JET. 23.] JAMES REDDIE. 241 



under Professor Miller at Glasgow, and very few men 

 ever came to the study of the Scotch or English 

 municipal law after so ample a preparation, by having 

 examined the legal principles common to all systems. 

 He began his professional life without any patron or 

 party to rely upon, or any recommendation but his 

 own great learning, solid, though not brilliant, talents, 

 and a sound judgment, which well fitted him alike 

 to advise a client and to conduct his cause. In the 

 course of two or three years his extraordinary merit 

 became known, notwithstanding his modest and re- 

 tiring nature ; and Mr Hope, then Lord Advocate, 

 afterwards Lord President, distinguishing him among 

 his contemporaries without any regard whatever to 

 the differences of his political opinion, contributed 

 greatly to his professional success. It was in some 

 prize causes which involved the questions of neutral 

 right, so much agitated towards the close of the first 

 Eevolutionary war, that he became first known in the 

 courts, and showed himself not more deeply versed in 

 the doctrines of public (sometimes now termed inter- 

 national) law, than capable of close and logical reason- 

 ing in their application. His argument on the right 

 of search, connected with the case of the Fladoyen, 

 was veiy long remembered at the Scotch bar, and 

 at once pointed him out for advancement in the pro- 

 fession. 



Nor can any doubt be entertained that, had he con- 

 tinued at the bar, the highest place both in practice 

 and ultimately on the bench would have been within 



VOL. I. Q 



