BOOK I. course of study, comprehending the sciences of Logic, Ethics, Metaphysics, and Natural Philosophy, to the highest academical degrees; an office, therefore, requiring great ability, and a very general acquaintance with science and literature. The reputation he gained as a public speaker, was probably his inducement to turn his views to the profession of the law. He entered Advocate in 1704; and a few years afterwards, being appointed Professor of Public Law, which released him from the more strict and regular academical duty, he spent some years in foreign travel; and, on his return to Scotland, applied himself with great diligence to practice as a barrister. He rose to high employment: He was appointed Solicitor-General in 1725; and in 1737, through the favour of Archibald, Duke of Argyle, then Minister for Scotland, he obtained the office of King's Advocate: In 1744, he was promoted to a seat on the Bench, by the title of Lord Tinwald; and, a few years afterwards, to the office of Justice-Clerk, or President of the Court of Justiciary*. In all these departments, he discharged his duty with honour and integrity. As a lawyer, he was esteemed an able civilian: he spoke with ease and gracefulness, and in a dialect which was purer than that of * The Lord Justice-General is, strictly speaking, the President of the High Court of Justiciary; but, as of late years it has not been customary for that officer to sit in judgment, the actual function of President of the Court is exercised by the Lord Justice-Clerk. of most of his cotemporaries: As a Judge, his demeanour PATRICK GRANT of Elchies owed his most extensive practice as a barrister to the pure force of his natural abilities. He had a head peculiarly fitted for the investigation of the most intricate points of the law, which his genius developed as by a species of intuition; reducing every question to some great and leading principle, and thence shewing its derivation, either as a necessary corollary, or accounting for its departure from the general axiom upon some ob vious ground of exception. It was from him that Mr Home (as I have heard him frequently acknowledge), learned that habit of logical investigation, which he found of the utmost advantage in the daily practice of his profession as a barrister, and which he carried into all his researches on the subject of law as a science. Assuming it as a fixed position, that every case is governed by some general principle, (unless it be taken out of the rule by its special circumstances), the only matter of exercise to the mind is the discovery of that principle. When once that is attained, every argument ranges itself in order, as a regular corollary from the proposition, and every objection admits of an easy solution. In this habit lay the chief talent of Elchies; and, conscious of the great advantage which this subjection of all his stores of the law to a few great and ruling principles, gave him over his less scien CHAP. II. Grant of BOOK L Grant of Prestongrange. tific competitors, his manner as a barrister was too warm and overbearing to his opponents; a defect which tarnished his great abilities, and attending him even on the Bench, impaired his dignity as a Judge; yet, in that character, his perfect probity, and sincere regard for justice, were confessed by all. Of a character very different in respect of temper, and of abilities, if not so profoundly scientific, yet more various, and more extensively useful, was his namesake, and successor on the Bench, WILLIAM GRANT of Prestongrange. There was in him a rectitude of moral feeling, and a principle of virtuous integrity, which regulated the whole of his conduct; and these, accompanied with a candour of judgment, a liberality of sentiment, and a winning gentleness of manners, which were the pure offspring of a warm and benevolent heart. These qualities shone conspicuously in his discharge of the office of King's Advocate, which he held for six years, soon after the Rebellion 1745-6. In that situation, his conduct, in the adjustment of the claims on the forfeited estates, merited universal approbation. It was regulated by a principle of equity, tempering the strictness of the law; and indicated a mind superior to all the illiberal prejudices that are the offspring of party-spirit. In the prosecution of criminals, if at any time he allowed his passions to influence his conduct, it was ever on the side of mercy and humanity. His eloquence was clear, correct, and copious, copious, and seemed to be the result of his natural feelings, and the fruit of his own persuasion of what was just and right. The promotion of this excellent man to a seat in both the Supreme Courts was attended with the universal approbation of the public; for his talents equally commanded the respect, and his virtues the esteem of his fellow-citizens *. 7 CHAP. II. Glendoick.. Mr ROBERT CRAIGIE of Glendoick, united to a very pro- Craigie of found knowledge of the laws, and an understanding peculiarly turned to the unfolding of the systematic intricacies of the feudal doctrines, the most persevering industry and intense application to business; which introducing him to notice in some remarkable causes where those talents were peculiarly requisite, were the foundation of a very extensive. practice at the Bar. His rise to eminence, however, was slow, Lord Prestongrange was a man of general reading, and a correct and able writer. He was author of one of the best political pamphlets that appeared on occasion of the Rebellion 1745-6. It is entitled, The Occasional Writer: being an Answer to the Second Manifesto of the Pretender's eldest Son: containing Reflections, Political and Historical, upon the last Revolution and the Progress of the present Rebellion in Scotland. London 1746. The arguments contained in this pamphlet are dictated by good sense and sound political wisdom; and are urged in a strain of such temperance and moderation, as to conciliate the favour even of those whose party prejudices were most strongly in bpposition to the doctrines it inculcates. D BOOK I. in slow, as he had none of the exterior accomplishments that attract attention; and though an acute and able reasoner, his manner of pleading was dry, prolix, and deficient both grace and energy. In the earlier part of his life, he had, for several years, given private lectures in his chambers to students of the law, before he had any considerable employment as a barrister; but his industry, and the gradually prevailing opinion of his deep acquaintance with jurisprudence, overcame at length every obstacle; and he rose to the first rank among the counsel who were his cotemporaries. He was appointed King's Advocate in 1742, and was promoted to the presidency of the Court in 1754, on the death of the elder Lord Arniston *. From the preceding enumeration, it may fairly be supposed, that the state of the Bar was this time extremely favourable * On the subject of the characters of these eminent men, the Judges and the Lawyers of the last age, besides the information derived from my Father, who was the cotemporary of the greater part of them, I am particularly indebted to my very learned and ingenious friend JOHN RAMSAY, Esq; of Ochtertyre; a gentleman who, in the course of many years spent in philosophic retirement, has found a pleasing exercise for his talents, and knowledge of mankind, and has most usefully employed his leisure, in recording the characters, manners and habits of the preceding times, and the progress of im.. provement in Scotland. To his ample stores of information, most freely and liberally communicated, I owe the greatest obligation in various departments of this work. |