32 KARLV SOCIETIES. 



the leader of the Scottish Bar, was severe on the junior 

 counsel, and one day, in a case in which they were opposed, 

 styling Wedderburn a ' presumptuous boy,' the latter re- 

 torted in language of studied insult. Being called to order 

 by the Lord President (Craigie), Wedderburn replied to the 

 judge in terms of disrespect. The President, after appealing 

 to his brethren on the bench, decided that Wedderburn 

 must retract or apologise on pain of deprivation. The latter, 

 suddenly assuming an air of coolness, stripped himself of 

 his advocate's gown, and holding it in his hands before the 

 judges, said — ' My Lords, I neither retract nor apologise, 

 but I will save you the trouble of deprivation : there is my 

 gown, I will never wear it more ; virtute jne involve! Lay- 

 ing his gown on the bar, he made a low bow to the judges, 

 and before they recovered, left the Court, which he never 

 entered. He left at once for England, was called to the 

 English Bar, and became successively Solicitor-General, 

 Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and a Peer as Lord 

 Loughborough, and finally, in January 1793, about thirty- 

 six years after leaving Scotland, was appointed Lord Chan- 

 cellor. It is said that, carrying the great seal home in his 

 coach, he exultingly showed it to Lady Loughborough, and 

 was ' afraid he might awake and find he had been deluded 

 by a pleasing dream.' In 1801 he was advanced to the 

 dignity of Earl of Rosslyn, with remainder, in default of 

 male issue, to his nephew. Sir James St Clair Erskine. He 

 died 3rd January 1805, and was interred in the crypt of St 

 Paul's Cathedral, where a flat stone laid over his grave, ' on 

 which no human eye ever looks,' records the birth, death, 

 and titles of the first Scotchman who held the great seal of 

 England. 



It may be noted that the first Secretary to the mana- 

 gers was Mr Patrick Duff, Clerk to the Signet ; and the 

 Treasurer, Mr Adam Fairholm, banker. 



From a notice of the Edinburgh Society, given in the 

 Scots Magazine {or March 1755, we learn that the contri- 

 butions for the encouragement of manufactures and agri- 

 culture soon amounted to a considerable sum, and that the 

 managers took the first public step towards the realisation 



