25 
of Edinburgh, Session 1878 - 79 . 
return to Edinburgh, turned his attention to public affairs. He took 
an active part in Church matters, and on the dissolution of Parlia- 
ment which followed the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837, he 
offered himself for the representation of his native county, Mid- 
Lothian, and was returned by a majority of 42. Eour years later 
he retired from the representation of the county, and offered him- 
self for that of the city of Edinburgh. He was returned as the 
successful candidate along with Mr Macaulay, and retained his seat 
till 1852, having held during six years of the period the post of a 
Lord of the Treasury, in which position he had endeavoured to take 
a real charge of the affairs of Scotland. To him perhaps more than 
to any other man we are indebted for the erection of the National 
Gallery. In 1862 he was appointed to the office of Lord Clerk 
Register and Keeper of the Signet in Scotland; and in the following 
year he was sworn a member of Her Majesty’s Privy Council. For 
many years Sir William performed the duties of this office of Lord 
Clerk Register gratuitously. Subsequently, on the recommendation 
of a select Committee of the House of Commons, which took evidence 
on various matters connected with the Register House, the salary of 
£\ 200 a year, which had formerly been attached to the office, was 
restored about 1871. Sir William exerted himself to render the 
working of the Register House efficient, and in particular to carry 
out the recommendations of the committee above referred to. 
Amongst other objects which engaged his attention was the publica- 
tion of many of the interesting documents contained in the Register 
House. One undertaking he thus helped to forward was the index 
volume to Thomson’s Acts of Parliament prepared by Professor 
Cosmo Innes, and the recasting of a portion of that work, with the 
addition of Acts discovered since Thomson’s time. Another was 
the collection of Privy Council Records, edited by Mr Hill Burton, 
of which the first volume has been published. For many years 
Sir William acted as Chairman of the Board of Visitors of the 
Royal Observatory, on which Board I had the pleasure of sitting 
with him. Here he brought to bear his knowledge of the forms and 
usages customary in approaching the Treasury, and he was a steady 
and efficient supporter of the Astronomer Royal in his endeavours 
to get the Observatory put on a proper footing. To all connected 
with him on that Board his conduct was ever that of a high-minded 
VOL. x. 
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