i. 397. In this very volume of his History
(ch. lix), speaking of the trial of Charles I, he says : — ' If ever on any
occasion it were laudable to conceal truth from the populace, it must
be confessed that the doctrine of resistance affords such an example ;
and that all speculative reasoners ought to observe, with regard to
this principle, the same cautious silence which the laws in every
species of government have ever prescribed to themselves. Govern-
ment is instituted in order to restrain the fury and injustice of the
people ; and being always founded on opinion, not on force, it is
dangerous to weaken by these speculations the reverence which the
multitude owe to authority, and to instruct them beforehand that the
case can ever happen when they may be freed from their duty of
allegiance.' Ed. 1802, vii. 148.
In 1761, writing to Dr. Blair about a sermon by a Dr. Campbell in
which he was attacked, he says : — ' I could wish your friend had not
denominated me an infidel writer on account of ten or twelve pages
which seem to him to have that tendency, while I have wrote so
many volumes on history, literature, politics, trade, morals, which in
that particular at least are entirely inoffensive. Is a man to be called
a drunkard, because he has been seen fuddled once in his lifetime ? '
Burton's Hume, ii. 116. Dr. Burton hereupon quotes the following
anecdote by Lord Charlemont : — ' One day that Hume visited me in
London, he came into my room laughing, and apparently well pleased.
"What has put you into this good humour, Hume?" said I. 'Why
man," replied he, " I have just now had the best thing said to me I
ever heard. I was complaining in a company where I spent the
S2'i LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
morning, that I was very ill-treated by the world ; that I had
written many volumes, throughout the whole of which there were
but a few pages that contained any reprehensible matter, and yet for
those few pages I was abused and torn to pieces. " You put me in
mind," said an honest fellow in the company, " of an acquaintance of
mine, a notary public, who having been condemned to be hanged
for forgery, lamented the hardness of his case ; that after having
written many thousand inoffensive sheets he should be hanged for
one line." ' Memoirs of Charlemont, ed. 1812, i. 232.
Though Hume wrote his Dialogues concerning Natural Religion at
least as early as the year 1751 (Burton's Hume, i. 328), he had not
courage to publish them in the remaining quarter of a century that
he lived. To the full violence of the attack made by Johnson on
Bolingbroke — about its justice I say nothing — he was himself exposed.
Johnson would not have hesitated to say of him : — ' Sir, he was a
scoundrel and a coward ; a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss
against religion and morality ; a coward because he had not resolu-
tion to fire it off himself, but left half-a-crown to a beggarly Scotch-
man to draw the trigger after his death.' Boswell's Johnson, i. 268.
Hume withdrew also from publication at the last moment his Essays
on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul, (ante, p. 232, n. 8).
In 1762 he wrote to Millar : — ' I give you full authority to contradict
the report that I am writing or intend to write an ecclesiastical
history ; I have no such intention ; and I believe never shall. I am
beginning to love peace very much, and resolve to be more cautious
than formerly in creating myself enemies.' Burton's Hume, ii. 130.
In an undated letter, believed to be written to Dr. Trail, speaking of
his philosophical writings he says : — ' I wish I had always confined
myself to the more easy parts of erudition.' M. S. R. S. E. Yet when
Lord Charlemont asked him ' whether he thought that, if his opinions
were universally to take place, mankind would not be rendered more
unhappy than they now were ; and whether he did not suppose that
the curb of religion was necessary to human nature ; "The objections,"
answered he, " are not without weight ; but error never can produce
good, and truth ought to take place of all considerations." ' Memoirs
of Charlemont, i. 232.
Landor thus introduces him in his Dialogue between Alfieri and
Metastasio : —
' Metastasio. " Hume was thought a free-thinker : was he one ? "
'Alfieri. "Quite the contrary. A narrow ribbon tied him, neck
and heels, to the hinder quarters of a broken throne. If you mean
religion, I believe he was addicted to no formulary. His life was
indolently and innocently Epicurean." ' Landor's Works, ed. 1876,
V. 132. See ante, p. 217, n. 3, for his cowardly advice to a young
clergyman.
Note 3. In his Autobiography he says : — ' Though I see many
symptoms of my literary reputation's breaking out at last with
LXXXIV.] NATURAL RELIGION. 333
additional lustre, I knew that I could have but few years to enjoy
it.' He speaks of his ' love of literary fame ' as his ' ruling-
passion.'
Note 4. Sir James Mackintosh, writing in the year 181 1, says : —
' Perhaps the name of no man of letters in Great Britain, in the
middle of the eighteenth century, was better known throughout
Europe than that of Mr. Hume.' Speaking of his philosophical works
Mackintosh continues : — 'They may be regarded as the cause, either
directly or indirectly, of almost all the metaphysical writings in
Europe for seventy years ; during the whole of that period Mr. Hume
filled the schools of Europe with his disciples or his antagonists.'
Life of Mackintosh, ii. 168.
Note 5. Hume at first wrote : — ' It is probable that my Prepos-
sessions lead me into this way of thinking.'
Note 6. The ten volumes are the eight of his History and the two
of his Essays.
Note 7. Gibbon had sent Hume ' the agreeable present ' of the
first volume of his Decline and Fall. Gibbon's Misc. Works, i. 224."
Note 8. See ante, p. 94, n. 8.
Note 9. See post, p. 358.
Note 10. Hume had written to Adam Smith on May 3 : — ' You will
find among my papers a very inoflensive paper called " my own
Life," which I composed a few days before I left Edinburgh ; when
I thought, as did all my friends, that my life was despaired of. There
can be no objection that the small piece should be sent to Messrs.
Strahan and Cadell, and the proprietors of my other works, to be
prefixed to any future edition of them.' Burton's Hume, ii. 493.
Note II. ' " Believe me, Demea," replied Cleanthes, " your friend
Philo from the beginning has been amusing himself at both our
expense ; and it must be confessed that the injudicious reasoning of
our vulgar theology has given him but too just a handle of ridicule.
The total infirmity of human reason, the absolute incomprehensibility
of the Divine Nature, the great and universal misery, and still greater
wickedness of men ; these are strange topics, surely, to be so fondly
cherished by orthodox divines and doctors. In ages of stupidity and
ignorance, indeed, these principles may safely be espoused ; and
perhaps no views of things are more proper to promote superstition
than such as encourage the blind amazement, the diffidence, and
the melancholy of mankind." ..." I must confess," replied Philo,
" that I am less cautious on the subject of Natural Religion than on
any other ; both because I know that I can never on that head cor-
rupt the principles of any man of common sense ; and because no
one, I am confident, in whose eyes I appear a man of common sense,
will ever mistake my intentions. You, in particular, Cleanthes, with
whom I live in unreserved intimacy ; you are sensible that notwith-
standing the freedom of my conversation, and my love of singular argu-
ments, no one has a deeper sense of religion impressed on his mind.
334 LETTERS OF DA VID HUME. [Letter
or pays more profound adoration to the Divine Being, as he discovers
himself to reason, in the inexplicable contrivance and artifice of
nature. A purpose, an intention, a design, strikes ever3rwhere the
most careless, the most stupid thinker ; and no man can be so
hardened in absurd systems as at all times to reject it." ' Hume's
Philosophical Works, ed. 1854, ii. 520, 522.
Note 12. Millar, it should seem, had had no fear of publishing
sceptical works. Hume writing to him on May 20, 1757, said : —
' When Bailie Hamilton [the Edinburgh bookseller] was in London,
he wrote me that the stop in the sale of my History proceeded from
some strokes of irreligion, which had raised the cry of the clergy
against me. This gave me occasion to remark to you that the Bailie's
complaint must have proceeded from his own misconduct ; that the
cause he assigned could never have produced that eifect ; that it was
rather likely to increase the sale according to all past experience ;
that you had offered (as I heard) a large sum for Bolingbroke's
Works, trusting to this consequence.' Burton's Hume, ii. 24. It is
stated in Knight's Cyclo. of Biog. iv. 69, that ' Mallet refused the
bookseller's offer of ^3000 for Bolingbroke's Works, and then pub-
lished them on his own account.' According to Nichols, ' they were
published with success very inadequate to our Editor's expectation.'
Lit. Anec. ii. 370.
Note 13. Blackstone, only seven years earlier, had said : — ' All
affronts to Christianity, or endeavours to depreciate its efficacy, are
highly deserving of human punishment. . . . About the close of the
last century, the civil liberties to which we were then restored being
used as a cloak of maliciousness, and the ■ most horrid doctrines
subversive of all religion being publicly avowed both in discourse
and writings, it was found necessary again for the civil power to
interpose, by not admitting those miscreants to the privileges of
society who maintained such principles as destroyed all moral obli-
gation. To this end it was enacted by statute 9 & 10 William HI.
c. 32, that if any person educated in or having made profession of
the Christian religion shall by writing, printing, teaching, or advised
speaking deny the Christian religion to be true, or the Holy Scrip-
tures to be of divine authority, he shall upon the first offence be
rendered incapable to hold any office or place of trust; and for
the second, be rendered incapable of bringing any action, being
guardian, executor, legatee, or purchaser of lands, and shall suffer
three years' imprisonment without bail.' Blackstone's Commentaries,
1st ed. iv. 44. Under the penalties of this bad Act fell those who
denied any of the persons of the Trinity to be God. In 1813 an
Act was passed to reUeve Unitarians from the operations of this
statute. Penny Cyclo. ed. 1835, iv. 508.
On Sept. 30, 1773, Boswell records : — ' I asked Dr. Johnson if it
was not strange that government should permit so many infidel
writings to pass without censure. Johnson. " Sir, it is mighty foolish.
LXXXIV.] HUME'S WILL. 335
It is for want of knowing their own power. The present family on
the throne came to the crown against the will of nine-tenths of the
people. Whether those nine-tenths were right or wrong, it is not
our business now to inquire. But such being the situation of the
Royal Family, they were glad to encourage all who would be their
friends. Now you know every bad man is a Whig ; every man who
has loose notions. The Church was all against this family. They
were, as I say, glad to encourage any friends ; and therefore since
their accession there is no instance of any man being kept back
on account of his bad principles ; and hence this inundation of
impiety." I observed that Mr. Hume, some of whose writings were
very unfavourable to religion, was however a Tory. Johnson. " Sir,
Hume is a Tory by chance, as being a Scotchman ; but not upon
a principle of duty ; for he has no principle. If he is anything, he
is a Hobbist." ' BosweirsyoA«so«, v. 271. ' Hobbes's politics,' wrote
Hume, 'are fitted only to promote tyranny, and his ethics to en-
courage licentiousness. Though an enemy to religion, he partakes
nothing of the spirit of scepticism ; but is as positive and dogmatical
as if human reason, and his reason in particular, could attain a
thorough conviction in these subjects.' Hist, of England, ed. 1802,
vii. 346.
Note 14. Hume, in his will, dated Jan. 4, 1776, after leaving to
Adam Smith full power over all his papers except the Dialogues,
which he desired him to publish, continues : — ' Though I can trust
to that intimate and sincere friendship, which has ever subsisted
between us, for his faithful execution of this part of my will, yet, as a
small recompense of his pains in correcting and publishing this work,
I leave him two hundred pounds, to be paid immediately after the
publication of it.' Hume's Philosophical Works, ed. 1854, i. xxxi.
On May 3 of this year, in what he called 'an ostensible letter'
which Smith could produce as his justification for whatever course
he might take, he wrote to him : — ' After reflecting more maturely on
that article of my will by which I left you the disposal of all my
papers, with a request that you should publish my Dialogues con-
cerning Natural Religion, I have become sensible that both on account
of the nature of the work and of your situation ' it may be improper to
hurry on that publication. I therefore take the present opportunity
of qualifying that friendly request. I am content to leave it entirely
to your discretion, at what time you will publish that piece, or
whether you will publish it at all.' Later on, seeing Smith's un-
willingness to publish the work, he added a codicil to his will dated
Aug. 7, in which he says : — ' In my later will and disposition I made
some destinations with regard to my manuscripts : All these I now
retract, and leave my manuscripts to the care of Mr. William Strahan,
of London, Member of Parliament, trusting to the friendship that has
long subsisted between us for his careful and faithful execution of my
• Adam Smith was in hopes of receiving some appointment under Government.
336 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
intentions. I desire that my Dialogues concerning Natural Religion
may be printed and published any time within two years after my
death.' In ' a new paragraph appended ' to the codicil he says : —
' I do ordain that if my Dialogues, from whatever cause, be not
published within two years and a-half after my death, as also the
account of my life, the property shall return to my nephew, David,
whose duty in publishing them, as the last request of his uncle, must
be approved of by all the world.' Burton's Hume, ii. 491-4.
As Adam Smith had been relieved from the trust of publication, he
steadily refused to accept payment of the legacy. It was in vain that
Hume's brother, 'the sole executor and universal legatee,' 'urged
such pleas as this, " My brother, knowing your liberal way of thinking,
laid on you something as an equivalent, not imagining you would
refuse a small gratuity from the funds it was to come from, as a
testimony of his friendship." ' lb. p. 490. There can be no question
that had Adam Smith set the wishes of his dead friend before his
own delicate sense of honour, he would have accepted the legacy.
In the will the bequest follows two of the same amount to Dr. Adam
Ferguson and D'Alembert. To neither of these friends, I feel
sure, was he so strongly attached as to the author of the Wealth
of Nations.
Adam Smith three years earlier had made Hume his literary
executor. He wrote to him on April 16, 1773 : — ' I have left the
care of all my literary papers to you.' M. S. R. S. E.
Note 15. Hume in his unostensible letter to Adam Smith, of the
same date as his ostensible one, said : — ' I think your scruples
groundless. Was Mallet anywise hurt by his publication of Lord
Bolingbroke? He received an office afterwards from the present
King and Lord Bute, the most prudish men in the world ; and he
always justified himself by his sacred regard to the will of a dead
friend.' Burton's Hume, ii. 491. On Feb. 8, 1763, MaUet was ap-
pointed Keeper of the Book of Entries for Ships in the Port of
London. Gent. Mag. 1763, p. 98. He was left moreover in the
enjoyment of 'a considerable pension' which had been bestowed
on him in the previous reign, for the vilest of services. ' He was
employed to turn the public vengeance upon Bjmg, and wrote a
letter of accusation under the character of a Plain Man. The paper
was with great industry circulated and dispersed.' Johnson's
Works, viii. 467. Adam Smith, if, as is likely, he had heard of
Johnson's stinging sarcasm against Mallet, by which the name of
that ' beggarly Scot ' chiefly lives, might well have questioned Hume's
assertion that the editor of BoUngbroke's Works had suffered nothing
by their publication.
Note 16. See ante, p. 279, n. 5.
LXXXV.]. THE CAUSE OF HUME'S ILLNESS. 337
LETTER LXXXV.
The Cause of Hume's Illness discovered.
Bath, 12 of June, 1776.
My Dear S'"'
I leave not this Place so soon as I had intended ;
and shall remain long enough to hear from you. I am
sensibly obliged^ to you for undertaking to execute my
Will with regard to my Manuscripts; and I have this
same day made a Codicil by which I make you entirely
Master of them^. It is an idle thing in us to be concerned
about any thing that shall happen after our Death ; yet
this is natural to all Men, and I often regretted that a
Piece, for which I had a particular Partiality, should run
any hazard of being suppressed after my Decease '.
The Cause of my Distemper is now fully discovered:
It is a Tumour in my Liver, which Mr. John Hunter first
felt, and which I myself can now feel: It seems to be
about the Bigness of an Egg, and is flat and round. Dr.
Gusthart, who had conjectured some such Cause, flatters
me, that he now entertains better hopes than ever, of my
Recovery ; but I infer, that a Disorder, of so long standing,
in a vital Part, will not easily be removed in a Person of
my Years : It may linger some Years, which would not
be very desirable. The Physicians recommend Motion
and Exercise and even long Journies * : I think, therefore,
of setting out for Edinburgh some time next week ; and
will probably see you in London before the End of the
good Season. I am with great Sincerity Dear Sir
Your most obedient humble Servant
David Hume^
Note I. ' Sensibly obliged ' is one of Hume's Gallicisms. Sensibly
even in the sense oi judiciously or reasonably is given by Johnson in
his Dictionary as ' low language.'
338 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Note 2. Hume must have found reason to substitute for this codicil
that of August 7 (post, p. 345).
Note 3. In his will he showed his anxiety, not only for the
pubUcation of the Dialogues, but also for the general suppression
of his other manuscripts. In this he was unlike Johnson, who,
when he was asked by Boswell 'whether it would be improper to
publish his letters after his death,' replied, 'Nay, Sir, when I am
dead, you may do as you will.' Boswell's Johnson, ii. 60.
Note 4. On June 15 he wrote to Mr. Crawford : — ' The true cause
of my distemper is now discovered. It lies in my liver, not in my
bowels. You ask me how I know thus ; I answer, John Hunter, the
greatest anatomist in Europe, felt it with his fingers, and I myself
can now feel it. The devil's in it if this do not convince you. Even
St. Thomas, the infidel apostle, desired no better authority than the
testimony of his fingers. . . . They tell me that motion and exercise
are my best remedies, and here I believe them, and shall put the
recipe in practice. The same remedy wou'd serve you. Will you
meet me positively, and as a man of honour, this day month, the
15th July at Coventry, the most central town in England, and let us
wander during the autumn throughout every corner of that kingdom
and of the principality of Wales ? ' Morrison Autographs, ii. 319.
Note 5. On his way back he sent the following note, written in his
own hand and dated Doncaster, June 27 : — ' Mr. John Hume, alias
Home, alias The Home, alias the late Lord Conservator, alias the
late minister of the Gospel at Athelstaneford, has calculated matters
so as to arrive infallibly with his friend in St. David's Street on
Wednesday evening. He has asked several of Dr. Blair's friends
to dine with him there on Thursday, being the 4th of July, and begs
the favour of the Doctor to make one of the number.' Home's
Works, i. 161. Home had held the ofBce of Conservator, of Scots
Privileges at Campvere. 'He represented the Dutch ecclesiastical
establishment there in the General Assembly of the Church of Scot-
land, to which that establishment had long had the privilege of
sending a member.' lb. pp. 52, 59, 60.
On the day on which the old Epicurean gathered his old friends
once more, and perhaps for the last time, round his friendly board in
Edinburgh, far away at Philadelphia, on the other side of the broad
Atlantic, the curtain had risen on one of the noblest scenes in the
great drama of the world. For it was on this very fourth of July
that the long-suffering and greatly wronged Colonies put forth their
Declaration of Independence : — ' We, the Representatives of the
United States of America in General Congress assembled, appealing
to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions,
do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these
Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies
are, and of right ought to be. Free and Independent States. . . .
And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the
LXXXVI.] HUME'S RETURN TO EDINBURGH. 339
protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other
our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour.' Ann. Reg. 1776,
i. 264. The news of this great deed must have reached Hume five
or six days before his death. It is reported in the London Chronicle
of Aug. 17. Upon him it would have come with no surprise. The
London politicians had not his foresight. General Conway had
written to him so late as June 16 : — ' I think by the late Quebec news
it look's \sic1 as if your friends, the Americans, did not think their
cause worth fighting for ; if so, we shall at last have peace on easy
terms ; and they must take the consequences.' M. S. R. S. E.
LETTER LXXXVI.
Return to Edinburgh : A dying Man's Corrections.
Edinburgh, 27 of July, 1776.
Dear S'"
I arriv'd here about three weeks ago in a very
shattered Condition : The Motion of the Chaise, especially
during the last days, made me suffer very much ; and my
Physicians are now of Opinion (which was always my
Sentiment) that all Exercise is hurtful to me. I am how-
ever in very good Spirits during the Intervals of my
CoHcs ; and employ myself in my usual Occupations. As
a proof of it, I send you three Leaves of the sixth Volume
of my History, which you will please to substitute, instead
of the three correspondent Leaves as they stand at
present. They contain some Corrections, or rather Omis-
sions, which I think Improvements \ You will wonder,
that, in my present Situation I employ myself about such
Trifles, and you may compare me to the modern Greeks,
who, while Constantinople was besieged by the Turks
and they themselves were threatened with total Destruc-
tion, occupyed themselves entirely in Disputes concerning
the Procession of the holy Ghost ^- Such is the Effect of
long Habit ! I am Dear Sir
Your most obedient humble Servant
Davp Hume^.
z 2
34° LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Note I. On leaves 89-90, 147-8, 251-4 in the edition of 1773,
there are long passages which are not found in the edition of 1778.
The first is about the meeting of the clergy at St. Andrews; the
second, about Philip IV of Spain and the Earl of Bristol ; and the
third about Charles the First's message to the House of Commons as
delivered by Secretary Coke.
