3748. HISTORY (English), Hume's.—[continued].
Every one knows that
judicious matter and charms of style have rendered
Hume's History the manual of every student.
I remember well the enthusiasm with
which I devoured it when young, and the length
of time, the research and reflection which were
necessary to eradicate the poison it had instilled
into my mind. It was unfortunate that
he first took up the history of the Stuarts, became
their apologist, and advocated all their
enormities. To support his work, when done,
he went back to the Tudors, and so selected
and arranged the materials of their history as
to present their arbitrary acts only, as the genuine
samples of the constitutional power of the
crown, and, still writing backwards, he then
reverted to the early history, and wrote the
Saxon and Norman periods with the same
perverted view. Although all this is known, he
still continues to be put into the hands of all
our young people, and to infect them with the
poison of his own principles of government.
It is this book which has undermined the free
principles of the English government, has
persuaded readers of all classes that there were
usurpations on the legitimate and salutary rights
of the crown, and has spread universal toryism
over the land.—
To William Duane. Washington ed. v, 533.
(M.
1810)
