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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 with little disposition on the part of the leaders of the Scottish army to
maintain the credit of their sovereign by their arms. James had never been
friendly to the aristocracy, and they now retaliated upon him by a lukewarm-
ness in his cause in the hour of need. The unfortunate monarch himself in-
creased this spirit of defection at tin's critical juncture by appointing Oliver Sin-
clair a mean favourite, and a man of no ability, to the command of his army.
The intelligence of this appointment excited the utmost indignation in the Scot-
tish army. All declared that they would rather submit to be taken prisoners by
the English than be commanded by such a general ; and the whole army was
thrown into such a state of commotion by this infatuated proceeding of their
sovereign, that the English general perceived the disorder, and taking advan-
tage of it, attacked the Scottish army with a few hundred light horse. The for-
mer making no resistance were instantly put to flight. James was at Carlave-
rock, about twelve miles distant, when this disaster took place. When in-
formed of the disgraceful flight of his army, he sank into a state of dejection
and melancholy from which nothing could rouse him. His proud spirit could
not brook the disgrace which had befallen his arms, and the conduct of his
nobles excited a degree of irritation which soon threw him into a violent fever.
In this state of despondency he retired to Falkland. Here he took to bed and
refused all sustenance. While in this condition intelligence was brought him
that the queen, then at Linlithgow, was delivered of a girl. " It came with a
lass and it will go with a lass," said the dying monarch, reckoning it another
misfortune, that it was not a male heir that had been given to him.

A little before his death, which was now fast approaching, he was heard mut-
tering the words " Solway moss," the scene of that disaster which was now hur-
rying him to the grave. On the day of his death, which happened previous to
the 13th of December, 1542, but within two or three days of it, although the
precise day is not known, he turned round to the lords who surrounded his bed,
and with a faint but benignant smile, held out his hand to them to kiss, and in
a few minutes thereafter expired. James died in the 31st year of his age,
leaving the unfortunate Mary, then an infant, to succeed to his dignities and to
more than his misfortunes. Besides Mary, his only surviving legitimate child,
James left six natural children. These were — James, abbot of Kelso and Mel-
rose ; the regent Murray ; Robert, prior of Holyroodhouse ; John, prior of
Coldingham ; Janet, wife of the earl of Angus ; and Adam, prior of the Char-
treux at Perth.

JAMES VI. of Scotland, and I. of England, was born in the castle of Edin.
burgh, June 19, 1566. He was the son of the reigning sovereign Mary, by her
husband, Henry, lord Darnley, who was nominally associated with her in the
government, and was the eldest son of the existing earl of Lennox. Both by
his father and mother, James was the great-grandson of Henry VII. of England,
and, failing queen Elizabeth and his own mother, stood nearest to the throne of
that kingdom, at the same time that he was heir-apparent to the Scottish crown.
The character of his parents and their previous history are so well known, that
it is unnecessary to touch upon them here. It may only be mentioned, that

224 JAMES VL

while the royal infant brought with him into the world pretensions the most
brilliant that could have befallen a mortal creature, he also carried in his con-
stitution a weakness of the most lamentable nature, affecting both his body and
his mind. About three months before his birth, his father headed a band of
conspirators, who broke violently into the privacy of his mother's chamber, and
in her presence slew her favourite counsellor, David Riccio. The agitation of
the mother on that occasion, took effect upon the child, who, though intended
apparently to be alike strong in mental and bodily constitution, showed through
life many deficiencies in both respects, though, perhaps, to a less extent than has
been represented by popular history.

It is well known that a confederation of the Scottish nobles dethroned Mary
about a year after the birth of her son. While this ill-fated princess was con-
demned to imprisonment in Lochleven castle, her son was taken to Stirling, and
there crowned at the age of thirteen months and ten days. The real govern-
ment was successively administered by the regents Moray, Lennox, Mar, and
Morton, under the secret direction of the English queen, by whom, in time,
her rival Mary was put to death. James, after a weakly infancy, was placed
under the care of the celebrated Buchanan, whose religious principles and dis-
tinguished scholarship seemed to qualify him peculiarly for the task of educating
a protestant prince. It would appear that the young king received at the hands
of his master a great deal more learning-, classical and theological, than he was
able to digest, and thus became liable to as much of the fault of pedantry, as
consists in a hoarding of literature for its own sake, or for purposes of
ostentation, accompanied by an inability to turn it to its only true use in the
ordinary purposes of life. A pliability of temper, subject alike to evil and to
good influences ; a sly acuteness in penetrating the motives of men, without the
power to make it of any practical advantage ; and a proneness to listen to the
flattering counsellors who told him he was a king, and ought to have the power
of one, were other characteristics of this juvenile monarch ; whose situation, it
must at the same time be acknowledged, was one of such difficulty, as to render
a fair development of the best faculties of the mind, and the best tendencies of
the heart, hardly to be expected.

Though made and upheld as a king, in consequence of a successful rebellion
against the monarchical principle, James was early inspired with a high sense
of his royal powers and privileges, probably by some of those individuals who
are never wanting around the persons of young princes, let their education
be ever so carefully conducted. Even before attaining the age of twelve, he
had become the centre of a little knot of courtiers, who clustered about him at his
residence in Stirling castle, and plotted schemes for transferring the reins of
government into his own hands. Morton permitted himself to be surprised in
1578 by this party, who for some time conducted the affairs of state in the
name of the king, as if he had been in full possession of his birth-right.
Morton, however, soon after regained nearly all his wonted ascendancy, and it
was not till two or three years later that the king became completely emanci-
pated from this powerful agent of the English queen. A young scion of nobility,
named captain Stuart, from his commanding the king's guards, and Esme, earl of
Lennox, the king's cousin, were his chief instruments in obtaining the sovereign
power, and in raising that prosecution against Morton, which ended in his exe-
cution, June 2, 1581. The former is represented as a profligate adventurer,
who studied only how, by flattering the king and enforcing his despotic views, to
promote his own interest Lennox was a gentler and worthier person, but was
obnoxious to popular odium, on account of his professing the catholic faith.
The protestant and English interest soon rallied, and, in August, 1532, took

JAMES VL 225

place the celebrated Raid of Ruthven, by which a few presbyterian nobler,
headed by the earl of Gowrie, were enabled to take possession of the royal
person, and use his authority for some time in behalf of liberal government and
their own religious principles, while Stuart and Lennox were forbidden his
presence.

It was not till June, 1583, that James emancipated himself from a control
which, however well he appeared to bear it, was far from agreeable to him.
Lennox had now been banished to France, where he died of a broken heart ;
Stuart was created earl of Arran on the ruins of the Hamilton family, and
became almost sole counsellor to the young monarch. The nobles who had seized
the king at Ruthven, were pardoned ; but Gowrie, having soon after made a
second and unsuccessful attempt, was beheaded at Stirling. During the interval
between June, 1583, and November, 1585, the government was of a decidedly
anti-popular and anti-presbyterian character, — Arran being permitted to act
entirely as he pleased. The presbyterian nobles, however, who had fled into
England, were, at the latter period, enabled by Elizabeth to invade their own
country, with such a force as overturned the power of the unworthy favourite,
and re-established a system agreeable to the clergy and people, and more
closely respondent to the wishes of Elizabeth. In this way James grew up to
man's estate.

In 1584, when eighteen years of age, he made his first appearance as an
author, by publishing a small thin quarto, entitled " Essayes of a Prentice in
the Divine Art of Poesie, with the Rewlis and Cauteles to be pursued and
avoided." This work consists of a mixture of poetry and prose ; the poems
being chiefly a series of sonnets, which bear very much the appearance of school
exercises ; while the prose consists of a code of laws for the construction of verse
according to the ideas of that age. There is little in the king's style or his
ideas to please the present age ; yet, compared with the efforts of contemporary
authors, these poems may be said to bear a respectable appearance.

The main effect of the late revolution was to re-establish the English influ-
ence, which had been deranged by the ascendancy of captain Stuart. In June,
1586, James entered into an arrangement Avith Elizabeth, by which, in con-
sideration of a pension of five thousand pounds, rendered necessary by his penu-
rious circumstances, he engaged to support England against the machinations of
the catholic powers of Europe. It was also part of this treaty, that a correspondence
which he had entered into with his mother, should be broken oft'; and he even
submitted so far to the desires of his new superior, as to write a disrespectful
letter to that unhappy princess, who replied in an eloquent epistle, threatening
to denounce him as a usurper, and load him with a parent's curse. James, in
reality, during the whole of his occupancy of the Scottish throne, was a mere tool
in the hands of one party or another ; and had no personal influence or indepen-
dence whatever till the advanced age of Elizabeth gave him near hopes of the
English crown. Great care is therefore to be taken in judging of his actions,
lest that be attributed to his own vicious will, which was only the dictate of a poli-
tical system, of which he was the apparent head, but the real slave. In the winter
of 1586-7, he had to endure the painful reflection, that his mother was threat-
ened with, and ultimately brought to the scaffold, without his being able to
make the least movement in her favour. It is but justice to him to say, that so
far from his manifesting the levity on this subject attributed to him by several
writers, he appears from documents of respectable authority,1 to have manifested
the highest indignation, and a degree of grief hardly to be expected from him,

1 See the Life of James I., forming two volumes of Constable's Miscellany, by the editor
of the present work.

226

JAMES VI.

considering that he was not conscious of having ever seen his parent Mary,
in her last prayer in the hall of Fotheringay, while stretched before the block,
entreated the favour of God towards her son ; whi' h shows that she had not
ultimately found proper cause for putting her threat into execution.

In 1588, while the shores of England were threatened with the Spanish
armada, James fulfilled, as far as he could, the treaty into which he had entered
with Elizabeth, by using his best exertions to suppress the movements of a power-
ful catholic party among his own subjects, in support of the invasion. In re-
turn for this, Elizabeth permitted him to take a wife; and his choice ultimately
fell upon the princess Anne of Denmark, second daughter of the deceased Fre-
derick the second. He was married by proxy in August, 1 589 ; but the princess
having been delayed in Norway by a storm, which threatened to detain her for
the winter, he gallantly crossed the seas to Upslo, in order to consummate the
match. After spending some months at the Danish court, he returned to Scot-
land in May, 1590; when the reception vouchsafed to the royal pair was fully
such as to justify an expression used by James in one of his letters, that " a king
with a new married wyfe did not come hame every day."

The king had an illegitimate cousin, Francis, earl of Both well, who now for
some years embittered his life by a series of plots and assaults for which there is
no parallel even in Scottish history. Bothwell had been spared by the king's
goodness in 1589, from the result of a sentence for treason, passed on account
of his concern in a catholic conspiracy. Soon after James returned from Den-
mark, it was discovered that he had tampered with professing witches to take
away the king's life by necromancy. He at first proposed to stand a trial for
this alleged offence, but subsequently found it necessary to make his escape.
His former sentence was then permitted to take effect, and he became, in the
language of the times, a broken man. Repeatedly, however, did this bold .id-
venturer approach the walls of Edinburgh, and even assail the king in his
palace ; nor eould the limited powers of the sovereign either accomplish his
seizure, or frighten him out of the kingdom. He even contrived at one time to
regain his place in the king's council, and remained for several months in the
enjoyment of all his former honours, till once more expelled by a party of his
enemies. The king appears to have purposely been kept in a state of power-
lessness by his subjects; even the strength necessary to execute the law upon the
paltriest occasions was denied to him ; and his clergy took every opportunity of
decrying his government, and diminishing the respect of his people, — lest, in
becoming stronger or more generally reverenced, he should have used his in-
creased force against the liberal interest, and the presbyterian religion. If he
could have been depended upon as a thorough adherent of these abstractions,
there can be no doubt that his Scottish reign would have been less disgraced by
the non-execution of the laws. But then, was his first position under the re-
gents and the protestant nobles of a kind calculated to attach him sincerely to
that party? or can it be decidedly affirmed that the zeal of the clergy of those
rough and difficult times, was sufficiently tempered with human kindness, to
make a young prince prefer their peculiar system to one which addressed him
in a more courteous manner, and was more favourable to that regal power, the
feebleness of which had hitherto seemed the cause of all his distresses and all his
humiliation ?

In 1585, while under the control of Arran, he had written a paraphrase and
commentary on the Revelation of St John, which, however, was not completed
or published for some years after. In 1591, he produced a second volume of
verse, entiiled " Poetical Exercises ;" in the preface to which he informs the
reader, as an apology for inaccuracies, that " scarcelie but at stolen moments had

JAMES VI. 227

he leisure to blenk upon any paper, and yet nocht that with free unvexed
spirit.*' He also appear to have at this time proceeded some length with his
translation of the Psalms into Scottish verse. It is curious that, while the king
manifested, in his literary studies, both the pure sensibilities of the poet and the
devout aspirations of the saint, his personal manners were coarse, his amuse-
ments of no refined character, and his speech rendered odious by common
swearing.

It is hardly our duty to enter into a minute detail of the oscillations of the
Scottish church, during this reign, between presbytery and episcopacy. In pro-
portion as the king was weak, the former system prevailed; and in proportion
as he gained strength from the prospect of the English succession, and other
causes, the episcopal polity was re- imposed. We are also disposed to overlook
the troubles of the catholic nobles — Huntly, Errol, and Angus, who, for some
obscure plot in concert with Spain, were persecuted to as great an extent as the
personal favour of the king, and his fear of displeasing the English papists,
would permit. The leniency shown by the king to these grandees procured him
the wrath of the church, and led to the celebrated tumult of the 17th of De-
cember, 1596, in Avhich the clergy permitted themselves to make so unguarded
an appearance, as to furnish their sovereign with the means of checking their
power, without offending the people.

In February, 1594, a son, afterwards the celebrated prince Henry, Avas
born to the king at Stirling castle ; this was followed some years after by the
birth of a daughter, Elizabeth, whose fate, as the queen of Bohemia, and ances-
tress of the present royal family of Britain, gives rise to so many varied reflec-
tions. James wrote a treatise of counsel for his son, under the title of ** Basili-
con Doron," which, though containing some passages offensive to the clergy, is a
work of much good sense, and conveys, upon the whole, a respectable impression
at once of the author's abilities, and of his moral temperament. It was pub-
lished in 1599, and is said to have gained him a great accession of esteem
among the English, for whose favour, of course, he was anxiously solicitous.

Few incidents of note occurred in the latter part of the king's Scottish reign.
The principal was the famous conspiracy of the earl of Gowrie and his
brother, sons of the earl beheaded in 1584, which was developed — if we
may speak of it in such a manner — on the 5lh of August, 1600. This affair
has of late been considerably elucidated by Robert Pitcairn, Esq., in his la-
borious work, the " Criminal Trials of Scotland," though it is still left in some
measure as a question open to dispute. The events, so far as ascertained, were
as follows.

Early on the morning of the 5th of August, 1600, Alexander, Master of
Ruthven, with only two followers, Andrew Henderson and Andrew Ruthven,
rode from Perth to Falkland, where king James was at that time residing. He
arrived there about seven o'clock, and stopping at a house in the vicinity of the
palace, sent Henderson forward to learn the motions of the king. His mes-
senger returned quickly with the intelligence, that his majesty was just depart-
ing for the chase. Ruthven proceeded immediately to the palace, where he met
James in front of the stables. They spoke together for about a quarter of an
hour. None of the attendants overheard the discourse, but it was evident from
the king's laying his hand on the master's shoulder, and clapping his back, that
the matter of it pleased him. The hunt rode on, and Ruthven joined the train;
first, however, despatching Henderson to inform his brother that his majesty was
coming to Perth with a few attendants, and to desire him to cause dinner to be
prepared. A buck was slain about ten o'clock, when the king desired the duke
of Lennox and the earl of Mar to accompany him to Perth, to speak with the

223 JAMES VL

earl of Gowrie. The master of Ruthven now despatched his other attendant to
give the earl notice of the king's approach ; and immediately afterwards James
and he set off at a rate that threw behind the royal attendants, who lost some
time in changing horses. When the duke of Lennox oveitook them, the king,
with great glee, told him that he was riding to Perth to get a pose (treasure).
He then asked the duke's opinion of Alexander Ruthven, which proving favour-
able, he proceeded to repeat the story which that young man had told him,
of his having the previous evening surprised a man witli a large sum of money
on his person. The duke expressed his opinion of the improbability of the tale,
and some suspicion of Ruthven's purpose ; upon which the king desired him to
follow when he and Ruthven should leave the hall — an order which he repeated
after his arrival in the earl of Gowrie's house.

Meantime, Henderson, on his arrival at Perth, found the elder Ruthven in
his chamber, speaking upon business with two gentlemen. Gowrie drew him
aside the moment he entered, and asked whether he brought any letter or mes-
sage from his brother. On learning that the king was coming, he took the
messenger into his cabinet, and inquired anxiously in what manner the master
had been received, and what persons were in attendance upon his majesty.
Returning to the chamber, he made an apology to the two gentlemen, and dis-
missed them. Henderson then went to his own house. When he returned, in
about an hour, the earl desired him to arm himself, as he had to apprehend a
Highlander in the Shoe-gate. The master of the household being unwell, the
duty of carrying up the earl's dinner devolved upon Henderson. He performed
this service about half past twelve ; and afterwards waited upon the earl and
some friends who wei*e dining with him. They had just sat down when
Andrew Ruthven entered, and whispered something in the earl's ear, who, how-
ever, seemed to give no heed. As the second course was about to be set upon
the table, the master of Ruthven, who had left the king about a mile from Perth,
and rode on before, entered and announced his majesty's approach. This was
the first intelligence given the inhabitants of Gowrie house of the king's visit,
for Gowrie had kept not only his coming, but also the master's visit to Falk-
land, a profound secret. The earl and his visitors, with their attendants, and
some of the citizens among whom the news had spread, went out to meet the
king.

The street in which Gowrie house formerly stood runs north and south, and
parallel to the Tay. The house was on the side next the river, built so as to
form three sides of a square, the fourth side, that which abutted on the street,
being formed by a wall, through which the entry into the interior court, or
close, was by a gate. The scene of the subsequent events was the south side o»
the square. The interior of this part of the edifice contained, in the first story,
a dining-room, looking out upon the river, a hall in the centre, and a room at
the further end looking out upon the street, each of them occupying the whole
breadth of the building, and opening into each other. The second story con-
sisted of a gallery occupying the space of the dining-room and hall below, and
at the street end of this gallery, a chamber, in the north-west corner of uhich
was a circular closet, formed by a turret which overhung the outer wall, in which
were two long narrow windows, the one looking towards the spy-tower, (a strong
tower built over one of the city-gates,) the other looking out upon the court, but
visible from the street before the gate. The access to the hall and gallery was
by a large turnpike stair in the south-east corner of the court. The hall like-
wise communicated with the garden, which lay between the house and the river,
by a door opposite to that which opened from the turnpike, and an outward
flair. The access to the chamber in which was the round closet, was either

JAMES VL

229

through the gallery, or by means of a smaller turnpike (called the black turn-
pike) which stood half-way betwixt the principal one and the street

The unexpected arrival of the king caused a considerable commotion in
Cowrie's establishment. Craigingelt, the master of the household, was obliged
to leave his sick bed, and bestir himself. Messengers were despatched through
Perth to seek, not for meat, for of that there seems to have been plenty, but for
some delicacy fit to be set upon the royal table. The baillies and other digni-
taries of Perth, as also some noblemen who were resident in the town, came
pouring in, — some to pay their respects to his majesty, others to stare at the
courtiers. Amid all this confusion, somewhat more than an hour elapsed before
the repast was ready. To judge by the king's narrative, and the eloquent ora-
tions of Mr Patrick Galloway, this neglect on the part of the earl seems to have
been regarded as not the least criminal part of his conduct : and with justice ;
for his royal highness had been riding hard since seven o'clock, and it was past
two before he could get a morsel, which, when it did come, bore evident marks
of being hastily prepared.

As soon as the king was set down to dinner, the earl sent for Andrew Hen-
derson, whom he conducted up to the gallery, where the master was waiting for
them. After some short conversation, during which Gowrie told Henderson to
do any thing his brother bade him, the younger Ruthven locked this attendant
into the little round closet within the gallery chamber, and left him there.
Henderson began now, according to his own account, to suspect that something
wrong was in agitation, and set himself to pray, in great perturbation of mind.
Meanwhile, the earl of Gowrie returned to tike his place behind the chair or
his royal guest. When the king had dined, and Lennox, Mar, and the other
noblemen in waiting, had retired from the dining-room to the hall to dine in
their turn, Alexander Ruthven came and whispered to the king, to find some
means of getting rid of his brother the earl, from whom he had all along pre-
tended great anxiety to keep the story of the found treasure a secret. The
king filled a bumper, and, drinking it off*, desired Gowrie to carry his pledge
to the noblemen in the hall. While they were busy returning the health, the
king and the master passed quietly through the hall, and ascended the great
stair which led to the gallery. They did not, however, pass altogether unob-
served, and some of the royal train made an attempt to follow them, but were re-
pelled by Ruthven, who alleged the king's wish to be alone. From the gallery
they passed into the chamber at the end of it, and the door of this room
Ruthven appears to have locked behind him.

When the noblemen had dined, they inquired after their master, but were
informed by Gowrie that he had retired, and wished to be private. The earl
immediately called for the keys of the garden, whither he was followed by Len-
nox and part of the royal train ; whilst Mar, with the rest, remained in the
house. John Ramsay, a favourite page of the king, says in his deposition, that,
on rising from table, he had agreed to take charge of a hawk for one of the
servants, in order to allow the man to go to dinner. He seems, while thus
engaged, to have missed Cowrie's explanation of the king's absence, for he
sought his majesty in the dining-room, in the garden, and afterwards in the
gallery. He had never before seen this gallery, which is said — we know not
upon what authority — to have been richly adorned with paintings by the earl's
father, and he staid some time admiring it. On coming down stairs, he found
the whole of the king's attendants hurrying towards the outer gate, and was told
by Thomas Cranstone, one of the earl's servants, that the king had rode on
before. Ramsay, on hearing this, ran to the stable where his horse was. Len-
nox and Mar, who had also heard the report of the king's departure, asked the

230

JAMES VI.

porter, as they were passing the gate, whether the king were indeed forth. The
man replied in the negative. Gowrie checked him with considerable harshness,
and affirmed that the king had passed out by the back gate. " That is impos-
sible, my lord," answered the porter, " for it is locked, and the key is in my
pocket." Gowrie, somewhat confused, said he would return and learn the truth
of the matter. He came back almost instantly, affirming positively that the king
had ridden out by the back gate. The greater part of the company were now
assembled on the High Street, in front of the house, waiting for their horses,
and discussing how they were to seek the king. At this moment, the lung's
voice was heard, crying — '* I am murdered! Treason! My lord of Mar, help!
help ! " Lennox and Mar, with their attendants, rushed through the gateway
into the court, and up the principal stair. Sir Thomas Erskine and his brother
James, seized the earl of Gowrie, exclaiming, " Traitor ! this is thy deed ! "
Some of the earl's servants rescued their master, who was, however, thrown down
in the scuffle, and refused admittance to the inner court On recovering his feet,
he retired a short way ; then drawing his sword and dagger, he cried, ** I will
be in my own house, or die by the way."

During these proceedings, the king had found himself rather critically circum-
stanced. Alexander Ruthven, having locked the door of the gallery chamber,
led the way to the round closet. James was not a little astonished when, instead
of the captive he expected, he saw a man armed at all points except his head.
He was more astonished when the master, putting on his hat, drew the man's
dagger, and presented it to his breast, saying, " Sir, you must be my prisoner!
remember my father's death ! " James attempted to remonstrate, but was inter-
rupted with " Hold your tongue, sir, or by Christ you shall die!" But here
Henderson wrenched the dagger from Kuthven's hand, and the king, then
resuming his remonstrances, was answered that his life was not what was sought.
The master even took off his hat when the king, who, amid all his perturbation,
forgot not his princely demeanour, reminded him of the impropriety of wearing
it in his presence. He then requested James to give him his word not to open
the window, nor call for assistance, whilst he went to bring his brother, the
earl, who was to determine what farther should be done. Ruthven then left the
closet, locking the door behind him ; but, according to Henderson's belief, went
no farther than the next room. This is more than probable ; for, by the nearest
calculation, Ramsay must have been at that time still in the gallery. The mas-
ter re-entered, therefore, almost instantly, and telling the king there was now
but one course left, produced a garter, with which he attempted to bind his
majesty's hands. James freed his left with a violent exertion, exclaiming, " I
am a free prince, man ! I will not be bound!" Ruthven, without answering,
seized him by the throat with one hand, while he thrust the other into his mouth,
to prevent his crying. In the struggle which ensued, the king was driven
against the window which overlooked the court, and, at that moment, Hender-
son thrust his arm over the master's shoulder and pushed up the window, which
afforded the king an opportunity of calling for assistance. The master, there-
upon, said to Henderson, " Is there no help in thee? Thou wilt cause us all
to die :" and tremblingly, between excitement and exertion, he attempted to
draw his sword. The king, perceiving his intent, laid hold of his hand ; and
thus clasped in a death-wrestle, they reeled out of the closet into the chamber.
The king had got Ruthven's head under his arm ; whilst Ruthven, finding him-
self held down almost upon his knees, was pressing upwards with his hand
against the king's face, when, at this critical moment, John Kamsay, the page,
who had heard from the street the king's cry for help, and who had got before
Mar and Lennox, by running up the black turnpike formerly mentioned, while

JAMES VI.

231

they took the principal staircase, rushed against the door of the chamber and
burst it open. The king panted out, when he saw his page, " Fy! strike him
low! he has secret armour on." At which Ramsay, casting from him the hawk
which still sat upon his hand, drew his dagger and stabbed the master. The
next moment, the king, exerting all his strength, threw him from him down
stairs. Ramsay ran to a window, and called upon Sir Thomas Erskine, and one
or two who were with him, to come up the turnpike. Erskine was first, and
as Ruthven staggered past him on the stair, wounded and bleeding, he desired
those who followed to strike the traitor. This was done, and the young man
fell, crying, " Alas! I had not the wyte of it"

The king was safe for the mean time, but there was still cause for alarm.
Only four of his attendants had reached him ; and he was uncertain whether
the incessant attempts of 3Iar and Lennox's party to break open the door by
which the chamber communicated with the gallery, were made by friend or foe.
At this moment the alarm bell rang out, and the din of the gathering citizens,
who were as likely, for any thing the king knew, to side with their provost,
Gowrie, as with himself, was heard from the town. There was, besides, a still
more immediate danger.

Gowrie, whom we left attempting to force his way into the house, was met at
the gate by the news that his brother had fallen. Violet Ruthven, and other
women belonging to the family, were already wailing his death, screaming their
curses up to the king's party in the chamber, and mixing their shrill execrations
with the fierce din which shook the city. The earl, seconded by Cranstone,
one of his attendants, forced his way to the foot of the black turnpike, at which
spot lay the master's body. " Whom have we here?" said the retainer, for the
face was turned downwards. " Up the stair ' " was Gowrie's brief and stern
reply. Cranstone, going up before his master, found, on rushing into the cham-
ber, the swords of Sir Thomas Erskine, and Herries, the king's physician, drawn
against him. They were holding a parley in this threatening attitude, when
Gowrie entered, and was instantly attacked by Ramsay. The earl fell after a
smart contest. Ramsay immediately turned upon Cranstone, who had proved
fully a match for the other two, and having wounded him severely, forced him
finally to retreat.

All this time they who were with the duke of Lennox had kept battering at
the gallery-door of the chamber with hammers, but in vain. The partition was
constructed of boards, and as the whole wall gave way equally before the blows,
the door could not be forced. The party with the king, on the other hand,
were afraid to open, lest they should thus give admission to enemies. A servant
was at last despatched round by the turnpike, who assured his majesty that it
\\as the duke of Lennox and the earl of 3Iar who were so clamorous for admis-
sion. The hammers were then handed through below the door, and the belts
speedily displaced. When these noblemen were admitted, they found the king
unharmed, amid his brave deliverers. The door, however, which entered from
the turnpike, had been closed upon a body of Gowrie's retainers, who were
calling for their master, and striking through below the door with their pikes
and halberds. The clamour from the town continued, and the voices from the
court were divided, — part calling for the king, part for their provost, the earl of
Gowrie. Affairs, however, soon took a more decided turn. They who assaulted
the door grew tired of their ineffectual efforts, and withdrew ; and almost at the
same moment the voices of baillies Ray and Young were heard from the street,
calling to know if the king were safe, and announcing that they were there,
with the loyal burgesses of Perth, for his defence. The king gratified them by
showing himself at the window, requesting them to still the tumult At the

232 JAMES VI.

command of the magistrates the crowd became silent, and gradually dispersed.
In the course of a few hours, peace was so completely re-established, that the king
and his company were able to take horse for Falkland.

This bird's-eye view of the occurrences of the fifth of August, will be found
correct in the main. Although some details have been necessarily omitted, they
are sufficient to establish a preconcerted scheme between the brotbers against the
king, but of what nature, and to what purpose, it would be difficult, without
further evidence, to say. Of all the people that day assembled in Gowrie's
house, not one seems to have been in the secret. Henderson, to whom an
important share in the execution of the attempt had been assigned, was kept in
ignorance to the last moment, and then he counteracted, instead of furthering
their views. Even with regard to Cranstone, the most busy propagator of the
rumour of the king's departure, it is uncertain whether he may not have spread
the report in consequence of the asseverations of his master ; and we have his
solemn declaration, at a time when he thought himself upon his death-bed, that
he had no previous knowledge of the plot. The two Kuthvens of Freeland,
Eviot, and Hugh 3Ioncrieif, who took the most active share in endeavouring to
stir the citizens up to mutiny to revenge the earl and his brother, may have been
actuated, for any evidence we have to the contrary, solely by the feelings of
reckless and devoted retainers, upon seeing their master's fall in an affray whose
origin and cause they knew not. To this evidence, partly negative, and partly
positive, may be added the deposition of William Rynd, who said, when examined
at Falkland, that he had heard the earl declare, — " He was not a wise man, who,
having intended the execution of a high and dangerous purpose, should commu-
nicate the same to any but himself; because, keeping it to himself, it could not
be discovered nor disappointed." Moreover, it does not sufficiently appear,
from the deportment of the master, that they aimed at the king's life. He
spoke only of making him prisoner, and grasped his sword only when the king
had made his attendants aware of his situation. At the same time, it was
nowhere discovered that any measures had been taken for removing the royal pri-
soner to a place of security ; and to keep him in a place so open to observation
as Gowrie-house, was out of the question. Without some other evidence, there-
fore, than that to which we have as yet been turning our attention, we can
scarcely look upon these transactions otherwise than as a fantastic dream, which
is incoherent in all its parts, and the absurdity of which is only apparent when
we reflect how irreconcilable it is with the waking world around us.

The letters of Logan of Restalrig, which were not discovered till eight
years afterwards, throw some further light upon the subject, though not
so much as could be wished. Of their authenticity little doubt can be enter-
tained, when we consider the number and respectability of the witnesses
who swore positively to their being in Logan's handwriting. It appears from
these letters that Gowrie and Logan had agreed in some plot against the king.
It appears, also, that Logan was in correspondence with some third person who
had assented to the enterprise. It would almost seem, from Logan's third let-
ter, that this person resided at Falkland: " If I kan nocht win to Falkland
the first nycht, I sail he tymelie in St Johnestoun on the morne." And it is al-
most certain from the fifth letter, that he was so situated as to have oral com-
munication with Gowrie, the master of Ruthven : " Pray let his lo. be qwik, and
bid 31. A. remember on the sport he tald me." It does not appear, however,
that any definite plan had been resolved upon. The sea excursion, which Mr
Lawson, in his History of the Gowrie Conspiracy, supposes to have been con-
templated with the design of conveying James to Fast castle, was only meant to
afford facilities for a meeting of the conspirators with a view to deliberation-

JAMES VI. 233

Logan's fifth letter is dated as late as the last of July, and yet it does not ap-
pear that the writer knew at that time of the Perth project. Taking these facts
in conjunction with the hair-brained character of Gowrie's attempt, it seems
highly probable, that although some scheme might be in agitation with Logan,
and perhaps some other conspirators, the outrage of the fifth of August was the
rash and premature undertaking of two hot-blooded fantastical young men, who
probably wished to distinguish themselves above the rest of their associates in
the plot.

The very scanty information that we possess respecting the character and
previous habits of these two brothers, is quite in accordance with this view of
the matter, and goes a good way to corroborate it. They are allowed, on all
hands, to have been men of graceful exterior, of winning manners, well ad-
vanced in the studies of the times, brave, and masters of their weapons. It is
not necessary surely to prove at this time of day, how compatible all these
qualifications are with a rash and headlong temper, completely subject to the
control of the imagination — a turn of mind bordering upon frenzy. A man of
quick perception, warm feeling, and ungoverned fancy, is, of all others, the
most fascinating, when the world goes smoothly ; but he is of all others the
most liable, having no guiding reason, to err most extravagantly in the serious
business of life : being " unstable as water," he is easily irritated and lashed
into madness by adverse circumstances. How much Gowrie was the dupe of his
imagination, is evident from the fondness with which he clung to the delusions
of the cabala, natural magic, and astrology. Armed (according to his own be-
lief) with powers beyond the common race of man, doomed by his stars to
achieve greatness, he laughed at danger, and was ready to neglect the calcula-
tions of worldly prudence alike in his aims, and the means by which he sought
their attainment. The true state of his brother's mind is pourtrayed, incidental-
ly, by Logan, in his first letter: — " Bot incase ye and M. A. R. forgader, be-
cawse he is somqhat consety, for Godis saik be very var with his rakelese toyis
of Fadoa ; ftbr he tald me ane of the strangest taillis of ane nobill man of Padoa
that ever I hard in my lyf, resembling the lyk purpose." This suggests at once
the very picture of a young and hot-blooded man, whose brain had been dis-
tracted, during his residence in Italy, with that country's numerous legends of
wild vengeance. Two such characters, brooding conjointly over real or fancied
wrongs, were capable of projecting schemes, against which the most daring
would remonstrate ; and irritated by the coldness of their friends, were, no
doubt, induced to undertake the execution alone, and almost unassisted.

It only remains to inquire what was the object which Gowrie proposed to
himself, in his mad and treasonable attempt, and upon whose seconding he was
to depend, suppose his design had succeeded ? These two inquiries are in-
separably connected, and have been rendered more interesting, by a late attempt
to implicate the presbyterian party in the earl's guilt. We are not a little as-
tonished that such an attempt should have been made at this late period, when
we recollect, that notwithstanding all the ill odour in which the presbyterian
clergymen stood at court, not one of the thousand idle rumours to which
Gowrie's enterprise gave birth, tried to direct suspicion towards them. The sole
grounds upon which such an accusation can rest for support, are the facts, — that
Gowrie's father was a leader among the presbyterians, and his son strictly
educated in that faith ; that shortly after his arrival in Italy, he wrote one letter
t'o a presbyterian minister; and that some of the Edinburgh clergymen mani-
fested considerable obstinacy in throwing discredit upon the reality of the con-
spiracy. The two former are of themselves so weak, that we pass them over
the more willingly, that we shall immediately point out the motives from which

III. 2 G

234: JAMES VI.

Gowrie acted, and the sort of assistance upon which he really relied. The con-
duct of the clergymen admits of an easy explanation. James, whose perception
was nearly as acute as his character was weak, was fully sensible of the ridicule
to which lie had exposed himself, by allowing his desire of money to lead him
into so shallow a device as Ruthven's. In addition to this, he wished, upon all
occasions, to appear as much of the hero as possible. The consequence was,
that his edition of the story was so dressed up, as to render it inconsistent ; first,
with his well-known character ; secondly, with the most distant possibility of his
having been deceived with the master's pretences ; and, thirdly, with the deposi-
tions of the witnesses. Inconsistencies so startling were sufficient to justify some
preliminary scepticism ; and if ever there was an occasion, where it was allowa-
ble openly to call a king's word in question, it was when James demanded, not
merely that his party should hypocritically profess a belief which they did not en-
tertain, but that they should, daringly and blasphemously, mix up this falsehood
in the solemn services of devotion. A short time, however, was sufficient to
convince the most incredulous of the truth of the conspiracy, stripped of the
adventitious circumstances which the king linked with it; and the obstinate re-
cusancy of Bruce the clergyman is sufficiently accounted for, by James's insisting
upon prescribing the manner in which he was to treat the matter, and by that
individual's overstrained notions of the guilt incurred by a minister, who allowed
any one to dictate to him concerning the mode in which he was to conduct pub-
lic worship.

But Gowrie relied upon the support of no faction, religious or political.
His sole motive seems to have been a fantastic idea of the duty incumbent upon
him to revenge his father's death. He is reported, on one occasion, when some
one directed his attention to a person who had been employed as an agent
against his father, to have said, "Aquila non captat mwtcas." Buthven also ex-
pressly declared to the king, when lie held him prisoner in the closet, that his
only object was to obtain revenge for the death of his father. The letters of
Logan (except in one solitary instance, where a scheme of aggrandisement is
darkly hinted at, and that as something quite irrelevant to the purpose they had
on hand) harp on this string alone, proving that Gowrie and his friends seek
only ** for the revange of that cawse." The only members of the conspiracy
who are known to us, are men likely enough to engage in such a cause, but
most unlikely to be either leaders or followers in a union, where the parties
were bound together by an attachment to certain political principles. The three
conspirators are, the earl and his brother, such as we have already described
them, and Logan of Bestalrig, a broken man — a retainer and partisan of Both-
well — a maintainer of thieves and sorners — a man who expressly objects to com-
municating their project to one who he fears " vill disswade us fra owr purpose
yl ressounes of religion, quhilk I can never abyd." And if any more evidence
were required to show how little Gowrie relied upon the presbyterians, we
might allude to his anxiety that Logan should sound his brother, lord Home —
a catholic.

In short, every thing leads us to the opinion we have already announced,
that the Buthvens were instigated to their enterprise by feelings of private re-
venge alone, and that they did not seek to make any political party subservient
to their purposes, it is to this isolated nature of their undertaking — its utter
want of connexion with the political movements of the period — that we attribute
the circumstance of its history having so long remained unknown, and are satis-
fied that much of that history must ever remain a riddle. It is with it, as with
the adventures of the Iron Mask, and that whole class of events which seem
political, merely because they befall persons who rank high in the state. Ihey

JAMES VI. 235

generally appear more mysterious than they really are ; because, if no chance
unveils them at the time, they stand too far apart from all other transactions,
to receive any reflected light from them.1

On the 9th of November, 1600, was bom Charles, James's second son, after-
wards Charles I. of England. With that country the king now carried on a
close correspondence ; first, with the earl of Essex, whom, on hearing of his
imprisonment, he besought Elizabeth to spare, and afterwards, with the earl of
Northumberland, Sir Robert Cecil, and other influential men, on the subject of
his title to the English succession, which was generally acknowledged by the
distinguished men connected with the English court.

On the 28th of March, 1603, Elizabeth expired, having named James as her
successor, who was accordingly proclaimed king of England. His claim to the
succession arose from his relationship to Margaret, daughter of Henry VII.,
who married James IV. of Scotland, great-grandfather of James VI. Immedi-
ately after Elizabeth's decease, Sir Robert Carey, who had formerly been kindly
entertained by James, set off on a private expedition to Scotland, to convey to
the new sovereign the message. Leaving London on Thursday morning, and
stopping at his estate of Witherington on the way, from which he issued orders
for proclaiming James at several places in the north of England, he reached
Edinburgh on Saturday night, when the king had gone to bed, but, gaining ad-
mission, saluted him as king of England. Next morning Carey was created
gentleman of the bed-chamber, and was at last elevated by Charles I. to the
title of earl of Monmouth. The regular messengers to James, announcing his
succession, soon arrived. One of the attendants, called Davis, the king recog-
nized as the author of a poem on the immortality of the soul, which seems to
have given him high satisfaction, and promised him his patronage, which he af-
terwards faithfully bestowed. Indeed, James, as a patron of literary merit, is
entitled to respectful observation. He had already acted a munificent part in
the foundation of the university of Edinburgh.

On the Sunday after his accession, the king attended at the High church,
and, after sermon, addressed the audience on his affection for his Scottish sub-
jects ; and after committing his children to the care of trusty nobles, and
making arrangements for the management of Scottish business, he set off, with
a small number of attendants, from his ancient kingdom, over which he had
reigned for thirty-five years. The reception he met with on the way was very
magnificent, especially at Sir Robert Cecil's, Sir Anthony Mildmay's, and Mr
Oliver Cromwell's.2 In his progress, many petitions were presented and
granted — volumes of poems were laid before him by the university of Cambridge,
and the honour of knighthood was conferred on no fewer than two hundred and
thirty-seven individuals. Even in these circumstances, however, he displayed
his notions of royal prerogative, by ordering the recorder of Newark to execute
a cut-purse, apprehended on the way. On reaching London, he added to the
privy council six Scottish favourites, and also lord Montjoy, and lords Thomas
and Henry Howard, the son and brother of the late duke of Norfolk ; and, on
the 20th of May, created several peers. Numerous congratulations flowed in
upon the king. The marquis de Rosni, afterwards duke of Sully, arrived on
the 15th of June. The following sketch of James as he appeared on this oc-
casion to the marquis, is strong and striking: — " He was upright and conscien-
tious ; he had eloquence and even erudition — but less of these than of penetra-

1 In this account of the conspiracy and summary of the evidence, we use a masterly conden-
sation of the matter of Mr Pitcairn's documents which appeared in the Edinburgh Literary
Journal.

* Uncle of the Protector.

236 JAMES VI.

tion and of the show of learning. He loved to hear discourses on matters of
state, and to have great enterprises proposed to him, which he discussed in a
spirit of system and method, but without any idea of carrying them into effect —
for he naturally hated war, and still more to be personally engaged in it — w«?
indolent in all his actions, except hunting, and remiss in affairs, — all indication?
of a soft and timid nature, formed to be governed." The king entertained the
marquis and his attendants at dinner ; when he spoke with contempt of Eliza
beth a circumstance which probably arose from the control which he was con-
scious she had exercised over him, and especially the idea, which he expresses
in one of the documents in the negotiations on an alliance with Spain, that she
was concerned in the attempts of his Scottish enemies against him — and also of
a double marriage he desired, between the French and English royal families.

The queen followed James a few weeks after his arrival, having on the eve
of her departure quarreled with the earl of Mar, to whom James had committed
the care of prince Henry, and whose letter to her, advising her not to treat
him with disrespect, excited the passion of that high-spirited woman. She was
crowned, along with her husband, on the 25th of July, by archbishop Whitgift,
with all the ancient solemnity of that imposing ceremony. He soon after, by
proclamation, called upon his subjects to solemnize the 5th of August in honour
of his escape from the Gowrie conspiracy.

At the commencement of the following year was held the famous Hampton-
court conference. On the first day, a few select individuals only were admitted
to the king : on the following, four puritan ministers, chosen by the king him-
self, appeared — and his majesty presided as moderator. He conversed in Latin,
and engaged in dispute with Dr Reynolds. In answer to an objection against
the Apocrypha started by that learned divine, the king interpreted one of the
chapters of Ecclesiasticus, according to his own ideas. He also pronounced an
unmeasured attack on presbytery, which he said, "agreed as well with monarchy
as God and the devil." — " Stay," he added, " I pray, for one seven years,
before you demand ; and then, if you find me grown pursy and fat, I may per-
chance hearken unto you. For that government will keep me in breath, and
give me work enough." On this occasion, Bancroft, bishop of London, flattered
him as " such a king, as, since Christ's time, the like had not been," — and
Whitgift professed to believe that his majesty spoke under the special influence
of the Holy Spirit With such flattery, is it to be greatly wondered at, that
the king esteemed himself an accomplished theological disputant ? Indeed, the
whole conference seems to have been managed in a most unreasonable manner.
It was followed by a proclamation enforcing conformity, and a number oi
puritans, both clergy and laity, severely suffered.

In March, 1604, the king, the queen, and the prince, rode in splendid pro-
cession from the Tower to Whitehall ; and, at the meeting of parliament, a few
days after, James delivered his first speech to that assembly. One part of it ex-
cited general disapprobation — that in which he expressed himself willing to
favour the Roman catholics — a feeling on his part which probably arose from
the prospects afforded^ him of friendship with countries so powerful as France
and Spain, and also, perhaps, from some degree of attachment to the Romish
faith, as that of his royal ancestors. At this meeting of parliament, the king
also brought forward his favourite proposal of a union betwixt England and
Scotland, the result of which was the appointment of a committee for drawing
up articles of union ; one of the most zealous members of which was Sir Francis
Bacon. To this great man James showed strong attachment; and, even if Sir
Francis had not proved himself to be devoted with peculiar ardour to the king,
it may be supposed that he would have been regarded by the latter with peculiar

JAMES VI.

237

pride, from that splendid series of publications which he had already begun to
publish, and of which "The Advancement of Learning," with a very flat-
tering dedication to the king, came forth in 1605.

A great part of the summer following the meeting of parliament, the king
devoted to his favourite sport of hunting — his attachment to which continued
through life, even when corpulence, arising from excess in drinking, which was
a noted fault of James, had unfitted him for every active exercise. About this
time, we find him engaged in arranging a marriage between Sir Philip Herbert
and lady Susan Vere ; writing from Royston to the council, that hunting was
the only means to maintain his health, desiring them to take the charge and
burden of affairs, and foresee that he should not be interrupted nor troubled with
too much business ; and inquiring into the case of Haddock, called the sleeping
preacher, from his being said to deliver excellent sermons, and speak excellent
Greek and Hebrew in the midst of sleep, although very stupid when awake,
who was brought by the king to confess tbat the whole was an imposture. But
James was soon placed in a more serious situation, by the celebrated Gunpowdeu
Plot, which was discovered on the 5th of November, for which day parliament
had been summoned. A letter was found, supposed to have been written by the
sister of lord Monteagle, who, though approving of the conspiracy, and the wife
of one of the conspirators, wished to preserve her brother from the meditated
ruin. On examination, barrels of gunpowder were found deposited below the
place where parliament was just about to meet, and the very train and match
for the discharge of their contents were in readiness. The conspirators were,
with considerable difficulty, discovered, and were found to comprehend some
Jesuits ; and to have been united by their common attachment to the Roman
catholic religion, which in England had been lately treated' with increased
severity. Indeed there is much reason to believe that the plot in some degree
depended on Spanish influence. At the meeting of parliament, a few days after-
wards, James expatiated at great length on this terrible conspiracy ; but still
expressed himself indulgent to the English catholics. Shortly after appeared
" A Discourse on the Gunpowder Plot," which is supposed to have been the
composition of the king. The conspirators were condemned, and acts against
the catholics were passed in parliament; but James continued to discover his
unwillingness to treat them with severity.

In July, 1606, he received a visit from the king of Denmark, who was wel-
comed with imposing splendour. Prince Vandemont, a French relative of
James, also paid a visit about this time to his royal kinsman. In November,
the king again supported, before the parliament, his favourite scheme of a
union between his Scottish and English kingdoms. The following passages give
a curious example of his mode of conversation. The circumstances are given by
Harrington, as having occurred about this time : — " He engaged much of
learning, and showed me his own in such a sort as made me remember my
examiner at Cambridge aforetime. He sought much to know my advances in
philosophy, and introduced profound sentences of Aristotle, and such-like writers,
which I had never read, and which some are bold enough to say, others do not
understand." — " The prince did now press my reading to him part of a canto
in Ariosto, praised my utterance, and said he had been informed of many as to
my learning, in the time of the queen. He asked me what I thought pure wit
was made of, and when it did best become ; whether a king should not be the
best clerk in his own country ; and if this land did not entertain good opinion
of his learning and good wisdom. His majesty did next press for my opinion
touching the power of Satan in matters of witchcraft, and asked me with much
gravity, if I did truly understand why the devil did work more with ancient

238 JAMES VI.

women than others." His majesty asked much concerning my opinion of the
new weed tobacco, and said it would, by its use infuse ill qualities on the
brain, and that no learned man ought to taste it, and wished it forbidden.
After discoursing on religion, at length he said " I pray you, do me justice in
your report, and in good season I will not fail to add to your understanding, in
such points as I may find you lack amendment." Before this time the king
had published not only his " Demonology," but also " A Counterblast to
Tobacco."

In 1607, he published an answer to a work by Tyrone, and soon after his
*• Triplici nodo triplex Cuneus," — a defence of an oath which was imposed on
foreigners by an act of parliament, after the Gunpowder Plot. In 1609, he re-
published it, with a dedication to all Christian kings and princes, answers having
been previously made to it by Bellarmine, and other writers. This has been
considered as among the best of the king's productions, and is characterized by
a late historian of his court, as " a learned defence of protestant principles, an
acute exposure of the false statements and false reasonings of Bellarmine, and a
vigorous but not intemperate manifesto against papal usurpation and tyranny ;
yet a vain and useless ostentation of parts and knowledge : and a truer
judgment, by admonishing the royal author of the incompatibility of the polemi-
cal character with the policy and dignity of a sovereign, would have spared him
the numerous mortifications and inconveniences which ensued." '

One great cause of the king's unpopularity was his excessive favour for a
Scotsman of the name of Carr. In February, 1610, at the meeting of parlia-
ment, he did not appear in person, but he had the mortification soon after, of
having his plan of a union disapproved by parliament, and a supply to himself
refused. They were accordingly summoned to meet the king at Whitehall,
where he explained to them his singular views of royal prerogative. The same
year, Henry was appointed prince of Wales, on which occasion the ceremonies
were continued for three days.

I« 1611, James, when on a hunting expedition, received a book on the Na-
ture and Attributes of God, by Conrad Vorstius. The king selected several
doctrines which he considered heresies, and wrote to the Dutch government,
signifying his disapprobation — Vorstius having lately received a professorship
of divinity at Leyden, as successor of Arminius. He also ordered the book to
be burned in London. Soon after, Bartholomew Legate was brought into his
presence, accused of professing Arianism in the capital, after which he continued
for some time in Newgate, and was then burned at Smithfield. About the same
time a similar example of barbarous intolerance occurred. But it was in the same
year that our English translation of the Bible was published — an undertaking
which the king had set on foot, at the suggestion of Dr Reynolds, in 1601,
which had been executed by forty-seven divines, whom James furnished with in-
structions for the work ; and the fulfilment of which has been justly remarked
as an event of very high importance in the history of the language, as well as of
the religion of Great Britain. About the end of this year, the king founded a
college at Chelsea, for controversial theology, with a view to answer the papists
and puritans. His own wants, however, now led him to create the title of
baronet, which was sold for £1000; and a man might purchase the rank o<
baron for £5000, of viscount for £10,000, and of an earl for £20,000.
He also suffered about this time, by the death of the earl of Salisbury, whom he

visited in his illness. But a domestic loss awaited him which, however, it is said,

occasioned him slighter suffering than might have been expected, although the
nation felt it as a painful stroke. During preparations for the marriage of the
4 Aiken's Court of James.

JAMES VI.

239

princess, the king's daughter, to the elector palatine, who arrived in England
for the purpose on the lGth of October, 1612, prince Henry was cut off by
death, on the 6th of November, having been taken ill the very day before the
elector's arrival. This young prince was eminently distinguished by piety
and honour, amiable manners and literary habits. His death-bed was cheered
by the practice and consolations of the religion to which, amidst the seductions
of a court, he had adhered in life, and he died, lamented by his family and
country, in the nineteenth year of his age.

In February, 1613, the princess Elizabeth was married to the elector pala-
tine— not, it is said, without the dissatisfaction of her father. The preparations,
however, were of the most splendid kind ; so that means were again adopted to
supply the royal wants, as also in the following year.

In 1615, James paid a visit to the university of Cambridge, where he re-
sided in Trinity college, and was received with many literary exhibitions, in
the form of disputations, sermons, plays, and orations. In this year he wrote
his " Remonstrance for the right of kings, and the independence of their crowns,"
in answer to a speech delivered at Paris in January by cardinal Perron, whe
sent it to James. This year also occurred the celebrated trials for the murder
of Overbury, in the examinations previous to which James personally engaged.
He had now lost his enthusiastic attachment to Carr, the person chiefly accused
of this foul deed, whom he had created earl of Somerset, and who had lately
been replaced in his affections by Villiers, the royal cup-bearer, whom he
knighted, and appointed a gentleman of the bed-chamber, and whom he gradu-
ally advanced, until he was created duke of Buckingham.

In 1617, after some changes in the court, James paid a visit to Scotland,
leaving Bacon as principal administrator in his absence. On this occasion
literary exhibitions were presented to him by the universities of Edinburgh and
St Andrews, and he also amused himself with his favourite sport. But he soon
proceeded to enforce the customs of the English hierarchy on the Scottish
people — a measure which, notwithstanding considerable encouragement from a
General Assembly, which had been convoked with a view to the proposed altera-
tions, the nation in general deemed an infringement of a promise he had made
many years before, and which they succeeded, to a considerable degree, in
resisting.

The following year was marked by another act of cruelty. Sir Walter Ral-
eigh, who had been confined in the Tower for twelve years, on the charge of
having been engaged in a Spanish conspiracy, but had at last obtained release
from his imprisonment, was condemned and executed, in consequence of his
marked misconduct in an expedition to explore a mine in Guiana, which he had
represented to the king as well fitted to enrich his exchequer. His execution,
it will scarcely be doubted, was owing to the influence of Gondomar, the Spanish
ambassador, and enemy of Raleigh at the English court, in prospect of a mar-
riage between prince Charles and the Spanish infanta. Soon after the queen
died, — a woman who seems to have been by no means destitute of estimable
qualities, but still more remarkable for the splendour of her entertainments, to
which Ben Jonson and other writers contributed largely of their wit Indeed
that eminent dramatist seems to have been a person of considerable consequence
at tiie English court. At this time James's own literary character was exhibited
to the world in a folio edition of his works, edited, with a preface well seasoned
with flattery, by the bishop of Winchester. Soon after, on an application from
prince Maurice for the appointment of some English divines, as members of a coun-
cil for the settlement of the controversy between the Arminians and Gomarists,
which was held at Dort in November, 1618, five learned men were nominated on

210 JAMES VI.

that commission, directed by James to recommend to the contending parties the
avoidance, in public instruction, of the controverted topics. His favour to the
church of England was manifested about the same time by his treatment of the cele-
brated Selden, who had written a work on " the history of tithes," in which he
held the injustice of considering the alienation of what had once been church-
lands to any other than ecclesiastical purposes, to be in every case an act of sacri-
lege. For this work the king required an explanation, and it was shortly after-
wards prohibited by the high commission court. The nation in general was .
displeased with the rigour of the king's administration ; with the plan, which he
had not yet abandoned, of a marriage between his son and the infanta of Spain ;
and with the favouritism which he manifested, especially towards Villiers, whose
connexions called on him for bountiful provisions, which the king, at his re-
quest, with gross facility, conceded.

In 1620, the circumstances of his son-in-law, the elector palatine, began to
occupy the particular attention of the king. That prince, after having been
chosen king by the Bohemians, who had thrown off the Austrian sway, and re-
ceived support from various states of Germany, being at last in a very perilous
condition, and on the 8th November, 1620, defeated at the battle of Prague.
After much delay, in which he carried on a diplomatic interference, James at last
agreed to send a supply of chosen men. But he soon resigned this active in-
terference in his behalf; he called in vain for a benevolence from his wealthy
subjects, to enable him, as he said, to give him a vigorous support, in the event
of future urgency ; and, finally, summoned a parliament, which had not met
for many years, to deliberate on the subject. It met in January, 1621, — a par-
liament memorable for the investigation it made into the conduct of lord Bacon,
and the sentence it pronounced on that distinguished man, who had published
only a short time before, the second part of his immortal " Novum Organum."
The king, however, had previously promised him either freedom from such a
sentence, or pardon after it, and Bacon accordingly was soon released from im-
prisonment, and, in three years after, fully pardoned by the king. This parlia-
ment also granted supplies to James, but in the same year refused farther sup-
plies to the cause of the palatine. James adjourned it in spite of the remon-
strance of the house of commons ; and on the same day occurred a well-known
conversation of the king and the bishops Neale and Andrews : " My lords," said
the king, "cannot I take my subjects' money when I want it, without all this
formality in parliament ?" " God forbid, sir," said Neale, " but you should —
you are the breath of our nostrils." — " Well, my lord," rejoined his majesty to
Andrews, " and what say you ?" He excused himself on the ground of igno-
rance in parliamentary matters. "No put-off, my lord," said James, "answer
me presently." " Then, sir," said the excellent prelate, " I think it lawful for
you to take my brother Neale's money, for he offers it." The king, however,
had himself recommended to this parliament the investigation of abuses, and
especially inveighed against corruption and bribery in courts of law. In this
year he conferred the seals, which Bacon had resigned, upon Williams, afterwards
bishop of Lincoln, who induced him to deliver the earl of Northumberland from
imprisonment ; and soon after, he very creditably interfered for the continuance
of archbishop Abbot in his office, after he had involuntarily committed an act of
homicide.

Parliament meeting again in February, 1622, the commons prepared a re,
monstrance to the king on the dissatisfaction which was generally felt with the
position of affairs, both at home and abroad, and calling on him to resist the
measures of the king of Spain— to enforce the laws against popery— marry his
son to a protestant — support protestantism abroad, and give his sanction to the

JAMES VI. 241

bills which they should pass with a view to the interest of the nation. Ou hear-
ing of this proceeding, the king addressed an intemperate letter to the speaker,
asserting as usual, the interest of his " prerogative-royal.*' It was answered by
the commons in a manly and loyal address, to which the king replied in a let-
ter still more intemperate than the former. The commons, notwithstanding,
drew up and recorded a protest, claiming the right of delivering their sentiments,
and of deciding freely, without exposure to impeachment from their speeches in
parliamentary debate, and proposing that, should there be objection made to any
thing said by a member in the house, it should be officially reported to the
king, before he should receive as true any private statement on the subject.
This protest the king tore out of the journal of the house, ordered the deed to
be registered, and imprisoned several of the individuals concerned, who, how-
ever, were soon afterwards liberated. But James still maintained his own au-
thority ; he strictly prohibited the general discussion of political subjects, and
enjoined on the clergy a variety of rules, guarding them against preaching on
several subjects, some of which must be regarded as important parts of the sys-
tem which it is the duty of the clergy to proclaim.

On the 1 7th of February, 1623, prince Charles and the marquis of Bucking-
ham set oft' on a visit to Spain, with a view to the marriage of the former with
the infanta — although the king had resisted the proposal of this journey, which
had been urgently made by the prince and Buckingham. On the circumstance
being known in England, the favourite was loudly blamed, and the prince sus-
pected of an attachment to popery. The travellers proceeded in disguise,
visited Paris for a single day, and reached Madrid on the 6th of March. The
earl of Bristol, the English ambassador, met them with surprise. James corre-
sponded with them in a very characteristic manner, and sent a large supply of
jewels and other ornaments, as a present for the infanta. The Spaniards were
generally anxious for the consummation of the marriage. But the pope, un-
willing to grant a dispensation, addressed to Charles a letter entreating him to
embrace the Roman catholic religion, to which the prince replied in terms ex-
pressive of respect for the Romish church.

Accordingly, all was prepared for the marriage, which was appointed to taK©
place on the 29th of August But before the day arrived, pope Gregory had
died — a circumstance which destroyed the force of the matrimonial articles ;
and the prince left Spain in the midst of general demonstrations of attachment
to his person, and inclination towards the intended marriage. On his way to
England, however, he discovered a coldness towards the measure, and shortly
after his arrival in October, the king acceding to the proposal of the favourite,
who was displeased at his reception in Spain, a letter was sent to the earl of
Bristol, ordering him not to grant the proxy which was required according to
the ti'eaty, after the papal dispensation was obtained, before security should be
given by Spain for the restoration of the Palatine. But even after the king of
Spain had agreed to this proposal, James, persuaded by the favourite, expressed
a wish that the matter should be broken oft'. But the low state of pecuniary
resources into which these negotiations had reduced the English king, induced
him to call a parliament, which met February, 1624, to which he submitted the
matters about which he was now particularly interested. It offered supplies to
the king for a war with Spain. War was declared, and the favourite of the
king became the favourite of a large proportion of the nation. About the same
time, an accusation of Buckingham, for his conduct in regard to Spain and
Bohemia, was presented secretly to the king by the marquis Inojoso. It threw
his majesty into excessive agitation ; and on setting out for Windsor, he repulsed
the duke, as ho offered to enter the royal carriage. The duke inquired, with

242 GEORGE JAMESONE.

tears, la what respect he had transgressed, but received only tears and reproaches
in return. On receiving an answer by Williams, to the charges against the
duke, he again received him into favour, and soon after broke off all friendly
negotiations with Spain. He resisted, however — though not successfully — the
proposal of Buckingham and Charles, that he should impeach the lord treasurer,
on the ground of corruption in office. He also resisted — with much better
reason — the petition of Buckingham, that the earl of Bristol should be forced to
submit, exclaiming " I were to be accounted a tyrant to engage an innocent
man to confess faults of which he was not guilty." The earl, however, was pre-
vented from appearing in the presence of the king, who also cautioned the par-
liament against seeking out grievances to remedy, although they might apply a
cure to obviously existing ones. m

June, 1624, was occupied by the king and Buckingham in carrying on
measures for a marriage between prince Charles and Henrietta Maria, sister of
Louis XIII. and daughter of Henry IV. ; and on the 10th of November, a dis-
pensation having been with some difficulty obtained from the pope, the nuptial
articles were signed at Paris. But in the spring of 1625, the king, whose con-
stitution had previously suffered severely, was seized with ague, of which he died
at Theobald's on the 27th of March, in the 59th year of his age. He was buried
in Westminster abbey, and the funeral sermon was preached by Williams.

On the character of James, so palpable and generally known, it is not neces-
sary to offer many observations. Much of his conduct is to be attributed in a
great measure to his political advisers, who were often neither wise nor faithful.
His own character embraced many combinations of what may be almost denomi-
nated inconsistencies. He was peculiarly subject to the influence of favour-
ites, and yet exceedingly disposed to interfere with the course of political
affairs. Indeed, to his warm and exclusive attachments, combined with his ex-
travagant ideas of his own office and authority, may be traced the principal er-
rors of his reign. He was, accordingly, irresolute, and yet often too ready to
comply ; sensible to feeling, and yet addicted to severity ; undignified in man-
ner, and yet tyrannical in government. Erring as was his judgment, his
learning cannot be denied, though the use he often made of it, and especially
the modes in which he showed it in the course of conversation, have been, with
reason, the subjects of amusement. His superstition was great, but perhaps not
excessive for the age in which he lived ; and it is said, that in his later days
he put no faith in witchcraft. His religion was probably in some degree sin-
cere, though neither settled nor commanding. Neither his writings nor his
political courses, it is to be feared, have done much directly to advance the in-
terests ot liberal and prudent policy ; but in both there are pleasing specimens
of wisdom, and both may teach us a useful lesson, by furnishing a melancholy
view of the nature and tendency of tyranny, even when in some degree con-
trolled by the checks of parliamentary influence and popular opinion.

JAMESONE, George, the first eminent painter produced by Britain, was born
at Aberdeen towards the end of the 1 6th century. The year 1 586 has been given
as the precise era of his birth, but this we can disprove by an extract which
has been furnished to us from the burgh records of his native town, and which
shows that the eldest child of his parents (a daughter) was born at such a period
of this year, as rendered it impossible that he could have been born within some
months of it.1 It is alone certain that the date of the painter's birth was

1 The marriage of the parents of Jamesone is thus entered in these burgh records;
" Thair is promess of marriage bttwix
And" Jamesone ? . ._ . , ,,-„„ii

Marjore Andersone C ln lnh August, 1585.

FROM THS ORIGINAL LW THE POSSESSION OFW C.ATUTF.nTP. ABKPPhf^f

BLACioiicSojr, oulsoow; iDnrsrosHi:

GEORGE JAMESONE. - 243

posterior to 15S6. Of the private life of this distinguished man few parti-
culars are known ; and of these few a portion rest on rather doubtful au-
thority. Previously to his appearance, no man had so far succeeded in at-
tracting the national attention of Scotland to productions in painting, as to ren-
der an artist a person whose appearance in the country was to be greatly
marked : at that period of our history, too, men had other matters to occupy
their minds ; and it may well be believed, that, in passing through the fiery or-
deal of the times, many men who in peace and prosperity might have had their
minds attracted to the ornamental arts, were absorbed in feelings of a very dif-
ferent order, which hardly allowed them an opportunity of knowing, far less of
indulging in the elegant occupations of peace. The father of Jamesone was
Andrew Jamesone, burgess of guild of Aberdeen, and his mother was Marjory
Anderson, daughter of David Anderson, one of the magistrates of that city.
What should have prompted the parents of the young painter to adopt the very
unusual measure of sending their son from a quiet' fireside in Aberdeen, to study
under Peter Paul Rubens in Antwerp, must remain a mystery. The father is
said to have been an architect, and it is probable that he had knowledge enough
of art to remark the rising genius of his child, and was liberal enough to per-
ceive the height to which the best foreign education might raise the possessor of
that genius. If a certain Flemish building projecting into one of the nar-
row streets of Aberdeen, and known by the name of '* Jamesone's house," be
the production of the architectural talents of the elder Jamesone, as the period
of the style may render not unlikely, he must have been a man of taste and
judgment. Under Rubens, Jamesone had for his fellow scholar Sir Anthony
Vandyke, and the early intercourse of these two artists had the effect of making
the portraits of each be mistaken for those of the other. In 1620, Jamesone
returned to Aberdeen, and established himself as a portrait- pa inter. He there,
on the 12th of November, 1624, married Miss IsobelTosh,2 a lady with whom he
seems to have enjoyed much matrimonial felicity, and who, if we may judge by
her husband's representation of her in one of his best pictures,3 must have been a
person of very considerable attractions ; he had by her several children, of whom
the sons seem to have all met early deaths, a daughter being the only child he left
behind him.4 *

Soon after the above entry, there occurs one regarding the baptism of their eldest child, the
sister of the painter, in these terms :

" The penult day July, 1586. Ando. Jamesone, Marjore Andersone, dochtar in mareage,
callit Elspett; James Robertson, Edward Donaldson, Elspatt (juttes, Elspatt Mydilton, wit-
nesses."

3 The marriage is thus entered in the burgh records : " 12th November, 1624, George
Jamesoune, Isobell Tosche." i

3 This picture represents the painter himself, and his wife and daughter. The grouping is
very neat, and the attitudes of the hands as free from stiffness as those of almost any picture
of the age. The daughter is a tine round-cheeked spirited-looking girl, apparently about 12
years old. Walpole says this picture was painted in 16*3. From the date of Jamesone's
marriage, this must be a mistake. This picture was engraved by Alexander Jamesone,
a descendant of the painter, in 1728, and a very neat line engraving of it is to be found in
Dallaway's edition of Wal pole's Anecdotes.

4 The following entry in the council records of Aberdeen relates to the birth of one of
Jamesone's children : " 1629 yieris — George Jamesone and Toche, ane sone, bap-
tized be Mr Robert Baron the 27lh day of July, caliit William; Mr Patrick Done, Robert
Alexander, Andrew Meldrum, William Gordone, god-fathers." The next notice of him
which we find in the same authority shows, that on the 2d January 1630, he was present at
the baptism of a child of " James Toshe," probably a relation of his wife, at which, it may
be mentioned, William Forbes, bishop of Edinburgh, officiated. In October of the same year
we find him again demanding a similar duty for his own family : " October, 1630 yeires,
George Jamesone and Isobell Toshe, ane sone, baptized the 27th day, callit Paull ; Paull
Menzies of Kinmundie, provest, Mr Alexander Jail'ray, bailzie, Mr David Wedderburne,
Mr Robert Patrie, Patrick Jack, Patrick Fergusson, Andrew Strachan, godfathers." This

244 GEORGE JAMESONE.

A curious evidence of the locality of Jamesone's residence in Aberdeen is to be
found in an epigram on that city, by the painter's intimate friend Arthur
Johnstone, author of the Latin version of the Psalms. It is interesting, as
proving that Jamesone possessed what was then seldom to be found in Scotland,
a habitation, which added to the mere protection from the inclemency of the
seasons, some attempt to acquire the additions of comfort and taste. The epi-
gram proceeds thus —

Hanc quoque Lanaris mons ornat, amoenior illis,

Hinc ferrugineis Spada colorat aquis :
Inde iuburbanum Jamesoni despicii hortum

Quern domini pictum suspicior esse maim.

In " A Succinct Survey of the famous city of Aberdeen, by Philopoliteius," the
passage is thus " done " into what the author is pleased to term " English :"

" The Woolman hill, which all the rest outvies
In pleasantness, this city beautifies ;
There is the well of Spa, that healthful font,
Whose yrne-hewed water coloureth the mount •,
Not far from thence a garden's to be seen
Which unto Jamesone did appertain :
Wherein a little pleasant house doth stand,
Painted as I guess with its master's hand."5

Jamesone appears to have been in Edinburgh during the visit of king Charles
the First in the year 1633. To gratify the taste of that prince he was employed
by the magistrates to paint portraits, as nearly resembling probable likenesses
as he could devise, of some of the real or supposed early kings of Scot-
land. These productions had the good fortune to give satisfaction, and the un-
happy king, who had soon far different matters to occupy his attention, sat for
his portrait, and rewarded the artist with a diamond ring from his own finger.
It is alleged that the painter was on this occasion indulged with a permission to
remain covered in the presence of majesty, a circumstance which is made to
account for his having always represented himself (and he was not sparing iti

is a curious evidence of Jamesone's respectability as a citizen. Paul, afterwards Sir Paul
Menzies, a man of considerable note in Aberdeenshire, and provost of the city, appears to
have been name-father, and Alexander Jaftrey, another of the sponsors, was himself after-
wards provost. The extractor of these entries remarks, that the chief magistrate appears lo
have acted as sponsor only at the baptisms of the children of very influential citizens.

* With farther reference to this piece of pleasure ground, and an anxiety to collect every
scrap of matter which concerns Jamesone, we give the following entry, regarding a petition',
of date the 15th of January, 1645, given in to the town council of Aberdeen by "Mr John
Alexander, advocate in Edinburgh, makand mention that where that piece of ground callit
the play-field besyd )e Wolman-hiil (quhilk was set to umquhill George Jamesone, painter,
burges of Edinburgh in liferent, and buildet be him in a garden) is now unprofitable, and
that the said John Alexander, sone in law to the said umquhill George Jamesone, is desirous
to have the same peice of ground set to him in few heritablie to be houldeii of the piovest,
bailees, and of the burg he of Aberdene, for paxment of a reasonable lew dutie uirlie their-
for;' prau'ng the magistrates to set to him iir feu tack the foresaid pi.ce of ground : the
request is granted by the magistrates, and farther official mention is made of the transaction
of date the 10th November, 1646, where the " marches" of the garden are set forth in full.
This piece of ground was the ancient » Play-field " of the burgh, which remained disused,
alter the Keformation had terminated the pageants and mjsteries there performed. Persons
connected with Aberdeen will know the spot when the\ are informed, that it is the pi.ce of
flat ground extending from the well of Spa to Jack's brae, bounded on the east bv the Wool.
man hill, and the bum running at its foot; on the south by the Denbum, and the ridge of
ground on which Skene street now stands; on the west bv Jack's brae, and on the north by
the declivity occupied by the Gilcomston brewery. The appropriation of the spot to the
garden ot the painter is stiil noted by the name of a fountain, called " The Gurden Neuk
Well, i — Council Recurd of Aberdeen, liii. p. 37, 98.

GEORGE JAMESONE. 245

portraits of himself,) with his hat on : neither is the permission characteristic of
the monarch, nor its adoption by the artist ; and the peculiarity may be better
attributed to a slavish imitation of his master Rubens, in a practice which had
been sanctioned by the choice of Carracci and Guido.

It is probable that the patronage and notice of the monarch were the cir-
cumstances which introduced the paintings of Jamesone to the notice of the
nobility. He appears, soon after the period we have alluded to, to have com-
menced a laborious course of portrait-painting, then, as now, the most lucrative
branch of the art ; and the many portraits of their ancestors, still in possession
of families dispersed through various parts of Scotland, attest the extent of his
industry. The Campbells of Glenorchy, then an opulent and powerful family,
distinguished themselves by their patronage of Jamesone. What countenance
he may have obtained from other quarters we do not know, and the almost titter
silence regarding so great a man on the part of contemporaries, makes a docu-
ment which Walpole has rescued from oblivion, relative to his labours for the
family of Glenorchy, highly interesting. From a MS. on vellum, containing
the genealogy of the house of Glenorchy, begun in 1598, are taken the fol-
lowing extracts, written in 1635, page 52 : — " Item, the said Sir Coline Camp-
bell, (eighth laird of Glenorchy,) gave unto George Jamesone, painter in Edin-
burgh, forking Robert and king David Bruysses, kings of Scotland, and Charles
L, king of Great Brittane, France, and Ireland, and his majesties quein, and
for nine more of the queins of Scotland, their portraits, quhilks are set up in the
hall of Balloch (now Tay mouth), the sum of twa hundreth thrie scor pounds." —
" Mair the said Sir Coline gave to the said George Jamesone for the knight of
Lochow's lady, and the first countess of Argylle, and six of the ladys of Glen-
urquhay, their portraits, and the said Sir Coline his own" portrait, quhilks are
set up in the chalmer of deas of Balloch, ane hundreth four scoire punds."
There is a further memorandum, intimating that in 1635, Jamesone painted the
family tree of the house of Glenorchy, eight feet long by five broad. What
may have become of the portraits of Robert and David Bruce, and of the nine
queens, which must have taxed the inventive talents of the artist, we do not
know. Their loss may be, however, of little consequence, as we can easily ar-
gue from the general effect of Jamesone's productions, that his talent consisted
in giving life and expression to the features before him, and not in design.
The other paintings have, however, been carefully preserved by the family
into whose hands they fell. They consist of portraits of Sir Duncan Campbell,
the earl of Airth, John earl of Rothes, James marquis of Hamilton, Archibald
lord Napier, William earl of Marischal, chancellor Loudoun, lord Binning, the
carl of 3Iar, Sir Robert Campbell, Sir John Campbell, and the genealogical
tree mentioned in the memorandum. All these are, we believe, still to be seen
in good preservation in Taymouth castle, where in 1769 they were visited by
Pennant, who thus describes the genealogical tree : " That singular performance
of his, the genealogical picture, is in good preservation. The chief of the Ar-
gyle family is placed recumbent at the foot of a tree, with a branch ; on the
right is a single head of his eldest son, Sir Duncan Campbell, laird of Lochow ;
but on the various ramifications are the names of his descendants, and along the
body of the tree are nine small heads, in oval frames, with the names on the
margins, all done with great neatness : the second son was first of the house of
Breadalbane, which branched from the other above four hundred years ago.
In a corner is inscribed ' The Geneologie of the House of Glenorquhie, quhair-
of is descendit sundrie nobil and worthie houses. Jameson facieb at, 1635.'"'

Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, i. 24.
Tour, 1769, p. 87.

246 GEORGE JAMESONE.

After a life which must have been spent in great industry, and enjoying inde-
pendence, and even wealth, Jamesone died at Edinburgh in 1644, and was
buried without a monument in the Grey Friars' church there.

Walpole, who obtained his information from a relation of the painter, says,
" By his will, written with his own hand in July, 1G41, and breathing a spirit
of much piety and benevolence, he provides kindly for his wife and children,
and leaves many legacies to his relations and friends, particularly to lord Rothes
the king's picture from head to foot, and Mary with Martha in one piece : to
William Murray he gives the medals in his coffer; makes a handsome provision
for his natural daughter ; and bestows liberally on the poor. That he should be
in a condition to do all this, seems exti-aordinary, his prices having been so
moderate ; for, enumerating the debts due to him, he charges lady Haddington
for a whole length of her husband, and lady Seton, of the same dimensions,
frames and all, but three hundred marks : and lord Maxwell for his own picture
and his lady's to their knees, one hundred marks, both sums of Scots money."8
The average remuneration which Jamesone received for his portraits is calculated
at twenty pounds Scots, or one pound thirteen shillings and four pence sterling.
People have wondered at the extreme smallness of the sum paid to so great an
artist ; but, measured by its true standard, the price of necessary provisions, it
was in reality pretty considerable, and may easily be supposed to have enabled
an industrious man to amass a comfortable fortune. Walpole continues, " Mr
Jamesone (the relation from whom the facts of the account were received), has
likewise a memorandum written and signed by this painter, mentioning a MS.
in his possession, ' containing two hundred leaves of parchment of .excellent
write, adorned with diverse historys of our Saviour curiously limned,' which he
values at two hundred pounds sterling, a very large sum at that time ! What is
become of that curious book is not known." It is probable that the term
" sterling " affixed to the sum, is a mistake. It was seldom if ever used in Scot-
land at the period when Jamesone lived. We are not given to understand that
the " limning " was of the painter's own work, and we are not to presume he
was in possession of a volume, superior in value to the produce of many years
labour in his profession. The manuscript, though mentioned with an estimation
so disproportionate to that of the works of its proprietor, was probably some
worthless volume of monkish illuminations, of which it would waste time to trace
the ownership. The description might apply to a manuscript ** Mirror of the
Life of Christ," extant in the Advocates' Library.

We have already mentioned a considerable number of the portraits by Jame-
sone as extant in Tayiaouth castle. An almost equal number is in the possession
of the Alva family ; and others are dispersed in smaller numbers. Carnegie of
Southesk possesses portraits of some of his ancestors, by Jamesone, who was con-
nected with the family. Mr Carnegie, town clerk of Aberdeen, possesses
several of his pictures in very good preservation, and among them is the original
of the portrait of the artist himself, which has been engraved for this work.
Another individual in Aberdeen possesses a highly curious portrait by Jamesone
of the artist's uncle, David Anderson of Finzeauch, merchant-burgess of Aber-
deen, an eccentric character, the variety of whose occupations and studies pro-
cured him the epithet of " Davie do a' thing." Some of Jamesone's portraits
hang in the hall of Marischal college in a state of wretched preservation. Sir
Paul Menzies, provost of Aberdeen, presents us with a striking cast of counte-
nance boldly executed ; but in general these are among the inferior productions
of Jamesone. They are on board, the material on which he painted his earlier
productions (and which he afterwards changed for fine canvas), and are remark-

8 Anecdotts, i. 250.

GEORGE JAMESONE.

247

able for the stiffness of the hands, and the awkward arrangement of the dress ;
two defects, which, especially in the case of the former, he afterwards overcame.
There is in the same room a portrait of Charles I. of some merit, which the ex-
hibitor of the curiosities in the university generally attributes to Vandyke. It
is probably the work of Jamesone, but it may be observed, that there is more
calm dignity in the attitude, and much less expression, than that artist general-
ly exhibits. Walpole and others mention as extant in the King's college of
Aberdeen, a picture called the " Sibyls," partly executed by Jamesone, and
copied from living beauties in Aberdeen : if this curious production still exists in
the same situation, we are unaware of its being generally exhibited to strangers.
There is a picture in King's college attributed to Jamesone, which we would
fain bestow on some less celebrated hand. It is a view of King's college as ori-
ginally erected, the same from which the engraving prefixed to Orem's account
of the cathedral church of Old Aberdeen, is copied. It represents an aspect
much the same as that which Slezer has given in his Theatrum Scotiae, and, like
the works of that artist, who could exhibit both sides of a building at once, it
sets all perspective at defiance, and most unreasonably contorts the human figure.
In characterizing the manner of Jamesone, Walpole observes that " his excel-
lence is said to consist in delicacy and softness, with a clear and beautiful
colouring ; his shades not charged, but helped by varnish, with little appear-
ance of the pencil." This account is by one who has not seen any of the
artist's paintings, and is very unsatisfactory.

It is indeed not without reason, that the portraits of Jamesone have frequently
been mistaken for those of Vandyke. Both excelled in painting the human
countenance, — in making the flesh and blood project from the surface of the
canvas, and animating it with a soul within. That the Scottish artist may have
derived advantage from his association with the more eminent foreigner it were
absurd to deny ; but as they were fellow students, candour will admit, that the
advantage may have been at least partly repaid, and that the noble style in
which both excelled, may have been formed by the common labour of both.
It can scarcely be said that on any occasion Jamesone rises to the high dignity
of mental expression represented by Vandyke, nor does he exhibit an equal
grace, in the adjustment of a breast plate, or the hanging of a mantle. His
pictures generally represent hard and characteristic features, seldom with much
physical grace, and representing minds within, which have more of the fierce or
austere than of the lofty or elegant ; and in such a spirit has he presented be-
fore us the almost breathing forms of those turbulent and austere men connected
with the dark troubles of the times. The face thus represented seems generally
to have commanded the whole mind of the artist. The background presents
nothing to attract attention, and the outlines of the hard features generally start
from a ground of dingy dark brown, or deep grey. The dress, frequently of a
sombre hue, often fades away into the back ground, and the attitude, though
frequently easy, is seldom studied to impose. The features alone, with their
knotty brows, deep expressive eyes, and the shadow of the nose falling on the
lip — a very picturesque arrangement followed by Vandyke — alone demand the
attention of the spectator. Yet he could sometimes represent a majestic form
and attitude, as the well-known picture of Sir Thomas Hope testifies. We shall
notice one more picture by Jamesone, as it is probably one of the latest which
came from his brush, and exhibits peculiarities of style not to be met with in
others. This portrait is in the possession of Mr Skene of Kubislaw, and
represents his ancestor Sir George Skene of Fintray, who was born in 1619.
The portrait is of a young man past twenty ; and it will be remarked, that the
subject was only twenty-five years of age when the artist died. The picture is

248 GEORGE JARDINE, A.M.

authenticated from the circumstance of a letter being extant from the laird of
Skene to Sir George Skene, requesting a copy of his portrait " by Jamesone,"
and in accordance with a fulfilment of this request, a copy of the portrait we al-
lude to is in the family collection at Skene. Jamesone has here indulged in
more fullness and brilliancy of colouring than is his general custom : the young
man has a calm aspect ; his head is covered with one of the monstrous wigs then
just introduced ; he is in a painter's attitude, even to the hand, which is
beautifully drawn, and far more graceful than those of Jamesone generally are.
On the whole, tins portrait has more of the characteristics of Sir Peter Lely,
than of Vandyke.

Jnmesone has been termed the " Vandyke of Scotland," but he may with
equal right claim the title of the Vandyke of Britain. Towards the latter end
of Elizabeth's reign, Hrlliard and Oliver had become somewhat distinguished as
painters in miniature, and they commanded some respect, more from the in-
feriority of others, than from their own excellence ; but the first inhabitant
of Great Britain, the works of whose brush could stand comparison with foreign
painters, was Jamesone.

A Latin elegy was addressed to the memory of Jamesone by David Wedder-
burn ; and his friend and fellow townsman Arthur Johnston, (nhose portrait had
been painted by Jamesone), has left, in one of his numerous epigrams, a beauti-
ful poetical tribute to his memory. After his death, the art he had done so
much to support, languished in Scotland. His daughter, who may have in-
herited some portion of plastic genius, has left behind fruits of her industry in
a huge mass of tapestry, which still dangles from the gallery of the church of
St Nicholas in Aberdeen. This lady's second husband was Gregory, the mathe-
matician. A descendant of the same name as the painter has already been al-
luded to, as an engraver in the earlier part of the 1 8th century, and John
Alexander, another descendant, who returned from his studies in Italy in 1720,
acquired celebrity as an inventor of portraits of queen Alary.

JARDINE, George, A.3I., for many years professor of logic in the university
of Glasgow, was born in the year 1742, at Wandal, in the upper ward of
Lanarkshire, where his predecessors had resided for nearly two hundred years.
The barony of Wandal formerly belonged to the Jardines of Applegirth ; a
younger son of whom appears to have settled there about the end of the six-
teenth century, and to have also been vicar of the parish during the time of
episcopacy. The barony having passed from the Applegirth to the Douglas
family, Mr Jardine's forefathers continued for several generations as tenants in
the lands of Wandal, under that new race of landlords. His mother was a
daughter of Weir of Birkwood in the parish of Lesmahagow.

After receiving his elementary education at the parish school, he, in October,
1760, repaired to Glasgow college, and entered as a member of a society,
where, with very little interruption, he was destined to spend the whole of his
life. After going through the preliminary classes, where his abilities and dili-
gence attracted the attention and acquired for him the friendship of several of
the professors, he entered the divinity hall under Dr Trail, then professor of
theology, and in due time obtained license as a preacher from the presbytery
of Linlithgow. He did not, however, follow out that profession, having, from
the good wishes of several of the professors of Glasgow college, reason to hope
that he might eventually be admitted to a chair, which was the great object of
his ambition.

In 1771, he was employed by baron Mure of Caldwell, to accompany his
two sons to France, and to superintend their education at an academy in Paris.
The baron, who was at that time one of the most influential men in Scotland,

GEORGE JARDINE, A.M. 240

and who lived much in the literary circle of Edinburgh, obtained from his
friend David Hume, letters of introduction to several of the French philosophers
of that day; by means of which 3Ir Jardine had the advantage of being
acquainted with Helvetius and with D'AIembert, who were then in the zenith of
their fame, and whose manners he used to describe as presenting a striking
contrast, — Helvetius having all the style and appearance of a French nobleman
of the first fashion, while D'AIembert preserved a primitive simplicity of dress
and manner, at that time quite unusual in Paris. During his residence there,
he lived a good deal in the society of Dr Gemm, the uncle of Mr Huskisson,
who was then settled as a physician in Paris, and noted not only for his emi-
nence in his profession, but for his talents as a philosopher. Dr Gemm was an
ardent friend to liberty, and at that time did not scruple to anticipate, to those
with whom he was intimate, the fall of the French monarchy as an event at no
great distance.

Soon after his return from France, in July, 1773, a vacancy occurred in the
humanity chair of Glasgow, by the death of Mr Muirhead ; for which a very
keen competition arose between him and Mr Richardson, the result of which
was doubtful until the very morning of the election, when, notwithstanding
every exertion made in behalf of Mr Jardine, by lord Frederic Campbell, the
lord rector, Mr liichardson carried the election by a majority of one vote.
Upon this occasion, Mr Clow, the professor of logic, who had always befriended
Mr Jardine, though, from a prior engagement, he, on this occasion, felt himself
obliged to support the other candidate, told him not to be discouraged, for that
there might ere long be an opportunity of his being admitted into their society.
The expectations which 3Ir Clow thus kindly threw out, he very soon realized,
for, towards the end of the following session, he intimated to the college, that,
from his advanced age, he required to be relieved from the labour of teaching,
and expressed a wish that Mr Jardine might be associated with him in the pro-
fessorship. About this time, too, Dr Moor, professor of Greek, gave in his resig-
nation ; and in June, 1774, upon the same day, the faculty of Glasgow college
elected Mr Young to the Greek chair, and appointed the subject of this memoir
assistant and successor to Mr Clow.

By this arrangement, the chai'ge of the three junior classes of Glasgow
college came, at the same time, to devolve upon three men in the vigour of life,
who all entered most zealously into the business of their respective departments,
in which they soon introduced vei'y material improvements : — in particular, they
contrived to infuse a spirit of emulation among their pupils by the institution
of prizes publicly distributed at the end of each session, to those who had dis-
tinguished themselves during the course — an institution which was gradually
extended to other classes at Glasgow, and which has now been generally intro-
duced into the other uuiversities. These prizes have been increased during recent
years, by the munificence of several of the Lords Rectors, and the generosity of
public-spirited individuals. There are prizes bearing the names of James Watt,
Lord Jeffrey, Mr James Ewing, the Marquis of Breadalbane, &c, arising from
large sums of money permanently invested for that purpose.

The business of the logic class had hitherto consisted in an explanation of the
Dialectics of Aristotle, followed up, towards the end of the course, by an exposi-
tion of the most abstruse doctrines of metaphysics and ontology, embracing the
general attributes of being, existence, essence, unity, necessity, &c, and other
similar abstract conceptions of pure intellect. For the first year or two, the new
professor followed the same track ; but he soon discovered, from the examination of
his students, that by far the greater number of them comprehended very little ofthe
doctrines explained ; that a few only of superior abilities could give any account of

250 GEORGE JARDINE, A.M.

them at all, and that the most of the young men remembered only a few peculiar
phrases or technical expressions which they delivered by rote, unaccompanied by
any distinct notion of their meaning. Besides, even when these abstract doctrines
were understood, intelligent persons who sent their sons to tbe logic class, could
not fail to observe, that the subjects to which their attention was directed had no
relation to any profession or employment whatever, and that little could be
derived from prelections on such topics, which was likely either to adorn con-
versation, or to qualify the student for the concerns of active life. Mr Jardine
soon perceived, therefore, the necessity of a thorough and radical change on the
subjects of his lectures, and after a simple analysis of the different powers of the
understanding, with the means of their improvement, accompanied with a short
account of Aristotle's logic, he devoted by far the greater part of the course to
the original progress of language ; the principles of general grammar ; the
elements of taste and criticism ; and to the rules of composition, with a view ta
the promotion of a correct style, illustrated by examples. His course of lectures
was, accordingly, entirely new-modelled, and he soon found that a great pro-
portion of the students entered with awakened interest upon the consideration of
these subjects, instead of the listless inattention which had been bestowed on the
abstract doctrines of metapbysics.

But the greatest improvement which he introduced into the mode of conduct-
ing the business of the class, Mas a regular system of examinations and exercises.
He was of opinion with Dr Barrow, " that communication of truth is only one
half of the business of education, and is not even the most important half. The
most important part is the habit of employing, to some good purpose, the acqui-
sitions of memory by tbe exercise of the understanding ; and till this be acquire.!,
the acquisition will not be found of much use." The mere delivery of a lecture,
especially to very young persons, he held of very little advantage, unless they
Mere placed in the situation of those who Mere boimd to give an account of it ;
and the exposition of the rules of composition to be of little avail, unless accom-
panied by the application of those rules by the student himself. Accordingly,
at a separate hour in the forenoon, the students Mere examined each day on the
lecture of the morning, and written essays were required from time to time on
subjects more or less connected Mith these embraced in the lectures. These
Mere regularly criticised by the professor in the presence of the class ; and after
the principles of criticism had been explained, they Mere, towards the end of
the session, distributed among the students themselves, Mho Mere required to
subjoin a Mritten criticism upon each other's performances, under the superin-
tendence of the professor ; and prizes Mere bestowed at the end of the session,
according to the determination of the students, to those who excelled in these
daily examinations and exercises. This system of practical instruction is
explained in all its details in a work published by Mr Jardine before he relin-
quished the charge of the logic class, entitled " Outlines of Philosophical Edu-
cation," in which is to be found a full exposition of a system of academical
discipline, which Mas pursued in the logic class of GlasgoM-, during the period
of fifty years it Mas under his direction, and Mhich was found by experience to
be attended with the most beneficial effects.

The details of this system Mere, of course, attended Mith no small additional
labour to the professor ; for, besides two and occasionally three hours each day
of public teaching, he had every evening to examine and correct the essays of
the students, Mhich Mere in such numbers as to occupy a large portion of his
time. He Mas reconciled, however, to this tedious and laborious occupation by
a thorough conviction of its great practical utility, Mhich each year's additional
experience tended more and more to confirm. He had the satisfaction, too, cf

GEORGE JARDINE, A.M. 251

knowing that his labours were not without success, both from his students them-
selves, many of whom did not hesitate to ascribe their advancement in after-life
to the active and industrious habits acquired in the logic class, and also from the
opinion of the public at large, which was very clearly evinced by the progressive
increase of the number of students ; the average of which, when he entered upon
the office, in the public class was about fifty, but which increased to nearly two
hundred. This was, no doubt, partly owing to general causes, applicable to the
times, but to a certain extent it was assuredly to be attributed to the great esti-
mation in which this class was held by the public at large. Few teachers have
ever enjoyed so large a portion of the respect and affection of their pupils. This
was owing not a little to the warm interest which they could not fail to perceive
he took in their progress, — to his strict impartiality, which admitted of no pre-
ference or distinction of any sort except that of talents and industry, — and to a
kindly, affectionate, and almost paternal regard, which marked the whole of his
demeanour to his students — who, dispersed, as they afterwards came to be, into
all quarters of the globe, have very generally concurred in expressions of cordial
esteem to their old preceptor. With such a hold upon the regard and affection
of his class, he scarcely ever required to have recourse to the ordinary means of
enforcing academical discipline.

From 1774, when he first entered upon his office, till 1824, when he gave
up teaching, the business was systematically carried on in the way here described,
with such improvements from time to time as were suggested by his experience ;
and he possessed such an excellent constitution, aided by a tempor remarkably
cheerful, that during the whole fifty years he was scarcely a single day absent from
his class on account of indisposition. His predecessor, Mr Clow, survived till 1788,
having the year before his death resigned to his successor the whole privileges
of the office, with his seat in the faculty ; and, notwithstanding the very labo-
rious duties which he had imposed on himself by his mode of teaching, he still
contrived to devote a portion of his time to the extrication of the patrimonial
affairs of the college, and the arrangement of their accounts, which his business
habits enabled him to undertake without much difficulty, and which, chiefly by
his exertions, were brought from a state of comparative confusion into a very
satisfactory arrangement. In 1792, likewise, when the royal infirmary was
erected at Glasgow, lie bestowed very great labour in promoting the undertaking,
and for more than twenty years afterwards officiated as secretary, taking on
himself the chief management of the affairs of the institution, from which he only
retired a short time before his death, when he received the thanks of the mana-
gers for the unwearied attention he had bestowed on their business for nearly
thirty years.

The private life of Mr Jardine did not present any great variety of incident.
During the session he lived in college in terms of great friendship with several
of his colleagues, particularly with the late professors Millar and Young, whose
views in college affairs generally coincided with his own ; and in summer he
resided at a small property which he purchased in the neighbourhood of Hamil-
ton, which he took great delight in adorning, and entered with much relish
upon the employments of a country life, which formed an excellent relaxation
after his winter labours. His residence in that quarter naturally occasioned a
connexion with the presbytery of Hamilton, who, for upwards of thirty years,
returned him as their representative to the General Assembly, which he regularly
attended, taking a considerable share in the business, and generally coinciding in
opinion with the late Sir Henry Moncrieff" Wellwood, with whom he lived for a
great many years in habits of the most unreserved friendship. One of the last
public appearances which he made was in May, 1825, upon the question of

252 SIR ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON.

pluralities, to which he had, on all occasions, been a determined adversary;
when he opened the second day's debate by a forcible speech on the impolicy
of uniting professorships with church livings ; which, considering his great age,
was viewed at the time as a very remarkable effort, and was listened to with
profound attention.

In 1824, after having taught for fully half a century, he thought himself
fairly entitled to retire from his labours. Those who attended the class during
that last session did not perceive any abatement either of his zeal or energy ; and
during that winter he was not absent from his class a single hour. But he fore-
saw that the time could not be far distant when these exertions must cease, and
he preferred retiring before he was actually compelled to do so by the infirmi-
ties of age. At the end of that session, he accordingly requested his colleagues
to select a person to fill his place ; declaring that he left the arrangement
entirely to them, and that he would not interfere either directly or indirectly
in the appointment, farther than by expressing an earnest wish that they might
select one who would take a zealous interest in the prosperity of the class, and
would continue the same system of active employment on the part of the stu-
dents which had been found to be attended with so much benefit. Their choice
fell upon the Rev. Robert Buchanan, minister of Peebles, who had himself
carried off the first honour at this class, whose literary attainments are of a high
order, and who zealously continues to follow out the same system of daily
examinations and regular exercises, which was introduced by his predecessor.

Upon the occasion of his retirement from public teaching, a number of those
who had been his pupils determined to show their respect by giving him a public
dinner in the town hall of Glasgow, which was attended by upwards of two
hundred gentlemen, many of whom came from a great distance to evince their
respect for their venerable instructor. Mr Mure of Caldwell, his earliest pupil,
was in the chair, and the present Marquis of Breadalbane, who had been peculiarly
under his charge at Glasgow college, and to whom he was very much attached,
came from a great distance to officiate as croupier.

Mr Jardine survived about three years after his retirement from public duties ;
during which time he resided as usual during winter in college, and continued
to take an active interest in the affairs of the society. While attending the
General Assembly in May, 182G, he was seized with a bilious attack — almost
the first illness he ever experienced — from which he never completely recovered,
and he sank under the infirmities of age on the 27th of January, 1827, having
just completed his 85th year ; contemplating his dissolution with the composure of
a Christian, and expressing his gratitude to the author of his being for the many
blessings which had fallen to his lot ; of which he did not consider as the least
the numerous marks of esteem and regard evinced by his old pupils, with whom
he Mas ever delighted to renew a kindly intercourse. His death was deeply
regretted by the society of which he had been so long a member, and by the
inhabitants of Glasgow, where he was very generally respected and esteemed.

In 1776, Mr Jardine married Miss Lindsay of Glasgow, whom he survived
about twelve years, and by whom ho had one son, John Jardine, advocate, who
held the office of sheriff of Ross and Cromarty, and died in 1850.

JOHNSTON, (Sir) Archibald, of Warriston", (a judge by the designation of lord
Warriston,) an eminent lawyer and statesman, was the son of James Johnston of
Beirholm in Annandale, a descendant of the family of Johnston in Aberdeen-
shire, and who for some time followed a commercial life in Edinburgh, being
mentioned in a charter of 1G08, as " the king's merchant" The mother of the
subject of our memoir was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Craig, the first
great lawyer produced by Scotland, and whose life has already been given in the

SIR ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON. 2f>3

present work. Of the date of the birth of Archibald Johnston, and the circum-
stances of his education, no memorial has been preserved: he entered as advo-
cate in 1633. In the great national disturbances which commenced in 1637,
Johnston took an early and distinguished part; acting, apparently, as only
second to Sir Thomas Hope in giving legal advice to the covenanters. The
second or general supplication of the nation to Charles I. for relief from his
episcopal innovations was prepared by the earl of Rothes and Archibald John-
ston ; the former being preferred on account of his distinction as an active and
influential partisan, and the latter from the general character given of him by
his friends, as singularly well acquainted with the history and constitution of the
genuine presbyterian church of Scotland. This document, which was presented
to the privy council on the 24th of September, 1637, in the presence of a band
of the supporters of its principles, which made the act more solemn than a regal
pageant, leaves for the politicians of all ages a fine specimen of that calmness
in reasoning and statement which men of judgment and principle know to be
necessary for the preservation of order in a state, when they are representing
grievances, however deep, to a governor, however unreasonable ; and of that
firmness of position, which, when supported by a hold of popular opinion, must
either be allowed to prevail, or leave to him who obstructs it the odium of the
confusion which may follow. After the supplicants, who had increased to a vast
body of men, spreading over the whole of the southern part of Seotland, had
united themselves under a representative constitution, termed " the Tables," a
renewal of the national covenant was judged a useful measure for a combination
of effort, and the insurance of a general union and purpose. Johnston and
the celebrated Alexander Henderson were employed to suit the revered obliga-
tion to which their ancestors had sworn, to the new purpose for which it was
applied, by including the protestations against the liturgy of the episcopal
church, under the general declarations which it previously bore against the doc-
trine of the church of Rome, and adducing authorities in support of the new ap-
plication. The obligation was signed in March, 1638, under circumstances too
well known to be recapitulated.1

Johnston, although from his secondary rank, he did not then assume the au-
thority of a leader, was, from his knowledge and perseverance, more trusted to
in the labours of the opposition than any other man, and his name continually
recurs as the agent in every active measure. To the unyielding and exasperat-
ing proclamation, which was read at the market-cross of Edinburgh on the 22nd
of February, 1638, he prepared and read aloud, on a scaffold erected for the
purpose, the celebrated protestation in name of the Tables, while the dense
crowd who stood around prevented the issuers of the proclamation from depart-
ing before they heard the answer to their challenge. On the 8th of July, the
king issued another proclamation, which, though termed " A proclamation of
favour and grace," and though it promised a maintenance of the religion 'pre-
sently professed, voithinthe kingdom without innovation, an interim suspension of
the service book, a rectification of the high commission, and the loudly called
for general assembly and parliament, was, with reason, deemed more dangerous
than a defiance. Johnston had a protestation prepared for the delicacy of this
trying occasion, which, with the decorum from which he seems on no occasion
to have departed, he, " in all humility, with submissive reverence," presented in
presence of the multitude.8 When, on the 22nd of September, the parliament and

1 For such matters connected with this period as are here, to prevent repetition, but slight-
ly alluded to, vide the memoirs of Henderson ; of Montrose ; and of the first duke of Hamil-
ton, in this collection.

'Balfour's Annals, ii. 27G.

25-i SIR ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON.

general assembly were proclaimed, he prepared another protestation in a similar
tone to the former, which he read in his own name, and in that of the earl of
Montrose, for the nobles ; Gibson younger of Durie for the barons ; George Por-
terfield, merchant in Glasgow, for the burghs ; and Hem-y Pollock, minister of
Edinburgh, for the clergy. It will be easily conjectured that, at the period
when he was thus publicly employed, Johnston was privately acting as a partisan
of the covenant, and an enemy of prelacy and arbitrary power, by all the means
which a political agent invariably uses. At such a period the more we can
trace the private proceeding's and feelings of the public man, the better can we
hold him up as a biographical example. As the only curious document con-
nected with our subject at this period of his existence, we give the following
somewhat mutilated letter to Johnston, from a person who did not choose to
sign his name ; it is characteristic of the feeling of the party, and of the occu-
pation of the subject of our memoir; and if to a speculative politician it may
breathe an illiberal spirit, let him remember that there never existed a party,
however pure, which did not wish to suppress the opposite party, and that not
having power and numbers on their side, the opponents of the covenant were in
the situation of disturbers of society, in as far as they wished to impose rules on
the whole kingdom.

" For Mr Archibald Johnston of Warriston, advocate.

u Dear Christian brother and courageous Protestant, — Upon some rumour of the Prelate
of St Andrews, his coming over the 'water, and finding it altogether inconvenient that he or
any of that kynd should show themselves peacabl y in publicke, some course was taken how
kee might be enterteyned in such places as he should come unto : Tfe are now informed that
hee (will) not come, but that Broughen is in Edinburgh or thereabout; it is the advyce of
your friends here, that in a private way some course may be taken for his terror and disgrace
if he offer to show himself in puhlick. Think upon the best r . . . by the advyce of your
friends there. I fear that their publick appearance at Glasgow shall be prejudiciall to our cause.
We are going to take order (with) his cheefe supporters there, Glaidstaines, Skrymgoor, and
Hall}burton . . . Wishing you both protection and direction from your maister, I con-
tinew, youre owne whome you know. G."

" 28th October, 1638." 3

Such was the feeling in which the leaders of the Covenant prepared them-
selves for the renowned General Assembly held at Glasgow in November and De-
cember, 1638. On that occasion Johnston was, by a unanimous vote, chosen
clerk of the assembly. On its being discovered that his precursor had been
enabled to procure only two of the seven volumes of minutes of the general as-
semblies held since the Reformation, the moderator, probably in pursuance of a
preconcerted measure, called upon all those who were aware of the existence of
any others, to give information on the subject to the assembly. Johnston here-
upon produced the other five volumes — how obtained by him we know not — by
which service he greatly increased the confidence previously placed in him. On
the day before the session terminated, the assembly elected him procurator for
the church, and, as was afterwards ratified by act of parliament, he received for
the former of these offices 500, and for the latter 1000 nierks yearly.4

Johnston was one of the commissioners appointed by the Scots to conduct
the treaty at Berwick. The General Assembly, which was the consequence of
that pacification, passes over, and the unsatisfactory parliament which followed,-
is commenced, ere we again observe Johnston's name connected with any public
affairs, beyond the usual routine of his duties. The parliament commenced its

8 Wodrow's Collection, Advoc. Lib., vol. lxvi. No. 58

• Balf. An. ii. 301,313-, Scots Worthies, 271 •, Act. Pari. v. cl6.

SIR ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON.

255

sittings on the 31st of August, 16' 3 9. On the 14th of November, Sir Thomas
Hope, in his official capacity as lord advocate, produced a warrant from the
king addressed to the commissioners, which, on the ground that the royal pre-
rogative was interested in the proceedings, ordered a prorogation to the 2nd of
June, 1640. The warrant was read by Sir Alexander Gibson of Durie, one of
the clerks of session, on which the lord advocate took the usual protest, calling
on the clerk actually to dissolve the meeting. On this, the clerk, who was per-
forming an unpleasing office, answered, ** that he had already read the said
warrant containing the said prorogacioun, and Avas readie to read the same as
oft as he should be commanded, but could not otherways prorogat the parlia-
ment." The earl of Rothes added to his embarrassment, by challenging him to
u do nothing but as he would be answerable to the parliament, upon payne of
his life." And the junior clerk, Mr William Scott, being called on to dissolve
the meeting, sagaciously declined officiating in the presence of his senior.
Johnston then came forward, and, in name of the three estates, read a declara-
tion, purporting that his majesty, having, in compliance with the wish of his
faithful subjects, called a free assembly and parliament, and submitted mat-
ters ecclesiastical to the former, and matters civil to the latter ; the com-
missioner had (it was presumed) without the full permission of the king,
attempted to dissolve the parliament — a measure which, the estates main-
tained, could not be constitutionally taken, without the consent of the parliament
itsel£ With that respect for the person of the king which, as the advo-
cates of peaceful measures, the covenanters at that period always professed
to maintain, the document proceeds to state that the estates are constrained to
the measure they adopt by " our zeal to acquit ourselfs according to our place,
both to the king's majesty, whose honour at all tymes, but especially convened
in parliament, we ought to have in high estimation, and to the kingdom which
we represent, and whose liberties sail never be prostituted or vilified by us."
Having denounced the prorogation as unconstitutional, this remarkable state-
paper thus proceeds — ** But becaus we know that the eyes of the world ar upon
us, that declarations have been made and published against us, and malice is
prompted for hir obloquies, and wateth on with opin mouth to snatch at the
smallest shadow of disobedience, disservice, or disrespect to his majesty's com-
mandments, that our proceedings may be made odious to such as know not the
way how thes commandments are procured from his majesty, nor how they are
made knowin and intimat to us, and doe also little consider that we are not now
private subjects bot a sitting parliament, quhat national prejudices we have sus-
tenit in tyme past by misinformation, and quhat is the present state of the king-
dom ;" so arguing, the presenters of the declaration, that they may put far from
them " all shaw or appearance of what may give his majesty the least discontent,''
resolve, in the mean time, merely to vindicate their rights by their declaration,
and, voluntarily adjourning, resolve to elect some of each estate, as a perman-
ent committee, endowed with the full powers of a parliamentary committee, to
" await his majesty's gracious answer to our humble and just demands, and far-
ther to remonstrat our humble desires to his majesty upon all occasions; that
hereby it may be made most manifest, against all contradiction, that it wes never
our intention to denie his majesty any parte of the civill and temporal obedience
which is due to all kings from their subjects, and from us to our dread soverane
after a special maner, bot meerlie to preserve our religion, and the liberties ot
the kingdome, without which religion cannot continue long in safetie." — " And
if it sail happen," continues this prophetic declaration, " (which God forbid)
that, efter we have made our remonstrances, and to the uttermost of our power
and duetie used all lawfull meanes for his majesty's information, that our mali-

256 SIR ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON.

cious enemies, who are not considerable, sail, by their suggestions and lyes, pre-
vaill against the informations and generall declarations of a whole kingdom, we
tak God and men to witness, that we are free of the outrages and insolencies
that may be committed in the mean tyme, and that it sail be to us no imputation,
that we are constrained to tak such course as may best secure the kirk and
kingdome from the extremitie of confusion and miserie."

It is to be remarked, that this act of the covenanters did not assume the autho-
rity of a protest ; it was a statement of grievances to which, for a short time, they
would submit, supplicating a remedy. The assertion that the crown had not
the sole power of proroguing parliament, may be said to be an infringement of
prerogative; but this very convenient term must owe its application to practice,
and it appears that the royal power on this point had not been accurately fixed
by the constitution of the Scottish parliament. The choice of the lords of
articles by the commissioner — a step so far a breach of " privilege " (the op-
posite term to prerogative), that it rendered a parliament useless as an indepen-
dent body — was likewise remonstrated against, along with the application of
supplies without consent of parliament.

The earls of Dunfermline and Loudon were sent as commissioners to represent
the declaration to the king. " They behaved themselves," says Clarendon,
u. in all respects, with the confidence of men employed by a foreign state,
refused to give any account but to the king himself; and even to the king
himself gave no other reason for what was done, but the authority of the doers,
and the necessity that required it ; that is, that they thought it necessary :
but then they polished their sturdy behaviour with all the professions of submis-
sion and duty which their language could afford."

As connected with this mission, some historians have alluded to, and others
have narrated, a dark intrigue, of which Johnston was the negative instrument ;
a matter which has never been cleared up. We shall give it in the words of
Burnet, the nephew of Johnston, and who had therefore some reason to know
the facts. M After the first pacification, upon the new disputes that arose, when
the earls of Loudoun and Dumfermling were sent up with the petition from the
covenanters, the lord Saville came to them, and informed them of many parti-
culars, by which they saw the king was highly irritated against them. He took
great pains to persuade them to come with their army into England. They
very unwillingly hearkened to that proposition, and looked on it as a design
from the court to ensnare them, making the Scots invade England, by which
this nation might have been provoked to assist the king to conquer Scotland.
It is true, he hated the earl of Strafford so much, that they saw no cause to suspect
him; so they entered into a treaty with him about it. The lord Saville assured
them, he spoke to them in the name of the most considerable men in England,
and he showed them an engagement under their hands to join with them, if
they would come into England, and refuse any treaty but what should be con-
firmed by a parliament of England. They desired leave to send this paper into
Scotland, to which, after much seeming difficulty, he consented : so a cane was
hollowed, and this was put within it; and one Frost, afterwards secretary to the
committee of both kingdoms, was sent down with it as a poor traveller. It was
to be communicated only to three persons — the earls of Rothes and Argylc, and
to Warriston, the three chief confidants of the covenanters. * * * * To
these three only this paper was to be showed, upon an oath of secrecy : and it
was to be deposited in Warriston's hands. They were only allowed to publish
to the nation that they were sure of a very great and unexpected assistance,
which, though it was to be kept secret, would appear in due time. This they
published ; and it was looked on as an artifice to draw in the nation : but it was

SIR ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON. 257

afterwards found to be a cheat indeed, but a cheat of lord Saville's, who had
forged all those subscriptions. * * * The lord Saville's forgery came to
be discovered. The king knew it ; and yet he was brought afterwards to trust
him, and to advance him to be earl of Sussex. The king pressed my uncle
(Johnston) to deliver him the letter, who excused himself upon his oath : and
not knowing what use might be made of it, he cut out every subscription, and
sent it to the person for whom it was forged. The imitation was so exact, that
every man, as soon as he saw his hand simply by itself, acknowledged that he
could not have denied it."3 Burnet had certainly the best opportunities for
both a public and private acquaintance with such an event, and the circum-
stance has been at least hinted at by others ; but Mr Laing justly remarks that
" in their conferences with these noblemen, and with Pyra and Hambden, the
Scottish commissioners during their residence in London must have received
such secret assurances of support, that, without this forged invitation, the com-
mittee of Estates would have chosen to transfer the war into England."

At the parliament which met on the 2nd of June, 1640, the representative of
majesty in that body choosing to absent himself, or dreading the danger of a
journey to Scotland, the Estates proceeded to reduce themselves to a formal and
deliberative body, by the choice of a president. To this convention Johnston
produced a petition from the General Assembly, which had been ratified by the
privy council, praying for a legislative ratification of the covenant, and an order
that it should be enforced on the inhabitants of the country with all civil
pains,7 — a requisition which the convention was not in a disposition to refuse.
On the 11 th of June, by the 34th act of this parliament, the celebrated commit-
tee of forty, having, in absence of the superior body which called it into existence,
the full legislative power of a republican congress, was elected, and the members
were divided betwixt the camp and Edinburgh. Our surprise that so influential
and laborious a man as Johnston was not chosen a member of this body, is re-
lieved by the place of higher, though somewhat anomalous trust to which we find
him appointed, as general agent and adviser to the body — a sort of leader,
without being a constituent member. " And because," says the act, " there
will fall out in the camp a necessitie either of treatties, consultations, or public
declarations, to schaw the reasones of the demands and proceedings in the as-
6emblie and parliament, and the prejudices agains either of them, the Estates
ordaynes Mr Archibald Johnston, procurator for the^kirk, as best acquaint with
these reasons and prejudices, to attend his excellence (the general) and to be
present at all occasions with the said committee, for their farther information,
and clearing thairanent"3 Johnston was one of the eight individuals appointed
to treat with the English commissioners at Rippon, by an act of the great com-
mittee of management, dated the 30th of September, I640.9 When this treaty
was transferred to London, Johnston was chosen a member of the committee,
along with Henderson, as supernumeraries to those appointed from the Estates,
and probably with the peculiar duty of watching over the interests of the church,
" because many things may occurre concerning the church and assemblies
thereof."10

The proceedings and achievements of this body are so well known, that, in
an article which aims at giving such memorials of its subject, as are not to be
readily met with in the popular histories, they need not be repeated. On
the 25th day of September, 1641, Johnston produced in parliament a petition
that he might be exonerated from all responsibility as to the public measures
with which he had for the previous four years been connected, mentioning the

* Burnet, 37, 39. 41. • Laing, iii. 104. 7 Act. Pari., v. 293.

* \ct. Par , v. 311. » Balfour's An., ii. 408. ™ Ball-. An., ii. 4l(j.

III. 2 K

258

SIR ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON.

important office which he held as adviser to the commissioners attending on the
motions at the camp, and the duties he was called on to perform at the treaty
of Rippon and London ; and observing, that it has been considered necessary
that others so employed should have their conduct publicly examined in parlia-
ment, he craves that all requisite inquiry may immediately be made as to his
own proceedings ; that, if he has done any thing " contrair to their instructions,
or prejudiciall to the publict, he may undergoe that censure which the wrongers
of the countrey and abusers of such great trust deserves ;" but if it has been
found that he has done his duty, " then," he says, " doe I in all humility begg,
that, seing by God's assistance and blessing the treattie of peace is closed, and
seeing my employment in thir publict business is now at an end, that before I
returne to my private affaires and calling, from the which these fouryeires I have
been continually distracted, I may obtaine from his gracious majesty and your
lordships, an exoneration of that charge, and an approbation of my former ca-
riage." The exoneration was granted, and the act ratifying it stated, that after
due examination, the Estates found that Johnston had ** faithfullie, diliegentlie,
and cairfullie behaved himselff in the foresaid chairge, employments, and trust
put upon him, in all the passages thairof, as he justly deserves thair treu testi-
monie of his approven fidelitie and diligence."11

In 1641, when the king paid his pacificatory visit to Scotland, Johnston ob-
tained, among others, a liberal peace-offering. He had fixed his eyes on the
office of lord register, probably as bearing an affinity to his previous occupa-
tions ; but the superior influence of Gibson of Durie prevailed in competition
for that situation : he received, however, the commission of an ordinary lord of
session, along with a liberal pension, and the honours of knighthood. During
the sitting of the parliament we find him appointed as a commissioner, to treat
with the king on the supplementary matters which were not concluded at the
treaty of Rippon, and to obtain the royal consent to the acts passed during the
session. Much about the same period, he was appointed, along with others, to
make search among the records contained in the castle, for points of accusation
against the " incendiaries ;" the persons whom he and his colleagues had just
displaced in the offices of state and judicature. It- may be sufficient, and will
save repetition, to mention, that we find him appointed in the same capacity
which we have already mentioned, in the recommissions of the committee of Es-
tates, and in the other committees, chosen to negotiate with the king, similar to
those we have already described, among which may be noticed the somewhat
menacing committee of 1641, appointed to treat as to commerce, the naturaliza-
tion of subjects, the demands as to war with foreigners, the Irish rebellion, and
particularly as to " the brotherlie supplie and assistance" of the English parlia-
ment to the Scottish army.12

In the parliament of 1643, Sir Archibald Johnston represented the county
of Edinburgh, and was appointed to the novel situation of speaker to the barons,
as a separate estate. In this capacity, on the 7th of June, 1644, he moved the
house to take order concerning the " unnatural rebellion" of Montrose,13 and
somewhat in the manner of an impeachment, he moved a remonstrance against
the earl of Carmvath, followed by a commission to make trial of his conduct,
along with that of Traquair, of which Johnston was a member.14 During the
period when, as a matter of policy, the Scots in general suspended their judg-
ment between the contending parties in England, Warriston seems early to have
felt, and not to have concealed, a predilection for the cause of the parliament,

11 Act Pari., v. 414.

13 Balfour's Anecdotes, iii. 177.

» Act. Par., v. 357, 371, 372. 489, &c.
11 Act Pari., vi. 6. 8.

SIR ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON.

259

"( !

ami was the person who moved that the general assembly should throw the weight
of their opinion in that scale.15

Johnston had been named as one of the commissioners, chosen on the 9th
August, 1643, for the alleged purpose of mediating betwixt Charles I, and his
parliament ; but Charles, viewing him as a dangerous opponent, objected to
providing him with a safe conduct, and he appears to have remained in Edin-
burgh. He, however, conducted a correspondence with the commissioners who
repaired to London, as a portion of which, the subjoined letter to him from the
earl of Loudon, which throws some light on the policy of the Scots at that
juncture, may be interesting.16

15 A curious evidence of his opinion;:, and the motives of his political conduct at this period,
exists, in the form of some remarks on the aspect of the times, which appear to have been
addressed to his friend lord Loudon. The manuscript is in scroll, very irregularly written,
and with numerous corrections; circumstances which wi 1 account for any unintelligibility in
the portion we extract. It bears date the 21st of June, 1642. " Seeing "thir kingdoms most
stand ai.d fall together, and that at the first design in all thir late troubles, so the hist ef-
fort of ttaes evil counsels prevailing stil to the suppression of religion and liberty and the erec-
tion of poperye and arbitrary power, it is earnestlye desyrd by good Christians and patriots
that the question of the warr be right stated, as a warr for religion and libertie, against
p:ipists and prelates, and their abackers and adherents; and that now, in thair straits and dif-
ficulties, they might enter in a covenant with God and amongst themselves, for the reforma-
tion of the churche, abolishing of popery and prelacy out of England and Scotland, and
preservation of the roule and peace of thir kingdoms, qk without dimunition of his majes-
ty's authorities, might not only free them of fears from this, bol also fill them with hopes or
their bearing alongst with their proceedings the hearts and confidence of thir kingdoms.
Pitmaylie may remember weal what of this kjnd was motioned at Kippon, and spoken of
agayne, when the English army e was reported to be comyng up." — ^Yodrotv,s Papers, Ad.
Lib. vol. Ixvi.

16 " My lord,' — The sending of commissioners from the parliament here to the parliament
of Scotland at this tj me, was upon the sudden moved in the House of Commons (befcir wee
wer acquainted thereof) by the solicitor, and seconded by some who profes to be or freinds as a
greater testimonie of respect than the sending of a letter alone, arid was in that sens ap-
proved by the whole hous, who, I believe, does it for no other end, neither is ther any other
instructions given by the house than these, whereof the copy is sent to you, which ar only
generall for a gooel correspondence betwixt the two kingdomes. Bot I cannot forbear to tell
you my appre-hensiones, that, the intention and designs of some particular persons in sending
down at this tyme, and in such a juncture of affaires (when ther is so great rumor of division
and factiones in Scotland), is by them to learne the posture of business ther in the pari',
assemblies, and kingdome, that they may receave privat information from them, and make
ther applications and uses thereof accordinglie. That which confirms this opinion to me
the more, is, that the sending of these persones to Scotland was moved and seconded by-
such as profes themselves to be or freinds w'out giveing us any notice thereof till it was
done ; and the day before it was motioned, they and yor old friend Sir Henry Vaine younger,
wer at a consultation together, and yor loP : knowes how much power Sir Henrie Vain lies
with Sir \V» Arimne and Mr Bowlls.* Sir William Armjne is a very honest gentle-
men, but Mr Bowlls is very deserving, and doubtless is sent (thoghe not of intention
of the pari') as a spy to give privat intelligence to some who are jealous and curious
to understand how all affairs goe in Scotland. Thomsone I hear is a Independent, and
(if he goe not away hefore I can meitt with some freinds) I shall c'trwe that there
may be a snare laid in his gaitt to stay his journey ; they wold be used with all civili-
tie when they come, bot yor loP : and others wold be vtrie warie and circomspect in all
yor proceedings and deallings w* them ; seeing the hous of pari' and all such heir as
desyres a happie and weell-grounded peace, or a short and prosperous warre, ar desyr-
ous that the Scottish armie advance southward (although I dare not presume to give
any positive judgment without presyse knowledge of the condition and posture of or own
kingdom), I cannot see any human means so probable and lyklie to setle religion and peace,
and make or nation the more considerable, as the advancing of or armie southward if the
turbulent comotions and rud distractions of Scotland may permitt, nor is it possible that
so great an armie can be longer entertained by the northern counties, so barren and much
waist« d with armies; nor can it be expected that the pari' of England can be at so
great charge as the entertainment of that armie (if they did reallie interiain them), unless
they be more useful for the caus and publick service of both kingdomes than to .je still in dies
northern counties, being now reduced, and the king to vexe the south with forces equall to
theirs; bot there needs not arguments to prove this poynt, unless that base crewe of Irish
re bells and their perfidious confederates, and the unnatural factions of o1- countrymen for-

• The English commissioners were — the earl of Rutland, Sir William Armync, Sir Henry Van,
(younger), Thomas Thatcher, and Henry Davnly.

2G0 SIR ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON.

We find Johnston sent to London, on the 4th of July, 1644, and it is pro-
bable that, before tbat time, be had managed to visit England without the cere-
monial of a safe-guard from the falling monarch ; and on the 9th of January,
1645, we find him along with Mr Robert Barclay, " tuo of our commissioners
lattlie returned from London," reporting the progress of their proceedings to
the house.17 The proceedings of this commission, and of the assembly of divines
at Westminster, with which Warriston had a distinguished connexion, may be
passed over as matters of general history. Warned, probably, by the cautious
intimations of the letter we have just quoted, Johnston was the constant atten-
dant of the English commissioners on their progress to Scotland, and was the
person who moved their business in the house.13 On the death of Sir Thomas
Hope, in 1646, Johnston had the influence to succeed him as lord advocate, an
office for which he seems to have seasoned himself by his numerous motions
against malignants. AVith a firm adherence to his previous political conduct,
Johnston refused accession to the well-known engagement which the duke of
Hamilton conducted as a last effort in behalf of the unfortunate monarch.

On the 10th of January, 1649, the marquis of Argyle delivered a speech,
" wich he called the brecking of the malignants' teith, and that he quho was to
speake after him, (viz. Warriston) wolde brecke ther jawes." Argyle found the
teeth to be five, which he smashed one by one: — " His first was against the
ingagers being statesmen, and intrusted with great places, quho had broken
their trust II. Against the engagers' committee-men, quho by ther tyranny
had opprest the subjects. III. Against declared malignants, formerlye fyned in
parliament, or remitted, and now agayne relapsed. IV. Against tbesse that
wer eager promotters of the laitt ingagement with England. V. Against suche
as had petitioned for the advancement of the levey." After these were demo-
lished, Johnston commenced his attack on the toothless jaws ; he " read a
speache two houres in lenthe, off" his papers, being ane explanatione of Argyle's
five heads, or teith, as he named them ; with the anssuering of such objects he
thought the pryme ingagers wolde make in their awen defence against the
housse now convened, wich they did not acnouledge to be a lawfull parliament."19

On the 6th of January, the imminent danger of the king prompted the
choosing a committee to act for his safety under instructions. The instructions
were fourteen ; and the most remarkable and essential, was, that a protest should
be taken against any sentence pronounced against the king. " That this king-
dome may be free of all the dessolatione, misery, and bloodshed, that incertablie
will follow thereupone, without offering in your ressone, tbat princes at eximed
from triall of justice."20 This was by no means in opposition to the principles
which Johnston had previously professed, but his mind appears to have been finally
settled into a deep opposition to all monarchy. Along with Argyle- he distin-
guished himself in opposing the instructions, by a method not honourable to
their memory — a proposition that the measure should be delayed for a few days,
to permit a fast to be held in the interim. One of the last of his ministerial

getting or covenant, ar grown to such a hight of mischeef and misery, as to make sucli a
rent at home as to disable us to assist or frtinds, and prosecute that cause which 1 am em
ndent God will carrie one and perfyte against all oppositione •, and in confidence thereof 1
shall encourage myselfe, and rejovce under hope, aUhoghe 1 should never sie the end of itt.
1 beseache \ou to haist back this bearer, and let me know with him the condition of aliairs in
Scotland -, how or good freinds are, and how soon we may expect vor returne hither, or if I
must come to you befoir ye come to us. I referr the m'arquiss of Argjle and mv lord Bal-
mennoch, and other freinds to you for intelligence, to spair paines and" supply the want ot
leasure; and will, say noe more at this tyme, bot that I am \our most affectionate and faithfull
friend, Loudounk. — Wodrow s MS. Collection, vol. Ixvi. The letter is dated from Worcester
house, January 6, 1644.
" Half. An". 113. 204, 248. M Ibid, 2C2. * Ibid, 377. » Ibid, 3S4.

SIR ARCHIBALD JOIINSTON. 261

acts as lord advocate, was the proclamation of Charles 11. on the 5th of
February, 1649 ; and he was on the 10th of March, in the same year, appointed
to his long-looked-for post of lord register, in place of Gibson of Durie, super-
seded by the act of classes. At the battle of Dunbar, in 1650, he was one of
the committee of the estates appointed to superintend the military motions of
Leslie, and was urgent in pressing the measure which is reputed to have lost
the day to the Scots. He was naturally accused of treachery, but the charge has
not been supported. " Waristoun," says Burnet, " was too hot, and Lesley
was too cold, and yielded too easily to their humours, which he ought not to
have done;"21 and the mistake may be attributed to the obstinacy of those, who,
great in the cabinet and conventicle, thought they must be equally great in war.

Warriston was among the few persons who in the committee of estates refused to
accede to the treaty of Charles II. at Breda ; an act of stubborn consistency, which,
joined to others of a like nature, sealed his doom in the royal heart. After
the battle of Dunbar, the repeal of the act of classes, which was found necessary
as a means of re-constructing the army, again called forth his jaw-breaking
powers. He wrote " a most solid letter" on the subject to the meeting held
at St Andrews, July 18, 1651, which appears never to have been read, but
which has been preserved by the careful Wodrow22 for the benefit of posterity.
He wrote several short treatises on " the sinfulness of joining malignants,"
destroying their jaws in a very considerate and logical manner. One of these
is extant, and lays down its aim as follows :

" The first question concerning the sinfulness of the publick resolutions, hath
bene handled in a former tractat. The other question remaines, anent ye sin-
fulness and unlawfulness of the concurrence of particular persons." The ques-
tion is proposed in the following terms : — " viz', when God's covenanted people
intrusts God's covenanted interest to the power of God's anti-covenanted ene-
mies, though upon pretence to fight against ane other anti-covenanted enemy —
whether a conscienscious covenanter can lawfullie concurre with such a partie in
such a cause, or may lawfullie abstane, and rather give testimonie by suffering
against both parties and causes, as sinfull and prejudicial! to God's honour and
interest It is presupposed a dutie to oppose the common enemie. The ques-
tion is anent the meanes of resisting the unjust invader."

" Three things premitted. I. The clearing of terms. II. Some distinctions.
III. Some conjunctions handled."23 The postulates are, perhaps, rather too
sweeping for general opinion, but, presuming them to be granted, the reasonings
of this lay divine are certainly sufficiently logical within their naiTow space, and
may have appeared as mathematical demonstrations to those who admitted the
deep sin of accepting assistance from opponents in religious opinion. This re-
sistance appears, however, to have been of a negative nature, and not to have
extended to the full extremity of the remonstrance of the west ; at least when
called on for an explanation by the committee of Estates, he declined owning
connexion with it : " Warreston did grant that he did see it, was at the voting
of it, but refussed to give his votte therin. He denayed that he wes accessorey
to the contriving of it at first."-4

After this period he appears to have been for some time sick of the fierce
politics in which he had been so long engaged, and to have retired himself
into the bosom of a large family. He is accused by a contemporary — not of
much credit — of peculation, in having accepted sums of money for the disposal
of offices under him ; and the same person in the same page states the improba-
ble circumstance of his having restored the money so gained, on all the office:;

2> Burnet, 83. ■ Wodrow's Collection, Ad. Lib. xxxii. 5, 15. » Ibid, 16.

^ Bull". An. iv. 169. Scots Worthies, 275.

262 SIR ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON.

being abolished by Cromwell, and that he was not affluent, having " conquest
no lands but Warriston,25 of the avail of 1000 raerks Scots a-year, where he
now lives freed of trouble of state or country." '6

He was a member of the committee of protestors, who in 1G57, proceeded
to London to lay their complaints before the government. Cromwell knew the
value of the man he bad before him, and persuaded hiin to try the path of am-
bition under the new government. Wodrow and others have found it convenient
to palliate his departure from the adberence to royalty, as an act for which it
was necessary to find apologies in strong calls of interest, and facility of temper.
It will, however, almost require a belief in all the mysteries of divine right, to
discover why Warriston should have adhered to royalty without power, and how
the opinions he always professed should have made him prefer a factious support
of an absent prince to the service of a powerful leader, his early friend and co-
adjutor in opposing hereditary loyalty.

On tbe 9th of July, 1657, he was re-appointed clerk register, and on the 3rd
of November in the same year, he was named as one of the commissioners for
the administration of justice in Scotland.-" Cromwell created Johnston a peer,
and he sat in the protector's upper house, with the title of lord Warriston, oc-
cupying a station more brilliant, but not so exalted as those he had previously
filled. After the death of Cromwell, Warriston displayed his strong opposition
to the return of royalty, by acting as president of the committee of safety under
Richard Cromwell. Knowing himself to be marked out for destruction, he fled
at the Restoration to France. It is painful, after viewing a life spent with
honour and courage, in the highest trusts, to trace this great man's life to an
end which casts a blot on the times, and on the human race. He was charged
to appear before the Estates ; and having been outlawed in the usual form, on the
10th October, 1661, a reward of 5000 merks was offered for his apprehension.
By a fiction of law, the most horrible which a weak government ever invented
for protection against powerful subjects, but which, it must be acknowledged,
was put in force by Warriston and his confederates against Montrose, an act ot
forfeiture in absence passed against him, and he was condemned to death on the
15th of May, 1661. The principal and avowed articles of accusation against
him were, his official prosecution of the royalists, and particularly of Gordon of
Newton, his connexion with the Remonstrance, his sitting in parliament as a
peer of England, and his accepting office under Cromwell.

It was necessary that the victim of judicial vengeance should be accused of acts
which the law knows as crimes ; and acts to which the best protectors of Charles
the Second's throne were accessary, were urged against this man. For the hid-
den causes of his prosecution we must however look in his ambition, the in-
fluence of his worth and talents, and the unbending consistency of his political
principles ; causes to which Wodrow has added his too ungracious censure of
regal vice.

In the mean time, Johnston had been lurking in Germany and the Low Coun-
tries, from which, unfortunately for himself, he proceeded to France. A con-
fidant termed " major Johnston," is supposed to have discovered his retreat ;
and a spy of the name of Alexander Murray, commonly called " crooked Mur-
ray,'' was employed to hunt him out. This individual, narrowly watching the
motions of lady Warriston, discovered his dwelling in Rouen, and with consent
of the council of France, he was brought prisoner to England, and lodged in
the Tower on the 8th of June, 1663 ; thence he was brought to Edinburgh, not

» A small estate so near Edinburgh as to be now encroached upon bv its suburbs.

*° Scot of Scotstarvct s Stag. State, 127.

"7 Haig and Brunton's Hist. College of Justice, 308.

SIR ARCHIBALD JOHNSTON.

2G3

for the purpose of being tried, but to suffer execution of the sentence passed on
him in absence. When presented to parliament to receive sentence, it was ap-
parent that age, hardship, and danger, had done their work effectually on his
iron nerves ; and the intrepid advocate of the covenant exhibited the mental im-
becility of an idiot. His friends accused Dr Bates of having administered to him
deleterious drugs, and weakened him by bleeding ; an improbable act, which
would have only raised unnecessary indignation against those who already had
him sufficiently in their power. The apostate Sharpe, and his other enemies,
are said to have ridiculed the sick lion ; but there were at least a few of his op-
ponents not too hardened to pity the wreck of a great intellect before them.'8

Probably affected by the circumstances of his situation, some of the members
showed an anxiety for a little delay ; but Lauderdale, who had received impera-
tive instructions regarding him, fiercely opposed the proposition. He was sen-
tenced to be hanged at the cross of Edinburgh on the 22nd of July, his head be-
ing to be severed from his body, and placed beside that of his departed brother
in the cause, Guthrie. Of the mournful pageant we extract the following char-
acteristic account from Wodrow :

" The day of His execution, a high gallows or gibbet was set up at the cross,
and a scaffold made by it. About two o'clock he was taken from prison ; many
of his friends attended him in mourning. When he came out, he was full of
holy cheerfulness and courage, and as in perfect serenity and composure of mind
as ever he was. Upon the scaffold he acknowledged his compliance with the
English, and cleared himself of the least share of the king's death. He read his
speech with an audible voice, first at the north side and then at the south side of
the scaffold: he prayed next, with the greatest liberty, fervour, and sense of his
own unworthiness, frequently using the foresaid expression. After he had taken
his leave of his friends, he prayed again in a perfect rapture ; being now near
the end of that sweet work he had been so much employed about through his
life, and felt so much sweetness in. Then the napkin being tied upon his head,
he tried how it would fit him, and come down and cover his face, and dii-ected
to the method how it should be brought down when he gave the sign. When
he was got to the top of the ladder, to which he was helped, because of bodily
weakness, he cried with a loud voice, ' I beseech you all who are the people of
God, not to scar [be scared] at sufferings for the interests of Christ, or stumble
at any thing of this kind falling out in those days ; but be encouraged to suffer
for him ; for I assure you, in the name of the Lord, he will bear your charges.'
This he repeated again with great fervour, while the rope was tying about his
neck, adding, ' The Lord hath graciously comforted me.' Then he asked the
executioner if he was ready to do his office, who answering he was, he bid him

■88 One of these was M'Kenzie, who, with uncharitable and improbable inferences, draws
the following graphic picture of the scene: — " He was brought up the street discovered [un-
covered]; and being brought into the council house of Edinburgh, where the chancellor and
others waited to examine him, he fell upon his face roaring, and with tears entreated the}'
would pit}- a poor creature who had forgot all that was in his bible. This moved all the spec-
tators with a deep melancholy; and the chancellor, reflecting upon the man's former esteem,
and the great share he had in all the late revolutions, could not deny some tears to the frailty
of silly mankind. At his examination he pretended that he had lost so much blood by the
unskillfulness of his chirurgcons, that he lost his memory with his blood; and I really believe
that his courage had indeed been drawn out with it. "Within a few days he was brought
before the parliament, where he discovered nothing but much weakness, running up and
down upon his knees begging mere)'. But the parliament ordained his former sentence to be
put into execution, and accordingly he was executed at the cross of Edinburgh. At his exe-
cution he showed more composure than formerly, which his friends ascribed to God's miracu-
lous kindness for him, but others thought that "he had only formerly put on this disguise of
madness to escape death in it, and that, finding the mask useless, he had returned, not to his
wit, which he had lost, but from his madness, which he had counterfeited. " — SirG. M'Kenzie s
Annals, lot.

2G4 DR. ARTHUR JOHNSTON.

do it, and, crying cut, ' O, pray, pray ! praise, praise !' was turned oyer, and
died almost without a struggle, with his hands lift up to heaven." *

The same partial hand has thus drawn his character : " My lord Warriston
was a man of great learning and eloquence ; of very much wisdom, and extra-
ordinary zeal for the public cause of religion and reformation, in which he was
a chief actor ; but above all, he was extraordinary in piety and devotion, as to
which he had scarce any equal in the age he lived in. One who was his inti-
mate acquaintance says, he spent more time, notwithstanding the great throng of
public business upon his hand, in prayer, meditation, and close observation of
providences, and self-examination, than ever he knew or heard of: and as he
was very diligent in making observations on the Lord's way, so he was visited
with extraordinary discoveries of the Lord's mind, and very remarkable provi-
dences. He wrote a large diary, which yet remains in the hands of his rela-
tions ; an invaluable treasure of Christian experiences and observations ; and,
as I am told by one who had the happiness to see some part of it, there is mixed
in sometimes matters of fact very little known now, which would bring a great
deal of light to the history of Scots affairs, in that period wherein he lived."30

But his nephew Burnet, has in his usual characteristic manner, drawn a more
happy picture of the stubborn statesman and hardy zealot, too vivid to be neg-
lected : " Warristoun was my own uncle ; he was a man of great application,
could seldom sleep above three hours in the twenty-four: he had studied the
law carefully, and had a great quickness of thought, with an extraordinary
memory. He went into very high notions of lengthened devotions, in which lie
continued many hours a-day : he would often pray in his family two hours at a
time, and had an unexhausted copiousness that way. What thought soever struck
his fancy during these effusions, he looked on it as an answer of prayer, and was
wholly determined by it. He looked on the covenant as the setting Christ on
his throne, and so was out of measure zealous in it. He had no regard to the
raising himself or his family, though he had thirteen children ; but prosperity
was to him more than all the world. He had a readiness and vehemence of
speaking that made hiin very considerable in public assemblies ; and he had a
fruitful invention ; so that he was at all times furnished with expedients."

JOHNSTON, (Dr) Arthur, a poet and physician, was born in the year 15S7,
at Caskieben, the seat of his family, a few miles from Aberdeen. He was the
fifth son of George Johnston of that ilk and of Caskieben, the chief of the family
of Johnston, by Christian Forbes, daughter of William, seventh baron Forbes.
He appears to have been named after his uncle the honourable William Forbes
of Logie, who was killed at Paris in the year 1574.1 This poet, whose chief
characteristic was the elegance with which he expressed his own simple feelings
as a poet, in the language appropriate to the customs and feelings of a past
nation, has left in his Epigrammata an address to his native spot ; and, although
Caskieben is a piece of very ordinary Scottish scenery, it is surprising how much
he has made of it, by the mere force of his own early associations. With the
minuteness of an enthusiast, he does not omit the circumstance, that the hill of
Benochie, a conical elevation about eight miles distant, casts its shadow over
Caskieben at the periods of the equinox. As we shall be able, by giving this
epigram, to unite a specimen of the happiest original efforts of the author's '
genius, with circumstances personally connected with his history, we beg leave
to extract it : —

23 Wodrow, L 3-5.

» Wodrow, i. 3(31. Much search has lately been made for this interesting document, but
has proved vam.
1 Johnston's History of the Family of Johnston, 36.

DR. ARTHUR JOHNSTON.

265

Mmula Thessalicis en hie Jonstonia Tempe,

Hospes ! hyperboreo fusa sub axe vides.
Mille per ambages nitidis argenteus uadis,

Hie trepidat lastos Urius inter agros.
Expliciit hie seras ingens Bennachius umbras,

Nox ubi llbratui lance diesque pari.
Gemmifer est amnis, radiat mons ipse lapillis,

Queis nihil Eous purius orbis habet.

Hie pandit natura sinum, nativaque surgens
Purpura felicem sub pede ditat humuni.

Aera per liquidum volucres, in flumine pisces^
Adspicis in pratis luxuriare pecus.

Hie seges est, hie poma rubent, onerantur aristis

Arva, suas segre susiinet arbor opes.

!
i

i
I

Propter aquas arx est, ipsi contermina ccelo,

Auctoris menti lion tamen a;qua sui.
Imperat ha;c arris et vectigalibus uudis.

Et famula stadiis distat ab urbe tribus.
Ha;c mi hi terra parens: gens has Jonstonia lymphas,

Arvaque per centum missa tuetur avos.
Clara Maronasis evasit Mantua cunis;

Me mea natalis iiobiliiabit humus.

TRANSLATION.

Here, traveller, a vale behold
As fair as Tempe, famed of old,

Beneath the northern sky !
Here Urie, with her silver waves,
Her banks, in verdure smiling, laves,

And winding wimples by.

Here, towering high, Bennachie spreads
Around on all his evening shades,

When twilight grey comes on :
With sparkling gems the river glows;
As precious stones the mountain shows

As in the East are known.

Here nature spreads a bosom sweet,
And native dyes beneath the feet

Bedeck the joyous ground :
Sport in the liquid air the birds,
And fishes in the stream ; the herds

Iu meadows wanton round.

Here ample barn-yards still are stored
With relics of last autumn's hoard

And firstlings of this year ;
There waving fields of yellow corn,
And ruddy apples, that adorn

The bending boughs, appear.

Beside the stream, a castle proud
Rises amid the passing cloud,

And rules a wide domain,
(Unequal to its lord's desert :)
A village near, with lowlier art,

Is built upon the plain.

1
i

!

!
1

1

i
j

!

in.

Here was I born ; o'er all the land
Around, the Johnstons bear command,

Of high and ancient line :
Mantua acquired a noted name
As Virgil's birthplace ; I my fame

Inherit shall from mine.

2 L

1

266 . ARTHUR JOHNSTON.

In a similar spirit he has left an epigram on the small burgh of Inverury, in
the neighbourhood of Caskieben, in which he does not omit the circumstance,
that the fuel of the inhabitants (vulgo, the peats) comes from the land in which
he Mas born. A similar epigram to another neighbouring burgh, the royal
burgh of Kintore, now holding- the rank of a very small village, informs us that
at the grammar school of that place he commenced the classical studies, which
afterwards acquired for him so much eminence :

" Hie ego sum memini musarum factus alumnus,
Et tiro didici verba Latina Ioqui."

After leaving this humble seat of learning, he is said to have studied at Mari-
schal college in Aberdeen ; a circumstance extremely probable, but which seems
to have no other direct foundation than the conjecture of Benson, from the
vicinity of his paternal estate to that institution, and hi3 having been afterwards
elected rector of the university, an honour generally bestowed on illustrious
alumni.2

Johnston, intending to study medicine, a science which it would have been in
vain at that period to have attempted in Scotland, proceeded to' Rome, and af-
terwards to Padua, where he seems to have acquired some celebrity for the
beauty of his earlier Latin poems, and took the degree of doctor in medicine.3
He afterwards travelled through Germany, Holland, and Denmark, and finally
fixed his abode in France. If he remained for a considerable period at Padua,
he must have early finished his curriculum of study at Aberdeen, as he is said
by Sir Thomas Urquhart, to have been laureated a poet in Paris at the age
of twenty- three.

He remained for twenty years in France, a period during which he was
twice married, to ladies whose names are unknown, but who bore him thirteen
children, to transmit his name to posterity. On his return to Britain about the
year 1632, probably at the recommendation of Laud, who was his friend, and
had commenced the career of court influence, Johnston Mas appointed physician
to Charles I., a circumstance which must have preceded or immediately followed
his arrival, as he styles himself in the first edition of his Parerga and Epigram-
mata, published at Aberdeen in 1632, " Medictis Regius." The Parerga con-
sists, as its name may designate, of a variety of small pieces of poetry, which
cannot be conveniently classed under a more distinct name. A few are satirical,
but the lyrical (if they may be said to c(,n;e correctly under that designation)
form the most interesting portion. Johnston seldom indulges in the nietaphoric
brilliancy which characterized the native writers iu the language which he chose
to use ; but he has a considerable portion of their elegance, while much of the
poetry is founded on association and domestic feeling, of which he has some ex-
quisitely beautiful traits, which would have been extremely pleasing had he used
bis vernacular tongue. He is said to have wished to imitate Virgil ; but
those who have elevated Buchanan to the title of " the Scottish "Virgil," have
designated Johnston the " Scottish Ovid;" a characteristic which may apply to
the versification of his Psalms, but is far from giving a correct idea of the spirit
of his original pieces. It may not be displeasing to the reader who is unac-
quainted with the works of this neglected author,, to give an extract from one
of the Parerga, addressed to his early friend and school companion Wedder-

* Benson's Life, prefixed to Johnston's Psalms, \i.