Note 2. In the Council held at Ferrara and Florence in 1438,
fifteen years before the capture of Constantinople by the Turks,
when the Greek Church sought union wdth the Latin in the hope of
receiving assistance against tTie common enemy of the faith, 'the
single or double procession of the Holy Ghost ' was one of the four
questions which for nine months was agitated betweeji the two
Churches. ' On the substance of the doctrine the controversy was
equal and endless ; reason is confounded by the procession of a
deity ; the gospel which lay on the altar was silent. . . . The danger
and relief of Constantinople might excuse some prudent and pious
dissimulation ; and it was insinuated that the obstinate heretics who
should resist the consent of the East and West would be abandoned
in a hostile land to the revenge or justice of the Roman pontiff. . . .
It was agreed (I must entreat the attention of the reader) that the
Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, as from one
principle and one substance, that he proceeds by the Son, being of
the same nature and substance, and that he proceeds from the Father
and the Son by one spiration and production. It is less difficult to
understand the articles of the preliminary treaty; that the Pope
should defray all the expenses of the Greeks in their return home ;
that he should annually maintain two gallies and three hundred
soldiers for the defence of Constantinople,' etc. Gibbon's Decline and
Fall, ed. 1807, xii. 88-92. Voltaire, describing the capture of the city,
says : — ' On s'occupait toujours de controverses, et les Turcs etaient
aux portes.' (Euvres de Voltaire, xiv. 408.
Note 3. Strahan replied on Aug. i : — ' This will be a very correct
edition, and I will take care it shall be printed accurately and neatly ;
and what is very encouraging, your History sells better of late
years than before ; for the late edition will be gone some time before
this can be finished. In short, I see clearly, your reputation is
gradually rising in the public esteem. — A flattering circumstance this,
even in the decline of life ; and when by the unalterable course of
nature, nothing will soon be lefl of us but a Name. — By the bye, does
not this almost universal solicitude to live after we close our eyes to
this present scene, mean something ^ ? — I hope, I almost believe it
* 'It most be so — Plato, thou reason'st well! —
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality ?
Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
Of falling into nought? why shrinks the soul
LXXXVII.] REGARD FOR POSTERITY. 341
does. Else why are we on a variety of occasions, so much interested
in what is to pass after our deaths ? And do we not, in most of our
labours, regard posterity, and look forward to times long posterior to
our existence here ? You yourself are a living evidence of the truth
of what I am now saying.
' I sincerely congratulate you on your retaining your spirits, which
people seldom do in the midst of so much pain as you have lately
suffered. . . . There is yet little news of importance from 'tother side
the Atlantic ; but the period cannot be very distant when the fate of
America, or rather our fate with regard to America must be determined.
■ — I wish, and still hope and expect this foolish quarrel may end
happily.' M.S.R.S.E.
LETTER LXXXVII.
A further Correction : Hume's Physicians report a cure.
Edinburgh, 30 of July, 1776.
Dear S"''
I must give you the trouble of making a new Cor-
rection, which however will be easily done. It is in the
second Volume of my philosophical Pieces : That whole
Passage from Page 231 till Page 239 line 3 must be thrown
into an Appendix under the Title Of Self-love ^ : It must
be the second Appendix ; consequently the second Appen-
dix becomes the third, and the third Appendix, the fourth.
In like manner, what is called in Page 239, Part 2 must be
Part I ^, as also that in Page 241 must be Part 2. Let the
Printer observe this Alteration witii regard to the Appen-
dixes in the Table of the Contents.
I feel myself a good deal better since I am settled here,
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us;
'Tis heaven itself, that points out an hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.'
Addison's Cato, v. i.
Gibbon in his Autobiography, speaking of an author's regard for ' the fair testi-
monies of private and public esteem,' says : — ' Even his mowl sympathy may be
gratified by the idea that one day his mind will be familiar to the grandchildren of
those who are yet unborn.' Gibbon's Misc. Works, i. 273.
344 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Lettef
and never stir abroad except in a Chair. My Physicians
say everywhere that they have cured me, which is very
agreeable Intelligence, though somewhat new to me.
I am glad to hear, that you and Dr. Robertson are fully
agreed ^ : It gives me pleasure on his account, and I hope,
in the Issue, upon yours. I am dear Sir
Yours sincerely
David Hume.
P.S. — The Title of the Section in Page 231 remains the
same as before, viz. Of Benevolence.
Note I. See Hume's Philosophical Works, ed. 1854, iv. 364.
Note a. See ib. p. 237.
Note 3. The agreement most likely is about the price to be paid
for Robertson's History o/America,-which was published the following
year.
LETTER LXXXVIII.
The last Correction . Life a Burthen.
Edinburgh, 12 of August, 1776.
Dear S'"
Please to make with your Pen the following Cor-
rection. In the second Volume of my philosophical
Pieces, p. 245, 1. 1, and 2, eraze these words, that there is
such a sentiment in human nature as benevolence ^.
This, Dear S'"', is the last Correction I shall probably
trouble you with : For Dr. Black has promised me, that
all shall be over with me in a very little time^: This
Promise he makes by his power of Prediction, not that of
Prescription. And indeed I consider it as good News :
For of late, within these few weeks, my Infirmities have
so multiplyed, that Life has become rather a Burthen to
me ". Adieu, then, my good and old Friend.
David Hume.
<
8
►J
LXXXVIIL] DR. BLACK. 343
P.S.— My Brother will inform you of my Destination
with regard to my Manuscripts.
Another Correction.
In the same Page, 1. 4, instead of possession of it read
sentiment of benevolence *.
Note I. ' Upon the whole then it seems undeniable that there is
such a sentiment in human nature as benevolence ; that nothing can
bestow more merit on any human creature than the possession of it
in an eminent degree ; and that a part, at least, of its merit arises
from its tendency to promote the interests of our species, and bestow
happiness on human society.' Essays and Treatises, ed. 1770, iv. 30.
The correction was made. See Philosophical Works, ed. 1854,
iv. 243.
Note 2. Writing to his brother on Aug. 6, Hume said : — ' Dr. Black
Says I shall not die of a dropsy, as I imagined, but of inanition and
weakness. He cannot however fix with any probability the time,
otherwise he would frankly tell me. ... In spite of Dr. Black's cau-
tion, I venture to foretel that I shall be yours cordially and sincerely
till the month of October next.' Home's Works, i. 65. Dr. Joseph
Black, the eminent chemist, was Professor of Medicine and Chemistry
in the University of Edinburgh. ' Adam Smith used to say that " no
man had less nonsense in his head than Dr. Black." ' Did. of Nat. Biog.
v. III. By Black, Smith was attended in his last illness. Stewart's
Life of Adam Smith, p. 118. Boswell, writing to Temple on June 19,
1775, says : — ' I have not begun to read, but my resolution is lively,
and I trust I shall have it in my power soon to give you an account
of my studies : all that I can say for myself at present is, that I attend,
along with John Swinton and others, a course of lectures and ex-
periments by Dr. Black, Professor of Chemistry, — a study which Dr.
Johnson recommends much.' Letters of Boswell, p. 206. Lord Cock-
burn describes Black as ' a striking and beautiful person ; tall, very
thin, and cadaverously pale; his hair carefully powdered, though
there was little of it except what was collected into a long thin queue ;
his eyes dark, clear, and large, like deep pools of pure water. He
wore black speckless clothes, silk stockings and silver buckles. The
general frame and air were feeble and slender. The wildest boy
respected Black. No lad could be irreverent towards a man so pale,
so gentle, so elegant, and so illustrious. So he glided like a spirit,
through our rather mischievous sportiveness, unharmed. He died
seated, with a bowl of milk on his knee, of which his ceasing to live
did not spill a drop.' Cockburn's Memorials of his Time, p. 50. See
Quarterly Review, No. 71, p. 197, for an account of him by Sir Walter
Scott. Scott says that he owed his life to him. ' I was,' he writes, ' an
344 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
uncommonly healthy child, but had nearly died in consequence of my
first nurse being ill of a consumption, a circumstance which she
chose to conceal, though to do so was murder to both herself and me.
She went privately to consult Dr. Black, who put my father on his
guard. The woman was dismissed, and I was consigned to a healthy
peasant, who is still [in 1808] alive to boast of her laddie being what
she calls & grand gentleman' Lockhart's Scott, i. 19.
Note 3. On Aug. 20 Hume wrote to his old friend the Countess de
Boufflers : — ' Though I am certainly within a few weeks, dear Madam,
and perhaps within a few days of my own death, I could not forbear
being struck with the death of the Prince of Conti, so great a loss in
every particular. My reflection carried me immediately to your situa-
tion in this melancholy incident. What a difference to you in your
whole plan of life ! Pray write me some particulars ; but in such terms
that you need not care in case of decease into whose hands your letter
may fall.
' My distemper is a diarrhoea, or disorder in my bowels, which has
been gradually undermining me these two years, but within these six
months has been visibly hastening me to my end. I see death
approach gradually, viathout any anxiety or regret. I salute you,
with great affection and regard, for the last time. — David Hume.'
Hume's Private Corres., p. 285.
Adam Smith wrote to Hume on Aug. 22, 1776 : — ' You have in a
declining state of health, under an exhausting disease, for more than
two years together, now looked at the approach, or what you at least
believed to be the approach of Death with a steady cheerfulness such
as very few men have been able to maintain for a few hours, though
otherwise in the most perfect health.' He mentions in a letter of the
same date a matter trifling ' in itself, but one which shows how the
habit of ' rigid frugality,' by which Hume in his youth had ' suppUed
his deficiency of fortune,' clung to him to the end. 'I have this
moment,' Smith writes, 'received your Letter of the 15 inst. You
had, in order to save me the sum of one penny sterling, sent it by the
carrier instead of the Post ; and (if you have not mistaken the date)
it has lain at his quarters these eight days, and was, I presume, very
likely to lie there for ever.' Hume added a postscript to his answer of
August 23, written in his nephew's hand : — ' It was a strange blunder
to send your Letter by the carrier.' M. S. R. S. E. See post, p. 364,
n. 4, for this answer.
Note 4. Hume's friends, I am persuaded, would have maintained
that there was something not unsuitable to his disposition, in his
long train of corrections thus ending with ' the sentiment of bene-
volence.'
There were among them however those to whom his Philosophical
Pieces were objects of suspicion and dislike. When, shortly before
he died, he took leave of the widow of his old friend, Baron Mure,
'and gave her as a parting present a complete copyof hisZ/jstory, she
LXXXIX.] HUME'S DEATH AND WILL. 345
thanked him, and added in her native dialect, which both she and the
historian spoke in great purity, " O David, that's a book you may weel
be proud o' ; but before ye dee, ye should burn a' your wee bookies."
To which, raising himself on his couch, he replied with some vehe-
mence, half offended, half in joke, " What for should I burn a' my
wee bookies ? " But feeling too weak for further discussion, he shook
her hand and bade her farewell.' Caldwell Papers, i. 40.
[John Home of Ninewells to William Strahan.]
LETTER LXXXIX.
Hume's Will : Disposition about his unpublished Works.
Sir
My brother died on the 25th of August (as you would
probably see by the newspapers ') and in a codicill to his latter
will and testament of the 7th of August, has the following
clauses. 'In my latter will and disposition I made some
destinations with regard to my manuscripts. All these I now
retract ; and leave my manuscripts to the care of Mr. William
Strahan of London, member of Parliament : trusting to the
friendship that has long subsisted betwixt us, for his careful and
faithful execution of my intentions. I desire that my Dialogues
concerning natural religion may be printed and published any
time within two years after my death ; to which he may add, if
he thinks proper, the two essays formerly printed but not
published. My account of my own life, I desire may be pre-
fixed to the first edition of my works, printed after my Death,
which will probably be the one at present in the press. I desire
that my brother may supress all my other manuscripts.' On
the bottom of the same codicill is the following clause : ' I also
ordain that if my dialogues from whatever cause, be not pub-
lished within two years and a half of my death, as also the
account of my life, the property shall return to my Nephew,
David, whose duty in publishing them as the last request of his
uncle, must be approved of by all the World. Day and date as
above. — David Hume.'
Inconsequence of which, and in execution of his intentions,
34<5 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
that shall be always sacred to me, I have packed up in a round
white iron box, a manuscript copy of the Dialogues, and of his
life within it, directed for you, as also the two essays, with the
same direction, and one in my brother's hand below the first
cover ^, both of which will go with the fly ' from this to-morrow
morning ; and which you will please take the trouble to cause
enquire for : and beg you will take the further trouble of leting
me know, of their haveing comed safe to hand, by directing for me
att Ninewells by Berwick, where I shall be for two months ; and
when you have taken your resolution for the publication (as I
hope you soon will and as it was the last request of your friend
in so earnest a manner) shall be glad to know of it ; and when
the new edition of his whole works now in the press is pub-
lished, my brother expected six copys, would be sent me, as
presents to some of his most intimate friends. Mr Adam Smith
with my brothers approbation, is to write a small addition to his
life ^ narrating the time and manner of his death, and as he is
to be at London begining of winter, will give it you : and iS
to advise with you, whether that addition is to be made or not.
As the manuscripts were very tight when put in the box, they
cannot be taken out the same way, without injureing them : there-
fore there will be a necessity of knocking of the bottom and
pushing them forwards.
I am Sir
Your most humble Ser*
John Home °.
St. Andrews, Edinbrugh {sic), Sepbr. 2d, iTj6.
Note I. In the Gentleman's Magazine for Sept. 1776 (p. 435) Hume's
death has the briefest notice possible : — ' Aug. 25, David Hume, Esq. ;
Edinburgh.'
Note 2. The two Essays were no doubt those On Suicide and The
Immortality of the Soul, which Hume had printed but suppressed in
1755 {ante, pp. 230, 233). Strahan, post, p. 355, n. i, describes them
as 'the two Essays that were formerly printed but not published.'
They had been ' sealed up ' and directed by Hume to Strahan {post,
P- 363). ' The one in my brother's hand below the first cover ' was
most likely a duplicate of the Essay on the Origin of Government, of
which Strahan had already received a copy {ante, p. 331).
Note 3. See ante, p. 326, n. 11.
Note 4. See ante, end of Autobiography.
XC] JOHN HOME OF NINEWELLS. 347
Note 5. Dr. Burton thus writes of John Home : — ' There was ap-
parently but one point in which the two brothers differed ; and it was
a subject on which Hume seems to have been at war with all his clan.
The Laird of Ninewells, notwithstanding all the lustre that had now
gathered round the name of Hume, would not adopt it in place of that
of Home, which his fathers had borne. He was a simple, single-hearted
man, moderate in all his views and wishes, and neither ambitious of
distinction nor of wealth. He passed his life as a retired country
gentleman ; and while Europe was full of his brother's name, he was
so averse to notoriety, that he is known to have objected to the
domestic events of births, marriages, and deaths in his family obtain-
ing the usual publicity through the newspapers.' Dr. Burton adds in a
foot-note : — ' An early acquaintance with this characteristic might
have saved me some fruitless investigations.' Burton's Hume, ii. 398.
On his brother's marriage in 1751, Hume wrote to one of their
female-relations : — ' Our friend at last plucked up a resolution, and
has ventured on that dangerous encounter. He went off on Mon-
day morning ; and this is the first action of his life wherein he has
engaged himself, without being able to compute exactly the conse-
quences. But what arithmetic will serve to fix the proportion between
good and bad wives, and rate the different classes of each ? Sir Isaac
Newton himself, who could measure the courses of the planets, and
weigh the earth as in a pair of scales, — even he had not algebra
enough to reduce that amiable part of our species to a just equation ;
and they are the only heavenly bodies whose orbits are as yet uncer-
tain.' Home's Works, i. 104.
The Laird of Ninewells seems to have clung to the Scotch spelling
of his correspondent's name as much as he did to Home. He
addresses this letter to ' William Strachan, Esq., Member of Parlia-
ment, att the Strand, London.'
[Adam Smith to William Strahan.J
LETTER XC.
Hume's Life and Dialogues on Natural Religion.
My dear Strahan,
By a codicil to the will of our late most valuable friend
Mr. Hume the care of his manuscripts is left to you. Both from
his will and from his conversation I understand that there are
only two which he meant should be published, an account of his
own life, and Dialogues concerning natural religion. The
348 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
latter, tho' finely written, I could have wished had remained in
manuscript to be communicated only to a few people. When
you read the work you will see my reasons without my giving
you the trouble of reading them in a Letter. But he has
ordered it otherwise. In case of their not being published
within three years after his decease he has left the property of
them to his nephew. Upon my objecting to this clause as
unnecessary and improper, he wrote [to] me by his Nephew's
hand in the following terms. ' There is no man in whom I
have a greater confidence than Mr. Strahan ; yet have I left the
property of that manuscript to my nephew David in case by any
accident they [it] should not be published within three years after
my decease. The only accident I could foresee was one to Mr.
Strahan's life ; and without this clause my nephew would
[could] have had no right to publish it. Be so good as to inform
Mr. Strahan of this circumstance.' Thus far his letter which was
dated on the 23<i of August. He dyed on the 25 at 4 o'clock
afternoon. I once had persuaded him to leave it entirely to my
discretion either to publish them at what time I thought proper,
or not to publish them at all. Had he continued of this mind
the manuscript should have been most carefully preserved and
upon my decease restored to his family : but it never should
have been published in my lifetime. When you have read it
you will perhaps think it not unreasonable to consult some
prudent friend about what you ought to do.
I propose to add to his Life a very well authenticated account
of his behaviour during his last illness. I must however beg
that his Life and those Dialogues may not be published together,
as you resolved for many reasons to have no concern in the
publication of the [those] Dialogues. His Life I think ought to
be prefixed to the next edition of his former works, upon which
he has made many very proper corrections chiefly in what
concerns the Language. If this Edition is published while I
am [you are] at London, I shall revise the sheets, and authen-
ticate its being according to his last corrections. I promised
him that I would do so.
If my mother's health will permit me to leave her, I shall
be in London by the beginning of November. I shall write
to Mr. Home to take my lodgings, as soon as I return to
Fife, which will be on Monday or Tuesday next. The Duke
XC] LETTERS OF ADAM SMITH. 349
of Buccleugh ^ leaves this on Sunday. Direct for me at
Kirkaldy, Fifeshire, where I shall remain all the rest of
the season.
I ever am, my dear Strahan,
Most faithfully yours
Adam Smith.
Dalkeith House, 5 Sept., 1 776.
Let me hear from you soon '^.
Note I. Hume, writing to Adam Smith on April 12, 1759, says : —
' Charles Townsend, who passes for the cleverest fellow in England,
is so taken with the performance [Smith's Theory of Moral Senti-
menis], that he said to Oswald he would put the Duke of Buccleugh
under the author's care, and would make it worth his while to accept
of that charge.' Stewart's Life of Adam Smith, ed. 181 1, p. 58. In the
beginning of 1764 Adam Smith accepted the charge of accompanying
the young nobleman on his travels. lb. p. 63. He returned in October
1766. lb. p. 73. He was now staying at the Duke's house at Dal-
keith.
Note 2. The draft of this letter so far as the end of the last para-
graph but one is among the Hume papers belonging to the Royal
Society. The letter itself, which is in the possession of Mr. W. C.
Ford of Washington, United States, was published, with some other
of Adam Smith's letters, in the New York Evening Post of April 30,
1887. I have to thank my friend Professor Thorold Rogers for
drawing my attention to this publication. The few words in which
the letter as printed differs from the draft I have enclosed in brackets.
Strahan had written to John Home from Wincklo, near Ringwood,
on Sept. 9, 1776, when he had not seen the manuscript : — ' You will
see [in my letters to your brother] that I there promise to fulfil his
intentions most exactly ; a promise I shall most assuredly perform.'
On Sept. 16 he replied to Adam Smith from Southampton : — ' All that
I can say just now is that I shall do nothing precipitately. ... I will
give the Dialogues a very attentive perusal before I consult anybody.
I own I did not expect to hear they were so very exceptionable, as in
one of his late letters to me he tells me there is nothing in them worse
than what I have already published, or words to that effect. . . . You see
by his leaving the Dialogues ultimately to his nephew, in case of any
accident to me, his extreme solicitude that they should not be sup-
pressed.' M.S.R.S.E.
35° LETTERS OF DAVID HUME, [Letter
[William Strahan to Adam Smith.]
LETTER XCI.
Proposed Publication of a Selection of Hume's Letters.
Dear Sir
I received yours of the 13th inclosing the Addition to
Mr. Hume's Life ; which I like exceedingly ^ But as the
whole put together is very short, and will not make a Volume,
even of the smallest size, I have been advised by some very good
judges to annex some of his Letters to me on pohtical subjects.
— What think you of this ? — I will do nothing without your
advice and approbation ; nor would I,, for the world, publish any
letter of his, but such as, in your opinion, would do him honour.
— Mr. Gibbon thinks such as I have shown him would have that
tendency. — Now, if you approve of this, in any manner, you
may perhaps add greatly to the collection from your own
cabinets, and those of Mr. John Home, Dr. Robertson, and
others of your mutual friends '■', which you may pick up before
your return hither. — But if you wholly disapprove of this
scheme, say nothing of it, here let it drop, for without your con-
currence, I will not publish a single word of his. M. S. R. S. E.
London, Novr. 26, 1776.
