ng 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. Beside the
violence and openness of the Jacobite party, another reason has
perhaps contributed to produce so sudden and so visible an
alteration in this part of Britain. There are only two ranks of men
among us; gentlemen who have some fortune and education, and the
meanest slaving poor; without any considerable number of that
middling rank of men, which abound more in England, both in cities
and in the country, than in any other part of the world. The
slaving poor are incapable of any principles; gentlemen may be
converted to true principles, by time and experience. The middling
rank of men have curiosity and knowledge enough to form principles,
but not enough to form true ones, or correct any prejudices that
they may have imbibed. And it is among the middling rank of people
that Tory principles do at present prevail most in England."--(III.
80, _note_.)

Considering that the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 broke out only four
years after this essay was published, the assertion that the Jacobite
party had "almost entirely vanished in 1741" sounds strange enough: and
the passage which contains it is omitted in the third edition of the
_Essays_, published in 1748. Nevertheless, Hume was probably right, as
the outbreak of '45 was little better than a Highland raid, and the
Pretender obtained no important following in the Lowlands.

No less curious, in comparison with what would be said nowadays, is
Hume's remark in th