* - qjuod ex carmine manuscript© in Advoeatorum KiWiothcea, Edinburgi servalo, intelli-
gimus. ' The circumstance is mentioned ki Sir U ob«rt Sibbald's Bibliographia Scotica, which
though not a " carmen," mav be the MS. referred to.

DR. ARTHUR JOHNSTON. 207

burn, — a piece strikingly depictive of the author's affectionate feelings, and pro-
bably detailing the effects of excessive study and anxiety :

" Cernis ut obrepens mihi, Wedderburne, scnecta

Sparserit indignus per caput omne nives.
Debile fit corpus, pulsis melioribus annis,

Nee vigor ingenii, qui fuit ante, mihi est.
Tempore mutato, mores mutantur et ipsi,

Nee capior studiis, quae placuere prius.
Ante leves risus, et erant jocularia cordi,

Nunc me morosum, difficilemque vides.
Prona fit in rixas mens, et proclivis in iras,

Et senio pejor cura senilis edit.
His ego, quae possum, qusero medicamlna morbis,

Et mala, qua fas est, pellere nitor ope.
Saepe quod exegi pridem, juvenile revolvo

Tempus, et in mentemtu mihi sjepe redis.
Par, memini, cum noster amor se prodidit, aetas,

Par genius nobis, ingeniumque fuit.
Unus et ardor erat, Phoebi conscendere collem,

Inque jugo summo sistere posse pedem," &c.*

Benson mentions, that Johnston was a litigant in the court of session in
Edinburgh, at the period of his return to Britain ; and probably the issue of
his suit may account for a rather unceremonious attack in the Parerga, on
advocates and agents, unblushingly addressed " Ad duos rabulas forenses, Advo-
catum et Procuratorem," of whom, without any respect for the college of Jus-
tice, the author says,

" Magna minorqiie ferae, quarum paris altera lites;
Altera dispensas, utraque digna mori," &c.

On approaching the period when Johnston published his translation of the
Psalms of David, we cannot help being struck with the circumstances under which
he appears to have formed the design. Dr Eaglesham had, in the year 1620, pub-
lished a criticism of considerable length, for the purpose of proving that the public
voice had erred in the merit it allowed to Buchanan's version of the Psalms, and
modestly displaying a translation of the 104th psalm, of his own workmanship,
between which and the psalms of Buchanan he challenged a comparison.5 Dr
William Barclay penned a critical answer to this challenge,6 and Johnston made
a fierce stroke at the offender, in a satirical article in the Parerga, which he
calls " Consilium Collegii Medici Parisiensis de Mania Hypermori Medicastri,"
commencing

" Quae Buchananaeis medicaster crimina musi3
Objicit, et quo se jactat inane melos ;
Vidimus: et quotquot tractamus Paeonis artes,
Hie vates, uno diximus ore, furit," &c.

Johnston, however, did not consider himself incapacitated to perform a work
in which another had failed, and he probably, at that period, formed the reso-
lution of writing a version of the psalms, which he afterwards produced, under

4 Mr George Chalmers has stated that Werlderbum -was the master of Johnston. Dr
Irving aptly considers that the verses we have quoted above disprove the statement.

5 Eglisemii certamen cum Georgio Buchanano pro dignitate Paraphraseos Psalmiciv. Lon-
don, 1620.;

8 Barclaii Judicium dc ccrlamine Eglisemii cum Buchanano pro dignitate Paraphi-a-
scos Psalmi civ.

2C8 . PR. ARTHUR JOHNSTON.

the auspices, and with the advice of his friend Laud, which he published at
London and Aberdeen, in 1637. No man ever committed a more imprudent
act for his own fame ; as he was doomed by the nature of his task, not only to
equal, but to excel, one of the greatest poets in the world. His fame was not
increased by the proceedings of his eccentric countryman Lauder, who many
years afterwards endeavoured with a curious pertinacity to raise the fame of
Johnston's version far above that of Buchanan. Mr auditor Benson, a man
better known for his benevolence than his acuteness, was made the trumpet of
Johnston's fame. This gentleman published three editions of Johnston's psalms ;
one of which, printed in 1741, and dedicated to prince George, afterwards
George III., is ornamented with a very fine portrait of the poet by Vertue after
Jamesone, and is amply illustrated with notes. The zealous editor received as
his reward from the literary world, a couplet in the Dunciad, in which, in
allusion to his having procured the erection of the monument to the memory
of Milton in Westminster abbey, it is said

" On two unequal crutches propt he came,
Milton's on this, on that one Johnston's name.''

Benson has received much ridicule for the direction of his labours ; but if the
life of Johnston prefixed to the edition of the psalms is from his pen, it does
credit to his erudition. Many controversial pamphlets were the consequence of
this attempt, — Mr Love answering Lauder, while Benson had to stand a more
steady attack from the critical pen of Ruddiman. It would tire our readers
here to trace a controversy which we may have occasion to treat in another
place. The zeal of these individuals has not furthered the fame of Johnston :
and, indeed, the height to which they attempted to raise his merit, has naturally
rendered the world blind to its real extent. It cannot be said that the version
of Buchanan is so eminently superior as to exclude all comparison ; and, indeed,
we believe the schools in Holland give Johnston the preference, with almost as
much decision, as we grant it to Buchanan. The merit of the two, is, indeed,
of a different sort, and we can fortunately allow that each is excellent, without
bringing them to a too minute comparison. Johnston has been universally
allowed to have been the more accurate translator, and few exceptions can be
found to the purity of his language, while he certainly has not displayed either
the richness, or the majesty of Buchanan. Johnston is considered as having
been unfortunate in his method : while Buchanan has luxuriated in an amazing-
variety of measure, he has adhered to the elegiac couplet of hexameter and
pentameter, excepting in the 1 19th psalm, in which he has indulged in all the
varieties of lyrical arrangement which the Latin language admits : an inapt
choice, as Hebrew scholars pronounce that psalm to be the most prosaic of the
sacred poems.7

' An esteemed correspondent supplies us with the following note: — " It may be enough to
prove the elegance and accuracy of Arthur Johnston's Latinity, to say, that his version of the
104th psalm has frequently been compared with that of Buchanan, aiid that scholars are not
unanimous in adjudging it to be inferior. As an original poet, he does not aspire to the same
high companionship, though his compositions are pltasing, and not without spirit. One curi-
ous particular concerning these two authors has been remarked by Dr Johnson, from which,
it would appear, that modern literature owed to the more distinguished of them a device very
convenient for those whose powers of description were limited. When a rhymer protested
liis mistress resembled Venus, he, in fact, acknowledged his own ineapacitv to celebrate her
charms, and gave instead a sort of catchword, by means of which, referring back to the
ancients, a general idea of female perfections might be obtained. This conventional language
wHs introduced by Buchanan-, « who,' says the critic just named, ' was the first who compli-
mented a Jady, by ascribing to her the different perfections of the heathen goddesses ; but
Johnston, he adds « improved upon this, by making his mistress at the same time, free
from their defects '.

BR. ARTHUR JOHNSTON. 209

A writer in the Scots Magazine for the year 1741, has noticed one excellence
in the psalms of Dr Johnston, distinct from those which have been so amply
heaped on him by Lauder ; and as we agree with the author in his opinion of
the quality, Ave shall quote his words : " There is one perfection in the doctor's
version, which is not sufficiently illustrated ; and that is, the admirable talent ho
has of expressing things which are peculiar to the sacred writings, and never to
be met with in classic authors, in the most pure and elegant Latin. This the
reader will perceive if he looks into the 83rd and 108th psalms : and still more
so upon perusing the Te Deum and the apostles' creed. ' To thee all angels
cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein ; To thee cherubim and sera-
phim continually do cry, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.'"

•' Grex sacer auratis qui pervolat rethera pennis
Imperio nutuque tuo ; supremaque mundi
Templa, tua cxelata manu ; cselique potestas
Omiiis*, et igne micans acies; et lucidus ordo,
Agminisaligeri princeps, tibi, niaxime rerum," &a.

How poetically are the angels described by

Grex sacer auratis qui pervolat asthcra pennis.

And in like manner the cherubim and seraphim, who are mentioned with the
powers of heaven,8

" Cselique potestas," &c.

A late writer, considerably versed in classical and biblical criticism — Mr Ten-
nant — whose opinion coincides to a certain extent with that which we have just
quoted, finds, that even after the luxuriant fervidness of Buchanan, there is
much to admire in the calm tastefulness and religious feeling of Johnston, and
that the work of the latter is not only a more faithful translation, but given in a
manner better suited (in his opinion,) to the strains of the holy minstrel, than
that followed by the fiery genius of Buchanan, when restricted to translation.
" He is not," remarks this author, " tempted like Buchanan, by his luxuriance
of phraseology, and by the necessity of filling up, by some means or other,
metrical stanzas of prescribed and inexorable length, to expatiate from the
psalmist's simplicity, and weaken, by circumlocution, what he must needs beat
out and expand. His diction is, therefore, more firm and nervous, and, though
not absolutely Hebraean, makes a nearer approach to the unadorned energy of
Jewry. Accordingly, all the sublime passages are read with more touching
effect in his, than in Buchanan's translation : he has many beautiful and even
powerful lines, such as can scarce be matched by his more popular competitor ;
the style of Johnston possessing somewhat of Ovidian ease, accompanied with
strength and simplicity, -while the tragic pomp and worldly parade of Seneca
and Pruden tius are more affected by Buchanan."3

Let us conclude this subject with remarking the peculiar circumstance, that
while Scotland has produced two Latin versions of the psalms, rivals in excel-
lence, the talent of the whole nation has been unable to produce any English
version which can be considered as their equal in point of versification. In
1641, Johnston died at Oxford, where he had gone on a visit to a daughter mar-
ried to a divine of the church of England. Besides the works already mentioned,
he wrote Musee Aulica?, addressed to his eminent contemporaries, translated Solo-
mon's Song, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, and edited the Delitiae Poetarum

8 Scot. Mag. iii. 255. • Ed. Lit. Journal, iii. 289.

270

JAMES JOHNSTONE.

Scotoruiu, in which he introduced not a few of his own productions. His works
were published at Middleburg, in 1612, by his friend Scott of ScoUtarvot.
The present representatives of his family are, Sir William Johnston of Hilton,
in Aberdeenshire, and 3Ir Johnston of Viewfield in the same county.

The brother of the poet was a man of some local celebrity ; he was Dr William
Johnston, professor of mathematics in the 3Iarischal college of Aberdeen. " He
was," says Wodrow, u ane learned and experienced physitian. He wrote on
the mathematics. His skill in the Latin was truly Ciceronian."10

JOHNSTONE, James, a physician of some eminence, was born at Annan ia
the year 1730. He was the fourth son of John Johnstone, Esq. of Galabank,
one of the oldest branches of the family of that name. He received the rudi-
ments of his classical education from Dr Henry, the well known author of the
History of Great Britain. The science of medicine he studied first in Edinburgh
and afterwards in Paris ; and such was his progress in these studies, that he
took the degree of doctor of medicine before he had completed his twenty-first
year. On this occasion he published a thesis, " De Aeris Factitii Imperio in
Corpore Humano," which discovered an ability that procured him many valuable
friends. On completing his education, Dr Johnstone commenced practice at Kid-
derminster, in Worcestershire, where he quickly acquired a great degree of
celebrity by the successful manner in which he treated a peculiar epidemic,
called, from its remarkable virulence in that locality, the Kidderminster fever.
Of this fever, and his mode of treating it, he published an account in 1758, an
exceedingly important treatise, from the circumstance of its pointing out the
power of minerals and vapours to correct or destroy putrid febrile contagion.
This discovery, now so frequently and successfully employed in arresting the
progress of infection, and in purifying infected places, though since claimed by
others, belongs beyond all doubt to Dr Johnstone ; who pointed out also the
simple process by which it was to be effected — viz., by pouring a little vitriolic
acid on common salt

Dr Johnstone was well known in the learned world by several interesting pub-
lications on subjects connected with his profession, and by several important ad-
ditions which he made to the general stock of medical knowledge. Amongst
these Avas the discovery of a cure for the ganglion of the nerves, and of the lym-
phatic glands.

From Kidderminster he removed to Worcester, where he continued to prac-
tise till within a few days of his death, which happened in 1802, in the seventy-
third year of his age. His death was much regretted, and it was then consi-
dered that the medical science had by that event lost one of its brightest
ornaments. Dr Johnstone acquires no small degree of additional celebrity from
his having been the intimate friend of the amiable George lord Lyttleton, and
from his being the author of the affecting account of that nobleman's death, in-
serted by Dr Johnson in his Lives of the Poets. *

In a letter which he addressed to the editor of Doddridge's Letters, he says —

Lord Bacon reckons it a great deficiency in biography that it is for the most
part confined to the actions of kings and princes, and a few persons of high
rank, while the memory of men distinguished for worth and goodness in the
lower ranks of life has been only preserved by tradition." The latter character
was Dr Johnstone's, and the deficiency would indeed have been great had his
name been omitted in the list of those who have deserved well of their country
and of posterity. His general character and conduct are spoken of in terms of
hifh admiration by all his contemporaries and biographers ; and the serenity of
his death, the cheerful and resigned spirit in which he contemplated and awaited
"Catalogues of Scottish Writers, published by Mr Moment, Edinburgh, 1S33, p. 114.

JOHN JOHNSTON.

271

that event, is made a conspicuous feature in the history of his useful but unob-
trusive life.

His celebrity as a medical practitioner was very great, and his professional
skill was fortunately associated with a singular degree of kindness and amenity
of manner — qualities to which the Rev. Job Orton, a man himself celebrated for
piety and talent, thus bears testimony : " I left Shrewsbury and came to Kid-
derminster, that I might have the advice of a very able and skilful physician,
Dr Johnstone, who hath always proved himself a faithful and tender friend, to
whose care as a physician I. under God, owe my life, and to whose friendship I
am indebted for some of the greatest comforts of it."

Several of Dr Johnstone's physiological inquiries were published in the Phi-
losophical Transactions, and are to be found in the 54th, 57th, and COth
volumes of that work. They were afterwards enlarged and printed separately.

JOHNSTON, John-, a Latin poet and classical scholar of considerable emi-
nence in the earlier part of the 17th century. Though this individual is one of
the ornaments of a very distinguished age of Scottish literature, the date of his
birth is not accurately ascertained, but it must have been previous to the year
1570, as in 1537 he began to be known to the world. He styles himself
" Abredonensis ;" and as he was a member of the house of Crimond, he was
probably born at the family seat near Aberdeen. Dr M'Crie, whose minute la-
bours have thrown so much light on the literary history of this period, has,
among other facts connected with Johnston, (which we shall here carefully re-
capitulate.) discovered the name of his master, from the last will of the poet, in
which he affectionately leaves to that individual his white cup with the silver
foot."1 The same instrument appoints, as one of his executors, " Mr Robert
Johnston of Creimond," probably his brother, a person who appears to have been
in 1635 elected provost of Aberdeen.3 Johnston studied at King's college in
Aberdeen, whence, after the usual custom of the age, he made a studious pere-
grination among the continental universities, which he continued during a
period of eight years. In 1587, we find him at the university of Ilelmstadt,
whence he transmitted a manuscript copy of Buchanan's Sphaera, to be re-edited
by Pincier, along with two epigrams of his own.3 In 15S7, he was at the uni-
versity of Rostock, where he enjoyed the intimacy and correspondence of the
elegantly learned but fanciful Justus Lipsius. An epistle from this veteran in
classical criticism to his younger associate, is preserved in the published corres-
pondence of the former, and may interest from the paternal kindness of its
?pirit, and the acknowledgment it displays of the promising genius of the young
Scottish poet.

" You love me, my dear Johnston, and you praise my constancy. I heartily
second the former statement, but as to the latter, I am afraid I must receive it
with some diffidence, for I fear I have not achieved the praiseworthy excellence
in that quality which your affectionate feelings have chosen to assign to me. I
am, however, not a little flattered by the circumstance that David Chytraius (by
the way, who is that man ?) is, as you say, of the same opinion with yourself in
this matter, whether by mistake or otherwise. Whatever may be in this, I love
— indeed I do — that constancy which has secured me so many friends ; in the
number of which, my dear Johnston, I not ©nly ask, but command you to con-
sider yourself as henceforth enrolled. Should God again grant to me to stand
on and behold the soil of Germany, (and such an event may perhaps happen

1 Item — I leave to Mr Robert Merser, Persoun of Banquhorfe, (Banchory, near Aber-
deen,) my auld kynd maister, in taiken of my thankful dewtie, my quhyit cope with the sil-
ver fit."— M'Crie' s Melville, i. 351.

* History of the Family of Johnston, 29.

' M'Crie's Melville, i. 331.

272 JOHN JOHNSTON.

sooner than we wish, as matters are now moving,) I shall see thee, and we shall
shake hands as a token of truth and affection. For your verses I return you
thanks, which shall be doubly increased, if you will frequently favour me with
your letters, in which I perceive evident marks of your wonted elegance and

erudition Leyden, the 20th March, 158S."1

Johnston appears to have early embraced the doctrines of the presbyterian
church of Scotland, and to have retained them with the characteristic firmness of
the body. He was the intimate friend of its accomplished supporter Andrew Mel-
ville, whose influence probably procured him the appointment to the professor-
ship of divinity in the new college of St Andrews, as successor to John Robert-
son,— an advancement which lie obtained previously to the year 1594, as he is
discovered, under the term " maister in the new college," to have been elected
one of the elders of St Andrews, on the 28th November, 1593. Johnston was
a useful assistant to his illustrious friend, in the opposition to tli3 harassing
efforts of king James to introduce episcopacy. He must have been included in
the interdict of the visitation of the university commission, by which the pro-
fessors of theology and philosophy, not being pastors of the church, were pro-
hibited from sitting in church courts, except through an election regulated by the
council of the visitation : and in the General Assembly which met at Dundee in
159S, whithar both had resorted to oppose the too great tenderness of James
for the church, in proposing to admit its representation in parliament, Melville
and Johnston were charged to quit the city, with the usual formality of the pain
of rebellion in case of refusal. In 1603, these friends again appear acting in
concert, in a correspondence with Du Plessis, on the subject of the synod of
Gap in France having censured certain peculiar opinions on the doctrine of
justification. " They did not presume to judge of the justice of the synod of
Gap, but begged leave to express their fears that strong measures would inflame
the minds of the disputants, and that a farther agitation of the question might
breed a dissension very injurious to the interests of the evangelical churches. It
appeared to them that both parties held the protestant doctrine of justification,
and only differed a little in their mode of explaining it. They, therefore, in
the name of their brethren, entreated Du Plessis to employ the authority which his
piety, prudence, learned writings, and illustrious services in the cause of Chris-
tianity had given him in the Gallican church, to bring about an amicable ad-
justment of the controversy."5 Without inquiring into the minutia of the con-
troversy, the knowledge that it was a theological one is sufficient to make us
appreciate the advice as exceedingly sound ; and we have the satisfaction to
know, as a rare instance; that it produced the desired effect. During the pre-
vious year Johnston had published at Amsterdam his first complete poetical

4 ** Joanni Jolmstono, Scolo.

" Quod et me amas, et constantiam meam laudas, mi Jonston?: aiterum valdeamplector
et approbo, aiterum timide, quia scio reipsa non attingere me culmen hoc laudis, in quo col-
locat me tuus aflectus. Etsi tamen nonnihil blanditur, quod David C by trails (quis illc vir ?)
panter tecum, ut ais, sive judicat, sive errat. Quidquid hujus est, amo, jam amo con-
stantiam meam qua; tarn multos mihi conciliat amicos. In quo numero ut fidenter te dein-
ceps censeas, mi Jonstone, jubeo, non solum rogo. Quod si Deus mibi tangere et videre
bermanisE solum iterum dederit (fiet fortasse voto citius, ut res hie fluunt) te videbo, et dex-
teram jungam, tesseram fidei et amoris. De carmine gratiam tibi babeo, magis magisque
habiturus, si crebro me epistolis tuis salutaveris, in quibus notas claras video elegantiae priscse
et doctnnsB. Lugd. Batav., xi Kalends, April. 1588."— Lipm Opera, ii. 29. Letter xxxviii.

David Lhytraus, whom Lipsius singularly does not appear to hava known, was a man of
much eminence ; he was professor of divinity at Rostock, and died pretty much advanced in
years about the year 1600. He wrote several" works, among which his continuation of Albert
Crantzs History of the Saxons and Vandals, and his " Histoire De la Confession d'Aux-
-urg, were published previously to the date of this epistle. Linsius had every reason to be

odest on the subject of his " constancy."

mo;:

5 M'Crie's Melville, ii. 101.

JOHN JOHNSTON. 273

work, entitled " Inscriptiones Histories Regum Scotorum, continuata annorum
serie a Fergusio I. ad Jacobum VI. Praefixus est Gathelus, sive de gentis ori-
gine, Fragmentum Andreas Melvini. Additas sunt icones omnium regum nobilis
Familias Stuartoruin," 4to; and in 1603, he published at Leyden, " Heroes ex
omni Historia Scotica Lectissimi," 4to. Both these productions have been
preserved in the Delitia? Poetarum Scotorum, by the author's relative, Arthur
Johnston. The former is a series of epigrammatic addresses to the Scottish
monarchs, commencing with Fergus I., and duly passing through the ex-
tended list, to the reigning monarch James VI ; regarding whom it is worthy of
commendatory remark, that the author is more lavish of commendations on the
good fortune -which Providence had bestowed on him, than on his talents or
kingly qualities. The " Heroes " is a tissue of similar epigrams, addressed to
the heroes who distinguish the reigns of the same line of kings, commencing
with Ferchard, the great commander-in-chief of king Reuther. Of course, both
works laud the virtues of many men who never drew breath. The merits cf
Johnston as a poet cannot be said to rise beyond those of the mere epigramma-
tist : to the classical elegance of his Latinity, we believe few objections can be
found, but he displays more of the neatness of illustration, and precise aptness
of association, which may be taught, than of the inborn poetic fire ; and his
works are perhaps more pleasing in the restrictions of a classical tongue, than
they might have been had he allowed himself to range in the freedom of his ver-
nacular language. When treating those who never existed, or of whom little is
known, the absence of all interest from the subject adds to the coldness of the
epigram, and leaves room for the mere conceit to stand alone ; but in treating of
interesting or remarkable events, Johnston could sometimes be lofty, and strike a
chord of feeling. We might instance, as favourable specimens, the epigram to
the family of the Frasers, massacred by the Clanranald in 1544, and that to
Robert the Bruce. In 1609, Johnston published at Leyden, " Consolatio
Christiana sub Cruce, et Iambi de Felicitate Hominis Deo reconciliati, 8vo; in
1611, he published " Iambi Sacri ;" and in 1612, <l Tetrasticha et Lemmata
Sacra — Item Cantica Sacra — Item Icones Regum Judea? et Israelis. Lugd. Bat.8

Johnston died in the month of October, 1612 ; the last scene of his life is
drawn by James Melville in a letter to his uncle, dated the 25th of November
ensuing ; of which we cannot avoid giving the terms, as translated by Dr
M'Crie. " Your colleague John Johnston closed his life last month. He sent
for the members of the university and presbytery, before whom he made a con-
fession of his faith, and professed his sincere attachment to the doctrine and dis-
cipline of our church, in which he desired to die. He did not conceal his
dislike of the lately erected tyranny, and his detestation of the pride, temerity,
fraud, and whole conduct of the bishops. He pronounced a grave and ample
eulogium on your instructions, admonitions, and example ; craving pardon of
God and you, for having offended you in any instance, and for not having
borne more meekly with your wholesome and friendly anger. As a memorial,
he has left you a gilt velvet cap, a gold coin, and one of bis best books. His
death would have been a most mournful event to the church, university, and
all good men, had it not been that he has for several years laboured under an
incurable disease, and that the ruin of the church has swallowed up all lesser
sorrows, and exhausted our tears."7

We learn that he had married Catharine Melville of the family of Carribee —

6 Muniment's Catalogues of Scots Writers, 14— Sibbald's Bibliotheca Scottica, MS., 49.
There is soma difference in the names, as recorded by these two writers, and never having
seen the works themselves, we tako what appear to be the more correct titles.

7 M'Crie's Melviile, ii. 284.

III. 2 M

274 ROBERT JOHNSTON.

but at what period seems not to be known — and he has left behind him epitaphs
on her and their two children. It appears that in 1600, he had been solicited
to become " second minister" of Haddington. Besides the Avorks already men-
tioned, there exist, or did exist by him in MS. in the Advocates' Library,
Hew TtTttftttrmr sive de coronis Martyrum in Scotia Liber Unus, — De coronis
Martyrum in Anglia Libellus alter, — and Peculium Ecclesias Scoticanas, et alia
quaedam Poemata." He wrote epigrams on the chief towns of Scotland, which
have been appropriately inserted in Cambden's Britannia; and some of his let-
ters are to be found in the correspondence of that eminent antiquary. Andrew
Melville says, " Mr Johne Davidsone left sum nots behind of our tyme, and so
did Mr Johne Johnstoun :" what has become of these we know not.

JOHNSTON, Robert, an historian, existed in the earlier part of the seven-
teenth century. The works of this individual are well known, but he has not
achieved personal eminence ; and we neither know when he was born, nor the
station which he occupied in life. At Amsterdam was printed in 1655, his
" Historia Rerum Britannicarum, ut et multarum Gallicarum, Belgicarum, et
German icaruui, tarn politicarum, quam ecclesiasticarum, ab anno 1572, ad
1628."

This work was intended as a continuation of Buchanan ; and bishop Nichol-
son, no bestower of heedless praise, appears to think that it nearly equals in
style the work which it imitated.1 The late lord Woodhouselee, a less scrupu-
lous critic where a Scotsman was concerned, calls it " A work of great merit,
whether we consider the judicious structure of the narrative, the sagacity of the
reflections, the acute discernment of characters, or the classical tincture of the
style. In those passages of his history," says this writer, " where there is room
for a display of eloquence, he is often singularly happy in touching those char-
acteristic circumstances which present the picture strongly to the mind of the
reader, without a vain parade of words, or artificial refinement of sentiment.
We may cite as an example, his description of the death of Mary, queen of
Scots, lib. iv. sub anno, 1596 : and the circumstances attending the death of
Essex, with the author's reflections on that event, lib. ix. sub anno, 1641."
The same author farther mentions that Robert Johnston was one of the execu-
tors of George Heriot, the founder of the hospital.2 Johnston, besides this
extensive work, wrote " The History of Scotland during the minority of James
VI.," published at London in 1646. Wodrow mentions an "Epitome Histo-
riaB Rerum Britannicarum," published, accoi-ding to his account, in 12mo, in
1642, some time previously to the appearance of the larger work.3 Sir Robert
Sibbald seems to find nothing more remarkable to tell us about Johnston, than
that he was on intimate terms with Bruce, baron of Kinloss. " Bobertus
Jonstonus baroni Killosensi Brusio dum viveret, charus : vir variae lectionis,
egregiae eruditionis, limati judicii." He mentions that Johnston is said to have
died in 1630, and gives us an epigram on his history from the pen of Joannes
Owen.1 There is in the Advocates' Library a ponderous manuscript History of
Scotland, by a person of the name of Johnston, and generally understood to be
at least partly written by the subject of our memoir. The manuscript hr.s
belonged to lord Fairfax, and at the commencement is the following note in his
handwriting :

"Of the gift of Mr David Johnston, burgess of Edinburgh, itt beinge the
labour of his late father and grandfather, (the first draught.) A transcript

' Nicholson's Scottish Historical Library, 121.

Tytler's K;imes, i. Ap. i.
3 Wodrow's Catalogues of Scottish Writers, 14.
* Sibbaldi Biblioth. Scot. MS., 221.

PAUL JONES. 275

whereof he reserves to himself, (but is not all printed.) nor is ther any coppy
therof, but onlye this, beinge for the most part a translation of Bucquhanan,
but with very many additions not thought fit to publish. Fairfax. — 20th Octo-
ber, 1655."

JONES, Paul, (originally John Paul,) a nautical genius of no ordinary char-
acter and endowments, was born at Arbigland, in the parish of Kirkbean, and
stewartry of Kirkcudbright, in the month of July, 1747. He was the reputed
son of John Paul, who acted as gardener to Mr Craik of Arbigland, by his wife,
who had been cook to the same gentleman. It was generally believed, how-
ever, that Mr Craik was the real father of this extraordinary adventurer. The
education of Paul Jones — to use the name which he assumed in after life — was in
no respect different from that usually given in Scotland to boys of his rank ; and it
is not recorded that he showed any symptoms, while at school, of that capacity
by which he was undoubtedly distinguished in advanced life. From his earliest
years he manifested a decided predilection for a seafaring life, and at the age
of twelve, was apprenticed as a mariner to a Mr Young, a respectable merchant
in Whitehaven, whence he made his first voyage in 1760, in the ship Friendship
of that port, under the care of a captain Benson, for the Eappahannoc, Virginia.
Living on the shore of the Solway, all the amusements and ideas of young Paul
seem to have been from his very cradle maritime. While yet a mere child he
hoisted his mimic flag, rendezvoused his tiny fleet, and gave forth his orders to
his imaginary captains, with all the consequence of a veteran commander. The
town of Dumfries was at this period deeply engaged in American trade, parti-
cularly in importing tobacco, and the Nith being too shallow to float the larger
vessels up to the town, their cargoes were discharged at Carse-thorn, on the Gal-
loway coast, where the subject of this memoir was a daily observer of their op-
erations, and not unfrequently ventured to challenge the modes of procedure
followed by experienced seamen. Here, too, he had early and abundant
opportunities of becoming acquainted with the colonists engaged in that traffic,
whose bold and liberal sentiments seem, at a very early period of his life, to
have made the New World, as he afterwards expressed himself, " the country of
his fond election." These early impressions were doubtless aided by the circum-
stance of an elder brother having settled there, and being in the full enjoyment
of the peace and the plenty with Avhich, so long as the states were submissive
colonies of Great Britain, it was universally admitted the inhabitants were gen-
erally blessed. With this brother he made his abode during the time his ship
was in the Bappahannoc on his first voyage, and most probably on his subse-
quent voyages ; which could not fail in some degree to have attached him to the
country, though he had been devoid of any prepossessions in its favour. The
early indications of genius, which we have noticed above, were fully supported
in his new station. His singular intelligence and propriety of conduct ex-
cited the wonder, and, in some degree, the respect of his ship-mates, at the
same time that they gained him the esteem and the confidence of his employer,
who promised to give him the proof of his approbation by appointing him to the
command of one of his ships. Unfortunately for both parties, untoward circum-
stances prevented the master from having it in his power to pay this substantial
tribute of respect to the merits of his faithful apprentice, whose time having ex-
pired, he entered to the command of a slave ship, and made several voyages to
the coast of Africa in prosecution of that disgraceful traffic. How long he con-
tinued in this trade his biographers have not told us ; but to his honour they have
stated that he felt disgusted with the employment, and at length " confined his
services to the command of vessels engaged in a more reputable and legitimate
commerce." In the year 1773, the death of his brother in Virginia, without

276 PAUL JONES.

having left any children, called hiin over to that country to look after the settle-
ment of his affairs, on which occasion, all his transatlantic predilections being
revived, he resolved to withdraw from the dangers and the vicissitudes of a sea-
faring life, to settle in the colony, and to devote the remainder of his days to
the peaceful pursuits of rural industry and philosophic retirement

There is nothing more curious in the history of the human mind than that
satiety and languor which so frequently come over the most active spirits.
Cowley often had thoughts of burying himself in the woods of America, where
he fancied lie would be happy, in seclusion from all intercourse with the busy
and bustling portions of society : Cromwell, with all his unconquerable daring
and unquenchable activity — and Hambdcn, one of the brightest, the boldest, and
the most disinterested spirits that have adorned any age or country, despairing
of the state of political affairs in their native land, sought to escape their uneasy
sensations, and to secure religious peace and happiness, by the same expedient.
Akin, perhaps, to these cases was that of Paul Jones, whose mind seems from the
first to have been replete with lofty aspirations, fitting him for greatness, while
his connexions in his own country were of a nature to prevent his ever gratify-
ing them. We can easily conceive this bold and enthusiastic man sensible of
the superiority of his powers above those of most other men, but fretting at the
cold obstructions which were put before him, by the rules and habits of society
in his own country, and also perhaps at the notoriety of his ignoble origin ; and
therefore preferring to lose himself in an American forest, where, if he did not
gain any distinction, he would not at least be esteemed as lower than his per-
sonal merit warranted. Had the colonies been in a state of tranquillity, Jones
would probably have spent the remainder of his days as a simple colonist, or
perhaps gone back to sea, to escape the monotony of a life but little suited to
his faculties. The country, however, was now in a state of high effervescence,
which was every day increasing, and which called forth the energies, such as
they were, of every individual among them, either on the one side or the other.
Gr.eat dissatisfaction had for a long period been prevalent respecting the mea-
sures of the British government in reference to the colonies, and in the specu-
lations of the colonists with regard to the steps necessary to be taken for coun-
teracting these measures, Jones found the tedium of his retirement wonderfully
relieved. Open resistance was no sooner proposed, than he found that he had
mistaken the natural bent of his genius, which was much more turned towards
action than solitary speculation ; and when Congress, in the close of the year
1775, began to equip a naval force to assist in asserting American independence,
he stepped boldly forward to offer his service. He was at once appointed to bo
first lieutenant aboard the Alfred, one of the only two ships belonging to the
Congress ; and in that capacity hoisted with his own hands for the first time the
flag of independent America. In the course of a few months, by his activity
and success, lie gained the entire confidence of the marine committee, and from
the hands of the president received a captain's commission. In the end of the
year 1777, he was sent to France, in command of the Ranger, a new sloop of
war, with despatches containing an account of the victory obtained by the
colonists at Saratoga. As a reward for the important services he had already
rendered to the Americans, it was ordered that he should be promoted to the
command of the Indian, a fine frigate built for the Congress at Amsterdam, the
Ranger, at the same time, acting under his orders ; but the American commis-
sioners at Paris, from motives of policy, assigned the Indian over to the king of
I' ranee. Captain Jones, of course, remained in command of the Ranger, with
which he convoyed a fleet of merchant-men to Quiberon Bay, aud there, from
the French commandant, received the first salute that had ever been given

PAUL JONES. 277

to the American flag. Highly indignant at the resolution taken by the British
government, to treat every colonist who supported Congress in their aims at in-
dependence as traitors, and emulous of the exploits of some British seamen on
the American coast, Jones soon after entered the Irish channel, and on the night
of the 22nd of April came to anchor in the Solway firth, almost in sight of
the trees which sheltered his native cottage. The place must have awakened
many strange associations ; but they were of no friendly import. With thirty-
one volunteers, he sailed in two row boats for the English side of the firth,
with intent to burn the shipping (upwards of two hundred sail) in the harbour
of Whitehaven. This bold and hazardous project he had certainly executed, if
the receding tide had not retarded his progress so much, that the day began to
dawn before he reached the shore ; as it was, he could scarcely have failed had
he been seconded by his followers. The smaller of the boats he sent to the
north of the port, to set fire to the ships, whilst he himself passed southwards to
secure the fort. The morning was cold, and the sentinels, suspecting nothing
less than the approach of an enemy, were in the guard-room ; a circumstance of
which Jones knew well how to take advantage. Climbing up by the shoulders
of one of his men, he crept through one of the embrasures, and was promptly
followed by all his company. Making fast the door of the guard-room, he
spiked every gun on the fort, thirty-six in number, and, Avithout having hurt a
single individual, proceeded to join the party who had it in charge to burn the
ships. A false alarm had deterred this party from executing their orders.
Jones, however, proceeded to fire the ships within his reach ; but the inhabitants
were by this time alarmed, and hasting to the protection of the port; and he
was compelled with his small party to retreat, after having set fire to three ships,
one of which only was totally destroyed. This achievement cannot be denied the
praise of singular daring ; yet there is something so unnatural in making war
upon one's native land, and especially one's native city, improving all the know-
ledge and the associations of early years for the purposes of destruction, that
every generous mind revolts at the idea, and cannot award the praise which, it
may be admitted, would otherwise be due to the undertaking. But this attempt
was only the first exploit which signalized the 22nd of April. Early in the fore-
noon, he landed with a part of his crew at St Mary's Isle, on the Galloway
coast, the beautiful residence of the earl of^Selkirk, whom he hoped to have sur-
prised, and carried off a prisoner to America, that he might serve as a hostage
for the security of such of the colonists as should fall into the hands of the Bri-
tish. Happily for his lordship, he was not at home, and Jones, as he approached
the house, and learned that there were only ladies within it, wished to return to
his ship without farther procedure ; but his followers had no such exalted ideas.
In venturing upon an undertaking so hazardous, they were influenced by the
hope of plunder, which, being now in view, they refused to relinquish. He
succeeded, however, so far, that they agreed to offer no violence to any one, that
they should not enter the house, and that the officers, having made their demand,
should accept of what might be put into their hands without further inquiry.
These stipulations were punctually fulfilled ; but the inmates of the house were
not aware of them, and, terrified for their lives, were glad to redeem them by
delivering up the whole family plate, which was carried off" in triumph by the
sailors, who neither understood nor cared for the discredit, which it brought upon
their intrepid commander and the cause they served. The circumstance was,
as he probably foresaw, improved with great effect to his disadvantage. To
heighten the odium of the affair, it was industriously but most falsely given out
that the father of Jones had been gardener to the earl of Selkirk, and that it
was from this circumstance he had learned all the localities of the estate, which

278 PAUL J0NES-

enabled him to commit the robbery without danger either to himself or hi3
marauding crew. Not one of Jones's relations had ever been in the service of
lord Selkirk; and he showed that he had a spirit far above the meanness im-
puted to him, by buying the whole of the articles from the captors, who claimed
them as their right by the usages of war, and, at a subsequent period, restoring
them, in their original packages, to the noble owner. In a correspondence
which was carried on between Jones and lady Selkirk relative to the affair, her
ladyship most gratefully acknowledged the generosity and the integrity of his
character.

But these exploits on shore did not exhaust the good fortune of Jones. The
very next day, in the bay of Carrick Fergus, he fell in with the Drake, a king's
ship of twenty guns, and after a desperate resistance, in which the English cap-
tain and his first lieutenant were both killed, made her his prize, with which,
and another large ship, he returned to Brest, after an absence of twenty-eight
days. In this short period, besides destroying a number of valuable ships, he
had thrown the coasts both of Scotland and Ireland into the deepest consterna-
tion. This cruise, short as it was, occasioned the British government immense
sums of money for the fortification of harbours, and it was the ostensible cause
of embodying the Irish volunteers, a me:;sure of which we have yet felt only a
few of the consequences.

Notwithstanding the brilliant success that had attended his exertions, Jones
was now subjected to no small degree of mortification. As a token of good-will
to the United States, the French ministry had promised to furnish him with a
ship, aboard of which he was to hoist the American flag ; but after multiplied
applications, and a number of written memorials, the engagement seemed to be
forgotten or disregarded. Wearied out with the delays and apologies which he
was daily receiving, Jones set out for Paris to make his application to the
French ministry in person, in consequence of which he obtained the command
of the Duras, a ship of forty guns, the name of which, in compliment to a saying
of poor Richard, " If you would have your business done, come yourself," he
changed to Le bon homme Richard. In this vessel, badly manned and poorly
furnished, Jones sailed with a little squadron, to which he acted as commodore.
This squadron consisted of the Alliance, of thirty-six guns, the Pallas of thirty-
two, the Serf of eighteen, the Vengeance of twelve, and two privateers, who
were promised their share of the prizes that might be made. Having taken a
number of prizes, the Alliance, the Serf, and the privateers deserted him, in
order to pursue their own plans singly. The courage and skill of the commo-
dore, however, did not forsake him, and after again alarming the coasts of
Ireland, he sailed by the North Sea round to Leith, in the roads of which he
appeared with his own ship, the Richard, accompanied by the Pallas and the
Vengeance, in the month of September, evidently determined to seize upon the
guard ship and two cutters that lay in the roads, and to lay Leith and perhaps
the city of Edinburgh under contribution. The wind, however, which was fair
when he made his appearance, shifted during the night, and the next day he
continued working up the firth with great labour and slow progress. While he
was thus employed, a boat from the shore, sent out by an official character, who
mistook his ships for British, informed Jones that he was greatly afraid of a
visit from that desperate buccaneer Paul Jones, and begging that he would send
him some powder and shot. Highly amused with his mistake, the good-
humoured republican sent him a barrel of gunpowder, with a civil answer to
quiet his fears, and a modest apology for not including shot in the present he
had sent him. In the mean time he relaxed nothing in his exertions to come at
the ships of war in the roads, and other two tacks would have laid him alonjj-

PAUL JONES. 279

side of them, when a sudden gale of wind sweeping down the firth sunk one of
his prizes, and Buried his squadron irresistibly out to sea. The captains of the
Pallas and Vengeance were so much dejected at this accident, that they could
not be prevailed upon to renew the attempt His little squadron shortly after
fell in with the homeward-bound Baltic fleet, under convoy of his majesty's ships
the Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough. A desperate engagement en-
sued, in which Jones displayed the most consummate skill, dauntless intrepidity,
and perfect presence of mind. Tlie battle was obstinately contested; but
the Countess of Scarborough was at last obliged to strike to the Pallas, and
the Serapis to the Bon Homme Richard, which was so shattered in the action,
that next morning, after all hands had left her, she went to the bottom.
Though the Serapis was nearly in the same condition, Jones hoisted his flag
aboard of her, and under jury masts, with some difficulty, steered her along with
his other prizes into the TexeL He now used all his influence with the French
court to have his prisoners exchanged against American prisoners in England,
in which he had the pleasure of succeeding to the utmost of his wishes, receiving,
in a short time after, a letter from Benjamin Franklin, the American minister
at Paris, which informed him, " that he (Franklin) had just completed the noble
work, which he (Jones) had so nobly begun, by giving liberty to all the Ameri-
cans that then languished in England." The French ambassador at the Hague
was at the same time ordered to communicate to commodore Jones, the high
sense which his majesty, the king of France, entertained of his merits, and the
personal esteem he bore for his character, and, especially, for his disinterested
humanity.

Jones now took the command of the Alliance, the captain of which had been
summoned to Paris to answer for his insubordination, in deserting the commo-
dore on the coast of Ireland ; but his situation was now perilous in the extreme.
Summoned to deliver him up to the vengeance of the English government as a
pirate and a rebel, the Dutch were constrained to order him out to sea, where
an English squadron was watching to intercept him. From tin's dilemma he
could have been saved by accepting of a commission from the king of France,
whose ambassador earnestly pressed him to adopt that alternative ; but he thought
himself bound in honour to decline the offer, and determined, at whatever
liazard, to abide by and support the flag of the country which he had, upon the
maturest reflection, adopted. " Fortune favours the brave " is a maxim we see
every day exemplified. Jones weighed anchor and escaped through the straits
of Dover, almost under the eyes of the English men-of-war, all of which had
strict orders to secure him, and were, besides, inflamed against him in a high
degree from the repeated defeats that British ships had sustained at his hands.

Towards the close of the year 1780, he sailed with important despatches for
America in the ship Ariel, and by the way meeting an English ship of twenty
guns, engaged her, and with his usual gallantry made her his prize. The
king of France had, previously to this, testified his approbation of Jones's ser-
vices, by presenting him with a superb gold-hilted sword ; and a letter from the
French minister, M. de Sartine, was now transmitted to the president of the
United States, requesting liberty " to decorate that brave officer with the cross
of tlie order of military merit." The letter was laid before Congress, and, a
law acceding to the proposal being passed on the 27th of February, he was for-
mally invested by the chevalier de la Luzerne, at a public fete given to the
members of that body. Congress, in the month of April following, on the
report of a committee, passed a vote of thanks to the chevalier John Paul Jones,
" for the zeal, prudence, and intrepidity, with which he had sustained the
honour of the American flag, for his bold and successful enterprizes to redeem

2S0 PAUL JONES.

from captivity those citizens of America who had fallen under the power of the
enemy, and in general for the good conduct and eminent services by which he
had added lustre to his character and to the arms of America." No farther
opportunity for distinguishing himself occurred during the war ; but, after its
conclusion, Congress, as an expression of gratitude, had a gold medal struck
with appropriate devices to perpetuate the memory of his valour, and the singu-
lar services he had performed for the States.

In the year 1787, the chevalier Jones, being charged with a mission to the
court of Denmark, sailed for that country in the month of November, and pass-
ing through Paris on his way, he was strongly solicited by the agents of Russia
to tike the command of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. This he declined,
but he was scarce arrived at Copenhagen, when the empress Catharine, sent
him, by a special messenger, an urgent invitation to visit St Petersburg.
After what he had performed, it would have been strange if the chevalier Jones
had not felt some reluctance to enter into the service of Russia, where every
maxim by which he had been guided during his exertions for liberty behoved
to be reversed, and where, instead of being directed by the united voice of an
intelligent people, he must regulate his conduct by the single will of a despot.
It is one of the greatest evils of despotism, that the despot, once established, has
the means of corrupting and enslaving even the most generous minds. The che<
valier Jones saw many reasons for declining to enter into the service of Catha.
rine ; but, flattered by her attention and kind offers, he thought he could not
do less than to wait upon and thank her in person for her friendly intentions.
For this purpose he set out instantly from Copenhagen, by the way of Sweden,
but at Gushelham found the gulf of Bothnia blocked up by the ice. After
making several unsuccessful attempts to reach Finland by the islands, he con-
ceived a plan for effecting his progress by doubling the ice to the southward.
With this view he sailed from Gushelham in a boat thirty feet long, followed
by a smaller one that might be hauled over the ice, but told none of those who
accompanied him what were his intentions. Having set out early in the mor-
ning, he hr.d by the evening got nearly opposite Stockholm, when, instead of
landing as the boatmen expected, he drew out a pair of pistols and ordered
them to proceed in the direction he had previously determined upon. Resis-
tance with a man of the chevalier's character was probably judged by the simple
boatmen to be in vain ; and following his orders, with a fair wind they expected
to reach the coast of Finland by the morning. An impenetrable bar of ice,
however, defied all their efforts, nor from the state of the weather was it possible
for them to return. Their only resource was to sail for the gulf of Finland,
which they did, steering at night by a pocket compass, lighted by the lamp of
the chevalier's carriage, and in four days, having lost the smaller of their boats,
landed at Revel in Livonia. The chevalier hasted from Revel to St Peters-
burg, where he met with a most gracious reception, and, unable any longei
to hold out against the kind wishes of the empress, entered into her service,
without any stipulations but that he should not be at any time condemned with-
out being heard. Invested with the rank of rear-admiral, he proceeded without
delay to take the command of a fleet stationed at the Liman or mouth of the
Dnieper, destined to oppose the Turkish fleet under the capitan Pacha. He
hoisted his flag as commander of this fleet on the 26th of May, 1788, on board
the Vlodimer, and was supported by a flotilla under the prince of Nassau, and
a number of land troops under prince Potemkin. Throughout this campaign,
though it produced little that is worthy of the notice of the historian, the cheva-
lier Jones had many opportunities of displaying his professional skill and the
singular intrepidity of his character; but mean jealousy and the malignant

JOHN KAY. 281

caballing of heartless and narrow-minded courtiers, denied him the well-earned
praise that was due to his services. He was, however, on his return to St
Petersburg, as an acknowledgment of his fidelity, invested with the order of
St Anne, and informed, that in a short time he would be called to perforin a
part in services of mucli greater importance. He had seen enough of the Rus-
sians, however, and disgusted with the sordid selfishness and the low sensuality
that reigned in the court of Catharine, took leave of her dominions, in the
month of August, 1789. The remainder of his days he spent partly in Holland
and partly in France, devoting his leisure hours to the arrangement of his
affairs, and to the preparation of papers which might exhibit his character and
his services in their true light to posterity. He also made a large collection of
important documents i-elating to the public transactions in which he had been
engaged, which will be at some future day, it is to be hoped, given to enrich
the history of the important period in which he lived. He was seized with
water in the chest, and died at Paris in the month of July, 1792. As the laws
relative to the interment of calvinists or heretics were not then abolished in
France, application was made to the national assembly, which gave free liberty
for his being buried with all public honours, and ordered a deputation of their
number to attend, one of whom pronounced an elegant eulogium upon his char-
racter over his grave. He left among his papers a copious memoir of his life
written with his own hand, which his friends, it has been said, had it in contem-
plation to publish. We cannot doubt but that its publication would add to the
history of that important era many valuable notices, and be hailed by the public
as a most valuable contribution to the general stock of literature. From the
brief sketch of his life which we have given, the reader will be at no loss to
appreciate the character of Paul Jones, which, in his own country, has been
misrepresented by prejudice. That he was a naval genius of the first order, his
actions abundantly demonstrated. He was the man who first flung upon the
winds the flag of the United States ; and he graced it by a succession of victories,
all of which were relatively of the most splendid character. Unlike the vaunted
achievements of single ships belonging to the same nation in the late war, every
one of which possessed a vast superiority of men and of metal, Jones accomplished
his purposes with means, to all appearance, inadequate to the end, his ships
being often half rotten, only half provided in necessaries, and his sailors of the
most motley description. In every battle which he fought, superior skill and
bravery were the evident sources of victory. Nor can the circumstance which
has been so often urged against him, that of turning his arm, against his native
country, detract, in the smallest degree, from his merit. He was, be it remem-
bered, at the commencement of the war, a regular colonist of America, and was,
therefore, no more liable to this charge, than was any other individual out of all
the thousands who at first took up arms against Great Britain, and eventually
constituted the American republic. Less, however, can be said, for his entering
the service of Russia, -which was discreditable to his generosity and love of
freedom.

K

KAY, John, long well-known in Edinburgh as a miniature-p.iinter and cari-
caturist, and almost the only artist of the latter kind produced in Scotland, was
born in April, 1742, at a place called Gibraltar, near Dalkeith. His father,
and an uncle named Norman, were both stone-masons, and he was himself des-

282 JOHN KAY.

tined to follow the same profession. Having lost his father, however, in his
eighth year, this scheme was given up, and he was placed with some relations
of his mother in Leith, who, it appears, treated the poor orphan boy with great

cruelty almost to the hazard of his life. He also was oftener than once, while

in this situation, in danger of drowning in Leith harbour.

At the age of thirteen, he was placed by his mother with a barber in Dal-
keith, whom he served for six years ; he then set up in Edinburgh, having
first paid about forty pounds to the society of surgeon-barbers for the freedom of
the corporation, and soon after married a young woman, by whom he had eleven
children, all of whom long predeceased himself. The trade of a barber was
then more lucrative, and consequently more diguified than latterly. Kay had
good employment in dressing the wigs, and trimming the heads, of a certain
number of gentlemen every morning, all of whom paid him a certain annual
sum (generally about four guineas,) for his trouble. Among his customers was a
fine specimen of the old Jacobite country gentleman, Mr Nisbet of Dirleton, who
took a fancy for him, and frequently invited him to the country, to the great
injury of his business. Kay had, even in his boyhood, when residing in Leith,
manifested a turn for sketching familiar objects, such as horses, dogs, ships, &c,
using chalk or coal, and tracing his delineations on such pieces of dead wall as
presented a large enough ground. Now and then, in later life, he made some
attempts in miniatures and pencil sketches. It may easily be conceived that,
finding himself possessed of this talent, and encouraged by a man of rank in
developing it, he felt some difficulty in restraining himself to the humble
career which destiny seemed, to have marked out for him. At Mr Nisbet's
country-seat, he for the first time found proper opportunities and proper materials
for his favourite study ; while any compunctious visitings he might feel as to the
danger to which he thus exposed the permanent livelihood of himself and family,
were laid to rest by the kindness of his patron, who, in the meantime, sent money
to support his domestic establishment in Edinburgh, and promised speedily to
obtain for him some permanent provision, which should render him independent
of business. Unfortunately, in 1782, Mr Nisbet died, without having executed
his kind intention ; and Mr Kay was left in somewhat awkward circumstances,
having, as it were, fallen to the ground between certainty and hope. The heir,
however, so far repaired the omission of his predecessor, as to settle an annuity
of twenty pounds upon Kay for life.

He now began effectually to follow out his bent for limning and etching, and,
after a few trials, abandoned his trade as a barber. In 17 S4, he published his
first caricature, which represented a half-crazed Jacobite gentleman, named laird
Robertson, who was wont to amuse the citizens of Edinburgh by cutting caricatured
resemblances of public characters, which he fixed on the head of his stick, and
whose figure was perfectly known to all the inhabitants. The portrait, accord-
ingly, excited some attention, and the author was induced to attempt others.
The style assumed by Mr Kay was the stippled or dotted style, and nothing
could equal the felicity of the likeness. From that time forward, till he was about
eighty years of age, this untutored son of genius pursued his vocation, taking off,
one after another, the whole of the public and eccentric persons who appeared
in the Scottish capital, and occasionally caricaturing any jocular incident that
happened to attract attention. To speak of his portraits as caricatures is doing
them signal injustice. They were the most exact and faithful likenesses that
could have been represented by any mode of art. He drew the man as he
walked the street every day: his gait, his costume, every peculiarity of his
appearance, done to a point, and no defect perceptible except the stiffness of the
figures. Indeed, lie may be said to have rather resembled one of the prosopo-

joiin kay. - 283

grnphuses or apographs of modern times, than a living artist trusting to his eye
and hand. Hence, nothing can be more valuable in the way of engraved por-
traits, than his representations of the distinguished men who adorned Edinburgh
in the latter part of the eighteenth century — the Elairs, the Smiths, and the
Robertsons. It was only in certain instances that his productions could be con-
sidered as caricatures, namely, in those combinations by which he meant to bur-
lesque any ridiculous public transaction : and even here, his likenesses displayed
all his usual correctness. During a considerable part of his career, Mr Kay was
a professed miniature painter, and executed some specimens which, for delicacy and
finish, would surprise such individuals as have only been accustomed to inspect
his published etchings. It is said, that his only fault in this capacity, was a rigid
and unbending adherence to likeness — a total want of the courtly system prac-
tised, in so eminent a degree, by Lawrence and other fashionable painters.
Once, it is related, he was " trysted" with an exceedingly ill-looking man, much
pimpled, who, to add to the distresses of the artist, came accompanied by a fair
nymph to whom he was about to be married. Honest Kay did all he could in
favour of this gentleman, so far as omitting the ravages of bacchanalianism would
go ; but still he could not satisfy his customer, who earnestly appealed to his
inamorata as to the injustice which he conceived to be done to him, and the
necessity of improving the likeness, for so he termed the flattery which he con-
ceived to be necessary. Quite tired at length with this literally ugly customer,
and greatly incensed, the miniaturist exclaimed, with an execration, that he
would " paint every plook in the puppyVface : would that please him !" It is
needless to remark, that in this, as in other instances, Mr Kay lost by his
unbending accuracy of delineation.

During almost the whole of his career as an artist, Mr Kay had a small print-
shop in the Parliament Square, the window of which was usually stuck full of his
productions. He etched in all nearly nine hundred plates, forming a complete
record of the public characters, of every grade and kind, including many dis-
tinguished strangers, who made a figure in Edinburgh for nearly half a century.
It may be safely affirmed, that no city in the empire can boast of so curious a
chronicle. From the first to the last, there is a remarkable similarity in his
style. After forty years' experience, he was just as deficient in grouping, and
other acquired gifts in the art, as when he first began to use the graver. It
would almost appear as if nature had designed him for that peculiar style alone,
in which he so much excelled all other~men, and had denied him every common
effect of his art, which other men generally attain with ease.

In a profile of himself, executed about the year 1785, Mr Kay appears with
a handsome aquiline countenance, of much delicacy and ingenuity of expres-
sion. In his latter days, when the writer of this notice first saw hiin, he was a
slender but straight old 'man, of middle size, and usually dressed in a garb of
antique cut ; of simple habits, and quiet, unassuming manners. His head was of
a singular structure, presenting a very remarkable protuberance in the forehead,
where phrenologists, we believe, place the organs of observation r in Kay, the
profile of this feature formed the arc of a perfect circle, beginning under the
hair, and terminating at the root of the nose. According to the information of
his widow, (a second spouse, whom he married in 1787,) he cared for, and could
settle at no employment, except that of etching likenesses. He would suddenly
quit his lucrative employment in miniature-drawing, in order to commit
some freak of his fancy to copper, from which, perhaps, no profit was to be
hoped for. It was the conviction of this lady, that, if he had devoted himself to
the more productive art, he would soon have acquired a competency.

Mr Kay died in his house in the High Street of Edinburgh, some time in the

284: JAMES KEILL.— JOHN KEILL.

year 1S30. His wife survived him till 1835. After her death, the copper-plates
of Lis works were purchased by Mr Hugh Paton, Edinburgh, who republished
them in two quarto volumes, with biographical sketches, under the title of
"Kay's Edinburgh Portraits." The work forms a collection altogether unique,
and possesses great general as well as local interest, even in a generation com-
paratively unacquainted with the subjects of the prints.

KEILL, James, a physician and philosopher of eminence, the younger bro-
ther of the celebrated person whose memoir follows this in alphabetical order,
was born in Scotland, on the 27th of 3Iarch, 1G73. He received his early edu-
cation in Edinburgh, afterwards studying the sciences and languages at Leyden
and other continental universities. On his return to Britain, he applied himself
assiduously to the acquisition of a knowledge of anatomy, studying the science
practically, by constant attendance at the dissecting rooms. Having accustomed
himself to deliver his opinions on anatomy privately to his friends, he at last
undertook public tuition, and delivered, with considerable applause, lectures
on anatomy, at Oxford and Cambridge, by the latter of which universities he
was presented with the degree of doctor of medicine. In 1698, he translated
from the French, Lemery's Course of Chemistry, and soon after published in the
Philosophical Transactions " An account of the death and dissection of John
Bayles of Northampton, reputed to have been one hundred and thirty years old."1
To No. 361 of the same journal, he gave " De viribus cordis epistola." In L708,
he published " An account of animal secretion, the quantity of blood in the
human body, and muscular motion." On the subject of animal secretion, and
the manner in which the fluids of the animal body are separated from the blood,
he undertakes to show: 1. How they are formed in the blood before they come
to the place appointed for secretion ; 2. In what manner they are separated
from the blood by the glands. Upon the former head he shows, that the blood
consists of a simple fluid, in which swim corpuscles of various figures and mag-
nitudes, and endued with different degrees of attractive force. Hence he con-
cludes, that of such particles as the blood consists of, must the fluids be com-
posed, which are drawn from it. This he proceeds to show to be not only pos-
sible, but actually so in several secretions. From this principle, that the blood
consists of corpuscles of various figures and magnitudes, and endued with various
degrees of attractive power, &:c., he attempts to show the force of the air upon
the blood, in breathing, in order to demonstrate that by the pressure of the air,
the cohesion of the globules of the blood is dissolved. After this, he shows how
the union of the attractive particles is hindered near the heart, and that the
particles which unite first, after the blood is thrown out of the great artery,
must be such as have the strongest attractive force ; and that such as have the
least, must unite last; and all the intermediate ones according to their respective
attractive power."3 Besides this work, Keill published " Anatomy of the Human
Body," for the use of his pupils, and in 1717, " Essays on several parts of
the Human Economy." He appears to have given up public tuition, and some
time previously to the publication of his last work, to have established himself as
a practising physician at Northampton, where he gained considerable fortune and
reputation, and remained till his death, which took place in July 16, 1719,
from a cancer in his mouth. He was buried in the church of St Giles, where
his brother John, to whom he left his property, erected a handsome monument
to his memorv.

KEILL, John, an eminent mathematician and natural philosopher, the elder
brother of the preceding, was born in Edinburgh, on the 1st of December,

1 Phil. Trans., xxv. 2, 247.

* Martin's Biographic Pliilosopl.icn, 460.

JOHN KEILL. 285

1G71.1 He received the rudiments of education in the schools of his native
city, and remained at the Edinburgh university until he was enabled to take
the degree of master of arts. He early displayed a genius and predilection for
mathematics, and had the good fortune to study the science, along with the
Newtonian system of philosophy, under Dr Gregory. When, in the year 1694,
Gregory went to try his fortune in England, Keill followed him, and contrived
along with him to find admission to Oxford, where ho held one of the Scottish
exhibitions in Baliol college. Keill made his first appearance before the scien-
tific world in his " Examination of Dr Burnet's Theory of the Earth , together
with some remarks on Mr Winston's new Theory of the Earth," published at
Oxford in the year 1698. Any " Theory of the Earth," or account of its for-
mation and state, in anticipation of the discovery of facts to support it, always
formed a fruitful subject of debate ; but Burnet's Theory afforded more ample
field for censure than any other which pretended to support from the enlightened
doctrines of modern philosophy. The grand outlines of his theory were of
themselves sufficiently imaginative, and their effect was increased by the curious
speculations with which he filled up the minor details of his edifice. He sup-
poses the earth to have been originally a heterogeneous mass of fluid matter, of
which the heavier portions fell to the centre, forming there a dense body, sur-
rounded and coated by lighter bodies, while the water — the lightest of all the
heterogeneous mass, remained on the outside of the whole. The air and other
celestial fluids floated round this body : while between it and the water was
gradually formed a coat of unctuous or oily matter, higher than water. Upon
this unctuous coat, certain impure particles which had at first been mingled with
the air, descended, and floating about covered the surface, forming a shell
over the water, which became the crust of the earth. The crust thus formed was
level and uniform, without hill or vale ; so it remained for about sixteen cen-
turies, until the heat of the sun having cracked it in divers places, the water
rushed forth, causing the general deluge. This water found, however, a means
of partially subsiding, betwixt the broken masses of the crust, and thus leaving
the globe in the state of ocean, hill, and valley.

Keill, who, besides being a man of accurate science, was a person of clear
good sense and critical acumen, saw clearly the evil done to science, by the ad-
mission of suppositions which have a fully greater chance of being wrong than
of being right, while the richness of the doctor's imagination, and the poetic
beauty of his language and illustration, did not protect his principles from a
subjection to the strict rules of logic. Keill's book is full of the clear argumenta-
tion of a man who is rather formed to correct and check the discoveries of others,
than to allow his invention to stray so far as to make any of his own. He occa-
sionally condescends to use demonstration, while, well knowing that there may be
positions against which the gravity of an argument is misapplied, he makes very
frequent use of sarcasm, a power of which he is an accomplished and apt hand-
ler. Most of the vigour of the attack is derived from the manner in which the
different parts of the theory are found inconsistent with each other, without
any very extensive reference to other authority. " After this fashion," says
Keill, after giving an outline of Burnet's first foraiation of the earth, " has the
theorist formed his antediluvian habitable world, which doth not much differ
from the Cartesian method of making the earth : only Des Cartes, being some-
what wiser than the theorist, would not allow the outward crust, within whose
bowels the waters were shut up, to be a habitable earth, knowing well that
neither man nor beast could live long without water. But he made the crust
first be broken, and the waters flow out, before he placed any inhabitants on it.

1 Martin's Biographia Philosophies, 457.

286

JOHN KEILL.

Another small difference betwixt the two hypotheses is, that Monsieur Des Cartes
never thought of making the exterior orb of oily liquids, uhich the theorist as-
serts to be absolutely necessary towards the formation of the crust ; for if it
were not, says he, for the oily liquor which swims upon the surface of the abyss,
the particles of earth which fell through the air had sunk to the bottom, and
had never formed the exterior orb of earth. But notwithstanding this, I be-
lieve it may be easily made evident (though neither of these systems is true),
that the theorist's hypothesis is the worse of the two, which I will prove from
his own concessions : for he has already owned that the oily liquor is much
lighter than the watery orb. He has mentioned also, that the terrestrial par-
ticles when falling from the air, if the orb were only water, would sink to the
bottom ; and therefore these particles must be heavier than water. From thence
I think it does necessarily follow, that these terrestrial particles must also
be heavier than the oily fluid, which is lighter than water, and therefore
they will more easily descend through it than they did through water, it
being well known that there are several bodies which will swim in water, but
sink in oil."2

Proceeding on such positions, Keill destroys what has been raised by his
adversary, wisely substituting nothing in its stead, except what experiment and
demonstration support ; the general aim of the principles he espouses being,
lhat, excepting in so far as we know by experiment the operation of nature, we
must take the cosmogony of the earth, either literally as we find it laid down
in holy writ, or, admitting our inability to penetrate into its secrets, be content
with what is afforded us by experience, demonstration, and rational or certain
deduction. Whiston, in his " New Theory of the Earth, from its original to
the consummation of all things," maintained, that the Mosaic account of the
creation did not give a philosophical account of the formation of the universe,
but that it was merely intended, in the most simple and intelligible manner, to
give a history of the formation of the globe we inhabit ; that before being
brought into existence as an inhabited world, it had been a comet, which being
subject to perpetual reverses from heat to cold, became by the alternate congeal-
ing and melting of its surface, covered with a coat of heterogeneous matter or a
cliaos, within which the solid nucleus formed a great burning globe. This
great mass of matter, as the eccentricities of its orbit decreased, became more
nearly circular, and the materials ranging themselves according to their gravi-
ties, assumed at the period of the " creation " the forms of earth, water, and air.
If this theory does not possess any recommendation to our belief superior to
that claimed by Burnet, its author had at least the art, to found a greater num-
ber of his conclusions on experiments, and to deduce others in a less imagina-
tive manner. Keill treats this adversary with more respect than he affords to
the theoretic Burnet, seldom proving his positions "impossible," and generally
contenting himself with being sceptical ; he allows that the author " lias made
greater discoveries, and proceeded on more philosophical principles than all the
theorists before him have done."

Keill's small work is often referred to as authority by geologists and natural
philosophers; it contains many experimental calculations, among which is that
estimate of the depth of the sea, on which Breislak in later times founded his
celebrated calculation, that there never could have bee* a sufficient quantity of
water in and about our globe to have kept the matter of it at any time in solu-
tion. It was considered by many, that Keill had used the venerable doctor
Burnet, much his elder in years, a scholar, and a man esteemed for his private
virtues, with too much asperity and unbecoming sarcasm. It appears that the
1 FAamination, 37, 38.

JOHN KEILL. 287

respective theorists answered the attack, although in what manner we have been
unable to discover.

In 1699, Keill published a rejoinder, entitled " An Examination of the Re-
flections on the Theory of the Earth, together with a defence of the Remarks on
Mr Whiston's New Theory." The Defence of the Theory appears by no means
to have infused into Keill a greater spirit of politeness. He proceeds with the
impatience of a man of sense and knowledge interrupted, terminating with an
advice to Burnet to study " numbers and magnitude, astronomy and statics ;
that,'' lie continues, " he may be the better able to Understand the force of my
arguments against his Theory, after which I doubt not but that he will easily
perceive its errors, and have the ingenuity to acknowledge them. But till then,
all farther disputation between him and me must needs be vain and frivolous,
since true reasoning on natural philosophy depends on such principles as are
demonstrated in those sciences, the knowledge of which he has not yet at-
tained." 3 To his other opponent, Whiston, Keill has in this work, probably owing
to the manner in which lie was answered, forgot his former courtesy, treating
him with no more deference than he has used toward Burnet.

In 1700, Dr Thomas Millington, Sedelian professor of natural philosophy in
Oxford, on his appointment as physician in ordinary to the king, substituted
Keill as his assistant, to read his public lectures ; and the term for enjoying the
Scottish exhibition at Baliol college then expiring, he accepted an invitation
from Dr Aldrich, dean of Christ's church, to reside there. As his master
Gregory was the first who introduced the Newtonian philosophy to the universi-
ties, Keill himself possesses the reputation of having been the first to demon-
strate its principles on experiment ; a task he is said to have performed through
machinery of his own invention, but of what description, or to what extent he
proceeded in his proofs, we are not informed.

In 1701, Keill published his " Introductio ad Veram Physicam," a useful
and popular treatise on the Newtonian Philosophy. It is considered as an ex-
cellent introduction to Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, and has frequently been
reprinted in England, and in a French translation. About the year 1708,
Keill was chosen a fellow of the Royal Society, and after his admission he pub-
lished in the Philosophical Transactions a pretty lengthy paper, " in which the
laws of attraction, and other principles of physic are shown." * At this period,
the scientific world became disturbed by the dispute which had assumed the as-
pect of a national question, whether Leibnitz formed his idea of the doctrine of
fluxions from some unpublished discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, and which of
these two great men could properly be considered the inventor of that sublime
addition to the power of the human intellect. In the Acta Eruditorum published
at Leipsic, it was maintained that Leibnitz was the sole inventor, all right on
the part of Newton being denied. To this Keill answered in a paper which he
communicated to the Royal Society, defending his friend without much regard
to the accusations which he brought against his opponent.

In 1711, Leibnitz complained to the Royal Society, that Keill had accused
him of obtaining and publishing his knowledge in a manner not reputable to a
philosopher, or even exactly consistent with honesty ; he appealed to Sir Isaac
himself as a witness of his integrity, and required that Keill should publicly
disavow the offensive construction which might be applicable to his words. The
Royal Society being appealed to as philosophical judges in the matter, appointed
a committee to examine the papers and documents connected with the dispute,

3 Examination of the Reflections, 160.

* Epistola ad clar: Vir: Gulielmum Cockbum, Medicina: Doctorem— in qua Leges At-
tractionis Aliaque Physicse Principia traduntur.— Phil. Trans., xxvi. 97.

288

JOHN KEILL.

who did not find it difficult to produce a report rather unfavourable to the con-
tinental philosopher, bearing- " That 3Ir Leibnitz was in London in 1673, and
kept a correspondence with Mr Collins, by means of Mr Oldenburgh, till Sep-
tember, 1676, when he returned from Paris to Hanover, by way of London and
Amsterdam ; tbat it did not appear that M. Leibnitz knew anything of the dif-
ferential calculus before his letter of the 2 1st June, 1677, which was a year af-
ter a copy of a letter wrote by Sir Isaac Newton, in the year 1672, had been
sent to Paris to be communicated to him, and about four years after Mr Col-
lins began to communicate that letter to his correspondents ; wherein the method
of fluxions was sufficiently explained to let a man of his sagacity into the whole
matter : and that Sir I. Newton had even invented his method before the year
1669, and of consequence fifteen years before Mr Leibnitz had given anything
on the subject in the Leipsic acts ;" from which train of circumstances they con-
cluded that Keill was justified in his imputations. The censure of the society,
and the papers connected with it, were published apart from the Transactions in
1712, under the title " Commercium Epistolicum de Analysi Promota." For
some time the philosopher appears not to have answered this array against
him, until the Abbe Conti, in the year 1716, addressed him, calling on him,
if he did not choose to answer Keill, at least to vindicate himself from the
non-admission of his claim on the part of Newton ;5 and he just commenced
the work of vindication at a period when death prevented him from com-
pleting it.

In the year 1709, Keill was appointed treasurer to the Palatines, and in
performance of his duties, attended them in their passage to New England. On
his return in 1710, he was appointed successor to Dr Caswell, Savilian professor
of astronomy at Oxford. At this period, he again entered the field of contro-
versy, in support of his friend Sir Isaac Newton, whose philosophy had been
attacked on the foundation of Des Caites's theory of a plenum ; and he published
in the Philosophical Transactions for 1713, a communication to the society, on
the rarity of matter and the tenuity of its composition.6 In this controversy,
he was, however, interrupted by his appointment to the situation of decypherer
to the queen, and he was soon afterwards presented with the degree of doctor of
medicine, by the university of Oxford. About this period we find him gratefully
remembered by that unfortunate scholar Simon Oakley, for having permitted
him the use of the Savilian study.7

Keill, in the year 1717, took to himself a Avife. The name of the lady who
made him the happiest of men, has not been preserved ; but it is said he married
her " for her singular accomplishments." In the Gentleman's Magazine for
1739, we find a curious Horatian ode, addressed to Keill by the celebrated
Anthony Alsop ; its period of publication is some years after the death of both
the parties, and there is no comment alluding to the date of its composition ;
but the circumstances mentioned show it to be a congratulatory epistle to Keill
on his marriage. The ode is extremely spirited and not destitute of elegance ;
but whether from other motives, or the anxiety of the author to reach the
familiar vivacity of the Roman lyrist, he has treated his grave subject in a man-
ner which would not now be considered very worthy of a divine, or to convey
a pleasing compliment to a venerable professor. The subject was one of some
delicacy to Alsop, who was then enjoying a species of banishment, the conse-
quence of a verdict obtained against him for breach of a contract of marriage ;

5 Published in the Phil. Trans., xxx. 924.

8 Theoremata qusedam infinitum materia? divisibilitatem spectantia, quae ejusdem raritatcrn
ft tenuem compositionem demonstrant, quorum ope plurimre in plmica tolluntur riifficul-

tates. — Phil. Trans., xxviii 82.
* Nichols's Literarv Anecdotes.

GEORGE KEITH-ELPHINSTONE. 289

and whether from this circumstance, or his classical feelings, he has dwelt on
the habits, of his friend in a manner which would hardly fail to draw "damages"
from a modern jury.8 In 1718, Keili published " Introductio ad veram Astro-
nomiam, seu lectiones Astronomicee," a work which was reprinted in the year
1721, at which period, at the request of the duchess of Chandos, he published
a translation of this work in English, with emendations, under the title of " An
Introduction to the true Astronomy ; or, Astronomical Lectures, read in the
astronomical school of the university of Oxford." The year in which he
accomplished these literary labours was the last of his life ; during the summer
of 1721, he was seized with a violent fever, of which he died in the month of
September, in the fiftieth year of his age. Besides the works we have men-
tioned, he published in 1715, an edition of Commandinus's Euclid, with addi-
tions.

KEITH-ELPHINSTONE, George, (viscount Keith, K. B. admiral of.the Red,
&c.) a distinguished modern naval officer, was the fifth son of Charles, tenth
lord Elphinstone, by the lady Clementina Fleming, only child of John, sixth
earl of Wigton, and niece and heir-of-line to the last earl Marischal. His lord-
ship was born on the 12th January, 1746, at Elphinstone in East Lothian, the
ancient but now dismantled seat of the family of Elphinstone.

Mr Elphinstone was early taught, by his remoteness from the chance of family
inheritance, to trust to his own exertions for the advancement of his fortune ;
and, having from his earliest years shown a predilection for the navy, he was,
at sixteen, ranked as a midshipman in the Gosport, commanded by captain Jer-
vis, afterwards earl St Vincent. The peace of 1763 soon put an end to his im-
mediate hopes of naval glory — though not before he had experienced much ad-
vantage from the tuition of his eminent commander. He subsequently served in
the Juno, Lively, and Emerald frigates, and, entering on board an Indiaman,
commanded by his elder brother, the honourable W. Elphinstone, made a voyage
to China, where, however, he suffered considerably from the climate. Notwith-
standing this latter circumstance, he did not scruple to make a voyage to the
East Indies in 1767, under commodore Sir John Lindsay, by whom he was
promoted to a lieutenancy.

In 1772, he was advanced to the rank of commander in the Scorpion of four-
teen guns. In the spring of 1775, he was made post-captain on board the Marl-
borough, seventy-four guns, and soon after he obtained, first, the command of the
Pearl, and then of the Perseus frigate. In the Perseus, which was remarkable
as the first ship in tne British navy that wtt sheathed with copper, he made a
conspicuous figure, during the early years of the contest with America, as an ac-
tive and intrepid officer on the coast of that country, under lord Howe and ad-
miral Arbuthnot. He was likewise often engaged in the services, in this unhap*
py war, where sea and land forces were united — in particular at the reduction
of Charleston, he conducted himself with such gallantry in the command of a de-
tachment of seamen, as to gain frequent and most honourable mention in the of-

s Quidni ego lactor tibi gratulari
Conjugi, conjux? ego qui reliqui,
Connubi causa, patriam domumque ux-

orius exul.

Quare age et tolls licitae diebus,

Noctibus toll's veneri litato :

Non opus sylvse, aut recubare subter

Tegmine fceni, &c.

Gent. Mag. ix. 324.

30

290 GEORGE KEITH-ELPHINSTONE.

ficial despatches of general Sir Henry Clinton. The experience which he thus
acquired was of great service to him long afterwards, when he had a more pro-
minent and distinguished part to perform.

In 1780, having returned to England with despatches from admiral Arbuth-
not, he was, on his arrival, appointed to the command of the Warwick of fifty
guns. " In the general election, which took place this year, he was chosen mem-
ber of parliament for Dumbartonshire, where his family possessed some in-
fluence ; and he was one of those who met at the St Alban's tavern, to attempt
a reconciliation between Fox and Pit and the duke of Portland, with the
view of forming what was called "a broad- bottomed administration." This
attempt, as is well known, proved unsuccessful. In the following year, as he
was cruising down the channel in his ship the Warwick, he encountered the
Rotterdam, a Dutch ship of war, bearing fifty guns and three hundred men. The
manner in which he attacked this vessel and compelled her to strike — more es-
pecially as the engagement happened immediately after the Iris, a ship of equal
force, had been baffled in the attempt — gained captain Elphinstone much pub-
lic notice. Soon after this, he went out to the coast of America, where he served
during the remainder of this disastrous war. While on this station, he, in com-
pany with other three British vessels of war, captured the French frigate L'Aigle
of forty guns, (twenty- four pounders, on the main deck,) and a crew of GOO men,
commanded by count de la Touche. Unfortunately for the captors, the enemy's
captain escaped to shore with the greater part of a large quantity of specie which
was on board the frigate. Two small casks and two boxes, however, of this valu-
able commodity fell into the hands of the victors. Along with the captain, there
also escaped several officers of high rank, and amongst them the commander-in-.
chief of the French army in America. During his service on the American
coast, captain Elphinstone had the honour to receive on board his ship as mid-
shipman, prince William Henry, afterwards king William IV. ; a distinction the
more flattering, that the choice of the 6hip and officer was made by his royal
highness himself. At the close of the war, when the subject of our memoir re-
turned to Britain, the prince of Wales appointed him for life to be secretary and
chamberlain of the principality of Wales.

In April, 1787, captain Elphinstone married Jane, daughter of William Mer-
cer, Esq. of Aldie, in the county of Perth, a lady of large property, by whom
he had a daughter, afterwards viscountess Keith, and wife of count Flahault,
aide-du-camp to the emperor Napoleon. In 1786, captain Elphinstone was chosen
to represent the shire of Stirling. The breaking out of the French war in 1793,
opened a new field for his enterprise and activity, and soon after the occurrence
of that event he was appointed to the Robust of seventy-four guns, and sailed
under the command of lord Hood to the Mediterranean. The object for which
the latter had been sent to these seas was to endeavour to effect a co-operation
with the royalists in the south of France. In this his lordship so far succeeded,
that the sections of Toulon immediately proclaimed Louis XVII. under a pro-
mise of protection from the British fleet, and Marseilles was only prevented from
taking a similar step by the approach of a republican army. Before taking pos-
session of Toulon, which was part of the arrangement made with the French by
lord Hood, it was deemed proper to secure the forts which commanded the ships
in the roads, and for this duty fifteen hundred men were landed under captain
Keith, who, after effecting this service, was directed to assume the command of the
whole, as governor of fort Malgue. In a few days afterwards general Carteaux
appeared, at the head of a detachment of the republican army, on the heights
near Toulon. Captain Elphinstone, placing himself at the head of a small body
of British and Spanish soldiers, instantly marched out to attack him, and after

GEORGE KEITH-ELPHINSTONE. 291

a gallant contest, completely routed the enemy, and captured his artillery, am-
munition, horses, and two stand of colours.

In the October following, captain Elphinstone, with lord Mulgrave and rear-
admiral Gravina, at the head of a combined force of British, Spaniards, and
Neapolitans, obtained another complete victory over a detachment of the French
army, consisting of nearly 2000 men, at the heights of Pharon. In this en-
gagement the enemy's loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was about 1500
men, while on the part of the allied force it amounted only to eight killed,
seventy-two wounded, two missing, and forty-eight prisoners.

These successes, however, were insufficient to secure the British in possession
of Toulon. The whole force of the republicans became directed to their ex-
pulsion ; and, finding the place no longer tenable, it was determined, though
not without much reluctance, to abandon it. In pursuance of this resolution, the
whole of the combined troops, to the number of 8000 men, together with several
thousand royalists, were embarked on board the British ships early in the morn-
ing of the Sth December, without the loss of a single man. This important service
was superintended by captains Elphinstone, Hallinel, and Matthews ; and it was
principally owing to the care, attention, and vigorous exertions of these officers,
and more especially of the first, that it was so well and speedily accomplished.
Captain Elphinstone's efficient services on this and some of the immediately pre-
ceding occasions procured him high encomiums from both lord Hood and lieu-
tenant-general Dundas. On his return to England, which was in the year 1794,
he was invested with the knighthood of the Bath, having been previously pro-
moted to the rank of rear-admiral of the blue, and in July the same year was
made rear-admiral of the white, and in this capacity hoisted his flag on board
the Barfleur of ninety-eight guns, and in the year following, having shifted his flag
to the Monarch, he sailed with a small squadron for the Cape of Good Hope, then
in the possession of the Dutch.

A war being about to commence between Great Britain and the Batavian re-
public, the object of admiral Elphinstone was to reduce the settlements at the
Cape, a service which he effectually accomplished, besides capturing a squadron
which had been sent out for its defence. On the completion of this important
undertaking he returned to England, now advanced to the rank of vice-admiral ;
and the cabinet was so highly gratified with the great service he had rendered
his country by securing to it so valuable a colony as that of the Cape, that they
conferred upon him yet further honours.

In 1797, he was created an Irish peer by the title of baron Keith of Stone-
haven-Marisehal, and shortly after assumed the command of a detachment of
the channel fleet. In this year also, he was presented by the directors of the
East India company with a splendid sword, valued at 500 guineas, as an ac-
knowledgment for his eminent services. In 1798, lord Keith hoisted his flag
on board the Foudroyant, and sailed for the Mediterranean as second in com-
mand under the earl St Vincent, who was already there with a large fleet.

Early in the beginning of the following year, he was promoted to the rank of
vice-admiral of the red, and on the occasion of a temporary indisposition of earl
St Vincent, assumed the entire command of the fleet. Here he continued em-
ployed in blockading the Spanish fleet till May, 1799, when he went in pursuit
of the Brest fleet. His search, however, being unsuccessful, he returned to
England. In November, he again sailed for the Mediterranean, to take the com-
mand of the fleet there, and which was now wholly resigned to him in conse-
quence of the increasing illness of the earl St Vincent. While in this command
lord Keith performed a series of important services. By the judicious arrange-
ment of his ships, and the co-operation of lord Nelson, he succeeded in capturing

292 GEORGE KEITH-ELPHINSTONE.

two lar°e French ships proceeding to La Valetta, with troops and stores. He
blockaded the ports of Toulon, Marseilles, Nice, and the coast of the Riviera ;
and, co-operating with the Austrian*, who were besieging Genoa, he so effectu-
ally cut off all supplies from the French garrison in that place by the activity of
his blockade, that they were compelled to surrender. In the following Septem-
ber, the island of Malta was captured by a detachment of his fleet. The British
cabinet having determined to make a descent on Spain, lord Keith and Sir
Ralph Abercromby entered the bay of Cadiz with a large fleet, having on board
about eighteen thousand troops. Circumstances, however, occurred, which the
admiral and general conceived warranted them in not attempting the proposed
landing, and they accordingly withdrew without making any descent.

The greatest and most brilliant of all lord Keith's services, however, was yet
to be performed ; this was the celebrated landing of Aboukir, one of the most
splendid affairs in the annals of war ; and it was in a great measure owing to
the promptitude and skill of the admiral alone, that this critical and perilous
enterprise was so triumphantly accomplished. For this important service lord
Keith received the thanks of both houses of parliament, and on the 5th Decem-
ber, 1801, he was created a baron of the united kingdom, by the titleof baron
Keith of Barheath, county of Dumbarton. He had been previously advanced to
the rank of admiral of the blue. In the fulness of the country's gratitude for
his services, he was also presented by the corporation of London with the free-
dom of the city in a gold box, together with a sword of the value of one hun-
dred guineas, and was invested by the Grand Signor with the order of the
Crescent, which he had established to perpetuate the memory of the services ren-
dered to the Ottoman empire by the British.

In 1803, lord Keith was appointed commander-in-chief of all his majesty's
ships in the north sea. In 1805, he was further advanced to the rank of rear-
admiral of the white, and in 1812, succeeded Sir Charles Cotton as commander-
in-chief of the channel fleet. While on this station, it was his lot to be the
means of capturing the person of Napoleon Bonaparte, on his flight from France
after the battle of Waterloo. The disposition which lord Keith made of his
ships on this occasion was such, that the distinguished fugitive, after being taken
by captain Maitland of the Bellerophon, acknowledged escape to have been im-
possible. His treatment of the prisoner was as noble, delicate, and humane, as
his arrangements for seizing him had been dexterous. He acted throughout the
whole affair with so much good sense and right feeling, that he at once gained
the esteem and gratitude of Napoleon, and the approbation of the government
which he represented.

In 1814, lord Keith had been created a viscount; and, at the conclusion of
the war, by the exile of Napoleon in St Helena, he retired to enjoy his well-
earned honours in the bosom of his family, and the society of his former friends.
Latterly he resided constantly on his estate of Tulliallan, where he erected a
mansion-house suited to his rank and fortune. There he also expended large
sums in works of permanent utility, and united with constant acts of voluntary
bounty the encouragement of industrious pursuit and useful occupation, those
sure sources of comfort to a surrounding population. The strength of his na-
tural understanding enabled him to derive the utmost benefit* from all that he
had occasion to see or to contemplate. A most tenacious memory and great
readiness enabled him to bring all his information effectually into action when
the occasion called for it. Such powers, united to a fertility of mind which is
rarely excelled, rendered him a most distinguished character in all that regarded
his profession. In social intercourse, his kindly nature was constantly predomi-
nant: he was entirely free of affectation in conversation, and he dealt out the

GEORGE KEITH. 293

facts and anecdotes with which his memory was stored, in a most interesting
and amusing manner. Lord Keith was invariably influenced by the kindest
feelings for all who were connected with him, and, without solicitation on their
part, he was uniformly alive to whatever could promote their interest. But this
did not limit the extent of his usefulness to others ; on the contrary, being al-
ways open to approach, he was zealous in forwarding, to the utmost of his power,
the objects of deserving men. Accordingly, it may be safely said of him, that he
could reckon as great a number of meritorious officers, of all ranks and descriptions,
who had been placed in their proper stations by his efforts, as any man of his
rank who served during the same distinguished period of our naval history.

His first lady having died in 1789, lord Keith married, in January, 1808,
the eldest daughter of Henry Thrale, Esq. M.P. for Southwark ; of which
union the issue was one child, a daughter. In>1822, lord Keith was permitted
by the king to accept the last additional honour he was to receive on earth, in
the shape of a grand cross of the royal Sardinian order of St Maurice and St
Lazare. He died at Tulliallan house, on the 10th of March, 1823, in the 78th
year of his age.

KEITH, George, fifth earl Marischal, founder of the Marischal college of
Aberdeen. The period of this nobleman's birth is unknown ; his father was
William lord Keith, (eldest son of the fourth earl Marischal,) a person known in
history as having been taken prisoner into England in 1558, and released for
a ransom of £2000. This individual married Elizabeth Hay, daughter to the
earl of Errol, by whom, at his death in 1580, he left, besides the subject of our
memoir, three sons and four daughters.1 George succeeded his grandfather in
the year 1581, and we find him towards the end of the year following, doing
his duty in parliament2 We are led to understand, that, previously to his suc-
ceeding to the title, he had spent some time among the seats of learning on the
continent. As with all men who have been remarkable in advanced life, it was
recollected of him after his death, that in youth he showed an extreme desire for
knowledge, and a facility in its acquisition. We aro informed that he studied at
the King's college of Aberdeen,3 and that at the age of eighteen he was an
adept in the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and in the studies of anti-
quities, history, and literature ; when, discontented with the scope allowed in
his own country, he resolved to study in France.4 On this journey, it is said
that he was courteously received by the Landgrave of Hesse, (the chief among
the descendants of that celebrated tribe of " Catti," from which the fabulous
historians have traced the family of Keith,) along with the other noble youths of
the age. While he was accumulating knowledge, he did not forget the oppor-
tunities afforded him in France, of perfecting himself in the knowledge of
arms, and the feats of athletic jugglery then in vogue. After some time, Keith
left France, preferring a residence in Geneva, with the illustrious Theodore
Beza, by whom he was instructed in divinity, history, and the art of speaking.
During his residence there, an accident of a melancholy nature happened. His
younger brother, William, who had accompanied him on bis journey, and had
apparently, with high promise of fdture eminence, shared in his studies, Mas
killed in a tumult, during an excursion into the country. Bis eminent master,

1 Douglas' Peerage, 193.

s Act. Pari., iii. 326.

8 Middleton's account of the King's college of Aberdeen and of the great men there, MS.
Bib. Ad. M. 6, 15.

4 Oratio Funebris, in obitum maximi virorum Georgii Marischalli comitis, D, Keith ct
Altre, &o., Academic Marischallame Aberdoniae fundatoris, et Mecsentttis munificentissimi ;
scripta et pronuiiciata a Gulielnio Ogstono, philosophise moralis ibidem professore. Abrr.
Uaban, 1623, 4to, p. 11.

294 GEORGE KEITH.

alono- with Gaulter and Andrew Melville, have celebrated the memory and
talents of this young man. Beza, in the dedication of his " Icones virorum
doctrina et pietate illustrium," to king James, mentions, with much satisfaction,
the circumstance of having been intrusted with the education of pupils so illus-
trious. After the death of his brother, Keith left Geneva, and visited the
courts of Europe, where his rank and great wealth admitted his making a con-
siderable figure. It is said that, even in this employment, presumed to be full of
gayety, he was a grave and accurate student : that he indulged in the splendour
of courts more for the purpose of acquiring historical knowledge, than of pur-
suing pleasure, and that he travelled less for the purpose of recreation and
variety, than for the acquisition of correct knowledge of the various countries of
the world, having seldom seen a country of which he did not show his acquain-
tance, by embodying his knowledge in a map.5 He returned to his native
country, after an absence of seven years. The Scottish peer who in the six-
teenth century founded a university, and encouraged learning, must have been a
man whose penetration and grasp of mind were very different from those of his
colleagues in rank, yet he appears not to have been totally exempt from the bar-
barous habits and feelings of the day.

On the 8th of June, 1585, we find him obtaining a remission under the
great seal, for " art and part" of the slaughter of his relative William Keith,
apparent of Luduquhairn ;6 and in 1595, he is charged to appear before the
king and council, as a person entertaining a deadly feud with the laird of Mel-
drum.7 Soon after his accession to the earldom, the celebrated raid of Ruthven
took place, a political movement, as to which it is difficult to discover his view,
but with which his connexion seems to have somewhat displeased the king. He
was, apparently, not present at the " raid," nor does he appear to have
approached so hot a political atmosphere, until the king's escape from Falkland
to St Andrews, whither he repaired, apparently as a neutral person ; but he is
represented as having retired to his own home in disgust, on the king changing
the lenient measure he had at first proposed towards the rebels.8 The earl was
a member of that parliament which, on the 19th of October, 1582, approved
the acts of the conspirators, holding their proceedings as legal, and protecting
their persons from punishment, by an act which was afterwards expunged from
the statute book.9 It is not without surprise, that, after such a measure, we find
him acting as chancellor of the assize of peers, which, with considerable par-
tiality in its proceedings, found the earl of Gowrie guilty of treason, on account
of his share in the raid of Ruthven.10 It can scarcely be doubted, that in these
proceedings he was guilty of inconsistency : it is not likely that any one attended
a parliament held under the auspices of the conspirators, for the purpose of
voting against them, and it was not customary for the crown to choose assizors
who would acquit, while his having acted as chancellor leaves no doubt that he
voted for a verdict of guilty ! Charity can only palliate this tergiversation, on
the circumstance, that Gowrie had, in the interval between these events, been
guilty of additional acts of disobedience.

After the singular proceedings on the part of James towards the court of
Denmark, in attempting a negotiation of marriage with the eldest daughter of
Frederick the II., which terminated in that monarch (not presuming the king of
Scotland to be serious in his proposals) marrying his daughter to the duke of
Brunswick ; the lover, disappointed of one daughter, was resolved to try more
consistent plans for obtaining the other, and James proposed to send lord Altry,

• Oratio Funebris nt sup. » Melville's Memoirs, 270-74.

• Douglas^ Peerage, i. 193. • t Act Pnrl ( uu ^g

Pitcaim s Criminal Trials, i. 353. io Pitcaim's Criminal Trials, i. 116.

GEORGE KEITH. 295

uncle to the earl 3Iarischal, to Denmark, to make serious proposals to Freder-
ick's second daughter, Anne. The disposition of the council of Scotland, was
such as prompted Altry, an old and infirm statesman, averse to engaging in the
excite/Rent of politics, to decline the high office, and his nephew, the earl Maris-
chal, showed a desire to officiate in his stead. " Now the earl Marischal," says
Sir James Melville in his cautious manner, " was desirous to supply the place of
his uncle, my lord of Altry : and his majesty was content that he should be sent
thither. Whereupon I took occasion to represent to his majesty, that the said
earl was very well qualified for that employment, and that he would go the
better contented, if he might have in commission with him some of his own
friends and acquaintance. His majesty answered, that it was his part to choose
his own ambassadors ; that the earl Marischal should have the first place as a
nobleman, but," continues Sir James with his usual complacency, a that he would
repose the chief handling with the regent and council of Denmark upon me."11
It is probable that the great wealth of the earl, who was then the richest noble-
man in Scotland, was a cogent reason for appointing him to superintend an
expensive expedition. It was the policy of queen Elizabeth to object to the
proposed alliance, and the privy council of Scotland showed a disposition to
accede to her wishes. In the mean time, the tradesmen of Edinburgh, insti-
gated, it is said, by the secret interference of James, took the matter into their
hands, threatening the px-ivy council, and denouncing vengeance against Thirle-
stane, the chancellor, whom they looked upon as the chief agent of Elizabeth.
James had made his resolution, and the earl was finally despatched to Denmark,
along with the constable of Dundee, and lord Andrew Keith, whom he had
requested permission to take as an associate. Owing to the vacillating policy
of James, ** his power to conclude was so limited, and his commission so slender,
that he was compelled to send back again my lord Dingwall, either for a license
to come home, or for a sufficient power to conclude."12 Dingwall found the
king at Aberdeen, who, as the chancellor and most part of the council were
absent, was now in a situation to give more ample powers. The storm which
interrupted the voyage of the princess is well known as an amusing portion
of Scottish history; in the mean time, tho chancellor, who was the deadly
enemy of the earl Marischal, had, from his opposition to the measure, sunk in
the favour of James, and did not recover his former estimation, without suffering
the expense of procuring the handsome fast-sailing vessel, in which the monarch
made that voyage to Denmark which has been considered so unaccount-
ably inconsistent with his general character. We shall give, in the words of
Sir James Melville, an account of the very characteristic squabbles which took
place between the two rival peers at the court of Copenhagen. *? The company
who were with his majesty put him to great trouble to agree their continual
janglings, strife, pride, and partialities. The earl Marischal, by reason that he
was an ancient earl, and had been first employed in this honourable commission,
thought to have the first place next unto his majesty so long as he was there.
The chancellor, by reason of his office, would needs have the pre-eminence.
There were also contentions between him and the justice-«lerk. The constable
of Dundee and my lord Dingwall could not agree about place. George Hume
did quietly shoot out William Keith from his office of master of the wardrobe.
At length they were all divided into two factions ; the one for the earl Maris-
chal ; the other for the chancellor who was the stronger, because the king took
his part; so that the chancellor triumphed."13 The munificence and great
wealth of the earl, prompted him to bear, in the first instance, the expense of
the mission ; he could not have done a service more acceptable to his sovereign,
11 Melville's Memoirs, 357. 12 Ibid, 358. 13 Ibid, 363.

296 GEORGE KEITH.

and it appears to have finally reinstated him in farour. In 1592, the earl
received a parliamentary ratification of his acts as concerned the mission, and
was at the same time empowered to recover, from a forfeited estate, the expense
he had incurred, stated as amounting to 3156 merits.14 Up to the commence-
ment of the eighteenth century, the debt was, however, unrecovered,10 and it is
not probable that after that period it was ever paid.

In 1583, the earl was one of the commissioners appointed to superintend the
" new erection'' or alteration in management of the King's college of Aberdeen ;
and it is probable that the duties in which he was then engaged, prompted him,
ten years afterwards, to perform that act of enlightened munificence, which has
perpetuated his name as the founder of Marischal college. The charter of the
university was granted by the earl on the 2nd April, 1593 ; it was approved of
by the General Assembly of Dundee on the 24th of the same month, after having
been submitted to the examination of a committee, and was ratified by Parlia-
ment on the 21st of July following. The college was endowed to maintain a
principal, three regent professors, and six bursars. By the foundation, the
languages and sciences appointed to be taught, were, Greek, Hebrew, and
Syriac, natural history, geometry, geography, chronology, and astronomy.
In opposition to the principle previously pursued, by which each professor con-
ducted a class of students through all the branches of knowledge taught in any
university, the subjects taught in Marischal college were divided among separate
masters, each of whom adhered to his peculiar branch — an excellent regulation,
afterwards departed from, but resumed in the middle of the eighteenth century.10
Without descending to the particular benefits of this institution, the circumstance
that many eminent names are connected with Marischal college, and that its
small endowments have cultivated intellects which might have long lain unpro-
ductive, are sufficient of themselves to speak to the honour of its noble founder.
There are 114 bursaries connected with the college, of the annual value oi
£1150. About 70 of these are open to competition. Two of them are of the
annual value of £30 each, and are adjudged for excellence in mathematics to
students who have studied that science for two sessions, and are held for two
years. The bursaries range in value from £3 to £15 annually — the smallest
paying the full fee of the possessor for the four years during which he remains
at the university, and the larger frequently forming for a time the chief support
of one or two individuals who would otherwise remain uneducated. They are
carefully protected, as the rewards of talent and labour, and held by those who
gain them as their right, independently of the authority of the officials of the
university. The ancient buildings of the university having fallen into decay, the
foundation of a splendid new building, in the Gothic style, from designs by Mi-
Archibald Simpson, architect, was laid, with masonic honours, by the Duke of
Richmond, chancellor of the university, on the 18th of October, 1837. The
builder's contract amounted to £21,420, of which sum £15,000, with interest
thereon from 1826, was granted by government, the remainder being raised by
private subscription. The new buildings were completed in 1842. Several new
chairs have been instituted. The average number of students for the last twenty
years has been — in arts, 190 ; in divinity, 120 ; in law, 35 ; in medicine, 84.

Within the same year, when Marischal college was founded, we find its patron

** Act. Pari , iii. 541.

» A short relation of the origin of the Keiths in Scotland, with a list of the predecessors
of the present earl Marischal of that kingdome, being ane abstract of the history of that noble
family, anno Domini, 1600. Aberdeen, x die Aprilis, An. Dom. 1700.

!■ For a farther account of this matter, vide the memoir of Alexander Gerard in this col-
lection.

GEORGE KEITH. 297

engaged in other works of public utility. He granted a charter to Peterhead.
And by the act 1593, c. 48, we find him empowered to exact a toll of twenty
pence for every last of goods entering or leaving a harbour he had attached to
that town.17 At the same period, the secret transactions with the court of Spain,
of which some of the northern peers were suspected, and the discovery of those
mysterious documents known by the name of " the Spanish blanks," created
alarm in the nation, and consternation at court ; and by the same act of 1593,
the earl Marischal, as a trusty statesman, was empowered to act the part of king's
commissioner in the shires of Kincardine, Aberdeen, and Banff, and to inquire
into the conduct of the earls of Errol, Huntly, Angus, and others.18 A trust of
still higher order was reposed in the earl, in June 6th, 1609, when, by commis-
sion under the great seal, he was appointed lord >:igh commissioner to the par-
liament of Scotland.

In the year 1622, in the old age of a well-spent life, the earl felt his last
illness come upcnhim, and he retired to his fortress of Dunnotter, where he is
said to have borne his sickness with patience and religious resignation. Dr
Dun, one of the professors of his college, attended him as physician, and the dis-
ease for a time yielded to medicine, but finally relapsed.13 The latter days of
tliis great and useful man do not appear to have been permitted to pass in
domestic peace, and his death-bed was disturbed by the desertion and crime of
an unfeeling wife. The circumstance to which we refer is one of a very singular
nature ; and as it is impossible at this period to trace all the motives from which
it originated, we shall state it, almost verbatim, as it occurs in the criminal re-
cord, avoiding antiquated orthography. "On the 3rd of March, 1624, Dame
Margaret Ogilvie, countess dowager of Marischal, along with her then husband,
Sir Alexander Strauchane of Thornetoun, knight, and Robert Strauchan, doctor
in physic, were accused before the high court of justiciary, of the ignoble crimes
of masterful theft and stouthrief, in having stolen from the place of Benholm, be-
longing to the earl, certain jewels, silver plate, household stuff, gold, silver, and
title deeds, in October, 1622, a little before the said earl's decease." On
the same day, James Keith of Benholme was cited to answer for a similar crime,
committed at the same time, and in the same place. The two cases are evidently
connected together, and the minute in the latter provides us with the following
inventory of articles stolen, which is an evidence of the magnificence and wealth
of the earl, and an extraordinary feature in the transaction. Of Portugal
ducats, and other species of foreign gold, to the avail of 26,000 pounds or
thereby ; thirty-six dozen gold buttons ; a rich jewel set with diamonds, which
the deceased earl received as a gift when he was ambassador in Denmark, worth
6,000 merks ; the queen of Denmark's picture in gold, set about with rich
diamonds, estimated at 5,000 merks ; a jasper stone for stemming of blood, esti-
mated at 500 French crowns ; a chain of " equall perle," wherein were 400
pearls great and small ; two chains of gold, of twenty-four ounce weight ; an-
other jewel of diamonds set in gold, worth 3,000 merks; a great pair of brace-
lets, all set with diamonds, price thereof 500 crowns ; the other pair of gold
bi\icelets at 600 pounds the pair ; a turquois ring worth ten French crowns ; a
diamond set in a ring, worth twenty-eight French crowns, with a number of
other small rings set with diamonds and other rich stones in gold, worth 300
French crowns; also 16,000 merks of silver and gold ready coined, which was
within a green coffer ; together with the whole tapestry, silver-work, bedding,
goods, gear, and plenishing within the said place. The case, as regarded the
counte.s, and Sir Alexander and Dr Strauchane, was postponed by a royal war-

17 Act Par., iv. 33. " Act. Pari., iv. 44. Piteairn's Crim. Trials, i 233.

19 Oratio Funebris ut sup.

TIT „ « *

298 HON. JAMES KEITH.

rant to the 2nd of July, from thence to the 27th of July, and from thence to the
Sth of December, of which date no entry appearing, the lord advocate seems to
have been prevailed with to give up the pursuit ; Keith of Benholme, Avho seems
to have occupied, or been steward of, the house so strangely dilapidated, was
outlawed for not appearing.20

The earl died at five o'clock on the morning of the fifth day of April, 1623,
and a monument with a poetical inscription was erected to his memory. The
funeral oration so frequently referred to, was read at Marischal college on the
30th June, 1G23, by Ogston, the professor of moral philosophy; it compares
his death to an earthquake, and sundry other prodigies of nature — heaps too
great a load of virtues on his shoulders for mankind to bear with comfort, and
in detailing the perfections of the dead Mecasnas, the author does not neglect
those of the living Solomon. A book of " Tears" was also published to his me-
mory, chiefly composed by Massy and Alexander Wedderburn.21 The lady al-
ready so equivocally mentioned was his second wife, a daughter of James, sixth
lord Ogilvie : he had previously married Margaret, daughter cf Alexander, fifth
lord Hume,23 and by both he had several children.

KEITH, (the Honourable) Jambs, commonly called marshal Keith, the
younger son of William, ninth earl Marischal, and lady Mary Drummond,
daughter to the earl of Perth, Avas born in the year 1696. His aptness for
learning seems to have been very considerable, since he acquired in after-life a
reputation for letters scarcely inferior to his military renown ; a circumstance
which was possibly in no small degree owing to his having had the good fortune
to receive the rudiments of his education from the celebrated bishop Keith, who
was allied to his family by consanguinity, and who officiated as tutor to himself
and his elder brother, the tenth earl Marischal.

Mr Keith was originally designed for the law, and with the view of making it
his profession, ho was sent to Edinburgh to complete his studies. It was soon
discovered, however, that he entertained a much stronger predilection for the
camp than the bar ; — he seems indeed to have been very early attached to the
military profession. His language, when the subject happened at any time to
be alluded to, was always full of martial enthusiasm, even while yet a mere
6tripling. " I have begun to study the law," he said, " in compliance with the
desires of the countess of Marischal, (his mother,) but commend me, gentlemen,
to stand before the mouth of a cannon for a few minutes ; this either makes a
man in an instant, or he dies gloriously in the field of battle." Such was the
spirit in which the young soldier entered on his career of fame.

The earl Marischal, elder brother of the subject of this memoir, was one
of those Tory noblemen who signed the proclamation of George I. The
party being disappointed in their hopes of office under the new dynasty, he re-
turned in a state of high irritation to Scotland, and at York met his brother
James, who was on his way to London for the purpose of asking a commission in
the army. The two young men returned home together, burning with resent-
ment, and on the commencement of the insurrection of 1715, they were incited
at once by their own feelings, and by the advice of their mother, who was a ca-
tholic, to declare for the Pretender. The meeting held by the earl of Mar, (who
was their cousin,) under the semblance of a hunting match, was attended by the
two brothers, and they continued, throughout the remainder of the campaign,

20 Pitcairn's dim. Trials, iii. 562.

21 "Lachrimaj Academise Marischallancc sub obitum Mecsenatis et Fundatoris sui, mu-
nificentissimi, nobilissimi et illustrissimi, Georgii Comitis Marischalli, Domini de Keith et
AHre, &c." — Aberd. Rabun, 1623.

22 Douglas' Peerage.

HON. JAMES KEITH.

299

to act a bold and conspicuous part under that unfortunate leader. The imme-
diate subject of this memoir is said to have manifested a degree of resolution and
conduct which attracted much attention, and inspired hopes of his future fortune.
On the final dispersion of the rebel army at Ruthven in Badenoch, they had no
resource but to make the best of their way to a foreign land, where they might
be safe from the consequences of their enterprise. They proceeded, in company
with many other Lowland gentlemen, to the Westerfl Isles, where they designed to
wait till a vessel could be procured to convey them to France. While in the isles,
where they were detained nearly a month, the fugitives were frequently alarmed
by reports of their retreat having been discovered, and that an armament had
been despatched in quest of them ; and on one occasion they were informed that
three frigates, with two battalions of foot on board, were within ten miles of
them. They, however, were not molested. On the 20th of April, a ship which
had been despatched from France for the purpose, arrived at the island on which
they were concealed. Losing no time, they, along with about a hundred com-
panions in misfortune, embarked on board of this vessel, and arrived in safety
at St Paul de Leon in Brittany, on the 12th of May, 1716. On their arrival
at this port, the greater part of them proceeded immediately to wait upon the
Pretender, who was then at Avignon ; the others, amongst whom was Keith,
went straight to Paris, where the latter had at that time several relations resid-
ing. On reaching Paris, Keith waited upon the queen-mother, by whom he
was most graciously received, and who, amongst other flattering things, said,
that she had heard of his good services in her son's cause, and that neither of
them should ever forget it. Keith now proposed to the queen-mother to visit
the king, by which he meant the Pretender, and asked her permission to do so.
She, however, dissuaded him from taking this step, saying that he was yet but
young, and had better remain in Paris and recommence his studies, and con-
cluded by proposing to bear the charge of his future education. Notwithstand-
ing this flattering reception, a whole month elapsed before Keith heard any
thing further from the queen-mother, and, in the mean time, he was reduced to
great straits for want of money, living principally by selling horse furniture,
which military officers were at this period in the habit of carrying about with
them, and which, being sometimes richly ornamented with silver, was a very
valuable article. There were many friends of himself and his family in Paris,
who would readily have afforded him any pecuniary assistance he might have
required, but, as he himself says, in a MS. memoir of his life, written with his
own hand, to which we have access, " I was then either so bashful or so vain,
that I would not own the want I Avas in." His wants, however, of this kind
were soon amply provided for, and from various unlooked for sources. The
queen-mother at length sent him 1000 livres, and much about the same time a
Parisian banker waited upon him, and informed him that he had instructions
from Scotland to supply him with money, and an order from king James to pay
him 200 crowns a-year, with an apology for the smallness of the sum, as it was
all that his (the king's) circumstances enabled him to do. Relieved now from
his pecuniary difficulties, he betook himself to study, to which he devoted the
whole of the remaining part of the year 1716, and a great part of the following
year. Previous to this, and while pursuing his studies, he received a commission
as colonel of horse in the service of the king of Sweden, who entertained a de-
sign of making a descent on Scotland in favour of king James. The project,
however, was discovered long before it could be carried into execution, and thus
both the intended invasion and Keith's commission fell to the ground. Another
opportunity, although equally fruitless in its results, presented itself to the young
soldier, now in his twentieth year, of pushing his fortune with his sword. This

300 HON. JAMES KEITH.

was the appearance in Paris of Peter the first, emperor of Russia. Keith made
every effort to obtain admission into the service of that potentate, but without
effect, he himself supposes on account of his not having employed the proper
means. In the following year, 1718, learning that there was an inten-
tion on the part of Spain, similar to that which had been entertained by the
king of Sweden, viz., to attempt the restoration of king James by invad-
ing Scotland — Keith and hTs brother the earl Marischal set out for Madrid,
with the view of offering their services in the proposed expedition. These
were readily accepted, and the two brothers, after repeated interviews with car-
dinal Alberoni, then prime minister of Spain, were furnished with instruc-
tions regarding the intended descent, and with means to carry that part of it
which was intrusted to them into execution. By previous appointment, Keith
and his brother the earl Marischal were met at Havre de Grace, the point at
which they had fixed to embark for Scotland, by several of the Scottish leaders
in the rising of 1715, who were still lurking about France. All of them hav-
ing been advised of the undertaking, were furnished with commissions from the
king of Spain, to apply equally to the Spanish forces which were to be sent after
them, and to those which they should raise in the country.

The co-operation in this enterprise which they were led to expect was the
landing in England of the duke of Ormond with an army, which it was proposed
should immediately take place. Two frigates, with Spanish troops on board, were
also to follow them within a day or two, to land with them in Scotland, and
enable them to commence their operations in that kingdom. On the 19th of
March, the expatriated chiefs embarked on board a small vessel of about twenty-
five tons, and after encountering some stormy weather and running great risk
from some English ships of war which they fell in with, they reached the island of
Lewis on the 4th of April. They were soon afterwards joined by the two
frigates, and a debarkation on the main land was immediately determined upon.
In the expectation of being joined by large bodies of Highlanders, they pro-
posed to march forward to Inverness, from which they hoped to drive out the
small force by which it was garrisoned.

The whole enterprise, however, hurried on to a disastrous conclusion. The
dulce of Ormond's fleet was dispersed : the Highlanders refused to embark in the
desperate undertaking ; a very few only joining the invaders, and these showing
little enthusiasm in the cause : and to complete their ruin, they were attacked
and defeated by a body of troops which had been despatched to arrest their pro-
gress. They were, however, not so completely routed but that they were enabled
to retire in partial order to the summit of some high grounds in the vicinity
of the scene of action. Here a council of war was held during the night, in
which it was resolved that the Spaniards should on the next day surrender them-
selves prisoners of war, that the Highlanders should disperse, and that the of-
ficers should each seek his safety in the best way he could.

Thus Keith found himself placed in exactly the same desperate circumstances in
which he was after the rising of 1715, — an outlawed fugitive, without means and
without a home. After lurking some months in the Highlands, during the greater
part of which, to add to his misfortunes, he was in bad health, he found his way
to Peterhead, where he embarked for Holland, whither his brother had gone
before him. Being here joined by the latter, they both proceeded to the Hague,
and sometime afterwards to Madrid. Here Keith's pecuniary difficulties be-
came as pressing and infinitely more desperate than they were in Paris on his
arrival there in 1715. "I was now," he says, " as the French have it, au pie
de la lettre sur le pave. I knew nobody and was known to none, and had not
my good fortune brought rear-admiral Cammoek to Madrid, whom I had known

HON. JAMES KEITH. 301

formerly in Paris, I don't know what would have become of me ; he immediate-
ly offered me his house and his table, both which I was glad to accept of."
Thus shifting, together with the aid of some arrears of pay which he received
from the king of Spain, he remained the greater part of the year 1720, and,
with the exception of some short absences, all the year 1721, at Madrid. He
then removed to Paris, where he lived for the next three or four years, receiv-
ing the pay of a Spanish colonel, but without being attached to any regiment.
At the end of this period Keith again returned to Spain, and was employed in
active service up to the year 172S. Thinking himself, however, rather over-
looked, he in this year addressed a letter to the king, soliciting his patronage,
and requesting that he might be appointed to the command of the first Irish
regiment which should become vacant. The answer of his majesty to this ap-
plication was, that so soon as he knew that he Mas a Roman catholic he should
not only have what he asked, but that his future fortunes should be cared for.
Finding all hopes of promotion in the Spanish service thus cut off on account of
his religious belief, Keith solicited a recommendation from his Spanish majesty
to the court of Russia, where he now determined to try his fortunes. The re-
commendation which he sought was at once granted, and forwarded to the em-
peror of Russia, who soon after intimated to him his admission into his service
as a major-general. On Keith's leaving Madrid for Moscow, the king of Spain
presented him with a douceur of 1000 crowns, and soon after his arrival in
Russia he was promoted to the command of a regiment of guards, an appoint-
ment of great trust, and which had hitherto been bestowed on none but especial
favourites of the sovereign. He was further named one of three inspectors ot
army details, and awarded as his department the frontier of Asia, with the
country on both sides of the Volga and Don, together with part of the frontier
of Poland. About this time one of his early instructors, a Mr Morton, hearing
of his good fortune, wrote to him a letter of congratulation on his prosperity.
The general's reply partook of his nature ; it was kind and unaffected. ** I am
a true Scotsman indeed," he said amongst other obliging things, " wise behind
the hand ; for had I been more careful to imbibe the excellent instructions I re-
ceived under your inspection, I had still made a better figure in the world."
Hitherto the general, though he had proven himself at once a zealous and an
able officer in the discharge of his military duties, had had no opportunity of
exhibiting his talents for active warfare. Such an opportunity, however, at
length offered. On the death of the king of Poland, that unhappy kingdom
was entered by a Russian army to overawe, or rather control the election of a
new king. On this occasion the general was despatched into Poland with six
battalions of foot, 600 dragoons, and 4000 Cossacks. While on this service he
was ordered by the commander-in-chief, prince Schahofskoi, to ravage the coun-
try. With a feeling of humanity and in a spirit of honour which reflects much
credit on his character, both as a soldier and a man, he endeavoured to evade
the painful, and as he felt it, dishonourable duty. Finding that no dictates of
humanity would weigh with the commander-in-chief, he tried the effects of in-
terested considerations ; representing to him, that if the system of devastation
was continued, not only would the inhabitants, but the Russian army also be re-
duced to a state of absolute starvation. This had the desired effect. The
general was immediately ordered to desist from further spoliation. During the
whole of this war the general conducted himself with a degree of judgment and
gallantry, and in short, discovered throughout such a possession of the best and
most valuable qualities of the soldier, as now ranked him indisputably amongst
the first captains of the age. He was severely wounded in the knee in this
service at Ocrakow. The injury was of so serious a nature that the Russian

302 HON. JAMES KEITH.

surgeons recommended that the wounded limb should be amputated, and the
general at once gave his consent to the operation being performed. But his
brother, who had. gone to visit him on this occasion, would not listen to the pro-
posal. " I hope," he said, " James has yet more to do with that leg, and I
will not part with it so easily, at least not until I have the best advice in
Europe." In the spirit of brotherly affection which these expressions bespeak,
he immediately removed the general to Paris, to procure the a"dvice of the
surgical skill of that city, and the result was highly favourable. The French
surgeons, doing what those of Russia had neglected, laid open the general's
knee, and extracted some pieces of cloth which had been driven into the
wound by the shot, and had all along prevented that cure which was now soon
effected.

The military fame of general Keith was now spread over all Europe, and had
attracted in a particular manner the notice of the warlike Frederick of Prussia,
who lost no time in inviting him into his service, offering him the rank of a
field marshal and the governorship of Berlin, with ample means to support the
dignity of these situations. These oilers were too tempting to be refused. The
general accepted them, and immediately proceeded to the Prussian court His
affable manners and military genius soon won him the personal esteem of his
new master, who not only admitted but invited him to the most familiar inter-
course, travelled with him throughout his own dominions and those of the neigh-
bouring states, and acknowledged him as an adviser in matters of military business,
and as his companion in his hours of relaxation. For some time after his ar-
rival in Prussia the marshal enjoyed a respite from military service, Frederick
happening then to be, we cannot say at peace, but not at actual war with any
of the European powers. This leisure he devoted to literary pursuits, entering
into and maintaining a correspondence with some of the most eminent politicians
and philosophers of the day, all of whom bear testimony to the great talent and
ability with which he discussed the various subjects on which he wrote, and not
the smallest portion of their praise was bestowed upon the elegance and felicity
of language which his correspondence exhibited.

Frederick's, however, was not a service in which much repose of this kind
could be expected. He, of whom it is said, that he looked upon peace only as
a preparation for war, was not likely either to remain long idle liimself, or to
permit such a man as marshal Keith to be so.

The outrageous conduct of Frederick in repeated instances had long given
great umbrage to many of the European powers, but none of them had dared to
come to open hostilities with him. At length, however, they fell upon the plan
of combining their efforts for the chastisement of the warlike monarch, whom
none of them would venture to face singly.

Austria, Russia, Germany, and France, all took the field against the Prussian
monarch. During the vicissitudes and operations which ensued, in attacking at
one time and resisting at another, the various efforts of his numerous enemies,
Frederick intrusted the most important, next to those which he himself assumed,
to marshal Keith, whose military talents and sound judgment he found during
the arduous struggle which followed, had not been over-rated. When summoned
by the prince of Saxe-Hildburg to surrender Leipsic, which Frederick had left
him to defend with 8000 men, the gallant soldier, then upwards of 60 years of
age, replied to the messenger, "-Let your master know that I am by birth a
Scotsman, by inclination as well as duty, a Prussian, and shall defend the town
in such a manner that neither the country which gave me birth nor that wluch
lias adopted me shall be ashamed of me. The king my master has ordered me
to defend it to the last extremity, and he shall be obeyed." Early on the

HON. JAMES KEITH. 303

following morning, the marshal summoned the magistrates of the town together
told them of the communication which he had from the enemy, and advised them
to wait upon the prince, and beg of him, for their own sakes and that of the
inhabitants in general, to refrain from proceeding to extremities against the
city ; " for," said he, with a tact which showed the consummate soldier, " if he
proceeds in this resolution, I will myself begin to set lire to the suburbs, and
if that be not sufficient to oblige the enemy to desist from his enterprise, I
will go further, and not spare even the city itself;" and with many expressions
of reluctance to have recourse to such dreadful measures, to which he said neces-
sity alone could compel him, he dismissed the terrified citizens, who instantly
despatched a deputation to wait upon the prince. All, however, they could ob-
tain from the latter was a modification of the terms of the original summons.
Another was sent, in which the Prussians were offered the liberty of marching
out of the town without molestation. This summons marshal Keith rejected
with the same determination as the former, to the great provocation of the
prince, who, in his resentment at the tone of defiance assumed by the Prussian
commander, declared that if the latter carried his threat into execution regard-
ing the burning of the town, he would lay Berlin or Potsdam in ashes. The
extremities which were thus threatened on both sides were, however, prevented
by the approach of the Prussian monarch, who arrived in the neighbourhood of
Leipsic with a large force, and averted the destruction of the city by bringing
on the celebrated battle of Rosbach, in which he was completely victorious.
Soon after this, marshal Keith marched into Bohemia with an army, and laid that
kingdom under contribution, having previously dislodged the Austrians from the
mountains of Saxony, where they had been strongly posted. The brilliant
career, however, of this soldier of fortune was now about to close for ever ; the
death which became him awaited him, and was close at hand.

Frederick had taken up a position in the village of Hochkirchen, which he
was particularly desirous of retaining, and which the enemy were equally desir-
ous of possessing. The consequence was, that this point was attacked during the
night following its first occupation. On the first alarm of the enemy's motions,
marshal Keith mounted his horse, and hastily collecting what troops were in his
immediate neighbourhood, marched towards the village. On arriving there he
found it already in the hands of the enemy. Charging, however, at the head of
his troops, he drove them from the position. Fresh bodies of the enemy came up,
and the marshal was in turn forced to retire. Again he returned to the com-
bat, leading on his men, and cheering them as he advanced ; and again he
cleared the village of the enemy. Determined on possession of the position,
the latter once more returned with increased numbers, until latterly the whole
flower of the Austrian army were concentrated on this sanguinary spot, defended
by a handful of Prussians. At eight o'clock in the morning, and while the
combat was yet at the hottest, although it had now lasted several hours, the
marshal received a severe and dangerous wound. He refused, however, to quit
the field, but continued to conduct the desperate encounter Avith unabated en-
thusiasm and gallantry. At nine o'clock, an hour after he had received his first
wound, a second shot passed through his breast, and instantly stretched him
lifeless on the ground. His body Avas stripped by the Austrians, Avho had now
driven the Prussians from the field, and Avas thus left exposed until it Avas re-
cognized by count Lasci, who had been one of his pupils in the art of Avar.
That nobleman immediately gave orders for its interment'; but this having been
done Avith little reverence, it Avas shortly aftenvards taken up by the curate of
Hochkirchen, and again committed to the earth, Avith every mark of decency
and respect. The remains of the marshal Avere, by the special orders of the

304 HON. JAMES KEITH.

king, finally removed to Berlin, and buried there with all the honours which a
nation and a great monarch could pay to splendid talent and great moral
worth.

If any thing were wanting to complete the illustrious character of this great
man, it is to be found in the circumstance of his death having been nearly as
much lamented by the Austrians, then the enemies of Prussia, as by the Prus-
sians themselves. His humanity was ever on the alert to protect even those
against whom he fought from any unnecessary violence, and the Austrians had,
in a thousand instances, been indebted to this ennobling trait in a character
admirably calculated in all its parts to gain the esteem and admiration of man-
kind. Marshal Keith died in the sixty-third year of his age. He was never
married, but to whatever chance this was owing, it does not appear to have pro-
ceeded from any want of susceptibility, for, while in Paris in 1718, on being
first urged by some of his friends to offer his services to the court of Spain,
which he was then informed meditated some designs on Sicily, he says, " But
I was then too much in love to think of quitting Paris, and, although my friends
forced me to take some steps towards it, yet I managed it so slowly, that I set
out only in the end of that year ; and had not my mistress and I quarreled, and
that other affairs came to concern me more than the conquest of Sicily did, it's
probable I had lost many years of my time to very little purpose — so much was
I taken up with my passion." Of the final result of this attachment we are not
informed ; but it does not appear that he ever formedanother.

Some years after his death, a monument was erected in the church-yard of
Hochkirchen to the memory of the marshal, by his relative Sir Robert Mur-
ray Keith. It bore the following inscription, composed by the celebrated
3Ietastasio :

Jacobo Keith,

Gulielmi Comitis Marescelli Hered.

Regni Scotia,

Et Marise Drummond, Filio,

Frederici Borussomm Regis

Summo Exercitus Prsefecto;

Viro

Antiquis Moribus et Militari Virtute claro,

Qui,

Dum in praelio non procul liinc,

Inclinatam suorum aciem

Mente, Manu, Voce, et Exemplo

Restituebat,

Pugnans ut Heroas deoet,

Occubuit,
Anno 1768, Mense Oct

The earl 3Iarischal, elder brother of marshal Keith, also deserves some notice
in the present work, as an enlightened and distinguished man. Attainted for
his share in the insurrection of 1715, his fate continued for some time identi-
fied with that of his younger brother; till, in 1750, he was appointed by
Frederick II. of Prussia as ambassador extraordinary to the court of France,
lie afterwards served the same sovereign as ambassador to the court of Spain,
and in this capacity had an opportunity of reconciling himself to his native
court. Having discovered the secret of the family compact, by which the dif-
ferent princes of the house of Bourbon had bound themselves to assist each other,
he communicated that important intelligence through Mr Pitt, to the British
government, to whom it was of the highest importance. The consequence- was

ROBERT KEITH.

305

a pardon extended by the king to earl Marischal, and an act of parliament to
enable him to inherit property in Great Britain.

After this happy event, he proceeded to London, and was introduced to the
king (George II.) who received him very graciously. It afterwards was dis-
covered that, by this movement, he escaped a very considerable danger, for
within thirty-six hours of his departure from Madrid, notice was received by that
court of the communication he had made. The reconciliation of the earl to the
house of Brunswick appears to have given great offence to the relics of the
Jacobite party, who, it is needless to mention, still retained all their pristine
antipathy to that family. Among the papers of bishop Forbes of Leith, is an
anecdote to the following effect : " It had been a constant practice in the parisli
of Langside in Aberdeenshire, to have bonfires, and even to ring the parish
bell, on the 2nd of April, O.S., the birth-day of earl Marischal. On Thursday,
the 12th February, being a general fast throughout Scotland, when the bellman
was ringing the first bell, the news came to Langside, containing the accounts
of the earl Marischal having taken the oaths at London ; and at that very in-
stant, the said bell rent from the top downwards, and then across near the
mouth, and that soon after the bell had begun to ring.

"A gentleman," continues this^curious memorial, "walking in his garden,
about a quarter of a mile from the church of langside, asked a man passing
by, what the matter Mas with the bell, in stopping so suddenly. The answer
being that she was rent, ' Well,' said the gentleman, ' do you know what the bell
says by that? — even, the deil a cheep mair sail I speak for you, earl Mari-
schal !' " l

The earl resided in Britain for several years, purchased back some of his
family property, and intended finally to settle for the remainder of his life in
Scotland. The king of Prussia, however, pressed him so warmly to return to
his dominions — saying, in one of his letters, " if I had a fleet, I would come
and carry you off by force," — that he once more became an exile from his na-
tive land. He spent the rest of his life in Prussia, in the most intimate terms
of friendship with its extraordinary monarch, and the enjoyment of every plea-
sure that a cultivated mind and a virtuous course of life can secure for mortals.
Frederick had discovered that the earl was sincerely attached to his person, and
he therefore bestowed upon him in return more of his own friendship than was
ever experienced by any other individual. The earl was also the friend and
correspondent of Hume, and other literary men of his own country, besides the
European literati in general. He died at Potsdam, May 28, 1778, in the SGth
year of his age, — two days before Voltaire, who had nearly attained the samo
age, expired at Paris. An " Eloge de My-lord Marischal," by the celebrated
D'Alembert, was published at Berlin in 1779.

KEITH, Robert, commonly called bishop Keith, an eminent scholar and anti-
quary,'was born at Uras in Kincardineshire, February 7, 1G81. He was named
liobert after the viscount of Arbuthnot, who had been suckled by his mother.
His father, Alexander Keith, having died while he was only two years of age,
the care of his education devolved upon his mother, a most exemplary woman,
who spared no pains and no expense within the reach of a very limited income,
to inculcate those lessons of virtue and religion, and that knowledge of letters
which afterwards procui-ed her son so much honourable distinction.

The bishop seems to have entertained, during his whole life, a deep sense of
the obligations under which he lay to this amiable parent, and to have taken
great pleasure in expressing it. Though in but indifferent circumstances in the

1 The worthy bishop gives this anecdote as one related at his table by the celebrated Mi
John Skinner, episcopal minister at Langside.

III. JQ

306 ROBERT KEITH.

early period of his life, he was yet closely related to one of the most ancient
and noble families in the kingdom, being lineally descended from Alexander,
the youngest son of William, third earl Marischal.

When he had attained the age of seven years, his mother removed with him
to Aberdeen, where he obtained the earlier part of his education. In 1703, he
procured the situation of tutor to the young lord Keith and his brother, and in
this employment he remained till 1710, when he was admitted to the order of
deacons in the Scottish episcopal church, by Haliburton, (titular) bishop of
Aberdeen ; and in November following became domestic chaplain to Charles,
earl of Errol, and his mother, the countess. Two years after, he accompanied
his lordship to the baths of Aix-la-Chapelle, and had thus an opportunity of
visiting some of the most celebrated towns and cities on the continent Leaving
the earl at Aix-la-Chapelle, he returned to England and landed at Dover, where
he was compelled to remain for several months, in consequence of a severe illness,
brought on by exposure during a violent storm which he had encountered in cross-
ing the channel. On recovering sufficiently to enable him to undergo the fatigue
of travelling, he set out for Edinburgh, where he arrived in February, 1713.
He was shortly after this invited by a congregation of Scottish episcopalians in
that city, to become their minister, and was accordingly raised to the priesthood
by bishop Haliburton, on the 26th May, in the year just named. His talents
and learning had already attracted some notice, and had procured for him a
considerable degree of influence in the church to which he belonged, and of
which he was always a steady, zealous, but rational supporter ; for, although
firmly attached to the faith in which he was educated, he was yet extremely
liberal and tolerant in his religious sentiments. In June, 1727, he was raised
to the episcopate, and was consecrated in Edinburgh by bishops Miller, Rattray,
and Gadderar. He was, at the same time, intrusted with the superintendence
of the district of Caithness, Orkney, and the Isles, and in 1733, was preferred
to that of Fife.

For upwards of twenty years after this period, bishop Keith continued to
exercise his duties in Edinburgh, filling a respectable, if not a dignified place in
society, and employing his leisure, it would appear, chiefly in the compilation of
those historical works which have transmitted his name to posterity. In a manu-
script memoir by Mr Murray of Broughton, secretary to prince Charles Stuart —
which the present writer has perused — it is clearly signified that, previous to
the insurrection of 1745, the bishop corresponded on subjects relating to his
depressed and suffering communion, with the court of the Pretender, and that
the latter personage, as the supposed head of a supposed church, gave the conge
dy elire necessary for the election of individuals to exercise the episcopal office.

The first historical work published by the bishop, appeared in 1734, in a
folio form, under the title of a " History of the Affairs of Church and State in
Scotland, from the beginning of the Reformation in the reign of James V., to
the retreat of queen Mary into England." Though tinged here and there with
high-church prejudices, the original narrative is a useful, and, upon the whole,
a candid record of a very controverted part of our history ; while the state docu-
ments quoted in the body of the work and at its close, have proved of incalcula-
ble service to every later writer upon the same subject. The list of subscribers
prefixed to this work is highly curious, as being an almost complete muster-roll
of the Jacobite nobility and gentry of the period : among the rest is the famous
Rob Roy. In 1755, the bishop published his well-known " Catalogue of Scot-
tish Bishops," which has also been a mine of valuable knowledge to later writers.
The latter years of this venerable person appear to have been spent at a villa
called Bonnyhaugh, on the banks of the water of Leith, which belonged to

JAMES KENNEDY.

307

himself." Here he died on the 20th of January, 1757, in the seventy-sixth year
of his age. He was buried in the Canongate church-yard, a few feet from the
wall on the western side, where a plain tomb-stone, inscribed simply with his
name, has recently been erected.

Besides his eminent qualifications as an historian and antiquary, the subject
of this notice possessed those of an acute and pains-taking genealogist, a
study to which he was probably directed by the high value which he always
attached to the dignity of his own descent, and which he was at much pains
to establish. An instance of his tenacity in this particular, and of his pecu-
liar talent for genealogical research, was exhibited in a dispute into which he
entered with Mr Keith of Ravelstone, on the subject of the comparative prox-
imity of their several families to the house of the earls Marischal.

On that occasion he printed a " Vindication of Mr Robert Keith, and of his
young grand-nephew Alexander Keith, from the unfriendly representation of
Mr Alexander Keith, jun. of Ravelston." In this vindication he not only suc-
ceeded in establishing his superior claims to the particular honour in dispute,
but showed that he was also related to the dukes of Douglas and Hamilton.
His reason for being at so much pains in vindicating the nobility of his descent,
is thus spoken of in the document above alluded to : " For although he him-
himself, (he speaks in the third person,) now in the close of the seventieth year
of his age, and having only one daughter, might be pretty indifferent about any
thing of this nature, yet he suspects his young grand-nephews, (for there are no
less than three of them, Alexander, Robert, and John,) when they came of age,
might reproach the memory of their uncle, and justly perhaps, for his not endea-
vouring to set their birth at right against so flagrant an attack, seeing the one
was capable, and the others might not have the same means of knowing, or the
same abilities to perform it."

The good bishop seems to have been no hoarder of money, for at his death he
left only £450, while his colleague and assistant, died worth £3000.

KENNEDY, James, bishop of St Andrews, Mas the younger of the two sons
of James Kennedy of Dunure, and his wife, the countess of Angus, daughter of
Robert III. king of Scotland. He was born about the year 1405 or 1406.
The earlier part of his education he received at home, under the eye of his mo-
ther, and was afterwards, agreeably to the practice of the times, sent abroad to
complete it. Being early destined to the church, the only road to preferment at
that period, and the only profession, besides, worthy his dignified descent, he
devoted himself to the study particularly of theology and the canon law ; but, be*
sides his acquirements in these departments of knowledge, he made a singular pro-
ficiency in the languages and other branches of learning, and was altogether
looked upon as by far the most accomplished prelate of his day.

On his entering into holy orders, he was preferred (1437) by his uncle James
I. to the see of Dunkeld. The good bishop was no sooner installed in his office
than he set assiduously to work to reform abuses in the church, and to compel
his vicars and parsons to a faithful discharge of their duties. He enjoined them
to remain in their parishes, and to instruct their parishioners in the knowledge
of religion, to preach to them regularly, and to visit, comfort, and encourage the
sick. He himself visited all the churches within his diocese four times every
year, preaching in each of them as he went along. On these occasions he never
failed to inquire of the people if they were duly instructed by their pastors ;
if they had no complaints against them ; whether their poor were properly
cared for ; and if their youth were brought up in the fear of God. Such were
the pious labours of this excellent man at the outset of his career, and he never
deviated from them during the whole of a long and active after-life. Finding

30S JAMES KENNEDY.

his own authority insufficient to enable him to accomplish all the good which he
was desirous of doing, in reforming the abuses which had crept into the church,
he went over to Florence to procure additional powers for this purpose from the
pope, Eugenius IV. On this occasion his holiness, as a mark of his esteem for
the worthy prelate, bestowed upon him the commendam of the abbacy of Leone.

On the death of Wardlaw, bishop of St Andrewe, an event which happened on
Gth April, 1410, Kennedy was chosen as his successor in that see; and to this
new and more important charge, he brought all that activity and anxiety to do
good which had distinguished him while he filled the bishopric of Dunkeld. He
continued his efforts to reform the manners and practice of the clergy, and in
1446, set out on a second journey to Italy, to consult with and obtain the co-op-
eration of the pope in his work of reformation. On this occasion he was accom-
panied by a train of thirty persons ; for though moderate and temperate in all his
pursuits and enjoyments, he was yet of an exceedingly liberal and generous dis-
position, and a scrupulous maintainer of the dignity of the sacred office which
he held, and he had sufficient penetration to discover how much of this, as of all
human dignities, depends upon extrinsic aids. His dislike of turbulence and
anarchy, and his constant efforts to reconcile differences where they existed, and
to discountenance oppression, and to restrain illegal power, rendered him pecu-
liarly obnoxious to the house of Douglas, which, during the minority of James
II., had nearly accomplished the total overthrow of the hereditary royalty of
Scotland. In revenge of the part he took in restraining the power of that
ambitious family, his lands were plundered by the earl of Crawford and Alexan-
der Ogilvie of Inveraritie, at the instigation of the earl of Douglas, who had
farther instructed them to seize, if possible, the person of the bisln p, and to put
him in irons. This fate he avoided by confining himself to his castle, the only
mode of resistance which he thought consistent with his sacred character a? a
minister of religion. He was, however, eventually the means of reducing the
power of the Douglases within limits more consistent with the peace and safety
of the kingdom. James II., almost driven from his throne by the increasing
insolence and influence of the chief of that house, went in despair to St Andrews,
to seek the counsel and advice of its able and amiable bishop. On the prince
and prelate meeting, the former laid before him the desperate situation to which
the growing power and daring effrontery of the earl of Douglas had reduced
him. He informed him that he had learned that Douglas was mustering a large
army either to dethrone him or drive him from the country ; that he knew no
means of resisting him, and was utterly at a loss what steps to take in this emer-
gency. " Sir," replied the bishop, perceiving that the disconsolate king was
exhausted with fatigue as well as depressed in spirits, " I entreat your grace to
partake, in the mean time, of some refreshment, and while ye do so, I will pass
into my chamber and pray to God for you and the commonwealth of this realm."

On retiring, as he had proposed, the good bishop fervently implored the
interference of the Almighty in behalf of the unhappy prince, who, friendless
and distracted, had sought his counsel and advice ; and when the king had
finished his repast, he came forth, and taking him by the hand, led him into the
apartment in which he himself had been praying, and there they both knelt
down and besought the guidance and assistance of Him who directs all things, —
a scene than which it would not probably be easy to conceive anything more
striking or interesting.

When they had concluded their devotions, the bishop proceeded to point out to
the king such a mode of procedure as he deemed the most suitable to the circum-
stances. He advised the monarch immediately to issue proclamations, calling
upon his subjects in the north to muster around his standard, which he afterwards

JOHN KER.

309

erected at St Andrews, and still more wisely, and as the issue showed, with a still
better effect, proposed his offering pardon to all who, having previously attached
themselves to the earl of Douglas, would now abandon his cause, and aid that of
the king. The consequence was, that James soon found himself at the head of
forty thousand men. The final muster took place at Stirling, and a battle, which
was to decide whether a Douglas or a Stuart was to be king of Scotland, appeared
to be at hand ; for the former with an equal force was at that moment encamped
on the south side of the Carron. But, while in the very act of advancing with
his army to encounter the forces of the king, Douglas detected the effects of the
amnesty proclaimed by James by the advice of the bishop of St Andrews. A
spirit of disaffection and indications of doubt and wavering appeared in his
ranks. Alarmed by these symptoms, he marched his army back to their encamp-
ment, hoping to restore their confidence in him hy the following day, when he
proposed again to march forth against the enemy. The result, however, was
directly the reverse of what he had anticipated. The feeling which he expected
to subdue, in place of subsiding, gained ground ; so that in the morning, there
were not a hundred men remaining of all Douglas's host. Finding himself
thus suddenly deserted, the earl instantly fled ; and in this manner fell the over-
grown power of the house of Douglas, — a circumstance mainly, if not entirely
attributable to the wisdom and energy of the bishop of St Andrews.

On the death of James II., bishop Kennedy was intrusted with the charge and
education of his son, afterwards James III., then about seven years of age. His
known wisdom, prudence, and integrity, pointed him out as the fittest person
for this important duty, and on the same ground there was added to it a large
share in the management of public affairs during the regency of the queen-
mother. He had acquired an authority in the kingdom by the mere influence
of his character, which few had ever attained by adventitious circumstances, and
which no churchman had at any time before enjoyed ; and he was thus enabled to
accomplish more amongst a rude and barbarous people, than would have been
yielded to the mere force of power or rank. The consequence was, that an unusual
quietness and prosperity pervaded the whole kingdom during his administration.
He enjoyed the confidence and good-w ill of all parties, and was no less esteemed
for his probity, humanity, and wisdom, than admired for the splendour of his
abilities; and so highly was his character appreciated, and so universal the satisfac-
tion which his government afforded, that the chief management of public affairs
was still left in his hands even after the death of the queen-mother, and remained
with him until his own death, which took place on the 10th of May, 1466, an
event which was widely and sincerely deplored.

Bishop Kennedy was not less remarkable for his munificence than for the
other splendid qualities which composed his character. He founded the college
at St Andrews, called St Salvator's, in honour of our Saviour, and endowed it
with a fund for the maintenance of a provost, four regents, and eight poor scho-
lars, or bursars, at an expense of about ten thousand pounds. He built a ship,
which was afterwards known by the name of the Bishop's Barge, at a similar
cost, and his tomb is said to have been equally expensive with the two former.
In 1444, he was appointed chancellor of the kingdom, but this office he
resigned in a few weeks afterwards, because he found it interfered with those
projects for doing good in his clerical capacity, which he had resolved to follow
out from the beginning of his career. He was, by his own desire, interred in
the collegiate church of St Andrews, where his tomb is still shown, along with
several silver maces which were found in it some years ago.

KER, John, third duke of Roxburgh, distinguished by his eminent bibliogra-
phical knowledge, and his extensive and valuable collection of books, was born

310 JOHN KER.

in Hanover Square, London, on the 23d April, 1740. He was the eldest son
of Robert, the second duke, by Essex Mostyn, daughter of Sir Roger Mostyn,
of Mostyn, in Kentshire, baronet. In 1755, he succeeded his father in the
duke (loin, to which was attached the British peerage of earl and baron Ker of
Wakefield ; and he appears to have soon after proceeded upon his travels on the
continent. It is stated that, while in Germany, he formed an attachment to
Christiana Sophia Albertina, eldest daughter of the duke of Mecklenburg
Strelitz, and that their nuptials would have taken place, had not her sister
Charlotte, just at that time, been espoused by the king of Great Britain. Eti-
quette then interfered, to prevent what would otherwise have been an equal and
proper match, it being deemed improper that the elder should become the sub-
ject of the younger sister. Both parties, however, evinced the strength of their
attachment, by devoting their after-lives to celibacy. It seems to kave been to
this event that Sir Walter Scott alludes, when he says of the duke :l " Youthful
misfortunes, of a kind against which neither wealth nor rank possess a talisman,
cast an early shade of gloom over his prospects, and gave to one splendidly
endowed with the means of enjoying society, that degree of reserved melancholy,
which prefers retirement to the splendid scenes of gayety." To whatever extent
George III. might be the innocent cause of his grace's misfortune, it does not
appear to have, in the least, marred a strong friendship which existed between
them — " a tie of rare occurrence," Sir Walter Scott justly observes, " between
prince and subject." In 1767, his grace was appointed a lord of the bed-cham-
ber, and next year was invested with the order of the thistle. The former hon-
our gave him a title to be much about the court ; but he never farther engaged
himself in a public career.

The taste which his grace imbibed to so extraordinary an extent for book-
collecting, is stated by Sir Walter to have originated in an accidental circum-
stance. " Lord Oxford and lord Sunderland, both famous collectors of the time,
dined one day at the house of the second duke of Roxburgh, when their conver-
sation happened to turn upon the editio princeps of Boccaccio, printed at Venice
in 1471, and so rare that its very existence was doubted of. The duke was
himself no collector, but it happened that a copy of this very book had passed
under his eye, and been offered to him for sale at a hundred guineas, then
thought an immense price. It was, therefore, with complete assurance that he
undertook to produce to the connoisseurs a copy of the treasure in question, and
did so at the time appointed, with no small triumph. His son, then marquis of
Beaumont, never forgot the little scene upon this occasion, and used to ascribe
to it the strong passion which he ever afterwards felt for rare books and editions,
and which rendered him one of the most assiduous and judicious collectors that
ever formed a sumptuous library."

