UNIVERSITY 
 
11 3 1 MY G CC M Iff Till 
 
 A.E TAT: 40.. 
 
 Publisked liy Adam S-Chfl pies Black. Way 1866. 
 
MEMOEIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY COCKBURN 
 
 EDINBUEGH: 
 ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK, NORTH BRIDGE. 
 
 MDCCOLVI. 
 
. 
 
 EDINBURGH: PR1NTKD BY U. AND R. CI.ARK. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 &quot; IT occurred to me, several years ago, as a pity, 
 that no private account should be preserved of 
 the distinguished men or important events that 
 had marked the progress of Scotland, or at 
 least of Edinburgh, during my day. I had 
 never made a single note with a view to such 
 a record. But about 1821 I began to recollect 
 and to inquire.&quot; 
 
 Such is the brief account which LORD COCK- 
 BURN, writing in the year 1840, gives of the 
 origin of his Memorials. 
 
 What is now presented to the public by 
 his Executors was accordingly written between 
 1821 and the close of the year 1830. Some 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 alterations and additions however, though only 
 to a small extent, were made at times subsequent 
 to 1830. 
 
 It may further be explained, that the cha 
 racters of some eminent men as for example 
 Henry Erskine and the first Lord Melville, and 
 the details of some remarkable events such as 
 the establishment of the Edinburgh Review and 
 its great public effects, have been omitted in 
 this publication, because they are contained, 
 with no very material variation, in Lord Cock- 
 burn s Life of Lord Jeffrey. 
 
 EDINBURGH, MAY 1856. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Birth High School of Edinburgh Dr. Alexander Adam, etc. 
 Gala Water, etc. Niddrie Prestonfield College of Edin 
 burgh Professor Dalzel Professor Finlayson Dugald Stewart 
 The Academical Society State of Manners and Society 
 Principal Robertson Dr. Adam Ferguson Dr. Joseph Black 
 Dr. Henry Dr. Thomas Macknight Dr. Erskine Dr. 
 Carlyle Professor Robison Old Ladies Tests of Loyalty 
 Dearth of 1795-6 Speculative Society State of Colliers and 
 Salters . . . . . . . . page 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Passed Advocate Political State of Scotland Town Council of 
 Edinburgh Sedition Trials of 1793-4 Royal Infirmary of 
 Edinburgh Dr. James Gregory Parliament House, etc. Lord 
 Monboddo Lord Swinton Lord Braxfield Lord Eskgrove 
 Lord President Campbell Lord Hermand Lord Meadowbank 
 Lord Cullen 80 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 State of the Bar Robert Blair Robert Dundas Charles Hope 
 Bell s Commentaries Hume s Commentaries Reporters of 
 Decisions Edinburgh Review Archibald Constable William 
 Creech State of the Mercantile Classes Bellevue Gillespie s 
 Hospital Stewart s Lectures on Political Economy Sydney 
 Smith, etc., leave Edinburgh John Allen John Leyden 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 John Richardson Lord Webb Seymour Chief-Baron Mont 
 gomery Hope Lord Advocate, and Lord Justice- Clerk The 
 War ; the Volunteers, etc. Edinburgh Police Establishment 
 Case of Professor Leslie Scott s &quot; Lay of the Last Minstrel &quot; 
 State of Edinburgh Society . . page 147 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Whigs in Office, 1806 Dugald Stewart, printer of the Edin 
 burgh Gazette Trial of Lord Melville Scheme for Reform of 
 the Court of Session Charles Hay, Lord Newton Murder of 
 Begbie Made an Advocate-Depute General Assembly of the 
 Church of Scotland Principal Hill Dr. Inglis Sir Henry 
 Moncreiff State of the Church Rev. Mr. Struthers New 
 Prison on Calton Hill, and Waterloo Bridge Dawn of Modern 
 Scottish Art Division of the Court of Session Retirement of 
 President Campbell Blair, President Graham the Macer 
 Death of Dr. Adam Mr. Pillans, his Successor Retirement of 
 Dugald Stewart Dr. Thomas Brown, his Successor The 
 Horticultural Society The Commercial Bank Dismissed from 
 the Office of Advocate-Depute Marriage ; Bonaly Death of 
 President Blair Death of Lord Melville Advance of the 
 junior Whig Lawyers John Playfair Henry Mackenzie Sir 
 James Hall Walter Scott Mrs. Hamilton Mrs. Grant of 
 Laggan The Astronomical Institution Society for the Sup 
 pression of Begging Lancastrian School Death of John 
 Clerk of Eldin Contested Election for Mid-Lothian Lord 
 Woodhouselee Murray the Orientalist . . . 214 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Peace, 1814 Publication of Waverley Meeting in Edinburgh 
 against West Indian Slavery New Town Dispensary Dr. 
 Andrew Duncan Improvement of Architectural Taste Wil 
 liam Stark William Playfair Jeffrey at Craigcrook Musical 
 Festival The Jury Court Established Adam, Lord Chief 
 Commissioner Lord Pitmilly Meeting in Edinburgh against 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 the Income Tax George Wilson National Monument Epis 
 copalian Chapels Kev. Archibald Alison Salisbury Crags, 
 etc., improved &quot;The Scotsman&quot; Newspaper Death of 
 Francis Homer Black wood s Magazine Eevival of Ques 
 tion of Burgh Reform Trials for Sedition and Administering 
 Unlawful Oaths Trial of Andrew M Kinlay Funeral Ser 
 mons on the death of Princess Charlotte . . page 278 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The City Guard of Edipburgh Abolished Old Justiciary Circuits, 
 etc. Agitation against the North Bridge Buildings Discovery 
 of the Scottish Regalia Death of Malcolm Laing Proceedings 
 in the Merchant Company, and the Guildry of Edinburgh 
 Edinburgh Water Company Water Carriers Dinner in honor 
 of Burns The Royal Institution for Promotion of the Fine 
 Arts Deaths of Lord Webb Seymour and Professor Playfair 
 Adam Holland&quot; The Radical War&quot; Death of George III. 
 Lord Erskine s Visit to Edinburgh Death of Dr. Thomas 
 Brown Chair of Moral Philosophy offered to Mackintosh 
 Improvement of North Loch Praying for the Queen United 
 Associate Synod Jeffrey, Lord Rector of Glasgow Pantheon 
 Meeting in Edinburgh First Public Fox Dinner &quot; The Bea 
 con&quot; Newspaper The School of Arts Reform in the Mode 
 of Choosing Juries in Criminal Cases Fox Dinner, 1822 
 Exhibition of Williams Water Colours Commissioners of Edin 
 burgh Police ; Police Bill &quot; The Sentinel&quot; Newspaper Duel 
 between Mr. Stuart and Sir Alexander Boswell Trial of Mr. 
 Stuart Mr. Abercromby s Motion in the House of Commons on 
 the Scotch Press, etc. Moray Place, etc. Fox Dinner, 1823 
 Petition for Reform of the Representation of Edinburgh 339 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Matthew Ross John Clerk, a Judge Reform in Court of Session 
 Botanical Garden Office of Lord Advocate Fox Dinner, 
 1824 Bill for Reform of Representation of Edinburgh The 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 Edinburgh Academy Eev. Dr. Chalmers Great Fires in Edin 
 burgh Fox Dinner, 1825 Dinner to Brougham Edinburgh 
 Improvements Leith and the Town Council of Edinburgh 
 Bankruptcy of Sir Walter Scott Joint- Stock Mania Proposal 
 to check the Circulation of Scotch Bank Notes New Markets 
 in Edinburgh Trinity Church Trinity Hospital Cranstoun, 
 a Judge Moncreiff, Dean of Faculty Ministry of Canning, 
 etc. Appointment of Deputy- Keeper of the Signet Kepeal 
 of Test and Corporation Acts Death of Dugald Stewart 
 Visit to Abbotsford The West -Port Murders Meeting for 
 Catholic Emancipation Scotch Boards of Custom and Excise 
 Abolished Death of Lord Alloway Moncreiff, a Judge 
 Jeifrey, Dean of Faculty Death of Hugh Williams The Scot 
 tish Academy Schemes for Improving the Mound, etc. Aber- 
 cromby, Chief-Baron, etc. Meeting on French Involution 
 Anti- Slavery Meeting Parliamentary Eeform Ministry of 
 Earl Grey Appointed Solicitor- General . . page 405 
 
CHAPTER I, 
 
 I WAS born on the 26th of October 1779. This 
 event took place, I suspect, in one of the many flats 
 of the lofty range of dwelling-houses which then 
 formed the east side of the Parliament Close. If 
 not there, it must have been at Cockpen; a small 
 estate, about eight miles south of Edinburgh, then 
 belonging to my father, but sold soon after this to 
 the Earl of Dalhousie. My terror at the apparition 
 of a peacock in one of the Cockpeii walks, while I 
 was still in petticoats, is the most distant recollection 
 that I have. 
 
 My father was then Sheriff of the county of 
 Midlothian ; he was afterwards also Judge Admiral, 
 and finally a Baron of Exchequer. My mother was 
 Janet Eannie, one of the two daughters of Captain 
 Eannie of Melville. Her sister was married to 
 Henry Dundas the first Viscount Melville; and 
 besides this near alliance by marriage, our family 
 
 and that of the once powerful house of Arniston 
 
 B 
 
2 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 were connected by blood, and 011 habits of very 
 friendly intimacy. 
 
 My father was a man of strong sense, and with 
 no aversion to a joke, whether theoretical or prac 
 tical. He was one of the many good fathers, who, 
 from mere want of consideration and method, kept 
 his children at a distance. My mother was the best 
 woman I have ever known. If I were to survive 
 her for a thousand years, I should still have a deep 
 and grateful recollection of her kindness, her piety, 
 her devotion to her family, and her earnest, gentle, 
 and Christian anxiety for their happiness in this life 
 and in the life to come. 
 
 After leaving Cockpen we removed to Hope 
 Park. My father purchased the eastmost house on 
 the south side of the Meadows ; and there the next 
 twenty-two or twenty -three years of my life were 
 passed. We had about eight acres of ground, partly 
 in lease and partly our own and nearly the whole 
 country to the south of us, though all private pro 
 perty, was almost quite open. There were very few 
 fences south of the meadows. The lands of Grange, 
 Canaan, Blackford, Braid, Mortonhall, and many 
 other now enclosed, properties, were all, except in 
 immediate connection with the mansion houses, 
 unenclosed; and we roamed at pleasure till we 
 reached the Pentlands, or the deserts of Peebles- 
 shire. A delightful region for wild and active 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 3 
 
 boys.* A part of the monastery of the nuns of Sienna 
 (from which the neighbouring village, now part of 
 Edinburgh, is called Sciennes or Sheens) stood in a 
 field behind our house, which field my father always 
 had in lease from Sir Andrew Lauder of Grange ; and 
 a fragment of .the monastery still remains. A large 
 portion, including the great window, of the Chapel 
 of St. Koque, on the northern base of Blackford 
 Hill, then survived. There was a pond close beside 
 it where I learned to skate the most delightful of 
 all exercises, and one which I have practised with 
 unfailing ardour ever since. 
 
 In October 1787 I was sent to the High School. 
 Having never been at a public school before, and 
 this one being notorious for its severity and riotous- 
 ness, I approached its walls with trembling, and 
 felt dizzy when I sat down amidst above 100 new 
 faces. We had been living at Leith, for sea bathing, 
 for some weeks before ; and I was taken to school 
 by our tutor. The only thing that relieved my 
 alarm as he hauled me along was the diversion of 
 crossing the arches of the South Bridge, which were 
 then unfinished, on planks. The person to whose 
 uncontrolled discipline I was now subjected, though 
 
 * I do not mean to say that we ever held any of this space to 
 be open to us, or to the public, as in right, but only that being 1 
 unenclosed we used it freely. Yet many a time we were chased 
 off, particularly from Blackford Hill. 
 
4 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 a good man, an intense student, and filled, but rather 
 in the memory than in the head, with knowledge, 
 was as bad a schoolmaster as it is possible to fancy. 
 Unacquainted with the nature of youth, ignorant 
 even of the characters of his own boys, and with 
 not a conception of the art or of the duty of 
 alluring them, he had nothing for it but to drive 
 them ; and this he did by constant and indiscrimi 
 nate harshness. 
 
 The effects of this were very hurtful to all his 
 pupils. Out of the whole four years of my attend 
 ance there were probably not ten days in which I 
 was not flogged, at least once. Yet I never entered 
 the class, nor left it, without feeling perfectly quali 
 fied, both in ability and preparation, for its whole 
 business ; which, being confined to Latin alone, and 
 in necessarily short tasks, since every one of the 
 boys had to rhyme over the very same words, in 
 the very same way, was no great feat. But I was 
 driven stupid. Oh ! the bodily and mental weari- 
 someness of sitting six hours a-day, staring idly at 
 a page, without motion and without thought, and 
 trembling at the gradual approach of the merciless 
 giant. I never got a single prize, and once sat 
 boobie at the annual public examination. The 
 beauty of no Eoman word, or thought, or action, 
 ever occurred to me ; nor did I ever fancy that 
 Latin was of any use except to torture boys. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBUKN. 5 
 
 After four years of this class, I passed on to that 
 of the rector, Dr. Alexander Adam, the author of the 
 work on Roman Antiquities, then in the zenith of 
 his reputation. He had raised himself from the 
 very dust to that high position. Never was a man 
 more fortunate in the choice of a vocation. He was 
 born to teach Latin, some Greek, and all virtue. In 
 doing so he was generally patient, though not, when 
 intolerably provoked, without due fits of gentle 
 wrath ; inspiring to his boys, especially the timid 
 and backward ; enthusiastically delighted with every 
 appearance of talent or goodness ; a warm encour- 
 ager by praise, play, and kindness ; and constantly 
 under the strongest sense of duty. The art of teach 
 ing has been so immeasurably improved in good 
 Scotch schools since his time, that we can scarcely 
 estimate his merits now. He had most of the usual 
 peculiarities of a schoolmaster ; but was so amiable 
 and so artless, that no sensible friend would have 
 wished one of them to be even softened. His private 
 industry was appalling. If one moment late at 
 school, he would hurry in, and explain that he had 
 been detained u verifying a quotation;&quot; and many 
 a one did he verify at four in the morning. He told 
 me at the close of one of his autumn vacations of 
 six weeks that, before it had begun, he had taken a 
 house in the country, and had sent his family there, 
 in order that he himself might have some rustic 
 
G MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 leisure, but that having got upon the scent of some 
 curious passages (his favourite sport) he had remained 
 with his books in town, and had never even seen the 
 country house. 
 
 He suffered from a prejudice likely to be injurious 
 in those days. He was no politician ; insomuch that 
 it may be doubted whether he ever knew one public 
 measure or man from another. But a Latin and 
 Greek schoolmaster naturally speaks about such 
 things as liberty, and the people, and the expulsion 
 of the Tarquins, and republics, and this was quite 
 sufficient for the times ; especially as any modern 
 notions that he had were popular, and he was too 
 honest, and too simple, to disguise them. This inno 
 cent infusion of classical patriotism into the mind of 
 a man whose fancy dwelt in old Borne, made him be 
 watched and traduced for several years. Boys were 
 encouraged to bring home stories of him, and of 
 course reported only what they saw pleased. Often, 
 and with great agitation, did the worthy man com 
 plain of the injustice which tolerated these youthful 
 spies ; but his chief sorrow was for the corruption 
 to which the minds of his pupils were exposed. I 
 remained at the rector s class two years. 
 
 Some things happened during these six High 
 School years, which, however insignificant now, 
 made an impression on a boy. 
 
 In November 1789 we got a half holiday to see 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 7 
 
 tlie foundation stone of the new College laid, which 
 was done with great civic and masonic pomp. Forty 
 years more did not see the edifice completed. Only 
 those who knew the adjoining grounds at this time 
 can understand how completely its position has been 
 since destroyed. With the exception of a few paltry 
 and easily removable houses on the west and north, 
 the ground all round it was entirely open. Nicolson 
 Street was partly, and College Street entirely, un 
 built ; and the College was so perfectly free on its 
 east or front side, that I saw the ceremonies both 
 of laying the foundation stone, and of President 
 Dundas s funeral in 1787, from a window in the 
 west wing of the Royal Infirmary. The spaces now 
 occupied by the various buildings pressing on the 
 College were then covered with grass fields or 
 gardens. How often did we stand to admire the 
 blue and yellow beds of crocuses rising through the 
 clean earth, in the first days of spring, in the garden 
 of old Dr. Monro (the second), whose house stood in 
 a small field entering from Nicolson Street, within 
 less than a hundred yards south of the College. 
 
 Nicolson Street was the great haunt of the doctors 
 in those days. They clustered round the College 
 and the Infirmary. A pillar, in honor of a Lady 
 Nicolson, stood in the street named after her. It 
 was placed just at the top of the slope down to the 
 South Bridge, and was seen, [ suppose, all the way 
 
8 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 from the General Eegister House. It was destroyed, 
 soon after this, because it was accused of narrowing 
 the street an established piece of nonsense which 
 has often done much mischief in Edinburgh. 
 
 Dr. Cullen died in 1790. I only learned his look 
 from the number of heads of him which, out of 
 respect to his memory, were instantly set up as 
 signs for druggists shops; all representing him 
 with a huge wig, and an enormous under lip. 
 
 The death of Sir George Ramsay, who was killed 
 at Musselburgh, in April 1790, by Lieut. Macrae, 
 being the first event of the kind that we boys had 
 heard of, made us all shudder at the idea of duelling. 
 We were all strongly against Macrae. He was the 
 survivor, and seemed to acknowledge his being in the 
 wrong by absconding, and was a practised duellist. 
 
 They had the barbarity to make us be in school 
 during summer at 7 in the morning. I once started 
 out of bed, thinking I was too late, and got out of 
 the house unquestioned. On reaching the High 
 School gate, I found it locked, and saw the yards, 
 through the bars, silent and motionless. I withdrew 
 alarmed, and went near the Tron Church to see the 
 clock. It was only about two or three. Not a 
 creature was on the street; not even watchmen, 
 who were of much later introduction. I came home 
 awed, as if I had seen a dead city, and the impres 
 sion of that hour has never been effaced. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 
 
 Not one of the boys of my class has reached any 
 great eminence ; which indeed has been attained by 
 only two boys who were at any of the classes of the 
 High School in my time. These two were Francis 
 Horner and Henry Brougham. 
 
 Horner, with whom I was at the rector s class 
 for one year, was then exactly what he continued 
 afterwards to be grave, studious, honourable, kind ; 
 steadily pursuing his own cultivation; everything 
 he did marked by thoughtfulness and greatness. 
 Before leaving the school we subscribed for a book 
 which we presented to the rector ; a proceeding then 
 unprecedented. It fell to Horner as the dux to give 
 it, and he never acquitted himself better. It was on 
 the day of the public examination ; and after the 
 prizes were distributed, and the spectators thought 
 that the business was over, he stood forth with one 
 volume of the book in his hand, and in a distinct 
 though tremulous voice, and a firm but modest 
 manner, addressed Adam in a Latin speech of his 
 own composition not exceeding three or four sen 
 tences, expressive of the gratitude and affection 
 with which we all took leave of our master. The 
 effect was complete, on Adam, on the audience, and 
 on the boys. I was far down in the class, and can 
 still recal the feeling of enthusiastic but despairing 
 admiration, with which I witnessed the scene. I 
 thought Horner a god, and wondered what it was 
 
10 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 that made such a hopeless difference between him 
 and me. 
 
 Brougham was not in the class with me. Before 
 getting to the rector s class, he had been under Luke 
 Fraser, who, in his two immediately preceding 
 courses of four years each, had the good fortune 
 to have Francis Jeffrey and Walter Scott as his 
 pupils. Brougham made his first public explosion 
 while at Fraser s class. He dared to differ from 
 Fraser, a hot but good natured old fellow, on some 
 small bit of latinity. The master, like other men in 
 power, maintained his own infallibility, punished 
 the rebel, and flattered himself that the affair was 
 over. But Brougham reappeared next day, loaded 
 with books, returned to the charge before the whole 
 class, and compelled honest Luke to acknowledge 
 that he had been wrong. This made Brougham 
 famous throughout the whole school. I remember, 
 as well as if it had been yesterday, having had him 
 pointed out to rne as &quot; the fellow who had beat the 
 master.&quot; It was then that I first saw him. 
 
 As mere school years, these six were very fruit 
 lessly spent. The hereditary evils of the system 
 and of the place were too great for correction even 
 by Adam ; and the general tone of the school was 
 vulgar and harsh. Among the boys, coarseness of 
 language and manners was the only fashion. An 
 English boy was so rare, that his accent was openly 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 11 
 
 laughed at. No lady could be seen within the 
 walls. Nothing evidently civilized was safe. Two 
 of the masters, in particular, were so savage, that 
 any master doing now what they did every hour 
 would certainly be transported. 
 
 Before we left the school Adam made us a sen 
 sible and affecting address. In order to encourage 
 us all to go on with our studies voluntarily and 
 earnestly, he pointed out the opposite tendencies of 
 early eminence, and of early obscurity, upon boys ; 
 warning those who had been distinguished against 
 presumption, and those who had hitherto been un 
 noticed against despair ; and explaining to both 
 that, even in the very next stage, he had often 
 known them change natures ; the one from fancy 
 ing that nothing more required to be done, the 
 other from discovering that they had everything to 
 do. I drank in every syllable of this well-timed 
 discourse, and felt my heart revive. And a very 
 few years proved its justice. The same powers that 
 raise a boy high in a good school, make it probable 
 that he will rise high in life. But in bad schools, it 
 is nearly the very reverse. And even in the most 
 rationally conducted, superiority affords only a gleam 
 of hope for the future. Men change, and still more 
 boys. The High School distinctions very speedily 
 vanished ; arid fully as much by the sinking of the 
 luminaries who had shone in the zenith, as by the 
 
12 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 rising of those who had been lying on the horizon. 
 I have ever since had a distrust of duxes, and 
 thought boobies rather hopeful. 
 
 I doubt if I ever read a single book, or even 
 fifty pages, voluntarily, when I was at the High 
 School. The Spectator was the first book I read, 
 from the sheer pleasure of reading, after I left it. 
 
 Some of us, who lived near the Meadows, re 
 solved to commemorate our final liberation from 
 this hated school by erecting a pillar in what was 
 then the little retired, wild, broomy glen between 
 Braid and Blackford Hills. A long summer day 
 was passed in piling stone upon stone &quot; of lustre 
 from the brook ;&quot; when, just as we were beginning 
 to think that the edifice would do, the bank of the 
 burn gave way, and in a moment the stream was 
 glittering again over the fragments. We came 
 away much mortified, and uttering what were pro 
 bably our earliest reflections on the vanity of mortal 
 hopes. To atone for this disaster, a tin box, filled 
 with precious coins (one of them being a new Glas 
 gow halfpenny), was deposited in the crevice of a rock. 
 It lay undiscovered for above twenty years, when 
 seeing that it was in danger from the road trustees 
 and their quarriers, who have now destroyed the 
 whole rusticity of that beautiful and peaceful little 
 valley, I rescued it, and have the relic at this. hour. 
 
 I often think I see myself in my usual High 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 13 
 
 School apparel, which was the common dress of 
 other boys. It consisted of a round black hat ; a 
 shirt fastened at the neck by a black ribbon, and, 
 except on dress days, unruffled ; a cloth waistcoat, 
 rather large, with two rows of buttons and of button 
 holes, so that it could be buttoned on either side, 
 which, when one side got dirty, was convenient ; a 
 single breasted jacket, which in due time got a tail 
 and became a coat ; brown corduroy breeches, tied 
 at the knees by a showy knot of brown cotton tape ; 
 worsted stockings in winter, blue cotton stockings 
 in summer, and white cotton for dress ; clumsy 
 shoes made to be used on either foot, and each 
 requiring to be used on alternate feet daily; brass 
 or copper buckles. The coat and waistcoat were 
 always of glaring colours, such as bright blue, grass 
 green, and scarlet. I remember well the pride with 
 which I was once rigged out in a scarlet waistcoat 
 and a bright green coat. No such machinery as 
 what are now termed braces or suspenders had 
 then been imagined. 
 
 The valley of the Gala is associated with my 
 earliest recollections. The old ale-house at Heriot 
 was the first inn I ever entered. My father, who, 
 I think, was then convener of the county of Edin 
 burgh, went out to attend some meeting of road 
 trustees, and he took a parcel of us with him. He 
 rode ; and we had a chaise to ourselves happiness 
 
14 MEMORIALS OF HT$ TIME 
 
 enough for boys. But more was in store for us. 
 For he remained at the mansion house of Middleton 
 with his friend Mr. Hepburn, and we went on, about 
 four miles further, to Heriot House, where we 
 breakfasted and passed the day, fishing, bathing, 
 and rioting. It was the first inn of most of the 
 party. What delight! A house to ourselves, on a 
 moor; a burn; nobody to interfere with us; the 
 power of ringing the bell as we chose ; the ordering 
 of our own dinner ; blowing the peat fire ; laughing 
 as often and as loud as we liked. What a day ! 
 We rang the hand bell for the pure pleasure of 
 ringing, and enjoyed our independence by always 
 going out and in by the window. This dear little 
 inn does not now exist, but its place is marked by 
 a square of ash trees. It was a bright, beautiful, 
 August day. 
 
 We returned to the inn of Middleton, on our 
 way home, about seven in the evening ; and there 
 we saw another scene. People sometimes say that 
 there is no probability in Scott s making the party 
 in Waverley retire from the Castle to the Howf ; but 
 these people were not with me at the inn at Middle- 
 ton, about forty years ago. The Duke of Buccleuch 
 was living at Dalkeith ; Henry Dundas at Melville ; 
 Robert Dundas, the Lord Advocate, at Arniston ; 
 Hepburn of Clerkington at Middleton ; and several 
 of the rest of the aristocracy of Midlothian within a 
 
BY TTENRY COCKBURN. 15 
 
 few miles; all with their families, and luxurious 
 houses ; yet had they, to the number of twelve or 
 sixteen, congregated in this wretched ale-house for 
 a day of freedom and jollity. We found them, 
 roaring and singing and laughing, in a low-roofed 
 room scarcely large enough to hold them, with 
 wooden chairs and a sanded floor. When their 
 own lacqueys, who were carrying on high life in the 
 kitchen, did not choose to attend, the masters were 
 served by two women. There was plenty of wine, 
 particularly claret, in rapid circulation on the table ; 
 but my eye was chiefly attracted by a huge bowl o f 
 hot whisky punch, the steam of which was almost 
 dropping from the roof, while the odour was enough 
 to perfume the whole parish. We were called in, 
 and made to partake, and were very kindly used, 
 particularly by my uncle Harry Dundas. How 
 they did joke and laugh! with songs, and toasts, 
 and disputation, and no want of practical fun. I 
 don t remember anything they said, and probably 
 did not understand it. But the noise, and the heat, 
 and the uproarious mirth I think I hear and feel 
 them yet. My father was in the chair ; and he having 
 gone out for a little, one of us boys was voted into 
 his place, and the boy s health was drank, with all 
 the honors, as &quot; the young convener. Hurra ! 
 hurra ! may he be a better man than his father ! 
 hurra! hurra!&quot; I need not mention that they 
 
10 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 were all in a state of elevation ; though there was 
 nothing like absolute intoxication, so far as I could 
 judge. 
 
 I have ever loved the Gala. But I think 1 
 
 * 
 
 should have loved its pastoral valley without my 
 early attachment. It is bleak and wet no doubt ; 
 but so is most of the pastoral scenery of Scotland, 
 the whole of which requires the attraction of a bright 
 day. But with such a day, the sparkling stream of 
 the Gala, the range of its wild unenclosed hills, 
 and its impressive solitude, to say nothing of its 
 coming in for a share of the historical interest which 
 belongs to the whole of our southern border, give it 
 powerful charms. When I knew it first, Galashiels 
 was a rural hamlet ; the house of Torwoodlee stood 
 bare and staring ; and the high road ran on the west 
 side of the valley. The old laird of Torwoodlee 
 survives to enjoy the reward of his having planted 
 judiciously, in seeing his now beautiful place nearly 
 buried in foliage. Galashiels has become the Glas 
 gow of Selkirkshire. 
 
 For many years almost all my Saturdays, Sun 
 days, and holidays, were passed at Niddrie. I 
 sighed over every holiday as lost, that was not. 
 Part of the house is very old, but it never had any 
 architectural, or much historical, interest. But the 
 
 * Near Edinburgh, the seat of Andrew Wauchope, Esq., of 
 Niddrie. ED. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 17 
 
 garden ! the garden ! unseen and unseeing, it was a 
 world- of its own. That unwalled flat space, of only 
 four or five acres, contained absolutely everything 
 that a garden could supply for u man s delightful 
 use ;&quot; peaches and oaks, gravel walks, and a wilder 
 ness &quot; grotesque and wild,&quot; a burn and a bowling- 
 green, shade and sun, covert and lawn, vegetables 
 and glorious holly hedges everything delightful 
 either to the young or the old. Eden was not more 
 varied. And Eden is well worthy of its reputation, 
 if it was the scene of greater happiness. After a 
 long and unbroken course of domestic security and 
 pleasure, death began, about 1815, to extinguish, 
 and circumstances to scatter, the gay and amiable 
 family of which I was virtually a member ; and I 
 have since seldom revisited the generally silent 
 walls. But the days of Niddrie are among the last 
 I can forget. 
 
 My father was a friend of the Sir William 
 Dick of Prestonfield who flourished when I was a 
 boy ; a great sportsman, handsome, good natured, 
 and (which goes a great way with me) a first-rate 
 skater. We were the only boys (and how we were 
 envied from the hillside !) who were always at liberty 
 to play in his grounds, and to use his nice boat. 
 So I knew the place thoroughly. The reeds were 
 then regularly cut over, by means of short scythes 
 with very long handles, close to the ground; and 
 
18 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 this made Duddingston Loch nearly twice its present 
 size. All between the loch and the house was a 
 sort of Dutch garden, admirably kept. Besides the 
 invariable bowling-green, which formed the open- 
 air drawing-room of all our old houses, it had several 
 long smooth lanes of turf, anciently called bowling 
 alleys, parterres and lawn interspersed, fountains, 
 carved stone seats, dials, statues, and trimmed ever 
 green hedges. How we used to make the statues 
 spout ! There was a leaden Bacchus in particular, 
 of whose various ejections it was impossible to tire. 
 A very curious place. 
 
 Thus the dawn passed away. 
 
 In October 1793 I was sent to the College of 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 My first class was for more of that weary Latin ; 
 an excellent thing, if it had been got. For, all I 
 have seen since, and all I felt even then, have satis 
 fied me that there is no solid and graceful foundation 
 for boys minds like classical learning, grammatically 
 acquired; and that all the modern substitutes of 
 what is called useful knowledge, breed little beyond 
 conceit, vulgarity, and general ignorance. It is not 
 the mere acquaintance with the two immortal lan 
 guages that constitutes the value, though the value 
 of this is incalculable, but the early discipline of 
 the mind, by the necessary reception of precise rules, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 19 
 
 of which the use and the reasonableness is in due 
 time disclosed. But the mischief was that little 
 Latin was acquired. The class was a constant scene 
 of unchecked idleness, and disrespectful mirth. Our 
 time was worse than lost. 
 
 Andrew Dalzel, the author of Collectanea Grseca 
 and other academical books, taught my next class 
 the Greek. At the mere teaching of a language 
 to boys, he was ineffective. How is it possible 
 for the elements, including the very letters, of 
 a language to be taught to one hundred boys at 
 once, by a single lecturing professor ? To the lads 
 who, like me to whom the very alphabet was new, 
 required positive teaching, the class was utterly use 
 less. Nevertheless, though not a good schoolmaster, 
 it is a duty, and delightful, to record DalzeVs value 
 as a general exciter of boys minds. Dugald Stewart 
 alone excepted, he did me more good than all the 
 other instructors I had. Mild, affectionate, simple, 
 an absolute enthusiast about learning particularly 
 classical, and especially Greek; with an innocence 
 of soul and of manner which imparted an air of 
 honest kindliness to whatever he said or did, and a 
 slow, soft, formal voice, he was a great favourite 
 with all boys, and with all good men. Never was 
 a voyager, out in quest of new islands, more delighted 
 in finding one, than he was in discovering any good 
 quality in any humble youth. His lectures (pub- 
 
20 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 lished injudiciously by somebody in 1820 or 1821) 
 are an example of the difference between discourses 
 meant to be spoken to boys, and those intended to 
 be read by men. Yet our hearts bore witness how 
 well they were conceived, at least as he read them, 
 for moving youths. He could never make us actively 
 laborious. But when we sat passive, and listened 
 to him, he inspired us with a vague but sincere 
 ambition of literature, and with delicious dreams 
 of virtue and poetry. He must have been a hard 
 boy whom these discourses, spoken by Dalzel s low, 
 soft, artless voice, did not melt. 
 
 Dalzel was clerk to the General Assembly, and 
 was long one of the curiosities of that strange place. 
 He was too innocent for it. The last time I saw 
 this simple and worthy man was very shortly before 
 his death, the near approach of which he was quite 
 aware of, at a house he had taken on the Bonnington 
 Road. He was trying to discharge a twopenny cannon 
 for the amusement of his children ; but his alarm 
 and awkwardness only terrified them the more 5 
 till at last he got behind a washing-tub, and then, 
 fastening the match to the end -of a long stick, set 
 the piece of ordnance off gloriously. He used to 
 agree with those who say, that it is partly owing 
 to its Presbyterianism that Scotland is less classical 
 than Episcopal England. Sydney Smith asserted 
 that he had overheard the Professor muttering one 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 21 
 
 dark night on the street to himself, &quot; If it had not been 
 for that confounded Solemn League and Covenant we 
 would have made as good longs and shorts as they.&quot; 
 After being thus kept about nine years at two 
 dead languages, which we did not learn, the intel 
 lectual world was begun to be opened to us, by 
 Professor Finlayson s lectures on what was styled 
 Logic. He was a grim, firm-set, dark, clerical man ; 
 stiff and precise in his movements ; and with a dis 
 tressing pair of black, piercing, Jesuitical eyes, 
 which moved slowly, and rested long on any one 
 they were turned to, as if he intended to look him 
 down, and knew that he could do so ; a severe and 
 formidable person. Though no speaker, and a cold, 
 exact, hard reader, he surprised and delighted us 
 with the good sense of his matter. Until we heard 
 him, few of us knew that we had minds ; and still 
 fewer were aware that our intellectual operations 
 had been analyzed, and formed the subject of a 
 science, the facts of which our own consciousness 
 delighted to verify. Neither he nor his class were 
 logical, in any proper sense of the word. But no 
 exposition of the mere rules of reasoning could have 
 been h,alf so useful as the course which he adopted ; 
 which was first to classify, and explain the nature 
 of, the different faculties, and then to point Out the 
 proper modes of using and improving them. This, 
 though not logic, was the first thing that wakened 
 
22 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 our dormant powers. He did not work us half 
 enough at composition. 
 
 After this we advanced to the Moral Philosophy 
 of Dugald Stewart, which was the great era in the 
 progress of young men s minds. His philosophy, 
 and the general cast of his style and powers, are 
 attested by his published works. His merit as a 
 lecturer must depend on the recollection of those 
 who heard him. His excellence in this very difficult 
 and peculiar sphere was so great, that it is a luxury 
 to recal it. 
 
 He was about the middle size, weakly limbed, 
 and with an appearance of feebleness which gave an 
 air of delicacy to his gait and structure. His fore 
 head was large and bald, his eyebrows bushy, his 
 eyes grey and intelligent, and capable of conveying 
 any emotion, from indignation to pity, from serene 
 sense to hearty humour ; in which they were power 
 fully aided by his lips, which, though rather large 
 perhaps, were flexible and expressive. The voice 
 was singularly pleasing ; and, as he managed it, a 
 slight burr only made its tones softer. His ear, 
 both for music and for speech, was exquisite ; and 
 he was the finest reader I have ever heard. His 
 gesture was simple and elegant, though not free from 
 a tinge of professional formality; and his whole 
 manner that of an academical gentleman. 
 
 Without genius, or even originality of talent, his 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 23 
 
 intellectual character was marked by calm thought, 
 and great soundness. His training in mathematics, 
 which was his first college department, may have 
 corrected the reasoning, but it never chilled the 
 warmth, of his moral demonstrations. Besides being 
 deeply and accurately acquainted with his own sub 
 ject, his general knowledge, particularly of literature 
 and philosophical histoiy, was extensive, and all his 
 reading well meditated. A strong turn for quiet 
 humour was rather graced, than interfered with, by 
 the dignity of his science and habits. Knowledge, 
 intelligence, and reflection, however, will enable no 
 one to reach the highest place in didactic eloquence. 
 Stewart exalted all his powers by certain other 
 qualifications which are too often overlooked by 
 those who are ambitious of this eminence, and won 
 der how they do not attain it an unimpeachable 
 personal character, devotion to the science he taught, 
 an exquisite taste, an imagination imbued with 
 poetry and oratory, liberality of opinion, and the 
 loftiest morality. 
 
 The tendency of these qualities, in a person of 
 naturally an eloquent mind, to produce eloquence, 
 was increased by his avoiding certain things con 
 nected with his subject, which in dry hands have 
 often made even the philosophy of morals repulsive. 
 He dealt as little as possible in metaphysics, avoided 
 details, and shrunk, with a horror which was some- 
 
24 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 times rather ludicrous, from all polemical matter. 
 Invisible distinctions, vain contentions, factious 
 theories, philosophical sectarianism, had no attrac 
 tions for him ; and their absence left him free for 
 those moral themes on which he could soar without 
 perplexing his hearers, or wasting himself, by useless 
 and painful subtleties. 
 
 Within this his proper sphere, with topics judi 
 ciously selected, and views eloquently given, he was 
 uniformly great and fascinating. The general con 
 stitution of moral and material nature, the duties 
 and the ends of man, the uses and boundaries of 
 philosophy, the connection between virtue and en 
 joyment, the obligations of affection and patriotism, 
 the cultivation and the value of taste, the intellec 
 tual differences produced by particular habits, the 
 evidences of the soul s immortality, the charms of 
 literature and science, in short all the ethics of life 
 these were the subjects, in expatiating on which 
 he was in his native element ; and he embellished 
 them all by a judicious application of biographical 
 and historical illustration, and the happiest intro 
 duction of exquisite quotation. Everything was 
 purified and exalted by his beautiful taste ; not 
 merely by his perception of what was attractive in 
 external nature or in art, but by that moral taste 
 which awed while it charmed, and was the chief 
 cause of the success, with which (as Mackintosh 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 25 
 
 said) he breathed the love of virtue into whole 
 generations of pupils. 
 
 He lectured standing ; from notes which, with 
 their successive additions, must, I suppose, at last 
 have been nearly as full as his spoken words. His 
 lecturing manner was professorial, but gentleman 
 like ; calm and expository, but .rising into greatness, 
 or softening into tenderness, whenever his subject 
 required it. A slight asthmatic tendency made him 
 often clear his throat ; and such was my admiration 
 of the whole exhibition, that Macvey Napier told 
 him, not long ago, that I had said there was elo 
 quence in his very spitting. u Then,&quot; said he, &quot; I 
 am glad there was at least one thing in which I had 
 no competitor.&quot; 
 
 There are some, and these good judges, who have 
 depreciated his lectures, on account of what they call 
 vagueness ; by which they mean the absence of strict, 
 and particularly of metaphysical, reasoning, which, 
 they think, made his course evaporate in fruitless 
 general declamation. The real import of this criti 
 cism is, that it was not prelections on the philosophy 
 of morals that the critics desired. His generality 
 and his indulgence in moral themes, which are what 
 these hard headed censors complain of, constituted 
 the very charm of his course. A stronger infusion 
 of dry matter, especially metaphysical, would hav$ 
 extinguished its magic. The breadth and simplici 
 
26 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 of his views might, not unnaturally, have made him 
 appear superficial to those who did not understand 
 them. But he who, either in the business of life, or 
 in the prosecution of philosophy, had occasion to 
 recur to principles, always found that, either for 
 study or for practice, Stewart s doctrines were his 
 surest guide. 
 
 To me his lectures were like the opening of the 
 heavens. I felt that I had a soul. His noble views, 
 unfolded in glorious sentences, elevated me into a 
 higher world. I was as much excited and charmed 
 as any man of cultivated taste would be, who, after 
 being ignorant of their existence, was admitted to 
 all the glories of Milton, and Cicero, and Shakespeare. 
 They changed my whole nature. 
 
 In short, Dugald Stewart was one of the greatest 
 of didactic orators. Had he lived in ancient times, 
 his memory would have descended to us as that of 
 one of the finest of the old eloquent sages. But his 
 lot was better cast. Flourishing in an age which 
 requires all the dignity of morals to counteract the 
 tendencies of physical pursuits and political convul 
 sion, he has exalted the character of his country 
 and his generation. No intelligent pupil of his ever 
 ceased to respect philosophy, or was ever false to 
 his principles, without feeling the crime aggravated 
 by the recollection of the morality that Stewart had 
 taught him. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 27 
 
 A debating society was one of the natural 
 results of these two classes. These institutions, 
 which when ill-managed are the hot-beds of conceit 
 and petulance, and when managed tolerably well 
 are powerfully productive of thought, of talent, and 
 even of modesty, were in full operation at this time 
 in the College of Edinburgh. It was a discussing 
 age. Finlayson and Stewart had touched our souls ; 
 and there were some ardent spirits among us. I never 
 joined any of these societies except two the Aca 
 demical and the Speculative. 
 
 The Academical rose in 1796, and after a short, 
 though very active, life, died of decline about 1816. 
 It met in Playfair s class room, which was then the 
 great receptacle of youthful philosophers and ora 
 tors. There were more essays read, and more 
 speeches delivered, by ambitious lads, in that little 
 shabby place, than in all Scotland. If it had been 
 preserved, it would have been near the centre of the 
 new library. No part of my training did me so 
 much good as this society. The Speculative, which 
 I joined a few years later, was a higher and a more 
 serious field ; but it was the Academical plough 
 that first opened the soil. It was here that I got 
 my first notions of composition and debate, and that 
 that delightful feeling of free doubting and indepen 
 dent discussion, so necessary for the expansion and 
 manliness of young minds, was excited. 
 
28 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 The change from ancient to modern manners, 
 which is now completed, had begun some years 
 before this, and was at this period in rapid and 
 visible progress. The feelings and habits which 
 had prevailed at the union, and had left so many 
 picturesque peculiarities on the Scotch character, 
 could not survive the enlarged intercourse with 
 England and the world. It would be very interest 
 ing to trace the course of this alteration, provided 
 the description was made intelligible by accounts 
 of our curious men and our peculiar customs. But 
 it cannot be done except by one who lived, and 
 was in the practice of observing, and perhaps of 
 noting, in the very scenes, and with the very 
 men ; and consequently it cannot be done by one, 
 who only came into action when the old suns were 
 going down. 
 
 The more immediate changes in Edinburgh pro 
 ceeded chiefly from the growth of the city. The 
 single circumstance of the increase of the popula 
 tion, and its consequent overflowing from the old 
 town to the new, implied a general alteration of our 
 habits. It altered the style of living, obliterated 
 local arrangements, and destroyed a thousand asso- 
 
 * In so far as Edinburgh is concerned, there is a short, but 
 graphic, view of the transformation, by Scott, in a &quot; General 
 Account of Edinburgh ,&quot; in the 5th No. of &quot; The Provincial Anti 
 quities and Picturesque Scenery of Scotland.&quot; 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 29 
 
 ciations, which nothing but the still preserved names 
 of houses and of places is left to recal. * 
 
 It was the rise of the new town that obliterated 
 our old peculiarities with the greatest rapidity and 
 effect. It not only changed our scenes and habits 
 of life, but, by the mere inundation of modern popu 
 lation, broke up and, as was then thought, vulgarized 
 our prescriptive gentilities. 
 
 For example, Saint Cecilia s Hall was the only 
 public resort of the musical, and besides being our 
 most selectly fashionable place of amusement, was 
 the best and the most beautiful concert room I have 
 ever yet seen. And there have I myself seen most of 
 our literary and fashionable gentlemen, predominat 
 ing with their side curls, and frills, and ruffles, and 
 silver buckles ; and our stately matrons stiffened in 
 hoops, and gorgeous satin ; and our beauties with 
 high-heeled shoes, powdered and pomatorned hair, 
 and lofty and composite head dresses. All this 
 was in the Cowgate ! the last retreat now-a-days of 
 destitution and disease. The building still stands, 
 though raised and changed, and is looked down 
 upon from South Bridge, over the eastern side of 
 the Cowgate Arch. When I last saw it, it seemed 
 
 * Excellent accounts of these localities and of the distin 
 guished people who lived in them, and even of our curious street 
 figures, have been preserved by Chambers, Paton, Wilson, and 
 others. 
 
30 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 to be partly an old-clothesman s shop, and partly a 
 brazier s. The abolition of this Cecilian temple, 
 and the necessity of finding accommodation where 
 they could, and of depending for patronage on the 
 common boisterous public, of course extinguished 
 the delicacies of the old artificial parterre. 
 
 Our balls, and their manners, fared no better. 
 The ancient dancing establishments in the Bow, and 
 the Assembly Close, I know nothing about. Every 
 thing of the kind was meant to be annihilated by 
 the erection (about 1784) of the handsome apart 
 ments in George Street. Yet even against these, 
 the new part of the old town made a gallant struggle, 
 and in my youth the whole fashionable dancing, as 
 indeed the fashionable everything, clung to George 
 Square; where (in Buccleuch Place, close by the 
 south-eastern corner of the square) most beautiful 
 rooms were erected, which, for several years, threw 
 the New Town piece of presumption entirely into 
 the shade, And here were the last remains of the 
 ball-room discipline of the preceding age. Martinet 
 dowagers and venerable beaux acted as masters and 
 mistresses of ceremonies, and made all the pre 
 liminary arrangements. No couple could dance 
 unless each party was provided with a ticket pre 
 scribing the precise place, in the precise dance. If 
 there was no ticket, the gentleman, or the lady, was 
 dealt with as an intruder, and turned out of the 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 31 
 
 dance. If the ticket had marked upon it say for a 
 country dance, the figures 3. 5 ; this meant that the 
 holder was to place himself in the 3d dance, and 
 5th from the top ; and if he was anywhere else, he 
 was set right, or excluded. And the partner s ticket 
 must correspond. Woe on the poor girl who with 
 ticket 2. 7, was found opposite a youth marked 5. 9 ! 
 It was flirting without a license, and looked very 
 ill, and would probably be reported by the ticket 
 director of that dance to the mother. Of course 
 parties, or parents, who wished to secure dancing 
 for themselves or those they had charge of, provided 
 themselves with correct and corresponding vouchers 
 before the ball day arrived. This could only be 
 accomplished through a director; and the election 
 of a pope sometimes required less jobbing. When 
 parties chose to take their chance, they might do 
 so ; but still, though only obtained in the room, the 
 written permission was necessary ; and such a thing 
 as a compact to dance, by a couple without official 
 authority, would have been an outrage that could 
 scarcely be contemplated.* Tea was sipped in side- 
 rooms; and he was a careless beau who did not 
 present his partner with an orange at the end of 
 
 * Goldsmith was struck with this. See his letter 26th September 
 1753. Prior s Life, v. I. p. 141. The same restraint seems to 
 have been in force at Bath in king Nash s time. It was a pre 
 caution, or perhaps rather an exercise of authority, natural to the 
 days of compulsory decorum. 
 
32 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 
 
 each dance ; and the oranges and the tea, like every 
 thing else, were under exact and positive regulations. 
 All this disappeared, and the very rooms were ob 
 literated, as soon as the lately raised community 
 secured its inevitable supremacy to the New Town. 
 The aristocracy of a few predominating individuals 
 and families came to an end; and the unreasonable 
 old had nothing for it but to sigh over the recollec 
 tion of the select and elegant parties of their youth, 
 where indiscriminate public right was rejected, and 
 its coarseness awed. 
 
 Yet, in some respects, there was far more coarse 
 ness in the formal age than in the free one. Two 
 vices especially, which have been long banished from 
 all respectable society, were very prevalent, if not 
 universal, among the whole upper ranks swearing 
 and drunkenness. Nothing was more common than 
 for gentlemen who had dined with ladies, and meant 
 to rejoin them, to get drunk. To get drunk in a 
 tavern, seemed to be considered as a natural, if not 
 an intended, consequence of going to one. Swearing 
 was thought the right, and the mark, of a gentleman. 
 And, tried by this test, nobody, who had not seen 
 them, could now be made to believe how many 
 gentlemen there were. Not that people were worse 
 tempered then than now. They were only coarser 
 in their manners, and had got into a bad style of 
 admonition and dissent. And the evil provoked its 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 33 
 
 own continuance ; because nobody who was blamed 
 cared for the censure, or understood that it was 
 serious, unless it was clothed in execration , and 
 any intensity even of kindness or of logic, that was 
 not embodied in solid commination, evaporated, and 
 was supposed to have been meant to evaporate, in 
 the very uttering. The naval chaplain justified his 
 cursing the sailors, because it made them listen to 
 him ; and Braxfield apologized to a lady whom he 
 damned at whist for bad play, by declaring that 
 he had mistaken her for his wife. This odious 
 practice was applied with particular offensiveness 
 by those in authority towards their inferiors. In the 
 army it was universal by officers towards soldiers ; 
 and far more frequent than is now credible by 
 masters towards servants. 
 
 The prevailing dinner hour was about three 
 o clock. Two o clock was quite common, if there 
 was no company. Hence it was no great deviation 
 from their usual custom for a family to dine on Sun 
 days &quot; between sermons&quot; that is between one and 
 two. The hour, in time, but not without groans and 
 predictions, became four, at which it stuck for seve 
 ral years. Then it got to five, which however was 
 thought positively revolutionary and four was long 
 and gallantly adhered to by the haters of change 
 as &quot; the good old hour.&quot; At last even they 
 were obliged to give in. But they only yielded inch 
 
34 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 by inch, and made a desperate stand at half past 
 four. Even five however triumphed, and continued 
 the average polite hour from (I think) about 1806 
 or 1807 till about 1820. Six has at last prevailed, 
 and half an hour later is not unusual. As yet this 
 is the furthest stretch of London imitation, except 
 in country houses devoted to grouse or deer, where 
 the species called sportsmen, disdaining all mankind 
 except themselves, glory in not dining till sensible 
 people have gone to bed. Thus, within my memory, 
 the hour has ranged from two to half past six o clock ; 
 and a stand has been regularly made at the end of 
 every half hour against each encroachment*, and al 
 ways on the same grounds dislike of change and 
 jealousy of finery. 
 
 The procession from the drawing-room to the 
 dining-room was formerly arranged on a different 
 principle from what it is now. There was no such 
 alarming proceeding as that of each gentleman 
 approaching a lady, and the two hooking together. 
 This would have excited as much horror as the waltz 
 at first did, which never shewed itself without 
 denunciations of continental manners by correct 
 gentlemen and worthy mothers and aunts. All the 
 ladies first went off by themselves, in a regular row, 
 according to the ordinary rules of precedence. Then 
 the gentlemen moved off in a single file; so that 
 when they reached the dining-room, the ladies were 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 35 
 
 all there, lingering about the backs of the chairs, 
 till they could see what their fate was to be. Then 
 began the selection of partners, the leaders of the 
 male line having the advantage of priority ; and of 
 course the magnates had an affinity for each other. 
 
 The dinners themselves were much the same as 
 at present. Any difference is in a more liberal 
 adoption of the cookery of France. Ice, either for 
 cooling or eating, was utterly unknown, except in 
 a few houses of the highest class. There was far 
 less drinking during dinner than now, and far more 
 after it. The staple wines, even at ceremonious 
 parties, were in general only port and sherry. 
 Champagne was never seen. It only began to ap 
 pear after France was opened by the peace of 1815. 
 The exemption of Scotch claret from duty, which 
 continued (I believe) till about 1780, made it till 
 then the ordinary beverage. 1 have heard Henry 
 Mackenzie and other old people say that, when a 
 cargo of claret came to Leith, the common way of 
 proclaiming its arrival was by sending a hogshead 
 of it through the town on a cart, with a horn ; and 
 that anybody who wanted a sample, or a drink under 
 pretence of a sample, had only to go to the cart with 
 a jug, which,, without much nicety about its size, 
 was filled for a sixpence. The tax ended this mode of 
 advertising ; and, aided by the horror of everything 
 French, drove claret from all tables below the richest. 
 
36 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Healths and toasts were special torments; oppres 
 sions which cannot now be conceived. Every glass 
 during dinner required to be dedicated to the health 
 of some one. It was thought sottish and rude to 
 take wine without this as if forsooth there was 
 nobody present worth drinking with. I was present, 
 about 1803, when the late Duke of Buccleuch took 
 a glass of sherry by himself at the table of Charles 
 Hope, then Lord Advocate; and this was noticed 
 afterwards as a piece of Ducal contempt. And the 
 person asked to take wine was not invited by any 
 thing so slovenly as a look, combined with a putting 
 of the hand upon the bottle, as is practised by near 
 neighbours now. It was a much more serious affair. 
 For one thing, the wine was very rarely on the 
 table. It had to be called for; and in order to 
 let the servant know to whom he was to carry 
 it, the caller was obliged to specify his partner 
 aloud. All this required some premeditation and 
 courage. Hence timid men never ventured on so 
 bold a step at all ; but were glad to escape by only 
 drinking when they w r ere invited. As this ceremony 
 was a mark of respect, the landlord, or any other 
 person who thought himself the great man, was 
 generally graciously pleased to perform it to every 
 one present. But he and others were always at 
 liberty to abridge the severity of the duty, by per 
 forming it by platoons. They took a brace, or two 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 37 
 
 brace, of ladies or of gentlemen, or of both, and got 
 them all engaged at once, and proclaiming to the 
 sideboard u A glass of sherry for Miss Dundas, Mrs. 
 Murray, and Miss Hope, and a glass of port for Mr. 
 Hume, and one for me,&quot; he slew them by coveys. 
 And all the parties to the contract were bound to 
 acknowledge each other distinctly, No nods, or 
 grins, or indifference *, but a direct look at the object, 
 the audible uttering of the very words u Your good 
 health,&quot; accompanied by a respectful inclination of 
 the head, a gentle attraction of the right hand towards 
 the heart, and a gratified smile. And after all these 
 detached pieces of attention during the feast were 
 over, no sooner was the table cleared, and the after 
 dinner glasses set down, than it became necessary 
 for each person, following the landlord, to drink the 
 health of every other person present, individually. 
 Thus, where there were ten people, there were 
 ninety healths drunk. This ceremony was often 
 slurred over by the bashful, who -were allowed merely 
 to look the benediction ; but usage compelled them 
 to look it distinctly, and to each individual. To do 
 this well, required some grace, and consequently it 
 was best done by the polite ruffled and frilled gentle 
 men of the olden time. 
 
 This prandial nuisance was horrible. But it was 
 nothing to what followed. For after dinner, and 
 before the ladies retired, there generally began what 
 
38 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 were called u Rounds &quot; of toasts ; when each gentle 
 man named an absent lady, and each lady an absent 
 gentleman, separately ; or one person was required 
 to give an absent lady, and another person was 
 required to match a gentleman with that lady, and 
 the pair named were toasted, generally with allusions 
 and jokes about the fitness of the union. And, worst 
 of all, there were u Sentiments.&quot; These were short 
 epigrammatic sentences, expressive of moral feelings 
 and virtues, and were thought refined and elegant 
 productions. A faint conception of their nauseous- 
 ness may be formed from the following examples, 
 every one of which I have heard given a thousand 
 times, and which indeed I only recollect from their 
 being favourites. The glasses being filled, a person 
 was asked for his, or for her, sentiment, when this or 
 something similar was committed &quot; May the plea 
 sures of the evening bear the reflections of the 
 morning.&quot; Or, &quot; May the friends of our youth be 
 the companions of our old age.&quot; Or, u Delicate 
 pleasures to susceptible minds.&quot; &quot; May the honest 
 heart never feel distress.&quot; u May the hand of charity 
 wipe the tear from the eye of sorrow.&quot; &quot; May never 
 worse be among us.&quot; There were stores of similar 
 reflections and for all kinds of parties, from the 
 elegant and romantic, to the political, the municipal, 
 the ecclesiastic, and the drunken. Many of the 
 thoughts and sayings survive still, and may occa- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 39 
 
 sionally be heard at a club or a tavern. But even 
 there they are out of vogue as established parts of 
 die entertainment; and in some scenes nothing can 
 be very offensive. But the proper sentiment was a 
 high and pure production ; a moral motto ; and was 
 meant to dignify and grace private society. Hence, 
 even after an easier age began to sneer at the dis 
 play, the correct course was to receive the sentiment, 
 if not with real admiration, at least with decorous 
 respect. Mercifully, there was a large known public 
 stock of the odious commodity, so that nobody who 
 could screw up his nerves to pronounce the words, 
 had any occasion to strain his invention. The con 
 ceited, the ready, or the reckless, hackneyed in the 
 art, had a knack of making new sentiments appli 
 cable to the passing accidents, with great ease. But 
 it was a dreadful oppression on the timid or the 
 awkward. They used to shudder, ladies particularly 
 for nobody was spared, when their turn in the 
 round approached. Many a struggle and blush did 
 it cost ; but this seemed only to excite the tyranny 
 of the masters of the craft ; and compliance could 
 never be avoided except by more torture than yield 
 ing. There can scarcely be a better example of 
 the emetical nature of the stuff that was swallowed 
 than the sentiment elaborated by the poor dominie 
 at Arndilly. He was called upon, in his turn, before 
 a large party, and having nothing to guide him in 
 
40 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 an exercise to which he was new, except what he 
 saw was liked, after much writhing and groaning, 
 he came out with &quot; The reflection of the moon in 
 the cawin bosom of the lake.&quot; It is difficult for 
 those who have been born under a more natural 
 system, to comprehend how a sensible man, a re 
 spectable matron, a worthy old maid, and especially 
 a girl, could be expected to go into company only 
 on such conditions. 
 
 But a new generation gradually laughed the sen 
 timents away ; so that at last one could only be got 
 as a curiosity, from some old-fashioned practitioner. 
 They survived longer in male parties, especially of a 
 wild character. Yet Scott, in presiding even at the 
 grave annual dinners of the Bannatyne Club, always 
 insisted on rounds of ladies and gentlemen, and of 
 authors and printers, poets and kings, in regular 
 pairs. Of course in that toasting and loyal age, the 
 King was never forgotten, even though the company 
 consisted only of the host and his wife and children. 
 
 Early dinners begat suppers. But suppers are 
 so delightful, that they have survived long after 
 dinners have become late. Indeed this has imme- 
 morially been a favourite Edinburgh repast. I 
 have often heard strangers say, that Edinburgh was 
 the only place where the people dined twice every 
 day. It is now fading into paltry wine and water 
 in many houses ; but in many it still triumphs in a 
 
BY HENKY GOCKBURN. 41 
 
 more substantial form. Lord Hermand was one of 
 the great patrons of this Roman banquet. Almost 
 all my set, which is perhaps the merriest, the most 
 intellectual, and not the most severely abstemious, 
 in Edinburgh, are addicted to it. I doubt if from 
 the year 1811, when I married, I have closed above 
 one day in the month, of my town life, at home and 
 alone. It is always some scene of domestic convi 
 viality, either in my own house or in a friend s. 
 And this is the habit of all my best friends. The 
 refection is beginning to be thought vulgar, or at 
 least superfluous ; which last, if mere hunger and 
 thirst are to be considered, is certainly true. But 
 its native force makes it keep its place even in polite 
 societies. How could it fail? How many are the 
 reasons, how strong the associations, that inspire 
 the last of the day s friendly meetings ! Supper is 
 cheaper than dinner ; shorter , less ceremonious ; 
 and more poetical. The business of the day is over ; 
 and its still fresh events interest. It is chiefly inti 
 mate associates that are drawn together at that 
 familiar hour, of which night deepens the sociality. 
 If there be any fun, or heart, or spirit, in a man at 
 all, it is then, if ever, that it will appear. So far as 
 I have seen social life, its brightest sunshine has 
 been on the last repast of the day. 
 
 Tradition says that the suppers of Lord Mon- 
 boddo were the most Attic in his day. But the 
 
42 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Sunday suppers of Sir Henry Moncreiff are worthy 
 of record. This most admirable, and somewhat old 
 fashioned, gentleman was one of those who always 
 dined between sermons, probably without touching 
 wine. He then walked back look at him from 
 his small house in the east end of Queen Street to 
 his church, with his bands, his little cocked hat, his 
 tall cane, and his cardinal air preached, if it was 
 his turn, a sensible practical sermon ; walked home 
 in the same style ; took tea about five ; spent some 
 hours in his study ; at nine had family worship, at 
 which he was delighted to see the friends of any of 
 his sons ; after which the whole party sat down to 
 the roasted hens, the goblets of wine, and his power 
 ful talk. Here was a mode of alluring young men 
 into the paths of pious pleasantness. Those days 
 are now passed, but the figure, and the voice, the 
 thoughts, and the kind and cheerful manliness, of 
 Sir Harry, as disclosed at those Sunday evenings, 
 will be remembered with gratitude by some of the 
 best intellects in Scotland. 
 
 There is no contrast between those old days and 
 the present that strikes me so strongly as that sug 
 gested by the differences in religious observances ; 
 not so much by the world in general, as by deeply 
 religious people. I knew the habits of the religious 
 very well, partly through the piety of my mother 
 and her friends, the strict religious education of her 
 
UY HENRY COCKBURN, 43 
 
 children, and our connection with some of the most 
 distinguished of our devout clergymen. I could 
 mention many practices of our old pious which 
 would horrify modern zealots. The principles and 
 feelings of the persons commonly called evangelical, 
 were the same then that they are now ; the external 
 acts, by which these feelings and principles were 
 formerly expressed, were materially different. In 
 nothing do these differences appear more strikingly 
 than in matters connected with the observance of 
 Sunday. Hearing what is often confidently pre 
 scribed now as the only proper mode of keeping the 
 Christian Sabbath, and then recollecting how it was 
 recently kept by Christian men, ought to teach us 
 charity in the enforcement of observances, which, 
 to a certain extent, are necessarily matters of opinion. 
 It is not unusual for certain persons to represent 
 Scotland, but particularly Edinburgh, as having been 
 about the beginning of this century very irreligious. 
 Whenever any modern extravagance, under the name 
 of piety, is attempted to be corrected by shewing 
 its inconsistency with the practice of the pious of 
 the last age, this is sure to be met by the assertion 
 that the last age was not merely irreligious, but 
 generally infidel. There are some with whom this 
 idea is suggested by the mere echo of the words 
 David Hume. With others it is necessary for the 
 promotion of a more ascetic system than the last 
 
44 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 age would have borne. And, with many it is taken 
 up from mere policy ; as for example, when Estab 
 lished Churchmen, who maintain the necessity for 
 college tests, are referred to the long success of the 
 College of Edinburgh without tests, the answer is 
 nearly certain to be that the College of Edinburgh 
 used to be tainted by infidelity. 
 
 I attest that, so far as I ever saw or heard, this 
 charge is utterly false. I am not aware of a single 
 professor to whom it was ever applied, or could be 
 applied justly. Freedom of discussion was not in 
 the least combined with scepticism among the stu 
 dents, or in their societies. I never knew nor heard 
 of a single student, tutor, or professor, by whom in 
 fidelity was disclosed, or in whose thoughts I be 
 lieved it to be harboured, with perhaps only two 
 obscure and doubtful exceptions. I consider the 
 imputation as chiefly an invention to justify modern 
 intolerance. 
 
 As to the comparative religiousness of the present 
 and the preceding generation, any such comparison 
 is very difficult to be made. Eeligion is certainly 
 more the fashion than it used to be. There is more 
 said about it ; there has been a great rise, and con 
 sequently a great competition of sects ; and the gene 
 ral mass of the religious public has been enlarged. 
 On the other hand, if we are to believe one half of 
 what some religious persons themselves assure us, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 45 
 
 religion is now almost extinct. My opinion is that 
 the balance is in favour of the present time. And 
 I am certain that it would be much more so, if 
 the modern dictators would only accept of that as 
 religion, which was considered to be so by their 
 devout fathers. 
 
 Grown up people talked at this time of nothing 
 but the French Revolution, and its supposed conse 
 quences; younger men of good education were im 
 mersed in chemistry and political economy ; the 
 lower orders seemed to take no particular concern in 
 anything. I heard a great deal that I did not then 
 fully comprehend ; but, even when not fully com 
 prehending, boys are good listeners, and excellent 
 rememberers, and retain through life impressions 
 that were only deepened by their vagueness, and by 
 their not flowing into common occupations. If the 
 ladies and gentlemen, who formed the society of my . 
 father s house, believed all that they said about the 
 horrors of French bloodshed, and of the anxiety of 
 people here to imitate them, they must have been 
 wretched indeed. Their talk sent me to bed shud 
 dering. It was a relief to hear some younger persons 
 talk of the new chemistry which Lavoisier had made 
 fashionable, and of the economical doctrines so suit 
 able for the country of Adam Smith. This, however, 
 was a subject confined almost exclusively to young 
 men. The middle aged seemed to me to know little 
 
4G MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 about the founder of the science, except that he had 
 recently been a Commissioner of Customs, arid had 
 written a sensible book. The young, by which I 
 mean the liberal young of Edinburgh, lived upon 
 him. With Hume, Robertson, Millar, Montesquieu, 
 Ferguson, and De Lolme, he supplied them with 
 most of their mental food. 
 
 But this food of the liberal young was by no 
 means relished by the stomachs of their seniors. 
 It all tended towards awakening the intellect, and 
 exciting speculation, which were the very things 
 that most of the minds that had been formed a little 
 earlier thought dangerous. No young person, who 
 came to think for himself soon enough to keep what 
 he heard in remembrance, can ever forget the pain 
 ful impression made upon him by the intolerance 
 of those times. No doubt the intolerance was 
 justified, or at least provoked, by fright at first ; 
 but this soon became a pretence; and the hourly 
 violence that prevailed was kept up chiefly as a 
 factious engine. I lived in the midst of it. My 
 father s house was one of the places where the 
 leaders, and the ardent followers, of the party in 
 power were in the constant habit of assembling. I 
 can sit yet, in imagination, at the small side table, 
 and overhear the conversation, a few feet off, at the 
 established Wednesday dinner. How they raved ! 
 What sentiments ! What principles ! Not that I 
 
BY HENRY COCK BU EN. 47 
 
 differed from them. I thought them quite right; 
 and hated liberty and the people as much as they 
 did. But this drove me into an opposite horror; 
 for I was terrified out of such wits as they left me 
 at the idea of bloodshed, and it never occurred to 
 me that it could be avoided. My reason no sooner 
 began to open, and to get some fair play, than the 
 distressing wisdom of my ancestors began to fade, 
 and the more attractive sense that I met with 
 among the young men into whose company our 
 debating societies threw me, gradually hardened 
 me into what I became whatever this was. 
 
 It has always been a pleasure to me to have seen 
 some of the men of the retiring generation, who have 
 done so much honour to Scotland by their literature 
 and philosophy. I could not then value them on 
 just grounds ; but their reputation commanded the 
 respect even of the young 5 and ever since I became 
 acquainted with their merits, I have been glad that 
 I saw them, and can recollect their figures, and 
 such of their outward habits as a lad could observe. 
 
 Principal Robertson and his family were very 
 intimate with the family of my father. The Prin 
 cipal dined in our house very often, and lived for 
 the last two years of his life very near us, in the 
 house of Grange, where he died in 1793. Many a 
 happy summer day had his grandson John Eussell 
 and I in that house. The Doctor used to assist us 
 
48 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 in devising schemes to prevent the escape of our 
 rabbits ; and sometimes, but this was rarely, and 
 with strict injunctions to us to observe that mode 
 ration which Mrs. Robertson could never make him 
 self practise, he permitted us to have a pull at his 
 favourite cherry tree. He was a pleasant looking 
 old man ; with an eye of great vivacity and intel 
 ligence, a large projecting chin, a small hearing 
 trumpet fastened by a black ribbon to a button-hole 
 of his coat, and a rather large wig, powdered and 
 curled. He struck us boys, even from the side- 
 table, as being evidently fond of a good dinner , at 
 which he sat, with his chin near his plate, intent 
 upon the real business of the occasion. This 
 appearance however must have been produced 
 partly by his deafness ; because, when his eye told 
 him that there was something interesting, it was 
 delightful to observe the animation with which he 
 instantly applied his trumpet, when, having caught 
 the scent, he followed it up, and was the leader of 
 the pack. 
 
 Our neighbour on the east, was old Adam Fer 
 guson, the historian of Eome, and Stewart s prede 
 cessor in our moral chair a singular apparition. 
 In his younger years he was a handsome and reso 
 lute man. Being chaplain to the Black Watch, he 
 could not be induced even by the positive orders of 
 his commanding officer to remain in his proper place 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 49 
 
 in the rear during an action, but persisted in being- 
 engaged in front. Time and illness however had 
 been dealing with him, and, when I first knew him, 
 he was a spectacle well worth beholding. His hair 
 was silky and white ; his eyes animated and light 
 blue ; his cheeks sprinkled with broken red, like 
 autumnal apples, but fresh and healthy his lips 
 thin, and the under one curled. A severe paralytic 
 attack had reduced his animal vitality, though it 
 left no external appearance, and he required consi 
 derable artificial heat. His raiment, therefore, con 
 sisted of half boots lined with fur, cloth breeches, 
 a long cloth waistcoat with capacious pockets, a 
 single breasted coat, a cloth great-coat also lined 
 with fur, and a felt hat commonly tied by a ribbon 
 below the chin. His boots were black ; but with 
 this exception the whole coverings, including the 
 hat, were of a quaker grey colour, or of a whitish 
 brown ; and he generally wore the furred great-coat 
 even within doors. When he walked forth, he used 
 a tall staff, which he commonly held at arm s length 
 out towards the right side ; and his two coats, each 
 buttoned by only the upper button, flowed open 
 below, and exposed the whole of his curious and 
 venerable figure. His gait and air were noble ; his 
 gesture slow ; his look full of dignity and composed 
 fire. He looked like a philosopher from Lapland. 
 His palsy ought to have killed him in his fiftieth 
 
 K 
 
50 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 year; but rigid care enabled him to live uncrippled, 
 either in body or mind, nearly fifty years more. Wine 
 and animal food besought his appetite in vain ; but 
 huge messes of milk and vegetables disappeared 
 before him, always in the never failing cloth and 
 fur. I never heard of his dining out, except at his 
 relation Dr. Joseph Black s, where his son Sir Adam 
 (the friend of Scott) used to say it was delightful to 
 see the two philosophers rioting over a boiled turnip. 
 Domestically he was kind, but anxious and peppery. 
 His temperature was regulated by Fahrenheit ; and 
 often, when sitting quite comfortably, he would start 
 up and put his wife and daughters into commotion, 
 because his eye had fallen on the instrument, and 
 discovered that he was a degree too hot or too cold. 
 He always locked the door of his study when he left 
 it, and took the key in his pocket ; and no housemaid 
 got in till the accumulation of dust and rubbish 
 made it impossible to put the evil day off any longer 
 and then woe on the family. He shook hands with 
 us boys one day in summer 1793, on setting off, in 
 a strange sort of carriage, and with no companion 
 except his servant James, to visit Italy for a new 
 edition of his history. He was then about seventy- 
 two, and had to pass through a good deal of war 
 but returned in about a year, younger than ever. 
 
 Dr. Joseph Black had, at one time, a house near 
 us, to the west. He was a striking and beautiful 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 51 
 
 person ; tall, very thin, and cadaverously pale ; his 
 hair carefully powdered, though there was little of 
 it except what was collected into a long thin queue; 
 his eyes dark, clear, and large, like deep pools of 
 pure water. He wore black speckless clothes, silk 
 stockings, silver buckles, and either a slim green 
 silk umbrella, or a genteel brown cane. The general 
 frame and air were feeble and slender. The wildest 
 boy respected Black. No lad could be irreverent 
 towards a man so pale, so gentle, so elegant, and so 
 illustrious. So he glided, like a spirit, through our 
 rather mischievous sportiveness, unharmed. He 
 died seated, with a bowl of milk on his knee, of 
 which his ceasing to live did not spill a drop ; a 
 departure which it seemed, after the event happened, 
 might have been foretold of this attenuated philo 
 sophical gentleman. 
 
 I have known of some peaceful deaths not unlike 
 this ; but one that was even more than tranquil was 
 that of Dr. Henry the historian about 1790, 1 think. 
 I had the account of it from Sir Harry Moncreiff, 
 who I believe was his favourite younger friend. The 
 Doctor was living at a place of his own in his native 
 county of Stirling. He was about seventy-two, and 
 had been for sometime very feeble. He wrote to Sir 
 Harry that he was dying, and thus invited him for 
 the last time &quot; Come out here directly. I have 
 got something to do this week, I have got to die.&quot; 
 
52 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Sir Harry went; and found his friend plainly sinking, 
 but resigned and cheerful. He had no children, and 
 there was nobody with him except his wife. She 
 and Sir Harry remained alone with him for about 
 three days, being his last three ; during a great part 
 of which the reverend historian sat in his easy chair, 
 and conversed, and listened to reading, and dozed. 
 While engaged in this way, the hoofs of a horse 
 were heard clattering in the court below. Mrs. 
 Henry looked out and exclaimed that it was &quot; that 
 wearisome body,&quot; naming a neighbouring minister, 
 who was famous for never leaving a house after he 
 once got into it. u Keep him out,&quot; cried the Doctor, 
 a don t let the cratur in here.&quot; But before they 
 could secure his exclusion, the cratur s steps were 
 heard on the stair, and he was at the door. The 
 Doctor instantly winked significantly, and signed to 
 them to sit down and be quiet, and he would pretend 
 to be sleeping. The hint was taken ; and when the 
 intruder entered, he found the patient asleep in his 
 cushioned chair. Sir Harry and Mrs. Henry put 
 their fingers to their lips, and pointing to the sup 
 posed slumberer as one not to be disturbed, shook 
 their heads. The man sat down near the door, like 
 one inclined to wait till the nap should be over. 
 Once or twice he tried to speak but was instantly 
 repressed by another finger on the lip, and another 
 shake of the head. So he sat on, all in perfect 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 53 
 
 silence, for above a quarter of an hour ; during 
 which Sir Harry occasionally detected the dying 
 man peeping cautiously through the fringes of his 
 eyelids, to see how his visitor was coming on. At 
 last Sir Harry tired, and he and Mrs. Henry pointing 
 to the poor doctor, fairly waved the visitor out of 
 the room 5 on which the doctor opened his eyes 
 wide, and had a tolerably hearty laugh ; which was 
 renewed when the sound of the horse s feet made 
 them certain that their friend was actually off the 
 premises. Dr. Henry died that night. A pious and 
 learned man, with considerable merit in the execution, 
 and complete originality in the plan, of his history. 
 Dr. Thomas Macknight, the colleague of Dr. 
 Henry, and the Harmonist (as he supposed) of the 
 Four Gospels, lived in Nicolson Street, but crept 
 round the Meadows almost every day. I think I 
 see his large, square, bony visage, his enormous 
 white wig, girdled by many tiers of curls, his old 
 snuffy black clothes, his broad flat feet, and his 
 threadbare blue great-coat. His studies being very 
 nocturnal, his morning walk began about two in 
 the afternoon, and he rarely walked without read 
 ing. His elbows were stuck, immoveably, to his 
 haunches, on which they rested as on brackets, 
 and enabled his arms to form a desk for his book. 
 In this attitude he shuffled forward at the rate of 
 half an inch each step ; moving his rigid angular 
 
54 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 bulk straight forward, without giving place to any 
 person or thing, or being aware indeed that there 
 was anything in the world except himself and his 
 volume. He died in 1800. He was one of the 
 Moderate chiefs of his day, and boys stared at him 
 for his queerness. 
 
 But Dr. John Erskine ! How everybody rever 
 enced him ! Though able and well read, his repu 
 tation rested on the better basis of a fine spirit, 
 operating in all the walks in which liberal religion 
 and active benevolence can be engaged. He lived 
 at Lauriston, not far from us. No Edinburgh figure 
 was better known. If stretched out he might pro 
 bably have been of the average height ; but during 
 his latter years he stooped so much that he was 
 below it. He was one of the very few who in those 
 days were not deformed by hair-powder, and he was 
 distinguished by a neat, well kept, jet black wig, 
 and plain but nice raiment. His face was small, 
 pale, and active like ; his figure that of a thin ardent 
 creature. Stooping so low that it seemed as if he 
 was looking for something on the ground, and hirp- 
 ling along, with his hands in his sides, and his elbows 
 turned outwards, he resembled a piece of old china 
 with two handles. He was all soul, and no body. 
 Never was there such a spectre, or such a spirit. 
 There was nothing that this man would not do for 
 truth or a friend. His language (like that of his 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 55 
 
 colleague Principal Kobertson) was good honest 
 natural Scotch . We sat in his church ; where he 
 was so earnest, though with none of the Presbyterian 
 roar or violence, that when his gown encumbered 
 him, as it seemed often to do, he let it drop off, and 
 went on almost erect with animation. His friend 
 Henry Erskine had once some interest in a Fife 
 election, but whether as a candidate or not I can t 
 say, iri which the Doctor had a vote. Being too old 
 and feeble to bear the motion of a carriage or of a 
 boat, he was neither asked nor expected to attend ; 
 but loving Henry Erskine, and knowing that vic 
 tories depended on single votes, he determined to 
 walk the whole way round by Stirling Bridge, which 
 would have taken him at least a fortnight ; and he 
 was only prevented from doing so, after having 
 arranged all his stages, by the contest having been 
 unexpectedly given up. Similar sacrifices and exer 
 tions were familiar to the heroic and affectionate 
 old gentleman. He died in 1803. 
 
