214 HUME. 



Elizabeth subject to much controversy between the 

 Whig and the Tory parties. The earlier period before 

 the Conquest, and from the Conquest to Richard III., 

 is wholly free from questions of this description ; but 

 also it must be observed that the historian's diligence 

 did not increase as he approached the termination of 

 his labours ; the Anglo-Saxon history is in every 

 respect the most meagre and superficial part of the 

 whole work. We shall afterwards see how his friends 

 explained this inferiority (Life of Robertson). 



The bias of Mr. Hume's mind, from which his chief 

 partialities proceed, was the prejudice which he had 

 conceived against Whig, and generally against popular, 

 principles. This arose, in great part, from his con- 

 tempt of vulgar errors, and his distrust of the more 

 numerous and ignorant classes of the community, whom 

 those errors chiefly may be supposed to affect. His 

 acquaintance with antiquity, too, had not tended to 

 lessen his belief of the giddiness and violence of mul- 

 titudes when they interfere directly in the conduct of 

 affairs. To these considerations must certainly be 

 added the connexion between the Whig party in the 

 State and the fanatical party in the Church. The 

 Roundheads were religious bigots in his eyes, and 

 were, in fact, deeply tinged with superstition ; and 

 they were the original of the Whigs both in England 

 and in Scotland. The Cavaliers held cheap all such ob- 

 servances, regarding religious enthusiasm with mingled 

 dislike and derision ; and from them came the Tories 

 in both parts of the island. Nor was the connexion 

 merely genealogical or historical. As late as the 

 times of Addison and Bolingbroke, we find the friends 



