Like both Steuart and Smith, Hume (1752f, 32–33) was distrustful of the masses, yet he understood that the state depended on their acquiescence: “Nothing appears more surprizing to those, who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few …. [A]s FORCE is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but [the] opinion [of the masses].”