Note I. Adam Smith wrote to Strahan on Nov. 13 : — ' The en-
closed is the small addition which I propose to make to the account
which our late invaluable friend left of his own hfe.' New York
Evening Post, April 30, 1887.
Note 2. In a note on Boswell's Life of Johnson, iii. 103, I have
shown that Burke and Goldsmith, as well as Boswell's correspondent
Sir Alexander Dick, use mutual friend instead of common friend.
XCII.] HUME'S MANUSCRIPTS. 351
[Adam Smith to William Strahan.]
LETTER XCII.
Hume's Injunction about his Papers.
Dear Sir
It always gives me great uneasiness whenever I am obliged
to give an opinion contrary to the inclination of my friend. I
am sensible that many of Mr Humes letters would do him great
honour and that you would publish none but such as would.
But what in this case ought principally to be considered is the
will of the Dead. Mr Humes constant injunction was to burn
all his Papers, except the Dialogues and the account of his own
life ^- This injunction was even inserted in the body of his
will ^- I know he always disliked the thought of his letters
ever being published. He had been in long and intimate
correspondence with a relation of his own who dyed a few
years ago. When that Gentlemans health began to decline he
was extremely anxious to get back his letters, least the heir
should think of publishing them. They were accordingly
returned and burnt as soon as returned. If a collection of Mr.
Humes letters, besides, was to receive the public approbation,
as yours certainly would, the Curls ° of the times would
immediately set about rummaging the cabinets of all those who
had ever received a scrap of paper from him. Many things
would be published not fit to see the light to the great mortifica-
tion of all those who wish well to his memory*. Nothing has
contributed so much to sink the value of Swifts works as the
undistinguished publication of his letters " ; and be assured that
your publication, however select, would soon be followed by an
undistinguished one. I should, therefore, be sorry to see any
beginning given to the publication of his letters. His life will
not make a volume ; but it will make a small pamphlet. I shall
certainly be in London by the tenth of January at furthest. I
have a little business at Edinburgh which may detain me a few
days about Christmass, otherwise I should be with you by the
5S2 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
new year. I have a great deal more to say to you ; but the post
is just going. I shall write to Mr. Cadell by next post.
I ever am Dear Sir
Most affectionately yours
Adam Smith.
KiRKALDY* 2 Dec., 1776.
Note I. Hume writing to Millar so early as July 21, 1757, said : —
' I must beg the Favor of you, that you would burn all my Letters,
which do not treat of Business ; that is, I may say all of them. ... I
own to you, that it would be very disagreeable to me, if by any
accident these Letters should fall into idle People's hands, and be
honoured with a publication.' M. S. R. S. E.
Note 2. ' To my friend Dr. Adam Smith, late Professor of Moral
Philosophy in Glasgow, I leave all my manuscripts without excep-
tion, desiring him to publish my Dialogues on Natural Religion, which
are comprehended in this present bequest ; but to publish no other
papers which he suspects not to have been written within these five
years, but to destroy them all at his leisure.' Hume's Philosophical
Works, ed. 1854, i. xxxi. It is clear that this desire that his papers
should be destroyed did not apply to his letters ; for there was no
reason why he should have exempted from destruction those written
in the last five years. In the codicil to his will, dated Aug. 7, he
says : — ' I desire that my brother may suppress all my other manu-
scripts ' except the Dialogues and the two Essays (ante, p. 346, n. 2).
There can be no doubt, however, that he would not have sanctioned
the publication of his letters.
Note 3. ' One of the passages of Pope's life which seems to
deserve some inquiry was a publication of letters between him and
many of his friends, which falling into the hands of Curll, a rapacious
bookseller of no good fame, were by him printed and sold.' Johnson's
Works, viii. 281.
Note 4. It is not impossible that some of his letters may have
contained loose writing. In one to Lord Advocate Dundas, dated Nov.
20, 1754, referring to the expulsion from the Advocates' Library of three
French w^orks for their indecency {ante. Autobiography), he says : —
' By the bye, Bussi Rabutin contains no bawdy at all, though if it did,
I see not that it would be a whit the worse. For I know not a more
agreeable subject both for books and conversation, if executed with
decency and ingenuity. I can presume, without intending the least
offence, that as the glass circulates at your Lordship's table, this topic
of conversation will sometimes steal in, provided always there be no
ministers present. And even some of these reverend gentlemen
I have seen not to dislike the subject.' Amiston Memoirs, ed. 1887,
p. 158.
Note 5. ' Of Swift's general habits of thinking, if his letters can be
XCIL] ADAM SMITH AT KIRKALDY. 353
supposed to afford any evidence, he was not a man to be either loved
or envied. He seems to have wasted life in discontent, by the rage
of neglected pride, and the languishment of unsatisfied desire. He
is querulous and fastidious, arrogant and malignant ; he scarcely
speaks of himself but with indignant lamentations, or of others but
with insolent superiority when he is gay, and with angry contempt
when he is gloomy. From the letters that pass between him and
Pope ,it might be inferred that they, with Arbuthnot and Gay, had
engrossed all the understanding and virtue of mankind ; that their
merits filled the world ; or that there was no hope of more. They
show the age involved in darkness, and shade the picture with sullen
emulation.' Johnson's Works, viii. 225. Cowper writing on April 20,
1777, says : — ' I once thought Swift's letters the best that could be
written ; but I like Gray's better. His humour, or his wit, or what-
ever it is to be called, is never ill-natured or offensive, and yet, I
think, equally poignant with the Dean's.' Cowper's Works, xv. 38.
Note 6. Adam Smith was born at Kirkaldy on June 5, 1723. After
his return from France in 1766 he settled there, living in great retire-
ment for nearly ten years. ' At length (in the beginning of 1776) he
accounted to the world for his long retreat, by the publication of his
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations' Dugald
Stewart's Life of Adam Smith, ed. 1811, i. 75. Writing to Hume from
Kirkaldy on June 7, 1767, he says : — ' My Business here is Study, in
which I have been very deeply engaged for about a Month past. My
Amusements are long solitary walks by the sea-side. You may
judge how I spend my time. I feel myself, however, extremely
happy, comfortable, and contented. I never was perhaps more so in
my life.' M. S. R. S. E. Hume, on his return to Edinburgh in 1769,
wrote to him from his house in James's Court : — ' I am glad to have
come within sight of you, and to have a view of Kirkaldy from my
windows.' Burton's Hume, ii. 429.
In 1778 Smith was appointed a Commissioner of Customs, and
removed to Edinburgh, where he spent the last twelve years of his
life. Stewart's Life, p. 105.
Thirty-eight years after he had left the quiet little town, another
great Scotchman, Thomas Carlyle, came to pass two years there as
schoolmaster. His description enables us to picture to ourselves the
scene of Adam Smith's sea-side walks. ' The beach of Kirkcaldy in
summer twilights, a mile of the smoothest sand, with one long wave
coming on gently, steadily, and breaking in gradual explosion into
harmless melodious white, at your hand all the way ; the break of it
rushing along like a mane of foam, beautifully sounding and ad-
vancing, ran from south to north, from the West Burn to Kirkcaldy
harbour, through the whole mile's distance. This was a favourite
scene, beautiful to me still, in the far away.' Reminiscences by T.
Carlyle, i. 104. Little perhaps of this beauty caught the eye of the
absent-minded philosopher; who 'when walking in the street had a
A a
354 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME, [Letter
manner of talking and laughing to himself, which often excited the
surprise of the passengers. He used himself to mention the ejacula^
tion of an old market-woman, " Hegh, Sirs ! " shaking her head as
she uttered it ; to which her companion answered, having echoed the
compassionate sigh, " and he is well put on, too ! " expressing their
surprise that a decided lunatic, who from his dress appeared to be a
gentleman, should be permitted to walk abroad.' Quarterly Review,
No. 71, p. 200. In this Review, which is by Scott, some other curious
stories are told of the same nature.
[Draft of a Letter from Adam Smith to William Strahan. j
LETTER XCIIL
Hume's Life to be published separately from the Dialogues,
[Dec. 1776.]
You certainly judge right in publishing the new Edition of
Mr. Hume's works before you publish the dialogues. They
might prevent the sale of this Edition ; and it is not impossible
that they may hereafter [affect] occasion the sale of another. I
am still uneasy about the clamour which I foresee they will
excite, and could '. , . . I am much obliged to you for so
readily agreeing to print the Life together with my addition
separate from the Dialogues. I even flatter myself that this
arrangement will contribute not only to my quiet, but to your
interest. The clamour against the Dialogues, if published first,
might for some time hurt the sale of the new edition of his
works ; and when the clamour has a little subsided the dialogues
may hereafter occasion a quicker sale of another edition.
M.S.R.S.E.
Note I. The whole of the above paragraph is scored through.
I do not know whether this letter was sent.
XCIV.] DAVID HUME THE NEPHEW. ^r^e^
[David Hume, the nephew of the historian, to William Strahan.]
LETTER XCIV.
Information asked for about the proposed Publication oj
Hume's Manuscripts,
Ol.k&Qiy'!<i,Jany. zoth, 1777.
Sir,
Presuming upon my connection with a Gentleman whose
memory must undoubtedly be very dear to you, as to everyone
who had the Happiness of his intimate Acquaintance, I take the
liberty of addressing you. You already perceive, that I speak
of the late Mr. David Hume ; to whom I had the singular Fe-
licity and Advantage of being Nephew.
I have never been able to learn, so fully and distinctly as
I desire, your intention with regard to the Publication of those
Manuscripts and Essays which he left behind him, and com-
mitted to your care. On this head, I am naturally very much
interested : I hope, therefore, that you will excuse me, if I re-
quest it of you as the friend of my Uncle, that you would
communicate to me all the information with regard to the extent,
the time and manner of Publication, which consistently with
your own convenience you can. A few Lines, in compliance
with this Request, will be regarded as a great favour, and afford
me the utmost Satisfaction '-
I am Sir, your most obed* most Humble Serv*
David Hume''.
Direct'' at Professor Millar's', College — Glasgow.
Note I. Strahan replied on Feb. 13 : — ' As for Mr. Hume's
Dialogues on Natural Religion, I am not yet determined whether
I shall publish them or not. I have all possible regard to the will
of the deceased : But as that can be as well fulfilled by you as by
me, and as the publication will probably make some noise in the
world, and its tendency be considered in different lights by different
men, I am inclined to think it had better be made by you. From you
some will conclude it comes with propriety as done in obedience io the
last request of your Uncle; as he himself expresses it; from me it
A a 2
356 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
might be suspected to proceed from motives of interest. But in this
matter I hope you will do me the justice to believe I put interest
wholly out of the question. However, you shall not, at any rate,
be kept long in suspense, as you shall soon have my final resolution.
The two Essays that were formerly printed, but not published, I
think with all your Uncle's other friends whom I know, should never
appear again in print.' M. S. R. S. E. For these two Essays, see
ante, p. 230, and p. 346, n. 2.
Note 2. ' David Hume [the nephew of the historian] was born on
27th February, 1757, and died on 27th July, 1838. He was suc-
cessively sheriff of the counties of Berwick and Linlithgow. He was
professor of Scots law in the University of Edinburgh, and a principal
Clerk of Session. He resigned these offices on his being appointed
a Baron of the Scottish Exchequer. His works are of great authority
in the practical departments of the law. While he taught in the
University, his students zealously collected notes of his lectures ;
and as he refused to permit any version of them to be published, the
well-preserved collections of these notes have been considered valuable
treasuries of legal wisdom. In 1790 he published Commentaries on
the law of Scotland respecting trials for crimes ; and in 1797 Com-
mentaries on the law of Scotland respecting the description and punish-
ment of crimes. . . . Few literary reputations have been more unlike
each other than those of the two David Humes, uncle and nephew.
The former hated legal details and the jargon of technical phrase-
ology ; to the latter they were the breath of his literary life. . . . On
one point only did they agree — their political opinions. . . . Baron
Hume was a supporter of all those parts of the criminal law of
Scotland, — in his day not a few, — which put the subject at the
mercy of the Crown and of the Judges.' Burton's Hume, ii. 401.
' I remember,' wrote Sir Walter Scott in 1826, ' the late Lord Melville
defending, in a manner that defied refutation, the Scots law against
sedition, and I have lived to see these repealed by what our friend
Baron Hume calls " a bill for the better encouragement of sedition
and treason." It will last my day probably ; at least I shall be too
old to be shot, and have only the honourable chance of being hanged
for incivisme.' Lockhart's Life of Scott, viii. 297. For an instance of
the cruel severity of the Scotch law of sedition, see Boswell's Johnson,
iv. 125, n. 2. Lord Cockburn in his Memorials, p. 163, while he admits
the usefulness of Hume's Commentaries ' for ordinary practice,' denies
that ' it is a great work of original thought. . . . The proceedings of the
savage old Scotch Privy Council are held up by him as judicial
precedents, even in political cases.' As an enlightened exposition
of law ' there is no book that has worse stood the test of time. There
is scarcely one of his favourite points that the legislature, with the
cordial assent of the public and of lawyers, has not put down.' In
the Speculative Society, about the year 1799, ' Hume tried to bear
down the younger members, who led by Brougham, Jeffrey, Horner,
XCIV.] DAVID HUME THE NEPHEW. 357
. . . were as defying in their Whiggism as their opponents in their
Toryism. , . . Being supposed to have applied some offensive impu-
tation to the junior party, it was arranged {by lot, I believe) that
Jeffrey should require an explanation. This was given ; but still
they were bound over to keep the peace.' lb. p. 74.
Scott when a student at Edinburgh attended Hume's classes, and
'copied over his lectures twice with his own hand.' He could
' never sufficiently admire,' he says, ' the penetration and clearness
of conception ' which they exhibited. He speaks of Hume ' as an
architect to the law of Scotland.' The second copy of the lectures,
'being fairly finished and bound into volumes was presented by
Scott to his father. The old gentleman was highly gratified with
this performance, not only as a satisfactory proof of his son's
assiduous attention to the law professor, but inasmuch as the
lectures afforded himself " very pleasant reading for leisure hours."
[He was a Writer to the Signet].' Lockhart's Life of Scott, i. 81, 249.
Hume ten days before his death wrote to his nephew : — ' I doubt
not but my name would have procured you friends and credit in the
course of your life, especially if my brother had allowed you to carry
it, for who will know it in the present disguise ? But as he is totally
obstinate on this head, I believe we had better let him alone. I have
frequently told him, that it is lucky for him he sees few things in
a wrong light, for where he does he is totally incurable.' Burton's
Hume, ii. 509. The nephew, as the signature to his letter shows,
unlike the Feildings, Earls of Denbigh, who were of the same family
as Fielding the novelist, was not slow in throwing off the disguise,
and in becoming known as a Hume instead of remaining insignificant
as a Home. See ante, p. 9, n. 10.
Note 3. Professor John Millar, in whose house David Hume was
living in his student days at Glasgow, was the author of some
historical works. ' Let me venture strongly to recommend to you
the books of Professor Millar,' wrote Mackintosh to Professor Smyth
of Cambridge, — 'his excellent treatise On Ranks, and even his
tedious and unequal work On the English Government, which contains
at least an excellent half-volume of original matter.' Mackintosh's
Life, i. 412.
Dr. J. H. Burton gives an interesting but mutilated letter, written
by Hume to his nephew on Dec. 8, 1775. He writes : — ' Mr. Millar
complains only of one thing, which [is not the] usual complaint of
tutors against their pupils ; to wit, that he is afraid you [apply too]
close, and may hurt your health by too assiduous study. . . . When
I was [of your] age, I was inclined to give in to excesses of the same
kind ; and I remember [an anecdote] told me by a friend, the present
Lord Pitfour. A man was riding with [great] violence, and running
his horse quite out of wind. He stopt a moment to [ask when] he
might reach a particular place. In two hours, replied the country-
man, [if you] will go slower; in four if you be in such a hurry.'
358 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Millar, it should seem, had been trying to give his pupil's mind
something of a Whiggish cast, for Hume continues : — ' I cannot but
agree with Mr. Millar, that the republican form of government is by far
the best. The ancient republics were somewhat ferocious and torn by
bloody factions ; but they were still much preferable to the monarchies
or [aristocracies] which seem to have been quite intolerable. Modern
manners have corrected this abuse ; and all the republics in Europe,
without exception, are so well governed that one is at a loss to which
we should give the preference. But what is this general subject of
speculation to our purpose ? ' After a passage which is greatly muti-
lated Hume continues : — ' [One] great advantage of a commonwealth
over our mixed monarchy is, that it [would considjerably abridge our
liberty ; which is growing to such an extreme as to be incom[patible
wi]th all. Such fools are they who perpetually cry out for hberty ;
[and think to] augment it by shaking off the monarchy.' Burton's
Hume, ii. 481.
It was Professor Millar who was Sir Walter Scott's authority for
the famous, but untrue story, of the ' classical dialogue between the
two great teachers of philosophy,' Dr. Johnson and Adam Smith.
Boswell's Johnson, v. 369, n. 5.
[John Home to William Strahan.J
LETTER XCV,
Copies of the History asked for : the Dialogues: Hunters
sentiments with regard to Futurity.
Edinburgh, Feby. i-,th, 1777.
Sir
It is a considerable time since Mr. Adam Smith left this,
for London, and carryed along with him, the adition he proposed
to make, to my brothers account of himself, all by his own des-
tination, to be prefixed to the edition of his works in the press,
which if it be in the forwardness you intended, may perhaps be
now finished, and since you was so obliging, as beside the
6 copys destined to be given to his particular friends by himself
you wrote me that I might have as many more, as I choiced,
you will please send 3 copys more, along with the 6, by the
wagon, directed for me at St Andrews square ; one of these
copys, was desired by the author verbally, to be given to one
XCV.] HUME'S DEATH-BED. 359
he had personal obligations to, a little before his death, the
other 3 copys, is at the request of my son and my brothers
nameson, to be given to two persons he is under particular
tyes to.
The request I am further to make, I am not so well entitled
to, which is, that when you do me [the] favour of writeing me,
with the above packet you will please let me know your inten-
tions with regard to the printing of the Dialogues concerning
natural religion, and if you have corned to a determination,
when it may be executed : as you make no difficulty, that they
shall be in proper time ; the anxiety my brother showed by all
his settlements, that it should be published ; I hope you will
admit of as some apology for intermedleing, with what is left
altogether at your disposal from the confidence that was placed
in you.
You was desirous to know, if my brother had got your letter
immediately before his decease. I can inform you that he
did, and it is now in my possession ; but tho he possesed his
facultys, and understanding and cool head, to the last, he was
scarce in condition to answer it, nor the quesion you put to
him : but so far as I can judge, his sentiments with regard to
futurity were the same, as when he was in perfect health and
was never more at ease in his mind, at any one period of his life ;
and happyly his bodyly uneasyness was not very distressing ;
and if you will allow me to add from myself, a regard to the
estimation of others after we are gone, is implanted in our
frame as a great motive for good conduct and I hope will always
have an effect on that of
Sir Your most humble Ser^'
John Home I
Note I. Adam Smith had sent the account by post {ante, p. 350).
Note 2. Strahan's letter to the dying philosopher is preserved
among the Hume Papers at Edinburgh, and is printed in Burton's
Hume, ii. 512. It is as follows : —
' My dear Sir,
' Last Friday I received your affectionate farewell, and there-
fore melancholy letter, which disabled me from sending an immediate
answer to it, as I now do, in hopes this may yet find you, not much
360 LETTERS OF DA VI D HUME. [Letter
oppressed with pain, in the land of the Uving. I need not tell you,
that your corrections are all duly attended to, as every particular shall
be that you desire or order. Nor shall I now trouble you with a long
letter.
Only permit me to ask you a question or two, to which I am
prompted, you will believe me, not from a foolish or fruitless
curiosity, but from an earnest desire to learn the sentiments of a
man, who had spent a long life in philosophic inquiries, and who,
upon tlie extreme verge of it, seems, even in that awful and critical
period, to possess all the powers of his mind in their full vigour and
in unabated tranquillity.
I am more particularly led to give you this trouble, from a passage
in one of your late letters, wherein you say, // is an idle thing in us to
be concerned about anything that shall happen after our death ; yet this,
you added, is natural to all men. Now I would eagerly ask, if it is
natural to all men, to be interested in futurity, does not this strongly
indicate that our existence will be protracted beyond this life ?
Do you now believe, or suspect, that all the powers and faculties of
your own mind, which you have cultivated with so much care and
success, will cease and be extinguished with your vital breath ?
Our soul, or immaterial part of us, some say, is able, when on the
brink of dissolution, to take a glimpse of futurity ; and for that reason
I earnestly wish to have your last thoughts on this important subject.
I know you will kindly excuse this singular application ; and
believe that I wish you, living or dying, every happiness that our
nature is capable of enjoying, either here or hereafter ; being, with
the most sincere esteem and affection, my dear sir, faithfully yours.
London, August 19, 1776.'
See ante, note at end of Autobiography for what Johnson said on
Boswell's assertion that he ' had reason to believe that the thought of
annihilation gave Hume no pain.' See also ante, p. 115 n. i, for Bos-
well's regret for Hume's ' unlucky principles.'