 The Eev. Dr. Carlyle, must have had some sub 
 stantial merit, for he was the associate of all the 
 eminent men of his time, and is respectfully men 
 tioned in most of their biographies. He was minister 
 of Inveresk, where, from my being much in the family 
 of the Hopes of Pinkie, I used often to visit him, 
 and was always as kindly received as a lad generally 
 is by the aged. Though known from his companions, 
 
56 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 he seems never to have done anything distinguished 
 of his own, even in the very humble way of speak 
 ing, on behalf of his friend Principal Bobertson s 
 policy, in the General Assembly. His hold over 
 his eminent comrades was derived from the charm 
 of his private manners, which were graceful and 
 kind. And he was one of the noblest looking old 
 gentlemen T almost ever beheld. 
 
 John Eobison,the Professor of Moral Philosophy, 
 whose memory has been so beautifully embalmed 
 in biography by Playfair, made himself remarkable, 
 like others of his class at that time, by humouring 
 his own taste in the matter of dress. A pig-tail so 
 long and so thin that it curled far down his back, 
 and a pair of huge blue worsted hose without soles, 
 and covering the limbs from the heel to the top of 
 the thigh, in which he both walked and lectured, 
 seemed rather to improve his wise elephantine head, 
 and majestic person. A little hypochondria, induced 
 by the frequent use of laudanum for the alleviation 
 of pain, heightened the interest with which we gazed 
 on a person who we knew combined such profound 
 philosophy with such varied active life. He died 
 in 1805. 
 
 Except Eobison, these men were all great peri 
 patetics, and the Meadows was their academic grove. 
 There has never in my time been any single place 
 in or near Edinburgh, which has so distinctly been 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 57 
 
 the resort at once of our philosophy and our fashion. 
 Under these poor trees walked, and talked, and 
 meditated, all our literary and scientific, and many 
 of our legal, worthies. I knew little then of the 
 grounds of their reputation, but saw their outsides 
 with unquestioning and traditionary reverence ; and 
 we knew enough of them to make us fear that no 
 such other race of men, so tried by time, such friends 
 of each other and of learning, and all of such amiable 
 manners and such spotless characters, could be ex 
 pected soon to arise, and again ennoble Scotland. 
 Though living in all the succeeding splendours, it 
 has been a constant gratification to me to remember 
 that I saw the last remains of a school so illustrious 
 and so national, and that I was privileged to obtain a 
 glimpse of the &quot; skirts of glory&quot; of the first, or at least 
 of the second, great philosophical age of Scotland. 
 There was a singular race of excellent Scotch 
 old ladies. They were a delightful set; strong 
 
 * Some curious anecdotes of these men will be found in an 
 article in the seventy-first number of the Quarterly Keview, by 
 Scott, on the works of John Home. Some of the stories are 
 trifling, but on the whole Sir Walter s account is tolerably correct. 
 There is one complimentary blunder however. He talks of the 
 strong subjection of Ferguson s &quot;passions and feelings to the do 
 minion of his reason.&quot; The statement would be nearer the truth 
 if it were inverted. For though a most kind and excellent man, 
 lie was as fiery as gunpowder. Kamtschatka was hard by our 
 house. 
 
58 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 headed, warm hearted, and high spirited ; the fire 
 of their tempers not always latent ; merry, even in 
 solitude ; very resolute ; indifferent about the modes 
 and habits of the modern world ; and adhering to 
 their own ways, so as to stand out, like primitive 
 rocks, above ordinary society. Their prominent 
 qualities of sense, humour, affection, and spirit, were 
 embodied in curious outsides ; for they all dressed, 
 and spoke, and did, exactly as they chose; their 
 language, like their habits, entirely Scotch, but 
 without any other vulgarity than what perfect 
 naturalness is sometimes mistaken for. 
 
 There sits a clergyman s widow, the mother of 
 the first Sir David Dundas, the introducer of our 
 German system of military manoeuvres, and at one 
 time commander-in-chief of the British army. We 
 used to go to her house in Bunker s Hill, when 
 boys, on Sundays between the morning and after 
 noon sermons, where we were cherished with Scotch 
 broth, and cakes, and many a joke from the old 
 lady. Age had made her incapable of walking even 
 across the room ; so, clad in a plain black silk gown, 
 and a pure muslin cap, she sat half encircled by a 
 high backed black leather chair, reading; with 
 silver spectacles stuck on her thin nose ; and inter 
 spersing her studies, and her days, with much 
 
 * See Traditions of Edinburgh, by Kobert Chambers, vol. i. 
 p. 69. ED. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 59 
 
 laughter, and not a little sarcasm. What a spirit ! 
 There was more fun and sense round that chair 
 than in the theatre or the church. I remember 
 one of her grand-daughters stumbling, in the course 
 of reading the newspapers to her, on a paragraph 
 which stated that a lady s reputation had suffered 
 from some indiscreet talk on the part of the Prince 
 of Wales. Up she of fourscore sat, and said with 
 an indignant shake of her shrivelled fist and a 
 keen voice a the dawmed villain ! does he kiss and 
 tell!&quot; 
 
 And there is Lady Arniston, the mother of Henry 
 Dundas, the first Lord Melville, so kind to us mis 
 chievous boys on the Saturdays. She was generally 
 to be found in the same chair, on the same spot ; 
 her thick black hair combed all tightly up into a 
 cone on the top of her head ; the remains of consi 
 derable beauty in her countenance ; great and just 
 pride in her son ; a good representative in her 
 general air and bearing of what the noble English 
 ladies must have been in their youth, who were 
 queens in their family castles, and stood sieges in 
 defence of them. She was in her son s house in 
 George Square, when it was attacked by the mob 
 in 1793 or 1794, and though no windows could 
 be smashed at that time by the populace, without 
 the inmates thinking of the bloody streets of Paris, 
 she was perfectly firm, most contemptuous of the 
 
60 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 assailants, and with a heroic confidence in her son s 
 doing his duty. She once wished us to go some 
 where for her on an evening ; and on one of us 
 objecting that if we did, our lessons for next day- 
 could not be got ready &quot; Hoot man!&quot; said she, 
 u what o that ! as they used to say in my day its 
 only het hips and aw a again.&quot; 
 
 And Sophia or, as she was always called, 
 Suphy Johnston, of the Hilton family. There was 
 an original ! Her father, from some whim, resolved 
 to see how it would turn out, and gave her no educa 
 tion whatever. Possessed of great natural vigour of 
 mind, she passed her youth in utter rusticity ; in the 
 course of which however she made herself a good 
 carpenter and a good smith arts which she prac 
 tised occasionally, even to the shoeing of a horse, 
 I believe, till after the middle of her life. It 
 was not till after she became a woman that she 
 taught herself to read and write ; and then she 
 read incessantly. She must have been about 60 
 before I ever saw her, which was chiefly, and often, 
 at Niddrie. Her dress was always the same a 
 man s hat when out of doors, and generally when 
 within them, a cloth covering exactly like a man s 
 great-coat, buttoned closely from the chin to the 
 ground, worsted stockings, strong shoes with large 
 brass clasps. And in this raiment she sat in any 
 drawing-room, and at any table, amidst all the 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. Gl 
 
 fashion and aristocracy of the land, respected and 
 liked. For her dispositions were excellent; her 
 talk intelligent and racy, rich both in old anecdote, 
 and in shrewd modern observation, and spice$ with 
 a good deal of plain sarcasm ; her understanding 
 powerful; all her opinions free, and very freely 
 expressed ; and neither loneliness, nor very slender 
 means, ever brought sourness or melancholy to her 
 face or her heart. 
 
 Sitting, with her back to the light, in the usual 
 arm chair by the side of the fire, in the Niddrie 
 drawing-room, with her great-coat and her hat, her 
 dark wrinkled face, and firmly pursed mouth, the 
 two feet set flat on the floor and close together, so 
 that the public had a full view of the substantial 
 shoes, the book held by the two hands very near 
 the eyes, if the quick ear overheard any presump 
 tuous folly, be it from solemn gentleman or fine 
 lady, down went the volume, up the spectacles 
 u that s surely great nonsense, Sir,&quot; though she had 
 never seen him before ; then, a little Quart and 
 Tierce would begin, and the wight must have been 
 very lucky if it did not end by his being smote. 
 
 Her own proper den was in a flat on the ground 
 floor of a house in Windmill Street, where her sole 
 companion was a single female servant. When the 
 servant went out, which she generally took the 
 liberty of doing for the whole of Sunday, Suphy s 
 
62 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 orders were that she should lock the door, and take 
 the key with her. This saved Suphy the torment of 
 always rising ; for people went away when they found 
 the h&amp;lt;}use, as they thought, shut up. But she had 
 a hole through which she saw them perfectly well ; 
 and, if she was inclined, she conversed through this 
 orifice ; and when tired of them told them to go away. 
 
 Though enjoying life, neither she nor any of 
 those stout-hearted women had any horror of death. 
 When Suphy s day was visibly approaching, Dr. 
 Gregory prescribed abstinence from animal food, 
 and recommended u spoon meat,&quot; unless she wished 
 to die. &quot; Dee, Doctor ! odd I m thinking they Ve 
 forgotten an auld wife like me up yonder!&quot; How 
 ever when he came back next day, the Doctor found 
 her at the spoon meat supping a haggis. She was 
 r em em b ered , 
 
 The contrasts to these were Lady Don, and Mrs. 
 
 * Several years after this attempt to describe Supliy Johnstone, 
 another portrait by a far finer hand appeared. It is drawn by 
 Lady Anne Barnard, one of the Balcarras family, and is to be found 
 in Lord Lindsay s Lives of the Lindsays. Our two pictures agree 
 substantially, though I have a higher opinion of Suphy than her 
 relative, who must have known her best, seems to have had. When 
 I knew her, which was only in advanced life and when she was 
 probably shrunk, she was not at all &quot; Amazonian.&quot; Lady Anne s 
 saying that she &quot; sung a man s song, in a bass voice, and was by 
 many people suspected of being one,&quot; and that &quot; she was a droll 
 ingenious fellow,&quot; is all very graphic. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 63 
 
 Kochead of Inverleith ; two dames of high aristo 
 cratic breed. They had both shone, first as hooped 
 beauties in the minuets, and then as ladies of cere 
 monies, at our stately assemblies ; and each carried 
 her peculiar qualities and air to the very edge of the 
 grave ; Lady Don s dignity softened by gentle sweet 
 ness, Mrs. Rochead s made more formidable by 
 cold and rather severe solemnity. 
 
 Except Mrs. Siddons in some of her displays of 
 magnificent royalty, nobody could sit down like the 
 lady of Inverleith. She would sail, like a ship from 
 Tarshish, gorgeous in velvet or rustling in silk, and 
 done up in all the accompaniments of fan, ear rings 
 and finger rings, falling sleeves, scent bottle, embroi 
 dered bag, hoop and train all superb, yet all in 
 purest taste ; and managing all this seemingly heavy 
 rigging, with as much ease as a full blown swan does 
 its plumage, she would take possession of the centre 
 of a large sofa, and at the same moment, without 
 the slightest visible exertion, would cover the whole 
 of it with her bravery, the graceful folds seeming to 
 lay themselves over it like summer waves. The 
 descent from her carriage too, where she sat like a 
 nautilus in its shell, was a display which no one in 
 these days could accomplish or even fancy. The 
 mulberry coloured coach, spacious but apparently 
 not too large for what it carried though she alone 
 was in it ; the handsome jolly coachman and his 
 
64 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 splendid hammerclotli loaded with lace; the two 
 respectful liveried footmen, one on each side of the 
 richly carpeted step; these were lost sight of amidst 
 the slow majesty with which the lady came down, and 
 touched the earth. She presided, in this Imperial 
 style, over her son s excellent dinners, with great 
 sense and spirit, to the very last day almost of a 
 prolonged life. 
 
 Lady Don (who lived in George Square) was still 
 more highly bred, as was attested by her polite 
 cheerfulness and easy elegance. The venerable 
 faded beauty, the white well-coiled hair, the soft 
 hand sparkling with old brilliant rings, the kind 
 heart, the affectionate manner, the honest gentle 
 voice, and the mild eye, account for the love with 
 which her old age was surrounded. She was about 
 the last person (so far as I recollect) in Edinburgh 
 who kept a private sedan chair. Hers stood in the 
 lobby, and was as handsome and comfortable as silk, 
 velvet, and gilding could make it. And, when she 
 wished to use it, two well known respectable chair 
 men, enveloped in her livery cloaks, were the envy 
 of their brethren. She and Mrs. Rochead both sat 
 in the Tron Church ; and well do I remember how 
 I used to form one of the cluster that always took 
 its station to see these beautiful relics emerge from 
 the coach and the chair. 
 
 Lady Hunter Blair too ! and Mrs. Murray of 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 65 
 
 Henderland ! Unlike, but both admirable. Lady 
 Blair s elegance and sprightliness would have graced 
 and enlivened the best society ; but her tastes and 
 virtues were entirely domestic, and made her the 
 most delightful of household deities. Mild, affec 
 tionate, and cheerful, she attracted the love of all 
 ages, and closed her many days without once know 
 ing from personal consciousness what selfishness or 
 want of charity meant. 
 
 Mrs. Murray was stately, even to stiffness ; but 
 friendly and high minded; calm and ladylike in 
 her dignity. The ceremonious formality of her air 
 and demeanour was made graceful and appropriate 
 by a once beautiful countenance still entire in its 
 best features, but attenuated into such a death-like 
 paleness, that but for the unquenched light of a 
 singularly radiant eye, she would have been a human 
 statue. 
 
 Miss Menie Trotter, of the Mortonhall family, 
 was of a later date. She was of the agrestic order. 
 Her pleasures lay in the fields and long country 
 walks. Ten miles at a stretch, within a few years 
 of her death, was nothing to her. Her attire ac 
 corded. But her understanding was fully as mas_ 
 culine. Though slenderly endowed, she did, un 
 noticed, acts of liberality for which most of the rich 
 would expect to be advertised. Prevailing loneliness 
 gave her some entertaining habits, but never im- 
 
66 MEMORIALS OF TITS TIME 
 
 paired her enjoyment of her friends, for whom she 
 had always diverting talk, and occasionally u a bit 
 denner.&quot; Indeed she generally sacrificed an ox to 
 hospitality every autumn, which, according to a 
 system of her own, she ate regularly from nose to 
 tail ; and as she indulged in him only on Sundays, 
 and with a chosen few, he feasted her half through 
 the winter. This was at Blackford Cottage, a 
 melancholy villa on the north side of Blackford 
 Hill, where the last half, at the least, of her life was 
 passed. I remember her urging her neighbour Sir 
 Thomas Lauder, not long before her death, to dine 
 with her next Sunday u For Eh ! Sir Thammas ! 
 we re terrible near the tail noo.&quot; She told me that 
 her oldest friends were the Inneses of Stow and the 
 Scotts of Malleny families she had known for above 
 eighty -five years. They and the Mortonhall family 
 had each a mansion house in town ; two of them being 
 the two corner houses at the lower end of a close 
 leading from the High Street down to the Cowgate, 
 and the third one of the corner houses opposite, at 
 the lower end of the close leading from the Cowgate 
 southwards , each of the three houses looking into 
 both the Cowgate and the close. The Cow^gate has 
 now lost half its character by getting a large sewer 
 under ground ; but before this innovation &quot; the 
 Coogate Strand,&quot; as it was called, when in flood 
 was a great torrent, not filling the cellars merely, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 67 
 
 but almost the whole canal of the street. I re 
 member a station on its banks, near Holyrood, 
 where there was a regular net fishery, to catch 
 what the stream brought down, particularly corks. 
 Miss Trotter described the delight of the children 
 of these families in wading in that gutter when it 
 was safe. 
 
 On one of her friends asking her, not long before 
 her death, how she was, she said u Very weel 
 quite weel. But Eh, I had a dismal dream last 
 night! a fearfu dream!&quot; u Aye! I m sorry for 
 that what was it?&quot; &quot; Ou ! what d ye think ! Of 
 a places i the world, I dreamed I was in heeven ! 
 And what d ye think I saw there? Deil ha et but 
 thoosands upon thoosands, and ten thoosands upon 
 ten thoosands, o stark naked weans ! That wad be 
 a dreadfu thing ! for ye ken I ne er could bide 
 bairns a my days !&quot; 
 
 It is remarkable that though all these female 
 Nestors were not merely decorous in matters of 
 religion, but really pious, they would all have been 
 deemed irreligious now. Gay hearted, and utterly 
 devoid of every tincture of fanaticism, the very 
 freedom and cheerfulness of their conversation and 
 views 011 sacred subjects would have excited the 
 horror of those who give the tone on these matters 
 at present. So various are the opinions of what 
 constitutes religiousness. 
 
08 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 There were some curious tests of loyalty in those 
 days. 
 
 One was dress. The dignified rigidity of the 
 old fashion was obstinately adhered to by one set of 
 people, and was of course outraged by the disdain 
 of others, who were profane in the matter of shorts, 
 silks, and buckles. Old Niddrie would hardly admit 
 any one who came to his hospitable house in trowsers 
 or gaiters, which he described as Jacobinical. This 
 feeling lingered in some tastes so long, that after the 
 year 1820 I have heard old loyalists thanking God 
 that they had always stuck to the Constitution and 
 to buckles. In nothing was the monarchical prin 
 ciple more openly displayed, or insulted, than in 
 the adherence to, or contempt of, hair powder. The 
 reason of this was, that this powder, and the con 
 sequent enlargement and complexity of the hair on 
 which it was displayed, were not merely the long 
 established badges of aristocracy, but that short 
 and undressed crops had been adopted in France. 
 Our loyal therefore, though beginning to tire of the 
 greasy and dusty dirt, laid it on with profuse patriot 
 ism, while the discontented exhibited themselves 
 ostentatiously in all the Jacobinism of clean natural 
 locks. 
 
 Another was keeping the King s birth-day. This 
 day was the 4th of June, which for the GO years that 
 the reign of George the III. lasted gave an annual 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 69 
 
 holiday to the British people, and was so associated 
 in their habits with the idea of its being a free day, 
 that they thought they had a right to it even after 
 his Majesty was dead. And the established way of 
 keeping it in Edinburgh was, by the lower orders 
 and the boys having a long day of idleness and fire 
 works, and by the upper classes going to the Parlia 
 ment House, and drinking the royal health in the 
 evening, at the expense of the city funds. The 
 magistrates who conducted the banquet, which began 
 about seven, invited about 1500 people. Tables, 
 but no seats except one at each end, were set 
 along the Outer House. These tables, and the doors 
 and walls, were adorned by flowers and branches, 
 the trampling and bruising of which increased the 
 general filth. There was no silence, no order, 
 no decency. The loyal toasts were let off, in all 
 quarters, according to the pleasure of the Town 
 Councillor who presided over the section, with 
 out any orations by the Provost, who, seated in his 
 robes, on a high chair, was supposed to control 
 the chaos. Eespectable people, considering it all as 
 an odious penance, and going merely in order to 
 shew that they were not Jacobins, came away after 
 having pretended to drink one necessary cup to the 
 health of the reigning monarch. But all sorts who 
 were worthy of the occasion and enjoyed it, perse 
 vered to a late hour, roaring, drinking, toasting, and 
 
70 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 quarrelling. They made the Court stink for a week 
 with the wreck and the fumes of that hot and scan 
 dalous night. It was not unusual at old Scotch 
 feasts for the guests, after drinking a toast, to toss 
 their glasses over their heads, in order that they 
 might never be debased by any other sentiment. 
 The very loyal on this occasion availed themselves 
 of this privilege freely, so that fragments of glass 
 crunched beneath the feet of the walkers. The 
 infernal din was aggravated by volleys of musketry, 
 fired very awkwardly by the Town Guard, amidst 
 the shouts of the mob, in the Parliament Close. The 
 rabble, smitten by the enthusiasm of the day, were 
 accustomed, and permitted, to think license their 
 right, and exercised their brutality without stint. 
 Those who were aware of what might take place 
 on the street, retired from the banquet before the 
 spirit of mischief was fully up. Those who came 
 out so late as ten or even nine of the evening, 
 if observed and unprotected, were fortunate if they 
 escaped rough usage, especially if they escaped 
 being &quot; Burghered&quot; or made to &quot;Ride the Stang,&quot; 
 a painful and dangerous operation, and there 
 fore a great favourite with the mob. I forget when 
 this abominable festival was given up. Not, I 
 believe, till the poverty, rather than the will, of the 
 Town Council was obliged to consent. In 1798 
 these civic fathers passed a self-denying ordinance, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 71 
 
 by which they resolved to ruin France by abstaining 
 from claret at this and all other municipal festivals. 
 The vow however was not kept ; and so the French 
 were not ruined. 
 
 Another patriotic criterion, which however was 
 necessarily limited, consisted in joining what was 
 called the Gentlemen Volunteers, the only voluntary 
 regiment that we then had. Such establishments 
 became universal afterwards, and, as there was then 
 real danger, were put on a military footing. But 
 the original long blue-coated regiment was a merely 
 political association, which persons willing to attest 
 their principles and to pay for a uniform were ex 
 pected to join. It was a respectable, though rather 
 pretending, body ; composed of comfortable privates, 
 and middle aged officers, selected on the ground of 
 their station in the world, and the intensity of their 
 public intolerance. They were an assiduous and 
 well fed corps, and made a grand figure parading 
 in Brunt sfield Links or Heriot s Green ; but a 
 march to Haddington would have dissolved it. 
 Charles Hope, who afterwards became their Lieu 
 tenant-Colonel, was almost the only ardent spirit 
 among them. This first appearance of private 
 citizens in uniforms and arms was portentous to us, 
 who had never been accustomed to any militia. The 
 whole kingdom was soon afterwards a camp. 
 
 In the years 1795 and 1796 there was a greater 
 
72 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 dearth than has ever since visited the British Islands. 
 On the 4th of March 1795 about eleven thousand 
 persons, being probably about an eighth of the popu 
 lation, were fed by charity in Edinburgh. I have 
 never forgotten that famine, perhaps because it was 
 the first I had seen. A public proclamation specified 
 the exact quantity of bread which each family ought 
 to consume, being a loaf, if I recollect rightly, for 
 each individual weekly. An odd proceeding ; but 
 it gave a measure, and a ground for economy, which 
 were useful. Then was the triumph, and the first 
 introduction, of public kitchens, Count Eumfords, and 
 cooking committees. Chemistry strained itself to 
 extract nutriment from everything. One ingenious 
 sacrifice in wealthy houses was to produce an ap 
 pearance of wheat at table without the reality. So 
 dishes were invented which in shape and colour 
 resembled the forbidden articles, and the knife often 
 struck on what seemed good pie crust, but was only 
 clay. Jacobins had a great advantage in having 
 their heads set up already on an economical system. 
 Some paltry Tories took this opportunity of saving 
 the powder tax only cautiously announcing that 
 this was done on no revolutionary principle, but 
 solely in order that the stomach might get what 
 would be wasted on the hair. This assimilation 
 to disloyalty however was thought dangerous ; and 
 therefore the correct course was still to whiten the 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 73 
 
 head, but to make the powder of chalk or any other 
 substance not usually eaten. 
 
 The state of people s knowledge of political 
 economy at this period may be judged of from the 
 fact, that punishing what were held to be the crimes 
 of Forestalling and Regrating was deemed one of the 
 cures of this long-continued dearth ; and this with 
 the entire approbation of the public. The same idea 
 prevailed in England. The extent indeed to which 
 the freedom of trade was interfered with, by even 
 petty authority, is scarcely credible now. Whenever 
 prices rose higher than purchasers liked, there was 
 a cry for legal interference 5 and this cry was very 
 often successful. The price of bread was directly 
 and habitually regulated within burgh, and indirectly 
 beyond it, by the magistrates, who for many years 
 after this issued periodical proclamations u setting 
 the assize of bread.&quot; The charge for post horses was 
 regulated in the same way. No letter of horses could 
 demand more from the hirer than what Town Coun 
 cils or Justices of the Peace prescribed. All this, I 
 believe, was agreeable to law ; for the Court of Ses 
 sion sustained it, and sometimes even acted directly 
 as a regulator of prices. But the wonder is how 
 such a system could be enforced, for at least thirty 
 years after the publication of the Wealth of Nations. 
 
 In November 1799 T entered the Speculative 
 Society ; an institution which has trained more 
 
74 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 young men to public speaking, talent, and liberal 
 thought, than all the other private institutions in 
 Scotland. The society had never been in such glory 
 as during the immediately preceding years. I for 
 get the exact origin of the disputes that had con 
 vulsed it ; but they all grew out of the proceedings 
 connected with the expulsion of Mr. Emmet t then 
 implicated in the Irish rebellion, and afterwards 
 leading counsel at New York an able and excellent 
 man, and with a proposal for dissolving some 
 literary connection which had long subsisted be 
 tween the Speculative and a similar society in 
 Dublin. This (as was secretly intended) introduced 
 the whole politics of the day. The agitation brought 
 back the old members ; who, headed by Charles 
 Hope and David Hume, of course tried to bear down 
 the younger, who, led by Brougham, Jeffrey, Horner, 
 Lord Henry Petty, and Lord Kinnaird, were as 
 defying in their Whiggism as their opponents in 
 their Toryism. This contest produced animated 
 debates and proceedings, which did not occupy the 
 society alone, but the whole College, and indeed all 
 Edinburgh, for nearly an entire session. Hume 
 being supposed to have applied some offensive im 
 putation to the junior party, it was arranged (by 
 lot, I believe) that Jeffrey should require an expla 
 nation. This was given ; but still they were bound 
 over to keep the peace. At last the seniors were 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 75 
 
 defeated ; and some of them made the victory clearer 
 by resigning. 
 
 No better arena could possibly have been pro 
 vided for the exercise of the remarkable young men 
 it excited. In a few years after this Petty was 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. He had left the 
 society before I joined it; but Kinnaird, an able 
 man and an excellent speaker, continued to attend 
 occasionally ; and Brougham, Horner, Jeffrey, James 
 Moncreiff, and other powerful persons, attended 
 regularly, and took an active part in the business, 
 throughout all the three years during which I was 
 an ordinary member. The only defect was, that the 
 recent discussions turned away many of the good Tory 
 youths, and that the usual audience was not large 
 enough for such speakers. However, there were 
 some of them on whom this had little effect. 
 Brougham in particular, whose constitutional keen 
 ness made him scent the future quarry, gave his 
 whole soul to this preparatory scene, and often 
 astonished us by the vigour with which, even to 
 half a dozen of lads, he could abandon himself to 
 his subject, and blaze as if he had been declaiming 
 against Cicero in the forum. Moncreiff has im 
 proved very greatly since then ; but Jeffrey, Horner, 
 and Brougham were as good writers and speakers 
 then as they have ever been since ; and each in the 
 very same style he afterwards retained. Of all those 
 
70 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 who attempted to speak, I was then decidedly the 
 worst and the most unpromising; worse perhaps 
 than even Charles and Robert Grant, both of whom 
 have since risen to high station in Parliament and in 
 public life. In so far as I was personally concerned, 
 however, the Speculative completed what the Aca 
 demical had begun ; and together they did me more 
 good than all the rest of my education. And I must 
 attest that their moral benefits were fully more im 
 portant than their intellectual. They inspired a 
 high tone of virtue. 
 
 An exposition of things not merely true, but 
 proveable, and yet incredible, would be a very 
 curious work. And few countries could supply 
 better materials for it than Scotland, where modern 
 changes have been so numerous and so striking. 
 
 For example, there are few people who now 
 know that so recently as 1799 there were slaves 
 in this country. Twenty -five years before, that is, 
 in 1775, there must have been thousands of them ; 
 for this was then the condition of all our colliers 
 and salters. They were literally slaves. They 
 could not be killed nor directly tortured ; but they 
 belonged, like the serfs of an older time, to their 
 respective works, with which they were sold as a 
 part of the gearing. With a few very rigid excep 
 tions, the condition of the head of the family was 
 the condition of the whole house. For though a 
 
HY HENRY COCKBURN. 77 
 
 child, if never entered with the work, was free, yet 
 entering was its natural and almost certain destina 
 tion ; for its doing so was valuable to its father, and 
 its getting into any other employment in the neigh 
 bourhood was resisted by the owner. So that 
 wives, daughters, and sons went on from genera 
 tion to generation under the system which was the 
 family doom. Of course it was the interest of a 
 wise master to use them well, as it was to use his 
 other cattle well. But, as usual, the human animal 
 had the worst of it. It had rights, and could pro 
 voke by alluding to them. It could alarm and 
 mutiny. It could not be slain, but it had no pro 
 tection against fits of tyranny or anger. We do 
 not now know much of their exact personal or 
 domestic condition. But we know what their work 
 makes them, even when they are free, and within 
 the jealous benevolence of a softer age. We know 
 that they formed a separate and avoided tribe, as 
 to a great extent they still do, with a language and 
 habits of their own. And we know what slavery 
 even in its best form is, and does. The complete 
 ness of their degradation is disclosed by one public 
 fact. The statute passed in 1701, which has been 
 extolled as the Scotch Habeas Corpus Act, proceeds 
 on the preamble that u Our Sovereign Lord con 
 sidering it is the interest of all his good subjects 
 that the liberty of their persons be duly secured/ 
 
78 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Yet, while introducing regulations against &quot; wrong- 
 ous imprisonment, and undue delays in trials,&quot; the 
 statute contains these words &quot; And sicklike it is 
 hereby provided and declared that this present act 
 is noways to be extended to colliers or salters.&quot; 
 That is, being slaves, they had no personal liberty 
 to protect. 
 
 These facts enable us to understand the heredi 
 tary blackguardism, which formed the secondary 
 nature of these fixed underground gypsies, and the 
 mysterious horror with which they were regarded, 
 and which, in a certain degree, attaches to all sub 
 terranean labourers. 
 
 The first link of their chain was broken in 1775, 
 by the 15th act of George Third, chap. 28. It sets 
 out on the preamble that &quot; many colliers and 
 salters are in a state of slavery and bondage&quot; It 
 emancipates future ones entirely, that is, those who 
 after the 1st of July 1775 shall begin to work as 
 colliers and salters/ But the existing ones were 
 only liberated gradually; those under 21 in 7 
 years; those between 21 and 35 in 10 years. The 
 liberation of the father was declared to liberate his 
 family. And the freed were put under the act 1701. 
 But this measure, though effective in checking new- 
 slavery, was made very nearly useless in its appli 
 cation to the existing slaves by one of its condi 
 tions. Instead of becoming free by mere lapse of 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 79 
 
 time, no slave obtained his liberty unless he insti 
 tuted a legal proceeding in the Sheriff Court, and 
 incurred all the cost, delay, and trouble of a law 
 suit 5 his capacity to do which was extinguished by 
 the invariable system of masters always having 
 their workmen in their debt. The result was that, 
 in general, the existing slave was only liberated by 
 death. 
 
 But this last link was broken in June 1799, by 
 the 39th George Third, chap. 56, which enacted that 
 from and after its date u all the colliers in Scot 
 land who were bound colliers at the passing of the 
 15th George Third, chap. 28, shall be free from their 
 servitude&quot; This annihilated the relic. 
 
 These two statutes seem to have been neither 
 the effect nor the cause of any public excitement. 
 I do not see either of them even mentioned in the 
 Scots Magazine. People cared nothing about col 
 liers on their own account, and the taste for im 
 proving the lower orders had not then begun to 
 dawn. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 IN December 1800 I entered the Faculty of Advo 
 cates ; and, with a feeling of nothingness, paced the 
 Outer House. 
 
 Being now of an age, and in a position, to observe 
 things intelligently, I can speak of Edinburgh, and 
 through it of Scotland, then and since, with the 
 knowledge of a witness, and indeed of an actor in 
 most of its. occurrences. It is necessary, towards a 
 right perception of the progress qf the place, that 
 its general condition at this period should be under 
 stood. 
 
 Everything rung, and was connected, with the 
 
 \ Revolution in France ; which, for above 20 years, 
 
 was, or was made, the all in all. Everything, not 
 
 this or that thing, but literally everything, was 
 
 soaked in this one event. 
 
 Yet we had wonderfully few proper Jacobins ; 
 that is, persons who seriously wished to introduce 
 a republic into this country, on the French pre- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 81 
 
 cedent. There were plenty of people who were 
 called Jacobins ; because this soon became the com 
 mon nickname which was given, not only to those 
 who had admired the dawn of the French liberation, 
 but to those who were known to have any taste for 
 any internal reform of our own. There was a short 
 period, chiefly in 1793 and 1794, during which this 
 imputation was provoked by a ridiculous aping of 
 French forms and phraseology, and an offensive 
 vaunting of the superior excellence of everything in 
 that country. But the folly, which only appeared 
 in a few towns, was very soon over, cured by 
 time, by the failure of the French experiment, and 
 by the essential absurdity of the thing itself; and 
 it had never been patronised by a single person of 
 sense and public character or influence. Firm, but 
 mild and judicious, treatment, and a little reliance 
 on the tendency of time to abate epidemic follies, 
 would have made the British Constitution popular, 
 and the proceedings in France odious, everywhere. 
 Scotch Jacobinism did not exist. 
 
 But Scotch Toryism did, and with a vengeance. 
 This thing, however, must not be considered as 
 exactly the same with pure Toryism in England. It 
 seldom implies anything with us except a dislike of 
 popular institutions ; and even this chiefly on grounds 
 of personal advantage. A pure historical and consti 
 tutional Tory is a very rare character in this country. 
 
 G 
 
82 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 This party engrossed almost the whole wealth, 
 and rank, and public office, of the country, and at 
 least three-fourths of the population. They could 
 have afforded, therefore, to be just and well tempered. 
 But this, as it appeared to them, would have en 
 dangered their supremacy, which they were aware 
 was upheld by their opponents being believed to 
 entertain alarming principles and ends. (Jlence 
 the great Tory object was, to abuse everybody 
 but themselves, and in particular to ascribe a thirst 
 for bloodshed and anarchy, not merely to their 
 avowed public opponents, but to the whole body of 
 the people./ It is frightful even to recollect the 
 ferocious bitterness and systematic zeal with which 
 this principle was acted upon ; and this under the 
 direct sanction of government. No one ever heard 
 of a check being given, even by a hint, from head 
 quarters, with a view to arrest intolerance or to 
 encourage charity. Jacobinism was a term denoting 
 everything alarming and hateful, and every political 
 objector was a Jacobin. No innovation, whether 
 practical or speculative, consequently no political or 
 economical reformer, and no religious dissenter, 
 from the Irish Papist to our own native Protestant 
 Seceder, could escape from this fatal word. This 
 misrepresentation, and the natural tendency of the 
 traduced to provoke and frighten by rather extenu 
 ating some of the French proceedings, might make 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 83 
 
 the reader of an account of those days suppose that 
 the revolutionary infection had spread far enough 
 and deep enough to justify the proscription it met 
 with. But, unquestionably, this was not the fact. 
 The chief object at which our discontented aimed 
 was parliamentary reform. But this and other home 
 bred ends were hid by a cloud of foreign follies, 
 which the Tories exhibited as demonstrations that 
 the correction of domestic abuses was a pretence, 
 and Jacobinism the truth. On this foundation they 
 represented the whole lower orders as hostile to our 
 institutions ; from which the desired and comfortable 
 inference was, that there was no salvation for the 
 country except in the predominance of their own 
 party. 
 
 The real Whigs were extremely few. Self inter 
 est had converted some, and terror more ; and the 
 residue, which stood out, consisted of only the 
 stronger-minded men of the party. The adherence 
 of these men to rational opinions was attended with 
 very considerable personal risk in Scotland, where 
 the result of a political prosecution did not admit of 
 the very slightest doubt. They were treated as the 
 causes and the shields of the popular delusions ; and 
 belonging mostly to the bar, they were constantly 
 and insolently reminded that the case of their brother 
 Thomas Muir, transported for sedition, was intended 
 for their special edification. But though the condi- 
 
84 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 tion of Parliament made their carrying any practical 
 measure impossible, their constancy to their principles 
 kept their friends from despair ; and this was the 
 chief good that they did, or could have done. Though 
 on the whole very united, yet, during the hottest fit 
 of the revolutionary fever, the moderate were dis 
 turbed by the intemperance of the wild ; two classes 
 into which all parties are apt to arrange themselves, 
 but which were particularly repulsive to each other 
 
 this crisis, when the slightest wildness was alarm- 
 ing\to the moderate, and all moderation contemptible 
 to thewild. 
 
 The principal leaders of the true Whig party 
 were Henry Erskine, who had recently been Lord 
 Advocate; Adam Gillies, John Clerk, and David 
 Cathcart, all afterwards Judges ; Archibald Flet 
 cher, Malcolm Laing, James Grahame, and John 
 Macfarlane, advocates ; and James Gibson, Writer 
 to the Signet. Some brighter names, especially that 
 of Jeffrey, had not yet come into action and there 
 were a few stout-hearted brethren, who, though too 
 obscure to be now named, formed a rear rank on 
 whom those in advance could always rely. The 
 profession of these men armed them with better 
 qualities than any other avocation could supply in 
 a country without a Parliament with talent, the 
 practice of speaking, political knowledge, and public 
 * Afterwards Sir James Gibson-Craig of Riccarton. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN, 85 
 
 position; but their personal boldness and purity 
 marked them out still more conspicuously for po 
 pular trust. It was among them accordingly that 
 independence found its only asylum. It had a few 
 silent though devoted worshippers elsewhere, but 
 the Whig counsel were its only open champions. 
 The Church can boast of Sir Harry Moncreiff alone 
 as its contribution to the cause ; but he was too 
 faithful to his sacred functions to act as a political 
 partisan. John Allen and John Thomson, of the 
 medical profession, were active and fearless. And 
 the College gave Dugald Stewart, John Playfair, 
 and Andrew Dalzel. Of these three, mathematics, 
 which was his chair, enabled Playfair to come better 
 off than his two colleagues ; for Dalzel had to speak 
 of Grecian liberty, and Stewart to explain the uses 
 of liberty in general ; and anxiously were they both 
 watched. Stewart, in particular, though too spot 
 less and too retired to be openly denounced, was an 
 object of great secret alarm. Not only virtuous, but 
 eloquent in recommending virtue to the young, he 
 united Nero s objections both to Virginius the 
 rhetorician, and Eufus Musonius the philosopher 
 u Virginium Flavum et Musonium Eufum clari- 
 tudo nominis expulit. Nam Virginius studia juve- 
 num eloquentia, Musonius preeceptis sapientige, fove- 
 bat.&quot; (Tacitus An. Lib. 15, cap. 71). A country 
 gentleman with any public principle except devotion 
 
86 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 to Henry Dundas, was viewed as a wonder, or rather 
 as a monster. This was the creed also of almost 
 all our merchants, all our removable office holders, 
 and all our public corporations. So that, literally, 
 everything depended on a few lawyers ; a class to 
 which, in modern times, Scotland owes a debt of 
 gratitude which does not admit of being exagger 
 ated. Nor have any men, since our revolution, 
 been obliged to exercise patriotism at greater per 
 sonal risk or sacrifice. Could there have been the 
 slightest doubt of their purity or courage, public 
 spirit must have been extinguished in Scotland. 
 The real strength of their party lay in their being 
 right, and in the tendency of their objects to attract 
 men of ability and principle. 
 
 With the people put down, and the Whigs power 
 less, Government was the master of nearly every 
 individual in Scotland, but especially in Edinburgh, 
 which was the chief seat of its influence. The infi 
 delity of the French gave it almost all the pious ; 
 their atrocities all the timid; rapidly increasing 
 taxation and establishments all the venal ; the higher 
 and middle ranks were at its command, and the 
 people at its feet. The pulpit, the bench, the bar, 
 the colleges, the parliamentary electors, the press, 
 the magistracies, the local institutions, were so com 
 pletely at the service of the party in power, that 
 the idea of independence, besides being monstrous 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 87 
 
 and absurd, was suppressed by a feeling of con 
 scious ingratitude. And in addition to all the 
 ordinary sources of Government influence, Henry 
 Dundas, an Edinburgh man, and well calculated by 
 talent and manner to make despotism popular, was 
 the absolute dictator of Scotland, and had the means 
 of rewarding submission, and of suppressing opposi 
 tion, beyond what were ever exercised in modern 
 times by one person, in any portion of the empire. 
 
 The true state of things, and its effects, may be 
 better seen in a few specific facts, than in any general 
 description. 
 
 As to our Institutions there was no popular repre- V 
 sentation ; all town-councils elected themselves ; the 
 Established Church had no visible rival; persons 
 were sent to the criminal courts as jurymen very 
 nearly according to the discretion of the sheriff of 
 their county; and after they got there, those who 
 were to try the prosecution were picked for that duty 
 by the presiding Judge, unchecked by any peremp 
 tory challenge. In other words, we had no free 
 political institutions whatever. 
 
 The consequences of this were exactly what 
 might have been expected, and all resolved into 
 universal prostration. The town-councils who 
 elected the burgh members of Parliament, and the 
 1500 or 2000 freeholders who elected the county 
 members, formed so small a body that a majority, and 
 
88 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 indeed the whole, of them were quite easily held by 
 the Government strings ; especially as the burgh 
 electors were generally dealt with on a principle 
 which admitted of considerable economy. Except at 
 Edinburgh, there was only one member for what was 
 termed a district of four or five burghs. Each town- 
 council elected a delegate ; and these four or five 
 delegates elected the member ; and instead of bribing 
 the town-councils, the established practice was to 
 bribe only the delegates, or indeed only one of them, 
 if this could secure the majority. Not that the coun 
 cils were left unrefreshed, but that the hooks with 
 the best baits were set for the most effective fishes. 
 There was no free, and consequently 110 discussing, 
 press. For a short time two newspapers, the Scots 
 Chronicle and the Gazetteer, raved stupidly and vul 
 garly, and as if their real object had been to cast 
 discredit on the cause they professed to espouse. 
 The only other newspapers, so far as I recollect, 
 were the still surviving Caledonian Mercury, the 
 Courant, and the Advertiser ; and the only other 
 periodical publication was the doited Scots Magazine. 
 This magazine and these three newspapers actually 
 formed the whole regular produce of the Edinburgh 
 periodical press. Nor was the absence of a free 
 public press compensated by any freedom of public 
 speech. Public political meetings could not arise, 
 for the elements did not exist. I doubt if there was 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 89 
 
 one during the twenty -five years that succeeded the 
 year 1795. Nothing was viewed with such horror, 
 as any political congregation not friendly to existing 
 power. No one could have taken a part in the busi 
 ness without making up his mind to be a doomed 
 man. No prudence could protect against the false 
 hood or inaccuracy of spies ; and a first conviction 
 of sedition by a judge-picked jury was followed by 
 fourteen years transportation. As a body to be deferred 
 tOj no public existed. Opinion was only recognized 
 when expressed through what were acknowledged 
 to be its legitimate organs; which meant its formal 
 or official outlets. Public bodies therefore might 
 speak each for itself; but the general community, 
 as such, had no admitted claim to be consulted or 
 cared for. The result, in a nation devoid of popular 
 political rights, was, that people were dumb, or if 
 they spoke out, were deemed audacious. The wishes 
 of the people were not merely despised, but it was 
 thought and openly announced as a necessary pre 
 caution against revolution, that they should be 
 thwarted. I knew a case, several years after 1800, 
 where the seat-holders of a town church applied to 
 Government, which was the patron, for the promo 
 tion of the second clergyman, who had been giving 
 great satisfaction for many years, and now, on the 
 death of the first minister, it was wished that he 
 should get the vacant place. The answer, written 
 
90 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 by a member of the Cabinet, was, that the single fact 
 of the people having interfered so far as to express a 
 wish, was conclusive against what they desired ; and 
 another appointment was instantly made. 
 
 This condition of the country was not owing to 
 anything like tyranny on the part of its rulers. 
 They did not create the circumstances in which 
 they were obliged to act. Their error was that, 
 instead of trying to mitigate these circumstances, 
 they did what they could to aggravate them ; and 
 this for party purposes. There was no need for 
 tyranny where the people had no public rights. 
 But it would have been better, if the efforts of 
 popular leaders to get them public rights had not 
 been sternly repressed. However, in the circum 
 stances, this party use of w^hat existed is not much 
 to be wondered at in party men. It was not owing 
 to any positive despotism that there was no discus 
 sion by the press or by public meetings, but to the 
 general abasement of the community, among which 
 free habits could not at once arise. This community 
 consisted of a people that was prostrate, a few brave 
 but powerless individuals, and an overwhelming fac 
 tion exercising the whole influence of the Govern 
 ment, on party principles, and without control. 
 
 This necessarily produced great personal bitter 
 ness. Even in private society, a Whig was viewed 
 somewhat as a Papist was in the days of Titus 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 91 
 
 Gates. There were a few exceptions, in the case 
 of persons too attractive or too powerful to be 
 ill-used; but in general Whigs had to associate 
 solely with Whigs. Very dear friendships were in 
 many instances broken, and although the parties 
 may have survived till age and changed times made 
 longer severance, absurd, the reconcilement was 
 always awkward and never true. This incompa 
 tibility of public difference with private cordiality 
 is the most painful recollection that I have of those 
 days, and the most striking evidence of their hard 
 ness. 
 
 Fox s birth-day was generally celebrated by a 
 dinner every year. But only a very few of the best 
 Whigs could be got to attend, or were wished for. 
 It was not safe to have many ; especially as great 
 prudence was necessary in speaking and toasting. 
 Yet even the select, though rarely exceeding a 
 dozen or two, were seldom allowed to assemble 
 without sheriff s officers being sent to take down the 
 names of those who entered. This turned away 
 some, but others never hesitated to say what they 
 thought of so base a hint. James Gibson and John 
 Clerk used to tell them to hold up their lanterns, 
 and to be quite sure that they knew them; and 
 then would give the officers their cards, with orders 
 to be sure to deliver them with their compliments, and 
 an invitation to their masters to attend next year. 
 
92 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Even the Whig lawyers who had secured their 
 footing at the bar, or were plainly irrepressible, had 
 hard enough work to keep their places. The juniors 
 who dared to begin in this line were put under a 
 severe proscription, and knew it. Every official 
 gate was shut against them, and in the practice of 
 their profession the Judges were unkind, and agents 
 therefore kept their fees for those of the safer faith. 
 The prospects of no young man could be more 
 apparently hopeless than of him who, with the 
 known and fatal taint of a taste for popular poli 
 tics, entered our bar. But they were generally 
 well warned. If not overlooked from their insigni 
 ficance, a written test was for some years presented 
 to them, and a refusal to subscribe it set a black 
 mark upon him who refused. I have heard George 
 Cranstoun say that the test was put to him, and by 
 a celebrated Professor of Law acting for the Tory 
 party. It was rejected 5 and Cranstoun found it 
 convenient to leave the bar, and spend some time, 
 chiefly in Ireland, as an officer in a regiment of 
 fencible cavalry, commanded by his friend . the 
 Earl of Ancrum. 
 
 Henry Erskine, the brightest ornament of the 
 profession, was Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. 
 Considering the state of the times, the propriety of 
 his presiding at a public meeting to petition against 
 the war may be questioned. The official head of a 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 93 
 
 public body should consider what is due to the 
 principles and the feelings of those he may be sup 
 posed to represent ; and to the great majority of the 
 Faculty Erskine s conduct must have been deeply 
 offensive. Still, the resolution to dismiss him was 
 utterly unjustifiable. It was nearly unprecedented, 
 violent, and very ungrateful. He had covered the 
 Faculty with the lustre of his character for several 
 years ; and, if wrong, had been misled solely by a 
 sense of duty. Nevertheless, on the 12th of January 
 1796 he was turned out of office. Had he and the 
 Faculty alone been concerned in this intemperate 
 proceeding, it would not have occurred. But it was 
 meant, and was taken, as a warning to all others to 
 avoid the dangers of public meetings on the wrong 
 side. The efforts made to prevent young men from 
 yielding to their conviction in Erskine s favour is 
 another striking mark of the times. Jeffrey, Crans- 
 toun, and Thomas Thomson were ardent to vote for 
 him, and never were easy in their minds for not hav 
 ing done so. But Thomson was obliged to yield to 
 the wishes of George Fergusson, afterwards Lord 
 Hermand ; Jeffrey to those of his father and Lord 
 Glenlee; and Cranstoun to those of the Duke of 
 Buccleuch ; and none of them voted at all.* The 
 
 * The conduct of Robert Ferguson, afterwards of Eaith, and 
 of George Joseph Bell, both eminent at last in the Whig party, has 
 often been misunderstood. But the truth is, that the Whiggism of 
 
94 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 forbearance of these young men was in accordance 
 with the gentleness and propriety of their whole 
 future lives. But what a condition men s minds 
 must have been in when good men, who had selected 
 them for patronage because they loved them, were 
 not ashamed to exact such sacrifices. 
 
 Almost everything in the city was under the 
 control of the town-council ; not merely what was 
 properly magisterial, but most things conducive to 
 the public economy, which are always managed now 
 by independent guardians. Our light, water, educa 
 tion, paving, trade, including the port of Leith, the 
 poor, the police, were all in the hands of the great 
 civic corporation. Hence in Edinburgh, as in all 
 other royal burghs, the character of the municipal 
 magistracy was symptomatic of the whole place. 
 
 It met in a low, dark, blackguard-looking room, 
 entering from a covered passage which connected the 
 north-west comer of the Parliament Square with the 
 
 Bell, who voted against Erskine, had not then come upon him ; and 
 that Ferguson, who gave no vote, was abroad. 
 
 * Only one of Erskine s personal and political associates 
 deserted his principles and opposed him, a man of great worth 
 and learning, and who afterwards rose deservedly high, but whose 
 respectable future life never effaced this sad stain from the memory 
 of either friends or foes. When his name was called and he gave 
 his vote, the clock happened to strike three ; on which John Clerk 
 said, with great intensity, &quot; When the cock crew thrice Peter denied 
 his master.&quot; 
 
BY HENRY COCKBUKN. 95 
 
 Lawnmarket. At its Lawnmarket end, this covered 
 passage opened out on the south side of u the Heart 
 of Midlothian.&quot; If that passage existed now, it 
 would cross the present opening somewhere between 
 the south-west corner of St. Giles Cathedral and the 
 north-east corner of the Writer s Library. The shop 
 of George Heriot was said to have stood within it ; 
 and I certainly remember seeing, after 1805, a hori 
 zontal stone lintel over a door there, with the words 
 &quot; George Heriot&quot; carved upon it. But it was removed ; 
 and unless some antiquary saved it by a judicious 
 theft, it was probably broken when the whole collec 
 tion of interesting relics that encumbered the spot 
 was cleared away. The Council Chamber entered 
 directly from this passage, and, if it had remained, 
 would have been in the east end of the Writer s 
 Library. The chamber was a low-roofed room, very 
 dark, and very dirty, with some small dens off it for 
 clerks. 
 
 Within this Pandemonium sat the town-council, 
 omnipotent, corrupt, impenetrable. Nothing was 
 beyond its grasp ; no variety of opinion disturbed its 
 unanimity, for the pleasure of Dundas was the sole 
 rule for every one of them. Eeporters, the fruit of 
 free discussion, did not exist and though they had 
 existed, would not have dared to disclose the pro 
 ceedings. Silent, powerful, submissive, mysterious, 
 and irresponsible, they might have been sitting in 
 
96 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Venice. Certain of the support of the Proconsul, 
 whom they no more thought of thwarting than of 
 thwarting Providence, timidity was not one of their 
 vices. About the year 1 799 a solitary schism amazed 
 the public, by disclosing the incredible fact that the 
 town-council might contain a member who had an 
 opinion of his own. A councillor, named Smith, 
 electrified the city by a pamphlet shewing that the 
 burgh was bankrupt. Time has put it beyond all 
 doubt that he was right ; and fortunate would it have 
 been for the city and its creditors if this had been 
 acknowledged at the time, instead of being aggra 
 vated by years of subsequent extravagance and 
 concealment. But his rebellion drove Mr. Smith 
 out of the place. 
 
 The council s two great organs were John Gray 
 and James Laing. Gray was city clerk ; a judicious 
 man, with a belly, white hair, and decorous black 
 clothes 5 famous for drinking punch, holding his 
 tongue, and doing jobs quietly; a respectable and 
 useful officer, with an exclusive devotion to the 
 town-council, but with such municipal wisdom, 
 and such an intimate acquaintance with their affairs, 
 that he was oftener the master than the slave. There 
 was a person of this class in almost every royal 
 burgh. If Gray was the head of the Council, Laing 
 was its hand. He was one of the clerks, and managed 
 such police as we then had ; and, though not an 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 97 
 
 officer in the old Town Guard, could, as representing 
 the magistrates, employ it as he chose. It is incred 
 ible now how much power this man had, and how 
 much lie was feared. His masters, to whom he was 
 all apparent obeisance, felt that they could not do 
 without his activity and experience. He knew this, 
 and adventured accordingly; and the result was, 
 that with sagacity enough to keep clear of offensive 
 excess towards them, he did almost anything else 
 that he chose. He had more sense than to meddle 
 with the rich, but over the people he tyrannized to 
 his heart s content. For example about the year 
 1795, six or eight baker lads of good character, and 
 respectable though humble parentage, being a little 
 jolly one night, were making a noise on the street. 
 This displeased Mr. Laing, who had a notion that 
 nobody could be drunk with safety to the public 
 except himself. So he had the lads apprehended ; 
 and as they did not appear in the morning, their 
 friends became alarmed, and applied to Mr. (after 
 wards Sir Henry) Jardine, a zealous partisan of 
 Government, who took an interest in the family of 
 one of them. Mr. Jardine told me that next morning 
 he inquired about them, when Laing told him that 
 he need give himself no trouble, because u they are 
 all beyond Inclikeith by this time And so they were. 
 He had sent them on board a tender lying in Leith 
 
 Koads, which he knew was to sail that morning. 
 
 H 
 
98 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 This was done by his own authority, without a con 
 viction, or a charge, or an offence. They had been 
 troublesome, and this was the very way of dealing 
 with such people. Such proceedings were far from 
 uncommon, especially during the war, when the 
 navy and the army were the convenient receptacles 
 of all it was comfortable to get quit of summarily. 
 Legal redress was very seldom resorted to. Laing 
 had an incomprehensible reverence for Dugald 
 Stewart. Stewart used to tell, how he was walking 
 in the Meadows very early one morning, when he saw 
 a number of people within the enclosure seemingly 
 turning up the turf, and that upon going up to them 
 he found his friend Jamie Laing, who explained that 
 in these short light nights there was nothing going 
 on with the blackguards, &quot; and so, ye see, Mr. Pro 
 fessor, I ve just brought oot the constables to try oor 
 hands at the moudieworts.&quot; 
 
 Though T had little personal knowledge of any 
 other town council, there is no reason to believe 
 that, in general, they were a whit better than that of 
 Edinburgh. On the contrary, as Edinburgh was 
 under the eye and the influence of higher men, the 
 probability is that they were worse ; and many of 
 the small ones were in the lowest possible condition 
 both of public and private morality. In general, 
 they were sinks of political and municipal iniquity, 
 steeped in the baseness which they propagated, and 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 99 
 
 types and causes of the corruption that surrounded 
 them. 
 
 But by far the most frightful, and the justest, 
 idea of the spirit of those times is to be found in the 
 proceedings of the Supreme Criminal Court in the 
 Sedition Trials of 1793 and 1794. These cannot be 
 seen in detail without a minute examination of the 
 reports, and indeed they are very faintly given even 
 in the State Trials. 
 
 They were political prosecutions, during a period 
 of great political excitement ; and therefore, however 
 faction might have raged, everything done by the 
 Court ought to have been done calmly, impartially, 
 and decorously. The general prevalence of public 
 intemperance was the very circumstance that ought 
 to have impressed more deeply upon judges the 
 duty of steady candour, and of that judicial human 
 ity which instinctively makes every right-minded 
 occupier of the judgment seat interpose between a 
 prisoner and prejudice. The Court does not seem to 
 have been unduly inflamed by the official accuser. 
 The madness of the people, if it existed, would 
 have been best allayed by giving them reason to 
 rely on the administration of justice. But I fear 
 that no impartial censor can avoid detecting, 
 throughout the whole course of the trials, not mere 
 casual indications of bias, but absolute straining 
 for convictions. With all their prepossessions the 
 
100 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 judges were not cruel, nor even consciously unfair. 
 But being terrified, and trying those who were 
 causing their alarm, they could scarcely be expected 
 to enter the temple of justice in a state of perfect 
 composure. If ever there was an occasion when a 
 judge might have shone, simply by being just, this 
 was one. But the bench was the place upon which 
 political passions, not aggravated by the prosecutor, 
 and distressing to many of the jurymen, settled and 
 operated. Little depended upon erroneous decision. 
 But what shall be held to be sedition always resolves, 
 to a far greater extent than in other crimes, into 
 mere opinion, and therefore everything depended 
 upon candour of construction. Hence, all the sources 
 of prejudice ought to have been at least attempted 
 to be excluded. Fair play ought to have been given 
 to claims of constitutional right, and particularly to 
 supposed privileges of public discussion. No jury 
 man ought to have been able to excuse any party 
 spirit that he felt coming over him by the contagion 
 of the bench. Yet the fact is, that in every case 
 sentiments were avowed implying the adoption of 
 the worst current intemperance. If, instead of a 
 Supreme Court of Justice, sitting for the trial of 
 guilt or of innocence, it had been an ancient com 
 mission appointed by the Crown to procure con 
 victions, little of its judicial manner would have 
 required to be changed. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 101 
 
 When the verdicts were returned, the Court 
 had to exercise a discretionary power in fixing upon 
 the sentence ; which discretion ranged, as these 
 judges decided, from one hour s imprisonment to 
 transportation for life. Assuming transportation to 
 be lawful, it was conceded not to be necessary, and 
 it was not then, nor at any time, used in England 
 as a punishment of sedition. At that period it 
 implied a frightful voyage of many months, great 
 wretchedness in the new colony, an almost complete 
 extinction of all communication with home, and 
 such difficulty in returning, that a man transported 
 was considered as a man never to be seen again. 
 Nevertheless, transportation for a first offence was 
 the doom of every one of these prisoners. 
 
 All this was approved of no doubt, not only by 
 the Tories, but by Parliament advised by the Lord 
 Chancellor. But this never satisfied judicious men, 
 and it can neither silence nor pervert history. It 
 will remain true that, in order to find a match for 
 the judicial spirit of this Court, at this period, we 
 must go back to the days of Lauderdale and Dalzell. 
 
 It has been said, in defence of the Court, that the 
 times were dangerous. So they were. But these are 
 the very times in which the torch of justice should 
 burn most purely. It has also been said that the 
 prisoners were all guilty. Holding this to be true, 
 had they not a right to be fairly tried ? And lastly 
 
102 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 it has been said, that after these trials there was no 
 more sedition. The same thing might be said 
 though they had been tried by the boot, and punished 
 by fire. Jeffreys and Kirke put down sedition, for 
 the day, by their bloody assizes. But our exhi 
 bitions of judicial vigour, instead of eradicating the 
 seditious propensity, prolonged its inward vitality. 
 Future outbreaks were only avoided by the course 
 of events, which turned men s passions into other 
 channels. 
 
 These trials, however, sunk deep not merely into 
 the popular mind, but into the minds of all men 
 who thought. It was by these proceedings, more 
 than by any other wrong, that the spirit of discon 
 tent justified itself throughout the rest of that age. 
 It was to them that peaceful reformers appealed for 
 the practical answer to those, who pretended to up 
 hold our whole Scotch system as needing no change. 
 One useful lesson, to be sure, they taught, though 
 in the wrong way namely, that the existence of 
 circumstances, such as the supposed clearness and 
 greatness of their guilt, tending to prejudice prisoners 
 on their trials, gives them a stronger claim than 
 usual on that sacred judicial mildness, which, far 
 more than any of the law s terrors, procures respect 
 for authority, and without which courts, let them 
 punish as they may, only alienate and provoke. 
 
 Such was the public condition of Edinburgh in 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 103 
 
 1800, and for the preceding ten years. It was a 
 condition of great pain and debasement, the natural 
 consequence of bad times operating on defective 
 political institutions. The frightful thing was the 
 personal bitterness. The decent appearance of 
 mutual toleration, which often produces the virtue 
 itself, was despised, and extermination seemed a duty. 
 This was bad enough in the capital ; but far more 
 dreadful in small places, which were more helplessly 
 exposed to persecution. If Dugald Stewart was for 
 several years not cordially received in the city he 
 adorned, what must have been the position of an 
 ordinary man who held liberal opinions in the 
 country or in a small town, open to all the contumely 
 and obstruction that local insolence could practise, 
 and unsupported probably by any associate cher 
 ishing kindred thoughts. Such persons existed 
 everywhere : but they were always below the salt. 
 Their merit therefore was great. Under insult and 
 cold unkindness, and constant personal loss, they 
 adhered throughout many dark years to what they 
 thought right ; and such of them as lived to be old 
 men had the reward of seeing the regeneration, which 
 had depended so much on their spirit and firmness. 
 This was the first time that Scotland had ever 
 been agitated by discussions upon general principles 
 of liberty. Neither the Union, nor the two Rebel 
 lions, nor even the Revolution, had any of this matter 
 
104 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 in them. The course of this our first conflict of 
 constitutional opinion has been very distinctly 
 marked. With no improvement in their public 
 education, habits, or institutions, with all power in 
 the hands of those with whom change was in itself 
 an ultimate evil, and with reason superseded by 
 dread of revolution, the cause of the people was put 
 down, and could not possibly have been then raised 
 up. The only hope was in the decline of the cir 
 cumstances that had sunk it. What had to be 
 waited for was, the increase of numbers and of 
 wealth, the waning of the revolutionary horror, the 
 dying out of the hard old aristocracy, the advance 
 of a new generation, and the rise of new guides. 
 The gradual introduction and operation of these 
 redeeming circumstances has been very interesting, 
 and illustrates, by the example of a single place, the 
 general principles which regulate the improvement 
 of the world. 
 
 In 1800 the people of Edinburgh were much 
 occupied about the removal of an evil in the system 
 of their Infirmary ; which evil, though strenuously 
 defended by able men, it is difficult now to believe 
 could ever have existed. The medical officers con 
 sisted at that time of the whole members of the 
 Colleges of Physicians and of Surgeons, who atten 
 ded the hospital by a monthly rotation ; so that the 
 patients had the chance of an opposite treatment, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 105 
 
 according to the whim of the doctor, every thirty 
 days. Dr. James Gregory, whose learning extended 
 beyond that of his profession, attacked this absurdity 
 in one of his powerful, but wild and personal, quarto 
 pamphlets. The public was entirely on his side; 
 and so at last were the managers, who resolved that 
 the medical officers should be appointed permanently, 
 as they have ever since been. Most of the medical 
 profession, including the whole private lecturers, 
 and even the two colleges, who all held that the 
 power of annoying the patients in their turn was 
 their right, were vehement against this innovation ; 
 and some of them went to law in opposition to it. 
 
 Gregory, descended from an illustrious line, was 
 a curious and excellent man, a great physician, a 
 great lecturer, a great Latin scholar, and a great 
 talker ; vigorous and generous ; large of stature, 
 and with a strikingly powerful countenance. The 
 popularity due to these qualities was increased by 
 his professional controversies, and the diverting 
 publications by which he used to maintain and 
 enliven them. The controversies were rather too 
 numerous ; but they never were for any selfish end, 
 and he was never entirely wrong. Still, a disposi 
 tion towards personal attack was his besetting sin. 
 Mr. John Bell, the best surgeon that Scotland had 
 then produced, a little vigorous creature, who wrote 
 well and with intense professional passion, was 
 
106 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 generally put forward by his brethren to carry on 
 the Gregorian battles. Perhaps he had the best 
 both of the argument and of the clever writing ; 
 but the public sided with the best laugher ; and so 
 Gregory was generally held to have the victory. 
 
 When I first knew it, the Parliament House, 
 both outside and in, was a curious and interesting 
 place. No one who remembers the old exterior can 
 see the new one without sorrow and indignation. 
 The picture which recals the old edifice most dis 
 tinctly to my mind, is the one in Arnot s History of 
 Edinburgh. The Parliament Square (as foppery now 
 calls it, but which used, and ought, to be called the 
 Parliament Close) was then, as now, enclosed on the 
 north by St. Giles Cathedral, 011 the west by the 
 Outer House, and on the south, partly by courts, and 
 partly by shops, above which were very tall houses, 
 and on the east by a line of shops and houses of the 
 same grand height. So that the courts formed the 
 south-west angle of the Close. The old building- 
 exhibited some respectable turrets, some ornamented 
 windows and doors, and a handsome balustrade. 
 But the charm that ought to have saved it, was its 
 colour and its age, which, however, were the very 
 things that caused its destruction. About 1 70 years 
 had breathed over it a grave grey hue. The whole 
 aspect was venerable and appropriate ; becoming the 
 air and character of a sanctuary of Justice. But a 
 
BY HENRY COCKBUKN. 107 
 
 mason pronounced it to be all &quot; Dead Wall.&quot; The 
 officials to whom, at a period when there was no 
 public taste in Edinburgh, this was addressed, 
 believed him ; and the two fronts were removed in 
 order to make way for the bright freestone and con 
 temptible decorations that now disgrace us. The 
 model having been laid down, has been copied on all 
 subsequent occasions ; till at last the old Parliament 
 Close would not be known by the lawyers or senators 
 who walked through it in the days of the Stuarts, 
 or of the first two of the Guelphs. I cannot doubt 
 that King Charles tried to spur his horse against the 
 Vandals when he saw the profanation begin. But 
 there was such an utter absence of public spirit in 
 Edinburgh then, that the building might have been 
 painted scarlet without anybody objecting. 
 
 The auctioneers and pawnbrokers had their 
 quarters in the Horse Wynd, where I remember 
 genteel families living in most excellent houses.* 
 The potters and candlemakers congregated in the 
 Eows which still bear their names. I don t know 
 the former seat of the shoemakers, but about the 
 beginning of the century they took possession of the 
 new made Leith Terrace, which was then thought a 
 very fine thing, as well it might, being the only 
 
 * It was one of the very few wynds that were wide enough 
 to let a horse through them ; when it got unfashionable, the fops 
 used to call it &quot; Cavalry Lane. 1 
 
108 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 place in Edinburgh, or perhaps in Scotland, with 
 a street above the roofs of houses. The sons of 
 Crispin occupied both the shops below this street 
 and those in it two rows of shops. As soon as the 
 South Bridge was built it was taken possession of by 
 the haberdashers. The Parliament Close was the 
 haunt of the jewellers, some watchmakers, and a few 
 booksellers, which last, however, flowed more over 
 into the High Street. A wooden partition, about 
 fifteen feet high, was drawn across the Outer House, 
 cutting off apparently about twenty-five or thirty feet 
 of its northern end, but with a small central opening 
 into the public hall. Arnot says that this space 
 was occupied by booksellers stalls when he published 
 his book in 1788. These stalls must have disap 
 peared, or been greatly diminished, very soon after 
 this; for I was there for the first time about 1792 or 
 1793, and observed none of them. The whole space 
 seemed to be occupied as a jeweller s and cutler s 
 shop. My first pair of skates was bought there; 
 and I remember my surprise at the figures with 
 black gowns and white wigs walking about among 
 the cutlery. 
 
 But the delightful place was The Krames. It 
 was a low narrow arcade of booths, crammed in 
 between the north side of St. Giles Cathedral and 
 a thin range of buildings that stood parallel to the 
 Cathedral, the eastmost of which buildings, looking 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 109 
 
 down the High Street, was the famous shop of Wil 
 liam Creech the bookseller. Shopless traffickers 
 first began to nestle there about the year 1550 or 
 1560, and their successors stuck to the spot till 
 1817, when they were all swept away. In my boy 
 hood their little stands, each enclosed in a tiny 
 room of its own, and during the day all open to the 
 little footpath that ran between the two rows of 
 them, and all glittering with attractions, contained 
 everything fascinating to childhood, but chiefly toys. 
 It was like one of the Arabian Nights 7 bazaars in 
 Bagdad. Throughout the whole year it was an 
 enchantment. Let any one fancy what it was about 
 the New Year, when every child had got its handsel, 
 and every farthing of every handsel was spent there. 
 The Krames was the paradise of childhood.* 
 
 Scarcely a year has passed since the time I am 
 referring to without some change in the internal 
 arrangement of the Outer House. Doors, chimneys, 
 screens, windows, benches, and Lords Ordinary s 
 bars, have wandered round and round the whole 
 hall, exactly as has suited the taste of the official 
 improver of the day. After much temporary defor 
 mity, and many alarming escapes, the result on the 
 whole has been good, because the recent taste has 
 been to remove obstructions, and to introduce art. 
 
 * The word &quot; Kraimery &quot; occurs in some ancient deeds, to 
 denote the articles sold in the Krames. 
 
110 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 The modern accommodation for the courts is so 
 ample that it is curious to recollect its amount, and 
 how it looked before 1808, when the judges began 
 to sit in two separate chambers. The den called The 
 Inner House then held the whole fifteen judges. It 
 was a low square-like room, not, I think, above from 
 thirty to forty feet wide. It stood just off the south 
 east corner of the Outer House ; with the Exche 
 quer, entering from the Parliament Close, right above. 
 The Barons being next the sky, had access to the 
 flat leaden roof, where I have seen my father, who 
 was one of them, walking in his robes. The Inner 
 House was so cased in venerable dirt that it was 
 impossible to say whether it had ever been painted ; 
 but it was all of a dark brownish hue. There was 
 a gallery over the bar, and so low that a barrister 
 in a frenzy was in danger of hitting it. A huge fire 
 place stood behind the Lord President s chair, with 
 one of the stone jambs cracked, and several of the 
 bars of the large grate broken. That grate was 
 always at least half full of dust. It probably had 
 never been completely cleared since the institution 
 of the Court in the sixteenth century. The hearth 
 stone, the fender, and the chimney-piece were all 
 massive, and all undisturbed by any purification. 
 On the one side of that fire-place there was fixed in 
 a wooden frame the Lord s Prayer, and on the other 
 side the Ten Commandments ; each worked in faded 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. Ill 
 
 gold thread letters into a black velvet ground. 
 George Cranstoun used to propose adding a Scrip 
 tural verse to be set over the head of each judge, 
 and had culled the texts. 
 
 Dismal though this hole was, the old fellows 
 who had been bred there never looked so well any 
 where else ; and deeply did they growl at the spirit 
 of innovation which drove them from their accus 
 tomed haunt. The cave indeed had an antique air. 
 It was Durie s Eeports. Very little fancy was 
 necessary to make one see the ancient legal sages 
 hirpling through its dim litigious light. 
 
 Of the fifteen judges of those days, some of 
 course were &quot; heads without name.&quot; Of the others 
 Monboddo, Swinton, and Braxfield had left the 
 scene shortly before I entered the Faculty. 
 
 Classical learning, good conversation, excellent 
 suppers, and ingenious though unsound metaphysics 
 were the peculiarities of Monboddo. He was reputed 
 a considerable lawyer in his own time ; and his 
 reports shew that the reputation was well founded. 
 Some offence had made him resolve never to sit on 
 the same bench with President Dundas ; and he kept 
 this vow so steadily that he always sat at the clerk s 
 table even after Dundas was gone. I never saw him 
 sitting anywhere else. This position enabled him 
 to get easily out and in ; and whenever there was a 
 pause he was sure to slip off, gown and all, to have 
 
112 MEMOEIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 a talk in the Outer House, where I have often seen 
 the shrivelled old man walking about very cheer 
 fully. He went very often to London, almost always 
 on horseback, and was better qualified than most of 
 his countrymen to shine in its literary society. But 
 he was insufficiently appreciated; and he partly 
 justified and indeed provoked this, by taking his 
 love of paradox and metaphysics with him, and 
 dealing them out in a style of academical formality ; 
 and this even after he ought to have seen, that all 
 that people cared about his dogmas was to laugh at 
 their author. It is more common to hear anecdotes 
 about his maintaining that men once had tails, and 
 similar follies, than about his agreeable conversa 
 tion and undoubted learning. All who knew him 
 in Edinburgh concur in describing his house as one 
 of the most pleasant in the place. 
 
 I knew Lord Swinton as much as a youth can 
 know an old man, and I have always been intimate 
 with his family. He was a very excellent person ; 
 dull, mild, solid, and plodding ; and in his person 
 large and heavy. It is only a subsequent age that 
 has discovered his having possessed a degree of 
 sagacity, for which he did not get credit while he 
 lived. So far back as 1765 he published an attack 
 on our system of entails; in 1779 he explained a 
 scheme for a uniform standard of weights and mea 
 sures ; and in 1789 he put forth considerations in 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 113 
 
 favor of dividing the Court of Session into more 
 courts than one, and of introducing juries for the 
 trial of civil causes. All these improvements have 
 since taken place, but they were mere visions in 
 his time ; and his anticipation of them, in which, 
 so far as I ever heard, he had no associate, is very 
 honoiirable to his thoughtfulness and judgment. 
 Notwithstanding the utter dissimilarity of the two 
 men, there was a great friendship between him and 
 Henry Erskine, which it is to the honor of Swin- 
 ton s ponderous placidity that Erskine s endless jokes 
 upon him never disturbed. 
 
 But the giant of the bench was Braxfield. His 
 very name makes people start yet. 
 
 Strong built and dark, with rough eyebrows, 
 powerful eyes, threatening lips, and a low growling 
 voice, he was like a formidable blacksmith. His 
 accent and his dialect were exaggerated Scotch ; his 
 language, like his thoughts, short, strong, and con 
 clusive. 
 
 Our commercial jurisprudence was only rising 
 when he was sinking, and, being no reader, he was 
 too old both in life and in habit to master it famil 
 iarly ; though even here he was inferior to no Scotch 
 lawyer of his time except Hay Campbell the Lord 
 President. But within the range of the Feudal and 
 the Civil branches, and in every matter depending on 
 natural ability and practical sense, he was very great ; 
 
114 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 and his power arose more from the force of his 
 reasoning and his vigorous application of principle, 
 than from either the extent or the accuracy of his 
 learning. I have heard good observers describe with 
 admiration how, having worked out a principle, 
 he followed it in its application, fearlessly and 
 triumphantly, dashing all unworthy obstructions 
 aside, and pushed on to his result with the vigour 
 and disdain of a consummate athlete. And he had 
 a colloquial way of arguing, in the form of question 
 and answer, which, done in his clear abrupt style, 
 imparted a dramatic directness and vivacity to the 
 scene. 
 
 With this intellectual force, as applied to law, 
 his merits, I fear, cease. Illiterate and without any 
 taste for refined enjoyment, strength of understand 
 ing, which gave him power without cultivation, only 
 encouraged him to a more contemptuous disdain of 
 all natures less coarse than his own. Despising the 
 growing improvement of manners, he shocked the 
 feelings even of an age which, with more of the 
 formality, had far less of the substance of decorum 
 than our own. Thousands of his sayings have been 
 preserved, and the staple of them is indecency ; 
 which he succeeded in making many people enjoy, 
 or at least endure, by hearty laughter, energy of 
 manner, and rough humour. Almost the only story 
 of him I ever heard that had some fun in it without 
 immodesty, was when a butler gave up his place 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 115 
 
 because his lordship s wife was always scolding him. 
 &quot;Lord! 7 he exclaimed, u ye ve little to complain o : 
 ye may be thankfu ye re no married to her. 7 
 
 It is impossible to condemn his conduct as a 
 criminal judge too gravely, or too severely. It was 
 a disgrace to the age. A dexterous and practical 
 trier of ordinary cases, he was harsh to prisoners 
 even in his jocularity, and to every counsel whom 
 he chose to dislike. I have heard this attempted to 
 be accounted for and extenuated by the tendency 
 which the old practice of taking all the evidence 
 down in writing, by judicial dictation, had to provoke 
 a wrangle between the court and the bar every 
 moment, and thus to excite mutual impatience and 
 hostility. No doubt there was something in this ; 
 but not much. And Braxfield, as might have been 
 expected from his love of domineering, continued the 
 vice after its external cause, whatever it may have 
 been, had ceased. It may be doubted if he was ever 
 so much in his element as when tauntingly repelling 
 the last despairing claim of a wretched culprit, and 
 sending him to Botany Bay or the gallows with an 
 insulting jest ; over which he would chuckle the 
 more from observing that correct people were 
 shocked.* Yet this was not from cruelty, for which 
 
 * &quot; As Lord Braxfield once said to an eloquent culprit at the 
 bar Ye re a vera clever chiel, man, but ye wad be nane the waur 
 o a hanging. &quot; Lockhart s Life of Scott, chap. 48. 
 
116 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 lie was too strong and too jovial, but from cherished 
 coarseness. 
 
 This union of talent with a passion for rude pre 
 domination, exercised in a very discretionary court, 
 tended to form a formidable and dangerous judicial 
 character. This appeared too often in ordinary 
 cases: but all stains on his administration of the com 
 mon business of his court disappear in the indelible 
 iniquity of the political trials of 1793 and 1794. 
 In these he was the Jeffreys of Scotland. He as the 
 head of the Court, and the only very powerful man 
 it contained, was the real director of its proceedings. 
 The reports make his abuse of the judgment seat 
 bad enough ; but his misconduct was not so fully dis 
 closed in formal decisions and charges, as it trans 
 pired in casual remarks and general manner. &quot; Let 
 them bring me prisoners, and I ll find them law&quot; 
 used to be openly stated as his suggestion, when an 
 intended political prosecution was marred by antici 
 pated difficulties. If innocent of this atrocious sen 
 timent, he was scandalously ill-used by his friends, 
 by whom I repeatedly heard it ascribed to him at 
 the time, and who, instead of denying it, spoke of it 
 as a thing understood, and rather admired it as 
 worthy of the man and of the times. Mr. Horner 
 (the father of Francis), who was one of the jurors 
 in Muir s case, told me that when he was passing, 
 as was often done then, behind the bench to get into 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 117 
 
 the box, Braxfield, who knew him, whispered 
 44 Come awa, Maister Horner, come awa, and help 
 us to hang* ane o thae daamned scoondrels.&quot; The 
 reporter of Gerald s case could not venture to make 
 the prisoner say more than that u Christianity was 
 an innovation/ f But the full truth is, that in 
 stating this view he added that all great men had 
 been reformers, 44 even our Saviour himself.&quot; 
 44 Muckle he made o that, 7 chuckled Braxfield in 
 an under voice, u he was hanget.&quot; Before Hume s 
 Commentaries had made our criminal record intelli 
 gible, the forms and precedents were a mystery 
 understood by the initiated alone, and by nobody so 
 much as by Mr. Joseph Norris the ancient clerk. 
 Braxfield used to quash anticipated doubts by say 
 ing&quot; Hoot ! just gie me Josie Norrie and a glide 
 jury, an I ll doo for the fallow.&quot; He died in 1799, 
 in his seventy-eighth year. J 
 
 * Hang was his phrase for all kinds of punishment. 
 
 f State Trials, vol. xxiii. p. 972. 
 
