HUME, JOSEPH (1777-1855), British politician, was born on Jan. 22, 1777, of humble parents, at Montrose, Scotland. After completing his course of medical study at the university of Edinburgh he sailed in 1797 for India, where he made a fortune. In 1812 he purchased a seat in parliament for Weymouth and voted as a Tory. When upon the dissolution of parliament the patron refused to return him he brought an action and recovered part of his money. Six years elapsed before he again entered the House, and during that interval he adopted the doctrines of James Mill and the philosophical reformers of the school of Bentham. He joined Francis Place (q.v.) and others in seeking to establish schools for them on the Lancastrian system, and promoting the formation of savings banks. In 1818, soon after his marriage with Miss Burnley, the daughter of an East India director, he was re turned to parliament as member for the Border burghs. He was afterwards successively elected for Middlesex (183o), Kilkenny (183 7) and for the Montrose burghs (1842) . Hume became the self-elected guardian of the public purse, by challenging and bringing to a direct vote every single item of public expenditure. It was he who caused the word "retrenchment" to be added to the Radical programme "peace and reform." He fought the old combination laws that hampered workmen and favoured masters; he brought about the repeal of the laws prohibiting the export of machinery and of the act preventing workmen from going abroad. He constantly protested against flogging in the army, the impress ment of sailors and imprisonment for debt. He took up the ques tion of lighthouses and harbours; in the former he secured greater efficiency, in the latter he prevented useless expenditure. He died on Feb. 20, 1855.
A Memorial of Hume was published by his son Joseph Burnley Hume (London, 1855).