XCVI.] HUME'S LETTERS. 361
[John Home to William Strahan.]
LETTER XCVI.
The separate Publication of Hume^s Life.
Sir
I wrote you about 10 days ago, and tho I have had no
return, I expect it has comed safe to hand, and that you will
take the trouble of writing me at your leisure.
Since which I have been informed, that your intention was,
to make a seperate publication of my brothers life, with Mr.
Smiths addition, which I could scarce have given faith to ; if
Mr. Smith had not told me, that you proposed it to him, and to
add some of his letters, in order to make a volume, and to
which he expressly refused to consent, and I hope the report is
only founded on that, as it is a project so expressly against the
clause in the codicil of his will with regard to it, which I sent
you transcribed and is in these words. ' My account of my own
life I desire may be prefixed to the first Edition of my works,
printed after my death, which will probably be the one at
present in the press. I desire that my brother may suppress
all my other manuscripts.' This last clause im'powers me, as far
as I can, to prevent the publication of anything more from him,
particularly his private letters, which is at all times unfit to be
published : and tho he had made no destination, in which way
his life was to be published, it was unfit it should be in a
seperate pamphlet, as it would look more like the work of any
other person than himself, to prevent which it seemed princi-
pally to [be] wrote, and if prefixed to his works, would appear
to be genuine.
As my brother always entertained the most favourable
oppinion of you, and showed it by the confidence he placed in
you by his last deeds, I am confident nothing will be done by
you, to make him have a different oppinion if he were alive ;
and that it is so, it will be a favour done, to asure Sir
your most humble Serv'
John Home.
Edink., Feby. 2jM, 1777'-
S^a LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Note I. Strahan wrote to John Home on March 3, to defend him-
self for making a separate publication of Hunt^s Life : — ' Your
brother,' he writes, 'only desires it may be prefixed to the first
edition of his Works printed after his death. So it shall.' He points
out that the purchasers of former editions ought to have the right of
buying it separately. As regards the Letters which he had proposed
to publish, he had consulted Adam Smith, 'who judged this to be
highly improper ; ' and so he had instantly dropped all thoughts of
it. ' Dr. Smith,' he says, ' so far from objecting to the separate pubU-
cation, has written a few lines by way of Preface to the Life.'
He adds that he had declined to publish the Dialogues on Natural
Religion ; but that he thought ' they might be published with more
propriety by Home's son, in obedience to the last request of his Uncle, as
David Hume himself expressed it.' He goes on to say : — ' The two
Essays formerly printed, but at that time suppressed, I am clearly of
opinion, and so are [sic] every one of your Brother's friends whom I
know, should never more see the light. I hope you will concur in
this sentiment, and think no more of them; for besides that the
subjects of them are singularly unpopular, we do not think them
equal to his other Works.' M. S. R. S. E.
[John Home to William Strahan.]
LETTER XCVII.
David Hume the Nephew : the Publication of the Dialogues.
Sir
I was favoured with yours of the ■^^ instant, to which you
should have had a return sooner, if I had not thought it neces-
sary to write my son at Glasgow, and to wait his return, as he
was very materially concerned in the purport of yours ; and tho
a young man, only just past 20, is able to come to a sound and
rational determination, which tho not yet absolutely fixed upon,
seems to be contrary to my oppinion, which contrariety is
perhaps partly owing to the difference betwixt old age and
young and to different tempers.
My oppinion was that he should delay the publication of the
dialogues on Natural Religion till the end of the two years, after
this that he had a title by his uncles settlement upon your not
publication of them' ; otherways it carried the appearance of
being too forward, and of more than he was called upon in duty ;
XCVII.] DIALOGUES ON NATURAL RELIGION. 0^6'^
and if a clamour rose against it, he would have a difficult task
to support himself, almost in the commencement of his man-
hood. What weighs with him is, that his publishing as early
as he had the power, would look more like obedience, than a
voluntary deed, and of judgement ; and as such exculpate him
in the eyes of the world ; as well as that the publick being in
expectation of the publication would receive it much better than
some time after, when it might be almost forgotten. As it is a
question of great importance, and the young man will not be
here from Glasgow, till near two months after this, he will
advise with his uncles^, and his own friends, and will then
inform you, whether he accepts of your offer of the immediate
surrender of your title ; and in which case may possibly desire
from you a more formal resignation, if such is requisite, after
what you have wrote me '-
We will be both obliged to you, of takeing the charge of
keeping the copy sent you, as well as of the printed Essays,
the I am possesed of the original of the first, which it seems
has not been correctly copyed being taken in a hurry, and
among the last things done by my brothers orders, and some-
what under his eye '
I received from Mr. Balfour^ the 20 copys of the life you
ordered, long before your letter, and am much obliged to you
for your attention as to that point, but cannot but be still of
oppinion, that its being desired by my brother, to be prefixed,
excluded every other prior mode of publication, and left no
other, in the power of any other person, whatever reasons
might weigh with them, but since Mr. Smith saw it in a
different light, I submit, and am more difident as to my own
oppinion °.
As I never saw th& printed Essays, being sealed up and
directed by himself for you and consequently cannot judge of
their merit, but as they were totaly left to your disposal and
judgement, and no earnestness being shown that they should
see the light, I am satisfied they be suppressed, since it is your
oppinion, and am obliged to you, for asking my concurrence, as
a favour no way entitled to by Sir
Your most humble Serv'
John Home.
Edinbrugh, March i^th, i']'^'J.
364 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Note I. See ante, p. 345.
Note 2. His uncles on the mother's side, for Hume had only one
brother. His only sister died unmarried.
Note 3. The Dialogues were not published till 1779, so that the
young man, it should seem, yielded to his father's advice. For the
publication of the Essays see ante, p. 232, n. 8.
Note 4. This copy, thus hurriedly taken, is the one mentioned in
the following letter : —
'Edinburgh, 15 of Aug. 1776.
' My dear Smith,
' I have ordered a new Copy of my Dialogues to be made besides
that which will be sent to Mr. Strahan, and to be kept by my Nephew.
If you will permit me, I shall order a third Copy to be made, and con-
signed to your (sic). It will bind you to nothing, but will serve as a
Security. On revising them (which I have not done these 15 Years)
I find that nothing can be more cautiously and more artfully written.
You had certainly forgotten them. Will you permit me to leave you
the Property of the Copy, in case they should not be published in
five years after my Decease ? Be so good as to write me an answer
soon. My State of Health does not permit me to wait Months for it.
' Yours affectionately,
' David Hume.'
M.S.R.S.E.
It was this letter, for which the dying man required a speedy
answer, that, to save Adam Smith ' the sum of one penny sterling,'
he sent by the carrier {ante, p. 344, n. 3).
Dr. Blair wrote to Strahan on Aug. 3, 1779 : — ' As to D. Hume's
Dialogues, I am surprised that though they have now been published
for some time, they have made so little noise. They are exceedingly
elegant. They bring together some of his most exceptionable reason-
ings, but the principles themselves were all in his former works.'
Rosebery MSS.
Note 5. See ante, p. 2, n. 2.
Note 6. Hume's Autobiography was published separately this year
in a small duodecimo volume, with Adam Smith's Letter as a Supple-
ment. It is mentioned in the Gent. Mag. for March.
The writer of the two following curious letters was James Hutton,
the Secretary to the Society of Moravians. He was the son of a
Dr. Hutton, a clergyman of the Church of England who resigned his
Church preferment on account of a scruple about taking the oaths.
' James was bred a bookseller, and opened a shop by Temple Bar,
whence he went to Moravia, to fetch himself a wife of that nation and
religion ; but this is not the age for booksellers to make fortunes by
the sale of Bibles, Prayer Books, &c. ; and as Mr. Hutton would do
XCVII.] HUTTON THE MORAVIAN. 365
little else, that business would not do ; and he betook himself to one
which it seems did, that of a Moravian Leader.' Thicknesse's
Memoirs, i. 26, quoted in Nichols's Lit. Anec. viii. 447. ' He was,'
says Nichols, lb. iii. 436, ' highly esteemed by the two first characters
for rank and virtue in the British nation.' ' The two first characters,'
of course, were George III. and Queen Charlotte. Nichols quotes
a letter by George Steevens, which appeared in the St. James's
Chronicle on Dec. 17, 1776, dated 'Q 's Palace,' and signed
' Current Report.' It says : — ' Politicians from this place inform us
that a new Favourite has lately engrossed the K 's attention. . . .
It is no less a person than the old deaf Moravian, James Hutton, who
was formerly a bookseller, and lived near Temple Bar, famous for
his refusing to sell Tom Brown's Works and Clarke On the Trinity
I am sure that a conversation between the King and Hutton must
be exceedingly entertaining. Hutton is so deaf that a speaking
trumpet will scarce make him hear ; and the King talks so fast that
an ordinary converser cannot possibly keep pace with him. Hutton's
asthma makes him subject to frequent pauses and interruptions.'
According to Mme. D'Arblay, ' Hutton considered all mankind as
his brethren, and himself therefore as every one's equal ; alike in
his readiness to serve them, and in the frankness with which he
demanded their services in return. His desire to make acquaintance
with everybody to whom any species of celebrity was attached was
insatiable, and was dauntless. He approached them without fear,
and accosted them without introduction. But the genuine kindness
of his smile made way for him wherever there was heart and
observation. ... So coarse was his large, brown, slouching surtout ;
so rough and blowsy was the old mop-like wig that wrapt up his
head, that but for the perfectly serene mildness of his features, and
the venerability of his hoary eye-brows, he might at all times have
passed for some constable or watchman, who had mistaken the day
for the night, and was prowling into the mansions of gentlemen
instead of public-houses, to take a survey that all was in order.' His
sect, she adds, was looked upon 'as dark and mystic' One day,
on visiting her father's house, he said he had just come from the
King, to whom he had spoken with praise of Dr. Burney [Mme.
D'Arblay's father] and of Dr. Burney's Tours. " Openly and plainly,
as one honest man should talk to another, I said it outright to my
Sovereign Lord the King — who is as honest a man himself as any in
his own three kingdoms. God bless him ! " Mrs. Burney said that
the Doctor was very happy to have had a friend to speak of him so
favourably before the King. " Madam," cried the good man with
warmth, " I will speak of him before my God ! And that is doing
much more." ' Memoirs of Dr. Burney, i. 251, 291.
Hannah More says that ' at the royal breakfast-table, to which he
366 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
had the honour of being occasionally admitted, the King said to him
one morning, " Hutton, is it true that you Moravians marry without
any previous knowledge of each other ? " " Yes, may it please your
Majesty," returned Hutton. "Our marriages are quite royal.'"
Memoirs of H. More, i. 318. According to Boswell, 'there was much
agreeable intercourse ' between Hutton and Johnson. Boswell's
Johnson, iv. 410. ' One of Hutton's female missionaries for North
America replied to Dr. Johnson, who asked her if she was not
fearful of her health in those cold countries, "Why, Sir, I am
devoted to the service of my Saviour ; and whether that may be best
and most usefully carried on here, or on the coast of Labrador, 'tis
Mr. Hutton's business to settle. I will do my part either in a brick-
house or a snow-house, with equal alacrity, for you know 'tis the
same thing with regard to my own soul." ' Piozzi's British Synononiy,
ii. 120.
It was Hutton who arranged the meeting in 1740 between John
Wesley and Count Zinzendorf, the head of the Moravians, when an
attempt was made at a reconciliation between the Methodists and
the Moravians. The two great leaders met in Gray's Inn Walks,
and conversed in Latin, but conversed in vain. Hutton was one of
those men, says Southey, 'who made Wesley perceive that all errors
of opinion were not necessarily injurious to the individual by whom
they were entertained ; but that men who went by different ways
might meet in heaven.' Life of Wesley, ed. 1846, i. 299, 304. Southey
gives some extracts from a Moravian Hyntn-Book printed for James
Hutton in 1746. 'The most characteristic parts are,' he says, 'too
shocking to be inserted.' The following lines he gives ' as ,a
specimen of their silliness that may be read without offence : ' —
' What is now to children the dearest thing here ? —
To be the Lamb's lambkins and chickens most dear.
Such lambkins are nourish'd with food which is best,
Such children sit safely and warm in the nest.
' And when Satan at an hour
Comes our chickens to devour.
Let the chicken's angels say.
These are Christ's chicks, — go thy way.' lb. p. 482,
In his old age Hutton had the happiness, wrote Miss Burney,
' to fall into the hands of two ladies of fortune and fashion, who live
very much at their ease together, and who call him father, and treat
him with the tenderness of children. How singularly he merits this
singular happy fortune ! so good, so active, so noble as he is in
all exertions for the benefit of others, and so utterly inattentive to his
own interest.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, v. 267.
XCVIIL] HUTTON AT THE QUEEN'S HOUSE. 367
[James Hutton to William Strahan.J
LETTER XCVIIL
Request to show some of Hume's Letters to the King.
Dearest Billy
I was last night at the Q' house ' in company with the
Two'^. I mentioned to Him that I had seen a strange L"^' of
David's expressing strange wishes and Hopes, it was that L'
of 1769 where there was a string of cruel wishes*, in another
there was mention made of his wishes to have all the American
Charters destroyd etc.^
I told Him that I hoped I should once be able to shew him
even the Originals. If I went too far — you need take no
notice, \iyou will, I can shew them to Him.
You could oblige me if you would send by your Servant this
Evening or to morrow morning a Cover * thus frank'd
To Mr Meser
Fulneck
Leeds
to Mr Wollin's House No 45 Fetter Lane, who wants to send a
Packet thither. No 45 is the second House from New Street.
I think to go tomorrow morning to Kew ' if fair, but I can
shew those L" of David H. if you choose it, next Wednesday.
Yr obliged Hutton.
Nov. I, 1776.
Note I. The Queen's House was Buckingham House, which had
been bought by George HI for Queen Charlotte. Horace Walpole
wrote on May 25, 1762 : — ' The King and Queen are settled for good
and all at Buckingham House, and are stripping the other palaces to
furnish it.' Letters, iii. 508. It was there that Johnson had his inter-
view with the King. Boswell's Johnson, ii. 33. That the King was
there on the day on which Hutton says that he saw him is proved by
one of his letters to Lord North, with its date curiously minute
according to his custom : — ' Queen's House, October 31st, 1776, 2 min.
pt. 5 p.m.' George Ill's Corres. ii. 37. The old house, which has been
pulled down for the new palace, 'with its little wilderness full of
blackbirds and nightingales,' is described in Dodsley's London and
its Environs, ii. 39, and the Gent. Mag. 1762, p. 221.
368 LETTERS OF DAVID HUME. [Letter
Note 2. The King and Queen.
Note 3. Letter.
Note 4. See ante, p. 112.
Note 5. See ante, p. 289. Hutton had misread the letter.
Note 6. See ante, p. 188, n. 11.
Note 7. Miss Burney in her Diary thus describes the Court life at
Kew : — ' July 28, 1786. As there are no early prayers, the Queen
rises later ; and as there is no form or ceremony here of any sort,
her dress is plain, and the hour for the second toilette extremely
uncertain. The Royal Family are here always in so very retired
a way, that they live as the simplest country gentlefolks.' Mme.
D'Arblay's Diary, iii. 37. It was here that the King was tended in
his attack of madness in 1788. lb. iv. 334. It was in the Gardens that,
one day walking with his medical attendants, he caught sight of Miss
Burney, and, on her running away, gave her chase. When he came
up to her, he kissed her on the cheek, and presently pulling a paper
out of his pocket-book showed her the list of the state ofScers whom
he intended to appoint. ' I shall be much better served (he said) ;
and when once I get away, I shall rule with a rod of iron.' lb. iv. 407.
[James Hutton to William Strahan.]
LETTER XCIX.
Hume's Letters shown to the King and Queen.
Here are the Original Letters of David Hume to Mr Strahan,
mark'dA. B. C. D. E. F. G. H.
a sensible L'' (copy) of Strahan to Hume. L
L' from Hume's Brother. K.
a character of the Princess Dowager by Strahan. L.
Hutton perhaps will recieve them again next Wednesday or
Thursday.
/. and L. need not be return'd \
the above Lines I sent with the inclosed Papers to Kew.
they were read on Monday Evening'' and were return'd to me
yesterday. I know not as yet what was thought ', but L is left
behind, the Fog hinders me from bringing them this morning.
I learnt that both of the Personages had read them, the K. was
out and the Q. I believe writing to her Brothers*, or I should
XCIX.] GEORGE III SEES HUME'S LETTERS. 369
have seen and spoken with one or other of them— I had only
five words with Him, but as others were present, He could not
enter into the Matter. I am glad they have read and kept L.
you see by the above they know who wrote it.
Novr. 6, 1776°.
Note I.
letter marked A
see ante
p. 112
B
P- 143-
C
p. 287.
D
P- 319-
E
p.328.
F
P- 337-
G
P- 339-
I
P- 359,
K
P- 345-
n. 2.
For L, the character of the Princess Dowager, see ante, p. 237, n. 6.
That part of the Letter marked C which deals with the American
War, with the omission of the attack on Pitt, is pubUshed in the
London Chronicle of June 14, 1777. Strahan, no doubt, had had it
inserted. ' It may perhaps contribute,' it is stated, ' to open the eyes
of the nation, which so many have conspired to blind.'
Note 2. Monday was November 4.
Note 3. At '21 min. pt. 4 p.m.' of the day on which the letters
were read the King wrote to Lord North : — ' Nothing can have been
better planned, nor with more alacity executed, than the taking of the
city of New York, and I trust the rebell army will soon be dispersed.'
George Ill's Corres. ii. 39. Hume's advice, ' let us therefore lay aside
all anger, shake hands, and part friends,' moved him no more than
Old John of Gaunt's dying words moved Richard.
Note 4. The Princes of Mecklenburg-Strehtz.
Note 5. It is pleasant to contrast with the letter of the simple
Moravian one written by ' the Great Commoner ' to the King, three
weeks before he was made Earl of Chatham.
' Sire,
'Penetrated with the deepest sense of your Majesty's boundless
goodness to me, and with a heart overflowing with duty and zeal for
the honour and the happiness of the most gracious and benign
Sovereign, I shall hasten to London as fast as I possibly can ; wishing
that I could change infirmity into wings of expectation, the sooner to
be permitted to lay at your Majesty's feet the poor but sincere offer-
ing of the little services of
' Your Majesty's
Most dutiful subject,
and devoted servant,
' William Pitt.'
Chatham Corres. ii. 438.
B b
INDEX.
Acquaintance, 202 «. 5.
Adam, Robert, 203 «. 9, 325 «. 1.
Adams, Mrs., 73.
Adams, Rev. William, D.D., xxiv n. I,
2p9 «. 12.
Addington, Dr., 298.
Addison, Joseph, 15, 63, 153 n. 9, 233,
34°- .
Adelphi, in the Strand, 203 n. 9.
Advertisement, 302 n. 21.
Agriculture, 174.
Aldus, xliv, 235.
Algiers, 114.
Amelia, Princess, 121.
America, addresses to the King, 301 ;
armament needed to subdue it, 289 ;
delay in sending it, 315, 318 n. 7,
324, 327 n. 14; audience for English
writers, 1 20 «. 6 ; Burke and Adam
Smith on giving up the colonies, 180
n. 18, 296 ; cannot be subdued, 289,
296, 304, 308 ; charters, 289, 293 n.
13; clergy, 289, 294 «. 15; con-
federation of the States, 60 ; Con-
gress, 297 ; Declaration of Inde-
pendence, 338 n. 5 ; divisions among
the Ministers, 288 ; effect of loss on
Government, 308, 318 n. 7 ; English
land-tax, 218 «, 4; George III, 291 «.
9, 294 «. t6 ; — Hume's letters shown
to him, 367-9 ; Governor Bottetourt,
108 ; home, 298 ; Howe's retreat,
327 «. 14; Hume's opinions and
wishes, 114, 132 n. 26, 174, 175 «.
£ , 28S ; — one of his letters published,
369 n. I ; — passage suppressed in his
History, 296 ; Indian Warriors, 49 n.
1 ; men of property, 305 ; mercenary
soldiers, 294 n. 16, 306 n. 5 ; Ohio
Scheme, 160, 162 n. 3 ; slaves, 294
n. 14, 307 n. 6 ; Stamp Act, 49
nn. I, 2, 305 n. i ; Strahan's views,
304; summary of events (1765-75),
130 n. 21 ; supineness of the Eng-
lish, 301, 327 n 14; taxation, 179
«. 15, 298 n. 19 ; trade, 2S8, 292
n- 10, 293 n. II, 299, 308, 310 ». 10 ;
war popular, 309 ». 7 ; — becomes
unpopular, 327 n. 14.
Amherst, Sir Jeffery, 108.
Anderson, Adam, 157 ». 5.
Andrews, Dr. Israel W., 163.
Annandale, last Marquis of, xxi.
Annual Register, its pagination, 240
n. I.
Anxious of, 308 n. 3.
Arbuthnot, Dr., 96 n. 15, 352 «. 5.