There can be no doubt, at the same time, that the duke chanced to possess
that perseverance of character and genuine literary taste, without which such an
impulse as this must have been of no avail. ° Sylvan amusements," says Sir Wal-
ter, " occupied the more active part of his time when in Scotland ; and in book-
collecting, while residing in London, he displayed a degree of patience which has
rarely been equalled, and never excelled. It could scarcely be said, whether
the duke of Roxburgh's assiduity and eagerness Mere most remarkable, when he
lay for hours together, though the snow was falling at the time, beside some
lovely spring in the Cheviot hills, where he expected the precarious chance of
shooting a wild goose, when the dawning should break ; or when he toiled for
hours, nay, for days, collecting and verifying his edition of the Black Acts, or
Caxton's Boke of Troy."

1 Quarterly Review, xliv. 446.

JOHN KER. 311

With the exception of singularly fortunate adventures in the procuring of old
books, the duke's life passed on in an almost unvaried tenor, in the pursuits just
alluded to. At his seat of Fleurs in Scotland, where he spent but a small por-
tion of his time, he had a proportionately small library ; but at his house in
St James's Square, London, where he chiefly resided, he, in time, amassed the
most valuable private library in the country. In 1796, he was appointed groom
of the stable, and initiated a privy councillor, and in 1801 was honoured with
the garter, which he was permitted to bear along with the thistle, a mark of
honour conferred on no other subject since 1712, when the duke of Hamilton
had the same distinction from queen Anne.2 For upwards of forty years, he
continued his book-collecting habits without intermission, being much aided
during a great part of the time by Mr G. Nichol, bookseller to the king, Avhose
services towards the excellent library collected by George III., and afterwards
given by George IV. to the nation, were also very eminent. At length, on the
19th of March, 1804, the duke died of inflammation in the liver, at his house
in London, in the 64th year of hisage. , He was buried at Bowden, near Mel-
rose.

His library, at his death, consisted of upwards of ten thousand distinct
articles, many of them of the greatest rarity and of high value, though it was
understood that in many cases he had purchased them at comparatively low prices.
It would be vain to pretend that his grace had made or could make a good use of
such a vast mass of literature, much of it of an obsolete kind ; yet, neither can
there be any doubt that he read much of what he purchased, and seemed, upon
the whole, to aim rather at gratifying an innate taste for letters, and a devout
and worshipful regard for their brightest ornaments, than either for the pride of
possessing so many curiosities, or the usual antiquarian appreciation of minute
peculiarities in the externe of books.

Early English literature and the Table Ronde had been the chief objects of
his research. Of the former he possessed not only the rarest, but, in point of
condition, the most beautiful specimens in existence. He idolized the talents of
Shakspeare and Cervantes, and collected every thing that could illustrate their
works. Fifteen different editions of Shakspeare's complete works, with seventy-
five separate plays in different editions, and fourteen distinct works respecting
this great dramatic author, are to be found in the catalogue. In the poetical
department of early English literature, he had a great collection ; in which the
most curious article was a very large assortment of ancient ballads and fugitive
pieces of poetry in three volumes folio, which had been first formed for the
library of the earl of Oxford, afterwards enlarged by major Pearson and Mr Isaac
Reid, then increased to a great extent by the duke himself, and which brought,
at the sale, no less than four hundred and seventy-seven pounds, fifteen shillings.
The duke had also collected many ancient manuscripts, some of them splendidly
illuminated ; and it is mentioned, that he read these with great facility, as was
testified by various remarks which he wrote upon them with his own hand.
He had the largest and finest collection of the books printed by Caxton, in
England. At his death he was in full pursuit of the English dramatic authors ;
and when the large collection he possessed is taken into account, along with the
comparative briefness of the time during which he had directed his attention
this way, his industry seems prodigious. He had an uncommon quantity of
books and tracts relative to criminals, detections of witches, and other impostors.
Mr Nichol, in the preface to the catalogue, says, " he had a particular pleasure

* No man could have borne these honours with more grace than the duke of Roxburgh,
whose •« lofty presence and felicitous address," according to Sir Walter Scott, " recalled the
ideas of a court in which lord Chesterfield might have acted as master of the ceremonies."

312 JOHN KER.

in exercising those discriminating powers which he so eminently possessed, in
tracing out the images by which the perverted ingenuity of the human mind
often attempts to impose upon the credulity of its fellow creatures."'

This splendid library was, after a long and distressing delay from litigation,
brought to sale, in May, 1812 ; an event which may be said to have created
more sensation than any other connected with literature during the present
century — the disclosure of the Waverley secret alone excepted. Mr Dibdin, in
his Bibliographical Decameron, has given an account of the proceedings, under
the metaphorical semblance of a battle among the bibliomaniacs. He calls it
the Roxburgh fight ; and to this record we must be indebted for the account of
a transaction which it would be improper to overlook in this memoir.

u It would seem," says this facetious writer, " as if the year of our Lord
181 L, was destined, in the annals of the book auctions, to be calm and quiescent,
as a prelude and contrast to the tremendous explosion or contest which, in the
succeeding year, was to rend asunder the bibliomaniacal elements. It is well
known that Mr George Nichol had long prepared the catalogue of that extraor-
dinary collection ; and a sort of avant-courier or picquet guard preceded the
inarch of the whole army, in the shape of a preface, pi'ivately circulated among
the friends of the author. The publication of a certain work, ycleped the
Bibliomania, had also probably stirred up the metal and hardened the sinews oi
the contending book-knights. At length the hour of battle arrived. * * *
For two-and- forty successive days — with the exception only of Sundays — was
the voice and hammer of Mr Evans heard, with equal efficacy, in the dining-
room of the late duke, which had been appropriated to the vendition of the
books ; and within that same space (some thirty-five feet by twenty,) were such
deeds of valour performed, and such feats of book-heroism achieved, as had
never been previously beheld : and of which the like will probably never be
seen again. The shouts of the victors and the groans of the vanquished, stunned
and appalled you as you entered. The throng and press, both of idle spectators
and determined bidders, was unprecedented. A sprinkling of Caxtons and De
Wordes marked the first day ; and these were obtained at high, but compara-
tively with the subsequent sums given, moderate prices. Theology, jurispru-
dence, philosophy, and philology, chiefly marked the earlier days Tjf this tre-
mendous contest: and occasionally, during these days, there was much stirring
up of courage, and many hard and heavy blows were interchanged ; and the
combatants may be said to have completely wallowed themselves in the conflict !
At length came poetry, Latin, Italian, and French ; a steady fight yet continued
to be fought : victory seemed to hang in doubtful scales — sometimes on the one,
sometimes on the other side of Mr Evans — who preserved throughout, (as it was
his bounden duty to preserve,) a uniform, impartial, and steady course ; and who
may be said, on that occasion, if not to have ' rode the whirlwind,' at least to
have ' directed the storm.' At length came English poetry ! ! and with that
came the tug and trial of war : Greek met Greek : in other words, grandee was
opposed to grandee ; and the indomitable Atticus was compelled to retire, stunned
by the repeated blows upon his helmet. The lance dropped from his hand, and
a swimming darkness occasionally skimmed his view — for on that day, the
Waterloo among book-battles, many a knight came far and wide from his retire-
ment, and many an unfledged combatant left his father's castle to partake of the
glory of such a contest. Among these knights from a ' far countree' no one
shot his arrows witli a more deadly effect than Astiachus ! But it was reserved
for Romulus to reap the greatest victories in that poetic contest! He fought with
a choice body-guard ; and the combatants seemed amazed at the perseverance
and energy with which that body-guard dealt their death-blows around them !

JOHN KER. 313

" Dramatic Poetry followed ; what might be styled rare and early pieces con-
nected with our ancient poetry ; but the combat now took a more tranquil turn :
as after * a smart brush ' for an early Shakspeare or two, Atticus and Corio-
lanus, with a few well known dramatic aspirants, obtained almost unmolested
possession of the field.

" At this period, to keep up our important metaphor, the great Roxburgh
day of battle had been somewhere half gone through, or decided. There was
no disposition, however, on either side to relax from former efforts ; when (pre-
pare for something terrific !) the Romances made their appearance ; and just at
this crisis it was that more blood was spilt, and more ferocity exhibited, than had
ever been previously witnessed."

We interrupt Mr Dibdin to mention, that the great blow of the day was
struck for that volume which has been already alluded to, as purchased by the
duke's father for a hundred guineas, — a volume of singular value, which Mr
Nichol very properly intitles the most notorious in existence — the Decameron of
Boccaccio, printed (folio) by Christopher Valdarfer at Venice in 1471, and
supposed to be quite unique. " Mr Nichol, in his avaut-courier of a preface,"
thus writes Mr Dibdin in a note, " bad not a little provoked the bibliomaniacal
appetites of his readers : telling them that ' in the class of Italian poets and
novelists was the first edition of II Decamerone di Boccaccio, 1471. This was
certainly one of the scarcest, if not the very scarcest book, that existed. It has
now for upwards of 300 years preserved its uniquity, if that term be allowa-
ble.' It was also previously known that this very book had been a sort of bone
of contention among the collectors in the reign of the two first Georges. Lord
Sunderland had seen it, and lord Oxford had cast a longing eye thereupon ; but
it was reserved for an ancestor of the duke of Boxburgh to secure it — for the
gallant price of 100 guineas! This purchase took place before the year 1740.
* * 1 have a perfect recollection of this notorious volume, while in the lib-
rary of the late duke. It had a faded yellow morocco binding, and was a sound
rather than a fine copy. The expectations formed of the probable price for
which it would be sold were excessive ; yet not so excessive as the price itself
turned out to be. The marked champions were pretty well known beforehand
to be the earl Spencer, the marquis of Blandford (now duke of Marlborough),
and the duke of Devonshire. Such a rencontre, such a • shock of fight,'
naturally begot uncommon curiosity. My friends, Sir Egerton Bridges, Mr Lang,
and Mr G. H. Freeling, did me the kindness to breakfast with me on the morn-
ing of the sale — and upon the conclusion of the repast, Sir Egerton's carriage
conveyed us from Kensington to St James's Square.

The morning lowered

And heavily with clouds came on the day. —
Big with the fate of . . . and of ... .

In fact the rain fell in torrents, as we lighted from the carriage and rushed with
a sort of impetuosity to gain seats to view the contest. The room was crowded
to excess ; and a sudden darkness which came across gave rather an additional
interest to the scene. At length the moment of sale arrived. Evans prefaced
the putting up of the article by an appropriate oration, in which he expatiated
upon its excessive rarity, and concluded by informing the company of the re-
gret and even ' anguish of heart ' expressed by Mr Van Praet [librarian to the
emperor Napoleon] that such a treasure was not to be found in the imperial col-
lection at Paris. Silence followed the address of Mr Evans. On his right hand,
leaning against the wall, stood earl Spencer : a little lower down, and standing
at right angles with his lordship, appeared the marquis of Blandford. Lord Al-

314 JOHN KER.

thorp stood a little backward to the right of his father, earl Spencer. Such was
' the ground taken up ' by the adverse hosts. The honour of firing the first
shot was due to a gentleman of Shropshire, unused to this species of warfare,
and who seemed to recoil from the reverberation of the report himself had
made ! — ' One hundred guineas,' he exclaimed. Again a pause ensued ; but
anon the biddings rose rapidly to 500 guineas. Hitherto, however, it was evi-
dent that the firing was but masked and desultory. At length all random shots
ceased ; and the champions before named stood gallantly up to each other, re-
solving not to flinch from a trial of their respective strengths.

" ' A thousand guineas ' were bid by earl Spencer — to which the marquis added
' ten? You might have heard a pin drop. All eyes were turned — all breathing
well nigh stopped — every sword was put home within its scabbard — and not a
piece of steel was seen to move or to glitter, except that which each of these
champions brandished in his valorous hand. See, see ! — they parry, they lunge,
they bet: yet their strength is undiminished, and no thought of yielding is en-
tertained by either. Two thousand pounds are offered by the marquis. Tht n
it was that earl Spencer, as a prudent general, began to think of a useless ef-
fusion of blood and expenditure of ammunition — seeing that his adversary was
as resolute and ' fresh ' as at the onset. For a quarter of a minute he paused :
when my lord Althorp advanced one step forward, as if to supply his father with
another spear for the purpose of renewing the contest. His countenance was
marked by a fixed determination to gain the prize — if prudence, in its most
commanding form, and with a frown of unusual intensity of expression, had
not bade him desist. The father and son for a few seconds converse apart ; and
the biddings are resumed. ' Two thousand two hundred and fifty pounds' said
lord Spencer ! The spectators were now absolutely electrified. The marquis
quietly adds his usual ' fen,' * * and there is an end of the contest. 3Ir
Evans, ere his hammer fell made a due pause — and indeed, as if by something
preternatural, the ebony instrument itself seemed to be charmed or suspended
' in the mid air.' However, at length, down dropped the hammer. * *
The spectators," continues Mr Dibdin in his text, " stood aghast ! and the
sound of Mr Evans' prostrate sceptre of dominion reached, and resounded from,
the utmost shores of Italy. The echo of that fallen hammer was heard in the
libraries of Rome, of Milan, and St Mark. Boccaccio himself started from his
slumber of some five hundred years ; and Mr Van Praet rushed, but rushed in vain,
amidst the royal book-treasures at Paris to see if a copy of the said Valdarfer
Boccaccio could'there be found! The price electrified the bystanders, and as-
tounded the public ! 3

" What boots it to recount minutely the various achievements which marked
the conclusion of the Roxburgh contest, or to describe in the manner of
Sterne, the melancholy devastations which followed that deathless day ? The
battle languished towards its termination [rather, we suspect, from a failure of
ammunition than of valour or spirit on the part of the combatants] ; but notwith-
standing, there was oftentimes a disposition manifested to resume the glories of
the earlier part of the day — and to show that the spirit of bibliomania was not
made of poor and perishable stuff. Illustrious be the names of the book-
heroes, who both conquered and fell during the tremendous conflict just de-

3 The marquis's triumph was marked by a plaudit of hands, and presently after he offered
his hand to lord Spencer, saying, •« We are good friends still !" His lordship replied, " Per-
fectly, indeed I am obliged to you." " So am I to jou." said the marquis ; '',so the obligation
is mutual." He declared that it was his intention to have gone as far as £50C0. The noble
marquis had previously possessed a copy of the same edition, wanting five leaves; " for which
five leaves," lord S. remarked, " he might be said to have given £2600."

JOHN KER. 315

scribed! And let it be said, that John duke of Roxburgh both deserved well of
his country and the book cause."

Mr Dibdin gives many other instructive particulars respecting this sale. He
mentions that the duke's library occupied a range of apartments in the second
floor of his house ; and in a room adjoining, and into which the library opened,
" slept and died" the illustrious collector himself. " All his migrations," says
Mr Dibdin, " were confined to these two rooms. When Mr Nichol showed me
the very bed upon which this bibliomaniacal duke had expired, I felt — as I trust
I ought to have felt, upon the occasion !" He also informs us that a gentleman
who bought many articles was generally understood to be an agent of the em-
peror Napoleon, but at last turned out to have been a secret emissary of the
duke of Devonshire. A letter which he received from Sir Walter Scott on the
occasion of this sale, is too characteristic to be omitted. " The Roxburgh sale,"
says the author of 3Iarmion, " sets my teeth on edge. But if 1 can trust mine
eyes, there are now twelve masons at work on a cottage and offices at this little
farm, which I purchased last year. Item, 1 have planted thirty acres, and am
in the act of walling a garden. Item, I have a wife and four bairns crying,
as our old song has it, ' porridge ever mair.' So, on the whole, my teeth must
get off the edge, as those of the fox with the grapes in the fable. Abbotsford,
by Melrose, 3rd May, 1812."

It would be improper, in a memoir of the duke of Roxburgh, to omit a circum-
stance so honourable to his name as the formation of the society called the " Rox-
burgh." " The number of noblemen and gentlemen," says Sir Walter Scott,4
" distinguished by their taste for this species of literature, who assembled there
[at the sale] from day to day, and lamented or boasted the event of the compe-
tition, was unexampled ; and in short the concourse of attendants terminated in
the formation of a society of about thirty amateurs, having the learned and ami-
able earl Spencer at their head, who agreed to constitute a club, which should
have for its object of union the common love of rare and curious volumes, and
should be distinguished by the name of that nobleman, at the dispersion of whose
library the proposal had taken its rise, and who had been personally known to
most of the members. We are not sure whether the publication of rare tracts
was an original object of their friendly re-union, or, if it was not, how and when
it came to be engrafted thereupon. Early, however, after the formation of the
Roxburgh Club, it became one of its rules, that each member should present
the society, at such time as he might find most convenient, with an edition of a
curious manuscript, or the reprint of some ancient tract, the selection being left
at the pleasure of the individual himself. These books were to be printed in a
handsome manner, and uniformly, and were to be distributed among the gen-
tlemen of the club. * * * * Under this system, the Roxburgh Club has
pi'oceeded and flourished for many years, and produced upwards of forty re-
prints of scarce and curious tracts, among which many are highly interesting, not
only from their value, but also their intrinsic merit."

It remains only to be added, that this association has been the model of
several others in different parts of the world. We are aware, at least, of La So-
ciete des Biblioglyphes in Paris, and the Bannatyne, Maitland, and Abbotsford
Clubs in our own country. Such institutions show that a taste for literary an-
tiquities is extending amongst us ; yet it must also be stated, that the desire of
forming libraries such as that of the duke of Roxburgh is much on the decline,
and that if his grace's stock had been brought to the hammer in our own day,
it would have neither created the sensation which it did create, nor brought such
" astounding" prices.

1 Quarterly Review, xliv. 447.

316 ROBERT KER.

KER, Robert, earl of Ancrum, a nobleman of literary accomplishment, and
the direct ancestor of the present noble family of Lothian, was descended from
a third son of Sir Andrew Ker of Ferniehurst, and entered public life as laird of
Ancrum in Roxburghshire. He was born about the year 1578, and succeeded
to the family estate in 1590, on the death of his father, who was assassinated by
his kinsman, Robert Ker, younger of Cessford. He was cousin to the famous,
or rather infamous Robert Ker, the favourite of James VI., and who was raised
by that prince to the title of earl of Somerset. The subject of this memoir
appears to have also been honoured, at an early period of life, with court favour.
Soon after the king's accession to the English throne; he is observed to occupy
a considerable station in the household of prince Henry, which was, perhaps,
more splendid, and consisted of more persons than the present royal household.
He afterwards was employed about the person of prince Charles, who became
his patron through life. By the mediation of this prince, a match was effected
between Sir Robert and the lady Anne Stanley, daughter of the earl of Derby.

In 1620, Sir Robert was involved in a fatal quarrel by a young man named
Charles Maxwell, who insulted him, without the least provocation, as he Mas
entering the palace at Newmarket In a duel, which followed, Sir Robert
killed his antagonist ; and, although the friends of the deceased are said to have
acquitted him of all blame, so strict were the rules established by the king for
the prevention and punishment of duels, that he was obliged to fly to Holland,
where he remained about a year. During his exile, he employed himself in the
collection of pictures, for which, like his royal master, he had a good taste :
those which he brought with him on his return, were eventually presented to
the prince. He was also distinguished by his literary taste. In Drummond's
works there are a letter and sonnet which lie addressed, in 1624, to that poet,
and which breathe an amiable and contemplative spirit. The latter is as
follows :

A SONNET IN PRAISE OF A SOLITARY LIFE.

Sweet solitary life ! lovely, dumb joy,

That need'st no warnings how to grow more wise
By other men's mishaps, nor the annoy

Which from sore wrongs done to one's self doth rise.
The morning's second mansion, truth's first friend,

Never acquainted with the world's vain broil?,
Where the whole day to our own use we spend,

And our dear lime no fierce ambition spoils.
Most happy state, that never takest revenge

For injuries received, nor dost fear
The court's great earthquake, the grieved truth of change,

Nor none of falsehood's savoury lies dost hear;
Nor knows hope's sweet disease that charms our sense,

Kor its sad cure — dear-bought experience !

R. K. A.

On the accession of Charles to the throne, in 1625, Sir Robert Ker was one
of the friends who experienced his favour. He was in that year constituted a
gentleman of the bed-chamber, and in June, 1633, when the king was in Scot-
land at his coronation, he was elevated to the peerage, under the title of earl
of Ancrum. Previous to this period, his son William, by his first wife Eliza-
beth, daughter of Sir John Murray of Blackbarony, had married his relative,
Anne, countess of Lothian in her own right, and had been, by the king, en-

ROBERT KERR. 317

dewed with a full participation of that title. It was therefore arranged, in the
patent granted to the subject of this memoir, that his own title should descend
to the children of his second marriage. He thus enjoyed the singular honour
of being father of two peers.

Unlike many other persons who owed every thing to this prince, the earl of
Ancrum continued his steady adherent during the whole of his troubles ; though
he was unable to prevent his eldest son, the earl of Lothian, from acting one of
the most conspicuous parts on the opposite side. On the death of Charles, his
lordship took refuge in Holland, where he spent the remainder of his days in
solitary afflictions and poverty, and died in 1654, in the seventy-sixth year of
liis age. His title was inherited by his son Charles, but ultimately merged in
that of Lothian. In Park's edition of Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, there
is a beautiful portrait of his lordship, assigning him a thoughtful and strongly-
marked countenance, and apparently done in old age.

KERR, Robert, a miscellaneous writer, was born in the year 1755.1 He
was the son of Mr James Kerr of Bughtridge, jeweller in Edinburgh, convener
of the trades and M.P. for the city, which honours he held at the same time,2
by Elizabeth, daughter of lord Charles Kerr, second son of Robert, first marquis
of Lothian. Mr Kerr was educated at the High school and university of Edin-
burgh ; and having qualified himself to act as a surgeon, entered into business as
partner with an aged practitioner named Wardrope, whose daughter he subsequent-
ly married. He had the misfortune to be very lame in one of his limbs, which
caused him to sink greatly to one side in walking. His first literary effort was a
translation of Lavoisier's Elements of Chemistry, published in 1789, in which year
he also gave to the world a version of Berthollet's Essay on the New 3Iethod of
Bleaching by means of Muriatic Acid and Oxygen. The approbation with which
these publications were received, induced him to commence a translation of
Linnaius's Zoological System; two volumes of which were published, (4 to) in
1792, but which did not meet with so much success as to tempt him to proceed
with the rest. Having failed with the dry classifications of the Swedish philo-
sopher, he commenced a translation of the more popular Avork of Buflbn on Ovi-
parous Quadrupeds and Serpents, the first volume of which appeared in 1793,
and the fourth and last in 1S00. The execution of these translations was high-
ly extolled in the reviews of the time, and caused Mr Kerr to be respectfully
known in the world of letters.

The political predilections of this gentleman being decidedly whiggish, he
published in 1794, a pamphlet, entitled " A Vindication of the Friends of Free-
dom from the aspersion of Disloyalty ;" being designed, as its name imports, to
prove that the liberality of his party was not inconsistent with a steady attach-

1 The exact place of his birth is not known ; but it was a mansion in Roxburghshire, near
the Cheviot hills, where his mother happened to be on a visit at the time. The usual resi-
dence of his parents was, in Edinburgh.

2 An intimate friend of Mr Robert Kerr^ supplies us with the following inform.il ion re-
specting his father : —

" Mr James Kerr was the son of a jeweller in the Parliament Square, Edinburgh, whose
shop was attached to the walls of the old cathedral of St Giles ; the first on the light hand in
going into the square. The house occupied by this person was a mere cellar under the shop,
and partly projecting below the adjacent pavement, from which its sole light was derived by
means of a grating. In consequence of the family, which was very numerous, being brought
up in this miserahle and unhealthy hovel, they all died in infancy, except the father of the au-
thor, whose life was saved by his "being removed to more roomy accommodations on the oppo-
site side of the square. Mr James Kerr was the last citizen who had the honour to represent
the city in parliament It may be mentioned that he was one of the jury on the famous trial
of Carnegie of Finhavi n, for the murder of the earl of Strathmore in 1728 .when, through the
persuasive eloquence of the first lord president Dundas, then at the bar, and counsel for the
prisoner, the jury recognized the liberty of Scotland, by resuming the right to judge not only
of the naked fact, but of the fact and the law conjunctively."

318 WILLIAM KIRKALDY.

ment to the existing1 monarchical form of government. The prevailing tone of
his mintl was political, and he used to argue on topics which interested him with
great ardour and even enthusiasm, insomuch that he often appeared suffering
from passion when he was not. ■

In the year 1794, Mr Kerr was induced to embark his fortune, which was
not inconsiderable, in the purchase and management of a paper-mill at Avion
in Berwickshire. The speculation, after a trial of several years, turned out un-
fortunately, and reduced him in the latter part of life to circumstances very in-
consistent with his merits, either as a man or as an author. These circum-
stances, however, renewed his exertions in literature, after they had been long
intermitted. In 1809, he published a General View of the Agriculture of Ber-
wickshire, and in 1811, Memoirs of 3Ir William Smellie, and a History of Scot-
land during the reign of Robert Bruce, both of which last were in two volumes oc-
tavo. About the same time, he conducted through the press, for 3Ir Black-
wood, a General Collection of Voyages and Travels, in eighteen volumes octavo.
The memoirs cf Mr Smellie, though disproportioned to the subject, contain much
valuable literary anecdote. Mr Kerr's last work was a translation of Ciivier's
Essay on the Theory of the Earth, which was published in 1815 (after his death),
with an introduction and notes by professor Jamieson. The event just alluded
to took place on the 11th of October, 1813, when he was about fifty-eight years
of age. He left one son, a captain in the navy, and two daughters, both of whom
were married.

Mr Kerr was a kind and warm-hearted man, liberal and honourable in his
dealings, possessed of extensive information, and in every respect an ornament
to society.

KIRKALDY, William, one of the earliest converts to the protestant faith in
Scotland, and a brave and accomplished man, was the eldest son of Sir James
Kh-kaldy of Grange, high treasurer to James V. of Scotland.1 Of the period of
his birth and the method of his education we have been unable to discover any
satisfactory information ; but like the greater number of the Scottish barons at
that time, he seems to have chosen, or to have been devoted by his parents, to
the profession of arms. At the death of James, his father seems to have lost his
situation in the government ; yet with a view of procuring that nobleman's assis-
tance to the cause of protestantism, he was one of the most active assistants in
raising Arran to the regency ; but in the hope he had formed, lie was to a con-
siderable extent disappointed.

Young Grange, as well as his father, had embraced the principles of the Refor-
mation ; and his first appearance in the historic page is as one of the conspira-
tors against the persecutor, cardinal David Beaton. The circumstances of this
renowned conspiracy have already been commemorated in these pages. The
conspirators having, by an act which cannot be justified, avenged the death of
the martyr Wishart by assassinating his murderer, shut themselves up in the
castle of St Andrews, which they held for several months, and only surrendered,
after being besieged by a French force, in the end of July or the beginning
of August, 1546. It was stipulated that the lives of all that were in the
castle should be spared ; that they should be transported to France, whence,
if they did not choose to continue in that country, they were to be transported
to whatever other country they chose, Scotland excepted. The victors,
however, did not find it necessary or convenient to attend to the terms
of the stipulation; the greater part of the garrison were sent to the gal-

L The facts in this article are in general taken from the memoir of Kirkaldy of Grange by
Mr Graham Dalyell,a gentleman who has been so minute in his investigations that it would
be difficult to find a fact of importance omitted by him.

WILLIAM KTRKALDY. 319

leys, and the leaders immured in different dungeons. Norman Leslie, Peter
Carmichael, and the subject of this memoir, were imprisoned in Mount St
Michael, where they lay a considerable time. From this place they wrote a let-
ter to John Knox, who was in the galleys, asking the somewhat superfluous ques-
tion whether they might not with a good conscience break their prison. To tills
Knox naturally answered in the affirmative, with the proviso, that they were not
morally entitled to shed blood in the attempt.

Embracing the opportunity of a festival night, when the garrison were intoxi-
cated, they bound every man in the castle, locked the doors, and departed, hav-
ing, it is said, strictly adhered to the humane recommendation of Knox. The
two Leslies came to Rohan, and speedily escaped ; but Kirkaldy and Peter Car-
uiichael, disguised as beggars, wandered through th» country for upwards of a
quarter of a year ; at the termination of which period they got on board a French
ship, which landed them in the west of Scotland, whence they found their way
into England.

Kirkaldy appears to have spent a considerable portion of the ensuing period
of his life in France, where he entered the army, and was distinguished as a
brave and skilful soldier in the wars between the French king and the emperor
Charles V. Sir James Melville informs us, that in these wars he commanded a
hundred light horsemen ; and for his useful services, received the commendation
of the duke of Vcndome, the prince of Conde, and the duke of Auniale. Henry
II., he adds, used to point him out and say, " Yonder is one of the most
valiant men of our age." Henry indeed seems to have used him with the most
endearing familiarity, and in all the pastimes which he attended, is said to have
chosen Grange as a supporter of his own side, in their mimic battles ; while,
according to the same writer, who is always circumstantial in recording the honours
paid to a Scotsman, the great constable of France would never speak to him
uncovered. We are not aware of the exact date of his return to Scotland, but
we find him in that country in the year 1559.

During the border wars of this period, an incident occurred peculiarly char-
acteristic of the chivalrous temper of Kirkaldy, which is otherwise remarkable as
being the latest " passage of arms" which has been handed down to us, de-
scribed with all the minute u pomp and circumstance " of Froissart. Lindsay of
Pitscottie, who describes the circumstance, tells us, that lord Evers's brother de-
sired to fight with Kirkaldy " ane singular combatt upone horseback with
speares." Sir William was " very weill content " with such a species of amuse-
ment, and consented to meet the challenger on any spot he might prefer. Tne
lord Evers's brother was attended by the governor of Berwick and his whole gar-
rison, while Kirkaldy was waited on by " Monseor Doswell (Mons. d' Oswell?),
the king of France lieftennent," with the garrison of Heymouth, and other Scot-
tish gentlemen. In bringing the opposing armies so near each other, and
within view of example so seducing, it was necessary to ** decerne under paine
of treasoun, that no man should come near the championes, be the space of ane
flight shot." Each of the champions had a squire to bear his spear, there were
two trumpeters to sound the charge, and after the most approved method, two
lords were appointed as judges of the field, " to sie the matter finished.** " And
when all things war put to ordour, and the championes horsed, and their speirs
in their hands, then the trumpeters sounded, and the heralds cryed, and the judges
let them go, and they ran together very furiously on both sides, bot the laird
of Grange ran his adversar, the Inglisman, throw his shoulder blaid, and aft* his
hors, and was woundit deadlie, and in perill of his lyff; but quhidder he died
or lived I cannot tell,2 bot the laird of Grange wan the victorie that day."
2 Lindsay of Pitscottie, If. 524.

320 WILLIAM KIRKALDY.

Kirkaldy became after this incident actively engaged in the cause of the Re-
formation. When the French troops arrived to subdue Scotland, and by means
of the popish faction reduce it to a province of France, no man stood firmer to
the interests of his country, and in the first encounter lie is said to have slain
the first man with his own hand. To the French, who were aware of his
bravery and military skill, he was particularly obnoxious, and in one of their
inroads through Fife they rnzed his house of Grange to the foundation. Natu-
rally exasperated at such an act, Kirkaldy sent a defiance to the French com-
mander ; reproached him for his barbarity, and reminded him of the many
Frenchmen whom he had saved when engaged in quarrels not his own. The
commander, less chivalrous than Grange, paid no regard to the communication ;
and the latter took vengerHltec by waylaying a party of marauders, and cutting
them off to a man. During this invasion of Fife by the French, he had
a mere handful of men, and these were but poorly provided, yet he retarded the
powerful and well-appointed troops of France at every village and at every
field, disputing as it were, every inch of ground, and making them purchase at
a ruinous price every advantage.

In common with all the wise and good among his countrymen, Kirkaldy was
convinced of the danger of the French alliance, and of the far superior advan-
tages which might be derived from a connexion with England, which by a bar
barous and ignorant policy had been always overlooked or despised, and he
contributed materially to the formation of that friendship which subsisted be-
tween the ministers of Elizabeth and the Scottish reformers, without which, it
may be doubted if the reformation of that country could have been effected. In
the contests that arose between Mary and her subjects, while it must be admitted
that his correspondence with the English was clandestine, contrary to the law,
and not perhaps dictated by motives quite purely patriotic, he steadily adhered
to the popular cause. Kirkaldy was among the number of the adherents of
Moray, who on the temporary success of the queen, were compelled in 15G5,
to take refuge or "banish themselves" in England, and the criminal record
shows us some instances of barbarous punishment denounced on those who had in-
tercourse with them, as " intercommuning with rebels." 3

When after her unhappy marriage and flight to Dunbar, she returned with
an army to meet the lords who had entered into a confederation for the preser-
vation of the prince, Grange was one of the most active and influential among
them, having the command of two hundred horse, with which he intended at
Carberry hill, by a stratagem, to have seized upon the earl of Eothwell, which
he hoped would have been the means of putting an end to the contest between
the queen and her subjects. The queen, however, who highly respected him,
perceiving the approach of the troop, and understanding that he was their
leader, requested to speak with him, which prevented the attempt being made.
While he was in this conference with the queen, Bothwell called forth a soldier
to shoot him, who was in the very act of taking aim, when the queen perceiving
iiim, gave a sudden scream, and exclaimed to Eothwell, that he surely would
not disgrace her so far as to murder a man who stood under her protection.
With that frank honesty which was natural to him, Kirkaldy told her that it
was of absolute necessity, if she ever expected to enjoy the services and the con-
fidence of her subjects, that she should abandon Bothwell, who was the murderer
of her husband, and who could never be a husband to her, having been so
lately married to the sister of the earl of Huntly. Bothwell, who stood near
enough to overhear part of this colloquy, offered to vindicate himself by single
combat, from the charge of any one who should accuse him of murdering the
3 Pitciiirn's Ciim. Trials, i. (p. i.) 466, 478.

"WILLIAM KIRKALDY. 321

king. Grange told him he should have a speedy answer ; and returning to the
lords, found little difficulty in persuading them of the propriety of his accepting
the challenge, which he did without hesitation. Both well, however, thought it
prudent to decline, on the plea that Kirkaldy being only a baron, was not his
equal. To the laird of Tullibardine he objected on the same ground. The
lord Lindsay then came forward, whom he could not refuse on the score of in-
equality ; but he finally declined to engage. The queen then sent again for
Grange, and proposed surrendering herself to the lords. Both well, in the mean
time, made his escape. The queen holding out her hand, Kirkaldy kissed it,
and taking her horse by the bridle turned him about, and led her down the hill.
This was almost the full measure of Mary's humiliation, which was accomplished
by her entry into Edinburgh amidst the execrations of the rabble. The lords,
(particularly Kirkaldy) were still willing to treat her with kindness, if she could
have been prevailed on to abandon Bothwell. The same night, however, she
wrote a letter to him, calling him " her dear heart, whom she should never for-
get nor abandon, though she was under the necessity of being absent from him
for* a time ;" adding, that she had sent him away only for his own safety, and
willing him to be comforted, and to be watchful and take care of himself. This
letter falling into the hands of the lords, convinced them that her passion for
Bothwell was incurable ; and they determined to secure her in Lochleven.
Grange alone wished to excuse her, and hoped that gentle usage might yet re-
claim her ; but they showed him her letter to Bothwell which had fallen into
their hands, which left him no room to speak more on her behalf. The queen,
in the mean time, sent him a letter, lamenting her hard usage, and complaining
of broken promises. He wrote to her in return, stating what he had already at-
tempted in her behalf, and how his mouth had been stopped by her letter to Both-
well ; " marvelling that her majesty considered not that the said earl could
never be her lawful husband, being so lately before married to another,
whom he had deserted without any just ground, even though he had not been
so hated for the murder of the king her husband. He therefore requested her
to dismiss him entirely from her mind, seeing otherwise that she could never
obtain the love or respect of her subjects, nor have that obedience paid her which
otherwise she might expect."

His letter contained many other loving and humble admonitions which made
her bitterly to weep. Eager to free the queen and the nation of Bothwell,
Grange most willingly accepted the command of two small vessels that had been
fitted up from Morton's private purse (for Bothwell had not left a sufficient sum
for the purpose in the Scottish treasury), with which he set sail towards Ork-
ney, whither it was reported Bothwell "had fled. He was accompanied by the
laird of Tullibardine and Adam Bothwell, bishop of Orkney. Bothwell having
made his escape from Orkney, was pursued by Gi-ange to the coast of Norway,
where, at the moment when they had almost overtaken the fugitive, the impetu-
osity of Kirkaldy, who called on the mariners to hoist more sail than the vessel
was able to carry, lost them their prize, and they were wrecked on a sand bank.
Bothwell escaped in a small boat to the shore, leaving his ship and his servants
a prey to Kirkaldy. This unhappy man fled to Denmark, and the method of
his end is too well known to be repeated.

The regent Moray was in the mean time establishing order and tranquillity
generally through the country. The king, an infant, had been crowned at
Stirling, and his authority in the person of the regent very generally acknow-
ledged, when the queen, making her escape from Lochleven, and putting her-
self into the hands of the Hamiltons, created new and serious calamities. The
regent being at that time in Glasgow, holding his justice-eyre, was just
m. 8 3

322 WILLIA3I KIRKALDY.

at hand, and meeting with the queen and her followers at Langside, on the way
for Dumbarton castle, gave them, though they were far more in number than all
the king's friends that he could muster, an entire overthrow. The regent led
the battle himself, assisted by Grange, who being an experienced soldier, was
appointed to oversee the whole battle ; to ride to every wing, and to encourage
and make help wherever it was most required. The dispositions of the regent
were excellent, and his followers behaved with great courage ; so that the vic-
tory Mas soon won, and there being few horsemen to pursue, and the regent
calling out to save and not to kill, there were not many taken or killed ; the
greatest slaughter, according to Sir James 3Ielville, being at the first rencounter
by the shot of some troops that were planted behind the dykes at the head of
the lane leading up to the village.

Having taken the command of the castle of Edinburgh from Sir James Bal-
four, the regent bestowed it upon Grange, who appears to have had the prin-
cipal direction of affairs during the time that Moray through the intrigues of the
queen's faction was called up to the conferences at York. Lethington, subtile,
restless, and changeable, had by this time changed to the queen's side, whom
he almost openly owned during the time of these conferences, and he had im-
posed upon the unsuspecting disposition of Grange, enticing him into a kind of
doubtful neutrality, which had an unhappy influence upon the public cause,
and ended fatally for Grange himself. Lethington and Sir James Balfour hav-
ing been both at last arrested under an accusation of having been concerned in
the king's murder, Grange took them into his own hands, and protected them
in the castle, which he refused to deliver up to the regent. On the murder of
the regent 3Ioray in 1570, it did not immediately appear what party Grange
would embrace. It was evident, however, that for some time previous to this
event he had leaned to the side of the queen, and the castle of Edinburgh in a
short time became the resort and general rendezvous of all who opposed the
party of the prince.

The earl of Lennox succeeding to the regency was supported by Elizabeth,
who sent an army into Scotland for that purpose, and to retaliate upon some of
the border chieftains, who had made inroads into the English territories, parti-
cularly Buccleugh and Fernihurst. Grange, in the mean time, by the orders
of the queen's faction, who now assembled parliaments of their own, liberated
all those who had been formerly given him in charge as prisoners, for their op-
position to the king in the person of the regent. These, dispersing themselves
over the country, some pretending to be employed in a civil, and others in a
military capacity, carried dissension and rebellion along with them, to the entire
ruin of the miserable inhabitants. Lord Seaton, to intimidate the citizens of
Edinburgh, who in general leaned to the side of the king, assembled his vassals
at Holyrood house, while the Hamiltons, with the whole strength of their fac-
tion, assembled at Linlithgow, when they made a sudden and unexpected attack
upon the castle of Glasgow, the residence of Lennox the regent. Coming upon
the place by surprise, they gained the court, and set fire to the great hall ; but
they were soon repulsed, and the approach of the king's army, a principal part
of which was English, compelled them to raise the siege. The Hamiltons suf-
fered most severely on this occasion, their lands in Clydesdale being ravaged,
Cadzow plundered, and the town of Hamilton, with the seat of the Hamiltons,
burned to the ground. Nor did this suffice ; they also burned the house of
the duke of Chatelherault in Linlithgow, the palace of Kinnoul, the house of
Pardovan, and Bynie, Eincavil, and the chapel of Livingston.

Grange, meanwhile, acting somewhat dubiously, and not supporting the ex-
treme measures of either of the parties, was confounded to see a foreign foe in

WILLIAM KIRKALDY. 323

the heart of the kingdom, and Mary's friends used Avith such extreme rigour;
and afraid of being entrapped himself, began to fortify the castle with all haste,
and lay in every thing necessary for a siege. Lennox, in the mean time, sum-
moned an army in the king's name to attend him, with twenty days' provision,,
and to complete his equipments, he applied to Grange for some field-pieces.
The request was, however, refused, under a pretence that he would not be acces-
sory to the shedding of blood. The purpose of this armament was to interfere
with a parliament which the queen's party intended to have held at Linlithgow,
which it effectually accomplished ; and on the following month (October) Len-
nox held one for the king in Edinburgh. The insignia of royalty being sup-
posed necessary to the legality of parliaments, they were demanded from Grange,
who flatly refused them, and from that time forth he was regarded as determin-
edly hostile to that cause for which he had done and suffered so much. Through
the mediation of Elizabeth, however, who was at the time amusing Mary and
her friends with proposals for restoring her to some part of her authority, a ces-
sation of hostilities was agreed upon for two months, which being renewed, Mas
continued till the succeeding April, 1571. _:*

The truce, however, was not strictly observed by either of the parties. For-
tresses were taken and retaken on both sides oftener than once, and in the
month of April, Dumbarton castle, reckoned impregnable, was taken by surprise
by the friends of the regent, who, on a sentence of forfaulture in absence, hanged
Hamilton, archbishop of St Andrews, who had taken refuge in the place.
Alarmed at the fate of Dumbarton, Grange repaired the walls of the castle, cut
away all the prominences on the rock, and smoothed the banks to prevent the
possibility of an escalade. He also prepared the steeple of St Giles for receiving
a battery, and carried away the ordnance belonging to the town. His brother
James at the same time arrived from France with •* ten thousand crowns of gold,
some murrions, corslets, hagbuts, and wine, whilk was saiflie convoyit from
Leyth be the horsemen and soldiers of the town." All men who favoured not
the queen were now commanded to leave the town, and even his old tried friend
and fellow sufferer, John Knox, was obliged to quit his place, which was supplied
by Alexander, bishop of Galloway. The regent's soldiers, however, took pos-
session of some ruinous houses close to the walls, whence they annoyed the
town. There was now an end to all business ; public worship ceased, and
there was nothing to be heard but the thundering of artillery. The queen's
party had now, however, the pride of also holding a parliament in Edinburgh,
which declared the demission of Mary null ; forbade any innovation to be made
in the presbyterian religion ; and after two or three hours deliberation, rode in
procession from the Canongate to the castle, having the regalia borne before it.
Prayers for the queen were ordered by this meeting, and all who omitted them
were forbidden to preach. During these proceedings, there were daily skirmishes
on the streets, and the regent still kept possession of Holyrood house. In the
month of August in this year, an envoy arrived from the king of France, with
money, arms, and ammunition for Grange ; but the money fell into the hands of
the regent. In the ensuing month, Grange laid a plan for seizing the regent at
Stirling, and bringing him safe to the castle, which failed of success only through
the imprudence of those who conducted it. The regent was actually made a
prisoner, and on the road for Edinburgh, when, principally through the valour
of Morton, he was rescued, but shot by one of the party, when they saw they
could not carry him away. David Spens of Wormiston, who had him in charge,
and used every endeavour to save him, was also shot in revenge, though the
wounded regent attempted to protect him. This was unfortunate for Grange
Mar was immediately elected regent ; a man of far higher merit, and much

324 WILLIAM KIRKALDY.

more respected than Lennox, and in still greater favour with the ministers of Eliza-
beth ; and he in the end proved too strong for the misled, though patriotic Grange.
The war now assumed the most ferocious character. Morton destroyed the whole
of Grange's property in Fife. Grange, on the same day retaliated by burning
Dalkeith ; and for upwards of two months they reciprocally hanged their prisoners.

The distress of the town and the surrounding districts now became extreme ;
the poor were turned without the gates, and the empty houses pulled down and
sold for fuel ; a stone weight being sold for what would purchase a peck of
meal. Through the mediation of the English and French ambassadors, an ar-
mistice was at last agreed to, and all the differences between Morton and Grange
nearly made Up. Through the intrigues of Maitland, however, who had gained
an extraordinary influence over him, Grange rose in his demands, and
nothing was accomplished further than a renewal of the truce. In the mean
time Mar, who was a sincere, good man, and truly devoted to the public in-
terests, died, and was succeeded by Morton, a man of great address, and the
mortal enemy of Maitland. He too, however, professed to desire peace, and
offered the same terms as Mar. Grange was to deliver up the castle in six
months, and a convention was called to consider the means of effecting a
double peace. Both parties were at the same time attempting to over-reach each
other. Morton thirsted for the wealthy estates of some of the queen's adherents ;
and the queen's adherents wanted to gain time, in the hope of procuring effectual
aid from France. The Hamiltons, Huntly, Argyle, and their followers, were
now weary of the war ; and in a meeting at Perth accepted of the terms offered
by Morton, and, according to Sir James Melville, abandoned Grange, who
would willingly have accepted the same terms ; but from that time forth Morton
would not permit the offers to be mentioned to him. The day of the truce had
no sooner expired than a furious cannonade was commenced by Grange on
the town from the castle. He also shortly after, on a stormy night, set fire to
the town, and kept firing upon it to prevent any person coming forth to extin-
guish the flames ; a piece of wanton mischief, which procured him nothing but an
additional share of odium. Being invested by the marshal of Berwick, Sir William
Drury, with an English army, the garrison was soon reduced to great straits.
Their water was scanty at best, and the falling of one of the chief towers choked
up their only well. The Spur, a building of great strength, but imperfectly
manned, was taken by storm, with the loss of eight killed, and twenty-three
wounded. Sir Robert Melville, along with Grange, were, after beating a par-
ley, let over the walls by ropes, for the gate was choked up with rubbish.
They demanded security for their lives and fortunes, and that Maitland and
lord Hume might go to England, Grange being permitted to go or stay as he
might deem best. These conditions not being granted, they returned to the
garrison, but their soldiers refused to stand a new assault, and threatened in
case of another that they would hang Lethington, whom they regarded as the
cause of their protracted defence, over the wall. Nothing remained, therefore,
but an unconditional surrender ; and so odious were the garrison to the citizens,
that an escort of English soldiers was necessary to protect them from the rabble.
After three days they were all made prisoners. Lethington died suddenly,
through means, it has been supposed, of poison, which he had taken of his own
accord. Grange, Sir James Kirkaldy, (his brother,) James Mossman and James
Leckie, goldsmiths, were hanged on the third of August, 1573, and their heads
afterwards set up on the most prominent places of the castle wall.

Thus ignominously died one of the bravest warriors4 of his age ; the dupe of

4 In the case of Kirkaldy there appears to have been considerable debate on the re-
levancy of the indictment on which he was tried, too technical to be interesting to the general
reader. — Pilcairn's Crim. Trials, ii. 3.

XngnnATry Cha.? Cook.

M OXu

meat -.;

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JAMES KIRKWOOD.— JOHN KNOX. 325

a volatile and crafty statesman, and of his own vanity to be head of a party.
He had been one of the earliest friends, and, during its first days of peril, one
of the most intrepid defenders of the Reformation. Knox, who knew and loved
him well, lamented his apostasy, and with that sagacity which was peculiar to his
character, admonished him of the issue. " That man's soul is dear to me," said
Knox, " and I would not willingly see it perish ; go and tell him from me, that,
if he persists in his folly, neither that crag in which he miserably confides, nor
the carnal wit of that man whom he counts a demi-god, shall save him ; but he
shall be dragged forth, and hanged in the face of the sun." He returned a
contemptuous answer dictated by Maitland ; but he remembered, the warning
when on the scaffold with tears, and listened with eagerness when he was told
the hope that Knox always expressed, that, though the work of grace upon his
heart was sadly obscured, it was still real, and would approve itself so at last ;
of which he expressed with great humility his own sincere conviction.

KIRKWOOD, James, an eminent teacher and writer on grammar, in the lat-
ter part of the seventeenth century, was born near Dunbar. The circumstances
of his education are unknown ; he was first schoolmaster of Linlithgow, and sub-
sequently of Kelso. His school at Linlithgow Avasone of considerable reputation,
and he would appear to have been intrusted, like many teachers of the present
day, with pupils who boarded in his house. The celebrated John, second earl
of Stair, was thus educated by him. The first work ascertained to have been
published by him, was an " Easy Grammar" of the Latin language, which ap-
peared at Glasgow in 1674. In 1677, he published at London an octavo fas-
ciculus of " Sentences," for the use of learners. In the succeeding year ap-
peared his " Compendium of Rhetoric," to which was added a small treatise on
Analysis. After the Revolution, he was sent for by the parliamentary commis-
sioners for colleges, on the motion of lord president Stair; and his advice
was taken about the best Latin grammar for the Scottish schools. The lord
president asked him what he thought of Despauter. He answered, " A very un-
fit grammar ; but by some pains it might be made a good one." The lord Cross-
rig desiring him to be more plain on this point, he said, " My lord president,
if its superfluities were rescinded, the defects supplied, the intricacies cleared,
the errors rectified, and the method amended, it might pass for an excellent
grammar. " The lord president afterwards sent for him, and told him it was the
desire of the commissioners that he should immediately reform Despauter, as he
had proposed; as they knew none fitter for the task. He according published,
in 1695, a revised edition of Despauter, which continued to be commonly used
in schools till it was superseded by Ruddiman's Rudiments. Kirkwood was a
man of wit and fancy, as well as of learning ; and having fallen into an unfor-
tunate quarrel with his patrons the magistrates, which ended in his dismission,
he took revenge by publishing a satirical pamphlet, entitled " The twenty-seven
gods of Linlithgow," meaning thereby the twenty-seven members of the town-
council. He appears to have afterwards been chosen schoolmaster at Kelso,
where he probably died.

KNOX, John, the most eminent promoter of the Reformation in Scotland,
was born at Haddington in the year 1505. His father, though himself a man
of no note, was descended from the ancient house of Ranfurly in the shire of
Renfrew. Of the mother of the great reformer nothing farther is known than
that her name was Sinclair, — a name which he frequently used in after-life, when
to have subscribed his own would have exposed him to danger : thus many of
his letters in times of trouble are signed " John Sinclair." Though a man of
no rank in society, his father would yet seem to have been possessed of a com-
petency beyond that of the ordinary class of the peasantry of the times, if such
an inference be permitted from the circumstance of his having given his sen an

320 JOHN KNOX.

education which was then attainable only by a very few. This is a point, how-
ever, on which there has been also much dispute ; some representing his parents
as in a " mean condition," others as persons of extensive property. Whatever
may have been the condition of his parents — a matter of little moment — there
is no doubt regarding the only circumstance of any importance connected with
the question, namely, that he received a liberal education.

His course of learning began at the grammar-school of Haddington, where he
acquired the elements of the Latin language. He was afterwards, about the year
1 524, sent to the university of St Andrews. From the circumstance of the name
" John Knox" appearing on the list of matriculated students, for the year 1520,
in the Glasgow college, it has been presumed that he studied there also, and
this, as appeai-s by the dates, four years previous to his going to St Andrews ;
but the supposition that this John Knox was the reformer, is much weakened by
the fact, that many of the Knoxes of Eanfurly, the house from which his father
was descended, were educated at the university of Glasgow. Amongst the last
of these of any note were Andrew Knox, bishop of the Isles, and, after him, his
son and successor, Sir Thomas Knox. In the absence, therefore, of all other
evidence, this circumstance in the life of the reformer must be held as extremely
doubtful, especially as no allusion is made to it, either by himself, his contempo-
raries, or any of the earlier writers who have spoken of him. Knox, when he
went to St Andrews, was in the nineteenth year of his age, and was yet undis-
tinguished by any indications of that peculiar character and temper, or that
talent, which afterwards made him so conspicuous. His literary pursuits had
hitherto been limited to the acquisition of the Latin language, Greek and
Hebrew being almost unknown in Scotland, although at an after period of life
Knox acquired them both. His removal to St Andrews, however, opened up
new sources of learning and of knowledge. John Mair, a celebrated doctor of
the Sorbonne, who had studied at the colleges of England and Paris, was then
principal of St Salvator's college, St Andrews. He was a man of no great
strength of mind, nor of very high attainments ; but he had while in Paris
imbibed, and he now boldly inculcated, civil and religious principles directly at
variance with the opinions and practices of the times. He denied the supremacy
of the pope, and held that he was amenable to a general council, which might
not only rebuke and restrain him, but even depose him from his dignity. He
held that papal excommunications were of no force, unless pronounced on just
and valid grounds, and that tithes were not of divine origin. He, besides,
fearlessly censured the avarice and ambition of the clergy. And with regard to
civil matters, his opinions were no less daring, and not less boldly inculcated.
He taught his pupils to consider kings as having no other right to their eleva-
tion, but what proceeded from their people, to whom they were amenable for
their conduct, and by whom they might be judicially proceeded against. Such
were some of the doctrines taught by Mair ; and that they had taken a strong hold
of Knox, who was one of his pupils, his after life sufficiently shows. For we
find him, with the courage which belonged to his character, practising himself,
and showing others how to practise that which his preceptor only taught.

In the studies of the times, Knox now made rapid progress. He was created
master of arts, and ordained a priest before he had attained the age (twenty-five)
appointed by the canon law for receiving ordination. It will not, perhaps, be
lost time to pause for a moment at this period of his life, since it presents us
with the interesting sight of a great mind slumbering in its strength, and
unconscious at once of the darkness with which it was surrounded, and of there
being a brighter and a better world beyond the narrow precincts which it had
been taught to consider as the utmost limits of its range. Here we find the

JOHN KNOX. 327

great reformer, passively, and without remark or objection, becoming a minister
of that church which he was afterwards to overturn and erase from his native
soil ; becoming a minister of that religion which he was afterwards to drive from
the land, with a violence which shook both the kingdom and the throne. A
little longer, however, and we find this mighty mind emerging gradually but
majestically into the light of day. The discovery had been made that there lay
a wider and a fairer region beyond the bounds of the prison-house, and Knox
hastened himself to seek and to point out the way to others.

He soon betook himself to the study of the writings of the fathers of the
Christian church ; and, in the works of Jerome and Augustine, found the doctrines
and tenets which effected that revolution in his religious sentiments, after-
wards productive of such important results. He was now in the thirtieth year
of his age, but he did not either publicly avow the change which had taken place
in his religious creed, or attempt to impress it upon others, for several years after-
wards. In the mean time the work of reformation had been making irregular
but rapid progress. Patrick Hamilton had already preached the new faith in
Scotland, and had fallen a martyr to its doctrines, and many others of not less
zeal, but of less note, had shared a similar fate. Copies of the Scriptures were now
surreptitiously introduced into the kingdom, and eagerly read by those into whose
hands they fell. Poets employed their fascinating powers in bringing the church
of Rome and its ministers into contempt The effect of all this was a violent
agitation of the public mind. The reformed doctrines were every where spoken
of and discussed. They became the topics of common conversation, and were
the themes of disquisition amongst the learned. It was at this critical period,
about the year 1542, in the midst of this feverish excitement of public opinion,
that Knox first stepped into the arena as a combatant in the cause of the new
faith. He was still a teacher of philosophy in the college of St Andrews, but
he availed himself of the opportunities which this appointment afforded, of dis-
seminating his doctrines amongst his pupils, whom he taught to look with abhor-
rence and contempt on the corruptions and errors of the Romish church. Though
such opinions were now spreading widely, and were made matter of ordinary
discussion, their abettors were not yet, by any means, safe from the vengeance
of the Romish ecclesiastics, who were yet struggling hard to suppress the
heresies which were every where springing up in the land, and threatening the
speedy ruin of their church. Knox's case was too marked and too conspicuous
an instance of defection, to escape for any length of time some proof of that
wrath which it was so well calculated to excite. He was degraded from the
priesthood, had sentence passed against him as a heretic, and only escaped assas-
sination by flying from St Andrews, that fate having been marked out for him by
cardinal Beaton. On leaving St Andrews, Knox found protection in the family
of Douglas of Langniddrie, where he acted in the capacity of tutor. Here,
Douglas himself being a zealous advocate for the new faith, Knox continued to
preach the doctrines which had driven him from St Andrews ; and in these
doctrines he not only instructed the family with which he lived, but also the
people in the neighbourhood, whom he invited to attend his prelections. From
the consequences which must infallibly have attended this perseverance in dis-
seminating principles so inimical to the church, Knox was only saved by the
death of cardinal Beaton, who was assassinated in the castle of St Andrews, on
the 29th of May, 1546. Though, by the death of Beaton, Knox probably
escaped the utmost severities which prelacy could inflict ; he yet did not escape
all visitation from its wrath.

John Hamilton, the successor of Beaton, sought his destruction with as much
eagerness as his predecessor had done, compelling him to flee from place to place,

328 JOHN KNOX.

and to seek his safety in concealment. Apprehensive of falling at last into the
hands of his enemies, he, after having led a vagrant and miserable life for many
months, at length sought an asylum in the castle of St Andrews, which had been
in the possession of the cardinal's assassins since the period of his death, and
which they had held out against repeated attempts of the earl of Arran, then
regent of Scotland, to take it. Knox entered the castle of St Andrews at the time
of Easter, 1 547. This step he had been prevailed upon to take by two of his
warmest friends, the lairds of Langniddrie and Ormiston, at a time Avhen he had
himself determined to retire to Germany.

The circumstance of Knox's having taken shelter, on this occasion, with the
assassins of Beaton, has given rise to reflections on his character, involving
charges of the most serious nature. Some of them are Avholly unfounded, others
unreasonable. He has been accused of being one of the conspirators who pro-
jected the death of Beaton ; which is totally unsupported by any evidence,
and must, therefore, in common justice, be utterly rejected. He has been said
to have made himself accessory to the crime of the cardinal's murder by taking
shelter amongst those by whom it was perpetrated; a most unreasonable and
unwarrantable conclusion. His own life was in imminent danger, and he natu-
rally sought shelter where it was most likely to be found, without reference to
place or circumstances, and we cannot see by what reasoning he could be reduced
to the dilemma of either sacrificing his own life or submitting to be accused as
an accessory to murder ; the one consequence threatening him by his remaining
at large, the other by his flying to a place of refuge. He has been accused of
vindicating the deed in his writings. This length he certainly has gone ; but,
considering all the circumstances connected with it, such vindication on the part
of Knox is not much to be wondered at, nor is it calculated to excite much
reasonable prejudice against him. Beaton eagerly sought his life ; he was his
personal enemy, and a relentless and cruel enemy to all who were of the same
faith. If, therefore, we are called upon to disapprove of Knox's justification of
the death of Beaton, we should at the same time be permitted to remark, that
it was an event which he had but little reason to regret.

After entering the castle of St Andrews, Knox resumed his duties as a teacher,
and proceeded to instruct his pupils as before. He also resumed his lectures on
the Scriptures, and regularly catechised his hearei's in the parish church of the
city. Hitherto Knox's appearances as a disciple and teacher of the reformed
doctrines had been rather of a private character, or at least only before select
audiences, such as his own class of pupils, or a few neighbours congregated
together as at Langniddrie. He was now, however, about to come forward in a
more public, or at least more formal capacity. At the time that he sought refuge
in the castle of St Andrews, there were three persons of note there, all zealous
reformers, who had also fled to it as a sanctuary. These were Sir David Lind-
say of the Mount, Henry Balnaves of Hallhill, and John Rough, a celebrated
reformed preacher, and who was at this moment publicly preaching in St
Andrews. These persons were so much struck with Knox's talents and his man-
ner of instructing his pupils, that they earnestly exhorted him to come publicly
forward as a preacher of the reformed doctrines. This, however, Knox declined ;
not from any unwillingness to expose himself to the dangers which then attended
the discharge of such a duty, nor from any reluctance to devote himself to the
great cause which he had espoused, and of which he was afterwards so singular
a promoter ; but from a feeling of diffidence in his own powers, and a deep sense
of the awful importance of the charge to which he was invited ; he besides enter-
tained some scruples as to the regularity of the call which was now made upon
him, and with a conscientiousness and feeling of delicacy which became bis

JOHN KNOX. 329

religious professions, expressed a fear that his coming forward as a preacher, on
the summons of only two or three individuals, might be deemed an intrusion
into the sacred office of the ministry.

Bent on their object, however, the three persons above named, without Knox's
knowledge, consulted with the members of the church in which Rough preached,
and the result was the fixing of a certain day when Knox should, in the name
and in the face of the whole congregation, be called upon by the mouth of their
preacher to accept the office of the ministry. On the day appointed, and while
Knox was yet wholly unaware of what was to take place, Rough, after preaching
a sermon on the election of ministers, in which he maintained the right of a
congregation, however small its numbei-s, to elect its own pastor ; and he farther
maintained, that it was sinful to refuse to obey such a call -when made : then
suddenly turning to Knox — " Brother," he said, " you shall not be offended
although I speak unto you that which I have in charge, even from all those that are
here present, which is this, — In the name of God and of his Son Jesus Christ,
and in the name of all that presently call you by my mouth, I charge you that
you refuse not this holy vocation, but, as you tender the glory of God, the
increase of Christ's kingdom, the edification of your brethren, and the comfort
of me, whom you understand well enough to be oppressed by the multitude of
labours, that you take the public office and charge of preaching, even as you
look to avoid God's heavy displeasure, and desire that he shall multiply his
graces unto you." Turning now to the congregation, " Was not this your
charge unto me?" he said, M and do ye not approve this vocation ?" — " It was,
and we approve it," was the reply. Deeply impressed with the circumstance,
Knox made an attempt to address the audience, but his feelings overcame him ;
he burst into tears, and rushed out of the church. Though not without the
hesitation and the doubts and fears of an ingenuous and religious mind, Knox
accepted the charge thus solemnly and strikingly imposed upon him, and on an
appointed day appeared in the pulpit. On this occasion, a highly interesting
one, as being the first public appearance of the great reformer as a preacher of
the gospel, he gave out the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth verses of the seventh
chapter of Daniel, a choice which shows the great changes which he already
anticipated in the religious establishments of the land, and the confidence with
which he looked forward to the result of the contest now begun with the church
of Rome. The sermon which he preached on this occasion subjected him to
the high displeasure of the church dignitaries ; he and Rough were summoned
before a convention of learned men to answer for the heretical doctrines which
they entertained and promulgated. In the controversy which took place in this
assembly between Knox and the pei'son appointed to dispute with him, a grey
friar of the name of Arbukill, on the various points at issue, the former so
utterly discomfited his opponent, and so strongly established his own positions,
that the Romish clergy, resigning all hopes of maintaining their ground, either
by scriptural appeals, or by force of reasoning, carefully avoided for the future
all such exhibitions of public disputation. The castle of St Andrews, in which
Knox still found refuge, was soon after this, June, 1547, besieged by a French
fleet, which had been despatched from France to assist the governor in its re-
duction ; and after a stout resistance of several weeks' duration, the garrison was
compelled to capitulate, and all within it were made prisoners of war. Knox
and all the others who were taken with him were carried on board the
French ships, which soon afterwards proceeded with them to France. On their
arrival there the greater part of them were distributed throughout different
prisons; but Knox, with two or three others, were detained onboard the gal-
leys in the Loire during the whole of the succeeding winter. His confinement

330

JOHN KNOX.

on ship-board altogether extended to nineteen months. At the end of that long
period his liberation took place ; but how it was effected is not certainly
known.

On obtaining his liberty, Knox immediately proceeded to England, where
the Reformation was making considerable progress, under the auspices of arch-
bishop Cranmer, and other powerful persons in that kingdom. Knox's reputa-
tion as a preacher and zealous reformer was already well known to Cranmer and
his colleagues, who were not long in finding him suitable employment. He
was despatched by the privy council to Berwick to preach the reformed doc-
trines, and was allowed a salary for his maintenance. Here he remained for
two years, daily strengthening the great cause in which he was embarked, and
weakening that of its opponents. During this period too, great numbers were
converted by his powerful reasoning and impressive eloquence ; nor were the
good effects of his ministry confined to the effecting a beneficial change in the
religious sentiments of his hearers ; their morals and manners were also greatly
improved by the force of his example, and the striking truths exhibited in his
precepts. While in Berwick, Knox was involved in another controversy or
public disputation similar to that in which he had been engaged in St Andrews.
The scene on this occasion was Newcastle, whither he had been summoned by
the bishop of Durham to appear before an assembly of the learned men of his
cathedral, to discuss the doctrines which he taught. These Knox defended with
his usual ability, and with his usual success. He retired triumphant from the
debate, leaving his opponents silenced and confounded by the ingenuity and
strength of his arguments, and the fervour and energy of his eloquence.

His reputation was now daily spreading wider and wider, and so highly did
the privy council appreciate the value of his services, that they conferred on him
in December, 1551, a singular mark of their approbation, by appointing him
one of the king's chaplains. While residing in Berwick, Knox formed an ac-
quaintance with a young lady of the name of Marjory Bowes. This lady after-
wards became his wife, but without the consent of her father, who could never
be induced to approve of the connexion. He, however, had a warm friend in
the young lady's mother, who not only gave her sanction to the marriage of her
daughter, but used every effort, though without effect, to reconcile her husband
to the union. Family pride, together with some differences of opinion in reli-
gious matters, are supposed to have been the cause of Mr Bowes's objection to
accept the reformer as a son-in-law. As a natural result, the malevolence of
Knox's enemies, those who adhered to popery, kept pace with the success which
attended his efforts against the Romish church. They narrowly watched his
every word and action, and at length laying hold of some expressions of a poli-
tical nature which they conceived might be employed to his prejudice, they de-
nounced him to the privy council. In consequence of this charge, which was
supported by the duke of Northumberland, who entertained a personal dislike
to Knox, he was summoned up to London. The result, however, was in the
highest degree favourable to him. He not only convinced the council of the
uprightness of his intentions and the malice of his accusers, but succeeded in
gaining a yet greater degree of favour with that body than he had before en-
ioyed. He was appointed to preach to the court, and gave such satisfaction in
the discharge of this duty, that the privy council determined to invite him to
preach in London and the southern counties during the following year. They
offered him the living of All Hallows in the city. He, however, declined the ap-
pointment, as also that of a bishopric, which was soon afterwards tendered him
at the special request of the king, by whom he Mas much esteemed. These
splendid offers of promotion he refused for conscience' sake, — there being several

JOHN KNOX. 331

things connected with the English ecclesiastical establishment repugnant to the
faith which he had adopted ; such as the reading of homilies, the chanting of
matins and even-song, the prevalence of pluralities, &c

In the mean time, the king, Edward VI. who had evinced so much readiness
to patronize our reformer, died, and was succeeded by one of the most sanguin-
ary and relentless enemies which the reformed religion had, during any period,
to contend with. This was Mary. The accession of this princess to the throne
totally altered Knox's situation and his views. Her bigotry and persecution
soon made England unsafe for him to live in.

Finding his danger becoming daily more and more imminent, he at length
came to the resolution, though not without much reluctance, of retiring to the
continent; and making choice of France, proceeded to Dieppe in that kingdom
in the year 1554. Here he remained till the latter end of the following year,
occasionally visiting Geneva, then the residence of the celebrated Calvin, with
whom he formed a close intimacy. At the latter end of the autumn of 1555,
Knox returned to Scotland, induced by the temporary favour which the queen
dowager, Mary of Lorraine, had extended to the protestants in her dominions.
As this favour, however, did not proceed from any feeling of regard for those who
had adopted the -new faith, but was employed as a means of checking the clergy
who had been averse to the dowager's obtaining the regency of the kingdom, it
was of short duration, and lasted only so long as that princess thought it neces-
sary to her interests. In the mean time, Knox was zealously and industriously
employed in disseminating the doctrines of the reformed religion. He went
from place to place preaching the gospel, and gradually increasing the number
of his disciples, amongst whom he was soon able to reckon some of the first
persons in the kingdom. While thus employed, he received an invitation from
an English congregation at Geneva to become their pastor. With this invita-
tion he thought it his duty to comply, and accordingly proceeded thither in the
month of July, 1 556. He was on this occasion accompanied by his wife and
mother-in-law, the husband of the latter being now dead. On learning that he
had left Scotland, the clergy there proceeded to evince those feelings regarding
him which they had not dared to avow, or at least to act upon, while he was
present. Knowing that he could not appear, they summoned him before them,
passed sentence against him in absence, adjudging his body to the flames, and
his soul to damnation. The first part of the sentence they made a show of car-
rying into effect, by causing his effigy to be burned at the cross of Edinburgh.
On reaching Geneva, he immediately took charge of his congregation, and spent
the two following years in promoting their spiritual interests. This was perhaps
the happiest period of Knox's life. He lived upon the most affectionate footing
with the members of his church, by all of whom he was greatly beloved. He
enjoyed the society and friendship of Calvin, and the other ministers of the
city ; and to complete his felicity, he lived in the bosom of his own family, a
happiness of which he had hitherto had but a small share. No degree of en-
joyment, however, or of earthly felicity, could wean him from the desire of pro-
moting the Reformation in his native country; to this he continued to look
forward with unabated eagerness, and only waited for more favourable times to
gratify this ruling passion of his life.

When he had been about two years in Geneva, the long-cherished wishes of
our reformer to exercise his ministry in his native land, seemed about to be
realized. Two persons, citizens of Edinburgh, the one named James Syme, the
other James Barron, arrived in Geneva with a letter signed by the earl of Glen-
cairn, the lords Lorn and Erskine, and lord James Stewart, an illegimate son
of James V., and afterwards earl of Murray, inviting him to return to Scotland.

332

JOHN KNOX.

Knox immediately obeyed the call, and had proceeded as far as Dieppe on his
way to Scotland, when he received letters from the latter country containing the
most discouraging- accounts of the state of the kingdom and of the protestant in-
terest there. Grieved and disappointed beyond expression, he again returned
to Geneva, where he remained for another year. During this period he assisted
in making a new translation of the Bible into English, and also published his
" Letter to the Queen Regent," his " Appellation and Exhortation," and " The
first Blast of the Trumpet against the monstrous Regiment of Women." Mat-
ters having at length taken a more favourable turn in Scotland, the protestant
lords sent a second invitation to Knox to join them, accompanied by the grati-
fying intelligence that the queen-regent had promised them her countenance
and protection. He placed little reliance on these promises, but he readily
obeyed the call of his friends to return to his native country.

He sailed from Dieppe on the 22nd of April, and arrived safely in Leith on
the 2nd of May, 1559. The distrust which Knox entertained of the good faith
of the queen-regent was not without sufficient cause. By the time he arrived,
that artful but able princess, conceiving that she had no longer any occasion for
assistance from the protestants, not only gave them to understand that they had
nothing more to hope from hex*, but openly avowed her determination to sup-
press the Reformation by every means in her power, and to employ force for
that purpose if it should be found necessary.

In this spirit she authorized archbishop Hamilton to summon the reformed
preachers before him in St Andrews to answer for their conduct, giving him at
the same time, a similar assurance of protection and support with that which she
had a short while before given to the protestants. A threat, however, having
been conveyed to her that the preachers would not go unattended to the im-
pending trial, she deemed it prudent to prorogue it until she should be in a
better state of preparation, and accordingly wrote to the primate to delay any
further proceedings in the matter for the time. On the faith of receiving as-
sistance from France, which had united with Spain for the extirpation of heresy,
she soon after resumed the process against the protestant preachers, and sum-
moned them to stand trial at Stirling. Thither Knox, though he had been pro*
claimed an outlaw and a rebel, by virtue of the sentence formerly pronounced
against him, determined to repair to assist his brethren in their defence, and to
share the dangers to which they might be exposed.

The artifice of the queen-regent, however, deprived him of the opportunity
of carrying this generous resolution into effect. The preachers in their progress
to Stirling, were attended by large bodies of people, who had determined to
abide by them during the impending trial. Unwilling, however, to give the
queen-regent any offence by approaching her in such numbers, they halted at
Perth, and sent Erskine of Dun before them to Stirling to assure her that they
meditated no violence nor entertained any but the most peaceable intentions.
Not reconciled, however, by this representation to the approach of so great a
multitude, she had recourse to dissimulation to prevent their coming nearer.
She informed Erskine, that she would stop the trial, if he would prevail upon
his brethren to desist from their journey. Unsuspicious of the deception she
intended to practise, Erskine was persuaded to write to the assembled protes-
tants, requesting them to proceed no further, and intimating that he was author-
ized by the queen to promise them that no trial of their preachers should take
place. Rejoiced by these very welcome and very unexpected overtures, they in-
stantly complied with the regent's request, and the greater part of them returned
to their homes. When the appointed day of trial came, however, the summonses
of the preachers were called in court by the express orders of the queen. They

JOHN KNOX. 333

were outlawed for non-appearance, and all persons prohibited under pain of re-
bellion from harbouring or assisting them. When this infamous proceeding took
place, Knox was with the rest of his brethren at Perth, where he had preached
a sermon against idolatry and the celebration of mass, on the very day on which
intelligence reached that place of what had occurred at Stirling.

On the conclusion of the sermon, a priest who was present had the impudence
to uncover an altar-piece on which were some images, and prepared to cele-
brate mass, regardless of the excited state of the public feeling, which had just
been roused by the eloquence of Knox, and armed, as it were, for violence by
the duplicity of the regent. Under these circumstances little was required to
bring on a crisis, and that little was not long wanting. A boy having uttered
some disrespectful expressions, was instantly struck by the hot-headed priest.
The boy retaliated by throwing a stone, which, missing his assailant, for whom
it was intended, struck the altar and broke one of the images. This fired the
train. In an instant all the interior decorations of the church were torn down
and destroyed, altar and images were overturned and trampled under foot ; a
mob collected outside, but finding the work of destruction already completed
here, they pi'oceeded to the monasteries, which they in a short time laid in
ruins. This was the first ebullition of popular feeling connected with the Refor-
mation, and Knox has been accused of having been the cause of it. If he was,
he certainly was so unconsciously and innocently, for he reprobated the violence
which had taken place, and in speaking of it, says it was perpetrated by " the
rascal multitude," — language sufficiently indicative of the light in which he
viewed it. The protestant lords, finding now that they had not only nothing
more to hope for from the queen, but that she was their declared enemy, deter-
mined to make a vigorous effort to establish the reformed religion without either
her assistance or consent. They proceeded to ascertain the numbers of their
friends, established a correspondence with them, and united the whole by pro-
curing their subscriptions to a religious covenant, copies of which they despatched
for that purpose to different districts throughout the country. These thus united
were distinguished by the name of The Congregation, and the noblemen who
were included by that of tlte Lords of the Congregation. The latter, still desirous
of accomplishing their purpose rather by the force of reasoning than by the
sword, engaged Knox to meet them on a certain day at St Andrews, where they
proposed he should deliver a series of sermons. On his way to St Andrews he
preached at Anstruther and Crail, and arrived at the first named place on the
9th of June.

Here occurred a striking instance of that personal intrepidity for which the
great reformer was so remarkable. The archbishop, informed of his design to
preach in his cathedral, assembled an armed force, and sent word to Knox, that
if he appeared in the pulpit, he would order the soldiers to fire upon him.
Alarmed for his safety, Knox's friends endeavoured to dissuade him from
preaching, but in vain. " He could take God to witness," he said, " that he
never preached in contempt of any man, nor with the design of hurting an earthly
creature ; but to delay to preach next day, unless forcibly hindered, he could not in
conscience agree. As for the fear of danger that may come to me," he con-
tinued, " let no man be solicitous, for my life is in the custody of him whose
glory I seek. I desire the hand nor weapon of no man to defend me." Knox
accordingly appeared in the pulpit at the appointed time, and preached to a
numerous assembly, without experiencing any interruption ; but although the
threatened attempt upon his life was not made, he retains a full claim to all the
courage which a contempt and defiance of that threat implies.

On this occasion he preached for three successive days ; and such was the ef-

334 JOHN KNOX.

feet of Lis eloquence and the influence of his doctrine, that both the inhabitants
and the civil authorities agreed to set up the reformed worship in the town.
The monasteries were demolished and the church stripped of all images and pic-
tures. The example of St Andrews was soon after followed in many other parts
of the kingdom. At the latter end of the month, Knox arrived with the forces
of the Congregation in Edinburgh, and on the same day on which he entered
the city, he preached in St Giles's, next day in the Abbey church, and on the
7th of July, the inhabitants met in the tolbooth, and appointed him their
minister, there being then only one place of worship in Edinburgh, viz. St Giles's
church. In this charge, however, he was not long permitted to remain. The
forces of the regent soon after obtained possession of the city ; and, although
against his own inclination, his friends prevailed upon him to retire from the
town. On leaving'Edinburgh, he undertook a tour of preaching through the
kingdom ; and in less than two months had gone over the greater part of it,
disseminating with the most powerful effect the doctrines of the reformed reli-
gion. He next retired to St Andrews, where he officiated as minister for several
months ; and on the conclusion of the civil war, which the determination of the
Congregation to establish* the reformed religion and the regent's efforts to sup-
press it, had created, he returned to Edinburgh. In 1560, after an arduous
struggle and many vicissitudes, the faith for which Knox had fought such a " good
fight," seemed to be securely established in the land. The queen- regent was dead,
and by the assistance of England, an assistance which Knox had been the chief
instrument in procuring, the arms of the forces of the Congregation were com-
pletely triumphant.

The accession, however, of Mary, who was known to be strongly attached to
popery, to the actual government, again excited the fears of the protestants, and
of no one more than Knox, who insisted that the invitation sent to France to that
princess to ascend the throne of her ancestors should be accompanied by the
stipulation, that she should desist from the celebration of mass ; and when the
rest of the council urged that she ought to be allowed that liberty within her
own chapel, he predicted that " her liberty would be their thraldom."

A few days after the queen's arrival at Holyrood she sent for Knox, and
taxed him with holding political opinions at once dangerous to her authority
and the peace of her realm, and with teaching a religion different from that al-
lowed by its princes. Knox entered at great length into these subjects, defend-
ing himself and his doctrines with his usual ability and boldness. His language,
at no time very courtly, is said to have been so harsh in some instances on this
occasion as to drive the young queen to tears ; but whether this, if true, ought
to be considered as a proof of the severity of his expressions, or of the queen's
irritability of temper, is questionable, since it is probable that she may have
wept without sufficient cause. The arrival of the dinner hour broke off this in-
teresting interview, and Knox retired from the presence with some expressions
of good wishes for the queen's happiness. Frequent conferences of a similar
nature with this took place afterwards between the reformer and Mary, but
with little increase of regard on either side. On one of these occasions, when
he had spoken with even more than his usual boldness, and just as he was about
to retire, he overheard some of the queen's popish attendants say, " He is not
afraid." — " Why should the pleasing face of a gentlewoman frighten me f replied
the stout reformer, turning round upon them ; " I have looked in the faces of
many angry men, and yet have not been afraid beyond measure." Knox's min-
isterial duties were in the mean time exceedingly laborious. His charge, as al-
ready mentioned, was St Giles's church, where he had discharged these duties
6ince the year 1560. He preached twice every Sabbath, and thrice on other

JOHN KNOX. 335

days of the week, besides meeting regularly with his kirk-session once every
week for discipline, and with others for exercises on the Scriptures. Eesides
all this, he regularly attended all the meetings of the general assembly and the
provincial synod ; and at almost every meeting of the former, a mission to visit
and preach in some distant part of the country was imposed upon him. With
the view of relieving him of part of these overwhelming labours, the town coun-
cil, in April, 1562, solicited John Craig, minister of Canongate, to undertake
the half of his charge. From the difficulty, however, of obtaining an additional
stipend, Knox remained without assistance till June in the following year. Ife
has been already said that many interviews took place from time to time be-
tween the queen and Knox ; these were still occasionally occurring ; but their
only effect was to increase her dread and dislike of the reformer ; and although
some instances occurred in which there was something like an approach to a
better understanding, yet on the part of the queen it was never sincere ; and
there is little doubt that she longed for an opportunity of getting rid of so
troublesome a subject, whom neither her threats nor blandishments could divert
for an instant from what he conceived to be the strict path of his duty. Such
an opportunity as she desired, or at least such a one as she certainly rejoiced in,
seemed now unexpectedly to present itself. Two persons, protestants, were in-
dicted to stand trial for having with several others, intruded into the palace
during a temporary absence of the queen, for the purpose of interrupting the
celebration of certain Roman catholic rites which was about to take place in
the chapel of Holyrood. The protestants of Edinburgh, dreading that the
queen would proceed to extremities against these men, requested Knox to write
circular letters to the principal gentlemen of their persuasion, detailing the cir-
cumstances of the case, and inviting their presence on the day of trial.

One of these letters falling into the hands of the bishop of Ross, he im-
mediately conveyed it to the queen, who again lost no time in laying it before
her privy council, by which it was pronounced treasonable, and the writer was
soon afterwards indicted to stand trial in Edinburgh for the crime of high
treason. The queen presided in person at the trial, and with an ill-judged and
ill-timed levity, burst into a fit of laughter, when on taking her seat in court she
perceived Knox standing uncovered at the foot of the table. " That man," she
said, pointing to the reformer, " had made her weep, and shed never a tear
himself: she would now see if she could make him weep." The trial now pro-
ceeded, and after the charge against him had been read, Knox entered upon
his defence at great length, and with such self-possession, intrepidity, and
ability, that although he had several enemies amongst his judges, he was, by a
great majority acquitted of the crime of which he had been accused.

Alluding to the queen's feelings on this occasion, he says in his History,
" That night, (the evening after the trial) was nyther dancing nor fiddling in
the court ; for madame was disapoynted of hir purpose, quhilk was to have had
John Knox in hir will, be vot of hir nobility." A second attempt on the part
of the queen and her husband Darnley to suppress the stern and uncompromising
truths, both political and religious, which the reformer continued to proclaim to
the world, was soon after made. He had given out a text which gave such of-
fence to the stripling king, that on the afternoon of the same day he was taken
from his bed and carried before the privy council, who suspended him from his
office. As the suspension, however, was limited to the time of their majesties
residence in the city, it was but of short duration, as they left Edinbui-gh before
the following Sabbath, when Knox resumed his ministry, and delivered his sen-
timents with the same boldness as before. This occurrence was soon after fol-
lowed by the murder of Rizzio, the queen's secretary ; an event which gave the

336

ALEXANDER GORDON LAING.

queen, now at Dunbar, a pretence for raising an army, ostensibly to enable her
to resent the indignity which had been shown to her person by the assassins of Riz-
zio, and to punish the perpetrator of that deed, but in reality, to overawe the
protestants. On the approach of the queen and her forces to Edinburgh, Knox,
long since aAvare of the dislike which she entertained towards him, deemed it
prudent to leave the city. On this occasion he retired to Kyle, and soon after-
wards went to England to visit his two sons, who were there living with some
relations of their mother's. Knox returned again to Edinburgh, after an ab-
sence of about five or sixth months. During that interval two events had taken
place, which entirely ruined the queen's authority in the kingdom, and left him
nothing to fear from her personal resentment ; these were the murder of Darn-
ley and her marriage with Bothwell. He therefore resumed his charge without
interruption, and proceeded to take that active part in the national affairs, both
political and religious, which the times required, and for which he was so emi-
nently fitted ; and, soon after, had the satisfaction of seeing the protestant reli-
gion securely established by the laws of the land, and that of the popish church
utterly overthrown by the same authority.

In the month of October, 1570, he was struck with apoplexy, and although
it only interrupted his preaching for a few days, he never recovered from the
debility which it produced.

The irritability of the times, and the vindictive spirit of the popish faction,
still animating its expiring efforts, placed the life of the great reformer once
more in danger, and once more compelled him to seek safety in flight. His
enemies endeavoured first to destroy his reputation by the most absurd and un-
founded calumnies ; and failing utterly in these, they made an attempt upon his
life. A shot was fired in at the window at which he usually sat ; but happening
to hi seated at a different part of the table from that which he generally occu-
pied, the bullet missed him, but struck the candlestick which was before him,
and then lodged in the roof of the apartment.

Finding that it was no longer safe for him to remain in Edinburgh, he re-
tired to St Andrews, where he continued till the end of August, 1572, when he
again returned to Edinburgh. His valuable and active life was now drawing
fast to a close. On the 1 1th of the November following he was seized with a
cough, which greatly affected his breathing, and on the 24th of the same month
expired, after an illness which called forth numerous instances of the magnani-
mity of his character, and of the purity and fervour of that religious zeal by
which he had been always inspired. He died in the sixty-seventh year of his
age, " not so much," says Dr M'Crie, " oppressed with years as worn out and
exhausted by his extraordinary labours of body and anxieties of mind." His
body was interred in the church-yard of St Giles, on Wednesday the 26th of
November, and was attended to the grave by all the nobility who were in the
city, and an immense concourse of people. When his body was laid in the
grave, the regent, who was also at the funeral, exclaimed in words which have
made a strong impression from their aptness and truth, " There lies he who
never feared the face of man."

LAING, Alexander Gordon, whose name is so mournfully connected with
the history of African discovery, was born at Edinburgh on the 27th of De-

ALEXANDER GOKIDXG)^ !LADM

■

ALEXANDER GORDON LAING. 337

cember, 1793. His father, William Laing, A.M., was the first who opened an
academy for classical education in the new town of the Scottish capital ; where
he laboured for thirty-two years, and was one of the most popular teachers of his
day. His maternal grand-father, William Gordon, was also a teacher of very
considerable note, and is known in the schools as the author of a system of geo-
graphy, a treatise on arithmetic, a translation of the first six books of Livy, &c.

With such a parentage it might naturally have been supposed, that the subject
of this memoir was more likely to have spent his days amid the quiet pursuits of
literature, than in the bustle of the camp, and amid the din of arms ; the ap-
pearances of his early years seemed to favour the supposition. Under the tuition
of his father, young Laing received the elementary education that was necessary
to prepare him for the university, and he was enrolled in the Humanity class
at the early age of thirteen years. Previous to this he had acquired a very con-
siderable knowledge of the Latin language, of which he was passionately fond;
and the appearances he made in the class then taught by professor Christison,
were of so marked a kind as to secure him the very flattering notice of his pre-
ceptor ; he was held up as a model for the imitation of his fellow students, and
there were but few who could entertain any hope of excelling him.

At the age of fifteen Mr Laing entered on the business of active life, having
engaged himself as assistant to Mr Bruce, a teacher in Newcastle. In this situa-
tion he remained only six months, when he returned to Edinburgh,"and entered
into company with his father, taking charge of the commercial department of the
academy, for which his beautiful penmanship and other acquirements singularly
qualified him.

But the time was fast approaching when the subject of our memoir was to ex-
change the ferula for the sword. In 1809, volunteering was very general in
Edinburgh, and young Laing attached himself to a corps then forming. In
1810, he was made an ensign in the prince of Wales' volunteers, and from that
period the academy had no more charms for him. In his eighteenth year he
abandoned the irksome duties of teaching, and set off" for Barbadoes to his ma-
ternal uncle, colonel, afterwards lieutenant-general Gordon, through whose kind
offices he looked forward to an introduction into the army. At that time colonel
Gordon held the office of deputy quarter-master-general in Barbadoes, and on
his nephew's arrival he gave him a situation as clerk in his counting house. In
this situation Mr Laing repeatedly came in contact with Sir George Beckwith,
then at the head of the command of the military on the station, who was so much
pleased with the young clerk, and took so deep an interest in his fortunes, as
to secure for him unsolicited an ensign's commission in the York light infantry.

But we must hurry over the first years of Laing's service in the army, in
order that we may have space to detail the more important passages in his his-
tory. Having obtained the ensigncy in the York light infantry, he immediate-
ly joined his regiment in Antigua ; in two years he was made a lieutenant, and
shortly after, on the reduction of the regiment, he was put on half-pay. Dis-
satisfied with the inactivity consequent on such a measure, as soon as the neces-
sary arrangements could be made, he exchanged into the 2nd West India regi-
ment, and proceeded to Jamaica. Here over exertion in consequence of his
discharging the duties of quarter-master-general caused him to sutler much from
disease of the liver. He retired to Honduras for the recovery of his health,
where colonel Arthur, appreciating his excellence as an officer, detained him with
another division of the regiment, and appointed him fort major. His distemper,
however, which at first seemed to yield in Honduras, returned with increasing
violence, and compelled him to seek relief in the air of his native bind, and the

sympathies of his relations.

in. a r

338 ALEXANDER GORDON LAING.

During the eighteen months he remained at home, ihe division of the 2nd
West India regiment to which he belonged, was reduced, and he was again put
on half-pay. Restored, however, to health, he could not remain inactive. To-
wards the end of 1819, he went to London, was sent for by the colonel of his
regiment, the late Sir Henry Torrence, received many flattering compliments
for his former services, and having been appointed lieutenant and adjutant, he
proceeded to Sierra Leone.

From the beginning of the year 1822 his history as an African traveller may
properly be dated. In January of that year he was despatched by Sir Charles
M'Carthy, governor of Sierra Leone, on an important embassy to Kambia and
the Mandingo country, where he collected much valuable information regarding
the political condition of these districts, their dispositions as to commerce, and
their sentiments as to slavery. Having so far achieved the object for vtlrich he
set out, he crossed to Malacouri, a Mandingo town, situated on the banks of the
river Malageea. There he learned that Saunassee, the chief of the district of
Malageea, and a friend of the British government, had been captured by Amara,
the king of the Soolimas, and was about to be put to death. Well knowing the
unrelenting disposition of Amara, Laing, although labouring under a severe attack
of fever and ague, resolved to go to the Soolima camp, and intercede for the life
of the unfortunate Sannassee.

With this view he crossed the Malageea near its source, and after experienc-
ing many difficulties in meeting witb Soolima guards, he at length reached the
camp. Having witnessed the feats of warlike exercise, the dancing, and the
music exhibited by Soolimas, Bennas, Sangaras, and Tambaccas, he was invited
to a palaver with Yarradee, the general of the Soolima army. This officer re*
ceived him with much kindness, and with many protestations of friendship.
Subsequently he was introduced to, and had a conversation with Amara himself,
and having obtained an assurance that Sannassee would not be put to death, he
retired to Sierra Leone, where he arrived on the 6th day, exhausted by the
fatigues of his journey and continued illness.

Scarcely had Laing recovered, when a report at Sierra Leone that his mission
had been of no avail, induced the governor to send him on another embassy for
the same object. Having once more visited the Soolima camp, he was assured
indeed that Sannassee had been set at liberty, but he also learned that his town
had been burned, and his property plundered or destroyed. Of this conduct he
expressed in the name of his government the most decided reprobation ;
and after a journey of six and a half days, during which he had never for a
single hour been under shelter, he once more reached Sierra Leone.

It was now that lieutenant Laing assumed the character of a volunteer travel-
ler. Having been led to believe during the last embassy that the Soolimas
were in possession of considerable quantities of gold and ivory, he suggested to
the governor the propriety and probable advantages of the colony opening up a
commercial intercourse with them ; and the suggestion having been approved
of by the council at large, he left Sierra Leone again on the 16th of April,
1822, with the view of furthering such an object, accompanied by two soldiers
of the 2nd West India regiment, a native of Foutah Jallow, eleven carriers,
natives of the Jolof district, and a boy a native of Sego.

When he set out upon this journey little was known of the Soolimas except
the name : they were said to be distant from Sierra Leone four hundred milei
to the eastward : it afterwards appeared that Falaba, the capital, is only distant
two hundred miles. They were represented as a powerful nation, rich in gold
and ivory ; but this also turned out not to be the fact.

On his arrival at Toma in the country of the Timmanees, our traveller found

that no white man had ever been there before him, although the town is situated
only sixty miles from Sierra Leone. His appearance, as was to be expected,
excited no little astonishment — one woman, in particular, stood fixed like a statue
gazing- on the party as they entered the town, and did not stir a muscle till the
whole had passed, when she gave a loud halloo of astonishment, and then
covered her mouth with both her hands. Of the Timmanees he writes in his
journal very unfavourably ; he found them depraved, indolent, avaricious, and
so deeply sunk in the debasement of the slave traffic, that the very mothers
among them raised a clamour against him for refusing to buy their children.
He further accuses them of dishonesty and gross indecency, and altogether
wonders that a country so near Sierra Leone, should have gained so little by
its proximity to a British settlement.

From the country of the Timmanees lieutenant Laing proceeded into that of
Kooranko, the first view of which was much more promising — he found the first
town into which he entered neat and clean, and the inhabitants bearing all the
marks of active industry. It was about sunset when he approached it, and we
give in his own language a description of the scene. " Some of the people,"
says he, " had been engaged in preparing the fields for the crops, others were
penning up a few cattle, whose sleek sides denoted the richness of their pastur-
ages ; the last clink of the blacksmith's hammer was sounding, the weaver was
measuring the cloth he had woven during the day, and the guarange, a worker in
leather, was tying up his neatly stained pouches, shoes, and knife-sheaths ; while
the crier at the mosques, with the melancholy call of ' Allah Akbar,' summoned
the decorous Moslems to their evening devotions." Such were our traveller's
first impressions of the Koorankoes ; but their subsequent conduct did not confirm
the good opinion he had formed of them.

On approaching the hilly country, lieutenant Laing informs us that nothing
could be more beautiful or animating than the scene presented to his view, —
well clothed rising grounds, cultivated valleys, and meadows smiling with ver-
dure ; the people in the different towns were contented and good-humoured,
and, in general, received the stranger with very great kindness. In illustration
of this he has given us the burden of the song of one of their minstrels : —
" The. white man lived on the waters and ate nothing but fish, which made him
so thin ; but the black men will give him cows and sheep to eat, and milk to
drink, and then he will grow fat."

At Komato, the last town of the Koorankoes, on his route, our traveller found
a messenger from the king of Soolimana, with horses and carriages to convey
him to Falaba, the capital of that nation. Crossing the Rokelle river, about a
hundred yards broad, by ropes of twigs suspended from the branches of two
immense trees, (a suspension bridge called by the natives Nyankata,) he proceeded
to that city ; and having been joined by the king's son at the last town upon
this side of it, he entered Falaba under a salute of musketry from 2000 men,
who were drawn up in the centre of the town to receive him.

Not long after reaching Falaba, lieutenant, now captain Laing (for about this
time he was promoted,) was seized with a fever which brought on delirium for
several days. While in this state he was cupped by one of the Soolima doctors,
and that so effectually as to satisfy him that it was the means of saving his life.
The operation differed in no respect from ours, except that the skin was scari-
fied by a razor, and the cup was. a small calabash gourd.

Our traveller enters, in his journal, into a long detail of the habits and man-
ners of the Soolimas, with which he had made himself fully acquainted during
his thi-ee months' residence in Falaba. To give even a sliort abstract of this,
would be inconsistent with the limits assigned to this memoir. Suffice it to say,

340 ALEXANDER GORDON LAING.

that the main object of his mission failed. The king all along promised to send
back with him a company of traders ; but when the time of departure arrived,
these promises ended in nought. Although within three days' journey of the
source of the Niger, he was not permitted to visit that often sought spot, and
deep was the grief which the loss of such an opportunity cost him ; by measuring,
however, the height of the source of the Rokelle, which he found to be 1441
feet, and by taking into account the height of the mountains in the distance,
which gave rise to the Niger, he calculated, (as he himself thought,) Avith a tolera-
ble degree of accuracy, that that river which has had so much importance
assigned to it, has an elevation at its source of from 1500 to 1600 feet above
the level of the Atlantic. We cannot resist quoting here the testimony of an
eminent writer in the Edinburgh Journal of Natural and Geographical Science,
(June, 1830,) more especially as the measurements of captain Laing have been
rather lightly spoken of in the Quarterly Review, (we believe by Mr Barrow :)
" Major Laing," says the Edinburgh Journalist, " assigned the position and
the elevation above the sea of Mount Loma, from whence the Niger takes its
origin : and he first traced on the map the first part of its course towards the
north for an extent of about twenty-five leagues."

On the 17th of September our traveller quitted Falaba, accompanied by
numbers of the natives, who escorted him to a considerable distance, the last to
leave him was the king himself. Of his M adieu " the captain speaks in the
most affecting terms. On returning, the route of the party was nearly the same
as that by which they set out The conclusion of the journey we give, in the
traveller's own words, in a note.1

Before our traveller's return, hostilities had commenced between the British
government and the king of the Ashantees — the consequence was, that no sooner
had he tasted the comforts of a British settlement, than he was ordered to join
his regiment on the Gold coast without delay. Having transmitted details to
his friend, captain Sabine in London, of the geographical determinations of the
latitude, longitude, and elevation of the places he had lately visited, he hastened
to obey the order he had received. On his arrival on the Gold coast he was
employed in the organization and command of a very considerable native force,
designed to be auxiliary to a small British detachment which was then expected
from Britain. During the greater part of the year 1823, this native force was
stationed on the frontier of the Fantee and Ashantee countries, and was fre-
quently engaged, and always successfully, with detachments of the Ashantee
army. On one of these occasions the enemy was completely beaten, and the fame
of the victory spread over the whole coasts ; in so much, and so effectually, that
Sir Charles M'Carthy received the allegiance of most of the Fantee tribes. On
another occasion captain Laing made two gallant and successful attacks on a larger
division of the enemy ; and entering into the territories of the king of Aju-

1 " We left Ma Koota at six A. M., and after a fatiguing march of twenty- five miles over
a vile Timmanec path, we reached Rokon at four P. M., where I rejoined my part}', which had
arrived a few hours before. At six I embarked in a canoe, with an intention of pushing
direct for Sierra Leone, but perceiving a small boat at anchor oft" the small town of Maherre,
I went on shore, and in a few minutes had the gratification of shaking hands with Senor
Altavilla, Portuguese commissary judge at Sierra Leone, and captain Stepney of the 2nd
West India regiment, who, on hearing of my approach had gone so far on the way to meet
me. About midnight we were joined by Mr Kenneth Macauley, when we all embarked in
his barge; and proceeding down the river, arrived at Tombo to breakfast, where 1 deprived
myself of the decoration of my face, now of seven months' growth, and by the help of some bor-
rowed garments effected an alteration in my appearance which was very requisite. Leaving
Tombo after breakfast, we proceeded down the Rokelle, on a fine calm morning, and at two
P. M. I had the satisfaction of being welcomed by my friends at Sierra Leone, so many of
whom, so much esteemed and so highly valued, are now no more.''

ALEXANDER GORDON LAING.

341

macon, who was suspected to be friendly to the Ashantees, he compelled that
prince to place his troops under the British command.

On the fall of Sir Charles McCarthy, which took place in 1824, lieutenant-
colonel Chisholm, on whom the command of the Gold coast devolved, sent the
subject of our memoir to England, to acquaint government more fully than could
otherwise be done, of the state of the country, and the circumstances of the
war. He arrived in England in August, and immediately afterwards obtained a
leave of absence to visit Scotland for the recovery of his health, which had been
seriously affected by so many months of constant and extreme exposure in
Africa. In Scotland, however, he did not continue long. In October he re-
turned to London, and an opportunity having unexpectedly presented itself to
him, of proceeding under lord Bathurst's auspices, in the discovery of the course
and termination of the Niger, an opportunity which he had long and anxiously
desired, he gladly embraced it It being arranged, that he should accompany
the caravan from Tripoli to Timbuctoo, in the ensuing summer, it became neces-
sary that he should depart early in the year from that father land, which, alas!
he was destined never to revisit.

Our traveller, now promoted to a majority, left London for Tripoli, in the
month of February, 1825. While in the latter city he had occasion to have
frequent intercourse with the British consul, Mr Warrington ; a close intimacy
was formed between them, and the bond was strengthened by the major's mar-
rying Emma Maria, the daughter of the consul. This event was celebrated on
the I4th of July, 1825 ; and two days after the marriage the major proceeded
on his pilgrimage to Timbuctoo.

He left Tripoli in company with the sheik Babani, whom he afterwards dis-
covered to be no less a personage than the governor of Ghadamis. The sheik
engaged to conduct him to Timbuctoo in ten weeks ; the wife and the family of
Babani resided there. The travellers proceeded with their kqffila by the
route of Beneoleed, the passage by the Gharan mountains being rendered un-
safe, in consequence of the turbulence of a rebellious chief in that district. On
the 21st of August the party reached Shate, and on the 13th of September,
after a tedious and circuitous journey of nearly a thousand miles, they arrived
at Ghadamis. Already had the major experienced much to vex and annoy
him ; his barometer had been broken ; his hygrometers had been rendered use-
less by evaporation ; the tubes of most of his thermometers had been snapt by
the warping of the ivory ; his glasses had been dimmed by the friction of the
sand ; his chronometer had stopped (in all likelihood from the insinuation of
sandy particles) ; and in addition to this lengthened list of mishaps, his rifle
stock had been broken by the tread of an elephant.

Our traveller left Ghadamis, where he was treated with the utmost kindness
and hospitality, on the 27th of October ; and on the 3rd of December he arrived
at Ensala, a town on the eastern frontier of the province of Tuat, belonging to
the Tuaric, and said to be thirty-five days' journey from Timbuctoo. Here as
in Ghadamis, he experienced the kindest reception, and he did all he could to
repay it, by administering of his medicines to the diseased.

From Ensala he wrote the last letter to his relations in Scotland, which they ever
received from him. As it is a document of great interest, and, in some passages,
highly characteristic of the writer, we shall present a considerable extract :

" Ensala in Tuat, December 8, 1825.

" I arrived here in the afternoon of the 2nd instant ; and the curiosity which my appearance
among these people has excited, is not yet nearly allayed, insomuch that I am beset during

34:2 ALEXANDER GORDON LAING.

nearly the whole day with myriads of wondering spectators, who flock to the house which I
inhabit, and stare at me with about as much curiosity as you would at the great liomss in
Exeter Change, which whelped three joung lions, and condescended to suckle them hiiMOlf.
The natives of this place are of the tribe called Musticarab, and live under no law or control.
They do not employ themselves either in trade or cultivation, but, like a set of outlaws, roam
about the desert, robbing and plundering kaffilas wherever they can fall in with them.
There lias been murderous work among them this year, — more than half a dozen fights of one
lund or another, and between two and three hundred slain. I shall quit them, please God,
in S(.ven or eight days more, as I accompany a large kailila, which proceeds on the 15th
instant towards Tirabuctoo, from which I am now only thirty da}s' journey. Every thing
appears to favour me, and to bid fair for a speedy and successful termination to my arduous
enterprise. 1 am already possessed of much eurious and valuable information, and feel
confident that I shall realize the most sanguine expectations of my numerous friends. Isliall
do more than has ever been done before, and shall show myself to be what I have ever con-
sidered myself, a man of enterprise and genius. My father used often to accuse me of want
of common sense ; but he little thought that I gloried in the accusation. 'Tis true, I never
possessed any, nor ever shall. At a very early age, I fell in with an observation of Helvc-
tius, which pleased me much, and chimed in with my way of thinking to the tenth part of a
second. ' A man of common sense is a man in whose character indolence predominates : he
is not endowed with activity of soul, which, in high stations, leads great minds to discover
new springs by which they may set the world in motion, or to sow the seeds, from the growth
of which they are enabled to produce future events.' I admit that common sense is more
necessary for conducting the petty affairs of life than genius or enterprise ; but the man who
soars into the regions of speculation should never be hampered by it. Had I been gifted
with that quality which the bulk of mankind consider so inestimable, I might now have
been a jolly subaltern on half-pay, or perhaps an orthodox preacher in some country kirk, in
lieu of dictating this letter to you from the arid regions of central Africa. This is a long
rhapsod}-, but j-ou must just bear with it patiently, as it is not every day that you can hear
from me.

«< 1 hope you have written to my dearest Emma, the most amiable girl that God ever
created. She is, indeed, such a being os I had formed in my mind's eyes but had never
before seen, and has just as much common sense as has fallen to the lot of your most worthy
elder brother." * * *

He quitted Ensala on the 10th of January, 1826, and on the 2Gth of the
same month entered on the cheerless, flat, and sandy desert of TenezarofE
Hitherto neither his enthusiasm nor his health had failed him ; the people had
all been friendly and kind to him, the elements only had been his foes ; but in
the desert he was to enter on a different course of experience, and bitter
assuredly it was. The Tuarics attacked, and plundered, and most cruelly
mangled him. The following letter, written by himself, and addressed to
his father-in-law, discloses the amount of authentic information concerning this
barbarous outrage.

„"*. „ BladJSidi Mahomed, May lOtk, IKS

My Dear Consul, —

I drop you a line only by an uncertain conveyance, to acquaint you that I am recovering
from my severe wounds far beyond any calculation that the most sanguine expectation coald
hare formed ; and that to-morrow, please God, 1 leave this place for Timbuctoo, which 1
hope to reach on the 18th. I have suffered much, but the detail must be reserved till another
period, when I shall " a tale unfold " of treachery and woe that will surprise you. Some im-
putation is attachable to the old sheik (Babani); but as he is now no more, 1 shall not accuse
him ; he died very suddenl} about a month since.

ALEXANDER GORDON LAING. 343

When I write from Timbuctoo, I shall detail precisely how 1 was betrayed, and nearly
murdered in my sleep. In the mean time, I shall acquaint you with the number and nature
of my wounds, in all amounting to twenty-four ; eighteen of which are exceedingly severe.
I have five sabre cuts on the crown of the head, and three on the left temple ; all fractures,
from which much bone has come away. One on my left cheek, which fractured the jaw-
bone, and has divided the ear, forming a very unsightly wound. One over the right temple,
and a dreadful gash on the back of the neck, which slightly scratched the windpipe * &c. I
am, nevertheless, as already I have said, doing well, and hope yet to return to England with
much important geographical information. The map indeed requires much correction, and
please God, I shall yet do much in addition to what I have already done towards putting it
right.

It Avould .appear from this letter, that the major intended on the day after he
wrote it, to set out for Timbuctoo. The intention, however, was frustrated.
Tiie illness, and subsequent death of Sidi Mahomed Mooktar, the marabout and
sheik of the place, together with a severe attack of fever in his own person,
detained him for two months longer. By this distemper he lost also his
favourite servant Jack, to whom he was much attached. We can easily enter
into his feelings when, writing again on the 1st of July to his father-in-law, he
concludes the epistle by saying, " I am now the only surviving member of the
mission."

On the 1 8th of August he arrived at Timbuctoo, and from the following let-
ter, which he left behind him there, which was afterwards forwarded to Tripoli
by the nephew of Babani, and is the last that any of his relations ever re-
ceived from him, we learn only enough to deepen our regret that he should
have perished in the hour of success, and that his valuable papers should have
been lost to the world.

" Timbuctoo, \ September 21, 1826.

" My Dear Consul : — A very short epistle must serve to apprise you, as well as my dearest
Emma, of my arrival at and departure from the great capital of central Africa; the former
of which events took place on the 18th ultimo, the latter, please God, will take place at an
early hour to-morrow morning. I have abandoned all thoughts of retracing my steps to
Tripoli, and came here with an intention of proceeding to Jenne by water ; but this intention
has been entirely upset, and my situation in Timbuctoo rendered exceedingly unsafe by the
unfriendly dispositions of the Foulahs of Massina, who have this year upset the dominion of
the Tuaric, and made themselves patrons of Timbuctoo, and whose sultan, Bello, has ex-
pressed his hostility to me in no unequivocal terms, in a letter which Al Saidi Boubokar, the
sheik of this town received from him a few days after my arrival. He has now got intelli-
gence of my arrival in Timbuctoo, and as a party of Foulahs are hourly expected, Al Saidi
Boubokar, who is an excellent good man, and who trembles for my safety, has strongly urged
my immediate departure. And I am sorry to say, that the notice has been so short, and I
have so much to do previous to going away, that this is the only communication I shall for
the present be able to make. My destination is Sego, whither I hope to arrive in fifteen
days ; but I regret to say that the road is a vile one, and my perils are not yet at an end ;
but my trust is God, who has hitherto borne me up amidst the severest trials, and protected
me amidst the numerous dangers to which I have been exposed.

" I have no time to give you any account of Timbuctoo, but shall briefly state, that in every
respect, except in size, (which does not exceed four miles in circumference), it has complete-
ly met my expectations. Kabra is only five miles distant, and is a neat town situated on the
margin of the river. I have been busily employed during my stay, searching the records in
the town, which are abundant, and in acquiring information of every kind ; nor is it with

* It should be the Spine.
f In this letter the major always spells the name of the capital Tinbuclu.

344 ALEXANDER GORDON LAING.

any common degree of satisfaction that I say my perseverance has been amply rewarded. I
am now convinced that my hypothesis concerning the termination of the Niger is correct.

"May God bless you all! I shall write you fully from Sego, as also my lord Bathurst,
and I rather apprehend that both letters will reach you at one time, as none of the Ghadamis
merchants leave Timbuctoo for two months to come. Again may God bless you all 1 My
dear Emma must excuse my writing. I have begun a hundred letters to her, but have
been unable to get through one. She is ever uppermost in my thoughts, and I look forward
with delight to the hour of our meeting, which, please God, is now at no great distance."

The following abstract of the testimony of Bungola the major's servant, when
examined by the British consul, gives the catastrophe of this melancholy story :

When asked if he had been with the major at Mooktar's, he answered, Yes.

Did you accompany him from thence to Timbuctoo 1 Yes.

How was he received at Timbuctoo ? Well.

How long did he remain at Timbuctoo ? About two months.

Did you leave Timbuctoo with major Laing ? Yes.

Who went with you ? A koffle of Arabs.

In what direction did you go 1 The sun was on my right cheek.

Did you know where you were going ? To Sansanding.

Did you see any water, and were you molested ? We saw no water, nor were we molested
till the third day, when the Arabs of the country attacked and killed my master.

Was any one killed beside jour master 1 I was wounded, but cannot say if any were
killed.

Were you sleeping near your master ? Yes.

How many wounds had your master ? I cannot say, they were all with swords, and in the
morning I saw the head'had been cut ofl".

Did the person who had charge of jour master commit the murder ? Sheik Boura-
boushi, who accompanied the reis, killed him.

What did the sheik then do 1 He went on to his country ; an Arab took me back to Tim-
buctoo.

What property had jour master when he was killed ? Two camels; one carried the pro-
vision, the other carried my master and his bags.

Where were j our master's papers 1 In his^bag.

Were the papers brought back to Timbuctoo ? I donrt know.

Thus perished, a few days after the 21st of September, 1826, by the hand
of an assassin, one of the most determined, enthusiastic, and thoroughly accom-
plished of those daring spirits who have periled their lives in the cause of African
discovery. The resolution of the unfortunate Laing was of no ordinary kind ;
his mother has told the writer of this article, that years before he entered on
his last and fatal expedition, in providing against hardships and contingencies,
he had accustomed himself to sleep on the hard floor, and to write with the left
hand ; yea more, with the pen between the first and second toes of the right
foot. It is melancholy to think that he should have perished unrequited by that
fame for which he sacrificed so much, and undelivered of that tale of the capital
of central Africa, which he had qualified himself so well to tell. In any circum-
stances the death of such a man had been lamentable ; but it seems the more so,
inasmuch as the result of his successful enterprise is likely for ever to be
unavailing for the benefit of the living. Many years have elapsed since bis
melancholy murder, and there seems not the shadow of a hope that his papers
will ever be recovered.

But we cannot conclude this memoir without adding a few sentences regarding

MALCOLM LAING. 345

these important documents. Facts which were established at Tripoli during the
year 1829, and established to the entire satisfaction of the consuls of Britain,
the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Sardinia, develope a system of treach-
ery and plunder regarding the major and his property, which almost amounts to
the incredible. It seems to have been fully made out, that the very guide
(Babani,) who set out with the traveller from Tripoli, Mas under the secret
direction of Hassunah D' Glues, son of the prime minister of the Tripolitan
bashaw, and the conspirator against the major's life — that by his (D' Glues')
instructions the ferocious Bourabouschi, the eventual murderer, was appointed to
be the conductor of the major from Timbuctoo, and that into his (D'Ghies')
hands the major's papers (fourteen inches long by seven thick,) were put by
another of his emissaries shortly after the murder. In short, it was afterwards
fully ascertained that this packet was secreted in Tripoli in the month of July
or August, 1828.

The most amazing part of the tale of treachery yet remains to be told. It
would further appear that the documents referred to were given by D' Ghies to
the French consul at Tripoli, the baron de Rosseau, and that during the greater
part of the major's journey this official from France had been in secret corre-
spondence with the conspirators — that he exerted himself in securing the flight
of Hassunah D' Ghies after the treachery had been discovered, and gave protec-
tion to, and tampered with his brother Mohamed, who made the disclosure.

It were out of place, in this memoir, to detail the strong chain of evidence
by which these allegations are supported. A masterly summary of it will be
found in the Quarterly Review, No. 84. Suffice it to say, that neither M. Ros-
seau nor the French government did anything to acquit themselves of the fearful
charge there preferred agaiust them. Till removed, it must stand a foul blot
upon their national honour.

LAING, Malcolm, a lawyer and distinguished constitutional historian, was
born in the year 1762, at Strynzia, his paternal estate, situated on the main-land
of Orkney. He received the rudiments of his education at the humble but re-
spectable grammar school of Kirkwall ; a seminary which is generally attended
by about a hundred boys, the sons of the neighbouring proprietors and farmers.
When he had reached the proper age, he was sent to the university of Edin-
burgh, then superintended and attended by men of great talent. Along with
many of the latter class, he joined in the establishment of the Speculative So-
ciety, an institution whose subjects of discussion were perhaps to a certain extent
guided by his peculiar tastes, and certainly coincided remarkably with those in
which he afterwards distinguished himself.

In 1785, he passed as a Scottish advocate : we do not know whether he had
any predilection for the practice of the law, or whether he made choice of the
profession, for the mere respectability of the title, and the opportunity it might
afford of attracting notice as a politician ; but assuredly, notwithstanding his
very high talents in general, and his peculiarly great powers as a reasonev or
special pleader, he never was much employed, or known as a distinguished prac-
tising barrister. It will scarcely account sufficiently for this circumstance, that
the manner in which he delivered his powerful arguments was neither majestic
.nor pleasing, that " his speeches were uttered with an almost preternatural
rapidity, and in harsh and disagreeable tones." If he could speak and compose
with facility — and in parliament he was considered an able speaker — such ar-
guments as he might have used did not require the extraneous assistance of man-
ner, even for a jury ; while almost the whole pleading in Scotland at that period
was addressed to the judges, from whose well-practised intellects, reason and
powerful argument only could find attention. Laing has shown in his writings

34:6 MALCOLM LAIXG.

a minute knowledge of all brandies of Scottish law : he voluntarily acted the
part of a lawyer, in historical subjects, in a manner which lias called forth the
highest praise to his merely forensic talents ; and it may, on the whole, be safely
concluded, that the limited extent of his practice at the bar must be attributed
more to his choice than to his talent. The first fruit of 3Ir Laing's laborious
constitutional investigations, was the preparing for the press the last volume of
Dr Henry's History of Great Britain in 1793, after that author's death. The
matter collected by Henry did not extend to a period at which the work could
be terminated, and Laing was requested by his executors to write two terminat-
ing chapters, to which he annexed a dissertation on the alleged crimes of
Richard HI. The labours of the two authors could not be very aptly united,
and many consider Laing as a fierce liberalist, whose doctrines appeared harsh and
prejudiced, when compared to the calm narrative of Henry. The authors were
indeed extremely dissimilar, but we must pause before we decide in favour of
the former. Henry was a man of tame mind and tolerable good sense ; but if
he appeared calm and moderate in his historical opinions, he was so, in the
very safe and reputable cause of despotism, in which he insconced himself as an
impregnable fortress, which it did not require much skill to defend. Laing, on
the other hand was a man of strong judgment and profound speculation ; and if
he was violently argumentative in support of the opinions he had adopted, he
was so, not as a man who is determined to maintain a given point because he
nas chosen it, and is personally interested in its being shown to be true ; but as
one who had considered the matter accurately, had submitted it to the arbitra-
tion of his strong judgment, and was resolved to crush those prejudices
which prevented others from seeing it as it appeared to himself. It is the
height of all prejudice to blame an historian for his opinions ; but many have
deserved to be censured severely for twisting facts to support opinions, instead of
bending opinions to accommodate them to facts. It was the object of Laing to dis-
cover the truth. Perhaps prepossession in favour of the line of principles he had
adopted may have, therefore, prompted him to derive improper deductions from
the facts which he produced ; but his strongest political opponents have never a >
cused him of perverting facts. Laing is said likewise to have composed the me-
moir of Henry which accompanied the History ; but it certainly does not dis-
play his usual energy of style. Whatever defects some may have discovered in
the continuation of Henry's History, the critical world in general saw its
merit, and bestowed the countenance of its approbation. The author thus en-
couraged to new historical labours, looked towards his native country, and in
1800, he published " The History of Scotland, from the union of the crowns,
on the accession of king James VI. to the throne of England, to the union of
the kingdoms, in the reign of queen Anne. With two dissertations, historical and
critical, on the Gowry Conspiracy, and on the supposed authenticity of Oman's
Poems." As in the previous case, his book was very dissimilar to that of the
person of whose labours his were a continuation — Dr Robertson. Of the flow-
ing academical ease of that author it is very destitute. It cannot be called either
inelegant or harsh, but it is complicated ; and by being laboured to contain
much meaning, is occasionally obscure. There is much in the profundity of
the remarks and reflections which Dr Robertson could not have reached ; but
the chief merit lies in the display of critical power on matters of evidence, in
which he displays all the acumen of the practised lawyer, and the close observer
of human nature. From this peculiar merit, the separate dissertations, contain-
ing nothing but special pleadings, are the most useful and admirable parts of the
book. In all parts of the work, the author's ruling spirit has prompted him to
search for debated facts, few of which he has left without some sort of settlement

MALCOLM LAING.

347

of the point. He has treated in this manner many points of English history,
among which is the celebrated question of the author of Eikon Basilike, con-
cerning which he has fully proved, that whatever share Charles may have had in
the suggestion or partial composition, Gauden was the person who prepared the
work for the press. Mr Laing appears to have enjoyed a peculiar pleasure in
putting local and personal prejudices at defiance, and exulting in the exercise
of strong reasoning powers, he has not hesitated to attack all that is peculiarly
sacred to the feelings of his countrymen ; a characteristic strikingly displayed
in his dissertation on the authenticity of Ossian's Poems. These productions
required no depth of argument, or minute investigation of facts, to support their
authenticity in the feelings of an enthusiastic people : and those who did not
believe them, had not troubled themselves with calmly meeting what they con-
sidered unconquerable prejudices.

Laing may, therefore, be considered as the first person who examined the
pretensions of Macpherson on the broad ground of an investigation into facts.
The arguments in this dissertation may be considered as of three sorts : the first,
a logical examination of the arguments and proofs adduced, or supposed to be
adduced, in favour of the authenticity of the poems, which, as the author has
only sceptical arguments to produce, is the least interesting and satisfactory
part of the investigation. The second body of arguments is drawn from con-
temporary documents and chronological facts, — a portion of the subject in which
the author showed his vast reading, and his power of clearly distinguishing
truth from falsehood, constituting a body of evidence which finally demolished
any claim on the part of " the Poems of Ossian " as authentic translations of
the productions of a Highland bard of the fourth century. The third part of
our division, containing an examination of the internal evidence drawn from the
poems themselves, if not the most conclusive part of the examination, is certain-
ly that which gives us the strongest idea of the author's critical ingenuity, and
his powers as a special pleader. He produces terms and ideas which could not
be presumed to have entered into the minds of the early inhabitants of Pritain,
from their never having encountered the circumstances which legitimately rouse
them, such as the idea attached to the term " desert," which cannot be a part of
speech with men who inhabit a wild and thinly peopled country, and can only
be comprehended by those who are accustomed to see or hear of vast barren
tracts of country, as opposed to cities, or thickly peopled districts.

He produces similes, and trains of ideas derived, or plagiarised from the
Writings of other authors, particularly from Virgil, Milton, Thomson, and the
Psalms ; and finally, he enters into a curious comparison between the method
of arranging the terms and ideas in the Poems of Ossian, and that exhibited in
a forgotten poem called ** The Highlanders," published by Macpherson in early
life. The author of such an attack on one of the fortresses of the national
pride of Scotland, did not perpetrate his work without suitable reprobation ; the
Highlanders were " loud in their wail," and the public prints swarmed with
ebullitions of their wrath. Mr Laing was looked on as a man who had set all
feelings of patriotism at defiance : to many it seemed an anomaly in human na-
ture, that a Scotsman should thus voluntarily undermine the great boast of his
country ; and, unable otherwise to account for such an act, they sought to dis-
cover in the author, motives similar to those, which made the subject sacred to
themselves. " As I have not seen Mr Laing's History," says one gentleman,
" 1 can form no opinion as to the arguments wherewith he has attempted to dis-
credit Ossian's Poems : the attempt could not come more naturally than from
Orcadians. Perhaps the severe checks given by the ancient Caledonians to their
predatory Scandinavian predecessors raised prejudices not yet extinct. I con-

348

MALCOLM LAING.

ceive how an author can write under the influence of prejudice, and not sensible
of being acted upon by it." ' This gentleman, who had not seen Mr Laing's
History, probably conceived his observation to be one which would go bitterly
home to the feelings of his opponent; but we fear Mr Laing's feelings regarding
the Celts were a strong armour against the arrow, as we have heard that he was
personally partial to the Highlanders, so much so as to be designated by those
who knew him, **. a regular Celt." Mr Laing's dissertations en the Poems of
Ossian had the merit of causing to be produced " The Report of the Committee
of the Highland Society, appointed to inquire into the nature and authenticity
of the Poems of Ossian," conducted under the superintendence of Henry Mac-
kenzie, published in 1805.

At the same period, Mr Laing brought the controversy to a final issue, by
publishing a work, which, with a sneer in its designation he entitled " The
Poems of Ossian, &c containing the poetical works of James Macpherson, Esq.,
in prose and rhyme, with notes and illustrations." The nature of the " notes
and illustrations" may easily be presumed; the work indeed is a curiosity in
literature. The edition of Ossian is a very splendid one ; and, like an animal
decked for sacrifice, the relentless editor introduced it conspicuously to the world,
with the apparent purpose of making its demolition the more signal. Within
the same year, Mr Laing's line of argument was answered by Mr M'Donald, and
two years afterwards, a long and elaborate work, complacently termed a " con-
futation," was produced by the reverend Mr Graham, who, however, made a
somewhat unlucky development of his qualifications for this task, by quoting the
" De Moribus Germanorum " of Tacitus, referring entirely to the Teutonic
nations, as authority concerning the Celts. Mr Laing never confuted his argu-
ments, having never made the attempt.

In the mean time, Mr Laing's controversial disposition had prempted him to dis-
cover another subject, in the treatment of which he excited a still greater degree
of wrath. In 1804, he published an edition of his History of Scotland, to which
he prefixed two volumes, containing " A Preliminary Dissertation on the partici-
pation of Mary queen of Scots in the murder of Darnley." The purpose of the
treatise was, with the authors usual decision and boldness, declared in the title,
and through the whole of the lengthy detail of two volumes on one historical in-
cident, he never wavers in the slightest degree from the conclusion of guilt.
Having first formed his opinion in the matter — on good grounds, it is charitably
to be presumed — he lays down and arranges his documents and arguments with
the precision and conciseness of a lawyer, and no more hints at the possibility
of the innocence of the queen, than the crown lawyer at that of his victim.
Few who have ever read this extraordinary work can forget the startling
exactness with which the arguments are suited to the facts, and to the
guiding principles of the whole narrative of the renowned event laid
before the reader. " Mr Laing's merit," says a writer in the Edinburgh
Review, who refers to this work as to one peculiarly characteristic of his genius,
" as a critical inquirer into history, an enlightened collector of materials, and
a sagacious judge of evidence, has never been surpassed. If any man believes
the innocence of queen Mary, after an impartial and dispassionate perusal of
Mr Laing's examination of her case, the state of such a man's mind would be a
subject worthy of much consideration by a philosophical observer of human
nature. In spite of his ardent love of liberty, no man has yet presumed to
charge him with the slightest sacrifice of historical integrity to his zeal. That
he never perfectly attained the art of full, clear, and easy narrative, was owing
to the peculiar style of those writers who were popular in his youth, and may
l Rev. Mr Gallie's Letter to the Highland Society Commitee, — Report 39.

SIR JOHN LAUDER.

349

be mentioned as a remarkable instance of the disproportion of particular
t.ilents to general vigour of mind."1

Laing was intimately acquainted with Charles Fox, with whom he conducted
an ample correspondence, the letters of which on both sides, still, we believe,
exist unpublished, and would certainly form a very interesting addition to our
epistolary information regarding great men. That eminent statesman frequently
quoted the historical works of Mr Laing, as containing matter which could be
relied on for its authenticity ; and Laing became an active and zealous supporter
of the short administration of his friend, during which he represented his native
county in parliament It is said, that notwithstanding the disadvantages of his
manner, he was listened to and much respected as a speaker ; and he gave all
the assistance which so short a period admitted to the plans of the ministry for
improving the Scottish courts of law. After his brief appearance as a legislator,
the state of his health prevented him from interfering in public business. Whether
from excessive study and exertion, or his natural habit of body, he suffered
under a nervous disorder of excessive severity, which committed frightful ravages
on his constitution ; and it is said that he was required to be frequently sup-
ported in an artificial position, to prevent him from fainting. He retired to his
estate in Orkney, and his health being to a certain extent restored by a cessation
from laborious intellectual pursuits, his ever active mind employed itself in useful
exercise within his narrow sphere of exertion : he improved his own lands,
introduced better methods of cultivation than had been previously practised in
the district, and experimented in the breeding of Merino sheep. He died in
the end of the year 1818, having, notwithstanding the great celebrity of his
works, been so much personally forgotten by the literary world, that it is with
difficulty that we have been enabled to collect matter sufficient for an out-
line of his life. He was married to Miss Carnegie, daughter of a gentleman
in Forfarshire, and sister-in-law to lord Gillies. His property was succeeded
to by Samuel Laing, his elder brother.2 Besides the works we have discussed
above, it may be mentioned that he edited the Life of James VI., published
in 1804.

LAUDER, (Sib) John, lord Fountainhall, an eminent lawyer and statesman,
was born at Edinburgh, on the 2nd of August, 1646.3 His father was John,
afterwards Sir John Lauder, baronet, a merchant and baillie of Edinburgh, a
younger branch and afterwards chief of the family of Lauder of Bass and Lauder.
The subject of our memoir was his eldest son, by his second marriage with
Isabel Ellis, daughter of Alexander Ellis of Mortonhall. By this wife he had
fourteen sons and two daughters ; by a previous marriage he had three children,
and by a third wife, of whom mention will be made hereafter, he had four sons
and two daughters. Of the early education of young Lauder, we know nothing,
with the exception of a passing memorandum in his voluminous memorials of
legal matters, which shows that he had passed some time at the university of
Leyden, at that time the principal continental resort of students at law. " The
university of St Andrews," he says, ** claims to be freed from paying excise for
all drink furnished to the scholars, and that upon the genei'al privilege compe-
tent to all universities by custom. I remember we enjoyed that privilege at
Leyden, after our immatriculation." Having accomplished his preparatory
studies, he passed as an advocate on the 5th of June, 1668, and commenced the

lEd. Rev. xliv. 37.

* Ed. Annual Register, 1818, p. 250.

* Register of baptisms in Edinburgh. For this, and all the other information relative to
lord Fountainhall, not to be found in printed works, we are obliged to a very curious MS.
collection regarding him, made by his descendant, the late Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, of
which that gentleman kindly permitted us the use.

3J0 SIR JOHN LAUDER.

practical pursuit of his profession with vigour, after having previously, as his
early proficiency as a lawyer shows us, prepared his mind by intense and accu-
rate study. " From my admission as an advocate," he says, "in June, 1668,
I began to mark the decisions of the court of session ;" and it is to his uninter-
rupted industry in this occupation that we owe that valuable mass of precedents,
known by the name of " Fountainhall's Decisions," published in two volumes
folio, and lately more fully re-edited from the original manuscripts. In a case
which he reports during his earlier years at the bar, strong internal evidence,
arising from the use of the first person singular — the unusual prolixity of the
speech,4 and the absence of the name of the counsel, shows himself to have acted in
that capacity. This action was at the instance of the town of Stirling, against the
unfreemen in Falkirk and Kilsyth, bearing date January 18, and June 25,
1672. Lauder's speech is a curious specimen of the mixed logical and rhetori-
cal eloquence of the forensic pleading of the age, when the judges acted more
as a deliberative assembly, than as a body of lawyers bound to the letter of cer-
tain enactments ; and the person who addressed them, if he could not sway their
passions as those of a modern jury are affected, had a wide field of influence in
their reason or prejudices. Contrasted with the restricted legal pleadings of the
present day, the following commencement on the part of u the learned gen-
tleman for the prosecution,'' would appear very singular : " My lord commis-
sioner, may it please your grace, what happiness and cheerfulness the eminent
and most eloquent of all the apostles, St Paul, expresses, when he is put to plead
his cause before Festus and Agrippa, because the one had long been a judge in
his nation, and the other was expert in all the manners and customs of the Jews,
the same gladness possesses the town of Stirling, and with them the whole royal
burghs, that they are to plead in behalf of their privileges this day, before your
grace, the great patron and conservator of them." It is to be remarked, that,
in this case, Lauder is pleading for the exclusive privileges of burghs, and in
favour of monopolies. He opens his speech with a sketch of the arguments of
his adversary, on which, probably with a wish to caricature them, he has
bestowed an amiable liberality of doctrine, which Adam Smith could not have
excelled, and told many politico-economical truths, which few had then imagined.
His own answers to the principles he thus beautifully lays down, sound harsh and
jarring in comparison, although they were far more accordant to the principles
of the time. " Do not," he says with considerable tact, " think it a light
matter to rob the royal burghs of their privileges, which are become their pro-
perty by as good a title as any of you bruik your lands and estate. By what
hand ye shall communicate these liberties (now called in question,) to the
defenders, by that same shall ye lop off the royal burghs from being the third
estate in the kingdom. Remember that a threefold cord ought not to be easily
broken. Consider that lamentable confusion may follow on loosing one pin ot
the government ; that the touching such a fundamental sacred constitution
may unhinge the whole ; that government is like a sheaf of arrows fast bound,
pull out one, all will follow and fall to the ground ; and how terribly dangerous
such an innovation may be." It will be held in mind, however, that each coun-
sel was feed for the principles he maintained, and that the genuine opinions of
both may have almost united in " a happy medium." The speech, on the whole,
is full of classical learning, and statistical information, and cannot fail to
convey a pleasing idea of the intelligence and talent of a forensic orator of the
seventeenth century.

* Extending from p. 642, to 679, of Brown's Supplement, where it is shied "Fountain-
hall's Speech for the Pursuers. " .

SIR JOHN LAUDER. 351

Soon after this period, we find the subject of our memoir connected with ono
of those constitutional acts of resistance, for which the bar of Scotland has only,
in a very few instances, been celebrated. It is well known to those acquainted
with Scottish history, that a private litigation betwixt the earls of Dunferm-
line and Callendef interested the feelings or cupidity of Lauderdale, who was
determined to influence the decision in favour of the former, by swaying the
judges through his personal appearance on the bench, in virtue of his honorary title
of " an extraordinary lord of session." The affair was managed by having the
cause prematurely called in court, in defiance of statute ; and, a decis^n being
come to in favour of the pursuer, Callender lodged an appeal to parliament, a
novel procedure, which it was the interest of th« king and of the judges to stifle
at its first appearance. There are few who will not acknowledge, that a final
appeal of litigated cases to the legislative tribunal of the country, is, if not a
preventive, at least a check to the consequences of influence or prejudice in
inferior judicatories. The absence of such a principle, and the decay of jury
trial in Scotland, had both originated from the same cause. Parliament was
anciently the great jury of the nation, and, with the king as its president, tbe
court of last resort in all litigations : but becoming, from the nature of the infe-
rior courts, overburdened with judicial business, which a large body of men could
not easily accomplish, the full powers of parliament, in this respect, were
bestowed on a judicial committee called the Lords Auditors, from which, through
a gradation of changes, was formed the court of session, which thus, by its origin,
united the duties of the jury, the law court, and the legislative body of last
resort. In these circumstances, it was not difficult for government to discover,
that a measure so unpleasing to itself, was a daring innovation of the " consti-
tution." The counsel for the appellants, Lockhart and Cunningham, were
desired to make oath regarding their share in this act of insubordination, and
not only refusing, but maintaining the justice of appeals, were summarily pro-
hibited the exercise of their profession. The members of the bar united to
resent the insult and protect their rights, and fifty advocates, (probably very
nearly the whole number then at the bar,) of whom Lauder was one,5 followed
their distinguished brethren to retirement, and at the instance of Lauderdale,
were banished twelve miles from Edinburgh. After a year's exile, they were
allowed to return, having managed to effect a compromise with the court. In
another appeal, which was attempted not long after, the appellant was per-
suaded to trust to the effect of recalling his appeal ; but the judges, on whom
the mixture of intimidation and flattery appears to have produced little effect,
adhered, notwithstanding an implied promise to the contrary, to their previous
interlocutor. *' And so," remarks Lauder in reference to the case, ** he was
either ill or well served for his complimenting them. But the times were such
that no rational man could expect a rectification from them of what had once,
even through unawares, escaped them. When their honour was once engaged
at the stake, they blushed to confess what is incident to humanity itself, nam
humanurn est errare." With regard to his own sufferings for judicial integrity, he
remarks, " I have few or no observations for the space of three sessions and
a half, viz. from June, 1674, till January, 1676, in regard I was at that time
debarred from any employment, with many other lawyers, on the account we
were unclear to serve under the strict and servile ties seemed to be imposed on
us by the king's letter, discharging any to quarrel the lords of session their sen-

6 Mackenzie's Memoirs, 293, where Lauder, among others, subscribes an address by the
debarred advocates to the privy council. For a farther account of the affair, see the memoirs
of Sir G. Lockhart, and Sir G. Mackenzie.

352 SIR JOHN LAUDER.

tences of injustice, and was not restored till January, 1676." After his resto-
ration to his powers, his collection of decisions shows that he was a well employed
and active counsellor.

His next appearance in public life, is at the celebrated trial of the earl of
Argyle in 1681, for a treasonable explanation of the test, for whom Lauder
acted as counsel, along with Lockhart and six others. The vulgar prejudice
against vindicating a person accused of any crime, together with the cautious
vigilance of the crown, trammelled for a long time the legitimate powers of counsel
in Scotland, and especially in cases of treason, brought their duty so much under
the arbitration of the court, that a practice prevailed by which it was considered
illegal to defend a person accused of such a crime, without the permission of
government ; and therefore every prudent advocate declined interfering till
he could produce a royal warrant. In the present instance, Argyle's counsel
had prepared and signed, as lawyers, an " opinion " that his explanation of
the test was a legal one. The consequence of this, as detailed in Lauder's own
words, was, that ° The councell named a committee to call my lord Argyle's
eight advocates, viz'., Sir George Lockhart, Sir John Dalrymple, 3Iessieurs Wal-
ter Pringle, David Thoirs, Patrick Home, John Stewart, James Graham, and
myself, for subscribing an opinion that his explanation contained nothing trea-
sonable in it. We were examined upon oath ; and it was called a new practice
to sign opinions with us, especially in criminall cases importing treason, and a
bad preparative ; though lawyers should not be prelimited nor overawed freely
to plead in defence of their clients ; the privy council having authorized us to
that purpose. Tho' some aimed at imprisoning and depriving us, yet, after we
had spoke with his royal hynes, he was pleased to pass it ; tho', he said, if any
bad use were made of our signed opinion, by spreading it abroad in Eng-
land to incense them, or reproach the duke or the judges, he could not but
blame us. It was afterwards printed in England, and Argyle's triall, with
another piece, called a Scotch Mist to wet ane Englishman to the Skin : being-
sundry animadversions on Argyle's process. "

Although his political proceedings do not seem to have been calculated to
bring him within the atmosphere of court favour, he early received the dignity
of knighthood ; at what precise period is not known, but apparently previous
to the year 1681. Much about the same period, or some years afterwards, he
appears to have acted as one of the assessors to the city of Edinburgh ; a cir-
cumstance discoverable from his remarking, that on the 4th of November, 1685,
the other gentleman who held that office was removed, from some cause con-
nected with burgh politics, while he was retained.

In 1685, Sir John Lauder became a member of the Committee of Estates;
tnd for more than twenty years,6 until the treaty of union, he appears from
the journals of the house to have performed his parliamentary duties with ac-
tivity and zeal. He was returned for the shire of Haddington on the 23 rd of
April, along with Sir John Wedderbum of Gosford. His election was disputed
by Sir James Hay of Simplum ; and the committee on controverted elections
having reported that the votes were equally divided, a new election was pro-
posed, when one of the voters for Sir James Hay being discovered to have given
his vote after the election had been formally terminated, Sir John Lauder was
declared the sitting member by a majority of one. Lauder was early discovered
in his legislatorial, as he had been in his professional capacity, not to be a do-

8 The record shows him to have be6n returned of the following dates: 23d April, 1635;
29th April, 1686; 3rd September, 1690; 9th May, 1695; 8th September, 1696; 21st May,

1700; 6th May, 1703; 6th July, 1701; 28th June, 1705; 3rd October, 1706 Act. Pari. vols.

viii, ix, x, xi.'

SIR JOHN LAUDER.

353

cile and obedient supporter of the measures of government. In the first parlia-
ment which he attended, he refused to vote for the forfaulture of the earl of
Melville, who had fled from the wrath of government after the discovery of
the Rye-house plot 7

He was a zealous friend to the protestant faith, when there were few in Scot-
land who risked an open defence of the religion to which they were so ardently
attached. The government, who found it difficult to make the protection of
protestantism a crime, had nevertheless power enough to harass him. " On
May 1st, 1686," he says, " Mr James Young, son to Andrew Young, writer to
the signet, is apprehended by captain Graham, and kept in the court of guard,
being delated as a copier and dispenser of a paper, containing reasons why the
parliament should not consent to the dispensing with the penal laws against pa-
pists, and reflecting in the end on such protestants as had apostatized ! and for
having verses against the bishop of St Andrews and bishop of Edinburgh ;• and
he having in his examination named John Wilson and John Nasmyth, my ser-
vants,8 as bringers of these papers to his chamber, the chancellor signed an
order to captain Graham to arrest them, apprehending possibly to reach myself
for libelling, as he termed it But they having named their authors from whom
they had them, were liberated, and their authors, viz. Mr John Ellis, Robert
Keill, &c. were cited." — " My two servants," he afterwards says, " being im-
prisoned, and I threatened therewith, as also that they would seize upon my
papers, and search if they contained anything offensive to the party then pre-
vailing, I was necessitat to hide the manuscript, and many others, and intermit
my historick remarks till the Revolution in the end of 1688, after which I be-
gan some observes of our meeting of estates of parliament held in 1690-93 and
95, and other occurrents forreign and domestick, briefly summed up, and drawin
togither yeirly, (but not with such enlargements as I have used heir,) and are to
be found up and downe in several manuscripts besyde me, to be reviewed cum
dab it otium D«w."

When James made his well-known recommendation to the parliament of Scot-
land to rescind the penal statutes against Roman catholics, Lauder joined in the
debate on the appropriate answer, in a spirit of moderation, which, according to
the amount of his charity, the reader may attribute to prudence, or liberality,
or both united. On the question, what term the parliament should bestow on those
who professed the Romish faith, " I represented," says he, " that there was no
man within the house more desirous to have these odious marks of division
buried, and that we might all be united under the general name of Christian.
It is true the names under which they were known in our law were the designa-
tions of the papistical kirk, heresy, error, superstition, popish idolatry, and
maintainers of the cruel decrees cf the council of Trent ; and though it was not
suitable to the wisdom and gravity of parliament to give them a title implying
as if they were the true church, and we but a sect, yet I wished some soft ap
pellation, with the least offence, might be fallen on, and therefore I proposed
it might run thus, those commonly called Roman Catholics ; that the most
part of our divines calls us the catholics, and so Chamier begins his Panstratia,
' Vertuntur controversiae, Catholicos inter et PapislasS The chancellor called
this a nicknaming of the king, and proposed it might run in general terms
thus, as to those subjects your majesty has recommended to us, &c." The mo-
tion of the archbishop of Glasgow, that they should be simply termed ** Roman
Catholics," — a repetition of the king's own words — was finally carried. But

7 Act Par]., ix. Ap. 45.

8 The term " servant" is invariably used by Lauder and other lawyers of the period for
« clerk."

III. 9 V

354

SIR JOHN LAUDER.

however lie might he inclined to be conciliatory about epithets, Lauder resisted
with firmness the strong attempt made by James and his commissioner, the earl
of Moray, towards the conclusion of the parliament, finally to abolish the
penalties against Roman catholics. In his manuscripts are preserved seventeen
closely written pages of matter on this subject, entitled " A Discourse in
defence, whereof part was spoken in the parliament, of the Penal Laws
against Popery, and why the Toleration Act should not pass; and the rest
was intended, but was prevented by the sudden rising of the parliament."
Frequent application, often in the most contemptible of causes, has made
the arguments contained in this able document too hackneyed to please a
modern taste ; an impartial posterity, however, will reflect, that though liberal
feeling has often been disgusted by a similar discussion of a question, which to
this day bears the same name, the supporters of the penal laws against Roman
catholics in the reign of James the Seventh, were not striking against freedom
of opinion ; that they were a party which had just halted from a battle for their
own privileges and liberties, and once more beheld them sternly menaced ;
that they did not wish to dictate to the consciences of an oppressed body of
men, but were boldy preserving the purity of their own, by using the only means
in their power to prevent the resuscitation of a church which sat in judgment
over the mind, and was armed with a sword to compel obedience to its dictates.
" It were," says Lauder, " a strange excess and transport of Christian lenity
and moderation, to abolish our laws against papists, who, by the principles and
practice of their church, may show no favour to us ; but will turn the weapons
we arm them with to the total subversion of our religion :" words which had a
meaning when a bigoted papal monarch sat on the throne, and the horrors of
a high commission were in too fresh recollection ; but which have none when
used towards a poor and powerless body, desiring to enjoy their own religion
in peace.

We must not omit to mention, that at the trial ot the duke of Monmouth in
1686, Sir John Lauder and other two counsel were employed to protest for the
interest of the duchess, who Mas absolute proprietrix of the estate enjoyed by
her husband. The criminal court would not condescend to receive a protest in
a matter purely civil ; but did condescend to forfeit the property of the duchess
for the crime of her husband. It was afterwards, however, given back by the
king.

