in the first number; he puts this down as "of little or no value," although to himself a most useful exercise in composition; it is, nevertheless, in respect of his biography, an interesting study. No doubt the opinions are for the most part his father's, though independently and freshly illustrated: the demonstration of the truckling of the "Edinburgh Review" to sentiment and popularity; the onslaught against lubricated phrases; the defectiveness of the current morality as reflected in the "Review"; the denunciation of the pandering to our national egotism: all these were his father redivivus; yet we may see the beginnings of his own independent start, more especially in the opinions with regard to women, and the morality of sex.
In the third number (July, 1824) he has an article on "War Expenditure," the review of a pamphlet by William Blake on the recent fluctuations of prices. In the fourth number (October, 1825) he reviews at length a work on English history, by George Brodie, which is especially devoted to Hume's misrepresentations. He enters fully into the exposure of Hume's disingenuous artifices; and at the present time, when Hume's metaphysical reputation is so resplendent, his moral obliquity as an historian must not be glossed over. No doubt his Toryism was his shelter from the odium of his skepticism. Mill says of him: "Hume possessed powers of a very high order; but regard for truth formed no part of his character. He reasoned with surprising acuteness; but the object of his reasonings was not to attain truth, but to show that it was unattainable. His mind, too, was completely enslaved by a taste for literature; not those kinds of literature which teach mankind to know the causes of their happiness and misery, that they may seek the one and avoid the other, but that literature which, without regard for truth or utility, seeks only to excite emotion."
In the fifth number (January, 1825) he assails the "Quarterly" for its review of the Essay on Political Economy in the supplement to the "Encyclopædia Britannica." In the sixth number (October, 1825) there is a long article on the "Law of Libel," the sequel to a previous article on "Religious Prosecutions" (number three), but I have no means of proving them to be his, except that this is one of the topics that he specifies. For the fourth volume, numbers seven and eight, I have no clew. The ninth number (January, 1826) opens with a powerfully written paper on the "Game Laws," which I believe to be his. In the tenth number (April, 1826) there is a short review by him of Mignet's History of the "French Revolution," which is principally occupied with pointing out the merits of the book. I have heard him recommend Mignet as the best for giving the story of the Revolution. He reserves all discussions of the subject; "it being our intention, at no distant period, to treat of that subject at greater length." In the eleventh number (July, 1826) there is a searching discussion of the merits of the Age of Chivalry, on the basis of Sismondi's "History of
