242 THE SCOTCH BAR. [1800. 



his reach. This was held by all men (save one) of 

 every party as an incontestable proposition ; but his 

 own modest and little adventurous nature led him to 

 prefer an humbler path, and he listened to the sugges- 

 tions of some friends at Glasgow, whom he permitted 

 to propose him as a candidate for the respectable and 

 very important office of town-clerk, the assessor of 

 the magistrates, and presiding judge in the town- 

 court, the principal civil court of that great com- 

 mercial city. As soon as it was known that he was 

 willing to take the office, the other candidates, six in 

 number, all professional men of eminence one of 

 them sheriff of the county, another, professor of law 

 in the university, retired from the contest, and he 

 was chosen unanimously. He entered upon the duties 

 of this office in 1804 ; and until 1822, when, by the 

 appointment of a resident sheriff, many causes were 

 removed into that court, the number that came be- 

 fore him, including the small debt jurisdiction, was 

 nearer six than five thousand a-year, of which many 

 were of great importance in principle as well as value, 

 the jurisdiction being unlimited in amount, and in 

 every kind of personal action. The satisfaction which 

 his judgments gave was almost unexampled ; they 

 were rarely appealed from most rarely altered upon 

 appeal. In affirming one of those which ultimately 

 came before the House of Lords (1833), the Lord 

 Chancellor observed that it " well became even the 

 most eminent judges upon the bench to approach with 

 the greatest caution and deference a judgment upon 



