46 HUME n 



pearance of provocation on our part. It has frequently 

 made me resolve never in my life to set foot on English 

 ground. I dread, if I should undertake a more modern his- 

 tory, the impertinence and ill-manners to which it would 

 expose me; and I was willing to know from you whether 

 former prejudices had so far subsided as to ensure me of a 

 good reception." 



His fears were kindly appeased by Millar's 

 assurance that the English were not prejudiced 

 against the Scots in general, but against the par- 

 ticular Scot, Lord Bute, who was supposed to be 

 the guide, philosopher, and friend, of both the 

 King and his mother. 



To care nothing about literature, to dislike 

 Scotchmen, and to be insensible to the merits of 

 David Hume, was a combination of iniquities on 

 the part of the English nation, which would have 

 been amply sufficient to ruffle the temper of the 

 philosophic historian, who, without being foolishly 

 vain, had certainly no need of what has been said 

 to be the one form of prayer in which his country- 

 men, torn as they are by theological differences, 

 agree; " Lord! gie us a gude conceit o' oursels." 

 But when, to all this, these same Southrons 

 added a passionate admiration for Lord Chatham, 

 who was in Hume's eyes a charlatan; and filled 

 up the cup of their abominations by cheering for 

 "Wilkes and Liberty," Hume's wrath knew no 

 bounds, and, between 1768 and 1770, he pours a 

 perfect Jeremiad into the bosom of his friend Sir 

 Gilbert Elliot. 



