[260:1] An Irish baronet, grandson of Sir James Caldwell who was created
a baronet in 1683, and distinguished himself in the service of William
III. during the Irish revolutionary wars. The person commemorated in so
flattering a manner by Hume, rose to considerable rank in the service of
the empress, and was enabled to introduce to that service a brother, who
obtained in it far more distinction, and who, in connexion with the
relationship mentioned above, was called Hume Caldwell. He seems to have
been strongly endowed with the mercurial disposition of his countrymen.
On his first introduction to the service, he "took expensive lodgings,
kept a chariot, a running footman, and a hussar, and was admitted into
the highest circles;" the natural result of which was, that, on
preparing to join his regiment, when he paid his debts, he found that he
had just two gold ducats left; whereupon, as his biographer pathetically
narrates, "the companion of princes, the friend of Count Conigsegg, the
possessor of a splendid hotel and a gilt chariot, who had kept a hussar
and an opera girl, figured at court, and had an audience of the empress,
and was possessed of a letter of credit for £1000, set out from Vienna
alone, on foot, in a mean habit, and with an empty pocket, for that army
in which he was to rise by his merit to a distinguished command." His
subsequent history is a little romance. Mr. Hume Caldwell, being lost
sight of by the great world, is searched for hither and thither, and at
length an Irish private soldier being questioned about the matter, turns
out to be Caldwell himself, who is immediately restored to his proper
station.--Ryan's Worthies of Ireland.
[264:1] Sic in MS. Perhaps he meant to allude to the junction with the
Carpathians through the Bohemian ranges.
[265:1] Et qualem infelix amisit Mantua campum. Georg. ii. 198?
[271:1] Memoirs of the Political and Private Life of James Caulfield,
Earl of Charlemont, by Francis Hardy, p. 8.
CHAPTER VII.
1748-1751. ÆT. 37-40.
Publication of the "Inquiry concerning Human Understanding"--
Nature of that Work--Doctrine of Necessity--Observations on
Miracles--New Edition of the "Essays, Moral and Political"--
Reception of the new Publications--Return Home--His Mother's
Death--Her Talents and Character--Correspondence with Dr.
Clephane--Earthquakes--Correspondence with Montesquieu--
Practical jokes in connexion with the Westminster Election--
John Home--The Bellman's Petition.