In an earlier part of this work, we have found Hume narrating events of contemporary military history. In the following, as in the preceding letter, he gives his version of a celebrated ministerial revolution, of which the public is as yet possessed of no account which is not liable to doubt.
Hume to Adam Smith.
"Lisle St. 13th Sept. 1763.
"My Dear Smith,—The settlement which I had made in Scotland was so much to my mind, I had indeed struck root so heartily, that it was with the
utmost reluctance I could think of transplanting myself, and I began to approach towards that age in which these experiments became no longer practicable with safety. I own that, on my arrival in London, I found every circumstance more inviting than I had reason to expect; particularly the characters of Lord and Lady Hertford, who are allowed to be the two persons the most unexceptionable among all the English nobility. Even that circumstance of Lord Hertford's character, his great piety, ought to make my connexions with him more agreeable, both because it is not attended with any thing sour and rigid, and because I draw the more honour from his choice, while he overlooked so many seeming objections which lay against me on that head. My fortune also receives a great addition during life from this connexion; besides many openings to ambition, were I so simple as to be exposed to temptation from that passion.
"But, notwithstanding all these considerations, shall I tell you the truth? I repine at my loss of ease and leisure, and retirement and independence; and it is not without a sigh I look backwards, nor without reluctance that I cast my eye forwards. Is this sentiment an instinct which admonishes me of the situation most proper and suitable to me? Or is it a momentary disgust, the effect of low spirits, which company and amusement, and a better state of health, will soon dissipate and remove? I must wait with patience till I see the decision of this question.
"I find that one view of Lord Hertford in engaging me to go along with him is, that he thinks I may be useful to Lord Beauchamp in his studies. That young nobleman is generally spoke of as very amiable and very promising; but I remember, though faintly,
to have heard from you something to the contrary, which you had heard from that severe critic, Mr. Herbert: I should be obliged to you for informing me of it. I have not yet seen my Lord Beauchamp, who is at this time in Paris. We shall not leave London these three weeks.
"You have, no doubt, heard of the strange jumble among our ministers, and of the negotiation opened with Mr. Pitt. Never story was told with such contrary circumstances as that of his secret conference with the king, and of the terms demanded by that popular leader. The general outlines of the whole story seem to be these:
"Lord Bute, disgusted with the ministers, who had almost universally conspired to neglect him, and suspecting their bottom to be too narrow, had, before Lord Egremont's death, opened a negotiation with Mr. Pitt, by means of Lord Shelburne, who employed Calcraft the agent. Mr. Pitt says, that he always declared it highly improper that he should be brought to the king, before all terms were settled on such a footing as to render it impossible for them to separate without agreeing. He accordingly thought they were settled. His first conference with the king confirmed him in that opinion, and he wrote to the Duke of Devonshire to come to town, in order to place himself at the head of the treasury. The Duke of Newcastle said, at his table on Sunday was a fortnight, that the ministry was settled. But when Mr. Pitt came to the king that afternoon, he found him entirely changed, and every thing was retracted that had been agreed on. This is his story. The other party says, that he rose in his terms, and wanted to impose the most exorbitant conditions on his sovereign. I suppose that the first conference passed chiefly in generals, and that