We pause in the history of his political career, to record a few domestic
events which characterized the life of Sir John Lauder. He had been married
on the 21st January, 1669, to Janet Ramsay, daughter of Sir Andrew Ramsay,
lord Abbotshall, whose father was the celebrated Andrew Ramsay, minister of the
Grey-friars' church. This lady, after bearing him eleven children, died in 1686.
Her husband has thus affectionately noted the event, " 27 Februarii, 1686, at
night happened mors charissim<e mece conjugis mihi amarissima et luctuosis-
sima ; so there is little to the 10th of March, I not having come abroad till
then." On the margin is written nota non obliviscenda. In the curious fami-
liar memorials which he has left behind him, we find frequent instances of that
warm domestic feeling which is often the private ornament of men illustrious for
their public and political intrepidity. To any disaster in his numerous family
— for he had seven children by a second wife — we sometimes meet such simple
allusions as the following, buried among the legal notanda, or the political events
of that feverish period: " 17 Decembris, 1695, I entered on the bills; and
my dear child Robert dying this day, the observes are the fewer, in respect of
my absence for two days, and my other affairs, which diverted my constant at-
tention that week." Again, " 21 July, 1696, Tuesday: my dear son William

SIR JOHN LAUDER.

355

dying this day, I was absent till his burial was over." Sir John was a second
time married on the 26th of March, 1687, to Marion Anderson, daughter of An-
derson of Balram, who survived him.

The domestic tranquillity of this excellent man was long harassed by the
machinations of a step-mother, — his father's third wife, of whose heteroclite pro-
ceedings we must give a slight sketch. This woman, Margaret Ramsay, daugh-
ter to George Ramsay of Iddington, to whom Sir John Lauder's father was
united in 1670, at the ripe age of 86, prevailed on her husband to procure a
baronet's title, which he obtained in July, 1688, and the lady, showing that she
had more important designs than the gratification of female vanity, managed, by
an artifice for which parental affection can scarcely form an excuse, to get the
patent directed to her own son George, and the other heirs male of her body,
without any reference to the children of the previous marriage.

A document among the papers of Sir John Lauder, being a draft of an in-
dictment, or criminal libel, at the instance of the lord advocate, before the privy
council, against the lady and her relations, gives us his own account of the
transaction: it is dated 1690, and commences "Memorandum for Sir John
Lauder, to raise ane libell at privy counsell at the instance of Sir J. D. (Sir
John Dalrymple), his majesty's advocate, for his majesty's interest, and of Sir
John Lauder, Mr William and Andrew Lauders, his brothers german, against
Margaret Ramsay, &c." Neither the Medea of Euripides, nor the old ballad
of " Lord Randal my Son," gives a more beau ideal picture of the proceedings of
the ** cruel step-dame," than this formidable document. It accuses her of having
" wearied her husband by her excessive importunity and ambition to procure
and accept ane knight baronet's patent ;" that, having managed through her
relations to direct the destination in the manner we have mentioned, the old
gentleman immediately sent the patent to Mr Robert Lauder to be altered, and
Mr Robert, certainly not having the fear of what are awfully termed consequences
before his eyes, proceeded to his duty, when the enraged lady M with several
others of her accomplices, intending by force to have taken the patent from him,
threatened to see his heart's blood if he did no* deliver it presently."
Farther, " to fright her husband to comply with her unreasonable and unjust de-
mands, she threatened that she would starve herself if that patent was not taken
to her son, and that she would kill herself if she saw any of the complainers
come near the house, and if he did not absolutely discharge them his presence ;"
and still more emphatically, " she tore the clothes oft' her body, and the hoods off
her head, and sware fearful oaths, that she would drown herself and her chil-
dren, and frequently cursed the complainers, and defamed and traduced them
in all places, and threatened that she hoped to see them all rooted out, they and
their posterity, oft' the face of the earth, and her children would succeed to all."9
A decree appears to have been obtained against the defenders in the privy council;
and the patent being reduced in the civil court, a new destination was obtained,
by which Sir John Lauder succeeded to the family title and estates on the death
ofhis father in 1692.

9 Notwithstanding her ferocity, this woman seems to have managed to be regretted at her
death. She is the only person to whom, from the date (April 18, 1713), we can apply a piece
of doggrel. " In obitum pise ac geiierosissimoe Dominie D.A. [Fountainhall, Elegidium,
ad usum et rap turn adolescentuli ejusdem filii Alexandri Lauder, ex industria accommoda-
tum. It thus elegantly commences :

An quia matrona es, generoso stemmate nata

Fatorum rigido numine, sancta cadis."
Or as it is Englished,

" Fallen by the dismal stroke of harsher fate,

Because bv birth, but more by virtue great.

Panyihlels Ad. Lib. M. 4. 4.

356 WILLIAM LAUDER.

Meantime, the Revolution had brought him a relief from the dangers and dif.
Acuities of opposition, and the hope of preferment and influence. He was ap-
pointed a lord of session, and took his seat with the title of " lord Fountainhall,"
on the 1st November, 16S9. On the 27th of January following, he was also
nominated a lord of justiciary. In 1692, Sir John Lauder was offered the lucrative
and influential situation of lord advocate ; but the massacre of Glencoe, an act
characteristic of a darker age and a bloodier people, had just taken place ; the
lukewarmness, if not criminality of the government, formed an impediment, and
to his honour be it mentioned, he would not accept the proffered situation except
on the condition of being allowed to prosecute the murderers. At the time when
the Scottish parliament found it necessary to strike a blow for the property of
the nation invested in the Darien scheme, it was proposed that the parliament
should vote an address to the king, calling on him to vindicate the honour of
Scotland, and protect the company. The more determined spirits in that ex-
asperated assembly demanded an act as the legitimate procedure of an inde-
pendent body. Among these was Lauder. The address was carried by 108 to
84, and a body of those who voted otherwise, with Hamilton and Lauder at their
head, recorded their dissent.1 He began at this period to show opposition to
the measures of government. Along with Hamilton, he recorded a dissent from
the motion of the high commissioner, for continuing for four months the forces
over and above the 3000, which constituted the regular establishment.2 He at-
tended parliament during the tedious discussion of the several articles of the
union, and we find his protest frequently recorded, although to one or two ar-
ticles which did not involve the principle of an incorporating union, he gave his
assent. In the final vote, his name is recorded among the noes.

Soon after the union, on the appointment of circuits, old age interfered with
lord Fountainhall's performance of all his laborious duties, and after some un-
willingness on the part of royalty to lose so honest a servant, he resigned his
justiciary gown, and a short time before his death, he gave up his seat in the
court of session. This good and useful man died in September, 1722, leaving
to his numerous family ^ considerable fortune, chiefly the fruit of his own in-
dustry. On a cbaracter which has already spoken for itself through all the actions
of a long life, we need not dilate. His high authority as a rational lawyer is
well known to the profession. His industry was remarkable. His manuscripts,
as extant, fill ten folio and three quarto volumes ; and there is reason to be-
lieve, from his references, that several were lost.

In 1822, was published " Chronological Notes of Scottish Affairs from 1G80
till 1701, being chiefly taken from the Diary of lord Fountainhall." Unfor-
tunately this volume is not taken from the original manuscript, but from an
abridged compilation by a Mr Milne, a writer in Edinburgh ; a fierce Jacobite,
who has disturbed the tranquil observations of the judge with his own fiery ad-
ditions, apparently judging that his cause might be well supported by making
an honest adversary tell falsehoods in its favour. A genuine selection from the
historical manuscripts of lord Fountainhall would be a useful addition to our
historical literature.

LAUDER, William, a man renowned in literary history, for having turned
superior talents, and very high classical acquirements, to an attempt to defraud
Milton of his fame. Of the period of his birth, which has escaped the patient
investigation of Chalmers, we are totally ignorant. The earlier part of his life
was passed in great obscurity, although it has been ascertained from bis own re-
marks— in after life we believe — that he was connected, and not very distantly,
with the respectable family of Lauder of Fountainhall. He received all his edu-
1 Act. Pari., x. 269. * Act. Pari., x. 294.

WILLIAM LAUDER.

357

cation in Edinburgh, and passed through the university with considerable credit
After leaving college, he seems to have immediately resorted to teaching, as a
means of gaining a livelihood ; his early career in this profession was for some
time interrupted by an accident, which must have materially affected his future
course of life. While standing near a party engaged in the game of golf, on
Bruntsfield Links, near Edinburgh, a ball struck him on the knee ; the wound,
which cannot have been very serious, festered from careless treatment, and he
was compelled to submit to the amputation of his leg.1 In 1734, he was em-
ployed by professor Watt, then in bad health, to teach for him the class of
Humanity, or Latin ; and on the death of that gentleman he naturally
exerted himself to procure an appointment as successor ; but though he had
talents to teach, lie had not sufficient influence to be appointed a professor. We
are, however, informed that on this occasion the professors gratuitously honoured
him with " a testimonial from the heads of the university, certifying that he was
a fit person to teach Humanity in any school or college whatever." i After this
disappointment, his ambition sunk to an application for the subordinate situation
of keeper to the university library, but this also was denied him. He appears
indeed to have been a person whose disposition and character produced a
general dislike, which was only to a small extent balanced by his talent and
high scholarship. " He was," says Chalmers, with characteristic magniloquence,
" a person about five feet seven inches high, who had a sallow complexion, large
rolling fiery eyes, a stentorian voice, and a sanguine temper ;" and Ruddiman
has left, in a pamphlet connected with the subject of our memoir, a manuscript
note, observing, " I was so sensible of the weakness and folly of that man, that
I shunned his company, as far as decently I could." Kuddiman's opinion, how-
ever, if early entertained, did not prevent him from forming an intimate literary
connexion with its subject.

In 1738, Lauder printed a proposal to publish by subscription " A Collection
of Sacred Poems," " with the assistance of professor Kobert Stewart, professor
John Ker, (professor of Greek in Aberdeen, and afterwards of Latin in Edin-
burgh), and Mr Thomas Ruddiman." The promised work was published by
Ruddiman in 1739, and forms the two well known volumes called " Poetarum
Scotorum Musae Sacra}." 3 What assistance Stewart and Ker may have given to
this work appears not be be known ; Ruddiman provided several notes, and
three poems. This work was creditable both to the scholar and typographer.
It contains a beautiful edition of the translation of the Psalms and the Song of
Solomon, by Arthur Johnston, and similar sacred poems of merit, by Ker, Adam-
son, and Hog : it contains likewise a reprint of Eglisham's somewhat ludicrous
attempt to excel Buchanan's best translated Psalm, the 104th,4 with the sarcas-
tic "judicium" of Barclay on the respective merits of the competitors,5 and
several minor sacred poems by Scottish authors are dispersed through the col-
lection, 'lhe classical merit of these elegant poems, has, we believe, never been
disputed by those who showed the greatest indignation at the machinations of
their editor ; nor is their merit less, as furnishing us with much biographical
and critical information on the Latin literature of Scotland, among which may
be mentioned a well written life of Arthur Johnston, and the hyperbolical

1 Chalmers's Ruddiman, 146.

2 Nichols's Anecdotes, ii. 136.

3 Poetarum {scotorum Musse Sacra;, sive quatuor sacri codicis scriptorum, Davidis et Solo-
monis, Jobi et Jeretnise, Poetici Iibri, per totidem Scotos, Arch. Jolmstonum, et J. Kerrum,
P. Adamsonum, et G. Hoga;um, Latino carmine redditi : quibus ob argumenti similitudi-
nem, obnectantur alia Scotorum itidem opuscula sacra. Edinb' Ruddim : 1739.

* Certamen cum Gcorgio Kuchanano pro dignitate Parapliraseos Psalmi civ.
' Barclai Judicium de certamine Eglisinimii cum G. Buchanano, pro dignitate Para-
pliraseos Psalmi civ.

358 WILLIAM LAUDER.

praises, which proved so detrimental to the fame of that poet. To support the
fame of the author he had delighted to honour, Lauder afterwards engaged in
the literary controversy, about the comparative merits of Buchanan and John-
ston, known by the name " Bellum Grammaticale."6

In 1740, the general assembly recommended the Psalms of Johnston, as an
useful exercise in the lower classes of the grammar schools ; but Lauder never
realized from his publication the permanent annual income which he appears to
have expected, " because," says Chalmers, " he had allowed expectation to outrun
probability." In 1742, Lauder was recommended by Mr Patrick Cuming, pro-
fessor of church history in the university of Edinburgh, and the celebrated Colin
Maclaurin, as a person fitted to hold the rectorship of the grammar school of Dun-
dee, which had been offered to his coadjutor Ruddiman in 1710 ; he was again,
however, doomed to suffer disappointment, and in bitterness of spirit, and de-
spair of reaching in his native place the status to which his talents entitled him,
lie appears to have fled to London, where he adopted the course which finally
led to the ruin of his literary reputation. His first attempts on the fame of
Milton were contained in letters addressed to the Gentleman's Magazine in
1747, which that publication, certainly without due caution regarding charges
so suspicious, unreservedly admitted for publication. The literary world indeed
received the attacks on the honesty of the great poet with singular complacency,
and the periodicals contained praises of the acuteness and industry of Lauder,
some of which he afterwards ostentatiously published. The first person who at-
tempted a discovery of the true merit of the attack, was the Reverend Mr
Richardson, author of Zoilomastix, who, on the 8th of January, 1749, wrote a
letter to the editor of the Gentleman's Magazine, in which he maintained the
falsity of Lauder's quotations from some books not very well known even to the
learned world ; particularly insisting that the passage " non me judice," which
Lauder had " extracted " from Grotius, was not to be found in that author, and
that passages said to be from Masenius and Staphorstius, belonged to a partial
translation of Milton's Paradise Lost by Hog, who had written twenty years
subsequently to the death of Milton.7 Although the editor of the Gentleman's
Magazine arrogated to himself the praise of candour for admitting the strictures
of Lauder, yet this communication ivas not published until the forgeries had
been detected in another quarter, on the ground of unwillingness to give cur-
rency to so grave and unexpected a charge, without full examination.

In 1750, Lauder having brought his design to maturity, published his " Essay
on Milton's use and imitation of the moderns, in his Paradise Lost," to which
he pi-efixed as a motto the very appropriate line from the author he traduced,
" Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme." The reader is aware, that this
book consists of a tissue of passages from obscure authors, from which it is main-
tained that Milton surreptitiously filched the materials of Paradise Lost. In the
list are two of the critic's own countrymen, Andrew Ramsay and Alexander
Ross, both respectable Latin versifiers and good scholars, but neither likely to
have been suspected of giving much aid to Milton ; in the introduction of the
former of these, the critic may have gratified a little family pride, — he was
father-in-law to lord Fountainhall, and consequently a connexion or relation of
the author. Had the author confined his book to the tracing of such passages

* For farther information on this matter, vide the Memoir of Arthur Johnston in this col-
lection. The reader may remark that we have there praised the classical acquirements of
auditor Benson if he was the author of the Life of Johnston prefixed to the edition of his
Psalms. The circumstance that the life in the Musse Sacra) is exactly the same, leads to the
conclusion that it is by Lauder.

7 Gent. Mag., xx. 535.

WILLIAM LAUDER. 359

of Milton, as accident has paralleled in far inferior poems, he might have pro-
duced a curious though not very edifying book : and, indeed, he has given us a
sufficient number of such genuine passages, to make us wonder at his industry,
and admire the ingenuity with which he has adapted them to the words of Mil-
ton ; but when he produces masses of matter, the literal translations of which
exactly coincide with the poem unequalled in the eyes of all mankind, we
express that astonishment at the audacity of the author, which we would have
felt regarding the conduct of Milton, had the attempt remained undetected. As
he spreads a deeper train of forgery and fraud round the memory of his victim,
the author's indignation and passion increase, and from the simple accusation of
copying a few ideas and sentences from others, passion and prejudice rouse him
to accuse Milton of the most black and despicable designs, in such terms as
these : ** I cannot omit observing here, that Milton's contrivance of teaching his
daughters to read, but to read only, several learned languages, plainly points
the same way, as Mr Phillips' secreting and suppressing the books to which his
uncle was most obliged. Milton well knew the loquacious and incontinent
spirit of the sex, and the danger, on that account, of entrusting them with so
important a secret as his unbounded plagiarism : he, therefore, wisely confined
them to the knowledge of the words and pronunciation only, but kept the sense
and meaning to himself." It is generally believed that a character for probity
is so dear to every man, that nothing but the temptation of gain, mingled gen-
erally with a prospect of concealment, will prompt a man to dishonesty. Here,
however, was a man whose object could not be gain, courting that Avhich depends
more than any other acquisition upon probity of mind — real or assumed fame ;
and doing so by a bold act of dishonesty, which could not escape discovery, and
which, in proportion as he had traduced others, would be revisited upon himself.
" As I am sensible," he solemnly says at the conclusion, " this will be deemed
most outrageous usage of the divine, the immortal Milton, the prince of English
poets, and the incomparable author of Paradise Lost, I take this opportunity
to declare, in the most solemn manner, that a strict regard to tbuth alone, and
to do justice to those authors whom Milton has so liberally gleaned, without
making the least distant acknowledgment to whom he stood indebted : I
declare, I say, that these motives, and these only, have induced me to make
this attack upon the reputation and memory of a person, hitherto universally
applauded and admired for his uncommon poetical genius : and not any differ-
ence of country, or of sentiments in political or religious matters, as some weak
and ignorant minds may imagine, or some malicious persons may be disposed to
suggest." The violence of party spirit to which Lauder here alludes, has been
alleged as a partial excuse, or rather motive, for his audacious act : but it may
be more charitably, if not more naturally presumed, that the accidental discovery
.of a few of the parallel passages we have alluded to above, had prompted him
to form a theory of universal plagiarism on the part of Milton, which a more
than ordinary perverseness in favour of the creation of his own mind prompted
him rather to support by falsehood, than resign ; while, as he afterwards par-
tially admitted, spleen and disappointment may have sufficiently blackened his
heart, to make him scruple at no means of gaining celebrity, and triumphing
over the world that had oppressed him. Add to this the angry feelings which
may have been roused, and the real injury done to his interest, by a ludicrous
contrast of his favourite author Johnston, with Milton, in that passage of the
Dunciad which is levelled at the literary predilections of Benson :

" On two unequal crutches propp'd he came ;
Milton's on tin's, on that one Johnston's name."

WILLIAM LAUDER.

There is no crime so severely punished by the world as injustice, which is
always repaid by a repetition of itself: hence the learned world which applauded
the courage and ingenuity of Lauder, on the appearance of a full and explicit
detection of his crimes, by his countryman Dr Douglas,8 were seized with a
confirmed hatred against the person who had duped them, and would not admit
to his degraded name, the talents and information he undoubtedly possessed and
displayed. Lauder subscribed a confession, addressed to Dr Douglas, explaining
his whole conduct to have been caused by the neglect with which the world had
looked on his previous labours. This confession is said to have been dictated
by Dr Johnson, who was one of those on whom Lauder had imposed, or rather
of those who chose to submit to be imposed on, which we may safely trace,
in his case, to the grudge he never ceased to bear towards the republican
poet. The connexion of Johnson with Lauder's work is, indeed, some-
what mysterious. In a manuscript note on the margin of archdeacon
Blackburne's remarks on the life of 3Iilton, Johnson has said, " In the busi-
ness of Lauder I was deceived, partly by thinking the man too frantic to be
fraudulent."9 But others have alleged, that he did more than believe the
statements of Lauder, and even gave assistance to the work. Dr Lort had a
volume of tracts on the controversy, in which he wrote, " Dr Samuel Johnson
has been heard to confess, that he encouraged Lauder to this attack upon3Iilton,
and revised his pamphlet, to which he wrote a preface and postscript." On the same
subject Dr Douglas remarks, " It is to be hoped, nay, it is expected, that the
elegant and nervous writer, whose judicious sentiments, and inimitable style,
point out the author of Lauder's preface and postscript, will no longer allow one
to plume himself with his feathers, who appeareth so little to deserve assistance :
an assistance which, I am persuaded, would never have been communicated, had
there been the least suspicion of those facts which I have been the instrument
of conveying to the world in these sheets."10 Boswell repels the insinuation
that Johnson assisted in the preparation of the body of the work, assuring us
that Douglas did not wish to create such a suspicion ; while he acknowledges
the preface and postscript to have been the work of his hands.11 On a first peru-
sal of the book, we were indeed struck with the sonorous eloquence and majesty
of the commencement and termination, when compared to the bareness of the
other portions of the work, and a slight hint is quite sufficient to convince us of
the authorship. The postscript contains matter much at variance with the other
contents of the book, and had it been the work of Lauder, it might have gone
far to redeem, at least the soundness of his heart, from the oppi'obrium which
has been heaped upon him. It called for the admirers of Milton's works, to
join in a subscription to the grand-daughter of Milton, Mho then lived in an
obscure corner of London, in age, indigence, and sickness.

Notwithstanding his penitence, a desire to traduce the fame of Milton seems
to have haunted this unhappy man like an evil spirit. In 1754, he published
" The grand Impostor detected, or Milton detected of Forgery against king
Charles the First.'' An answer to this pamphlet appeared in the Gentleman's
Magazine for 1754, supposed to be from the hand of Johnson. After this
period, Lauder quitted England, and for some time taught a school in Barba-
does. " His behaviour there," says Nichols, " was mean and despicable ; and

8 Milton vindicated from the charge of plagiarism brought against him by Lauder; and
Lauder himself convicted of several forgeries and gross impositions on the public, in a letter
addressed to the right hon. the earl of Bath, 1751, (by Dr Douglas, afterwards bishop of
Salisbury.)

9 Nichol's Anecdotes, II. 551.
io Second edition, 78.

11 BosweU's Johnson, (Croker's ed.) 1. 191.

JOHN LAW. 361

he passed the remainder of his life in universal contempt. He died some time
about the year 1771, as my late friend Isaac Reed was informed by the gentle-
man who read the funeral service over him."1 Chalmers mentions that there
was published, in 1754, (probably just after his retreat from London,) a pam-
phlet entitled, " Furius : or a modest attempt towards a History of the Life and
surprising exploits of the famous W. L., critic and thief -catcher," a somewhat
inappropriate name for the traducer of Milton.

LAW, John, of Lauriston, comptroller-general of the finances of France, un-
der the regency of Orleans, was born at Edinburgh, in the month of April,
1671. His mother, Jean Campbell, was descended from one of the numerous
branches of the ducal house of Argyle. His father, William Law, was great-
grandson of James Law, archbishop of Glasgow, and second son of James Law
of Brunton in Fife. William Law acquired a considerable fortune by his pro-
fession as a goldsmith in the Scottish metropolis, and purchased the two estates
of Lauriston and Randleston, a property of about 180 acres, in the parish of
Cramond, and county of Edinburgh. He died shortly after making this pur-
chase, leaving an only son, the subject of the present memoir, then fourteen
years of age.

John received his education at Edinburgh, and early evinced an uncommon
aptitude for the more abstruse branches of study. He likewise became skilled
in games of dexterity and hazard, and acquired an enviable reputation in the
tennis-court, a place of amusement then much frequented by young men of
fashion in Scotland. But the early death of his father had relieved him from
many salutary restraints, and Beau Law — as he was commonly called by his com-
panions— shortly after reaching majoi'ity, found his affairs in a state of embar-
rassment, from which they were only extricated by the kindness and excellent
management of his mother, who having obtained a disposition of the fee of
Lauriston from her son, paid his debts, relieved the estate of its incumbrances,
and executed an entail of the property.

Law was now in London, where his personal accomplishments, fascinating
manners, and devotion to gambling, pi-ocured him admittance into some of the
first circles. An affair of gallantry, however, with another dissolute young man,
led to a hostile meeting, in which Law killed his antagonist on the spot. After
a trial before the king and queen's commissioners in the Old Bailey, which
lasted three days, the jury found the survivor in this duel guilty of murder, and
sentence of death was accordingly passed upon him, 20th April, 1694. On a
representation of the case to the crown, Law obtained a pardon ; but was
uei«ni2d is the King's Bench, in consequence of an appeal against this extension
of royal clemency towards him having been lodged by a brother of the deceased.
He found means, however, to make his escape, and got clear off to the con-
tinent.2

Law was at this critical period of his life in the 26th year of his age. His
dissipation had not destroyed the tone of his mind, nor enfeebled those peculiar
powers which had so early developed themselves in him. He visited France,
then under the brilliant administration of Colbert, where his inquiries were par-
ticularly directed to the state of the public finances, and the mode of conduct-

1 Anecdotes, II. 137.

8 On this occasion the following advertisement was published in the London Gazette of
Monday, 7th January, 1695: "Captain John Law, a Scotchman, lately a prisoner in the
King's Bench for murther, aged 26, a very tall, black lean man, well-shaped, above six feel
high, large pock-holes in his face, big high nosed, speaks broad and loud, made his escape
from the said prison. Whoever secures him, so as he may be delivered at the said prison,
shall have fifty pounds paid immediately by the Marshall of the King's Bench." We may
here observe, that this description was upon the whole Inaccurate, and leaves room to believe
that it was designed rather with the view of facilitating than impeding his escape,
in. 2Z " " r

362 JOHN LAW.

ing banking establishments. From France he proceeded to Holland, where the
mercantile system of those wealthy republicans, who liad succeeded the merchant
princes of Venice in conducting the commerce of Europe, presented to his mind
a vast and most interesting subject of investigation- Amsterdam was at this
period the most important commercial city in Europe, and possessed a celebrated
banking establishment, on the credit of which her citizens had been enabled to
baffle the efforts of Louis XIV., to enslave the liberties of their country ; a trea-
sury, whose coffers seemed inexhaustible, and the whole system of which was an
enigma to the political economists of other countries. Law, with the view of
penetrating into the secret springs and mechanism of this wonderful establish-
ment, took up his residence for some time at Amsterdam, where he ostensibly
officiated as secretary to the British resident.

About the year 1700, he returned to Scotland. He was now nearly thirty
years of age, and had acquired a niore accurate acquaintance with the theory of
commercial and national finances, as well as with their practical details, than
perhaps any single individual in Europe possessed at this time. The contrast
whicli Scotland presented to those commercial countries which he had visited
during his exile now struck him forcibly, and he immediately conceived the de-
sign of creating that capital to the want of which he attributed the depressed
state of Scottish agriculture, manufacture, and commerce. Law's views were not
without foundation ; but unfortunately, he stumbled at the outset, by mistaking
the true nature of capital. The radical delusion under which he laboured from the
outset to the close of his financial career, originated in the idea which had got pos-
session of his inind, that by augmenting the circulating medium of a country we
proportionally augment its capital and productive energies. Now, money is not al-
ways convertible into capital, that is, into something which may be employed
towards further production ; for the creation of exchangeable products must, in
the nature of things, precede the creation of a general medium of commerce, and
it is quite evident, that if we double the amount of the circulating medium with-
out doubling the products of industry, we just depreciate the currency in the
degree of the excess, and do not increase the resources or industry of a country
in the least But Law conceived that to her overflow of money alone Holland
owed her national prosperity ; and he calculated that the increase of the cir-
culating medium in Scotland would be absorbed by the increase of industry, and
have no other effect than to lower the rate of interest This view he developed
in a publication entitled " Proposals and Reasons for constituting a Council of
Trade," dated at Edinburgh, 31st December, 1700, and published at Glasgow
in the following year; and in a second and more important WQlL:, *"•****[■
" Money and Trade considered, with a Proposal for supplying the nation with
Money," printed at Edinburgh in 1705,

U the latter work. !-« ^SpSd nis views of banking and the credit
system. He proposed to supply Scotland with money by means of notes to be
issued by certain commissioners appointed by parliament ; which notes were to
be ffiven out to all who demanded them, upon the security of land. In answer
to the supposition, that they might be depreciated by excess or quantity, he ob-
served, that " the commissioners giving out what sums are demanded, and taking
back what sums are offered to be returned, this paper-money will keep the
value and there trill always be as much money as there is occasion or employ-
ment'for and no more." Here his project evidently confounds the quantity of
good security in the country, and the quantity of money which people may wish
to borrow at interest, with the quantity necessary for the circulation, so as to
keep paper-money on a level with the precious metals, and the currency of sur.
rounding countries,— a mistake which has prevailed to a very considerable ex-

JOHN LAW.

3G3

tent in our own times. But notwithstanding of this capital error, Law lias in
the latter publication developed the principles and mechanism of banking in an
astonishingly able and luminous manner for the period at which he wrote. The
court party, and the squadrone,headed by the duke of Argyle and the marquess of
Tweeddale, entered warmly into Law's views ; but parliament passed a resolution
" that to establish any kind of paper-credit, so as to oblige it to pass, were an
improper expedient for the nation."

Law now resolved to offer his system to some of those continental states whose
finances had been exhausted by the wars of Louis XIV., and in which the prin-
ciples of credit were imperfectly understood. With this view he went to Brussels,
and from that city proceeded to Paris, where he won immense sums at play, and
introduced himself into the good graces of the young duke of Orleans. The
Succession war was at this moment occupying the attention of the French court ;
Chamillart, unable to extricate himself from the difficulties of his situation in
any other manner, was about to resign his functions as minister of finance ; the
moment appeared favourable to our projector, and he made offer of his services
to the French monarch. But the leading men of the day were totally unable to
comprehend the plans of the new financier, and the name of Huguenot was no
passport to the royal favour : so that the unexpected result of this negotiation
was an order from the intendant of police to quit Paris in twenty-four hours
as a state-enemy. Law found himself in a similar predicament at Genoa and
Turin, but not before he had pursued his usual run of luck at the gaming-tables
in these cities. After visiting several other continental cities, in all of which
his fascinating manner procured him admission to the first circles, our adven-
turer found himself possessed of a tangible fortune of considerably more than
£100,000, — the fruits of his skill and success at play. The death of Louis
XIV., — the succession of the duke of Orleans to the regency, — and the
deplorable state of the French finances, prompted Law to present himself once
more to the attention of the French ministry.

During the war of Succession — now brought to a close — Demarest, who had
succeeded Chamillart as comptroller-general, had exhausted every possible
means of raising money ; he had issued promissory notes under every conceivable
name and form, — Promesses de la caisse des emprunts, Billets de Legendre,
Billets de V extraordinaire des gnerres, but all without success ; the credit of the
government was gone, and its effets of every description had sunk from seventy
to eighty per cent in value. In this extremity, the expedient of a national
bankruptcy was proposed to and rejected by the regent, who also refused to
give a forced circulation to the royal billets, but appointed a commission
to inquire into the claims of the state-creditors. The commission executed
its duties with great ability ; but after reducing the national debt to its lowest
possible form, and providing for the payment of the interest amounting to
80,000,000 of livres, or about one half of the revenue, there hardly remained
a sum sufficient to defray the ordinary expenses of the civil government, and
that too, after having had recourse to a measure tantamount, in its effects at
least, to a breach of faith, namely, a change in the nominal value of the cur-
rency. By the latter scheme, the government foolishly imagined that they would
pocket 200,000,000 of livres, but the sum on which they had calculated, only
went into the pockets of the Dutch and the clandestine money-dealers. At this
critical juncture, Law stepped forward in the full confidence of being yet able
to rescue the government from bankruptcy, by the establishment of a well-
regulated paper-credit His first proposal was to establish a national bank, into
which was to be transferred all the metallic currency of the nation, which was
to be replaced by bank-notes. Law regarded the whole nation as one grand

364: JOHN LAW.

banking-company, and his reasoning was this : — If a bank may increase the
issue of its notes beyond the amount of its funds in bullion, without risking its
solvency, a nation may also do the same. But the private fortunes of the
individuals of a nation, it is quite evident, can never be held as security for the
notes which the sovereign authority may choose to issue ; and unless such
security is to be found in the resources of the government itself, it is equally clear
that a paper-currency might sink in the course of a few months fifty or a hun-
dred per cent below the value of the precious metals, and deprive individuals of
half or the whole of their fortunes. Law seems to have regarded credit as every
thing, — as intrinsic worth, — as specie itself. Still, notwithstanding this
capital delusion, the memoirs which he addressed to the regent on the subject,
contain many just observations on the peculiar facilities afforded to trade by the
existence of a paper-currency : though they failed to remove the doubts of one
sapient objector, who thought a paper-currency highly dangerous, on account of
its liability to being cut or violently destroyed! The council of finance, how-
ever, rejected this scheme. The present conjuncture, they thought, was not
favourable for the undertaking ; and this reason, added to some particular
clauses of the project, determined them to refuse it.

Law next proposed a private bank for the issue of notes, the funds of \\ hich
should be furnished entirely from his own fortune, and that of others who might
be willing to engage with him in the speculation. He represented the disas-
trous consequences which had resulted from a fluctuating currency, the enormous
rate at which discounts were effected, the difficulties in the exchange between
Paris and the provinces, and the general want of an increased currency ; and
succeeded in convincing the regent that these evils might be obviated by the
adoption of his plans even in tbeir limited modification. The bank was accor-
dingly established by letters patent, bearing date the 2nd of 3Iay, 17 IG. Its
capital was fixed at 1200 shares of 5000 livres each, or about £300,000 ster-
ling. The notes were payable at sight in specie of the same weight and fineness
as the money in circulation at the period of their issue ; and hence they soon
bore a premium above the metallic currency itself, which had been subjected to
many violent alterations since 1689. The good faith which the bank observed
in its proceedings, — the patronage which it received from the regent, — and the
want of private credit, soon procured for it a vast run of business. Had Law
confined his attention to this single establishment, he would justly have been
considered as one of the greatest benefactors of the country, and the creator of
a beautiful system of commercial finance ; but the vastness of his own conceptions,
his boundless ambition, and the unlimited confidence which the public now
reposed in him, suggested more gigantic enterprizes, and led the way to that
highly forced and unnatural system of things which eventually entailed ruin upon
all connected with it.

Law had always entertained the idea of uniting the operations of banking with
those of commerce. Every one knows that nothing can be more hazardous than
such an attempt ; for the credit of the banker cannot be made to rest upon the
uncertain guarantee of commercial speculations. But the French had yet no
accurate ideas on this subject. Law's confidence in the resources of his own
financial genius was unbounded, and the world at this moment exhibited a
theatre of tempting enterprise to a comprehensive mind. The Spaniards had
established colonies around the gulf of Mexico, — the English were in pos-
session of Carolina and Virginia, — and the French held the vast province of
Canada. Although the coast lands of North America were already colonized,
European enterprize had not yet penetrated into the interior of this fertile
country; but the chevalier de Lasalle had descended the Mississippi, to the gulf

JOHN LAW. 305

of Mexico, and, taking- possession of the country through which he passed in
the name of the French monarch, gave it the appellation of Louisiana. A
celebrated merchant of the name of Crozat had obtained the privilege of trading
with this newly discovered country, and had attempted, but without success, to
establish a colony within it. Law's imagination, however, was fired at the
boundless field of enterprise which he conceived was here presented ; he talked
of its beauty, of its fertility, of the abundance and rarity of its produce, of the
richness of its mines outrivalling those of Mexico or Peru, — and in the month of
August, 1717, within five months after his embarkation in the scheme of the
bank, our projector had placed himself, under the auspices of the regent, at the
head of the famous Mississippi scheme, or West Indian company. This company
was invested with the full sovereignty of Louisiana, on condition of doing
homage for the investiture to the king of France, and presenting a crown of
gold, of thirty marcs, to each new monarch of the French empire on his acces-
sion to the throne. It was authorised to raise troops, to fit out ships of war, to
construct forts, institute tribunals, explore mines, and exercise all other acts of
sovereignty. The king made a present to the company of the vessels, forts,
and settlements which had been constructed by Crozat, and gave it the monopoly
of the beaver trade with Canada for twenty-five years. In December following,
the capital of the West Indian company was fixed at 100,000,000 livres,
divided into 200,000 shares ; and the billets d' etat, were taken at their full
value from those wishing to purchase shares. Government paper was at this
moment vastly depreciated on account of the irregular payment of the interest ;
but although 500 livres nominal value in the public funds could not have been
sold for more than 150 or 160 livres, the billets d7 etat, by this contrivance,
soon rose to par. It was evident that these fictitious funds could not form stock
for commercial enterprise ; nevertheless, the advance, of the government debts to
a rate so advantageous to the holders, increased the value of the government
securities that remained in circulation, and the depreciated paper rose to full
credit with the astonished public, who now began to place implicit confidence in
Law's schemes. The council of finance, however, looked with mistrust on these
proceedings ; and its president, the duke de Noailles gave in his resignation, and
was replaced by d' Argenson, a man far less skilled in matters of finance. The
jealousy of the parliament, too, was excited by the increasing influence of the
Scottish financier, who had been heard imprudently to boast that he would ren-
der the court independent of parliamentary supplies. By an aret of the 1 8th
of August, 1717, the parliament attempted to destroy the credit of the notes of
the bank, by prohibiting the officers of the revenue from taking them in payment
of the taxes ; but the regent interposed, and Law was allowed to continue his
operations. He, however, encountered another formidable rival in d' Argenson,
who now proposed, with the assistance of the four brothers Paris, men of great
wealth and influence in the commercial world, to form a company which, with
a capital as large as that of the West Indian company, should advance large
sums of money secured on the farms, posts, and other branches of the public
revenue. This anti-system, as it was called, soon fell to pieces for want of the
same energetic and fearless direction which characterized the schemes of its
rival.

Law now prevailed on the regent to take the bank under royal guarantee,
persuading him that it was quite possible to draw into it the whole circulating
specie of the kingdom, and to replace it by the same amount of paper-money.
The notes issued by the royal bank, however, did not promise, as those of Law's
private establishment had done, to pay in specie of the same weight and fineness
as the specie then in circulation, but merely to pay in silver coin. This opened

366 JOHN LAW.

a door for all the fluctuations which might occur in the real value of the coin
called a livre, affectiug the value of the paper-money. Law was made director-
general of the royal bank, which, in a few months, issued 1,000,000,000 of
livres in new notes ; " less," says the royal aret, " not being sufficient for its
various operations :" although this sum was more than all the banks of Europe
could circulate, keeping good faith with their creditors. The director-general
found it extremely difficult to support the credit of such an enormous issue, and
for a while hesitated between the plan of insensibly transforming bank-note3
into a real paper-money, by giving the latter a decided advantage over specie,
which should be kept constantly fluctuating, and by receiving it in payment of
the taxes ; or of creating a new and apparently lucrative investment for this
paper, so as to prevent its returning upon the bank to be exchanged for specie.
The latter plan appeared at last the preferable one. A colossal establishment
was projected with a capital equal in amount to the public debt. This capital
was to be divided into shares, which the regent was to buy with the paper-money
that he Mas to manufacture ; he was then to borrow this paper anew to pay the
creditors of the state ; and then by selling the shares, to retire the paper-money,
and thus transfer the creditors of the state to the company.

-Accordingly, in May, 1719, the East India company, established by Riche-
lieu, in 1664, the affairs of which were then at a very low ebb, was incorporated
with that of the West Indies ; and the conjoined companies received the name
of the Company of the Indies, " with the four quarters of the world to trade
in." " Moreover," says the edict issued on this occasion, u beside the
100,000,000 of public debts already subscribed into the Western Company's
capital, there shall be a new subscription of 50,000 shares of 550 livres each,
payable in specie." In a short time, the newly created company engaged, by
extending its capital to 621,000 shares, to lend the king the immense sum of
1,600,000,000, at three per cent, interest, and declared itself in a condition to
pay a dividend of 200 livres upon each share. The public faith being yet
unshaken, the shares hereupon rose to 5000 livres; and when the king began
to pay off the state-creditors with the loan now procured, many not knowing how
to employ their capital, a new competition for shares in the great company arose,
and shares actually rose in consequence to 10,000 livres. The slightest considera-
tion might have served to convince any cool speculator, that the company had come
under engagements which, in no circumstances, however prosperous, it could
fulfil. How was it possible that the company could raise annually 124,800,000
livres for the dividend upon 624,000 shares ? Or, supposing it able to make
an annual dividend of 200 livres a share, still the rate of interest being at this
time about four per cent., the shareholder who had bought in at 10,000, thus lost
one-half of the revenue lie might otherwise have drawn from the employment of
his capital. The truth is, the whole scheme was designed for the sole purpose
of relieving the state from its debts by the ruin of its creditors ; but the immeuse
fortunes which were realized by stock-jobbing at the very outset of the scheme,
led on others to engage in the same speculation ; splendid fortunes were realized
in the course of a single day; men found themselves suddenly exalted as if by
the wand of an enchanter, from the lowest station in life to the command of
princely fortunes ; twelve hundred new equipages appeared on the streets of
Paris in the course of six weeks ; half a million of people hastened from the
country, and even from distant kingdoms to procure shares in the India com-
pany; and happy was he who held the greatest number of these bubbles. The
negotiations for the sale and purchase of shares were at first carried on in tlie
Rue Quincampoix, where fortunes were made by letting lodgings to the crowds
who hastened thither for the purpose of speculating in the stocks. The murder

JOHN LAW. 367

of a rich stock-jobber, committed here on the 22nd of March, 1720, by a young
Flemish nobleman, occasioned the proscription of that street as a place of busi-
ness, and the transference of the stock-jobbing to the Place Vendome, and
finally to the hotel de Soissons, which Law is said to have purchased from the
prince of Carignan for the enormous sum of 1,400,000 livres.

Innumerable anecdotes are on record of the extraordinary vicissitudes of for-
tune which took place during this season of marvellous excitement ; footmen
stepped from the back to the inside of carriages ; cooks appeared at the public
places with diamond necklaces ; butlers started their berlins ; and men educated
in poverty and of the lowest rank suddenly exchanged the furniture and utensils
of their apartments for the richest articles which the upholsterer and silversmith
could furnish. Law himself, now arrived " summa ad vestigia rerum," shone
super-eminent above all the other attractions of the day ; princes, dukes, mar-
shals, prelates, flocked to his levees, and counted themselves fortunate if they
could obtain a smile from the great dispenser of fortune's favours ; peeresses of
France, in the excess of their adulations, lavished compliments upon the Scottish
adventurer which set even decency at defiance ; his daughter's hand was solicited
by princes ; and his lady bore herself with hauteur towards the duchesses of the
kingdom. Land in the neighbourhood of Paris rose to eighty or a hundred
year's purchase ; the ell of cloth of fifteen livres sold for fifty ; coffee rose from
fifty sous to eighteen livres ; stock-jobbers were known to treat their guests to
green pease at a hundred pistoles the pint ; every yard of rich cloth or velvet
was bought up for the clothing of the new eleves of fortune ; and the value of
the silver plate manufactured in the course cf three months for supplying the
demands of the French capital amounted to £7,200,000 ! The regent, sharing
in the general delusion, wished to place the wonderful foreigner at the head oi
the finances of the kingdom ; but then, in addition to his being an alien, he
was a protestant also ; so 1' Abbe de Tencin was charged with the important duty
of his conversion, and this ecclesiastic succeeded so well in the task assigned to
him, that on the 5th of January, 1720, all obstacles being removed, Law was
elevated to the comptroller-generalship of the finances of France, and for some
time after his elevation to the premiership, governed France with almost absolute
power. Law's fame had now reached its acm£ ; his native city of Edinburgh
hastened to transmit to her illustrious son the freedom of citizenship in a gold
box of the value of £300 ; the earl of Hay re-published some of his works with
an adulatory preface ; British noblemen disdained not to pay their court to so
successful an adventurer ; even the earl of Stair, then the British ambassador at
Paris, trembled at the idea of Law's overweening influence in the affairs of
France, and viewed his boastful speeches in so serious a light, as to deem them
matter of grave communication and advice to his "government, — a piece of good
faith for which the meritorious and discerning minister met with small thanks.

The great drama, however, which Law was now enacting before the astonished
eyes of all Europe, was soon to shift ; the glittering bubble on which he had
fixed the eyes and expectations of all France was rapidly attenuating to its
explosion ; the charm by which he had swayed the mind of the million lay not
in the rod of the magician, but in the implicit faith which people reposed in the
skill and the power of its master, — and, that faith once shaken, the game of
delusion was over.

We hare said that the shares of the India company had risen to 10,000
livres each in the month of November, 1719. So long as they kept at this
elevation, the credit of the bank remained unshaken. Its notes were found so
very convenient in conducting the rapid negotiations of the Rue Quincampoix,
that they were sought after with avidity, and even bore a premium of ten per

3GS JOHN LAW.

cent, in exchange for specie ! Notwithstanding, however, of the boundless delu-
sion under which men acted at this moment, it could not escape the eyes of the
vigilant financier, that a constant and enormous drain of specie was going on,
either in the way of exportation to foreign countries, or for the consumption of
the jewellers and goldsmiths. To answer the large orders of the wealthy Mis-
sissippians, and to guard against a run upon the bank in these circumstances, the
master-projector had again recoui*se to forced measures. Edicts were issued
declaring the value of bank-notes to be five per cent, above that of specie, and
forbidding the use of silver for the payment of any sum exceeding 100 livres,
or of gold in payments exceeding 300 livres. Law thought by these expedients
to confine the use of specie to small transactions alone, while those of any mag-
nitude could still be conducted by the fictitious currency which he had called
into existence. At the same time, to give a fresh impulse to the stock-jobbing
transactions, which had experienced a perceptible decline, he presented himself
personally in his ministerial robes, and surrounded by a number of the nobility
in the Rue Quincampoix, where his presence instantly excited a lively sensa-
tion ; and the report being industriously propagated that new edicts were about
to be issued, conferring additional privileges on the great company, the actions
which had fallen to 12,000 livres, rose to 15,000. Still the public credi-
tors hesitated to employ the notes now issuing in extinction of their debts in
purchasing India stock ; and the enormous sum of 1,000,000,000, remained
floating in the form of bank notes, for which no species of investment could be
found.

A publication issued at this juncture by Law, under the title of Lettre a nn
Creancier, failed to satisfy their scruples, and actions again fell to 12,000
livres. Meanwhile, specie, in spite of successive depreciations effected upon it
at the suggestion of the minister of finance, entirely disappeared ; still the govern-
ment kept issuing notes to the immense amount of 1,925,000,000, between the
1st of January, ^ind the 20th of May, 1720, and the price of every thing-
advanced in almost hourly progression. On the 11th of March, a second letter
from the minister of finance appeared, in which he employed the most ingenious
sophistry in defence of the exaggerated value at which the paper-currency was
attempted to be maintained. The choice of a standard value, the great financier
contended, was wholly a matter of opinion. To support the value of any article
in the opinion of the community, it is only necessary to decline selling it under
a certain price. Houses, lands, and other articles of property, have a certain
value in the opinion of mankind, just because some people desire to purchase
them, and others will not part with them; but if all the proprietors of houses
and land were willing to get rid of their property at one and the same time
what value would it have in the market ? It is easy to answer such palpable
sophistry as this. Houses and lands are possessions fit for certain purposes
which men require ; it is their fitness which constitutes their value ; but in the
case of those shares whose value, Law contended, ought to be quite as real as
that of any other article of property, it is most evident that they have no value,
unless the profit to be derived from commerce in them be not proportioned
to the price at which the stock was purchased ; from the moment, in fact, that
they cease to become marketable they are stripped of their value. A system
supported by such desperate reasoning as Law had here recourse to, must have
appeared tottering to its fall in the eyes of every rational man ; the public
credit of France was about to give way ; the Atlantean shoulders on which it
had been hitherto supported, could no longer prop the mighty burden. Govern-
ment at last perceived that too great an extension had been given to what Law
called credit, and that to re-establish the value of paper, it would be necessary

JOHN LAW. 3G9

to diminish its amount. On the 21st of May, the death-blow was given to the
whole gigantic system of our Scottish projector, by an edict which announced
that a progressive reduction of the India company's action, and of bank-notes,
was to take place from that day till the 1st of December, when it was
declared that the bank-notes should remain fixed at one half of their present
value, and the actions at four-ninths. Law, whose influence with the govern-
ment was now rapidly sinking, or rather was annihilated, felt himself too weak
to resist tin's measure, and actually consented to announce it himself.
The public eye was now opened in one instant to the delusion which had
been practised upon it, and the next day every one was anxious to get rid
of his paper-money at any sacrifice. The catastrophe, though inevitable in the
nature of things, was hastened by the artifices of the cardinal Dubois, who used
every means to injure Law in the opinion of the regent; and by the irritation
of the finance-general, and the parliament of Paris, who regarded the foreign
projector as their bitter enemy. The united efforts of such a powerful party
appear to have made a deep impression on the mind of the regent, who, in a
letter of lord Stair's, dated 12th March, 1720, is represented as abusing the
comptroller cruelly to his face, and even threatening him with the Bastile. The
same authority informs us that the minister himself was at this period reeling
under the weight of that complicated and stupendous system of which he now
found himself the prime support and mover. " Law's head is so heated," he
writes, " that he does not sleep at nights, and has formal fits of frenzy. He
gets out of bed almost every night, and runs stark-staring mad about the room
making a terrible noise, — sometimes singing and dancing, — at other times
swearing, staring, and stamping, quite out of himself. Some nights ago, his
wife, who had come into the room upon the noise he made, was forced to ring
the bell for people to come to her assistance. The officer of Law's guard was
the first that came, and found Law in his shirt, who had set two chairs in the
middle of the room, and was dancing round them quite out of his wits."

The consequences of this rash edict were frightful ; the government was
upbraided for having been the first to impeach that credit to which it had itself
given original existence, and charged with the design to ruin the fortunes of
the citizens ; seditious and inflammatory libels were posted throughout the
streets ; the mob assailed the hotels of Law and other members of the cabinet ;
and even the life of the regent himself was threatened. In this emergency, the
parliament assembled on the 27th of May, and terrified at the consequences of
their own measures, were about to petition the regent to revoke the unfortunate
edict ; but while yet deliberating with this purpose, an officer announced to
them that the paper had been restored to its former value, by a new pro-
clamation. However, if the first step had been bad, the second was little less
weak and unwary. To declare that the actions and billets had resumed their
full value, was doing nothing of real consequence to allay the ferment of the
public mind ; for such a measure was founded on no principle which could
operate in the slightest degree to restore to paper-money the confidence it had
lost ; it was doing nothing to recompense those who had already suffered in-
jury, and it was effectually securing the ruin of all others on whom the value-
less paper could now be fixed as a legal tender. And to add to all this con-
fusion and distress, the repositories of the bank were sealed up the same day,
under pretence of examining the books, but in reality to prevent the specie from
being paid away in exchange for notes. At last, after the first moments of
alarm and outrage were over, the regent ventured to resume those expressions of
confidence towards Law which he had been compelled to withhold from him for

a time ; he received him in his own box at the opera, and gave him a guard to
ni. 3 A

370 JOHN LAW.

protect his hotel from the insult of the exaspei-ated populace. The infamous
Dubois, who had enriched himself by his speculations during the height of the
Mississippi madness, now united with Law to expel Argenson from the cabinet ;
and the regent, whose character though intrepid was not without its weak points,
was persuaded at their instigation, to take the seals from his faithful minister,
and bestow them upon Agnesseau, who tamely resumed the high office, from
which he had been expelled by the very men to whose influence he now beheld
himself indebted for his second elevation.

Nothing could now save the system of the great financier ; his billets and ac-
tions were for ever stripped of their value in the eye of the public ; and the most
expedient measure that could now be adopted with regard to them, was to with-
draw them as promptly as possible from circulation. To demolish in the most
prudent manner the vast structure reared by his own labour was now the high-
est praise to which Law could aspire. By a series of arbitrary financial opera-
tions, which it would be tedious here to relate, the public creditors were reduced
to the utmost distress, the national debt annihilated, and the whole aftairs
of the kingdom thrown into the utmost perplexity. " Thus ended," to use the
words of Voltaire, " that astonishing game of chance played by an unknown
foreigner against a whole nation." Its original success stimulated various in-
dividuals to attempt imitations of it, — among which the most famous was the
South Sea bubble of England, which entailed disgrace and ruin on many thou-
sands of families. It would be doing injustice to Law's character were we to
view him as the sole author of these misfortunes : his views were liberal beyond
the spirit of the times in which he lived ; he had unquestionably the real com-
mercial interests of his adopted foster-country at heart ; he did not proceed
on speculation alone ; on the contrary, his principles were to a certain degree
the very same as those the adoption of which has raised Britain to her present com-
mercial greatness, and given an impulse to trade throughout the world, such as
was never witnessed in the transactions of ancient nations. His error lay in
over-estimating the strength and breadth of the foundation on which his gigantic
superstructure rested. Unquestionably in his cooler moments he never contem-
plated carrying the principle of public credit to the enormous and fatal length
to which he was afterwards driven by circumstances ; it was the unbounded
confidence of the public mind, prompted by the desire of gain and the miracu-
lous effects of the system in its earliest development, — the enthusiasm of that
mind, transported beyond all bounds of moderation and forbearance, by a first
success eclipsing its most sanguine expectations, realizing to thousands of indi-
viduals the possession of. wealth to an amount beyond all that they had ever
conceived in imagination, — the contagious example of the first fortunate specu-
lators intoxicated with success, and fired to the most extravagant and presump-
tuous anticipations, by which men can be lured into acts of blinded infatuation or
thoughtless folly, — it was these circumstances we say, over which Law had neces-
sarily little control, that converted his projects into the bane of those for whom
they were at first calculated to serve as a wholesome antidote.

Law was in fact more intent on following out his idea than aggrandizing
his fortunes. Riches, influence, honours, were showered upon him in the neces-
sity of things ; the man who had given birth to the wealth of a whole king-
dom, whose schemes had for a while invested all who entered into them with
imaginary treasures, — by whose single mind the workings of that complicated
engine which had already produced such dazzling results as seemed to justify
the most extravagant anticipations of the future, were comprehended and direct-
ed,— must have risen during the existence of that national delusion, to the highest
pinnacle of personal wealth and influence, and might, though only endowed with

JOHN LAW. 371

a mere tithe of the forecasting sagacity of Law, have provided for his retreat, and
secured a sufficient competency at least beyond the possibility of loss or hazard,
as thousands in fact did upon the strength of his measure. But Law, in deluding
others, laboured under still stronger delusion himself; like the fabled Franken-
stein, he had created a monster whose power he had not at first calculated, and
the measure of which he now found he could not prescribe, and he awaited
the result with mingled feelings of hope, fear, and distrust. It was the igno-
rant interference of others with his own mysterious processes, which finally de-
termined the fatal direction of those energies which he had called into being,
and which he might have been able, if not to restrain, at least to direct in another
and less ruinous manner. We are far from professing ourselves the unqualified
apologists of our enterprising countryman. It was criminal in him to make use
of remedies of such a desperate kind as those to which he had recourse when his
system began to stagger under its first revulsions ; doubtless his temptations were
strong, but, invested as he was with authority, it was in his power to have re-
sisted them, and adopted a less empirical mode of treatment. In estimating his
moral character, it does not appear to us, that his renouncing protestantism, under
the circumstances in which he was placed, ought to weigh much against the up-
rightness of his intentions. Religion was with him a matter of inferior moment.
In his previous life he had manifested no symptoms of piety ; an utter stranger
to the faith and power of the gospel, protestantism was superior to any other
ism with him, just in as far as it favoured his worldly policy. He believed
himself possessed of means to elevate a whole nation in the scale of wealth and
power, with all their attendant benign influences, and to give an impulse by
means of the fortunes of France to the destinies of the human species : and is it
to be supposed, that this consideration, thrown into the balance, should not
have caused that scale in which was placed a mere nominal profession of a
religion — the truth of which he neither knew nor respected — to kick the
beam ?

Before resuming the thread of our biography, let us for a moment compare
the financial catastrophe we have now been considering with that of the assig-
nats of revolutionary France, and the celebrated crisis of the bank of Eng-
land in 1797: we shall discover striking points of resemblance in the circum-
stances which led to these events, and draw from their comparison a few
important truths. Credit is founded on the supposition of future value ; it is
this prospective value which is made to circulate as if it were existing value, in
the form of a bank-note. Law founded his schemes upon the great basis of
credit, which again he proposed to create by the profits arising from specula-
tion in the shares of his India company. The financiers of revolutionary France
wished to pay the national debt and the expenses of a universal Avar, with the
national funds; but finding it impossible from the want of public confidence, or
credit, to sell these funds, they anticipated their sale, and represented their sup-
posed future value by paper-money called assignats. The bank of England, in
return for its loans to the government, supposed the existence of two species of
value, and accepted of these species in payment : the effects themselves, namely,
of commerce, and the securities of the state; the former a certain value, and
the latter necessarily fluctuating with the political aspect of the times. In these
three cases, we perceive three species of doubtful value ; Law's share represented
a future, but speculative and very uncertain value; the assignats represented cer-
tain funds which might ere long pass from under- the hands of their present ad-
ministrators ; and the notes of the bank of England represented a value de-
pending upon engagements, regarding the ability of the state to fulfil which
there existed no absolute certainty. Now the crisis produced by the fluctuation

372 JOHN LAW.

of these three species of credit corresponded to the difference of circumstances
in the three cases. The sudden displacement of an enormous sum raised the
6liares of the East India company to an enormous premium ; but a rapidly es-
tablished credit is exposed to an equally or still more precipitous decline ; for
that true credit which is founded on the solid basis of real success, must neces-
sarily be as slow in its growth as the success itself. The assignats again could
not experience such a sudden rise in value, for they represented a certain por-
tion of land, a species of value least of all exposed in the nature of things to
rapid fluctuation. In proportion, however, as the public confidence in the per-
manence of the administration declined, the assignats declined in value ; and
in proportion as they declined in value, the existing government was compelled
to supply the loss of funds by increasing the issue, which again operated to de-
preciate its paper money. The notes of the bank of England, depending on
mercantile credit or the real security of responsible funds, as well as on govern-
ment security, were only slightly affected in credit by the political aspect of the
times. In all the three cases, public credit was attempted to be supported by
forcible measures, the injustice of which was just in proportion to the degree of
suspicion which attached to that false system of credit which they were designed
to support. Law fixed the value of shares in notes, and thus forced a circula-
tion for the latter. The French revolutionary government punished the refusal
of its assignats, at their nominal value, with death. In England the bank was
relieved of the obligation to cash its notes at sight. Law again endeavours to
drive specie altogether out of the market, and render paper the only legal
tender ; the revolutionists fix the maximum of all exchange ; and the bank of
England, whose security was less questionable, threw itself on the patriotism of
the London merchants, who relieved it from its embarrassment by agreeing to ac-
cept of its notes in payment from their debtors. Thus we see, 1st, that every
system of public credit ought to represent a certain real value, and not to be
founded on mere anticipation of a value yet to be created ; 2ndly, that it is im-
possible, by fixed measures, to sustain an arbitrary value ; and, Srdly, that where
forced values are resorted to, they are rejected by all who are at liberty to re-
ject them, and are followed by the ruin of those who are not in a condition
to refuse them.

Law:, at his last interview with the duke of Orleans, is reported to have said :
" My lord, I acknowledge that I have committed great faults ; I did so because
I am a man, and all men are liable to err ; but 1 declare to your royal high-
ness that none of them proceeded from knavery, and that nothing of that kind
will be found in the whole course of my conduct ;" a declaration which the re-
gent and the duke of Bourbon bore frank testimony to, at the same time that
they suggested the expediency of his leaving the kingdom, for which purpose
they offered to supply him with money, his whole property having been confis-
cated; but 3Ir Law, though in possession of only S00 louis d'ors, the wreck of a
fortune of 10,000,000 of livres, refused to receive any assistance from other
i'uiids than his own, and on the 22nd of December, 1720, arrived at Brussels,
where he was received with the greatest respect by the governor and resident
nobility. Early in January, 1721, he appeared at Venice, under the name of
M. du Jardin, where he is said to have had a conference with the chevalier de
St George, and the famous cardinal Alberoni, minister of Spain. From Venice
he travelled through Germany to Copenhagen, where he had the honour of an
audience with prince Frederick. During his residence at the Danish capital he
received an invitation from the British ministry to return to his native country,
with which he complied, and was presented on his arrival to George I. by Sir
John Norris, the admiral of the Baltic squadron. On the 28th of November he

JOHN LAW.

373

pleaded at the bar of the king's bench his majesty's pardon for the murder of
Edward Wilson, and was attended on this occasion by the duke of Argyle, the
earl of Hay, and several other friends.

Mr Law's re-appearance in Britain excited some uneasy feelings on the part
of various senators. The earl of Coningsby, in particular, moved the house of
lords for an inquiry, whether Sir John Norris had orders to bring over a person
of his dangerous character. The affair, however, was hushed, and it is thought
that he at first received some kind of pension or allowance from the British
government. Meanwhile, he maintained a constant correspondence with the
regent of France, who caused his official salary of 20,000 livres per annum to
be regularly remitted to him, and held several consultations with the council re-
specting the propriety of recalling him. The sudden death, however, of the re-
gent, on the 2nd of December, 1723, was a fatal blow to the reviving hopes of
the ci-devant minister of finance. His pension ceased to be remitted, his pros-
pect of a reversion from the sale of his property in France was annihilated, his
embarrassments at home increased, and demands were made upon him by the In-
dia company to the enormous amount of 20,236,375 livres. On the 25th of
August, 1724, we find him addressing a letter to the duke of Bourbon, from
London, in which he writes :

" Notwithstanding the confusion in which my affairs have become involved,
one hour will suffice to put your highness in full acquaintance with them. The
subjoined memoir explains by what means I purpose to fulfill my engagements
and obtain a livelihood for myself. The means which I suggest are of the very
simplest nature. It is likewise the interest of the state that my affairs should
be wound up ; for although the number of those who desire my return is not
great, their confidence in me is considerable, and must either destroy or retard
the success of those measures which have been adopted by those persons to whom
the king has been pleased to intrust the management of the finances. If my
matters were arranged, madame Law, my daughter, my brother, and his family,
would return to England, and I would fix myself here in such a manner as
should convince the public that I entertained no intention of ever again setting
foot in France.

" Those who have set themselves to oppose me, by retarding the decision in
my case, have acted thus upon a mistaken principle altogether, and against their
own view of things ; they accuse me of having done the thing which they would
have done themselves if they had been in my place ; and in examining into my
conduct they are unintentionally doing me a great honour. There are few,
perhaps no instances, of a stranger having acquired the unlimited confidence of
a prince, and realized a real fortune by means perfectly honourable, and who
yet on leaving France reserved nothing for himself and his family, not even the
fortune which he had brought into the country with him.

" Your highness knows that I never entertained the idea of making my escape
from France. I had made no provision for this purpose when it was announced
to me that the regent had ordered me to be provided with passports ; for I had
indeed at one time thought of quitting the kingdom, when I requested his royal
highness's permission to resign my office ; but after that I had deliberated upon
the reasons which the prince then urged against my taking this step, I renounced
the idea altogether, although fully aware of the personal danger to which I
would expose myself, by remaining in France after having ceased to hold office
in the administration.

" I have said that my.enemies have advised no measures opposed even to their
own principles ; for if what they allege had been true ; if I had carried a
great sum of money with me out of the kingdom, — it wouli surely have been their

374 JOHN LAW.

truest policy to have induced me to return with my son. If they had acted dis-
passionately in this matter, they would have afforded me every facility in arrang-
ing my affairs ; and it is my belief that, had his highness the duke of Orleans
lived, I would have been invited back to France. A short time before the
prince's death, he was pleased to express his approbation of my conduct ; to
give me certain marks of his esteem ; he was satisfied that my plans would have
completely succeeded, if the juncture of extraordinary circumstances had not
compelled others to interfere with them ; he felt that he yet required my assis-
tance ; he asked my opinion regarding the present situation of the kingdom,
and he was pleased to say that he yet counted on my aid in raising France to
her proper elevation and weight in Europe. These are facts with which I am
persuaded your highness was made acquainted by the prince himself."

The late ML Law de Lauriston transmitted to 3Ir Wood, the biographer of the
Comptroller-General, a complete copy of the memorial which accompanied this
letter, and of which only some detached fragments are published in the " CEuvres
de J. Law," Paris, 1790. 3Ir Wood supplies us with the following passage
from this document : " When I retired to Guermande," says the memorialist,
" I had no hopes that the regent would have permitted me to leave the king-
dom ; I had given over all thoughts thereof when your highness sent to inform
me of his intention to accord that permission ; and the next day, immediately
on receiving the passports, I set off. Consider, my lord, if being in the country,
removed from any paper and books, it were in my power to put in order affairs
that required not only leisure, but also my presence in Paris, to arrange
properly ; and if it is not a piece of great injustice for the India company to
wish to take advantage of the condition to which I was reduced ; and of the
dishonest conduct of clerks, in requiring from me payment of sums I do not in
fact owe, and which, even though I had been owing, were, as I have shown,
expended for their service, and payable in actions or notes, of which effects be-
longing to me they at that time had, and still have, on their books, to the
amount of double or treble the sum they demand. No, my lord, I cannot bring
myself to accuse the company of so much as the intention to injure me. That
company owes its birth to me. For them I have sacrificed every thing, even my
property and my credit, being now bankrupt, not only in France, but also in
all other countries. For them I have sacrificed the interests of my children,
whom I tenderly love, and who are deserving of all my affections ; these chil-
dren, courted by the most considerable families in France, are now destitute of
fortune and of establishments. I had it in my power to have settled my daughters
in marriage in the first houses of Italy, Germany, and England ; but I refused
all offers of that nature, thinking it inconsistent with my duty to, and my af-
fection for, the state in whose service I had the honour to be engaged. I do
not assume to myself any merit from this conduct, and I never so much as
spoke upon the subject to the regent. But I cannot help observing, that this
mode of behaviour is diametrically opposite to the idea my enemies wish to
Maputo to me ; and surely all Europe ought to have a good opinion of my dis-
interestedness, and of the condition to which I am reduced, since I no longer
receive any proposals of marriage for my children.

" My lord, I conducted myself with a still greater degree of delicacy : for I
took care not to have my son or my daughter married even in France, although
I had the most splendid and advantageous offers of that kind. I did not choose
that any part of my protection should be owing to alliances; but that it should
depend solely upon the intrinsic merits of my project."

These representations failed to produce the desired effect ; the India com-
pany refused to allow him credit for the notes and actions in their hands belong-

JOHN LAW. 375

ing to him, while they at the same time insisted on his making payment in
specie of the sums owing to them ; the government, with equal injustice, confis-
cated his whole property in France. In 1725, Mr Law bade a final adieu to
Britain, and retired to Venice, where he died in a state little removed from in-
digence, on the 21st of March, 1729, in the 58th year of his age. He lies
buried in one of the churches of the city, where a monument to his memory is
still to be seen.

Such is a brief outline of the history of one of the most extraordinary pro-
_ jectors of modern times. That he deceived himself is, we think, quite evident
from the whole tenor of his conduct ; that he should have deceived others is not
wonderful, if we consider the spirit and circumstances of the times in which he
lived, the ignorance of the public mind respecting the great principles of credit
and currency, and the personal advantages and experience which the master-pro-
jector possessed. He is said to have presented an uncommonly engaging exter-
nal appearance. " On peid," says the French historian of his system, " sans Jlat-
terie, le mettre au rang des homines les mieux fails." In Brunley's Catalogue of
British Portraits, four engravings of Law are noticed, by Anglois, Hubert, Des
Rochers, and Schmidt. The best portrait of him was a crayon portrait by Ros-
alba in the earl of Oxford's gallery. Of his moral character Ave have already
spoken. Lockhart of Carnwath relates that, even before he left Scotland, he was
** nicely expert in all manner of debaucheries."

Law never composed any treatise ; his works are confined to memorials and
justificatory statements, or explanations of his views and plans. Towards the
end of the year 1790, the epoch of the creation of the assignats, there appeared
at Paris an octavo volume, entitled ** OZuvres de J. Law, controlleur-general des
finances de France, sous le regent" This work was ably edited by M.
Senour, and is in high estimation in France. The writings relating to Law's
system are very numerous; Stewart, Ganilh, and Storch, have all commented
with ability upon his measures ; and Duclos and Marmontel have composed very
interesting memoirs of the projector and his system. In general, however, all
the French writers of the 18th century have commented with great severity upon
Law and his proceedings. Fourbonais was the first to do justice to this great
but unfortunate man. Dutot, in his " Reflexions politiques sur le commerce et
les finances," printed at the Hague in 1738, has discussed the state of affairs
at the giving way of the system, and the effect of the famous edicts of the 5th
March and 21st May, with great sagacity ; Duverney's u- Histoire du Systeme des
finances, sous la minorite de Louis XV., pendant les Annees 1719 et 1720," is
a most valuable collection of edicts and state papers relative to French finances,
in two volumes. Mr John Philip Wood's " Memoir of the Life of John Law of
Lauriston" 2 is the best account which has yet been given to the British public
of this extraordinary man, and the rise and fall of his fortunes.

Law married lady Catharine Knollys, third daughter of Nicholas, third earl
of Banbury, by whom he had one son, John Law of Lauriston, and one daugh-
ter, Mary Catharine, who married her first cousin, William viscount Wallingford,
who was afterwards called to the house of peers by the title of baron Althorp.
Lady Wallingford survived her husband more than half a century, and died in
London on the 1 4th of October, 1790, leaving no issue. Her brother succeeded
his father in 1729, and died a cornet of the regiment of Nassau Friesland, at
Maestricht, in 1734. William Law, third son of Jean Campbell of Lauriston,
succeeded to the entail on the extinction of the issue male of her eldest son.
His eldest son John, rose to the rank of commandant-general and president
of council of the French settlement in India, and died at Paris about 179G ;
2 Edinburgh, 1824, 12mo, pp. 234.

376 ROBERT LEIGHTON.

and on the 21st of May, 1808, Francis John William Law, a merchant in London,
of the reformed religion, was served nearest and legitimate heir of entail and
provision of his father John Law, and entered into the possession of the estate
of Lauriston, to the exclusion of his elder brothers, who were Roman catholics.
Law's grandson, Count de Lauriston, was one of the generals of Napoleon
Bonaparte.

LEIGHTON, Robert, an ecclesiastic of singular learning, integrity, and
benevolence, was born in 1611, and descended from an ancient and respectable
family, who were loDg in possession of the estate called Ulyshaven, in For-
farshire. Their names are mentioned in several parts of history, and even
so far back as Dooms-day Book. In 1424, Dr Henry Leighton, biahop of
Moray, and afterwards of Aberdeen, was deputed as one of the commissioners
to negotiate for the release of James I., at that time a pi'isoner in England.
The family estate of Ulyshaven was lost to the house of Leighton in the seven-
teenth century, as they had by that time decayed in wealth and interest.

Dr Alexander Leighton, father of the subject of this memoir, was educated at
St Andrews, where he obtained the degree of doctor of divinity. He afterwards
went to Leyden and applied himself to the study of physic, and so far succeeded
as to graduate there. The Scottish church at Utrecht being in want of a minis-
ter, and he being, according to all accounts, a man of great piety and learning,
the charge was offered to him, which he accepted, and he continued to officiate
there for some time ; but not approving of the holidays observed by the Dutch
church, and having some difference on the subject, he finally resigned. He was
there styled doctor of medicine and Scottish minister. We shall compress, in
the shortest limits possible, the most prominent actions of this man's eventful
life, as his name is conspicuous in history from the cruel persecution he was
subject to.

On his arrival in London from Holland, he saw with grief and indignation
that the presbyterian church, of which he was a stern defender, was likely to
be subverted in Scotland, through the policy of Charles I. and his ministers —
and being a man, according to Burnet, " of much untempered zeal," and fond
of polemics, he published several tracts against episcopacy, which gave great
offence to the members of that religion. He, at this time, intended to com-
mence the medical profession in London ; but the College of Physicians inter-
dicted him from practice within seven miles of the city, as a person they
considered disgraceful to their profession ; an allegation he disputed and
disproved, by claiming a right, in virtue of his having graduated in the college
of Leyden. They did not deny his being a clergyman ; but at that time he
had no living. He soon after this drew down upon himself the vengeance of
that tyrannical and unconstitutional court, the star-chamber. The work for
which he was prosecuted, according to Burnet, is entitled " Zion's Plea against
Prelates ;" the name of the author and printer were omitted, and instead of the
date of publication, the following words were added — " Printed the year and
moncth wherein Rochelle was lost," — evidently intended as a stigma for that
city being allowed to be taken by the French catholics from the protestants in
162S; an event which it w'as well known Charles might have prevented, if he
had had the interests of protestantism really at heart. There was also prefixed to
this work — which it appears was printed in Holland — a hieroglyphical vignette,
seemingly designed to recommend the subversion of prelacy. This is described
in the informations by Rushworth, " as a most seditious scandal upon the king,
state, and kingdom, wickedly affirming that all that pass us spoil us, and we spoil
all that rely upon us, and amongst the rest the black pining death of the famished
Rochelles, to the number of 15,000 in four months; by which passages he did,

WJR1 DGMHFi

ROBERT LEIGHTON. 377

so much as in him lay, scandal his majesty's person, his religious wife, and just
government, especially the reverend bishops." Soon after this offensive work
was put into circulation, Dr Leighton was arrested by a warrant from the high
commission court, and committed to Newgate, where he was confined for fifteen
weeks in a loathsome cell full of vermin, without a bed to rest upon, and open-
ly exposed to the inclemency of the weather : none of his family or friends
were permitted to see him ; and in the mean time his house was forcibly
entered, and not only his books and papers, but every article of furniture car-
ried away.

The cause was tried on the 4th of June, 1630. The defendant, in his an-
swer, owned the writing of the book, but denied all intention of evil, his end being
only to remonstrate against certain grievances in church and state, under which
the people suffered, to the end that parliament might take them into considera-
tion, and to give such redress as might be for the honour of the king, the quiet
of the people, and the peace of the church. Nevertheless, the court adjudged
unanimously, that for this offence the doctor should be committed to the prison
of the Fleet for life, and pay a fine of ten thousand pounds ; that the high com-
mission should degrade him from his ministry, and that then he should be
brought to the pillory at Westminster, while the court was sitting, and be whip-
ped ; after whipping, be set in the pillory a convenient time, and have one of
his ears cut off", and one side of his nose slit, and be branded in the face with a
double S. S., for sower of sedition; that then he should be carried back
to prison, and after a few days, be pilloried a second time in Cheapside, and be
there likewise whipped, and have the other side of his nose slit, and his other
ear cut oft*, and then be shut up in close prison for the remainder of his life ;"
a sentence only to be compared with the worst acts of the infernal inquisition
of Spain. Archbishop Laud, on hearing the unfortunate man condemned, pulled
oft' his hat, and holding up his hands, gave thanks to God who had given him
the victory over his enemies. This barbarous sentence being given towards the
end of Trinity term, and the court not usually sitting after the term unless upon
emergent occasions, and it requiring some time in the ecclesiastical court in
order to the degradation of the defendant, it was Michaelmas following before
any part of the sentence could be put in execution. On the 10th of November he
was to have undergone the punishment awarded to him ; however, the night be-
fore he contrived, with the assistance of one Livingston and Anderson, to effect
his escape. A hue and cry was immediately issued by order of the privy
council, ordering his apprehension, which described him as a man of low stature,
fair complexion, high forehead, and yellowish beard, about forty or fifty years
of age. He scarcely was at large one week when he was seized in Bedfordshire,
and brought back to the Fleet. Rushworth, in his Historical Collections, says,
" On Friday, the sixteenth of November, part of the sentence on Dr Leighton
was executed upon him in this manner, in the new palace at Westminster. He
was severely whipped before he was put in the pillory. Being set in the pil-
lory, he had one of his ears cut ofF, one side of his nose slit, was branded on the
cheek with a red-hot iron with the letters S. S., sower of sedition, and afterwards
carried back again, prisoner to the Fleet, to be kept in close custody. And on
that day seven night, his sores upon his back, ear, nose, and face, not being
c ired, he was whipped again at the pillory in Cheapside, and there had the re-
mainder of his sentence executed upon him, by cutting off" the other ear, slitting
the other side of the nose, and branding the other cheek." His unfortunate
companions, who aided him to escape, were also brought before the Star-Cham-
ber, and out of respect to their " penitency " they were only fined five hundred
pounds each, and committed to the Fleet during the king's pleasure.

III. 3 B

378 ROBERT LEIGHTON.

In that rile prison, in a filthy, dark, and unwholesome dungeon, the unhappy
Leighton was incarcerated for upwards of eleven years, without once being suf-
fered to breathe in the open air ; and when at length released from his misera-
ble confinement, he could neither walk, see, nor hear. His release was only ef-
fected when the sitting of the Long Parliament had changed the state of things
in England. " At the reading of his petition in the house of commons," says
Brook, " giving an account of the dreadful barbarity with which he had been
treated, the members were so deeply moved and affected, that they could not bear
to hear it without several interruptions with floods of tears." A committee was ap-
pointed to investigate his case, and the result was, as might be expected, the ex-
posure of one of the most unconstitutional and horrible pieces of barbarity that
over stained a nation's annals. The whole proceedings were declared illegal,
and reversed, and " good satisfaction and reparation were ordered to be made to
him for his great sufferings and damages." Six thousand pounds were voted on
his account ; but it is very uncertain in those distracted times if he ever re-
ceived it.

In 1642, Lambeth house was converted into a prison, and he was made
keeper of it, on account, it is said, of his knowledge of the medical profession.
He did not survive this unworthy appointment long, and the wonder only is,
how human nature could have borne up against such dreadful inflictions as he
had endured.

Robert Leighton, some time bishop of Dumblane, and afterwards archbishop
of Glasgow, son to Alexander, and the proper subject of this memoir, was,
according to Pearson, in a late edition of his works, born in Edinburgh, and
received his education at that university, which he entered as a student in 1627.
From his earliest years he was conspicuous for exemplary piety, and an humble
disposition ; with talents of the rarest description, and a happy facility of ac-
quiring a knowledge of languages. He was, above all. fond of studying the Scrip-
tures, and was profoundly skilled in every branch of theological learning. Two
of the masters at that time in the university whose classes he attended, namely
Robert Rankin, professor of philosophy, and James Fairley, professor of
divinity, were strongly in favour of episcopacy ; the latter having afterwards be-
come bishop of Argyle. It is more than probable that their opinions, being
early imbibed by Leighton, continued in after-life to exercise a considerable
influence over him. This may in a great degree serve to explain why he se-
ceded from the presbyterian church. He became master of arts in 1G31, and
having by that time completed his course of academical studies, he was sent
abroad for further improvement, and took up his residence at Douay in France,
where some of his relations lived. There he formed an intimacy with many of
the best educated of the Roman catholic gentlemen who were attending the col-
lege, and being naturally fond of exploring every system of ecclesiastical polity,
where he found men of worth adhering to forms of religion even at variance
with his own, he loved them in Christian charity for the virtue they possessed,
and thought less rigidly of their doctrine. While in France, he acquired a per-
fect knowledge of the language, which he spoke with all the fluency of the most
polished native. It is impossible to ascertain how he passed the intermediate
ten years from the time he' went to Douay. All we can gather with certainty is,
that in 1641, on his return from the continent, and immediately after the
triumph of presbytery in Scotland, he was, at the age of thirty, and in the very
year of his father's liberation from his cruel confinement, settled as presbyterian
minister in the parish of Newbattle, in the county of Edinburgh. There he
was most unremitting in the sacred duties of his office, preaching peace and good-
will amongst all men, carefully avoiding to mix or interfere with the distractions

ROBERT LEIGHTON. 379

of that stormy period, when the pulpit was made the vehicle of political disputes.
It being the custom of the Presbytery to inquire of the brethren twice a-year,
whether they had preached to the times: "For God's sake," answered Leighton,
" when all my brethren preach to the times, suffer one poor priest to preach for
eternity." This moderation could not fail to give offence — the fact is, he seems
to have regarded their disputes as trivial in comparison with the high and sacred
duties he felt himself called upon to perform in his holy office. He seldom or
never attended the meetings of the Presbytery, which was undoubtedly part of
his duty as a Presbyterian minister, but chose rather to live in strict retirement,
alive only to the care of his own parish, in which he proved himself a faithful
and zealous pastor. Of all the accounts of this eminent divine there is none so
strictly correct as that left on record by his friend and illustrious contemporary,
bishop Burnet, which we shall here quote in full, as we are persuaded that nothing
could be given, either so entertaining or so full of information.

" Eobert, eldest son of Dr Leighton, was bred in Scotland, and was accounted
a saint from his youth up. He had great quickness of parts, a lively apprehension,
with a charming vivacity of thought and expression. He had the greatest com-
mand of the purest Latin I ever knew in any man ; he was master of both
Greek and Hebrew, and of the whole compass of theological learning, chiefly
in the study of the Scriptures. But that which excelled all the rest was, he was
possessed with the highest and boldest sense of divine things that I ever saw in
any man ; he had no regard for his person, unless it was to mortify it, by a
constant low diet, that was like a perpetual fast. He had both a contempt of
wealth and reputation : he seemed to have the lowest thoughts of himself pos-
sible, and to desire that all other persons should think as meanly of hiin as he
did himself. He bore all sorts of ill usage and reproach like a man that took
pleasure in it. He had so subdued the natural heat of his temper, that in a great
variety of accidents, and in the course of twenty years of intimate conversation
with him, I never observed the least sign of passion but upon one single oc-
casion. He brought himself into so composed a gravity that I never saw
him laugh, and but seldom smile ; and he kept himself in such a constant recol-
lection, that I do not remember that I ever heard him say one idle word.
There was a visible tendency in all he said to raise his own mind, and those he
conversed with to serious reflections. He seemed to be in a perpetual medita-
tion ; and, though the whole course of his life was strict and ascetical, yet he
had nothing of the sourness of temper that generally possesses men of that sort.
He was the freest from superstition, of censuring others, or of imposing his own
methods on them, possible ; so that he did not so much as recommend them to
others. He said there Mas a diversity of tempers, and every man was to watch
over his own, and to turn it in the best manner he could. His thoughts were
lively, oft out of the May and surprising, yet just and genuine. And he had
laid together, in his memory, the greatest treasure of the best and wisest of all
the ancient sayings of the heathens as well as Christians, that I have ever known
any man master of, and he used them in the adeptest manner possible. He had
been bred up with the greatest aversion possible to the whole frame of the
church of England. From Scotland his father sent him to travel. He spent
some years in France, and spoke the language like one born there. He came
afterwards and settled in Scotland, and had the presbyterian ordination ; but
he quickly bore through the prejudices of his education. His preaching had a
sublimity both of thought and expression in it The grace and gravity of his
pronunciation was such, that few heard him without a very sensible emotion ; I
am sure I never did. His style was rather too fine ; but there was a majesty
and beauty in it that left so deep an impression, that I cannot yet forget the

380 ROBERT LEI6HT0N.

sermons I heard him preach thirty years ago ; and yet with this he seemed to
look on himself as so ordinary a preacher, that while he had the cure, he was
ready to employ all others, and when he was a bishop he chose to preach to
small auditories, and would never give notice before hand. He had indeed a
very low voice, and so could not be heard by a great crowd. He soon came to
see into the follies of the presbyterians, and to dislike their covenant, particular-
ly their imposing it, and their fury against all who differed from them. He
found they were not capable of large thoughts ; theirs were narrow as their
tempers were sour ; so he grew weary of mixing with them. He scarce ever went
to their meetings, and lived in great retirement, minding only the care of his
own parish at Newbattle, near Edinburgh. Yet all the opposition that he
made to them was, that he preached up a more exact rule of life than seemed to
them consistent with human nature ; but his own practice did outshine his doc-
trine.

" In the year 1648, he declared himself for the engagement for the king.
But the earl of Lothian, who lived in his parish, had so high an esteem for him,
that he persuaded the violent men not to meddle with him, though he gave
occasion to great exception ; for when some of his parish who had been in the
engagement were ordered to make public profession of their repentance for it,
he told them, they had been in an expedition in which he believed they had
neglected their duty to God, and had been guilty of injustice and violence, of
drunkenness, and other immoralities, and he charged them to repent of these
seriously, without meddling with the quarrel or the grounds of that war. He
entered into a great correspondence with many of the episcopal party, and with
my own father in particular, and did wholly separate himself from the presby-
terians. At last he left them, and withdrew from his cure, for he could not do
the things imposed on him any longer. And yet he hated all contention so
much, that he chose rather to leave them in a silent manner, than to engage in
any disputes with them. But he had generally the reputation of a saint, and of
something above human nature in him ; so the mastership of the Edinburgh col-
lege falling vacant .some time after, and it being in the gift of the eity, he was
prevailed on to accept it, because in it he was wholly separated from all church
matters. He continued ten years in that post, and was a great blessing in it ;
for he talked so to all the youth of any capacity or distinction, that it had a
great effect upon them. He preached often to them, and if crowds broke in,
which they were apt to do, he would have gone on in his sermon in Latin, with
a purity and life that charmed all who understood it. Thus he had lived above
twenty years in Scotland, in the highest reputation that any man in my time
ever had in the kingdom. He had a brother well known at court, Sir Elisha,
who was very like him in face and in the vivacity of his parts ; but the most
unlike him in all other things that can be imagined. For though he loved to
talk of great sublimities in religion, yet he was a very immoral man. He was
a papist of a form of his own ; but he had changed his religion to raise himself
at court, for he was at that time secretary to the duke of York, and was very in-
timate with lord Aubigny, a brother of the duke of Richmond's, who had
changed his religion, and was a priest, and had probably been a cardinal if he
had lived longer. He maintained an outward decency, and had more learning
and better notions than men of quality who enter into the church generally
have. Yet he was a very vicious man ; and that perhaps made him the more
considered by the king [Charles II.], who loved and trusted him to a high degree.
No man had more credit with the king ; for he was in the secret as to his re-
ligion, and was more trusted with the whole designs that were then managed in
order to establish it, than any man whatsoever. Sir Elisha brought his brothe?

ROBERT LEIGHTON. 381

and him acquainted ; for Leighton loved to know men in all the varieties of
religion. In the vacation time he made excursions, and came often to London,
where he observed all the eminent men in Cromwell's court, and in the several
parties then about the city of London ; but he told me that they were men of
unquiet and meddling tempers ; and that their discourses were very dry and un-
savoury, full of airy cant or of bombast swellings. Sometimes he went over to
Flanders to see what he could find in the several orders of the church of Rome.
There he found some of Jansenius's followers, who seemed to be men of ex-
traordinary tempers, and studied to bring things, if possible, to the purity and
simplicity of the primitive ages ; on which all his thoughts were much set. He
thought controversies had been too much insisted upon, and had been carried too
far. His brother, who thought of nothing but the raising himself at court,
fancied that his being made a bishop might render himself more considerable ;
so he possessed lord Aubigny with such an opinion of him, that he made the
king apprehend that a man of his piety and his notions, (and his not being mar-
ried was not forgot,) might contribute to carry on their designs. He fancied
such a monastic man, who had a great stretch of thought and so many other
eminent qualities, would be a mean at least to prepare the nation for popery, if
he did not directly, come over to them, for his brother did not stick to say, he
was sure that lay at the root with him. So the king named him of his own
proper motion, which gave all those who began to suspect the king himself
great jealousies of him. Leighton was averse to this promotion as much as pos-
sible. His brother had great power over him, for he took care to hide his vice3
from him, and to make before him a show of piety. He seemed to be a papist
rather in name and show than in reality, of which I will set down one instance
that was then much talked of. Some of the church of England loved to mag-
nify the sacrament in an extraordinary manner, affirming the real presence,
only blaming the church of Rome for defining the manner of it, saying Christ
was present in the most inconceivable manner. This was so much the mode that
the king and all the court went into it ; so the king, upon some raillery about
transubstantiation, asked Sir Elisha if he believed it. He answered he could
not well tell, but he was sure the church of England believed it ; and when the
king seemed amazed at that, he replied, do you not believe that Christ is
present in the most inconceivable manner, which the king granted. Then said
he, that is just transubstantiation, the most inconceivable thing that was ever yet
invented. When Leighton was prevailed upon to accept a bishopric, he chose
Dumblane, a small diocese as well as a little revenue. But the deanery of the
chapel royal was annexed to that see. So he was willing to engage in that,
that he might set up the common prayer in the king's chapel, for the rebuilding
of which orders were given. The English clergy were well pleased with him,
finding him both more learned and more thoroughly versed in the other points of
uniformity than the rest of the Scottish clergy, whom they could not much
value ; and though Sheldon did not much like his great strictness, in which he
had no mind to imitate him, yet he thought such a man as he was might giro
credit to episcopacy, in its first introduction to a nation much prejudiced against
it. Sharpe did not know what to make of all this. He neither liked his strict-
ness of life nor his notions. He believed they would not take the same methods,
and fancied he might be much obscured by him, for he saw he would be well
supported. He saw the earl of Lauderdale began to magnify him, and so
Sharpe did all he could to discourage him, but without any effect, for he had no
regard to him. I bear still the greatest veneration for the memory of that
man that I do for any person, and reckon my early knowledge of him, which
happened the year after this, and my long and intimate conversation with him,

382 ROBERT LEIGHTON.

that continued to his death, for twenty-three years, among the greatest blessings
of my life, and for which I know I must give an account to God in the great
day, in a most particular manner ; and yet, though I know this account of his
promotion may seem a blemish upon him, I would not conceal it, being resolved
to write of all persons and things with all possible candour. I had the relation
of it from himself, and more particularly from his brother. But what hopes so-
ever the papists had of him at this time, when he knew nothing of the design of
bringing in popery, and had therefore talked of some points of popery with the
freedom of an abstracted or speculative man ; yet he^expressed another sense of
the matter, when he came to see it was really to be brought in amongst us. He
then spoke of popery in the complex at much another rate ; and he seemed to
have more zeal against it than I thought was in his nature with relation to any
points in controversy, for his abstraction made him seem cold in all these mat-
ters. But he gave all who conversed with him a very different view of popery,
when he saw we were really in danger of coming under the power of a
religion that had, as he used to say, much of the wisdom that was earthly, sen-
sual, and devilish ; but had nothing in it of the wisdom that is from above, and
is pure and peaceable. He did indeed think the corruptions and cruelties of
popery were such gross and odious things, that nothing could have maintained
that church under those just and visible prejudices but the several orders among
them, which had an appearance of mortification and contempt of the world, and
with all the work that was among them, maintained a face of piety and devotion.
He also thought the great and fatal error of the Reformation was, that more of
those houses, and that course of life free from the entanglements of vows and
other mixtures, was not preserved ; so that the protestant churches had neithei
places of education, nor retreat for men of mortified tempers. I have dwelt
long upon this man's character, but it was so singular that it seemed to deserve
it; and I was so singularly blessed by knowing him as I did, that I am sure he
deserved it of me, that I should give so full a view of him, which I hope may
be of some use to the world."

Leighton remained ten years principjil of the college of Edinburgh, where he
conducted himself with a degree of diligence, wisdom, and prudence, that en-
gaged universal respect and esteem, and proved of essential benefit to the
students. The funds of that seminary were then very low, and Leighton did
not scruple to go to London to appeal to the generosity of Cromwell in favour
of his object. That extraordinary man ordered an annuity of two hundred
pounds a year to be granted in 1658, a sum that at the time was of considera-
ble use ; but on the death of the Protector, which took place shortly after, it
fell to the ground, as all his acts were rescinded at the Restoration. The state
of the presbyterian church in Scotland when Charles the Second ascended the
throne was extremely critical — betrayed by its own ministers, and secretly hated
by the king, who had sworn to defend its rights. James Sharpe, who was commis-
sioned to go to London to defend the rights of the Scottish church, was a man
capable of any duplicity or basenesss that would in the main advance his own
interests, while his communications with his brethren at home were lying and
deceitful. He had the effrontery to impress on the minds of the court that the
people of Scotland were at heart unfriendly to presbytery, and secretly attached to
episcopacy. However Charles may have doubted the truth of such an account,
he was glad to avail himself of Sharpe's duplicity to give ascendancy to prelacy ;
and notwithstanding the memorials and remonstrances from the Scottish church,
and the interference of men of rank and importance, he determined on the re-
establishment of a hierarchy in Scotland.

Sharpe, as a reward for his perfidious apostasy, was to be elevated to the

ROBERT LEIGHTON. 383

primacy. He had the recommendation also of other persons to fill the different
vacant sees ; but Leigh ton was the last man he would ever have thought of point-
ing out, as he shrunk from approaching a character so upright and virtuous, in
every way superior to himself. But Sir Elisha Leighton, already referred to by
Burnet, having an eye to his own interests, considered that by having a brother,
over whom he had already gained some ascendancy, high in the church, much
might be expected. As he affected to be strongly attached to popery to please
the duke of York, whose secretary he was, he vainly thought, as his relative was
on many occasions known to evince a great respect for some good men con-
nected with the church of Rome, that in time he might be gained over to pro-
mote and adopt that faith. Blinded by selfish ambition, he was incapable of
perceiving, like the illustrious Burnet, that of all men Leighton was the least
likely to favour a religion which he characterized as " earthly, sensual, and
devilish, with nothing in it of the wisdom that was from above, and was pure
and peaceable." Indeed it was a matter of considerable difficulty, as it will ap-
pear, to prevail upon him to join the episcopalians. The king, though pleased
at finding Sharpe and others subservient in all points to his wishes, still knew
that their characters must stand degraded in the eyes of the people, as they
were men neither of piety nor moderation, and that it would be, above all,
necessary to strengthen their ranks by those who stood high and worthy in the
eyes of the world ; for this reason he personally solicited Leighton to accept of
a mitre.

The earl of Lauderdale, and his brother, and some of the most moderate and
respectable of his countrymen, exerted themselves to gain the same result, but
all seemed of no avail. Leighton still refused, as he evidently mistrusted the
men to whom the government of the new church was to be confided, and he
could not but see that the methods they resorted to were violent and repugnant
to the principles and desires of the people of Scotland. " It was at last men-
tioned to him, that the king had issued positive orders for him to yield, unless in
fact he regarded the episcopal office as unwarrantable." To that extreme he
would not go, as he all along was favourable to that order, if divested of its
useless pomp.

He was at length persuaded that a regard to the interests of the church rendered
it his duty to accept it ; but in order to demonstrate to the world that avarice
was not his principle, he made choice of Dumblane, as of small extent and little
revenue. He was consecrated, along with Sharpe and two other Scottish bishops,
at the Abbey church of Westminster, which occasion was celebrated with great
feasting and pomp. Leighton could not help remarking, " that it had not such
an appearance of seriousness or piety as became the new modelling of a church."
It is with considerable hesitation we are obliged to remark, that in this instance
the conduct of Leighton exhibits a want of the Christian consistency and sim-
plicity generally displayed in his character. Admitting that his reason for
joining the episcopal church, was the virtuous intention of softening down
the asperities of two rival systems, which had long struggled for ascendancy ;
yet the time was unseasonable, when selfish and bad men were endeavouring,
by all crooked means, to build their fortunes on the ruin of their country
and their shameful apostasy. He was induced, too, to lend the weight of his
virtuous name in countenancing the acts of a reckless and unprincipled tyrant,
who was bent on the total subversion of those forms of religion connected with
his earliest associations, and in whose defence his father had almost suffered
martyrdom. That he was free from all interested motives every one must admit ;
and in justice to the character of one so pious, we shall give the following ex-
tract of a letter written by him in reference to his appointment : — " Thei-e is in

384 ROBERT LEIGHTON.

this preferment something that would allow of reconciling the devout on dif-
ferent sides, and of enlarging those good souls you meet with from their little

fetters, though possibly with little success. Yet the design is commendable

pardonable at least However, one comfort I have, that in what is pressed on
me, there is the least of my own choice ; yea, on the contrary, the strongest
aversion that I ever had to any thing in all my life ; the difficulty, in short, lies
in a necessity of either owning a scruple, which I have not, or the rudest dis-
obedience to the authority that may be. The truth is, I am yet importuning
and struggling for a libei'ation, and look upward for it; but whatever be the is-
sue, I look beyond it and this weary, weary, wretched world, through which
the hand I have resigned to, I trust, will lead meinto the path of his own choos-
ing : and, so I may please him, I am satisfied. I hope if ever we meet, you
shall find me in the love of solitude and a devout life." L

He lost no time in endeavouring to persuade Sharpe to join with him in some
moderate plan, founded on archbishop Usher's scheme, for uniting the presby-
terians and episcopalians, but to his astonishment he found him unwilling even
to talk on the subject He and the other newly made bishops seemed only
anxious to get possession of their sees. This circumstance was discouraging to
Leighton, who soon perceived that such men were not designed by providence
to build up the church. Soon after their consecration, the Scottish bishops went
down to Scotland in one coach ; but when they came to Morpeth, finding that
they intended to be received at Edinburgh with pomp and ostentation, Leighton
parted company from them, and arrived at the capital some days before them.
He would not even have the title of lord given to him by his friends, and was
not easy when others used it in addressing him. Leighton soon perceived with
deep regret, that the government was resolved to enforce conformity on the
presbyterians by severe means. He laboured all in his power to show the im-
policy of such proceedings, and in the session of parliament in April, 1662,
when the ministers to whom the oath of allegiance and supremacy was ten-
dei'ed, consented to take it with an explanation, which they presented to the
house, he pleaded strenuously that it might be accepted, and insisted that the
conditions asked by the presbyterians were just, and should in reason be
granted. Sharpe, with his usual vehemence answered, that it was below the dig-
nity of government to make acts to satisfy the scruples of peevish men, and
" that it ill became those who had imposed their covenant on all people, with-
out any explication, and had forced all to take it, now to expect such extraordi-
nary favours." — " For that very reason," replied Leighton, " it ought to be
done, that all people may see the difference between the mild proceedings of
the government and their rivals ; and that it ill became the very same persons
who had complained of that, now to practise it themselves, for thus, it may be
said, the woi'ld goes mad at times." But the voice of violence prevailed; the
Scottish bishops were entitled to a seat in parliament on their consecration, and
were one and all invited to avail themselves of the privilege. Leighton was the
only one that declined the honour. He retired to his see, and resolved never
to appear in parliament unless the interests of religion were called in question,
or by his presence he might assist it. In his own diocese he set a bright
example to his brethren, by practising the moderation which he recommended.
He studied to make his clergymen a well-informed, serious, and useful body of
men ; and he even tolerated the preaching of non-conforming ministers in districts
where the people were particularly attached to them. He continued a private
and ascetic course of life, and gave all his income, except the little he
expended on his own person, to the poor. By these means he became generally
i Pearson ut supra, p. 43.

ROBERT LEIGHTON. 385

beloved through his diocese, and even softened down the feelings of those who
were most adverse to episcopacy.

In the year 1665, the proceedings in Scotland by the ecclesiastical high com-
mission were so severe and illegal, that Leighton was prevailed on to go to
court, and lay before the king a true account of them. On this occasion he as-
sured his majesty that the measures which Sharpe and other members of the court
pursued, were so violent, M that he could not concur in planting of the Christian
religion itself in such a manner, much less a form of government He there-
fore entreated leave to quit his bishopric, and to retire, for he thought he was
in some sort accessary to the violence of others." The king seemed to be deeply
affected with the complaints of the worthy prelate, and issued an order in coun-
cil for discontinuing the ecclesiastical commission, and less rigorous measures
were promised to be pursued with respect to Scotland ; but the king would not
hear of Leighton's resigning his see. Deceived by the specious conduct of
Charles on this interview, and perhaps aware that if he retired he would lose all
authority, or chance of standing between the people of Scotland and persecu-
tion, he returned to his see, and resumed the charge of his sacred functions.
It is almost needless to add, that no reliance could be placed on the promise of
protection from so deceitful a monarch. Matters in Scotland were driven to
such dreadful extremities by the base and tyrannical authorities, that it was im-
possible to bear up much longer against them.

In 1667, Leighton was once more prevailed on to go to London, where he
laid before the king the outrageous conduct of the former administrations of
church affairs, and implored him to adopt more moderate counsels ; in particu-
lar, he proposed a comprehension of the presbyterian party, by altering the
terms of the laws a little, and by such abatements as might preserve the whole
for the future, by giving a little for the present. This audience had the good
effect of inducing the king to write a letter to the privy council, ordering them
to indulge such of the presbyterians as were moderate and loyal, so far as to
suffer them to serve in vacant churches ; though they did not submit to the ec-
clesiastical establishment This small indulgence enraged the episcopal party
in Scotland ; they thought it illegal and fatal to the interests of the church,
and directed an address to be drawn up expressive of their sentiments, though
they did not venture to present it A copy, however, was privately sent up
to the court, and drew down the king's resentment on the head of the
archbishop of Glasgow. When parliament assembled, an act was obtained,
a clause of which declared the settling of all things relating to the external
government of the church, to be the right of the crown. This clause,
Leighton informed Burnet, was surreptitiously inserted after the draught and
form of the act was agreed upon, and was generally thought to be the work
of Lauderdale. Such a fearful stretch of the prerogative alarmed both episco-
palians and presbyterians ; the former said it assimilated the king to a pope ;
the latter, that it placed him in Christ's stead. The archbishop of Glasgow
thought it prudent immediately to resign his see, as he dreaded the coming
storm, and knew he had no other chance of escaping its vengeance. Lauder-
dale and lord Tweeddale fixed upon Leighton, and immediately offered to
have him promoted to that high dignity; but, though eagerly solicited by these
noble lords, he respectfully declined the appointment The king at last sent
for him, and promised that he should be backed by the assistance of the court,
in his endeavours to accomplish his long-meditated and favourite scheme of a
comprehension of the presbyterians. He was at length persuaded to comply,
and in 1670, he, without removing from Dumblane, undertook the administra-
tion of the see of Glasgow ; nor was he at all willing to be consecrated arch-

386 ROBERT LEIGHTON.

bishop until a year after. The plan of accommodation between the episcopalians
and presbyterians, the particulars of which may be seen in Burnet's history,
was, by the king's directions, limited to certain instructions, by which Lauder-
dale was empowered to embody the concessions that were to be offered into laws.
Encouraged even by this support, Leighton had frequent conferences with some
of the most eminent presbyterian ministers, but in vain ; he found it impossible
to gain them over even to the most moderate form of episcopacy. It is evident
the presbyterians mistrusted the overture in question, and looked upon it as a
snare to lull their vigilance ; and they had already too many deceitful examples
in a former reign to think that the friends of prelacy were now either more
humane or honourable. The result of these negotiations grieved Leighton very
much, while they delighted Sharpe and all of the same party, to whom every
thing like liberality or concession in favour of peace and religion was alike un-
known or despised. They even went so far as to hint, in very intelligible terms,
that under the mask of moderation, he was secretly undermining their cause.
Being thus unhappily situated, and despairing of being able to carry his great de-
signs of healing the divisions and reforming the abuses in the church, he resolved
to relinquish his see, and retire into seclusion. He said " that his work seemed
to be at an end, and that he had no more to do, unless he had a mind to please
himself with the lazy enjoying of a good revenue." His friend, Dr Burnet, en-
deavoured all in his power to make him give up this idea, but all to no purpose ;
the good man was resolute. He repaired to London, and after much difficulty
obtained the king's reluctant consent to his resignation, on condition that ho
would remain in office for another year. The court thought it possible in the
interval that he might be gained over to remain and assist a cause fast falling
into hatred and contempt, by his pious and venerable name. He returned
" much pleased with what he had obtained, and said to Dr Burnet upon it, that
there was now but one uneasy stage between him and rest, and he would wrestle
through it the best he could." He continued to perform his duties with tho
same zeal as before, and at the end of the year 1673, he hastened to London,
and tendered his resignation, and was succeeded by the former possessor of the
see, Dr Alexander Burnet.8 After residing for some time in the college of
Edinburgh, where he had long been principal, amongst a set of select friends,

* The following paper was left by Leighton for the purpose of explaining his reasons
for resigning the see of Glasgow. It has been preserved in the university of Edinburgh,
over which he so long and ably presided.

" Whatsoever others may, judge, they that know what past before my engaging in this
charge, will not (I believe,) impute my retreat from it from levitie or unfixedness of mind,
considering how often I declared before hand, baith by word and write, the great suspicion I
had that my continuance in it would be very short ; neither is it from any sudden passion or
sullen discontent that I have now resigned it ; nor do I know any cause imaginable for any
such thing, but the true reasons of my retiring are plainly and briefly these :

" 1. The sense I have of the dreadful weight of whatsoever charge of souls, and all kinds of
spiritual inspection over people ; but'much more over ministers ; and withall of my own ex-
treme unworthiness and unfitness for so high a station in the church ; and there is an episco-
pal act that is above all the rest most formidable to me — the ordaining of ministers.

"2. The continuing and deeply increasing divisions and contentions, and many other dis-
orders of the church, and the little or no appearance of their cure for our time, and the little
hope, amidst those contentions and disorders, of doing any thing in this station to promote the
great design of religion in the hearts and lives of men, which were the only worthy reasons of
continuing in it, though it were with much pains and reluctance.

" 3. The earnest desire I have long had of a retired and private life, which is now much
increased by sicklyness and old age drawing on, and the sufficient experience I have of tha
folly and vanity of the world.

" To add any farther discourse, a large apologie in this matter were to no purpose ; but in-
stead of removing other mistakes and misconstructions, would be apt to expose me to one
more, for it would look like too much valuing either of myself or of the world s opinion, both
of which I think I have so much reason to despise." — Bower's History of the University of
Edinburgh, vol. i. App. No. 6.

ROBERT LEIGHTON. 387

equally distinguished for their learning and piety, he removed to Broadhurst,
an estate in Sussex belonging to his sister Mrs Lightwater, for whom he enter-
tained the strongest affection. Here he lived ten years, occupied in study,
meditation, and prayer, and doing all the good in his power. He distri-
buted through the hands of other persons whatever he possessed beyond the
means of subsistence, — so unostentatious was he in his charity. He was in every
instance through life most generous in pecuniary matters. When principal of
the college of Edinburgh he presented the city with £150, the income of which
was destined for the support of a student in philosophy. The college, of Glas-
gow is also indebted to him for two bursaries, or for a sum the interest of which
is to be appropriated to support two students. On the hospital of St Nicholas,
Glasgow, he bestowed £150, the proceeds of which were to be given to two poor
men of good character. Three such persons are now enjoying the benefit of
that sum, which yields £4, 10s. annually to each of them. This forme but a
small specimen of the good works he performed during his long and valuable
life.

Five years after he had retired from the business of active life, he was sur-
prised and alarmed at receiving from his sovereign the following epistle :

Windsor, July 16, 1679.
Mr Lord, — I am now resolved to try what clemency can prevail upon such in Scotland as
will not conform to the government of the church there ; for effecting of which design I de-
sire you may go down to Scotland with your first convenience, and take all possible pains for per-
suading all you can of both opinions to as much mutual correspondence and concord as may
be ; and send me from time to time, characters of both men and things. In order to this
design I shall send you a preceipt for two hundred pounds sterling upon my exchequer, till you
resolve how to serve me in a stated employment. Your loving friend,

CHARLES R.
For the Bishop of Dumblane.

Leighton was now in his sixty-eighth year ; and however flattering such a
notice might be to a mind of an inferior grade, to his, which was exclusively bent
on preparing for a heavenly kingdom, it gave only pain and apprehension. What
were the vain disputes of angry men to him ? besides, he could have little or no
hopes in succeeding in the mission. He was saved, however, the trouble of
trying the experiment, as the duke of Monmouth, with whom the humane plan
originated, fell into discredit, and the offer made to Leighton was never again re-
newed. This was the only serious interruption he met with in his retirement,
Burnet saw him two years after, and says, " I was amazed to see him at above
seventy look so fresh and well, that age seemed as it were to stand still with
him. His hair was still black, and all his motions were lively ; he had the
same quickness of thought, and strength of memory ; but above all, the same
heat and life of devotion that I had ever seen him in." — " When I took notice
to him," continues this celebrated writer, " upon'my first seeing him, how well he
looked, he told me he was very near his end for all that, and his work and
journey were now almost done. This at the time made no great impression on me.
He was next day taken with an oppression, and it seemed with cold and with
stitches, which was indeed a pleurisy." This disease he foretold was doomed to
be his last; he grew so suddenly ill, that speech and sense almost immedi-
ately left him ; and in twelve hours after the first attack, he breathed his last,
without a struggle, in the arms of his long-revered and faithful friend Dr Burnet,
on the 26th June, 1684, at the advanced age of seventy-four. The place in which
his pure spirit departed from its earthly tenement was an inn in Warwick Lane,
London ; and it is somewhat singular that he often used to say, that if he had

388 GENERAL SIR JAMES LEITH, G.C.B.

the power to choose a place to breathe his last in, it would be an inn. ** It
looked," he said, " like a pilgrim's going home, to whom this world was all aa
inn, and who was weary of the noise and confusion of it." He thought, too,
that the distress of friends and relations at the time of death was apt to with-
draw the mind from serious thoughts ; to keep it from being wholly directed to
God. He bequeathed his books to the cathedral of Dumblane, and the residue
of his limited fortune to his sister, Mrs Lightwater, and her son, to be distributed
as they thought fit to charitable purposes. After the character already given of
him by his friend Burnet, it would be superfluous to add anything here.3

His body was interred in the burial ground of Horstead Heynes, in the parish
which for ten years had been honoured by his residence. A simple inscription
marks the spot where his remains are laid.4 The family of his sister is
now extinct, and the estate is in the hands of another. His brother Sir Elisha,
it may be here stated, died a few months before him, and was interred in the
same place.

LEITH, (General) Sir James, G.C.B., a hero of the Peninsular war, was tho
third son of John Leith, Esq. of Leithliall, Aberdeenshire, where he was born,
on the 8th of August, 1763. He was educated first under a private tutor, and
afterwards at the university of Aberdeen; and even in his boyish years was noted
for an intrepidity and generosity of nature which gave promise of no common
career. At Lisle he perfected himself in the studies suitable for a military life,
and in 1780 entered the army, having been appointed to a second lieutenant's
command in the 21st regiment, from which he was soon after raised to the rank
of lieutenant and captain in the 81st Highland regiment. At the peace in 1783,
he removed to the 5th regiment, then at Gibraltar, and was appointed aide- de-
camp to Sir Robert Boyd, governor of the fort. Upon the appointment of
general O'Hara to serve at Toulon, he was engaged in the defence of that
station, against the French republican army, as his aide-de-camp. He served
major-general David Dundas in a similar capacity, and upon the British forces
being withdrawn from Toulon, he returned to England, being appointed major
by brevet in 1794.

Major Leith raised a regiment of fencibles in Aberdeenshire, at the head of
which he served in Ireland during the rebellion. He was there successively
raised to the rank of colonel, brigadier general, and major-general. He was
next ordered to active service in the Peninsula. He joined the British army
under Sir John Moore, being at first appointed to the command of the 26th and
81st regiments, which he afterwards exchanged for the brigade of the 51st,
59th, and 76th. Napoleon had now taken possession of Madrid, defeated the
army of the Estremadura, and retiring to the north of Europe, left marshals
Soult and Ney to follow up the British army, which at this late season of the
year, and under many disadvantages, had made good their retreat to Corunna. Sir
John Hope's division had been ordered to keep in check the French corps, which
had bivouacked on the heights opposite Lugo ; and on 7th January, 1 809, they
attacked major-general Leith's brigade, with four pieces of cannon, on the side
of a ravine which separated the two armies ; but were gallantly repulsed by

3 The writings of archbishop Leighton are thus enumerated in Watt's Bibliotheca Britan-
nica: — "Sermons, LondoD, 1692, 4to. l'relectiones Theologies, 1C93, 4to. A l'ractical
Commentary on the two first chapters of the First Epistle of St Peter, York, 1693, 2 vols.
4to ; also in 2 vols. 8vo, — an admirable Commentary, which has been often reprinted.
Three 1'osthumous Tracts; viz. Rules for a Holy Life; a Sermon ; and a Catechism, Lon-
don, 17(8, 12mo." The best edition of Leighton's whole works is that by Jarment, in 6 vol3.
8vo, 18 6

4 Depositum Robert! Leightounii, Archiepiscopi Glasguensis, apud Scotus, qui obiit xxv.
die Junii anno Dui, 1684, aetatis suae 74.

GENERAL SIR JAMES LEITH, 6.C.B. 389

general Leith, who, at the head of his light companies, drove them into
the ravine, and dispersed them. When the British had reached Corunna,
after one of the most arduous retreats ever undertaken, in the depth of winter,
and the minds both of men and officers were cast down with the hardships of their
situation, they encamped in front of the town, that they might afford protection
to the harbour and the commissariat ; the fleet not having yet arrived from Vigo.
The French army, having passed the river on the 16th January, 1809, occu-
pied the rising ground above the village of Burgos : their left was protected
by the wood above the village of Elvina, and their right rested on the great
road from Betanzos, under the command of marshal Soult. The third column
of the enemy, directing from its centre an attack against the left of the guards
and the 81st regiment, general Leith, being ordered to place himself at the
head of the 59th, made a charge, principally with the grenadiers of the regi-
ment, and forced the enemy to retreat upon his position ; while major-general
Paget, with part of the reserve, bravely sustained an attack on the British
right, and threatened to outflank the enemy. The heavy cannonade kept up
by the French, in which they had a decided advantage, did fatal execution ;
but the village on the El Burgo road, that had been occupied by a column
which prevented the British from sending succours to the chief points of attack,
being carried by part of the 1 4th regiment, under the command of lieutenant-
colonel Nicolls, at the point of the bayonet, the enemy retired to his command-
ing position. The advanced posts of the British took possession of their
original station, and the darkness of the night put a stop to a battle in which
the chief by his bravery, and the sacrifice of his own life, redeemed the honour
of the British army from a retreat allowed to have been somewhat precipitate.

Having been, in September, 1810, appointed to the command of a corps of
10,000 men, general Leith was next engaged in the affair of Busaco in
Spain, where the whole French army, under marshal Massena was assembled.
This corps was stationed between the division of Sir Roland Hill on his right,
flanked by the Mondego river and the third division on his left. At break of
day, the guns at the convent of Busaco opened a heavy fire, and a serious attack
was made on the third division posted on that part of the Sierra, near the great
road to St Antonio de Cantara. General Leith moved to the support of this
division, but meeting with a strong column of the enemy on their way to this
point, he quickly brought up colonel Barnes' brigade, the 9th and 38th regi-
ments, to the head of the column ; and, after a well managed fire, drove them
at the head of the 9th regiment, from their position. The light troops of the
third division were already driven back from the heights, with loss, by the enemy ;
but with that promptitude and firmness for which he was distinguished, general
Leith attacked them by a rapid movement, and, after a brilliant charge at the
head of the 9th or 88th regiment, before they had time to form or collect in
numbers, general Regnier was obliged to desist, while the column which at-
tacked the left was driven into the valley of Mondego. In this engagement
seven thousand of the enemy were either slain or taken prisoners ; and, in con-
sequence of it, Massena's direct communication with Lisbon was obstructed.
Had general Trant arrived in time at the position of Sardao, as lord Wellington
had expected, the French army would have been placed in a very critical situa-
tion, and with difficulty have escaped.

Lord Wellington was now reinforced by two divisions, the fifth, which was
committed to the charge of major-general Leith, consisting of major-general Hay's,
major-general Dunlop's, and brigadier-general Spry's brigades ; and the sixth,
commanded by major-general Campbell. The British army was now encamped
in the strongholds of the Torres-Vedras, covering the town of Lisbon, to take

390 GENERAL SIR JAMES LEITH, G.C.B.

which the enemy found impracticable, and soon retreated. But general Leith,
Buffering a se?ere attack from the Walcheren fever, was under the necessity of
leaving Lisbon and returning to England. The Frencli now made a rapid
retreat, and being pursued by Wellington, were speedily driven from Portugal,
with the exception of one garrison at Almeida. Having rejoined the army
which had taken possession of Ciudad Rodrigo, general Leith sat down before
the fortress of Badajos. The siege of this fortified place had been commenced
on the 16th March, and a fire being opened on the 25th, with twenty-eight
pieces of ordnance, the outwork called La Picurnia was stormed by five
hundred men of the third division ; the second parallel was opened, and twenty-
six pieces of cannon were directed against the bastion of the south-east angle
of the fort called La Trinidad, the flank of Santa Maria, and the curtain of La
Trinidad, where three breaches were effected. The fourth and light divisions,
which during the siege had occupied the ground that was now assigned to the
fifth, under major-general Leith, were appointed to attack the trenches on the
bastions of La Trinidad and Santa Maria. The honourable major-general Colville,
with the fourth and light divisions under colonel Barnard, proceeded by the
river Rivellas, descended without difficulty into the ditch, and advanced to the
assault of the trenches with great bravery ; but from the numerous explosions
which took place at the top of the breaches, the whole place appearing
to be one mine, and throwing out bullets, they were unable to enter. The
governor, Philippon, allowed to be one of the best engineers in the French
service, had provided for the defence of the breaches, by placing a cheveaux
de frise, its beam a foot square, with points projecting a yard in every
direction, across the gorge, and by fastening to the ground, around the mouth
of the breach, pieces of wood with sword blades and bayonets, besides placing
a column of soldiers behind, eight deep. An incessant fire was kept up by the
front ranks, which were supplied with loaded pieces by those who stood behind.
Major Wilson, of the 48th regiment, which had been sent against the Ravelin
of San Roque, had carried it by the gorge, and with the assistance of major
Squire, established himself in the place.

In the mean time, lieutenant-general Leith, who had been directed to make
a false attack on the Pardaleras, and, if possible, escalade the bastion of
San Vicente, had executed the former part of his order with the eighth cacadores
under major Hill. He now pushed forward major-general Walker's brigade
on the left, supported by the 3Sth regiment, under lieutenant-colonel Nugent,
with which he proceeded about eleven o'clock to the attack of this almost im-
pregnable fortress. He forced the barrier on the road to Olivenza, and entering
the covered way at the bastion of San Vicente, descended into the ditch, and
was already at the foot of the scarp of the bottom, which was thirty-one feet
six inches high, defended by a flank with four guns, with a counter scarp
wall, eleven feet nine inches deep, and a ditch. Of all the other divisions
engaged in the reduction of this fortress, the third or fighting division alone
had been able to execute their orders; this, under the gallant lieutenant-
general Picton, had forced the palisadoes, passed the ditches, surmounted the
wall, twenty-six feet high, with ladders, and, exposed to a heavy fire and severe
loss, fought its way to the castle, which eventually was taken. The fourth
division, in endeavouring to mount the breach of La Trinidad and Santa
Maria, was obliged to retire on its reserves in the quarries by means of a
strong concentrated and cross fire. But general Leith, who set all calculation
at defiance, and was exposed to a most destructive fire while yet on the glacis,
neglecting entirely the flanks, escaladed the bastion of San Vicente with
less than twelve ladders, and in the face of the enemy, who lined the works.

GENERAL SIR JAMES LEITH, G.C.B. 301

mounted the ramparts, thirty-one and a half feet high, drove the defenders be-
fore him, and thus gave the signal of victory, by taking possession of the town.
He now silenced the batteries near the breach, which had greatly annoyed the
third division, opened a communication at the breaches for the light and
fourth divisions to enter, and the sound of the trumpets giving the signal of ad-
vance, was now heard in every direction, while the enemy, distracted on all
hands, were able to make but a feeble resistance. This escalade, which
has been considered by the historians of the peninsular war, as an extraordinary
instance of British valour and intrepidity, was decisive as to the fate
of Badajos. The fortress quickly yielded to the allied troops, and the British
flag was quickly seen waving over its battlements, the French eagle being
trampled in the dust, but not before seven hundred alone of the fifth division
were either killed or wounded.

Lord Wellington now pushed forward to Salamanca, the depot for the army
of Portugal, where the duke of Ragusa had left a garrison of eight hundred
men, and encamped his army on the plain of Yillares, a position at no great
distance. The convent of San Vicente was reduced by means of hot shot, Gaye-
tano carried, and these, together with another fort, entirely destroyed. The
French and British armies, — the former of which was vastly superior, after
several unsuccessful attempts to bring each the other into action, — marched
in column simultaneously along the heights, by parallel movements, in the
direction of Salamanca, frequently cannonading and skirmishing; The duke
of Ragusa on the left bank of the river Douro, occupied one of the Arapiles, his
left resting upon an extensive forest ; an important station, where he could
readily annoy the communication with Ciudad Rodrigo, and otherwise embar-
rass the British army in its movements. In making a feint opposite the fifth
division, however, and bringing forward his left wing in a direction parallel al-
most with the right of the British, and apparently to force their post on the
Arapiles and annoy them on the right, he extended his army too far ; and
lord Wellington, who had determined to retire into his stronghold at Ciudad
Rodrigo, observing this [favourable opportunity, resolved to give battle, and
for this purpose rapidly moved the third division across the valley to the left
of the enemy, from the extreme right on the Ciudad Rodrigo road, where it had
commenced its retreat, and attacked them by surprise on the flank. The main
body of Marmont's army had crossed the Tomes by the fords of Huerta. To
the left of the British cavalry stood the fourth and fifth divisions, which ex-
tended in two lines to the foot of the Arapiles, near the Portuguese regiments ;
the first and light divisions being drawn up to the left of the Arapiles, and the
sixth and seventh kept in reserve. Lieutenant-general Leith, having opened
himself upon brigadier-general Bradford's Portuguese brigade, when it came
parallel with his front line, was ordered to direct his march to the heights, and
dislodge the enemy. In conjunction with the fourth and fifth divisions, the front
was attacked by brigadier-general Bradford's brigade, and the cavalry under
the command of Sir Stapleton Cotton. This order was the more welcome, as
the fifth division had been for an hour exposed to a galling and murderous fire ;
and having equalized the two lines into which it had been divided, and
regulated the advance, the gallant captain, afterwards colonel Leith Hay, M.P.,
who had at this time a horse killed under him, was despatched as aid-de-camp
with an order for the light infantry in front to clear the line of march
of the enemy's voltigeurs, and secure, if practicable, some of the most
advanced of their guns, which amounted to twenty, opposite the fifth division
alone. General Bradford's brigade, and the heavy cavalry of general Le Mer-
chant, which had been on the right of the fifth, moved in unison with that

392 GENERAL SIR JAMES LEITH, G.C.B.

division. The second line of the division was about a hundred yards in the
rear of the first, and between these at one time lord Wellington was stationed,
while watching the progress of the attack. In front rode general Leith,
directing its movements and regulating tbe approach of the troops, who had
formed into squares : and when with his staff he reached the summit of
the eminence, where the artillery which had so annoyed them had been placed,
about a mile from his former station, he found the enemy drawn up in contiguous
squares, the front rank kneeling, and ready to pour their murderous shot into
the British line. A heavy fire commenced as soon as they broke over
the heights, and discharging their musketry when about thirty yards from the
enemy, the fifth raised a shout of triumph, advanced to the charge, and at the
point of the bayonet, pierced the enemy's squares, which were soon put into
disorder and broken, the cavalry having cut in pieces a body of their infantry.
The victorious fifth pressed forward, supported on the right flank by the heavy
cavalry of Le Merchant, while general Pakenham, brother-in-law to lord Wel-
lington, at the head of the third division and the Portuguese cavalry of
D'LTrban, turned the enemy's left in four columns, and attacking them in flank
overthrew everything that opposed them. For a time the fourth division were
unable to drive back Bonnet's column, which outflanked it ; but on the ap-
proach of the fifth and sixth divisions, which came to their assistance, the other
parts of the French army being already in disorder, they Avere driven back in
confusion on the centre of the French army, and the third and fifth pressing
forward, had the honour of deciding the battle of Salamanca, although the other
parts of the British army fought bravely, and upheld the glory of the British
name. General Leith, who had stationed himself in front of the colours of the
thirty-eighth regiment, still maintained his position between the two hostile
fires, and drove the enemy before him ; but during this tremendous charge,
while in the act of breaking the French squares, he received a severe wound
which eventually caused him to quit the field. The right wing of the enemy's
army was the last to give way, but being charged by the sixth, third, and fifth
divisions in front, and pressed on the right by the fourth, light, and Portuguese
divisions, it at length fled through the woods towards the Tonr.es, and was pur-
sued by a brigade of the fourth, and some squadrons of cavalry, until night put
a stop to the chase. The loss of the fifth division alone, was eight hundred,
killed and wounded. The loss of the other divisions of the British army was
equally severe, amounting in all to eight hundred and forty killed, and four
thousand seven hundred and twenty-three wounded ; but that of the enemy
under Marmont, who was himself wounded by an howitzer shell, was twenty-two
thousand killed, and seven thousand prisoners, out of an army amounting to
between forty-six and fifty thousand men.

General Leith and his aid-de-camp, captain Leith Hay, who was also severely
wounded, were carried to the village of Las Torres, and from thence to the house
of the marquis Escalla in Salamanca, where the victory was celebrated by song and
sequidillas,and every demonstration of joy. The distinguished merit of lieutenant-
general Leith during the peninsular war was rewarded by conferring upon him
the insignia of the Bath, as a special mark of his Royal Highness the Prince
Regent's favour, " for his distinguished conduct in the action fought near
Corunna and in the battle of Busaco ; for his noble daring at the assault and cap-
ture of Badajos by storm ; and for his heroic conduct in the ever memorable
action fought on the plains of Salamanca, where, in personally leading the fifth
division to a most gallant and successful charge upon a part of the enemy's line,
which it completely overthrew at the point of the bayonet, he and the whole of
his personal staff were severely wounded." Several other marks of royal favour,

GENERAL SIR JAMES LEITH, G.C.B. 393

in the spirit of ancient chivalry, were conferred upon him. His majesty gave
his royal license and command " that to the armorial ensigns of his family, being
a cross crosslet fitchee between three crescents in chief, and as many fusils in
base, he may bear the following honourable augmentation, viz., on a chief, a
bastion of a fortification intended to represent San Vicente, the British ensign
hoisted on the angle, and the two faces near the salient angle, surmounted each
by two scaling ladders; and the following crest of honourable augmentation,
viz., out of a mural crown inscribed with the word ' Salamanca,' a demi-lion,
regardant quitte de sang, in the mouth and sinister paw an eagle, or standard
reversed, the staff broken, intended to represent the French standard taken by
the said fifth division of his majesty's army in the said ever memorable battle of
Salamanca, to be borne and used with the motto ' Badajos,' by the said Sir
James Leith, and by his descendants, as a memorial to them and to his
majesty's beloved subjects in general, of the sense which his Royal Highness
entertains of his loyalty, ability, and valour ; provided the said armorial dis-
tinction be first duly exemplified, according to the law of arms." The hero of
Badajos and Salamanca, for so he is virtually acknowledged to be by this mark
of royal favour, was also permitted to wear the insignia of an honorary knight
commander of the Portuguese royal military order of the Tower and Sword,
conferred upon him as a mark of distinction for his bravery, by the government
of that country. '

In April, 1813, the subject of our memoir, from the effects of the
Walcheren fever which he still felt, and the severe wound which he had
received, Mas obliged to retire to England. Subsequently to this period,
the British army, under its renowned leader, the marquis of Wellington, took
the offensive, and defeated the army of the south, the army of Portugal, and
the army of the centre, under marshal Jordan in the battle of Vittoria, and
compelled Joseph Bonaparte, who had been crowned king of Spain, to retire
and quit that country. The marquis was successful in the battles of the Pyrenees,
and resumed the siege of San Sabastian, which had been interrupted by the
advance of the enemy. San Sabastian is situated in a peninsula, on the
extremity of which rises a conical rock, of remarkable appearance, called
Monte Orgullo, where the castle stands, distinctly separated from the town, by
an outer line of defence. The town, previously to the siege, contained a large
population ; its northern wall being washed by the- river Urumea, the southern
by the sea ; and the western defences consist of a double line of works. It
was a place of great strength, and possessed a garrison of four thousand troops.
The siege had been commenced by the fifth division of the army, and two
Portuguese brigades, under lieutenant-general Sir Thomas Graham ; but it Avas
not till the 23rd of July, that two breaches, one of them one hundred feet in
length, had been effected, when an attempt was made to take the citadel, and
the British were driven back, after they had penetrated into the town, with the
loss of nine hundred men. Lord Wellington ordered another assault, after re-
connoitering the breaches o. the 31st of August, and as Sir James Leith had
now joined the army, the immediate command of the storm was intrusted to
this brave officer. The sea wall having been levelled to the ground, the storm
commenced at the two breaches, which were in the same curtain, at eleven in
the forenoon, when the fall of the tide had left the wall dry ; and in ap-
proaching, there was but one point where it was possible to enter, as the inside
of the wall to the right of the curtain formed a perpendicular scarp of at least
twenty feet to the level of the streets, and every point which bore upon the nar-
row passage was covered with men protected by intrenchments and traverses,
who poured their destructive and successful fire upon the assailants as they ap-

394 GENERAL SIR JAMES LEITH, G.C.B.

proached. Many volunteers from the other divisions of the army had joined
the fifth division, and, notwithstanding the bravery of the troops, and the
judicious arrangements of Sir James Leith, as they advanced they were mowed
down like grass by the musketry of the defenders, particularly from the horn-
work, and the shell and grape shot from the batteries of the castle. The storm
had now become a desperate one ; but the presence of their commander,
who stood in a commanding and most exposed situation, about thirty yards
in advance of the debouche from the trenches, and who conducted the attack
in a truly heroic style, inspired them with unshaken confidence as tliey
threaded their way through the large masses of the Avail thrown down by the
explosion of two mines ; and general Robinson's brigade advanced to the breach,
although for a long time no one outlived the attempt to gain the ridge of the
wall. As they filed onwards they stumbled over their prostrate companions ;
and so great was the slaughter, that Sir James was obliged to send a staff officer
with directions to remove the dead and the dying for the passage of the troops,
About the same time, Sir James Leith was thrown to the earth in an insensible
state by the rebound of a plunging shot which had struck the ground ; but re-
fusing to quit the field, he continued to issue his orders in his usual precise
and energetic manner, and while he was himself stooping to the ground
cheered forward his troops.

Major-general Hay's division, consisting of the Royals, ninth and thirty-
eighth regiments, and a column of Portuguese infantry, forded the Urumea,
and reached the lesser breach, under a very heavy and destructive fire. The
British had persevered under a most murderous shower of round shot, grape,
and musketry, to force an entrance into the town for two hours ; and general
Robinson's brigade had ascended to the crest, where he was severely wounded,
whilst a fire of artillery had been directed against the curtain, passing only a
few feet over their heads on the breach, which produced an immediate and ad-
vantageous effect. But although the exterior wall was completely beaten down,
together with the houses fronting the interior, the inner retaining wall which
added greatly to the strength of the curtain, was as perfect and perpendicular
as at first, varying from sixteen to thirty-five feet of altitude from the level of
the town. Forty-seven pieces of heavy ordnance, playing from the chofTres
and hills, over the heads of the British troops, a mode of attack which evinced
the resolution and self-confidence of colonel Dickson and Sir Thomas Graham,
who had recourse to it, as well as the skill of the British artillery, dispersed
the fire of musketry, soon dismounted all the guns but two, and had the ef-
fect of driving the enemy back. To descend into the town by the breaches
was yet found impracticable, for the enemy had constructed traverses, behind
which were stationed French grenadiers, who put to death in safety the gallant
soldiers, as they attempted the passage, capable of admitting only one at
a time ; and yet their commander was convinced, and by his personal courage
had shown that he was so, that British troops were invincible, and would do
what human power could accomplish. A great explosion had taken place along
the line of the wall, of fire barrels, live shells, and hand grenades, which had
been placed in rear of the traverses by the besieged, and cleared it of the
enemy. Under the panic occasioned by this catastrophe, the soldiers of
general Hay's brigade, now commanded by colonel Greville, the Royal Scots,
and ninth regiment, under colonel Cameron, entered by the passage along the
curtain, close to the exterior wall, which was capable of admitting only one at
a time ; and charging the enemy at the point of the bayonet, down the flight
of steps which led from the cavalier bastion, entered the town, and maintained
their ground. Sir James Leith, who had long directed the progress of the

GENERAL SIR JAMES LEITH, G.C.B. 395

assault from the strand at no great distance from the great breach, and who was
completely exposed to the fire of the enemy, while in the act of directing ad-
ditional support from the trenches, had before this time been wounded by the
bursting of a shell near hiui, which broke his arm in two places, tearing the
flesh from his left hand, and was reluctantly carried from the field, after
fainting from loss of blood. In passing through the trenches he was recognised
by the ninth regiment, whose dangers he had so often shared, who spontane-
ously cried out, that they should not return until the fifth division was crowned
with victory, and the citadel of San Sebastian was taken. Soon afterwards
Sir Richard Fletcher, the chief engineer, who had continued with Sir James
during the siege, was killed by a musket ball, which pierced his heart.

The command was now taken by major-general Hay, who conducted with
ability the attack to the last ; and the issue was no longer doubtful, for
the troops easily rushing forward, the hornwork was carried ; the ruined
fragments of the houses poured forth the assailants ; the Portuguese detach-
ments carried the lesser breach ; and although the commander of the brave
garrison, general Hoy, had raised traverses across the streets, which were
defended by cannon, one street was taken after another, till the allies
gradually gained possession of the town, and at three o'clock, this awful and
murderous struggle terminated, which had raged with unabated fury during a
period of four hours, and was maintained by both parties with desperate gal-
lantry and resolution.

A barbarous scene of pillage and plunder now took place, unworthy of the
British name, and the high character of her soldiers, while on the ISth of Sep-
tember the castle surrendered, and thus the allies obtained possession of this nor-
thern Gibraltar of Spain, as it has been termed, with the loss of five hundred
killed, and fifteen hundred wounded.

Sir James Leith remained for two months in the country, trusting that an
early recovery would permit him to resume his command ; but it was at length
found more advisable to return to England, which he did in November.
He was now appointed commander of the forces in the West Indies,
and captain-general of the Leeward islands, and, sailing to assume his impor-
tant duties, arrived at Barbadoes on the 15th of June, 1814. The revolution-
ary spirit which broke out in France on the restoration of Napoleon, soon ex-
tended itself to the French islands in the West Indies, and Martinique
and Guadaloupe, which Sir James had restored to the crown of France, now at
peace with Britain, soon manifested symptoms of revolt. The former, agreeably
to instructions, was kept in awe by the presence of two thousand British troops,
which were landed at Fort Royal; but at Guadaloupe the tricoloured flag was
soon displayed, and the entire colony declared for the emperor. Transports,
conveying troops, ammunition, and stores, immediately sailed from Barbadoes,
and landed at Saintes, in the neighbourhood of Guadaloupe, which is upwards
of two hundred miles in circumference, and contains a population of a hundred
and ten thousand people. Preparations for war were then made, and Marie-
galante was secured by a detachment of troops. The Comte de Linois,
the French governor, who had organized a large body of militia, and never
believed that the French army could be ready for action before the commence-
ment of the hurricane months, was somewhat taken by surprise; and the
commander of the forces, having despatched eight hundred of the York
rangers near Pautrizel, and an additional reinforcement, they drove the enemy
from Dolet Captain Leith Hay, aid-de-camp to Sir James Leith, obtained
possession of Mome Boucannier, a height which commanded their position at
Palmiste, from which they were dislodged, rapidly pressed their rear

396 ALEXANDER LESLIE.

near Morne Honel, and the heavy rains being now set in, on the 10th of August
Sir James Leith was prepared to give battle, when they agreed to capitulate and
surrender the island.

As a reward for these important services, the privy council voted two thou-
sand pounds for the purchase of a sword ; and the king of France, as a mark of
the sense which he entertained of his great zeal, ability, and bravery, conferred
upon him the grand cordon of the order of military merit. The object of these
honours was soon, however, to be insensible to the pleasure which they were
calculated to bestow. His constitution, shaken by the wounds which he had
received, sank under the sultry climate of the West Indies ; and he died of fever,
after six days' illness, on the 16th of October, 1816.

Sir James Leith is invariably allowed to rank among the very highest of the
excellent officers who seconded the efforts of Wellington during the Peninsular
contest, and to whom that illustrious commander, who has now followed so many
of his companions in arms to the grave, was himself the readiest to attri-
bute the better share of the success which attended him in those memorable
campaigns. He possessed all the qualities which form a great military character
— intrepidity unbounded, or bounded only by the soundness of his judgment j
skill in taking advantage of every contingency; and a genius for contriving,
as well as perseverance and dexterity in executing, the most brilliant enter-
prises. To all these characteristics Sir James added that spirit of humanity,
which forms the crowning grace of this, even more peculiarly than any other
profession.

LESLIE, Alexander, the celebrated military leader of the covenanters,
during the civil wars of Charles I., created lord Balgonie, and afterwards earl
of Leven, was the son of captain George Leslie of Balgonie, by his wife Anne, a
daughter of Stewart of Ballechin. Of the place of his birth, or the extent of
his education, little can be said with certainty. Spalding says, lie was born in
Balveny, which Gordon of Straloch affirms was never possessed by the Leslies,
and, of course, according to hiin, could not be the place of his birth. This, he
supposes to have been Tullich, which lies over against Balveny, on the east side
of the water of Fiddich ; or, perhaps, Kininvie, which lies a mile to the north
of Tullich, on the same water of Fiddich. Gordon adds, that he " was a
natural son of Kininvie's, and that his mother, during her pregnancy, could eat
nothing but wheat bread, and drink nothing but wine, which Kininvie allowed
her to be provided with, although she was nothing but a common servant."
There is, however, much reason to suppose that this account of his birth is only
a cavalier fiction.

Educated for the military profession, Leslie very early in life obtained a
captain's commission in the regiment of Horatio lord de Vere, then employed
in Holland as auxiliaries to the Dutch in fighting for their liberties against the
overwhelming power of Spain. In this service he acquitted himself with singular
bravery, and obtained the reputation of a skilful officer. He afterwards, along
with many thousands of his countrymen, passed into the service of Sweden,
under Gustavus Adolphus, by whom, after many heroic achievements, he was
promoted to the rank of field-marshal with the approbation of the whole army.

In the year 1628, he defended Stralsund, whicii was besieged by the whole
force of the Imperialists, at that time masters of all Germany, that fortress
excepted. Hex*e he acquitted himself with the utmost bravery and skill. The
plague had already broken out in the city, and the outworks were in a most deplo-
rable condition ; yet he compelled count Wallenstein, with a formidable army
and flushed with victory, to raise the siege, after having sustained a sevei'e loss.
The citizens of Stralsund were so sensible of the services of the field-marshal, on

ALEXANDER LESLIE. 397

this occasion, that they made him a handsome present, and had medals struck to
perpetuate their gratitude and the honour of their deliverer. In the year 1635,
he had charters granted to him, his wife, and son, of the barony of Balgonie,
and other lands in the counties of Fife, Berwick, and Roxburgh. He was at
this time serving in Lower Saxony. In the year 1G39, when the cove-
nanters were preparing to resist their sovereign in the field, Leslie returned
from Sweden, where he had continued after the death of Gustavus in
the service of Christina. " This Leslie," says Spalding, " having conquest
from nought wealth and honour, resolved to come home to his native country
of Scotland and settle himself beside his chief, the earl of Rothes, as he
did indeed, and bought fair lands in Fife ; but the earl foreseeing the troubles,
whereof himself was one of the principal beginners, took hold of this Leslie,
who was both wise and stout, acquainted him with the plot, and had his
advice for the furtherance thereof to his power."

It was a fortunate circumstance for the covenanters, that the oppressions to
which they had been subjected, and the persecutions that were evidently pre-
paring for them, were well known on the continent, where thousands of their
fellow countrymen had been shedding their blood in the defence of the religion
and liberties of their fellow protestants, and excited the deepest interest in their
favour. Leslie had undoubtedly been invited home, and he brought a number
of his countrymen along with him, who, having periled their lives for the same
cause among foreigners, could not reasonably be considered as indifferent to its
success among their own countrymen. Half a century had, for the first time
since it was a nation, passed over Scotland without any thing like general war-
fare. The people had, in a great measure, become unaccustomed to its hardships
and its dangers, and the chieftains, such as had been abroad excepted, were
unacquainted with its practice, and ignorant of its details. This defect, by the
return of so many who had been in the wars of Gustavus, was amply supplied.
Leslie was, by the committee of estates, appointed to the chief command ; — many
of his fellow adventurers of less celebrity, yet well acquainted with military
details and the equipment of an army, were dispersed throughout the country,
where they were employed in training the militia, which in those days compre-
hended every man that was able to hear arms, from the age of sixteen to sixty.
By these means, together with a manifesto by the Tables (committees of the four
estates assembled at Edinburgh), entitled, ". State of the Question, and Reasons
for Defensive War," which was circulated so as to meet the eye or the ear of
every individual in the nation, — the covenanters were in a state of preparation
greatly superior to the king, though he had been meditating hostilities long
before he declared them. Though now an old man, little in stature, and
deformed in person, Leslie was possessed of ceaseless activity, as well as consum-
mate skill ; and in both he was powerfully seconded by the zeal of the people in
general. Early apprized of the intentions of Charles, he so managed matters
as to render them entirely nugatory. It was the intention of the latter, while
he advanced with his main force upon his ancient kingdom by the eastern
marches, to enter it previously, or at least simultaneously, on the western
side, with a body of Highlanders and Irish, and by the Firth of Forth
with a strong division of his English army, under his commissioner the
duke of Hamilton. To meet this formidable array, every thing that lay within
the compass of their limited means, was prepared by the covenanters. Military
committees were appointed for every county, who were to see to the assembling
and training of the militia generally, and to forward to the army such levies
and such supplies, as might be from time to time demanded. Smiths were every
where put in requisition for the fabrication of muskets, carbines, pole-axes,

=iJ

398 ALEXANDER LESLIE.

Lochaber axes, and halberts ; magazines to supply the troops were also
provided ; and to call them together when occasion should require, beacons
were provided, and placed in every shire. Arms to the amount of thirty
thousand stand were provided from Holland, in addition to those of home
manufacture,, and a foundry for cannon was established in the Potter Row,
at that time one of the suburbs, now a street of Edinburgh. Leith, the
port of the capital, was, however, still defenceless ; but, aware that the duke
of Hamilton proposed to land there with hostile intentions, it was immediately
resolved to put the place in a posture of defence. The plan of a new fort, the
old defences, of the town being in ruins, was laid down by Sir Alexander
Hamilton, who acted as engineer to Leslie ; and several thousands came sponta-
neously forward to assist iu its erection. Noblemen, gentlemen, and citizens;
men, women, and children; even ladies of quality, claimed the privilege of as-
sisting in forwarding the good work, and in less than a week it was finished,
and the security of Edinburgh was considered complete. Along the coast of
Fife, too, every town was surrounded with batteries mounted with cannon, car-
ried on shore from the ships ; and with the exception of Inchkeith and Inch-
colm, which were somehow neglected, there was not a resting place in the Firth
for an enemy, till he should win it at the point of the pike.

