(lo) HISTORr of the SOCIETT. 



ArcountoFLord " I HAD Hot been long at home when I received accounts of 

 Abaaomby. ^^.^ being attacked by a violent diftemper, and in a few days 

 after I learned that it had put an end to his hfe. 



" This blow, for a time, unmanned me quite. Even now, 

 the chief confolation I find is in the fociety of a few chofen 

 friends. Should they alfo be torn from me, the world would 

 to me be as a defert ; and, though I fhould ftill endeavour to 

 difcharge my duty in that ftation which Providence has afligned 

 me in hfe, I fliould never ceafe to look forward, not without 

 impatience, to thofe peaceful manfions where the weary are at 

 reft, and where only we can hope to meet again with thofe 

 from whom we have been parted by the inexorable hand of 

 death." 



In 1792, when in this high and advancing Situation at the 

 bar, an offer was made to him of the appointment of Judge 

 of the Court of Seffion, in the room of Lord Rockville, de- 

 ceafed. This appointment he hefitated for a confiderable time 

 to accept, from an idea he had formed of the difEcvilty of exe- 

 cuting the office in that manner in which he conceived it ought 

 to be executed, and of the laborious and fatiguing application 

 and exertions of mind which its various duties required. He 

 was at length prevailed on to accept of it, principally from the 

 very handfome manner in which it was offered to his accept- 

 ance, and in comphance with the wifhes of liis friend Mr Se- 

 cretary DUNDAS, who knew, from early and continued ac- 

 quaintance, the value of that acqviifition which he wiflied the 

 Bench to make, in the appointment of Mr Abercromby to a 

 Judge's feat. That appointment accordingly took place on the 

 30th of May 1792 ; and on the 14th of December following, 

 he was called to a feat in the Court of 'Jujliciary, on the vacan- 

 cy occafioned by the death of Lord Hailes. 



3 The; 



