Sensible of his great merits, the house of commons voted a monument to his memory at the public expense. His majesty, too, in consideration of the eminent services of the Right Honourable General Sir Ralph Abercromby, conferred upon his relict lady Abercromby the dignity of a baroness of Great Britain, by the title of Baroness of Aboukir, with remainder to the heirs male of the body of the said Sir Ralph Abercromby; and being further desirous of granting to lady Abercromby and the two next succeeding heirs male of the body of Sir Ralph Abercromby, to whom the title of Baron Abercromby should descend, a net annuity of two thousand pounds; he recommended it to his faithful Commons to consider of a proper method for enabling his majesty to grant such annuity, which was done accordingly without one dissenting voice.

ADAM, ALEXANDER, an eminent grammarian and writer on Roman antiquities, was born at Coats of Burgie, in the parish of Rafford, and county of Moray, about the month of June, 1741. His father, John Adam, rented one of those small farms which were formerly so common in the north of Scotland. In his earlier years, like many children of his own class, and even of a class higher removed above poverty, he occasionally tended his father's cattle. Being destined by his parents, poor as they were, for a learned profession, he was kept at the parish-school till he was thought fit to come forward as an exhibitioner, or, as it is called in Scotland, a bursar, at the university of Aberdeen. He made this attempt, but failed, from the alleged inferiority of his acquirements, and was requested by the judges to go back and study for another year at school. This incident did not mortify the young student, but only stimulated him to fresh exertions. He was prevented, however, from renewing his attempt at Aberdeen, by the representations of the Rev. Mr Watson, a minister at Edinburgh, and a relation of his mother, who induced him to try his fortune in the metropolis. He removed thither early in the year 1758, but, it appears, without any assured means of supporting himself during the progress of his studies. For a considerable time, while attending the classes at the college, the only means of subsistence he enjoyed consisted of the small sum of one guinea per quarter, which he derived from Mr Alan Macconochie, (afterwards Lord Meadowbank,) for assisting him in the capacity of a tutor. The details of his system of life at this period, as given by his biographer Mr Henderson, are painfully interesting. "He lodged in a small room at Restalrig, in the north-eastern suburbs; and for this accommodation he paid fourpence a-week. All his meals, except dinner, uniformly consisted of oat-meal made into porridge, together with small beer, of which he only allowed himself half a bottle at a time. When he wished to dine, he purchased a penny loaf at the nearest baker's shop; and, if the day was fair, he would despatch his meal in a walk to the Meadows or Hope Park, which is adjoining to the southern part of the city; but if the weather was foul, he had recourse to some long and lonely stair, which he would climb, eating his dinner at every step. By this means all expense for cookery was avoided, and he wasted neither coal nor candles; for, when he was chill, he used to run till his blood began to glow, and his evening studies were always prosecuted under the roof of some one or other of his companions." There are many instances, we believe, among Scottish students, of the most rigid self-denial, crowned at length by splendid success; but there is certainly no case known in which the self-denial was so chastened, and the triumph so grand, as that of Dr Adam. Ere he had yet reached his twenty-first year, he was employed as a teacher in George Watson's Hospital at Edinburgh, an institution designed for the support and education of a certain number of boys. In 1761, when he was exactly twenty, he stood a trial for the situation of head teacher in this establishment, and was

successful. In this place he is said to have continued about three years; during which period, besides discharging the duties of his office, he was anxiously engaged in cultivating an intimacy with the classics-reading, with great care, and in a critical manner, the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Cicero, and Livy. At the same time he began to make a collection of books connected with the studies which he afterwards prosecuted with so much success. His views were now directed towards the church, and it is said that he was on the eve of being licensed as a preacher of the gospel, when suddenly a prospect opened before him of becoming assistant, with the prospect of being eventually the successor, of Mr Matheson, rector of the High School. It would appear that his pretensions were fortified on this occasion by the influence of Mr Kincaid, provost of Edinburgh, whose son he had for some time attended as tutor. It was not till

1771 that the increased infirmities of Mr Matheson threw the whole of this charge into the hands of Mr Adam: the retired rector was then permitted to draw the whole of the salary given by the town, (about £30,) besides £20 given by Mr Adam out of the school fees, the remainder furnishing a scanty provision for the man who performed the duty.

