One major advantage of Russell's view over Hume's is that Russell's is decidedly more economical.  For any event that one perceives, remembers, and imagines, one will need three distinct images each with the appropriate level of vivacity and forcefulness.  Russell's view, in contrast, sees the difference between the different mental types as coming in the relation to the same representation.  Russell's view, or something like it, has become standard in contemporary philosophy of mind: the difference between the thought that p, the desire that p, and the belief that p is taken to be found not in the representation itself but in the relationship one bears to the representation.  In this way, the same thing can be the object of belief, thought, desire, and any other propositional attitude.