second Highland regiment, as his military chaplain, to qualify him for which office he received ordination, on the 2nd of July, 1745, although he had not studied divinity the full period of six years.

He remained with the regiment until 1757, in which year he succeeded the celebrated David Hume, as keeper of the Advocates' library, but resigned that office in the following year. În 1759, he was elected professor of natural philosophy in the University of Edinburgh; though we are told, by his biographer, he had not made physical science the principal object of his inquiries, nor, indeed, had he studied it much more than most young men do, in the common course of academical instruction. Five months of preparation, however, enabled him to qualify himself for this office, the duties of which he performed in such a manner, as to render the study of natural philosophy more interesting than it had been commonly considered. About 1762, he founded the society known by the name of The Poker, for the purpose of procuring from government the establishment of a militia in Scotland. To forward its views, he wrote a satirical pamphlet, entitled, The History of Sister Peg. His first publication, however, if we except a. printed sermon, was A Defence of the Morality of Stage Plays, at the time of the literary controversy that took place respecting Home's tragedy of Douglas. A number of pamphlets were written on the same side of the question, but Mr. Ferguson's was admitted, by the opposite party, to be "the only piece on that side that was written with any tolerable degree of discretion."

In 1764, he was elected professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh, and entered on his duties, says his biographer, with a degree of spirit and activity, from which the most splendid results were to be anticipated.

His

lectures, which drew a numerous and applauding auditory, were delivered, as far as the expression was concerned, extempore; he had previously delineated, and committed to paper, the general plan of his course, but had resolved not to write a system of lectures. About a year after his election to the chair of philosophy, he published his Essay on the History of Civil

VOL. IV.

Society, a work which received the unanimous suffrage of the literary world. In a letter, dated the 10th of March, 1767, Mr. Hume, congratulating our author on its success, says, "I have met with nobody that had read it who did not praise it. Lord Mansfield is very loud to that purpose in his Sunday societies. I heard Lord Chesterfield and Lord Lyttleton express the same sentiments; and, what is above all, Cadell, I am told, is already projecting a second edition of the same quarto size." The style, as well as the matter, was also praised by the poet Gray, who observes, that there are uncommon strains of eloquence in Mr. Ferguson's Essay, and not one single idiom of his country in the whole work. Lord Shelburne approved so highly of the publication, that he expressed a desire to patronise the author, and offered to procure him some appropriate appointment at one of the English universities, after having been informed that the government of West Florida, which his lordship had some thoughts of conferring on Ferguson, would not be considered a suitable appointment. None other, however, was proposed; and the professor, shortly after, married, and took a farm in the parish of Currie, where, at a considerable expense, he gratified his taste for agricultural and horticultural pursuits.

In May, 1774, he set out for Geneva, to take charge of Charles, Earl of Chesterfield, whose tutor he had been solicited to become, by the guardians of that young nobleman. The connexion, however, was dissolved in the course of the following year, on which Mr. Ferguson returned to Edinburgh, where, to his astonishment and mortification, he found that the chair of moral philosophy was declared vacant by the town-council, though they had previously appointed, at his desire, a deputy to perform the office. His friends, Dr. Robertson, Blair, and Black, indignantly remonstrated against this proceeding, and applied to the court of session in behalf of Mr. Ferguson, who was, though not without much exertion, reinstated in his office. He appears to have felt and expressed himself strongly on this occasion, and concluded a letter to a friend, having reference to it, with the following pas

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sage: "The fools and knaves are no more than necessary to give others something to do."

