I EARLY LIFE 21 



constantly offended, as the other is neutralised. 

 Notwithstanding the attempt of George the Third 

 to resuscitate the royal authority, Hume's fore- 

 sight has been so completely justified that no one 

 now dreams of the crown exerting the slightest 

 influence upon elections. 



In the seventh Essay, Hume raises a very inter- 

 esting discussion as to the probable ultimate 

 result of the forces which were at work in the 

 British Constitution in the first part of the 

 eighteenth century: 



" There has been a sudden and sensible change in the 

 opinions of men, within these last fifty years, by the 

 progress of learning and of liberty. Most people in this 

 island have divested themselves of all superstitious rever- 

 ence to names and authority; the clergy have much lost 

 their credit; their pretensions and doctrines have been 

 much ridiculed ; and even religion can scarcely support 

 itself in the world. The mere name of king commands 

 little respect ; and to talk of a king as God's vicegerent on 

 earth, or to give him any of those magnificent titles which 

 formerly dazzled mankind, would but excite laughter in 

 every one." (III. 54.) 



In fact, at the present day, the danger to mon- 

 archy in Britain would appear to lie, not in 

 increasing love for equality, for which, except 

 as rsgards the law, Englishmen have never 

 cared, but rather entertain an aversion; nor in 

 any abstract democratic theories, upon which the 

 mass of Englishmen pour the contempt with 

 which they view theories in general; but in the 



