David Hume and the Jacobites

Abstract

This article examines the connections between the Scottish Enlightenment thinker David Hume (1711–76) and the Jacobites. Many of his friendships with Jacobites are known, but they have rarely been explored in detail, perhaps because they sit uneasily with the now dominant interpretation of Hume as a whig. While he was frequently accused of Jacobitism in his lifetime, this article does not seek to revive the myth that he was committed to the cause of the Stuarts at any stage of his life. However, his balanced treatment of Jacobitism indicates that we should dismiss entrenched dichotomies between enlightenment and progressive whiggism on the one hand, and nostalgic and conservative Jacobitism on the other. Despite his own lack of Jacobite commitments, the case of Hume shows that Jacobitism needs to be better integrated into Scottish enlightenment studies.

The Hume-Burke connection examined

“…111 As time wore on, Hume became harsher towards the Whigs, who had dominated British politics since the Hanoverian Succession in 1714. 112 He took pride in refusing to yield to the 'senseless clamour' of 'the Whig party', even though it was 'in possession of bestowing all places, both in the state and in literature'. 113 In 1748, he wrote that he hoped his essays would 'form a short, but compleat Refutation of the political Systems of Sydney, Locke and the Whigs', which were 'repugnant to Reason & the Practice of all Nations'.…”