Literary and agricultural pursuits continued to occupy the leisure, if it may be so called, of Mr. Ferguson, for many years. The progress of the American war called his attention to the study of politics about 1776, in which year he published some Remarks on a Pamphlet, lately published by Dr. Price, entitled, Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, &c. He also communicated his views, from time to time, to Sir William Pulteney, and other members of parliament; and, on the determination of government to send out commissioners to quell the disorders in the colonies, he was appointed secretary to the commission. He was, in consequence, absent from Edinburgh during the session of 1778 and 1779; but his duties were scarce less efficiently performed by Mr. Dugald Stewart. In 1780, Mr. Ferguson was seized with an attack of apoplexy, which, however, had no permanent effect either upon his bodily or mental faculties. But he now thought it expedient to cease lecturing without the use of notes; and he, therefore, commenced writing out a course of instruction, to be read during the remainder of his incumbency. At the same time, he was busily employed in bringing to a completion his celebrated work, The History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic, which appeared, in 1783, in three volumes quarto. This work has been translated into several modern languages, and has been justly described as one, which not only delights, by the clearness of its narrative, and the boldness of its descriptions, but instructs and animates, by profound and masterly delineations of character, as well as by the philosophical precision with which it traces the connexion of events. It is written, continues his biographer, in that tone of high-minded enthusiasm, which, if it can only snatch from oblivion whatever is noble and generous, in the record of human actions, regards the graces of style as objects merely of secondary account, and is chiefly studious of impressing the lessons of wisdom, which may be gathered from the survey of distant ages.

In 1784, Mr. Ferguson resigned the chair of moral philosophy to Mr. Dugald Stewart, and was himself conjoined in the professorship of mathematics with Mr. Playfair, in order to entitle him to retain his professor's salary. He now proceeded to revise the notes of his lectures on ethics and politics, and, in 1792, published them, under the title of Principles of Moral and Political Science, in two volumes, quarto. Among the modern writers, those to whose suggestion he appears, in this work, to have been most indebted, are, Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Montesquieu, and Adam Smith. The work has been blamed for the very partial notice which it offers of the importance of religious principle; it abounds, however, in passages of great beauty on the subject of a future state, and shows an anxiety, on the part of the author, to establish the foundations of natural theology. After its publication, Mr. Ferguson visited the continent, where he was elected a member of the Academy of Berlin, and other learned societies. He passed the winter of 1793 at Rome; and returned to Scotland in the following year, with the intention of spending the remainder of his days in rural retirement. For this pose, he fixed upon Hallyards, in Manor Water, where he remained fourteen years; but, at the expiration of that period, his sight and hearing having, in a great measure, failed, he removed to St. Andrew's, that he might, more frequently, enjoy the conversation of his friends. Here he gradually declined in all but his intellectual faculties, in the full vigour of which he died, on the 22nd of February, 1816, in the ninetythird year of his age, leaving three sons and three daughters.

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The private character of Mr. Ferguson was irreproachable; his manners were easy and elegant, and perfectly those of a man of the world, though by no means unbecoming the dignity of a philosopher. With his intimate friends, he was full of fascinating gaiety and refined humour. If he was impatient of any thing, it was of contradiction; and of assumed superiority, he could rarely forbear testifying his contempt. We have his own authority for suggesting, that he was indebted for his easy and dignified manner, less

to his intercourse with polished society than to his frequent excursions in the wilds of Athol. "If I had not been in the Highlands of Scotland," he says, "I might be of their mind who think the inhabitants of Paris and Versailles, the only polite people in the world. It is truly wonderful to see persons of every age and sex, who never travelled beyond the nearest mountain, possess themselves perfectly, perform acts of kindness with an aspect of dignity, and a perfect discernment of what is proper to oblige. This is seldom to be seen in our cities, or in our capital; but a person among the mountains, who thinks himself nobly born, considers courtesy as the test of his rank. He never saw a

superior, and does not know what it is to be embarrassed. He has an ingenuous deference for those who have seen more of the world than himself; but never saw the neglect of others assumed as a mark of superiority."

In addition to the works before mentioned, Mr. Ferguson published a pamphlet on the Militia; Analysis of Lectures on Mechanics; Analysis of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy; a biographical account of Dr. Black, and Institutes of Moral Philosophy. This last went through three editions in the author's life-time, and has been translated into French, German, and Russian, and used as a test book in several foreign universities.

