And, up to this
time, the progress of such republics as have been established in the
world has not been such, as to lead to any confident expectation that
their foundation is laid on a sufficiently secure subsoil of public
spirit, morality, and intelligence. On the contrary, they exhibit
examples of personal corruption and of political profligacy as fine as
any hotbed of despotism has ever produced; while they fail in the
primary duty of the administration of justice, as none but an effete
despotism has ever failed.
Hume has been accused of departing, in his old age, from the liberal
principles of his youth; and, no doubt, he was careful, in the later
editions of the _Essays_, to expunge everything that savoured of
democratic tendencies. But the passage just quoted shows that this was
no recantation, but simply a confirmation, by his experience of one of
the most debased periods of English history, of those evil tendencies
attendant on popular government, of which, from the first, he was fully
aware.
In the ninth essay, _On the Parties of Great Britain_, there occurs a
passage which, while it affords evidence of the marvellous change which
has taken place in the social condition of Scotland since 1741, contains
an assertion respecting the state of the Jacobite party at that time,
which at first seems surprising:--
"As violent things have not commonly so long a duration as
moderate, we actually find that the Jacobite party is almost
entirely vanished from among us, and that the distinction of
_Court_ and _Country_, which is but creeping in at London, is the
only one that is ever mentioned in this kingdom.
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