1818.] Lord Woodhouselee. 425 



modesty of his nature were apparent. In this, as in all other 

 situations, his highest ambition was to be par negotm, non 

 supra, — to be able to fulfil his duty without seeking for personal 

 fame ; and to accommodate his conduct, not so much to the 

 opinion of men, as to that higher standard which existed in his 

 own breast. There were, however, occasions when his powers 

 were more peculiarly called forth ; and, upon some of these ap- 

 pearances from the Bench, there are many of us who can re- 

 member the high praise that was bestowed by the late Lord Pre- 

 sident Blair, — a man whose praise was fame, and who was of 

 too proud an integrity to bestow it where he did not feel it was 

 deserved. 



From the period of his elevation to the Bench, Lord Wood- 

 houselee devoted his time exclusively, (while the Courts were 

 sitting) to the business that arose ; but, during the vacations, 

 he was always happy to return to his private studies. The soli- 

 tude of the country (to which he then always retired) invited 

 him to labour; and as he was now free from his academical 

 engagements, and from that continued attention which the im- 

 provement of his lectures occasioned, he had time to return to 

 the consideration of some of the literary projects which he had 

 formed in his earlier days, and which he hoped be might now 

 be able to resume. One of these, I find, was the literary and 

 political life of Buchanan ; a subject which was interesting to 

 him from many associations, and in which he proposed to do 

 ample justice to his genius as a poet, and his merits as a histo- 

 rian, but to examine, with firmness and accuracy, his conduct 

 as a man, and as a politician. 



Another was to give a faithful translation of Camden's Annals 

 of Elizabeth, illustrated with notes, and comparing it with the 

 best accounts of her time that have since been published. The 

 subject had been suggested by Dr. Campbell in the Biographia 

 Britannica, and in the view which Lord Woodhouselee took, of 

 it, it promised him the opportunity of exhibiting a fuller and 

 more faithful picture of that interesting period in English his- 

 tory, than had yet been accomplished in any one performance 

 in our language. The most important, however, of these lite- 

 rary projects, was that of a continuation of Lord Hailes's Annals 

 of Scotland, from the period when Lord Hailes's researches 

 closed, to the accession of James VI. to the Crown of England ; 

 a work to which no common talents were adequate, and of the 

 difficulty of which no stronger evidence can be given, than that, 

 however desired, it has yet remained unattempted. 



All these projects, however, yielded to another, which was 

 much more interesting to Lord Woodhouselee himself, and to 

 the accomplishment of which he was animated by something 

 more than the hope of literary fame, — this was the Life of his 

 earliest friend and patron Lord Kames. " He had waited (as 

 he says, with his usual modesty) for more than twenty years, iu 



