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A

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY

OF

EMINENT SCOTSMEN.

IN. FOUR VOLUMES.

OEIGINALLY EDITED BY

ROBERT CHAMBERS.

NEW EDITION, REVISED UNDER THE CARE OF THE PUBLISHERS.

WITH A SUPPLEMENTAL VOLUME,

CONTINUING THE BIOGRAPHIES TO THE PRESENT TIME.

By the Eev. THOS. THOMSON,

AumoR OF "the history OF SCOTI-AND for tub use of schools," etc., etc

WITH NUMEROUS PORTRAITS.

VOL. III.
HAMILTON— M'GAVIN.

BLACKIE AND SON:

GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, AND LONDON.

MDCCCLV.

GLASGOW:

W. O. BLACKIK AND CO., PEINTEB3,

VILLA F1KLD.

A.

BIOGKAPHICAL DICTIONAEY

OP

EMINENT SCOTSMEN.

H.

HAMILTON, (THE Right Honourable Sir) William, British ambassador at the
court of Naples, and celebrated for his patronage of the fine arts, and his inves-
tigations on the subject of volcanoes, was born in 1730. Neither biographers
nor contemporary periodical writers have furnished any account of his education
or early habits ; all that is commemorated regarding him pi'evious to the com-
mencement of his public life, is, that his family, a branch of the noble house of
Hamilton, was in very reduced circumstances. He was in the most difficult of
all situations — poor, highborn, and a Scotsman. " I was condemned," to use
his own words, " to make my way in the world, with an illustrious name and a
thousand pounds." Like many of his countrymen so situated, he had a choice
betwixt semi-starvation in the army, and an affluent marriage — he prudently
preferred the latter; and in 1755 he found himself most happily settled in life,
with a young lady of beauty, connexions, amiable qualifications, and £5000
a-year. It is very probable that Mr Hamilton spent his hours in philosophical
ease, until his acquisition of that situation in which he afterwards distinguished
himself. In 17G4, he was appointed ambassador to the court of Naples, where
he continued till the year 1800. If his appointment as a resident ambassador
for so long a period, is to be considered as but a method of expressing in more
consequential terms the employment of an agent for advancing the study of the
arts, the person was well cbosen for the purpose, and the interests of the public
were well attended to ; but if Mr Hamilton's claims to national respect are to
be judged by his merely diplomatic duties, the debt, in addition to the salary he
received, will be very small. The reason why a permanent representative of
the British government should have been found requisite in Sicily, is in reality
one of those circumstances which a diplomatist only could explain. The fame ac-
quired in other departments by the subject of our memoir, has prompted his
biographers to drag to light his diplomatic exertions, yet, although nothing
has been discovered which can throw a blot on his good name, the amount of
service performed in thirty-six years is truly ludicrous. He entered into ex-
planations with the marquis Tanucci, first minister of Sicily, regarding some im-
proper expressions used by a gentleman of the press of the name of Torcia, in
his ** Political Sketch of Europe." He managed to keep his Sicilian majesty
neuter during the American war. He acted with prudence during the family
misunderstandings between Spain and Naples in 1784 ; and finally, he exerted
himself in preventing any mischief from being perpetrated by "an eccentric

SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON.

character among our nobility," who had made attempts to give much trouble to
prudent people, by his conduct at Naples. But the kingdom of the two Sicilies
was but the shadow of a European power, and was only regarded as it followed
one or other of the great nations whose contests shook the world. It afforded
in its active existence no arena for the statesman or the soldier. It was in the
dust of buried ages that was hid beneath its soil that the active mind found em-
ployment in that feeble kingdom, and these were the only objects worthy to ab-
sorb the attention of the distinguished person whom we are commemorating.

On his arrival at the interesting country of his mission, Mr Hamilton re-
peatedly visited Vesuvius and Etna, and from a minute examination of the whole
. surrounding country, collected numerous important geological observations,
which were from time to time, between the years 1766 and 1779, transmitted
to the Royal Society, and afterwards made their appearance in the transactions
of that body, and in the Annual Register. It was the design of Sir William
Hamilton, to point out in these observations such evidence as might lead geolo-
gists to a better comprehension of the influence of subterraneous fires on the
structure of the earth, and to display the first links of a chain of reasoning,
which it was his hope future industry might make complete. It was his opinion
that the land for many miles round Naples, was not, as it was generally sup-
posed, a district of fruitful land, subject to the ravages of flame ; but a part of
the surface of the globe which owed its very existence to the internal conflagra-
tions by which it was shaken. In illustration of this he considered Etna to
have been formed by a series of eruptions, at protracted periods, as the smaller
eminence of Monte Nuovo, near Puzzuoli, had been formed by one eruption of
48 hours' continuance. Among other minute circumstances, he discovered that
the streets of Pompeii were paved with the lava of a former age, and that there
was a deep stratum of lava and burnt matter under the foundations of the town,
showirg that the earliest eruption of history was not the first of nature, and
that the labours of man might have been more than once buried beneath such
coverings. As illustrations of these valuable remarks, the author collected a
magnificent assortment of the various descriptions of lava, which he lodged in
our national museum, that naturalists might be able to trace a connexion be-
twixt these immediate productions of the -volcano, and other portions of the crust
of the globe. These remarks were afterwards digested and systematized, and
produced, first " Observations on mount Vesuvius, mount Etna, and other vol-
canoes of the two Sicilies," published in London in 1772. The next, a more
aspiring work, was published at Naples in 1776, in two folio volumes, and cal-
led " Campi Phlegraii, Observations on the Volcanoes of the two Sicilies, as they
have been communicated to the Royal Society of London, by Sir William Hamil-
ton." The numerous plates in this magnificent work of art, from views taken
on the spot by Mr Valris, a British artist, are faintly engraved in little more
tlian outline, and coloured with so much depth and truth, that they assume the
appearance of original water-colour drawings of a very superior order. They
are illustrative of his favourite theory, and represent those geological aspects of
the country which he considered peculiarly applicable as illustrations. It is
to be remarked, that neither in his communications to the Royal Society, nor in
his larger works, does this author trace any complete exclusive system. He
merely points out the facts on which others may work, acknowledging that he
is disposed to pay more respect to the share which fire has had in the formation
of the crust of the earth, than Buffbn and others are disposed to admit " By
the help of drawings," he says, " in this new edition of my communications to
the society, which so clearly point out the volcanic origin of this country, it
is to be hoped that farther discoveries of the same nature may be made, and

SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON.

that subterraneous fires will be allowed to have had a greater share in the for-
mation of mountains, islands, and even tracts of land, than has hitherto been
suspected." Many men of eminence at that time visited Sir William Hamilton,
and marked the progress of his discoveries, and among the rest Monsieur Saus-
sure, professor of natural history at Geneva, who accompanied him in his in-
vestigations, and acceded to the arguments he derived from them. During the
course of his communications to the Royal Society, it was the fortune of the au-
thor to have an opportunity of witnessing Vesuvius in eruption.

In October, 1767, occurred the eruption which is considered to have been the
twenty-seventh from that which in the days of Titus destroyed Herculaneum and
Pompei. The mountain was visited by Hamilton and a party of his friends during
this interesting scene, which has afforded material for cnc of the most graphic
of his communications. But a grander scene of devastation attracted his atten-
tion in October, 1779, when the unfortunate inhabitants of Ottaiano had reason
to dread the fate described by Pliny. Of this memorable eruption our author
transmitted an account to Sir Joseph Banks, which he afterwards published as a
supplement to his *' Campi Phlegrasi."

Previously to the period of the last event we have mentioned, the subject of
our memoir was connected with the preparation of another great work, for
which the world has incurred to him a debt of gratitude. He had made a vast
collection of Etruscan antiquities — vases, statues, and fresco paintings, partly dug
from the earth, and partly purchased from the museums of the decayed nobility,
among which was that great collection now deposited in the British museum,
which had belonged to the senatorial house of Porcinari. Of the most precious
of these remains of antiquity, Hamilton allowed the adventurer D'Hancerville,
to publish illustrated plates, liberally allowing the artist to appropriate the whole
profits of the work. " Long since," he says " Mr Hamilton had taken pleasure
in collecting those precious monuments, and had afterwards trusted them to him
for publication, requiring only some elegance in the execution, and the con-
dition, that the work should appear under the auspices of his Britannic ma-
jesty." The work accordingly was published at Naples, under the title of " An-
tiquites Etrusques, Greques, et Romaines.'' The abbe Winckelman mentions, that
two volumes of this Avork were published in 1765, and two others the year fol-
lowing. Along with the author of a notice of Sir William Hamilton's Life,
which appeared in Baldwin's Literary Journal, we have been unable to discover
a copy of the two former volumes of this work, or to find any reference to them
on which we can repose trust, nor do we perceive that the two latter volumes
btar the marks of being a continuation, and neither of the after editions of
Paris, 1787, and Florence, 1801 and 1808, which might have informed us on
this subject, are at present accessible to us. The two volumes we have men-
tioned as having seen, contain general remarks on the subjects of the plates, in
English and French, which both the imaginative matter, and the language, show
to have been translated from the latter language into the former. The plates,
by far the most valuable part of the work, introduced a new spirit into the
depiction of the useful remains of antiquity, which enabled the artist who wished
to imitate them, to have as correct an idea of the labours of the ancients, as if
the originals were before him. The terra-cotta vases predominate ; some of
these are votive offerings — others have been adapted for use. A general view
of the form of each is given, with a measurement, along with which there is a
distinct faosimile of the paintings which so frequently occur on these beautiful
pieces of pottery ; the engraving is bold and accurate, and the colouring true
to the original. This work has been the means of adding the bold genius of
classic taste to modern accuracy and skill in workmanship. From the painter

Silt WILLIAM HAMILTON.

and statuary, to the fabricator of the most grotesque drinking cup, it has af-
forded models to artists, and is confidently asserted to have gone far in altering
and improving the general taste of the age. During the exertions we have
been commemorating, Hamilton was in the year 1772, created a knight of the
Bath, a circumstance which will account for our sometimes varying his designa-
tion, as the events mentioned happened previously to, or after his elevation.
The retired philosophical habits of Sir William Hamilton prevented him in the
earliest years of his mission from forming intimacies with persons similarly
situated, and he lived a life of domestic privacy, study, and observation of na-
ture. But fame soon forced friends on his retirement, and all the eminent per-
sons who visited his interesting neighbourhood became his guests. One of his
friends, the French ambassador at the court of Naples, has told us that he pro-
tected the arts because the arts protected him, and enriched him. The motives
of the characteristic may be doubted. A love of art fascinates even mercenary
men into generosity, and the whole of Sir William Hamilton's conduct shows a
love of art, and a carelessness of personal profit by his knowledge, not often ex-
hibited. Duclos, secretary of the French academy, on visiting Naples, has drawn
an enthusiastic picture of the felicity then enjoyed by Sir William Hamilton —
his lady and himself in the prime of life, his daughter just opening to woman-
hood, beauty, and accomplishments ; the public respect paid to his merits, and
the internal peace of his amiable family ; but this state of things Mas doomed to
be sadly reversed. In 1775, Sir William lost his only daughter, and in 1782,
he had to deplore the death of a wife who had brought him competence and
domestic peace. After an absence of twenty years, he revisited Britain in 1784.
The purpose of this visit is whispered to have been that he might interfere -with
an intended marriage of his nephew, Mr Greville, to Miss Fmma Hart. If such
was his view, it was fulfilled in a rather unexpected manner. It is at all times
painful to make written reference to those private vices, generally suspected and
seldom proved, the allusion to which usually receives the name of "scandal;"
but in the case of the second lady Hamilton, they have been so unhesitatingly
and amply detailed by those who have chosen to record such events, and so
complacently received by the lady herself and her friends, that they must
be considered matters of history, which no man will be found chivalrous
enough to contradict This second Theodosia passed the earlier part of her
life in obscurity and great indigence, but soon showed that she had various ways
in which she might make an independent livelihood. Some one who has
written her memoirs, lias given teotimony to the rather doubtful circumstance
that her first act of infamy was the consequence of charitable feeling, which
prompted her to give her virtue in exchange for the release of a friend who
had been impressed. Be this as it may, she afterwards discovered more profita-
ble means of using her charms. At one time she was a comic actress at

another, under the protection of some generous man of fashion ; but her chief
source of fame and emolument seems to have been her connexion with Romney
and the other great artists of the day, to whom she seems to have furnished the
models of more goddesses than classic poets ever invented. Mr Greville, a man
of accurate taste, had chosen her as his companion, and the same principles of
correct judgment which regulated his choice probably suggested a transference
of his charge to the care of Sir William Hamilton. His own good opinion of
her merits, and the character she had received from his friend, prompted Sir
William soon after to marry this woman, and she took the title of lady Hamilton
in 1791. At that time both returned to Britain, where Sir William attempted
in vain to procure for his fair but frail bride, an introduction to the British
Court, which might authorize, according to royal etiquette, her presentation at

SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON. 5

the court of Naples. But this latter was found not so difficult a barrier as that
which it was considered necessary to surmount before attempting it. The
beauty and, perhaps, the engaging talents of lady Hamilton procured for her
notoriety, and notoriety brings friends. She contrived to be essentially useful,
and very agreeable, to the king and queen of the Sicilies ; and procured for
herself their friendship, and for her husband additional honours. Her connec-
tion with lord Nelson, and the manner in which she did the state service, are too
well known ; but justice, on passing speedily over the unwelcome subject, cannot
help acknowledging that she seems here to have felt something like real attach-
ment. The latter days of this woman restored her to the gloom and obscurity
of her origin. She made ineffectual attempts after the death of her husband to
procure a pension from government. Probably urged by necessity, she insulted
the ashes of the great departed, by publishing her correspondence with lord
Nelson, followed by a denial of her accession to the act, which did not deceive
the public. She died at Calais in February, 1815, in miserable obscurity and
debt, without a friend to follow her to the grave, and those who took an interest
in the youthful daughter of Nelson, with difficulty prevented her from being
seized, according to a barbarous law, for the debts of her mother.

But we return with pleasure to the more legitimate object of our details.
There was one subject of importance on which some prejudices on the part of
the Sicilian government, prevented Sir William Hamilton from acquiring that
knowledge which he thought might be interesting and useful to his country. A
chamber in the royal museum of Portici had been set aside for containing the
manuscripts, of which a small collection had been found in an edifice in Pom-
peii ; and on the discovery that these calcined masses were genuine manuscripts
of the days of Pliny, the greatest curiosity was manifested to acquire a knowledge
of their contents. The government was assailed by strangers for the watchful-
ness with which these were kept from their view, and the little exertion which
had been bestowed in divulging their contents : the latter accusation was perhaps
scarcely just ; some venerable adherents of the church of Rome did not hesitate
to spend months of their own labour, in exposing to the world the sentences
which an ancient Roman had taken a few minutes to compose. The public were
soon made sufficiently acquainted with the subject to be disappointed at the
exposure of a few sentences of the vilest of scholastic stuff; and the narrow-
mindedness of which Sir William Hamilton had to complain, has been since dis-
continued, and England has had an opportunity of showing her skill in the art of
unrolling papyrus. To acquire the information, for which he found the usual
means unavailing, Sir William Hamilton entered into an agreement with father
Anthony Piaggi, a Piarist monk, the most diligent of the decypherers, by which,
in consideration of a salary of .£100, the latter was to furnish the former with a
weekly sheet of original information, which, to avoid ministerial detection, was
to be written in cipher. The contract seems to have been executed to the
satisfaction of both parties, and Sir William procured for father Anthony an
addition to his salary, equal to the sum at which it was originally fixed ; and on
the death of the father in 1798, he bequeathed all his manuscripts and papers to
his patron. Sir William Hamilton, on his visit to Britain in 1791, was created
a privy councillor. — The circumstances which in 1798 compelled him to accom-
pany the Sicilian court to Palermo, are matter of history, and need not be here
repeated. — In the year 1800, he left Sicily, and soon afterwards, accompanied
by captain Leake, and lieutenant Hayes, undertook a journey through Egypt,
visiting and describing with great minuteness the city of Thebes, and the other
well-known parts of that interesting country. The notes collected by him on
tin's occasion were published after his death in the year 1809, under the title

WILLIAM HAMILTON, M.D.

tt J^gyptiaca, or Some Account of the Ancient and Modern State of Egypt, as
obtained in the years 1801 and 1802, by William Hamilton, F. A. S."— " This
work," says the Edinburgh Review, " will be found an excellent supplement to
the more elaborate and costly work of Denon. His style is in general simple
and unaffected ; and therefore, loses nothing, in our opinion, when compared
with that of some of the travellers who hare gone before him." Sir William Hamil-
ton died in April, 1803, in the 72nd year of his age. His death deprived the
world of two great works which he hoped to have lived to prepare, on the subject
of the museum of Portici.

HAMILTON, William, a celebrated surgeon, and lecturer on anatomy and
chemistry in the university of Glasgow. This meritorious individual was unfor-
tunately cut off from the world too early in life, and too suddenly, to be enabled
to give to the world those works on his favourite science, on which he might
have founded his fame, and the circle of his influence and renown was hardly so
extensive as to attract the attention of posterity ; but a tribute to his memory, in
the form of a memoir of his life, and remarks on his professional acquirements,
read by his friend professor Cleghorn to the Royal Society of Edinburgh,1 and
inserted in the transactions of that eminent body, justifies us in enumerating
him among distinguished Scotsmen. William Hamilton was born in Glasgow,
on the 31st July, 1759. His father was Thomas Hamilton, a respectable sur-
geon in Glasgow, and professor of anatomy and botany in that university ; and
his mother, daughter to Mr Anderson, professor of church history in the same
institution. He followed the usual course of instruction in the grammar school
and college of his native city, from which latter he took the degree of master
of arts in 1775, at the age of seventeen. Being supposed to show an early predi-
lection for the medical profession, he proceeded to Edinburgh, then at the height of
its fame as a school for that science, where he studied under Cullen and Black,
the early friends of his father. The bad health of his father recalled the young
physician after two sessions spent in Edinburgh, and both proceeded on a tour
to Bath, and thence to London, where the son was left to pursue his studies,
with such an introduction to the notice of Dr William Hunter, as a schoolfellow
acquaintanceship between his father and that distinguished man warranted.
The prudence, carefulness, and regularity of the young man's conduct, while
surrounded by the splendour and temptation of the metropolis, have been com-
mended by his friends ; these praiseworthy qualities, joined to a quick percep-
tion on professional subjects, and an anxiety to perfect himself in that branch
of his profession which calls for the greatest zeal and enthusiasm on the part of
the medical student, attracted the attention of his observing friend. He was
requested to take up his residence in Dr Hunter's house, and finally was trusted
with the important charge of the dissecting room, a valuable, and probably a
delightful duty. He seems to have secured the good opinion he had gained,
by his performance of this arduous and important function. " I see and hear
much of him," says Dr Hunter, in his correspondence with the young man's
father, " and every body regards him as sensible, diligent, sober, and of amiable
dispositions." — " From being a favourite with every body, he has commanded
every opportunity for improvement, which this great town afforded, during his
stay here ; for every body has been eager to oblige and encourage him. I can
depend so much on him, in every way, that if any opportunity should offer of
serving him, whatever may be in my power, I shall consider as doing a real
pleasure to myself." Such were the character and prospects of one, who, it
-S to be feared, was then nourishing by too intense study the seeds of dissolution
in a naturally feeble constitution. Soon after, the father's state of health
1 Vol. iv. p. 35, read 6th November, 1792.

WILLIAM HAMILTON.

imperiously requiring an assistant in his lectures, the son undertook that duty,
and in 1781, on his father's final resignation, was nominated his successor, a
circumstance which enabled his kind friend Dr Hunter to fulfill his former
promise, by stating to the marquis of Graham, that he considered it " the in-
terest of Glasgow to give him, rather than his to solicit the appointment." The
father died in 1782, and the son Mas then left the successor to his lucrative and
extensive practice, in addition to the duties of the university. During the short
period of his enjoyment of these desirable situations, he received from the
poorer people of Glasgow, the character, seldom improperly bestowed, of ex-
tending to them the assistance, which a physician of talent can so well bestow.
He kept for the purpose of his lectures, and for his own improvement, a regular
note-book of ^ases, which he summed up in a tabular digest at the termination
of eacli year. Of these notes, he had before his death commenced such an ar-
rangement as would enable him to form from them a system of surgery which
he intended to have published. Some extracts from this collection are pre-
served by the biographer we have mentioned, as characteristics of the style of
his composition, and the extent of his observation. In 1783, he married Miss
Elizabeth Stirling, a lady accomplished, and of good connexions in Glasgow.
Within a very few years after this event, the marked decay of his constitution
alarmed his friends, and his knowledge as a physician enabled him to assure
himself that death was steadily approaching. He died on the 13th day of
March, 1790, in the 3 2d year of his age. Few, even of those who have de-
parted in the pride of life — in the enjoyment of talents, hopes, and prosperity,
seem to have caused greater regret, and it cannot be doubted that it was de-
served. His manner as a public instructor is thus described by Mr Cleghorn :
" As a lecturer, his manner was remarkably free from pomp and affectation.
His language was simple and perspicuous, but so artless, that it appeared flat to
those who place the beauty of language in the intricacy of arrangement, or the
abundance of figures. His manner of speaking corresponded with his style,
and was such as might appear uninteresting to those who think it impossible to
be eloquent without violent gestures, and frequent variations of tone. He used
nearly the tone of ordinary conversation, as his preceptor Dr Hunter did before
him, aiming at perspicuity only, and trusting for attention to the importance of
the subjects he treated."

HAMILTON, William, of Bangour, a poet of considerable merit, was the
second son of James Hamilton, Esq. of Bangour, advocate, and was born at
Bangour in 1704. He was descended from the Hamiltons of Little Earnock
in Ayrshire ; his great-grandfather James Hamilton, (second son of John Hamil-
ton of Little Earnock,) being the founder of the family of Bangour. On the
death of his brother (who married Elizabeth Dalrymple) without issue, in
1750, the subject of this memoir succeeded to the estate. Born in
elevated circumstances and in polished society, Mr Hamilton received all
the accomplishments which a liberal education, with these advantages, could
afford ; and although exposedgas all young persons of his rank usually are, to
the light dissipations of gay life, he resisted every temptation, and in a great
measure dedicated his time to the improvement of his mind. The state of his
health, which was always delicate, and his natural temperament, leading him to
prefer privacy and 6tudy to mixing frequently in society, he early acquired a
taste for literature, and he soon obtained a thorough and extensive acquaintance
with the best authors, ancient and modern. The leaning of his mind was towards
poetry, and he early composed many pieces of distinguished merit. Encouraged
by the approbation of his friends, as well as conscious of his own powers, he was
easily induced to persevere in the cultivation of his poetic powers. Many of his

8 WILLIAM HAMILTON.

songs breathe the true spirit of Scottish melody, especially his far-famed " Brae*
of Yarrow."

Thus in calm retirement, and in the pursuit of knowledge, his life might have
passed serenely, undisturbed by the calls of ambition or the toils and alarms of
war, had it not been for the ill-judged but chivalrous attempt of an adventurous
prince to recover the throne of his ancestors from what was considered the grasp
of an usurper. At the commencement of the insurrection of 1745, Mr Hamil-
ton, undeterred by the attainder and exile of his brother-in-law the earl of
Carnwath,1 for his share in the rebellion in 1715, took the side which all brave
and generous men of a certain class in those days were apt to take ; he joined
the standard of prince Charles, and celebrated his first success at Prestonpans in
the well-known Jacobite ode of " Gladsmuir." After the battle of Culloden, so-
disastrous to the prince and his followers, he fled to the mountain and the glen ;
and there for a time, endured much wandering and many hardships. Finally,
however, he succeeded, with some others in the same proscribed situation, in
escaping into France. But his exile was short. He had many friends and
admirers among the adherents of king George, and through their intercession
his pardon was speedily procured from government. He accordingly returned
home, and resumed possession of his paternal estate. His health, however, at all
times weak, by the hardships he had endured, as well as from his anxiety of
mind, had now become doubly so, and required the benefit of a warmer climate.
He therefore soon afterwards returned to the continent, and for the latter years
of his life, took up his residence at Lyons, where a slow consumption carried
him off, on the 25th March, 1754, in the fiftieth year of his age. His corpse
was brought to Scotland, and interred in the Abbey church of Holyrood.

Mr Hamilton was twice married, into families of distinction, and by his first
lady, a daughter of Sir James Hall of Dunglass, baronet, he had issue one son,
James, who succeeded him.

Though Mr Hamilton's works do not place him among the highest class of
Scottish poets, he is fully entitled to rank among those of a secondary order.
What was much in his favour, certainly not in furtherance of his facility of com-
position, but as an advantage to his fame, is, that for a whole century previous
to the time he began to write, few names of any consequence were known in
Scottish poetry. From 1615 till 17 15 no poet of any note — except only Drum-
mond and Stirling — had appeared.

From the days of Buchanan, the only other poets we could then boast of,
following the example of that leading intellect, had composed in a language
utterly opposite to their own, in construction, copiousness, and facility — we mean
the Latin : and inferior poets as well as inferior scholars to Hamilton, in com-
pliment to the reigning fashion, continued to use that didactic and difficult lan-
guage for the expression of their sentiments. Hamilton, therefore, had much
to overcome in entering the lists as an original writer in his own language, the
elegance, the purity, and the freedom, though perhaps not the force nor the
energy, of which he understood so well. He was convinced that the greater part, if
not the whole, of those authors who preferred composing in a dead language would
be utterly unknown to posterity, except perhaps to a few of the literati and the
learned. But at the dawn of the eighteenth century the scholastic spell was at
length broken, and Hamilton and Ramsay Avere among the first who gave utter-
ance to their feelings, the one in English and the other in his native Scottish
dialect ; and this perhaps, even to the present day constitutes the principal cause
of their fame. It may safely be asserted that in the works of Hamilton and Ram-
say there is more genuine poetry, than in the works of the whole century of
1 The earl married, as his third wife, Margaret, the poet's sister.

"WILLIAM HAMILTON.

Latin poets who preceded ibeni ; though this may be denied by those classic
readers, who are still in the habit of poring into the lucubrations of those authors,
the greater part of whom have long ceased to be known to the general reader,
while tbe works of Hamilton and Ramsay are still read and admired.

Mr Hamilton's poems were first published by Foulis, at Glasgow, in 174S,
I 2mo, and afterwards reprinted ; but this volume was a pirated publication, and
appeared not only without his name, but without his consent, and even without his
knowledge ; and as might have been expected, it abounded in errors. He
was then abroad, end it was thought the appearance of that collection would hare
produced from him a more perfect edition : but though on his return he cor-
rected many errors, and considerably enlarged some of the poems, he did not
live to furnish a new and complete edition. It remained therefore for his friends,
after his death, to publish from his original manuscripts the first genuine and
correct collection of his works. It appeared in one volume small Svo, at Edin-
burgh, in 1760, with ahead by Strange, who had been a fellow adventurer with
him in the cause of prince Charles. '

1 his volume did not at first attract any particular notice, and his poems were
rapidly fading from public remembrance, when an attempt was made by the late
professor Richardson of Glasgow, to direct the attention of the public to his
merits. In a very able criticism from the pen of that gentleman which appeared
in the Lounger, among other observations no less just, the following formed one
of his principal remarks : " The poems of Hamilton display regular design, just
sentiments, fanciful invention, pleasing sensibility, elegant diction, and smooth
versification." Mr Richardson then enters into an analysis of Hamilton's prin-
cipal poem of " Contemplation," or " the Triumph of Love." He descants
chiefly on the quality of fanciful invention, as being the principal characteristic
of poetical composition. He says " that Mr Hamilton's imagination is employed
among beautiful and engaging, rather than among awful and magnificent images,
and even when he presents us with dignified objects, he is more grave than
lofty, more solemn than sublime." — " It is not asserted," continues Mr Richard-
son, in illustrating the ' pleasing sensibility' he ascribes to Hamilton, " that he
displays those vehement tumults and ecstasies of passion that belong to the higher
kind of lyric and dramatic composition. He is not shaken with excessive rage,
nor melted with overwhelming sorrow ; yet when he treats of grave or affecting
subjects, he expresses a plaintive and engaging softness. He is never violent
and abrupt, and is more tender than pathetic Perhaps ' The Braes of Yarrow?
one of the finest ballads ever written, may put in a claim to superior distinction.
But even with this exception, I should think our poet more remarkable for
engaging tenderness than for deep and affecting pathos. In like manner, when
he expresses the joyful sentiments, or describes scenes and objects of festivity,
which he does very often, he displays good humour and easy cheerfulness, rathet
than the transports of mirth or the brilliancy of wit."

Mr Richardson, in illustration of these characteristics, quotes some passages
which conveys the most favourable impression of Mr Hamilton's poetical powers.

Mr M'Kenzie, the ingenious editor of the Lounger, enforced the judgment
pronounced by Mr Richardson, in a note, in which he not only fully agrees w i th
him, but even goes farther in Mr Hamilton's praise. Lord Woodhouselee was
also among the first to acknowledge his excellence and vindicate his fame. He
thus speaks of Mr Hamilton in his life of lord Karnes, " Mr Hamilton's mind
is pictured in his verses. They are the easy and careless effusions of an elegant
fancy, and a chastened taste ; and the sentiments they convey are the genuine
feelings of a tender and susceptible heart, which perpetually owned the dominion
of some favourite mistress : but whose passion generally evaporated in song, and

10 WILLIAM HAMILTON.

made no serious or permanent impression. His poems had an additional charm
to his contemporaries, from being commonly addressed to his familiar friends of
either sex, by name. There are few minds insensible to the soothing flattery of
a poet's record." .

These authorities in Hamilton's favour are high and powerful, and it might
have been expected that, with his own merits, they might have obtained for him
a greater share of popularity than has fallen to his lot : but notwithstanding
these and other no less favourable testimonies, the attention of the public was
never steadily fixed upon his works. And although they have been inserted
in Johnson and Chalmers' edition of the English poets, there has been no demand
for a separate edition ; nor is Hamilton among those writers, whom we often
hear quoted by the learned or the gay.

As a first adventurer in English literature, rejecting altogether the scholastic
school of poetry, Mr Hamilton must be allowed to have obtained no ordinary suc-
cess. In his language he shows nearly all the purity of a native ; his diction is vari-
ous and powerful, and his versification but rarely tainted with provincial errors.
He delights indeed in a class of words, which though not rejected by the best
English°writers, have a certain insipidity which only a refined English ear, per-
haps, can perceive ; such as beauteous, dubious, duteous, and even melancholious ^ !
The same peculiarity may be remarked of most of the early Scottish writers in
the English language. In Thomson it is particularly observable. We also some-
times meet in Hamilton with false quantities ; but they seem oftener to proceed
from making a Procrustian of a poetic license, than from ignorance or inadver-
tence, as in the following verse :

" Where'er the beauteous heart-compeller moves,
• She scatters wide perdition all around :

Blest with celestial form, and crown 'd with loves,
No single breast is refractory found."

If he had made the " refractory " precede the " is," so as to have rendered
the latter the penultimate in this line, the euphony and the rhythm would have
been complete : but in his days, we believe, this word was accented on the first
syllable.

Lord Woodhouselee calls Hamilton's poems the " easy and careless effusions
of an elegant fancy, and a chastened taste." This does not quite agree with the
" regidar design? which Richardson discovers in them ; nor indeed with what
his lordship himself tells us elsewhere, that * it appears from Hamilton's letters
that he communicated his poems to his friends for their critical remarks, and was
easily induced to alter or amend them by their advice. " Contemplation," for
instance, he sent to Mr Home (lord Karnes), with whom he lived in the closest
habits of friendship, who suggested some alterations, which were thus acknow-
ledged in a letter from Hamilton, dated July, 1739 : " I have made the correc-
tions on the moral part of ' Contemplation,' and in a post I will send it to
Will Crawford, who has the rest" Mr Hamilton had evidently too passionate a
devotion to the muses, to be careless of his attentions to them. The writing of
poetry, indeed, seems to have formed the chief business of his life. Almost the
whole of his poems are of an amatory cast : and even in his more serious pieces,
a tone of love, like a thread of silver, runs through them. It would seem, how-
ever, that to him love, with all its pangs, was only a poet's dream. Perhaps the
following is the best illustration of the caprice and inconstancy of his affection.
In a letter to 3Ir Home, dated September, 1748, in answer to one from that
gentleman regarding some remarks on Horace, of the same tenor, it would
appear, as those which he afterwards published in his Elements of Criticism, Mr

WILLIAM HAMILTON. 11

Hamilton after alluding to these remarks thus questions himself: " Why don't I
rest contented with the small, perhaps, but sincere portion of that happiness
furnished me by my -poetry, and a few friends ? Why concern myself to please
Jeanie Stewart, or vex myself about that happier man, to whom the lottery of
life may have assigned her. Qui Jit, Mcecenas, qui fit ? Whence conies it. Alas
whence indeed?

* Too long by love, a wandering fire, misled,
My better days in vain delusion fled :
Day after day, year after year, withdrew,
And beauty blest the minutes as they flew^
Those hours consumed in joy, but lost to fame,
With blushes I review, but dare not blame;
A fault which easy pardon might receive,
Did lovers judge, or could the wise forgive :
But now to wisdom's healing springs I fly,
And drink oblivion of each charmful eye :
To love revolted, quit each pleasing care,
Whate'er was witty, or whate'er was fair.'

I am yours, &a"

The " Jeanie Stewart" above alluded to complained to Mr Home, that she
was teased with Mr Hamilton's continually dangling after her. She was con-
vinced, she said, that his attentions to her had no serious aim, and she hinted an
ear-nest wish to get rid of him. " You are his friend," she added, " tell him he
exposes both himself and me to the ridicule of our acquaintance." — ''No, madam,"
said Mr Home, who knew how to appreciate the fervour of Mr Hamilton's pas-
sion, * you shall accomplish his cure yourself, and by the simplest method.
Dance with him to-night at the assembly, and show him every mark of your
kindness, as if you believed his passion sincere, and had resolved to favour his
suit. Take my word for it, you'll hear no more of him." The lady adopted
the counsel, and she had no reason to complain of the success of the experi-
ment.1

In poetry, however, no one could paint a warmer love, or breathe a fiercer
flame. In some rather conceited lines, " upon hearing his picture was in a
lady's breast," he chides it for

" Engrossing all that beauteous heaven,
That Chloe, lavish maid, lias given ;"

And then passionately exclaims, that, if he were the lord of that bosom —

■ Vd be a miser too, nor give
An alms to keep a god alice."

A noble burst of fancy and enthusiasm ! A most expressive image of the bound-
less avarice of love.

Of Mr Hamilton's poems not devoted to love, the most deserving of notice is
" The Episode of the Thistle," which appear-s intended as part of a larger work
never completed, called " The Flowers." It is an ingenious attempt, by a well
devised fable, to account for the selection of the thistle, as the national emblem
of Scotland. The blank verse Avhich he has chosen for this uncomplete poem,
does not seem to have been altogether adapted to his powers ; yet, on reading

i." Bonnie Jeanie Stewart of Torsonce," as she was here fully described in ordinary par-
lance, married the earl of Dundonald, and was' mother of the late ingenious earl, so distinguished
by his scientific investigations, and by the generally unfortunate tenor of his life.

12

WILLIAM HAMILTON.

the piece, we were equally surprised and pleased with the felicity and modulation
of its language.

The only poem which Mr Hamilton wrote in his native dialect was the
" Braes of Yarrow," which has been almost universally acknowledged to be one
of the finest ballads ever written. But Mr Pinkerton, whose opinion of the
ancient ballad poetry of Scotland has always had considerable weight, has pass-
ed a different judgment on it. " It is," says he, "in very bad taste, and quite
unlike the ancient Scottish manner, being even inferior to the poorest of the
old ballads with this title. His repeated words and lines causing an eternal
jingle, his confused narration and affected pathos, throw this piece among the
rubbish of poetry." The jingle and affected pathos of which he complains are
sometimes indeed sickening.

"Lang maun she weep, lang maun she, maun she weep,
Lang maun she weep with dule and sorrow," &c.
" Then build, then build, ye sisters, sisters sad,
Ye sisters sad, his tomb with sorrow," &c.

On the other hand, the isolated condemnation of Mr Pinkerton must be al-
lowed to have little weight against the interest with which this poem has so sig-
nally impressed Mr Wordsworth, as appears from his beautiful poems of " Yar-
row Unvisited " and ** Yarrow Visited."

There exists in manuscript another fragmentary poem by Mr Hamilton,
called the " Maid of Gallowshiels." It is an epic of the heroi-comic kind,
intended to celebrate the contest between a piper and a fiddler for the fair
Maid of Gallowshiels. Mr Hamilton had evidently designed to extend it to
twelve books, but has only completed the first and a portion of the second.
Dr Leyden, who owns himself indebted to the friendship of Dr Robert Ander-
son for his knowledge of this MS., gives the following account of it in his
preface to the " Complaynt of Scotland." " In the first (book) the fiddler chal-
lenges the piper to a trial of musical skill, and proposes that the maid herself
should be the umpire of the contest.

1 Sole in her breast, the favourite he shall reign
Whose hand shall sweetest wake the warbled strain;
And if to me th' ill-fated piper yield,
As sure I trust, this well-contested field -,
High in the sacred dome his pipes I'll raise,
The trophy of my fame to after days ;
That all may know, as they the pipes survey,
The fiddler's deed, and this the signal day.

All Gallowshiels the darling challenge heard,
Full blank they stood, and for their piper fear'd :
Fearless alone he rose in open view,
And in the midst his sounding bngpipc threw.'

The history of the two heroes is related with various episodes ; and the
piper deduces his origin from Colin of Gallowshiels, who bore the identical blur-
pipe at the battle of Harlaw, with which his descendant resolves to maintain the
glory of the piper race. The second book, the subject of which is the trial of
skill, commences with the following exquisite description of the bagpipe :

• Now, in his artful hand the bagpipe laid,
Elate, the piper wide surveys the field ;
O'er all he throws his quick-discerning eyes,
And views their hopes and fears alternate rise ;

WILLIAM HAMILTON". 13

Old Glenderule, in Gallowshiels long fam'd
For works of skill, this perfect wonder fram'd ;
His shining steel first lopp'd, with dexterous toil,
From a tall spreading elm the branchy spoil;
The clouded wood, he next divides in twain,
And smoothes them equal to an oval plain ;
Six leather folds in still connected rows
To either plank ccnform'd, the sides compose ;
The wimble perforates the base with care,
A destin'd passage opening to the air :
But once inclosed within the narrow space,
The opposing valve forbids the backward race;
Fast to the swelling bag, two reeds combin'd,
Receive the blasts of the melodious wind ;
Round from the twining loom, with skill divine,
Embost, the joints in silver circles shine;
In secret prison pent, the accents lie,
Untillhis arm the lab'ring artist ply:
Then, duteous, they forsake their dark abode,
Felons no more, and wing a separate road ;
These upward through the narrow channel glide,
In ways unseen, a solemn murmuring tide :
Those through the narrow part their journey bend,
Of sweeter sort, and to the earth descend ;
O'er the small pipe at equal distance lie,
Eight shining holes, o'er which his fingers fly ;
From side to side the aerial spirit bounds,
The flying fingers form the passing sounds,
That, issuing gently through each polish 'd door,
Mix with the common air, and charm no more.*

*{ This poem, however, does not seem ever to have been corrected, and the
extracts we have given are from the first rude draft of it It would be unfair,
therefore, to consider it as a test of 3Ir Hamilton's powers, though had he lived
to complete it, we do not doubt, from the germs of excellence it evinces, but
that it would have been a fitter criterion than any other of his works."

Mr Hamilton's poems, notwithstanding the melody of his numbers and the
gayety of his fancy, bear all the marks of studious productions ; and the ease
whch they undoubtedly possess, is the ease resulting from elaboration and
art. To this, in a great measure, his circumstantiality of painting is to be attri-
buted.

The measure which Mr Hamilton was most partial to, is the octosyllabic ; and
certainly this being the smoothest and most euphonious, it best suited the refine-
ment of his mind. He sometimes, however, attempted the decasyllabic measure ;
but here, as in his soaring to a greater height in his subjects, lie did not
succeed so well. His blank verse, like his conception, is without grandeur —
without ease — without dignity : it is surcharged, rugged, and verbose. Of this
he was himself aware, for he seldom attempted to clothe his sentiments in the
style which was perfected by Milton and Shakspeare.

3Ir Hamilton's amatory poetry abounds with " quaint conceits," and pleasing
fancies : for example, in dedicating ** Contemplation" to a young lady, speaking
of the effects of unsuccessful love, he says,

" Gloomy and dark the prospect round appears ;
Doubts spring from doubts, and fears engender fears,

14 WILLIAM HAMILTON.

Hope after hope goes out in endless night,
And all is anguish, torture, and affright.
Oh ! beauteous friend, a gentler fate be thine ;
Still may thy star with mildest influence shine j
May heaven surround thee with peculiar care,
And make thee happy, as it made thee fair."

Acain, speaking of mutual affection, he calls it

" A mutual warmth that glows from breast to breast,
Who loving is belov'd, and blessing blest."

Can any thing be finer than the following couplet, with which he concludes an
ardent aspiration for her happiness ! " Such," he says, " be thy happy lot," is
the fond wish of him,

!' Whose faithful muse inspir'd the pious prayer,
And wearied heaven to keep thee in its care."

The poem of " Contemplation" itself is full of beauties. Among his odes
there is one " to fancy," in which his lively imagination and exquisite delicacy
of sentiment, shine out to the greatest advantage. His descriptions of female
loveliness are worthy of the subject — they are characterized by sweetness,
beauty, and truth. What can surpass this image ?

M Her soul, awak'ning every grace,
Is all abroad upon her face ;
In bloom of youth still to survive,
AU charms are there, and all alive."

And in recording in his verses the name and the beauty of another of his mis-
tresses, he says that " his song " will " make her live beyond the grave :"

" Thus Hume shall unborn hearts engage,
Her smile shall warm another age."

But with all this praise of his quieter and more engaging style, we must admit
that his poems, even the most perfect, abound in errors. Many of his questions
are very strange, nay some of them ludicrous :

" Ah ! when we see the bad prefcrr'd,
Was it eternal justice err'd."

u Or when the good could not prevail,
How could almighty prowess fail 1"

■ When time shall let his curtain fall,
Must dreary nothing swallow all ?"

41 Must we the unfinish'd piece deplore,
Ere half the pompous piece be o'er."

What is the meaning of these questions, or have they any ?

Mr Hamilton's correspondence with his friends was varied and extensive,
but seldom very important. He wrote for writing's sake, and his letters, there-
fore, are just so many little pieces of friendly gossip. Of those poets who were
his contemporaries, or who immediately succeeded him, some have taken notice
of him in their works. The most distinguished of those is the unfortunate Fer«
gusson, who in his u Hame Content," thus alludes to Hamilton on his death :

" O Bangour 1 now the hills and dales,
Nae mair gie back thy tender tales ;

ANDREW HART.— HENRY (Blind Harry). 15

The birks on Yarrow now deplore,
Thy mournful muse has left the shore j
Near what bright burn, or chrystal spring-,
Did 30U your winsome whistle lung }
The Muse shall there, wi' wat'ry e'e,
Gie the dank swaird a tear for thee ;
And Yarrow's genius, dowy dame 1
Shall there forget her blood-stain'd stream,
On thy sad grave to seek repose,
"Wha mourn 'd her fate, condol'd her woes."

Mr Hamilton of Bangour is sometimes mistaken for and identified with
another poet of the same name, William Hamilton of Gilbertjield in Lanark-
shire, a lieutenant in the navy, who was the friend and correspondent of Allan
Bamsay, and the modernizer of Blind Harry's poem of Wallace. The composi-
tions of this gentleman display much beauty, simplicity, and sweetness ; but he
is neither so well known, nor entitled to be so, as the " Bard of Yarrow."

Mr Hamilton's private virtues were no less eminent than his poetical abilities.
His piety, though fervent, was of that quiet and subdued cast that u does good
by stealth, and blushes to find it fame." His manners were accomplished — in-
deed so much so, as to earn for him the title of ** the elegant and amiable Wil-
liam Hamilton of Bangour." *

HART, Andrew, deserves a place in this record, as one of the most distin-
guished of our early typographers. He flourished in the reign of James VI.
Previous to 1600, lie was in the habit of importing books from abroad ; he was
at this time exclusively a bookseller. From a mere bookseller he seems to
have gradually become a publisher : several books were printed in Holland
about the yeacs 1600 and 1601, " at his expense." Finally, he added the
business of printing to his other dealings. The productions of his press specify
that his shop was in the High Street of Edinburgh, on the north side, opposite the
cross ; being, by a strange chance, the identical spot, from which Mr Archibald
Constable, two hundi-ed years after, issued so many noble efforts of Scottish
genius. Hart's edition of the Bible, 1610, has always been admired for its fine
typography. He also published a well-known edition of Barbour's Bruce. In
addition to all other claims upon our praise, Hart was a worthy man. He died
in a good old age, December, 1621, as we learn from a notice in Boyd of
Trochrig's Obituary, quoted below.2

HENRY, the minstrel, more commonly styled Blind Habrt, was a wandering
poet of the fifteenth century, who wrote a well-known narrative of the life of
Sir William Wallace.

The character 'of a wandering bard or minstrel was in early ages highly
valued and honoured, although at a late period it fell into discredit. Henry
the Minstrel, or Blind Harrt, had not the fortune to live during the sunshine
of his profession ; for in the Scottish laws of his own time, we find bards classed
with u vagabondis, fuilis, and sic like idill peopill ;" but the misfortune of his
blindness, and the unquestionable excellence of his talents, would in all proba-
bility secure to him a degree of respect and attention which was not then gener-
ally bestowed on individuals of his class. Indeed, we learn from Major, that
the most exalted in the land countenanced the minsti'el, and that he recited his

1 A manuscript, containing many poems by Hamilton which never saw the light, was in
the possession of the late George Chalmers, Esq. author of " Caledonia." A list of them is
given in the transactions of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland, vol. hi., where a portrait of
Mr Hamilton has also been given.

* Le moy de Dec. 1621, mourut a Edin. le bon homme, Andrew Hart, impremeur et
libraire ; decide en bonne veillesse ; homme de bien et notre ancien amy.

1G HENRY (Blind ITarky).

poetical narratives before them. Major is the only writer from whom any
information regarding Blind Harry is derived, and the meagreness of that infor-
mation may be judged of, when it is known, that the whole is comprised in the
following brief sentence. " Integrum librum Gullielmi Vallacei Henricus, a
nativilate luminibus captus, meae infantiaj tempore cudit ; et qua? vulgo diceban-
tur carmine vulgari, in quo peritus erat, conscrinsit ; (ego autem talibus scriptis
solum in parte fidein impertior ;) qui historiarum recitatione coram principibus
victum et vestitum quo dignus erat nactus est."1 — " Henry, who was blind from
his birth in the time of my infancy composed the whole book of William Wal-
lace ; and committed to writing in vulgar poetry, in which he was well skilled,
the things that were commonly related of him. For my own part, I give only
partial credit to writings of this description. By the recitation of these, how-
ever in the presence of men of the highest rank, he procured, as ho indeed
deserved, food and raiment."

Brief, however, as this passage is, we gather from it the principal points of
Henry's life namely, that he was born blind — that he was well skilled in ver-
nacular poetry that he composed the book of William Wallace — and that by

recitino- it he procured food and raiment. The passage, also, is the only source
from which we can learn the date of the poem or the period when its author
flourished. Major was born in the year 1469, and as he says that the book of
William Wallace was composed in his infancy, Blind Harry must have lived
about that time, and the date of this work may be placed between 1470 and
14S0. More than this, regarding the biography of a once popular poet, and
or.e whose name is still familiar in the mouths of his countrymen, cannot be
ascertained. Of the book itself, a few observations may be taken.

** That a man," says Mr Ellis,2 born blind should excel in any science is
extraordinary, though by no means without example : but that he should become
an excellent poet is almost miraculous ; because the soul of poetry is description.
Perhaps, therefore, it may be easily assumed that Henry was not inferior in
point of genius either to Barbour or Chaucer, nor indeed to any poet of any age
or country." The question of what a man might have been under certain cir-
cumstances, is one of assumption altogether, and is too frequently used by indi-
viduals regarding themselves as a salve for their indolence and imperfections.
Neither can we admit that description is the soul of poetry : we consider it rather
as the outward gax'b or frame-work of the divine art, which unless inspired by an
inward spirit of contemplation, has no further charm than a chronicle or gazet-
teer. Milton was blind when he composed Paradise Lost, and although he had
the advantage of Henry in that he once saw, yet we have often heard his calamity
adduced, to increase our wonder and admiration of his great work, whereas, had
he retained his eyesight, Paradise Lost would probably never have been finished,
or, if finished, might not have proved, as it has done, one of the noblest produc-
tions which a human being ever laid before his fellow creatures. Although, how-
ever, we disapprove of assuming a possible excellence in Henry had he been
blessed with vision, it would be unjust not to acknowledge the disadvantages
under which his poem has come down to us. He himself could not write it ; noi
is there any probability that it was regularly taken down from his dictation ; the
incorrectness and unintelligibility of many of its passages rather prove that much
of it must have been written from recollection, while editors have, in too many
instances, from gross misapprehensions, succeeded in rendering absurd what was
previously only obscure. With all this, the poem is still of extraordinary merit
—and, as a poem, is superior to Barbour's or Winton's. In an historical light,

i Hist. lib. |t. c. 15.

* "Specimens oi" Early English Poets," voL i.

I

Jin^rsred- by S.&esman

ALEMNPEI MOPEMOFSn

PROM

ALEXANDER HENDERSON. 17

doubtless, its value can never be put in competition with the works of the above
authors ; it is rather a romance than a history, and is full of exaggerations and
anachronisms ; the narrative Henry professes to have derived from a complete
history of Wallace (now lost) written, in Latin, partly by John Blair and partly
by Thomas Gray ; and this circumstance, if true, exculpates the poet from the
invention at least of its manifold and manifest absurdities. His information
seems to have been, for the period, respectable. In his poem he alludes to the
history of Hector, of Alexander the Great, of Julius Caesar, and of Charlemagne ;
but without profiting from the character which these heroes exhibited in history,
of policy combined with prowess and bravery, he has in his book taken the child-
ish or gross conception of a warrior, and held up Sir William Wallace as a mere
man of muscular strength and ferocity — capable of hewing down whole squadrons
with his single arm, and delighting in the most merciless scenes of blood ai.d
slaughter. It is in this point that the Minstrel is so far inferior to Barbour. He
is destitute of that fine balancing of character displayed by the latter, and those
broad political views which render " The Bruce" as much a philosophical his-
tory as a poem.3

HENDERSON, Alexander, one of the most eminent of the many eminent
men whose names are interwoven with the annals of Scotland at probably the
most interesting period of her history, (the middle of the 17th century,) was born
about the year 1583. He is supposed to have been descended from the Hender-
sons of Fordel, " a house," says Wodrow, " of good quality in Fife." Of his
early life there is little farther known than that he was distinguished for his
assiduity and progress in learning, in which he greatly excelled all his school
fellows. Having been sent to the university of St Andrews to complete his
studies, he there went through the ordinary routine of learning, but with much
more than ordinary reputation, a circumstance sufficiently evinced by his having
been made master of arts, and soon after admitted regent or professor of philo-
sophy. As this appointment took place previous to the year 1611, when he
could not be more than eight and twenty years of age, it is evident that Hen-
derson was already considered a man of no common attainments. The situation
of i rofessor of philosophy he held for several years, discharging its duties with
a zeal and ability which acquired him much reputation.

It is not surprising to find, that at this period of his life lie was a strenuous
advocate for the dominant or episcopal party in the church. His patrons
hitherto were of that party. He had long associated with men who entertained
its principles, and, unable to foresee the great changes which were about to take
place in the civil and religious polity of the kingdom, as well as that which
afterwards happened in his own private sentiments, he naturally enough, while
perfectly sincere in the opinions which he then entertained on religious matters,
conceived besides, that in the direction of these opinions, and in that direction
alone, lay the road to preferment. Inspired by the ambition of a mind con-
scious of its powers, Henderson, after the lapse of a few years, becoming impa-
tient of the circumscribed sphere to which a professorship of philosophy confined

3 In his work, entitled "Lives of Scottish Worthies," Mr P. F. Tytler has expressed
his deliberate conviction, founded upon recent investigations, that the minstrel holds too low a
rank as a credit-worthy historian. " 1 am persuaded,'' says Mr Tytler, " that Wallace is
the work of an ignorant man, who was yet in possession of valuable and authentic materials.
On what other supposition can we account for the fact, that whilst in one page we meet witli
errors which show a deplorable perversion of history, in the next we find circumstances unknown
to other Scottish historians, yet corroborated by authentic documents, by contemporary English
annalists, by national monuments and records only published in modern times, and *« which
the minstrel cannot be supposed to have had access. The work, therefore, cannot be treated
as an entire romance." The ingenious historian then adduces a number of instances in which
Henrv's statements are proved by lately discovered documents to have been correct,
iii. c

18 ALEXANDER HENDERSON.

him, turned his attention to divinity, as opening a wider field for the exercise
of his talents.

After preparing himself for the ministerial calling, he was appointed to the
church of Leuchars, in Fife, through the patronage of archbishop Gladstanes.
His appointment, however, was exceedingly unpopular: all his talents and
learning could not reconcile his parishioners to a man introduced amongst them
by episcopal influence, and who was known to be himself of that detested party.
The consequence was, that on the day of his ordination he was received with
every mark of popular dislike. The church doors were shut against him and
carefully secured in the inside, to prevent all possibility of admittance. Deter-
mined, however, in despite of these very manifest tokens of public feeling, to
perform the ceremony of ordination, Henderson's party entered the church by a
window, and proceeded with the business of the day.

Whatever were Mr Henderson's other merits, and these were certainly of no
ordinary kind, it is known that any extraordinary anxiety about the spiritual
interests of his parishioners was not amongst the number. At this period of his
life, in short, although not remarkable for the reverse, he seems to have been
but slightly impressed with the sacredness of his new calling, and to have taken
but little farther interest in matters of religion, than abiding by the general
principles in which he had been educated. This conduct, however, and these
sentiments were soon to undergo a remarkable change, and that under circum-
stances in themselves not less remarkable. Having learned that the celebrated
Mr Bruce of Kinnaird was to assist at a communion in the neighbourhood ot
Leuchars, Henderson, desirous of hearing the preaching of a man who had long
been conspicuous as an opponent of the court measures, and whose fame for
peculiar gifts in matters of theology was widely spread, repaired to the church
where he was officiating. Not choosing, however, to be recognized, he sought to
conceal himself in a dark corner of the building. Bruce, nevertheless, seems to
have been aware of his presence ; or, if not, there was a singular coincidence in
the applicability of the text which he chose, to the remarkable circumstances
which attended Henderson's induction to his charge. Be this as it may, the
sermon which followed made such a powerful impression upon him as effected an
entire change in his religious conduct and sentiments ; and from being a careless
and indifferent pastor over his flock, and an upholder of a system odious in the
highest degree to the people, he became a watchful and earnest minister, and a
resolute champion in the cause of presbyterianism.

In three years after his appointment to Leuchars parish, which took place
some time previous to the year 1615, Mr Henderson, though sedulous in the
discharge of his ministerial duties since the period of his conversion, made no
public appearance on the side of that party whose principles he had embraced.
The opportunity, however, which was all that was wanting for his making such
an appearance, at length presented itself. In August, 1618, the celebrated Five
articles of Perth, which occasioned so much clamour in Scotland, from their con-
taining as many points of episcopal worship, which James was desirous of
thrusting on the people of that kingdom, having been carried by a packed
majority in an assembly held at Perth, Henderson stood among the foremost of
those who opposed, though unsuccessfully, the obnoxious measure ; and this too,
in defiance of the king's utmost wrath, with which all who resisted the adoption
of the Five articles were threatened. ** In case of your refusal," said the arch-
bishop of St Andrews, addressing the assembled clergymen, " the whole order
and estate of your church will be overthrown, some ministers will be banished,
others will be deprived of their stipends and office, and all will be brought under
the wrath of authority."

ALEXANDER HENDERSON. 19

Not at all intimidated by this insolent and indecent threat, Henderson with
several of his brethren courageously opposed the intended innovations.
For this resistance, to which was added a cliarge of composing and publishing a
book against the validity of the Perth assembly, he was with other two ministers
summoned in the month of August, 1G19, to appear before the court of High
Commission in St Andrews. Obeying the summons, Henderson and his brethren
presented themselves before the bishops, when the former conducted himself with
such intrepidity, and discussed the various matters charged against him and his
colleagues with such talent and force of reasoning, that his judges, though they
eagerly sought it, could gain no advantage over him, and were obliged to con-
tent themselves with threatening, that if he again offended he should be more
hardly dealt with. With this intimation Henderson and his friends were dis-
missed. From this period to the year 1637, he does not appear to have
meddled much Avith any transactions of a public character. During this long
period he lived retired, confining his exertions within the bounds of his own.
parish, in which he found sufficient employment from a careful and anxious dis-
charge of his pastoral duties. Obscure and sequestered, however, as the place
of his ministry was, his fame as a man of singular capacity, and as an eloquent
and powerful debater, was already abroad and widely known ; and when the
hour of trial came, those talents were recollected, and their possessor called upon
to employ them in the behalf of his religion.

Before, however, resuming the narrative of Mr Henderson's public career, it
may be necessary to give a brief sketch of the circumstances which induced him
to leave his retirement and to mingle once more in the religious distractions ot
the times. The unfortunate Charles I. inheriting all the religious as well as
political prejudices of his father James VI. had, upon the moment of his accession
to the throne, entertained the design of regulating church worship in Scotland
by the forms observed in that of England. In this attempt he was only follow-
ing out an idea of his father's ; but what the one with more wisdom had
little more than contemplated, the other determined to execute. Unfortunately
for Charles he found but too zealous an abettor of his dangerous and injudicious
designs in his favourite counsellor in church affairs, Laud, archbishop of Canter-
bury. Encouraged in the schemes of violence which he meditated against the
religious principles of Scotland, and urged on to their execution by Laud,
Charles, after a series of lesser inroads on the presbyterian mode of worship in
Scotland, finally, and with a rash hand fired the train which he had prepared,
and by which he set all Scotland in a blaze. This was the imposition of the
Liturgy or Service Book on the church of Scotland. This celebrated book, which
was principally composed by Wedderburn, bishop of Dunblane, and Maxwell,
bishop of Boss, and afterwards revised by Laud, and Wren, bishop of Norwich,
was grounded upon the book of common prayer used in England, but contained,
besides, some parts of the catholic ritual, such as the benediction or thanksgiving
for departed saints, the use of the cross in baptism and of the ring in the cele-
bration of marriage, the consecration of water at particular times by prayer, with
many other ordinances of a similar character. Most of these observances were
introduced by Laud when revising the original work. When the book was com-
pleted, the king gave instructions to the archbishops and bishops regarding its
introduction ; and immediately after issued a proclamation requiring his subjects,
both ecclesiastical and civil, to conform to the mode of worship which it
enjoined, concluding with an order that every parish should be furnished with
two copies, between the publication of the injunction and Easter. The book
itself, a large folio, was prefaced by a charge from the king, denouncing as
rebels all who refused it. To complete the measure of Charles's rashness on the

20 ALEXANDER HENDERSON.

subject of the service book, it was introduced into Scotland without having been
submitted to presbyteries, and without the sanction of the General Assembly.

The consequence of the introduction of the liturgy, aggravated as it was by
the manner of its introduction, was, as might have been expected, in the last
degree serious and important. The country rose nearly to a man against the
popish innovation. In Edinburgh the bishops who presided at the ceremony of
its first introduction were mobbed and maltreated : and the ministers everywhere
carefully prepared their congregations to resist the obnoxious volume. The
whole land, in short, was agitated by one violent commotion, and the minds of
men were roused into a state of feverish excitement, which threatened the most
serious results. It was at this critical moment that Henderson came again upon
the stage. In the same predicament with other clergymen, Henderson was
charged to purchase two copies of the liturgy for the use of his parish within
fifteen days, under the pain of rebellion. On receiving the charge, Henderson
immediately proceeded to Edinburgh and presented a petition to the privy
council, representing that the service book had not received the sanction of the
General Assembly nor was authorized by any act of parliament ; that the church
of Scotland was free and independent, and ought not to be dictated to except
through her own pastors, who were the proper and the best judges of what was
for her benefit ; that the form of worship received at the Reformation was still
sanctioned by the legislature and the supreme ecclesiastical judicatory, and could
not be invaded excepting by the same authority ; that some of the ceremonies
enjoined by the book had occasioned great divisions, and were extremely obnox-
ious to the people, who had been taught to hold them in abhorrence. This bold
statement Henderson concluded by soliciting a suspension of the charge. What
hope Henderson entertained that this supplication or rather remonstrance would
be formally listened to by the privy council, cannot now be ascertained. There
is no reason, however, to conclude, that he possessed any secret intelligence
regarding the real dispositions of that body. The credit, therefore, must be
awarded him of having come forward on this perilous occasion trusting tb the
strength of his cause alone, and fully prepared to meet the consequences, what-
ever they might be, of the step which he had taken. The result was more
favourable than probably either Henderson or the country expected. The
council granted the suspension required, until the king's further pleasure should
be known ; but, for the remuneration of the king's printer, ordained by an
express act, as the decision in Henderson's case was of course understood to
apply to the whole kingdom, that each parish should provide itself with two
copies of the book, but without any injunction to make use of them. The
order for reading the liturgy was also suspended, until new instructions on the
subject should be received from his majesty. The king's answer, however, to
the representations of the privy council, at once overturned all hopes of conces-
sion in the matter of the liturgy. Instead of giving way to the general feeling,
he repeated, in a still more peremptory manner than at first, his commands that
the service book should be read, and farther ordered that no burgh should choose
a magistrate which did not conform. This uncompromising and decided conduct
on the part of the king was met by a similar spirit on the part of the people,
and the path which Henderson had first taken was soon crowded by the highest
and mightiest in the land, all pushing onward with the utmost eagerness and
zeal to solicit the recall of the obnoxious liturgy, and discovering on each repulse
and on the appearance of each successive obstacle to their wishes, a stronger and
stronger disposition to have recourse to violence to accomplish their object, if
supplication should fail. On the receipt of the king's last communication on the
all-engrossing subject of the service book, the nobility, barons, ministers, and

ALEXANDER HENDERSON. 21

representatives of boroughs, presented a supplication to the privy council, in-
treating that the matter might be again brought before the king. In this and in
all other matters connected with it, Henderson took a leading part : he suggested
nnd directed all the proceedings of the nonconformists ; drew up their memo-
rials and petitions, and was, in short, at once the head and right hand of his
party, the deviser and executor of all their measures.

The result of this second supplication to the king was as unsatisfactory as the
first. The infatuated monarch, urged on by Laud, and in some measure by erro-
neous impressions regarding the real state of matters in Scotland, still maintained
his resolutions regarding the liturgy. He, however, now so far acknowledged the
appeals which had been made to him, as to have recourse to evasion instead of
direct opposition as at first, a course at all times more dangerous than its oppo-
site; inasmuch, as while it exhibits all the hostility of the latter, it is entirely
without its candour, and is destitute of that manfulness and promptitude, which,
if it does not reconcile, is very apt to subdue.

In place of giving any direct answer to the supplication of the nobility and
barons, the king instructed his privy council in Edinburgh to intimate to the
people by proclamation, that there should be nothing regarding church matters
treated of in the council for some time, and that, therefore, all persons who had
come to Edinburgh on that account, should repair to their homes within twenty-
four hours, on pain of being denounced rebels, put to tJie horn, and all their
movable goods being escheat to the king. This proclamation was immediately fol-
lowed by another, announcing an intended removal of the court of session from
Edinburgh to Linlithgow, and this again by a third, calling in, for the purpose
of being burned, a pamphlet lately published against the service book.

These proclamations, which but too plainly intimated that nothing would be
conceded to supplication, and that there was no hope of any change in the sen-
timents of the king, instantly called forth the most decided expressions of po-
pular resentment and determination. The city was at this moment filled with
strangers — noblemen, gentlemen, clergymen, and commissioners from the
different parishes, besides immense numbers of persons of inferior rank, whom
curiosity or interest in the engrossing topic of the day, had assembled in the me-
tropolis from all parts of the country. The town, thus surcharged, as it were,
with inflammable matter, soon became a scene of violence and insubordination.
The leaders of the nonconformists again met in the midst of the storm, and in
defiance of the proclamation which enjoined their departure, proceeded to deli-
berate upon the question of what was next to be done. The result was some far-
ther supplications and petitions to the privy council and to the king. These, how-
ever, being still unsuccessful, were followed up some months afterwards by a de-
termination to appeal to the people, to unite them in one common bond, and
to make the cause at once and unequivocally, the cause of the Avhole nation.
The leaders resolved to adopt a measure which should involve all in its results,
be it for good or for evil : by which, in short, not a leader or leaders, nor a
party, but an entire kingdom should stand or fall, by swearing before their God
to peril the alternative.

This measure was a renewal of the rational covenant of 15S0and 1581,
adapted, by changes and additions, to the existing circumstances. The re-
modeled document was drawn up by Mr Henderson, with the assistance of the
celebrated Archibald Johnstone, an advocate, and was first exhibited for signa-
ture, February 28th, 1638, in the Grey Friars' church in Edinburgh, where an
immense multitude had assembled, for the purpose of hailing the sacred docu-
ment, and of testifying their zeal in the cause which it was intended to support,
by subscribing it. On this occasion Henderson addressed the people with so

22 ALEXANDER HENDERSON.

much fervour and eloquence, that their feelings, already excited, were wound up
to the highest pitch, and a degree of enthusiasm pervaded the multitude which
sufficiently assured their leaders of the popularity of their cause. The instru-
ment itself which was now submitted for signature, was a roll of parchment four
feet long and three feet eight inches broad ; yet such was the general zeal for
the covenant that this immense sheet was in a short time so crowded with
names on both sides throughout its whole space, that there was not room latterly
for a single additional signature ; even the margin was scrawled over with sub-
scriptions, and as the document filled up, the subscribers were limited to the
initial letters of their names. Copies were now sent to different parts of the
kingdom, and met every where, excepting in three places to be afterwards
named, with the same enthusiastic reception which had marked its appearance in
Edinburgh, receiving thousands of signatures wherever it was exhibited. The
three excepted places were Glasgow, St Andrews, and Aberdeen. In the two
former, however, the feeling regarding the covenant amounted to little more
than indifference ; but in the latter city it was absolutely resisted. Anxious to have
the voice of all Scotland with them, and especially desirous that there should not
be so important an exception as Aberdeen, the leaders of the covenanters des-
patched several noblemen and two clergymen, one of whom was Henderson, to
that city, to attempt to reclaim it ; and this object, chiefly through the power-
ful eloquence of the subject of this memoir, they accomplished to a very con-
siderable extent, obtaining no less than five hundred signatures, many of them
of the highest respectability, immediately after the close of a discourse by 3Ir
Henderson, in which he had urged the most irresistible arguments for the sub-
scribing of the covenant. Mr Henderson was now universally acknowledged as the
head of the nonconforming Scottish clergy. On his moderation, firmness, and
talent, they reposed their hopes ; and to his judgment they left, with implicit
confidence, the guidance and direction of their united efforts. Of this feeling
towards him they were now about to afford a remarkable proof. The king,
though still without any intention of yielding to the demands of the covenan-
ters, having consented that a General Assembly should be held, empowered his
commissioner, the marquis of Hamilton, to convoke it. On the second day of
the meeting of this celebrated assembly, which sat down at Glasgow on the 21st
November, 1638, Mr Henderson was chosen moderator, without one single dis-
senting voice. To form a correct idea of the general esteem for his amiable
qualities, and the appreciation of his abilities which this appointment implied, it
is necessary to consider all the singular and important circumstances connected
with it — circumstances which altogether rendered it one of the utmost delicacy,
difficulty, and hazard. He was, at a moment of the most formidable religious
distraction, called upon to preside over an assembly whose decisions were either
to allay or to promote that distraction ; who were to discuss points of serious
difference between their sovereign and the nation ; who were to decide, in
short, whether the nation was to proclaim open war against their sovereign — a
sovereign backed by a nation of much greater power and larger population ;
an assembly by whose proceedings the religious liberties of the kingdom were
either to stand or fall, and one, in consequence, on which the eyes of the whole
people were fixed with a gaze of the deepest and most intense interest. Impor-
tant, however, and responsible as the appointment was, Henderson was found
more than equal to it, for he conducted himself on this trying occasion not only
with a prudence and resolution which increased the respect and admiration of his
own party for his character and talents, but with a forbearance and urbanity
which secured him also the esteem of those who were opposed to them. " We
have now " said Henderson at the conclusion of the eloquent and impassioned

ALEXANDER HENDERSON. 23

address which terminated the sittings of the assembly, " we have now cast
down the walls of Jericho ; let him that rebuildeth them beware of the cm*se of
Hiel the Bethelite :" a sentence which comprised typically all that had been done
and all that would be done in the event of such an attempt being made. Epis-
copacy was overthrown, the king's authority put at defiance, and such an
attitude of hostility to the court assumed as fell short only of a declaration of
open war.

Such was the accession of popularity which Henderson's conduct procured him
on this occasion, that, a day or two before the rising of the assembly, two sup-
plications were given in from two different places earnestly soliciting his pastoral
services, the one from St Andrews, the other from Edinburgh. Henderson him-
self was extremely unwilling to obey either of these calls. Strongly attached
to Leuchars, the charge to which he had been first appointed, and which he had
now held for many years, he could not reconcile himself to the idea of a re-
moval, pleading in figurative but highly expressive language, that " he was now
too old a plant to take root in another soil." The supplicants, however, with
a flattering perseverance pressed their suits, and after a strenuous contest be-
tween the two parties who sought his ministry, he acquiesced in a removal to
Edinburgh ; in favour of which the competition terminated by a majority of
seventy-five votes. He only stipulated, that when old age should overtake him,
he should be permitted to remove again to a country charge. Soon after his
removal to Edinburgh, he was promoted to be, what was then called, first or
king's minister. This change, however, in no way abated his zeal in the cause
of the covenant ; he still continued to be the oracle of his party, and still stood
with undisputed and unrivaled influence at the head of the church as now once
more reformed.

In the year after his translation to Edinburgh (1639) he was one of the com-
missioners deputed by the Scottish army, then encamped on Dunse Law, to treat
with the king, who, with his forces, had taken post at the Birks, a plain on the
English side of the Tweed, within three or four miles of Berwick. During the
whole of the various negotiations which took place at this critical and interesting
conjuncture, Henderson conducted himself with his usual ability, and moreover
with a prudence and candour which did not escape the notice of the king. One
of the well known results of these conferences was the meeting in Edinburgh of
the General Assembly in the following month of August. On this occasion the
earl of Traquair, who was now his majesty's commissioner, was extremely de-
sirous that Mr Henderson should be re-elected moderator, a sufficient proof of
the estimation in which he was held by men of all parties. The idea, however,
of a constant nioderatorship was exceedingly unpopular, and contrary to the
constitution of the church ; and the suggestion of Traquair Avas overruled to the
entire satisfaction of Mr Henderson himself, who was one of the most strenuous
opponents of the proposition. As former moderator, however, he preached to
the assembly, and towards the close of his discourse, addressed the earl of Tra-
quair— " We beseech your grace," he said, M to see that Caesar have his own ;
but let him not have what is due to God, by whom kings reign. God hath ex-
alted your grace unto many high places within these few years, and is still do-
ing so. Be thankful, and labour to exalt Christ's throne. When the Israelites
came out of Egypt they gave all the silver and gold they had carried thence for
the building of the tabernacle ; in like manner your grace must employ all your
parts and endowments for building up the church of God in this land." He
next addressed the members, urging them to persevere in the good cause, but
carefully inculcating prudence and moderation in all their doings ; for zeal, he
said, without these, was " like a ship that hath a full sail, but no rudder."

24 ALEXANDER HENDERSON.

On the 31st of the same month, (August,) Ml Henderson was called upon to
preside, in his clerical capacity, at the opening of the parliament, and on tiiat
Occasion delivered a most impressive discourse, in which he treated of the duties
and utility of governors with singular ability and judgment.

A proof still more flattering, perhaps, than any he had yet received of tlia
estimation in which his character and talents were held, was afforded him in the
following year, (1610.) Previous to this period the college of Edinburgh was
without^any presiding officer to regulate its affairs, these receiving only such
attention as might result from an annual visit of the town council. As this was
little more than a visit of ceremony, the system of education, and almost every
thing else connected with the university, was in a most deplorable condition. To
remedy these evils the town council came to the resolution of having a rector
appointed, to be chosen annually, and whose duty it should be to direct all
matters connected with the college, to keep an eye on the conduct of the prin-
cipal and professors, and to superintend the education of the students, and the
disposal of the revenues.

To this honourable and highly responsible office Mr Henderson was unani-
mously elected ; an appointment not more indicative of the general opinion
entertained of his moral qualities, than of his learning and abilities ; for besides
the merely legislative duties which were connected with it, the rector, by the con-
stitution of the office, was to be invited by the prcses at all solemn meetings of
the college, " to go before the rest in all public disputes of philosophy and
divinity."

Mr Henderson, notwithstanding his other various and important avocations,
discharged the duties of this office with an attention, ability, and judgment,
which soon placed the university on a very different footing from what it had
hitherto been. He added to and improved its buildings and its approaches, be-
stowed especial care on the education of candidates for the ministry, instituted a
professorship of oriental languages, a department which had previously been greatly
neglected, to the serious injury, in particular, of the students of divinity, whose
knowledge of the Hebrew was left to be gleaned from one short weekly lecture
on that language ; and, in short, he overlooked nothing which could contribute to
its interests and prosperity. His own personal influence, together with the high
respectability which his sagacious administration had procured for the college,
was so great, that the citizens of Edinburgh, with a spirit of emulation which was
very far from existing before, strove who should most contribute to the accom-
modation of its members. The consequence of these judicious and important
services was, that Mr Henderson was continued, by re-election, in the office of
rector till his death.

From these peaceful pin-suits Henderson was occasionally directed to take
a share in the renewed distractions of the times. The king having refused to
ratify some of the points agreed upon at the Birks, both parties again took up
arms : Charles denouncing the covenanters as rebels, marched towards Scotland
with an army ; while the latter, with three or four and twenty thousand men,
penetrated into England. Some partial successes of the Scottish army on this
occasion, together with some defections in his own, again brought the unfortu-
nate monarch to pacificatory terms with the covenanters. A conference was be-
gun at Kippon, and afterwards, as the king's presence was required in London,
transferred to that city. The commissioners who were despatched thither by the
covenanters to conclude the conference, took with them several of the most po-
pular of the clergy, and amongst these was Mr Henderson, on whose talents they
relied for all the subsidiary efforts which were at once to bring the conference
to an issue satisfactory to themselves, and to impress the English with a favour-

ALEXANDER HENDERSON. 25

able opinion of their cause. Both of these objects they accomplished, and that
in no small measure by means of the impressive eloquence and literary talents of
Mr Henderson, who, besides exerting himself in the pulpit and elsewhere in for-
warding the views of the commissioners by discourses and lectures, wrote also
several able tracts and papers which attracted much attention, and produced im-
portant effects in favour of the cause which he had come to support.

During 31r Henderson's stay in London on this occasion, he had an interview
with the king, by whom he was graciously received. The conference Mas a
private one, and although on the part of Henderson it was sought specially for
the purpose of soliciting a favour for the university of Edinburgh, it is not un-
likely that it embraced objects of much greater interest. On his return to
Edinburgh in July, 1641, having been detained in London nine months, he was
again chosen moderator of the General Assembly, then sitting at Edinburgh, and
which had removed thither from St Andrews, where it first met, for the greater
conveniency of the nobles who were attending parliament, and, a striking proof
of his importance, that it might at this critical period have the advantages of Mr
Henderson's services as moderator.

On this occasion Mr Henderson delivered to the assembly a letter from a number
of ministers in London, requesting the advice of their Scottish brethren on certain
points of church government. In some perplexity they had written, " That al-
mighty God having now of his infinite goodness raised up our hopes of removing
the yoke of episcopacy, (under which we have so long groaned,) sundry other forms
of church government are by sundry sorts of men projected to be set up in the room
thereof." Henderson was instructed to reply to this letter. In his answer he
expressed, in the name of the assembly, the deep interest which they took in
the state of what they called, by a somewhat startling association of words, the
kirk of England, and earnestly urged a uniformity in church government
throughout Britain. Soon after this (14th August) the unfortunate Charles ar-
rived in Edinburgh. Foreseeing the approaching war between himself and his
English parliament, he had come down to Scotland with the humiliating view of
paying court to the leaders of the presbyterian body, and of following up, by
personal condescensions, the concessions by which he had already recovered, for
the time at least, the favour of that party ; thus hoping to secure the aid of
Scotland when he should be assailed by his subjects at home ; — the unhappy
monarch's situation thus much resembling that of a bird closely pursued by a
hawk, and which, preferring a lesser to a greater evil, flies to man for protec-
tion. On this occasion the king appointed Mr Henderson his chaplain, and by
this well judged proceeding at once gratified the people, whose favourite preacher
he had long been, and not improbably also gratified his own predilection in his
favour, resulting from Henderson's temper and moderation in those instances
where they had been brought in contact. Henderson constantly attended the
king during the time of his residence in Edinburgh, praying every morning
and evening before him, and preaching to him in the chapel royal at Holyrood
house every Sunday, or standing by his chair when another performed that duty.
Henderson, who, although of incorruptible integrity, and a zealous presbyterian,
as the share which he took in the struggles of that party sufficiently witness, was
yet a mild and humane man, could not help sympathizing with the sorrows of
his unfortunate sovereign. The religion of which he was so eminent a profes-
sor, taught him to entertain charitable and benevolent feelings toward all man-
kind, and his was not the disposition to except an humbled and unhappy prince
from this universal precept, whatever were the faults which had placed him in
these melancholy circumstances. The mild and amiable disposition of the man,
too, which frequent interviews must have forced upon Henderson's notice, must

HI. D

26 ALEXANDER HENDERSON.

have in some measure obliterated in his mind the errors of the monarch. It was
hard, then, that Henderson for this sympathy, for opening his heart to the best
feelings of humanity, for practising one of the first and most amiable virtues
which the Christian religion teaches and enjoins, should have been, as he > was,
subjected to the most bitter calumnies on his character and motives. These
calumnies affected his pure and generous nature deeply, and in the next assem-
bly he entered into a long and impassioned defence of those parts ot his con-
duct which slander had assailed. His appeal touched the hearts and excited the
sympathy of his brethren who assured him of their unshaken confidence in his
integrity. A ,

This assurance restored the worthy divine to that cheerfulness of which the in-
jurious reports which had gone abroad regarding him had for some time de-
prived him. If any thing were wanting to establish Henderson's character tor
integrity besides the public testimony of his brethren, it is to be found in the
opinion of one who widely differed from him regarding the measures of the day,
bearing witness that " his great honesty and unparalleled abilities to serve this
church and kingdom, did ever remain untainted."

In 1642, Mr Henderson conducted the correspondence with England which
now took place on the subject of ecclesiastical reformation and union, and «as
soon after dssired to hold himself in readiness with certain other commissioners
to proceed to England, in the event of such a proceeding being necessary.
After some delay, occasioned by the open rupture which took place between the
king and the English parliament, Henderson, with the other commissioners, set
out for the sister kingdom. While there he used every effort, but un-
fortunately to no purpose, to effect a reconciliation between Charles and his
English subjects; he proposed to the king to send the queen to Scotland,
with the view of exciting an interest in his behalf. He even went to Oxford,
where the king then was, to endeavour to prevail upon him at a personal
interview, to make some advances towards a reconciliation, and at the same
time to offer him the mediation of Scotland. All his efforts, however, were
unavailing ; the king, in place of acknowledging error, endeavoured to defend
the justice of his cause, and on better grounds expressed high indignation at the
interference of the Scots in the church reformation of England. Finding he
could be of no further service, Henderson, together with his colleagues, returned
to Edinburgh, where his conduct throughout the whole of this delicate mission
was pronounced by the General Assembly to have been " faithful and wise." In
1643, he was once more chosen moderator of the General Assembly under
peculiar circumstances. This was the presence in that body of the English
commissioners sent down to Scotland by the parliament of England, to solicit the
aid and counsel of the former in their present emergency. Mr Henderson,
with several other commissioners, was soon after sent up to London to attend
the celebrated Westminster assembly of divines, to represent in that assembly
the church of Scotland, and to procure its assent, with that of both houses of
parliament, to the solemn league and covenant, all of which important duties,
with the assistance of his colleagues, he discharged with his usual ability and
judgment On this occasion he remained for three years in London, during
all which time he was unremittingly employed in assisting the assembly in pre-
paring the public formularies of the religious union between the three king-
doms. In 1645, he was appointed to assist the commissioners of the Scottish
and English parliaments to treat with the king at Uxbridge, and finally, was
deputed to negotiate with the latter when his fortunes had reached a crisis, at
Newcastle. Henderson arrived on his mission at Newcastle about the middle of
May, 1646, and met with a cordial reception from his majesty. After some

\

ALEXANDER HENDERSON. 27

discussion on religious subjects, it was agreed that the scruples of the king
should be treated of in a series of papers written alternately by his majesty and
Henderson. In the last of these papers, addressed by the former to the latter,
and all of which and on both sides were written with great talent, the king at
once expressing his high opinion of Mr Henderson, and his determination to
adhere to the sentiments which he had all along entertained, says, " For in-
stance, I think you the bsst preacher in Newcastle, yet I believe you may err,
and possibly a better preacher may come, but till then must retain my opinion."'
Immediately afier this, Henderson, whose health was now much impaired, re-
turned to Edinburgh by sea, being unable to bear the fatigue of travelling by
land. The illness with which he was afflicted rapidly gained upon him, and he
at length expired on the 19th of August, 1646, in the 63d year of his age, not
many days after his return from Newcastle. After the death of this celebrated
man, his memory was assailed by several absurd and unfounded calumnies. It
Mas alleged that he died of mortification at his having been defeated in the
controversy with the king ; others asserted that he had been converted by the
latter, and that on his death-bed he had expressed regret for the part he had
acted, and had renounced presbytery. All of these charges were completely re-
futed by the General Assembly, who, taking a becoming and zealous interest in
the good name of their departed brother, established his innocence on the testi-
mony of several clergymen, and still more decisively by that of the two who
attended him on his death-bed, and who heard him in his last moments pray
earnestly for a " happy conclusion to the great and wonderful work of Refor-
mation." Henderson was interred in the Grayfriars' church-yard, where a
monument was erected to his memory by his nephew Mr George Henderson.
This monument, which was in the form of an obelisk, with suitable inscriptions
on its four sides, was, with others of the leading covenanters, demolished at the
Restoration, but was again replaced at the Revolution.

This -sketch of one of the greatest divines that Scotland has produced, cannot
be better concluded than in the following estimate of his character by Dr Thomas
M'Crie, who had intended to add a life of Henderson to his lives of Knox and
Melville, but proceeded no further than the outline sketched in his miscellaneous
writings: — "Alexander Henderson was enriched with an assemblage of endow-
ments which have rarely met in one man. He possessed talents which fitted him
for judging and giving advice about the political affairs of a nation, or even for
taking an active share in the management of them, had he not devoted himself
to the immediate service of the Church, and the study of ecclesiastical business.
He was not more distinguished by the abilities which he displayed in his public
conduct, than by the virtues which adorned his private character. Grave, yet
affable and polite ; firm and independent, yet modest and condescending, he com-
manded the respect, and conciliated the affection, of all who were acquainted
with him ; and the more intimately his friends knew him, they loved him the
more. The power of religion he deeply felt, and he had tasted the comforts of the
gospel. Its spirit, equally removed from the coldness of the mere rationalist,
and the irregular fervours of the enthusiast, breathed in all his words and
actions. The love of liberty was in him a pure and enlightened flame; he loved
his native country, but his patriotism was no narrow, illiberal passion ; it opened

to the welfare of neighbouring nations, and of mankind in general

Called forth by the irresistible cry of his dear country, when he found her reduced
to the utmost distress, by the oppression of ambitious prelates, supported by an
arbitrary court and corrupt statesmen, he came from that retirement which was
congenial to him, and entered upon the bustle of public business, at a time of life
when others think of retiring from it. Though he sighed after his original soli-

DR. ROBERT HENRY.

tude, and suffered from the fatigues and anxiety to which he was subjected, yet
he did not relinquish his station, nor shrink from tae difficult tasks imposed upon
him, until his feeble and shattered constitution sunk under them, and he fell a
martyr to the cause."

HENRY, (Db) Robert, an eminent historian, was born in the parish of St
Ninians in Stirlingshire, on the 18th of February, 1718;— his father was James
Henry, a respectable farmer in 3Iuirtown of the same parish, who had married
the daughter of Mr Galloway of Burrowmeadow in Stirlingshire. As a respect-
able farmer's son, young Henry enjoyed opportunities of instruction beyond the
average of those who study for the church in Scotland, and he found little diffi-
culty in indulging his inclination to become a member of a learned profession.
He commenced his education under Mr Nicholson of the parish school of St
Ninians, and having attended the grammar school of Stirling, perfected himself
in his literary and philosophical studies at the university of Edinburgh. After
leaving that institution, he occupied himself in teaching, the usual resource of
the expectants of the Scottish church, and became master of the grammar school
of Annan. The district in which he Has so employed was soon afterwards
erected into a separate presbytery, and Henry was admitted as its first licentiate,
on the 27th of March, 1746. In 1748, he was ordained as clergyman of a
congregation of presbyterians at Carlisle. Here he remained for twelve years,
when he was transferred to a similar dissenting congregation at Berwick
upon Tweed. In 1763, he married Ann Balderston, daughter of 'I nomas Bal-
derston, surgeon in Berwick. Little is said of this lady by Henry's biogra-
phers, except in reference to the domestic happiness she conferred on her hus-
band. During his residence at Berwick, Dr Henry applied his active mind to
the preparation of a scheme for establishing a fund to assist the widows and
orphans of the dissenting clergymen in the north of England. The admirable
fund which had some time previously been so firmly and successfully established
for bestowing similar benefits on the families of the clergy of Scotland, formed
the model of his imitation; but in assimilating the situation of a dissenting to
that of an established church, he laboured under the usual difficulties of those
who raise a social fabric which the laws will not recognize and protect. The
funds which, in Scotland, were supplied by the annual contribution of the clergy,
enforced by act of parliament, depended, in the English institution, on the so-
cial and provident spirit of its members. The perseverance of Henry overcame
many of the practical difficulties thus thrown in his way : the fund was placed on
a permanent footing in the year 1762, and Henry, having for some years un-
dertaken its management, had afterwards the satisfaction to see it flourish, and
increase in stability and usefulness as he advanced in years. The design of his
elaborate history, which must have gradually developed itself in the course of
his early studies, is said to have been finally formed during his residence in
Berwick, and he commenced a course of inquiry and reading, which he found
that the resources of a provincial town, and the assistance of his literary friends
in more favoured situations, were quite incapable of supplying for a subject so
vast and intricate, as that of a complete history of Britain from the invasion of
Julius Caesar. In this situation Dr Henry found a useful friend in Mr Laurie,
provost of Edinburgh, who had married his sister. The interest of this gentle-
man procured for his brother-in-law, in the year 1768, an appointment to the
ministry of the new Grey Friar's church in Edinburgh, whence, in 1776, he
was removed to the collegiate charge of the Old Church.

In the extensive public libraries of Edinburgh, Dr Henry found means of pro-
secuting his researches with effect. The first volume of his history was publish-
ed in quarto in the year 1771, the second appeared in 1774, the third in 1777,

^©EtE^T IKlEIM^Yp E>.[

AUTHOR OF "THE HISTOEX OF BRITAIN'] fee

B1ACKLE 8c Bl K GLASGOW KliINBURGE ft LONDON

DR. ROBERT HENRY. 29

the fourth in 1781, and the fifth in 1785. The method of treating the subject
was original and bold, and one the assumption of which left the author no excuse
for ignorance on any subject which had the slightest connexion with the cus-
toms, intellects, and history of our forefathers, or the constitution of the king-
dom. The subject was in the first place divided into periods, which were con-
sidered separately, each period occupying a volume. The volume was divided
into seven chapters, each containing a distinct subject, linked to the correspond-
ing subject in the next volume by continuance of narrative, and to the other
chapters of the same volume by identity of the period discussed. The subjects
thus separated were — 1st, The simple narrative of the civil and military transac-
tions of the country — 2d, The ecclesiastical history — 3d, The information
which is generally called constitutional, narrating and accounting for the rise
of the peculiarities in the form of government, the laws, and the courts of
justice — 4th, The state of learning, or rather the state of literature which
may be called purely scholastic, excluding the fine arts, and constitutional
and political information — 5th, The history and state of arts and manufac-
tures— Gth, A history of commerce, including the state of shipping, coin, and
the prices of commodities ; and lastly, The history of the manners, customs,
amusements, and costumes of the people. — The writer of a book on any subject
on which he is well informed, will generally choose that manner of explaining
his ideas best suited to his information and comprehension. It may be ques-
tioned whether the plan pursued by Henry was adapted for the highest class of
historical composition, and if the other great historians who flourished along
with him, would have improved their works by following his complicated and
elaborate system. It is true that mere narrative, uninterwoven with reflection,
and such information as allows us to look into the hearts of the actors, is a gift
entirely divested of the qualities which make it useful ; but there are various
means of qualifying the narrative — some have given their constitutional infor-
mation in notes, or detached passages ; others have woven it beautifully into the
narrative, and presenting us with the full picture of the times broadly and truly
coloured, have prevented the mind from distracting itself by searching for the
motives of actions through bare narrative in one part of the work, and a variety
of influencing motives to be found scattered through another. The plan, which
we may sa y was invented by Dr Henry, has only been once imitated, (unless it
can be said that the acute and laborious Hallam has partly followed his arrange-
ment) The imitator was a Scotsman, the subject he encountered still more ex-
tensive than that of Henry, and the ignorance the author displayed in some of
its minute branches excited ridicule. This is an instance of the chief danger of
the system. The acquisition of a sufficient amount of information, and regularity
in the arrangement, are the matters most to be attended to ; Henry's good sense
taught him the latter, his perseverance accomplished the former, and the author
made a complete and useful work, inferior, certainly, as a great literary pro-
duction, to the works of those more gifted historians who mingled reflection
with the current of their narrative, but better suited to an intellect which did not
soar above the trammels of such a division of subject, and which might have fal-
len into confusion without them.