Arbuthnot, Robert, 269 n. 5.
Argyle, Archibald, third Duke of, 12.
Argyle, John, second Duke of, 60.
Argyle, John, fourth Duke of, 215 n. 3.
Argyle, John, fifth Duke of, 213.
Armstrong, Dr. John, 9, 27, 94 «. 8,
138, 141 n. 5.
Army, 113, I24«. 10.
Ascham, Roger, 320 «. 2,
Aston, Justice, 277, 279.
Authors and Booksellers, 283.
Aylesbury, Lady, 104, 215 «. 3, 221,
223.
B.
Bag, 86 ». I.
Baillie, 2 n. i.
Baillie, Dr. James, 310 ». 13.
Baker, Sir George, 272 k. 4.
Balcarres, James, fifth Earl of, xxvii
n. I.
Balfour, James, 75 n. 3.
Balfour, John, i, 3, 234, 363.
Bambridge, — , 153 n. 10.
Bank-credits, 19 n. 3.
Bankruptcy, Public. See National
Debt.
Banks, — , 324.
Bannatine, Rev. — , 291 n. 6.
Barbantane, Marchioness de, 79, 83 «.
7,89-
Barbauld, Mrs., 52.
Baretti, Joseph, 278 n. 2.
Barillon, 265 n. 3.
Barnard, Sir John, 44 n. 7, 130 n. 20.
Barre, Colonel, 107, 2 10 n. 26.
Barrington, second Viscount, 133 «. 27.
Basket, J., 41.
Bath, 321 n. 2, 323, 324, 331 «. i.
B b 2
372
INDEX.
Bath, first Earl of, 203 n. 8.
Bayle, Peter, 90.
Beattie, Rev. James, LL.D., Essay on
Truth, 60, 269 K. 5, 290, 303 n. 23;
lines on Churchill, 62 ; pension, 33 n.
6, 302 K. 21 ; Strahan's skill in com-
position, xliv, 215 «. 12; — , friend-
ship with, xlv ; studied English, 7.
Beauchamp, Viscount, 70, 203 n. 6, 226,
263.
Becket, Thomas, 20, 43 n. 3, 47, 48 «. i,
64 n. 10, 84, 92 «. 4, 98 ti. 2, 100 n.
I, 102. 106.
Becket, Thomas a, xxxiii «. 2.
Beckford, Alderman, 133 n. 27, 147 «.
7, i6i, 168 «. 13, 173, 185, 201.
Bedford, John, fourth Duke of, 52, 66,
67, 75 »• 4. 115 «■ '. 124 ». 8.
Bedford, Duchess of, 75 k. 4, 115 n. i.
Bellenden, Mary, 215 «. 3.
Benevolence, 343.
Bentham, Jeremy, 217 k. 2.
Bentley, Richard, D.D., 82.
Bernard, Charles, 322 «. j.
Bill of Rights-Men, 161, 167 n. 12,
171 «. 20.
Bind, 144.
Black, Jriseph, M.D., xxxvii, xxxviii,
319 n. 2, 322 K. 2, 342, 343 n. 2.
Blacklock, Thomas, xxvi «. 2, 242 n.
12.
Blackstone, Sir William, blasphemy,
334 »• 13 ; civil list, 210K. 23; copy-
right, 277 ; his publishers, xliv.
Bladon, S., no.
Blair, Drummond, 93 n. 6.
Blair, Rev. Hugh, D.D., address to the
King, 301 ; believed in Ossian, 37 ;
editions of his Sermons, 142 n. 2 ;
George III a prisoner, 67 «. i ; Home's
Rivine, 62 ; Hume's death, blank left
by, xl ». I ; — Dialogues, 364 k. 4 ; —
fame, 56 ; — gaiety, xxxiii, «. i ; —
invitation to dinner, 338 «. 5 ; —
praise of him, 158 n. 6; — tenant,
1 16 «. 2 ; Kincaid's funeral, 96 n. 16 ;
London riots, 129 n. 17; popular
author, 59 ; his publishers, xliv ;
Strahan, friendship with, xlv.
Blasphemy, 334 ». 13.
Bode, — , 68.
Boileau, xxvii n. 1.
Boleyn, Anne, 234.
Bolingbroke, Henry St. John, first Vis-
count, xxvii «. 1, 15 n. 2, 27 «. 3, 330,
334 »• i^-
Books, best size of an edition, 183,
198.
Bordes, — , no.
Boswell, Claude James, 119.
Boswell, James, American war, 296 ;
dedications, 9 «. 9 ; Henry's History,
'57 »• 5, 164 «. 6 ; house in James s
Court, 1 18; Hume's infidelity, xxiv ».
I ; • — History, xxvi «. 3, 55 ; — visits
him, 115 n. i ; — ^, sups with, 116 «. 2;
infidel writers, xxiv «. i ; introduced
to Johnson, 54 ; Mitchell, Sir A.,
181 n. 25; Ossian, 92 n. 4; pro-
nunciation of English, 140 n. 3 ;
Scotland too narrow a sphere, 56 n.
8 ; Scotch shoe-black, 325 «. i ;
Scotticisms, 105 «. 2 ; Smith, Adam,
316 K. 5 ; spelling, 27 «. 3 ; studies
chemistry, 343 n. 2 ; universal man,
59-
Bottetourt, Lord, 106, 107 «. 3.
Boufilers, Countess de, 75 «. 4, 82, 83 n.
7, 88, 102, 103, 344 ». 3.
Bowyer, Archibald, 5.
Bovfyer, William, 109.
Boyle, Hon. Patrick, xviii n. i.
British Lion, 305.
British Museum, 85, 94 n. 1 1.
Brocklesby, Dr., 124 ». 10.
Brooke, Frances, 43 n. 3.
Brougham, Henry, Lord, 356 «. 2.
Broughton, the prize-fighter, 30 «. i.
Brown, Dr. John, 306 n. 2.
Brown, Thomas, 157 n. 3.
Brydone, Captain Patrick, 249, 255.
Buccarelli, Governor, 1 78 n. 9.
Buccleugh, Henry, third Duke of, 310 n.
10, 349-
Buckingham, John, Duke of, 74 n. 3.
Buckingham House, 367 ». i.
Budget, 49 «. I.
Buffon, xxxii n. 5.
Bull, Alderman, 212 n. i,
Burke, Edmund, agriculture, 180 «. 17 ;
America, 49 «. 1 ; 108, 179 n. 15, 180
n. 18, 293 n. 12, 294 nn. 15, 16, 298
n. 19, 301 K. 20, 309 ». 7, 327 «. 14 ;
Bill of Rights-Men, 176 n. 12, 171 n.
20 ; Bute, Earl of, 126 ». 14; candi-
date for Glasgow professorship, xxv
« I ; Chatham, Earl of, 66, 127 «.
I5> ^^7 «• 8, 195 tzn. 29, 31, 196 nn.
32, 34, 228 n. 7, 298 ». 19; Civil
List, 210 n. 23 ; Convention with
Spain, 205 «. ig ; Copyright bill, 278 ;
East Indies, 131 ». 22, 238 n. 8,
240 n. 10 ; Fingal, 37 ; France,
threatened war, 170 «. 17; Grafton
Ministry, 136 «. 5 ; King's Friends,
147 w.g; libels, 190 «. 17; Middlesex
election, 124; nursery revolution, 328;
report of debates, 209 n. 30 ; speech
on the Address (1770), 135 ». 3;
state of affairs in 1769, 128 n. 16,
INDEX.
373
129 «. 18; in 1770, 146 «. 6; in
1 771, 227 « 5 ; Toryism, 327 «. 14;
y^&tiorCs Philip II, 157 n. 3; men-
tioned, 68, 93 «. 7, 104, 112 n. 2.
Burke, William, 104.
Burney, Dr., 365.
Burney, Frances (Mme. D'Arblay), 272
«• 4. 365, 368 «. 7-
Burns, Robert, 11, 33 «. 6, 241 «. 11,
286 «. 7.
Bussi Rabutin, 352 «, 4.
Bute, John Stuart, third Earl of, ad-
vises dismissal of Ministers, 65 «. i ;
experiments in governing, 113, 126 «.
14, 206 nn. 16, 17; favourite of
George III, 17 ». 6 ; of the Princess
of Wales, 64; Home's patron, 12;
■influence' at Court, 47 «. i, 62, 1 26 n,
14, 210 ». 26, 217 n. 3; King's
Friends, 148; partiality to Scotch-
men, 60, 61, 70, 147 ». 9; prudish,
336 «. 15; unpopular, 56, 58, 59,
120 ». 7.
Butler, Joseph, Bishop of Durham,
XX n. 3.
Byng, Admiral, 336 n. 15.
Byron, Commodore, 165 n. 9.
Cadell, Robert, 92 «. 5.
Cadell, Thomas, Hume charges him
vfith deception, 142, 150, 154, 263,
267, 270; — dines at his house,
259 «. 12 ; ■ — publisher, 84, 138, 212,
216, 307, 314; Kurd's pamphlet, 21;
Millar's successor, 92 n. 5, 269 n. 4 ;
Robertson's publisher, 15, 158 ?«. 7 ;
Strahan's partner, xliv.
Cadell, Thomas, the younger, 92 «. 5.
Calcraft, John, 189 «. 16, 191.
Camden, Charles Pratt, first Earl, at
Bath, 121; attends Lord Mayor's
banquet, 123 n. 7; Copyright judg-
ment, 176 K. 4, 2 75«. I, 279 «. 4; dis-
missal from oiBce, 12.15 '^^ 12, 178 «. 6 ;
general warrants, 207 «. 18; Hume's
praise of him, 113; Middlesex elec-
tion, 208 n. 19.
Camden's Britannia, 275 ». i.
Campbell, Dr., 331.
Campbell, John, first Lord, 239 n. 9.
Campbell,Rev.Thomas,D.D.,327 n. 13.
Caraccioli, 58.
Carlyle, Rev. Alexander, D.D.,xviii n. I,
12, 19 ft. 4, 28 n. 2, 45 «. 2, no,
III n. 1, 149 n. TO, 223 n. 1, 272 n. 2,
291 nn. 6, 8.
Carlyle, Thomas, 152 n. 4, 181 n. 26,
353 »■ 6.
Carriers. See Nevfcastle Wa^on.
Carte, Thomas, xxvii ». i.
Catherine II, 295.
Catiline, 114.
Chambers, Dr. Robert, 117, 231 «. i.
Charlemont, James, first Earl of, xviii
n. 1, xxii «. I, 53, 68, loi, 195 «. 29,
.^31-
Charles I, xxvi, 325 n. 3, 331 ». 2, 340
n. I.
Charles II, 4 «. 3.
Charles III, of Spain, 161, 167 «. 11.
Charles V, go.
Charles X, ,';2.
Charles Edward, Prince, xxvii ». 3,
93 »• 6.
Charlotte, Queen, 89, 365-g.
Chatham, William Pitt, first Earl of,
American trade, 292 n. 10 ; Beclc-
ford's spirit, 168 «. 13 ; Burke's men-
tion of him, see Burke, Edmund ;
Chesterfield's character of him, 196
«. 34 ; compared with Richelieu,
185, 194 «. 28 ; ' Comte de Chatam,'
90 ; Convention with Spain, 205
n. 15; 'cut-throat,' 185; England
ruined, 192 n. 21 ; funeral, 196 n.
34; gout, 223 n. I, 227, 228 K.
7 ; Grenville's Cyder Bill, 300 ;
Hume, attacked, 195 n. 29 ; increased
national debt, 173, i79 *"*• I4> 15.
298 n. 19; 'infamous,' 134; 'influ-
ence,' 56, 126 n. 14, 210 n. 26, 238 n.
7 ; letter to George III, 369 ; Livery
of London, 139 n. i; 'madman,'
289; melancholy, 298 ». 19; Middle-
sex election, 146 «. 6 ; monument,
298 ; Myrmidons, 113 ; not so famous
as Rousseau, 92 n. 2 ; popularity, 127
'«■ 'Si 137 »• 8; power lost, 47 n. i,
153 n. 12, 165 n. 9, 171 n. 21 ; pub-
lication of debates, 191 ; refuses to
form a Ministry in 1765, 65 m. 1 ;
temporary resignation of Privy Seal,
loS ; 'villain,' 127 k. 15; Walpole,
Horace, described by, 91 n. i, 196 n.
34; war against France, 179 «. 15;
Wilkes attacks him, 120 n, 7.
Chaulieu, Abbe, xxxv.
Chesterfield, Philip Dormer, fourth Earl
of, character of Lord Chatham, 196 n.
34 ; condemns appointment of Mar-
quis of Granby, 135 «. 11 ; England
ruined, 306 n. 2 ; letters opened in
Post Office, 67 ; Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, 71.
Choiseul, Duke de, 166.
Churchill, Charles, 9, 13, 59, 61, 63,
108, 141 n. 5, 148, 153, 204 n. 12,
214 n. I.
374
INDEX.
City of London, Address (1770), 147 n.
7, 168 n. 13; (1781), 193 n. 31 ;
Aldermen, 185, 192 n. 20, 245 n. 5 ;
hostility to government, 227 n. 5 ;
Petition (1769), 139 n. i; Remon-
strance (1770), 139 n. I, 147 n, 7,
168 n. 13, 178 ». 7, 192 ». 20; (,1771),
209 «. 22.
Civil List, 201, 210 n. 23.
Clarendon Papers, 259 «. 1 2.
Claret, 10, 116 n. 2.
Clarke, Dr., 68.
Clarke, General, 45.
Clavering, Sir T., 140 n. 2.
Clephane, Dr., 35 n. ii, 291 n. 7.
Clive, Lord, 238 n. 8, 246 n. 7.
Clow, Professor, xxv n. i.
Cockburn, Lord, xxxiv «. i, 74 '^- i>
116 «. 2, 148, 241 ». II, 286 n. 7,
317. 343 »• 2. 356 »• 2-
Cofferer, 107 «. 2.
Coleridge, S. T., 11.
College of Labour, 194 ». 27.
Collins, William, 13.
Colonize, 8.
Constantinople, 339.
Conti, Prince of, 344 n. 3.
Conway, General, xxxi, 53 ». 6, 70, 78,
80, 85, 87, 103, 104, III, 112 «. I,
115 n. I, 133 n. 29, 135 n. 3, 178 n.
7, 192 «. 19, 215 n. 3, 221, 326, 305,
306 ». 4, 338 K. 5.
Cope, Sir John, xxvii n. 3,
Co/^, 187 n. 9.
Copyright, 120 «. 6, 176 k. 4, 266 n. 5,
274-281, 284.
Copyright, honorary, 279, 280, 285.
Corneille, 194;/. 28.
Correspondence of George III with Lord
North, 238 n. 8.
Corsica, 308.
Cotes, Humphrey, 233 n. 8.
Court of Arbitration, 278.
Coutts, James, 85, 93 n. 6.
Covers, 202 ;z. 4.
Cowgate, 30 n, 3.
Cowper, William, 33 n. 6, 137 n. 8,
249 «. I, 306 «. 2, 352 ?z. 5.
Cox and Bigg, 316 «. 4.
Craig, —,251.
Cramer, of Geneva, 43 ». 2.
Crawford, — , 338 n. 4.
Crawfurd, John, 59.
CreeJi, William, 386 «. 7, 303 n. 23.
Croker, Right Hon. John Wilson, 96 «.
15-
Cromwell, Oliver, 127 n. 15.
Crosbie, Andrew, 141 n. 4.
Crosby, Alderman Brass, 169 ». 14,
190 n. 1 7, 201, 205 K, 13.
CuUen, W^illiam, M.D., xxxix n. I.
Cumberland, Henry Frederick, Duke of
(brother of George HI), 121, 147 n. 8.
Cumberland, William, Duke of (uncle
of George IH), 34 n. 7, 66.
Curll, Edmund, 351.
Custom House, 222 n. 3.
Cyder Bill, 300.
D.
D'Alembert, 43 n. 2, 87, 94 n. 10, loi,
102 «. 2, 109 ». 7, 335 «. 14.
Dalrymple, Sir David. See Hailes,
Lord.
Dalrymple, Sir John, 157 n. 3, 174,
180 nn. 22, 23, 186, 197 n. 35, 198,
258 n. 9, 259 n. II, 260 «. 13, 264-6.
Damer, Mrs., 215 n. 3.
Damilaville, 43 n. 2, 89.
Darwin, Charles, 53, 285 n. 5.
Davenport, Richard, 77.
Davies, William, 92 ». 5.
Davis, Captain, 189 «. 15.
Dayrolles, James, 67.
De Grey, Attorney- General, 121.
De Hondt, P., 64 n. 10, 92 n. 4.
De La Rouviere, 43 n. 2.
De I'Espinasse, Mile., 87.
Dean, Silas, 225 n. i.
Debates, publication of, 190 n. 17,
209 n. 20.
Decipherer to the King, 68.
Dedications, 5.
Delphin Classics, 280, 284.
Dempster, George, 59.
Denbigh, Earls of, 356 n. 2 ; Basil,
sixth Earl of, 107, 324, 328.
Devonshire, William, fouith Earl of,
309 «. 6.
Dicey, Professor, ii^n. 17.
Dick, Sir Alexander, 96 «. 16, 195 n.
29.
Dilly, Messieurs, 147 n. 9.
Discounting bills, 19.
Donaldson, Alexander, 275 n. i, 279.
Donaldsons v. Becket, 277.
Dorset, Duke of, 95 «. 14.
Douglas, John, Bishop of Salisbury,
256, 259 n. 12.
Douglas Cause, 239 «. 9.
Droit le Roy, 43 ». i.
Dryden, John, 33 n. 4, 275 ». i.
Dubarry, Mme., 193 k. 24.
Dublin editions, 172, 176 n. 4, 315 ». i.
Dundas, Dr., xxxv.
Dundas, Lord Advocate, 352 n. 4.
Dunning, John, first Lord Ashburton,
276.
Dutch Ambassador, 47.
INDEX.
375
E.
Earl Marischal, 76 n. 5, 83 n. 6, 89.
East Indies and East India Company,
Court of Proprietors, 273, 274;
Hume's wish, 114; parliamentary in-
quiry, 236, 238 n. 8, 244, 246 nn. 7, 8 ;
Regulating Act, 240 «. 10; war witli
Hyder All, 131 n. 22 ; wealtli pour-
ing in from them, 177 k. 5.
Eden, William, first Lord Auckland,
217 nn. i, 2.
Edinburgh, houses, 117, 118; meals,
116 n. 2 ; Police Commissioners, 148 ;
strangers, 231 ». i ; trees, 118.
Edmondstonne, Colonel, xxxv.
Edward I, 58.
Edward III, 193 n. 24.
Eldon, John Scott, first Earl of, 1 70 n.
19, 326 ». II.
Elibank, Patrick, fifth Lord, xxiv n. 2,
13. 37. 291 «»• 6, 8.
Elizabeth, Queen, 1 79 «. 15.
Elliot, Sir Gilbert, third baronet, 17,
49. 67. 58. 71. 75 »■ 3, 76, 78. 116 «•
2, 133 «■ 32. 138. I4°'«- 3-
Elliot, Miss, 85, 94 n. 8, 172, 322, 329.
Ellis, Welbore, 211 «. 28.
Elmsly, Peter, xliv, 315 «. i, 316 «. 4.
Elphinston, James, 270 «. 10.
Elzevir, 236 «. 2.
England and English; authors, 229 «.
10, 258 n. 8, 260 nn. 14, 16 ; bar-
barians, 6 n. 6, 53 n. 6, 56 n. 8, 113,
248 ; jealous of the Scotch, 60 ; lan-
guage, 6n.6, 1 20 «. 6 ; men of letters
slighted, 50 n. 3, 5S ; mobbish people,
49 ; ruin impending {see Hume,
David, English, and National
Debt) ; tranquillity of public affairs,
47 n. I, 48 n. 2, 49.
Enough, 8.
Envelopes, 162 k. 2.
Erskine, Sir Harry, xxii, 17.
Essay on the Constitution of England,
64 n. 10.
Etna, 249 n. i .
Evening Post, igo«. 17.
Expulsion, right of, 201.
Eyre, George, xliii.
Falconer, Sir David, xvii.
Falkland's Islands, 161, 165 «. 9, 173.
178 n. 9, 184, 189 n. 15, 198, 205 n.
15-
Favart, — , 88.
Ferdinand, Prince, 34 «. 8.
Ferguson, Dr. Adam, 12, 157 k. 3, 236,
241 n. II, 244, 286 n. 9, 321 ». 3,
335»-i4-
Fielding, Henry, 325 ». 4, 350 n. 2.
Fielding, Sir John, 124 n. 8.
Fitzroy, Charles, 126 n. 14.
Flood, Henry, 66.
Fly, or Flying Coach, 31 «. 4, 326 «.
II.
Flying seal, 162 «. 2.
Foley, — , 48 K. 1.
Folly, 187 n. 4, 227.
Fontainebleau, 117.
Fontenelle, xxxii n. 5, 88.
