ISll.] Memoirs of Lord Melville* S3 
until the late reform, became a serious 
anti increasing evil. Conscious of su- 
perior talent, proved in his demeanour, 
and, carrying with him a high tone of au- 
tliority, he had no small influence over 
his brother judges. Like the heathen 
Jupiter, as painted by the burlesque 
(dramatist, 
“ Cock of the school, 
He bore despotic rule, 
His word, though absurd, must be law; 
Cow’d deities. 
Like mice in cheese. 
To squeak must cease or gnaw.” 
Since his death the presidentship has 
devolved into other channels, (cut out 
by the Dundas interest); but his eldest 
son Ilobert, after successively holding 
the places of Solicitor General and Lord 
Advocate, is now Lord Chief Baron of 
the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, an 
oifice of equal emolument, only second 
in dignity, and comparatively a sine¬ 
cure. 
Henry Dundas, since Viscount Mel¬ 
ville, w^as a younger brother of the last 
Lord President, by a second marriage 
of the President, his father, with Miss 
Gordon, daughter of Sir William Gor¬ 
don, of Gordonston, Premier Baronet 
of Scotland. He was born about the 
year 1741, and received his early educa¬ 
tion at home, and at the High School of 
Edinburgh. Afterwards he prosecuted 
his studies, both literary and legal, at the 
University of that city; where he was 
distinguished more for quickness of parts 
than intenseness of study. After the 
routine of the classes, and undergoing 
the usual private and public examina¬ 
tions, writing and displaying the farce of 
defending a Latin Thesis on a subject 
of the civil law, he was admitted a mem¬ 
ber of the Faculty of Advocates (and 
called to the bar) in 1763, and at the 
time of his death was in point of senio¬ 
rity the eleventh on the list. The Scotch 
barrister, although he has not the nu¬ 
merous silk gowns to obstruct his career, 
finds, in general, the road to professional 
eminence little less difficult and tedious 
than the English counsel- Mr. Dundas, 
how'ever, enjoyed unusual advantages. 
With a vigorous mind, unrestrained by 
the jnauvaise lionte, which often embar¬ 
rasses his countrymen in the outset of 
life, he enjoyed the patronage of nume¬ 
rous connections of the first respectabi¬ 
lity; and clients, as well as their solici¬ 
tors, were eager to employ a young man 
of promising talents, in a court where 
kis brother presided with dictatorial sWay^ 
Monthly Mag. No. S16, 
And it may be observed, that, at the 
Scotch bar, many lawyers of great prac¬ 
tice, including more than one or tvvo of 
the present judges, have owed their rise, 
in no small degree, to having relatives ou 
the bench, who, were supposed to len l a 
favourable ear to their aruuraents. He 
possessed besides, a flueimy of speech, 
and an energetic, if not elegant, oratory; 
and, from the outset, delivered himself 
in a language and manner evincing a 
consciousness of superiority, and of his 
prospects of nominating the fiiture judges 
of the bench he addressed, prospects 
that have since been fully and unprece^ 
dentedly realised; as now for many 
years, they have been almost uniformly 
appointed through his recommendation 
and of the present fifteen Lords of Ses¬ 
sion, and five Barons of Exchequer,’ 
there are not above three who do not 
owe their elevation to his patronage.^ 
From these circumstances it is not sur¬ 
prising that he suddenly rose to the 
highest line of practice. Nor would he 
stoop to petty causes, nor submit to the 
drudgery of compiling those multitudi¬ 
nous papers, and huge quarto printed 
volumes, with which the Scotch legal 
proceedings are loaded; but where h© 
could not decently decline this branch 
of professional duty, he generally em¬ 
ployed the pen of some of his more la¬ 
borious brethren, adhibiting his signature 
on their composition; and it is well 
known, that even tlie late Lord Presi¬ 
dent, Sir Hay Campbell, did not disdain 
to afford this assistance to his junior 
friend, and afterwards patron, through 
whose interest both he and his learned 
son, now commonly called Lord Succothj, 
were seated on the bench. 
On the first vacancy, Mr. Dundas wasS 
appointed Solicitor General, and in a 
few years afterwards (I think in 1773) 
His Majesty’s Advocate of Scotland, an 
office not merely tantamount to that of 
Attorney General of England, but (ac¬ 
cording to the authority of Lady Mel- 
* In England, the appointment of the 
judges is always and avowedly on the re¬ 
commendation of the Lord Chancellor; 
who, from a respect to himself and kis si.s 
tuation, never fails to select them from the 
most eminent counseL In Scotlahd, the 
recommendation proceeds from any indi¬ 
vidual having sutflcient influence, and is 
thus without any such check. The conse¬ 
quence is, that W'e have there Seen the ju¬ 
dicial seats soinetimes occupied by gentle¬ 
men more fortunate in their Connections 
than their peritoual merits, 
E ville’s 
