John Stuart Mill: A Criticism with Personal Recollections

MIGNETS FRENCH REVOLUTION. 35
nor would it be possible to give, an adequate conception,
unless by printing Mr. Brodie s narrative and Hume s in oppo
site columns. Many of the most material facts, facts upon
which the most important of the subsequent transactions hinged,
and which even the party writers of the day never attempted to
deny, Hume totally omits to mention ; others, which are so
notorious that they cannot safely be passed over in silence, he
either affects to disbelieve, or mentioning no evidence, indirectly
gives
it to be understood that there was none. The direct lies
are not a few ; the lies insinuated are innumerable. We do
not mean that he originated any lies ; for all those which he
could possibly need were ready made to his hand. But if it
be criminal to be the original inventor of a lie, the crime is
scarcely less of him who knowingly repeats it."
In the fifth number (Jan., 1825), he assails the Quarterly for
its review of the Essay on Political Economy in the Supplement
to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In the sixth number (April,
1825), there is a long article on the Law of Libel, the sequel to
a previous article on Religious Prosecutions (No. 3). For the
fourth volume, Nos. seven and eight, I have no clue. The ninth
number (Jan., 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 recom
mend Mignt as the best for giving the story of the Revolution.
He reserves all discussions of the "it subject; 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 France, and Dufaure s History of Paris :
this is not unlikely to be Mill s. The Corn-Laws is one of
his subjects, and on this there is an article of 30 pages in the
twelfth number (Oct., 1826). In the following number (Jan.,
1827), there is a second article, referring to Mr. Canning s