1818.] Lord Woodhouseke. 419 



without accepting of all its obligations. He made it his business, 

 therefore, to attend upon every trial : he gave to every case his 

 most careful and considerate attention ; and so anxious was he 

 to fulfil his duty to the utmost, that he took the trouble of draw- 

 ing up for his own direction, a " Treatise upon Martial Law," 

 which afterwards, when he retired from the office, he gave to 

 the public, and which has (I understand) been found of the most 

 important use in the decision of cases of this kind. 



Into the detail of Mr. Tytler's conduct in the discharge of 

 this delicate but important office, it would be presumptuous in 

 me to enter ; but I may be permitted to relate, from his corre- 

 spondence, a single incident, which illustrates both the 

 cundcientiousness with which he discharged his duty, and the 

 respect in which his opinion was held by those who were then at 

 the head of the military department. 



A court-martial had been held at Ayr, with the sentence of 

 which Mr. Tytler was extremely dissatisfied ; and to the injustice 

 of which he had anxiously, but in vain, endeavoured at the time 

 to awaken the attention of the Court. Upon transmitting the 

 proceedings to London, Mr. Tytler thought it his duty to com- 

 municate the grounds of his dissatisfaction with the sentence to 

 Sir Charles Morgan, then Judge-Advocate-General, and, in the 

 most earnest terms, to implore his attention to the case, if his 

 Majesty should (as was probable) refer it to his decision. Sir 

 Charles Morgan cheerfully undertook the revision of the case : 

 his opinion coincided in every respect with that of Mr. Tytler ; 

 and to the letter in which Sir Charles communicated to him his 

 Majesty's disapprobation uf the sentence, Mr. Tytler added the 

 following note : " I have thus had the satisfaction of procuring 

 from his Majesty a disapproval of this very unjust sentence, and 

 a rectification of it in every point where it was wrong." 



In the year 1792 Mr. Tytler had the misfortune to lose his 

 father, at the advanced age of 81. Of the character of this 

 excellent man, the Society already possesses a description by 

 Mr. Mackenzie, which no one will attempt to improve. The 

 loss to his son was of a kind which it is the fortune of few men 

 to experience. Their connexion had subsisted for the long 

 period of 45 years, undiminished by distance, and unbroken by 

 misunderstanding ; and there was so singular a correspondence 

 in their tastes, their pursuits, their principles, and even their 

 prejudices, that Mr. Tytler felt he had not only lost a father, but 

 his best and oldest friend. His first employment was to design 

 a little monument to his memory, which he soon after erected in 

 the pleasure-grounds of Woodhouselee, upon a spot which his 

 father had particularly loved ; and he engraved upon it the 

 following inscription, which so well expresses the filial tender- 

 ness of the author, and so happily obeys that profound and 

 mercifi'l propensity of sorrow, \yhich leads us still to fill the 

 scenes we love with the presence of those we have lost. 



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