The circumstances of the first appearance of the earlier volumes of this useful
book are interesting to the world, from their having raised against the author a
storm of hostility and deadly animosity almost unmatched in the annals of liter-
ary warfare. The chief persecutor, and grand master of this inquisition on re-
putation, was the irascible Dr Gilbert Stuart. The cause of his animosity against
a worthy and inoffensive man, can only be accounted for by those whose pene-
tration may find its way to the depths of literary jealousy.

30 DR. ROBERT HENRY.

The letters of Stuart on the subject, nave been carefully collected by D'ls-
raeli, and published in his " Calamities of Authors," and when coupled with
such traces of the influence of the persecutor as are to be found scattered here
and there among the various periodicals of the age, furnish us with the painful
picture of a man of intelligence and liberality, made a fiend by literary hate.
Stuart commenced his dark work in the " Edinburgh 3Iagazine and Review,"
established under his auspices in 1773. Dr Henry had preached before the
Society (in Scotland) for Promoting Christian Knowledge, a sermon entitled
" Revelation the most effectual means of civilizing and reforming mankind,"
and in pursuance of the custom on such occasions, the sermon was published.
The sermon was as similar to all others of its class, as any given piece of
mechanism can be to all others intended for similar purposes ; but Stuart dis-
covered audacity in the attempt, and unexpected failure in the execution ; it
required " the union of philosophy and political skill, of erudition and elo-
quence, qualities which he was sorry to observe appeared here in no eminent
degree."1 Dr 3Iacqueen published a letter in an anonymous form, defending
the sermon, and the hidden literary assassin boldly maintained it to be the
work of Dr Henry, an accusation not withdrawn till the respectable author an-
nounced himself to the world. Dr Henry was soon after appointed by the
magistrates to the situation of morning lecturer to the Tron church. Under
the disguise of the communication of a correspondent, who mildly hints that the
consequence of the proceeding will be a suit against the magistrates, we
find the rounded periods of Stuart denouncing the act in those terms in which
indignant virtue traces the mazes of vice and deceit, as " affording a pre-
cedent from which the mortifications of the pious, may be impiously prostituted
to uses to which they were never intended." In token of high respect, the
General Assembly had chosen Dr Henry as their moderator, on his first return
as a member of that venerable body ; and being thus marked out as a leader in
the affairs of the church, he took a considerable share in the proceedings of the
ensuing session. Here his enemy keeps an unsleeping eye on his motions.
Whilst the speeches of others are unnoticed or reported in their native simplicity,
the narrator prepares himself for the handling of a choice morsel when he ap-
proaches the historian. " The opinion of one member," he observes, " we
shall lay before the reader, on account of its singularity. It is that of Dr Henry,
the moderator of last assembly ;"2 and then he proceeds to attract the finger of
scorn towards opinions as ordinary as any opinions could well be conceived.
The Doctor cannot even absent himself from a meeting without the circumstance
being remarked, and a cause assigned which will admit the application of a pre-
concerted sneer. Dr Robertson was the opponent of Dr Henry in this assem-
bly. The periodical writer was the enemy of both, and his ingenuity has been
taxed to bestow ridicule on both parties. Stuart at length slowly approaches
the head and front of his victim's offending, and fixes on it with deadly eager-
ness. After having attacked the other vulnerable points of the author, lie rushes
ravenously on his history, and attempts its demolition. He finds that the unfor-
tunate author " neither furnishes entertainment nor instruction. Diffuse,
vulgar, and ungrammatical, he strips history of all her ornaments. His conces-
sions are evidently contradictory to his conclusions. It is thus perpetually with
authors who examine subjects which they cannot comprehend. He has amassed
all the refuse and lumber of the times he would record." " The mind of his
readers is affected with no agreeable emotions, it is awakened only to disgust

1 Edinburgh Review and Magazine, i. Ifl9.
* Edinburgh Review and Magazine, i. 357.

DR. ROBERT HENRY. 31

anil fatigue."3 But Stuart was not content with persecution at home, he wished
to add the weapons of others to his own. For this purpose he procured a wor-
thy associate, Whitaker, the historian of Manchester, and author of the
" Genuine History of the Britons." Stuart, a vague theorist in elegant and
sonorous diction, who was weak enough to believe that his servile imitations ot
Montesquieu raised him to a parallel with that great man, associated himself in
this work of charity with a minute and pugnacious antiquary, useful to literature
from the sheer labour he had encountered, but eminently subject to the prejudices
to which those who confine their laborious investigations to one narrow branch
of knowledge, are exposed ; — a person who would expend many quarto pages
in discussing a flint arrow-head or a tumulus of stones, occasionally attempting
with a broken wing to follow the flights of Gibbon, but generally as flat and
sterile as the plains in which he strove to trace Roman encampments ; two more
uncongenial spirits hardly ever attempted to work in concert. It may easily be
supposed that the minute antiquary looked with jealousy on the extended
theories of his generalizing colleague ; and the generalizer, though he took oc-
casion to praise the petty investigations of the antiquary, probably regarded
them in secret with a similar contempt But Stuart found the natural malignity
of Whitaker a useful commodity ; and the calm good sense of Henry afforded
them a common object of hatred. A few extracts will give the best display or
the spirit of Stuart's communications to his friends during his machina-
tions. ** David Hume wants to review Henry: but that task is so precious, that
1 will undertake it myself. Moses, were he to ask it as a favour, should
not have it ; yea, not even the man after God's own heart. I wish I could
transport myself to London to review him for the Monthly — a fire there, and
in the Critical, would perfectly annihilate him. Could you do nothing in the
latter? To the former I suppose David Hume has transcribed the criticism he
intended for us. It is precious, and would divert you. I keep a proof of it
in my cabinet, for the amusement of friends. This great philosopher begins
to dote.4 To-morrow morning Henry sets off for London, with immense hopes
of selling his history. I wish sincerely that I could enter Holborn the
same hour with him. He should have a repeated fire to combat with. I en-
treat that you may be so kind as to let him feel some of your thunder. I shall
never forget the favour. If Whitaker is in London, he could give a blow,
"aterson will give him a knock. Strike by all means. The WTetch will trem-
ble, grow pale, and return with a consciousness of his debility. I have a thou-
sand thanks to give you for your insertion of the paper in the London
Chronicle, and for the part you propose to act in regard to Henry. I could
wish that you knew for certain his being in London before you strike the first

3 Edinburgh Review and Magazine, vol i. p. 266 — 270.

4 DTsraeli's Calamities of Authors, ii. 67- The author appends in a note " The critique
on Henry, in the Monthly Review, was written by Hume, and because the philosopher was
candid, he is here said to have doted." We suspect this is erroneous, and founded on mere
presumption. We have carefully read the two critiques on Henry in the Monthly Review,
which appeared previous to Hume's death. The elegance and profundity of Hume are want-
ing, and in giving an opinion of the work, which is moderate and tolerably just, the Reviewer
compares it somewhat disparagingly with the works of Hume and Robertson, a piece of con-
ceit and affectation which the great philosopher would not have condescended to perpetrate.
That Hume prepared and published a Review of Henry's book we have no doubt. In the
Edinburgh Magazine for 1791, and in the Gentleman's Magazine for the same year, a critique
is quoted, the work " of one of the most eminent historians of the present age, whose history
of the same periods justly possesses the highest reputation." Without the aid of such a state-
ment, theshle stamps the author, and we may have occasion to quote it in the text as the
work of Hume. Where it made its first appearance, a search through the principal periodi-
cals of the day has not enabled us to discover. It is in the first person singular, and may have
been in the form of a letter to the editor of a newspaper.

32 DIt. ROBERT HENRY.

blow. An inquiry at Cadell's will give this. When you have an enemy to at-
tack, I shall in return give my best assistance, and aim at him a mortal blow ;
and rush forward to his overthrow, though the flames of hell should start up to
oppose me."

Henry was not in possession of the poisoned weapons which would have
enabled him to retaliate, and his good sense and equanimity of mind were no
permanent protection against assaults so unceasing and virulent. He felt him-
self the personal subject of ridicule and perversion, his expected gains denied,
and the fame which he expected from years of labour and retirement snatched
from his grasp by the hand of a ruffian.5 In the midst of these adversities
Henry went to London for actual shelter, but the watchful enemy observed his
motions — attacks were inserted in one print and copied into another — the influ-
ence of his persecutor is widely perceptible in the periodical literature of the
age. The Critical Review had praised the first volume of his history. The
second meets with a very different reception : " it is with pain the reviewer
observes, that in proportion as his narrative and inquiries are applied to cultivated
times, his diligence and labour seem to relax," and a long list of alleged inaccu-
racies, chiefly on minute and disputed points, follows : the style is evidently not
the natural language of the pompous Stuart, but it is got up in obedience to his
directions on the vulnerable points of the historian, and the minuteness bints at the
hand of Whitaker. Henry answered by a moderate letter defending his opinions,
and acknowledging one mistake. The reviewer returns to his work with reno-
vated vigour, and among other things accuses the historian of wilfully perverting
authority. The charge of dishonesty rouses the calm divine, and with some
severity he produces the words of the authority, and the use he has made of them.
The editor claims the merit of candour for printing the communication, and as
there is no gainsaying the fact it contains, appends an obscure hint which seems
tc intimate he knows more than he chooses to tell ; a mode of backing out of a
mistake not uncommon in periodical works, as if the editorial dignity were of so
delicate a nature as not to bear a candid and honourable confession of error.
Years afterwards, it is singular to discover the Critical Review returning to its ori-
ginal tone, and lauding the presence of qualities of which it had found occasion
to censure the want Stuart associated himself with his friend Whitaker in conduct-
ing the English Review in 1783, and it is singular, that amidst the devastation of
that irascible periodical, no blow is aimed at Henry. But Stuart did not neglect his
duty in the Political Herald, published in 1785, an able disturber of the tranquillity
of literature, of which he was the sole conductor. Here he gave his last and deepest
stab ; accusing the venerable historian in terms the most bitter and vituperative,
of a hankering after language and ideas, unworthy of his profession ; concluding
with the observation that " an extreme attention to smut in a presbyterian cler-
gyman, who has reached the last scene of his life, is a deformity so shocking,
that no language of reprobation is strong enough to chastise it."6 The heartless
insinuation was probably dictated by the consciousness that, whether true or false,
no charge would be more acutely felt by the simple-minded divine. Stuart had,
however, a very acute eye towards the real failings of Henry, and in his Protean
attacks, he has scarcely left one of them without a brand. It was not without
reason that he said to his London correspondent, " If you would only transcribe
his jests, it would make him perfectly ridiculous." Henry was fond of gainish-

5 Behold the triumph of the calumniator in the success of his labours: " I see every day
that what is written to a man's disparagement is never forgot nor forgiven. Poor Henry is on
the point of death, and his friends declare that I have killed him; 1 received the information
as a compliment, and begged they would not do me so much honour." D'lsraeli's Calami-
ties, i;. 72.

6 Political Herald, v i. p. 209.

DR. ROBERT HENRY. 33

ing with a few sallies of wit, his pictures of human folly ; but he was unhappy in
the bold attempt They had too much pleasing simplicity and good-humoured
grotesqueness for the purpose to which they were applied. More like the good-
natured humour of Goldsmith, than the piercing sarcasm of Voltaire, they might
have served to strike the lighter foibles exhibited in our daily path ; but to attack
the grander follies of mankind displayed in history, it may be said they did not
possess sufficient venom to make formidable so light a weapon as wit.

We have been so much engrossed with the dreary details of malignity, that we
will scarcely find room for many other details of Henry's life; but the history
of the book is the history of the author — in its fate is included all that the world
need care to know, of the unassuming individual who composed it. It is with
pleasure, then, that we turn to the brighter side ; Henry calmly weathered out
the storm which assailed him, and in his green old age, the world smiled upon
his labours. Hume, who had so successfully trod the same field, was the first to
meet Henry's book with a welcome hearty and sincere ; he knew the difficulties
of the task, and if he was sufficiently acute to observe that Henry was far behind
himself, neither jealousy nor conceit provoked him to give utterance to such
feelings. " His historical narratives," says this able judge, " are as full as
those remote times seem to demand, and at the same time, his inquiries of the
antiquarian kind omit nothing which can be an object of doubt or curiosity. The
one as well as the other is delivered with great perspicuity, and no less propri-
ety, which are the true ornaments of this kind of writing ; all superfluous
embellishments are avoided ; and the reader will hardly find in our language
any performance that unites together so perfectly the two great points of enter-
tainment and instruction." Dr Henry had printed the first edition of the first
five volumes of his book at his own risk, but on a demand for a new edition,
he entered into a transaction with a bookseller, which returned him £3300. In
the middle of its career the work secured royal attention ; lord Mansfield recom-
mended the author to George the Third, and his majesty " considering his dis-
tinguished talents, and great literary merit, and the importance of the very use-
ful and laborious work in which he was so successfully engaged, as titles to his
royal countenance and favour," bestowed on him a pension of a £ 1 00 a-year.
For the honour of royal munificence, it is to be hoped that the gift was the
reward of labour and literary merit, and not (as the author's enemies have
proclaimed) the wages of the political principles he inculcated. The insinuation
is, indeed, not without apparent foundation. Henry, if not a perverter of history
in favour of arbitrary power, is at least one of those prudent speculators who
are apt to look on government as something established on fixed and perma-
nent principles, to which all opposing interests must give way — on the govern-
ment as something highly respectable, — on the mass of the people as something
not quite so respectable — on the community as existing for the government, and
not on the government as adapted to the conveniences of the community.

Five volumes of Dr Henry's history appeared before his death, and the ample
materials he had left for the completion of the sixth were afterwards edited by
Mr Laing, and a continuation was written by Mr Petit Andrews. The laborious
author prepared the whole for the press with his own hand, notwithstanding a
tremulous disorder, which compelled him to write on a book placed on his knee.
In the latter years of his life, he retired to Milnfield, about twenty miles from
Edinburgh, where he enjoyed the company of his friend and relative, Mr Laurie.
In 1786, his constitution began visibly to decline; but he continued his labours
till 1790. About that period his wife was affected with blindness from a cata-
ract, and he accompanied her to Edinburgh, where she submitted to the usual
operation, which, however, had not the desired effect during her husband's life-
nr. e

34 EDWARD HENRYSON, LL.D.

time. Dr Henry died on the 24th of November, 1790, in the 73d year of his

age The fifth edition of the History of Britain was published in 1823, in

twelve volumes 8vo. A French translation was published in 1789 — 96, by
Mlt Rowland and Cantwell.

HENRYSON, Edward, LL.D., an eminent civilian and classical scholar, and a
senator of the College of Justice. The period of the birth of this eminent man
is unknown, but it must have taken place early in the sixteenth century. Pre-
viously to the year 1551, we find him connecting himself, as most Scotsmen of
talent and education at that period did, with the learned men on the continent,
and distinguishing himself in his knowledge of civil law, a science which,
although it was the foundation of the greater part of the municipal law of Scot-
land, he could have no ready means of acquiring in his own country. This study
he pursued at the university of Bruges, under the tuition of Equinar Baro, an
eminent civilian, with whom he afterwards lived on terms of intimacy and strong
attachment It is probable that he owed to this individual his introduction to a
munificent patron, who afterwards watched and assisted his progress in the world.
Ulric Fugger, lord of Kirchberg and Weissenhome, a Tyrolese nobleman, who
had previously distinguished himself as the patron of the eminent Scottish civilian,
Scrimger, extended an apparently ample literary patronage to Henryson, admit-
ting him to reside within his castle, amidst an ample assortment of valuable books
and manuscripts, and bestowing on him a regular pension. Henryson after-
wards dedicated his works to his patron, and the circumstance that Baro inscribed
some of his commentaries on the Roman law to the same individual, prompts us
to think it probable that Henryson owed the notice of Fugger to the recommen-
dation of his kind preceptor.1 Dempster, who in his life of Henryson, as usual,
refers to authors who never mention his name, and some of whom indeed wrote
before he had acquired any celebrity, maintains that he translated into Latin
(probably about this period, and while he resided in Fugger's castle) the " Com-
mentarium Stoicorum Contrariorum " of Plutarch ; and that he did so must be
credited, as the work is mentioned in Quesnel's Bibliotheca Thuana ; but the book
appears to have dropped out of the circle of literature, and it is not now to be
found in any public library we are aware of. In the year 1 552, he returned to
Scotland, where he appears to have practised as an advocate. The protection and
hospitality he had formerly received from the Tyrolese nobleman, was continued
to him by Henry Sinclair, then dean of Glasgow, afterwards bishop of Ross, and
president of the Court of Session ; — thus situated, he is said to have translated the
Encheiridion of Epictetus, and the Commentaries of Arrian ; but the fruit of his
labours was never published, and the manuscript is not known to be in existence.
Again Henryson returned to the continent, after having remained in his native
country for a short period, and the hospitable mansion of Fugger was once more
open for his reception. About this period Baro, whom we have mentioned as Hen-
ryson's instructor in law, published a Tractatus on Jurisdiction, which met an attack
from the civilian Govea, which, according to the opinion expressed by Henryson,
as an opponent, did more honour to his talents than to his equanimity and can-
dour. Henryson defended his master, in a controversial pamphlet of some length,
entering with vehemence into the minute distinctions which, at that period, dis-
tracted the intellects of the most eminent jurisconsults. This work is dedicated
to his patron Fugger. He was in 1554 chosen professor of the civil law at
Bruges, a university in which one who wrote a century later states him to have
left behind him a strong recollection of his talents and virtues. In 1555, he
published another work on civil law, entitled " Commentatio in Tit X. Libri

ral

'.Vide the dedication to Tractatus de Jurisdictione Henrysoni, Meerman's Thesaurus,

EDWAKD HENRYSON, LL.D. 35

Second! Institutionum de Testnmentis Ordinandis." It is a sort of running
commentary on the title of which it professes to treat; was dedicated to
Michael D'Hospital, chancellor of France, and had the good fortune along with
his previous Tractatus, to be engrossed in the great Thesaurus Juris Civilis et
Canonici of Gerard Meerman, an honour which has attached itself to the works
of few Scottish civilians. Henryson appears, soon after the publication of this
work, to have resigned his professorship at Bruges, and to have returned to
Scotland, where lucrative prospects were opened to his ambition.

A very noble feature in the history of the Scottish courts of law, is the atten-
tion with which the legislature in early periods provided for the interests of the
poor. Soon after the erection of the College of Justice, an advocate was named
and paid, for conducting the cases of those whose pecuniary circumstances did
not permit them to conduct a law-suit ; and Henryson was in 1557 appointed
to the situation of counsel for the poor, as to a great public office, receiving as
a salary £20 Scots, no very considerable sum even at that period, but equal to
one-half of the salary allowed to the lord advocate. When the judicial privileges
which the lioman catholic clergy had gradually engrossed from the judicature
of the country, were considered no longer the indispensable duties and privileges
of churchmen, but more fit for the care of temporal judges, Henryson was
appointed in 1563 to the office of commissary, with a salary of 300 merks.
Secretary Maitland of Lethington having in January, 1566, been appointed an
ordinary, in place of being an extraordinary, lord of session, Henryson was
appointed in his stead, filling a situation seldom so well bestowed, and generally,
instead of being filled by a profound legal scholar, reserved for such scions of
great families, as the government could not easily employ otherwise. Henryson
was nominated one of the commission appointed in May, 1566, " for viseing,
correcting, and imprenting the Laws and Acts of parliament." Of the rather
carelessly arranged volume of the Acts of the Scottish parliament, from 1424 to
1564, which the commission produced in six months after its appointment, he
was the ostensible editor, and wrote the preface ; and it was probably as holding
such a situation, or in reward for his services, that in June, 1566, he received
an exclusive privilege and license " to imprent or cause iinprent and sell, the
Lawis and Actis of Parliament ; that is to say, the bukes of Law callit ftegiam
Ma jestatem, and the remanent auld Lawis and Actis of Parliament, consequent] ie
maid be progress of time unto the dait of thir presentis, viseit, sychtit, and cor-
rectit, be the lordis commissaris speciallie deput to the said viseing, sychting,
and correcting thairof, and that for the space of ten yeires next to cum."2 In
November, 1567, he was removed from the bench, or, in the words of a con-
temporary, taken " off sessions, because he was one of the king's council. "a
This is the only intimation we have of his having held such an office ; and it is a
rather singular cause of removal, as the king's advocate was then entitled to sit
on the bench, and was frequently chosen from among the lords of session.
Henryson was one of the procurators for the church in 1573. The period oi
his death is not known, but he must have been alive in 1579, as lord Forbes at
that time petitioned parliament that he might be appointed one of the commis-
sioners for deciding the differences betwixt the Forbeses and Gordons.

Henryson has received high praise as a jurisconsult, by some of his brethren
of the continent, and Dempster considered him — " Solis Papinianis in juris
cognitione inferior. ," A monument was erected to his memory in the Grey Friars'
churchyard of Edinburgh, by his son Thomas Henryson, lord Chesters, who is
said by Dempster and others to have displayed many of the legal and other
qualifications of his father.

* Reports from the Record Commission, i. 257.
Denmiln MS. — Haig and Brunton's History of the College of Justice, 133.

36 ROBERT HENRTSON.

HENRYSON, or HENDERSON, Robert, a poet of the fifteenth century, is
described as having been chief schoolmaster of Dunfermline, and this is almost
the only particular of his life that is sufficiently ascertained. According to one
writer, he was a notary public, as well as a schoolmaster: and another is inclined
to identify him with Henryson of Eordell, the father of James Henryson who
was king's advocate and justice clerk, and who perished in the fatal battle of
Flodden. This very dubious account seems to have originated with Sir Robert
Douglas ; who avers that Robert Henryson appears to have been a person of
distinction in the reign of James the Third, and that he was the father of the
king's advocate. Douglas refers to a certain charter, granted by the abbot of
Dunfermline in 1478, where Robert Henryson subscribes as a witness;1 but in
this charter he certainly appears without any particular distinction, as he merely
attests it in the character of a notary public. A later writer is still more inac-
curate when he pretends that the same witness is described as Robert Henryson
of Fordell ;"* in this and other two charters which occur in the Chartulary of
Dunfermline, he is described as a notary public, without any other addition.3
That the notary public, the schoolmaster of Dunfermline, and the proprietor of
Fordell, were one and the same individual, is by no means to be admitted upon
such slender and defective evidence. Henryson, or, according to its more
modern and less correct form, Henderson, was not at that period an uncommon
surname. It is not however improbable that the schoolmaster may have exer-
cised the profession of a notary. While the canon law prevailed in Scotland,
this profession was generally exercised by ecclesiastics, and some vestiges of
the ancient practice are still to be traced ; every notary designates himself a
clerk of a particular diocese ; and by the act of 1584, which under the penalty
of deprivation prohibited the clergy from following the profession of the law,
they still retained the power of making testaments; so that we continue to ad-
mit the rule of the canon law, which sustains a will attested by the parish priest
and two or three witnesses.4 If therefore Henryson was a notary, it is highly
probable that he was also an ecclesiastic, and if he was an ecclesiastic, he could
not well leave any legitimate offspring. The poet, in one of his works, describes
himself as " ane man of age;" and from Sir Francis Kinaston we learn that
"being very old he died of a diarrhas or fluxe." With respect to the period of
his decease, it is at least certain that he died before Dunbar, who in his Lament,
printed in the year 1508, commemorates him among other departed poets:

" In Dunfermling he hes tone Broun,
With gude Mr Robert Hennsoun."

The compositions of Henryson evince a poetical fancy, and, for the period
when he lived, an elegant simplicity of taste. He has carefully avoided that
cumbrous and vitiated diction which began to prevail among the Scottish as
well as the English poets. To his power of poetical conception he unites no
inconsiderable skill in versification : his lines, if divested of their uncouth ortho-
graphy, might often be mistaken for those of a much more modern poet. His
principal work is the collection of Fables, thirteen in number, which are written
in a pleasing manner, and are frequently distinguished bv their arch simplicity;
but in compositions of this nature, brevity is a quality which may be considered

1 Douglas's Baronage of Scotland, p. 518.

■ Sibbald's Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, vol i p 88

whic?o^u^^'tt^UmeTc1orf, f n ^^ Hennsonis a witness to other two charters
* Decretal, Gregorii IX. lib. hi. tit. xxvi. cap. x.

ROBERT HENRYSON.

37

as almost indispensable, nor can it be denied that those of Henryson sometimes
extend to too great a length. The collection is introduced by a prologue, and
another is prefixed to the fable of the lion and the mouse.

The tale of Vpoulands Mouse and the Burgesse Mouse may be regarded as
one of his happiest efforts in this department. The same tale, which is borrowed
from TRsop, has been told by many other poets, ancient as well as modern.
Babrias has despatched the story of the two mice in a few verses, but Henryson
has extended it over a surface of several pages. Henryson's Tale of Sir Chaun-
tecleire and the Foxe is evidently borrowed from Chaucer's Nonnes Preestes
Tale. From these apologues some curious fragments of information may be
gleaned. That of the Sheepe and the Dog, contains all the particulars of an
action before the consistory court, and probably as complete an exposure of
such transactions as the author could prudently hazard. The proceedings of the
ecclesiastical courts seem about this period to have been felt as a common grievance.

Another conspicuous production of Henryson is the Testament of Cresseid,5
which is the sequel to Chaucer's Troylus and Creseyde, and is commonly printed
among the works of that poet. It evidently rises above the ordinary standard
of that period, and on some occasions evinces no mean felicity of conception.
The silent interview between Troilus and Cresseid is skilfully delineated ; and the
entire passage has been described as beautiful by a very competent judge of old
poetry.6 It is unnecessary to remark that for " the tale of Troy divine," neither
Chaucer nor Henryson had recourse to the classical sources : this, like some
other subjects of ancient history, had been invested with all the characteristics of
modern romance ; nor could the Scottish poet be expected to deviate from the
models which delighted his contemporaries. Sir Troilus is commended for his
knightly piety; a temple is convei'ted into a kirk ; Mercury is elected speaker
of the parliament; and Cresseid, on being afflicted with a leprosy, is consigned
to a spittal-house, in order to beg with cup and clapper. The personages are
ancient, but the institutions and manners are all modern.

Henryson's tale of Orpheus is not free from similar incongruities, and pos-
sesses fewer attractions ; it is indeed somewhat languid and feeble, and may have
been a lucubration of the author's old age. Sir Orpheus is represented as a king
of Thrace, and is first despatched to heaven in search of the lost Eurydice.

Quhen endit was the sangis lamentable,
He tuke his harp, that on his breast can hyng,

Syne passit to the hevin, as sais the fable,
To seke his wyf, bot that auailit no thing :

5 The Testament of Cresseid, compylit be Mr Robert Henrysone, Sculemaister in Dun-
fermeling. Imprentit at Edinburgh be Henrie Charteris, 1593, 4to. — " Ffor the author of
this supplement," says Sir Francis Kinaston, "called the Testament of Cresseid, which may
passe for the sixt and last booke of this story, I have very sufficiently bin informed by Sr. Tho,
Ereskin, late earle of Kelly, and divers aged schollers of the Scottish nation, that it was made
and written by one Mr Robert Henderson, sometime chiefe schoole-master, in Dumfermling,
much about the time that Chaucer was first printed and dedicated to King Henry the 8th by
Mr Tliinne, which w<is neere the end of his raigne. This Mr Henderson wittily observing
that Chaucer in his 5th booke had related the death of Troilus, but made no mention what
became of Cresseid, he learnedly takes upon him, in a fine poeticall way, toexpresthe punish-
ment and end due to a false unconstant whore, which commonly terminates in extreme misery."
See the Loves of Troiius and Cresseid, written by Chaucer; with a Commentary by Sir Fran-
cis Kinaston, p. xxix. Loud. 1796, 8vo. Kinaston had translated into Latin rhyme two books
of Chaucer's poem, and had published them under the title of Amorvm Troili el Creseidalibri
duo priores Aiiglico-Latini, Oxoniae, 1635, 4to. He completed his version of the poem, together
with a commentary, and his manuscript at length came into the possession of Mr Waldron,
who announced his intention of committing it to the press, but did not find encouragement to
proceed beyond a short specimen.

6 Scott's Notes to Sir Tristrem, p. 362.

38 ROBERT HENRYSON.

By Wadlyng strete7 he went but tarjing,
Syne come doun throu the spere of Saturn aid,
Quhilk fader is of ail tlur stemis cald.

Having searched the sun and planets without success, he directs his course
towards the earth, and in his passage is regaled with the music of the spheres.
His subsequent adventures are circumstantially, but not very poetically detailed.
In enumerating the various characters whom he finds in the domains of Pluto,
the poet is guilty of a glaring anachronism : here Orpheus finds Julius Caesar,
Nero, and even popes and cardinals ; and it is likewise to be remarked that the
heathen and Christian notions of hell are blended together. But such anachron-
isms are very frequently to be found in the writers of the middle ages. Mr
Warton remarks that Chaucer has been guilty of a very diverting, and what may
be termed a double anachronism, by representing Cresseid and two of her
female companions as reading the Thebaid of Statius.8 Like the fables of Hen-
ryson, his tale of Orpheus is followed by a long moral ; and here he professes to
have derived his materials from Boethius and one of his commentators.

The Bludy Serk is an allegorical poem of considerable ingenuity. The poet
represents the fair daughter of an ancient and worthy king as having been car-
ried away by a hideous giant, and cast into a dungeon, where she was doomed
to linger until some valiant knight should achieve her deliverance. A worthy
prince at length appeared as her champion, vanquished the giant, and thrust him
into his own loathsome dungeon. Having restored the damsel to her father, he
felt that he had received a mortal wound : he requested her to retain his bloody
shirt, and to contemplate it whenever a new lover should present himself. It is
unnecessary to add that the interpretation of this allegory involves the high mys-
teries of the Christian faith.

The Abbay Walk is of a solemn character, and is not altogether incapable uf
impressing the imagination. Its object is to inculcate submission to the various
dispensations of Providence, and this theme is managed with some degree of
skill. But the most beautiful of Henryson's productions is Kobene and 31akyne,
the earliest specimen of pastoral poetry in the Scottish language. I consider it
as superior in many respects to the similar attempts of Spenser and Browne ; it
is free from the glaring improprieties which sometimes appear in the pastorals of
those more recent writers, and it exhibits many genuine strokes of poetical deli-
neation. The shepherd's indifference is indeed too suddenly converted into love ;
but this is almost the only instance in which the operations of nature are not
faithfully represented. The story is skilfully conducted, the sentiments and man-
ners are truly pastoral, and the diction possesses wonderful terseness and suavity.

The Fables of Henryson were reprinted in 1832, for the Bannatyne Club,9
from the edition of Andrew Hart ; of which the only copy known to exist had
been recently added to that great repository of Scottish literature, the Advo-
cates' Library.

T Watling-street is a name given to one of the great Roman ways in Britain CHorslev's
Roman Am.qu.de8 of Britain, p. 387. Lond. 17&, fol.) This passage, which to sWpeY!

Lo, quod he, caste vp thvne eye,
Se yonder, lo, the Galax \ e,
The whiche men clepe the Milky Way,
For it is whyte ; and some perfay
Callen it Wadynge strete.
8 In Shakspeare's Troilus and Cressida, sa\s Mr Douce " Hpcinr nnnt« a .a^ji m
speaks of the buh-fcaring Mi.o, and Pandarus ct*™^l^^&^£^

H p. ai.™ P,W In them* ale imr0dHC,;d-" ("^radons ; of 1 Shaker™ vl*

■ From the accurate memoir prefixed to this volume, we have, by the kind permission of the

JAMES BONAVENTURA HEPBURN. 39

HEPBURN, James Bonaventura, of the order of the Minims, said to have
been an extensive linguist, lexicographer, grammarian, and biblical commenta-
tor. When the historian and biographer happens within the range of his sub-
jects, to find accounts of occurrences evidently problematical, and as evidently
based on truths, while he can discover no data for the separation of truth from
falsehood, his critical powers are taxed to no inconsiderable extent. There are
three several memoirs of the individual under consideration. The first is to be
found in the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, of Dempster, an author
whose veracity we have already had occasion to characterize. Another is in the
Lives of Scots Writers, by Dr George M'Kenzie, a work to which we have made
occasional allusions, and which shall hereafter receive due discussion ; and the
third is in the European Magazine for 1795, from the pen of Dr Lettice.
Dempster's account is short and meagre, except in the enumeration of the great
linguist's works ; tlie second is as ample as any one need desire ; and the third
adds nothing to the two preceding, except the facetious remarks of the author.
Among other authorities which might have given some account of his writings,
or at least hinted at the existence of such a person, all we can discover bearing
reference to any of his twenty-nine elaborate works, is the slight notice we shall
presently allude to. According to M'Kenzie, V Dempster says that he is men-
tioned with great honour by Vincentius Blancus, a noble Venetian in his Book
of Letters ;" on reference to Dempster, the apparently extensive subject shrinks
into " De Literis in manubrio cultelli sancti Petri." Now we might have sus-
pected that Dempster had intended to perpetrate a practical joke in the choice
ol a name, had we not, after considerable research, discovered that there is such
a discussion on the pen knife of St Peter in existence, from the pen of Vincenzo
Bianchi, a Venetian ;J to this rare work, however, we have not been so fortunate
as to obtain access, the only copy of it, of which we have been enabled to trace
the existence, being in the library of the British museum, and we must leave the
information it may afford on the life of Hepburn to some more fortunate
investigator. M'Kenzie farther states that " he is highly commended by that
learned Dr of the canon law, James Gafferel, in his book of Unheard of Curiosi-
ties ;" on turning to this curious volume, we find the author " highly recommend-
ing " Heurnius and his book, " Antiquitatum Philosophise Barbaricas."2 But
unfortunately for the fame of our linguist, the author of that book was Otho
Heurnius, or Otho Van Heurn, a native of Utrecht, and son and successor to the
celebrated physician Ian Van Heurn. We now turn with some satisfaction to the
only firm ground we have, on which to place the bare existence of Hepburn as
an author. In the Bibliotheca Latino-Hebraica of Imbonatus,3 amidst the other
numberless forgotten books and names, it is mentioned in a few words that
" Bonaventura Hepbernus Scotus ord. min." wrote a small Hebrew lexicon,
printed in duodecimo : its description shows it to have been a small and trifling

editor, Dr Irving, abridged the above article. In the Lives of Scottish Worthies, Mr P. F.
Tj tier has entered at considerable length into the merits of Henryson's poetrv, of which he
gives copious extracts. _ He says—" of the works of this remarkable man it is "difficult, when
we consider the period in which they were written, to speak in terms of too warm encomium.
In strength, and sometimes even in sublimity of painting, in pathos and sweetness, in the
variety and beauty of his pictures of natural scenery, in the vein of quiet and playful humour,
which runs through many of his pieces, and in that fine natural taste, which rejecting the
faults of his age, has dared to think for itself— he is altogether excellent."

1 Vincenzo Bianchi Parere intorno alii caratteri che sono sopra il manico del coltello di S.
Pietro, 4to, Ven., 1620.

Jacobi Ganarelli Curiositates inauditae, de figuris Persarum talismanicis, cum notis, &c,
ex^editione Gregorii Michaelis, Hamb. 1676, 2 vols., 12mo, vide pp. 22, 35, 61, 134.

Bibliotheca Latino-Hebraica, sive de sciiptoribus Latinis, qui ex diversis nationibus,
contra Judaeos, vel de re Hebraica utcumque scripsere, &c. auct. et vend. D. Carolo Joseph.
Imbonato, Mediolanensi, p. 14.

40 JAMES BONAVENTURA HEPBURN.

production, of a very different description from the vast volumes which Demp-
ster and M'Kenzie have profusely attached to his name. We have been unable
to procure access to this dictionary, or to ascertain its existence in any public
library. Without some more ample data or authority, we should deem ourselves
worthy of the reproacli of pedantry, were we to abbreviate the accounts presented
to us, and tell the reader, ex cathedra, what he is to believe and what he is to
discredit We have then before us the choice, either to pass Mr Hepburn over
in silence, or briefly to state the circumstances of his life, as they have been pre-
viously narrated. To follow the former would be disrespectful, not only to the
veracious authors we liave already mentioned, but also to the authors of the va-
rious respectable biographical works who have admitted Hepburn on the list of
the ornaments of literature ; and the latter method, if it do not furnish food for
investigation, may at least give some amusement.

James Bonaventura Hepburn, was son to Thomas Hepburn, rector of Old-
hamstocks in Lothian. M'Kenzie states that he was born on the 14th day of
July, 1573, and, that we may not discredit the assertion, presents us with a re-
gister kept by the rector of Oldhamstocks, of the respective periods of birth of
his nine sons. He received his university education at St Andrews, where,
after his philosophical studies, he distinguished himself in the acquisition of the
oriental languages. Although educated in the principles of the protestant reli-
gion, he was induced to become a convert to the church of Rome. After this
change in his faith, he visited the continent, residing in France and Italy, and
thence passing through " Turkey, Persia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Ethiopia, and
most of the eastern countries," gathering languages as he went, until he became
so perfect a linguist, " that he could have travelled over the whole earth, and
spoke to each nation in their own language." On returning from these la-
borious travels, he entered the monastery of the Minims at Avignon, an order
so called from its members choosing in humility to denominate themselves
'Minimi Fratres Eremitae," as being more humble still than the Minora, or
Franciscans. He afterwards resided in the French monastery of the holy Trinity
at Koine. Here his eminent qualities attracted a ferment of attention from the
learned world, and pope Paul the fifth, invaded his retirement, by appointing
him librarian of the oriental books and manuscripts of the Vatican.4

We shall now take the liberty of enumerating a few of the many weighty
productions of our author's pen, chiefly it is to be presumed written during tiie
six years in which he was librarian of the Vatican. Dictionarium Hebraicum
— Dictionarium Chaldaicum— Peter Malcuth, seu gloria vel decus Israelis, [con-
tinet cent, homilias sive conciones] — Epitomen Chronicorum Romanorum—
Gesta Begum Israelis—Grammatica Arabics, (said to have been published at
Rome in 159 1, 4to.) He translated Commentarii Rabbi Kimchi in Psalterium—
Rabbi Abraham Aben Ezra Librum de Mysticis numeris— Ejusdem Librum
ahum de septemplici modo interpretaudi sacrain scripturam.

We shall now turn our consideration to one work of the celebrated linguist,
from which a little more information appears to be derivable. This is the
Schema Septuaginta Duorum Idiomatum, sive virga aurea— quia Beau
Virgo dicitur tot anms in vivis fuisse; et ille numerus discipulorum est Christ!
et Romanaj Eccles.se cardinalium, et tot mysteria in nomine Dei : Roma 1616"
31'Kenzie says, « this was communicated to me by the late Sir John .Murray of

* It is singular that a person in the 17th century, living i„ Italv, professino- so manv 1 m
uages in a country wher« linguist* *™ru «... „ m£L_i " °c ...,/-'. Prole!*'"S so man) lan-

S8=S*Bff:Bfiraa*3«3»TOCSS,*K3

the same description.

Glendoich, and since it is a singular piece of curiosity, I shall give the reader
a particular account of it, with some reflections upon the different languages
that are here set down by our author." Whether by the term " communicated"
the biographer means to intimate that he saw the production he criticises, is
somewhat doubtful ; but at all events, our opinion of M'Kenzie's veracity is such,
that we do not believe he would deliberately state that he had either been in-
formed of or shown any particular w.ork by Sir John Murray, and thereafter
give a full and minute account of it, without some sort of foundation on
which to erect his edifice of narrative. M'Kenzie proceeds to assure us that
this is a large print, engraved at Rome in the year 1616, and dedicated to Pope
Paul V. That upon the top is the blessed virgin, with a circle of stars about
her head, wrapt in a glorious vestment, upon which is her name in Hebrew,
sending forth rays of eulogiums in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, while over her
head appear the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Angels and the apostles are at
her side, and the moon and stars beneath her feet. Then follow seven columns
in which these encomiums are translated into the numerous dialects with which
the mighty linguist was familiar. A great northern philologist, recently de-
ceased, has been held up to the wonder of the human race, as having been ac-
quainted with thirty-two languages ; but in a period when few were acquainted
with more tongues than that of their native place, along with the Greek and
Latin, and when the materials for more extensive acquisitions were with diffi-
culty accessible, the craving appetite of Hepburn could not be satiated with
fewer than seventy-two. We have among these — The Cussian, the Virgilian,
the Hetruscan, the Saracen, the Assyrian, the Armenian, the Syro- Armenian, the
Gothic, and also the Getic ; the Scythian, and the Mceso-Gothic. Then he
leaves such modern labourers as Champolion and Dr Young deeply in the shade,
from his knowledge of the Coptic, the Hieroglyphic, the Egyptian, the Mercurial
Egyptiac, the Isiac-Egyptiac, and the Babylonish. He then turns towards the
Chaldaic, the Palestinian, the Turkish, the Rabbinical, the German Rabbinical,
the Galilean, the Spanish-Rabbinical, the Afro-Rabbinical, and what seems the
most appropriate tongue of all, the " Mystical."5 Gradually the biographer rises
with the dignity of his subject, and begins to leave the firm earth. He proceeds
to tell us how Hepburn wrote in the " Noachic," the " Adamean," the " Solo-
monic," the " Mosaic," the " Hulo-Rabbinic," the " Seraphic," the " Angelical,"
and the " Supercelestial."6 " Now," continues M'Kenzie, with much complacency
at the successful exhibition he has made of his countryman's powers, but certain-
ly with much modesty, considering their extent, " these are all the languages
(and they are the most of the whole habitable world,) in which our author has
given us a specimen of his knowledge, and which evidently demonstrates that
lie Mas not only the greatest linguist of his own age, but of any age that has
been since the creation of the world, and may be reckoned amongst those pro-
digies of mankind, that seem to go beyond the ordinary limits of nature."

Hepburn dabbled in the doctrines of the Cabala, but whether in vindication
or attack, the oracular observations of his biographers hardly enable us to as-
certain. He died at Venice in October, 1620, a circumstance in which Demp-
ster has the best reason to be accurate, as it is the very year in which he pens
his account. M'Kenzie finds that " others" (without condescending to mention
who they are,) ** say that he died at Venice, anno 1621, and that his picture is
still to be seen there, and at- the Vatican at Rome." Dr Lettice, in the refined

5 Perhaps the Cabalistic arrangement of the alphabet.

6 Perhaps M'Kenzie may in naming this alphabet have had some confused idea in his
mind, of an arrangement of the celestial bodies, by alternate contortion, into something re-
sembling the tetters of the Hebrew alphabet, followed by some of the worshippers of the secret
sciences. The arrangement was called the celestial alphabet. Vide Cafferel.

in. F

42 ROBERT HEPBURN.

spirit of a philosophical biographer, lias drawn of him the following- character :
" Although Hepburn's attainments in language were worthy of great admira-
tion, I find no reason to believe that his mind was enlarged, or his understand-
ing remarkably vigorous. He does not appear to have possessed that quick
sense of remote but kindred objects, that active faculty of combining and felicity
of expressing related ideas, or that intuitive discernment betwixt heterogene-
ous ones; those creative powers, in short, of thought or expression, by which
original works of whatever kind are produced ; those works in the contempla-
tion of which alone, taste ever recognizes the fascination of genius." Did we
possess the power of creating opinions out of nothing, which the Dr possessed,
and to which he seems to refer, we should have tried his canons of criticism,
on a minute review of all Hepburn's works, but in the meantime, we can only
say, we can scarcely agree with him in thinking that the linguist had not a quick
sense of " remote but kindred objects," or that he had any defect in his dis-
cernment of heterogeneous ideas ; nor do we conceive that his biographer has
allowed him too narrow an allowance of " creative power."

HEPBURN, Robert, of Bearford, a fugitive writer, who at a very early age
distinguished himself by the exhibition of strong talents, and an original genius,
which the briefness of his life did not permit to rise to maturity, was born about
1690 or 1691. He studied civil law in Holland, with the intention of be-
coming a member of the legal profession in his native country. He returned
home in 1711, and in his twenty-first year attempted to imitate in Scotland the
fugitive literature which the Tatler had introduced to England. Hepburn's
work was an avowed imitation of that periodical. He named it '* The Tatler,
by Donald MacstafF of the North." This work was carried through thirty
weekly numbers; it is, we believe, extremely rare, and we have been unable
to obtain a perusal of it. Lord Woodhouselee, who appears to have been
acquainted with it, says, in his Life of Kaines, " These papers are evidently the
production of a man of vigorous native powers, and of a mind not meanly stored
with ancient learning, and familiar with the best writings of the moderns. The
author might have shone in the treatment of general topics of moral discussion,
or of criticism ; but from a propensity not unnatural, where talents are combined
with an ardent temperament, and sarcastic turn of mind, his compositions were
fitted to give much offence, by the description of known characters, and
by the personal satire which he employed, with no gentle or delicate
hand, on some men of note, both in the ecclesiastical and civil departments,
among his countrymen." In 1712, Mr Hepburn became a member of the
faculty of advocates, but death quenched his fiery and ambitious spirit, before
he had an opportunity of exercising his professional talents. He left behind
him two opuscula, " Demonstrate quod Deus sit," published at Edinburgh in
1714, and " Dissertatio De Scriptis Pitcarnianis," 1715. In the concluding
number of the Tatler, he announced for publication a translation of Sir George
M'Kenzie's curious tract " Idea Eloquentiae Forensis ;" a project he appears to
have been prevented from fulfilling. There is extant a curious pamphlet, " A
Discourse concerning the character of a Man of Genius, by Mr Hepburn,"
Edinburgh, 1715. We have no doubt that this is from the hand of Mr Hep-
burn of Bearford ; it is the production of no ordinary mind. This small work
is divided into sections, each of which contains a condensed moral precept, or
aphorism : the quotation of one or two of these will give the best idea of the
author's talents, which can be now furnished. The reader will be surprised to
find in our extracts, reflections which have now become common- place, but
which strikingly resemble many of those on which some of the moral and polite
philosophers of the last century raised their renown.

DAVID HERD.— GEORGE HERIOT. 43

Sec. 7. " I dont know by what fate it happens, that some men have the for-
tune to be counted wits, only for jesting a little out of the common road, and for
endeavouring, in opposition to all the reason and sense of mankind, to turn
into ridicule those things which are, in their own nature, the most sacred and
venerable. But as a man is not infamous for being defamed, so it is no dis-
paragement to any person or thing, to be laughed at, but to deserve to be so.
It was a wise answer of Diogenes, which we find mentioned by Plutarch, when
some of his friends told him that his enemies were laughing at him ; ' but I,'
replied he, ' am not derided.' "

Sec. 9. " A man of genius ought not, in my opinion, to think even his dress
below his notice ; as the world is but too apt to judge by appearance."

Sec. 15. "A man discovers the extent of his genius, if, upon all occasions>
lie handsomely acts his part, and behaves with a good grace in every scene and
circumstance of human life. The care of doing nothing unbecoming has accom-
panied the greatest minds to their last moments : they avoided an indecent posture,
even in the very article of death."

HERD, David, an ingenious and useful inquirer into our national antiquities,
was born in the parish of St Cyrus, Kincardineshire, about the year 1732. Of
his education, and early life in general, nothing has been ascertained. He
probably served an apprenticeship under a country writer, and then, like many
young men in his circumstances, sought a situation of better promise in the
capital. Throughout a long life, he appears to have lived unarubitiously, and a
bachelor, in Edinburgh, never rising above the character of a Writer's clerk.
He was for many years clerk to Mr David Russel, accountant. A decided taste
for antiquities, and literary antiquities in particular, led Mr Herd to spend a
great part of his savings on books ; and although the volumes which he pi*e-
ferred were then much cheaper than now, his library eventually brought the
sum of £254, 19*. lOd. The same taste brought him into association with the
principal authors and artists of his own time : Runciman, the painter, was one
of his intimate friends, and with Ruddiman, Gilbert Stuart, Fergusson, and
Robert Burns, he was well acquainted. His information regarding Scottish his-
tory and biography was extensive. Many of his remarks appeared in the
periodical works of his time, and the notes appended to several popular works
were enriched by notes of his collecting. Sir Walter Scott, for instance, was
much indebted, in his Border Minstrelsy, to a manuscript of Mr Herd's, which is
frequently quoted by the editor, both for ballads and for information respecting
them. Mr Herd was himself editor of what Scott calls " the first classical col-
lection" of Scottish songs, which first appeared in one volume in 176'9, and
secondly in two volumes, in 1772. At his demise, which took place, June 25,
1810, he was understood to have left considerable property, which fell to a
gentleman in England, supposed to have been his natural son, and who is said
to have died a major in the army.

HERIOT, George, founder of the excellent hospital in Edinburgh which
bears his name, and jeweller to king James VI., was descended from the Heriots
of Trabroun in East-Lothian. This respectable family was connected with some
of the most distinguished names in Scottish history. The mother of the illus-
trious Buchanan was a daughter of the family, and it was through the patronage
of James Heriot of Trabroun, his maternal uncle, that the future poet and states'
man was sent to prosecute his studies at the university of Paris. Elizabeth,
daughter of James Heriot of Trabroun, was the mother of Thomas Hamilton of
Priestfield, first earl of Haddington, president of the court of session, and
secretary and prime minister to James VI. But the family may, with more
reason, boast of their connexion with the subject of this memoir, who, though

44 GEORGE HERIOT.

filling only the unaristocratic rank of a tradesman, has been the means of
drawing forth from obscurity some persons of high talent, and many who have
moved in the middle ranks with the greatest honour to themselves and benefit to
society.

George Heriot, senior, was a goldsmith in Edinburgh and a person of wealth
and consideration. He filled some of the most responsible civic situations in
the Scottish metropolis : his name often occurs in the rolls of the Scottish
parliament as a commissioner for Edinburgh, in the parliaments and conventions
of estates, and he was frequently appointed a commissioner by parliament for the
consideration of important questions.1

George, his eldest son (the subject of our inquiry) is supposed to have been born
in June, 1563. He was destined to follow his father's profession, at that time
one of the most lucrative and honourable among the burgesses. The goldsmiths
of Edinburgh were, in ancient times, classed with the hammermen ; at what
time they were separated seems uncertain. They received (in August, 1581)
a charter of incorporation from the magistrates, in which many privileges,
amounting in fact to a monopoly of their trade, were granted to them, and these
were afterwards (1586) confirmed by a charter from James VI. They were,
besides, for a long period, the only money lenders ; and the high rate of interest,
with their frequent command over the resources of the court and the nobility, ren-
dered them persons at once of wealth and power.

At the age of twenty-three George Heriot entered into a contract of marriage
with Christian Marjoribanks, daughter of Simon Marjoribanks, a substantial bur-
gess of Edinburgh. On this occasion, his father presented him with 1000
merks " to be ane begyning and pak to him," and 500 more to purchase the
implements of his trade and to fit out his shop. By his wife he received 1075
merks, which appear to have been lent out at ten per cent, interest, the usual
rate of that period. Their union does not appear to have been of long dura-
tion, although the date of this lady's death is unknown ; it is even doubtful if
she had any children — if she had, none of them survived her.

Master Heriot was admitted a member of the incorporation of goldsmiths on
the twenty-eighth of May, 1588. In 1597 he was appointed goldsmith to the
queen by a charter from James VI., and this (to use the expression of a contem-
porary chronicler, Birrel,) " was intimat at the crosse be opin proclamatione and
sound of trumpet ; and ane Clei, the French man, dischargit, quha was the
queen's goldsmithe befor." Heriot was soon after constituted goldsmith and
jeweller to the king, with all the emoluments attached to that lucrative office.
It would appear that he had already amassed a considerable fortune from his
transactions with the court, but no notice of his work occurs in the treasurer's
books till September, 1599, when we have the following:

" Payit at his majesties special command, with advyiss of the lords of secret
counsal to George Heriot, younger, goldsmith, for a copburd propynit to Mon-
sieur \etonu , Frenche arabassadour, contening the peces following, viz.: bra
basing.s, twa laweris effeiring thairto, twa flaconis, twa chandilleris, sex couppis
with covens, tua couppis without coveris, ane lawer for water, ane saltfalt with
ane cover ; all chissellit wark, and dowbill owirgilt, weyand twa stane 14 pund
and 5 unces at audit mark the unce, £4160. Item, for graving of 28 almessis
upon the said copburd £,14," Scots money.

No other notice of him appears between this period and that of the removal of
the court to England, whither he soon followed it.

Heriot was now possessed of large fortune, and determined upon forming a mar-
riage connexion with a family of good rank. The object of his choice was Alison
1 Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland (folio edition), iv. 181, 379.

GEORGE HERIOT. 45

Primrose, eldest daughter of James Primrose, clerk to the Scottish privy council ;
a gentleman whose industry and talents had raised him to that honourable office,
and who was the grandfather of the first earl of Koseberry. Heriot was also
destined to survive this lady, who died, without leaving issue, on the 16th
of April, 1612. "The loss of a young, beautiful, and amiable partner, at a
period so interesting," Sir Walter Scott conjectures, " was the probable reason
of her husband devoting his fortune to a charitable institution." She was interred
in the south aisle of the choir of Saint Gregory's church, where her sorrowing
husband erected a handsome monument, bearing a Latin inscription, to her
memory.

From the period of Heriot's settlement at London little is known of his his-
tory. Many of the accounts of jewels furnished by him to the queen have been
preserved, and several are printed by Mr Constable in his memoir of Heriot.
These accounts, from 1605 to 1615, amount to many thousand pounds sterling,
but there does not appear to have been the same liberality towards all the mem-
bers of the royal family. We find the duke (then marquis) of Buckingham,
writing to his " dere dad, gossip and steward," the king, from the Spanish
court in the following manner relative to the prince : " Hitherto you have beine
so sparing [of jewels] that whereas you thought to have sent him sufficiently for
his one [own] wearing, to present to his mistris, who, I am sure shall shortlie
now louse that title, and to lend me, that 1 to the contrarie have bene forsed to
lend him." About the same period Charles writes the following letter from
Madrid to his royal father :

" I confess that ye have sent mor Jewells then (at my departure) I thought to
had use of; but, since my cumming, seeing mnnie jewels worne here, and that
my braverie can consist of nothing else, besydes that sume of them which ye
have appointed me to give to the Infanta, in Steenie's oppinion and myne are
not fitt to be given to her ; therefore I have taken this bouldness to entreate
your majesty to send more for my own wearing, and for giving to my mistris,
in which I think your majesty shall not doe amiss to take Carlyle's advice."2
It is said that Heriot furnished these jewels, and that they were never paid for
by James, but that their price was deducted from the purchase-money of the
barony of Broughton when bought by the trustees of the hospital.3 If this is
the case, it is the last transaction in which we have found Heriot engaged. He
died at London on the 12th of February, 1624, and was buried at St Martin's in
the Fields on the 20th of the same month.

Of Heriot's private character little unfortunately is known. He seems to
have possessed those strict business-like habits of accuracy for which he is so dis-
tinguished in the novel of the Fortunes of Nigel. With his relations he must
have lived on amicable terms, for besides the munificent provision made in his
will for the establishment of an hospital, he left considerable sums to many of his
relations. Of these the nearest were two natural daughters.

By his will, (dated 20th January, 1623,) he left the whole of his fortune, af-
ter deducting the legacies to his relations, servants, &c to ° the provost, bail-
liffs, ministers, and ordinary council, for the time being, of the said town of
Edinburgh, for and towards the founding and erecting of an hospital within the
said town of Edinburgh, in perpetuity ; and for and towards purchasing of cer-
tain lands in perpetuity to belong unto the said hospital, to be employed for the

* Stark's Picture of Edinburgh, p. 232.

3 Ellis's Letters illustrative of English history, (first series) iii. 145, 6. Buckingham adds
the following postscript in his usual stvle : " 1 your doge (dog) sayes )ou lvtve munie jewels
neyther fitt for jour one (own,) your sones, nor jour daughters, wearing, but very fitt to be-
stow on those here who must nectssarilie have presents ; and this waj will be least chargeable to
vour majesty in my poure opinion."

46 ROBERT HERON.

maintenance, relief, bringing up, and education of so many poor fatherless
boys, freemen's sons of the town of Edinburgh, as the means which 1 give, and
the yearly value of the lands purchased by the provost, bailiffs, ministers, and
council of the said town shall amount, or come to." The education of the boys
is superintended by able masters, and they are not only taught to read, write,
and cast accounts, (to which the statutes of the hospital originally confined the
trustees,) but Latin, Greek, Mathematics, &c If the boys choose a learned pro-
fession, they are sent to the university for four years, with an annual allowance
of thirty pounds. The greater number are bound apprentices to tradesmen in
the city, and are allowed the annual sum of ten pounds for five years ; at the
end of their apprenticeship they receive five pounds to purchase a suit of
clothes, upon producing a certificate of good conduct from their master.

The foundation of the present magnificent structure (designed by the cele-
brated architect Inigo Jones,) was laid on the 1st of July, 1628, but from the
disturbed state of the country continued unfinished till April, 1659. From the
rise in the value of their property, the yearly revenue at the disposal of the
trustees has very greatly increased, especially during the last half century. A
body of statutes by which the institution is governed was drawn up by Dr Bal-
canqual, dean of Rochester, the well known author of a " Declaration concerning
the late tumults in Scotland," 1639, published in name of king Charles I.

HERON, Robert, a miscellaneous writer, was born in the town of New
Galloway, on the 6th November, 1764. His father, John Heron, was a weaver,
generally respected for his persevering industry and exemplary piety. By his
grandmother, Margaret Murray, aunt of the late Dr Alexander Murray, he
claimed no very distant relationship to that profound philologist. He was early
instructed in his letters under the careful eye of a fond parent, and was not sent
to the school of the parish until he had reached his ninth year. He soon be-
came remarkable for the love he showed for learning, and the unwearied anxiety
with which he pursued his inquiries after every point connected with his studies.
This being early perceived by his parents, they resolved to give him the benefit
of a liberal education as far as their means would allow. He had scarcely re-
mained two years at school when, at the age of eleven, he contrived to maintain
and educate himself by mingling with his studies the labour of teaching and
writing. From his own savings out of a very limited income, and a small as-
sistance from his parents, he was enabled to remove to the university of Edin-
burgh at the end of the year 17 80.

His hopes of preferment at that time being centered in the church, he first ap-
plied himself to the course of study which that profession requires. While
attending the college he was still obliged to devote a considerable portion of his
time to private teaching, as well as writing occasional essays for newspapers and
magazines m order to provide for his subsistence. To quote his own words,
he taught and assisted young persons at all periods in the course of education,
from the alphabet to the highest branches of science and literature." Bein-

IVell nrmniriK In n 1,..„...1_ J __ _/• .1 r-. , . _ »

well grounded ir. a knowledge of the French language, he found const;
— ent from booksellers in translating foreign works. His first
J, published with his name, appeared in 1789, " A Critique c
ntirigs of Thomson," prefixed to a small edition of the Seasons!'" It was

A, „..;„. . i. , , .... => -*""•&" "w"vo. ins ursi iiierarv pro-

Z yJ ttr11 h'S„name' appeared in l789> " A Criti1ue o" the Genius
h!llv r 0f,T1TT' Prefixed t0 a s,nal1 edition of the Seasons. It was
hghly spoken of, and reflected much credit on the.judgment and taste of the author.

by sXl0T 3 a T,0n °f J!0"™0?'* Chemistry, from the French, followed
by Savary s Travels in Greece, Dumourier's Letters, Gesner's Idyls in Dart an
abs ract of Zlmmennan on Solitude and several abridgments of ^J"X™
in 1790-1, he says he read lectures on the law of nature the law of na
turns, the Jewish, Grecian, Roman, feudal, and canon law-and then on Z

ROBERT HERON. 47

several forms of municipal jurisprudence established in modern Europe;" — these
lectures, he says, were to assist gentlemen who did not study professionally, in
the understanding of Just or y. Though he devoted much time and study to pre-
pare these lectures, he was afterwards unfortunate in not being able to obtain a
sufficient audience to repay him for their composition — they were consequently
soon discontinued. A syllabus of the entire course was afterwards published. Still
the sums of money he continued to i*eceive from his publishers were amply sufficient
to maintain him in a respectable manner, if managed with prudence and discretion ;
but his unfortunate peculiarity of temper, and extravagant desire of supporting a
style of living which nothing but a liberal and certain income would ad-
mit of, frequently reduced him to distress, and finally to the jail. He might
have long remained in confinement, but that some worthy friends interceded ;
and, on their suggestion, he engaged himself to write a History of Scotland, for
which Messrs Morrisons of Perth were to pay him at the rate of three guineas
a sheet, his creditors, at the same time, agreeing to release him for fifteen
shillings in the pound, to be secured on two thirds of the copyright; before this
arrangement was fully concluded, melancholy to relate, nearly the whole of the
first volume of the History of Scotland was written in jail. It appeared in
1793, and one volume of the work was published every year successively, until
the whole six were completed. During that period he went on a tour through
the western parts of Scotland, and from notes taken on the road, he compiled
a work in two volumes octavo, called " A Journey through the Western Parts
of Scotland." He also gave to the world, " A Topographical Account of Scot-
land," " A New and Complete System of Universal Geography," " A Memoir
of Robert Burns," besides many contributions to magazines and other periodical
works. He was also engaged by Sir John Sinclair, to superintend the publica-
tion of his Statistical Account of Scotland. By this time he had acquired great
facility in the use of his pen, and, being extremely vain of the versatility of his
genius, he flattered himself there was no range in literature, however high, that
was not within the scope of his powers. Impressed with these ideas, he made
an attempt at dramatic composition, and having some influence with the manager
of the theatre, he contrived to get introduced on the stage an after-piece,
written, as he says, in great haste, called, " St Kilda in Edinburgh ; or, News
from Camperdown ;" — but as if to verify the adage, " Things done in a haste are
never done well," so it turned out with St Kilda. Being devoid of every thing
like interest, and violating in many parts the common rules of decency, it was
justly condemned before it reached the second act.

Our author's vanity must have on this occasion received a deep wound, being
present in the house at the time ; — overwhelmed with disappointment, he flew to
his lodgings and confined himself to bed for several days. Still blinded by
vanity in the midst of his mental sufferings, he imputed the failure of his play to
the machinations of his enemies. He therefore determined on " shaming the
rogues" by printing. It is needless to say, it neither sold nor was talked of.
The most amusing part of this affair was the mode in which he persisted in forc-
ing his production on the public. We shall present our readers with an ex-
tract ■ from his highly inflated preface. It commences with a quotation from
Sterne's Tristram Shandy. " The learned bishop Hall tells us in one of his de-
cades, at the end of his Divine Meditations, that it is an abominable thing for a
man to commend himself, and verily I think so ; and yet, on the other hand,
when a thing is executed in a masterly kind of fashion, which thing is not likely
to be found out, I think it is fully as abominable that a man should lose the hon-
our of it This is exactly my situation." In the following he quotes Swift : —
u When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign —

_

48 ROBERT HERON.

that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." Yet, though blinded by
folly and weighed down by distress, still his filial affections were alive, and, al-
though he could not afford his parents any permanent support, he seemed an-
xious to promote the education of their family ; which the following extracts
from his letters will sufficiently prove :

" I hope by living more pious and carefully, by managing my income frugally,
and appropriating a part of it to the service of you and my sisters, and by living
with you in future at least a third part of the year, to reconcile your affections
more entirely tome, and give you more comfort than I have yet done. Oh forget
and forgive my follies ; look on me as a son who will anxiously strive to com-
fort and please you, and, after all your misfortunes, to render the evening of
your days as happy as possible." And again, — " We will endeavour," says he,
" to settle our dear Grace comfortably in life, and to educate our dear little
Betty and Mary aright." He brought his eldest brother, John, to Edinburgh,
to study at the university, with the view of his entering the church ; he was a
youth of promising abilities, but of weak constitution, and sank into an early
grave in 1790. As the other children increased in years, faithful to his pro-
mise, he brought his favourite sister, Mary, to live with him in Edinburgh to
complete her education. His irregularities, and consequent embarrassments,
made her situation in town any thing but an enviable one. Her mortifications,
however, in this life were not of long duration, as she died at his lodgings in
1798. To a mind of his quick sensibility this was a dreadful shock. Almost
frantic with grief at the loss he experienced, he gave himself up to the wildest
despair : every unkind action or word he made use of towards her rushed to
his distracted memory, until life itself was almost insupportable. Neither the
sympathy of friends, nor the consolations of religion, could mitigate his woes.
At the same time his means of subsistence became every day more precarious ;
his literary labours were ceasing to pay, so that, added to his other misfortunes,
starvation and a jail were hourly staring him in the face. Shunning as much
as possible all his former companions, he might now be seen wandering about
the suburbs of the city, with wasted cheek and sunken eye, a miserable victim of
want and care. By degrees, however, he was recalled to a better state of mind,
when, finding his views not likely to succeed any longer in Scotland, he was
induced to go to London in 1799. For the first few years of his relidence
there, it appears he found good employment, and his application to study being
very great, his profits and prospects were alike cheering. In a letter written to
his father about the time we are speaking of, he says —

" My whole income, earned by full sixteen hours a-day of close application
to reading, writing, observation, and study, is but very little more than three
hundred pounds a-year. But this is sufficient to my wants, and is earned in a
manner which I know to be the most useful and honourable — that is, by teach-
ing beneficial truths, and discountenancing vice and folly more effectually and
more extensively than I could in any other way. This I am here always sure
to earn, while 1 can give the necessary application; and if I were able to exe-
cute more literary labour I might readily obtain moi-e money.''

He for a time pursued his literary vocations with an unwearied industry, and
there was scarcely a publication then in London of any note but contained some
of his fugitive writings. He realized in consequence a good income, but, unfor-
tunately, for no great length of time. His former bad habits returned, and while
money continued to flow in, he indulged in the wildest extravagance. Wish-
ing to be thought an independent man of fortune, he would carry his folly
so far as at times to keep a pair of horses, with a groom in livery. All
this time his pen was Laid aside ; and until warned of his fate by the appearance

ROBERT HERON. 49

of his last shilling, he seemed altogether devoid of reflection. Then he would
betake himself to his work, as an enthusiast in every thing, confining himself for
weeks to his chamber, dressed only in his shirt and morning gown, and com-
monly with a green veil over his eyes, which were weak, and inflamed by such
fits of ill regulated study.

In 1806, he addressed a letter to Mr Wilberforce on the justice and expedi-
ency of the Slave Trade. He wrote a short system of Chemistry, and a few
months previous to his death he published a small work called the Comforts of
Life, which, it appears, met with a ready sale.

The last years of his life were spent in the deepest misery. His friends
and associates by degrees deserted him ; some offended at his total want of
steadiness, others worn out by constant importunities, and not a few disgusted
at the vanity and envy he displayed on too many occasions ; added to all this,
his employers found they could place no dependence on his promises, as he
would only resume his pen when urged to it by stern necessity, so that he found
at last, it was with great difficulty he could procure even a scanty subsistence.
Deep in debt, and harassed by his creditors, who were all exasperated at his
constant want of faith, he was at last consigned to the jail of Newgate, where
he dragged on a miserable existence for many months. From that vile prison
lie wrote the following pathetic appeal to the Literary Fund, which we derive
from a most appropriate source, D'israeli's " Calamities of Authors."

** Ever since I was eleven years of age I have mingled with my studies the
labour of teaching or writing to support and educate myself. During about
twenty years, while I was in constant and occasional attendance at the university
of Edinburgh, I taught and assisted young persons at all periods in the course
of education, from the alphabet to the highest branches of science and literature.
I read lectures on the law of nature, the law of nations, the Jewish, the Grecian,
the Roman, and the canon law, and then on the feudal law, and on the several
forms of municipal jurisprudence established in modern Europe. I printed a
Syllabus of these lectures, which was approved ; they were as introductory
to the professional study of law, and to assist gentlemen who did not study it
professionally, in the understanding of history. I translated Fourcroy's Chem-
istry twice, Savary's Travels in Greece, Dumourier's Letters, Gesner's Idyls in
part, an abstract of Zimmerman on Solitude, and a great diversity of smaller
pieces. I wrote a journey through the western parts of Scotland, which
has passed through two editions; a History of Scotland in six volumes 8vo; a
topographical account of Scotland, which has been several times reprinted ; a
number of communications in the Edinburgh Magazine ; many prefaces and
critiques. A Memoir of the Life of Burns, which suggested and promoted the
subscription for his family, has been reprinted, and formed the basis of Dr Cur-
rie's life of him, as I learned by a letter from the Doctor to one of his friends; a
variety ofjeux d^esprit, in verse and prose, and many abridgments of large works.
In the beginning of 1799, I was encouraged to come to London. Here I have
written a great multiplicity of articles in almost every branch of literature, my
education in Edinburgh having comprehended them all. The London Review,
the Agricultural Magazine, the Universal Magazine, the Anti-Jacobin Review,
the Public Characters, the Annual Necrology, with several other periodical works,
contain many of my communications. In such of these publications as have
been received, I can show that my anonymous pieces have been distinguished
with very high praise. I have written also a short system of Chemistry, and I
published a few weeks since a small work called the Comforts of Life, of which
the first edition was sold in one week, and the second edition is now in rapid

__

50 DR. GEORGE HILL.

sale. In the newspapers — The Oracle, The Porcupine, when it existed, The
General Evening Post, The Morning Post, The British Tress, The Courier, &c.
1 have published my reports of the debates in parliament, and I believe a
greater variety of fugitive pieces than I know to have been written by any one
person. I have written also a great variety of compositions in Latin and
French, in favour of which I have been honoured with the testimonials of liberal
approbation.

** I have invariably written to serve the cause of religion and morality, pious
Christian education, and good order in the most direct manner. I have con-
sidered what I have written as mere trifles, and I have incessantly studied to
qualify myself for something better. I can prove that I have for many years
read and written one day with another from twelve to sixteen hours a-day. As
a human being I have not been free from follies and errors ; but the tenor of
my life has been temperate, laborious, humble, quiet, and, to the utmost of my
power, beneficent 1 can prove the general tenor of my writings to be candid,
and ever adapted to exhibit the most favourable views of the abilities, disposi-
tions, and exertions of others. For the last ten months I have been brought to
the very extremity of bodily and pecuniary distress.

" I shudder at the thoughts of perishing in a jail.

" 92, Chancery Lane, Feb. 2d. 1807. (In confinement.)"

His life was now fast drawing to a close. With a mind bowed down by want
and despair, and a body emaciated from increasing disease, he was incapable of
farther exertion ; and being removed to an hospital as his last and only hope,
in one week after his entrance there, he breathed his last, on the 13th of April,
1807, without a friend to console or assist him. Thus perished Robert Heron
in the prime of life, with talents and acquirements of a very rare descrip-
tion, which, if governed by prudence, were eminently calculated to gain for
him an honourable independence in the world. It is difficult to estimate the
true depth of his genius by his miscellaneous publications in prose ; his style
was of a mixed description, — sometimes pompous and declamatory, at other times
chaste and elegant But it must be considered he was seldom allowed the
choice of a subject, being all his life under the dictates of a publisher.1 He
composed with great rapidity, and seldom made any corrections but in his proof
sheets. His appearance was at most times impressive and dignified ; his figure,
above the middle size, stately and erect, and his countenance had a benevolent
expression, though pale and care-worn from study and confinement.

With all his faults he had still many redeeming virtues; and above all a
strong sense of the respect which is due to religion and morality. In a diary
of his life, kept at various times, which contains a free confession of his senti-
inents, he has recorded, that, in whatever manner he spent the day, he never
closed his eyes at night without humbling himself in prayer before the throne
of the Most High.

The brief memoir of this accomplished scholar affords another striking in-
stance of the impossibility of shielding genius from poverty and disgrace when
blinded by passion, or perverted by eccentricity.

HILL, (Db) George, an eminent leader of the church of Scotland, and prin-
cipal of St Mary's college, St Andrews, was born in that city, in the month of
June, 1750. His father, the Rev. John Hill, was one of the ministers of St
Andrews ; and he went through his whole course of education in the university
there. The elements of education he received very early, after which he uas

un'dettr^^LtrrSuZ"' ^ ^^ ««*■ *tf** ■»*•• present work.

DR. GEORGE HILL. 51

sent to the grammar school, then taught by Mr Dick, who afterwards obtained a
chair in the university. While he continued at school, he made a rapid pro-
gress, and was generally at the head of his class. At the age of nine years, he
exhibited so much precocity of talent as to compose a sermon, superior in his
father's opinion to many sermons he had heard from the pulpit ; and the late
countess ol Buchan was so much pleased with it, that she requested it might be
dedicated to her, and carried it to London with her, with the intention of having
it printed. The intention, however, without any loss to the world we presume,
was never brought into act. He entered upon his academical course in the
eleventh year of his age, and in all the different classes maintained a decided
superiority. His tasks he performed always with ease; and he was highly
respected by all the professors under whom he studied. At fourteen years of
age, he had completed his philosophical course, and was made a master of arts ;
and, having determined to devote himself to the church, entered upon the study of
theology in his fifteenth year. During the second session of his theology, the earl
of Kinnoul, having been appointed chancellor of the university of St Andrews, gave
for the encouragement of learners, a number of prizes, to be bestowed on the
most deserving in the various classes. These prizes his lordship distributed to
the successful candidates with his own hand ; and young Hill, having gained one
of them, though he had to contend with many that were greatly his seniors,
attracted the particular notice of his lordship, who from that moment took a
warm interest in his success in life, giving him directions for his conduct, and
aid for the prosecution of his schemes, with the warmth of a parent rather than
the cold and stately formality of a patron. During his college vacations, he was
in the habit of visiting frequently at Temple, his uncle, Dr M'Cormick, the
biographer of Carstairs, by whom he was introduced to the metropolitan of the
Scottish church, principal Robertson, and by the principal he was recommended
as tutor to the eldest son of Pryce Campbell, M. P., and at that time one of the
lords of the treasury. In consequence of this appointment, he repaired to Lon-
don in November, 1767, not having completed his seventeenth year. Such a
series of fortunate incidents occurs in the lives of few individuals. " Educated,"
says his biographer, " in the genuine principles of whiggism, he considered the
great design of government to be the promotion of the liberty and the happiness
of the people ;" but in the close of the very same paragraph this writer intro-
duces the subject of his panegyric saying to his mother, " as I have seen nothing
but mobbing and the bad effects of faction since I came to England, I am very
moderate, and think it the duty of an honest man to support almost any min-
istry." Mr Hill was, indeed, a whig of a somewhat odd kind ; the man whom he
most admired was lord North, and the objects of his aversion and his vituperation
were the American colonists, Messrs Beckford, Wilkes, and the other members of
the opposition in the house of commons.

Mr Hill, while at St Andrews, had been an ambitious member of those associa-
tions generally formed at colleges for the purpose of exercising the talent of
speech, and he was not long in London till he found his way into the Robin
Hood Debating Society, where he even then consulted his interest by defending
the measures of administration. His account of this society gives no very high
idea of its members. " Last night I went to the Bobin Hood Society and was
very highly entertained there. We had speakers of all kinds, shoemakers,
weavers, and quakers, whose constant topic was the dearness of provisions.
There were one or two who spoke very comically, and with a great deal of
humour. But what surprised me much, I heard one of the easiest and most
masterly speakers that ever I heard in my life. His dress was rather shabby,
but he is a constant attendant and by long practice has greatly improved. I

52 DR. GEORGE HILL.

spoke once or twice, and had the honour of being listened to with great atten-
tion, which is a compliment in a society of this kind, which is made up of people
of all descriptions. It sits on .Mondays from eight to ten. A ticket costs six-
pence, for which you get a well lighted room and as much porter and lemonade
as you choose to drink. There is a subject fixed, and if that fail, the president
gives another. I shall be a constant attendant, not only as it is one of the
highest entertainments, but as the best substitute for the select clubs which I have

left." " 1 carried,'' he says in another letter to his mother, " my pupil to the

ltobin Hood Society, along with Mr Brodie, Mr Campbell's parochial clergyman
at (aider, who was on a visit to London. I made a splendid oration, which had
the honour of a loud clap, and was very much approved by Mr Brodie. It is
a fine exercise for oratorical talents." On another occasion Mr Hill thus
expresses himself: " I am obliged to you for your observations on the knowledge
of mankind. The true secret certainly for passing through life with comfort, and
especially to a person in my situation, is to study the tempers of those about hiinand
to accommodate himself to them, I don't know whether I am possessed of this
secret, or whether there is something remarkable in the persons with whom I
converse, but I have found every body with whom I have had any connexion
since I came to England or Wales, exceedingly agreeable. From all I have
met with politeness and attention, and, from many, particular marks of favour
and kindness. I may be defective in penetration and sagacity, and in judging
of character, but I am sure I am pliable enough, more than I think sometimes
quite right. I can laugh or be grave, talk nonsense, or politics, or philosophy,
just as it suits my company, and can submit to any mortification to please those
with whom I converse. I cannot flatter ; but I can listen with attention, and
seem pleased with every thing that any body says. By arts like these, which have,
perhaps, a little meanness in them, but are so convenient that one does not
choose to lay them aside, I have had the good luck to be a favourite in most
places." This at eighteen, except perhaps in Scotland, will be looked upon as
an amazing instance of precocious worldly sense. In the scramble for the good
things of this world, had such a man failed, who could ever hope to succeed?

In a subsequent letter to his mother, referring to the circumstance of a younger
brother entering upon his education, he observes, " What is the learning of any
one language, but throwing away so much time in getting by heart a parcel of
words in one language, and another parcel corresponding to the first in another ?
It is an odd thing that some more rational and useful employment cannot be
found out for boys of his age, and that we should still throw away eight or ten
years in learning dead languages, after we have spunged out of them all that is
to be found. God certainly never intended that so much of our time should be
spent in learning Greek and Latin. The period allotted to us for action is so
short that we cannot too soon begin to fit ourselves for appearing upon the stage.
-Air Campbell cannot read Greek, and he is a bad Latin scholar ; yet he is a
philosopher, a divine, and a statesman, because he has improved his natural
parts by reading a great deal of English. I am, and perhaps all my life shall
continue a close student ; but I hate learning. 1 have no more than is absolutely
necessary, and as soon as I can I shall throw that little away." Whatever was his
Latinity, Mr Campbell's interest was good and promised still to be better, in
consequence of which Mr Hill's friends were instant with him to go into the
church of England, where, through the attention of Mr Campbell, he might be
much better provided for than he could be in the church of Scotland, to which,
notwithstanding, he still professed not only adherence, but a high degree of

veneration.

From this temptation he was delivered by the death of Mr Pryce Campbell.

DR. GEORGE HILL. 53

who was cut off in the prime of his days, and in the midst of his expectations.
Mr Hill, however, was still continued with his pupil, who was now under the
protection of his grandfather ; and as great part of his estates lay in Scotland,
that his education might be corresponding to the duties which, on that account,
he might have to perform, young Campbell was sent for two sessions to the
university of Edinburgh, and that he might be under the eye of principal
Robertson, he was, along with his tutor, boarded in the house of Mrs Syme, the
principal's sister. During these two sessions, Mr Hill attended the divinity
class and the meetings of the Speculative Society, where he acquired considerable
eclat from a speech in praise of the aristocracy. He also waited on the General
Assembly, in the debates of which he took so much interest as to express his wish
to be returned to it as an elder. With Dr Robertson his intercourse was uninter-
rupted, and by him he was introduced to the notice of the principal men in and
about Edinburgh. By his uncle, Dr M'Cormick, he was introduced at Arniston
house, and in that family (Dundas) latterly found his most efficient patrons. While
he was thus swelling the train of rank and fashion, it was his fortune to meet for
the first time, dining at general Abercrombie's, with the celebrated David Hume,
of whom he thus wrote immediately after : " I was very glad to be in company
with a man about whom the world has talked so much ; but I was greatly sur-
prised with his appearance. I never saw a man whose language is more vulgar, or
whose manners are more awkward. It is no affectation of rudeness as being a
philosopher, but mere clownishness, which is very surprising in one who has
been so much in high life, and many of whose writings display so much
elegance." During all this time, the progress of his pupil was not commensu-
rate to the expectations of his friends, aud the expenses it occasioned ; and
with the approbation of his patron, lord Kinnoul, Mr Hill resigned his charge.
Mr Morton, professor of Greek in the university of St Andrews, at this time
wishing to retire on account of the infirmities of age, Mr Hill became a candidate,
was elected after some little opposition, and on the 21st of May, 1772, was
admitted joint professor of Greek, being yet only in the twenty-second year of
his age. He now went to London with his former pupil, and visited Cam-
bridge, where Mr Campbell was to finish his studies ; and, having received from
lord Kinnoul and Dr Robertson ample testimonials to the ability and faithfulness
with which he had discharged his duty while residing in Edinburgh, the family
parted with him, expressing their thankfulness, their respect, and regret. Return-
ing to Scotland, he spent some time with his uncle, preparing for meeting with
his class, which he did in the end of the year 1772. The duties of this charge
did not prevent him from various other pursuits. In the year 1774, Mr Camp-
bell, in order to make the most of his parliamentary interest in the shire of
Nairn, gave to a number of his friends votes upon life-rent superiorities, and among
others conferred one upon Mr Hill, who, while at Nairn performing his friendly
office as one of Mr Campbell's voters, nearly lost his life by sleeping in a room
that had been newly plastered. His groans, however, happened to be heard, and
a physician being in the house to give immediate assistance, he was soon
recovered. The year following, he formed the resolution of entering the church,
and having made application to the presbytery of Haddington, with which,
through his brother-in-law Mr Murray of North Berwick, he considered himself
in some sort connected, he was by that reverend court licensed to preach the
gospel on the 3d of May, 1775. He was immediately after this employed as
assistant to principal Tullidelph in the parochial church of St Leonard's, which
has always been united with the principally of the college. In this situation,
he continued till the death of principal Tullidelph in the year 1777. The same
year he was offered the parish of Coldstream by the earl of Haddington ; but he

54 DB. GEORGE HILL.

did not think it worth accepting. The following year, on the death of Dr
Baillie, professor of theology in the college of Glasgow, principal Robertson
desired him to stand candidate for that chair ; but he seems to have taken no
steps for that purpose, probably from the circumstance of his being only a
preacher, which might have operated against him in case of a well supported can-
didate coming forward. The same year, probably to be ready in case of a similar
emergency, he again applied to the presbytery of Haddington, and was by them
ordained to the holy ministry. In the year 1779, through the interest of prin-
cipal Robertson, and his uncle Dr M'Cormick, he was offered one of the churches
of Edinburgh, with the prospect of a cliair in the university in a short time.
This also he declined with a view to some contemplated arrangements of lord
Kinuoul. In consequence of the death of principal Morison, Dr Gillespie was
shortly after removed from the first charge in the city to the principalty of the
new college. Dr Adamson, the second minister, was promoted to Dr Gillespie's
benefice, and Mr Hill was elected by the town-council successor to Dr Adamson.
In consequence of his holding the professorship of Greek, Mr Hill's induction
was protested against by a member of the presbytery of St Andrews, and the
case was brought before the General Assembly in the year 1780, which dismissed
it without ceremony, as it did also overtures on the subject from the synods of
Fife, Perth, and Stirling. Mr Hill was, accordingly, with the full concurrence
of the congregation, admitted to the church in which his father had officiated,
on the 22nd day of June, 1780. Since his settlement at St Andrews as a pro-
fessor of Greek, he liad sat in the General Assembly as an elder ; he now
appeared in the more weighty character of a minister, and on the retirement of
Dr Robertson became the most important member of the house, and confessedly
the leader of the moderates.

We have already noticed his acceptance of a life-rent superiority, by which he
became a freeholder in the county of Nairn in the year 1774. He continued to
stand on the roll of freeholders for that county till the winter of 1784, when a
new election came on ; but Mr Campbell, from being on the side of the ministry,
was now violent on the side of the opposition. In this case, for Mr Hill to have
given his vote to Mr Campbell's candidate would have been considered by tire
ministry as open rebellion against their claims on the church, for which they
might have selected another leader, and have, at the same time, withdrawn every
mark of their favour from him. They might also have prosecuted him before
the justiciary on a charge of perjury, as they had already done some others in
similar circumstances. Under this complication of difficulties, Mr Hill as usual
had recourse to the earl of Kinnoul, and to his brother-in-law Mr Murray of
North Berwick. Lord Kinnoul most ingeniously gave him back his own views ;
did not, as chancellor of the university think he was warranted to allow him to
desert his professional duties for the purpose merely of giving a political vote ;
and stated, that though he himself could have greatly extended his interest by
such votes as Mr Hill possessed, he had never granted one of them. A charge
of perjury he admitted, might be brought against any person who received them,
and whether it might be well founded or not, it was a charge to which, in his
opinion, no minister of the gospel should expose himself. The judgment of his
lordship we cannot but approve, though it is probable that if the candidate had
been a ministerial one, the Greek class might have been allowed a few holidays
without the smallest impropriety. Mr Murray, while he regretted (though he
no doubt knew it from the first,) that his friend should ever have accepted such
a rote, applauded his purpose of relinquishing it, and of refusing, under all cir-
cumstances, to comply with the requisition to attend the election. Mr Hill's
biographer labours hard to clear him from any degree of blame in this affair,

DR. GEORGE HILL. 55

but without effect : it carries its character full in its face, and holds up a most
important lesson to all clergymen, to beware of intermeddling in political
intrigues of any kind.

In 1787 Mr Hill was honoured by the university with the title of D.D., and
in 1788 was appointed to succeed Dr Spens as professor of divinity in St Mary's
college. He had been the previous year appointed dean to the order of the
thistle, a place that had been first created to gratify Dr Jardine for his services
in support of Dr Robertson, but with no stated salary; the dean only claiming a
perquisite of fifty guineas on the installation of every new knight. During Dr
Hill's incumbency, no instalment took place, and he of course derived no
pecuniary benefit from the situation. He had been little more than three
years in the divinity chair, when the situation of principal became vacant
by the death of Dr Gillespie, and it was by lord Melville bestowed on
Dr Hill. This appointment in his letter of thanks he considered as peculiarly
valuable, as being the best proof that lord Melville approved the mode in which
he had discharged the duties of the divinity professorship. " I will not attempt,
he continues, to express by words the gratitude which I feel ; but it shall be the
study of my life to persevere as a clergyman in that line of conduct upon which
you have generously conferred repeated marks of your approbation." This was
the tercnination of his university preferment ; but he was shortly afterwards
nominated one of his majesty's chaplains for Scotland, with a salary annexed ;
and, on the death of his uncle Dr M'Cormick, he succeeded him as one of the
deans of the chapel royal. The deanery of the thistle already noticed
was unproductive ; but the above two situations, while they added nothing to his
labours, increased his income in a material degree. In his management of the
General Assembly Dr Hill copied closely after Dr Robertson ; except that the en-
tire satisfaction of himself and his party with the law of patronage as it then stood,
was marked by withdrawing from the yearly instructions to the commission,
the accustomed order to embrace every opportunity of having it removed, and by
still bolder attempts to do away with the form of moderating calls for presentees
and to induct them solely upon the footing of presentations. In his progress Dr
Hill certainly encountered a more formidable opposition than Dr Robertson
latterly had to contend with. In one case, and in one only, he was com-
pletely defeated. This was an overture from the presbytery of Jedburgh con-
cerning the imposition of the Test upon members of the established church of
Scotland; which it was contended was an infringement of the rights of Scotsmen,
and a gross violation of the privileges and independence of the Scottish church.
In opposition to the overture it was maintained by the moderates of the assembly
that the Test Act Mas a fundamental article of the treaty of union ; and Dr Hill,
in particular, remarked that there were no complaints on the subject except from
one single presbytery, nor was there any ground to complain ; for, to a liberal
and enlightened mind it could be no hardship to partake of the Lord's Supper
according to the mode sanctioned by a church whose views of the nature and
design of that ordinance were the same with his own. For once the popular
party gained a triumph, and the accomplished and ingenious leader was left in
a minority. A series of resolutions moved by Sir Henry Moncrieff* were adopted,
and by the unanimous voice of the assembly a committee was appointed to follow
out the spirit and purpose of these resolutions. Care, however, was taken to
render the committee of no avail, and nearly thirty years elapsed without any
thing further being done. We cannot enlarge on Dr Hill's administration of
the affairs of the church, and it is the less necessary that no particular
change was effected under him. Matters generally went on as usual, and
the influence of political men in biasing her decisions were, perhaps, fully

56 DR. GEORGE HILL.

more conspicuous than under his predecessor. Of his expertness in business,
and general powers of management, the very highest sense was entertained by
the public, though differences of opinion latterly threatened to divide his sup-
porters.

