1809.] 
numerous a class of school-fellows should 
be still in full health and activity; and 
that two and forty years, which have 
connected its members, have never been 
able to disunite any two, or to fix a stain 
upon any one of them. 
“¢ But wiule we thus demonstrate a 
virtuous education, the source of lasting 
health and happiness, as well as of end- 
less friendship, can we withhold a tear 
due to the living and the dead? Above 
all, to the memory of such a master as I 
ani persuaded none of us has elsewhere 
found? Llis success evinced at once his 
ability and care. His ruling, passion 
was indeed the success of his scholars ; 
of which he gave a signal instance in the 
year 1731 or 1782, when, in the name of 
ten of them, he published, after some 
provocation, a literary challenge, which 
the crowded, and thence glaring school of 
Dalkeith, was much too wise to accept. 
€* But when I think of his kindness 
and impartiality, his steadiness and mo- 
desty, his prudence, and his piety; when 
memory proves unable to retrace one 
defect or one excess in hisconduct; one 
ungoverned passion, or one unguarded 
word, during the happy,course of a tui- 
tion to which I owe my little all, I can- 
not but look back with grateful venera- 
tion, and gazing at a star of such magni- 
tude, hide my diminished head.” 
From the high school, it is presumed, 
Mr. Elphinston went to the College of 
Edinburgh, as he mentions in one of his 
letters a recollection from college, where, 
or soon after he left it, he became the 
tutor of Lord Blantyre. He took a plea- 
Sure in boasting of being a tutor when he 
was scarcely seventeen years old. 
About the time he came of age, he 
was introduced to the celebrated histo- 
rian Carte, whom he accompanied in a 
tour through Holland and Brabant, and 
to Paris, where he remained some time 
an inmate jn the house of his,tellow-tra- 
veller aid friend, received great civilities, 
and perfected his knowledge and prac- 
tice Of the French language, in which he 
not OMly conversed, but wrote, both in 
prose and verse, with the facility and ele 
gance of the most accomplished natives, 
On the death of Mr. Carte, ten years 
after, Mr. Elphinston mentioned him in 
the following manner in a letter to a 
friend : . 
‘¢'You will, I am sure, condole with 
me on the loss of my valuable friend Mir. 
Carte. He was in London some weeks 
ago, preparing for the publication of his 
fourth volume. He wag most cordial 
Memoirs of James Elphinston, esq. 
AS5 
good company; but he breathed no less 
benefit to the public than to his friends. 
He told me, that after finishing his Iis- 
tory, when he could play with his time, 
as he phrased it, he meant to animadvert 
upon Lord Bolingbroke. ¢ Though this 
last must fall by his own inconsistence, 
what has England not lost in her histo- 
rian? and how light to me, in compari- 
son, was a group of deaths, that crowded 
upon us in one morning, which separate- 
ly might each have claimed a tear, but 
which were all swallowed up in Mir. 
Carte’s.” 
On Mr. Elphinston’s leaving France, 
he immediately repaired to his native 
country, fis worldly circumstances, 
fortunately for many, were such as ren- 
dered it necessary for him to employ his 
talents andattainments, with a view to 
bis support, and soon after his return to 
Scotland, he became an inmate in the 
family of James Moray, esq. of Aber~ 
cairny, in Perthshire, to whose eldest 
son he was tutor, and who, it appears 
from a levter of his mother’s, had become 
hispatron at that early period of his life. 
The manner in which she mentions it gives 
a pleasing idea of patronage. ‘1 heartily 
bless God for your safety and welfare, 
and that you enjoy the good company oi 
your patron, which I know you so much 
wished and longed for.” The patronage 
that excites such longing is truly delight- 
ful and noble; it at once stamps a cha- 
racier of worth on the protected, and of 
good sense and amiable feelings on the 
protector. How long Mr. Elphinston 
remained at Abercairny is uncertain; but 
in the year 1750 ke appears taking an 
active part at Edinbureh in the circula- 
tion of Dr. Johnson’s. Ramblers, -the 
numbers of which, with the author’s con- 
currence, he re-published in Scotland, 
with a translation of many of the mottees 
by himself. As the advertisement by 
which he announced the publication on 
the 1st of June, 1750, cannot but be 
considered at this day as a curious docv~- 
ment, and as it presents no incoasiderg- 
ble trait of the character of the editor, 
the unsertion of it here will not be deem- 
ed nrelevant. It was found in print 
among his papers: and ‘opposite to the 
word EprnBuren, the date of June 1, 
1750, is written in his own hand. 
‘¢ Just published, on a fine writing~ 
paper, and in asmall octavo size, fit for 
binding in pocket volumes, THE Ram- 
BLER. To be continued on TuEsDars 
and Fripays. Nullius addictus, &c. 
EDINBURGH; printed for the es 
50 