The time when Adam assumed this respectable office was very fortunate. Every department of knowledge in Scotland was at this period adorned by higher names than had ever before graced it; and hence the office of Master in the principal elementary school of the country presented to a man of superior qualifications a fair opportunity of distinguishing himself. This opportunity was not lost upon Mr Adam. He devoted himself with singular assiduity to his laborious duties; and, under his auspices, the school gradually increased in numbers and reputation. Soon after his appointment, he began to compose a series of works adapted to facilitate the study of the Latin language. His Rudiments of Latin and English Grammar were published in 1772, and, though composed in a style which appeared to the generality of teachers as a dreadful schism and heresy, met with the approbation of a discerning few, whose praise was sufficient to overbalance the censure of the multitude. The mind of Dr Adam was that of a liberal; that is to say, he had more regard for new things with the appearance of much utility, than dread of forsaking old things, of which a small degree of good was ascertained with a great deal of evil. It had occurred to him that the hitherto universal practice of teaching children Latin in the language which they were yet to learn, was a solecism. He therefore had composed his grammar in English. Experience has now shown the propriety of this course; and the same system, we believe, must speedily be adopted in all other foreign and dead languages: but at the time when Adam divulged his plan, not only did a certain prestige sanctify the old system, but many intelligent persons were conscientiously of opinion, that the rules of grammar could only be fixed upon the memory by being embodied in Latin verse. It was in vain to assert, that neither is it possible to commit the principles of Latin grammar with perfect accuracy to Latin verse, nor, after they are committed, can the generality of the pupils learn thein otherwise than by rote. Ruddiman was fixed in too secure an anchorage to be displaced by such representations. As in all similar cases, the profession were amongst the most zealous of Mr Adam's opponents. He was a living equal, Ruddiman a dead superior-could there be any hesitation in making choice of a dictator between the two? Besides, there is a natural difficulty in instructing the instructed. Adam had introduced his own system into his own class, as that which he thought the best; but none of the inferior masters, who are accustomed at this school to send forward their pupils to finish their course under the rector, could be prevailed upon to use it. Hence, as boys in their fifth year

bave little use for a grammar of any kind, the innovating grammarian found it scarcely possible, even in his own case, to procure a fair hearing for his system.

Among those who took an active part in condemning his work, Dr Gilbert Stuart was very conspicuous. This extraordinary litterateur was a relation of Ruddiman, and, as an additional incentive to his hostility, conceived that Adam had gained the rectorship of the High School more by interest than by merit. He accordingly filled the periodical works of the day with ridicule and abuse directed against the unfortunate grammar. Amongst other pasquinades, appeared an account in Latin of a Roman funeral, in which that work was personified as the dead body, while the chief mourner was meant to represent Mr Adam, sorrowing for the untimely fate of his best-beloved child. The other persons officiating are introduced under the technical terms in use among the ancient Romans; and, to heighten the ridicule, and give it aid from local circumstances, the ingenious satirist placed in front of the mourners, a poor lunatic of the name of Duff, well known in Edinburgh at the time for his punctual attendance at the head of all funeral processions. While his work was still the subject of abuse, the ingenious author was partly compensated for all his sufferings by a degree of LI. D., which was conferred upon him by the College of Edinburgh, in 1780, chiefly at the suggestion of Principal Robertson. Some years after, the grammar began gradually to make its way in schools, and finally he had the satisfaction of seeing it adopted in his own seminary. Among the great names which at an early period had sanctioned it with their approbation, are those of Lord Kames, Bishop Lowth, and Dr Vincent, Master of St Paul's school.

The next work of Dr Adam is entitled, A Summary of Geography and History, but the date of the first edition is not mentioned by his biographer. In 1791 he published his excellent compendium of Roman Antiquities. For the copyright of this work he received £600. His Classical Biography made its appearance in 1800, and half of the above sum was given for the copy-right. Dr Adam's last, and perhaps his most laborious work, was his Latin Dictionary, published in 1805. Towards the beginning, his illustrations are brief, but, as he proceeds, they gradually become more copious. It was his intention to add an English-and-Latin part, and to enlarge the other to a considerable extent. In this favourite plan he had made some progress at the time of his death.

