|
 FORBES,
DUNCAN, a man whose memory is justly entitled to the veneration of his
country, was born at Bunchrew, in the neighbourhood of Inverness, on the
10th of November, 1685. His great-grandfather Duncan Forbes, was of the
family of lord Forbes, through that of Tolquhoun, and purchased the barony
of Culloden from the laird of Mackintosh, in 1625. His great-grandmother was
Janet Forbes, of the family of Corsindy, also descended from lord Forbes.
But this early patriot was not more distinguished for honourable descent,
than for public spirit and nobility of conduct, during the struggle for
religion and liberty that marked the reign of Charles I., in which he took a
decided part against the court; and, being a member of parliament, and lord
provost of Inverness, must have been a partisan of no small consequence. He
died in 1654, leaving his estate to his eldest son, John, who inherited his
offices as well as his principles. Having acted in concert with the marquis
of Argyle, he was, upon the Restoration, excepted from the act of indemnity,
and had a large share of the barbarous inflictions which disgraced the reign
of the restored despot. He somehow, however, contrived to accumulate money,
and about the year 1670, doubled his landed estate by purchasing the barony
of Ferintosh and the estate of Bunchrew. He died a little before the
Revolution, leaving, by his wife, Ann Dunbar, a daughter of Dunbar of
Hemprigs, in the county of Moray, a large family, and was succeeded by his
eldest son, Duncan, who had received a liberal education on the continent,
by which he was eminently qualified for performing a conspicuous part in
that most auspicious of modern transactions. He was a member of the
convention parliament, a decided presbyterian, and strongly condemned those
temporizing measures which clogged the wheels of government at the time, and
in consequence of which many of the national grievances remained afterwards
unredressed. He was, of course, highly obnoxious to the jacobites, who,
under Buchan and Cannon, in 1689, ravaged his estates of Culloden and
Ferintosh; destroying, particularly in the latter district, where
distillation was even then carried on upon an extensive scale, property to
the amount, of fifty-four thousand pounds Scots. In consequence of this
immense loss, the Scottish parliament granted him a perpetual license to
distil, duty free, the whole grain that might be raised in the barony of
Ferintosh, a valuable privilege, by which Ferintosh very soon became the
most populous and wealthy district in the north of Scotland. He died in
1704, leaving, by his wife, Mary Innes, daughter to the laird of Innes, two
sons; John, who succeeded him in his estates, and Duncan, the subject of
this memoir, besides several daughters.
Of the early habits or studies of Duncan Forbes, afterwards lord president,
little has been recorded. The military profession is said to have been the
object of his first choice, influenced by the example of his uncle John
Forbes, who was a lieutenant-colonel in the army. He had also an uncle
eminent in the law, Sir David Forbes of Newhall, and, whether influenced by
his example or not, we find that he entered upon the study of that science
at Edinburgh, in the chambers of professor Spottiswood, in the year that his
father died, 1704. The university of Edinburgh had as yet attained nothing
of that celebrity by which it is now distinguished, its teachers being few
in number, and by no means remarkable for acquirements; of course, all young
Scotsmen of fortune, especially for the study of law, were sent to the
continent. Bourges had long been famous for this species of learning, and at
that university, Scotsmen had been accustomed to study. Leyden, however, had
now eclipsed it, and at that famous seat of learning Duncan Forbes took up
his residence in 1705. Here he pursued his studies for two years with the
most unremitting diligence; having, besides the science of law, made no
inconsiderable progress in the Hebrew and several other oriental languages.
He returned to Scotland in 1707, where he continued the study of Scottish
law till the summer of 1709, when he was, upon the 26th of July, admitted an
advocate, being in the twenty-fourth year of his age.
The closest friendship had all along subsisted between the families of
Argyle and Culloden; and, the former, being at this time in the zenith of
power, displayed its fidelity by bestowing upon Mr Forbes, as soon as he had
taken his place at the bar, the respectable appointment of sheriff of
Mid-Lothian. The duke, and his brother the earl of Ilay, from the very
outset of his career, in-trusted him with the management of their Scottish
estates, which he is said frankly to have undertaken, though, from
professional delicacy, he declined receiving any thing in the shape of fee
or reward, for services which ought to have brought him some hundreds a
year.
