into any critical discussion of Mr Home's works; but I may just say, that this tragedy is undoubtedly the weakest of his productions, and it was not surprising that it did not please the public. Indeed, had it possessed more merit than it did, an English audience could have hardly been pleased to see their Alfred, the pride of their country in its earliest age, the patriot and the lawgiver, melted down to the weakness of love, like the commonplace hero of an ordinary drama.

In the year 1778, he had another opportunity of indulging his passion for the military character, by accepting a commission in the newly-embodied regiment of Mid-Lothian Fencibles, of which the Duke of Buccleuch was colonel. In this appointment he possessed the advantage of having for the captain of the company of which he was lieutenant, his particular friend Lord Binning, and for his brother lieutenant, Mr W. Adam, the son of that family with whom he had been so long on terms of the strictest intimacy. Of this corps, he attended the duties with all the ardour of a young soldier, till they were interrupted by an unfortunate accident which had a material influence on his future life, a fall from his horse, by which he suffered so violent a contusion on his head, as for some days deprived him of sense, and nearly extinguished his life. Though he recovered the accident so far as his bodily health was concerned, his mind was never

restored to its former vigour, nor regained its former vivacity. It did not, however, abate his military ardour; and after being for a short while at home, he thought himself so much re-established, as to join the regiment at Aberdeen, but he found himself not strong enough to go through the duties of his station, nor even to attend the mess, which he was anxious to do. The friendship of Lord and Lady Binning, then at Aberdeen, did every thing for him that kindness or assiduous care could accomplish; but though his health seemed sufficiently restored, his head was not able for numerous society, and he was obliged, though with great reluctance, and not without the most urgent requests of his friends, to resign his commission and return to Edinburgh, whence he some time after repaired to Bath, at which place, a residence of some months, with attention to regimen and quiet, appeared perfectly to re-establish his health, but his intellectual powers were never restored to their original state.

He had very early projected a History of the Rebellion 1745. Indeed, I can perceive from some notes on his earliest papers, that he had thought of such a work immediately after the conclusion of the rebellion, in 1746, or 47. During his intervals of leisure, and more particularly after the unsuccessful performance of Alfred, when he seemed to cease writing for the stage, he resumed the plan of this history, and had been in use to collect mate

rials for it by correspondence and communication with such persons as could afford them, and even by journies or tours to the Highlands of Scotland. In one of these journies, I happened to travel for two or three days along with him, and had occasion to hear his ideas on the subject. They were such as a man of his character and tone of mind would entertain, full of the mistaken zeal and ill-fated gallantry of the Highlanders, the self-devoted heroism of some of their chiefs, and the ill-judged severity, carried (by some subordinate officers,) the length of great inhumanity, of the conquering party. A specimen of this original style of his composition, still remains in his Account of the Gallant Lochiel. But the complexion of his history was materially changed before its publication, which, at one time, he had very frequently and positively determined should not be made till after his death, but which he was tempted, by that fondness for our literary offspring which the weakness of age produces, while it leaves less power of appreciating their merits, to hasten; and accordingly published the work at London in 1802. It was dedicated to the King, as a mark of his gratitude for his majes ty's former gracious attention to him; a circumstance which perhaps contributes to weaken and soften down the original composition, in compliment to the monarch whose uncle's memory was somewhat implicated in the impolitic, as well as unge

any

nerous use which Mr Home conceived had been made of the victory of Culloden. I need not give further account of the book, which is fresh in the recollection of the Society; but I may inform them, that it was read in its native state before it was emasculated by his later alterations, by a very competent judge, Mr Ferguson, who was interested and pleased with it. He said to me, however, with his usual frankness, in the recent communication which I have mentioned above, that he himself had contributed to spoil his friend's History of the Rebellion. "I had often laid down to him those principles of historical composition on which I afterwards wrote my Roman History; first, that the narrative should be plain and simple, without embellishment; and, secondly, that it should relate only great public events, and trace only the characters of individuals connected with them, without descending into the minuter details of biography. Now these," said Dr Ferguson, “were perfectly applicable to my subject, but not at all to that of my friend. The Rebellion 1745 was too unimportant in itself to make a history, without borrowing such ornament from style, and such interest from anecdote, as Voltaire has given to what may be called his Historical Romance of the Expedition of Charles Edward Stuart."

In the year 1779, Mr Home left Kilduff, and fixed his residence in Edinburgh, where, with the

exception of some journies to London, and particularly that made for the unfortunate purpose of publishing his History of the Rebellion, he resided till his death, which happened on the 5th September, 1808, in the 86th year of his age.

For some time before that event, he had gradually sunk into a state of bodily and mental weakness, which makes death a desirable event, both for a man's own sake and that of his friends; yet the warmth of his heart remained unextinguished amidst the feebleness of his frame. Lord Haddington, (whose kindness as Lord Binning had been so useful to him when an officer in the Lothian Fencible Regiment,) saw him among the last times any person, beyond those of his own family, were admitted to his room. He looked at his lordship for some time with an uncertainty as to his person, but shortly after, recovering the recollection of his old friend, his features assumed the smile of satisfaction, and he pressed his hand with a silent assurance of his tender remembrance. It was gratifying to his friends thus to see him pass through his last moments with a decay of body undisturbed by pain, and a serenity of mind, the effect of goodness and virtue exercised in this world, and the forerunner of their reward in a better.

The Society must have been sensible of a defect in this paper, the want of any critical account or examination of Mr Home's works; but I was aware