In 1807 Dr Hill had a severe attack, from which it was apprehended
he would not recover; contrary to all expectation he did recover, and the
following year, on the death of Dr Adamson, he was presented to the first
ecclesiastical charge in the city of St Andrews. Eight years after, namely, in
1816, we find him as active in the General Assembly as at any former period of
his life. Shortly after this time, however, he was attacked with slight shocks of
apoplexy, which impaired his speech, and unfitted him for his accustomed exer-
cises. He was no more heard in the assembly house ; but he continued to
preach occasionally to his own congregation till the year 1819, when he was
laid aside from all public duty. He died on the 19th of December that year,
in the seventieth year of his age, and thirty-ninth of his ministry.

Dr Hill married in 1782, Miss Scott, daughter to Mr Scott, a citizen of Edin-
burgh, who had chosen St Andrews as his place of retirement in his old age,
after he had given up business. By this lady, who survived him, Dr Hill had a
large family, several of whom are yet alive. His eldest son is Dr Alexander
Hill, professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow. In a life of principal
Hill, it would be unpardonable to pass over his various publications, some of
which possess high excellence. We cannot, however, afford room for criticism,
and shall merely notice them in a general way. Single sermons seem to have
been his first publications, though they are mentioned by his biographer in a
very indistinct manner. One of these, preached before the sons of the clergy,
seems to have been sent to the bishop of London, whose commendation it re-
ceived. Another, from the text, "Happy art thou, O Israel ; who is like unto
thee, O people saved by the Lord ?" was published in the year 1792, as a seda-
tive to the popular excitement produced by the French revolution. The sermon
was an unmeasured panegyric on the existing order of things in Great Britain,
and had, for a short time, an immense popularity. " I believe it will be agree-
able to you," writes his bookseller, "to inform you that I have had success with
respect to your sermon, beyond my most sanguine imagination. I have written
a hundred letters upon the subject, and have got all the capital manufacturers in
Scotland to enter into my idea. I have printed off ten thousand copies of the
coarse, and one thousand copies of the fine. I have got letters of thanks from
many capital persons, with proper compliments to you. * * *- I congratulate
you upon the extensive circulation of the sermon, for never was such a number
of a sermon sold in this country before, and I flatter myself it will, in a great
measure, answer the purpose for which it was intended." The following year
he published a third sermon, " Instructions afforded by the present war to the
people of Great Britain." In 1795, he published a volume of sermons, which is
said to have met with limited success. Several years after, Dr Hill published
" Theological Institutes," containing Heads of his Lectures on Divinity, a work
which continues to be highly estimated as a theological text-book ; " a, View of
the Constitution of the Church of Scotland;" and " Counsels respecting the
dutie* of the Pastoral Office." This last is an interesting and valuable work. In
1812, he published, " Lectures, upon portions of the Old Testament, intended to
illustrate Jewish history and Scripture characters." To this work is prefixed the
following dedication : " To the congregation which attends the author's minis-
try, this specimen of a Course of Lectures, in which he led them through the
Books of the Old Testament, is, with the most grateful sense of their kindness
and the most affectionate wishes for their welfare, respectfully inscribed." There

SIR ROGER HOG. 57

is no mode of publication a minister can adopt so likely to be useful as this. It
gives a most pleasing idea of a clergyman when he thus takes, as it were, a last
farewell of his people, who cannot tail to peruse a work bequeathed to them
under such circumstances, with peculiar interest These lectures, we doubt not,
were regarded among his parishioners more than all his other works. Of Dr
Hill's character the reader has been furnished with materials for forming a judg-
ment for himself. His precocious abilities, his talents for adapting himself to the
uses of the world, his diligence in all his offices, and his powers of managing
public business and popular assemblies, conspire to mark him out as a very ex-
traordinary man. It may only be remarked that, for the most of tastes, his corf*
duct will in general appear too much that of a courtier.

HOG, (Sib) Roger, lord Harcarse, a judge and statesman, was born in Ber-
wickshire about the year 1635. He was the son of William Hog of fiogend,
an advocate of respectable reputation, to whom is attributed the merit of having
prepared some useful legal works, which have unfortunately not been given to
the public. The subject of this memoir passed as an advocate in June 166 1, and
continued in the enjoyment of a lucrative and successful practice, till a breach
between Nisbet of Dirleton, and the powerful and vindictive Hatton, opened for
him a situation on the bench on the resignation of that judge in 1677 ; being
marked out by the government as a useful instrument, the appointment was ac-
companied with the honours of knighthood from Charles the Second. At this
period the judges of the Scottish courts, like ministerial officers, held their situa-
tions by the frail tenure of court favour, and were the servants, not of the laws,
but of the king. It was the good fortune of Harcarse to be, in the earlier part
of his career, particularly favoured by the ruling powers; and on the 18th No-
vember, 1678, we accordingly find Sir John Lockhart of Castlehill summarily
dismissed from the bench of the court of justiciary, and Harcarse appointed to
fill his place. At this period he represented the county of Berwick in the Scot-
tish parliament, an election which, from the journals of the house, we find to
have been disputed, and finally decided in his favour. A supreme judge of the
civil and criminal tribunals, and a member of the legislative body, Harcarse must
have had difficult and dangerous duties to perform. The times were a labyrinth
full of snares in which the most wary went astray : few of those who expe-
rienced the sunshine of royal favour, passed with credit before the public eye,
and none were blameless. Among the many deeds of that bloody reign, which
mankind might well wish to cover with a veil of eternal oblivion, was one dar-
ing and unsuccessful attempt, with regard to which, the conduct of Harcarse, in
such an age and in such a situation, had he been known for nothing else, is wor-
thy of being commemorated. In 1681, the privy council had called on Sir
George M'Kenzie, as lord advocate, to commence a prosecution for treason and
perjury against the earl of Argyle, for his celebrated explanation of his under-
standing of the contradictions of the test. To the eternal disgrace of that emi-
nent man, he brought with him to the prosecution those high powers of argument
and eloquence with which he had so frequently dignified many a better cause.
'Ihe relevancy of the indictment was the ground on which the unfortunate earl
and his counsel, Sir George Lockhart, placed their whole reliance, but they lean-
ed on a broken reed. In a midnight conclave, held it would appear after the
minds of most of the judges were sufficiently fatigued by the effect of a long day
of labour, the full depth of iniquity was allowed to the crime " of interpreting the
king's statutes other than the statute bears, and to the intent and effect that they
were made for, and as the makers of them understood." Queensberry, who pre-
sided as justice general, having himself been obliged to accompany the oath with
a qualification, remained neuter, and to oppose the insult on sense and justice,

58 SIR ROGER HOG.

was left to Harcarse. and Collington, a veteran cavalier. In order to do the busi-
ness with certainty, and prevent his majesty's interest from being sacrificed to
opposition so unusual and captious, Nairn, an infirm and superannuated judge, was
dragged from his bed at dead of night, and the feeble frame of the old mail
yielding to the desire of sleep wbile the clerk read to him a summary of the pro-
ceedings, he was roused from his slumber, and by his vote the relevancy of the
indictment was carried by a majority of one. The course pursued by lord Har-
carse in this trial escaped the vengeance of government at the time, but his con-
duct was held in remembrance for a future opportunity. In the year 1688, a
question came before the court of session, in which the matter at issue was, whe-
ther a tutory, named by the late marquis of Montrose, should subsist after the
death of one of the tutors, who had been named, in the language of the Scottish
law, as a " sine qua non." In a matter generally left to the friends of the pu-
pil, the unusual measure of the instance of the lord advocate was adopted by go-
vernment, for the purpose of having the pupil educated in the Roman catholic
faith. Wauchope lord Edmonstone and Harcarse voted for the continuance of
the trust in the remaining tutors, and on a letter from the king, intimating to the
court that, " for reasons best known to himself," it was his royal will and plea-
sure that they should cease to act as judges, both were removed from the bench,
" notwithstanding," says Fountainhall, with some apparent astonishment, " that
Edmonston was brother to Wauchop of Nidrie, a papist." The doctrine of the
law, previously vaccilating, has since this decision been considered as properly
fixed, according to the votes of the majority ; but an opposition to the will of
government in such a matter can be attributed to no other motives but such as
are purely conscientious. Other opinions on government and prerogative,
maintained in a private conference with some of the leaders of the ministry, are
alleged to have contributed to this measure ; but these were never divulged. At
the period of his downfall, a public attack was made on the character of lord
Harcarse, on the ground of improper judicial interference in favour of his son-
in-law, Aytouu of Inchdarnie, by an unsuccessful litigant. These animadversions
are contained in a very curious pamphlet, entitled " Oppression under colour of
Law ; or, my Lord Harcarse his new Practicks: as a way-marke for peaceable sub-
jects to beware of playing with a hot-spirited lord of Session, so far as is possible
when Arbitrary Government is in the Dominion," by Robert Pittilloch, advocate,
London, 1689.1 The injured party is loud in accusation ; and certainly if all the
facts in his long confused legal narrative be true, he had reason to be discon-
tented. He mentions one rather striking circumstance, that while the case was
being debated at the side bar of the lord ordinary, previous to its coming before
the other judges, " my lord Harcarse compeared in his purple gown, and de-
bated the case as Inchdarnie's advocate ;" a rather startling fact to those who
are acquainted with the comparatively pure course of modern justice, and which
serves with many others to show the fatal influence of private feeling on our ear-
lier judges, by whom an opportunity of turning judicial influence towards family
aggrandizement, seems always to have been considered a gift from providence not
to be rashly despised. After the Revolution, the path of honour and wealth was
again opened to lord Harcarse, but he declined the high stations proffered to
him ; and the death of a favourite and accomplished daughter, joined to a dis»ust
at the machinations of the court, prompted by his misfortunes, seems to have work-
ed on a feeble frame, and disposed him to spend the remainder of his days in
retirement. He died in the year 1700, in the 65th year of his age, leaving be-
hind him a collection of decisions from 1681 to 1692, published in 1757, in the
form of a dictionary, a useful and well arranged compilation. The pamphlet of
1 Re-edited by Mr Maid men t, Advocate, in 1827.

JOHN HOLYBUSH. 59

the unsuccessful litigant, previously alluded to, though dictated by personal and
party spleen, has certainly been sufficient somewhat to tinge the judicial integ-
rity of lord Harcarse ; but those who had good reason to know his qualities have
maintained, that " both in his public and private capacity, he was spoken of by
all parties with honour, as a person of great knowledge and probity;" * it would
indeed be bard to decide how far the boasted virtues of any age might stand the
test of the opinion of some more advanced and pure stage of society, did we not
admit that in a corrupt period, the person who is less vicious than his contem-
poraries is a man of virtue and probity ; hence one who was a profound observer
of human nature, an accurate calculator of historical evidence, and intimately
acquainted with the state of the times, has pronounced Harcarse to have been
"a learned and upright judge."3 Some unknown poet has penned a tribute
to bis memory, of which, as it displays more elegance of versification and pro-
priety of sentiment than are generally to be discovered in such productions,
we beg to extract a portion.

" The good, the godly, generous, and kind

The best companion, father, husband, friend ;

The stoutesl patron to maintain a cause,

The justest judge to square it by the laws ;

Whom neither force nor flattery could incline

To swerve from equity's eternal line;

Who, in the face of tyranny could own,

He would his conscience keep, though lose his gown;

Who, in his private and retired state

As useful was, as formerly when gieai,

Because his square and firmly tempered soul,

Round whirling fortune's axis could not roll ;

Nor, by the force of prejudice or pride,

Be bent his kindness to forego or bide,

But still in equal temper, still the same,

Esteeming good men, and esteemed by them ;

A rare example and encouragement
. Of virtue with an aged life, all spent

Without a stain, still flourishing and green,

In pious acts, more to be felt than seen."

HOLYBUSH, John, a celebrated mathematician and astronomer, better known
by the Latin terms, de Sacrobosco, or de Sacrobusto, occasionally also receiv-
ing the vernacular appellations of Holy wood and Hallifax, and by one writer
barbarously named Sacerbusc/iius. The period when this eminent man flour-
ished is not known with any thing approaching even to the usual certainty in
such cases, and it is matter of doubt whether he existed in the 13th or 14th cen-
tury. Nor is his birth-place less dubious ; as in many other instances during the
same period, England, Scotland, and Ireland have contended for the honour — the
two former with almost equal success, the last with apparently no more claim than
the absence of certain evidence of his belonging to any other particular nation.
When a man has acquired a fame apart from his own country, and in any pursuit
not particularly characteristic of, or connected with his native land, the establish-
ment of a certainty of the exact spot of his birth is of little consequence, and
when easily ascertained, the fact is only useful for the purpose of pointing out
the particular branch of biography (as that subject is generally divided) to which
the individual belongs, and thus preventing omission and confusion. Eutertain-

* Memoir prefixed to his Decisions.

* Laing's Hist, of Scot iv. U3.

• • k.n fart «rlance at the arguments adduced by the writers

ing such an opinion, we shall just glance at u e 0 pretending to

of the two nations in defence of their .^P^™^^ wh*he should be
decide a matter of such ^£*%* *£ iSon can be come to
a fit subject for—— *£ «£ *J^ ^ are doubts as to the

n^aXnsIn1 u£ R **" £* £ qua, nunc Anglia Insula, olim

SLr^-T-l— 5JST* tbe divisions of BrUain, and
confounds the Inland of later times, with the Albion or Britannia of the Ro-
Z^l it uded England and Scotland. Lelaod and Camden vindicate
hTs English birth, on tiuTgwu-d that John of Halifax n, Yorkshire forms a
translation (though it must be admitted not a very apt one) of Joannes de Sacro-
bosco. On the other hand Dempster scouts the theory of Leland with consider-
able indignation, maintaining that Halifax is a name of late invention and that
the mathematician derived his designation from the monastery of Holywood ,n
Nithsdale, an establishment of sufficient antiquity to have admitted him within its
walls. M'Kenzie repeats the assertions of Dempster with a few additions, stating
that after having remained for some years in the monastery, he went to Paris,
and was admitted a member of the university there. " Upon the 5th of June,
in the year 1221," Sibbald in his manuscript History of Scottish Literature as-
serts, that besides residing in the monastery of Holywood, he was for some time
a fellow student of the monks in Dryburgh, and likewise mentions, what M'Kenzie
has not had the candour to allude to, and Dempster has sternly denied, that he
studied the higher branches of philosophy and mathematics at the university of
Oxford. Presuming Holybush to have been a Scotsman, it is not improbable
that such a circumstance as his having studied at Oxford might have induced his
continental commentators to denominate him an Englishman. M'Kenzie tells us
that he entered the university of Paris " under the syndic of the Scots nation ;"
for this he gives us no authority, and we are inclined not only to doubt the as-
sertion, but even the circumstance that at that early period the Scottish nation
had a vote in the university of Paris, disconnected with that of England — at
all events, the historians of literature during that period are not in the habit of
mentioning a Scottish nation or syndic, and instead of the faculty of arts being-
divided, as M'Kenzie will have it, " into four nations, France, Scotland, Pi-
cardy, and Normandy," it is usually mentioned as divided into France, Britain,
Picardy, and Normandy. That Holybush was admitted under a Scottish syndic,
was not a circumstance to be omitted by Bulaeus, from his elaborate, and minute
History of the University of Paris, where the mathematician is unequivocally de-
scribed as having been an Englishman. There cannot be any doubt that Holy-
bush became celebrated at the university for his mathematical labours ; that he
was constituted professor of, or lecturer on that science ; that many of the first
scholars of France came to his school for instruction ; and that if he was not the
first professor of the mathematics in Paris, he was at least the earliest person to
introduce a desire for following that branch of science. M'Kenzie states that
he died in the year 125G, as appears from his tombstone. The author of the
History of the University of Paris, referring with better means of knowledge to
the same tombstone, which he says was to be seen at the period when he writes,
places the date of his death at the year 1340. The same well informed author
mentions that the high respect paid to his abilities and integrity, prompted the
1 Hist. Lit. Gentis Scot. MS. Adv. Lib., p. 164.

EM IY MO

LOK

HENRY HOME. 61

university to honour hiin with a public funeral, and many demonstrations of
grief. On the tombstone already referred to, was engraved an astrolabe, sur-
rounded by the following inscription : —

" De Sacrobosco qui computista Joannes,
Tempera discrevit, jacet hie a tempore raptus.
Tempora qui sequeris, memor csto quod morieris;
Si miseres, plora, miserans pro me precor ora.''

The most celebrated work of Holywood was a treatise on the Sphere, discuss-
ing in the first part the form, motion, and surface of the earth — in the second
those of the heavenly bodies, and, as was customary before the more full revival
of philosophy, mingling his mathematics and astronomy with metaphysics and
magic. Although the discoveries displayed in this work must be of great impor-
tance, it is impossible to give any account .of their extent, as the manuscripts of
the author seem to have lain dormant till the end of the 1 5th or beginning of tiie
lGth century, when they were repeatedly published, with the comments and ad-
ditions of able mathematicians, who mingled the discoveries of Holybush with
those which had been made since his death. The earliest edition of this work
appears to have been that published at Padua in 1475, entitled " Francisci Ca-
puani expositio Sphserae Joannis a Sacrobosco." In 1435 appeared " Sphaera
cum Theoriois Purbachii et Disputationibus Johannis Regiomontani contra Cre-
monensium Deliramenta in Planetarum Theoricas,'1 being a mixture of the dis-
coveries of Holywood, with those of George Purbach, (so called from the name
of a town in Germany, in which he was born,) and Regiomontanus, whose real
name was 3Iuller, two celebrated astronomers and mathematicians of the 15th
century. During the same year there appears to have been published a com-
mentary on Holywood by Cichus Ascolanus. In 1507, appeared an edition for
the use of the university of Paris, with a commentary, by John Bonatus. In
1547, an edition was published at Antwerp, with figures very respectably exe-
cuted, and without the name of any commentator. Among his other commenta-
tors, were Morisanus, Clavius, Vinetus, and many others of high name, whom it
were useless here to enumerate. Some late authors have said that Melancthon
edited his Computus Ecclesiasticus ; of this edition we have not observed a copy
in any library or bibliography, but that great man wrote a preface to the
Sphaera, prefixed to an edition published at Paris in 1550. Besides these two
works, Holybush wrote De Algorismo, and De Ratione Anni. Dempster also
mentions a Breviarium Juris, which either has never existed, or is now lost.
31'Kenzie mentions a Treatise de Algorismo, and on Ptolemy's Astrolabe, frag-
ments of which existed in MS. in the Bodleian library. In the catalogue of
that institution the former is mentioned, but not the latter.

HOME, Henbt, (Lord Kames,) a lawyer and metaphysician, son of George
Home of Kames, was born at his father's house in the county of Berwick, in
the year 1696. The paternal estate of the family, which had once been con-
siderable, was, at the period of the birth of the subject of this memoir, consider-
ably burdened and reduced by the extravagance of his father, who appears to
have pursued an easy hospitable system of living, unfortunately not compatible
with a small income and a Isrge family. With the means of acquiring a liberal
education, good connexions, and the expectation of no permanent provision but
the fruit of his own labours, the son was thrown upon the world, and the history
of ;ill ages has taught us, that among individuals so circumstanced, science has
chosen her brightest ornaments, and nations have found their most industrious
and powerful benefactors. In the earlier part of the last century, few of the
country gentlemen of Scotland could afford to bestow on iheir children the ex-

pensive education of an English 32»X*^S»52
vitl. the lower rank,, frequently £^^£Zi Whether from this or
of education provided by the »"«ff»f fZ^LatioT and received in-
some other cause, young Home was denied a j"?*™^ "^ ta]ents and
sections from . ^^^J^JSSJ The classical edu-
^^ffi^JSi^SWaSSS to have been of a very imperfect
ds" ion ind aUhough on entering the study of his profession, he turned .us
te Kr some length of time to that branch of study he never acquired a
know iXe of ancient languages sufficiently minute to balance his other varied
and evte'lve acquirements. Mr Home was destined by his fam.ly to follow
, e proflLn of Ihe law, the branch first assigned him be ng that of an age*.
He was in consequence apprenticed to a writer to the signet in the year 1712,
and he continued for several years to perform the usual routine of drudgery,
unpleasant to a cultivated and thinking mind, but one of the best introductions
to the accurate practice of the more formal part of the dut.es of the bar He
ample bio-rapher of Home has detailed in very pleasing terms the accident to
which he dates his ambition to pursue a higher branch of the profession than
that to which he was originally destined. The scene of action is represented as
being the drawing room of Sir Hew Dalrymple, lord president of the court of
session, where Home, on a message from his master, finds the veteran judge in
the full enjoyment of elegant ease, with his daughter, a young beauty, per-
forming some favourite tunes on the harpsichord. " Happy the man, the sen-
timental youth is made to say to himself, " whose old age, crowned with honour
and dignity, can thus repose itself after the useful labours of the day, in the
bosom of his family, amidst all the elegant enjoyments which affluence, justly
earned, can command! such are the fruits of eminence in the profession of the
law!" If Home ever dated his final choice of a profession from the occurrence
of this incident, certain praises which the president chose to bestow on his
acuteness and knowledge of Scottish law, may have been the part of the inter-
view which chiefly influenced his determination.

Having settled the important matter of his future profession, Mr Home ap-
plied himself to the study of the laws, not through the lectureship which had
just been established in Edinburgh for that purpose, but by means of private
reading, and attendance at the courts. He seems indeed to have entertained an
early objection to the discipline of a class-room, and to have shown an indepen-
dence of thought, and repugnance to direction in his mental pursuits, which
have been by some of his admirers laid down as the germs of that originality
which his works have exhibited. Perhaps the same feeling of self-assurance
prompted him in the year 1723, to address a long epistle to Dr Samuel Clarke,
" from a young philosopher," debating some of that learned divine's opinions on
the necessity, omnipotence, and omniscience of the Deity. A very concise and

1 TjUer, in his life of Karnes, mentions an amusing scene which took place betwixt the
scholar and mater some time after their separation. When Home was at the height of
his celebrity as a barrister, the pedagogue had contrived to amass a sum of money, whieh he
cautiously secured on land. Anxious about the security of his titles, he stalked one morning
into the study of his former pupil, requesting an opinion of their validity. The lawyer having
carefully examined the several steps of the investment, assumed an aspect of concern, and
hoped Mr Wingate had not concluded the bargain; but Mr Wingate had concluded the bar-
gain, and so he had the pleasure to listen to a long summary of objections, with which the
technical knowledge of his former pupil enabled him to pnse the uninitiated. When the
lawyer was satisfied with the erl'ectof his art, the poor man was relieved from the torture, with
an admonition, which it were to be wished all followers of "the delightful task" would hold
in mind: «• You may remember, sir, how you made me smart in da\s of yore for verv small
offences— now I think our accounts are closed. Take up jour papers, man, and go home with an
easy mind j }our titles are excellent."

HENRY HOME. 63

polite answer was returned, for the brevity of which the writer excuses himself,
" as it is according to his custom, and the time allowed him for such matters."
No encouragement was given to continue the correspondence, and the application
was not repeated. He appears at the same time to have maintained a conference
with Mr Andrew Baxter, on certain points of natural philosophy; but that
gentleman finding it impossible to bend the young philosopher's mind to the con-
viction, that motion was not the effect of repeated impulses, but of one impulse,
the effect of which continues till counteracted, (the doctrine generally received by
the learned world,) seems to have lost all proper philosophical patience, and
given up the controversy in a fit of anger.

Mi Home put on the gown of an advocate in the year 1723, when there were,
as there ever will be in such institutions, many eminent men at the Scottish bar ;
but although many were respectable both for their talents and integrity, it could
not be said that more than one revered individual, Forbes of Culloden, was justly
illustrious, for a distinguished display of the former, or an uncompromising and
undeviating maintenance of the latter quality. The baneful corruptions of
family and ministerial influence, which had long affected the court, ceased to
characterize it : but their shadows still hovered around their former dwelling-
place, and many curious little private documents on which the world has ac-
cidentally stumbled, have shown that the most respectable guardians of justice,
have not administered the law uninfluenced by some of those little worldly mo-
tives which affect a man in the management of his own affairs. From the period
when Mr Home commenced his practice at the bar, he seems to have for a time
forgot his metaphysics, and turned the whole of his discriminating and naturally
vigorous intellect to the study of the law; in 1728 he published the first of his
numerous works, a collection of the " Remarkable Decisions of the Court of
Session," from 17 16 to 1728, a work purely professional, which from the species
of technical study being seldom embodied by an author so comparatively youth-
ful, seems to have attracted much attention from the court and the leading
lawyers of the time. It is probable that the hue and arrangement given to the
pleadings, now the chief defect of that compilation, may have rendered it at the
time it was published attractive from the originality of the method. A small
volume of essays " upon several subjects in Scots Law," which he published four
years afterwards, afforded more scope for ingenuity and refinement of reasoning
than could possibly be infused into other men's arguments; and in the choice
of the subjects, and the method of treating them, full advantage has been taken
of the license. Such of the arguments and observations as stood the test of more
mature consideration, were afterwards embodied by the author in one of his more
extensive popular law books. Mr Home seems to have been one of those gifted
individuals who could enjoy hilarity without dissipation, and gayety without fri-
volity. In early life he gathered round him a knot of familiar and congenial
spirits, with whom he enjoyed the fashionable and literary society of Edinburgh,
then by no means despicable as a school of politeness, and just dawning into a
high literary celebrity. Hamilton of Bangour, Oswald, and lord Binning, were
among bis early and familiar friends, and though he soon extended to more
gifted minds the circle of his philosophical correspondence, an early intercourse
with men so refined and learned must have left a lasting impression on his sus-
ceptible intellect.

In 1741, at the prudent age of forty-seven, Mr Home married Miss Agatha
Drummond, a younger daughter of 3Ir Druramond of Blair, in Perthshire, a lady
of whom we hear little, except that she had a turn for quiet humour, and that
she perplexed her husband's economical principles by an inordinate affection for
old china, being in other respects generally reported to have been a prudent and

(54 HENRY HOME.

docile wife In 1741, Mr Home published the well known Dictionary of the
Decisions of the Court of Session, afterwards continued and perfected by lus
friend and biographer, lord Woodhouselee ; a very laborious work, and ot great
practical utility, though now superseded by the gigantic compilation of Monson,
and the elaborate digest of the late Mr Brown. During the rebellion of 174a,
the business of the court of session was suspended for eleven months, and those
lawyers whose minds were not engaged in the feverish struggles of the times, had
to seek some occupation in their retirement. Mr Home seems at no tune to
have busied himself in active politics, excepting such as came within the range of
his judicial duties— and the early predilection of his family to the support of the
Sluart dynasty, may have been an additional motive for his preserving a strict
neutrality during that disorderly period. In the midst of his retirement, he ga-
thered into a few short treatises, which, in 1747, he published under the title
of ''Essays upon several subjects concerning British Antiquities," some facts and
observations intended to allay the unhappy differences of the period, although it
is rather doubtful whether the Highlanders or their intelligent chiefs found any
solace for their defeat and subjection to the laws, in discussions on the authority
of the Regiam 31a jestatem, or nice theories of descent. The subjects discussed
are of a highly useful and curious nature ; and had the author brought to the
work an extensive collection of facts, and a disposition to launch into no theories
but such as his own good sense dictated to be applicable and sound, the coun-
try might have had to thank him for a just and satisfactory account of her an-
cient laws and customs, and the rise of the constitution, which the talent of her
bar has not yet produced. But these essays are brief and desultory, the facts
are few and paltry, and the reasoning fanciful and unsatisfactory. The argu-
ments against " the Hereditary and Indefeasible Right of Kings," if they ever
produced any good effect, would certainly constitute a proof that the human
mind, as exhibited in any arguments which might be used by his opponents, was
then more perverted by prejudice, than it is generally believed to have been
in any civilized country. To the truisms contained in that essay, the refine-
ments on hereditary descent form a curious converse ; where the feudal system
has its origin from the tendency of bodies in motion to continue in a straight
line, and the consequent tendency of the mind to pursue its objects in a course
equally direct, which proves that, " as in tracing out a family, the mind descends
by degrees from the father first to the eldest son, and so downwards in the
order of age, the eldest son, where but one can take, is the first who presents
himself."

The next production of Mr Home's pen, was one of a nature more con-
genial to his habits of thought: — in 1751, he published " Essays on the Principles
of Morality and Natural Religion." One of the grand leading aims of this work,
is the maintenance of innate ideas, or principles of right and wrong, in opposi-
tion to the opinions of Locke and Hume. After the clear logical deductions of
these great men, the duty of an opponent was a task of difficulty ; while it is at
the same time generally allowed by both parties in this grand question, that the
yiew adopted by lord Karnes, while it agrees more happily with the general feel-
ings of the world, cannot bear the application of the same chain of clear and subtle
reasoning which distinguishes the position of his antagonists. Like too many of the
best works on metaphysics, the Essays on Morality give more instruction from
the ingenuity of the arguments, and the aspects of the human mind brought be-
fore the reader in the course of deducing them, than in the abstract truths pre-
sumed to be demonstrated. It has been frequently noticed, to the prejudice of
most of the works of the same author, that, instead of arranging his arguments for
the support of some general principle, he has subdivided his principle*, and so

HENRY HOME. Go

failed to bring his arguments to a common point The failing, if characteristic
of lord Karnes, was not unusual at the period, and is one which time, and the
advantage of the labours of previous thinkers, tend to modify ; — in the work we
are just considering, the line of argument maintained bids defiance to the adop-
tion of any one general principle, while much confusion is prevented, by the
author having given a definition of what he understands those laws of nature to
which he refers our consciousness of good and evil to consist of. Although the
author in the advertisement avows the purpose of his work to be " to prepare
the way for a proof of the existence of the Deity," and terminates the whole
with a very pious and orthodox prayer, he had the fortune to bring the church
of Scotland like a hornet's nest about him, on the ground of certain principles
tending to infidelity, which some of its active adherents had scented out in his
arguments. A zealous clergyman of the name of Anderson published, in 1753,
" An Estimate of the Profit and Loss of Religion, personally and publicly stated ;
illustrated with references to Essays on Morality and Natural Religion ;" in which
the unfortunate philosopher is treated with no more politeness than the opponent of
any given polemical disputant deserves. This blast of the trumpet was followed
up by an ** Analysis" of the same subject, " addressed to the consideration of
the church of Scotland ;" and the parties rousing themselves for battle, the hand
of the respected Dr Blair, stretched forth in moderation of party rancour, and
defence of his esteemed friend, protracted but did not prevent the issue. A mo-
tion was made in the committee for overtures of the General Assembly, " How
far it was proper for them to call before them, and censure the authors of in-
fidel books." After a stormy debate the motion was lost, but the indefatigable
My Anderson presented in name of himself and those who adhered to his opin-
ions, a petition and complaint to the presbytery of Edinburgh, praying that the
author of the Essays on 3Iorality, &c. might be censured " according to the law
of the gospel, and the practice of this and all other well governed churches."
Defences were given in, and the petitioner obtained leave to reply, but before
the matter came to a conclusion he had breathed his last, and the soul of the
controversy perishing along with him, lord Kames was left to pursue his philoso-
phical studies unmolested. The chief subject of this controversy, may be dis-
covered in the curious and original views maintained by the author of the essays,
on the subject of liberty and necessity. Full freedom to the will of mankind he
maintains to be in opposition to the existence and operation of a Deity, who pre-
judges all his actions, and has given him certain motives which he cannot avoid
following ; while, to preserve common uniformity with the doctrine of an innate
sense of right and wrong previously maintained, the author is obliged to admit
that man must have a consciousness of free-will, to enable him to act according to
that innate sense : he therefore arrives at a sort of intermediate doctrine, which
may be said to maintain, that while the will is not in reality free, it is the
essence of our nature that it should appear to us to be so. " Let us fairly own,"
says the author, " that the truth of things is on the side of necessity ; but that it
was necessary for man to be formed with such feelings and notions of contin-
gency, as would fit him for the part he has to act." " It is true that a man of
this belief, when he is seeking to make his mind easy after some Lad action, may
reason upon the principles of necessity, that, according to the constitution of his
nature, it was impossible for him to have acted any other part. But this will
give him little relief. In spite of all reasonings his remorse will subsist. Na-
ture never intended us to act upon this plan : and our natural principles are
too deeply rooted to give way to philosophy.'' * * * " These discoveries are
also of excellent use, as they furnish us with one of the strongest arguments lor
the existence of the Deity, and as they set the wisdom and goodness of his

CO HENRY HOME.

providence in the most striking light Nothing carr.es in it more express char-
acters of dtsi-m ; nothing can be conceived more opposite to chance, than a plan
so artfully contrived for adjusting our impressions and feelings to the purposes
of life » The doctrine may appear at first sight anomalous; but it displays equal
ingenuity in its discovery, and acuteness in its support, and is well worthy of the
deepest attention. A certain clergyman of the church of Scotland is said to
have seen in this theory an admirable exposition of the doctrine of predestina-
tion and to have hailed the author as a brother ; and certainly a little com-
parison Mill show no slight analo2y betwixt the two systems; but other persons
thought differently, and the reverend gentleman was superseded. These fiery
controversies have carried us beyond an event which served to mitigate their ran-
cour—the elevation of Mr Home to the bench of the court of session, where he
took his seat in February, 1752, by the title of lord Karnes; an appointment
which, as it could not be but agreeable and satisfactory to the learned and in-
genious, seems to have met the general concurrence and approbation of the com-
mon people of the country. Arguing from the productions of his pen, no one
would hesitate to attribute to lord Karnes those qualities of acuteness, ingenuity,
and plausible interpretation, necessary for the acquirement of distinction and
success at the bar — but that he was characterized by the unprejudiced and un-
wavering uprightness of the judge, whose conclusions are formed less on finely
•pun theories and sophisms than on those firm doctrines of right and wrong which
can form a guide alike to the ignorant and the learned, would seem question-
able, had we not the best authority to believe, that his strong good sense, and
knowledge of justice, taught him as a judge to desert, on most occasions, the
pleasing speculations which occupied his mind as a lawyer. " He rarely," says
Tytler, " entered into any elaborate argument in support of his opinions ; it was
enough that he had formed them with deliberation, and that they were the re-
sult of a conscientious persuasion of their being founded on justice, and on a fair
interpretation of the laws." Unfortunately there are some exceptions to this
general characteristic ; refined speculation seldom entirely deserts its favourite
abode, and in some few instances lord Kames was a special pleader on the bench.
In 1755, lord Kames was appointed a member of the board of trustees, for the
encouragement of the fisheries, arts, and manufactures of Scotland, and likewise
one of the commissioners for the management of the annexed estates, on both of
which important duties it would appear he bestowed the attention his ever active
mind enabled him to direct to many different subjects. In the midst of his va-
ried judicial and ministerial labours, two legal works appeared from the pen of
lord Kames. " The Statute Law of Scotland abridged, with Historical Notes,"
published in 1759, was never known beyond the library of the Scots lawyer,
and has now almost fallen into disuse even there. " Historical Law Tracts,"
published in 1757, was of a more ambitious sort, and acquired something be-
yond professional celebrity. The matters discussed in this volume are exceed-
ingly miscellaneous, and present a singular mixture of " first principles" of
morality, metaphysics, &c, and Scots law. The author has here displayed, in
the strongest light, his usual propensity for hunting all principles so far back into
the misty periods of their origin, that, attempting to find the lost traces of the
peculiar idea he is following, he pursues some fanciful train of thought, which
has just as much chance of being wrong as of being right " I have often
amused myself," says llie author, " with a fanciful resemblance of law to the
river Nile. When we enter upon the municipal law of any country in its present
state, we resemble a traveller, who, crossing the Delta, loses his way among the
numberless branches of the Egyptian river. But when we begin at the source,
md follow the current of law, it is in that case no less easy and agreeable ; and

HENRY HOME. 67

all its relations and dependencies are traced with no greater difficulty than are
the many streams into which that magnificent river is divided before it is lost in
the sea." If the philosopher meant to compare his searches after first principles
to the investigation of the source of the Nile, the simile was rather unfortunate,
and tempts one by a parody to compare his speculations to those of one who will
discover the navigability or fertilizing power of a river, by a confused and end-
less range among its various sources, when he has the grand main body of the
river open to his investigations, from which he may find his way, by a sure and
undoubted course, to its principal sowrces, should he deem it worth his while to
penetrate them. This work exhibits in singularly strong colours the merits and
defects of its author. While his ingenuity has led him into fanciful theories, and
prompted him to attribute to the actions of barbarous governments subtle inten-
tions of policy, of which the actors never dreamed, it has enabled him to point
out connexions in the history of our law, and to explain the natural causes of
anomalies, for which the practical jurisconsult might have long looked in vain.
The history of criminal jurisprudence is a prominent part of this work. The
author attempts to confute the well founded theories of Voltaire, Montesquieu,
and many others, tracing the origin of punishment, and consequently the true
principles of criminal jurisprudence, from the feelings of vindictiveness and in-
dignation inherent in human nature when injured, — a principle we fear too
often followed to require a particular vindication or approval. We cannot pass
from this subject without attracting attention to the enlightened views thrown
out by lord Karnes on the subject of entails, views which he has seen the impor-
tance of frequently repeating and inculcating, though with many others he spoke
to the deaf adder, who heeded not the wisdom of his words. He proposed the
entire repeal of the statute of 16 85, which, by an invention of the celebrated Sir
Thomas Hope, had been prepared for the purpose of clenching the fetters of
Scots entails, in a manner which might put at defiance such efforts as had en-
abled the lawyers of England to release property from its chains. But the equity
of the plan was shown in the manner in which the author proposed to settle the
nice point of the adjustment of the claims on estates previously entailed. The
regulations enforced by these he proposed should continue in force in as far as
respected the interests of persons existing, but should neither benefit nor bind
persons unborn at the time of the passing of the act proposed. Such an adjust-
ment, though perhaps the best that could possibly be supposed, can only be put
in practice with great difficulty ; the circumstance of an heir being expected to
be born, nearer than any heir alive, and numberless others of a similar nature,
would render the application of the principle a series of difficulties. Lord Karnes
communicated his views on this subject to lord Hardwick and lord Mansfield,
and these great judges admitted their propriety ; it had been well had the warn-
ing voice been heeded — but at that period the allegiance of Scotland might have
been endangered by such a measure. The duke of Argyle was then the only
Scotsman not a lawyer, who could look without horror on an attempt to infringe
on the divine right of the lairds.

In 1760, appeared another philosophically legal work from our author's
prolific pen, entitled " Principles of Equity," composed with the ambitious view
of reconciling the distinct systems of jurisprudence of the two nations — a book
which might be of great use in a country where there is no law, and which,
though it may now be applied to but little practical advantage in Scotland, it is
rather humiliating to think, should have ever been considered requisite as a
guide to our civil judges. But the opinions of this volume, which referred to
the equity courts of England, received a kindly correction from a masterly
hand. In tracing the jurisdiction of the court of chancery, lord Karnes pro-

68 HENRY HOME.

■•.lined it to be possessed of perfectly arbitrary powers, (something resembling
tlu.se at one time enjoyed by the court of session,) enabling it to do justice ac-
cording to the merits, in every case which the common law courts did not
reach° and with great consideration laid down rules for the regulation of its
decisions, forgetting that, if such rules could be applied to any court so purely
arguing from circumstances and conscience, the rules of an act of parliament
night hare been as well chosen, and rather more strictly followed, than those of
the* Scottish judge. But it appears that lord Karnes had formed erroneous ideas
of the powers of the English equity courts; and in a portion of Sir William
Blackstoue's Commentary, attributed to the pen of lord Mansfield, he is thus
corrected: " on the contrary, the system of our courts of equity is a laboured,
connected system, governed by established rules, and bound down by precedents,
from which they do not depart, although the reason of some of them may per-
haps be liable to objection." Tytler, on all occasions the vindicator of his
friend, has attempted to support the theory of lord Karnes, by making Black-
stone contradict himself: he has discovered the following passage in the Intro-
duction to that author's works, — " Equity depending essentially upon the parti-
cular circumstances of each individual case, there can be no established rules
and fixed precepts of equity laid down, without destroying its very essence, and
reducing it to a positive law." But in this passage, be it recollected, the author
speaks of courts of pure equity like the Praetorian tribunals of the Romans, un-
trammelled by act or precedent, and left entirely to judicial discretion, a species
of institution of which he does not admit the existence in England. But let us
not relinquish this subject, without bestowing our meed of approbation on the
noble efforts which the learned author has made in this, and more effectually in
others of his works, to reconcile the two countries to an assimilation in laws.
There is no more common prejudice, than the feeling, that the approach of one
country to the laws and customs of another, is not an act of expediency, but
an acknowledgment of inferiority, and it generally requires a harsher struggle
on the part of the weaker, than on that of the stronger people. It is frequently
maintained that a love for ancient institutions, and a wish to continue them,
however cumbersome, is the characteristic safeguard of freedom ; but might it not
be said, that the firmness of a nation consists in the obedience it pays to the
laws while they exist, paying them not the less respect in their execution, that
they look upon thein as systems which should be altered by the legislative
authority. " Our law," says lord Karnes, " will admit of many improvements
from that of England ; and if the author be not in a mistake, through partiality
to his native country, we are rich enough to repay with interest all we have
occasion to borrow ;" a reflection which might produce good seed, if it would
teach some narrow intellects to examine the merits of some petty deformities of
Scottish law, for which antiquity has given them an affection. And if the proud
legislators of a neighbouring country would desert for a moment the stale jest
which forced itself into the words " nolumus leges Angliae mutari," and admit
the possibility that the mighty engine of English jurisprudence might admit
some improvement from the working of a more simple and in many things very
efficacious machine, the high benefits of a participation in the excellencies of
their own system, which they show so much anxiety to extend across the border,
would be received with less jealousy and suspicion.

Passing over the introduction to the Art of Thinking, published in
1761, we turn with much pleasure to the contemplation of another of the
philosophical productions of this eminent writer, the work on which his
reputation chiefly depends. In 1762 was published, in three octavo
volumes, " The Elements of Criticism." The correspondence and previous

HENRY HOME.

G9

studies of the author show the elaborate and diversified matter of these volumes
to have been long the favourite subject of his reflections. It had in view the
aim of tracing the progress of taste as it is variously exhibited and acknowledged
to exist, to the organic principles of the mind on which in its various depart-
ments it is originally founded, displaying the art of what his biographer justly
calls " Philosophical Criticism," in opposition to that which is merely practical,
or applicable to objects of taste as they appear, without any reference to the
causes why the particular feelings are exhibited. But that lord Karnes was in
this " the inventor of a science," as his biographer has termed him, is a state-
ment which may admit of some doubt.

The doctrine of reflex senses propounded by Hutchinson, the father of the
Scottish System of Philosophy, had many years previously laid a firm foundation
for the system, afterwards so ably erected. Some years previously to the publi-
cation of the Elements of Criticism, Hume and Gerard had drawn largely from
the same inexhaustible source, and, if with less variety, certainly with more
correctness and logical accuracy of deduction ; and Burke, though he checked
the principle of the sensations he has so vividly illustrated by arbitrary feelings
assigned as their source, contributed much to the advancement of that high study.
Nor is it to be denied, that the ancients at least knew the existence of this
untried tract, if they did not venture far within its precincts, for few can read
Cicero de Oratore, Longinus, or the Institutions of Quinctilian, without perceiv-
ing that these men were well acquainted with the fundamental principles of the
rules of criticism. But relinquishing the discussion of its originality, the Ele-
ments of Criticism is a book no man can read without acquiring many new ideas,
and few without being acquainted with many new facts: it is full of useful infor-
mation, just criticism, and ingenious reasoning, laying down rules of composition
and thought, which have become classical regulations for elegant writers. The
author is, however, a serious transgressor of his own excellent rules ; his mind
seems to have been so perpetually filled with ideas, that the obstruction occa-
sioned by the arrangement of a sentence would cause a considerable interruption
in their flow ; hence he is at all times a brief, unmelodious composer, and the
broken form of his sentences frequently renders their meaning doubtful. The
following specimen, chosen by chance, is an example of a good rule ill observed
by its maker : " In arranging a period, it is of importance to determine in what
part of it a word makes the greatest figure, whether at the beginning, during
the course, or at the close. The breaking silence rouses the attention, and
prepares for a deep impression at the beginning ; the beginning, however, must
yield to the close : which, being succeeded by a pause, aftbrds time for a word
to make its deepest impression. Hence the following rule, that to give the
utmost force to a period, it ought, if possible, to be closed with that word which
makes the greatest figure. The opportunity of a pause should not be thrown
away upon accessories, but reserved for the principal object, in order that it may
make a full impression : which is an additional reason against closing a period
with a circumstance. There are, however, periods that admit not such a struc-
ture, and, in that case, the capital word ought, if possible, to be placed in the
front, which next to the close, is the most advantageous for making an impres-
sion" (v. ii. p. 72). But were we to scrutinize with malicious accuracy, we
might find sentences like the following, bidding defiance to form and sense.
" Benevolence and kindly affection are too refined for savages, unless of the
simplest kind, such as the ties of blood," (Sketches of Hist, of Man, v, i. p.
270 ;) or, " Here it is taken for granted, that we see external objects, and that
we see them with both eyes in the same place ; inadvertently, it must be
acknowledged, as it flatly contradicts what he had been all along inculcating,

70 HENRY HOME.

that external objects are not visible, otherwise than in imagination," (Essays on
Monk p. 276). It has been said, and not without reason, that the critical
principles of lord Karnes are more artificial than natural, more the produce of
refined reasoning than of feeling or sentiment. The whole of his deductions
are, indeed, founded on the doctrine of taste being increased and improved,
and' almost formed by art, and his personal character seems not to have suggested
any other medium for his own acquisition of it He joined tbe vulgar cry of
the period on the barbarism of the Gothic architecture, probably because the
general disrespect in which it was held prevented him from being anxious to
discover any " first principles" on which to erect for it a character of propriety
and elegance. In his plans for the improvement of his grounds, we find him
falling into practical abortions of taste, of which, had they been presented to
him as speculative questions, he might have seen the deformity. In a letter to
the accomplished Mrs Montague, he says, " a rill of water runs neglected through
the fields, obscured by pretty high banks. It is proposed that the water be
raised in different places by stone buildings imitating natural rocks, which will
make some beautiful cascades. The banks to be planted with flowering shrubs,
and access to the whole by gravel paths. The group will produce a mixture of
sweetness and liveliness, which makes fine harmony in gardening as well as in
life ;" and farther on, " But amongst my other plans, I have not forgot the
spot pitched upon by you for a seat; and because every thing belonging to you
should have something peculiar, the bottom, to be free from wet, is contrived to
fold up, and to have for its ornament a plate of brass with this inscription, ' rest,
and contemplate the beauties of art and nature.' " The Elements of Criticism
had the good fortune to call forth a little of the virulence of Warburton, who
seems to have complacently presumed that lord Karnes composed his three thick
volumes with the sole and atrocious aim of opposing some of the theories of the
learned divine ; and Voltaire, celtifying the author by the anomalous name of
" Makaims," has bestowed on him a few sneers, sparingly sprinkled with praise,
provoked by the unfortunate Scotsman having spoken of the Henriade in slight-
ing terms, and having lauded Shakspeare to the prejudice of the French drama.
In April, 1763, lord Karnes was appointed a lord of justiciary, in the criminal
court of Scotland. Some have accused him of severity as a judge ; but in the
character of the man who can stretch the law against the criminal, there is some-
thing so repugnant, and — acting in a court where judges decide very much fron
discretion, and from which the accused enjoys no appeal — something so truly
abhorrent, that we would require much and strong evidence indeed, before we
could attribute to a man of great benevolence, of much and tried philanthropy
and of general virtue, the characteristic of a cruel judge. Surrounded by judi-
cial duties and immersed in professional and literary studies, he was still an
active supporter of the useful institutions which he had some time previously
joined, investigating along with the celebrated Dr Walker, the proper grounds
for improving the cultivation and manufactures of the Western Isles, and the
more remote parts of Scotland, In 1766, a new field was opened for his exer-
tions, by his succession, through the death of his wife's brother, to the extensive
estate of Blair Drummond, which made him a richer, but not a more illustrious
man. The chief circumstance which renders this accession to his fortune inter-
esting to the world, is the commencement of a vast system of improvement, by
floating ,nto the Firth of Forth the surface of a moss, extending over portions
ot h.s own, and many contiguous estates, and shrouding what cultivation has
made and i. still making the finest land in Scotland. The next issue from
the pen of lord Karnes, were, a small pamphlet on the Progress of Flax Hus-
bandry ,n Scotland, published in the year 1765, and in the ensuin* year, a

HENRY HOME. 71

continuation of his Remarkable Decisions from 1730 to 1752. He now began
to approach that age which has been marked out as a period reached by a small
proportion of the human race, but though stricken in years, and pressed upon
by official duties, he did not flinch from a new and elaborate undertaking on a
subject of many diversified branches, some of which were totally disconnected
with his previous literary labours. Lord Karnes appears to have had his mind
perpetually filled with the matter he was preparing to discuss, and to have con-
stantly kept open to the world the engrossing matter of his thoughts ; it is thus
that, for some time previously to the publication of his " Sketches of the History
of Man," (which appeared in 1774,) we find an ample correspondence with his
literary friends, — with Dr Walker, Sir James Nasmith, Dr Reid, and Dr Black,
affording some most interesting speculations on the gradations of the human race,
and the analogy between plants and animal subjects — which had long been
speculated upon by our author. On these branches of philosophy, he has bestowed
considerable attention in the Sketches of the History of Man, to little satisfac-
tion. In reasoning a priori from the history of man in the world, and the
various aspects of his tribe, the author erects a system in opposition to
that of revelation, to which however he afterwards yields, as to the
authority of the court, allowing it to be true, not by any means from the supe-
riority of the system to his own, but because holy writ has told it. But if the
work be hereafter perused, to gratify an idle hour with its amusing details, few
will search in it for much information on a subject which has received so much
better illustration from Blumenbach, Pritchard, and Lawrence. But the subjects
of these sketches are multifarious ; Ossian's poems are ingeniously introduced as
part of the history of man, constituting a sort of barbaro-civilized period, when
probably the same amount of polish and of rudeness which still exists, held sway,
though without neutralizing each other, and both displayed in the extreme ;
government is also discussed, and finances. The political economy is old and
narrow, looking upon national means too much in the light of an engine to be
wielded, rather than as a self-acting power, which only requires freedom and
room to enable it to act ; nevertheless it is sprinkled with enlightened views
such as the following : "It appears to be the intention of Providence, that all
nations should benefit by commerce, as by sunshine ; and it is so ordered, that
an unequal balance is prejudicial to the gainers, as well as to the losers : the
latter are immediate sufferers ; but not less so ultimately are the former."

In his latter days, the subject of our memoir produced four more extensive
works, of which we shall only mention the names and dates : " The Gentleman
Farmer," in 1776, — " Elucidations respecting the Common Law of Scotland,''
in 1777, — " Select Decisions of the Court of Session from 1752 to 1768,'' pub-
lished in 1780, — " Loose Hints on Education." The last of his works, was pub-
lished in 1781, in the 85th year of the author's age, a period when the weak-
ness of the body cannot fail to communicate itself to the thoughts. The green
old age of lord Karnes seems to have been irabittered by no disease but that of
general decay. He continued his usual attention to the agricultural and manu-
facturing projects of the country ; gratified his few leisure hours in the society
of his select literary friends, attended the court of session, and even performed
the arduous duty of travelling on the circuits : he was indeed a singular specimen
of a mind whose activity age could not impede. His correspondence continues
till within a short time of his death, and before leaving the world, he could
spare some consideration for assisting in the establishment of an institution, the
pleasures and profits of which could not be reaped by him, The Royal Society
of Scotland. During his short and last illness, he expressed no dread except
that he might outlive the faculties of his mind ; to the usual solicitations, which

72

JOHN HOME.

friends can never avoid making on such occasions, that he would submit himself
to the care of a physician— " Don't talk of my disease," he answered, " I have
no disease but old age. I know that Mrs Druminond and my son are of a
different opinion ; but why should I distress them sooner than is necessary. I
know well that no physician on earth can do me the smallest service : for I feel
that I am dying ; and I thank God that my mind is prepared for that event. I
leave this world in peace and good-will to all mankind. You know the dread I
liave had of outliving my faculties ; of that 1 trust there is now no great proba-
bility, as my body decays so fast My life has been a long one, and prosper-
ous, on the whole, beyond my deserts : but I would fain indulge the hope that
it has not been useless to my fellow creatures."

A week before he died, lord Karnes took a final farewell of his old friends
and professional companions, on that bench to which he had been so long an
ornament. He parted from each as a private friend, and on finally retiring
from the room, is said to have turned round on the sorrowful group and bid his
adieu in an old favourite epithet, more expressive of jovial freedom than of
refinement. He died on the 27th of December, 1782, in the 87th year of his
age. We have narrated the events of his life with so much detail, that a sum-
mary of his character is unnecessary ; he is said to have been parsimonious, but
if the epithet be applicable, the private defect will be forgotten in the midst of
his public virtues. He possessed the dangerous and powerful engine of sarcasm ;
but he used it to heal, not to wound, 'lhe following instance of his reluctance
to give pain, to be found in a letter to Mr Creech, is so characteristic of a truly
worthy man, that we cannot abstain from quoting it. " In the fifth volume of

Dodsley's collection of poems, there is one by T D at page 226, which

will make a good illustration of a new Rule of Criticism that is to go into the
new edition of the Elements ; but, as it is unfavourable to the author of that
poem, I wish to know whether he is alive ; for I would not willingly give pain."

HOME, John, an eminent dramatic poet, was born at Leith on the 22d of
September, (O.S.) 1722. He was the son of 31r Alexander Home, town-clerk
of Leith, whose father was the son of Mr Home of 1 lass, in Berwickshire, a
lineal descendant of Sir John Home of Cowdenknowes, from whom the present
earl of Home is descended. John Home, who during his whole life retained a
proud recollection of his honourable ancestry, Mas educated, first at the gram-
mar school of his native town, and then at the university of Edinburgh. In
both of these seminaries, he prosecuted his studies with remarkable diligence
and success. While he attended the university, his talents, his progress in
literature, and his peculiarly agreeable manners, soon excited the attention,
and procured in no small degree the favour, both of the professors and of hii
fellow students. He here formed an acquaintance which lasted through life,
with many of those eminent men, who elevated the literary character of Scot-
land so highly during the eighteenth century. After qualifying himself by the
ordinary course of studies, to undertake the duties of a clergyman in the Scot-
tish church, he was licensed to preach on the 4th of April, 1745.

'Ihe natural chaiacter of Home was ardent and aspiring. Under the meek
garb of a Scottish licentiate, he bore a heart which throbbed eagerly at the
idea of military fame, and the whole cast of his mind was romantic and chival-
rous. It might have been expected that, in the celebrated quarrel which divided
the national mind in 1745, such a person would have been unable to resist the
temptation ot joining prince Charles. It happened, however, that the chivalry
of Home was of a whiggish cast, and that his heart burned for civil freedom as
well as for military glory. He therefore became a volunteer in a rovai corps
which was raised at Edinburgh to repel the attack of the Chevalier. '1 his corps,

..

A.TJTB ■

JOHN HOME.

73

when the danger approached in all its reality, melted almost into thin air : yet
Home was one of a very small number who protested against the pusillanimous
behaviour of the rest. Having reluctantly laid down his arms, he employed
himself next day in taking observations of the strength of the Highland forces,
which he appears to have communicated to Sir John Cope : while thus engaged,
he was near enough to the prince to measure his stature against his own. In
the early part of the succeeding year, he reappeared in arms as a volunteer,
and was present at the disgraceful affair of Falkirk, where he was taken
prisoner. Being conveyed to Doune castle, then under the keeping of a nephew
of Rob Roy, he was confined for some days, along with several companions in
misfortune ; but the whole party at length escaped, by cutting their blankets
into shreds, and letting themselves down upon the ground. He now took up
his residence at Leith, and for some time pi'osecuted his professional studies,
mixed, however, with a kind of reading to which his inclination led, that of
the historians and classics of Greece and Rome.

" His temper," says his friendly biographer Mackenzie, " was of that warm
susceptible kind, which is caught by the heroic and the tender, and which is
more fitted to delight in the world of sentiment than to succeed in the bustle
of ordinary life. His own favourite model of a character, and that on which
his own was formed, was the ideal being Young Norval in his own play of
Douglas, one endowed with chivalrous valour and romantic generosity, eager for
glory beyond any other object, and, in the contemplation of future fame, en-
tirely regardless of the present objects of interest and ambition. The same
glowing complexion of mind, which gave birth to this creature of fancy, co-
loured the sentiments and descriptions of his ordinary discourse ; he had a very
retentive memory, and was fond of recalling the incidents of past times, and of
dramatizing his stories by introducing the names and characters of the persons
concerned in them. The same turn of mind threw a certain degree of elevation
into his language, and heightened the narrative in which that language was em-
ployed ; he spoke of himself with a frankness which a man of that disposition is
apt to indulge, but with which he sometimes forgot that his audience was not al-
ways inclined to sympathize, and thence he was accused of more vanity than in
truth belonged to his character. The same warm colouring was employed in
the delineation of his friends, to whom he assigned a rank which others would
not always allow. So far did he carry this propensity, that, as Dr Robertson
used jokingly to say, he invested them with a sort of supernatural privilege
above the ordinary humiliating circumstances of mortality. • He never,' said
the Doctor, ' could allow that a friend was sick till he heard of his death.'
To the same source were to be traced the warm eulogies which he was accustomed
to bestow upon them. * He delighted in bestowing as well as in receiving flat-
tery,' said another of his intimates ; ' but with him it had all the openness and
warmth of truth. He flattered all of us, from whom his flattery could gain no
favour, fully as much, or, indeed, more willingly, than he did those men of
the first consequence and rank, with whom the circumstances of his future life
associated him ; and he received any praise from us with the same genuine feel-
ings of friendship and attachment.' There was no false coinage in this currency
which he used in his friendly intercourse ; whether given or received, it had
with him the stamp of perfect candour and sincerity."

Such was the enthusiastic young man who was destined for the strange glory
of producing, in Scotland, a tragedy upon a Scottish story. In 1746, he was
presented by Sir David Kinloch of Gilmerton, to the church and parish of
Athelstaneford in East Lothian, then vacant by the death of the Rev. Robert
Blair, the author of the Grave. Previous to this period, his passionate fondness

y4 JOHN HOME.

—which lie finished soon after he was "«"»J»/ f re presentation at Drurv
went to London, and offered his J** ^J^, onager But the English

Abbey : j ^^ q{ shakspeare j t0 this place I come,

To ease my bursting bosom at thy tomb-,
For neither Greek nor Roman poet fired
My fancy first— thee chiefly I admired •,
And, dav and night revolving still thy page,
I hoped.'like thee, to shake the British Blags;
But cold neglect is now my only meed,
And heavy falls it on so proud a head,
lf powers above now listen to my lyre,
Charm them to grant, indulgent, my desire ;
Let petrifaction stop this falling tear,
And fix my form for ever marble here.

After this unsuccessful journey to London, he turned his mind to the com-
position of the tragedy of Douglas, which was founded upon the beautoft .old
ballad of Gil Morris. Having finished this in the intervals of his profes uona]
labours, he set out upon another expedition to the metropolis, February 1755
with the favourable hopes of a circle of most intelligent friends, to whom he had
intrusted it for perusal. It was, however, as ill received as Agis : Mr Garr.ck
returned it with the declaration that it was totally unfit for the stage. With
this opinion, which many excellent English critics still maintain, neither the
poet nor his friends were at all satisfied. Those friends, looking upon it with the
eyes of Scotsmen, heheld in it something quite superior to the ordinary run of
English tragedies ; and accordingly they recommended that it should be pre-
sented upon the Edinburgh stage, which was then conducted by a gentleman
named Digges, whom Mr Mackenzie describes as possessed of great powers,
(though with many defects,) and of great popularity in Scotland. The recom-
mendation was carried into effect ; and all Edinburgh was presently in a state
of wild excitement, from the circumstance of a play being in preparation by a
minister of the established church.1 The actors at the Edinburgh theatre hap-

1 If we are to believe an authority good in theatrical matters— the Edinburgh Weekly
Chronicle newspaper, while under the management of Mr Edward Hislop, — Dr Carlyle, and
others of his brethren, not only attended the rehearsals of Douglas, but themselves performed
in the first of them : " It may not be generally known," says the authority just referred to,
" that the first rehearsal took 'place in the lodgings in the Canongate occupied by Mrs Sarah
Warde, one of Digges's company ; and that it was rehearsed by, and in presence of, the most
distinguished literary characters Scotland ever could boast of. The following was the cast of
the piece on the occasion : —

Dramatis Personce.

Lord Randolph, . . Dr Robertson, principal, Edinburgh.

Glenalvon, . . . David Hume, historian.

Old Norval, . . . Dr Carlyle, minister of Musselburgh.

Douglas, . . . John Home, the author.

Lady Randolph, . . Dr Ferguson, professor.

Anna (the Maid), . Dr Blair, minister, High Church.

The audience that day, besides Mr Digges and Mrs Warde, were the right honourable
Patrick lord Elibank, lord Milton, lord Karnes, lord Monboddo, (the two last were then only
lawyers,) the Rev. John Steele and William Home, ministers. The company, all but Mrs
Warde, dined afterwards at the Griskin Club, in the Abbey. The above is a signal proof of
the strong passion for the drama which then obtained among the literati of this capital, since

JOHN HOME. 7a

pened to be, in general, men of some ability in their profession, and the play
was thus cast : Digges, Young Norval; Hayman, Old Norval ; Love, Glenalvon ;
Mrs Warde, Lady RandolpJu But the name Barnet was at this time used for
Randolph, and Norval was called Norman. The first representation, which took
place December 14, 1756, was honoured by the presence of a large audience,
comprising many friends of the author, clerical as well as otherwise. It was re-
ceived with enthusiastic applause, and, in the conclusion, drew forth many tears,
which were, perhaps, a more unequivocal testimony to its merits. The town was
in an uproar of exultation, that a Scotsman should write a tragedy of the first
rate, and that its merits were first submitted to them.

But the most remarkable circumstance attending its representation was the
clerical contest which it excited, and the proceedings of the church of Scotland
regarding it. Owing to certain circumstances, — among which was reckoned the
publication of lord Karnes's " Essays on Natural and Revealed Religion," which
were suspected of a tendency to infidelity, besides the issue of a work in
England, entitled " England's Alarm," in which Scotland was accused of cher-
ishing great corruptions in religion, — there obtained in the church a more zealous
disposition than usual to lop off heresies, and chastise peccant brethren. Hence
the prosecution raised against Mr Home, which at any rate must have taken
place, was characterized by an appearance of rancour which has often since been
the subject of ridicule.

The presbytery of Edinburgh commenced the proceedings by publishing a
solemn admonition ; in which they expressed deep regret at the growing irre-
ligion of the times, and warned all persons within their bounds, especially the
young, against the danger of frequenting stage-plays. This document only pro-
voked the mirth of the public ; it was replied to by a perfect torrent of jeux
d'esprit. The church, however, though unable to inflict any punishment upon
the people at large for their admiration of the play, had the author and all his

then, unfortunately, much abated. The rehearsal must have been conducted with very great
sucrec) ; for what would the kirk, which took such deep offence at the composition of the piece
by one of its ministers, have said to the fact of no fewer than four of these being engaged in
rehearsing it, and two others attending the exhibition ? The circumstance of the gentle Anna
having been personated by ' Dr Blair, minister of the High Church,' is a very droll one." —
Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle, January 21, 1829.

This statement may not be accurate — it is only a quotation from a newspaper ; but assum-
ing that it has some truth in it, we hesitate not to say that it is far from being either " droll "
or creditable to the eminent persons to whom it refers : " Sir," said Dr Johnson, upon one oc-
casion, " this merriment of parsons is very offensive."

As to Dr Robertson's share in these transactions, it is only fair to quote what is said by hij
biographer. Mr Stewart's words are as follows: " The extraordinary merits of Mr Home's
performance, which is now become to Scotsmen a subject of national pride, were not suf-
ficient to atone for so bold a departure from the austerity expected in a presbyterian divine;
and the otl'ence was not a little exasperated by the conduct of some of Mr Home's brethren,
who, partly from curiosity, and partly from a friendly wish to share in the censure bestowed
on the author, were led to witness the first representation of the piece on the Edinburgh
stage. In the whole course of the ecclesiastical proceedings connected with these incidents,
Dr Robertson distinguished himself by the ablest and most animated exertions in defence of
his friends ; and contributed greatly, by his persuasive eloquence, to the mildness of that sen-
tence in which the prosecution at last terminated. His arguments, on this occasion, had, it
may be presumed, the greater weight, that he had never himself entered within the walls of
a playhouse ; a remarkable proof, among numberless others which the history of his life af-
fords, of that scrupulous circumspection in his private conduct, which, while it added so much
to his usefulness as a clergyman, was essential to his influence as the leader of a party; and
which so often enabled him to recommend successfully to others the same candid and indul-
gent spirit that was congenial to his own mind." — Account of the Life and Writings of Dr
Robertson, by Dugald Stewart, Esq., p. 12.

In this passage Mr Stewart discountenances, in general terms, the belief that the Principal
gave the tragedy of Douglas any active patronage, by attending the representations or other-
wise ; but the statement that Dr Robertson " had never himself entered within the walls of
a playhouse," cannot be considered as an absolute contradiction of his having been present at
the rehearsal "in the lodgings in the Canongate occupied by Mrs Sarah Wurde."

76 JOHN HOME.

clerical abettors completely in their power. Mr Home only escaped degrade
tion by abdicating his pulpit, which he did in June, 1757. His friends who
had been present at the representation, were censured or punished according to
the degree of their supposed misconduct Mr White, the minister of Libberton,
was suspended for a month, a mitigated sentence in consideration of his apology,
which was— that he had attended the representation only once, when he en-
deavoured to conceal himself in a corner, to avoid giving offence.

The misfortune of the Scottish church, on this occasion, consisted only in a
little want of discrimination. They certainly did not err in characterizing the
stage as immoral ; for the stage, both then and since, and in almost all periods
of its existence, has condescended to represent scenes, and give currency to
language, which, in the general society of the period, could not be tolerated.
But though the stage seems thus to claim a privilege of lagging behind the
moral standard of every age, and in general calculates itself for the gratification
of only a secondary order of tastes, there was surely something to be said in
favour of a man who, having devoted his leisure to the cultivation of an elegant
branch of the belles lettres, had produced a work not calculated to encourage
the immoral system complained of, but to correct it by introducing a purer taste,
or which could at least not be played, without for that night preventing the re-
presentation of something more fatal to good manners. There were many, no
doubt, who were rather rejoiced than saddened, at finding a stream of purer feel-
ing disposed to turn itself into the Augean stable of the theatre ; because they
calculated that since men cannot be withheld from that place of amusement, the
next best course is to make the entertainment as innocent as possible.

3Ir Home had been introduced some years before, by Sir David Kinloch, the
patron of his parish, to lord justice clerk Milton, who then acted as Sous Mi?iis-
tre for Scotland, under Archibald duke ofArgyle. Being introduced by lord
Milton to the duke, his grace said that, being now too old to be of any material
service in improving his prospects, he would commit him to his nephew, the
earl of Bute, who was succeeding to that nameless situation of trust and patron-
age which had been so long held by himself. Accordingly, on Mr Home's going
to London in 1757, he was kindly received by lord Bute, who, having that in-
fluence with Garrick which had been found wanting in the merit of the play
itself, soon caused it to be brought out at Brury Lane. Notwithstanding Gar-
rick's unchanged opinion of its merit, it met with distinguished success.

Lord Bute, besides procuring Mr Home this highest gratification which he
was capable of receiving, provided for his personal wants by obtaining for him
the sinecure situation of conservator of Scots privileges at Campvere. Thus se-
cure as to the means of subsistence, the poet reposed with tranquillity upon his
prospects of dramatic fame. His tragedy of Agis, which had been written
before Douglas, but rejected, was brought forward, and met with success, Gar-
rick and Aire Cibber playing the principal characters. The Siege of Aquikia
was repi'esented in 1750, but, owing to a want of interest in the action, did
not secure the favour of the audience. In 1760, he pi-inted his three tragedies
in one volume, and dedicated them to the prince of W ales, whose society he had
enjoyed through the favour of the earl of Bute, preceptor to the prince. When
this royal personage became king, he signified his favour for Mr Home by
granting him a pension of £300 a-year from his privy purse — which, in ad-
dition to an equal sum from his office of conservator, rendered him what in
Scotland might be considered affluent. About this period, he spent the greater
part of his time in London, but occasionally came to Scotland, to attend his
duties as an elder in the General Assembly, being appointed to that trust by
the ecclesiastical establishment at Campvere, which then enjoyed a representa-
tion in the great clerical council of the nation. In 1767, he forsook almost

JOHN HOME. 77

entirely the company of the earl of Bute and his other distinguished friends at
London, and planted himself down in a villa, which he built near his former
residence in East Lothian, and where he continued to reside for the next twelve
years. To increase the felicity of a settled home, he married a lady bf his own
name in 1770, by whom he never had any children.

Three tragedies, the Fatal Discovery, Alonzo, and Alfred, successively ap-
peared in 1769, 1773, and 1778; but, though received at first with considera-
ble applause, they took no permanent hold of the stage ; and thus seemed to
confirm the opinion which many English critics had avowed in regard to the
success of Douglas — that it was owing to no peculiar powers of dramatic com-
position in the author, but simply to the national character of the piece, with a
slight aid from its exhibition of two very popular passions, maternal and filial ten-
derness.2 The reception of the last mentioned play was so cool, that he ceased
from that time to write for the stage.

* " As we sat over our tea," says Boswell on this subject, "Mr Home's tragedy of
Douglas was mentioned. 1 put Dr Johnson in mind that once, in a Coffee-house at Oxford,
he allied to old Mr Sheridan, ' How came }ou, sir, to give Home a gold medal * for writing
that foolish play?' and defied Mr Sheridan to show ten good lines in it. He did not insist
that they should be together ; but that there were not ten good lines in the whole play. He
now persisted in this. I endeavoured to defend that pathetic and beautiful tragedy, and re-
peated the following passage :

Sincerity,

Thou first of virtues, let no mortal leave

Thy onward path, altho' the earth should gape,

And from the gulph of hell destruction cry,

To take dissimulation's winding way.
Johnson. ' That will not do, sir. Nothing is good but what is consistent with truth or proba-
bility, which this is not. Juvenal indeed gives us a noble picture of inflexible virtue i

Esto bonus miles, tutor bonus, arbiter idem

Integer: ambiguse si quando citabere testis

Inceriaque rei, Phalaris licet imperet, ut sis

Falsus, et admoto dictet perjuria tauro,

Summum crede nefas, animam prseferre pudori,

Et, propter vitam, vita? perdere causas.'

He repeated the lines with great force and dignity ; then added, « And after tin's comes
Johnny Home, with his earth gaping and his destruction crying ! — Pooh !' " — Boswell's Journal
of a Tour to the Hebrides.

It must be acknowledged Boswell was not fortunate in the specimen he produced, and that
the passage quoted by Johnson from Juvenal is infinitely superior. The circumstances at-
tending the representation of Douglas were not such as to dispose an English critic to allow
its merit. In the first place, the national taste was in some degree committed in the judg-
ment passed upon the play by the favourite actor and manager; and it was not only galling
to himself, but to all who relied upon his taste, that he should have been mistaken. In tl:e
next place, the Scots did not use their triumph with discretion ; they talked of the merits of
Douglas in a strain quite preposterous, and of which no unfair specimen is to be found in the
anecdote of a Caledonian who, being present in the pit of Drury Lane one night of its per-
formance, is said to have exclaimed, in the insolence of his exultation, " Whar's your Wulrv
Shakspeare nou 1" Such ridiculous pretensions are now forgotten; but they were advanced
at the time, and, from their extreme arrogance and absurdity, could not fail to exasperate a
mind so ready to repel insult as Johnson's, and so keenly alive as his was to the honour of the
national literature of England. The natural consequence followed : he decried Douglas per-
haps as much as it was overvalued by its admirers; and his acquaintance with far superior
compositions, must have enabled him, as in the instance above quoted, to pour derision upon
it with an effect which the more judicious part of its admirers could not contend with, the
more especially as the noise of undiscriminating applause with which it was hailed, had in-
duced them to assume higher ground than their sober judgment would have led them to fix
upon. And indeed, it may be a question whether the same cause that contributed to the first
popularity of Douglas does not still continue to operate, preserving to our only tragedy a
higher rank than it really is entitled to occupy : it is rare that the parents of an only child
do not love and admire him for virtues which all the world else fails to discover that he is
possessed of.

• " The elder Sheridan, then manager of the theatre at Dublin, sent Mr Home a gold medal in
testimony of his admiration of Douglas ; and his wife, a woman not less respectable for her
virtues than for genius and accomplishments, drew the idea of her admired novel of Sydney
Jfidrtufph, as her introduction bears, from the genuine moral effect of that excellent tragedy."—
Mackenzie's Life of Home, p. 47.

78 JOHN HOME.

Mr Home, as already mentioned, lived in terms of the greatest intimacy
with all the literary men of his time : he seems, however to have chemhed no
friendship with so much ardour as that which he entertained for h.s ph.losophK-al
namesake David Hume. During the course of a lengthened period of friendly
intercourse with this individual, only two trifling differences had ever men be-
tween them. One referred to the orthography of their name which the
dramatic poet spelt after the old and constant fashion of his family, wh.le the
philosopher had early in life assumed the spelling indicated by the pronunc.a-
tion. David Hume, at one time, jocularly proposed that they should detemnne
this controversy by casting lots ; but the poet answered, " Nay, that is a most
extraordinary proposal, indeed, 31r Philosopher, for, if you lose, you take your
own name, whereas, if I lose, I take another man's name.

The other controversy referred merely to their taste in wine. Mr John
Home had the old Scottish prepossession in favour of claret, and utterly de-
tested port. When the former drink was expelled from the market by high
duties, he wrote the following epigram, as it has been called, though we contess
we are at a loss to observe anything in it but a narrative of supposed facts :—

" Firm and erect the Caledonian stood,

Old was his mutton, and his claret good;
' Let him drink port,' an English statesman cried—
He drank the poison, and his spirit died."

David Hume, who to his latest breath continued the same playful being he
had ever been, made the following allusion to the two controversies, in a codicil
to his will, dated only eighteen days before his death. " 1 leave to my friend
Mr John Home of Kilduff", ten dozen of my old claret at his choice ; and one
other bottle of that other liquor called port. I also leave him six dozen of
port, provided that he attests, under his hand, signed John Hume, that he has
himself alone finished that bottle at two sittings. By this concession he will
at once terminate the only two differences that ever arose between us concern-
ing temporal matters."

When this eccentric philosopher was recommended for his health to pay a
visit to Bath, his faithful friend Home accompanied him, and was of great ser-
vice, by his lively conversation and kind attentions, in supporting him against
the attacks of a virulent disease. The journey took place in April, 1776, and
Mr Mackenzie has preserved a curious diary by Mr Home, detailing the principal
matters which passed between him and his fellow traveller in conversation. Many
of the anecdotes told by the philosopher are exceedingly valuable as snatches of
what is styled secret history.

Mr Home spent the latter moiety of his long life in a state little removed
from indolence. He removed to Edinburgh in 1779, and thenceforward lived
in the enjoyment of that high literary society which the character of his mind
fitted him to enjoy, and in which his income fortunately permitted him to in-
dulge. Careless of money in the highest degree, he delighted in entertaining
large companies of friends, and often had his house filled to a degree which
would now be considered intolerable, with permanent guests.

The only production of his later years was a History of the Bebellion of
1745 ; a transaction of which he was entitled to say, pars fui. He had pro-
jected something of the kind soon after the event, but did not proceed with it
till after he had given up dramatic writing. If there was any literary man of
the day from whom, rather than from any other, a good work upon this subject
might have been confidently expected, it was Mr Home, who had not only taken
a strong personal interest in the affair, but possesssed that generous and chival-

SIR JOHN HOPE. 79

rous colour of mind which was most apt to do it justice in narration. Unfor-
tunately, before setting- about this work, he had met with an accident by a fall
from his horse, in consequence of which his intellect was permanently affected.
As a pensioner of king George III., he was also prevented from giving that full
expression to his sentiments which was so necessary in the historian of such an
event. This work, therefore, when it appeared in 1802, was found to be a
miserable sketchy outline of the transaction, rather than a complete narrative —
here and there, indeed, as copious as was to be wished, and also showing oc-
casional glimpses of the poetical genius of the author, but in general " stale,
fiat, and unprofitable." The imperfections of the work have been partly ac-
counted for, without contradiction, by the circumstance of its having been sub-
mitted to the inspection of the reigning family, with the understanding that they
were at liberty to erase such passages as they did not wish to be made public

Mr Home died on the 5th of September, 1808, when he was just on the
point of completing his eighty-sixth year. As a man, he was gentle and ami-
able, a very warm friend, and incapable of an ungenerous feeling. As a poet,
he deserves the credit of having written with more fervid feeling, and less of
stiffness and artificiality, than the other poets of his time ; his genius in this re-
spect approaching to that of his friend Collins. The present age, however, has,
by its growing indifference to even his sole successful play, pronounced that his
reputation on account of that exertion, was in a great measure the result of
temporary and local circumstances, and that, being ill based, it cannot last

HOPE, (Sm) John, latterly earl of Hopetoun, a celebrated military com-
mander, was son to John, second earl of Hopetoun, by his second marriage with
Jane, daughter of Robert Oliphant of Rossie, in the county of Perth. He was
born at Hopetoun in the county of Linlithgow, on the 17th of August, 17G6.
After finishing his education at home, he travelled on the continent, where he
had the advantage of the superintendence of Dr Gillies, author of the History of
Greece, now historiographer to the king. Mr Hope entered the army as a vol-
unteer at a period so early as his 15th year, and on the 28th of May, 1784,
received a cornetcy in the 10th regiment of light dragoons. We shall briefly
note his gradual rise as an officer until he reached that rank, in which he could
appropriate opportunities of distinguishing himself. On the 24th of December,
17S5, he was appointed to a lieutenancy in the 100th foot; on the 3 1st Oc-
tober, 1789, to a company in the 17th dragoons; on the 25th of April, 1792,
to a majority in the 2nd foot; and on the 26th of April, 1793, to a lieutenant-
colonelcy in the 25th foot. It was the period when the claims of rank began
to meet with less observance in the British army, and severer duties called for
the assistance of active and persevering men. ; and these had before them a sure
road to honour. So early as 1794, lieutenant-colonel Hope was appointed to
the arduous situation of adjutant-general to Sir Ralph Abercromby when serving
in the Leeward islands ; during the three ensuing years he was actively em-
ployed in the campaigns in the West Indies, where he held the rank of
brigadier-general ; during this service he is characterized in the despatches of
the commander-in-chief, as one who ** on all occasions most willingly came for-
ward and exerted himself in times of danger, to which he was not called, from
his situation as adjutant-general."

In the parliament of 1796, Mr Hope was returned as member for Linlithgow-
shire : as a legislator he has been very little known, and he soon relinquished a
duty not probably according with his taste and talents. As a deputy adjutant-
general he attended the expedition to Holland, in August, 1799, having, in the
interval betwixt his services abroad, performed the duty of a colonelcy in the
north Lowland fencibles. In the sharp fighting at the landing at the Helder,

j- ~r *»,«> conrot pxnedition to Holland commenced,

rt-tnemT'o the duke* York, lieutenant-colonel Alexander Hope, Ins
Kfer b^his father's third marriage, being appointed Ins successor as deputy
ad jujnt general. In 1800, colonel Hope joined the expedition to Egypt
under Sir Ralph Abercromby, who had been his commanding -office, -at the at-
tack on the Helder. He still acted as adjutant-general, and on he 13th of
May he was appointed brigadier-general in the Mediterranean. Were we to
follow this active officer's footsteps through the progress of the Egyptian war we
should merely repeat what the best pens in Europe have been engaged in dis-
cussing for thirty years, and what generally is known ; suffice i to say, that he
was en-aged in the actions of 8th and 13th March, 1801 , and that he received
a wound on the hand at the battle of Alexandria. In June he was able to pro-
ceed with the army to Cairo, where he has received credit as an able negotiator,
for the manner in which he settled the convention for the surrender of that
place with the French commander, general Belliard. On the 11th of May,
1802, he was promoted to the rank of a major-general. On the 30th of June
1805 he was appointed deputy governor of Portsmouth: an office he resigned
the same year, on being nominated to a command with the troops sent to the
continent under lord Cathcart On the 3rd of October, 1805, he was made
colonel of the 2nd battalion of the 60th foot, and on the 3rd of January, 1800,
colonel of the 92nd foot. On the 25th of April, 1 808, he was made a lieutenant-
general.1

Lieutenant-general Hope was among the most eminent and persevering par-
takers in that exterminating war in the Peninsula, where, as in the conflicts of
ancient nations, every thing gained was the price of blood. On the 8th of Au-
gust he landed with the British forces in Portugal ; — during the ensuing month
he was appointed British commandant at Lisbon ; and on the French gradually
evacuating the town, in terms of their convention, he took possession of the cas-
tle of Belem on the 10th, and of the citadel on the 12th. The restless spirit
of the Portuguese, on the knowledge that the French were to leave the country,
caused their long-smothered indignation to appear in insults, threats, and even
attempts on the lives of the general officers ; to depart in safety was the ob-
ject of the French, and general Hope had the difficult task of preventing the
oppressed people from making dangerous displays of public feeling, a duty he
performed with moderation and energy, and which he was enabled finally to
complete.

Sir John Moore divided his forces into two columns, one of which under his
own command, marched by Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo, while the other pro-
ceeded to the Tagus under the command of general Hope. While thus separat-
ed from his celebrated commander, both experienced the full danger and
doubt which so amply characterized the disastrous campaign. The few Spanish
troops who had struck a blow for their country, fleeing towards the Tagus,
brought to general Hope the traces of the approach of the victorious French.
His column, consisting of three thousand infantry and nine hundred cavalry,
were in want and difficulty. The inhospitable country afforded insufficient sup-
plies of provision, they were destitute of money, and of many necessary articles

1 These dry details of military advancement, which we would willingly spare our readers,
were they not necessary for the completeness of a biography, we have copied from the Annual
Biography and Obituary for 1824s a source from which we derive all the dates in this memoir,
judging it one likely to be depended on.

SIR JOHN HOPE. 81

of military store. To enable his troops in some measure to obtain supplies, he
separated his whole column into six divisions, each a day's march distant from
the others, and thus passing through an uncultivated country destitute of roads,
whose few inhabitants could give no assistance and could not be trusted, and
harassed by the neighbourhood of a powerful enemy, he had to drag his artil-
lery and a large park of ammunition to join the commander-in-chief, whose
safety depended on his speedy approach. At Almaraz he endeavoured to dis-
cover some path which might guide him through the hills to Ciudad Rodrigo,
but not finding one easily accessible, the jaded state of his few remaining
horses compelled him to relinquish the attempt to cross these regions. On
reaching Talavera, to the other evils with which he had to contend was added
the folly or perfidy of the Spanish functionaries : the secretary at war recom-
mended to him a method of passing through Madrid, which on consideration he
found would have been the most likely of all methods to throw him into the
hands of the French army. Resolving to make a last effort to obtain assistance
from the nation for which the British troops were wasting their blood, he proceeded
in person to Madrid ; but the uncontrolled confusion of the Spanish government
threw additional clouds on his prospects, and he found that the safety of his men
must depend on their own efforts. Avoiding the path so heedlessly proposed,
he passed Naval Carnero, and reached Escurial, where he halted to bring up
his rear, and to obtain bullocks for dragging his artillery and ammunition.
Having crossed the mountains on the sixth day after leaving Madrid, his situa-
tion became more melancholy, and he fell into deeper difficulties. He received
the intelligence of additional disasters among the Spaniards ; and his scouts
traced the vicinity of parties of the enemy. " The general's situation," says
colonel Napier in his History of the Peninsular War, " was now truly embar-
rassing. If he fell back to the Guadarama, the army at Salamanca would be
without ammunition or artillery. If he advanced, it must be by a flank march
of three days, with a heavy convoy, over a flat country, and within a few hour's
march of a very superior cavalry. If he delayed where he was, even for a few
hours, the French on the side of Segovia might get between him and the pass
of Guadarama, and then, attacked in front, flank, and rear, he would be re-
duced to the shameful necessity of abandoning his convoy and guns, to save his
men in the mountains of Avila. A man of less intrepidity and calmness would
have been ruined ; but Hope, as enterprising as he was prudent, without any
hesitation ordered the cavalry to throw out parties cautiously towards the French,
and to maintain a confident front if the latter approached ; then moving the in-
fantry and guns from Villacastin, and the convoy from Espinosa, by cross roads
to Avila, he continued his march day and night until they reached Peneranda :
the cavalry covering this movement closed gradually to the left, and finally oc-
cupied Fontiveros on the 2nd of December." s Not without additional dangers from
the vicinity of the enemy, to the number of ten thousand infantry, and two
thousand cavalry, with forty guns, he at length reached Salamanca, and joined
the commander-in-chief. He partook in the measures which the army thus re-
.cruited endeavoured to pursue, as a last effort of active hostility, passing with
his division the Douro at Tordesillas, and directing his march upon Villepando.
In the memorable retreat which followed these proceedings, he had a laborious
and perilous duty to perform. He commanded the left wing at the battle of
Gorunna; — of his share in an event so frequently and minutely recorded it is
scarcely necessary to give a detailed account. After the death of the commander-
in-chief, arid the wound which compelled Sir David Baird to retire from the
field, general Hope was left with the honour and responsibility of the supreme

* Vol. i p. 437.

i ~e tho Hp«n.itrhes to his " abilities and exer-

command, and in the language of the despatches, ran

tions. in the direction of the ardent zeal and unconquerable valouroUus maje*.
l^Uops is to be attributed, under Providence »"££** M
terminated in the complete and entire repulse and defeat of the enemy.

h"i the immediate^ decision of Sir John Hope, not to fo low up , a v.ctory
over o powerful an enemy, but taking advantage of the contus.on of the French,
"oproceed with the original design of embarking the troops, a measure per.
fon^TwUh true military alacrity* and good order not w.thout the strenuous
exertion, of the general, who, after the fatigues of the day, personally -wm**
till a late hour the purlieus of the town, to prevent stragglers from tailing into
the hands of the enemy. General Hope wrote to Sir IW Baird a succinct and
clear account of the battle, in which his own name seldom occurs. As exhibiting
the subdued opinion he expressed of the advantage gamed and as what is
very probably a specimen of his style of composition, we quote the following
passage from this excellent document: "Circumstances forbid us to indulge
the hope, that the victory with which it has pleased Providence to crown the
efforts of the army, can be attended with any very brilliant consequences to
Great Britain. It is clouded by the loss of one of her best soldiers. It
has been achieved at the termination of a long and harassing service. The
superior numbers and advantageous position of the enemy, not less than the
actual situation of this army, did not admit of any advantage being reaped from
success. It must be, however, to you, to the army, and to our country, the
sweetest reflection that the lustre of the British arms has been maintained,
amidst many disadvantageous circumstances. The army which had entered
Spain amidst the fairest prospects, had no sooner completed its junction, than,
owing to the multiplied disasters that dispersed the native armies around us, it
was left to its own resources. The advance of the British corps from Douro
afforded the best hope that the south of Spain might be relieved, but this gener-
ous effort to save the unfortunate people, also afforded the enemy the oppor-
tunity of directing every effort of his numerous troops, and concentrating all his
principal resources, for the destruction of the only regular force in the north
of Spain."

The thanks of his country crowded thickly on general Hope, after the arrival
of the despatches in England ; a vote of thanks to him and to the officers under
his command was unanimously passed in the House of Lords, on the motion of
the earl of Liverpool ; in the House of Commons, on that of lord Castlereagh.
As a reward for his services, his brother (the earl of Hopetoun) was created a
baron of the united kingdom, by the title of baron Hopetoun of Hopetoun in
the county of Linlithgow, and himself received the order of the bath, in which
he was installed two years afterwards, along with twenty-two other knights.
Soon after his return to Britain, Sir John was appointed to superintend the
military department of the unsatisfactory expedition to the Scheldt. It was the
intention of the planners of the expedition, that by landing on the north side
of South Beveland, and taking possession of the island, Sir John might incom-
mode the French fleet while it remained near Flushing, and render its retreat
more difficult, while it might be subject to the attacks of the British ships. Sir
John's division landed near Ter-Goes, took possession of the important post of
Baltz, and removed all impediments to the progress of the British vessels in the
West Scheldt, For nine days Sir John occupied his post, waiting impatiently
for the concerted arrival of the gun-boats under the command of Sir Home
Popham, harassed by frequent attacks from the enemy, in one of which they
brought down about twenty-eight gun-vessels, and kept up, a cannonade for
several hours, but were, after much exertion on the part of the general, com-

SIR JOHN HOPE. 83

pelled to retreat The termination and effect of the expedition are well known,
and need not be here repeated. At the termination of the expedition Sir John
Hope was appointed commander-in-chief of the forces in Ireland, but be soon
left this unpleasing sphere of duty, to return in 181 3, to the scene of his former
exertions in the Peninsula. At the battle of Nivelle be commanded the left
wing, and driving in the enemy's out-posts in front of their entrenchments on
the Lower Nivelle, carried the redoubt above Orogue, and established himself on
the heights immediately opposite Sibour, in readiness to take advantage of any
movement made by the enemy's right. On the 10th of December, nearly the
whole army of the enemy left their entrenchments, and having drawn in the
piquets, advanced upon Sir John Hope's posts on the high road from Bayonne
to St Jean de Luz. At the first onset, Sir John took 500 prisoners, and repulsed
the enemy, while he received in the course of the action a severe contusion on
the head. The same movement was repeated by the enemy, and they were in a
similar manner repulsed. The conduct of Sir John on this occasion has received
the approbation of military men, as being cool, judicious, and soldierly ; and he
received the praises of the duke of Wellington in his despatches.

