So HIS TORT of the SOCILtr. 



Account of 

 Lord Prefident 



of the ftation that he now filled. Fond of focial intercourk , 

 Dundas. a nd of late engaged in a fphere of life where natural talents are 



the chief requifite to eminence, he had hitherto fubmitted but 

 reluctantly to the habits of profeffional induftry. But it was 

 foon feen, that accidental circumftances alone had prevented 

 the development of one great feature of his character, a capa- 

 city of profound application to bufinefs. He had no fooner 

 taken his feat as Prefident of the Seflion, than he devoted him- 

 felf to the duties of his office, with an ardour of which that 

 Court, even under the ableft of his predecefTors, had feen no 

 example, and a perfeverance of attention which fuffered no re- 

 miflion to the lateft hour of his life. 



Of all the grievances to which a free people can be fubjecled, 

 one of the heavieft and mod fevere is the tedioufnefs of judicial 

 procedure, that delay of juftice which makes often oppreffion 

 itfelf more tolerable than the means to be purfued for obtaining 

 its redrefs. Senfible of this truth, and determined to remedy 

 (in as far as material juftice would permit) fo great an evil, the 

 Prefident applied himfelf immediately to the determination of 

 a long arrear of law-fuits, which, though in their laft ftage, 

 and ripe for judgment, had hung upon the rolls of the Court 

 during the period of five preceding feflions. Thefe, in the 

 courfe of the fummer-feflion 1760, and in the fir ft month of 

 the next feffion, were all decided, while the current bufinefs of 

 the term was like wife difpatched ; and thus a load, which had 

 been accumulating during two years and a half, was cleared 

 away in the fpace of three months. The Long Roll, which had 

 never been purged fince the inititution of the Court, and of 

 which the very name was of evil augury, was thus annihilated 

 at once ; nor was it ever revived while Mr Dundas fat in the 

 Prefident' s chair. 



The primary caufe of this great reform in the difpatch of 

 bufinefs, is certainly to be found in the uncommon power of 



his 



