|
ERSKINE, JOHN, of Carnock,
afterwards of Cardross, professor of Scots law in the university of
Edinburgh, was born in the year 1695. His father was the honourable colonel
John Erskine of Carnock, the third son of lord Cardross, whose family now
holds the title of earl of Buchan. The zeal which colonel Erskine had
manifested for the cause of the presbyterian religion and of liberty,
constrained him to retire into Holland, where he obtained the command of a
company in a regiment of foot, in the service of the prince of Orange. He
afterwards accompanied that prince to England, at the revolution of 1688,
and received as a reward for his services and attachment, the appointments
of lieutenant-governor of Stirling castle, a lieutenant-colonelcy of a
regiment of foot, and, afterwards, the governorship of the castle of
Dumbarton. He was chosen, in 1695, a director of the African and Indian
company of Scotland, and, in the following year, was sent to Holland and
other parts of the continent, to manage the affairs of the company. He was
representative of the town of Stirling in the last Scottish parliament, and
was a great promoter of the legislative union of the kingdoms. When the
treaty of union was effected, he was nominated, in the year 1707, to a seat
in the united parliament of Britain, and, in the general election of 1708,
he was chosen member for the Stirling district of burghs. He died in
Edinburgh, January, 1743, in the 82d year of his age. He was four times
married; first, to Jane, daughter and heiress of William Mure of Caldwell,
in Renfrewshire, by whom he had no issue; secondly, on the 5th of January,
1691, to Anne, eldest daughter and co-heiress of William Dundas of Kincavel,
who was the mother of John Erskine of Carnock, the subject of this notice,
and of other three sons and a daughter; thirdly, on the 18th of April, 1725,
to Lilas, daughter of Stirling of Keir, who died leaving no issue; and,
fourthly, to Mary, daughter of Charles Stuart of Dunearn, by whom he had one
son.
John Erskine of Carnock
having been educated for the profession of the law, became a member of the
faculty of advocates, in the year 1719, and continued for some years to
discharge the duties of his profession without having been remarkably
distinguished. In 1737, on the death of Alexander Bain, professor of Scots
law in the university of Edinburgh, Mr Erskine became a candidate for that
chair. The patronage of this professorship is nominally in the town council
of Edinburgh, but virtually in the faculty of advocates; the election, under
an act of parliament passed in the reign of George I., being made in the
following manner:—The faculty, by open suffrage of all the members, send a
leet, (as it is called,) or list, containing the names of two
of their number, to the town council; one of whom the patrons must choose.
The candidate favoured by his brethren is of course joined in the leet with
another member of the body, who, it is known, will not accept; and although,
in case of collision, this arrangement might occasion embarrassment,
practically the effect is, to place the nomination to this chair in the body
best qualified to judge of the qualifications of the candidates. Hence this
preferment is, generally speaking, a very fair test of the estimation in
which the successful candidate is held by his brethren; and their choice has
seldom been more creditable to themselves than it was in the case of Mr
Erskine. The list presented to the town council contained the names of
Erskine and of Mr James Balfour, advocate, a gentleman who had no desire for
the appointment, and Mr Erskine was consequently named professor. The
emoluments of the office consist of a salary of £100 per annum, payable
from the revenue of the town, in addition to the fees paid by the students.
Mr Erskine entered on the
discharge of his academical duties with great ardour; and, from the ability
which he displayed as a lecturer, his class was much more numerously
attended, than the Scots law class had been at any former period. The text
book which he used for many years was Sir George Mackenzie’s Institutions
of the Law of Scotland; but, in the year 1754, Mr Erskine published his own
"Principles of the Law of Scotland," 8vo, which he intended
chiefly for the use of his students, and which, from that time forward, he
made his text-book. In this work, Mr Erskine follows the order of Sir George
Mackenzie’s Institutions, supplying those omissions into which Sir George
was betrayed by his desire for extreme brevity, and making such farther
additions as the progress of the law since Sir George’s time rendered
necessary. The book is still very highly esteemed on account of the
precision and accuracy, and, at the same time, the conciseness, with which
the principles of the law are stated; nor is it an inconsiderable proof of
its merit, that, notwithstanding the very limited circulation of Scottish
law books, this work has already gone through numerous editions.
After having taught the Scots
law class with great reputation for twenty-eight years, Mr Erskine, in 1765,
resigned his professorship, and retired from public life. For three years
after his resignation, he occupied himself chiefly in preparing for
publication his larger work, "The Institutes of the Law of
Scotland." It was not published, however, nor, indeed, completed,
during his life. The work, in the state in which Mr Erskine left it, was put
into the hands of a legal friend, who, after taking the aid of some of his
associates at the bar, published it in 1773, in folio. Although marked with
some of the defects incident to a posthumous publication, Erskine’s
Institutes has been, for the last eighty years, a book of the very highest
authority in the law of Scotland. It is remarkable for the same accuracy and
caution which distinguish the Principles; and as additions have been made in
every successive impression, suitable to the progressive changes in the law,
there is perhaps no authority which is more frequently cited in the Scottish
courts, or which has been more resorted to, as the ground-work of the
several treatises on subordinate branches of the law, which have appeared
within the last fifty years. It has been said, that the Institutes partakes
somewhat of the academical seclusion in which it was written, and indicates
occasionally that the author was not familiar with the every-day practice of
the law. But this is a defect, which, if it exists at all, would require
keener eyes than ours to discover. On the contrary, without presuming to
dogmatise on such a subject, we should be inclined to say, that we have met
with no Scottish law book, which appears to us to contain a more clear and
intelligible exposition, both of the theory and practice of the law, or in
which the authorities cited are digested and analysed with more care and
success.
Mr Erskine died at Cardross on the 1st
of March, 1768, in the 73d year of his age. He had been twice
married; first to Miss Melville, of the noble family of Leven and Melville,
by whom he left the celebrated John Erskine, D.D., one of the ministers of
Edinburgh; secondly, to Anne, second daughter of Mr Stirling of Keir, by
whom he had four sons and two daughters. In the year 1746, Mr Erskine had
purchased, at a judicial sale, the estate of Cardross, which formerly had
belonged to his grandfather, lord Cardross, and he was possessed, besides,
of very considerable landed property, the greater part of which devolved on
James Erskine of Cardross, the eldest son of his second marriage, who died
at Cardross on the 27th of March, 1802. |
