I shall mention a few of the most distinguished Advocates who then divided the practice of the Courts, and who rose by their merits to the highest honours of the law. СНАР. ІІ. bes of Culloden. DUNCAN FORBES of Culloden was in all respects one of Duncan For the most eminent men of his time. His learning was extensive and profound, reaching even to the oriental languages; and he had that acuteness and subtilty of parts, which is peculiarly fitted for the nice discriminations of the law; but which was always regulated in him by the prevailing prin-ciples of his nature, probity, candour, and a strong sense of the beauty of virtue and moral excellence. His warmth of heart made him a man of religion; and as all his feelings. were ardent, his piety, of course, was fervent and habitual.. This disposition co-operating with a lively imagination, led. him to become an admirer and disciple of the Hutchinsonian scheme of Theology, which professes to find in the Holy. Scriptures, when interpreted according to the radical import of the Hebrew expressions, a complete system of natural philosophy, as well as of religious instruction. He had not enough of physical science to detect the absurdities with. which the scheme of his favourite author abounds; but it delighted his imagination, and coincided with his religious propensities; and in the writings which he published in sup-port of that scheme, (his Letter to a Bishop, and his Thoughts concerning Religion, Natural and Revealed), he is allowed to be the ablest of all the expositors of the Hutchinsonian Theo-VOL. I. E logy. BOOK I. logy. In the eloquence of the Bar, Forbes outshone all his cotemporaries; for he united to great knowledge of jurisprudence, a quickness of comprehension that discovered to him at once the strong ground of argument which he was to press, or the weakness of the doctrine he wished to assail. When raised to the Presidency of the Court, the vigour of his intellect, his patience in the hearing of causes, his promptitude in the dispatch of business, the dignity of his deportment, and above all, the known probity and integrity of his mind, gave the highest weight to the decisions of that tribunal over which he presided. When to these qualifications we add an extensive acquaintance with human nature, acquired and improved in a most active public life, and uniformly directed to the great ends of promoting the welfare and prosperity of his fellow-citizens, and discharging his duty to God and to his country, we shall have some faint idea of the character of Duncan Forbes *. ROBERT * It is well known, that the firm, but temperate conduct of the President Forbes, his extensive influence with his countrymen, and his patriotic exertions, even to the sacrifice of his private fortune, were the main instruments of the suppression of the Rebellion in Scotland in 1745-6; and that had his enlightened counsels been attended to, and his provident precautions adopted, the seeds of rebellion had in all probability never sprung to light, and the country had been spared the misery which it actually endured. It is needless, and perhaps might be invidious, to enter into the reasons why the eminent services of this great and good man, were treated on the part of Government with a neglect, ingratitude, and injustice, which leave a stain upon the annals of the times. - ROBERT DUNDAS of Arniston, whose father and grandfather had successively discharged the duty of Judge in the Court of Session, and who afterwards rose by his merits to the Presidency of the Court, (an office which his son, of the same name, was destined to fill with still increasing reputation), was at this time in the height of his practice as a barrister. He had great natural abilities, and a ready and animated elocution, which fitted him to excel in extemporaneous pleading, and particularly in reply. A fine specimen of his argumentative powers was given on the remarkable trial of Carnegie of Finhaven, indicted for murder, but guilty only of homicide or manslaughter, in having unintentionally killed the Earl of Strathmore*. In that memorable trial, Dundas had the merit not only of saving the life of the prisoner, but of establishing a point of the utmost consequence to the security of life and liberty, the power of à jury, at that time questioned in Scotland, of returning a general verdict on the guilt or innocence of the person accused †. The elder E 2 James Carnegie of Finhaven was tried before the Court of Justiciary, for the murder of Charles, Earl of Strathmore, in 1728. At a meeting in the country, where the company had drunk to intoxication, Carnegie having received the most abusive language, and sustained a personal outrage of the grossest nature from Lyon of Bridgeton, drew his sword, and staggering forward to make a pass at Lyon, killed the Earl of Strathmore, a person for whom he had the highest regard and esteem, and who unfortunately came between him and his antagonist, apparently with the view of separating them.. + See a Biographical Account of the President Arniston in Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. ii. CHAP. II. Dundas of BOOK I. Dalrymple of Drum. more. Fergusson of elder Arniston, with great quickness of parts, inherited neither the ample stores of various knowledge, nor the enlarged and philosophic mind of his predecessor Forbes; but he possessed a sound and discriminating judgment; and the manner in which he filled the high offices of the law in times of much difficulty, from the prevalence of party-spirit, reflects great honour on his moderation and humanity. HEW DALRYMPLE of Drummore, son of the President North-Berwick, and grandson of the Viscount of Stair, inherited the talents and genius of his forefathers. He was an acute and sound lawyer; and possessed a ready, distinct and forcible, though not a polished elocution. He had a great command of wit and humour, which equally enlivened his conversation, and gave interest and spirit to his public harangues; but these qualities were tempered with such sweetness of disposition, that he never employed them to wound or to mortify his antagonist. The great urbanity of his manners, and a keen relish of social enjoyments, endeared him to his friends; and his eminent worth and probity, together with a high feeling of honour, and a noble and ingenuous boldness of countenance and deportment, gave uncommon force and authority to all his arguments and opi nions. Sir JAMES FERGUSSON of Kilkerran was undoubtedly one of the ablest lawyers of his time. His knowledge was founded founded on a thorough acquaintance with the Roman jurisprudence, imbibed from the best coinmentators on the Pandects, and with the recondite learning of Craig, who has laid open the fountains of the Scottish law, in all that regards the system of Feudalism. Of his manner as a barrister, we have no other record than the printed papers of his composition, which evince a skilful arrangement of his matter, a judicious selection of his ground of argument, and a nervous brevity of expression, which admits of no rhetorical embellishments. The probity and integrity of his moral character, entitled him to respect and veneration. The decisions which he has recorded during the period when he sat as a Judge of the Supreme Court, exhibit the clearest comprehension, and the soundest views of jurisprudence, and will for ever serve as a model for the most useful forms of Law Reports. CHARLES ARESKINE of Tinwald, a younger son of an ancient and honourable family, had probably been educa ted with a view to the Church. In 1700, when only twenty years of age, he presented himself a candidate, and, on a comparative trial with several competitors, gained his election to the office of one of the four Regents, or Philosophy Professors in the University of Edinburgh; whose function it then was, to conduct their pupils through a quadriennial course CHAP. II, Areskine of Tinwald. * He was grandson of Sir Charles Areskine of Alva, a younger son of John, 7th Earl of Mar, by Mary Stewart, daughter of Esme, Duke of Len nox. |