which necessitated the amputation of one of his legs. His sympathies being with the presbyterian party, he was at the time of Argyll's expedition in 1685 arrested on suspicion, but soon after the collapse of the enterprise he was set at liberty. On 3 June 1687 Hume was admitted advocate upon his petition without trial of his qualifications. He represented that he had studied law abroad in company with Lord Reidford, one of the lords of session, Sir Patrick Home, and Sir John Lauder, who were prepared to give testimony regarding his diligence and proficiency in that study.' He ingenuously admits in his 'Domestic Details' that his reason for petitioning to be admitted in this fashion was that he considered himself 'so rusted in the study of law' that he could not venture to undergo the ordinary examination (p. 43). Home was among the first judges nominated by King William after the revolution, and one of the four appointed by the privy council in October 1689 to give his attendance for passing bills of suspension and all other bills according to the common form.' He took his seat on the bench by the title of Lord Crossrig, on 1 Nov. 1689; on 22 Jan. of the following year was appointed a lord of the justiciary, and was shortly afterwards knighted. On 5 Jan. 1700, when the great fire in the meat market, Edinburgh, broke out in the middle of the night in the lodging immediately below his house, he and his family barely escaped with their lives. Duncan Forbes of Culloden in a letter to his father mentions, among many rueful sights' that were witnessed that night, 'Corserig naked with a child under his oxter happing for his lyffe' (Culloden Papers, p. 27). În November following he presented to parliament a petition in reference to the loss of his papers in the fire. His petition was remitted to a committee of three, and on their recommendation an act was passed, 31 Jan. 1761, entitled 'An act for proving the tenor of some writs in favour of Sir David Home of Crossrig.' The writs had reference chiefly to the inheritance of his lands of Crossrig. Hume died 13 April 1707. In an elegy printed shortly after his death, and republished in Maidment's 'Scot tish Elegiac Verses,' 1843, he is described a Most zealous for the church, kind to the poor, Upright in judgment, in decisions sure. He was the author of a small posthumous volume entitled Advice to a Daughter,' Edinburgh, 1771, originally written by him as a letter to his daughter in April 1701. Ilis 'Diary of the Proceedings in the Parliament and Privy Council of Scotland 21 May 1700-7 March 1707,' printed for the Bannatyne Club in 1828, is of considerable interest and value as a record of the deliberations connected with the passing of the Act of Union. The 'Domestic Details of Sir David Hume of Crossrig, one of the Senators of the College of Justice, 20 April 1697-29 Jan. 1707,' published at Edinburgh in 1843, gives an account of the main circumstances of his life, with incidental references to the customs of bygone times. A portrait of Hume by young Medina, son of Sir John Medina, was at one time in the possession of C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe. Hume was twice married, first to Barbara Weir, relict of William Laurie of Reidcastle, and secondly to the widow of James Smith, merchant, and a granddaughter, not a daughter as sometimes stated, of Sir Alexander Swinton of Swinton. By his first wife he had two daughters, and by his second two sons. [Domestic Details of Sir David Hume of Crossrig, 1843; Brunton and Haig's Senators of the College of Justice.] T. F. H. HUME, DAVID (1711-1776), philosopher and historian, born at Edinburgh 26 April (O.S.) 1711, was the second son of Joseph Hume of Ninewells in the parish of Chirnside, Berwickshire, by Catherine, third daughter of Sir David Falconer [q. v.], president of the court of session. The Humes or Homes, who claimed a doubtful descent from the noble family of Home (see Notes and Queries, 4th ser. iv. 72), had been settled for some generations at Ninewells. The philosopher piqued himself upon adhering to the spelling 'Hume' as older and as corresponding to the pronunciation. The father, who passed for a man of parts,' died during Hume's infancy. The mother was a 'woman of singular merit,' and though 'young and handsome, devoted herself entirely to the rearing and education of her three children.' John, David, and Catherine. Hume went through the ordinary course of education with success.' David is identified with 'David Home' whose name appears (27 Feb. 1723) in the matriculation book of the university of Edinburgh as 'intrant of the class of William Scott, professor of Greek.' The absence of other records leaves unexplained the passion for literary and philosophical eminence which from this time became Hume's dominant characteristic. A letter to a young friend, Michael Ramsay, dated 4 July 1727, describes his devotion to Virgil and Cicero, and his resolution to become a philosopher in the moral as well as the intellectual sense. The draft of a letter sent, or intended to be sent, in 1734 to a physician-in all probability George ties. In 1737 Hume left France with his "Treatise of Human Nature,' written chiefly at La Flêche. He stayed for some time in London to superintend the publication. John Noone agreed to give the author 50%. and twelve bound copies for an edition of one thousand copies of the first two volumes of the Treatise' (bk. i. 