Account of with arms for their own defence, it seemed but justice to allow the other the fame means of fecurity and protection. THESE arguments, which are of a general nature, or at best applicable only to a temporary emergency, and to an apprehenfion rather of eventual than of immediate danger, were answered by reasons drawn from the state of the country, from the character of the people, and from a view of those confequences which must have been the certain refult of the proposed establishment. Scotland, it was argued, is far behind her fifterkingdom in the œconomical arts of induftry. The genius of the people, particularly in the northern parts, is averfe to labour and to all the arts of peace. But the Scots are warlike from constitution, and the military character of the nation has been high in all ages. The artificial habits of difcipline and regular exercise, are little neceffary in a country, where men are by nature foldiers, attached with enthusiasm to their native land, and prompt to defend themselves with spirit upon the slightest alarm of danger. But they need excitement to the arts of industry. Agriculture is, in many districts, shamefully. neglected. Manufactures, through the whole country, are yet in their infancy. The employment of our labourers can neither be fpared from their fields, nor of our mechanics from their looms, their forges, or their anvils. To offer to those who are naturally little difpofed to induftry, fuch allurements to idlenefs as a national militia would prefent, would be, in the highest degree, impolitic and ruinous to the country. THUS, it appears, that the scheme for the establishment of a militia in Scotland, admits of very oppofite views; and men of candour, equally endowed with good sense, and equally patriotic, may be fuppofed, as was certainly the cafe, to have formed different opinions on the subject. What part the Lord Advocate of Scotland, who, by his office, is one of the chief guardians of the state, and bound by duty to a watchful attention in all matters which regard the intereft of his country, ought to to have taken in that measure, it would be prefumption in any man to pronounce with confidence, while he must admit, that opinions, equally weighty and refpectable, are found on either fide of the question. It is not to be denied, that arguments of a very illiberal nature were urged in Parliament by a few Members, who, with a mean and narrow fpirit, reproached this country with difaffection to Government, and inculcated the danger of allowing the use of arms to those who had recently employed them in rebellion. It was no wonder that afperfions of this nature called forth the most animated, noble and fpirited defence of their country's honour from feveral of the Scottish Members, who perhaps contended the more keenly in behalf of that measure, that they faw it oppofed from fuch unworthy motives. But the question, viewed without prejudice, remains still difputable; and the arguments of the Lord Advocate against the eftablishment of a militia in Scotland, were founded on the great principles of national expediency, and a regard for what appeared to him the real and fubftantial interefts of the country. On the 14th of June 1760, Mr DUNDAS was appointed Pre- AT his first entry upon office, the public, though well affured of his abilities, was doubtful whether he poffeffed that power of application and measure of affiduity, which is the first duty Account of Lord Prefident of the ftation that he now filled. Fond of focial intercourse, and of late engaged in a sphere of life where natural talents are the chief requifite to eminence, he had hitherto fubmitted but reluctantly to the habits of profeffional industry. But it was foon feen, that accidental circumftances alone had prevented the development of one great feature of his character, a capacity of profound application to business. He had no fooner taken his feat as Prefident of the Seffion, than he devoted himfelf to the duties of his office, with an ardour of which that Court, even under the ableft of his predeceffors, had seen no example, and a perfeverance of attention which fuffered no remiffion to the latest hour of his life. Of all the grievances to which a free people can be fubjected, one of the heaviest and most severe is the tediousness of judicial procedure, that delay of justice. which makes often oppreffion itself more tolerable than the means to be purfued for obtaining its redrefs. Senfible of this truth, and determined to remedy (in as far as material juftice would permit) fo great an evil, the Prefident applied himself immediately to the determination of a long arrear of law-fuits, which, though in their laft ftage, and ripe for judgment, had hung upon the rolls of the Court during the period of five preceding feffions. Thefe, in the course of the fummer-feffion 1760, and in the first month of the next feffion, were all decided, while the current bufinefs of the term was likewife difpatched; and thus a load, which had been accumulating during two years and a half, was cleared away in the space of three months. The Long Roll, which had never been purged fince the inftitution of the Court, and of which the very name was of evil augury, was thus annihilated at once; nor was it ever revived while Mr DUNDAS fat in the Prefident's chair. THE primary caufe of this great reform in the dispatch of bufinefs, is certainly to be found in the uncommon power of his own mental abilities. Amidst that multiplicity of fuits with which the Court of Seffion is at times overwhelmed, no party was ever heard to complain that the Prefident had treated his cause superficially, or with an imperfect intelligence of the arguments which fupported it. But the truth was, he often drew his knowledge of thofe arguments, lefs from the information of the counsel than from the storehouse of his own mind ; for it was peculiar to him, that he could make himself thoroughly master of a caufe, and form the foundeft judgment of its merits, from the fimple perufal of the state of facts. His memory enabling him to retain these facts with the utmost eafe, he could, in the course of a very few hours, dedicated to the perufal of the cafes, prepare himself upon the daily bufinefs of the Court. Stimulated by his example, the other Judges exerted all their powers of application; and thus the machine of justice moved with a constant and equal celerity, while his regulating influence operated on all its parts. BUT if the affiduity and diligence of Judges in studying the causes that come before them, is the first requifite towards the dispatch of business, the next effential concern is, that these causes fhall be decided with brevity, and that the time which is appropriated to giving judgment be not confumed in fuperfluous reasonings, or that species of wavering debate, which equally retards procedure, and diminishes the respect and dignity of the Court. There is no doubt that the reafoning of Judges upon the Bench, is of excellent effect, when feasoned by that difcretion which is fitted to imprefs an audience with reverence for the wisdom and folemnity of the tribunal. And of this we have daily examples in the Supreme Court of this country. The arguments of the Judges are often replete with instruction to the bar. In many cafes, to which, from their circumstantiate nature, neither the written nor the confuetudinary law is directly applicable, these are the Refponfa Prudentum which sup Account of Lord Prefident Account of ply that unavoidable deficiency. They are, moreover, a criterion to the public, both of the abilities of Judges, and of their attention to the duties of their office. But ftill, it must be admitted, that there is much danger in allowing too great latitude to judicial reafonings. Befides the delay of bufinefs, there is a hazard that that warmth of argument, against which even the wifeft and moft difpaffionate of men cannot at all times guard themfelves, fhould diminish the reverence due to the Court, and even the authority of its decifions; for those judgments can affuredly have but little weight which are known to be the refult of a war of contradictory ideas. In a tribunal compofed of many Judges, there must of course be a frequent diversity of opinion; but it is not always defirable that the grounds of those different opinions fhould be publicly canvasfed. It is with the wifdom of a Court, as it is with perfonal beauty, (the obfervation of one of the ableft judges of human nature *) the form upon the whole, when furveyed at its proper distance, may be confummately graceful; but it is not expedient to examine it by too near an approach, or to analyfe too minutely its particular features. SUCH were known to be the fentiments of that great Judge, whose character we are now attempting to delineate; and corresponding to these fentiments was his own conduct upon the Bench. He very rarely entered into a laboured argument on the whole grounds of a caufe; much lefs into an examination or confutation of the opinions delivered by his brethren. He limited himself to a short and folemn enunciation of his own opinion, which he generally fupported by a very few reasons, on which he apprehended the decision ought to rest. His manner of speaking was firm and authoritative; his language forcible, though unadorned in its structure; and, feeking not to please, but to convince, he disregarded thofe graces of elocu tion * CLARENDON. |