This is a study of Hume's political thought based on a survey of all his writings in their original and revised versions, with full reference to the works of predecessors and contemporaries, including journalists, pamphleteers and historians. Hume's political thinking is presented in its historical context as an innovative, 'philosophical', empirically based system of politics for a radical post-revolutionary age, and a political education for parochial, backward-looking party men.