of Edinburgh, Session 1874 - 75 . 
457 
have felt deeply the blow that thus deprived him of the opportunity 
of completing the crowning act of his long labours. 
“ He never again entered the Eegister House and Mr Innes 
adds, “that although he was generously communicative on every 
other point, where his assistance or advice was desired, he told me 
soon after I had been employed to complete the first volume of his 
great work, that it must be a forbidden subject between us” 
In 1844 Mr Innes finished the first volume thus handed over to 
him, and did so in a manner which gained, I believe, universal 
approbation. I do not say that it was done as well as Mr Thomson 
at one time could have done it, but I am sure that it was done as 
well as Mr Thomson could then have done it, or rather, that the 
difference lay between its being done well by Mr Innes and its not 
being done at all. 
The extinction that was thus given to Mr Thomson’s efficiency 
in his peculiar department, for such was truly the result of these 
events, left Mr Innes as almost the only man in the field to whom 
either the public or individuals could resort for advice and assistance 
in matters of this kind, and he thus became one of our highest 
authorities on the subject of general or family antiquities. 
It cannot be said, I think, that Mr Innes was ever successful as 
an advocate. He did not possess in a sufficient degree either what 
has been scornfully called the power “ to make the worse appear the 
better reason,” or which, I think, is its more correct description, the 
peculiar faculty on a properl deebateable question, to bring forward 
the fair and legitimate considerations that are to be weighed on 
either side. But he held successively important official appoint- 
ments, that of Advocate-Depute, Sheriff, and principal Clerk of 
Session, the duties of which he discharged with adequate diligence. 
He was latterly appointed to the chair of Universal History in the 
University of Edinburgh, which was highly congenial to his general 
pursuits, and in which, I believe, he endeared himself to his students 
by his uniform accessibility and kindness, and by the valuable aid 
which he afforded them in their studies. 
I have disclaimed any intention here of attempting to enumerate 
or estimate the different works of an historical or antiquarian kind 
which Mr Innes produced. I shall merely advert to his “ Scotland 
in the Middle Ages,” published in 1863, and his “ Sketches of early 