JOHN MILLAR was born in the parish of Shotts, Lanarkshire, of which place his father was minister, in 1735. He received his education at the grammar-school of Hamilton and the University of Glasgow, whither he removed in 1746. He was at first destined for the church, but his inquiring mind having led him to doubt the propriety of subscription to articles of faith, he renounced the church for the bar. On the termination of his studies at the university, where he had acquired the esteem of Dr. Adam Smith and the other professors, he entered the family of Lord Kames, as tutor to his son, and derived much improvement from his intercourse with that eminent lawyer. About the same time, he became acquainted with the celebrated David Hume, in whose metaphysical opinions he coincided, though differing from him in his political principles. Hume entertained so much regard for the subject of our memoir, that he intrusted to him the education of his nephew.

In 1760, Mr. Millar passed advocate, and had not long commenced practising, before he was considered one of the most rising young lawyers at the bar. Having, however, no pecuniary resources of his own, and being about to marry, he gave up all his prospects of ambition, for the acceptance of the

professorship of law at Glasgow, to which he was appointed in 1761. His lectures at the university soon procured an unusual accession of students; the number of whom, from only four or five, his reputation, in a few years, increased to no less than forty. The course which he delivered upon government were particularly popular. He adopted the rule established by his predecessor, of lecturing in English, instead of Latin, spoke extemporaneously, and at the conclusion of his discourses, explained the difficulties or objections proposed by his pupils, in a free conversation. His proper business was to comment upon the institutions and precedents of Justinian, to which he subjoined a course of lectures on juris-. prudence, and employed thrice a week in lectures on government, and twice a week upon the law of Scotland. In a more private way, he was equally distinguished for the zeal, and celebrated for the success, with which he instructed his private pupils, of whom he had a number in his own house. On the formation of the Glasgow Literary Society, he became one of its principal members, and, at their meetings, was a frequent antagonist of the eminent metaphysician, Dr. Reid.

in 1771, our author first made himsell known as such, by the publication

of a treatise on the Origin of the Distinction of Ranks, being a view of the changes produced on the several relations of society, by the gradual progress of civilization and improvement. It was received with applause both at home and abroad, went through several editions, and was translated into French. In 1787, appeared his Historical View of the English Government, from the settlement of the Saxons in Britain, to the accession of the House of Stuart. This work displays much research into the remote period of the British government, and contains many admirable political disquisitions, which, though too profound to be popular, have received the commendations of all the most distinguished writers. style has been also highly praised, and his biographer, Mr. Craig, observes, "perhaps it would be impossible to find a sentence which can require a second perusal to be distinctly understood."

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Mr. Millar was a warm supporter of the Whigs, and it was, probably, says Dr. Aikin, in consequence of his jealousy of authority, that, in the limited degree in which he still followed the profession of an advocate, he made it

a constant practice to appear at the circuits as counsel for criminals. On these occasions, few pleaders, it is said, surpassed him in the acuteness with which he examined evidence, and the force with which he addressed the feelings of juries. He took an active part in all meetings for the abolition of the slave trade, and incurred much odium by his avowed approbation of the French revolution. The summer of the last years of his life were passed at a small farm called Whitemoss, and subsequently at a seat called Millheugh, where he devoted himself to literary and rural pursuits. He died of a violent pleuritic attack, in May; 1801. He left a large family, and several manuscripts, from which in 1803, were printed, in two volumes, his posthumous works.

The habitual character of Mr. Millar has been thus summed up by one who widely differed from him: "no little ideas of private interest, no narrow views of advantage or emolument, sunk him to the level of party politicians; but firm, resolute, and decided, he was, from first to last, the enlightened and manly defender of what he conceived to be the rights and liberties of mankind."

JOHN CARTWRIGHT, the third son of William Cartwright, Esq. of Marnham, Nottinghamshire, was born there on the 28th of September, 1740. At the age of five, he was sent to the grammar-school of Newark, and afterwards to Heath academy, in Yorkshire; but, owing to the inefficiency of his instructors, he made but little progress at either. His vacations, and a considerable portion of his childhood, were spent under the roof of John, Viscount Tyrconnel, who had married his father's sister, and was his godfather. This somewhat eccentric nobleman was a Whig of the old school, and from him the subject of our memoir would seem to have imbibed his political principles. On his leaving Heath school, it was the wish of his relations that he should be bred up to agricultural pursuits, in order

that he might assist in the management of the family estate; "but under a contemplative exterior," says his neice, "a desire for more active employment was springing up in his mind; and as Europe was at that time filled with the glory of the great Frederick, who was raising to the rank of an independent nation an insignificant province of the German empire, he was seized with a desire of joining Frederick's army, as a volunteer." He accordingly left his house privately with this intention, but was overtaken, at Stamford, by his father's steward, and persuaded to return; though a writer in the Biographie Contemporains, has positively asserted, that he served several years in the King of Prussia's army. The navy being at length fixed upon for him as a profession, he joined, in the summer of 1758, the Essex, commanded by Captain

