18 DECEMBER 1841, Page 15

LETTERS OP DAVID HUME.

THESE Letters of David Hume are not incurious in their substance, and are very interesting from their connexion with the philosopher and historian, and for the light they throw upon his character as a man. The period to which they refer (1745-1746) is one that has been alluded to by HUME himself but slightly, though with the most perfect truth, and not entered into by any of his biographers. It relates to the "twelvemonth" when he had the Marquis of ANNANDALE "under his care and direction, for the state of his mind and health" ; the Marquis being in fact a lunatic. The substance of the correspondence refers to the difficulties of HUME with his charge, and with Captain VINCENT, a relation of the Dow- ager Marchioness of ANNANDALE, who was intrusted by the family with the management of the affairs, and who is accused of designs to serve his own interest at the expense of the Marquis and his family. Some of the letters also relate to a disputed claim : Hume accuses VINCENT of endeavouring to cheat him out of a quarter's salary-7 5l. ; whilst VINCENT declares that 300/. a year and a present of 100/. to bear the expenses of his journey from Edin- burgh, was quite enough for his services, when the Marquis in a sudden freak dismissed him after the fifth quarter had been entered

OD.

"I had two letters from Mr. H.," writes the Captain on the Philosopher, "which I did not think necessary to answer ; and should be much pleased that I had never any sort of correspondence or knowledge of him, which I reckon one of the misfortunes of my life. He has merit and useful talents; but, to weigh the thing strictly, it is not fitting that I should put myself on the foot- ing of having a disputable reference on account of a man who makes a greedy demand after so much generosity shown him, and who gave up nor lost not any thing by his attendance, but greatly gained by it in many respects ; both which points can be well proved. And if he, or his best friends, or any one alive, can say that in honour and conscience he is entitled to 75/. more than the 400/. he has already had, I am then more mistaken than I ever was in my whole life. I should wish for an occasion to have his behaviour examined, and see wiiether it is to be justified; and I say it is a strict truth, that I would be free from passion and prejudice in setting it forth. But there's enough about him, and perhaps too much."

Whatever contempt the Captain might entertain for the Philoso- pher, the Philosopher repaid tenfold. Hume writes, for example, to Sir JAMES JOHNSTONE, the brother-in-law of the Dowager Mar- chioness— ," I shall not, however, conclude without telling you, that when I became absolutely certain of this man's character, I was anxious to know the character he bore in the world; and for that purpose wrote to Mr. Oswald,* (with whom I live in great intimacy,) to desire him to inform himself of the matter ; which he was easily enabled to do by his connexions in the Navy. He answered me, that he was universally regarded as a low, dirty, despicable fellow ; and parti- cularly infamous for pimping his wife to another Peer. That is a fact, I. have also some reason to know ; and tallies exactly with what I told you. You may ask Oswald."

The Marquis was at first inclined to HUME by reading a passage in his Essays, then lately published ; and he seems to have been rather taken with him, and not to have given more trouble than persons in such a state of delusion usually do. Part of such trouble, however, arose from his aspirations in love and literature. The management of the philosopher appears to have soon cured the lover, but nothing less than print would satisfy the author. "You wou'd certainly be a little surpried," writes HUME to Sir JAMES JOHNSTONE, "and vext on receiving a printed copy of the novel, which was in hands when you left London. If I did not explain the mystery to you, I be- lieve I told you that I hopt that affair was entirely over, by my employing Lord Marchmont and Lord Bolingbroke's authority against publishing that novel; tho' you will readily suppose that neither of these two noble lords ever perused it. This machine operated for six weeks; but the vanity of the author return'd with redoubled force, fortify'd by suspicions and encreas'd by the

delay. Pardie,' dit II, ‘je crois que ces messieurs veulent e•tre lea seulea Seigneurs d'Angleterre qui eussent de l'esprit. Mais je leur montrerai cc que le petit A— pent fake aussi.' In short, we were oblig'd to print off thirty copies, to make him believe that we had printed a thousand, and that they were to be disperst all over the kingdom.

