528 MEMOIR OF 



" that I had not, but that I was at that time meditating some- 

 " thing of that kind. He then proposed to me to write a Sup- 

 " plemental Volume to his Dictionary of Decisions, bringing 

 " down that Work to the present time. I told him, that the 

 " boldness of the undertaking terrified me ; but that the good 

 " opinion he had shewn of me by making such a proposal, was 

 " certainly a strong inducement to me to make the attempt. 

 " I took, however, some time to deliberate upon it ; and ha- 

 " ving at length resolved to undertake the work, I went out 

 " again to Blair-Drummond, to inform myself of the method 

 " he had followed in abridging and arranging the cases. These 

 " he communicated to me, and I set to work under his eye. 

 " The simple abbreviation of the printed cases occupied me 

 " above four years, and during all that time I read over occa- 

 " sionally to Lord Kames, the sheets of my abstracts, on which 

 " he gave me his notes and emendations. The arrangement 

 " of the cases gave me another year's employment ; and while 

 " this was going on, I shewed the sheets, from time to time, to 

 " Lord Kames, a great part of them to Mr Ilay Campbell, 

 " as also to the Lord President Dundas, to all of whom I was 

 " much indebted. When the Wirk was completed and print- 

 ** ed, I was much gratified to find that Lord Kames was plea- 

 "sed with it. Some passages in the Preface, apologizing for 

 " defects, he desired that I would strike out. ' The Work 

 " (said he,) does you honour ,• and a man ought not too much to 

 " undervalue his labour, or depreciate his own abilities.'" This 

 volume of the Dictionary of Decisions was published in folio 

 in 1778 ; and of the character and value of the work, no other 

 testimony is necessary after the sanction of the great Lawyers 

 that have been mentioned. 



Mr Tytler had now avowedly dedicated his life to the pur- 

 suits of Literature, and his friends became anxious to see him 



placed 