Mr Forbes, from his first appearance at the bar, was distinguished for the
depth of his judgment, the strength of his eloquence, and the extent of his
practice, which was such as must have precluded him from performing anything
like the duties of a mere factor, which the above statement evidently
supposes. That he gave his opinion, generally, when asked, upon the modes
that ought to be adopted for improving the value of his grace’s property,
and the comfort of his vassals in the highlands, there can be no doubt; for
he continued to do this, not only to the duke, but to his neighbours
generally, even after the highest duties of the judge had devolved upon him;
and this was probably the utmost extent of his concern with the Argyle
estate at any period of his life. That he was in a high degree generous,
there cannot be a doubt; but we see no reason for supposing that he was in
the habit of employing his legal talents gratuitously. He was but a younger
brother, and is said to have lost the greater part of his little patrimony
by an unguarded or an unfortunate speculation; yet it is certain that he
lived in a splendid and rather expensive manner, the first wits and the
highest noblemen of the age finding their enjoyments heightened by his
company; and it is equally certain that the fruits of his professional toil
were all that he could depend upon for supporting a spirit that breathed
nothing but honour, and a state that knew nothing but the most stubborn
independence. His business, however, rapidly rose with his rising
reputation, and his fortune probably kept pace with his fame, and he very
soon added to his domestic felicity, by forming a matrimonial connexion with
Mary Rose, daughter to the laird of Kilravock, to whom he had been warmly
attached almost from her earliest infancy. [Her husband is said to have
composed, in her honour, the beautiful Scottish song, "Ah Chloris."] She was
a lady of great beauty, and highly accomplished; but she died not long after
their marriage, leaving him an only son, John, who eventually succeeded to
the estate of Culloden. The early demise of this lady, for whom Mr Forbes
seems to have had more than an ordinary passion, deeply affected him, and he
never again entered into the married state.
Domestic calamity, operating upon a keen sensibility, has often withered
minds of great promise, and cut off the fairest prospects of future
usefulness. Happily, however, Mr Forbes did not resign himself to solitude,
and the indulgence of unavailing sorrow. The circumstances of his family,
and of his country, in both of which he felt a deep interest, did not,
indeed, allow him to do so, had he been willing. The violence of party had
been very great ever since the Revolution: it had latterly been heightened
by the union, and had reached nearly its acme at this time, when the
unexpected death of the queen opened the way for the peaceable accession of
the new dynasty.
With a very few exceptions, such as the Grants, the Monroes, and the Rosses,
who had been gained over by the Forbeses of Culloden, the Highland clans
were engaged to devote their lives and fortunes in behalf of the expatriated
house of Stuart; and only waited for an opportunity of asserting the cause
of the pretender. The loyal clans, and gentlemen, and particularly Forbes of
Culloden, were of course, highly obnoxious to the jacobite clans and, for
their own preservation, were obliged to be continually on the watch, and
frequently saw the brooding of the storm, when others apprehended no danger.
This was eminently the case in the year after the accession of the house of
Brunswick; and, accordingly, so early as the month of February, we find
Monro of Fowlis writing to Culloden:—"I find the jacobites are werie uppish,
both in Edinburgh and in England, so that, if ye go to the parliament, as I
hope ye will, you will recommend to some trusty, faithful friend, to take
care of your house of Culloden, and leave orders with your people at
Ferintosh, to receive directions from me, or from your cousin George (my
son), as you are pleased to call him, which you may be sure will be
calculate to the support of your interest, in subordination to the public
cause;"—and he adds, in a postscript to the same letter,—"The vanity,
insolence, arrogance, and madness of the jacobites, is beyond all measure
insupportable. I believe they must be let blood. They still have the trick
of presuming upon the lenity of a moderate government. It seems God either
destines them for destruction, or infatuates others to allow them to be
pricks in our sides and thorns in our eyes. I have accounts from very good
hands from Edinburgh, that to their certain knowledge, saddles were making
in that city for dragoons to serve the pretender, and that all the popish
lords, and very many popish and jacobite gentlemen, are assembled there now;
so that all friends and loyal subjects to his present majesty, are advised
to be upon their guard from thence, against an invasion or an insurrection,
which is suddenly expected, which the jacobites expect will interrupt the
meeting of the parliament." In the month of March, the same year, Culloden,
writing to his brother, the subject of this memoir, has the following
observation:—"You say you have no news, but we abound with them in this
country. The pretender is expected every moment, and his friends all ready;
but since our statesmen take no notice of this, I let it alone, and wishes
they may not repent it when they cannot help it."—Culloden was returned for
a member of parliament, and went up the following month (April) to London,
whence he again writes to his brother as follows:—"As for your Highland
neighbours, their trysts and meetings, I know not what to say; I wish we be
not too secure: I can assure you, the tories here were never higher in their
looks and hopes, which they found upon a speedy invasion. Whatever be in the
matter, let things be so ordered that my house be not surprised."