 J When Lord Kames, an indefatigable and speculative but 
 coarse man, tried Matthew Hay, with whom he used to play at 
 chess, for murder at Ayr in September 1780, he exclaimed, when 
 the verdict of guilty was returned, &quot; That s checkmate to you, 
 Matthew ! &quot; Besides general and uncontradicted notoriety, I had 
 this fact from Lord Hermand, who was one of the counsel at the 
 trial, and never forgot a piece of judicial cruelty which excited his 
 horror and anger. 
 
 Scott is said to have told this story to the Prince Kegent. It 
 
118 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Of the older judges still on tlie bench in 1800, 
 but who soon left it, there were two who ought 
 not to be allowed to perish. These were the Lord 
 Justice-Clerk Kae, and the Lord President Campbell. 
 
 David Eae, Lord Eskgrove, succeeded Braxfield 
 as head of the Criminal Court, and it is his highest 
 honor that he is sometimes mentioned as Braxfield s 
 judicial rival. In so far as law and political par 
 tiality went, they were pretty well matched ; but in 
 all other respects they were quite different men. 
 
 Eskgrove was a very considerable lawyer ; in 
 mere knowledge probably Braxfield s superior. But 
 he had nothing of Braxfield s grasp or reasoning, 
 and in everything requiring force or soundness of 
 head, he was a mere child compared with that 
 practical Hercules. Still he was cunning in old 
 Scotch law. 
 
 But a more ludicrous personage could not exist. 
 When I first knew him he was in the zenith of his 
 absurdity. People seemed to have nothing to do 
 but to tell stories of this one man. To be able to 
 
 he did so, be would certainly tell it accurately, because he knew 
 the facts quite well. But in reporting what Sir Walter had said 
 at the royal table, the Lord Chief Commissioner Adam confused 
 the matter, and called the judge Braxfield, the crime forgery, and 
 the circuit town Dumfries ; and this inaccurate account was given 
 by Mr. Lockhart in his first edition of Scott s life (chap. 34). Brax 
 field was one of the judges at Hay s trial, but he had nothing to 
 do with the checkmate. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 119 
 
 give an anecdote of Eskgrove, with a proper imita 
 tion of his voice and manner, was a sort of fortune 
 in society. Scott in those days was famous for 
 this particularly. Whenever a knot of persons were 
 seen listening in the Outer House to one who was 
 talking slowly, with a low muttering voice and a 
 projected chin, and then the listeners burst asunder 
 in roars of laughter, nobody thought of asking what 
 the joke was. They were sure that it was a success 
 ful imitation of Esky ; and this was enough. Yet 
 never once did he do or say anything which had the 
 slightest claim to be remembered for any intrinsic 
 merit. The value of all his words and actions con 
 sisted in their absurdity. 
 
 He seemed, in his old age, to be about the 
 average height ; but as he then stooped a good deal, 
 he might have been taller in reality. His face 
 varied, according to circumstances, from a scurfy red 
 to a scurfy blue ; the nose was prodigious ; the 
 under lip enormous, and supported on a huge clumsy 
 chin, which moved like the jaw of an exaggerated 
 Dutch toy. He walked with a slow stealthy step 
 something between a walk and a hirple, and helped 
 himself on by short movements of his elbows, back 
 wards and forwards, like fins. The voice was low 
 and mumbling, and on the bench was generally 
 inaudible for sometime after the movement of the 
 lips shewed that he had begun speaking ; after which 
 
120 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 the first word that was let fairly out was generally 
 the loudest of the whole discourse. It is unfortunate 
 that, without an idea of his voice and manner, mere 
 narrative cannot describe his sayings and doings 
 graphically. 
 
 One of his remarks on the trial of Mr. Fysche 
 Palmer for sedition not as given in the report of 
 the trial, but as he made it is one of the very few 
 things he ever said that had some little merit of its 
 own. Mr. John Haggart, one of the prisoner s coun 
 sel, in defending his client from the charge of disre 
 spect of the king, quoted Burke s statement that 
 kings are naturally lovers of low company. &quot; Then, 
 sir, that says very little for you or your client ! for 
 if kinggs be lovers of low company, low company 
 ought to be lovers of kinggs ! &quot; 
 
 Nothing disturbed him so much as the expense 
 
 * Whenever a name could be pronounced in more ways than 
 one, he gave them all ; and always put an accent on the last syl 
 lable. For example, syllable he called syllabill. And when a 
 word ended with the letter G, this letter was pronounced, and 
 strongly. Arid he was very fond of meaningless successions 
 of adjectives. A good man would be described as one excel 
 lent, and worthy, and amiabill, and agreeabill, and very good 
 man. The article A was generally made into one, and he gene 
 rally cut a word of three syllables into two separate words, the first 
 of two syllables, and the last of one, and even divided a word of 
 two syllables into two words. Thus, I met a young friend as I 
 was walking in the Canongate, was converted by him into, &quot; I met 
 one youngg friend as I was walk-ing in the Canon-gate.&quot; 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 121 
 
 of the public dinner for which the judge on the 
 circuit lias a fixed allowance, and out of which the 
 less he spends the more he gains. His devices for 
 economy were often very diverting. His servant 
 had strict orders to check the bottles of wine by 
 laying aside the corks. His lordship once went be 
 hind a screen at Stirling, while the company was still 
 at table, and seeing an alarming row of corks, got 
 into a warm altercation, which everybody overheard, 
 with John ; maintaining it to be &quot; impossibill &quot; that 
 they could have drunk so much. On being assured 
 that they had, and were still going on u Well, then, 
 John, I must just protect myself! &quot; On which he 
 put a handful of the corks into his pocket, and 
 resumed his seat. 
 
 Brougham tormented him, and sat on his skirts 
 wherever he went, for above a year. The Justice 
 liked passive counsel who let him dawdle on with 
 culprits and juries in his own way ; and consequently 
 he hated the talent, the eloquence, the energy, and all 
 the discomposing qualities of Brougham. At last it 
 seemed as if a court day was to be blessed by his 
 absence, and the poor Justice was delighting himself 
 with the prospect of being allowed to deal with 
 things as he chose ; when, lo ! his enemy appeared 
 tall, cool, and resolute. &quot; I declare,&quot; said the 
 Justice, u that man Broom, or Broug-ham is the tor 
 ment of my life ! &quot; His revenge, as usual, consisted 
 
122 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 in sneering at Brougham s eloquence by calling it 
 or him the Harangue. u Well, gentle-men, what did 
 the Harangue say next? Why it said this 7 (mis 
 stating it) ; u but here, gentle-men, the Harangue 
 was most plainly wrongg, and not intelligibill.&quot; 
 
 As usual, then, with stronger heads than his, 
 everything was connected by his terror with republi 
 can horrors. I heard him, in condemning a tailor to 
 death for murdering a soldier by stabbing him, 
 aggravate the offence thus, &quot; and not only did you 
 murder him, whereby he was berea-ved of his life, 
 but you did thrust, or push, or pierce, or project, or 
 propell, the le-thall weapon through the belly-band 
 of his regimen-tal breeches, which were his Ma- 
 jes-ty s ! &quot; 
 
 In the trial of Glengarry for murder in a duel, a 
 lady of great beauty was called as a witness. She 
 came into Court veiled. But before administering 
 the oath Eskgrove gave her this exposition of her 
 duty u Youngg woman ! you will now consider 
 yourself as in the presence of Almighty God, and of 
 this High Court. Lift up your veil ; throw off all 
 modesty, and look me in the face.&quot; 
 
 Sir John Henderson of Fordell, a zealous Wliig, 
 had long nauseated the civil court by his burgh 
 politics. Their Lordships had once to fix the 
 amount of some discretionary penalty that he had 
 incurred. Eskgrove began to give his opinion in a 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 123 
 
 very low voice, but loud enough to be heard by 
 those next him, to the effect that the fine ought to 
 be fifty pounds ; when Sir John, with his usual 
 imprudence, interrupted him, and begged him to 
 raise his voice, adding that if judges did not speak 
 so as to be heard, they might as well not speak at 
 all. Eskgrove, who could never endure any impu 
 tation of bodily infirmity, asked his neighbour, 
 44 What does the fellow say?&quot; 44 He says that, if 
 you don t speak out, you may as well hold your 
 tongue.&quot; 44 Oh, is that what he says ? My Lords, 
 what I was sayingg was very simp ell. I was only 
 sayingg that in my humbell opinyon, this fine could 
 not be less than two hundred and fifty pounds 
 sterlingg&quot; this sum being roared out as loudly as 
 his old angry voice could launch it. 
 
 His tediousness, both of manner and matter, in 
 charging juries was most dreadful. It was the 
 custom to make juries stand while the judge was 
 addressing them ; but no other judge was punctilious 
 about it. Eskgrove however insisted upon it ; and 
 if any one of them slipped cunningly down to his 
 seat, or dropped into it from inability to stand any 
 longer, the unfortunate wight was sure to be reminded 
 by his Lordship that a these were not the times in 
 which there should be any disrespect of this high 
 court, or even of the law.&quot; Often have I gone 
 back to the court at midnight, .and found him, 
 
124 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 whom I had left mumbling hours before, still going 
 on, with the smoky unsnuffed tallow candles in 
 greasy tin candlesticks, and the poor despairing 
 jurymen, most of the audience having retired or 
 being asleep ; the wagging of his Lordship s nose 
 and chin being the chief signs that he was still 
 char-ging. 
 
 A very common arrangement of his logic to 
 juries was this a And so, gentle-men, having shewn 
 you that the pannell s argument is utterly impos- 
 sibill, I shall now proceed for to shew you that it 
 is extremely improbabill.&quot; 
 
 He rarely failed to signalize himself in pronoun 
 cing sentences of death. It was almost a matter of 
 style with him to console the prisoner by assuring 
 him that, &quot;whatever your religi-ous persua-shon 
 may be, or even if, as I suppose, you be of no per 
 sua-shon at all, there are plenty of rever-end gentle 
 men who will be most happy for to shew you the 
 way to y eternal life.&quot; 
 
 He had to condemn two or three persons to die 
 who had broken into a house at Luss, and assaulted 
 Sir James Colquhoun and others, and robbed them 
 of a large sum of money. He first, as was his 
 almost constant practice, explained the nature of 
 the various crimes, assault, robbery, and hame- 
 sucken of which last he gave them the etymology ; 
 and he then reminded them that they attacked the 
 
13 Y HENRY COCKBURN. 125 
 
 house and the persons within it, and robbed them, 
 and then came to this climax u All this you did; 
 and God, preserve us! joost when they were sitten 
 doon to their denner ! &quot; 
 
 But a whole volume could easily be filled with 
 specimens of his absurdities. Scott, not by inven 
 tion but by accurate narration, could have done it 
 himself. So could Jeffrey ; and William Clerk ; 
 and William Erskine ; and indeed everybody who 
 had eyes and ears. He was the staple of the public 
 conversation ; and so long as his old age lasted (for 
 of his youth I know nothing) he nearly drove Napo 
 leon out of the Edinburgh world. He died in 1804, 
 in his eightieth year ; and had therefore been put 
 at the head of the Court when he had reached the 
 age of seventy-six : an incredible appointment ; for 
 his peculiarities had been in full flourish long before 
 that. It would have been a pity if the public had 
 lost them ; but it was unfortunate that a judicial 
 chair was necessary for their complete exhibition. 
 A story of Eskgrove is still preferred to all other 
 stories. Only, the things that he did and said every 
 day are beginning to be incredible to this correct 
 and flat age. 
 
 Besides great experience and great reputation in 
 every legal sphere, Hay Campbell, the Lord Presi 
 dent, had had his mind enlarged by the office of 
 
126 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Lord Advocate, which had introduced him to Par 
 liament and to public administration. These oppor 
 tunities were not lost upon his working and intelli 
 gent intellect. As a lawyer, and in every department 
 of the science, he was inferior to none of his brethren 
 in depth or learning, and was greatly superior to 
 them all in a genuine and liberal taste for the law s 
 improvement. Of all the old judges he was the 
 only one whose mind was thoroughly opened to the 
 comprehension of modern mercantile jurisprudence. 
 Though grave and sound, ingenuity was perhaps his 
 prevailing power. Fineness in a piece of reasoning 
 had far greater attractions for him than plainness : 
 the reality of a distinction was rather improved by 
 its not being obvious. I forget whether it was Thur- 
 low or Loughborough who described this logical 
 delicacy by saying, that if the question was, whether 
 a wine was Sherry or Madeira, he would refer it 
 to Wight ; but that if it was whether the wine was 
 one kind of either, or another kind, he would rely 
 upon Campbell. This habit of active refinement is 
 often unfavourable to correctness of judgment. But 
 this tendency was avoided in him by the practical 
 nature of the ends and of the means to which his 
 life was devoted. His sagacity upon these matters 
 was too strong to be misled by the subtlety which 
 he reserved for the logic of professional argument. 
 His forensic writing, which was the form in 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 127 
 
 which the argumentation of the bar was then mostly 
 conducted, was admirable. And well was he prac 
 tised in it ; because during a considerable period of 
 his career, he was believed to have furnished at 
 least one Session Paper every day. They were 
 models, as everything he wrote was, of clearness 
 and brevity. His speaking, always admirable in 
 matter, was the reverse of attractive. He could 
 only be severely argumentative, and the painfulness 
 of this was increased by the minuteness of his ela 
 boration, and the dryness of his manner. His voice 
 was low and dull, his face sedate and hard. Even 
 when heaving internally with strong passion, exter 
 nally he was like a knot of wood. 
 
 There was one part of his Presidential duty which 
 he performed better than any one in that chair has 
 ever done. He was accessible to every individual, 
 and to every scheme, having the improvement of the 
 law for their object; and not content with a formal 
 and gracious tolerance of legal authors or reformers, 
 he listened with the sincere patience of one who liked 
 the subject, read every line of their manuscripts, dis 
 cussed every point, and gave them the full aid of his 
 station and experience. Bell s recorded acknow 
 ledgments of the assistance he derived from him, in 
 the construction of his great work, are not merely 
 complimentary, but express the simple fact. He 
 did not go, and could not have gone, so far in legal 
 
128 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 reform as Parliament and the public have since done ; 
 and no wise man, whatever his opinions might have 
 been, would have attempted to do so in his day. 
 But he went far enough to evince great enlargement 
 of mind, and a complete superiority to that adherence 
 to established abuses which is most unjustly ascribed 
 to all professional lawyers. I can sympathize with 
 his lingering attachment to that judicial discretion, 
 termed the nobile officium, of the Court, which though 
 dangerous, and seldom mentioned now except with 
 a sneer, was necessary long ago, and was frequently 
 appealed to and exercised for several years after I 
 came to the bar. His collection of the rarer Acts of 
 Sederunt was made and published chiefly in order to 
 defend this authority, by shewing how beneficially 
 it had been administered. It is a power that can 
 never be safe ; but it was natural, and indeed indis 
 pensable, in old Scotland : where Praetorian equity 
 was at least better than anything that was to be 
 expected from subservient Parliaments or profligate 
 Privy Councils. 
 
 The only shade ever attempted to be cast over 
 Sir Hay s memory was by an insinuation that as Lord 
 President he was tricky. That he was ambitious of 
 having a prevailing influence over his brethren was 
 true of him, as of every other Chief Justice. None 
 of them ever like to be in a minority in their own 
 court. But there was no ground for believing that 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 129 
 
 lie attempted to secure this honourable predominance 
 by improper management. We must consider the 
 circumstances of his situation. When a Court con 
 sists, as the Court of Session then did, of a mob of 
 fifteen judges, meeting without previous consultation, 
 and each impatient for independent eminence, and 
 many of them liable to be called away and to return 
 irregularly in the course of the same day, the decorum 
 of the tribunal often compels the head to exercise 
 an indirect control, which is liable to be mistaken 
 for manoeuvring dexterity. The necessity for any 
 thing of the kind has been extinguished by reducing 
 the Court to a small number of fixed judges. But 
 so long as it might consist of fifteen, and might at 
 every moment vary between fifteen and nine, Presi 
 dent Campbell managed it exactly as all other 
 Presidents had been obliged to do. Had there been 
 more in his manner and general reputation to render 
 this charge improbable, it would never have been 
 made. Blair would have put it down by a look. 
 But Campbell was known to have a turn for managing, 
 and to hide beneath his calm steady appearance a deep 
 and artful spirit. That he allowed it, however, to 
 obstruct his Presidential correctness I do not believe. 
 His private life was useful and respectable. Be 
 loved by his family, and looked up to by a large 
 circle of friends, he passed his time in town mostly 
 
 in his library, and in the country on his farm ; and 
 
 K 
 
130 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 wherever lie was, he was always a hospitable gentle 
 man. Few houses saw more or better company 
 than his. He had an excellent Presidential custom 
 of giving substantial and agreeable evening parties 
 to the young men at the Bar. Many have I seen. 
 Not stiff and vapid formalities, nor impracticable 
 mobs, but manageable meetings of from ten to 
 twenty, where he presided, in his single-breasted coat 
 and a wig, over solid food, and free talk, and copious 
 claret. But these were in the supper days. 
 
 Of the younger judges, who belonged to the 
 generation with which I was now connected, the 
 most remarkable were Lord Glenlee, Lord Hermand, 
 Lord Meadowbank, and Lord Cullen ; all of whom I 
 knew personally. 
 
 I was so intimately connected, as a relation and 
 friend, with Lord Kilkerran s son George Fergusson, 
 Lord Hermand, that it may perhaps be supposed that 
 I cannot speak candidly about him. But he has 
 often been described in a way neither agreeable to 
 truth, nor respectable for himself. His celebrity 
 arose entirely from his personal character. For 
 although he attained considerable practice at the 
 bar, and was a quick and vigorous judge, and took 
 a keen part in all the public measures of his time, 
 he was not so important in these spheres as to have 
 * Lord Cockburn s Life of Lord Jeffrey, vol. I. p. 121. ED. 
 
P,Y HENRY COCKBURN. 131 
 
 been a man of mark in them, independently of his 
 individual peculiarities. But these made him one 
 of the most singular, and indeed incredible, of OUT 
 old originals. They often threw even Eskgrove into 
 the shade during that person s life ; and after he died, 
 no Edinburgh man, by worth and singularity alone, 
 belonged so much as Hermand did to the public. 
 
 His external appearance was as striking as every 
 thing else about him. Tall and thin, with grey lively 
 eyes, and a long face strongly expressive of what 
 ever emotion he was under, his air and manner were 
 distinctly those of a well-born and well-bred gentle 
 man, His dress for society, the style of which he 
 stuck to almost as firmly as he did to his principles, 
 reminded us of the olden time, when trowsers would 
 have insulted any company, and braces were deemed 
 an impeachment of nature. Neither the disclosure 
 of the long neck by the narrow bit of muslin stock, 
 nor the outbreak of the linen between the upper and 
 nether garments, nor the short coat sleeves, with the 
 consequent length of bare wrist, could hide his being- 
 one of the aristocracy. And if they had, the thin 
 and powdered grey hair, flowing down into a long- 
 thin gentleman-like pigtail, would have attested it. 
 His morning raiment in the country was delightful. 
 The articles, rough and strange, w^ould of themselves 
 have attracted notice in a museum. But set upon 
 George Fergusson, at his paradise of Hermand, 
 
132 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 during vacation, on going forth for a long day s 
 work often manual at his farm, with his grey 
 felt hat and tall weeding hoe what could be more 
 agrestic or picturesque ! 
 
 Till about the age of thirty, when he began to 
 get into practice, he was a pretty regular student ; 
 and he was always fond of reading, and being read 
 to, but not methodically, nor in any particular 
 line. He had thus gathered a respectable chaos of 
 accidental knowledge. Of his various and very 
 respectable mental powers, acuteness was perhaps 
 the most striking. His affections were warm and 
 steady ; his honor of the highest and purest order. 
 
 But all this will not produce a curious man. 
 What was it that made Hermand such an established 
 wonder and delight ? It seems to me to have been 
 the supremacy in his composition of a single quality 
 intensity of temperament, which was so conspi 
 cuous that it prevented many people from perceiving 
 anything else in him. He could not be indifferent. 
 Repose, except in bed, where however he slept 
 zealously, was unnatural and contemptible to him. 
 It used to be said that if Hermand had made the 
 heavens, he would have permitted no fixed stars. 
 His constitutional animation never failed to carry 
 him a flight beyond ordinary mortals. Was he in 
 an argument, or at whist, or over his wine in Court, 
 or at an election, or a road meeting ; consulting with 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 133 
 
 a ploughman, or talking with a child ; he was sure 
 to blaze out in a style that nobody could have 
 fancied, or could resist enjoying. Those who only 
 saw the operation of this ardour in public conflict, 
 were apt to set him down as a phrenzied man, with 
 rather a savage temper; an impression that was 
 increased by what the Scotch call the Birr, which 
 means the emphatic energy, of his pronunciation. Be 
 holding him in contention, they thought him a tiger. 
 But to those who knew him personally, the lamb 
 was a truer type. When removed from contests 
 which provoke impatience, and placed in the pri 
 vate scene, where innocent excesses are only amus 
 ing, what a heart ! what conversational wildness ! 
 made more delightful by the undoubting sincerity 
 of the passing extravagance. There never was a 
 more pleasing example of the superiority of right 
 affections over intellectual endowments in the crea 
 tion of happiness. Had he depended on his under 
 standing alone, or chiefly, he would have been 
 wrecked every week. But honesty, humanity, 
 social habits, and diverting public explosions, 
 always kept him popular ; and he lived about 
 eighty-four years, with keen and undisguised feel 
 ings and opinions, without ever being alienated 
 from a friend, or imagining a shabby action, 
 devoted to rural occupations, keeping up his read 
 ing, and maintaining his interest in the world by 
 
134 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 cultivating the young. Instead of sighing over 
 the departure of former days, and grumbling at 
 change, he zealously patronized every new project, 
 not political ; and at last mellowed away, amidst a 
 revering household, without having ever known 
 what a headache is, with no decay of his mental 
 powers, and only a short and gentle physical 
 feebleness. 
 
 With very simple tastes, and rather a contempt 
 of epicurism, but very gregarious, he was fond of 
 the pleasures, and not least of the liquid ones, of 
 the table ; and he had acted in more of the severest 
 scenes of old Scotch drinking than any man at last 
 living. Common-place topers think drinking a plea 
 sure ; but with Hermand it was a virtue. It inspired 
 the excitement by which he was elevated, and the 
 discursive jollity which he loved to promote. But 
 beyond these ordinary attractions, he had a sincere 
 respect for drinking, indeed a high moral approba 
 tion, and a serious compassion for the poor wretches 
 who could not indulge in it ; with due contempt of 
 those who could, but did not. He groaned over the 
 gradual disappearance of the Fereat days of periodi 
 cal festivity, and prolonged the observance, like a 
 hero fighting amidst his fallen friends, as long as he 
 could. The worship of Bacchus, which softened 
 his own heart, and seemed to him to soften the 
 hearts of his companions, was a secondary duty. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 135 
 
 But in its performance there was no violence, no 
 coarseness, 110 impropriety, and no more noise than 
 what belongs to well-bred jollity unrestrained. It 
 was merely a sublimation of his peculiarities and 
 excellences ; the realization of what poetry ascribes 
 to the grape. No carouse ever injured his health, 
 for he was never ill, or impaired his taste for home 
 and quiet, or muddled his head : he slept the 
 sounder for it, and rose the earlier and the cooler. 
 The cordiality inspired by claret and punch was 
 felt by him as so congenial to all right thinking, 
 that he was confident that he could convert the 
 Pope if he could only get him to sup with him. 
 And certainly his Holiness would have been hard to 
 persuade, if he could have withstood Hermand about 
 the middle of his second tumbler. 
 
 The public opinions of this remarkable person 
 were very decided and not illiberal ; for he com 
 bined strong Tory principles with stronger Whig- 
 friendships, and a taste for Calvinism, under the 
 creed of which he deemed himself extremely pious, 
 with the indulgence of every social propensity. 
 
 Like many other counsel, not of the highest 
 class, he owed his professional practice chiefly to 
 the fervour of his zeal. His other qualities would 
 have carried him a considerable way, but they would 
 never have raised him to the height he reached and 
 retained, without his honest conviction that his client 
 
136 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 was always right, and always ill-used. When it 
 was known that he was to speak, the charm of the 
 intensity which this belief produced never failed to 
 fill the Court. His eagerness made him froth and 
 sputter so much in his argumentation that there is 
 a story to the effect, that when he was once pleading 
 in the House of Lords, the Duke of Gloucester, who 
 was about fifty feet from the bar, and always 
 attended when u Mr. George Fergusson, the Scotch 
 counsel&quot; was to speak, rose and said with pretended 
 gravity, &quot; I shall be much obliged to the learned 
 gentleman if he will be so good as to refrain from 
 spitting in my face.&quot; The same animation followed 
 him to the bench, where he moderated no view from 
 prudence, and flinched from no result, and never 
 saw any difficulty. President Campbell once deli 
 vered one of his deep and nice opinions, full of 
 qualifications and doubts. The instant he was done, 
 Hermand sprang upon him by a judgment begin 
 ning &quot; My Lords, thank God, I never doubted ! &quot; 
 He was very intimate at one time with Sir John 
 Scott, afterwards Lord Eldon. They were counsel 
 together in Eldon s first important Scotch entail case 
 in the House of Lords. Eldon was so much alarmed 
 that he wrote his intended speech, and begged 
 Hermand to dine with him at a tavern, where he 
 
 * He pronounced this word as if it Lad been Laards with a 
 prolonged quiver of intensity, and many others in the same way. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 137 
 
 read the paper, and asked him if he thought it would 
 do. u Do, Sir ? It is delightful absolutely delight 
 ful ! I could listen to it for ever ! It is so beauti 
 fully written ! And so beautifully read ! But Sir, 
 it s the greatest nonsense ! It may do very well for 
 an English chancellor 5 but it would disgrace a clerk 
 with us.&quot; He told me the blunder, and though gross 
 for a Scotch lawyer, it was one that an English 
 counsel would readily commit. Many a bottle of 
 port did he and Eldon discuss together. 
 
 Bacon advises judges to draw their law &quot; out of 
 your books, not out of your brain.&quot; Hermand 
 generally did neither. He was very apt to say 
 u My Laards, I feel my law here, myLaards,&quot; striking 
 his heart. Hence he sometimes made little cere 
 mony in disdaining the authority of an Act of Parlia 
 ment, when he and it happened to differ. He once 
 got rid of one which Lord Meadowbank (the first), 
 whom he did not particularly like, was for enforcing 
 because the Legislature had made it law, by saying, 
 in his snorting, contemptuous way, and with an 
 emphasis on every syllable &quot; But then we re told 
 that there s a statute against all this. A statute ! 
 What s a statute ? Words. Mere words ! And am 
 f to be tied down by words ? No, my Laards ; I 
 go by the law of right reason: Lord Holland noticed 
 this in the House of Peers as a strange speech for a 
 judge. Lord Gillies could not resist the pleasure of 
 
138 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 reading Holland s remark to Hermand, who was 
 generally too impetuous to remember his own words. 
 He entirely agreed with Lord Holland, and was 
 indignant at the Court suffering u from the rashness 
 of fools.&quot; u Well, my Lord, but who could Lord 
 Holland be alluding to?&quot; u Alluding to? who can 
 it be but that creature Meadowbank?&quot; 
 
 In giving his opinion on the validity of a qua 
 lification to vote for a member of Parliament, after 
 it had been sustained both here and in the House of 
 Lords, he declared that, nevertheless, it was not only 
 bad, but so bad that &quot; I defy Omnipotence to make 
 it good.&quot; u Then,&quot; said the quiet philosophic Play- 
 fair, &quot; it must be very bad indeed ; for his Lordship 
 assured me, in a conversation about Professor Leslie s 
 case, that he had no difficulty at all in conceiving 
 
 God to make a world where twice three was not 
 
 &amp;gt; ? 
 
 There was a case about a lease, where our Court 
 thought itself entitled in equity to make a new con 
 tract for parties, different from the one which the 
 parties had made for themselves. The Lord Chan 
 cellor (Eldon) was of opinion that a clear clause in 
 a contract ought always to be enforced, and remitted 
 the matter to the Court below for reconsideration. 
 The result of Hermand s reconsideration was this 
 a Why, my Lords, I beg to put a very simple question 
 to the House of Lords. Suppose that the tenant 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 139 
 
 had engaged to hang himself at the end of the lease, 
 would their Lordships enforce that?&quot; Upon a second 
 appeal, after reading the question aloud, Eldon, 
 with ludicrous gravity, said u that he would endea 
 vour to make up his mind upon the very important 
 question put, when the case should come before 
 their Lordships in regular form;&quot; and added, that 
 he had great pleasure in remembering when his 
 friend George Fergussoii and he used to do battle 
 at this bar in Scotch causes, but that, if he recol 
 lected right, his learned friend had not then the 
 admiration of the Court of Session that he seemed 
 to have acquired since. Hermand was pleased with 
 the recognition, and exclaimed, u And if he knew 
 the truth, Sir, though this is a secret he would 
 tind that I had not got it yet.&quot; 
 
 Two young gentlemen, great friends, w^ent to 
 gether to the theatre in Glasgow, supped at the 
 lodgings of one of them, and passed a whole sum 
 mer night over their punch. In the morning a 
 kindly wrangle broke out about their separating or 
 not separating, when by some rashness, if not acci 
 dent, one of them was stabbed, not violently, but 
 in so vital a part that he died on the spot. The 
 survivor was tried at Edinburgh, and was convicted 
 of culpable homicide. It was one of the sad cases 
 where the legal guilt was greater than the moral ; 
 and, very properly, he w^as sentenced to only a short 
 
140 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 imprisonment. Hermand, who felt that discredit 
 had been brought on the cause of drinking, had no 
 sympathy with the tenderness of his temperate 
 brethren, and was vehement for transportation. 
 &quot; We are told that there was no malice, and that 
 the prisoner must have been in liquor. In liquor ! 
 Why, he was drunk ! And yet he murdered the 
 very man who had been drinking with him ! They 
 had been carousing the whole night* and yet he 
 stabbed him ! after drinking a whole bottle of rum 
 with him ! Good God, my Laards, if he will do 
 this when he s drunk, what will he not do when 
 he s sober? 7 
 
 His love of children was warm-hearted and 
 unaffected. He always treated them seriously, 
 exactly as if they were grown up. Few old men s 
 speeches are more amiable than his about his grand- 
 nephew who happened to be his partner in a match 
 at bowls, &quot; No wonder that that little fellow and 1 
 are such friends there are just seventy years be 
 tween us.&quot; He was eighty, the boy ten. 
 
 But when a boy happened to be a sailor, he was 
 irresistible. A little English midshipman being 
 violently attacked by a much bigger lad in Green- 
 ock, defended himself with his dirk, and by an 
 unfortunate, if not accidental, thrust, killed the 
 assailant. He was tried for this at Glasgow, and 
 had the good luck to have Hermand for his judge ; 
 
BY HENRY COCK BURN. 141 
 
 for no judge ever fought a more gallant battle for a 
 prisoner. The boy appeared at the bar in his 
 uniform. Hermand first refused u to try a child.&quot; 
 After this was driven out of him, the indictment, 
 which described the occurrence and said that the 
 prisoner had slain the deceased &quot; wickedly and 
 feloniously/ 7 was read 5 and Hermand then said, 
 &quot; Well, my young friend, this is not true, is it ? Are 
 you guilty or not guilty ?&quot; u Not guilty, my Lord.&quot; 
 &quot;I ll be sworn you re not!&quot; In spite of all his 
 exertions, his young friend was convicted of culpable 
 homicide ; for which he was sentenced to a few 
 days 7 imprisonment. 
 
 Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank, was a 
 curious and able man. His true merits were ob 
 scured, while he lived, by certain accidental oddities 
 which obstructed the perception of them. He took 
 great pleasure in exercising his own mind, and in 
 making people wonder at the singularity of his views; 
 into which, as into his language, he never failed to 
 infuse as much metaphysical phraseology and argu 
 ment as he could. Though not really conceited, he 
 was apt to put on an air of pretension, which, 
 though it was chiefly in the manner, was often 
 misunderstood. There could scarcely be better 
 evidence of the vigour of his intellect, than that he 
 was able, by it alone, to triumph over his defects. 
 
142 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 For he was a person of great mental activity 
 and acuteness ; an independent and original thinker, 
 and of very considerable learning. His knowledge 
 reached every subject legal, scientific, historical 
 and literary, and consequently was perhaps more 
 varied than accurate; and under his ceaseless 
 industry his information increased hourly. I used 
 to go circuits with him, and he seemed to me to be 
 equally at home in divinity, or agriculture, or geo 
 logy, in examining mountains, or demonstrating 
 his errors to a farmer, or refuting the dogmas of the 
 clergyman 5 though of all his occupations, the last 
 perhaps gave him the greatest pleasure. For his 
 peculiar delight, and his peculiar power, was in 
 speculation ; chiefly as applied to the theoretical 
 history of man and of nations. He acquired great 
 skill in the use of his metaphysical power, both as 
 a sword and as a shield, in the intellectual contests 
 in which it was his delight to be always engaged. 
 He questioned every thing ; he demonstrated every 
 thing ; his whole life was a discussion. This, 
 though sometimes oppressive, was generally very 
 diverting, and gave him a great facility in de 
 tecting and inventing principles, and in tracing 
 them to their sources, and to their consequences. 
 Jeffrey described this well when he said, that 
 while the other judges gave the tree a tug, one 
 on this side and one on that, Meadowbank not 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 143 
 
 only tore it up by the roots, but gave it a shake 
 which dispersed the earth and exposed the whole 
 fibres. 
 
 In the higher quality of calm soundness he was 
 not equally eminent. Indeed before he spoke it 
 would often have been a fair wager, whether what 
 he said would be reasonable or extravagant. All 
 that was certain was, that even his extravagance 
 would be vigorous and original. Soundness indeed 
 had no great attraction for a spirit eager for victory, 
 but still more eager for conflict. He had more 
 pleasure in inventing ingenious reasons for being 
 wrong, than in being quietly right. Thus, with 
 powers which made all anxious to listen, he had 
 few followers as a safe leader. 
 
 Sir Harry Moncreiff, who was present at his 
 marriage, and I believe performed the ceremony, 
 told me that the knot was tied about seven in the 
 evening, and that at a later hour the bridegroom 
 disappeared ; and, on being sought for, was found 
 absorbed in the composition of a metaphysical essay 
 u on pains and penalties.&quot; 
 
 Mr. Thomas Walker Baird was, in a dull tech 
 nical way, stating a dry case to his Lordship, who 
 was sitting single. This did not please the judge, 
 who thought that his dignity required a grander 
 tone. So he dismayed poor Baird, than whom no 
 man could have less turn for burning in the Forum, 
 
144 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 by throwing himself back in his chair, and saying 
 &quot;Declaim, Sir! why don t you declaim? speak to 
 me as if I were a popular assembly !&quot; 
 
 Eobert Cullen, a son of the great physician, was 
 a gentleman-like person in his manner, and learned 
 in his profession, in which however he was too 
 indolent and irregular to attain steady practice. 
 His best professional achievement was his written 
 argument for Lord Daer, in support of the right of 
 the eldest sons of Scotch peers to sit in the House 
 of Commons ; and his best political one was, the 
 bill for the reform of the Scotch representation in 
 1785, which he drew, and his share in the measures 
 connected with that project. 
 
 But the truth is, that he had the misfortune to 
 possess one power which seems to exclude the exer 
 cise of all others. He was a mimic ; and one of the 
 very highest order. Dugald Stewart somewhere 
 calls him &quot; the most perfect of all mimics.&quot; His 
 skill was not confined to imitations of voices, looks, 
 manners, and external individualties ; but he copied 
 the very words, nay the very thoughts of his sub 
 jects. He was particularly successful with his 
 friend Principal Robertson, whose character he once 
 endangered in a tavern by indecorous toasts, songs, 
 and speeches, given with such a resemblance of the 
 original, that a party on the other side of the parti- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 145 
 
 tion, suspecting no trick, went home believing that 
 they had caught the reverend historian unawares. 
 On another occasion, the Principal announced his 
 determination to administer a severe lecture to a 
 young Englishman, who was boarding with him, 
 the next time that he staid out too late at night. 
 He soon transgressed again, probably in Cullen s 
 company. Cullen, knowing what was likely to 
 happen, went to the Principal s early next morning, 
 and walked up to the youth s room, with an exact 
 resemblance of the doctor s step on the stair, and 
 then, seating himself behind the curtain, gave a long 
 and formal admonition to the headachy penitent; 
 after which he retired with the same foot-tread. In 
 fulfilment of his threat, the Principal approached 
 sometime afterwards, sat down, and began. After he 
 had gone on a certain time, the culprit, who could 
 not understand why he should get it twice, confessed 
 his sin, and reminded the doctor, that when he had 
 been with him before, he had assured him that he 
 would not err in the same way again. a Oh ho!&quot; 
 said the Principal, &quot; so that dog Cullen has been 
 before me !&quot; He could not tell a story without dis 
 closing his power a fee-less faculty. 
 
 Though these few were those most spoken of, 
 the Bench contained several other learned and worthy 
 
 judges, but not one whose public ideas went beyond 
 
 L 
 
146 MEMOKIALS OF HIS TIME BY HENRY COCKBURN. 
 
 the passing hour, or who saw any duty or object for 
 that hour except an adoption and promotion of its 
 intolerance. Cullen, and Bannatyne Macleod, an 
 honest merry old gentleman, were so far disenthralled 
 that they disclaimed exclusive fealty to Henry Dun- 
 das, to whom by some accident they did not directly 
 owe their appointments. With these two shades of 
 immaterial exception, there probably were not fifteen 
 other men in the island to whom political indepen 
 dence was more offensive than to these fifteen 
 judges. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE Bar, upon which the condition of Scotland has 
 always so much depended, was rich in talent, and 
 its public lines were deeply marked. It was divided 
 into Whigs and Tories, with an overwhelming nume-= 
 rical majority in favor of the latter. The seniors 
 meaning by this term those who had secured, or 
 had begun to secure, practice prior to the decided 
 outbreak of the French revolution in 1790 could 
 not be then turned off the professional course by 
 politics. The public favor was strongly with the 
 Tories; who had also the much more valuable 
 advantage of the very undisguised favor of the 
 Bench. But still the Whigs, having started, could 
 not be prevented going on with the race. But all 
 hope of official preferment, and even of any profes 
 sional countenance that power could shew them, 
 was sternly and ostentatiously closed against them. 
 A sacrifice of principle would have relaxed the 
 interdiction ; but in no one instance was the sacrifice 
 made or imagined. 
 
148 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Of the juniors by whom I mean those who 
 came to the Bar between 1790 and 1804, the hot 
 stage of our political fever, which our second war 
 cooled very nearly the whole junior practice, and 
 absolutely the whole of everything else that patron 
 age could confer, was engrossed by the Tories. 
 Their Whig brethren were, practically, proscribed. 
 They liberated themselves ultimately, and vindicated 
 their proper places ; but it was under proscription, 
 with all its privations and bitterness, that their 
 course began. 
 
 This single, and most blessed, fact explains im 
 portant distant results. Certainty of easy success, 
 paraded, not too modestly, as triumphant evidence 
 of superior merit, deeply and irrecoverably injured 
 the Government juniors, on whom, far more than on 
 the seniors, the coming times were to depend. There 
 was such a crowd of candidates for favor, that the 
 eager mendicants had no such obvious way of push 
 ing their claim as by excess of party zeal and party 
 service. This is common in all parties. But it was 
 unfortunate for these men that the policy of the 
 party which they had to promote was not connected 
 with enlightened objects or principles. The only 
 duty presented to them was one, which, the better 
 they practised it, was the worse for themselves. All 
 they had to do was &quot; to maintain the cause of good 
 order,&quot; which meant to resist change, to uphold 
 
BY HENRY COCKBUKN. 149 
 
 whatever was, and to abuse as democrats all who 
 differed from them ; a task not calculated to liberalize 
 the mind. Their worst qualities were most fostered. 
 The consequence scarcely requires to be stated. 
 They produced several most excellent men and very 
 respectable lawyers, but not one person, except 
 Walter Scott, who rose to distinction in literature, 
 and not one who was looked up to by the country 
 as its guide or instructor in public affairs or in any 
 branch of political philosophy. There never was a 
 period during which in these fields the Tory side of 
 the Bar was so barren. 
 
 Those on the opposite side, who saw themselves 
 excluded from everything that power could keep 
 from them, reaped the natural advantages of this 
 position. It gave them leisure : persecution cher 
 ished elevation of character and habits of self-depen 
 dence. Being all branded with the same mark, and 
 put under the same ban, they were separated into 
 a sect of their own, within which there was mirth 
 and friendship, study and hope, ambition and visions. 
 There was a particular place at the north end of the 
 Outer House w^hich was the known haunt of these 
 doomed youths. And there did they lounge session 
 after session, and year after year, employed suffi 
 ciently now and then by a friendly agent to shew 
 what was in them, but never enough to make them 
 feel that they were engaged in a fair professional 
 
150 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 competition : reconciled however to their fate ; and 
 not at all depressed by their bad character. The 
 most important among them (besides other meritori 
 ous, though humbler, names) were John Macfarlan, 
 Archibald Fletcher, James Grahame, George Joseph 
 Bell, Thomas Thomson, Francis Jeffrey, James Mon- 
 creiff, Henry Brougham, George Cranstoun, and 
 Francis Horner. These names indicate a greater 
 amount of accomplished talent, and greater public 
 service in literature, in policy, and in law, than has 
 ever distinguished any era of the Scotch Bar. 
 
 This was the general condition of the Bar. The 
 individuals most remarkable on account of their pro 
 fessional eminence, and their public importance, 
 were on the popular side, Erskine,* Clerk, f and 
 Gillies ; on the Government side, Blair, Hope, and 
 Dundas. The three last, though followed by a large 
 shoal of younger fry, had no leviathans in their 
 party greater than themselves. The three first had 
 several persons in their wake not at all inferior to 
 themselves in solidity and spirit, and their superiors 
 at last in general reputation ; but these three were 
 the leaders in the meantime. 
 
 Robert Blair, the son of the reverend author of 
 u The Grave,&quot; was a species of man not very common 
 in Scotland. He had a fine manly countenance, a 
 
 * See Lord Cockburn s Life of Lord Jeffrey, vol. I. p. 91. ED. 
 -j- Ibid, vol. T. p. 199. ED. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 151 
 
 gen tl email-like portly figure, a slow dignified gait, 
 and a general air of thought and power. Too solid 
 for ingenuity, and too plain for fancy, soundness of 
 understanding was his peculiar intellectual quality. 
 Within his range nobody doubted, or could doubt, 
 Blair s wisdom. Nor did it ever occur to any one to 
 question his probity. He. was all honesty. The 
 sudden opening of the whole secrets of his heart 
 would not have disclosed a single speck of dishonor. 
 And all his affections, personal and domestic, were 
 excellent and steady. 
 
 He had one quality, or rather habit, so marked 
 that it was the only one by which some people knew 
 him, and which affected all his proceedings. It was 
 generally called laziness, but was perfectly distinct 
 from the ignoble sloth and the apathetic indifference 
 which this term is meant to describe. He was strong 
 in principle, and grudged no exertion that principle 
 required; and his feelings were warm, and his 
 temper hot. These are not the attributes of laziness. 
 But he had certainly a great taste for contemplative 
 repose, and a magnificent disdain of the paltry dis 
 tractions and low pursuits by which the self-posses 
 sion of repose is so commonly disturbed. This of 
 course implied a considerable extinction of vulgar 
 labour, and a great aversion to many of the efforts 
 that public men are often required to make, #nd 
 to many of the occupations in which they are often 
 
152 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 expected to engage. Instead of impairing Blair s 
 usefulness, as it used to be said to do, this dislike of 
 disturbance greatly promoted it. It disinclined him 
 from meddling with the thousand little teazing and 
 degrading affairs in which men of influence get 
 involved, and tended to secure his purity and inde 
 pendence. Hence lie never stooped to act in scenes 
 unworthy of him, and passed through a life beset 
 by competitions, without being ever drawn, so much 
 as for a moment, from his high even path by any 
 contemptible object. In dignity, sense, honesty, 
 and, when not excited, in repose he was an absolute 
 rock. 
 
 But he was very apt to be excited. And I have 
 no doubt that he took refuge in repose in order to 
 keep down the tendency ; though its having this 
 effect may be questioned. His temperament was 
 inflammable. The great check to such a constitution 
 arises out of the suppression produced by the neces 
 sities of human intercourse. But Blair s indolence 
 avoided these. He exposed himself so seldom to 
 opposition, that, instead of being practised into cool 
 ness by it, its friction made him blaze. It is rare to 
 find a fiery disposition and a strong love of ease 
 combined. In Blair each promoted the other. The 
 interruption of the ease raised the fire ; the irritation 
 of the fire made a relapse into ease delicious. 
 
 Amidst almost boundless general admiration, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 153 
 
 persons who thought themselves more discriminat 
 ing used to underrate his learning and his speaking ; 
 but this depreciation was almost always provoked 
 by the exaggeration of injudicious friends. The 
 exact truth admits of no doubt. He was very 
 learned as a lawyer, and respectably learned as a 
 practical gentleman. Science, as such, either moral 
 or physical, he had never studied. But besides 
 English literature, he read French, Greek, and 
 Latin ; and on the whole was a liberally intelligent 
 man. The merit of his speaking lay in two things 
 in luminous exposition of legal views, and in the 
 effect with which his warmth, manliness, and sin 
 cerity enabled him to express moral emotion, chiefly 
 indignation. Neither his position nor his taste had 
 ever required him to cultivate the higher and more 
 general habits of language and of thought that can 
 only be generated in spheres superior to courts of 
 law. There is therefore no sense in describing him 
 as a great orator, for his circumstances did not 
 admit of his being so. It is surely enough to say, 
 and it is true, that though his diction was poor, and 
 
 * John Playfair, one of his great friends, published an account 
 of Blair immediately after his death, which was republished at 
 the end of No. 139 of the Edinburgh Eeview (vol. Ixix. p. 281). 
 He there mentions Blair s &quot;profound erudition.&quot; This was one of 
 the imprudences of friendly compliment, which made some people 
 maintain that he was positively ignorant. The praise and the blame 
 were equally groundless. 
 
154 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 though his voice, which was good when he was 
 calm, got sputtering and screechy when he became 
 excited, he was, within the line of the forensic walk 
 to which he confined himself, as good a speaker as 
 that line requires in a man whose principal weapon 
 is his wisdom. His true eloquence was in the 
 dignity of his look and manner, and the weight 
 of his reputation. 
 
 Nothing could be more characteristic than his 
 progress. Beginning with the advantage of a 
 respectable but not a high origin, he devoted him 
 self quietly and steadily for rising, by merit alone, 
 in the vocation he had chosen. He did rise at last, 
 by legal force and good character, to the highest and 
 best sort of practice *, and having reached this emi 
 nence, he maintained it easily. No other counsel in 
 my time has had a more universal or just reputation 
 as a safe legal guide ; nor does the life of any other 
 barrister exhibit a more striking example of the 
 value of character on the exertions of this profession. 
 He might have had any promotion that he chose ; 
 but I have heard his friend the first Lord Melville 
 say, that George the Third used to speak of him as 
 the u man who would not go up.&quot; His noble indif 
 ference about office, and his abhorrence of the in 
 trigues by which office is too frequently obtained, 
 made him prefer the independence of his excellent 
 practice, which he kept as if by right. While others 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN, 155 
 
 were pushing and jostling for those things, which 
 he was glad to be quit of, he held to his comfortable 
 Solicitorship and to his own way so steadily, that 
 there was a line along the floor of the Outer House 
 where he generally walked, and which everybody 
 else kept off when he was there, respecting it as his 
 quarter-deck. His very superiors, both at the Bar 
 and on the Bench, stood in awe of him. For exam 
 ple, in a criminal trial when the Lord Advocate is 
 present, his Lordship, after having seen to the busi 
 ness part of it, generally leaves his representatives 
 to hear the address to the jury of the prisoner s 
 counsel, to endure the summing up, and to weary 
 for the verdict. I doubt if Blair ever remained 
 once. He withdrew, and left his chief and -the case 
 to their fate. His rising and moving off, which was 
 done slowly and openly, always caused a smile ; 
 contrasted as it was with the visible desire of the 
 colonel to go also, if he could only get the major to 
 stay a proposal, however, impossible to be made. 
 
 Yet, as 1 well know, he was most kind to young 
 men ; who, especially when they saw him at Avon- 
 ton, his country place near Linlithgow, were always 
 charmed with his attentions, and struck with his 
 dignified but friendly style. His conversation, when 
 he chose to indulge in it, was excellent, being intel 
 ligent, natural, and quiet. But he certainly had no 
 objection to silence. Many were the jokes, even to 
 
156 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 himself, about his taciturnity. I have seen him 
 play a long round game with a dozen of people, 
 without uttering a single word. But in this chatter 
 ing world, one sensible man out of a million may 
 well be allowed to be sometimes voluntarily dumb. 
 General politics he had never considered. His 
 opinions were those of his party. Speculation in 
 deed was not the habit of his mind ; and innovation, 
 besides being connected with outrage, disturbed his 
 tranquillity, and excited him. But though devoid 
 of political philosophy, and acting with a domineer 
 ing party, his steady head, aided powerfully by a 
 distaste of practical faction, saved his conduct from 
 imputation, and his mind from harshness. 
 
 Eobert Dundas of Arniston, the son of one Lord 
 President, and the grandson of another, was, in 
 public affairs, the most important person in this 
 country. For he was Lord Advocate in the most 
 alarming times, and at a period when extravagant 
 and arbitrary powers were ascribed to that office. 
 I knew him well; and lived many autumns with 
 him, at Arniston, in my youth. 
 
 His abilities and acquirements were both mode 
 rate ; and owing to the accident of his birth, which 
 placed him above all risk of failure in life, he was 
 never in a situation where he was compelled to im 
 prove either. Hence with all the advantages of his 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 157 
 
 position, all the favor of agents, and all the partiality 
 of courts, he never commanded any independent 
 private practice. His speaking, which was curiously 
 bad, injured the effect of his better powers. For he 
 had two qualifications which suited his position, 
 and made him not merely the best Lord Advocate 
 that his party could have supplied, but really a most 
 excellent one. These consisted in his manner, and 
 in his moderation. He was a little, alert, handsome, 
 gentleman-like man, with a countenance and air 
 beaming with sprightliness and gaiety, and dignified 
 by considerable fire ; altogether inexpressibly pleas 
 ing. It was impossible not to like the owner of that 
 look. No one could contemplate his animated and 
 elegant briskness, or his lively benignity, without 
 feeling that these were the reflections of an ardent 
 and amiable heart. His want of intellectual depth 
 and force seemed to make people like him the better. 
 And his manner was worthy of his appearance. It 
 was kind, polite, and gay ; and if the fire did happen 
 to break out, it was but a passing flash, and left 
 nothing painful after it was gone. 
 
 Eesistance of revolution, which he deemed his 
 main public duty, implied the maintenance of his 
 party, and of the Scotch supremacy of his family ; 
 and these accordingly were his direct objects, as the 
 means of attaining the end. But though obliged to 
 cultivate a very intemperate faction, he had the 
 
158 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 prudence to be less violent than his followers, and 
 gained and deserved a character for moderation as 
 the public accuser, which peculiarly fitted him for 
 his place. It is true that it was on his motion that 
 many of the iniquities of the Court of Justiciary 
 were committed 5 but then he moved for nothing 
 beyond what that Court held him to be legally 
 entitled to, or beyond what the public approved of. 
 I consider it as quite certain that he might have got 
 every political opponent transported that he had 
 chosen to indict. But the fewness of his victims is 
 the most honourable fact by which the proceedings 
 of any Lord Advocate could then be distinguished. 
 That he had Blair and Hume at hand for aid in law, 
 or that he was assisted or controlled in his measures 
 by his sagacious uncle, Lord Melville, are no deduc 
 tions from his merits. His being so counselled was a 
 proof of his sense. Nor can his success be explained, 
 as has been attempted, by the power of his office, 
 the devotion of the party he led, the hereditary 
 greatness, or the hereditary hospitality, of the House 
 of Arniston. These things might all have concurred 
 in a man of violence, and only made his offensive- 
 ness the greater. They would have availed nothing 
 to Dundas, if he had been vindictive as public prose 
 cutor, or shabby in his conduct, or sour in his looks. 
 
 * His statue, by Chantrey, though beautiful as a work of art, 
 and not unlike in its features, conveys no idea whatever of his 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 159 
 
 diaries Hope, who succeeded Dundas as Lord 
 Advocate in 1803, and was afterwards Justice-Clerk 
 and Lord President, was the tongue of the party, 
 and in the van of all its battles. He was tall and 
 well set up, and had a most admirable voice 
 full, deep, and distinct, its very whisper heard 
 along a line of a thousand men. Kind, friendly, 
 and honourable, private life could neither enjoy nor 
 desire a character more excellent. The vehemence 
 of his politics, combined with his power of speaking, 
 made him the usual organ of his political friends, 
 in so much that, I believe, it was he who was put 
 forward to move Henry Erskine s dismissal from the 
 Deanship. Yet even this unfavourable position 
 never alienated his heart from an adversary per 
 sonally. He would have gone, and indeed did go, 
 as far as anybody to tread down his opposites poli 
 tically ; but without ill-nature, or personal hostility, 
 or even absence of candour. It is needless to say 
 that the motion never cooled Erskine s affection for 
 Hope, and neither did it Hope s for Erskine. No 
 breast indeed could be more clear than Hope s of 
 everything paltry or malevolent. And indirect 
 ness was so entirely foreign to his manly nature, 
 
 healthy expression. If Chantrey ever saw him, it must have been 
 when he was dying, a state which lasted some years ; and accord 
 ingly the statue expresses thoughtful languor, not amiable alacrity, 
 which was the outward character of the original. 
 
ICO MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 that even in his plainest errors his adversaries had 
 always whatever advantage w^as to be gained from 
 an honest disclosure of his principles and objects. 
 In short, it is not easy to estimate his moral nature 
 too highly. 
 
 The possession of considerable ability is implied 
 in his extensive professional practice, and in the 
 well performed duties of his high judicial appoint 
 ments. There is no peculiar faculty by which his 
 intellect can be individualized. His were the ordi 
 nary powers of a well-educated gentleman, whose 
 vocation was in practical law. It was not by supe 
 riority of talent that he was distinguished, but by 
 his power of public speaking, for which he had 
 many of the qualifications in a very remarkable 
 degree. His language was full and appropriate ; 
 his manner natural and commanding ; and his 
 voice was surpassed by that of the great Mrs. Siddons 
 alone, which, drawn direct from heaven and worthy 
 to be heard there, was the noblest that ever struck 
 the human ear. Within the range of luminous 
 statement and manly sentiment he rarely failed to 
 be effective and pleasing. 
 
 His great defect, both as a speaker and as a 
 public man, consisted in a want of tact; and this 
 arose from the warmth, or rather the heat of his 
 temperament. It might have been supposed that 
 one whose feelings were so good, and who was so 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN, 161 
 
 constantly evoking the good feelings of others, could, 
 under this star, scarcely go off the right path. And 
 he never would, had he not been too often under the 
 influence of a star of his own. Declamation was his 
 weapon, and it is one that is seldom sheathed in 
 correct wisdom. The very act of declaiming 
 inflamed him: this elevated him, needlessly, into 
 the region of thunder ; and then there was generally 
 a blaze, with which nobody could sympathise. This 
 infirmity was apt sometimes to come over him even 
 in council. The result was that, though possessed of 
 superior abilities and every virtue, he was often felt to 
 be unsafe; and his vehemence made him enemies 
 who, hurt by his strong language, represented him as 
 harsh. He may have been occasionally overbearing 
 and provoking; but I am certain that this never 
 proceeded from any bad passion, or even unkind 
 feeling, but was solely the consequence of honest 
 though erroneous emotion, and of over-animated 
 mental nerves. Had he been acting in a higher 
 sphere, and trained earlier under the discipline of a 
 more formidable audience, with the elements of 
 eloquence which he so largely possessed, I cannot 
 doubt that he would have proved a great speaker 
 and a more sound adviser. 
 
 It is a pleasure to me to think of him. He was 
 my first I might almost say my only, professional 
 
 patron, and used to take me with him on his circuits ; 
 
 M 
 
162 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 and in spite of my obstinate and active Whiggery 
 has been kind to me through life. When his son, 
 who was Solicitor-General in 1830, lost that office 
 by the elevation of the Reform Ministry, and I 
 succeeded him, his father shook me warmly by the 
 hand, and said &quot; Well, Harry, I wish you joy. 
 Since my son was to lose it, I am glad that your 
 father s son has got it.&quot; It was always so with him. 
 Less enlightened than confident in his public 
 opinions, his feelings towards his adversaries, even 
 when ardently denouncing their principles, were 
 liberalized by the native humanity and fairness of 
 his dispositions. 
 
 The name of Charles Hope, the Lieutenant- 
 Colonel of our First or Gentlemen Eegiment of 
 Volunteers, is associated with our recollections of 
 these establishments. He entered into their busi 
 ness, as indeed into all his pursuits, with his whole 
 heart, and persevered to the end. The judge s wig 
 was by no means incompatible, in his sight, with 
 the colonel s cocked hat. The occupation had strong- 
 attractions for him, and he was an excellent officer. 
 
 Two great legal works appeared about this time 
 
 the Mercantile Commentaries of Bell, and the 
 
 Criminal Commentaries of Hume; works that will 
 
 ever hold their places in our system. Bell s is the 
 
 greatest work on Scotch Jurisprudence that has ap- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 163 
 
 peared since the publication of Lord Stair s Institute. 
 Its authority has helped to decide probably eighty 
 out of every hundred mercantile questions that have 
 been settled since it began to illuminate our courts ; 
 and it has done, and will do, more for the fame of 
 the law of Scotland in foreign countries than has 
 been done by all our other law books put together. 
 Hume s work was composed in a great measure 
 for the purpose of vindicating the proceedings of the 
 Criminal Court in the recent cases of sedition, and 
 was therefore hailed with the loudest acclamations 
 by the friends of those whose proceedings stood so 
 much in need of defence. But we are far enough 
 now from the passions of those days to enable us 
 to appreciate its merits more candidly. And the 
 judgment of the public is right in having decided 
 that, for ordinary practice, it is a most useful work, 
 the importance of which can scarcely be understood 
 by those who have never had to grope their way 
 amidst the darkness which he removed, and that 
 there its merits end. But his admirers disdain this 
 praise, and maintain it to be a great work of original 
 thought, and the model of a criminal system, the sup 
 posed imperfections of which the author has shewn 
 not to exist. They will not allow his style to be 
 heavy and affected, his delineation of principle 
 superficial, his views on all matters of expediency 
 or reason narrow, indeed monastic, The proceed- 
 
164 MEMOKIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 ings of the savage old Scotch Privy Council are 
 held up by him as judicial precedents, even in 
 political cases, at the end of the eighteenth century. 
 The impeachable domineering of Braxfield in 1794 
 is just as commendable in his pages, as if the times 
 had been moderate, and the judge impartial. As 
 an institutional writer he certainly could not exclude 
 either ancient or modern proceedings from his view ; 
 and he was perfectly entitled to put his own value 
 on them. So was any mere chronicler of legal 
 events. But before any one can deserve the praise of 
 being an enlightened expounder of a system of law 
 not previously explained or methodised, and of first 
 delivering to the people the rules which they must 
 obey, and ought to admire, the past actings of courts 
 ought not to be merely stated, but to be criticised 
 and appreciated, so that future tribunals may be 
 guided, and the public instructed, on defects and 
 remedies. On such matters there is no book that 
 has worse stood the test of time. There is scarcely 
 one of his favourite points that the legislature, with 
 the cordial assent of the public and of lawyers, has 
 not put down.* 
 
 There were no judicial reporters or u collectors 
 of decisions &quot; formerly, except two advocates, who 
 were appointed and paid by the Faculty for doing this 
 
 * See Edinburgh Review, No. 167, art. 7. This article was 
 written by Lord Cockburn. ED. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 165 
 
 work. Eight reporting was attended then with 
 some risk. It had never been the practice to give 
 any full and exact account of what passed on the 
 Bench, but only results. The public, or at least 
 the independent portion of the legal profession, 
 had begun to require something more, and their 
 Lordships were very jealous of this pretension. 
 They considered it as a contempt; and the con 
 tempt was held to be aggravated by the accuracy 
 of the report. Mr. Eobert Bell, afterwards lecturer 
 on conveyancing to the Society of Writers to the 
 Signet, was the first who adventured on independence 
 in this^matter ; and he announced that he meant to 
 report without any official appointment, and to give 
 the opinions of the judges. This design was no sooner 
 disclosed than he met with many threatening hints, 
 and as much obstruction as could be given in an open 
 court. The hated but excellent volume at last 
 appeared ; and though the judges were only denoted 
 by letters, he was actually called into the robing 
 room, and admonished to beware. Eskgrove s objec 
 tion was &quot; the fellow taks doon ma very words&quot; 
 a great injury to his Lordship, certainly. More than 
 ten years passed before it was acknowledged by 
 rational judges that the offensiveness of publishing 
 each opinion was no inconsiderable proof of its 
 utility. Fear lest the Faculty should assert its 
 right generally disposed the court in favor of sub- 
 
166 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 missive and unambitious collectors ; and this, it was 
 thought, operated against Jeffrey, who, in 1801, 
 dared to aspire to the office. 
 
 The party that would not let Jeffrey subside into 
 a reporter were soon rewarded in a way they little 
 thought of. His failure in this competition was one 
 of the proximate causes of the appearance of the 
 Edinburgh Review, of which the first number was 
 published on the 10th of October 1802. It elevated 
 the public and the literary position of Edinburgh to 
 an extent which no one not living intelligently then 
 can be made to comprehend. 
 
 On looking back at those times, it is impossible 
 not to be struck with the apparent absence of enlight 
 ened public views and capacities all over the com 
 munity. I do not recollect a single Scotch work of 
 any permanent, or almost of any respectable tempo 
 rary, value, which even the excitement of that age 
 produced. When the Edinburgh Eeview appeared 
 it received no published opposition, and no material 
 aid on public questions, from any person at that 
 time in public life. Even at the bar, which had 
 always contained the best educated and the ablest 
 of the middle and upper ranks, and been in advance 
 of all other classes, Horner, Brougham, or Jeffrey, 
 at the age of twenty-five, or perhaps of twenty-one, 
 were better prepared to instruct and direct the public 
 
 * See Lord Cockburn s Life of Lord Jeffrey, vol. I. p. 124. ED. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 167 
 
 than all the other counsel, either Whig or Tory, in 
 practice when they came forward. Indeed the sup 
 pression of independent talent or ambition was the 
 tendency of the times. Every Tory principle being- 
 absorbed in the horror of innovation, and that party 
 casting all its cares upon Henry Dundas, no one 
 could, without renouncing all his hopes, commit the 
 treason of dreaming an independent thought. There 
 was little genuine attraction for real talent, know 
 ledge, or eloquence on that side ; because these 
 qualities can seldom exist in combination with abject 
 submission. And indeed there was not much attrac 
 tion for them among the senior and dominant Whigs, 
 among whom there was a corresponding loyalty to 
 the Earl of Lauderdale. The adherents of both 
 parties were saved the trouble of qualifying them 
 selves for taking any charge of public matters ; the 
 one by knowing that, in so far as their aid implied 
 any independence, it would be offensive, and that, if 
 they would only obey, their champion would be sure 
 to carry them through ; the other by despair of being 
 either allowed to co-operate, or able to resist. 
 
 To Archibald Constable, the publisher of the 
 Edinburgh Eeview, the literature of Scotland has 
 been more indebted than to any other bookseller. 
 Till he appeared, our publishing trade was at nearly 
 the lowest ebb ; partly because there was neither 
 population nor independence to produce or to require 
 
168 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 a vigorous publisher ; and partly, because the pub 
 lishers we had were too spiritless even for their 
 position. Our principal booksellers were Bell and 
 Bradfute, and Manners and Miller, in the Parliament 
 Close ; Elphinstone Balfour, Peter Hill, and William 
 Creech, in the High Street ; and William Laing in 
 the Canongate. Laing was a good collector of good 
 books, chiefly old ones, but did not publish much. 
 Creech was connected with the publication of the 
 works of Eobertson and other respectable authors. 
 All the rest were unimportant. Constable began as 
 a lad in Hill s shop, and had hardly set up for himself 
 when he reached the summit of his business. He 
 rushed out, and took possession of the open field, 
 as if he had been aware from the first of the existence 
 of the latent spirits, which a skilful conjurer might 
 call from the depths of the population to the service 
 of literature. Abandoning the old timid and grudg 
 ing system, he stood out as the general patron and 
 payer of all promising publications, and confounded 
 not merely his rivals in trade, but his very authors, 
 by his unheard-of prices. Ten, even twenty, guineas 
 a sheet for a review, 2000 or 3000 for a single 
 poem, and 1000 each for two philosophical disser 
 tations, drew authors from dens where they would 
 otherwise have starved, and made Edinburgh a 
 
 * By Stewart and Play fair prefixed to a supplement of the 
 Encyclopedia Britannica, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 1G9 
 
 literary mart, famous with strangers, and the pride 
 of its own citizens. 
 
 Creech was one of the founders of the Specula 
 tive Society, and a person of some local celebrity. 
 He owed a good deal to the position of his shop, 
 which formed the eastmost point of a long thin 
 range of building that stood to the north of St. 
 Giles Cathedral, its length running from west to 
 east parallel to the Cathedral, and about twenty 
 feet from it. Consequently the street north of the 
 Cathedral was not one half of its present width. 
 His windows looked down the High Street ; 
 so that his sign, u Creech,&quot; above his door was 
 visible down to the head of the Canongate. The 
 best thing he did was to make a curious and valu 
 able collection illustrative of the modern changes 
 of Edinburgh manners and habits. In spite of 
 its absurd title, u Fugitive Pieces/ it is very inte 
 resting, and, in so far as one who knew only one 
 end of the period can judge, generally correct. The 
 position of his shop in the very tideway of all our 
 business made it the natural resort of lawyers, 
 authors, and all sorts of literary idlers, who * were 
 always buzzing about the convenient hive. All 
 who wished to see a poet or a stranger, or to hear 
 the public news, the last joke by Erskine, or yester 
 day s occurrence in the Parliament House, or to get 
 the publication of the day or newspapers all con- 
 
170 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 gregated there ; lawyers, doctors, clergymen, and 
 authors. I attended the writing school of William 
 Swanson, the great handspoiler of the time, whose 
 crowded classroom was on the south side of the High 
 Street, close by the Cross ; and I always tried to get 
 a seat next a window, that I might see the men I 
 heard so much talked of moving into and out of this 
 bower of the muses, or loitering about its entrance. 
 There was no class of the community so little 
 thought of at this time as the mercantile. Their 
 municipal councils, and chambers of commerce, and 
 guilds, and all their public associations were recog 
 nized, because they had some power, however little. 
 But individually, or merely as numbers of merchants, 
 they were entirely disregarded. They had no direct 
 political power 5 no votes 5 and were far too subser 
 vient to be feared. The lairds were not merely 
 more deferred to, but were in the height of their 
 influence. They returned thirty members to Parlia 
 ment, and had themselves and their connections in 
 all public positions of honor or of pay. But our 
 Scotch commerce was only dawning ; and no mer 
 chants, great by the mere force of their wealth, had 
 made either themselves or their calling formidable. 
 Still less had they risen to importance as liberal 
 patrons of liberal pursuits. This indeed is a 
 character which has not arisen in Scotland even yet. 
 Academies have been founded by the aristocratic 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 171 
 
 merchants of Italy, and galleries filled with art by 
 the republican burgomasters of Holland, and col 
 leges founded, or splendidly aided, by the munifi 
 cence of traders in monarchical England; but nothing 
 is so rare in Scotland as a merchant uniting wealth 
 with liberal taste, and the patronage of art or science 
 with the prosecution of private concerns. All Edin 
 burgh attests that they have been profuse in the erec 
 tion of charities that were to bear the names of the 
 founders 5 and neither political nor ecclesiastical par 
 ties can justly charge them with shabbiness. But what 
 have they done for learning, or art, or science ? We 
 are neither rich enough, nor old enough, for the rise 
 of merchants princely in their tastes. 
 
 No part of the home scenery of Edinburgh was 
 more beautiful than Bellevue, the villa of General 
 Scott. It seemed to consist of nearly all the land 
 between York Place and Canonmills a space now 
 almost covered by streets and houses. The mansion- 
 house stood near the eastern side of the central 
 enclosure of what is now Drummond Place ; and a 
 luxurious house it was. The whole place waved 
 with wood, and was diversified by undulations of 
 surface, and adorned by seats and bowers and sum 
 mer houses. Queen Street, from which there was 
 then an open prospect over the Frith to the north 
 western mountains, was the favourite Mall. Nothing 
 certainly, within a town, could be more delightful 
 
172 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 than the sea of the Bellevue foliage gilded by the 
 evening sun, or the tumult of blackbirds and thrushes 
 sending their notes into all the adjoining houses in 
 the blue of a summer morning. We clung long to 
 the hope that, though the city might in time sur 
 round them, Bellevue at the east, and Drumsheugh 
 (Lord Moray s place) at the west, end of Queen Street 
 might be spared. But in 1 802 Bellevue was sold. The 
 magistrates, I believe, bought it ; and the whole trees 
 were instantly cut down. They could not all have 
 been permanently spared ; but many of them might, 
 to the comfort and adornment of the future buildings. 
 But the mere beauty of the town was no more thought 
 of at that time by anybody than electric tele 
 graphs and railways ; and perpendicular trees, with 
 leaves and branches, never find favor in the sight 
 of any Scotch mason. But indeed in Scotland almost 
 every one seems to be a u foe to the Dryads of the 
 borough groves. It is partly owing to our climate, 
 which rarely needs shade ; but more to hereditary 
 bad taste. Yet, though standing passive, I remember 
 people shuddering when they heard the axes busy 
 in the woods of Bellevue, and furious when they saw 
 the bare ground. But the axes, as usual, triumphed ; 
 and all that art and nature had done to prepare the 
 place for foliaged compartments of town architecture, 
 if being built upon should prove inevitable, was 
 carefully obliterated ; so that at last the whole spot 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 173 
 
 was made as bare and as dull as if the designer of the 
 New Town himself had presided over the operation. 
 Gillespie s Hospital, for the shrouding of aged 
 indigence, was commenced about this time, and 
 completed in 1805. If I recollect right, this was 
 the first of the public charities of this century by 
 which Edinburgh has been blessed, or cursed. The 
 founder was a snuff-seller who brought up an excel 
 lent young man as his heir, and then left death to 
 disclose that, for the vanity of being remembered by 
 a thing called after himself, he had all the while had 
 a deed executed by which this, his nearest, relation 
 was disinherited. Another fact distinguished the 
 rise of this institution. A very curious edifice stood 
 on the very spot where the modern building is 
 erected. It was called Wryttes-Houses, and belonged 
 anciently to a branch of the family of Napier.* It 
 was a keep, presiding over a group of inferior build 
 ings, most of it as old as the middle of the fourteenth 
 century, all covered with heraldic and other devices, 
 and all delightfully picturesque. Nothing could be 
 more striking when seen against the evening sky. 
 Many a feudal gathering did that tower see on the 
 
 * There is a good view of its position in one of Clerk of Eldin s 
 sketches, printed for the Bannatyne Club ; and an excellent repre 
 sentation of its appearance, from a drawing by Charles Kirkpatrick 
 Sharp, published in vol. II. p. 208 of Wilson s &quot; Memorials of 
 Edinburgh in the Olden Time.&quot; 
 
174 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Borough Moor ; and many a time did the inventor 
 of logarithms, whose castle of Merchiston was near, 
 enter it. Yet was it brutishly obliterated, without 
 one public murmur. A single individual whose 
 name, were it known, ought to be honored, but 
 who chose to conceal himself under the signature of 
 Cadmon, proclaimed and denounced the outrage, in 
 a communication in July 1800 to the Edinburgh 
 Magazine ; but the idiot public looked on in silence. 
 How severely has Edinburgh suffered by similar 
 proceedings, adventured upon by barbarians, knowing 
 the apathetic nature, in these matters, of the people 
 they have had to deal with. All our beauty might 
 have been preserved, without the extinction of innu 
 merable antiquities conferring interest and dignity. 
 But reverence for mere antiquity, and even for 
 modern beauty, on their own account, is scarcely a 
 Scotch passion. 
 
 I had attended Dugald Stewart s first course of 
 Political Economy, but not very steadily ; and there 
 fore I attended the second, which was given during 
 the winter of 1801-1802. His hour was now three, 
 but it was formerly seven in the evening, the lamps 
 of which hour set off his bald sage-like head. The 
 opening of these classes made a great sensation. The 
 economical writings of Hume and Smith, though 
 familiar with the liberal youth, had so little impreg- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 175 
 
 nated the public mind, that no ordinary audience 
 could be collected to whom the elements and phrase 
 ology of the science were not matters of surprise. 
 The mere term &quot; Political Economy &quot; made most 
 people start. They thought that it included ques 
 tions touching the constitution of governments 5 and 
 not a few hoped to catch Stewart in dangerous 
 propositions. It was not unusual to see a smile 
 on the faces of some when they heard subjects dis 
 coursed upon, seemingly beneath the dignity of the 
 Academical Chair. The word Corn sounded strangely 
 in the moral class, and Drawbacks seemed a profana 
 tion of Stewart s voice. 
 
 These lectures were distinguished by the acknow 
 ledged excellences, and the supposed defects, of his 
 ordinary course. Some called them superficial; a 
 worse imperfection in Political Economy, an exact 
 science, than in Moral Philosophy, a more diffuse 
 one. He certainly did not involve his hearers in its 
 intricacies ; and there were dull heads to whom the 
 absence of arithmetical columns and statistical de 
 tails was as grievous a blank in the one class, as 
 that of metaphysical subtilties was in the other. 
 But adherence to the exposition of general principles 
 was equally judicious in both. By chiefly exposing 
 the edges of the veins, and directing his pupils how 
 
 * It is plainly to this disposition of the times that Stewart alludes 
 in the note D to his life of Smith. 
 
176 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 to explore the treasures of the mine, he at once 
 heightened the beauty of his discourses, and awak 
 ened the ambition of his students. The result, 
 accordingly, was the best evidence of the soundness 
 of this plan. He supplied both young and old with 
 philosophical ideas on what they had scarcely been 
 accustomed to think philosophical subjects, un 
 folded the elements and the ends of that noble 
 science, and so recommended it by the graces of his 
 eloquence that even his idler hearers retained a 
 permanent taste for it. 
 
 Edinburgh had never contained such a concen 
 tration of young men as now inspired it, of whose 
 presence the Review was only one of the results. 
 They formed a band of friends all attached to each 
 other, all full of hope and ambition and gaiety ? 
 and all strengthened in their mutual connection by 
 the politics of most of them separating the whole 
 class from the ordinary society of the city. Tt was 
 a most delightful brotherhood. But about the end 
 of 1802 it began to be thinned by emigration, and 
 this process went on till 1806. Within two years 
 (1802-1803) Sydney Smith, Francis Horner, Thomas 
 Campbell, John Allen, and John Leyden, all fell off. 
 
 Smith s reputation here then was the same as it 
 has been throughout his life, that of a wise wit. 
 Was there ever more sense combined with more 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 177 
 
 hilarious jocularity? But he has been lost by 
 being placed within the pale of holy orders. He 
 has done his duty there decently well, and is an 
 admirable preacher. But he ought to have been in 
 some freer sphere ; especially since wit and inde 
 pendence do not make bishops. 
 
 Allen was medical, but prosecuted medicine 
 rather as a science than as a profession. He was 
 the very first of our private lecturers ; physiology 
 being his favourite department. I have heard Doctor 
 John Gordon, a judge on such a matter of the highest 
 authority, say that Allen s single lecture on the cir 
 culation of the blood contained as much truth and 
 view as could be extracted by an intelligent reader 
 from all the books in Europe on that subject. Had 
 not his political opinions made it prudent for him 
 to despair of being ever allowed to adorn our Col 
 lege, he would probably have remained here, where 
 he was much beloved by all who knew him, and 
 had a great reputation. But, in his circumstances, 
 an invitation to live with Lord Holland was irresis 
 tible. This alliance has shown him most of Europe 
 well ; and introduced him, confidentially, to the best 
 society in England. The transition from this to 
 the private political line was natural ; and in this 
 line there is no one man whose talent and learning 
 is of so much use to his party. But all this latent 
 importance, dignified luxury, and indirect usefulness 
 
178 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 was obtained (as it always has seemed to me) at far 
 too high a price when it lost him the glory of being 
 the first medical teacher in Europe. His historical 
 publications, chiefly though not entirely in the Edin 
 burgh Review, especially those on the constitution 
 and progress of England, are of the very highest 
 value. Indeed it makes us almost regret the existence 
 of a publication which enables such men to throw in 
 their detached contributions to the treasury of know 
 ledge, to think that if it had not been for such an 
 opportunity, instead of evaporating in unconnected 
 and anonymous discussions, they might have earned 
 a more visible and permanent reputation by com 
 plete and original works. 
 
