Strictures on Hume. 



182].] 



Mrs. Lowry, who writes and lec- 

 tures with great ability on mineralogy 

 au(i geology. 



Miss Owenson, (Lady Morgan) 

 whose powers of eloquent writing, and 

 moral and political reasoning are not 

 smi)assed by any author of her time, 



Mrs. Wakefield, compiler of 

 many useful and ingenious works for 

 the use of children and schools. 



Mrs. Ibbetsom, whose discoveries 

 with the microscope oa the Physiology 

 of Plants, ranks her high among ex- 

 perimental philosophers. 



Miss Herschel, whose ingenuity 

 and industry in astronomical observa- 

 tion, have obtained her a splendid re- 

 putation throughout thecivilizedAvorld. 



Miss Aikin, niece of Mrs. Barbauld, 

 who soaring above pro:hictious of mere 

 taste aud fancy, has in lier Memoiis of 

 Elizabeth, proved her 2>owers in history 

 and piiilosophy. 



Mrs. Graham, the able writer of 

 several volumes of travels, whicli are 

 distinguished for their sound piiiloso- 

 phy aud enlightened views of society. 



M. D'Arblay (Miss Buruey) whose 

 Evelina, Cecilia, Camilla, and other 

 novels place her among the first and 

 most original writers of any age. 



Miss Baillie, whose Plays on the 

 Passions aud other jiroductions are 

 highly esteemed by every person of 

 good taste. 



Besides others of less celebrity, but 

 perhaps equal merit, whose names are 

 not present to the recollection of the 

 wi-iter. 



Few persons till they behold this 

 enumeration, will have suspected that 

 our own days could boast such a galaxy 

 of genius in the fair sex ; and it may 

 also be questioned Avhether the other 

 sex can produce a list in many respects 

 of superior pretensions. 



May, 1821, Impartialis, 



.STRICTURKS on HUME. 

 To the Editor of the Montldy Mayazine. 

 SIR, 



ON recently looking into Hume's 

 History of England, whicli can 

 scarcely biMlone without exciting emo- 

 tions botli of admiration and indigna- 

 tion, I happened to meet with a most 

 egregious and unpardonable fatsifica- 

 tion of a very important fact ; to be as- 

 cribed, doubtless, to obscure and im- 

 perfect recoih'ction, ratlier tluvn to any 

 premeditated intention of deceit. 



Among many other strange paradoxes 

 in bis Hiign of K. Charles 1st, he un- 

 dertakes to disprove the imputation of 



407 



insincerity on that monarch, styling it 

 " a party clamour." He even defends 

 (Note F. Vol. VII.) that famous, or 

 more properly, infamous equivocation, 

 by which in his letter to the queen, 

 Jan. 2, 1644-5, he declares, that by 

 calling those at London a parliament, 

 he did no ways acknowledge them to 

 be a parliament. And this he caused 

 to be registered for the purpose of future 

 evasion and disclaimer, in the council- 

 book, Rapin X. p. 308. 



The essential question in this and in 

 all similar cases, is whether a de- 

 liberate fraud was practised : aud con- 

 sequently whether the king, acting 

 thus fraudulently, was entitled to con- 

 fidence ? The parliament, previous 

 to this disclosure, fully conceived that 

 Charles by repeatedly treating with 

 them in that capacity, had recognized 

 them as such — otherwise they would 

 not have treated at all, and such 

 wretched mentai reservation unavoid- 

 ably gave rise to the strongest suspicion, 

 contempt, and resentment. 



" But," says the apologist Hume, 

 " nothing is more usual in all public 

 transactions, than such distinctions. 

 After the death of Charles 11. King of 

 Spain, King William's ambassadors 

 gave the Duke of Anjou the title of 

 King of Spain, yet at that very time 

 K. William was secretly forming al- 

 liances to dethrone him ; and soon after 

 he REFUSED him that title, aud insist- 

 ed, as he had reason, that he had not ac- 

 knowledged his RIGHT. Yet K. Wil- 

 liam justly passes for a very sincere 

 prince ; and this transaction is not re- 

 garded as any objection to his charac- 

 ter in that particular," 



That K. William was universally 

 considered aud confided in " as a ^"ery 

 sincere prince" is certain ; but this he 

 never could have been had he acted 

 with duplicity so baseas he is said to have 

 done in this odious misrepresentation, 

 which exhibits not what that monarch 

 did, or said, or thought, but merely 

 what Mr. Hume himself would have 

 deemed unobjectionableunder the giveu 

 circumstances ; thus afiordinga curious 

 specimen of that elegant Historian's 

 ideas of political morality. 



Charles II, K, of Spain, died Nov, 1, 

 1700; and, contrary to the treaty of 

 partition tlien existing between France 

 and England, Lewis XIV, immediately 

 recognized his own grandson the Duka 

 of Anjou, as King of Spain. " 1 doubt 

 not," says King William to the Grand 

 Pensionary Ileinsius, Nov. 16, but this 

 unheard-of 



