BOOK II. Professor fessorship by royal endowment for that useful branch of science: It appears by a letter from Dr Blair, that it was at the earnest instigation of the former he was induced to publish those Sermons, of which it is but the smallest merit, that they are a model for the eloquence of the pulpit. "MY LORD, July 2. 1777. "I am very much obliged to you for the friendly communication you gave me by letter; the more so, that though the general success of the book is far beyond my expectation, (a fourth edition being now gone to the press), yet I had learnt no particulars concerning its reception in London, except what I got in a letter from Mrs Montagu, and by communication from Lord Mansfield, who is a great friend to it. Your Lordship may take to yourself the credit of it; for you was the first person who prompted, and for many years continued to impel the publication, when I would not believe that the public would listen to any thing which carried the title of sermons. I am in quarters, &c.-I ever am, &c. I am in my old country HUGH BLAIR." Among those young men of talents whom the patronage of Lord Kames contributed to bring forward with advantage, and whose genius took its direction from his own literary and philosophical pursuits, was Mr JOHN MILLAR, who for many years sustained a very high reputation by his public Lectures in the University of Glasgow, on Law and Government. Mr Millar, the son of a clergyman, had been educated with a view to the Scottish Church; but having early conceived a dislike to that profession, and turned his attention to the study of the law, he was invited by Lord Kames to reside in his family, and superintend, in the quality of preceptor, the education of his son, Mr George Drummond-Home. Lord Kames found in young Millar a congenial ardour of intellect, a mind turned to philosophical speculation, a considerable fund of reading, and what above all things he delighted in, a talent for supporting a metaphysical argument in conversation, with much ingenuity and vivacity. The tutor of the son became the pupil and companion of the father; and the two years before Mr Millar was called to the Bar, were spent, with great improvement on his part, in acquiring those enlarged views of the union of law with philosophy, which he afterwards displayed with uncommon ability in his academical lectures on Jurisprudence. The Professorship of Law at Glasgow having bccome vacant by the death of Mr Hercules Lindsay, Mr Millar offered himself a candidate; and, supported by the recommendation of Lord Kames and Dr Adam Smith, was elected into that office in 1761; about sixteen months after he had put on the gown of an Advocate. The reputation of the University, as a school of jurisprudence, rose from that acquisition; and although the republican prejudices of Mr Millar gave to his Lectures on Politics and Government, a character justly considered as repugnant to the well-attempered CHAP. I. BOOK II. pered frame and equal balance of our improved constitution, there were few who attended those lectures, without at least an increase of knowledge; or who have perused his writings*, without * Professor MILLAR'S writings are, an Essay, entitled, The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks,—An Historical View of the English Government from the Settlement of the Saxons in Britain to the Accession of the House of Stuart; and a Continuation of the same Work from that period to the Revolution; with some detached Dissertations illustrative of the succeeding History of the Constitution down to the present times. In the first of these works, The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks, the author is a disciple of the school of Montesquieu. The talent of generalizing appeared to him to be the characteristic of a philosophic inquirer into the history of Human Nature. Assuming it as a principle, that man is every where, and in all situations, the same animal; that his conduct is influenced by general laws, and that no considerable change in his condition happens, through accidental circumstances, or individual exertion, but that all arises necessarily, by an uniform and natural process, which can neither be effectually resisted, nor prematurely accelerated; he deduces from those general laws, and in conformity with those principles, a very ingenious and amusing delineation of the progress of society from barbarism to refinement. The recording of authentic facts, the display of historic truth, is much less an object with such writers, than ingenious argument, and plausible theory. Forgetting that it is only the most extensive knowledge of the actual history of man, in every age and country, that can enable us even to form a conjecture, where authentic history is silent; and dismissing entirely from their consideration those powerful springs of revolution, accident, and individual character, such philosophers are bold enough to determine not only what man ought to be, but to prove, by à priori reasoning, what in certain situations he has been, and in similar circumstances ever must be. It is to this sort of speculation that Mr Stewart, in his Life of Smith, has given the name of Theoretical or Conjectural History, and assigned to it a higher praise than perhaps is strictly its due. The writings of Lord Kames, particularly his without tion *. deriving from them much valuable informa CHAP. his Sketches of the History of Man, furnish many examples of it; but the most complete, and incomparably the most elegant specimen which the literature of this country affords of that sort of inquiry, is Dr FERGUSSON'S Essay on the History of Civil Society. In Mr Millar's writings on the English Government, we observe the same spirit of system, and the same partiality to hypothetical reasoning; though resting, as may be supposed, on a more solid foundation of facts; and the less dangerous in its tendency, as being every where capable of scrutiny from actual history. In his delineation of the later periods of our parliamentary history, Mr Millar seems to have been impressed with an unreasonable alarm, that the liberties of the subject are in perpetual danger from an increase of the influence of the Crown. Under our constitution, as new-modelled at the Revolution, and fenced by many salutary enactments since that æra, the event thus dreaded is utterly chimerical. The Crown can have no influence, but through an aristocracy, whose interests are essentially connected with the liberties of the people, and the prosperity of the State. On the other hand, the real danger, (as experience has but too well evinced), and therefore the just subject. of alarm to every good citizen, is the increasing influence of the democratic branch of the constitution; and that ambition of power, felt by every turbu lent spirit, even among the lowest orders of the people, which prompts to exert an active controul over his rulers, to interfere in the conduct of Government, and to resist its operations, whenever he fancies restraints, or dreams of grie-It was not from his venerable Master, that the Professor drew his political opinions, or his Theories of Government. On the contrary, Lord Kames never failed to express his unqualified disapprobation of those doctrines; and the partial regard which he entertained for his former pupil, suffered, in the latter period of his life, on that account, a marked abatement. vances. * See a detailed account of these Lectures, and of the author's Writings, in a Life of Mr Millar, by his nephew, JOHN CRAIG, Esq; prefixed to the last edition of The Origin of Ranks, &c. CHAP. I. BOOK II. Lord Kames associated with the Trustees for Arts and Manufactures. CHAPTER II. Lord Kames associated with the Trustees for Arts and Manufactures, &c.—His Abridgment of the Statute-Law.-His views for the improvement of the Law.-His correspondence with Lord Hardwicke.-Historical Law-Tracts.-History of the Criminal Law.-History of Property.-Origin of Entails.-Principles of Equity.-Lord Hardwicke's opinion of that work. Sir William Blackstone's ideas of Equity.— His censure of Lord Kames's work examined. İN IN 1755, Lord KAMES was appointed a Member of the Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of the Fisheries, Arts and Manufactures of Scotland; and in the same or following year, he was chosen one of the Commissioners for the management of the forfeited Estates, annexed to the Crown, of which the rents were destined to be applied to the improvement of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland *. In the *The appointment of the Board of Trustees in Scotland, took its rise from the Treaty of Union; by the 15th article of which, it was stipulated, that a certain sum should be paid to Scotland, as an equivalent for such part of the customs |