 John Ley den has said of himself, &quot; I often verge 
 so nearly on absurdity, that I know it is perfectly 
 easy to misconceive me, as well as misrepresent me.&quot; 
 
 * Horner says (Mem. i. 206), that &quot; in point of candour and 
 vigour of reasoning powers, I have never personally known a finer 
 intellect than Jeffrey s, unless I were to except Allen s. 1 In point 
 of candour they were both perfect, and in the mere power of deduc 
 ing one thing from another, within a certain range, nobody could 
 exceed Allen. But the difference of the ranges of the two men 
 was immense. Allen s reasoning is always on minute objects. 
 Whatever his logical eye might be capable of, it has never attempted 
 the lofty and extensive regions which Jeffrey s reasonings compre 
 hend. But Horner said this in 1802, when Jeffrey had scarcely 
 begun to rise. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 179 
 
 This was quite true; especially the vergency on 
 absurdity. He cannot be understood till the pecu 
 liarities to which he alludes are cleared away, and 
 the better man is made to appear. His conspicuous 
 defect used to be called affectation, but in reality it 
 was pretension. A pretension however of a very 
 innocent kind, which, without derogating in the 
 least from the claim of any other, merely exaggerated 
 not his own merits, nor what he had done, but his 
 capacity and ambition to do more. Ever in a state 
 of excitement, ever ardent, ever panting for things 
 unattainable by ordinary mortals, and successful to 
 an extent sufficient to rouse the hopes of a young 
 man ignorant of life, there was nothing that he 
 thought beyond his reach ; and not knowing what 
 insincerity was, he spoke of his powers and his visions 
 as openly as if he had been expounding what might 
 be expected of another person. According to himself, 
 John Leyden could easily in a few months have been 
 a great physician, or surpassed Sir William Jones in 
 Oriental literature, or Milton in poetry. Yet at the 
 very time he was thus exposing himself, he was not 
 only simple, but generous and humble. He was a 
 wild-looking, thin, Eoxburghshire man, with sandy 
 hair, a screech voice, and staring eyes exactly as 
 he came from his native village of Denholm ; and 
 not one of these not very attractive personal qualities 
 would he have exchanged for all the graces of 
 
180 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Apollo. By the time I knew him he had made 
 himself one of our social shows, and could and did 
 say whatever he chose. His delight lay in an 
 argument about the Scotch Church, or Oriental 
 literature, or Scotch poetry, or odd customs, or 
 scenery, always conducted on his part in a high 
 shrill voice, with great intensity, and an utter uncon 
 sciousness of the amazement, or even the aversion, 
 of strangers. His daily extravagances, especially 
 mixed up, as they always were, with exhibitions of 
 his own ambition and confidence, made him be much 
 laughed at even by his friends. Sir John Malcolm s 
 account* of his Indian deportment agrees exactly 
 with the accounts given by Scott of his Scotch one. 
 Sir James Mackintosh calls him his &quot; wild friend,&quot; 
 and laughs at his professing to know &quot; only seventy 
 languages.&quot; 
 
 Notwithstanding these ridiculous or offensive 
 habits, he had considerable talent and great ex 
 cellences. There is no walk in life, depending on 
 ability, where Ley den could not have shone. Un 
 wearying industry was sustained and inspired by 
 burning enthusiasm. Whatever he did, his whole 
 soul was in it. His heart was warm and true. No 
 distance, or interest, or novelty could make him 
 forget an absent friend or his poor relations. His 
 physical energy was as vigorous as his mental ; so 
 * In Morton s Memoirs of Lcvden. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 181 
 
 that it would not be easy to say whether he would 
 have engaged with a new-found eastern manuscript, 
 or in battle, with the more cordial alacrity. His 
 love of Scotland was delightful. It breathes through 
 all his writings and all his proceedings, and imparts 
 to his poetry its most attractive charm. The affec 
 tion borne him by many distinguished friends, and 
 their deep sorrow for his early extinction, is the 
 best evidence of his talent and worth. Indeed, his 
 premature death was deplored by all who delight 
 to observe the elevation of merit, by its own force 
 and through personal defects, from obscurity to 
 fame. He died in Batavia at the age of thirty-six. 
 Had he been spared, he would have been a star in 
 the East of the first magnitude. 
 
 John Eichardson was the last of the association 
 who was devoured by hungry London. This was 
 in 1806. But he has been incorporated, privately 
 and publicly, with all that is worthy in Edinburgh, 
 and much that is worthy in London, throughout his 
 whole life. No Scotchman in London ever stood 
 higher in professional and personal character. The 
 few verses he has published, like almost all he has 
 written, are in the style of simple and pensive ele 
 gance. His early and steady addiction to literary 
 subjects and men would certainly have made liter 
 ature his vocation, had he not foreseen its tortures 
 
182 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 and precariousness when relied on for subsistence. 
 But, though drudging in the depths of the law, this 
 toil has always been graced by the cultivation of 
 letters, and by the cordial friendship of the most 
 distinguished literary men of the age. He was the 
 last of the old Edinburgh emigrants. A cold cloud 
 came over many a heart at each of their departures ; 
 and happy and brilliant as our society was after 
 wards, we never ceased to miss them, to mark the 
 vacant places, and to remember that they were once 
 of ourselves. 
 
 A stranger came among us while these men were 
 still here. This w^as Lord Webb Seymour, brother 
 of the Duke of Somerset. He had left his own 
 country, and renounced all the ordinary uses of 
 rank and fortune, for study ; and never abandoned 
 the place he had selected for its prosecution, but 
 continued here during the rest of his life, with his 
 books and literary friends, universally respected 
 and beloved. Slow, thoughtful, reserved, and very 
 gentle, he promoted the philosophical taste even of 
 Horner, and enjoyed quietly the jocularity of Smith, 
 and tried gravely to refute the argumentative levi 
 ties of Jeffrey. His special associate was Playfair. 
 They used to be called husband and wife ; and in 
 congeniality and affection no union could be more 
 complete. Geology was their favourite pursuit. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 183 
 
 Before I got acquainted with them, I used to envy 
 their walks in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and 
 their scientific excursions to the recesses of the High 
 land glens, and to the summits of the Highland 
 mountains. Two men more amiable, more philo 
 sophical, and more agreeable there could not be. 
 
 Sir James Montgomery, the Lord Chief Baron, 
 resigned in 1801. This made Robert Dundas Lord 
 Chief Baron, Charles Hope Lord Advocate, and 
 Blair Dean of the Faculty in Dundas stead. 
 
 Montgomery, the author of the Entail Act which 
 bears his name, was a most excellent and venerable 
 old gentleman. He lived in Queensberry House in 
 the Caiiongate, and I believe was the last gentleman 
 who resided in that historical mansion, which, 
 though now one of the asylums of destitution, was 
 once the brilliant abode of rank and fashion and 
 political intrigue. I wish the Canongate could be 
 refreshed again by the habitual sight of the Lord 
 Chief Baron s family and company, and the gorgeous 
 carriage, and the tall and well dressed figure, in the 
 old style, of his Lordship himself. He was much in 
 our house, my father being one of his Puisnes. 
 Though a remarkably kind landlord, he thought it 
 his duty to proceed sometimes with apparent severity 
 against poachers, smugglers, and other rural cor- 
 rupters ; but as it generally ended in his paying the 
 
184 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 fine himself, in order to save the family, his bene 
 volence was supposed to do more harm than his 
 justice did good. He died in 1803. 
 
 Not long after Hope s appointment he got into 
 difficulty. The occasion was one very likely to hit 
 his fiery fancy. A Banffshire farmer, named Mori- 
 son, chose to exercise his undoubted right of dis 
 missing a servant for absenting himself without 
 leave from work, in order to attend a volunteer drill. 
 In consequence of this offence, the Lord Advocate 
 issued a rescript to the Sheriff-Substitute of the 
 county of Banff, in which the farmer s conduct is 
 said to have been u atrocious,&quot; and u could only have 
 arisen from a secret spirit of disaffection and dis 
 loyalty ; &quot; and therefore an official order is given to 
 the Sheriff-Substitute, that u on the first Frenchman 
 landing in Scotland, you do immediately apprehend 
 and secure Morison as a suspected person, and you 
 will not liberate him without communication with 
 me ; and you may inform him of these my orders ; 
 and, further, that I shall do all I can to prevent him 
 from receiving any compensation for any part of his 
 property which may either be destroyed by the 
 enemy, or by the king s troops to prevent it from 
 falling into the enemy s hands.&quot; This was brought 
 before the House of Commons by Mr. Whitbread, on 
 the 22d of June 1804, on a motion for a vote of cen 
 sure. The Lord Advocate s defence was more imfor- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 185 
 
 tunate than his original error, because it justified it. 
 He maintained that, considering the situation of the 
 country, what he had done was right ; and that if 
 wrong, it was an error of discretion in a matter as to 
 which his official discretion was boundless. The 
 Lord Advocate, he said, was vested with the whole 
 powers, both civil and military, of the state, and of 
 all its officers, most of which, as centring in himself, 
 he specified.* Nevertheless a motion for the previous 
 question was carried; and its success stands as a 
 striking example of the difference between a par 
 liament of that time and any that could be as 
 sembled now. No one who knew him could impute 
 cruelty or injustice to Charles Hope. This act 
 was entirely owing to a hot temperament not cooled 
 by a sound head. In spite of all his talent and all 
 his worth, had he continued in the very delicate 
 position of Lord Advocate, his infirmity might have 
 again brought him into some similar trouble. 
 
 It was fortunate therefore that the gods, envying 
 mortals the longer possession of Eskgrove, took him 
 to themselves ; and Hope reigned in his stead. He 
 was made Lord Justice-Clerk in December 1804. It 
 
 * When he came home, his return was given in an English news 
 paper something in this way &quot; Arrived at Edinburgh the Lord 
 High Chancellor of Scotland, the Lord Justice-General, the Lord 
 Privy Seal, the Privy Council, and the Lord Advocate, all in one 
 post-chaise, containing only a single person.&quot; 
 
186 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 has been often said, and often denied, that before 
 taking this place to himself, he offered it to Henry 
 Erskine, and urged Erskine to take it. There can 
 be no doubt with me of his having made this very 
 handsome proposal, because he told me himself that 
 he had done so, and that Erskine after consulting 
 his friends declined. 
 
 The only important legislative measure that Hope 
 had an opportunity of officially promoting was the 
 Schoolmaster s Act of 1803, which has been in force 
 since that time. This is the statute which compels 
 heritors to build what are there called Houses for the 
 schoolmasters ; but prescribes that the house need 
 not contain more than two rooms including the kitchen. 
 This shabbiness was abused at the time, and seems 
 incredible now. But Hope told me that he had con 
 siderable difficulty in getting even the two rooms, 
 and that a great majority of the lairds and Scotch 
 members were indignant at being obliged to u erect 
 palaces for dominies.&quot; 
 
 The armed truce for it was rather this than 
 peace in 1802 made very little direct change in our 
 habits or feelings. But, upon the whole, events were 
 bringing people into better humour. Somewhat less 
 was said about Jacobinism, though still too much 
 and sedition had gone out. Napoleon s obvious 
 progress towards military despotism opened the eyes 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 187 
 
 of those who used to see nothing but liberty in the 
 French revolution ; and the threat of invasion, while 
 it combined all parties in defence of the country, 
 raised the confidence of the people in those who 
 trusted them with arms, and gave them the pleasure 
 of playing at soldiers. Instead of Jacobinism, Inva 
 sion became the word. 
 
 After the war broke out again in 1803 Edinburgh, 
 like every other place, became a camp, and continued 
 so till the peace in 1814. We were all soldiers, one 
 way or other. Professors wheeled in the College 
 area ; the side arms and the uniform peeped from 
 behind the gown at the bar, and even on the bench ; 
 and the parade and the review formed the staple of 
 men s talk and thoughts. Hope, who had kept his 
 Lieutenant-Colonelcy when he was Lord Advocate, 
 adhered to it, and did all its duties after he became 
 Lord Justice-Clerk. This was thought unconstitu 
 tional by some ; but the spirit of the day applauded 
 it.* Brougham served the same gun in a company 
 
 * His famous &quot; Kegimental orders&quot; of the 18th of October 1803 
 were as follows : 
 
 u IST KEGT. R. E. V. REGIMENTAL ORDERS. 
 
 &quot; Edinburgh, 18 Oct. 1803. 
 
 &quot; Lieutenant-Colonel Hope congratulates the gentlemen of the 
 Regiment on the distinguished appearance which they made yes 
 terday, and on the marked approbation which was bestowed on 
 them by Lieutenant-General Vyse, commanding his Majesty s 
 forces in Scotland. 
 
 &quot; The Lieutenant-Colonel has also the pleasure of assuring the 
 
188 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 of artillery with Play fair. James MoncreifF, John 
 Kichardson, James Grahame (the Sabbath), Thomas 
 
 Kegiment that their appearance and discipline received the unani 
 mous approbation of the other General Officers present, and 
 likewise of His Grace the Lord- Lieutenant of the County, himself 
 an excellent judge of military duty. 
 
 &quot; The Lieutenant- Colonel, however, trusts the Kegiment will 
 consider, that the object of all their labour is not the parade of an 
 Inspection and Eeview, but the serious and important duty of 
 qualifying themselves to defend all that is dear to them, against an 
 implacable enemy whose avowed intention is the utter ruin and 
 extirpation of the people of this country. He trusts, therefore, 
 that the gentlemen of the Kegiment will not allow their zeal to 
 abate, but will persevere in such attendance during the winter 
 months as shall, at least, prevent them from forgetting what they 
 have already attained ; for nothing could be so absurd, as to 
 acquire such a state of discipline as they have done, only to lose it 
 as fast as possible. When all the Gentlemen of the Regiment are 
 returned to town for the winter, the Lieutenant- Colonel will make 
 such an arrangement for Exercise, as may enable every Gentleman 
 to attend at least once a week, which cannot be a hardship or 
 inconvenience to any one. In the meantime, the Lieutenant- 
 Colonel earnestly exhorts them still to examine and keep their 
 firelocks in the very best order; and all of them, but especially 
 such of the Kegiment as have not been much accustomed to fire 
 arms, to form themselves into small Squads for Ball Practice. The 
 Lieutenant-Colonel intends to institute prizes for firing at a Target, 
 to be shot for by such gentlemen of each Company only, as shall 
 declare upon honour that they have fired FORTY rounds of ball 
 between 24th October and the 19th November. Four prizes will 
 be given to each Company : One for the best shot : one for the 
 second best shot : one for the greatest number of balls through 
 the Target : one for the next number. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 189 
 
 Thomson, and diaries Bell were all in one company 
 of riflemen. Francis Homer walked about the 
 
 &quot; In other respects, the Kegiment may have a better oppor 
 tunity of improving their discipline than by private drills of their 
 own, as Lieutenant- General Vyse has signified to the Lieutenant- 
 Colonel his intention of Brigading the Volunteers, and of having 
 several Field-days with the troops in the neighbourhood of Edin 
 burgh. For this reason, although the Lieutenant- Colonel never 
 wishes the duty of the Kegiment to interfere with real business, 
 yet, on the other hand, and considering the state of the times, he 
 hopes that no gentleman, officer or private, will leave quarters 
 except on particular business. 
 
 &quot; In the view of the Eegiment being called into actual service, 
 the Lieutenant-Colonel thinks it necessary to issue orders applicable 
 to that event. As it is the first duty of a Commanding Officer to 
 attend to the health of those under his charge, the Lieutenant- 
 Colonel assures the Eegiment that he will not permit a single 
 gentleman, officer or private, to march out of Edinburgh on service, 
 unless he is provided with a flannel under-dress. This is at all 
 times the best clothing for a soldier ; but for a Winter Campaign, in 
 such a climate as this, and with constitutions not accustomed to 
 hardships, it is essentially necessary, and on no account will be 
 dispensed with. 
 
 &quot; In this Kegiment, the Officers cannot be permitted to have any 
 indulgences or accommodation beyond the privates. They must 
 therefore march with their whole baggage on their backs, of which 
 the Lieutenant- Colonel shall set the example, never mounting his 
 horse, but for the purpose of command. In camp or quarters no 
 distinction of tents or rooms will be permitted. Officers and 
 privates must fare alike, but the officers will mess together, as it 
 will give opportunities, not otherwise to be easily obtained, of con 
 versing on many points of regimental duty. 
 
 &quot; The horses, which by the King s regulations are allowed to the 
 
190 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 streets with a musket, being a private in the Gentle 
 men Regiment. Dr. Gregory was a soldier, and 
 
 officers, will be appropriated to general purposes. The only excep 
 tion to this is to be in favour of the Chaplain, Adjutant, and 
 Surgeons. 
 
 &quot; Every officer and private therefore will immediately provide 
 himself with the following articles, and keep them constantly packed 
 up in the neatest and most compact manner : 
 
 &quot; 1 Worsted or flannel night-cap to tie under the chin. 
 
 &quot; 2 Flannel underwaistcoats, with sleeves, or 
 
 at least half- sleeves to the elbows, and to 
 
 come down over the loins. 
 u 2 Pair of flannel Drawers. 
 u 2 Pair thick worsted Stockings, or ankle 
 
 Socks. 
 
 One of these 
 to be on the 
 body, and the 
 other in the 
 knapsack. 
 
 &quot; 2 Pair of strong Shoes. 
 
 &quot; 1 Pair of worsted Gloves. 
 
 &quot; 1 Good warm Blanket one Blanket easily covers two men, 
 and to be so used, if the cold requires it. 
 
 &quot; Comb Brush and implements for shaving, but as few as 
 possible. A piece of pipe clay, and Blacking Ball. A few 
 needles, and worsted, and thread. 
 
 &quot; Each gentleman may also bring with him his ordinary Great Coat, 
 as the Blanket renders it less necessary to have proper Watch Coats. 
 
 &quot; Each officer and private will also provide himself, and repair 
 to the Alarm Post (on the North side of St. Andrew Square, unless 
 differently ordered) with 4-J- lib. of Biscuit, or Bread. Haversacks, 
 Canteens, Camp -kettles, and Bill-hooks, are to be issued to the 
 Regiment from the King s stores. Knapsacks will be furnished out 
 of the Regiment Fund. 
 
 &quot; On halting for the day or night, the Lieutenant-Colonel earnestly 
 recommends that no gentleman shall lye down to sleep while warm, 
 or with wet feet, but, however fatigued, always to take time to 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 191 
 
 Thomas Brown the moralist, Jeffrey, and many 
 another since famous in more intellectual warfare. 
 
 cool gradually, and to put on his dry stockings and shoes. In case 
 of being very wet, it is highly useful to rub the body and limbs 
 with spirits, warm if possible, taking at the sametime a mouthful, 
 and not more, inwardly, diluted with warm water, if to be had. 
 Gentlemen will see the propriety of not taking too much money 
 with them. One or two guineas, at most, partly in silver, will be 
 sufficient. 
 
 &quot; As to the Field, the Lieutenant-Colonel has little to say. 
 Much will be expected by their country from such a Eegiment. 
 The Lieutenant-Colonel has no anxiety on the subject, except from 
 its impetuosity. If the Eegiment were acting singly against 
 another small body, this might produce no bad effect. But acting 
 in combination with other troops, perhaps in the centre of a line or 
 chain of posts, all movements must be relative, and by rushing for 
 ward prematurely the line may be broken, other Eegiments or 
 posts exposed to be taken in flank, and the whole plans of the Com 
 mander disconcerted, by the necessity of supporting a body which 
 has improperly pushed forward, or reinforcing the post it has 
 quitted. The Eegiment therefore will recollect, that true courage 
 consists as much in suffering as in acting ; as much, or more, in 
 coolly facing danger, as in furiously rushing on it. There is little 
 probability, that the General will allow young and high-spirited 
 Troops to be long galled by distant fire. The Eegiment may be 
 assured that they will be allowed to close with the Enemy, when 
 ever it can be done to advantage. 
 
 &quot; When that moment comes, the Lieutenant- Colonel reminds 
 the Eegiment of the Instructions he has been inculcating on them 
 at Drill, to make their charge with the utmost steadiness and pre 
 cision, so that all parts of the line, by coming in contact with the 
 Enemy, at the same instant, may support one another. The leading 
 Company will take care not to hurry too much, but to carry on the 
 
192 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 I, a gallant captain, commanded ninety-two of my 
 fellow creatures from 1804 to 1814 the whole 
 
 Line, so that each individual may preserve the entire command 
 of his person ; that he may be able freely to use his bayonet, 
 not only to thrust but to parry. If the charge is made with too 
 great rapidity, the Line will be broke one part of the Eegiment 
 will be cut to pieces before another comes up, and the whole will 
 rush on certain destruction ; whereas, if the charge is made steadily 
 and correctly, the superior strength and impetus of this Kegiment 
 must bear down whatever is in its way. 
 
 &quot; If the force of the enemy, in immediate contact with this 
 Regiment, be broken, the pursuit is by no means to be made without 
 orders. It may be necessary to wheel to the right or left to support 
 other parts of the Line. 
 
 &quot; In firing, the Regiment will see the folly and danger of firing 
 at random. If their fire is ineffectual, they may as well stand to 
 be shot at with ordered arms. Every individual must take a steady 
 aim ; so as to be certain that his shot will take place in some part 
 of the platoon opposite to him. If the smoke prevents the Regiment 
 from seeing the Enemy s line distinctly, they will always see the 
 flash from the muzzles of their musquets, by which the Regiment 
 can direct its own fire. In short, let the object rather be to keep 
 up a well directed, than a quick fire, always remembering that as 
 little time be lost in loading as possible. It will be the business 
 of the supernumerary rank in the rear, to look over the shoulders 
 of the ranks in front, and to correct any error in the aim. 
 
 u When Prisoners are taken, they are to be immediately disarmed 
 and passed to the rear. 
 
 &quot; If the Regiment (which is not likely), should be charged in 
 front by Cavalry, they will on no account fire till ordered and then 
 only the two front ranks ; the front rank taking aim at the horses, 
 the centre rank at the men. If the fire is reserved, and then given, 
 within a few yards, in the faces of the Cavalry one half will drop, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 193 
 
 course of that war. Eighty private soldiers, two 
 officers, four Serjeants, four corporals, and a trum 
 peter, all trembled (or at least were bound to 
 
 and the horses, in all probability, will carry the other half to the 
 right about ; and, at all events, if the Regiment will only receive 
 them steadily, without breaking, though the whole may be over 
 thrown, very few will be killed or hurt. Receiving a charge from 
 Cavalry, each rank will charge their bayonets, one over the other. 
 The supernumerary rank to close well up to the rear, so that the 
 Cavalry may have no time to make a cut at them. 
 
 Should the Regiment be drawn up on a beach to oppose the 
 landing of the Enemy, it will probably be ordered to reserve its fire 
 as the horizontal fire of musquetry against men well covered in 
 boats must be very ineffectual. In such cases, it is only cannon 
 which can play on the Enemy with effect. The Battalion therefore 
 will reserve its fire till the boats take the ground, when each Officer 
 commanding a platoon will pour in his fire on the boat opposite to 
 him, at the instant the Enemy expose themselves, by rising up in 
 the boat in order to leap on shore a well directed fire against men 
 so huddled together, must be destructive, and the Battalion will 
 instantly give them the bayonet, before they have time to form and 
 recover from their confusion. It is hardly possible that any Troops 
 can withstand this mode of attack ; whereas, if met only by a distant 
 fire from the heights, they will suffer little -will infallibly land and 
 form, and press on with all the spirit and advantage which usually 
 attend the assailants. This was precisely the error which the French 
 committed, when opposing the landing of our Troops in Egypt. 
 
 &quot; Should the Boats of the Enemy be fitted with guns in their 
 bows, the Battalion will endeavour to shelter itself behind sand 
 hills, walls, or broken ground, while the Enemy pull for the shore; 
 and it will not be advanced to the beach, till the Boats are 
 nearly aground, when, of course, the Enemy cannot give above 
 one discharge of their guns, which becoming useless the moment 
 
 O 
 
194 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 tremble) when I spoke. Mine was the left flank 
 company of the &quot; Western Battalion of Midlothian 
 Volunteers.&quot; John A. Murray s company was the 
 right flank one ; and as these two were both from 
 the parish of St. Cuthberts, the rest being scattered 
 over the county, we always drilled together. When 
 we first began, being resolved that we townsmen 
 should outshine the rustics, we actually drilled our 
 two companies almost every night during the four 
 winter months of 1804 and 1805, by torch light, in 
 the ground flat of the George Street Assembly 
 Rooms, which was then all one earthen-floored 
 apartment. This was over and above our day 
 proceedings in Heriot s Green and Bruntsfield Links, 
 or with the collected regiment. The parades, the 
 reviews, the four or six yearly inspections at Dal- 
 mahoy, the billettings for a fortnight or three weeks 
 
 they attempt to land, the Kegiinent will attack them as already 
 directed. 
 
 &quot; Adhering to these hints steadily obeying orders restraining 
 their impetuosity and fighting with the cool determined courage 
 of their native minds, instead of imitating the intoxicated and blind 
 fury of their enemy, and above all, calling on the God of Battles 
 to aid them in the preservation of those blessings which He has 
 conferred upon them, this Kegiment may hope to render essential 
 service, and to merit a large share of that glory which shall be 
 acquired by all the forces of their country, in repelling the threat 
 ened invasion. 
 
 &quot; By order of the Commanding Officer, 
 
 &quot;BAIN WHYT, 
 &quot; Capt. and Adj. 1st Regt. R. E. V.&quot; 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 195 
 
 when on &quot; permanent duty &quot; at Leith or Haddington, 
 the mock battles, the marches, the messes what 
 scenes they were ! And similar scenes were familiar 
 in every town and in every shire in the kingdom. 
 The terror of the ballot for the regular militia, 
 which made those it hit soldiers during the war, 
 filled the ranks ; while duty, necessity, and especially 
 the contagion of the times, supplied officers. The 
 result was that we became a military population. 
 Any able-bodied man, of whatever rank, who was 
 not a volunteer, or a local militiaman, had to explain 
 or apologize for his singularity. 
 
 Walter Scott s zeal in the cause was very curious. 
 He was the soul of the Edinburgh troop of Mid 
 lothian Yeomanry Cavalry. It was not a duty with 
 him, or a necessity, or a pastime, but an absolute 
 passion, indulgence in which gratified his feudal 
 taste for war, and his jovial sociableness. He 
 drilled, and drank, and made songs, with a hearty 
 conscientious earnestness which inspired or shamed 
 every body within the attraction. I do not know if 
 it is usual, but his troop used to practise, individually, 
 with the sabre at a turnip, which was stuck on the 
 top of a staff, to represent a Frenchman, in front of 
 the line. Every other trooper, when he set forward 
 in his turn, was far less concerned about the success 
 of his aim at the turnip, than about how he was to 
 tumble. But Walter pricked forward gallantly, 
 
196 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 saying to himself, &quot; cut them down, the villains, cut 
 them down I&quot; and made his blow, which from his 
 lameness was often an awkward one, cordially, 
 muttering curses all the while at the detested enemy. 
 
 Notwithstanding all our soldiering, the prevail 
 ing feeling about invasion was that of indifference. 
 I do not think that people brought its realities home 
 to their conception. The utter security of this 
 island, ever since the blowing back of the Armada, 
 made the population treat actual invasion as a thing 
 not to be seriously contemplated. But thinking men 
 were in a great and genuine fright, which increased 
 in proportion as they thought. The apparent magic 
 of Napoleon s Continental success confounded them : 
 Ireland made them shudder ; and they saw that a 
 war in this thick set and complicated country, how 
 ever short and triumphant for us it might be, must 
 give a dreadful shock to our whole system. 
 
 The volunteers tended to unsettle the minds of 
 those who belonged to them for ordinary business ; 
 and hence they co-operated with the ballot in filling 
 the ranks of the militia, which was the great nursery 
 for the army. In this way the voluntary establish 
 ments were a very useful force ; and if they had 
 been called into active service, all the paid regiments, 
 that is, all those composed of hardy ploughmen and 
 artizans, would have soon become good practical 
 soldiers. But for immediate service, for which it was 
 
13 Y HENRY COCKBURN. 197 
 
 
 
 intended they should be prepared, they were totally 
 disqualified. They had no field equipage, and were 
 scarcely ever trained to march beyond their parade 
 ground. Certainly no volunteer regiment in Scotland 
 ever passed twenty -four hours at a time, in the open 
 air, upon its own resources. And even their drilling 
 was universally vitiated by the essential and obvious 
 defect of their not being moved in large masses. 
 There was nothing done, beyond the performance of 
 ordinary regimental business, for the creation of field 
 officers. It was all single battalion drilling and 
 useless shows ; the work of each week being the 
 same with that of the week before. Except as police 
 the Foot Gentlemen were useless. The patrician blood 
 is the best blood for soldiers, both for valour and for 
 endurance; but it requires long and severe expe 
 rience to subdue it to the details of the life of a 
 private foot soldier. 
 
 We had hitherto been so innocent or so poor, 
 and so long accustomed to undetected or irregularly 
 detected crime, that the City Guard, composed of dis 
 charged soldiers, and whose youngest member was 
 at the least threescore, was sufficient to keep us in 
 what was then called order. But this drunken 
 burgher force at last became too ludicrous ; and its 
 extinction (which however did not take place till 
 1817) was further recommended by its abridging 
 
 * Infra, chap. vi. 
 
198 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 * 
 
 the dark jurisdiction of the magistrates, and creating 
 a new office. It was therefore resolved that the 
 capital should have the honor of a civil police, 
 which I think no other town in Scotland then had 
 upon a regular system. Our first effort in this line 
 forms rather a curious bit of local history. A person 
 of harmless habits, correct principles, due poverty, 
 and no head was set up to shew people what might 
 be made of these institutions. In order to secure 
 respect for his office he was invested with the double 
 authority of Lord Advocate and Lord Justice-Clerk, 
 being made both superintendent and judge, and thus 
 first accusing, and then trying those he accused. 
 For this he got 500 a year ; and lest the people 
 should not be impressed with due reverence, his 
 body was arrayed in a black gown garnished witli 
 knots of gold thread, and was marched in grand pro 
 cession to his Lawnmarket court, where Sir Harry 
 Moncreiff was obliged to install him by prayer. 
 The popular satisfaction at seeing the magistrates in 
 some degree superseded was so general, that only a 
 man dexterous in offence could have made the public 
 doubt the wisdom of the new establishment. But he 
 was not wise, and so ill tempered officially, that he 
 soon raised a burgh rebellion, and nearly spoiled the 
 whole experiment. Being prosecutor, his tendency 
 was to suspect everybody ; and being judge, his glory 
 required that he should never decide against himself; 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 199 
 
 and the system being new, he was smitten with the 
 usual weakness of absolute lawgivers, and introduced 
 a code which at least was beautiful in his own sight. 
 For example, it was his opinion that noisy mirth, 
 especially at late hours, was a bad thing 5 and there 
 fore when Mr. George Thomson, the correspondent 
 of Burns, gave a ball in his own house, the police 
 officers, obeying their instructions for all such cases, 
 having ascertained that the neighbours had neither 
 been invited nor consulted, entered and dispersed 
 the illegal assembly ; and his Honour decided next 
 day that this was all quite right. This tyranny was 
 bad enough for the rich, but it was far worse for the 
 poor, whom the accusing spirit and recording angel 
 tortured without pity or control ; not from cruelty, 
 for personally he was good natured, but from that 
 love of vexatious petty regulation, and that impa 
 tience of check, which, tempt weak heads. At last 
 even our rulers admitted that he was intolerable ; 
 and this was the happiest event of his life, for he 
 got 300 a year for getting out of the way. A 
 better system was then introduced, and has in sub 
 stance continued. 
 
 Nobody foresaw, and least of all its authors, the 
 indirect consequences of this police establishment. 
 So far as I am aware, it was the first example of popu 
 lar election in Scotland. Aversion to be taxed was 
 overcome by allowing the people to choose the Police 
 
200 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Commissioners a precedent always appealed to, 
 till the Eeform Act superseded the necessity of 
 using it. The gradual extension of the police sys 
 tem over our towns trained the people to expect and 
 to exercise the elective privilege ; and the effect of 
 this in exciting and organising public spirit was so 
 great, that the rise of the Edinburgh establishment 
 is one of our local eras. Dr. John Thomson was 
 not extravagant when, in reference to our position, 
 he used to call it a Divine Institution. 
 
 The memorable case of Professor Leslie began 
 early in 1805, and though settled in the General 
 Assembly in May of that year, the public discussion 
 was prolonged till far on in 1806. It made a deep 
 and universal impression. The substance of the 
 case is this. 
 
 The promotion of John Playfair to the chair of 
 Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, 
 made a vacancy in Play fair s chair of Mathematics. 
 John Leslie, whose recent treatise on heat had placed 
 him high in science, was the only well qualified 
 candidate. He was patronised by Stewart, Playfair, 
 and all good judges who had only superiority of fit 
 ness in view; and his subsequent eminence justified 
 their recommendation. But the Moderate clergy, 
 who had long encouraged pluralities, and wished 
 to multiply clerical professorships, allotted the place 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 201 
 
 to one of themselves. They probably cared little 
 who the individual should be, but it was understood, 
 and indeed never denied, that their favourite upon 
 this occasion was the Eeverend Dr. Thomas Mac- 
 knight, the son of the Harmonist ; a most excellent 
 man, by no means devoid of science, but unheard of 
 in the scientific world, and not capable of being- 
 named seriously as a worthy competitor of Leslie. 
 However, any clergyman would have done : but 
 the first thing was to exclude the layman. The 
 reverend faction therefore began by proposing to 
 put the College Test to Leslie ; but this was defeated 
 by his at once agreeing to take it. Not one of the 
 Presbytery of Edinburgh except Macknight had 
 read, or could understand, the work on heat ; but 
 somebody told them that that treatise contained a, 
 note with these words u Mr. Hume is the first, as 
 far as I know, who has treated of Causation in a 
 truly philosophical manner. His Essay on Necessary 
 Connexion seems a model of clear and accurate 
 reasoning,&quot; &c. This supplied them with the very 
 thing they wanted a personal exception to the 
 candidate whose science was unassailable. The 
 cry of atheism was raised ; a cry seldom raised in 
 vain in this country, and to which the very name of 
 David Hume gave particular force. It was pro 
 claimed that these words, though only applied to 
 physical science, involved the adoption by Mr. 
 
202 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Leslie of the whole of Hume s doctrine of Cause and 
 Effect, and of all the moral consequences which that 
 cunning sceptic deduced from it. The course there 
 fore was now clear. The Presbytery of Edinburgh 
 announced first that, by the foundation of the Uni 
 versity, the Town Council could only elect &quot; cum 
 avisamento eorum ministrorum&quot; which the clergy held 
 to imply a veto in their favor ; and then, that the 
 note, being heretical, tainted the whole book, and 
 the book the man; and lastly, that schools and 
 colleges being subject to the presbytery of the 
 bounds, it was both their right and their duty to 
 have this philosopher excluded. The real value of 
 this pretension was, that it would apply to every 
 case in which the clergy could detect what they 
 might think unsound doctrine ; and therefore all 
 the machinery, and all the rancour, of the ecclesias 
 tical courts was put into activity to aid it. No 
 wonder that dispassionate men were alarmed by a 
 conspiracy of which the object was to entitle the 
 Church to control every patron in the election of 
 every professor, and indeed to subject learning once 
 more to priestcraft. 
 
 The weight of metaphysical authority was on the 
 side of the note, and Thomas Brown s fine meta 
 physical spear shivered all the argumentative 
 weapons by which, as applied to this point, it was 
 assailed. Still the assailants may possibly have had 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 203 
 
 truth on their side, though they fought their battle ill. 
 But metaphysics had nothing to do with the matter. 
 They were the pretence ; while a claim of clerical do 
 mination over seats of learning was the real subject. 
 
 The Town Council, jealous of the attempt to 
 supersede them, and encouraged by the support of 
 liberal and pious men, stood firm and elected Leslie. 
 The Presbytery, relying on ecclesiastical sympathy, 
 stood firm also; but, after much manoeuvring, 
 it resolved to shew its candour by only Be/erring the 
 matter to the Synod for advice. It is honourable to 
 the Presbytery that this course was only carried by 
 fourteen against thirteen. The thirteen were for 
 quashing the whole affair. The inquisitors formed 
 a majority of the Synod; but this body also thought 
 it safest to preserve the outward appearance of 
 impartiality by Referring to the General Assembly. 
 Sir Harry Moncreiff instantly entered a Complaint 
 against this Eeference a sagacious move ; for it 
 made the Synod a party at the bar of the Assembly, 
 and consequently excluded the votes of its members, 
 and thus ultimately saved the case. 
 
 The prevailing public feeling was strongly against 
 the persecution, and its horrid principle. Toryism 
 was rather in favor of the Church : Whiggism 
 decidedly against it. The two proper Church parties 
 were reversed. The Moderate clergy, more indifferent 
 about scepticism than their opponents, yet liking 
 
204 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 power above all things, were nearly unanimous 
 against Leslie. The Wild, cordial in their horror of 
 heresy, almost all supported the supposed disciple of 
 Hume. This singular position for them was not 
 produced, as their enemies absurdly said, by their 
 hating their ecclesiastical antagonists more than 
 they hated infidelity, but by their honest incapacity, 
 notwithstanding their jealousy of it, to discover any 
 infidelity in the matter. There could not have been 
 a stronger fact against the persecutors than that, on 
 such a question, they were opposed by the whole 
 evangelical clergy. 
 
 The debate in the Assembly wore out two long- 
 days. The result, in point of form, was that the 
 Complaint against the Eeference was sustained ; the 
 meaning of which was that the conduct of the Pres 
 bytery and the Synod was condemned, and the oppo 
 sition stopped. The respective votes were ninety- 
 six to eighty-four. It is frightful to think that such 
 a result as was implied in the Reference was within 
 twelve of receiving all the support that the ecclesias 
 tical tribunal could give it. The Church could not 
 settle the civil rights of the patrons or the presentee ; 
 but if the ecclesiastical decision had been that the 
 presentee was a heretic, he would have been a bold 
 man who would have answered for the Civil Court 
 not giving effect to this decision in those days, when 
 to oppose the Church was to oppose good order and 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 205 
 
 the Government. It was a small House for such a 
 question 5 but many of the Moderate staid away from 
 not liking the job, and some of the Wild from the 
 words David Hume. 
 
 Some of the speeches, in this the most important 
 Scotch debate I have ever known, were excellent. 
 Sir Harry MoncreifFs, for practical effect, was the 
 best. Avoiding the metaphysical slough into which 
 it was the great object of the persecutors to lead 
 their opponents, he was concise, vigorous, and con 
 temptuous upon the common sense and truth of the 
 case. It must have given the Lord President Camp 
 bell, who was a liberal man, some pain to quibble, 
 and with little of his usual acuteness, in defence of a 
 prosecution for which he could have no taste. He suf 
 fered severely for his imprudence from Lauderdale, 
 whose appetite was evidently whetted by catching a 
 judge rash enough to expose himself on equal terms 
 in public debate. Adam Gillies and Henry Erskine 
 were strong and useful on the just side ; but neither 
 of them equal to James Moncreiff, who on this 
 occasion displayed, for the first time, the vigorous 
 argumentative powers which made him afterwards 
 the most habitually useful layman in the Assembly. 
 Dr. John Inglis, one of the deepest in the plot, was 
 as good as ingenious metaphysics can ever be in a 
 popular assembly. Principal Hill, the successor of 
 Principal Robertson as the leader of the Church, was, 
 
206 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 as usual, plausible and elegant; and laid out his 
 most dexterous and persuasive lures to fix every 
 waverer, and to recal those who were inclined to 
 forget their fidelity to the Moderate standard. 
 Dugald Stewart closed the discussion by a speech 
 which he meant to have been longer, but inexperience 
 of such rough scenes made him too plain in his indig 
 nation, and he was called to order, and sat down ; not 
 however till he had delivered a few long-remembered 
 sentences in a very fine spirit of scorn and eloquence. 
 A curious error was committed by the Eeverend 
 Dr. Andrew Hunter, Professor of Divinity, a deeply 
 religious gentleman, by whom the debate was opened 
 in favour of the Complaint ; an error very innocently 
 fallen into, and very handsomely avowed, and which 
 shews how much inaccuracy may sometimes pass 
 undetected not merely in history, but in the discus 
 sions of living and intelligent men. Dr. Henry 
 Hunter of London, a presbyterian minister of un 
 doubted learning and piety, translated Euler s Letters, 
 and this translation contains a note on Hume s doc 
 trine of Causation the same in substance as the note 
 objected to in Leslie s book. Dr. Andrew Hunter 
 quoted this note by his namesake ; and no authority 
 that was produced had greater effect on the As 
 sembly. But just after closing his speech, the worthy 
 Professor, with his usual candour and simplicity, 
 explained that he had been informed that the note 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 207 
 
 in Euler was not by Henry Hunter but by Condorcet. 
 Of course the detection that Leslie s doctrine was 
 approved of, not by the presbyterian divine, but by 
 the French atheist, raised a hearty laugh on one side 
 of the House against honest Andrew, and produced 
 many a sneer at Leslie for his ally. This was so im 
 portant that James Moncreiff was at the pains to take 
 it up next day, and to demonstrate, as he thought, 
 that after all the first statement was correct, and that 
 the note was by Henry Hunter himself. But the 
 truth, then only known to Mr. Macvey Napier, was 
 that both statements were inaccurate, and that the 
 note in Euler was written neither by Henry Hunter 
 nor by Gondorcet, but by John Leslie! He had 
 assisted anonymously in a translation of one of 
 Condorcet s works, and in doing so composed and 
 inserted this note, which Henry Hunter, finding it 
 in the English Condorcet, arid never doubting that 
 it formed part of the original work, quoted as Con- 
 dorcet s in his translation of Euler. All this used 
 to be explained by Leslie afterwards. What an 
 escape for him, and for his reverend champion in 
 the Assembly, that no one there knew that he him 
 self had been quoted as the strongest authority in his 
 own support ! 
 
 Hermand was in a glorious phrenzy. Spurning 
 all unfairness, a religious doubt, entangled with 
 mystical metaphysics, and countenanced by his 
 
208 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 party, had great attractions for his excitable head 
 and presbyterian taste. What a figure ! as he 
 stood on the floor, declaiming and screaming, 
 amidst the divines the tall man, with his thin 
 powdered locks and long pigtail, the long Court 
 of Session cravat flaccid and streaming with the 
 heat, and the obtrusive linen ! The published report 
 makes him declare that &quot; the belief of the being and 
 perfections of the Deity is the solace and delight of 
 my life. It is a feeling which I sucked in with my 
 mother s milk. 7 But this would not have been half 
 intense for Hermand; and accordingly his words 
 were u Sir ! I sucked in the being and attributes of God 
 with my mother s milk /&quot; His constant and affectionate 
 reverence for his mother exceeded the devotion of 
 any Indian for his idol ; and under this feeling he 
 amazed the House by maintaining (which was his 
 real opinion) that there was no apology for infidelity, 
 or even for religious doubt, because no good or 
 sensible man had anything to do except to be of 
 the religion of his mother 5 which, be it what it 
 might, was always the best. &quot; A sceptic, Sir, I 
 hate ! With my whole heart I detest him ! But, 
 Moderator, I love a Turk /&quot; 
 
 The report, which was published about five months after the 
 debate, is as bad as possible. It omits all that was striking, and 
 smooths everything over with a dull surface of composed proprieties 
 and generalities. No idea or feeling of this most interesting debate 
 can be got from its vapidity. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 209 
 
 It was not without reason that the liberal, all 
 over the country, rejoiced. Those in Edinburgh 
 celebrated their victory by a dinner at which Sir 
 Harry presided admirably. The defeated leaders of 
 the clergy never entirely recovered their reputation. 
 Many of them were excellent, and some of them 
 able, men ; but their accession to this plot could 
 never be forgotten. The defeat undoubtedly helped 
 to kill Dr. Finlayson, who died in January 1808, 
 without ever having resumed his habitual look of hard 
 calm confidence. Though never exposing himself 
 by a speech or a pamphlet, he was the underground 
 soul of the dark confederacy. When sitting at the 
 bar, pale with vexation, while they were taking the 
 vote by calling the roll, and the issue became visible, 
 Jeffrey, who was just behind, consoled him by say 
 ing in his sharp sarcastic style &quot; Take a little 
 gingerbread, Doctor.&quot; The laugh did not relieve 
 him. Giving the critic a slap in the face would. 
 Finl ay son s ecclesiastical life reminds one of Pascal s 
 saying of the Jesuits u Les plus habiles d entre eux 
 sont ceux qui intriguent beaucoup, qui parlent peu, 
 et qui n ecrivent point.&quot; 
 
 The controversy was distinguished by some pub 
 lications of permanent value. Stewart contributed 
 an &quot; Explanation of Facts,&quot; marked by his usual 
 taste and judgment. Brown put forth the first 
 
210 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 draught of his inquiry into the nature of our idea of 
 Causation 5 a work declared by Mackintosh to u entitle 
 him to a place very, very near the first among the 
 living metaphysicians of Great Britain.&quot; * Playfair 
 published &quot; A Letter to one of the Ministers of Edin 
 burgh &quot; one of the best controversial pamphlets in 
 the English language. Francis Horner gave an 
 admirable exposition of the whole contest in an 
 article in the Edinburgh Keview.f Dr. Ingiis was 
 the great writer and speaker on the other side. And 
 he wrote and spoke well. So well that, until Brown 
 appeared, he was thought to have the best of the 
 metaphysical argument the favourite bush into 
 which he and his friends always pushed their heads. 
 Chalmers came forward in his first publication, being 
 u Observations on a Passage in Mr. Play fair s Letter 
 to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, relative to the 
 mathematical pretensions of the Scottish Clergy.&quot; 
 This was the famous pamphlet in which he stated, 
 on the authority of his own experience, that, u after 
 the satisfactory discharge of his parish duties, a 
 minister may enjoy five days in the week of unin 
 terrupted leisure for the prosecution of any science 
 in which his taste may dispose him to engage.&quot; This 
 was said before he became religious ; and a noble 
 explanation did he give, when it was quoted against 
 
 * Memoirs of Sir James Mackintosh, vol. I. p. 396. 
 f Edinburgh Keview, No. 13, Art. 7. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 211 
 
 him in the Assembly many years after the acquisition 
 of his new nature.* 
 
 A genius now appeared, who has immortalized 
 Edinburgh, and will long delight the world. Walter 
 Scott s vivacity and force had been felt since his 
 boyhood by his comrades, and he had disclosed his 
 literary inclinations by some translations of German 
 ballads, and a few slight pieces in the Minstrelsy of 
 the Scottish Border ; but his power of great original 
 conception and execution was unknown both to his 
 friends and himself. In 1805 he revealed his true 
 self by the publication of the u Lay of the Last 
 Minstrel.&quot; The subject, from the principle of which 
 he rarely afterwards deviated, was, for the period, 
 singularly happy. It recalled scenes and times and 
 characters so near as almost to linger in the memories 
 of the old, and yet so remote that their revival, 
 under poetical embellishment, imparted the double 
 pleasure of invention and of history. The instant 
 completeness of his success shewed him his region. 
 The Lay was followed by a more impressive pause 
 of wonder, and then by a louder shout of admiration, 
 than even our previous Edinburgh poem &quot; The 
 Pleasures of Hope.&quot; But nobody, not even Scott, 
 anticipated what was to follow. Nobody imagined 
 the career that was before him ; that the fertility of 
 * Memoirs of Dr. Chalmers, by Dr. Hanna, vol. III. p. 77. ED. 
 
212 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 his genius was to be its most wonderful distinction ; 
 tliat there was to be an unceasing recurrence of fresh 
 delight, enhanced by surprise at his rapidity and 
 richness. His advances were like the conquests of 
 Napoleon : each new achievement overshadowing 
 the last ; till people half wearied of his very profu 
 sion. The quick succession of his original works, 
 interspersed as they were with (for him rather 
 unworthy) productions of a lower kind, threw a lite 
 rary splendour over his native city, which had now 
 the glory of being at once the seat of the most 
 popular poetry, and the most powerful criticism of 
 the age. 
 
 The society of Edinburgh has never been better, 
 or indeed so good, since I knew it as it was about 
 this time. It continued in a state of high animation 
 till 1815, or perhaps till 1820. Its brilliancy was 
 owing to a variety of peculiar circumstances which 
 only operated during this period. The principal of 
 these were the survivance of several of the eminent 
 men of the preceding age, and of curious old habits 
 which the modern flood had not yet obliterated ; 
 the rise of a powerful community of young men of 
 ability; the exclusion of the British from the Conti 
 nent, which made this place, both for education and 
 for residence, a favourite resort of strangers; the 
 war, which maintained a constant excitement of 
 military preparation, and of military idleness ; the 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 213 
 
 blaze of that popular literature which made this the 
 second city in the empire for learning and science ; 
 and the extent, and the ease, with which literature 
 and society embellished each other, without rivalry, 
 and without pedantry. The first abstraction from 
 this composition was by the deaths of our interesting 
 old. Then London drew away several of our best 
 young. There was a gap in the production of fresh 
 excellence. Peace in 1815 opened the long closed 
 floodgates, and gave to the Continent most of the 
 strangers we used to get. A new race of peace- 
 formed native youths came on the stage, but with 
 little literature, and a comfortless intensity of politi 
 cal zeal ; so that by about the year 1820 the old 
 thing was much worn out, and there was no new 
 thing, of the same piece, to continue or replace it. 
 Much undoubtedly remained to make Edinburgh 
 still, to those who knew how to use it, a city of 
 Goshen, and to set us above all other British cities 
 except one, and in some things above even that 
 one. But the exact old thing was not. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IN 1806 the Whigs were surprised to find themselves 
 in power. This was an unnatural result of mere 
 accident 5 for there was no real foundation for the 
 official rise of this party at that period, nor at any 
 period during the life of George the Third. But it 
 was a most salutary event for Scotland. It con 
 vinced the Tories that they were not positively 
 immortal. It told the Whigs, and all that liberal 
 population which was growing in silence, not to 
 despair utterly. The tendencies of both parties, of 
 the one towards hereditary insolence, and of the 
 other towards confirmed despondency, were cor 
 rected in some degree by the mere fact of a change. 
 John Clerk was appointed Solicitor -General ; 
 Henry Erskine was replaced as Lord Advocate ; and 
 the Earl of Lauderdale became the real Scotch 
 minister. It was very unfortunate for the progress 
 of sound opinions that Scotland was unavoidably 
 put under the charge of persons not well qualified 
 
MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME BY HENRY COCKBURN. 215 
 
 to turn the power thus given to them to the best 
 advantage. Personally, Erskine was excellent ; 
 liberal, judicious, and beloved. But he was married 
 to Clerk, who personally was also excellent, but 
 officially he was crotchety, positive, and wild ; and 
 domineered over the softer nature of Erskine. The 
 younger Whigs, several of whom were far before 
 these official persons, both in general knowledge 
 and in present public affairs, were not taken into 
 council at all. Even the spirit and wisdom of their 
 Whig articles in the Eeview never made Jeffrey, 
 Horner, or Brougham be consulted or considered. 
 The truth is, that the senior Whigs had at this time 
 considerable jealousy of the higher class of their 
 juniors ; especially after it became manifest that the 
 younger men saw the imperfections of their leaders, 
 and could not be relied upon as followers, except in 
 so far as they were satisfied that the measures they 
 were required to support were right. 
 
 Among the proceedings particularly affecting- 
 Scotland which occurred during this short admini 
 stration, the provision made for Dugald Stewart is 
 worthy of notice only because both it and he were 
 much abused. In itself it is now utterly insigni 
 ficant. A new office, called the Printer of the Edin 
 burgh Gazette, was created, and given to Stewart, 
 with a salary of (I believe) 300 and some emolu 
 ments arising from the sale of the paper. Because 
 
216 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 this was done by the Whigs, it was declaimed 
 against by the opposition. And it was unquestion 
 ably wrong. It always is wrong to make a new 
 office merely as a form for satisfying a just claim, 
 especially if the office, publicly, is useless. Stewart 
 had done far more than enough to entitle him, a 
 poor man, to be provided for directly as a distin 
 guished moral teacher and a great philosophical 
 writer. There were two occurrences more important 
 the impeachment of Lord Melville ; and the pro 
 posed reform of the Court of Session. 
 
 The charges against Lord Melville were ground 
 less, and were at last reduced to insignificancy. To 
 those who knew the pecuniary indifference of the 
 man, and who think of the comparative facility of 
 peculation in those irregular days, the mere small- 
 ness of the sums which he was said to have impro 
 perly touched, is of itself almost sufficient evidence 
 of his innocence. If he had been disposed to pecu 
 late, it would not have been for farthings. Never 
 theless, his impeachment did more to emancipate 
 Scotland than even the exclusion of his party from 
 power. His political omnipotence, which without 
 any illiberality on his part implied, at that time, 
 the suppression of all opposition, had lasted so long 
 and so steadily, that in despair the discontented 
 concurred in the general impression that, happen 
 what might, Harry the ninth would always be 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 217 
 
 uppermost. When he was not only deprived of 
 power, but subjected to trial, people could scarcely 
 believe their senses. The triumphant anticipations 
 of his enemies, many of whom exulted with prema 
 ture and disgusting joy over the ruin of the man, 
 were as absurd as the rage of his friends who railed, 
 with vain malignity, at his accusers and the Constitu 
 tion. Between the two, the progress of independence 
 was materially advanced. A blow had been struck 
 which, notwithstanding his acquittal, relaxed our 
 local fetters. Our little great men felt the precari- 
 ousness of their power ; and even the mildest friends 
 of improvement those who, though opposed to 
 him, deplored the fall of a distinguished countryman 
 more than they valued any political benefit involved 
 in his misfortune, were relieved by seeing that the 
 main spring of the Scotch pro-consular system was 
 weakened. 
 
 It was at a public dinner in honor of the acquittal 
 (27th June 1806) that Scott produced, and his friend 
 James Ballantyne sang, that unfortunate song so 
 often brought against him afterwards, in which, Fox 
 being then in his last illness, there is a line cheering 
 &quot; Tally-ho to the Fox!&quot; If, as was said, Scott really 
 intended this as a shout of triumph over the expir 
 ing orator, it was an indecency which no fair license 
 of party zeal can palliate. But I am inclined to 
 believe that nothing was meant beyond one of the 
 
218 MEMOKIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 jocular, and not unnatural, exultations over the 
 defeated leaders of the impeachment, of which the 
 song is composed. There were some important per 
 sons, however, whose good opinion by this indiscre 
 tion was lost to Scott for ever. 
 
 There was an illumination on the acquittal, which, 
 in the absence of the Lord Advocate, gave John 
 Clerk, the Solicitor-General, an opportunity of ex 
 hibiting his notion of the proper method of dealing 
 with a city and his political opposites. Nothing 
 could be more natural than for the friends of an 
 acquitted man to rejoice, nor anything more unhand 
 some than for their opponents to mar their joy ; 
 especially as there was no symptom or probability 
 of any disturbance. Yet Clerk was wrong-headed 
 enough to obstruct the intended demonstration by 
 writing officially to the Lord Provost that, if it took 
 place, it would in his opinion lead to a popular out 
 break, for which his Lordship and the Town-Council, 
 who permitted the display, would be held responsible. 
 This judicious epistle was instantly put to its proper 
 
 * Lockhart s explanation (Life of Scott, chap. 15) is, that 
 Scott having (apparently) just accepted of his Clerkship of Session 
 from the Whigs thought it necessary to shew his independence by 
 abusing them. It seems absurd to impute this to a sensible man. 
 Besides, it does not hit the blot. It was not abuse of the Whigs 
 that gave offence, but a supposed triumphant cheer over Fox s 
 approaching death. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 219 
 
 use, by being sent through the town with tuck of 
 drum, and read aloud by an officer who proclaimed 
 that, in consequence of this objection, the magis 
 trates trusted that the earnest and universal desire 
 of the public to testify its delight at the late glorious 
 event would be repressed. This probably did not 
 save a single candle, but as the illumination was par 
 tial, its shabbiness was ascribed, plausibly enough, 
 to the illiberality of the Whigs. 
 
 The details of the scheme for reforming the Court 
 of Session are to be found in the Parliamentary 
 Proceedings, in the debates in the Faculty of Advo 
 cates, in an article by Jeffrey in the eighteenth 
 number of the Eeview, and in clouds of pamphlets. 
 
 This was the first modern attempt to improve an 
 ancient judicial establishment. Everything of the 
 kind was so adverse to the spirit of the age that the 
 idea of correcting judicial defects, on their own 
 account, had no chance of being encouraged by any 
 government, and indeed could only enter into very 
 speculative private heads. But there were two 
 collateral purposes to be served here : several new 
 and high offices were to be created, and the trouble 
 some flow of Scotch appeals into the House of Lords 
 was expected to be dammed back, to the great 
 comfort of the Lord Chancellor. But for these 
 personal considerations, &quot; The Auld Fifteen&quot; would 
 have gone on undisturbed for a long while. 
 
220 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 What was proposed was 1st, to divide the exist 
 ing single Court of fifteen judges into three separate 
 Courts, each of five judges ; 2d, to make at least 
 one of these try causes by juries, which were not 
 then employed in the decision of civil questions ; 3d, 
 to introduce an intermediate Court of Appeal between 
 these and the House of Lords, with a sort of Scotch 
 Chancellor at its head. These changes implied the 
 creation of two new Heads and a Chancellor. 
 
 There were almost as many opinions as thinkers 
 upon every part of each of these proposals. The 
 Court was fierce at the imagination of any change, 
 especially of Whig conception. So were the country 
 gentlemen, the absorbents of every prejudice. The 
 towns interfered very little. They were crushed. 
 The lawyers were divided into three parties. 1. 
 Those who considered the matter only politically, and 
 wishing chiefly to concur with the existing Govern 
 ment, defended the whole measure, in all its parts. 
 The whole, or nearly the whole, senior Whigs, led 
 by John Clerk and the other political office-holders, 
 took this view. 2. Their political opponents, who 
 were equally decided against all change. David 
 Hume headed this section, and made a mournful 
 oration over the death of any portion of the ancient 
 system. So did even the practical Walter Scott, 
 who after one of the Faculty meetings positively 
 shed real tears over the threatened alteration of the 
 
BY HENRY GOCKBURN. 221 
 
 old shape of the Court of Session. But in his case 
 it was not the Court alone that moved him, but the 
 probable decline of Scotch character and habits, 
 of which this legal change was only a begin 
 ning. Properly applied, this was a sentiment with 
 which I cordially sympathised. But it was misap 
 plied by Scott, who was thinking of feudal poetry, 
 not of modern business. 3. A class composed of 
 the more moderate of all parties, who were neither 
 sworn against the whole measure, nor in favor of it, 
 but were for rejecting what in it they thought bad, 
 and for adopting what they thought good. This 
 section contained almost all the younger Whigs, and 
 was headed by Jeffrey. 
 
 On the general merits of the measure the minds 
 of good thinkers had come to nearly the result 
 which, after more discussion and delay, was at last 
 actually adopted by Parliament. 1. The erection 
 of an intermediate Court of Eeview would have 
 failed in its chief object of relieving the House of 
 Lords, and would only have made the access to it 
 more slow and expensive. It is very difficult for a 
 small country, divided into strongly opposed par 
 ties, to administer law to itself, solely by native 
 courts *, especially after the people have been trained 
 to expect purer justice from a higher and more 
 distant tribunal. Much may be done for the pro 
 tection of this tribunal by improving the native 
 
222 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 judicial system ; but devices to obstruct the access 
 to the great controlling power, though they may 
 irritate, seldom satisfy. There are some who still 
 think that a great error was committed in our not 
 
 CD 
 
 eagerly accepting the offer to revive our Lord 
 Chancellor. All that I have seen convinces me 
 that the rejection of this scheme was wise. We 
 have no sufficient employment for such an officer ; 
 and no idle judge, or judge on whom unworthy 
 work is thrown in order to give him an appearance 
 of business, can ever be exhibited without dispa 
 ragement to judicial respectability. The mere cir 
 cumstance of his judgments not being final, would 
 of itself have been inconsistent with the reverence 
 necessary for the due weight of such a judge. 
 2. The separation of the Court into three chambers 
 virtually took place, with general approbation, by 
 its division into two, and the temporary erection of 
 the Jury Court. 3. Trial by jury has been actually 
 established. 
 
 Some of the judges were ordered to attend the 
 House of Lords to give explanations. Very sulky 
 at being obliged to obey a mandate meant to pro 
 mote their own reform, they were fretted into some 
 thing like contempt by the rejection of a claim 
 which they made to be allowed to sit within the 
 bar. This decision was described as a piece of 
 Whig insolence, and as intended to degrade judges. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 223 
 
 But the very same tiling was done when the Scotch 
 judges were ordered to attend the Peers about the 
 Porteous mob. If a more honourable seat is 
 given, as was asserted, in modern times to the 
 English judges, the Scotch and Irish ought clearly 
 to be treated in the same way. However, both the 
 offended Lords and the Tories were unexpectedly 
 relieved by the Whigs being suddenly dismissed from 
 power in April 1807, before any scheme was carried. 
 
 The Whigs had only one opportunity of making 
 a Scotch judge ; and they made Charles Hay, a man 
 famous for law, paunch, whist, claret, and worth. His 
 judicial title was Newton, but in private life he was 
 chiefly known as The Mighty. He was a bulky man 
 with short legs, twinkling eyes, and a large purple 
 visage ; no speaker, but an excellent legal writer and 
 adviser ; deep and accurate in his law, in which he 
 had had extensive employment. Honest, warm 
 hearted, and considerate, he was always true to his 
 principles and his friends. But these and other good 
 qualities were all apt to be lost sight of in people s 
 admiration of his drinking. His daily and flowing 
 cups raised him far above the evil days of sobriety 
 on which he had fallen, and made him worthy of 
 having quaffed with the Scandinavian heroes. But 
 there was no noise in his libations, no boisterousness, 
 * 2d May 1737. Miscellany of the Maitland Club, vol. II. p. 68. 
 
224 MEMOEIALS OP HIS TIME 
 
 no wrangling, not even disputation. The kindly 
 stillness of his ordinary manner, instead of being 
 disturbed, was deepened by potation ; and a cask so 
 well seasoned was not liable to be inflamed by any 
 thing so feeble as intoxication. His delight was to 
 sit smiling, quiet, and listening 5 saying little, but 
 that little always sensible for he used to hold that 
 conversation, at least when it was of the sort that 
 excites admiration, spoiled good company; sated 
 apparently with enjoyment, and only disturbed when 
 he observed some unfortunate creature at table not 
 taking as many or as full bumpers as himself. 
 
 He was the modern king of the Ante Manum 
 Club a jovial institution which contained, and 
 helped to kill, most of the eminent topers of Edin 
 burgh for about sixty years preceding the year 1818, 
 when the degenerate temperance of the age at last 
 destroyed it. When The Mighty died, the members 
 dined, and did not fail to drown their sorrow in 
 solemn mourning, each drinking a full glass to the 
 memory of their departed chief, and bowing reve 
 rently to his portrait, which they had hung up in 
 the tavern which had long been his field of fame. 
 Jeffrey, Moncreiff, Keay, Murray, I and some other 
 of the younger and less worthy spirits, joined this 
 once famous association,* a few years before it 
 
 * It was called the Ante Manum (as I have understood) because 
 the original rule was that the bill should be paid beforehand. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 225 
 
 expired, merely to have a glimpse of the last age. It 
 was curious, but to us dull. Few of them had heads 
 for talk, and none of us for much wine : we had to get 
 the established jokes and other humours explained; 
 and they were not quite at ease under our intrusion. 
 There were no High Jinks, or sprightly sayings, 
 or songs ; but a good deal of kindly personal ban 
 tering, laughing at nothing or at very little, and 
 steady quiet draughts of claret. But I believe there 
 was a great deal of wild animation in the youth of 
 the club, when its pulse was quicker. Hermand s 
 star blazed in this hemisphere for at least half a 
 century, when the meetings were every Friday for 
 about six or seven months yearly. He used very 
 often to go direct from the club to the Court on the 
 Saturday mornings. When some of us degenerate 
 youths were once protesting against more wine, he 
 exclaimed mournfully &quot; What shall we come to at 
 last ! I believe I shall be left alone on the face of 
 the earth drinking claret!&quot; 
 
 Newton s potations and bulk made him slumber 
 ous both in society and in Court ; and his manage 
 ment of this judicial inconvenience was very curious. 
 In Court his head generally rested either on his 
 heaving chest, or on his hands crossed on the bench, 
 while, after getting a grip of the case, his eyes were 
 locked in genuine sleep. Yet, from practice and a 
 
 remarkably quick ear and intellect, nobody could 
 
 Q 
 
226 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 say anything worth hearing without his instantly 
 raising his huge eyelid, and keeping it open, and 
 directing his powerful knowing eye, like a mortar, 
 at the speaker, till he got what was necessary ; after 
 which, when the babbling began, down sunk the 
 eyelid again, till lighted up by the next shot. The 
 only way to waken him was to say something good, 
 and this never failed. Accordingly no judge ever 
 knew his cases better. Strangers wondered, but 
 they seldom saw him rouse himself and deliver his 
 opinion, which he was always ready to do on the 
 spot, without being inclined, by his accuracy of 
 statement and luminousness of view, to despise the 
 judges whose eyes had been open all the while. I 
 never heard this able, kind, and honest man men 
 tioned by anybody but with respect and affection. 
 
 On the 13th of November 1806 a murder was 
 committed in Edinburgh, which made a greater 
 impression than any committed in our day, except 
 the systematic murders of Burke. James Begbie, 
 porter to the British Linen Company s Bank, was 
 going down the close in which the bank then was, 
 on the south side of the Canongate, carrying a 
 parcel of bank-notes of the value of four or five 
 thousand pounds, when he was struck dead, by a 
 single stab, given by a single person who had gone 
 into the close after him, and who carried off the parcel. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 227 
 
 This was done in the heart of the city, about five in 
 the evening, and within a few yards of a military 
 sentinel who was always on guard there, though not 
 exactly at this spot, and at the moment possibly not 
 in view of it. Yet the murderer was never heard of. 
 The soldier saw and heard nothing. All that was 
 observed was by some boys who were playing at 
 hand ball in the close ; and all that they saw was 
 that two men entered the close as if together, the 
 one behind the other, and that the front man fell, 
 and lay still ; and they, ascribing this to his being 
 drunk, let him lie, and played on. It was only on 
 the entrance of another person that he was found to 
 be dead, with a knife in his heart, and a piece of 
 paper, through which it had been thrust, interposed 
 between the murderer s hand and the blood. The 
 skill, boldness, and success of the deed produced 
 deep and universal horror. People trembled at the 
 possibility of such a murderer being in the midst of 
 them, and taking any life that he chose. But the 
 wretch s own terror may be inferred from the fact, 
 that in a few months the large notes, of which most 
 of the booty was composed, were found hidden in 
 the grounds of Bellevue. Some persons were sus 
 pected, but none on any satisfactory ground ; and, 
 according to a strange craze or ambition not unusual 
 in such cases, several charged themselves with the 
 crime who, to an absolute certainty, had nothing to 
 
228 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 do with it. About twenty years after this a police 
 officer, called Denovan, an old High School fellow 
 of mine and a clever man, published the life of James 
 Moffat or Maccoul, a famous villain, who in 1820 
 was condemned to be hanged for robbing a bank, 
 but died in prison. In this work the author tries to 
 shew that his hero was Begbie s murderer. Many 
 curious and plausible circumstances are gathered 
 together in support of this opinion ; but the defect is 
 that the reality of these circumstances themselves 
 is as uncertain as that of the fact they are brought 
 to establish. It is easy to make almost any hypothesis 
 have an appearance of soundness when there is no 
 contradictor. Moffat was a very peculiar looking 
 scoundrel, both in face and figure ; and had certainly 
 a very strong personal resemblance to the murderer 
 as described by the boys ; but, if I recollect right, this 
 circumstance is not much founded on by Denovan. 
 
 When the Tories returned to power they made 
 Archibald Campbell of Clathick (who afterwards 
 became Colquhoun of Killermont) their Lord Advo 
 cate, and David Boyle (afterwards Lord Justice- 
 Clerk), their Solicit or- General. The Lord Advo 
 cate s Deputes were William Erskine (Scott s friend, 
 afterwards Lord Kinedder), Alexander Maconochie 
 (afterwards Lord Meadowbank, the second), and 
 myself! I happened to be in London when, most 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 229 
 
 unexpectedly, the change of administration took 
 place. I was sent for by Lord Melville and his 
 nephew Eobert Dundas the Lord Chief Baron. 
 On going to them, I was surprised to be offered 
 one of the Advocate-Deputeships, and objected to 
 take it, on the ground that my opinions were not 
 those of the Government. To this it was answered 
 that the place was offered, and its acceptance urged 
 upon me, solely from family connection, and without 
 the understanding of any political tie ; and this addi 
 tional proof of the offer proceeding from them, and 
 not from the Lord Advocate, was given, that Mr. 
 Campbell did not then know of his own appointment. 
 On saying this, the Chief Baron pointed to a letter 
 addressed to Campbell that was lying on the table, 
 and said, u There s his own letter, not yet gone.&quot; I 
 took a day to consider ; and consulted Francis 
 Horner. He saw no good likely to come of it, but 
 no decent ground on which I could quarrel with 
 my kindred, since they gave the place on such terms. 
 After some more kindly expostulation, I yielded ; 
 though in doing so I had considerable misgiving as 
 to the result. 
 
 The Scotch Tory party thought that the failure 
 of the effort to keep them out returned them to 
 power stronger than they had been before. Even 
 they however did not dream of the twenty years of 
 office that followed ; nor were they aware that time, 
 
230 MEMOKIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 instead of consolidating their authority, was steadily 
 though silently undermining it. The country was 
 getting further removed every hour from the terror, 
 or the bugbear, of the French revolution. The pre 
 scriptive dominion of the old faction was interrupted. 
 A generation not soured and darkened by the horrors 
 which had fixed, and seemed to justify, the intolerant 
 prejudices of its predecessors was rising. And, above 
 all, the restored party returned with no reformation 
 of its feelings or objects. The Scotch managers 
 were in general excellent men personally. The rise 
 of Robert Dundas, Lord Melville s son, was an im 
 portant event for his party ; for, without his father s 
 force, or power of debate, or commanding station, 
 he had fully as much good sense, excellent business 
 habits, great moderation, and as much candour as, 
 I suppose, a party leader can practise. The defect 
 of the whole of them was that they had no taste for 
 good internal measures, on their own account. So 
 as their party could have kept their places for ever, 
 then for ever there would have been no change of 
 policy in this country. 
 
 In May 1807 I pleaded my first case in the 
 General Assembly ; and from that time I have been 
 intimately acquainted with, or rather personally 
 concerned in, all its judicial proceedings. The 
 annual meeting of this convocation was one of the 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 231 
 
 most curious spectacles in Scotland.* It gave us the 
 only local images of royalty we had, and carried the 
 imagination far back. The old primitive raciness 
 of the place had not been much destroyed when I 
 first knew it. The civilized eloquence of Eobertson 
 had guided its councils, but had left the manners 
 and appearance of the great majority of his brethren 
 untouched; and the strictness with which Lord 
 Leven and Lord Napier, as His Majesty s Commis 
 sioners, adhered, and made every one who came 
 within the royal circle adhere, to court dress and 
 etiquette, seemed like a hint to every fragment of 
 the olden time to remain. 
 
 In 1807 Principal George Hill, of St. Andrews, 
 who had succeeded Kobertson as the leader of the 
 General Assembly, was in the fulness of his sway. 
 As he ruled the public proceedings of this ecclesiasti 
 cal parliament for about thirty years, he must have 
 been a person of considerable talent. But his 
 influence depended on a single power that of public 
 speaking. Though he was the spokesman of his 
 party, he was not its oracle. Finlayson, with his 
 silence, had a deeper brain, and was a more impor 
 tant man in the real management of the church. 
 And even Hill s speaking was of rather a limited 
 range. Elegant and luminous in exposition, he was 
 very defective as a debater. The art of replying, 
 * See Lord Cockburn s Life of Lord Jeffrey, vol. I. p. 180. ED. 
 
232 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 indeed, was an art which he rarely even attempted. 
 His almost invariable course was, either to speak 
 first, when he professed to foresee no difficulty, and 
 merely unfolded to his well-drilled followers what 
 they ought to do ; or to speak last, when, overlooking 
 all the perplexities and personalities and obstacles 
 of the discussion, he recalled his adherents to some 
 simple general view, which he illustrated clearly, 
 and then relieved them of all further anxiety, by 
 bringing the matter to a distinct point, in a skilful 
 motion. Thus, without force, elevation, or much 
 argument, pleasing distinctness and persuasive 
 evasiveness was his line ; and whenever he ventured 
 out of it into the warfare of true debate he was 
 more easily unhorsed than any leader I ever saw. 
 But within this line he was certainly a great artist. 
 His voice was clear and agreeable, his gesture simple, 
 and, though didactic, natural and elegant ; his visage 
 dark ; his eyes shaded by heavy black eye-brows ; 
 his whole manner and expression rather Jesuitical. 
 
 The installed rulers of the Assembly after Hill 
 were Dr. Nicoll a plain, good-natured man, with 
 the appearance and manner of a jolly farmer, and 
 an attractive air of candour and simplicity ; and Dr. 
 John Inglis, who, notwithstanding the sad blot of 
 Leslie s persecution his only stain, is a powerful 
 and excellent man. He had two enemies to over 
 come, in his look and his voice, both of which are 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 233 
 
 unfortunate. It is an evidence of his intellectual 
 power that he has triumphed over these obstacles. 
 But a strong and acute understanding, general 
 intelligence, deep and ready reasoning, clear diction, 
 and the manners of a gentleman, make him a vigorous 
 writer when he chooses to write, and always an 
 admirable 1 debater. No strong adversary ever 
 measured mind against him without feeling his force. 
 In point of power, he could at any moment have 
 puffed Hill out, and crushed him beneath his feet. 
 He is one of the many men who have been wasted 
 and lowered by being cast on an unworthy scene. 
 The powerful qualities which he has thrown away 
 on the ignoble task of attempting to repress the 
 popular spirit of our church would have raised him 
 high and on firm ground in any department of public 
 life. Deducting eloquence and the graces, he is a 
 first-rate preacher. The fanatical taste of the age, 
 however, has gone on diminishing his hearers, till at 
 last his church is nearly empty. Y.et his almost 
 bare walls hear as good, if not better, every-day 
 sermons, than are preached in any church in Scotland 
 except by Chalmers. Nor is it any slight mark of 
 his judgment and worth} that though confined to one 
 very limited set of objects, and to one way of dealing 
 with them, his opinions have advanced in liberality 
 and mildness with the advance of his years. His 
 party has sometimes blamed him for intractableness ; 
 
234 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 but when lie and they differ I do not observe that 
 he is always wrong. A leader generally sees further 
 round him than his followers do, and seldom differs 
 from them but on strong grounds. 
 
 Except Sir Harry Moncreiff, the Wild (as the 
 Evangelical party is called) have never had an 
 established head. Andrew Thomson and Chalmers 
 have occasionally blazed for them ; but the Moderate 
 being the majority in every presbytery, college, and 
 burgh, the Wild never have commanded fixed seats 
 in the Assembly ; and this single circumstance has 
 dislocated their force, and prevented their being 
 regularly represented and led publicly by their own 
 chiefs. Thomson moreover is too self-willed, per 
 sonal, and impetuous to have led his party long 
 even though he had always been a member ; and 
 Chalmers, though he has ardently maintained its 
 principles and objects, has been absorbed in achieve 
 ments so much more splendid, that his exertions in 
 the Assembly, however powerful, form but bright 
 specks in his history 5 and he has scarcely troubled 
 himself with the private management of the Church s 
 little affairs. But Sir Harry, throughout most of 
 his life, was the oracle of the whole Church in 
 matters not factious, and the steady champion of the 
 popular side. In comparison with him every other 
 Churchman who has appeared since I knew the 
 world must withdraw. Nothing that I could say 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 235 
 
 would express one-half of my affectionate and reve 
 rential admiration of this great man. 
 
 Throughout nearly the whole of the seventeenth 
 century the Church was the greatest field which our 
 poor country contained for native talent and 
 influence. The highest places in the state and in 
 the law were open to its professional members ; and 
 it was our great asylum of learning. The success 
 of Presbytery, and the consequent extinction of 
 ecclesiastical dignities and wealth, would have soon 
 sunk it in public importance had it been let alone. 
 But it was persecuted ; and persecution soon raised 
 it to a greater and better height than it had ever 
 attained in either its Episcopal or its Popish days. 
 Under the Stuarts it combined the clergy and the 
 laity into one brave and animated mass, where it 
 was deemed an honor for the best of the gentry 
 either to lead or to follow. The long and noble 
 struggles of this party, which in truth formed the 
 nation, its cruel sufferings, and its splendid triumph 
 stamped a spirit and a reputation upon our clergy, 
 who had been the principal martyrs and heroes, 
 which a century more could not efface. The Revo 
 lution composed these troubles, and clergymen were 
 left to pursue their naturally peaceful callings, with 
 no public interest or influence but what belonged 
 to their obscure avocations. Without professional 
 * See Lord Cockburn s Life of Lord Jeffrey, vol. I. p. 184. ED. 
 
236 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 rank, or political contention, or anything like wealth, 
 and all the rest of the community rising rapidly 
 around them, they kept a high position by being 
 favourably associated in the public mind with the 
 recollection of their history, by the respectability of 
 their characters, and by the best of them always 
 supporting the people in their fixed hatred of 
 patronage. These circumstances sustained them 
 throughout the fifty years or more that followed the 
 Union. A minister was still reverenced in his parish, 
 and was still welcome in all good society. 
 
 But the elevation of all other classes, which was 
 the principal cause of the depression of this one 
 fixed class, went on ; and at length even patronage, 
 which was the last struggle of popularity, was settled 
 against them. From that day the clergy began to 
 go down. Principal Eobertson s ecclesiastical policy 
 tended to divide our ministers into two classes ; one, 
 and by far the largest, of which had no principle 
 superior to that of obsequious allegiance to patrons ; 
 the other, devoting itself entirely to the religion of 
 the lower orders, had no taste or ambition for any 
 thing higher than what that religion required, or 
 could, to ordinary minds, suggest. The old historical 
 glory had faded; and, under the insignificance of 
 repose, it was chiefly a lower description of men 
 who were tempted to enlist in the ecclesiastical 
 service. The humbleness of their livings, and even 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 237 
 
 the well-meant cheapness of their education vul 
 garized them still more: so that learning and 
 refinement, being scarcely attainable, ceased to be 
 expected ; and, with too few exceptions, vegetating 
 in the manse, and the formal performance of the 
 parochial duties, came to be the ultimate object of 
 clerical ambition. A church that is poor, resident, 
 arid working is the best of all churches, both for 
 the state and for the people : but it is not one that, 
 in peaceable unpersecuting times, can sustain an 
 elevated clergy. 
 