In. the mean time, the duke of Hamilton lying in Yarmouth roads, was com-
manded to sail for the Forth, and by all or any means to " create an awful di-
version." His first sail was no sooner discovered as a speck in the distant
horizon, than the beacons were in a blaze from the one extremity of the country
to the other, and ere he approached the shores of Leith they were lined by up-
wards of twenty thousand intrepid defenders, among whom was his own mother,
mounted on horseback at the head of her vassals, with a pair of pistols in the
holsters before her, with which she declared she would shoot her son with her
own hand the moment he set a hostile foot on shore. Hamilton now found that
he could do nothing. The troops on board his fleet did not exceed five thou-
sand men, all raw young peasants, miserably sea-sick, and many of them
labouring under the small pox. Instead of attempting hostile operations, he
landed his men upon the islands of Inchkeith and Inchcolm, which served him
for hospitals, and contented himself with sending into the town council some
more of Charles's proclamations, which were promised to be laid before the
States, who were expected to meet in a few days. This, as the measure of their
obedience, Hamilton was for the time obliged to accept Of this circumstance,
with the strength which they mustered, he failed not to acquaint his master, ad-
vising him at the same time to negotiate. — We are not detailing the history of
the war, but the part performed in it by an individual, or we should have stated
that Argyle had been sent to the west, where he had seized upon the castle of
Brodick in Arran, where the earl of Antrim was to have first headed his Irish
bands, in consequence of which they were for a time unable to come forward.
The castle of Dumbarton had also been seized by a master-stroke of policy, as that
of Edinburgh now was by the same in war. In the afternoon of the twenty-third
of March, Leslie himself, with a few companies which he had been, according to
his usual custom, training in the outer court-yard of Holyrood house, some of
which he secretly disposed in closes at the head of the Castle Hill, approached
to the exterior gate of the castle, where he called a parley with the captain or
governor, demanding to be admitted. This being refused, lie seemed to retire
from the gate, when a petard which he had hung against it, burst and laid it open.
The inner gate was instantly assailed with axes, and scaling- ladders were applied to
the wall, by which the covenanters gained immediate admission ; while the gar-
rison, panic-struck with the sudden explosion and the vigour of the attack, sur-

ALEXANDER LESLIE. 399

rendered without offering any resistance. The castles of Dalkeith, Douglas, and
Strathaven in Clydesdale, and, in short, all the castles of the kingdom, °with the
exception of that of Carlaverock, were seized in the same manner. Huntly,
who was making dispositions in the north to side with Charles, had also in the
interim been kidnapped by Montrose, so that he had actually not the shadow of
a party in the whole kingdom. Towards the end of May, the king beginning
to move from York, where he had fixed his head-quarters, towards the north
the army under Leslie was ordered southward to meet him. The final muster
of the army, previous to the march, took place on the Links of Leitli, on the
20th of May, 1639, when from twelve to sixteen thousand men made their
appearance, well armed in the German fashion, and commanded by native of-
ficers whom they respected as their natural superiors, or by their own coun-
trymen celebrated for their hardihood, and that experience in military affairs
which they had acquired abroad. With the exception of one German trum-
peter, there was not a foreigner among them : all were Scotsmen, brought im-
mediately from the hearths and the altars which it was the object of the war to
defend. The private men were, for the most part, ploughmen from the western
counties ; stout rustics whose bodies were rendered muscular by healthy exer-
cise, and whose minds were exalted by the purest feelings of patriotism and reli-
gion. It was on this day that they were properly constituted an army, by hav-
ing the articles of war read to them. These had been drawn out by Leslie with
the advice of the Tables, after the model of those of Gustavus Adolphus, and a
printed copy of them was delivered to every individual soldier. The general
himself, at the same time, took an oath to the Estates, acknowledging hi mself in
all things liable both to civil and ecclesiastical censure. Leslie had by this time
acquired not only the respect and confidence, but the love of the whole com-
munity, by the judgment with which all his measures were taken, and the zeal
he displayed in the cause ; a zeal, the sincerity of which was sufficiently attested
by the fame of his exploits in Germany, and by the scars which he bore on his
person in consequence of these exploits. He was deformed, old, and mean in
his appearance ; but the consummate skill which he displayed, and the piety
of his deportment, rendered him, acrording to Baillie, who was along with
him, a more popular and respected general than Scotland had ever enjoyed in
the most warlike and beloved of her kings. With the van of this army, which
was but a small part of the military array of Scotland at this time, Leslie
marched for the borders on the 21st of May, the main body following him
in order. He was abundantly supplied on his march, and at every successive
stage found that his numbers were increased, and his stock of provisions be-
coming more ample. The first night he reached Haddington, the second Dun-
bar, and the third Dunglass, a strong castle at the east end of Lammermoor,
where he halted and threw up some intrenchments. Charles, in the mean
time, advanced to the borders, indulging in the most perfect assurance of driving
the Scottish insurgents before him. Learning from his spies, however, that they
were within a day's march of him, and so well marshalled that the result of a
contest would be at best doubtful, he ordered a trumpet to be sent with letters
from himself to the Scottish army, conveying overtures of a friendly nature, but
forbidding them to approach within ten miles of his camp, and on this demons-
tration of their temporal obedience, promising that all their just supplications
should be granted. Finding them disposed to an amicable agreement, Charles
advanced his camp to the Birks, on the banks of the Tweed, and directed the
earl of Holland, his general of horse, to proceed with thirteen troops of cavalry,
three thousand foot, and a number of field-pieces, to drive some regiments of
the covenanters which had been stationed at Kelso and Jedburgh under .colonel

400 ALEXANDER LESLIE.

Robert Munro, for the protection of the borders, from their station, as bein<*
within the limits stipulated with the noblemen who commanded the main bodv.
Proceeding, in the execution of his order, to Dunse, the first town that lay in
his way within the Scottish border, the earl of Holland found it totally deserted
of its inhabitants, except a very few, who heard him read a proclamation, de-
claring the whole Scottish nation, especially all who were in arms and did not
immediately lay them down, traitors. Proceeding westward to Kelso, and hav-
ing reached a height overlooking the town, he found the Scottish troops in the
act of being drawn out to recehe him. Startled at their appearance, Holland
sent forward a trumpeter, to command them to retire according to the promise
of their leaders. His messenger was met by a stern demand whose trumpeter
he was, and on answering that he was lord Holland's, was told that it Mould be
well for him to be gone. Displeased with this reception of his missionary, his
lordship ordered a retreat, and the Scottish soldiers were with difficulty re-
strained from pursuing them to their camp. What share Leslie had in the pro-
posed submission to Charles is not known ; but he no sooner heard of the above
affair than he broke up his encampment at Dunglass, and set forward to Dunse,
where he ordered Munro to join him. Finding here an excellent position
commanding both roads to Edinburgh, he formed his camp on the Law behind
the town, where he could see the royal camp at Birks, on the other side of the
Tweed. This movement was made without the knowledge of the English, whose
camp Leslie, had he been left to himself, would most probably have surprised
and secured, with all that was in it. Charles himself, walking out after an
alarm from the Scottish army, was the first to descry their encampment
on Dunse Law, and he rightly estimated their number to be from sixteen
to eighteen thousand men ; they were soon, however, increased to twenty-four
thousand by the reinforcements that hastened up to them on the report of tho
English incursions at Dunse and Kelso ; and never was an army led to the field
better appointed, or composed of better materials. " It would have done your
heart good," said an eye-witness, " to have cast your eyes athwart our brave and
rich hills as oft as I did, with great contentment and joy. Our hill was garnished
on the top toward the south and east with our mounted cannon, well near to
forty, great and small. Our regiment lay on the sides ; the crowners [superior
officers of regiments] lay in canvass lodges, large and wide ; their captains about
them in lesser ones ; the soldiers about all in huts of timber, covered with divot
or straw. Over every captain's tent door waved the flag of his company, blue,
with the arms of Scotland wrought in gold, with the inscription ' For Christ's
Crown and Covenant.' Leslie himself lay in the castle of Dunse, at the bottom
of the hill, whence he issued regularly every night, rode round the camp, and
saw the watches regularly set." Throughout the whole army there was the most
perfect harmony of opinion, both as to matters of civil and ecclesiastical polity ;
and thei'e was a fervour in the cause they had undertaken, that burned with
an equal flame in the bosom of the peasant and the peer. The latter took their
full share in all the fatigues of the camp ; slept like the common soldiers, in
their boots and cloaks on the bare ground; and in their intercourse with their
inferiors, used the language of affection and friendship, rather than that of com-
mand. Ministers of the gospel attended the camp in great numbers, carrying
arms like the rest, and many of them attended by little parties of their friends
and dependents. There were sermons morning and evening in various places
of the camp, to which the soldiers were called by beat of drum ; and while the
day was devoted to the practice of military exercises, its rise and its fall were
celebrated in every tent with the singing of psalms, reading the Scriptures, and
prayer. The general tone of the army was ardent, full of devotion to God and

ALEXANDER LESLIE. 401

of the hope of success against the enemy. " They felt," says Baillie, " the fa-
vour of God shining upon them, and a sweet, meek, humble, yet strong and
vehement feeling leading them along. For myself, I never found my mind in
better temper than it was all that time since I came from home, for I was as a
man who had taken my leave from the world, and was resolved to die in that
service without return." While they were thus strengthened in spirit, the body
was equally well attended to. The regular pay of the common men was six-
pence a day ; fourpence purchased a leg of lamb, and all of them were served
with wheaten bread ; a luxury which it is probable many of them never enjoyed
either before or after. Leslie kept open table daily at Dunse castle for the no-
bility and for strangers, besides a side table for gentlemen waiters ; and as there
had been an extraordinary crop the preceding year, and the people were zeal-
ous to offer supplies, the camp abounded with all the necessaries of life. An
amicable arrangement, however, having been entered into between Charles and
the covenanters, peace was proclaimed in both camps on the 18ih of June, 1639.
In the month of April, 1640, it was found necessary by the covenanters to re-
assemble their army, and Leslie was again appointed general ; but from various
causes it was the beginning of August before the general armament could be
collected at Dunse, where, in the early part of that month it was reviewed by
the general. It amounted to twenty-three thousand foot, three thousand
horse, and a train of heavy artillery, besides some light cannon, formed of tin
and leather corded round, capable of sustaining twelve discharges each. This
was a species of artillery used by Gustavus Adolphus, and which the Scottish
general had adopted in imitation of his master. This army was composed of
the same men who had last year occupied Dunse Law. The horse were chiefly
composed of respectable citizens and country gentlemen, lightly armed ; some
of them having lances, and generally mounted on the small, but active horses of
the country. Their attire and accoutrements were the same as in the preced-
ing year, including the broad Lowland blue bonnet Their march over the
border was, however, delayed for some weeks for the want of money and neces-
saries. " It was found," says Mr John Livingston, who accompanied the army
in the capacity of chaplain to the earl of Cassillis's regiment, " when the whole
army was come up, that there was want of powder and of bread, the biscuit
being spoiled, and of cloth to be huts to the soldiers. This produced some fear
that the expedition might be delayed for that year. One day when the com-
mittee of estates and general officers, and some ministers, were met in the castle
of Dunse, and were at prayer and consulting what to do, an officer of the guard
comes and knocks rudely at the door of the room where we were, and told there
was treachery discovered ; for he, going to a big cellar in the bottom of the
house, seeking for some other thing, had found a great many barrels of gun-pow-
der, which he apprehended was intended to blow us all up. After search, it
was found that the powder had been laid in there the year before, when the
army had departed from Dunse Law, and had been forgotten. Therefore, hav-
ing found powder, the earls of Rothes and Loudon, Mr Alexander Henderson,
and Mr Archibald Johnston were sent to Edinburgh, and within a few days
brought as much meal and cloth to the soldiers by the gift of well affected peo-
ple there, as sufficed the whole army. With the same readiness these people
had parted with their cloth and their meal, others parted with their plate, and
to such an extent was this carried, that for many years afterwards, not even a
silver spoon was to be met with in the best houses." — " It was very refreshful,"
adds Livingston, " to remark that after we came to a quarter at night, there
was nothing to be heard almost through the whole army but singing of psalms,
prayer, and reading of the Scriptures by the soldiers in their several tents ; and I

402 ALEXANDER LESLIE.

was informed there was much more the year before, when the army lay at
Dunse Law. And, indeed, in all our meetings and consultings, both within
doors and in the fields, always the nearer the beginning there was so much the
more dependence upon God, and more tenderness in worship and walking; but
through process of time, we still declined more and more."

General Leslie crossed the Tweed on the 20th of August with his army
in three divisions ; the College of Justice' troop of horse, consisting of one
hundred and sixty gentlemen, under Sir Thomas Hope, riding on the right
wing in order to break the stream for the foot ; all of whom got safely through
but one man, who was drowned. In their march, the officers of the Scot-
tish army were greatly embarrassed by a fear of offending the English nation,
with which they had no quarrel, and with which they knew well they were not
able to contend. With all the difficulties imposed on him by his situation, how-
ever, Leslie continued his march till the 28th, when he completely de-
feated the king's troops, who had been sent to defend the fords at New-
burn. This success put him in possession of Newcastle, Tynemouth, Shields, and
Durham, together with several large magazines of provisions, and again re-
duced Charles to the last extremity ; a crisis which ultimately produced the
treaty of Rippon, afterwai-ds transferred to London. The king had now, how-
ever, the parliament of England upon his hands, and was less occupied with
Scottish affairs than formerly. Ten months elapsed before the English parliament
saw fit to allow the treaty to be concluded, the Scottish army being all the time
quartered in Newcastle, that they might be at hand to assist, in case of matters
coming to extremities between the king and the lords of St Stephen's chapel.
Embarrassed and controlled by his parliament, Charles now attempted to con-
ciliate the Scots by conceding to them all their demands ; hoping thereby to
engage them to take part with him against the former. With this view he
came himself to Scotland in the month of August, 1641, when, passing through
the Scottish army at Newcastle, he was received with the utmost respect, and
entertained by the general, who was created lord Balgonie, and on the 11th
of October, 1641, earl of Leven by patent to him and his heirs whatsoever. In
the following year the earl was sent over to Ireland, in command of the forces
raised for suppressing the rebellion there. In the next year he was recalled
to take the command of the forces sent into England to the assistance of the
parliament, in pursuance of the Solemn League and Covenant. He commanded
the left of the centre division of the parliamentary forces at the battle of Mars-
ton moor, and was driven out of the field, though the honour of his own name
and that of his country was gallantly sustained by David Leslie, whose valour
contributed in a great degree to the victory there obtained. He after-
wards, assisted by the earl of Callander, took the town of Newcastle by storm ;
but treated both the town and the garrison with lenity. The king having made
overtures to the Scottish generals, Leven sent a copy of them to the parliament,
which in return awarded him a vote of thanks, accompanied by a present of a
piece of plate. He now laid siege to Harford, but being left by David Leslie,
who had marched with all the horse into Scotland to oppose Montrose, and the
king- approaching in great force, he raised the siege, and marched northward.
He was appointed to command, at the siege of Newark, an army composed of
both Scottish and English troops, where the king came to him privately on the
5th day of May, 1646. He was afterwards one of a hundred officers who, on
their knees, besought his majesty to accept the propositions offered him by the
parliament, and thus be merciful to himself and to the nation. AVhen the en-
gagement for the king's rescue was entered into, the earl of Leven resigned the
command of the army in disgust, pleading the infirmities of old age. On the

DAVID LESLIE. 403

failure of that project, he was again restored to the place he had so honourably
filled ; but before the battle of Dunbar he again resigned on account of his
great age, but appeared in the field as a volunteer. The year following, at a
meeting of some noblemen for concerting measures in behalf of Charles II. at
Eliot in Angus, he was, along with the rest, surprised by a detachment from the
garrison of Dundee, carried to London, and thrown into the Tower. At the re-
quest of Christina, queen of Sweden, he was liberated, had his sequestration
taken off, and no fine imposed upon him. He returned to Scotland in the
month of May, 1654, and shortly after went to Sweden, to thank Christina for
the favour she had done him by interceding with Cromwell on his behalf. How
long he remained in Sweden is not known ; but he died at Balgony on the
4th of April, 1661, at a very advanced age. He was buried on the nine-
teenth of the same month in the church of Markinch. Few men have been
more fortunate in life than Alexander Leslie, earl of Leven. He appears to have
entered upon its duties without fortune and with a scanty education, and by the
force of his talents, seconded by habits of religion and persevering industry,
raised himself to the highest honours which society has to confer, both in his
own and in foreign countries. His services were at the time of immense value
to his country, and would have been much more so, had they not been shackled
by the prejudices, the prepossessions, and the ignorance, of those whom the cir-
cumstances of birth placed over him as directors. His lordship acquired exten-
sive landed property, particularly Inchmartin in the Carse of Gowrie, which he
called Inchleslie. He was twice married ; first to Agnes, daughter of Renton
of Billy in Berwickshire, and by her had two sons, Gustavus and Alexander, the
latter of whom succeeded him as earl of Leven ; and five daughters. After the
death of his first wife, which took place in 1651, he married Frances, daughter
of Sir John Ferriers of Tamworth in Staffordshire, relict of Sir John Parking-
ton, baronet of Westwood, in the county of Worcester, by whom he had no
issue. His peerage finally became merged by a female with that of Melville,
in conjunction with which it still exists.

LESLIE, David, a celebrated military commander during the civil wars,
and the first lord Newark, was the fifth son of Patrick Leslie of Pitcairly, com-
mendator of Lindores, by his wife, lady Jean Stuart, second daughter of Robert,
first eai-1 of Orkney. Of his early life little more is known than that, like
many others of his countrymen, he went into the service of Gustavus Adolphus,
king of Sweden, where he distinguished himself by his military talents,
and attained to the rank of colonel of horse. Returning from the con-
tinent at, or shortly after, the commencement of the civil wars, he was appointed
major-general to the army that was sent into England under the command of
the earl of Leven, to the assistance of the parliament. This army, which
marched for England in the month of January, 1644, after suffering greatly
from the state of the roads and want of provisions, joined the parliamentary
forces at Tadcaster, on the 20th of April, with whom they Mere united in the
siege of York, which was raised on the night of Sunday, the 30th of June, by
the advance of prince Rupert, with all the strength of the royal army. Deter-
mined to give him battle, the confederates took post on Marston moor, on the
south side of the Ouse, about five miles distant from the scene of their former
operations. Here they hoped to have interrupted the march of the prince to-
wards the city, which he was desirous of gaining ; but permitting their attention
to be engrossed by a party of horse which he despatched for this purpose, to
contest the passage of a river, he in the mean time succeeded in throwing the
whole of his army into the town. His immediate object thus gained, he was ad-
vised by his colleague, the marquis of Newcastle, to rest satisfied till he should

404: DAVID LESLIE.

receive reinforcements, or till the dissensions which now appeared among the
confederates should arise to such a height as to destroy the unanimity of their
proceedings. Rupert, however, was not of a disposition to wait for remote con-
tingencies, when he conceived the chances to be already in his favour ; he there-
fore hastened to 3Iarston moor, the position the enemy themselves had chosen,
and came upon their rear when they were already on their march for Tadcaster,
Cawwood, and Selby, by occupying which, they intended to cut off his supplies,
and to hem him in till the arrival of additional forces should render his capture
easy, and his escape impossible. The Scottish troops in advance of the army
were already within a mile of Tadcaster, when about nine o'clock of the morn-
ing of the 22nd of July, 1644, the alarm was given that prince Rupert's horse,
to the number of five thousand, were pressing on the rear of the confederates,
while the main body of his army occupied the moor which they had just left.
The march was instantly countermanded, and preparations for an engagement
made with the least possible delay. The prince, however, having full possession
of the moor, they were compelled to draw up part of their troops in an adjoining
field of rye, their right bearing upon the town of Marston, and their line ex-
tending about a mile and a half fronting the moor. By three o'clock in the af-
ternoon, both armies, amounting to 25,000 men each, were formed in order of
battle. The royal army was commanded on the right by prince Rupert in per-
son ; on the left by Sir Charles Lucas, assisted by colonel Harvey ; while the
centre was led by generals Goring, Porter, and Tilyard. The marquis of New-
castle was also in the action, but the place he occupied has not been ascertained.
The parliamentary army was composed, on the right, of horse, partly Scottish,
commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax ; on the left, likewise horse, by the earl of
Manchester, and Cromwell his lieutenant-general, assisted by major-general
David Leslie, and in the centre by lord Fairfax and the earl of Leven. The
battle commenced with a discharge of great guns, which did little execution on
either side. A ditch, separating the combatants, rendered the assault a matter
of difficulty and peculiar danger, and both stood for some minutes in breathless
expectation waiting the signal for attack. On that signal being made, Man-
chester's foot and the Scots of the main body in a x'unning march cleared the
ditch, and advanced boldly to the charge, accompanied by the horse, who also
rushed forward to the attack. The fiery Rupert with his squadrons instantly ad-
vanced upon the no less fiery, but far more cautious Cromwell. The conflict
was terrible ; every individual being under the eye of his leader, exerted him-
self as if the fate of the day had been intrusted to his single arm. The troops
of Cromwell, however, supported by David Leslie and the Scottish horse, charged
through the very flower of the cavaliers, putting them completely to flight,
while Manchester's foot, keeping pace with them, cut down and dispersed the
infantry. The marquis of Newcastle's regiment alone disdained to fly, and their
dead bodies, distinguished by their white uniforms, covered the ground they had
occupied when alive. On the other extremity of the line Sir Thomas Fairfax
and colonel Lambert, with a few troops of horse, charged through the royal
army, and met their own victorious left wing. The remainder, however, were
completely defeated, and even Fairfax's victorious brigade was thrown into con-
fusion by some new raised regiments wheeling back upon it, and treading down
in their flight the Scottish reserve under the earl of Leven, who, driven from the
field, fled to Tadcaster, carrying with them the news of a total defeat. Crom-
well, Leslie, and 3Ianchester, perceiving the rout of their friends, returned to the
field as the victors were about to seize upon the spoil. The fate of the day was
now reversed. The royal troops occupied the field of rye, and the parliamen-
tary forces the moor. Each, however, determined, if possible, to preserve the

DAVID LESLIE. 405

advantage they had gained, and both once more joined battle. The struggle
now, however, though bloody, was short and decisive. The shattered remains
of the royal army sought shelter in York ; leaving all their baggage, artillery,
military stores, and above a hundred stand of colours in the hands of the con-
querors. Upwards of three thousand men were left dead on the field ; and
upwards of fifteen hundred prisoners — more than a hundred of whom were
principal officers — fell into the hands of the conquerors. This victory was the
death-blow to the affairs of the king, and greatly added to the reputation of
Cromwell and Leslie, between whom the whole merit of the affair was divided ;
the independents claiming the largest share for Cromwell, and the presbyterians
for Leslie. The combined army immediately laid siege to York, which surren-
dered by capitulation in a few days. The confederates, after the capture of York,
separated : the Scottish troops marching northward to meet the earl of Cal-
lander, whom they joined before Newcastle in the month of August.

General Baillie, in the mean time, had been recalled from England to com-
mand the raw levies that were raised for the defence of the country ; but he was
accompanied in his progress by a committee of the estates, who controlled all
his movements ; and contrary to the opinion of the general himself, commanded
him to leave a strong position and expose himself with an army of inexperienced
soldiers to certain destruction on the fatal field of Kilsyth, August 15th, 1645.
The issue of this battle left the kingdom entirely in the power of Montrose and
his army. In this emergency, David Leslie, with the whole of the cavalry at-
tached to the Scottish army, then lying before Hereford, was recalled. Arriving
at Berwick, whither the Estates had fled from the plague, which was then rag-
ing in Edinburgh, Leslie took measures for cutting off the retreat of Montrose
to the north, amongst, whose mountains he had formerly found refuge. For this
purpose he proceeded as far as Gladsmuir, about three miles to the west of Had-
dington, where he learned that Montrose was lying secure in Ettrick forest,
near Selkirk. Leslie was no sooner apprized of this, than he wheeled to the
left, and marched southward by the vale of Gala. The darkness of the
night concealed his motions, and the first notice Montrose had of his approach
was by his scouts informing him that Leslie was within half a mile of him. A
sanguinary encounter soon followed ; but Montrose's troops, though they
fought with a desperation peculiar to their character, were completely broken
and driven from the field, leaving one thousand dead bodies behind them.
Their leader, however, had the good fortune to escape, as did also the marquis
of Douglas, with the lords Crawford, Sir Robert Spotiswood, A. Leslie,
William Rollock, Erskine, Fleming, and Napier. The lords Hartfield, Drum-
mond, and Ogilvy, Philip Nisbet, William Murray, brother to lord Tulli-
bardine,Ogilvy of Innerquharity, Nathaniel Gordon, Andrew Guthrie, son to the
bishop of Moray, and two Irish colonels, O'Kean and Lauchlin, were made
prisoners, and reserved for trial in the castles of Edinburgh and Stirling. Up-
wards of a hundred Irish soldiers taken, were, in conformity to a decree of the
legislatures of both kingdoms, shot upon the field.

Leslie now proceeded with his victorious army to Lothian, and from thence,
accompanied by the committee of Estates, to Glasgow, where, in conjunction with
the committee of the church, they deliberated on the measures necessary for
completing the reduction of Montrose, and securing the internal peace of the
kingdom. Some of the prisoners taken at Philiphaugh were here tried and ex-
ecuted, and as a mark of gratitude, the committee, out of a fine they imposed
on the marquis of Douglas, voted to Leslie fifty thousand merks, with a gold
chain, and to Middleton, who was second in command, thirty thousand. Mon-
trose, restless and intriguing, in the mean time wandered from place to place,

406 DAVID LESLIE.

endeavouring to raise a new army. Leslie now returned to his station in tha
Scottish army, under the earl of Leven, whom he joined in the siege of Newark
upon Trent It was here that Charles, baffled in all his projects, came into the
Scottish camp a flying fugitive, on the 5th day of May, Hi 46. He was received
with great respect, the commander-in-chief, the earl of Leven, presenting him
with his sword upon his knee. On the return of the Scottish army it was re-
duced to about six thousand men, of whom Leslie was declared lieutenant-
general, with a pension of one thousand pounds a month over and above his pay
as colonel of the Perthshire horse. With this force Leslie proceeded to the north,
where the Gordons still kept up a party for the king. These men, who had
been so formidable to Argyle, Hurry, and Baillie, with the parliamentary com-
missioners, scarcely made the shadow of resistance to Leslie. He seized upon
all their principal strengths, and sent their leaders prisoners to Edinburgh.
The lives of the inhabitants, according to his instructions, he uniformly spared;
but upon the Irish auxiliaries he as uniformly did military execution. Having
gone over the northern districts, and secured every castle belonging to the dis-
affected, he left Middleton to garrison the country, and with instructions to seize
upon the person of Huntly, who had taken refuge among the hills. These ar-
rangements made, he passed into the peninsula of Kintyre, to look after Mon-
trose's colleague, Alaster M'Coll. This chieftain, after making some ineffectual
resistance, took to his boats with his followers, and sought safety among the
western isles, leaving his castle of Dunavertie to the care of a body of Irish
and Highlanders, to the number of three hundred men. As this force, how-
ever, was wholly inadequate to the defence of the fort, it was taken, and the
garrison put to the sword. Alaster himself was pursued by Leslie, with eighty
soldiers, to his castle in Isla. He had, however, fled to Ireland, leaving two
hundred men under the command of Colkittoch, his father, to defend his castle
of Dunevey. This stronghold Leslie also reduced, the garrison having sur-
rendered, on condition of having their lives spared, but to be sent to serve under
Henry Sinclair, a lieutenant-colonel in the French service. Colkittoch being
given to the Campbells, was hanged. Having gone over the other islands with
the same success, Leslie returned to the low country in the month of September,
where he was honoured with the approbation of his party for the fidelity, dili-
gence, and success with which he had executed his commission. The king, in
the mean time, had been delivered up to the English parliament, and passed
through that series of adventures which ended in his taking refuge in the isle
of Wight. When the duke of Hamilton in 1648, raised an army of moderate
Scottish covenanters, to attempt the rescue of his royal master, Leslie was of-
fered the command ; but, the church being averse to the undertaking, he de-
clined accepting it. After the duke had marched on his unfortunate expedition,
the remaining strength of the country was modelled into a new army under
the less moderate covenanters, and of this the earl of Leven was appointed com-
mander, and David Leslie major-general, as formerly. Immediately after the
death of Charles I., when the cavaliers rose in the north for his son, in what was
called " Pluscardine's Baid," Leslie sent a party against them in the month
of May, 1649, under the command of Charles Ker, Hacket, and Strahan,
by whom they were totally dispersed. On the resignation of the earl of Leven,
Leslie was appointed to the chief command of the army raised on behalf of
Charles II., after lie had accepted the covenant, and been admitted to the
government. In this situation he showed himself an able general, repeatedly
baffling by his skill the superior forces of Cromwell, whom he at last shut up at
Dunbar ; and but for the folly of the church and state committee, which had been
the plague of the army during all the previous troubles, had undoubtedly cut

GEORGE LESLEY.

407

oft* his whole army. Yielding to the importunities of this committee, he rashly
descended from his commanding position, and was signally defeated on the 3rd
of September, 1650. Upwards of three thousand men were left dead on the
field, ten thousand were taken prisoners, two hundred colours, fifteen thousand
stand of arms, with all the baggage and artillery, fell into the hands of the
English. Leslie, with the wreck of his army, retired upon Stirling, and again
made such dispositions for defending that important line of defence as Cromwell
found himself unable to force. Here he was joined by Charles, who himself
assumed the command of the army, having the duke of Hamilton and Leslie for
his lieutenants. In this capacity Leslie accompanied the king to Worcester, where,
on the 3rd of September, 1651, Cromwell completely routed the royal army.
Leslie was intercepted in his retreat through Yorkshire, and committed to the
tower of London, where he remained till the Restoration in the year 1660.
By Cromwell's act of grace he was fined in four thousand pounds in the year
16 54. After the Restoration he was created, in consideration of his services
and sufferings in the royal cause, lord Newark, by patent dated the 31st of Au-
gust, 1661, to him and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, with a
pension of five hundred pounds per annum. His lordship, however, does not
seem to have been without enemies, as the following letter from the king, as-
suring him of his unabated confidence, sufficiently implies :. — " Although we have
on all occasions, both abroad and since our happy return, declared ourself fully
satisfied with your conduct and loyalty in our service, and although in consider-
ation of the same, we have given you the title and honour of a lord ; yet, seeing
we are told, that malice and slander do not give over to persecute you, we have
thought fit to give you this further testimony, and to declare under our hand,
that while you was the lieutenant-general of our army, you did, both in England
and Scotland, behave yourself with as much conduct, resolution, and honesty as
was possible or could be expected from a person in that trust : and as we told
you, so we again repeat it, that if we had occasion to levy an army fit for ourself
to command, we would not fail to give you an employment in it fit for your
quality." His lordship died in the year 1682. He married Jean, daughter of
Sir John York, by whom he had a son, David, who succeeded him as lord
Newark, and three daughters ; the eldest of whom, Elizabeth, was married to
Archibald Kennedy of Cullean, and was mother to Susanna, the celebrated coun-
tess of Eglintoune.

LESLEY,~George, of Montmusk, a capuchin friar, of the earlier part of the
seventeenth century. The introduction of this individual, as an illustrious
Scotsman, and the manner in which we intend to treat the events of his life,
require some explanation. John Benedict Rinuccini, archbishop of Fermo,
published in Italian the life and marvellous adventures of his friend George Les-
ley, a Scotsman of rank, who had been miraculously converted to the Roman
catholic faith.1 A work on so pleasing a subject did not remain long in obscur-
ity ; it was translated into French, in which language it was published at Rouen
in 1660, at Paris in 1682, and again at Rouen in 1700. In 1673 it was dra-
matized at Rome, and the decent inhabitants of Monymusk, a remote hamlet in
Aberdeenshire, were clothed in names suited for an audience in the imperial city ;
such as Lurcanio a Calvinist clergyman, the parish minister of Monymusk ; For-
cina, his servant ; Theophilus, an old cottager ; besides an angel, Pluto, andBeel-
zebub, in the form of Calvin.* The work, even in its primitive form, is a pure

1 Not having been so fortunate as to meet witffa eopy of the Italian edition, we cannot give
a copy of the title page, or even of the date. • .

2 11 Cappucchino Scozzese, in Scena, con la seconda parte, e sua mcrte, non ancor mai piu
stampata. Data in 1uoe dal Signor Francesco Rozzi d'Alatri. In Roma, per ll mancim,
1 673.

408 GEORGE LESLEY.

romance, manufactured for the laudable purpose of supporting the holy catholic
church ; while in the midst of the absurd topography, and still more absurd dis-
plays of character, it is evident from names and circumstances, tbat the whole is
founded on fact, and that George Lesley must have been a man remarkable for
enthusiasm, eccentricity, villany, or some other qualification on which it is dif-
ficult to determine. There have already been published two abridged transla-
tions of his life, one by lord Hailes in his Sketcbes of Scottith Biograpby, the
other in the Scots Magazine for 1802. A search into such contemporary records
as we thought might throw any light on the real adventures and merits of this
wonderful man, has proved vain ; and, unable to separate the truth from the false-
hood, we are compelled to follow the steps of those who have already treated the
subject, by giving an abridgment of the French translation, without omitting
any of its marvels.

The author commences with an account of the city of Aberdeen, which, as we
know it to be incorrect, and can 'separate the truth from the falsebood' in it,
we omit. In its neighbourhood lived James, count Lesley, and Jean Wood his
wife, the father and mother of George, who received from tbem all the treat-
ment of a beloved son, with the exception, that along with his mother's milk he
sucked in the dawning doctrines of Calvinism. Count Leslie died soon after the
birth of his son, leaving him vast wealth, and the lady afterwards married the baron
de Torry.3 In his eighth year the young count was sent to pursue his studies in
France, with a train and equipage suited to his rank, a heretic preceptor, and a
fund of advice steadfastly to maintain the faith he had been taught. He applied
diligently to his studies, and became acquainted with two noble Parisian brothers,
whose society, contrary to the usual expectation of the world regarding such as-
sociates, confirmed him in his studious disposition, and like St Basil and St
Gregory Nazianzen, he knew no other street in Paris save that which com-
municated with their house and the school. The Parisian youths compassionating
the state of their companion's soul, proceeded to effect his conversion, in which
they were assisted by their father, who, instead of the ordinary method of balan-
cing the doctrines of the two religions with each other, appears to have merely con-
trasted Calvinism, the affection of his relations, and eternal damnation, with the
catholic faith, eternal felicity, and the loss of his near relations. The discus-
sions were conducted at the old gentleman's country house, beneath the shadow
of an oak, and as a recreation from the pastimes of hunting and fishing. The
effect of the whole was irresistible ; young Lesley submitted to become a member
of the holy catholic church, and was immediately conducted to a confessional,
after which his companions beheld in his face a glimpse of that glory which for-
merly appeared in the face of Moses. Meanwhile the hei'etic preceptor was na-
turally displeased with what he saw ; he argued, and threatened, and represent-
ed the grief of the young count's mother, but in vain. He then sent an account
of the matter to Monymusk, and the lady in great trepidation demanded the
return of her son ; but he, anxious for the safety of his new faith, declined, and
the enraged parent disowned him. 'Alas!' groans the archbishop, 'to what an
extent will bigotry drive us in matters of religion.' The young count, who had
now reached the mature age of sixteen, put himself under the protection of his
new friends, and accompanied them on a pilgrimage to Loretto. Here he picked an
acquaintance with the capuchin fathers of St Francis, and particularly with Ange
Joyeuse, a noble Frenchman, who had exchanged rank and wealth for the cord
of St Francis. On the departure of his friends, he intimated his intention of
remaining at Rome to prepare for the conversion of his miserable family : he
expressed a desire to enter the fraternity of St Francis, but was horrified to
' Probably the laird of Torry, a villnge in the parish of Nigg, near Aberdeen.

GEORGE LESLEY. 409

discover that certain bulls prohibited the reception of newly converted heretics.
The ingenuity of his friend, Ange, attempted to relieve him from this dilemma.
It was represented that there was a rational distinction betwixt heretics in a
catholic country, and the children of Huguenots, who had no means of knowing
the true faith. The distinction, however, was not satisfactory to the general of
the order, and Lesley formed the bold design of bursting into the papal pre-
sence, and enforcing his request. When the youth lifted up his adoring eyes,
to look at the countenance of the vicegerent of God, the whole chamber beamed
with a dazzling light, more luminous than the sun, the brighter rays of light be-
ing there accumulated to form a tiara for the majesty of the sacred head. A
phenomenon which we are confidentially assured by the biographer, always at«
tends the pontifical presence, although it is not often visible to the naked eye.
By the intervention of the pope, he was received into the order, and became a
capuchin, and assuming the ecclesiastical name of Archangel, he preached with
edification. Twenty years had elapsed since his departure from Scotland, when
his mother, hearing that he had disgraced his family by joining a fraternity of
beggars, at first (according to the charitable presumption of the archbishop),
wished to assassinate him, but preferred the more humane alternative of sending
her second son, the baron of Torry, to convert him. It would be tedious to tell
how the brothers met, and how the reverse of what was expected took place, by
the baron joining the true faith, and both forming a project for the conversion
of their mother, and the other inhabitants of Scotland. The baron was the first
to return to Scotland, and accident soon revealed the change in his faith ; in
the mean time Lesley was chosen capuchin preacher at the court of Mary of
Medicis, queen regent of France, and on the institution of the college de propa-
ganda fide, by Gregory XV., he was appointed papal emissary to Scotland, to
procure the restoration of that lost land to the true faith, at the same time ac-
cepting the additional situation of interpreter to the Spanish ambassador in Eng-
land. Lesley, or as his biographer at this period commonly terms him, Arch-
angel, wrote a letter to his mother, which with much discretion he delivered
himself. He was received with considerable cold politeness, and entertained in
the castle ; where, however, he could not eat his dinner in peace from being
compelled to sit beside a heretic clergyman, who pocketed 300 crowns annually
for teaching the doctrines of damnation, to whom, says his author, whenever lie
turned his eyes, he thought the banquet assumed the aspect of a funeral meal.
Archangel kept his secret about six days, when a remark which he made con-
nected with a change in the establishment, proved him not to be a stranger, and
he was compelled to make himself known. The rejoicings at this event can
scarcely be described in words. The old lady received thousands of visits of
congratulation, the fame of the event reached even to Aberdeen (about twenty-
five miles), fires of rejoicing were lighted up on the castle of Monymusk ,A and tho
inhabitants of the town5 discharged culverins and let off* sky-rockets. He com-
menced a vigorous discharge of the duties of his mission ; he led the people to
an adjoining mountain, where he had not been preaching half a quarter of an
hour, when the people shuddered, changed colour, and knelt at his feet, — he
converted 4000 to the true faith in eight months. He now naturally turned his
eyes towards the salvation of his mother, to which he was resolved to make his
way through the heretical priest. The reverend gentleman at first declined
any discussion, but he was at length compelled to come to issue. He was asked
what was the denomination of his peculiar faith, and with much simplicity an-

4 The castle of Monymusk is a neat old Flemish building, which would make a rather dimi-
nutive modern mansion.

s The hamlet of Monymusk contains about 50 inhabitants.

410 GEORGE LESLEY.

swered, it was the church of Geneva. Archangel then asked if the church of
Geneva was evei\mentioned in Scripture ? this was a home thrust to the minister,
who had seen no more in Scripture about the church of Geneva, than about the
stipend of Monymusk. Like a prudent man, however, he promised to produce
what was wanted if he could get time ; but after repeated delays, having failed,
Archangel triumphantly pointed to the epistle to the Romans as a proof of the
existence of his church ; the heretic was dismissed for incapability and error,
and his mistress's faith ceded to the victor. The conversion of the mother was
followed by that of the other members of the family, and the whole establishment
of the castle. A splendid chapel was fitted up for the celebration of the rites
of the Roman catholic church, and the object of the mission made rapid progress
for two years, at the end of which period, one of king James's edicts against
Roman catholics compelled Archangel to retire to England, and there prosecute
his mission in secrecy, having been compelled to leave his books and papers as
a prey to the enemy. His mother's goods were confiscated, and she was reduced
to the utmost misery by protestant persecution. In these circumstances her son
resolved to visit her, and dressing himself as an itinerant vender of herbs,
passed through the streets of 3Ionymusk, vociferating ' Buy my greens :' he
obtained an interview with his mother, who was reduced to the necessity of being
compelled to purchase some of his commodity, and a scene ensued, which our
limits will not permit us to describe. Being interrupted in his visit by the pro-
testant ' inquisitors,' he was compelled to return to England, whence he was sum-
moned to Italy to attend the head of his order, on the ground of some alleged
malversation, the cause of which is not very lucidly explained. The plague
raged in Italy during his journey, and he for some time occupied himself in at-
tending the sick at Cremona. He was then appointed guardian of the convent
of Mount George in the diocese of Fermo. Here he became acquainted with the
archbishop who has so lucidly written his memoirs, and through a mutual miracle
a second mission to Britain was concocted between them. Archangel set out ac-
companied by another Scottish capuchin called Epiphanes ; their vessel was
overtaken by a violent storm, and after a few amiable discussions about tossing
overboard some useless hands, in order to lighten her, she was wrecked, the two
capuchins being miraculously saved, along with some passengers, among whom
were two English gentlemen whom Archangel converted by the following com-
fortable argument : ' We hold that you cannot be saved, you admit that we may ;
judge, then, which is the safest religion.' 6 He after this met a young Scots-
man, who gave him the pleasing intelligence, that, notwithstanding the persecu-
tions suffered by the true faith in Scotland, one influential family in the neigh-
bourhood of the large town of Monymusk had been spared, the influence of the
king of France having procured the restoration of their estates, and permission
to exercise their religion. This gentleman turned out to be his younger bro-
ther, Edward, from whom he learned also the sad intelligence, that their mother
had fallen into a_fever, and died, from the dread that her son had been
drowned in his voyage. After this, many adventures happened to Archangel,
among which, some too curious remarks made by him on the fortifications
of Newport caused his apprehension as a spy. His zeal not decreasing, he wore
out the patience of the monarch, and becoming again amenable to the laws
against papists, was commanded to quit the kingdom. On his journey southward,
he made many miraculous conversions, and particularly on the persons of noble-
men in the neighbourhood of the city of Torfecan (Torphichen.) While near
the borders of England, his exertions produced a fever, of which he died, and a

G A favourite argument with Roman catholics, to which Jeremy Taylor made a well known
and unanswerable answer.

JOHN LESLIE.— CHARLES LESLIE.

411

Jesuit in the neighbourhood performed over him the last offices of charity. So
terminate the adventures of Le Capuchin Ecossois, of ■which we are sorry we are
compelled to omit many choice portions.

LESLIE, John, bishop of Clogher, was born at Balquhain, in the north of
Scotland, after the middle of the sixteenth century. He was of an ancient and
highly respectable family. The earlier part of his education he received at
Aberdeen, the latter part at Oxford. He afterwards travelled into Spain, Italy,
Germany, and France, and acquired such a proficiency in the languages of all
these countries, excepting the last, that he spoke them with the fluency of a na-
tive. In the Latin language he particularly excelled, and was so familiar with
it, that it was said of him in Spain, when he resided there, Solus Lesleius La-
tine loquitur. He remained on this occasion twenty-two years abroad, and,
during that time was present at the siege of Rochelle. He also accompanied the
duke of Buckingham on the expedition to the isle of Rhee.

Leslie stood high in favour with Charles I., and was by that monarch admitted
B member of his privy council. In 1633 he was appointed to the bishopric of
Raphoe, in Ireland, where he built a handsome palace. This building he after-
wards held out against Cromwell, adopting the loyal alternative of enduring a
siege rather than submit to the usurper.

On the death of his royal patron he went abroad, where he remained till after
the restoration. He then returned to England, and in 1661 was translated to the
see of Clogher. Here he remained till his death, which took place in 1671, when
he was upwards of one hundred years of age. He was then the oldest bishop in
the world, having filled that dignified station for fifty years.

Leslie, Charles, a celebrated non-juring divine, was the second son of the
bishop of Clogher. He was born in the year 1 6 50. He commenced his edu-
cation at Inniskillen, Ireland, and was admitted a fellow-commoner in Trinity
college, Dublin, in 1664. Here he continued till he commenced master of arts,
and during this period acted as tutor to Mr Michael Ward, afterwards bishop of
Derry. After the death of his father, in 1671, he came over to England, and
entered himself in the temple at London, and for some years studied the law.
Finding this an uncongenial pursuit he relinquished it, and applied to divinity.
In 1680 he was admitted into holy orders, and in 1687 became chancellor of
the cathedral church of Connor, and also acted as a justice of the peace. Soon
after his appointment he distinguished himself in a public religious controversy,
with Patrick Tyrrel, a Roman catholic, who had been appointed to the see of
Clogher. The disputation was numerously attended by persons of the persua-
sions of both the champions, and each assigned the victory to the defender of his
own faith ; but it is beyond doubt, that Leslie had greatly the advantage of his
antagonist. He afterwards held another public disputation with two eminent
popish divines in the church of Tynan, diocese of Armagh. The controversy
was maintained in the presence of a large assembly, composed, as in the
former case, of persons of both religions ; and here again the talents of Leslie
brought him off triumphantly. He was now become exceedingly popular in the
country for his theological acquirements, and a circumstance soon afterwards oc-
curred which procured him equal celebrity for his political knowledge, and for
his intrepidity of character. A Roman catholic high sheriff having been ap-
pointed for the county of Monaghan, the gentlemen of the county, in great alarm
at this indication of catholic ascendency, hastened to wait upon him for his ad-
vice, as to how they should act with regard to the newly appointed officer, whose
religion disqualified him, by law, for the situation. Mr Leslie told them, that it
would be equally illegal in them to permit the sheriff to act, and in him to at-
tempt it ; that though appointed by the authority of the crown, he, being of

412 CHARLES LESLIE.

the Roman catholic persuasion, could not have taken the oaths necessary to
qualify him for the office, and that therefore his nomination was illegal. This
doctrine he afterwards held at the quarter sessions, where the case came to he
decided, and so effectually did he urge his objections, and that in the presence
of the sheriff himself, that the bench unanimously agreed to commit the pretend-
ed officer for his intrusion. Mr Leslie thus placed himself in conspicuous op-
position to the dominant party, and openly declared that he no longer consid-
ered James as the defender of the faith.

Notwithstanding, however, of his hostility to the papists, he continued a staunch
supporter of the exiled family at the revolution in 1688, and refused to take the
oaths to king William and queen 3Iary. The consequence of this fidelity was
the loss of all his preferments.

When Ireland became disturbed in 1689, Mr Leslie removed with his family
to England, where he employed himself in writing political pamphlets to serve
the cause which he had embraced ; but, though opposed to the existing govern-
ment he continued a zealous and active supporter of the church of England.
About this time he entered into a controversy with the quakers, which is said to
have arisen from the circumstance of his lodging with a family of that persua-
sion. This family he converted. The first of the several treatises which he
wrote against the quakers is entitled, " The Snake in the Grass." It appeared
in 1696, and soon ran into a second edition. It was answered by George
Whithead in a pamphlet entitled, " An Antidote to the Snake in the Grass."
In his second edition Mr Leslie noticed this answer ; but he was again assailed
in a production called, " Satan dissolved from his Disguises of Light," which
also appeared in 1696. To this, and several other attacks, Mr Leslie replied
at great length in " A Defence of a book entitled the Snake in the Grass.''
This again provoked a host of answers, amongst which was one by the quakers,
entitled " A Switch "for the Snake." To this Mr Leslie again replied in " A
Second Defence, or the third and last part of the Snake in the Grass."

The most celebrated works of Mr Leslie, though these just enumerated dis-
covered singular ability, were those which he wrote against the deists. The first
of these was published, in 1697, in a letter to a friend, and was entitled " A
Short and easy Method with the Deists." The friend alluded to in the title
was a lady, though the work bears that it was a gentleman. Having been
thrown accidentally into the company of infidels, she applied to Mr Leslie for
" some short topic of reason, without running to authorities and the intricate
mazes of learning.'' The treatise was effectual, and Mr Leslie, although it was
not his original intention, was prevailed upon to publish it. This work he en-
larged considerably in a second edition. No answer appeared to the Short and
Easy 3Iethod till 1710, when it was replied to in a treatise entitled " A detec-
tion of the true meaning and wicked designs of a book entitled," &c Mi-
Leslie replied to this attack in " The Truth of Christianity Demonstrated," to
which was prefixed, " A Vindication of the Short Method with the Deists.'' These
works against deism produced a powerful effect, and amongst others the conver-
sion of a person of the name of Gildon, who had acquired considerable celebrity
as a member of that persuasion. This man not only professed himself convinced
of his errors, and publicly retracted them, but wrote a book against the opinions
which he had formerly entertained, entitled " The Deist's Manual, or a rational
Inquiry into the Christian Religion."

Encouraged by the success of his attack on deism, Mr Leslie, in 1699, pro-
duced his " Short Method with the Jews," a work which was first suggested by a
similar circumstance with that which had given rise to his Short 3Iethod with the
Deists. An eminent Jew had been converted by his reasoning, and had inti-

JOHN LESLIE. 413

mated his intention of publicly owning his conviction. The convert however
died during Mr Leslie's absence, without exhibiting the recantation which he had
proposed.

The next controversy in which Mr Leslie was engaged, was with the Socini-
ans. It began in 1694. In 1697 he published the first of the six dialogues,
entitled " The Socinian Controversy Discussed.'' This was answered in a short
tract, entitled " Remarks on Mr Charles Leslie's First Dialogue on the Socinian
Controversy." Mr Leslie replied, and was again answered by his opponent in
** A Vindication of the Remarks." Mr Leslie now published '* A Reply to the
Vindication,'' and with this ended the first part of the controversy.

His principal works against the papists Mere, " The True Nature of the Catho-
lic Church, in answer to the Bishop of Meaux's letter to Mr Nelson," printed in
1703; "The Case Stated between the Church of Rome, and the Church of
England, published in 1713 ; and " Of 'Private Judgment and Authority'in Mat-
ters of Faith." These works are said to have made several converts from
popery.

Although thus earnestly and laboriously employed in the cause of religion,
Mr Leslie did not neglect the interests, so far as any efforts of his could servo
them, of the exiled family. He wrote several political tracts during this period,
and made several journeys to Bar le Due to visit the Pretender, who was then
residing there. These journeys, however, and his political treatises, especially
one, entitled *f The Good Old Cause," published in 1710, gave such offence to
the ruling party, that it is said a warrant for his apprehension was actually issued
against him. However this may be, he found it necessary to quit the kingdom
in 1713, when he proceeded to Bar le Due, and took up his residence by invita-
tion with the Pretender, who procured a room to be fitted up for him in his own
house. While here, Mr Leslie was permitted to officiate in a private chapel af-
ter the manner of the church of England, and it is even said, that the Pretender
had promised to listen to his arguments concerning his religion, and that Mr Leslie
had in vain endeavoured his conversion. This, however, is contradicted by lord
Bolingbroke, who asserts, that he not only refused to listen to Mr Leslie, but
forbade all discussion on religious matters. Notwithstanding of this, however,
and of several other subjects of dissatisfaction with the chevalier, whose conduct
towards him does not appear to have been altogether adjusted to his deserts,
Mr Leslie continued to remain with him, and in 1716 accompanied him into
Italy, after his unsuccessful attempt upon England. Here he remained till 1721,
when he found his situation so exceedingly disagreeable, that he determined on
returning to his native country. This he accomplished, but died in the follow-
ing year, on the 13th April, in his own house, at Glaslough, in the county of
Monaghan.

The list of Mr Leslie's works, political and theological, is exceedingly volu-
minous. The theological works in seven volumes were printed in 1832 at the
Oxford university press.

LESLIE, John, bishop of Ross, and distinguished for his indefatigable exer*
tions in behalf of queen fllary, was born in 1526, being the son of Gavin Leslie,
an eminent lawyer, descended from the barons of Balquhain, one of the most
respectable branches, of the ancient family of Leslie. He received his education
at the university of Aberdeen, and in 1547 was made canon of the cathedral
church of that diocese. He subsequently pursued his studies in the universities
of Toulouse, Poictiers, and Paris, at which last place he took the degree of doc-
tor of laws. In 1554 he was ordered home by the queen regent, and made of-
ficial and vicar-general of the diocese of Aberdeen. In the turmoil of the Refor-
mation, which soon after commenced, Leslie became a noted champion of the

414 JOHN LESLIE.

Romish faith, and appeared on that side in the famous disputation at Edinburgh
in 1560. When it was resolved to bring over the young queen from France to
assume the government of her native country, Leslie was the chief deputy sent
to her by the catholics to gain her exclusive favour for that party ; but though
he had the dexterity to arrive before the protestant deputation, he was not suc-
cessful. Leslie, however, returned to Scotland in the queen's company, and
was appointed by her a privy councillor and one of the senators of the college
of justice. In 1564 the abbey of Lindores was conferred upon him, and he
was soon after promoted to the bishopric of Ross ; offices catholic in form, but
which now referred to little more than certain temporalities to which they con-
ferred a title. Leslie was one of the sixteen commissioners appointed in this
reign to revise the Scottish laws, and it was chiefly owing to his care that the
volume of the acts of parliament, usually called the Black Acts, from its being
printed in the old English character, was given to the world in the year 1566.
The name of the bishop of Ross derives its chief lustre from the steadfastness
and zeal with which he adhered to the fortunes of his royal mistress, after they
liad experienced the remarkable reverse which is well known to have befallen
them. When Mary had become an almost hopeless captive in England, this
amiable prelate, at the hazard of all his temporal enjoyments, continued to ad-
here to her, and to exert himself in her behalf, with a fidelity which would
have adorned any cause. He was one of her commissioners at the conference
of York in 1568 ; on which occasion he defended her with a strength of reason-
ing, which is allowed to have produced a great impression, though it did not de-
cide the argument in her favour. He afterwards appeared as her ambassador at
the court of Elizabeth, to complain of the injustice done to her ; and if the
English princess had not been a party interested in the detention of his mistress,
his solicitations could have hardly failed of effect. When he found that entrea-
ties and appeals to justice were of no avail, he contrived means for the escape
of the queen, and planned the project for her marriage to the duke of Norfolk,
which ended in the execution of that unfortunate nobleman. Leslie was ex-
amined in reference to this plot, and notwithstanding his privileges as an am-
bassador, which he vainly pleaded, was committed prisoner, first to the isle of
Ely, and afterwards to the tower of London. It appears to have been during
this confinement, that he wrote the historical work by which his name is now
chiefly known. In 1573 he Avas liberated from prison, but only to be banished
from England. He then employed himself for two years in soliciting the interfer-
ence of the continental princes in behalf of his mistress, but without obtaining
for her any active assistance. Even with the pope, whom he requested to use
his influence with these princes, he met with no better success. While at Rome,
he pubb'shed his history in Latin, under the title of " De Origine, Moribus, et
Rebus Gestis Scotorum." This appeared in 1 578: next year, having removed to
France, he was made suffragan and vicar-general of the archbishopric of Rouen,
in Normandy, and while visiting the diocese, was apprehended and thrown into
prison, and obliged to pay three thousand pistoles, to prevent his being given
up to Elizabeth. During the remainder of the reign of Henry III., he lived un-
molested ; but on the accession of the protestant Henry IV. , who was the strict
ally of Elizabeth, he fell again into trouble. In the course of his visitation of the
diocese in 1590, he was once more thrown into prison, and forced to purchase
his freedom at the same expense as before. In 1593 he was made bishop of
Constance, but being now apparently tired of life, which for many years had
presented only disappointments and vexations, he soon after retired into a
monastery at Gurtenburg, about two miles from Brussels, where he spent the re-
mainder of his days in tranquillity. He died, May 31st, 1596, and lies buried

JOHN LESLIE. 415

in the monastery, under a monument erected to his memory by his nephew and
heir, John Leslie.

Bishop Leslie is generally allowed the praise of great learning and of high
diplomatic abilities, though it is almost as generally regretted, that he did not
turn them to a better use. His fidelity to a declining cause is also allowed,
eren by its enemies, to hare been a sentiment as free from the dross of worldly
or "selfish views as the motives of a line of public conduct ever are. The isola-
tion of a catholic church dignitary in society seems favourable to the develop-
ment of such sentiments ; and there are not many cases in which the principle
is observed to have been more powerful than in the history of this Scottish pre-
late. His tongue, his pen, the travel of his body, his temporal fortune, were all
devoted with the most generous unreserve to the cause which he thought that of
justice and true religion ; and what more can any man do, to show the superior-
ity of his nature to the meaner passions ?

The works of bishop Leslie are as follow : 1. Defence of the honour of
Mary Queen of Scotland ; with a declaration of her right, title, and interest to
the crown of England ; Liege, 1571, 8vo, which was immediately suppressed.

2. Afflicti Animi Consolationes et Tranquilli Animi Conservatio ; Paris, 1574.

3. De Origine, Moribus, et Rebus Gestis Scotorum : Roma?, 1578, 4to. 4. A
Treatise showing that the Regiment of Women is conformable to the law of God
and Nature. 5. De Titulo et Jure Maria3 Scotorum Regina?, quo Angliae Suc-
cessionem Jure sibi vindicat ; Rheims, 1580, 4to. 6. The History of Scotland,
from the death of James I. in 1436, to the year 1561 ; Edinburgh, 1830, 4to.

The volume last mentioned was printed from a manuscript in the possession
of the earl of Leven and Melville. It is in the Scottish tongue, and forms the
original of the three latter books of the Latin history, which difFers from it in
no respect except in being a little more ample. It appears to have been com-
posed in the vernacular tongue, in order that it might be of use to his captive
mistress, who, it is to be presumed, was not so good a Latinist as her cousin
Elizabeth. The reason of his presenting her with only this detachment of the
history of her country, was, that the preceding part was already to be had in
Bellenden's version of Boece. That work stops at the death of James I., and it
would naturally occur to bishop Leslie, that a continuation to his own time was
a desideratum, both to the people and to her whom he maintained to be their
sovereign. He finished his work in March, 1 570, and presented the unfortunate
queen with the manuscript in 1571 ; but it never saw the light till the date
above mentioned, when one hundred copies were printed for the Bannatyne
Club, with fifty additional for sale to the public. The style of the work, though
it could not fail to sound rudely in the ears of a modern Englishman, is highly
elegant and dignified, forming a wonderful improvement upon the rude sim-
plicity of Bellenden. The worthy bishop informs us, that he stops at the be-
ginning of queen Mary's reign, because the transactions subsequent to that period
contain much that he does not think would reflect honour upon his country :
there could be few whose words were more worth listening to, respecting that
important and greatly controverted part of our history.

The volume alluded to contains a portrait of Leslie, representing him as a
grave and venerable man, with an aquiline nose, a small beard, and a very
lofty and capacious forehead. As a specimen of the Scottish which a learned
prelate would then write, and a queen peruse, we may quote the bishop's char-
acter of James V.

" Their was gryt dule and meane maid for him throw all the partis of his
realme, because he was a nobill prince, and travaillet mekill all his dayis for
manitening of his subjectis in peace, justice, and quietnes. He was a man of

416 SIR JOHN LESLIE.

pearsonage and stature convenient, albeit michtie and sti-ong theirwith; of coun-
tenance amiable and lufely, specially in his communication ; his eyes graye and
scharp of sicht, that quhomsoever he did ones see and marke, he wald perfytly
knawe in all tymes thairefter; of wilt in all things quick and prompt, of a
princely stomacke and heich courage in greit perillis, doubtful affairis and mat-
eris of weichtie importance"; he had in a maner a divine foresicht, for in sic
thingis as he went about to doo, he did them advisedlye, ar.d with grit delib-
eracion, to the intent that amangis all men his witt and prudence might be noted
and regaidit, and alsfarre excell and pas all uthers in estait and dignitie. Be-
sides this, he was sober, moderate, honest, eftabill, curteous; and so fair abhor-
rit pride and arrogance, that he was ever sharpe and quick to thame quhilk were
spotted or nottit with that crime. He was alsua a good and suir justiciar, be
the quhilke one thing he allurit to him the hai tis of all the people, because they
lived quietlie and in rest, out of all oppressioun and molestacioun of the nobili-
tye and riche persones ; and to this severyte of his wes joinit and annexit a
certane merciful pitye, quhilk he did oftymes shaw to sic as had oftendit, taking
rather composicions of money nor menis lyvis. * * * * This gude and
modest prince did not devoure and consume the riches of his countrey, for by
his heich pollicye marvellouslie riched his realme and himselfe, both with gold
and silver, all kinds of riche substance, quhairof he left greyt stoir and quanti-
se in all his palices at his departing. And so this king, living all his tyme in
the favour of fortune, in heich honour, riches, and glorye, and for his nobill
actis and prudent pollyces, worthye to be registrat in the buike of fame, gaif up
and randerit his spreit into the hands of Allmichty God, quhair I doubt not bot
he hes suir fruition of the joye that is preparit for these as sell sitt on the riclit
hand of'our Salveour."

LESLIE, (Sir) John, professor of natural philosophy in the university of
Edinburgh, and distinguished by his valuable writings and discoveries, was born
at the kirk-town of Largo, in Fife, on the 16th of April, 1766. His father,
Robert Leslie, by profession a joiner and cabinet-maker, and originally from
the neighbourhood of St Andrews, was a much respected and worthy man, and
seems, in point of education and general attainments, to have been superior to
the majority of persons in his station at that period. The mother of Sir John
Leslie was Anne Carstairs, a native of Largo. When very young, he was sent
to a woman's school in the village, but remained only a short time there. Af-
terwards he was placed under a Mr Thomson at Lundin Mill, with whom he
learned to write ; and lastly he Avent to Leven school, and began to learn
Latin ; but being a weakly boy, and unable to walk so far, he was obliged after
about six weeks to give up attendance. As these were the only schools he at-
tended before going to college, it is evident that his elementary acquirements
must have been exceedingly imperfect. He received, however, while at home,
some lessons in mathematics from his elder brother Alexander, and soon began
to show a surprising aptitude for that branch of science. His manners at this
period of life were remarkably reserved and shy. He seemed bent on devoting
himself entirely to study, and read with peculiar avidity all the books that came
within his reach, on mathematics and natural philosophy. To Latin he took a
strong dislike, and could not be induced to resume the study of it till after his
first year at college.

His extraordinary proficiency in geometrical exercises, joined to a considera-
tion of the unfavourable circumstances under which he had acquired it, brought
him at an early period under the notice of professors Robison and Stewart, of the
university of Edinburgh, who were much impressed by the extraordinary powers
which he displayed. It was at length resolved by his parents, that he should

SIR JOHN LESLIE. 417

be sent to the university of St Andrews, in order to fit himself for a learned
profession, and he was accordingly entered there, as a student of mathematics,
in 1779. At the first distribution of prizes, he attracted some attention by his
proficiency, which was the means of introducing him to the patronage of the earl
of Kinnoul, then chancellor of the university. Being now destined for the
church, he went through the regular routine of instructions for that purpose.
After attending for six sessions at St Andrews, he removed to Edinburgh, in
company with another youth, — destined like himself to obtain a high niche in the
temple of fame, and to be honoured, at the same moment wiih himself, more
than forty years after, with a royal favour expressive of his equal merit, — James
(afterwards Sir James) Ivory. At St Andrews lie had also formed an acquaintance
with Dr William Thomson, the continuator of Watson's Life of Philip II., and
latterly a professed author of no small note in London. At the university of
Edinburgh Mr Leslie studied three years, during which time he was introduced
to Dr Adam Smith, and employed by that eminent man in assisting the studies
of his nephew, afterwards lord Reston. He now gave up his intention of adop-
ting the clerical profession, which he found to be in a great measure incompati-
ble with the strong bent whicli his mind had taken towards physical studies.

In 17 S8, he went to Virginia, as tutor to two young college friends, Messrs
Randolph ; and after spending more than a year in America, returned to Edin-
burgh. In January 1790, he proceeded to London, carrying with him some
recommendatory letters from Dr Smith ; he has been heard to mention, that
one of the most pressing injunctions with which he was honoured by that illustrious
philosopher, was to be sure, if the person to whom he was to present himself
was an author, to read his book before approaching him, so as to be able to
speak of it, if there should be a fit opportunity. His first intention was to de-
liver lectures on natural philosophy ; but being disappointed in his views, he
found it expedient to commence writing for periodical works, as the readiest
means of obtaining subsistence. For obtaining employment of this kind, he was
mainly indebted to his friend Dr William Thomson, who engaged him upon the
notes of a new edition of the Bible, which he was then publishing in numbers.
About three months after his arrival in London, he made an agreement with Mr
Murray, the bookseller, to translate Buftbn's Natural History of Birds, which was
published in 1793, in nine octavo volumes. The sum he received for it laid
the foundation of that pecuniary independence which, unlike many other men of
genius, his prudent habits fortunately enabled him early to attain. The preface
to this work, which was published anonymously, is characterised by all the
peculiarities of his later style ; but it also bespeaks a mind of great native
vigour and lofty conceptions, strongly touched with admiration for the sublime
and the grand in nature and science. During the progress of the translation,
he fulfilled an engagement with the Messrs Wedgewood of Etruria in Stafford-
shire, to superintend their studies ; he left them in 1792. In 1794, Mr Leslie
spent a short time in Holland ; and, in 1796, he made the tour of Germany and
Switzerland with Mr Thomas Wedgewood, whose early death he ever lamented
as a loss to science and his country. About this period, he stood candidate
for a chair at St Andrews, and subsequently, for that of- natural philosophy in
Glasgow, but without success. The fortunate candidate on the latter occasion
was Dr James Brown of St Andrews, with whom Mr Leslie to the end of his life
maintained a constant intimacy. In 1799, he travelled through Norway and
Sweden, in company with Mr Robert Gordon, whose friendship he had acquired
at St Andrews college.

At what period Mr Leslie first struck into that brilliant field of inquiry where
he became so conspicuous for his masterly experiments and striking discoveries

418 SIR JOHN LESLIE.

regarding radiant heat, and the connexion between light and heat, we are un-
able to say. But his Differential Thermometer — one of the most beautiful and
delicate instruments that inductive genius ever contrived as a help to experimen-
tal inquiry, and which rewarded its author by its happy ministry to the success
of some of his finest experiments — must have been invented before the year
1800, as it was described in Nicholson's Philosophical Journal some time dur-
ing that year. The results of those fine inquiries, in which he was so muck
aided by this exquisite instrument, were published to the world in 1804, in his
celebrated " Essay on the Nature and Propagation of Heat." 1 The experimental
devices and remarkable discoveries which distinguish this publication, far more
than atone for its great defects of method, its very questionable theories, and its
transgressions against that simplicity of style which its aspiring author rather
spurned than was unable to exemplify ; but which must be allowed to be a quality
peculiarly indispensable to the communication of scientific knowledge. The
work was honoured, in the following year, by the unanimous adjudication to its
author, by the council of the Royal Society, of the Rumford Medals, appropri-
ated to reward discoveries in that province, whose nature and limits he had so
much illustrated and extended.

Mr Leslie thus distinguished himself by his acquirements, when, early in
1805, in consequence of the translation of professor Playfair from the chair of
mathematics to that of natural philosophy in the university of Edinburgh, the
former became vacant, and the subject of this memoir appeared as a candidate
for the situation. It might have been expected that, where the qualifications of
the individual were so decidedly above all rivalry, there could have been no
hesitation in his native country to confer upon him the honour which he sought.
Such there might not have been, if what is called the moderate party in the
Scottish church, had not been inspired by a jealousy of his liberal principles in
politics, accompanied by a desire of advancing one of their own number, to op-
pose his election. The person brought forward as the rival candidate was Dr
Thomas Macknight, one of the ministers of the city, and son of the venerable
commentator on the Epistles, — a gentleman highly qualified, no doubt, not only
for this, but for almost any other chair in the university ; but who, neverthe-
less, could not be matched against an individual so distinguished for the benefits
he had conferred on science as Mr Leslie ; and who was moreover liable to the
disqualifying consideration that he was already engaged in an office which, to
be well done, requires the whole man, while Mr Leslie stood in the light of a
most useful member of society in a great measure unprovided for.

The electors in this case were the magistrates and town-council of Edinburgh,
and to them Mr Leslie was recommended not only by fame, but by the warmest
testimonials from Sir Joseph Banks, Mr Dempster of Dunnichen, Dr Hutton of
Woolwich, Baron Masseres, and Dr Maskelyne. In the supposition that these
men were disposed to discharge their trust with fidelity, they could have no hesi-
tation in preferring Mr Leslie ; and it is to be related to their credit, that they
had no such hesitation. On learning the bent of their resolution, the ministers
of Edinburgh held various private meetings, as if to indicate the more pointedly
that they had a peculiar interest of their own in the matter ; and it was resolved
to oppose Mr Leslie's election on the grounds of what they deemed an infidel
note in his essay on heat ; employing for this purpose a clause in the funda-
mental charter of the college, directing the magistrates to take the advice of the
Edinburgh clergy in the election of professors.

i Previous to this period, Mr Leslie, when not otherwise or elsewhere engaged, used to
live with his brothers at Largo ; and there were the experiments for his essay on heat carried

on, and the book written.

SIR JOHN LESLIE. 419

The note alluded to was one in reference to the unphilosophical theories which
once attempted to explain the phenomena of gravitation by means of invisible
sethers. Mr Leslie, in treating this point, found it convenient to refer to Mr
Hume's theory of cause and effect, in which, as is well known, he makes use
of certain generally received doctrines to invalidate the argument for the exist-
ence of the Deity. In making the reference, it did not seem to Mr Leslie to be
necessary that he should condemn the ultimate use made of these doctrines by
Mr Hume, since he was only engaged in a physical examination. His note,
therefore, stands as follows : " Mr Hume is the first, so far as I know, who has
treated of causation in a truly philosophic manner. His Essay on Necessary
Connexion seems a model of clear and accurate reasoning. But it was only
wanted to dispel the cloud of mystery which had so long darkened that im-
portant subject. The unsophisticated sentiments of mankind are in perfect uni-
son with the deductions of logic, and imply at bottom nothing more in the rela-
tion of cause and effect, than a constant invariable sequence." From these words,
however, it Avas evident, in the opinion of his clerical opponents, " that Mr
Leslie, having, with Mr Hume, denied all such necessary connexion between
cause and effect, as implies an operating principle in the cause, has, of coui-se,
laid a foundation for rejecting all argument that is derived from the works of
God, to prove either his being or attributes."

When Mr Leslie was informed of the grounds on which the Edinburgh min-
isters rested their opposition, he addressed a letter to the Rev. Dr Hunter, pro-
fessor of divinity, and one of the few clergymen of the city Mho were not opposed
to him, laying before him some explanations of the note, to which he begged
him to call the attention of his brethren. These explanations were chiefly what
are stated above, and are thus followed up : "I have the fullest conviction that
my ideas on the question to which the note refers, would appear to coincide, in
every essential respect, with those of the most enlightened adversaries of Mr
Hume's philosophy. But, limited as I am to a few moments of time, I can
only disavow (which I do with the greatest sincerity and solemnity,) every infer-
ence which the ingenuity of my opponents may be pleased to draw from the
partial view I have taken of the general doctrine, to the prejudice of those evi-
dences on which the truths of religion are founded. If I live to publish another
edition of my woi'k, I pledge myself to show in an additional paragraph, how
grossly and injuriously I have been treated on this occasion. * * It is pain-
ful to be called on, after the habits of intimacy in which I have lived with the
most exemplary characters in both parts of the island, to repel a direct charge
of atheism ; but whatever may be the effect of such calumnies on the minds of
strangers, it affords me much consolation to think, that they Mill be heard with
contempt and indignation by those who know the real state of my sentiments,
and particularly by such as are acquainted with the strictness of those religious
principles in which I had the happiness to be educated from my earliest years."

This letter was laid before the ministers at a meeting held by them on the
12th of March (1805) ; but being, to use their own phrase, by no means satisfied
with it, they appointed a committee, consisting of Dr Grieve, Mr David Black,
Mr David Dickson, and Dr Inglis, to proceed to the town-council and protest
against the election of Mr Leslie. As the council Mas to be that day engaged
in the election, the committee went accordingly to their chamber, and presented
a protest which had been prepared, in Avhich, besides stating the grand objection
of the note and their inferences from it as to Mr Leslie's religious principles,
they stated that, " in the event of his being elected, notuithstanding this repre-
sentation, they reserved to themselves full poMer of questioning the validity of
such election, and of employing whatever means may, to them, be found compe-

420

SIR JOHN LESLIE.

tent for preventing Mr Leslie's induction into the office of professor ; with fuil
power, in the event of his induction, to prosecute for his ejection from said of-
fice in any competent court, civil or ecclesiastical." Immediately after this
paper was given in and its bearers had left the hall, the council elected Mr
Leslie.

At the meeting of the presbytery of Edinburgh on the 27th, the committee
of the city clei'gy gave in a representation stating these transactions, along with
a copy of their protest, and requested the reverend court to take such steps in
the matter as they might judge proper. It was here determined by vote to carry
the affair before the synod ; a step formally necessary for bringing it under the
decision of the highest national church court, the general assembly.

At the meeting of this court, on the 22nd of May, the case of Mr Leslie came
before it in the shape of a complaint by the Rev. Sir Henry Moucricff and other
members of the synod, against the reference of the case to the general assembly.
It was thus apparent that the leaders of the more zealously pious party of the
church had taken the part of Mr Leslie against their accustomed opponents.
The interest which the public could not have failed to entertain respecting the
question, even if confined to its native merits, was excited to an uncommon de-
gree by this complication of the phenomenon. The case, nevertheless, furnished
only an unusually striking example of what must always be the result of a party
system in any deliberative body. It happened to be convenient for the " mod-
erate " party on this particular occasion, to show an anxious desire for the purity
of faith and doctrine ; and for this purpose they raked up a negative title in the
Edinburgh clergy to be consulted in the exercise of the town-council patronage,
which had not been acted upon for twenty-six years, during which time several
of the very men now prosecuting had been elected to chairs in the university
without regard to it. It was equally convenient for the evangelical party,
though adverse to all their usual principles, to regard the suspected infidelity of
Mr Leslie with a lenient and apologetic spirit, in order that they might be in
their usual position regarding their opponents, and because they hoped to gain
a triumph for themselves in the non-success of a prosecution, which they could
easily see rested upon no valid grounds, and could hardly, in the face of public
opinion, be carried to its utmost extent, even though a majority of servile votes
could have been obtained for the purpose.

In the course of the long debate which followed the introduction of the case,
some very strong testimonies were brought forward in favour of Mr Leslie's
moral and religious character. A letter from the minister of Largo testified that,
during the two past years, while Mr Leslie resided in the parish, he had paid a
becoming respect to religion, and that, if great abilities highly improved, an un-
stained moral character, and a tender discharge of every filial duty, recommend
to confidence and esteem, these belonged to him. Another letter, from the
clergyman of the neighbouring parish, after remarking that insinuations of the
kind disseminated respecting Mr Leslie, yielded but a contemptible support to
any cause, stated the following particulars : " I have lived in habits of intimacy
with Mr Leslie for some time past; I have had an opportunity of knowing his
religious and political sentiments ; I have been furnished, in short, with satisfac-
tory evidence of his attachment to our ecclesiastical and civil establishment.
His father officiated long as a worthy elder of our church : his son was once a
student of divinity ; and though he has not prosecuted his theological studies,
having been much engaged in other literary pursuits, I never heard that he had
ceased to respect the doctrines or discipline of the church of Scotland. On the
contrary, the leading doctrines of Christianity he regards with reverence."

There was also read a letter from Mr Leslie to a friend, of date, February

SIR JOHN LESLIE. 421

8£nd, 1805, in which he thus expressed himself: " It was my lot to receive a
most virtuous and religious education, in the bosom of a family eminently dis-
tinguished by its exemplary lives ; and the impressions of my early years, no
distance of time, or change of circumstances can ever efface. If my mind is
more enlarged by culture, I have likewise learned to see more deeply the im-
portance of those truths which bind men together in society, and which, visiting
their inmost recesses, appal the guilty and hold forth comfort to the wretched.
I have ever been a sincere lover of peace, of decency, and good order. My
time has been almost wholly spent in abstract researches, and the study of the
sublime operations of nature. The questions, so much agitated of late, served
with me only to amuse a few leisure moments ; and even at that eventful period,
when the minds of men, and particularly of young men, were so violently in-
flamed, I escaped in a great measure the contagion. I sighed, indeed, for the
improvement of our species ; but the slightest^ appearance of tumult, or popular
violence, was most abhorrent to my temper. I never had the remotest connex-
ion with any party or political association whatever. In the spirit of mildness,
I endeavoured to think and act for myself. My sentiments of loyalty had been
confirmed by what I had seen daring a short stay in America, where I witnessed
the disgusting and pernicious influence assumed by an ignorant, licentious, and
dissolute rabble. * * It is our native island that presents the truly cheering
picture of equal laws mildly administered, and holds up a body of religious in-
stitutions at once rational, decent, and impressive. I venerate the great princi-
ples of our Christian faith, and am solicitous to mark, by my external beha-
viour, that respect which I cherish. Raising my affections above this little spot
of earth, the restless scene of intrigue, and strife, and malice, I look forward
with joy and expectation to that better country beyond the grave."

Among the most powei'ful speakers on the side of Mr Leslie was Sir Henry
Moncrieft", who observed that the question expressly and simply referred to a
civil right of the Edinburgh ministers. This right, he showed, had never been
before exercised in the election of a professor of mathematics, and in all proba-
bility would be confined by a court of law to the professorships existing at the
institution of the university, of which that of mathematics was not one. The
right, however, if right it was, had in reality been exercised : the clergy had
gone to the council and given their advice, and, though it had not been follow-
ed, still it had been received. Sir Henry also commented in strong terms upon
the fact, that the whole of this prosecution, threatening so much to Mr Leslie,
had been conducted in such a way as to allow him no possibility of appearing
in his own defence. " It is a circumstance," further continued this nervous
orator, " which I cannot help mentioning, that the ministers of Edinburgh, in
their zeal to find any sort of heresy in Mr Leslie's note, have unfortunately an-
nounced a doctrine in opposition to that which they would fix on him, which is
capable of an interpretation more hostile to religion than any thing that they
have imputed to his book. In asserting ' such a necessary connexion between
cause and effect as implies an operating principle in the cause,' they express a
doctrine of which I can scarcely mention the pernicious tendency. If the ne-
cessity is applied to the first cause, it is not far from blasphemy. If it is restricted
(as I suppose it was meant to be) to the second cause, it is substantially the doc-
trine of materialism, and leads directly to atheism. [Here Mr Ritchie interrupt-
ed the speaker, to remind him that he had qualified the expression, and restricted
his meaning to a conditional or contingent necessity.] True, sir, he did so.
He did the very thing which he will not allow Mr Leslie to do. He gives an
explanation for himself and his friends, when he perceives the consequences of
the original expressions they had employed. He qualifies the necessity they

422

SIR JOHN LESLIE.

asserted by the term ' conditional,' by which he means to restrict it, and he
expects that we are to take his explanation without a murmur ; although, when
Mr Leslie would confine the assertion in his note to ' objects of physical exam-
ination,' he obstinately fixes him down to his original expressions, and rejects
the limitation as utterly inadmissible. Unfortunately, sir, the doctrine of the
ministers of Edinburgh, with regard to such a necessary connexion between
cause and effect as implies an operating principle in the cause, stands in its ori-
ginal state in the protest which they gave to the town-council. It is recorded
in the council books ; and there it must remain in all future times, without any
explanation whatever, be its tendency or its heresy ever so mischievous.

" The use," he continued with exquisite sarcasm, " which may be made of
incautious expressions, may be as forcibly illustrated from the protest of the
ministers of Edinburgh, as from the note of Mr Leslie. But there is this ma-
terial distinction between the two cases : Mr Leslie, at least, understood the
precise meaning of his assertions, as far as they related to the subject of which
he was writing ; but my reverend brethren enunciated their dogma in perfect
innocence and simplicity, completely unconscious of its true import and ten-
dency ! "

Near midnight, on the second day of the debate, it was determined by 96
against 84 to dismiss this vexatious case without further notice. On the vote
being announced, a shout of applause — an unwonted sound in the general as-
sembly— burst from the crowd assembled in the galleries.

Mr Leslie entered without further opposition upon the duties of his chair, and
upon a course of experimental discovery by which he was to confer lustre upon
the university. Through the assistance of one of his ingenious contrivances —
his hygrometer — he arrived in 1810 at the discovery of that singularly beautiful
process of artificial congelation, which enabled him to convert water and mer-
cury into ice. " We happened," says a brother professor, " to witness the con-
summation of the discovery — at least, of the performance of one of the first suc-
cessful repetitions of the process by which it was effected ; and we shall never
forget the joy and elation which beamed on the face of the discoverer, as, with
his characteristic good nature, he patiently explained the steps by which he had
been led to it."

In 1809 Mr Leslie published his Elements of Geometry, which immediately
became a class-book, and has since gone through four editions. He also pub-
lished, in 1813, an " Account of Experiments and Instruments depending on
the relation of Air to Heat and Moisture." In 1817 he produced his " Philo-
sophy of Arithmetic, exhibiting a Progressive view of the Theory and Progress
of Calculation," a small octavo; and, in 1821, his " Geometrical Analysis, and
Geometry of Curve Lines, being volume second of a Course of Mathematics, and
designed as an Introduction to the study of Natural Philosophy."2 In 1S22 he
published " Elements of- Natural Philosophy," for the use of his class — reprinted
in 1829 — and of which only one volume appeared. " Rudiments of Geome-
try," a small octavo, published, 1828, and designed for popular use, was his last
separate work. Besides these separate works, he wrote many admirable articles
iu the Edinburgh Review, three profound treatises in Nicholson's Philosophical
Journal, a few in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and
several very valuable articles on different branches of physics in the Supple-

* The Elements of Geometry included Trigonometry and Geometrical Analysis in one
volume, for the three first editions ; and the curve lines of the second order was a small separ-
ate work. In the fourth edition of the Geometry, 1820, one volume included Geometry and
Trigonometry, and the second, published some time after, consisted of Geometrical Analysis,
including the curves of the second order, formerly published with the addition of the higher
curves.

SIR JOHN LESLIE. 423

nient to the Encyclopedia Britannica. In 1819, on the death of professor
Playfair, whose promotion had formerly made room for him in the chair of
mathematics, he was elevated to the professorship of natural philosophy, by
which his powers were of course brought into a far wider field of display and
of usefulness, than they had been for the preceding fourteen years. Among
the preliminary treatises of the seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
which began to be published in 1830, he wrote a " Discourse on the History of
Mathematical and Physical Science, during the eighteenth century," which may
be described as one of the most agreeable and masterly of all his compositions.

The income enjoyed by Mr Leslie was for many years so much above his ne-
cessities, that he was able, by careful management, to realise a fortune not far
short of ten thousand pounds. Part of this he expended, in his latter years,
upon the purchase and decoration of a mansion called Coates near his native
village, where he spent all the intervals allowed by his college duties. Early
in the year 1832, at the recommendation of the lord chancellor (Brougham),
he ^as invested with a knighthood of the Guelphic order, at the same time
that Messrs Herschel, C. Bell, Ivory, Brewster, South, and Harris Nicolas,
received a similar honour. Sir John Leslie was not destined long to enjoy
the well-merited honour. In the end of October, while superintending some of
the improvements about his much-loved place, he incautiously exposed himself to
wet, the consequence of which was a severe cold. Among the various foibles
which protruded themselves through the better powers and habitudes of his mind,
was a contempt for medicine, and an unwillingness to think that he could be
seriously ill. He accordingly neglected his ailment, and was speedily seized
with erysipelas in one of his legs ; a disorder at that time raging in Scotland
with all the symptoms and effects of a malignant epidemic On Wednesday,
October 31st, he again exposed himself in his grounds, and from that day, the
malady advanced very rapidly. On the evening of Saturday, November 3d, he
breathed his last.

The scientific and personal character of Sir John Leslie has been sketched
with so bold and free a pencil by Mr Macvey Napier, his brother in both aca-
demic and literary labours, that we make no apology for presenting it to the
reader, in lieu of any thing of our own :

" It would be impossible, we think, for any intelligent and well-constituted
mind, to review the labours of this distinguished man, without a strong feeling
of admiration for his inventive genius and vigorous powers, and of respect for
that extensive knowledge which his active curiosity, his various reading, and
his happy memory had enabled him to attain. Some few of his contemporaries
in the same walks of science, may have excelled him in profundity of under-
standing, in philosophical caution, and in logical accuracy ; but we doubt if any
surpassed him, whilst he must be allowed to have surpassed many, in that crea-
tive faculty — one of the highest and rarest of nature's gifts — which leads, and
is necessary to discovery, though not all-sufficient of itself for the formation of
6afe conclusions ; or in that subtilty and reach of discernment which 6eizes the
finest and least obvious relations among the objects of science — which elicits the
hidden secrets of nature, and ministers to new combinations of her powers.
There were some flaws, it must be allowed, in the mind of this memorable per-
son. He strangely undervalued some branches of philosophical inquiry of high
importance in the circle of human knowledge. His credulity in matters of or-
dinary life was, to say the least of it, as conspicuous as his tendency to scepti-
cism in science. It has been profoundly remarked by Mr Dugald Stewart, that
' though the mathematician may be prevented, in his own pursuits, from going
far astray, by the absurdities to which his errors lead him, he is seldom apt to

424

SIR JOHN LESLIE.

be revolted by absurd conclusions in other matters. Thus, even in physics,' he
adds, 'mathematicians have been led to acquiesce in conclusions which appear
ludicrous to men of different habits.' Something of the same kind was observ-
able in the mind of this distinguished mathematician, for such also he was. He
was apt, too, to run into some startling hypothesis, from an unwarrantable ap-
plication of mathematical principles to subjects altogether foreign to them; as
when he finds an analogy between circulating decimals, and the lengthened cy-
cles of the seasons. In all his writings, with the exception, perhaps, of his test
considerable performance, the discourse prefixed to the seventh edition of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica, even in the sober field of pure mathematics, there is
a constant straining after ' thoughts that breathe and words that burn,' and a
love of abstract, and figurative, and novel modes of expression, which has ex-
posed them to just criticism, bj- impartial judges, and to some puny fault-finding,
by others, more willing to carp at defects than to point out the merits which
redeem them. But when even severe criticism has said its worst, it must be al-
lowed, that genius has struck its captivating impress, deep and wide over all his
works. His more airy speculations may be thrown aside or condemned ; hut his
exquisite instruments, and his original and beautiful experimental combinations,
will ever attest the fruitfulness of his mind, and continue to act as helps to far-
ther discovery. We have already alluded to the extent and excursiveness of his
reading. It is rare, indeed, to find a man of so much invention, and who him-
self valued the inventive above all the other powers, possessing so vast a store of
learned and curious information. His reading extended to every nook and
corner, however obscure, that books have touched upon. He was a lover, too,
and that in no ordinary degree, of what is commonly called anecdote. Though
he did not shine in mixed society, and was latterly unfitted by a considerable
degree of deafness for enjoying it, his conversation, when seated with one or
two, was highly entertaining. It had no wit, little repartee, and no fine turns
of any kind, but it had a strongly-original and racy cast, and was replete with
striking remarks and curious information.

" He had faults, no doubt, as all ' of woman born' have : he had preju-
dices, of which it would have been better to be rid; he was not over chari-
table in his views of human virtue; and he was not quite so ready, on all occa-
sions, to do that justice to kindred merit as was to be expected in so ardent a
worshipper of genius. But his faults were far more than compensated by his
many good qualities — by his constant equanimity, his cheerfulness, his simplicity
of character, almost infantine, his straightforwardness, his perfect freedom from
affectation, and, above all, his unconquerable good nature.3 He was, indeed,
one of the most placable of human beings; and if, as has been thought, he
generally had a steady eye, in his worldly course, to his own interest, it
cannot be denied that he was, notwithstanding, a warm and good friend, and
a relation on whose affectionate assistance a firm reliance could ever he
placed.

" There is one other matter which, in justice to the illustrious dead, we can-
not pass over in silence; we mean the permanent service rendered to the class
ol* Natural Philosophy by the late Sir John Leslie in the collection of by far the

8 The person of Sir John Leslie was, in later life, far from gainly. He was short and cor-
pulent with a florid face, and somewhat unsightly projection of the front teeth, and tottered
considerably in walking. He was, moreover, very slovenly in his mode of dressing — a pecu-
liarity the more curious, as it was accompanied by no inconsiderable share of self-respect,
and an anxiety to be thought young and engaging. The mixture of great intellectual
powers with the humbler weaknesses of human nature, can seldom have heen more strik-
ingly exemplified than in his case; though it is evident that, as his weaknesses were
very much those to which unmarried men in advanced life are supposed to be most pe-
culiarly liahle, they might have probably been obviated in a great measure, if he had
happened to spend his life in the more fortunate condition of matrimony.

SIR JOHN LESLIE. 425

finest and most complete set of apparatus in the kingdom. Augustus boasted
that he found Rome built of brick, and left it a city of palaces and temples
constructed of marble. Without any exaggeration, something analogous may be
predicated of Sir John Leslie in regard to the apparatus of this class. He found
it a collection of antiquated and obsolete rubbish ; he left it the most complete
and perfect of its kind in this kingdom ; and if it had pleased God to spare him
a few years longer, it would, beyond all doubt, have been rendered the first in
Europe or the world. The renovation which he effected was, indeed, most ra-
dically complete. The whole of the old trash was thrown aside, and its place
supplied by new instruments, constructed on the most improved principles by tho
most celebrated artists, both in this country and on the continent ; while its
absolute amount was increased tenfold, and adapted, in the happiest manner, to
the present advanced state of science. His perseverance and enthusiasm in this
respect were indeed boundless ; and as his predecessors were not experimental,
ists, in the same sense in which he was, and had made little or no effort to ac-
commodate the apparatus to the progress of science, or even to repair the wear
and tear of time, he had the whole to create, in theisame way as if the class had
only been founded when he was first promoted to the chair. By his own con-
tinued and admirably-directed efforts, aided by the liberality of the patrons,
who generously made him several grants in furtherance of the object which he
had so much at heart; and also by very considerable pecuniary sacrifices upon his
own part, for which he has never as yet got the credit that is so justly due to
him ; he at length succeeded in furnishing the apparatus-room in the manner
in which it may now be seen by any one who chooses to visit it, and thus con-
ferred upon the university a benefit for which it ought to be for ever grateful to
his memory. This may sound strange in the ears of those who have been ac-
customed to hear it said, as it has often been, most falsely, that Sir John Leslie
was a bad experimenter. The truth is, that of all his great and varied gifts,
none was more remarkable than the delicacy and success with which he perform-
ed the most difficult experiments, excepting perhaps his intuitive sagacity in in-
stantly detecting the cause of an accidental failure ; and it is a known fact, that,
after he had discovered ar.d communicated to the world his celebrated process
of artificial congelation, particularly as applied to the freezing of mercury, some
of the first men of science in London failed of performing it, till the discoverer
himself, happening to be on the spot personally, showed them wherein consisted
the fault of their manipulation, and at once performed the experiment which
had previously baffled all their efforts. It is equally well known to those who
were acquainted with him, that the most elegant in form as well as the most
delicate in operation of the beautiful instruments invented by himself, were con-
structed by his own hand, and that this, to him most agreeable employment,
constituted the recreation of his leisure hours. The apparatus-room, indeed,
contains many specimens of his workmanship in this line, and they are of such a
description as would not do any discredit to the most practised and skilful artist.
To his immediate successor his acquisitions and his labours will, therefore, be of
incalculable importance ; but the merit which really belongs to him can only be
duly estimated by those who know what he found, when he became professor ot
natural philosophy, and can compare it with the treasures which he has left
behind him." * • ... *

4 Some further particulars respecting his various talents and acquirements may be gathered
from the following notice, which appeared in the Edinburgh Courant, and seems to be the
production of one qualified in more ways than one to speak upon the subject:. — "Sir John
Leslie has been for many years known in this country, and over all Europe, as one of the most
eminent characters of the age. As a mathematician and philosopher ; as a profound and
accomplished scholar : as a proficient in general literature,' and in history and many other
in. 3 H

426 JOHN LEYDEN.

LEYDEN, John, a man of singularly varied genius and accomplishment, was
born on the 8th of September, 1775, at Denholm, a village on the banks of the
Teviot, in the parish of Cavers and county of Roxburgh. His parents were
John Leyden and Isabella Scott, who had three sons and two daughters younger
than himself. His ancestors in both lines had been farmers on the estate of
Cavers for several generations ; but his father, though skilful in rural affairs,
declined to engage on his own account in the same occupation, thinking even
the fortunate pursuit of gain a poor compensation for the anxiety that attends it.
About a year after the birth of their first child, he removed to Henlawshiel on
the farm of Nether Tofts, which was then occupied by Andrew Blythe, his wife's
uncle, whom he first served as shepherd, and subsequently as overseer, his mas-
ter having had the misfortune to lose his sight. The cottage in which the
family resided was of an humble construction ; its internal accommodations were
equally simple ; but it was situated at the foot of the majestic hill of Ruberslaw,
and there, among the " dun heathy slopes and valleys green," did Leyden im-
bibe that enthusiasm and manliness of character which afterwards displayed

branches of knowledge, he had few rivals. But it was for mathematical science and its kin-
dred studies, that he discovered, at a very early period, a decided predilection ; and it is in the
successful illustration of scientific truth and of all the complicated phenomena of physics, that
his great reputation has been acquired. In these pursuits he was eminently qualified to excel
by the great original powers of his mind, which were further stimulated by an ardent enthu-
siasm, and an early desire of distinction among the illustrious names of his day. Along wiih
a profound knowledge of his subject, he possessed great inventive powers, which not only en-
abled him to sound the depths of science, but to expound its important problems with a sim-
plicity and elegance rarely equalled. In making his way through the intricacies of physical
research, his severe judgment guided him in the right path ; and hence his demonstrations al-
ways afford a striking and beautiful display of pure reason, without any tendency to that spirit
of metaphysical subtlety which occasionally perplexes the speculations of Laplace, Legendre,
with others of the continental philosophers ; and it is worthy of remark that, along with the
penetrating force of his judgment, he carried into those studies that taste and fancy — that pre-
dilection for the beautiful, which may be recognised in all his speculations, whether in litera-
ture or in science. His taste in geometry was founded on the purest models of Grecian phi-
losophy ; he delighted to expound to his pupils the simplicity and elegance of the demonstra-
tions by the great masters of antiquity ; he commended them to their imitation, and expatiat-
ed on the subject in a manner well fitted to inspire a kindred enthusiasm ; so that we might
have fancied that he was dilating, not on the merits of a mathematical problem, but on some
of those beautiful forms and classic models of ancient art which have been the wonder of all
succeeding times. Nor was this admiration of ancient geometry a mere pedantic or barren
speculation. The great philosopher of whom we are speaking carried his principles into prac-
tice, and applied the abstract properties of figures with the happiest success to experimental
philosophy ; many branches of which he greatly extended by his discoveries ; and in all of
them he developed the most original views, which may yet be traced to important results.
The_range of his studies was amazingly extensive; and he had accumulated vast stores of
knowledge, especially on scientific subjects. He was deeply versed in the history of science,
which he had traced from its earliest dawnings in the times of Greece and Rome, through all
the subsequent vicissitudes which it experienced during the dark ages of barbarism, till it was
revived by the Arabians in the east, and was afterwards improved and perfected by the more
brilliant discoveries of modern times. We speak b'terally when we say, that we doubt if there
is a single publication relating to this subject, either in the ancient or the modern languages,
which he had not diligently perused ; and his knowledge, minute and accurate on every point,
and, once acquired, never forgotten, overflowed in his conversation and in his writings. The
date of any great discovery was familiar to him; he could give anecdotes or biographical
sketches of all the great promoters of science in every age ; and the prodigality of his informa-
tion was not more surprising than the ease with which he preserved its disposition and ar-
rangement, under certain great leading principles, which were the land-marks of his mind,
by which the store of facts which he had been treasuring up for years was reduced into order,
and each distributed into its proper place in the great system of which it formed a part. For
the truth of this remark we may refer to the • History of the Barometer,' in the Edinburgh
Review, and to his papers on Meteorology, and other subjects in the Encyclopaxlia Britannica,
to his continuation of Playfair's Introductory Discourses prefixed to that work, as well as to
many of his other productions, which display the great extent of his researches. On otlier
subjects, also, not connected with his peculiar studies, his information was minute and exten-
sive. He was deeply read in Scottish history and antiquities; and on all modern questions of
politics or political economy, he had his own original ideas, which he was always ready to ex-
press and expound in a fair and temperate strain."

JOHN LEYDEN. 42?

themselves so strongly in his domestic affections, in his love of country, and in
his unwearied pursuit of knowledge.

With the inmates of his father's house dwelt intelligence, cheerful content
and piety ; and, in this scene of the domestic virtues, Leyden was taught to read
by his grandmother, under whom he soon acquired a familiar acquaintance with
the events recorded in the sacred volume, the historical passages in the Old Tes-
tament having first attracted his attention. There is no circumstance from
which we should so readily entertain good hopes of the future conduct of a boy,
as that of his having been imbued with his earliest letters by so venerable an
instructress ; for it argues not only an attentive care to make him spell and pro-
nounce words correctly, but an anxious discharge of the parental duties on the
part of the family from whom he is sprung, which cannot fail to produce the
best effects on the heart of the young pupil — an effect how different from that
which other fathers are doomed to witness, who, as soon as their children's age
admits of their removal, despatch them to distant schools to be brought up as
well as taught by strangers, and think they have done all that can reasonably be
expected from them when they disburse the sums necessary for the mainte-
nance of their offspring ! It was considered the highest praise of a Roman ma-
tron of rank that " she staid at home and span," domum mansit, lanatn fecit ;
but by far more honourable is the epitaph which might with truth be engraved
on the tombstones of many Scottish women of the humblest rank — " she taught
her grandchildren to read." The moral worth which such a system of affection-
ate training keeps alive in the land cannot be too highly estimated ; and, as if
to prove its advantage, such men as Leyden now and then emerge from useful
obscurity, and make the beauty of their home-bred virtues conspicuous to all the
world.

Leyden's taste for reading, once kindled, spread like the moorburn on his
native heaths, first over the books in his father's possession, and then to the
shelves of the neighbours. Some popular works on Scottish history supplied the
inspiring recital of the deeds of Wallace and Bruce, which, beyond their im-
mediate benefit, have continued as examples through succeeding ages to cherish
sentiments of independence in every generous bosom. Among the other pro-
ductions with which he was greatly delighted, have been enumerated the poems
of Sir David Lindsay, Paradise Lost, Chapman's translation of Homer, and the
Arabian Nights Entertainments. An odd volume of the last-named work he ob-
tained, when he was about eleven years old, by a resolute perseverance of solici-
tation quite commensurate with the ardour of his subsequent literary career. He
had received from a companion some account of its contents, and been told that
the treasure belonged to a blacksmith's apprentice who resided at some miles'
distance from his father's house. The very next morning, Leyden waded
through the snow in the hope of being allowed to peruse a part of the volume
in the owner's presence — for he had no title to expect a loan of it in any other
way ; and that he might have leisure to do so, he set out betimes. On reaching
the smithy, learning that the lad had gone from home to do some work, he pro-
ceeded to the place, and, having preferred his request, met with a refusal. But
he was not to be so dismissed, and continuing beside the lad the whole day, he
either succeeded in gaining his good graces, or prevailed by the mere force of
pertinacity, so that he got the book as a present, and returned home by sunset,
" exhausted by hunger and fatigue," says Sir Walter Scott, "but in triumphant
possession of a treasure for which he would have subjected himself to yet greater
privations."

At nine years of age Leyden had been sent to the parish school of Kirktown,
where, to writing and arithmetic, he added a little knowledge of Latin grain-

428 JOHN LEYDEN.

mar. He continued here three years, with the interval of two very long vaca-
tions, in consequence of the death of one teacher and the removal of another.
At these times he assumed the plaid, and looked after his father's flock when
his assistance was needed. His parents now clearly perceived that the bent of
their son's mind was for learning, and he was accordingly placed under the
charge of Mr Duncan, a Cameronian minister at Denholm, who instructed a few
pupils, — he could not usually draw together more than five or six, — in Greek
and Latin. " Of the eagerness of his desire for knowledge," says the Rev.
James Morton, " it may not be improper to relate an anecdote which took place
at this time : Denholm being about three miles from his home, Avhich was rather
too long a walk, his father was going to buy him an ass to convey him to and
from school. Leyden, however, was unwilling, from the common prejudice
against this animal, to encounter the ridicule of his schoolfellows by appearing
so ignobly mounted, and would at first have declined the offered accommodation.
But no sooner was he informed that the owner of the ass happened to have in
his possession a large book in some learned language, which he offered to give
into the bargain, than his reluctance entirely vanished, and he never rested un-
til he had obtained this literary treasure, which was found to be the Calepini
Dictionarium Octolingue."

After he had enjoyed the advantage of Mr Duncan's instructions for two
years, it was judged that he was qualified for college ; and in November, 1790,
his father accompanied him half-way to Edinburgh, with a horse which they
rode alternately; he performed the rest of the journey on foot His views
being directed to the church, he began the usual course of study by attending
the Greek and Latin classes ; in the preparations for which he was assiduous,
allotting a stated portion of time daily to the tasks of each professor, and em-
ploying the remaining hours in desultory reading, from which, having the com-
mand of the college library, he Avas not deterred, like some young men, by any
difficulty of determining which books it would be most proper and advantageous
for him to read first. His public appearances threatened at the outset to draw-
down upon him some degree of ridicule ; but professor Dalzell used to describe
with some humour, the astonishment and amusement excited in his class when
John Leyden first stood up to recite his Greek exercise. The rustic yet un-
daunted manner, the humble dress, the high harsh tone of his voice, joined to
the broad provincial accent of Teviotdale, discomposed on this first occasion the
gravity of the professor, and totally routed that of the students. But it was
soon perceived that these uncouth attributes were joined to qualities which com-
manded respect and admiration. The rapid progress of the young rustic at-
tracted the approbation and countenance of the professor, who was ever prompt
to distinguish and encourage merit ; and to those among the students who did
not admit literary proficiency as a shelter for the ridicule due since the days of
Juvenal to the scholar's worn coat and unfashionable demeanour, Leyden was in
no respect averse from showing strong reasons adapted to their comprehension,
and affecting their personal safety, for keeping their mirth within decent
bounds.1

The Greek language was long his favourite study, and, considering his op-
portunities, he became much more intimately acquainted with its best authors
than is usual in Scotland, even among those who make some pretensions to lite-
rature. The Latin he understood thoroughly ; and it is perhaps the best proof

1 The ensuing' part of the present article is borrowed with very slight alterations from a
memoir of Dr Leyden, in the Edinburgh Annual Register for 1811 — cvidentl}', from its
" careless inimitable graces," the composition of Sir Walter Scott.

JOHN LEYDEN. 429

of his classical attainments, that at a later period, to use his own expression,
" he passed muster pretty well when introduced to Dr Parr."

Leyden was now at the fountain-head of knowledge, and availed himself of
former privations by quaffing it in large draughts. He not only attended all the
lectures usually connected with the study of theology, but several others, parti-
cularly some of the medical classes, — a circumstance which afterwards proved
important to his outset in life, although at the time it could only be ascribed to
his restless and impatient pursuit after science of every description. Admission
to these lectures was easy from the liberality of the professors, who throw their
classes gratuitously open to young men educated for the church, a privilege of
which Leyden availed himself to the utmost extent. There were indeed few
branches of study in which he did not make some progress. Besides the learned
languages, he acquired French, Spanish, Italian, and German, was familiar with
the ancient Icelandic, and studied Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian.

But though he soon became particularly distinguished by his talents as a lin-
guist, few departments of science altogether escaped his notice. He investigated
moral philosophy with the ardour common to all youths of talent who studied
ethics under the auspices of professor Dugald Stewart, with whose personal notice
he was honoured.. He became a respectable mathematician, and was at least
superficially acquainted with natural philosophy, natural history, chemistry, bo-
tany, and mineralogy. These various sciences he acquired in different degrees,
and at different times, during his residence at college. They were the fruit of
no very regular plan of study : whatever subject interested his mind at the time
attracted his principal attention till time and industry had overcome the difficul-
ties 'which it presented, and was then exchanged for another pursuit. It seemed
frequently to be Leyden's object to learn just so much of a particular science as
should enable him to resume it at any future period ; and to those who objected
to the miscellaneous, or occasionally the superficial nature of his studies, he used
to answer with his favourite interjection, " Dash it, man, never mind : if you
have the scaffolding ready, you can run up the masonry when you please."
But this mode of study, however successful with John Leyden, cannot be safely
recommended to a student of less retentive memory and robust application.
With him, however, at least while he remained in Britain, it seemed a matter of
little consequence for what length of time he resigned any particular branch of
study ; for when either some motive or mere caprice induced him to resume it,
he could with little difficulty re-unite all the broken associations, and begin
where he left off months or years before, without having lost an inch of ground
during the interval.

The vacations which our student 'spent at home were employed in ar-
ranging, methodizing, and enlarging the information which he had acquired
during his winter's attendance at college. His father's cottage affording him
little opportunity for quiet and seclusion, he was obliged to look out for accom-
modations abroad, and seme of his places of retreat were sufficiently extraordi-
nary. In a wild recess, in the dean or glen which gives name to the village of
Denholm, he contrived a sort of furnace for the purpose of such chemical ex-
periments as it was adequate to performing. But his chief place of retirement
was the small parish church, a gloomy and ancient building, generally believed
in the neighbourhood to be haunted. To this chosen place of study, usually
locked during week-days, Leyden made entrance by means of a window,
read there for many hours in the day, and deposited his books and specimens
in a retired pew. It was a well chosen spot of seclusion, for the kirk, (except-
ing during divine service) is rather a place of terror to the Scottish rustic, and
that of Cavers was rendered more so by many a tale of ghosts and witchcraft,

430 JOHN LEYDEN.

of which it was the supposed scene ; and to which Leyden, partly to indulge
his humour, and partly to secure his retirement, contrived to make some modern
additions. The nature of his abstruse studies, some specimens of natural his-
tory, as toads and adders, left exposed in their spirit vials, and one or two
practical jests played off upon the more curious of the peasantry, rendered his
gloomy haunt not only venerated by the wise, but feared by the simple, of the
parish, who began to account this abstracted student, like the gifted person de«
scribed by Wordsworth, as possessing

Waking empire wide as dreams,

An ample sovereignty of eye and ear ;
Rich are his walks with supernatural cheer;
The region of his inner spirit teems
With vital sounds, and monitory gleams
Of high astonishment and pleasing fear.

This was a distinction which, as we have already hinted, he was indeed not
unwilling to affect, and to which, so far as the visions existing in the high fancy
of the poet can supply those ascribed to the actual ghost-seer, he had indeed no
slight pretensions.

Books as well as retirement were necessary to the progress of Leyden'a
studies, and not always attainable. But his research collected from every quar-
ter such as were accessible by loan, and he subjected himself to the utmost pri-
vations to purchase those that were not otherwise to be procured. The
reputation also of his prosperous career of learning obtained him occasional ac-
cess to the library of Mr Douglas of Cavers ; an excellent old collection, in
which he met, for the first time, many of those works of the middle ages which he
studied with so much research and success. A Froissart in particular, trans-
lated by lord Berners, captivated his attention with all those tales " to savage
virtue dear," which coincided with his taste for chivalry, and with the models
on which it had been formed ; and tales of the Black Prince, of the valiant
Chandos, and of Geoffrey Tete-Noir, now rivalled the legends of Johnnie Arm-
strong, Walter the Devil, and the Black Douglas.

In the country, Leyden's society was naturally considerably restricted, but
while at college it began to extend itself among such of his fellow students as
were distinguished for proficiency in learning. Among these we may number
the celebrated author of the Pleasures of Hope ; the ltev. Alexander Murray
united with Leyden in the kindred pursuit of oriental learning, and whose
lamp, like that of his friend, was extinguished at the moment when it was
placed in the most conspicuous elevation ; William Erskine, author of a poetical
epistle from St Kilda, with whom Leyden renewed his friendship in India ; the
ingenious Dr Thomas Brown, distinguished for his early proficiency in the
science of moral philosophy, of which he was afterwards professor in the Edin-
burgh college ; the Rev. Kobert Lundie, minister of Kelso, and several othei
young men of talent, who at that time pursued their studies in the university of
Edinburgh.

In the year 179G, the recommendation of professor Dalzell procured Leyden
the situation of private tutor to the sons of Mr Campbell of Fairfield, a situation
which he retained for two or three years. During the winter of 1 7 9 8, he attended
the two young gentlemen to their studies at the college of St Andrews. Here
he had the advantage of the acquaintance of professor Hunter, an admirable
classical scholar, and to whose kind instructions he professed much obligation.
The secluded situation also of St Andrews, the monastic life of the students, the
fragments of antiquity with which that once metropolitan town is surrounded, and

JOHN LEYDEN. 431

the libraries of its colleges, gave him additional opportunity and impulse to
pursue his favourite plans of study.

About the time he resided at St Andrews, the renown of Mungo Park, and
Leyden's enthusiastic attachment to all researches connected with oriental
learning, turned his thoughts towards the history of Africa, in which he found
much to enchant an imagination which loved to dwell upon the grand, the mar-
vellous, the romantic, and even the horrible, and which was rather fired than
appalled by the picture of personal danger and severe privation. Africa indeed
had peculiar charms for Leyden. He delighted to read of hosts, Avhose arrows
intercepted the sunbeams ; of kings and soldiers, who judged of the numberless
number of their soldiers by marching them over the trunk of a cedar, and only
deemed their strength sufficient to take the field when such myriads had passed
as to reduce the solid timber to impalpable dust : the royal halls also of Daho-
mey, built of sculls and cross-bones, and moistened with the daily blood of new
victims of tyranny, all, in short, that presented strange, wild, and romantic
views of human nature, and which furnished new and unheard-of facts in the
history of man, had great fascination for his ardent imagination. And about
this time he used to come into company, quite full of these extraordinary stories,
garnished faithfully •with the unpronounceable names of the despots and tribes of
Africa, which any one at a distance would have taken for the exorcism of a
conjurer. The fruit of his researches he gave to the public in a small volume,
entitled, " An Historical and Philosophical Sketch'of the Discoveries and Settle-
ments of the Europeans in Northern and Western Africa at the close of the 18th
century," crown 8vo, 1799. It is written on the plan of Raynal's celebrated
work, and, as it contains a clear and lively abridgment of the information af-
forded by travellers whose works are of rare occurrence, it was favourably re-
ceived by the public.

On Leyden's return to Edinburgh from St Andrews, he resided with his
pupils in the family of Mr Campbell, where he was treated with that respect
and kindness which every careful father will pay to him whose lessons he ex-
pects his children to receive with attention and advantage. His hours, except-
ing those of tuition" were at his own uncontrolled disposal, and such of his
friends as chose to visit him at Mr Campbell's, were sure of a hospitable re-
ception. This class began now to extend itself among persons of an older
standing than his contemporaries, and embraced several who had been placed
by fortune, or had risen by exertions, to that fixed station in society, to which
his college intimates were as yet only looking forwards. His acquaintance with
Mr Richard Heber was the chief means of connecting him with several families
of the former description, and it originated in the following circumstances.

John Leyden's feelings were naturally poetical, and he was early led to ex-
press them in the language of poetry. Before he visited St Andrews, and while
residing there, he had composed both fragments and complete pieces of poetry
in almost every style and stanza which our language affords, from an unfinished
tragedy on the fate of the Darien settlement, to songs, ballads, and comic tales.
Many of these essays afterwards found their way to the press through the
medium of the Edinburgh Magazine, at that time under the management or the
patronage of Dr Robert Anderson, editor of the British poets, with whom Ley-
den was on terms of intimacy. In this periodical miscellany appeared from
time to time poetical translations from the Greek Anthology, from the Norse,
from the Hebrew, from the Arabic, from the Syriac, from the Persian, and so
forth, with many original pieces, indicating more genius than taste, and an ex-
tent of learning of most unusual dimensions. These were subscribed J. L.
About this time also Mr Archibald Constable was opening business chiefly as a

432 JOHN LEYDEN.

retailer of curious and ancient books, a department in which ne possessed ex-
tensive knowledge ; Mr Richard Heber, the extent of whose invaluable library
is generally known, was, in the winter of 1799-1800, residing in Edinburgh,
and a frequenter of course of Mr Constable's shop. In these researches lie
formed an acquaintance with Ley den, who examined as an amateur the shelves
which Mr Heber ransacked as a purchaser, and the latter discovered with plea-
sure the unknown author of the poems which have been already alluded to.
The acquaintance soon ripened into friendship, and was cemented by mutual ad-
vantage. Mr Heber had found an associate as ardent as himself in the pursuit
of classical knowledge, and who would willingly sit up night after night to col-
late editions, and to note various readings ; and Leyden, besides the advantage
and instruction which he derived from Mr Heber's society, enjoyed that of
being introduced, by his powerful recommendation, to the literary gentlemen of
Edinburgh, with whom he lived in intimacy. Among these may be reckoned
the late lord Woodhouselee, Mr Henry Mackenzie, the, distinguished author of
the Man of Feeling, and the Reverend Mr Sidney Smith, then residing in
Edinburgh, from all of whom Leyden received flattering attention, and many
important testimonies of the interest which they took in his success. By the
same introduction he became intimate in the family of Mr Walter Scott, where
a congenial taste for ballad, romance, and border antiquities, as well as a sin-
cere admiration of Leyden's high talents, extensive knowledge, and excellent
heart, secured him a welcome reception. And by degrees his society extended
itself still more widely, and comprehended almost every one who was distin-
guished for taste or talents in Edinburgh.

The manners of Leyden, when he first entered into company, were very
peculiar ; nor indeed were they at any time much modified during his continu-
ing in Europe ; and here, perhaps, as properly as elsewhere, we may endea-
vour to give some idea of his personal appearance and habits in society. In
his complexion the clear red upon the cheek indicated a hectic propensity, but
with his brown hair, lively dark eyes, and well-proportioned features, gave an
acute and interesting turn of expression to his whole countenance. He was of
middle stature, of a frame rather thin than strong, but muscular and active, and
well fitted for all those athletic exertions in which he delighted to be accounted
a master. For he was no less anxious to be esteemed a man eminent for learn-
ing and literary talent, than to be held a fearless player at singlestick, a for-
midable boxer, and a distinguished adept at leaping, running, walking, climbing,
and all exercises which depend on animal spirits and muscular exertion. Feats
of this nature he used to detail with such liveliness as sometimes led his au-
dience to charge him with exaggeration ; but, unlike the athletic in iKsop's
apologue, he was always ready to attempt the repetition of his great leap at
Rhodes, were it at the peril of breaking his neck on the spot. And certainly
in many cases his spirit and energy carried him through enterprises which his
friends considered as most rashly undertaken. An instance occurred on board
of ship in India, where two gentlemen, by way of quizzing Leyden's pretensions
to agility, offered him a bet of twenty gold mohrs that he could not go aloft.
Our bard instantly betook himself to the shrouds, and, at all the risk incident to
a landsman who first attempts such an ascent, successfully scaled the main-top.
There it was intended to subject him to an unusual practical sea joke, by seizing
Itim up, i. e. tying him, till he should redeem himself by paying a fine. But the
spirit of Leyden dictated desperate resistance, and, finding he was likely to be
overpowered, he flung himself from the top, and, seizing a rope, precipitated
himself on deck by letting it slide rapidly through his grasp. In this operation
he lost the skin of both hands, but of course won his wager. But when he ob-

JOHN LEYDEN. 433

served his friends look grave at the expensive turn which their jest had taken,
he tore and flung into the sea the order for the money which they had given
him, and contented himself with the triumph which his spirit and agility had
gained. And this little anecdote may illustrate his character in more respects
than one.

In society, John Leyden's first appearance had something that revolted the
fastidious and alarmed the delicate. He was a bold and uncompromising dispu-
tant, and neither subdued his tone, nor mollified the form of his argument, out
of deference to the rank, age, or even sex of those with whom he was maintain-
ing it. His voice, which was naturally loud and harsh, was on such occasions
exaggerated into what he himself used to call his saw-tones, which were not
very pleasant to the ear of strangers. His manner was animated, his movements
abrupt, and the gestures with which he enforced his arguments rather forcible
than elegant ; so that, altogethei-, his first appearance was somewhat appalling
to persons of low animal spirits, or shy and reserved habits, as well as to all
who expected much reverence in society on account of the adventitious circum-
stances of rank or station. Besides, his spirits were generally at top-flood, and
entirely occupied with what had last arrested his attention, and thus his own
feats, or his own studies, were his topic more frequently than is consistent with
the order of good society, in which every person has a right to expect his share
of conversation. He was indeed too much bent on attaining personal distinc-
tion in society to choose nicely the mode of acquiring it. For example, in the
course of a large evening party, crowded with fashionable people, to many of
whom Leyden was an absolute stranger, silence being imposed for the purpose
of a song, one of his friends with great astonishment, and some horror, heard
Leyden, who could not sing a note, scream forth a verse or two of some border
ditty, with all the dissonance of an Indian war-whoop. In their way home, he
ventured to remonstrate with his friend on this extraordinary exhibition, to
which his defence was, "Dash it, man, they would have thought I was afraid
to sing before them." In short, his egotism, his bold assumption in society,
his affectation of neglecting many of its forms as trifles beneath his notice — cir-
cumstances which often excited against his first appearance an undue and dis-
proportionate prejudice — were entirely founded upon the resolution to support his
independence in society, and to assert that character formed between the let-
tered scholar, and the wild rude borderer, the counter part as it were of Ana-
charsis, the philosophic Scythian, which, from his infancy, he was ambitious of
maintaining. His humble origin was with him rather a subject of honest pride
than of false shame, and he was internally not unwilling that his deportment
should to a certain degree partake of the simplicity of the ranks .from which he
had raised himself by his talents, to bear a share in the first society.

Having thus marked strongly the defects of his manner, and the prejudice
which they sometimes excited, we crave credit from the public, while we record
the real virtues and merits by which they were atoned a thousand fold. Ley-
den's apparent harshness of address covereda fund of real affection to his friends,
and kindness to all with whom he mingled, unwearied in their service, and
watchful to oblige them. To gratify the slightest wish of a friend, he would
engage at once in the most toilsome and difficult researches, and when perhaps
that friend had forgotten that he even intimatetLsuch a wish, Leyden came to pour
down before him the fullest information on the subject which had excited his
attention. And his temper was in reality, and notwithstanding an affectation of
roughness, as gentle as it was generous. No one felt more deeply for the dis-
tress of those he loved. No one exhibited more disinterested pleasure in their
success. In dispute, he never lost temper, and if he despised the outworks of

3 I

434 JOHN LEYDEN.

ceiemony, he never trespassed upon the essentials of good breeding, and was
himself the first to feel hurt and distressed if he conceived that he had, by any
rash or hasty expression, injured the feelings of the most inconsiderable member
of the company. In all the rough play of his argument too, he was strictly
good-humoured, and was the first to laugh if, as must happen occasionally to
those who talk much, and upon every subject, some disputant of less extensive
but more accurate information, contrived to arrest him in his very pitch of
pride, by a home fact or incontrovertible argument. And, when his high and
independent spirit, his firm and steady principles of religion and virtue, his
constant good humour, the extent and variety of his erudition, and the liveli-
ness of his conversation, were considered, they must have been fastidious indeed
who were not reconciled to the foibles or peculiarities of his tone and
manner.

Many of those whose genius has raised them to distinction, have fallen
into the fatal error of regarding their wit and talents as an excuse for the un-
limited indulgence of their passions, and their biographei's have too frequently
to record the acts of extravagance, and habits of immorality, which disgraced
and shortened their lives. From such crimes and follies John Leyden stood
free and stainless. He was deeply impressed with the truths of Christianity, of
which he was at all times a ready and ardent asserter, and his faith was attested
by the purity of morals which is its best earthly evidence. To the pleasures of
the table he was totally indifferent, never exceeded the bounds of temperance
in wine, though frequently in society where there was temptation to do so, and
seemed hardly to enjoy any refreshment excepting tea, of which he sometimes
drank very large quantities.3 When he was travelling or studying, his temper-
ance became severe abstinence, and he often passed an entire day without any
other food than a morsel of bread. To sleep he was equally indifferent, and
when, during the latter part of his residence in Edinburgh, he frequently spent
the day in company, he used, upon retiring home, to pursue his studies till a
late hour in the morning, and satisfy himself with a very brief portion of repose.
It was the opinion of his friends, that his strict temperance alone could have en-
abled him to follow so hard a course of reading as he enjoined himself. His
pecuniary resources were necessarily much limited ; but he knew that indepen-
dence, and the title of maintaining a free and uncontrolled demeanour in society
can only be attained by avoiding pecuniary embarrassments, and he managed
his funds with such severe economy, that he seemed always at ease upon his
very narrow income. We have only another trait to add to his character as a
member of society. With all his bluntness and peculiarity, and under disadvan-
tages of birth and fortune, Leyden's reception among females of rank and ele-
gance was favourable in a distinguished degree. Whether it is that the tact of
the fair sex is finer than ours, or that they more readily pardon peculiarity in
favour of originality, or that an uncommon address and manner is in itself a re-
commendation to their favour, or that they are not so readily offended as the
male sex by a display of superior learning ; in short, whatever were the cause,
it is certain that Leyden was a favourite among those whose favour all are am-
bitious to attain. Among the ladies of distinction who honoured him with their
regard, it is sufficient to notice the late duchess of Gordon and lady Charlotte
Campbell (now Bury), who were then leaders of the fashionable society of Edin-
burgh. It is time to return to trace the brief events of his life.

In 1800, Leyden was ordained a preacher of the gospel, and entered upon
the functions then conferred upon him, by preaching in several of the churches

* A lady whose house he frequented, mentioned to a friend of the editor that she had
filled him out eighteen cups in one evening.

JOHN LEYDEN. 435

in Edinburgh and the neighbourhood. His style of pulpit oratory was marked
with the same merits and faults which distinguish his poetry. His style was
more striking than eloquent, and his voice and gesture more violent than ele-
gant ; but his discourses were marked with strong traits of original genius, and
although he pleaded an internal feeling of disappointment at being unequal to
attain his own ideas of excellence as a preacher, it was impossible to listen to
him without being convinced of his uncommon extent of learning, knowledge of
ethics, and sincere zeal for the interest of religion.

The autumn of the same year was employed in a tour to the Highlands and
Hebrides, in which Leyden accompanied two young foreigners who had studied
at Edinburgh the preceding winter. In this tour he visited all the remarkable
places of that interesting part of his native country, and, diverging from the
common and more commodious route, visited what are called the rough bounds
of the Highlands, and investigated the decaying traditions of Celtic manners
and story which are yet preserved in the wild districts of Moidart and Knoidart.
The journal which he made on this occasion was a curious monument of his
zeal and industry in these researches, and contained much valuable information
on the subject of Highland manners and tradition, which is now probably lost to
the public. It is remarkable, that after long and painful research in quest of
original passages of the poems of Ossian, he adopted an opinion more favour-
able to their authenticity than has lately prevailed in the literary world. But
the confessed infidelity of Macpherson must always excite the strongest suspicion
on this subject. Leyden composed, with his usual facility, several detached
poems upon Highland traditions, all of which have probably perished, excepting
a ballad, founded upon the romantic legend respecting MacPhail of Colonsay
and the Mermaid of Correvrecken, inscribed to lady Charlotte Campbell, and
published in the third volume of the Border Minstrelsy, which appeared at the
distance of about a twelvemonth after the first two volumes. The opening of
this ballad exhibits a power of harmonious numbers which has seldom been ex-
celled in English poetry. Nor were these legendary effusions the only fruit of
his journey ; for, in his passage through Aberdeen, Leyden so far gained the
friendship of the venerable professor Beattie, that he obtained his permission to
make a transcript from the only existing copy of the interesting poem entitled
Albania. This work, which is a panegyric on Scotland in nervous blank verse,
written by an anonymous author in the beginning of the eighteenth century,
Leyden afterwards republished along with Wilson's " Clyde," under the title of
"Scottish Descriptive Poems," 12mo, 1802.

In 1801, when Mr Lewis published his Tales of Wonder, Leyden was a con-
tributer to that collection, and furnished the ballad called the Elf-king; and
in the following year, he employed himself earnestly in the congenial task of
procuring materials for the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, the first publica-
tion of Walter Scott. In this labour, he was equally interested by friendship
for the editor, and by his own patriotic zeal for the honour of the Scottish bor-
ders, and both may be judged of from the following circumstance. An inter-
esting fragment had been obtained of an ancient historical ballad, but the
remainder, to the great disturbance of the editor and his coadjutor, was not to
be recovered. Two days afterwards, while Mr Scott was sitting with some
company after dinner, a sound was heard at a distance like that of the whistling
of a tempest through the torn rigging of the vessel which scuds before it. The
sounds increased as they approached more near, and Leyden (to the great aston-
ishment of such of the guests as did net know him,) burst into the room,
chanting the desiderated ballad with the most enthusiastic gesture, and all the
energy of the saw-tones of his voice already commemorated. It turned out, that

436 JOHN LEYDEN.

he had walked between forty and fifty miles and back again, for the sole pur-
pose of visiting an old person who possessed this precious remnant of antiquity.
His antiquarian researches and poetic talents were also liberally exerted for the
support of this undertaking. To the former, the reader owes in a great mea-
sure the Dissertation on Fairy Superstition, which, although arranged and
digested by Mr Scott, abounds with instances of such curious reading as Leyden
alone had read, and was originally compiled by him ; and to the latter the
spirited ballads entitled Lord Soulis and the Cout of Keeldar.

Leyden's next publication was M The Complaynt of Scotland, a new edition
of an ancient and singularly rare tract bearing that title, written by an uncer-
tain author, about the year 1548." This curious work was published by Mr
Constable in the year 1801. As the tract was itself of a diffuse and comprehen-
sive nature, touching upon many unconnected topics, both of public policy and
private life, as well as treating of the learning, the poetry, the music, and the
arts of that early period, it gave Leyden an opportunity of pouring forth such
a profusion of antiquarian knowledge in the preliminary dissertation, notes, and
glossary, as one would have thought could hardly have been accumulated during
so short a life, dedicated too to so many and varied studies. The intimate ac-
quaintance which he has displayed with Scottish antiquities of every kind, from
manuscript histories and rare chronicles, down to the tradition of the peasant,
and the rhymes even of the nursery, evince an extent of research, power of ar-
rangement, and facility of recollection, which has never been equalled in this
department.

Meanwhile other pursuits were not abandoned in the study of Scottish anti-
quities. The Edinburgh Magazine was united in 1802 with the old Scots 31a-
gazine, and was now put under the management of Leyden by Mr Constable the
publisher. To this publication, during the period of his management, which was
about five or six months, he contributed several occasional pieces of prose and
poetry, in all of which he was successful, excepting in those where humour was
required, which, notwithstanding his unvaried hilarity of temper, Leyden did
not possess. He was also, during this year, engaged with his " Scenes of In-
fancy," a poem which was afterwards published on the eve of his leaving Britain ;
and in which he has interwoven his own early feelings and recollections with the
description and traditional history of his native vale of Teviot.

The friends of Leyden began now to be anxious for his present settlement in
life. He had been for two years in orders, and there was every reason to hope
that he might soon obtain a church, through the numerous friends and powerful
interest which he now possessed. More than one nobleman of high rank ex-
pressed a wish to serve him, should any church in their gift become vacant ; and,
from the recommendation of other friends to those possessed of political interest, he
was almost assured of being provided for, by a crown presentation, on some early
opportunity. But his eager desire of travelling, and of extending the bounds of
literary and geographical knowledge, had become, as he expressed himself to an
intimate friend, " his thought by day and his dream by night, and the discoveries
of Mungo Park haunted his very slumbers." When the risk was objected to
him, he used to answer in a phrase of Ossian, " Dark Cuchullin will be renowned
or dead ;" and it became hopeless to think that this eager and aspiring spirit could
be confined within the narrow sphere, and limited to the humble, though useful
duties of a country clergyman. It was therefore now the wish of his friends to
turn this irresistible thirst for discovery, into some channel which might at once
gratify the predominant desire of his heart, and be attended with some prospect
of securing his fortune. It was full time to take such steps ; for in 1802 Leyden
had actually commenced overtures to the African Society, for undertaking a jour-

JOHN LEYDEN. 437

ney of discovery through the interior of that continent — an enterprise which sad
examples have shown to be little better than an act of absolute suicide. To di-
vert his mind from this desperate project, a representation was made to the
Right Hon. William Dundas, who had then a seat at the Board of Control,
stating the talents and disposition of Leyden, and it was suggested that such a
person might be usefully employed in investigating the language and learning of
the Indian tribes. Mr Dundas entered with the most liberal alacrity into these
views ; but it happened, unfortunately as it might seem, that the sole appoint-
ment then at his disposal was that of surgeon's assistant, which could only be held
by a person who had taken a surgical degree, and could sustain an examination
before the medical board at the India house. It was upon this occasion that
Leyden showed, in their utmost extent, his wonderful powers of application and
comprehension. He at once intimated his readiness to accept the appointment
under the conditions annexed to it, and availing himself of the superficial infor-
mation he had formerly acquired by a casual attendance upon one or two of the
medical classes, he gave his whole mind to the study of medicine and surgery,
Avith the purpose of qualifying himself for his degree in the short space of five
or six months. The labour which he underwent on this occasion was incredible ;
but with the powerful assistance of a gentleman of the highest eminence in his
profession, (Mr John Bell of Edinburgh,) he succeeded in acquiring such a know-
ledge of this complicated and most difficult art, as enabled him to obtain his
diploma as surgeon with credit, even in the city of Edinburgh, so long famed
for its medical school, and for the wholesome rigour adopted in the distribution
of degrees. Leyden was, however, incautious in boasting of his success after so
short a course of study, and found himself obliged, in consequence of his impru-
dence, to relinquish his intention of staking out the degree of M. D. at Edinburgh,
and to have recourse to another Scottish university for that step in his profession.
Meanwhile the sudden exchange of his profession gave great amusement to some
of his friends, especially when a lady having fainted in a crowded assembly, Dr
Leyden advanced to her assistance, and went through the usual routine of treat-
ment with all the gravity which beseemed his new faculty. In truth, the imme-
diate object of his studies was always, in season and out of season, predominant
in Leyden's mind, and just about this time he went to the evening party of a
lady of the highest rank with the remnants of a human hand in his pocket, which
he had been dissecting in the morning, and on some question being stirred about
the muscular action, he was with difficulty withheld from producing this grisly
evidence in support of the argument which he maintained. The character of
Leyden cannot be understood without mentioning those circumstances that are
allied to oddity ; but it is not so easy to body forth those qualities of energy, ap-
plication, and intelligence, by which he dignified his extravagancies, and vindi-
cated his assumption of merit, far less to paint his manly, generous, and friendly
disposition.

In December 1802, Leyden was summoned to join the Christmas fleet of In-
diamen, in consequence of his appointment as assistant-surgeon on the Madras
establishment. It was sufficiently understood that his medical character was
only assumed to bring him within the compass of Mr Dundas's patronage, and
that his talents should be employed in India with reference to his literary re-
searches. He Avas, however, pro forma, nominated to the Madras hospital.
While awaiting this call, he bent his whole energies to the study of the oriental
languages, and amused his hours of leisure by adding to the Scenes of Infancy,
many of those passages addressed to his friends, and bearing particular reference
to his own situation on the eve of departure from Scotland, which, flowing warm
fioni the heart, constitute the principal charm of that impressive poem. Mr

438 JOHN LEYDEN.

James Ballantyne, an early and intimate friend of Leyden, had just then estab-
lished in Edinburgh his press, which afterwards became so distinguished. To the
critical skill of a valued and learned friend, and to the friendly as well as
professional care of Ballantyne, Leyden committed this last memorial of his love
to his native land. The last sheets reached hiin before he left Britain, no more
to return.

About the middle of December, John Leyden left Edinburgh, but not exactly
at the time he had proposed. He had taken a solemn farewell of his friends,
and gone to Roxburghshire to bid adieu to his parents, whom he regarded with
the most tender filial affection, and from thence he intended to have taken his
departure for London without returning to Edinburgh. Some accident changed
his purpose, and his unexpected arrival in Edinburgh was picturesque and some-
what startling. A party of his friends had met in the evening to talk over his
merits, and to drink, in Scottish phrase, his Bonallie. While about the witching
hour they were crowning a solemn bumper to his health, a figure burst into the
room, muffled in a seaman's cloak and travelling cap, covered with snow, and
distinguishable only by the sharpness and ardour of the tone with which
he exclaimed, " Dash it, boys, here I am again !" The start with which this
unexpected apparition was received, was subject of great mirth at the time, and
the circumstance was subsequently recalled by most of the party with that mix-
ture of pleasure and melancholy which attaches to the particulars of a last meet-
ing with a beloved and valuable friend.

In London, the kindness of Mr Heber, his own reputation, and the recom-
mendation of his Edinburgh friends, procured Leyden much kindness and at-
tention among persons of rank and literary distinction. His chief protector
and friend, however, was Mr George Ellis, the well-known editor of the Speci-
mens of Ancient English Poetry. To this gentleman he owed an obligation of
the highest possible value, in a permission which he kindly granted him to
change, on account of illness, from one vessel to another, the former being
afterwards unfortunately cast away in going down the river, when many of the
passengers were drowned.

After this providential exchange of destination, the delay of the vessel to
which he was transferred, permitted his residence in London until the beginning
of April, 1803, an interval which he spent in availing himself of the opportuni-
ties which he now enjoyed, of mixing in the most distinguished society in the
metropolis, where the novelty and good humour of his character made ample
amends for the native bluntness of his manners. In the beginning of April, he
sailed from Portsmouth, in the Hugh Inglis, where he had the advantage of be-
ing on board the same vessel with Mr Robert Smith, the brother of his 6teady
friend, the Rev. Mr Sidney Smith. And thus set forth on his voyage perhaps
the first British traveller that ever sought India, moved neither by the love of
Health nor of power, and who, despising alike the luxuries commanded by the
one, and the pomp attached to the other, was guided solely by the wish of ex-
tending our knowledge of oriental literature, and distinguishing himself as its
most successful cultivator. This pursuit he urged through health and through
sickness, unshaken by all the difficulties arising from imperfect communication
with the natives, from their prejudices and those of their European masters, and
from frequent change of residence ; unmoved either by the charms of plea-
sure, of wealth, or of that seducing indolence to which many men of literature
have yielded after overcoming all other impediments. To this pursuit he
finally fell a sacrifice, as devoted a martyr in the cause of science, as ever died
in that of religion. We are unable to trace his Indian researches and travels
with accuracy similar to that with which we have followed those which preceded

JOHN LEYDEN. 439

his departure from Europe, but we are enabled to state the following outlines of
his fortune in the East.

After a mutiny in the vessel, which was subdued by the exertions of the offi.
cers and passengers, and in which Leyden distinguished himself by his coolness
and intrepidity, the Hugh Inglis arrived at Madras, and he was transferred to
the duties of his new profession. His nomination as surgeon to the commission-
ers appointed to survey the ceded districts, seemed to promise ample opportuni-
ties for the cultivation of oriental learning. But his health gave way under the
fatigues of the climate ; and he has pathetically recorded, in his '*■ Address to an
Indian Gold Coin," the inroads which were made on his spirits and constitution.
He was obliged to leave the presidency of Madras, suffering an accumulation of
diseases, and reached with difficulty Prince of Wales Island. During the pas-
sage the vessel was chased by a French privateer, which was the occasion of
Leyden's composing, in his best style of border enthusiasm, an " Ode to a Malay
cris," or dagger, the only weapon which his reduced strength now admitted of
his wielding.- The following letter to Mr Ballantyne, dated from Prince of
Wales Island, 24th October, 1805, gives a lively and interesting account of his
occupations during the first two years of his residence in India.

" Puloo Penang, October 24lh, 1805.
" My dear Ballantyne, — Finding an extra Indiaman, the Revenge, which
has put into this harbour in distress, bound to Europe, I take another oppor-
tunity of attempting to revive, or rather commence, an intercourse with my Eu-
ropean friends, for since my arrival in India I have never received a single
scrap from one of them, — Proh Deum ! Mr Constable excepted ; and my friend
Erskine writes me from Bombay, that none of you have received the least intel-
ligence of my motions since I left Europe. This is to me utterly astonishing
and incomprehensible, considering the multitude of letters and parcels that I
have despatched from Mysore, especially during my confinement for the liver
disease at Seringapatam, where I had for some months the honour of inhabiting
the palace of Tippoo's prime minister. I descended into Malabar in the begin-
ning of May, in order to proceed to Bombay, and perhaps eventually up the
Persian gulf as far as Bassorah, in order to try the effect of a sea voyage. I
was, however, too late, and the rains had set in, and the last vessels sailed two
or three days before my arrival. As I am always a very lucky fellow, as well
as an unlucky one, which all the world knows, it so fell out that the only vessel
which sailed after my arrival was wrecked, while some secret presentiment, or
rather " sweet little cherub, that sits up aloft," prevented my embarking on
board of her. I journeyed leisurely down to Calicut from Cananore, intending
to pay my respects to the Cutwall, and the Admiral, so famous in the Lusiad of
Camoens ; but only think of my disappointment when I found that the times are
altered, and the tables turned with respect to both these sublime characters.
The Cutwall is only a species of boroughbailiff, while the Admiral, God help
him, is only the chief of the fishermen. From Calicut I proceeded to Paul-
gautrcherry, which signifies, in the Tamal language, " the town of the forest of
palms," which is exactly the meaning of Tadmor, the name of a city founded
by Solomon, not for the queen of Sheba, but, as it happened, for the equally
famous queen Zenobia. Thus having demonstrated that Solomon understood
the Tamal language, we may proceed to construct a syllogism in the following
manner : " Solomon understood the Tamal language, and he was wise, — I un-
derstand the Tamal language, therefore I am as wise as Solomon !" I fear you
logical lads of Europe will be very little disposed to admit the legitimacy of the
conclusion ; but, however the matter may stand in Europe, I can assure you it's

440 JOHN LEYDEN.

no bad reasoning for India. At Paulgaut-cherry I had a most terrible attack of
the liver, and should very probably have passed away, or, as the Indians say,
changed my climate — an elegant periphrasis for dying, however — had I not
obstinately resolved on living to have the pleasure of being revenged on all of
you for your obstinate silence and ' perseverance therein to the end.' Hearing
about the middle of August, that a Bombay cruiser had touched at Aleppo, be-
tween Quilod and Cochin, I made a desperate push through the jungles of the
Cochin Rajah's country, in order to reach her, and arrived about tln*ee hours
after she had set sail. Any body else would have died of chagrin, if they had
not hanged themselves outright. I did neither one nor the other, but ' tuned
my pipes and played a spring to John o' Badenyon ;' after which I set myself
coolly down and translated the famous Jewish tablets of brass, preserved in the
synagogue of Cochin ever since the days of Methusalem. Probably you may think
this no more difficult a task than decyphering the brazen tablet on any door of
Princes or Queen street. But here I beg your pardon ; for, so far from any
body, Jew, Pagan, or Christian, having ever been able to do this before, I as-
sure you the most learned men of the world have never been able to decide in
what language or in what alphabet they were written. As the character has
for a long time been supposed to be antediluvian, it has for a long time been as
much despaired of as the Egyptian hieroglyphics. So much was the diwan or
grand vizier, if you like it, of Travancore astonished at the circumstance, that
he gave me to understand that I had only to pass through the Sacred Cow in
order to merit adoption into the holy order of bramins. I was forced, however,
to decline the honour of the sacred cow, for unluckily Phalaris' bull and Moses'
calf presented themselves to my imagination, and it occurred to me that perhaps
the Ram-rajah's cow might be a beast of the breed. Being on the eve of a new
attack of the liver, I was forced to leave Travancore with great precipitation, in
the first vessel that presented itself, a Mapilla brig, bound to Puloo Ponang,
the newly erected presidency on the Straits of Malacca, where I have just ar-
rived, after a perverse pestilent voyage, in which I have been terribly ill of re-
vulsions of bile and liver, without any of the conveniences which ave almost
necessary to an European in these parts, and particularly to an invalid. We
have had a very rough passage, the cabin very often all afloat, while I have been
several times completely drenched. In addition to this we have been pursued
by a Frenchman, and kept in a constant state of alarm and agitation ; and now,
to mend the matter, I am writing you at a kind of naval tavern, while all around
me is ringing with the vociferation of tarpaulins, the hoarse bawling of sea oaths,
and the rattling of the dice-box. However, I flatter myself I have received
considerable benefit from the voyage, tedious and disgusting and vexatious as it
has been. * * *

" You know when I left Scotland, I had determined at all events to become
a furious orientalist, " nemini secundus," but I was not aware of the difficulty.
I found the expense of native teachers would prove almost insurmountable to a
mere assistant surgeon, whose pay is seldom equal to his absolutely necessary
expenses ; and, besides, that it was necessary to form a library of MSS. at a
most terrible expense, in every language to which I should apply, if I intended
to proceed beyond a mere smattering. After much consideration, I determined
on this plan at all events, and was fortunate enough in a few months to secure
an appointment, which furnished me with the means of doing so, though the
tasks and exertions it imposed on me were a good deal more arduous than the
common duties of a surgeon even in a Mahratta campaign, I was appointed
medical assistant to the Mysore survey, and at the same time directed to carry
on inquiries concerning the natural history of the country, and the manners

JOHN LEYDEN. 441

and languages, &c, of the natives of Mysore. This, you would imagine, was
the very situation I wished for, and so it would, had I previously had time to
acquire tlie country languages. But I had them now to acquire after severe
inarches and counter-marches in the heat of the sun, night-marches and day-
marches, and amid the disgusting details of a field hospital, the duties of which
were considerably arduous. However, I wrought incessantly and steadily, and
without being discouraged by any kind of difficulty, till my health absolutely
gave way, and when I could keep the field no longer, I wrought on my couch,
as I generally do still, though I am much better than I have been. As I had
the assistance of no intelligent Europeans, I was obliged long to grope my way;
but I have now acquired a pretty correct idea of India in all its departments,
which increases in geometrical progression as I advance in the languages. The
languages that have attracted my attention since my arrival have been Arabic,
Persic, Hindostanee, Mahratta, Tamal, Telinga, Canara, Sanscrit, Malayalam,
Malay, and Armenian. You will be ready to ask where I picked up these hard
names, but I assure you it is infinitely more difficult to pick up the languages
themselves; several of which include dialects as different from each other as
French or Italian from Spanish or Portuguese ; and in all these, I flatter my-
self, I have made considerable progress. What would you say, were I to add
the Maldivian and Mapella languages to these ? Besides, I have decyphered
the inscriptions of Mavalipoorani, which were written in an ancient Canara
character that had hitherto defied all attempts at understanding it, and also
several Lada Lippi inscriptions, which is an ancient Tamal dialect and charac-
ter, in addition to the Jewish tablets of Cochin, which were in the ancient
Malayalam, generally termed Malabar. I enter into these details merely to
show you that I have not been idle, and that my time has neither been dissi-
pated, nor devoid of plan, though that plan is not sufficiently unfolded. To
what I have told you of, you are to add constant and necessary exposure to the
sun, damps and dews from the jungles, and putrid exhalations of marshes, be-
fore I had been properly accustomed to the climate, constant rambling in the
haunts of tigers, leopards, bears, and serpents of 30 or 40 feet long, that make
nothing of swallowing a buffalo, by way of demonstrating their appetite, in a
morning, together with smaller and more dangerous snakes, whose haunts are
dangerous, and bite deadly ; and you have a faint idea of a situation, in which,
with health, I lived as happy as the day was long. It was occasionally diversi-
fied with rapid jaunts of a hundred miles or so, as fast as horses or bearers could
carry me, by night or day, swimming through rivers, afloat in an old brass ket-
tle, at midnight ! Oil could tell you adventures to outrival the witch of Endor,
or any witch that ever swam in egg-shell or sieve; but you would undoubtedly
imagine I wanted to impose on you were I to relate what I have seen and passed
through. No! I certainly shall never repent of having come to India. It lias
awakened energies in me that I scarcely imagined I possessed, though I could
gnaw my living nails with pure vexation to think how much I have been thwart-
ed by indisposition. If, however, I get over it, I shall think the better of my
constitution as long as I live. It is not every constitution that can resist the
combined attack of liver, spleen, bloody flux, and jungle fever, which is very
much akin to tho plague of Egypt, and yellow fever of America. It is true I
have been five times given up by the most skilful physicians in these parts ; but
in spite of that, I am firmly convinced that " my doom is not to die this day."
You are to commend me kindly to your good motherly mother, and tell her I
wish I saw her oftener, and then to your brother Alexander, and request him
sometimes, on a Saturday night, precisely at eight o'clock, for my sake, to play
•* Gingling Johnny" on his flageolet. If I had you both in my tent, you should

4.43 JOHN LEYDEN.

drink yourself drunk with wine of Shiraz, which is our eastern Falernian, in
honour of Hafiz, our Persian Anacreon. As for me, I often drink your health
in water, (ohon a ree !) having long abandoned both wine and animal food, not
from choice, but dire necessity. — Adieu, dear Ballantyne, and believe me, in
the Malay isle, to be ever yours sincerely, T T „

Ley den soon became reconciled to Fuloo Penang (or Prince of "Wales Island),
where he found many valuable friends ami enjoyed the regard of the late Philip
Dundas, Esq., then governor of the island. He resided in that island for some
time, and visited Achi, with some other places on the coasts of Sumatra, and the
Malayan peninsula. Here he amassed the curious information concerning the
language, literature, and descent of the Indi-Chinese tribes, which afterwards
enabled him to lay before the Asiatic Society at Calcutta a most valuable disser-
tation on so obscure a subject. Yet that his heart was sad, and his spirits de-
pressed, is evident from the following lines, written for new-year's day, 180G,
and which appeared in the Government Gazette of Prince of Wales Island.