Fontenoy, Battle of, 241 k. 11.
Forbes, Sir William, Bart., 269 «. 5.
Forbes, — , the Surgeon, 322.
Ford, W. C., 349 n. 2.
Forenoon, 105 n. 2.
Forster, John, 257 n. 4.
Fortesciie, G. K., 141 n. 7.
Fount of type, 237 ». 5.
Fox, Charles James, America, 306 «. 4 ;
Copyright Bill, 278; described by
Walpole, 246 n. 7 ; gambling, 169 n.
1 5 ; Hume's partiality to Kings, 1 1 1
n. I ; Libel Bill, 209 n. 21 ; mobbed,
189 «. 16 ; Strahan's colleague, xliii ;
Wilkes's expulsion, 208.
France and the French ; Anglomanie,iT, ;
books for translation, 41 ; — published
abroad, 49 ; censorship of the press,
43 71. 2 ; compared with English,
185, 193 n. 24; danger of bankruptcy,
161, 166, 169 n. 15, 185, 193 n. 24,
[94 n. 26, T99 ; Hume believed im-
plicitly, 229 «. II ; zeal for learning,
49, 50 n. 3.
Francis I, 90, 237 ;/. 4.
Francis, Philip, 240 ». 10.
Franklin, Benjamin, American trade,
292 n. 10 ; Deputy Post -master
General, 225 n. i, 227 n. 3; English
language, 120 n. 6 ; home, 298 ;
Hume's praise of him, 256 ; Jonah
and the whale, 60 ; letter to Strahan,
64 ». II ; Ohio Scheme, 163; riots
in London, 122; soldiers in time of
riots, 124 n. 10 ; style, 8 ; success in
the world, xliii ; visits Scotland, 30
n. 3, 64 n. II, 119, 225; Wedder-
burne's attack, 225 n. i.
Franklin, William, 30 n. 3.
Franks. See Post Office.
Eraser, Secretary, 184, 198 n. 40, 200,
223, 226.
Frederick the Great, 34 nn. 8, 9, 77
91 n. I, 92 «. 2, l8i nn. 25, 26. See
Rousseau.
Frederick, Prince of Wales, 246 n. 6.
376
INDEX.
Fuller, Thomas, 326 n. 10.
Fnnd-holders. See Stock-holders.
Gage, General, 301.
Galliani, Abbe, 58.
Gallini, — , 281 n. 2.
Garrick, David, Home's plays, 11, 19 «.
4, 62 ; Madame Riccoboni, 43 n. 3,
48 «. I ; offended dramatists, 138,
141 n. 6 ; Scotch nationality, 325 n. i ;
Strahan's obtuseness, xliv.
Gavin, ■ — , of Langtoun, 144.
Gay, John, 352 n. 5.
General Warrants, 201.
George I, 206 «. 1 7.
George II, 64, 207 «. 17, 210 «. 23.
George III, Accession, xxix«. i, 32, 35«.
6 ; Addresses, 133 n. 33, 301 (see
City OF London) ; America, 291 n.
9, 294 n. 16 ; birth-day, 65, 69 ». 4 ;
Bottetourt, his favourite, 108 ; Bute's
influence (j«c Bute, Earl of), dates
to his letters, 367 n. i ; East India
Company, 236, 238 n. 8, 244; factious
reign, 35 n. 10 ; Home's pension, 12 ;
Hume's ^/rftfO'i 53 »• 6 ; — pension,
55 ; — quarrel with Rousseau, 89 ;
Hutton the Moravian, 365-9 ; Junius's
attack, 211 n. 28; madness at Kew,
368 n. 7 ; powers lost in his reign,
201; 'prisoner,' 67 ». i; prudish,
336 «. 1 5 ; Rousseau's pension, 76,
7 7 ; Speech on opening Parliament in
1765, 49 K. I ; in 1770, 129 n. 18;
in 1772, 238 «. 8; in 1775, 294 «. 16,
306 n. 6 ; Stone, his sub-governor,
xxvii «.4; white lies, 272 n. 4; Wilkes,
interview with, 170 n. 19.
Gerard, Dr., 204 n. 11.
Gibbon, Edward, America, 294 n. 16 ;
compliments Hume and Smith, 313 ;
conquest of Constantinople, 340 ». 2 ;
Decline andFall, xliv, 15 n. 2, 92 n. 5,
93 n. 7, 187 «. 7 ; — advertised, 311 ;
— published, 314, 318 n. 7 ; Dublin
pirates, 1 76 ». 4 ; editions of Cicero,
109 K. 4 ; English historians, 15 k. 2 ;
evening of life, xxxii n. 5 ; expecta-
tions of life, xxxii ». 2, 119 ;2. 4;
first work in French, 6 k. 6, 1 20 «. 6 ;
gives Hume the Decline and Fall,
333 »■ 7 ; — History, 316 «. 3. 3^9 I —
indolence, Ii6«. 2, 248 ?«. 2; — letters,
35° ; — praises him, 258 n. 8, 260 n.
16,313 n. 5, 314;— style, 7; Mac-
pherson's History, 309 n. 6 ; North,
Lord, 177 ». f; Ossian,^';; posterity,
341 ». I ; Walpole's account of him.
312 «. 3; Warburton and Kurd, 204
«. 12.
Gilbert, John, Bishop of Llandaff, 68.
Gloucester, Duke of (^uncle of George
III), 121.
Glynne, Seijeant, 170 «. 19.
Godwyn, Rev. Charles, 6.
Goldsmith, Oliver, death, 285 «. i ;
envied Shakespeare, xxxiii «. 2 ;
History of England, 260 n. 13 ;
'K.s.mes's Elements of Criticism, 282 «.
6 ; literature in France, 51 ; 'notable
man,' 152 k. 4; Retaliation, 259 «.
1 2 ; Reynolds's portrait of Beattie,
269 n. 5 ; Sterne, 260 n. 15 ; un-
pensioned, 33 «. 6.
Gordon, Colonel Robert, 274 ». 3.
Government, happy, 247.
Government a chimera, 113.
Graeme, Colonel, 93 n. 6.
Grafton, Duke of, 67 n. 2, 70, 95 n. 14,
114, 120 «. 7, 125 n. 12, 130 ».
19, 136 ?«. 5, 178 «. 6, 291 n. 9.
Granby, Marquis of, 113, 125 n. 11,
178 K. 6.
Grant, Sir Archibald, 149 n. 10, 151,
I53«. 10.
Grant, General, xxii.
Grant, Dr. Gregory, 118.
Grant, Joseph, 118.
Grant, Lady, 145, 149 n. 10, T51.
Granville, George, 308 n. 3.
Gray, Thomas, Hume's good-humour,
xxxiii n. i ; letters, 352 n. 5 ; Mrs.
Macaulay's History, 197 n. 37; Os-
sian, 36 «. I ; unpensioned, 33 «. 6.
Greene, Mrs., 298.
Gregory, Dr., 303.
Grenville, Right Hon. George, 44 n. 7,
49 n. i, 68, 91 «. t, 126 «. 14, 222 ».
3, 229 K. II, 300.
Grenville Ministry, 65 n. i, 70.
Greville, F,, 61.
Grimaldi, 178 n. 10.
Grimm, Baron, 51, 73, 90, 103 n. 1,
no, 150 «. 12.
Gunning, Sir Robert, 295.
Gustard, Dr., 322 n. 2, 323, 337.
Guthrie, William, 258 n. 9.
Gay, — , 95 »• 12.
H.
Hackman, Rev. Mr., 325 n. 6.
Haddington, Earl of, 96 n. 15.
Hailes, Lord (,Sir David Dalrymple),
xxvi». 2, 63, 74, 157 ». 3.
Halkerton, Lord, xvii.
Hall, — , 44 «. 7-
Hall, John, 131 «. 24.
INDEX.
in
Hamilton, Archibald, xliii.
Hamilton, Baillie Gavin, xxvii n. i, 1, 2
n. i, 14, 154, 285 ». 6, 334 ?2. 12.
Hanoverian troops, 306 «. 5.
Harding, Nicholas, xxvii n. 2.
Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor, 206 n. 17.
Harper, Messrs., of New York, 1 20 n. 6.
Harrogate, 149 n. 10.
Hastings, Warren, 240 ». 10.
Havfkesworth, John, 283.
Hawkins, Rev. William, 141 n, 6.
Hay, — , of Drumelzier, 144.
Heath, Archbishop, 74 «. 3.
Heberden, Dr., 272 n. 4.
Helvetius, 50 n. 3.
Henry IV,of France, 194 «. 26, 2i8«.4.
Henry VI, 220 «. 6.
Henry VIH, 234.
Henry, Patrick, 297.
Henry, Dr. Robert, 155, 157-160, 164,
174, 285.
Herring, Thomas, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, xxvii.
Hertford, Countess of, 70, 104, 107 n. 3.
Hertford, Francis Seymour, Earl (after-
wards Marquis) of, xxx, xxxi, 22 «. I,
4°, 42, 55. 58> 65, 67, 69 n. 4, 70,
85, 87, 103 n. I, 106, III, 119, i5o,
162, 170 K. 18, 203 «. 6, 221, 290 n.
3-
Hervey, Henry, 96 ti. 15.
Hervey, John, Lord, 96 n. 15, 129 n. i,
132 «. 25.
Hervey, Lady, 85, 96 ». 15.
High Sheriff of Hertford, 123.
Highlanders, 62.
Hill, Sir Rowland, 188 «. 11.
Hillsborough, Earl of, 108, 163.
Histoire de Miss Jenny Revel, 44 n. 4.
Historians, qualities needed, xxvi n. 4 ;
— English, 15 n. 2.
Historical Age, 155.
History, popularity of, 13.
Hoadly, Benjamin, Bishop of Win-
chester, 63.
Hobbes, Thomas, 335.
Hogarth, William, 153 n. 10.
Holdernesse, Earl of, 222 n. 3.
Holinshed, Raphael, 66.
Holland, Henry Fox, first Lord, 53.
Hollis, Lord, 265 n. 3.
Holroyd, John (Lord Sheffield), 116 «.
2, 218 n. 4, 248 n. 2.
Home, spelt aXsoHume, 9 «. 10, 338 n. 5,
347 »• 5> 357 "• «•
Home, Alexander, ninth Earl of, xvii n.
1, 143, 146 K. I, 301.
Home, Catherine (David Hume's sister),
XXV «. I, 117, 230.
Home, Earls of, 146 n. 1.
Home, George, 281 n. 2.
Home, John, Laiid of Niuewells, xxv n.
1, 10, 20, 58, 79, 345, 347 n. 6, 356 n.
2, 358, 361-3, 368.
Home, John (the dramatist), accom-
panies Hume to Bath, xxxiv, 319 k.
2, 338 n. 5 ; Agis, 20 ». 5 ; Bute's
favourite, 60 ; character, xxxiv, 320 ;
CoUins's dedication, 1 3 ; Conservator,
etc., 338 n. 5 ; Douglas, 5, 10 «. 12, 14,
16, 19, 96 «. 15; epigram on claret,
10 ; Fatal Discovery, 62 ; gene-
rosity, 12; Hume's bequest 10; —
dedication, 14, 16 ; journey to Lon-
don, 28 ». 2 ; pension, 10, 12 ;
' Shakespeare of Scotland,' 242 «. 12 ;
Voltaire praises him, 13 ; mentioned,
75 n. 4, 291 II. 6, 3£o.
Hooker, Sir J. D., 53.
Hopkins, — , 211 ». 28.
Home, George, D.D. (afterwards Bishop
of Norwich), xl «. i .
Horner, Francis, xviii n. 4, 7, 356 n. i.
House of Commons, country gentlemen,
145 ; loss of influence, 209 n. 20 ;
secession of the Opposition, 328. See
Debates and Parliament
Howe, General, 327 n. 14.
Howell, James, 61.
Huet, — , 257 K. 6.
Hume, David, advice about entering
the Church, 217 n. 3 ; answering
attacks, xxiv, 20, 88 ; Assessor to the
Poker Club, 141 n. 4; birth, xvii;
candidate lor a Glasgow professorship,
xxv n. I ; card-playing, xxxv, 320 ;
casuist, 156 ; chandler's wife calls on
him, xxxiii n. 1 ; character, his, drawn
by himself, xxxiii ; — by Adam Smith,
xxxix ; characters, no discernment of,
no; clergy, liked the younger, 291 n.
6 ; complaints, xxvi, xxviii, 55 n.
7, 160, 164 n. 4, 255, 257 n. 7,
307, 329 ; compliments, given to,
260 n. 16 ; compliments Robertson,
112 n, I, 158 n. 6; composition,
facility of, xxix n. 3; cookery, 116 «.
2 ; copy-money, xxx, 33 n. 2, 164 n.
4 ; corrects his Works with great
industry, xxxvii, 141 n. 7, 172, 183,
200, 202 n. I, 224, 307, 308, 339,
342 ; courage, want of, 3^0, 331 n. 2 ;
death, xxxviii, 345, 348, 359 ; —
blank left by it, xxxix n. i ; dedica-
tion, 14, 16 ; described by Godwyn,
6 ; by Grimm, 51 n. 3 ; by Lord
Charlemont, xxii n. i, 53 ; Dialogues
concerning Natural Religion, 303,
330. 332, 335 «• 14. 346-8, 349 n. 2,
352 n. 2, 354, 355, 362-4; dines with
i1^
INDEX.
his opponents, 92 tt. 5, 259 ». 12 ; Dis-
sertations, 1 8 ; distinguished guests,
119; 'echo of Voltaire,' xxvii n. 2;
editions of his works not mimbered,
141 n. 7 ; English, hatred of the, 6,
63 n. 6, 56 «. 8, 103 «. 1, 114, 132 n.
26, 145, 151, 247, 248, 2.56, 258 «.
8, 312 n. 2 ; Enqtnry concerning
Human Understanding, xxii, 302 «.
21) 330; Enquiry concerning the
Principles of Morals, xxiii, xxv ;
Essays, xx, xxii n. 3, xxiii, 6 n. 3, 16,
32?«. 2,23, 116,165. 159.252; JSssay
Of the Origin of Governmetit, 275,
331 ; Essays on Suicide and the
Immortality of the Soul {see Sup-
pressed KsSAYS) ; fame, xxv, xxxii,
56 n. 7, 56 «. 8, 83, 329, 333 n. 4,
340 «. 3 ; — love of literary fame his
ruling passion, xviii, xxxiii ; father,
xvii; flattery, xliv, xlv; France, love
of, xxviii; — reception there, xxxi, 50
n. 3 ; freetrader, 310 n. 10 ; French ac-
cent, xxii «. I ; — clothes, 86 k. i ; fru-
gality, xix, xxv n.1,12, 119 n. 6, 344
"• 3 i gaiety, xxxii, xxxiii n. i ;
Greek, study of, xxi ; ' head and heart,'
XXXV ; health, in youth, xviii n. 6,
xix n. I ; — in his last year, xxxii,
xxxiv, 312 n. I, 3r9, 321, 322 «. 2,
323. 328, 337, 338 n. 4, 339, 342,
344 n. 3 ; History of England ^\^nnti,
xxvi ; published as one vpork, 39 ;
'detestable edition' of 1763, 138,
141 n. 7, 164, 172, 256; ed. of 1770,
114, 151 ; ed. of 1773, 183, 202 K. I,
212; of 1778, 311, 324, 329, 339;
proposed continuation, 2 n. 2, 49,
53 n- 6, 141 »• 7. 144. 198, 248, 256,
267«. 7, 268». 9, 262,268; Wliiggism
corrected, 141 «. 7, 202 «. 3 ; History
of the Stuarts, alterations to the Tory
side, xxix, 15 «. 3, 35 «. 11 ; assailed,
xxvi; composed ad fopuliim, 331 «■
2 ; put beyond controversy, 35 k. 11 ;
second edition, 25, 26, 39 ; Dublin
ed. 176 «. 4; price paid for it, 1,3, 13,
18 ; sale, xxvii, 141 n. 7, 334 ». 12 ;
vol. i. the best, 4, 6 «. i ; vol. ii. more
Whiggish, 2, 6 ?«. 2 ; History of the
Tudors, published, xxix, 28, 29 ; price
paid for it, 14, 24; History of Eng-
land to the Keign of Henry VII,
begun, 31 ; price paid for it, 33 u. 2 ;
published, xxix ; Anglo-Saxon period,
i64«.7; Hobbist,i3i«. 24, 334«. 13;
houses, first-house, 231 n. 3; Jack's
Land, 38 /z. 2 ; James's Court, 40 n.
I, 63. 116 «■ 2, 205 n. 13, 353 «. 6 ;
St. Andrew's Square, 118, 161, 227,
231 n. 2, 250 «. 3 (St. David's Street,
251 n. 3) ; humour, want of, (,1, 82 ;
income, xxii, xxv n. 1, xxxi, xxxii, 33
«. 6, 115 ?;. I ; index-making. 215 «. 7;
' iniidel writer,' 331 ; investments in
stock, 42, 130 n. 20; Ireland, 'one
of the foes of,' 71 ; legal details dis-
tasteful to him,' 356 n. 2 ; letters,
proposed publication, 360-i, 352 «.
I, 361 ; — some shown to George III,
367-9 ; Librarian of Advocates Lib-
rary, xxvi, 75 n. 2, 352 ». 4; Life,
xvii, 21 n. I, 319 n. i, 329, 333 n.
10. 346, 348, 354, 361, 363-4 ! life in
Edinburgh, 112 ; literary criticisms,
II, 20 K. 6; Macpherson's Ossian,
36-8 ; manuscripts, 345, 348, 351 ;
mother, xviii ; Natural History of
Religion, xxviii, 21 n. \, 230; old
age, xxxii n. 5 ; partiality to Kings,
III n. I ; pension, 10, 33 n. 6, 55,
257 n. 7, 270 ; Philosophical Writ-
ings, xxiv, 5, 18, 160, 172, 182, 319,
341 ; philosophy, studies, xviii ; Poli-
tical Discourses, xxv ; political views,
35 »■ "; posterity, 227, 329, 337;
prospect of long life, xxxii ; puffs his
countrymen, 242 ». 12 ; reading dull
books, xxvi »i. 3 ; reluctance to change
places, xxv n. 1, 115 n. 1 ; reproached
with isms, 291 n, 7 ; Robertson's
History, 30 n. i ; Rousseau, quarrel
with, xxxi n. 5, 74-103 (see Rous-
seau) ; sceptic, 268 n. i ; Scotch
accent, 7 ; Scotland too narrow for
him, 56 «. 8 ; Scotticisms, list of, 8
(jss Style) ; sea, afraid of the, 115 k.
I ; Secretary to Embassy at Paris,
XXX, xxxi, 33 n. 6, 40, 69 n. r, 75 n.
4, 203 n. 6 ; secretaryship to Lord
Lieutenant, 56, 58, 70 ; speculation
in stocks, 44 n. 7 ; spelling, 9 n. 10,
27 ; — of his name (see Home) ; style,
xix n. 2, 6, 7, 189 n. 13, 302 n. 22;
supper-parties, 291 n. 6 ; suppressed
Essays, 230-3, 332, 346/2. 2, 365 k.
I. 362-3 ; suppressions in his Works,
xxix, 296 ; suspects Strahan {see
Strahan) ; Treatise of Human
Nature, xx, xxii, 302 n. 21, 303 n.
23; truth, little regard to, 158 n. 6,
217 n. 3, 271 ; Under-Secretary of
State, xxxi, 33 n. 6, 103, iii, 115 n.
I ; Voltaire, an echo of, 157 «. 3 ; —
letter to him, 106, 109 k. 8 ; ' wee
bookies, ' 344 k. 4 ; Whigs hostile to
him, xxix, 75 k. 4; 'white as snow,'
119 «. 3 ; will, xvii. n. 1,10, 335 n.
14, 337. 33S «• 3, 345. 352 n. 2 ;
zealots, hostile towards him, xxxiv.
INDEX.
379
Hume, David (the nephew, afterwards
Baron Hume), 345, 348, 355, 356 k.
■^, 362, 363-
Hunt, Captain, 165 n. 9, 173.
Hunter, John, 323 n. 2, 337, 338 n. 4.
Hunter, Dr. William, 63, 223, 308,
310 n. 13.
Hurd, Richard, Bishop of Worcester,
xxviii, 20, 67, 91, 204 ». 12.
Hutten, Ulric von, 237 n. 3.
Hutton, Dr., 364.
Hutton, James, 364-9.
Hutton, William, 94 «. 11.
Hyder Ali, 131 ». 22, 240 n. 10.
I.
Ian, sects whose name ends in, 288.
Impression, 9 ». 8.
Index-making, 17 «. I.
India. See East Indies.
Innys, William, xx n. 3.
Inquisition, 317.
Interest, Legal, 143, 146 n. 2.
Inverary, 213, 222 ». i.
Ireland, 71.
Irish Massacre of 1641, xxiv n. 2.
Irish Secretaryship, 69 k. i .
Isms, 391 n. 7.
Italian authors, 278 k. 2.
J.