'Of the Understanding' and bk. ii. 'Of the Passions'). These volumes appeared anonymously in January 1739. Hume thought that a country retirement would enable him to await with greater composure the explosion of this attempt 'to produce almost a total alteration of philosophy, and soon after the publication he returned to Ninewells. He sent a copy of his book to Butler, then bishop of Bristol, whose 'Analogy' had appeared in 1736, and who had corresponded with his friend Henry Home of Kames. Hume obtained from Kames an introduction to Butler, and had called upon him in 1738, but they never met each other (BURTON, i. 64, 106). The expected explosion was disappointing. Hume says (1 June 1739) that his bookseller speaks of the success of his philosophy as 'indifferent;' and in his autobiography says that no literary attempt was evermore unfortunate. 'It fell deadborn from the press. A review appeared in the 'Ilistory of the Works of the Learned' for November 1739, which Hume called 'somewhat abusive' (BURTON, i. 116). Though generally hostile, it concluded by saying that the work showed 'a soaring genius,' and might hereafter be compared to the crude early works of a Milton or a Raphael. An improbable story is told, probably by Kenrick, in the 'London Review' (v. 200), after Hume's death, that Hume was so infuriated by the article as to demand satisfaction from the publisher at the sword's point. Hume was not in London for some years, and Kenrick [q.v.] is remembered chiefly for impudent falsehoods. It is, however, clear that the reception of the book was extremely mortifying to its youthful author. He continued not the less to prepare the last part dealing with morality. Wishing, he says, to 'have some check upon his bookseller,' he sold the third volume to Thomas Longman, by whom it was published in 1740. A copy was sent to 'Mr. Smith,' possibly Adam Smith, then a young student at Glasgow. Cheyne [q. v.], whose 'English Malady' had' hinting at the absence of some higher qualijust appeared-gives a curious account of his mental history (printed in BURTON, i. 30-9). He explains that his reflections had led him at about the age of eighteen to glimpses of a great philosophical discovery. He abandoned the law, for which he had been intended, feeling an 'insurmountable aversion' to everything but his favourite studies. Something, however, of his legal training remained; he was not only a good man of business, but capable, as Burton testifies, of drawing sound legal documents in due form. His intellectual labours led to a breakdown of health about September 1729. He made himself worse by poring over classical works of morality. Regular diet, riding, and walking were more efficacious, and about May 1731 he acquired an appetite, and became the most sturdy, robust, healthful-like fellow you have seen.' During the next three years he read the best English, French, and Latin literature, and began Italian. He also accumulated many volumes of philosophical notes. Finding himself still incapable of the effort necessary to put them into form, he thought that a more active life would perhaps restore his health. He doubted his ability to be a 'travelling governor,' and resolved to try some mercantile pursuit as the only alternative. At the time of writing this letter (1734) he was on his way to Bristol with recommendations to some of the houses there. He soon found the new occupation 'totally unsuitable,' but his health must have ceased to trouble him. He resolved to retire to some country place in France, to preserve his independence by a rigid frugality, and to devote himself exclusively to intellectual labour. He went to France about the middle of 1734, passed through Paris, and was at Rheims on 12 Sept. He afterwards moved to La Flêche in Anjou, where he spent two out of his three years' stay in France. At La Flêche was the jesuits' college at which Descartes was educated. One of the jesuits was expatiating upon a recent miracle, when Hume struck out the argument upon miracles in general, afterwards expounded in one of his bestknown essays. In that essay he also refers to the miracles alleged to have occurred at the tomb of the Abbé Paris in 1732, just before his journey. The 'Story of La Roche,' published by Henry Mackenzie, 'The Man of Feeling,' in the 'Mirror' for 1779, is an imaginary incident of IIume's career at this time (JOHN HOME, Works, i. 22). The consolations of religion enjoyed by La Roche