Malaya's woods and mountains ring

With voices strange and sad to hear,
And dark unbodied spirits sing

The dirge of the departed year.

Lo ! now, methinks, in tones sublime,

As viewless o'er our heads they bend,
They whisper, " Thus we steal your time,

Weak mortals, till jour days shall end."

Then wake the dance, and wake the song,

Resound the festive mirth and glee ; '
Alas ! the days have pass'd along,

The days we never more shall see.

But let me brnsh the nightly dews,

Beside the shell-depainted shore,
And mid the sea-weed sit to muse

On days that shall return no more.

Olivia, ah ! forgive the bard,

If sprightly strains alone are dear ;
His notes are sad, for he has heard

The footsteps of the parting year.

'Mid friends of youth beloved in vain,

Oft have I hailed the jocund day ;
If pleasure brought a thought of pain,

I charmed it with a passing lay.

Friends of my youth for ever dear,

Where are you from this bosom fled ?
A lonely man I linger here,

Like one that has been long time dead.

Foredoomed to seek an early tomb,

For whom the pallid grave-flowers blow,
I hasten on my destined doom,

And sternly mock at joy or woe !

In 1806, he took leave of Penang, regretted by many friends, whom his ec-
centricities amused, his talents enlightened, and his virtues conciliated. His

JOHN LEYDEN. 443

reception at Calcutta, and the effect which he produced upon society there, are
so admirably illustrated by his ingenious and well-known countryman, Sir John
Malcolm, that it would be impossible to present a more living picture of his
manners and mind, and the reader will pardon some repetition for the sake of
observing how the same individual was regarded in two distant hemispheres.

" TO THE EDITOR OF THE BOMBAY COURIER.1

" It is not easy to convey an idea of the method which Dr Leyden used in
his studies, or to describe the unconquerable ai-dour with which these were pur-
sued.— During his early residence in India, I had a particular opportunity of
observing both. When he read a lesson in Persian, a person near him, whom
he had taught, wrote down each word on a long slip of paper, which was after-
wards divided into as many pieces as there were words, and pasted in alphabeti-
cal order, under different heads of verbs, nouns, &c, into a blank book that
formed a vocabulary of each day's lesson. All this he had in a few hours in-
structed a very ignorant native to do ; and this man he used, in his broad ac-
cent, to call ' one of his mechanical aids.' He was so ill at Mysore, soon
after his arrival from England, that Mr Anderson, the surgeon who attended
him, despaired of his life ; but though all his friends endeavoured at this period
to prevail upon him to relax in his application to study, it was in vain. He
used, when unable to sit upright, to prop himself up with pillows, and continue
his translations. One day that I was sitting by his bedside, the surgeon came
in. — ' I am glad you are here,' said Mr Anderson, addressing himself to me,
* you will be able to persuade Leyden to attend to my advice. I have told him
before, and now I repeat, that he will die if he does not leave off* his studies
and remain quiet.' ' Very well, doctor,' exclaimed Leyden, ' you have done
your duty, but you must now hear me : I cannot be idle, and whether I die or
live, the wheel must go round till the last ;' and he actually continued, under
the depression of a fever and a liver complaint, to study more than ten hours
each day.

** The temper of Dr Leyden was mild and generous, and he could bear with
perfect good humour, raillery on his foibles. When he arrived at Calcutta in
1805, I was most solicitous regarding his reception in the society of the Indian
capital. ' I entreat you, my dear friend,' I said to him the day he landed, ' to
be careful of the impression you make on your entering this community ; for
God's sake learn a little English, and be silent upon literary subjects, except
among literary men.' 'Learn English!' he exclaimed, 'no, never; it was
trying to learn that language that spoilt my Scotch ; and as to being silent, I
will promise to hold my tongue, if you will make fools hold theirs.'

" His memory was most tenacious, and he sometimes loaded it with lumber.
When he was at Mysore, an argument occurred upon a point of English history ;
it was agreed to refer it to Leyden, and to the astonishment of all parties, he re-
peated verbatim the whole of an act of parliament in the reign of James relative
to Ireland, which decided the point in dispute — On being asked how he came
to charge his memory with such extraordinary matter, he said that several
years before, when he was writing on the changes that had taken place in the
English language, this act was one of the documents to which he had referred
as a specimen of the style of tliat age, and that he had retained every word in
his memory.

" His love of the place of his nativity was a passion in which he had always
a pride, and which in India he cherished with the fondest enthusiasm. I once

l We omit the earlier portion of this letter referring to the general character and manners
of Levden.

444 JOHN LEYDEN.

went to see him when he was very ill, and had been confined to his bed for
many days ; there were several gentlemen in the room ; he inquired if I had
nny news ; I told him I had a letter from Eskdale ; and what are they about in
the borders? he asked. A curious circumstance, I replied, is stated in my let-
ter ; and I read him a passage which described the conduct of our volunteers on
a fire being kindled by mistake at one of the beacons. This letter mentioned
that the moment the blaze, which was the signal of invasion, was seen, the moun-
taineers hastened to their rendezvous, and those of Liddesdale swam the Liddle
river to reach it. — They were assembled (though several of their houses were at a
distance of six and seven miles,) in two hours, and at break of day the party
marched into the town of Hawick (at a distance of twenty miles from the place
of assembly,) to the border tune of ■ Wha daur meddle wiy me ? ' Ley den's coun-
tenance became animated as I proceeded with this detail, and at its close he
sprung, from his sick-bed, and, with much strange melody, and still stranger
gesticulations, sung aloud, * Wha daur meddle wV me ? wha daur meddle wV me ? '
— Several of those who witnessed this scene looked at him as one that was raving
in the delirium of a fever.

"These anecdotes will display more fully than any description I can give,
the lesser shades of the character of this extraordinary man. An external man-
ner, certainly not agreeable, and a disposition to egotism, were his only defects.
How trivial do these appear, at a moment when we are lamenting the loss of such
a rare combination of virtues, learning, and genius, as were concentrated in the
late Dr Leyden ! T __ ,,

JOHN 3I>LC0LM.

We have little, to add to General Malcolm's luminous and characteristic sketch.
The efficient and active patronage of Lord 31into, himself a man of letters, a
poet, and a native of Teviotdale, was of the most essential importance to Leyden,
and no less honourable to the governor- general. Leyden's first appointment as
a professor in the Bengal college might appear the sort of promotion best suited
to his studies, but was soon exchanged for that of a judge of the twenty-four
Purgunnahs of Calcutta. In this capacity he had a charge of police which
"jumped with his humour well ;" for the task of pursuing and dispersing the
bands of robbers Avho infest Bengal had something of active and military duty.
He also exercised a judicial capacity among the natives, to the discharge of
which he was admirably fitted, by his knowledge of their language, manners,
and customs. To this office a very considerable yearly income was annexed.
This was neither expended in superfluities, nor even in those ordinary expenses
which the fashion of the East has pronounced indispensable ; for Dr Leyden kept
no establishment, gave no entertainments, and was, with the receipt of this
revenue, the very same simple, frugal, and temperate student, which he had been
at Edinburgh. But, exclusive of a portion remitted home for the most honour-
able and pious purpose, his income was devoted to the pursuit which engaged
his whole soul ; to the increase, namely, of his acquaintance with eastern litera-
ture in all its branches. The expense of native teachers, of every country and
dialect, and that of procuring from every quarter oriental manuscripts, engrossed
his whole emoluments, as the task of studying under the tuition of the interpre-
ters, and decyphering the contents of the volumes, occupied every moment of
his spare time. " I may die in the attempt," he writes to a friend, " but if I
die without surpassing Sir William Jones a hundred fold in oriental learning,
let never a tear forme profane the eye of a borderer." '1 lie term was soon ap-
proaching when these regrets were to be bitterly called forth, both from his
Scottish friends, and from all who viewed with interest the career of his ardent
and enthusiastic genius, which, despising every selfish consideration, was only

JOHN LEYDEN. 445

eager to secure the fruits of knowledge, and held for sufficient reward the fame
of having gathered them.

Dr Leyden accompanied the governor-general upon the expedition to Java,
[August 181 1] for the purpose of investigating the manners, language, and litera-
ture of the tribes which inhabit that island, and partly also because it was thought
his extensive knowledge of the eastern dialects and customs might be useful in
settling the government of the country, or in communicating with the indepen-
dent princes in the neighbourhood of the Dutch settlements. His spirit of ro-
mantic adventure led him literally to rush upon death ; for, with another volun-
teer who attended the expedition, he threw himself into the surf, in order to bo
the first Briton of the expedition who should set foot upon Java. When the
success of the well-concerted movements of the invaders had given them posses-
sion of the town of Batavia, Leyden displayed the same ill-omened precipitation
in his haste to examine a library in which many Indian manuscripts of value were
said to be deposited. A library, in a Dutch settlement, was not, as might have
been expected, in the best order, the apartment had not been regularly venti-
lated, and, either from this circumstance, or already affected by the fatal sick-
ness peculiar to Batavia, Leyden, when he left the place, had a fit of shivering,
and declared the atmosphere was enough to give any mortal a fever. The pre-
sage was too just ; he took his bed, and died in three days [August 28], on the
eve of the battle which gave Java to the British empire.

Thus died John Leyden, in the moment, perhaps, most calculated to gratify
the feelings which were dear to his heart ; upon the very day of military glory,
and when every avenue of new and interesting discovery was opened to his pene-
trating research. In the emphatic words of Scripture, " the bowl was broken at the
fountain." His literary remains were intrusted by his last will to the charge of Mr
Heber, and Dr Hare of Calcutta, his executors. They are understood to contain
two volumes of poetry, with many essays on oriental and general literature. His
remains, honoured with every respect by lord Minto, now repose in a distant
land, far from the green-sod graves of his ancestors at Hazeldean, to which, with
a natural anticipation of such an event, he bids an'aftecting farewell in the solemn
passage which concludes the Scenes of Infancy.

The silver moon, at midnight cold and still,
I>ooks, sad and silent, o'er yon western hill ;
While large and pale the ghostly structures grow,
Reared on the confines of the world below.
Is that dull sound the hum of Teviot's stream ? -
Is that blue light the moon's or tomb-fire's gleam,
By which a mouldering pile is faintly seen,
The old deserted church of Hazeldean,
Where slept my fathers in their natal clay,
Till Teviot's waters roll 'd' their bones away?
Their feeble voices from the stream they raise,
" Rash youth! unmindful of thy early days,
Why didst thou quit the peasant's simple lot ?
Why didst thou leave the peasant's turf-built cot,
The ancient graves, where all thy fathers lie,
And Teviot's stream, that long has murmured by ?
And we — when Death so long has closed our eyes
How wilt thou bid us from the dust arise,
And bear our mouldering bones across the main,
From vales, that knew our lives devoid of stain ?
Rash youth! beware, thy home-bred virtues save,
And sweetly sleep in thy paternal grave !"

446 DR. DUNCAN LIDDEL.

Such is the language of nature, moved by the kindly associations of country
aud of kindred affections. But the best epitaph is the story of a life engaged in
the practice of virtue and the pursuit of honourable knowledge ; the best monu-
ment, the regret of the worthy and of the wise ; and the rest may be summed up
in the sentiment of Sannazario,

Haeccine te fessum tellus extrema manebat
Hospitii post tot terraeque marisque labores ?
Pone tamen gemitus, nee te monumenta parentum
Aut moveant sperata luis tibi funera regnis,
Grata quies patrix ; sed et omnis terra sepulchrum.

To this eloquent and highly picturesque memoir, upon which we have drawn so
largely, it is only to be added ; that the Poetical Remains of Dr Leyden were pub-
lished in one volume 8vo, in 1819, with a memoir by the Rev. James 3Iorton ; and
that another posthumous work, entitled Memoirs of the Emperor Baber, and com-
memorating for the first time an Indian hero little inferior to Caesar or Napoleon,
but, heretofore, totally unknown in Europe, in which he had had the co-opera-
tion of his friend, Mr William Erskine, appeared at Edinburgh in 1826.

LIDDEL, (Dr) Duncan, a physician of eminence, was born in Aberdeen in
the year 1561, and was son to a respectable citizen of that town.1 He re-
ceived his education at the schools, and the university of King's college, in his
native city. In the year 1579, at the early age of eighteen, he visited the con-
tinent, passing over to Dantzic, whence he travelled through Poland to Erank-
fort on the Oder, where he had the good fortune to meet with a beneficent
countryman, Dr John Craig, afterwards physician to James VI., who then taught
logic and mathematics. His views, which were previously wavering, were fixed
by the kind attention and assistance of his friend, who enabled him to study
mathematics, philosophy, and medicine, for three years in the university of
Frankfort, where Craig was himself a professor. In 1582, Craig proposing to
return to Scotland, his pupil proceeded to prosecute his studies at Breslaw in
Silesia, under the conduct of a statesman at that period of considerable note —
Andreas Dudithius, to whose attention his zealous countryman had recommended
him. In this new sphere of exertion, he is said to have made extensive pro-
gress in his favourite study of the mathematics, under the tuition of professor
Paulus Wittichius. After spending somewhat more than a year at Breslaw, he
returned to Frankfort, where he again turned his attention to medicine, and
commenced a course of private tuition in mathematics and philosophy. A con-
tagious distemper which broke out at Frankfort in 15S7, dispersing the students
in various directions, induced him to change his place of residence for the cele-
brated university of Rostock. Here he appears to have first acquired celebrity
for his professional knowledge and conversational information, and particularly
for his knowledge of astronomy and mathematics. He became the companion
and pupil of Brucajus, a physician and philosopher of Flanders, who, although
the senior of Liddel, both in years and celebrity, acknowledges himself to have
received much useful information and assistance from the young philosopher,
while Caselius, another companion and friend of Liddel, pays a tribute to the
comprehensiveness of his genius and reading, by remarking that " he was the
first person in Germany who explained the motions of the heavenly bodies,

1 Inscription on a brass plate, in the church of St Nicholas, Aberdeen; Sketch of the Life
of Dr Duncan Liddel, Aberdeen. 1790. This pamphlet, understood to have been written by
the late Mr John Stewart, professor of Greek in Marischal college, gives so accurate and concise
an account of its subject, that little can be added. We are aware of but one work having
any reference to Liddel, which has been overlooked. The Literse ad Joannem Kepplerum
contain one or two letters from him.

DR. DUNCAN LIDDEL. 447

according to the three different hypotheses of Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Tycho
Brahe."

The illustrious individual last mentioned, had likewise studied at the uni-
versity of Rostock : it is probable that the pursuits of the two philosophers
brought them into contact, and the author of the Biography of Liddel, considers
it sufficiently established, that they were intimate with each other in after life,
and that the Danish philosopher frequently visited the subject of our memoir in
his journeys to Scotland. There is, however, a shadow of authority for suppos-
ing2 that Liddel held the higher rank of an opponent of Tycho Brahe, and
maintained a disputation with him on equal terms. The eccentric Sir Thomas
Urquhart, who, whatever information he may have chosen to receive on the
subject, certainly was enabled to have made himself master of the true state of
the circumstances which he related, says, " These mathematical blades put me
in mind of that Dr Liddel, who for his profoundness in those sciences of sensi-
ble immaterial objects, was every where much renowned, especially at Frank-
fort de Main, Frankfort on the Oder, and Heidelberg, where he was almost as
well known as the monstrous bacchanalian tun that stood there in his time.
He was an eminent professor of mathematics, a disciple of the most excellent as-
tronomer Tycho Brahe, and condisciple of that worthy Longomontanus : yet in
imitation of Aristotle, (whose doctrine with great proficiency he had imbued,) he
esteemed more of truth than either of Socrates or Plato ; when the new star began
to appear in the constellation of Cassiopaeia, there was concerning it such an
intershocking of opinions betwixt Tycho Brake and Dr Liddel, evulged in print
to the open view of the world, that the understanding reader could not but have
commended both for all ; and yet (in giving each his due) praised Tycho Brahe
most for astronomy, and Liddel for his knowledge above him in all the other
parts of philosophy." It is not improbable that the imaginative author of the
Jewel may have thought proper, without much inquiry, to bestow on a person
born in his own near neighbourhood, the merit of a conflict in which a Scots-
man, whose name may not have then been known, was engaged ; at the same
time adding to the lustre of the achievements of his countryman. The author
of the Life of Dr Liddel observes, " Upon what authority this circumstance is
founded cannot be discovered, for there is no mention of it in either of the very
full accounts of the life and writings of Tycho Brahe, by Gassendi and Mon-
tucla, nor in a large volume written by Tycho himself, concerning this new
star ; although he there animadverts at great length upon the opinions of many
other astronomers, who had also treated of it. Nor could any such controversy
have possibly happened at the time mentioned by Sir Thomas Urquhart, for the
new star there spoken of was observed by Tycho Brahe in 1572, and the ac-
count of it published in 1573, when Dr Liddel was only twelve years of age.
There is indeed in the volume of Astronomical epistles of Tycho Brahe, a long
letter from him to his friend Rothmannus, chiefly filled with severe reflections
upon the publications of a certain Scotsman against his account of the comet of
1577, not of the new star in Cassiopajia ; but it appears from Gassendi that
this Scottish writer was Dr Craig, formerly mentioned, and not Dr Liddel."
When we recollect that Liddel andiCraig, as intimate literary associates, may
have imbibed the same theories, and similar methods of stating them, this last
circumstance approaches a solution of the difficulty.

In the university of Rostock Liddel received the degree of master of philoso-
phy, and in 1590, he left it to return to Frankfort, at the request of two young
Livonians of rank, to whom it is probable he acted as tutor. He did not long
remain at Frankfort on his second visit, having heard of the rising fame of the
* On the flulliorily of Caselius's dedication to Craig, and the funeral oration on Liddel.

448 DR. DUNCAN LIDDEL.

new " Academia Julia," founded at Helmstadt by Henry Julius, duke of Bruns-
wick in 1 576. Here lie accompanied his pupils, and was restored to the com-
pany of his old friend Caselius, whom the duke had invited to his youthful es-
tablishment.

In 1591, Liddel, by the recommendation of his friend, and of Grunefeldt,
an eminent civilian, was appointed to the lower professorship of mathematics
in the new university, as successor to Parcovius, who had been removed to the
faculty of medicine ; and, on the death of Erhardus Hoffman in 1594, he suc-
ceeded to the first, or higher mathematical chair. This eminent station he
filled during the course of nine years, giving instructions in geometry, astrono-
my, and universal geography, and keeping the information he communicated
to his pupils, on a level with the dawning progress of discovery. In 1596, he
obtained the degree of doctor in medicine, and, in a science which was not at
that period considered as so completely abstracted from the circle of general
knowledge as its practical extent now compels it to be, he acquired the same
celebrity which he had achieved in philosophy and mathematics. He is said by
his lectures and writings to have proved the chief support of the medical school
of Helmstadt ; he acted as first physician to the court of Brunswick, and en-
joyed a lucrative private practice among the opulent families in the neighbour-
hood. In 1599, he was elected dean of the faculty of philosophy, a post of
honour to which he was frequently re-elected, both by the faculties of philoso-
phy and of medicine. Meanwhile, in the year 1603, he resigned to Henricus
Schaperus the chair of mathematics, of which he had remained occupant, not-
withstanding his labours in another science ; and in the year following, he was
chosen pro-rector of the university. The method of studying his profession,
and his courses of public tuition had already made Liddel an author of no in-
considerable extent, and, about this period, the fame he had acquired probably
induced him to present the academical works which he had written or superin-
tended, in a distinct manner before the world. In 1605, was published " Dis-
putationes Medicinales Duncani Liddelii Scoti, Phil, et Med. Doctoris, et
Professoris Publici in Academia Julia Helmaestadtii. This work, filling four
volumes 4to. contains the theses or public disputations maintained by himself
and his pupils at Helmstadt from 1592 to 1606 ; it is dedicated as a mark of
gratitude to his early friend and patron Craig, accompanied by the usual mul-
titude of commendatory verses on the author and his works. This book is
mentioned by the author of the memoirs of Liddel as having been reprinted at
so late a period as 1720. In 1607, he produced a better known work, " Ars
Medica, succincte et perspicue explicata," published at Hamburg. This work
was dedicated to king James. A second edition was published at Lyons in
1624, and a third at Hamburg in 1628. As in other works on medicine of
the period, the range of the author's investigation was not confined to subjects
to which the term medical would now exclusively refer ; metaphysics were in-
cluded. Into the merit of this, as a work on practical medicine, it would now
be useless to inquire, and we may be content with ranking the merit of the au-
thor, according to the estimation of the work during the 17th century, which
was by no means inconsiderable. At the time when the last mentioned work
was published, motives which Ave cannot now discover, induced Liddel to retire
for the remainder of his life to his native country, which he had frequently
visited during his honoured residence abroad. It would appear that he private-
ly left the university, as Caselius remarks that the duke of Brunswick, if aware
of his intention, would probably not have permitted so active a teacher to leave
his favourite institution, which was then falling into confusion. On his return,
he passed through Germany and Italy, and finally took up his residence in

SIR DAVID LINDSAY. 449

Scotland, although in what part of the country seems not to be known, the
earliest information obtained as to his locality being of the year 1612, when he
subscribed at Edinburgh a deed of settlement, mortifying certain lands in the
neighbourhood of Aberdeen, for the support of six bursars in Marischal college.
The magistrates of Aberdeen were appointed trustees for the application of the
fund, and according to a not unusual practice, the curse of God was denounced
against any one who should abuse or misapply it-3 By a settlement dated the
9th December, 1G13, he confirmed the previous ddhation, and left for the es-
tablishment of a professorship of mathematics in Marischal college the sum of
6000 merks, which was afterwards profitably laid out on land by the trustees.
To the same institution he left his books and instruments. This may be con-
sidered the last performance of his active life, for he died eight days after its
date, on the 17th of December, 1613. He was buried in the church of St
Nicholas in Aberdeen, where a tablet of brass, on which his portrait has been
boldly and expressively engraved by an artist at Antwerp, was erected to his
memory. He is likewise commemorated by a small obelisk erected in the lands
of Pitmedden, near Aberdeen — the same which he mortified for the support of
bursars. Dying unmarried, the children of a brother and sister inherited his
property, and one of the former succeeded Dr William Johnston (brother to
Arthur the poet) in the mathematical chair which Dr Liddel had founded.

Besides the literary efforts already mentioned, a posthumous work by Liddel
Mas published at Hamburg in 1628, entitled " Tractatus de dente aureo;" be-
ing an answer to a Tractate by Jacobus Horstius, who had maintained the verity
of a fable, which bore that a boy of Silesia who had lost a tooth, received from
nature, in return, one of pure gold. The circumstance was considered an omen'
to encourage the Germans in their wars with the Turks, and predicative of the
downfall of the Mahometan faith. The subject can be interesting only to those
who study the extent of human credulity.

LINDSAY, (Sib) David, a celebrated Scottish poet of the sixteenth century,
Mas born about the year 1490. He is distinguished by the title " of the
Mount," from the name of his family seat near Cupar in Fife, and which is
presumed, though not certainly known, to have been also the place of his birth.
The early part of his education he received at Cupar, the after part of it at St
Andrews, to which he removed in 1505. Here he remained till 1509. From
this period till 1512, there is a hiatus in his history, and it is not known how
the intermediate space was employed. In that year, however, he is found to
be in attendance upon the young prince, afterwards James V., mIio was born on
the 10th of April, 1512. The particular nature of his appointment, on first set-
tling at court, cannot be ascertained ; but it does not appear to have been of a
very dignified description. His attendance on the infant monarch seems also
to have been divided with the royal parent James IV., on whom he is found wait-
inf as a special servant, on the remarkable occasion of the feigned spectre's ap-
pearance before that prince in the chapel of Linlithgow in 1513. Lindsay stood
close beside the king during the whole of that extraordinary scene, and ac-
cording to his namesake, the historian, declared that he, along with the other
servants in attendance, made several ineffectual attempts to take hold of the
ghostly intruder.

The death of James IV., which took place soon after, does not appear to have
affected Lindsay's situation at court He still continued his attendance on the
young prince, and this in rather a singular capacity, considering the respecta.

3 In a minute of the council Records of Aberdeen, of date 6th December, 1688, it is or-
dained that Dr Liddel's bursars shall wear a black bonnet and a black gown, both in the col-
lege and in the street, conform to the will of the mortifier, under the pun of deprivation,
in. 3 L

450 SIR DAVID LINDSAY.

bility of his family, although probably it may be thought that there was no degra-
dation, if indeed it was not a positive honour, to take the personal charge of an
infant king. This, however, he seems to have done literally, and as is gathered
from passages in his own works, much in the character of a dry nurse. The
following are amongst those alluded to. The lines occur in the dedication of
his poem entitled the "Dream" to the king:

Quhen thou*was young I bore thee in my armc,
Full tenderlie till thou begoulh to gang ;
And in thy bed aft happit thee full \varme,
With lute in hand, sine sweitly to thee sang.

And again at an after period, when complaining of the neglect which he met
with at court, he thus reminds the king of the days of his childhood, and of the
playful and tender kindnesses which then passed between them :

How as ane chapman beiris his pack,
I bure thy grace upon my back ;
And sometimes strydlinges on my neck,
Dansand with mony bend and beck.
The first syllabis that thou did mute
"Was pa, da 8yne, upon the lute ;
Then playit I twenty springis perquier,
Quhilke was great pleasure for to heir ;
Fra play thou let me never rest,
, Bot Gynkertoun thou luifit ay best.

Lindsay's attendance on the young king was not dignified by any charge
whatever, connected with his education. His services were entirely of a per-
sonal nature, and were only put in requisition when the royal youth returned
from " scule." James's education was intrusted to Gavin Dunbar, an eminent
and learned prelate, so that, with all Lindsay's genius, he seems not to have been
thought competent to this important and honourable trust. That which he fil-
led, however, such as it was, he retained till the year;1524, when he was dis-
missed from it, by the intrigues of the queen mother, who, aiming at the sole
direction of the national affairs during the minority of the king, carefully re-
moved from the royal presence all Avhom she feared might exert an influence
over the young monarch inimical to her own views and interests, and amongst
that number she seems to have reckoned the poet His dismissal, however,
seems by no means to have taken place with the king's consent, although it is
evident that he was obliged to submit to it. He was too young to assert his
own will in opposition to that of his mother, but he did the next best thing he
could for the kind companion of his tender years, — he procured a pension to
be bestowed upon him, and took especial care of its punctual payment.

On the. king's assuming the reins of government in his own person, and
when his will could be no longer opposed, Lindsay was recalled to court, and
about 1530, was appointed lyon king at arms, and as a necessary accompani-
ment, invested with the honour of knighthood. In the dedication of the
" Dream " to the king, already quoted from, and which was written during the
time of his banishment from court, although he complains of the treatment which
he had received, he not only acquits the king of having any part in inflicting
it, but speaks-in terms of the warmest gratitude of the kindness of his royal
master. He seems, indeed, to have formed a strong personal attachment to the
monarch, and there is every reason to believe that it was reciprocal. Lindsay
had now begun to make some figure as a poet He had already written the

SIR DAVID LINDSAY.

451

** Dream" and the " Complaynt," both productions of great merit ; but it was
to his talent for satire, a quality which he had not yet exhibited, that he was
chiefly indebted for the singular degree of popularity which he afterwards ac-
quired. Of the felicity and point with which he could exercise this dangerous
gift, the following curious instance is related by Dr Irving in his Life of the
poet : — u The king being one day surrounded by a numerous train of nobility
and prelates, Lindsay approached him with due reverence, and began to prefer
an humble petition that he would install him in an office which was then vacant.
■ 1 have,' said he, ' servit your grace lang, and luik to be rewardit as others
are, and now your maister taylor, at the pleasure of God is departit, wherefore
I wald desire of your Grace to bestow this little benefite upon me.' The king
replied, that he was amazed at such a request from a man who could neither
shape nor sew. ' Sir,' rejoined the poet, ' that maks nae matter, for you have
given bishopricks and benefices to mony standing here about you, and yet they
can nouther teach nor preach, and why not I as weill be your taylor, though I
can nouther shape nor sew, seeing teaching and preaching are nae less requisite
to their vocation than shaping and seAving to ane taylor.' The effect of this
well managed jeu d'esprit upon the bystanders, many of whom came within its
range, may be readily conceived. Whatever might be their feelings on the
subject, James himself enjoyed it greatly, and found much amusement in contem-
plating the angry looks which it occasioned."

This and other witticisms at the expense of the clergy, are supposed by
Lindsay's biographers to have been the pi-incipal cause of that want of promo-
tion of which he so frequently complains ; but this seems doubtful. James him-
self had but little reverence for the clergy, and it is not therefore likely that he
would be displeased with Lindsay for entertaining similar sentiments. Of the
king's opinion of the holy men of his time his answer to a deputation of them
which waited upon him with a list of protestant peers and chiefs, whom they
desired might be~ brought to punishment, is sufficiently indicative. " Pack, ye
jugglers," said he, M get ye to your charges and reform your own lives ; be not
instruments of discord between my nobility and me ; or I vow to God I shall re-
form you, not as the king of Denmark by imprisonment, nor as he of England
by hanging and beheading, but yet by most severe punishments, if ever such mo-
tion proceed from you again." It is not, therefore, easy to say, considering the
intimate, nay familiar footing on which Lindsay stood with the king, what were
the causes that afforded him grounds for his frequent complaints, if indeed, he
had any at all that were reasonable, a point by no means made evident.
Whatever might be the emoluments arising from his services, they were now oc-
casionally of a sufficiently dignified and important nature. In 1531, he was
despatched on an embassy to Antwerp to renew an ancient commercial treaty
with the Netherlands, and in 1548, he was sent to the court of Denmark to
solicit ships to protect the Scottish coast against the English, and to negotiate a
free trade in grain for the Scottish merchants.

Besides being a man of genius, Lindsay was also a man of great practical
good sense, if the latter be not indeed a necessary attribute of the former,
and this enabled him to see in a peculiarly strong and clear light the errors and
absurdities, if not inherent in, at least which had been then engrafted on, the
church of Rome, and against these he directed the whole force of his satirical
powers, and with an effect which rendered him at once extremely formidable to
the clergy, and singularly popular with the great bulk of the people.

Of his talent for ridicule the following exquisitely humorous specimen of his
manner of dealing with the impositions of the Romish church will give a correct
idea. It is the speech of a pardoner —of one who dealt in miracles and traded

. —f

452 SIR DAVID LINDSAY.

in holy relics and absolutions. It occurs in his play entitled " Ane Satyre cf
the Thrie Estaitis :"

My potent pardonnis ye may se
Cum frae the Can of Tartarie,

Weill seillit witli ester schcllis.
Thocht ye haif no discretioun,
Ye sail haif full remissioun.

With help of buikis and belli s.
Heir is a rellik lang and braid,
Of Fynmackowll the richt chaf t blade,

With teith and all togidder ;
Of Collingis Kow heir is a home, —
For eitting of Makameillis come

Was slane into Baquhidder ;
Heir is the cordis baith grit and lang
Quhilk hartgit Johnnie Armistrang,

Of gude hempt saft and sound:
Gude haly pepill, I stand ford,
Quhaeir beis hang it in this cord,

Neidis never to be drowned.
The culum of St Bryddis cow,
The gruntill of Sanct Antonis sow,

Quhilk bure his haly bell:
Quha evir heiris this bell clink
Gife me a duccat to the drinke,

He sail nevir gang till hell —
Without he be with Belliall borne.
Maisteris, trew ye that this be scorne 1

Cum, win this pardon, cum !
Quha luivis thair wyvis not with thair hair!
I haif power thame to depairt ;

Me think you deif and dum.
Hes nane of you curst wicket wyvis
That haldis you into sturt and stryvis ?

Cum take my dispensatioun ;
Of that cummer I sail mak you quyt,
Howbeid yourself be in the wyte,

And mak ane fals narratioun.
Cum win the pardone, now let see
For meill, for malt, or for money ;

For cok, hen, guse, or gryss.
Of rcllikkis heir I haif a hunder,
Quhy cum ye not 1 This is a wonder ;

I trow ye be not wj ss.

From this it will be plainly seen what a dangerous and powerful ene-
my the Romish church had to contend with in the person of Lindsay

infinitely more dangerous and more powerful than the ablest preacher or the
most acute reasoner. The effect, indeed, aided as it was, by the circumstance of
the public mind being already attuned to such feelings and sentiments regard-
ing religious matters, was altogether irresistible ; and there is no doubt that this
and similar productions of the satirist, tended more to the accomplishment of the
final overthrow of popery in Scotland than any other circumstance previous to
the Reformation. Lindsay himself was the Burns of his day. His poems were
in every mouth, and were equally appreciated in the cottage as in the castle.

JOHN LINDSAY. 453

Among the lower orders he was especially popular. His broad humour de-
lighted them beyond measure, and there was scarcely one of them but could re-
peat large portions of " Davie Lindsay" from memory. Indeed it is not yet a
very great while since his popularity among this class began to fade. Nor,
though now certainly fast losing ground, is he by any means yet entirely for-
gotten in the country. Many an ancient tiller of the soil, and his equally an-
cient better half — for what remains of his fame is more vigorous in the country
than the town — still cherish and appreciate the merits of their old favourite native
poet.

The dread and detestation in which Lindsay's satirical poems were held by
the clergy is expressively enough indicated by their having procured an act to
have his " buick " burned during the regency of Mary of Lorraine, when they
had regained a temporary ascendancy under that princess, and a wonder arises
that Lindsay himself was not subjected to a similar fate ; indeed, that he es-
caped it at all is a circumstance not easily accounted for.

During his lifetime many unfortunate persons were brought to the stake
for heresy, and for contemning the ordinances of the existing religion, and how
it happened that he, incomparably the most dangerous and most notorious of-
fender of them all should have escaped, is a question that may well be asked ;
but we suspect it is one which cannot be satisfactorily answered, otherwise than
by supposing that he was protected by the strong arm of royalty.

In 1537, Lindsay acted as sort of master of ceremonies on the occasion of
the arrival in Scotland of 3Iary of Guise, queen of James V. He contrived a
variety of pageants, and prepared orations for the reception of her majesty at St
Andrews, and superintended in person the execution of his designs. Some of
them were absurd and fantastic enough, but they were, of course, in accordance
with the taste of the times.

Of the concluding years of his life nothing is known, nor is it ascertained
when or where he died. Dr Irving states that he survived till the year 1567 ;
but how long he lived after is unknown. He must, however, from this account,
have been at least upwards of seventy years of age at the time of his death.
Lindsay's merits as a poet are not of the very highest order. Broad humour
was his forte, and the specimen given will sufficiently show, that when he trusted
to this talent he did not trust to a broken reed. His principal pieces are " The
Dreme," " The Complaynt," ** The Complaynt of the King's Papingo," " Satyre
on the Thrie Estaitis," " Answer to the King's Fly ting," and ** The Complaynt
of Basche the King's Hound."

LINDSAY, John, eighteenth earl of Crawford, and fourth earl of Lindsay,
was born on the 4th of October, 1702. He was the eldest son of John, seven-
teenth earl of Crawford, by Emilia, daughter of James, lord Doune, and grand-
daughter to the duchess of Lauderdale. His mother having died while he was
yet an infant, he was committed to the charge of an elderly female domestic
at the family seat of Struthers, in Fife ; his father, who was at this time captain
of the second troop of horse grenadiers, and lieutenant-general of queen Anne's
forces, residing constantly in London.

His lordship in after-life, has been frequently heard to repeat an interesting
anecdote which occurred about this period of his life. The duke of Argyle and
the duke of Hamilton were one day dining with his father. After dinner a
warm debate ensued about the then all-engrossing topic, the union. In the
midst of it, the duke of Argyle caught up the young earl, then a child,
who was playing about the room; placed him on the table in the midst of the
crowd of bottles and glasses by which it was occupied, and, after contemplating
the boy for an instant, " Crawford," he said, addressing his father, " if this

454 JOHN LINDSAY.

boy lives, I wonder whether he will be of your sentiments." — ** If he has a drop
of my blood in his veins," replied the earl, " he certainly will." — " I warrant,
at any rate, he will make a brave fellow," said Argyle, kissing the child, and
placing him again on the floor.

In 1713, his lordship succeeded, by the death of his father, to the family
titles and estates, and was soon after invited, together with a younger and only
brother and two sisters, by the duchess of Argyle, their grand-aunt, to take up
their residence with her in the Highlands, where she then lived in retirement.
Here he remained until he had attained a proper age for college, Avhen he
was sent to the university of Glasgow. His biographer, Rolt, informs us, that
while residing with the duchess of Argyle, the young earl had fallen desperate-
ly in love with a little Highland girl j but he unfortunately gives no account of
the progress or termination of this boyish attachment. The circumstance, how-
ever, affords an early indication of the warm, chivalrous, and romantic disposi-
tion for which his lordship was afterwards so much distinguished.

While at the university he rendered himself famous amongst his fellow stu-
dents by his boldness and courage. He led them on in all their battles with
the citizens, headed every expedition of difficulty or danger, and stood forward
on all occasions as the champion of the college, when any of its members were
injured or insulted, or conceived themselves to be so. He, in short, took the
whole burden of the university's honour on his own shoulders, and guarded
and protected it with the most watchful zeal and uncompromising intre-
pidity.

From the college of Glasgow he went to that of Edinburgh, where he re-
mained for some time, and then returned to the retirement of the duchess
of Argyle in the Highlands. Here he now prosecuted his studies under the
tuition of a private preceptor, and continued this course until he attained his
nineteenth year.

On arriving at this age, it was thought proper that he should, agreeably to
the usual practice in the cases of young men of rank and fortune, proceed to
the continent, at once to complete his education, and to improve himself by
travel. . With this view, he set out in the year 1721, first for London, where he
remained for a short time, and thereafter to Paris. Here he entered the
academy of Vaudeuil, and continued to attend that seminary during the two suc-
ceeding years. His progress in learning, and in the acquisition of every
elegant accomplishment while he resided in the French capital, was so re-
markable, as to excite a strong feeling of respect for his talents amongst
his fellow academicians, who saw him surpassing many students of much longer
standing, and attaining an eminence which left him few competitors. In horse-
manship, fencing, and dancing, he was considered, even in the refined city of
Paris, to be without a rival.

In 1723, he quitted the academy of Vaudeuil, but continued to reside in
France till 1726. In the same year in which his lordship left the seminary just
named, an incident occurred strongly illustrative of his daring and determined
character. Amongst the other sights exhibited during the festivities which were
held in celebration of the'accession of the young French king, was that of drawing
one of the fish ponds in the gardens of Versailles. The earl of Crawford was
amongst the crowd assembled to witness this novelty. In pressing forward to
the edge of the water to obtain a sight of the young monarch, he was rudely
jostled by a French marquis. Irritated by this incivility, the earl instantly
caught up the Frenchman, who was in full court dress, in his arms, and tossed
him, robes, and feathers, and all, into the middle of the fish pond. The specta-
tors, highly delighted with the unexpected exhibition, hurst into immoderate fits

JOHN LINDSAY. 455

of laughter, in which they were cordially joined by the young king himself, who
eagerly inquired who the person was that had thrown the marquis into the
water. The latter himself did not think fit to take any_ notice of the affair
either at the time or at any after period.

In 1726, his lordship returned to Britain, acknowledged by all to be one of
the most accomplished gentlemen of the age. On the 25th of December of the
same year, he obtained a captain's commission in one of the additional troops of
the 2nd regiment of royal Scots Greys. This appointment he held till 1730,
when, these troops being disbanded, he again repaired to the duchess of Argyle's
residence in the Highlands, and remained there for the next eighteen months.
In January, 1732, he oncejmore left this retirement to mingle with the world,
being appointed to the command of a troop of the 7th, or Queen's own regi-
ment of dragoons. He was also, in the same month, elected one of the sixteen
representatives of the Scottish peerage, in place of the earl of Loudon deceased.
This honour was again conferred upon him at the general elections in the years
1734, 1741, and 1747.

In the month of June, 1733, his lordship was appointed gentleman of the
bed-chamber to the prince of Wales. On the 1 8th of February, in the year
following, he obtained the captain-lieutenancy of the 1st regiment of foot-
guards, and on the 1st of October in the same year, a company of the 3d foot
guards. Notwithstanding these various appointments, the earl, who entertained
from his youngest years a strong passion for military fame, finding his life but
an inactive one, and the English service unlikely at the time to present him with
any opportunity of distinguishing himself, sought and obtained the king's per-
mission to go out as a volunteer to the imperial army, the emperor being at that
time engaged in a war with France.

His lordship joined the Imperialists in 1735, at Bruchsal on the Rhine, where
he was received with every mark of distinction and favour by the celebrated
prince Eugene of Savoy, then in command of the troops in that quarter. Find-
ing, however, that there was no immediate appearance of active service here,
his lordship, accompanied by viscount Primrose and captain Dalrymple, both
volunteers like himself, proceeded to the army under count SackendorfK The
first duty imposed on them by this general was to reconnoitre the enemy, who
were posted near Claussen. As they advanced towards the French lines they
were met by a party of the enemy, three times the number of their own escort,
and a skirmish ensued, in which count Nassau, who accompanied them, was kill-
ed, and lord Primrose severely wounded by a musket ball close beside the earl
of Crawford.

On the evening of the same day, 17th October, 1735, the battle of Claussen
was fought, affording his lordship an opportunity of distinguishing himself,
which he did not let pass. He attached himself to the prince of Waldeck, who
commanded the left wing of the Imperialists, and attended him throughout the
whole of the battle. The position in which the earl was placed was the first at-
tacked by the enemy, and was the most sanguinary part of the field. The in-
telligence, bravery, and good conduct of his lordship in this engagement excited
the warmest admiration of the prince, and laid the foundation of his future fame
as a soldier.

Preliminaries of peace between the emperor and France having been soon af-
terwards signed, the earl left the Imperial army, made a tour of the Nether-
lands and Holland, and again returned to Britain. On his arrival he was
graciously received by George II., who honoured him with many warm expres-
sions of esteem. His lordship remained at home for two years. At the end
of this period, he again became desirous of exchanging the" monotony of

450 JOHN LINDSAY.

«i peaceful and idle, for an active life, and sought the king's permission to
serve as a volunteer in the Russian army, under field marshal Munich, then en-
gaged with the Imperialists, in a Avar against the Turks. Having obtained the
royal permission to take this step, he embarked at Gravesend in April, 1738,
for Petersburg. On his arrival there he immediately waited upon the Czarina,
who received him with the most expressive indications of kindness and favour,
and instantly appointed him to the command of a regiment of horse, with the
rank of general in the Russian service.

Invested with these appointments, his lordship left Petersburg in the mid-
dle of May to join the army, which he effected after a dangerous and tedious
journey of a month's duration. Several sanguinary engagements with the Turks
soon followed, and in all the earl eminently distinguished himself, both by
his military skill, and fearless intrepidity. In one of these murderous con-
flicts, which took place on the 26th of July, and in which the Turks and Tar-
tars were repulsed with great loss, his lordship, who was at the head of a party
of Cossacks, excited the astonishment and admiration of even these bold and
skilful riders, by his dexterity in horsemanship. Nor were they less delighted
with the gallantry also which he exhibited in this battle, in the instance of a
single combat with a Tartar, whom, after a desperate encounter, he sabred and
stript of his arms. The latter he afterwards brought to England with him as
objects of curiosity.

The season being now far advanced, marshal Munich thought it advisable to
retire from the scene of operations, and accordingly retreated to Kiow, whither
he was accompanied by the earl, who remained with him for three weeks after
the cessation of hostilities. He then left Munich, and joined the Imperialists near
Belgrade. The earl had now acquired a large stock of military knowledge,
and had been especially improved in the art by his experience under Munich,
whom he justly reckoned the first captain of the age. Six weeks after he joined
the Imperial army, it was marched into winter quarters. On this occasion he
attached himself to prince Eugene's regiment, and proceeded with that corps
to Comorra, thirty-three miles S.E. of Presburg. Here, and at Vienna, to
which he occasionally resorted, he remained till the middle of April, 1739.
During this leisure his lordship employed himself in reducing to method and
system the military knowledge Avhich he had acquired, by drawing plans, and
writing observations on the Russian campaign ; thus availing himself of every
means and opportunity that offered, of improving himself in that art, to attain an
eminence in which had been from his earliest years the great object of his am-
bition, and of his fondest hopes.

His lordship now joined the Imperialists assembled near Peterwaradin, un-
der the command of marshal Wallis, and attached himself to his old friend
and fellow soldier, the prince of Waldeck, lieutenant-general of infantry.
In a short time after, the battle of Krotzka, near Belgrade, was fought. In this
engagement, the earl, while fighting the Turks at the head of Palfi's cuirassiers,
had his favourite black horse killed under hiin : another was immediately brought
him, but he had scarcely gained the saddle when he himself was struck with a
musket ball, which entering the outside of his left thigh, shattered the bone to
pieces, and brought him to the ground.

Here he lay for some time in a state of utter insensibility, when he was ac-
cidentally discovered by general count Sucheri, who, on perceiving him, ordered
some grenadiers to raise him up, and place him on one of his horses. This,
however, was all the attention which the urgency of the moment would permit.
Having been mounted on the horse he was left to his fate, and received no fur-
ther assistance until the following morning, when be was found by one of his

JOHN LINDSAY. 457

own grooms, his face deadly pale, his head uncovered, and himself holding
fast hy the horse's mane with both hands to prevent his falling off!

He was now immediately carried to Belgrade, where surgical assistance was
obtained. On examination of the wound it was at first deemed mortal ;
but although it certainly shortened his days, it was not immediately fatal. Aftet
making some progress towards recovery, his lordship left Belgrade on the
2Gth of September, being carried on board a vessel on the Danube, with which
he proceeded to Comorra, where he arrived on the 27th of December. This place
he left on the 2Sth of April, 1740, and sailed up the Danube to Vienna,
which he reached on the 7th May. During all this time his lordship was con-
fined to a recumbent posture by the otate of his wounded limb, which still sub-
jected him to the most excruciating agony, and continued constantly emitting
splinters from the fractured bone. So desperate and severe was this wound, that
his lordship walked for the first time, and even then with the assistance of
crutches, only in the beginning of _ September, 1740; about a year and a half
after he had received it.

In Vienna he remained till the 20th of September, when, being advised
to try the effects of the baths of Baden, he proceeded to that quarter, and re-
mained there till the llth of August, 1741. His lordship, still suffering from
his wound, which no expedient had yet been able to heal, now proceeded by
Presburg, Vienna, and Leipsic, to Hamelen, where ho arrived on the 3rd Oc-
tober, and had an interview with George II., who happened to be there at the
time. His majesty received the earl with much kindness, and entered into a
long conversation with him. On the 23rd of October he took leave of hi3 ma-
jesty, and embarked for England. Notwithstanding his absence, the earl's
interest had not been neglected at home. In July, 1739, he was made a colo-
nel of horse and adjutant-general, and on the 25th October of the same year,
was appointed colonel of the 42nd regiment of foot, or Royal Scots Highlanders.
Tbe same inclination to forward his military views marked his return. On the
25th of December, 1741, the year in which he came to England, he was ap-
pointed colonel of the second troop of horse grenadier guards.

His lordship's wound still annoying him, he was now advised to try the bath
of Bareges in France, and having obtained, for this purpose, a pass from the
French king, the Lynx British man-of-war was oi'dered to carry him out.
With this vessel he sailed from Portsmouth on the 23rd of May, 1742, and ar-
rived at Bourdeatix on the 30th of the same month.

Soon after landing he proceeded to Bareges, which he reached on the 12th
June, and commenced a regular system of bathing, but without much effect ;
being still able to walk only with the assistance of a crutch and high-heeled
shoe. From Bareges he went on the 16th October to Aix in Provence, where
he again used the bath, and with much more benefit than he had derived from
the same remedy in the former place. Leaving Aix his lordship arrived at
Chambery on the 2nd of November, where he waited on the king of Sardinia,
with whom he remained till the 18th, when he proceeded to Geneva. In this
city he remained till the 1st of January, 1743. He then visited Milan, Genoa,
Modena, Verona, and Venice, and from thence proceeded by Trieste, Gatz,
Lintz, and through Bohemia and Saxony, and finally joined the British army,
of which field-marshal Stair was commander, at Hochstet, on the 24th of May,
where George II. happened to be at the time. At the battle of Dettingen,
which took place on the 16th of flie following month, the earl commanded a
brigade of life-guards, and conducted himself throughout that conflict with a
coolness and intrepidity which greatly enhanced his reputation for courage and
military skill. During the action, his lordship, on one occasion, ordered the

458 JOHN LINDSAY.

officers of his brigade to the front, the enemy being within fifty paces of them.
He then addressed his men, " Hark, my dear lads," he said, " trust to your
swords, handle them well, and never mind your pistols." Placing himself then
at their head, he led them on to the charge, encouraging them and animating
them by his example as they advanced, the trumpets the while sounding the
martial strain of " Briton3, Strike Home." The soldiers obeying the instruc-
tions of their gallant leader, and participating in his enthusiasm, closed on the
French, and drove them before them with prodigious slaughter. In the begin-
ning of the battle a musket ball struck his lordship's right holster case, pene-
trated the leather, and, hitting the barrel of the pistol which it contained, fell
harmlessly into the case. Here it was found by his lordship, who showed it the
day after the engagement to the king at Hanau, where he then was, and who,
on seeing the earl approaching, exclaimed, " Here comes my champion;" fol-
lowing up afterwards this flattering expression of his opinion of his lordship's
merits, by the most gratifying remarks on the gallantry of his conduct on the
preceding day.

In this year, (1743,) the earl was appointed colonel of the 4th or Scottish
troop of horse guards, and, after the battle of Dettingen, was made a general of
brigade. In May, 1744, his lordship joined the combined armies, in camp, near
Brussels ; but, owing to the over caution of marshall Wade no opportunity offered
of again distinguishing himself during the whole of the campaign which fol-
lowed. In the next year, however, this was not wanting. The duke of Cum-
berland, having been appointed captain general of the British forces, arrived
at Brussels on the 11th of April, 174$, his lordship being then with the army
as brigadier-general. The arrival of his grace was soon after (30th April) fol-
lowed by the battle of Fontenoy. In this engagement his lordship conducted
himself with his usual gallantry, and exhibited even more than his usual skill,
particularly in conducting the retreat, which he did in a manner so masterly,
as procured, for him a reputation for military genius not inferior to any of that
age. His lordship also wrote an exceedingly able and interesting account of the
battle. On the 30th of 3Iay following, he was promoted to the rank of major-
general.

The rebellion in Scotland now occurring, his lordship was ordered, in Feb.,
1746, from Antwerp, where he then was, to his native country, to take the com-
mand of the Hessians employed by the government on that occasion, and whose
numbers amounted to six thousand. With these troops he secured Stirling,
Perth, and the passes into the lowlands, while Cumberland proceeded by the
north-east coast in quest of the rebels. On this visit to Scotland, his lordship
formed an acquaintance with, and afterwards married, lady Jane Murray,
eldest daughter, and presumptive heiress of James, second duke of Athole.
On the extinction of the rebellion, he returned to the army in the Nether-
lands, where he arrived early in June. At the battle of Rocoux, which took
place on the 1st of October following, he commanded the second line of cavalry,
with which he drove back the French infantry, and threw them into irretriev-
able confusion. His lordship soon afterwards accompanied the army into winter
quarters at Bois le Due. His troop of horse guards being this year disbanded,
he was appointed to the command of the 25th regiment of foot on the 25th
Dec, 1746.

In February following, (1747,) his lordship embarked at Flushing for Eng-
land, landed at Southampton, and proceeded to Belford, where he arrived on
the 3d March. Hero his lordship met, by appointment, lady Jane Murray, to
whom he was married on the day of his arrival. His wound, which had never
yet been thoroughly healed, now again broke out from fatigue, and subjected him

ROBERT LINDSAY. 459

anew to all the pain and suffering which he had experienced immediately after
receiving it. From Bedford, the earl and countess proceeded to London, from
thence to Helvoetsluys, and finally to Bois le Due, where they arrived in June.
On the 22d May, his lordship, previous to his leaving England, was appointed
to the command of the 2d regiment of dragoons, or royal Scots Greys, in room
of the earl of Stair, deceased ; and, on the 26th of September following, he was
promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general.

On the conclusion of the campaign, the earl, accompanied by his countess,
went to Aix-la-Chapelle, for the benefit of the baths there; being still seriously
annoyed by his wound, which had again broken out after a second temporary
cure. While his lordship was confined here to bed, his young countess — she had
not yet attained her twentieth year — was seized with a violent and malignant
fever which carried her off in four days. His lordship, who was deeply affected
by his loss, and for a time wholly inconsolable, ordered that the body of his de-
ceased lady should be embalmed, and sent over to his family burial place at
Ceres in Fife. He himself remained at Aix till the opening of the campaign in
1748, when he joined the duke of Cumberland and confederate army of 150,000
men. His lordship remained with the army till the conclusion of the peace,
which took place in the same year. On the 16th of February of the following
year, (1749,) he superintended the embarkation of the British troops at Wil-
liamstadt, and soon after returned to London, where he died on the 25th
December, in the forty-eighth year of his age, after suffering again severely
from his wound. His remains were carried to Ceres, and deposited beside
those of his countess.

His lordship is represented to have been of middle size, remarkably stout, but
finely formed. His manners were mild, elegant, and refined ; his disposition
generous, brave, and charitable, often beyond his means. His purse, open to
all, Mas especially at the service of the distressed widows of officers, numbers of
whom were relieved from misery and destitution by his bounty. His lordship
always maintained a splendid retinue, and lived in a style becoming his rank,
but was moderate at table, and temperate in all his habits. His judgment was
6trong, his temper serene and dispassionate. His lordship' having died without
issue, the titles of Crawford and Lindsay devolved on George, viscount of Gar-
nock.

LINDSAY, Robert, of Pitscottie, author of the Chronicles of Scotland
known by his name, was born about the beginning of the sixteenth century. He
was a cadet of the noble family of Lindsay, comprising the earls of Crawford
and Lindsay, and the lords Lindsay of Byres. He is not known otherwise
than as the author of the Chronicles alluded to, and these have not had the ef-
fect of eliciting any information regarding him from his contemporaries, which
could be of any avail to a modern biographer. He has, in truth, been scai-cely
recognized even as a literary man by the chroniclers of Scottish genius, and yet,
this is the only ground on which he seems to have any claim to commemora-
tion, there being no other circumstance of any interest in his life but that of
his having written the work spoken of above.

As to the Chronicles themselves, it is not perhaps very easy to determine in
what language they should be spoken of. They present a strange compound
of endless and aimless garrulity, simplicity, credulity, and graphic delineation ;
the latter, however, evidently the effect not of art or design, but of a total
want of them. He describes events with all the circumstantiality of an eye-
witness, and with all the prolixity of one who is determined to leave nothing
untold, however trifling it may be.

But his credulity, in particular, seems to have been boundless, and is remark-

4G0 WILLIAM LITHGOW.

able even for the credulous age in which he lived. He appears to have be-
lieved, without question, every thing which was told him ; and, believing it, has
carefully recorded it. After detailing at some length, and with great gravity,
all the circumstances of the mysterious summons of Plotcock, previous to the
battle of Flodden Field, " Verily," he says, " the author of this, that caused
me write the manner of the summons, was a landed gentleman, Avho was at that
time twenty years of age, and was in the town the time of the said summons ;
and thereafter, when the field was stricken, he swore to me, there was no man
that escaped that was called in this summons, but that one man alone which
made his protestation."

The earnest and honest simplicity of the good old chronicler, however, is
exceedingly amusing. He aims at nothing beyond a mere record of what he
conceived to be facts, and these he goes on detailing, with a great deal
of incoherence, and all the unintellectual precision of an artificial process,
neither feeling, passion, nor mind ever appearing to mingle in the slightest de-
gree with his labours. These characteristics of the chronicles of Lindsay have
greatly impaired their credibility, and have almost destroyed all confidence
in them as authorities.

Where he is corroborated by other historians, or by an association of well
known and well established circumstances, he may be trusted, but, where this is
not the case, his testimony ought to be received with caution ; for, where he does
not absolutely create, he is almost sure to exaggerate, and is thus in any event
a very unsafe guide.

If Lindsay was but an indifferent chronicler, he was a still worse poet, as
will be conceded, it is presumed, after a perusal of the following introductory
stanzas of a poetical address to Robert Stewart, bishop of Caithness, prefixed to
the Chronicles :

" O little book, pass thou with diligence
To St Andrews that fair city ;
Salute that lord with humble reverence,
Beseeking him, of fatherly pit)',
With entire heart, and perfect charity,
And that he would on noways offend
To look on thee, one day or two to spend.

And there shew him ihy secrets more and less,

From the beginning unto the end :

And also you to come utter and express ;

Show him the verity, and make it to him kend—

The martial deeds, and also the fatal end,

Of his noble dainty progenitor,

In Scotland lived sometime in great honour.

The Chronicles begin with James II., 1436, and end with queen Mary,
1565. This latter reign, however, is not completed, being carried down only
a little beyond the period at which the marriage of that unfortunate princess
with Darnley took place.

LITHGOW, William, a well known traveller of the seventeenth century,
was born in the parish of Lanark, in the year 1 5S3. Nothing is known of his
birth or parentage, or of the earlier period of his life. He seems to have at-
tracted very little general notice prior to the publication of his travels in 1614 ;
and even the celebrity which these acquired for him, does not appear to have
EUggested any inquiry into his previous history.

There is no reason, however, to believe otherwise than that he was a person

WILLIAM LITHGOW. 4G1

of rather mean condition, and poor circumstances, though evidently possessed of
an education very far surpassing what was common among the vulgar at the pe-
riod when he lived. The motives which induced him to leave his native coun-
try, to perform a painful and dangerous pilgrimage through foreign lands, are
not more obvious than some of the other particulars of his early life. He him-
self, in the strange and almost unintelligible jargon in which he frequently in-
dulges in the work which records his adventures, obscurely assigns two : the
oppression of enemies, — but who they were, or what was the cause of their
enmity, he does not say — and an irresistible desire to visit strange lands. It
would, indeed, appear that this last was the ruling passion of his life, and that,
together with a roving, unsettled, and restless disposition, it was the principal
agent in compelling him to undertake the formidable journeys which he accom-
plished, and enabled him to bear up with such a series of hardships and bodily
sufferings, as perhaps no man ever before or since has endured.

From the obscurity in which his early life is involved, it is not, therefore,
until he has assumed the character which has procured him celebrity, namely,
that of a traveller, that Lithgow is introduced to us.

In his youth, while he was, as he himself says, yet a stripling, he made two
voyages to the " Orcadian and Zetlandian Isles." Shortly after this, he pro-
ceeded on a tour through Germany, Bohemia, Helvetia, and the Low countries.
From the latter he went to Paris, where he remained for ten months. William
Lithgow nowhere gives the slightest hint regarding the source whence he
derived the funds necessary to defray the expenses of these journeys; but there
seems to be some reason for believing that he trusted in a great measure to
chance, and to the casual assistance which he might receive from any of his
countrymen whom he might encounter, in the different places he visited. This
applies only, however, to the first part of his career ; the latter was provided for
by a piece of good fortune which shall be noticed in its proper place.

On the 9th of March, 1609, Lithgow again started from Paris on another
roving expedition, and, on this occasion, proceeded, in the first instance, directly
to Rome. He was escorted several miles on his way by three or four of his
countrymen, with whom he had picked up an acquaintance while in Paris, and
who, not improbably, supported him during the time of his residence in that
city. These persons he describes as gentlemen, and one of them, at any rate,
certainly had a claim to this character on the score of rank. This was Hay of
Smithfield, esquire, of the king of France's body guard.

Although thus associating himself, however, with these gentlemen, Lith-
gow does not speak of them as equals, but in a marked tone of inferiority ;
leaving altogether an impression that their kindness and attention proceeded
from the circumstances of his being a countryman, a man of talent, and of a
singular, bold, and adventurous disposition. Having bid adieu to his compan-
ions, he trudged onwards to Home on fool ; for such was his usual mode of tra-
velling. He made it a rule, and strictly adhered to it, never to avail himself of
any conveyance during a journey when he could accomplish it on foot, and his
only deviation was in the cases of crossing seas, rivers, or lakes. During all his
travels he never mounted a horse, or put his foot into a carriage, or any de-
scription of vehicle whatever.

While in Rome he made a narrow escape from the inquisition ; the most
sanguinary and ferocious of whose members were at that time, singular to say,
Scotsmen. Two of these were from St Andrews. There were besides, one of the
name of Gordon, one Cunningham, born in the Canongate of Edinburgh, and
several others, and it was from the eager pursuit of these, his own countrymen,
that poor Lithgow found the greatest difficulty in escaping. This, however, he

462 WILLTAM LITHGOW.

effected by the assistance of a domestic of the earl of Tyrone, who was then re-
siding at Rome. This man, whose name was Megget, concealed him for three
days and nights on the roof of the earl's palace, and, on the fourth night, con-
veyed him secretly out of the city, by aiding him to scale the walls, as the gates
and streets were all carefully guarded by persons appointed by the inquisition to
apprehend him.

From Rome Lithgow proceeded to Naples, and from thence to Loretto. On
his way to the latter place, he overtook a carriage, in which were two young
gentlemen from Rome with their mistresses, all proceeding joyously on a pil-
grimage to the shrine of the Madonna. This lively group insisted upon the lonely
pedestrian's stepping into their carriage, but, adhering to the rule he had laid
down of never availing himself of any such conveyance, he obstinately refused.
Finding that they could not prevail upon him to take a seat beside them, the
good-natured pilgrims descended from their carriage, and insisted on keeping
him company on foot, and, thus associated, the whole party jogged merrily on
for Loretto. Here he fell in with another of his countrymen, of the name of
Arthur, with whom he had been formerly acquainted, and who seems to have
been imbued with some portion of his own restless and rambling disposition.
Having spent some time in Loretto, they proceeded together to Ancona, and
thence by sea to Venice. Here his companion left him to cross the Alps,
while his own " purpose reached for Greece and Asia." Arthur, it appears,
had been a domestic servant of the earl of' Glencairn. The circumstance,
therefore, of Lithgow's making him a companion, would seem to be an addi-
tional proof that he did not assume, or pretend to, the character of a gentleman
traveller.

Lithgow now proceeded to visit the various islands in the Mediterranean, and
thereafter wandered through Greece and Asia, encountering innumerable dan-
gers and difficulties ; now shipwrecked, now attacked by banditti, now plun-
dered and maltreated, and, with all this, frequently exposed for days and nights
together to the inclemency of the weather; his religion excluding him, in several
places, not only from the hospitality of the natives, but even from the shelter of
their houses. During his peregrinations through Greece, he met with two gen-
tlemen from Venice, who entertained him kindly for ten days, and, on his de-
parture made him a present of fifty zechins in gold; the first gift, he says, he
received in all his travels, and, it may be added, that this is also the first
allusion he makes to any pecuniary matters relating to himself. He now pro-
ceeds to declare, that if some such instances of good fortune had not befallen
him he should never have been able to accomplish his " sumptuous peregrina-
tion."

Not contented with the adventures in which he was unavoidably, on his part,
involved, there were others which he sought. Like another Don Quixote, he
released captives, or at least assisted them to effect their escape, and came to
the aid of distressed damsels. Altogether, he appears to have been a singularly
benevolent and kind-hearted man ; ready at all times to peril his life for the
injured or oppressed, whenever he thought such a risk could be of service to
them.

From Greece Lithgow proceeded over-land to Egypt, and finally reached
Grand Cairo. During his journey thither, he had the good fortune to fall in
with three Dutchmen at Jerusalem, who were journeying with a caravan in the
same direction. These he joined, and kept by them until they reached the
Egyptian capital. Here his three companions speedily killed themselves by
drinking " strong Cyprus wine without mixture of water." Each as they died
left the survivors all his property, and the last bequeathed the whole accumu-

WILLIAM LITHGOW.

4G3

lated amount to Lithgow. He had, however, some difficulty in rescuing his
legacy from the grasp of the Venetian consul ; hut by sacrificing a part he ob-
tained possession of tlie remainder, which amounted to nine hundred and
forty-two zechins of gold, besides rings and tablets.

Thanking God for his good fortune, he now proceeded, quite at his ease as to
money matters, to inspect every thing that was curious in the city. From Cairo
he proceeded to Alexandria, where he embarked for Malta. From thence he
sailed for Sicily, walked afterwards to Paris, and finally came over to Eng-
land, where he presented to king James, to queen Anne, and to prince
Charles, " certain rare gifts and notable relicks brought from Jordan and Jeru-
salem."

After remaining in London for about a year, Lithgow's propensity to roving
again became too strong to be resisted, and he set out upon a second expedition.
He now traversed the Netherlands and Switzerland, and from thence proceeded
to Calabria. Here another windfall came in his way, but it was one of a much
more questionable nature in point of morality than that which met him at Cairo.
Between Saramutza and Castello Franco, he found the dead bodies of two
young barons lying in a field, who had just killed each other in a duel. See-
ing that they were richly clad, Lithgow, " to speak the truth," as he himself
says, searched their pockets, and found two silken purses well filled with
Spanish pistoles. These, together with certain rings which they wore on their
fingers, he carried off, and appropriated to his own use ; and he thus moralizes
on the fact " Well, in the mutability of time there is ay some fortune falleth
by accident, whether lawful or not, I will not question. It was now mine that
was last theirs ; and to save the thing that was not lost, I travelled that day
thirty miles further to Terra Nova."

Lithgow now visited Africa, traversing Barbary, Morocco, Algiers, Tunis,
and Tripoli. Then, crossing over to Italy, he perambulated Hungary, Ger-
many, and Poland, and finally reached Dantzic, where he embarked for Eng-
land, and once more arrived in safety in London. He was now an object of
curiosity and interest, and, while he remained in England, was frequently ad-
mitted to familiar audiences of his majesty, and was at all times a welcome
guest at the tables of the first nobility and gentlemen in the kingdom, where lie
repaid their civilities by relating the story of his adventures.

Lithgow's spirit of adventure and singular restlessness of disposition, how-
ever, were still unsubdued ; and neither all that he had seen, nor all that he
had suffered, could induce him to settle at home. In 1G19, he again set
out on another roving expedition, but on this occasion he was furnished with
letters of recommendation from king James, addressed to " all kings, princes,
and dukes." Provided with these documents he proceeded to Ireland. From
thence he sailed for France, travelled through Portugal and Spain, and finally
arrived at Malaga. Here he was apprehended as a spy, and accused of giving
intelligence to some English ships which were then on the Spanish coast, re-
specting the return of the Plate fleet

All poor Lithgow's proofs and asseverations of innocence availed him
nothing. He was subjected to the most dreadful tortures. His limbs were
mangled and crushed, and his body torn and lacerated with tightened cords and
other engines of torture. His innocence as a spy was ultimately established to
the satisfaction even of his persecutors ; but he Mas then handed over to the In-
quisition, which inflicted upon him a fresh series of tortures not less horrible
than the first

Maimed and mutilated, Lithgow was at length liberated by the interference
of the English consul and of several English residenters in Malaga, from whom

4Gi JOHN LIVINGSTON.

all knowledge of the unfortunate traveller's fate had been carefully concealed
until it was discovered to them by accident

Shortly after his release he was carried on board of an English ship, for his
person was so fearfully mangled that he was not only wholly unable to walk,
but was apparently beyond hope of recovery. In this state, on his arrival in
England, which was in 1621, he was exhibited, lying on a feather bed, to the
king and the whole of the court, all the persons of whom it was composed,
crowding to see him. His miserable situation excited universal sympathy, and
might under a more spirited prince have become the ground of a national quar-
rel with the country in which the cruelty and injustice had been inflicted. If
his majesty, however, failed in avenging the unhappy traveller's injuries, he was
not wanting in compassion for his sufferings. He was twice sent to Bath at the
royal expense, and maintained by the same hand for seven and twenty weeks,
until he had in a great measure recovered his original health and strength, " al-
though," he says, " my left arm and crushed bones be incurable."

Soon after his arrival in England, Lithgow was carried, by the king's di-
rection to the residence of Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador at the Eng-
lish court, for the purpose of endeavouring to procure some redress of his
grievances. By this celebrated person he was treated with characteristic dupli-
city. Lithgow, finding the case hopeless, accused the Spaniard, in the presence
chamber, and before a crowd of courtiers, of deceit and ungentlemanlike con-
duct. This charge he followed up with an act of violence on the person of the
ambassador, for which, though his spirited conduct was much applauded, he
was sent to the Marshalsea, where he was confined nine weeks. Lithgow after
this made several attempts to procure some sort of redress or compensation from
the house of commons, by a bill of grievances, but none of these were success*
ful. The last effort of this kind which he made was in 1626. In the yeat
following he returned to Scotland ; and still under the influence of that spirit
which had urged him to roam through the world for so many years, he under-
took a tour through the western isles. He speaks of himself as having been
in the island of Arran in the year 1628 ; but from this period little more is
known regarding him. He finally, however, and probably soon after this, re-
turned to his native parish, where he remained till his death ; but when this
took place is uncertain. He was interred in the church-yard of Lanark, and is
yet familiarly spoken of in that part of the country, where it is said several of
his descendents still exist The place of his sepulture is unmarked by any me-
morial, and cannot therefore be pointed out

The first edition of his travels was pi-inted in 1614, 4to. This work was
again reprinted in the reign of Charles I., with a dedication to that monarch.
He also published an account of the siege of Buda in 1637, a circumstance
which shows that he had attained a considerable age ; as in 1637, he would be
in his 54th year.

LIVINGSTON, John, one of the most revered names in Scottish ecclesiastical
history. He was born at Kilsyth in Stirlingshire, (then called Monybroch), on
the 21st of June, 1603. His father, Mr William Livingston, who officiated as
minister of Monybroch from 1600 to 1614, and was then translated to Lanark,
was the son of Mr Alexander Livingston, his predecessor, in the charge of the
parish of Monybroch, and who, in his turn, was a grandson of Alexander, fifth
lord Livingston, one of the nobles intrusted with the keeping of queen Mary in
her infancy, and the ancestor of the earls of Linlithgow and Callender. His
mother was Agnes Livingston, daughter of Alexander Livingston, a cadet of the
house of Dunnipace. His christian name he received at baptism in compliance
with the request of lady Lillias Graham.1
' A gentlewoman of the house of Wigton, with whom, as with many persons of equal

JOHN LIVINGSTON. 4G5

«' Worthy famous Mr John Livingston," as he was fondly termed by his con-
temporaries, received the rudiments of learning at home, and at the age of
ten was sent to study the classics under Mr Wallace, a respectable teacher at
Stirling. During the first year he made little progress, and was rather harshly
treated by the schoolmaster; this was corrected by a remonstrance from his
father, after which he profited very rapidly by his studies. When he had com-
pleted his third year at Stirling, it was proposed that he should go to the Glas-
gow university ; but his father eventually determined that he should remain
another year at school, and this, he informs us,2 was the most profitable year he
had at school, being chiefly deroted to a course of classical reading. During
the time of his residence in Stirling, Mr Patrick Simpson, a clergyman of much
note, officiated in the parish church ; and Mr Livingston relates, that, on re-
ceiving the communion from his hands, he experienced a physical agitation of
an uncommon character, which he believed to have been occasioned M by the
Lord for the first time working upon his heart." At his father's house in
Lanark, to which he returned in 1617, in order to attend the death-bed of his
mother, he had further opportunities of profiting religiously ; for it was the oc-
casional resort of some of the most distinguished clergymen and " professors "
of that age. The celebrated Mr Robert Bruce was among the number of the
former ; and of the latter were the countess of Wigton (whom Livingston him-
self calls the " rare"), lady Lillias Graham, already mentioned, lady Culross,
still more famous than any of the rest, and lady Barnton. It seems to have
then been a common practice for such persons as were conspicuous for religious
earnestness, of whatever rank, to resort much to each other's houses, and to
take every opportunity, when on a journey, to spend a night in a kindred do-
mestic circle, where they might, in addition to common hospitalities, enjoy the
fellowship of a common faith. To a large mingling in society of this kind,
we are no doubt to attribute much of the sanctity for which Mr Livingston was
remarkable through life.

The subject of our memoir received his academical education at the univer-
sity of St Andrews, Avhere Mr Robert Boyd was then principal, and Mr Robert
Blair, another eminent divine, the professor of theology. Being tempted at
tliis time by some proposals for a secular profession, he adopted the expedient
of retiring to a cave on the banks of Mouse-water (perhaps the same which
sheltered Wallace), where he spent a whole day in spiritual meditation, and ul-
timately resolved to become a preacher of the gospel, as the only means of se-
curing his own eternal interests. During the progress of his subsequent studies
in divinity, he gave token of that firm adherence to presbyterian rules which
characterized him in his maturer years. He was sitting with some of the people
and a few of his fellow students in a church in Glasgow, when the archbishop
(Law) came to celebrate the communion for the first time after the episcopal
fashion established by the Perth articles. Seeing the people all sitting as usual,
Law desired them to kneel, which some did, but among the recusants were
Livingston and the little party of students. The archbishop commanded them
either to kneel or depart : to this Livingston boldly replied, that " there was
no warrant for kneeling, and, for want of it, no one ought to be excommuni-
cated." Law only caused those near them to move, in order that they might

remove.

Mr Livingston became a preacher in 1625, and for a considerable time
preached for his father at Lanark, or in the neighbouring parish churches. He
had several calls to vacant churches, especially to Anwoth in Galloway, which

rank, his father was on intimate terms of personal and religious friendship, and whose Mher,
husband, and eldest son, were all of the same appellation.
* In his life, written by himself, Glasgow, 1754.

III. 3 N

4.6G JOHN LIVINGSTON.

waa afterwards filled by the celebrated Rutherford. The increasing rigour of
the episcopal regulations appears to have prevented him from obtaining a set-
tlement He was at length, in 1627, taken into the house of the earl of
Wigton at Cumbernauld, as chaplain, with permission to preach in the hall to
such strangers as chose to accompany the family in their devotions, and also to
minister occasionally in the neighbouring pulpits. He was living in this man-
ner when he produced the celebrated revival of religion at the kirk of Shotts.
This, it seems, was a place where he always found himself in the enjoyment of
an unusual degree of " liberty " in preaching. On Sunday, June 20, 1C30,
the communion was celebrated at Shotts to a large assemblage of people, among
whom were all the more eminently pious women of rank in that part of the
country. The impression produced by the solemnities of the day Avas so very
great, that many did not depart, but spent the whole night in prayer and con-
ference.3 Among these was Mr Livingston, who being requested to give a ser-
mon next morning to the still lingering multitude, walked forth very early into
the fields. Here, he says, " there came sucb a misgiving of spirit upon me,
considering my unworthiness and weakness, and the multitude and expectation
of the people, that I was consulting with myself to 'have stolen away some-
where." He had actually gone to some distance, and was losing sight of the
kirk of Shotts, when the words, " Was I ever a barren wilderness or a land of
darkness," were brought into his heart with such an overcoming power, as con-
strained him to return. In the ensuing service he ** got good assistance about
an hour and a half" upon the text, Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26. •• Then will I sprinkle
clean water upon you," &c " In the end," says Mr Livingston, " offering to
close with some words of exhortation, I was led on about an- hour's time, in u
strain of exhortation and warning, with such liberty and melting of heart, as I
never had the like in public all my lifetime." The effect of the address is
spoken of by Fleming, in his " Fulfilling of the Scriptures," as " an extraor-
dinary appearance of God, and down-pouring of the Spirit, with a strange un-
usual motion on the hearers," insomuch that five hundred, it was calculated, had
at that time, " a discernible change wrought upon them, of whom most proved
lively christians afterwards. It was the sowing of a seed through Clydesdale,
so as many of the most eminent christians in that country could date either
their conversion, or some remarkable confirmation of their case, from that day."
The- importance of such a sermon, in propagating religion in a country where it
was as yet but imperfectly introduced, has given this event a prominent place —
not perhaps in the history of the church of Scotland, but certainly in the his-
tory of the gospel. It caused Monday sermons after the celebration of the
communion to become general, and appears to have been the origin of that now
habitual practice.

Livingston gives some curious particulars in reference to this signally suc-
cessful preaching. He officiated on the ensuing Thursday at Kilmarnock, and
there he was favoured with some remains, as it were, of the afflatus which had
inspired him on the former day. Next Monday, however, preaching in Irvine,
" I was so deserted," says he, " that the points I had meditated and written,
and had fully in my memory, I was not, for my heart, able to get them pro-
nounced. So it pleased the Lord to counterbalance his dealings, and hide
pride from man. This so discouraged me, that I was upon resolution for some
time not to preach — at least, not in Irvine ; but Mr David Dickson could not
suffer me to go from thence till I preached the next Sabbath, to get, as he
expressed it, amends of the Devil. And so I stayed, and preached with some
tolerable freedom."

s The bed-room of lady Culross was filled with people, to whom she prayed " three large
I hours' time,"— '• having great motion upon her." — Livingstons Life,MS. Ad. lib.

JOHN LIVINGSTON. 467

Finding all prospect of a parochial settlement in his native country precluded
by the bishops, Mr Livingston was induced, in August, 1630, to accept the
charge of the parish of Killincbie, in the north of Ireland, where a consider-
able portion of the population consisted of Scots. Here he ministered with
great success, insomuch that, by one sermon preached in the neighbouring parish
of Holywood, he was calculated to have converted a thousand persons in as
effectual a manner as he had done the five hundred at Shotts. Such extensive
utility is, perhaps, only to be expected in a country such as Scotland and Ire-
land then were, and as America has more recently been ; but yet, as similar acts
are recorded of no contemporary clergyman whose name is familiar to us, we
must necessarily conclude, that there was something in the oratorical talents and
spiritual gifts of Mr Livingston, which marked hi in out as a most extraordinary
man. His success, as a minister, is less agreeably proved in another way — by
the persecution, namely, of the bishop in whose diocese he officiated. After
being once suspended and replaced, he was, in May, 1632, deposed, along
with Messrs Blair, Welsh, and Dunbar ; after which, he could only hold private
meetings with his flock. He and several of his people were now become so
desperate, as to the enjoyment of religion, in their own way, under British in-
stitutions, that they formed a resolution to emigrate to America. He accord-
ingly set sail from Weymouth ; but being driven back by a contrary wind, some
circumstances induced him to change his mind. Almost immediately after his
return, he and his deposed brethren were reinstated by a letter of the lord
deputy Strafford ; and, for a year and a half, he continued to preach at Kil-
lincbie.

Mr Livingston's salary, in this charge, was only four pounds a-year ; yet he
takes pains to assure us, that notwithstanding all his travels from place to place,
and also occasional visits to Scotland, he never wanted money. He lets slip,
afterwards, however, that he received sums occasionally from the countesses of
Eglintoune and Wigton, and other devout ladies. His mode of life was so
fully justified by the circumstances of the times, which rendered it by no means
singular, that Mr Livingston was not deterred from forming a matrimonial con-
nexion. He had formed an attachment to the eldest daughter of Bartholomew
Fleming, merchant in Edinburgh, u of most worthy memory." The young lady
was also recommended to him by the favourable speeches of many of his friends.
Yet — and the fact is a curious trait of the age and of the man — he spent nine
months " in seeking directions from God,'' before he could make up his mind
to pay his addresses. " It is like," he says, " I might have been longer in
that darkness, except the Lord had presented me an occasion of our conferring
together; for, in November 1634, when I was going to the Friday meeting at
Antrim, [the lady was then residing on a visit in Ireland,] I forgathered with
her and some others, going thither, and propounded to them, by the way, to
confer upon a text, whereon I was to preach the day after at Antrim ; wherein
I found her conference so just and spiritual, that I took that for some answer
to my prayer to have my mind cleared, and blamed myself that I had not before
taken occasion to confer with her. Four or five days after, I proposed the
matter, and desired her to think upon it ; and, after a week or two, I went to
her mother's house, and, being alone with her, desiring her answer, I went to
prayer, and desired her to pray, which at last she did : and in that time I got
abundant clearness that it was the Lord's mind that I should marry her, and
then propounded the matter more fully to her mother; and, albeit, I was then
fully cleared, I may truly say it was about a month after, before I got marriage
affection to her, although she was, for personal endowments, beyond many of her
equals, and I got it not till I obtained it by prayer ; but, thereafter, I had
greater difficulty to moderate it."

4G8 JOHN LIVINGSTON.

The parties, having proceeded to Edinburgh, were married in the West
Church there, June 23, 1G35, under circumstances of proper solemnity, not-
withstanding that archbishop Spottiswood, chancellor of Scotland, was under-
stood to have issued orders for the apprehension of Mr Livingston some days
before. The wedding was attended by the earl of Wigton and his son lord
Fleming, and a number of other pious friends. Having returned to Ireland,
he was, in the ensuing November, once more deposed, and even, it appears,
excommunicated. He continued, nevertheless, to hold forth at private
meetings in his own house, where Blair, also again deposed, took up his
abode. At length, in renewed despair, he once more embarked, along with
his wife, for the American colonies ; but, strange to say, after having sailed
to a point nearer to the banks of Newfoundland than to any part of Europe,
he was again driven back ; after which, conceiving it " to be the Lord's
will that he should not go to New England,'' he made no further at-
tempt.

For about two years, Mr Livingston preached occasionally, but always in a
somewhat furtive manner, both in Ireland and Scotland. He was in the latter
country in 1637, when at length the bishops brought matters to such a crisis, as
terminated their supremacy in Scotland, and enabled such divines as Mr Living-
ston to open their mouths without fear. Mr Livingston was present at Lanark
when the covenant was received by the congregation oftthat place ; and he says,
that, excepting at the Kirk of Shotts, he never saw such motions from the Spirit
of God ; " a thousand persons, all at once, lifting up their hands, and the tears
falling down from their eyes.'' Being commissioned to proceed to London, to
confer with the friends of the cause, in reference to this grand national move-
ment, he disguised himself in a grey coat and a grey montero cap, for the
purpose of avoiding the notice of the English authorities. An accident which
befell him on the way, confined him, after his arrival in the metropolis, to his
chamber; but he was there visited by many friends of liberty in church and
state, including several of the English nobility. He had not been long in
London, when the marquis of Hamilton informed him, through a mutual friend,
that the king was aware of his coming, and threatened " to put a pair of fetters
about his feet." He was, therefore, obliged to retire precipitately to his own
country.

In July 1638, Mr Livingston was enabled, under the new system of things,
to enter upon the ministry of the parish of Stranraer, in Wigtonshire ; a place
with which he had long been familiar, in consequence of his frequently passing
that way to and from Ireland. Here his zeal and eloquence appear to have
been deeply appreciated, insomuch that the people flocked even to hear his
private family devotions, filling his house to such a degree, that he had at
length to perform these exercises in the church. It is a still more striking
proof of his gifts, that multitudes of his Irish friends used to come over twice
a-year to be present at his ministrations of the communion. On one occasion,
he had no fewer than five hundred of these far-travelled strangers ; on another,
he had twenty-eight of their children to baptize ! Such was then the keen
appreciation of " free preaching,'' and the difficulty of obtaining it under the
restrictions of the episcopal system, that some of these people were induced to
remove to Stranraer, simply that they might be of the congregation of Mr
Livingston. It is confessed, indeed, by the subject of our memoir, that
the obstructions which the Irish presbyterians encountei-ed at that time, in
hearing the gospel preached after their own way, tended materially to excite
and keep alive religious impressions in their hearts. " The perpetual fear,"
he says, " that the bishops would put away their ministers, made them, with

JOHN LIVINGSTON.

4G9

great hunger, wait on the ordinances." The narrow views of that age prevent-
ed the king or his ecclesiastical friends from seeing the tendency of their mea-
sures ; hut the result was exactly accordant to the more extended philosophy of
our own times. We have now less persecution, and, naturally, a great deal
more indifference.

It is a fact of too great importance to be overlooked, that Mr Livingston was
a member of the general assembly, which met at Glasgow in November 1638,
and decreed, so far as an unconstituted association of the clergy could do so, the
abolition of episcopacy in Scotland. He accompanied the army in the campaign
of 1640, as chaplain to the regiment of the earl of Cassillis, and was present
at the battle of Newburn, of which he composed a narrative. In November, ho
returned to Stranraer, where, in one Sunday, notwithstanding the smallness and
poverty of the town, he raised a contribution of no less than forty-five pounds
sterling, for the use of the army. A large portion of this, it must be remarked,
was given by one poor woman under very peculiar circumstances. She had laid
aside, as a portion to her daughter, seven twenty-two shilling pieces and an
eleven-pound piece : the Lord, she said, had lately taken her daughter, and,
having resolved to give him her portion also, she now brought forward her
little hoard, in aid of that cause which she seriously believed to be his. In
these traits of humble and devoted piety, there is something truly affecting ; and
even those who are themselves least disposed to such a train of mind, must feel
that they are so.

Mr Livingston appears to have always retained a warm feeling towards the
presbyterians of the north of Ireland. At the breaking out of the rebellion in
1641, when these poor people fled in a body from the fury of the catholics,
multitudes came into Scotland, by the way of Stranraer. Of the money raised
in Scotland to relieve the refugees, £1000 Scots was sent to 31r Livingston, who
distributed it in small sums, rarely exceeding half-a-croun, to the most neces-
sitous. He complains, in his memoirs, that cut of all the afflicted multitudes
who came in his way, he hardly observed one person " sufficiently sensible of
the Lord's hand" in their late calamity, or of their own deserving of it, " go far
had the stroke seized their spirits as well as bodies.'' This is a remark highly
characteristic of the age. One more valuable occurs afterwards. Being sent
over to Ireland with the Scottish army, " he found," he says, " a great altera-
tion in the country ; many of those who had been civil before, were become
many ways exceeding loose ; yea, sundry who, as could be conceived, had true
grace, were declined much in tenderness ; so, as it would seem, the sicord opens
a gap, and makes every body worse than before, an inward plague coining
with the outward; yet some few were in a very lively condition." If Mr Liv-
ingston had not been accustomed to regard everything in a spiritual light, he
would have argued upon both matters with a view simply to physical causes.
He would have traced the savage conduct of the catholic Irish to the united
operation of a false religion, and the inhumane dominancy of a race of con-
querors ; and the declining piety of the presbyterians to that mental stupor
which an unwonted accumulation of privations, oppressions, and dangers,
can hardly fail to produce. It is strange to a modern mind, to see men, in the
first place, violating the most familiar and necessary laws respecting their duty
to their neighbours, (as the English may be said to have done in reference to
the native Irish,) and then to hear the natural consequences of such proceedings,
described as a manifestation of divine wrath towards a class of people who were
totally unconnected with the cause.

Mr Livingston was minister of Stranraer for ten years, during which time
he had not only brought his own flock into a state of high religious culture, but

470 JOHN LIVINGSTON.

done much, latterly, to restore the former state of feeling in the north of Ireland.
In the summer of 1648, he was translated, by the general assembly, to Ancrum,
in Roxburghshire, where he found a people much more in need of his ser-
vices than at Stranraer. In 1G50, he was one of three clergymen deputed, by
the church, to accompany an embassage which was sent to treat with Charles
II., at the Hague, for his restoration to a limited authority in Scotland. In his
memoirs, Mr Livingston gives a minute account of the negotiations with the
young king, which throws considerable light on that transaction, but cannot
here be entered upon. He seems to be convinced, however, of the insincerity
of the king, though his facility of disposition rendered him an unfit person to
oppose the conclusion of the treaty. Being of opinion that the lay ambassadors
were taking the curse of Scotland with them, he refused to embark, and was,
at last, brought off by stratagem. In the ensuing transactions, as may be
conceived, he took the side of the protestors ; but, upon the whole, he mingled
less in public business than many divines of inferior note in spiritual gifts.
During the protectorate, he lived very quietly in the exercise of his parochial
duties ; and, on one occasion, though inclined to go once more to Ire-
land, refused a charge which was ottered to him at Dublin, with a salary
of £200 a-year. After the restoration, he very soon fell under the dis-
pleasure of the government, and, in April, 1663, was banished from his na-
tive country, which he never more saw. He took up his residence at Rotter-
dam, where there was already a little society of clergymen in his own circum-
stances.

In narrating the events of this part of his life, Mr Livingston mentions some
curious traits of his own character and circumstances. " My inclination and
disposition,'' he says, " was generally soft, amorous, averse from debates, rather
giyen to laziness than rashness, and easy to be wrought upon. I cannot saj
what Luther affirmed of himself concerning covetousness ; but, I may say, I have
been less troubled with covetousness and cares than many other evils. I rather
inclined to solitariness than company. I was much troubled with wandering
of mind and idle thoughts. For outward things, I never was rich, and I
never was in want, and I do not remember that I ever borrowed money,
but once in Ireland, five or six pounds, and got it shortly paid. I choosed
rather to want sundry things than to be in debt. I never put any thing to the
fore of any maintenance I had ; yea, if it had not been for what I got with my
wife, and by the death of her brother, and some others of her friends, I could
hardly have maintained my family, by any stipend I had in all the three places
I was in."

The remainder of his life was spent in a manner more agreeable, perhaps, to
his natural disposition, than any preceding part. He had all along had a desire
to obtain leisure- for study, but was so closely pressed, by his ordinary duties,
that he could not obtain it. He now devoted himself entirely to his favourite
pursuit of biblical literature, and had prepared a polyglot bible, which obtained
the unqualified approbation of the most learned men in Scotland, when he was
cut oft", on the 9th of August, 1672, in the 70th year of his age. Just before
he expired, his wife, foreseeing the approach of dissolution, desired him to take
leave of his friends. " I dare not," said he, with an affectionate tenderness ;
" but it is likely our parting will be but for a short time." Mr Livingston,
besides his Bible, (as yet unpublished,) left notes descriptive of all the principal
clergymen of his own time, which, with his memoirs, were printed in 1754.
Some of his children emigrated from Scotland to the state of New York, where
their descendants have, in the course of time, become people of the first distinc-
tion and weight in society. The late Dr John H. Livingston, minister of the

SIR GEORGE LOCKHART. 471

Reformed Dutch church in New York, professor of Divinity to that body, and
president of Queen's college, New Jersey — one of the first men of his age and
country, and to whose memoirs, by Mr Alexander Gunn, we have been indebt-
ed for some of the preceding facts — was the great-great grandson of the subject
of this memoir.

LOCKHART, (Sir) George, a distinguished constitutional lawyer, and lord
president of the court of session, was the second son of Sir James Lockhart of
Lee, a judge of the court of session. The period of his birth is unknown,
and the earliest circumstance of his life which has been recorded is, that ho
studied for the bar, to which he was admitted on the 8th of January, 1G56, by
the commissioners appointed for the administration of justice in Scotland, under
the government of Cromwell. ' The well-known personal interest of his
brother, Sir William Lockhart, with the protector, was probably the means of
introducing his talents to early notice; and on the 14th May, 1658, he was
appointed "sole attorney,'' or lord advocate of Scotland. On the 'restoration
of the monarchy, his family influence procured him favour at court ; and after
taking the oath of allegiance, along with the performance of other somewhat
humiliating ceremonies, expressive of regret for his support to the fallen
government, he was permitted the exercise of his profession, and received the
honour of knighthood in 1663. Sir George distinguished himself as an able
barrister, and became a man of power and influence. Notwithstanding favours
extended towards him, such as monarchs too often find sufficient to secure un-
hesitating tools, he used the privileges of his profession frequently against the
court ; and through the progress of the dark deeds perpetrated by Tweeddale
and Lauderdale, his name frequently occurs in the books of Adjournal (the
criminal record of Scotland), as using his professional abilities in favour of the
covenanters. One of the most prominent features of his life, is the struggle
which he headed in 1674, for procuring by indirect means, and partly through
the influence of the bar, an appeal from the courts of law to the legislature,
unauthorized by the theory of the constitution of Scotland, and directly against
the wishes of the court, to which a body of paid judges, removeable at plea-
sure, seemed a more pliable engine, than an assembly of men, partly elected,
partly holding by hereditary right. He was the person who in the suit be-
tween the earl of Dunfermline, and the earl of Callender and lord Almond,
advised the last mentioned to present an appeal to parliament. 2 The earl
being cited before the privy council to answer for this act, applied to Sir
George Lockhart, Sir Robert Sinclair, Sir George Cunningham, and Sir
George Mackenzie, for information how to act in the matter ; and a paper was
drawn up for him by these eminent men, declaring " that he desired nothing
thereby, but to protest for remeid of law ;" in other words, that he did not
wish the decree of the court of session to be reduced on the ground of injustice
or oppression, but a revisal by the parliament, declaratory or statutory, as to the
law on the point. " In all which," says Sir George Mackenzie, with the bit-
terness of disappointment, " Sir George Lockhart's design was to bring in this
trial before the parliament, hoping thereby that they would lay aside the presi-
dent, and leave the chair vacant for him." Lauderdale immediately proceeded
to court, accompanied by the president of the court of session and one of the
judges ; and on their report of the proceedings, Charles found the matter of
sufficient importance to demand personal interference, and wrote a letter to the

1 Brunton and Haig's Hist, of Col. of Just., 419. ■ ■

' Those readers who ;are not acquainted with the details of this event, may find sucii

circumstances connected with it as are here omitted, in the life of Sir John Lauder el

FountainhaH.

472 SIR GEORGE LOCKHART.

privy council, in which, expressing his conviction of the necessity of preserving
the supreme power of the college of justice, and his " abhorrence'' of appeals,
he was graciously pleased that no proceeding should be instituted against
those who had maintained the political heresy, in case they disavowed it ; but
that if they did not, they should be debarred the exercise of their professions.
The consequence of this letter, was the banishment of Lockhart and Cunning-
ham, and the voluntary exile of fifty advocates, who chose to resent the insult :
but the manner in which the act is detailed by Sir George Mackenzie, and the
curious views which he casts on the motives and conduct of his great rival,
prompt us to extract the passage : — " His majesty having ordained by his let-
ters such as would adhere to that appeal to be debarred from pleading, and Sir
George Lockhart and Sir John Cunningham being thereupon called in before
the lords, they owned that though formal appeals might be said to be contrary
to the 62 act. par. 14 James II., yet a protestation for remeid of law might be
allowed ; whereupon they were debarred from their employments, till the king
should declare his farther pleasure. And albeit it might have been reasonably
concluded, that this exclusion should have pleased the younger advocates, whom
those seniors overshaded, interrupting the chief advantage and honour that was
to be expected in that society ; yet most fearing to offend so eminent men,
who they knew would soon return to their stations, and being pushed on by
the lords of the party, and the discontented persons to whom they owed their
employments, went tumultuarily out of the session house with those who were
debarred ; and thus, as Sir George Lockhart broke that society at first by his
avarice, in the matter of the regulations, he broke them now again by his
pride, in the matter of the appeals ; and by raising a clamour against the
president, and joining in the popular dissatisfaction, he diverted early from
himself that great hatred which was so justly conceived against his insolence
and his avarice ; two crimes which were more eminent in him than his
learning."

Although the causes of the enmity entertained by Mackenzie towards Lock-
hart are not fully explained, the allusions of the former make it quite clear
that it arose from professional and political rivalry. The king had written to
the burghs, advising them to renew their old acts, against the choosing of repre-
sentatives. ** The king's design in this was," says Sir George, " to exclude
such as had been factious in the former parliament, and to engage the burghs
to an immediate dependence on the crown." The disaffected advocates endea-
voured to inspire the burghs with a wish to oppose the designs of the court; in
the mean time, however, it was necessary that the king's letter should be an-
swered, and a draught of such a document was prepared for the committee by
Sir George Mackenzie. This letter was sent for the perusal of Lockhart, who
altered it " so as of a discreet and dutiful letter, it became, by adding what was
humorous, and striking out what was discreet, a most unpolisht and indiscreet
paper. And when Sir George Lockhart was askt why he had deformed it so,
his answer to James Stewart was, that it was fit to make Sir George Mackenzie
unpardonable." Sir George Mackenzie alleges that Lockhart had induced him
to join the body in favour of appeals, on the ground that the union of so many
members of the bar would form a formidable opposition to Lauderdale; and it
is to his enmity against that minister at the period, that, without a better rea-
son, we must date Mackenzie's accession to the cause. But when the king, on
the 12th of December, issued a proclamation, declaring, on the word of a
prince, that such of the advocates as should not petition for re-adinission before
the 28th of January following, should never be permitted to return to their
profession, Sir George Mackenzie " did so much tender the reputation of his

SIR GEORGE LOCKHART.

473

king, that he, having been bedrid of a broken leg when the rest were debarr'd,
Shunn'd to have himself debarr'd, or publicly to own the appeal ; though to se-
cure such as had, he declared that he would not return to his employment
without them. Which not satisfying Sir George Lockhart, who pressed still
that Sir George Mackenzie should be debarr'd, he was content, in a letter un-
der his hand, to oblige himself in those terms ; but this letter not having satis-
fied, and he being prest, merely to satisfy Sir George Lockhart's private
humour, he called for his former letter, and wrote in a postscript these words :
* But if I enter, and put myself in the same condition with the rest, I do de-
clare this letter, and all the obligations therein, to be void and not obligatory.'
And having owned the appeal with a very undaunted courage, did from that
hour despise that party which had jealous'd him, after so many proofs of his
courage and fidelity, to please a little creature, who had never follow'd them,
but his own passion, to which he and they were become such slaves, that they had
thereby lost the glory and reputation of impartial reformers, which had so much
recommended them at first, while they followed Sir George Mackenzie's disinr
terested advices." Mackenzie then adds a circumstance, which will hardly diminish
the suspicion of his tortuous conduct in the business, although it may shed a ray of
additional light on the causes of his rancour towards Lockhart. This is the
letter from which the party concluded SirGeoi'ge Mackenzie to be guilty of per-
jury, in having entered before the rest ; dispersing copies of the letter, without
the postscript, because they knew the postscript destroyed their malicious pre-
tences. Before the day which the court had named as the last for receiving the
submission of the recusant advocates, a document, couched in the form of a
petition, but steadily vindicating the right of agpeal for remeid of law, was
presented to the privy council. This very valuable paper, which has been pre-
served at full length by Mackenzie, is full of legal knowledge, and clear concise
reasoning ; it had, however, to strive, not only against power, but also against
precedent ; no clear established law could be found on which to rest tiie right
of appeal, and a course of ingenious special pleading had to be derived from
implication, and the plea that the court of session was a distinct body from the
daily session of old, which, being a committee of parliament set apart for the
purpose of saving the time and trouble of the main body, would hare defeated
its end by the admission of appeals. The grand constitutional argument of a
check on the venality of judges, could only be hinted at under the cloak of de-
ference and submission to the royal authority ; and the petitioners thought it
prudent to terminate their certainly firm and manly statement of their rights,
with the concession, that " as the petitioners acknowledge there are eminent
lawyers upon the session, of deserved reputation ; so if the lords of session, by
an act of sederunt, or otherwise, will plainly and clearly declare that protesta-
tions for remeid of law, to his majesty and estates of parliament, were and are
in themselves unlawful, and that the parliament cannot thereupon review and
rescind their decreets, if they find just cause ; the petitioners will so far defer
to their authority, as to be concluded thereby, and satisfy what was prescribed
and required by the lords of session as to that point." Mackenzie was induced
to sign this petition : he says, " Sir George Lockhart's love of money making
him weary of that love to revenge, he persuaded the appealers (for so all the
adherers were called) to give in an address to the privy council ; but so bitter
and humorous, that Sir George 3Iackenzie though he had concur'd in furnishing
materials and argument, did with some others dissent from it ; till they were
again conjur'd, by some of their comrades, not to make a rupture, at a time
wherein their fixt adherence to one another was their only security." 3 The

3 With the petulant remarks on Lockhart, so plentifully scattered through the above
in. a o

474 SIR GEORGE LOCKHART.

petition was viewed by the privy council and the king, as a daring and seditious
piece of pleading ; and Sir John Cunningham proceeding to London to endea-
vour by his personal influence to alleviate the threatened effects, was quickly
followed by Sir George Lockhart and Sir Robert Sinclair ; " but upon express
promise," says Mackenzie, " that if Sir George 3Iackenzie and those who had
signed the address, should be pursu'd for it, they should return and concur with
him in the defence. Notwithstanding whereof," he continues, " they having
been pursu'd in a process before the privy council, Sir George Lockhart and
Sir Robert Sinclair retir'd, and lurk't near to North Allerton, without acquaint-
ing even their wives of their residence, lest thereby they might have been
advertis'd, Whereupon Sir George Mackenzie gave in his defence," &c. The
defence deserted the constitutional origin of the struggle, and assumed the
aspect of a mere vindication of the motives of presenting the petition. Macken-
zie at length yielded : as a motive for so doing, he says — but we are aware of
no document that confirms the assertion — that he " intercepted at last a letter,
wherein they (Lockhart and Sinclair) told their confidents that they had
resolved to wait the event of that process ; in which, if Sir George Mackenzie
was absolved, they would be secure by the preparative ; but if he was found
guilty, the malice of the pursuers would be blunted before it reacht them."
Accordingly, on the plausible ground that " it was no dishonour to submit to
their prince, ceding being only dishonourable amongst equals, and never being
so, when the contest was rais'd by such as design'd to make them knaves and
fools," prevailed on the greater number of his brethren to submit. Sir George
Lockhart, left to maintain the struggle almost alone, fully aware that unanimity
and number only can give effect to political resistance, presented a tardy submis-
sion in December, 1675, and was re-admitted to the privileges of his profession
on the 28th of January, 1676. 4 We have dwelt thus long on this incident, be-
cause it is one of the very few constitutional struggles connected with the his-
tory of Scotland, and the curious details lately brought to light in the Memoirs
of Sir George Mackenzie, are not very generally perused.

The next political transaction in which we find Lockhart professionally en-
gaged, is the trial of Mitchell in 1678, for having four years previously at-
tempted the murder of archbishop Sharpe. He was tried on his own confes-
sion, and there is no point of history more surely ascertained, or less liable to
doubt, than that the confession was obtained on a promise of pardon. " But,"
as Burnet expressively says, " Sharpe would have his life." For the purpose
of facilitating the prosecution, Nisbet, the lord advocate, was superseded by Mac-
kenzie ; and Primrose, from being clerk register, was appointed justice general
" He fancied," says Burnet, ** orders had been given to raze the act that the coun-
cil had made (the act offering the conditional pardon), so he turned the books, and
he found the act still on record. He took a copy of it and sent it to Mitchell's
counsel." Thus armed, Lockhart appeared, to meet the confession. Burnet,
who says, " he was the most learned lawyer and the best pleader I have ever
yet known in any nation," states that " he did plead to the admiration of all,
to show that no extrajudicial confession could be allowed in a court. The

quotations, compare the following published character of the professional abilities of his great
rival, by SiT George Mackenzie, iu his Eloquence of the liar— it would be difficult to conceive
a more perfect picture of a great forensic orator. » Lockartius corpus alterum juris civiJis,
alterque Cicero dici poterat. Uli etiam peculiare erat argumenta sua eo ordine disponere, ut
tanquam lapides in fornice alter alterum susiineret ; quae ex improviso, dum oraret, ei sug-
gerebantur, prompta solertia indicabat, aptisque locis disponebat .Nihil ab eo ab.scomiit
jurisprudent, et quamprimum casus illi a cliente aperiretur, sua omnia, omniaque adver-
sarii argumenta retexebat. lracundia, qua alios oratores turbabat, eura tan turn excitare
solebat ; vocem tamen latratu, vultumque rugis detbrmabat.'
* Mackenzie's Memoirs, 267 to 310.

SIR GEORGE LOCKHART. 475

hardships of a prison, the hopes of life, with other practices, might draw con-
fessions from men, when they were perhaps drunk, or out of their senses. Ho
brought upon this a measure of learning that amazed the audience, out of the
lawyers of all civilized nations. And when it was opposed to this, that the coun-
cil was a court of judicature, he showed that it was not the proper court for
crimes of this nature, and that it had not proceeded in this as at a court of judi-
cature. And he brought out likewise a great deal of learning upon those heads.
But this was overruled by the court, and the confession was found to be judicial.
The next thing pleaded for him was, that it was drawn from him upon the hope
and promise of life : and on this Sharpe was examined. The person he had
sent to Mitchell gave a full evidence of the promises he had made him; but
Sharpe denied them all. He also denied he ever heard any promise of life
made him by the council ; so did the lords Lauderdale, Rothes, and Halton, to
the astonishment of ail that were present. Lockhart upon that produced a copy
of the act of council, that made express mention of the promise given, and of
his having confessed upon that. And the prisoner prayed that the books of
council, which lay in a room over that in which the court sat, might be sent
for. Lockhart pleaded, that since the court had judged that the council was a
judicature, all people had a right to search into their registers; and the
prisoner, who was like to suffer by a confession made there, ought to have the
benefit of those books. Duke Lauderdale, who was in the court only as a wit-
ness, and so had no right to speak, stood up, and said he and those other noble
persons were not brought thither. to be accused of perjury; and added, that
the books of council were the king's secrets, and that no court should have the
perusing of them. The court was terrified with this, and the judges were di-
vided in opinion. Primrose and one other was for calling for the books, but
three were of opinion that they were not to furnish the prisoner with evidence,
but to judge of that which he brought, and here was only a bare copy, not at-
tested upon oath, which ought not to have been read. So this defence being
rejected, he was cast and condemned." s Perhaps the annals of crime scarcely
produce another so perfect specimen of judicial villany.

The talents and courage of Lockhart were employed by the duke of Argyle
at his memorable trial in 1681 ; three times the privy council denied him the
sanction of their warrant — unfortunately often necessary at that period for the
safety of the lawyer who should defend a person accused of treason — and it was
at last granted, lest Argyle, on the ground that he was deprived of legal assis-
tance, might interrupt the trial by refusing to plead. In the parliament of
1681, he was appointed one of the commissioners of the shire of Lanark, a seat
which he held till his death, and in 1685, after the fall of his opponents in the
ministry, we find him one of the committee appointed to answer the king's
letter to the parliament, and a lord of the articles.6 In 1685, on the death of
Sir David Falconer of Newton, Lockhart was appointed president of the court
of session, and was soon afterwards made a privy councillor, and a commissioner
of the exchequer. Having in the year 1679. boldly undertaken the task of
representing before the king the grievances against Lauderdale, he was
considered one of the chief political opponents of that minister, and seems to
have been gradually led to a participation with the proceedings of the duke of
York. After having followed the actions of a high minded man through the
path of honour, and seen him use his talents and influence in the protection of
the weak, and resistance to the powerful, it is painful to arrive at transactions,
in which the presence of his accustomed firmness, or integrity, may seem want-
ing. He is said to have been at first opposed to a repeal of the penal laws
* Burnet, i. 41. 6 Act. Pari., viii. 456,7.

470 GEORGE LOCKHAHT.

against papists, but after a journey to London, concerted for the purpose of over-
coming his scruples, to have entertained a different view7 — a view which, it is to
be feared, was produced more by the benignant smile of royalty, than by a sud-
den accession of liberal principles. On the question'of the applicability of the dis-
abling laws to the duke of York, he somewhat sophistically maintained that " a
commission to represent the king's person fell not under the notion of an of-
fice." 8 But, if he chose to assist the court in obtaining its ends by legal means,
his former spirit returned on an attempted stretch of arbitrary power, and he
objected to the privy council's sanctioning a relaxation, in favour of the Roman
catholics, becoming law, through the mere royal prerogative.9

This great man, whose talents and courage would have adorned a better
period, fell a victim to the fury of one of those savages which misgovernment
produces. He was murdered by John Chiesley of Dairy on the 31st of March,
1689.

The determination to commit the murder on the part of this man, arose from
a dispute with his wife, the latter claiming aliment for herself and ten chil-
dren, and the parties consenting that the claim should be settled by the arbitra-
tion of Lockhart and lord Kemnay, who gave a decree appointing an annual
sum out of Chiesley's estate to be paid to his wife. Infuriated at not being
permitted to deprive his wife and offspring of their daily bread, he formed the
resolution of taking vengeance on the president at whatever cost. On commu-
nicating his intention to Mr James Stewart, advocate, he was answered that " it
was a suggestion of the devil, and the very imagination of it a sin before God;"
to which he replied, " Let God and me alone ; we have many things to reckon
betwixt us, and we will reckon this too." The victim, it appears, was informed
of his intention ; but he disdained precautions. The murderer confessed that,
when in London, he had walked up and down Pall-mall, with a pistol beneath
his coat, lying in wait for the president. The day on which he consummated
the deed was Sunday. He charged his pistol, and went to church, where he
watched the motions of his victim, and when Lockhart was returning to his own
house through the close or lane on the south side of the Lawn Market, now known
by the name of " The Old Bank Close," following close behind him, discharged
a shot, which took effect. The president fell, and being carried into his own
house, immediately expired, the ball having passed through his body. Chiesley
did not attempt to escape, and, on being told that the president was dead, he
expressed satisfaction, and said " he was not used to do things by halves.'' He
was put to the torture, and made a full confession, and having been seen com-
mitting the act, and apprehended immediately after, or as it is technically
termed, " red hand" he was summarily tried before the provost of Edinburgh,
as sheriff within the city. He was sentenced to have his right hand cut oil*
while alive, to be hanged upon a gibbet with the instrument of murder suspend-
ed from his neck, and his body to be hung in chains between Leith and
Edinburgh.10

LOCKHART, George, a celebrated political partisan, and author of Memoirs
concerning the Affairs of Scotland, Commentaries, &c., &c, was the eldest son of
the above, by Philadelphia, youngest daughter of Philip, fourth lord "V\ barton.
He was born in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, in the year 1673. He ap-
pears to have been educated for the Scottish bar, but, having succeeded, on the
death of his father, to a very ample fortune, he seems to have turned his at-
tention chiefly to politics, and having obtained a seat in the Scottish parliament,
1703, he distinguished himself by his opposition to all the measures of the

' Fountainhall's Diarv, 167. 8 Bumet, i. 408. 9 Fountainhall, 192.

:o Arnot's Crim. Tr., 168-74.

GEORGE LOCKHART. 477

court, and his ceaseless activity in behalf of the fallen episcopal church, and the
exiled royal family. Singularly unlike his father, in discernment of the jus-
tice of a cause and liberality of principle, he appears to have resembled him in
the stubborn courage with which he pursued any favourite object. To all the
principles of the Revolution, he professed a deep aversion, and the union of
the kingdoms of Scotland and England he considered, especially in regard to
the former, as likely to terminate in that misery which a peculiar class of poli-
ticians always argue to be the consequence of any change, or some reason which
it is difficult to fathom; he was, however, named, by the queen, one of the
commissioners upon that famous treaty, and, with the exception of the arch-
bishop of York, was the only tory that was so named. " He had no inclina-
tion to the employment," he has himself told us, " and was at first resolved not
to have accepted it, but his friends, and those of his party believing he might
be serviceable, by giving an account how matters were carried on, prevailed
with him to alter his resolution." Before entering upon the duties of his high
office, he accordingly took their advice, in what manner he was to conduct
himself, and in particular, " whether or not he should protest and enter his
dissent against those measures, being resolved to receive instructions from them,
as a warrant for his procedure, and to justify his conduct : so, when they all
unanimously returned this answer, that if he should protest, he could not well
continue longer to meet with the other commissioners ; and, if he entered his
dissent, it would render him odious to them, and that they would be extremely
upon the reserve with him, so as he would be utterly incapable to learn any
thing that might be useful afterwards in opposing the design ; whereas, if he
6at quiet, and concealed his opinion as much as possible, they, expecting to
persuade him to leave his old friends and party, would not be so shy, and he
might make discoveries of their designs, and thereby do a singular service to
his country ; therefore they agreed in advising him, neither to protest or dissent,
nor do any thing that might discover his opinion and design, unless he could
find two or three more that would concur and go along with him, (which was
not to be expected,) but to sit silent, making his remarks of every thing that
passed, and remain with them as long as he could ; and then, at last, before
signing the result of the treaty, to find out some pretence of absenting himself."
Such were the feelings and intentions which he brought to the accomplishment
of a transaction which he was chosen for the purpose of furthering, in the most
expeditious and most efficient manner ; and he relates with pride that he acted
up to his instructions, that he acted as a spy on the proceedings of the others,
and, at least, was enabled to interrupt and render more laborious the consum-
mation of a measure which his party was unable to stifle. The ai'chbishop, dis-
daining to follow a similar course, absented himself from the meetings.

But Lockhart had other and more dangerous duties to perform for his party ;
he held a commission from the Scottish Jacobites to communicate with the Eng-
lish tories, and, if possible, to ascertain how far the latter might be brought to
concur in a scheme, projected in Scotland, for the restoration of the son of the
abdicated monarch by force. This commission he executed with similar fidelity,
but he found the English less zealous than the Scots, and disinclined to any
attempt, at least during the lifetime of the queen. All the transactions which
might be interesting to the exiled family, he faithfully reported to the courts of
Versailles and St Germains, through the instrumentality of an emissary, called
captain Straiton, while he submitted his proceedings to the cognizance of his
brother Jacobites, whom he aptly termed his constituents. His account of the
proceedings of the commissioners, is distorted by party colouring, beyond the
usual allotment of such documents, and one is tempted to ask how a person, who

473 GEORGE LOCKHART.

saw, in every branch of the proceedings, something so irredeemably nicked,
could have so far compromised his conscience, as to have permitted himself to
be chosen as one of those whose duty it was to assist in and further them.

The scheme of a general rising was designed for the purpose of stifling the
projected union ; but the attempt having failed, the Jacobites were compelled to
debate the treaty, clause by clause, in open parliament, where, notwithstanding
every artifice for exciting public clamour, it was triumphantly carried. Lock-
hart, through the whole, was uniform in his opposition — adhered to every pro-
test that was taken against it, and, in more than one instance, entered protests
against it in his own name. He also, in conjunction with Cochrane of Kilmaro-
nock, gave fifty guineas to Cunningham of Fckatt, for the purpose of forward-
ing a design of forcibly dispersing the parliament by an army of Cameronians,
which he proposed to raise in the western shires, but which, as he alleged, he
was prevented from doing by the intrigues of the duke of Hamilton.

The union having been ratified by the parliaments of both kingdoms, and
peaceably carried into effect, the next hope of the Jacobites was the French
invasion, which. Hooke had negotiated with them during the preceding year, and
to which they now looked forward with the most ardent expectation. Of all
the partizans of James, perhaps none were more zealous, on this occasion, than
the subject of this memoir ; but, fortunately for himself, lie followed in the
train, and acted by the advice of the duke of Hamilton, who, being at the time
at his seat in Lancaster, and taken there into custody by a king's messenger,
could not meet his Scottish friends at Dumfries, according to agreement, till the
defeat of the French fleet rendered any further appearance at that time unne-
cessary, in consequence of which he himself, as well as his friends, escaped any
thing like serious prosecution. Mr Lockhart also having the powerful influence
of his uncle, lord Wharton, exerted in his favour, remained unmolested.

The next hope of the Jacobites was in the inclinations of the queen, which,
with all her coldness, they naturally expected, and indeed had, if we may be-
lieve their own account, and lay much weight on a few accidental circumstances,
a well-grounded hope, that they might be extended to her brother and his
family ; and that they might more effectually influence her counsels, it was re-
solved, that no influence or endeavour should be spared in protruring seats in
parliament for the heads of the party. Mr Lockhart started for the county
of Edinburgh, and had sufficient interest to secure his election, though he was
obnoxious both to the court and the presbyterians, to whom he seems to have
been alwajs inimical. The first session of the first British parliament, did
not afford much scope for that species of ingenuity for which 31 r Lockhart
has taken so much credit to himself; and by his efforts, joined to those of Mr
Houston, younger of Houston, Lag, younger of Lag, Luff of Drummure, and
Cochrane of Kilmaronock, all unwavering supporters of the same political creed,
little or nothing was effected. The next session was almost wholly occupied
with the affair of Sacheverel, in whose behalf the Jacobites were joined by those
supporters of the house of Hanover, who either conceived, or for political pur-
poses alleged, that the church was in danger, while the affairs of Scotland were
neglected amidst more exciting discussions. A field was soon, however, to be
opened, in which they doubted not shortly to reap a rich harvest.

At the period when a waiting woman in the queen's bed-chamber was sap-
ping the foundation of the Godolphin and Marlborough administration, that
ministry requested leave to dismiss Mrs Masham, threatening her with an ad-
dress from the two houses of parliament : to which was to be attached an invi-
tation to Prince George, of Hanover. " As such treatment much chagrined the
queen against her ministry," says Lockhart, " she was very desirous to secure

GEORGE LOCKHART. 479

herself against such attempts, and did avowedly solicite a great many members
of both houses of parliament, that they would not consent to a motion to deprive
her of the liberty allow'd to the meanest housekeeper in her dominions, viz.
that of choosing her own domestic servants." — " And I accordingly," continues
the narrator, in a very remarkable passage bearing on one of the most obscure
points in British history, " procured an address, in a very high monarchical
style, from the barons and freeholders in the county of Edinburgh; and having
brought it up with me when I came to parliament, I was introduced by the
duke of Hamilton to present the same ; and having read it to her majesty, she
seemed very well pleased, gave a gracious return to the address, and then told
me, tho' I had almost always opposed her measures, she did not doubt of my
affection to her person, and hoped I would not concur in the design against Mrs
Masham, or for bringing over the prince of Hanover. At first I was somewhat
surprised, but recovering myself, I assured her I should never be accessary to
imposing any hardship or affront upon her ; and as for the prince of Hanover,
her majesty might judge, from the address I had read, that I should not be ac-
ceptable to my constituents, if I gave my consent for bringing over any of that
family, either now or any time hereafter. At this she smiled, and I withdrew ;
and then she said to the duke, she believed I was an honest man ; and the duke
replied, he could assure her I liked her majesty and all her father's bairns." 1
The gradual steps towards a delicate and dangerous subject, so naturally laid
down in this valuable passage — the hope expressed by the queen that the Jaco-
bite partisan was averse to the removal of the favourite, and the introduction of
the prince — the surprise of the Jacobite, and his ingenious extension of the re-
quest— the queen's smile and remark on his honesty — and, finally, the cautious
but bold extension of the insinuations in the kindly rejoinder of the duke, all
speak to the authenticity of the scene, and the accurate observation of the nar-
rator. That he may be depended on, there is little doubt The cautious Hal-
lam considers that the Lockhart Papers sufficiently prove that the author " and
his friends were confident of the queen's inclinations in the last years of her
life, though not of her resolution." Nor can a vanity to be esteemed the depo-
sitory of the secrets of princes, be likely to operate on a man whose works are
not to be witnessed by his own age. On the whole, the passage may be said
almost to prove that the queen's " inclinations" were with her brother ; but a
" resolution " on either side, she appears to have never attained.

The circumstance last mentioned was soon followed by the renowned downfall
of Anne's whig ministry. Strong but ineffectual attempts were made by the whigs
at the elections. Lockhart was violently opposed in Edinburghshire, but carried
his election by a great majority, as did Sir Hugh Paterson of Bannockburn for
the shire of Stirling, and Sir Alexander Areskine, lord lyon king at arms, for the
shire of Fife, both thorough paced Jacobites and violent episcopalians. The last
of these gentlemen, along with Mr Carnegie of Boysack, Mr James Murray, se-
cond son to the viscount Stormont, afterwards created by the Pretender lord
Dunbar, and Sir Alexander Cuming of Cantar, joined Mr Lockhart in a close
confederacy, agreeing to mutual support, in cordially prosecuting the great ob-
jects for which they had come into parliament, viz., the dissolving of the treaty
of union, and the breaking up of the protestant succession. Keeping their agree-
ment as secret as was compatible with its efficacy, and prudently cultivating the
friendship of the English tories, they soon became conspicuous, and were re-
garded by both sides of Ihe house as men of superior consequence, whose feel-
ings and views it was necessary to consult in all measures regarding Scotland.
The first fruit of this confederacy was a broach of the union, committed by the
I Lockhart Papers, i. 307.

480 GEORGE LOCKHART.

house of lords, in reversing a sentence of the magistrates of Edinburgh which
shut up the meeting-house of a Mr Greenshields, the first clergyman who intro-
duced the English liturgy into the service of the Scots Episcopal church. The
full harvest was the act of toleration, with the oath of abjuration annexed, to be
imposed upon all the ministers of the Scottish church ; the act restoring lay
patronage ; and the act for the observing certain holidays, all of which were pre-
pared by Mr Lockhart, and by him and his friends forced upon the ministry,
contrary to the expressed opinion of the people, and with the avowed purpose
of undermining the presbyterian interest.

At the same time that he was so deeply engaged in forwarding the particular
views of himself and his friends, in regard to affairs purely Scottish, Mr Lock-
hart was also employed upon the more general business, or what may be called
the drudgery of the house. He was one, and the only Scotsman, who was upon
the commission of the house for examining the national accounts, with the view
of criminating the ex-whig ministers; and, as chairman of that commission, gave
in a long report, intended to implicate the duke of Marlborough, a person
whose conduct was certainly not pure, while it still affords a pleasing contrast
to that of his accusers. The report, however, when it came to be examined,
discovered only the headstrong party spirit of its authors, and not much against
the accused,. but the usual political conniption, too characteristic of the period.

The duties of a commissioner upon the national accounts, did not, however,
by any means absorb the whole attention of the indefatigable Lockhart, for while
he devoted himself to the service of the pretender, he also proposed a bill in
parliament to bestow upon curates the bishops' rents, to resume all grants of
church property that had been made to the universities, which he declared to
be public nuisances, mere nests of rebellion, which could not be soon enough
annihilated. The service to be accomplished hi favour of the exiled family by
these measures, is not very clear, and we are prevented from knowing the effect
their proposal would have produced, from his friends declining to adopt them.
So high, indeed, was he borne by his zeal, that an order was obtained by his
friends from St Germains, recommending to him moderate measures, and dis-
suading him from attempts to openly force the English ministry upon desperate
projects, as they were themselves well enough disposed, and were the best judges
of the means whereby their good intentions would be carried into effect. This
order he dared not disobey, but he owns it was much against his inclination,
and takes the liberty of affirming that it injured the pretender's interest.

On the duke of Hamilton being appointed ambassador to the court of France,
he selected the subject of our memoir to wait privately upon him, and to act
according to his orders upon an affair of extraordinary moment, which he never
explained, but which Lockhart understood to be the pretender's restoration, and
he was just leaving Scotland with the hope of being called to accompany the
duke upon that pleasing duty, when he heard that a quarrel betwixt Hamilton
and lord Mohun had brought both these distinguished noblemen to an untimely
end. This circumstance he affirms to have been fatal to the hopes of the pre-
tender, no one having been found capable of conducting so delicate a business
till the period when disputes in the cabinet and the death of the queen rendered
the case hopeless. But these circumstances did not damp his ardour, or prevent
him from impeding the government, which he could not overturn. According-
ly, on the attempt to extend the malt tax to Scotland, in the year 1713, he
made a desperate effort, in which he was seconded by the earls of Mar, Eglin-
ton, Hay, &&, for the dissolution of the union, a project which narrowly failed
of success, as we have narrated more at large in the life of John, duke of
Argyle. The attempt to assimilate the Scottish to the English militia which fol-

GEORGE LOCKHART. 481

lowed, he resisted, and, in his personal friendship, defended the hereditary title
of the duke of Argyle to the lieutenancy of the county of Argyle. His friends,
who could not see the advantage of such a measure, were displeased, but his
design was to bring over the duke to the interests of the Pretender, of which he
was always suspicious the ministry were less careful than of their own. He,
however, continued to sit and to act with them, under the strongest assurances
from Bolingbroke, that every thing he could desire would be done for the Pre-
tender so soon as it was possible to do it with safety, till the prorogation before
the death of the queen, when he retired to his residence in the country, and
though the same parliament was assembled on the death of the queen, did not
attend it, having lost all hope of the Pretender's restoration by other means
than arms.

He accordingly began privately to provide horses and arms for himself and
his dependants, though from his late conduct he was not trusted by the leaders
of the party to the extent that might have been expected. Nothing, indeed,
but mere general surmises seem to have reached hiin till the month of August,
1715, when warrants were already issued out against all who were suspected
as favouring the designs of the earl of Mar, and under one of these warrants lie
was, early in that month, apprehended at his house of Dryden, and committed
prisoner to the castle of Edinburgh. In these circumstances he immediately
wrote to the duke of Argyle, who, in return for his services in regard to the
militia bill, procured his enlargement, after he had been fifteen days a prisoner,
on his giving bail for six thousand merks. He was no sooner liberated than he
waited upon his rebel associates, who had not been apprehended ; but, finding
them still disinclined to the communication, he retired to his house at Carnwath,
where he secretly and diligently employed his personal influence in the further-
ance of the cause, though still unacknowledged by any of the ostensible leaders
of the insurrection, and waited till the arrival of the Pretender, or the transit of
the Forth by Mar, should give the signal for him and his friends to appear in
arms. In the mean time, a letter from the duke of Argyle informed him that
his practices were well known to the government, and requiring him forthwith
to repair to his house at Dryden. Every thing, arms, horses, &c., were again
disposed of in the best manner that could be devised, and he immediately re-
paired to Dryden, where he negotiated with Kenmure and the southern re-
bels; his troop of horse, under the command of his brother Philip Lock-
hart, being sent to join them at Biggar, he himself staying behind for a
few days to arrange some minor concerns. To ensure his safety after conclud-
ing his transactions with the rebels, he wrote to the lord justice clerk, request-
ing to know whether he should remain in Edinburgh or go home to Dryden,
and was ordered to choose the latter alternative. Mackintosh, however, having
that night crossed the Forth, on his march to the south, a party of soldiers was
sent out to Dryden, who apprehended Lockhart, and carried him again to the
castle ; a circumstance which saved both his life and his estate, as well as those
of many others who were prepared to set out with him on an expedition that
proved desperate — his whole troop being taken at Preston, along with the rest
of their companions, and his brother shot as a deserter by order of a court-
martial.

Mr Lockhart suffered a long confinement, but escaped, through the steadiness
of his friends, that punishment which was likely to have followed his conduct,
and which the government, could they have elicited sufficient evidence, would
most willingly have inflicted ; but he was by no means cured of his affection for
the exiled family, and before two years had elapsed, he was employed as an
agent to bring up six thousand bolls of oatmeal, to be given to the king of

482 GEORGE LOCKHART.

Sweden as tlie hire or the reward for his setting the Pretender upon the British
throne. Of all the attempts made by the party in its despair, this was certainly
the most singular ; yet he seems to have embarked in it with that ardour which
marked his character, and he contrived to obtain, from the earl of Eglinton,
the offer of three thousand guineas towards its accomplishment. It was soon,
however, found to be a project which could not be carried into effect. He nar-
rowly escaped being involved in the affair of Glenshiel, and when the Spanish
battalion was brought to Edinburgh, lie supplied the commander, Don Nicolas,
with what money he wanted till he could be supplied with bills from the Span-
ish ambassador in Holland, telling him, at the same time, that " it was unkind
in him to allow himself to be straightened, when he knew the king, for whose
cause he suffered, had so many friends in town that would cheerfully assist
him."

In 1718, the Pretender commenced a correspondence with Mr Lockhart,
which continued with little interruption till 1727, when it fell into the hands
of the government, by what means has never been fully explained, though most
probably it was in consequence of a dispute Mr Lockhart had got into with the
episcopal college, respecting the election of a bishop of the name of Gillon,
whose ordination was keenly opposed by a number of the presbyters, who ob-
jected to the nomination that had been made of him by the Pretender, as unduly
influenced by Lockhart, who, for a number of years, had been the only channel
through which they communicated with their exiled prince. Many meetings
were held, and much rancour displayed on the subject, by the enraged presbyters,
who threatened the consequences of the rebellion, in which most of the parties
were implicated, if the consecration was persisted in. The bitterness of the
disputants made it impossible for them to be secret : the whole came before the
public, and the government being masters of the channel of communication,
the earliest packet transmitted to Lockhart was waited for, and sent to London.
Orders were immediately sent to seize Strahan, a merchant in Leith, to whom
the packet had been directed, and, under a strong guard of dragoons, to send
him to London. Before setting out, however, he was well instructed how to con-
duct himself, supplied with money by Lockhart, and the earls of Kincardine and
Dundonald, with the assurance, that if he behaved with firmness, nothing could
be brought legally home to him, while his family, in the mean time, should be
carefully seen to, and he himself would gain honour by the incident Warrants
were at the same time issued for the apprehension of Mr Lockhart and Mr
Corsar, one of his friends. The latter was apprehended at Glammis, but the
former, taking the alarm, effected his escape into Durham, where he remained
in the house of a friend till the 8th of April, when he sailed for Dort, where he
arrived in safety. He immediately wrote to the Pretender, through lord Inver-
ness, stating the circumstances into which he had fallen, and that he was wait-
ing his master's commands before finally resolving how to dispose of himself.
In the mean time, he met lord North and Grey at Brussels, who had also been
under the necessity of leaving his native country for dabbling in the affairs of
the Pretender, and was thus far on his way to the court of that personage, where
he hoped to be trusted with the management of his affairs, which, in the hands
of colonel Hay and James Murray, (created lords Inverness and Dunbar,) were
generally supposed to have fallen into disorder, pressing at the same time that
Mr Lockhart should accompany him, and take charge of the affairs of Scotland,
while he attended to those of England. Lockhart, however, would not ap-
proach the court of the Pretender without his orders, shrewdly suspecting that
James was too fond of the lady Inverness, who was lord Dunbar's sister, to part
permanently with either of the three. The lord North and Grey proceeded to

GEORGE LOCKHART. 483

his destination, but found, instead of the premiership which he expected, an
appointment provided for him in the army of Spain, with which he was obliged
to be content. Inverness had been nominally superseded by Sir John Graham,
who proposed the most flattering terms to Lockhart; but the former was still first
in the Pretender's affection, and, along with Dunbar, held the entire management
of his counsels, which were, and had long been, very far from what the latter
gentleman wished. By their advice, and in pursuance of his own feelings, the
Pretender no sooner heard of the death of George I. than he left Bologna for
Lorrain in the greatest haste, intending to put himself at the head of the High-
landers, and with their assistance, conquer and secure the throne of the three
kingdoms; a similar project to that which his son attempted in the year 1745.
A messenger was sent to consult Lockhart, who, astonished at the folly of the
proposal, assured the Pretender that it would prove the ruin of himself and
all his friends, and would deprive him of the power of ever again renewing the
attempt. More wise than his son upon a like occasion, he accepted the advice,
and returned to Avignon. Lockhart tendered him, afterwards, some long
letters, containing very good advices, with which he probably had little hope
that he would comply, and learning, in the month of April, 1728, that his
friends the duke of Argyle, lord Hay, and Duncan Forbes, then lord advocate
for Scotland, had procured him liberty to return and to live at home unmolested,
he embraced the opportunity of doing so, nothing being required of him but his
simple promise that he would live in peace. He was, however, required to go
by the way of London, and to return thanks personally to George II., who was
now in possession of the throne. " This," he says, " did not go well down
with me, and was what I would most gladly have avoided; but there was no
eviting of it ; and as others, whose sincere attachment to the king was never
doubted, had often preceded me on such like occasions, I was under the necessity
of bowing my knee to Baal, now that I was in the house of Himmon." Hav-
ing performed this piece of unwilling submission, he returned to his family in
1728, evidently in despair of furthering the cause in which he had so long
exerted himself, and determined to resign all connexion with politics. Of his
after history, we have been unable to learn more than that he was slain in
a duel on December 17, 1731, having entered the fifty-ninth, year of his
age.

He was married on the 13th of April, 1G97, to Euphemia Montgomery,
third daughter of Alexander, ninth earl of Eglinton, by his first wife, Margaret,
daughter of William, lord Cochrane, son of the earl of Dundonald. He had
seven sons and eight daughters. His eldest son George, possessing somewhat
of the prudent foresight of his father, delivered himself up in the year 1746, to
Sir John Cope, the day after the battle of Gladsmuir, and was for a consider-
able time a prisoner at lar^e in England. His grandson George, continued
with Charles till after the fatal battle of Culloden, after which he escaped to
the continent, and died an exile at Paris some few months before his father, in
the year 1701.

As an author, Mr Lockhart is entitled to very considerable praise. His Me-
moirs concerning the Affairs of Scotland, and his commentaries, though neither
so clear nor so impartial as could be wished, are yet valuable materials for his-
tory, and throw very considerable light both upon the individual characters and
transactions of those limes. And his register of letters is still more interesting,
as giving us not only an account of the proceedings, but the acts themselves, of
the Jacobites of the period. His memoirs were surreptitiously published during
his lifetime, by a friend to whom he had lent them, and a key to the names
(given in the published volume in initials) was afterwards circulated. He left

4S1 SIR WILLIAM LOCKHART.

his papers carefully concealed, with instructions to his heir, to abstain from pub-
lishing them till the year 1750 ; but the connexion of his grandson with the
rebellion of 1745 rendering their appearance even then inexpedient, they lay
unnoticed until, at the request of count Lockhart, they were edited by Mr An-
thony Anfrere in 1817.

We have only to add, that in private life his chai'acter seems to have been
exceedingly amiable, and he enjoyed, in a high degree, the respect and affec-
tion, notwithstanding the contrariety of their political principles, of the best
and wisest public man of his age, Duncan Forbes of Culloden.

LOCKHART, (Sir) William, of Lee, an eminent statesman under the Pro-
tectorate of Cromwell, was the third son of Sir James Lockhart of Lee, by Mar-
tha, daughter of Douglas of 3Iordingston. He was born in the year 1621, and
received the earlier part of his education in Scotland, whence he proceeded to
some one of the usual seminaries in Holland. He did not long remain in that
country, but after visiting Scotland for a short period, joined the French army
as a volunteer, and so far distinguished himself as to attract the attention of the
queen mother, who procured for him a pair of colours.1 He subsequently ac-
companied lord William Hamilton to Scotland, and accepted the appointment
of lieutenant-colonel in that nobleman's regiment.

In the course of his military duty he was introduced to Charles I., at his sur-
render to the Scottish army before Newark. He was on this occasion knighted,
and was afterwards employed to negotiate for the safety of the marquis of More-
ton. Having joined in the enterprise of the duke of Hamilton, called the En-
gagement, he was taken prisoner in the unfortunate action at Preston, and after
remaining a year in custody at Newcastle, regained his liberty at the serious
cost (at that period) of one thousand pounds. Having attached himself to the
house of Hamilton, he necessarily attracted the jealous notice of the rival noble-
man, Argyle, and on several occasions subsequent to the arrival of Charles II.
in Scotland, suffered, through its influence, a degree of contumely from the
king, which roused his haughty spirit to exclaim, that " No king upon earth
should use him in that manner." But while he did not conceive that he should
suffer the insults of a king with more patience than those of any other man,
his private feeling towards the nominal head of the government did not inter-
fere with his duty to his country, and his services to the cause he had adopted
as the best. He remained an officer in Charles's army, and his regiment was
distinguished for its services at the battle of Worcester. The cause of monarchy
being now suppressed in both ends of the island, he remained for two years in
retirement ; but, weary of keeping in dormancy powers which he was aware
might distinguish him in the service of the state, he repaired to London, and
was welcomed by the Protector, who never permitted a man of Lockhart's
powers to remain unwillingly idle. From which side the advances were made
appears not to be known ; it was probably from that of Lockhart. This step is
the more surprising as he had belonged to that party of the Scottish presby-
terians which used to regard monarchy with most respect. On the 18th of
May, 1652, he was appointed one of the commissionei-s for the administration
of justice in Scotland, and in 1654, the Protector gave him one of his nieces
in marriage,2 and raised him to the possession of the highest political influence

! Harding's Biographical Mirror, iii.54.

* Harding rails the niece ' Robina Sewstcr.' Noble thinks the lady whom Lockhart
married was probably a daughter of Desborough, because secretary Thurloe writes to Lock-
hart, " H. H. (the Protector) doe very much rejoice to hear that your lady is in a way of
recovery, and so doth general Desborough, and truly no more than jours, &c" — House of
Cromwell, ii. 256.

SIR WILLIAM LOCKHART.

485

ju the land. In 1654 and 1656, he represented the shire of Lanark in Crom-
well's parliaments. He was also appointed one of the trustees for disposing of
the forfeited estates of the royalists, and a member of the Protector's privy
council for Scotland.

On the 14th December, 1655, he was appointed ambassador from England to
Louis XIV. ; a duty which, at that dangerous period, when the British govern-
ment was acknowledged abroad only from its strength, was eminently calcu-
lated to bring out the peculiar energies of his mind. He did not proceed on
his mission until April, 1656 ;3 a circumstance which probably accounts for
his having sat for Lanark during that year. The character both of the
government and its servant quickly secured respect "He was," says Clarendon,
" received with great solemnity, and was a man of' great address in treaty, and
had a marvellous credit and power with the cardinal Mazarine.'1 His country-
man Burnet, who probably knew him better, says, " He was both a wise and
gallant man, calm and virtuous, and one that carried the generosities of friend-
ship very far. He was made governor of Dunkirk, and ambassador, at the
same time. But he told me that when he was sent afterwards ambassador by
king Charles, he found he had nothing of that regard that was paid him in
Cromwell's time." s He arrived at Dieppe on the 24th of April, and was re-
ceived wilh all the civic honours which the town could bestow.6 An alliance
with France in opposition to Spain, and indeed anything resembling amity
towards the former nation, was considered an anomaly in the British constitu-
tion resembling an infraction of the laws of nature, and the measure, al-
though it was boldly undertaken, and successfully executed, has met the repro-
bation of historians, whose simple statement of its impolicy and folly is embraced
in the terms, " An alliance between Great Britain and France." But the
union was an act of almost diplomatic necessity on the part of the Protector,
from the alliance (as it was termed) of Spain with the exiled Charles ; and with
whatever reluctance the French may have at first looked upon the novelty,
Mazarine found himself associated with a government whose assistance was use-
ful, and whose enmity might be dangerous.

From the influence of the clergy alone was any opposition to be dreaded.
" I have receaved," says the ambassador, " many civill messages from persons of
honour and good interest ; and I fynd also, that my being here is much dis-
lyked by others, especiallie by the assembly of the clergy. And," he continues,
in the manner of the period, " I shall make it my endeavour to wait upon God
for his directione and protectione, and shall verie little trouble myself with their
menaces." But Lockhart found that the French were at least lukewarm in as-
sisting the vast designs of Cromwell, and that they were naturally averse to be
the mere auxiliaries of their natural enemies, in subjecting those neighbouring
provinces which had often called forth the full power of their armies.

Lockhart, accordingly, takes many occasions to express the discontent of his

The following passage from the same source is perhaps more conclusive : —
Colonel Lockhart to Secretary Thurloe.

" When I had the honour to take leave of you, 1 had jour permission to give you trouble in
any business wherein I was concerned ; therefore being engaged by articles of agreement
with general Desbrowe to make a purchase in England -for a settlement to my wife and hei
children, and the daie being elapsed, by which time I was bound either to make a purchase,
or to secure so much money by way of mortgage upon land in England, I am bould to be-
seech you to move his highness, for leave to me for a month to come to London for settling
that affair." &c. Edinburgh, December 25th, 1655.— Thurtoe's State Papers, iv. 342.

3 Thurloe, iv., 647, 728.

4 History, vii., 180.

* Burnet's Own Times, i. 76.
e Thurloe, iv., 739.