The latter part of Dr Adam's life was considerably embittered by the political aspect of the times. It scarcely requires to be explained that the extreme danger in which the institutions of this country were placed by the French revolution caused the ban of the government and of the major portion of society to fall upon all who had given token of disaffection to the existing state of things, or even of a theoretical prepossession in favour of the abstract idea of liberty. The character of Dr Adam's mind, as already hinted, was that of a liberal in politics. He thus became so generally obnoxious that many of even those who had been his pupils would pass him by upon the street without notice. It is testified, however, by his eloquent biographer Mr Henderson, that his character “ derived a lustre of no common kind from his deportment amidst the harassing obstructions which were raised up against his philological lessons, and from his firmness during the rage of political terrorism. He had to cope with prejudice in all its most malignant forms; yet in maintaining a contest, under which the powers of an ordinary mind would have sunk, he never absented himself from his official avocations for a single day. While he thus fulfilled his duties to the public, he also continued, with the utmost calmness, his extensive classical researches. This composure of mind he must have derived from no other source than a full conviction of the rectitude of those principles upon which he set out, and of the pro

priety of his conduct. Such a conviction must have been strengthened, and in a great measure formed, by the previous habit of proving to himself, by a course of rigid self-examination, the expediency or impropriety of every act before it was committed. Exertions of this sort can only be made by a most vigorous mind. When they have been improved into regular habits, however, the great affairs of human life become plain and easy. But how few ever attain such habits! and how seldom does the mind submit to such discipline, without much apparent effort!" We learn from the same source, that, by dint of his uncommon self-command, Dr Adam in a great measure withdrew himself from all pretensions to a political character. He had even the fortitude to abstain in a great measure from reading newspapers; a species of publication in which, as he remarked with a pathos that must appeal to every free heart, he felt scarcely any interest after the period of the French revolution. His modesty at length had its reward, and gained back to respect those individuals who had formerly regarded the venerable grammarian with suspicion and perhaps with worse feelings.

On the 13th of December, 1809, Dr Adam was seized in the High School with an alarming indisposition, which had all the appearance of apoplexy. Having been conducted home, he was put to bed, and enjoyed a sound sleep, which appeared to have arrested the progress of the disease, for he was afterwards able to walk about his room. The apoplectic symptoms, however, returned in a few days, and he fell into a state of stupor. His last words marked the gradual darkening of the ray of life and intellect beneath this mortal disorder. He said, "It grows dark, boys-you may go—" his mind evidently wandering at that moment to the scene where he had spent the better part of his life. This crepusculum soon settled down into the night of death: he expired early in the morning of the 18th December, 1809.

It

Dr Adam had been twice married, and had children by both connections. was generally supposed that his death was occasioned remotely by extreme grief for the declining health of his eldest son, who, when just about to attain the rank of captain in an India vessel, was seized with the final symptoms of consumption at Exeter, whence he wrote to his father to come with the utmost haste if he wished to see him alive. The death of the amiable and excellent Dr Adam operated, among his numerous friends and admirers, like a shock of electricity. Men of all ages and denominations were loud in lamenting an event which had bereaved them of a cominon benefactor. The effect of the general feeling was a resolution to honour him with what is a very rare circumstance in Scotland, a public funeral.

Of Dr Adam it may be said, that he would have proved, if any proof had been wanting, the possibility of rising to distinction in this country from any grade of life, and through whatsoever intervening difficulties. In 1758 and 1759 he was a student living at the inconceivably humble rate of four guineas a-year; in ten years thereafter, he had qualified himself for, and attained, a situation which, in Scotland, is an object of ambition to men of considerable literary rank. The principal features of his character were, unshaken independence and integrity, ardour in the cause of public liberty, the utmost purity of manners and singleness of heart, and a most indefatigable power of application to the severest studies. "His external appearance," to quote the account of his life and character already more than once referred to, was that of a scholar who dressed neatly for his own sake, but who had never incommoded himself with fashion in the cut of his coat, or in the regulation of his gait. Upon the street he often appeared in a studious attitude, and in winter always walked with his hands crossed, and thrust into his sleeves. His features were regular and manly, and he was above the middle size. In his well-formed proportions,