place as a principle *: It is expedient for CHAP. II. the good order of society, that a long continued possession should not be disturbed on slight pretences: and that claim must be presumed a slight one, which, in a long period of time, has never been moved: the direct evidence of property may have perished through neglect or natural decay, and false evidence might easily be substituted in its stead. It is political expedience, therefore, which is the foundation of prescription; and prescription can no otherwise be said to be consonant to the law of nature, than as it is agreeable to that law, that the best precautions should be taken to ensure the good order and peace of society.

But although in the foregoing Essay the author may have erred in speculating abstractly on the origin and foundation of prescription, the doctrine itself is handled in a masterly manner in all its principal branches.

"As from the nature of the thing, titles to property are extremely uncertain, it is the interest of mankind, that they be keeped secure against after-reckonings of this nature.”Essay on Prescription, p. 105.

BOOK I.

Its partial coincidence with the Roman Usucapio, and the points in which it differs, are distinctly noted: and the most material positions are illustrated by examples from the recorded judgments of the Court.

These Essays* procured to their author the character of a profound and scientific lawyer; and from the period of their publication, we find Mr Home engaged in most of the causes of importance which occurred in the Court of Session.

The substance of the Essay, entitled, Beneficium cedendarum actionum, was afterwards inserted by the author into his work, entitled, Principles of Equity; and the other three Essays were republished, in an amended form, in his Elucidations respecting the Law of Scotland.

CHAPTER III.

Mr Home's social turn, and early friends.—Colonel Forrester.-Hamilton of Bangour.-Authors of the Edinburgh Miscellany.-Earl of Findlater.-Oswald of Dunikeir.-Letters from him to Mr Home.-David Hume.-Letters from him.-Dr Butler.

СНАР.
III.

Mr Home's

and early friends,

MR R HOME, in every period of his life, was fond of social intercourse; and, with all his ardour of study, and variety of literary and social turn professional occupations, a considerable portion of his time was devoted to the enjoyments of society, in a numerous and respectable circle of acquaintance. In his earlier days, the warmth of his affections, a happy flow of animal spirits, which disposed him to enter keenly into every innocent frolic, and a great power of animated and sprightly conversation, made his acquaintance be

BOOK I. eagerly courted by the gay young men of fashion, who acquired some consequence in their own esteem, from being the friends and companions of a man of science and a philosopher*: Nor can we doubt the beneficial effect of such a pattern on the general circle with which he associated †. But, on

*The following anecdote is much to Lord Kames's honour. During the first years of his attendance on the bar, when his finances were very slender, and quite unequal to that expensive style of living in which his companions had engaged him, he found, on summing up his accounts, that he had unawares contracted debts to the amount of L. 300. "What is to be done? (said he,) I must not burden my "father with this: he cannot afford it.-I withdrew at once "from that society, and lived in the most private manner, " till I had cleared off the debt."—Mr Boswell's MSS.

+ To this purpose is the following just remark of an ingenious and learned friend, to whom I owe much valuable information on the subject of these Memoirs. "The influence " of Mr Home's conversation upon his friends and compa"nions who had a turn for letters, was, from all I have been "able to collect, great and powerful. We, who only knew "him in the evening of his life, may easily figure how bril"liant and persuasive must have been his wit and eloquence "in the ardour of youth, when he wished to impress young "men, ambitious of treading in his steps, with a passion for "Polite Literature, or what he considered as Divine Philo"sophy. No man in his time did more to disseminate the "seeds of science among his countrymen, even at the time "when he was immersed in business and professional studies." --Letter from Mr RAMSAY of Ochtertyre.

his side, attachment and real friendship were always the result of a discriminating choice. His familiar companions were men of talents, of wit, and of polished manners, in whose conversation he found a pleasing relaxation from the fatigues of study, or the irksomeness of professional labour; and whose congenial minds fitted them at once to relish and improve the enjoyments of the social hour.

There was a time when, (as we of the present age have heard from our fathers), the fashionable circles in the Scottish metropolis were adorned by a class of men now unknown and utterly extinct; or whom, if their successors in the world of fashion have ever heard of, they seem at least to have no desire to revive, or ambition to emulate : men who, under the distinguishing title of Beaux, or fine gentlemen, united an extensive knowledge of literature, and a cultivated taste, to the utmost elegance of manners, of dress, and of accomplishments: men whose title to be leaders of the mode was founded on an acknowledged superiority, both in exterior graces, and in mental en

CHAP.

III.