"My Lady Marchioness (the Dowager) will also receive a copy ; and I am afraid it may give her a good deal of uneasiness, by reason of the story alluded to in the novel, and which she may imagine my Lord is resolv'd to bring to execution. Be so good, therefore, as to inform her that I hope this affair is all over. I discover'd, about a fortnight ago, that one of the papers sent to that damsel had been sent back by her under cover to his rival, Mr. Mk—, and that she had plainly, by that step, sacrific'd him to her other lover. This was real matter-of-fact, and I had the good fortune to convince him of it ; so that his pride seems to have got the better of his passion, and he never talks of her at present."

Some of the difficulties with VINCENT are distinctly told. The majority of the servants appear to have been his creatures; and HUME suspected him of opening or suppressing letters, and of having a man in the house who should rail at Captain VINCENT in order to elicit entrapping replies. Another trouble was the dull situation of Weldehall, some four miles from St. Alban's—only "fit for one who could eat or converse with the neighbouring farmers and ser- vants." The removal of this trouble HUME seems to have planned by persuading the Marquis to change his residence; which excited VINCEN'T'S fiercest opposition, and is the subject of much discus- sion ; but there is no clue as to what could have extorted the following outcries of complaint from a sage whose calmness and equanimity of mind were the theme of all who knew him.

"God forgive you, dear Sir, (Sir James Johnstone,3 God forgive you for neither coming to us nor writing to us. The unaccountable, and, I may say, the inhuman treatment we meet with here, throws your friend into rage and fury, and me into the greatest melancholy. My only comfort is when I think of your arrival ; but still I know not when I can propose to myself that satis- faction. I flatter myself you have receiv'd two short letters I wrote within this Month; though the uncertainty of the post gives me apprehension. I must again entreat you to favour me with a short line to let me know the time you

• James Oswald, of Dunikier, then Member of Parliament for the Kirkcaldy district of boroughs. can propose to be with us : for, if it be near, I shall wait with patience and with pleasure; if distant, I shall write you at length, that you and my Lady Marchioness may judge of our circumstances and situation.'

The sentimental will be shocked at the publication of these Letters, which exhibit the greatest of our historians as the keeper of a lunatic, contending with a parasite and fraudulent legacy-hunter, and squabbling with this person and his connexions for a balance of 751.; whilst many without reflecting will be inclined to regret the littleness of the occupation. But no employment not purely mecha- nical is little save to little minds. The principle that animates the largest things is present in the meanest. The falling apple con- tained gravitation ; GALVANI discovered galvanism in the idle trick of idle students on the muscles of frogs ; and in the Militia Grimm "imbibed the rudiments of the language and science of tactics, which opened a new field of study and observation." "The disci- pline and evolutions of a modern battalion," he continues, "gave me a clearer notion of the phalanx and the legion ; and the Cap- tain of the Hampshire Grenadiers (the reader may smile) has not been useless to the Historian of the Roman Empire." So, in the wearisome and painful task of dealing with the caprices of depraved reason, the philosopher would have a new view of human nature; the historian might find an exercise of policy in penetrating the purposes of a plausible and unscrupulous rogue; and the honest man a worthy exercise in resisting his arts. The following miscella- neous extracts have a bearing upon these points.

"I must begin by complaining of you for having yokt me here with a MU of the Captain's character, without giving me the least hint concerning it, if i it was known to you, as indeed it s no secret to the world. You seemed sa- tisfy'd with his conduct, and even prais'd him to me; which I am fully per- suaded was the effect of your caution, not your conviction. However, 1, who was altogether a stranger, enter'd into the family with so gross a prepossession. I found a man, who took an infinite deal of pains for another, with the utmost professions both of disinterestedness and friendship to him and me; and I readily concluded that such a one must be either one of the best or one of the worst of men. I can easily excuse myself for having judg'd at first on the favourable side; and must confess that, when light first began to break in upon me, I resisted it as I would a temptation of the Devil. 1 thought it, however, proper to keep my eyes open for further observation ; till the strangest and most palpable facts, which I shall inform you of at meeting, put the matter out of all doubt to me.