 Accordingly, the descent of the Scotch clergy 
 throughout the last half of the eighteenth century 
 was steady and marked. Not that there were no 
 distinguished men among them ; but there were not 
 many, and they were always decreasing. Moulder 
 ing in their parishes was their general doom. And 
 the descent proceeded with always increasing velo 
 city. Take the case of Edinburgh, to which the best 
 clergymen may be supposed to have been allured. 
 About the year 1790 we had Blair, Henry the his 
 torian, Hardy the eloquent Professor of Church 
 History, Principal Robertson, Dr. Erskine, and Sir 
 Harry Moncreiff; all literary and agreeable gentle 
 men, the delights of all society. But twenty years 
 shewed the change that was proceeding. Sir Harry 
 alone remained, and not one other person had arisen 
 to fill up the sad vacancies. I do not recollect a 
 
238 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 single work of any importance, which any one of 
 our Established clergy during this time contributed 
 to learning, or to science, or even to theology ; and 
 in Edinburgh at least, but I believe everywhere, 
 they had fallen almost entirely out of good lay 
 society. 
 
 Had all this been compensated by higher profes 
 sional eminence, it might have been said, that what 
 this world had lost the other had gained. But at 
 this period this could not be said with even a pretence 
 of truth. It was the reverse. Until Chalmers and 
 his consequences arose, the theological philosophy 
 and eloquence of the Church seemed to be worn out. 
 And no wonder. Nothing can inspire religious duty 
 or animation but religion. Other causes may pro 
 duce detached flashes, but nothing else can sustain 
 general devotedness or enthusiasm. But a stern 
 system of patronage, rendered more illiberal by its 
 union with Toryism, tended to exclude all clergy 
 men who were known to cherish a taste for the 
 people and their piety ; and to reserve pulpits for 
 those whose ambition ended in pleasing their poli 
 tical masters. This system, though it gave us 
 cauldrife preachers, might have had perhaps a ten 
 dency to supply society with well educated and 
 agreeable gentlemen ; but this consolatory tendency 
 was defeated by the paltriness of the clerical position. 
 A new presbyterian revolution was approaching, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 239 
 
 which brought out new men, and new dangers, and 
 new popularity, with a necessary elevation of those 
 who shone in it. But about this time the old thing 
 was dead. 
 
 The first circumstance that afterwards tended to 
 revive it was the poverty of town-councils. It was 
 necessary to fill churches, for the sake of the seat 
 rents ; and churches could only be filled by putting 
 in ministers for whom congregations would pay. 
 This business principle operated seriously in Edin 
 burgh, where the magistrates had laid out large 
 sums in building and repairing kirks. This brought 
 Andrew Thomson into this city ; which was the 
 opening of his career. His Whig reputation was so 
 odious, that it rather seemed at one time as if civic 
 beggary would be preferred to it ; and most vehe 
 mently was his entrance into our untroubled fold 
 opposed. But, after as much plotting ,as if it had 
 been for the Popedom he got in, and in a few years 
 rewarded his electors by drawing about 1800 a 
 year for them ; a fact which, of itself, loosened all 
 the city churches from the dead sea in which they 
 were standing. 
 
 Of our native presbyterian seceders, Struthers, 
 who died in 1807, was the only one in Edinburgh 
 who was entitled to the praise of eloquence. I know 
 no other person of the class who attracted people of 
 good taste, not of his community, to his church 
 
240 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 merely for the pleasure of hearing him preach. His 
 last chapel was in College Street, but before it was 
 built he preached in the Circus, a place of theatrical 
 exhibition at the head of Leith Walk. It was 
 strange to see the pit, boxes, and galleries filled 
 with devout worshippers, and to detect the edges of 
 the scenes and other vestiges of the Saturday night, 
 while a pulpit was brought forward to the front of 
 the stage on which there stood a tall, pale, well- 
 dressed man, earnestly but gently alluring the 
 audience to religion by elegant declamation. How 
 ever, as my countrymen have no superstition about 
 the stone and lime of the temple, it did very well. 
 Struthers was not of any superior talent or learning, 
 but as a pleasing and elegant preacher he was far 
 above any presbyterian dissenter then in Edinburgh. 
 
 The year 1808 saw the commencement of our new 
 jail on the Calton Hill. It was a piece of undoubted 
 bad taste to give so glorious an eminence to a prison. 
 It was one of our noblest sites, and would have been 
 given by Pericles to one of his finest edifices. But 
 in modern towns, though we may abuse and bemoan, 
 we must take what we can get. Princes Street was 
 then closed at its east end by a line of mean houses 
 running north and south. All to the east of these 
 houses was a burial ground, of which the southern 
 portion still remains ; and the way of reaching the 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 241 
 
 Calton Hill was to go, by Leith Street, to its base 
 (as may still be done), and then up the steep, 
 narrow, stinking, spiral street which still remains, 
 and was then the only approach. Scarcely any 
 sacrifice could be too great that removed the 
 houses from the end of Princes Street, and made a 
 level road to the hill, or, in other words, produced 
 Waterloo Bridge. The effect was like the drawing 
 up of the curtain in a theatre. But the bridge would 
 never have been where it is except for the jail. The 
 lieges were taxed for the prison ; and luckily few of 
 them were aware that they were also taxed for the 
 bridge as the prison s access. In all this magnifi 
 cent improvement, which in truth gave us the hill 
 and all its decoration, there was scarcely one particle 
 of prospective taste. The houses alongside the 
 bridge were made handsome by the speculators for 
 their own interest ; but the general effect of the new 
 level opening into Princes Street, and its conse 
 quences, were planned or foreseen by nobody. 
 
 The completion of the new jail implied the 
 removal of the old one : and accordingly in a few 
 years after this &quot; the Heart of Midlothian&quot; ceased 
 to beat. A most atrocious jail it was, the very 
 breath of which almost struck down any stranger 
 who entered its dismal door ; and as ill placed as 
 possible, without one inch of ground beyond its 
 black and horrid walls. And these walls were very 
 
 R 
 
242 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 small : the entire hole being filled with little dark 
 cells ; heavy manacles the only security ; airless, 
 waterless, drainless ; a living grave. One week of 
 that dirty, fetid, cruel torture-house was a severer 
 punishment than a year of our worst modern prison 
 more dreadful in its sufferings, more certain in its 
 corruption, overwhelming the innocent with a more 
 tremendous sense of despair, provoking the guilty 
 to more audacious defiance. But yet I wish the 
 building had been spared. It was of great age : it 
 once held the Parliament (though how it could, I 
 can t conceive) : it was incorporated with much 
 curious history, and its outside was picturesque. 
 Neither exposing St. Giles, nor widening the street, 
 nor any other such object, ought to have been 
 allowed to extinguish so interesting a relic. 
 
 But by far the most gratifying occurrence that 
 distinguished this period was one which proclaimed 
 the dawn of modern Scottish art. In 1808 our 
 artists had a public Exhibition of their works 
 being, so far as I am aware, the first display of the 
 kind that had ever been made in Scotland. We had 
 then a few respectable artists. Eaeburn was great 
 in portrait, greater than any Scotch painter of his 
 day; the elder Nasmyth had cultivated landscape 
 with some success ; and for many years we had had 
 an academy of instruction, not ill conducted, under 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN, 243 
 
 the Board of Trustees. But still Edinburgh had not 
 then emerged as a seat of art. There was no public 
 taste for art, and, except for Eaeb urn s portraits, no 
 market for its productions. Art was scarcely ever 
 talked of. This Exhibition, however, shewed that 
 there were more pencils at work, though obscurely, 
 than was supposed. It was a subterranean stir that 
 had moved the surface. In general the works were 
 below what would now be admitted into any Exhi 
 bition in Edinburgh. The best were those of 
 Nasmyth, John Thomson, and Carse. The first two 
 rose to great eminence afterwards, but Carse soon 
 died. Some pretended to call him the Teniers of 
 Scotland ; a title by the help of which he excited 
 attention, and some hope. But, though he certainly 
 had humour, I doubt if he would ever have got the 
 better of his coarseness and bad training, both in 
 drawing and in colouring. However, this Exhibition 
 did incalculable good. It drew such artists as we 
 had out of their obscurity: it shewed them their 
 strength and their weakness : it excited public 
 attention : it gave them importance. 
 
 Considering the rapid improvement which this 
 experiment led to, we owe more than ought to be 
 forgotten to a humble citizen called Core, who kept 
 a stoneware shop in Nicolson Street. The admis 
 sion money could not be depended upon to pay for 
 the Exhibition room : the artists could not afford to 
 
244 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 make up the deficiency ; and a public subscription 
 would have been hopeless. In this situation Core, 
 without communicating with any one, either hastily 
 built, or hired, but I rather think built, a place 
 afterwards called the Lyceum, behind the houses on 
 the east side of Nicolson Street, and gave the use of 
 it to the surprised artists. The arts thus brought 
 into the light, advanced systematically ; and there 
 were more and better, and better paid, artists in 
 Edinburgh in the next ten or fifteen years, than 
 there had been in all Scotland during the preceding 
 century. 
 
 Though Lord Grenville s Court of Session scheme 
 had fallen with the Whigs, public attention had 
 been excited, and the subject was revived by the 
 new administration. This produced a new deluge 
 of pamphlets, meetings, and reports, which ended 
 in the adoption of the great and decisive measure of 
 cutting our single Court into two that is, of abolish 
 ing the old one. Accordingly, on the llth of July 
 1808 that Court sat, as such, for the last time. In 
 corporated as it had been with the history of Scot 
 land for about three centuries, it was a striking 
 thing, to one who reflected, to see these fifteen 
 judges rise that day, never to meet on the old foot 
 ing again. Yet no monody was composed, no tear 
 was shed, over its demise. I could not have con- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 245 
 
 ceived that anything so ancient could have gone out 
 so quietly. It was the natural death of dotage. It 
 disappeared, and was forgotten, as if nobody had 
 known of its existence. 
 
 The old Court had, I suppose, done very well 
 for the old time. It had produced many great 
 lawyers, and a most admirable system of law, the 
 best indeed in Europe. But it was extinguished at 
 last by defects which no modern tribunal could sur 
 vive. Its radical defect was its numerousness. A 
 bench of fifteen judges can only be &quot;a learned 
 crowd.&quot; Their number produced confusion, un 
 seemly contention, prominence in the coarse, and 
 shrinking by the gentle. These evils were greatly 
 aggravated by the want of permanent Lords Ordinary. 
 Except the Lord President, all the judges acted in 
 separate Courts of their own, by a system so loose 
 and complex that it left each to be nearly wherever 
 he chose. There was always a judge, or several, 
 wandering over the Outer House. One consequence 
 of this was, that nobody could ever predict of whom 
 the Court would be composed at any one moment. 
 Hence it rarely happened that the successive parts 
 of the same cause were decided by the same men. 
 To force on his cause when he knew that certain 
 judges would be out or in, was a great point with a 
 cunning agent. Private consultation, public de 
 corum, and a more deferential use of the President, 
 
246 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 though they could not have reconciled reason to 
 such a Court, might have veiled its defects. But 
 Sir Hay Campbell had too little of their confidence, 
 and they were too many to confer harmoniously 
 together, even if he had had more of it. Hence 
 when they assembled in public, they scarcely ever 
 agreed. Each acting independently was tempted to 
 stand up for every particle of his own notion ; and 
 a love of victory, display, arid refutation was apt to 
 supersede the calm feelings appropriate to the judg 
 ment seat. Plots and counterplots of management 
 were occasionally irresistible ; and this hubbub, 
 jockeyship, and uncertainty had always to be settled 
 by a vote ; the putting and settling the result of 
 which gave rise every hour to as keen conflicts as 
 the original matter of the dispute. I cannot con 
 ceive that this system ever did well : but, at any 
 rate, the growth of the population, the rise of an 
 attentive public, and the increasing independence of 
 counsel made it no longer tolerable. Yet the 
 ancient pile would have withstood even these blasts, 
 at least for a time, had its demolition not been thought 
 convenient for the House of Lords, which expected 
 never to be troubled by another Scotch appeal. 
 
 General Vyse, an English officer who commanded 
 the forces in Scotland, told the Lieutenancy of Mid 
 lothian, with whom he was dining, that in courts- 
 martial the youngest member always gave his 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 247 
 
 opinion first, but that he could not discover that 
 there was any particular rule in the Court of Session. 
 &quot;Why Sir,&quot; said Hermand, &quot;with us the most im 
 patient speaks first, and you would observe that / 
 always begin.&quot; 
 
 President Campbell retired ; and, to the delight 
 of everybody, Blair was set to preside over the new 
 scene. Mathew Eoss, the king of doubters, suc 
 ceeded him as Dean of Faculty. 
 
 Sir Hay survived his retirement aboutfifteeri years, 
 having died in 1823, aged eighty-nine. He neither 
 moped, nor grumbled, nor got idle ; but gave his 
 assistance, in a very liberal spirit, to all the many 
 schemes for the improvement of the law which then 
 began to sprout. He was the most active of the 
 Commissioners on the Fees in Scotch Courts, or 
 rather was the whole Commission ; whose elaborate 
 and often learned reports were entirely his work. 
 No sage s opinion was ever more anxiously asked, 
 or more freely given, on new legal projects. And, 
 as if the guidance of Parliament and Government 
 had not been enough for him, he performed all the 
 duties of a Justice of the Peace, as patiently and 
 zealously as if a cause was a novelty to him. The 
 old gentleman combined this playing with judicial 
 toys with the personal management of his estate of 
 Garscube and lived like a patriarch, in a house 
 
248 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 overflowing with company, beloved by troops of 
 relations, and courted for his character and hospi 
 tality by many friends. 
 
 The Second Division of the Court sat for its first 
 two years in what was then the Court of Exchequer. 
 Its site does not exist and cannot be easily explained 
 now. But it was up stairs, and a hole was cut 
 high in the east wall of the Outer House, through 
 which the niacer (or crier) called the causes and 
 the counsel. This macer was an old, firm-set, hard, 
 angular man, named Graham, who had long been in 
 this vocation, and was the most official and pic 
 turesque person I have ever seen in it ; large, 
 square-faced, wooden-featured, grave, and formal ; 
 with an amazing voice loud, distinct, and swinging. 
 The murmur of the Outer House used to be stilled 
 when this image stuck its awful head through the 
 lofty orifice, and sent its slow articulate tones into 
 every corner and every ear below, calling people up 
 to their tasks and dooms. He could speak in no 
 other way. I once saw him during the long vacation 
 at a little place he had in Ayrshire, when he hoped 
 I was well, and pointed out his shrubs, arid addressed 
 his family, all in his own loud, calm, crier style. 
 He must have flirted in that voice. He was the 
 monarch of macers, the only one T ever saw who 
 was dignified and awful. No doubt Ehadamanthus 
 has him. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 249 
 
 Two sad privations clouded the close of the year 
 1809. The High School lost Dr. Adam, and the 
 College Dugald Stewart. 
 
 Adam died, after a few days illness, in December. 
 His ruling passion, for teaching, was strong in death. 
 It was in his bedchamber, and in the forenoon, that 
 he died. Finding that he could not see, he uttered 
 a few words, which have been variously given, but 
 all the accounts of which mean &quot; It is getting dark, 
 boys ; we must put off the rest till to-morrow.&quot; It 
 was the darkness of death. He was followed to the 
 grave (in the Chapel of Ease near Windmill Street) 
 by many eminent and grateful pupils. James 
 Pillans, his successor, has given a good short sketch 
 of him in the Encyclopaedia Britaimica. 
 
 Mr. Pillans had been educated at the High 
 School, and was then a private tutor at Eton. His 
 friend and schoolfellow Francis Horner advised 
 him to stand for the Rectorship. It seemed hope 
 less ; but he tried, and his character carried him 
 through. His superiority to the other candidates 
 was never doubted ; but the black spot of Whiggism 
 was upon him. This would certainly have been 
 conclusive in the Town Council, had not some of his 
 friends there proposed a reference to a few of the 
 judges, including President Blair, who quashed 
 his brethren and warmly recommended Pillans. 
 
 * Horner was alarmed lest his patronage should hurt Pillans. 
 
250 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Nothing of the kind could be more important, or 
 better timed, than this election. The modern im 
 provements in education were just beginning to 
 dawn, and it was very material to secure the services 
 of a young man in whom their spirit was strong. 
 Had a common-place choice been made, we would 
 probably have lost Pillans permanently, the earliest 
 and the best of our reformed practical teachers, and 
 who has been of incalculable use throughout the 
 whole modern progress of Scotch education. 
 
 Stewart s health had made him nearly incapable 
 of lecturing in the preceding session. Dr. Thomas 
 Brown supplied his place ; and did it so admirably 
 that, when Stewart withdrew finally in 1810, he was 
 appointed his successor. Stewart s retirement made 
 a deep and melancholy impression. We could 
 scarcely bring ourselves to believe that that voice 
 was to be heard no more. The going down of such 
 a luminary cast a foreboding gloom over the friends 
 of mental philosophy, and deprived the college it 
 had so adorned of its purest light. 
 
 Brown, a profound metaphysician, an enthusiast 
 in the science of mind, and, in a peculiar way, an 
 
 But &quot; if,&quot; said he, &quot;the President takes the part which you expect, 
 he will prove with great lustre, the superiority of his character.&quot; 
 (Letter to Murray, 22d January 1810. Horner s Memoirs, vol. 
 II. p. 23.) 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 251 
 
 eloquent lecturer, was perhaps the only man in the 
 empire, except Mackintosh, who was worthy of 
 coming after Stewart, Yet as his public principles, 
 though so gentle as scarcely to be perceptible to his 
 friends, were not decidedly Tory, he too was objected 
 to on the ground of politics ; and the warm recom 
 mendations of Stewart and Playfair would certainly 
 have been disregarded, had he not been patronised 
 by Dr. Gregory to whom he had for sometime been 
 secretary, and by Lord Meadowbank who took meta 
 physics under his special charge. 
 
 Two still subsisting institutions arose in 1810 
 the Horticultural Society, and the Commercial 
 Bank. 
 
 The Horticultural Society was chiefly the work 
 of Patrick Neill, a printer 5 a useful citizen, a most 
 intelligent florist, author of an excellent Horticul 
 tural Tour in Flanders, of the article Gardening in 
 the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and of various other 
 kindred works. The exotics in his little acre- 
 garden at Canonmills put many a grander establish 
 ment to the blush. He was also an archaeologist, 
 which made him one of the few defenders of our 
 architectural relics. This Horticultural Society was 
 one of the first buds of that extraordinary and 
 delightful burst of floral taste which has since poured 
 such botanical magnificence over our great places, 
 
252 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 and such varied and attainable beauty round our 
 cottages. It is not in our public establishments, 
 or in our great private collections, that its chief 
 triumph is to be looked for ; but in the moderate 
 place, the villa, and especially in the poor man s 
 garden ; in the prevalence of little flower societies ; 
 its interest as a subject of common conversation ; and 
 the cheap, but beautiful and learned practical works 
 that are to be found in the houses of the humblest 
 of the people. I cannot doubt its proving a great 
 civilizer. In innocence, purity, and simplicity, the 
 florist not the scientific botanist, but the florist of 
 his own little borders, is the only rival of the angler. 
 I wish we had a good Flowery Walton. 
 
 The rise of the Commercial Bank marks the 
 growth of the public mind. It seems odd now that 
 so slight an occurrence as the opening of a private 
 association of money changers could do so. But the 
 principle on which this one was erected must be 
 considered. No men were more devoid of public 
 spirit, and even of the proper spirit of their trade, 
 than our old Edinburgh bankers. Respectable men 
 they were : but, without talent, general knowledge, 
 or any liberal objects, they were the conspicuous 
 sycophants of existing power. What else could they 
 have been ? All the Whig business of the country 
 would not have kept them going for a week ; and 
 Government dealt out its patronage in the reception 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 253 
 
 and transmission of the public money only to its 
 friends. So they all combined banking with politics. 
 Not that they would discount a bad bill for a Tory, or 
 refuse to discount a good one for a Whig , but their 
 favors and their graciousness were all reserved for 
 the right side. A demand for a bank founded on more 
 liberal principles was the natural result of this state of 
 things, as soon as these principles had worked their 
 way into any considerable portion of the community. 
 Hence the origin of the Commercial, professing to be 
 the bank of the citizens. It was not meant, and has 
 never acted, as a political engine ; nor were all even 
 of its founders, and still less of its proprietors, of the 
 popular party. But simply because it was under 
 stood to be erected on the principle of excluding 
 politics from its trade, and tended consequently to 
 emancipate the people, its announcement was a clap 
 of thunder ; and efforts, of which the virulence 
 attested the necessity of the establishment, were 
 made to crush it. It prevailed over these unworthy 
 attempts, and was at the time, and until the other 
 banks were tamed, of incalculable benefit. Mode 
 rating the illiberality of the other establishments, by 
 freeing the citizens from their absolute control, it 
 deeply and silently improved the condition of our 
 middle classes, on whose rise its effects have been 
 far more real than apparent. 
 
254 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 In July 1810 I had the honor of being dismissed 
 by the Lord Advocate from being one of his Deputes. 
 The grounds of divorce were, that I had never been 
 adequately of his party, and that I had voted against 
 him at a Faculty meeting a few days before. I told 
 him that I had long expected to be turned out, and 
 reminded him of the terms on which I had unwil 
 lingly accepted the office, and which implied no 
 fealty to him. He said he knew this, but that he, 
 and the relatives to whom I had owed it, had deemed 
 my scruples u a mere youthful fervour &quot; which was 
 expected to wear off. I might have told him truly 
 that my fear that they might think so had only made 
 the fervour warmer. I never felt more relieved than 
 on getting rid of a connection which had all along 
 been more than half compulsory, and never com 
 fortable. A hearty shake of Sir Harry s hand, who 
 called in a day or two to wish me joy of my libera 
 tion, was worth more than the three or four hundred 
 pounds a year of the office. 
 
 In March 1811 I married, and set up my rural 
 household gods at Bonaly in the parish of Colinton, 
 close by the northern base of the Pentland Hills ; and, 
 unless some avenging angel shall expel me, I shall 
 never leave that paradise. I began by an annual lease 
 of a few square yards arid a scarcely habitable farm 
 house. But, realizing the profanations of Auburn, 
 I have destroyed a village, and erected a tower, and 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 255 
 
 reached the dignity of a twenty-acred laird. Every 
 thing except the two burns, the few old trees, and 
 the mountains, are my own work, and to a great 
 extent the work of my own hands. Human nature 
 is incapable of enjoying more happiness than has 
 been my lot here ; where the glories of the prospects, 
 and the luxury of the wild retirement, have been all 
 enhanced by the progress of my improvements, of 
 my children, and of myself. I have been too happy, 
 and often tremble in the anticipation that the cloud 
 must come at last. Warburton says that there was 
 not a bush in his garden on which he had not hung 
 a speculation. There is not a recess in the valleys 
 of the Pentlands, nor an eminence on their summits, 
 that is not familiar to my solitude. One summer I 
 read every word of Tacitus in the sheltered crevice 
 of a rock (called &quot; My Seat 7 ) about 800 feet above 
 the level of the sea, with the most magnificent of 
 scenes stretched out before me. 
 
 As I was going along Maitland Street on the 
 evening of the 20th of May 1811 I met Sir Harry 
 Moncreiff, who asked me with great agitation, if I 
 had heard what had happened ? He then told me 
 that President Blair was dead. He had been in 
 Court that day, apparently in good health, and had 
 gone to take his usual walk from his house in George 
 Square round by Bruntsfield Links and the Grange, 
 
256 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 where his solitary figure had long been a known and 
 respected object, when he was struck with sudden 
 illness, staggered home, and died. 
 
 It overwhelmed us all. Party made no division 
 about Blair. All pleasure and all business were 
 suspended. I saw Hermand that night. He despised 
 Blair s abstinence from the pollution of small politics, 
 and did not know that he could love a man who 
 neither cared for claret nor for whist ; but, at near 
 seventy years of age, he was crying like a child. 
 Next day the Court was silent, and adjourned. The 
 Faculty of Advocates, hastily called together, re 
 solved to attend him to his grave. Henry Erskine 
 tried to say something, and because he could only 
 try it, it was as good a speech as he ever made. The 
 emotion, and the few and broken sentences made 
 this artless tribute, by the greatest surviving member 
 of the profession to the greatest dead one, striking 
 and beautiful. 
 
 The day before the funeral, another unlocked for 
 occurrence deepened the solemnity. The first Lord 
 Melville had retired to rest in his usual health, but 
 was found dead in bed next morning. These two 
 early, attached, and illustrious friends were thus 
 lying, suddenly dead, with but a wall between them. 
 Their houses, on the north east side of George 
 Square, were next each other. 
 
 The remains of Blair were taken to the grave 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 257 
 
 with all the civic pomp that Edinburgh could supply. 
 But the most striking homage was paid in the 
 solemn and impressive silence and respectfulness of 
 the people. There were no soldiers and scarcely a 
 dozen of police officers. Yet the procession moved 
 to the Greyfriars Church-yard through a mass of 
 orderly populace, all as still as if they had been his 
 family. When the sod was laid, his relations, as 
 usual, took off their hats. So did the Judges who 
 stood next : then the Magistrates : the Faculty and 
 other legal bodies : the Clergy : and all the spectators 
 in the church-yard ; beyond whom it ran over the 
 sky lines of people ridged on all the buildings, and 
 on the southern edge of the Castlehill all stood for 
 a moment silent and uncovered. 
 
 His statue by Chantrey was obtained by public 
 subscription. It is like both in the features and the 
 figure, and gives an idea of his calm repose. But the 
 portrait by Eaeburn is a much truer representation. 
 
 During the two years and a half this distinguished 
 and excellent man was at the head of the Court he 
 performed the duties of the place most admirably. 
 His associates being greatly inferior to him judicially, 
 his eminence extinguished them all, and made him 
 self the Court. He heard them and the counsel with 
 apparent tranquillity, and then roused himself and 
 began. And his style was so uniform that it almost 
 seemed as if it had been the result of a rule. He 
 
258 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 first stated the leading facts and the exact point of 
 the case, formally and clearly, and then either 
 worked out the deciding principle gradually, or 
 announcing it at once, proceeded to expound arid 
 apply it. The luminousness of this system gave his 
 judgments an air of greater superiority than they 
 sometimes really had, merely because everybody 
 understood him. He did not dive into the middle 
 of a cause by a first plunge, nor was he contented 
 by a mere intimation of his result, nor did he peck 
 at its crumbs, nor rest upon allusions, but always 
 set forth his grounds satisfactorily. This made the 
 delivery of his opinion not merely a decision of the 
 cause, but an explanation of it to the audience, and 
 a lesson in law to the bar. 
 
 Lord Melville was buried privately at Lasswade. 
 It has always been said, and never so far as I know 
 contradicted, and I am inclined to believe it, that a 
 letter written by him was found on his table or in a 
 writing-case, giving a feeling account of his emotions 
 at the President s funeral. It was a fancy piece, 
 addressed to a member of Government, with a view to 
 obtain some public provision for Blair s family ; and 
 the author had not reckoned on the possibility of his 
 own demise before his friend s funeral took place. 
 Such things are always awkward when detected ; 
 especially when done by a skilful politician. Never 
 theless an honest and a true man might do this. It 
 
BY HENRY COCKBUKN. 259 
 
 is easy to anticipate one s feelings at a friend s burial ; 
 and putting the description into the form of having 
 returned from it is mere rhetoric. 
 
 In its preservation of this powerful Scotchman, 
 history is aided by a column and a statue, both in 
 Edinburgh. The statue is perhaps Chantrey s worst. 
 The column has received and deserves praise.* 
 
 A change was now so far advanced as to be 
 publicly visible, which was of great consequence to 
 Scotland. 
 
 I have mentioned that Whig opinions were dan 
 gerous accompaniments for success in life, especially 
 to the young, whose fresh minds, however, pre 
 sented the soil most favourable for their growth. 
 The fate of the junior Whig lawyers, therefore, was 
 looked to, for encouragement or for despair, by all 
 those, but chiefly by the young, who were cherishing 
 liberal principles. And I have stated that these 
 lawyers, though strongly united among themselves, 
 were not only suppressed as much as they could be 
 by the opposite party, but were for some years not 
 very cordially received even by the seniors on their 
 own side. They had now however got their feet 
 fairly on the green sward. Their talents had worked 
 them up into obviously coming power in their 
 
 * But it suffers severely from the want of the rail on the square 
 pedestal at the top. 
 
2GO MEMOKIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 profession. Their virtues, better understood, had 
 extended their friendships, and opened society to 
 them. The Review, with which many of them were 
 connected, fixed upon them a large portion of the 
 general fame of the work. Their seniors saw them 
 selves surpassed both in literary and in social influ 
 ence, and did not now grudge to acknowledge it. 
 Through their Edinburgh comrades who were rising 
 into importance in England, a more lively and useful 
 sympathy than had ever subsisted between the 
 friends of reform was established in the two British 
 capitals. The people of Scotland gave importance, 
 and consequently power, to the rising lights whose 
 guidance they now began to acknowledge. 
 
 Besides other valuable names, there was George 
 Cranstoun, firm in principle, and only too fastidious 
 for practical work ; John Archibald Murray, reared 
 in the very hotbed of Toryism, but transplanted, by 
 his own spirit, and his great friend Francis Homer s 
 attraction, into the more congenial soil where through 
 life he has flourished ; Thomas Thomson, formidable 
 in dignity and in antiquarian learning ; George 
 Joseph Bell, our greatest modern institutional writer ; 
 John Macfarlan, an apostle, and worthy of the best 
 apostolic age ; James Moncreiff, rivalling even his 
 father in the energy of virtue ; and James Grahame, 
 a child in simple poetry and amiable piety, and 
 though shrinking from sensitiveness of nerve from 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 2C1 
 
 all suffering, as ready for the flames, if his principles 
 required it, as either Macfarlan or Monereiff. These 
 three, indeed, would have made the best martyrs I 
 have ever known. Monereiff would have gone to 
 the stake refuting his persecutors errors ; Macfarlan 
 smiling inwardly, and speculating on the oddity of 
 the proceeding as a method of convincing ; and 
 Grahame, roused into indignation, proclaiming the 
 atrocity of the tyrant. And, above all and over all, 
 there was Jeffrey, in brilliancy the star of the whole 
 party. 
 
 Although these men were advancing into the 
 front rank, there was no jealousy now on the part of 
 those who were in that place. Erskine had retired. 
 Gillies was scenting promotion. John Clerk was too 
 self-willed and odd to act with anybody ; but his 
 strong party spirit and his respect for their talents 
 made him favourable to his junior friends, who were 
 not received with the less favor from the sociable- 
 ness of their natures, and the impossibility of any 
 competition interfering with his great practice. The 
 pure and heroic Fletcher knew not what jealousy 
 was, and would have cheered on a personal enemy 
 if he had had one, provided he was going before him 
 in the public cause. Malcolm Laing s literature had 
 withdrawn him from the law, but not from a deep 
 interest in the proceedings of the lawyers whose 
 politics he approved of. 
 
262 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 A very inadequate idea will be formed of the 
 effect of the rise of these men, if it be confined to the 
 Parliament House. The rising or the sinking of a 
 few professional lawyers, as such, is seldom of much 
 public importance. But these lawyers represented a 
 class; and this class consisted of all the younger 
 men in Scotland to whom the prevailing intolerance 
 was distasteful, but who were hourly warned that 
 submission to it was essential for worldly success, 
 The disenthralment of those who had liberated them 
 selves from it in Edinburgh was like liberty pro 
 claimed to all slaves. And, accordingly, besides the 
 more numerous and daring in towns, there was 
 scarcely a considerable village which did not contain 
 some one who breathed more freely from what he 
 had heard of the success of those in the metropolis, 
 who had been in a similar state of depression with 
 himself. There was an elevation of the whole liberal 
 surface. So true was the remark of the quiet and 
 observant Play fair, that it seemed to him that the 
 whole cause of independence in Scotland hung upon 
 the characters and the exertions of about half a 
 dozen young men in the Parliament House. 
 
 The anti-revolutionary formation kept its old 
 hardness and its old level ; just as it does now. It 
 has come in time to contain a smaller amount of 
 human matter; but in its nature it is unchanged, 
 and unchangeable, It still suppressed independence 
 
BY HENRY COCKBUKN. 263 
 
 among its adherents as strongly as ever. And hence 
 the otherwise incomprehensible fact of the still con 
 tinuing deadness of all the classes which it could 
 control. Individuals had emancipated themselves, 
 but no masses. It is difficult to make a person 
 accustomed to modern civic fermentations compre 
 hend, or even believe, the utter political inanition 
 which then silenced and awed our largest towns. 
 The class called citizens that is, the tradesmen, 
 shopkeepers and merchants, even in Edinburgh, 
 did not exist politically. They were ripening, for 
 they soon produced fruit. But as yet they were so 
 far back, that they were scarcely ever taken into 
 account by the Whigs as political elements. To be 
 sure, there were no political movements to excite 
 them. Every public concern was superseded by 
 volunteering and the war. But this was because the 
 people were not then capable of being moved. If 
 any of the measures, which twenty years afterwards 
 agitated every political nerve in the kingdom, had 
 been propounded, however attractively, they would 
 have fallen to the ground cold. The total absence 
 of public meetings exposes our whole condition. 
 
 Nor had the Whigs any particular hope, except 
 the forlorn one of the Prince of Whales. Changes of 
 ministry favourable to them were no more thought 
 of while George the Third lived, than changes in the 
 system of nature. They persevered, proclaiming 
 
264 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 their favourite objects ; but merely that their colours 
 might not be deemed struck. Even their Koyal friend 
 soon taught them the good sense of the advice which 
 warns both Whigs and Tories not to put their trust 
 in princes. 
 
 In 1811 our Edinburgh society still continued 
 unchanged in its general character. Napoleon s 
 continental padlock still sent us good English youths 
 and families : society and literature adorned each 
 other : the war sparkled us with military gaiety and 
 parade : London had not absorbed the whole of our 
 aristocracy either of wealth or of rank ; and, not 
 withstanding several important emigrations, we still 
 retained far more native talent and reputation than 
 could be found in any other town in the empire, 
 except London. 
 
 No one who knew John Playfair can ever resist 
 basking in his remembrance. The enlargement of 
 his popularity after he began to verge towards age, 
 was the natural result of the beautiful process by 
 which that most delightful philosopher increased 
 in moral youthfulness as he declined in years. 
 Admired by all men, and beloved by all women, 
 of whose virtues and intellect he was always the 
 champion, society felt itself the happier and the 
 
 * See his reviews of Donna Agnesi (Edinburgh Review, No. 6, 
 Art. 13) and Corinne (Edinburgh Review, No. 21, Art. 12). 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 265 
 
 more respectable from his presence. &quot; Philandering 
 at the Needles&quot; was a phrase by which Jeffrey 
 denoted his devotedness to ladies and to rocks. 
 
 Henry Mackenzie s excellent conversation, agree 
 able family, good evening parties, and the interest 
 attached to united age and reputation, made his 
 house one of the pleasaiitest. One of the Arbitri 
 Elegantiarum of old Edinburgh, he survived to 
 flourish in a new scene. But though he survived 
 the passing away of many a literary friend, and 
 many a revolution of manners, he accommodated 
 himself to unavoidable change with the cheerfulness 
 of a man of sense, above the weakness of supposing 
 that the world must have been in its prime only 
 when he was in his. The title of u The Man of 
 Feeling&quot; adhered to him ever after the publication 
 of that novel ; and it was a good example of the 
 difference there sometimes is between a man and his 
 work. Strangers used to fancy that he must be a 
 pensive sentimental Harley ; whereas he was far 
 better a hard-headed practical man, as full of 
 worldly wisdom as most of his fictitious characters 
 are devoid of it ; and this without in the least im 
 pairing the affectionate softness of his heart. In 
 person he was thin, shrivelled and yellow, kiln-dried, 
 with something, when seen in profile, of the clever 
 wicked look of Voltaire. 
 
266 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Sir James Hall was a person of great intellectual 
 vigour and considerable originality. In the then 
 opening field of geology, and all its kindred sub 
 jects, he was profound; and whatever scientific 
 object he took up he pursued with an energy 
 before which obstacles that defied common minds 
 disappeared. While the Neptunists were exulting 
 over the Vulcanists on the supposed impossibility of 
 such things as limestone and granite being igneous 
 productions, and the Vulcanists were defending 
 themselves by arguments, Sir James after great 
 forethought set to work, and by fire, pressure, and 
 perseverance actually made the stones. This was 
 but an example of his way. His theory of Gothic 
 architecture is, I suppose, not truer than many 
 others ; but no one equals him in the ingenuity with 
 which his fanciful principle is worked out, or in the 
 beauty of the book by which it is illustrated. I 
 regret that I never saw the little sylvan cathedral 
 in the garden at Dunglass by which he shewed his 
 theory in its actual growth. He was held in great 
 admiration by all deep philosophers, and was the 
 most scientific of our country gentlemen. 
 
 His only misfortune was a bad manner ; at least 
 if it be a misfortune for a clever man to be much 
 laughed at. Neither obtrusive, nor dull, nor coarse, 
 but rather kind, gentle, and cheerful, he said and 
 did whatever occurred to him ; and as he had the 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 267 
 
 always diverting defect of absence of mind, there was 
 seldom any saying what might occur to him. There 
 was no intentional disregard of the ordinary cere 
 monies of politeness, but an unconsciousness of their 
 existence. He made one speech in Parliament ; and 
 I have heard him say that he was not much discom 
 posed by the laughter of the whole members, but 
 that he began to suspect that he must be making a 
 queer figure when he saw the Speaker laugh too. It 
 was a doubt in the family, while he was a boy, 
 whether he was to turn out a man of genius or an 
 idiot ; and being in London, he was taken to the top 
 of St. Pauls, where some one on the hopeful side was 
 certain he would disclose himself by some grand 
 burst of wonder. It was long of coming ; but at last 
 he screamed with delight, u Ee ! there s a cuddie !&quot; 
 What better could a sensible boy have observed ? 
 His large house, in George Street, was distinguished 
 by its hospitality both to science and to fashion. And 
 the interest of his many evening parties was not 
 lessened by the stories of his oddities, which were 
 sure to make the morning laugh. 
 
 People used to be divided at this time as to the 
 superiority of Scott s poetry or his talk. His novels 
 had not yet begun to suggest another alternative. 
 Scarcely however even in his novels was he more 
 striking or delightful than in society ; where the 
 halting limb, the bur in the throat, the heavy cheeks, 
 
268 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 the high Goldsmith-forehead, the unkempt locks, 
 and general plainness of appearance, with the Scotch 
 accent and stories and sayings, all graced by gaiety, 
 simplicity, and kindness, made a combination most 
 worthy of being enjoyed. Jeffrey, his twin star, 
 made a good contrast. He was sharp English ; with 
 few anecdotes, and no stories, delighting in the 
 interchange of minds, bright in moral speculation, 
 wit, and colloquial eloquence, and always beloved 
 for the constant transpiration of an affectionate and 
 cheerful heart. 
 
 For a small place, where literature sticks out, 
 Edinburgh has never been much encumbered by 
 professed literary ladies ; and most of those we have 
 had have been exotics. The two best about this 
 time were Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton, the authoress 
 of the Cottagers of Glenburnie, and Mrs. Grant, 
 widow of a minister of Laggan, who had unfolded 
 herself in the u Letters from the Mountains &quot; an 
 interesting treasury of good solitary thoughts. They 
 were excellent women, and not too blue. Their 
 sense covered the colour. I think it was to Mrs. 
 Hamilton that Jeffrey said, in allusion to the good 
 taste of never losing the feminine in the literary 
 character, that there was no objection to the blue 
 stocking, provided the petticoat came low enough 
 down. One wonders why Mrs. Hamilton, with her 
 good Scotch eye, did not put more Scotch among her 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 269 
 
 cottagers than dirt, on which almost solely the book 
 lives. Mrs. Grant was a tall, dark woman, of very 
 considerable intellect, great spirit, and the warmest 
 benevolence. Her love of individual Whigs, par 
 ticularly of Jeffrey, in spite of her amusing horror 
 of their principles, was honourable to her heart. 
 She was always under the influence of an affectionate 
 and delightful enthusiasm, which, unquenched by 
 time or sorrow, survived the wreck of many domestic 
 attachments, and shed a glow over the close of a 
 very protracted life. Both she and Mrs. Hamilton 
 were remarkable for the success of their literary 
 conversational gatherings. Their evening parties 
 had the greater merit from the smallness of their 
 houses, and of their means. 
 
 In November 1811 we all started, and none in 
 such a fright as the Tories, at the first instance that 
 had probably ever occurred of the promotion to a 
 seat on the Bench of a person opposed in his opinions 
 to the Government that appointed him. This mira 
 culous exception took place in the case of Adam 
 Gillies, a &quot;Whig, who was made a judge in the place 
 of Lord Newton. The honor of effecting this 
 marked deviation from the established practice, was 
 due to Charles Hope, the Lord President, who felt 
 that his Court needed law, which it was expected 
 that Gillies would supply. 
 
270 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Three useful associations the Astronomical In 
 stitution, the Society for the Suppression of Public 
 Begging, and the Lancastrian School, arose in 1812 ; 
 each marking the advance of the place, arid indeed 
 of the age, and each followed by permanent effects. 
 The Astronomical Institution, which now adorns the 
 summit of the Calton Hill, was the work of Professor 
 Playfair. He used to state, in order to shew its 
 necessity, that a foreign vessel had been lately com 
 pelled to take refuge in Leith, and that before setting 
 sail again, the master wished to adjust his time-piece, 
 but found that he had come to a large and learned 
 metropolis, where nobody could tell him what 
 o clock it was. 
 
 The u Society for the Suppression of Public 
 Begging&quot; was the first systematic modern attempt 
 that had been made in Scotland to check public 
 mendicity, and to avert charity from supporting it. 
 The disclosures made, and the attention excited, by 
 this early step in the philosophy of pauperism, 
 materially promoted the subsequent institutions of 
 Houses of Industry, Houses of Eefuge, Savings 
 Banks, and many others for preventing, methodising, 
 and relieving necessary destitution. We owed it to 
 two causes the dangerous extent to which public 
 begging had reached, and the judicious benevolence 
 of John Forbes, Advocate, now Lord Medwyn. Let 
 those who despair of eradicating mendicity from a 
 
BY HENRY COCKBCJRN. 271 
 
 spot on which it has fastened study the facts of this 
 Edinburgh case, and be comforted. The swarm 
 disappeared as soon as it was scared 5 and though it 
 often returned, its settling or not settling just 
 depended on the vigilance with which the flowers of 
 bad charity it fed upon were crushed or fostered. 
 
 The Lancastrian School was a symptom and a 
 cause of the advance of popular education, and was 
 therefore a vital event, and a bold experiment at 
 this time. It was the achievement of the Whigs and 
 of the pious ; and, though not openly opposed, was 
 cordially hated by all true Tories, who for many 
 years never ceased to sneer at and obstruct it. And 
 when its success seemed certain, some of the estab 
 lished clergy disgraced themselves by trying to pre 
 vail on the Presbytery of Edinburgh to crush it 
 indirectly ; and in aid of this presbyterian effort the 
 Bishop of Meath, who happened to be residing here, 
 was easily persuaded by the episcopalian illiberals 
 to preach an ignorant and insolent sermon against 
 it. On this we discharged Sir Harry at him ; who 
 considerably improved the funds by a sermon which, 
 as he spoke it, trampled on his lordship in a trium 
 phant and contemptuous refutation. It was one of 
 Sir Harry s greatest practical shouts. The original 
 school was a long, low, wood and brick erection, 
 stretched on the very top of the Calton Hill ; where 
 it was then the fashion to stow away everything 
 
272 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 that was too abominable to be tolerated else 
 where. 
 
 John Clerk of Eldin, the author of the work on 
 naval tactics, died in May 1812. An interesting 
 and delightful old man ; full of the peculiarities that 
 distinguished the whole family talent, caprice, 
 obstinacy, worth, kindness, and oddity. His claim 
 to the merit of having first suggested the idea of 
 breaking the enemy s line in naval war is now dis 
 puted on grounds which are at least plausible and 
 formidable. It is possible that the same thought 
 may have occurred to different men at the same 
 time ; and my conviction of the honesty of Clerk is 
 so complete, that I am certain he would have dis 
 dained to claim a discovery which he had not made. 
 That conception however formed but a small part of 
 his scientific merit; for though it is the matter with 
 which his name happens to be chiefly connected in 
 public talk, he was looked up to with deference by 
 all the philosophers of his day, who were in the 
 habit of constantly receiving hints and views from 
 him, which they deemed of great value. He was a 
 striking looking old gentleman with his grizzly hair, 
 vigorous features, and Scotch speech. It would be 
 difficult to say whether jokes or disputation pleased 
 him most. I know no better account of the progress 
 of a father and a son than what I once heard him 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 273 
 
 give of himself and of his son John, in nearly these 
 very words &quot; I remember the time when people, 
 seeing John limping on the street, used to ask, what 
 lame lad that was? and the answer would be, that s 
 the son of Clerk of Eldin. But now, when I myself 
 am passing, I hear them saying, what auld grey 
 headed man is that ? And the answer is, that s the 
 father of John Clerk.&quot; He was much prouder of 
 the last mark than of the first 
 
 Sir John Dalrymple, a Baron of our Exchequer, 
 and author of the Memoirs of Great Britain, had died 
 in 1810. He was succeeded in his estates by his son, 
 then called Sir John, whose energy and political 
 independence have associated him with all the subse 
 quent party struggles of Scotland. He began with 
 the metropolitan county of Mid-Lothian, which made 
 as shameful an exhibition of itself as any parliamen 
 tary reformer could desire. It had immemorially 
 been a mere appendage of the house of Arniston, as 
 completely as Edinburgh, or one of the Arniston 
 farms. Not that there were not some independent 
 seeds ; but they never got above ground. No formed 
 opposition divided the shire : no rebellious whispers 
 disturbed it. The new Sir John, a soldier and almost a 
 stranger, had scarcely succeeded when he announced 
 
 * Afterwards eighth Earl of Stair. ED. 
 T 
 
274 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 himself a candidate, and on Whig principles. It 
 would be vain to attempt to make any modern man 
 comprehend the indignation excited by this first 
 interference with the hereditary monopoly. The 
 Whig seeds sprang, and multiplied. However, they 
 would have been shaded to death by the old branches, 
 but that fidelity to his friends was ascribed to the 
 Prince of Wales, and that he was about to become 
 Kegent without restrictions. This mistake drew 
 traitors off from the colours they had sworn to stand 
 by, and without their perfidy pure principle would 
 after all have mustered but a slender host. There 
 perhaps was not a single one of those deserters 
 who had not asked, and probably obtained, and 
 were then enjoying, favors from the Dundases solely 
 on a pledge of political support. But they betrayed 
 their patrons, as they would have sold their country. 
 The result was that, at the election on the 26th of 
 October 1812, Sir John was within ten votes of being 
 returned ; and if it had not been known by this time 
 that the Eegent was to be false, he would certainly 
 have been made the member. They soon crouched 
 into their old yoke again. But their momentary 
 pretence of independence proved permanently useful. 
 It laid the foundation of a regular county opposition. 
 It shewed the admirers of our representative system 
 how little, without principle and without popularity, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 275 
 
 it could be depended upon, even for their ends. It 
 shook the stability of all the shires, and directed 
 their minorities to parliamentary reform as their 
 only hope. 
 
 William Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, died 
 in 1813. Though he continued Karnes s Dictionary 
 of Decisions, he was no lawyer, and indeed except 
 as a judge was scarcely considered as of the profes 
 sion. It was as Professor of History that he was 
 chiefly distinguished. His lectures were not marked 
 either by originality of matter or by spirit; but, 
 though cold and general, they were elegant and 
 judicious. Having long held the now abolished 
 office of Judge-Advocate Jn Scotland, he was natu 
 rally led into his Treatise on Military Law, which 
 is a clear and sensible exposition of the principles 
 by which the absolute will of the Sovereign over 
 his army is supposed to be controlled and regulated. 
 The Reverend Archibald Alison published a Life of 
 his friend in the Transactions of the Royal Society 
 of Edinburgh, a performance which owes no incon 
 siderable part of its pleasingness to the impression it 
 imparts of the amiableness of the biographer. It is 
 a dream of recollections, in which realities are 
 softened by the illusions of the author s own tender 
 ness. Tytler was unquestionably a person of correct 
 
276 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 taste, a cultivated mind, and literary habits, and 
 very amiable; which excellences graced, and were 
 graced by, the mountain retreat whose name he 
 transferred to the Bench. But there is no kindness 
 in insinuating that he was a man of genius, and of 
 public or even social influence, or in describing 
 Woodhouselee as Tusculum. 
 
 Another amiable and celebrated person, Murray, 
 commonly called the Orientalist, was withdrawn 
 from us in 1813, very soon after reaching what to 
 him was the great, and in the opinion of everybody 
 else the merited, elevation of the Chair of Oriental 
 Literature in the College of Edinburgh. Sir Harry 
 Moncreiff has published an account of him, by far 
 the best part of which is Murray s own description 
 of his early feelings and progress. Born a poor boy 
 in the wilds of Galloway, an early thirst for know 
 ledge, but particularly for languages, left him little 
 rest by day or by night. I knew him at Dalzel s class, 
 a little shivering creature, gentle, studious, timid, and 
 reserved. His academical chair was the just and 
 appropriate reward of his long and silent enthusiasm, 
 and was made the more honourable by the eminence 
 of his competitors. But study had worn out a weak 
 constitution, and he survived the attainment of his 
 object only a few months. His w r ork on general 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 277 
 
 philology, however able, is not such high evidence 
 of his depth in the philosophy of language, as was 
 furnished by his shorter essays, or even by his con 
 versation. A good man, however, arid interesting 
 from his mere studious recluseness, his fate affected 
 even those who only knew him by reputation, and 
 sympathized with the story of his meritorious rise 
 and premature disappearance. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 IN 1814 the Allies made their first conquest of Paris, 
 and for a year Europe was without Napoleon. 
 Hostilities were unexpectedly renewed in 1815, and 
 then ceased, after the short and brilliant flash at 
 Waterloo; but in 1814 a war which had lasted so 
 long that war seemed our natural state was felt to 
 be over. 
 
 This event separated the lives and the recollec 
 tions of that generation into two great and marked 
 parts. From this moment the appearance of every 
 thing was changed. Fear of invasion, contempt of 
 economy, the glory of our arms, the propriety of 
 suppressing every murmur at any home abuse, the 
 utter absorption of every feeling in the duty of war 
 like union these and other principles, which for 
 twenty years had sunk the whole morality of pa 
 triotism in the single object of acknowledging no 
 defect or grievance in our own system, in order that 
 we might be more powerful abroad, became all 
 
MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME BY HE1S 7 RY COCKBURN. 279 
 
 inapplicable to existing things; and after a little 
 time for settling into peace, the removal of the 
 foreign pressure was followed by a rebound of 
 internal improvement which will mark itself by its 
 results on many ages of our history. Abuses and 
 defects had, perhaps unavoidably, crowded into 
 every corner of our affairs. Had the party with the 
 absolute command of Parliament taken the gradual 
 reformation of these evils into their own hands, they 
 might have altered, and strengthened, the founda 
 tions of their power. But resistance of innovation 
 clung to them after it had become plainly absurd, 
 and was continued, fatally for themselves, as their 
 test and their object. Meanwhile, a generation was 
 coming into action so young that its mind had been 
 awakened by the excitement of the French revolu 
 tion, and not so old as to have been put under a 
 chronic panic by its atrocities, and which was 
 cheered on by that mistake of the adversary, which 
 made the success of every right measure a popular 
 triumph. The force of this new power was as yet 
 unknown, even to those among whom it was lodged, 
 particularly in Scotland. Nowhere in this part of 
 the kingdom, except at Edinburgh, was there any 
 distinct scheme, or rational hope, of emancipation. 
 But the mind of the lower, and far more of the 
 middle, classes had undergone, and was still under 
 going, a great though as yet a silent change, which 
 
280 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 the few who had been long cherishing enlightened 
 opinions lost few opportunities of promoting and 
 directing. 
 
 The return of peace was distinguished by nothing 
 peculiar to Edinburgh. We got new things to speak 
 about ; and the entire disappearance of drums, uni 
 forms, and parades, changed our habits and appear 
 ance. We were charmed at the moment by a striking 
 sermon by Alison, arid a beautiful review by Jeffrey, 
 on the cessation of the long struggle ; the chief 
 charm of each being in the expression of the cordial 
 and universal burst of joy that hailed the supposed 
 restoration of liberty to Europe, and the downfall of 
 the great soldier who was believed to be its only 
 tyrant. Old men, but especially those in whose 
 memories the American war ran into the French 
 one, had only a dim recollection of what peace was ; 
 and middle aged men knew it now for the first time. 
 The change in all things, in all ideas, and conversa 
 tion, and objects, was as complete as it is in a town 
 that has at last been liberated from a strict and 
 tedious siege. 
 
 In 1814 Scott published Waverley the first of 
 those admirable and original prose compositions 
 which have nearly obliterated the recollection of his 
 poetry. Except the first opening of the Edinburgh 
 Review, no work that has appeared in my time made 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 281 
 
 such an instant and universal impression. It is 
 curious to remember it. The unexpected newness 
 of the thing, the profusion of original characters, the 
 Scotch language, Scotch scenery, Scotch men and 
 women, the simplicity of the writing, and the graphic 
 force of the descriptions, all struck us with an 
 electric shock of delight. I wish I could again feel 
 the sensations produced by the first year of these 
 two Edinburgh works. If the concealment of the 
 authorship of the novels was intended to make 
 mystery heighten their effect, it completely succeeded. 
 The speculations and conjectures, and nods and 
 winks, and predictions and assertions were endless, 
 and occupied every company, and almost every two 
 men who met and spoke in the street. It was 
 proved by a thousand indications, each refuting the 
 other, and all equally true in fact, that they were 
 written by old Henry Mackenzie, and by George 
 Cranstoun, and William Erskine, and Jeffrey, and 
 above all by Thomas Scott, Walter s brother, a regi 
 mental paymaster, then in Canada. But u the great 
 unknown,&quot; as the true author was then called, 
 always took good care, with all his concealment, to 
 supply evidence amply sufficient for the protection 
 of his property and his fame ; in so much that the 
 suppression of the name was laughed at as a good 
 joke not merely by his select friends in his presence, 
 but by himself. The change of line, at his age, was 
 
282 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 a striking proof of intellectual power and richness. 
 But the truth is, that these novels were rather the 
 outpourings of old thoughts than new inventions. 
 
 A meeting against West Indian Slavery was held 
 in Edinburgh in July 1814. Sir Harry Moncreiff 
 took the lead in it, and a petition to Parliament was 
 signed by ten or twelve thousand persons. Except 
 for victories and charity, this was the first assembling 
 of the people for a public object that had occurred here 
 for about twenty years ; and if the termination of 
 slavery in our West Indian colonies had been a 
 purely political matter, it could not have been held 
 in Edinburgh even in 1814. It was only made safe 
 and respectable by the attendance of the humane and 
 the pious of all politics ; and even with this mitiga 
 tion it excited great alarm. The symptoms involved 
 in the fact of such a meeting, and of such a petition, 
 were not unseen by any party. My excellent friend 
 Thomas Erskine* was united with me in the charge 
 of a copy of the petition that lay for subscription in 
 the Grassmarket 5 and we were both surprised to find 
 a piece of Calvinistic Whiggery, which we thought 
 had faded, still deeply seated. Many who signed 
 the petition to the Commons, shrunk back from the 
 one to the Lords. They could riot get over the Lords 
 SPIRITUAL. No reasoning could reconcile them to the 
 
 * Thomas Erskine, Esq. of Linlathen. ED. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 283 
 
 title. &quot;I would rather not homologate &quot; was the 
 general and conclusive answer. 
 
 The extension of the city gave rise in 1815 to the 
 New Town Dispensary. Any such institution seems 
 at least harmless ; yet this one was assailed with a 
 degree of bitterness which is curious now. It was 
 a civic war. Two of its principles were, that medi 
 cines and medical advice, including obstetrical aid, 
 were to be administered to patients at their own homes, 
 and that the office-bearers were to be elected by the 
 subscribers ; which last, though not absolutely new, 
 was then rare in Edinburgh. All the existing esta 
 blishments had the usual interest to suppress a rival. 
 But they disavowed this, which however was their 
 true motive, and raised the cry against these two 
 peculiarities. A mob selecting a doctor ! The Lying- 
 in Hospital was eloquent on the danger and the 
 vice of delivering poor women at their own houses. 
 The Old Town Dispensary, which did not then go 
 to such patients as could not come to it, demon 
 strated the beauty of the sick poor being obliged to 
 swallow their doses at a public office. Subscribers 
 choose managers ! Impracticable, and dangerously 
 popular! However, common sense prevailed over 
 even this political bugbear, and the hated institution 
 rose and flourished, and has had all its defects 
 imitated by its opponents. 
 
284 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 These are small matters. But they shew through 
 what strange follies every effort leading, however 
 indirectly and distantly, to independence had to 
 struggle. After a certain time, the hackneyed objec 
 tions to every thing may, in all communities, be 
 stereotyped, and thrown aside as soon as they are 
 attempted to be made use of. 
 
 The most conspicuous opponent of this charity 
 was Dr. Andrew Duncan, senior, one of our pro 
 fessors and physicians, and the great patron of the 
 Old Dispensary ; one of the curious old Edinburgh 
 characters. He was a kind-hearted and excellent 
 man ; but one of a class which seems to live and be 
 happy, and get liked, by its mere absurdities. He 
 was the promoter and the president of more inno 
 cent and foolish clubs and societies than perhaps 
 any man in the world, and the author of pamphlets, 
 jokes, poems, and epitaphs, sufficient to stock the 
 nation ; all amiable, all dull, and most of them very 
 foolish. But they made the author happy $ and he 
 was so benevolent and so simple, that even those 
 who were suffering under his interminable projects 
 checked their impatience and submitted. Scientific 
 ambition, charitable restlessness, and social cheer 
 fulness made him thrust himself into everything 
 throughout a long life. Yet, though his patronage 
 Avas generally dangerous, and his talk always weari- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 285 
 
 some, nobody could ever cease to esteem him. He 
 was even the president of a bathing club 5 and 
 once at least every year did this grave medical 
 professor conduct as many of the members as he 
 could collect to Leith, where the rule was that their 
 respect for their chief was to be shewn by always 
 letting him plunge first from the machine into the 
 water. He continued, till he was past eighty, a 
 practice of mounting to the summit of Arthur s Seat 
 on the first of May, and celebrating the feat by what 
 he called a poem. He was very fond of gardening, 
 and rather a good botanist. This made him presi 
 dent of the Horticultural Society, which he oppressed 
 annually by a dull discourse. But in the last, or 
 nearly the last, of them he relieved the members by 
 his best epitaph, being one upon himself. After 
 mentioning his great age, he intimated that the 
 time must soon arrive, when &quot; In the words of our 
 inimitable Shakespeare, you will all be saying, 
 c Duncan s in his grave/ &quot; 
 
 Peace, with its other blessings, wrought no change 
 more striking or more necessary in Edinburgh than 
 the improvement of our architectural taste. This 
 quality, for the indulgence of which Scotland has 
 such advantages in its materials and its positions, 
 had never been cultivated, or at least had never been 
 acted upon, in modern times. There was a period 
 
286 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 during which feudal war created striking castles, 
 and Popery glorious temples ; but when the opera 
 tion of these ceased, and internal defences became 
 useless, and religious pomp odious, we sank into 
 mere convenience, which we were too poor to 
 associate with architectural beauty or grandeur. 
 How many edifices can architecture justly boast of 
 having produced in Scotland during the first hun 
 dred years after the Union? In towns the great 
 modern object has uniformly been to extinguish all 
 the picturesque relics and models of antiquity, and 
 to reduce everything to the dullest and baldest uni 
 formity. In addition to the varied forms exhibited 
 by our forefathers, almost every city on the Continent 
 supplied us with specimens of striking and cheap 
 town architecture perfectly adapted to the purposes 
 of ordinary life. Yet we went on as if these examples 
 were ridiculous, and as if the common sense of 
 building consisted solely in making it mean, and 
 all mean in the same way. In Edinburgh, more 
 over, we were perpetually mistaking the accidental 
 effect produced by situation, for that which can only 
 be secured by design ; and our escape from the old 
 town gave us an unfortunate propensity to avoid 
 whatever had distinguished the place we had fled 
 from. Hence we were led into the blunder of long 
 straight lines of street, divided to an inch, and all to 
 the same number of inches, by rectangular intersec- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 287 
 
 tions, every house being an exact duplicate of its 
 neighbour, with a dexterous avoidance, as if from 
 horror, of every ornament or excrescence by which 
 the slightest break might vary the surface. What 
 a site did nature give us for our New Town ! Yet 
 what insignificance in its plan ! What poverty in 
 all its details! The creation of that abominable 
 incumbrance, the &quot; Earthen Mound,&quot; by which the 
 valley it abridges and deforms was sacrificed for 
 a deposit of rubbish, was not merely permitted 
 without a murmur to be slowly raised, but through 
 out all its progress was applauded as a noble 
 accumulation. Our jealousy of variety, and our 
 association of magnificence with sameness, was really 
 curious. If a builder ever attempted (which however, 
 to do them justice, they very seldom did) to deviate 
 so far from the established paltriness as to carry up 
 the front wall so as to hide the projecting slates, or 
 to break the roof by a Flemish storm window, or to 
 turn his gable to the street, there was an immediate 
 outcry ; and if the law allowed our burgh Edile, the 
 Dean of Guild, to interfere, he was sure to do so. 
 Abercromby Place, though not begun till about 
 1809, was the first instance in which the straight 
 line was voluntarily departed from. People used to 
 go and stare at the curved street. There were then 
 probably not six houses in George Street, or twenty 
 in the whole New Town, in which the unbroken 
 
288 MEMORIALS OF TITS TIME 
 
 surface of vulgar slate did not project over tlie front 
 wall. Yet there lias very rarely been so large, so 
 well placed, and so free a surface exposed at once to 
 the taste of any architect who had ever seen the Con 
 tinent. But every conception except of straight lines, 
 cut rectangularly into equal spaces, and of every 
 thirty front feet being covered with the plainest and 
 the cheapest house, each exactly like its neighbour, 
 seems to have been excluded. It will take many 
 years, and the cost of building about a half of the 
 original New Town over again, to lessen the baseness 
 of the first ideas. We have now some pillars, bal 
 conies, porticos, and ornamental roughening ; and 
 money, travelling, and discussion will get us on. 
 
 It was the return of peace that first excited our 
 attention, and tended to open our eyes. Europe 
 was immediately covered with travellers, not one of 
 whom, whether from taste, or conceit, or mere chat 
 tering but it all did good failed to contrast the 
 littleness of almost all that the people of Edinburgh 
 had yet done, with the general picturesque grandeur 
 and the unrivalled sites of their city. It was about 
 this time that the foolish phrase, &quot; The Modern 
 Athens,&quot; began to be applied to the capital of Scot 
 land ; a sarcasm, or a piece of affected flattery, when 
 used in a moral sense ; but just enough if meant 
 only as a comparison of the physical features of the 
 two places. The opportunities of observing, and 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 289 
 
 the practice of talking of, foreign buildings in refe 
 rence to our own, directed our attention to the works 
 of internal taste, and roused our ambition. 
 
 It was fortunate that it was about this stage of 
 our advancement that, independently of any object 
 beyond mere access, all the old approaches to the 
 city had to be abandoned, and new ones made. I 
 wish that anybody had thought of preserving the 
 lines of these old Appians in an intelligible map. 
 They seemed to have been planned, or rather used 
 for there was no planning about them, not so 
 much for the convenience of the people, as with a 
 view to keep enemies out. Narrowness, crookedness, 
 and steepness, was the principle of them all. They 
 luckily could not be improved, and therefore new 
 approaches had to be made. This brought free 
 ground to sale ; and the result was the creation of 
 admirable accesses, all connected with much very 
 respectable building ; , the owners being always 
 tempted to allure the spreading population by lay 
 ing out their land attractively. Hence Newington, 
 Leith Walk, the grounds of Inverleith, the road to 
 Corstorphine, and to Queensferry, and indeed all the 
 modern approaches, which lead in every direction 
 through most comfortable suburbs. 
 
 A few years before this William Stark, the best 
 modern architect that Scotland had produced, ap- 
 
290 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 peared. After he had established his reputation at 
 Glasgow and other places, bad health compelled him 
 to seek a retreat in Edinburgh, where however he only 
 survived till October 1813. Thus he was too young 
 to have done much ; but he had excited attention 
 and given good principles, particularly in reference 
 to the composition of towns. The magistrates con 
 sulted him on the best way of laying out the ground 
 on the east side of Leith Walk ; and he explained 
 his views in a very sensible, though too short, 
 memorial. On the 20th of October 1813 Scott men 
 tions his death to Miss Baillie in these terms, u This 
 brings me to the loss of poor Stark, with whom more 
 genius has died than is left behind among the col 
 lected universality of Scottish architects.&quot; His 
 mantle however dropped on his pupil William Play- 
 fair ; to whom Edinburgh has been more indebted 
 since, than to the taste of all other modern architects 
 it has produced or employed. The earliest evidence 
 of his talent was in his attempt to retrieve the fatal 
 errors that had nearly ruined our College ; and the 
 purity of his Grecian taste has since been attested 
 wherever it has had an opportunity of displaying 
 itself. It is now to be seen conspicuously in every 
 quarter of the city. There are blots no doubt ; but 
 they have been made by his employers, not by him. 
 For an architect is almost the only professional man 
 who can never be rightly judged of by the works 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 291 
 
 which he executes. His art is costly, and each part is 
 fixed as soon as it is done. There is no rubbing out. 
 This would be severe, even were he allowed to have 
 his own way. But how often does it happen that 
 he is thwarted by position, poverty, or obstinate 
 ignorance ? He must perpetually sacrifice his taste 
 to suit the humours and the purses of his employers. 
 Yet nothing is so common as to hear an architect 
 condemned on the mere sight of a work against 
 every defect of which he protested. Painters don t 
 paint, nor do poets write, on these terms. 
 
 The influence of these circumstances can only 
 be appreciated by those who knew Edinburgh during 
 the war. It is they alone who can see the beauty 
 of the bravery which the Queen of the North has 
 since been putting on. There were more schemes, 
 and pamphlets, and discussions, and anxiety about 
 the improvement of our edifices and prospects within 
 ten years after the war ceased, than throughout the 
 whole of the preceding one hundred and fifty years. 
 
 One lamentable error we certainly have com 
 mitted, are committing, and, so far as appears, will 
 ever commit. &quot;We massacre every town tree that 
 comes in a mason s way ; never sacrificing mortar to 
 foliage. Stark raised his voice against this atrocity, 
 but in vain. I do not know a single instance in 
 which the square and the line have been compelled 
 to accommodate themselves to stems and branches. 
 
292 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 To a considerable extent this is a consequence of 
 our climate, which needs sun and not shade. But 
 there are many situations, especially in a town, 
 where shade is grateful, and many where, without 
 interfering with comfort, foliage besides its natural 
 beauty combines well with buildings. And there 
 was no Scotch city more strikingly graced by indi 
 vidual trees and by groups of them than Edinburgh, 
 since I knew it, used to be. How well the ridge of 
 the old town was set off by a bank of elms that ran 
 along the front of James Court, and stretched east 
 ward over the ground now partly occupied by the 
 Bank of Scotland. Some very respectable trees 
 might have been spared to grace the Episcopal 
 Chapel of St. Paul in York Place. There was one 
 large tree near its east end which was so well placed 
 that some people conjectured it was on its account 
 that the Chapel was set down there. I was at a 
 consultation in John Clerk s house, hard by, when 
 that tree was cut. On hearing that it was actually 
 down we ran out, and well did John curse the Huns. 
 The old aristocratic gardens of the Canongate were 
 crowded with trees, and with good ones. There 
 were several on the Calton Hill : seven, not ill grown, 
 on its very summit, And all Leith Walk and 
 Lauriston, including the ground round Heriot s 
 Hospital, was fully set with wood. A group was 
 felled about the year 1826 which stood to the west 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 293 
 
 of St. John s Chapel, on the opposite side of the 
 Lothian Koad, and formed a beautiful termination 
 of all the streets which join near that point. One 
 half of the trees, at the least, might have been 
 spared, not only without injuring, but with the effect 
 of greatly adorning, the buildings for which they 
 have been sacrificed. Moray Place, in the same way, 
 might have been richly decorated with old and 
 respectable trees. But they were all murdered, on 
 the usual pretence of adjusting levels and removing 
 obstructions. It was with the greatest difficulty 
 that Sir Patrick Walker, the superior of the ground, 
 succeeded in rescuing the row in front of Coates 
 Crescent from the unhallowed axes of the very vas 
 sals. It cost him years of what was called obstinacy. 
 I tried to save a very picturesque group, some of 
 which waved over the wall at the west end of the 
 jail on the Calton Hill. I succeeded w^ith two trees ; 
 but in about four years they also disappeared. It 
 only required a very little consideration and arrange 
 ment to have left the whole of these trees and many 
 others standing without abating a single building. 
 But the sad truth is that the extinction of foliage, 
 and the unbroken display of their bright free-stone, 
 is of itself a first object with both our masons and 
 their employers. The wooded gardens that we have 
 recently acquired are not inconsistent with this state 
 ment. There was no competition between them and 
 
294 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 building. It is our horror of the direct combination 
 of trees with masonry, and our incapacity to effect 
 it, that I complain of. No apology is thought neces 
 sary for murdering a tree 5 many for preserving it. 
 
 In 1815 Jeffrey set up his rustic household gods 
 at Craigcrook, where all his subsequent summers 
 have been passed. This was scarcely a merely 
 private arrangement. It has affected the happiness, 
 and improved both the heads and the hearts of all 
 the worthy of this place. No unofficial house in 
 Scotland has had a greater influence on literary 
 or political opinion. Beautiful though the spot, as 
 he has kept it, is, its deepest interest arises from its 
 being the residence of such a man. Nothing can 
 efface the days they have passed there from the 
 recollection of his friends. Their rural festivities 
 are dignified by his virtues and talents, by all our 
 Edinburgh eminence, and by almost every interest 
 ing stranger. The Craigcrook Saturdays during the 
 summer session ! Escape from the court and the 
 town, scenery, evergreens, bowls, talk, mirth, friend 
 ship, and wine inspire better luxury than that of the 
 Castle of Indolence, without any of its dulness. 
 
 The first modern Musical Festival was held in 
 Scotland in 1815. It sprang more from charity 
 than from love of harmony. But the music, as I am 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 295 
 
 told for though I heard some of it I did not com 
 prehend it, was good ; and the Outer House, where 
 it was performed, was not ill calculated to give it 
 effect. We have become an infinitely more harmoni 
 ous nation since then. Indeed none of our advances 
 is more decided than our musical one. But this is 
 not for one with dead ears to speak of. 
 
 The beginning of the year 1816 was distinguished 
 by one of the most important events in the progress 
 of our law. u The Jury Court&quot; was opened, and on 
 the 22d of January tried its first cause. We had 
 long been verging towards the introduction of civil 
 juries. The experiment was keenly resisted, chiefly 
 by the older judges, and by the established ob- 
 structors of change. It is easy now to discover 
 that in some respects the plan might have been 
 mended ; but, on the whole, the introduction of 
 so complicated and difficult a novelty was con 
 ducted with considerable wisdom. A separate court, 
 a presiding judge trained to English practice, special 
 issues, and no more extensive jurisdiction in matters 
 of law than was indispensable for the trial of facts, 
 were all necessary at first. For a while the idle 
 public took great interest in the new tribunal ; partly 
 because the causes were intelligible, which the 
 decisions of civil causes on printed evidence never 
 can be to spectators, and partly because the 
 
296 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 counsel were expected to make play in every trial. 
 Jeffrey and I were the chief delinquents in this line, 
 because we had the largest share of the business, 
 and every client thought his cause ill used, if it was 
 not made a great cause of. However, though this 
 expectation is abated in litigants, and extinguished 
 in the public, I suspect that the modern harangues 
 are fully as animated and as long as ours. 
 
 William Adam, David Monypenny (Lord Pit- 
 milly), and Allan Maconochie (Lord Meadowbank) 
 were the first three judges. Adam had the misfor 
 tune to come into this new scene under exaggerated 
 expectations of what he was to do. He owed this 
 to his Scotch nativity and education, the tastes and 
 feelings of which forty years general residence in 
 England had only strengthened ; to the kindliness 
 of his manners ; to his spirit in Parliament on several 
 Scotch questions ; and to his having been an asso 
 ciate of important public men on many great public 
 occasions. Extravagant anticipations were formed 
 of the person who had first fought Fox, and then 
 been his friend ; who had spoken in debate with 
 Pitt ; managed the affairs of Eoyal Dukes ; been the 
 standing counsel of such clients as the East India 
 Company and the Bank of England, and in great 
 practice in Parliamentary Committees. His appear 
 ance was good. It was that of a farming gentleman. 
 He had a distinct rational voice, and an admirable, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 297 
 
 plain, well-bred manner. Though well read for a 
 busy gentleman, he was not a person of either 
 learning or general ability. His true merits resolved 
 into industry, practical sense, agreeable deportment, 
 and a conscientious ambition to secure the success 
 of the Jury Court experiment. His conspicuous 
 defect was obscurity of judicial speech. It is very 
 difficult to account for this ; because on other matters 
 he had a very clear head, and a very clear tongue. 
 I cannot analyse the process by which one so versant 
 in the practice, and in the explanation, of business, 
 and so totally unincumbered by either diffidence or 
 conceit, should have generally contrived to get 
 mystical on the bench. It arose partly, I have no 
 doubt, from his not being at home with the legal 
 ideas and legal terms of the law of Scotland. Yet 
 this will not account for it entirely. The acute and 
 mathematical Lord Glenlee once described the thing 
 very well. Adam was delivering an opinion, or 
 explaining something, in the Court of Session, when 
 Glenlee, after listening for a long time, without 
 attaining any definite idea, to his well-sounding 
 sentences marked by all the appearance of precision 
 and all the reality of confusion, observed &quot; He 
 speaks as if he were an Act of Parliament.&quot; 
 
 Yet no other man could have done his work. 
 He had to guide a vessel over shoals and among 
 rocks. This was his special duty, and he did it 
 
298 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 admirably. His experience of English practice en 
 abled him to remove difficulties formidable to our 
 awkwardness. He protected his court from preju 
 dices which, if not subdued by his patience and 
 dexterity, would have crushed it any week. He 
 saw that the Scotch could scarcely be expected to 
 fall into the old English idolatry of jury trial ; but 
 believing that, when properly applied, civil juries were 
 nowhere more valuable than in Scotland, where 
 the people were generally educated, and yet had no 
 popular institutions, he had no pride and no pleasure 
 so great as that of permanently securing them, in 
 one shape or other, for his native country. Both on 
 the bench and at chambers he gave us the best ex 
 ample of judicial urbanity that we had ever seen. 
 Nothing could be more beautiful, and sometimes 
 even affecting, than the anxiety of this old, and at 
 last nearly blind, man to do his work, and the 
 earnest patience and polite cheerfulness with which 
 he gave himself to it. So far as we are to retain 
 civil trial by jury in this country, we shall owe it 
 to him personally. No one else could have either 
 launched or piloted it. When in 1830 the Jury 
 Court ceased to exist as a separate court his vocation 
 was at an end 5 and he retired with the respect and 
 the affection of the whole legal profession and of 
 the public. 
 
 Nothing could exceed his delightfulness in 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 299 
 
 society, and especially in domestic life. He was 
 not a whit the worse of a hot temper. When it 
 transpired, it only amused his friends. A day passed 
 with the Chief Commissioner at Blair -Adam his 
 Eden, where his heart laughed in its boyhood, was a 
 day of amiable virtue, always to be remembered 
 with pleasure. 
 
 When I first saw Monypenny, I was a boy looking 
 out of a window in the High Street of Edinburgh 
 at the foot procession of the Lord High Commis 
 sioner to the General Assembly; and Monypenny 
 was walking before His Grace the Earl of Leven, 
 dressed like a mackaw, as the Commissioner s purse- 
 bearer. Little did he, or anybody, then dream that 
 the day was to come in which he was to have a seat 
 on three supreme benches, and to become some one 
 in his profession. Of good sense, but of moderate 
 ability, with no legal learning beyond what an 
 ordinary hand to mouth lawyer needs, and no 
 power either of speaking or of writing beyond that 
 of clear statement, his judicial powers were very 
 considerable, far above his powers as a counsel. 
 Slender, pure-eyed, clear-skinned, a beautifully com 
 posed manner, a distinct quiet voice, and an air of 
 steady propriety in all he said or did, his outward 
 style was excellent and striking, simple yet digni 
 fied, without feebleness, and patient, yet neither 
 
MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 passive nor dull. This admirable and very peculiar 
 manner left his judgment and industry to operate 
 unobstructed 5 and they were concentrated on his 
 profession, the exercise of which was his sole enjoy 
 ment. Amidst the vexatiousness of the most com 
 plicated case, aggravated by the strife of the bar, 
 and the collisions of the bench, he sat so serenely, 
 and got through his work with such composure, 
 that it made one cool to look at him. 
 
 Meadowbank ought neither to have taken nor to 
 have got a seat in this court. His health scarcely 
 allowed him even to enter it ; and he died soon after 
 his appointment. For above a year before his death 
 he was worn away by some painful disorders, which 
 he bore up against with great energy. Though 
 obliged to forego the court, the conflicts and the toils 
 of which were his luxury, he read, and wrote, and 
 discussed to the very last. 
 
