HOME. 



the Court of Session did not meet for a period of eleven 

 months. Mr Home employed that interval in various 

 re.-rarches connected with the history, laws, and an- 

 cient usages of his country, which he afterwards di- 

 gested into a small treatise, and published in the year 

 1747, under the title of Essays upon several Subjects, 

 concerning British Antiquities. These essays, although 

 they contain some curious and important deductions, 

 and exhibit a great deal of ingenious reasoning, are by 

 no means esteemed among the most valuable of the 

 works of their author. 



We have already observed, that Mr Home's mind 

 was peculiarly turned to metaphysical speculations, for 

 which he found leisure even amidst the pressure of his 

 professional employment. In the year 1751, he pub- 

 lished his Essays on the Principles of Morality and Na- 

 tural Religion. This work, in which he endeavoured 

 to place the great principles of morals on a firm and im- 

 mutable basis, unaccountably drew upon him, from 

 certain quarters, the reproach of scepticism and impie- 

 ty ; and his opinions, particularly on the abstruse ques- 

 tion of free will, were attacked with great asperity by 

 various writers. Some of these were of so intolerant a 

 spirit, that nothing less could satisfy their zeal, than 

 the interference of ecclesiastical authority, to repress 

 opinions which they conceived to be contrary to the 

 canons of the established church, and subversive even 

 of the fundamental principles of religion. To his op- 

 ponents, Mr Home made a formal reply, under the ti- 

 tle of Objections against the Essays on Morality and Na- 

 tural Religion examined. This controversy attracted 

 the attention of the General Assembly of the Church of 

 Scotland ; and a motion was made in the committee for 

 overtures, which was supposed to be indirectly levelled, 

 among others, against the author of the Essays. The 

 motion occasioned a very warm debate, but was finally 

 negatived. However, Mr Anderson, a clergyman, and 

 one of the most zealous of Mr Home's antagonists, re- 

 solved not to let the matter rest here. He gave in a 

 petition and complaint to the presbytery of Edinburgh 

 against the printer and publisher of the Essays on the 

 Principles of Morality and Natural Religion, requiring 

 that the presbytery should summon them to appear be- 

 fore them, and declare the name of the author of that 

 work, in order that he might be subjected to ecclesias- 

 tical censure. The persons complained against appeared 

 by their counsel, and gave in formal defences ; but Mr 

 Anderson died during the course of the proceedings. 

 The defendants, however, waving all objection to the 

 want of a prosecutor, consented that the court should 

 give judgment on the merits of the case; which, after 

 undergoing some discussion, terminated in the rejection 

 of the complaint. 



In the month of February ] 752, Mr Home was ap- 

 pointed one of the Judges of the Court of Session, by 

 the title of Lord Kames. His promotion gave general 

 satisfaction to the country, as his abilities and know- 

 ledge of the laws, no less than his integrity and moral 

 virtues, had raised him high in the public esteem. To 

 the discharge of his duties, as a Judge of the Supreme 

 Civil Court, he brought an acute understanding, an ar- 

 dent feeling of justice, and a perfect acquaintance with 

 the laws of his country ; which, amidst the variety of 

 pursuits in which his comprehensive mind had been 

 engaged, had always received the principal share of his 

 attention. His judgments, which were always formed 

 with deliberation, had deservedly the greatest weight 

 with the Court, especially on all questions of recondite 

 jurisprudence. Towards the bar he uniformly con- 



ducted himself with a proper courtesy and respect ; lis- 

 tening to the arguments of the senior counsel, who 

 pleaded before him, with patient attention, and ani- s 

 mating the diffidence of the younger barristers by kind 

 indulgence and urbanity of demeanour. In his charac- 

 ter he occasionally displayed something of the hur 

 mourist ; and, even on the bench, he could not always 

 repress his constitutional vivacity, which sometimes 

 broke out in amusing sallies, when the subject of dis- 

 cussion led to a ludicrous train of thought, or when a 

 happy repartee was suggested by the wit of the coun- 

 sel. 



A society had been instituted in Edinburgh, in the 

 year 1731, for the advancement of medical knowledge^ 

 the plan of which was afterwards extended, at the sug- 

 gestion of the celebrated Maclaurin, to subjects of phi- 

 losophy and literature. It was now known by the ti- 

 tle of The Society fir Improving Arts and Sciences, but 

 more generally by that of The Philosophical Society of 

 Edinburgh. At what period Mr Home first became a 

 member is uncertain; but he appears to have been 

 elected its president about the beginning of the year 

 1769; and in the volume of the Transactions of that 

 learned body, published in 1771, there are three papers 

 of his writing, viz. On the Laws of Motinn ; On the Ad- 

 vantages of Shallow Ploughing; and, On Evaporation. 

 They exhibit the same ingenuity which is conspicuous 

 in all his productions ; but the papers on physical sub- 

 jects are not built on sound philosophical principles. 



In the year 1755, Lord Kames was appointed a mein> 

 ber of the Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of 

 the Fisheries, Arts, ami Manufactures of Scotland ; and, 

 about the same period, he was chosen one of the conv 

 missioners for the management of the forfeited estates 

 annexed to the crown, of which the rents were destined 

 to be applied to the improvement of the Highlands and 

 Islands of Scotland. In the discharge of these import- 

 ant trusts, he was a zealous and faithful servant of the 

 public. He regularly attended the stated meetings of 

 these boards, generally officiating as chairman, and ta- 

 king a most active concern in all their proceedings. In 

 the midst of his professional and literary occupations, 

 he was at all times easy of access to the meanest indi- 

 vidual who had any application to make ; and was 

 ready not only to advise, but even to assist the igno- 

 rant and needy suitor in bringing his claims fairly into 

 view. 



In 1757, he published The Statute Latv of Scot/and 

 Abridged, with Historical Notes, and two years after- 

 wards he gave to the world his Historical Law Tracts, 

 each in one volume 8vo. The. latter work has under- 

 gone several editions, and stands deservedly, high in the 

 estimation of the public. It is one of the few works 

 which unite law with philosophy, and the study of 

 hu;nan nature; and it has accordingly received the 

 praise, not only of juridical authors, but of the writers 

 on politics and morals, both of our own and of foreign 

 countries. In 1760, appeared his Principles of Equity, 

 in which he traces historically the origin of the courts 

 of equity in each of the united kingdoms, and endea- 

 vours to ascertain those general rules by which a court 

 of equity ought to be governed. The active mind of 

 Lord Kames, however, did not confine its efforts to 

 those stadiesand researches which were more intimate- 

 ly connected with his profession, but exerted its powers 

 in various pursuits of a generally interesting nature, 

 In the course of the education of his own children, lie 

 was led to the composition of an elementary work 

 suited to the minds of young persons, and calculated at 



Home, 

 Henry. 



