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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2014
Despite the recent boom in research on the reception and influence of Hume's writings, most scholars have overlooked the fact that his enigmatic essay “Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth,” published in the Political Discourses in 1752, not only attracted the attention of some French intellectuals before and after the Revolution, but was also taken seriously by a significant number of radicals—such as Paine, Price, Godwin, Wollstonecraft—and other reform-minded Whigs—such as James Mackintosh. Although the influence of Hume's plan on The Federalist, No 10, has been much discussed, what is more important is that these British reformers often associated his plan with the National Assembly after the Revolution in France. This essay demonstrates that Hume's plan of a large republic with a bicameral system through a two-tier election was an important intellectual resource for his contemporaries and for later generations.
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of ECSSS (Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society), North Carolina, 13 April 2012. I would like to thank the participants of the session, especially Craig Smith and Mark G. Spencer, for their useful comments. This research was financially supported by the Kansai University Researcher, 2012, Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B), 2010–2013, and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), 2014–2017. I am also grateful to two anonymous referees and Dr Duncan Kelly for their helpful comments and suggestions.
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52 Ibid., 143. William Thelwall, a radical British writer and one of the founders of the London Corresponding Society, cites this sentence in his periodical Tribune: “Hume might have been hanged for his ‘Idea of a Free Commonwealth,’ . . . as Godwin has shewn in his ‘Considerations’.” The Tribune, a Periodical Publication, consisting chiefly of the Political Lectures of J. Thelwall, 3 vols. (London, 1795–6), 3: 259, italics in original. See also Roe, Nicholas, Wordsworth and Coleridge: The Radical Years (Oxford, 1988), 148 Google Scholar.
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54 Thomas Muir, [An Account of the Trial of Thomas Muir, Esq. younger . . .] ([Edinburgh], [1793]), 109–10. He also reports in his own trial for sedition that “Mr. Paine has composed no model of a perfect Commonwealth, as Mr. Hume has done; yet I dare say you have all read the political works of Mr. Hume, and even applauded them.” Mackenzie, Peter, The Life of Thomas Muir Esq. Advocate . . . (Glasgow, 1831), 93 Google Scholar.
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60 In addition to this, post-Revolutionary France was divided into eighty-three equal departments and these were subdivided into 249 equal territories, mainly for elections. This administrative segmentation also resembles that laid out in Hume's “Perfect Commonwealth.”
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72 It is also possible, however, to point some similarities between Hume's and Bentham's plans: the frequent elections, the equal division of electoral districts and the secret ballot, all of which were “radical” elements in Hume's plan. Some early nineteenth-century reviews also highlighted the resemblance between Hume's plan and Milton's “The Readie & Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth” (1660). A review of The Prose Works of John Milton in the Annual Review and History of Literature argues that Hume's plan “is superior to [Harrington's]; he displays an intellect more inventive, and principles more comprehensive than Milton: they both agree in preferring a gradationed representation.” Anon., review of The Prose Works of John Milton, Annual Review and History of Literature, 5 (Jan. 1806), 574–85, at 582. In 1827 a review of The Poetical Works of John Milton in the Quarterly Review asserts that “the poet's plan of election is that recently adopted, with some modifications, in France” and emphasized the originality of Milton in “the annual retirement of a third part of the Senators which has been admitted by the French” and “of which David Hume is commonly supposed to have originated the idea.” Quarterly Review, 36/71 (June 1827), 29–61, at 34. See also Bailey, Samuel (the “Bentham of Hallamshire”), The Rationale of Political Representation (London, 1835), 97–8Google Scholar.
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74 [Pye, Henry James], Xenophon's defence of the Athenian democracy . . . (London, 1794), 69 Google Scholar. Surprisingly, Hume's two-tier election was claimed as the model for reforms introduced as far off as Bolivia and Portugal in some journals: “It is a curious fact, that this constitution [of Bolivia] is merely a copy of that proposed by our celebrated countryman, Mr. Hume in his Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth.” Anon., “New Constitution of Bolivia or Upper Peru,” in “The Examiner (London, 29 Dec. 1826),” The Examiner, 987 (31 Dec. 1826), 842. A review of Charte Constitutionelle de Portugal in the Edinburgh Review considered the “double election” that formed Chamber of Deputies of Portugal to be the system “proposed by Mr. Hume.” Edinburgh Review, 54/89 (Dec. 1826), 199–247, at 232–3.
75 Other features of Hume's plan also attracted the interest of some radicals. Edward Wynne, an English legal scholar, acclaimed Hume's proposal to remove from his imaginary republic the bishops and Scotch peers and to introduce an elective system. Wynne, Edward, Eunomus or, Dialogues concerning the Law and Constitution of England . . ., 4 vols. (London, 1774), 4: 132–3Google Scholar, see also 137–8. Citing John Adam's unpublished letter to John Jebb (25 Sept. 1785), Anthony Page points out that “Adams suggested that Jebb's view was close to David Hume's ideal political system composed of a salaried administration and unpaid magistrates and elected representatives.” Page, Anthony, John Jebb and the Enlightenment Origins of British Radicalism (Westport, CT, 2003), 199 Google Scholar.
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77 Anon., General Committee of Roman Catholics of Ireland, Sub-Committee ([Dublin], [1792]), 2–3.
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84 Ibid., 319; Hume, Essays, 513–14.
85 On the significance of the science of politics for Stewart shown in the Elements see Collini, Winch and Burrow, That Noble Science of Politics, 37.
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87 Collini, Winch and Burrow, That Noble Science of Politics, 32; Winch, Riches and Poverty, 169; see 39–40 on Stewart's commitment to French perfectibilité.
88 Dugald Stewart, The Lectures on Political Economy, in Stewart, The Collected Works, vols. 8–9, 9: 365 (chap. 1, Sec. 2).
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94 Ibid., 2: 38. He went on to demonstrate his support for annual parliamentary elections, and a rule prohibiting the re-election of representatives within a space of six years. He also proposed a revision of the “one-man–one-vote” system, suggesting that common townsmen and countrymen should receive one vote and the middle and high-ranking citizens should receive two votes each.
