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LETTER XCIX.: Hume's Letters shown to the King and Queen. - David Hume, Letters of David Hume to William Strahan [1756]

Edition used:

Letters of David Hume to William Strahan, ed. G. Birkbeck Hill (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1888).

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LETTER XCIX.

Hume's Letters shown to the King and Queen.

Here are the Original Letters of David Hume to Mr Strahan, mark’d A. B. C. D. E. F. G. H.

a sensible Lr (copy) of Strahan to Hume. I.

Lr from Hume's Brother. K.

a character of the Princess Dowager by Strahan. L.

Hutton perhaps will recieve them again next Wednesday or Thursday.

I. and L. need not be return’d1 .

the above Lines I sent with the inclosed Papers to Kew. they were read on Monday Evening2 and were return’d to me yesterday. I know not as yet what was thought3 , but L is left behind. the Fog hinders me from bringing them this morning. I learnt that both of the Personages had read them. the K. was out and the Q. I believe writing to her Brothers4 , or I should have seen and spoken with one or other of them—I had only five words with Him, but as others were present, He could not enter into the Matter. I am glad they have read and kept L. you see by the above they know who wrote it.

Novr. 6, 17765 .

[1]Note 1. For letter marked A see ante, p. 112 (Letter xxxvi).

For letter marked B p. 143.

For letter marked C p. 287.

For letter marked D p. 319.

For letter marked E p. 328.

For letter marked F p. 337.

For letter marked G p. 339.

For letter marked I p. 359, n. 2.

For letter marked K p. 345.

For L, the character of the Princess Dowager, see ante, p. 237, n. 6.

That part of the Letter marked C which deals with the American War, with the omission of the attack on Pitt, is published in the London Chronicle of June 14, 1777. Strahan, no doubt, had had it inserted. ‘It may perhaps contribute,’ it is stated, ‘to open the eyes of the nation, which so many have conspired to blind.’

[2]Note 2. Monday was November 4.

[3]Note 3. At ‘21 min. pt. 4 p. m.’ of the day on which the letters were read the King wrote to Lord North:—‘Nothing can have been better planned, nor with more alacity executed, than the taking of the city of New York, and I trust the rebell army will soon be dispersed.’ George III's Corres. ii. 39. Hume's advice, ‘let us therefore lay aside all anger, shake hands, and part friends,’ moved him no more than Old John of Gaunt's dying words moved Richard.

[4]Note 4. The Princes of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

[5]Note 5. It is pleasant to contrast with the letter of the simple Moravian one written by ‘the Great Commoner’ to the King, three weeks before he was made Earl of Chatham.

’Sire,

’Penetrated with the deepest sense of your Majesty's boundless goodness to me, and with a heart overflowing with duty and zeal for the honour and the happiness of the most gracious and benign Sovereign, I shall hasten to London as fast as I possibly can; wishing that I could change infirmity into wings of expectation, the sooner to be permitted to lay at your Majesty's feet the poor but sincere offering of the little services of
  • ’Your Majesty's
  • Most dutiful subject,
  • and devoted servant,

 

‘William Pitt.’



Chatham Corres. ii. 438.