In this campaign, which began on the frontiers of Portugal, the enemy's line
of defence on the Douro had been turned, and after defeat at Vittoria, Soult
had been repulsed in his efforts to relieve St Sebastian and Pamplona, and the
army of France had retreated behind the Pyrenees. After the fall of the latter
place, the army entered France, after many harassing operations, in which the
progress of the allies was stoutly impeded by the indomitable Soult. In the
middle of February, 1814, the passage of the Adour was accomplished. While
the main body of the army under the duke of Wellington, prosecuted the cam-
paign in other quarters, Sir John Hope was left with a division to invest the
citadel and town of Bayonne on both banks of the river. Soon after these
operations commenced, Sir John received information from two deserters, that
the garrison was under arms, and prepared for a sortie before day-light next
morning. By means of a feint attack at the moment they were so expected,
and by the silent and stealthy movements of some of their men through the
rough ground, many of the sentinels were killed, and several lines of piquets
broken. The nature of the spot, with a hollow way, steep banks, and inter-
cepting walls, deprived those so attacked of the power of retreating, and the
whole vicinity was a series of scattered battles, fought hand to hand, with deadly
bitterness. The chief defence of the besiegers lay in the fortified convent of
St Bernard, and in some buildings in the village of St Etienne ; to the latter
post Sir John Hope proceeded with his staff, at the commencement of the attack.
Through one of the inequalities of the ground already mentioned, which formed
a sort of hollow way, Sir John expected to find the nearest path to the village.
When almost too late, he discovered that the banks had concealed from him the
situation of the enemy, whose line he was just approaching, and gave orders to
retreat ; before, however, being extricated from the hollow way, the enemy
approached within twelve yards' distance, and began firing : Sir John Hope's
horse received three balls, and falling, entangled its rider. While the staff
attempted to extricate him, the close firing of the enemy continued, and several
British officers were wounded, among whom was Sir John himself, and the
French soldiers pouring in, made them all prisoners. The French with diffi-
culty extricated him from the fallen horse, and while they were conveying him
to the citadel, he was severely wounded in the foot by a ball supposed to have
come from the British piquets. . From the effects of this encounter he suffered
for a considerable period.

On the 3rd of May, Sir John was created a British peer by the title of baror

84

SIR THOMAS HOPE.

Niddry of Niddry, county of Linlithgow. He declined being a partaker in the
pecuniary grant, which, on the 9th of June ensuing, was moved by the chan-
cellor of the exchequer, as a reward for the services of him and other distin-
guished generals. On the death of his brother by his father's prior marriage,
he succeeded to the family title of earl of Hopetoun, and in August, 1819, he
attained to the rank of general. He died at Paris, on the 27th August, 1823,
in the 58th year of his age. From the Edinburgh Annual Register for 1823,
we extract a character of this excellent and able man, which, if it have a small
de«ree too much of the beau ideal in its composition, seems to be better fitted to
the person to whom it is applied, than it might be to many equally celebrated.

" As the friend and companion of Moore," says this chronicle, " and as
acting under Wellington in the Pyrenean campaign, he had rendered himself
conspicuous. But it was when, by succession to the earldom, he became the
head of one of the most ancient houses in Scotland, and the possessor of one of
its most extensive properties, that his character shone in its fullest lustre. He
exhibited then a model, as perfect seemingly as human nature could admit, of
the manner in which this eminent and useful station ought to be filled. An open
and magnificent hospitality, suited to his place and rank, without extravagance
or idle parade, a full and public tribute to the obligations of religion and
private morality, without ostentation or austerity ; a warm interest in the
improvement and welfare of those extensive districts with which his possessions
brought him into contact — a kind and generous concern in the welfare of the
humblest of his dependents, — these qualities made him beloved and respected in
an extraordinary degree, and will cause him to be long remembered."3

HOPE, (Sir) Thomas, an eminent lawyer and statesman of the fifteenth cen-
tury, and the founder of a family distinguished for its public services, was the
son of Henry Hope, a considerable Scottish merchant, whose grandfather, John
de Hope, was one of the gentlemen attending Magdalene de Valois, first consort
of James V., at her coming into this country in 1537.

Henry Hope, a younger brother of the subject of this memoir, following the
profession of his father, was the progenitor of the great and opulent branch of
the Hopes of Amsterdam ; a house, for extent of commerce and solidity of
credit, long considered superior, without exception, to any private mercantile
company in the world.

Thomas Hope, after having distinguished himself at school in no small degree
entered upon the study of the law, and made so rapid a progress in juridical
knowledge, that he was at a very early age called to the bar. However like
the generality of young lawyers, he enjoyed at first a very limited practice : in
1606, he burst at once upon the world on the following occasion.

Six ministers of the church of Scotland having thought proper to deny that
the king and his council possessed any authority in ecclesiastical affairs were on
that account imprisoned for some months in Blackness castle, indicted for high
treason, and on the 10th of January, 1606, put upon trial at Linlithgow, before
a jury consisting chiefly of landed gentlemen of the three Lothians. As it was
carefully promulgated that the king and court had openly expressed the highest
displeasure against the ministers, and had declared that they would show no favour

Wsch^ra^ Hfe, and ,„

erection of no fewer than three mZm„hii.iV? testified ma remarkable manner by the
In Fife, on the Z^otS^^1^^J^Rf^^,i-aMmmy hiUsi°ne
House, and the third in the neighborhood of Ha5d nLLn Arf0"^'?' "Tf "T^-"
lordship has also been erected in St. Andrew's Wrf VMni Tes*r'a" s¥ue of nis
from the pen of Sir Walter Scott A enrrpnt \t i ™ ?' ,Edlnburg"> with an inscription
represent^ him ^^^^l^^^^S^^^ °f Lord *°»«™>

SIR THOMAS HOPE.

85

to any person that should appear in their behalf, none of the great lawyers chose
to undertake their cause ; even Sir Thomas Craig, although he was procurator
for the church, refused to be concerned in this affair, and Sir William Oliphant,
who had at first promised to plead for them, sent word, the day before, that he
must decline appearing. The ministers, thus abandoned, applied to Mr Hope,
who, pitying their case, with the greatest cheerfulness and resolution undertook
their defence ; and, notwithstanding the reiterated endeavours of the court to
perplex and browbeat him, contradicted it in so skilful and masterly a manner,
that he made a deep impression on the jury. However, by an unlawful tamper-
ing with the jurors (some of the lords of council having procured admittance to
them after they were locked up,) and assurance that no harm was intended against
the persons or goods of the accused, nine of the fifteen jurymen were induced to
bring in a verdict of guilty, and the ministers were sentenced to banishment forth
of the kingdom, which was accordingly executed.

By the commendable intrepidity, knowledge of the law, and singular abilities,
manifested by Mr Hope at this important trial, he became so greatly the favour-
ite of the presbyterians, that they never afterwards undertook any important
business without consulting him ; and he was retained in almost every cause
brought by that party into the courts of justice, so that he instantly came into
the first practice of any lawyer at that period. By this, in a few years he
acquired one of the most considerable fortunes ever made at the Scottish bar;
which enabled him to purchase, between 1613 and 1642, the lands of Grantoun,
Edmonstoun, and Cauldcolts in Mid Lothian, Prestongrange in East Lothian,
Kerse in Stirlingshire, Mertoun in the Merse, Kinninmonth, Arnydie, Craighall,
Ceres, Hiltarvet, and others in Fife.

It was the policy of king Charles I. to bestow honours and emoluments upon
those who had most power to obstruct his designs, and hence, in 1626, the great
presbyterian barrister was made king's advocate, with permission, revived in
his favour, to sit in the bar, and be privy to the hearing and determining of all
causes, except those in which he was retained by any of the parties. He was
also in 1628 created a baronet of Nova Scotia. If the king expected by these
means to gain him over from the presbyterians, he was grievously disappointed,
for although Sir Thomas discharged the duties of his high office with attention
and propriety, his gratitude, principles, and inclination, were all too powerfully
engaged to his first friends and benefactors to admit of his deserting them: it
was, on the contrary, with pleasure that he beheld that party increasing every
day in numbers and consequence. It would draw out this account to too great a
length, to enumerate all the various steps taken by them in pursuance of his
advice ; it is enough to say that he acted as their confidant throughout the whole
affair of the resistance of the Liturgy in 1637, and that he was intimately con-
cerned in framing the bond of resistance, entitled the National Covenant, which
was subscribed by nearly the whole population of Scotland in the succeeding
year. The king, with fatal weakness, nevertheless retained him in an office,
which, of all others in the state, implied and required a hearty service of the royal
cause. In 1643, when a parliament was required to meet in order to settle the
Solemn League and Covenant with the English parliament. Sir Thomas, to get over
the dilemma of illegality which must have characterized such a meeting, as it
could not legally take place till the next year, recommended a convention of
estates upon the precedent of some such transaction in the reign of James V. ;
and thus was achieved a measure which, more than any other, perhaps, was fatal
to the royal cause : the army voted in this irregular meeting being of great avail
in the decisive battle of Longmarston-moor, which was fought soon after.

Charles, nevertheless, still persisting in his unfortunate policy, appointed Sir

8 a FRANCIS HORNER.

Thomas Hope to be his commissioner to the General Assembly, which met in
Auoust, 1643 ; an honour never before or since bestowed upon a commoner.
The royalists were so muph incensed at the appointment of an enemy instead of
a friend, that they very generally absented themselves from the assembly, and
the field was therefore left in a great measure clear to the covenanters, who
carried all before them. As the sanction of this body was necessary to the
transaction above alluded to, the credit of the whole, direct or indirect, lies with
Sir Thomas Hope. . .

In 1645, Sir Thomas Hope was appointed one of the commissioners tor
managing the exchequer, but did not long enjoy that office, dying the next
year, 1646. He had the singular happiness of seeing, before his death, two of
bis sons seated on the bench while he was lord advocate ; and it being judged
by the Court of Session unbecoming that a father should plead uncovered before
his children, the privilege of wearing his hat, while pleading, was granted to
him. This privilege his successors in the office of king's advocate have ever since
enjoyed, though it is now in danger of being lost through desuetude.

The professional excellencies of Sir Thomas Hope are thus discriminated by
Sir George Mackenzie, in his Characteres Advocatorum. " Hopius mira inven-
tione pollebat, totque illi fundebat argumenta ut amplificatione tempus deesset;
non ornabat, sed arguebat, modo uniformi, sed sibi proprio. Nam cum argumen-
tum vel exceptionem protulisset, rationem Jtddebat ; et ubi dubia videbatur,
rationis rationem. Ita rhetorica non illi defuit, sed-inutilis apparuit."

The following are the written or published works of Sir Thomas Hope 1,

Carmen Seculare in serenissinum Caroluin I. Britanniarum Monarcham,

Edin. 1626 2, Psalmi Davidis et Canticum Solomonis Latino carmine reddi-

tum, MS 3, Major Practicks 4, Minor Practicks, (a very well known work),

5, Paratitillo in universo Juris Corpore. — and 6, A Genealogie of the Earls

of Mar, MS.

In Wood's Ancient and Modern account of the Parish of Cramond, from
which the above facts are chiefly taken, is given a very perfect account of the
numerous descendants of Sir Thomas Hope, including the noble race of Hope-
toun, and many other races distinguished in the two past centuries, by official
eminence and public service.

HORNER, Francis, whose virtues, talents, and eloquence, raised him to an
eminent rank in public life, while yet a young man, was born at Edinburgh on
the 12„h of August, 1778. His father, who was at that time a linen manufacturer
and mercer upon an extensive scale, took delight in cultivating the excellent
talents which his son early displayed, and doubtless contributed much to the
formation of those intellectual habits, and sound and liberal principles, which
marked the boy as well as the full-grown man. Francis was sent to the High school,
where he soon became a favourite with the late Dr Adam, who then presided over
that eminent seminary as rector, and who was accustomed to say of his distinguished
pupil, that " Francis Horner was the only boy he ever knew who had an old
head upon young shoulders." Nor was this remark dictated by undue partiality,
although some of the most eminent men of the present age were among young
Horner's class-fellows : for he was never known to join in the field-sports or
recreations of any of the boys, and he kept the rank of dux at school by bis
own industry and talents alone, having no private tutor to direct his studies.
Francis indeed needed no adventitious aid ; but it has been thought by some of
his medical friends that these early propensities to retirement and constant study
contributed to sow the seeds of that pulmonary disease which assailed his youth,
and finally led to an untimely grave.

When removed to the university he enjoyed the instructions of several eminent

FRANCIS HORNER. 87

professors, and, in particular, attracted the notice of Dugald Stewart : but the
theatre, perhaps, which tended more than any other to unfold his talents and
views was the Speculative Society, an institution for improvement in public
speaking, and in science in general, without peculiar reference to any of the
learned professions, the members of which met weekly during the sitting of the
college. There are few associations of this kind which have numbered so many
young men of splendid talents on their roll of members. Lord Henry Petty,
the second son of the first marquis of Lansdown, and Messrs Brougham and
Jeffrey were amongst Mr Horner's associates in the arena of debate, and con-
tributed by their mutual influence on each other's minds to invigorate and
sharpen those intellectual powers which were afterwards to raise them to stations
of the highest eminence and widest influence in society. Mr Horner first
directed his attention to the Scottish bar, but like his two last-mentioned friends
with very limited success. The attainment of sufficient practice before the
Scottish court can only be the result of undismayed perseverance and great
industry ; real talent will ultimately reach its object there, but the necessary
probation is apt to dishearten conscious merit. There was something also in the
political character of the times inauspicious to young men of independent prin-
ciples, who sought to make their way without friends or interest by dint of talent
alone ; the aristoci*acy possessed overwhelming influence, and a considerable
amount of prejudice existed in the midst of the commonalty against the first
manifestations of that more liberal spirit which now began to show itself in
various quarters, and more especially characterized the debates of the Speculative
Society. The intervention of a jury was also unknown in civil causes, and thus
the principal field for forensic eloquence was denied to the youthful aspirant.
These considerations appear to have so far weighed with Mr Horner as to induce
him, though already admitted a member of faculty, to direct his attention to the
English bar ; and with this view he left his associates, now busily engaged with
the early numbers of the Edinburgh Review, and repaired to London, where he
commenced the study of English jurisprudence.

In the meantime his friend lord H. Petty, after having taken his degree at
Cambridge, and visited the continent, returned to England, and was immediately
elected one of the two representatives of Calne. In the new parliament
just then convoked, this young nobleman soon began to be considered a very
able and formidable ally of the opposition ; and upon the final success of Mr
Fox's party, lord Henry Petty found himself, at the very early age of twenty-
one, chancellor of the exchequer, a member of the privy council, and M. P.
for the university of Cambridge. In this commanding situation he strongly
recommended his young Scottish friend to the notice of his coadjutor, as a gen-
tleman whose principles, character, and talents eminently fitted him for supporting
the new ministry. Mr Horner was accordingly brought into parliament for the
borough of St Ives in 1806. By the dismission of the Foxo-Grenville admin-
istration, Mr Horner was for a time deprived of his parliamentary seat ; but the
talents and integrity which he had exhibited while in office, pointed him out to
the friends of liberal principles as an ally too important to be consigned to
oblivion. Accordingly, on the retirement of viscount Mahon from the represen-
tation of Wendover, Mr Horner was immediately nominated for that place, and
soon afterwards was appointed one of the commissioners for investigating the
claims on the late Nabob of Arcot, whose debts had been guaranteed by the East
India Company, — an office of considerable emolument but proportionate labour.
This situation, however, he afterwards resigned, though receiving little or no
emolument from professional business, which indeed he did not aim at acquiring.
Once established, however, in parliament, Mr Horner continued gradually to ac-

88 FRANCIS HORNER.

quire the confidence of the house, and that hold upon public opinion, without
which no member of the British senate can be an efficient statesman. His
speeches were little remarkable for ornament, or in a high degree for what is
generally called eloquence ; but he brought to the examination of every subject
the power of a clear and matured understanding ; and as he made it a point
never to address the house upon any subject of which he had not made himself
fully master, he never failed to command attention and respect. The excellence
of the speaker consisted in accurate reasoning, logical arrangement of the facts,
and clear and forcible illustration.

On the 1st of February, 1 8 10, Mr Horner entered upon that part of his parlia-
mentary career in which he reaped his most brilliant reputation. The extraor-
dinary depreciation of the paper-currency, and the unfavourable state of the
exchanges for the last two years had attracted the attention of the best econo-
mists of the day, and engaged Messrs Mushet, Ricardo, and Huskisson, and
many others, in the investigation of the general principles of circulation, and of
the various results which are occasioned in different countries by the variations
in their respective currencies. This was a subject upon which Mr Horner felt
himself at full liberty to enter. He had early turned his attention to economi-
cal subjects, and had given the result of his inquiries to" the public in various
articles which he contributed to the Edinburgh Review, which had attracted very
considerable notice from their first appearance. Accordingly, pursuant to notice,
he moved for a variety of accounts and returns, and during the spring of th.it
year, called the attention of the house at different times to the important subject
of the circulating medium and bullion trade. At the same time that Mr Horner
was establishing his reputation as an economist, he neglected not the other duties
of a statesman. On the 10th of May, 1810, when Alderman Combe made a
motion censuring the ministers for obstructing the address of the Livery of
London to his majesty in person, we find 31r Horner supporting it in the fol-
lowing constitutional terms: " lie considered it as a question of vital importance,
respecting which ministers had attempted to defend themselves by drawing the veil
from the infirmities of their sovereign. It was the right of the Livery of London, as
it was of other subjects, to have access to his majesty's person in the worst times, —
even in those of Charles II. these had not been refused. The most corrupt min-
isters indeed, had no idea it would ever be refused. How complete would have
been their triumph if they had discovered the practice which of late had pre-
vailed ! The obstruction of petitions was a subversion of the fundamental law
of the land." Towards the conclusion of the same session, the house marked
its sense of 3Ir Horner's superior information by placing his name at the head
of " the bullion committee." Mr Horner presided for some time as chairman
of that committee during the examination of the evidence, and drew up the first
part of the report ; the second was penned by Mr Huskisson ; and the third by
Mr Henry Thornton. They reported " that there was an excess in the paper
circulation, of which the most unequivocal symptoms were the high price of
bullion,1 and next to that the low state of the continental exchange ;a that the
cause of this excess was to be found in the suspension of cash-payments, there
being no adequate provision against such an excess, except in the convertibility
of paper into specie ; and that the unfavourable state of the exchange originated
in the same cause, and was farther increased by the anti-commercial measures of
the enemy." They added " that they could see no sufficient remedy for the
present, or security for the future, except the repeal of the law suspending the

1 Gold had attained a maximum of 15} per cent, above the mint price.
1 The exchanges on Hamburg and Amsterdam had been depressed towards the latter end
of 1809, from 16 to 20 per cent, below par; while the exchange on Paris was slid lower.

FRANCIS HORNER. 89

cash payments of the bank ; this, they thought, could not be safely done at an
earlier period than two years from the time of their report ; but they recom-
mended that early provision should be made by parliament for this purpose."
This report excited much discussion both within and without the walls of the
house. The press swarmed with pamphlets on the present state of the currency,
and the remedies proposed ; — the journals teemed with dissertations on the same
subject ; — the comparative merits of a metallic and a paper currency formed the
topic of discussion in every company ; — ministers opposed the committee's pro-
position ; — and finally, Mr Vansittart, at the head of the anti-bullionists or
practical men, as they called themselves, got a series of counter-resolutions passed
after four nights' keen discussion, in which the speeches of Mr Horner and seve-
ral other members extended to three hours' length.

Although defeated in their struggle, the appearance which Mr Horner made
in it, was so highly respectable as to deepen the impression which his talents
and knowledge had already made on the house ; and from this period he appears
to have exercised very considerable influence with all parties. Indeed, the
urbanity of his manners, and the moderation with which he pressed his own
views, were such as secured for him the respect, at least, of those from whom he
differed in opinion ; and while steadily and consistently supporting the party to
which he belonged, he displayed a spirit of tolerance towards his opponents
which totally subdued any thing like personal animosity on their part. His
efforts were then often more successful than those of more gifted men, who, with
greater talents, have nevertheless greater prejudice, frequently amounting to
personal di3like, to struggle against It has been supposed that had Mr Horner
been in parliament after the death of Mr Ponsonby, he would have become the
leader of the opposition. But for an honour so great as this, providence had
not destined him. Constant application to business and the increasing weight
and multiplicity of his engagements, at last overpowered a constitution which
never was very strong. Indications of pulmonary consumption soon appeared,
and immediate removal to a warmer climate was deemed necessary by his physi-
cians. Crossing, therefore, to the continent, he passed through France and
entered Italy ; but the seeds of mortal disease had begun to spring before he
took farewell of his own country, and he expired at Pisa, on the 8th of Febru-
ary, 1817, in the 38th year of his age. His remains were interred in the Pro-
testant burying-ground at Leghorn, which also contains the ashes of Smollett.

On the occasion of a new writ being moved for the borough of St Mawes,
which Mr Horner had represented, the character of the deceased member was
elegantly sketched by lord Morpeth, and eloquent and affecting tributes of respect
paid to his memory by several of the most distinguished members of the house.

A contemporary, who was acquainted with Mr Horner, both at school and at
the university, thus expresses his opinion of him : " The characteristics of Mr
Horner's mind, if I apprehend them rightly, were clearness of perception,
calmness of judgment, and patience of investigation : producing as their conse-
quences, firmness of conduct and independence of principles. Carrying these
qualities into public life, he evinced greater moderation and forbearance than
are often found in the narrow and comparatively unambitious strifes of a less
extended scene. He entered parliament at rather an early age, and soon
became not only a useful and conspicuous man of business, but drew more
respect to his personal character, and was regarded by both orders of the House
of Commons with greater confidence and interest, than any young member had
attracted, perhaps, since the early days of Mr Pitt This will appear higher
praise when it is added, with truth, that no man coming into that house under
the patronage of a whig nobleman could have acted with greater liberality

j j uumm nf nnmilir ri°-ht —with more fairness and firmness to
towards extended ideas rfMr*^g ^ t latitude of individual

the persons of hi. W^^To^S^S all those scenes that have

X b e for the popular graces and attractions. If eloquence consists in
"Zna the ^*» by 'tronj metaphors -in awakening the sympathies by
TStiC orin arresting attention by the sallies of a mind rich in
SSL^SSSTlS Hornerlas not eloquent. But if eloquence be the art
o perTuadT. by accurate reasoning, and a right adjustment of all the parts of
a dCurse by the powers of a tact which is rather intellectually right han prac
tiXnne,' Mr HoLr was eloquent. He spoke with the steady calmness of
re who aw his way on principle, while he felt it simply and immediately,
Lgh sobriety of judgment and good conduct ; and never seemed to be more
excited by his subject, or more carried away in the vehemence ot debate than
to make such exertions as left one uniform impression on the minds ot his
hearers that he spoke from an honest internal conviction and from a real desire
to be useful. In private life, he was distinguished by an impressive graveness
which would have appeared heavy, had it not been observed in permanent con-
junction with an easy steadiness of conversation, and a simplicity ot manners very
far from any thing cold, affected, or inelegant His sense of honour was high
and decided. His taste for literature, like his taste for conduct, was correct.
As his acta of friendship or of duty were done without effort or finesse, so did
he enjoy with quietness and relish those tender and deeply felt domestic aftec-
tions which can sweeten or even adorn almost any condition of life. He was
not fitted to win popularity, but his habitual moderation,— his unaffected respect
for every thing respectable that was opposed to him,— and the successful pains
which he took to inform himself well on the grounds and nature of every busi-
ness in which he bore a part, gained him an influence more valuable to a man of
judgment, than popularity."

Mr Horner sat to the celebrated Raeburn for his picture some years before
his demise. The painter has produced a faithful likeness, but no engraving of
it has yet been executed,

HORSLEY, John, an eminent antiquary, historian, and divine, was born at
Pinkie House in Mid-Lothian, in the year 1685. His parents were English
non-conformists, who are supposed to have fled into Scotland on account ot the
persecution in the reign of Charles II. How it happened that they resided at
Pinkie House, then the property of the earl of Dunfermline, as successor to the
estates of the abbey of Dunfermline, is not known. It is clearly ascertained that
his progenitors belonged to Northumberland, and were of no mean standing. His
parent, returned to Northumberland immediately after the Revolution, and it is
understood that the subject of this notice received the initiatory part of his edu-
cation at the Newcastle grammar school. He was thereafter sent to pursue his
academical studies at Edinburgh ; and it would appear, that at a very early age,
as we find by the laureation book of the college, he was admitted master of arts
in 1701, being then just sixteen years of age. After finishing his theological
course, he returned to England, and preached for several years merely as a
licentiate ; but in 1721, he was ordained minister of a congregation of Protestant
dissenters at Morpeth. His mind, however, was directed to other pursuits be-
sides his profession, and his great attainments in geology, mathematics, and most
of the other abstruse sciences, of which he gave unquestionable proofs, would
probably have gained him a wider and more permanent fame in the present day,
than at a time when their principles were in general little understood,
and less attended to. In 1722 he invented a simple and ingenious mode of

JOHN HORSLEY. 01

determining the average quantity of rain which fell, by means of a funnel, the
wider cylinder of which was thirty inches in diameter, and terminated in a
pipe three inches in diameter, and ten in length ; the latter being graduated in
inches and tenths. Ten measures of the pipe being equal to one inch of the
cylinder, one measure to one-tenth of an inch, one inch of the measure te
one-hundred, and one-tenth to one-thousand part, — the depth of any parti-
cular quantity of rain which fell might be set down in decimals with ease and
exactness ; and the whole, at the end of each month or year, summed up
without any trouble. Shortly after, and probably in consequence of this inven-
tion, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and commenced giving public
lectures on hydrostatics, mechanics, and various branches of natural philosophy,
at Morpeth, Alnwick, and Newcastle. His valuable apparatus for illustrating and
explaining his lectures, after passing through various hands after his death, were,
in 1821, deposited in the library belonging to the dissenters in Red Cross
Street, London, being bequeathed to the public by Dr Daniel Williams. By manu-
scripts afterwards found among Mr Horsley's papers, it appears that about the
year 1728, he conceived the idea of writing a history of Northumberland, and
from the extensive design of the work which he had sketched out, embracing its
antiquities, traditions, geological structure, &c, and his ability for the task, it is
much to be regretted that he did not live to complete it. A map of the same
county, commenced by him, was afterwards completed by Mr Mark, the sur-
veyor employed by him, and published at Edinburgh in 1753. Mr Horsley
also published a small book on experimental philosophy, in connexion with the
course of lectures above noticed. His great work, however, by which his name
will most probably be transmitted to posterity, and to which he dedicated the
greater part of his short but busy career, is his " Britannia Romana," or the
Roman affairs of Britain, in three books. This work is in folio, and consists of
five hundred and twenty pages, with plates exhibiting maps of the Roman posi-
tions, copies of ancient coins, sculptures, inscriptions, &c. It is dedicated to Sir
Richard Ellys, Bart, contains a lengthy preface, a chronological table of occur-
rences during the Roman domination, a copious index of the Roman names ot
people and places in Britain, &c. It was printed at London for John Os-
borne and Thomas Longman, &c., in 1732 ; but Mr Horsley lived not to see
the fate of a work which had unceasingly engrossed his time, thoughts, and
means for several years. His death took place at Morpeth, on the 1 5th Janu-
ary, 1732, exactly thirteen days after the date of his dedication to Sir Richard
Ellys, and while yet in his 46 th year. The enthusiastic ardour with which he
devoted himself to this work, may be gleaned from the following passage in the
preface : — " It is now four years since I was prevailed with to complete this
work, for which time I have pursued it with the greatest care and application.
Several thousand miles were travelled to visit ancient monuments, and re-ex-
amine them where there was any doubt or difficulty." He also went to London
to superintend the progress of his work through the press, and engaged in an
extensive correspondence on the subject with many of the most learned writers
and antiquaries of the day. The " Britannia" is now a very rare work, and it
would appear that the plates engraved for it are entirely lost. Mr Horsley was
married early in life to a daughter of a professor Hamilton, who, according to
Wood, in his Ancient and Modern State of Cramond, was at one time minister
of that parish. By her he had two daught«rs, one of whom was married to a
Mr Randall, clerk in the Old South Sea House, London ; the other to Samuel
Halliday, esq., an eminent surgeon at Newcastle. From a passage in his manu-
script history of Northumberland, it would also appear that he had a son, but we
find no other mention made of him, either in his own writings or elsewhere.

92 ALEXANDER HUME.

The greater part of Mr Horsley's various unfinished works, correspondence, and
other manuscripts, fell after his death into the hands of the late John Cay, Esq.
of Edinburgh, great-grandson of Mr Robert Cay, an eminent printer and publisher'
at Newcastle, to whose judgment in the compiling, correcting, and getting up of
the Britannia Romana, Mr Horsley appears to have been much indebted. From
these papers, as printed in a small biographical work by the Rev. John Hodgson,
vicar of Whelpington in Northumberland, published at Newcastle in 1831, the
most of the facts contained in this brief memoir were taken.

HUME, Alexander, a vernacular poet of the reign of James VI., was the
second son of Patrick Hume, fifth baron of Polwarth. Until revived by the
tasteful researches of Dr Leyden, the works of this, one of the most elegant
of our early poets, lay neglected, and his name was unknown except to the
antiquary. He had the merit of superseding those " godlie and spiritual sangis
and ballads," which, however sacred they may have once been held, are pro-
nounced by the present age to be ludicrous and blasphemous, with strains where
piety and taste combine, and in which the feelings of those who wish to peruse
writings on sacred subjects, are not outraged. The neglect which has long
obscured the works of this poet, has impeded inquiries as to his life and charac-
ter. He is supposed to have been born in the year 1560, or within a year or
two prior to that date. Late investigators have found that he studied at St
Andrews, and that he may be identified with an Alexander Hume, who took the
dogree of Bachelor of Arts at St Leonard's college of that university in the year
1574. The outline of his farther passage through life is expressed in his own
words, in his epistle to Mr Gilbert Moncrieff, the king's physician. He there
mentions, that, after spending four years in France, he was seized with a desire
to become a lawyer in his own country, and he there draws a pathetic picture
of the miseries of a briefless barrister, sufficient to extract tears from half the
faculty.

" To that effect, three years or near that space,
1 haunted maist our highest pleading place
And senate, where great causes reason'd war;
My breast was bruisit with leaning on the bar;
My buttons brist, I partly spitted blood,
My gown was trail'd and trampid quhair I stood ;
My ears were deif d with maissars cryes and din
Quhilk procuratoris and parties callit in."

Nor did the moral aspect of the spot convey a more soothing feeling than the
physical. He found &

" The puir abusit ane hundredth divers wayes ;
Postpon'd, deffer'd with shifts and mere delayes,
Consumit in gudes, ourset with grief and paine."
From the corrupt atmosphere of the law, he turned towards the pure precincts of
the court; but here he finds that V *

" From the rocks of Cyclades fra hand,
1 struck into Charybdis sinking sand."

^reTaltt!ryth^^"^reVerenCe0f ki^he *" not sland<* «*"*,»

dLcrip on of aU ZT* V" ^^^ l° ^ earS' in his some»^ ^
descrlptlon of all that the calm poet experienced during his apprenticeship at

In courts, Montcrief, is pride, envie, contention,
Uissimulance, despite, disceat, dissention,
Fear, whisperings, reports, and new suspition,
Fraud, treason, lies, dread, guile, and sedition ;

ALEXANDER HUME.

93

Groat greadines, and prodigalitie ;
Lusts sensual, and partialitie,"

with a continued list of similar qualifications, whose applicability is likely to be
perceived only by a disappointed courtier, or a statesman out of place. During
the days of his following the bar and the court, it is supposed that Hume joined in
one of those elegant poetical amusements called " Flytings," and that he is the
person who, under the designation of " Pol wart,'" answered in fitting style to
the abuse of Montgomery. That Alexander Hume was the person who so
officiated, is, however, matter of great doubt : Dempster, a contemporary, men-
tions that the person who answered Montgomery was Patrick Hume, a name
which answers to that of the elder brother ; and though Leyden and Sibbald
justly pay little attention to such authority, knowing that Dempster is, in general,
as likely to be wrong as to be right, every Scotsman knows that the patrimo-
nial designation " Pol wart," is more appropi'iately the title of the elder than of
the younger brother ; while Patrick Hume of Polwarth, a more fortunate cour-
tier, and less seriously disposed than his brother, has left behind him no mean
specimen of his genius, in a poem addressed to James VI., entitled " The Pro-
mise." Whichever of the brothers has assumed Polwart's share in the contro-
versy, it is among the most curious specimens of the employments of the elegant
minds of the age.

If the sacred poet, Alexander Hume, was really the person who so spent his
youthful genius, as life advanced he turned his attention to more serious matters ;
tiiat his youth was spent more unprofitably than his riper years approved, is
displayed in some of his writings, in terms more bitter than those which are
generally used by persons to whom expressions of repentance seem a becoming
language. He entered into holy orders, and at some period was appointed
minister of Logie, a pastoral charge of which he performed with vigour the humble
duties, until his death in 1609.

Before entering on the works which he produced in his clerical retirement,
it may be right to observe that much obscurity involves his literary career, from
the circumstance that three other individuals of the same name, existing at the
same period, passed lives extremely similar, both in their education, and in their
subsequent progress. Three out of the four attended St Mary's college at St
Andrews in company ; — presuming that the subject of our memoir took his degree
of Bachelor of Arts in 1 574, one of his companions must have passed in 1571,
the other in 1572. It is supposed that one of these was minister of Dunbar in
1582 ; the other is known to have been appointed master of the High school
of Edinburgh in 1596, and to have been author of a few theological tracts,
and of a Latin grammar, appointed by act of parliament, and by the privy
council, to be used in all grammar schools in the kingdom : this individual has
been discovered by Dr M'Crie, to have afterwards successively officiated as rector
of the grammar schools of Salt-Preston and of Dunbar. The fourth Alex-
ander Hume, was a student at St Leonard's college, St Andrews, where he
entered in 1578 : he too was a poet, but the only existing specimen of his com-
position is the following simple tribute to the labours of Bellenden, inscribed
on a blank leaf of the manuscript of the translation of Livy,

" Fjve buikes ar here by Ballantyne translated,
Restis yet ane hundred threttie f\ ve behind ;
Quilkis if the samyn war als weill compleated,
Wuld be ane volume of ane monstrous kind.1

1 The ingenious poet probably overlooks the fact of so many of Livy's books being lost, with
the delibera'-e purpose of increasing the eliect of his verses.

94 ALEXANDER HUME.

Ilk man perfytes not quhat they once intend,

So frail and brittle ar our wretched dayes ;

Let sume man then begine quhair he doeth end,

Give him the first, tak thame the secund praise :

No, no ! to Titus Liviu9 give all,

That peerles prince for feattis historicall."

M. A. Home, St Leonardes.

A small manuscript volume bearing the name of Alexander Hume, and entitled
" Rerum Scotiearum Compendium," is probably from the pen of one of these
four, but of which, it may now be impossible to determine.

Alexander Hume, minister of Logie, is, however, the undoubted author of
" Hyinnes or Sacred Songs, wherein the right use of poesie may be espied :
whereunto are added, the experience of the author's youth, and certain precepts
serving to the practice of sanctification." This volume, printed by Waldegrave
in 1599, was dedicated to Elizabeth Melvill, by courtesy styled lady Culross, a
woman of talent and literary habits, the authoress of '* Ane godlie dream, com-
pylit in Scottish meter," printed at Aberdeen in 1644. The Hymns and Sacred
Songs have been several times partially reprinted, and the original having fallen
into extreme rarity, the whole has lately been reprinted by the Bannatyne club.
In the prose introduction, the author addressing the youth of Scotland, exhorts
them to avoid " profane sonnets and vain ballads of love, the fabulous feats of
Falmerine, and such like reveries." — " Some time," he adds, " I delighted in
such fantasies myself, after the manner of riotous young men : and had not the
Lord in his mercy pulled me aback, and wrought a great repentance in me, I
had doubtless run forward and employed my time and study in that profane and
unprofitable exercise, to my own perdition." The first of his hymns he styles
his " Recantation :" it commences in the following solemn terms :

Alace, how long have I delayed
To leave the laits* of youth !
Alace how oft have I essayed
To daunt my lascive mouth,
And make my vayne polluted thought,
My pen and speech prophaine,
Extoll the Lord quhilk made of nocht
The heaven, the earth, and maine.

Skarce nature yet my face about,
Hir virile net had spun,
Quhen als oft as Phoebea stout
Was set agains the Sun :
Yea, als oft as the fierie flames
A rise and shine abroad,
I minded was with sangsand psalms
To glorifie my God.

But ay the cancred carnall kind,
Quhilk lurked me within,
Seduced my heart, withdrew my mind,
And made me sclave to sin.
My senses and my saull I saw
Debait a deadlie strife,
Into my flesh I felt a law
Gainstand the Law of life.

* Habits or manners.

ALEXANDER HUME.

95

Even as the falcon high, and halt

Furth fleeing in the skye,

With wanton wing hir game to gaif,

Disdaines her caller's cry ;

So led away with liberty,

And drowned in delight,

I wand red after vanitie—

My vice I give the wight.

Rut by far the most beautiful composition in the collection, is that entitled the
" Day Estival," the one which Leyden has thought worthy of revival. This
poem presents a description of the progress and effects of a summer day in
Scotland, accompanied by the reflections of a mind full of natural piety, and
a delicate perception of the beauties of the physical world. The easy flow of
the numbers, distinguishing it from the harsher productions of the same age,
and the arrangement of the terms and ideas, prove an acquaintance with Eng-
glish poetry ; but the subject and the poetical thoughts are entirely the author's
own. They speak strongly of the elegant and fastidious mind, tired of the
bar, and disgusted with the court, finding a balm to the wounded spirit, in being
alone with nature, and watching her progress. The style has an unrestrained
freedom which may please the present age, and the contemplative feeling thrown
over the whole, mingled with the artless vividness of the descriptions, bringing
the objects immediately before the eye, belong to a species of poetry at which
some of the highest minds have lately made it their study to aim. We shall
quote the commencing stanza, and a few others scattered in different parts of
the Poem :

O perfect light! which shed away
The darkness from the light,

And left one ruler o'er the day,
Another o'er the night.

Thy glory, when the day forth flies,

More vively does appear ■

Nor at mid-day unto our eyes

The shining sun is clear.

The shadow of the earth anone

Removes and drawis by;
Syne in the east, when it is gone,

Appears a clearer sky :
Which soon perceives the little larks,

The lapwing, and the snipe;
And tunes their songs, like nature's clerks,

Our meadow, moor, and stripe.

The time so tranquil is and still,

That no where shall ye find,
Save on a high and barren hill,

An air of passing wind.
All trees and simples, great and small,

That balmy leaf do bear,
Nor they were painted on a wall

No more they move or stir.
Calm is the deep and purpour sea,

Yea smoother nor the sand j

9(J ALEXANDER HUME.

The wallis that weltering wont to be
Are stable like the land.
* * * *
What pleasure 'twere to walk and see,

Endlong a river clear,
The perfect form of every tree

Within the deep appear ;
The salmon out of crooves and creels

Up hauled into skouts,
The bells and circles on the weills
Through louping of the trouts,
O then it were a seemly thing,

While all is still and calme,
The praise of God to play and sing
With cornet and with shalme.
Rowe, in his manuscript History of the Church of Scotland, has told us that
Hume "'was one of those godlie and faithful servants, who had witnessed against
the hierarchy of prelates in this kirk." He proceeds to remark, " as to Mr
Alexander Hoome, minister at Logie beside Stirlin, I nixt mention him : he has
left ane admonition behind him in write to the kirk of Scotland, wherein lie
affirmes that the bishops, who were then fast rising up, had left the sincere
ministers, who wold gladlie have keeped still the good old government of the
kirk, if these corrupt ministers had not left them and it; earnestlie entreating
the bishops to leave and forsake that course wherin they were, els their defection
from their honest brethren, (with whom they had taken the covenant,) and from the
cause of God, would be registrate afterwards to their eternale shame." The person
who has reprinted Hume's Hymns and Sacred Songs for the Bannatyne club, has
discovered among the elaborate collections of Wodrow, in the Advocate's Library, a
small tract entitled, " Ane afold Admonition to the Ministerie of Scotland, be
ane deing brother," which he, not without reason, presumes to be that mentioned
by Rowe ; founding the supposition on the similarity of the title, the applica-
bility of the matter, and a minute circumstance of internal evidence, which
shows that the admonition was written very soon after the year 1607, and very
probably at such a period as might have enabled Hume (who died in 1609) to
have denominated himself " ane deing brother." The whole of this curious
production is conceived in a style of assumption, which cannot have been very
acceptable to the spiritual pride of the Scottish clergy. It commences in the
following terms of apostolical reprimand : — " Grace, mercy, and peace from
God the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is certainlie knawin, bre-
theren, to the greiffof monie godlie heartes and slander of the Gospell, that thair
ar dissentionis among you : not concerning the covenant of God, or the seales of
the covenant, but chieflie concerning twa poyntis of discipline or kirk govern-
ment, wharanent you are divydit in twa factionis or opinionis." From this as-
sumed superiority, the admonitionist stalks forth, bearing himself in lofty terms,
never condescending to argue, but directing like a superior sph'it ; and under
the Christian term of humility, " bretheren," concealing an assumption of spiri-
tual superiority, which the word "sons" would hardly have sufficiently ex-
pressed.

HUME, David, of Godscroft. The scantiness of the materials for lives of liter-
ary Scotsmen has, with us, often been a subject of remark and regret ; and we
are sure that every one who has had occasion to make investigations into this de-
partment of our national history will at once acquiesce in its truth. Our states-
men have been applauded or condemned — at all events they have been immor-
talized— by contemporary writers ; the deeds of our soldiers have been celebrated

ALEXANDER HUME. 97

in works relative to our martial achievements ; and our divines have always, and
more especially in the darker ages, preserved a knowledge of themselves and
their transactions, — but literary men are nearly forgotten, and for what is known
of them we are principally indebted to the labours of continental biographers. It
would be difficult to point out a more striking illustration of this than the well
known individual whose name appears at the head of this article. His name is
familiar to every one who is in the least degree conversant with Scottish history
or poetry ; — he was descended from an honourable family — he acted a prominent
part in some of the earlier transactions of his own time, and still almost nothing
is known of his history. The indefatigable Wodrow has preserved many scattered
hints regarding him in his Biographical Collections in the library of Glasgow col-
lege, and except this we are not aware of any attempt at a lengthened biographi-
cal sketch of him. In drawing up the following, we shall take many of our facts
from that biography, referring also to the excellent works of Dr M'Crie, and
occasionally supplying deficiencies from the few incidental notices of himself in
Hume's works.

David Hume, it is probable, was born about, or a few years prior to, the
period of the Reformation. His father was Sir David Hume, or Home, of YVed-
derburn, the representative of an old and distinguished family in the south 01
Scotland. His mother was Mary Johnston, a daughter of Johnston of EJphin-
stone. This lady died early, and her husband, after having married a second
wife, who seems to have treated his family in a harsh and ungenerous manner,
died of consumption while the subject of this memoir was a very young man.
The family thus left consisted of four 6ons — George, David, James, and John ;
and four daughters — Isabell, Margaret, Julian, and Joan.

Of the early education of David Hume, we have not been able to learn almost
any thing. His elder brother and he were sent to the public school of Dunbar,
then conducted by 31r Andrew Simson, and there is abundant evidence that he
made very considerable progress in the acquisition of classical knowledge. He
has left a poem, entitled Daphn-Amaryllis, written at the age of fourteen, and
he incidentally mentions the expectations George Euchanan formed of his future
eminence from his early productions. After receiving, it may be conjectured, the
best education that a Scottish university then afforded, Hume set out for France,
accompanied by his relation, John Haldane of Gleneagles. His intention was to
have also made the tour of Italy, and for that purpose he had gone to Geneva,
when his brother's health became so bad as to make his return desirable. On
receiving the letters containing this information, he returned to Scotland without
delay, "and arrived," to use his own words in his History of the Family of Wed-
derburn, " much about the time that Esme, lord Aubigny, (who was afterwards
made duke of Lennox,) was brought into Scotland — and that Morton began to
decline in his credit, he being soon after first imprisoned, and then put to death ;"
that is about the beginning of 1581.

Sir George Home seems to have recovered his health soon afterwards, and
David was generally left at his castle to manage his affairs, while he was engaged
in transactions of a more difficult or hazardous nature. This probably did not
continue long, for the earliest public transaction in which we have found him
engaged took place in 1583. When king James VI. withdrew from the party
commonly known by the name of the Ruthven lords, and re-admitted the earl of
Arran to his councils, Archibald, " the good earl " of Angus, a relation of Hume's
family, was ordered to confine himself to the north of Scotland, and accordingly
resided for some time at the castle of Brechin, the property of his brother-in-law
the earl of Mar. At this period Hume seems to have lived in Angus's house, in
the capacity of a " familiar servitour," or confidential secretary.

08

ALEXANDER HUME.

When the Ruthven party were driven into England, Hume accompanied his
master and relation ; and while the lords remained inactive at Newcastle, request-
ed leave to go to London, where he intended pursuing his studies. To this
Angus consented, with the ultimate intention of employing him as his agent at
the English court. During the whole period of his residence at the English
capital, he maintained a regular correspondence with the earl, but only two of
his letters (which he has printed in the History of the Houses of Douglas and
Angus) have come down to us.

The Ruthven lords returned to Scotland in 1585, but soon offended the.
clergy by their want of zeal in providing for the security of the church. Their
wrath was still farther kindled, by a sermon preached at this time before the
king at Linlithgow, by .John Craig, in which the offensive doctrine of obedience
to princes was enforced. A letter was accordingly prepared, insisting upon the
claims of the church, and transmitted to Mr Hume, to be presented to Angus. A
very long conference took place betwixt the earl and Hume, which he has set
down at great length in the above-mentioned work. He begins his own discourse
by refuting the arguments of Craig, and shows, that although it is said in his text,
" I said ye are gods," it is also said, "Nevertheless ye shall die ;" " which two,"
Hume continues, " being put together, the one shows princes their duty — Do
justice as God doth ; the other threateneth punishment — Ye shall die if you do
it not." He then proceeds to show, that the opinions of Bodinus in his work
De Republica, and of his own countryman Blackwood [see Blackwood], are absurd;
and having established the doctrine that tyrants may be resisted, he applies it to
the case of the Ruthven lords, and justifies the conduct of Angus as one of that
party. He then concludes in the following strain of remonstrance: — " Your
declaration which ye published speaks much of the public cause and common
weal, but you may perceive what men think your actions since they do not answer
thereto by this letter, for they are begun to think that howsoever you pretend
to the public, yet your intention was fixed only on your own particular, because
you have done nothing for the church or country, and have settled your own
particular. And it is observed, that of all the parliaments that were ever held in
tins country, this last, held since you came home, is it in which alone there is no
mention of the church, either in the beginning thereof, (as in all others there
is,) or elsewhere throughout. This neglect of the state of the church and coun-
try, as it is a blemish of your fact obscuring the lustre of it, so is it accounted
an error in policy by so doing, to separate your particular from the common
• ause of the church and country, which, as it hath been the mean of your parti-
cular restitution so is it the only mean to maintain you in this estate, and to
make it sure and firm."

During the subsequent short period of this earl's life, Hume seems to have re-
IT, A*™" 5 T' Jand t0 have acted the Part of a faithM and judicious ad-
Z„' in T SUSa eath' Which took P,ace in 1588' * is ProbabIe tHat >'«

he annpnrenlrement' ^T^*'* W do not filld any ^ther notice of him till
lie appeared as an author in 1G05.

En^Hn^niT! JareSi8 m°S,t favourite P«>Je<*» «as the union of the kingdoms of
mis! on! \ ' &f S°°n aftCr his aCCession to the Engluh throne, com-

be «?rf! J? re»PPO.nted to consider the grounds upon which this object could

were weto t ^ " g^U yaUfied- * W°uld altoSether exceed our h»'it8
Id it7s LgZ S amt °?line °f the P™*e«i»g« of these commissioners,

suit 'Phi !,!• r6?""7 ^ theiF deliberati°™ did not lead to the desired re^
r0untrlen C £T!2 met WUh tHe aUenti0n 0f the most l"med of our
Pont Te of thl ? WWk Tten °" thi8 SubJect was from th« Pen «f Robert
Pont, one of the most respectable clergymen of his day, and a senator of the col-

ALEXANDER HUME. 09

lege of justice, while ecclesiastics were permitted to hold that office. His work,
which was published in 1604, is in the form of a dialogue between three imagi-
nary personages — Irenaeus, Polyhistor, and Hospes, and is now chiefly interesting
as containing some striking remarks on the state of the country, and the obstacles
to the administration of justice. Pont was followed by David Hume, our author,
who published next year his treatise, DeUnione Insulae Britannias, of which bishop
Nicholson only says that " it is written in a clear Latin style, such as the author
was eminent for, and is dedicated to the king : it shows how great an advantage
such a union would bring to the island in general, and in particular to the se-
veral nations and people of England and Scotland, and answers the objections
against the change of the two names into that of Britain — the alteration of the
regal style in writs and processes of law — the removal of the parliament and other
courts into England," &c. The first part only of this work of Hume's was pub-
lished. Bishop Nicholson mentions that a MS. of the second part was in Sir
Robert Sibbald's collection, and Wodrow also possessed what he considered a
very valuable copy of it. It would be improper to pass from this part of our
subject, without referring to Sir Thomas Craig's work on the same subject,
which still remains unprinted ; although in the opinion of his accomplished
biographer, Mr Tytler, " in point of matter and style, in the importance of the
subject to which it relates, the variety of historical illustrations, the sagacity of
the political remarks, and the insight into the mutual interests of the two coun-
tries which it exhibits, it deserves to rank the highest of all his works."

In the year 1608, Hume commenced a correspondence on the subject of epis-
copacy and presbytery with James Law, then bishop of Orkney, and afterwards
promoted to the archiepiscopal see of Glasgow. Ibis epistolary warfare took its
rise in a private conversation between Mr Hume and the bishop, when he came
to visit the presbytery of Jedburgh in that year. The subject presented by much
too large a field to be exhausted at a private meeting, and accordingly supplied
materials for their communications for about three years. But here again we are
left to lament that so little of it has been preserved. Calderwood has collected
a few of the letters, but the gaps are so frequent, and consequently so little
connexion is kept up, that they would be entirely uninteresting to a general
reader. In 1613, Hume began a correspondence of the same nature with bishop
Cowper on his accepting the diocese of Galloway. The bishop set forth an
apology for himself, and to this Hume wrote a reply, which, however, was not
printed, as it was unfavourable to the views of the court. Cowper answered his
siatements in his Dicaiology, but printed only such parts of Hume's argument as
could be most easily refuted. To this Hume once more replied at great length.

Shortly before this period he undertook the " History of the House of
Wedderburn, (written) by a son of the family, in the year 1611," — a work which
has hitherto remained in manuscript. " It has sometimes grieved me," he
remarks, in a dedication to the earl of Home, and to his own brother, " when
1 have been glancing over the histories of our country, to have mention made so
seldom of our ancestors, — scarce above once or twice, — and that too very shortly
and superficially ; whereas they were always remarkable for bravery, magnanimity,
clemency, liberality, munificence, hospitality, fidelity, piety in religion, and
obedience to their prince ; and, indeed, there never was a family who had a
greater love and regard for their country, or more earnestly devoted themselves to,
or more frequently risked their lives for, its service. It ought, in a more particular
manner, to grieve you that they have been so long buried in oblivion, and do
you take care that they be so no more. I give you, as it were, the prelude, or
by the ground-work of the history ; perhaps a pen more equal to the task, or at
least, who can do it with more decency, will give it the finishing stroke."

100

ALEXANDER HUME.

He does not enter into a minute inquiry into the origin of the family, a species
of antiquarianism of which it must be confessed our Scottish historians are suffi-
ciently fond: "My intention," he says, " does not extend farther than to

write those things that are peculiar to the House of Wedderburn." The work
begins with ** David, first laird of Wedderburn," who appears to have lived
about the end of the fourteenth century, and concludes with an account of the
earlier part of his brother's life.

During the latter period of his life, Hume appears to have devoted himself almost
entirely to literary pursuits. He had appeared before the world as a poet in
iiis " Lusus Poetici," published in. 1605, and afterwards incorporated into the
excellent collection entitled " Delieiae Poetarum Scotorum," edited by Dr Arthur
Johnston. He seems to have added to his poetical works when years and habits
of study might be supposed to have cooled his imaginative powers. When prince
Henry died, he gave vent to his grief in a poem entitled " Henrici Principis
Justa," which, Wodrow conjectures, was probably sent to Sir James Semple of
Beltrees, then a favourite at court, and by whom it is not improbable that it was
shown to his majesty. A few years afterwards (1617) he wrote his " Regi Suo
Graticulatio," — a congratulatory poem on the king's revisiting his native country.
In the same year he prepared (but did not publish) a prose work under the following
title, "Cambdenia; id est, Examen nonnullorumaGulielmo Cambdeno in 'Britannia'
sua positorum, praecipue quae ad irrisionem Scoticas gentis, et eorum et Pictorum
falsam originem." " In a very short preface to his readers," says Wodrow,
" Mr Hume observes that nothing more useful to this island was ever proposed,
than the union of the two islands, and scarce ever any proposal was more op-
posed ; witness the insults in the House of Commons, and Paget's fury, rather than
speech, against it, for which he was very justly fined. After some other things
to the same purpose, he adds, that Mr Cambden hath now in his Britannia
appeared on the same side, and is at no small labour to extol to the skies
England and his Britons, and to depress and expose Scotland,_how unjustly
he does so is Mr Hume's design in this work." Cambden's assertions were also
noticed by William Drummond in his Nuntius Scoto-Britannus, and in another of
his works more professedly levelled against him, entitled " A Pair of Spectacles
for Cambden."

The last work in which we are aware of Hume's having been engaged, is his
largest, and that by which he is best known. The History of the House and Race of
Douglas and Angus, seems to have been first printed at Edinburgh, by Evan Tyler
in 1644, but this edition has several discrepancies in the title-page. Some copies
bear the date 1648, « to be sold by T. W. in London," and others have a title
altogether different, « A Generall History of Scotland, together with a particu-
lar history of the houses of Douglas and Angus," but are without date. After
mentioning ,n the preface that, in writing such a work it is impossible to please
ail parties,— that some may say that it is an unnecessary work— others, that it is
ZZL £ :rt/;tetemen>-anid a third complain of « the style, the phrase, the
pa icul tot?"; a"dthe an^e" Humego* on to lay, « in all these
ZrZ7l» ^f^ ^u m°re tha" We Can h°Pe for5 ?et thu* "inch
ihis sulieet T a T t0 8"Ch "H WiU giVG Car t0 reas°": that l -ite, and of
SArdirBmto-d0i^0tby any Vi0le"ce or c*"Wion, but
not refuel thou^' " iff V f°l **** desired t0 do 5t b? those l ^>uld
kL nT' . g my8eLf b°Und t0 honour that name> ™d ^ it and by it our
ackl . V° ^ * ' • T°UCning l-***' l de"y * not, but am content to

pap « ™ZtZTre? ,Neit,er do * think that ever -»y — ™ ™£ o

paper wi hout some particular relation of kindred, countrey or such like The
Komans |» writing the Homane, the Grecians £ ^ th'eir Greek his'torSl

ALEXANDER HUME. 101

friends writing to, of, or for friends, may be thought partiall, as countreymen and
friends. The vertuous may be deemed to be partiall towards the vertuous, and the
godly towards the godly and religious: all writers have some such respect, which
is a kind of partiality. I do not refuse to be thought to have some, or all of
these respects, and I hope none wil think I do amisse in having them. Pleas-
ing of men, I am so farre from shunning of it, that it is my chief end and scope :
but let it please them to be pleased with vertue, otherwise they shal find nothing
here to please them. If thou findest any thing here besides, blame me boldly ;
and why should any be displeased that wil be pleased with it? would to God I
could so please the world, I should never displease any. But if either of these
(partiality or desire to please) carry me besides the truth, then shal I confesse my
self guilty, and esteem these as great faults, as it is faultie and blame-worthy to
forsake the truth. But, otherwise, so the truth be stuck unto, there is no hurt in
partiality and labouring to please. And as for truth, clip not, nor champ not my
words (as some have done elsewhere), and I beleeve the worst affected will not
charge mee with lying. I have ever sought the truth in all things carefully, and
even here also, and that painfully in every point : where I find it assured, I
have set it down confidently ; where I thought there was some reason to doubt,
I tell my authour : so that if I deceive, it is my self I deceive, and not thee ;
for I hide nothing from thee that I myself know, and as I know it, leaving
place to thee, if thou knowest more or better, which, if thou doest, impart and
communicate it ; for so thou shouldest do, and so is truth brought to light,
which else would lye hid and buried. My paines and travel in it have been
greater than every one would think, in correcting my errours ; thine will not
bee so much, and both of us may furnish matter for a third man to finde out the
truth more exactly, than either of us hath yet done. Help, therefore, but carp

not For the language, it is my mother-tongue, that is, Scottish : and

why not, to Scottish men ? why should I contemne it ? I never thought the
difference so great, as that by seeking to speak English, I would hazard the
imputation of affectation. Every tongue hath its own vertue and grace. Some
are more substantiall, others more ornate and succinct They have also their
own defects and faultinesses, some are harsh, some are effeminate, some are rude,
some aft'ectate and swelling. The Romanes spake from their heart, the Grecians
with their lips only, and their ordinary speech was complements ; especially the
Asiatick Greeks did use a loose and blown kind of phrase. And who is there
that keeps that golden mean ? For my own part, I like our own, and he that
writes well in it, writes well enough to me. Yet I have yeelded somewhat to
the tyrannie of custome and the times, not seeking curiously for words, but
taking them as they come to hand. I acknowledge also my fault (if it be a
fault), that I ever accounted it a mean study, and of no great commendation to
learn to write, or to speak English, and have loved better to bestow my pains
and time on forreign languages, esteeming it but a dialect of our own, and that,
(perhaps) more corrupt." The work commences with a preface concerning
" the Douglases in general, that is, their antiquity, to which is joined their
original, nobility and descent, greatness and valour of tbe family of the name
of Douglas." The history begins with Sholto Douglas, the first that bore
the name, and the vanquisher of Donald Bane, in the reign of king Salvathius, —
and concludes with the death of Archibald, ninth earl of Angus, who has been
already noticed in the course of this memoir. With this work closes every trace
of David Hume. It is supposed to have been written about 1625, or between
that period and 1630, and it is not probable that he survived that period long.
Supposing him to have been born about 1560, he must then have attained to
the age of three score years and ten.

102 DAVID HUME.

Respecting Hume's merits as a poet, different opinions exist, \\ hile in
the opinion of Dr Irving he never rises above mediocrity, Dr M Outplaces
him in a somewhat higher rank : " The easy structure of his verse reminds us
continually of the ancient models on which it has been formed ; and if de-
ficient in vigour his fancy has a liveliness and buoyancy which prevents the
reader from wearying of his longest descriptions." These opinions are, after all,
not irreconcilable ; the poetry of Hume possesses little originality, but the
reader is charmed with the readiness and the frequency of his imitations 01 the

Roman poets. .

As an historian, Hume can never become popular. He is by much too
prolix —nor will this be wondered at when we consider the age at which he
wrote his principal historical work. To the reader, however, who is disposed
to follow him through his windings, he will be a most valuable, and in many
cases, a most amusing author. As the kinsman of the earls of Angus, he had
access to many important family papers, from which he has compiled the history
prior to his own time. But when he writes of transactions within his own re-
collection, and more especially those in which he was personally engaged, there
is so much judicious remark and honesty of intention, that it cannot fail to in-
terest even a careless reader.

Besides the works which we have mentioned, Hume wrote " Apologia Basi-
lica, Seu 31achiavelli Ingenium Examinatum, in libro quern inscripsit Princeps,
4to,' Paris, 1626." " De Episcopatu, May 1, 1609, Patricio Simsono." "A
treatise on things indifferent" " Of obedience to superiors." In the Bio-
graphic Universale there is a memoir of him, in which it is mentioned that
" Jaques Iier l'empioye a concilier les differends qui s'estaient eleve entre Du-
nioulin et Tilenus au sujet de la justification," and he is also there mentioned as
having written " Le Contr' Assassin, ou Reponse a l'Apologie des Jesuites,"
Geneva, 1612, 8vo, and " L'Assassinat du Roi, ou Maximes Pratiquees en la
personne du defaut Henrie le Grand," 1617, 8vo.

HUME, David, the celebrated metaphysician, historian, and political
economist, was the second son of Joseph Hume of Ninewells, near Dunse,
and was born in the Tron church parish, Edinburgh, on the 26th of April, 1711,
O. S. His mother was daughter to Sir David Falconer, a judge of the court of
session under the designation of lord Newton, and for some years president
of the college of justice. The family of Hume of Ninewells was ancient
and respectable, and the great philosopher has himself inforaied us, that on
the side both of father and mother, he was the descendant of nobility, a cir-
cumstance from which he seems to have derived a quiet satisfaction, probably
owing more to his respect for the manners and feelings of the country and age
in which he lived, than to his conviction of the advantages of noble birth. It
is to be regretted that little is known about the early life of Hume, and the
habits of his boyish years. There are indeed very few instances, in which the
information which can be derived about the early habits and inclinations of a
man who has afterwards distinguished himself, repjiys the labour of research, or
even that of reading the statements brought forward; while many who have
busied themselves in such tasks have only shown that tiie objects of their atten-
tion were by no means distinguished from other men, in the manner in which
they have spent their childhood ; but it must be allowed that in the case of
Hume, a narrative of the gradual rise and development of that stoical contempt
towards the objects which distract the minds of most men, that industry without
enthusiasm, that independence without assumption, and strict morality founded
only on reason, which distinguished his conduct through life, might have taught
us a lesson of the world, and would at least have gratified a well grounded

DAVID HUME.

103

curiosity. The absence of such information allows us, however, to make a
general inference, that no part of the conduct of the schoolboy was sufficiently
remarkable to be commemorated by his friends, and that, as he was in advanced
life (independent of the celebrity produced by his works) a man of unobserva-
ble and unassuming conduct ; he was as a boy docile, well behaved, and attentive,
without being remarkable either for precocity of talent, or that carelessness and
insubordination which some biographers have taken pains to bring home to the
subjects of their memoirs. In early infancy Hume was deprived of his father,
and left to the guidance of his mother and an elder brother and sister ; with
the brother who succeeded by birthright to the family property, he ever lived
on terms of fraternal intimacy and affection, and towards his two female relatives
he displayed, through all the stages of his life, an unvarying kindness and un-
remitted attention, which have gone far, along with his other social virtues, in
causing him to be respected as a man, by those who were his most bitter oppon-
ents as a philosopher.

The property of the respectable family of Ninewells was not large, and the
limited share which fell to the younger brother precluded the idea of his sup-
porting himself without labour. Having finished the course of study which such
an institution was capable of providing, he attended for some time the university
of Edinburgh, then rising in reputation; of his progress in study he gives us
the following account : " I passed through the ordinary course of education with
success, and was seized very early with a passion for literature, which has been
the ruling passion of my life, and the great source of my enjoyments ; my
studious disposition, my sobriety, and my industry, gave my family a notion that
the law was a proper profession for me : but I found an insurmountable aver-
sion to every thing but the pursuits of philosophy and general learning ; and
while they fancied I was poring upon Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil
were the authors I was secretly devouring-1 " Of this aversion not only to the
practice, but to the abstract study of the law, in a mind constituted like that of
Hume, guided by reason, acute in the perception of differences and connexions,
naturally prone to industry, and given up to the indulgence neither of passion
nor sentiment, it is difficult to account We are ignorant of the method by

1 It is almost unnecessary to mention, that when we use the words of Hume about himself,
we quote from that curious little memoir called " My Own Life," written by Hume on his
death- bed, and published in 1777, by Mr Strahan, (to whom the manuscript was consigned)
previously to its publication in the ensuing edition of the History of England. In a work
which ought to contain a quantity of original matter proportioned to the importance of the
subjects treated, some apology or explanation may be due, for quoting from a production which
has been brought so frequently before the public; but in the life of a person so well known,
and into whose conduct there has been so much investigation, while we try to bring together
as much original matter as it is possible to obtain, we must frequently be contented with
statements modeled according to our own views, and in our own language, of facts which have
already been frequently recorded. Independent of this necessity, the memoir of the author
written by himself, is so characteristic of his mind and feelings, both in the method of the
narrative, and in the circumstances detailed, that any life of Hume which might neglect re-
ference to it, must lose a very striking chain of connexion betwixt the mind of the author and
the character of his works. Let us here remark, that while fin the words of Hume himself)
"it is difficult for a man to speak long of himself without vanity," this little memoir
seems to have defied criticism to discover anjthing injudicious or assuming, either in the de-
tails or reflections. It is true, he has been slightly accused of speaking with too much com-
placency of his own good qualities: but be it remarked, those qualities of disposition to study,
sobriety, and industry, are such as a man of genius is seldom disposed to arrogate to himself,
at least without some hints of the existence of others more brilliant and distinguishing. We
cannot help being of opinion, that the author's philosophical command over his feelings has
prompted him to avoid the extremes which the natural egotism and vanity of most men would
have caused them to fall into on similar occasions, of either alluding to very high qualities
which the suffrages of others had allowed that they possessed, or gaining credit for iuimiiit y,
by not recognizing the existence of qualities which they know their partial friends would be
ready to admit.

104

DAVID HL'ME.

which lie pursued his legal studies, and this early acquired disgust would at least
liint, that like his friend lord Karnes, he commenced his career with the repul-
sive drudgery of a writer's office, in which his natural taste for retirement and
reflection was invaded by a vulgar routine of commercial business and petty
squabbling, and his acuteness and good taste offended by the tiresome formali-
ties with which it was necessary he should occupy much valuable time, previous-
ly to exercising his ingenuity in the higher walks of the profession. But to
those who are acquainted with the philosophical, and more especially with the con-
stitutional writings of Mr Hume, the contemptuous rejection of the works of the
civilians, and the exorbitant preference for the Roman poets, will appear at least a
singular confession. To him any poet offered a mere subject of criticism, to
be tried by the standard of taste, and not to gratify his sentiment ; while in the
works of the civilians he would have found (and certainly did find) the acute
philosophical disquisitions of minds which were kindred to his own, both in pro-
fundity and elegance, and in the clear and accurate Vinnius, whom he has sen-
tenced with such unbrotherly contempt, he must have found much which as a
philosopher he respected, whatever distaste arbitrary circumstances might have
given him towards the subject which that great man treated.

In 1731, the persuasions of his friends induced Mr Hume to attempt the
bettering of his income by entering into business, and he established himself in
the office of a respectable merchant in Bristol ; but the man who had rejected
the study of the law, was not likely to be fascinated by the bustle of commerce,
and probably in opposition to the best hopes and wishes of his friends, in a few
months he relinquished his situation, and spent some years in literary retire-
ment in France, living first at Rheims, and afterwards at La Fleche in Anjeau.
" I there," he says, " laid that plan of life which I have steadily and success-
fully pursued. I resolved to make a very rigid frugality supply my deficiency
of fortune, to maintain unimpaired my independency, and to regard every ob-
ject as contemptible, except the improvement of my talents in literature ;" and
with the consistency of a calm and firm mind, he kept his resolution. For
some time previous to this period, Hume must have been gradually collecting that
vast mass of observation and reflection which he employed himself during his
retirement in digesting into the celebrated Treatise on Human Nature. In
1737, he had finished the first two volumes of this work, and he then returned
to London to superintend their publication. From this date commenced the
earliest traces of that literary and social correspondence which furnishes many
of the most characteristic commentaries on the mental habits of the philosopher.
With Henry Home, afterwards lord Karnes, a near neighbour of the family of
Ninewells, and probably a connexion of the philosopher (for lie was the first
member of the family who adopted the name of Hume, in preference to the
family name Home,) he contracted an early friendship, and a similarity of pur-
suits continued the intercourse. To that gentleman we find the subject of our
memoir writing in the following terms, in December, 1737 : " I have been here
near three months, always within a week of agreeing with my printers : and
you may imagine I did not forget the work itself during that time, when I be-
gan to feel some passages weaker for the style and diction than I could have
wished. The nearness and greatness of the event roused up my attention, and
made me more difficult to please than when I was alone in perfect tranquillity
in France." The remaining portion of this communication, though given in
the usual placid and playful manner of the author, tells a painful tale of the
difficulties he had to encounter, and of hope deferred. " But here," he says,
" I must tell you one of my foibles. I have a great inclination to go down to
Scotland this spring to see my friends, and have your advice concerning my

DAVID HUME. 105

ptdlosophical discoveries : but cannot overcome a certain shame-facedness I
have to appear among you at my years without having got a settlement, or so
much as attempted any. How happens it, that we philosophers cannot as
heartily despise the world as it despises us ? I think in my conscience the
contempt were as well founded on our side as on the other." With this letter
3Ir Hume transmitted to his friend a manuscript of his Essay on Miracles, a
work which he at that period declined publishing along with his other produc-
tions, looking on it as more likely to give offence, from the greater reference
of its reasonings to revealed religion.

Towards the termination of the year 1738, Hume published his " Treatise of
Human Nature ; being an attempt to introduce the experimental method of
reasoning into moral subjects." The fundamental principles on which the
whole philosophy of this work is reared, discover themselves on reading the first
page, in the division of all perceptions — in other words, of all the materials of
knowledge which come within the comprehension of the human mind, — into
impressions and ideas. Differing from almost all men who, using other terms,
had discussed the same subject, he considered these two methods of acquiring
knowledge, to differ, not in quality, but merely in degree ; because by an ob-
servation of the qualities of the mind, on the principle of granting nothing
which could not be demonstrated, he could find no real ground of distinction,
excepting that the one set of perceptions was always of a more vivid description
than the other. The existence of impressions he looked on as prior in the
mind to the existence of ideas, the latter being merely dependent on, or re-
flected from the former, which were the first inlets of all knowledge. Among
perceptions he considered the various methods by which the senses make the
mind acquainted with the external world, and along with these, by a classifica-
tion which might have admitted a better arrangement, he ranked the passions,
which he had afterwards to divide into those which were the direct consequents
of the operations of the senses, as pain and pleasure, and those which the repe-
tition of impressions, or some other means, had converted into concomitants,
or qualifications of the mind, as hatred, joy, pride, &c. By ideas, 31 r Hume
understood those arrangements of the perceptions formed in the mind by
reasonings or imagination ; and although he has maintained the distinction
between these and the impressions of the senses to be merely in degree,
all that has been either blamed or praised in his philosophy is founded on
the use he makes of this distinction. He has been accused, and not without
justice, of confusion in his general arrangement, and disconnexion in the
subjects he has discussed as allied to each other ; but a careful peruser
of his works will find the division of subject we have just attempted to explain,
to pervade the whole of his extraordinary investigations, and never to be de-
parted from, where language allows him to adhere to it. The ideas, or more
faint perceptions, are made by the author to be completely dependent on the
impressions, showing that there can be no given idea at any time in the mind,
to which there has not been a corresponding impression conveyed through the
organs of sense. These ideas once existing in the mind, are subjected to the
operation of the memory, and form the substance of our thoughts, and a por-
tion of the motives of our actions. Thus, at any given moment, there are in
the mind two distinct sources of knowledge, (or of what is generally called
knowledge,) — the impressions which the mind is receiving from surrounding
objects through the senses, and tlie thoughts, which pass through the mind, modi-
fied and arranged from such impressions, pieviously experienced and stored up.
Locke, in his arguments against the existence of innate ideas, and Dr Berkeley,
when he tried to 6ho\v that the mind could contain no abstract ideas, (or ideas

106 DAVID HUME.

not connected with anything which the mind had experienced,) had formed the
Outline of a similar division of knowledge ; but neither of them founded on such
a distinction, a system of philosophy, nor were they, it may be well conceived,
aware of the extent to which the principles they suggested might be logically
carried. The division we have endeavoured to define, is the foundation of the
sceptical philosophy. The knowledge immediately derived from impressions
is that which truly admits the term " knowledge " to be strictly applied to it ; that
which is founded on experience, derived from previous impressions, is something
which always admits of doubt While the former are always certain, the mind
being unable to conceive their uncertainty, the latter may not only be conceived
to be false, but are so much the mere subjects of probability, that there are distinc-
tions in the force which the mind attributes to them — sometimes admitting them
to be doubtful, and making no more distinction, except in the greater amount ot
probabilities betwixt that which it pronounces doubtful, and that which it pronounces
certain. As an instance — when a man looks upon another man, and hears him
speak, he receives through the senses of hearing and sight, certain impressions, the
existence of which he cannot doubt; on that man, however, being no longer the
object of his senses, the impressions are arranged in his mind in a reflex form,
constituting what Mr Hume has called ideas ; and although he may at first be con-
vinced in a manner sufficiently strong for all practical purposes, that he has actually
seen and heard such a man, the knowledge he has is only a mass of probabili-
ties, which not only admit him to conceive it a possibility that he may not have
met such a man, but actually decay by degrees, so as probably after a consider-
able period to lapse into uncertainty, while no better line of distinction can be
drawn betwixt the certainty and the uncertainty, than that the one is produced
by a greater mass of probabilities than the other. The author would have been
inconsistent, had he admitted the reception of knowledge of an external world,
even through the medium of the senses : he maintained all that the mind had
really cognizance of, to be the perceptions themselves ; there was no method of
ascertaining with certainty what caused them. The human mind, then, is thus
discovered to be nothing but a series of perceptions, of which some sets have
such a resemblance to each other, that we always naturally arrange them together
in our thoughts. Our consciousness of the identity of any given individual, is
merely a series of perceptions so similar, that the mind glides along them without
observation. A man's consciousness of his own identity, is a similar series of
impressions. " The mind," says the author, " is a kind of theatre, where se-
veral perceptions successively make their appearance — pass, repass, glide away,
and mingle in an infinite variety of postures and situations. There is properiy
no simplicity in it at one time, nor identity in different, whatever natural pro-
pension we may have to imagine that simplicity and identity. The comparison
of the theatre must not mislead us. They are the successive perceptions only
that constitute the mind ; nor have we the most distant notion of the place where
these scenes are represented, or of the materials of which it is composed."1 From
such a conclusion, the passage to scepticism on the immateriality of the soul was a
natural and easy step : but on such a subject we must be cautious as to the man-
ner in which we make remarks on the observations made by Hume— we neither
appear as among his vindicators, nor for the purpose of disputing his conclusions
—our purpose is, as faithful biographers, to give, as far as our limits and our
knowledge ot the subject may admit, a sketch of his leading doctrines, and if
we have any thing to vindicate, it will be the author's real meaning, which cer-
tain zealous defenders of Christianity, have shown an anxiety to turn as batteries
against it. In his reasonings on the immateriality of the soul he is truly scepti-
1 Works (1826), i. 3-22.

DAVID HUME. 107

cal ; that is, while he does not deny the immateriality of the soul, he endeavours
to show that the mind can form no certain conception of the immaterial soul.
Refining on the argument of a reasoning poet, who probahly was not aware of
the full meaning of his own words when he said —

" Of God above, or man bdow,

What can we reason, but from what we know,

the author of the treatise on Human Nature maintained that the mere succession
of impressions, of which the mind was composed, admitted of no such impres-
sion as that of the immateriality of the soul, and consequently did not admit
of the mind comprehending in what that immateriality consisted. Let it bo
remembered, that this conclusion is come to in the same manner as that against the
consciousness of the mind to the existence of matter ; and that in neither case
does the author maintain certain opinions which men believe to be less certain than
they are generally conceived to be, but gives to them a name different from that
which language generally bestows on them — that of masses of probabilities, in-
stead of certainties, — the latter being a term he reserves solely for the impressions
of the senses. " Should it here be asked me," says the author, " whether 1 sin-
cerely assent to this argument, which 1 seem to take such pains to inculcate, and
whether 1 be really one of those sceptics, who hold that all is uncertain, and that
our judgment is not in any thing, possessed of any measures of truth and false-
hood ; 1 should reply, that this question is entirely superfluous, and that neither
I, nor any other person, was ever sincerely and constantly of that opinion. Na-
ture, by an absolute and uncontrollable necessity, has determined us to judge as
well as to breathe and feel ; nor can we any more forbear viewing certain objects in
a stronger and fuller light, upon account of their customary connexion with a pre-
sent impression, than we can hinder ourselves from thinking, as long as we are
awake, or seeing the surrounding bodies, when we turn our eyes towards them
in broad sunshine. Whoever has taken the pains to refute the cavils of this
total scepticism, has really disputed without an antagonist, and endeavoured by
arguments to establish a faculty which nature has antecedently implanted in the
mind, and rendered unavoidable."2 With this extremely clear statement, which
shows us, that while Hume had a method of accounting for the sources of our
knowledge differing from the theories of other philosophers, in the abstract cer-
tainty which he admitted to pertain to any knowledge beyond the existence of
an impression, his belief in the ordinary admitted sources of human knowledge was
not less practically strong than that of other people, — let us connect the conclud-
ing words on the chapter on the immortality of the soul : " There is no foundation
for any conclusion a priori, either concerning the operations or duration of any
object, of which 'tis possible for the human mind to form a conception. Any
object may be imagined to become entirely inactive, or to be annihilated in a
moment: and 'tis an evident principle, that whatever we can imagine is pos-
sible. Now this is no more true of matter than of spirit — of an extended com-
pounded substance, than of a simple and unextended. In both cases the meta-
physical arguments for the immortality of the soul are equally inconclusive :
and in both cases the moral arguments, and those derived from the analogy of
nature, are equally strong and convincing. If my philosophy, therefore, makes
no addition to the arguments for religion, I have at least the satisfaction to think
it takes nothing from them, but that every thing remains precisely as before."1
Without pretending to calculate the ultimate direction of the philosophy of Hume,
as it regards revealed religion, let us repeat the remark, that many persons

* Works, vol. i. p 240.
« Works i p. 319.

108

DAVID HUME.

busied themselves in increasing its terrors as an engine against the Christian
faith, that they might have the merit of displaying a chivalrous resistance. The
presumptions thus formed and fostered, caused a vigorous investigation into the
grounds of all belief, and many good and able men were startled to find that it
was necessary to admit many of the positions assumed by their subtle antagonist,
and that they must employ the vigorous logic they had brought to the field, in
stoutly fortifying a position he did not attack. They found '* the metaphysical
arguments inconclusive," and " the moral arguments, and those derived from the
analogy of nature, equally strong and convincing:" and that useful and beautiful
system of natural theology, which has been enriched by the investigations of
Derham, Tucker,4 and Paley, gave place to obscure investigations into first
causes, and idle theories on the grounds of belief, which generally landed the
philosophers in a circle of confusion, and amazed the reader with incomprehen-
sibilities. One of the most clear and original of the chapters of the Treatise on
Human Nature, has provided us with a curious practical instance of the pliability
of the sceptical philosophy of Hume. In treating the subject of cause and eftect,
Mr Hume, with fidelity to his previous division of perceptions, found nothing
in the effect produced on the mind by any two phenomena, of which the one
received the name of cause, the other that of eftect, but two impressions, and no
connexion betwixt them, but the sequence of the latter to the former ; attribut-
ing our natural belief that the one is a cause, and the other its effect, to the habit
of the mind in running from the one impression to that which is its immediate
sequent, or precedent ; denying that we can have any conception of cause and
eftect beyond those instances of which the mind has had experience, and which
habit has taught it ; and, finally, denying that mankind can penetrate farther
into the mystery, than the simple knowledge that the one phenomenon is
experienced to follow the other. Men of undoubtedly pure religious faith
have maintained the justness of this system as a metaphysical one, and it
has found its way into physical science, as a check to vague theories, and
the assumption of conjectural causes : in a memorable instance, it was however
attacked as metaphysically subversive of a proper belief in the Deity as a first
cause. The persons who maintained this argument, were answered, that an op-
posite supposition was morally subversive of a necessity for the constant exis-
tence and presence of the Deity ; because, if" a cause had the innate power within
it of producing its common effect, the whole fabric of the universe had an innate
power of existence and progression in its various changes, which dispensed with
the existence of a supreme regulator."

The second volume of the Treatise on Human Nature, discusses the passions
on the principles laid down at the commencement of the previous volume. The
subjects here treated, while they are not of so strikingly original a description
as to prompt us to enlarge on their contents, may be a more acceptable morsel
to most readers, and certainly may be perused with more of what is termed
satisfaction, than the obscure and somewhat disheartening investigations of the
pure metaphysician. Of the usual subtilty and acuteness of the author they are
of course not destitute ; but the theatre of investigation does not admit of much
abstraction, and these qualities exercise themselves on subjects more tangible and
comprehensible, than those of the author's prior labours.

The production of the Treatise on Human Nature, stands almost alone in the
history of the human mind ; let it be remembered that the author had just
reached that period of existence when the animal spirits exercise their strongest

• Not Jodnh, , but Abraham Tucker, who, under the assumed name of "Search," wrote a
book on the light of nature, in 9 vols., 8vo. An unobtrusive and profound work, not very in-
viting, and little read, which later philosophers have pillaged without compunction.

DAVID HUME. 109

sway, and those whom nature has gifted with talents and observation, are exult-
ing in a brilliant world before them, of which they are enjoying the prospective
felicity, without tasting much of the bitterness ; and that this extensive treatise,
so varied in the subjects embraced, so patiently collected by a lengthened labour
of investigation and reflection, and entering on views so adverse to all that rea-
son had previously taught men to believe, and so repulsive to the common feel-
ings of the world, was the first literary attempt which the author deigned to
place before the public. Perhaps a very close examination of the early habits
and conduct of the author, could the materials of sucli be obtained, would
scarcely furnish us with a clue to so singular a riddle ; but in a general sense,
we may not diverge far from the truth in supposing, that the circumstances of
his earlier intercourse with the world, had not prompted the author to entertain
a very charitable view of mankind, and that the bitterness thus engendered com-
ing under the cognizance of his reflective mind, instead of turning him into a
stoic and practical enemy of his species, produced that singular system which,
holding out nothing but doubt as the end of all mortal investigations, struck a
silent blow at the dignity of human nature, and at much of its happiness. In a
very singular passage, he thus speaks of his comfortless philosophy, and of the
feelings it produces in the mind of its Cain-like fabricator. " I am first
affrighted and confounded with that forlorn solitude in which I am placed in my
philosophy, and fancy myself some sti'ange uncouth monster, who, not being
able to mingle and unite in society, lias been expelled all human commerce,
and left utterly abandoned and disconsolate. Fain would I run into the crowd
for shelter and warmth, but cannot prevail with myself to mix with such de-
formity. I call upon others to join me, in order to make a company apart, but no
one will hearken to me. Every one keeps at a distance, and dreads that storm
which beats upon me from every side. I have exposed myself to the enmity of
all metaphysicians, logicians, mathematicians, and even theologians ; and can I
wonder at the insults I must suffer ? I have declared my disapprobation of their
systems ; and can I be surprised if they should express a hatred of mine and of
my person ? When I look abroad, I foresee on every side dispute, contradiction,
anger, calumny, and detraction. When I turn my eye inward, I find nothing
but doubt and ignorance. All the world conspires to oppose and contradict me :
though such is my weakness, that I feel all my opinions loosen and fall of them-
selves, when unsupported by the approbation of others. Every step I take is
with hesitation, and every new reflection makes me dread an error and absurdity
in my reasoning.""" In the same spirit he writes to his friend, 3Ir Henry Home,
immediately after the publication of the treatise : *' Those," he says, '* who are
accustomed to reflect on such abstract subjects, are commonly full of prejudices ;
and those who are unprejudiced, are unacquainted with metaphysical reasonings.
My principles are also so remote from all the vulgar sentiments on the subject,
that were they to take place, they would produce almost a total alteration in
philosophy ; and you know revolutions of this kind are not easily brought
about. "*

Hume, when the reflection of more advanced life, and his habits of unceasing
thought had made a more clear arrangement in his mind, of the principles of
his philosophy, found many things to blame and alter in his treatise, not so
much in the fundamental arguments, as in their want of arrangement, and the
obscure garb of words in which he had clothed them. On the feelings he
entertained on this subject, we find him afterwards writing to Dr John Stewart,
and we shall here quote a rather mutilated fragment of this epistle, which has

5 Works, i. p. S33.

* Ty tier's Life of Kamea

110 DAVID HUME.

hitherto heen imprinted, and is interesting as containing an illustration of his
arguments on belief : — " Allow me to tell you that I never asserted so absurd a
proposition, as that any thing might arise without a cause. I only maintained
that our certainty of the falsehood of that proposition proceeded neither from
intuition nor demonstration, but from another source. That Cesar existed, that
there is such an island as Sicily ; for these propositions, I affirm, we have no
demonstration nor intuitive proof. Would you infer that I deny their truth, or
even their certainty? and some of them as satisfactory to the mind, though,
perhaps, not so regular as the demonstrative kind. Where a man of sense mis-
takes my meaning, I own 1 am angry, but it is only with myself, for having
expressed my meaning so ill as to have given occasion to the mistake. That
you may see I would no way scruple of owning my mistakes in argument, I shall
acknowledge (what is infinitely more material) a very great mistake in conduct ;
viz. my publishing at all the Treatise of Human Nature, a book which pretended
to innovate in all the sublimest parts of philosophy, and which I composed before
I was five and twenty. Above all, the positive air which pervades that book,
and which may be imputed to the ardour of youth, so much displeases me, that
I have not patience to review it. I am willing to be unheeded by the public,
though human life is so short that I despair of ever seeing the decision. I wish
I had always confined myself to the more easy paths of erudition ; but you will
excuse me from submitting to proverbial decision, let it even be in Greek."

The effect produced on the literary world by the appearance of the Treatise
on Human Nature, was not flattering to a young author. " Never literary
attempt," says Mr Hume, " was more unfortunate than my Treatise on Human
Nature. It fell dead-born from the press, without reaching such distinction, as
even to excite a murmur among the zealots. But being naturally of a cheerful
and sanguine temper, I very soon recovered the blow, and prosecuted with great
ardour my studies in the country." The equanimity, and contempt for public
opinion which Hume has here arrogated to himself, seems to have been con-
sidered as somewhat doubtful, on the ground of the following curious state-
ment in Dr Kenrick's London Review : — ** His disappointment at the public
reception of his Essay on Human Nature, had indeed a violent effect on his
passions in a particular instance ; it not having dropped so dead-horn from the
press but that it was severely handled by the reviewers of those times, in a
publication entitled, The Works of the Learned ; a circumstance which so highly
provoked our young philosopher, that he flew in a violent rage to demand
satisfaction of Jacob Robinson, the publisher, whom he kept, during the par-
oxysm of his anger, at his sword's point, trembling behind the counter, lest a
period should be put to the life of a sober critic by a raving philosopher." Mr
John Hill Burton, in his life of Hume, observes — " There is nothing in the story
to make it in itself incredible; for Hume was far from being that docile mass of
imperturbability which so large a portiou of the world have taken him for.
But the anecdote requires authentication, and has it not. Moreover, there are
circumstances strongly against its truth. Hume was in Scotland at the time
when the criticism on his work was published ; he did not visit London for some
years afterwards ; and to believe the story, we must look upon it not as a mo-
mentary ebullition of passion, but as a manifestation of long-treasured resent-
ment ; a circumstance inconsistent with his character, inconsistent with human
nature in general, and not in keeping with the modified tone of dissatisfaction
with the criticism, evinced in his correspondence." We have perused with much
interest the article in « The Works of the Learned " above alluded to, and it was
certainly not likely to engender calm feelings in the mind of the author reviewed.
It is of some length, attempting no philosophical confutation, but from the in-

DAVID HUME. Ill

genuity with which the most objectionable passages of the Treatise are brought
forward to stand in naked grotesqueness without connexion, it must have come
from some one who had carefully perused the book, and from no ordinary writer.
The vulgar raillery with which it is filled might point out Warburton, but then
the critic does not call the author a liar, a knave, or a fool, and the following
almost prophetic passage with which the critic concludes (differing considerably
in tone from the other parts), could not possibly have emanated from the head
and heart of the great defender of the church : " It bears, indeed, incontestable
marks of a great capacity, of a soaring genius, but young, and not yet thoroughly
practised. The subject is vast and noble, as any that can exercise the understand-
ing ; but it requires a very mature judgment to handle it as becomes its dignity
and importance ; the utmost prudence, tenderness, and delicacy, are requisite to
this desirable issue. Time and use may ripen these qualities in our author ; and
we shall probably have reason to consider this, compared with his later produc-
tions, in the same light as we view the juvenile works of Milton or the first
manner of a Raphael."

