into that office in 1761; about sixteen CHAP. II. 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 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

8 4

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 consider

BOOK II. deriving from them much valuable infor

mation.

able 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 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 turbulent 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 grievances.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.

CHAP. II.

See a detailed account of Professor Millar's Lectures, and of his Writings, in a Life of Mr Millar, by his nephew, JOHN CRAIG, Esq. prefixed to the last edition of The Origin of Ranks, &c.

CHAPTER II.

Lord Kames associated with the Trustees for Arts and Manufactures, &c.-His Abridgment of the StatuteLaw. 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.

BOOK 11.

Lord

Kames associated with the Trustees

for Arts and Manufac

tures.

IN 1755, Lord KAMES was appointed a Member of the Board of Trustees for 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 discharge of CHAP. IL these important trusts, which regulated the

This

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 and excise-duties laid upon that kingdom as should be applied towards the payment of the national debt of England. equivalent was to admit of a proportional increase, according to the increase of the said duties; and its application was directed to be made to certain purposes of public utility within the kingdom of Scotland. First, It was directed that all the public debts should thence be discharged: Secondly, It was appointed, that the sum of L. 2000 per annum should for seven years be applied to the encouragement of the manufac ture of coarse wool; and after that period, " towards encou"raging the fisheries, and such manufactures and improve

ments in Scotland, as may most conduce to the general "good of the united kingdom." Commissioners at the same time were appointed for the management of that special fund, and their accounts declared to be open to the inspection of all the subjects. In the year 1727, on a representation from certain public-spirited gentlemen in Scotland, (Duncan Forbes, King's Advocate; Charles Areskine, King's Solicitor; Baron Sir John Clerk; Lord Royston, Lord Milton, and others), seconded by an application from the Convention of the Royal Boroughs of the kingdom, his Majesty King George I. issued letters-patent for the appointment of a Board of Trustees, with powers to follow out a regular plan, which they had previously digested, for the application of the fund above mentioned, in such manner as to render its dis