Page images
PDF
EPUB

his social propensities, his love of innocent gaiety, his instructive and sprightly conversation; and gives an account of some of his early friends. Among these he mentions William Hamilton of Bangour, a gentleman of some poetical talent, who was constantly soliciting the sway of some favourite mistress, but whose attachment seems to have wanted a principle of permanence. Of this we have the following instance: A lady

'had complained to Mr. Home that she was teased with Hamilton's dangling attention, which she was convinced had no serious aim, and hinted an earnest wish to get rid of him: you are his friend, said she'; tell him he exposes both himself and me to the ridicule of our acquaintance. No, madam, said Mr. Home, you shall accomplish his cure yourself; and by the simplest method. Dance with him at to-night's assembly, and shew him every mark of your kindness, as if you believed his passion sincere, and had reTake my word for it you'll hear no more The lady adopted the counsel, and the success of the experiment was complete.'

solved to favour his suit.

Among the most intimate friends of Mr. Home at this period, Jord Woodhouselee mentions Mr. Oswald of Danikeir, and one of the Scottish members of parliament for a considerable number of years. Mr. Oswald appears to have been a man of considerable knowledge and sagacity, and some of his letters, which the author has published, contain much interesting matter. In a letter from Mr. Oswald to Mr. Home, dated London, 14th Dec. 1741, he thus discriminates the oratorical abilities of Murray, (afterwards lord Mansfield) and of the first Pitt, whose splendid name was afterwards buried under that of the earl of Chatham.

[ocr errors]

This question,' that of taking sixteen thousand Hanoverians into British pay, has been agitated in the different debates. On the first day Murray was introduced to support the court, which he did in a set speech, extremely methodical, with great perspicuity, and very fine colouring. He was replied to by Pitt, who in the most masterly manner, laying hold of the weakest parts of his speech, with the greatest strength of expression, and in the most manly style I ever witnessed, turned almost all his colours against him. Murray had laid a good deal of stress on exposing the inconsistency of advising one thing the one year, and the next abusing it, merely through a spirit of opposition; Pitt showed how the object was varied; but varied by the ministers, and then turned every argument Murray had employed against himself. The one spoke like a pieader, and could not divest himself of a certain appearance of having been employed by others. The other spoke like a gentleman, like a statesmen, who felt what he said, and possessed the strongest desire of conveying that feeling to others for their own interest, and that of their country.

Murray gains your attention by the perspicuity of his arguments and the elegance of his diction. Pitt commands your attention and respect by the nobleness, the greatness of his sentiments, the strength and energy of his expressions, and the certainty you are in of his always rising to a greater elevation both of thought and style; for this talent he possesses beyond any speaker I ever heard, of never falling, from the beginning to the end of his speech,either in thought or in expression, And, as this session he has begun to speak like a man of business, as well as an orator, he will in all probability, or rather at present is allowed to make as great an appearance as ever man did in that house. Murray has not spoke since, on the other two debates where his rival carried all before him, being very unequally matched with Pelham, Young, and Winnington, &c.

Next follows a letter from David Hume, December 1737; Hume was then in London, and preparing to pub, lish his Treatise of Human Nature. In this letter he mentions that he had inclosed for the inspection of Mr. Home some of his reasonings concerning miracles.' These reasonings did not probably exert any comfortable influence on the mind of Mr. Home, which had been previously disturbed by certain scruples relative to some of the evi dences of religion, which induced him to write to the celebrated Dr. Butler, and to request a personal interview with that great man which he thought would tend to allay sceptical inquietude. Dr. Butler refused this interview because he was diffident and reserved, unaccustomed to oral controversy, and afraid of injuring the cause of truth by his awkwardness in defending it. But in his letters, Dr. B. endeavoured to remove the difficulties which seemed to impede the faith of Mr. Home. We regret with Lord Woodhouselee that these letters have been unfortunately lost.

Mr. Hume had at this time obtained from his friend Home a letter of introduction to Dr. Butler, of whose metaphysical acuteness, the former as well as the latter entertained a very high opinion. But as Dr. Butler was soon after made Bishop of Bristol, the feeling of modesty or the sense of decorum in Mr. Hume, prevented him from waiting on the Doctor with the letter; but he sent him his Treatise of Human Nature as soon as it appeared; Mr. Hume was at this time in the 28th year of his age. The treatise which he had just published, had experienced an almost total neglect. It was read by few, and probably understood only by a few of those few; it excited no clamour, and at the time produced no reply. This must have been not a little mortifying to the vanity

of an author who expected that it would produce an almost total alteration in philosophy.' But he still seems to console himselfwith a delusion which is often appliedas a balm to the sore feeling of neglected authorship, that that performance which is unnoticed or despised in the present age will excite the respectful attention of posterity. I am young enough,' says Hume, to see what will become of the matter, but am apprehensive lest the chief reward I shall have for some time, will be the pleasure of studying on such important subjects, and the approbation of a few judges.' The essays however which Mr. Hume published soon after this met with a more favourable reception, and effaced the effect of his former disappointment; he says in a letter to Mr. Home, that Dr. Butler has every where recommended them.

In 1741 Mr. Home married Miss Agatha Drummond, a younger daughter of James Drummond, Esq. of Blair in the county of Perth.' This union is said to have been the result of long acquaintance, and of mutual esteem. Lord Woodhouselee gives the following pleasing account of Mrs. Home.