 One great outcry against this court, at first, was 
 excited by our being required to adopt the English 
 unanimity of juries. We had been accustomed to it 
 for above a century in the Exchequer, which was an 
 English court. But its sittings were solely in Edin 
 burgh, and its verdicts were of a penal nature ; so 
 that the country at large knew little about its pro 
 ceedings, and it had not to deal with the complexity 
 of civil competitions. It therefore got on without 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 301 
 
 much practical obstruction. But when it was pro 
 posed to carry the principle into all proofs, and all 
 over the land, hosts of fiery objectors started up, 
 who on grounds logical, political, metaphysical, 
 and religious, denounced the scheme as justifying 
 rebellion at the least. The religious objection, which 
 resolved into the perjury (as it was called) of the 
 minority, sacrificing its conscience to the conscience 
 of the majority, was the one that made the deepest 
 impression on the Scotch mind. Meadowbank wrote 
 a good pamphlet explanatory of the true working of 
 the principle of unanimity, which operates (as he 
 said) by producing discussion and concession among 
 jurors, and thus makes a verdict by even compulsory 
 unanimity a truer extract of the average sense of 
 the whole of them, than if all reasoning had been 
 superseded by a vote. There is some ingenuity in 
 this, which is all that can be said in defence of the 
 venerable English habit. But if it was sound, it is 
 odd that of all the tribes of mankind the habit has 
 been tolerated in England alone. I believe it to be 
 absurd ; and that, whether a bare majority ought 
 to be allowed to decide or not, always requiring 
 unanimity is nonsense. Experience has not in the 
 least diminished our Scotch aversion to it. 
 
 Another advance towards the habit of public 
 meetings, and a far more important one than that of 
 
302 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 the preceding year in favor of slaves, took place in 
 February 1816. A meeting was then held in the 
 Merchants Hall to petition Parliament against the 
 continuance of the property and income tax. This 
 was the first respectable meeting held in Edinburgh, 
 within the memory of man, for the avowed purpose 
 of controlling Government on a political matter ; and 
 was justly considered by the prophetic as a striking 
 indication of the tendency of the public mind ; the 
 more so that it was attended by a few Tories, who, 
 though attached to ministers, were more attached 
 to their money. Mr. Menteath of Closeburn pre 
 sided; Jeffrey moved resolutions, which Moncreiff 
 seconded. 
 
 In this year we lost George Wilson, a person 
 whose very name was unknown to the public, but 
 whose character tinged the character of some of 
 those whose names were never out of the public ear. 
 He was the person who is spoken of with such 
 reverence and affection by Eomilly and Homer, and 
 who stood so high in the confidence and love of all 
 the really eminent in London ; a Scotchman by 
 birth and education, and an English lawyer by pro 
 fession. Better fitted by calmness and simplicity 
 for the Bench than for the jangling work of the Bar, 
 no elevation would have been above his merits or 
 the reasonable hopes of his friends. But all their 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 303 
 
 and his views were blighted by a severe attack of 
 paralysis which compelled him to leave London. 
 He withdrew to Edinburgh in 1810, and died there 
 in June 1816. His life here was a rare and noble 
 example of practical philosophy. Driven suddenly 
 by ruined health from his accustomed scenes of 
 ambition and enjoyment, he had to reconcile himself 
 to a retired existence on a very low scale of vitality, 
 in a place where, except to his old friends Dr. Greg 
 ory and Henry Mackenzie, and two or three more, 
 he was unknown. And he did it beautifully. His 
 mildness and intelligence attracted the worthy ; and 
 good society temperately enjoyed, literature and 
 benevolence, a deep interest in the friends he had 
 left and in all the public subjects that engaged them, 
 and a growing affinity for those he had recently 
 acquired, occupied him as fully as was safe ; and he 
 resigned himself with such a contented attachment 
 to the new scene, that it almost seemed as if he was 
 glad of a calamity that enabled him to indulge in 
 so rational a retirement. He rarely missed the Fri 
 day Club,* where his serenity and excellent conver 
 sation, over his glass of cold water, made us feel as 
 if we ought to despise ourselves for our champagne. 
 In writing to Gregory about his attack, after it 
 occurred, he said &quot; we bachelors have a great advan 
 tage over you married men in dying&quot; The club 
 * See Lord Cockburn s Life of Lord Jeffrey, vol. I. p. 147. ED. 
 
304 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 always brightened at his appearance. It was sure 
 of admirable talk and opinions, great knowledge of 
 good books and good men, perfect candour, a gentle 
 manner, and a soft voice. It is a pleasure to recol 
 lect him, and to preserve a character which, except 
 in the memories of his friends, he has done nothing 
 to perpetuate. 
 
 It was in 1816 also that we heard the first whis 
 perings of what was termed &quot; the National Monu 
 ment of Scotland.&quot; The idea of commemorating 
 the triumphs of the late war, and of exciting the 
 heroisms of future conflicts, was first thrown out 
 publicly at a county meeting ; and the scheme was 
 often discussed throughout some succeeding years. 
 The original plan did not go beyond a pillar, or 
 some such thing. But there were some who thought 
 that the prevailing effervescence of military patriot 
 ism created a good opportunity for improving the 
 public taste by the erection of a great architectural 
 model. The Temple of Minerva, placed on the 
 Calton Hill, struck their imaginations, and though 
 they had no expectation of being able to realize the 
 magnificent conception they resolved, by beginning, 
 to bring it within the vision of a distant practica 
 bility. What, if any, age would finish it, they could 
 not tell ; but having got a site, a statute, and about 
 20,000, they had the honor of commencing it. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 305 
 
 Two edifices were begun this year, of respectable 
 beauty. Our episcopalians used to be so few that 
 their two principal congregations met, the one in a 
 humble place at the west end of Eose Street, the 
 other in a chapel which, though handsome and 
 spacious when got at, was buried in an inaccessible 
 close on the south side of the Canongate. Indeed it 
 was only within a few years before that this sect had 
 got some of the legal vexations which had clouded it 
 removed. They now raised their heads ; and grow 
 ing in numbers, and in aristocracy, erected their new 
 chapels at the west end of Princes Street, and at the 
 east end of York Place. The ambition of architecture 
 has since begun to infect the presbyterian seceders. 
 
 Archibald Alison, the author of the Essays on 
 Taste, was then the most distinguished of the episco 
 palian clergy of Edinburgh and, so far as I know, of 
 Scotland. A most excellent and agreeable man; 
 richly imbued with literature ; a great associate of 
 Dugald Stewart, Play fair, Dr. Gregory, Jeffrey, 
 Francis Horner, and all the eminent among us ; 
 delightful in society , and, in truth, without a single 
 defect except the amiable one of too soft a manner. 
 As a preacher he was a consummate artist, in his 
 own peculiar line of feeling and impressive elegance. 
 His voice was clear and sweet, his taste very refined, 
 and his air and gesture very polite. It was the poetry 
 of preaching. The prevailing defect was that it was 
 
306 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 all too exquisite. The composition, the sentiments, 
 the articulation, and the look were in too uniform 
 a strain of purity and feeling. To the hearer, cloyed 
 by a system of studied perfection, artlessness, though 
 leading to some carelessness or even coarseness, 
 would have been a relief. Notwithstanding this de 
 duction, however, from the effect of exertions which 
 always derive their greatest charm from simplicity, 
 it was impossible to hear Alison preach without 
 being moved and delighted. Even at this distance 
 of time, his discourses during the occasional fasts 
 and thanksgivings throughout the war, the whole of 
 which I heard, still thrill in my ear and my heart. 
 He was almost the only preacher I have ever known 
 who habitually made the appearances of external 
 nature, and the kindred associations, subservient to 
 the uses of the pulpit. This copious and skilful 
 application of the finest, and most generally under 
 stood, elements of taste was one great cause of his 
 peculiar success ; and, managed with judgment, 
 sensibility, and grace, it explained how those who 
 sometimes entered his chapel determined to dislike 
 his excess of art, rarely left it without being subdued 
 by the beauty and impressiveness of his eloquence. 
 
 The year 181 G closed bitterly for the poor. 
 There probably never were so many people destitute 
 at one time in Edinburgh. The distress was less in 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 307 
 
 severity than in 1797; but the population having 
 increased, it was greater in extent. Some permanent 
 good was obtained from the labour of the relieved. 
 Bruntsfield Links were cleared of whins, and of 
 old quarries ; walks were made, for the first time, 
 on the Calton Hill ; and a path was cleared along 
 the base of the perpendicular cliff of Salisbury Crags. 
 Until then these two noble terraces were enjoyable 
 only by the young and the active. 
 
 This walk along the Crags was the first thing 
 that let the people see what we were in imminent 
 danger of losing by the barbarous and wasteful 
 demolition of the rock, which had been proceeding 
 unchecked for nearly thirty years. When I first 
 scrambled to that cliff, which must have been about 
 1788, the path along its base was certainly not six 
 feet wide, and in some places there was no regular 
 path at all. By 1816 the cliff had been so quarried 
 away that what used to be the footpath was, in 
 many places, at least 100 feet wide; and if this 
 work had been allowed to go on for a few years 
 more, the whole face of the rock would have disap 
 peared. This would have implied the obliteration 
 of some of the strata which all Edinburgh ought to 
 have revered as Hutton s local evidence of the Theory 
 of the Earth, and one of the most peculiar features 
 of our scenery. The guilty would hav x e been first, 
 the Hereditary Keeper of the Park, who made money 
 
308 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 of the devastation by selling the stones ; secondly, 
 the Town Council and the Eoad Trustees, who 
 bought them ; thirdly, the Crown and its local 
 officers, who did not check the atrocity. Of these 
 the Crown was the least criminal. It did interfere 
 at last; and it was reserved for Henry Brougham, 
 who had often clambered among these glorious rocks 
 as a boy, to pronounce as Chancellor the judgment 
 which finally saved a remnant of them. 
 
 The change which was taking place in the 
 character of our population was now evinced by an 
 occurrence which was remarkable both as an effect, 
 and as a cause. The first number of &quot; The Scotsman&quot; 
 newspaper was published in January 1817. The 
 incalculable importance of this event can only be 
 understood by those who recollect that shortly before 
 this the newspaper press of Edinburgh, though not 
 as much fettered as in St. Petersburg!! (as it has 
 been said to have been), was at least in as fettered a 
 condition as any press that is legally free could be. 
 Most candid men who knew Scotland before the 
 peace of 1814 will probably agree, that if the most 
 respectable and unprosecuted London opposition 
 newspaper had been published in Edinburgh, the 
 editor would have been better acquainted with the 
 Court of Justiciary than he would have found com 
 fortable. The undisturbed continuance of the Edin- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBUKN. 309 
 
 &quot;burgh Eeview would be inconsistent with this state 
 ment, were it not that there is no analogy between 
 a work of which the politics are dignified by general 
 literature, and which only appears quarterly, at the 
 price of five shillings, and the provocations of a 
 cheap and purely political and generally accusative 
 publication, tormenting every week or every day. 
 When Major Cartwright, the itinerant reformer, 
 lectured here about 1812, he was attended by 
 considerable audiences ; yet because he preached 
 the doctrines of universal suffrage, and annual par 
 liaments, no editor of any Edinburgh newspaper, 
 though offered to be paid as for an advertisement, and 
 one of them a hearer of the discourses, had courage 
 to allow any account whatever of the lectures to 
 appear in his paper. The editor who attended them 
 told me that, though he differed from the lecturer, 
 what he said was a good and perfectly lawful defence 
 of the doctrines, and that he would have liked to 
 have published their substance, but that he could not 
 ruin his paper. He felt, and explained, that the 
 bare exposition of such reforms would hurt the mere 
 reporter. 
 
 The appearance therefore of a respectable oppo 
 sition newspaper was hailed, and condemned, accor 
 ding to people s tastes : but they all saw in it a 
 sign. Though only published once a week, and 
 taking only literary advertisements, it soon attained 
 
310 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 a large circulation. It is now flourishing in a 
 vigorous manhood, immeasurably the best newspaper 
 that exists, or has ever existed, in Scotland. Its only 
 defect has been heaviness ; a defect, however, inse 
 parable from provincial locality, particularly in 
 Scotland, where the people are grave, and too far 
 out of the world to acquire smartness and tact. The 
 original projectors of this the first Scotch newspaper 
 which combined independence with intelligence, and 
 moderation with zeal, were Charles Maclaren, who 
 has since distinguished himself in science,* William 
 Ritchie, solicitor, and John Eobertson, bookseller. 
 Its earliest conductors were Eitchie and Maclaren, 
 and John Eamsay Macculloch, now chiefly celebrated 
 as a political economist, the principles of which 
 science he has examined and disseminated with a 
 talent and success that will make his career an era 
 in its history. They were all able men, and honest 
 in the public cause, the greatest virtue the con 
 ductors of a newspaper can possess. Eitchie was 
 bold and zealous, and a very respectable legal 
 practitioner. He died, after a tedious illness, a 
 short time after the news of the first accession of 
 the Whigs to real power in 1830 reached Edin- 
 
 * Mr. Maclaren is the author of several articles in the Ency 
 clopaedia Britannica ; of an interesting Dissertation on the Topo 
 graphy of the plain of Troy ; and of several valuable Geological 
 Treatises. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 311 
 
 burgh, when his last political act consisted in raising 
 himself in bed on his elbow, and giving a feeble 
 cheer. 
 
 Nobody was enjoying the progress of sound 
 opinions in Scotland more than Francis Homer. 
 But alas ! our forebodings were realized ; and the 
 gaiety of the Outer House was stilled by our learning, 
 one day this spring, that on the 8th of February 1817 
 he had died in Italy. Every virtuous heart was 
 covered with mourning. We did not think so much 
 of his loss to the empire as to Scotland and ourselves. 
 Acquainted with all our circumstances, and ambitious 
 of nothing so much as the elevation of his native 
 country, he would have brought to the discussion of 
 all the vital questions that were about to arise talents 
 which, already great, were steadily improving, and 
 a character that made him almost the representative 
 of virtue itself. In this his native city, the sorrow 
 for his family, to whom it was an honor to bear his 
 name, and for the premature extinction of his own 
 prospects, was deep and nearly universal. The last 
 time I saw him was about the end of September 1816. 
 It was at Dryden near Eoslin, where his father was 
 then residing. Rutherfurd * and I had gone to visit 
 him. He was very ill, breathless, and weak. Re- 
 
 * Andrew Rutherfurd, afterwards successively Lord Advocate, 
 and Lord Rutherfurd. ED. 
 
312 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 moving for the winter into milder air had been 
 resolved on 5 but we both feared it was too late. He 
 walked out a little with us. Never can I forget the 
 fading avenue, and the autumnal day, in which we 
 parted from him, as we foreboded never to meet again. 
 The valuable and peculiar light in which Homer 
 stands out the light in which his history is cal 
 culated to inspire every right-minded youth, is 
 this. He died at the age of thirty-eight ; possessed 
 of greater public influence than any other private 
 man; and admired, beloved, trusted, and deplored 
 by all except the heartless or the base. No greater 
 homage was ever paid in Parliament to any deceased 
 member. Now let every young man ask how was 
 this attained ? By rank ? He was the son of an 
 Edinburgh merchant. By wealth? Neither he, 
 nor any of his relations, ever had a superfluous 
 sixpence. By office ? He held but one, and only 
 for a few years, of no influence and with very little 
 pay. By talents? His were not splendid, and he 
 had no genius. Cautious and slow, his only ambition 
 was to be right. By eloquence ? He spoke in calm 
 good taste, without any of the oratory that either 
 terrifies or seduces. By any fascination of manner? 
 His was only correct and agreeable. By what then 
 was it ? Merely by sense, industry, good principles, 
 and a good heart qualities, which no well-consti 
 tuted mind need ever despair of attaining. It was 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 313 
 
 the force of his character that raised him 5 and this 
 character not impressed upon him by nature, but 
 formed, out of no peculiarly fine elements, by him 
 self. There were many in the House of Commons 
 of far greater ability and eloquence. But no one 
 surpassed him in the combination of an adequate 
 portion of these with moral worth. Horner was 
 born to shew what moderate powers unaided by any 
 thing whatever except culture and goodness may 
 achieve, even when these powers are displayed 
 amidst the competition and jealousy of public life. 
 
 Considering what Blackwood s Magazine soon 
 became, it seems strange that a just memoir of 
 Horner, and by Dr. Gordon, should have been the 
 first article of its first number. The rise of this 
 publication forms another important mark in our 
 local story. 
 
 Our only monthly periodical work was the dotard 
 Scots Magazine, which now lived, or rather tried to 
 live, upon its antiquity alone. Constable imprudently 
 broke its last spell by changing its title and struc 
 ture, which gave Mr. William Blackwood, an active 
 bookseller, an opening for a new adventure 5 though 
 probably he had no anticipations beyond those of an 
 ordinary magazine of ordinary success. But it soon 
 became, in its politics, a work of violent personality ; 
 and it was to this, far more than even to its unques- 
 
314 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 tioiiable talent and spirited writing, that its influence, 
 at least for a long time, was owing. 
 
 There was a natural demand for libel at this 
 period. The human mind had made a great ad 
 vance, and the pressure of war being removed, new 
 opinions were coming everywhere into collision with 
 old ones ; so that there was a general shock between 
 those who wished to perpetuate old systems, and 
 those who wished to destroy or reform them. Even 
 in Greece, Italy, Spain, South America, and various 
 other parts of the world, a movement of intellect, or 
 of discontent, produced open war between bigotry 
 and liberality. In Britain, where open violence was 
 checked by the strength of the law, it engendered 
 fiercer conflicts of parties than had been known, 
 except near revolutions. Now a war of opinion is 
 a condition of which libel is one of the natural 
 products. 
 
 Edinburgh was peculiarly ripe for the use of this 
 weapon, because there was no place where the con 
 trast between the new and the old internal systems 
 was so strong. The whole official power of Govern 
 ment was on one side, nearly the whole talent and 
 popularity on the other 5 and the principles espoused 
 by each admitted of no reconciliation. The Tories 
 could boast of some adherents of talent, and of 
 many of great worth, but their political influence 
 now depended almost entirely on office. With the 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 315 
 
 exception of Scott, I cannot recollect almost a single 
 individual taking at this time a charge of public 
 opinion, and of personal weight, who was not a 
 Whig. In opposition to this official authority, which 
 in itself is seldom deeply seated, and is always dis 
 liked, there was arrayed almost the whole body of 
 our local talent and independence cordially united. 
 The Whigs, condemned no longer to cherish their 
 principles in silence, finding public spirit revive, 
 assumed the lead, and their standard was followed 
 by a host consisting of all those who felt themselves 
 raised into something like a region of freedom. They 
 came forth from despised dissenting congregations, 
 from half liberated corporations, from shops, from 
 the law, and, which was a better sign of the current, 
 even from medicine, and, which was the best symp 
 tom of all, from the aristocracy of the lower orders. 
 All these, aided by the emancipated in the shires, 
 soon became accustomed, as if it was a part of the 
 necessary order of things, to see official power against 
 them, and moral influence in their favor. 
 
 In this situation, when the popular cause had 
 got u the Scotsman,&quot; it was natural for the opposite 
 cause to set up its magazine j and, in. the circum 
 stances, a certain degree of personality was only 
 to be expected. The fault of the new organ lay in 
 its excess ; which was the more offensive from our 
 being then so little accustomed to it, and the small- 
 
316 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 ness of the society into which the firebrands were 
 cast. This is alluded to in the &quot; Noctes Ambrosiance&quot; 
 in speaking of the Beacon newspaper. u A Beacon ! 
 Gude pity us ! etc. Though your Antijacobins, and 
 John Bulls, and Twopenny Post-Bags, and sae on, 
 do very weel in the great Babel of Lunnun, the like 
 o thae things are quite heterogeneous in this small 
 atmosphere of the Edinbro meridian. The folk here 
 canna thole t.&quot; Posterity can never be made to feel 
 the surprise and just offence with which, till we were 
 hardened to it, this work was received. The minute 
 circumstances which impart freshness to slander 
 soon evaporate ; and the arrows that fester in living 
 reputations and in beating hearts are pointless, or 
 invisible, to the eyes of those who search for them 
 afterwards as curiosities. The favourite calumny 
 was founded on charges of irreligion. Such charges, 
 however false, are always favourably received by a 
 large portion of the public, even though proceeding 
 from persons of whom laughter at religion, and 
 clever parodies of Scripture, are notoriously the 
 favourite pastimes.^ No wonder then that divisions 
 
 * Blackwood s Magazine, vol. XV. p. 708. 
 j- &quot; The bookseller and Pringle soon quarrelled ; and, the Maga 
 zine assuming, on the retirement of the latter, a high Tory cha 
 racter, Laidlaw s Whig feelings induced him to renounce its alliance ; 
 while Scott, having no kindness for Blackwood personally, and dis 
 approving (though he chuckled over it) the reckless extravagance of 
 juvenile satire, which, by and by, distinguished this journal, appears 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 317 
 
 in our narrow society which all reasonable men had 
 practically agreed to close were re-opened, and much 
 of the ferocity of 1793 revived. 
 
 This vice of offensive personality, which was 
 flagrant at first, is the more to be lamented, that in 
 talent and originality this magazine has been, and is, 
 the best that has been published in its day in Britain. 
 It has been supported by a continued succession of 
 able men, who have covered it with contributions of 
 great and inventive power; and, avoiding the lethargy 
 which seems the constitutional malady of prolonged 
 magazines, its thinking and writing have always 
 been spirited. Its literary compositions and criti 
 cisms have generally been excellent. But it was 
 set up chiefly as a political work ; and in this depart 
 ment it has adhered with respectable constancy to 
 all the follies it was meant to defend. It is a great 
 depository of exploded principles ; and indeed it will 
 soon be valuable as a museum of old errors. 
 
 to have easily acquiesced in the propriety of Laidlaw s determina 
 tion &quot; (Lockhart s Life of Scott, vol. IV. p. 65). A chuckle from 
 Scott, in the blaze of his reputation, was all that young men needed 
 to instigate them. In another passage Mr. Lockhart describes 
 these monthly attacks as &quot; those grotesque jeux d esprit by which, 
 at this period, Blackwood s young Tory wags delighted to assail 
 their elders and betters of the Whig persuasion&quot; (vol. IV. p. 109). 
 Deducting gloss, this means that respectable characters were wil 
 fully and systematically slandered, but that it was funnily done ; 
 which was not always the case, for it was often with bitter gravity. 
 
318 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 It was long enlivened by the &quot;Nodes Ambrosiance&quot; 
 a series of scenes supposed to have occurred in a 
 tavern in Register Street kept by one Ambrose. 
 And no periodical publication that I know of can 
 boast of so extraordinary a series of jovial dramatic 
 fiction. Wilson,* I believe, now professes to regret 
 and condemn many things in these papers, and to 
 deny his authorship of them ; but substantially they 
 are all his. I have not the slightest doubt that he 
 wrote at least ninety per cent of them. I wish no 
 man had anything worse to be timid about. There 
 is not so curious and original a work in the English 
 or Scotch languages. It is a most singular and 
 delightful outpouring of criticism, politics, and 
 descriptions of feeling, character, and scenery, of 
 verse and prose, and maudlin eloquence, and espe 
 cially of wild fun. It breathes the very essence of 
 the Bacchanalian revel of clever men. And its 
 Scotch is the best Scotch that has been written in 
 modern times. I am really sorry for the poor one- 
 tongued Englishman, by whom, because the Ettrick 
 Shepherd uses the sweetest and most expressive of 
 living languages, the homely humour, the sensibility, 
 the descriptive power, the eloquence, and the strong 
 joyous hilarity of that animated rustic can never be 
 felt. The characters are all well drawn, and well 
 
 * John Wilson, late Professor of Moral Philosophy in the Uni 
 versity of Edinburgh. ED. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 319 
 
 sustained, except that of the Opium Eater, who is 
 heavy and prosy : but this is perhaps natural to 
 opium. Few efforts could be more difficult than to 
 keep up the bounding spirit of fresh boyish gaiety 
 which is constantly made to break out amidst the 
 serious discussions of these tavern philosophers and 
 patriots. After all just deductions, these Nodes are 
 bright with genius. 
 
 It was a matter of course, that as soon as the 
 country began to awaken, the great question of 
 Burgh Eeform should be revived. Those who were 
 bent on this object had the advantage of having to 
 deal with a single and clear evil, capable of being 
 removed only in one way. By the constitution of 
 all the Eoyal Burghs in Scotland (above 60 in num 
 ber) each town-council elected its successor ; which 
 in practice meant that they all elected themselves. 
 The system of self-election was universal, and very 
 jealously adhered to. The effect of this system in 
 depressing the civic communities, and encouraging 
 municipal abuse, could not be exaggerated. Hence 
 it was one of the earliest of the constitutional vices 
 which public - spirited men saw the necessity of 
 attacking, when the era for political reform began 
 to dawn. The subject had been keenly agitated, 
 but with little hope of success and no general sup 
 port, so far back as 1785. But as the town-councils 
 
320 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 were the only electors of our city representation in 
 Parliament, and these bodies were easily kept in 
 ministerial order by simple, direct, and scarcely 
 concealed bribery, their unchanged continuance was 
 defended as obstinately as the drawbridge of the 
 castle. Yet I consider it as a fact that, with the 
 burgh reformers, the improvement of our parliamen 
 tary representation, if an object at all, was infinitely 
 less so than the improvement of the system by which 
 our municipal affairs were managed. &quot;When the 
 struggle began, and for many years afterwards, the 
 reformers would have been content with such a 
 relaxation of the existing system, as would have 
 kept the political power of the Tory party nearly as 
 safe as it Avas under self-election. But concession 
 was withheld till a triumph on the opposite side 
 made it useless. Meanwhile the collateral effect of 
 the contest, in provoking the citizens into a spirit of 
 independence, was far more useful than the attain 
 ment of their merely burgh objects could have been. 
 Government thought that the subject had been for 
 gotten. But the hopelessness of prosecuting any 
 civil struggle while the war lasted had only kept it 
 in abeyance. The fire was not out. Its ashes lay 
 smouldering ; and protracted abuses only blew them 
 up the more fiercely when they came to be stirred. 
 The battle lasted several years after this, and its 
 movements became complicated ; but, generally, its 
 progress was this. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 321 
 
 The election of the magistracy of Montrose 
 became void from a failure to comply with the Set, 
 or constitution, of the burgh. On this the Crown 
 revived the magistracy by a Poll warrant that is, a 
 warrant to elect addressed to the burgesses at large. 
 The effect was the creation of a town council with a 
 taste for some independence. Other burghs instantly 
 saw that this was a precedent which might be fol 
 lowed, wherever legal ingenuity could detect a flaw 
 in the rather nice and technical mysteries of a town 
 council election ; and that an independent magis 
 tracy being once formed, self-election might enable 
 it to be perpetuated. Government, however, soon 
 repudiated the example which it had been misled to 
 rear up, and would grant no more poll warrants ; 
 but fell on the scheme of repairing lapsed councils 
 by warrants addressed to the members of the council 
 who had been last duly elected. It got well abused 
 by the Whigs for its retreat, but far better by the 
 Tories for its advance. 
 
 In order to try whether the Crown would persist 
 in always restoring the old magistracies, several 
 complaints of undue election were brought into the 
 Court of Session. One of these, directed against 
 the town council of Edinburgh, made a great noise. 
 Only two of them, from Aberdeen and Inverness, 
 succeeded ; and in both cases the Crown adhered to 
 its principle. This raised a crop of new legal pro- 
 
322 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 ceedings ; first, by burgesses, who challenged the 
 Crown s right to grant any other than poll warrants, 
 and then by the Officers of State who challenged its 
 right to grant these. It is needless to trace the 
 progress of this mass of litigation. It produced a 
 good deal of legal learning and investigation, great 
 public excitement, and very little legal result. The 
 Court of Session was not supposed to have gained 
 credit under the discussions. Instead of applying a 
 severer candour, and a more strictly judicial calm 
 ness, to questions plainly involving party passions 
 and objects, it was allowed to transpire too obviously, 
 through the tone and manner of most of the judges, 
 that they were neither ignorant of the objects of the 
 litigants, nor indifferent about the results. Judges 
 cannot be made of ice or wood, and it is not their 
 duty to extinguish, even if they could, all their pub 
 lic principles. Some allowance, therefore, ought to 
 be made for disclosures of feeling which it is so 
 difficult to resist, and the sensitive jealousy of 
 suitors, and their professional champions, is always 
 to be distrusted. Still, inflexible fairness being the 
 most necessary of all the judicial duties, every inci 
 dent that attests its absence is most properly watched 
 and denounced. Public officers, who are trained arid 
 honoured for the practice of impartiality, have 
 infinitely less excuse than other men for tolerating 
 objects or passions within their breasts, which either 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 323 
 
 are, or must be supposed to be, inconsistent with 
 the power of holding the scales of justice steadily. 
 
 While these matters w^ere agitating the courts, 
 Lord Archibald Hamilton, one of the very few 
 active and independent Scotch members, succeeded 
 (by a miracle) in obtaining a committee on our burgh 
 system. Loud were the rejoicings on the one side, 
 and sad the dismay on the other, when the tidings 
 of this scarcely credible vote reached Scotland. 
 Edinburgh seemed to have wakened into a new 
 existence, when its civic functionaries were obliged 
 to repair to London, and to open the windows of the 
 council chamber, and let in the light. The affairs 
 of four burghs were investigated ; and it was held 
 to be clearly proved that these four were bankrupt, 
 and that this had been the result of municipal 
 mismanagement. In the case of Aberdeen this 
 was publicly admitted by the magistrates in a formal 
 act of abdication. These disclosures, instead of 
 convincing Government of the absolute necessity 
 of proceeding, in one way or other, through the 
 whole burghs, unfortunately convinced it of the 
 very reverse. The results were that the inquiry was 
 suddenly quashed, that the legal proceedings died 
 away, and that the people were thus compelled to 
 return to their old bondage. But the evil day of 
 reform was only put off, with a deeper accumulation 
 of abuses, till the arrival of a more favourable hour. 
 
324 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 No single folly ever opened so many Scotch eyes. 
 The minister who had had the sense to do anything 
 merely to check municipal expenditure, or to con 
 cede to corporations the valuable, but for remoter 
 objects the perfectly insignificant, privilege of electing 
 their own deacons in reality, and not in form only, 
 might have retarded the regeneration of Scotland. 
 But the course adopted first excited the hopes, and 
 then the indignation of the people. It began by 
 disclosing the trustlessness of town councils, and 
 ended by hardening them in their protected abuse 
 of power. However, it worked to good. It reared 
 a generation of intelligent and active citizens, who 
 were trained by the struggle to political concert. 
 
 It is impossible to think of burgh reform with 
 out remembering Archibald Fletcher, advocate, its 
 stoutest and most indefatigable champion. He gave 
 his whole energies to it in the dawn of its agitation *, 
 and its revival after a thirty years slumber, though 
 it found his body old and infirm found no abatement 
 of his spirit. Even in the extremity of old age he 
 compiled a volume of tracts in furtherance of his 
 favourite cause, the renewal of which, in spite of 
 what appeared to others to be its unavoidable dul- 
 ness of detail, he declared u had revived his youth.&quot; 
 
 About this period the first preachers of sedition, 
 * See Lord Cockburn s Life of Lord Jeffrey, vol. I. p. 89. ED. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 325 
 
 who liad openly practised their calling since 1793-4, 
 ventured to begin business again ; not in Scotland, 
 where transportation was still the law, but in Eng 
 land, which they greatly disturbed. It is usual to 
 ascribe all that followed to the harangues of these 
 crazy orators. But demagogues are almost always 
 effects ; very rarely causes. They are the froth that 
 rises and bubbles on the surface, when the mass of 
 the people ferments. The sedition of opinion more 
 over was promoted by the sedition of the stomach. 
 The country was in deep distress ; and natural dearth 
 was aggravated by the artificial arrangements of 
 trade and manufactures, which operated like what 
 miners call troubles, in the transition from war to 
 peace. 
 
 It was in these circumstances that certain judi 
 cial proceedings were taken in Scotland against 
 several persons accused of sedition, and of having 
 
 * The first adventure was with Baird and Maclaren, who were 
 tried for sedition on the 5th of March 1817. Jeffrey and I were 
 counsel for one prisoner ; John Clerk and James Campbell of 
 Craigie for the other. And there occurred an excellent piece of 
 Clerkism. Campbell called on Clerk on the morning of the trial. 
 He found him dressing, and in a phrenzy at the anticipated 
 iniquities of the judges ; against whom, collectively and individually, 
 there was much slow dogged vituperation throughout the process of 
 shaving. He had on a rather dingy-looking night- shirt; but a 
 nice pure shirt was airing before the fire. When the toilet reached 
 the point at which it was necessary to decide upon the shirt, instead 
 
326 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 taken and administered unlawful oaths. These 
 proceedings created an intense interest both in Par 
 liament and in the country, and are well worthy of 
 being studied in all their details. The general story 
 of the unlawful oaths case is this. 
 
 There was a weaver in Glasgow called Alexander 
 Richmond. Jeffrey and I had got acquainted with 
 him in 1812, from having been his counsel when he 
 was accused of accession to the most extensive and 
 peaceful combination of workmen that had ever 
 appeared in this part of the kingdom ; the organiza 
 tion and management of which was better evidence 
 of his talent and influence than many men of high 
 political station could have produced. Knowing the 
 temper of the Court in these matters, we advised him 
 to submit to outlawry ; whereby he escaped the 
 outrageous sentence which doomed some of his com 
 panions to eighteen months imprisonment. When 
 the irritation was over he reappeared and pleaded 
 guilty and after proving that he was in very bad 
 health, and getting a great character, even from his 
 former masters, he was only imprisoned about a 
 
 of at once taking up the clean one, he stopped, and grumphed, and 
 looked at the one, and then at the other, always turning with 
 aversion from the dirty one ; and then he approached the other 
 resolutely, as if his mind was made up ; but at last he turned 
 
 away from it, saying fiercely, &quot; No ! I ll be d d if I put on a 
 
 clean sark for them.&quot; Accordingly he insulted their Lordships by 
 going to Court with the foul one. Not like Falkland. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 327 
 
 month. His gentleness and air of melancholy 
 thoughtfulness made us believe him to be a heart 
 broken contemplative man, who had formed the 
 association, and then let himself be its victim, solely 
 from devotion to what he held to be the rights of 
 his comrades. We felt so interested in him, that 
 we gave, and got for, him a little money to set up 
 in business, and then we lost sight of him for some 
 years ; when to our amazement we heard him 
 charged with having been recently acting as a 
 Government spy. 
 
 In 1824 he published a curious &quot; Narrative&quot; of 
 his connection with the authorities, and with the 
 troubles, in Glasgow ; chiefly with a view to vindi 
 cate his character. This was rather a delicate effort, 
 partly because it implied his disclosing communica 
 tions which he must have known were confidential ; 
 and partly because he had to meet the inconvenient 
 fact of his having received considerable sums, and 
 more considerable promises, from Government not 
 for his spyship, which both he and his employers 
 denied, but as a compensation for his being thrown 
 out of work, by being obliged to leave Glasgow. 
 His &quot; Narrative&quot; may not be vitiated by purposed 
 falsehood ; but though there is a general foundation 
 of truth in it, the details of no such statement can 
 ever be relied upon when they depend entirely on 
 the authority of the narrator. His being implicated 
 
328 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 and paid for what looked too like spy s work, greatly 
 shook our faith in him ; but still the peculiar cir 
 cumstances in which he had let himself be placed 
 in that position, and our conviction of his benevo 
 lence, prevented us casting him off. 
 
 The way he was drawn in, according to his own 
 account, was this. Government, or its Glasgow re 
 presentatives, suspecting that illegal oaths were 
 administered there, resorted to Eichmond as a per 
 son who could best ascertain whether this was the 
 fact. His statement has uniformly been that his 
 love of his old associates made him anxious, on their 
 account, and to save them from deeper guilt, to find 
 out what they were really doing ; but that as he 
 was aware that his appearance among them might 
 make them think such oaths safe, his employers 
 came under a positive engagement with him, that 
 no one should be prosecuted who might administer 
 or take an oath in his presence on the only occasion 
 on which he meant to go among them. This en 
 gagement was denied ; and though there are facts 
 which make its having been entered into not impro 
 bable, the presumption is certainly against him, 
 chiefly from the apparent absurdity and illegality 
 of the bargain. However, he soon ascertained that 
 the crime had been committed, and reported accord 
 ingly ; but whether the exact words of the unlawful 
 oath were brought away I do not know. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 329 
 
 A copy of what was supposed to be the oath 
 having been obtained, it seems to have been impos 
 sible to resist the temptation of producing an impres 
 sion by reading it in the House of Commons. And 
 doubts being expressed of the accuracy of the in 
 formation, the Lord Advocate was cheered by his 
 party into the rashness of pledging himself to prove 
 its accuracy by speedy convictions. Accordingly, 
 several persons were apprehended on warrants 
 charging them with high treason ; which, as the 
 law was then generally understood, had the effect 
 of depriving them of the benefit of the Act 1701. 
 The prisoners, instead of being committed to an 
 ordinary jail, were taken to the Castle of Edinburgh, 
 where access to them was made nearly impossible. 
 All the while, however, there was no serious inten 
 tion of trying them for high treason; and hence 
 chough this charge was always kept up in the war 
 rants, it never entered any of the many indict 
 ments. 
 
 As it was certain that there would be a series of 
 trials if one should succeed, and the whole affair, 
 whatever the guilt might be, was thought to be 
 conducted with far too high a hand, the counsel 
 employed for the different prisoners acted in concert 
 at all the material moves. This made an array of 
 counsel not usual in Scotland, consisting of Clerk, 
 Cranstoun, Thomas Thomson, Jeffrey, John Peter 
 
330 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Grant,* MoncreifF, Murray, and myself. Many were 
 the sneers by the prosecutors, and even by some of 
 the judges, at this confederacy. Hermand often 
 snorted with open contempt at what he called u the 
 combination of learned gentlemen.&quot; To all which 
 the combiners used to say that they trusted that the 
 Bar of Scotland would always supply any force that 
 the defence of political prisoners, with the Crown 
 against them, might require. 
 
 When the first prisoner, William Edgar, was 
 placed at the bar,f the prosecutor seemed to expect 
 an easy conviction that very day. But the advisers 
 of the prisoners, believing Time to be the surest 
 composer of violence, resolved to procrastinate as 
 much as they could 5 and their opponents supplied 
 them with ample materials for preliminary dis 
 cussion and delay. This produced a long and 
 memorable struggle, in which the prosecutor was 
 so often baffled, that Mr, Finlay the member for 
 Glasgow, a ministerialist, and who was in the heart 
 of the whole affair, made a direct charge of inca 
 pacity against the Crown counsel in the House of 
 Commons.! At last, after above three months had 
 been wasted in changing and mending indictments, 
 
 * Afterwards Sir John Peter Grant, and one of trie supreme 
 judges at Calcutta. f 9th April 1817. 
 
 t 20th June 1817. See also Romilly s Memoirs, vol. III. 
 p. 306. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 331 
 
 and in verbal and printed argumentation, one 
 prisoner, Andrew M Kinley, was actually brought 
 to trial on the facts. 
 
 But the trial had scarcely begun when something 
 more extraordinary transpired. The first witness, 
 John Campbell, on being asked the absurd initial 
 question then put to every witness in criminal trials 
 whether he had received or been promised any 
 thing for giving evidence, said that he had. On 
 being asked by whom? He answered, &quot; By that 
 gentleman &quot; pointing to the Advocate-depute. The 
 audience seemed to start at this statement, and were 
 then anxiously silent. The judges frowned on the 
 man as if they would have eaten him on the spot. 
 His statement was taken down in writing, and is to 
 be found in the Eeports of the Trial. I 
 
 If the witness is to be believed, it is difficult to avoid 
 the conclusion that there had been an attempt to 
 corrupt. For the substance of his statement is, that 
 besides merely protecting a witness on the unpopular 
 side from personal harm, a reward was promised, or 
 held out, provided he would give evidence of a parti 
 cular tendency ; and the real meaning of what was 
 proposed was such, that the sheriff, who was there as 
 
 * 19th July 1817. 
 
 f State Trials, vol. XXXIII. p. 584, etc. But no report can 
 convey any idea of the living scene, which was one of the most 
 striking I ever witnessed in a court of justice. 
 
332 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 a magistrate bound to see justice done, would not 
 allow it to be set down in writing. No witness ever 
 gave his testimony in a manner more entitled to 
 credit. Calm, clear, and unexaggerating, lie went 
 into all the details with precision and apparent 
 probability, and often suggested minute but mate 
 rial corrections to the presiding judge, as he was 
 dictating to the clerk of Court ; and I am not aware 
 that there ever was a surmise against his general 
 character. 
 
 When the deposition was adjusted, every body 
 looked as if thinking &quot;What s to come next?&quot; 
 Hermand at once cut the knot by suggesting that, if 
 what had been sworn was true, the witness was inad 
 missible, an attempt having been made to corrupt 
 him ; and if it was false, then he was inadmissible 
 from being perjured ; so he was inadmissible either 
 way. This conclusion was evidently not warranted 
 by law ; because not having been convicted of perjury, 
 his mis-statements only went to impeach his credit ; 
 and if he was trying to disqualify himself,* the pro 
 secutor was entitled to disprove what he had said. 
 But the court at once adopted a view which closed 
 a very painful scene. So the witness was allowed 
 to walk away. 
 
 If the accusation had depended solely on Camp- 
 
 * This is the theory put by Hume into the second edition of 
 his commentaries, vol. II. p. 364. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 333 
 
 bell, it might have been fairly said that his single 
 testimony was insufficient to criminate high public 
 officers. But it did not depend on him alone. The 
 gentlemen accused did, or allowed to be done for 
 them, three things which it was difficult to reconcile 
 with the idea of their being conscious of innocence. 
 One was, their not strenuously resisting the Court in 
 excluding further inquiry. The prisoner put on 
 record an offer to corroborate the witness. The 
 prosecutor put on record an answer professing his 
 anxiety that this matter should be gone into. But 
 though this looks very well in the report, it was seen, 
 and felt, and understood at the time that the saving 
 process of the Court, instead of being heartily 
 opposed, was virtually acceded to.* Another, and a 
 far more material, blunder was, that when a motion 
 was made in Parliament (10th February 1818) for a 
 committee to inquire into the truth of Campbell s 
 statement, it was resisted, and by the aid of Govern- 
 
 * I myself do not well see though this was not the ground 
 taken how the examination could have been gone into on the spot ; 
 because the names of those to be examined were in no list of wit 
 nesses ; and according to our still subsisting and absurd rule, no 
 persons not in the list can be called by the prosecutor, even though 
 this is necessary only to rebut matter not naturally connected with 
 the case, and introduced by surprise. But though the inquiry could 
 not have been gone into as a part of the current trial, the matter, 
 like any other alleged obstruction of justice, might have been inves 
 tigated by a separate proceeding as soon as the trial was over. 
 
334 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 ment thrown out. The only ground on which this 
 insane course (innocence being assumed) was ex 
 plained, rested on the assertion that Campbell, who 
 must have been the chief witness, was perjured 
 already. Yet they completed their folly by a third 
 apparent inconsistency with conscious rectitude. 
 Campbell s perjury was their main point ; yet he 
 was never indicted for this offence, although they 
 were goaded to bring him to trial. If he had been 
 put to the bar, his evidence would have been 
 excluded, while that of the Solicitor-General, the 
 Advocate-depute, the Sheriff of Edinburgh, and the 
 Procurator-fiscal, who were the persons mentioned 
 by Campbell, might have been received.* But no 
 indictment was ever adventured upon. They may 
 have been innocent. But if they were, they were 
 surely not wise. And if they only meant to protect 
 the witness, which is sometimes necessary, this, as 
 usual, ought to have been done openly, and both the 
 prisoner and the Court ought to have been told of it. 
 Richmond in his &quot; Narrative &quot; assumes that the 
 prisoner s counsel knew what Campbell was going 
 to say, and compliments them for acting surprise 
 well. There was no acting in the matter. Camp 
 bell had been locked up, inaccessibly, in the Castle ; 
 and seeing an acquaintance passing threw a bit of 
 tobacco to him from his window. His friend picked 
 * See Romilly s Memoirs, vol. III. p. 329. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 335 
 
 this up; and finding that it contained a piece of 
 dirty paper with something written on it, took the 
 paper to Mr. David Kamsay, a most respectable 
 writer to the Signet, who had all along been agent 
 for most of these prisoners. The bit of paper merely 
 stated the general fact that Campbell had been tam 
 pered with by the authorities, without mentioning 
 how, or by whom. Mr. Eamsay of course informed 
 his counsel of this ; but they, having no means of 
 questioning the witness, who was sealed up, and 
 distrusting the statement, resolved to do nothing, 
 but to let things take their own course.* 
 
 Campbell being disposed of, the trial proceeded ; 
 and it was very soon established that illegal oaths 
 had been administered, and, in all human proba 
 bility, by the prisoner, But the truth of the parti 
 cular charge was by no means so clear. This 
 depended oil the exact words used. A very slight 
 change of expression could easily soften the 
 character of the oath into mere rashness, or doubt, 
 or even innocence, or aggravate it into worse guilt 
 than that charged. Jeffrey and Thomas Brown, 
 
 * Hence, amidst many other errors, and a complete vapid dead- 
 ness, there is a material mistake in the Edinburgh Eeport of the 
 Trial, which has been copied into the State Trials. Jeffrey, when 
 Campbell began, is made to say &quot; I am enabled to ask pointed 
 questions of the witness.&quot; Enabled should be unable (State Trials, 
 vol. III. p. 585). The Edinburgh Eeport was about a year too late 
 of appearing, and nobody then cared about its blunders or omissions. 
 
336 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 our Moral Professor two of the acutest of men, 
 used to amuse themselves by trying how many 
 different constructions they could put on the words, 
 and by how few and how slender variations of 
 expression they could make it all harmless. Now, 
 when the prosecutor examined the witnesses he 
 chiefly relied on for the precise terms, it came out 
 that they had seen an oath in the newspapers which 
 was said to have been quoted in the House of Com 
 mons, that this was like the one they had been privy 
 to, but that they could not separate their recollec 
 tion of what they had seen, from their recollection 
 of what they had heard ; so that they could not tell 
 whether in giving evidence, they were doing more 
 than reciting from the newspaper. On this the pro 
 secutor struck. 
 
 The prison and castle gates were instantly opened, 
 and all the kindred prisoners walked forth. And so 
 ended this long, tough, and important conflict. The 
 trial was over about nine in the evening of a bright 
 summer Saturday. I instantly walked out to Bonaly, 
 with a light step, and in an agitation of triumph. 
 This was partly the produce of professional vanity ; 
 a passion stronger in the law than in the army or 
 navy, or even in medicine or the church, and inferior 
 only to that of verse, art, and the theatre. But there 
 was also some feeling of justice in it. We were not 
 satisfied of the prisoner s guilt in the precise matter 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 337 
 
 charged, and were certain that his guilt had not 
 been established ; and there had been strange cir 
 cumstances in the conduct of the prosecution, which 
 was connected with the general system of a justly 
 unpopular Government. 
 
 Shortly after this we were thrown into an uproar 
 by a point of Calvinistic orthodoxy. Moved by the 
 sad and unexpected death of the Princess Charlotte, 
 which had melted all hearts, every clergyman in 
 Edinburgh, except one, following the universal 
 example, had religious service in his church on the 
 19th of November 1817, the day of her funeral, 
 which was what we call a week-day that is, not 
 a Sunday. This, in Scotland, was not in obe 
 dience to the Eoyal proclamation, which we sons 
 of Calvin always despise, but solely from natural 
 decency and piety. Addressing their flocks on 
 such an occasion, of course they all introduced 
 the poor Princess, her virtues and her fate ; and 
 this in most cases probably amounted to a funeral 
 sermon. But the Eeverend Andrew Thomson 
 maintained that all such sermons are repugnant to 
 the presbyterian system, and dangerous in them 
 selves from their tendency to degenerate into 
 sycophantish eulogy : and perhaps he was right in 
 this. But most clearly he was wrong in bringing 
 discredit on his party, by being the only minister 
 
338 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME BY HENRY COCKBURN. 
 
 who shocked the universal feeling by acting on this 
 principle on this occasion. Several of his brethren 
 entreated him to yield. Sir Harry in particular 
 remonstrated and implored. But a useless personal 
 battle, in which his will was on one side and all the 
 world on the other, had always irresistible charms to 
 Thomson. So he stood out ; and while crowds rolled 
 into every other church, the gates of his were closed, 
 and he himself was made happy by being universally 
 abused. On the following Sunday he preached on 
 death, and alluded to the recent calamity, in a man 
 ner that disarmed those that heard him ; and for the 
 edification of those who did not, he published a 
 pamphlet, demonstrating that everybody was wrong 
 except himself. Possibly they were : but it seems 
 odd how notices of striking deaths, which is so com 
 mon on Sundays, and was so even in Thomson s own 
 practice, should be so bad on every other day. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IN 1817 our streets were deprived of one of their 
 most peculiar objects. The City Guard, of which 
 Scott has given so good an account in his u Heart of 
 Midlothian,&quot; after subsisting since about the year 
 1G96, was abolished in November 1817. The police 
 had made them useless ; but I wish they had been 
 perpetuated, though it had been only as curiosities. 
 Their number was liable to be increased or diminished 
 according to circumstances. At this period they 
 amounted, I conjecture, to about 200, regimented 
 like ordinary soldiers. They were all old, hard- 
 featured, red-nosed veterans ; whose general history 
 was, that after being mauled in the wars, commonly 
 in a Highland regiment, they brought their broken 
 iron bodies home, and thought themselves fortunate 
 if they got into this fragment of our old burgher 
 militia, where the pay was better than nothing, and 
 the discipline not quite inconsistent with whisky, 
 * Always called by the people &quot; The Toon Eottens.&quot; 
 
340 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 while the service was limited to keeping the peace 
 within the city. Naturally disliked by the people, 
 they were always asserting their dignity by testy 
 impatient anger. This excited the mischief and the 
 hostility of the boys, by whom their small remains 
 of temper were intolerably tried ; and between the 
 two there never ceased to be a cordial and diverting 
 war. Their uniform was a red coat turned up with 
 blue, a red waistcoat, red breeches, long black 
 gaiters, white belts, and large cocked hats bound 
 with white worsted ribbon. They had muskets and 
 bayonets, but rarely used them ; for their peculiar 
 weapon was the old genuine Lochabcr axe a 
 delightful implement. One saw Bannockburn in it. 
 One of these stern half-dotard warriors used to sit at 
 each side of the prisoners at the bar of the Court of 
 Justiciary as guard 5 with his huge hat on his old 
 battered head, and his drawn bayonet in his large 
 gnarled hand. They sat so immoveably, and looked 
 so severe, with their rugged weather-beaten visages, 
 and hard muscular trunks, that they were no unfit 
 emblems of the janitors of the region to which those 
 they guarded were so often consigned. The disap 
 pearance of these picturesque old fellows was a 
 great loss. 
 
 After their extinction the Justiciary prisoners 
 were put under the charge of pglice officers ; a change 
 which most of the judges lamented. The Court of 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 341 
 
 Justiciary had long a very bad taste for military 
 force, which is not eradicated yet. The Circuit 
 processions to Court were always escorted by soldiers 
 when they could be got, even in quiet country towns. 
 Some of the features of our ancient Circuits, 
 which time has effaced, were curious. On looking 
 back, the shades of many old lords, famous barris 
 ters, notorious provosts, sonorous macers, formal 
 clerks, odd culprits, and queer witnesses appear. 
 Those who are born to modern travelling can scarcely 
 be made to understand how the previous age got on. 
 The state of the roads may be judged of from two 
 or three facts. There was no bridge over the Tay 
 at Dunkeld, or over the Spey at Fochabers, or over 
 the Findhorn at Forres. Nothing but wretched 
 pierless ferries, let to poor cottars, who rowed or 
 hauled or pushed a crazy boat across, or more com 
 monly got their wives to do it. There was no mail- 
 coach north of Aberdeen till, I think, after the 
 battle of Waterloo. What it must have been a few 
 years before my time may be judged of from Bozzy s 
 &quot; Letter to Lord Braxfield&quot; published in 1780. He 
 thinks that besides a carriage, and his own carriage- 
 horses, every judge ought to have his sumpter-horse, 
 and ought not to travel faster than the waggon 
 which carried u the baggage of the Circuit.&quot; * I 
 
 * I do not know the history of this pamphlet. It is a decla 
 ration against the vices of the criminal judges ; but as Boswell s 
 
342 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 understood from Hope that after 1784, when he came 
 to the bar, he and Braxfield rode a whole north 
 
 father, to whom Braxfield succeeded, had been one of them, I doubt 
 if he meant to attack them all. And as the letter is addressed to 
 Braxfield, on his promotion to the criminal bench, he could have 
 given no ground for it. The defects, or habits, for which they are 
 abused, are levity, carelessness, partiality, indecorum, pecuniary 
 shabbiness, etc. 
 
 Speaking of the waggon, which I have nowhere else ever heard 
 of, he says (p. 25), &quot; The Lords of Justiciary should not contract 
 their travelling equipage into that of a couple of private gentle 
 men on a jaunt of pleasure, but should remember that it is the train 
 of a court composed of different members. Formerly every one of 
 the Judges had his led horse his sumpter, in the procession. The 
 disuse of that piece of pageantry may be forgiven, though not 
 applauded. But the abolishing of a covered waggon for the 
 baggage of the circuit, though a paltry saving, is a great grievance. 
 How shall the official clothes of the trumpeters ; nay, how shall 
 the record of the Court, and the essential papers, be carried ? Not 
 to mention the gowns and clothes of others who ought to be decently 
 dressed. Without it, there must be such shifts and such pinching, 
 as is to be found only in a company of strolling players. Shall the 
 mace, the badge of authority, be crammed into the boot of a coach, 
 amongst black-ball, shoe-brushes, and curry-combs ? The trum 
 peters be forced to ride in their official clothes, and look shabby ? 
 The embroidered Gr. K. upon the breast of their coats be turned out 
 to the rain and the tempest as poor Lear was turned out by his own 
 daughters ? The record of the Court, the indictments, the criminal 
 letters, precognitions, etc., must be at the mercy of the weather. 
 The four pleas of the Crown may be blown about by the four winds 
 of heaven,&quot; etc. 
 
 There is some more sense in the pamphlet than this however, 
 but not much. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 343 
 
 Circuit ; and that from the Findhorn being in flood 
 they were obliged to go up its banks for about 
 twenty-eight miles, to the bridge of Dulsie, before 
 they could cross. 1 myself rode circuits when I was 
 Advocate-Depute between 1807 and 1810. The 
 fashion of every Depute carrying his own shell on 
 his back, in the form of his own carriage, is a piece 
 of very modern dignity. 
 
 There is nothing in which the old Circuits differed 
 more from the modern than in the excess of their 
 politics. Little as the business generally is now, 
 it is at least five-fold what it was formerly. To be 
 sure, being in no want of time, they wasted it freely. 
 I have heard Jeffrey say that if there was only one 
 cause in the world it would never be finished at all. 
 It is only necessity that produces judicial expedition. 
 The old debates on relevancy on every indictment, 
 the technical objections to witnesses, the long ha 
 rangues to juries in every case, the written verdicts 
 the parents of endless additional objections and 
 discussions ; these, and much other useless and teas 
 ing weft with which the woof of our old practice was 
 crossed, made every trial, however clear and insignifi 
 cant, a matter of keenness, pertinacity, eloquence, 
 and sweat. That fifteen cases may be disposed of 
 in eight hours, and that an Advocate-Depute may 
 do his duty well, and yet not address a jury once in 
 fifty trials, and that prisoners counsel may decline 
 
344 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 addressing in the great majority of cases these 
 facts with which we are now familiar, would certainly 
 be discredited if they were told to Braxfield in 
 Elysium. To make up for want of business, our 
 predecessors exerted themselves powerfully as poli 
 tical trumpets. What harangues ! about innovation, 
 Jacobinism, and the peculiar excellence of every 
 abuse. No judge could preserve his character, and 
 scarcely his place for a month, who was to indulge 
 in such exhibitions now. But that time applauded 
 them. 
 
 The best modern practice is for the judge to go 
 to and from the Court-house as quietly as possible. 
 But the fashion, till lately, was never to move but 
 in procession, always fully tailed ; and on foot, that 
 the tail might be seen the better. There was a foot 
 procession to and from every meeting and rising of 
 the Court even in Glasgow, where, whatever sneers 
 it produced, it could create no village awe. Yet 
 twice every day did they walk, horn-blown, about a 
 mile, through that contemning mob ; and with 
 torches if it was at night. 
 
 At Edinburgh, the old judges had a practice at 
 which even their barbaric age used to shake its 
 head. They had always wine and biscuits on the 
 bench) when the business was clearly to be pro 
 tracted beyond the usual dinner hour. The modern 
 judges those I mean who were made after 1800, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 345 
 
 never gave in to this ; but with those of the preced 
 ing generation, some of whom lasted several years 
 after 1800, it was quite common. Black bottles of 
 strong port were set down beside them on the 
 bench, with glasses, caraffes of water, tumblers, 
 and biscuits 5 and this without the slightest attempt 
 at concealment. The refreshment was generally 
 allowed to stand untouched, and as if despised, for 
 a short time, during which their Lordships seemed 
 to be intent only on their notes. But in a little, 
 some water was poured into the tumbler, and sipped 
 quietly as if merely to sustain nature. Then a few 
 drops of wine were ventured upon, but only with the 
 water : till at last patience could endure no longer, 
 and a full bumper of the pure black element was 
 tossed over ; after which the thing went on regu 
 larly, and there was a comfortable munching and 
 quaffing, to the great envy of the parched throats in 
 the gallery. The strong-headed stood it tolerably 
 well, but it told, plainly enough, upon the feeble. 
 Not that the ermine was absolutely intoxicated, but 
 it was certainly sometimes affected. This however 
 was so ordinary with these sages, that it really 
 made little apparent change upon them. It was not 
 very perceptible at a distance ; and they all acquired 
 the habit of sitting and looking judicial enough, 
 even when their bottles had reached the lowest ebb. 
 This open-court refection did not prevail, so far as 
 
346 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 I ever saw, at Circuits. It took a different form 
 there. The temptation of the inn frequently pro 
 duced a total stoppage of business ; during which 
 all concerned -judges and counsel, clerks, jurymen, 
 and provosts, had a jolly dinner ; after which they 
 returned again to the transportations and hangings. 
 I have seen this done often. It was a common re 
 mark that the step of the evening procession was 
 far less true to the music than that of the morning. 
 
 The new street along the southern side of the 
 Calton Hill disclosed some glorious prospects, or at 
 least exhibited them from new points. One of these 
 was the view westward, over the North Bridge. 
 But we had only begun to perceive its importance, 
 when its interception by what are now called the 
 North Bridge Buildings raised our indignation ; and 
 we thought that the magistrates, who allowed them 
 to be set agoing in silence, had betrayed us. We 
 were therefore very angry, and had recourse to 
 another of these new things called public meetings, 
 which we were beginning to feel the power of. It 
 was held on the 2d of December 1817. Professor 
 Playfair presided ; this being, I suppose, the only 
 time in his life on which that unobtrusive and gentle 
 philosopher permitted himself to be placed in such 
 a position. James Stuart of Dunearn explained the 
 matter in a clear and sensible speech. Old Henry 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 347 
 
 Mackenzie made his first appearance at such a meet 
 ing, saying that, though no speaker, it was impos 
 sible to submit in silence to the destruction of the 
 town, and that &quot;facit indignaiio versos&quot; Eesolutions 
 were passed, a subscription opened, and we went to 
 law, where we got an ornate speech from Cranstoun, 
 who recited &quot; my own romantic town&quot; to the Court. 
 But this was all we got. For while the judges were 
 looking rather favourable, our funds ebbed, and of 
 course our ardour cooled. Then persons of taste 
 began to hint that we were all wrong, and that the 
 position of the buildings was beautiful ; and at last 
 another meeting was held in May 1818, when we 
 struck our colours. So we lost about 1000; the 
 magistrates got a fright; and the buildings stand. 
 But much good was done by the clamour. Atten 
 tion was called nearly for the first time, to the duty 
 of maintaining the beauty of Edinburgh. A respect 
 able and organized resistance of municipal power 
 was new here, and the example was not lost, though 
 the immediate object of the battle was. 
 
 A Eoyal Commission had been issued in 1794 
 authorising certain persons to enter the jewel room 
 in the Castle of Edinburgh, and by breaking the 
 door if necessary, in order to ascertain whether the 
 historical conjecture was true that the Crown of 
 Scotland and its pertinents were there. But that 
 
348 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 attempt to discover them had failed ; because after 
 breaking the lock of the door, a punctilious commis 
 sioner doubted whether their warrant sanctioned 
 their also using force against a chest that they found 
 within. This obstacle was suggested, I have heard, 
 by Blair the Solicitor-General ; and it being thought 
 formidable, the chest was left untouched, the outer 
 door was re-locked, and the Commissioners retired. 
 After another pause of twenty-four years, the 
 experiment was renewed by a better instructed 
 Commission, and on the 4th of February 1818 the 
 Commissioners proceeded, with due pomp, to their 
 work. They unlocked the door and broke open the 
 chest. And there, as Thomas Thomson had told 
 them, they found the Eegalia sleeping beneath the 
 dust that had been gathering round them ever since 
 the Union. It was a hazy evening, about four 
 o clock, when a shot from the Castle and a cheer 
 from a regiment drawn up on the Castle Hill 
 announced to the people, that the Crown of their 
 old kings was discovered. Loyalty, antiquarianism, 
 and the interest of finding something that had been 
 long lost, created a good deal of anxiety, but less 
 than I expected. This was owing chiefly to there 
 having been very little said about it beforehand ; 
 and silence was prudent, while the discovery was 
 uncertain. But there was no want of popular inte 
 rest afterwards. John Kemble asked Scott if the 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 349 
 
 Crown was not splendid? &quot;The last time that I 
 saw you as Macbeth you had a much grander one.&quot; 
 
 We this year lost a person of mature eminence 
 Malcolm Laiiig the historian. He was at the 
 bar, and his speech in 1794 for Gerald, charged with 
 sedition, was the best that was made for any of 
 the political prisoners of that period. But his heart 
 was little in a profession for which he was not well 
 qualified, and from which he was allured by the 
 more congenial pursuits of literature and history. 
 Feeble health withdrew him from Edinburgh about 
 1808, when he returned to what to him was the 
 paradise of his native Orkney, which he never again 
 abandoned. Depth, truth, and independence as a 
 historian were the least of his merits, for he was a 
 firm, warm-hearted, honest man, whose instructive 
 and agreeable companionship was only made the 
 more interesting by a hard peremptory Celtic manner 
 and accent. He sent a copy of his History of Scot 
 land to Dr. Parr, who returned it, or at least one of 
 the volumes of it, with numerous corrections of the 
 style. There are few better lessons on English terms 
 and idioms than what is given by a comparison of 
 the original with the proposed emendations of the 
 friendly and judicious critic.* 
 
 * The History was originally published in two volumes. It 
 seems to have been the second volume onlv that Dr. Parr thus 
 
350 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 The natural tendency of the folly of Government 
 in the Burgh Eeform question appeared this year in 
 certain civic proceedings, which, though of no im 
 portance in themselves now, are curious historically, 
 and as marking the gradual, but rapid, rise of popu 
 lar opinion. 
 
 The Merchant Company of Edinburgh, instituted 
 in 1681, was the only respectable mercantile body 
 this unmercantile place possessed. And it had 
 considerable influence ; because while it could over 
 awe the humble traders below, it could prostrate its 
 
 returned to Mr. Laing. The author in his second edition adopted 
 to a very large extent the suggestions of his critic. 
 
 Bound up with this volume is the following autograph letter : 
 &quot; Dr. Mr. Laing 
 
 &quot; You know my esteem, my regard, my great respect 
 for you, and my anxiety for the success of your History. 
 
 &quot; You will therefore excuse my freedom in objecting, in criticis 
 ing, in censuring, and in altering. 
 
 &quot; Farewell. Eemember me in terms of the highest, the very 
 highest respect to Professor Stewart, and believe me 
 &quot; Most sincerely yr. friend, 
 
 &quot; S. P. 
 &quot; Good Friday, 1803. 
 
 &quot; Mr. Fox is a great admirer of your book, and he is, also, 
 
 &quot; Puri sermonis amator. 
 
 &quot; I wish you were acquainted. As a critic he is quite as captious 
 and fastidious in protecting English idiom from Scottish invasion, 
 as I am. Farewell.&quot; 
 
 This interesting volume was presented by Mr. Laing s widow 
 to the late Mr. Thomas Thomson. It is now in the possession of 
 Mr. James Gibson -Craig. ED. 
 
BY HENKY COCKBURN. 351 
 
 head to the powers above. It was exactly such a 
 body as could be produced by the condition of the 
 country. Having not much trade to manage, it 
 was little else than a small aristocracy of mer 
 chants, used for political purposes. They probably 
 sometimes pleased themselves with the imagina 
 tion that their title The Merchant Company 
 made the ignorant equal them to the burgher 
 communities of Holland, or the princely trading 
 associations of Venice. But in truth, whatever they 
 were meant to be originally, they had become a 
 mere political instrument, and of the paltriest de 
 scription. Individually its magnates were very good 
 men, but publicly its &quot;Master&quot; and his u Twelve 
 Assistants &quot; were a king and a house of lords, 
 without the commons. The people, however, had 
 their Peter Wentworths, who now began to shew 
 that they were no longer to be frightened by hard 
 words. In August 1818 the great men of the last 
 generation were confounded by hearing it seriously 
 proposed to give 100 of the funds in aid of Burgh 
 Eeform, which the opponents of this measure now 
 treated as merely a Whig and Tory question. The 
 revolutionary motion was rejected, but only by a 
 small majority. The victory of its authors was 
 however complete when, on the same day, they were 
 within two votes of annihilating the system alto 
 gether, on a motion denying the Master s privilege 
 
352 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 of appointing the other office-bearers and claiming 
 this power for the Company at large. On this the 
 old school withdrew ; and the Society has since 
 managed its own affairs, and obtained due public 
 weight. 
 
 It was in the same spirit that the Guildry renewed 
 efforts, which had often been made before, to liberate 
 itself from the control of the Town Council. Being 
 a more numerous and a more rebellious body than 
 the merchants, its pretensions had always been re 
 sisted sternly. Its old and long silenced claims, 
 particularly that of electing its own Dean, were now 
 revived. Of course they were repelled ; and it is 
 very probable that, in law, most of them were 
 untenable. But it is certain that they were resisted 
 merely because the independence of the Guildry 
 would have been inconvenient to the party in power. 
 It was a political collision. Hence the importance 
 of the struggle. Hence the value of the spirit which 
 the conflict generated, not merely here, but over all 
 Scotland. 
 
 Another loosening from the Town Council oc 
 curred about this period. It was one of the earliest 
 of the practical alienations, on matters of mere 
 business, which attested how unworthy of trust our 
 municipal system was believed to have become. 
 Though standing in a rainy country, Edinburgh has 
 always been thirsty and unwashed. At this time 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 353 
 
 tlie condition of the city, in reference to water, was 
 positively frightful. Our supply depended on a 
 wretched tank of about ten or twelve shallow acres 
 on the north side of the Pentland Hills, which had 
 been considered as far too small when it was made 
 a long time before, but had now become absurd, 
 even if it had been always full, instead of being 
 often and long nearly empty. The Town Council, 
 on which our supply of this necessary of life de 
 pended, could or would do nothing. A joint stock 
 company was formed, and a plan for bringing in the 
 Crawl ey spring from the south side of the Pentlands 
 was obtained. The danger of leaving a city at the 
 mercy, for anything it cannot do without, of a single 
 private company was foreseen, and has to a great 
 extent been realized. But anything was thought 
 better than the Town Council; in so much that so 
 long as the absolute exclusion of our civic rulers 
 was doubtful, scarcely any one would risk a shilling 
 in the concern. But they being excluded, the 
 company proceeded, and we occasionally got some 
 water. 
 
 One consequence of this was that as the supply 
 was steadier than it used to be, it became worth 
 while to put water-pipes into houses. And another 
 consequence of this innovation was, that we were 
 speedily deprived of a set of people fully as peculiar 
 
 as the City Guard the Water Carriers, of whom in 
 
 2 A 
 
354 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 a very few years there was not one extant. They 
 were a very curious tribe, consisting of both men 
 and women, but the former were perhaps the more 
 numerous. Their business was to carry water into 
 houses; and therefore their days were passed in 
 climbing up lofty stairs, in order to get into flats. 
 The water was borne in little casks, and was got 
 from the public wells, which were then pretty thickly 
 planted in the principal streets 5 and as there were 
 far more candidates than spouts, there was a group 
 of impatient and wrangling claimants who, when 
 not eloquent, sat on their kegs. These encampments 
 of drawers of water had a striking appearance. The 
 barrels, when filled, were slung upon their backs, 
 suspended by a leather strap, which was held in 
 front by the hand. Their carriage was made easier 
 by leaning forward, which threw the back outward ; 
 and hence stooping was the natural attitude of these 
 sons and daughters of the well. They were known 
 by this peculiarity even when off work. Their backs, 
 which would otherwise have never been dry, were 
 protected by thick layers of hard black leather, on 
 which the barrels lay ; and the leather had a slight 
 curl up at its lower edge, which, acting as a lip, 
 threw the droppings, by which they could always 
 be tracked, off to the sides. Still however, what 
 with filling, and trickling, and emptying, it was a 
 moist business. They were all rather old, and 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 355 
 
 seemed little 5 but this last might be owing to their 
 stooping. The men very generally had old red 
 jackets, probably the remnants of the Highland 
 Watch, or of the City Guard ; and the women were 
 always covered with thick duffle greatcoats, and 
 wore black hats like the men. They very seldom 
 required to be called ; for every house had its 
 favourite u Water Caddie/ who knew the habits 
 and wants of the family, and the capacity of the 
 single cistern, which he kept always replenishing at 
 his own discretion, at the fee (I believe) of a penny 
 for each barrel. Their intercourse with families 
 civilized them a little: so that, in spite of their 
 splashy lives, and public-well discussions, they were 
 rather civil, and very cracky creatures. What 
 fretted them most was being obstructed in going up 
 a stair ; and their occasionally tottering legs testified 
 that they had no bigotry against qualifying the 
 water with a little whisky. They never plied be 
 tween Saturday night and Monday morning ; that is, 
 their employers had bad hot water all Sunday. 
 These bodies were such favourites, that the extinc 
 tion of their trade was urged seriously as a reason 
 against water being allowed to get into our houses 
 in its own way. 
 
 * I see many years after the above was written, that they 
 still subsist in Madrid. &quot; Hail ! ye Aguadores of Asturia ! who, in 
 your dress of coarse duffle, and leathern skull-caps, are seen seated 
 
356 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 The next spring opened by a public dinner in 
 honor of Burns, (22d February 1819). There were 
 about two or three hundred present. John A. Murray 
 was in the chair. By far the most interesting part of 
 the proceedings were the few words spoken by Henry 
 Mackenzie, who had been kind to the poet on his first 
 visit to Edinburgh about thirty years before, and 
 who was often rewarded by witnessing the glory of 
 the genius which he had so early discerned and 
 cherished. This was long remembered as the first 
 public dinner at which any of the Whigs of Edin 
 burgh had spoken. It was the first that shewed 
 them the use to which such meetings could be 
 turned, and was the immediate cause of the poli 
 tical dinners that soon after made such an impression. 
 
 The Arts, of which I have mentioned the dawn, 
 
 ,went on improving. &quot; The Eoyal Institution for 
 
 .the promotion of the Fine Arts,&quot; though it got its 
 
 charter only in 1827, was established in 1819 : and it 
 
 introduced itself to the public by the best exhibition 
 
 of ancient pictures that had ever been brought 
 
 together in this country; all supplied from the 
 
 private collections of its members and friends. But 
 
 here ended the use of the Institution. Begun under 
 
 in hundreds by the fountain sides, upon your empty water casks, or 
 staggering with them filled to the topmost stories of lofty houses.&quot; 
 Sorrow s Bible in Spain, chapter 12. 
 
BY HENKY COCKBUKN. 357 
 
 great names, it had one defect, and one vice. The 
 defect was that it did, and was calculated to do, 
 little or nothing for art except by such exhibitions, 
 which could not possibly be kept up long, for the 
 supply of pictures was soon exhausted. A rooted 
 jealousy of our living artists as a body (not indivi 
 dually) by the few persons who led the Institution 
 was its vice. These persons were fond of art no 
 doubt, but fonder of power, and tried indirectly to 
 crush all living art, and its professors, that ventured 
 to flourish except under their sunshine. The result 
 was that in a few years they had not a living artist 
 connected with them. Their tyranny produced the 
 Academy ; and then having disgusted the only per 
 sons on whose living merit they could depend, the 
 Institution itself sank into obscurity and uselessness. 
 
 On the 19th of April 1819 Lord Webb Seymour, 
 after a long decline, sank as gently as a languid 
 flower. The long voluntary residence of this 
 stranger among us excited a deeper sympathy with 
 his fate, and seemed to impart more virtues to his 
 character. Hallam s account of him is perfect.* 
 None of his peculiarities amused his friends more, 
 or was a more frequent subject of joking to himself 
 than the slowness and the vastness of his prepara- 
 
 * App. to Homer s Memoirs, vol. I. p. 473. 
 
358 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 tions. He was perfectly aware of this conscien 
 tious and modest infirmity. a I in retirement am 
 endeavouring to work out the distant good of man 
 kind. Leave me exempt from the casualties of 
 human life, and I am almost secure of my object.&quot; f 
 No you would not. An exemption from the casu 
 alties of life is a considerable postulate for a philoso 
 pher. But its having been granted would not have 
 brought the cautious Seymour to a practical result. 
 Immortality would only have lengthened his pre 
 paration. 
 
 Playfair, though ill, and the day bad, followed 
 poor Seymour to his grave at Holyrood. But those 
 who saw him there shook their heads ; and in about 
 three months he joined his friend. This was an 
 irreparable loss both to the science and to the 
 society of Edinburgh. Taking the whole man his 
 science, his heart, his manner, and his taste, I do 
 not see how Playfair could have been improved. 
 Profound, yet cheerful ; social, yet always respect 
 able ; strong in his feelings, but uniformly gentle ; 
 a universal favourite, yet never moved from his 
 simplicity in humble circumstances, but contented 
 and charitable he realized our ideas of an amiable 
 philosopher. And is he not the best philosophical 
 
 * Homer s letter to Murray, 16th July 1814. Homer s Me 
 moirs, vol. II. p. 175. 
 
 f Letter to Allen, 30th September 1805. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 359 
 
 writer in the English language?* I have been told 
 that when racked on his death-bed with pain, a 
 relation wished to amuse him by reading one of 
 Scott s Novels, of which he was very fond, but that 
 he said he would rather try the Principia. Nothing 
 can be more just than the application made to him, 
 by Stewart, of Marmontel s description of D Alem- 
 bert.f His friends subscribed for a bust of him, 
 and a monument. The bust has been most happily 
 executed by Chantrey. The monument, designed 
 by his nephew, has been placed on the Calton Hill, 
 in connection with the Observatory, which owes its 
 existence and its early reputation to Playfair. The 
 deaths of Homer, Dr. John Gordon,;): Seymour, and 
 Playfair, all within a very short time, clouded our 
 city. Their true monuments were in the hearts of 
 their surviving friends, who to this hour solve any 
 doubt about science, or life, by recollecting what 
 these men would have thought of it. 
 
 * His countryman, Hugh Miller, has since displayed a power of 
 scientific description which, in some respects, even Playfair could 
 not have surpassed, if equalled ; but in the correct and simple 
 beauty of calm thought, even Miller falls short of Playfair. 
 
 f Elements of Philosophy, vol. III. p. 313. 
 
 | Dr. Gordon died in June 1818. &quot; In flore primo, tantae indolis 
 juvenis extinctus est, summa consecuturus, si virtutes ejus maturuis- 
 sent. Quo ille studiorum amore flagrabat ! Quantum legit ! Quan 
 tum etiam scripsit ! Quse nunc omnia cum ipso sine fructu posteri- 
 tatis amerunt.&quot; (Plin. Epist. Lib. 5. epist. 9.) 
 
360 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Another Edinburgh character, of a different sort, 
 ceased in 1819 to be gazed at by men. This was 
 Adam Roll and, advocate 5 sometimes said to have 
 sat to Scott for his picture of PI ey dell ; a worthy, 
 but fantastic personage. His professional practice 
 had been very extensive, but only as a consulting 
 and a writing counsel 5 for he never spoke, nor 
 honoured the public by doing any thing in its pre 
 sence. Divested of buckram, he was a learned and 
 sound lawyer, and a good man, much respected by 
 his few friends. But there are many men to whom 
 the buckram is everything, and he was one of them. 
 It was by his outside that he was known to the 
 world. He was old at last; but his youth was 
 marked by the same external absurdity that adhered 
 to him through life, and I presume followed him 
 into his coffin. 
 
 His dresses, which were changed at least twice 
 every day, were always of the same old beau cut ; 
 the vicissitudes of fashion being contemptible in the 
 sight of a person who had made up his own mind 
 as to the perfection of a gentleman s outward cover 
 ing. The favourite hues were black and mulberry : 
 the stuffs velvet, fine kerseymere, and satin. When 
 all got up, no artificial rose could be brighter, or 
 stiffer. He was like one of the creatures come to 
 life again in a collection of dried butterflies. I 
 think I see him. There he moves, a few yards 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 361 
 
 backwards and forwards in front of his house in 
 Queen Street ; crisp in his mulberry-coloured ker 
 seymere coat, single-breasted 5 a waistcoat of the 
 same, with large old-fashioned pockets ; black satin 
 breeches, with blue steel buttons ; bright morocco 
 shoes with silver or blue steel buckles ; white or 
 quaker grey silk stockings ; a copious frill and 
 ruffles ; a dark brown, gold-headed, slim cane, or a 
 slender green silk umbrella : every thing pure and 
 uncreased. The countenance befitted the garb : for 
 the blue eyes were nearly motionless, and the 
 cheeks, especially when slightly touched by ver 
 milion, as clear and as ruddy as a wax doll s ; and 
 they were neatly flanked by two delicately poma 
 tumed and powdered side curls, from behind which 
 there flowed, or rather stuck out, a thin pigtail 
 in a shining black ribbon. And there he moves, 
 slowly and nicely, picking his steps as if a stain 
 would kill him, and looking timidly, but somewhat 
 slyly, from side to side, as if conscious that he was 
 an object, and smiling in self satisfaction. The 
 whole figure and manner suggested the idea of a 
 costly brittle toy, new out of its box. It trembled 
 in company, and shuddered at the vicinity of a petti 
 coat. But when well set, as I often saw him, with 
 not above two or three old friends, he could be 
 correctly merry, and had no objection whatever 
 to a quiet bottle of good claret. But a stranger, 
 
362 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 or a word out of joint, made him dumb and 
 wretched. 
 