Walter Stirling; and, about a month after, was at the taking of Cherbourg. He was next removed into Lord Howe's ship, the Magnanime; and, during Sir Edward Hawke's engagement with the French admiral, Conflans, on the 20th of November, 1759, he commanded four lower deck guns and twenty-six men, of whom thirteen were killed by his side, he himself escaping with only a slight graze from a splinter. In 1762, he was appointed lieutenant on board the Wasp, employed in cruising in the Bay of Biscay; and, whilst holding that rank, from 1763 till the 14th of May, 1766, he had the command, first, of the Spy, and, afterwards, of the Sherbourne cutter. In the latter year, he was made first-lieutenant of the Guernsey, on the Newfoundland station, where he officiated as deputy-surrogate within the districts of Trinity and Conception Bays; and, subsequently, a deputy-commissary to the vice-admiralty court. In the February of 1769, he was appointed to the Antelope; and, in the following year, sailed for England. Here he joined Lord Howe's ship, the Queen, which being ordered to Spithead, as guard-ship, Mr. Cartwright took the opportunity of visiting his home. During this period of leisure, he employed himself in writing a pamphlet On the Rights and Interests of Fishing Companies, which is said to have supplied the Honourable Daines Barrington with matter for his work on the possibility of approaching the north pole. In 1772, he drew up a plan for the perpetual supply of oak for the British navy, of which many connected with the government approved, and the late Bishop Douglas is said to have observed, "We are not honest enough for such plans as these."

On his first launching into politics, he seems to have had some dread of the consequences; for he says in a letter to Burke, dated August, 1774, "My Letters on American Independence are now in the press. As a republication of them," he adds, "may possibly be displeasing to government, I do not wish, at present, to be known as their author. I am not afraid of the law, but should be glad of advancement in my profession." He, however, subsequently, avowed himself the author, in a letter to Lord Howe, declining, from

principle, that nobleman's invitation to accept a command, under him, against the Americans. It appears, also, that he might have obtained a command in the army of the United States; but, though he wished well to American independence, he refused to bear arms against his own country. This con

duct procured him some popularity in England, with those who were favourably disposed to the colonists; and, in July, 1776, two years previous to which he had been appointed a major in the Nottinghamshire militia, he was presented with the freedom of the town of Nottingham. In this year, he wrote his first production on parliamentary reform, which, with the exception of some pamphlets by Earl Stanhope, is said to be the earliest work on the subject. It was entitled, Take your Choice; and, to a second edition of it he added, The Legislative Rights of the Commonalty Vindicated; in which he advocates equal representation as a right, and annual parliaments as security for the preservation of that right. This, probably, was the origin of the Radical reformer; and he seems to have followed his principles with an unexampled tenacity. On the 2nd of April, 1777, he presented to the king an address, recommending peace with America, and proposing the union he had before suggested in his Letters on American Independence.

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In 1778, he made an unsuccessful attempt for the representation of Nottinghamshire; and, in 1779, he was actively employed in his military capacity, his regiment being encamped at South Sea Common, when the British fleet retreated into harbour before the combined fleets of France and Spain. Upon the spur of that occasion, he is said to have formed a plan of defence, uniting naval and military operations, which had the unqualified approbation of both the Duke of Richmond and General Debbeig. In the spring of 1780, he co-operated with several noblemen and literary men of eminence, in the formation of a society for constitutional information, and was employed to draw up their declaration of rights; on the publication of which, Sir William Jones said it ought to be written in letters of gold. The major used also to take great pleasure in relating that the immortal