James II, 2, 4, 293 n. 13 ; his Memoirs,
264,
Jefferson, Thomas, 60.
Jeffrey, Lord, 356 n. 2.
Jenkinson, Charles (first Earl of Liver-
pool), 126 n. 14.
Johnson, Samuel, abuse of the Scotch,
58, 63, 248 ?z. 3 ; abusive, 200 ; ad-
vice about a tragedy, 43 n. 3 ;
America, 294 n. 14, 305 n. i, 307 n.
6; Auchinleck, at, 172 n. 25, 229 n.
11; Bolingbroke, 332; Brydone's
Travels, 249 n. i ; Bute, Lord, 60,
206 n. 16 ; Canada described, 163 ;
carriage by sea, 214 ». i ; Chatham,
Lord, 127 n. 15, 194 n. 28 ; Common
Council, 169 «. 14; complain, did
not, 257 K. 7; copyright, 279; Dal-
rymple's Memoirs, 180 n. 22, 259 «.
II, 265 n. 2; decline of England,
192 n. 21 ; dedications, 9 ». 9 ; Dic-
tionary, 287 «. 12 ; dinner at Messrs.
Dilly's, 147 n. 9 ; discovery of
America, 246 n. 11 ; Edinburgh,
visits, 118; Falkland's Islands, 165 n.
9, 184, 185, 206 n. 15 ; False Alarm,
208; France, 193 n. 22; Frederick
the Great, 34 n. 9 ; general warrants,
207 n. 18; Goldsmith's Histories,
260 ». 13; government too weak,
206 n. 16 ; Hailes, Lord, 74 nn. 1,
3 ; Harry Hervey, 96 n. 15 ; Henry's
History, 157 ». 4; Hume, an echo of
Voltaire, xxvii ». 3 ; — head and
heart, xxxv «. 3 ; — History, 157 n.
3. 324; — Hobbist, 131 n. 24, 334 n.
13; — scepticism, 205 n. 13; —
Scotticisms, 8 ; — style, 7, 189 n.
13 ; — vanity, xl n. 1; humour,
83; Hutton the Moravian, 366;
hypochondria, xix n. 1 ; interview with
George III, 367 «. i ; 'jostling down,'
xxiv n. I ; Journey to the Western Is-
lands, 69 ; judgment of books, 286 n.
10 ; Karnes's Elements of Criticism,
282 n. 6 ; Letters to Lord Mansfield,
239 n. 9, 261 n. 17; Literary Club,
53; lived in Wilkes's Ward, 211 n.
28; London, too large, 131 n. 23;
London Chronicle, 64 «. 9 ; Macau-
lay, Mrs., 197 n. 37; Ma,cpherson,
37 ; M'Craas, among the, 63 ; Mallet,
336 K. 15 ; managing the mind, 245 ».
3; mob-rule, 167 «. 12, 210 n. 24;
national debt, 3 30 k«.6, 7 ; North Min-
istry, I36«.6, i65«.8, I77«.5; North-
allerton, 330 n. 2 ; patriots defined,
133 nn. 35, 36 ; payment for ihtLives,
215 «. 11; Pennant's Tour, 'iCj'^n.
I ; pension, 33 «. 6 ; Pope's industry,
186 ». 2; posterity, 228 «. 8 ; print-
ing, 187 «. 3; publishing his letters,
338 n. 3 ; Rasselas, xxix «. 2 ; —
Richardson's love of praise, 56 ; Rous-
seau described, 73 n. i ; Ruddiman,
xxvi n. 2 ; ruling passion, xviii «. 2 ;
Scotch authors,.36o n 14 ; 327 n. 13 ;
— combination, 242 k. 1 2 ; — com-
mendation of the Scotch, 246 «. 9 ; —
enterprise,6o ; Smith, Adam, met,xlv ;
. — reported altercation, 35 7 «• 3 ; spread
of infidel writings, 334 n. 13 ; state of
affairs in 1770, 139 n. 18; Strahan's
couch, xliii; — ,qnarrel with, 373 n. 5 ;
strong writing, 205 n.ii; style, 184 ;
timidity of ministers,: 24 «. 9, 136 n. 6,
167 n. 12 ; trees in Scotland, 152 n. 8 ;
Tristram Shandy, 260 ». 15 ; truth-
fulness, 217 n. 3, 273 n. 4; Warbur-
ton, 22 » I, 204 nn. II, 13 ; Wealth
of Nations, 316 n. 5 ; Whig, the first,
22s)n. 11; Windham as Irish Secre-
tary, 71 ; writing for money, 287 n,
13 ; mentioned, 93 n. 7, 107, 115 «. i.
Johnston, William, 275 n. i, 282 n. 4.
Johnstone, George, 300.
Johnstone, Sir James, 203 n. 8.
38o
INDEX.
Journals of the House of Lords, io8.
Judges, on demise of Crown, 201, 206 nn,
16, 17.
Julia Mandevitte, 53.
Junius, attacks Lord Bottetourt, 108 ;
Lord Chatham, 298 ; George III,
211 «. 28 ; Duke of Grafton, 130 ».
19; Lord Granby, 125 n. II ; Lord
Mansfield, 147 n. 8, 209 ». 21 ; Lord
North, 205 n. 15, 211 «. 28 ; Scotch,
71 ; attacked by Johnson, 205 n. 13.
K.
Kaiser, — , 90.
Karnes, Lord (Henry Home), xx «. 3,
63, 116 n. 2, 157 n. 3, 280, 284,
286 n. 9.
Keith, — , 116 n. 2.
Kennet, River, 326 «. 10.
Kincaid, Alexander, 85, 96 n. 16, 97 n.
King's Friends, 147 n. 9.
Kingston, Duchess of, 327 n. 14.
Kirkaldy, 115 ». i, 353 «. 6.
Kirkman, Alderman, 212 n. i.
Laboured, 186 ». i.
Lady Juliette Catesby, 42.
Lalande, 232 «. 4.
Lammas, 19 «. 2.
Land Tax, 218 «. 4.
Landholders. See Stockholders.
Landor, W. S., 332.
Lausanne bookseller, 224.
Law, John, 43 n. 3.
Laws of Jamaica, 40.
Le Blanc, Abbe, 88.
Le Marchant, Sir Denis, 107 n. 2.
Lepell, Mary, 96 n. 15.
Leslie, Professor John, xxxiv n. i.
Letters of Radclijfe and James, 214 n. 1.
Letters to Lord Mansfield, 239 n. 9,
261 n. 17.
Lewis XI, 127 n. 15.
Lewis XIV, 117, 257 n. 2.
Lewis XV, 161, 169 n. 14, 173, 193 n.
24, 194 K. 25, 219 ». 5.
Lewis XVl, 52, 169 n. 15, 199.
Lewis XVIII, 52.
Libels, 190 K. 17, 201, 209 ». 21.
Liberty of the Press. 5£« Debates.
Life, chances of, 119 n. 4.
Ligonier, Lord, 125 «. 11.
Literary Property. See Copyright.
Livery of London, 139 n. i, 192 n. 19.
Lloyd, — , 68.
Locke, John, xxix n. i, 63, 275 n. i.
London, too large, 114, 131 K. 23.
See City.
London Chronicle, 64 n. 9, 65, 106, 138.
Lord Mayor's Feast, in 1769, 123.
Lords of Session, 74 ». i.
Lowth, Robert, Bishop of London, 22 n.
I, 100 n. I, 204 n. 12.
Lucian, xxxvi.
Lutherans, 187 ». 4.
Luttrell, Colonel, 135 n. 3, 147 n. 8,
208.
Luttrell, Temple, 328.
Lyttelton, George, first Lord, 31 ». 5,
43 11. I, 91 n. 1, 186 «. 2, 227, 22gnn.
10, II.
M.
Macaulay, Lord, Earl of Chatham, 67,
179 n. 15, 298 n. 19, 306 ». 2 ; laud-
tax, 21S n. j^.
Macaulay, Mrs., i86, 197 n. 37.
Macdonald, Sir James, I24». 8.
Machiavel, 306 n. 2.
Mackenzie, Henry, 320.
Mackintosh, Sir James, 7, 202 «. 3,
316 »■ 5. 333 »-4- 357 «■ 3-
Macpherson, James, 22 n. 2, 36, 256,
258 nn 9, 10, 286 «. 9, 308, 309 n. 6,
■ 334 ». 12, 336«. 15.
Mallei, David, 6 k. 6, 54, 246 »«. 9, 330.
Malone, Edmond, 285 n. 5.
Malthus, Rev. T. R., 281 n. 2.
Manchester, second Earl of, 325 n. 3.
Mann, Sir Horace, 146 n. 6.
Mansfield, William Murray, first Earl
of, charged with untruthfulness, 63 ;
CO pyright, 2 7 5-9 ; deserted the Govern-
ment, 145 ; Douglas cause, 239 n. 9,
261 n. 17; Gordon riots, xlvi ;
Hume's opinion of him, 113, 125 ».
13; — reply to Rousseau, 88 ; — style,
7 1 liberty of the press, 190 «. 17, 209
n. 21 ; Middlesex election, 147 «. 8
Warbuiton's character, 200,
Mansfield, — , 278.
Manufactures, 174.
Marchmont, Hugh, third Earl of, 106.
Marlborough papers, 54.
Marmontel, 82, 87.
Martial law, 129 k. 17.
Mary, Queen of Scots, xxiv n. 2.
Mason, Rev. William, 22 n. i, 36 n. i,
63, 188 «. 11.
Massaniello, 211 ». 28.
Maty, Dr., 94 n. 11.
Maupeou, Chancellor, 193 n. 24.
Maxwell, Rev. Dr., 220 n. 6.
M'Craas, 62.
Melville, Lord, 356 «. 2.
INDEX.
381
Meser, — , 367.
Mickle, W. J., 141 n. 6.
Middlesex election, 121, 135 n. 3, 146 n.
6, 147 n. 8, 208.
Middleton, Conyers, D.D., xxii, 27 n. 3.
Mill, James, 274 n. 2.
Mill, John Stuart, xix n. 1.
Millar, Andrew, at Harrogate, 149 n.
10 ; character, xxiii «. 2, 25 ; Hume's
correspondence with him, 55 K. 7 ;
— publisher, i, 3, 13, 33 «. 2, 54, 84,
99, 100 n. i, 106, 230,310; — suspects
his honesty, 24, 97 n. 17, 141 n. 7, 154,
172, 267,270; Robertson's publisher,
158 n. 1 ; shop in Catherine Street,
31, 33 «. 4; mentioned, xxvii, 22 «.
2, 30 n. 2. 36, 69, 69, 72, 85, 86 «. I,
92 «. 5, 283. 334». 12.
Millar, Dr., 230.
Millar, Mrs., 86 n. i, 149 n. 10.
Millar, Professor John, 357 n. 3.
Millar -v. Taylor, 176 k. 1, 277, 279.
Miller, J., a printer, 190 n. 17.
Milton, John, 63.
Minden, Battle of, 76.
Ministry, timidity, 113, 121, 124 «. 9,
136 n. 6, 137 n. 7. See North,
Lord.
Mirabeau, Marquis de, 52.
Mitchell, Sir Andrew, 55, 121, 175,
181 n. 25, 230.
Monboddo, Lord (James Burnet), xxvi n.
2, 63, 157 «. 3.
Moncreiif, Sir H., 158 «. 8.
Monopoly, 288.
Monro, Sir Robert, 241 n. 11.
Monroe, Dr., 91 k. 2.
Montagu, George, 222 «. 3.
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 52.
Montagu, Mrs., 93 n. 7, 303.
Moore, John, M.D., 51, 194 ». 25.
Moore. Norman, M.D., 322 n. 2.
Moravians, 365.
More, Hannah, xix 7t. 2, 365.
Morehead, — , 231.
Morellet, Abbe, 58, 87, 150 n. 12.
Motte, B., 176 ». 4.
Mulgrave, second Baron, 324, 328.
Mure, Mrs., xxvi n. 4, 344 n. 4.
Mure, William, of Caldwell, 16, 17,
86 n. I, 177 «. 4.
Murphy, Arthur, 62, 282«. 6, 316 n. 5.
Murray, Dr. Thomas, xxi k. 2.
Mutual friend, 350 n. 2.
N.
Nairne, — , 117.
National Debt, 114, 130 n. 20, 146 «.
2, 161, 170 n 17, 173, 179 nn. 13,
15, 185, 194 «. 27, 2or, 217, 218 «.
4, 220 n. 6, 289.
Navigation Act, 293 ». 11, 310 «. 10.
Neat, 286 n. 8.
Neckers, the, 93 n. 7.
Newcastle Waggon, 214 «. i.
Newton, Sir Isaac, 347 n. 5.
Nichols, Dr., 60.
Nichols, John, 108.
Ninewells, 20 n. 6.
Nivernois, Duke de, 116 «. 2.
Nonsense, 182.
Noone, John, xx n. i .
North, Frederick, Lord (afterwards
second Earl of Guilford), attacks the
Lord Mayor, 178 n. 7 ; Burke's ridi-
cule of him, 135 «. 3 ; good-temper,
140 H. 2 ; house at Bushy, 249 «. 1 ;
ministry, formed, 136 «. 5, 173! —
dissolved, 165 ». 8; — incapable,
295, 301, 306 ». 4; — national debt,
179 n. 13, 219 n. 5, •220 «. 7 ; —
timid, 136 n. 6, 145, 161, 167 n. 12,
170 «. 18, 173, 177 u. 5, 184, 201,
205 n. 15, 211 n. 28; mobbed, iSgn.
16; political squabbles, 132 «. 26 ;
prospects of peace, 219 «. 5.
North, Lady, 249 «. i.
Northallerton, 320.
Northumberland, fifth Earl of, 254.
Northumberland, Hugh, Earl (afterwards
Duke) of, 119 n. i, 121, 256 n. i.
Northumberland Household Book, 253,
255-
Norton, Sir Fletcher, 121.
Notable, 152 «. 4.
O.
Object, 269 n. 3.
O'Conor, Daniel, 71-
Ogle, William, M.D., 119 n. 7.
Ohio Scheme, 160.
Oliver, Alderman, 190 ». 17.
Olivet, J. T., 106.
Onslow, George, 180 n. 23, 190 n. 17.
Opposition, secession of the, 328.
Ord, Chief Baron, 251.
Ord, Miss, 251.
Oswald, James, 1 7.
Otway, Thomas, 16 n. 5.
P.
Paoli, Pascal, 119, 309 n. 8.
Parisian society, xxxi, 229 n. n.
Parliament, tranquil session (l765\
49 «. I ; session of 1770, 134, 146 n.
6, 178 «. 6; — 1775,305. i'«« House
OF Commons,
38a
INDEX.
Patriots, 114, 132 n. 25, 247.
Payne, E. J., 293 tin. 11, 13.
Payne, John, 1 10.
Peach, — xix n. 2.
Pejorate, 8.
Pelham, Henry, 95 n. 14.
Pennant, Thomas, 253 n. I.
Percy, Hon. — , 119.
Percy, Rev. Dr. Thomas (afterwards
Bishop of Dromore), 51, 253, 255.
Perkins, Mrs., 322.
Peterborough, John Hinchcliffe, Bishop
of, 294 K. 15.
Philip IV, 340 «. I.
Philosophical Essays, 75 «• 3.
Pilgrim's Progress, 275 «. i.
Pitfour, Lord, 357 «. 3.
Pitt, Andrew, 196 n 34.
Pitt Lady Hester, 223 «. i.
Pitt, William. See Chatham, Earl of.
Pitt, William (the younger), 68, 220 n. 7.
Plumbe, Alderman, 212 k. 1.
Poker Club, 141 n. 4.
Political Economy, 317.
Pompous, 278 n. 3.
Poor's Rate, 194 k 27.
Pope, Alexander, attack on Lord Her-
vey, 96 «. 15; 'drops dead-born,' etc.,
XX «. 2 ; ' immortalises ' Lord March-
mont, 106 H. I ; industry, 186 «. 2 ;
letters, 352 «». 3, 5 ; ruling passion,
xviii n. 2 ; spelling, 27 n. 3.
Popish Plot, xxiv n. 2.
Post Office, franks and mails, 17,
175 n. 2, 187 n. 10, 188 n. 11 ; letters
opened, 67 «. 2 ; Secretary's salary,
68.
Posterity, 153 n. 9, 22S n. 8, 340 n. 3.
Price, Richard, D.D., 259 n. 12.
Priestley, Joseph, LL.D., 225 «. i.
Prince of Wales (George IV), 328.
Princess Dowager of Wales, 12, 64 n. 8,
210 », 26, 236, 244. 368.
Principles of Penal Law, 216.
Pringle, Sir John, 117, 162, 172 n. 25,
211 n. 28, 292 n. \o, 316 n. 5, 321,
322 n. 2, 323, 329.
Printer's devil, 33 n. 3.
Printing, 182, 213, 2;6«. 2.
Printing-presses in London, 46.
Prior, Matthew, 63.
Procession of the Holy Ghost, 339.
Pulteney, General, 203 v. 8.
Pulteney, William, 203 n. 8, 226.
R.
Rabelais, 237 n. 3.
Ramsay,. John, of Ochtertyre, 133 n.
32, 281 n. 2.
Ramsay, Michael, 94 «. 11.
Ramsay, — , 44 «. 7-
Ravaillac, 194 n. 26.
Ray, James, 63.
Ray, Miss, 325 n. 6.
Recupero, Canon, 249 n. I.
Reid, Andrew, 29.
Reid, Professor Thomas, 8, 290, 302 «.
22.
Republics, compared with monarchies,
3ii7 «■ 3-.
Resile, xxxi.
Retirement, 245 n. i.
Reuchlin, 23.S.
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, xlvi 53, 93 ». 7,
152 K. 4, 269 «. 5.
Riccoboni, Madame, 42, 43 n. 3, 45, 46,
47, 88-
Richardson, Samuel, 52, 56, 229 ». 11.
Richardson, — , 248.
Richelieu, Cardinal, 127 n. 15, 185,
194 n. 28, 196 «. 33.
Richmond, Charles, third Duke of, xxxi,
68, 70.
Riedesel, Baron, 257 n. 4.
Riots (in 1765), 65 K. I, I24«. 8; (in
1768-9), 120 n. 7, 124 n. 10, 129 «.
17, 1 30 K. 21; (in 1780), xlvi, 148.
Rob Roy, 194 n. 28.
Robertson, William, D.D., Charles V,
14 n. I, 93 n. 7, 158 n. 7, 174 ; copy-
right, 278, 2S6 ». 11; History of
America, 155, 342 n. 3 ; History of
Scotland, 15 n. 2, 30 n. i, 158 n. 7,
164 » 4, 312 «. 3 ; Hume's compli-
ments, 112 n. I, 158 n. 6, 258 K. 9 J
— gaiety, xxxiii n. i ; History, 29 ;
Principal of the College, 31 n. 3;
Strahan, friendship with, xlv ; style,
7, 8, 215 ». 12 ; success as an author,
1 56 ; verbiage, 260 «. 1 3 ; mentioned,
59. 75 «• 3. 92 «• 5, "6 n. 2, 186,
35°-
Robinson, — , 212 n. i.
Rockingham, Marquis of, 68, 70, 127 n.
15, 167 K. 12 ; — Ministry, 58, 65 «.
1 ; — party, 104.
Rogers, Samuel, 250 n. 3, 259 n. 12.
Rogers, Professor Thorold, 349 n. i.
Romilly, Sir Samuel, 217 «. 2, 317.
Rose, Dr. William, 32.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques, arrived in
London, 73, 100 «. 3 ; at Wooton,
77, 78 ; Emile, 76, 78 ; flees from
France in 1762, 76 k. 5 ; forged letter
of Frederick the Great, 77, 98, 102
«. 2 ; ' hankers after the Bible,' xviii
n. I ; Hume accused of meditated
falsification, 85, 95 n. 12, and of
opening his letters, 98 «. 6 ; — Concise
INDEX.
383
Account, 83-103 ; — , curious scene
with,77, 81 ; — describes his character,
76, 78-8o,83«.7,86«.2,iio; — His-
tory 1 1 5 «■ 3 ; — invites him to Edin-
burgh, 119; — letter to him, 81; — , his
letters to, 74, 81, 83 n. 6, 85, loi ; — ,
■suspects, 77 ; — , threatens, 83 ; — tries
to buy him a house, 73 w. 2 ; humor-
ous paper against him, 106, log n. 7 ;
humour, want of, 57 ; ' John James,'
no; Johnson's description of him,
73 «. I ; pension, 76, 77, 78, 80 ;
Voltaire's letter, 109 n. 8 ; writing
and correcting a book, 200,
Ruseus, 280.
Ruddiman, Thomas, xxvi n. i.
Ruff head, Owen, 134, 136 n. 4.
Ruffian Club, xxxv «. i.
Ruskin, John, 152 n. 4.
Russell, Lord William, 63, 265 n. 2.
Russian troops, 294 n. 16.
S.
Sacheverell, Dr. Henry, 227 n. 5.