[ocr errors]

In

In the management of her household, where it was the more becoming in her to attend to economy, that her husband's turn for hospitality, and her own sense of what was suitable to the rank they occupied in life, rendered it necessary to maintain a handsome liberal establishment, Mrs. Home's conduct was a model of propriety. Abridging every superfluous expence, indulging in none of the frivolous gratifications of vanity, but studious alone of uniting the real comforts of life with that modest measure of external show which the station of a gentleman demands, she kept an elegant but simple table, at which the guests of her husband met always with a cheerful welcome. the earlier period of Mr. Home's married life, attention to economy was a necessary duty; and he found in his partner that excellent good sense and discretion, which felt it no sacrifice to conform their mode of living to the just bounds of their income. I have from Mr. Drummond Home the following anecdote, which as he justly observes, is illustrative of the character both of his father and mother. Mrs. Home who had a taste for every thing that is elegant, was passionately fond of old china, and soon after her marriage, had made such frequent purchases in that way, as to impress her husband with some little apprehensions of her extravagance. But how to cure her of this propensity was the question; after some consideration, he devised an ingenious expedient. He framed a will, bequeathing to his spouse the whole china that should be found in his possession at his death; and this deed he immediately put into her hands,

the success of the plot was complete, the lady was cured from that moment of her passion for old china, This little pious fraud Mr. Home was wont frequently to mention with some exultation, but it was not, so much the effect as the ingenuity of the stratagem, that touched him. For as it commonly hap pens that we value ourselves most on those talents we least pos sess, it was amusing to see a person of his artless character pique himself on his finesse; though, in fact, nothing was more foreign to his nature.'

Lord Woodhouselee gives the following account of Mr. Home's domestic habits:

'He had accustomed himself from his earliest years to a regular distribution of his time, and in the hours dedicated to serious occupation, it was no light matter that ever made him depart from his ordinary arrangements. The day was devoted chiefly to professional duties; he had always been in the habit of rising early, in summer between five and six o'clock; in winter, gene rally two hours before day-break. This time was spent in preparation for the ordinary business of the court, in reading his briefs, or in dictating to an amanuensis; the forenoon was passed in the court of session, which at that time commonly rose after mid-day, thus allowing an hour or two before dinner for a walk with a friend. In town, he rarely either gave or accepted of invitations to dinner, as the afternoon was required for business and study. If the labours of the day were early accomplished, and time was left for a party at cards before supper, he joined the ladies in the drawing-room, and partook with great satisfaction in a game of whist, which he played well, though not al-ways with perfect forbearance, if matched with an unskilful partner; yet even these little sallies of temper were amusing, and seasoned with so much humour, that they rather pleased than offended the person who was their object. At other times, he was not unfrequently seen of an evening at the theatre, the concert or assembly-room; and possessing to a wonderful degree the power of discharging his mind of every thing that was not in consonance with his present occupations, he partook with the keenest relish in the amusements of the gay circle which surrounded him; it was delightful to see the man of business and the philosopher, mingling not only with complacence but with ease, in the light and trivial conversation of the beau-monde, and rivalling in animation and vivacity the sprightliest of the votaries of fashion, whose professed object is pleasure, and the enjoyment of the passing hour.'

In the country Mr. Home employed the intervals of a studious life in agricultural pursuits, and in superintending the improvements of his estate. He was among the first of the Scottish gentry, who endeavoured to

bring the English mode of husbandry into general use, This constitutes no small part of his praise.

One day,' says lord Woodhouselee, a country gentleman of his neighbourhood coming to dine with him at Kames, found him in the fields hard at work in assisting his men to clear the stones from a new inclosure. It was after his promotion to the rank of judge; his neighbour attended him for some time with labouring steps, and much inward impatience till summoned by the bell for dinner. Well, my lord, said he, you have truly wrought for your meal; and let me pray ask how much do you think you will gain by that hard labour at the end of the year? Why really, my good Sir, replied the other, I never did calculate the value of my labour; but one thing I will venture to assert, that no man who is capable of asking that question will ever de serve the name of a farmer,'

you,

em

It was chiefly in the vacation that Mr. Home ployed himself in the composition of those works which will long preserve the lustre of his name as a lawyer, a moralist, and a critic. In 1741 he published in two volumes folio, The Decisions of the Court of Session, from its Institution to the present Time, abridged and digested under proper Heads in the form of a Dictionary; this was a work of laborious research, and of considerable utility to the students and practitioners of the Scottish law,

Though the principles of Mr. Home's family were Jacobitish, yet his own reflective mind soon convinced him that all government, which deserves the name of legitimate, must be founded on the free consent of the people. In the rebellion of 1745 and 1746 he employed the interval in the composition of some essays upon several subjects of British antiquities, which were published

in 1747.

[ocr errors]

In 1745, Mr. Home renewed his correspondence with David Hume, which had experienced a temporary interruption. An attempt was, at this time, made by the friends of the latter, to obtain for him the professorship of moral philosophy, in the university of Edinburgh; but this was frustrated by the apprehension which was entertained of his sceptical opinions. Mr. H. bore this, as well as other disappointments, with surprising equanimity. In a letter to Mr. Home, on another occasion, he says: frequent disappointments have taught me that nothing need be despaired of, as well as that nothing can be depended on.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Notwithstanding the density of Mr. Home's professional engagements, when now at the head of the Scottish bar,

« PreviousContinue »