512 Obituary Notices. [sess. liii. 



remained true to the original position of that Church, and 

 opposed publicly the policy which an influential majority 

 had adopted, of reversing its traditions on the question of a 

 State-recognised and supported Church. He strenuously 

 opposed the legislative attempts, which fortunately proved 

 abortive, to modify the special characters of medical educa- 

 tion and graduation in the Scottish universities, for the mere 

 sake of bringing them into harmony with the systems prevail- 

 ing in the southern division of the United Kingdom. He 

 looked with nmch distrust on the schemes, embodied in the 

 various Bills introduced into Parliament during the last 

 seven years, for effecting fundamental changes in the consti- 

 tution and character of the Scottish universities ; considering 

 them prompted more by political, social, and selfish aims, 

 than by a real and disinterested desire for educational 

 reform. If it were possible for one so charitable and 

 generous to entertain any feeling of resentment, that feeling 

 was approached in the indignation with which he regarded 

 many of the statements of the extreme section of agitators 

 for university legislation. Even when he found himself in a 

 hopeless minority, — as occasionally happened in the discus- 

 sions on this question, — few men could be more courageous 

 in maintaining or expressing the views lie had deliberately 

 adopted. 



Polemical discussion, however, was not congenial to his 

 fair and candid disposition. When not engaged in teaching 

 or in the botanical investigations to which he was so ardently 

 attached, his occupations as proprietor of Hartree and Kil- 

 bucho, and social intercourse with his friends, were more in 

 accordance with his tastes. 



It has been well said that, as a country laird, " his 

 one aim in life was to make otliers happy." And the 

 same characteristics made him also a general favourite in 

 society; where he used to deliglit his friends by the exqui- 

 site taste and feeling with which he played on the piano 

 the works of Beetlioven and Pacli, and the national airs of 

 Scotland. 



His social charms were never more pleasantly exhibited 

 than when lie was entertaining his friends at his country 

 house. They were made to feel as if the place belonged 

 to tliciii, and not to liiiu ; except that every now and then 