 It is difficult to account for his practice ; for 
 though industrious, honourable, kind, and timidly 
 judicious, he had slender talents, and no force, and 
 the age in which he acted was one in which I should 
 have thought that neither bar nor bench would 
 have had any patience with gilded filigree. I 
 wonder Braxfield did not murder him by a single 
 grunt. However, I suppose that there must have 
 been something more in him than I am aware of, 
 else he could not have been the oracle that some 
 people held him. When I was about to begin my 
 legal studies, I was reckoned a singularly fortunate 
 youth, because he had condescended to intimate 
 that he would advise me how to conduct them. T 
 was therefore ordered to w r ait upon him. I did so, 
 and after being eased of some of my awe by a kind 
 reception and a few very simple jokes, the lesson 
 commenced. It consisted entirely of a short dis 
 course by the sage, for I sat nearly dumb ; and its 
 result was more than once summed and repeated, as 
 if to make me recollect the very words. These I do 
 not now remember ; but surprise has prevented my 
 ever forgetting their tone and import, which were 
 exactly to this effect &quot; In short, my young friend, 
 philosophy is the vice of the age. Take my advice, 
 and read nothing whatever but Scotch and Civil 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 363 
 
 law, except the first volume of Blackstone, the in 
 troduction to Eobertsoii s Charles the Fifth, Hume s 
 History of the Stewarts, and De Lolme ; never 
 have a pen out of your hand, and keep a common 
 place book on Locke s plan&quot; a volume of which, 
 kept by himself, he shewed me as a specimen. In so 
 far as kindness and pedantry went, he may be sup 
 posed to have had some resemblance to Pleydell ; 
 but nobody who knew, or indeed ever saw, Holland 
 can imagine his descending to High Jinks, espe 
 cially in a tavern. 
 
 The year 1819 closed, and the new one opened, 
 amidst the popular disturbances called, gravely by 
 some, and jocularly by others, u The Eadical War.&quot; 
 The whole island was suffering under great agricul 
 tural and manufacturing distress. This was taken 
 the usual advantage of by demagogues ; and conse 
 quently there was considerable political excitement. 
 Quite enough to require caution, and even to justify 
 alarm. Its amount in Scotland was contemptible. 
 But it was first exaggerated, and then exhibited as 
 evidence of a revolutionary spirit, which nothing but 
 Toryism and Castlereagh could check. It was deter 
 mined therefore that the folly and violence of our 
 western weavers should be considered as a civil war, 
 and be dealt with accordingly. Edinburgh w^as as 
 quiet as the grave, or even as Peebles *, yet matters 
 
364 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 were so managed, that we were obliged to pass 
 about a month as if an enemy had been drawing 
 his lines round our very walls. The only curiosity 
 in the affair now is the facility of spreading panic. 
 
 TheMid-Lothian Yeomanry Cavalry was marched, 
 in the middle of a winter night, to Glasgow ; re 
 mained in that district a few days ; did nothing, 
 having nothing to do ; and returned, as proud and 
 as praised, as if fresh from Waterloo. The survivors 
 of the old Edinburgh Gentlemen Volunteers were 
 called together again, and disengaged a few soldiers 
 by taking charge of the Castle, under their former 
 and still unqueiiched Lieutenant-Colonel, Charles 
 Hope, Lord President of the Court of Session. New 
 offers of voluntary service were made, and accepted ; 
 and as the Whigs could not keep back, without 
 seeming to encourage the enemy, once more did I 
 prepare to gird on my sword as a captain in a thing 
 called u The Armed Association 5 &quot; which was meant 
 to be something more military than constables, and 
 less military than soldiers. But this gallant batta 
 lion never assembled. In about a fortnight every 
 sane eye saw that the whole affair was nonsense ; 
 and our Tory Colonel, Sir James Fergusson of Kil- 
 kerran, was too much ashamed of it to call us to 
 gether even to be disbanded. 
 
 Some people however were clear that a great 
 blow would be struck by the Eadical army an 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 365 
 
 army much talked of but never seen, on the last 
 night of the year. The perfect facility with which 
 a party of forty or fifty thousand weavers could 
 march from Glasgow, and seize upon the Banks and 
 the Castle of Edinburgh, without ever being heard of 
 till they appeared in our streets, was demonstrated. 
 Our magistrates therefore invited all loyal citizens 
 to congregate, with such arms as they had, at various 
 assigned posts. I repaired to the Assembly rooms 
 in George Street, with a stick, about eight in the 
 evening. The streets were as quiet as on an ordinary 
 Sunday ; but their silence was only held by the 
 excited to forebode the coming storm. There seemed 
 to be nobody abroad except those who, like myself, 
 were repairing to their forlorn hopes. On entering 
 the large room, I found at least 400 or 500 grown 
 gentlemen, pacing about, dressed coarsely, as if for 
 work, and armed, according to taste or convenience, 
 with bludgeons, fowling pieces, dirks, cane-swords, 
 or other implements. A zealous banker laboured 
 under two small swivels set on stocks, one under 
 each arm. Frivolity, though much provoked, and a 
 good deal indulged in in corners, was reproved as 
 unbecoming the crisis. At last, about ten P.M., the 
 horn of the coach from Glasgow was heard, and the 
 Lord Provost sent us word from the council chamber 
 that we might retire for the night. We never met 
 again. 
 
366 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Next summer a Commission of Oyer and Ter- 
 miner was sent down for the trial of the rebels, with 
 an English serjeant as prosecutor to keep us all 
 right on the law of treason. The commissioners 
 visited Stirling, Glasgow, Paisley, Ayr, and Dum 
 barton ; and the result was, that several persons 
 were convicted, and that three or four were exe 
 cuted. They were all guilty of high treason, no 
 doubt ; as any old woman is who chooses to charge 
 a regiment of cavalry. But to make such a parade 
 about such treason did no good either to the law or 
 to the people. The whole affair was composed of 
 three nearly equal parts popular discontent, Go 
 vernment exaggeration, and public craze.* 
 
 The long reign of George the Third was brought 
 to a close on the 29th of January 1820. The chief 
 interest of the people in this event seemed to consist 
 in its depriving them of their sixty years holiday on 
 the 4th of June. On the following Sunday Sir Harry 
 Moncreiff not satisfied with merely praying for the 
 
 * Lockhart has published a letter from Scott (Life of Scott, vol. 
 IV. p. 335,) which shews the incomprehensible excitement of him 
 and his party. The bard was ardent for actual and instant war, 
 and seems to have really believed that there were &quot; upwards of 
 50,000 blackguards ready to rise between Tyne and Wear !&quot; Even 
 his biographer calls this &quot; a ridiculous exaggerated report.&quot; But 
 the heads of seven-eighths of his party were stuffed with similar 
 nonsense. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 307 
 
 new Sovereign generally, said in plain terms, giving 
 the very date, that there might be no mistake about 
 it, &quot; And Oh Lord, stablish his heart in righteous 
 ness, and in the principles of the glorious revolution 
 of sixteen hunder and echty echt.&quot; 
 
 After an absence of nearly half a century, Lord 
 Erskine revisited his native country early in 1820, 
 and remained in Edinburgh for about two months. 
 His old friend William Adam was living here, and 
 shewed him off excellently ; and every one received 
 him kindly. The Whigs gave him a public dinner 
 on the 21st of February, at which about 300 
 attended the largest convocation of the sect that 
 had yet taken place. Maxwell of Carriden was in 
 the chair. Erskine, though old and feeble, spoke 
 several times, always elegantly, gently, and with 
 liveliness, and once or twice disclosed gleams of his 
 better days. He shewed also that his strange old 
 superstitiousness still survived. He repeated the 
 story of having seen and talked with his mother s 
 gardener or his ghost after he was dead, and said, 
 not merely with gravity but with intense sincerity, 
 that since he had come to Edinburgh, he had stood 
 on the very spot in the High Street where the inter 
 view took place. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Brown, the successor of Dugald 
 
368 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Stewart in the Moral Chair, died in April 1820 ; a 
 person of great and peculiar powers ; acute, ori 
 ginal, rich in view r s, of very considerable though 
 not always correct eloquence, and of an affectionate, 
 generous, and honourable nature. Whatever differ 
 ences of opinion there may be among deep and nice 
 judges as to some of his metaphysical doctrines, 
 even on this branch of his subject hew r as a professor 
 .of the highest order ; and the public was unanimous 
 in its admiration of his moral and practical exposi 
 tions. There are few more delightful books in the 
 English language than his lectures, which have 
 been published since his death, with unexampled 
 success for such a work. His more judicious friends 
 were disturbed by his verse ; which might have 
 passed if he had done nothing better, but which, 
 though neither devoid of thought nor feeling, was 
 unworthy of his superior powers. Obscurity was the 
 common objection to it ; but clearness would not 
 have improved it. His friend Dr. Gregory described 
 his poetry as too philosophical, and his philosophy 
 as too poetical. His great defect was in his manner. 
 It was so strongly marked by what seemed to be 
 affectation the affectation of nice discrimination, 
 fine feeling, and pensive reflection, that it required 
 the recollection of his worth and genius, to avoid 
 undervaluing him in society. Nobody indeed could 
 appreciate him who had never heard him lecture. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 369 
 
 Mackintosh alludes to this misfortune with his usual 
 gentleness, u Some of these delightful qualities were 
 perhaps hidden from the casual observer in general 
 society, by the want of that perfect simplicity of 
 manner, which is doubtless their natural representa 
 tive.^ (Preliminary Dissertation, voce Brown). 
 
 * In his Elements (vol. III. p. 501) Stewart has the most con 
 temptuous passage that is to be found in his whole works against 
 Brown s philosophical character and habits. I cannot resist the 
 belief that Stewart, angry at Brown s rejection of the &quot; Common 
 Sense &quot; of Eeid and of himself, wrote this Note in a state of personal 
 irritation ; for it is quite unlike his dignified caution. To be sure, 
 he skilfully founds his scorn on statements made by Dr. Welsh, the 
 learned and excellent biographer of Brown ; and if it be assumed 
 that Welsh is correct, then unquestionably so is Stewart. But 
 Welsh is plainly wrong ; and, as usual with friendly biographers, 
 makes his hero absurd. He not only makes Brown a proud convert 
 to Phrenology, in his approximation to the doctrines of which, 
 without the phrenological instrument, is to be found &quot; his greatest 
 merit,&quot; but describes him as having composed nearly his whole 
 course of lectures in a single year ; and this so perfectly that he 
 never afterwards required either to add or to retrench ! Nay, the 
 very &quot; subjects of many of his lectures he had never reflected upon 
 till he took up the pen, and many of his theories occurred to him 
 during the period of composition.&quot; It is really astonishing how a 
 sensible man like Welsh could expect this inspiration, as Stewart 
 calls it, to be credited ; or could fancy that its being ascribed to 
 Brown was complimentary. Brown s early consideration of meta 
 physical subjects was attested by his having written his Zoonomia 
 when only about eighteen. And instead of never feeling it necessary 
 to meditate his lectures, his thoughts were occupied with the subjects 
 of them every hour of his life. Stewart could not have written so 
 sneeringly of Brown, except through the casual folly of his biographer 
 
 2 B 
 
370 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 The friends of philosophy, recollecting what 
 this class had so long been, suggested Sir James 
 Mackintosh as Brown s proper successor. His 
 political opinions were objected to openly, and 
 the more fatal objection of infidelity was whis 
 pered. The last was answered by his character, by 
 the warm attestation of his early companion, the 
 reverend Dr. Macknight, and by a reference from 
 Mr. Macvey Napier to an article in the Monthly 
 Beview by Sir James on his friend Eobert Hall s 
 sermons. A majority of the town council offered 
 him the chair : but his London friends would not 
 let him leave them, and he declined it. An unfor 
 tunate decision for himself and for science. An 
 effort was then made for Macvey Napier himself, 
 who, in point of philosophy, was well qualified for 
 the place, and had the honor of being warmly 
 patronized by Dugald Stewart. But by this time 
 the town council had relapsed into its true self. 
 Its invitation to Mackintosh had excited great alarm, 
 and it was soon made plain that that dangerous 
 experiment would not be repeated, and that no Whig 
 need be hopeful. So Napier gave it up. And Sir 
 William Hamilton, a great scholar and a profound 
 logician, but also a Whig, was beaten off too. 
 
 The great indeed the vital improvement of 
 enclosing, draining, and ornamenting the valley to 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 371 
 
 the west of the Mound (a part of the North Loch), 
 for which a statute had been obtained in 1816, was 
 completed in the autumn of 1820. Its vahie, or 
 rather its glaring and indispensable necessity can 
 only be understood by those who knew, and who 
 remember, what had become the dreadful, and 
 apparently hopeless, condition of the ground. The 
 place had just been sufficiently drained to prevent 
 its ever again being a loch. But it was a nearly 
 impassable fetid marsh, a stinking swamp, open on 
 all sides, the receptacle of many sewers, and seem 
 ingly of all the worried cats, drowned dogs, and 
 blackguardism of the city. Its abomination made 
 it so solitary that the Volunteers used to practise 
 ball-firing across it. The men stood on its north 
 side and the targets were set up along the lower 
 edge of the Castle hill or rock. The only difficulty 
 was in getting across the swamp to place and 
 examine the targets, which could be done only in 
 very dry weather and at one or two places. Exclu 
 sive of our house-planted squares, it was the first 
 piece of ground that was ornamented within the city. 
 There was a feeble murmur against the ejection of 
 what the few murmurers termed u The Public.&quot; But 
 did the public offer to be taxed ? Besides, what por 
 tion of the public was it that was ejected? 
 
 The proceedings of George the Fourth against 
 
372 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 his Queen threw Edinburgh, as they did every other 
 place, into great agitation. But the uniformity of 
 the excitement was varied in Scotland by a bit of 
 Scotch Church law. The King put forth an order 
 forbidding people to pray for Her Majesty. Being 
 the head of the English church, he might take that 
 liberty in England. But the presbyterians, who 
 own no earthly head, kicked. Our whole seceders, 
 and a great many of the established clergy, includ 
 ing of course Andrew Thomson, to whom the blunder 
 was delightful, disdained this mandate, and prayed 
 for her the more fervently that her husband s 
 ministry declared that she was wicked. Thomson 
 however had the rare prudence to name her only so 
 gently, as to shew that it was merely the supposed 
 right of the Crown to put words into the mouths of 
 praying presbyterians that he meant to resist. Not 
 withstanding this, those loyalists who backed the 
 Monarch in his attack through the Queen upon the 
 monarchy, instantly gratified Thomson by a violent 
 outcry against himself. He, as might have been 
 foreseen, took the bull by the horns by a direct 
 motion in next General Assembly against the (sup 
 posed) royal claim. Most people agreed with him 
 by this time ; but it was thought decent to avoid 
 the subject by a vague amendment, which was 
 carried, that the rights of our church were already 
 sufficiently fenced. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 373 
 
 While this was disturbing the establishment, the 
 seceders were strengthening* themselves by a judicious 
 union of Burghers with Anti-Burghers, who held their 
 first meeting as the u United Associate Synod&quot; here 
 in September 1820. Their spiritual junction was 
 celebrated by a corporeal feast. They were the first 
 people who dined in the large room of the Waterloo 
 Hotel. I wish I had seen the jollity of three or four 
 hundred of the great-grandsons of Ebenezer Ersldne. 
 
 Jeffrey surprised us this year, almost as much 
 as he was surprised himself, by his elevation to the 
 Lord Eectorship of the College of Glasgow. It was 
 the first official honor he had received. And its 
 proceeding from the students was a fact that con 
 curred with many others in shewing the ebbing of 
 the old shallow tide. The reign of the professors 
 and the adjoining lairds had plainly received a 
 shock. Since 1787, when Adam Smith was elected, 
 no person had been appointed solely from literary 
 or scientific merit. The collegians, ashamed of the 
 habitual abasement, took the election into their own 
 hands, and have kept it, and justified their use of 
 their power, ever since. Thomson, Moncreiff, 
 Murray, George Joseph Bell, Eobert Graham, 
 James Campbell, Pillans, Keay, Eutherfurd, and I 
 accompanied Jeffrey to his installation on the 28th 
 of December 1820. The horror of most of the pro- 
 
374 MEMORIALS OF HI* TIME 
 
 fessors, at the sight of such a crew of Whigs, was 
 not diminished by the sound, still ringing in their 
 ears, of an assemblage of this party, called the 
 Pantheon Meeting, which had taken place in Edin 
 burgh only a few days before. It seemed delight 
 ful however to the students, to whom the Bector 
 made a beautiful speech. His ceremonious ban 
 quet with the college authorities was succeeded by 
 a night-long supper at the hotel with his friends. 
 The honor done to Jeffrey, the triumph of the stu 
 dents, and the change of times, inspired the party 
 into the best joyous conviviality it has ever been 
 my good fortune to partake of. 
 
 The proceedings against the Queen, though now 
 abandoned, had thrown the whole nation into a fer 
 ment. That Her Majesty was really innocent was the 
 belief of many : that there was at least no legal evi 
 dence of her guilt was the belief of a majority of the 
 nation : that even though she had been guilty, and her 
 guilt had been legally established, its exposure was so 
 dangerous that, as Mackintosh says, no republicans, 
 wishing to bring monarchy into disrepute, could have 
 done worse, was the opinion of almost all judicious 
 loyalists. These persons therefore concurred in 
 condemning the whole proceeding ; which, they 
 thought, shewed that we were ruled by a ministry 
 so servile to the King that, in order to please him, 
 
BY HENRY GOCKBUKN. 375 
 
 they would not scruple to endanger royalty. These 
 sentiments may all have been erroneous ; but they 
 were the sentiments of a large portion of the nation, 
 and fixed on the Government a more intense feeling 
 of hostility than is usually produced by ordinary 
 party differences. It was almost a personal hostility. 
 Justly or unjustly, no public man could be more 
 hated than Lord Gas tier eagh was. 
 
 It was in this state of the public mind that, in 
 December 1820, a requisition was presented to the 
 Lord Provost of Edinburgh, requesting him to call 
 a public meeting of the inhabitants, with a view to 
 petition the King to dismiss his ministers. The 
 requisition was signed by about one hundred house 
 holders, who represented a considerable part of the 
 wealth, and by far the greater part of the talent and 
 public character, of the city. The Lord Provost 
 refused, on which it was announced that the meeting 
 would be held on a call by the requisitionists. Efforts 
 were instantly made to obstruct it 5 and the leaders 
 in the movement were assailed by scurrilous libels. 
 One of Lord Castlereagh s six acts made an assembly 
 in the open air illegal ; and, on this being ascertained, 
 every covered place under the influence of the Town 
 Council or the Lord Advocate was refused. But 
 that universal receptacle the Circus, then termed the 
 Pantheon, opened its doors ; and on Saturday the 
 16th of December the meeting was held. 
 
376 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 The place, though large and crammed, admitted 
 but a small portion of those who wished to get in. 
 They seemed to be mostly of the middle class of 
 citizens. My coat was said to be the worst there. 
 Moncreiff presided, seated on the stage the very 
 place where, about twenty-five years before, he held 
 up the candle to Henry Erskine while he was mak 
 ing the speech which cost him his Deanship.* He 
 opened the business by explaining the object of the 
 meeting, and cautioning those present to disappoint 
 their opponents by abstaining from all intemperance 
 of language. Jeffrey then rose, and sealed the 
 character of the meeting by an admirable address. 
 When the meeting was over, John Clerk on retiring 
 was accosted by a little, old, dark man, who came 
 up to him, winking and rubbing his hands with 
 delight, and said, &quot; Weel Sir ! ou re at the auld wark 
 again.&quot; He was found to be a respectable shop 
 keeper, and one of the spirits of 1793, who, without 
 being known to Clerk, had acted with him in those 
 fearful times. 
 
 This meeting was distinguished from the one in 
 1814 on the slave trade, the one in 1816 on the pro 
 perty tax, and the one in 1817 on the North Bridge 
 Buildings, by its being purely political, and in direct 
 and avowed opposition to the hereditary Toryism 
 of Government. It was the first modern occasion 
 * See Lord Cockbnrn s Life of Lord Jeffrey, -vol. I. p. 208. ED. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 377 
 
 on which a great body of respectable persons had 
 met, publicly and peaceably, in Edinburgh, to assail 
 this fortress. 
 
 No petition can be made secure against trick or 
 mistake. But, after every precaution and deduction, 
 the signatures to the petition proceeding from this 
 meeting were as follows. Only males, above twenty- 
 one, were allowed to sign, that is, all under that age, 
 if detected, were debarred. If Edinburgh then 
 contained about 100,000 inhabitants, including its 
 immediate neighbourhood, which is about the truth, 
 the male adults could not exceed 20,000. The 
 ministerial party had an opposite petition, and 
 strained every effort for subscriptions. The result 
 was, that theirs got about 1600 or 1700 names, ours 
 about 17,000. So that the unexampled spectacle 
 was exhibited of a large Scotch community pro 
 claiming itself, as in nearly unanimous hostility not 
 merely to the existing power, but to the power 
 which had seemingly established itself in prescrip 
 tive omnipotence. 
 
 The influence of all this can scarcely be over 
 stated. Old Edinburgh was no more. A new day 
 dawned on the official seat of Scotch intolerance. 
 It was plain that a state of things had arisen in 
 which that strange hard hatred of the people, though 
 it might make its own victims miserable, could 
 scarcely recal the time in which a local aristocracy 
 
378 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 could settle every thing, for its own behoof, in its 
 own way. The meeting had been held here, but 
 the eyes of all Scotland were upon it, and all Scot 
 land felt the result. The Tories alone would not 
 read the sign. It required ten more years to open 
 their eyes. A drop of water let in might bring 
 down the whole embankment, no doubt and if 
 resisting every change, could have stemmed the inun 
 dation, they were right, for their purposes, to resist. 
 Their error, on this and on many other occasions, 
 consisted in not seeing that the drop was already 
 through : and that their true policy lay in regulating 
 a flood which they could not prevent. 
 
 Fox s birthday had long been kept by a few of 
 our more daring spirits in a quiet and obscure way. 
 But the success of the Burns and Erskine dinners 
 made it evident that a strong impression might be 
 produced by now keeping it more openly. Leonard 
 Horner, the brother of Francis, the most active 
 and enlightened of our citizens, and with a singular 
 talent for organization, having consented to take the 
 principal share in the arrangements, a gathering was 
 announced. With the exception perhaps of the 
 recent one to Lord Erskine, this, so far as I can 
 recollect, was the first public political dinner held by the 
 Whigs in Edinburgh. The birthday was the 24th of 
 January. But as some members of Parliament could 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. o79 
 
 not wait so long, the meeting was fixed for the 12th. 
 On this, the opposite party resolved that whatever 
 we might do with the rabble, they would contrast us 
 with their gentry ; and that on whatever day we met, 
 they should meet also, although this implied an 
 anticipation of the nativity of their Saint by about 
 four months. So both parties assembled in their 
 respective fields, on the 12th of January 1821. The 
 Pittites were the more numerous. As they never 
 would publish any authoritative account of what 
 took place, their superiority of number is all that I 
 can attest. The Foxites mustered very nearly 500. 
 The Earl of Eosslyn was in the chair, and spoke 
 well, though as usual with him, better in spirit than 
 in matter. The lawyers addresses by Cranstoun, 
 Jeffrey, Moncreiff, Kennedy of Dunure, Murray, 
 myself and others, were of less consequence than 
 those of an order of men, who till about this period 
 had shrunk from exposure the ordinary trading- 
 citizens. Some of them spoke excellently ; and the 
 rise of booksellers and haberdashers in this line was 
 very symptomatic.* 
 
 It would be more agreeable to forget past irrita- 
 
 * This great and morally powerful assembly is thus described 
 by Scott in one of those letters which have been published ** The 
 Foxites had also a very numerous meeting, 500 at least, but sad 
 scamps.&quot; (Lockhart s Life of Scott, chap. 50). 
 
380 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 tions ; but everything is worth, preserving which 
 explains the state of people s minds on important 
 changes. Instead of being taught liberality by 
 events, the Tory party was exasperated into insanity. 
 It was under the influence of this malady that they 
 set up a newspaper which they called &quot; The Beacon.&quot; 
 This famous publication first appeared, I think, in 
 January 1821. Its funds and its machinery were 
 concealed. All that was exposed was that a Mr. 
 Duncan Stevenson printed it, and a person called 
 Nimmo was its ostensible editor. But its regular 
 contributors were believed to be persons of a higher 
 order ; and articles were occasionally supplied by 
 some it is very painful to think of as so employed. 
 If I were to look at this paper now, after years have 
 blunted its edge, and evaporated its allusions, and 
 accustomed us to freer political personality, it is 
 possible that I might be surprised at the offence it 
 once gave. But the guilt of libel must be judged of 
 as on the day it was committed, when the insinua 
 tions were understood, and the mis-statements not 
 cleared up, the insolence fresh, and the victim 
 quivering. The judgment of fair men, living at the 
 time and on the spot, is always conclusive on such 
 a question. Almost anything is libellous which 
 such men think a libel. Tried by such a standard 
 this publication was all a libel. It was the outlet 
 for all the anonymous slander that the retainers of 
 
BY HENRY COCKBUEN. 381 
 
 a once powerful, but now half defeated, party chose 
 to pour out 011 their rising opponents. And the 
 abuse was neither atoned for by talent, nor veiled by 
 wit. Yet, strange to say, it was patronized even by 
 the respectable portion of the party it disgraced, 
 though there were a few honourable exceptions. 
 Scott chuckled with its reputed contributors : judges 
 subscribed for it : it lay on the tables of reverend 
 Christians. 
 
 Towards the end of August 1821 there was a 
 gross insult on Mr. James Stuart of Dunearn, who, 
 throughout the whole course of our emancipation 
 was specially disliked for the activity of his public 
 spirit. He caned the printer on the street ; this, as 
 he thought, being the correct form of dealing with 
 such a person. Then came another of the many 
 libels on Mr. James Gibson, who, having long suf 
 fered in silence, determined to discover hrs insult er, 
 and set about it with his usual vigour. Having 
 some ground for suspecting that the Lord Advocate 
 was more than the patron of the paper, he wrote 
 to him and asked whether he was not a partner. 
 His lordship denied all partnership ; but, to the 
 horror of his associates, blew them all up at once by 
 admitting that he and some others, not named, had 
 subscribed a bond, of which he enclosed a copy. 
 This deed was found to bind certain persons, as 
 
 * Afterwards Sir James Gibson-Craig 1 of Eiccarton. 
 
382 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 sureties to a bank, for any debt that might be incur 
 red in conducting the Beacon, to the amount of 100 
 each ; the bank account to be operated upon by any 
 party to be named by them. The practical result 
 of which was that, whether partners in law or not, 
 they having provided and kept the command of the 
 funds had the control of the newspaper. The names 
 of the other bondsmen soon transpired, and to the 
 amazement of the public. Many of them were 
 official men. 
 
 On finding such persons implicated, Stuart 
 opened a communication, plainly of a hostile ten 
 dency, with the Lord Advocate, demanding a dis 
 avowal of the articles concerning him. After a 
 short correspondence his Lordship s accession to the 
 articles was disavowed. Mr. Gibson then addressed 
 another bondsman ; and it is dreadful to think that 
 a life like Scott s was for a moment in peril in such 
 a cause. But it had actually gone the length of the 
 accuser providing a second an office which the 
 Earl of Lauderdale insisted on undertaking. But 
 at this stage some of Scott s friends came forward 
 with a proposal, that this and all similar calls should 
 be abandoned on an assurance that Scott had no 
 personal accession to any of the articles complained 
 of, and that the paper should be discontinued. Mr. 
 Gibson, having only a public end in view, agreed 
 to this arrangement. On this, the other obligants 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 383 
 
 withdrew their names from the bond, and the mask 
 that had been kept on to the last, of pretending that 
 they had no command of the paper, fell off, and not 
 another number appeared. 
 
 It is a relief to turn from such a subject. It was 
 
 * &quot; A more pitiable mass of blunder and imbecility was never 
 heaped together than the whole of this affair exhibited &quot; (Lock- 
 hart s Life of Scott, chap. 54). So, speaking of his own side, says 
 Lockhart. &quot; The fact is, it is a blasted business, and will long con 
 tinue to have bad consequences&quot; says Scott, speaking of himself 
 (Letter to Croker, Lockhart s Life, chap. 54). The biographer 
 admits their &quot; long train of humiliating distresses and disgraces.&quot; 
 He could scarcely be expected to acknowledge, in direct terms, that 
 these judgments arose from an organized system of defamation, 
 acted upon by the tools of the bondsmen ; but he does the same 
 thing in substance, when he says, that &quot; the rude drollery of the 
 young hot-bloods, to whom they had intrusted the editorship of 
 their paper, produced its natural consequences.&quot; Yet it is strange 
 that both he and Scott, instead of applauding a retreat from a 
 criminal folly, seem to think that it would have been more manful 
 to adhere to it since it had been committed. Lockhart says that 
 &quot; the seniors shrunk from the dilemma as rashly as they had plunged 
 into it ; &quot; and Scott in a letter to William Erskine, which is not 
 published,*!- declares, &quot; I am terribly malcontent about the Beacon. 
 I was dragged into the bond against all remonstrances I could 
 make, and now they have allowed me no vote with regard to stand 
 ing or flying. Entre nous, our friends went into the thing like 
 fools, and have come out very like cowards. I was never so sick 
 of a transaction in my life ; though I thank God I have very little 
 to do with it.&quot; So, when it was exposed, they all said. No sub 
 scriber had ever read a paper that he paid for and got. Many 
 never heard of what all Scotland was ringing with. 
 
 f This letter is now in the collection of Mr. James Giibson-Craij?. ED. 
 
384 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 in October 1821 that an institution for the instruction 
 of mechanics, since known as u The School of Arts,&quot; 
 was opened in Edinburgh. If not the first, it was 
 certainly the second, establishment of the kind in 
 Britain. The whole merit, both of its conception 
 and of its first three or four years management, is 
 due exclusively to Leonard Horner. His good sense, 
 mildness, and purity made it a favourite with the 
 reasonable of all parties and classes. It has gone 
 on prosperously ever since. 
 
 The Whig party in Scotland had, sometime 
 before this, gained a material accession of strength 
 by Thomas Kennedy of Dunure getting into Parlia 
 ment. With great judgment, high principle, and a 
 love of work, he was thoroughly acquainted with 
 Scotland, and had no ambition greater than that of 
 doing it good. And his power was considerably 
 increased by his marriage with Komilly s daughter, 
 which introduced him to important English connec 
 tions. He and I had often conferred on the absurdity, 
 and the flagrant injustice, of the power still left to 
 the presiding judge to select the jury in criminal 
 cases ; and it was settled that the correction of this 
 evil should be his first parliamentary effort. The 
 history of this reform affords one of the most incred 
 ible examples of the indiscriminate obduracy with 
 which the clearest abuses were then clung to. Let- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 385 
 
 ting the judge name the jury, especially in Scotch 
 criminal prosecutions, which are almost all cases 
 between the Crown and the subject, was a practice 
 utterly abhorrent to the general principles of the 
 constitution, and unknown in any other part of the 
 British empire. Even when exercised with the 
 utmost purity, it exposed the administration of the 
 law to obloquy. And the example of ballot and 
 challenge had been set, and operated well, in civil 
 causes for some years. In these circumstances, one- 
 would have thought that the criminal judges would 
 have been the keenest to get quit of so odious a 
 power. Yet, partly because it gave them power, 
 and partly because its removal was a Whig measure, 
 they fought in its defence on their very stumps. 
 
 In 1821 Kennedy moved for leave to bring in a 
 bill for the introduction of ballot. On this, the 
 Lord Advocate circulated an authoritative rescript 
 to the lairds to oppose the democratic measure. He 
 suggested the very grounds to them ; which cannot 
 now be read without amazement. The reform was 
 no sooner effected, than it was almost unanimously 
 applauded ; and there is not a single sane man by 
 whom the old system is now defended. Yet, under 
 this contemptible influence, did the handfuls of land 
 lords who represent our counties pass resolutions in 
 nearly every shire, re-echoing the sentiments of his 
 
 lordship s ukase; just as the provinces of Eussia 
 
 2 c 
 
386 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 might have done, if the Autocrat had asked them 
 whether he had not better increase the severity of 
 the knout. This provoked me to write an explana 
 tion of the whole case in the Edinburgh Keview.* 
 Kennedy persevered, and in the Commons was 
 always successful. But he failed in the Lords. 
 However, the existing system was seen to be inde 
 fensible, and in the session of 1822 Lord Melville, 
 who was then Scotch manager, got a bill passed 
 giving each prisoner a few peremptory challenges, 
 but still leaving the judge to pick. This broke the 
 crust. But, as I explained in another article, | it 
 left a very odd inside. Because though the ballot- 
 box takes no offence, a judge, whose nomination 
 gets a slap in the face by a challenge, does. The 
 only ground on which the picking system could be 
 defended was that the judge who picked was wise 
 and pure. But as soon as this wisdom and purity 
 were liable to be laughed at by peremptory chal 
 lenges it became ridiculous. Indeed it was a great 
 indecorum, and might be practised merely to annoy 
 the Court. But they brought it on themselves. At 
 last, after submitting to be snubbed for about two 
 years, their fingers, which they kept clutched on as 
 much of their favourite privilege as they could, 
 were torn away from it entirely by the existing 
 
 * Edinburgh Keview, October 1821 No. 71, Art. 9. 
 f Edinburgh Keview, February 1823 No. 75, Art. 11. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 387 
 
 statute, whereby the impartiality of the ballot-box 
 is combined with the corrective process of the chal 
 lenge. This is sometimes called Lord Melville s Act ; 
 and he is certainly entitled to the praise due to him 
 who first opposes a good measure, and then adopts 
 it. It was Mr. Kennedy s Act in every true sense. 
 
 During these discussions, an important communi 
 cation was made by Government about the criminal 
 practice of Scotland. It came here in the form of a 
 letter, dated 20th October 1822, from Sir Eobert 
 Peel, addressed to the Lord Justice-Clerk, who before 
 giving the information required, was directed to 
 consult the other three heads namely, Charles 
 Hope Lord President, William Adam Lord Chief 
 Commissioner of the Jury Court, and Sir Samuel 
 Shepherd Lord Chief Baron, and also -David Hume 
 our criminal commentator. There were six questions 
 put which, in substance, were these : 1st. Whether 
 the presiding judge should be allowed to select the 
 jury ? 2d. What are the powers possessed by the 
 Lord Advocate as public prosecutor? 3d. What other 
 powers has he ? and might these be separated from 
 his power as public prosecutor ? 4th. Would it be 
 expedient to introduce grand juries into Scotland? 
 5th, Should the Lord Advocate s powers of deserting 
 diets pro loco et tempore be limited? 6th. &quot; Can you 
 suggest any alterations in the criminal law of Scot 
 land, or in the practice of its courts, which it would 
 
388 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 be expedient to make, for the purpose of securing 
 a greater degree of protection for persons accused of 
 crimes?&quot; 
 
 I have seen no answer to any of these questions, 
 except the answer given by Adam to the last one, 
 which however shews what his answer to the first 
 question must have been. This part of his opinion 
 was very long. It recommended the abolition both 
 of the picking custom, and of transportation for 
 sedition. But (as I read him) he was for introducing 
 the ballot and the challenge in place of the judge s 
 selection, only in political cases, and in what he calls 
 &quot; state misdemeanors,&quot; and for connecting this with 
 much of the machinery of English law. These 
 unfortunate limitations must, I suppose, have im 
 paired the weight of his general opinion. The 
 particulars of the answers by the others on these two 
 points of transportation and picking, I do not know ; 
 but I have the best possible authority, short of 
 actually seeing them, for stating that they were all 
 against any change. 
 
 Fox s birth day was again celebrated on the 24th 
 of January 1822 General Sir Ronald Ferguson in 
 the chair. There being no particular occasion for it, 
 no effort was made to secure a large attendance, but 
 about 300 were present an animated and useful 
 meeting. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 389 
 
 Every gleam of Art deserves notice. In the 
 beginning of February 1822, Edinburgh had a 
 beautiful exhibition, consisting entirely of the works 
 of one of its own artists Hugh W. Williams. He 
 had returned a few years before from a journey to 
 Greece, and no w collected and displayed his delightful 
 water-colour drawings of Grecian scenery and ruins 
 Each picture was illustrated by a classical quotation, 
 selected for the catalogue by Pillans, and translated 
 chiefly by John Brown Patterson, a young man of 
 great promise.* It was an instructive spectacle ; 
 like being suddenly transported into Attica. 
 
 The spring of 1822 was excited by a civic 
 struggle which, in its indirect effects, was of per 
 manent importance. It was enveloped in details, but 
 its substance is simple enough. By the Edinburgh 
 Police Act the Commissioners were elected by 
 inhabitants paying 10 of yearly rent within their 
 respective wards, and the power of appointing and 
 of dismissing the Superintendent was vested in the 
 Lord President of the Court of Session, the Lord 
 Provost, and the Sheriff, who were called &quot; The 
 Functionaries. The Commissioners charged the 
 Superintendent with accession to fraud. The Func 
 tionaries, moved chiefly by pity for the man, refused 
 
 * He died some years after this, minister in the Established 
 Church at Falkirk, 
 
390 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 to dismiss him. If there had been nothing really at 
 stake beyond his fate, few would have thought of the 
 matter. But, like everything else in the trembling 
 balance of parties, his case was soon taken up as a 
 political contest, and on the old ground. The great 
 majority of the people supported the Commissioners. 
 This single fact glued the whole Tories together, by 
 exciting their instinctive jealousy of the growth of 
 popular power 5 and as neither the Commissioners 
 nor the Functionaries would yield, an appeal to 
 Parliament became unavoidable. 
 
 The Commissioners only desired that they should 
 have the power of dismissal. But the proposal by 
 the opposite party shewed that they were thinking 
 of something far beyond the matter of police. They 
 insisted 1st, That the Functionaries should both 
 appoint and dismiss. 2d, That the qualification 
 should be raised from 10 to 15, which would 
 have disfranchised a very large part of the existing 
 voters. 3d, That the same property should be held 
 to qualify for as many voters, or nearly so, as it was 
 worth fifteens of pounds ; that is, that each of the 
 rich should have several votes. 4th, That the wards 
 should be a grouped ; &quot; that is, that the poorer wards 
 should be so connected with the richer ones, as that 
 the latter, with their double and triple voters, and 
 their power of concussion, should swamp the poorer. 
 The general result was, that there should be an 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 391 
 
 aristocracy of electors. A &quot; Keport&quot; was published 
 in defence of these views. It was a quarto volume, 
 ill written, and worse reasoned. Horner excited me 
 to the public virtue of writing &quot; A Letter to the 
 Inhabitants,&quot;&quot; on the other side. My object was 
 to clear the case of useless complication, and to make 
 the people strong by reasonable concession. 
 
 After a month s ferment, the parties met in Par 
 liament*, where the whole tumult was composed, 
 at least on the surface, in a moment. Lord Melville, 
 more candid than his followers, took charge of the 
 case for the Town Council, which represented the 
 Functionaries and the quarto volume; and James 
 Abercromby for the people. These two at once 
 arranged that the power of both appointing and 
 dismissing should not be lodged in the same party, 
 which was the view taken in the Letter : all the 
 Quarto proposals were rejected ; and the existing 
 Superintendent retired. This victory, following so 
 soon after the ignominious defeat of the Beacon, was 
 useful and well-timed. The vanquished groaned, 
 and abused Lord Melville. The victors let off their 
 joy by a public dinner of about 300, where due 
 honor was done to Abercromby for the spirit and 
 prudence with which he had conducted the first 
 Scotch matter he had undertaken. 
 
 * &quot; A Letter to the Inhabitants of Edinburgh on the New 
 Police Bill. Edinburgh : Archd. Constable & Co., 1822.&quot; ED. 
 
392 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 This affair was soon succeeded by another, which 
 forms a very painful history the case of Mr. James 
 Stuart of Dunearn and Sir Alexander Bos well. 
 Stuart s trial, the proceedings against Murray Borth- 
 wick, and the parliamentary discussions disclose 
 the details. 
 
 Soon after the Beacon was put down in Edin 
 burgh, the Sentinel, another newspaper of the same 
 kind, and encouraged by the general countenance of 
 the same party, was set up in Glasgow. Mr. Stuart 
 being defamed, as he thought, in this new publica 
 tion, instituted an action of damages against its 
 editors, two persons called Alexander and Borthwick. 
 Soon after this, Borthwick intimated that if this 
 action was abandoned, he would make all the 
 reparation he could, by disclosing the authors of all 
 the attacks that had been made in this newspaper 
 against Stuart, and by giving up the original articles. 
 Stuart acceded to this, and went to Glasgow for the 
 documents, which he never doubted, nor had any 
 reason to doubt, Borthwick s right to surrender. 
 He dealt with him as any slandered gentleman 
 
 * After stating that on the extinction of the Beacon &quot; the then 
 heads of Scotch Toryism did not escape in any consolatory plight,&quot; 
 Mr. Lockhart adds that &quot; the Beacon bequeathed its rancour and 
 rashness, though not its ability, to a Glasgow paper of similar form 
 and pretensions, entitled the Sentinel&quot; (Life of Scott, chap. 54). 
 Besides form and pretensions, it might have been added that its 
 patronage was substantially the same. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBUEN. 393 
 
 would with a penitent editor, who was only doing 
 what is common with persons in his situation. It 
 was afterwards pretended that Stuart had no right 
 to receive the papers, because Borthwick had no 
 right to give them; and that he had no right to 
 give them, because he had stolen them. He had 
 stolen the company property from his partner ! 
 This pretence was aided by the Lord Advocate in 
 dicting Borthwick for the theft. The mere fact of 
 the partnership was an answer to this charge. No 
 doubt, there had been a conditional separation 
 between the partners : But Alexander having vio 
 lated one of the conditions by not paying a sum of 
 money, had been sued before the Burgh Court of 
 Glasgow by Borthwick for restitution of his rights ; 
 and that court had pronounced an unchallenged 
 interlocutor, authorising Borthwick to resume pos 
 session. He resumed it, and thus got legal access 
 to the papers, in which his interest as a partner had 
 never been extinguished even by the separation. 
 He gave them not in property but for his temporary 
 purpose, to Mr. Stuart, who could not, without 
 idiotcy, have declined receiving them. 
 
 On examining them, he was astonished to find 
 that the worst articles against him had been written 
 by Sir Alexander Boswell of Auchinleck, a relation, 
 with whom he had long been on good terms. Sir 
 Alexander had been aware of their impropriety, for 
 
394 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 they were written in a disguised hand. Mr. Stuart 
 having at last detected a respectable libeller, re 
 turned to Edinburgh, and waited the arrival of Sir 
 Alexander, who was in London. As soon as Sir 
 Alexander heard of the delivery of the papers, which 
 contained insults on many other gentlemen, his 
 conscience seems to have told him that he must 
 be challenged by somebody ; because, before any 
 challenge was given, he wrote to a friend asking 
 him to act as his second, and proposing a trip to the 
 Ehine u in the event of my being the successful 
 shot.&quot; He came to Edinburgh in a few days; when 
 he was waited upon by the Earl of Rosslyn on be 
 half of Mr. Stuart. He avowed himself respon 
 sible for the article selected as the ground of the call 
 a song in which Stuart was called a coward ; 
 and declining to apologize, a meeting was arranged. 
 The song was in his hand-writing ; and the idle 
 doubt attempted to be cast on this by the prosecutor 
 at the subsequent trial was never hinted at by Sir 
 Alexander himself. 
 
 They met near Auchtertool, in Fife, on the 22d 
 March 1822. Stuart, an awkward lumbering rider, 
 had never fired a pistol but once or twice from the 
 back of a horse in a troop of yeomanry. He stopped 
 at his beautiful Hillside near Aberdour, and arranged 
 some papers, and subscribed a deed of settlement. 
 Boswell, who was an expert shot, told his second 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 395 
 
 Mr. Douglas, that he meant to fire in the air. He 
 fell himself, however, at the first fire. Stuart told 
 me that he was never more thunderstruck than when 
 on the smoke clearing he saw his adversary sinking 
 gently down. Sir Alexander died at Balmuto in 
 two days. Stuart came to Edinburgh, and imme 
 diately withdrew to France. 
 
 The death of so valuable a partizan as Sir Alex 
 ander Bos well, though in fair duel, by the hand of 
 James Stuart, threw the Tory party into a flame, the 
 heat of which, I fear, reached even the department 
 of the public prosecutor. Nobody who knew Stuart s 
 temperament could believe that he did not mean to 
 stand his trial. But lest there should be any doubt 
 of it, Mr. Gibson, on Stuart s behalf, gave distinct 
 notice to the Sheriff that he would appear. Never 
 theless, after the original irritation had had months 
 to cool, a statement that he had absconded from 
 justice, under a consciousness of guilt, was put into 
 his indictment. This was of no real importance, 
 but it shewed the feeling. It was from jail that he 
 fled, not from justice. 
 
 The proceedings taken against Borthwick, on the 
 other hand, had the effect of giving to Stuart s pos 
 session of the papers a criminal character and ap 
 pearance. Borthwick was accused of theft ; and 
 being apprehended in Dundee, was brought to Ediri- 
 * Now Marquis of Queensberry. 
 
396 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 burgh and cast into prison, where for some time 
 access was denied to his friends and legal advisers. 
 He was placed at the bar of the Glasgow spring 
 circuit 1822, but the trial was not then proceeded 
 with 5 the diet was deserted pro loco et tempore, and 
 thus the harshness of his treatment could not regu 
 larly be exposed. His partner Alexander also came 
 forward as his private prosecutor on a nominal 
 variation of the same charge. The result was, that 
 he was kept under accusation until after Stuart s 
 trial. And at that trial, the counsel for Alexander 
 attended though not engaged in the case ; and by 
 rising and announcing that this and that witness, as 
 each retired from the witness box, would be required 
 for Borth wick s trial on the following Monday, gave 
 Stuart s duel an appearance of being connected with 
 Borthwick s theft This was repeated till the court 
 put him to silence. 
 
 The trial of Mr. Stuart took place on the 10th 
 of June 1822. No Scotch trial in my time excited 
 such interest. If the prosecutors were really anxious 
 for a conviction, their hopes vanished long before 
 their own case was closed. Beyond the admitted 
 fact that Boswell had fallen by his hand, there was 
 not a single circumstance that did not redound to 
 Stuart s credit. His injuries, his gentleness, his 
 firmness, his sensibility, and the necessity that he 
 was under, according to the existing law of society, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 397 
 
 of acting as he did, were all brought out by irresist 
 ible evidence ; while the excellence of his general 
 character was proved by many witnesses, several of 
 whom were purposely selected from his political 
 opponents. No verdict except the acquittal that 
 was almost instantly given, could have followed. 
 To try was quite right ; and duelling was then, as 
 now, an absurd and shocking remedy for private 
 insult. But considering what the tyranny of society 
 required, and what courts of justice had sanctioned, 
 the earnestness with which this prosecution was 
 pressed does appear strange. The Justice-Clerk,* 
 who presided at the trial, behaved admirably. 
 Stuart was no sooner acquitted, than the pretence 
 of accusing Borthwick of theft was dropped ; and he 
 was liberated without ever being brought to trial.f 
 
 * The Eight Hon. David Boyle. 
 
 f Lord Cockburn was counsel for Murray Borthwick. He was 
 also one of the counsel for Mr. Stuart ; and opened his defence in a 
 speech, which was thus characterized by Sir James Mackintosh in 
 the debate on the Scotch public press, in the House of Commons, 
 on 25th June 1822. &quot; He did not know whether the right honour 
 able gentleman had read the authentic report of the trial of Mr. 
 Stuart ; but he would there see a specimen of the manner in which 
 a counsel might discharge his duty to his client with the utmost 
 vigour, and at the sametime pay a due respect to the tribunals and 
 laws of the country. He might truly say, that the admirable 
 speech of Mr. Cockburn, in the case of Mr. Stuart, had not been 
 surpassed by any effort in the whole range of ancient or modern 
 forensic eloquence. It was a speech characterized by calm and 
 
398 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Mr. Stuart was singularly fortunate in both the 
 seconds. Bosslyn, the model of an old military 
 gentleman, combined the polite gallantry of that 
 profession with activity and talent in the conduct of 
 civil affairs, and was one of the most public-spirited 
 and useful noblemen in Scotland. Mr. Douglas, 
 though of moderate ability, was worthy and honest. 
 His candour in this affair, and the scorn with which, 
 after the fatal issue, he refused to join the cry of 
 his party against Stuart, made all gentlemen think 
 of the jeopardy in which the survivor and truth 
 might have stood, if Boswell had been otherwise 
 attended. 
 
 Boswell was able and literary ; and when in the 
 humour of being quiet, he was agreeable and kind. 
 But in general he was boisterous and overbearing, 
 and addicted to coarse personal ridicule. With 
 many respectable friends, his natural place was at 
 the head of a jovial board, where every one laughed 
 at his exhaustless spirits, but each trembled lest he 
 
 forcible reasoning, by chaste and classical diction, by the utmost 
 skill, delicacy, and address in the management of the most difficult 
 topics, and by a rare combination of zeal and ability in the cause of 
 his client, with respect to the feelings of all the parties concerned, 
 and a reverence for the rules of law and the austere decorum of a 
 court of justice. It was a speech, in short, which, as a specimen 
 of forensic eloquence, considered with reference to the peculiar diffi 
 culties with which the advocate had to contend, was unrivalled by 
 any similar effort in ancient or modern times.&quot; ED. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBUKN. 399 
 
 should be the subject of the next story or song. 
 The fact of a person of his rank writing anonymous 
 libels, for a blackguard newspaper, against an 
 acquaintance, in a disguised hand, affords a humil 
 iating example of the extent to which faction and 
 bad taste may corrupt men even of bold tempera 
 ment, and accustomed to the society of gentlemen. 
 He was a short time in parliament ; and it is curious 
 that it was he who introduced, or at least took charge 
 of, and carried the act* which abolishes our two old 
 Scotch statutes against fighting a duel, or sending a 
 challenge by the former of which the mere fighting, 
 without any result, was punishable by death. This 
 was his solitary piece of legislation, I believe. 
 
 Abercromby had given notice of a motion 
 respecting the conduct of the Lord Advocate with 
 relation to the Scotch public press, but from aver 
 sion to interfere with a depending prosecution, had 
 put it off. This obstacle being now removed, the 
 motion was discussed on the 25th of June 1822. 
 The motion was for a committee ; from which there 
 was a shabby escape by a majority of only twenty- 
 five. Another motion for papers in Borthwick s 
 case was successful : and these papers being obtained 
 the following session, Abercromby moved, on the 
 3d of June 1823, that the conduct and proceedings of 
 the Lord Advocate had been u unjust and oppres- 
 * 59th George III. c. 70. 
 
400 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 sive.&quot; This fatal charge was negatived by only 102 
 against 96. On the 9th of December 1822 Mr. 
 Gibson got a verdict, with 500 of damages, against 
 Mr. Stevenson, the printer of the Beacon, for libel. 
 In the preceding June Lord Archibald Hamilton 
 had also got a verdict against the same defender, 
 but, by a blunder of the Lord Chief Commissioner 
 in trying the case, the jury only gave a shilling of 
 damages, thinking that nothing more was asked. 
 But the defender, or his constituents, had to pay 
 about 300 of costs in each case, besides his own 
 expenses. And soon after the paper stopped, it was 
 found to be considerably in debt. So that, upon 
 the whole, what with thrashing, and shooting, and 
 parliamentary exposure, and damages, and expenses, 
 and detection, and disgrace, I don t believe that they 
 found libelling a good trade. 
 
 These judicial and parliamentary proceedings 
 abated the political cannibalism by which our com 
 fort had been torn. For the crisis in which not 
 merely opinions, but interests, were at stake, some 
 violence, and finally even acrimony, was perhaps 
 unavoidable. But a very little of the oil of charity 
 would have levelled and softened the surf. The irri 
 tation, however, instead of being soothed by anything 
 of this kind, was exasperated by the unfortunate 
 rise of a few young men who happened to be skil 
 ful in the art of personal ridicule, and whose test 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 401 
 
 of its excellence seemed to consist solely in the pain 
 it inflicted. Even they could have been very easily 
 kept in order by their leaders, who, however, unfor 
 tunately encouraged them in the course they were 
 following. In particular, Scott s conduct cannot be 
 thought of without the deepest sorrow. The happi 
 ness of the city was disturbed, persons he had long 
 professed and truly felt friendship for were vilified, 
 private feelings were lacerated ; and all this he could 
 have prevented by a word or a look. But instead 
 of preventing it, he gave it his countenance. Yet 
 there could not be a better natured, or a better 
 hearted, man. It was neither malice nor selfishness 
 that made him go wrong ; but the inconsiderate 
 weakness of yielding to those of his party whose 
 talents he admired, and who worshipped him as 
 their star. When they clustered round him, and 
 read him their verses, and represented their measures 
 as essential to the common cause, and appeared to 
 be bowing before him whom in truth they were mis 
 leading, they supplied him with feelings quite suffi 
 cient to account for his tolerance of their iniquities, 
 without any necessity for our supposing that he was 
 aware of the full extent of their guilt or its mischief. 
 His was the fault of unreflecting acquiescence. 
 
 It is very painful to remember these things. But 
 truth must not be sacrificed utterly. The annalist 
 restrains himself to the full extent of all reasonable 
 
 2D 
 
\ 
 
 402 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 charity, if he abstains from the statement of every 
 personal defect which is not necessary for the right 
 comprehension of an important public character, or 
 of guilt or folly which was felt and spoken of, by 
 candid men, as publicly dangerous at the time. No 
 one can have lived and acted in Edinburgh in my 
 day without finding much in its public characters 
 and transactions to be loved and admired, a great 
 
 / o 
 
 deal to be overlooked, and something to be unspar 
 ingly condemned. My error is, in being too gentle 
 with the last. 
 
 It was about this time that the Earl of Moray s 
 ground to the north of Charlotte Square began to be 
 broken up for being built on. It was then an open 
 field of as green turf as Scotland could boast of, 
 with a few respectable trees on the flat, and thickly 
 wooded on the bank along the Water of Leith. 
 Moray Place and Ainslie Place stand there now. It 
 was the beginning of a sad change, as we then felt. 
 That well-kept and almost evergreen field was the 
 most beautiful piece of ground in immediate connec 
 tion with the town, and led the eye agreeably over 
 to our distant northern scenery. How glorious the 
 prospect, on a summer evening, from Queen Street ! 
 We had got into the habit of believing that the mere 
 charm of the ground to us would keep it sacred, and 
 were inclined to cling to our conviction even after 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 403 
 
 we saw the foundations digging. We then thought 
 with despair of our lost verdure, our banished peace- 
 fulness, our gorgeous sunsets. But it was unavoid 
 able. We would never have got beyond the North 
 Loch, if these feelings had been conclusive. But 
 how can I forget the glory of that scene ! on the 
 still nights in which, with Eutherfurd and Eichard- 
 son and Jeffrey, I have stood in Queen Street, or the 
 opening at the north-west corner of Charlotte Square, 
 and listened to the ceaseless rural corn-craiks, nest 
 ling happily in the dewy grass. It would be some 
 consolation if the buildings were worthy of the situa 
 tion 5 but the northern houses are turned the wrong 
 way, and everything is sacrificed to the multiplica 
 tion of feuing feet. 
 
 The year 1823 opened with the annual Fox 
 dinner. Sir James Mackintosh, fresh from his instal 
 lation as Jeffrey s Eectorial successor at Glasgow, 
 presided; Cranstoun was croupier. Sir James, though 
 didactic, was good ; Cranstoun in his best style of 
 finished precision. Abercromby, who was now known 
 as the representative of the citizens, though not of 
 the city, calm and sensible, inspired the 400 who 
 were present with hope. A very successful convo 
 cation. 
 
 It was thought that the time had now arrived 
 
404 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME BY HENRY COCKBURN. 
 
 when a decided move might be made for a reform 
 of our parliamentary representation; and it was 
 resolved, that instead of weakening the particular 
 claim of Edinburgh by sinking it in the general ques 
 tion, we should put forward our own case by itself. 
 The reasons for this were, that Edinburgh being the 
 only city in Scotland that elected a member for itself, 
 no arrangement with other places was necessary, 
 and our claim was the strongest and simplest that 
 could be exhibited. In order to . prepare the way, 
 I was induced to write u Considerations submitted 
 to the Householders of Edinburgh on the State of 
 their Eepresentation in Parliament,&quot; explaining the 
 material facts and views. On the 8th of March 
 1823 the Pantheon was again filled. Mr. John 
 Craig, a merchant, and the biographer of his relative 
 Professor John Millar, presided, and a petition to 
 Parliament, written by Jeffrey, was adopted. Nobody 
 was allowed to sign it but householders. Of these, 
 old enough to sign, there were about 10,000 in the 
 city, of whom, in a few days, about 7000 subscribed 
 the petition a fact which compelled certain eyes 
 to see. Abercromby presented this petition on the 
 5th of May. On the 2d of June Lord Archibald 
 Hamilton moved for a reform of the Scotch county 
 representation generally, and was supported by 117 
 against 152 a cheering vote. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 MATTHEW Boss, a very distinguished person, and 
 Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, died in October 
 1823. As it is not the custom for our Deans to die, it 
 having never happened before (as was said), we ran 
 little risk from the precedent of an official funeral, 
 with which therefore he was honoured. He was a 
 most curious creature. A worthy innocent man, and 
 a very great chamber counsel, but with not a particle 
 of worldly knowledge except what he got from law 
 cases, and from novels, of which he was a great 
 devourer. He had very extensive practice with the 
 pen and the head, which brought him a respectable 
 fortune. His tongue never produced a guinea, for 
 he equalled his blushing brother Holland in bashful- 
 ness. Learned in every department of the law, a 
 clear and rather elegant legal writer, and of the 
 deepest and most inventive ingenuity, our judicial 
 records contain no arguments more deserving of 
 study by any one who is anxious to instruct his 
 understanding, or to improve his taste, from the 
 fountains of a great master. He was one of the 
 
406 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Pundits who cannot be pushed forward. Office, even 
 on the bench, had no attractions for a legal monk, 
 who dined in solitude at least 360 times a year, and 
 who could not be looked at without his face be 
 coming pink. He was so distressingly shy and 
 awkward, that, when George the Fourth was here, 
 he had to be deposed for the nonce from the Dean- 
 ship in favor of Lord Lauderdale, because the 
 attempt to deliver an address from the Faculty must 
 have killed him. The rough and changing world 
 got tired of his timidity, and his practice left him 
 while his powers were still entire. His glory and 
 his luxury was in a legal doubt. Sir Harry Mon- 
 creiff once made him give two opposite opinions in 
 one day, on the same case, by changing the names, 
 and hinting a difficulty. Matthew instantly followed 
 the false scent, and without seeing that the cases 
 were identical, hunted himself down. How often 
 have I seen the little short body, with his thin 
 powdered hair, his silk-clad bits of legs and silver- 
 buckled toes, sitting in his evening chair, in his little 
 room in Queen Street, with his blushing cheeks and 
 cunning eyes, reasoning himself into no result except 
 that the matter on which he was consulted was all 
 doubts, on each of which he would have a still 
 finer and deeper doubt, till at last he would good- 
 naturedly acquiesce in some practical man s pro 
 posal that we should all keep our thumbs on these 
 
BY HENEY COCKBURN. 407 
 
 doubts, and that neither the Court nor the opposite 
 party would dream of them which they very 
 rarely did. 
 
 In 1823 Lord Bannatyne resigned his seat on 
 the bench, and John Clerk was announced as his 
 successor. With his crotchets, and his tendency to 
 torpidity when not excited, Clerk could not per 
 haps have made a safe judge at any time ; but it was 
 a severe trial to be promoted in his sixty -fifth year, 
 and when his vigour had begun to ebb. He had 
 drawn more money than any man had ever done at 
 the Scotch bar, probably not under 100,000 in the 
 last twenty years of his energy. But pictures, books, 
 hospitality, charity, and general bad management 
 left him a poor man after all. People could not 
 believe their ears when they heard that John Clerk 
 was to go, or was to get, upon the bench. They 
 could not think of him except as a man who was 
 born to tear and snarl at judges. In the wiry un 
 combed locks, breaking out from below the wig, 
 and the shrewd sensible face, the contracted limb, 
 and the strong arms, they saw the traces of a thou 
 sand tough battles ; and could not believe that these 
 were all over, and that John was henceforth only to 
 be seen seated, decorously, on a high place. The 
 Court was unusually crowded when he took his seat. 
 As he was limping from the floor to the bench, an 
 
408 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 old agent, who remembered other days, was over 
 heard ejaculating to himself &quot; Eh ! is he gaain up 
 amang them!&quot; He expected a worry the instant 
 that the wolf got among the lambs. Clerk was a 
 warning to all counsel to beware of leaning on 
 violent energy as their permanent staff. It is at 
 tractive to clients, and therefore does vulgarly well 
 for a certain time. But, among other misfortunes, 
 it is necessarily temporary. It does not become 
 grey hairs ; and though it did, old blood can t keep 
 it up. Clerk did not increase, as Blair did, in 
 awfulness and weight with age. This is the ripen 
 ing of wisdom. He let himself settle into the habit 
 of having little intellect except under excitement; 
 and this age must always chill. Energy of thought 
 may last as long as the lamp burns : but fierce 
 vehemence dies out, and the lamp is quenched be 
 fore its time. 
 
 The Court of Session was now doomed to stand 
 its trial again, for the third or fourth time within 
 twenty years. The object in view in 1807, and 
 effected, was to cut the old court into two 1 divi 
 sions. The introduction of civil juries was the 
 problem of 1815. And now came the examina 
 tion of its forms of proceeding. Each of these 
 was a natural and necessary step in the process 
 of fitting the tribunal to modern circumstances. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 409 
 
 This last inquiry was by sixteen Eoyal Commis 
 sioners ; including our four heads namely Hope 
 Lord President, Boyle Justice-Clerk, Shepherd Chief 
 Baron, and Adam Chief Commissioner, with the 
 Dean, the Lord Advocate, and the Solicitor-General, 
 Baron Hume, the Depute-Keeper of the Signet, and 
 four English lawyers. These four were Tindal 
 afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 
 William Alexander afterwards Chief Baron of Eng 
 land, Littledale afterwards a judge, and Courteiiay 
 afterwards Earl of Devon. They began work in 
 1823, and the invaluable statute of 1825 was the 
 result of their labours, These were two years of as 
 great excitement, and as keen discussion, as legal 
 reform ever produces. The great points considered 
 and resolved upon in the Commission were 1. The 
 introduction of a system of pleading, particularly by 
 Eecords ; 2. The diminution of writing, and the 
 consequent extension of oral debate ; 3. The earlier 
 finality of judgments ; 4. The maintenance of civil 
 juries. 
 
 What was called the country, that is, the country 
 as represented by town councils and lairds was 
 nearly unanimous against this reform. These persons 
 never exhibited themselves more discreditably. 
 They knew nothing, and indeed were incapable of 
 being made to know anything, of the subject; but 
 being at all times saturated with aversion to innova- 
 
410 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 tion they gave their voices to certain professional 
 persons who misled them. These persons had the 
 usual professional addiction to the things they had 
 lived by ; and their zeal was most extraordinary. 
 Thus instructed, resolutions against trial by jury, 
 and in favor of the system under which all evidence 
 was taken on commission, records were unknown, 
 no single judgment, however solemn, was final, and 
 all statements and arguments were in writing, were 
 passed by almost every burgh and every county in 
 Scotland ! All this ignorant hubbub w r as met, on the 
 part of Government, by the single fact, that every 
 Commissioner had set his hand to the Eeport. Of 
 all the flights of pamphlets with which the air, 
 throughout these two years, was darkened, there 
 were only two, or rather only one, now worth being 
 looked at. This was an u Explanation &quot; addressed 
 by George Joseph Bell to the Lords Committee 
 an admirable sketch, containing a clear exposition 
 of our old forms, and a powerful defence of the pro 
 posed new ones. The other consisted of two letters, 
 published anonymously, but understood to be written 
 by Lord Eosslyn. These judicial shakes remind 
 one of James the Fifth s letter to the judges about a 
 fortnight after the institution of the Court ending, 
 u And we ll be at ye, peradventure, sum day whan 
 ye nocht think.&quot;* 
 
 * I daresay these English lawyers thought our system very 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 411 
 
 It was in 1823, I think, that the last fragment of 
 our Royal Botanical Garden was removed from its 
 situation on the west side of Leith AValk, and that 
 the transplantation of the whole to its present site 
 at Inveiieith was completed. No garden could be 
 made to walk a mile with less injury to its health. 
 Scarcely a single plant or tree was lost, and after 
 recovering from their first sickness, they looked 
 fresher and prouder than ever. Dr. Graham, the 
 Professor, was a respectable botanist, and a good 
 teacher, and in his first lieutenant, Macnab, he had 
 a most admirable practical man. That chair is one 
 of the best botanical prizes in Britain. Few things 
 of the kind are more enviable than a taste for that 
 science, with such a garden, such funds, and such a 
 class. It was nearly about the same time that u The 
 
 strange, and had no misgiving about touching it. But did any of 
 them think of their own ? Their day had not come then. But 
 since that, reforming Peers and Commoners, Committees, Law- 
 improving Societies, and Parliaments, have been all toiling to prove 
 that &quot; the perfection of right reason &quot; is the accumulated imper 
 fection of the greatest folly. They would have been infinitely the 
 better of having a few Scotch lawyers among their native reformers. 
 For in point of simplicity and common sense we are far before 
 them. While they were changing some of our forms, it is a mercy 
 they had no authority to meddle with our law. 
 
 * On the publication of Art. 2 of No. 115 of the Edinburgh 
 Keview (April 1833), the town council of Edinburgh, who are 
 the chief patrons of this chair, were much blamed for having pre 
 ferred Graham to Sir Edward Smith. And if they had done so, 
 
412 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Horticultural Society,&quot; which had been set up in 
 1809, opened its kindred and adjoining &quot;Experi 
 mental Garden.&quot; Conducted, as it was at first, by 
 such men as Ellis and Neill it could scarcely fail, 
 and has always done as well as low funds allow. 
 But Flora and poverty make but a bad match. 
 
 Eecent events provoked me to write an article in 
 the Edinburgh Eeview on the nature of the office of 
 Lord Advocate ; * and this, in about a year, forced 
 me in self defence to answer a plausible pamphlet 
 ascribed to one of the Lord Advocate s deputes.f 
 The institution of a public prosecutor is certainly a 
 very valuable part of our system, and the duties of 
 the office cannot be better performed than they have 
 long been in Scotland, in ordinary cases. But this 
 is surely quite consistent with its being a dangerous 
 office, when its holder is employed as a political 
 agent. My object was to explain the causes and 
 temptations which may make his position injurious 
 to his purely accusative virtues. Yet I now see 
 that, under the feelings of the period, I stated the 
 expediency of keeping the Lord Advocate to the 
 
 they would have deserved all the censure that could be given them. 
 But the fact is, that Graham, was appointed before Smith s willing 
 ness to take the chair was known, and the folly of the patrons 
 consisted in their making any appointment so hurriedly. 
 
 * Edinburgh Keview, No. 78, Art. 5 January 1824. 
 
 f Edinburgh Keview, No. 82, Art. 8 January 1825. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 413 
 
 public prosecutor s desk far too strongly. His being 
 in Parliament, and considered as a high public offi 
 cer, and intrusted with a liberal direction of all 
 matters connected with our legal polity, is essential 
 both to the dignity and to the practical usefulness 
 of his place. I am also wrong grossly wrong, in 
 saying a word in favor of grand juries. The dis 
 closure of an inclination to tolerate such an incum- 
 brance in a country with a public accuser, shews 
 the desperate remedies that the misconduct of these 
 days had driven us in quest of. 
 
 The Fox dinner was held on the 26th of January 
 1824, under the presidency of Lord Archibald 
 Hamilton and Mr. Ferguson of Eaith, with about 
 300 present. Jeffrey made one of his noblest bursts 
 in admiration of the good parts of the constitution 
 of America. 
 
 In the following month, Abercromby moved for 
 leave to introduce a bill for reforming the represen 
 tation of Edinburgh. He was defeated of course ; 
 but only by 99 against 75. The amount of the 
 minority, and the admission of the majority that, 
 taken by itself, the Scotch representation was inde 
 fensible, but that we were under the shelter of the 
 representation of England, confirmed us in our re 
 solution to persevere. He renewed his motion on 
 
414 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 13th April 1826. It was then supported by 97, but 
 opposed by 122. The increase on the vote was good : 
 but the admission by Canning that, if any change 
 had been expedient, the idea that articles of Union 
 could be held up as an insuperable obstacle, as had 
 been urged, ought to be u scouted&quot; was still better.* 
 
 Leonard Horner and I had often discussed the 
 causes, and the remedies, of the decline of classical 
 education in Scotland ; and we were at last satisfied 
 that no adequate improvement could be effected so 
 long as there was only one great classical school in 
 Edinburgh, and this one placed under the town 
 council, and lowered, perhaps necessarily, so as to 
 suit the wants of a class of boys to more than two- 
 thirds of whom classical accomplishment is foreseen 
 to be useless. So one day on the top of one of the 
 
 * Sir Walter s account of the state of the burghal classes about 
 this time is very candid, and very correct. In a letter to Sir 
 Robert Dundas written in March 1826 (Lockhart s Life of Scott, 
 chap. 69), he says, &quot; The whole burgher class of Scotland are 
 gradually preparing for radical reform I mean the middling and 
 respectable classes ; and when a burgh reform comes, which per 
 haps cannot long be delayed, ministers will not return a member 
 for Scotland from the towns. The gentry will abide longer by 
 sound principles ; for they are needy and desire advancement for 
 their sons, and appointments, and so on. But this is a very hollow 
 dependence.&quot; This is the defence of existing things, by their most 
 intelligent defender ; who calls men &quot;scamps&quot; for being in favor 
 of these reforms. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 415 
 
 Pentlands emblematic of the solidity of our foun 
 dation and of the extent of our prospects we two 
 resolved to set about the establishment of a new 
 school. On taking others into council we found 
 that the conviction of the inadequacy of the High 
 School was far more general than we supposed. 
 Scott took it up eagerly, The sum of 10,000 was 
 subscribed immediately ; and soon afterwards about 
 2000 more. We were fiercely opposed, as we ex 
 pected, by the town council ; and, but not fiercely, 
 by a few of the friends of the institution we were 
 going to encroach upon. But, after due discussion 
 and plotting, our contributors finally resolved to 
 proceed, and in 1823 the building was begun. It 
 was opened, under the title of &quot; The Edinburgh 
 Academy,&quot; on the 1st of October 1824, amidst 
 a great assemblage of proprietors, pupils, and 
 the public. We had a good prayer by Sir Harry 
 Moncreiif, and speeches by Scott and old Henry 
 Mackenzie, and an important day for education 
 in Scotland, in reference to the middle and upper 
 classes. Mackenzie s vigour was delightful. Though 
 about eighty he made an animated address, exulting 
 in the rise of a new school upon a reformed system. 
 About a month before this he one day appeared at 
 Bonaly to breakfast, played bowls most part of the 
 forenoon, had a party at dinner in his own house, 
 where Richardson and I left him predominating in 
 
416 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 full talk to a larger party at eleven. He almost 
 admitted that a report of his being under temptation 
 by a bookseller to write a volume of his personal 
 reminiscences was correct. I hoped the temptation 
 would prevail ; for he has seen all the curious men 
 of a bye-gone age. Yet it is nearly impossible for 
 an old good man to remember truly. Whatever it is 
 amiable to soften or to forget, is forgotten or softened, 
 the angularities of nature are smoothed down, and 
 everything is coloured by the haze of tenderness. He 
 told us many interesting anecdotes that day ; but on 
 our hoping to see them in the book, we got a shake of 
 the head. I suspect there was a good deal of prosaic 
 truth in the account which a Highland gentleman, 
 who had marched all the way to Derby with the Pre 
 tender, gave him of that romantic adventure. Mac 
 kenzie asked him whether he did not always think 
 the idea of dethroning the House of Hanover absurd ? 
 &quot; Na, Sir ! I ne er thocht aboot it. I just ay thocht 
 hoopleesant it wad be to see Donald riflin Lon on.&quot; 
 
 Another luminary, which for several years had 
 been attracting notice, was now fixed in our Scottish 
 sky I mean Thomas Chalmers. I have known 
 him long, and pretty well. There can scarcely be a 
 more curious man. When I first became acquainted 
 with him, he used to leave his parish of Kilmany 
 twice or thrice a week to lecture in St. Andrews on 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 417 
 
 chemistry. And not confining himself to physical 
 science, he stored his mind during this first stage of 
 his course by a general study of the principles of 
 moral and political philosophy. In this position, of 
 an indifferent minister, and a lecturer rather ardent 
 than exact, he produced a strong impression of his 
 energy and ability on all who were within his range. 
 But it was only on being elevated by the deep reli 
 gious feelings which afterwards took possession of 
 him that his powers were developed in their full 
 -force. From that moment he was a new creature ; 
 and devoted himself, as if with new faculties, to the 
 moral and religious improvement of his countrymen. 
 The high station which he soon attained wakened 
 his ambition, and has dignified his powers. Of the 
 result, in so far as it is contained in a constant and 
 copious stream of published composition and of 
 public exertion, any one can judge. But eloquence 
 records its character feebly. He is awkward, and has 
 a low rough husky voice, a guttural articulation, a 
 whitish eye, and a large dingy countenance. In point 
 of mere feature, it would not be difficult to think him 
 ugly. But he is saved from this, and made interest 
 ing and loveable, by singular modesty, kindness, 
 and simplicity of manner, a strong expression of 
 calm thought and benevolence, a forehead so broad 
 that it seems to proclaim itself the seat of a great 
 intellect, a love of humour, and an indescribable 
 
 2E 
 
418 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 look of drollery when anything ludicrous comes 
 over him. 
 