The third part of Mr Hume's Treatise of Human Nature was published in
1740 : it treated the subject of morals, and was divided into two parts, the
first discussing " Virtue and Vice in general," the second treating of " Justice
and Injustice." The scope of this essay is to show that there is no abstract and
certain distinction betwixt moral good and evil, and while it admits a sense of
virtue to have a practical existence in the mind of every human being, (however
it may have established itself,) it draws a distinction betwixt those virtues of
which every man's sense of right is capable of taking cognizance ; and justice,
which it maintains to be an artificial virtue, erected certainly on the general
wish of mankind to act rightly, but a virtue which men do not naturally follow,
until a system is invented by human means, and based on reasonable principles
of general utility to the species, which shows men what is just, and what is
unjust, and can best be followed by the man who has best studied its general
artificial form, in conjunction with its application to utility, and who brings the
most acute perception and judgment to assist him in the task.3 Before publishing
this part of the work, Hume submitted the manuscript to Francis Hutcheson,
professor of moral philosophy in the university of Glasgow, whose opinions he
was more disposed to reeeive with deference than those of any other man.
Nevertheless, it was only in matters of detail that he would consent to be guided
by that eminent person. The fundamental principles of the system he firmly
defended. The correspondence which passed betwixt them shows how far Hume
saw into the depths of the utilitarian system, and proves that it was more com-
pletely formed in his mind than it appeared in his book. " To every virtuous
action (says he) there must be a motive or impelling passion distinct from the
virtue, and virtue can never be the sole motive to any action." The greater
plainness of the subject, and its particular reference to the hourly duties of life,
made this essay more interesting to moral philosophers, and laid it more widely
open to criticism, than the Treatise on the Understanding, and even that on the
Passions. The extensive reference to principles of utility, produced discussions
to which it were an idle and endless work here to refer ; but without any disre-
spect to those celebrated men who have directly combated the principles of this
work, and supported totally different theories of the formation of morals, those

8 Thus this portion of the system bore a considerable resemblance to the theory so elabo-
rately expounded in the Leviathan of Hobbes, with this grand distinction, that Hume, while
maintaining the necessity that a sxstem of justice should be framed, does not maintain that it
had its origin in the natural injustice of mankind, and their hatred of each other, nor does he
attribute the formation of the ssstem to a complicated social contract, like that which occurred
to the mind of the Malmesbury philosopher.

112 DAVID HUME.

who have twisted the principles of the author into excuses for vice and immo-
rality and the destruction of all inducements to the practice of virtue, deserve
only* the fame of being themselves the fabricators of the crooked morality of which
they have endeavoured to cast the odium upon another. When Mr Hume says,
- The necessity of justice to the support of society is the sole foundation of that
virtue: and since no moral excellence is more highly esteemed, we may con-
dude, that this circumstance of usefulness has, in general, the strongest energy,
and most entire command over our sentiments. It must, therefore, be the source
of a considerable part of the merit ascribed to humanity, benevolence, friendship,
public spirit, and other social virtues of that stamp ; as it is the sole source of
the moral approbation paid to fidelity, justice, veracity, integrity, and those other
estimable and useful qualities and principles:" — it was not difficult for those
benevolent guardians of the public mind, who sat in watch to intercept such
declarations, to hold such an opinion up to public indignation, and to maintain
that it admitted every man to examine his actions by his own sense of their
utility, and to commit vice by the application of a theory of expediency appro-
priated to the act. It is not necessary to be either a vindicator or assailant of
Mr Hume's theory, to perceive that what he has traced back to the original
foundation of expediency, is not by him made different in its practice and effects,
from those which good men of all persuasions in religion and philosophy admit.
While he told men that he had traced the whole system of the morality they
practised, to certain principles different from those generally admitted, he did
not tell men to alter their natural reverence for virtue or abhorrence towards
vice ; the division betwixt good and evil had been foimed, and while giving his
opinion how it had been formed, he did not dictate a new method of regulating
human actions, and except in the hands of those who applied his theories of
the origin of virtue and vice, to the totally different purpose of an application
to their practice in individual cases, he did no more to break down the barriers
of distinction betwixt them, than he who first suggested that the organs of sight
merely presented to the mind the reflections of visible objects, may be supposed
to have done to render the mind less certain of the existence of external objects.
" There is no spectacle," says the author, " so fair and beautiful as a noble and
generous action ; nor any which gives us more abhorrence than one which is
cruel and treacherous. No enjoyment equals the satisfaction we receive from the
company of those we love and esteem ; as the greatest of all punishments is to
be obliged to pass our lives with those we hate or contemn. A very play or
romance may afford us instances of this pleasure which virtue conveys to us, and
the pain which arises from vice ;"9 and it would be difficult to find in this ela-
borate essay, any remark to contradict the impression of the author's views,
which every candid mind must receive from such a declaration.

The neglect with which his first production was received by the public,
while it did not abate the steady industry of its author, turned his attention for
a time to subjects which might be more acceptable to general readers, and in
the calm retirement of his brother's house at Ninewells, where he pursued his
studies with solitary zeal, he prepared two volumes of unconnected disserta-
tions, entitled " Essays Moral and Philosophical," which he published in 1742.
These essays he had intended to have published in weekly papers, after the
method pursued by the authors of the Spectator ; " but," he observes, in an ad-
vertisement prefixed to the first edition, " having dropped that undertaking,
partly from laziness, partly from want, of leisure, and being willing to make
trial of my talents for writing before I ventured upon any more serious composi-
tions, 1 was induced to commit these trifles to the judgment of the public." A

• Works, ii. 237.

DAVID HUME. 113

few of the subjects of these essays are the following : " Of the Delicacy of Taste
and Passion," " That Politics may be reduced to a Science," " Of the Independ-
ency of Parliament, " " Of the Parties in Great Britain," " Of Superstition and
Enthusiasm," " Of Liberty and Despotism," " Of Eloquence," " Of Simplicity and
Refinement," " A character of Sir Robert Walpole," &c. Of these miscellaneous
productions we cannot venture the most passing analysis, in a memoir which
must necessarily be brief: of their general character it may be sufficient to say,
that his style of writing, which in his Treatise was far from approaching the
purity and elegance of composition which he afterwards displayed, had made a
rapid advance to excellence, and that the reading world quickly discovered from
the justness and accuracy of his views, the elegance of his sentiments, and the
clear precision with which he stated his arguments, that the subtile calculator of
the origin of all human knowledge could direct an acute eye to the proceedings
of the world around him, and that he was capable of making less abstract calcu-
lations on the motives which affected mankind. A few of these essays, which lie
seems to have denounced as of too light a nature to accompany his other works,
were not republished during his life ; among the subjects of these are " Impu-
dence and Modesty," " Love and Marriage," " Avarice," &c. Although these
have been negatively stigmatized by their author, a general reader will find
much gratification in their perusal : the subjects are handled with the careless
touch of a satirist, and in drawing so lightly and almost playfully pictures of
what is contemptible and ridiculous, one can scarcely avoid the conviction that
such is the aspect in which the author wishes to appear ; but on the other hand
there is such a complete absence of all grotesqueness, of exaggeration, or at-
tempt at ridicule, that it is apparent he is drawing a picture of what he knows
to be unchangeably rooted in human nature, and that knowing raillery to be
useless, he is content as a philosopher merely to depict the deformity which can-
not be altered. Among the essays he did not re-publish, is the " Character of
Sir Robert Walpole," a singular specimen of the author's ability to abstract him-
self from the political feelings of the time, calmly describing the character of a
living statesman, whose conduct was perhaps more feverishly debated by his
friends and enemies than that of almost any minister in any nation, as if he
were a person of a distant age, with which the author had no sympathy, or of a
land with which he was only acquainted through the pages of the traveller.
It was after the publication of this work that Hume first enjoyed the gratifica-
tion of something like public applause. " The work," he says, " was favour-
ably received, and soon made me entirely forget my former disappointment."
He still rigidly adhered to his plans of economy and retirement, and continued
to reside at Ninewells, applying himself to the study of Greek, which he had
previously neglected. In 1745, he was invited to become tutor to the marquis
of Annandale, a young nobleman whose state of mind at that period rendered a
superintendent necessary ; and though the situation must have been one not
conducive to study, or pleasing to such a mind as that of Hume, he found that
his circumstances would not justify a refusal of the invitation, and he continued
for the period of a year in the family of the marquis.

During his residence in this family, the death of Mr Cleghorn, professor of
moral philosophy in the university of Edinburgh, caused a vacancy, which Mr
Hume very naturally considered he might be capable of filling. The patrons
of the university, however, and their advisers, took a different view of the mat-
ter, and judged that they would be at least more safe, in considering a person
of his reputed principles of philosophy, as by no means a proper instructor of
youth: nor were virulence and party feeling unmixed with cool judgment in
fixing their choice. " I am informed," says Hume, in one of his playful letters

114 DAVID HUME.

addressed to his friend Mr Sharp of Hoddam, " that such a popular clamour has
been raised against me in Edinburgh, on account of scepticism, heterodoxy, and
other hard names which confound the ignorant, that my friends find some dif-
ficulty in working out the point of my professorship, which once appeared so
easy. Did I need a testimonial for my orthodoxy, I should certainly appeal to
you ; for you know that I always imitated Job's friends, and defended the cause
of providence when you attacked it, on account of the headaches you felt after
a debauch, but as a more particular explication of that particular seems super-
fluous, I shall only apply to you for a renewal of your good offices, with your
friend lord Tinwald, whose interest with Yetts and Allan may be of service to
me. There is no time to lose ; so that I must beg you to be speedy in writing
to him, or speaking to him on that head." The successful candidate was Mr
James Balfour, advocate, a gentleman who afterwards became slightly known to
the literary world as the author of " A Delineation of the Nature and Obligations
of Morality, with reflections on Mr Hume's Inquiry concerning the principles of
Morals," a work which has died out of remembrance, but the candid spirit of
which prompted Hume to write a complimentary letter to the (then) anonymous
author. The disappointment of not being able to obtain a situation so desir-
able as affording a respectable and permanent salary, and so suited to his studies,
seems to have preyed more heavily than any other event in his life, on the spirits
of Mr Hume ; and with the desire of being independent of the world, he seems
for a short time to have hesitated whether he should continue his studies, or at
once relinquish the pursuit of philosophical fame, by joining the army.

During the ensuing year, his desire to be placed in a situation of respectabil-
ity was to a certain extent gratified, by his being appointed secretary to lieu-
tenant-general St Clair, who had been chosen to command an expedition avow,
edly against Canada, but which terminated in a useless incursion on the coast of
France. In the year 1747, general St Clair was appointed to superintend an
embassy to the courts of Vienna and Turin, and declining to accept a secretary
from government, Hume, for whom he seems to have entertained a partiality, ac-
companied him in his former capacity. He here enjoyed the society of Sir
Henry Erskine and captain (afterwards general) Grant, and mixing a little with
the world, and joining in the fashionable society of the places which he visited,
he seems to have enjoyed a partial relaxation from his philosophical labours.
Although he mentions that these two years were almost the only interruptions
which his studies had received during the course of his life, he does not seem to
have entirely neglected his pursuits as an author ; in a letter to his friend Henry
Home, he hints at the probability of his devoting his time to historical subjects,
and continues, " I have here two things going on, a new edition of my Essays,
all of which you have seen except one of the Protestant succession, where I treat
that subject as coolly and indifferently as I would the dispute betwixt Cesar and
Pompey. The conclusion shows me a whig, but a very sceptical one." 10

Lord Charlemont, who at this period met with Mr Hume at Turin, has given
the following account of his habits and appearance, penned apparently with a
greater aim at effect than at truth, yet somewhat characteristic of the philoso-
pher : " Nature I believe never formed any man more unlike his real character
than David Hume. The powers of physiognomy were baffled by his counte-
nance ; neither could the most skilful in that science pretend to discover the
smallest trace of the faculties of his mind, in the unmeaning features of his
visage. His face was broad and fat, his mouth wide, and without any other ex-
pression than that of imbecility. His eyes vacant and spiritless ; and the cor-
pulence of his whole person was far better fitted to communicate the idea of a
10 Tj tier's Life of Kames.

DAVID HUME.

115

turtle-eating alderman than of a refined philosopher. His speech in English
was rendered ridiculous by the broadest Scottish accent, and his French, was, if
possible, still more laughable ; so that wisdom, most certainly, never disguised
herself before in so uncouth a garb. Though now near fifty years old,11 he was
healthy and strong ; but his health and strength, far from being advantageous to
his figure, instead of manly comeliness, had only the appearance of rusticity.
His wearing a uniform added greatly to his natural awkwardness, for he wore
it like a grocer of the train-bands. Sinclair was a lieutenant-general, and
was sent to the courts of Vienna and Turin as a military envoy, to see that their
quota of troops was furnished by the Austrians and Piedmontese. It was there-
fore thought necessary that his secretary should appear to be an officer; and
Hume was accordingly disguis?d in scarlet."12

The letter to Mr Home we have quoted above, gives an idea of the literary
employments of the author during the intervals of his official engagements at
Turin, and on his return to Britain he exhibited the fruit of his labour in a
second edition of his " Essays, Moral and Political," which was published in
1748, with four additional essays, and in a re-construction of the first part of
his Treatise of Human Nature, which he published immediately after, under the
title " Philosophical Essays concerning the Human Understanding," and formed
the first part of the well-known corrected digest of the Treatise of Human
Nature, into the " Inquiry concerning Human Nature." In the advertisement
the author informs the»public that "most of the principles and reasonings in
this volume were published in a work in three volumes, called A Treatise of
Human Nature, a work which the author had projected before he left college,
and which he wrote and published not long after. The philosophy of this work
is essentially the same as that of which he had previously sketched a more rude
and complicated draught The object, (or more properly speaking, the con-
clusion arrived at, for the person who sets out without admissions, and inquires
whether any thing can be ascertained in philosophy, can scarcely be said to
have an object in view,) is the same system of doubt which he previously ex-
pounded ; a scepticism, not like that of Boyle and others, which merely went to
show the uncertainty of the conclusions attending particular species of argument,
but a sweeping argument to show that by the structure of 'the understanding, the
result of all investigations, on all subjects, must ever be doubt." The Inquiry
must be to every reader a work far more pleasing, and we may even say, in-
structive, than the Treatise. While many of the more startling argumenis, as-
suming the appearance of paradoxes, sometimes indistinctly connected with
the subject, are omitted, others are laid down in a clearer form ; the whole is
subjected to a more compact arrangement, and the early style of the writer,
which to many natural beauties, united a considerable feebleness and occasional
harshness, makes in this work a very near approach to the elegance and
classic accuracy, which much perseverance, and a refined taste enabled the au-
thor to acquire in the more advanced period of his life. Passing over, as our
limits must compel us, any attempt at an analytical comparison of the two works,
and a narrative of the changes in the author's opinions, we must not omit the
circumstance, that the Essay on Miracles, which it will be remembered the au-
thor withheld from his Treatise, was attached to the Inquiry, probably after a
careful revision and correction. Locke had hinted in a few desultory observa-
tions the grounds of a disbelief in the miracles attributed to the early Christian
church, and Dr Conyers Middleton, in his Free Inquiry into the miraculous
powers supposed to hav« subsisted in the Christian church from the earliest ages,

" His lordship must have made a mis-calculation. Humewas then oidv in his 3Sth year.
18 Hardy's Lite of lord Charlemont, p . 8.

11G

DAVID HUME.

published very nearly at the same period with the Essay of Hume, struck a
more decided blow at all supernatural agency beyond what was justified by the
sacred Scriptures, and approached by his arguments a dangerous neighbourhood
to an interference with what he did not avowedly attack. Hume considered the
subject as a general point in the human understanding to which he admitted no
exceptions. The argument of-this remarkable essay is too well known to require
an explanation ; but the impartiality too often infringed when the works of this
philosopher are the subject of consideration, requires that it should be kept in
mind, that he treats the proof of miracles, as he does that of the existence of
matter, in a manner purely sceptical, with this practical distinction, — that suppos-
ing a person is convinced of, or chooses to say he believes in the abstract exist-
ence of matter, independent of the mere impressions conveyed by the senses,
there is still room to doubt that miracles have been worked. It would have
been entirely at variance with the principles of scepticism to have maintained that
miracles were not, and could not have been performed, according to the laws
of nature ; but the argument of Mr Hume certainly leans to the practical con-
clusion, that our uncertainty as to what we are said to have experienced, ex-
pands into a greater uncertainty of the existence of miracles, which are contrary
to the course of our experience ; because belief in evidence is founded entirely
on our belief in experience, and on the circumstance, that what we hear from
the testimony of others coincides with the current of that experience ; and when-
ever testimony is contradictory to the current of our experience, the latter is
the more probable, and should we be inclined to believe in it, we must at least
doubt the former. Thus the author concludes " That no testimony is sufficient
to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind that its falsehood
would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavours to establish : and
even in that case there is a mutual destruction of arguments, and the superior
only gives us an assurance suitable to that degree of force which remains after
deducting the inferior." The application of his argument to the doctrines of
Christianity he conceives to be, that " it may serve to confound those dangerous
friends, or disguised enemies to the Christian religion, who have undertaken to
defend it by the principles of human reason ; our most holy religion is founded
on faith, not on reason ; and it is a sure method of exposing it to put it to such
a trial as it is by no meaus fitted to endure."13 Hume is repeatedly at pains to
protest against his being supposed to be arguing in the essay against the Chris-
tian faith. These protests, however, as his biographer, Mr Burton, is constrained
to admit, were uttered briefly and coldly, and "in such a manner as made people
feel, that if Hume believed in the doctrines of the Bible, he certainly had not his
heart in them. A want of proper deference for religious feeling (adds this
writer) is a defect that runs through all his works. There is no ribaldry, but at
the same time there are no expressions of decent reverence. It is to be observed,
also, that the argument of Hume against miracles is still a favourite weapon of
the enemies of revealed religion. At the same time, it must be admitted that under
proper regulation, the argument is of use in defining the boundaries of inductive
reasoning, and in this way has proved undoubtedly serviceable to the progress
of science.

The work by Dr Campbell in confutation of this essay, at first produced in
the form of a sermon, and afterwards expanded into a treatise, whieh was
published in 1762, is well known and appreciated. This admirable and
conclusive production, while yet in manuscript, was shown to Hume by Dr
Blair. Hume was much pleased with the candour of the transaction; he re-
marked a few passages hardly in accordance with the calm feelings of the other
a Works, iv. 135, 163

DAVID HUME. 117

portions of the work, which at his suggestion the author amended ; and he per-
sonally wrote to Dr Campbell, with his usual calm politeness, thanking him for
treatment so unexpected from a clergyman of the church of Scotland; and,
with the statement that he had made an early resolution not to answer attacks
on his opinions, acknowledged that he never felt so violent an inclination to de-
fend himself. The respect which Campbell admitted himself to entertain for
the sceptic is thus expressed :

" The Essay on Miracles deserves to be considered as one of the most dan-
gerous attacks that have been made on our religion. The danger results not
solely from the merit of the piece : it results much more from that of the an.
tlior. The piece itself, like every other work of Mr Hume, is ingenious ; but
its merit is more of the oratorical kind than of the philosophical. The merit of
the author, I acknowledge, is great. The many useful volumes he has published
of history, as well as on criticism, politics, and trade, have justly procured
him, with all persons of taste and discernment, the highest reputation as a
writer. * * In such analysis and exposition, which I own, I have at-
tempted without ceremony or reserve, an air of ridicule is unavoidable ; but this
ridicule, I am well aware, if founded on misrepresentation, will at last rebound
upon myself." 14

Dr Campbell was a man of strong good sense, and knew well the description
of argument which the world would best appreciate, approve, and comprehend,
in answer to the perplexing subtilties of his opponent He struck at the root
of the system of perceptions merging into experience, and experience regulat-
ing the value of testimony, which had been erected by his adversary, — and ap-
pealing, not to the passions and feelings in favour of religion, but to the com^
mon convictions which we deem to be founded on reason, and cannot separate
from our minds, maintained that ** testimony has a natural and original influence
on belief, antecedent to experience," from which position he proceeded to show,
that the miracles of the gospel had received attestation sufficient to satisfy the
reason. With his usual soundness and good sense, though scarcely with the
profundity which the subject required, Dr Paley joined the band of confutors,
while he left Hume to triumph in the retention of the effects attributed to ex-
perience, maintaining that the principle so established was counteracted by our
natural expectation that the Deity should manifest his existence, by doing such
acts contrary to the established order of the universe, as would plainly show
that order to be of his own fabrication, and at his own command.

Before leaving the subject of the Inquiry concerning Human Understanding,
we may mention that Mr Coleridge in his Biographia Literaria, has accused
Hume of plagiarizing the exposition of the Principles of Association in that
work, from the unexpected source of the Commentary of St Thomas Aquinas, on
the Parva Naturalia of "Aristotle, and the charge, with however much futility it
may be supported, demands, when coming from so celebrated a man, the consi-
deration of the biographer. Mr Coleridge's words are, " In consulting the
excellent Commentary of St Thomas Aquinas, on the Parva Naturalia of Aris-
totle, I was struck at once with its close resemblance to Hume's Essay on Asso-
ciation. The main thoughts were the same in both, the order of the thoughts
was the same, and even the illustrations differed only by Hume's occasional sub-
stitution'of modern examples. I mentioned the circumstance to several of my
literary acquaintances, who admitted the closeness of the resemblance, and that
it seemed too great to be explained by mere coincidence ; but they thought it
improbable that Hume should have held the pages of the angelic doctor worth
turning over. But some time after, Mr Payne, of the King's Mews, showed Sir
i* Edit. 1797, Advert, p. viii.

118

DAVID HUME.

James Mackintosh some odd volumes of St Thomas Aquinas, partly, perhaps, from
having heard that Sir James (then Mr) Mackintosh, had, in his lectures, passed a
high encomium on this canonized philosopher, but chiefly from the facts, that
the volumes had belonged to Mr Hume, and had here and there marginal marks
and notes of reference in his own hand- writing. Among these volumes was that
which contains the Parva Naturalia, in the old Latin version, swathed and
swaddled in the commentary afore mentioned." When a person has spent much
time in the perusal of works so unlikely to be productive, as those of Aquinas,
the discovery of any little coincidence, or of any idea that may attract attention,
is a fortunate incident, of which the discoverer cannot avoid informing the world,
that it may see what he has been doing, and the coincidence in question is such
as might have excused an allusion to the subject, as a curiosity. But it was
certainly a piece of (no doubt heedless) disingeuuousness on the part of 3Ir
Coleridge, to make so broad and conclusive a statement, without accompanying
it with a comparison. " We have read," says a periodical paper alluding to this
subject, " the whole commentary of St Thomas Aquinas, and we challenge Mr
Coleridge to produce from it a single illustration, or expression of any kind, to
be found in Hume's essay. The whole scope and end of Hume's essay is not
only different from that of St Thomas Aquinas, but there is not in the commen-
tary of the 'angelic doctor' one idea which in any way resembles, or can be
made to resemble, the beautiful illustration of the prince of sceptics."15 The
theory of Hume on the subject as corrected in his Inquiry, is thus expressed :
" To me, there appear to be only three principles of connexion among ideas,
namely, resemblance, contiguity, in time or place, and cause or effect. That
these principles serve to connect ideas, will not, I believe, be much doubted.
A picture naturally leads our thoughts to the original. The mention of one
apartment in a building naturally introduces an inquiry or discourse concerning
the others ; and if we think of a wound, we can scarcely forbear reflecting on
the pain which follows it."18 From a comparison of this, with what Mr
Coleridge must have presumed to be the corresponding passage in Aquinas,17 it
will be perceived that a natural wish to make the most of his reading had
prompted him to propound the discovery. Had no other person besides Aquinas
endeavoured to point out the regulating principles of association, and had Hume
with such a passage before him pretended to have been the first to have discovered
them, there might have been grounds for the accusation ; but the methods of
connexion discovered by philosophers in different ages, have been numerous,
and almost always correct, as secondary principles. It was the object of Hume
to gather these into a thread, and going back to principles as limited and ulti-
mate as he could reach, to state as nearly as possible, not all the methods by
which ideas were associated, but to set bounds to the abstract principles under
which these methods might be classed. Aquinas, on the other hand, by no
means sets bounds to the principles of association ; he gives three methods of
association, and in the matter of number resembles Hume ; but had he given
twenty methods, he might have more nearly embraced what Hume has embraced
witlun his three principles. The method of association by resemblance is the

11 Blarkwood's Magazine, v. iii. 656.
'• Works, iv. p. 25.

a]imJlr!PP^feiSaSf0UrS! "dmi,taretlamquandoque reminiscitur aliquis incipiens ab
r!ln/t;' c;.yu*mem.ora,ur a qua procedit ad aliam tri,,l,ci ratione. Quandoque'qui.lem
au fe £S5^ i'inCZ ST""0 aHqUiS memoratur d* derate, et per ho? occurSt e? Plato,
tar hL£h It ZTZ ^ ! W™.^™™0 ™tione c-urarietatit, sicut si aliquis memorel
tur Hecton*, et per hoc occurnt el Achillea. Quandoque v,ro ratione ttromnauUatu cuius-
cunque, (fart cum _ aliquis memor est patris, et per hoc occurrit ei finus? 'e Xrato t
de quaciinque aha propinquitate vel societatis, vel loci, vel temporis, et « £ fi
remimscentia, quia motus horum se invicem consequuntur " lemP°r,s» et Papier noc ni

DAVID HUME.

119

only one 'stated by both : with regard to the second principle by Aquinas, contra-
riety, from the illustration with which he has accompanied it, he appears to mean
local or physical opposition, such as the opposition of two combatants in a battle,
and not the interpretation now generally bestowed on the term by philosophers.
But supposing him to have understood it in the latter sense, Hume has taken
pains to show that contrariety cannot easily be admitted as a fourth ultimate
principle : thus in a note he says, " For instance, contrast or contrariety is also
a connexion among ideas, but it may perhaps be considered as a mixture of
causation and resemblance. Where two objects are contrary, the one destroys
the other; that is, is the cause of its annihilation, and the idea of the annihila-
tion of an object, implies the idea of its former existence." Aquinas, it will be
remarked, entirely omits "cause and effect," and his "contiguity" is of a
totally different nature from that of Hume, since it embraces an illustration
which Hume would have referred to the principle of " cause and effect."

" I had always," says Hume, in reference to the work we have just been
noticing, " entertained a notion that my want of success in publishing the
Treatise of Human Nature, had proceeded more from the manner than the mat-
ter, and that I had been guilty of a very usual indiscretion, in going to the
press too early. I, therefore, cast the first part of the work anew, in the Inquiry
concerning Human Understanding, which was published while I was at Turin.
But this piece was at first little more successful than the Treatise of Human
Nature. On my return from Italy, I had the mortification to find all England
in a ferment, on account of Dr Middleton's Free Inquiry, while my performance
was entirely overlooked and neglected."

About this period, Hume suffered the loss of a mother, who, according to his
own account, when speaking of his earlier days, was " a woman of singular
merit, who, though young and handsome, devoted herself entirely to the rearing
of her children ;" and the philosopher seems to have regarded her with a strong
and devoted affection. He was a man whose disposition led him to unite him-
self to the world by few of the ordinary ties, but the few which imperceptibly
held him, were not broken without pain ; on these occasions the philosopher
yielded to the man, and the cold sceptic discovered the feelings with which
nature had gifted him, which at other moments lay chained by the bonds of his
powerful reason. A very different account of the effect of this event, from what
we have just now stated, is given in the passage we are about to quote (as copied
in the Quarterly Review,) from the travels of the American Sill i man. Without
arguing as to the probability or improbability of its containing a true statement,
let us remark that it is destitute of proof, a quality it amply requires, being
given by the traveller forty years after the death of the philosopher, from the
report of an individual, while the circumstance is not one which would have
probably escaped the religious zeal of some of Mr Hume's commentators.

" It seems that Hume received a religious education from his mother, and
early in life was the subject of strong and hopeful religious impressions ; but as
he approached manhood they were effaced, and confirmed infidelity succeeded.
Maternal partiality, however, alarmed at first, came at length to look with less
and less pain upon this declension, and filial love and reverence seem to have
been absorbed in the pride of philosophical scepticism ; for Hume now applied him-
self with unwearied and unhappily with successful efforts, to sap the foundation of
his mother's faith. Having succeeded in this dreadful work, he went abroad
into foreign countries; and as he was returning, an express met him in London,
with a letter from his mother, informing him that she was in a deep decline, and
could not long survive : she said she found herself without any support in her
distress : that he had taken away that source of comfort upon which, in all cases

120

DAVID HUME.

of affliction, she used to rely, and that she now found her mind sinking into
despair. She did not doubt but her son would afford her some substitute for her
religion, and she conjured him to hasten to her, or at least to send her a letter,
containing such consolations as philosophy can afford to a dying mortal. Hume
was overwhelmed with anguish on receiving this letter, and hastened to Scot-
land, travelling day and night ; but before he arrived, his mother expired. No
permanent impression seems, however, to have been made on his mind by this
most trying event ; and whatever remorse he might have felt at the moment, he
soon relapsed into his wonted obduracy of heart."

On the appearance of this anecdote, Baron Hume, the philosopher's nephew,
communicated to the editor of the Quarterly Review the following anec-
dote, of a more pleasing nature, connected with the same circumstance; and
while it is apparent that it stands on better ground, we may mention that it is
acknowledged by the reviewer as an authenticated contradiction to the statement
of Silliman. " David and he (the hon. Mr Boyle, brother of the earl of
Glasgow) were both in London, at the period when David's mother died. Mr
Boyle, hearing of it, soon after went into his apartment, for they lodged in the
same house, where he found him in the deepest affliction, and in a flood of tears.
After the usual topics of condolence, Mr Boyle said to hiin, ' My friend, you owe
this uncommon grief to your having thrown off the principles of religion ; for if
you had not, you would have been consoled with the firm belief, that the good
lady, who was not only the best of mothex's, but the most pious of Christians, was
completely happy in the realms of the just' To which David replied, ' Though
I throw out my speculations to entertain the learned and metaphysical world,
yet, in other things, I do not think so differently from the rest of mankind as
you imagine.' "

Hume returned, in 1749, to the retirement of his brother's house at Nine-
wells, and during a residence there for two years, continued his remodeling
of his Treatise of Human Nature, and pi-epared for the press his celebrated
Political Discourses. The former production appeared in 1751, under the title
of an " Inquiry concerning the Principles of Morals," published by Millar, the
celebrated bookseller. Hume considered this the most perfect of his works, and
it is impossible to resist admiration of the clearness of the arguments, and the
beautiful precision of the theories ; the world, however, did not extend to it
the balmy influence of popularity, and it appeared to the author, that all his
literary efforts were doomed to the unhappy fate of being little regarded at first,
and of gradually decaying into oblivion. " In my opinion," he says, " (who
ought not to judge on that subject,) [it] is, of all my writings, historical, philo-
sophical, or literary, incomparably the best It came unnoticed and unobserved
into the world."

^ In 1752, and during the author's residence in Edinburgh, appeared his
" Political Discourses." The subjects of these admirable essays were of interest
to every one, the method of treating them was comprehensible to persons of
common discernment ; above all, they treated subjects on which the prejudices
of few absolutely refused conviction by argument, and the author had the oppor-
tunity of being appreciated and admired, even when telling truths. The book
in these circumstances, was, in the author's words, « the only work of mine
that was successful on the first publication. It was well received abroad and at
home. The chief subjects were, " Commerce, money, interest, the balance
of trade, the populousness of ancient nations, the idea of a perfect common-
wealth." Sir Josiah Child, Sir William Petty, Hobbes, and Locke, had pre-
viously given the glimmerings of more liberal principles on trade and manufac-
ture than those which they saw practised, and hinted at the common prejudices

DAVID HUME.

121

on the use of money and the value of labour ; but Hume was the first to sketch
an outline of some branches of the benevolent system of political economy
framed by his illustrious friend, Adam Smith. He laid down labour as the only
criterion of all value, made a near approach to an ascertainment of the true
value of the precious metals, a point not yet fully fixed among economists ; dis-
covered the baneful effects of commercial limitations as obliging the nation to
trade in a less profitable manner than it would choose to do if unconstrained, and
pi'edicted the dangerous consequences of the funding system. The essay on the
populousness of ancient nations, was a sceptical analysis of the authorities on that
subject, doubting their accuracy, on the principle of political economy that the
number of the inhabitants of a nation must have a ratio to its fruitfulness and
their industry. The essay was elaborately answered by Dr Wallace, in a Disser-
tation of the Numbers of Mankind, but that gentleman only produced a host of
those " authorities," the efficacy of which Mr Hume has doubted on principle.
This essay is an extremely useful practical application of the doctrines in the
Essay on Miracles. Mr Hume's ' idea of a perfect commonwealth,' has been
objected to as an impracticable system. The author probably had the wisdom
to make this discovery himself, and might have as soon expected it to be appli-
cable to practice, as a geometrician might dream of his angles, straight lines, and
points, being literally accomplished in the measurement of an estate, or the
building of a house. The wbole represents men without passions or prejudices
working like machines ; and Hume no doubt admitted, that while passion, pre-
judice, and habit, forbade the safe attempt of such projects, such abstract struc-
tures ought to be held up to the view of the legislator, as the forms into which,
so far as he can do it with safety, he ought to stretch the systems under his
administration. Plato, More, Harrington, Hobbes, and (according to some
accounts,) Berkeley18 had employed their ingenuity in a similar manner, and
Hume seems to have considered it worthy of his attention.

In February, 1752, David Hume succeeded the celebrated Ruddiman, as
librarian to the Faculty of Advocates. The salary was at that time very trifling,
somewhere we believe about £40, but the duties were probably little more than
nominal, and the situation was considered an acquisition to a man of literary
habits. It was, with this ample field of authority at his command, that he seems
to have finally determined to write a portion of the History of England. In
1757, he relinquished this appointment on his removing to London, when prepar-
ing for publication the History of the House of Tudor.

In 1752, appeared the first (published) volume of the History of England,
embracing the period from the accession of the house of Stuart, to the death of
Charles the First ; and passing over intermediate events, we may mention that
the next volume, containing a continuation of the series of events to the period
of the Revolution, appeared in 1756, and the third, containing the History of
the house of Tudor, was published in 1759. " I was, I own," says the author
with reference to the first volume, " sanguine in my expectations of the success
of this work. I thought that I was the only historian that had at once neglected
present power, interest, and authority, and the cry of popular prejudices ; and
as the subject was suited to every capacity, I expected proportional applause.
But miserable was my disappointment ; I was assailed by one cry of reproach,
disapprobation, and even detestation ; English, Scottish, and Irish, whig and
tory, churchman and sectary, freethinker and religionist, patriot and courtier,
united in their rage against the man, who had presumed to shed a generous tear
for the fate of Charles I. and the earl of Strafford ; and after the first ebullitions
of their fury were over, what was still more mortifying, the book seemed to sink
»8 In the anonymous adventures of Giovanni de Lucca.

122

DAVID HUME.

into oblivion." Of the second he says, " This performance happened to give
less displeasure to the whigs, and was better received. It not only rose itself,
but helped to buoy up its unfortunate brother." Of the History of England it
is extremely difficult to give a fair and unbiased opinion, because, while the
author is, in general, one of the most impartial writers on this subject, it is
scarcely a paradox to say, that the few partialities in which he has indulged,
have done more to warp the mind than the violent prejudices of others. Pre-
vious to his history, those who wrote on political subjects ranged themselves in
parties, and each man proclaimed with open mouth the side for which he was
about to argue, and men heard him as a special pleader. Hume looked over
events with the eye of a philosopher; he seemed to be careless of the extent ot
the good or bad of either party. On neither side did he abuse, on neither did
he laud or even justify. The side which he adopted seldom enjoyed approba-
tion or even vindication, and only in apology did he distinguish it from that to
which he was inimical. From this peculiarity, the opinions to which he leaned
acquired strength from the suffrage of one so apparently impartial and uncon-
cerned. Notwithstanding the prejudices generally attributed however to Hume
as an historian, we cannot set him down as an enemy to liberty. No man had
grander views of the power of the human mind, and of the higher majesty of
intellect, when compared with the external attributes of rank ; and the writings
of a republican could not exceed in depicting this feeling, the picture he has
drawn of the parliament of Charles the First, and of the striking circumstances
of the king's condemnation. The instances in which he has shown
himself to be inconsistent, may, perhaps, be more attributed to his habits, than
to his opinions. His indolent benevolence prompted a sympathy with the
oppressed, and he felt a reluctance to justify those who assumed the aspect of
active assailants, from whatever cause ; while in matters of religion, viewing all
persuasions in much the same aspect, unprejudiced himself, he felt a contempt
for those who indulged in prejudice, and was more inclined to censure than to
vindicate those who acted from religious impulse. With all his partialities, how-
ever, let those who study the character of the author while they read his history
recollect, that he never made literature bow to rank, that he never flattered a
great man to obtain a favour, and that, though long poor, he was always inde-
pendent. Of the seeming contradiction between his life and opinions, we quote
the following applicable remarks from the Edinburgh Review :

" Few things seem more unaccountable, and indeed absurd, than that Hun-e
should have taken part with high church and high monarchy men. The perse-
cutions which he suffered in his youth from the presbyterians, may, perhaps, have
influenced his ecclesiastical partialities. But that he should have sided with the
Tudors and the Stuarts against the people, seems quite inconsistent with all the
great traits of his character. His unrivaled sagacity must have looked with
contempt on the preposterous arguments by which the jus divinum was main-
tained. His natural benevolence must have suggested the cruelty of subjecting
the enjoyments of thousands to the caprice of one unfeeling individual : and his
own practical independence in private life, might have taught him the value of
those feelings which he has so mischievously derided. Mr Fox seems to have
been struck with some surprise at this strange trait in the character of our philo-
sopher. In a letter to Mr Laing he says, • He was an excellent man, and of
great powers of mind ; but his partiality to kings and princes is intolerable.
Nay, it is, in my opinion, quite ridiculous : and is more like the foolish admira-
tion which women and children sometimes have for kings, than the opinion,
right or wrong, of a philosopher."'

It would be a vain task to enumerate the controversial attacks on Hume's

DAVID HUME. 123

History of England. Dr Hurd in his Dialogues on the English Constitution
stoutly combated his opinions. Miller brought the force of his strongly thinking
mind to a consideration of the subject at great length, but he assumed too much
the aspect of a special pleader. Dr Birch and Dr Towers entered on minute
examinations of particular portions of the narrative, and the late major Cart-
wright, with more fancy than reason, almost caricatured the opinions of those
who considered that Hume had designedly painted the government of the Tudors
in arbitrary colours, to relieve that of the Stuarts. Mr Laing appeared as the
champion of the Scottish patriots, and Dr M'Crie as the vindicator of the pi'es-
byterians ; and within these few past years, two elaborate works have fully
examined the statements and representations of Hume, — the British Empire of
Mr Brodie, and the extremely impartial Constitutional History of Hallam.

In the interval betwixt the publication of the first and second volumes of the
History, Hume produced the ** Natural History of Religion." This production
is one of those which Warburton delighted to honour. In a pamphlet which
Hume attributed to Hurd, he thus politely notices it : " The few excepted out
of the whole race of mankind are, we see, our philosopher and his gang, with
their pedlars' ware of matter and motion, who penetrate by their disquisitions
into the secret structure of vegetable and animal bodies, to extract, like the
naturalists in Gulliver, sunbeams out of cucumbers ; just as wise a project as this
of raising religion out of the intrigues of matter and motion. We see what
the man would be at, through all his disguises, and no doubt, he would be much
mortified if we did not ; though the discovery we make, is only this, that, of all
the slanders against revelation, this before us is the tritest, the dirtiest, and the
most worn in the drudgery of free-thinking, not but it may pass with his friends,
and they have my free leave to make their best of it. What I quote it for, is
only to show the rancour of heart which possesses this unhappy man, and
which could induce him to employ an insinuation against the Christian and the
Jewish religions ; not only of no weight in itself, but of none, I will venture to
say, even in his own opinion." 19 Hume says, he ** found by Warburton's
railing" that his " books were beginning to be esteemed in good company ;"
and of the particular attention which the prelate bestowed on the sceptic, such
specimens as the following are to be found in the correspondence of the former :
" I am strongly tempted too, to have a stroke at Hume in parting. He is the
author of a little book, called Philosophical Essays : in one of which he argues
against the hope of a God, and in another (very needlessly you will say,) against
the possibility of miracles. He has crowned the liberty of the press, and yet he
has a considerable post under government. I have a great mind to do justice
on his arguments against miracles, which I think might be done in few words.
But does he deserve notice ? Is he known among you ? Pray answer me these
questions ; for if his own weight keeps him down, I should be sorry to contri-
bute to his advancement to any place but the pillory."20

Of the very different manner in which he esteemed a calm, and a scurrilous
critic, we have happily been able to obtain an instance, in a copy of a curious
letter of Hume, which, although the envelope is unfortunately lost, and the
whole is somewhat mutilated, we can perceive from the circumstances, to have
been addressed to Dr John Stewart, author of an Essay on the Laws of Motion.
It affords a singular instance of the calm and forgiving spirit of the philosopher :
" I am so great a lover of peace, that I am resolved to drop this matter alto-
gether, and not to insert a syllable in the preface, which can have a reference to
jour essay. The truth is, 1 could take no revenge but such a one as would have

w Warburton's works, vii. 851, 868.

£° Letters from a late Rev. Prelate, to one of his Friends, 1808, p. 11.

124 " DAVID HUME.

been a great deal too cruel, and much exceeding the offence ; for though most
authors think, that a contemptuous manner of treating their writings is but
slightly revenged by hurting the personal character and the honour ot then-
antagonists, I am very far from being of that opinion. Besides, as I am as certain
as I can be of any thing, (and I am not such a sceptic as you may perhaps
imagine,) that your inserting such remarkable alterations in the printed copy
proceeded entirely from precipitancy and passion, not from any formed inten-
tion of deceiving the society, I would not take advantage of such an incident,
to throw a slur on a man of merit, whom I esteem though I might have reason
to complain of him. When I am abused by such a fellow as Warburton, whom
I neither know nor care for, I can laugh at him. But if Dr Stewart approaches
any way towards the same style of writing, I own it vexes me ; because I con-
clude that some unguarded circumstances of my conduct, though contrary to my
intention had given occasion to it As to your situation with regard to lord
Kames, I am not so good a judge. I only know, that you had so much the
better of the argument that you ought upon that account to have been more
reserved in your expressions. All raillery ought to be avoided in philosophical
argument, both because (it is) unphilosophical, and because it cannot but be
offensive, let it be ever so gentle. What then must we think with regard to so
many insinuations of irreligion, to which lord Karnes's paper gave not the least
occasion ? This spirit of the inquisitor is, in you, the effect of passion, and what
a cool moment would easily correct But when it predominates in the charac-
ter, what ravages has it committed on reason, virtue, truth, sobriety, and every
thing that is valuable among mankind ! " — We may at this period of his life con-
sider Hume as having reached the age when the mind has entirely ceased to
bend to circumstances, and cannot be made to alter its habits. Speaking of him
in this advanced period of his life, an author signing himself G. N. and detailing
some anecdotes of Hume, with whom he says he was acquainted, states (in the
Scots Magazine), that " his great views of being singular, and a vanity to show
himself superior to most people, led him to advance many axioms that were dis-
sonant to the opinions of others, and led him into sceptical doctrines, only to
show how minute and puzzling they were to other folk ; in so far, that 1 have
often seen him (in various companies, according as he saw some enthusiastic
person there), combat either their religious or political principles ; nay, after
he had struck them dumb, take up the argument on their side, with equal good
humour, wit, and jocoseness, all to show his pre-eminency." The same person
mentions his social feelings, and the natural disposition of his temper to flow
with the current of whatever society he was in ; and that while he never gam-
bled he had a natural liking to whist playing, and was so accomplished a player
as to be the subject of a shameless proposal on the part of a needy man of rank,
for bettering their mutual fortunes, which it need not be said was repelled.

But the late lamented Henry M'Kenzie, who has attempted to embody the
character of the sceptic in the beautiful fiction of La Roche, has drawn, from
his intimate knowledge of character, and his great acquaintance with the philoso-
pher, a more pleasing picture. His words are, " The unfortunate nature of his
opinions with regard to the theoretical principles of moral and religious truth,
never influenced his regard for men who held very opposite sentiments on those
subjects, which he never, like some vain shallow sceptics, introduced into social
discourse ; on the contrary, when at any time the conversation tended that way,
he was desirous rather of avoiding any serious discussion on matters which he
wished to confine to the graver and less dangerous consideration of cool philo-
sophy. He had, it might be said, in the language which the Grecian historian
applies to an illustrious Roman, two minds ; one which indulged in the meta-

DAVID HUME. 125

physical scepticism which his genius could invent, but which it could not always
disentangle ; another, simple, natural, and playful, which made his conversation
delightful to his friends, and even frequently conciliated men whose principles of
belief his philosophical doubts, if they had not power to shake, had grieved and
offended. During the latter period of his life I was frequently in his company
amidst persons of genuine piety, and I never heard him venture a remark at
which such men, or ladies — still more susceptible than men — could take offence.
His good nature and benevolence prevented such an injury to his hearers ; it
was unfortunate that he often forgot what injury some of his writings might do
to his readers."21

Hume was now a man of a very full habit, and somewhat given to indolence
in all occupations but that of literature. An account of himself, in a letter to his
relation Mrs Dysart may amuse from its calm pleasantry, and good humour :
" My compliments to his solicitorship. Unfortunately I have not a horse at
present to carry my fat carcase, to pay its respects to his superior obesity. But
if he finds travelling requisite either for his health or the captain's, we shall be
glad to entertain him here as long as we can do it at another's expense, in
hopes that we shall soon be able to do it at our own. Pray, tell the solicitor that
I have been reading lately, in an old author called Strabo, that in some cities of
ancient Gaul, there was a fixed legal standard established for corpulency, and
that the senate kept a measure, beyond which, if any belly presumed to increase,
the proprietor of that belly was obliged to pay a fine to the public, proportion-
able to its rotundity. Ill would it fare with his worship and I (me), if such a
law should pass our parliament, for I am afraid we are already got beyond the
statute. I wonder, indeed, no harpy of the treasury has ever thought of this
method of raising money. Taxes on luxury are always most approved of, and
no one will say that the carrying about a portly belly is of any use or necessity,
'lis a mere superfluous ornament, and is a proof too, that its proprietor enjoys
greater plenty than he puts to a good use ; and, therefoi'e, 'tis fit to reduce him
to a level with his fellow subjects, by taxes and impositions. As the lean
people are the most active, unquiet, and ambitious, they every where govern the
world, and may certainly oppress their antagonists whenever they please.
Heaven forbid that whig and tory should ever be abolished, for then the nation
might be split into fat and lean, and our faction I am afraid would be in a
piteous taking. The only comfort is, if they oppress us very much we should
at last change sides with them. Besides, who knows if a tax were imposed on
fatness, but some jealous divine might pretend that the church was in danger. I
cannot but bless the memory of Julius Ga2sar, for the great esteem he expressed
for fat men, and his aversion to lean ones. All the world allows that the emperor
was the greatest genius that ever was, and the greatest judge of mankind."

In the year 1756, the philosophical calm of Hume appeared in danger of
being disturbed by the fulminations of the church. The outcry against his
doubting philosophy became loud, scepticism began to be looked on as synoni-
mous with infidelity, and some of the fiercer spirits endeavoured to Urge on the
church to invade the sacred precincts of freedom of opinion. The discussion of
the subject commenced before the committee of overtures on the 27th of May,
and a long debate ensued, in which some were pleased to maintain, that Hume,
not being a Christian, was not a fit person to be judged by the venerable court.
For a more full narrative of those proceedings, we refer to the life of Henry
Home of Karnes, who was subjected to the same attempt at persecution. In an
analysis of the works of the two authors, published during the session of the
assembly, and circulated among the members, the respectable author, with a
21 M'Kenzie's Life of Home, p. 20.

126 DAVID HUME.

laudable anxiety to find an enemy to the religion he professed, laid down the
following, as propositions which he would be enabled to prove were the avowed
opinions of Mr Hume : — " 1st, All distinction between virtue and vice is merely

imaginary 2nd, Justice has no foundation farther than it contributes to public

advantage 3d, Adultery is very lawful, but sometimes not expedient — 4th,

Religion and its ministers are prejudicial to mankind, and will always be found
either to run into the heights of superstition or enthusiasm — 5th, Christianity
has no evidence of its being a divine revelation — uth, Of all the modes of Chris-
tianity, popery is the best, and the reformation from thence was only the work
of madmen and enthusiasts." The overture was rejected by the committee, and
the indefatigable vindicators of religion brought the matter under a different
shape before the presbytery of Edinburgh, but that body very properly decided
on several grounds, among which, not the least applicable was, " to prevent their
entering further into so abstruse and metaphysical a subject," that it " would be
more for the purposes of edification to dismiss the process."

In 1759, appeared Dr Robertson's History of Scotland, and the similarity of
the subjects in which he and Hume were engaged, produced an interchange of
information, and a lasting friendship, honourable to both these great men.
Hume was singularly destitute of literary jealousy ; and of the unaffected welcome
which he gave to a work treading on his own peculiar path, we could give many
instances, did our limits permit. He never withheld a helping hand to any
author who might be considered his rival, and, excepting in one instance, never
peevishly mentioned a living literary author in his works. The instance we
allude to, is a remark on Mr Tytler's vindication of queen Mary, and referring
the reader to a copy of it below," it is right to remark, that it seems more
dictated by contempt of the arguments, than spleen towards the person of the
author.

Any account of the literary society in which Hume spent his hours of leisure
and conviviality, would involve us in a complete literary history of Scotland
during that period, unsuitable to a biographical dictionary. With all the emi-
nent men of that illustrious period of Scottish literature, he was eminently
acquainted ; as a philosopher, and as a man of dignified and respected intellect,
he stood at the head of the list of great names ; but in the less calm employments
in which literary men of all periods occupy themselves, he was somewhat shunned,
as a person too lukewarm, indolent, and good-humoured, to support literary war-
fare. An amusing specimen of his character in this respect, is mentioned by
M'Kenzie in his life of Home. When two numbers of a periodical work, entitled
" The Edinburgh Review," were published in 1755, the bosom friends of Hume,
who were the conductors, concealed it from him, because, " I have heard," says
M'Kenzie, u that they were afraid both of his extreme good nature, and his
extreme artlessness ; that, from the one, their criticisms would have been weak-
ened, or suppressed, and, from the other, their secret discovered ;" and it was
not till Hume had repeated his astonishment that persons in Scotland beyond the

" " But there is a person that has written an Inquiry, historical and critical, into the evidence
against Mar)-, queen of Scots ; and has attempted to refute the foregoing narrative. He quotes
a single passage of the narrative, in which Mary i9 said simply to refuse answering ; and then
a single passage from Goodall, in which she boasts simply that she will answer; and lie very
civilly, and almost directly, calls the author a liar, on account of this pretended contradiction.
That whole Inquiry, from beginning to end, is composed of such scandalous articles; and from
this instance, the reader may judge of the candour, fair dealing, veracit), and good manners of
the inquirer. There are, indeed, three events in our history, which may be regarded as touch-
stones of party- men. An English whig, who asserts the renlity of the popish plot; an Irish
Catholic, who denies the massacre in 1641 ; and a Scottish Jacobite, who maintains the inno-
cence of queen Mary, must be considered as men beyond the reach of argument or reason;
and must be left to their prejudices. '*

DAVID HUME. 127

sphere of the literary circle of Edinburgh, could have produced so able a work,
that he was made acquainted with the secret In whimsical revenge of the want
of confidence displayed by his friends, Hume gravely maintained himself to be
the author of a humorous work of Adam Ferguson, " The History of Sister Peg,"
and penned a letter to the publisher, which any person who might peruse it
without knowing the circumstances, could not fail to consider a sincere acknow-
ledgment Hume was a member of the Philosophical Society, which afterwards
merged into the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and acted as joint secretary along
with Dr Munro junior. He was also a member of the illustrious Poker Club,
and not an uncongenial one, so long as the members held their unobtrusive dis-
cussion in a tavern, over a small quantity of claret ; but when this method of
managing matters was abolished, and the institution merged into the more conse-
quential denomination of " The Select Society," amidst the exertions of many
eloquent and distinguished men, he was only remarkable, along with his friend
Adam Smith, for having never opened his mouth.

In 1761, Mr Hume published the two remaining volumes of the History of
England, treating of the period previous to the accession of the house of Tudor :
he tells us that it was received with " tolerable, and but tolerable success."
A\ hi taker, Hallam, Turner, and others, have examined their respective portions
of this period of history with care, and pointed out the inaccuracies of Hume ;
but the subject did not possess so much political interest as the later periods,
and general readers have not been much disposed to discuss the question of his
general accuracy. Men such as the first name we have mentioned have attacked
him with peevishness on local and obscure matters of antiquarian research,
which a historian can hardly be blamed for neglecting : others, however, who
seem well-informed, have found serious objections to his accuracy. In an article
on the Saxon Chronicle, which appeared in the Retrospective Review, by an
apparently well-informed writer, he is charged in these terms: "It would be
pei-fectly startling to popular credulity, should all the instances be quoted in
which the text of Hume, in the remoter periods more especially, is at the most
positive variance with the authorities he pretends to rest upon. In a series of
historical inquiries which the writer of this article had some years since particu-
lar occasion to superintend, aberrations of this kind were so frequently detected,
that it became necessary to lay it down as a rule never to admit a quotation
from that popular historian, when the authorities he pretends to refer to were
not accessible for the purpose of pi-evious comparison and confirmation."

Hume, now pretty far advanced in life, had formed the resolution of ending
his days in literary retirement in his own country, when in 1763, he was
solicited by the earl of Hertford to attend him on his embassy to Paris, and
after having declined, on a second invitation he accepted the situation. In the
full blaze of a wide-spread reputation, the philosopher was now surrounded by
a new world of literary rivals, imitators, and admirers, and he received from a
circle of society ever searching for what was new, brilliant, and striking, num-
berless marks of distinction highly flattering to his literary pride, though not
unmixed with affectation. In some very amusing letters to his friends written
during this period, he shows, that if he was weak enough to feel vain of these
distinctions, he had sincerity enough to say so.

The fashionable people of Paris, and especially the ladies, practised on the
patient and good-humoured philosopher every torture which their extreme
desire to render him and themselves distinguished could dictate. " From what
has been already said of him," says lord Charlemont, " it is apparent that his
conversation to strangers, and particularly to Frenchmen, could be little de-
lightful, and still more particularly one would suppose, to French women ; and

128

DAVID HUME.

yet no lady's toilette was complete without Hume's attendance. At the opera,
his broad unmeaning face was usually seen entre deux jo/is minois. The ladies
in France gave the ton, and the ton was deism." Madame D'Epinay, who
terms him " Grand et gros historiographe d'Angleterre," mentions that it was
the will of one of his entertainers that he should act the part of a sultan, en-
deavouring to secure by his eloquence the affection of two beautiful female slaves.
The philosopher was accordingly whiskered, turbaned, and blackened, and
placed on a sofa betwixt two of the most celebrated beauties of Paris. Accord-
ing to the instructions he had received, he bent his knees, and struckhis breast,
(or as Madame has it, " le ventre,") but his tongue could not be brought to as-
sist his actions further than by uttering " Eh bien ! mes demoiselles — Eh bien !

voii8 voila done Eh bien ! vous voila — vous voila ici ?" exclamations which he

repeated until he had exhausted the patience of those he was expected to
entertain.83

In 1765, lord Hertford being appointed lord lieutenant of Ireland, Mr
Hume, according to his expectation, was appointed secretary to the embassy,
and he officiated as charge d'affaires, until the arrival of the duke of Richmond.
Hume, who had a singular antipathy to England, and who had previously en-
joyed himself only in the midst of his social literary circle at Edinburgh, in-
sensibly acquired a relish for the good-humoured politeness and the gayety of
the French, and on his return home in 1766, he left behind him a number of
regretted friends, among whom were two celebrated females, the marchioness
De Barbantane and the countess De Boufflers, who conducted a friendly, and
even extremely intimate correspondence with the philosopher to the day of his
death.84

In the order of time we come now to the discussion of an incident connected
with his residence on the continent, which forms a very remarkable epoch in
the life of Hume, — we mean his controversy with Rousseau. Before making
»ny statements, however, it is right to warn our readers, that an account of this
memorable transaction, sufficient to give him an acquaintance with all its
peculiarities, would exceed our limits, which permit of but a slight glance at the
incidents, and that indeed it is quite impossible to form a conception of the
grotesqueness of some of the incidents, and the peculiarities of character so
vividly displayed, without a perusal of the original documents, which are easily
accessible, and will well repay the trouble of perusal.

When in 1762, the parliament of Paris issued an arret against Rousseau, on
account of his opinions, Hume was applied to by a friend in Paris to discover
for him a retreat in England ; Hume willingly undertook a task so congenial,
but it did not suit the celebrated exile at that time to take advantage of his of-
fer. Rousseau, taking every opportunity to complain of the misfortunes he suf-
fered, the transaction with Hume was again set on foot at the instigation of the
marchioness De Verdlin ; Hume wrote to Rousseau, offering his services, and
the latter returned him an answer overflowing with extravagant gratitude.
Rousseau had, it appeared, discovered an ingenious method of making himself
interesting : he pretended extreme poverty, and had offers of assistance repeated-
ly made him, which he publicly and disdainfully refused, while he had in reality
as Hume afterwards discovered, resources sufficient to provide for his support.
In pure simplicity, Hume formed several designs for imposing on Rousseau's ig-
norance of the world, and establishing him comfortably in life, without allowing
him to know that he was assisted by others ; and the plan finally concluded and
acted on was, that he should be comfortably boarded in the mansion of Mr

« Memoirs et Correspondance.de Madame D'Epinay, iii. 2S4
** General Correspondence of David Hume, 4to, 1828, passim.

PAVII) HUME. 129

Davenport, at Wooton, in the county of Derby, a gentleman who kindly under-
took to lull the suspicions of the irritable philosopher by accepting of a remun-
eration amounting to £30 a year. Rousseau arrived in London, and appearing
in public in his Armenian dress, excited much notice, both from the public in
general, and from literary men. Hume, by his interest with the government
obtained for him a pension of £100 a year, which it suited those in authority
to wish should be kept secret. Rousseau expressed much satisfaction at this
condition, but he afterwards declined the grant, hinting at the secrecy as an
impediment to his acceptance of it ; his zealous friend procured the removal ot
this impediment, and the pension was again offered, but its publicity afforded a
far more gratifying opportunity of refusal. Immediately after he had re-
tired to Wooton, with his housekeeper and his dog, nothing occurred appar-
ently to infringe his amicable intercourse with Hume; but that individual was
little aware of the storm in preparation. The foreign philosopher began to dis-
cover the interest of his first appearance in Britain subsiding. He was not in
a place where he could be followed by crowds of wondering admirers, the press
was lukewarm and regardless, and sometimes ventured to bestow on him a sneer,
and above all no one sought to persecute him. The feelings which these un-
pleasing circumstances occasioned, appear to have been roused to sudden action
by a sarcastic letter in the name of the king of Prussia, of which Rousseau pre-
sumed D'Alembert to have been the author, but which was claimed by Horace
Walpole, and which made the circle of the European journals ; and by an anony-
mous critique of a somewhat slighting nature, which had issued from a British
magazine, but which appears not to have been remarked or much known at the
period. Of these two productions it pleased Rousseau to presume David Hume
the instigator, and he immediately framed in his mind the idea of a black pro-
ject for his ruin, countenanced and devised by his benefactor under the mask of
friendship. Rousseau then wrote a fierce letter to Hume, charging him in
somewhat vague terms with a number of horrible designs, and in the general
manner of those who bring accusations of unutterable things, referring him to
his own guilty breast for a more full explanation. Hume naturally requested a
farther explanation of the meaning of this ominous epistle, and he received in
answer a narrative which occupies forty printed pages. It were vain to enum-
erate the subjects of complaint in this celebrated document. There was an ac-
cusation of terrible affectation on the part of Hume, in getting a portrait of the
unfortunate exile engraved ; he had insulted him by procuring dinners to be
sent to his lodgings in London, (a circumstance which Hume accounted for on
the ground of there having been no convenient chop house in the neighbour-
hood.) He had also flattered him (an attention which Hume maintains was not
unacceptable at the period,) with a deep laid malignity. Hume had also
formed a plan of opening all his letters, and examining his correspondence,
(an accusation which Hume denied.) Hume was intimate with the son of an in-
dividual who entertained towards Rousseau a mortal hatred. A narrative of the
treatment which Rousseau had met with at Neufchatel, and which he wished to
have published in England, was delayed at the press ; but we shall give in
Rousseau's own words (as translated) the most deadly article of the charge, pre-
mising, that the circumstances were occasioned by Hume's having attempted to
impose on him a coach hired and payed for, as a retour vehicle : — " As we
were sitting one evening, after supper, silently by the fire-side, I caught his eye
intently fixed on mine, as indeed happened very often ; and that in a manner
of which it is very difficult to give an idea. At that time he gave me a stead-
fast, piercing look, mixed with a sneer, which greatly disturbed me. To get
rid of the embarrassment I lay under, I endeavoured to look full at him in my

130 DAVID HUME.

turn ; but in fixing my eyes against his, I felt the most inexpressible terror,
and was obliged soon to turn them away. The speech and physiognomy of the
good David is that of an honest man ; but where, great God ! did this good man
borrow those eyes he fixes so sternly and unaccountably on those of his friends ?
The impression of this look remained with me, and gave me much uneasiness.
My trouble increased even to a degree of fainting ; and if I had not been re-
lieved by an effusion of tears I had been suffocated. Presently after this I was
seized with the most violent remorse ; I even despised myself; till at length, in
a transport, which I still remember with delight, I sprang on his neck,
embraced him eagerly, while almost choked with sobbing, and bathed in tears,
I cried out in broken accents, No, no, David Hume cannot be treacherous. If
he be not the best of men, he must be the basest of mankind. David Hume
politely returned my embraces, and, gently tapping me on the back, repeated
several times, in a good-natured and easy tone, Why, what, my dear sir! nay,
my dear sir! Oh, my dear sir! He said nothing more. I felt my heart yearn
within me. We went to bed ; and I set out the next day for the country."

The charge terminates with accusing Hume of wilful blindness, in not being
aware, from the neglect with which Rousseau treated him, that the blackness of
his heart had been discovered. Soon after the controversy was terminated, a
ludicrous account of its amusing circumstances was given to the public ; the ex-
treme wit, and humorous pungency of which will excuse our insertion of it,
while we may also mention, that with its air of raillery, it gives an extremely
correct abstract of the charge of Rousseau. It is worthy of remark, that the
terms made use of show the author to have been colloquially acquainted with the
technicalities of Scottish law, although it is not likely that a professional person
would have introduced terms applicable only to civil transactions, into the model
of a criminal indictment. We have found this production in the Scots Maga-
zine. Mr Ritchie says it .appeared in the St James's Chronicle : in which it may
have been first published.

HEADS OF AN INDICTMENT LAID BY J. J. ROUSSEAU, PHILOSOPHER, AGAINST

D. HUME, Esq.

1. That the said David Hume, to the great scandal of philosophy, and not
having the fitness of things before his eyes, did concert a plan with Messrs
Froachin, Voltaire, and D'Alembert, to ruin the said J. J. Rousseau for ever by
bringing him over to England, and there settling him to his heart's content.

2. That the said David Hume did, with a malicious and traitorous intent,
procure, or cause to.be procured, by himself or somebody else, one pension of
the yearly value of £100, or thereabouts, to be paid to the said J. J. Rousseau,
on account of his being a philosopher, either privately or publicly, as to him
the said J. J. Rousseau should seem meet

3. That the said David Hume did, one night after he left Paris, put the said
J. J. Rousseau in bodily fear, by talking in his sleep ; although the said J. J.
Rousseau doth not know whether the said David Hume was really asleep, or
whether he shammed Abraham, or what he meant

1. That at another time, as the said David Hume and the said J. J. Rousseau
were sitting opposite each other by the fire-side in London, he the said David
Hume did look at him, the said J. J. Rousseau, in a manner of which it is dif-
ficult to give any idea ; that he the said J. J. Rousseau, to get rid of the embar-
rassment he was under, endeavoured to look full at him, the said David Hume,
in return, to try if he could not stare him out of countenance ; but in fixing his
eyes against his, the said David Hume's, he felt the most inexpressible terror,
and was obliged to turn them away, insomuch that the said J. J. Rousseau doth

DAVID HUME. 131

in his heart think and believe, as much as he believes anything, that he the said
David Hume is a certain composition of a white-witch and a rattle-snake.

5. That the said David Hume on the same evening, after politely returning
the embraces of him, the said J. J. Rousseau, and gently tapping him on the
back, did repeat several times, in a good-natured, easy tone, the words, " Why,
what, my dear sir! Nay, my dear sir! Oh my dear sir!" — From whence the
said J. J. Rousseau doth conclude, as he thinks upon solid and sufficient grounds,
that he the said David Hume is a traitor ; albeit he, the said J. J. Rousseau doth
acknowledge, that the physiognomy of the good David is that of an honest man,
all but those terrible eyes of his, which he must have borrowed ; but he the said
J. J. Rousseau vows to God he cannot conceive from whom or what.

6. That the said David Hume hath more inquisitiveness about him than be-
cometh a philosopher, and did never let slip an opportunity of being alone with
the governante of him the said J. J. Rousseau.

7. That the said David Hume did most atrociously and flagitiously put him
the said J. J. Rousseau, philosopher, into a passion ; as knowing that then he
would be guilty of a number of absurdities.

8. That the said David Hume must have published Mr Walpole's letter in
the newspapers, because, at that time, there was neither man, woman, nor child
in the island of Great Britain, but the said David Hume, the said J. J. Rousseau,
and the printers of the several newspapers aforesaid.

9. That somebody in a certain magazine, and somebody else in a certain
newspaper, said something against him the said John James Rousseau, which he,
the said J.J. Rousseau, is persuaded, for the reason above mentioned, could be
nobody but the said David Hume.

1 0. That the said J. J. Rousseau knows, that he, the said David Hume, did open
and peruse the letters of him the said J. J. Rousseau, because he one day saw
the said David Hume go out of the room after his own servant, who had at that
time a letter of the said J. J. Rousseau's in his hands ; which must have been in
order to take it from the servant, open it, and read the contents.

11. That the said David Hume did, at the instigation of the devil, in a most
wicked and unnatural manner, send, or cause to be sent, to the lodgings of him,
the said J. J. Rousseau, one dish of beef steaks, thereby meaning to insinuate,
that he the said J. J. Rousseau was a beggar, and came over to England to ask
alms : whereas, be it known to all men by these presents, that he, the said John
James Rousseau, brought with him the means of sustenance, and did not come
with an empty»purse ; as he doubts not but he can live upon his labours, with
the assistance of his friends; and in short can do better without the said David
Hume than with him.

12. That besides all these facts put together, the said J. J. Rousseau did not
like a certain appearance of things on the whole.

Rousseau, with his accustomed activity on such occasions, loudly repeated his
complaints to the world, and filled the ears of his friends with the villany of his
seeming benefactor. The method which Hume felt himself compelled to adopt
for his own justification was one which proved a severe punishment to his op-
ponent ; he published the correspondence, with a few explanatory observations,
and was ever afterwards silent on the subject. Some have thought that he ought
to have remained silent from the commencement, and that such was his wish
we have ample proof from his correspondence at that period, but to have con-
tinued so in the face of the declarations of his enemy, he must have been more
than human ; and the danger which his fame incurred from the acts of a man
who had the means of making what he said respected, will at least justify him.

132

DAVID HUME.

Hume had returned to Edinburgh with the renewed intention of there
spending his days in retirement, and in the affluence which his frugality, perse-
verance, genius, and good conduct had acquired for him; but in 1765, at the
solicitation of general Conway, he acted for that gentleman as an under-
secretary of state. It is probable that he did not make a better under-secretary
than most men of equally diligent habits might have done, and nothing occurs
worthy of notice during his tenure of that office, which he resigned in January,
1768, when general Conway resigned his secretaryship.

We have nothing to record from this period till we come to the closing scene
of the philosopher's life. In the spring of 1775, he was struck with a disorder
of the bowels, which he soon became aware brought with it the sure prognosti-
cation of a speedy end. " I now," he says " reckon upon a speedy dissolution.
I have suffered very little pain from my disorder ; and what is more strange,
have, notwithstanding the great decline of my person, never suffered a moment's
abatement of my spirits, insomuch, that were I to name the period of my life,
which I should most choose to pass over again, I might be tempted to point to
this latter period. I possess the same ardour as ever in study, and the same
gayety in company. I consider, besides, that a man of sixty-five, by dying,
cuts off only a few years of infirmities, and though I see many symptoms of my
literary reputation breaking out at last with additional lustre, I know that I
could have but few years to enjoy it It is difficult to be more detached from
life than I am at present."

The entreaties of his friends prevailed on Hume to make a last effort to re-
gain his health, by drinking the Bath waters, and he left Edinburgh for tli.it
purpose in the month of April, after having prepared his will, and written the
memoir of himself, so often referred to. As he passed through Morpeth, he
met his affectionate friends John Home the poet and Adam Smith, who had
come from London for the purpose of attending him on his journey, and who
would have passed him had they not seen his servant standing at the inn door.
The meeting of these friends must have been melancholy, for they were strongly-
attached to each other, and the intimacy betwixt the philosopher and the
enthusiastic poet Home, seemed to have been strengthened by the striking con-
trast of their temperaments. The intercourse of the friends on their journey was
supported by Hume with cheerfulness, and even with gayety ; and he never
morosely alluded to his prospects of dissolution. On one occasion, when Home
was officiously preparing his pistols, (for he was usually inspired with a mili-
tary enthusiasm,) Hume said to him, " you shall have your humour, John, and
igfct with as many highwaymen as you please, for I have too little of life left to
be an object worth saving." Of this journey a journal was found among the
papers of Home, in the handwriting of the poet, which has been fortunately
given to the world by Mr M'Kenzie. Regretting tliat we cannot quote the whole
of this interesting document, we give a characteristic extract.

" Newcastle, Wednesday, 24>th Aprile.

M Mr Hume not quite so well in the morning ; says, that he had set out merely
to please his friends ; that he would go on to please them ; that Ferguson and
Andrew Stuart, (about whom we had been talking) were answerable for short-
ening his life one week a piece ; for, says he, you will allow Xenophon to be
good authority ; and he lays it down, that suppose a man is dying, nobody has
a right to kill him. He set out in this vein, and continued all the stage in this
cheerful and talking humour. It was a fine day, and we went on to Durham—
from that to Darlington, where we passed the Mffct.

" In the evening Mr Hume thinks himself more easy and light than he has

PATRICK HUME. 133

beer: any time for three months. In the course of our conversation we touched
upon the national affairs. He still maintains, that the national debt must be
the ruin of Britain, and laments that the two most civilized nations, the British
and French, should be on the decline ; and the barbarians, the Goths and
Vandals of Germany and Russia, should be rising in power and renown. The
French king, he says, has ruined the state by recalling the parliaments. Mr
Hume thinks that there is only one man in France fit to be minister, (the arch-
bishop of Toulouse,) of the family of Brienne. He told me some curious anec-
dotes with regard to this prelate, that he composed and corrected without
writing ; that Mr Hume had heard him repeat an elegant oration of an hour
and a quarter in length, which he had never written. Mr Hume talking with
the princess Beauvais about French policy, said that he knew but one man in
France capable of restoring its greatness ; the lady said she knew one too, and
wished to hear if it was the same ; they accordingly named each their man, and
it was this prelate."

The journey had the effect of partly alleviating Mr Hume's disorder, but it
returned with renewed virulence. While his strength permitted such an at-
tempt, he called a meeting of his literary friends to partake with him of a fare-
well dinner. The invitation sent to Dr Blair is extant, and is in these terms :
" Mr John Hume, alia? Home, alias the late lord conservator, alias the late
minister of the gospel at Athelstaneford, has calculated matters so as to arrive
infallibly with his friend in St David's Street, on Wednesday evening. He has
asked several of Dr Blair's friends to dine with him there on Thursday, being
the 4th of July, and begs the favour of the doctor to make one of the number."
Subjoined to the card there is this note, in Dr Blair's hand writing, " Mem.
This the last note received from David Hume. He died on the 25th of Au-
gust, 1776." This mournful festival, in honour as it were of the departure of
the most esteemed and illustrious member of their brilliant circle, was attended
by lord Elibank, Adam Smith, Dr Blair, Dr Black, professor Ferguson, and
John Home. On Sunday the 26th August, 1776, Mr Hume expired. Of the
manner of his death, after the beautiful picture which has been drawn of the
event by his friend Adam Smith, we need not enlarge. The calmness of his
last moments, unexpected by many, was in every one's mouth at the period, and
it is still well known. He was buried on a point of rock overhanging the old
town of Edinburgh, now surrounded by buildings, but then bare and wild — the
spot he had hinfeelf chosen for the purpose. A conflict betwixt a vague horror
at his imputed opinions, and respect for the individual who had passed among
them a life so irreproachable, created a sensation among the populace of Edin-
burgh, and a crowd of people attended the body to its grave, which for some
time was an object of curiosity. According to his request, Hume's Dialogues on
Natural Religion were published after his death, a beautifully classic piece of
composition, bringing us back to the days of Cicei*o. It treats of many of the
speculations propounded in his other works.

HUME, Patrick, first earl of Marchmont, a distinguished patriot and states-
man, was born, January 13th, 1641. His original place in society was that of
the laird of Polwarth, in Berwickshire, being the eldest son of Sir Patrick Hume
of Polwarth, the representative of an old baronial family, by Christian Hamil-
ton, daughter of Sir Alexander Hamilton of Innerwick. The subject of our
memoir succeeded his father in 1648, while as yet a mere child; and was
accordingly indebted to his excellent mother for the better part of his early
education. He appears to have been, by her, brought up in the strictest tenets
of the presbyterian religion, which flourished, without any constraint upon its
private exercise, daring all his early years, till it was discountenanced by govern-

134 PATRICK HUME.

ment after the Restoration. Sir Patrick, however, was not only an admirer of
the form of worship enjoined by that religious system, but a zealous maintainor
of its pretensions to a divine right, as the only true church of Christ ; and this,
it is said, was what first inspired him with the feelings of a patriot. Having
been sent to parliament in 1663, as representative of the county of Berwick, he
soon distinguished himself by the opposition which he gave, along with the duke
of Hamilton and others, to the headlong measures of the government. In 1673,
the king sent a letter to parliament desiring a levy of soldiers and money to
support them, and the duke of Lauderdale moved that it be referred to the lords
of the articles, who were always at the beck of government. This proposal,
though strictly in accordance with the custom of the Scottish parliament, was
opposed by the duke of Hamilton, who asserted that the royal wishes ought to
be considered by the whole assembled representatives of the nation. On Sir
Patrick Hume expressing his concurrence with the duke, he was openly pointed
out to parliament by Lauderdale, as a dangerous person. Hereupon, Sir Patrick
said, " he hoped this was a free parliament, and it concerned all the members to be
free in what concerned the nation." In the ensuing year, he was one of those
who went with the duke of Hamilton to lay the grievances of the nation before
the king, whose delusive answer to their application is well known. It was not
possible that a person who maintained so free a spirit in such an age could long
escape trouble. In 1675, having remonstrated against the measure for establish-
ing garrisons to keep down the people, he was committed by the privy council
to the tolbooth of Edinburgh, as " a factious person, and one who had done
that which might usher in confusion." After suffering confinement for six
months in Stirling castle, he was liberated through the intercession of friends,
but not long after was again confined, and altogether suffered imprisonment for
about two years. The order for his liberation, dated 17th April, 1679, states
that " he had been imprisoned for reasons known to his majesty, and tending to
secure the public peace ;" and adds, " the occasions of suspicion and public
jealousy being over, he is ordered to be liberate." To continue our memoir in
the words of Mr George Crawford,1 who had received information from Sir
Patrick's own mouth, " Finding after this that the ministers of state were most
earnestly set on his destruction, and that he could not live in security at home,
he went to England, and entered into a strict friendship with the duke of
Monmouth, the earl of Shaftesbury, and the lord Russel, who was his near rela-
tion. With them he often met, and had many conferences on the state of Scot-
land, and what might be done there to secure the kingdom from popery and
arbitrary power, in the event of a popish successor. But, as his lordship pro-
tested to me, there never passed among them the least intimation of any design
against the king's life, or the duke of York's ; that was what they all had an
abhorrence of. But he said, he thought it was lawful for subjects, being under
such pressures, to try how they might be relieved from them; and their design
never went further."

Notwithstanding the pure intentions of this little band of patriots, the govern-
ment, as is well known, was able to fasten upon them the charge of having
conspired the deaths of the king and his brother ; and to this infamous accusa-
tion lord Russell fell a victim in England, and Mr Baillie of Jerviswood, in
Scotland. It was on the 24th of December, 1684, that the latter individual
suffered; before that time, Sir Patrick Hume, though conscious of innocence,
had gone into hiding, being justified in that step by a degree of personal
infirmity, which unfitted him for enduring imprisonment The place selected for
his concealment Mas the sepulchral vault of his family, underneath the parish
• Lives and Characters of the Officers of the Crow,., and of the State in Scotland.

PATRICK HUME. 135

church of Polwarth, about two miles from Redbraes castle, the house in which
he generally resided. Here he lived for many weeks of the autumn of 1 6 84,
without fire and hardly any light, and surrounded by the ghastly objects which
usually furnish forth such a scene. He was enabled, however, by the firmness
of his own mind, and the affections of his amiable family, to suffer this dreary
self-imprisonment without shrinking. No one knew of his concealment but his
family, and one " Jamie Winter," a carpenter, of whose fidelity they had good
reason to be assured. Having been provided with a bed through the aid of this
humble friend, Sir Patrick depended for food and other necessaries upon the
heroic devotedness of his daughter Grizel, who, though only twelve years of age,
nightly visited this dismal scene, without manifesting the least agitation either on
account of real or imaginary dangers. Supported by such means, Sir Patrick
never lost his cheerfulness of temper, but, on the contrary, could laugh heartily at
any little incident detailed to him by his daughter. The noble child had no other
means of obtaining his food, except by secreting part of what she had upon her
own plate at the family meals. Her having one day secured an entire sheep's-
head, which her younger brother Alexander thought she had swallowed in a
moment, supplied one of those domestic jests with which the fugitive father was
entertained. While in this lonely place, Sir Patrick had no other reading than
Buchanan's psalms, which he conned so thoroughly, that he ever after had the
most of them by heart. As the winter advanced, lady Polwarth contrived a
retreat underneath the floor of a low apartment at Redbraes, and thinking that
this might serve to conceal her husband in the event of any search taking place,
had him removed to his own house, where he accordingly lived for some time,
till it was found one morning, that the place designed for concealment, had
become half filled with water.

Warned by this incident, and by the execution of his friend Mr Baillie, he
resolved to remain no longer in his native country. It was projected that he
should leave the house next morning in disguise, attended by his grieve or farm-
overseer, John Allan, who was instructed to give out that he was going to attend
a horse-market at Morpeth. The party stole away by night, and had proceeded
a considerable distance on their way, when Sir Patrick, falling into a reverie,
parted company with his attendant, and did not discover the mistake till he found
himself on the banks of the Tweed. This, however, was a most fortunate misad-
venture, for, soon after his parting with Allan, a company of soldiers that had
been in search of him at Redbraes, and followed in the expectation of overtaking
him, came up, and would have inevitably discovered and seized him, if he had not
been upon another track. On learning what had happened, he dismissed his
servant, and, leaving the main-road, reached London through bye-ways. On
this journey he represented himself as a surgeon, a character which he could
have supported effectually, if called upon, as he carried a case of lancets, and
was acquainted with their use. From London he found his way to France, and
thence after a short stay, walked on foot to Brussels, intending to converse with
the duke of Monmouth. Finding the duke had gone .to the Hague, he pro-
ceeded to Holland, but did not immediately obtain a conference with that ill-
fated nobleman. He had an audience, however, of the prince of Orange, who,
" looking on him (to use the words of Crawfurd,) as a confessor for the protes-
tant religion, and the liberties of his country, treated him with a very particular
respect."

On the death of Charles II., in February, 1685, and the accession of the duke
of York, whose attachment to the catholic faith rendered him, in their eyes,
unfit to reign, the British refugees in Holland concerted two distinct but relative
expeditions, for the salvation of the protestant religion, and to maintain " the

13G

PATRICK HUME.

natural and native rights and liberties of the free people ot Britain and Ireland,
and all the legal fences of society and property there established. One of these
expeditions was to land in England, under the duke of Monmouth, whose prose,
cution of his own views upon the crown, under the favour of the protestant
interest is well known. The other was to be under the conduct of the earl of
Argyle 'and was to land in Scotland, where it was expected that an army would
be formed in the first place from his lordship's Highland retainers, and speedily
enforced by the malcontents of Ayrshire, and other parts of the Lowlands. Sir
Patrick Hume has left a memoir respecting the latter enterprise, from which it
clearly appears that Monmouth gave distinct pledges (afterwards lamentably
broken,) as to the deference of his own personal views to the sense of the party in
general'— and also that Argyle acted throughout the whole preparations, and in
the expedition itself, with a wilfulness, self-seeking, and want of energy, which
were but poorly compensated by the general excellence of his motives, and the
many worthier points in his character. Sir Patrick Hume and Sir John Coch-
rane of Ochiltree, alike admirable for the purity and steadiness of their political
views, were next in command, or at least in the actual conduct of affairs, to the
earl. The sword of the former gentleman is still preserved, and bears upon
both sides of its blade, the following inscription in German :
" Got bewarr die aufrechte Schotten,"

that is, God preserve the righteous Scots. It was not destined, however, that
fortune should smile on this enterprise. The patriots sailed on the 2nd of May,
in three small vessels, and on the 6th arrived near Kirkwall in the Orkney
islands. The imprudent landing of two gentlemen, who were detained by the
bishop, served to alarm the government, so that when the expedition reached
the country of Argyle, he found that all his friends, upon whom he depended,
had been placed under arrest at the capital. After trifling away several weeks
in his own district, and affording time to the government to collect its forces,
he formed the resolution of descending upon Glasgow. Meanwhile, Sir Patrick
Hume and others were forfaulted, their estates confiscated, and a high reward
offered for their apprehension. While Argyle was lingering at Rothesay, Sir
Patrick conducted the descent of a foraging party upon Greenock, and, though
opposed by a party of militia, succeeded in his object. Allowing as largely as
could be demanded for the personal feelings of this gentleman, it would really
appear from his memoir that the only judgment or vigour displayed in the whole
enterprise, resided in himself and Sir John Cochrane. When the earl finally
resolved at Kilpatrick to give up the appearance of an army, and let each man
shift for himself, these two gentlemen conducted a party of less than a hundred
men across the Clyde, in the face of a superior force of the enemy, and were
able to protect themselves till they reached Muirdykes. Here they were assailed
by a large troop of cavalry, and were compelled each man to fight a number of
personal contests in order to save his own life. Yet, by a judicious disposition of
their little force, and the most unflinching bravery and perseverance, Hume and
Cochrane kept their ground till night, when, apprehending the approach of
larger body of foot, they stole away to an unfrequented part of the country,
where they deliberately dispersed.

Sir Patrick Hume found protection for three weeks, in the house of Mont-
gomery of Lainshaw, where, or at Kilwinning, it would appear that he wrote
the memoir above alluded to, which was first printed in Mr Hose's observations
on Fox's historical work, and latterly in the Marchmont papers, (1831.) The
better to confound the search made for him, a report of his death was circulated
by his friends. Having escaped by a vessel from the west coast, he proceeded

PATRICK HUME. 137

by Dublin to Bourdeaux, where we find he was on the 1 5th of November. He
now resumed his surgical character, and passed under the name of Dr Peter
Wallace. Early in 1686, lie appears to have proceeded by Geneva to Holland,
where his family joined him, and they resided together at Utrecht for three
years. The picture of this distressed, but pious and cheerful family, is very
affectingly given by lady Murray, in the well-known memoirs of her mother, lady
Grizel Baillie. They were reduced to such straits through the absence of all
regular income, that lady Hume could not keep a servant, and Sir Patrick was
obliged — but this must have been a labour of love — to teach his own children.
They were frequently compelled to pawn their plate, to provide the necessaries of
life until a fresh supply reached them. Yet, even in this distress, their house
was ever open to the numerous refugees who shared in their unhappy fate. Not
forgetting political objects, Sir Patrick, in 1688, wrote a letter powerful in
style and arguments, to put the presbyterian clergy in Scotland on their guard
against the insidious toleration which king James proposed for the purpose of
effecting the ascendancy of popery. In this document, which has been printed
among the Marchmont papers by Sir G. H. Rose, we find him giving an animated
picture of the prince of Orange, whom he already contemplated as the future
deliverer of his country, and no doubt wished to point in that character to the
attention of Scotsmen ; " one," says he, " bred a Calvinist, who, for religious
practice, excels most men so high in quality, and is equal to the most part of
whatever rank of the sincere and serious in that communion ; for virtue and
good morals beyond many ; those infirmities natural to poor mankind, and con-
sistent with seriousness in religion, breaking out as little, either for degree or
frequency, from him, as from most part of good men, and not one habitual to
him : one of a mild and courteous temper ; of a plain, ingenuous, and honest
nature ; of a humane, gay, and affable carriage, without any token of pride or
disdain ; one educated and brought up in a republic as free as any in the world,
and inured to the freedom allowed by and possessed in it His greatest enemy,
if he know him, or my greatest enemy, if he read this, must find his own con-
science witnessing to his face, that what I have said is truth, and that I am one
of more worth than to sully my argument with a flaunting hyperbole even in
favour of a prince." The modern reader, who is acquainted with the picture
usually drawn of the same personage by the English historians, will probably be
startled at the gayety and affability here attributed to the prince ; but, besides
the unavoidable prepossession of Sir Patrick for a person who, it would appear,
had treated him kindly, and stood in the most endearing relation to all his
favourite objects in religion and politics, it must be allowed that, at an age
which might be called youth (thirty-eight), and previous to his undertaking the
heavy and ungrateful burden of royalty in Britain, William might have been
better entitled to such a description than he was in the latter part of his life.

Before this time, the eldest son of Sir Patrick Hume, and his future son-in-law
Baillie, had obtained commissions in the horse-guards of the prince of Orange,
in whose expedition to England all three soon after took a part. These gentle-
men were among those who suffered in the storm by which a part of the prince's
fleet was disabled ; they had to return to port with the loss of all their luggage,
which, in the existing state of their affairs, was a very severe misfortune. The
little party appears to have speedily refitted and accompanied the prince at his
landing in Devonshire, as we find Sir Patrick writing a diary of the progress to
London, in which he seems to have been near the prince all the way from Exeter.
In the deliberations held at London respecting the settlement of the new govern-
ment, Sir Patrick bore a conspicuous part ; but it was in Scotland that his zeal
and judgment found a proper field of display. In the convention parliament.

138

PATltICK HUME.

which sat down at Edinburgh, March 14, 1689, he appeared as representative
of the county of Berwick; and, an objection being made on the score of his
forfaulture, lie was unanimously voted a member by the house, 'lhe decision of
tiiis assembly in favour of a settlement of the crown upon William and his con-
sort 3Iary, soon followed.

The career of public service was now opened to the subject of our memoir, at
a period of life when his judgment must have been completely matured, and
after he had proved, by many years of suffering under a tyrannical government,
how worthy he was to obtain honours under one of a liberal complexion. In
July, 1690, his attainder was rescinded by act of parliament; he was soon
after sworn a member of the privy council ; and in December, 1690, he Has
created a peer by the title of lord Polwarth. The preamble of the patent is a
splendid testimony to the eminent virtues he had displayed in asserting the
rights and religion of his country. King William at the same time vouchsafed
to him an addition to his armorial bi'arings, " an orange proper ensigned, with
an imperial crown, to be placed in a surtout in his coat of arms in all time
coining, as a lasting mark of his majesty's royal favour to the family of Polwarth,
and in commemoration of his lordship's great affection to his said majesty."

From this period, the life of lord Polwarth is chiefly to be found in the his-
tory of his country. He was appointed in 1692, to be principal sheriff' of Ber-
wickshire, and in 1693, to be one of the four extraordinary lords of session.
Though there is no trace of his having been bred to the law, his conduct in
these two employments is said to have been without blemish. His reputation,
indeed, for decisions conformable to the laws, for sagacity and soundness of
judgment, is, perhaps, one of the most remarkable parts of the brilliant fame
which he has left behind him. In 1696, he attained the highest office in Scot-
land, that of lord chancellor, and in less than a year after, he was promoted in
the peerage by the titles, earl of Marchmont, viscount of Blassonberry, lord
Polwarth, Kedbraes, and Greenlaw, to him and to his heirs male whatsoever.
He was soon after named one of the commission of the treasury and admiralty ;
and in 1698 was appointed lord high commissioner to represent the king's per-
son in the parliament which met at Edinburgh in July of that year. To pur-
sue the words of Sir George Rose, who gives a sketch of the life of the earl in
his preface to the Marchmont papers, " his correspondence with king William
and his ministers, whilst he exercised these high functions, exhibits an earnest
and constant desire to act, and to advise, as should best promote at once the
honour of his master and benefactor, and the weal of the state ; and he had the
good fortune to serve a prince, who imposed no duties upon him which brought
into conflict his obligations to the sovereign and to his country."

