David Hume
historical figure · 2 works · 7 mentions · 11 anchored passages · author page
Hume
in the texts
An Essay on the Trial by Jury
Historian cited for his account of royal legislative authority under the Norman kings.
Hume says, “It is asserted by Sir Harry Spelman, as an undoubted fact, that, during the reigns of the Norman princes, every order of the king, issued with the consent of his privy council, had the full force of law.
Hume, speaking of the administration of justice in the time of Alfred, says that, in every hundred,
“Twelve freeholders were chosen, who, having sworn, together with the hundreder, or presiding magistrate of that division, to administer impartial justice, proceeded to the examination of that cause which was submitted to their jurisdiction.
Lectures on the Relation between Law and Public Opinion in England
Eighteenth-century philosopher quoted as the source of the maxim that government rests on opinion rather than force.
“As force,” writes Hume, “is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion.
“Though men,” to use the words of Hume, “be much governed by interest, yet even interest itself, and all human affairs, are entirely governed by opinion.
Its existence is adduced only as a proof that, even in the most extreme case conceivable, Hume’s doctrine holds good, and the opinion of the governed is the real foundation of all government.