Had those who were intrusted with the government been equally sharp-sighted,
much of the evil that ensued might undoubtedly have been prevented; but they
were so intent upon their places, and the pursuit of little, low intrigues,
that they were caught by the insurrection, in Scotland at least, as if it
had been a clap of thunder in a clear day. John Forbes’s direction, however,
must have been attended to; for, when his house was surrounded by the
insurgents, under Mackenzie of Coul, and Mackintosh, with their retainers,
his wife refined all accommodation with them, saying, with the spirit of an
ancient Roman,—"she had received the keys of the house, and the charge of
all that was in it, from her husband, and she would deliver them up to no
one but himself." In the absence of his brother, Duncan Forbes displayed,
along with Hugh Rose of Kilravock, the most indefatigable zeal, and great
judgment in the disposal of the men they could command, who were chiefly the
retainers of Culloden, Kilravock, Culcairn, and the Grants, and by the
assistance of lord Lovat and the Frazers, finally triumphed over the
insurgents in that quarter. Nothing, indeed, could excel the spirit
displayed by the two brothers of Culloden, the oldest of whom, John, spent
on the occasion, upwards of three thousand pounds sterling out of his own
pocket, for the public service; of which, to the disgrace of the British
government, he never received in repayment one single farthing.
Though they were ardent for the cause of religion and liberty, and zealous
in the hour of danger, yet, when that was over, the two brothers strongly
felt the impropriety of tarnishing the triumphs of order and liberality, by
a violent and vindictive inquisition into the conduct of persons, for whom
so many circumstances conspired to plead, if not for mercy, at least, for a
candid construction of their motives. As a Scotsman and lawyer, Duncan
Forbes was averse to the project of carrying the prisoners out of the
country, to be tried by juries of foreigners, and he wrote to lord Ilay,
when he heard of a design to appoint him lord advocate, in order to carry on
these prosecutions, that he was determined to refuse that employment. He
also wrote to his brother in behalf of a contribution for the poor prisoners
who had been carried to Carlisle, and were there waiting for trial. "It is
certainly Christian," says he, "And by no means disloyal, to sustain them in
their indigent state until they are found guilty. The law has brought them
to England to be tried by foreign juries – so for it is well – but no law
can hinder a Scotsman to wish that his countrymen, not hitherto condemned,
should not be a derision to strangers, or perish for want of necessary
defence or sustenance out of their own country." To the forfeitures he was
also decidedly hostile, and some of his reasons for this hostility threw a
particular light upon the state of Scotland at that period. "There are," he
says, "none of the rebels who have not friends among the king’s faithful
subjects, and it is not easy to guess, how far a security of this kind,
unnecessarily pushed, may alienate the afflictions, even of these from the
government. But in particular, as this relates to Scotland, the difficulty
will be insurmountable. I may venture to say, there are not two hundred
gentlemen in the whole kingdom who are not very nearly related to some one
or other of the rebels. Is it possible that a man can see his daughter, his
grand children, his nephews, or cousins, reduced to beggary and starving
unnecessarily by a government, without thinking very ill of it, and where
this is the case of a whole nation, I tremble to think what dissatisfactions
it will produce against a settlement so necessary for the happiness of
Britain. If all the rebels, with their wives and children, and immediate
dependants, could be at once rooted out of the earth, the shock would be
astonishing; but time would commit it to oblivion, and the danger would be
less to the constitution, than when thousands of innocents punished with
misery and want, for the offences of their friends, are suffered to wander
about the country sighing out their complaints to heaven, and drawing at
once the compassion and moving the indignation of every human creature." "To
satisfy," he adds, "any person that the forfeitures in Scotland will scarce
defray the charges of the commission, if the saving clause in favours of the
creditors takes place, I offer but two considerations that, upon enquiry,