The earl of Marchmont Avas acting as commissioner at the General Assembly
of 1702, when the death of his affectionate sovereign interrupted the proceedings,
and plunged him into the deepest grief. He was appointed by queen Anne to
continue to preside over the assembly till the conclusion of its proceedings ; but
the principles of this great man were too rigid to allow of his long continuing
in office under the new government. In his letter to queen Anne, written on
the death of king William, he was too little of a courtier to disguise the feelings
which possessed him as a man, although he must have known^that every word
he used in admiration or lamentation of her predecessor must have been
grating to her ears. In the firet session of the parliament after her accession
he presented to it an act for the abjuration of the pretender ; and, though it WM
in conformity to, and in imitation of the English act passed immediately on her
ascending the throne, and was read a first time, the high commissioner adjourned
the house in order to stop the measure. In a memorial to the queen of the U

PATRTCK HUME. 139

of July, 1702, (Marchmont Papers) will be found a full vindication of his con-
duct in this matter, and a statement of that held by his friends, and the com-
missioner, the duke of Queensberry, differing essentially from Lockhart's. He
was on this dismissed from his office of chancellor, the place being conferred on
the earl of Seafield.

Having thus sacrificed his office to his principles, he pursued the latter in
the ensuing parliaments with the consistency and fervour which might have been
expected from such a man. The protestant succession in the house of Hanover,
and the union of the two divisions of the island under one legislature, were the
two objects on which he now centered his attention and energies. It is hardly
necessary to remind the reader that the general temper of the Scottish people
was perversely opposed to both of these measures, and that it was only the
minority of such consistent whigs as lord Marchmont, who, reposing more upon
great abstract principles than narrow views of immediate advantage, saw them in
their proper light, and gave them the weight of their influence. An attempt of
the earl to introduce an act for the Hanover succession, at a time when his fel-
low statesmen were chiefly bent on asserting by the act of Security the useless
independence of their country, was so ill received that there was even some talk
of consigning this noble patriot to the state-prison in Edinburgh castle. After-
wards, however, when the government of queen Anne was obliged to adopt the
measure of a union, his lordship had the pleasure of contributing his aid — and
most willingly was it rendered — towards what had been the grand object of his
political life. The selection of the Scottish commissioners, upon which the whole
matter hinged, was effected in obedience to a sagacious advice tendered by lord
Marchmont — namely, that they should be " the most considerable men, pro-
vided they were whigs, and therefore friends to the Revolution ; but such alone,
with disregard to their feelings respecting an incorporating union, as hostile to
it or not." The reasonings he employed to enforce this principle of selection
are to be found in the Marchmont Papers ; and we learn from Lockhart to how
great an extent they were acted on. Speaking of the commissioners, this
gentleman says, that '* all were of the court or whig interest except himself," an
ardent Jacobite, an exception only made in the hope of gaining him through
his uncle, the whig lord Wharton. It is universally allowed that this principle,
though the author of it has not heretofore been very distinctly known, achieved
the union.

We are now to advert to a circumstance of a painful nature respecting the
earl of Marchmont, but which we have no doubt has taken its rise either from
error or from calumny. As a leader of the independent party in the Scots par-
liament— called the Squadrone Volante — it is alleged that his lordship was one
of those individuals who were brought over to the government views by bribery ;
and Lockhart actually places the sum of 1104/. 15*. Id. against his name, as
his share of the twenty thousand pounds said to have been disbursed by the
English exchequer, for the purpose of conciliating the chief opponents of the
measure. Sir George H. Rose has made an accurate and laborious investigation
into the foundation of these allegations, from which it would not only appear
that lord Marchmont has been calumniated, but that a very incorrect notion has
hitherto prevailed respecting the application of the money above referred to.
We must confess that it has always appeared to us a most improbable story, that,
even in the impoverished state of Scotland at that time, noblemen, some of whom
were known to entertain liberal and enlightened views, and had previously
maintained a pure character, were seduced by 6uch trifling sums as those placed
against them in the list given by Lockhart. Sir George Rose has shown, to our
entire satisfaction, that the sum given on this occasion to the earl of Marchmont

£40

PATRICK HUME.

wns a payment of arrears due upon offices and pensions — in other words, the
payment of a just debt ; and that he is not blameable in the matter, unless it
can be shown that receiving the payment of a debt can under any circumstances
be disgraceful to the creditor. The best proof of his lordship's innocence
is to be found in his conduct at the union, and for years before it. It is clear
from his letters to the English statesmen, that the union was an object which he
constantly had at heart, and that so far from being drawn over by any means
whatever to their views, he had in reality urged them into it with all his
strength and spirit, and all along acted with them in the negotiations by which
it was effected. Money does not appear to have been so abundant on this oc-
casion,, as to make it probable that any was spent, except upon opponents.

The earl of Marchmont offered himself as a candidate at the election of the
Scots representative peers in 1707, and again on the dissolution of parliament
in 1708, but in each case without success. He could scarcely calculate on the
countenance of queen Anne's government; for, if he had rendered it eminent
services, he had also taught it how uncompromising was his adherence to his
principles. Thus his parliamentary life ceased with the union. But his letters
written subsequently to it give evidence that his mind was engaged deeply in all
the events affecting the weal and honour of his country. Nor was his patriotism
deadened by the insult and injury he received from the court, when, at the ac-
cession of the tory ministry in 1710, he was deprived of his office of sheriff of
Berwickshire, which was conferred on the earl of Home.

In 1703, lord Marchmont had the misfortune to lose his amiable and affec-
tionate spouse, of the family of Ker of Cavers, to whose virtues he has left a very
affecting testimony. In 1709, he suffered a hardly less severe calamity in the
death of his eldest son lord Polwarth, a colonel of cavalry, who, beginning his
service in king William's body-guard, served through his ware and the duke of
Marlborough's with reputation, and died childless, though twice married. He
was treasurer depute in 1696. His amiable and honourable character fully jus-
tified his father's grief. The second brother Robert, also a soldier, died many
years before him.

The accession of George I. gave to lord Marchmont what he called the desire
of his heart, a protestant king upon the throne. He was immediately re-ap-
pointed sheriff of Berwickshire. In 1715, in the seventy-fifth year of his age,
acting on the feelings and principles of his youth, he forbade a meeting of the
gentlemen of the county, which had been proposed in the professed view of ob-
taining a redress of hardships, but which would have embarrassed the newly
established government ; and his lordship took the necessary precautions to render
his prohibition effectual. When he saw the protestant succession secure, he
gave up all thoughts of active life, and removed to Berwick-upon-Tweed, to spend
the remainder of his days in retirement. He retained his cheerful disposition
to the last: A short time before his death, he was visited by his daughter, lady
Onzel Bailhe, and his grand-children, who, with a number of his friends, had a
lance, Being then very weak in his limbs he was unable to come down stairs,
but desired to be carried down to see them ; and, as pleasingly recorded by his
grand-daughter lady Murray, he was so much delighted with the happy faces

eXtT iV^ h» mnarked' "th0U§h he «ould »ot dance> he could
yet beat time with his foot."

1A «?S l8t-°f AT8> l?24' thi8 illustriou° Patriot breathed his last at Ber-
2tLZ thef!^Urth,rd y««of M. age, leaving one of the most irreproachable
characters which have come down to us from that time, if not froniothers of

tit houT 7T Ht,had beC°me S° reC°nciled * th* F«Pect of death,
that, though no doubt sensible of the solemn change which it was to produce, he

ALEXANDER HUME. 141

could make it the subject of a gentle mirth. Being observed to smile, he was
asked the reason by his grandson, the ingenious lord Binning, to whom he an-
swered, " I am diverted to tiiink what a disappointment the worms will meet
with, when they come to me expecting a good meal, and find nothing but
bones." Lord Marchmont, be it remarked, though at one time a handsome
man, had always been of a spare habit of body, and was now much attenuated.
His character has already been sufficiently displayed in his actions, and the
slight commentaries we have ventured to make upon them. It is impossible,
however, to refrain from adding the testimony of Fox, who, in his historical
work, says of him, as Sir Patrick Hume, that " he is proved, by the whole
tenor of his life and conduct, to have been uniformly zealous and sincere in the
cause of his country."

Hume, Alexander, second earl of Marchmont, the eldest surviving son and
successor of the first earl, having maintained the historical lustre of the family,
deserves a place in the present work, though only perhaps in a subordinate way.
He was born in 1675, and in his boyhood shared the exile and distress of his
family. Before his elder brother's death, he was distinguished as Sir Alexander
Campbell of Cessnock, having married the daughter and heiress of that family.
He was brought up as a lawyer, and became a judge of the court of session be-
fore he was thirty years of age. He was a privy councillor and a baron of the
court of Exchequer, and served in the Scottish parliament, first for Kirkwall,
and then for Berwickshire, when the act of union passed. Emulating his
father's feelings, he zealously promoted that measure, and took a very active
share in the arduous labours that were devolved upon the sub-committee, to which
the articles of the union were referred.

But the principal historical transaction in which this nobleman was concerned,
was the introduction of the family of Hanover to the British throne. A report
having been circulated that the electoral family was indifferent to the honours
opened up to them by the act of succession, lord Polwarth, (for he had now at-
tained this designation,) proceeded in 1712, to Hanover, and entered into a
correspondence with the august family there resident, which enabled him fully
to contradict the rumour. He took a leading part in suppressing the rebellion
of 1715, by which that succession was sought to be defeated, and, in 1716, was
rewarded for his services, by being appointed ambassador to the court of
Denmark.

After acceding to the family honours in 1722, the earl of Marchmont was
honoured with several important places of trust under government, till joining
the opposition against the excise scheme of Sir Robert Walpole, he forfeited the
favour of the court and his place as a privy councillor, which he then held.
*' It appears," says Sir George Henry Rose,1 " that the distinguished members of
the Scottish nobility who joined in this act of hostility to the ministers, were
less induced so to do by any particular objections to that measure of finance,
than by the hope, that their junction with the English who resisted it, might
lead to the subversion of lord Hay's government of Scotland, a rule which they
felt to be painful and humiliating. They knew it moreover to be sustained by
means, many of which they could not respect, and which they believed to
tend to degrade and alienate the nation. That they judged rightly in appre-
hending that the system adopted by Sir Robert Walpole and his virtual viceroy,
for the management of the public affairs in North Britain, was ill calculated to
conciliate to the reigning family the affections of the people, was but too suf-
ficiently proved by subsequent events. He sat as one of the sixteen Scots peers
in the parliament of 1727 ; but at the general election in 1754, the hand of
i Preface to Marchmont Papers.

142

HUGH CAMPBELL HUME.

power was upon him ; and, being excluded, he, together with the dukes of
Hamilton, Queensberry, and Montrose, the earl of Stair, and other Scottish
noblemen, entered into a concert with the leading English members of the op-
position, in order to bring the machinations unsparingly used to control the elec-
tion of the peers in Scotland, to light, and their authors to punishment. Sir
Robert Walpole's better fortune, however, prevailed against it, as it did against a
similar project in 1739." The earl of Marchmont died in January, 1740, and
was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Hugh, who was destined to exhibit
the extraordinary spectacle of a family, maintaining, in the third generation, the
same talent, judgment, and worth which had distinguished the two preceding.

Homb, Hugh Campbkll, third and last earl of Marchmont, was born at Edin-
burgh on the 15th Eebruary, 1708, and soon became remarkable for the preco-
city of his intellect, and the versatility of his genius. His mind was equally directed
to the acquisition of scholastic erudition and political knowledge, and on all sub-
jects he was supposed to be excelled by few or none of his time. In 1734, when
only twenty-six years of age, he was chosen member for the county of Berwick,
and entered the House of Commons as lord Polwarth, at the same time that his
younger and twin brother, Mr Hume Campbell, came forward as representative
for the burghs of the district The injustice and neglect which Sir Robert Walpole
had shown to lord Marchmont, was speedily avenged by the trouble which these
young men gave to his government The former soon attained the first place
in the opposition ; and how keenly his attacks were felt by the ministry is
shown in a remark made by the latter person, to the effect that " there were few
things he more ardently desired than to see that young man at the head of his
family," and thus deprived of a seat in the house. This wish was soon gratified,
for his father dying in 1740, lord Polwarth succeeded as earl of Marchmont'
nor did he again enter the walls of parliament until the year 1750, when a
vacancy occurring in the representation of the Scottish peerage, he was almost
unanimously elected. From his talents as a speaker, his extensive information,
and active business habits, he acquired great influence in the upper house, and
was constantly re-chosen at every general election, during the long period of
34 years. He was appointed first lord of police in 1747, and keeper of the
great seal of Scotland, in January, 1764, the latter of which he held till his
death. The estimation in which his lordship was held by his contemporaries
may be judged of by the circumstance of his living on terms of the strictest
intimacy with the celebrated lord Cobham, (who gave his bust a place in the
Temple of Worthies at Stow,) Sir William Wyndham, lord Bolingbroke, the
duchess of Marlborough, Mr Pope, and other eminent persons of that memorable
era. The duchess appointed him one of her executors, and bequeathed him a
legacy of £2,500 for his trouble, and as a proof of her esteem. Mr Pope like-
wise appointed him one of his executors, leaving him a large-paper edition of
I huanus, and a portrait of lord Bolingbroke, painted by Richardson. The poet
ikew.se immortalized him, by introducing his name into the well-known inscrip-
tion in the 1 wickenham grotto :

■ Then the bright flame was shot through Marchmonfs soul !"
His lordship's library contained one of the most curious and valuable collections
of books and manuscript* in Great Britain ; all of which he bequeathed at his
death to his sole executor, the right honourable George Rose

His lordship was twice married ; first, in 1731, to Miss Western of London,
by whom he had four ch.ldren, a son (who died young), and three daughters
the youngest of whom was afterwards married to Walter Scott, Esq. of Harden
Upon the death of his wife, ,n 1747, he next year married a Miss Elizabeth

HUGH CAMPBELL HUME.

143

Crompton, whose father was a linen draper in Cheapside, by whom he had one
son, Alexander, lord Polwarth, who died without issue, in the 31st year of his
age. Tiie circumstances attending this second marriage were very peculiar, and
his lordship's conduct on the occasion, seems altogether so much at variance with
his general character, as well as with one in his rank and circumstances in life,
that we reckon them worthy of being recorded here ; — and in doing so, we think
we cannot do better than adopt the account of them given by the celebrated
David Hume, in a familiar epistle to the late Mr Oswald of Dunnikier, and pub-
lished in the latter gentleman's correspondence. The letter is dated, London,
January 29th, 1748 : — " Lord Marchmont has had the most extraordinary
adventure in the world. About three weeks ago, he was at the play, when he
espied in one of the boxes a fair virgin, whose looks, airs, and manners, had
sucli a powerful and wonderful effect upon him, as was visible by every by-stander.
His raptures were so undisguised, his looks so expressive of passion, his inquiries
so earnest, that every person took notice of it. He soon was told that her name
was Crompton, a linen draper's daughter, that had been bankrupt last year, and
had not been able to pay above five shillings in the pound. The fair nymph
herself was about sixteen or seventeen, and being supported by some relations,
appeared in every public place, and had fatigued every eye but that of his lord-
ship, which, being entirely employed in the severer studies, had never till that
fatal moment opened upon her charms. Such and so powerful was their effect,
as to be able to justify all the Fharamonds and Cyrusses in their utmost extrava-
gancies. He wrote next morning to her father, desiring to visit his daughter on
honourable terms : and in a few days she will be the countess of Marchmont.
All this is certainly true. They say many small fevers prevent a great one.
Heaven be praised that I have always liked the persons and company of the
fair sex ! for by that means I hope to escape such ridiculous passions. But
could you ever suspect the ambitious, the severe, the bustling, the impetuous,
the violent Marchmont, of becoming so tender and gentle a swain — an Arta-
menes — an Oroondntes ! "

His lordship died at his seat, at Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire, on the
10th of January, 1794, and leaving no heirs male, all the titles of the family
became extinct ; but his estate descended to his three daughters. According to
Sir George H. Hose, who, from his family connexion with tbeearl of Marchmont,
had the best means of knowing, this nobleman " was an accomplished and scientific
horseman, and a theoretical and practical husbandman and gardener. He
pursued his rides and visits to his farm and garden as long as his strength
would suffice for the exertion ; and some hours of the forenoon, and frequently
of the evening, were dedicated to his books. His most favourite studies appear
to have been in the civil law, and in the laws of England and Scotland, in the
records and history of the European nations, and in ancient history ; and the
traces of them are very unequivocal. 'Ihe fruits of his labours in extracts,
observations, comparisons, and researches, all made in his own hand-writing,
are not more to be admired than wondered at, as the result of the industry of
one who was stimulated neither by poverty nor by eagerness for literary cele-
brity. His Dutch education had given him method, which was the best possible
auxiliary to an ardent and powerful mind, such as his was."

In the publication which we have entitled the Marchmont Papers, are many
of earl Hugh, of which the most important feature is a diary, which he kept
during three different periods of peculiar interest in the reign of George the
Second. The first extends from the latter end of July, 1744, to the end of
that year, and embraces the events which led to the formation of what was called
the Broad Bottom Administration, when lord Carteret, who just then became earl

144

PATRICK HUME.— DR. HENRY HUNTER,

of Granville, was compelled to retire by the Pelhams, the king consenting thereto
very reluctantly, and when the dukes of Devonshire, Bedford, and Dorset, and
the earls of Harrington and Chesterfield, came into office. The second period
begins in September, 1745, when news had just been received in London that
the Pretender was near Edinburgh, and that it would probably be soon in his
occupation. It closes in the February following, with the extraordinary events
of that month, the resignation of the Pelham ministry, and its re-establishment
after the earl of Bath's and the earl of Granville's interregnum of three days.
The third period commences in July, 1747, and terminates in March, 1748,
soon after the earl of Chesterfield's resignation, and the duke of Bedford's
appointment to succeed him as secretary of state.

HUME, Patrick, is noticed by various writers as the name of an individual
who adorned the literature of his country at the close of the seventeenth cen-
tury. Who or what he was, is not known : it is only probable, from the regu-
larity with which certain first names occur in genealogies in connexion with sur-
names, that he belonged to the Polwarth branch of the family of Home, or Hume,
as in that branch there were six or seven successive barons bearing the name of
Patrick. This learned man is only known to have written the notes connected
with the sixth edition of Milton's Paradise Lost, which was published in folio
by Tonson in 1695, and is one of the most elegant productions of the British
press that have ever appeared. It has been a matter of just surprise to
several writers of Scottish biography, that absolutely nothing should have been
handed down respecting this person, seeing that his notes evince a high degree
of taste, and most extensive erudition, and are in fact the model of almost all
commentaries subsequent to his time. " His notes," says an anonymous writer,1
** are always curious ; his observations on some of the finer passages of the poet,
show a mind deeply smit with an admiration for the sublime genius of their au-
thor ; and there is often a masterly nervousness in his style, which is very re-
markable for this age." But the ignorance of subsequent ages respecting
the learned commentator is sufficiently accounted for by the way in which his name
appears on the title-page, being simply in initials, with the affix (pi'Kovoir^yi;,
and by the indifference of the age to literary history. It would appear that the
commentary, learned and admirable as it is, speedily fell out of public notice,
as in 1750, the Messrs Foulis of Glasgow published the first book of the
Paradise Lost, with notes by Mr Callender of Craigforth, which are shown to
be, to a great extent, borrowed from the work of Hume, without the most dis-
tant hint of acknowledgment.

HUNTER, (Dr) Henkt, a divine highly distinguished in literature, Mas born
at Culross, in the year 1741. His parents, though in humble life, gave him a
good education, which was concluded by an attendance at the university of
Edinburgh. Here his talents and application attracted the notice of the profes-
sors, and at the early age of seventeen he was appointed tutor to Mr Alexander
Boswell, who subsequently became a judge of the court of session, under the
designation of lord Balmouto. He afterwards accepted the same office in the
family of the earl of Dundonald at Culross abbey, and thus had the honour of
instructing the late venerable earl, so distinguished by his scientific inquiries and
inventions. In 1764, having passed the necessary trials with unusual approba-
tion, he was licensed as a minister of the gospel, and soon excited attention to
his pulpit talents. So highly were these in public esteem, that, in 1766, he
was ordained one of the ministers of South Leith, which has always been con-

« Blackwood's Magazine, iv. 662, where there is a series of extracts from Hume's Com-
mentary, in contrast with similar passages from that published by Mr Callender of Craig

DR. HENRY HUNTER.

145

sidered as one of the most respectable appointments in the Scottish church. He
had here ingratiated himself in an uncommon degree with his congregation,
when a visit to London, in 1769, opened up to his ambition a still wider field
of usefulness. The sermons which he happened to deliver on this occasion in
several of the Scottish meeting-houses, drew much attention, and the result was
an invitation, which reached him soon after his return, to become minister ol
the chapel in Swallow Street. This he declined ; but in 1771, a call from the
London Wall congregation tempted him away from his Scottish flock, who
manifested the sincerest sorrow at his departure. This translation not only was
an advancement in his profession, but it paved the way for a series of literary
exertions, upon which his fame was ultimately to rest. Several single sermons
first introduced him to the world as an author. These were on the ordination
of O. Nicholson, M. A., 1775, 2 Cor. iv ?, 8 ; On the study of the Sacred
Scriptures, Acts xviii. 1 1 , in the work called the Scottish Preacher, vol. iv. ; at
the funeral of the Rev. George Turnbull, 1783 ; On the opening of a meeting-
house at Walthanistow, in 1787, Kev. xxi. 3, 4; On the Revolution, 1788;
The Believer's Joy, Acts viii. 39 ; also in the fourth volume of the Scottish
Preacher. These sermons, with some miscellaneous pieces, were collected and
published, in two volumes, after the author's death. Dr Hunter first appeared
as a general writer in 1783, when he published the first volumes of his " Sacred
Biography, or the history of the Patriarchs and of Jesus Christ," which was ulti-
mately extended to seven volumes, and has become a standard work, the seventh
edition having appeared in 1814. Before this work was completed, the notice
attracted by the system of Lavater throughout civilized Europe, tempted him to
engage in an English version of the " Physiognomy" of that philosopher, whom
he previously visited at his residence in Switzerland, in order to obtain from the
conversation of the learned man himself, as perfect an idea as possible of his
particular doctrines. It is said that Lavater at first displayed an unexpected
coolness on the subject of Dr Hunter's visit, being afraid that an English
translation might injure the sale of the French edition, in which he had a
pecuniary interest. This, however, seems to have been got over ; for Lavater
eventually treated his English visitor in a manner highly agreeable. u As their
professions were alike,'' says an anonymous writer, " so their sentiments, their
feelings, and their opinions, are altogether alike. A complete acquaintance
with the French language enabled Dr Hunter to enjoy Lavater's conversation
freely ; and he ever afterwards talked with enthusiasm of the simplicity of
manners, the unaffected piety, the unbounded benevolence, and the penetrating
genius, of this valued friend. The bare mention of that barbarous cruelty which
massacred the virtuous Lavater, was sufficient to make him shrink back with
horror." — The first number of this work was published in 1789, and it was not
completed till nine years after, when it ultimately formed five volumes, in quarto,
bearing the title of " Essays on Physiognomy, designed to promote the know-
ledge and love of mankind, by John Caspar Lavater." Dr Hunter's abilities as
a translator were of the first order, and, in this instance, drew forth the entire
approbation of the original author. The work was, moreover, embellished in a
style, which, at that time, might be considered as unrivaled. It contained
above eight hundred engravings, executed by and under the direction of Mr
Holloway, and such was altogether the elaborate elegance of the publication,
that it could not be sold to the public under thirty pounds per copy. We are
only left to regret that so much talent, so much taste, and such a large sum of
money as this price would indicate, should have been spent upon an inquiry
which the acute and precise sense of the immediately succeeding generation has
pronounced to be in a great measure a delusion.

146

DR. HENRY HUNTER.

At the time of the French revolution, Dr Hunter republished a treatise by
Robert Fleming, whose life, with an account of the work in question, has
already been given in this Biographical Dictionary. The pamphlet contained
some prophetical intimations, which Dr Hunter supposed to bear a reference to
the events in the neighbouring kingdom. It is needless to remark the weakness
which alone could dictate such a proceeding in this generally able and enlight-
ened man. Dr Hunter also published a " Sermon preached, February 3, 1793,
on the execution of Louis XVI."

In 1795, he attempted a translation from the German, selecting for this pur-
pose Euler's celebrated " Letters to a German princess." Ihis work met with
the entire approbation of the public, and has proved a very useful addition to
the stock of our native scientific literature. The first edition was in quarto, and
a second, in octavo, appeared in 1802. The work has since been reprinted in
a smaller size, with notes by Sir David Brewster. The merit of Dr Hunter as
a translator was now universally acknowledged, and work accordingly pressed
upon him. While still engaged in his version of Lavater, he commenced, in
1796, the pubb'shing of a translation of St Pierre's Studies of Nature, which was
completed in 1799, in five volumes octavo, afterwards republished in three.
" His translation," says the anonymous writer above quoted, " of the beautiful
and enthusiastic works of St Pierre, was universally read and admired : here, if
in any instance, the translator entered into the spirit of the author, for the glow
of benevolence which gives life to every page of ' Les Etudes de la Nature' was
entirely congenial to the feelings of Dr Hunter." Saurin's Sermons, and Son-
nini's Travels to Upper and Lower Egypt, complete the list of Dr Hunter's
labours as a translator ; and it is but small praise to say, that few men have
reached the same degree of excellence in that important branch of literature.
During the progress of other labours, Dr Hunter published more than one
volume of original sermons, and a volume entitled " Lectures on the Evidences
of Christianity," being the completion of a plan begun by the Kev. John Fell.
He also commenced the publication, in parts, of a popular " Histox-y of London
and its Environs," which, however, he did not live to complete.

In the year 1790, Dr Hunter was appointed secretary to the corresponding
board of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge in the Highlands and
Islands of Scotland. He was likewise chaplain to the Scots corporation in Lon-
don, and both these institutions were much benefited by his zealous exertions in
their behalf. It must be obvious from the frequent and involved succession of
his literary productions, that Dr Hunter spent a most industrious life, and was
upon the whole the most busy as he approached that stage of existence when the
generality of men begin to find ease not only agreeable but necessary. It is
probable that this unceasing exertion, which no doubt was more occasioned by-
necessity than by choice, tended to break down his constitution, which was fur-
ther weakened in his latter years by the agitation and distress of mind conse-
quent on the death of three beloved children. Having retired to Bristol wells
for the recovery of his health, he died there, of inflammation in the lungs, Oc-
tober 27, 1802, in the sixty-second year of his age.

"IfDr Hunter," says his anonymous biographer,* " was conspicuous as an
author, he was still more to be admired as a man. An unbounded flow of bene-
volence, which made him enjoy and give enjoyment to every society, joined to a
warmth of feeling, which made him take an interest in every occurrence, ren-
dered him the delight of all his acquaintance. His social talents were of the
highest order. An easy flow of conversation, never loud, never overbearing,
and completely free from affectation ; an inexhaustible fund of pleasant anec-
2 Obituary of Gentleman's Magazine, Ixxii. 1072.

WILLIAM HUNTER. 147

dotes and occasional flashes of wit and humour, made every company he joined
pleased with him and with themselves. He was particularly happy in adapting
his conversation to those he conversed with ; and while to a lady his discourse
appeared that of a polished gentleman, the scholar was surprised by his apt
quotations from the classics, and the ease with which he turned to any subject
that was brought before him. * * His private charities were as numerous
as the objects of compassion which occurred to him ; nor should his unbounded
and cheerful hospitality be forgot among his other virtues." [He is said to have
carried this virtue beyond the bounds which a regard to prudence and economy
should have prescribed.] " The crowded attendance and the universal regret of
his congregation are the best proofs of the effect of his pulpit eloquence. His
enlightened and liberal views of religion made his meeting-house the resort of
tlte leading Scotsmen in London ; and it was here that the natives of the southern
part of the island had an opportunity of observing a specimen of that church
which produced a Robertson and a Blair. * * Dr Hunter was of a spare
habit of body, and remarkably active; and his usual cheerfulness and flow of
good humour continued till within a few weeks of his death." He left a family,
consisting of a wife, two sons, and a daughter.

HUNTER, William and John, two eminent physicians, fall to be noticed here
under one head, in order that we may, without violating alphabetical arrange-
ment, give William that priority to which his seniority and precedence in public
life render necessary.

William Hunter was born, May 23, 1718, at Kilbride in the county of
Lanark. His great-grandfather, by his father's side, was a younger son of
Hunter of Hunterston. His father and mother lived on a small estate in the
above county, called Calderwood, which had been some time in the possession
of their family. They had ten children, of whom the subject of our present
memoir was the seventh, while John was the tenth. One of his sisters married
tiie reverend James Baillie, professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow,
and became the mother of Matthew Baillie, the late celebrated physician, whose
labours in morbid anatomy have been of such essential service in promoting the
study of pathology. William Hunter was sent to the college of Glasgow at the
age of fourteen, where he pursued his studies with diligence, and obtained the
esteem of the professors and his fellow students. He was at this time designed
for the church ; — but hesitated, from conscientious motives to subscribe all the
articles of its faith. There is perhaps no position so painful as that of a man
whose mind is overshadowed by doubts on doctrinal points of religion, having
firmness in himself to investigate narrowly the foundation of the principles he
should embrace, and rectitude enough to acknowledge with candour the difficul-
ties by which he is embarrassed. Such was the state of mind of William Huntei
when he became acquainted with the eminent Dr Cullen, who was then established
in practice at Hamilton. After much deliberation, under his persuasion,
he determined to relinquish his theological studies, and devote himself exclu-
sively to the profession of medicine. Accordingly, having obtained the consent
of his father, in the year 1737, he went to reside with Dr Cullen ; in whose
family he lived nearly three years ; a period which afterwards, when he was
engaged in the anxieties and turmoil that are ever attendant on the life of a
medical man, he looked back upon with peculiar pleasure. It was the oasis on
which, in after years, his memory loved to dwell. Between these two gifted
individuals a partnership was now formed, and it was agreed that William
Hunter should take charge of the surgical, and Dr Cullen of the medical cases
that occurred in their practice. To carry their mutual wishes more efficiently
into operation, it was arranged that William Hunter should proceed to Ediu«

148 WILLIAM HUNTER.

burgh, and then to London, for the purpose of pursuing his medical studies in
each of these cities, after which, that he should return to settle at Hamilton.

In November, 1740, William Hunter went to Edinburgh, where he remained
until the following spring, attending the lectures of the medical professors there,
among whom he had the advantage of attending Dr Alexander Monro, who was
one of the most talented and able professors, who, perhaps, ever adorned that
university. In the summer of 1741, he proceeded to London, and resided with
Mr afterwards DrSmellie, then an apothecary in Pall Mall. He took with him
a letter of introduction from Mr Foulis, the printer at Glasgow, to Dr James
Douglas. At first, Mr Hunter commenced the study of anatomy under the
tuition of Dr Frank Nicholls, who was the most eminent teacher of anatomy
then in London, and who had formerly professed the science at Oxford. It
appears that Dr Douglas had been under some obligation to Mr Foulis, who had
collected for him several editions of Horace, and he naturally, therefore, paid
attention to young Hunter, whom he at once recognized to be an acute and
talented observer. Dr Douglas was at that time intent on a great anatomical
work on the bones, which he did not live to complete, and was looking out for
a young man of industry and ability whom he might employ as his dissector.
He soon perceived that his new acquaintance would be an eligible assistant to
him, and after some preliminary conversation invited him into his family, for the
double purpose of assisting him with his dissections, and directing ihe education
of his son. The pecuniary resources of young Hunter were at this time very
slender, and the situation was to him therefore highly advantageous ; but it was
with difficulty that he could obtain the consent of his father for him to accept
it, who being now old and infirm, awaited with impatience his return to Scot-
land. Ultimately, however, he was pi'evailed on to acquiesce in the wishes of
his son, which he did with reluctance; he did not, however, long survive, as he
died on the 30th of the October following, aged seventy-eight. Mr Hunter's pre-
vious arrangements with Dr Cullen formed no obstacle to his new views ; for he had
no sooner explained his position, than Dr Cullen, anxious for his advancement,
readily canceled the articles of agreement, and left his friend to pursue the
path which promised to lead him to fame and to fortune. At liberty now to
take advantage of all the means of instruction by which he was surrounded,
he pursued his studies with assiduity. By the friendly assistance of Dr Douglas
he was enabled to enter himself as a surgeon's pupil at St George's hospital,
under Mr James Wilkie, and as dissecting pupil under Mr Frank Nicholls. He
also attended a course of experimental philosophy, which was delivered by
Desauguliers. He soon became very expert as a dissector, insomuch that Dr
Douglas went to the expense of having several of his preparations engraved.
But he did not enjoy his liberal patronage and aid long, for many months
had not elapsed when his kind benefactor died, an event which happened
April 1, 1742, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. Dr Douglas left a
widow and two children ; — but his death made no alteration in respect to Mr
Hunter, who continued as before to reside in his family, and perform the same
duties which he had previously done.

In the year 1743, the first production from the pen of Mr Hunter was com-
municated to the Royal Society. It was an " Essay on the Structure and
Diseases of Articulating Cartilages," a subject which had not been at that time
sufficiently investigated, and on which his observations threw considerable light.

His favourite scheme was now to commence as a lecturer on anatomy ; but he

did not rashly enter on this undertaking, but passed some years more in acquir-
ing the necessary knowledge, and in making the numerous preparations which
are necessary to exhibit in a complete course of anatomy. There is, perhaps,

WILLIAM HUNTER. 149

no branch of medical science which demands more patient and assiduous toil than
this ; it was more especially so at that period, when there were few aids to
anatomical knowledge. He communicated his project to Dr Nicholls, who had
declined lecturing, in favour of Dr Lawrence, who gave him little encour-
agement, and he retired, as many others similarly situated have done, to meditate
on his own secret hopes, and to await a fit opportunity for commencing his
designs. It thus happens in the lives of many young men, that wiser heads
caution them against embarking in schemes they have long cherished, and in
which, after all, they are destined to be successful. The ardour and persever-
ance of youth often accomplish undertakings which appear wild and romantic
to the sterner and colder judgment of the aged. To William Hunter the
wished-for opportunity soon occurred, whereby he was enabled to put his plans
to the test of experience. A society of navy surgeons at that time existed,
which occupied rooms in Covent Garden, and to this society Mr Samuel Sharpe
had been engaged as a lecturer on the operations of surgery. This course Mr
Sharpe continued to repeat, until finding that it interfered too much with his other
engagements ; he resigned in favour of William Hunter, who gave his first
anatomical course in the winter of 1746. It is said that when he first began to
speak in public he experienced much solicitude ; but the applause he met with
inspired him with that confidence which is so essential an element of all good
oratory. Indeed, he gradually became so fond of teaching, that some few years
before his death, he acknowledged that he was never happier than when engaged
in lecturing. The profits of the first two courses were considerable; but having
with much generosity contributed to supply the pecuniary wants of his friends,
he found himself so reduced on the return of the next season, that he was
obliged to postpone his lectures, because he had not money to defray the
necessary expenses of advertising. An anecdote is mentioned by his biographei
Symmons, very characteristic of the early difficulties which are experienced by
many men of genius. Mr Watson, one of his earliest pupils, accompanied him
home after his next introductory lecture. He had just received seventy guineas
for admission fees, which he carried in a bag under his cloak, and observed to
his friend, "that it was a larger sum than he had ever been master of before."
His previous experience now taught him more circumspection ; — he became
more cautious of lending money, and by strict economy amassed that great
fortune, which he afterwards so liberally devoted to the interests of science.
His success as a lecturer before the society of navy surgeons was so decided, that
its members requested him to extend his course to anatomy, and gave him the
free use of their room for his lectures. This compliment he could not fail to
have duly appreciated, and it may be regarded as the precursory sign of that
brilliant career which he was soon afterwards destined to pursue.

In the year 1747, he was admitted a member of the Incorporation of Sur-
geons, and after the close of his lectures in the spring of the following year, he
set out with his pupil, Mr James Douglas, on a tour through Holland and Paris.
At Leyden, he visited the illustrious Albinus, whose admirable injections inspired
him with the zeal to excel in this useful department of anatomy. Having made
this tour, he returned to prepare his winter course of lectures, which he com-
menced at the usual time.

Mr Hunter at this time practised surgery as well as midwifery ; but the
former branch of the profession he always disliked. His patron, Dr Douglas,
had acquired considerable reputation as an accoucheur, and this probably in-
duced him to direct his views to this line of practice. Besides this, an ad-
ditional inducement presented itself, in the circumstance of his being elected
one of the surgeon accoucheurs to the Middlesex hospital, and afterwards to the

150

WILLIAM HUNTER.

British Lyin^-in Hospital. The introduction of male practitioners in this de-
partment of the profession, according to Astruc, took place on the confine-
ment of madaine U Valliere in 1663. She was anxious for concealment, and
called in Julian Clement, an eminent surgeon, who was secretly conducted into
the house where she lav, covering her face with a hood, and where the king is
said to have been hidden behind the curtains. He attended her in her
subsequent accouchments, and his success soon brought the class of male practi-
tioners into fashion. Nor was this a matter of minor import, for hereby the
mortality among lying-in women has been materially reduced. Mowbray is
said to have been the first lecturer on obstetrics in London, and he delivered
his course of lectures in the year 1725. To him succeeded the Chamberlains,
after whom, Smellie gave a new air of importance and dignity to the science.
It is said that the manners of Smellie were by no means prepossessing— indeed
they are described to have been unpleasing and rough ; therefore, although a
man of superior talent, he necessarily found a difficulty in making his way
among the refined and the more polished circles of society. Herein, Hunter had
a decided advantage, for while he was recognized to be a man of superior
abilities, his manners and address were extremely conciliating and engaging.
The most lucrative part of the practice of midwifery was at this time divided be-
tween Sir Richard Manningham and Dr Sandys; — the former of whom died,
and the latter retired into the country just after Mr Hunter became known as
an accoucheur.

The field was now in a great measure left open to him, and in proportion as
his reputation increased, he became more extensively consulted. His predecessor
Dr Sandys, had been formerly professor of anatomy at Cambridge, where he
had formed a valuable collection of preparations, which on his death having fal-
len into the hands of Dr Bloomfield, was now purchased by Mr Hunter for the
sum of £200. There can be no doubt that the celebrity of Mr Hunter as an
anatomist contributed to increase his practice as an accoucheur, as it was
reasonably expected that his minute knowledge of anatomy would give him a
correspondingly great command in difficult and dangerous cases. Acting now
principally as an accoucheur, he appears to have entirely relinquished the sur-
gical department of his profession ; and desirous of practising as a physician,
obtained in 1750, the degree of doctor of medicine from the university of
Glasgow. The degree of doctor of medicine at that and other universities of
Scotland, was at this period granted, on the candidate's paying a certain sum
of money and presenting a certificate from other doctors of medicine of his
being qualified to practise the healing art — but so much was the facility of ob-
taining these degrees abused that this method of granting them has been very
properly abolished. Shortly after obtaining his diploma, Dr Hunter left the
family of Mr Douglas, and went to reside in Jermyn Street, Soho Square.
* The following summer he revisited his native country, for which, amidst the
professional prosperity of a town life, he continued to entertain a cordial af-
fection. He found on his arrival that his mother was still living at Long Cal-
derwood, which was now become his own property, in consequence of the death
of his brother James, who died in the 2Sth year of his age. It is worthy of
notice, that this young man had been a writer to the signet in Edinburgh ; but
disliking the profession of the law, he went to London, with the intention of
studying anatomy under his brother William — so that it would almost appear,
that in the family of the Hunters there was an hereditary love for medical
science. Ill health, however, which bows down the intellectual power of the
strongest of mankind, preyed upon his constitution ; so that he could not carry
his plans into execution, and he therefore returned to his birth place, where

WILLIAM HUNTER. 151

he died. At this period, Dr Cullen was progressing to that fame which he
subsequently attained ; and was residing at Glasgow, where Dr Hunter again
met him, to take a retrospect over the eventful changes which had signalized
the progress of their separate lives. Such a meeting could not, under the
peculiar circumstances, fail to be interesting to both ; for there scarcely can
be any gratification superior to that of meeting in after life, the friend of
early youth, pursuing successfully the career which at one time was commenced
together, and who is still opening up the paths to new discoveries, in which
both sympathize and delight, while, at the same time, the same sentiments
of personal friendship remain undiminished in all their original strength and
sincerity.

On the return of Dr Hunter to London, he continued corresponding with Dr
Cullen on a variety of interesting scientific subjects, and many of the letters
have been recently published by Dr Thomson, in his life of this eminent physi-
cian, a work which should be familiar to all who take any interest in the history
of medical science.

On the return of Dr Hunter to London, on the resignation of Dr Layard, who
had officiated as one of the physicians to the British Lying-in Hospital, we find
the governors of that institution voting their " thanks to Dr Hunter for the ser-
vices he had done the hospital, and for his continuance in it as one of the physi-
cians." Accordingly he was established in this office without the usual form of
an election. He was admitted in the following year licentiate of the Royal College
of Physicians, and was soon after elected a member of the Medical Society. His
history of an aneurism of the aorta appears in the first volume of their " Ob-
servations and Enquiries," published in 1757. In 1762, we find him in the
" Medical Commentaries," supporting his claim of priority in making numerous
anatomical discoveries over that of Dr Monro Secundus, at that time professor of
anatomy in the university of Edinburgh. It is not easy to adjust the claims of
contemporary discoverers in numerous branches of science ; and though, on this
occasion, a wordy war of considerable length was waged concerning the real au-
thor of the great doctrine of the absorbent action of the lymphatic system, yet
the disputants seem to have left the field, each dissatisfied with the conduct of his
antagonist, and each equally confident of being entitled to the honour of being
regarded as the real discoverer. It is not worth while to rake up the ashes of
any such controversy ; but it is no more than justice to assert, that Dr Hunter
vindicated his claims in a manly and honourable tone, at the same time acknow-
ledging that " the subject was an unpleasant one, and he was therefore seldom
in the humour to take it up."

In 1762, when the queen became pregnant, Dr William Hunter was consult-
ed, and two years afterwards had the honour to be appointed physician extra-
ordinary to her majesty. We may now regard him as having attained the
highest rank in his profession ; and avocations necessarily increasing very consi-
derably, he found himself under the necessity of taking an assistant, to relieve
him from the fatigues to which he was now subjected. Accordingly he selected
Mr Hewson, an industrious and accomplished young man, to be his assistant, and
afterwards took him into partnership with him in his lectures. This connexion
subsisted until the year 1770, when, in consequence of some misunderstanding,
it was dissolved, and Cruickshank succeeded to the same situation. In the year
1767, Dr William Hunter became a fellow of the Royal Society, to which the fol-
lowing year he communicated his obsei-vations on the bones, commonly supposed
to be elephants' bones, which were found near the river Ohio in America. At this
period the attention of men of science had been directed to the large bones,
tusks, and teeth, which had been found on the banks of the above river, and the

152

WILLIAM HUNTER.

French Academicians came 'to the conclusion that they were, in all probability,
the bones of eleplianU. From the different character of the jaw-bone, and oilier
anatomical simis, Dr William Hunter, however, came to the conclusion that they
did not belong to the elephant, but to an animal incoynitum, probably the same
as the mammoth of Siberia.3 Nor was this the only subject of natural history on
which Dr Hunter exercised his ingenuity, for in a subsequent volume of the
transactions, we find him offering his remarks on some bones found in the rock
of Gibraltar, which he proves to have belonged to some quadruped. Further,
we find an account published by him of the Nylghau, an Indian animal not be-
fore described. Thus, amidst the anxious duties of that department of the pro-
fession in which he excelled, we find his active mind leading him into investiga-
tions on subjects of natural history, which are eminently interesting to all who
delight in examining Into the mysteries, and beauties, and past history of the
surrounding world.

In the year 1768, Dr William Hunter became fellow of the society of arts,
and the same year at the institution of an academy of arts, he was appointed by
his majesty professor of anatomy. His talents were now directed into a new
sphere of action ; in which he engaged with unabated ardour and zeal. He
studied the adaptation of the expression of anatomy to sculpture and paint-
ing, and his observations . are said to have been characterized by much ori-
ginality and just critical acumen.

In January, 1781, he was unanimously elected successor to Dr John Fother-
gill, as president of the Royal College of Physicians of London, the interests of
which institution he zealously promoted. In 1780, the lioyal Medical Society
of Paris elected him one of their foreign associates, and in 1782 he received a
similar mark of distinction from the Royal Academy of Sciences in that city.
Thus, in tracing the life of this eminent physician, we find honour upon honour
conferred upon him, in acknowledgment of the essential services which he ren-
dered to the cause of science. But his chef d'&uvre yet remains to be noticed ;
it was consummated in the invaluable ** Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus,"
one of the most splendid medical works of the age in which he lived. It was
commenced in 1751, but not completed until 1775, owing to the author's de-
sire to render it as complete as possible. It contains a series of thirty-four folio
plates, from superior drawings of subjects and preparations, executed by the
first artists, exhibiting all the principal changes which occur during the nine
months of pregnancy. Here we find the first representation that was given of
the retroveried uterus, and the membrana decidua reflexa discovered by himself.
He did not live however to complete the anatomical description of the figures,
which his nephew the late lamented Dr Baillie did in 1794.4 He dedicated
this valuable work to the king ; and it needs only to be added, in testimony of
merit, that notwithstanding the march of medical knowledge, it has not been
superseded by any rival author. It remains now, and will go down to posterity,
as a standard work complete in its designs, and admirable in its execution. But
this was not the only service which Dr William Hunter rendered to the profes-
sion : it remains for us yet to record the circumstances under which he founded a
museum which has justly called forth the admiration of every medical man by
whom it has been visited. When Dr William Hunter began to reap the fruiu
of his professional skill and exertions, he determined on laying aside a fund
from which he would derive support, if overtaken by the calamities of sickness,
or the infirmities of age. This he very shortly accomplished : and it is said,
that on one occasion he stated that having borrowed from this fund a sum to de-

* Philosophical Transactions, vol 58.

4 Anatomical Description of the Gravid Uterus and ha contents, 179*

WILLIAM HUNTER. 153

fray some expenses of his museum, he felt very much dissatisfied and uneasy un-
til it was replaced. His competency having been obtained, and his wealth con-
tinuing' to accumulate, he formed. a laudable design of founding a school of
medicine, and for this purpose addressed a memorial to Mr Grenville, then
minister, in which he requested the grant of a piece of ground in the Mews for
the site of an anatomical theatre. He undertook to expend £7000 on the
building, and to endow a professorship of anatomy in perpetuity; but the scheme
did not meet the reception it deserved, and fell to the ground. It is 6aid that
the earl of Shelburne, afterwards in conversation with the learned doctor, ex-
pressed his approbation of the design, and desired his name to be put down
as a subscriber for £1000. But Dr Hunter had now it would appear de-
termined on other arrangements, having purchased a spot of ground in Great
Windmill Street, which he determined to appropriate to the proposed use. He
there built accordingly a house and anatomical theatre, and removed from Jer-
myn Street to these premises in 1770. Medical men engaged in active practice,
who have a taste for the study of morbid anatomy, have little difficulty in ob-
taining specimens ; and by his own exertions and those of his pupils, many of
whom engaged zealously in the cause, he soon succeeded in bringing together a
vast number of morbid preparations, to augment the number of which he pur-
chased numerous collections that were at various times exposed to sale in London.
The taste for collecting, which all acquire who commence founding a museum,
" increased by what it fed on," and he now, in addition to the anatomical spe-
cimens, sought to accumulate fossils, curious books, coins — -in short, whatever
might interest either the man of letters, the physician, the naturalist, or
the antiquary. We are informed that in respect to books he became possessed
of " the most magnificent tieasure of Greek and Latin books that has been ac-
cumulated since the days of Mead ;" — furthermore, Mr Combe, a learned friend
of the doctor's, published a description of part of the coins in the collection, un-
der the following title : — " Nummorum Veterum Populorum et Urbium qui in
Museo Gulielmi Hunter asservantur, descriptio, figuris illustrata. In the pre-
face to this volume, which is dedicated by Dr William Hunter to her majesty,
some account is given of the progress of the collection, which had been accumulat-
ing since 1770, at an expense of upwards of £20,000. In 1781, a valuable
addition to it was received, consisting of shells, corals, and other curious subjects
of natural history, which had been collected by the late Dr Fothergill, who gave
directions by his will that his collection should be appraised after his death, and
that Dr William Hunter should have the refusal of it at JE500. This was ac-,
cordingly done, and Dr Hunter purchased it eventually for £1200. To
complete the history of this museum, we may here add, that on the death of
Dr William Hunter, he bequeathed it, under the direction of trustees, for
the use of his nephew Dr Matthew Baillie, and in case of his death to Mr
Cruickshank, for the term of thirty years, at the expiration of which it was to
be transmitted to the university of Glasgow. The sum of £8000 was further-
more left as a fund for the support and augmentation of the collection, and each
of the trustees was left £20 per annum for the term of thirty years — that is, during
the period that they would be executing the purposes of the will. Before the ex-
piration of the period assigned, Dr Baillie removed the museum to Glasgow, where
it at present is visited* by all who take an interest in medical or general science.
We have followed Dr William Hunter through the chief and most re-
markable events by which his life was characterized, and now pausing to
contemplate his having arrived at the summit of his ambition, — honoured by
the esteem of his sovereign, complimented by foreign academies, and con-
sulted by persons of all ranks— with an independence of wealth which left

154 WILLIAM HUNTER.

him no desires for further accumulation of ridies-we must acknowledge hat
the cup of human enjoyment, while it mantles to the brim, must still contain
some bitter drop-that there is in this world no happiness without alloy. Ill
health now preyed, with all its cankering evils, upon Ins constitution, and he
meditated, indeed seriously made up his mind, to retire from the scenes
of his former activity to his native country, where he might look back
upon the vista of his past life and die in peace. With th.s view he requested
his friends Dr Cullen and Dr Baillie to look out for a pleasant estate for
him, which they did, and fixed on a spot in Annandale, which they recom-
mended him to purchase. The bargain was agreed on, at least so it was con-
cluded, but when the title deeds were submitted to examination they were found
to be defective-and accordingly the whole project fell to the ground, for
although harassed by ill health, Dr Hunter found that the expenses to
support the museum were so enormous, that he preferred still remaining in his
practice. He was at this time, dreadfully afflicted with gout, which at one time
affected his limbs, at another his stomach, but seldom remained in one part
many hours. Yet, notwithstanding this, his ardour and activity remained un-
abated ;— but at length he could no longer baflie the destroying power which
preyed upon his being. The attacks became more frequent, and on Saturday,
March 15, 1783, after having for several days experienced a return of wander-
ing gout, he complained of great headache and nausea, in which state he retired
to bed, and felt for many days more pain than usual, both in his stomach and
limbs. On the Thursday following, he found himself so much recovered, that he
determined to give the introductory lecture to the operations of surgery, and it
was to no purpose that his friends urged on him the impropriety of the attempt.
Accordingly he delivered the lecture, but towards the conclusion, his strength
became so much exhausted that he fainted, and was obliged to be carried by his
servants out of the lecture room. We now approach the death-bed scene of this
eminent man, and surely there can be no spectacle of deeper or more solemn
interest than that presented by the dissolution of a man, who adorned by intel-
lectual energy and power, the path which it was in this life his destiny to tread.
The night after the delivery of the above lecture, and the following day, lis
symptoms became aggravated, and on Saturday morning he informed his medical
adviser, Mr Combe, that he had during the night had a paralytic stroke. As
neither his speech nor his pulse were affected, and as he was able to raise him-
self in bed, Mr Combe was in hopes that his patient was mistaken ; but the
symptoms that supervened indicated that the nerves which arise in the lumbar
region had become paralyzed ; for the organs to which they are distributed, lost
the power of performing their functions. Accordingly he lingered with the
symptoms, which in all similar cases exist, until Sunday the 30th March, when
he expired. During his last moments he maintained very great fortitude and
calmness, and it is reported that shortly before his death, he said, turning round
to Mr Combe, " If I had strength enough to hold a pen I would write how easy
and pleasant a thing it is to die." Such a sentiment as this, breathed by one
under the immediate dominion of death, strikes us with peculiar wonder and awe,
for it is seldom in such an hour that suffering humanity can command such
stoical complacency. During the latter part of his illness, his brother John —
with whom he had previously been on unfriendly terms — requested permission to
attend him, and felt severely the parting scene. His remains were interred on
the 5th April, in the rector's vault of St James's church, Westminster.

The lives of all eminent men may be viewed in a double relation, — they may
be contemplated simply with a reference to their professional and public career
— or they 'may be viewed in connexion with the character they have dis-

WILLIAM HUNTER. 155

played in the retired paths of domestic life. It would appear that Dr Hunter
devoted himself exclusively to the pursuits of his profession ; nor did he contract

any tie of a gentler and more endearing nature to bind him to the world. His

habits were temperate and frugal. When he invited friends t« dine with him
he seldom regaled them with more than two dishes, and he was often heard to
say, that ** a man who cannot dine on one dish deserves to have no dinner."
After the repast, the servant handed round a single glass of wine to each of his
guests ; which trifles show the economical disposition he possessed, and which
enabled him to realize £70,000 for the purpose of completing a museum for the
benefit of posterity. He was an early riser, and after his professional visits was
to be found always occupied in his museum. He was in person "regularly
shaped, but of slender make, and rather below the middle stature." There are
several good portraits of him, one of which is an unfinished painting by TofFany,
which represents him in the act of giving a lecture on the muscles at the royal
academy surrounded by a group of academicians. Another by Sir Joshua Rey-
nolds, and of which a correct and elegant fac-simile is given in connexion with
the present work, is preserved in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow.

The professional character of Dr Hunter is deservedly held high in the estima-
tion of all who are acquainted with the history of medicine. His anatomy of
the Gravid Uterus is alone a monument of his ability ; but, besides this,
he made discoveries for which his name deserves the highest possible respect.
His claims to being the discoverer of the origin and use of the lymphatic vessels
were, it is true, warmly contested ; but many who have taken pains to examine
the merits of the controversy, among whom we may mention the celebrated
Blumenbach, agree in awarding to him the honour of the discovery. He had
the merit also of first describing the varicose aneurism, which he did in the Ob-
servations and Inquiries published by the Medical Society of London. His dis-
covery and delineation of the membrana decidua reflexa in the retroverted
uterus, deserves also honourable mention ; in short, both the sciences of
anatomy and midwifery were materially advanced by his labours. He was a
good orator, and an able and clear lecturer ; indeed the extent of his knowledge,
more especially in physiology, enabled him to throw a charm of interest over the
dry details of descriptive anatomy. His general knowledge was, as we have
seen, very extensive ; and his name and talents were respected in every part of
Europe. Among the MSS. which he left behind him, were found the commence-
ment of a work on biliary and urinary concretions, and two introductory lec-
tures, one of which contains the history of anatomy from the earliest period
down to the time when he wrote ; also, considerations on the immediate con-
nexion of that science with the practice of physic and surgery. Among other
of his works, which are highly esteemed by the profession, we may notice his
" Essay on the Origin of the Venereal Disease," which he communicated to the
Royal Society ; and also his " Reflections on the Symphisis Pubis."

By his will Dr Hunter bequeathed an annuity of £100 to his sister, Mrs
Baillie, during her life, and the sum of £2000 to each of her daughters. The
residue of his estate and effects went to his nephew.

We may conclude our memoir of this eminent physician by relating the fol-
lowing anecdote, which is said to have occurred in his visit to Scotland, before
lie had acquired the celebrity he so earnestly desired. As he and Dr Cullen were
riding one day in a low part of the country, the latter pointed out to him his
native place, Long Calderwood, at a considerable distance, and remarked how
conspicuous it appeared. " Well," said he, with some degree of energy, " if I
live I shall make it more conspicuous." We need not add any comment on his
having lived to verify fully this prediction. Such are the achievements which

156 JOHN HUNTER.

assiduity and perseverance are ever enabled to accomplish. The moral deducible
from the lives of all eminent men teaches the same lesson.

John Hunter, younger brother of the preceding, was one of the most profound
anatomists and expert surgeons of the age in which he lived. \\ e have
already seen how much his brother did to promote the interests of medical
science, and we shall find in the sequel, that the subject of our present memoir
accomplished still more, and attained even to a higher and prouder eminence,
insomuch that his name is, as it were, consecrated in the history of his profession,
and respected and esteemed by all who are in the slightest degree acquainted
with the science. The exact date of his birth has been a subject of some dispute :

by Sir Everard Home it is placed in July 14, 172S ; and this day lias been

celebrated as its anniversary by the College of Surgeons of London ; — Dr Adams,
however, has dated it on the 1 3th of February, on the authority of the parish
register shown to him by the Rev. James French, the minister of the parish.
This evidence is sufficiently satisfactory ; and we, therefore, consider that the
latter is the correct date of his birth. He was, as we have already stated,
the youngest of the family, and born when his father had nearly reached the
age of seventy. Being the youngest, he was a great favourite with both of his
parents ; indeed, they allowed him to enjoy without restraint all the pleasures
and pastimes which are the delight of early life, without imposing on him those
tasks which are essential to an early and good education. Ten years after his
birth his mother was left a widow, and he was then the only son at home, one
or both of his sisters being now married. Herein, therefore, we may find every
apology for the indulgence of his mother, who, doubtless, regarded him with an
eye of no ordinary interest and affection. He was, accordingly, not sent to
school until he had arrived at the age of seventeen, when he was placed at a
grammar school — but not having the patience to apply himself to the cultivation of
languages, and furthermore disliking the restraint to which he was subjected, he
neglected his studies, and devoted the greater part of his time to country amuse-
ments. Numerous are the instances of men of genius, who, like Hunter,
neglected their education in youth ; but who, subsequently, by assiduous appli-
cation and diligence, recovered their lost time, and attained to high eminence.
Such was the case with Home Tooke, Dean Swift, and others, whose names are
honourably recorded in the history of literature. Care ought to be taken, how-
ever, to impress it on the minds of youth, that the general rule is otherwise,
and that early application is necessary in by far the majority of cases, to
produce respectable attainments in mature life. About this time, Mr Buchanan,
who had lately come from London to settle at Glasgow as a cabinet-maker, paid his
addresses to .Air Hunter's sister Janet, and having many agreeable qualities she ac-
cepted his offer, and contrary to the advice of her relations, was married to him. Mr
Buchanan was a man of agreeable and fascinating address, and, besides other pleas-
ing and companionable qualities, displayed the accomplishments of a good singer ;
— so that his company was continually in request, and he yielded too freely to the
pleasures and festivities of society. His business being in consequence neglected .
his circumstances became embarrassed, and John Hunter, who was now seventeen,
went to Glasgow on a visit to his sister, for whom he had the greatest affection,
to comfort her in her distress, and endeavour to assist in extricating her husband
from the difficulties in which he was involved, 'there is a report that Mr
Hunter was destined to be a carpenter, and one of his biographers ventures to
affirm that " a wheel-wright or carpenter he certainly was ;" however, the only
ground for such a statement seems to have been, that when orders were pressing
he occasionally did assist his brother-in-law, by working with him at his trade".
The occupation of a carpenter is, in towns distant from the metropolis, often

KJ N M 0 K T E K ,

/

JOHN HUNTER. 157

combined with that of a cabinet maker; — and thence arose the report to which
we have just alluded. His assistance could only have been very slight, and it
being eventually impossible for Mr Buchanan to retrieve himself from his diffi-
culties, he relinquished his business, and sought a livelihood by teaching
music, besides which, he was appointed clerk to an Episcopal congregation.
Thus the marriage of his sister, proved so far, in a worldly sense, unfortunate ;
and the predictions of her relations were too truly verified. Her brother John
soon became tired of witnessing embarrassments he could not relieve, and finding
that his sister preferred grieving over her sorrows alone, to allowing him to be
the constant witness of her grief, he returned to Long Calderwood, after an
absence which had so far had a beneficial effect on him, that it weaned him
from home, reconciled his mother to his absence, and in all probability
suggested to him reflections and motives for future activity, which never other-
wise might have occurred. It is no wonder that the village amusements to
which he had been accustomed, now lost their wonted charms ; — it is no wonder
that he felt restless and anxious to enter on some useful occupation, for already
he had witnessed what were the bitter fruits of idleness and dissipation. He had
often heard of his brother William's success in London, and he now wrote to
him requesting permission to pay him a visit, at the same time offering to assist
him in his anatomical labours; — and in case these proposals were not accepted,
he expressed a wish to go into the army.

His brother William returned a very kind answer to his letter, and gave him
an invitation to visit him immediately, which he cheerfully accepted, and accom-
panied by a Mr Hamilton who was going there on business, they rode together
on horseback, and in September, 1748, he arrived in London. About a
fortnight before the winter session of lectures for that year, his brother, anxious
to form some opinion of his talents for anatomy, gave him an arm to dissect the
muscles, with some necessary instructions for his guidance, and the performance,
we are informed, greatly exceeded expectation. William now gave him
a dissection of a more difficult nature, — an arm in which all the arteries were
injected, and these as well as the muscles were to be exposed and preserved.
His execution of this task gave his brother very great satisfaction, nor did he
now hesitate to declare that he would soon become a good anatomist, and, fur-
thermore, he promised that he should not want for employment. Here we may
observe, that the manipulation in dissecting requires a species of tact, which, like
many other acquirements, is best obtained in early life ; and now under the
instruction of his brother, and his assistant Mr Symonds, he had every oppor-
tunity for improvement, as all the dissections carried on in London at this time
were confined to that school.

In the summer of 1749, the celebrated Cheselden, at the request of Dr Hunter,
permitted John to attend at the Chelsea hospital, where he had ample oppor-
tunities for studying by the sick-bed, the progress and modifications of disease.
At this time surgical pathology was in a rude state ; and, among other absurd
doctrines, the progress of ulceration was held to be a solution of the solid parts
into pus, or matter. When the mind, however young, enters fresh and vigor-
ous into the field of inquiry, untrammelled by early prejudices, it is apt to
observe phenomena in new relations, and to discover glimmerings of paths
which lead to the knowledge of unsuspected truths. Such, at this time, we may
consider to have been the state of John Hunter's mind ; — acute in all its per-
ceptions ; discriminate in all its observations ; and free to embrace fearlessly
whatever new theories his reflections might suggest. Here, therefore, in
learning the first rudiments of surgery, he first began to suspect the validity of

158 JOHN HUNTER.

the doctrines which were promulgated, which some few years afterwards, it was
his good fortune to combat, and overthrow.

In the succeeding season, Mr Hunter was so far advanced in the knowledge
of practical anatomy as to relieve his brother from the duty of attending in the
dissecting-room. This now became the scene of the younger brother's employ-
ment during the winter months, whilst William confined himself to delivering
lectures in the theatre. In the summer he resumed his attendance at the Chelsea
hospital, and in the following year, 1751, he became a pupil at St Bartholomew's
hospital, where he was generally present at the performance of the most remark-
able operations. At this time Mr Pott was one of the senior surgeons at the
latter institution, and no man operated more expertly, or lectured with better
effect than he did ; and although his pathological doctrines were subsequently,
and with justice, arraigned by his present pupil, his name is nowhere mentioned
by him but with the highest respect

In the year 1753, Mr Hunter entered as a gentleman commoner in St Mary's
Hall, Oxford ; probably with the view of subsequently becoming a fellow oi
the College of Physicians. But his matriculation was not afterwards persevered
in, and the following year he entered as surgeon's pupil at St George's hospi-
tal. His object in taking this step, which might appear to have been superflu-
ous, is obvious. He desired to obtain the appointment of surgeon to some
public hospital ; and he well knew, that while his chance of success at Chelsea
hospital was very remote, he was precluded from competing for the appointment
at St Bartholomew's, from the circumstance of his not having served an appren-
ticeship to any surgeon of that hospital, a qualification expressly required by
every candidate for that office. He accordingly calculated that the chances
were more in his favour at St George's, where he hoped to obtain sufficient
interest among the medical officers to facilitate his wishes. To this hospital he
was, in two years afterwards, appointed house-surgeon. This, we may observe,
is a temporary office, the person holding which may be regarded as a resident
pupil, who resides in the house, and is expected to be always in readiness to
attend to any accident that may be brought to the house, or may occur in the
vicinity.

In the winter of 1755, he was admitted to a partnership in the lectures of his
brother, a certain portion of the course being allotted to him, and he being
required to lecture during the occasional absence of his colleague. Probably
from the neglect of his early education he was little qualified to compete with
his brother as a lecturer, a task he always performed with very great difficulty.
bor making dissections, and anatomical preparations, he was unrivalled in skill ;
and this was of no mean importance when we remember, that this art was at
that time very little known, and that such exhibitions were of great utility during
the pubhc lecture. « Mr Hunter worked for ten years," says Sir Everard
Home, on human anatomy, during which period he made himself master of
what was already known, as well as made some addition to that knowledge. He
traced the ratifications of the olfactory nerves upon the membranes of the nose,
and discovered the course of some of the branches of the fifth pair of nerves.
in the grayid uterus, he traced the arteries of the uterus to their termination in
the placenta. He was also the first who discovered the existence of the lympha-
tic vessels in birds." The difficulty of unraveling all the complex parts of the
human frame indued him to extend his inquiries, and examine into the struc-
ture of the inferior animals, nature having, asDr GeorTroy St Hilaire has more
recently demonstrated, preserved one type in the organization of all animate

^ZT f 1 '^ t0the ,k6eper °f the tOWCr> and the me« "ho are the pro-
prietors of the menageries of wild beaste, for the bodies of the animals which

JOHN HUNTER. 159

died under their care, besides which he purchased such rare animals as came in
his way, and many were presented to him by his friends, which he very judi-
ciously intrusted to the showmen to keep until they died, the better to secure
their interest in assisting him in his labours.

Ill health is too often the penalty of unremitting application, and Mr Hunter's
health now became so much impaired by excessive attention to his pursuits, that
in the year 1760, when he had just completed his thirty-second year, he became
affected by symptoms which appeared to threaten consumption, and for which a
milder climate was deemed advisable.

In October, 1760, he was appointed by Mr Adair, surgeon on the staff, and
the following spring he embarked with the army for Belleisle, leaving Mr Hew-
son to assist his brother during his absence. Both in Belleisle and Portugal he
served as senior surgeon on the staff, until the year 1763, and during this period
amassed the materials for his valuable work on gun-shot wounds. Nor is this
all; taking advantage of the opportunities presented to him, he examined the
bodies of many of the recently killed, with the view of tracing the healthy struc-
tures of certain parts, as well as the nature of particular secretions. After the
peace in 1763, Mr Hunter returned to England, " which," says one of his
biographers, " I have often heard him say he had left long enough to be satis-
fied, how preferable it is to all other countries."

Mr Hewson had now supplied the place of Mr Hunter in superintending dis-
sections and assisting in the anatomical theatre during the space of two years,
and it was scarcely to be expected that he would resume his connexion with his
brother. During his absence, the interest he had previously acquired in the
profession, naturally became diminished ; for it is the fate of all who are either
by necessity or choice induced to leave their native country, to find on their re-
turn, the friendship of some alienated, and that death, or worldly circumstances
have compelled others to leave the circle of their former acquaintance. Here
then we find Mr Hunter at the age of thirty-six, with very limited means, and
with few friends, settling in London to commence the great professional struggle
which all are destined to encounter who enter on this particular path of life,
which is generally found to be crowded with competitors whom good fortune
has already signalized with success. Scarcely can any situation of greater
anxiety be conceived, than that of an able and active-minded man sitting
down to practise medicine in a city in which he is comparatively a stranger,
and which is already supplied with numerous rival practitioners, on whom the
public has already pronounced a favourable verdict. Such at this time was the posi-
tion of 3Ir Hunter, as one of his biographers simply but emphatically expresses
it, u the practice of surgery now and for a long time afterwards afforded no
opening for him ; Hawkins, Bunfield, Sharpe, Potter, embraced almost the
whole of family practice, whilst Adair and Tomkins carried from him the chief
of the practice derived from the army." Disheartening, and indeed gloomy as
these prospects now were, he returned with unabated ardour to his scientific
pursuits, and laid the foundation of that eminence which he afterwards attained.
If the difficulties of this world be met with philosophy, and with a firm resolu-
tion to overcome them, they may generally be surmounted, and they then leave
the moral victor both the wiser and the happier for the conflict. So was it
with John Hunter, who, finding the emoluments from his half-pay and private
practice insufficient to support him, determined on teaching practical anatomy
and operative surgery. With the pecuniary means which he was thus enabled
to raise, he purchased about two miles from London a piece of ground near
Brompton, at a place called Earl's Court, and there built a house for the pur-
pose of experiments, which he could not carry on successfully in a large town.

leo

JOHN HUNTER.

Here, in the course of his inquiries he made several important discoveries. He
ascertained the changes which animal and vegetable substances undergo in the
stomach, when acted on by the gastric juice ; he also, by feeding animals with
madder, which tinges growing bones with a red colour, discarded the principles
observable in the growth of bones ; and, furthermore, succeeded in explaining
the process by which a dead piece is separated from the living bone. During
his absence from England, his name had in some degree been kept up before
the attention of the public, by his brother's essays in the Medical Commentaries,
where we find several allusions to his experiments and observations. In conse-
quence of these scientific researches, while he was yet, as a practitioner, over-
looked by the public, the Royal Society, much to its honour, elected him a fel-
low, in which title he preceded his brother, who was ten years older,
and had been known ten years earlier in the metropolis. The adjudgment of
this honour, and the recognition of the merit which it necessarily carried along
with it, must in Mr Hunter's circumstances, have been to him peculiarly grati-
fying. It was to him a proud incentive to further exertion ; and a strong in-
ducement to bear up against the difficulties, which, as we have explained, at this
time retarded his professional advancement.

The love of science leads us at all times to resources which lie beyond the
neglect and injustice of the world, and the mind of Hunter, untutored as it was
in early life, now sought relief, occupation, and improvement in the paths
which it opened up. Among other instructive amusements, he engaged in
watching the peculiar habits and instincts of various animals, for which purpose
he kept several, which should have been domiciled in menageries, in his own
house. Sir Everard Home relates the following anecdote : " two leopards
which were left chained in an out-house, had broken from their confinement
and got into the yard among some dogs, which they immediately attacked ; the
howling this produced alarmed the whole neighbourhood. Mr Hunter ran into
the yard to see what was the matter, and found one of them climbing up the
wall to make his escape, the other surrounded by the dogs ; he immediately laid
hold of them both and carried them back to their den. But as soon as they
Mere secured, and he had time to reflect on the risk of his own situation, he was
so much agitated that he was in danger of fainting." Incredible as to some this
anecdote may appear, we hesitate not to accord our implicit belief, knowing
how remarkable a control men have exercised even over the most savage ani-
mals, when themselves actuated by great courage and strong power of re-
solution.

This year, by a strong exertion in dancing, Mr Hunter unfortunately broke
the tendo Achillis, (the strong and broad tendon felt at the back of the foot,)
in consequence of which he introduced an improvement on the mode of treating
this accident, which was superior to that recommended bv Dr Alexander Monro,
who had himself at a more advanced period of life experienced a similar mis-
fortune.

We have no account from Sir Everard Home of Mr Hunter's town residence
until his brother, having completed his house in Windmill Street, assigned over
to him the lease of his house in Jermyn Street. It is presumed by one of his
biographers, that on his first arrival in London he lodged, for the purpose of
being near to his brother's dissecting rooms, in Covent Garden, and another
informs us that on his return from abroad he resided in Golden Square. Be
this as it may, he appears to have lived in Jermyn Street until the expiration
of the lease in 1783, a period of fifteen years. Whatever may have been the
slight difference which existed between him and his brother, the latter appears
still to have interested himself in his welfare, as we find that, chiefly through his

JOHN HUNTER. 161

interest, he was, in 1768, (on the authority of Dr Symmons,) elected surgeon to
St George's hospital. He had now acquired the desired means for giving
his talents and industry full scope ; for, as fellow of the Royal Society, he gained
the earliest notice of every scientific discovery and improvement which might
take place in Europe; and as surgeon to this hospital, he had the means of ex-
tending his observations, and confirming his pathological doctrines. His whole
time was now devoted to the examination of facts, and the patient accumulation
of such knowledge as he could gradually attain ; nor did he, as many others
have done, captivated by love of fame, rush prematurely before the notice of the
public. " With the exception,'' says one of his biographers, "of what was published
in his name by his brother William, in the year 1764, there does not appear
to be any thing by John up to the year 1772. If there were any publications,
they must have terminated like many more by others ; they must have experienced
the fate of abortions, or at least I know nothing of them." Herein he showed
very considerable wisdom, and well would it have been for many authors, had
they, like John Hunter, persevered even in obscurity in maturing their knowledge
before surrendering themselves to a tribunal, whose verdict will always in the end
be found to have been dictated by the severest and most rigid principles of
justice.

The surgeons of most of the public hospitals in this country have the privi-
lege of selecting, on their own terms, house-pupils, who reside with them a year
or two after the completion of their education. Among many who became
pupils of John Hunter, and afterwards acquired celebrity in their profession,
we may notice the famous Dr Jenner, who boarded in his house in 1770 and
1771, and lived in habits of intimacy with him until his death. "In every
conversation," says a friend of Dr Jenner's, " as well as in a letter I received from
him, he spoke with becoming gratitude of his friend and master." Even the
slightest recollection, or testimony of esteem, from such a man as Dr Jenner,
in favour or illustration of the character of John Hunter must be received with
interest. In 1771, Mr Hunter published the first part of his Treatise on the
Teeth, a very valuable work, the merit of which has not been surpassed by any
later production. It may be observed en passant, that this was the only work
he sold to the booksellers, all his others being published on his own account, or
communicated to miscellaneous collections, chiefly periodicals. Between the
appearance of the first and second part of his treatise, Dr Fothergill published
his paper on that painful affection of the facial nerve, denominated Tic Do-
loureux.

While thus rising in eminence, Mr Hunter became attached to the daughter of
Mr Boyne Home, surgeon of Burgoyne's regiment of light horse, who was also the
father of the celebrated Sir Everard Home. The young lady received his addresses
favourably ; but the feelings of human nature, impassioned as they may be,
must succumb to the cold reality of worldly circumstances ; wherefore, their
marriage was necessarily delayed until he had obtained a sufficient competency
to maintain her in that rank of society, which for their mutual happiness was
desirable. When the passions are staked on the success of such an attachment,
and are in fact concentrated in the welfare of a being so chosen, disappointment
annihilates all moral energy, and reduces the prospects of life into painful ruin ;
— but when hope is allowed to feed itself on encouragement, and the future
alliance definitively fixed, there is an object for exertion ; — a stimulus to action
which will not allow of rest, until the means of gaining the promised end have
been accomplished. This John Hunter appears to have duly felt, and his
exertions therefore were correspondingly increased ; and during this time, when
ho could suspend his professional and scientific toils, nothing gave him greater

III. x

162 JOHN HUNTER.

gratification than the pleasure of enjoying her society. ** The expenses of his
pursuits," says Sir ETerard Home, " had been so great, that it was not for some
years after his first engagement with this lady, that his affairs could be sufficiently
arranged to admit of his marriage. This happy period at length arrived, and
he was married to Miss Home in 1771."

" Whilst he was paying," continues Sir Everard, " his addresses to my sister,
I was a boy at Westminster school. During the holidays I came home, and Mr
Hunter, who was frequently there, always showed me particular kindness ; he
made my father an offer to bring me up to his profession, a proposal which I
readily accepted. I was struck with the novelty and extent of his researches,
had the highest respect and admiration for his talents, and was ambitious to tread
the paths of science under so able a master."

The year after his marriage, at the request of Sir John Pringle, he read to
the Koyal Society a communication showing that after death the gastric juice has
the power of dissolving the coats of the stomach. This paper he was persuaded
to read to the society, before he had entirely completed the investigations -which
he further meditated ; — but it appears that he did not afterwards return to the
subject, considering that the fact on which any further inquiries might be formed
had been sufficiently demonstrated.

In the winter of 1773, he formed a plan for giving a course of lectures on the
theory and principles of surgery, with the view of vindicating his own principles,
which he frequently heard misquoted or ascribed to others, and of teaching them
systematically. The first two winters, he read his lectures gratis to the pupils of
St George's hospital, and the winter following charged the usual terms of other
teachers in medicine and surgery. " For this, or for continuing them," says
one of his biographers, " there could be no pecuniary motive. As he was
under the necessity of hiring a room and lecturing by candle light, his emolu-
ments must have been trifling. The lectures not being considered a part of
medical education, his class was usually small ; and of the few that heard him,
the greater part acknowledged their difficulty in understanding him, which was
often proved by their incapacity of keeping up their attention. The task itself
was so formidable to him, that he was obliged to take thirty drops of laudanum
before he entered the theatre at the beginning of each course. Yet he certainly
felt great delight in finding himself understood, always waiting at the close of
each lecture to answer any questions ; and evincing evident satisfaction when
those questions were pertinent, and he perceived that his answers were satisfac-
tory and intelligible." In addition to this, Sir Everard Home, after stating the
fact of his having recourse to laudanum — the elixir vitae of the opium eater —
" to take oft* the effects of uneasiness," adds, ** he trusted nothing to memory,
and made me draw up a short abstract of each lecture, which he read on the fol-
lowing evening, as a recapitulation to connect the subjects in the minds of thf
students." Amidst all his avocations, both as a lecturer and practitioner, he still
pursued with an unabated zeal and industry his researches into comparative ana-
tomy. No opportunity for extending his knowledge on this interesting depart-
ment of science did he permit to escape him. In the year 1773, at the request
of Mr Walsh, he dissected the torpedo, and laid before the Royal Society an
account of its electrical organs. A young elephant which had been presented to
the queen by Sir Robert Barker, and died, afforded him an opportunity of
examining the structure of that animal; after which two other elephant- in the
queen's menagerie likewise died, which he also carefully dissected. The year
following, 1774, he published in the Philosophical Transactions an account of
certain receptacles of air in birds, showing how these communicate with the lungs
and are lodged in the fleshy parts, and in the bones of these animals ; likewise

JOHN HUNTER. 163

a paper on the gillaroo trout, commonly called in Ireland the gizzard trout.
In 1775, several animals of the species called the gymnotus electricus of Suri-
nam, were brought alive into this country, and by the curious phenomena they
exhibited the attention of the scientific world was greatly excited. After making
numerous experiments on the living animals, Mr Walsh purchased those which died,
and gave his friend Mr Hunter an opportunity of examining them. This he readily
accepted, and drew up an account of their electrical organs, which he published
in the Philosophical Transactions. In the same volume of that valuable work
will be found his paper containing experiments respecting the powers of animals
and vegetables in producing heat. Thus, in the paths of natural history did he
find a recreation from the more serious, and often irksome duties of his profes-
sion ; — and by his skilful dissections, and acute observations, enriched our
knowledge in this interesting and fascinating department of science. While
thus engaged, Mr Hunter found a great difficulty in showing to advantage the
natural appearances of many parts of animals which he wished to be preserved.
In some instances the minute vessels could not be seen when the preparation was
immersed in spirits ; in others, the natural colour of the parts preserved, and
even the character of the surface, faded and underwent a change after being
some time immersed in this liquid, — a circumstance which, to this day,
diminishes very much the value of almost all the morbid preparations which are
preserved in private and public museums. The only method, therefore, of .accom-
plishing the object he had in view, was to have them carefully and correctly
drawn at the time of the dissection. The expense of engaging draftsmen, the
difficulty of procuring them, and above all their ignorance of the subject to be
delineated, were considerable objections to their employment. Accordingly, he
engaged a young and talented artist named Bell, to live with him for ten years,
during which period it was agreed that he should be employed both as a drafts-
man and in making anatomical preparations. This young man soon imbibed the
spirit of his master; he worked assiduously with his knife, his forceps, and his
pencil ; he engaged himself during part of his time in copying out Mr Hunter's
lectures, and in less than ten years became a skilful anatomist and surgeon.
I3y his labours, Mr Hunter's collection became enriched with many very accurate
and spirited drawings; and a variety of curious and delicate anatomical prepara-
tions. This skilful artist, by the interest of his friend Sir Joseph Bankes,
obtained the appointment of assistant surgeon in the honourable East India
Company for the settlement of Bencoolen in Sumatra, whither he set out with
the view both of improving his fortune, and collecting specimens of natural
history. He was in both successful beyond his most sanguine expectations. He
sent home some very rare specimens of animals and corals, and two papers which
appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, — one giving a description of the
double horned rhinoceros, and the other of an uncommonly formed fish. Un-
fortunately for the cause of science, he died of fever in 1792, being one of the
many who have been summoned from this world, amidst early promises of future
excellence and success.

In January, 1776, Mr Hunter was appointed surgeon extraordinary to his
majesty, — an honour which contributed still farther to advance his professional
interests. About this time the attention of the public was much directed to the
efforts of the Humane Society. Dr Cogan was the first who introduced the sub-
ject from Holland ; and after him, Dr Hawes did not suffer it to rest until it
experienced the royal patronage. Here again we find Mr Hunter zealously en-
gaged in endeavouring to ascertain the best mode of restoring apparently drowned
persons, the consequence of which was the production of a paper which he read
to the Royal Society, entitled " Proposals for the Recovery of Persons apparently

1C4

JOHN HUNTER.

Drowned." The able author of this paper draws the distinction between the mere
suspension of the functions by which life is supported, and absolute death, which
he illustrates by reference to various animals, in whom, under certain conditions,
tiie actions of life are temporarily suspended. It further contains a description
of the sig-ns of life and death, which are of vast importance; indeed, notwith-
standing the progress that has since been made, botli in Germany and Britain, in
medical jurisprudence, this paper contains information which has by no means
been superseded.

In the autumn of this year, Mr Hunter was taken extremely ill, and the
nature of his complaints induced both his friends and himself to apprehend that
his life was in imminent danger. However, the anticipated calamity was averted ;
he rallied, and was restored to his friends and the public, to whom his subse-
quent services were of such vast importance. When on his sick bed, he reflected
on his own worldly affairs, such as he was about to leave them ; — he perceived
that all his fortune had been expended in his pursuits ; that his family had no
provision excepting what might arise from the sale of his collection ; and he
naturally, on this account, suffered much solicitude and anxiety. No sooner did
he leave his sick chamber, than he commenced arranging his collection, so that
it might, in whatever event, command its value, and with this view he began to
make a catalogue of the collection ; but the delicacy of his health obliged him
to desist from his labours, and persuaded by his friends and relatives, he retired
for a time to Bath. During his absence, Mr Everard Home was employed to
draw out descriptions of the preparations, leaving blanks for those with which
he was unacquainted. His complaints were considerably ameliorated by his
residence at Bath ; and though he returned to town before he was quite convales-
cent, he continued to amend, and was soon recovered.

In 1778, he published the second part of his Treatise on the Teeth, and also,
in the Philosophical Transactions, a paper on the heat of animals and vegetables.
" I had now," says Sir Everard Home, " lived six years with Mr Hunter and
completed my education : his expenses had always exceeded his income. I had
therefore no emolument to expect from remaining in his house, which made it
necessary for me to take up some line for my own support, and admiral Kep-
pel's action with the French fleet was the means of procuring me a very eligible
situation."

Thus 3Ir Hunter was now deprived of the valuable assistance of his former
pupil. And here we may pause to observe, both from the reflections which he
made during his late illness, and the statement of Sir E. Home, that his expendi-
ture had always exceeded his income, how slow are the emoluments of men
whose scientific labours are nevertheless an advantage and honour to their
country. Mr Hunter had now arrived at the age of fifty years, thirty of
which had been devoted to his profession ; he had been eleven years mem-
ber of the Royal Society, and nine years an hospital surgeon';— he was
respected and esteemed by the most accomplished men of science, and his
claims to honourable distinction recognized by the nobility and by royalty
itself; but still his pecuniary circumstances were at so low an ebb, that had
he died during his late illness, his wife and children would have been left
comparatively destitute. His expenses do not appear to have been great; his
family had increased, but only two survived, and these were still of an age 'to be
little expensive ; his own personal expenses were not considerable; and yet five
years after this period (says one of his biographers), when he purchased a lease-
hold in Leicester Square, he assured us that he was under the necessity of mwl
gaging before he could pay for it, and for some time afterwards he used to
regret that all he could collect in fees " went to carpenters and bricklayers j

JOHN HUNTER. 165

whilst the sum expended was scarcely sufficient to furnish the library of a
literary character." But the calamities and poverty of men of genius are so
proverbial, that the hand of humanity willingly draws a veil over their sufferings ;
and yet there is something higher than riches to be obtained in this world, and
amidst all the difficulties he has to encounter, happy is he who can command the
power of contributing even in the slightest degree to the well-being and happi-
ness of the human race. It is this high hope, this internal moral conviction,
which always has, and ever will support genius along the difficult and thorny
track -which it is its destiny to tread.1 In 1780, Mr Hunter laid before the
Royal Society an account of a woman who had the small pox during pregnancy,
and in whom the disease seems to have been communicated to the foetus. The
following year he was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Sciences and Belles
Lettres at Gottenburg.

During this period, he read before the Royal Society many valuable com-
munications ; among which we may notice, a paper on the Organ of Hearing
in Fish, and six Croonian lectures on Muscular Motion. In these lectures he
collected all the observations that had been made on the muscles, respecting
their powers and effects, and the stimuli by which they are excited ; and to
these he added comparative observations concerning the moving powers ot
plants ; but these lectures were not published in the Philosophical Transactions,
as they were not considered by the author to be sufficiently complete disser-
tations.

Sir Everard Home informs us, that in the year 1783, Mr Hunter was chosen
into the Royal Society of Medicine and Royal Academy of Surgery in Paris.
In this year, continues the same writer, the lease of his house in Jermyn Street
expired, and his collection being now too large to be contained in his dwelling
house, he purchased the lease of a large house on the east side of Leicester
Square, and the whole lot of ground extending to Castle Street, in which there
was another house. In the middle space between the two houses he erected a
building for his collection. Upon this building he expended above three thou-
sand pounds, and, unfortunately for his family, the lease did not extend beyond
twenty-four years. **#**" During the execution of this exten-
sive plan I returned to England from Jamaica, where, at the close of the war, I
had been appointed staff' surgeon. * * * * I found Mr Hunter now ad-
vanced to a considerable practice, and a still greater share of public confidence.
His collection had increased with his income. In this he was materially assisted
by his friendship with Sir Joseph Bankes, who not only allowed him to take any
of his own specimens, but procured him every curious animal production in his
power, and afterwards divided between him and the British Museum all the
specimens of animals he had collected in his voyage round the world. Drawing
materials from such ample sources, standing alone in this branch of science, and
high in the public estimation, he had so much attention paid to him, that no new
animal was brought to this country which was not shown to him ; many were
given to him, and of those which were for sale he had commonly the refusal ;
under these circumstances his collection made a progress which would otherwise
have, been impossible. In April, 1785, his new rooms were completed, and I
devoted the whole of the summer to the object of assisting him in moving his
preparations, and arranging them in their proper order."2

The surgical practice of Mr Hunter now daily increased, and he performed

1 Vide Exposition of the false medium and barrier excluding men of genius from the
public. London, Effingham Wilson, 1833.

2 Life of John Hunter by Sir Everard Home, prefixed to his Treatise on the Blood, Inflam-
mation, and Gun shot wounds.

16G JOHN HUNTER.

wilh great skill and judgment numerous operations, which were at that time new
in the art of surgery; but whatever may have been the multiplicity of his pro-
fessional engagements, his mind was still devoted to effecting improvements in
medical education, and with this view, assisted by his/ friend the celebrated Dr
Fordyce, he instituted a medical society, called the Lyceum Medicum Londinense
the meetings of which were held in his own lecture-rooms, and which acquired
no inconsiderable reputation, both from the numbers and character of its mem-
bers. Institutions of this kind have been of eminent importance in fostering
and eliciting talents that have done honour to medical science ; and this under
the patronage it enjoyed did not fail to flourish.

