[Aug. 1, 
Memoirs of Lord Mehille, 
inents, take the opportunity of express¬ 
ing their abhorrence of persons they 
consider inimical to the country, by ex¬ 
hibiting and hanging in effigy the unpo¬ 
pular character of the day. Mr. Wilkey, 
from his spirited and well-founded at¬ 
tacks on Xorth-Britain, and the cha¬ 
racter of its inhabitants, was the ob¬ 
noxious individual, whose effigy on every 
returning 4th of June for a series of 
years was transported in a cart by these 
miserable Scots to a place called the 
Galiowlee, and there executed in due 
form. This display of popular resent¬ 
ment was always suffered undisturbed 
by the magistrates; and the multitude, 
having gratified their love of justice, 
quietly dispersed. Mr. Wilkes had for 
veais been forgotten, and the ceremony 
fallen into disuse until the 4th of June, 
1793, when the mob destined the revival 
of the ceremony in the person of Mr. 
Dnndas. Accordingly on that day his 
effigv was prepared and placed in a cart 
for the usual execution, but the ma¬ 
gistrates were roused at the idea of the 
indignity attempted to be offered to their 
idol. A military force was called in, 
and the populace proceeding to some 
acts of riot, by breaking the windows of 
his relative’s house in George’s Square, 
the soldiers attacked them, and several 
persons lost their lives. Had the ma¬ 
gistracy suffered quietly the innoxious 
display of popular Resentment, no mis- 
chefwould have taken place; but the' 
lives of the citizens were sacrificed for 
their zeal towards the giver of good 
thino's. and the Lord Provost, iMr. Stir- 
lin-T, by whose authority tlie militarv 
power vsas called out against the inha¬ 
bitants, ^\as for his time-serving energy 
created a baronet. 
Although ever since the establishment 
of IMr. Pitt’s ministry in 1783, Mr. Dun- 
das Irad been n most efficient coadjutor, 
it was not until 1791 that he became a 
member of the cabinet as Principal Se¬ 
cretary of State for the Home Depart¬ 
ment. This he held until the year 1794, 
when the grand alarm brought over to 
]Mr. Pitt’s government a great body of 
nominal Whigs, at the head of whom 
was the Duke of Portland. But here a 
difficuity arose : hir. Dundns was no less 
attached to plr.ces than the duke, and 
by no means wished to relinquish any 
that he held. By 3.1r. Burke’s b;!l, the 
t’nird Secretaryship of State, had been 
abolished at the close of the American 
war. Therefore, to please both indivi¬ 
duals, Mr. Pitt and his colleagues found 
means, by some magical calculation, to 
shew that the places of two secretaries 
required three persons to fill them, and 
thus, while the duke succeeded to the 
home department, Mr. Dundas conti¬ 
nued as secretary under the head of the 
w'ars department; and as if the places 
and patronage he! enjoyed had not been, 
sufficient, he was also nominated Gustos 
Rotulorum for IMiddlesex. 
In the investigation of plots by Jaco¬ 
bins against Government, about this 
time, Mr.Dundas was particularly conspi¬ 
cuous, and especially in the trials that 
took place in Scotland, where several 
members of what was styled the British 
Convention, were, by an extraordinary 
extension of the laws rather than the 
justice of that part of the kingdom, 
transported for fourteen years to New 
South Wales; and one of the ministry’s 
own spies was hanged, while persons, in 
circumstances not dissimilar, tried in 
London, were acquitted by the verdicts 
of honest London juries. 
Mr. Dundas mav be also said to have 
been the father of the volunteer system, 
which was a great instrument of keeping 
up the spirit of the people in favour of 
the war in which the country was ruin- 
onsiy involved. When in Edinburgh, 
he appeared as a private of the first corps 
raised there, and not a little indulged 
the vanity of that regiment by proposing 
one day after dinner to send a few ships 
of war to carry them to London in a 
body to be presented to His Majesty. 
He certainly did present one of them, as 
a specimen, a gentleman near seven feet 
high, and stout in proportion, who ap¬ 
peared at Court ill the uniform of a pri¬ 
vate volunteer. 
About the year 1792, Mr, Dundas 
married Lady Jane Hope, daughter of 
the late and sister of the present Earl of 
Hopetoun, by whom he has had no is¬ 
sue; but since that period that family 
have appeared pretty conspicuous in the 
lists of placemen. Her ladvship herself 
obtained some valuable crown leases; 
and Mr. Dundas modestly declining a 
pension from the East-In'dia Companv, 
the same was conferred on her as being 
the better life. He himself also, on the 
death ol iNlr. Stewart Mackenzie, was 
appointed (for life) Keeper of the Privy 
Seal of Scotland, an absolute sinecure 
of ^3000. but which he had raised to 
^4500; and for fear of the office of 
Keeper of the Signet going out of his fa¬ 
mily on his death, he transferred tlie 
same to his son, who holds it for life. 
4 ■ Mr, 