486 SIR WILLIAM LOCKHART.

energetic temper at the interruptions thrown in his way. Alluding to the car-
dinal's conduct about the dispute which then divided France, he says — " So soon
as I have the opportunity of being at court, I shall endeavour to inform myself
as fully as shall be possible for me, of what hath passed in this particular ; and
if I find that the differences betwixt the cardinal and the prince are in any
good way of accommodatione, I shall then persuade myself, that the cardinal
(whatever pretences he hath had to the contrary,) intends a peace with Spayne in
good earnest, and hath got over the greatest rub that was in his way : for in
his discourses on that businesse, I found that the restoration of tiic prince stuck
.more with him than either the re-delivery of towns, or the leaving of his allye
the Portugal, to the Spanyard's mercy." 7 And, probably under the irritation
of delay, he wrote to secretary Thurloe in June, saying, " I beg leave to dis-
charge my conscience, by letting you know, that I am verie much convinced,
that his highnesse affairs here doe infinitelie suffer by mismanagement. They
doe recpiyre the addresse of a haude muclie more happie than niyne ; and there-
fore shall humbly beg, that you may be pleased to lett his highnesse knowe how
much it concerns his interest heare that some other person be employed, whose
parts and experience may be more suitable to this trust than myne are."3 But
Lockhart did not either give up his commission in discontent, or submit to be
dallied with. Towards the termination of the year, he says in his despatches,
" The audience my last told you I demanded and was promised, hath been
defered till this evening, notwithstanding my endeavours to the contrary : and
though it lasted from six o'clock at night till ten, yet I cannot say I had much
satisfaction in it, for Mons. De Lion was with his eminence all the tyme, and by
his presence necessitated my sylence in some particulars, that, if I had had the
honour to entertain the cardinal by himself I durst have ventured upon. How-
soever, finding several particulars formerly agreed upon, questioned, and others
absolutely denyed, I Mas guiltie of the rudenesse to tell his eminence that I dirt
not understand such proceedure in businesse, and was astonished to meet so un-
expected changes." <J From remonstrances the ambassador proceeded to
threats. It was the determination of the English that Mardyke and Dunkirk
should be taken and left in their hands ; and in the commencement of the year
1657, "Lockhart," says Clarendon, " made such lively instances with the car-
dinal, and complaints of their breach of faith, and some menaces that his mas-
ter knew where to find a more punctual friend, that as soon as they had taken
Montmedy and St Venant, the army marched into Flanders : and though the
season of the year was too far spent to engage in a siege before Dunkirk, they
sat down before Mardyke, which was looked upon as the most difficult part of
the work ; which being reduced would facilitate the other very much ; and that
fort they took, and delivered it into the hands of Keynolds, with an obligation
' that they would besiege Dunkirk the next year, and make it their first at-
tempt."'10

Lockhart's contest for the interests of Britain did not terminate after the
capture of Mardyke : he accused the PVench of purposely leaving the town un-
defended, that the British might be compelled to raze the fortifications, and
gain no advantage from their captures, while they weakened the enemies of
France. He urged Turenne to proceed immediately to the siege of Dunkirk,
then but ill defended, offering for the service 5000 veterans and 2000 recruits ;
but he had to wait until June, 16 58, ere the design was put in practice. At
this celebrated siege Lockhart commanded the British foot, with which he
charged and routed those of Spain. " As to the siege of Dunkirk," says lord

7 Thurloe, v. 441. 8 Thurloe, v. 120. » Thurloe, v. 574.

io History, vii. 212

SIR WILLIAM LOCKHART. 487

Fouconberg, " by the little discourse I have liad with the duke de Crequy,
chevalier Grammont, and others, I find they infinitely esteeme my lord Lock-
hart for his courage, care, and enduring the fatigue beyond all men they ever
saw. These were their own words." u When the fortifications had yielded to
his efforts, and those of his illustrious coadjutor Turenne, he found himself
still perplexed by the interruptions of the French : that the possession of so im-
portant and long-hoped-for an acquisition should be left to foreigners, was
humiliating ; and whatever respect they paid to Cromwell's government, these
might at least indulge the piivilege of preventing their assistance from being so
ample as it appeared. Almost unassisted, Lockhart was compelled with his
small army immediately to put the place in a posture of defence, and complaining
that he was " forced to buy the very pallisades of the Fort-Royall ; otherwayes
the French, notwithstanding any order the king and cardinall can give, would
pull them out ; and not only burn them, but pull down the earthern works in
taking them out."1"

After the siege Lockhart was visited by commissary Mandossi, a person who,
under pretence of paying some debts which the Spanish army had incurred
during the siege, acted as an emissary from the marquis of Caracine, privately
to discover the extent to which Lockhart might countenance an immediate treaty
as the avenue to a peace ; but the conquering general returned polite and
haughty answers to the hints laid before him. He was appointed governor of
Dunkirk, an office in which he was enabled to distinguish himself for his reso-
lution and consistency ; and he was employed as plenipotentiary at the treaty
of the Pyrenees. After the accession of Richard Cromwell, and even during
the uncertainty of the continuance of a protectoral government in England, Sir
William Lockhart so far supported in his own person the influence of the com-
monwealth, that the interference of the exiled prince was disregarded by both
the foreign powers. After the peace, he visited England, and met with Monk,
whom he found still apparently intent on the continuation of the protectorate.
Being thus lulled into security, he returned to his foreign station, which he
hardly reached when he heard rumours of the approaching restoration of
monarchy. When Monk first hinted that his exertions would be at the service
of the king, and advised him speedily to quit Spain, lest his person might be
seized as a hostage for the restoration of Dunkirk, Charles fled to Breda ; and
Lockhart might at once have obtained pardon for all offences, and the prospect
of high promotion under the new order of things, if he would have acceded to
a request (made with many flattering promises) to throw open to him the gates
of Dunkirk. But the man who had said he would not be insulted even by a
king, answered that " he was trusted by the commonwealth, and could not be-
tray it." 13 — " This scruple," says Hume, " though in the present emergence
it approaches towards superstition, it is difficult for us entirely to condemn ;"
but the elegant historian made the observation on the presumption that Lock-
hart " was nowise averse to the king's service." — * Whether this refusal," says
Clarendon, " proceeded from the punctuality of his nature (for he was a man of
parts and of honour), or from his jealousy for the garrison, that they would not
be disposed by him, (for though he was exceedingly beloved and obeyed by
them, yet they were all Englishmen, and he had none of his own nation, which
was the Scottish, but in his own family ;) certain it is, that, at the same time
that he refused to treat with the king, he refused to accept the great offers made
to him by the cardinal, who had a high esteem of him, and offered to make
him marshal of France, with great appointments of pensions and other emolu-

" Thurloe, vii. 151 " Thurloe, 173. ,s Burnet, i. 80.

488 GEORGE LOGAN.

merits, if lie would deliver Dunkirk and Mardyke into the hands of France ; all
which overtures he rejected : so that his majesty had no place to resort to pre-
ferable to Breda." u After the termination of the period of excitement and
energy in which he bore so active a part, little of interest remains to be told
connected with the events of Lockhart's life. He was of course deprived of the
government of Dunkirk, which was bestowed on Sir Edward Harley. Through
the intercession of Middleton, he was suffered to return to Britain, and was in-
troduced to Charles ; he then retired to Scotland, where he buried himself in
retirement, and amused himself with teaching his fellow countrymen the Eng-
lish methods of agriculture ; but, driven away by the prevailing anarchy, he
preferred a residence with the relations of his wife in Huntingdonshire. In
1665, when a renewed struggle of the commonwealth's men was expected in
Scotland, the busy spirits, who had dreamed of, rather than concocted the en-
terprise, looked to the earl of Cassillis and Lcckhart as the individuals who
would probably become their leaders ; but, neither countenancing the advances
which were cautiously made, the project fell for a period. In 1671, he was
brought to court by Lauderdale, and he showed no disinclination to be em-
ployed, " not so much," says Burnet, " out of ambition to rise, as from a de-
sire to be safe, and to be no longer looked on as an enemy to the court." But
Charles seems to have considered him as one of his " natural" enemies, " for
when a foreign minister," continues Burnet, "i asked the king leave to treat
with bin in his master's name, the king consented, but with this severe reflec-
tion, that he believed he would be true to any body but himself." — " He was
sent," continues the same authority, " to the courts of Brandenburg and
Lunenburg, either to draw them into the alliance, or, if that could not be
done, at least to secure them from all apprehensions. But in this he had no
success. And indeed when he saw into what a negotiation he was engaged, he
became very uneasy. For though the blackest part cf the secret was not
trusted to him, as appeared to me by the instructions which I read after his
death, yet he saw whither things were going ; and that affected him so deeply,
that it was believed to have contributed not a little to the languishing he soon
fell into, which ended in his death two years after. This event took place on
the 20th March, 1675, a year after the death of his father. Noble has told us
that his death was attributed to the alternate causes of " a poisoned glove," and
disgust at the machinations betwixt Charles and Louis, of which he had been
the unconscious instrument. " I have ever looked on him," says Burnet, " as
the greatest man that his country produced in this age, next to Sir Robert
Murray." *

LOGAN, George, chiefly celebrated as the controversial opponent of Ruddi-
man, was born in the year 1678, and is supposed to have been the son of
George Logan, a descendant of the family of Logan of Logan, in Ayrshire, who
married Miss Cunningham, a daughter of the clergyman of Old Cumnock, and
sister to Mr Alexander Cunningham, professor of civil law in the university of
Edinburgh, towards the latter end of the ISth century.15 George Logan was
educated at the university of Glasgow, of which he entered the Greek class in
1693, and became a master of arts in 1696. Being destined for the church,
he was licensed as a preacher by the presbytery of Glasgow about the year
1702, and on the 7th of April, 1707, he was ordained a minister by the same
presbytery, in pursuance of'a popular call to the parish of Lauder, the ministry
of which he obtained in preference to two other candidates, 3Ir Stephen Oliver
and Mr George Hall. He remained at Lauder until the 22nd January, 1719,

" Clarendon ut sup. u Chalmers' Life of Ruddiman, 190.

GEORGE LOGAN. 489

when, in consequence of another call, which was unanimous on the part of the
parishioners, he was appointed to the ministry of Sprouston, in the presbytery
of Kelso. A second time inducements were held forth, which prompted him to
change his sphere of duty, and on the 22nd January, 1722, he was inducted as
minister of Dunbar. Here he married his first wife, the sister of Sir Alexander
Home of Eccles in the Merse, a lady who left him a son and daughter, both of
whom survived him. His ministry appears to have secured much popularity, for ad-
vancement was again held forth to bim; and on the 14th December, 1732, he was
admitted one of the ministers of Edinburgh. He whose fame and fortune had
been so much advanced by the popular voice, now published a treatise •* On the
Right of Electing Ministers," and it may safely be presumed, that the liberal
opinions thus commenced and continued through the rest of his life, were at
least fostered by the influence which the exercise of a popular right had produc-
ed on his own fortune. It is probable that this tract was published just before
his appointment to the charge in Edinburgh, being dated in the same year.
When the act for bringing to punishment those connected with the Porteous
mob, in 1736, was ordered to be read in all the churches, on the last Sunday
of every month during a year, " all the ministers," says Mr Chalmers, rather
enigmatically, " did not think with Logan that the will of the legislature ought,
on this occasion, to be obeyed. And he was carried, by the activity of his tem-
per, into a contest, in 1737, with the Rev. Dr Alexander Webster, one of the
ministers of Edinburgh, on the propriety of refusing obedience to an act of
parliament, in a point wherein it is not easy to perceive how either conscience
or religion could be concerned." On the 8th of May, 1740, Logan was ap-
pointed moderator of the general assembly. During the occupation of Edin-
burgh by the Highlanders, in 1745, Logan, in common with most of the
other ministers of Edinburgh, thought it prudent to secure his personal safety
by quitting the town. His house, being near the weigh-house, where the High-
landers had a guard to prevent communication between the city and castle, was
occupied by them as a guard-house. After their retirement, he inserted in the
newspapers an advertisement for the recovery of some articles abstracted by his
late guests, a document containing more satire upon the tory party than his po-
litical pamphlets. His controversy with Ruddiman originated in the edition of
Buchanan's works, edited by that eminent scholar in 1715. He had become a
member of a society of critics, whose ostensible purpose was to rescue the me-
mory of Buchanan from the prejudicial opinions of his editor, but whose labours,
though they appear to have reached a considerable extent of matter, were never
published. In 1746, Logan published ** A Treatise on Government : showing
that the right of the kings of Scotland to the crown was not strictly and abso-
lutely hereditary;" and, in 1747, he subjoined " A Second Treatise on Govern-
ment, showing that the right to the crown of Scotland was not hereditary in the
sense of Jacobites." The first answer he received was in an anonymous letter,
written in a spirit of airy ridicule, and in July, 1 747, appeared the graver discus-
sion of the grounds of his opinions by Ruddiman. Logan, in company with many
men who have supported liberal and enlightened political sentiments, had the
misfortune to be more anxious to establish them on historical precedent, than
on their native merits, and the history of Scotland was peculiarly barren in as-
certained facts for such a purpose. His principles appear to have been some-
what akin to those of Grotius, which admitted nothing in hereditary right but
a continuation to the descendants of the permission given to their ancestor to
govern. To show that the crown of Scotland did not descend through the
Stewarts in a pure legitimate stream, he discussed the well-known subject of the
legitimacy of Robert III., and the question, certainly at one time debateable,

III. 3 q

490 JOHN LOGAX.

whether the Pretender was or was not the son of James II. The former of
these points has now been pretty satisfactorily established by the labours of
Innes, Hay, Stewart, and Ruddiman, and the latter is no longer a matter of
doubt But Logan is accused of having gone to other and more frail sources ;
a fabulous list of kings had been added to the number of the tenants of the
Scottish throne, by Boece and the other early chroniclers. Buchanan, if he did
not know the list to be fabricated, knew the circumstances of the lives of these
persons to rest on so unstable a foundation, that he found himself enabled to
twist their characters to his theories. On the events connected with the reigns of
these persons, Logan likewise comments ; but after having done so, turning to
the writings of Innes and Stillingfleet, he remarked — " But I shall be 60 good
as to yield it to Lloyd, Stillingfleet, and Innes : but then let our Scottish Jaco-
bites and the young chevalier give over their boasting of hereditary succession
by a longer race of kings in Scotland than in any kingdom in the known
world."2 Kuddiman employed his usual labour in clearing the questions about
Robert III. and the birth of the Pretender ; but in another point — the wish to
prove that Robert the Bruce was a nearer heir to the Scottish crown by feudal
usages than John Baliol — he failed. Chalmers, who can see neither talent nor
honesty in Logan, and no defect in Ruddiman, observes, that " it required not,
indeed, the vigour of Ruddiman to overthrow the weakness of Logan, who laid
the foundations of the government which he affected, either on the wild fables
of Boece, or on the more despicable fallacies of Buchanan;" hut the fables,
which were satirically noticed by Logan, were subjects of serious consideration
to the grave critic. Ruddiman brings against his opponent the charge, fre-
quently made on such occasions, of " despising dominions, speaking evil of
dignities, and throwing out railing accusations against kings, though the arch-
angel Michael durst not bring one against the devil himself, whom our author,
I hope, will allow to be worse than the worst of our kings."3 This was, at
least, in some degree, complimentary to Logan, and the critic, proceeding,
tries to preserve, for the ancestors of Charles II., both their length of line and
their virtues, and is anxious to show that, at least, such as cannot be easily saved
from the censures of Buchanan and Logan, were not lineal ancestors of the
great Charles II. In point of philosophy, Ruddiman's work cannot well be
compared with the several pamphlets of Logan, although even the arguments of
the latter against divine right, would nowr be considered too serious and uncalled
for, by any power of defence. The different pamphlets will be found accurate-
ly enumerated in " Chalmers's Life of Ruddiman." Logan was the more restless
and determined of the two, and continued his attacks until 1749, when both
had reached a period of life fitted for more peaceful pursuits. Logan died at
Edinburgh on the 13th of October, 1755, in the seventy-seventh year of his
age.

LOGAN, John, a poet and sermon-writer of no mean eminence, was born in
the year 1748, at Soutra, in the parish of Fala, in the county of Mid-Lothian,
being the son of George Logan, a small farmer at that place, of the dissenting
persuasion. He received the elements of learning at the school of Gosford, in
East-Lothian, to which parish his father removed during his childhood. Being
the younger of two sons, he was eai'ly destined to the clerical profession, accord-
ing to a custom not yet abrogated in families of the humbler rank in Scotland.
At the university of Edinburgh, he formed an acquaintance with the unfortunate
Michael Bruce, and also with Dr Robertson, afterwards minister of Dahneny,
and known as author of a Life of Mary queen of Scots. In the society of the
former individual, he cultivated poetical reading and composition, being fondest,
First Treatise, 50. 3 Ruddiman's Answer, 21.

JOHN LOGAN. 491

as might be supposed from the character of his own efforts, of the writings of
Spenser, Collins, Akenside, and Cray, the three last of whom bear so honoura-
ble 8 distinction from the cold and epigrammatic manner of their contemporaries.
During one of the recesses of the college, while residing in the country, he be-
came known to Patrick lord Elibank, who, with his usual enthusiasm in favour
of genius of every kind, warmly patronized him.

On completing his education, Logan was received as tutor into the house of
Mr Sinclairof Ulbster, and thus became preceptor of the late Sir John Sinclair,
author of the Code of Agriculture. He did not long retain this situation, in
which he was succeeded by his friend Robertson. In 1770, he superintended
the publication of the first edition of the poems of Bruce, who had died three
years before. The volume professedly contained a few supplementary pieces by
other writers, and of these Logan was himself the principal author. The best
of his contributions was the Ode to the Cuckoo, which, notwithstanding the ob-
vious fault of a want of connexion between the various parts of various stanzas,
is still one of the most popular poems in the language.

In 1773, Logan was licensed as a preacher by the presbytery of Edinburgh,
thus joining the ranks of the established, instead of the dissenting church. He
soon became known as an eloquent and affecting preacher, and in the same
year was called by the kirk-session and incorporations of South Leith, to be
their minister ; a situation always considered as one of the most honourable in
the church of Scotland, and which had just been vacated by another man of
genius, Dr Henry Hunter, whose life has been given in the present work. Here
he continued to cultivate literature with devoted ardour, though it was not till
1781, that he thought proper to publish any poetry under his own name. Among
the studies of Dr Logan, history was one of those in which he most delighted.
In the winter of 1779, he delivered a course of lectures on the Philosophy of
History, in St Mary's chapel, Edinburgh, under the countenance and appro-
bation of Drs Robertson, Blair, Ferguson, and other eminent persons connected
with the university. So successful was he in these exhibitions, that, on the
chair of universal history becoming vacant in 1780, he would unquestionably
have obtained it, if he had possessed the incidental qualification of being a
member of the Scottish bar. In the succeeding year, he published an analysis
of his lectures, so far as they related to ancient history, under the title of " Ele-
ments of the Philosophy of History," which was followed by one of the lectures
"On the Manners and Government of Asia." His poems, published in 1781,
attracted so much attention, that a second edition was called for next year. In
this collection, he reprinted several of the pieces which he had formerly given
to the world along with those of Michael Bruce. A painful charge rests against
his memory, regarding the real authorship of some of those pieces, and also re-
specting the use he made of a copious manuscript of Bruce's poetry, intrusted to
him after the publication of the first volume. Into this controversy, which is
fully stated in Anderson's edition of the British Poets, we deem it unnecessary,
in the present state of the literary reputation of both men, to enter ; but we can
state, as a fact not formerly known to the biographers of Logan, that he assert-
ed his innocence in a very decided manner, after his removal to London, by
ordering an Edinburgh agent to take out an interdict against an edition of
Bruce's poems, in which several of his own pieces had been appropriated, under
the supposition of their belonging to that poet

Undeterred by the fate of Home, Logan produced a tragedy in 1783. It
was entitled " Runnimede," and aimed at combining the history of Magna
Charta with a love story said to be expressly borrowed from the Tancrede of
Voltaire. Runnimede was rehearsed by Mr Harris at Covent Garden theatre.

492 JOHN LOGAN.

but prevented from being acted by an order from the chamberlain, who, in the
recent feeling of the American war of independence, took alarm at several of
the breathings in favour of liberty. Logan then printed it, and had it acted in
the Edinburgh theatre ; but in neither form did it meet with decided success.
This, with other disappointments, preyed upon the spirits of the poet, and he
now betook himself to the most vulgar and fatal means of neutralizing grief. It
is to be always kept in mind, that his father had died in a state of insanity, the
consequence of depressed spirits. Hence it is to be presumed, that the aberra-
tions of the unhappy poet had some palliative in constitutional tendencies. From
whatever source they arose, it was soon found necessary that he should resign the
charge of the populous parish with which he had been intrusted.1 An agree-
ment to this purpose was completed between him and the kirk-session, in 1786,
and he retired with a certain modicum of the stipend, while Mr Dickson was
appointed his assistant and successor.

In the autumn of the preceding year, Logan had proceeded to London, ap-
parently with the design of devoting himself entirely to literature. He was
engaged in the management of the English Review, and compiled a view of
ancient history, which passed under the name of Dr Rutherford. In 1788, he
published an anonymous pamphlet, entitled " A review of the principal charges
against Mr Hastings ;" which, being construed into a breach of the privileges of
the house of commons, caused a prosecution of the publisher, Stockdale, who,
however, was accpuitted. This was the last production he gave to the world.
After a lingering indisposition, he died in London, December 28, 1788, about
forty years of age.

Dr Logan destined legacies to the amount of £600 to certain of his friends
and relations, to be realized out of his books and manuscripts. The latter con-
sisted of sermons, miscellaneous prose pieces, lectures, and a few small lyrical
poems. In 1790, the first volume of the sermons was published, under the
superintendence of Drs Robertson, Hardy, and Blair. The second volume ap-
peared in the following year; and, before the end of 1793, both volumes had
undergone a second impression. None of his other posthumous works have been
published.

Except in the latter part of his life, when rendered irritable and sottish by
the results of his constitutional temperament, Dr Logan is allowed to have been
a man of the most amiable character, full of refined sensibility, and free from
all mean vices. Of his poetry, which has been several times reprinted in the
mass, it is no small praise to say that it advances before the age in which it was
written, having more of the free natural graces which characterize modern
verse, than the productions of most of his contemporaries. It is also character-
ized in many instances by singularly happy expressions, as it is in general by
extreme sweetness of versification. His Ode to the Cuckoo and his hymns, are
the pieces which may be expected to last longest. A selection from the latter,
omitting portions of some of those chosen, was embodied in the volume of
paraphrases, sanctioned by the church of Scotland as an addition to the psalmo-
dy. " The sermons of Logan," says his earliest biographer, Dr Anderson,
" though not so exquisitely polished as those of Blair, possess in a higher de-
gree the animated and passionate expression of Massillon and Atterbury. His

1 An aged parishioner of Dr Logan, mentioned to a friend of the editor of this work, that
he was present in church one clay, when the conduct of the reverend gentleman was such as
to induce an old man to go up, and, in no very respectful language, call upon the minister to
descend from the pulpit which he disgraced. Such an anecdote, if read immediately after
perusing one of the elegant discourses of Logan, would form a singular illustration of the
propinquity which sometimes exists between the pure and impure, the lofty and the degrad-
ed, in human character.

DR. WILLIAM LOTHIAN, F.R.S.E.— JOHN LOVE.

493

composition is everywhere excellent — its leading characteristics being strength,
elegance, and simplicity. The formation of his sentences appears the most in-
artificial ; though at the same time, it will be found, strictly correct. But the
manner, amidst all its beauties, is, on the first perusal, lost in the enjoyment the
reader feels from the sentiment. Devotional and solemn subjects peculiarly ac-
cord with his feelings and genius. In exhibiting deep and solemn views of
human life, his sentiments are bold and varied, and his imagination teems with
the most soothing and elevated figures. * * It appears to have been no part
of his plan to seek out for new subjects of preaching, or to exert his ingenuity
in exhibiting new views of moral and religious topics. To embellish the most
common subjects, which are certainly the most proper and useful, with new or-
naments ; to persuade by more forcible and captivating illustration ; to unite the
beauties of elegant diction, and the splendour of fine imagery ; in this lay his
chief exertions, and here rests his chief praise."

LOTHIAN, (Dr) William, F.R.S.E., author of a History of the United Pro-
vinces of the Netherlands, was born at Edinburgh in 1740, being the son of
Mr George Lothian, a respectable surgeon in that city. Having passed through
the various stages of his education with some eclat, he was licensed as a
preacher of the gospel in 1762, and appointed, in 1764, one of the ministers
of the Canongate. As a preacher his method of instruction was simple and per-
spicuous, his sentiments rational and manly, and his manner unaffected and per-
suasive. For many years before his death he was afflicted with a very painful
disease ; yet he not only performed his professional duties with unabated zeal,
but found energy and spirit to compose the work above-mentioned, which ap-
peared in 1780. Previously to this publication he had been honoured by the
Edinburgh university with the degree of doctor of divinity. He died Decem-
ber 17, 1783, having only completed the forty-third year of his age. Two
sermons by him are published in the Scotch Preacher, 4 vols. 12mo, 1776. For
a more copious notice of this respectable divine, reference may be made to the
first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

LOVE, John, a controversial critic of celebrity, was born at Dumbarton in
1695.1 He was the son of John Love, a bookseller, who, as Chalmei-s indis-
putably remarks, " like greater dealers in greater towns, supplied his customers
with such books as their taste required." The son was educated at the gram-
mar school of Dumbarton, and the university of Glasgow. Having finished his
studies, he became assistant or usher to his old master Mr David M'Alpine, and
in 1720, succeeded him in his humble duty. On the 17th October, 1721, he
married Elizabeth, daughter of 3Ir Archibald Campbell, a surgeon of Glasgow,
who had been one of the baillies of that city. By her he had thirteen children,
two of whom, a clergyman and an officer in the navy, were alive when Chal-
mers wrote his Life of Ruddiman. In 1733, Mr Love entered the field of
controversy by publishing " Animadversions on the Latin Grammar lately pub-
lished by Mr Robert Trotter, schoolmaster of Dumfries," a production chiefly
designed for the purpose of defending Ruddiman, whose grammar had been re-
flected on by Trotter. " Like Ruddiman," says Chalmers very aptly, " Love
seems to have delighted in marriage, or like him, to have been driven to con-
nubial connexions, by his scholastic business, which required female superin-
tendance." Accordingly, in pursuance of the disposition so aptly associated
with his name, he married in 1741, for his second wife, Giles, the youngest
daughter of the reverend Mr James Elphinston, minister of Dalkeith, who had
died in 1710. Love was subjected, it would appear, at one period of his life
to a species of religious prosecution, on an accusation of brewing on Sunday,
1 Chalmers's Ruddiman, 135.

491 GEORGE LOW.

preferred before the church judicatories by Mr Sydserf, minister of Dumbarton,
" who," says Chalmers, "after a judicial trial, was obliged to make a public
apology, for having maliciously accused calumniated innocence." In October,
1735, he was appointed one of the masters of the high school of Edinburgh,
and in 1737, with the assistance of Ruddiman and Robert Hunter, he edited a
very handsome edition of the Translation of the Psalms of Buchanan, which at-
tracted the notice of the duke of Buccleuch, and obtained for the editor in 173 9
the rectorship of the grammar school of Dalkeith ; a situation which has for a
long period been deemed of considerable importance, and very ably filled, but
which would not now be considered an advancement from that which Love
previously enjoyed. In the following year he engaged in the controversy' about
the respective merits of Johnston and Buchanan as translators of the Psalms,
known by the name of Bellum Grammaticale, and already referred to in our
memoir of Arthur Johnston. He was of course the supporter of the work he
had edited. " The conquests which Love had made over Trotter and Lauder,"
says Chalmers, "probably gave him a fondness for controversy." In 1749,
he published " A Vindication of Mr George Buchanan," a work levelled at the
imputations of Camden on the one part, and the reflections of Ruddiman, his
former friend, on the other. It says much for the candour of Love, that Chal-
mers allows him to have been actuated by " honest zeal." The chief subject of
discussion was the alleged penitence of Buchanan on his deathbed, on account
of his attacks on the character of queen Mary. In July, 1749, in his old age,
Ruddiman published an answer, termed " Animadversions on a late pamphlet,
entitled A Vindication of Mr George Buchanan." The venerable grammarian
survived his opponent, who died on the 20th September, 1750, at the age of
fifty-five. Chalmers admits that " he was certainly an eminent scholar, an ex-
cellent teacher, and a good man."

LOW, George, an ingenious naturalist, was born at Edzel in Forfarshire,
in the year 1746. He was educated at the universities of Aberdeen and St
Andrews, and afterwards was tutor in the family of Mr Graham at Stromness
in Orkney. During his residence at this place, Mr (afterwards Sir Joseph)
Banks and Dr Solander arrived at the island, on their return from the last
voyage of discovery, in which captain Cook lost his life ; and Mr Low, having
acquired a taste for natural history, was much noticed by these distinguished
philosophers, and was requested to accompany them in their excursions through
the Orkneys, and also to the Shetland islands, which he accordingly did.

In 1774, he was ordained to the ministerial charge of the parish of Birsay
and Staray, on the mainland of Orkney, to which he devoted the remainder of
his life, employing his leisure in the study of nature. Considering the disad-
vantages of his situation, his success was highly creditable. Sir Joseph Banks,
with his accustomed zeal for the promotion of science, introduced him to Mr
Pennant, by whose advice he engaged to undertake a " Fauna Orcadensis," and
a " Flora Orcadensis." Before these works could be given to the world, he
died, in 1795. The MSS. of the former work, with his zoological collections,
and the manuscript of a translation of Torfasus's History of Orkney, executed
by Mr Low, came into the possession of Mr George Paton, the eminent anti-
quary, at whose decease they were sold to different persons. The " Fauna" was
published in 1813, 4to, by W. F. Leach, M.D., F.L.S., and forms a very in-
teresting addition to the natural history of the British Islands. The " Flora"
has not been discovered. A tour through Orkney and Shetland, containing
hints relative to their ancient, modern, and natural history, Mas also prepared
for the press by this industrious individual, but, owing to his premature death,
was never published.

JOHN LOWE. 495

LOWE, John, a poet of considerable celebrity, tbough the author of only
one small lyrical piece which has acquired popularity, was born at Kenmore in
the stewartry of Kircudbright, in the year 1750. His father was gardener to
Mr Gordon of Kenmore, son of the unfortunate viscount Kenmore ; and young
Lowe was reared to the business of a country weaver. Having, however, a
strong desire of rising above his native lot, he fitted himself by his own exer-
tions for entering an academical career at the university of Edinburgh, where
his expenses were chiefly defrayed, it is said, by friends whom he had secured
by his agreeable character and evident talents. While pursuing the study of
divinity, he was engaged as family tutor by a country gentleman of his native
district, Mr M'Ghie of Airds. The residence of this gentleman, as partly im-
plied by its Celtic appellation, was situate on a piece of lofty and picturesque
ground, at the confluence of the Dee with the long narrow lake, in which the
Ken meets with that river. Lowe, already addicted to versification, rejoiced
with a poet's ardour in the beautiful scenery of the Airds, amidst which he con-
structed an arbour still called " Lowe's Seat." He here composed a consider-
able number of poems, fragments of which are still recollected in the district ;
and here also he became attached to one of the beautiful daughters of his em-
ployer, who, it is to be supposed, must have materially added to the inspiring
powers of the scenery. His happy lyric, entitled " Mary's Dream," but for
which, in all probability, he never would have been heard of beyond his native
district, wcs written at the Airds, in reference to the death of a gentleman
named Miller, a surgeon at sea, who was attached to the sister of his own mis-
tress, and perished in the manner described in the poem.

It is not certain that Lowe, though he seems to have completed his theologi-
cal studies, ever became a licentiate of the Scottish church. In 1773, he was
induced to proceed to America, in order to become family tutor to a brother of
the illustrious Washington. He subsequently set up a boarding academy at
Fredericksburg in Virginia, which succeeded for a time, but afterwards
failed. Before leaving Scotland, he had interchanged pledges of mutual love
with Miss M'Ghie, and it was understood that their marriage should take place
as soon as he should be properly settled in life. The lapse of years — distance —
hopelessness, perhaps, of ever reaching the necessary degree of fortune, and
not impossibly the intervention of seven years of war between the two countries,
conspired to annul this engagement ; and the parties eventually married dif-
ferent individuals in their respective countries. Lowe is charged by his bio-
graphers with glaring infidelity to his promise ; but the case is too obscurely re-
lated, to enable us to join in the censure which he has thus incurred. The
fondest lovers, when divided by time and space from each other, will hardly be
able to maintain their flame : as love is often at first the result of exclusive in-
tercourse, so is it apt to expire when the parties cease for a length of time to
enjoy that intercourse, or become exposed to a wider range of society. We
are far from implying that a breach of youthful vows is justifiable on any prin-
ciple ; but yet when we see a young female bind herself up to a person who
has no immediate prospect of being able to make her his wife, and who, per-
haps, before that event, has to spend a long time in a distant land, where his
very character is exposed to a radical change, we cannot help perceiving that
such a woman perils her happiness upon a point in human nature, and a series
of contingencies, where the chances are greatly against her, and therefore is not
entitled to throw the whole blame of her misfortune, should it arrive, upon one
who is simply, perhaps, the partner of her early imprudence. Lowe eventually
paid his addresses to a Virginian lady, who rejected them, but whose sister had
conceived for him a violent affection, and whom he afterwards married, from a

496 JOHN MACDIARMID.

sentiment, as lie expresses it, of gratitude. At what time this took place has
not been stated by his biographer;1 but it is impossible, from the account given
by that individual, to resist the impression that it was almost half a lifetime af-
ter his engagement at the Airds. His wife proved totally unworthy of his af-
fections, and, by driving him for relief to the bottle, caused his death under the
most miserable circumstances about the year 1798. This succession of events
appears from Mr Gillespie's narrative, to have been rapid : hence it is allowable
to conjecture, that at least twenty years must have elapsed between his parting
with Miss M'Ghie, and his unhappy union to another. If such was the case,
we can hardly see how the most ardent impressions of youth could have been
maintained at such a distance, and under the continued depression of circum-
stances on the part of the gentleman, which is acknowledged by the bio-
grapher, and which must have tended so much to make sick the hearts of both
parties.

A letter from Virginia from an early friend of the poet, gave the following
particulars respecting his death : — " That perceiving his end drawing near, and
wishing to die in peace, away from his own wretched walls, he mounted a sorry
palfrey, and rode some distance to the house of a friend. So much was he de-
bilitated that scarcely could he alight in the court and walk into the house.
Afterwards, however, he revived a little, and enjoyed some hours of that
vivacity which was peculiar to him. But this was but the last faint gleams of a
setting sun ; for on the third day after his arrival at the house of bis friend, he
breathed his last. He now lies buried near Fredericksburg, under the shade
of two palm trees ; but not a stone is there on which to write, ' Mary, weep no
more for me.' "

The wretched woman to whom he had been united made no inquiries after
her husband for more than a month afterwards, when she sent for his horse,
which had been previously sold to defray the expenses of the funeral.

Lowe is said to have been a very handsome man, of quick and lively appre-
hension, and very agreeable as a companion. His reputation as a poet has the
strange peculiarity of resting on one small ballad. That, however, has melody,
pathos, and imagery, of no common character, and Avill probably be always
reckoned among the happiest small pieces in the English language. Some
fragments of his other compositions are given in Oromec's Remains ; but they
do not rise one step above the cold second-rate pastoral epics of the period.

M

MACDIARMID, John, a miscellaneous writer, was born in the year 1779.
He was the son of the Rev. Mr Macdiarmid, minister of Weem, in Perthshire.
After studying at the universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews, and acting for
some time as tutor to a gentleman's family, he proceeded, in 1801, to London,
for the purpose of prosecuting a literary career. He soon obtained lucrative
employment as a writer in periodical works, and became editor of the St James'
Chronicle, a newspaper in which some of the first scholars and wits of former
years were accustomed to employ their pens. On the renewal of the war with
France, in 1802-3, the attention of Mr Macdiarmid was attracted to the system
of national defence which had been adopted, and he forsook his other employ-

1 The Rev. Mr Gillespie, minister of Kelso, in Cromec's Remains of Nithsdale and Gal-
loway Song.

ANDREW MACDONAI/D. 497

ments to devote himself to a work of a very elaborate character, which appeared
in 1803, in two volumes 8vo, under the title of * An Inquiry into the System ot
Military Defence of Great Britain." He aimed at exposing the defects of the
volunteer system, as well as of all temporary expedients, and asserted the supe-
riority of a regular army. His next work was an " Inquiry into the Nature or
Civil and Military Subordination," 1804, 8vo, perhaps the fullest disquisition
which the subject j has received. Being thus favourably introduced to public
notice as a general writer, he began to aim at higher objects, but, it would
appear, without properly calculating his own physical capabilities. 31r D'Israeli,
who saw him at this. time, and who had afterwards the melancholy task of intro-
ducing his case into the work called M The Calamities of Authors," describes
him as " of a tender frame, emaciated, and study-worn, with hollow eyes, where
the mind dimly shcne, like a lamp in a tomb. With keen ardour," says the
historian of literary disaster, " he opened a new plan of biographical politics.
When, by one who wished the author and his style were in better condition,
the dangers of excess in study were brought to his recollection, he smiled, and,
with something of a mysterious air, talked of unalterable confidence in the
powers of his mind — of the indefinite improvement in our faculties ; and although
his frame was not athletic, he considered himself capable of trying it to the
extremity. His whole life, indeed, was one melancholy trial : often the day
passed cheerfully without its meal, but never without its page." Under the
impulse of this incontrollable enthusiasm, Mr Macdiarmid composed his
" Lives of British Statesmen," beginning with Sir Thomas More. For the
publication, he was indebted to a friend, who, when the author could not readily
procure a publisher, could not see even the dying author's last hopes disap-
pointed. The work has obtained a reputation of no mean order. ** Some
research and reflection," says Mr D'Israeli, u are combined in this literary and
civil history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries." — " The style,"
according to another critic, " is perspicuous and unaffected ; authorities are
quoted for every statement of consequence, and a variety of curious information
is extracted from voluminous records, and brought for the first time into public
view. His political speculations were always temperate and liberal. He was
indeed in all respects qualified for a work of this description, by great power
of research and equal impartiality." The poor author was destined to enjoy,
for a short time only, the approbation with which his work was received. His
health sustained, in November, 1807, an irreparable blow by a paralytic stroke;
and a second attack in February, 1808, proved fatal, April 7.

MACDONALD, Ajtorew, a dramatic and miscellaneous writer, was born about
the year 1755. His father, George Donald, was by profession a gardener, and
resided at the foot of the broad way which connects Leith with Edinburgh,
called Leith Walk ; the place also of young Macdonald's nativity.

The subject of this memoir received the early part of his education at Leith,
and went through the usual initiatory course of classical learning in the gram-
mar school of that town. Having exhibited early indications of superior parts,
his parents and friends entertained the most sanguine hopes of his success in
the world, and especially anticipated his attaining eminence in literature. With
a view to his becoming a minister of the Scottish episcopal communion, in which
he was born and educated, they entered him a student in the university of Edin-
burgh, where he remained till 1775, when he was put into deacon's orders by
bishop Forbes of Leith, who became also his chief patron. On this occasion,
at the bishop's recommendation he prefixed the syllable Mac to his name, though
for what reason is not stated.

Although now invested with the clerical character, there was yet no vacant

III. 3 R

498 ANDREW JIACDONALD.

living for Iiiin ; but through the interest of his patron, the worthy divine just
named, he procured the appointment of preceptor in the famiiy of Mr Oliphant
of Gask, as a temporary employment and means of support, until a vacancy in
the church should present itself. In this situation he remained about a year,
when he was chosen pastor of the episcopal congregation at Glasgow, in room
of Mr Wood, who had gone to St Petersburg. His appointment took place in
the year 1777. His patron, bishop Forbes, having in the mean time died, he
was put into priest's orders by bishop Falconer. Although much addicted to
literary pursuits, Macdonald made no public appearance as an author for five
years after this period, when he made a debut in the character of a poet, by
publishing a poem, or rather part of a poem, entitled " Velina, a Poetical
Fragment.'' Neither this work, nor a novel which he subsequently published
under the title of the " Independent," met with any remarkable degree of
success. He therefore resolved to try his talents in dramatic composition ;
and his first effort was the tragedy of Vimonda, which was brought out at
the Edinburgh theatre royal, for the benefit of Mr Wood, with a prologue
by Henry Mackenzie, and was received with marked applause by the public,
though, like all the other works of its unfortunate author, it is now scarcely
known to exist.

In the mean time, Macdonald, who still resided at Glasgow, was making but
little progress in worldly prosperity. His fortunes, notwithstanding the success of
his play, which does not seem to have yet yielded him any considerable pecuni-
ary remuneration, were rather retrograding than advancing. The episcopal
church of Scotland was at this period in a very depressed state. The old
members were fast dying out, and there were none to replace them. The result
was that Macdonald's congregation was speedily reduced to a number so trifling,
that he could no longer live by his charge. Thus situated, he resolved on re-
signing it; and as no better prospects presented themselves elsewhere in the
Scottish episcopal church, he denuded himself altogether of his ecclesiastical
functions, and finally threw aside even the outward sign of his calling, the
clerical dress, and became at all points entirely secularized. On throwing up
his ministry, he came to Edinburgh, with, it would seem, pretty confident
hopes of being able to make a living by his pen ; an idea in which he was en-
couraged by the success of his tragedy. He had, however, before leaving
Glasgow, taken a step which his friends thought fit to consider as at once im-
prudent and degrading. This was his marrying the maid servant of the house
in which he had lodged. His reception, therefore, on his return to Edinburgh,
from these friends and those of his acquaintances who participated in their feel-
ings on the subject of his marriage, had much in it to annoy and distress him,
although no charge could be brought against the humble partner of his fortune,
but the meanness of her condition. Whatever question, however, might have
been made of the prudence or imprudence of his matrimonial connexion, there
could be none regarding the step which he next took. This was his renting an
expensive house, and furnishing it at a cost which he had no immediate means of
defraying, although with all that sanguine hope which is but too frequently found
associated with literary dispositions, he fully expected to be enabled to do so by
the exertion of his talents. The result was such as might have been looked fur.
His literary prospects, as far as regarded Edinburgh, ended in total disappoint-
ment. His creditors became pressing, and the neglect of his friends, proceed-
ing from the circumstance already alluded to, and which in some cases amounted
to direct insult, continued as marked as when he first returned amongst them,
and added greatly to the distress of mind with which the unfortunate poet was
now overwhelmed.

ANDREW MACDONALD.

499

Under the pressure of these accumulated evils, he determined on quitting
Edinburgh, and on seeking in London that employment for his literary talents
which he could not find in his native capital. Having come to this resolution,
he left his mother, for whom he always entertained the most tender regard, in
possession of his house and furniture, and proceeded, accompanied by his wife,
to the metropolis. Here his reception was such as to compensate in some
measure for the treatment which he had experienced at home. The fame of
his tragedy had gone before him, and soon after his arrival procured him
many sincere and cordial, though it does not appear very powerful, friends.
Vimonda was brought out with much splendour by Colman, in the summer of
17S7, a short time after its author had arrived in London, and was performed
to crowded houses. In the following summer, it was again produced, and with
similar success. This good fortune, operating on a temperament naturally san-
guine, lifted poor Macdonald's hopes beyond all reasonable bounds, and filled
his mind with the brightest anticipations of fame and independence. In this
spirit he wrote several letters to Mr M. Stewart, music-seller in Edinburgh, the
principal, if not indeed the only friend he had left behind him, full of the most
splendid ideas regarding his future fortunes. Having left Edinburgh in em-
barrassed circumstances, so that neither his house rent nor his furniture had been
paid, he promises speedy remittances to defray all his debts, and amongst the
rest that which he had incurred to his correspondent, who seems to have man-
aged all his affairs for him after he left the Scottish capital, and to have gener-
ously made, from time to time, considerable advances of money on his account.

" Thank Heaven," says the ill-fated poet in one of these letters to Stewart,
in which he announces the good fortune which he now conceived was to be his
for the remainder of his life, " thank Heaven, my greatest difficulties are now
over ; and the approaching opening of the summer theatre will soon render me
independent and perfectly at ease. In three weeks you will see by the public
prints, I shall be flourishing at the Haymarket in splendour superior to last
season. I am fixed for the summer in a sweet retirement at Brompton, where,
having a large bed, and lying alone, I can accommodate you tolerably, and
give you a share of a poet's supper, sallads and delicious fruits from my own
garden."

All this felicity, and all these gay visions of the future, were, however, speedily
and sadly dissipated. In a few short months thereafter Macdonald sunk into an
untimely grave, disappointed in his hopes, and reduced to utter destitution in his
circumstances. That he did thus die is certain, but neither the immediate cause,
nor the progress of the sudden blight which thus came over his fortunes before his
death, is very distinctly traced in any of the memoirs which have been consulted
in the composition of this article, unless the following remark, contained in an
advertisement prefixed to a volume of posthumous sermons of Macdonald,
printed in 1790, can be considered as an explanation : — " Having no powerful
friends to patronize his abilities, and suffering under the infirmities of a weak
constitution, he fell a victim, at the age of thirty-three, to sickness, disappoint-
ment and misfortune." Macdonald died in the year 178S, in the thirty-third
year of his age, leaving behind him his wife and one child, wholly unprovided
for.

Macdonald made several attempts in dramatic composition subsequent to the
appearance of Vimonda, but none of them were at all equal in merit to that per-
formance, a circumstance which affords, probably, a more satisfactory elucidation
of the cause of those disappointments which gathered round and hurried him to
his grave, and embittered his dying moments, than those enumerated in the ex-
tract employed above. For some time previous to his death, under the fictitious

500 ROBERT MACFARLANE.

signature of JTatthew Bramble, he amused the town almost daily with little
humorous and burlesque poems, after the manner of Peter Pindar's (Dr Wolcot),
and these were not unfrequently equal in point and satirical allusion to some of
the most felicitous effusions of his celebrated prototype.

As a preacher, he was distinguished for neat, classical, and elegant com-
position ; qualities which procured a favourable reception for the volume of
posthumous sermons published in 1790. A tragedy, which he left in a finished
state at his death, was printed and included in a volume of his poetical works,
published in 1791.

On the whole, Macdonald's literary talents seem to have been of that unfor-
tunate description which attract notice, without yielding profit, which produce a
show of blossom, but no fruit, and which, when trusted to by their sanguine
possessor as a means of insuring a subsistence, are certain to be found wholly in-
adequate to that end, and equally certain to leave their deceived and disap-
pointed victim to neglect and misery.

It may be proper, before concluding this brief sketch of Macdonald, to advert
to the account given of him by D'Israeli, in his " Calamities of Authors." That
account is an exceedingly pathetic one, and is written with all the feeling and
eloquence for which its highly distinguished writer is so remarkable ; but unfor-
tunately it is inconsistent in many parts with fact. What Mr D'Israeli mentions
regarding him from his own knowledge and experience, we do not question ;
but in nearly all the particulars which were not so acquired, he seems to have
been egregiously misinformed. In that information, however, which is of the
description that there is no reason for doubting, the following affecting passage
occurs : — " It was one evening I saw a tall, famished, melancholy man, enter
a bookseller's shop, his hat flapped over his eyes, and his whole frame evi-
dently feeble from exhaustion and utter misery. The bookseller inquired how
he proceeded with his tragedy ? ' Do not talk to me about my tragedy ! Do
not talk to me about my tragedy ! I have indeed more tragedy than I can bear
at home,' was his reply, and his voice faultered as he spoke. This man was
Matthew Bramble — Macdonald, the author of the tragedy of Vimonda, at that
moment the writer of comic poetry." D'Israeli then goes on, giving the result
of his inquiries regarding him, and at this point error begins. He represents
him as having seven children. He had, as already noticed, only one. He
says he was told, " that he walked from Scotland with no other fortune than
the novel of the Independent in one pocket, and the tragedy of Vimonda in the
other." The novel alluded to was published four years before he went to Lon-
don ; and Vimonda had been brought out at Edinburgh a considerable time
before he left that city. D'Israeli speaks of the literary success which the
" romantic poet " had anticipated while yet " among his native rocks." The
reader need scarcely be reminded that Macdonald was born in the immediate
vicinity of the Scottish capital, and that the whole of his life, previously to his
leaving Scotland, was spent in the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and great
part of it in what has always been considered the profession of a gentleman.

MACFARLANE, Robert, a political and miscellaneous writer, was born in
the year 1734, and educated at the university of Edinburgh. At an early
period of life he proceeded to London, in search of a livelihood, and for many
years kept an academy of considerable reputation at Walihamstow. He engaged
warmly in the political disputes which took place during the Bute administra-
tion ; and, in 1770, concentrated his sentiments respecting them in a '' History
of the Reign of George III.," 8vo. This work, without possessing any large
share of intrinsic merit, had a curious history. The author quarrelled with the
publisher, (Mr Evans,) who, in 1782, issued a second, and, in 1794, a third

DUXCAN MAC1NTYEE. 501

volume, both written by a different person ; Mr Macfarlane, then became re-
conciled to Mr Evans, and added a fourth volume. Mr Macfarlane at one time
edited the Morning Chronicle. He was also engaged, it is said, in the pre-
paration of the Poems of Ossian, some of which he afterwards translated into
Latin verse. He had an essay upon the authenticity of those celebrated pro-
ductions in the press, when he was crushed to death in one of the mobs which
distinguished the election contest for Westminster, between Sir Francis Burdett
and Mr Mainwaring, August 8, 1804. In 1797, Mr Macfarlane published
" An Address to the People of Great Britain, on the present Fortune and fu-
ture Prospect of Public Affairs," by which it appears that he had now become
more attached to the government than he had formerly been. In 1801, he
published an English translation of Buchanan's celebrated tract, " De Jure
liegni," prefaced with two disputations, in which there is much curious anti-
quarian and historical matter.

MACINTYRE, Duncan, one of the best of the modern Highland poets,
was born in Druimlaiquhart, in the district of Glenorchy, Argyleshire, on the
20th March, 1724. He was the child of poor parents, and never received the
slightest tincture of school learning. He was engaged in the civil war of
1745, but on the loyal side. Local and family ties made him a member of
the large force which Argyleshire sent forth on that occasion to support the
government, and he fought at the battle of Falkirk under the command of colonel
Campbell of Carahin. It is not to be inferred on this account that he had any
antipathy to the cause in which so many of his countrymen were engaged. He
was involved in the disgraceful retreat of the king's troops, in which he lost his
sword, circumstances which gave him no small degree of mortification, as he has
himself shown by the clever song which he wrote upon the occasion. At what
period of his life he commenced the composition of poetry, is not known. His
only models in the art must have been those legendary verses of various kinds
and ages, which the Highlanders used to recite by the winter fire-side, and hand
down from one generation to another, by oral communication.1 Of the gram-
matical principles of language, he must have been completely ignorant ; his
knowledge would be confined in a great measure to the objects of his own High-
land vale, and to the Scriptural lore which he would hear occasionally expounded
in the parish church. He possessed, however, the genuine talent of the poet —
not only that natural eloquence which supplies imagery and suggests incident
and allusion, but that felicitous power of expression, which from its being alike
found in the untutored Burns and the refined Horace, ought to be considered
as much a native gift as any other. This poor Highlander — the reader cannot
conceive any man poorer in the goods of fortune — is said to exhibit in his
poetry a purity and aptitude of diction, and a harmony of versification, such as
are not surpassed in the poetry of any age or country. He may not only, in-
deed, be introduced here as a Scotsman who has earned a respectable fame,
but he might be instanced, in works more expressly devoted to the consider-
ation of the intellectual powers of men, as a singular specimen of original and
brilliant talent, altogether unfavoured by direct instruction, and going content-
edly side by side for a long life with a character of the most simple and un-
worldly kind.

Being an excellent marksman, Duncan — or, as he was generally styled by
his countrymen, Donacha Ban, (fair-haired Duncan) — was appointed forester to
the earl of Breadalbane in Coire-Cheathaich and Bein Dourain, and thereafter
to the duke of Argyle, in Buachill-Gie. In 1768, a volume of his poems was

1 There was not a printed book in the Gaelic language which contained any sort of poetry
except the Psalms, until Alexander Macdonald published his Gaelic Songs in 1751.

502 DUNCAN MACINTYRE.

published at Edinburgh, under the descriptive title of "Orain Ghaidhealach, le
Donacha 3Iac-an-t-soir ; ■ it was reprinted in 1790, and again in 1804,3 and
has long been out of print. One of the poems in this volume was " Oran na
Briogais," or, as it may be freely rendered, " The Anathema of the Breeks,"
being a pretty open expression of the most disloyal sentiment on the part of
the author, respecting the abolition of the Highland, and" the substitution of the
Lowland dress, which formed one of the measures of the government for break-
ing the Jacobite spirit, after the rebellion of 1745. It is well known that the
Highlanders in general resented this measure very bitterly, and none more so
than such as, like Macintyre, had been loyal to the king during the late
broils. They deemed the breeches at once a literal and emblematic restraint —
a thing unsuited to their habits as well as tastes — and, as is plainly intimated
by Donacha Ban, a sufficient cause of offence to cause a universal rising in fa-
vour of prince Charles, should he ever again appear in the country. Of the
spirit of this poem we can give no fair specimen — though the first stanza has
been cleverly rendered in the following terms : —

My curse upon the grey breeks,
That bind our supple limbs so light

We're fetter- bound in slavery ;

And right is now o'ercome by might.

Had we been faithful to our king,

We ne'er should have to dree such thing,

But light's a bird upon the wing
Might be each free-born mountain wight.

When by the exertions of the marquis of Graham, the act for abolishing the
Highland dress was repealed (1782), Macintyre celebrated the event in a
paean of clamorous joy, such as would have done honour to a repelled invasion or
a liberated country. These poems, with an English translation, are to be found
in the Cambrian and Caledonian 3Iagazine for October, 1S33.

In 1793, the poet, though advanced to a considerable age, became a private
in a fencible regiment then raised by the earl of Breadalbane, in which situation
he continued till the corps was disbanded in 1799. It is probably to a period
antecedent to either of these dates, that we are to ascribe an anecdote of Mac-
intyre, which was related to the editor of this dictionary by the late Mr Alex-
ander Campbell, editor of Albyn's Anthology. The earl of Breadalbane, being
anxious to provide permanently for the latter life of his ingenious dependent,
consulted the poet himself, as to the way in which he thought that object might
be best accomplished. Macintyre, whose whole life had been passed in the
humblest obscurity, undisturbed by so much as a wish for any thing better, took
some time to consider the matter, and to make inquiries, and then came to his
lordship with a request that he would exert his influence to procure a place for
him in the city-guard of Edinburgh, a military police whom Sir Walter Scott
has since rendered classical by his pen ; but who were then the altei-nate scoft'
and terror of their fellow townsmen at sixpence a day ! Into this antiquated
corps — for such it was, both in its general character, and in respect of the age
of most of its members — Macintyre was accordingly transplanted ;4 thus ex-
changing the Highland solitude, whence the inspiration and enjoyment of his
whole life had been derived, for the duties of a peace-officer in one of the most
crowded streets in the world, where every object must have been to him artificial

8 " Gaelic Songs by Duncan Macintyre."

3 With some additional poems composed during these intervals.

* He composed a poem in Edinburgh, in which he shows the poetical talent of nice ob-
servation, describing ever} remarkable or novel object, but without auv expression of sur-
prise.

DUNCAN MACINTYRE. 503

and strange. It is an affecting illustration, however, of the pleasure which un-
ambitious minds may derive from humble sources, that the poet wrote upon this oc-
casion a self-gratulatory ode, in which he expresses quite as bounding a transport at
his accession to a salary of sixpence a day, as Napoleon could have done at the
addition of a kingdom to his dominions. We have thought this poem so extra-
ordinary a curiosity in its way, as to make a translation of it, with which we
have been furnished by an obliging friend, the example to be presented in
this place of the style of Macintyre, so far as the unavoidable formality and
tameness of a literal English version can exemplify the exquisite graces of the
Gaelic bard.

TRANSLATION OF VERSES TO HIS MUSKET

BY DUNCAN MACINTYUE.

Many a turn of fortune may happen to a man,
He may fall in love with one he may not get —
I devoted twenty years to the first I fancied,
But she forsook me and I was left alone.

I came to Edinburgh to seek a sweetheart:
Said captain Campbell in the town guard,
That he knew a widow in a secret place,
And would endeavour to put her in my way;

He did, as he was wont, fulfdl his promise ;

He gave her to me by the hand, and her portion with her.

Whoever may ask her name or surname,

They call her Janet,8 and George was her grandsire.

She is quiet and affable, without gloom or vexing look,
And as high in rank as any lady in the land;
She is the means of my support since she joined me —
Great is the cause of grief to him who has not got her.

I have forsaken Nic-Coshum,' tho' she still lives,

And allowed the crested stags to wander where they please ;

I have chosen a young wile, which I do not repent ;

I am not without wealth since 1 espoused the fair one.

I pass my word that she is most excellent,

And that I never discovered any hidden fault in her;

She is stately, fine, straight, and sound,

Without defect or blemish, twist or bend.

When needy folks are pinched for money,
George's daughter will not let my pocket be empty ;
She keeps me in drink in the alehouses,
And pajs every stoup that I call for.

She does every turn as I bid her,

She tells me no lie nor false story;

She keeps my family as well as 1 could wish,

Though I do no labour nor dirty work.

I worked laboriously though I amassed no wealth,
I vowed that I would disdain to be a menial ;
I have ceased to toil since I have remarked
That the idle man endures longest.

It is my loving wife who will not deceive me :
She is able alwavs to earn my bread,
I shall have no lack of clothes or linen,
And worldly cares now give me no concern.

6 A bveword for a regimental firelock, but never applied to any other gun.

7 A favourite fowling piece to which he composed another song.

501 GEORGE MACKENZIE.

How long lie remained in the situation alluded to has not been ascertained.
The latter years of his life were spent in Edinburgh, and are said to have been
cheered by the bounty of the earl of Breadalbane. He died in that city, October,
1812, In the 89th year of his age.

** In his young days," says the author of Bibliotheca Scoto-Celticn, " 3Iao-
intyre Mas remarkably handsome, and throughout his whole life, he possessed a
very easy and agreeable disposition. Although, when provoked, his enemies
generally felt the effects of his pride and resentment, yet to his benefactors he
was equally grateful. He was very fond of company and a cheerful glass, and
was not only very agreeable over his bottle, but also very circumspect. Al-
though Macintyre discovered an early inclination to poetry, he did not produce
any thing till the memorable battle of Falkirk, a description of which forms
the first song in the valuable collection published by him, wherein it is said to
have been his first regular attempt at composition. The collection contains
lyric, comic, epic, and religious compositions, of such merit as renders it diffi-
cult to say in what department of poetry this writer most excelled. * * His
poetical talents justly entitled him to rank among the first of Celtic bards, for
•ill good judges of Celtic poetry agree that nothing like the purity of his Gaelic,
and the style of his poetry, has appeared in the Highlands.8 Of Donacha Ban it
might justly be said,

• Nan leabhadh eas' og each oran a's sgeul,
Cha chuireadh neach bed a ghlas-ghuib air a' bheul !' "

MACKENZIE, Georoe, first earl of Cromarty, a distinguished political and
literary character, was born in the year 1630, being the eldest son of Sir John
Mackenzie of Tarbat, by Margaret, daughter of Sir George Erskine of Innerteil,
one of the senators of the college of justice. He succeeded his father in 1654,
and acted a conspicuous pai't in the irregular warfare carried on at that period
by general Middleton, against the forces of Cromwell. After the Restoration,
when Middleton received an earldom, and was appointed to the direction of
Scottish affairs, Sir George Mackenzie became his principal confidant, and had
a prominent share in the transactions connected with the celebrated billeting
act, which ended in the common disgrace of the earl and Sir George. The
latter, consequently, remained unemployed throughout the whole administration
of the duke of Lauderdale. He afterwards obtained that promotion to which
his extraordinary talents entitled him. In 1678, he was appointed justice
general for Scotland, and, in 1681, a lord of session, and lord register. In
16 85, James II. created him viscount of Tarbat, by which name he is best
known. Though an active and unscrupulous agent of the two last Stuarts, he

8 Note by a correspondent. — All this must be taken in a very qualified sense. There is
nothing approaching to sublimity in the whole range of Macintyre's compositions. His poem in
praise of Bendourain is in somewhat of a heroic strain ; but it scarcely deserves the name of
Epic. Alexander Macdonald was far superior to him in what is usually understood by the
term genius ; but from his classical education he was less scrupulous about the purity of his
style, and his works abound in classical allusions. It is to the purity of his language, and the
harmony of his numbers,' that Macintyre owes his fame in a great measure. In these quali-
ties he is almost equalled if not rivalled by Mary Macleod, an untutored poetess, but her
compositions are not so numerous, and she had not the varied talent of Macintyre. As al-
ready said, his poetry is chiefly of a descriptive character, and Dr Johnson's criticism on
Thomson's Seasons may be applied to him, with this qualification, that his comprehension of
the vast was not equal to his attention to the minute. His love songs are reir.arkable for
delicacy of sentiment — and his descriptions of the chase are very animated. Here he was
quite at home. Some of his pieces are valuable as descriptive of country manners, now al-
most extinct. He may be called the Pope of the Highlands, as Macdonald was the Byron,
and William Ross the Burns. Macdonald had more originality of genius than any of the
Highland poets; but it was irregular and not under proper restraint — Hos=, for tenderness
and sensibility, was what Burns may be supposed to have been if he had been born and bred
in the Highlands. Macintyre was more agreeable.

R GE

(DKtEWZDIEo

1NAL PAINTING IN" THE ADVOCATES lIBHAiOT CTmBrRGH .

KJW; Er'.NBl'I,<Tt. X- LONDON.

V

SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE.

505

had no objection to continue in employment under the system of things estab-
lished at the Revolntion. But king William, to whom he lost no time in paying
his respects, did not think proper to employ him till 1692, when his lordship
was restored to his office of lord register.

Here the evil habits he had contracted under the late government appear to
have still clung to him. The spirit which induced Charles II. to say, that, though
Lauderdale was complained of by the people, he did not seem to have done any
thing contrary to the interests of the sovereign, was what animated this veteran
instrument of arbitrary authority. Having been accused of falsifying the mi-
nutes of parliament for private objects, he does not appear to have paid the least
regard to the truth or falsity of the charge : in his defence, addressed to Mr
Carstairs, he dwells only on the malice which animated his accusers, and on
the constancy of his own attachment to the king. He found it necessary, how-
ever, to retire upon a pension of £400 a-year. In a subsequent letter, he is
found petitioning for a remission, and in such terms as gives a curious idea of
the state of moral feeling among politicians in that age : — " I wish," says he,
" to have a very general remission sent me, because I see faults fisli't for in
others upon as great grounds. If it comes, let it contain treason, perduellion,
and a general of all crimes ; though, on all that's sacred, I know not myself
guilty, nor do I fear any thing on this side Irish witnesses or evidence." At
the accession of queen Anne, this able statesman was made secretary of state
for Scotland ; an office which he resigned in 1704, for that of justice general.
In 1703, he was elevated to the dignity of earl of Cromarty. Having resigned
the justice generalship in 1710, lie retired some years after, to his seat of New
Tarbat, in Ross-shire, intending, without any apparent regard to his advanced
age, to live there in an economical manner for six years, in order that he might
be subsequently enabled to reside in London. The design was almost at the
very outset interrupted by death ; his lordship expiring, August 17, 1714. He
has an elegant obelisk erected to his memory in the neighbourhood of Dingwall.

The earl of Cromarty, notwithstanding the faults already alluded to, is ac-
knowledged to have been a good-natured man, " possessed of a great measure of
polite learning, and good parts, and master of an extraordinary gift of pleasing
and diverting conversation, which rendered him one of the most entertaining
companions in the world. He was one of the original fellows of the Royal So-
ciety, and reckoned among the ablest members of that learned body ; in the
Philosophical Transactions, many papers of his lordship may be seen. His other
publications, arranged in chronological order are, 1. A Vindication of king Robert
III. from the imputation of Bastardy, Edin. 1695, 4to. — 2. The mistaken Advan-
tage of Raising of Money, Edin. 1695, 4ta — 3. Letter to the Earl of Wemyss,
concerning the Union with England, 1706, 4to. — 4. Friendly Response to a
Letter concerning Sir George Mackenzie's and Sir John Nisbet's Observations and
Response on the matter of the Union, 1706, 4to. — 5. Synopsis Apocalyptica,
or, a Short and Plain Explication of Daniel's Prophecy, and of St John's Reve-
lation in concert with it, 1707, 4to.— 0. Historical Account of the Conspiracy
of the Earl of Gowrie and of Robert Logan of Restalrig, against king James

VL, 1713, Svo 7. A Vindication of the same from the Mistakes of Mr John

Anderson, Preacher of Dumbarton, in his Defence of Presbytery, 1714, Svo.

MACKENZIE, (Sir) George, a celebrated lawyer and state officer, and per-
h.ips the first Scotsman who wrote the English language in a style approaching
to purity, was born at Dundee, in 1636. His father was Simon Mackenzie of
Lochsliii, brother of the earl of Seaforth, and his mother Elizabeth Bruce,
daughter of Dr Peter Bruce, principal of St Leonard's college, St Andrews.
His progress at school was so rapid, that in his tenth year he was master of

50G SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE.

all the classical authors usually taught in schools. He afterwards studied Greek
and philosophy in the universities of St Andrews and Aberdeen, and civil law
in that of Bourges in France; and, in January, 1659, before the termination of
his twenty-third year, entered as an advocate at the Scottish bar.

In 1660, he published his Aretina, or Serious Romance, in which, according
to his kind biographer, Ruddiman, he gives " a very bright specimen of his gay
and exuberant genius." His talents must have been early observed and appre-
ciated, for in 1661, his third year at the bar, he was selected as one of the
counsel of the marquis of Argyle, then tried by a commission of parliament for
high treason. On this occasion, he acted with so much firmness, and even bold-
ness, as at once established his character. As the counsel for Argyle were ap-
pointed by parliament, they presented a petition under form of protest, that in
the defence of their client, they might not be made responsible for every ex-
pression they might utter, but that a latitude and freedom of expression, suitable
to the extent and difficulty of the charges they were called upon to canvass,
might be allowed them. This being peremptorily refused, Sir George and his
associates took such steps, in consequence, as subjected them to the imminent
risk of a charge of treason : " it is impossible to plead for a traitor," said the
young lawyer, " without speaking treason ! " an antithesis certainly more bold
than true, but calculated to make a considerable impression upon the multitude.
The counsel only escaped from the consequences of their rashness by the special
mercy of the court.

The purely literary labours of this eminent person, appear to have been
chiefly executed during his earlier years. His " Religio Stoici, or a short Dis-
course upon several divine and moral subjects," appeared in 1663. Two years
afterwards, he published his Moral Essay upon Solitude, preferring it to
public employment, with all its appendages, such as fame, command, riches,
pleasures, conversation, &c. This production was answered by the celebrated
Evelyn, in a Panegyric on Active Life. " It seems singular," says the Edin-
burgh Review, " that Mackenzie, plunged in the harshest labours of ambition,
should be the advocate of retirement, and that Evelyn, comparatively a recluse,
should have commended that mode of life which he did not choose."1 But it is
probable that each could write most freshly on circumstances disconnected with
the daily events of his life, while speculative ingenuity was all they cared to
reach in their arguments. " You had reason to be astonished," says Evelyn,
writing to Cowley, " that I, who had so much celebrated recess, should become
an advocate for the enemy. I conjure you to believe that I am still of the same
mind, and there is no person who can do more honour, and breathe more after
the life and repose you so happily cultivate and advance by your example; but
as those who praised dirt, a flea, or the gout, so have I public employment, and
that in so weak a style compared with my antagonists, as by that alone it would
appear, that I neither was nor could be serious.'' In 1667, Mackenzie pub-
lished his Moral Gallantry, one of the reflective treatises of the period, intend,
ing to prove the gentleinanliness of virtue, and the possibility of establishing all
moral duties on principles of honour — a theory supported by arguments which,
had any of the nicer metaphysical minds of the succeeding age thought fit to
drive to their ultimate principles, they might have found to be somewhat inimi-
cal to the author's hearty church of England feelings, or even the principles of
Christianity. But Mr Mackenzie was not a metaphysician, and religion re-
quired to be plainly spoken, in terms of presbyterianism or papistry, before it
attracted his legal attention. To this production he added a Consolation against
Calumnies. The fiery course of politics which he had afterwards to run, made

1 xxxvi. 5.

SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE.

507

a hiatus of considerable extent, in the elegant literary pursuits of Mackenzie;
but after his retirement from public life, he wrote another work which may be
classified with those just mentioned — The Moral History of Frugality ; nor
in this classification must we omit his Essay on Reason. Mackenzie had as-
sociated himself with the elegant wits of England, and his opportunities enabled
him, if he was inferior in the actual bullion of genius to many of his country-
men who had gone before him, to give it a more elegant, or, at least, fashion-
able form. It is probable that any direct imitation, on the part of 3Iackenzie,
may have been from the writings of Cowley, who, in the youth of the ambitious
Scottish author, was the acknowledged leader of refinement in English composi-
tion. From his opponent Evelyn, he may also have derived facilities in com-
position ; but it is probable that the best tone he assumed was imparted by the
colloquial influence of Dryden. Of Mackenzie, that great man has left an
interesting memorial : — " Had I time, I could enlarge on the beautiful turns of
words and thoughts, which are as requisite in this, as in heroic poetry itself.
W ith these beautiful turns I confess myself to have been unacquainted, till about
twenty years ago, in a conversation which I had with that noble wit of Scotland,
Sir George 31acUenzie. He asked me why I did not imitate, in my verse, the
turns of Mr Waller and Sir John Denham, of whom he repeated many to me.
I had often read with pleasure, and with some profit, these two fathers of our
English poetry, but had not seriously enough considered their beauties, which
give the last perfection to their works. Some sprinkling of this sort I had also
formerly in my plays, but they were casual and not designed. But this hint,
thus seasonably given me, first made me sensible of my own wants, and brought
me afterwards to seek for the supply of them in other English authors." This
is given by Dryden in his Discourse on the Origin and Progress of Satire, pre-
fixed to his Juvenal, published two years after 3Iackenzie"s death. Mackenzie
is characterized by the Edinburgh Review, as having been in his style not exempt
from Scotticisms: "but he is perfectly free from those, perhaps, more disagree-
able vices, into which more celebrated Scottish writers have been betrayed, by a
constant fear of Scotticism. He composes easily and freely, and his style is that
of a man who writes his native language." Meanwhile, along with his elegant
prose, he found time and inclination to dabble in poetry. Sometime during his
early years, at the bar, he wrote " Celias' Country House and Closet/' a poem in
English epics, and written in a manner more nearly akin to the style of Pope
and his contemporaries, than that which flourished in the author's own time.
Such a passage as the following will enable the reader to comprehend at once
the merit of the work, and, taking into consideration the political life of the
author, its artificial feeling : —

" O happy country life, pure as its air;
Free from the rage of pride, the pangs of care ;
Here happy souls lie bathed in soft content,
And are at once secure and innocent.
No passion here but love : here is no wound,
But that by which lovers their names confoun.l
On barks of trees, whilst with a smiling face,
They see those letters as themselves embrace."

Country life, and love in the midst of it, were standing characteristics of the
fashionable poetry of the period, and the stormy politician, anxious, like Riche-
lieu, to distinguish himself in song, must submit to them, as absolutely as the
love-sick swain, to whom they are a natural habit. The author seems to have
been apprehensive that the fruit of his more elegant studies would not give the

50S SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE.

world a favourable opinion of his professional attainments. ** The multi-
tude, " he says in the conclusion to his Religious Stoic, " (which, albeit, it halli
ever been allowed many heads, yet hath never been allowed any brains.) will
doubtless accuse my studies of adultery, for hugging contemplations so eccentric
to my employment. To these my return is, that these papers are but the par-
ings of my other studies, and because they were but parings, I have flung them
out into the streets. I wrote them in my retirements, when I wanted both
books and employment ; and I resolve, that this shall be the last inroad I shall
ever make into foreign contemplations."

Let us now turn from iiis literature to the political and professional advance-
ment, which interfered with its progress, or at least changed its course. Soon
after the Restoration, he was appointed a justice-depute, or assistant to the justi-
ciar or chief justice ; a situation, the duties of which were almost equivalent to
that of an English puisne judge of the present day, in criminal matters. He
must have received the appointment very early in life, as in 1G61, he and his
colleagues were appointed to repair " once in the week at least to ."Musselburgh
and Dalkeith, and to try and judge such persons as are ther or therabout de-
lated of witchcraft ;*' and the experience in the dark sciences, obtained by him
in this occupation, provided him with much grave and learned matter for his
work on the criminal law of Scotland. Within a few years after this period,
(the time is not particularly ascertained,) he was knighted. In 16G9, he repre-
sented the county of Ross, where the influence of his family was extensive, in
parliament During that year, the letter of Charles, proposing the immediate
consideration of a plan for an incorporating union of the two kingdoms, was
read in parliament. Sir George, an enemy to every thing which struck at the
individual consequence and hereditary greatness of the country, in which he held
a stake, opposed the proposition. He tells us, in his amusing memoirs of the
period, that when the commissioner proposed an answer, closing with the king's
proposals, and entitling him to the election of the commissioner, he moved, that
the parliament should have a day for the consideration of so serious a matter,
as there might be questions about succession to be discussed, " whereupon the
commissioner rose in a great passion, and told that he consented that the par-
liament should deliberate upon the letter now read till to-morrow ; but that he
understood not, how any member of parliament could be so bold as to inquire
into the succession, upon a supposition that his majesty, and all the present royal
line, should fail." Next day, Sir George came prepared with a speech on the
subject Of this somewhat interesting effort, he has given us a transcript, which
is generally understood to be the earliest authentically reported specimen of
legislative eloquence in Scotland. It is compact, clear, accurate, well com-
posed, without flights of ardour, and, therefore, destitute of the burning impetu-
osity which afterwards distinguished Fletcher and Belhaven. On the whole, it
appears, in its present form at least, to have been composed in the closet His
reasoning, when the aim is considered, was prudent and cautious — he considered
and doubted " whether it was suitable to our honour, to advance in this union
those steps, before England met us in one : and that we have done so in this
letter, appears from this, that to' treat of an union is one step ; the second is to
name commissioners ; the third is to appoint their quorum, time, and place
of their meeting : all which are several steps because they behoved, if they
had been concluded in parliament, to have had several votes and conclusions."
He also doubted, " whether it were fitter for his majesty's service, and the in-
tended treaty, that the nomination of the commissioners should be referred to
his majesty, or rather that they should be nominated in parliament." His
speech gave great oH'ence to those who had peculiar grounds for objecting to

SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE. 509

long harangues. "About the close of his discourse, he was interrupted by the
earl of Tiveeddale, who said, that such long discourses were intolerable, espe-
cially where tliey intended to persuade the parliament not to comply with his
majesty's desires — which interruption was generally looked upon as a breach of
privilege — and it was desired by duke Hamiltoun, that the earl of Tiveeddale
should go to the bar ; but the gentleman who was interrupted declared, that he
had not been interrupted, but had finished his discourse; and, thereupon, that
motion took no further effect." Sir George sought distinction in his course
through parliament by popular measures. In 1669, an act had been passed,
compelling merchants to make oath as to their having paid duties on their mer-
chandise. " The commissioner had that day said, that the stealing of live king's
customs was a crime, which was to be provided against: whereupon, Sir George
Mackenzie replied, that if it was a crime, no man could be forced to swear for it ;
for by no law under heaven was it ever ordained that a man should swear in what
was criminal. This, and all other passages of that day, joined with Sir George
owning the burghs, in which it was alleged he had no proper interest, made his
grace swear, in his return from the parliament, that he would have that factious
young man removed from the parliament : to effectuate which, he called a
council of his favourites, and it was there contrived, that his election should be
quarrelled, because he held only lands of the bishop of Ross, but not of his
majesty, and so was not a free baron. But they were at last diverted from this
resolution by the register, who assured them, that this would make the people
jealous of some close design to overturn their liberties, which, as they be-
lieved, that gentleman defended upon all occasions ; and that he would glory
in his exclusion, because it would be believed that they could not effec-
tuate their intentions, if he were allowed to keep his place in parlia-
ment." Such is his own account of his parliamentary conduct, — it may be
correct in point of fact, and he has abstained from any mention of the mo-
tives. He opposed the act of forfeiture against the western rebels, insist-
ing that no man ought to be found or proved guilty in absence. His account
of the opposition of the advocates on the subject of appeals, along with his
somewhat suspicious conduct towards his rival Lockhart, have been already de-
tailed." Sir lieorge Mackenzie would have gone to the grave with the charac-
ter of a patriot, had he not been placed in a position where serving a king was
more beneficial than serving the people. On the 23d of August, 1677, he was
named king's advocate, on the dismission of Sir John Nisbet The object of
the change was a subject of deep and well founded suspicion. Sir George
states that his precursor, " a person of deep and universal learning, having dis-
obliged my lord Hatton, he procured a letter to the lords of session, ordaining
them to make inquiry into his having consulted pro et con. in the case of the
lord chancellor and lord .Melville, concerning the tailzie of the estate of Leven,"
and Sir George amiably represents himself as having persuaded Nisbet to stand
to his defence. Wodrow observes that he was appointed, "some say upon a very
sordid reason ;" and Burnet distinctly states, that it was for the purpose of
prosecuting .Mitchell, who had been pardoned four years before for the attempted
murder of Sharpe: at all events this was his first duty in his high office — it was
one which on the whole required some address. Mackenzie had prepared him-
self', by having been counsel for Mitchell when he was previously tried. " He
was' a very great instrument." siys Wodrow, " in the hands of the presbyterians,
and was scare* ever guilty of moderating any harsh proceedings against them,
in the eyes of the prel.tes themselves." As the trial of the earl of Argyle in
1661, was the first important political case in which he had tried his powers as
2 Iii the Life of Sir George Lockhart.

510 SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE.

a defender, so was that of his son in 1681, the first which exercised his abilities
as a state prosecutor. In the father's case he had to resist the oppressive fic-
tions of the crown lawyers, but all he suffered was amply repaid on the son.
After this celebrated trial, he appears to have obtained, as part of the spoil, a
gift of the barony of Bute, ratified by the parliament of 168 1.3 On the re-
capture of the earl after his escape, Mackenzie was one of those who objected
to a new trial, and he accordingly recommended his suffering on his former
sentence ; he is alleged to have done so from the probability, that, owing to the
extreme injustice of the sentence, his heirs might probably be restored to their
heritage. If such was indeed his motive, no man was ever more improvident of
his own fame, or disinterested in sacrificing it for others ; but Mr Laing has
shrewdly observed, " no doubt Sir George at the Revolution would assume that
merit with Argyle's son, when they sat together in the eonvention parliament.
But he was the man who procured, when king's advocate, that illegal sentence,
on which he moved for Argyle's execution."' Meanwhile his professional inge-
nuity had been employed in the case of the lawburrows, by which a legal form,
useful in the defence of the subject against lawless aggression, was, by adding
to its natural power the weight of the royal influence, made an engine of op-
pression. It would be a rain task to enumerate the minor state prosecutions,
which, in this eventful period, gave full employment to this active servant of
government — most of them are well known, and they were at any rate numer-
ous enough to stamp him in the minds of his opponents with a character which
must live with his name — " The blood-thirsty advocate." In the year 16 SO,
he tried the celebrated Cargill, who, among other acts of inefficacious spiritual
authority, had pronounced sentence of excommunication on the lord advocate.
When the indictment was read, bearing, in the ordinary terms, that the
accused " having cast off all fear of God," &c, the clerk was interrupted by
Cargill, who said, " The man who hath caused this paper to be drawn up, hath
done it contrary to the light of his own conscience, for he knoweth that I have
been a fearer of God from my infancy; but that man, I say, who took the holy
Bible in his hand, and said it would never be well with the land till that book
was destroyed, I say, he is the man who hath cast off all fear of God." In 1684,
after the escape of Sir Hugh Campbell, it being felt necessary that Baillie of Jer-
viswood should suffer, Mackenzie's energies were exercised on the occasion ; and he
gained the gratitude of the court, by doing what was wanted. Fountainhall has a
characteristic note about his proceedings at this period. <! Sir William Scott, of
Harden, fined in 1500 lb. sterling, for his ladie's being at a conventicle, and being
at one himself. It was said the king's advocate, Sir George Mackenzie, got a
previous gift of this fine, for journeys to London."3 Sir George found it neces-
sary to attempt a vindication of his acts, under the title of " A Vindication of the
Government of Charles II.," which, lord Woodhouselee calmly observes, " will
fully justify his conduct in the breast of every man whose judgment is not
perverted by the same prejudices, hostile to all government, which led those
infatuated offenders to the doom they merited."6 Sir George was a calm and
thinking man, and his vindication bears the aspect of candour ; but it is de-
ficient in conclusiveness. " No age," he says, " did see so many thousands
pardoned, nor so many indemnities granted, as was in his time : which, as it
must be principally ascribed to the extraordinary clemency of the kings he
served, so it may be in some measure imputed to the bias which Sir George had
to the merciful hand." Sir George leaves out of view, that it is possible for
one lord advocate so far to exceed another in the number of his prosecutions,

3 Acts, viii. 679. * History, ii. 154. » Fountainhall's Notes, 70.

6 Life of Karnes, i. Aj). 12.

SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE.

511

as both to acquit and sacrifice more than the whole number accused by his
brethren. It was not those who were forgiven, but those who were not for-
given, that fix upon the reign of Charles II., and also upon his Scottish adve-
cate, the indelible character of oppression and blood-thirstiness. It must, at the
same time, be allowed, that the acute mind of Sir George Mackenzie was never
asleep to practical improvements in jurisprudence, although the lust of power
was sufficient to subdue his efforts, or turn them into another course. While he
wielded the sword of persecution himself, he did much to unfit it for the use of
others. He countenanced and cherished a principle, which called for the exa-
mination of all witnesses in criminal cases, in presence of the accused, instead of
the secret chamber of the privy council. A frightful fiction of the law of both
countries, by which no evidence could be led by a prisoner in opposition to the
assertions of the libel made by the prosecutor, as representing the king, was
removed by Sir George, forty years before it ceased to exist in England ; and
he put a stop to the system of permitting the clerk of court to be enclosed with
the king, for the purpose of assisting him. This was done with a view to pre-
serve the independence of jurymen ; but let it be remarked, that in his work on
criminal law, he advises the total abolition of trial by jury. In 1686, Mac-
kenzie showed that he had a feeling of conscience, and that his religion, if en-
tirely political, was not accurately squared to personal aggrandizement, by suf-
fering himself to be dismissed for not agreeing to the catholic projects of James
II. In 1688, however, lie was restored, on the advancement of his successor,
Dalrymple, to the presidency of the court of session.7 The Revolution ter-
minated his political career. At this feverish moment of struggle and disap-
pointment, he could so far abstract his mind from politics, as to perform the
greatest public service which is even now connected with his name, by founding
the Advocates1 Library. The inaugural speech which was pronounced on the
occasion, is preserved in his works. The institution has flourished, and re-
deems Scotland from the imputation of not possessing an extensive public
library. After the Revolution, Sir George threw himself into the arms of the
university of Oxford, the fittest receptacle for so excellent a vindicator of the
old laws of divine right He was admitted a student on the 2nd of June, 1690 ;
but he did not long live to feel the blessings of the retirement he had praised,
and for the first time experienced. He died at St James's on the 2nd May,
1691. He was still remembered in the national feeling as a great man, and
his funeral was one of unusual pomp. He lay several days in state in the
abbey of Holyrood House, whence his body was conveyed to the Grey Friars'
churchyard, attended by a procession, consisting of the council, the nobility,
the college of justice, the college of physicians, the university, the clergy, and
many others.

Sir George wrote several works of a more laborious cast than those to which
we have referred. His Institute of the Law of Scotland is well arranged, but,
in comparison with the profoundness of Dalrymple, is meagre, and its brevity
makes it of little use. His Laws and Customs in Matters Criminal, is full of
useful information, and is the earliest arrangement (though not a very clear one)
of our criminal code. His " Observations on the Laws and Customs of Nations
as to Precedency, with the Science of Heraldry as part of the Law of Nations,"
is esteemed by heralds. When Stillingfleet and Lloyd made their critical at-
tacks on the fabulous history of Scotland, Sir George, who seemed to consider
it a very serious matter to deprive his majesty of forty ancestors, wrote in 1680
" A Defence of the Royal Line of Scotland," in which he comes forward as his
majesty's advocate, and distinctly hints to the contemners of the royal bne,

1 Fountiiinhall, 267.

512 IIENltY MACKENZIE.

that, had they written in Scotland, he might have had occasion to put his autho-
rity in force against them. These works, along with the observations on the acts
of parliament, and some other minor productions, were edited by Iluddiman, in
two handsome folio volumes, in 1722. His " Memoirs," or account of his own
times, certainly the most interesting of all his works, though promised at
that time, was withheld through the timidity of his friends. When long lost
sight of, the greater part of it has of late years been recovered to the world. It
is full of graphic pictures of the state of the times ; and if not so descriptive in
character as Clarendon or Burnet, is often more lively in the detail of inci-
dent, and more acute in perceiving the selfish motives of the actors.

MACKENZIE, Henry, one of the most illustrious names connected with
polite literature in Scotland. He was born at Edinburgh in August 1745,
while the citizens were preparing, by ineffectual fortifications, for the dreaded
attack of prince Charles Stuart, then collecting his army in the Highlands.1
The nativity of Mr Mackenzie was fixed by himself, at a public meeting which
he attended late in life, upon the venerable alley denominated Libertori's Wynd,
now removed in order to admit of a bridge for the connexion of the High
Street with the southern districts of the city. His father was t)r Joshua, or (as
his name is spelt in the Scots Magazine for 1800, where his death is recorded)
Josiah Mackenzie, an eminent physician. Dr Mackenzie was, we believe, a na
tive of Fortrose, upon the Moray frith, but had removed in early life to Edin-
burgh, where he acquired an extensive practice as a physician, and distinguished
himself in the world of letters as author of a volume of Medical and Literary
Essays.2 The mother of the author of the Man of Feeling was Margaret,
eldest daughter of 31r Rose of Kilravock, a gentleman of ancient family in
Nairnshire.

After being educated at the high school and university of Edinburgh, Mr
Mackenzie, by the advice of some friends of his father, was articled to Mr Inglis
of Redhall, in order to acquire a knowledge of the business of the Exchequer,
a law department, in which he was likely to have fewer competitors than in any
other in Scotland. To this, though not perfectly compatible with the literary
taste which he very early displayed, he applied with due diligence ; and, in
1765, went to London to study the modes of English Exchequer practice, which,
as well as the constitution of the court, were similar in both countries. While
there, his talents induced a friend to solicit his remaining in London, and quali-
fying himself for the English bar. But the anxious wishes of his family that he
should reside with them, and the moderation of an unambitious mind, decided
his return to Edinburgh ; where he became, first, partner, and afterwards suc-
cessor, to Mr Inglis, in the oflice of attorney for the crown.

His professional labour, however, did not prevent his attachment to literary-
pursuits. When in London, he sketched some part of his first and very popular
work, The Man of Feeling, which was published in 1771, without his name,

1 Sir Walter Scott, in the memoir of Mr Mackenzie, prefixed to his novels in Ballan-
tyne's Novelist's Library, states that his lirth took place " on the same day on which prince
Charles landed." This," however, is incompatible with the fact of Mr M. having been bom
in August, as the prince landed on the 2otli of July. We may here also mention, that the
original source of the memoir itself was not, as implied by Sir Walter, a Paris edition of the
Man of Feeling, buta publication, entitled " The British Gallery of Contemporary Portraits."

2 »« We have heard that some of Harley's feelings were taken from those of the author
himself, when, at his first entrance on the dry and barbarous study of municipal law, he was
looking back, like Blackstone, on the land of the Muses, which he was condemned to leave
behind him. It has also been said, that the fine sketch of Miss Walton was taken from the
heiress of a family of distinction, who ranked at that time high in the Scottish fashionable
world. But such surmises are little worth the tracing ; for we believe no original character
was ever composed by any author, without the idea having been previously suggested by

Sr J.TValsan Garim .

ER1IRY RDACK.-:

FROM TEE CffliG]

BLACHIE & SOU GLASGOW KTOIBUmIE & LQ1CJ :

and was so much a favourite with the public, as to become, a few years after, the
occasion of a remarkable fraud. A Mr Eccles of Bath, observing the continued
mystery as to the author, laid claim to the work as his own, pnd, in order to
support his pretensions, transcribed the whole with his own hand, with an ap-
propriate allowance of blottings, interlineations, and corrections. So plausibly
was this claim put forward, and so pertinaciously was it adhered to, that -Messrs
Cadell and Strachan, the publishers, found it necessary to undeceive the public
by a formal contradiction.

Though Mr Mackenzie preserved the anonymity of the Man of Feeling for
some years, (probably from prudential motives with reference to his business,)
he did not scruple to indulge, both before and after this period, in the literary
society with which the Scottish capital abounded. He informs us in his Life of
Home, that I13 was admitted in boyhooa as a kind of page to the tea-drinkings
which then constituted the principal festive entertainment of the more polished
people in Edinburgh ; and his early acquaintance with Hume, Smith, Robert-
son, Blair, and the rest of the literary galaxy, then in the ascendant, is evi-
denced from the same source. He was an early intimate of the ingenious blind
poet, Dr Blacklock ; and at the house of that gentleman, as we have been in-
formed by a survivor of the party, then a youthful boarder in the house, met
Dr Johnson and Boswell, when the former was passing through Edinburgh on
his journey to the Hebrides. To quote the words of our informant — " Several
strangers had been invited on the occasion, (it was to breakfast ;) and, amongst
others, Dr Mackenzie, and his son, the late Mr Henry Mackenzie. These
gentlemen went away before Dr Johnson ; and Mrs Blacklock took the oppor-
tunity of pronouncing a panegyric upon the father and son, which she con-
cluded by saying, that though Dr Mackenzie had a large family, and was mar-
ried to a lady who was his son's step-mother, nevertheless the son lived with
his own wife and family in the same house,3 and the greatest harmony obtained
among all the parties. On this Dr Johnson said, ' That's wrong, madam ;'
and stated a reason, which it Avere as well to leave unchronicled. This
settled Mrs Blacklock's opinion of the doctor. Several years ago, on call-
ing to remembrance the particulars of this breakfast with Mr Henry fllac-
kenzie, he said there was another reason for Mrs Blacklock's dislike : she had
fiiled no less than twenty-two cups of tea to Dr Johnson at this breakfast;
which, I told Mr M., was too many, for Mrs Blacklock had appointed me to
number them, and I made them only nineteen /"l

Some years after the publication of the Man of Feeling, Mr Mackenzie
published his Man of the World, which was intended as a counterpart to the
other. In his former fiction, he imagined a hero constantly obedient to every

something which he had observed in nature." — Sir Walter Scott, in Ballanlyne's Novelists'
Library.

3 Their residence was in one of the floors of a tall house at the junction of the Cowgatc and
Gr.issmarket, either above or below a floor occupied by.Mrs Syme, the maternal grandmother
of Lord Brougham.

* Our correspondent's introduction to this anecdote may be deemed worthy of the reader^
notice. " I was twice in company with Dr Johnson, when he came to Edinburgh, on his
journey to the Hebrides. Being then a boarder in Dr Blacklock's, my request to be present
at the breakfast given to Dr Johnson was readily granted. The impression which I then
received of him can never be effaced; but it was not of an unpleasant nature. He did not
appear to me to be that savage which some of my college companions had described him : on
the contrary, there was much suavity and kindness in his manner and address to Dr Black-
lock. The" blind poet generally stood in company, rocking from one side to another ; he had
remarkably small white hands, which Dr Johnson held in his great paws during the most
part of the time they conversed together, caressing and stroking them, as he might have
done those of a pretty child." It is necessary to mention, that the great moralist was, by
Boswell's showing, in one of his gt ntlest moods on this occasion.
tit. ° 3 1

514 HENRY MACKENZIE.

emotion of his moral sense. In the Man of the World, he exhibited, on the
contrary, a person rushing headlong into misery and ruin, and spreading misery
all around him, by pursuing a happiness which he expected to obtain in defi-
ance of the moral sense. His next production was Jtilia de Roubigne, a
novel in a scries of letters, designed, in its turn, as a counterpart to the 3Ian
of the World. " A friend of the author," says Sir Walter Scott, " the cele-
brated Lord Karnes, we believe, had represented to Mr Mackenzie, in how
many poems, plays, and novels, the distress of the piece is made to turn upon
the designing villany of some one of the dramatis personas. On considering
his observations, the author undertook, as a task fit for his genius, the composi-
tion of a story, in which the characters should be all naturally virtuous, and
'■vhere the calamities of the catastrophe should arise, as frequently happens in
actual life, not out of schemes of premeditated villany, but from the excess and
over-indulgence of passions and feelings in themselves blameless, nay, praise-
worthy, but which, encouraged to a morbid excess, and coming into fatal and
fortuitous concourse with each other, lead to the most disastrous consequences.
Mr Mackenzie executed his purpose ; and as the plan fell in most happily with
the views of a writer, whose object was less to describe external objects, than to
read a lesson to the human heart, he has produced one of the most heart-wring-
ing histories which has ever been written. The very circumstances which pal-
liate the errors of the sufferers, in whose distress we interest ourselves, point out
to the reader that there is neither hope, remedy, nor revenge."

In 1777 or 1778, a number of young men of literary taste, chiefly connected
with the Scottish bar, formed themselves into an association for the prosecution
of their favourite studies, which came to bear the name of the Mirror Club.
An account of this fraternity, of its members, and of the way in which they
conducted their meetings, has already been given under the article " William
Craig," being derived from the oral information of Sir William Macleod Ban-
natyne, the latest survivor of the society.5 Of the Mirror Club, Mr
3Iackenzie was readily acknowledged chief; and, accordingly, when it was
resolved to issue their literary essays in a small weekly paper, resembling the
Spectator, he was appointed to undertake the duties connected with the publi-
cation. The Mirror was commenced on the 23d of January, 1779, in the
shape of a small folio sheet, price three halfpence, and terminated on the 27th
of May, 1780 ; having latterly been issued twice a-week. Of the one hundred
and ten papers to which the Mirror extended, forty-two were contributed by
Mr Mackenzie, including La Roche, and several others of the most admired of
his minor pieces. The sale, during the progress of the publication, never ex-

5 Sir William Macleod Bannatyne was bom, January 26, 1743, O. S., and died
November 30, 1833, in his ninety-first year. He was the son of Mr Roderick Macleod,
W. S., whose sister, lady Clanranald, for protecting Prince Charles in his wander-
ings, was made prisoner, and kept for some time in confinement in London. The
" young Clanranald," who led out his clan in 1745, and took the town of Dundee, was
therefore cousin-german to Sir William. The venerable subject of this note, passed advo-
cate, January 22, 1765, and was the intimate friend of the first lord Melville, when at the
bar, and of several other eminent persons in that profession, with whom he used to meet re-
gulirly for mutual improvement in forensic and legal business. His contributions to the
Mirror were five papers, which are pointed out in the latest edition. On the resignation of lord
Swinton, In 1799, he was raised to the bench, where he performed the duties of a judge till
1823. On his retirement, he received the honour of knighthood. The remainder of his life
was spent by Sir William in a cheerful and hospitable leisure at his residence in Whiteford
House, near the bottom of the Canongate, where he was for many years the only surviving spe-
cimen of the old town gentleman. Sir William was full of anecdote and information respecting
the political history of .Scotland during the last century, and showed, in conversation with the
pn sent writer, as intimate an acquaintance, and as lively a recollection of the secrets of the
Walpole and Bute administrations, as could be displayed by any living man, respecting that
of Mr Canning or the Uuke of Wellington.

HENRY MACKENZIE. 515

ceeded four hundred copies ; but this was more than sufficient to bring it under
the notice of a wide and influential circle, and to found the reputation it
has since enjoyed. When re-published in duodecimo volumes, a considerable
sum was realized from the copyright, out of which the proprietors presented
£100 to the Orphan Hospital, and treated themselves to a hogshead of claret,
to be drunk at their ensuing meetings.

The Lounger, a work of exactly the same character, was commenced by the
same writers, and under the same editorship, February 6, 1785, and continued
once a-week till the 6th of January, 1787 ; out of the hundred and one papers
to which it extended, fifty-seven are the production of Mackenzie. One of the
latter papers the editor devoted to a generous and adventurous critique on the
poems of Burns, which were just then published, and had not yet been ap-
proven by the public voice. As might have been expected, Mackenzie dwells
most fondly on the Addresses to the Mouse and the Mountain Daisy, which
struck a tone nearest to that prevailing in his own mind.

On the institution of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Mr Mackenzie became
one of the members ; and amongst the papers with which he enriched its trans-
actions, are an elegant tribute to the memory of his friend lord Abercromby,
and a memoir on German tragedy ; the latter of which bestows high praise on
the Ernelia Galotti of Lessing, and on the Robbers by Schiller. For this
memoir he had procured the materials through the medium of a French work ;
but desiring afterwards to enjoy the native beauties of German poetry, he took
lessons in German from a Dr Okely, who was at that time studying medicine in
Edinburgh. The fruits of his attention to German literature appeared further in
the year 1791, in a small volume, containing translations of the Set of Horses
by Lessing, and of two or three other dramatic pieces. But the most remarkable
result of his studies in this department, was certainly the effect which his me-
moir produced on the mind of Sir Walter Scott, then a very young man. It
gave a direction to the genius of this illustrious person, at a time when it was
groping about for something on which to employ itself ; and, harmonizing with
the native legendary lore with which he was already replete, decided, perhaps,
tiiat Scott was to strike out a new path for himself, instead of following tamely
on in the already beaten walks of literature.

Mr 3Iackenzie was also an original member of the Highland Society ; and
by him were published the volumes of their Transactions, to which he pre-
fixed an account of the institution, and the principal proceedings of the so-
ciety. In these Transactions is also to be found his view of the controversy
respecting Ossian's Poems, and an interesting account of Gaelic poetry.

Among Mackenzie's compositions are several political pamphlets, all upon the
Tory side ; the first being " An Account of the Proceedings of the Parliament of
1784," in which he strongly defended the views of his friend, 3Ir Henry
Dundas, afterwards viscount Melville. At the time of the French Revolution,
he wrote various tracts, with the design of counteracting the progress of liberal
principles in his own country. These services, with the friendsh.p of Lord
Melville and Mr George Rose, obtained for him, in 1804, the lucrative office
of comptroller of taxes for Scotland, which he held till kis death.

In 1793 Mr Mackenzie wrote the life of Dr Blacklock, prefixed to a quarto
edition of the blind poet's works, which was published for the benefit of his
widow. Mr Mackenzie's intimacy with Blacklock, gave him an opportunity of
knowing the habits of his life, the bent of his mind, and the feelings peculiar to
the privation of sight under which Blacklock laboured. In IS 12, lie read to
the Royal Society his Life of John Home, which was some years after prefixed to
an edition of that poet's works, and also published separately. At the time lie

516 HENRY MACKENZIE.

read this paper to the Society, he also laid before them, in connexion with it,
some Critical Essays, chiefly relative to dramatic poetry, which have not been
published.

Mackenzie was himself a dramatic writer, though not a successful one. A
tragedy, written by him in early life, under the name of The Spanish Father,
was never represented ; in consequence of Mr Garrick's opinion, that the catas-
trophe was of too shocking a kind for the modern stage ; although he owned the
merit of the poetry, the force of some of the scenes, and the scope for fine act-
ing in the character of Alphonso, the leading person in the drama. In 1773, Mr
Mackenzie produced a tragedy under the title of The Prince of Tunis, which,
with Mrs. Yates as its heroine, was performed with applause for six nights, at
the Edinburgh theatre. Of three other dramatic pieces by Mr Mackenzie, the
next was The Shipwreck, or Fatal Curiosity, which might be described as an
alteration of Lilly's play under the latter of the two names. The comedies en-
titled the Force of Fashion, and The While Hypocrite, both of which were
unsuccessful, complete the list. Mr Mackenzie's grand deficiency as a dramatic
author was his inability to draw forcible characters. His novels and tales charm
by other means altogether; but in the drama, striking characters, and a skilful
management of them, are indispensable.

In 1808, Mackenzie published a complete edition of his works in eight vo-
lumes. From that period, and indeed from one considerably antecedent to it,
he might be said to have abandoned literature, though, to use his own affecting
image, as employed at one of the meetings of the Royal Society, the old stump
would still occasionally send forth a few green shoots. The patronage of the
government was unfortunately extended in a somewhat improper shape, in as
far as the office bestowed upon him, though lucrative, required unremitting per-
sonal labour. He was thus unable, even if he had been willing, to cultivate
literature to any considerable purpose. Such leisure as he possessed, he spent
chiefly in healthy recreations — in shooting, particularly, and angling, to which
he was devotedly attached, and the former of which he had practised in early
life, on the ground now occupied by the New Town of Edinburgh. He thus
protracted his clays to a healthy old age, until he finally stood amidst his fellow
men, like Noah amongst his descendants, a sole-surviving specimen of a race of
literary men, all of whom had long been consigned to the dust. His recollec-
tions of the great men who lived in his youth, were most distinct and interest-
ing; but it is to be regretted, that with the exception of what he has given in
his Life of Home, he never could be prevailed upon to commit them to paper.
The sole physical failing of his latter years was a slight deafness, which, how-
ever, seemed only to give him the greater power of speech, as, by a natural
deception of the mind, he probably conceived, that what was inaudible to him-
self, was so, or ran the risk of being so, to his hearers also. At length, after a
comparatively brief period of decline, he died, January 14, 1831, in the eighty-
sixth year of his age.

By his wife, Miss Penuel Grant, daughter of Sir Ludovick Grant, of Grant,
Bart., and lady 31ary Ogilvie, Mr Mackenzie had eleven children, the eldest of
whom was a judge of the courts of session and justiciary — and a younger, IMr
Holt Mackenzie, one of the members of the privy council.

As a novelist and essayist, Mackenzie still ranks in the first class, though,
perhaps, rather by a reflection of his former fame, than through any aciive or
sincere appreciation of his writings by the present generation. It is, perhaps,
unfair to judge of the intellectual efforts of an author, by any other age than his
own, seeing that, as Johnson well remarks, the most of men content themselves
if they only can, in some degree, outstrip their predecessors. Yet it is impos-

• MAG

SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. 517

sible to overlook that Mr Mackenzie's works are not of a kind to retain the
highest degree of popularity beyond the age in which they were written, and that
they have been surpassed by many later writers, who, from the greater competition
which they had to contend with, have not attained nearly so high an eminence.
Mr Mackenzie lived in an age, when to attain certain proprieties in language,
was looked upon as almost the summum bonum of authorship of any kind: men
had not yet become sufficiently at ease about the vehicle of their thoughts, to
direct their attention solely, or even chiefly, as they do now, to the sense which
is conveyed. Hence, we find, in his works, a faultless sweetness and delicacy
of diction, which, however, is only a mannerism, though not exactly that of an
individual — while the whole scenery, incidents, and characters, instead of being
taken directly from nature, are little more than a vivification of what have
been the stock of fictitious writers from the commencement of the art. The
real life with which Mr Mackenzie was acquainted, must have been, in a great
measure, the same from which Sir Walter Scott afterwards fashioned his immor-
tal narratives ; but this, to Mackenzie, fashion had forbidden, and he had not the
force to break through the rules of that tawdry deity. He was content to take
all his materials at second-hand, to grapple only with that literary human nature,
which, like certain dresses on the stage, runs through all books from perhaps
6ome successful model of antiquity, without ever gathering a spark of the genu-
ine article of the living world in its course. Dexterously, we allow, is the
mosaic composed, and beautiful is the crust of sentiment in which it was present-
ed. As works of art, the novels and minor stories of Mackenzie are exquisite ;
but, nevertheless, they could never have attained so great a celebrity, if they
had not appeared at a time when mere art was ehiefly regarded by the public,
and when, as yet, men esteemed nature as something not exactly fitted for draw-
ing-room intercourse.

While we thus, with great deference, express an unfavourable opinion of his
merits as a writer of fiction, we allow to Mr Mackenzie the highest credit as a
moralist, and also as a composer of language, which is to be esteemed as no
mean accomplishment, and depends more upon native gifts than is generally
supposed. The moral sense of Mackenzie was in the highest degree pure,
tender, and graceful ; and has imbued his writings with a character for which
they can hardly ever fail to be esteemed. " The principal object of all his
novels," says Sir Waller Scott, " has been to reach and sustain a tone of moral
pathos, by representing the effect of incidents, whether important or trifling,
upon the human mind, and especially on those which were not only just, hon-
ourable, and intelligent, but so framed as to be responsive to those finer feelings
to which ordinary hearts are callous." The sweet collocation of the words in
which all these efforts are made, combines to render the effect, to an extraor-
dinary degree, soothing, refining, and agreeable.

MACKINTOSH, (Sir) James, a distinguished historian and statesman, was
born on the 24th of October, 17G5, at Alldowrie, the residence of his grand-
mother, situated on the banks of Loch Ness, about seven miles from Inverness.
He was' in his own person, being the eldest of three children, the representative
of the Killochy branch of the family of Mackintosh, (a property which they ac-
quired in the fifteenth century.) and was the eleventh in descent from Allan,
third son of Malcolm, the tenth chief of the clan, who was one of the leaders
in the celebrated battle of Harlaw, fought in 1411. The lairds of Killochy, as
the eldest branch of the 3Iaokintoshes extant, were always captains of the watch
(a feudal military appointment) to the chief of the clan, and acted in this capa-
city in all the hostilities in which he happened to be engaged.

John Mackintosh of Killochy, father to the subject of this memoir, held a

518 SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.

commission for several years in Campbell's Highlanders, and was wounded in
the Seven Years' War in Germany. He was afterwards a captain in the G8th
regiment, and served with this corps for a considerable time in Gibraltar, and
other places abroad. He was a man of amiable manners and disposition, and
much esteemed by all who knew him, amongst the most remarkable of whom
was major Mercer, the author of a volume of pleasing poetry, who thus speaks
of him, sixteen years after his death, in a letter to lord Glenbervie : — " We
lived together," says this gentleman, " for two years in the same tent, without
one unkind word or look. John Mackintosh was one of the liveliest, most
good-humoured, gallant lads I ever knew."

Sir James's mother, Marjory Macgilivray, who died, at Gibraltar, while he was
yet a child, was a daughter of Alexander Macgilivray, Esq. of the state of
Carolina.

From a very early period of life the subject of this memoir discovered a sin-
gular propensity to reading ; a passion which his father, who had been himself
accustomed to an active life, and who desired that his son's pursuits should be
of a more stirring kind, endeavoured, but in vain, to subdue. Little foreseeing
the eminence to which this studious disposition was one day to raise him, he
twitted the boy with his sedentary and monotonous life ; telling him, with the
view of rousing him to an interest in what was passing around him, and of
directing his inclinations into a livelier channel, that he would become a mere
pedant. His attachment to books, however, was too deeply seated in his nature
to be removed by such sarcasms, and his father's opposition had the effect only
of driving him to do that by stealth and in secret which he had done before
openly. He rose at midnight when the family had retired to rest, lighted his
candle, and pursued his solitary studies unmolested till the approach of
morning.

In consequence of his fathei-'s being much abroad, the care of young Mac-
kintosh devolved chiefly upon his grandmother, a woman of superior endow-
ments, and to whom he was in a great measure indebted for the early discipline
which his mind received. When of sufficient age to leave home, the future
historian and statesman was sent to the academy of Fortrose, then the most dis-
tinguished seminary in that part of Scotland, and placed under the tuition of
Mr Stalker, one of the masters. Here young Mackintosh rapidly acquired,
ind continued to maintain, a marked superiority over all his schoolfellows for
ibility and application. In this remote coiner of the world, and at the early
period of his life, his future fame was .shadowed forth in a local reputation which
gave to " Jamie Mackintosh " the character of a prodigy of learning and
talent His master entertained a similar opinion of him, and, as a proof of his
confidence in his acquirements and abilities, devolved upon him, while yet a
mere boy, nearly the entire management of the classical department of the
school. At this period, too, he began to discover that talent for oratory and
declamation by which he so eminently distinguished himself in after life. The
eloquence, however, on which latterly "listening senates hung" was at this
period poured out from the top of the grave stones in the churchyard of Fort-
rose, on which the young orator used to mount in moments of enthusiasm, and
declaim from Shakspeare and Milton to a wondering, gaping, and admiring au-
dience of his schoolfellows. The political opinions which distinguished Mr
Mackintosh throughout his life were also very early formed. He was said by
a lady, a relative of his own, to have been " born a whig," but he certainly was
not this by inheritance, for his friends and connexions were all staunch tories
and Jacobites, and they did not view without regret and sorrow the apostasy of
this scion of the house of Killochy. The youthful fancy, however, of the young

SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. 519

heir to tliat venerable title had been captivated by the fluency and sentimental
descriptions of the democracies of Greece and Rome, which he found in his
favourite classics, and he formed opinions of his own on the subject of political
freedom with but little reference to the creed of his family. Pym, Hampden,
and Algernon Sidney, were the objects of his idolatry; their example excited
his imagination, and their writings imbued him with those political principles
which " grew with his growth, and strengthened with his strength." The
Utopian notions, however, which so often mislead men of weak minds, had no
such effect on Mr Mackintosh. He saw the necessity of sobering down all such
fanciful theories to the level of real life, and of pruning and adapting them to
the passions and weaknesses of human nature. He was above all impressed with
the necessity of circumscribing his ideas of political freedom, which had before
run wild, by the great outlines of the British constitution. In his own impres-
sive and figurative language, he desired, that the light which might break in on
England should be, " through well-contrived, and well-disposed windows, and
not through flaws and breaches, the yawning chasms of our ruin."

The singular talents which young Mackintosh discovered while at Fortrose,
and the extraordinary proficiency which he made in his studies, determined his
friends to bestow upon him a university education, and he was accordingly,
through the kindness of a relative, placed in King's college, Aberdeen, under
Mr Leslie. He here also attended the lectures of James Dunbar, LL.D., pro-
fessor of moral philosophy, and Mr William Ogilvie, professor of humanity.

While at Aberdeen he formed an acquaintance and intimacy with the late
Rev. Robert Hall of Leicester, which continued throughout their future lives.
They were inseparable while at college, and a biographical sketch of his
deceased friend was amongst the last literary efforts of Mackintosh. It was in-
tended for the new edition of Mr Hall's works published by Dr Gregory.

Having- acquired a complete knowledge of Greek and mathematics, Mr
Mackintosh, who had now determined on adopting the medical profession, re-
paired to Edinburgh to complete his education at the university of that city.
Here he attended the lectures of Dr Cullen and professor Black, preparatory to
his taking the degree of doctor of medicine, and applying himself to regular
practice in that profession. He also joined the well known literary club called
the Speculative Society, instituted in 1764, in which he became a keen debat-
er, and distinguished himself by the boldness of his opinions, and the ability
and eloquence with which he expounded and maintained them. Amongst his
associates at this period were Mr, afterwards lord Gillies, Mr, afterwards lord
Moucrieff, and the lato earl of Lauderdale, and amongst the number of his friends,
the illustrious author of the " Wealth of Nations," who early discovered, and
warmly encouraged, the promising talents of the young orator.

It was at this period that Mr Mackintosh's mind became seriously directed to-
wards general literature, and to moral, political, and speculative philosophy, the
result of his studying, which he did with the most serious attention, the works
of Robertson, Smith, Clark, and Brown, who were then in the zenith of their
fame. Having received his medical degree, although he had now determined
to abandon that profession, to which, indeed, he had never been attached, he
set out for London in the year 17S7, in company with the eldest son of Sir
James Grant of Grant, who had, about this period, become knight of the shire
for the county of Moray. Undetermined as to his future pursuits, he lingered
idly about the metropolis for some time, made a short visit to the continent, and
finally returned to study law, having fairly parted with physic. In the year fol-
lowing, viz. 1788, he succeeded, by the death of his father, to the estate of Kil-
lochy, now worth about £900 per annum. 31ethod and economy, however, were

520 SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.

not, at this period, amongst the number of Mr Mackintosh's virtues, and the
consequence was, that notwithstanding this handsome accession to his means,
he soon found himself involved in pecuniary difficulties of so extensive and ur-
gent a kind as compelled him to part with his patrimonial inheritance for the
very inadequate sum of £9000. Still but loosely attached to his professional
studies, he now pcrmitted'his attention to be diverted to the science of politics,
and in 1789, published a pamphlet on the Regency Question, in which he as-
serted the constitutional right of the heir-apparent to supply his father's place
in the circumstances which then gave rise to the discussion. Pitt's theory, how-
ever, prevailed, and thus the first published literary essay of Mr Mackintosh
was found upon the losing side. Hitherto he had attracted but little public
notice, and had been foiled in his attempt to obtain political celebrity. Both
of these, however, were awaiting him, and on no distant day. In 1791, he
published his celebrated work entitled " Vindiciae Gallicae, or a defence of the
French Revolution and its English admirers, against the accusations of the
right honourable Edmund Burke ; including some strictures on the late pro-
duction of Monsieur de Calonne," an octavo volume of 379 pages. This work
he sold, while yet but partly written, for a trifling sum ; but the merits and
success of the production induced the publisher to depart from the original con-
tract, and to give its author triple the sum stipulated for. The first two editions
were disposed of within four months ; and a third appeared in the end of Au-
gust, 1791. The extraordinary talent which this work displayed, procured Mr
Mackintosh an extensive and illustrious circle of acquaintances, in which were,
amongst others, Sheridan, Grey, Whitbread, Fox, the duke of Bedford, and
his celebrated antagonist, Burke himself, who soon after the appearance of the
" Vindicias," opened a correspondence with him, and it is said succeeded in chang-
ing and modifying to a considerable extent many of the opinions of its author.
Mr Mackintosh now (1792) entered himself as a student of Lincoln's Inn,
and in 1795, was called to the bar by that society ; but did not, for several
years thereafter, attain any considerable practice. He attended the courts,
however, and went the Norfolk circuits, but without much improvement to his
business.

With the view of enlarging his income, which the want of professional suc-
cess kept within narrow bounds, he, in the year 1798, announced his intention
of delivering a course of lectures on " The Law of Nature and of Nations." A
suspicion of his motives in a political point of view raised some obstacles in the
way of this attempt ; but these being effectually removed by his Introductory
Lecture, which was printed under the title of " A Discourse on the Law of Na-
ture and of Nations," and which drew the most flattering eulogiums from both
Mr Fox and Mr Pitt, he was permitted to proceed, and delivered his course in
Lincoln's Inn hall to a large and respectable audience. These " Discourses "
are allowed by all to comprehend nearly every excellency which human sagacity
and human intelligence can bring to bear on such subjects ; profundity and
felicity of thought, high intellectual power, and chaste and elegant language.

After the general election of 1802, Mr Mackintosh was retained as counsel
in several controverted cases, and acquitted himself with great ability before
committees of the house of commons, but still without attracting much public
notice as a barrister. Next year, however, a case was put into his hands which
at once gained him the highest professional reputation. This was the defence
of M. Peltier, editor of " The Ambigu," a French journal, for a libel against
Bonaparte, then first consul of France, and at that time at peace with this coun-
try. The trial took place on the 2 1st of February, 1803, in the court of King's
Bench. Mr Mackintosh stood alone and unsupported in the defence of Peltier,

SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. 521

against an array of talent on the opposite side which would have appalled any
man of less resolution, and which nothing but a strong confidence in his own
abilities and intellectual researches could have enabled him to encounter. His
principal antagonists in this case were Mr Perceval, at that period attorney general,
afterwards prime minister, and Mr Abbot, afterwards lord Tenterden. Mr Mac-
kintosh's pleading on this celebrated trial was one of the most masterly efforts of
the kind which had ever been w itnessed. It was one continued strain of powerful,
impressive, and classical eloquence. His whole energies were concentrated in
the effort, and the whole stores of his vast and retentive memory, and of bis
elegant and felicitous fancy were brought forth and mingled with the current of
his eloquence, imparting to it a richness and splendour of tint, which great
and original minds only can produce. His speech on this occasion was de-
clared by lord Ellenborough to be " the most eloquent oration he had ever
heard in Westminster Hall." A still more flattering compliment was paid the
orator by Madame de Stael, who translated the speech into French, in which
shape it was circulated throughout Europe.

Mr Mackintosh was at this period professor of general polity and the laws
in the East India college at Hertford, an appointment which the reputation he
had acquired from his " Lectures on the Law of Nature and of Nations " had
obtained for him ; but the splendid display of talent which he had exhibited in
his defence of Peltier procured him much more powerful patronage, and opened
up to him prospects more commensurate to his deserts. He now attracted the
notice of the government, by which he was considered a person who might be
profitably employed in some official situation connected with the state, and he
was accordingly offered in the same year the recordership. of Bombay. This
appointment he accepted, though not without some hesitation, and before setting
out he received the honour of knighthood. He remained in Bombay for seven
years, discharging the grave and important duties of a chief judge with an upright-
ness, integrity, and ability unsurpassed in the annals of criminal jurisprudence.
Faithful to the high trust reposed in him, he yet tempered the severity of the laws
by mingling, whenever it was possible to do so, some drops of mercy in the cups of
bitterness, which duty to his country and to society compelled him to administer.
A well judged and discriminate lenity, that lenity which makes the laws not an
object of contempt and ridicule, but of love and reverence, and which leaves no
room for grudge or reflection at their awards, formed one of the most prominent
and god-like features in the judicial character of Sir James Mackintosh. A re-
markable and beautiful instance of his application of this principle occurred
during his recordership in Bombay. Two young natives were brought before
him, tried, and convicted of having conspired to waylay and murder a Dutch-
man from Cochin. The penalty attached to the crime by the law was death.
Some circumstances in the case, however, afforded Sir James an opportunity of
extending mercy to them so far as to save their lives, and he availed himself of
it. The prisoners were in the mean time withdrawn from the bar, and during
this interval came to a resolution, between themselves, of murdering their judge
when they should be called up to receive, as they expected, sentence of death,
and for this purpose they provided themselves with knives. The design of the
ruffians was most providentially discovered in sufficient time to prevent its being
carried into effect. The sequel, a story worthy of the best days of Rome, and
of the noblest and best of her citizens, will be best told in the language which
Sir James himself addressed to the culprits, when they were brought again be-
fore him to receive the commuted sentence which his lenity had procured for
them. " I was employed,'' he said, addressing the prisoners, " in considering
the mildest judgment which public duty would allow me to pronounce on you,

522 SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.

when I learned from undoubted authority, that your thoughts towards me were
not of the same nature. I was credibly, or rather certainly informed, that you
had admitted into your minds the desperate project of destroying your own lives
at the bar where you stand, and of signalizing your suicide by the previous de-
struction of at least one of your judges. If that murderous project had been
executed, I should have been the first British magistrate who ever stained with
his blood the bench on which he sat to administer justice. But I could never
have died better than in the discharge of my duty. When I accepted the office of
a minister of justice, I knew that I ought to despise unpopularity and slander,
and even death itself. Thank God I do despise them; and I solemnly assure
you, that I feel more compassion for the gloomy and desperate state of mind
which could harbour such projects, than resentment for that part of them which
was directed against myself. I should consider myself as indelibly disgraced,
if a thought of your projects against me were to influence my judgment." He
then passed sentence on them to be imprisoned for twelve months, the exact
amount of punishment he had originally proposed.

During his residence in India, Sir James contributed a number of valuable
papers to the ** Asiatic Register," and supplied the late Dr Buchanan with a
large quantity of material for his voluminous works on India. His return to
England was hastened by a severe illness. He left Bombay in November 1811,
retiring from the Recordership with a pension of £1200 per annum.

In July 1813, a little more than twelvemonths after his arrival in his native
country, he was elected, through the interest of lord Cawdor, as representative
for the county of Nairn ; an occasion which called him to visit the friends and
the scenes of his youth; and no man could enjoy the happiness, or be more
feelingly alive to all the romantic, endearing, and delightful recollections and
associations, which the contemplation of objects familiar to our boyhood, and
from which we have been long absent, is calculated to produce. He was,
as all men of noble and generous minds are, an enthusiastic admirer of
the external beauties of nature, and his native district afforded ample induce-
ments to the indulgence of this pure and exalted taste ; a taste which he him-
self has beautifully said, " preserves those habits of reflection and sensibility
which receive so many rude shocks in the coarse contests of the Avorld."

In 1818, he was elected for Knaresborough in Yorkshire, through the in-
fluence of the duke of Devonshire, and was re-chosen at the subsequent elections
of 1820, 1826, 1830, and 1831. He was also elected Lord Rector of the uni-
versity of Glasgow in 1822, and again in 1823. Sir James was now become a
person to whom a national importance and consideration were attached, one of
the marked and elevated characters of the country, who had acquired a conven-
tional right from the soundness and capacity of his judgment, and the extraor-
dinary splendour of his abilities, to take an active and prominent part in the
management of her affairs, and a conviction of this truth prevailing in those
high quarters where it could be acted upon, he was appointed in 1828, one
of hi3 majesty's privy council, and on the formation of the Karl Grey adminis-
tration in 1830, he was made on the 1st December a commissioner for Indian
affairs.

In parliament Sir James took a prominent part in all questions connected with
foreign policy, and international law; but more especially distinguished himself
in the discussions on the alien bill, the liberty of the press, religious toleration,
the slave trade, the settlement of Greece, reform in parliament, and on the right
of our colonies to self-government. But a question still more congenial to his
philanthropic disposition and benevolent nature, than any of these, devolved
upon him on the death of Sir Samuel Romilly. This was the consideration of

SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. 523

the best means of amending the criminal law— a code which he had always
thought much too sanguinary, and, therefore, but ill adapted for the ends to
which all laws ought to be directed. He thought with Goldsmith, that " a man
might see his last crime without dying for it ; and that very little blood would
serve to cement our security.''

His speeches on this subject are full of the most enlightened and statesmanlike
views, and combine, in a wonderful degree, all the beauties of eloquence with
profound reasoning, and just and noble sentiment So beautiful, indeed, are
his orations on this subject, and so powerful the arguments which form their
frame-work, that it excites a feeling of surprise in the reader to find, that they
did not instantly accomplish the object for whose attainment they were con-
structed. They appear irresistible, and seem to comprehend every argument
on the point at issue which human ingenuity could devise. As chairman of a
committee of the house of commons, on the criminal law, in 1819, Sir James
3Iackintosh introduced six bills in the course of 3Iay, 1820. But three only
of these were at the time persisted in, and in the commutation of punishment
bill, seven of the eleven offences which it was intended to commute, were ex-
punged in the house of lords, four only being suffered to remain.

Sir James Mackintosh, as already noticed, was in politics a whig, and all his
votes and speeches in parliament were in favour of the opinions and sentiments
of that party ; but he was, perhaps, one of the most moderate and tolerant poli-
ticians that ever existed, as the natural mildness and benevolence of his disposi-
tion never failed to mingle largely in whatever character he assumed, whether
author, statesman, or judge. In all he was the same — amiable, forbearing, and
conciliating.

One of Sir James's last speeches in parliament, was on the bill relating to
anatomical dissections, in which he strenuously advocated the propriety, nay,
necessity of affording to the profession every facility for obtaining subjects for
the dissecting table. His speech, on this occasion, was remarkable for all that
elegance of diction, and cogency of argument which distinguished his rheto-
rical effusions; and indicated, besides, a love of science on the part of the speaker,
and a zeal for the welfare of mankind, worthy of a great statesman ar.d of a
great philanthropist.

Great as Sir James Mackintosh certainly was as an orator, he was yet greater
as an author, and the fame which he derives from the latter character, stands
on still higher and firmer ground than that on which the former is rested. The
Vindiciae Gallicae, published when the author was only in the twenty-sixth year
of his age, is an eloquent and powerful political treatise. On all the grand points
on which he meets Mr Burke — the expediency and necessity of a revolution in
France — the character of the national assembly — the popular excesses which at-
tended the revolution, &c. — it may be safely assumed, that he obtains the mas-
tery in truth and cogency of argument. It ought to be remembered, that the
French Revolution had not, at this time, put en its worst aspect. The great
change which had taken place, promised to regenerate France, and to renovate
civil society ; and Sir James Mackintosh, like his master Fox, in his exultation
at the dawn of so bright a prospect, could not foresee that it would terminate in
bloodshed and tyranny.

Both works are written in a style too ornate and artificial. The rich and
fertile genius of Burke, and his vast and multifarious stores of learning, crowd-
ed his pages with illustrations from all sources — from history, philosophy, and

poetry and he was not over-solicitous as to their being apposite and correct

On the other hand, Sir James Mackintosh, fresh from his books and burning
with zeal, was also ambitious of display, and chastity and purity of diction were

521 SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.

neglected by both. Such a contest, however — so splendid a specimen of the lite-
rary duello, on so magnificent an arena, may not again occur for a considerable
length of time. The defence of Peltier is also a masterly performance ; but the
dissertation in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and his life of Sir Thomas More,
in Dr Lardner's Cyclopaedia, are perhaps the most finished of the acknowledged
productions of Sir James Mackintosh. The two volumes of his abridged History
of England, serve rather to show the views he took of certain points of English
history, and the philosophy he was able to bring to the task, with his habitual
carelessness in minor details, than li is talent at composing a connected, conse-
cutive work. These two little volumes,1 however, contain some striking passages
and disquisitions. But in the opinion of Mr Campbell, who knew Sir James
Mackintosh intimately, they were merely the expansion of the prefatory matter
which he intended for a great historical work on the affairs of England since
the Revolution, and which he had contemplated for several years, and in part
written, but was too much impeded in his progress, both by his parliamentary
duties and the infirm state of his health, to bring to a conclusion. His labours
were, nevertheless, given to the world in 1834, in the form of a disquisition on
the causes of the Revolution of 1688, exemplifying in its style an excellent dogma
of the author, that history ought to be written with feeling, but without passion.
He also contributed to the Edinburgh Review in its earlier days. An edition of
his works, in three volumes, (with the exception of the History of England,)
was published in 1846, containing his ethical and historical dissertations, a num-
ber of essays on political and literary topics, reviews, and other contributions to
peiiodical publications, and speeches on a variety of subjects delivered at the
bar and in parliament.

After what has been said of Sir James Mackintosh's public life and character,
it is almost unnecessary to add, that in private life, he displayed all the domestic
virtues, and all the better qualities of human nature. He was mild, benevolent,
generous, humane, and unaffected. Ready at all times to succour the unfortun-
ate and the distressed, he bestowed on all who sought it, that astistance which
their circumstances required; whether it was his time, his purse, or his advice ;
and to all three, if desired, the applicant was welcome. The most pleasing
characteristic of Hume — that almost infantine simplicity which his friends re-
marked in his intercourse with them — mingled also in the character of Mack-
intosh, contrasting finely with its nobler parts. His conversational powers
were of the very first order, and never failed to delight all who had the good
fortune to enjoy his society. His person was well formed, and above the mid-
dle stature. His countenance was intelligent, and exhibited a pleasing com-
pound of grave and gay expression, indicative of a readiness to sympathize with
either of these feelings, as chance might direct their appeals to him.

Sir James was in an indifferent state of health for some time previous to his
death, but that melancholy event was finally brought on by an accident. \MiiIe
at dinner, about the beginning of March, 1832, a portion of the breast of a
fowl, with a fragment of bone in it, which he had attempted to swallow, stuck
in his throat, and, though afterwards extracted without producing any imme-
diate serious consequences, the accident completely unsettled his general health.
His debility from that hour daily increased, till the 30th of May, when he died
in the sixty-sixth year of his age, at his house in Langham Place, having anti-
cipated and met the hour of his dissolution with a firmness and resignation
worthy of hispast life. He was buried at Hampstead.

Sir James Mackintosh was twice married; first in 1789, to Miss Catherine

i The greater part of a third volume was writtiii by Sir Janus: he brtaks ofl'at the era
of the Bartholomew massacre.

DR. JAMES MACKNIGHT. 525

Stewart of Gerrard Street, Soho, sister to the Messieurs Stewart, formerly pro-
prietors of the " Morning Post," by whom he had issue a son, who died in in-
fancy, and three daughters — viz., Mary, married to Claudius James Rich,
Esq., of Bombay — Maiiland, married to W. Erskine, Esq and Catherine, mar-
ried to Sir W. Wiseman, Bart. Mrs Mackintosh died in 1797. — He was after-
wards married to Catharine, daughter of J. B. Allen, Esq. of Cressella, in
Pembrokeshire. By this lady, who died at Chesne, near Genoa, on the 6th
May, 1830, he had one son and a daughter; viz., Robert Mackintosh, Esq.,
B.A., fellow of New College, Oxford; and Erances, married to H. Wedgewood,
Esq., Staffordshire.

MACKNIGHT, (Dr) James, a learned scriptural commentator, Mas born on
the 17th of September, 1721. His father, Mr William Macknight, minister at
Irvine, was a native of Ireland, where his ancestors, descended from the family
of M'Naughtane, in the Highlands of Scotland, had resided for more than a
century. Mr William Macknight early displayed very popular talents as a
preacher; and having, it is said, accidentally officiated in the church of Irvine,
sometime after the death of the former incumbent, he gave so much satisfaction
/<» the hearers, that, in consequence of a general wish expressed by the parish-
ioners to the patron, he Mas soon appointed to supply the vacant charge. In
this situation he continued during life, universally esteemed for genuine piety,
purity of morals, and integrity of character.

Mr James Macknight, the subject of this memoir, received the rudiments of
education at the school of Irvine; and about the age of fourteen, was sent to the
university of Glasgow, where he studied with great approbation from his teach-
ers, on account of his diligence and proficiency. The notes he then took from
the lectures on logic and moral philosophy, before he Mas sixteen, still remain
among his papers, and afford remarkable indications of the same acuteness and
soundness of judgment, which afterwards characterized his theological writings.

Having completed the usual course of academical discipline at Glasgow, Mr
Macknight went to Leyden, in order to prosecute the study of theology, to
which he had shown an early attachment. While he remained in Holland, he had
an opportunity of procuring many valuable books, written by foreign divines,
which afterwards assisted his own labours in explaining Scripture. After his
return to Scotland, having received from the presbytery of Irvine a license to
preach the gospel, he was chosen to officiate at the Gorbals, a district of Glasgow;
a situation which at that time could be held by a licentiate of the church, before
being ordained to the pastoral function. On this occasion, one of the candidates
was Mr Robert Henry, afterwards the well known historian of Great Britain.
It chanced that the gentlemen who were thus placed in competition with each
other at the commencement of life, were at last, after an interval of many years,
associated as colleagues in the charge of the Old Church parish of Edinburgh.

From the Gorbals, Mr Macknight went to Kilwinning, in consequence oi an
invitation from Mr Eergusson, then minister of that place ; and acted for some
time as his assistant in the charge of the parish. Here he conducted himself
with such propriety, that his character began to be established ; and on the death
of Mr Fisher, at Maybole, he obtained the vacant living there, with the con-
curring wish of the heritors and people. Of this charge, accordingly, he was
ordained as minister, on the 10th of May, 1753. At Maybole, Mr Macknight
continued sixteen years; and discharged the duties of the pastoral office with
such assiduity and kindness, that, when he left it, he carried with h.m the affec-
tions and regret of all his flock. It may be mentioned, as a pleasing evidence
of attachment, that when he proposed accepting a presentation to the hving ot
Jedburgh, manv respectable inhabitants of the parish of Maybole, joined toge-

526 DR. JAMES MACKNIGHT.

ther in earnestly soliciting him to remain as their pastor; and in order to ob-
tain his compliance with this request, they offered, not only to augment the value
of his income, but to provide him an assistant, should the state of his health
render it necessary. This generous proposal, however, he judged it proper
from prudential considerations, to decline.

It was at Maybole, that, amidst his professional occupations in a populous
charge, Dr Macknight composed the first and second of his works. Of the for-
mer, indeed, or the Harmony of the Gospels, it appears from his papers, that
the plan had been conceived by him so early as the third or fourth year of his
attendance at the university ; and from that time he began to collect materials
for the publication. The first edition of this book was published in 1756. Al-
though the plan of it differed considerably from that of former Harmonies, in
supposing that the Evangelists have not neglected the order of time in the nar
ration of events, the reception it met with from most competent judges was so
favourable, that the author was encouraged to undertake a second edition, with
considerable improvements and additions. This edition appeared in 1763. In
the same year, was also published by Dr Macknight, another performance of great
merit, entitled the Truth of the Gospel History, which had been the fruit of the
author's studies during the interval between the first and second editions of his
Harmony. Its object is, to illustrate and confirm, both by argument and by
appeal to the testimony of ancient authors, what are commonly arranged under
the three great titles of the Internal, the Collateral, and the Direct Evidences of
the Gospel History.

By these publications, Dr Macknight soon obtained a high reputation for tiler-
logical learning. The university of Edinburgh conferred on him (among tliu
first who obtained that distinction in Scotland) the degree of Doctor of Divinity;
and he was, in 1769, chosen moderator of the General Assembly of the church of
Scotland. During the course of the same year, he was translated to the paro-
chial charge of Jedburgh ; in which he remained about three years, and where
he received from his people the most flattering tokens of respect and kindness.
In 1772, he was elected one of the ministers of Edinburgh ; a preferment for
which he was chiefly indebted to the long-continued and steady friendship of the
very respectable and highly esteemed family of Kilkerran. His first charge in
Edinburgh was the parish of Lady Yester's ; from which he was translated, in
1778, to the Old Church, where he continued during the remainder of his life.

Besides performing the ordinary duties of the pastoral function, a minister of
Edinburgh, in virtue of his office, is much occupied with public meetings on
business of various kinds, especially the management of the different charitable
foundations, which have long been the boast of the capital of Scotland. On
these, accordingly, Dr Macknight, though he entertained some doubts respect-
ing the good effects of such institutions, bestowed much of his attention ; and
his judicious counsels of management, were undoubtedly productive, at that
time, of considerable benefit, in maintaining the strictness of their discipline,
as well as the purity of their administration. Among other objects of such
official care, is the fund established by act of parliament for a provision to the
widows and children of ministers in the church of Scotland. As one of the
trustees appointed by the act, lie had long taken a leading part in conducting
the business of this (Jhaiity ; and after the death of Dr Webster, he was appointed
joint collector with Sir H. 31oncrieff" Welhvood, Bart.

In the church courts he acted steadily on that system of ecclesiastical policy,
which for many years had guided the decisions of the General Assembly. At
the same time, he firmly resisted whatever appeared to him as any infringe-
ment on the constitutional law or practice of the church j and, accordingly,

DR. JAMES MACKNIGHT. 527

v. hen some of his moderate friends wished for the abolition of Calls, a3 an unne-
cessary form in the settlement of ministers, he moved and carried a resolution
of the Assembly of 1782, (relative to certain overtures on the subject, then under
the discussion of the house,) " declaring, that the moderation of a Call in settling
ministers, is agreeable to the immemorial and constitutional practice of this
church, and that it ought to be continued:" a resolution which was afterwards
converted into a declaratory act, and printed as such in the proceedings of the
Assembly for that year.

But what chiefly engaged his mind, and occupied his time, after he became a
minister of Edinburgh, was the execution of his last and greatest work on the
Apostolical Epistles; which was published in 1795, in four volumes quarto.
Respecting this work, it is perhaps not unworthy of being told, that it was the
result of the unremitting labour of almost thirty years ; that, notwithstanding
his numerous professional avocations, the author, while composing it, was seldom
less than eleven hours every day employed in study; and that before it came to
the press, the whole manuscript had been written no less than five times with
his own hand. — At the time of publishing " The New Translation of the Apos-
tolical Epistles, with a Commentary and Notes," Dr Macknight was highly in-
debted to the patronage of the duke of Grafton ; and after the work made its
appearance, he received the most honourable testimonies of approbation from
many of the bishops and respectable dignitaries of the church of England, as
well as from the ablest divines of all descriptions.

After the publication of this work, Dr Macknight considered himself as having
accomplished the greatest object of his life ; and, wishing to enjoy at the end of
his days, some relief from the labour of study, be resisted the repeated solicita-
tions of his friends, who earnestly urged him to undertake the illustration of
the Book of the Acts, on the same plan which he had so successfully followed in
explaining other parts of the New Testament. — But soon after this period, from
the want of their usual exercise, a sensible decline of his faculties, particularly
a failure of his memory, was observed by his family. This fact is a striking
instance of the analogy between the powers of the body and those of the mind,
both of which suffer by inaction ; and it furnishes a useful caution to those who
have been long habituated to any regular exertion of mind, against at once de-
sisting entirely from its usual efforts ; since the effect, in the course of nature,
is not only to create languor, but to hasten the progress of debility and failure.

As yet, however, (1796,) Ur Macknight's bodily vigour seemed to be but little
impaired. In early life, he was afflicted with frequent headachs ; but after he
had reached the age of thirty, they seldom returned: and he afforded a singular
instance of a sedentary life long continued, with hardly any of those complaints
which it usually induces. This uninterrupted enjoyment of health he owed,
under Providence, to a naturally robust make, and a constitution of body un-
commonly sound and vigorous, along with regular habits of temperance, and of
taking exercise, which he did by walking nearly three hours every day.

Having finished the task he had prescribed to himself as an author, he
mingled frequently in the society of his friends, from which, at intervals, he
had always received much enjoyment ; and long retained the same cheerfulness
of temper, for which at the hours of relaxation from severe study, he had been
remarkable, when in the company of those whom he esteemed. Even after the
symptoms of his decline were become visible, (1798,) his natural sagacity and
strength of judgment, as well as his extensive and familiar knowledge of the
Scriptures, were still to be discerned in his conversation and public appear-
ances. And so habitual was his anxiety to discharge his duty, that he insisted
on officiating for a considerable time after his friends had wished him to with-

528 DR. JAMES MACKNIGIIT.

draw from public labour. It was not, indeed, without much entreaty, that he
at last consented to accept the services of an assistant.

The disease which terminated his life was the peripneumonia notha, occa-
sioned by an incautious exposure to the severity of the weather, about the end
of December, 1799. This distemper, in its progress and issue, resisted the
ablest and most assiduous efforts of medical skill. — During- his illness, his mind
was composed, tranquil, and resigned ; he never complained ; and on the
morning of the 13th of January, 1800, he expired without a struggle. As in
the course of the preceding night he slept but little, the time was employed in
hearing passages from the Psalms and Evangelists, which by his own desire
were read to him by one of his family. — Thus, having spent his life in il-
lustrating Scripture, and exerted the last efforts of his attention in listen-
ing with delight to its precious words, he may be truly 6aid to have slept in
Jesus.

As a clergyman, the sentiments and conduct of Dr Maclcnight were equally
characterized by consistency and propriety. In the discharge of every public
and private duty of religion, with a constant l'eliance on divine aid, he was re-
gular and steady. He knew and felt what became the sacred office which he
held; and never departed, on any occasion, from the dignity or decorum of his
professional character. Having given himself wholly to the meditation of
divine things, he continued in them : in the work of his Master he was steadfast

and faithful to the end His piety was at once sincere, rational, and without

ostentation. To be useful in the cause of truth and virtue, was his highest am-
bition ; and with all the means of attaining this end which the resources of a
well-informed and liberal mind could supply, he united a zeal for the interests
of Christianity, which terminated only with his life.

When engaged, either in private controversy or in the public debates of lite
church courts, he was always remarkable for speaking strictly to the point at is-
sue. He Ayas likewise distinguished by coolness, discretion, and command of
temper; he listened with patience to the arguments of his opponents; and in
delivering his opinions, he showed himself uniformly open, candid, and explicit.
At the same time, his talent was rather that of business than of address ; he ap-
peared to be better fitted for deciding on the merits of a question in debate,
than for soothing the passions, or managing the humours of mankind, — a quali-
fication rarely possessed but by minds of a superior order.

On various subjects, besides those embraced by his profession, his range of
knowledge was ample and profound. He perused the writers of antiquity with
critical skill ; and of his acquaintance with the Greek language, especially the
original of the New Testament, his observations on the force of the particles, in
his Commentary, are a sufficient proof. In the speculations, also, of metaphy-
sical, moral, and mathematical science, he was a considerable proficient. The
fact is, his powers were such as might have been turned with advantage to any
department of knowledge or learning.

It may further be noticed, that in conducting- the ordinary affairs of life, he
displayed uncommon prudence and sagacity. He was one of those who are
generally attentive to small concerns, but on proper occasions show themselves
liberal to a high degree. Of this, different instances occurred in the course of
his transactions with his friends ; and he was enabled to act on such a principle
of generosity, by bis usual habits of economy and prudence. — Dr Macknight's
external appearance was sufficiently expressive of his character. His counten-
ance was manly and commanding, and his gait remarkably erect and firm.

Dr Macknight's " Harmony of the Gospels" has long been esteemed a work of
standard excellence for the students of evangelical knowledge. His " Truth of the

COLIN MACLAURIN. 529

Gospel History " has hitherto attracted the notice of the public less than any of
his other productions ; but it well deserves to be more generally read ; since of
what it proposes to establish, it contains the most satisfying views that can be
suggested by learning, acuteness, and good sense, and is admitted by the best
judges to be a performance as useful and instructive as any we have on that im-
portant subject. It is, in fact, a kind of storehouse, from which subsequent
writers on the same subject, have borrowed largely in point of argument and
illustration.

The " Commentary on the Apostolical Epistles" is now held in peculiar esti-
mation ; and it may be doubted whether the scope of the sacred authors of
these writings was ever, in any former age of Christianity, more fully, clearly,
and happily stated, than has been done by Dr. Maeknight, in the general views
and illustrations which he has prefixed to the several chapters of the Epistles.

The Life of the Apostle Paul, which concludes the fourth volume of " The
Translation and Commentary," is an excellent compendium of the apostolical
history, and may be considered as the author's view and illustration of the Acts
of the Apostles — the only part of the New Testament writings (besides the Reve-
lation of St John) to which the labours of Dr Maeknight, as a commentator,
were not directed. — In all his writings, his style, though unambitious of ele-
gance or ornament, is perspicuous, and appropriate to the subject.

All Dr Macknight's works were originally printed in quarto. Of the ** Har-
mony" and the " Epistles" many editions have since been published in octavo.
To show the respect which has been paid in England to his various works, the
following passage from the " Library Companion" of the Rev. T. F. Dibdin,
may be quoted. After recommending to the young theologian the works of
Lardner, Doddridge, and Watts, Mr Dibdin says, " Nor let the name of Mae-
knight be forgotten. His works, indeed, are the more exclusive property of
the disciplined theological student ; but the general reader will do well to se-
cure his inviting quartos upon the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament.
In these he will find learning without pedantry, and piety without enthusiasm.
In short, no theological collection can be perfect without them. If any man may
be said to have exhausted his subject, it is Maeknight."

Soon after the time of his being ordained, Dr Maeknight married Elizabeth
M'Cormick, eldest daughter of Samuel M'Cormick, Esq., general examiner of
the excise in Scotland. Of his family the only one remaining became a clergy-
man of the church of Scotland.

MACLAURIN, Colin, an eminent mathematician and philosopher, was de-
scended from an ancient and respectable family, which had long been in pos-
session of the island of Tiree, a solitary but comparatively fertile member of the
Hebridean range. His grandfather, Daniel M'Laurin, removed thence to In-
verary, and contributed greatly to restore that town, which was nearly ruined in
the civil wars. He wrote some memoirs of his own times, and appears to have
been a man of superior abilities. John, the son of Daniel, and father of Colin,
was minister of the parish of Glendcrule, where he was greatly beloved as a
faithful and diligent pastor; he completed a version of the Psalms in Irish,
which was generally used in those parts of the country where divine service was
performed in that language. He married a lady of the name of Cameron, by
whom he had three sons. John, the eldest, was for many years one of the min-
isters of the city of Glasgow, and well known as the author of several essays and
sermons ; he was also one of the most popular preachers of his day. Daniel,
the second son, died at an early age, after having given proofs of surprising
genius; and Colin, born at Kilmoddan, in the month of February, 1698. His
father died six weeks alter ; but the loss to the family was not so severely felt

530 COLIN MACLAURIN.

as it otherwise might have been, on account of the kind advice and benevolent
attention of a worthy uncle, the reverend Daniel Maclaurin, minister of Kilfin-
nan, and the careful economy and exemplary virtues of their mother. After
remaining in Argyleshire for some time, on a small patrimonial estate, which
was divided between Mrs Maclaurin and her sisters, she removed to Dumbarton,
for the more convenient education of her children; but dying in 1707, the en-
tire charge of the orphans devolved upon their uncle. Colin, at this time, was
nine years old; and, although of a delicate constitution, he Mas remarkable for
the quickness of his apprehension, and the retentiveness of his memory ; he was
passionately fond of learning, and pursued his studies with so much zeal and
satisfaction, as to be fully qualified to enter the university of Glasgow, in two
years after his mother's death. He was accordingly placed there under the di-
rection of Mr Carmichael, an admirable public teacher, who took the greatest pains
in superintending his education, and for whom Mr Maclaurin, ever after in life,
evinced the warmest feelings of gratitude and respect. His proficiency in every
branch of elementary learning was so rapid, and his application to study so in-
tense, that his teachers were astonished at the ease and quickness with which he
distanced, not only those who were commencing the same class with himself, but
those who had the advantage of attending for many sessions before him. His
youthful imagination entered with great delight into the beauties of the writings
of the ancients, and a taste for classical learning never forsook him during the
whole course of his life, notwithstanding the predominant bent of his wonderful
genius for the cultivation and improvement of mathematical science. From the
time he entered college, he kept a diary, in which he carefully noted down the
beginning and success of every particular study, inquiry, or investigation, his
conversations with learned men, the subjects of those, and the arguments on
dither side. This was found among his oldest manuscripts, and in it might be
read the names of the celebrated Mr Robert Simpson, Dr Johnson, and several
other gentlemen of learning and worth, who all seemed anxious who should
most encourage our young philosopher, by opening to him their libraries, and
admitting him into their most intimate society and friendship. His genius for
mathematical learning discovered itself so early as twelve years of age, when,
having accidentally met with a copy of Euclid, in a friend's chamber, he became
master, in a few days, of the first six books, without any assistance : and having
accomplished this extraordinary enterprise, his predilection for the science of
quantity was determined for life. He now made an extraordinary progress,
as we very soon after find him engaged in solving the most curious and diffi-
cult problems.

