/ 
. reputation. 
to Carlifle, where, 
equally refpeéted as a phyfician and as a-man. 
‘A violent fever, caught in the anxious dif- 
1797-) 
at the age of fixteen, fent him to the college, 
at Edinburgh, where he fpent two feafons of 
diligent application to thofe ftudies which were 
to conftitute the bufinefs-of- his after-life. At 
the early age of eighteen, he failed for Cana- 
da, at the beginning of the American war, in 
the capacity of an affiftant to the furgeon of a 
regiment ftationed there. In a little time the 
furgeon was removed, and the officers of the 
regiment petitioned, that Mr. M‘CausLtanp 
fhould be appointed his fucceffor. This tri- 
bute of refpeét to his early attainments and 
premature aifcretion, was juftified by the 
whole of his fubfequent conduét in Canada, 
where he was the favourite of the regiment, 
and the idol of the people. Here the regiment 
remained until near the end of the American 
war; aid Mr. M:'Caustanp improved the 
Jeifure thus afforded him, by inceffant applica- 
tion to the fciences, connected more intimate- 
ly with his profeffion, and te general litera- 
ture. Whatever fubje& he ttudied, on that it 
was his conftant cuftom to write; a practice 
which he was forward to recommend to all 
ftudents, as the mean of bef informing them- 
elves how little they know, and of afcertain- 
ing the progrefs of their future years. On 
duelling, courts martial, and other important 
fubjeéts connected with military life, the 
writer of this article knows he wrote many 
ingenious and valuable effays, which, how- 
eyer, bave not yet been publifhed. » During a 
refidence in Canada, he fent a paper to the 
Royal Society, which may be found in their 
printed Tranfa&tions, on .the beards of the 
American Indians, in refutation of a falfe 
ftatement of the ApBE RAYNAL, on that 
fubyect. He made an arduous effort to ap- 
proach the Falls of Niagafa, and collected 
fome ofthe curious {pray found there, on which 
he wrote fome very. interefting philofophical 
papers. Always an attentive oblerver of man, 
he. availed himfelf of this refidence to exa- 
mine the charatters and habits of the favages. 
He fought in vain amongf thefe fimple people 
for the two moft dreadful proofs of the wretch- 
ednefs of civilized fociety, infanity and {ui- 
cide. Cautious to obferve, and flow to con- 
clude, he yet ufed to pronounce without hefi- 
tation, that the favages were more happy than 
any below the middle clafs of the civilized 
nations of Europe. After the regiment to 
which he was furgeon returned to England, he 
diffolyed his conne&ion with the army, and 
again went to Edinburgh, a candidate for the 
firft honours of the college. Here he pradu- 
ated, and then went into Wales, where he 
meditated a refidence, and intended to. practice 
phyfic. Difappomted in this obje&, he re- 
- turned to his mother’s houfe, at Wigton, 
where he pra¢tifed as a phyfician with great 
About five years ago he removed 
until his death, he -was 
charge of his duty, from a patient, deprived 
Orzginal Notices of Eminent Characters.—Dr. M‘Canfland. 
405 
the poor of Carlifle of a father, yet in the 
prime of life, and focietv and f{cience of ah 
able and active friend, Few fubjeéts of 
human enquiry efcaped his notice ; and on all 
fabjeéts he held it a facred duty to form by 
diligent examination his own.opinions On 
that of religion he had not learned “ Furare » 
in. verba magifiri, ** he had enquired into it | 
with care, and his conclufions, as far as he 
had drawn conclufions, were modeft, candid 
and difident; agreeable to his notion of the 
limits of the human faculties, and the immen- 
fity of the objeéts religion offers for examina- 
tion. Hereclined on the bofom of a tolerant 
church, chietly becanfe fhe wastolerant. The 
hierarchial and feétarian {pirit he held in equal 
abhorrence, as contrary -to..- what he efteemed 
fundamentally proper on religious fubjects, 
diffidence and diftrut of our own judgments, 
‘On this fubje&t too‘he had written at confider-: 
able length ; but it was to affift his own mind, 
not to fubdue the minds of others.. His poe 
litical opinions, 4nd his perfeétly impartial 
mode of ftating them, may be feen in a 
pamphlet, lately publithed by Mefirs. Roe 
binfons, entitled ‘* Thoughts on different 
Subjeéts, chiefly moral and political, by R. 
M. C.’’ For cool and cautious obfervation, 
for accurate and impartial judgment, he was 
fo remarkable, that all the rage of party was 
unable to influence or to bias his independant 
mind. Perhaps no man ever collected ideas 
with more care, or compared them with more 
exactnefs. His appearance and manners in- 
dicated the true character of his mind. A 
meafured ftep, and flow and-diftinét articula- 
tion, gave promife of an obferving, a fteady 
and colleéted mind. He was, perhaps, as 
much as our nature permits, a man of pure 
intelleét; he difliked all appeals to the paffions, 
and phouent them mere meafures of deceit 
and impofition, yet never was any mah more 
awake to the calls of humanity. He feemed 
to live for the poor; their applications were 
never unfeafonable, and his attendance was 
never weatied. -Benevolence with him flowed 
from the conviétions of reafon, not from ani- 
mal fenfibility. I: is obvious that a man of 
this charaéter muft be ill calculated to raife a 
name and reputation by mean arts of popula 
rity. He did not fet the table in 2 roar, he did 
not harangue the populace, he figured in no 
election committees, he was the retainer to 
no great man; but the wife reforted to him 
for advice in feafons of perplexity, the judi- 
cious put their health under his care, and the 
poor fought him when they were ready to 
perifh. The inhabitants of Carlifle regarded 
his life as a bleffing, and they mention his 
death as a. calamity. As a fevere ftudent in 
fcience, he may be fafely held up as an exe 
ample; .and in the difcharge of the duties of a 
fon, a friend, and a man, to his connedétions 
and fociety, his condu&t commands us at once _ 
to admire and to imitate him. 
3G2 PROVINCIAL 
