APPENDIX OF NOTES. 539 



IV. (p. 15.) 



James Keay entered the Scotch bar as a member of the Faculty 

 of Advocates in 1794 ; he died in 1837. He was in his latter years 

 a leading counsel in full occupation among the orators of the period. 

 He was noted for the precision of his pleading, and young lawyers 

 were recommended to study his speeches, as models to be more 

 safely followed than those of the more celebrated advocates of the 

 period. He was a Tory or Conservative, but took no further share 

 in politics than to give his vote and countenance to the candidate 

 on his own side. 



V. (p. 30.) 



The " Translations and Paraphrases of several passages of Sacred 

 Scripture" were first printed at Edinburgh in 1745. The intro- 

 duction states that " these poems which are now printed and trans- 

 mitted to Presbyteries by Act of Assembly, are partly collected 

 from the pious and ingenious Dr Watts, and from other writers, 

 with such alterations as appeared to fit them more for the present 

 purpose ; and partly furnished by ministers of the Church. The 

 use for which they were intended required simplicity and plainness 

 of composition and style. The committee who prepared them 

 chiefly aimed at having the sense of Scripture expressed in easy 

 verse; such as might be fitted to raise devotion, might be in- 

 telligible to all, and might rise above contempt from persons of 

 better taste." Of the authorship we are told that " nineteen were 

 by Dr Watts; three by Blair, the author of ' The Grave;' three by 

 William Eobertson, minister of Greyfriars and father of the his- 

 torian; two by Dr Dgddridge; and one by Mr Eandal of Stirling." 

 Cunningham's Church History of Scotland, ii. 596. Any one 

 desirous of seeing this primitive collection will find it extremely 

 difficult to get access to a copy of it, and not easy, even among 

 Scotch Presbyterians, to find any one aware of its existence. It 

 may be hoped that the interesting incident in the text may draw 

 attention to this obscure department of devotional literature. In 

 the year 1781, the collection was recast, and appeared in the con- 

 dition in which it is still used in the Presbyterian churches, with 

 the title, " Translations and Paraphrases in verse of several passages 

 of Sacred Scripture, collected and prepared by a Committee of the 

 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in order to be sung 