will be found incontestible. First, it is certain, that of all the gentlemen
who launched out into the late rebellion, the tenth man was not easy in his
circumstances, and if you abate a dozen of gentlemen, the remainder upon
paying their debts could not produce much money clear, nor was there any
thing more open to observation, than that the men of estates, however
disaffected in their principles, kept themselves within the law, when at the
same time men supposed loyal, in hopes of bettering their low fortunes,
broke loose. Besides, it is known that the titles by which almost all the
estates in Scotland are possessed are diligences upon debts affecting those
estates purchased in the proprietors’ own name or in that of some trustee:
now, it is certain, that when the commissioners of enquiry begin to seize
such estates, besides the debts truly due to real creditors, such a number
of latent debts will be trumped up, not distinguishable from the true ones
by any else than the proprietors, as will make the inquiry fruitless and the
commission a charge upon the treasury, as well as a nuisance to the nation."
Such were the arguments, drawn from expediency, and the state of the
country, by which forbearance on the part of the government was recommended
by this excellent man, though it appears that they had little effect but to
excite a suspicion of his own loyalty. In spite of all this, his character
made him too powerful to be resisted. In 1716, he was rewarded for his
services by the office of advocate-depute, that is, he became one of the
inferior prosecutors for, the crown. On the 20th of March, he is found
writing thus to his principal, the lord advocate:—"Yesterday I was
qualified, the Lord knows how, as your depute. The justice clerk shows a
grim sort of civility towards me, because he finds me plaguey stubborn.. I
waited upon him, however, and on the other lords, to the end they might fix
on a dyet for the tryall of the Episcopall clergy. The justice clerk does
not smile on their prosecution, because it is not his own contrivance; and
declared it could not come on sooner than the first of June; but I told him
that if, as I understood was designed, the May circuit were suspended this
year by act of parliament, I would require his lordship to assign a dyet
sooner." In 1722, with the acquiescence of the ministry, he was returned to
sit in parliament for the Inverness district of burghs; and in 1725, he
obtained the high and responsible appointment of lord advocate. As the
office of secretary of state for Scotland was at this time discontinued, it
became part of his duty to carry on, with his majesty’s ministers, the
correspondence regarding the improvements necessary to be made in her civil
establishments, which he did, in a manner highly creditable to himself, and
with the happiest effect for his country. The year in which he was appointed
lord advocate, was marked by the introduction of the malt tax into Scotland,
and the mob at Glasgow, known by the name of Shawfield’s rabble, by which
its introduction was attended. This was a riot of a very scandalous
character, (the magistrates of the city being deeply implicated in fomenting
it,) in which nine persons were killed outright, and the soldiers who had
been brought from Edinburgh for its suppression, were chased out of the
city, and were glad to take refuge in Dumbarton castle. General Wade, who
was in Edinburgh at the time, on his way to the Highlands, was immediately
ordered to Glasgow with all the troops he could muster, and he was
accompanied by the lord advocate in person, who first committed the whole of
the magistrates to their own tolbooth, and afterwards, under a strong guard,
sent them to Edinburgh, where they were thrown into the common jail, and it
was certainly intended to proceed against them before the justiciary court.
Doubts, however, were entertained of the legality of the proceedings, and
whether the lord advocate had not exceeded his powers in committing the
whole magistracy of a city, upon the warrant of a justice of peace, to their
own jail; public feeling at the same time recovering strongly in their
favour, they were by the justiciary admitted to bail, nor was their case
ever again called.
In 1734, he lost his brother, John Forbes, in consequence of whose death, he
fell heir to the extensive and valuable estate of Culloden. In 1736, a
disgraceful affair, termed the Porteous mob, occurred in Edinburgh, in
consequence of which, it was resolved to deprive the city of her privileges.
