Ohituary Notices. 
XIX 
a legal member of tlie House of Lords. But, “ content to live where 
life begun,” he felt that Scotland was his home, and the Presidency 
of its Supreme Courts the sphere in which he could best serve his 
country. Before the centripetal force of London and other large cities 
was generally acknowledged to be a national risk, and before decen- 
tralisation had become a popular opinion, he proved by a practical 
example the value, not merely to the locality but to the nation, 
of the local application of talents in their kind of the highest order. 
In 1876 he was appointed Chairman of the Commission of In- 
quiry with regard to the Scottish Universities, which collected much 
useful information, though its recommendations, too largely influ- 
enced by the members who represented Physical Science and under- 
estimated the value of Mental Philosophy, Language, and the Arts, 
did not meet with the general approval of Scottish Educational 
Reformers, and do not bear the stamp of the mind of the Chairman 
like the practical measures of the former executive Commission. His 
capacity lay rather in sifting and carrying out than in originating or 
advocating reforms. As Chairman of the Association for the Better 
Endowment of the University of Edinburgh, his position enabled him 
to direct public attention to a source of weakness in the Scottish Uni- 
versities, which possess neither the ancient foundations of the English, 
nor the liberal support of Government enjoyed by Continental, 
American, and Colonial Universities, to enable them to fulfil their 
functions as National Institutions for the benefit of all classes in Scot- 
land, as well as of English, Indian, and Colonial Students, who resort 
to them, attracted by the reputation of their professors and the prac- 
tical and cosmopolitan character of their methods of study. He was a 
regular attendant of the meetings of the Board of Manufactures, and 
was able to show that something might be done, even with the scanty 
funds grudgingly allowed to Scotland, for the promotion of the Fine 
Arts, in which he took the interest of an intelligent amateur. The 
history of Scotland specially engaged his attention ; and the Scottish 
Text Society, originated by Dr Gregor of Pitsligo, for the preser- 
vation and publication of its early and characteristic language 
and literature, — strangely neglected by Scotchmen in spite of the 
efforts of Pinkerton and Chalmers, Sir Walter Scott, Irving, and 
Laing, until its linguistic value w^as pointed out by indefatigable 
German students, — found in him not merely an ornamental head but 