Sandwich, John, fourth Earl of Sand-
wich, 188 n. II, 285 n. 5, 324, 327
n. 14.
Sandys, Samuel, first Baron, 106.
Saville, Sir George, 135 n. 3.
Sawbridge, Alderman, 171 ». 21, 205
n. 13.
Saxby, — , 67.
Scaliger, 90.
Scepticism, 303.
Scheither, Colonel, 295.
Scioppius, 90.
Scotland and the Scotch, absence of
party-spirit, I47 h. 9, 149 ». 10;
accused of untruthfulness, 272 «. 2 ;
authors, 260 n. 14 ; cash accounts,
19 «. 3 ; clergy, 96 n. 16 ; Court
of Exchequer, 251 ; election of
Members of Parliament, 148 ; Eng-
lishmen, how far, 57,58 ; English edu-
cation, 58 ; — , study, 7 ; farming, 133
«. 32 ; General Assembly, 301 ; High-
landers, 62 ; historians, 155, 157
n. 3 ; language, 9 k. 6 ; law of sedi-
tion, 356 n. 2 ; plantations, 152 «. 8 ;
roads, 28 «. 2 ; Toryism, 133 n. 33,
145 ; trial by jury, 251 ; Union, 58 ;
unpopularity in England, 49, 53 «. 6,
56 n. 8, 69 n. I, 147 n. 9 ; Wilkes,
persecute, 127 «. 15.
Scott, George, 86 n i.
Scott, Sir Walter, birth, 30 n. 3, 221
n. 8 ; Black the Chemist, 343 n. 2 ;
Brydone's Travels, 249 n. I ; Burgh
Reform, 14'j n. g; Bums, 241 «. 11 ;
Cadell the publisher, 92 «. 5 ; Fer-
guson, 241 «. II ; Home the poet,
96 «. 15, 321 ; Hume, Baron, 356 n. 2
Lay of the Last Minstrel, 6 n. 8
plantations in Scotland, 152 n. 8
posts to Edinburgh, 187 «. 10.
Scott, — , of Gala, 249 n. 1.
Scotticisms, 6 n. 6, 105 ». a. See
under HuME, style.
Seeker, Thomas, Archbishop of Canter-
bury, 34 n. 7.
Secretaries of State, 105 n. 4.
Seneca, 102 n. 3.
Sensibly, 337 ». i.
Seymour, Jane, 234.
Shakespeare, William, 11, 20 «. 5, 275
K. I.
Sham Abram, 109 n. i.
Shebbeare, Dr. John, 33 n. 6.
Sheffield, Lord. See Holroyd, John.
Shelburne, second Earl of (afterwards
first Marquis of Lansdowne), 63, 126
n. 14, 272 n. 2.
Shenstone, William, 33 ». 6.
Short, — , 94 n. 8.
Sidney, Algernon, 63, 180 n. 23, 265
n. 2.
Signatures, 152 n. 6.
Smith, Adam, America, 292 nn. 10, 11,
296, 298 n. 19, 310 n. 10; cash-ac-
counts, 19 «. 3 ; characters, no dis-
cernment of, no; Commissioner of
Customs, 33 n. 6, 318 n. 5, 353 ». 6 ;
composition, xxix n. 3; death, 317 ;
Edinburgh houses, 250 n. 3 ; English
comedies, 11 ; head to be knocked
against Hume's, xl n. i ; home at
Kirkaldy, 1 15 n. i, 353 n. 6 ; Hume's
Dialogues, 347, 364 ». 4 ; — fortitude,
344 «. 3 ; — his master, 316 n. 5 ;
— house, chamber in, 119, 312 n. 1 ;
— journey to London, xxxiv, 320 ; —
last letters to him,xxxviii, 364 «. 4; —
Life and additions to it, xxxiv, 346-8,
358,361-3; —manuscripts, 351, 362
K. I ; — quarrel with Rousseau, 86
K. 3, 89 ; — will, 335 n. 14 ; legal
interest, 146 n. 2 ; letters to Strahan,
xxxiv, 347, 354 ; — published in New
York Post, 312 «. 2, 317, 349 n. 2,
350 n. I ; Johnson met, xlv ; National
Debt, 220 n. 6, 299 ; Navigation Act,
310 n. 10; party-spirit in Scotland,
147 n. 9 ; Professor at Glasgow,
XXV n. I ; residence in France, 59 ;
Scott's account of him, 353 n. 6,
357 n. 3 ; Strahan, friendship for, xlv;
tutor to Duke of Bnccleugh, 349 n. i ;
Walpole's sneer at him, 63 ; Wealth
of Nations published, 311, 312 n. 2,
3^
INDEX.
315-8, 353 «• 6 ; mentioned, 94 ». 8,
105 «. 4, 291 n. 6.
Smithson, Sir Hiigli, 2.;6 «. i.
Smollett, Tobias, History of England,
66, 358 n. 9; house, 38 k. 2 ; Hum-
phry Clinker, 115 k. i, 281 «. 2;
Lyttelton's fear of him, 229 n. 10;
Ohio settlements, 162 n. 3 ; Roderick
Random, 214 K. i; Scotch abused,
63.
Smyth, Professor, 357 n. 3.
Socrates, xxxix n. i.
Southey, Robert, 158 n. 7, 366.
Spain, threatened war with, 161, 165
n. 9, 173, 205 ». 15. See Falk-
land's Islands.
Speen Hill, 324.
Spelling, new mode of, 27.
Spence, Joseph, g*) n. 16.
Sjiottiswood, Governor, 163.
Spottiswoode, Messrs., 215 n. i.
St. Clair, General, xxi, xxii, 17 «. 6.
St. James's Chronicle, 77-
Stanhope, Philip, second Earl, 232 n. 4.
Steevens, George, 365.
Stephen, Sir James Fitzjames, 188 «. 11.
Stephens, Robert, xliv, 235.
Sterne, Lawrence, 237 n. 3, 256, 257
K. 1;, 260 nn. 15, 16.
Stewart, Dugald, xxix n. 3, 9, 317, 318.
Stewart, Sir James, 86 «. i.
Stewart, John, 204 «. 10.
Stewart, — , 74 n, 2.
Stock-holders, 174, 216, 218 «. 4, 220
n. 7.
Stocks, price of, 42, 44 n. 7, 170 n. 17,
212 ». 29, 220 n. 7, 295 n. 17.
Stone, Andrew, xxvii 11. 4.
Stone, Archbishop, xxvii.
Stormont, David, seventh Viscount, 114,
125 «■ 13, '33 «• 29-
Strafford, Earl of, xxvii.
Strahan, Rev. George, 261 n. 19.
Strahan, William, account of him,
xliii; America, 304, 340 n. 3; ap-
pointment sought, 106 ; Bute's in-
fluence, 126 H. 14, 210 n. 26; City
Remonstrance, 209 n. 22 ; coach,
270 n. 10 ; encomium on Princess
Dowager, 236, 244, 368; epigram,
not a judge of an, 48 «. i ; Frederick
the Great, 181 n. 26; French finances,
169 n. 15 ; friendship with Franklin,
64 71. II ; Hume accuses him (with
Cadell) of deception, 139, 141 n. 7,
144, 150, 154, 172, 263; —, reply to,
266; — apologises, 270; — charges
him with negligence, J 02 ; — gives
him a book, 23 ; — letters, 350 ; — ,
letters to, 242, 266, 283, 304, 318 n."],
340 «• 3- 3.'>9 n. 2; — Life, 361 ;
— style, corrects, 8, 215 n. 12, 224,
225.235.243; — ■will,3.W«-i4.337.
345, 348, 349 n. 2 ; Johnson, quarrel
with, 273 n. 5 ; labour a blessing,
242 ; London Chronicle, 64 n. 9, 73
n. I ; Mansfield's timidity, 126 n. 13 ;
Member of Parliament, 290 n. 2 ;
Middlesex election, 121 ; North
Ministry, 170 n. 18, 177 «. 5 ; Ohio
scheme, 162 n. 3 ; payment to authors,
257 «• 3; politician, 134, 145, 287;
printing-house, 215 n. 2 ; publishing
business, 92 nn. 3, 5, 269 n. 4, 283,
3 H. 3 ' 5 '^^ ■ ; publishes (with Cadell)
Cook's Voyages, 285 «. 5 ; — Dal-
rymple's History, 1 74 ; — Gibbon's
Decline and Fall, 187 n. 7, 314 ; ^-
Account of Hume's Quarrelwith Rous-
seau, 100 n. 1 ; — Robertson's His-
tories, 15 n. I, 158 n. 7, 342 n. z; —
Smith's Wealth of Nations, 312 ». 2 ;
regard for posterity, 340 n. 3 ; rise in
the world, 64 n.ii; state of England
in 1771, 198; in 1772, 258 n. 8;
Warburton, intimate with, 204 n. 11,
205 n. 14 ; warehouse burnt, 314 ;
Wilkes, 211 ». 28.
Strahan, Mrs., 73.
Stuart, Andrew, 203 n. 8, 236, 244,
256, 261 n. 17, 273, 321 n. 3.
Stuart, Colonel, 273.
Stuart, Gilbert, 158 n. 6.
Suard, 93 n. 7.
Subsidies, 197 n. 38.
Suffolk, Earl of, 188 n. 11.
Supervisors, 236, 240 n. 10.
Swift, Jonathan, 96 n. 15, 176 «. 4,
237 «■ 3. 351, 362 n. 5.
T.
Tatler, 21c, n. i.
Tavistock, Marquis of, 52, 75 n. 4.
Temple, Earl, 127 «. 15, 148.
Temple, Rev. W. J., 115 n. i, iSi
«■ 25.
Thirty-nine Articles, 227 «. 5.
Thomson, James, 250 n. 3, 277.
Thrale, Mrs., 118, 327 n. 13.
Thuanus, 237 n. 4.
Thurlow, Lord, 239 n. 9, 285 n. S-
Todd, Anthony, 68.
Tom Jones, 245 «. .-.
Tonson, Jacob, 33 n. 4.
Tooke, Home, xxix «■ 3, 168 «. 13, 171
n. 21, 199.
Townsend, Alderman, 205 ». 13, 210
n. j6.
INDEX.
?>^S
Townshend, Charles, iii, 282 n. 6,
299> 349 »• I-
Townshend, George, fourth Viscount
(afterwards Marquis), 126 n. 14.
Trail, Rev. Dr., 2S7, 332.
Tristram Shandy. See Sterne Law-
rence.
Tronchin, J. R., IC9 n. 7.
Turgot, 87.
Turnpike roads, 28 n, 2.
Twelves, j.
U.
Universal Museum, 71.
V.
Van, Charles, 208.
Van Haaren, — , 222 71. 3.
Verdelin, Marchioness de, 103 h. 1.
Vincent, Captain, xxi n. 2.
Vinnius, xviii.
Virgil, xviii, no, 280.
Voet, Paul, xviii.
Voltaire, Candide, xxix n. 2 ; Chatham,
Lord, not mentioned by him, 196 n.
34 ; conquest of Constantinople, 340
n. 2 ; Corsica, 309 n. 8 ; fame, his,
83 ; Frederick the Great, 34 «. 9 ;
Hume's History, 1 6 «, 3 ; — quarrel
with Rousseau, 82, 89,90, 106, 109 n.
8 ; invective against Shakespeare, 93 n.
7 ; L'£cossaise, 13 ; old age, xxxii k. 5 ;
raillery against him, 106, 109 n. 7 ;
Reuchlin, 237 n. 3 ; Reynolds's por-
trait of Beatlie, 269 n. 5 ; sale of
books in England, 53 ; 'scoffer,' 91
n. I ; Sterne and Swift, 260 nn. 15,
16 ; Treatise on Toleration, 42.
W.
Wallace, Alexander, 119.
Wallace, George, 281 n. 2, 283.
Wallace, Lady, 118.
Wallace, Robert, D.D., 280, 283.
Walpole, Horace, America, 130 ». 21,
294 n. 16, 295 n. 18, 301, 309 n. 7,
327 «. 14; Aiinaudale, Lord, xxi «.
2 ; Bath, 331 «• i ; Beckford, 168 n.
13 ; Boltetourt, Lord, 107 n. 3 ; Bry-
done's Travels, 249 n. i ; Bucking-
ham House, 367 n. i ; Bute, Lord,
2o6«. 17; change in Ministry (1775)1
291 ». 9 ; Charles III of Spain, 167 k.
1 1 ; Chatham, Lord, 196 n. 34, 298 n.
19 ; City Address, 139 ». i ; — Re-
monstrance, 147 ». 7 ; Dalrymple's
Memoirs, 180 n. 23, 265 n. 2 ; Den-
bigh, Lord, 325 K. 4; East Indies.
131 n. 22, 238 n. 8, 246 K. 7 ; Eden,
William, 217 «. 2; England ruined,
310 n. 12 ; English in Paris, 44 k. 6 ;
Europe, worn out, 192 n. 21, 297 ;
extinction of party, 35 n. 10 ; Falk-
land's Islands, 165 n. 9 ; fear of des-
potism, 128 n. 16, 132 «. 26 ; — of a
revolution, 124; folly is matter,
187 n. 4; forged letter to Rousseau,
77 ; France, 52, 169 nn. 14, 15, 193 n.
24, 194 n. 26 ; George III, 66 ; Graf-
ton, Duke of, 1 30 «. 1 9 ; Granby,
Lord, 125 M. II ; Gibbon's Decline
and Fall, 312 ». 3 ; Herring, Arch-
bishop, xxvii ?2. 3 ; Hervey, Lady, 96 n.
15 ; history, 197 h. 35 ; Holdernesse,
Lady, 222 n. 3; house in Arlington
Street, 85, 95 n. 14 ; Hume's History,
xxvii K. 2,15 «. 3, 33?2. 2; — Life, 22 71.
I ; — quarrel with Rousseau, 87, 88,
90, 91, 94 n. 10, 95 n. 14 ; — style, 7 ;
— Under-Secretary, 104 ; Johnson's
monsters, 312 n. 3 ; Letters to Lord
Mansfield, 239 n. 9 ; London, 131 n.
23 ; Macaulay, Mrs., 197 n. 37 ;
Macpherson, 37, 309 n. 6 ; Mansfield,
Lord, 125 n. 13, 147 n. 8, 209 n. 21 ;
Minden, 76 n. i ; North Ministry,
'36 ^- 5) 178 n. 6, 306 «. 4; opening
of letters in Post Office, 67 ; Parisian
society, 229 ?«. 11 ; Princess Dowager
of Wales, 237 n.6, 238 ?». 7 ; Pul-
teney, William, 203 n. 8 ; riots in
1768, 123 ; Sandys, 107 n. 2 ; Scotch,
63, 148, 260 «. 14; Session of 1765,
50 n. 2; Smithson family, 256 n. 1 ;
Stanhope, Earl, 232 n. 4 ; Stone,
Archbishop, xxvii n. 4; Stormont,
Lord, 133 «. 29 ; tranquillity in pub-
lic affairs, 146 n.6, 153 n.12, 163,
168 «. 13, 171 n. 21 ; Tristram
Shandy, 260 n. 15 ; visits Paris in
17^5; 7°; Warburton, 204 «. 12 ;
Wilkes, 190 «. 17, 208, 211 n. 28, 227
n. 5.
Walpole, Sir Robert, 17 «. 4, 63, 107
n, 2, 130 n. 20, 191, 197 «. 35, 218
n. 4.
Walpolej Thomas, 163.
Warburton, William, Bishop of Glouces-
ter, attacks Hume, xxiv, 21 n. i, 30
». 2 ; character, 200, 204 n. 12, 205
n. 14 ; intimate with Strahan, xlv, 204
K. II ; letters opened at Post Office,
67 n. 2 ; mentioned by Hume in
jest, xlvi, 94 », 8 ; Rousseau and
Hume, 91; ' Warburtonian School,'
xxviii, 200.
Warmley Copper- works, 108.
C C
386
INDEX.
Washington, George, 163.
Watson, Dr. Robert, 157 n. 3, 312 n. 2.
Weavers, riot of, 65 «. i.
Webb, Colonel, 73 n. 2.
Wedderburne, Alexander (afterwards
Lord Loughborough and Earl of
Rosslyn), 60, 203 n. 'j, 225 n. i, 227
n. 4, 239 n. 9, 312 n. 3.
Wesley, John, 366.
Weston, Stephen, Bishop of Exeter, 68,
Weymouth, Thomas, third Viscount,
95 n. 14.
Wheatley, H. B., 253 n. i.
Whiggery, 229 n. II.
Whittaker, G. B., 249 n. i.
Wight, Rev. Dr., 287, 308, 310 n. 13.
Wilkes, John, Alderman and Sheriff,
211 n. 28; arrested, 207 «. 18; at-
tacks Home Tooke, 199 ; and the
Scotch, 59, 60, 152 n. 8 ; attends
chapel, 233; burnt in effigy, 133
v. 33, 148 ; dedicates Mortimer to
Lord Bute, 147 «■ 9 ; election for
Chamberlain, 211 n. 28; expelled
from House of Commons, 123, 208;
'fatality,' 211 ». 28 ; French finances,
169 K. 15 ; George III, interview with,
170 n. 19; Home's pension, 10;
Hume consults him as to style, 8 ; —
suppressed Essays, 233 ; Johnson at-
tacks him, 205 n. 13; Letter ta
Electors of Aylesbury, 48 n. 2 ; Mid-
dlesex election, 120 n. 7, 132 n. 26;
outlawed, 47 ». i ; power lost, 153
w. 12, 165 ». 9, 171 n. 21, 177 n. 5,
227 n. 5, 258 n. 8; publication of
debates, 190 «. 17 ; sentence on him,
122, 125 K. 13 ; subscription for him,
J71 n. 20 ; visits Paris, 69 n. 4.
Wilkie, William, 242 n. 12.
Wilkites, 16 r.
Willes, Dr. Edward, Bishop of Bath
and Wells, 68.
Willes, Edward, 68.
Willes, Justice, 176 «. i, 277.
Willes, Thomas, 68.
William HI, 63.
Williams, Mrs., xliii, 270, n. 10.
Wilson, Professor, 287, 308.
Windham, Sir Charles (Earl of Egre-
mont), 256 n. i.
Windham, Right Hon. William, 71.
Windham, Sir William, 191.
Wolfe, General, 137 n. 8.
WoUin, — , 367.
Wood, Robert, 44 «. 7.
Wordsworth, William, 11.
Worrall, John, 41 n. 2.
Worthy, 245 n. 5.
Wraxall, Sir N. W , 325 n. 7.
Wray, Daniel, 222 n. i.
Writers to the Signet, 146 n. 4.
X.
Xenophon, 217 «. 3, 321 n. 3.
Y.
Yates, Justice, 277, 279.
York Buildings, 74 n. 3.
Yorke, Lord Chancellor, 178 n. 6.
Young, Arthur, 180 n. 17.
Young, Dr. Edward, 225 n. 1.
Zinzendorf, Count, 366.
THE END.
Lately Published,
Crown 8vo., pp. xxiv, 710, price gs.
A TREATISE
OB'
HUMAN NATURE
BY
DAVID HUME
REPRINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL EDITION
AND EDITED
WITH AN ANALYTICAL INDEX
BY L. A. SELBY-BIGGE, M.A.
FELLOW AND LECTURKR OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
LONDON: HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AMEN CORNER, E.C.
cB-
Six Vols. Medium 8w., pp. cxxxii, 2696, half-bound, price Three Guineas.
BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON
Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
AND Johnson's Diary of a Journey into North Wales
Edited by GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L., Pembroke College, Oxford.
' Here at last is an edition of Boswell worthy of the scholarship of Johnson
himself. Not only has Dr. Birkbeck Hill surpassed every previous editor in his
elucidations of Boswell, but his achievements as a Johnsonian are without parallel.
. The notes and appendices wholly written or compiled by Dr. Birkbeck Hill . . .
are so comprehensive that they leave nothing in the text unverified that was capable
of verification, while there is no important passage on which they do not throw
fresh light.' — St. Jameses Gazette.
'The pains he has taken to secure accuracy are unexampled.' — Saturday Review.
' What book, were but one permitted, would a man take with him on a desert
island? Why, the new edition of " Boswell's Johnson," by Dr. Birkbeck Hill, of
Johnson's own college, Pembroke. Here are six volumes of solid happiness.' —
Daily News.
= "r
BY THE SAME EDITOR.
Crown Svo., Bevelled Boards, Gilt Top, price "js, 6d.
WIT AND WISDOM OF SAMUEL JOHNSON.
Extra fcap. 9vo., Bevelled Boards, 3j. dd. In white Parchment, 4J. dd.
JOHNSON'S RASSELAS
WITH BRIEF LIFE OF JOHNSON, INTRODUCTION, AND NOTES.
Extra fcap. Svo., stiff copiers, price One Shilling.
GOLDSMITH'S TRAVELLER
WITH INTRODUCTION, ANALYSIS OF THE POEM, AND NOTES.
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
LONDON: HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AMEN CORNER, B.C.
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11