Mr Forbes, on this occasion, exerted himself to the utmost in behalf of the
city, and was successful in procuring many modifications to be made upon the
bill before it passed the two houses of parliament. When we contemplate the
condition of Scotland in those days, we scarcely know whether to wonder most
at the good which Forbes was able to achieve, or the means by which he
accomplished it. The period might properly be called the dark age of
Scottish history, though it contained at the same time, the germs of all the
good that has since sprung up in the land. The pretensions of the house of
Stuart were universally received, either with favour from direct affliction
to their cause, or at least without disfavour, the result of a justifiable
disgust at the political status into which the country had been thrown by
the union, and the unpopularity of the two first Brunswick princes. The
commencement of a strict system of general taxation was new; while the
miserable poverty of the country rendered it unproductive and unpopular. The
great families still lorded it over their dependants, and exercised legal
jurisdiction within their own domains, by which the general police of the
kingdom was crippled, and the grossest local oppression practised. The
remedy adopted for all these evils, which was to abate nothing, and to
enforce everything, under the direction of English counsels and of
Englishmen, completed the national wretchedness, and infused its bitterest
ingredient into the brimful cup. How Forbes got his views or his character
amidst such a scene, from the very heart of the very worst part of which he
came, it is difficult to conceive; for with only one or two occasional
exceptions, his papers prove that he had scarcely an associate, either in
his patriotic toils or enjoyments. [We here pursue a train of remarks in the
Edinburgh Review of the Culloden papers, an ample collection of the letters,
&c. of the lord president, published in 1816.] However, it is sometimes true
in the political, as it generally is in the commercial world, that supply is
created by demand; and the very degradation of the country held out an
immense reward to the man who should raise it up. No man, especially the
hired servant of a disputed monarchy, could have achieved this work, except
one whose heart was as amiable as his judgment was sound, and whose
patriotism was as pure as it was strong. Forbes cultivated all these
qualities, and not only directed the spirit of the nation, but conciliated
its discordant members with a degree of skill that was truly astonishing.
The leading objects of his official and parliamentary life were suggested to
him by the necessities of the country, and. they are thus ably summed up in
the work just quoted:—
1. To extinguish the embers of rebellion, by gaining over the jacobites. He
did not try to win them, however, in the ordinary way in which alleged
rebels are won; but by showing them what he called the folly of their
designs, by seeking their society, by excluding them from no place for which
their talents or characters gave them a fair claim, and, above all, by
protecting them from proscription. It is delightful to perceive how much
this policy, equally the dictate of his heart and of his head, made him be
consulted and revered even by his enemies; and how purely he kept his
private affections open to good men, and especially to old friends, in spite
of all political acrimony or alienation. He derived from this habit one
satisfaction, which seems to have greatly diverted him, that of being
occasionally abused by both sides, and sometimes suspected of secret
jacobitism by his own party.
2. Having thus, by commanding universal esteem as an upright and liberal
man, enabled himself to do something for the country at large, his next
object seems to have been, to habituate the people to the equal and regular
control of the laws. It may appear at first sight unnecessary or inglorious
to have been reduced to labour for an end so essential and obvious in all
communities as this. But the state of Scotland must be recollected. The
provincial despotism of the barons was common and horrid. Old Lovat, for
example, more than once writes to him, as lord advocate, not to trouble
himself about certain acts of violence done in his neighbourhood, because he
was very soon to take vengeance with his own hands.
Nor was this insubordination confined to individuals or to the provinces,
for it seems to have extended to the capital, and to have touched the seats
of justice. There is a letter from Forbes to Mr Scroope, in the year 1732,
in which he complains "that it would surely provoke any man living, as it
did me, to see the last day of our term in exchequer. The effect of every
verdict we recovered from the crown, stopt upon the triflingest pretences
that false popularity and want of sense could suggest. If some remedy be not
found for this evil we must shut up shop. It’s a pity, that when we have
argued the jurys out of their mistaken notices of popularity, the behaviour
of the court should give any handle to their relapsing." He persevered to
prevent this by argument, and by endeavouring to get the laws, especially
those concerning the revenue, altered, so as to be less unacceptable to the
people.