In the year 1786, in consequence of the death of Mr Middleton, Mr Hunter
was appointed deputy surgeon general to the army ; shortly after which he pub-
lished his work on the venereal disease, and another entitled " Observations
on certain parts of the Animal Economy;" both which works rank high in the
estimation of the profession. Sir Everard Home mentions the curious fact, that
he chose to have his works printed and published in his own house, but u find-
ing," he adds, " this measure to bear hard upon the booksellers in a way which
had not been explained, and which was not intended, the second editions were
sold by Mr Johnson in St Paul's Church-yard, and Mr Nicoll, Pall Mall." In
the spring of this year he had another very severe illness, which confined him to
bed, and rendered him incapable of any kind of business. " In this state," sa\s
his biographer, " I was obliged to take upon myself the charge of his pa-
tients, as well as of his other affairs ; and these were so extensive, that my resi-
dence in his house became absolutely necessary. His recovery was very slow,
and his health received so severe a shock, that he was never afterwards entirely
free from complaint or capable of his usual bodily exertion. After his recovery
from this illness, he was subjected to affections of the heart upon every occasion
which agitated his mind. In this infirm state he was unable to attend patients
upon sudden calls in the night, or to perform operations without assistance ; and
for these years I continued to live with him until within a year of his death,
and then took a house within a few doors, which, in no respects detached me
from his pursuits, or prevented me from taking a part in his private practice.
The uncertainty of the continuance of life under this affection ; the mental agi-
tation, and frequent depression with which it is almost invariably attended,
render the victims of such generally anxious and unhappy ; the canker
worm is felt to be preying within the living frame, and there is no hope of
restoration to permanent health. But notwithstanding all this, his energies re-
mained unabated, and he still toiled with his wonted alacrity in the pursuit of
knowledge. In the year 1787, he submitted to the Ro\al Society a paper
giving an account of the experiment he had made to determine the effect of ex-
tirpating one ovarium, on the number of the young ; also another communica-
tion, in which he proves the wolf, jackall, and dog to be of the same species;
aud another on the anatomy of the whale tribe. In return for these labours,
having been twelve years a fellow, he received the gold Copleyan medal. Dis-
tinctions of this kind, although abstractly no stimulus to men who are actuated
by higher motives in pursuit of knowledge, when conferred on men of such emi-
nent abilities, not only do honour to the individual to whom they are presented,
but to the institution by which they are awarded ; and certainly, on reviewing
the labours of John Hunter, there was perhaps no man who ever lived, better
entitled to this honour. In the July of this year, he was chosen a member of
the American Philosophical Society ; and the same year, on account of his con-
tinued ill health, he applied to the governors of St George's hospital to allow
him an assistant surgeon, to which request they readily acceded ; and Sir

JOHN HUNTER. 167

Everard Home was appointed to the office. In the year 1789, he succeeded
Mr Adair as inspector general of hospitals, and surgeon general of the army,
and about the same time was admitted a member of the Royal College of Sur-
geons in Ireland. ^

In the year 1792, Mr Hunter found that-the period which he allotted to lec-
turing interfered so much with his other avocations, that he gave his materials
for the lectures into the hands of Sir Everard Home, who relieved him of this
duty. He now therefore began to prepare for the press his *■* Treatise on the
Blood, Inflammation, and Gun-shot wounds," the data for which he had been
collecting for many years. In his dedication to the king, he states that his ap<
pointment as surgeon on the staff' in the expedition against Belleisle afforded
him the opportunities of attending to gun-shot wounds, of seeing the errors and
defects in that branch of military surgery, and of studying to remove them.
He further adds, that it drew his attention to inflammation in general, and
enabled him to make the observations which form the bases of that doctrine,
which has since his time excited so much controversy among physiologists. By
a series of very interesting experiments, and by a very ingenious mode of
reasoning, he came to the conclusion maintained by this doctrine, which holds,
that the blood as existing in its fluid state is alive, and that its death causes the
changes which are observed to take place when it is abstracted from the body.
In the Old Testament we read, " ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh ;
for the life of all flesh is the blood," (Levit xvii. 14.) The same doctrine
too seems promulgated in the Alcoran — and appears to have been maintained
by the celebrated Harvey ; — but notwithstanding these facts, there is no reason
to presume that the idea was plagiarized by John Hunter : on the contrary, his
opinion was with him original, inasmuch as it was elicited by the experiments
which he himself performed. This would by no means be an appropriate place
to discuss the general merits of this physiological doctrine ; but we do not err
in stating that it is supported by very plausible evidence, and is maintained by
many eminent men of science. The nature and seat of the living principle
which raises man above the inanimate beings by which he is surrounded, is
manifestly beyond the reach of human investigation ; but it must be satisfactory
to those who have not time nor inclination even to examine the evidence which
has been on either side adduced, to find, that such men as John Hunter and
Abernethy recognized the existence of something beyond the mere mechanism
of the human frame ; that they in their acute reasonings urged the existence of
an internal and self-sustaining principle, which modifies the different conditions
of matter, and must be therefore superior to its decay.

In the year 1792, Mr Hunter was elected an honorary member of the Chi-
rurgico-Physical Society of Edinburgh, and likewise connected himself with the
Veterinary College, then just projected in London. " The origin of this insti-
tution," says Dr Adams, " was at Odiham in Hampshire ; the Agricultural
Society of which had offered a premium for the best account of the glanders.
Mr Sergeant Bell was the fortunate candidate, and the society was so well
pleased with his piece, that in a little time after, a Veterinary College was pro-
jected, over which that gentleman should preside. As soon as the proposal was
known to Mr Hunter he eagerly joined it, urging the advantages which might
be derived from it, not only to quadrupeds, but to man, by extending our
knowledge of physiology and more especially of pathology. In order to forward
the plan, several gentlemen, the duke of Bedford at their head, deposited £500
on the chance of its being never returned. Mr Hunter was one of the number.
It was proposed that he should examine Mr Sergeant Bell, to which he readily
assented. It will easily be conceived by those who are not at all acquainted

1G8 JOHN HUNTER.

rtith the continental pathology of those days, that the examination proved unsatis-
factory. Mr Hunter would have gladly introduced another gentleman ; but this
did not at all lessen his zeal in promoting the object of the institution." Such
was the origin of his connexion with the London Veterinary College, of which
he now became one of the vice-presidents.

In the transactions of the Society for improving Medical Knowledge, of which
M~r Hunter was one of the original and most zealous members, he published
about this period papers on the Treatment of Inflamed Veins, on Introsuscep-
tion, and on a mode of conveying food into the stomach in cases of paralysis of
the oesophagus. He likewise finished his Observations on the Economy of Bees,
and presented them to the Royal Society. These observations he finished at
Earl's Court, which was his place of retirement from the toils of his profession,
but by no means a retreat from those intellectual labours which diversified the
whole tenor of his life. " It was there," says Sir Everard Home, '* he carried
on his experiments on digestion, on exfoliation, on the transplanting of teeth
into the combs of cocks, and all his other investigations on the animal economy,
as well in health as in disease. The common bee was not alone the subject of
his observation, but the wasp, hornet, and the less known kinds of bees were
also objects of his attention. It was there he made the series of preparations of
the external and internal changes of the silk worm ; also a series of the incuba-
tion of the egg, with a very valuable set of drawings of the whole series. The
growth of vegetables was also a favourite subject of inquiry, and one on which
he was always engaged making experiments. In this retreat he had collected
many kinds of animals and birds, and it was to him a favourite amusement in
his walks to attend to their actions and to their habits, and to make them
familiar with him. The fiercer animals were those to which he was most partial,
and he had several of the bull kind from all parts of the world. Among these
was a beautiful small bull he had received from the queen, with which he used
to wrestle in play, and entertain himself with its exertions in its own defence.
In one of these contests the bull overpowered him and got him down, and had
not one of the servants accidentally come by, and frightened the animal away,
his frolic would probably have cost him his life."3 The pleasure which a man
of high intellectual endowments, and refined sensibility, takes in Matching the
habits, and in a manner sympathizing with the feelings exhibited by the lower
classes of animals, constitutes one of the most amiable and noble features which
his disposition can pourtray, and doubtless must give rise to some of the finest
and most generous feelings of which human nature is susceptible. Man is in all
cases the representative, or rather the repetition of mere man, and in the suffer-
ings of one of his own species he sees reflected as in a mirror the miseries he
himself may possibly have to endure ; wherefore the chords of pity are by a
latent feeling of self-interest vibrated, and he enters into commiseration with his
fellow man ; but to extend his thoughts and feelings beyond the possible range
of his own experience to the commonly despised, or perhaps maltreated lower
animals, manifests a high and generous tone of feeling independent of all such
collateral selfishness, and in perfect consonance with the most elevated principles
of Christian philosophy. Here then we have before us the instance of a philo-
sopher whose profound knowledge had already, in no trifling degree, contributed
to the advancement of science and the benefit of the human race, familiarizing
himself, and with child-like simplicity playing, with animals, which, although of
a lower order of classification, possess senses as acute, feelings as strong, and
necessities as urgent as our own, and which by their complex and equally perfect

organization, prove themselves to be as much the subjects of divine care, and

3 Life of John Hunter, by Sir Evsrard Homa,

JOHN HUNTER. 169

in their own spheres as important in carrying out and completing the great
scheme of the universe.

We have thus already traced the life of John Hunter from youth to
middle age ; from obscurity to eminence ; from adversity to prosperity ; and
it remains for us now to notice those accessions of disease which rendered the
tenure of his life one of extreme uncertainty. We have already stated
that in the spring of 1769, he was confined to bed by a serious illness, — an
acute attack of gout, which returned the three following springs, but not the
fourth. In the spring of 1773, he became affected with very severe spasmodic
symptoms, owing to disease of the heart. His next illness took place in 1776,
and this appears to have been occasioned by inflammation in the arteries of the
brain, which gave rise to morbid appearances that were recognized after death.
It is said that this attack was occasioned by mental anxiety, arising from the
circumstance of his being obliged to pay a large sum of money for a friend for
whom he had become security, and which his circumstances rendered extremely
inconvenient. After, on this occasion, taking certain refreshments, and feeling
relieved, he ventured on attempting a journey of eight miles in a post-chaise ;
but he became so much worse that he was obliged to go to bed, and was after-
wards brought home in a post-chaise. The determination of blood to the head
in particular, gave rise to many very remarkable symptoms. When he went to
bed he felt giddy, and experienced a sensation of being suspended in the air.
This latter painful feeling increased. The least motion of his head upon the
pillow seemed to be so great that he scarcely dared attempt it. If he but moved
his head half round, it appeared to be moving from him with great velocity. The
idea he had of his own size was that of being only two feet long; and Avhen he
drew up his foot or pushed it down, it seemed to be moving a vast way. His
sensations became extremely acute or heightened ; he could not bear the least
light, a curtain and blanket were obliged to be hung up before it, and the bed
curtains closely drawn. He kept his eyes firmly closed, but if a candle was only
passed across the room he could not bear it. His hearing was also painfully
acute ; as was likewise his sense of smell and of taste ; every thing he put into
his mouth appearing of a higher flavour than natural. After being bled, and
subjected to other reducing treatment, he recovered from this severe attack ;
but his constitution had received a shock, which nothing could surmount. An
organic disease lurked within, which every excitement would aggravate, if not
lead to direct and suddenly fatal consequences. He had no particular illness,
however, from this period until 1785, " although," says Sir Everard Home,
" he appeared much altered in his looks, and gave the idea of being much older
than could be accounted for from the number of years which had elapsed." The
physiognomy of death is often impressed on the features of the living, for some
time before the fatal event occurs which severs them from their relations with
the world. So was it with John Hunter ; — but in the beginning of the April
of this latter year, he became attacked with a dreadfully severe spasmodic disease,
which, like his similar attacks, was induced by mental anxiety. His feet, his
hands, and then his chest became successively affected ; and in effect the exten-
sion of the spasm became so considerable that he repeatedly swooned. " I was
with him," says his accomplished brother-in-law, " during the whole of
this attack, and never saw any thing equal to the agonies which he suffered ;
and when he fainted away I thought him dead, as the pain did not seem to
abate, but to carry him oft", having first completely exhausted him." Such were
the intense sufferings he endured : nevertheless, he rallied, and partially
recovered, nor did any thing of the kind particularly recur until the December
of 1789, when at the house of a friend he became afflicted by a total loss of

170 JOHN HUNTER.

memory. He did not know in what part of the town he was ; nor even the
name of the street when told it ; nor where his own house was, nor had he any
conception of any place existing beyond the room he was in, yet in the midst
of all this was he perfectly conscious of the loss of memory. He was sensible of
impressions of all kinds from the senses, and therefore looked out of the window,
although rather dark, to see if he could be made sensible of the situation of the
house; at length this loss of memory gradually went off, and in less than half an
hour his memory was perfectly recovered. About a fortnight afterwards when
visiting a patient, an attack, somewhat of a similar nature, recurred ; and during
this illness he was attended by Dr Pitcairn and Dr Baillie. Amidst all the
diseases and sufferings to which the living body is subjected, the changes which in
an especial manner affect the mind, are interesting to all — whether professional
or non-professional. His mental impressions during this attack were lively,
indeed, often disagreeably so. His dreams had so much the strength of reality
that they often awakened him ; but the remembrance of them remained
perfect.

" The sensation," says Sir Everard Home, " which he had in his head was not
pain, but rather so unnatural as to give him the idea of having no head. The
organs of sense (as in the former illness,) were painfully acute. He could not
endure the light; and every thing had a yellow cast. Sounds were louder
than natural, and every object had lost its true direction, leaning, as nearly as he
could guess, to an angle of fifty or sixty degrees. His recovery from this attack
was less perfect than from any other ; he never lost the obliquity of vision ;
and his memory became much impaired. The recurrence too of the spasms
became more frequent. The slightest exertion induced them. He never went
to bed without their being brought on by the act of undressing himself; — they
came on during the middle of the night ; — the least excitement in conversation
was attended by them ; and even operations in surgery, if requiring any nicety,
occasioned them. It is remarked by Sir Everard Home, that as his mind was
irritated by trifles, these produced the most violent effects on his disease. " His
coachman,'' says he, " being beyond his time, or a servant not attending to his
directions, brought on the spasms, while a real misfortune produced no such
effect He thus continued to drag on a painful and precarious existence,
with the grave every moment threatening to open beneath his feet. At length
the fatal event so long anticipated by his friends occurred ; it was sudden ; and
occasioned, as his former fits had been, by mental excitement The circum-
stances by which this was occasioned, are thus detailed by Dr Adams, who had a
personal knowledge of them. " A law," says he, " concerning the qualifica-
tions required for the admission of pupils, had been carried contrary to the
wishes of 3Ir Hunter. At this lime he was applied to by a youth ignorant of
the new regulation and consequently unprovided with any documents. His for-
mer residence was at a great distance, and he was anxious not to lose time during
an expensive stay in London, in fitting himself for professional service. 31r
Hunter, to relieve himself from the irksomeness of pleading or explaining,
requested the case might be drawn up in the form of a letter addressed to him-
self. This he proposed to bring with him at the meeting of the next board.
Notwithstanding this great caution, however, he felt the probability of a contest
which he might prove unable to support On the succeeding day the writer of
this, (Dr Adams,) had a very long conversation with him, in which we were
insensibly led to his complaint ; a subject of all others the most interesting to
his friends, and on which he never was backward in conversing. He was willing
to hear every argument against the probable existence of an organic infirmity ;
but it was easy to see that his own opinion remained the same. Nor did he fail

JOHN HUNTER. 171

on this occasion, to revert to the effect which it had on his temper. On the fol-
lowing day, I am informed from good authority, he told a baronet, who called
on him in the morning, that he was going to the hospital ; that he was fearful
some unpleasant rencounter would ensue, and if such should be the case, he knew
it must be his death." Notwithstanding this presentiment, he chose to hazard the
event, for the purpose of defending a youth, against what appeared to him an
oppressive and unjust regulation. The generosity of such a motive is the best
apology for the indiscretion in attending the meeting, at which such fatal conse-
quences were, even by himself, apprehended. " On the 16th October," says Sir
Everard Home," when in his usual state of health, he went to St George's
hospital, and meeting with something which irritated his mind, and not being
perfectly master of the circumstances, he withheld his sentiments ; in which
state of restraint he went into the next room, and turning round to Dr Robin-
son, one of the physicians to the hospita.l, he gave a deep groan, and dropped
down dead." His body was conveyed from the hospital in a sedan chair, and
underwent a careful medical examination, by which it appeared that among
other morbid changes that had occurred, the arteries both of the heart and brain
had undergone ossification. His funeral was attended by a few of his oldest
medical friends, and his remains intei-red in the vault under the parish church
of St Martin's in the Fields. He expired, it may be added, in his sixty-fifth
year, the same age, at which his brother Dr William Hunter died.

We have now noticed seriatim the principal events which characterized the
life of this eminent surgeon, and throughout them we notice the manifestation
of great mental energy, combined with considerable powers of originality.
His early education had it is true been grievously neglected ; but this very
fact left him at liberty to explore more freely new and untrodden paths, which
men shackled by scholastic dogmas, and bowing with undue reverence to pre-
existing authorities, seldom have the courage to attempt. With such men the
deviation from established rules is regarded as a species of heterodoxy ; and
their learning, therefore, chains them down to a fixed and never improving
system. Thus it was with the majority of physicians who embraced, and then
promulgated ex cathedra, the doctrines of Galen, Boerhaave, Stahl, and others ;
but it was otherwise with John Hunter ; he was of no school ; he went with an
unprejudiced mind to nature, and examined into all her operations with that
freedom and independence which can alone advance the true interests of philo-
sophy. He read very little. '* I have learned," says one of his biographers,
" from a gentleman who was very intimate with him, that when he had made a
discovery, it was his custom to relate it to Mr Cruickshanks , who frequently in-
formed him that Haller had made the same observation before." In every de-
partment of science, and even in general literature, such coincidences of
observation will often occur ; and these too frequently have given rise to charges
of wilful plagiarism, of which the suspected author was never guilty. John
Hunter was a man of truly original observation ; and distinguished himself as
much by the practical application of his knowledge, as by the ingenious theories
which he adopted. As a surgeon, he was a bold but judicious, a quick yet
skilful operator ; and suggested many improvements in the mode of performing
difficult operations. He discovered the method of operating for popliteal aneu-
rism by taking up the femoral artery on the anterior part of the thigh without
interfering with the tumour in the ham, by which the pain, and danger, and
future sufferings of the patient are materially mitigated. This indeed ranks
among the most important of the improvements which have recently been intro-
duced into the practice of surgery. It may be added, that John Hunter always
held the showy part of surgery in the lowest estimation. " To perform an

172

JOHN HUNTER.

operation," said he, " is to mutilate a patient whom we are unable to cure ; it
should therefore be considered as an acknowledgment of the imperfection of
our art" How different a sentiment is this from that entertained by some
eminent surgeons, who, with much surgical skill but little humanity, recom-
mend operations at the risk of the patient's life, and handle the knife, when
in the public theatre, rather with the view of exhibiting their own dexterous
manipulation, than with that of relieving the condition of the unfortunate
being who writhes beneath the torture which is so coolly and ostentatiously
inflicted.

In the former part of our memoir we adverted to the difficulties which this
eminent surgeon experienced for some years in struggling against those
pecuniary adversities, which seem in an especial manner to oppress men of
superior mental endowments. But the subsequent tenor of his career teaches
a lesson which cannot too strongly be inculcated ; — that resolution, industry,
and perseverance, will in the end baifie the evil genius which seems at first to
throw thorns and impediments around our path. During the first eleven years of
his practice, which, it must be admitted, was for him a long and tedious mental
probation, his income never amounted to a thousand pounds a year ; however,
the four succeeding years it exceeded that sum ; and for several years previous
to his death, it increased to five, and was at that period six thousand pounds
a year. Whatever difficulties, therefore, at first beset his progress were event-
ually surmounted ; he attained the highest rank in his profession ; he was uni-
versally esteemed and extolled as a man of general science ; he had as much
practice as he could attend to ; his emoluments were considerable ; and if we
raise up the curtain of domestic life, we shall find him cheered by the society of
a wife whom he loved ; whose superior mental accomplishments rendered her a fit
companion even for a man of his elevated scientific rank ; besides all which, he
was the parent of two children, in whom, it was natural that his best hopes and
warmest affections should be centered. " Nor," says Dr Adams, " was he in-
sensible of these blessings ; he has often told me, that if he had been allowed to
bespeak a pair of children, they should have been those with which providence
had favoured him." But the cup of human enjoyment seldom mantles to the
brim without containing some drops of alloying bitterness ; and there is no
doubt but that professional anxieties and ill health rendered his temper irritable
and impetuous. He was, says Sir Everard Home, readily provoked, and when
irritated not easily soothed. His disposition was candid and free from reserve,
even to a fault He hated deceit, and as he was above every kind of artifice,
he detested it in others, and too openly avowed his sentiments. His mind was
uncommonly active ; it was naturally formed for investigation, and that turn
displayed itself on the most trivial occasions, and always with mathematical
exactness. What is curious, it fatigued him to be long in mixed company
which did not admit of connected conversation, more particularly during the
last ten years of his life. He required less relaxation than other men ; seldom
sleeping more than four hours in the night, but almost always nearly an hour
after dinner : this probably arose from the natural turn of his mind being so
much adapted to his own occupations, that they were in reality his amusements,
and therefore did not fatigue.

We have already seen how much time, even amidst his arduous professional
toils and miscellaneous pursuits, he devoted to comparative anatomy, and in
collecting preparations to illustrate every department of that interesting science.
The museum which he succeeded in founding, remains to this day a monument
of his industry, perseverance, and ingenuity. Here we find arranged in a

JOHN HUNTER. 173

regular order. of progressive classification every species of animate being, or link
in the chain of organization, from the lowest vegetable, in which life can be
scarcely recognized, up to man ; but no account or description, however minute,
can do adequate justice to such a collection. By his will he left it, under the
discretion of his executors, to be sold for the benefit of his family, in one entire
lot, to the government of Great Britain ; or in case of refusal, to any other
government or state which would offer such a price for it, as all parties might
consider reasonable. Six years after his death, it was purchased by the British
parliament for fifteen thousand pounds, and given to the College of Surgeons,
on condition that twenty-four lectures should be delivered annually to members
of the college, and that under certain regulations it should be open to the
public We thus find that, while his elder brother completed a museum which
does honour to the university in which it is preserved, the younger, by his in-
dustry and perseverance, completed another, which has been pronounced by the
most competent judges to be an honour to his country. How practical a lesson
does this afford of the prodigious achievements which may be accomplished by
the sustained perseverance and labours of a single individual !

In personal appearance, John Hunter was much below the ordinary mid-
dle stature ; but his body was well formed for muscular exertion, and when
in health he was .always extremely active. His countenance was open, and
although impressed with lines of thought, was by no means habitually severe ;
on the contrary, its expression soon softened into tenderness, or became lighted
up by mirth, according as the impression swept across his mind. When Lavater
saw his print, he said ** That man thinks for himself," an opinion which the
whole tenor of his actions will be seen to have verified. An admirable portrait
of him was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of which a spirited engraving was
executed by Mr Sharpe. A bust also of him was modeled by a Mr Bacon,
in the modeling of which he was assisted by a cast taken during life. He was
quick in manner, and " in conversation," says Sir Everard Home, " spoke too
freely and harshly of his contemporaries;" but this, we are given to understand,
arose rather from his conviction that surgery was still in its infancy, than from
any uncharitable motive, or wish to depreciate his contemporaries. From almost
the earliest periods in society, medical men have been stigmatized for displaying
the " odium medicum ;" but the fact is, that men educated to the practice of an
art, the principles of which are not cognizable to the public, are apt to treat
with intolerance the pretensions of men who, they have reason to know, not-
withstanding they may have crept into a certain degree of favour, are ignorant
perhaps of the most elementary principles of their profession. The observations
of John Hunter, even on casual occasions, were often remarkably pointed, and
significant of his very acute and discriminating mental powers. On one occasion,
having been heard to express regret that we must all die, a physician present
took advantage of the opportunity to inquire whether it was true that his brother
had in his last moments expressed how " pleasant a thing it is to die ?" to which
he immediately replied, " 'tis poor work when it comes to that," evidently in-
sinuating a doubt as to the moral correctness of any such sentiments, which, as
we have before hinted, we regard as a rash declaration, incompatible with the
sufferings, condition, and mysterious, yet infinitely important prospects of any
man on the brink of that future world, which, seriously regarded, must suggest
reflections of a very different, and far more solemn nature. Few men were
more generous than John Hunter, and the only fault which can impugn his
memory is, that in executing his designs for the benefit of science, he neglected
too much the interests of his wife and children. It is to be regretted that the

174

JOHN HUNTER.

ambition of being serviceable to mankind, should hurry any man away from
the more immediate consideration of the wants and condition of his own family;
for not all the advantages conferred on posterity, nor all the fame that is
trumpeted abroad in his honour, can compensate for a single pang of that
widowed bosom which, from such neglect, may have to endure the keen and
bitter sorrows of unpitied poverty. We say this without disparagement to
the many excellent qualities which distinguished the character of John

Hunter, a name which will be ever highly esteemed in the annals of British

surgery.

We cannot, however, conclude this memoir without pausing to notice more
fully the estimable qualities of the lady to whom it was his good fortune to be
united. She possessed personal attractions of the highest order ; " into what-
ever assembly she entered," says one who appears to have been acquainted with
her. " the delicacy of her face, with the commanding gi-ace of her person, gave
her a peculiar air of distinction, and seldom failed to attract attention. Hut
she never ascribed to her own merit the notice she received in society ; feeling
herself the wife of a celebrated man, she was fond of imputing the attention she
received to the influence of his character ; doing injustice to herself from a
generous pride of owing every thing to him ; and she never appeared so much
gratified by attention as when she supposed it was shown to her for his sake."4
The same competent authority states, that " during her husband's life they lived
in a liberal and hospitable manner. Mr Hunter was too much devoted to
science to attend much to his worldly affairs, and too careless of money to be
rich. He did not leave his family in affluence, yet so circumstanced that his
widow always supported a most respectable appearance, and was visited by the
first society." We repeat that we do not think that any man's devotion to
science affords the slightest apology or ground of excuse for leaving those to
whom he should be bound by the most sacred ties of attachment, in neglected
circumstances. On the death of her husband, Mrs John Hunter withdrew from
society, and spent her life almost entirely in retirement. After a lingering ill-
ness, which she bore with much patience and resignation, she died on 7th
January, 1821, in the 79th year of her age, leaving behind her a son and
daughter, the former a major in the army, and the latter the widow of general
Campbell, son of the late Sir James Campbell of Inverneil.

Besides her many amiable domestic qualifications, to which all who knew her
bore testimony, she was exceedingly accomplished ; and occasionally during her
husband's lifetime, mingled in society with Horace Walpole, Mrs Carter, 31 rs
Vesey, and other characters well known in the literary world. She sang and
played with admirable taste, and had a talent for poetry which she chiefly dis-
played in the production of songs and poems, which were characterized by
much refinement of thought, sensibility of feeling, and delicacy of expression.
Among the former, " The Son of Alknomook " and " Queen Mary's Lament,"
became extremely popular ; among the latter, her verses " On November,
1784," a beautiful address to fancy, under the title of " La Douce Chimere,"
with several other minor poems, display much feeling and imagination.5 We
cannot conclude this memoir more appropriately than by transcribing the follow-
ing little poem of hers, not that we have selected it as a specimen of her
general poetical power, but because it was for the first time published in the
Scots Magazine for March, 1821, and may not, on that account, be generally
known : —

* Register of Deaths, Scots Magazine, 1824.

* She collected her poems and songs and published them in a small volume in the year 1606.

DR. JAMES HUTTON.

175

THE LOT OF THOUSANDS.

How many lift the head, look gay, and smile.
Against their consciences ?— Yuung.

When hope lies dead within the heart.

By secret sorrow close concealed,
We shrink, lest looks or words impart

What must not be revealed.

'Tis hard to smile when one could weep,

To speak when one would silent be ;
To wake when one should wish to sleep,

And wake to agony.

Yet such the lot by thousands cast,

Who wander in this world of care,
And bend beneath the bitter blast,

To save them from despair.

But nature waits her guests to greet,

Where disappointment cannot come ,
And time guides with unerring feet

The weary wanderers home.

HUTTON, (Dr) James, an eminent philosophical character, was born in
Edinburgh on the 3rd June, 1726. His father was a respectable merchant, who
for many years held the office of city treasurer, and was admired by all who
knew him, for his sound judgment and strict integrity. He died while James
was very young; the care, therefore, of her son's education devolved upon Mrs
Hutton, whose great maternal kindness was only exceeded by her desire to give
her son a liberal education. She sent him first to the High school of Edinburgh,
and afterwards to the university, where he entered as a student of humanity in
1740. Professor M'Laurin was then the most celebrated teacher in that semi-
nary, but though Dr Hutton admired his lectures, he did not seem much disposed
towards the science which he taught. To professor Stevenson's prelections on
logic may be attributed the first direction given to young Hutton's genius, not
so much for having made him a logician, but for having accidentally directed
his mind towards the science of chemistry. The professor having casually men-
tioned in one of his lectures, in illustration of some general doctrine, the fact,
that gold is dissolved in aqua regia, and that two acids, which can each of them
singly dissolve any baser metals, must unite their strength before they can at-
tack the most precious ; the phenomenon struck so forcibly on the mind of
Hutton, that he began to search with avidity after books which might explain
its cause, and afford him an opportunity of pursuing a study altogether new. He
at first found some embarrassments in his pursuit from the superficial works
that came to his hands, and it was from Harris's Lexicon Techni that he first
derived his knowledge of chemistry, and which by a sort of elective attraction
drew his mind all at once to a favourite study, that decided his prospects in
life.

Though he pursued his academical studies with closeness and regularity, and
evinced a taste and capacity for instruction, his friends did not see much profit
likely to arise from scientific pursuits, and accordingly persuaded him to adopt
some profession, which, though much against his inclination, he agreed to, and
was accordingly placed as an apprentice with Mr George Chalmers, writer to
the signet, in 1743. The dry routine of a laborious profession in a less ardent

17G

DR. JAMES HUTTON.

mind might have checked, if not for ever destroyed, those seeds of genius which
were as yet scarce called into life ; but so strong v.as 3Ir Hutton's propensity for
scientific study, that, instead of copying papers, and making himself acquainted
with legal proceedings, he was oftener found amusing himself with his fellow
apprentices in chemical experiments ; so that Mr Chalmers was forced to ac-
knowledge that the business of a writer was one in which he had little chance
to succeed. With a fatherly kindness, he therefore advised young Hutton to
embrace some other employment more suitable to his inclinations, and relieved
him at once from the obligations he came under as his apprentice. How much
is science indebted to that liberal-minded man ! Having now to fix upon another
profession, he selected that of medicine, as being the most nearly allied to
chemistry, and began to study under Dr George Young, and at the same time
attended the lectures at the university from 1744 to 1747. The schools of
medicine in Edinburgh at that time had not arrived at the high perfection for
which they are now so justly celebrated, and it was thought indispensably neces-
sary that a physician should finish his education on the continent. Mr Hutton
accordingly proceeded to Paris, where he applied himself closely to anatomy
and chemistry. After remaining for two years in France, he returned home by
the way of the Low Countries, and took the degree of doctor of medicine at
Leyden in 1749.

On arriving in London, about the end of that year, he began seriously to re-
flect upon his prospects in life, and he soon saw, that however much he wished
to establish himself in his native city as a physician, there were many obstacles
which seemed insurmountable. He was a young man whose merit was unknown,
and whose connexions, though respectable, had no power to assist him, the
business being then in the hands of a few eminent practitioners who had been
long known and established. All this seems to have made a deep impression
on his mind, and he expressed himself with much anxiety on the subject in cor-
responding with his friends in Edinburgh. Amongst these there was one, a
young man nearly of his own age, whose habits and pursuits were congenial
with his own, and with whom he had tried many novel experiments in chemis-
try ; amongst the best was one on the nature and properties of sal ammoniac.
This friend, whose name was James Davie, had, in Mr Hutton's absence,
pushed his inquiries on the subject to a considerable extent ; tbe result of which
afforded him a well-grounded hope of being able to establish a profitable manu-
factory of that salt from coal-soot. Mr Davie communicated the project to his
friend in London, who, with a mind as yet undecided on any fixed pursuit, re-
turned to Edinburgh in 1750, and abandoning entirely his views on the practice
of medicine, resolved to apply himself to agriculture. What his motives were
for taking this step it is difficult to ascertain. His father had left him a small
property in Berwickshire, and being of an independent and unambitious mind,
despising avarice and vanity alike, he most probably looked upon the business
of a farmer as entitled to a preference above any other. But not being dis-
posed to do any thing in a superficial way, he determined to gain a knowledge
of rural economy in the best school of the day. For this purpose he went into
Norfolk, and took up his residence in the house of a farmer, from whom he ex-
pected to receive sufficient instruction. He appears to have enjoyed his
situation very much, — the natural simplicity of his disposition according well with
the plain, blunt characters around him.

It lias been remarked of Dr Hutton, that to men of an ordinary grade of
mind, he appeared to be an ordinary man possessing little more spirit perhaps
than is usually to be met with. This circumstance made his residence in Norfolk
quite agreeable, as even there he could for a time forget his great acquire-

DR. JAMES HUTTOtf.

177

ments, and mingle with the simple characters around him, in so cordial a manner,
as to make them see nothing in the stranger to set them at a distance from
liim, or induce them to treat him with reserve. In years after, when surrounded
by his literary friends, the philosopher loved to describe the happy hours he
spent while under the humble roof of honest John Dyhold, from whom he had
learned so many good practical lessons in husbandry. From his residence in
Norfolk, he made many journeys on foot through other parts of England to ob-
tain information in agriculture, and it was in the course of these rambles that, to
amuse himself on the road, he first began to study mineralogy and geology. In
a letter to Sir John Hall of Douglas, a gentleman possessed of much taste for
science, he says, while on his perambulations, " that he was become very fond of
studying the surface of the earth, and was looking with anxious curiosity, into
every pit, or ditch, or bed of a river, that fell in his way, and that if he did not
always avoid the fate of Thales, his misfortune was certainly not owing to the
same cause." This letter was written from Yarmouth in 1753. With the view
of still further increasing his knowledge of agriculture, he set out for Flanders,
where good husbandry was well understood, long before it was introduced into
Britain, and travelling through Holland, Brabant, Flanders, and Picardy, he
returned about the middle of summer, 1751. Notwithstanding all he had seen
to admire in the garden culture that prevailed in Holland, and the husbandry
in Flanders, he says, in a letter to his friend Sir John Hall, from London, " Had
I a doubt of it before I set out, I should have returned fully convinced that they
are good husbandmen in Norfolk." Many observations made on that journey,
particulai'ly on mineralogy, are to be found in his Theory of the Earth. As he
was now sufficiently initiated in a knowledge of agriculture, he wished to
apply himself to the practice in his own country; and for that purpose, returned
to Scotland at the end of summer. He at first hesitated on the choice of a
situation where he might best carry his improved plans of farming into effect,
and at last fixed upon his own patrimony in Berwickshire. From Norfolk he
brought with him a plough and ploughman, who set the first example of good
tillage. It was a novel sight for the surrounding farmers to see the plough
drawn by two horses, without an accompanying driver. The new system was,
however, found to succeed in all its parts, and was quickly adopted, so that Dr
Hutton has the credit of introducing the new husbandry into a country where it
has, since his time, made more rapid improvements than in any other in Europe.
He resided on his farm until the year 176 S, occasionally making a tour into the
Highlands, with his friend Sir George Clerk, upon gealogical inquiries, as lie
was now studying that branch of science with unceasing attention

While residing on his farm for the last fourteen years, he was also engaged
in the sal ammoniac work, which had been actually established on the founda-
tion of the experiments already made by his friend and himself, but the busi-
ness remained in Mr Davie's name only till 1765, when a copartnership was
regularly entered into, and the manufactory carried on in the name of both.

As his farm, from excellent management, progressively improved, it became a
more easy task, and to a mind like his, less interesting ; so that finding a good
opportunity of letting it to advantage, he did so, and became a resident in
Edinburgh in the year 1768, from which time he devoted his whole life to
scientific pursuits. This change of residence was accompanied with many ad-
vantages he seldom enjoyed before ; — having the entire command of his own
time, he was enabled to mix in a society of friends whose minds were congenial
with his own ; among whom were Sir George Clerk, his brother Mr Clerk of
Eldin, Dr Black, Mr Russel, professor of natural philosophy, professor Adam
Ferguson, Dr James Lind, and others. Surrounded by so many emineut

178 DR. JAMES IIUTTON.

diameters, by all of whom lie was beloved and respected, from the vast fund of
information he possessed, he emplqyed his lime in maturing- his views ami
searching into the secrets of nature with unwearied zeal. In one of these ex-
periments he discovered that mineral alkali is contained in zeolite. On boiling
the gelatinous substance obtained from combining that fossil with muriatic acid,
he found that, after evaporation, the salt was formed. Dr Play fair thinks this
to be the first instance of an alkali being discovered in a stony body. The ex-
periments of 31. Klaprath and Dr Kennedy have confirmed the conclusion, and
led to others of the same kind. With a view of completing his Theory of the
Earth, he made many journeys into different parts of England and Wales, and on
visiting the salt mines of Cheshire, he made the curious observations of the con-
centric circles marked on the roofs of these mines, to which he has referred in
his Theory, as affording a proof that the salt rock was not formed from mere
aqueous deposition.

In 1777, Dr Hutton's first publication was given to the world in the shape of
a pamphlet, on the " Nature, Quality, and Distinctions of Coal and Culm."
This was occasioned by a question which the board of customs and privy coun-
cil wished to have settled, in order to fix on the proportion of duty the one
should bear with the other when carried coastwise. Dr Hutton's pamphlet was
considered so ingenious and satisfactory, that an exemption of the small coal of
Scotland from paying duty on such short voyages was the consequence. He
took a lively interest in promoting the arts of his native country, and devoted
much of his time and attention to the project of an internal navigation between
the Firths of Forth and Clyde. He read several papers in the Philosophical
Society, before its incorporation with the Royal Society, (none of which were
then published, with the exception of one in the second volume of the Transac-
tions of the Pioyal Society,) " on certain natural appearances of the ground on
the hill of Arthur's Seat." His zeal for the support of science in Edinburgh
induced him to come forward and communicate to the Royal Society a Sketch
of a Theory of the Earth, the perfecting of which had occupied his constant atten-
tion for a period of thirty years, during which time he had never ceased to
study the natural history of the globe, with a view of ascertaining all the changes
that have taken place on its surface, and discovering the causes by which they
have been produced; and from his great skill as a mineralogist, and having
examined the great leading facts of geology with his own eyes, and carefully-
studied every learned work on the natural history of the earth, it must be ac-
knowledged that few men could enter better prepared on so arduous a task.
As this Theory is so well known, and has been the subject of so much contro-
versy, our limits will not permit us to enter upon it here; we therefore refer our
readers to the book itself.

Dr Kirwan of Dublin, and others, considered Dr Hutton's Theory both
eccentric and paradoxical, and charged him with presumption in speculating on
subjects to which the mere human understanding is incompetent to reach, while
some gave a preference to the system of Berkeley, as more simple and philoso-
phical ; but notwithstanding all the attacks which the new doctrines of Hutton
were subjected to, he had the proud satisfaction of being fortified in his opinions
by many great and good men, who were bound to him by the closest ties of
friendship. Dr Black, Mr Clerk of Eldin, and professor Playfair, as occasion
required, were willing and ready to vindicate his hypothesis. But setting aside
all these considerations, there existed in the work itself many faults, which con-
tributed not a little to prevent Dr Hutton's system from making a due impression
on the world. In the opinion of his greatest defender, professor Playfair, " It
was proposed too briefly, and with too litile detail of facts for a system which

DR. JAMES MUTTON.

179

involved so much that was new and opposite to the opinions generally received.
The description which it contains of the phenomena of geology, suppose in the
reader too great a knowledge of the things described, The reasoning is some-
times embarrassed by the care taken to render it strictly logical, and the tran-
sitions, from the author's peculiar notions of arrangement, are often unex-
pected and abrupt. These defects, run more or less through all Dr Hutton's
writings, and produce a degree of obscurity astonishing to all who knew
him, and who heard him every day converse, with no less clearness and
precision than animation and force." In the same volume of the Transactions
appeared a paper by him, " A Theory of Rain," which he afterwards published
in his " Physical Dissertations." Having long studied meteorology with great
attention, this ingenious theory attracted almost immediate notice, and was
valued for affording a distinct notion of the manner in which cold acts in causing
a precipitation of humidity. It met, however, from M. De Luc with a vigorous
and determined opposition ; Dr Hutton defended it with some warmth, and the
controversy was carried on with much sharpness on both sides.

In his observations in meteorology, he is said to be the first who thought of
ascertaining the medium temperature of any climate by the temperature of its
springs. With this view he made a great number of observations in different
parts of Great Britain, and found, by a singular enough coincidence between
two arbitrary measures quite independent of each other, that the temperature of
springs along the east coast of this island varies a degree of Fahrenheit's ther-
mometer for a degree of latitude. This rate of change, though it cannot be
general over the whole globe, is probably not far from the truth for all the
northorn parts of the temperate zone. In explaining the diminution of tem-
perature as we ascend in the atmosphere, Dr Hutton was much more fortunate
tban any other of the philosophers who have considered the same subject. It is
well known that the condensation of air converts part of the latent into sensible
heat, and that the rarefaction of air converts part of the sensible into latent heat ;
tins is evident from the experiment of the air gun, and from many others. If,
therefore, we suppose a given quantity of air to be suddenly transported from
the surface to any height above, it will expand on account of the diminution of
pressure, and a part of its heat becoming latent it will be rendered colder than
before. Thus, also, when a quantity of heat ascends by any means whatever
from one stratum of air to a superior stratum, a part of it becomes latent, so
that an equilibrium of heat can never be established among the strata ; but those
which are less, must always remain colder than those which are more compressed.
This was Dr Hutton's explanation, and it contains no hypothetical principle
whatsoever. After those publications already mentioned had appeared, he
resolved to undertake journeys into different parts of Scotland, in order to ascer-
tain whether that conjunction of granite and schistus, which his theory supposed,
actually took place. His views were first turned towards the Grampians, which
the duke of Athol learning, invited him to accompany him during the shooting
season into Glentilt, a tract of country situated under these mountains. On
arriving there, he discovered in the bed of the river Tilt, which runs through
that glen, many veins of red granite traversing the black micaceous schistus, and
producing by a contrast of colour an effect that might be striking even to an
unskilful observer. So vivid were the emotions he displayed at this spectacle,
that his conductors never doubted his having discovered a vein of gold or silver.
Dr Hutton has described the appearances at that spot, in the third volume of the
Edinburgh Transactions, p. 79, and some excellent drawings of the glen were
made by Mr Clark, whose pencil was not less valuable in the sciences than in
the arts.

180 DR- JAMES HUTTON.

He pursued his observations with unabated ardour, and in the two next years,
with bis friend Mr Clark, made several excursions into Galloway, the island of
\rran and the neighbourhood of Jedburgh. In all of these he discovered
the same conjunction, though not in so complete a manner, as among the Gram-
pians. In 1788, he made some other valuable observations ot the same kind.
The rid^e of the Lammermoor hills in the south of Scotland consists of the
Silurian or graywacke formation (then named primary by Hutton, but after-
wards found to belong to the transition series), which extends from St Abb's-head
south-westward to Portpatrick, and into the north of Ireland. The sea-coast at
Eyemouth and St Abb's-head exhibits striking sections of these rocks, which
there appear contorted and dislocated in a remarkable manner. The junction
of the graywacke with the secondary strata was an object of instructive interest
to Hutton. In the same year he accompanied the Duke of Athol to the Isle of
Man, with the view of making a survey of that island. He found the main body
of the island to consist of what he termed primitive schistus (graywacke), much
inclined, and more intersected with quartzose veins than the corresponding rocks
in the south and south east of Scotland. The direction of these strata corresponded
with that of the graywacke rocks in Galloway, running nearly from east to west.
This is all the general information he obtained from that excursion. It was
reserved for later geological researches to determine the true nature and relations
of the Silurian or graywacke series, by means of the fossils which they have been
found to contain. It was not till after Hutton's day that geologists became
palaeontological.

Notwithstanding his assiduous attention to geology, Dr Hutton found leisure to
speculate on subjects of a different nature. A voluminous work from his pen made
its appearance soon after the Physical Dissertations: — "An Investigation of the
Principles of Knowledge, and the Progress of Reason, from Sense to Science and
Philosophy," in three volumes quarto. In this treatise he formed a general
system of physics and metaphysics. His opinions on the former subjects were
very singular. He deprives matter of those qualities which are usually deemed
most essential, solidity, impenetrability, and the vis inertia?. He conceived it to
be merely an assemblage of powers acting variously upon each other, and that
external things are no more like the perceptions they give, than wine is similar
to intoxication, or opium to the delirium it produces. It would be vain in us
to attempt to analyse this singular work, which cannot fail to recall to the mind
the opinions of the ingenious Dr Berkeley; the two systems agree in many mate-
rial points, but differ essentially in others.

In deference to the opinions of so great a man as Dr Hutton, we shall inform
our readers of the view taken of the moral tendency of his work by his friend
professor Playfair, who no doubt scrutinized very deeply its metaphysical specu-
lations, as he in part, if not altogether, became a convert of the Huttonian
system. " Indeed," gays he, " Mr Hutton has taken great pains to deduce
from his system, in a singular manner, the leading doctrines of morality and natu-
ral religion, having dedicated the third volume of his book almost wholly to that
object. It is worthy to remark, that while he is thus employed his style assumes
a better tone, and a much greater degree of perspicuity than it usually possesses.
Many instances might be pointed out, where the warmth of its benevolent and
moral feelings, bursts through the clouds that so often veil from us the clearest
ideas of his understanding. One, in particular, deserves notice, in which he
treats of the importance of the female character to society in a state of high
civilization. A felicity of expression, and a flow of natural eloquence, inspired
by so interesting a subject, make us regret that his pen did not more frequently
do justice to his thoughts." Dr Hutton was seized with a severe and dangerous

DR. JAMES HUTTON. 181

illness in the summer of 1793, and, although before this time he had enjoyed a
long- continuance of good health, such was the painful nature of his complaint
that he was reduced to great weakness, and confined to his room for many
months, where, on his regaining some degree of strength, he amused himself in
superintending the publication of the work just mentioned. During his recovery
he was roused from his quiet into further exertion by a severe attack made on his
Theory of the Earth, by Dr Kirwan, in the Memoirs of the Irish Academy, ren-
dered formidable by the celebrity of the author. Before this period, Dr Hutton
had often been urged to publish the entire work on the Theory of the Earth,
which he had constantly put off — so much so, that there seemed some danger ol
its not appearing in his life-time. The very day, however, after Kirwan's paper
was put in his hands, he began the revisal of his manuscript and resolved imme-
diately to send it to press. The work was accordingly published in two volumes
octavo, in 1 795. He next turned his attention to a work on husbandry, on which
he had written a great deal, the fruit both of his vast reading and practical
experience. He proposed to reduce the whole into a systematic form under the
title of " Elements of Agriculture." The time, however, was fast approaching
which was to terminate the exertions of a mind of such singular activity and
ardour in the pursuit of knowledge. In the course of the winter, 1796, he
became gradually weaker, and extremely emaciated from the pain he suffered from
a recurrence of his former complaint, though he still retained the full activity and
acuteness of his mind. " Saussure's Voyages aux Alps," which had just reached
him that winter, was the last study of one eminent geologist, as they were the
last work of another. On Saturday the 26th March, 1797, although in great
pain, he employed himself in writing and noting down his remarks on some
attempts which were then making towards a new inineralogical nomenclature.
In the evening he was seized with shivering fits, and as these continued to increase,
he sent for his friend Dr Russel. Before he could arrive, all assistance was in
vain. Dr Hutton had just strength left to stretch out his hand to the physician,
and immediately expired.

Dr Hutton was possessed of an uncommon activity and ardour of mind, upheld
in science by whatever was new, beautiful, or sublime; and that those feelings oper-
ated with more intense power in early life, may account for the want of stability
he displayed, and the difficulty he felt in settling down to any one fixed pursuit.
Geology and mineralogy were to him two of the most sublime branches of
physical science. The novelty and grandeur offered by the study to the imagina-
tion, the simple and uniform order given to the whole natural history of the
earth, and above all, the views opened of the wisdom that governs the universe,
are things to which hardly any mind could be insensible, but to him they were
matters, not of transient delight, but of solid and permanent happiness.

He studied with an indefatigable perseverance, and allowed no professional,
and rarely any domestic arrangement, to interrupt his uniform course. He
dined early, almost always at home, ate sparingly, and drank no wine. The
evening he spent in the society of friends, who were always delighted and
instructed by his animated conversation, which, whether serious or gay, was
replete with ingenious and original observation. When he sought relaxation
from the studies of the day, and joined the evening party, a bright glow of
cheerfulness spread itself over every countenance ; and the philosopher who had
just descended from the sublimest speculations in metaphysics, or risen from the
deepest research in geology, seated himself at the tea-table, as much disengaged
from thought, and as cheerful and joyous, as the youngest of the company.

Professor Stewart, in his life of Mr Smith, has alluded to a little society that

182 SIR JAMES INGLIS.

then flourished in Edinburgh, called the Oyster Club. Of this, Dr Black, Dr
Hutton, and Ma Smith were the founders. When time and opportunity admitted,
these distinguished men could unbend one to the other, and on such occasions
Dr Hutton delighted in blending the witty and ludicrous in his conversation.
Round them soon formed a circle of choice spirits, who knew how to value their
familiar and social converse ;. and it would be vain to look for a company more
sincerely united, where every tiling favourable to good society was more per-
fectly cultivated, and every thing opposite more strictly excluded.

Dr Hutton was never married, but lived with his sisters, three amiable women,
who managed his domestic affairs. Though he cared little for money, he had
accumulated considerable wealth, owing to his moderation and unassuming man-
ner of life, as well as from the great ability with which his long-tried friend, Mr
Davie, conducted their joint concern. Miss Isabella Hutton remained to lament
her brother's loss, and by her his collection of fossils were given to Dr Black,
who presented them to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, under the condition that
they should be completely arranged, and kept for ever apart, for the purpose of
illustrating the Huttonian Theory of the Earth.

INGLIS, or ENGLISH, (Sir) James, an ingenious writer of the early part of
the sixteenth century, is chiefly known as the supposed author of the " Com-
playnt of Scotland," a very curious political and fanciful work, published ori-
ginally at St Andrews in 1548 or 1549, and the earliest Scottish prose work in
existence.

Of this learned person, Mackenzie has given an account in his Lives of Scottish
W riters ; but it is so obviously made up of a series of mere conjectures stated as
facts, that we must reject it entirely. According to more respectable authority,
Inglis was a dignified priest (which accounts for the Sir attached to his name),
and appears from authentic documents to have been, in 1515, secretary to queen
Margaret, widow of James IV. Care must be taken to distinguish him from
his contemporary John Inglis, who served James IV. as a manager of plays and
entertainments, and who is stated to have been present with Sir David Lindsay
in the church of Linlithgow, when that sovereign was warned by a supposed ap-
parition against his expedition into England. Sir James Inglis was, neverthe-
less, a writer of plays, being the subject of the following allusion in Sir David
Lindsay's Testament of the Fapingo :

" And in the court bin present in thir da vis,
That ballattis brcvis lustely, and la\ is,
Quhilkis to our prince daily thay do present,
Quho can say more than Schir James English says,
In ballattis, farcis, and in pleasaunt plaies;
Redd in cunmng, in practyek ncht prudent ;
But Culross hath made his pen impotent. *

It will be observed that Inglis is here indirectly spoken of as one of the
poets who haunted the court of James V. Even in the preceding reign, how-
ever, he appears to have been on an intimate footing at court, as a man of
learning. James IV. whose devotion to alchymy is well known, writes a letter
(extant in the " Epistolae Regum Scotoruni,") to Mr James Inglis, to the follow-

THOMAS INNES. 183

ing effect : " We have thankfully received your letter, by which you inform us
that you are in possession of the abstruse books of the Sound Philosophy ;
which, as certain most deserving persons have begged them of you, you with
difficulty preserve for our use, having heard that we are addicted to the study of
that art." Of the ballads and plays composed by Inglis, not a vestige now re-
mains, unless a poem attributed to him in the Maitland MS. and as such printed
by Hailes and Sibbald, entitled " A General Satire," be held as a specimen of
one of those kinds of composition, and be really a production of his pen.

In a charter of 1 9th February, 1527, Inglis is styled chancellor of the
royal chapel of Stirling ; and he appears to have been soon after raised to the
dignity of abbot of Culross, a promotion which, if we may believe his friend
Lindsay, spoiled him as a poet. It was eventually attended with still more fatal
effects. Having provoked the wrath of a neighbouring baron, William Blackater
of Tulliallan, the abbot of Culross was by that individual cruelly slain, March I,
1 530. The causes of this bloody deed do not appear ; but the sensation created
by it throughout the community was very great. Sir William Lothian, a priest
of the same abbey, who was an accomplice of the principal assassin, was public-
ly degraded on a scaffold at Edinburgh, in presence of the king and queen,
and next day he and the laird of Tulliallan were beheaded.

It would hardly be worth while to advert so minutely to a person, who,
whatever was his genius, is not certainly known as the author of any existing
composition, if the name were not conspicuous in works of Scottish literary
history, and must therefore continue to be inquired for in such compilations as
the present. Inglis, if the same individual as this abbot of Culross, could have
no pretensions to the honour put upon him by some writers, of having written the
" Complaynt of Scotland ;" for that curious specimen of our early literature was
undeniably written in 1548, eighteen years after the death of the abbot. In
the obscurity, however, which prevails regarding the subject of the present
notice, we cannot deny that he may have been a different person, and may have
survived even to the date assigned for his death by Mackenzie — 1554 ; in which
case he could have been the author of the Complaynt. That a Sir James Inglis
existed after 1530, and had some connexion with Culross, appears pretty cer-
tain from the passage in the Testament of the Papingo, which is understood to
have been written in 1538. But, on the other hand, there is no authority for
assigning the authorship of the Complaynt to any Sir James Inglis, except that
of Dr Mackenzie, which rests on no known foundation, and, from the general
character of that biographical writer, is not entitled to much respect. Some
further inquiries into this subject will be found under the head James Wed-

DERBURN.

INNES, Thomas, an historian and critical antiquary, known to the students of
early Scottish history by the title of " Father limes," was a priest of the Scot-
tish college at Paris, during the earlier part of the 1 8th century. It is not
creditable to the literature of our country during the period just mentioned, that
the meritorious labours of this highly acute investigator have been so little
noticed, and that no one has thought it worth while to leave memorials sufficient
to enable posterity to know any thing of his life and character. His labours to
discover the true sources of Scottish history proved an ungrateful task ; they were
unacceptable to the prejudices of the time, and have hardly been appreciated
until the memory of the individual who undertook them had quietly sunk into
oblivion. In these circumstances any scrap of information which we can pro-
cure on the subject is peculiarly valuable. We perceive from a few words in
the preface to his Critical Essay, that he received the rudiments of education in
Scotland, and that he must have left his native country early in life for a per-

184

THOMAS INNES.

inanent residence abroad, probably, if we may judge from slight circumstances,
along with the exiled monarch James II. His words are — " Though an honour-
able gentleman of my own country, and another learned English gentleman,
were so kind as to revise the language, and to alter such exotic words or ex-
pressions as it was natural should drop from me, I doubt not but the English
reader will still meet in this essay with too many marks of my native language
and foreign education." But the most interesting, and indeed the principal notice
which we have been able to obtain of this individual, is from the diary of the
industrious Wodrow for the year 1724, where we find the laborious antiquary
worming his way through libraries in search of materials. It may be remarked,
that the work on the Early History of the Church of Scotland, which is men-
tioned by Wodrow as the subject on which he was engaged, was intended as a
second part to the ". Critical Essay," but has, unfortunately for our information
on a very interesting subject, not been given to the world. The passage we
refer to is as follows : —

" There is one father Innes, a priest, brother to father Innes of the Scottish
college at Paris, who has been at Edinburgh all this winter, and mostly in the
Advocates' library, in the hours when open, looking books and 31SS. He is not
engaged in politics as far as can be guessed; and is a monkish, bookish person,
who meddles with nothing but literature. I saw him at Edinburgh. He is
upon a design to write an account of the first settlement of Christianity in Scot-
land, as Mr Ruddiman informs me, and pretends to show that Scotland was
Christianized at first from Rome ; and thinks to answer our ordinary arguments
against this from the difference between the keeping of easter from the custom
of Rome ; and pretends to prove that there were many variations as to the day
of easter even at Rome, and that the usages in Scotland, pretended to be from
the Greek church, are very agreeable to the Romish customs that he thinks
were used by the popes, about the time that (he) gives account of our differences
as to easter.

" This father Innes, in a conversation with my informer, * * * 1 made an
observation which I fear is too true. In conversation with the company, who
were all protestants, he said he did not know what to make of those who had
departed from the catholic church ; that as far as he could observe generally,
they were leaving the foundations of Christianity, and scarce deserved the name
of Christians. He heard that there were departures and great looseness in
Holland. That as he came through England, he found most of the bishops there
gone off from their articles, and gone into Doctor Clerk's scheme. That the
dissenters were many of them falling much in with the same method, and com-
ing near them. That he was glad to find his countrymen in Scotland not taint-
ed in the great doctrine of the Trinity, and sound."2'

From the period when we find him rummaging in the Advocates' library, we
know nothing of Innes, until the publication of his essay in 1729, when he ap-
pears to have been in London, and makes an apology for verbal inaccuracies, on
the ground that he writes " to keep pace with the press." He seems previously
to this event to have performed an extensive " bibliographical tour," as the
manuscripts he quotes are dispersed through various parts of England, Scotland,
Ireland, and the continent.

A running sketch of the state of the knowledge of early Scottish history pre-
viously to the appearance of this work, may not be unacceptable to those who
have not paid particular attention to that subject, as explanatory of the obstacles
which the author had to overcome. It is well known that Scotland had a full

1 The name is in a secret hand.

* Wodrow's Anakcta, M&, Ad. Lib. v.

436.

THOMAS INNES. 185

share of the fabulous early history which it is a proud and pleasing task for
savages to frame, and which generally protrudes itself into the knowledge pos-
sessed by civilized ages, from the unwillingness of mankind to diminish their
own claims to consideration, by lessening the glory of their ancestors. The
form and consistence of that genealogy which traced the first of Scottish kings
to a period some centuries before the Christian era, seems to have been concocted
by the Highland senachies, who sang the descent of our monarchs at their
coronation. Andrew Wyntoun and John Fordun soberly incorporated the long
line thus framed into their chronicle of the Scottish nation from the commence-
ment of the world. Major followed their example with some variations, and
Geoffry of Monmouth and Geoffry Keating, respectively incorporated the whole
with English and Irish history, the latter much about the same period when
limes wrote, busying himself with tracing the matter to a period anterior to the
deluge. The rich and grotesque garb of fable which the whole assumed under
Hector Bcece is known to many, if not in the original crabbed Latin, at least in
the simple translation of Bellenden. It is discreditable to the memory of
Buchanan, that, instead of directing his acute mind' to the discovery of truth, he
adopted, in many respects, the genealogy just sanctioned, and prepared lives for
the monarchs created by fiction, suited as practical comments on his own politi-
cal views. The fables had now received the sanction of a classical authority —
Scotland was called kkt'' i^cxk'j, " the ancient kingdom ;" and grave English-
men wondered at the hoary antiquity of our line of monarchs. At length, when
the antiquity of the race of England had been curtailed, some thought it unfit
that that of Scotland should remain untouched — and several English antiquaries,
such as Humphry Lhuyd, bishop Usher, bishop Lloyd, and bishop Nicholson,
bestowed some calm hints on its improbability, which were speedily drowned b\
the fierce replies of the Scottish antiquaries, headed by Sir George M'Kenzie.

Such was the state of historical knowledge in Scotland when Innes wrote; and
a Scotsman dared to look the line of ancestry claimed by his monarch calmly in
the face, and, after due consideration, to strike from it forty crowned heads.
'1 he essay is divided into four parts, in which the author successively treats, —
of the progress of the Romans in Scotland — of the history of the Maeats, the
Strathclyde Britons or Welsh, who existed in the southern part of Scotland — of
tiiat of the Caledonians or Picts, who inhabited the whole of the northern por-
tion previously to the arrival of the Scots from Ireland — and of the Scots, the
ancestors of the present Highlanders. Examining the foundation on which
Bcece supports his forty supernumerary kings, he shows, by very good negative
evidence, that two chroniclers, on which that author lays the burden of much of
his extraordinary matter, named Veremund and Campbell, never existed, and
shows that the genealogists had, by an ingenious device, made Fergus the first,
Icing of the Scots, Fergus the second, and had placed another Fergus sufficiently
far behind him in chronology, to admit a complement of kings to be placed be-
twixt the two. Besides the detection of the fabulous part of our history, this
work supplies us with an excellent critical dissertation on the various early in-
habitants of the country ; and the author has, with much pains and care, added
an appendix of original documents, which have been highly useful to inquirers
into Scottisli history. The language in which the whole is clothed is simple,
pleasing, and far more correct than that of most Scotsmen who wrote during the
same period ; while there is a calm dignity, and a philosophical correctness in
tiie arguments, previously unknown to the subject, and which, it had been well
if those who have followed the same track had imitated. Pinkerton, who would
allow no man to be prejudiced on the subject of Scotland with impunity except
himself, never can mention the work of Tnnes without some token of respect.

186

THOMAS INNES.

" This work," he sajs, ** forms a grand epoch in our antiquities, and was
the first tli.it led the way to rational criticism on them : his industry, coolness,
judgment, and general accuracy, recommend him as the best antiquary that Scot-
land has yet produced. "J While concurring, however, in any praise which we
observe to have been elicited by this too much neglected work, we must remark,
that it is blemished by a portion of it being evidently prepared with the politi-
cal view of supporting the doctrine of the divine right of kings, which limes rs
a Jacobite probably respected, and as an adherent of the exiled house, felt him-
self called on to support.4 He is probably right in presuming that Buchanan
knew well the falsehood of many of the facts he stated, but it was as unnecessary
that he should answer the arguments which Buchanan, in the separate treatise,
** De Jure Regni apud Scotos," may have been presumed to have derived from
such facts, as it was for Buchanan to erect so great a mass of fable ; while the
dissertation he has given us on the fruitful subject of the conduct of queen Mary,
is somewhat of an excrescence in a dissertation on the early inhabitants of Scot-
land.

The political bias of this portion of the work is avowed in the preface, where
the author observes that the statements of Buchanan, " far from doing any real
honour to our country, or contributing, as all historical accounts ought to do, to
the benefit of posterity, and to the mutual happiness of king and people, do
rather bring a reproach upon the country, and furnish a handle to turbulent
spirits, to disturb the quiet and peace, and by consequence the happiness of the
inhabitants j"5 yet even this subject is handled with so much calmness that it
may rather be termed a defect, than a fault.

Besides the great work which he wrote, Innes is supposed to have been the
compiler of a book of considerable interest and importance. It is pretty well
known that a manuscript of the life of king James II., written by himself,
existed for some time in the Scots college of Paris, where it was carefully
concealed from observation. This valuable work is believed, on too certain
grounds, to have been reduced to ashes during the French Revolution ; but an
abstract of it, which was discovered in Italy, was published by Mr Stanyers
Clarke in 1806, and is supposed by well informed persons to have been the
work of father Innes.6 We have been enabled to trace this supposition to no
better source than a presumption from the circumstances in which Innes was
plai^d, and to the absence of any other name which can reasonably be assigned.
There is, indeed, a document extant, which might afford ground for a contrary
supposition. In 1740, Carte, the historian, received an order from James
Edgar, secretary to the Pretender, addressed to the Messrs Innes, permitting
him to inspect the life writ by Mr Dicconson, in consequence of royal orders,
all taken out of and supported by the late king's manuscripts ; but it has been
urged, on the other hand, that there were at least two copies of the compilation,
one of which may have been transcribed by Mr Dicconson, while in that pub-
lished, there are one or two Scotticisms, which point at such a person as Innes.
Little can be made of a comparison betwixt the style of this work and that of

* Pinkerton's Inquiry, Introduction, 56—7.

* We cannot avoid coupling with this feature, the circumstance of our having heard it
whispered in the antiquarian world, that a correspondence between Innes and the court of St
Germains, lately discovered, shows this to have been the avowed purpose of the author. This
we have heard, however, in so vague a manner, that we dare nut draw anv conclusions against
the fair intentions of Innes, farther than as they may be gathered from liis own writings.

* Preface, 16.

8 In the Edinburgh Review we discover the following note :— » It is the opinion of the pro
sent preserver of the narrative, that it was compiled from original documents by Thomas
Innes, one of the superiors of the college, and author of a work entitled ' A Critical* Essay on
the Ancient Inhabitants of Scotland.'— Art. on Vox't Life of James II. Ed. Rev xii 280

CHRISTOPHER IRVINE. 187

the essay, without an extremely minute examination, as Innes indulged in few
peculiarities ; but there is to be found in it a general resemblance, certainly more
close than what could be caused by mere identity of period.

We are enabled to give but one other notice bearing on the life of this indi-
vidual. In the portion of the life of James II., transcribed into the chevalier
Ramsay's History of Turenne, there is a certificate by the superiors of the Scots
college at Paris, dated 24th December, 1734, signed by " Louis Inesse, late
principal, Alexander Whiteford, principal, and Thomas Inesse, sub-principal."
The Louis Innes who had acted as principal, must be the brother to the historian
mentioned by Wodrow.

IRVINE, Christopher, an antiquary, philologist, and physician, lived in
the seventeenth century, and was a younger son of the family of Irvine of Bon-
shaw in Lanarkshire. Like his relation, who rendered himself infamous in the
cause of royalty by seizing Donald Cargill, Christopher Irvine was a devoted
adherent of the Stuarts and of episcopacy. He was turned out of the college
of Edinburgh in 1638 or 1639, in consequence of his resisting the national co-
venant ; and by some connexion, the nature of which is not known, with the
Irish troubles, which happened not long after, he lost a plentiful patrimony.
Of these circumstances he himself informs us, in the address appended to one of
his works, as well as of the facts, that " after his travels, the cruel saints were
pleased to mortify him seventeen nights with bread and water ;" and even after
having recalled an act of banishment which they had formerly passed against
him, subjected him to the fate of absolute starvation, with only the dubious al-
ternative of " teaching grammar." Having adopted the latter course, we have
ascertained from another source x that he was schoolmaster first at Leith, and af-
terwards at Preston. In the course of his exertions in this capacity, he was led
to initiate his pupils in Scottish history ; and it was out of the information col-
lected for that purpose, along with some notes he received from Mr Alexander
Home and Mr Thomas Crawford, formerly professors of humanity in Edinburgh
university, that he compiled his Nomenclature of Scottish History, the work by
which he is best known. Some time during the commonwealth, he appears to
have resumed the profession to which he was bred, and practised first as a
surgeon, and finally as a physician in Edinburgh, at the same time that he held
a medical appointment in the army of general Monk, by which Scotland was
then garrisoned.

We have not been able to discover any earlier publication of Christopher
Irvine than a small and very rare volume, entitled Bellum Grammaticale, which
appeared at Edinburgh in 1650, but of the nature of which, not having seen it,
we cannot speak. His second performance was a small volume, now ako very
rare, having the following elaborate title : " Medicina Magnetica ; or the rare
and wonderful art of curing by sympathy, laid open in aphorisms, proved in con-
clusions, and digested into an easy method drawn from both ; wherein the con-
nexion of the eauses and effects of these strange operations, are more fully dis-
covered than heretofore. All cleared and confirmed, by pithy reasons, true
experiments, and pleasant relations, preserved and published as a master-piece
in this skill, by C. de Iryngio, chirurgo-medicine in the army. Printed in the
year 1656." The dedication, which is dated from Edinburgh, June 3, 1656,
and is signed " C. Irvine," is addressed to general Monk, as " chief captain of
those forces among whom for diverse years / have served and prospered ;" and
speaking of the kindness of the commander toward his inferiors, he continues —
" This is observed by all ; this hath been my experience so oft as I had need of
favour and protection." We may from these passages argue, that, at the period
i Sibbald's Bibliotheca Scotica, MS. Adv. Lib.

183 CHRISTOPHER IRVINE.

when he composed this book, Irvine himself was a man ot respectable standing
as to years and Lad not found it inconsistent with Ins loyalist principles to take
office under Cromwell. The work itself is a true literary curiosity. I he mon-
strous and fanciful doctrines which crowd the pages ot Paracelsus and Cardan
and which had begun at that period to sink before the demand for logical proot
and practical experience, which more accurate minds had made, are here re-
vived, and even exaggerated; while the imagination of the writer seems to have
laboured in all quarters of nature, to discover grotesque absurdities. The book,
it will be remarked, is a treatise on animal magnetism. We would give his
receipt for the method of manufacturing " an animal magnet," did we dare but
propriety compels us to retain our comments for the less original portion of the
work. The principles of the author, de omnibus rebus etquibusdam ahis, are
laid down in*" an hundred aphorisms," which are of such a nature as the fol-
lowing : " Neither souls, nor pure spirits, nor intelligences can work upon
bodied, but by means of the spirit ; for two extremes cannot be joined together
without a mean, therefore," it is justly and conclusively argued, " demons ap-
pear not but after sacrifices used."—" He that can join a spirit impregnat with the
virtue of one bodie with another, that is now disposed to change, may produce
many miracles and monsters."—" He that can by light draw light out of things,
or multiply light with light, he knoweth how to adde the universal spirit of lite
to the particular spirit of life, and by this addition do wonders," &c. Nor is his
method of supporting his aphorisms by proof less original and conclusive. The
readers of Hudibras will recollect the story taken from Helemont, of the man
who, having lost his nose, procured a new one to be cut from the limb of a por-
ter, on whose death the unfortunate nose grew cold and fell off. The reason-
ing of Mr Christopher Irvine on this matter is peculiarly metaphysical. " Is
not," he says, " all our doctrine here confirmed clearer than the light? was not
the insititious nose as animated at the first, so still informed with the soul of the
porter ? Neither had it any from the man whose nose now it was made, but only
nourishment; the power of the assimilation which it hath from its proper form,
it took it not from him but from the porter, of whom it was yet truly a part ;
and who dying, the nose became a dead nose, and did immediately tend to cor-
ruption. But who doth not here see, most openly and evidently, a concatena-
tion ? otherwise, how could the nose of one that was at Bolonia, enform the nose
of one that was at Brussels, but by means of a concatenation ?" The curiosity of
the matter, presenting a specimen of the speculations in which several Scottish
philosophers at that period indulged, may excuse these extracts.

The work to which Irvine's name is most frequently attached, is the " His-
toric ScoticiB Nomenclatura Latino-Vemacula ; " an explanatory dictionary of
the Latin proper names made use of in Scottish history, published at Edinburgh
in 1682, and re-published in 1819. The editor of the reprint observes, that he
" intended, along with the present edition, to have given the public a short
sketch of the life of the author; but this intention he has been obliged to relin-
quish from want of materials. To numerous enquiries, in many directions, no
satisfactory answer was procured, and the editor mentions with regret, that hi
knows nothing more of this eminent literary character, and profound philologist,
than can be collected from his address to the reader." The dedication is to the
duke of York ; and if we had not been furnished with vast specimens of the ca-
pacity of royal stomachs at that period for flattery, we might have suspected
Mr Christopher of a little quizzing, when he enlarges on the moderation, the
generosity, the kindness to friends, the forgiveness to enemies, displayed by the
prince, and especially on his having "so firmly on solid grounds established the
I rotestant religion." Among the other eulogium3 is one which may be inter-

GILBERT JACK, 189

preted as somewhat apologetical on the part of the author, in as far as respects
his own conduct. " The neglected sufferer for loyalty is now taken into care
and favour, and they that have recovered better principles, are not reproached
nor passed by ; their transgressions are forgot, and time allowed to take off
their evil habit." The Nomenclature is a brief general biographical and to-
pographical dictionary of Scotland. With a firm adherence to the fabulous
early history, the author shows vast general reading ; but, like most authors of
the age, he seems to have considered Scotland the centre of greatness, and all
other transactions in the world as naturally merging into a connexion with it.
Thus in juxtaposition with Argyle, we find " Argivi, Argos, and Arii." And
the Dee is discussed beside the Danube.

From the address attached to this volume, we leai'n thrt its publication was
occasioned by his recent dismissal from the king's service. " And now," he
says, ** being, as it seemeth by a cruel misrepresentation, turned out of my pub-
lic employment and livelyhood, which the defender of the sincere will return, I
have at the desire of the printer, in this interval, revised, &c." Taking the
dedication in connexion with this circumstance, there can be little doubt as to
the particular object of that composition ; and from another document it would
appear that he was not unsuccessful in his design. An act of parliament, dated
three years later than the publication of the Nomenclature, and ratifying an act
of privy council, which had reserved to Irvine the privilege of acting as a physi-
cian, independent of the College of Physicians of Edinburgh, just established,
proceeds upon 3 statement by the learned man himself, that " he has been bred
liberally in these arts and places that fit men for the practice of physick and
chirurgery, and has received all the degrees of the schools that give ornament
and authority in these professions, and has practised the same the space of thertie
years in the eminentest places and among very considerable persons in this
island, and has, by vertue of commissions from his royal master, exerced the
dutie of cherurgeon of his guards of horse twenty-eight years together, and has
had the charge of chief physician and chirurgeon of his armie.''3 He then states,
that he wishes to practise his profession in peace, in the city of Edinburgh, of
which he is a burgess, and hopes the council " would be pleased not to suffer him,
by any new gift or patent to be stated under the partial humors or affronts of
(a) new incorporation or college of physicians, composed of men that are alto-
gether his juniors (save doctor Hay) in the studies of phylosophie and practise
of physick."

JACK, or JACHiEUS, Gilbert, an eminent metaphysician and medical
writer, and professor of philosophy at Leyden, was bora at Aberdeen, as has
been asserted, (although there seems but slight ground for fixing the date so
precisely,) in the year 1578. Early in life, and apparently before he had com-
menced a regular series of literary study, he lost his father, and was committed
by his mother to the private tuition of a person named Thomas Cargill. He af-
terwards studied under Robert Howie : and as that individual was made prin-
cipal of Marischal college, on its erection into a university, in 1593, it is pro-
bable that Jack obtained a portion of his university education at Aberdeen,
although he is mentioned by Freher as having studied philosophy at St Andrews,
* Acts of the Scottish parliament, viii. 530-531.

190 GILBERT JACK.

where he was under the tuition of Robert Hay, an eminent theologist. By
the advice of his tutor, who probably detected in his mind the dawnings of high
talent, Jack continued his studies in the universities on the continent. He re-
mained for some time at the colleges of Herborn and Helmstadt ; when, incited
by the high fame of the university of Leyden, he removed thither, and sought
employment as a private teacher, in expectation of eventually obtaining a pro-
fessorship. His ambition was at length gratified, by his appointment, in 1604, to
what has been in general terms called the philosophical chair of that celebrated in-
stitution. Scotland, which seems to have acquired a permanent celebrity from the
numerous persevering and ambitious men it lias dispersed through the world, was
at no time so fruitful in its supply of eminent men as during the life-time of the
subject of our memoir. Adolphus Vorstius, a person known to fame chiefly
from his tributes to the memory of some eminent friends, and colleague of Jack
in the university of Leyden, in a funeral oration to his memory, from which
the materials for a memoir of Jack are chiefly derived, mentions that at the
period we allude to, there was scarcely a college in Europe of any celebrity,
which did not number a Scotsman among its professors : and whether from the
meagre tuition in our own universities, or other causes, most of the Scotsmen
celebrated for learning at that period — and they were not a few — began their
career of fame abroad. In the works, or correspondence of the continental
scholars of the seventeenth century, we frequently meet with names of Scotsmen
now forgotten in their native country, and that of Jack frequently occurs, ac-
companied with many indications of respect. He is said to have been the first
who taught 7netapliysics at Leyden, a statement from which we may at least
presume, that he opened new branches of inquiry, and was celebrated for the
originality of the system he inculcated. During his professorship at Leyden he
studied medicine, and took his degree in that science in 1611.

In 1612, appeared his first work, " Institutiones Physical, Juventutis Lugdu-
nensis Studiis potissimum dicatae," republished with notes in 1616. This trea-
tise is dedicated to 3Iatthew Overbeguius (Overbeke), and is in the usual manner

prefaced by laudatory addresses, which are from the pens of men of celebrity

Daniel Heinsius, Greek professor of Leyden, (who appropriately uses his pro-
fessional language,) Gaspard Barlaeus, the professor 'of logic at Leyden, and
Theodore Schrevelius (probably father to the Lexicographer Cornelius). This
work, notwithstanding its title, will be readily understood to be generally
metaphysical, and the portion tending to that species of discussion is that from
which a modern student will derive most satisfaction. It consists of nine books.
The first is introductory, containing definitions, &c, the second is De Natura, the
third De Motu, the fourth De Tempore, the fifth De Cailo, the sixth De Cor-
pore Misto, the seventh De 3Ieteoris, the eighth De Aninia, and the ninth De
Anima Kationali. Apart from the doctrines now called vulgar errors, for an
adherence to which the limited bounds of our own knowledge must teach us to
excuse our forefathers, this work may be perused with interest and even profit.
To have departed from the text of Aristotle might have been considered equal
in heresy, to a denial of any of the evident laws of nature ; but if Jack was like
others, a mere commentator on the great lawgiver of philosophers, he frequent-
ly clothes original views in correct, clear, and logical language ; his discussions
on time and motion might not be ungrateful to a student of Hutcheson or Keid ;
and though almost unknown to his country, and forgotten in his native city, he
is no contemptible member of the class of common-sense philosophers of

' Freheri Theatrum virorum eruditione clarorum, ii. 1353. Jactis utriusque lingua fun.
^rkavrSZTo^frio^"1 ab'egatUS' PhilOSOi>hiil °Pen,m *-* W^ ~

THOMAS JACK. 191

whom Scotland has boasted. In 1724, Jack published another work, entitled
" Institutiones Medica?," republished in 1631. About this period his celebrity
had reached the British isles ; and, like his illustrious friend and comrade Vos-
sius, the author of the History of Pelagianism, he was invited to fill the chair of
civil history at Oxford, a proffer he declined. This eminent man died on the
17th day of April, lu'28, leaving behind him a widow and ten children. He
seems to have been on terms of intimate and friendly familiarity with the
greatest men of the age. He is said to have been a hard student, to have pos-
sessed vast powers of memory, and to have been more attentive to the ele-
gancies of life, and to his personal appearance, than scholars then generally
were.

JACK, or JACHEUS, Thomas, a classical scholar of eminence, and author of
the " Onomasticon Poeticum." The period of the birth of this author is unknown :
Or M'Crie has with his usual industry made investigations into his history, but
excepting the circumstances to be discovered from the dedication to his work,
none but a few barren facts have been found, which must have ill repaid the
labours of the search. He was master of the grammar school at Glasgow, but at
what period he entered that seminary is unknown. He relinquished the situa-
tion in 1574, and became minister of the neighbouring parish of Eastwood,
from which, in the manner of the time, he dates his book " ex sylva vulgo dicta
orientali ;" his work is entitled " Onomasticon Poeticum, sive propriorum quibus
in suis monumentis usi sunt veteres Poetas, brevis descriptio Poetica;" it is
neatly printed in quarto, by Waldegrave, 1592, and is now very rare. It may
be described as a versified topographical dictionary of the localities of classical
poetry, expressing in a brief sentence, seldom exceeding a couple of lines, some
characteristic, which may remind the student of the subject of his readings. He
mentions that he has found the system advantageous by experiment ; and most of
our readers will be reminded of the repeated attempts to teach the rules of
grammar, and other matters necessary to be committed to memory, in a similar
manner. The subject did not admit of much elegance, and the chief merit of
the author will be acknowledged in the perseverance which has amassed so many
references to subjects of classical research. A quotation of the first f&vt lines
may not be unacceptable :

" Caucaseus vatos Abaris Ventura profatur,
Argivum bis sextus Albas rex, martis in armis
Acer, Hypermnestra Lynceoque parentibus ortus;
Hinc et Abantiadum series dat jura Pelasgis.
Ex nube Ixion Centaurum giguit Abantem.
iBueas comitem quo nomine clarus habebat
iEgypti ad fines Abatos jacet Insula dives :
Quam arcum armavit lino natura tenaci,
Armifeise Thracis quondam urbs Abdera Celebris."

This passage contains the accounts of Abaris, Abantiadse, Abas, Abatos, and
Abdera.

In the dedication, which is addressed to James, eldest son of Claud Hamilton,
commendator of Paisley, a pupil of the author, Jack complacently mentions,
that he had been induced to publish by the recommendation of Andrew Melville
and Buchanan, and that the latter eminent person had revised the work, and sub-
mitted to a counter revision of works of his own. Prefixed to the Onomasticon are
encomiastic verses by Robert Pollock, Hercules Pollock, Patrick Sharpe, Andrew
Melville, and Sir Thomas Craig. Dr M'Crie has discovered that Thomas Jack, as
minister of Rutherglen, was one of those who, in 1582, opposed the election of Ro-

1S2 JAMES I.

bert Montgomery as archbishop of Glasgow. He appears to have been a member
of the General Assembly in 1590 ; he is mentioned in 1 593, as a minister within
the bounds of the presbytery of Paisley, and must have died in 159G, as appears
from the Testament Testamentar of " Euphame Wylie, relict of umquhill Mr
Thomas Jak, miur< at Eastwod."

JAMES I., king of Scots, and illustrious both in political and literary history,
was born at Dunfermline in the year 1394. He was the third son of Robert
III., king of Scots, (whose falher, Robert II., was the first sovereign of the
Stuart family,) by his consort Annabella, or Annaple Drummond, daughter of Sir
John Drummond of Stobhall, ancestor of the noble family of Perth. It appears
that John Stuart, for such was the real name of Robert III., had married Anna-
ple Drummond at a period antecedent to the year 1358 ; as in 1357, lie and his
wife received a charter of the earldom of Athol from David II. The unusual
period of thirty-seven years at least, must thus have elapsed between the mar-
riage of the parents and the birth of their distinguished son. Their eldest child,
David, born in 1373, and created duke of Rothesay, was starved to death by his
uncle the duke of Albany in 1402 ; a second son, John, died in infancy. The
inheritance of the crown was thus opened upon prince James at the age of eight
years, but under circumstances which rendered the prospect less agreeable than
dangerous. The imbecility of Robert III. had permitted the reins of govern-
ment to be assumed by his brother the duke of Albany, who meditated a trans-
ference of the sovereignty to bis own family, and scrupled at no measures which
might promise to aid him in his object. There was the greatest reason to ap-
prehend that prince James, as well as bis elder brother the duke of Rothesay,
would be removed by some foul means, through the machinations of Albany ;
«dter which, the existence of the king's female children would present but a
trifling obstacle to bis assuming the rights of heir presumptive.

The education of prince James was early confided to Wardlaw, bishop of St
Andrews, the learned and excellent prelate, who, in founding the university in
his metropolitan city, became the originator of that valuable class of institutions
in Scotland. Sinclair, earl of Orkney, and Sir David Fleming of Cumbernauld,
were among the barons who superintended the instruction of the prince in mar-
tial and athletic exercises. For the express purpose of saving him from the
fangs of his uncle, it was resolved by the king, in 1405, to send him to the
court of Charles VI. of France, where he might at once be safer in person, and
receive a superior education to what could be obtained in his own country.
With this view the young prince was privately conducted to East Lothian, and
embarked on board a vessel at the isle of the Bass, along with the earl of Orkney
and a small party of friends. It would appear that he thus escaped his uncle by
a very narrow chance, as Sir David Fleming, in returning from the place of
embarkation, was set upon at Long-Hermandstone by the retainers of that
wicked personage, and cruelly slain.

James pursued his voyage towards France, till, cruising along the coast of
Norfolk, his vessel was seized by a squadron of armed merchantmen, commanded
by John Jolyff, and belonging to tbe port of Clay. Though this event took
place in the time of a truce between the two countries, (April 12, 1405,) Henry
IV. of England reconciled his conscience to the detention of the prince, for
Which, indeed, it is highly probable he had made some arrangements previously
with the duke of Albany, his faithful ally, and the imitator of his conduct.
When the earl of Orkney presented a remonstrance against such an unjustifiable
act, asserting that the education of the prince was the sole object of his voyage
to France, he turned it oft* with a jest, to the effect, that he was as well ac-
quainted with the French language, and could teach it as well as the king of

JAMES I. 193

France,1 so that the prince would lose nothing by remaining where he was.
He soon showed, however, the value which he attached to the possession of the
prince's person, by shutting him up in the castle of Pevensey in Sussex. The
aged king of Scotland sank under this new calamity; and, dying April 4, 1406,
left the nominal sovereignty to his captive son, but the real power of the state to
his flagitious brother, the duke of Albany, who assumed the title of governor.

Having no design against the mind of his captive, Henry furnished him in a
liberal manner with the means of continuing his education. Sir John Pelham,
the constable of Pevensey castle, and one of the most distinguished knights of
the age, was appointed his governor ; and masters were provided for instructing
him in various accomplishments and branches of knowledge. To quote the
words of Mr Tytler,2 " In all athletic and manly exercises, in the use of his
weapons, in his skill in horsemanship, his speed in running, his strength and
dexterity as a wrestler, his firm and fair aim as a joister and tourneyer, the
young king is allowed by all contemporary writers to have arrived at a pitch of
excellence which left most of his own age far behind him ; and as he advanced
to maturity, his figure, although not so tali as to be majestic or imposing, was,
from its make, peculiarly adapted for excellence in such accomplishments. His
chest was broad and full, his arms somewhat long and muscular, his flanks thin
and spare, and his limbs beautifully formed; so as to combine elegance and
lightness with strength. In throwing the hammer, and propelling, or, to use the
Scottish phrase, ' putting ' the stone, and in skill in archery, we have the testi-
mony of an ancient chronicle, that none in his own dominions could surpass
him. * * * To skill jn warlike exercises, every youthful candidate
for honour and for knighthood was expected to unite a variety of more
pacific and elegant accomplishments, which were intended to render him a de-
lightful companion in the hall, as the others were calculated to make him a
formidable enemy in the field. The science of music, both instrumental and
vocal ; the composition and recitation of ballads, roundelays, and other minor
pieces of poetry ; an acquaintance with the romances and the writings of the
popular poets of the times — were all essential branches in the system of educa-
tion which was then adopted in the castle of any feudal chief; and from Pelham,
who had himself been brought up as the squire of the duke of Lancaster, we
may be confident that the Scottish king received every advantage which could
be conferred by skilful instructors, and by the most ample opportunities of cul-
tivation and improvement. Such lessons and exhibitions, however, might have
been thrown away upon many, but James had been born with those natural ca-
pacities which fitted him to excel in them. He possessed a fine and correct
musical ear; a voice which was rich, flexible, and sufficiently powerful for
chamber music ; and an enthusiastic delight in the art, which, unless controlled
by strong good sense, and a feeling of the higher destinies to which he was
called, might have led to a dangerous devotion to it. * * Cut off for a long
and tedious pei-iod from his crown and his people, James could afford to spend
many hours each day in the cultivation of accomplishments to which, under other
circumstances, it would have been criminal to have given up so much of his
time. And this will easily account for that high musical excellence to which he
undoubtedly attained, and will explain the great variety of instruments upon
which he performed. * * He was acquainted with the Latin language, as
far, at least, as was permitted by the rude and barbarous condition in which it
existed previous to the revival of letters. In theology, oratory, and grammar —

1 It will be recollected that French was the common language of the coait of England, and
of all legal and public business, till the age following that of Henry IV.

2 Lives of Scottish Worthies, ii. 2G3.

194 JAMES I.

in the civil and canon laws, he was instructed by the best masters ; and an ac-
quaintance with Norman-French was necessarily acquired at a court where it was
still currently spoken and highly cultivated. Devoted, however, as he was to
these pursuits, James appears to have given his mind with a still stronger bias
to the study of English poetry, choosing Chaucer and Gower for his masters in
the art, and entering with the utmost.ardour into the great object of the first of
these illustrious men — the improvement of the English language, the production
of easy and natural rhymes, and. the refinement of poetical numbers from the
rude compositions which had preceded him."

Thus passed years of restraint, unmarked by any other incident than removal
from one place of captivity to another, till the death of Henry IV. in 1414.
On the very day after this event, the " gallant " Henry V. ordered his royal pri-
soner to be removed to close confinement in the Tower. In general, however, the
restraint imposed upon the young king was not inconsistent with his enjoyment
of the pleasures of life, among which one of the most agreeable must have been
the intercourse which he was allowed to hold with his Scottish friends. It is the
opinion of Mr Tytler, that the policy of the English kings in this matter was
much regulated by the terror in which they held a mysterious person residing
at the Scottish court, under the designation of king Richard, and who was the
object of perpetual conspiracies among the enemies of the house of Lancaster. It
is at least highly probable that Albany kept up that personage as a kind of bug-
bear, to induce the English monarch to keep a close guard over his nephew.

The duke of Albany died in 1419, and was succeeded as governor by his
eldest son Murdoch, who was as weak as his father had been energetic and am-
bitious. About the same time, a large party of Scottish knights and their re-
tainers proceeded, under the command of the earl of Buchan, second son of
Albany, to assist the French king in repelling the efforts which Henry V. of
England was making to gain the sovereignty of France. In the hope, perhaps,
of gaining his deliverance, James was persuaded by king Henry to accompany
him to France, and to join with him in taking the opposite side to that which
was assumed by this party of his subjects. But of this part of his life no clear
account is preserved ; only the consideration which he attained with the English
king is amply proved by his acting (1422) as chief mourner at his funeral.
This, however, was an event which he had little reason to regret, as it opened a
prospect of his obtaining his liberty, a circumstance which would scarcely have
taken place during the life of Henry ; or, at least, while that prince lived, James
could not look forward to any definite period for the termination of his cap-
tivity.

