LORD WOODHOUSELEE. 55'S 



for personal fame ; and to accommodate his conduct, not so 

 much to the opinion of men, as to that higher standard, which 

 existed in his own breast. There were, however, occasions when 

 his powers were more peculiarly called forth ; and, upon some 

 of these appearances from the Bench, there are many of us 

 who can remember the high praise that was bestowed by the 

 late Lord President Blair, — a man whose praise was fame, 

 and who was of too proud an integrity to bestow it where he did 

 not feel it was deserved. 



From the period of his elevation to the Bench, Lord Wood- 

 houselee devoted his time exclusively, (while the Courts were 

 sitting,) to the business that arose ; but, during the vacations, 

 he was always happy to return to his private studies. The so- 

 litude of the country, (to which he then always retired,) invited 

 him to labour ; and as he wiw now free from his academical 

 engagements, and from that continued attention which the im- 

 provement of his lectures occasioned, he had time to return to 

 the consideration of some of the literary projects which he had 

 formed in his earlier days, and which he hoped he might now 

 be able to resume. One of these, I find, was the literary and 

 political Life of Buchanan ; a subject which was interesting to 

 him from many associations, and in which he proposed to do 

 ample justice to his genius as a poet, and his merits as a histo- 

 rian, but to examine, with firmness and accuracy, his conduct, 

 as a man, and as a politician. 



Another was to give a faithful translation of Camden's An- 

 nals of Elizabeth, illustrated with notes, and comparing it with 

 the best accounts of her time that have since been published. 

 The subject had been suggested by Dr Campbell in the Bio- 

 graphia Britannica, and in the view which Lord Woodhouse- 

 lee took of it, it promised him the opportunity of exhibiting a 

 fuller and more faithful picture of that interesting period in 



English 



