Page:Essays, Moral and Political - David Hume (1741).djvu/151

 tive to make any Compliances with the Government in their Oaths or Forms of Prayer, but openly avow'd the highest Principles of their Party; which is the Cause, why their Followers have been more bare-fac'd and violent than their Brethren of the Tory Party in England. As violent Things have not commonly so long a Duration as moderate, we actually find, that the Jacobite Party is almost entirely vanish'd from among us, and that the Distinction of Court and Country, which is but creeping in at London, is the only one that is ever mention'd in this Kingdom. Beside the Violence and Openness of the Jacobite Party, another Reason has, perhaps, contributed to produce so sudden and so visible an Alteration in this Part of Britain. There are only two Ranks of Men among us; Gentlemen, who have some Fortune and Education, and the meanest slaving Poor; without any considerable Number of that middling Rank of Men, which abounds more in England, both in Cities and in the Country, than in any other Part of the World. The slaving Poor are incapable of any Principles: Gentlemen may be converted to true Principles, by Time and Experience: The middling Rank of