The duke of Bedford, who was appointed protector of England on the death
of Henry, adopting a wiser policy with regard to Scotland than that monarch
had pursued, offered to deliver up the Scottish king on payment of a ransom of
forty thousand pounds, to be paid within six years by half yearly payments, and
that hostages should be given for the faithful liquidation of the debt. The
English, disavowing the term ransom as derogatory, in this instance, to the na-
tional character and dignity, alleged that the pecuniary consideration was de-
manded as payment of the king's maintenance while in England ; but as Henry
V. allowed only £700 a-year for this purpose, and the term of James's captivity
was about nineteen years, giving thus an amount of something more than
£13,000 altogether, it is pretty evident that they did not intend to be losers by
the transaction — though, as the money was never paid, they certainly were not
gainers. After a good deal of delay, and much discussion on both sides, the ar-
rangement for the liberation of the king was finally adjusted by the Scottish
commissioners, who proceeded to London for that purpose, on the 9th of March,

JAMES I. 195

1123 ; and amongst other securities for the stipulated sura, tendered that of the
burghs of Edinburgh, Perth, Dundee, and Aberdeen. Previously to his leaving
England, James married Joanna, daughter of the duchess of Clarence, niece of
Richard II. To this lady the Scottish monarch had been long attached. Her
beauty had inspired his muse, and was the frequent theme of his song. Amongst
the poems attributed to the royal poet, there is one, entitled " A Sang on Ab-
sence," beginning H Sen that the eyne that workis my weilfair," in which he
bewails, in strains breathing the warmest and most ardent attachment, the ab-
sence of his mistress ; and in the still more elaborate production of the ** King's
Quail*," he thus speaks of her : —

" Of hir array, the form gif I sail write
Toward her goldin haire and rich atyre,
In fret wise couohit with pedis white ; •
And grete balas lemyng as the fire,
With many ane emerant and saphire ;
And on hir hide a chaplet fresh of hewe
Of plumys partit rede, and white, and blue.?r

In this beautiful poem the enamoured king describes himself as having first
fallen in love with his future queen, as she was walking in the gardens
under the tower at Windsor in which he was confined.

It is probable that he lost no time in making his fair enslaver aware of the
conquest she had made, and it is also likely that her walks under the tower were
not rendered less frequent by the discovery. The splendour of Joanna's dress,
as described in this poem, is very remarkable. She seems to have been covered
with jewels, and to have been altogether arrayed in the utmost magnificence ;
not improbably, in the consciousness of the eyes that were upon her. The
result, at all events, shows that the captive prince must have found means sooner
or later of communicating with the fair idol of his affections.

The marriage ceremony was performed at the church of St Mary's Overy in
Southwark ; the king receiving with his bride as her marriage portion, a dis-
charge for ten thousand pounds of his ransom money !

James was in the thirtieth year of his age when he was restored to his liberty
and his kingdom. Proceeding first to Edinburgh, where he celebrated the
festival of Easter, he afterwards went on to Scone, accompanied by his queen,
where they were both solemnly crowned ; Murdoch duke of Albany, as earl of
Fife, performing the ceremony of installing the sovereign on the throne.

Immediately after the coronation, James convoked a parliament in Perth,
and by the proceedings of that assembly, gave intimation to the kingdom of the
commencement of a vigorous reign. Amongst many other wise and judicious
ordinations, this national council enacted, that the king's peace should be firmly
held, and no private wars allowed, and that no man should travel with a greater
number of retainers than he could maintain ; that a sufficient administration of
law be appointed throughout the realm ; and that no extortion from churchmen or
farmers in particular be admitted. James had early been impressed with the
necessity of arresting with a vigorous and unsparing hand, the progress of that
system of fraud and rapine to which the country had been a prey during the
regencies that preceded his accession to the throne ; a policy which, perhaps,
though both necessary and just, there is some reason to believe he carried too
far, or at least prosecuted with a mind not tempered by judicious and humane
considerations. When first informed, on his arrival in the kingdom, of the law-
lessness which prevailed in it, he is said to have exclaimed, " liy the help of
God, though I should myself lead the life of a dog, I shall make the key keep

196 JAMES I.

the castle, and the bush secure the cow." Than such a resolution as this, nothing
could have been wiser or more praiseworthy, and he certainly did all he could,
and probably more than he ought, to accomplish the desirable end which the
sentiment proposed; but he seems to have been somewhat indiscriminating in his
vengeance. This indiscrimination may be only apparent, and may derive its
character from the imperfectness of the history of that period ; but as we judge
of the good by what is upon record, we are bound to judge of the bad by the
same rule ; and it would be rather a singular mischance, if error and misrepresen-
tation were always and exclusively on the side of the latter. It is, at any rate,
certain, that a remarkable humanity, or any remarkable inclination to the side of
mercy, were by no means amongst the number of James's good qualities, numer-
ous though these assuredly were. With the best intentions towards the improve-
ment of his kingdom, and the bettering of the condition of his subjects, James
had yet the misfortune to excite, at the commencement of his reign, a very general
feeling of dissatisfaction with his government.

This, amongst the aristocracy, proceeded from the severity with which he
threatened to visit their offences ; and amongst the common people, from his
having imposed a tax to pay the ransom money stipulated for his release from
captivity. This tax was proposed to be levied at the rate of twelve pennies in
the pound on all sorts of produce, on farms and annual rents, cattle and grain,
and to continue for two years. The tax was with great difficulty collected
the first year, but in the second the popular impatience and dissatisfaction became
so general and so marked, that the king thought it advisable to abandon it; and the
consequence was, as already remarked, that the debt was never discharged. The
reluctance of the nation to pay the price of their prince's freedom may appear
ungenerous, and as implying an indifference towards him personally ; but this is not
a necessary, nor is it the only conclusion which may be inferred from the circum-
stance. It is probable that they may have considered the demand of England unrea-
sonable and unjust, and it certainly was both, seeing that James was no prisoner of
war, but had been made captive at a time when the two kingdoms were at peace
with each other. To make him prisoner, therefore, and make him pay for it too,
seems indeed to have been rather a hard case, and such it was probably esteemed
by his subjects. The policy which James proposed to adopt, was not limited to
the suppression of existing evils or to the prevention of their recurrence in tine
to come, but extended to the punishing of offences long since committed, and
of which, in many instances, though we are told the results, we are left unin-
formed of the crime. At the outset of his reign he had ordered the arrest of
Walter, eldest son of.Murdoch, duke of Albany, the late regent, together with
that of Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld, and Thomas Boyd of Kilmarnock ;
and soon afterwards, taking advantage of the circumstance of a meeting of par-
liament at Perth, which he had convoked probably for the purpose of bringing
them within his reach, he ordered the arrest of Murdoch himself, his second son,
Alexander Stewart, the earls of Douglas, Angus, and March, and twenty other
gentlemen of note.

The vengeance, however, which gave rise to this proceeding, was followed
out only in the case of Albany ; at least his punishment only is recorded in the
accounts given by our historians of this transaction, while all the others are
allowed to drop out of sight without any further notice of them in connexion
with that event. Indeed the whole of this period of Scottish history is exceed-
ingly obscure ; much of it is confused, inconsistent, and inexplicable, and is
therefore indebted almost wholly to conjecture for any interest it possesses, and
perhaps no portion of it is more obscure than that which includes the occurrence
which has just been alluded to. The king's vengeance is said to have been

JAMES I. 197

exclusively aimed at Albany. Then, wherefore the arrest of the others P
Because, it is said they were the friends of the late regent, and might have
defeated the ends of justice had they been left at liberty, or at least might have
been troublesome in the event of his condemnation. But how is this to be
reconciled with the fact, that several of those arrested with Albany were of the
jury that found him guilty on his trial, which took place a few weeks afterwards ?
All that we certainly know of this matter, is, that Murdoch was committed a close
prisoner to Carlaveroc castle, while his duchess, Isabella, shared a similar fate
in Tantallon, and that the king immediately after seized upon, and took posses-
sion of his castles of Falkland in Fife, and Downe in Menteith ; that soon after-
wards, Albany, with his two sons, Walter and Alexander, together with the aged
earl of Lennox, were brought to trial, condemned to death, and beheaded. The
principal offence, so far as is known, for on this point also, there is much
obscurity, charged against those unfortunate persons, was their having dilapi-
dated the royal revenues while the king was captive in England. The fate of
the two sons of the regent, who were remarkably stout and handsome young
men, excited a good deal of commiseration. The moment their sentence was
pronounced, they were led out to execution. Their father and Lennox were
beheaded on the following day. The scene of this tragedy was a rising ground
immediately adjoining Stirling castle.

It is not improbable, that circumstances unknown to us may have warranted
tin's instance of sanguinary severity on the part of the king ; but it is unfortu-
nate for his memory, that these circumstances, if they did exist, should be
unknown; for as it now stands, he cannot be acquitted of cruelty in this case,
as well as some others, otherwise than by alleging, that he was incapable of
inflicting an unmerited punishment, — a defence more generous than satisfactory.
The parliaments, however, which James convoked, continued remarkable for the
wisdom of their decrees, for the number of salutary laws which they enacted,
and for the anxiety generally which they discovered for the prosperity of the
kingdom. Amongst the most curious of their laws is one which forbids any man
who has accused another, from being of the jury on his trial ! It is not easy to
conceive what were the notions of jurisprudence which permitted the existence
of the practice which this statute is meant to put an end to. The allowing the
accuser to be one of the jury on the trial of the person he has accused, seems an
absurdity and impropriety too palpable and gross to be apologized for, even by
the rudeness and barbarity of the times. Another curious statute of this period
enacts, that no traveller shall lodge with his friends, but at the common inn.
The object of this was to encourage these institutions, only about this time first
established in Scotland. They seem, however, very soon to have become popular,
as it was shortly afterwards enjoined by .act of parliament, that no one should
remain in taverns after nine o'clock at night. This of course was meant only
to apply to those who resided near the spot, and not to travellers at a distance
from their homes.

The subjugation of the Highlands and Isles next occupied the attention of
the stern and active monarch. These districts were in the most lawless state,
and neither acknowledged the authority of the parliament nor the king. With
the view of introducing a better order of things into these savage provinces, and
of bringing to condign punishment some of the most turbulent chieftains, James
assembled a parliament at Inverness, and specially summoned the heads of the
clans to attend it. The summons was obeyed, and about fifty chieftains of
various degrees of note and power arrived at Inverness at the appointed time,
and were all made prisoners ; amongst the rest, Alexander, lord of the Isles.
Several of them were instantly beheaded after a summary trial, the others were

193 JAMES I.

distributed throughout the different prisons of the kingdom, or kept in ward at
the castles of the nobility. The greater part of them were afterwards put to
death, and the remainder finally restored to liberty. With a degree of cruelty
which the case does not seem to warrant, the countess of Ross, the mother of the
lord of the Isles, was m.ide a prisoner along with her son, and was long detained
in captivity in the island of Inch Combe in the Firth of Forth. Alexander, after
a year's confinement, was allowed to return to his own country, on condition that
he would in future refrain from all acts of violence ; his mother in the mean
time being held a hostage for his good conduct.

Equally regardless, however, of his promises and the predicament of his
parent, he, soon after regaining his liberty, with a large body of followers
attacked and burned the town of Inverness. James, to revenge this outrage,
instantly collected an army and marched against the perpetrator, whom he over-
took in the neighbourhood of Lochaber. A battle ensued, in which the lord
of the Isles, who is said to have had an army of ten thousand men under him,
was totally defeated. Humbled by this misfortune, Alexander soon after made
an attempt to procure a reconciliation with the king, but failing in this, he
finally resolved to throw himself upon the mercy of the sovereign. With this
view he came privately to Edinburgh, and attired only in his shirt and drawers,
he placed himself before the high altar of Holyrood church, and on his knees,
in presence of the queen and a number of nobles, presented his naked sword to
the king. For this act of humiliation and humble submission, his life was spared ;
but he was ordered into close confinement in the castle of Tantallon. Some
curious and interesting considerations naturally present themselves when contem-
plating the transactions just spoken of. Amongst these a wonder is excited to
find the summons of the king to the fierce, lawless chieftains of the Highlands
so readily obeyed. To see them walk so tamely into the trap which was laid
for them, when they must have known, from the previous character of the king,
that if they once placed themselves within his reach, they might be assured of
being subjected to punishment Supposing, again, that they were deceived as to
his intentions, and had no idea that he meant them any personal violence, but
were inveigled within his power by faithless assurances ; it then becomes matte?
of astonishment, that in the very midst of their clans, in the heart of their own
country, and in the immediate neighbourhood of their inaccessible retreats, the
king should have been able, without meeting with any resistance, to take into '
custody and carry away as prisoners, no fewer than fifty powerful chieftains, and
even to put some of them to death upon the spot. This wonder is not lessened
by finding that the lord of the Isles himself could bring into the field ten thou-
sand men, while the greater part of the others could muster from five hundred
to five thousand each ; and it might be thought that, however great was their
enmity to each other, they would have made common cause in such a case as
this, and have all united in rescuing their chiefs from the hands of him who must
have appeared their common enemy; but no such effort was made, and the
whole Highlands as it were looked quietly on and permitted their chief men to
be carried away into captivity. In the midst of these somewhat inexplicable
considerations, however, there is one very evident and remarkable circumstance ;
this is the great power of the king, which could thus enable him to enforce so
sweeping an act of justice in se remote and barbarous a part of his kingdom ;
and perhaps a more striking instance of the existence of that extraordinary power,
and of terror inspired by the royal name, is not to be found in the pages of
Scottish history.

The parliament of James, directed evidently by the spirit of the monarch,
continued from time to time to enact the most salutary laws. In 1427 it was

JAMES I.

199

decreed, that a fine of ten pounds should be imposed upon burgesses who, being
summoned, should refuse to attend parliament, without showing" satisfactory cause
for their absence ; and in the same year several acts were passed for the punish-
ment of murder and felony. The first of these acts, however, was repealed in
the following year, by introducing a new feature into the legislature of the king-
dom. The attendance of small barons or freeholders in parliament was dispensed
with, on condition that each shire sent two commissioners, whose expenses were
to be paid by the freeholders. Another singular decree was also passed this
year, enjoining the successors and heirs of prelates and barons to take an oath
of fidelity to the queen. This was an unusual proceeding , but not an unwise
one, as it was evidently a provision for the event of the king's death, should it
happen during the minority of his heir and successor. It did so happen ; and
though history is silent on the subject, there is reason to believe that the queen
enjoyed the advantage which the act intended to secure to her.

In the year 1428, James wisely strengthened the Scottish alliance with France,
by betrothing his eldest daughter, Margaret, but yet in her infancy, to the
dauphin, afterwards Louis XL, also at this time a mere child. This contract,
however, was not carried into effect until the year 1436, when the dauphin had
attained his thirteenth year, and his bride her twelfth. The marriage eventually
proved an exceedingly unhappy one. The husband of the Scottish princess was
a man of the worst dispositions, and unfortunately there were others about him
no less remarkable for their bad qualities. One of these, Jamet de Villy,
impressed him, by tales which were afterwards proven to be false, with a suspi-
cion of the dauphiness's fidelity. Though innocent, the unhappy princess was
so deeply affected by the infamous accusations which were brought against her,
that she took to bed, and soon after died of a broken heart, exclaiming before
she expired, " Ah ! Jamet, Jamet, you have gained your purpose ;" such mild
but affecting expressions being all that her hard fate and the malice of her ene-
mies could elicit from the dying princess. Jamet was afterwards proven, in a
legal investigation which took place into the cause of the death of Margaret, to
be a " scoundrel" and " common liar." The death of this princess took place
nine years after the marriage, and seven after the death of her father; who,
had he been alive, would not, it is probable, have permitted the treatment of his
daughter to have passed without some token of his resentment.

The short remaining portion of James's life, either from the defectiveness of
the records of that period, or because they really did not occur, presents us with
few events of any great importance. Amongst those worthy of any notice, are,
a commei'cial league of one hundred years, entered into between Scotland and
Flanders ; the passing of a sumptuary law, forbidding any one but lords and
knights, their eldest sons and heirs, from wearing silks and furs ; a decree
declaring all Scotsmen traitors who travel into England without the king's leave.
Another enjoined all barons and lords having lands on the western or northern
seas, particularly those opposite to the islands, to furnish a certain number of
galleys, according to their tenures ; an injunction which was but little attended to.
In 1431, James renewed the treaty of peace with England, then just expiring,
for five years. In this year also, a desperate encounter took place at Inverlochy,
between Donald Balloch, and the earls of Mar and Caithness, in which the
former was victorious. The earl of Caithness, with sixteen squires of his family,
fell in this sanguinary engagement. Another conflict, still more deadly, took
place about the same time in Strathnavern, between Angus Duff, chief of the
Mackays of that district, and Angus Moray. There were twelve hundred men
on either side, and it is said, that on the termination of the fight there were
scarcely nine left alive.

200 JAMES L

James, in the mean time, proceeded with his system of hostility to the
nohles availing himself of every opportunity which presented itself of humbling
them, and of lessening their power. He threw into prison his own nephews,
the earl of Douglas, and Sir John Kennedy, and procured the forfeiture of the
estates of the earl of March. The reasons for the first act of severity are now
unknown. That for the second was, that the earl of March's father had been
engaged in rebellion against the kingdom during the regency of Albany. The
policy of James in arraying himself against his nobles, and maintaining an at-
titude of hostility towards them during his reign, seems of very questionable pro-
priety, to say nothing of the apparent character of unmerited severity which it
assumes in many instances. He no doubt found on his arrival in the kingdom,
many crimes to punish amongst that class, and much feudal tyranny to suppress;
but it is not very evident that his success would have been less, or the object
which he aimed at less surely accomplished, had he done this with a more lenient
hand. By making the nobles his friends in place of his enemies, he would as-
suredly have established and maintained the peace of the kingdom still more
effectually than he did. They were men, rude as they were, who would have
yielded a submission to a personal affection for their prince, which they would,
and did refuse to his authority as a ruler. James erred in aiming at governing
by fear, when he should have governed by love. A splendid proof of his error
in this particular is presented in the conduct of his great grand-son, James IV.
who pursued a directly opposite course with regard to his nobles, and with
results infinitely more favourable to the best interests of the kingdom. Only
one event now of any moment occurs until the premature death of James ; this
is the siege of Roxburgh. To revenge an attempt which had been made by
the English to intercept his daughter on her way to France, he raised an army
of, it has been computed, two hundred thousand men, and marching into England,
besieged the castle of Roxburgh; but after spending fifteen days before that strong-
hold, and expending nearly all the missive arms in the kingdom, he was com-
pelled to ahandon the siege, and to return with his army without having effected
any thing at all commensurate with the extent of his preparations, or the pro-
digious force which accompanied him. The melancholy catastrophe in which
his existence terminated was now fast approaching, — the result of his own harsh
conduct and unforgiving disposition.

The nobles, wearied out with his oppressions, seem latterly to have been re-
strained only by a want of unanimity amongst themselves from revenging the in-
juries they had sustained at his hands, or by a want of individual resolution to
strike the fatal blow. At length one appeared who possessed the courage neces-
sary for the performance of this desperate deed. This person was Sir Robert
Graham, uncle to the earl of Strathern. He also had been imprisoned by
James, and was therefore his enemy on personal as well as general grounds.

At this crisis of the dissatisfaction of the nobles, Graham offered, in a meeting
of the latter, to state their grievances to the king, and to demand the redress of
these grievances, provided those who then heard him would second him in so
doing. The lords accepted his offer, and pledged themselves to support him.
Accordingly, in the very next parliament Graham rose up, and having advanced
to where the king was seated, laid his hand upon his shoulder, and said " I ar-
rest you in the name of all the three estates of your realm here assembled in
parliament, for as your people have sworn to obey you, so are you constrained
by an equal oath to govern by law, and not to wrong your subjects, but in jus-
tice to maintain and defend them." Then turning round to the assembled
lords « Is it not thus as I say ?" he exclaimed ;__but the appeal remained unan-
swered. Either awed by the royal presence, or thinking that Graham had gone

JAMES I.

201

too far, the lords meanly declined to afford him the* support which they had
promised him. That Graham had done a rash thing, and had said more than
his colleagues meant he should have said, is scarcely an apology for their
deserting him as they did in the hour of trial. They ought at least to have af-
forded him some countenance, and to have acknowledged so much of his reproof
as they were willing should have heen administered ; and there is little doubt
that a very large portion of its spirit was theirs also, although they seem to have
lacked the courage to avow it. Graham was instantly ordered into confinement,
and was soon after deprived of all his possessions and estates, and banished the
kingdom. Brooding over his misfortunes, and breathing -vengeance against him
who was the cause of them, the daring exile retired to the remotest parts of the
Highlands, and there arranged and perfected his plans of revenge. He first
wrote letters to the king, renouncing his allegiance and defying his wrath, up-
braiding him with being the ruin of himself, his wife, and his children, and
concluded with declaring that he would put him to death with'his own hand, if
opportunity should offer. The answer to these threats and defiances was a pro-
clamation which the king immediately issued, promising three thousand demies
of gold, of the value of half an English noble each, to any one who should
bring in Graham dead or alive.

The king's proclamation, however, was attended with no effect The ob-
ject of it not only remained in safety in his retreat, but proceeded to mature
the schemes of vengeance which he meditated against his sovereign. He
opened a correspondence with several of the nobility, in which he unfolded the
treason which he designed, and offered to assassinate the king with his
own hand.

The general dislike which was entertained for James, and which was by no
means confined to the aristocracy, for his exactions had rendered his govern-
ment obnoxious also to the common people, soon procured for Graham a
powerful co-operation ; and the result was, that a regular and deep-laid con-
spiracy, and which included even some of the king's most familiar domestics,
was speedily formed. In the mean time, the king, unconscious of the fate which
was about to overtake him, had removed with his court to Perth to celebrate the
festival of Christmas. While on his way thither, according to popular tradition,
he was accosted by a soothsayer, who forewarned him of the disaster which was
to happen him. " My lord king," she said, for it was a prophetess who spoke,
" if ye pass this water," (the Forth) " ye shall never return again alive." The
king is said to have been much struck by the oracular intimation, and not the
less so that he had read in some prophecy a short while before, that in that year
a king of Scotland should be slain. The monarch, however, did not himself
deign on this occasion to interrogate the soothsayer as to what she meant, but
deputed the task to one of the knights, whom he desired to turn aside and hold
some conversation with her. This gentleman soon after rejoined the king, and
representing the prophetess as a foolish inebriated woman, recommended to his
majesty to pay no attention to what she had said. Accordingly no further
notice seems to have been taken of the circumstance. The royal pai'ty crossed
the water and arrived in safety at Perth ; the king, with his family and domestics,
taking up his residence at the Dominicans' or Blackfriars' monastery. The
conspirators, in the mean time, fully informed of his motions, had so far com-
pleted their arrangements as to have fixed the night on which he should be as-
sassinated. This was, according to some authorities, the night of the second
Wednesday of lent, or the 27th day of February ; by others, the first Wednes-
day of lent, or between the twentieth or twenty-first of that month, in the year
1137 ; and the latter is deemed the more accurate date. James spent the earlier

202 JAMES I.

part of the evening in playing chess with one of his knighta, whom, for his remark-
able devotion to the fair aex he humorously nicknamed the King of Love. The
kinw was in high spirits during the progress of the game, and indulged in a number
of jokes at the expense of his brother king ; but the dark hints which he had
had of his fate, seemed, as it were in spite of himself, to have made an impres-
sion upon him, and were always present to him even in his merriest moods, and
it was evidently under this feeling that he said — more in earnest than in joke,
though he endeavoured to give it the latter character — to his antagonist in the
game, " Sir King of Love, it is not long since I read a prophecy which foretold
that in this year a king should be slain in this land, and ye know well, sir, that
there are no kings in this realm but you and I. I therefore advise you to look
carefully to your own safety, for I give you warning that I shall see that mine
is sufficiently provided for." Shortly after this a number of lords and knights
thronged into the king's chamber, and the mirth, pastime, and joke went on
with increased vigour. In the midst of the revelry, however, the king received
another warning of his approaching fate. " My lord," said one of his favourite
squires, tempted probably by the light tone of the conversation which was going
forward, " I have dreamed that Sir Robert Graham should have slain you."
The earl of Orkney, who was present, rebuked the squire for the impropriety of
his speech, but the king, differently affected, said that he himself had dreamed
a terrible dream on the very night of which his attendant spoke.

In the mean time, the night wore on, and all still remained quiet in and
around the monastery ; but at this very moment, Graham, with three hundred
fierce Highlanders, was lurking in the neighbourhood, waiting the midnight
hour to break in upon the ill-fated monarch. The mirth and pastime in the
king's chamber continued until supper was served, probably about nine o'clock
at night. As the hour of this repast approached, however, all retired ex-
cepting the earl of Athol and Robert Stuart, the king's nephew, and one of his
greatest favourites, — considerations which could not bind him to the unfortu-
nate monarch, for he too was one of the conspirators, and did more than any
one of them to facilitate the murderous intentions of his colleagues, by destroy-
ing the fastenings of the king's chamber door. After supper the amusements of
the previous part of the evening were resumed, and chess, music, singing, and
the reading of romances, wiled away the next two or three hours. On this fatal
evening another circumstance occurred, which might have aroused the suspicions
of the king, if he had not been most unaccountably insensible to the frequent hints
and indirect intimations which he had received of some imminent peril hang-
ing over him. The same woman who had accosted him before crossing the firth
again appeared, and knocking at his chamber door at a late hour of the night,
sought to be admitted to the presence of the king. " Tell him," she said to the
usher who came forth from the apartment when she knocked, " that I am the
same woman who not long ago desired to speak with him when he was about to
cross the sea, and that I have something to say to him." The usher immediate-
ly conveyed the message to the king, but he being wholly engrossed by the
game in which he was at the instant engaged, merely ordered her to return on
the morrow. " Well," replied the disappointed soothsayer, as she at the first
interview affected to be, " ye shall all of you repent that I was not permitted
just now to speak to the king." The usher laughing at what he conceived to
be the expressions of a fool, ordered the woman to begone, and she obeyed.
The night was now wearing late, and the king, having put an end to the
evening's amusements, called for the parting cup. This drunk, the party broke
up, and James retired to his bed-chamber, where he found the queen and her
ladies amusing themselves with cheerful conversation. The king, now in his

JAMES 1.

203

night-gown and slippers, placed himself before the fire, and joined in the
badinage which was going forward. At this moment the king was suddenly
startled by a great noise at the outside of his chamber door, or rather in the
passage which led to it. The sounds were those of a crowd oi armed men
pressing hurriedly forward. There was a loud clattering and jingling of arms
and armour, accompanied by the gleaming of torches. The king seems to have
instantly apprehended danger, a feeling which either he had communicated to
the ladies in the apartment, or they had of themselves conceived, for they im-
mediately rushed to the door with the view of securing it, but they found all the
fastenings destroyed, and a bar which should have been there removed.

This being intimated to the king, he called out to the ladies to hold fast the
door as well as they could, until he could find something wherewith to defend
himself; and he flew to the window of the apartment and endeavoured to wrench
away one of the iron staunchions for this purpose, but the bar resisted all his
efforts. In this moment of horror and despair, the unhappy monarch next seized
the tongs, which lay by the fireside, and by their means, and with some desperate
efforts of personal strength, he tore up a portion of the floor, and instantly descend-
ing through the aperture into a mean receptacle which was underneath the cliam-
ber, drew the boards down after him to their original position. In the mean time
the ladies had contrived to keep out the conspirators, and, in this effort, it is said,
Catharine Douglas had one of her arms broken, by having thrust it into the wall
in place of the bar which had been removed. The assassins, however, at length
forced their way into the apartment ; and here a piteous scene now ensued. The
queen stood in the middle of the floor, bereft of speech and of all power of
motion by her terror, while her ladies, several of whom were severely hurt and
wounded, filled the apartment with the most lamentable cries and shrieks.

One of the ruffians on entering inflicted a severe wound on the queen, and
would have killed her outright, but for the interference of one of the sons of Sir
Robert Graham, who, perceiving the dastard about to repeat the blow, exclaimed
" What would ye do to the queen ? for shame of yourself, she is but a woman ;
let us go and seek the king." The conspirators, who were all armed with
swords, daggers, axes, and other weapons, now proceeded to search for the king.
They examined all the beds, presses, and other probable places of concealment,
overturned forms and chairs, but to no purpose ; the king could not be found, nor
could they conceive how he had escaped them. The conspirators, baulked in
their pursuit, dispersed themselves throughout the different apartments to extend
their search. This creating a silence in the apartment immediately above the king,
the unfortunate monarch conceived the conspirators had entirely withdrawn, and
in his impatience to get out of his disagreeable situation, called out to the ladies
to bring him sheets for that purpose. In the attempt which immediately followed
to raise him up by these means, Elizabeth Douglas, another of the queen's wait-
ing-maids, fell into the hole in which the king was concealed. At this moment,
Thomas Chambers, one of the assassins, and who was also one of the king's
domestics, entered the apartment, and perceiving the opening in the floor, he
immediately proceeded towards it, and looking down into the cellar, with the
assistance of his torch discovered the king.

On descrying the object of his search, Chambers exultingly called out to his
companions, ** Sirs, the bride is found for whom we sought, and for whom we
have caroled here all night." The joyful tidings instantly brought a crowd of
the conspirators to the spot, and amongst the rest, Sir John Hall, who, with a
large knife in his hand, hastily descended to the king's hiding-place. The
latter, however, who was a man of great personal strength, instantly seized the
assassin and threw him down at his feet ; and his brother, who followed, shared

204 JAMES I.

the same treatment — the king holding them both by their throats, and with such a
powerful grasp, that they bore marks of the violence for a month afterwards.
The unfortunate monarch now endeavoured to wrest their knives from the assas-
sins, and in 'the attempt had his hands severely cut and mangled.

Sir Robert Graham, who had hitherto been merely looking on, now seeing
that the Halls could not accomplish the murder of the king, also descended, and
with a drawn sword in his hand. Unable to cope with them all, and exhausted
with the fearful struggle which he had maintained with the two assassins, wea-
ponless and disabled in his hands, the king implored Graham for mercy.
" Cruel tyrant," replied the regicide, " thou hadst never mercy on thy kindred
nor on others who fell within thy power, and therefore, thou shalt have no
mercy from me." '* Then I beseech thee, for the salvation of my soul, that thou
wilt permit me to have a confessor," said the miserable prince. - " Thou shalt
have no confessor but the sword," replied Graham, thrusting his victim through
the body with his weapon. The king fell, but the stroke was not instantly fatal.
He continued in the most piteous tones to supplicate mercy from his murderer,
offering him half his kingdom if he would but spare his life. The heart-rending
appeals of the hapless monarch shook even Graham's resolution, and he was
about to desist from doing him further injury, when his intentions being per-
ceived by the conspirators from above, they called out to him that if he did not
comp'ete the deed, he should himself suffer death at their hands. Urged on by
this threat, the three assassins again attacked the king, and finally despatched
him, having inflicted sixteen deadly wounds on his chest, besides others on
different parts of his body. As if every circumstance which could facilitate his
death had conspired to secure that event, it happened that the king, some
days before he was murdered, had directed that an aperture in the place where
he had concealed himself, and by which he might have escaped, should be built
up, as the balls with which he played at tennis in the court yard were apt to be
lost in it. After completing the murder of the king, the assassins sought for the
queen, whom, dreading her vengeance, they proposed to put also to death ; but
she had escaped. A rumour of the tragical scene that was enacting at the
monastery having spread through the town, great numbers of the citizens and of
the king's servants, with arms and torches hastened to the spot, but too late, to
the assistance of the murdered monarch. The conspirators, however, all escaped
for the time, excepting one, who was killed by Sir David Dunbar, who had him-
self three fingers cut off" in the contest. This brave knight had alone attacked
the flying conspirators, but was overpowered and left disabled.

In less than a month, such was the activity of the queen's vengeance, all
the principal actors in this appalling tragedy were in custody, and were after-
wards put to the mosthorrible deaths. Stuart and Chambers, who were the first
taken, were drawn, hanged, and quartered, having been previously lacerated all
over with sharp instruments. Graham was carried through the streets of Edin-
burgh in a cart, in a state of perfect nudity, with his right hand nailed to an
upright post, and surrounded with men, who, with sharp hooks and knives, and
red hot irons, kept constantly tearing at and burning his miserable body, until
he was completely covered with wounds. Having undergone this, he was again
thrown into prison, and on the following day brought out to execution.
The wretched man had, when released from his tortures, wrapped himself in a
coarse woollen Scottish plaid, which adhering to his wounds, caused him much
pain in the removal. When this operation was performed, and it was done
with no gentle hand, the miserable sufferer fainted, and fell to the ground with
the agony. On recovering, which he did not do for nearly a quarter of an hour,
he said to those around him, that the rude manner in which the mantle had

JAMES IV. 205

been removed, had given him greater pain than any he had yet suffered. To
increase the horrors of his situation, his son was disembowelled alive before his
face.

James I. perished in the forty-fourth year of his age, after an actual reign of
thirteen years. His progeny were, a son, his successor, and five daughters.
These were, Margaret, married to the dauphin ; Isabella, to Francis, duke of
Bretagne ; Eleanor, to Sigismund, archduke of Austria ; Mary, to the count
de Boucquan ; and Jean, to the earl of Angus, afterwards earl of Morton.

JAMES IV., king of Scots, was the eldest son of James III. by 31argaret,
daughter of Christiern, king of Denmark ; and was born in the month of
March, 1472. Of the manner of his education no record has been preserved;
but it was probably good, as his father, whatever might be his faults, appears to
have been a monarch of considerable taste and refinement. In the year 1488,
a large party of nobles rebelled against James III. on account of various arbi-
trary proceedings with which they were displeased ; and the king, on going to
the north to raise an army for their suppression, left his son, the subject of the
present memoir, in the keeping of Shaw of Sauchie, governor of Stirling castle.
While the king was absent, the confederate nobles prevailed on Shaw to sur-
render his charge ; and the prince was then set up as their nominal, but, it
would appear, involuntary leader. The parties met, July 11, at Sauchie, near
Stirling ; and the king fell a victim to the resentment of his subjects. The
subject of the present memoir then mounted the throne, in the sixteenth year of
his age.

Neither the precise objects of this rebellion, nor the real nature of the
prince's concern in its progress and event, are distinctly known. It is certain,
however, that James IV. always considered himself as liable to the vengeance of
heaven for his share, voluntary or involuntary, in his father's death ; and ac-
cordingly wore a penitential chain round his body, to which he added new
weight every year ; and even contemplated a still more conspicuous expiation
of his supposed offence, by undertaking a new crusade. Whatever might be the
guilt of the prince, the nation had certainly no cause to regret the death of James
III., except the manner in which it was accomplished, while they had every
thing to hope from the generous young monarch who was his successor.

James possessed in an eminent degree every quality necessary to render a sore-
reign beloved by his subjects ; and perhaps no prince ever enjoyed so large a
portion of personal regard, of intense affection, as did James IV. of Scotland. His
manner was gentle and affable to all who came in contact with him, whatever might
be their rank or degree. He was just and impartial in his decrees, yet never in-
flicted punishment without strong and visible reluctance. He listened willingly
and readily to admonition, and never discovered either impatience or resentment
while his errors were placed before him. He took every thing in good part,
and endeavoured to amend the faults pointed out by his advisers. He was
generous, even to a fault ; magnificent and princely in all his habits, pursuits,
and amusements. His mind was acute, and dignified, and noble. He excelled
in all warlike exercises and manly accomplishments ; in music, horsemanship,
and the use of sword and spear. Nor was his personal appearance at variance
with this elevated character. His form, which was of the middle size, was ex-
ceedingly handsome, yet stout and muscular, and his countenance had an ex-
pression of mildness and dignity that instantly predisposed all who looked upon
it to a strong attachment to its possessor.

His bravery, like his generosity, was also in the extreme : it was romantic.
Altogether, he was unquestionably the most chivalrous prince of his day in
Europe. A contemporary poet bears testimony to this part of his character : —

206 JAMES IV.

•* And ye Christian princes, whosoever ye 'be,
If ye be destitute of a noble captayne,
Take James of Scotland for his audacitie
And proved manhood, if ye will laude attayne ;
Let him have the forwarde, have ye no disdayne,
Nor indignation ; for never king was borne
That of ought of warr can showe the unicorne.

For if that he take once his speare in hand,
Against these Turkes strongly with it to ride,
None shall be able his stroke for to withstande
Nor before his face so hardy to abide ;
Yet this his manhood increaseth not his pride,
But ever shewetli be meknes and humilitie,
In word or dede, to hye and lowe degree. "

A neglected education left him almost totally ignorant of letters, but not
without a high relish for their beauties. He delighted in poetry, and possessed
a mind attuned to all its finer sympathies.

The design of the rebel lords in taking arms against their sovereign, James
III., being merely to free themselves from his weak and tyrannical government,
without prejudice to his heirs, his son James IV. was, immediately after the
death of his father, proclaimed king, and was formally invested with that dig-
nity at Scone. However violent and unlawful were the proceedings which thus
prematurely elevated James to the throne, the nation soon felt a benefit from
the change which these proceedings effected, that could scarcely have been
looked for from an administration originating in rebellion and regicide. The
several parliaments which met after the accession of the young king, passed a
number of wise and salutary laws, encouraging trade, putting down turbulence
and faction, and enjoining the strict execution of justice throughout the
kingdom.

The prince and his nobles placed the most implicit confidence in each other,
and the people in both. This good understanding with the former, the king
encouraged and promoted, by inviting them to frequent tournaments and other
amusements, and warlike exercises, in accordance with his own chivalrous spirit,
and adapted to their rude tastes and habits. These tournaments were exceed-
ingly splendid, and were invested with all the romance of the brightest days of
chivalry. Ladies, lords, and knights, in the most gorgeous attire crowded
round the lists, or from draperied balconies, witnessed the combats that took
place within them. James himself always presided on these occasions, and often
exhibited his own prowess in the lists ; and there were few who could success-
fully compete with him with spear, sword, or battle axe. Stranger knights
from distant countries, attracted by the chivalric fame of the Scottish court, fre-
quently attended and took part in these tournaments, but, it is said, did not in
many instances prove themselves better men at their weapons than the Scottish
knights. One of the rules of these encounters was, that the victor should be put
in possession of his opponent's weapon ; but when this was a spear, a purse of
gold, a gift from the king, was attached to the point of it These trophies were
delivered to the conqueror by the monarch himself. The people were delighted
with these magnificent and warlike exhibitions, and with their generous and
chivalrous author. Nor were the actors themselves, the nobles, less gratified
with them, or less affected by the high and princely spirit whence they emanated.
They brought them into frequent and familiar contact with their sovereign, and
nothing more was necessary in the case of James to attach them warmly and de-
votedly to his person. His kind and affable manner accomplished the rest

JAMES IV, 207

By such means he was not only without a single enemy amongst the aristo-
cracy, but all of them would have shed the last drop of their blood in his
defence, and a day came when nearly all of them did so. In short, the wisest
policy could not have done more in uniting the affections of prince and peers,
than was accomplished by those warlike pastimes, aided as they were by the
amiable manners of the monarch.

Not satisfied with discharging his duty to his subjects, from his high place on
the throne, James frequently descended, and disguising his person — a practice
to which his successor was also much addicted — roamed through the country un-
armed and unattended, inquiring into his own reputation amongst the common
people, and endeavouring to learn what faults himself or his government were
charged with. On these occasions he lodged in the meanest hovels, and en-
couraged the inmates to speak their minds freely regarding their king; and
there is little doubt, that, as his conduct certainly merited it, so he must have
been frequently gratified by their replies. The young monarch, however, was
charged with stepping aside occasionally in his rambles from this laudable
though somewhat romantic pursuit, and paying visits to any of his fair acquain-
tances whose residence happened to be in his way; and it is alleged that he con-
trived they should very often be so situated.

Unfortunately for his courtiers, James conceived that he possessed, and not
improbably actually did possess considerable skill in surgery and medicine, but
there is reason to believe, that the royal surgeon's interference in cases of ail-
ment was oftener dreaded than desired, although Lindsay says, that " thair
was none of that profession (the medical) if they had any dangerous cure in
hand but would have craved his adwyse." Compliments, however, to a king's
excellence in any art or science are always suspicious, and this of Lindsay's is
not associated with any circumstances which should give it a claim to exemption
from such a feeling.

One of the greatest faults of the young monarch was a rashness and im-
petuosity of temper. This frequently led him into ill-timed and ill-judged hos-
tilities with the neighbouring kingdom, and, conjoined with a better quality,
his generosity, induced him to second the pretensions of the impostor Perkin
Warbeck to the crown of England. That adventurer arrived at James's court
(1496), attended by a numerous train of followers, all attired in magnificent
habits, and sought the assistance of the Scottish king to enable him to recover
what he represented as his birth-right. Prepossessed by the elegant man-
ner and noble bearing of the impostor, and readily believing the story of his
misfortunes, which was supported by plausible evidence, the generous monarch
at once received him to his arms, and not only entertained him for some time
at his court, but, much against the will of his nobles, mustered an army, and,
with Warbeck in his company, marched at the head of it into England,
to reinstate his protege in what he believed to be his right, at the point
of the sword, — a project much more indicative of a warm and generous heart,
than of a prudent head, The enterprise, as might have been expected, was un-
successful. James had counted on a rising in England in behalf of the pre-
tender, but being disappointed in this, he was compelled to abandon the attempt
and to return to Holyrood. The king of England did not retaliate on James
this invasion of his kingdom ; but he demanded from him the person of the im-
postor. With this request, however, the Scottish king was much too magnanimous
to comply ; and he not only refused to accede to it, but furnished Warbeck with
vessels and necessaries to carry him to Ireland, whither he now proceeded.
James is fully relieved from the charge of credulity which might appear to lie
against him for so readily confiding in Warbeck's representations, by the extreme

208 JAMES IV.

plausibility which was attached to them, and by the strongly corroborative cir-
cumstances by which they were attended. He is also as entirely relieved from
the imputation of conniving in the imposture — an accusation which has been
insinuated against him — by the circumstance of his having given a near relation
of his own, Catharine Gordon, a daughter of lord Huntly's, in marriage to the
impostor, which it cannot for a moment be believed he would have done had he
known the real character of Warbeck.

The species of roving life which the young monarch led, was now about
to be circumscribed, if not wholly terminated, by his entering into the married
state. This he avoided as long as he possibly could, and contrived to escape
from it till he had attained the thirtieth year of his age. Henry of England,
however, who had always been more desirous of James's friendship than his hos-
tility, and had long entertained views of securing the former by a matrimonial
connexion with his family, at length succeeded in procuring James's consent to
marry his daughter Margaret, an event which took place in 1503.

Whatever reluctance the monarch might have had to resign his liberty, he was
not wanting in gallantry to his fair partner when she came to claim it. He
first waited upon her at Newbattle, where he entertained her with his own per-
formance on the clarichords and lute, listened to specimens of her own skill in
the same art on bended knee, and altogether conducted himself like a true and
faithful knight. He also exhibited a care and elegance in his dress on this oc-
casion, sufficiently indicative of his desire to please. He was arrayed in a black
velvet jacket, bordered with crimson velvet, and furred with white ; and when
he afterwards conducted his bride from Dalkeith to Edinburgh, which he did,
strange to tell, seated on horseback behind him, he appeared in a jacket of
cloth of gold, bordered with purple velvet, furred with black, a doublet of violet
satin, scarlet hose, the collar of his shirt studded with precious stones and pearls,
with long gilt spurs projecting from the heels of his boots.

By the terms of the marriage contract, the young queen, who was only in
her fourteenth year when she was wedded to James, was to be conducted to
Scotland at the expense of her father, and to be delivered to her husband or to
persons appointed by him, at Lamberton kirk. The latter was to receive with
her a dowry of thirty thousand pieces of gold ; ten thousand to be paid at
Edinburgh eight days after the marriage, other ten thousand at Coldingham a
year afterwards, and the last ten thousand at the expiry of the year following.
The marriage was celebrated with the utmost splendour and pomp. Feastings,
tourneyings, and exhibitions of shows and plays, succeeded each other in one
continued and uninterrupted round for many days, James himself appearing in
the lists at the tournaments in the character of the " Savage Knight" But
there is no part of the details of the various entertainments got up on this oc-
casion that intimates so forcibly the barbarity of the times, as the information
that real encounters between a party of Highlanders and Borderers, in which the
combatants killed and mangled each other with their weapons, were exhibited
for the amusement of the spectators.

A more grateful and more lasting memorial of the happy event of James's
marriage than any of these, is to be found in Dunbar's beautiful allegorical
poem, the " Thistle and the Rose," composed on that occasion, and thus aptly
and emblematically entitled from the union being one between a Scottish king
and English princess. In this poem, Dunbar, who then resided at the court,
hints at the monarch's character of being a somewhat too general admirer of the
fair sex, by recommending him to reserve all his affections for his queen.
M Nor hauld no other flower in sic denty
, As the fresche rose, of cullor reid and white ;

JAMES IV. 209

For gif thou dois, hurt is thine honesty,
Ccnsiddering that no flower is so perfyt"

It is said to have been at the rude but magnificent court of this monarch, that
the character of a Scottish courtier first appeared ; this class, so numerous at
all the other courts of Europe, having been hitherto unknown in Scotland. These
raw courtiers, however, made rapid progress in all the acquirements necessary to
their profession, and began to cultivate all their winning ways, and to pay all
that attention to their exterior appearance, on which so much of the hopes of the
courtier rests. A finely and largely ruffled shirt, the especial boast and delight
of the ancient Scottish courtier, a fiat little bonnet, russet hose, perfumed
gloves, embroidered slippers that glittered in the sun or with candle light, a
handkerchief also perfumed and adorned with a golden tassel at each corner,
with garters knotted into a huge rose at the knee — were amongst the most re-
markable parts of the dress of the hangers-on at the court of James IV. In one
important particular, however, these gentlemen seemed to have wonderfully re-
sembled the courtier of the present day. " Na Kindness at Court without Sil-
ler," is the title of a poem by Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, who had
every opportunity of knowing personally what was the character of that of
his native sovereign.

One of the stipulations of the marriage treaty between the king and the
daughter of Henry the VII., having secured an inviolable peace between the two
monarchs and their subjects, the nation enjoyed for several years after that event
the most profound tranquillity. This leisure James employed in improving the
civil polity of his kingdom; in making efforts to introduce civilization, and an
obedience to the laws, into the Highlands and Isles, by establishing courts of jus«
tioe at Inverness, Dingwall, and various other places throughout these remote
districts ; in enlarging and improving his navy, and, in short, in doing every
thing that a wise prince could do to promote the prosperity of his kingdom. In
all these judicious proceedings, James was cordially supported by his parliament,
a department of the legislature in which he was perhaps more fortunate than
any of his predecessors had ever been, and certainly more than were any of his
immediate successors. The acts of the parliament of James are distinguished
by the most f?onsummate wisdom, and by a constant aiming at the improvement
and prosperity of the kingdom, whether by suppressing violence, establishing
rules for the dispensation of justice, or in encouraging commerce ; and they
are no less remarkable for a spirit of cordiality towards the sovereign, amount-
ing to a direct and personal affection, which breathes throughout the whole.
How much of this good feeling, and of this happy co-operation in good works,
depended upon the king, and how much upon the parliaments themselves, it
would not be easy to determine, but it is certain, that much of the merit which
attaches to it must be awarded to the sovereign.

This peaceful and prosperous state of the kingdom, however, after enduring
for upwards of nine years, at length drew to a close, and finally terminated in
one of the most disastrous events recorded in the pages of her history. Henry
VII. died, and was succeeded by Henry VIII. Besides the change which
this occurrence effected in the relationship between the sovereigns of England
and Scotland, the feelings and policy of the new monarch towards the latter
kingdom were totally dissimilar to those of his predecessor. He seems, indeed,
to have brought with him to the throne a feeling of hostility towards Scotland ;
and this feeling, the sensitive, warm tempered, and impetuous monarch, against
whom it was entertained, was not long in discovering. The consequence was,
that, after some slight mutual offences, which, under any other circumstances,
might have been easily atoned for war was proclaimed between the two king-

210 JAMES IT.

(loins, and both made the most formidable preparations for deciding their differ-
ences on the field of battle. James summoned the whole array of his kingdom;
including all the western isles and the most remote parts of the Highlands, to
assemble on the Burrow muir within twenty days, each, as was usual on such oc-
casions, to come provided with forty days' provisions. Though the impending
war was deprecated by James's council, and was by all considered imprudent,
yet such was his popularity, such the general affection for the high-spirited and
generous monarch, that no less than one hundred thousand men appeared in
arms at the place of muster; disapproving, indeed, of the object for which they
were brought together, • but determined to shed the last drop of their blood in
their sovereign's quarrel- — because it was his, and because he had determined on
bringing it to the issue of the sword. Deeply imbued with the superstition of
the period, James spent much of his time, immediately before setting out with his
army, in the performance of religious rites and observances. On one of these
occasions, and within a few days of his marching on his expedition, a circum-
stance occurred which the credulity of the times has represented as supernatural,
but in which it is not difficult to detect a design to work on the superstitious
fears of the king, to deter him from proceeding on his intended enterprise.
While at his devotions in the church of Linlithgow, a figure, clothed in a blue
gown secured by a linen girdle and wearing sandals, suddenly appeared in the
church, and calling loudly for the king, passed through the crowd of nobles, by
whom he was surrounded, and finally approached the desk at which his majesty
was seated at his devotions. Without making any sign of reverence or respect
for the royal presence, the mysterious visitor now stood full before the king,
and delivered a commission as if from the other world. He told hiin that his
expedition would terminate disastrously, advised him not to proceed with it, and
cautioned him against the indulgence of illicit amours. The king was about to
reply, but the spectre had disappeared, and no one could tell how. The figure
is represented as having been that of an elderly grave-looking man, with a bald
uncovered head, and straggling grey locks resting on his shoulders. There is
little doubt that it was a stratagem of the queen's, and that the lords who sur-
rounded the king's person were in the plot. Some other attempts of a similar
kind were made to alarm the monarch, and to deter him from his purpose, but
in vain. Neither superstition nor the ties of natural affection could dissuade
him from taking the field. Resisting all persuasion, and even the tears and en-
treaties of his queen, who, amongst the other arguments which her grief for the
probable fate of her husband suggested, urged that of the helpless state of theii
infant son ; the gallant but infatuated monarch took his place at the head of his
army, put the vast array in marching order, and proceeded on that expedition
from which he was never to return. The Scottish army having passed the
Tweed began hostilities by taking some petty forts and castles, and amongst the
latter that of Ford; here the monarch found a Mrs Heron, a lady of remarkable
beauty, and whose husband was at that time a prisoner in Scotland. Captivated
by this lady's attractions — while his natural son, the archbishop of St Andrews,
who accompanied him, acknowledged those of her daughter — James spent in her
society that time which he should have employed in active service with his army.
The consequence of this inconceivable folly was, that his soldiers, left unem-
ployed, and disheartened by a tedious delay, gradually withdrew from his camp
and returned to their homes, until his army was at length reduced to little more
than thirty thousand men. A sense of honour, however, still detained in his ranks
all the noblemen and gentlemen who had first joined them, and thus a dispro-
portionate number of the aristocracy remained to fall in the fatal field which
was soon afterwards fought. In the mean time the earl of Surrey, lieutenant

JAMES IV.

211

general of the northern counties of England, advanced towards the position oc-
cupied by James's forces, with an army of thirty-one thousand men.

On the 7th of September, 1513, the latter encamped at Woolerhaugh, within
five miles of Flodden hill, the ground on which the Scottish army was encamped.
On the day following they advanced to Ban more wood, distant about two miles
from the Scottish position, and on the 9th presented themselves in battle array
at the foot of Flodden hill. The Scottish nobles endeavoured to prevail upon
the king not to expose his person in the impending encounter, but he rejected
the proposal with disdain, saying, that to outlive so many of his brave country-
men would be more terrible to him than death itself. Finding they could not
dissuade him from his purpose of sharing in the dangers of the approaching
fight, they had recourse to an expedient to lessen the chances of a fatal result.
Selecting several persons who bore a resemblance to him in figure and stature,
they clothed them in a dress exactly similar to that worn by the monarch, and
dispersed them throughout the ranks of the army. The English army, when it
presented itself to the Scots, was drawn up in three large divisions ; Surrey
commanding that in the centre, Sir Edward Stanley and Sir Edmund Howard
those on the right and left, while a large body of cavalry, commanded by Dacre,
was posted in the rear. The array of the Scots was made to correspond to this
disposition, the king himself leading on in person the division opposed to that
commanded by Surrey, while the earls of Lennox, Argyle, Crawford, Montrose,
Huntly, and Home, jointly commanded those on his right and left. A body
of cavalry, corresponding to that of Dacre 's, under Both well, was posted imme-
diately behind the king's division. Having completed their dispositions, the
Scots, with their long spears levelled for the coming strife, descended from the
hill, and were soon closed with the enemy. The divisions commanded by
Huntly and Home, on the side of the Scots, and by Howard on the side of the
English, first met, but in a few minutes more all the opposing divisions came in
contact with each other, and the battle became general.

The gallant but imprudent monarch himself, with his sword in his hand, and
surrounded by a band of his no less gallant nobles, was seen fighting desperately
in the front of his men, and in the very midst of a host of English bill-men.
After various turns of fortune, the day finally terminated in favour of the
English, though not so decisively as to assure them of their success, for it was
not till the following day, that Surrey, by finding the field abandoned by the
Scots, ascertained that he had gained the battle. In this sanguinary conflict,
which lasted for three hours, having commenced at four o'clock in the afternoon
and continued till seven, there perished twelve earls, thirteen lords, five eldest
sons of peers, about fifty gentlemen of rank and family, several dignitaries of
the church, and about ten thousand common men. Amongst the churchmen
who fell, were the king's natural son, the archbishop of St Andrews, Hepburn,
bishop of the Isles, and the abbots of Kilwinning and Inchaft'ray. James him.
self fell amidst a heap of his slaughtered nobles, mortally wounded in the head
by an English bill, and pierced in the body with an arrow. It was long be-
lieved by the common people that the unfortunate monarch had escaped from
the field, and that he had gone on a pilgrimage to Palestine, where tradition
represented him to have ended his days in prayer and penitence for his sins,
and especially for that of his having borne arms against his father. This belief
was strengthened by a rumour that he had been seen between Kelso and Dunse
after the battle was fought That he actually fell at Flodden, however, has
been long since put beyond all doubt, and the fate of his body is singular. It
appears to have been carried to London, and to have been embalmed there, but
by whom or by whose orders is unknown. In the reign of Elizabeth, some

212

JAMES V.

sixty or seventy years afterwards, the shell in which the body was deposited,
and still containing it, was found in a garret amongst a quantity of lumber by a
slater while repairing the roof of a house. The body was still perfectly en-
tire, and emitted a pleasant fragrance from the strong aromas which had been
employed in its preservation. Looking on it as a great curiosity, though un-
aware whose remains it was, the slater chopped off the head, carried it home
with him, and kept it for several years. Such was the fate of the mortal part
of the noble-minded, the high-souled monarch, James IV. of Scotland. He was
in the forty-first year of his age, and the twenty-sixth of his reign, when he fell
on Flodden field.

At this distance of time, every thing relating to that celebrated, but calamitous

contest the most calamitous recorded in the pages of Scottish history — possesses

a deep and peculiar interest ; but of all the memorials which have reached us of
that fatal event, there is not one perhaps so striking and impressive as the pro-
clamation of the authorities of Edinburgh. The provost and magistrates were
in the ranks of the king's army, and had left the management of the town's af-
fairs in the hands of deputies. On the day after the battle was fought, a
rumour had reached the city that the Scottish army had met with a disaster,
and the following proclamation — the one alluded to — was in consequence is-
sued. The hopes, fears, and doubts which it expresses, now that all such feel-
ings regarding the event to which it refers have long since passed away, cannot
be contemplated without a feeling of deep and melancholy interest. " The 10th
day of September the year above written, (1513) we do zow to witt. Foras-
meikle as thair is ane grait rumour now laitlie rysin within this toun, touching
oure soverane lord and his army, of the quhilk we understand thair is cum in na
veritie as yet. Quhairfore we charge straitely, and commandis in oure said
soverane lord the kingis name, and the presidentis for the provost and bail-
lies within this burgh, that .all manner of personis, nychtbours within the samyn,
have riddye thair fensabill geir and wappenis for weir, and compeir thairwith
to the said presidents at jowing of the commoun bell, for the keiping and defense
of the toun aganis thame that wald invaid the samin. And als chairgis
that all wemen, and especiallie vagaboundis, that thai pass to thair labouris
and be nocht sene upoun the gait clamorand and cryand, under the pane of
banising of thair personis, but favouris, and that the uther women of gude re-
pute pass to the kirk and pray quhane tyme requiris for our soverane lord, and
his army and nychtbours being thairat, and hald thame at thair pre vie labouris
of the gait within thair housis as efteris."

James left behind him only one legitimate child, James V. His natural issue
were, Alexander, born eight months after his father's death, and who died in
the second year of his age ; Alexander, archbishop of St Andrews ; Catharine,
wedded to the earl of Morton ; James, earl of Murray ; Margaret, wedded to the
heir of Huntly ; and Jean, married to Malcolm, lord Fleming.

JAMES V. of Scotland, son of James IV., and of Margaret, eldest daughter
of Henry VII., king of England, was born at Linlithgow in the month of April,
1512. This prince, on the death of his father, was not more than a year and a
half old. The nation had, therefore, to look forward to a long minority, and
to dread all the evils which in these turbulent times were certain to attend a pro-
tracted regency.

Scarcely any event could have been more disastrous to Scotland, than the
premature death of James IV. The loss of the battle of Flodden, the immense
number of Scottish noblemen and gentlemen who fell in that fatal field, were
calamities of no ordinary magnitude ; but the death of James himself was more
fatal to the peace and prosperity of the kingdom than all. By the latter event,

JAMES V. 213

Scotland was thrown open to foreign influence and intrigue, and left to the
ferocious feuds of its own turbulent and warlike chieftains, who did not fail to
avail themselves of the opportunity which the death of the monarch afforded
them, of bringing their various private quarrels to the decision of the sword.
It might have been expected, that the overwhelming disaster of Flodden field,
which brought grief and mourning into almost every house of note in the land
by the loss of some member of its family, would have extinguished, for a time at
least, all personal animosities between them, and that a common sympathy would
have prevented the few that were left from drawing their swords upon each other ;
but it had no such effect. Sanguinary contests and atrocious murders daily
occurred throughout the whole country. They invaded each other's territories
with fire and sword, burned with indiscriminating vengeance the cottage as well
as the castle ; despoiled the lands of corn and cattle ; and retired only when
driven back by a superior force, or when there was nothing more left to destroy
or carry away. For us, who live in so totally different and so much happier times,
it is not easy to conceive the dreadful and extraordinary state of matters which
prevailed in Scotland during such periods as that of the minority of James V., when
there was no ruler in the land to curb the turbulence and ambition of its nobles.
In their migrations from one place to another, these proud chieftains were con-
stantly attended by large bodies of armed followers, whom they kept in regular
pay, besides supplying them with arms and armour. Thus troops of armed men,
their retainers being generally on horseback, were constantly traversing the coun-
try in all directions, headed by some stern chieftain clad in complete armour,
and bent on some lawless expedition of revenge or aggression ; but he came thus
prepared as well to the feast as to the fray, for he did not know how soon the
former might be converted into the latter. There existed always a mutual dis-
trust of each other, which kept them in a constant dread of treachery, and no
outward signs of friendship could throw them for a moment off their guard.
Thus they were compelled to have frequent recourse to stratagem to destroy an
enemy ; and numerous instances of the basest and most cowardly assassinations,
accomplished by such means, occur in the pages of Scottish history. The num-
ber of armed retainers by which the chieftain was attended, was proportioned to
his means. The Douglases are said to have seldom gone abroad with fewer than
fifteen hundred men at aims behind them ; and Robertson of Strowan, a chief
of no great note, in the year 1504, was attended by a band of no less than
eight hundred followers when he went to ravage the lands of Athol. The earl
of Angus on one occasion entered Edinburgh with five hundred men in his
train, all " weil accompanied and arrayed with jack and spear," for which they
found sufficient employment before they left the city. Angus had come to
Edinburgh with this formidable force to prevent the success of an attempt which
the earl of Arran, then also in the town, Mas at that instant making to deprive
the queen dowager of the regency. So soon as Arran got notice that Angus
was in the city, he ordered the gates to be shut to secure him, but unaware, that
he had also shut up with him five hundred well-armed followers. In the
morning some of Angus's friends waited upon him, and informed him of the
measures which Arran had taken for his apprehension, they also told him that
if he did not instantly appear on the open street where he might defend himself,
he would be taken prisoner.

Angus lost no time in buckling on his armour, and summoning his followers
around him. He then formed in battle array, immediately above the Nether-
bow, and after a fruitless attempt on the part of Gavin Douglas, archbishop of
St Andrews, to prevent bloodshed, the retainers of the two hostile noblemen
encountered each other ; and after a sanguinary conflict of long continuance,

214

JAMES V.

on the public street, in which great numbers were killed and wounded on both
sides, Arran's party gave way, and he himself with difficulty escaped through
the North Loch. This encounter was afterwards distinguished by the name of
Cleanse the Causey, from its having been fought upon the street or causey.
Such was the condition of Scotland during nearly the whole period of the minor-
ity of James ; and by merely substituting one noble name for another, and shift-
ing from time to time the scene of their endless squabbles and skirmishes, adding
an interminable and scarcely intelligible story of intrigues, duplicity, and decep-
tion, we have the history of the kingdom for the fifteen years immediately sue.
ceeding the battle of Flodden field. During this period, we occasionally find the
queen and her second husband, the earl of Angus, and sometimes the duke of
Albany, cousin of the late king, in possession of the nominal regency. At length
the young monarch comes upon the stage ; and it is not until that event occurs,
that the interest of the story is resumed. It then becomes a connected and
intelligible tale, and is at once relieved of the cumbrous and fatiguing narration
of occurrences, digressive, episodical, and parenthetical, with which it was pre-
viously disfigured and obscured.

In the mean time, the young monarch, unconscious of the storm that was
raging without, was pursuing his studies in the castle of Edinburgh, where he
had been placed for safety, under the tuition of Gavin Dunbar, 'lhe apartments
appropriated to the youthful sovereign in this ancient fortress, seem to have been
in but a very indifferent condition ; his master, Dunbar, though afterwards
refunded, having been obliged to repair, at his own cost, in the first instance,
the chamber in which the king received his lessons, one particular room having
been set apart for that purpose. Indeed, during the whole of Albany's regency,
the wants of the young monarch seem to have been very little attended to : even
his personal comfort was so much neglected, that it was with great difficulty he
could procure a new doublet or a new pair of hose ; and he at one time must have
gone without even them, but for the kindness of his natural sister, the countess
of Morton, who, from time to time, supplied him with articles of wearing apparel.
The treasurer, too, frequently refused to pay the tailor for the making of his
clothes, when the material instead of the dress happened to be sent him.
Though placed in the castle for security, this consideration does not seem to
have precluded the indulgence of going abroad occasionally. A mule was
kept for him, on which he rode 6ut during the intervals of his study, and when
the town and surrounding country were reckoned sufficiently quiet and peaceful
to admit of his doing bo with safety. The appearance, character, and temper
of the young monarch during his nonage, are spoken of in warm terms by his
contemporaries. In personal appearance he is said to have borne a strong
resemblance to his uncle Henry VIII. of England ; who, tyrant though he was",
had certainly a very noble and kingly presence. James's countenance was oval,
of a mild and sweet expression ; his eyes blue, and beaming at once with gen,
tleness and intelligence without effeminacy ; a head of yellow hair completes
the picture. He was of an exceedingly affectionate disposition, and of a gener-
ous though somewhat hasty temper. " There is not in the world," says the
queen his mother, in a letter to Surrey, " a wiser child, or a better-hearted, or
a more able." This is the language of a parent indeed ; but, when corroborated
as it is by other evidence, there is no occasion to suspect it of partiality. James
was about this time in the eleventh or twelfth year of his age. With his other
good qualities he discovered a shrewdness and sagacity superior to his years.
Surrey, speaking of him to Wolsey, says, " he speaks sure, for so young a
thing." The young monarch was much addicted to all manly sports and exer-
cises, and in all excelled. He rode gracefully, was passionately fond of the

JAMES V. 215

chase, and took much delight in hawks, hounds, and all the other appurtenances
belonging to that amusement. He also sang and danced well, and even in his
boyish years felt much of that " stern joy" which noble minds feel in possessing
and handling implements of war. He was delighted with arms and armour; and
could draw a sword a yard long before the hilt, when buckled to his side, as
well as a full grown man. His own weapon was of this length when he was
only twelve years of age. James was altogether at this period of his life a noble
and princely boy. His amusements were all of a manly character. His mind
was generous and elevated, his mein and carriage gallant and dignified. In
short, imagination cannot conceive a more striking image of a youthful monarch
in a rude and warlike age, than is presented to us in the person and character
of James the V. of Scotland. There is some reason, however, to believe, that
the royal colt was a little wild, and that he was fully as fond of tilting with the
spear, or making the forest of Ettrick ring with his bugle notes, as of studying
his humanities, for his Latinity was found to be sadly defective.

He seems to have kept Stirling castle, the place where he last resided before
assuming the reins of government, in something like an uproar while he lived
in it, with his sports and amusements. He was generally joined in these by his
domestics ; and as they were pretty numerous, we may readily conceive what a
noise and turmoil they would create, led on in their wild and obstreperous frolics
by their bold and lively young leader. Pelting each other with eggs is known to
have been a favourite pastime, and it is one certainly, which must have given
rise to many of the most ludicrous scenes. Although the estates of the kingdom
had fixed the eighteenth year of his age as that which should terminate the
minority of James, and put him in full and uncontrolled possession of the
sovereignty of the kingdom, he was called upon to take his seat on the throne
at a much earlier period of life.

The lords themselves, whose feuds and quarrels had filled the country with
slaughter and rapine, saw no other way of terminating the frightful scene but by
calling on the king, young as he was, to assume the royal dignity. The
ambition of his mother, who hoped to possess herself of the real power and
authority, also contributed to facilitate the event ; and, accordingly, the boy
king, for he was only twelve years of age, was brought, escorted by a numerous
train of nobles, from Stirling castle to Holyrood house. On first learning the
resolution which the lords had come to of investing him with the royal charac-
ter, he expressed much delight, and seemed filled with the most joyful antici-
pations. ** He was weill content," says Lindsay, " to leive correctioun at the
scooles, and pas to his lordis at libertie."

Amongst the first things which the young monarch did on arriving at Holy-
rood, was to change all the officers of the royal household, from the treasurer
down to the carvers. Three noblemen, the earl of Lennox, the lords Hamilton
and Angus, and archbishop Beatoun, were appointed as his guardians and ad-
visers. For a year after his arrival in Edinburgh and assumption of the royal
dignity, the king and his guardians lived happily, and Lindsay says, merrily
together ; but at the end of that period, a " benefice vaiket," a temptation came in
the way, and destroyed the harmony of the association ; each claimed it from the
king, and each thought he had a better right to it than his fellow. Angus
said, that he was always scarce of hay and horse corn when he came to Edin-
burgh, and that therefore it should be given to him. The vacant benefice was
attached to Holyrood house. Whether it was the force of this appeal, or the
superior influence of Angus over the royal mind that decided the point, is left
unexplained ; but that nobleman carried off" the prize, to the great disappoint-
ment and displeasure of the other three, who shortly after retired in disgust

216 JAMES V.

from the court. Lennox, who had got nothing at all, returned, in despair of
gaining any thing by the royal favour, to his own country; and Hamilton,
though he had procured the abbacy of Paisley for his son, thinking that he had
not got enough, followed his example. Beatoun, who lived then in a house of
his own in the Friar's AVynd, refrained afterwards from going near the couit,
but when expressly sent for.

Although James was now placed upon the throne, and surrounded with all
the insignia of royalty, he neither of himself assumed nor was permitted to as-
sume the functions of the royal state. He was much too young to be capable
of holding the reins of government, and there were those around him who were
not desirous that he should. Nor does it appear that the young monarch cared
much about the matter, so long as he was permitted to enjoy himself; and there
is no reason to believe that the defection of his grave guardians sank very deep
into his mind. As the king advanced in years, however, this indifference to the
power and authority of his elevated station gradually gave way to the natural
ambition of enjoying them ; and he at length determined to rid himself of the
thraldom under which he was kept by the earl of Angus, who had for several
years exercised the royal authority in his name. The house of Douglas, how-
ever, was too powerful, and their influence too extensive, to admit of his effect-
ing his emancipation by any open effort, he therefore determined to have recourse
to secret measures in the first instance.

The young king was now in the seventeenth year of his age, and when he
carried his design into execution, was residing at Falkland, a favourite hunting
place of the kings of Scotland. Here he was attended as usual by the earl of
Angus and several of his kindred, all of whom were united in the design of
keeping the king as it were to themselves. A Douglas was captain of his
guard ; a Douglas was treasurer ; and a Douglas was guardian and adviser.
Great numbers of that name, besides, filled subordinate situations in the royal
household, and the king's guard, consisting of a hundred gentlemen, were all in
the interest of the earl of Angus and his family. Thus encompassed, the young
monarch had no other resource than to endeavour to elude their vigilance. He
was under no personal restraint, nor was he debarred from any enjoyment or
amusement with which he chose to occupy himself. On the contrary, they all
led an exceedingly merry and joyous life together ; were almost daily out
hunting and hawking and feasting with the neighbouring noblemen and gentle-
men, and amongst the rest with the archbishop of St Andrews, who entertained the
king and his attendants with great " mirrines" for several days together ; but
it was necessary that a Douglas should always be present on these occasions.
Hunting, hawking, or feasting, still a Douglas must be there. An opportunity
such as the young monarch had long and anxiously looked for of escaping from
this annoying surveillance at length presented itself, and he availed himself of it
The earl of Angus left Falkland for a few days, to transact some private business
of his own in the Lothians, leaving the king in charge of his uncle, Archibald
Douglas, and his brother George. These two, however, availing themselves
probably of the earl's absence, also left the palace on different errands ; the
former, it is hinted, to visit a mistress in Dundee, and the latter to arrange
some business with the archbishop of St Andrews. There' was still, however, a
fourth left, whom it was necessary tho king should dispose of before he could
effect his escape ; this was James Douglas of Parkhead, the captain of the guard,
to whom the absentees in the last resort had confided the safe keepino of the
young monarch. In order to get rid of him, the king gave out that he intended
to go a-huntmg early on the following morning, and having sent for James
Douglas to hts bed-room, he called for liquor, and drinking to his guest, re-

JAMES V. 217

marked that he should see good hunting on the morrow. Douglas, little dream-
ing of the equivoque, saw the king safely to bed, and retired to his own by
the advice of his master, much earlier than usual, that he might be up betimes
in the morning, the king having ordered dejeune to be served at four o'clock.
It is not improbable that his majesty, moreover, had made him take an extra cup
before they parted. As soon as all was quiet in the palace, the king got up,
disguised himself by putting on the dress of one of his own grooms, and de-
scended to the stables, where " Jockie Hart," a yeoman of the stable, with
another trusty servant, also in the secret, were ready prepared with saddled
horses for the intended flight.

They all three instantly mounted, and escaping all notice from the wardens,
took the road for Stirling at full gallop. On reaching the castle, which he did
by break of day, the king ordered the gates to be shut, and that no one should
be permitted to enter without his special order. This done, he retired to bed,
much fatigued with his long and rapid ride. His escape from Falkland was not
discovered until the following morning. George Douglas had returned to the
palace at eleven o'clock at night, about an hour after the king's departure, but
having learned from the porters that his majesty was asleep in his own apart-
ment, he, without further inquiry, retired to bed ; and it was not until he was
roused at an early hour of the morning, by Patrick Carmichael, baillie of
Abernethy, who had recognized the king in his flight, and who came with all
manner of despatch to inform him of it, that he knew any thing at all about the
matter. He would not at first believe it, but rushed in great alarm to the king's
chamber, which he found locked, and it was only when he .had burst up the
door and found the apartment unoccupied, that he felt assured of the dreadful
truth. The king must have already acquired some little reputation for that gal-
lantry amongst the ladies which afterwards so much distinguished him, for on
this occasion he was at first suspected to have gone oft' on a nocturnal visit to a
lady at Bambrigh, some miles distant from Falkland.

Immediately after his arrival in Stirling, the king summoned a great number
of his lords to join him there, to assist him with their advice and counsel.
The summons was readily obeyed, both from personal attachment to the king,
and a jealousy and dislike of his late guardian the earl of Angus. In a few
days, James was surrounded with nearly a score of the noblest names in the
land, all ready to perish in his defence, and to assert and maintain his rights at
the point of the sword.

He seems to have resented highly the restraint in which he had been kept
by Angus and his kindred, for it was now, he said, addressing the assembled
lords, " I avow that Scotland shall not hold us both till I be revenged on him
and his." The earl of Angus and all his immediate friends were now put to
the horn, and the former deprived of all his public offices. It is therefore at
this period that the actual reign of James commences, and not before. He was
now freed from the influence of the Douglases, surrounded by his nobles, who
paid him a ready and willing homage, and was in every respect an independent
and absolute sovereign, capable and at liberty to judge and to act for himself.

James's appearance and character were as interesting as his situation at this
period of his life. He was now, as stated before, in the seventeenth year of his
age, of a robust constitution, which enabled him to encounter any bodily
fatigue. His speech and demeanour were mild and conciliating. His stature
was of middling height, but handsomely formed, and " the fient a pride, nae
pride had he." He spoke at all times aftably to the meanest of his subjects,
and would partake of the humblest repast of the humblest peasant in his
dominions, with a glee and satisfaction which evinced the most amiable kindness

218

JAMES V.

of disposition. These qualities rendered him exceedingly beloved by the com-
mon people, of whom he was always besides so steady and effective a friend, as
procured for him the enviable title of King of the Poor.

Amongst the first cares of James, after his becoming possessed of the actual
sovereignty of the kingdom, was to subdue the border tliieves and marauders,
who were carrying matters with a high hand, and had so extended their busi-
ness during the lawless period of his minority, and so systematized their pro-
ceedings, that Armstrong of Kilnockie — the celebrated Johnnie Armstrong of
the well-known old ballad — one of the most noted leaders of these predatory
bands, never travelled abroad, even on peaceful purposes, without a train of six
and twenty gentlemen well moHnted, well armed, and always handsomely dressed
in the gayest and most chivalrous garb of the times. As James, however, knew
that he would have little chance of laying hold of these desperadoes if he sought
them with openly hostile intentions, their predatory habits and intimate know-
ledge of the localities of the country rendering it easy for them to evade any
such attempt, he had recourse to stratagem. He gave out that he intended to
have a great hunting match on the borders, and really did combine both sport
and business in the expedition which followed. As was usual with the Scottish
kings on hunting occasions, he summoned all the noblemen and gentlemen in
the country, who could find it convenient, to attend him with their dogs on a
certain day at Edinburgh, and, what was not so customary, to bring each a month's
victuals along with him. Such a provision was always required when an army
of common men were called together, but not in the case of convocations of men
above that rank. The expedition in this case, however, was to be both warlike
and sportive ; and the former might prevent the latter from affording tliem a
sufficiency of game for their subsistence. The summons of the king for the bor-
der hunting was so willingly obeyed, that a host amounting to twelve thousand
assembled in Edinburgh against the appointed time; and amongst these,
some chieftains from very distant parts of the country, such as Huntly,
Argyle, and Athol, all of whom brought their large, fierce Highland deer dogs
along with them to assist in the chase. It was in the month of June, 1529,
that this prodigious host of sportsmen, headed by the king in person, set out to-
wards the borders. The greater part of them were well armed, and were thus
prepared for any thing that might occur. On all such occasions pavilions, tents,
bedding, &c for the accommodation of the sportsmen, were despatched some
days previous to the ground selected for the first day's amusement, and were
afterwards moved from place to place as the scene of action was shifted. The
king's pavilion was very splendid, and might readily be distinguished from all
others by ita superior richness and elegance. His dogs, too, were elevated
above all the dogs of meaner men, as well by their extrinsic ornaments as by
their intrinsic merits. Their collars were gilt, or were of purple velvet adorned
with golden studs, while the royal hawks were provided with collars and
bells of the same metal. The cavalcade having reached Meggotland, on the
southern border of Peebleshire, a favourite hunting place of James's, and which
was always reserved exclusively for the king's hunting—the sport began, and in
a few days no less than three hundred and sixty deer were slain. Soon after
this, Armstrong of Kilnockie, little dreaming of tl.e fate that awaited him, made
Ins appearance among the sportsmen, at a place called Caerlanrig, it is said by
invitation, but whether it was so or not he seems to have calculated on at least a
civil, ,f not a cordial reception from the king, being in total ignorance of the
real object of the king's visit to the borders. Armstrong was not altogether
unreasonable ,n such an expectation, for his robberies had always been confined
to England, and he was rather looked upon as a protector than otherwise by his

JAMES V. 219

own countrymen, none of whose property he was ever known to hare meddled
with. He always " quartered upon the enemy,'' and thought that by doing so
he did good service to (he state ; but not being consulted in the various treaties
of peace which occasionally took place between the sovereigns of the two king-
doms, he did not always feel himself called upon to recognize them, and accord-
ingly continued to levy his black-mail from the borders, all the way, it is said,
unto Newcastle. Though the king had made peace with England, Johnnie
Armstrong had not; and he therefore continued to carry on the war in defiance
of all those treaties and truces to which he was not a party. On this occasion
the daring borderer, expecting a gracious reception from the king, and desirous
of appearing before his sovereign in a manner becoming what he conceived to
be his own rank, presented himself and his retainers, all magnificently ap-
pareled, before his majesty. The king, who did not know him personally, at
first mistook him for some powerful nobleman, and returned his salute ; but on
learning his name, he instantly ordered him and all his followers to be taken
into custody and hanged upon the spot, " What wants that knave that a king
should have," exclaimed James, indignantly struck with the splendour of Arm-
strong's and his followers' equipments, and, at the same time, turning round
from them on his heel as he spoke. The freebooter at first pled hard for his
life, and endeavoured to bribe the king to spare him. He offered his own ser-
vices and that of forty men at any time, when the king should require it, free of
all expense to his majesty. He further offered to bring to him any subject of
England — duke, earl, lord, or baron, against any given day, either dead or
alive, whom his majesty might desire either to destroy or to have as a captive.
Finding that all he could say and all he could offer had no effect in moving the
king from his determination, the bold borderer, seeing the die -was cast, and
his fate sealed, instantly resumed the natural intrepidity of his character, —
" I am but a fool," he said, raising himself proudly up, " to look for grace in a
graceless face. But had 1 known, sir, that you would have taken my life this
day, I should have lived upon the borders in despite of both king Henry and
you ; and I know that the king of England would down-weigh my best horse
with gold to be assured that I was to die this day." No further colloquy took
place ; Armstrong and all his followers were led off* to instant execution. A
popular tradition of the borders, where his death was much regretted, says, that
the tree on which Armstrong was executed, though it continued to vegetate,
never again put forth leaves. After subjecting several other notorious offenders
to a similar fate, the king returned to Edinburgh on the 24th of July. In the
following summer, he set out upon a similar expedition to the north, with that
which he had conducted to the south, and for similar purposes — at once to en-
joy the pleasures of the chase and to bring to justice the numerous and daring
thieves and robbers with which the country was infested.

This practice of converting the amusement of hunting into a means of dis-
pensing justice throughout the kingdom, was one to which James had often re-
course, for on these occasions he took care always to be attended with an armed
force, sufficiently strong to enforce the laws against the most powerful infringer;
and he did not spare them when within his reach. For thieves and robbers he
had no compassion ; common doom awaited them all, whatever might be their
rank or pretensions. In this particular he was stern and inflexible to the last
deoree ; and the times required it. There was no part of his policy more bene-
ficial to the kingdom than the resolute, incessant, and relentless war which he
waged against all marauders and plunderers.

On the expedition which he now undertook to the north, he was accompanied
by the queen mother, and the papal ambassador, then at the Scottish court. The

220 JAMES V.

earl of Athol, to whose country the royal party proposed first proceeding, hav-
ing received intelligence of the visit which lie might expect, made the most
splendid preparation for their reception. On the arrival of the illustrious
visitors, they found a magnificent palace, constructed of boughs of trees, and
fitted with glass windows, standing in the midst of a smooth level park or
meadow. At each of the four corners of this curious structure, there was a
regularly formed tower or block-house ; and the whole was joisted and floored
to the height of three stories. A large gate between two towers, with a
formidable portcullis, all of green wood, defended the entrance ; while the
whole was surrounded with a ditch sixteen feet deep and thirty feet wide, filled
with water, and stocked with various kinds of fish, and crossed in front of the
palace by a commodious draw-bridge. The walls of all the apartments were hung
with the most splendid tapestry, and the floors so thickly strewn with flowers, that
no man would have known, says Lindsay, but he had been in " ane greine gar-
deine." The feasting which followed was in keeping with this elaborate and
costly preparation. Every delicacy which the season and the country could
supply was furnished in prodigious quantities to the royal retinue. The choicest
wines, fruits, and confections, were also placed before them with unsparing
liberality; and the vessels, linen, beds, &c, with which this fairy mansion was
supplied for the occasion, were all of the finest and most costly description.
The royal party remained here for three days, at an expense to their noble host
of as many thousand pounds. Of all the party there was not one so surprised,
and so much gratified with this unexpected display of magnificence and abun-
dance of good living, as his reverence the pope's ambassador. The holy man
was absolutely overwhelmed with astonishment and delight to find so many good
things in the heart of a wild, uncivilized, and barbarous country. But his aston-
ishment was greatly increased when, on the eve of their departure, he saw a
party of Highlanders busily employed in setting fire to that structure, within
which lie had fared so well and been so comfortably lodged, and which had cost
so much time, labour, and expense in its erection. " I marvel, sir," he said,
addressing the king, " that ye should suffer yon fair palace to be burned, that
your grace has been so well entertained in." " It is the custom of our High-
landmen," replied James, smiling, " that be they never so well lodged at night
they will burn the house in the morning." The king and his retinue now pro-
ceeded to Dunkeld, where they remained all night From thence they went
next day to Perth, afterwards to Dundee and St Andrews, in all of which places
they were sumptuously entertained — and finally returned to Edinburgh.

James, who had now passed his twentieth year, was in the very midst of that
singular career of frolic and adventure in which he delighted to indulge, and
which forms so conspicuous a feature in his character. Attended only by a
single friend or two, and his person disguised by the garb of a gentleman of
ordinary rank, and sometimes, if traditionary tales tell truth, by that of a person
of a much lower grade, he rode through the country in search of adventures, or
on visits to distant mistresses ; often on these occasions passing whole days and
nights on horseback, and putting up contentedly with the coarsest and scantiest
fare which chance might throw in the way. Sleeping in barns on "clean pease
strae," and partaking of the " gude wife's" sheep head, her oaten cakes, and
ale, or whatever else she might have to offer, was no uncommon occurrence in
the life of James. Such visits, however, were not always prompted by the most
innocent motives. A fair maiden would at any time induce the monarch to ride
a score of miles out of his way, and to pass half the night exposed to all its in-
clemency for an hour's interview.

James was no niggard in his gallantries : where money was required, he gave

JAMES V. 221

it freely and liberally ; where it was not, his munificence took the shape of
presents, — such as rings, chains, &c of gold and other descriptions of jewellery.
In one month he gave away in this way to the value of upwards of four hun-
dred pounds. The roving monarch, however, made even his vagrancies subser-
vient to his great object of extirpating thieves and robbers. During his wan-
derings he frequently fell in with numerous bands of them, or sought them out;
and on such occasions never hesitated to attack them, however formidable they
might be, and however few his own followers.

As the roving propensities of the king thus frequently put his life in
jeopardy, and as his dying without lawful issue would have left the country in
all probability a prey to civil war, the nation became extremely anxious for his
marriage, an event which, after many delays, arising from political objections to
the various connexions from time to time proposed, at length took place. The
Scottish ambassadors in France concluded, by James's authority, a marriage treaty
with Marie de Bourbon, daughter of the duke of Vendome. On the final set-
tlement of this treaty, the young monarch proceeded to Vendome, to claim in
person his affianced bride ; but here his usual gallantry failed him, for on
seeing the lady he rejected her, and annulled the treaty.

Whether it was the result of chance, or that James had determined not to re-
turn home without a wife, this occurrence did not doom him, for any length
of time, to a single life. From Vendome he proceeded to Paris, was
graciously received by Francis I., and finally, after a month or two's resi-
dence at that monarch's court, married his daughter 31agdalene. The ceremony,
which took place in the church of Notre Dame, was celebrated with great pomp
and splendour. The whole city rang with rejoicings, and the court with sounds
of revelry and merriment. The marriage was succeeded by four months of con-
tinued feasting, sporting, and merry making. At the end of that period James
and his young bride, who was of an exceedingly sweet and amiable disposition,
returned to Scotland ; the former loaded with costly presents from his father-in-
law, and the latter with a dowry of a hundred thousand crowns, besides an an-
nual pension of thirty thousand livres during her life.

The royal pair arrived at Leith on Whitsun-eve, at ten o'clock at night On
first touching Scottish ground, the pious and kind-hearted young queen dropped
on her knees, kissed the land of her adoption, and after thanking God for the
safe arrival of her husband and herself, prayed for happiness to the country and
the people. The rejoicings which the royal pair had left in France were now
resumed in Scotland. Magdalene was every where received by the people with
the strongest proofs of welcome and regard, and this as much from her own gen-
tle and affable demeanour as from her being the consort of their sovereign.

Never queen made such rapid progress in the affections of a nation, and few
ever acquired during any period so large a proportion of personal attachment
as did this amiable lady. The object, however, of all this love, was not destined
long to enjoy it. She was in a bad state of health at the time of her marriage,
and all the happiness which that event brought along with it could not retard
the progress of the disease which was consuming her. She daily became worse
after her arrival in Scotland, and finally expired within forty days of her land-
ing. James was for a long time inconsolable for her loss, and for a time buried
himself in retirement, to indulge in the sorrow which he could not restrain.

Policy required, however, that the place of the departed queen should, as
soon as propriety would admit, be supplied by another ; and James fixed upon
Mary of Guise, daughter of the duke of that name, and widow of the duke of
Longueville, to be the successor of Magdalene. An embassy having been des-
patched to Fiance to settle preliminaries, and to bring the queen consort to

222 JAMES V.

Scotland, she arrived in the latter kingdom in June, 1538. Mary landed at
Balcomie in Fife, where she was received by the king, surrounded by a great
number of his nobles. From thence the royal party proceeded to Dundee, St
Andrews, then to Stirling ; from that to Linlithgow ; and lastly to Edinburgh.
In all of these places the royal pair were received with every demonstration of
popular joy, and were sumptuously entertained by the magistrates and other au-
thorities of the different towns. James, by a long and steady perseverance in
the administration of justice, without regard to the wealth or rank of the cul-
prits, and by the wholesome restraint under which he held the turbulent nobles,
had now secured a degree of peace and prosperity to the country which it had
not enjoyed for many years before. His power was acknowledged and felt in
the most remote parts of the Lowlands of Scotland, and even a great part of the
Highlands. But the western isles, and the most northern extremity of the
kingdom, places then difficult of access, and comparatively but little known,
were still made the scenes of the most lawless and atrocious deeds by the fierce
and restless chieftains, and their clans, by whom they were inhabited. James,
however, resolved to carry and establish his authority even there. He resolved
to " beard the lion in his den ;" to bring these desperadoes to justice in the
midst of their barbarous hordes ; and this bold design he determined to execute
in person. He ordered twelve ships, well provided with artillery, to be ready
against the fourteenth day of May. The personal preparations of the king,
and those made for his accommodation in the ship in which he was himself to
embark on this expedition, were extensive and multifarious. His cabin was
hung with green cloth, and his bed with black damask. Large quantities of
silver plate, and culinary utensils, with stores for cooking, were put on board ;
and also a vast number of tents and pavilions, for the accommodation of his
suite, when they should land in the isles. The monarch himself was equipped
in a suit of red velvet, ornamented with gold embroidery, and the ship in
which be sailed was adorned with splendid Hags, and numerous streamers of red
and yellow serge.

The expedition, which had been delayed for fourteen days beyond the time
appointed, by the advanced state of the queen's pregnancy, finally set sail for its
various destinations in the beginning of June.

The royal squadron, on reaching the western shores, proceeded deliberately
from island to island, and from point to point of the mainland, the king
landing on each, and summoning the various chieftains to his presence. Some
of these he executed on the spot, others he carried away with him as hostages
for the future peaceful conduct of their kinsmen and followers ; and thus, after
making the terror of his name and the sternness of his justice felt in every glen
in the Highlands, he bent his way again homewards. James himself landed at
Dumbarton, but the greater part of his ships, including those on board of which
were the captured chieftains, were sent round to Leith.

Having now reduced the whole country to such a state of tranquillity,
and so effectually accomplished the security of private property every where,
that it is boasted, that, at this period of his reign, flocks of sheep were as safe in
Ettrick forest as in the province of Fife, he betook himself to the improvement of
his kingdom by peaceful pursuits. He imported superior breeds of horses to
improve the native race of that animal. He promoted the fisheries, and invited
artisans and mechanics of all descriptions to settle in the country, encouraging
them by the offer of liberal wages, and, in many cases, by bestowing small an-
nual pensions. With every promise of a long and happy reign, and in the
midst of exertions which entitled him to expect the latter, the cup was suddenly
dashed from his lips. Misfortune on misfortune crowded on the ill-starred

JAMES VI.

223

monarch, and hurried him to a premature grave. Two princes who were born
to him by Mary of Guise, died in their infancy within a few days of each other,
a calamity which sank deep in the heart of their royal parent. His uncle, the
king of England, with whom he had hitherto been on a friendly footing, foi
reasons now not very well known, invaded his dominions with an army of
twenty thousand men, under the command of the duke of Norfolk. James gave
orders to assemble an army of thirty thousand men on the Burrow muir, and with
this force he inarched to oppose them. The hostile armies met at Solway moss,
but