"There is nothing he wou'd be fonder of than to sow dissension betwixt my lady and you, whom he hates and fears. He flatters, and caresses, and praises, and hates me also ; and would be glad to chase me away, as doing me the ho- nour, and I hope the justice, of thinking me a person very unfit for his pur- poses. As he wants all manner of pretext from my conduct and behaviour, he has broken his word, and contriv'd a way of life for me which it is impos- sible for me or any other man ever to endure. Be not surpried at this, nor imagine there is any contradiction betwixt what I here say and his seeming desire of attatching me by the offer he made me last summer. I shall explain that matter on a more proper occasion. Those who work continually upon such dark intricate designs, must observe a conduct which, to persons at a dis- tance, who have not the proper clue, must appear a continu'd scene of contra- diction."

"I must own, it was with excessive reluctance I wrote so softening and obliging a letter to this man; but as I knew that such a method of proceeding was conformable to your intentions, I thought it my duty to comply. How- ever, I easily saw 't wou'd all be vain, and wou'd only fortify him in his arro- gance. Do you think that the absolute possession of so ample a fortune, to which this is the first requisite step, is a prize to be resigu'd for a few fair words or flattering professions? He deals too much in that bait himself ever to be caught with it by others.

" I think this is the last opportunity that will ever offer of retrieving the family and yourself (as far as you are concerned with the family) from falling into absolute slavery to so odious a master. If in the beginning, and while he is watcht by jealous eyes, he can attempt such things, what will he not do when he has fixt his authority, and has no longer any inspector over him?

• • • •

"When I put this letter (or one to the same purpose) into Mr. Vincent's hands, telling him, that though I had wrote it I did not intend to send it at present, he told me he was glad of that, because he desied you shou'd inter- meddle as little as possible in these affairs ; adding, that he intended, by keep- ing my Lord's person and his English affairs in his own hands, to free my Lady from all slavery to you. "Ever since, no intreaties, no threatenings have been spar'd to make me keep silence to you; to which my constant answer was, that I thought not that consistent with my duty. I told him freely, that I wou'd lay all the fore- going reasons before you when you came to London, and hopt you wou'd pre- vail with him to alter his opinion. If not, we shou'd all write, if you thought proper, to my Lady Marchioness, in order to have her determination. The endeavouring, then, to make me keep silence to you, was also to keep my Lady in the dark about such material points, since I cou'd not have access to let her know the situation of our affairs by any other means.

"He offer'd to let me leave your friend in the beginning of winter, if pleas'd, provided I would make no opposition to his plan,—that is, wou'd not inform you; for I was not capable of making any other opposition. He added, he wou'd allow me my unary for the whole year, and that he wou'd himself supply my place, leave his house in London, and live with your friend. Can all this pains be taken merely for the difference betwixt one house and another? "An evening or two before his departure from Weldehall he offer'd me the continuance of the same friendship which has always subsisted betwixt us, if I wou'd promise not to open my lips to you about this matter.

"The morning of his departure, he burst out all of a sudden, when the sub- ject was not talkt of, into threatenings; and told me that, if I ever enter'd upon this subject with you, I shou'd repent it. He went out of the house presently, and these were almost his last words."

So satisfied was Hume with the justice of his claim, that when his absence abroad, and other circumstances, had caused its sus- pension, he renewed it in 1769, when the money was no longer an object to him. The suit he threatened appears to have been stopped by an arbitration ; but it was on this occasion that the cor- respondence was placed in the hands of a legal practitioner in Edinburgh ; after whose death it eventually came into the hands of the present editor. That gentleman has done his duty in giving it to the world ; and has fitly executed the illustrative annotations which the correspondence required.