make Hume regret his doubts. Mackenzie praises the sceptic's good nature and simplicity, though Hume now settled at Ninewells. Two volumes of Essays, Moral and Political,' appeared in 1741 and 1742. Most of these essays,' he says in his preface to the first volume,' were wrote with a view of being published as weekly papers, and were intended to comprehend the designs both of the "Spectator" and "Craftsman." He speaks of himself as a new author. They reached a second edition in 1742, and Hume announces to a friend on 13 June that all the copies in London have been sold, and that Dr. Butler has everywhere recommended them.' Their 'favourable reception,' he says, made him forget his former disappointment. Hume, however, could have made little by them, and was naturally in want of some steady income. In August 1744 he was hoping for the chair of ethics and pneumatic philosophy' in Edinburgh which Sir John Pringle was expected to vacate. He counted upon support from Francis Hutcheson and William Leechman [q. v.] Hume had exchanged some respectful criticism with Hutcheson during the preparation of the third volume of his "Treatise,' and on the publication of Hutcheson's 'Philosophia Moralis Institutio.' Leechman, afterwards professor of divinity at (lasgow, had submitted to Ilume a sermon upon prayer, which he was preparing for a second edition. Ilume had suggested some literary emendations which commented significantly upon a weakness in the argument. Accusations of 'heresy, deism, scepticism, atheism, &c.' (as he complains in a letter, 4 Aug. 1744), had been started against him, but 'bore down by the authority of all the good company in town.' It now surprised him extremely' to hear that the accusation was supported by the authority of Hutcheson, and especially of Leechman, whose opposition appeared to him 'absolutely incredible.' When Pringle resigned the chair in March 1745, it was declined by Hutcheson, and conferred, after taking the minister's avisamentum,' upon William Cleghorn, previously Pringle's assis tant. Hume had been looking out, in default of the professorship, for a position as travelling tutor. In 1745 he was induced to take a place in the family of the Marquis of Annandale. The marquis was on the verge at least of insanity. On 5 March 1748 an inquest from the court of chancery in England declared him to have been a lunatic since 12 Dec. 1744. He seems to have been excessively nervous, shy, and excitable, but was occasionally presentable, and wrote epigrams and a novel. He applied to Hume through a friend on account of something which 'charmed' him in the Essays' (MURRAY, Letters, p. 73). Hume received a preliminary present of 1007., and was to have 3007. a year during residence. He took up his abode with the marquis at Weldhall, near St. Albans, Hertfordshire, on 1 April 1745. The establishment was under the manage ment of a Captain Vincent, a cousin of the marchioness, whom Ilume describes at first as a 'mighty honest, friendly man.' Difficulties now impossible to unravel arose in the autumn. Hume thought Weldhall a bad place of residence for the marquis. IIe afterwards became convinced that Vincent had some sinister motives connected with the management of the large property belonging to the marquis, and expressed his opinions frankly to some of the relations. Vincent treated Hume with disdain as a mere servant. After much unpleasantness Hume was dismissed on 15 April 1746. He received the 3007., but was refused the sum of 751. for the quarter just begun, though it had been distinctly stipulated that in the event of his leaving during a quarter he was to be paid for the whole. Hume observes in his autobiography that the appointments' made a considerable accession to his small fortune. He began an action, by Kames's direction,' against the estate, but discontinued it on a promise that the trustees would consider his claims. In 1761 they were accordingly considered, and their justice apparently admitted, subject to a technical difficulty; but the final settlement is not known (ib. p. 79). Before returning to Edinburgh IIume accepted an offer to act as secretary to General St. Clair in an expedition intended to operate against Canada; which, after having been delayed by the profound ineptitude of the government under Newcastle, was sent to attack Port L'Orient. Hume was appointed judge-advocate by the general. There was some talk of his receiving a commission in the army (BURTON, i. 209). He made friends, was shocked by the suicide of a Major Forbes, for whom he expresses much affection, and gained some knowledge of military affairs. He drew up an account of the expedition (printed in appendix to BURTON, vol. i.) in answer to something attributed to Voltaire. He also acquired some claims to half-pay as judge-advocate, which he did not give up till 1763. After returning to Ninewells, Hume again accompanied St. Clair on a military embassy to Vienna and