of Edinburgh, Session 1874-75. 
449 
conducive to furnish the necessary knowledge and practice required 
for higher positions. It cannot be doubted that great experience 
as an advocate at the bar is of the highest use in discharging the 
functions of the bench. Under some national systems, Judges have 
been chosen who had not practised as advocates, but they would 
certainly not possess in that way the intelligence and penetration 
which an experienced barrister acquires, and which must enable 
him when on the bench to weigh the evidence, to detect the truth, 
and to see quickly through the fallacies and disguises to which 
litigants are apt to resort. In another way the exercise of the 
inferior jurisdiction of Sheriff brings the holder of office into closer 
contact with country matters, and with local and customary consi- 
derations, which will serve him in good stead when as a Judge he 
comes to sit in review upon County-Court procedure. 
Lord Colonsay was every way qualified for the profession which 
he adopted, and for the offices which he held. His talents, which 
were great, were eminently of a forensic and still more of a judicial 
character. His logical acumen was severe and unerring. He 
possessed also, though he never exercised it unnecessarily, a power 
of vivid and impressive eloquence, in which he was equalled by 
few and surpassed by none. He was a most able criminal advo- 
cate, and indisputably the greatest criminal lawyer of his day. 
His natural powers were aided and improved by patient and labori- 
ous study as a young man, and by the most conscientious and 
careful discharge of duty in all matters that came before him, 
whether at the bar or on the bench. Those who had the advan- 
tage of meeting him in consultation as an advocate, will bear testi- 
mony to the thorough mastery which he always attained of his 
client’s case, and to the sagacious and skilful perception which he 
also acquired of the probable case of his opponent. In consulta- 
tion he was entirely free from the petty selfishness that has some- 
times been laid to the charge of seniors in bottling up their best 
views for their own use. Whatever point he thought advantage- 
ous to the case was always fully communicated and explained to 
his juniors. 
In the practice of his profession as an advocate Lord Colonsay 
had some advantages not equally enjoyed by some of his brethren. 
The subjects with which an advocate has to deal are so various, 
