ABSTRACT
Hume's programme of bringing philosophy to bear in order to promote moderation in politics thus had an external or international aspect: its target was as much parochial prejudice as the animus of the political parties: it applied to foreign as well as domestic politics. If one tries to understand Hume's political science as the work of a Scotsman and European, one is able to get a clearer view of things that have traditionally been distorted by an essentially parochial view of his allegedly Tory' political outlook. Hume's comparative study of the British and the other governments of Europe had a historical dimension, and moreover the graph curves discernible in the past could be tentatively projected into the future: it was a dynamic not merely static comparison. Three types of government are involved in Hume's analysis: the British, a mixture of monarchy and republic, the absolute monarchies of modern Europe, and the republics of modern Europe.
