HUME. 207 



rebellion (1745), that ever so much, drew the attention 

 of this town, except Provost Stuart's trial ; and there is 

 scarce a man whose friendship or acquaintance I could 

 desire, who has not given me undoubted proofs of his 

 concern and regard." His adversary was Mr. Kenneth 

 Mackenzie, professor of civil law in the University of 

 Edinburgh.* 



Although the salary of the office which he thus ob- 

 tained was inconsiderable, the situation for a literary 

 man was very desirable. He thus had constant and easy 

 access to an excellent library. This induced him to 

 undertake a work which he thought much wanted, a 

 classical history of England ; but he was afraid of at- 

 tempting it on so extensive a scale as to begin at the 

 earliest period, and continue it for seventeen cen- 

 turies ; and he therefore confined himself at first to 

 the Stuarts, commencing with the accession of James I., 

 and closing with the expulsion of his grandson 

 James II., at the revolution of 1688. This work made 

 two volumes, of which one was published in 1754, and 

 another in 1756. He entertained a sanguine expecta- 

 tion that his first volume, containing the reigns of 

 James I. and Charles I., would have met with a favour- 

 able reception ; and we find the grounds of his con- 

 fidence stated in one of his letters to Dr. Clephane. 

 His election was in February, 1752, and in the follow- 

 ing January he must have made great progress ; for he 

 thus describes his having already consulted his friends 



* It is singular that a contest and a victory which once so much 

 occupied him, and which he regarded as the battle and the triumph 

 of his free opinions over bigotry, is not even glanced at in his ' Life' 

 of himself. 