 In spite of the external disadvantages of a bad 
 figure, voice, gesture, and look, and an unusual 
 plainness of Scotch accent, he is a great orator ; for 
 effect indeed, at the moment of speaking, unap- 
 proached in our day. Yet he seldom utters an ex 
 temporaneous word. His habit is to have every 
 thing written, to the very letter. The success of 
 the very few attempts at unprepared speaking which 
 he has ever been obliged to make removes all doubt 
 of his power, if he had chosen to practise it. But it 
 is not his way. He feels stronger in building up 
 before hand, and giving the public the mere recita 
 tion. But then he premeditates and composes with 
 an exact anticipation of his speaking position ; and, 
 neither in recollecting nor in reading, could any 
 one unacquainted with his system discover that his 
 memory or his eye were particularly engaged ; and 
 he does truly glow with the warmth of present con 
 ception. Still, the habit impairs his power of reply. 
 But it does not impair his general impressiveness. 
 On the contrary, by withdrawing him from the 
 temptations of personality, and the little tricks and 
 idle flashes of what is commonly called debate, it 
 leaves him freer for his own loftier range, into 
 which he rarely fails to put views and statements, 
 Avhich, in truth though not in form, are answers to 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 419 
 
 all that can be said on the opposite side. But 
 neither devotional fervour, nor enlightened philo 
 sophy, nor vivid language, nor luminous exposition 
 could produce the effect he does, without the aid of 
 his manner. I have often hung upon his words with 
 a beating heart and a tearful eye, without being 
 brought to my senses till I read, next day, the very 
 syllables that had moved me to such admiration, 
 but which then seemed cold. The magic lies in the 
 concentrated intensity which agitates every fibre of 
 the man, and brings out his meaning by words and 
 emphasis of significant force, and rolls his magnificent 
 periods clearly and irresistibly along, and kindles 
 the whole composition with living fire. He no 
 sooner approaches the edge of his high region, than 
 his animation makes the commencing awkwardness 
 be forgotten, and then converts his external defects 
 into positive advantages, by shewing the intellectual 
 power that overcomes them ; and getting us at 
 last within the flames of his enthusiasm, Jeffrey s 
 description, that a he buried his adversaries under 
 the fragments of burning mountains,&quot; is the only 
 image that suggests an idea of his eloquent imagi 
 nation and terrible energy. Personally, he appears 
 to me to be simple, affectionate, and true, devoted 
 to useful objects, and utterly unspoiled by applause. 
 I was so much struck with the wisdom and energy 
 of his system for the management of the poor, 
 
420 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 that I wrote an article in explanation and defence 
 of it.* 
 
 In June 1824 a noble range of houses, forming 
 the upper end of the south side of the High Street, 
 and the north-eastern corner of the Parliament Close, 
 was burnt to the ground. This was talked of at the 
 time as the most extensive conflagration remembered 
 in this stony city. But it was soon eclipsed by what 
 have ever since been referred to as &quot; The Great 
 Fires.&quot; 
 
 These fires broke out on the evening of Monday 
 the 15th of November 1824, on the south side of the 
 High Street about half way between the Tron Church 
 and St. Giles Cathedral ; and before morning a 
 range of houses six or seven stories high, with fifteen 
 windows in front, and extending back almost to 
 the Cowgate as dense a mass of buildings as was 
 perhaps in the world, was a burnt shell. People 
 thought this bad enough ; especially as the adjoining 
 ruins of the June fire were still untouched. But 
 about noon next day an alarm was given that the 
 Tron Church was on fire. We ran out from the 
 Court, gowned and wigged, and saw that it was the 
 steeple, an old Dutch thing, composed of wood, 
 iron, and lead, and edged all the way up with bits of 
 ornament. Some of the sparks of the preceding night 
 * Edinburgh Review, No. 81, art. 11 October 1824. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 421 
 
 had nestled in it, and had at last blown its dry bones 
 into flame. There could not be a more beautiful 
 firework ; only it was wasted on the day -light. It 
 was one hour s brilliant blaze. The spire was too 
 high and too combustible to admit of any attempt to 
 save it, so that we had nothing to do but to admire. 
 And it was certainly beautiful. The fire seized on 
 every projecting point, and played with the fret 
 work, as if it had been all an exhibition. The outer 
 covering boards were soon consumed, and the lead 
 dissolved. This made the strong upright and cross 
 beams visible ; and these stood, with the flame 
 lessened, but with the red fire increased, as if it had 
 been a great burning toy. The conflagration was 
 long presided over by a calm and triumphant gilded 
 cock on the top of the spire, which seemed to look 
 on the people, and to listen to the crackling, in dis 
 dain. But it was undermined at last, and dived 
 down into the burning gulf, followed by the upper 
 half of the steeple. The lower half held out a little 
 longer ; till, the very bell being melted, this half 
 came down also, with a world of sparks. There was 
 one occurrence which made the gazers start. It 
 was at a quarter before twelve, when the minute 
 hand of the clock stood horizontally. The internal 
 heat for the clock was untouched outwardly 
 cracked the machinery, and the hand dropped sud 
 denly and silently down to the perpendicular. When 
 
422 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 the old time-keep er s function was done, there was 
 an audible sigh over the spectators. When it was 
 all over, and we were beginning to move back to 
 our clients, Scott, whose father s pew had been in 
 the Tron Church, lingered a moment, and said, with 
 a profound heave, &quot; Eh Sirs ! mony a weary, weary 
 sermon hae I heard beneath that steeple ! &quot; 
 
 About nine that evening I went over to the old 
 town to see what was going on. There were a good 
 many people on the street, but no appearance of any 
 new danger. I had not been home again above 
 half an hour, when it was supposed that the sky 
 was unnaturally red. In spite of Hermand s remon 
 strances, whose first tumbler was nearly ready, I 
 hurried back, and found the south-east angle of the 
 Parliament Close burning violently. This was in 
 the centre of the same thick-set population and 
 buildings 5 but the property was far more valuable. 
 It was almost touching Sir William Forbes bank, 
 the Libraries of the Advocates and of the Writers 
 to the Signet, the Cathedral, and the Courts. Of 
 course the alarm was very great ; but this seemed 
 only to increase the confusion. No fire ever got 
 fairer play. Judges, magistrates, officers of state, dra 
 goons, librarians, people described as heads of bodies 
 were all mixed with the mob, all giving peremp 
 tory and inconsistent directions, and all, with angry 
 and provoking folly, claiming paramount authority. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBUKN. 423 
 
 It was said to have been mooted, and rather sternly 
 discussed, on the street whether the Lord Provost 
 could order the Justice-Clerk to prison, or the Jus 
 tice the Provost, and whether George Cranstoun, 
 the Dean of the Faculty, was bound to work at an 
 engine, when commanded by John Hope the Solici 
 tor-General to do so, or vice versa. Then the fire 
 men were few and awkward, and the engines out of 
 order ; so that while torrents of water were run 
 ning down the street, nobody could use it. Amidst 
 this confusion, inefficiency, and squabble for dignity, 
 the fire held on till next morning ; by which time 
 the whole private buildings in tbe Parliament Close, 
 including the whole east side, and about half of the 
 south side, were consumed. 
 
 On going to Court that morning, I found that an 
 adjournment had taken place ; and that the College, 
 Arthur Seat, and all the southern and eastern objects 
 which had been screened for ages were now seen 
 over the fallen ruins. The only remaining danger 
 was from two walls, standing alone, which it was 
 thought a breeze might make smother everything 
 near them. Both were brought down on the Satur 
 day (20th Nov. 1824), one by ropes, and one by 
 powder. The one that was subdued by ropes was 
 near the east end of the south side of the square. 
 It was part of the tallest house in Edinburgh, and 
 was then probably the tallest self-standing wall in 
 
424 MEMOEIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Europe being, from the Cowgate, about 130 feet 
 high. It was pulled down by a party of sailors 
 from a frigate in Leith Eoads, who required two 
 days to get it within their toils. 
 
 The dissolution of the other was a grand thing. 
 It had formed nearly the whole east side of the 
 square, and was steadied by a piece of wall standing 
 at a right angle to it, which acted like a buttress. 
 Five holes, or mines, were sunk in this buttress, 
 into each of which a pound of powder was put. 
 Two of these failed to explode, and two exploded 
 too late, so that one shot did the business. In going 
 off this made a dull noise like a thump as if to 
 warn the spectators, on the house tops, that the 
 time was come. In a second or two, during which 
 hardly a breath was drawn, the buttress fell across 
 the main wall, which stood alone, staring with its 
 windows. But seeing its old associate down, it bent 
 slowly and slightly forward, as if turned on a hinge 
 at the ground, bringing with it its windows and 
 grates, and other vestiges of recent order and com 
 fort, without the least noise, or any visible fracture, 
 but with awful steadiness and tenacity. This 
 scarcely lasted above a second or two when every 
 stone dropped from its place, and falling straight 
 down, the whole mass disappeared in a shower of 
 fragments, which after dashing themselves on the 
 ground sent up a thick fog of lime dust, that pow- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 425 
 
 dered every coat on the top of the Outer House, 
 where I stood ; while the shout of the people was 
 heard through the white gloom. It was sublime. 
 I can never forget the emotion when the large 
 scorched screen, beholding all its old companions 
 gone, and not another stone in its place on that side 
 of the square, bent forward, and laid itself in chaos 
 on the ground. 
 
 Jeffrey presided at the Fox dinner on the 24th of 
 January 1825 ; Moncreiff was croupier. It was a 
 new position for Jeffrey ; but he adorned it by great 
 thought, and great beauty of diction. This, I think, 
 was the last of these festivals. They were never 
 meant to be perpetual ; but were only resorted to 
 for political union and excitement during the stage 
 that we had now passed through. Public meetings of 
 all kinds soon became so common that, as substantive 
 events, they are not worth recording. These Fox 
 dinners did incalculable good. They animated, and 
 instructed, and consolidated the Whig party with 
 less trouble and more effect than anything else that 
 could have been devised. A kindred gathering upon 
 a larger scale was held on the 5th of April 1825, 
 when a public dinner was given to Brougham upon 
 his first return to Edinburgh. About 850 were 
 present ; being more, I believe, than had ever 
 attended a public political dinner in Scotland. Of 
 
426 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 these about fifty were known, and other fifty under 
 stood, to dissent from the political creed of the 
 meeting, and to have been attracted by curiosity, 
 or by personal regard to Brougham. But there 
 certainly were 750 persons there openly professing 
 Whiggisni. I had the misfortune to be in the chair. 
 When the waiters were clearing the tables, and the 
 talking time was approaching, Brougham told me 
 that he thought the most alarming moment of life 
 was, when the Speaker, after settling himself into his 
 chair for an important debate, paused for an instant 
 before calling up the mover ; but that he would 
 rather endure that a hundred times than rise and 
 address the audience before him, which, he said, was 
 the largest he had ever spoken to under a roof. If 
 this was the feeling of that practised orator, I need 
 not be ashamed to confess that I felt very uneasy. 
 However it was, on the whole, a successful and 
 impressive meeting. 
 
 We were now in a pretty keen conflict about the 
 Edinburgh Improvements, a subject which blazed for 
 a good many years after this. It all related to the 
 creation of the new southern access by George the 
 Fourth s Bridge, and of the new western access 
 by the west approach along the Castle Hill. &quot; There 
 were three parties 1st. Those who would be taxed 
 for nothing. 2d. Those who, being personally in- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 427 
 
 terested, insisted to have themselves and every 
 body else taxed to any extent. 3d. Those (of 
 whom I took the lead) who were willing to be 
 taxed, provided new statutory securities were given 
 for the perpetual openness of Princes Street and 
 the Mound. This last party finally prevailed : and 
 had it not been for its efforts, Edinburgh would 
 have been destroyed. These statutory precautions 
 may possibly be all disregarded hereafter. This 
 will be the loss and the disgrace of the people them 
 selves, of whom, from their ordinary apathy about 
 the beauty of their city, I certainly forebode no good. 
 But meanwhile we did our duty, by both giving 
 them the means of new improvement, and of saving 
 what excellence they already have.* Some people 
 let their picturesque taste get so sickly that they 
 sigh over the destruction of every old nuisance or 
 incumbrance. But they never try to live among 
 these fragments, nor think of the human animals who 
 burrow there. Everything that has an old history, 
 or an old ornament, or an old peculiarity, if it can 
 be preserved, ought to be preserved in spite of all 
 living inconvenience. In these matters mere aiiti- 
 
 * Scott s Monument has since been erected on Princes Street ; 
 and the Art Galleries are rising on the Mound ; and a railway 
 pollutes the valley. But the last of these perfidies was irresistible ; 
 and the other two abatements of the strict exemption that was 
 obtained were consented to, and were quite right. 
 
428 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 quity is better entitled to be respected than existing 
 comfort. It is not once in a thousand times that the 
 two are really incompatible. But it does not follow 
 that present necessities and tastes are to be sacrificed 
 for the preservation of every tottering gable that 
 would look well in one of Weirrotter s etchings. 
 That the new approaches are immense improvements 
 cannot be doubted. That the assessment was too high, 
 and that there was jobbing, and mismanagement, 
 and trick, and ill humour, and folly, is true. But 
 this bad was temporary, and the good is permanent. 
 And it is also true that the south approach might 
 have been joined to the New Town at a better level, 
 and in a far more handsome manner. But still what 
 we got was better than nothing. 
 
 There was at this period, and for some years 
 both before and after, a very pretty quarrel between 
 the people of Leith and the town council of Edin 
 burgh. The council was the proprietor of the 
 harbour, and superior of the town of Leith 5 and, as 
 such, had the entire mismanagement of that place. 
 The result consequently was that the docks were 
 bankrupt, and that though Leith was then even 
 baser in its politics than its masters, the masters had 
 scarcely a friend in that town. At last, after a long, 
 and now incomprehensible, but most rancorous 
 jumble which, whatever its details, was in principle 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 429 
 
 a struggle for liberation on the one side, and for 
 power on the other, Edinburgh fell into a pit dug 
 by itself. It proposed to sell the harbour and the 
 docks to a joint-stock company, which was to pay the 
 debt, and to make money by imposing higher rates. 
 The shares were speedily sold, and a bill to legalize 
 the transaction was brought into Parliament. But 
 the opposition to it was made irresistible by the 
 discovery that several of the town council were 
 shareholders ; that is, that the public trustees had 
 sold the subject of the trust to themselves for indi 
 vidual profit. After this truth had transpired, 
 Abercromby had little difficulty in getting this 
 municipal job quashed. The merchant company of 
 Leith, a strongly Tory body, thanked him and their 
 other parliamentary supporters almost all Whigs, 
 for u defending the rights of an unrepresented trading 
 port against the influence of a great city having 
 powerful parliamentary friends.&quot; The expression of 
 this truth, that Leith had suffered from want of repre 
 sentation, was worth the whole struggle. The con 
 flict raged for a long time : but its result was that, 
 bit by bit, Leith was successful ; till at last, though 
 not a royal burgh, it, like some other places, was 
 included in the general measures that were adopted 
 in a few years after this for the cleansing of those 
 chartered abominations. Throughout the course of 
 the dispute, the parties were fairly enough matched 
 
430 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 in point of intemperance and unreasonableness ; and 
 if Leitli had the advantage in coarse violence, Edin 
 burgh was compensated by its superiority in dis 
 dainful insolence. In the eyes of quiet observers, 
 the true value of the affair lay in its aiding the 
 growth of independence in Leith. The town council 
 actually succeeded in creating a public spirit in 
 that prostrate place. 
 
 The opening of the year 1826 will ever be sad to 
 those who remember the thunderbolt which then fell 
 on Edinburgh in the utterly unexpected bankruptcy 
 of Scott, implying the ruin of Constable the book 
 seller, and of Ballantyrie the printer. If an earth 
 quake had swallowed half the town, it would not 
 have produced greater astonishment, sorrow, and 
 dismay. Ballantyne and Constable were merchants, 
 and their fall, had it reached no further, might have 
 been lamented merely as the casualty of commerce. 
 But Sir Walter ! The idea that his practical sense 
 had so far left him as to have permitted him to 
 dabble in trade, had never crossed our imagination. 
 How humbled we felt when we saw him the pride 
 of us all, dashed from his lofty and honourable 
 station, and all the fruits of his well-worked talents 
 gone. He had not then even a political enemy. 
 There was not one of those whom his thoughtlessness 
 had so sorely provoked, who would not have given 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 431 
 
 every spare farthing lie possessed to retrieve Sir 
 Walter. Well do I remember his first appearance 
 after this calamity was divulged, when he walked 
 into Court one day in January 1826. There was 
 no affectation, and no reality, of facing it ; no look 
 of indifference or defiance ; but the manly and modest 
 air of a gentleman conscious of some folly, but of 
 perfect rectitude, and of most heroic and honourable 
 resolutions. It was on that very day, I believe, 
 that he said a very fine thing. Some of his friends 
 offered him, or rather proposed to offer him, enough 
 of money, as was supposed, to enable him to arrange 
 with his creditors. He paused for a moment ; and 
 then, recollecting his powers, said proudly &quot; No ! this 
 right hand shall work it all off ! &quot; His friend William 
 Clerk supped with him one night after his ruin was 
 declared. They discussed the whole affair, its causes 
 and probable consequences, openly and playfully; 
 till at last they laughed over their noggins at the 
 change, and Sir Walter observed that he felt u some 
 thing like Lambert and the other Eegicides, who, 
 Pepys says when he saw them going to be hanged 
 and quartered, were as cheerful and comfortable as 
 any gentlemen could be in that situation.&quot; 
 
 * Scott says in his Diary, 17th January 826, &quot; I felt rather 
 sneaking as I came home from the Parliament House felt as if I 
 were liable monstrari digito in no very pleasant way,&quot; etc. (Lock- 
 hart s Life, c. 66). Very natural for him to feel so; but it was 
 the feeling of nobody else. 
 
432 MEMORIALS OF HTS TIME 
 
 In spite of great mercantile depression, this was 
 the period of the most violent Joint- Stock mania 
 that ever seized this kingdom. I could not have 
 conceived that madness could be so universal. There 
 was no peculiar temptation, from high profits, for 
 men not regular merchants to adventure in trade 5 
 nor were purses too heavy with unemployed guineas ; 
 nor was any new field suddenly discovered. It was 
 a mere Joint-Stock epidemic. Wofully were those 
 who relied on the prudence of the Scotch deceived. 
 Neither the Parisians during the Mississippi insanity, 
 nor the English under the South Sea delusion, ex 
 ceeded the folly, or the knavery, of the cautious and 
 moral Scot under his excitement of 1825 and 1826. 
 The newspapers of the day contain little else than 
 advertisements and recommendations of Joint-Stock 
 Associations, in not one out of five hundred of 
 which was there either plausibility or honesty. 
 Everything unattainable, or useless if attained, was 
 to be made easy and valuable, provided people 
 would only take shares ; which the ignorant, the 
 excited, and the deceived by gambling directors or 
 by paid secretaries and agents, took to no other 
 effect than enabling fraudulent speculators to make 
 gain in the market by crazy prices, paid by fools, 
 for what did not exist. The schemes were so 
 numerous, that after exhausting every subject to 
 which they could be applied, there was actually a 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 433 
 
 joint-stock company instituted for the purpose of 
 projecting and organising joint-stock companies. 
 The fever lasted about a year. Not one honest ; 
 penny was made out of all this villainy and folly. 
 The loss was enormous. 
 
 Among other remedies for the prevailing com 
 mercial distress, Government proposed to check the 
 unlimited circulation of small notes by the Scotch 
 banks. Whether this was wise or not, there can be 
 no doubt that the matter was taken up by the 
 ministry in a narrow, ignorant, and exclusively 
 English spirit. This country was instantly in a 
 blaze from one end to the other. I never saw Scot 
 land unanimous before. It was really refreshing to 
 see the spirit with which the whole land rose as one 
 man. Even the Tories were for a season reconciled 
 to resistance and public meetings. The Lord Pro 
 vost of Edinburgh presided at an assemblage of the 
 lieges, where there was more violence, though the 
 meeting was composed solely of what are techni 
 cally called respectable persons, than in all the past 
 gatherings of the Whigs put together. Scott, tempted 
 by the bankers, came forward, under the name of 
 Malachi Malagrowther, in the new character of a 
 political pamphleteer. Poets may be excused for 
 being bad political economists. If a nice question 
 of monetary or commercial policy could be settled 
 
 by jokes, Malachi would be a better economist than 
 
 2 F 
 
434 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Adam Smith. His lamentations over the loss of 
 Scotch sinecures was very injudicious, and did 
 neither him nor such of these things as remained 
 any good. He was mentioned in Parliament by his 
 own friends with less respect than one would ever 
 wish to be shewn him. 
 
 The opening in 1826 of an establishment called 
 the New Town Markets at Stockbridge recalled 
 some curious, though not distant, recollections of 
 Edinburgh. It was only about fifteen or twenty 
 years before that our only fish market was in the 
 Fish Market Close, a steep, narrow, stinking ravine. 
 The fish were generally thrown out on the street at 
 the head of the close, whence they were dragged down 
 by dirty boys or dirtier women ; and then sold un 
 washed for there was not a drop of water in the place 
 from old, rickety, scaly, wooden tables, exposed to 
 all the rain, dust, and filth; an abomination the recol 
 lection of which greatly impaired the pleasantness 
 of the fish at a later hour of the day. Yet when the 
 market was removed to its present situation below the 
 North Bridge, there was an outcry as if hereditary 
 nastiness, like other abuses, had been made, by time, 
 necessary for comfort. I doubt if there w^as a single 
 fish shop in Edinburgh so early as the year 1822. 
 Our vegetables had to pass through as bad a process. 
 They were entirely in the hands of a college of old 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 435 
 
 gin-drinking women who congregated with stools 
 and tables round the Tron Church. A few of the 
 aristocracy of these ladies the burgo-mistresses, 
 who had established a superior business the heads 
 of old booths marked their dignity by an awning 
 of dirty canvas or tattered carpet ; and every table 
 had its tallow candle and paper lantern at night. 
 There was no water here either, except what flowed 
 down the gutter, which however was plentifully 
 used. Fruit had a place on the table, but kitchen 
 vegetables lay bruised on the ground. I doubt if 
 there was a fruit shop in Edinburgh in 1815. All 
 shops indeed meant for the sale of any article, on 
 which there was a local tax or market-custom, were 
 discouraged by the magistrates or their tacksman as 
 interfering with the collection of the dues. The 
 growth of shops of all kinds in the New Town is 
 remarkable. I believe there were not half a dozen 
 of them in the whole New Town, west of St. Andrew 
 Street, in 1810. The dislike to them was so great, 
 that any proprietor who allowed one was abused as 
 an unneighbourly fellow. 
 
 At the east end of what was formerly &quot; The 
 Physic Garden&quot; the low flat ground between the 
 North Bridge and Leith Wynd, stand two venerable 
 relics Trinity Church, the best, and almost the 
 
436 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 only, ancient Gothic edifice in Edinburgh ; and Tri 
 nity Hospital, a very curious place. 
 
 More than fifty years ago, this Garden was the 
 favourite open-day haunt of the literature and polite 
 flirtation of Edinburgh. But, in those days the 
 Assembly-room was in a close (still called the 
 Assembly Close) in the High Street ; St. Cecilia s 
 Hall was in the Cowgate ; the Canongate was occu 
 pied by the nobility and gentry ; the ploughed fields 
 now covered by the New Town were no more thought 
 of than the fields of Fife. Ever since the Physic 
 Garden was removed to Leith Walk where it was 
 called the Botanical, and from whence it has made 
 another move to its present situation at Inver- 
 leith, the old place has been gradually falling every 
 year into a more neglected and squalid condition. 
 Although probably the North Loch, with its bad 
 drainage and burghal sediments, was seldom an 
 inoffensive neighbour, yet in spite of its lowness 
 this must have been rather a good site originally, 
 when there were no buildings to the north or east. 
 The Calton Hill, with its rockiest face, stood right 
 in front on the north ; the sea must have been visible 
 on the east ; the Castle rose on the west ; and the 
 ridge of the Old Town bristled up to the south. 
 Holyrood had not a better position. 
 
 The Hospital is for the benefit, not of common 
 paupers, but of old men and women once in the 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 437 
 
 prospect of a better fate. A few of them are pre 
 sented by the heirs of donors. All the rest must be 
 burgesses of Edinburgh, or of burgesses families; 
 and they are selected by the Town Council. There 
 are generally about thirty -five or forty in the house, 
 and many more out of it. The institution was founded 
 in 1462 by Mary of Gueldres ; but the building 
 underwent considerable alteration about 1587. It 
 would not be easy to produce anything meaner than 
 its outside. It consists merely of a respectable 
 common-place house, at right angles to which there 
 runs a long, thin, two-storied building like a long- 
 granary all cased in dingy rough-cast, without any 
 attempt at ornament or proportion. There is a bit 
 of garden about a hundred feet square ; but it is only 
 turf, surrounded by a gravel walk. An old thorn 
 and an old elm, destined never to be in leaf again, 
 tell of old springs and of old care. And there is a 
 wooden summer-house, which has heard many an 
 old man s crack, and seen the sun soften many an 
 old man s wrinkles. ^ 
 
 But the door is no sooner opened, than antiquity 
 is seen standing within it. Narrow stone stairs, 
 helped out by awkward bits of wooden ones ; oak 
 tables of immoveable massiveness , high-backed 
 carved chairs with faded tapestry on their seats and 
 elbows ; a few strong heavy cabinets ; drawers, and 
 leaves, and bolts, and locks, and hinges, once the 
 
438 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 pride of their inventors, and now exciting a smile at 
 ancient carpentry ; passages on miscalculated levels ; 
 long narrow halls, and little inaccessible odd-shaped 
 rooms ; these and other vestiges of the primary for 
 mation arrest and delight the visitor. All the apart 
 ments except four are very small. 
 
 Of these four, one seems to be their academic 
 grove. It is a long place, apparently for mere loung 
 ing ; for it contains nothing except a large shelved 
 press, which is the library. This library consists, so 
 far as I can guess by the eye, of about 500 or COO 
 volumes. Many of them are suitable for the readers ; 
 many not. There are several beautiful books of the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These, some 
 think, it would be no disrespect to the ancient donors 
 to sell for the purchase of more useful works. The 
 chaplain, however, with a just pride in his antiquities, 
 is shocked at the proposal 5 and he is right. There 
 is sometimes a good deal of reading among these 
 aged students at present very little. It comes in fits 
 like other fashions. A second of these long apart 
 ments is used as a chapel and banqueting room. 
 There are two long tables, with chairs, and a passage 
 between the tables. The pensioner s position is the 
 same, whether he is at dinner or at sermon. An old 
 low pulpit stands at the end of the room ; and before 
 the pulpit there is a black article, said to be positively 
 u John Knox s sacramental table.&quot; The third of 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 439 
 
 these rooms seems to extend the whole length of the 
 building. It is about ninety or a hundred feet long, 
 and was originally about thirty or thirty -five feet 
 wide. But its width has been contracted by opera 
 tions, which have converted it into a city for human 
 beavers. Along one side a range of ten wooden 
 cabins projects into the room. It is just a range of 
 wooden boxes, placed on the floor, along one side of 
 the wall. Each box is about seven feet square, 
 detached from its neighbour, and with its own door 
 and window all the windows looking into the room. 
 These cabins, each of which houses a pensioner, 
 narrow the room to the extent of their own depth, 
 on the one side. On the opposite side, it is narrowed 
 by a partition reaching from the floor to the ceiling. 
 Between this partition and the outer wall there are 
 two rows of cabins, one above the other. The lower 
 row is entered by doors opening into the long room. 
 The upper row is reached by neat wooden stairs. 
 There are five of these stairs ; and most picturesque 
 they are. They project into the room, all to the same 
 extent probably three feet, and all with the same 
 curve to the left, not unlike outer stairs to hay lofts. 
 Each of the five leads to a small landing place, off 
 which are two cabins. 
 
 There are thus thirty cabins in that room ; ten 
 in the form of boxes, on the floor, on one side 5 and 
 twenty within the partition on the opposite side, ten 
 
440 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 of which are below and ten above ; these last ten 
 reached by the five outside wooden stairs. And 
 between these lines of pigmy palaces there is a space 
 of about fifteen or eighteen feet left free, along the 
 whole length of the room. These human pigeon 
 holes have immemorially been termed u arks 7 a 
 name which, holding ark to mean chest, describes 
 them very correctly. Each ark contains the bed, 
 chair, table, and little mirror, of its single inhabi 
 tant, and any other article of comfort or decoration 
 that the occupier may happen to have. They are 
 all neat and comfortable. Several contain chests of 
 drawers ; and some are gay with ornament. One 
 duenna had her cupboard, with her own books, and 
 her umbrella hanging from a brass hook, and every 
 u coigne of vantage &quot; graced by shells, and human 
 figures, and trees, and animals all cut by herself, 
 out of pasteboard, and gloriously painted. Several 
 others have carried with them into these sad though 
 kindly retreats similar articles ; plainly once the 
 pride of their better days. 
 
 The fourth long apartment is lined on one side 
 by another row of cabins ; and there is space for an 
 opposite row if required. Besides these roosts, 
 which being both the parlour and the bed-chamber 
 are truly the ark of each occupant, there are com 
 mon rooms, with fires and carpets, where the inmates 
 repair when they want talk, heat, or a social doze. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 441 
 
 The walls of the chapel are entirely covered with 
 wooden tablets, containing inscriptions in gilt let 
 ters on black grounds, immortalizing the memo 
 ries of the various donors of merks or pounds Scots. 
 The name of many a citizen, illustrious in his 
 day, is there; the title of many a family, once 
 green bay trees, now dead roots. I observe one 
 donation in 1632 ; and, no doubt, there are some 
 still older. 
 
 The community is presided over by a chaplain 
 and a governess. The chaplain spends most of his 
 day there, and may reside constantly if he pleases. 
 However, he can never be long absent ; for besides 
 worship twice a day, he has to ask a blessing on all 
 their meals. His drawing-room is scarcely ten feet 
 square. But it is dignified by old chairs, an old 
 table, an old desk, an old mirror, besides books and 
 prints. The little cheerful round incumbent talks 
 so happily of his own position, and so affectionately 
 of every individual pensioner, that a bishopric, nay 
 even a Scotch kirk, could scarcely increase his 
 delight. The elysium of the queen is fully as tiny, 
 and as old, and as nice. Besides being graced by 
 various achievements of her own needle, it is 
 enlivened by a blue parrot, on a bright perch, and 
 a canary in a brass wire cage with doors and win 
 dows like a cathedral. On my last visit she insisted 
 on my entering her bed-room smaller than even 
 
442 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 the parlour ; but what a coverlet of patch-work ! 
 Cheerfulness beamed from her face, and pride elated 
 her heart. How cruel that, with such a pair, celibacy 
 is the law of the place. 
 
 The subjects of these two sovereigns seem to be 
 as happy as age, when combined with final desti 
 tution and with the recollection of more hopeful 
 days, can probably ever be. They are decent in 
 their apparel, clean in their domicile, and, so far as a 
 stranger can discover, are kindly used, and kindly 
 thought of. That they are followed into the last 
 asylum that can ever shelter them by grateful recol 
 lections, and even by some friendships, as well as by 
 discontent, jealousy, quarrels, and all other passions 
 that cling to the still beating heart, is certain. They 
 are human. They doubtless have their magnates, 
 their disputed principles, their wrongs, intrigues, 
 and factions. The dulness of their day is, no doubt, 
 relieved by occasional dissention and ingratitude. 
 But there is as little of this, I understand, as gene 
 rally enlivens hospitals. And certainly their bodies 
 are not ill cared for. Every one seems proud of his 
 own ark. They sit in these retreats, and come out, 
 and go in opening and shutting their own front 
 doors, as if each felt that it was he who had got the 
 state room. 
 
 * Arnot (History of Edinburgh, p. 563) gives a bad account of 
 their conduct in his day. He states that in 1778 their mutinies, dis- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 443 
 
 One of the present female pensioners is ninety- 
 six. She was sitting beside her own fire. The 
 chaplain shook her kindly by the hand, and asked 
 her how she was. &quot; Very weel just in my creeping 
 ordinary.&quot; There is one Catholic there a little merry 
 woman ; obviously with some gentle blood in her 
 veins, and delighted to allude to it. This book she 
 had got from Sir John Something ; her great friend 
 had been a Lady Something Cuningham ; and her 
 spinet was the oldest that had ever been made ; to 
 convince me of which she opened it, and pointed 
 exultingly to the year 1776. Neither she, nor the 
 ninety-six year old, was in an ark, but in an ordinary 
 small room. On overhearing my name, she said 
 that she was once at Miss Brandon 7 s boarding school 
 in Bristo Street, with a Miss Matilda Cockburn, a 
 &quot; little pretty girl.&quot; I told her that I remembered 
 that school quite well, and that that girl was my 
 sister and then I added, as a joke, that all the girls 
 at that school were said to have been pretty, but all 
 light-headed and much given to flirtation. The 
 tumult revived in the vestal s veins. Delighted 
 with the imputation, she rubbed her hands together, 
 
 honesty, and dirt had &quot;aroused the attention&quot; of the governors. 
 I understand that this is all quite inapplicable to their present state. 
 If the attention of governors was quietly kept up, instead of requir 
 ing to be aroused by great excesses, things would generally go on 
 better. 
 
444 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 and giggled till she wept, and exclaimed, and pro 
 tested, and giggled more, and appeared to force 
 back recollections that made her blush. She said 
 she liked her fellow pensioners, u but no their 
 religion; an they dinna like mine.&quot; Of the last 
 fact I had a tolerable proof, on going into a room 
 where several of the women were. One of them 
 asked me if I could tell them the name of a bird 
 they had just got, and which was in a cage there. 
 I told them it was a cardinal. On which the pres- 
 byterian sybils burst out into a jocular, but not ill- 
 natured, roar &quot; A caardinal ! hear that ! a caardinal ! 
 od ou maun send it doon to the Caatholic !&quot; This is 
 Trinity Hospital. Time, in its course over Edin 
 burgh, has left no other such picturesque deposit. 
 
 * In a short time, the place shall know it no more ! But the 
 public will be gratified by a railway station. Trinity College 
 Church too the last and finest Gothic fragment in Edinburgh, 
 though implored for by about four centuries, will disappear for the 
 accommodation of a railway ! An outrage by sordid traders, vir 
 tually consented to by a tasteless city, and sanctioned by an insen 
 sible Parliament. I scarcely know a more curious instance of 
 ignorant insensibility than the apology that is made for this piece 
 of desecration. It is said that the edifice is to be replaced, exactly 
 as it is, in some better situation. And it is really thought that the 
 Pyramids would remain the Pyramids, or Jerusalem Jerusalem, 
 provided only their materials were replaced in London. Oxford 
 would be Oxford, though in Manchester, if its stones were preserved. 
 These people would remove Pompeii for a railway, and tell us they 
 had applied it to a better purpose in Dundee. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 445 
 
 Lord Hermand having retired, Cranstoun suc 
 ceeded him, and took his seat on the bench in 
 November 1826, His removal was a great loss to 
 the bar, which he had long adorned, and where he 
 had the entire confidence of the public. And though 
 his judicial qualities, at least the most difficult ones, 
 were of the highest order, it was seen that a long- 
 apprenticeship in the obscurity of the Outer House 
 might prevent his real eminence from being soon 
 felt. One of the great obstacles with which a Scotch 
 judge has to contend is, that so little is done publicly, 
 in open court, and on expositions of fact or of argu 
 ment which the whole audience may understand. 
 Everything, even talent and learning, is buried 
 under perplexed incomprehensible written state 
 ments, through which the highest legal luminousness 
 may often struggle in vain to shine with any splen 
 dour visible except to the few who know the case. 
 
 Moncreiif was appointed Dean in place of Cran 
 stoun; and at his election made a characteristic 
 address, warm in heart, and solid in honesty. Cran- 
 stoun s name had been placed after that of Hope, 
 the Solicitor-General, in the Commission for the 
 visitation of the Universities of Scotland issued in 
 1826. This induced Cranstoun to put a protest on 
 the proceedings of the Commission, claiming preced 
 ence for the Dean of Faculty over the Solicitor- 
 General. As soon as Moncreiff s address was done, 
 
446 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 therefore, the Solicitor, to make all sure rose and 
 stated that though, from courtesy, he intended to yield 
 the professional precedency to the present, as he 
 had done to the last, Dean, he still claimed it as 
 the right of his office, and meant to put his claim 
 by protest on the Faculty records. This was irre 
 sistible to the combativeness of Moncreiff; who 
 sprung on the point like a tiger, and said firmly 
 44 And gentlemen, I shall certainly answer that pro 
 test. For I do solemnly aver and assert that your 
 Dean has precedence over his Majesty s Solicitor- 
 General.&quot; It was all a very gratifying scene ; 
 marked by much kindness and liberality on all sides. 
 Everybody felt the justice of Moncreiff s triumph ; 
 a man who had fought his way, every inch, purely 
 by his own exertions. I thought of the feelings of 
 Sir Harry. 
 
 It was in April 1827 that the hearts of those who 
 had been long labouring for the liberation of Scot 
 land, and had watched and directed the course of 
 improved public opinion, and had been sometimes 
 encouraged by its progress to hope that their country 
 might see better days, were at last cheered by the 
 advance of the liberal party, under the administration 
 of Canning. The retirement of Lord Melville from 
 the government of Scotland was not an event for 
 which, in itself, any candid Scotch Whig could 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 447 
 
 rejoice; because no man, individually, could have 
 conducted the affairs of the country with greater 
 good sense and fairness, or with less of party preju 
 dice or bitterness. But, his ceasing to be in power 
 was the mark of a change absolutely necessary for 
 the elevation of this part of the kingdom ; and 
 accordingly it was viewed first with stupid dismay, 
 and then with abuse of his want of skill, by those 
 to whom the idea of this elevation was unbearable. 
 Abercromby opened his mind fully to Canning on 
 the state of Scotland ; particularly on the necessity 
 of letting it be governed by the ministry, or by some 
 known and responsible part of it, specially assigned 
 to the duty by constitutional office, instead of hand 
 ing us over as a province to some proconsul, and 
 taking no more thought of us. Previous to this 
 communication, Canning had, in his ignorance, pro 
 ceeded on the notion that this was the established 
 system for the government of Scotland, and had con 
 sented u to let Lord Binning have Scotland.&quot; But 
 the remonstrances of Abercromby, Kennedy, and 
 other Scotch members, put an end to this, and the 
 reign of the new vicegerent, which began upon 
 Saturday, ended by a formal abdication on the 
 following Tuesday. 
 
 But Canning s death, which took place in the 
 autumn of 1827, greatly alarmed us ; the more so, 
 from the undisguised expectation of those whom 
 
448 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 aversion to the liberality of his principles had half 
 excluded from power, that they would be restored 
 again to their ordinary omnipotence. But after a few 
 weeks of fearful doubt, they were disappointed ; and, 
 in so far as regarded Scotland, matters were rather 
 worse for them than before ; because Lord Lansdowne, 
 a steady Whig, and in the confidence of the leaders 
 of that party in Scotland, became Home Secretary, 
 with Abercromby and Kennedy as his chief Scotch 
 advisers. The extent to which, so long as there was 
 any doubt which party was to prevail, both seemed 
 inclined to coalesce, afforded an example of the mean 
 ing of the policy, by which kings are said sometimes 
 to play one faction off against another, by giving none 
 any ground for despair. The Whigs, thankful for 
 every approach towards a better system, and wisely 
 considering that each step facilitated the next one, 
 gave their aid, honestly, to the improved Govern 
 ment. The Tories, thankful for not being altogether 
 excluded, but alarmed at every infusion of Whiggism, 
 concurred, though with a deep inward grudge, in 
 that apparent approbation which could not safely be 
 withheld. And so, for a season both were amiable 
 and reasonable ; but always with the material 
 difference that the one was gay and hopeful, the 
 other gloomy and desponding. The result over the 
 community, on the whole, was a very great rise of 
 confidence in the ultimate, and not very distant, 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 449 
 
 triumph of the principles, which it had for so long- 
 been nearly the sole object of the Tory party to 
 resist ; and a consequent increase of the boldness and 
 openness with which those principles were pushed, 
 not merely by their known and established friends, 
 but by many who had never come forward on such 
 matters. 
 
 There could scarcely have been a better example 
 of this than in a little bit of rebellion which broke 
 out even in the peaceful and loyal Society of Writers 
 to his Majesty s Signet. Mr. Colin Mackenzie, the 
 deputy-Keeper, having resigned, William Dundas, 
 the principal Keeper, wished to appoint a son of the 
 Lord President. It is said that the President ob 
 jected to this on the ground of his son s youth ; he 
 being, if major, not much more, and not yet a mem 
 ber of the Society. It was then resolved to associate 
 him with my schoolfellow Eichard Mackenzie of 
 Dolphinton, a sensible and honourable man ; and a 
 commission was issued in favor of them both. 
 The Writers took this to be a mere veil, and not a 
 thick one, for putting a boy over them, and got into 
 a blaze, and expectorated in resolutions and pro 
 tests; after which, obtaining no redress, they re 
 solved (18th January 1828) not to allow the offen 
 sive deputies to preside at their meetings. This 
 brought the matter into Court, where, I believe, it 
 
450 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 was afterwards found that the Keeper, and in his 
 absence the deputy-Keeper, was ex officio chairman 
 of all meetings of the Society. This outbreak was 
 after only a few months of an improved government. 
 A similar impatience of domination was evinced in 
 every town council, every corporation, every court 
 of freeholders, and in general in all meetings over 
 the country. The Faculty of Advocates would not 
 have behaved with such vigour. But we have no 
 pure corporation spirit and the Writers are full of 
 it. Our merit is personal, and we care little for the 
 body. Their professional glory arises from that of 
 their order, and it is the idol. And I doubt if the 
 Writers, indignant as they were, would have been 
 seized with so unusual a fit of virtue, if they had 
 suspected what happened within one single week ; 
 which was, that the political scene was suddenly 
 changed, and the old hands restored to their old 
 work. Huskisson and the other friends of Canning 
 who, on his death, had joined the Whigs to exclude 
 the Tories, found it convenient to prove false to 
 their dead master, and now joined the Tories to 
 exclude the Whigs. Lansdowne and his party with 
 drew from the Government. The restored seemed 
 to be perfectly aware of the increased strength given 
 to any party by its return to power after a short 
 and abortive exclusion. Our fears were not much 
 less than their hopes. Neither of us saw with sum- 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 451 
 
 cient certainty how strongly the course of public 
 opinion was setting in towards reform. 
 
 When the repeal of the Test and Corporation 
 Acts was under discussion this spring, we had an 
 excellent public meeting* in aid of the first great 
 modern triumph. Sir John Dalrymple was in the 
 chair ; Sir James Moncreiff f and the Eev. Dr. M Crie 
 were the principal speakers. Moncreiff s speech 
 was most excellent $ nervous, well informed, and 
 breathing in every word his deep and pious honesty. 
 The Assembly Eoom was crowded by people of the 
 middle ranks of all sects and parties except one. 
 I did not observe a single adherent of Government. 
 Their absence said little for their discretion ; the 
 crowd little for the security of their power. 
 
 On the llth of June 1828 Dugald Stewart died, 
 at the age of about seventy-five. He was the last 
 of his illustrious class. Though enfeebled for some 
 years, the decline of his life, down almost to the 
 very last day, was personally comfortable, and in 
 reference to his philosophy splendid. His intellect 
 continued so entirely unbroken, that the period be 
 tween his first attack of palsy in 1821, and his last 
 
 * 17th March 1828. 
 
 j- The Eev. Sir Henry Moncreiff died in 1827, and was suc 
 ceeded in the baronetcy by his son James, Dean of Faculty. 
 
452 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 on the day before his death was employed in the 
 revision and improvement of his works, which he 
 could not touch without having the favourite occu 
 pations of his earlier days recalled to him in their 
 original freshness. His two last volumes, of which 
 he even corrected the press himself within a very 
 few months of his death, are so tinged with his lec 
 tures, that I cannot read them without thinking I 
 hear his pleasing voice. He was buried in the 
 north-west angle of the Canongate churchyard. 
 The magistrates and professors attended ; but there 
 was no attempt to make it a public funeral. 1 could 
 not resist going to the Calton Hill, and contemplat 
 ing a ceremony which awakened so many associa 
 tions. The very Canongate has a sort of sacredness 
 in it. Independently of more distant historical 
 recollections, such as its once containing the resi 
 dences of many of the nobility of Scotland, by whose 
 titles its principal places are still marked, and its 
 being the avenue to our Palace, Parliament House, 
 and Castle, what an interest is imparted to its old 
 ridgy back and smoky chimneys by the still un 
 changed houses of Smith, Kames, Moriboddo, and of 
 him whose ashes were that day committed to its soil ! 
 A meeting of his friends was held on the 9th of 
 July ; when it was resolved to erect a monument to 
 his memory. The Lord Chief Commissioner (Adam), 
 who was in the chair, stated that he himself was 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 453 
 
 then the only person alive who had heard Stewart 
 first read his essay &quot; on Dreaming/ 7 This was at a 
 literary society when the author was under twenty. 
 The prevailing, though not the unanimous, feeling 
 was that the monument should be architectural, and 
 placed on the Calton Hill; which was this very 
 summer (1828) relieved of a horrid old rubble dike 
 which used to surround the Observatory, and was 
 adorned by a handsome wall, protecting, yet disclos 
 ing, the astronomical building and the monument of 
 John Playfair. There has always been an opinion 
 with some that nothing should have been built on 
 the Calton Hill, and that it should have been left 
 to what is called nature that is, as a piece of waste 
 ground for blackguards and washerwomen. Those 
 who think so must of course have objected to the 
 Temple of Minerva on the Acropolis of Athens. So 
 as the prospects are preserved, it cannot be too much 
 ornamented by handsome stairs, broad level walks, 
 sculptured stone benches, and above all monumental 
 buildings. The silent beauty of architecture, if 
 consecrated to great names, would make that 
 eminence the noblest cemetery of immortals in 
 Europe. But no edifice connected with common 
 
 * The essay &quot; on Dreaming &quot; was read in the Speculative 
 Society of Edinburgh in 1773. History of the Speculative Society, 
 p. 23. Stewart s Philosophy of the Human Mind, vol. I. note 0, p. 
 566. ED. 
 
454 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 habitation ought to be permitted. The nearest 
 tolerated approach to the living ought to be the 
 Observatory, holding communion with the heavens, 
 and the Parthenon, used as a receptacle of art. 
 And no building, not even a monument, ought to 
 be tolerated, except at a price implying a high order 
 of merit, and probably expressing the contributions 
 of public gratitude. If anything under 2000 be 
 admitted, we shall have the tombs of Provosts. 
 The air of the place ought to be kept pure, and its 
 associations inspiring. 
 
 In September 1828, Eichardson and I visited 
 Scott for a few days at Abbotsford, and had the 
 rare good fortune to find him nearly alone ; and 
 nothing could be more delightful. His simplicity 
 and naturalness after all his fame are absolutely 
 incredible. I remember him when he was famous 
 for almost nothing except imitating Eskgrove (a 
 power which fortunately he has never lost), and his 
 manners are the same now that they were then. No 
 bad idea will be formed of Scott s conversation by 
 supposing one of his Scotch novels to be cut into 
 talk. It is not so much conversation as a joyous 
 flow of anecdote, story, character, and scene, mostly 
 humorous, always graphic, and never personal or 
 ill natured. His habits at this time were these. He 
 rose about six ; wrote from about half-past six till 
 
BY HENRY COCKBUKN. 455 
 
 nine the second series of the Tales of a Grandfather 
 being then the work ; breakfasted and lounged from 
 nine to eleven ; wrote from eleven till about two ; 
 walked till about four ; dined at five, partaking 
 freely, but far from immoderately, of various wines ; 
 and then, as soon as the ladies withdrew, taking to 
 cigars and hot whisky-toddy ; went to the drawing- 
 room soon, where he inspired everybody with his 
 passion for Scotch music, and, if anxiously asked, 
 never refused to recite any old ballad or tell any 
 old tale. The house was asleep by eleven. When 
 fitted up for dinner, he was like any other com 
 fortably ill-dressed gentleman. But in the morning, 
 with the large coarse jacket, great stick, and leathern 
 cap, he was Dandy Dinmont, or Dick Hattrick a 
 smuggler or a poacher. Would that his money and 
 his care had been given to a better subject than 
 Abbotsford. 
 
 I was much amused by his account of an early 
 anticipation of Cranstoun s professional success. 
 Within a few weeks after he, Scott, and William 
 Erskine had put on the gown, being in Selkirkshire, 
 they were all invited to dinner by an -old drunken 
 Selkirk writer, who had what was worth three 
 young advocates attention a great deal of bad 
 business. Cranstoun, who was never any thing at 
 a debauch, was driven off the field, with a squeamish 
 stomach and a woful countenance, shamefully early. 
 
456 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 Erskine, always ambitious, adhered to the bowl 
 somewhat longer; but Scott who, as he told us, 
 u was at home with the hills and the whisky punch,&quot; 
 not only triumphed over these two, but very nearly 
 over the landlord. As they were mounting their 
 horses to ride home, the entertainer let the other 
 two go without speaking to them ; but he embraced 
 Scott, assuring him that he would rise high, &quot; And 
 I ll tell ye what, Maister Walter that lad Crans- 
 toun may get to the tap o the bar if he can ; but 
 tak ma word for t it s no be by drinking.&quot; 
 
 A deep sensation of horror was excited at the 
 end of the year by the exposure of what are called 
 &quot; The West -Port Murders.&quot; It was only for a 
 single murder that Burke and Macdougal were 
 tried ; but it was nearly certain that, within a year 
 or two, Burke and Hare had murdered about sixteen 
 people, for the sale of their bodies to anatomists ; 
 and after his conviction Burke confessed this. Mon- 
 creiff and I were drawn into the case by the junior 
 counsel. The evidence against Burke was far too 
 clear to be shaken by even Moncreiff s energy and 
 talent ; but the woman, who had been assigned to my 
 care, escaped, because there were some material doubts 
 in her favor. We carried two important points, 
 
 * It is stated, in vol. 44, p. 101, of the Quarterly Keview, that 
 at tlie moment I was addressing the jury, I whispered &quot; Infernal 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 457 
 
 after a battle with the Court, which would probably 
 have been decided otherwise, if the leaning of their 
 lordships had been feebly resisted. These were 
 our right to have each murder tried separately, and 
 to impeach the credit of the accomplices by ques 
 tioning them about their accession to other murders 
 or crimes. No case ever struck the public heart or 
 imagination with greater horror. And no wonder. 
 For the regular demand for anatomical subjects, and 
 the high prices given, held out a constant premium 
 to murder ; and when it was shewn to what danger 
 this exposed the unprotected, every one felt himself 
 living in the midst of persons to whom murder was 
 a trade. All our anatomists incurred a most unjust, 
 and a very alarming, though not an unnatural 
 odium ; Dr. Knox in particular, against whom not 
 only the anger of the populace, but the condemnation 
 of more intelligent persons, was specially directed. 
 But tried in reference to the invariable, and the 
 necessary practice of the profession, our anatomists 
 
 hag!&quot; &quot;the gudgeons swallow it!&quot; and I suppose that a credu 
 lous quaker, whose work (on the principles of morality) was reviewed 
 in that article, believes this, and, as I understand, comments upon 
 it as a piece of professional fraud. It is utterly untrue. No one 
 could be more honestly convinced of any thing than I was, and am, 
 that there was not sufficient legal evidence to warrant a conviction 
 of Helen Macdougal. Therefore, no such expressions or sentiment 
 could be uttered. At any rate none such, and none of that tendency, 
 were uttered. 
 
458 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 were spotlessly correct, and Knox the most correct 
 of them all. Had it not been for the evidence exhi 
 bited in Burke s case of the necessity of providing a 
 cheap, safe, and legal mode of supplying anatomical 
 subjects, it is more than probable that the Anatomy 
 Act would not have passed so soon, if ever. 
 
 Except that he murdered, Burke was a sensible, 
 and what might be called a respectable, man ; not 
 at all ferocious in his general manner, sober, correct 
 in all his other habits, and kind to his relations. 
 Though not regularly married, Helen Macdougal 
 was his wife ; and when the jury came in with the 
 verdict convicting him, but acquitting her, his 
 remark was u Well ! thank God you re safe !&quot; 
 
 In March 1829 we had a magnificent meeting in 
 the Assembly Eoom to assist Wellington and Peel, 
 in their tardy and now awkward Emancipation 
 necessity, by a petition in favor of the Catholics. 
 A shilling a head was taken at the door, and about 
 1700 shillings were got. As from the confusion 
 several passed untaxed, there must have been about 
 2000 present; and there were at the least double 
 that number outside, who could not get in. It was 
 a union of both the ordinary political parties. Sir 
 William Arbuthnot, a strong Tory, and who had 
 been Provost when George the Fourth was here^ 
 was in the chair. The speakers were Moncreiff, Dr. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 459 
 
 Maclagan, Jeffrey, Murray, the Solicitor-General 
 (Hope), Chalmers, and myself. No meeting could 
 be more successful ; and the combination of persons 
 in general so repugnant, gave it great weight over 
 the country. It must have suggested a striking 
 contrast to those who remembered that it was in 
 this very city that, only about forty years ago, the 
 law had not strength to save the houses and 
 chapels of the Catholics from popular conflagra 
 tion. There were, as there still are, some who, 
 if they could have done it, would have thought the 
 repetition of that violence a duty ; and there were 
 many even at this meeting who had no better 
 reason for their support of emancipation than that 
 it implied the support of ministry. Those, whose 
 religious horror of Catholicism made them think the 
 application of the principles of civil toleration to 
 that faith a sin, did not appear ; but procured signa 
 tures to an opposite petition by harangues and pla 
 cards borrowed from Lord George Gordon. The 
 petitions exhibited a striking proof of the strong 
 Anti-Popish taste of the people of Scotland. The 
 one in favor of toleration, notwithstanding every 
 fair exertion, was only signed by about 8000 per 
 sons ; while the one to the Commons against it was 
 signed by about 13,000, and the one to the Lords 
 (which lay a little longer for signature) by about 
 18,000. The 8000 were a higher and more varied 
 
460 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 class than ever concurred in any political measure 
 in Edinburgh. 
 
 Government had for some years been lopping 
 our two Scotch Eevenue Boards of Customs and 
 Excise, and preparing for their final eradication ; 
 and all being ready, in 1829 the last vestige of them 
 was obliterated. This was the first of a series of 
 reductions, some of which more reasonable men than 
 Malagrowther lament as hurtful and degrading to 
 Scotland. No doubt, in point of respectability, we 
 were much the better of all our ancient establish 
 ments had there been any decent pretence of their 
 still being of use. But simple uselessness was 
 not their only defect. Very useful for corruption, 
 they were systematically employed for that purpose. 
 Considering how far beyond the successful applicant 
 the influence of patronage reaches, the offices in these 
 two Boards alone, skilfully distributed among our 
 few freeholders, were sufficient to purchase a shame 
 fully large extent of servility. Their being abo 
 lished notwithstanding this quality, was the strongest 
 possible proof of their indefensibleness ; and the 
 preference of economy to such power of corruption 
 was the true merit of Government. 
 
 The death of David Cathcart, Lord Alloway, in 
 1829, made two important changes in the local 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 461 
 
 leaders of the Whig party, by the promotion of 
 Moncreiff and Jeffrey. 
 
 Alloway was an excellent and most useful man ; 
 kind in private life, and honest in the discharge of 
 his public duties. Without learning or talent, and 
 awkward in expressing himself either orally or in 
 writing, he was a good practical lawyer, and re 
 markably knowing in the management of the com 
 mon business of life ; and having more sense and 
 modesty than to aim at objects he could not reach, 
 experience and industry gave him no competitor 
 within this not very high, but most useful, range. 
 He was one of the many examples indeed of the 
 moderate degree in which ability, learning, or accom 
 plishments are necessary in the composition of a 
 good practical puisne judge. Devotion to duty, zeal 
 to be and to do right, blandness, industry, and practi 
 cal skill made his want of the higher qualities of 
 talent and general knowledge perfectly immaterial, 
 and indeed scarcely observed. He was deeply 
 involved in all the affairs of the Whig party during 
 his whole life, till he became a judge ; after this, 
 his sole object was to justify his appointment. 
 
 Moncreiff succeeded Alloway, and Jeffrey became 
 Dean of Faculty instead of Moncreiff. This was not 
 the first time that Peel had raised one of his op 
 ponents to the bench. No doubt Cranstoun, Fuller- 
 ton, and Moncreiff could not have been passed over 
 
4G2 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 without flagrant injustice, and an obvious sacrifice 
 of the public interest. But these considerations are 
 not always conclusive on such occasions ; and at any 
 rate it is the highest praise of a minister that he 
 prefers justice and the public to his party. There 
 is no other person whose government of Scotland 
 can be expounded by so honourable a fact as these 
 four promotions. The advancement of Moncreiif 
 and Jeffrey the Preses of the Pantheon meeting, 
 and the Editor of the Edinburgh Eeview made 
 those whose memories went back a few years feel as 
 if they had got into a new world. Jeffrey expressed 
 a wish that I should second his nomination as Dean 
 which I did. What a crowd of recollections and 
 feelings did that scene awaken ! In deference to 
 others who might think that the Dean of Faculty 
 should not conduct a party publication, he gracefully 
 gave up the editorship of the Eeview, the ninety- 
 eighth number of which was his last.* 
 
 The Arts suffered their severest loss, in the 
 summer of 1829, in the death of my friend Hugh 
 Williams ; by far the most beautiful painter in 
 water colours that Scotland has yet produced. But, 
 w^arm-hearted and honourable, of singular modesty, 
 and almost feminine gentleness, our affection for the 
 man exceeded even our admiration of the artist. 
 * See Lord Cockburn s Life of Lord Jeffrey, vol. I. p. 284.- ED. 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 463 
 
 The heroic and gentle cheerfulness with which he 
 endured several months of pain and weakness, under 
 a certainly fatal disease, was a striking example 
 of the power of a brave and gay spirit over the 
 greatest bodily suffering. Speaking to me, within 
 three days of his death, of the coming event, he 
 lamented his separation from his living friends, but 
 said it would be temporary, u and in the mean while, 
 I shall see Gordon.&quot; Delighted with the splendid 
 prospects of art which he thought he saw opening to 
 Scotland, he urged me, nearly to the very last, never 
 to relax till I had completed the reformation of the 
 Academy, which was then in progress ; and which 
 was effected shortly after his death. 
 
 The formation of the &quot; Scottish Academy of 
 Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture,&quot; lately com 
 pleted, was one of the most important occurrences in 
 the progress of Scotland. There is an advanced state 
 of art at which probably all artificial associations of 
 artists are useless, if not hurtful. But in an infant 
 stage, during which the public taste requires to be 
 excited and educated, and artists need importance 
 and protection by formal brotherhood, such unions 
 are nearly indispensable. The only thing of the 
 kind that existed in this country was the &quot; Institution 
 for the encouragement of the Fine Arts,&quot; which had 
 done little good. It excluded all artists from its 
 management, without substituting more reasonable 
 
464 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 men in their room ; and this produced jealousies and 
 dissensions ; which induced the artists to swarm off, 
 and begin the Academy. 
 
 When it was first formed it consisted merely of 
 the artists who were particularly displeased with 
 the Institution for the Promotion of the Fine Arts ; 
 the majority, and the best, of their brethren still 
 adhering to that body. After about two years more 
 experience of the system of management in the Insti 
 tution, it was found by the adherents that there could 
 be no cordial union between them and it, and not 
 even a comfortable endurance of each other. Each, 
 as usual, blamed the other ; and I, who know the 
 whole facts, think that though there was unreason 
 ableness on both sides, the artists had the least of it. 
 It was plain however that they must part ; but the 
 original members of the academy objected to be 
 swamped by a gush of so many acceders all at once. 
 This for a while threatened to be insuperable ; till 
 the one party referred it all to the Solicitor-General 
 (Hope), and the other party to me; and we married 
 them in a week. This left the Institution without 
 an artist, and united all the considerable ones, to the 
 number of forty -two, in the Scottish Academy,* 
 
 * The new building at the north end of the Mound was opened 
 in 1826, under the title of &quot; The Eoyal Institution.&quot; The building, 
 though pleasing, is not what it ought to have been. It should have 
 been set on a higher table. But this was not allowed ; and thus 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 465 
 
 if not distracted by the jealousies of the pro 
 fession itself, may render Scotland as illustrious in 
 art as in other walks of genius. 
 
 Amidst many of the improvements under which 
 Edinburgh was still growing in beauty, there was a 
 scheme by my country neighbour Alexander Trotter 
 of Dreghorn, to which there was only one objection 
 that it was too magnificent for execution. Its 
 object was to join the New Town to the Old, worthily . 
 And this was to be done by sinking the upper end 
 of the Mound to the level of Princes Street ; and, 
 avoiding Bank Street, to carry that end of the Mound 
 eastward along the north of the Bank of Scotland, 
 and then south to the High Street, by an opening 
 right upon St. Giles Cathedral, He illustrated the 
 general effect, and all the details, in captivating 
 views, and working plans; and combined, as it 
 was to be, with much subordinate decoration, it 
 would have been a very handsome terrace. But 
 we have no Pericles. The next best project the 
 object being to get from the one town to the other 
 
 controlled, the architect, William Playfair, did all that taste and 
 the funds admitted of. Strictly, it ought to have been named after 
 the old historical Board of Trustees for the improvement of manu 
 factures ; because it was by their money, and for their accommo 
 dation chiefly, that it was made ; and &quot; The Trustees Hall &quot; had 
 been the title, ever since the Union, of the place in the old town 
 where they had met. 
 
 2 II 
 
4GG MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME 
 
 without rising to the summit of the High Street or 
 Lawnmarket, was Sir Thomas Lander s. He pro 
 posed to bring down the south end of the Mound 
 to the level of Princes Street, and then to cut a 
 Roman arch through the Lawnmarket, and under 
 the houses, and so to pass on a level to George 
 Square. This was both practical and easy ; but it 
 was not expounded till too late. 
 
 In January 1830, Sir Samuel Shepherd resigned 
 his Chief-Bar onship ; and James Abercromby, to 
 his amazement, was sent for by the Duke of Wel 
 lington, and offered the place ; which, after great 
 hesitation, he accepted. Nobody could dream of 
 making judicial work out of our Exchequer sufficient 
 to give occupation even to a single judge ; and 
 therefore all the good that Abercromby s friends 
 look for is the pleasure of his society. Publicly he 
 is thrown away here. Soon after this the Lord 
 Advocate explained to Parliament the measures 
 which Government had extracted out of the report 
 of the last Committee on the Scotch Courts. They 
 all resolved into economy ; and their result was to 
 be a saving of about 23,000 yearly by the abolition 
 of nineteen offices, including the Lord Chief Com 
 missioner and the two jury judges that Court 
 ceasing ; two judges of the Court of Session ; two 
 Barons ; the Judge Admiral ; the four Consistorial 
 
BY HENRY COCKBURN. 467 
 
 judges ; the Justice-General (at least his salary) ; 
 and two Clerks of Session. Vigorous pruning ; 
 resorted to by Government from mere economy ; and 
 submitted to by our judges, undoubtedly, in order 
 to strengthen the claim for a rise of salary. But 
 it was all right in itself ; though if it had been sug 
 gested by any one a few years ago, he would have 
 been treated as a lunatic or a rebel.* 
 
 George the Fourth died in summer. The first 
 important public occurrence in Edinburgh under his 
 successor was a meeting (20th August 1830) of 
 congratulation to the French on their revolution of 
 u The Three Days,&quot; which drove Charles the Tenth 
 from his throne, and confirmed the principles of their 
 constitutional charter. Whatever was afterwards 
 thought of this successful outbreak, no similar event 
 was ever so generally hailed in this country. Many 
 even of the most sensitive Tories found it impossible 
 to withhold their cheer from an act of popular 
 
 * I took this occasion to write another legal review (Edinburgh 
 Keview, art. 5, No. 101 April 1830). I wished I could have 
 given some instances of English ignorance of Scotch law, and con 
 tempt of it, in that part of the article which relates to our appeals 
 to the House of Lords. For example, when Tindal, afterwards 
 Head of the Common Pleas, was here on the Law Commission of 
 1823, he asked gravely, and solely for information, whether Mr. 
 Andrew Skene, advocate, to whom he had just been introduced, was 
 the author of the work &quot; De Verborum Significatione.&quot; 
 
4G8 MEMORIALS OF HIS TFME 
 
 resistance that was just, gallant, as bloodless as was 
 possible, and completely effective. Their fright at 
 the former revolution revived, and they were grateful 
 to the Parisians for not repeating its horrors. The 
 requisition for our meeting contained about a hundred 
 names, of which about twenty were those of per 
 sons to whom not merely revolutions, but popular 
 assemblies, were abhorrent. Even Sir Walter Scott 
 said to John Eichardson, u Confound these French 
 Ministers ! I can t forgive them for making a 
 Jacobin of an old Tory like me.&quot; And the Lord 
 Provost was so far seduced from the usual habit of 
 his place and his party as to preside though it was 
 known that Joseph Hume was to be present. Similar 
 assemblages took place over all the country assem 
 blages, in Scotland, where a revolution, which had 
 just dethroned a monarch, was applauded, openly, 
 and with no opposition or disapprobation ! Who 
 could fail to see the indication of our own state 
 which this fact implied ? 
 
 On the 8th of October there was another public 
 meeting about slaves. The Lord Provost was again 
 in the chair. Jeffrey made a speech and moved 
 certain resolutions. The Kev. Dr 1 . Andrew Thomson, 
 very imprudently, opposed them, because they 
 pointed at gradual, and not at immediate, emancipa 
 tion. This produced an unexpected and awkward 
 
BY HENRY COCKBLIKN. 469 
 
 discussion, in the course of which a decent looking 
 man, who agreed with Thomson, said u Fiat justitia, 
 ruat coelum,&quot; On this the chairman, anxious per 
 haps to repair the error of presiding at the &quot; Three 
 Days&quot; meeting, started up and declared u as Pro 
 vost of this city I cannot sit and hear such senti 
 ments.&quot; He then walked off; and nobody having 
 sense to take the chair, the meeting broke up in dis 
 order ; being the first accident of the kind in Edin 
 burgh. On the 19th Thomson and his friends met 
 again, and after a powerful speech from him, carried 
 everything their own way. And after all, the whole 
 difference was verbal ; for immediate, as explained, 
 meant only with all practicable speed, which was 
 exactly what the cautious meant by gradual. 
 
 I this autumn wrote an article on the Parlia 
 mentary Eepresentation of Scotland.* This was 
 preparatory to a renewal of the subject in Parlia 
 ment. J certainly did not imagine that we were 
 within a few weeks of a great change. But innu 
 merable and conclusive circumstances shewed that 
 the public mind was advancing rapidly towards 
 some important result. It was the certainty that, 
 in reference to the state of public feeling, the dis 
 cussion was well-timed that induced me to revive it. 
 
 And now the year 1830 is just closing in the 
 * Edinburgh Review No. 103, art. 10. Oct. 1830. 
 
470 MEMORIALS OF HIS TIME BY HENRY COCKBURN. 
 
 midst of events which will perhaps affect all the 
 future course of my life, and will certainly be deeply 
 marked in the page of history. In the beginning of 
 December, the Whigs came into power ; avowedly 
 on the great principle, and for the great object, of 
 Parliamentary Eeforrn. Their return has as yet been 
 hailed with very general joy. The Tories, seem 
 struck by a thunderbolt. They can ascribe what is 
 going on to no political trick, court intrigue, or 
 temporary accident ; but reflect with alarm, that 
 this is the third time within these two years that 
 Whiggism has been recognised in the cabinet ; and 
 that its triumph now is the natural result of deep- 
 seated causes, 
 
 I close this page by saying that Jeffrey has been 
 made Lord Advocate, and I Solicitor-General, under 
 the ministry of Earl Grey. We have come upon 
 the public stage in a splendid, but perilous scene. 
 I trust that we shall do our duty. If we do, we 
 cannot fail to do some good to Scotland. In the 
 abuses of our representative and municipal systems 
 alone, our predecessors have left us fields in which 
 patriotism may exhaust itself. 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA 
 
 EIGHTH EDITION. 
 
 List of some of the Contributors. 
 
 Rt. Hon. T. B. Macaulay. 
 
 Rt. Rev. Richard Whately, D.D., Arch 
 bishop of Dublin. 
 
 Rt. Rev. R. Dickson Hampden, D.D., 
 Bishop of Hereford. 
 
 William Whewell, D.D., Trinity College, 
 Cambridge. 
 
 Sir David Brewster, K.H., LL.D., Prin 
 cipal of the United Colleges of St. Sal- 
 vator and St. Leonard, St. Andrews. 
 
 John Lee, D.D., Principal of the Univer 
 sity of Edinburgh. 
 
 Sir William Hamilton, Bart. 
 
 Sir Archibald Alison, Bart. 
 
 Sir John Richardson. 
 
 Sir John M Neill. 
 
 Henry Rogers, Esq., Author of the 
 &quot;Eclipse of Faith,&quot; &c. 
 
 Isaac Taylor, Esq., Author of the &quot; Natu 
 ral History of Enthusiasm,&quot; &c. 
 
 Rev. Charles Kingsley, Author of &quot; Hypa- 
 tia,&quot; &quot;Westward Ho,&quot; &c. 
 
 J. D. Forbes, Professor of Natural Philo 
 sophy in the University of Edinburgh, 
 
 Robert Stephenson, Esq., M.P., President 
 of the Institution of Civil Engineers, &c. 
 
 Richard Monckton Milnes, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Hepworth Dixon, Esq. 
 
 Theodore Martin, Esq. 
 
 Colonel Portlock, R.M.A., Woolwich. 
 
 David Masson, M. A., Professor of English 
 Literature in University College, Lon 
 don. 
 
 Dr. Doran, Author of &quot; Habits and Men.&quot; 
 
 J. Y. Simpson, M.D., Professor of Mid 
 wifery in the University of Edinburgh. 
 
 Thomas de Quincey, Esq. 
 
 R. G. Latham, Esq., M.A., M.D., &c. 
 
 W. E. Aytoun, Professor of Rhetoric and 
 Belles Lettres in the University of 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 J. R. M Culloch, Esq., Member of the 
 Institute of France, &c. 
 
 Augustus Petermann, Esq., F.R.G.S., &c. 
 
 William Spalding, M.A., Professor of 
 Logic and Metaphysics in the Univer 
 sity of St. Andrews. 
 
 Rev. G. R. Gleig, M.A., &c. 
 
 Rev. J. E. Ryland, M.A., &c. 
 
 Rev. P. Kelland,M.A., Professor of Mathe 
 matics in the University of Edinburgh, 
 
 Antonio Panizzi, Esq. 
 
 Thomas Anderson, M.D.,Professor of Che 
 mistry in the University of Glasgow. 
 
 James Caird, Esq., Author of &quot;English 
 Agriculture in 1850-51,&quot; &c. 
 
 of 
 
 W. L. Alexander, D.D., &c. 
 
 Thomas Laycock, M.D., Professor of the 
 
 Practice of Physic in the University of 
 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 Daniel Wilson, LL.D., F.R.S.A., &c. 
 Lawrence Oliphant, Esq., Author of the 
 
 &quot; Russian Shores of the Black Sea.&quot; 
 George Farquhar Graham, Esq. 
 John Fleming, D.D., Professor of Natural 
 
 Science, New College, Edinburgh. 
 
 E. B. Denison, Esq., M.A., Q.C., &c. 
 James Wilson, Esq., F.R.S.E., &c. 
 
 J. H. Balfour, M.D., Professor of Botany 
 in the University of Edinburgh. 
 
 J. S. Blackie, Professor of Greek in the 
 University of Edinburgh. 
 
 James Montgomery, Esq., Author 
 Greenland and other Poems, &c. 
 
 William Gregory, M.D., Professor of Che 
 mistry in the University of Edinburgh. 
 
 George Wilson, M.D., Professor of Tech 
 nology in the University of Edinburgh- 
 Rev. William Scoresby, LL.D., &c. 
 
 Robert Carruthers, Esq. 
 
 John Hill Burton, Esq. 
 
 William Hosking, Professor of Arts and 
 Construction, King s College, London. 
 
 Alexander Smith, Esq., Author of a 
 &quot; Life Drama,&quot; &c. 
 
 Rev. William Hanna, LL.D. 
 
 Rev. Robert Main, M.A., F.R.A.S., &c. 
 
 John Tulloch, D.D., Primarius Professor 
 of Divinity, St. Andrews. 
 
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 zetteer of India,&quot; &c. 
 
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 nity in the University of Edinburgh. 
 
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 chester. 
 
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 Royal Institution, Manchester. 
 
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 Edinburgh. 
 
 R, S. Poole, Esq., M.R.S.L., &c. 
 
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 James Nicol, F.R.S.E., Professor of Na 
 tural History, Marischal College, Aber 
 deen. 
 
 Continued on next page. 
 
ENCYCLOPEDIA BBITANNICA, 
 
 EIGHTH EDITION. 
 
 PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 &amp;lt;* 
 
 DISSERTATION FIRSTV-QN THE PKOGEESS OF METAPHYSICAL AND ETHICAL 
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 ~\ VOLUME II. 
 
 ABERRATION AND ACOUSTICS. By George Buchanan, F.R.S.E. 
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 son, John Barrow. 
 
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 ^JETNA and ALPS. By Robert Jameson, late Professor of Natural History in the 
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 AFGHANISTAN. By D^vid,-Btichanan and Edward Thornton, East India House. 
 
 AFRICA. By Augustus Petermann, F.R.G.S. 
 
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 AMERICA. By Charles Maclaren, F.R.S.E. 
 
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 ANATOMY. By David Craigie, M.D., F.K.S.E. 
 
 ANCHOR. By Jonathan Aylcn, Greenwich. 
 
 ANDES, ANGLE, c. By Sir John Leslie. 
 
 ANGLING, ANIMAL KINGDOM, and ANIMALCULE. By James Wilson, 
 
 F.R.S.E. 
 
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 VOLUME IV. 
 
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 BELGIUM. 
 
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 BREAKWATER, By Sir John Barrow, Bart. Revised by his son, John Barrow, 
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WORKS PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK. 5 
 
 ENCYULOPJEDJA BRITANNICA Principal /Subjects. 
 
 VOLUME VI. 
 
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 BURNING-GLASSES. By George Buchanan, F.R.S.E. 
 
 CALENDAR. By Thomas Galloway, F.R.S. 
 
 CALIFORNIA. 
 
 CALVIN and CHANNING. By Rev. W. L. Alexander, D.D. 
 
 CAMPBELL, THOMAS. By W. E. Aytoun, Professor of Rhetoric and Belles 
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 CANNON. By Colonel Portlock, Woolwich. 
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 CARPENTRY and CHROMATICS. By Thos. Young, M.D. 
 CAVAN and CLARE. By Henry Senior. 
 
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 sity of Edinburgh. 
 
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 CHINA. By Sir John Barrow, with Continuation. 
 
 CHIVALRY. By Sir Walter Scott, Bart. 
 
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 CLOCK and WATCH WORK. By Edmund Beckett Denison, M.A., Q.C. 
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 in the University of Edinbiirgh. 
 
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 EDINBURGH and EDINBURGHSHIRE. 
 
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 VOLUME IX. 
 
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 EPISCOPACY. By Rev. George Gleigv D.D. 
 
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 EXHIBITION FANATICISM. 
 
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 FRANCE, By A. V. Kirwan, of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law. 
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 GEOMETRY, ANALYTICAL. By Rev. P. Kelland, M.A., Professor of Mathe 
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 A NEW EDITION OF 
 
 KITTO S CYCLOPEDIA 
 
 OP 
 
 BIBLICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 THE REV. HENRY BURGESS, LL.D. 
 
 Compiled by numerous able Scholars and Divines, British, Con 
 tinental, and American, whose Initials are affixed to their 
 respective Contributions. 
 
 The following is a Conspectus of the Work : 
 
 1. BIBLICAL CRITICISM Embracing the History of the Bible 
 
 Languages the Canon of Scripture Literary History and 
 Peculiarities of the Sacred Books Formation and History of 
 the Texts of Scripture. 
 
 2. BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION Comprehending the Prin 
 
 ciples of Translating and Expounding Scripture Critical Esti 
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 and Modern. 
 
 3. HISTORY Proper Names of Persons Biographical Sketches of 
 
 the more prominent Characters Detailed Accounts of the Prin 
 cipal Events recorded in Scripture Chronology and Genealogy 
 of Scripture. 
 
 4. GEOGRAPHY Names of Places Description of Scenery- 
 
 Boundaries and Mutual Relations of the Countries mentioned in 
 Scripture, so far as necessary to illustrate the Sacred Text. 
 
 5. ARCHAEOLOGY Manners and Customs of the Jews, and other 
 
 Nations mentioned in Scripture their Sacred Institutions 
 their Military Affairs their Political Arrangements their 
 Literary and Scientific Pursuits. 
 
 6. PHYSCIAL SCIENCE Scripture Cosmogony and Astronomy 
 
 Zoology Mineralogy Botany Meteorology. 
 
WORKS PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK. 
 
 13 
 
 KITTO S CYCLOPAEDIA OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE continued. 
 List of Contributors. 
 
 Rev. W. L. ALEXANDER, D.D., Author of 
 &quot; The Connexion and Harmony of the 
 Old and New Testaments,&quot; &c. 
 
 Rev. J. R. BEARD, D.D., Member of the His- 
 torico-Theological Society of Leipzig. 
 
 G. M. BELL, Author of &quot; Universal Mecha 
 nism,&quot; &c. 
 
 Rev. C. H. F. BIALLOBLOTZKY, Ph.D., of 
 Gottingcn, Author of &quot; De Abrogatione 
 Legis.&quot; 
 
 Rev. JOHN BROWN, D.D., Professor of Exege- 
 tical Theology to the United Secession 
 Church. 
 
 Rev. GEORGE BUSH, Professor of Hebrew 
 and Oriental Literature in the Univer 
 sity of New York. 
 
 Rev. JAMES D. BUTLER, Abbot Resident, 
 Theological Seminary, Andover, United 
 States. 
 
 Rev. K. A. CREDNER, Doctor and Professor of 
 Theology in the University of Giessen. 
 
 Rev. DANIEL DANA, D.D., Newbury Port, 
 Massachussetts, United States. 
 
 Rev. S. DAVIDSON, LL. D., Professor of 
 Biblical Literature and Oriental Lan 
 guages in the Lancashire Independent 
 College. 
 
 Rev. BENJAMIN DAVIES, D.D. 
 
 Rev. J. F. DENIIAM, M.A., St. John s Col 
 lege, Cambridge, F.R.S. 
 
 Rev. J. W. DORAN, LL. D., Association 
 Secretary of the Church Missionary 
 Society. 
 
 Rev. JOHN EADIE, Professor of Biblical 
 Literature to the United Secession 
 Church. 
 
 G. H. A. EWALD, Doctor and Professor of 
 Theology in the University of Tubin 
 gen. 
 
 Rev. F. W. GOTCH, M.A., Trinity College, 
 Dublin. 
 
 H. A. C. Havernick, Doctor and Professor 
 of Theology in the University of Kb nigs- 
 berg. 
 
 E. W. HENGSTENBERG, Doctor and Professor 
 of Theology in the University of Berlin. 
 
 Rev. J. JACOBI, of the University of Berlin. 
 
 Rey. R. JAMIESON, M.A., Editor of &quot;Pax- 
 ton s Illustrations of Scripture.&quot; 
 
 Rev. E. A. LAWRENCE, Haverhill, United 
 States. 
 
 Rev. ROBERT LEE, D.D., Professor of Biblical 
 Literature in the University of Edin 
 burgh. 
 
 FREDERICK R. LEES, LL.D., Editor of &quot; The 
 Truth-Seeker,&quot; &c. 
 
 PETER MEARNS, Author of &quot; Tirosh.&quot; 
 
 E. MICHELSON, Ph.D., of the University of 
 
 Heidelberg. 
 Rev. N. MORREN, M.A., Author of &quot; Biblical 
 Theology,&quot; and Translator of Rosen- 
 muller s &quot; Biblical Geography.&quot; 
 
 F. W. NEWMAN, late Fellow of Balliol Col 
 
 lege, Oxford. 
 
 JOHN NICHOLSON, B.A., Oxford, Ph.D. Tii- 
 bingen, Author of an &quot; Account of the 
 Establishment of the Fatemite Dy 
 nasty,&quot; Translator of Ewald s Hebrew 
 Grammar. 
 
 W. A. NICHOLSON, M.D. 
 
 Rev. JOHN PHILLIPS POTTER, M.A., Oriel 
 College, Oxford. 
 
 Rev. BADEN POWELL, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., 
 Savilian Professor of Geometry in the 
 University of Oxford. 
 
 J. R ROYLE, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., 
 Member of the Royal Asiatic Societies 
 of Calcutta and London ; Professor of 
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 J. E. RYLAND, Translator of Neander s 
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 &quot; Justin Martyr.&quot; 
 
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 Rev. DAVID WELSH, D. D., Professor of 
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 Rev. LEONARD WOODS, D.D., Professor of 
 Theology in the Andover Theological 
 Seminary, United States. 
 
 Rev. WILLIAM WRIGHT, LL.D., Trinity Col 
 lege, Dublin, Translator of Seller s 
 &quot;Biblical Hermeneutics.&quot; 
 
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