Turin. Hume had to appear in a uniform, which, according to Lord Charlemont, made him look like a grocer of the train-bands.' He reached the Hague 3 March 1748, and travelled by the Rhine and the Danube to Vienna, afterwards crossing the Alps to Trent, Mantua, Milan, and Turin, which he reached in June. A short diary to his brother shows that he was chiefly interested in the state of public affairs. He remarked that Germany is a very fine country, 'full of industrious, honest people, and were it united would be the greatest power that ever was in the world.' He was greatly impressed with the beauties of the Rhine, though not anticipating the ecstasies of Childe Harold.' These two expeditions were, he says, almost the only interruptions which his studies had received. He returned with increased experience, and 'master of near a thousand pounds.' tion was now established in a wide circle. 6 after being printed as parts of the volume, were suppressed for the time (see Hume's letter to Strahan, HILL, p. 230; and Grose in HUME's Works, iii. 60-72). The book was dedicated to Home, author of 'Douglas,' the dedication being at first suppressed for fear of injuring Home's reputation as a minister, but restored (in some copies) when he resigned his living. The book, says Hume, His mother probably died (BURTON, i. 191) during his last journey. In 1749 Hume returned to Ninewells. The essays published or written about this period completed Hume's contributions to philosophy. In April 1748 appeared his 'Philosophical Essays concerning the Human Understanding, by the Author of "Essays," &c.' This gave the first part of an intended recast of the unfortumate Treatise.' It included also the 'Essay upon Miracles,' which (or an early draft of which) he had thought of publishing in the "Treatise,' but had withheld from fear of giving offence. The Philosophical Essays,' in spite of this challenge to the orthodox, at-parently between 1755 and 1757), which, tracted little notice; and Hume, upon returning from Turin, found the literary world entirely occupied with Conyers Middleton's "Free Enquiry. His books, however, were now beginning to make a mark. A third edition of the moral and political essays appeared in the following November, to which Hume for the first time added his name, thus acknowledging also the 'Philosophical Essays,' which reached a second edition in 1751. This had been kept back by his publisher, Millar, for some time on account of the earthquakes,' which at the beginning of the year had caused a temporary fit of superstition. Besides these Hume published at the end of 1751 his 'Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals,' corresponding to the third volume of the Treatise,' and which was, in his own opinion, 'incomparably the best of all his writings.' It came, however, he adds,' unnoticed and unobserved, into the world.' It was followed in 1752 by the Political Discourses.' This, he says, was the only work of his which succeeded upon its first publication. It attracted notice abroad as well as at home, and was translated into French by Eléazar Mauvillon in 1753, and by the Abbé Le Blanc in 1754. Le Blanc's translation passed through several editions, and Hume became an authority in France, where the rising school of economists was stimulated by his clear and original expositions. Adam Smith profited by his friend's arguments, to which he may possibly have contributed suggestions (see HALDANE, Adam Smith, p. 20). Hume's rising reputa made a rather obscure entry,' except that Hurd wrote a scurrilous pamphlet against it, which gave him some consolation for its 'otherwise indifferent reception.' The pamphlet, as Hume suspected (BURTON, ii. 35), was substantially written by Warburton, although called a letter to Warburton, and ascribed to a gentleman of Cambridge,' in order to suggest Hurd as the author. Hume's speculative writings (except the two suppressed essays on 'Suicide' and 'Immortality') were thus all written by 1751. Some surprise has been expressed that he should have now abandoned philosophy for history. Sufficient causes, however, may be easily suggested. His early disappointment at the failure of the Treatise' developed into a sort of aversion to his unlucky offspring. In the advertisement, which seems to have been separately published before his death (see HILL, p. 302), to a posthumous edition of his 'Essays' (1777), he complained that controversialists had confined their attacks to his crude early treatise, and desires that in future the 'Essays' 'may alone be regarded as containing his philosophical sentiments and principles.' In letters written in later life he regrets his great mistake in attempting so vast an undertaking at five-and-twenty, and says that he has not patience to review the book (BURTON, i. 98, 337). Although a comparatively small part of the book is 'recast' in his Essays, the mention of the 'Considerations previous to Geometry,' &c., intended