i EARLY LIFE 25 



corruption and of political profligacy as fine as any 

 hotbed of despotism has ever produced; while they 

 fail in the primary duty of the administration of 

 justice, as none but an effete despotism has ever 

 failed. 



Hume has been accused of departing, in his old 

 age, from the liberal principles of his youth; and, 

 no doubt, he was careful, in the later editions of 

 the " Essays," to expunge everything that savoured 

 of democratic tendencies. But the passage just 

 quoted shows that this was no recantation, but 

 simply a confirmation, by his experience of one of 

 the most debased periods of English history, of 

 those evil tendencies attendant on popular govern- 

 ment, of which, from the first, he was fully aware. 



In the ninth essay, " On the Parties of Great 

 Britain," there occurs a passage which, while it 

 affords evidence of the marvellous change which 

 has taken place in the social condition of Scotland 

 since 1741, contains an assertion respecting the 

 state of the Jacobite party at that time, which at 

 first seems surprising: 



"As violent things have not commonly so long a dura- 

 tion as moderate, we actually find that the Jacobite party 

 is almost entirely vanished from among us, and that the dis- 

 tinction of Court and Country, which is but creeping in at 

 London, is the only one that is ever mentioned in this 

 kingdom. Beside the violence and openness of the Jacobite 

 party, another reason has perhaps contributed to produce 

 so sudden and so visible an alteration in this part of Britain. 

 There are only two ranks of men among us ; gentlemen who 



