Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 28.djvu/228

Hume we are not troubled with their vanity and impertinence.' To which Hume replied that our enemies would infer from this that England was `fast relapsing into barbarism, ignorance, and superstition.'

In 1765 Bunbury was appointed secretary for Ireland. Hume required some pressure from his friends before he would consent to apply for a favour (, ii. 279), but he consented to make interest, and was supported by Hertford (Private Correspondence, p.120). Mme. de Boufflers obtained a promise from the Duke of Bedford, but he had already been appointed secretary to the embassy in June with 1,200l. a year and allowances. On the formation of the Rockingham administration in July, Hertford was appointed lord-lieutenant in Ireland. He left Paris, and till the arrival of his successor, the Duke of Richmond, in October, Hume was left as chargé d'affaires. Brougham, who saw the correspondence of the time, says that Hume proved himself an excellent man of business, wrote good despatches, obtained useful information, and showed firmness and sagacity.

Hertford proposed at first to make him his secretary in Ireland, in conjunction with Lord Beauchamp. His salary would be 2,000l. a year, a 'splendid fortune' as Hume calls it (ib. ii. 287). The prejudice against Scots, however, was too strong, and Hume was reluctant to accept a troublesome position. Hertford obtained for him a pension of 400l. a year, and offered to make him `keeper of the black rod,' for which he would receive 900l. a year, less 300l. to be paid to a substitute who would perform the duties. Hume declined the offer, `not as unjust, but as savouring of rapacity and greediness' (ib. ii. 291). Hume had already (in 1762) received from Mme. de Boufflers and from the Earl Marischal appeals on behalf of Rousseau, then in danger of arrest in France on account of the `Emile.' Hume warmly promised to do what he could towards securing an asylum and patronage for Rousseau in England. Rousseau, however, retired to Motiers Travers and thence to the island of St. Pierre. He was now again seeking refuge, and when at Strassburg on his way to Berlin, received a fresh offer of help from Hume. He at once came to Paris, where he was protected by the Prince de Conti. Hume was moved by his misfortunes, and made an agreement with a French gardener at Fulham to board him, and took him to England. They reached London 13 Jan. 1766 (, p. 73). Rousseau, upon landing, covered Hume's face with kisses and tears. His mistress, Thérèse Le Vasseur, followed under the escort of Boswell. Hume took great pains to find a suitable asylum for the refugee, the Fulham gardener proving unsuitable. He obtained through Hertford's brother, Henry Seymour Conway [q.v.], now secretary of state, a pension of 100l. a year, to be kept a secret (Private Corr. p. 129), for Rousseau from the king, took all Rousseau's affairs into his hands, and declared (11 Feb. 1766) that, although the philosophers of Paris had predicted a quarrel, he thought that they could live together in peace as long as both survived. After many inquiries a Mr. Davenport of Davenport in Derbyshire agreed to let a house at Wootton in the Peak to Rousseau. Rousseau and his mistress took up their abode there in the middle of March, and on the 22nd wrote a letter of overflowing gratitude to Hume, followed by another, still affectionate, on the 29th. Immediately afterwards (31 March) he wrote to his friend D'Ivernois, expressing strange suspicions of Hume, repeated with amplifications in later letters. On 12 May he wrote to Conway, making difficulties about the pension. Hume and Conway understood him to mean that he would not take it unless the restriction of secrecy should be removed. Hume on 16 June wrote to Rousseau saying that the pension should be still given if Rousseau would express his willingness to accept it upon those terms. Rousseau, however, on 23 June, wrote a fierce letter to Hume, saying that his atrocious designs were now manifest, and declaring that their correspondence must cease. Hume (on 28 June) indignantly demanded an explanation. On 10 July Rousseau replied in a long letter, detailing the grievances already described to other correspondents. The most tangible grievance was a letter written by Horace Walpole, in the name of the king of Prussia, offering Rousseau an asylum and ridiculing his supposed desire for persecution. Walpole (see letter to Hume 23 July 1766) had written this letter while Rousseau was in Paris, but suppressed it for the time out of delicacy to Hume as Rousseau's protector. It was handed about in Paris and ultimately got into the English press. Hume had told Rousseau of its existence by 18 Jan. (Rousseau to Mme. de Boufflers, 18 Jan. 1766). Rousseau decided that it was written by d'Alembert, and was now convinced that Hume was an accomplice. Moreover, the papers which had first welcomed Rousseau to England had now begun to circulate stories in ridicule of him—which the recluse seems to have read carefully—and Hume, a popular author, was naturally at the bottom of every newspaper conspiracy. Rousseau further suspected Hume of tampering with his letters. Even the 