for the Four Dissertations,' shows that he had still thoughts of carrying on the task in 1755. The same doctrines, he says (ib. i. 98), may still succeed if better expressed. His remarkable essays upon theology excited the remonstrances of his friends. Meanwhile, he had succeeded conspicuously by the essays upon political and economical theories; and a sceptic in philosophy may naturally turn to the firmer ground of empirical fact (see Mr. Grose in HUME's Works, iii. 75-7). He had so early as 1747, upon receiving the proposal to accompany St. Clair's mission to Turin, spoken of certain 'historical projects' to which he could devote himself if he had leisure, and which would, he thought, be facilitated by the information to be gained from the public men with whom he would be associated. But besides this, a change in his circumstances gave opportunity and motive for a new direction of his energies. Hume had lived with his brother and sister till 1751, when the brother married. Hume thereupon resolved to set up house with his sister, and after thinking of Berwick they decided upon Edinburgh. Hume moved from the country to the town, the true scene for a man of letters.' Hume tells a friend (BURTON, i. 342) that he has 501. a year, a hundred pounds worth of books, great store of linen and fine clothes, and near 100%. in his pocket.' His sister added 301. a year and an equal love of order and frugality. They settled in 'Riddell's Land, in the Lawnmarket, near the West Bow, and in 1753 (ib. i. 380), in Jack's Land' in the Canongate, 'land' meaning one of the lofty compound houses in Edinburgh. During the following winter (1751-2) he endeavoured to succeed Adam Smith in the chair of logic at Glasgow, Smith having become professor of moral philosophy. It is said, though the evidence is only traditional (ib. i. 351), and difficult to reconcile with dates, that Burke, then a young lawstudent of about twenty-three, was also a candidate. The clergy opposed Hume violently, but his friends would have succeeded if the Duke of Argyll had given him the least countenance' (ib. i. 370). Directly afterwards (28 Jan. 1752) he was appointed keeper of the library by the Faculty of Advocates, in succession to Thomas Ruddiman [q. v.] Although attacked for his free-thinking, he was, he says, earnestly supported by His the ladies (ib. i. 370). The salary was only 407. a year; but the library, though then numbering only thirty thousand volumes, was the largest in Scotland, and contained a good collection of British history. Hume was thus enabled to devote himself to his 'historic projects,' which for some years to come absorbed his whole energies. IIe told Adam Smith (24 Sept. 1752) that he had once thought of beginning with the reign of Henry VII, but had afterwards decided upon the reign of James I, when the constitutional struggle still in progress had clearly manifested itself. He has begun, he says, 'with great ardour and pleasure.' Burton notes that his correspondence becomes scantier during the composition of his history. The first volume (containing the reigns of Charles I and James I) was published at the end of 1754, having been begun early in 1752. Its reception disappointed him; only forty-five copies were sold in twelve months. (The author of the 'Supplement ' to Hume's life ascribes this ill-success to a manoeuvre of his publisher, Millar.) only encouragement was in two messages from the primates of England and Ireland, Herring and Stone, who told him not to be disappointed. But for the war, he declares, he would have retired to France permanently and changed his name. He picked up courage,' however, and the second volume, from the death of Charles to the revolution of 1688, succeeded better, and helped to buoy up its unfortunate brother.' According to Mr. Hill's calculation, he received 400%. for the first edition of the first volume, 7007. for the second, and eight hundred guineas for the copyright of the two (HILL, p. 15). In 1759 he published two volumes containing the history of the house of Tudor, and the last two in 1761 containing the period from Julius Cæsar to Henry VII. Millar bought the copyright of the last two volumes for 1,4007. (BURTON, ii. 61). His writings had now succeeded so well that his 'copy-money' exceeded anything previously known in England. He became 'not only independent but opulent.' 6 Ilume, as appears sufficiently from the above dates, gave himself no time for such research as would now be thought necessary. He became more superficial as he receded further into periods with which he had little sympathy, and was studying merely for the nonce. His literary ability, however, made the book incomparably superior to the diluted party pamphlets or painful compilations which had hitherto passed for history; nor could the author of the 'Political Discourses' fail to give proofs of sagacity in occasional reflections. Îlis brief remarks upon the social |