At fifteen years of age, Mr Maclaurin took his degree of master of arts,
having passed through the curriculum, or public course of lectures appointed by
the university, which must be attended before this honour can be gained. The
subject he selected for his thesis, was, the "Power of Gravity," and this, accord-
ing to the custom of the times, it was necessary for him to defend publicly. It
may be necessary to observe, for the information of those who are acquainted
with the manner in which such disputations were conducted in Scotland, that
the candidate was left free to select for this ordeal any literary or scientific
subject he thought proper. The depth and boldness of the topic proposed by
young Maclaurin at once revealed what kind of studies had engaged his atten-
tion while at the university, and excited the wonder and admiration of all pre-
sent. In most instances, the subjects of disputation were of a trifling kind, and
adapted chiefly to aflbrd the candidate an opportunity of displaying his ingenu-
ity and acquaintance with the mood and figure of the school of logic But the
mind of cur youthful philosopher disdained to stoop to any thing puerile or com-

COLIN MACLAUKIN. 531

raon-place, and the sublimity of his subject showed at once the nature of his
studies and the depth of his erudition. At that time the philosophy of Newton was
comparatively unknown, and even men the most distinguished in science were
slow to comprehend the great and important truths it contained. None but
those profoundly skilled in geometry could fully comprehend his doctrines, and
that of itself excluded many from the study; whilst others were bound in the
trammels of the scholastic jargon of Aristotle, or the imaginary vortices of Des
Cartes. When, therefore, young Maclaurin chose the " Power of Gravity"
as the subject of his thesis, it was a presupposition that he was fully acquainted
with the fundamental doctrines of Newton's discoveries, and upon this occasion
he acquitted himself to the wonder and delight of his auditors. He afterwards
illustrated the same subject in a most beautiful manner, in the last two books of
his account of the philosophical discoveries of Sir Isaac. There is only one
instance more, in the whole range of literature, that we are acquainted with, of
such extraordinary and precocious talent where a predisposition for mathemati-
cal science was any thing like so strong, and that is in the person of Pas-
cal, whom Bayle calls the divine — nearly at the same age, though not ex-
ceeding that of our youthful philosopher. He, too, by the force of his irresist-
ible genius, in secret and by stealth, may be said to have invented a system of
geometrical science, which, to keep him in ignorance of, his father had sacri-
ficed both fame and fortune. It might be invidious to compare the philosophic
acquirements of these great men in after life, further than their mutual fondne : 5
for classic literature, in which they both proved themselves elegant writers.
They had both a strong sense of religion on their minds, and to those who have
perused their works, their most anxious desire must appear to have been to ap-
ply the theoretical propositions which were known, or they themselves had
demonstrated, so as to promote the real benefit of mankind.

Maclaurin having made such an extraordinary progress in the study of
geometry, and having, with little trouble, conquered difficulties which, in
general, are looked upon as so formidable, passed at once to the higher
branches of that science, and, instead of being deterred from exertion by the
intricacy of the demonstrations which necessarily met him at every step as he
proceeded in the investigation of difficult propositions, his energies seemed to
acquire new life and vigour to enable him to surmount every obstacle in his
way. Nothing delighted him more than to be engaged in difficult and curious
problems, and this much is certain, that in his sixteenth year he had already
invented many of the finest propositions afterwards published under the title of
Geometria Organica.

At the beginning of the session in 1714, immediately subsequent to taking
his degree, he entered himself as a student of divinity, but he only attended the
college for one year longer, when, becoming disgusted at the dissensions that at
that time had crept into the church, he relinquished all ideas of becoming a
clergyman, and, happily for science, determined to devote himself to the study
of mathematics and philosophy. He quitted the university and retired to his
uncle's house, at Kilfinnan, in a sequestered part of the country. That good
man having, at all times, acted as a father to him, he determined to wait with
patience until some secular employment should occur. In this happy seclusion,
he continued his favourite researches, still cultivating his mind by a perusal of
the best classic authors, for which he had naturally the most refined taste. The
sublime scenery amidst which he lived, would, at proper intervals, invite him to
wander through the lofty mountains and lonely glens, to consider the number-
less natural curiosities with which they abound ; and here his fancy being warm-
ed by the grand scenes which presented themselves, he would sometimes break

532 COLTN MACLAURIN.

out in an ode, or hymn, on the beauties of nature, and the perfection of its Author.
Of these, some fragments were preserved by his friends, and although we know
not if they were ever published, still they must have possessed considerable in-
terest, as serving to develope the openings and improvements of a mind like that
of 3Iaclaurin.

When Mr Maclaurin was only nineteen years old, in the autumn of 1717, a
vacancy occurred in the professorship of mathematics in the Marischal college
of Aberdeen. For this he presented himself as a candidate, and carried along
with him the most ample testimonials from his friends at Glasgow, where he
had distinguished himself so eminently. A very able competitor appeared in
the field against him, but after a competition, or comparative trial of excellence,
which lasted for ten days, Mr Maclaurin was declared the successful candidate.
Being now fixed in his chair, he quickly revived the taste for mathematical learn-
ing, and raised it higher than it had ever been in that university. He continued
at Aberdeen discharging the duties of his office, and had the happiness to perceive
his usefulness increasing, and his popularity as a public professor greatly ex-
tended. In the vacations of 1717 and 1719, he went to London, with the
view of extending his information, and of being introduced to the illustrious
men there. As mathematical knowledge was never in so great request, nor its
professors so much honoured at any period in the history of Britain, his fame
had already gone before him ; but, independent of that, he was furnished with
letters of introduction from professor Simpson and Dr Clark, to the first philo-
sophers of that or any other age. It was this first journey to London that laid
the foundation of his subsequent fortunes in life. Besides Dr Hoadly, then
bishop of Bangor, Dr Samuel Clark, and several other eminent men, he became
acquainted with Sir Isaac Newton, who not only patronized him as a young man
of genius, and possessed of a singular turn of mind for mathematical investiga-
tion, but seems to have formed for him a stronger degree of attachment than
he was ever known to exhibit towards any one of the numerous candidates for
his patronage. This kind preference, Mr Maclaurin ever after considered the
greatest honour and happiness of his life. Long before he meditated his jour-
ney to London, he was an enthusiastic admirer of the philosophy of Newton,
and of the almost superhuman genius of its inventoi\ To him he therefore
submitted his treatise on the " Power of Gravity," which he brought with him, in
manuscript, to London, and, on its receiving the sanction of him who had done
more to extend the boundaries of mathematical science than almost all man-
kind, Mr Maclaurin's triumph was complete. He was admitted a member of
the Royal Society when only twenty-one years of age, and two of his papers
were, about the same time, inserted in the transactions of that learned body, and
his book, entitled Geometria Organica, was published with the approbation of
their president. In his second journey, he became acquainted with Martin
Folks, Ksq., who succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as president of the Koyal Society,
and with whom he thenceforth cultivated a most entire and unreserved friend-
ship. This great patron of scientific men frequently corresponded with him,
communicating to him all his views and improvements in the sciences, and en-
couraging him to proceed in his philosophical studies.

In 1722, lord Pol warth, ambassador from the court of St James's to the con-
gress of Cambray, had been for some time looking out for a proper person to
accompany his son, Mr Hume, on his travels. His lordship was fond of litera-
ture and the company of literary men ; he had frequent opportunities of ob-
serving Mr Maclaurin's behaviour, who at this time, from his consummate
abilities, was admitted into the highest circles of society in London. His lord-
ship being deeply prepossessed in favour of our youthful philosopher, engaged

COLIN MACLAURIN. 533

him as companion and tutor to his son. Maclauvin having procured a proper
person to fill his place for a time at the college of Aberdeen, and feeling a
strong desire to gratify his curiosity by visiting foreign countries, he according-
ly with his friend and scholar set out for France, and proceeded at once to the
capital, where they took up their abode. After remaining a short time at
Paris, they visited several of the chief towns in France, and finally fixed upon
Lorraine for their residence. Here they had the advantage of a good academy,
besides the introduction to one ofuhe most polite courts in Europe. Mr Mao
laurin had now an opportunity of improving that easy and genteel address
which was at all times natural to him, and with his graceful person and great
erudition, he excited the admiration, and gained the esteem of the most distin-
guished persons of both sexes. Mere he wrote his essay on the percussion of
bodies, which gained the prize of the Hoyal Academy of Sciences in 1724.
The substance of this tract is inserted in his Treatise of Fluxions.

On leaving Lorraine with his pupil on a tour through the southern provinces
of France, and arriving at Montpelier, Mr Hume was seized with a fever which
quickly terminated his life. This dreadful calamity affected Mr Maclaurin in
the deepest manner and overwhelmed him with grief. In some letters written
on that melancholy occasion, he seemed almost inconsolable for the loss of his
pupil, companion, and friend, and his sympathy with a family to which he owed
great obligations, and which had suffered an irreparable loss in the death of
this hopeful young nobleman, rendered him unhappy heyond expression.
Travelling and all other things being now distasteful, he set out immediately on
his return to his profession at Aberdeen.

Having by this time justly earned the distinction of one of the first men of
his country, the curators of the university of Edinburgh were desirous of en-
gaging him to supply the place of Mr James Gregory, whose age and infirmities
had rendered him incapable of teaching ; but several difficulties retarded the
design for some time. A gentleman eminent for mathematical abilities, but
whose name is now forgotten, had succeeded in gaining over some of the
patrons, who promised him their interest for the appointment, until a recom-
mendatory letter from Sir Isaac Newton completely turned the balance in Mr
Maclaurin's favour. Sir Isaac first addressed Mr Maclaurin, with allowance to
show it to the patrons of the university, and expresses himself as follows : — " I
am very glad to hear that you have a prospect of being joined to Mr James
Gregory in the professorship of mathematics at Edinburgh, not only because you
are my friend, but principally because of your abilities, you being acquainted
as well with the new improvements of mathematics as with the former state of
those sciences ; I heartily wish you good success, and shall be very glad of
hearing of your being elected ; I am, with all sincerity, your faithful friend,
and most humble servant." In a second letter to the lord provost of Edin-
burgh, which Mr Maclaurin knew nothing of till some years after Sir Isaac's
death, he thus writes : " I am glad to understand that Mr Maclaurin is in good
repute amongst you for his skill in mathematics, for I think he deserves it very
well, and to satisfy you that I do not flatter him, and also to encourage him to
accept the place of assisting Mr Gregory, in order to succeed him, I am ready
(if you please to give me leave,) to contribute twenty pounds per annum towards
a provision for him till Mr Gregory's place becomes void, if I live so long, and
I will pay it to his order in London." The town council, however, with be-
coming pride, respectfully declined this generous offer, and the business was
finally arranged that Mr Gregory was to retain his salary during life ; his
family in case of their father's death were secured in it for seven years from the
date of Mr Maclaurin's being inducted as joint professor, who was promised fifty

53 i COLIN MACLAURIN.

pounds per annum, besides the fees lie received from the students attending tha
class, upon condition of performing all the duties of the office. On the Sd
November, 1725, he was introduced to the university, as was at the same time
his learned colleague and intimate friend, Dr Alexander Monro, professor of
anatomy. The subjects which Mr Maclaurin introduced into the different
courses of lectures on mathematics were very miscellaneous, and the classes
soon became unusually numerous, there being upwards of a hundred young gen-
tlemen attending his lectures, who being of different standings and pt'oficiency,
he was obliged to divide them into four or five classes, in each of which he em-
ployed a full hour every day, from the 1st of November to the 1st of June. In
the first or lowest class, (sometimes divided into two,) he taught the first six
books of Euclid's Elements, plain trigonometry, practical geometry, the elements
of fortification, and an introduction to Algebra. The second class repeated the
Algebra again from its principles, and advanced farther in it, then proceeded to
the theory of mensuration of solids, spherical trigonometry, the doctrine of the
Sphere, dialling, and other practical parts. After this he gave the doctrine of
the conic sections, with the theory of gunnery, and concluded with the elements
of astronomy and optics. In the third class he went on in astronomy and per-
spective, prelected on Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, and explained the di-
rect and inverse method of fluxions. At a separate hour he began a class of,
experimental philosophy about the middle of December, which continued thrico
every week till the beginning of April, and at proper hours of the night de-
scribed the constellations and showed the planets by telescopes of various
kinds. All Mr Maclaurin's lectures on these different subjects were given with
such perspicuity of method and language, that his demonstrations seldom stood
in need of being repeated. Such, however, was his anxiety for the improve-
ment of his scholars, that if at any time he found they could not comprehend
his meaning, or if upon examining them he found they could not readily de-
monstrate the propositions which he had proved, he was apt rather to suspec:
that his own expressions had been obscure than their want of genius or atten-
tion. He, therefore, would resume the demonstration in some other method,
in order to try, if, by presenting it in a different light, he could give them a
better view of it. Besides the labours of his public profession, lie had
frequently many other employments and avocations. If an uncommon experi-
ment was said to have been made any where, the curious were desirous of having
it repeated by Mr Maclaurin. On all momentous occasions he was the first to
be applied to ; and if an eclipse or comet was to be observed, his telescopes were
always in readiness. Such was the elegance and amenity of his manners, that
the ladies took the liveliest interest in his experiments and observations, and
were delighted and surprised at finding how easily and familiarly he would re-
solve the questions they put to him ; and to those gentlemen who had been his
pupils his advice and assistance were never wanting; nor was admitiance refused
to any except in his teaching hours, which were devoted to that purpose alor.e.
The ingenious of all ranks courted his acquaintance and friendship, and so
anxious and pressing were they to enjoy the pleasure of his company and con-
versation after his usual avocations were over, that he was obliged to take from
the ordinary hours of repose what he bestowed on his scholars and friends, and
by persevering in deep and severe study, he exhausted his strength and greatly
impaired his health. About this time, at the beginning of the year 1728, Sir
Isaac Newton died, and his nephew, Mr Conduitt, proposed to publish an ac-
count of his life, for which purpose he applied to Mr Maclaurin for his assist-
ance, who out of gratitude to his great benefactor readily undertook the task,
and finished the history of the progress which philosophy had made before Sir

COLIN MACLAURIN.

535

Isaac's time. When the first draught of that work was sent up to London it was
shown to some eminent judges, and met with their highest approbation.
Among the rest Dr Bundle, afterwards bishop of Derry, was so pleased
with the design that he mentioned it as particularly worthy of the Queen's no-
tice, who, after attentively perusing it, was so highly gratified that she expressed
a desire to see it published ; but Ms Conduitt's death having prevented the exe-
cution of his part of the proposed work, Mr Maclaurin's manuscript was re-
turned to him. To this he afterwards added the more recent proofs and exam-
ples given by himself and others on the subjects treated by Sir Isaac, and left
it in the state in which it now appears. Mr Maclaurin continued to live sin-
gle till the year 1733, when, having a mind equally formed for the social
endearments of refined society as those of the profoundest philosophy, he mar-
ried Anne, daughter of Mr Walter Stewart, solicitor-general for Scotland to
George the first, by whom he had seven children.

Dr Buckley, bishop of Cloyne, having taken occasion, from some disputes that
had arisen concerning the grounds of the fluxionary method, in a treatise, en-
titled the Analyst, published in 1734, to explode the method itself, and at the
same time to charge mathematicians in general with infidelity in religion, Mr
Maclaurin entered the lists of disputation with him, eager to defend his favour-
ite study and repel an accusation in which lie was most unjustly included.
He commenced his reply to the bishop's book ; but as he entered more deeply
into the subject, so many discoveries, so many new theories and problems oc-
curred to him, that, instead of a vindicatory pamphlet, his work, when finished,
presented a complete system of fluxions, with their application to the most con-
siderable problems in geometry and natural philosophy. This work was pub-
lished in Edinburgh in 1742, in two volumes quarto, in which we are at a loss
what most to admire — his solid, unexceptionable demonstrations of the grounds of
the method itself, or its application to such a variety of curious and useful
problems. A society had for many years subsisted in Edinburgh, for the ad-
vancement of medical knowledge ; Mr Maclaurin, on reviewing their plan of
proceedings, and not thinking it sufficiently extensive, proposed to take in all
parts of physics, together with the antiquities of the country. This was readily
agreed to, and Mr Maclaurin's influence engaged several noblemen and gentle-
men of the first rank and character, to join themselves for that purpose to the
members of the former society. The earl of Morton did them the honour to
accept of the office of president. Dr Plummer, professor of chemistry, and Mr
Maclaurin, were appointed secretaries ; and several gentlemen of distinction,
English and foreigners, desired to be admitted members. At the monthly
meetings of the society, Mr Maclaurin generally read some treatise of his own,
or communicated the contents of his letters from foreign parts; by which means
the society were informed of every new discovery or improvement in the
sciences. Several of the papers read before this society, are printed in the 5th
and 6th volumes of the 3Iedical Essays ; some of them are also published in
the Philosophical Transactions; and Mr Maclaurin had occasion to insert a
great many more in his Treatise of Fluxions, and in his account of Sir Isaac
Newton's philosophy. He was the first who proposed the building of an astrono-
mical observatory, and a convenient school for experiments, in the university of
Edinburgh, of which he drew an elegant and well contrived plan ; and, as this
work was to be carried on by private subscription, he used all his influence to
raise money for that purpose with so much success, that, had not the Rebellion
intervened in Scotland, the work would have been speedily completed. The
earl of Marfan, on visiting his estates in Orkney and Shetland in 1739, wanted
at the same time to settle the geography of these islands, which was very er-

536 COLTN MACLAURIN.

roneously laid down on all our maps, to examine their natural history, to survey
the coasts, and take the measure of a degree of the meridian, — and for this
purpose lie applied to Mr Maclaurin for his assistance ; but his domestic affairs
not permitting him to undertake the journey, he drew up a plan of what he
thought necessary to be observed, furnished the proper instruments, and recom-
mended Mr Short, the celebrated optician, as a fit operator for managing them.
The accounts Mr Maclaurin afterwards received of this voyage, made him still
more sensible of the erroneous geography we had of those parts, by which so
many shipwrecks had been occasioned, and he therefore employed several of
his scholars, who were then settled in the northern counties, to survey the
coasts.

Mr Maclaurin had still more extensive views for the improvement of geo-
graphy and navigation over all the surface of the globe. After carefully perus-
ing all the accounts of voyages, both in the South and North Seas, he was of
opinion that the sea was most probably to be found open from Greenland to the
South Sea, by the North Pole; and, when schemes for finding out such a passage
were submitted to parliament in 1744, he was consulted concerning them by
several persons of high rank a.id influence ; but before he could finish the me-
morials which he proposed to have sent, the premium was limited to the dis-
covery of a north-west passage, and Mr Maclaurin used to regret that the word
west was inserted, because he thought a passage, if at all to be found, must lie
not far from the pole. Of this he appeared to be so deeply persuaded, that he
has been heard to say, if his situation could admit of such adventures, he would
gladly undertake the voyage, even at his own cost.

Such was the zeal this amiable and celebrated man evinced on every occasion
for the public good : the last and most remarkable instance, is that which we
shall now relate.

In 1745, when the Highland army had got between Edinburgh and the
king's troops, Mr Maclaurin was the first to rouse the friends of the existing
government from the security in which they had hitherto continued ; and though
he was aware that the city was not long defensible, or able to resist even the un-
disciplined and ill-armed host that was advancing to attack it, yet as he fore-
saw how much might be gained by the insurgents' possessing themselves of the
capital, and the king's forces, under Sir John Cope, being daily expected,
he made plans of the walls, proposed the several trenches, barricades, batteries,
and all such defences as he thought could be thrown up before the arrival of the
enemy, earnestly hoping that the town might thus hold out till relieved. The
whole burden, not only of contriving, but also of overseeing the execution of
this hasty defence, fell to Mr Maclaurin's share. He was indefatigable in his
exertions, employed both night and day in drawing plans, and running from
place to place ; so that the anxiety, fatigue, and cold to which he was thus ex-
posed, affecting a constitution naturally weak, laid the foundation of the disease
of which he died. It is not properly connected with our subject to inquire how
Mr Maclaurin's plans were neglected or defeated, or by what means prince
Charles got possession of Edinburgh ; but, after defeating the king's troops at
Prestonpans, he found himself in such strength as to issue several very arbitrary
orders, among which ivas one commanding all who had been volunteers in the
defence of the city, before a stated time, to wait on his secretary, to subscribe
a recantation of what they had done, and a promise of submission to the new
government, under the pain of being deemed and treated as rebels. Mr Mac-
laurin had acted too conspicuous a part as a volunteer, to hope to escape their
vengeance, if he once fell into their hands ; he therefore privately withdrew
into England, before the last day of receiving the submissions, but not before he

COLIN MACLAURIN.

537

contrived means to convey a good telescope into the castle, and to supply
the garrison with provisions.

Dr Thomas Herring, then archbishop of York, hearing that Mr Maclaurin
had taken refuge in the north of England, invited him in the most friendly
manner to reside with him during his stay in that part of the country. Mr
Maclaurin gladly accepted the invitation, and soon after expresses himself thus
in a letter to a friend : — " Here," says he, " I live as happily as a man can do
who is ignorant of the state of his family, and who sees the ruin of his country."
His grace of York, of whose talents and goodness Mr Maclaurin ever retained the
highest veneration, held a frequent correspondence with him ; and when it was
suspected that the rebels might again enter Edinburgh on their retreat from Eng-
land, he invited his former guest, for ease and security, to his hospitable mansion.
While at York, it was remarked that Mr Maclaurin appeared more than usually
meagre and sickly ; but he, at that time, feeling no apprehension of danger, did
not consider it necessary to call in medical aid. Having fallen from his horse,
however, on his journey southward, and, when the Pretender's army entered Eng-
land, having, on his return home, been exposed to excessive cold and tempes-
tuous weather, he complained upon his arrival of being seriously indisposed.
His disease was soon discovered to be a dropsy in the abdomen, to remove
which a variety of medicines were prescribed by the most eminent physicians of
the day, and three tappings were resorted to, with little or no effect. While
suffering under this painful malady, his behaviour was such as became a philo-
sopher and Christian ; calm, cheerful, and resigned ; retaining his senses and
judgment in their full vigour, till within a few hours of his death. Then, for
the first time, while engaged in dictating to his amanuensis the last part of the
last chapter of his Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Discoveries, in which he
proves the goodness of God, his amanuensis perceived him to falter. Dr Monro
came in shortly afterwards, and he conversed with him after his accustomed
manner, and requested him to account for flashes of fire, as it were, darting
from his eyes, though his sight was gradually decaying, so that he could
scarcely distinguish one object from another. His hands and feet were already
cold, and no pulse could be traced in any part of his body. In a short time he
desired to be laid upon his bed, where he breathed his last, on the 14th June,
1746, aged forty-eight years and four months. His wife, two sons, and
three daughters, survived him. John, the eldest son, studied the law, and after
making a distinguished figure at the bar, was promoted to the bench, 17th
January, 1789, under the designation of lord Dreghorn. He was an excellent
scholar, and erected a monument to his father in the Grey Friars' churchyard,
with an inscription which has often been quoted for its simple and expressive
eloquence. Lord Dreghorn also published various pieces in prose and verse,
which, in their day, enjoyed some reputation, and have been oftener than once
printed.

Colin Maclaurin was not only distinguished by his great genius and learn-
ing, but by the qualities of his heart, his universal benevolence, and unaffected
piety. Dr Monro, in an oration spoken at the first meeting of the university
after his death, (from which much of the foregoing account is taken,) draws a
sublime and affecting picture of his friend's great qualities, and professes that,
after an intimacy Avith him for so many years, he had but half known his
worth which only disclosed itself in its full lustre, when it came to suffer the
severe test of that distressful situation in which every man must at last find
himself, and which only minds prepared like his, armed with virtue, can bear
with dignity.

If we look back upon the numerous writings of Mr Maclaurin, and the

538 COLIN MACLAURIN.

deep researches he had been engaged in, his patience and assiduity will be
equally astonishing with his genius. His favourite studies were mathematics,
which he cultivated with wonderful success, influenced by a disinterested love of
truth, and aiming constantly at improvement and utility. The further he ad-
vanced in the knowledge of geometry and of nature, the greater his aversion
grew to perfect systems, hypotheses, and dogmatizing. Without being dissatis-
fied with the attainments we can arrive at, or the uses which they serve, he
saw that there lay infinitely more beyond our reach, and used to call our high-
est discoveries but a dawn of knowledge, suited to our circumstances and wants
in life, in which, however, we ought thankfully to acquiesce for the present, in
hopes that it will be improved in a happier and more perfect state. To a view
of general utility, all his studies were accommodated ; and we find in many
places of his works, an application even of the most abstruse theories, to the
perfecting of mechanical arts. He had resolved, for the same purpose, to com-
pose a course of practical mathematics, and to rescue several branches of the
science from the bad treatment which they often meet with in less skilful hands.
But all those designs were frustrated by his death, unless Ave may reckon as a
part of his intended work, the Translation of Dr David Gregory's Practical
Geometry, which he revised and published, with additions, in the year 1745.
In his lifetime, however, he often had the pleasure to serve his friends and
country, by his superior skill. Whatever difficulty occurred concerning the
construction or perfecting of machines, the working of mines, the improvement
of manufactures, the conveying of water, or the execution of any public work,
Mr Maclaurin was at hand to resolve it He was likewise employed to termi-
nate some disputes of consequence, that had arisen at Glasgow, concerning the
gauging of vessels ; and for that purpose presented to the commissioners of
excise two memorials containing rules (by which the officers afterwards acted.)
with their demonstrations. But what must have given his philanthropic mind
a higher source of pleasure than any thing else of the kind, were the calculations
he made relative to that wise and humane provision, which is established by
law, for the children and widows of the Scottish clergy, and of the professors
in the universities, entitling them to certain annuities and sums, upon the
voluntary annual payment of a certain sum by the incumbent On the contriv-
ance and adjustment of this scheme, Mr Maclaurin bestowed great labour, and
contributed not a little to bring it to perfection.

To find that his knowledge rendered him thus eminently useful to a late pos-
terity, must have been a delightful enjoyment But what still more endeared
his studies to him, was the use they were of in demonstrating the being and attri-
butes of the Almighty Creator, and establishing the principles of natural reli-
gion on a solid foundation, equally secure against the idle sophistry of Epi-
cureans, and the dangerous refinements of modern metaphysicians.

To this use Mr Maclaurin frequently applied them ; and he was equally
zealous in the defence of revealed religion, which he would warmly undertake,
whenever he found it attacked, either in conversation or writing. How firm
his own persuasion of its truth was, appears from the support which it afforded
him in his last hours.

Among Mr Maclaurin's productions, besides the articles already specified,
was a paper sent to the Royal Academy of Sciences, at Paris, in the year
L7A0, on account of which he shared the prize of the Academy with the
celebrated D. Bernouillr and Euler, for resolving the problems relating to the
motion of the tides, from the theory of gravity — a question which had been
given out during the former year, without receiving any solution. Having only
ten days in which to draw up this paper, he had not leisure to transcribe a fair

■ TOR fiMCNEDIL

HECTOR MACNEIL. 539

copy of it ; so that the Paris edition of it is incorrect. Afterwards, however,
he revised the whole, and inserted it in his Treatise of Fluxions. His con-
tributions to the Philosophical Transactions, may be seen in different volumes
of these collections, from No. 30 to No. 42, both inclusive, and treat on the fol-
lowing subjects : — " Of the Construction and Measure of Curves," — " A New
Method of describing all kinds of Curves," — " On Equations with impossible
Roots,'' — " On the Description of Curves, with an Account of further Improve-
ments, &c." — " An Account of the Annular Eclipse of the Sun at Edinburgh,
January 27, 1742-3," — " A Rule for finding the Meridianal Parts of a Sphe-
roid, witli the same exactness as of a Sphere," — And " Of the Bases of the Cells
wherein the Bees deposite their Honey." These papers conclude the list of our
author's writings, which were published during his lifetime. After his death,
the friends, to whose judgment he submitted the disposal of his MSS., gave
directions for publishing his " Treatise of Algebra," and his " Account of
Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries.'' The first of these works, which
appeared in 1748, though it had not the advantage to be finished by his own
hands, is yet allowed to be excellent in its kind ; containing, in one volume,
octavo, of a moderate size, a complete elementary treatise of the science of alge-
bra, as far as it had been hitherto earned. Subjoined to it, by way of appen-
dix, is a Latin tract, " De Linearum Geometricarum proprietatibus generali-
bus,'' which appeal's to have been, in our author's judgment, one of the best of
his performances, and in which he employed some of the latest hours that he
could give to such studies, revising it for the press, as his last legacy to the
sciences and the public.

MACNEIL, Hectob, a poet and miscellaneous writer, was born at Rosebank,
near Roslin, in the year 1746. His father had been in the army, where he
was patronized by the duke of Argyle, and had mingled in the best company';
but, having offended his patron by selling out without his advice, he was left
afterwards to his own resources. He took a farm at Rosebank ; but some im-
prudences, and the habit of living in a manner above his incomo, completely
ruined his prospects. As his family was then large, it became necessary that
the sons should, as soon as possible, be made independent of him. The only
expectation for Hector was from a cousin, who carried on a mercantile concern
in Bristol. The father, therefore, confined his education to the mercantile
branches, dreading, from his own example, the effect of more refined and clas-
sical instruction. The youth discovered excellent parts, with an elegance of
taste which seemed to mark him for a different destination from that intended.
At the age of eleven, he had written a species of drama, in imitation of Gay.
His master earnestly entreated to be allowed to give him some of the higher
branches; but on this his father put a decided negative. The attachment,
however, of the teacher to his pupil, induced him to impart secretly some ele-
ments of this forbidden knowledge- From the father, meantime, young Mac-
neil received many anecdotes of the world, a high sense of honour, and the
feelings of a gentleman.

As soon as he had completed his fourteenth year, he was sent off* to his cousin
at Bristol. On his way, he spent some months at Glasgow, where he completed
himself in several branches of his education. His cousin was a rough, boister-
ous, West India captain, who could not estimate the genius of Macneil, but was
pleased with some instances of his spirit. He first proposed to Hector an ex-
pedition in a slave ship to the coast of Guinea ; but was diverted from it by
some female friends, who rightly judged this destination wholly unsuited to the
youth's disposition. He was, therefore, sent on a voyage to St Christopher's,
with the view of making the sea his profession, if he liked it ; otherwise, he was

5i0 HECTOR MACNEIL,

furnished with an introduction to a mercantile liouse. On his arrival, being com-
pletely disgusted with the sea, he hesitated not in accepting the latter alternative.
It is probably to this period of his life, that we are to fix an event of a singular
nature which is stated to have entirely altered his prospects in life. His master
had married a lady much younger than himself, and of great personal attrac-
tions ; and young .Macneil was upon terms of equal intimacy with both. One
day, while he was sitting upon a garden chair with the lady, and reading with
her from the same book, the ardent feelings of one-and-twenty prompted him to
express his admiration of her beauty, by snatching a hiss. It proved the knell
of his departing fortune. Notwithstanding his instant penitence, and entreaties
for forgiveness, the lady conceived it necessary to inform her husband of what
had happened ; and the immediate consequence was, the dismissal of Macneil,
and a termination to the prospects that were brightening around him. He con-
tinued for many years in the West Indies, but does not appear to have ever
after known what could be called prosperity. At one time, if not during the
whole remaining period of his residence in those colonies, this hapless bard
had to stoop to the ungenial employment of a negro-driver. While in this situ-
ation, he became a strenuous advocate for the system of West India slavery, and
wrote a pamphlet in its defence. The only thing which he allowed to be neces-
sary to make the condition of slavery agreeable, was an improvement in the
moral conduct of the masters : a subsequent age has seen slavery brought to an
end before this improvement was accomplished.

When abore forty years of age, Macneil returned to Scotland, in a wretched
state of health, and without having earned even a moderate independence. In
these circumstances, notwithstanding that he had many good connexions, and
still preserved the feelings of a gentleman and a poet, his situation was of a
truly deplorable kind. He, nevertheless, began to exercise the intellectual fa-
culties, which, though so early displayed, had been kept in a kind of abeyance
during the intervening period of his life. In 1789, he published " The Harp,
a Legendary Tale," which brought him into some notice in the literary circles.
In 1795, appeared his principal poetical composition, " Scotland's Skaith, or
the History o' Will and Jean ; ower true a Tale," followed next year by a
sequel, entitled "The Waes o' War." Its excellent intention and tendency,
with the strokes of sweet and beautiful pathos with which it abounds, render
this one of the most admired productions of the Doric muse of Scotland. Ex-
cept for a simplicity, occasionally degenerating into baldness, which characterizes
this as well as other productions of Macneil, '* Will and Jean " might safely be
compared with the happiest efforts of any other Scottish poet. The enchanting
influence of village potations and politics — the deterioration of a worthy rustic
character by such means — the consequent despair and degradation of an origin-
ally amiable wife — besides the distresses of the Flemish campaign of 1793,
and the subsequent restoration of the ruined family to partial comfort, are all de-
lineated in most masterly style. About the same time, .Macneil produced " The
Links of Forth ; or a parting Peep at the Carse of Stirling." This is a descrip-
tive poem ; but, though not devoid of merit, it is more laboured and less pleas-
ing. He wrote also a number of songs, some of which possess much pathos
and delicacy of sentiment. Not being able, however, to find any means of pro-
viding a subsistence, necessity compelled him to seek again the burning climate
of the West Indies. After a residence there of only a year and a half, Mr
Graham, an intimate friend, died, and left him an annuity of £100, with which
he immediately returned to Edinburgh, to enjoy, with this humble indepen-
dence, the sweets of literary leisure and society. His reputation and manners
procured him ready admittance into the most respectable circles ; he enjoyed par-

JAMES MACPIIERSON. 541

ticularly the intimacy of Mrs Hamilton, authoress of " The Cottagers of Glen-
burnie" and other esteemed works of fancy. He was then a tall, fine-looking
old man, with a very sallow complexion, and a dignified and somewhat austere
expression of countenance. His conversation was graceful and agreeable, sea-
soned with a somewhat lively and poignant satire. Having probably found in his
own case, that devotion to the muses did not tend to promote his success in life,
he gave no encouragement to it in others, and earnestly exhorted all who wrote
poetry that appeared to him at all middling, to betake themselves to some more
substantial occupation. In 1800, he published, anonymously, a novel, or the
first part of one, entitled *f The Memoirs of Charles Macpherson," which is un-
derstood to contain a pretty accurate account of the early part of his own life.
In 1801, his poetical works were collected into two volumes, foolscap 8vo, and
passed through several editions. In 1809, he published " The Pastoral, or
Lyric Muse of Scotland," in 4to, a work which did not draw much attention.
About the same time, he published, anonymously, " Town Fashions, or Modern
Manners Delineated ;" and also, " By-gone Times, and Late-come Changes."
These pieces, like almost every thing he wrote, had a moral object ; but
the present one was tinctured with his feelings as an old man. It appeared to
him, that all the changes which had taken place in society, the increase of
luxury, even the diffusion of knowledge, were manifest corruptions; and all his
anxiety was to inspire a taste for the old style of living. Wishing to suit the
style to the matter, he affected a very homely phraseology ; and as this was not
natural to him, he overdid it, and disgusted rather than persuaded. Yet he
clung very fondly to these bantlings of his old age, and even rated them higher
than the more elegant productions of his former pen. Their only real beauty,
though he was insensible of it, consisted in a few pathetic passages. Our author
also wrote, with the same views, and too much in the same style, a novel, en-
titled "The Scottish Adventurers, or the Way to Rise," 2 vols. 8vo, 1812.
Throughout the earlier years of the century, he contributed many minor pieces,
in prose and verse, to the Scots Magazine, of which he was at one time editor.

After a long life of penury, aggravated by ill health, Mr Macneil died of
jaundice, March 15, 1818, not leaving behind him wherewithal to defray his
funeral expenses.

MACPHERSON, James, a literary character of celebrity, was born at Ruth-
ven, in the county of Inverness, in the latter end of the year 1738. His fami-
ly was one of the most ancient in that part of the country, and of high respec-
tability. The earlier rudiments of education he received at home, and was
afterwards sent to the grammar school of Inverness. At this period he began
to discover a degree of talent which induced his family, contrary to their ori-
ginal intention, to bring him up to a learned profession. With this view he
was sent, after completing an initiatory course at Inverness, to the university of
Aberdeen and afterwards to that of Edinburgh, where he finished his studies.

Young Macpherson had ahvady begun to exercise his poetical talents ;
and, while at the university, gave some specimens of his powers in that de-
partment of literature, but wiih very indifferent success. Hitherto, however,
he had confined his muse to such short and desultory flights, as young men
of poetical temperament usually begin with; but, in 1758, he made a bolder
essay, by producing a poem in six cantos, entitled the " Highlander."
This work was printed at Edinburgh, in 12mo, in the year above named.
Though not without some excellences, the " Highlander," as a whole, is an
exceedingly poor production, and must be considered so, even with every
allowance for the youth of its author, who was yet only in the twentieth year
of his age. The public was of a similar opinion with regard to its merits,

542 JAMES MACPHERSON.

and it almost instantly sank into oblivion. It must, however, be recorded, to
the credit of the poet, that he very soon became sensible of its defects and defi-
ciencies, and made every endeavour to suppress it. About this time, also, he
wrote an ode on the arrival of the earl Marischal in Scotland, which he en-
titled " An Attempt in the manner of Pindar." This ode, though it certainly
does not possess much poetical merit, is yet, on the whole, considerably above
mediocrity. From this period, there is no more heard of Macpherson's poeti-
cal compositions, until he appeared as the translator of those singular poems
on which his celebrity is founded.

It was intended by his friends that he should, on completing his studies, en-
ter the church ; but it is not certainly known whether he ever actually did take
orders or not. He is, however, spoken of about this time, 1760, as a " young
clergyman ;" and is described by Hume, the celebrated historian, as "a
modest, sensible young man, not settled in any living, but employed as a pri-
vate tutor in Mr Graham of Balgowan's family ; a way of life which he is not
fond of." The notice of Mr Hume was thus directed to Macpherson, ill conse-
quence of the appearance of a work bearing- the title of" Fragments of Ancient
Poetry, collected in the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Gaelic,
or Erse Language," the production of Macpherson, and the first presentation of
that literary novelty which was afterwards to attract so large a portion of the
world's notice, and to excite so much discussion and dissension in its literary
circles.

The " Fragments " were declared to be genuine remains of ancient Celtic
poetry ; and were, as well from that circumstance, as their own intrinsic merit,
received with the utmost enthusiasm and delight. Every one read them, and
every one admired them ; and, altogether, a sensation was created in the world
of letters, which it had known but on few occasions before. As it was inti-
mated that other specimens of this ancient poetry might be recovered, a sub-
scription Mas immediately begun, to enable Macpherson to quit his employment as
a family preceptor, and to undertake a mission into the Highlands to secure them.
With the wishes of his patrons on this occasion, the principal of whom were
Dr Blair, Dr Robertson, Dr Carlyle, and Mr Hume, Macpherson readily com-
plied, and lost no time in proceeding in quest of more " Fragments ;" having
been furnished previously to his setting out with various letters of recommenda-
tion and introduction, from the influential persons just named, to gentlemen
resident in the Highlands.

After making an extensive tour through the mainland and isles, he re-
turned to Edinburgh, awd in 1762 presented to the world the first portion
of the results, real or pretended, of his mission. This was " Fingal, an
Ancient Epic Poem, in 6 books ; together with several other Poems, com-
posed by Ossian, the son of Fingal : translated from the Gaelic," 4to.
These poems were received with equal, if not yet greater applause, than
that which had hailed the first specimen Macpherson had given of Celtic
poetry. The demand for the work was immense, and the fame of the
translator and saviour, as he was deemed, of these presumed relics of ancient
literature, was rapidly spread, not only over Britain, but over all Europe.
They were almost immediately translated into nearly every language spoken on
the continent ; and in each of these translations, Macpherson was alluded to in
terms, " that might," as he himself says, " flatter the vanity of one fond of
fame," — a circumstance which must have been highly gratifying to him, for lie
was fond of fame, even inordinately 60, and was known to have been under the
influence of a violent passion for literary repute, from a very early period of
his life.

JAMES MACPHERSON. 543

In the following year, viz., 17G3, the poem of Fingal, &c, was succeeded
by " Temora, in eight books, with other Poems, by Ossian," 4to. This was
also well received, but scarcely with the same degree of enthusiasm which
had marked the reception of the preceding poems. A change had taken
place, both with regard to Macpherson himself, personally, and his poetry.
A suspicion as to the authenticity of the latter, was now beginning to steal over
the public mind ; and the former, from being a modest man, as he was repre-
sented to be by Mr Hume, had become insolent and arrogant. Whether this
last was the result of the operation of extraordinary success on an ill-regulated
mind, or the effect of frequent irritation from the attacks of the sceptical, to
which Macpherson was now certainly subjected, it would not, perhaps, be easy
to determine. It probably arose partly from both. The likelihood that the
latter consideration had, at any rate, some share in producing this change
of demeanour is considerable, when the nature of Macpherson's disposition,
which was ardent, haughty, impatient and irascible, is taken into account.
That such a change, however, had taken place, is certain ; and the circum-
stance derives no little interest from the person by whom, and the manner in
which it is marked. " You must not mind," says Mr Hume, in a letter to Dr
Blair on the subject of the poems of Ossian, " so strange and heteroclite a
mortal, (Macpherson,) than whom I have scarce ever known a man more per-
verse and unamiable." This was Mr Hume's opinion of him in 1763 ; and it
will be remarked how oddly it contrasts with that which he expressed regard-
ing him in 1760. That Mr Hume, however, saw sufficient reason in Macpher-
son's conduct, thus to alter his opinion of him, no man can doubt, who knows
any thing of the character of the illustrious historian, himself one of the most
amiable of men.

In 1764, the year following that in which Temora appeared, Macpherson
obtained the appointment of secretary to governor Johnstone, then about to set
out for the settlement of Pensacola, of which he was made chief. After a
short residence in the colony, during which he had assisted in the construction
and arrangement of its civil government, a difference arose between Macpher-
son and the governor, and they parted. The former left the settlement, visited
several of the West India islands, and some provinces of North America, and
finally returned to England in 1766.

He now took up his residence in London, and shortly after resumed his
literary pursuits ; these, however, as the Ossianic Poems were now exhausted,
were of an entirely different nature from those which had hitherto employed
him. His first public appearance again as an author, was in 1771, when
he produced a work, entitled " An Introduction to the History of Great Bri-
tain and Ireland," 4to. This work, he says himself, he composed merely
for private amusement Whatever were the incitements which led to its
production, necessity, at any rate, could not have been amongst the num-
ber ; for Macpherson, if not already comparatively wealthy, was rapidly be-
coming so by the extensive sale of the poems. Whether written, how-
ever, for amusement, or with a view to fame, the author of the " Introduc-
tion" had no reason to congratulate himself on the result of its publication.
Both the book and the writer were attacked from various quarters with
much bitterness of invective, and a controversy regarding its merits and the
opinions it promulgated, arose, which was but little calculated to improve the
irritable temper of its author, or to add to his happiness. Nor was this treat-
ment compensated by any success to the work itself. It made a sufficient noise ;
but yielded neither fame nor profit. The former was the result of its author's
celebrity ; the latter, it is to be feared, of his incapacity.

544. JAMES MACPHERSOX.

In an evil hour for liis literary reputation, Macpherson, with more confidence
than wisdom, began a translation of the Iliad of Homer. This work he com-
pleted, and gave to the world in 1773. Its reception was mortifying in the
extreme. 3Ien of learning laughed at it, critics abused it; and, notwithstand-
ing some strenuous efforts on the part of his friends, particularly Sir John
ILlliot, it finally sank under one universal shout of execration and contempt.
The finishing blow to this production was inflicted by the Critical Review, in
which it was ably and fatally criticised.

" There is nothing," says one of the most able and elegant of Macpherson's
commentators, Dr Graham, the late learned minister of Aberfoyle, " there is
nothing wbich serves to set Macpherson's character and powers in a stronger
light than his egregious attempt to render the great father of poetry into prose,
however natural it might have been for him to have made this attempt, after
his success in doing the same office to Ossian." The temerity of this attempt
will not be deemed a little enhanced by the consideration that Pope's elegant
translation was already before the world, nor will the awkwardness of its failure be
thought lessened by a recollection of the sentiment its author himself expressed
on another occasion, viz., that he " would not deign to translate what he could
not imitate, or even equal." This unguarded language was now recollected to
his prejudice, and carefully employed by his enemies to increase the disgrace
of his failure.

To add to the literary mortifications under which Macphcrson was now suf-
fering, he found himself attacked by Dr Johnson in his celebrated Tour to
the Hebrides, published in 1773, on the subject of the authenticity of his
translations of Ossian. The remarks of the great moralist, as is well known,
are not confined, in this case, to an abstract discussion of the question, but in-
clude some severe, though certainly not unmerited personal reflections on the
translator.

These the latter resented so highly that he immediately wrote a threaten-
ing letter to their author, who replied in spirited and still more severe and
sarcastic language than he had employed in his published strictures, saying
amongst other humiliating things, " your abilities since your Homer are not so
formidable." To this letter Macpherson Avisely made no reply, and is not
known to hare taken any further notice of it than by assisting M'Nicol in his
" Remarks on Dr Johnson's Tour," printed in 1774. Even of this, however, he
is only suspected, there being no positive proof that he actually had any share
in that production.

Although thus thanklessly acknowledged, Macpherson still continued his
literary labours, and in 1775, published "The History of Great Britain, from
the Restoration to the accession of the house of Hanover," in 2 vols. 4to.

Soon after the publication of this work another favourable change took place
in the fortunes of its author, and opened up to him a new source of emolument.
He was selected by the government, at this time embarrassed by the resistance
of the American colonies to its authority, to defend and give force to the
reasons which influenced its proceedings with regard to that country. In the
discharge of this duty, he wrote a pamphlet entitled, " The Rights of Great
Britain asserted against the claims of the Colonies," Svo. 1776. This pamphlet
was circulated with great industry, and ran through several editions. He also
wrote " A Short History of the Opposition dui-ing the Inst session of parliament,'1
8vo. 1779. The merit of this last production was so remarkable, that it was.
at the time, generally ascribed to the pen of Gibbon, a compliment which, how-
ever, it is very questionable if its real author appreciated.

About this period Macpherson's good fortune was still further increased by

JAMES MACPHERSON. M6

his being appointed agent to the Nabob of Arcot, in behalf of whom he made
several effective appeals to the public, and amongst others published " Letters
from Mahommed Ali Chan, Nabob of Arcot, to the court of Directors. To
which is annexed a State of facts relative to Tanjore, with an Appendix of ori-
ginal papers," 4to. 1777. He is also supposed to have been the author of
" The History and Management of the East India Company, from its origin in
1G00, to the present times; vol. i. containing the affairs of the Carnatic, in
which the rights of the Nabob are explained, and the injustice of the Company
proved," 4to. 1779.

It was now thought advisable that Macpherson, in capacity of agent to the
Nabob, should be provided with a seat in parliament, and he was accordingly
returned member for Camelford in 1780, and was reelected for the same
place in 1784 and 1790. He, however, never made any attempt to speak in the
house, so that the cause of the eastern potentate, whatever it may have gained
from his influence abstractly as a member of parliament, was nothing forward-
ed by his oratory. The period, however, was now rapidly approaching when
this and all other earthly matters were no longer to be of any concernment to
him. His health now began gradually to fail, and continued to decline till the
year 1796, when he became so seriously ill, that it was thought advisable, as all
other means were found unavailing, that he should return to his native country,
and try the effect of a change of air. He accordingly proceeded to Scotland ;
but died in the same year, on the 17th February, at his seat of Bellville in the
shire of Inverness, in the 58th year of his age.

Macpherson died in opulent circumstances, leaving by his will, dated June
1793, legacies and annuities to various persons to a large amount. Amongst
his other bequests there is one of particular interest from its connexion with the
celebrated works to which he owes his celebrity, and from its bearing on a cir-
cumstance which created one of the most memorable civil wars, in the literary
world, upon record — the question of the authenticity of Ossian's poems.

Tiiis bequest comprised the sum of £1000, payable to John Mackenzie of
Fig-tree Court, in the Temple, to defray the expense of printing and publish-
ing Ossian in the original. Macpherson also directed by his will, that the sum
of £300 should be expended in erecting a monument to his memory in some
conspicuous situation at Bellville, and that his body should be carried to London
and be interred in Westminster Abbey. This was complied with, and he was
buried in Poet's Corner.

The preceding sketch, brief as it is, comprehends nearly all of any interest
with which the life of Macpherson pi-esents us, and affords in that brevity
another instance of the utter disproportion which is so often found to exist be-
tween the bulk of a man's personal history and that of his fame, — how much
may be afforded in one and the same life, to the essayist, philosopher,
or moralist, and how little to the biographer.

One point of interest in Macpherson's life, however, and without some al-
lusion to which any account of it would be incomplete, has been hitherto left all
but untouched in this sketch, and that purposely ; as it was thought better to
give it a distinct and separate place at the conclusion than to interrupt the bio-
graphical narrative by its earlier introduction.

The circumstance alluded to is the celebrated controversy regarding the au-
thenticity of Macpherson's translations of the Poems of Ossian, — a controversy
which, whether its voluminous amount is considered, the extremely opposite and
conflicting testimony by which it is supported, or the various and widely scattered
members of which it is composed, cannot be approached without hesitation.
The fervour with which it was once attended has long since altogether dis-
ss, a z

546 JAMES MACPHERSON.

appeared, and but little now remains even of the interest with which the
mooted point was associated. Few, in short, now care any thing at all about
the matter, and even though it were desirable, it would be impossible to resus-
citate the intense feeling with which it was once contemplated. This apathy,
however, singularly contrasts with the violent commotion and furious zeal
which the discussion of the momentous question excited in the public mind
some fifty or sixty years since. It was then an universal topic of conversation
in private circles, while the literary arena was crowded with combatants eager
for the contest, and inspired, if their feelings may be judged by their language,
with the most cordial hatred towards each other. Fresh champions of the op-
posite creeds followed each other in endless succession, as their predecessors re-
tired, exhausted or defeated, from the lists.

At one moment the authenticity of the poems seemed established beyond all
doubt ; in the next it was made still more clear that they were the most im-
pudent forgeries that were ever imposed upon the credulity of the literary
world. These were the results of the labours of the more active and zealous
partisans of the denying and believing factions ; but there were others again",
who did not strictly belong to either, and these, taking arguments from both
sides, succeeded, with much ingenuity, in involving the question in an obscurity
from which it has not emerged to this day.

The Ossianic controversy, like all other controversies, soon became personal,
and in nearly every case the discussion of the point exhibited fully as much abuse
as arguments. During all this time Macpherson himself, the cause of all this
bitterness of spirit and uncharitableness, and the only person who could have al-
layed it, kept sullenly aloof, and refused to produce that evidence which alone
could restore the peace of the literary world, and which he yet declared he pos-
sessed. Notwithstanding the celebrity, however, which he was thus acquir-
ing, his situation, in other respects, was by no means an enviable one. By
those who did not believe in the authenticity of the poems, he was reviled as an
impudent, unprincipled impostor ; by those who did, he was charged with
being a bungling, unskilful translator ; and by both he was abused for his
obstinacy in refusing to come forward with his testimony in the cause in
dispute.

Before proceeding to take a nearer view of the Ossianic controvei'sy itself,
there will be no impropriety in alluding to certain opinions, regarding the sub-
ject of it, which have now pretty generally obtained. These are, that it is of
little moment whether the poems are genuine or not, and that they are not, af-
ter all, worthy, in point of merit, of the notice they have attracted, or of the
discussion and dissension they have created. With regard to the last, it is mat-
ter of opinion, and must always remain so, since it cannot be decided by any
rule of taste. The first, again, involves a sentiment more specious perhaps than
profound ; for, besides the consideration that truth is at all times and in all
cases better than falsehood, and possesses an intrinsic value which in almost
every instance renders it worthy of being sought for, the investigation into the
authenticity of the Poems of Ossian involves, in the language of the ingenious
commentator already named, matter of importance to the " general history of
literature, and even that of the human race."

Whatever weight, however, may be allowed to these considerations, it is cer-
tain that Macpherson 's Poems of Ossian have lost a very large portion of the
popularity which they once enjoyed, and are evidently losing more every day.
The rising generation do not seem to have that relish for their beauties, or
rather do not see those beauties in tliem which captivated their fathers, and this
can be ascribed only, either to a change in literary taste, or to some defect or

JAMES MACPHERSON. 547

defects in the poems themselves, which improved intellectual culture has de-
tected ; for it is the result of an opinion formed on their abstract merits as
literary compositions, and is wholly unconnected with the question of their au-
thenticity, that now being considered a point of such indifference, as to be but
rarely taken into account in the decision. The book is now taken up,
without a thought being Masted on the consideration whether it be the
production of Ossian or Macpherson, and is judged of by its own intrinsic
value ; and tested in this way, it would appear that it has been found want-
ing ; a result which seems to show that the greatest charm of the poems, even at
the time when they were most appreciated, co-existed with the belief that they
were genuine relics of antiquity; that it was inseparable from this belief, that
it was born of it, fostered by it, and perished with it; that, in short, it lived
and died with it, and was exactly proportioned to its strength and its weakness.

Of the controversialists in this celebrated literary war the list is both long
and illustrious, and comprehends some of the proudest names of which this
country has to boast. Amongst these occur those of Dr Blair, Dr Gregory, lord
Karnes, Hume, and Dr Johnson. The most remarkable next to these were, Dr
Smith of Campbelltown, Dr Graham of Aberfoyle, Sir John Sinclair, Mr Laing,
author of " Notes and Illustrations " introduced into an edition of Ossian's Poems,
published in Edinburgh in 1805; Mr Alexander Macdonald, author of a work
entitled " Some of Ossian's lesser poems rendered into verse, with a preliminary
discourse in answer to Mr Laing's Critical and Historical Dissertations on the an-
tiquity of Ossian's Poems," 8vo, Liverpool, 1805 ; and W. Shaw, A.M., author of
" An Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems of Ossian," London, 1781.
There were besides these a host of others, but of lesser note. Of those just
named, there were six who may be said, generally speaking, to have been in favour
of the authenticity of the poems, and five against it. The former were Dr Blair,
Dr Gregory, lord Kames, Dr Graham, Sir John Sinclair, and Mr Macdonald.
The latter, Mr Hume, Dr Johnson, Mr Laing, Dr Smith, and Mr Shaw.

Here, then, we are startled at the very outset by the near approach to equality
in the amount of intelligence and talent which appears arrayed on either side ;
nor is this feeling greatly lessened in comparing the evidence adduced by each
party in support of their opposite opinions, and in confutation of those of their
opponents. Both seem conclusive when taken separately, and both defective
when placed in juxta-position.

Although, however, two classes only of controversialists have been made
above, there were actually four, or rather the two given are found on closer in-
quiry to be again subdivided — of the believers, into those whose opinion of the
authenticity of the poems was unqualified, and those again who believed them
to be authentic only to a certain extent, while the remainder were interpola-
tions by the translator. Of the former were Blair, Gregory, lord Kames, Sir
John Sinclair, and Macdonald. Of the latter was Dr Graham, and though only
one, he was yet the representative of a large body who entertained a similar
opinion. Of the disbelievers, again, there were those who utterly denied their
authenticity ; and those who, entertaining strong doubts, did not yet go the
whole length of rejecting them as spurious. Of the first were Dr Johnson,
Laing, and Shaw. Of the last, Mr Hume, and Dr Smith.

The controversy thus stands altogether upon four separate and distinct
grounds. These are, first, an entire and unqualified belief in the authenticity
of the poems ; second, a belief that they are in part genuine, and in part
spurious, including a charge of interpolation and false translation ; third,
much doubt, but no certainty ; and, fourth, a thorough conviction of their
being wholly forgeries.

518 JAMES MACPHEBSON.

Tlie principal arguments adduced in support of the first opinion, are — that
the poems bear internal evidence of antiquity ; — that their originals are or
were well known in the Highlands, and that there were many persons there
who could repeat large portions of them ; that Macpherson's talents, judging
Ly his own original works, the Highlander, Translation of the Iliad, &c,
were not equal to the production of poems of such transcendent merit as those
ascribed to Ossian ; that many credible witnesses were present, on various occa-
sions, when Macpherson was put in possession of these poems, orally and by
MS. ; and, lastly, that the originals themselves are now before the world.

With regard to the internal evidence of the genuineness of these poems, it is
to be feared that this is a thing more ingenious than sound ; and, like the
imaginary figures that present themselves in the fire, is more easily described
than pointed out. It will, at any rate, scarcely be deemed sufficient proof,
that the poems in question are ancient, merely because they bear no likeness to
any that are modern.

Dr Blair's celebrated dissertation on this subject, and on the authenticity of
the poems generally, is much more elegant, ingenious, and learned, than con-
vincing ; and appears, after all, to establish little more, indeed little more
seems aimed at, than that the poems may and should be ancient, not that they
are. To those who think that the absence of all modern allusion in the poems,
and the exclusive use which is made of natural imagery, without one single ex-
ception, is a proof of their antiquity, the argument of internal evidence will
have, no doubt, considerable weight ; but there are others who see in this
circumstance only caution and dexterity on the part of Macpherson, and who,
in consequence, instead of reckoning it an evidence of his veracity, consider
it but as a proof of his ingenuity.

As to the assertion, again, that the originals were well known in the High-
lands, and that there were many persons there who could repeat them. This,
on inquiry, turns out to mean only, that fragments of Gaelic poetry, — not entire
poems, as given by Macpherson, but certainly, such as they were, of undoubted
antiquity, — were to be met with in the Highlands. That such were, and prob-
ably are to be found there even to this day, is undeniable ; but, in the first
place, they have been in no instance found in the complete state in which they
appear in the translations, but disjointed and disconnected, and, still worse,
bearing only in a few instances any more than a resemblance to the English
poems. In large portions, even this is entirely wanting. The originals, then,
in the only sense in which that word ought to be used, cannot, with truth, be
said to have existed in the Highlands. Fragments of ancient poetry, as al-
ready said, did indeed exist there, but not the mass of poetry given to the
world by Macpherson as the Poems of Ossian, and said by him to have been
collected in the Highlands. The assertion, therefore, has been made, either
with a view to deceive, or without a due consideration of the meaning of the
terms in which it is conveyed.

The argument deduced from Macpherson's talents, as exhibited in his ori-
ginal works, to show that he could not be the author of the poems in question,
is plausible ; but the premises on which it is founded, are by no means of so
incontrovertible a nature as to give us implicit confidence in the conclusion.
That a literary man may utterly fail in one or more instances, and be eminently
successful in another, is perfectly consistent with experience. It has often hap-
pened, and is, therefore, not more extraordinary in Macpherson's case, suppos-
ing him to be the author, and not merely the translator of the poems ascribed
to Ossian, than in many others that could be named. Besides, something like a
reason is to ba found for his success in this species of composition, in the

JAMES MACPHERSON. $49

fact that, from his earliest years he was an enthusiastic admirer of Celtic lore ;
and that its poetry, in particular, was one of his constant and most agreeable
studies. This argument, then, can have no great weight, unless it be deemed
an impossibility, that a man who had failed in one or more literary attempts,
should be successful in another ; an assertion which, it is believed, few will be
hardy enough to venture, and which, it is certain, fewer still will be able to
make good.

With regard to that part of the controversy where evidence is produced by
credible, and, in several of the instances, certainly highly respectable witnesses,
of Macpherson's having been put in possession, in their presence, of various
poems ascribed to Ossian, both oral and written ; — without questioning the
credibility of these witnesses, an important objection may be fairly brought
against the nature of their evidence. It is liable to that charge of generality
which Mr Hume thought, and every impartial person must think, ought to be
considered " as being of no authority." In no single instance is any particular
poem, or any particular part of a poem, distinctly traced by such evidence from
its original possessor to the pages of Macpherson's volumes. Not one of them
has stated the results of what came under his own observation, in any thing
like such plain terms as " I saw, or heard Macpherson put in possession of the
first duan of Cath-loda ; I read it over carefully at the time, and I assert that
the English poem of that name which he has given, is a translation of the
same." The witnesses alluded to, have said nothing like this. The amount of
their evidence is, that it consists with their knowledge that Macpherson did obtain
Gaelic poems, when in the Highlands. They saw him get some in MS., and
they were present when others were recited to him. But here their testimony
terminates ; and in no case have the poems been further identified in the
English dress with these which he procured on these occasiens, than as bear-
ing, in some instances, a general resemblance to them. The extent to which
Macpherson made use of what they saw him get, or, indeed, what use he made
of it at all, they have not said, because they could not ; for, although he car-
ried away the originals, they did not, and could not, therefoi'e, ascertain, by
the only process by which it could with certainty be ascertained, by collation,
what he had omitted, or what he had retained ; what he had changed, or what
he had left unaltered.

We come now to the last proof exhibited in support of the authenticity of the
English poems of Ossian, and it is by far the most startling of the whole. It
would seem, indeed, were it adopted without examination, to set the question
for ever at rest, and to place it beyond the reach of all further controversy.
This proof is the " Originals" published by Sir John Sinclair in 1806, an evi-
dence which certainly appears, at first sight, conclusive ; but what is the fact?
They are not originals, in so far as the written poetry which Macpherson ob-
tained is concerned ; for they are all in bis own hand-writing, or that of his
amanuensis. The term original, therefore, in this case, can only be applied to
what he wrote down from oral communication; and it will at once be perceiv-
ed how much their evidence is already weakened by this limitation of the mean-
ing of the word original, as employed by Sir John Sinclair. How far, again, it
may be relied upon as applied to the oral communications which Macpherson
received, must entirely depend upon the degree of faith which is put in his in-
tegrity. He has said that they are the originals, but this is all we have for
it, and by many, we suspect, it will scarcely be deemed sufficient. He
iiad a control over these documents which greatly lessens, if it does not
wholly destroy all faith in them as evidences; while his interest in produc-
ing them, must lay them open, under all circumstances, to the strongest

550 JAMES MACPHERSON.

suspicions. But it is said, that it is not likely that he would be at the trouble
of going through so laborious a process as this, merely to support an imposture- —
that, though willing, he was, from his want of skill in the Gaelic language, unfit
for the task, and could not have produced poems in that language of such merit
as those which he gave as originals — that the Gaelic poems are superior to the
English — and lastly, that from impartial and critical examination, the former
must have been anterior to the latter. With regard to the first of these asser-
tions, it seems to be merely gratuitous, as it rests upon a question which Mac-
pherson himself alone could determine, and can, therefore, be of no weight as
an argument. That Macpherson was greatly deficient in critical knowledge of
the Gaelic language, and that he could not consequently produce poems in that
language of such merit as those which he represents as the originals of Ossian, is
certain, because it is established by the clearest evidence, and by the concurring
testimony of several eminent Gaelic scholars ; but although he could not do this
himself, he could employ others to do it, and it is well known that he was inti-
mate, and in close correspondence with several persons critically skilled in the
Gaelic language, of whose services he availed himself frequently, and largely,
when preparing his " Translations." Might he not have had recourse to the
same aid in translating from the English to the Gaelic ? Dr Johnson thought
so. " I am far from certain," says the sagacious moralist, ** that some transla-
tions have not been lately made that may now be obtruded as parts of the origi-
nal work." In truth, the presumption that Macpherson did procure Gaelic
translations to be made from the English, is exceedingly strong, as will appear
from various circumstances yet to be alluded to. At all events, it does not seem
by any means an inevitable conclusion, that because he was not himself capable
of writing what are called the originals, they are, therefore, original. But
the strongest part of the argument in favour of their originality yet remains.
It is said that the Gaelic is superior to the English, and that on an impartial
and critical examination, it appears that the former must have been anterior to
the latter. Now, the first of these is again matter of opinion, and as such, en-
titled to no more consideration than opinions generally deserve. To many their
merits will appear on the whole pretty equal ; to others, the Gaelic will, in
some instances, seem the more beautiful ; and in some, again, the English. The
second assertion, however, is not of this description. It is not founded on
opinion, but on an alleged positive internal evidence. It is to be legretted,
however, that that evidence had not been pointed out in more specific terms
than those employed — that it had not been distinctly said what are those
particular circumstances which, on a perusal, establish the relative ages of the
Gaelic and English versions; for, on an impartial and critical examination lately-
made by a person eminently skilled in the Gaelic language, for the express
purpose of furnishing information for this article, it does not appear, at least
from any thing he could discover, that the Gaelic poems must, of necessity, have
preceded th« English. They certainly contain nothing that shows the contrary —
nothing that discovers them to be of modern composition ; but neither do Mac-
pherson's English poems of Ossian. Neither of them betray themselves by any
slip or inadvertency, and this, negative as it is, is yet all that can be said of
both as to internal evidence.

What has just been said, includes nearly all the leading and direct arguments
which have been employed in the defence of the authenticity of Macpherson's
translations of the Poems of Ossian, and nearly all that can be urged against
that belief, with the exception of that which may be deduced from Macpherson's
own conduct in relation to the question, and which shall be afterwards refer-
red to.

JAMES MACPHERSON. 551

We come now to consider the grounds of the belief, that the poems are in
part genuine, and in part spurious; including a charge of interpolation, and of
false translation. What has been already said having necessarily included all
the ramifications of the controversy, the consideration of this point need not
detain us long, for happily the evidence is not only quite at hand, but of the
most conclusive and satisfactory description. That some portion of Macpher-
son's English poems are genuine, at least in so far as that can be considered
genuine, of which the utmost that the committee of the Highland Society found
themselves warranted in saying, after much and careful inquiry, was, that it bore
a strong resemblance to certain fragments which they themselves had obtain-
ed, is beyond doubt. Macpherson, as before said, certainly did gather some
scraps of poetry in the Highlands, and as certainly did make some use of them
in the composition of his poems. But that he introduced a great deal of his
own, that he interpolated, and that he translated falsely the little he got, is
equally certain. The fact is incontrovertibly established by Dr Graham, to
whose able work on the subject, entitled " An Essay on the Authenticity of the
Poems of Ossian," we refer the reader for more full information, and is thus
confirmed by the committee of the Highland Society, who, after stating in their
Report that they had " not been able to obtain any one poem the same in title
or tenor with the poems published by him," proceed to say, *' It (the commit-
tee) is inclined to believe that he (Macpherson) was in use to supply chasms, and
to give connexion, by inserting passages which he did not find, and to add
what he conceived to be dignity and delicacy to the original composition, by
striking out passages, by softening incidents, by refining the language, in
short, by changing what he considered as too simple or too rude for a modern
ear, and elevating what, in Ids opinion, was below the standard of good poetry."
What immediately follows this sentence, though not relevant to the point imme-
diately under discussion is too important to be passed over. The committee
goes on to say, '* To what degree, however, he exercised these liberties, it is
impossible for the Committee to determine." Now, this means, if it means any
thing, that the interpolations were such close imitations of the original, that, of
the whole poems, it was impossible to distinguish which was Ossian's and which
Macpherson's ; therefore, that the poetry of the latter was as good as that of
the former. An admission this, that would seem to settle the point of Mac-
pherson's ability to forge the poems, a point so strongly insisted upon by the
defenders of their authenticity, by showing that he was competent to write
them, and, in accordance with this, it may be asked, if he wrote a part thus
excellently, why might he not have written the whole ? Dr Graham, it is true,
has, in several instances, detected " Macpherson's bombast," but this only shows
that Macpherson has occasionally fallen into an error, which it was next to im-
possible to avoid altogether in a work written in the peculiar style of Ossian's
poems.

There still, however, remains one overpowering circumstance, which, if there
were no other evidence against the fidelity of Macpherson, would probably be
held by most unprejudiced inquirers as quite conclusive of the whole question.
The " Originals" correspond exactly with the " Translations,'' in language, and
indeed in every point How can this be reconciled to the fact admitted by
Macpherson himself, that he took certain liberties with the original Gaelic ?
The ° Originals," when published, might have been expected to exhibit such
differences with the " Translations," as would arise from Mr Macpherson's la-
bours as an emendator and purifier of the native ideas. But they do not exhibit
any traces of such difference. The unavoidable conclusion is, that the Origi-
nals, prepared by Macpherson, and published by Sir John Sinclair, were cither

552 JAMES MACPHERSON.

altogether a forgery, or were accommodated to the Translations, by such a pro-
cess as entirely to destroy their credit, and render their publication useless.

We shall now proceed to take a view of the conduct of Macpherson himself,
in so far as it relates to the controversy which he had been the means of excit-
ing, and when we do this, we shall find that whether he really was an impos-
tor or no, in the matter of the poems, he pursued exactly the course, with
regard to them and tiie public, which an impostor would have done. lie was
accused of being guilty of an imposition. He took no steps to rebut the charge.
He was solicited to give proofs of the authenticity of the poems. He refused,
and for upwards of thirty years submitted to wear the dress of a bankrupt in
integrity, without making any attempt to get rid of it. He affected, indeed, a
virtuous indignation, on all occasions, when the slightest insinuation was made
that an imposition had been practised ; and, instead of calmly exhibiting tlie
proofs of his innocence, he got into a passion, and thus silenced, in place of sa-
tisfying inquiry. " To revenge," says Dr Johnson, speaking of Macpherson'a
conduct in this matter, " reasonable incredulity, by refusing evidence, is a de-
gree of insolence, with which the world is not yet acquainted ; and stubborn
audacity is tlie last refuge of guilt."

A suspicion of the authenticity of the poems almost immediately followed the
appearance of those published in 17G2, and the first public notice taken of it
by Macpherson himself, occurs in 17G3, in his preface to Temora, published in
that year. He there says, " Since the publication of the last collection of
Ossian's poems, many insinuations have been made, and doubts arisen, concern-
ing their authenticity. I shall probably hear more of the same kind after the
present poems make their appearance. Whether these suspicions are suggested
by prejudice, or are only the effects of ignorance of facts, I shall not pretend to
determine. To me they give no concern, as I have it always in my power to
remove them. An incredulity of this kind is natural to persons who confine
all merit to their own age and country. These are generally the weakest, as
well as the most ignorant of the people. Indolently confined to a place, then-
ideas are very narrow and circumscribed. It is ridiculous enough to see such
people as these are branding their ancestors with the despicable appellation of
barbarians. Sober reason can easily discern where the title ought to be fixed with
more propriety. As prejudice is always the effect of ignorance, the knowing, the
men of true taste, despise and dismiss it. If the poetry is good, and the charac-
ters natural and striking, to these it is matter of indifference, whether the heroes
were born in the little village of Angles, in Jutland, or natives of the barren heaths
of Caledonia. That honour which nations derive from ancestors worthy or re-
nowned, is merely ideal. It may buoy up the minds of individuals, but it con-
tributes very little to their importance in the eyes of others. But of all these
prejudices which are incident to narrow minds, that which measures the merit
of performances by the vulgar opinion concerning the country which produced
them, is certainly the most ridiculous. Ridiculous, however, as it is, few have
the courage to reject it ; and I am thoroughly convinced, that a few quaint lines
of a ltoman or Greek epigrammatist, if dug out of the ruins of Herculaneum,
would meet with more cordial and universal applause, than all the most beau-
tiful national rhapsodies of all the Celtic bards and Scandinavian scalds
that ever existed." This, it is presumed, will be thought rather an odd reply
to the doubts entertained concerning the authenticity of the poems ; or rather
it will be thought to be no reply at all. It is all very well as to reasoning and
writing ; but, it will be perceived, wonderfully little to the purpose. All that
he condescends to say, in this rhapsody, to the point at issue — the <5 doubts" — is,
that he " has it always in his power to remove them." But he made no use of

JOHN MAIR. 553

this power then, nor at any period during his after life, though urged to it by
motives which gentlemen and men cf honour have been always accustomed to
hold as sacred.

When pressed by the committee of the Highland Society of London, to pub-
lish the originals, and thus satisfy the public mind ins to the authenticity of the
poems, Macpherson thus replies to the secretary of that body : — " I shall adhere
to the promise I made several years ago to a deputation of the same kind, [in
their anxiety to have the question set at rest, they had proposed that another
deputation should wait upon him for this purpose,] that is, to employ my first
leisure time, and a considerable portion of time it must be, to do it accurately,
in arranging and printing the originals of the Poems of Ossian, as they have
come to my hands." The delay here acknowledged, a delay of several years,
and the further delay bespoken, as it were, in this extract, between the promise
of giving the originals to the world and its fulfilment, will seem to many sus-
picious circumstances, and will appear rather a necessary provision for getting
up a translation from the English, than for the preparation of original docu-
ments. Nor is this suspicion lessened by his telling us, that they were yet to
arrange ; a process which it will be thought must of necessity have taken place
before they were translated. It seems odd that the translations should be in
perfect order, while the originals were in confusion. The mere disarrange-
ment of sheets of MS., from passing through the hands of the printer, or from
inattention, could scarcely warrant the formidable and cautious provision of **. a
considerable portion of time."

The fact of Macpherson having interpolated, although it could not have been
ascertained by other evidence, would be sufficiently established by his own.
When taxed by Dr Macintyre of Glenorchy with being himself the author of
the greater part of the Poem of Fingal — ** You are much mistaken," replied
Macpherson ; " I had occasion to do less of that than you suppose." Thus ad-
mitting the fact, and only limiting its extent.

On the whole, it seems, on a careful revision of all that has been said on
this once famous controversy, beyond all doubt that Macpherson is, in nearly
the strictest sense of the word, the author of the English Poems of Ossian. The
skeleton was furnished him, but it was he who clothed it with flesh, en-
dued it with life, and gave it the form it now wears. He caught the^ tone
and spirit of the Celtic lyre, from hearing its strings vibrating in the wind.
The starting note was given him, but the strain is his own. Whatever degree
of merit, therefore, may be allowed to these strains, belongs to Macpherson.

MAIR, or MAJOR, John, a celebrated name of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. Little of the life of this eminent person is known, beyond a few
incidental circumstances mentioned in his own works, and some allusions by
contemporary scholars. Dr Mackenzie and other writers not to be depended
on, have stated, without reference to any authority, that he was born in the
year 1469. His birth-place, by his own account, was the parish of North
Berwick, and is said to have been at the village of Gleghorn. In the early
part of the sixteenth century he became a member of Christ's college in Cam-
bridge.1 " In this post," says bishop Nicholson, " he seems to have written

1 He afterwards went to the university of Paris. Mackenzie, who lias corrected his life of
Major in the preface to his work, on the ground of some communications received from
Paris, says lie joined the university in 1493, and became master of arts in 1496. " Mr John
Harvey," continues this authority, "a Scotsman and bursar, or fellow of the Scots college,
being then rector of the university of Paris, he passed through all the honourable places of
the faculty of arts, being first procurator and then quaestor; and designs himself thus in
the Register, ' M. Joannes Mair, Glegernocensis, Diocesis S. Andrea;.' He was madedoctor
of divinity in 1508." — Mackenzie's Lives, vol. ii. Pre/ace, vii.
III. 4 A

554 JOHN MAIR.

his history, which, as he acknowledges, was penned in the year 1518 the
seventh of king James the fifth's age."* Mackenzie says he left Paris immedi-
ately on having written his history, and in the year mentioned we know him
to have been in Scotland, as he was then incorporated a member of the univer-
sity of Glasgow, and bore the titles of Canon of the chapel royal, and vicar or
Dunlop, while he is termed " Doctor Parisiensis."3 In 1521, the same author-
ity shows him to have been professor of theology in Glasgow, and one of the
" Intrantes " and " Deputati Rectoris ;" probably performing, in the latter capa-
city, the duties now performed, or presumed to be performed by the assessors of
the rector. During that year his well known work, M De Gestis Scotorum," was
published in Paris by Badius Ascensius, the same person who afterwards published
the history of Hector Boece. He is said by Bayle to have written M stylo Sor-
bonico," a characteristic not intended as a compliment The Latinity of this work
has been censured by scholars ; but the matter which it clothes, if not likely to
repay a reader of the present age for the labour of perusal, presents us with much
contempt of prejudices common to the age ; considerable knowledge of the
grounds of historical truth, and a mass of curious information, sometimes of that
petty and domestic nature, which is valuable because it is so generally omitted
by others. His notices of the state and value of provisions, and of local customs
might be valuable to the political economist and antiquary. He has shown much
sound sense in rejecting a mass of the fables narrated by his precursors in his-
tory, Wyntoun and Fordun, believing the tale of Gathelus coming from Greece,
to have been invented for the purpose of excelling the English who brought
their " Brute " or "Brutus" from Troy, the Greeks being, as all history and
poetry must testify, a far more respectable source of ancestry than the Trojans.
Of the race of kings, amounting to about forty-five, betwixt Fergus I. and
Fergus II., now blotted from the list, he mentions, and that but slightly, only
three or four. On this subject Dr Mackenzie, who wishes to speak favourably
of the subject of his memoir, while he has a still higher respect for the anti-
quity of his native land, remarks, in a tone of chagrin, " in his account of our
monarchs, of fifteen kings, that he only acknowledges to have been between
Fergus I. and II., he mentions not above three or four of them ; and it plainly
appears," continues the doctor, drawing the proper deduction, " from the whole
tract of his history, that it was not drawn out of ancient and authentic monu-
ments, for he cites none of them, but from the historians above quoted." * The
views of civil liberty inculcated in this work surprise us when we consider the
pei-iod and state of society at which it was written, and they would certainly at
the present juncture be termed philosophically just. If a man of so original a
mind as Buchanan may be supposed to have derived his political sentiments
from an inferior genius, it is not improbable that the doctrines of kingly power
so beautifully illustrated in the dialogue " De Jure Eegni apud Scotos " may
have been imbibed from the doctrines inculcated by Major, under whom
Buchanan studied logic. The doctrines of Major are more boldly and broadly,
if not justly, laid down than those of Grotius.* Although a churchman, he was

8 Scottish Hist Library, 103. ,

3 According to the records of the university of Glasgow, in the ^tes to Wodrow s Bio-
graphical Collection, printed some years ago by the Maitland Club, it is said that
in the year 1518 " Egregius virdictus Joannes Majoris, Doctor Parisiensis, ac principalis Re-
gens collegii et pedagogii dicti universitatis, Canonicusque capelle regie, ac vicarius de DuiUop,
Sic." was incorporated along with forty-three others.

1 Mede, Gixton, and Froissart are Major's chief authorities.

5 One passage is peculiarly striking, and, had the efllct of published opinions been belter
known at the period, might have brought persecution on the head of the author: " Populus
liber primo regi dat robur, cujus pottstas a to:o populo dependet, quia aliud jus Fergusius
primus rex Scotia non habuit: et ita est ubilibet, et ab orbe conditc erat communiter."

JOHN MAIR. 555

likewise peculiarly unfettered in his clerical opinions. He condemned the
monkish profuseness of David I., that " sair saunt to the crown," and in a work
entitled " Disputationes de i'otestate Papae et Concilii,"6 he afterwards unca-
nonically argued the necessity of excluding all spiritual dignitaries from author-
ity in matters temporal. Mackenzie, in his corrected statement, continues, " he
remained in Scotland about five years, and taught theology in the university of
St Andrews." At what time he joined that university it would be difficult to
discover, but it appears that he was connected with the university of Glasgow
until the year 1522, when he receives in the record the several titles already
attributed to him, and with the addition of " Theologiae Professor," and "The-
saurus capellae regiae Strevelinensis."7 He was, however, assuredly professor of
theology in St Andrews in the year 1525, as Buchanan is said in his life,
either written by himself or by Sir Peter Young, to have then studied under
him, in the college of St Salvator. The celebrity of his lectures had attracted
the poet's attention ; and, whether as a pupil of Major, or to fulfill his previous
intentions, he followed his teacher to France. The connexion was the cause of
an accusation of ingratitude against Buchanan. Buchanan had afterwards pen-
ned an epigram on Major, in which he turned his name to the bitter qualifica-
tion, " Solo cognomine Major." It is probable that the opportunity of so apt a
witticism was the sole motive of Buchanan ; but Mackenzie and Christopher Ir-
vine maintained that Buchanan had been fed both in mind and body by the
charity of Major, who had procured him a professorship in the college of St
Barbe. " He who had eat his bread," observes the latter, " and lived under
his discipline, both in St Andrews and in the Sorbon, the space of five years,
might have afforded him an handsomer character than solo cognomine Major ;"
and concludes, " but I leave these wretches to the care of the great accuser, and
go to my business."8 There appears to be no other foundation for the charge
but the inferences which may be drawn from a passage in Buchanan's life,
which does not express such a meaning.9 Mackenzie states that Major remained
in Paris till 1530. Unfortunately little is known of the circumstances of his
life during that period, nor will our limits permit an investigation among con-
tinental authors, which might provide useful matter for a more extended me-
moir. We know, however, that his fame was extensive and well supported.
He has received high praise from such bibliographical writers as Dupin, Bel-
larmin, and Vossius. He is alluded to by some of his countrymen with less
praise ; and Leslie and Dempster, probably displeased at his view of the anti-
quities of his native country, sneer at the barbarism of his style. Major was
probably one of the latest commentators on that universal text book, the Sen-
tences of Peter Lombard. In 1519, he had published " In Libros Sententiarum
primum et secundum commentarium ;" a work which has passed to oblivion with
its subject. In 1 521, he published an Introduction to Aristotle's Dialectics, and
in 1529, " In Quatuor Evangelia Expositiones Luculentae," being a discussion on
the arrangement of the Gospels as to date. Mackenzie mentions that he re-
Continuing the train of reasoning, he concludes, " Tertio arguitur ad eandem conclusionem
proband um : regem et posteros pro dementis populus potest exauthorare sicut et primo in-
stituere.' p. 175.

' Printed in the Vindicia: Doctrinje Majorum Scholae Parisiensis, &c. of Richerius.

f In the same year, " Dominus Dccanus Johannes Major," is one of the " auditores com-
puti," and-also one of the " Intrantes," and " Deputati Rectoris."

8 Norn. Scot., 1819 127.

9 Primo vero ad fanum Andrese missus est, ad Joannem Majorem audiendum, qui turn
ibi dialeclicen, ant verius sophisticen, in extrema scnectute docebat. Huncin Galliam aestato
proxima secutus, in fiammam Lutheranse sectac, jam late se spargentem incidit: ac biennium
fere cum iniquitate fortuna; coliuctatus, tandem in Collegium Rarbaranum acciius, &c. —
Vila Euch. i.

55G SIR RICHARD MAITLAND.

turned to Scotland in 1530, and taught theology at St Andrews '* till lie came
to a great age ; for in the year 1547, at the national council of the church of
Scotland at Linlithgow, he subscribed, by proxy, in quality of dean of theology
of St Andrews, not being able to come himself by reason of his age, which was
then seventy-eight, and shortly after he died."

Anthony Wood has discovered from a manuscript note of Bryan Twyne that
Major was at some period of his life at Oxford, but in what house is unknown,
" unless," says bishop Nicholson, " in Osney Abbey, whose melodious bells he
commends." If we could suppose Wood to have mistaken a century, the follow-
ing might apply to the subject of our memoir during the year when he is said
by Mackenzie to have gone to France. Speaking of St John's school belonging
to St John's Hospital, he says, " all that I find material of this school is, that
it, with others of the same faculty, were repaired by one John Major, an Incep-
tor in the same faculty, anno 1426." 10

MAITLAND, (Sir) Richard, of Lethington, the collector and preserver of
our early Scottish poetry, and himself a poet of no mean rank, was the son of
William Maitland of Lethington and Ihirlstane, and Martha, daughter of
George, lord Seaton. He was born in the year 1 49G ; but his father having
perished at the calamitous battle of Flodden, he was at an early period of life
deprived of paternal guidance and instruction. After going through the usual
course of academical education at St Andrews, he repaired to France, then
the resort of all young Scotsmen of rank, and more especially of students of
law. The time of his return is altogether unknown ; he is supposed by one of
his biographers1 to have been absent from his native country during the earlier
part of the minority of James V. ; or if he did return previous to that period,
his name is not connected with any of its turmoils. Before his departure from
Scotland, he is believed to have been connected with the court of James IV.
We are at all events certain, that on his return he was successively employed by
James V., the regent Arran, and Mary of Lorraine. To his services, during
the regency of the latter, he alludes in his poem on u The Quenis An) vale in
Scotland :" —

Madam, I wes trew servand to thy mother,

And in hir favoure stude ay thankfuliio
Of my estait, als weill as cny other.

A passage in Knox's history has attached some suspicion to the good name of
Sir Richard, at this period of his life. He is alleged to have been instrumental
in procuring, for bribes, the liberation of cardinal Beaton from the custody of
his kinsman, Lord Seaton. Of his share in the guilt of this transaction, such
as it is, no proof exists ; while there is something very like direct evidence that
he Avas attached to the English and protestant party, and consequently, in favour-
ing Beaton, would have been acting against sentiments which the most of men
hold sacred. That evidence consists in an entry in the Criminal Record, to
the following effect: — "Richard Maitland, of Lethingtoune, found George,
lord Seytoune, as his surety, that he would enter within the castle of Edinburgh,
or elsewhere, when and where it might please the lord governor, on forty-
eight hours' warning: and that the said Richard shall remain a good and faith-
ful subject, and remain within the kingdom, and have no intelligence with our
ancient enemies the English, under the pain of £10,000. "2

10 Wood's Antiquities of Oxford, ii. 766.

1 Biographical Introduction to Sir Kidiard's Poems, printed by the Maitland Club, p. xxii.

* Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, i. 328.

SIR RICHARD MAITLAND. 557

We soon after find Sir Ricjiard engaged in diplomatic transactions for the
settlement of the borders. In 1552, he was appointed, along with others, to
make a division of what was called the debatable land, which division was
ratified in the following November ;3 and in 1559, he was nominated in a com-
mission of a similar nature. The result of the last was, the conclusion of the
treaty of Upsetlington.

In 1563, he was appointed one of the commissioners to decide on the appli-
cation of the act of oblivion ; and in the month of December of the same year,
to frame regulations for the commissaries then about to be established for the
decision of consistorial causes.

While he was thus employed, he Mas also rising rapidly in the profession
which he had more peculiarly adopted. He is mentioned on the 14th of
March, 1551, as an extraordinary lord of session; and about the same period,
or soon afterwards, he received the honour of knighthood. Ten years after-
wards (12th November, 15G1) he was admitted an ordinary lord, in the room
of Sir William Hamilton of Sanquhar ; and on the same day his son, William
Maitland, was received as an extraordinary lord, in place of Mr Alexander
Livingston of Dunipace. Sir Richard was soon afterwards made a member of
the privy council; and upon the 20th of December, 1562, appointed lord privy
seal, which office he resigned in 1567 in favour of his second son, John, then
prior of Coldinghame, and better known by his subsequent title of lord Thirl-
stane. When we consider that these appointments were bestowed on Sir
Richard, in circumstances that seemed to oppose an almost insurmountable bar-
rier to the performance of their duties, they will be considered as the most de-
cided proof of the estimation in which he was held as a good man, and an able
lawyer. It does not exactly appear whether his health had been impaired by
the performance of the duties of his various and important offices, — it is only
certain that about this period he had become blind. This calamity must have
overtaken him before October, 15G0, and most probably after his last appoint-
ment as a commissioner for the settlement of border disputes, in 1559. The
allusion to it in his poem on " The Quenis Arryvale in Scotland," (which must
have been written in the latter part of 1561,) is clear and unquestionable.

And thoch that I to serve be nocht sa abill

As I wes wont, becaus I may not see ;
Yet in my hairt I sail be firme and stabill
To thy Hiencs with, all fidclitie,
Ay prayan God for thy prospeiitie, &c.

The stale of the administration of the laws at this period was sufficiently de-
plorable. The nobles and barons, while they assembled in parliament for the
purpose of making statutes, felt no scruple in breaking them, on the most
trifling occasions, and then appearing, when called to the bar of justice, sur-
rounded by armed followers. So common, indeed, did this practice become,
and so little regulated by the goodness or badness of the cause, that when some
of the reformers were cited before Mary of Lorraine, the queen dowager and
recent of Scotland, a large body of their friends assembled to accompany them
to Stirling, where the queen then was ; and it was not till a promise of pardon
(which was in the most unprincipled manner immediately violated) had been
given, that they could be prevailed on to disperse. In like manner, when the
borderers or Highlanders extended their depredations beyond their usual
limits it was necessary that an army should be assembled for their suppression /

* Ktith's History, p. 53.

558 SIR RICHARD MAITLA.ND.

and if the king did not accompany it in petjon, the command was given to
some nobleman of high rank. In most cases, the nobles were by far too power-
ful to fear the most energetic measures of a government which, receiving as yet
no support from the people, depended upon themselves for its very existence.
Feeling their inability to punish the real criminals, the king and his ministers
frequently wreaked their vengeance on some unfortunate individual, who, though
far less guilty than his feudal lord, was too feeble to oppose the ministers of the
law. In such cases, the wretched criminal was prevailed upon by intimidation,
perhaps in many cases where the necessary proof of guilt could not be adduced,
to " come in the king's will," — a phrase meaning to submit without condition
to the royal mercy, — or the jury were terrified into a verdict, the nature of
which no one can doubt, by the threats of the king's advocate to prosecute them
for wilful error, if they did not comply. No one who has looked into the
publication of the "Criminal Trials, and other Proceedings before the High
Court of Justiciary," by Mr Robert Pitcairn, will accuse us of over-colouring the
picture which wo have now drawn. "In truth," (to quote the words of an
admirable review of that work, supposed to be one of the last critiques from tho
pen of Sir Walter Scot',) " no reader of these volumes — whatever his previous
acquaintance with Scottish history may have been, — will contemplate without
absolute wonder the view of society which they unveil ; or find it easy to com-
prehend how a system, subject to such severe concussions in every part, con-
trived, nevertheless, to hold itself together. The whole nation would seem to
have spent their time, as one malefactor expressed it, ' in drinking deep and
taking deadly revenge for slight offences.' "5 That the judges themselves, if not
exposed to the fury of the more lawless part of their countrymen from the un-
popular nature of their office, were not at least exempted from it by its sacred
character, the subsequent part of this sketch will sufficiently show.

Setting out of the question the calamitous nature of Sir Richard Mainland's
malady, and his country's loss from being deprived of his more active services,
his blindness may be supposed to have contributed much to his peace of mind.
The transactions of this unhappy period, — the murder of Darnley, — the queen's
marriage with Bothwell, and all the subsequent events of the different regencies,
are too well known to require notice here. But although the venerable knight
did not engage in these transactions, he was not spared the pain of having his
lands ravaged, and his property forcibly kept from him. His lands of Blvthe
were overrun by the border robbers,6 as we know by his poem, entitled " The
Blind Baronis Comfort," in which he consoles himself for his wrongs, and puns
upon the name : —

Blynd man, be blylh, altliocht that thow be wrangi! ;
Thocht Blyllie be herreit, tak no melancholic.

Happy indeed must have been the man who, dismissing from his mind the mis-
fortunes of his lot, could devote it to the pursuits of literature ; and who, esti-
mating the good things of this world at their real value, could at the same time
cultivate the temper here exhibited.

It seems to have been about the same time that the king's party took posses-
sion of the castle of Lethington, which had been the temporary abode of the

5 See Quarterly Review, No. 88, p. 470.

6 This was not the first time that his property had been destroyed or carried off. " Wpoun
the xiiij day" of September, 1549, " the Ingiismen past out of Haddingtoun, and brunt it
and Leidingtoun, and passed away without an) battel!, lor the pest and hunger was rjcht cvill
amangis tham, quha m\cht rema\ne na langer thairin." Diurnal of Occurrtnts in Scotland,
printed by the Baunatyne and Maitland Clubs, p. 48.

SIR RICHARD MAITLAND. 559

secretary Maitland, and a ready justification of this violent measure was found
in the conduct of that statesman. After the death of the son, the enmity of the
regent Morton was transferred to the aged and unoffending father, and his house
and lands were still violently withheld from him. Although Sir Richard ap-
pears to have requested the intercession of the English court, and for that pur-
pose to have transmitted a representation to lord Burleigh, the queen, with her
usual crafty and cautious policy in regard to Scottish affairs, did not interfere :
the document is thus marked — " This must he well considered before any thing
is done." It was not, therefore, till the fall of Morton, that the worthy knight
obtained restoration of his lands. He did not, however, droop into despondency
during the long period of eleven years that he was thus ** wrangit." In that
period his poem of " Solace in Aige" is believed to have been written. It
concludes thus : —

Thocht I be sweir to ryd or gang,
Thair is sum thing I've wantit lang,

Fain have I walil
Thaim punysit that did me wrang,

Thoucht I be auld.

Some attempt seems to have been made by Sir Richard to obtain compensation
at least for his losses. There is extant a list of " the guidis tane frae ye aid
laird of Lethingtoun of his awin proper geir forthe of Blythe and ye Twllowss ;''
but it is to be feared that his endeavours wei*e unsuccessful. At a later period
of his life, he renewed his application for compensation ; and, although he ob-
tained an act of parliament, recognizing his claims, and rescinding an act made
in favour of captain David Hume of Fishwick, who had possessed Lethington,
and intromitted with the rents of that estate, the benignity of his temper war-
rants our supposing, in the absence of historical evidence, that he did not pur-
sue his rights with any violent or revengeful feelings.

The age and infirmities of Sir Richard now appear to have incapacitated him
in a great measure for the performance of his duties as a judge. Throughout
his career the conduct of his brother judges towards him was marked by the ut-
most kindness and sympathy for his distressing malady. As early as January,
1561, they had ordered the macers " to suffer one of the old laird of Lethin-
tone's sones to come in within all the barres as oyr pro"- doe, and to issue as
they doe, for awaiting on his father for the notoriety of his father's infirmity,''
and he now (3d of December 1583,) obtained leave to attend court only when
he pleased, with the assurance that he " should lose no part of the contribution
in consequence of absence." In May 1584, he was further exempted from the
examination of witnesses, " provyding he cause his sone (Thirlstane), or his good-
son the laird of Whittingham, use the utter tolebooth for him in calling of mat-
ters, and reporting the interloquitors as use is." When he was at last under
the necessity of retiring altogether from the bench, it was under circumstances
which no less strongly show the public estimation of his character. He was al-
lowed the privilege of nominating his successor, — a privilege of the extension
of which lord Pitmedden considers this as the first instance. Accordingly on
the 1st of July, 1584, he resigned in favour of Sir Lewis Bellenden of Auch-
noull, being now, as his majesty's letter to the court expresses, " sa debilitat
that he is not able to mak sic continual residens as he wald give, and being
movit in conscience that, be his absence, for laik of number justice may be re-
tardit and parteis frustrat." At length, after a life, certainly not without its
troubles, but supported throughout by the answer of a good conscience and by

SCO SIR RICHARD MAITLAND.

much natural hilarity, he closed his days on the 20th of March, 1586, at tho
venerable age of ninety. Living in an age, marked, perhaps more strongly
than any other in our history, by treachery and every vice which can debase
mankind, he lived uncontaminated by the moral atmosphere by which he was
surrounded, and has had the happiness, — certainly not the lot of every good
man, of being uniformly noticed, whether by friends or enemies, by his con-
temporaries or by posterity, with the highest respect. There is but one excep-
tion to this general tribute to his virtues, — the accusation in John Knox's His-
tory, of his having been bribed to allow cardinal Beatoun to escape from
imprisonment. The foundation of this charge is, however, doubtful; for, although
the candour and accuracy of Kuox's History cannot be impeached, it may still
bo admitted, from the peculiar position of the parties, that the historian's mind
was liable to receive an erroneous impression of Maitland's conduct.

The works of Sir Richard Maitland exhibit him in the characters of a law-
yer, a poet, and an historian. Of the work belonging to the first of these
classes it is only necessary to say, that it consists of " Decisions from the 15th
December 1553, to the penult July 1565 ;" being a continuation of the body
of decisions known by the title of Sinclair's Practicks, and that a copy of it,
with the additions of the viscount Kingston, is preserved in MS. in the library
of the Faculty of Advocates. His poetical collections consist of two kinds, —
those works which were merely collected by him, and specimens of which have
long been before the public, — and his own poems, the greater portion of which
have not been printed till a very late date.

If it be true, as has been often asserted, that the habits and feelings of a peo-
ple are best known by their poetry, surely the collectors in that department of
a nation's literature are entitled to no inconsiderable portion of its gratitude.
The labours of Asloan, Maitland, and Bannatyne have especial claims on our at-
tention, as in them are to be found nearly all that remains of the Scottish
poetry composed before their times. Of the first, John Asloan, — whose collec-
tions are preserved in the Auchinleck library, but unfortunately in a mutilated
state, — little or nothing can be ascertained ; and of George Bannatyne a notice
has already been given in this work. Our attention must therefore be directed
to the collections of the subject of this memoir.

Sir Richard Maitland appears to have been engaged in forming his collec-
tions of poetry before he became blind, — probably about the year 1555, — and
although one of the volumes is dated 15S5, it is conjectured that it was the
arrangement of them only that could have been the work of his later years.
The collections consist of two volumes, — a folio, comprehending 176 articles,
and a quarto of 96 pieces; the latter in the handwriting of Mary Maitland, Sir
Richard's daughter. They are now preserved in the Pepysian library, 3Iag-
dalene college, Cambridge ; but, from the regulations prescribed by the founder
of that institution, they cannot be consulted except within its walls, and al-
though its officers afford every facility which their duty permits, it must be a
subject of regret to every lover of Scottish poetry that they are not in a more
accessible situation. It is true, indeed, that in 1784 or 1785, the late Mr
Pinkerton was furnished by Dr Peckhard with all the means of consulting them
with advantage, and that he published selections from them in his Ancient
Scottish Poems ; but the charges of interpolation which have been brought
against him, must make his work a subject of doubt and suspicion.

Sir Richard Maitland did not produce any of his own poems at the period
when ardour of mind or ambition for distinction may be supposed to prompt
men to enter that walk of literature. They were all written after his sixtieth
year. They are the tranquil productions of age, and of a mind regulated by

SIR RICHARD MAITLAND. 561

the purest principles. The subjects, too, correspond with the age at which they
were written, — most of them being of a moral or historical description. By far
the most frequent subjects of his poems are lamentations for the distracted state
of his native country, — the feuds of the nobles, — the discontents of the com-
mon people,— complaints " Aganis the lang proces in the courts of justice," —
" The evillis of new found lawis," and the depredations " Of the border rob-
bers." Not the least interesting of his productions — are those which he en-
titles Satyres : one of these, on " The Town Ladyes," in particular presents us
with a most curious picture of the habits and dispositions of the fair sex in his
day, and amply demonstrates that the desire of aping the appearance and man-
ners of the higher ranks is by no means the peculiar offspring of our degener-
ate age. Sir Richard's poetical writings were for the first time printed in
an entire and distinct form, in 1830, (in one 4to volume) by the Maitland
Club, a society of literary antiquaries, taking its name from this distinguished
collector of early Scottish poetry.

It may probably be unknown to most of our readers, that a poet from
whose mortal sight the book of knowledge was no less shut out than from the
eye of the poet of Paradise Lost, has also written a poem on the subject of —

—Man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world and all our woe.

Except in the subject, however, there is no resemblance between the Paradise
Lost of Milton and Sir Richard Maitland's " Ballat of the Creatioun of the
World, Man his Fall and Redemptioun." From the latter poem, the following
passages are selected : —

God be his Word his wark began,
To forme the erth and hevin for man,

The sie and natter deip ;
The sone, the mune, the starris bricht,
The day divydit frome the nicht,

Thair coursis for to keip ;
The beistis that on the grund do mufo,

And fische in to the sie,
Fowlis in the air to fie abufe,
Oil' ilk kind creat hee ;

Sum creeping, sumfleiting
Sum fleing in the air,
So heichtly, so lichtly,
, In moving heir and thair.

The workis of grit magnificence,
Perfytet be his providence,

According to his will ;
Nixt maid he man; to gif him gloir.
Did with his ymage him. decoir,

Gaif paradice him till;
Into thatgarding hevinly wrocht,

With plesouris mony one ;

The beistis of every kj nd war brociit,

Thair names he sowld expone;
m. 4 B

5G2 SIR RICHARD MAITLAND.

Thame nemming and kennyng,

As he list for to call ;

For pleising and eising

Of man, subdewit thame all.

In hevinly joy man so possest,
To be allone God thoct not best,
Maid Eve to be his maik ;
Bad thame incress and multiplier
And eit of every fruit and trie,

Thair pU sour thay sowld talk,
Except the trie of gud and ill,

That in the middis dois stand ;
Forbad that thay sowld cum it till,
Or twiche it with thair hand ;
Leist plucking or lucking,
Baith thay and als thair seid,
Seveirly, awsteirly,
Sowld dye without remeid.

The poem thus concludes : —

Behald the stait that man was in,
And als how it he tynt throw sin,

And loist the same for ay ;
Yit God his promeiss dois performe,
Send his Sone of the Virgeny borne,

Oure ransome for to p:iy
To that grit God let us gif gloir,

To us has bene so gude,
Quha be his death did us restoir,
Quhairof we war denude ;
Nocht karing nor sparing
His body to be rent,
Redemyng, relieving,
Ws quhen we war all schent.

The historical writings of Sir Richard Maitland were the productions of an
earlier period than his poems. The principal historical work of Sir Kichard
that has come down to us, is " The Historie and Cronicle of the Hous and
Surenarae of Seytoun, to the moneth of November, in the yeir of God, Jin.
Vc lix. yeiris ; collectit, gaderit, and set furth be Schir Richart Maitland of
Lethingtoun, Knycht, Dochteris Sonn of the said Hous." This work was
printed in 1829 for the Maitland Club. Another of his works bears the
following title : " Heir followis ane Brief and Compendious Tabill or Catholog
of the Names of the Kingis of Scotland, France, and Ingland, with the dait of
thair Reignis ; togidder with the Successioun of King Malcolme Cainmoir, and
of all Kingis of Scotland sensyn, to the dait heirof; auham thay Mareit ;
quhat Successioun they had ; with quham they war Allyat. Collectit, gatherit,
and set furth be Sr. Richart Maitland of Lethingtoun, Knyt. The yeir of God,
Jm. Vc. and three scoir yeiris, the xiiij day of the moinethe of October."

By his wife, Mary, daughter of Thomas Cranston of Corsby, Sir Richard
Maitland had a numerous family. It is said that he had seven sons, three of
whom, William, John, and Thomas, rose to eminence — and four daughters —
Helen, married to John Cockburn of Clerkington ; Margaret, to William Douglas
of Whittingham ; Mary, to Alexander Lauder of Hatton ; and Isabel, to James
Heriot of Trabroun.

"WILLIAM MAITLAND.— SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 563

MAITLAND, William, an antiquarian writer of some note, is generally re-
presented as having been born at Brechin in the year 1693, though there is
reason to suppose the date of his birth to have been somewhat earlier. He
does not appear in his writings to have been a man of liberal education. His
first employment was that of a hair merchant ; in the prosecution of which
business, he travelled into Sweden and Denmark, to Hamburg, and other
places, and appears to have realized considerable wealth. At length he settled
in London, and applied himself to the study of English and Scottish antiquities.
In 1733, he was elected a member of the Royal, and in 1735, a fellow of the
Antiquarian Society, which latter honour he resigned in 1740, on going to re-
side in the country. His first publication was his History of London, which
appeared in 1739, and was chiefly valuable for a reason little creditable to the
author, — namely, its being in a great measure a reduction of the ancient and
scarce work of Stow. In 1740, he retired to Scotland ; and in 1753, pub-
lished his " History of Edinburgh," which is by far the most useful and credit-
able of all his works. He was not here assisted to any considerable degree by
preceding authorities : the volume is chiefly compiled from original documents,
and must have been accordingly a work of very great labour. In point of com-
position, it is very deficient. The style is mean, and the whole tone of the
work that of a plain, dull old man. It also bears in some parts the traces of
credulity and narrowness of understanding on the part of the author. As a
compilation of facts, it is, nevertheless, very valuable. In 1757, Maitland
published a " History of Scotland," in two volumes folio, a work absolutely des-
titute of reputation. He died at Montrose, July 16, 1757, " at an advanced
age," say the obituary notices, and possessed of above £10,000.

MALCOLM, (Sir) John, a distinguished soldier and diplomatist, was born on
the farm of Burnfoot, near Langholm, on the 2nd of May, 1769. This farm
was granted to the paternal grandfather of Sir John, at a low rent, by the earl
of Dalkeith, in 1707 ; it subsequently became the residence of George Malcolm,
the father of Sir John, who married Miss Pasley, daughter of James Pasley,
Esq. of Craig and Burn, by whom he had seventeen children, fifteen surviving
to maturity. Of these children, three attained to a high station and title ;
namely, Sir Pulteney, vice-admiral, R. N. ; Sir James, lieutenant-colonel of
marines ; both of whom ai*e Knight Companions of the Bath ; and the subject
of this memoir. The farm is still in possession of the family.

Sir John Malcolm entered life in 1782, as a cadet in the service of the East
India Company ; and a part of his success is to be ascribed to the zeal with
which he applied himself at first to study the manners and languages of the east.
Having distinguished himself at the siege of Seringapatam in 1792, he was ap-
pointed by lord Cornwallis to the situation of Persian interpreter to an English
force serving with a native prince. In 1795, on his return from a short visit to
his native country, on account of his health, he performed some useful services
in general Clarke's expedition at the Cape of Good Hope, for which he re-
ceived the thanks of the Madras government, and was appointed secretary to
the commander-in-chief. In 1797, he was made captain ; and from that time
to 1799, he was engaged in a variety of important services, terminating at the
fall of Seringapatam, where he highly distinguished himself. He was then ap-
pointed joint secretary with captain (afterwards Sir Thomas) Munro, to the
commissioners for settling the new government of Mysore. In the same year,
be was selected by Lord Wellesley to proceed on a diplomatic mission to Persia,
where he concluded two treaties of great importance, one political, and the
other commercial ; returning to Bombay in May, 1801. His services were ac-
knowledged by his being appointed private secretary to the governor-general. In

5Qi SIR JOHN MALCOLM.

January, 1802, he was raised to the rank of major ; and on the occasion of the
Persian ambassador being accidentally shot at Bombay, he was again entrusted
with a mission to that empire, in order to make the requisite arrangements for
the renewal of the embassy, which be accomplished in a manner that afforded
the highest satisfaction to the Company. In January, 1S03, he was nominated
to the presidency of Mysore, and to act without special instructions ; and in
December, 1804, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In the
June of the following year, he was appointed chief agent of the governor-
general, and he continued to serve in that capacity until March, 1806, having
successfully concluded several very important treaties during that period.

Upon the arrival in India, in April, 1808, of the new governor-general,
lord Minto, colonel Malcolm was sent by his lordship to the court of Persia on
a very important mission — that of endeavouring to counteract the designs of
Bonaparte, then in the zenith of his power, who threatened an invasion of India
by way of Persia, supported by the Persian and Turkish governments. In this
difficult embassy, colonel Malcolm did not wholly succeed. He returned to
Calcutta in the following August, and soon afterwards proceeded to his residence
at Mysore, after having, to use the words of lord Minto, " laid the govern-
ment under additional obligations to his zeal and ability." Early in the year
1810, he was again selected to proceed in a diplomatic capacity to the court of
Persia, whence he returned upon the appointment of Sir Gore Ouseley, as am-
bassador. So favourable was the impression which he made, on this occasion,
on the Persian prince, that he was presented by him with a valuable sword and
star, and, at the same time, made a khan and sepahdar of the empire ; to that
impression, indeed, may be ascribed much of the good understanding, both in a
political and commercial point of view, which afterwards subsisted between
this country and Persia. During this embassy, while at Bagdad, colonel Mal-
colm transmitted to the government of Bengal his final report of the affairs of
Persia — a document so highly appreciated, that the government acknowledged
its receipt to the secret committee in terms of unqualified praise.

In 1812, colonel Malcolm again visited his native shores. He was received
by the court of directors of the East India Company, with the deepest regard
and acknowledgment of his merits ; and shortly afterwards he received the
honour of knighthood. He returned to India in 1816, and soon became en-
gaged in extensive political and military duties ; he was attached, as political
agent of the governor-general, to the force under lieutenant-general Sir T.
Hislop, and appointed to command the third division of the army, with which,
after taking Talym by surprise, he acted a prominent part in the celebrated
battle of Mehidpoor, when the army under Mulhar Rao Holkar was complete-
ly beaten, and put to rout. His skill and valour on this occasion were the
theme of general admiration. A vote of thanks was awarded him, on the pro-
posal of Mr Canning, by the house of commons ; and the prince regent ex-
pressed his regret that the circumstance of his not having attained the rank of
major-general prevented his creating him a knight grand cross. The intention of
his royal highness to do so was, nevertheless, recorded, and in 1S21 he accordingly
received the highest honour which a soldier can receive from his sovereign. After
the termination of the war with the Maharattas and Pindarees, to which colonel
Malcolm's services had eminently contributed, he was employed by lord Hast-
ings in visiting and settling the distracted territories of Mulhar Rao, which, and
other services, he accomplished in a most satisfactory manner, gaining to British
India a large accession of territory and treasure.

At the end of the year 1821, he resolved to return once more to England ;
on which occasion the general orders contained the following paragraph : —

SIR JOHN MALCOLM. 565

•' Although his excellency the governor-general in council refrains from the spe-
cific mention of the many recorded services which have placed Sir John Malcolm
in the first rank of those officers of the Honourable Company's service, who
have essentially contributed to the renown of the British arms and counsels in
India, his lordship cannot omit this opportunity of declaring his unqualified ap-
probation of the manner in which Sir John Malcolm has discharged the arduous
and important functions of his high political and military station in Malwah. By
a happy combination of qualities, which could not fail to earn the esteem and con-
fidence, both of his own countrymen and of the native inhabitants of all classes,
by the unremitting personal exertion and devotion of his time and leisure to
the maintenance of the interests confided to his charge, and by an enviable ta-
lent for inspiring all who acted under his orders with his own energy and zeal,
Sir John Malcolm has been enabled, in the successful performance of the duty
assigned to him, in the Mulwah, to surmount difficulties of no ordinary stamp,
and to lay the foundations of repose and prosperity in that extensive province,
but recently reclaimed from a state of savage anarchy, and a prey to every
species of rapine and devastation. The governor-general in council feels assured
that the important services thus rendered to his country hy Sir John Malcolm,
at the close of an active and distinguished career, will be not less gratefully ac-
knowledged by the authorities at home, than they are cordially applauded by
those under whose immediate orders they have been performed."

Sir John returned to England in April, 1822, with the rank of major-
general, and soon after he was presented by those who had acted under him in
the war of 1818 and 1819, with a superb vase of the value of £1500. During
this visit to England, Sir John received a proud testimony of the favour of the
East India Company, and acknowledgment of the utility of his public career,
in a grant, passed unanimously by a general court of proprietors, of a thousand
pounds per annum, in consideration of his distinguished merits and services.

Sir John had quitted India with the determination to spend the evening of
his life in his native country ; but the solicitations of the court of directors, and
of his majesty's ministers for India affairs, induced him again to embark in the
service of his country, where experience had so fully qualified him to act with
advantage. In July, 1827, he was appointed to the high and responsible
situation of governor of Bombay, which post he continued to fill until 1S31,
when he finally returned to England, having effected, during the few years of
his governorship, incalculable benefits both for this country, our Indian terri-
tories, and every class of the inhabitants there. Upon his leaving Bombay, the
different bodies of the people seemed to vie with each other in giving proofs of
the esteem and high consideration in which he was held. The principal
European gentlemen of Bombay requested sir John to sit for his statue, after-
wards executed by Chan trey, and erected in Bombay ; the members of the Asiatic-
Society requested a bust of" him, to be placed in their library ; the native gentle-
men of Bombay solicited his portrait, to be placed in their public room ; the
East India Amelioration Society voted him a service of plate ; the natives, both
of the presidency and the provinces addressed him as their friend and benefac-
tor ; and the United Society of Missionaries, including English, Scottish, and
Americans, acknowledged with gratitude the aids they had received from him
in the prosecution of their pious labours, and their deep sense of his successful
endeavours to promote the interests of truth and humanity, with the welfare and
prosperity of his country and his countrjmen. These were apt and gratifying
incidents in the closing scene of his long and arduous services in our Indian
empire. But, whether at home or abroad, all parlies who knew any thing of
his career concurred in awarding him the highest praises, both as a civil, mili-

566 SIR JOHN MALCOLM.

tary, and political character; and the brief encomium of Mr Canning in parlia-
ment, that he was " a gallant officer, whose name would be remembered in India
as long as the British flag is hoisted in that country," is only in accordance
with the universal opinion of his merits.

Shortly after Sir John's arrival in England in 1831, he was returned to par-
liament for the burgh of Launceston, and took an active part in the pi*oceedings
upon several important questions, particularly the Scottish reform bill, which he
warmly opposed. He frequently addressed the house at length ; and his
speeches were characterized by an intimate knowledge of the history and consti-
tution of his country, by a happy arrangement, and much elegance of expres-
sion. Upon the dissolution of parliament in 1832, Sir John became a candi-
date for the Dumfries district of burghs ; but being too late in entering the
field, and finding a majority of the electors had promised their votes, he did not
persevere. He was then solicited to become a candidate for the city of Carlisle,
and complied ; but having been too late in coming forward, and being person-
ally unknown in the place, the result of the first day's poll decided the election
against him. Sir John then retired to his seat near Windsor, and employed
himself in writing a work upon the government of India, with the view of
elucidating the difficult questions relating to the renewal of the East India Com-
pany's charter. One of his last public acts was an able speech in the general
court of proprietors of East India Stock, and the introduction of certain reso-
lutions relative to the proposals of government respecting the charter — which
resolutions were, after several adjourned discussions, adopted by a large ma-
jority. His last public address was at a meeting in the Thatched House
Tavern, for the purpose of forming a subscription to buy up the mansion of Sir
Walter Scott for his family ; and on that occasion, his concluding sentiment
was, " that when he was gone, his son might be proud to say, that his father
had been among the contributors to that shrine of genius." On the day follow-
ing he was struck with paralysis, the disorder which had just carried off
the illustrious person on whose account this address had been made. His death
took place in Prince's Street, Hanover Square, London, on the 31st of May,
1833.

As an author, the name of Sir John Malcolm will occupy no mean place in
the annals of British literature. His principal works are — A Sketch of
the Sikhs, a singular nation in the province of the Penjamb, in India ; The
History of- Persia, from the earliest period to the present time ; Sketches of
Persia ; A Memoir of Central India ; and his treatise on the Administration
of British India, which was published only a few weeks before his death. Sir
John had also been engaged for some time before bis death in writing a life of
lord Clive, which afterwards appeared.

Sir John married, on the 4th of June, 1807, Charlotte Campbell, daughter
of Sir Alexander Campbell, baronet, who was commander-in-chief at Madras,
by whom he left five children, viz : — Margaret, married to her cousin, the
present Sir Alexander Campbell ; George Alexander, a captain in the Guards;
Charlotte Olympia ; Anne Amelia ; and Catharine Wellesley.

Upon the public character of Sir John Malcolm it would be superfluous to
pass any lengthened eulogium in this place, since that character is so forcibly
and faithfully sketched in the facts we have just recorded. Let it suffice to say,
that he was a true patriot ; that the chief end and aim of his public life was to
advance the prosperity of his country — to promote the condition of every class
of his fellow creatures. Such is the conclusion which the records of his life
enable us to draw ; and his private character was in perfect keeping with it :
he was warmly attached to his kindred and connexions ; as a friend, he was

DAVID MALLET. 567

constant and devoted ; and all his social qualities might be said to " lean to
virtue's side." Last, though not least of all, he was a sincere and devout Chris-
tian ; and in every part of the world where it was his fortune to be placed, and
under whatever circumstances, he never shrunk from any opportunity of evincing
his deep regard for the religion of his country.

MALLET, David, a poet and miscellaneous writer, is said to have been a
descendant of the clan Macgregor, so well known for its crimes, and persecution.
When that unhappy race were proscribed by a solemn act of state, an ancestor
of the poet escaped to the lowlands, and assumed the fictitious name of Mal-
locli. James Malloch, the father of the poet, kept a small public house at
Crieff, on the borders of the Highlands, where it is supposed that David was
born, about the year 1700. Of his career from youth to manhood, nothing
certain is known, nor whence he first derived his education, as, in after life,
either through pride or prejudice, he studiously endeavoured to conceal his true
name and origin.

Having studied for a time under Mr Ker, a professor in Aberdeen, he, it ap-
pears, removed to Edinburgh, where he was, in 1720, employed in the station
of tutor to the children of a Mr Home ; he at the same time attended the uni-
versity of that city. He had while at Aberdeen early exercised himself in
poetical composition ; and a pastoral and some other small pieces which he
wrote about this period, attracted the notice of many of the Scottish literati, by
whom he was kindly sought after. Finding his situation in Mr Home's family
by no means agreeable, being treated, it is said, with great illiberality, he
anxiously sought to change it, and was so fortunate as to be recommended by
the professors of the college to the duke of Montrose, who wanted a fit person to
be tutor to his two sons, who were then going to Winchester. It is obvious
that he must have conducted himself while at college with uncommon zeal and
propriety, as nothing but superior ability could have procured for a youth so
humbly connected, so marked a preference over the rest of his fellow students.
He was most kindly received in his grace's family ; and, on coming to London
in the winter, attended his noble pupils to most places of public amusement,
and still further improved himself in polite literature, and a knowledge of the
world.

Malloch accompanied his noble pupils to the continent, and made what is
usually called the grand tour. On their return to London, he still continued to
reside with that illustrious family, where, from his advantageous station, he got
by degrees introduced to the most polished circle of society. In 1723, in a
periodical work of Aaron Hill's, called the Plain Dealer, No. 36, Malloch's
pleasing ballad of William and Margaret first appeared. The beauty of the
production was so highly praised, that it inspired him with courage to apply
himself closely to his poetical studies, which he had for some time neglect-
ed. "Of this poem," says Dr Johnson, "he has been envied the reputa-
tion ; and plagiarism has been boldly charged, but never proved," — though
" in its original state it was very different from what it is in the latter edition
of his works." It is, however, evident that the idea of the ballad was taken
from two much older ones, namely, William's Ghaist, and Fair Margaret
From these he borrowed largely, both in sentiment and expression. Still, not-
withstanding all traces of imitation, as a modern biographer truly observes,
" there is enough of Mallet's own in the ballad of William and Margaret, to
justify all the poetical reputation which it procured for its author." The fame
so justly acquired by his illustrious countryman, Thomson, whose friendship he
had the honour to enjoy, stimulated him to imitate his style ; and, in 1728, he
produced a poem under the title of the Excursion. It is a collection of

5GS DAVID MALLET.

poetical landscapes, sketched with some skill and elegance, in imitation of the
Seasons, but much inferior in strength and sublimity. About this time he
adopted the foolish conceit of changing his name from Malluch to Mallet, to
conceal from common observation his country and origin ; having, as Dr John-
son satirically remarks, " by degrees cleared his tongue from his native pro-
nunciation, so as to be no longer distinguished as a Scot, he seemed inclined to
disincumber himself from all adherences of his original, and took upon him to
change his name from Scotch Malloch to English Mallet, without any imagin-
able reason of preference which the eye or ear can discover."

Mallet next produced a tragedy, called Eurydice, which he had planned
some years before: it was first brought on the stage in 1737, and met with no
very flattering reception. Garrick, several years afterwards, when Mallet en-
joyed both fame and fortune, again introduced Eurydice to the public ; but not
even the talents of that unrivalled actor, assisted by the celebrated Mrs Cibber,
could make it be tolerated for any length of time. Though so ably supported
in the principal parts, so gross was the egotism of Mallet, that, as Davies tells
us, he sat all the time in the orchestra, and bestowed his execrations plenti-
fully on the players, to whom he entirely attributed the bad success of the piece.

Mallet now left the family of the duke of Montrose, and went to reside with
a Mr Knight at Gosfield, probably as a teacher ; but still he had made an im-
pression, and enjoyed the esteem of the first literary characters of the day.
There is a remarkable letter extant, from Pope to Mr Knight, in which he
speaks of Mallet in the following affectionate terms : — " To prove to you how
little essential to friendship I hold letter-writing — I have not yet written to
31r 3Iallet, whom I love and esteem greatly ; nay, whom I know to have as
tender a heart, and that feels a remembrance as long as any man." With what
heartless ingratitude Mallet returned this noble expression of confident esteem,
will be seen afterwards. Proud in the first instance of being honoured by the
particular regard of so eminent a poet, he servilely employed his pen, by attack-
ing Bentley, to please Pope, whose ridicule of critics and commentators he
echoed in a poem, published in 1733, entitled Verbal Criticism. It is
stuffed, as Eentley observes, " with illiberal cant about pedantry and collections
of manuscripts. Real scholars will always speak with due regard of such names
as the Scaligers, Salmasiuses, Heinsiuses, Burmans, Gronoviuses, Reiskiuses,
Marklands, Gesners, and Heynes." Dr Johnson considered the versification
above mediocrity, which is all that can be said in its praise. About this time,
Frederick, prince of Wales, being at variance with his father, kept what was
considered an opposition court, where he affected the patronage of men of let-
ters, with the hope of adding to his popularity. Mallet, through the recom-
mendation of his friends, had the good fortune to be appointed under-secretary
to his royal highness, with a salary of .£200 a-year. " He attended the prince
of Orange to Oxford in 1734, and presented to him a copy of verses, written in
the name of the university ; on which occasion he was admitted to the degree
of M.A. Had then the Oxford muses lost their voice? or did he assume a fic-
titious character, for the purpose of spontaneous adulation ? The circumstance
is certainly extraordinary." In 1739, he published his tragedy of Mustapha:
it was brought on the stage under the patronage of the prince of Wales, to whom
it was dedicated. The first representation of the piece is said to have been
honoured with the presence of all the leading members of the opposition. The
characters of Solyman the Magnificent, and Rustan his Vizier, were generally
supposed to glance at the king and Sir Robert Walpole ; notwithstanding
which, it was licensed by the lord chamberlain, and performed with much ap-
plause to crowded houses. But in prouortion as the public mind was diverted by

DAVID MALLET. 500

the appearance of another set of political actors than those to whom the play
was said to refer, it lost its only attraction, and sunk with his Eurydice into
oblivion, whence neither is likely to be ever called forth. In the following
year, Mallet wrote, in conjunction with Thomson, by command of the prince,
the masque of " Alfred," in honour of the birth-day of his eldest daughter, the
princess Augusta. It was first acted in the gardens of Cliftden, by a set of
performers brought from London for the express purpose ; and after Thom-
son's death, Mallet revised it for Drury Lane theatre, where it had, with the
aid of music and splendid scenery, a run for a short time.

The same year he published his principal prose work, the Life of Lord
Bacon, prefixed to a new edition of the works of that illustrious person. In
point of style, it may be considered as an elegant and judicious piece of bio-
graphy, but nothing more. To develope the vast treasures stored in the mighty
intellect of Bacon, was a task to which the best intellects of that and a suc-
ceeding age would have failed to do justice. Of Mallet's performance, Dr John-
son merely says, that " it is known as appended to Bacon's volumes, but is no
longer mentioned."

In 1742, Mallet made n considerable addition to "his fortune by marriage.
He had already buried one wife, by whom he had several children ; but of her
there is little or no account. His second choice was Miss Lucy Estob, the
daughter of the earl of Carlisle's steward, with whom he received a portion of
£10,000. From his various sources of income, Mallet may be considered as one
of the most fortunate worshippers of the Muses in his day, and hence, becoming
either indifferent or lazy, he allowed seven years to pass over without favouring
the public with any thing from his pen. When at length his Hermit, or
Amyntor and Theodora, appeared, critics were much divided in their
opinions of its merits. Dr Warton, in his Essay on the Life and Writings of
Pope, says it " exhibits a nauseous affectation, expressing every thing pomp-
ously and poetically," while Dr Johnson praises it for " copiousness and ele-
gance of language, vigour of sentiment, and imagery well adapted to take pos-
session of the fancy." Up to this period the character of Mallet stood de-
servedly high with the public as an author, but we now come to a part of his
history when he drew down upon his head the severe but just censure of all
honourable men.

Pope, who honoured Mallet with his friendship at a time when a favourable
word from the bard of Twickenham was sufficient to advance the interests of
any genius, however depressed by obscurity, had now introdviced Mallet to lord
Bolingbroke, at the time when the Patriot King was first written by his
lordship. Only seven copies were printed, and given to some particular friends
of the author, including Pope, with a positive injunction against publication,
Bolingbroke assigning as a reason that the work was not finished in a style
suiliciently to his satisfaction before he would consent to let it go forth to
the world. Pope obliged his friend Mr Ralph Allen of Prior Park, near
Path, with the loan of his copy, stating to him at the same time the injunction
of lord Bolingbroke ; but that gentleman was so delighted with the work, tliat
lie pressed Pope to allow him to print a limited impression at his own cost, pro-
mising at the same time to observe the strictest caution, and not to permit a
single copy to get into the hands of any individual until the consent of the au-
thor could be obtained. Under this condition Pope consented, and an
edition was printed, packed up, and deposited in a wareroom, of which Pope
received the key. There it remained until, by the untimely death of Pope, the
transaction came to the knowledge of lord Bolingbroke, who felt or affected lo
feel, the highest indignation at what he called Pope's breach of faith. Mallet,

570 DAVID MALLET.

it was generally believed at the time, was the person who informed his lord-
ship of the transaction, but it has never been sufficiently proved that he was
the unworthy author. Mr George Rose, to whom all the particulars of the
story were related by the earl of Marchmont, the intimate friend of Boling-
broke, gives us an account of the discovery which clears Mallet of all blame.
" On the circumstance," he says, " being made known to lord Bolingbroke,
who was then a guest in his own house at Battersea with lord Marchmont, to
whom he had lent it for two or three years, his lordship was in great indigna-
tion ; to appease which, lord Marchmont sent Mr Grevinkop to bring out the
whole edition, of which a bonfire was instantly made on the Terrace at Bat-
tersea." This, however, did not by any means appease his lordship's angry
feelings. He determined on revising and publishing the work himself, and
employed Mallet to write a preface, in which the part that Pope had acted was
to be set forth to the world in the blackest and falsest colours possible. To the
lasting disgrace of his character, he was found ready to stoop to so vile and dis-
honourable a task. It Avould be vain to seek for any palliation of such
egregious turpitude. He was rich, and placed beyond the craving temptation
of lending himself to any one, however high in rank or interest, to defile his
pen by so unworthy a task. But no compunctious visiting of honour ever once
stayed his hand, or prevented him from heaping the most malignant abuse upon
his departed friend, for an affair in which, it is evident, there was nothing dis-
honourable intended, either on the part of Pope or Allen. Every fact that
could tend to exonerate Mr Pope, particularly the share his friend had in the
business, and the careful suppression of the copies until Bolingbroke's permis-
sion for their publication could be procured is studiously concealed. " How far
Mallet was acquainted with all these circumstances we cannot pretend to affirm."
Nor need any one care about the proportions in which they divide the infamy
between them.

The unmitigated resentment of lord Bolingbroke, for the evidently uninten-
tional error of a friend whom he almost worshipped while living, is endeavour-
ed to be accounted for by the preference Pope gave to Warburton, whom Boling-
broke could never endure. Be that as it may ; if true, it only proves the
meanness of his lordship's character, and how much mistaken Pope was in the
man whose name he embalmed within his deathless page, as a pattern for the
most exalted and disinterested friendship. But though such may have been his
lordship's feelings, pride must have made him conceal the true cause from Mal-
let, who had nothing but the sordid temptation of a ready hireling to incite him
to the odious task. He was rewarded for this service at the death of lord
Bolingbroke, by the bequest of his lordship's works, with the care and profit of
those already published, as well as all his manuscripts.

Mallet, who cared as little for the fame or character of his noble benefactor
as he did for the illustrious friend he was hired to traduce, with the true spirit of
avarice, raked up every scrap of Bolingbroke's writings for publication, without
in the least discriminating what ought to be suppressed, though many of the
papers contained the most offensive doctrines, subversive of sound morals and
revealed religion ; the consequence was, that his hopes of gain were very pro-
perly frustrated by a presentment Avhich arose from a decision of the grand
jury of Westminster, stopping the obnoxious works. This must have sorely af-
fected him, for, before the publication of the five vols. 4to, in 1754, he was
offered, by one Millar, a bookseller, £3000 for his copyright, which he refused.
After all, the sale was so extremely slow, that it took upwards of twenty years
to dispose of the first edition, though assisted by the notoriety of the prosecu-
tion of the work. He next appears as an author in, if possible, a more odious

DAVID MALLET. 571

light. The disastrous affair of Minorca, at the commencement of the war of
1756, had rendered the ministry unpopular. Mallet was employed to di-
vert the public odium, and turn it upon the unfortunate Admiral Byng.
For this purpose he wrote a paper under the character of A Plain Man, in
which the disgrace brought upon the British arms in the affair of Minorca, was
entirely imputed to the cowardice of the admiral. It was circulated with great
industry. How cruelly it effected its purpose need not be told. Byng is now
universally considered to have been offered up as a victim to the popular clam-
our which was thus raised against him, rather than from actual demerit in his
conduct. " The price of blood," says Dr Johnson, with fearful but just severi-
ty, " was a pension which Mallet retained till his death.*' He continued to ex-
ercise his talent for poetical composition, and published a collection of his
works, dedicated to great patrons. At the beginning of the reign of George
III., when lord Bute was placed in power, Mallet, who never let an oppor-
tunity slip for serving his own interests, enlisted under the ministerial ban-
ners, and offered a two-fold service to the cause, by his Truth in Rhyme, and
a tragedy called Elvira, imitated from La Motte, and applicable to the
politics of the day. His reward was, the place of keeper of the book of
entries for the port of London. The Critical Review of that period praised the
tragedy in the highest degree ; but it is asserted that Mallet had the superin-
tendence of that publication, and was the critic of his own works. On the
death of the celebrated duchess of Marlborough, in 1744, it was found by her
will, that she left to Mr Glover, the author of Leonidas, and Mr Mallet, jointly,
the sum of £1,000, on condition that they drew up, from the family papers, n
History of the Life of the Great Duke. The legacy, however, was found to
be clogged with so many unpleasant restrictions, that Glover, with the true in-
dependence of a man of genius, declined any share in the onerous task. Mal-
let, who never was troubled by any misgiving of conscience, accepted the le-
gacy, under all stipulations, and was put in possession of the papers necessary
for proceeding with the work. The second duke of Marlborough, in order to
stimulate his industry, added, in the most liberal manner, an annual pension to
the legacy. Mallet pretended all along, that he was deeply engaged in for-
warding the work for publication, and in a dedication to his Grace, of a col-
lection of his poems, he spoke of having soon the honour of dedicating to him
the life of his illustrious predecessor. But, on the death of Mallet, not a vestige
of any such work could be found, nor did it appear, that, after all the money he
had received, he had even written a line of it While he continued to delude
his patron and friends, with the expectation of seeing his great work appear,
he made the imposition subservient to his interest in many ways. In a familiar
conversation with Garrick, and boasting of the diligence which he Mas then
exerting upon the Life of Marlborough, he hinted, that in the series of
great men quickly to be exhibited, he should find a niche for the hero of the
theatre. Garrick professed to wonder by what artifice he coidd be introduced,
but Mallet let him know, that by a dexterous anticipation, he should fix him in
a conspicuous place. " Mr Mallet," says Garrick, in his gratitude of exultation,
u have you left off to write for the stage ?" Mallet then confessed that he had
a drama in his hands — Garrick promised to act it, and Alfred was produced.
Mallet, finding his health in a declining state, went, accompanied by his
wife, to the south of France, for the benefit of a change of air, but after some
time, finding no improvement, he returned to England, where he died on the
21st April, 1765. Dr Johnson says, " His stature was diminutive, but he was
regularly formed. His appearance, till he grew corpulent, was agreeable, and
he suffered it to want no recommendation that dress could give it." His second

572 WILLIAM M'GAVIN.

wife is reported to have been particularly proud, and anxious that he should,
at all times, appear like a man of. the first rank. She reserved to herself the
pleasing task of purchasing all his fine clothes, and was always sure to let her
friends know it was out of her fortune she did so. As 3Iallet was what is call-
ed a free thinker in religion, his wife also, who prided herself in the strength
of her understanding, scrupled not, when surrounded at her table with com-
pany of congenial opinions, amongst whom it is said Gibbon was a frequent
guest, to enforce her dogmas in a truly authoritative style, prefacing them with
the exclamation of " Sir, — We deists." As an additional proof of the vanity
and weakness of this well-matched pair, we subjoin the following anecdotes final
Wilkes's Correspondence, and Johnson's Lives of the Poets : —

" On his arrival from the north, he became a great declaimer at the
London coffee-houses, against the Christian religion. Old surly Dennis was
highly offended at his conduct, and always called him " Moloch." He then
changed his name to Mallet, and soon after published an epistle to Mr Pope on
Verbal Criticism. Theobald was attacked in it, and soon avenged himself in
the new edition of Shakspeare : ' An anonymous writer has, like a Scotch
pedlar in wit, unbraced his pack on the subject. I may fairly say of this
author, as Falstaft' says of Poin — Hang him, baboon, his wit is as thick as
Tewkesbury mustard ; there is no more conceit in hiin than a mallet.'' — Pre-
face, p. 52, edition of 1733. This Malloch had the happiness of a wife, who
had faith enough. She believed that her husband was the greatest poet and
wit of the age. Sometimes she would seize his hand, and kiss it with rapture,
and if the looks of a friend expressed any surprise, would apologize that it was
the dear hand that wrote those divine poems. She was lamenting to a lady
how much the reputation of her husband suffered by his name being so fre-
quently confounded with that of Dr Smollett. The lady answered, ' Madam,
there is a short remedy ; let your husband keep his own name.' "

" When Pope published his Essay on Man, but concealed the author,
Mallet entering one day, Pope asked him slightly what there was new. Mal-
let told him that the newest piece was something called an Essay on Man,
which he had inspected idly, and seeing the utter inability of the author, who
had neither skill in writing, nor knowledge of the subject, had tossed it away.
Pope, to punish his self-conceit, told him the secret."

" Mallet's conversation," says Dr Johnson, " was elegant and easy, his works
are such as a writer, bustling in the world, showing himself in public, and
emerging, occasionally, from time to time, into notice, might keep alive by his
personal influence ; but which, conveying but little information, and giving no
great pleasure, must soon give way, as the succession of things produces new
topics of conversation, and other modes of amusement."

A daughter, by his first wife, named Cilesia, who was married to an Italian
of rank, wrote a tragedy called " Almida," which was acted at Drury Lane
theatre. She died at Genoa in 1790.

M'GAVIN, William, a modern controversial and miscellaneous writer, was
horn August 12th, 1773, on the farm of Darnlaw, in the parish of Auchinleck,
Ayrshire, which his father held on lease from lord Auchinleck, and afterwards
from his son James Boswell, the biographer of Johnson. A short attendance
at the school of that parish, when about seven years of age, constituted the
whole education of a regular kind, which the subject of this memoir ever en-
joyed. His parents having removed in 1783 to Paisley, and being in by no
means affluent circumstances, he was sent at an early period of life to earn his
bread as a draw-boy in one of the manufactories. Subsequently he tried weav-
ing of silk, but eventually was led by his taste for reading to become apprentice

WILLIAM M'GAVIN. 573

to Mr John Neilson, printer and bookseller ; a situation highly congenial to his
taste, and which afforded him the means of cultivating his mind to a considerable
extent Among various persons of talent and information who frequented Mr
Neilson's shop was the unfortunate Alexander Wilson, poet, and afterwards the
distinguished ornithologist, who, finding it necessary to remove to America,
was assisted to no small extent by Mr M'Gavin. The popular opinions of
that period were adopted in all their latitude by Mr M'Gavin ; many fugitive
pieces by him upon the question of parliamentary reform and other exciting
topics, were received with approbation by those who professed similar senti-
ments ; but it is not known that he took any more active part in the politics
of the time.

The duty of reading proof-sheets in his master's shop was the circumstance
which first led Mr M'Gavin to study the English language carefully ; and,
considering the limited nature of his education, it is surprising that he should
have been able to attract notice as an author under the age of twenty.

In 1793, having left Mr Neilson's shop, he was found qualified to assist his
elder brother in the management of a school, where writing, arithmetic, and
mathematics were taught. Of this seminary he afterwards became sole master ;
but he ultimately abandoned teaching as a pursuit not agreeable to his genius
or temper, and in 1798, was engaged as book-keeper and clerk by Mr David
Lamb, au American cotton merchant, to whose two sons he at the same time
acted as tutor. Some years afterwards, on Mr Lamb removing to America, Mr
M'Gavin became his partner ; the business was carried on in Glasgow. In
1805, Mr M'Gavin married Miss Isabella Campbell of Paisley. As his busi-
ness was of a light nature, and Mrs M'Gavin brought him no children, he en-
joyed more leisure for the cultivation of his mind than falls to the lot of most
merchants in the busy capital of the west of Scotland. At a later period, after
the death of his original patron, he entered into partnership with the son of
that gentleman, and carried on what is called a West India business under the
firm of M'Gavin and Lamb. This ultimately proving unprofitable, he was in-
duced, in 1822, to undertake the Glasgow agency of the British Linen Com-
pany's bank, which he conducted without intermission till his death.

Mr M'Gavin was brought up by his parents in the strictest tenets of the
presbyterian faith, as professed by the congregations of original anti-burghers.
About the year 1800, a conscientious dissent from the views of this body re-
specting church government induced him to join the Rev. Mr Ramsay in the
formation of an independent or congregational church. In this communion
he began to exercise a gift of preaching, with which he was endowed in a re-
markable degree, receiving from Mr Ramsay the ordination which was considered
necessary for the pastoral office by this body of Christians. Eventually,
circumstances so much reduced the society, as to make it cease to answer what
he conceived to be the design and use of a church — namely, " not only the
edification of its own members, but the public exhibition of their spirit and
practice, for manifesting the glory of the grace of God, and promoting the
salvation of men." For this reason, in 1808, he joined the kindred congrega-
tion of Mr Greville Ewing in the Nile Street meeting-house, Glasgow, where he
was soon afterwards invested with the office of deacon. Here he might have also
continued to preach, if he had been willing ; but he was now unable, from the
pressure of business, to give the duty that attention which he deemed necessary,
and accordingly resisted Mr Ewing's frequent and urgent solicitations, though
he occasionally consented to perform public worship in the neighbouring vil-
lages, or in places where he thought such ministrations eminently necessary.

Being a man of uncommon industry, and equally great benevolence, Mr

574: WILLIAM M'GAVIN.

M'Gavin found time, amidst his numerous mercantile avocations, to write a
number of religious tracts and stories, for the improvement of the poorer and
junior classes of society. Though these productions are of a class which do not
usually attain a high place in literature, no reader, however indifferent to the
subjects, or of however highly cultivated intellect, could peruse them, without
remarking the extraordinary conciseness of style and moral force by which they
are characterized. The most distinguished of all Mr M' Gavin's writings is his
" Protestant," a series of papers, designed to expose the errors of the church of
Rome, commenced in 1818, and finished in 1822. In the general decline of
religious controversial writing, the celebrity acquired by this work, is a strong
testimony to the powers of the author. In its collected form, in four volumes
octavo, it went through no fewer than seven editions in the first ten years.
According to Mr Greville Ewing, in a funeral sermon upon 3Ir M'Gavin,
" the commencement of the work was casual, and the whole executed with hasty
preparation. While engaged in a mercantile business of his own, he had at
that time the winding up of an old concern of his partner, the heavy charge of
another concern, which in the end proved a severe loss to him, besides other
business matters, as factorships, references, as sole arbiter, in cases both from
private parties and from the Court of Session, which he decided in a manner
satisfactory to all concerned ; and many other things were devolved on him,
which none but a man of clear judgment, and unusually industrious habits, could
have undertaken. A work which, otherwise, would have been extremely irk-
some, was rendered pleasant by the continued and increasing favour with which
it was received by the public in general, and by the approbation of distinguished
individuals in each of the three kingdoms. One of the most eminent bishops of
the church of England offered to give him holy orders. That, howevei", which
was most gratifying to the author, was the interest which he was honoured to
excite in the public mind, with regard to the subject of popery. I make no at-
tempt to give a particular account of the contents of this work. It is impossible,
they are so extensive : it is unnecessary, they are so generally known. It is
matter of notoriety, that Mr M'Gavin was prosecuted for certain articles in the
Protestant, and had a verdict against him, imposing on him a fine of £100,
which, with expenses, amounted to above £1200. Into the merits of these
things I shall not enter, further than to state, in round numbers, that £800 of
the £1200, was raised by public subscription, and that the whole, it was be-
lieved, would have been more than paid, had not each subscriber been limited
to a certain sum. As the case had been so arranged, Mr 31' Gavin was obliged,
in the mean time, to pay the balance out of his own pocket ; of which, great as
the amount was, I never heard him complain. The publishers afterwards very
handsomely came forward to reimburse the author, which, from the sale of the
work, they were enabled to do without loss to themselves, though he had no
claim upon them."

Mr M'Gavin, in 1827, superintended a new and improved edition of " The
Scots Worthies," a work commemorating the lives of the most eminent Scottish
clergy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and originally written by an
unlettered individual named John Howie, of Lochgoin. The book was greatly
improved by the notes of Mr M'Gavin. He soon after published a refutation
of the peculiar views of Mr Cobbett in his History of the Reformation ; and a
similar exposure of the principles of Mr Robert Owen. Being a decided enemy
to the connexion of the church and state, he was induced to embody his senti-
ments on that subject in a pamphlet, entitled " Church Establishments con-
sidered ; in a Series of Letters to a Covenanter." Not long before his death,
Mr M'Gavin superintended a new and improved edition of Knox's History of

WILLIAM M'GAVIN. 575

the Reformation ; and aided with an introduction/a work by the Rev. Mr John
Brown of Whitburn, entitled " Memorials of the Nonconformist Ministers of the
Seventeenth Century." In the midst of his divers labours, he suddenly died of
apoplexy, August 23, 1832.

Of the intellectual vigour and religious fervour of Mr M'Gavin, his published
writings afford a sufficient and lasting memorial. His personal qualities are
not, however, fully shown in that mirror. His diligence in his ordinary secular
employments, his zeal in promoting the religious and worldly interests of all
who came under his notice, his mild and amiable character in private society,
are traits which must be added. Two of his most conspicuous qualities —
the power of a satirist, and a certain precision which appeared in all he
either spoke or wrote — might be supposed incompatible with the tenderer
lights of a domestic character. But in him the one set of qualities was not
more conspicuous than the other. " His personal disposition," says Mr Ewing,
" was that of the publican, who pleaded with God for mercy, when he went up
into the temple to pray, and returned justified, because he that humbleth himself
shall be exalted. Like Nathanael, he was an Israelite indeed in whom there was
no guile. Like Paul, he was ready to call himself less than the least of all
saints, and to ascribe his salvation to Jesus Christ having come into the world
to save sinners, of whom he was a chief. He had, even in his natural temper,
much tenderness of heart, much sincere and generous benevolence. If con-
scious of any quickness, which I have heard him acknowledge, but never saw,
it was guarded by the vigilance of Christian meekness, and by the genuine mo-
desty of superior good sense. Those, who knew him only from feeling the lash
of his controversial writings, may have been tempted to think of him as an aus-
tere man. In truth, however, he was the very reverse. — The profits of the
Protestant he once offered as a subscription to the society in this city for the
support of the Catholic schools. The offer was declined, because some of the
Roman catholic persuasion regarded it as an insult I do not wonder at the
misunderstanding. But had they known him as I did, and as he was known by
all his familiar friends, they would have accepted of his offer, as a mark of his
cordial good-will to a valuable institution."

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