It is chiefly on account of his adherence to this principle, that it is
important to notice this subject as a distinct part of his system. If he had
been disposed to govern, as is usual in turbulent times, by mere force, he
had pretences enough to have made scarlet uniforms deform every hamlet in
the kingdom.—But, except when rebellion or riot were raging, we cannot
discover, from his papers, that he ever, on any one occasion, required any
other assistance, except the ordinary authority of which law is always
possessed, when administered fairly. He rigidly investigated, though he did
not severely punish, popular outrages; but he was unsparing in his
prosecution of the provincial injustice, by which the people were generally
oppressed. The consequence of this was, that he not only introduced a
comparative state of good order, but made his name a sanction, that whatever
he proposed was right—and that in him the injured was sure to find a friend.
When Thomas Rawlinson, an Englishman, who was engaged in a mining concern in
Glengarry, (and who by the bye is said to have been the first person who
introduced the philibeg into the highlands), had two of his servants
murdered by the natives there, the lord advocate was the only individual to
whom it ever occurred to him to apply for protection. But his power in thus
taming the people, can only be fairly estimated, by perceiving how
universally he was feared by the higher ranks, as the certain foe of all
sorts of partial, sinister, unfair, or illiberal projects. Few men ever
wrote, or were written to, with less idea of publication than he. His
correspondence has only come accidentally to light about seventy years after
his death. Yet we have not been able to detect a single one of his advices
or proceedings, by the exposure of which, even a private gentleman, of the
most delicate honour, and the most reasonable views, would have cause to
feel a moment’s uneasiness. On the contrary, though living in ferocious
times—in public life—the avowed organ of a party, and obliged to sway his
country, by managing its greatest and greediest families, he uniformly
maintains that native gentleness and fairness of mind with which it is
probable that most of the men, who are afterwards hardened into corruption,
begin, and resolve to continue, their career. How many other public men are
there, of whose general correspondence above 500 letters could be published
indiscriminately, without alarming themselves if they were alive, or their
friends if they were dead ?
Having thus freed himself from the shackles of party, and impressed all
ranks with a conviction of the necessity of sinking their subordinate
contests in a common respect for the law, his next great view seems to have
been, to turn this state of security to its proper account, in improving the
trade and agriculture of the kingdom. Of these two sources of national
wealth, the last seems to have engaged the smallest portion of his
attention; and it was perhaps natural that it should do so. For, though
agriculture precedes manufactures in the order of things, yet, for this very
reason, that the cultivation of the land has gone on for ages, it is only in
a more advanced era of refinement, that the attention of legislators is
called to the resources it supplies, and the virtues it inspires. But
projectors are immediately attracted towards improvements in manufactures,
which are directly convenient by employing industry, and highly captivating,
because their commencement and growth can be distinctly traced; so that they
appear more the result of preparation and design than agriculture does; as
to which, one generation seems only to follow the example of another, in
passively taking what the scarcely assisted powers of nature give. Several
efforts at trade had been made by Scotland before Forbes appeared; but it
was both the cause and the evidence of the national poverty, that, slender
as they were, they had failed, and that their failure almost extinguished
the commercial hopes of the people. He was no sooner called into public
life, than he saw what trade, chiefly internal, could do, by giving
employment to the hordes of idlers who infested the country, by interesting
proprietors in the improvement of their estates, and by furnishing the means
both of paying and of levying taxes, and thereby consolidating the whole
island into one compact body, instead of keeping the northern part a burden
on the southern.
His exertions in prosecution of this great object were long and unceasing.
We cannot enter here into any details; and therefore, we shall only state,
in general, that he appears to have made himself master of the nature and
history of almost every manufacture, and to have corresponded largely, both
with the statesmen, the philosophers, and the merchants of his day, about
the means of introducing them into Scotland. The result was, that he not
only planted the roots of those establishments which are now flourishing all
over the country, but had the pleasure (as he states in a memorial to
government) of seeing "a commendable spirit of launching out into new
branches" excited. He was so successful in this way, that the manufactures
of Scotland are called, by more than one of his correspondents, "his sin
bairns;" - an expression which he himself uses in one of his letters to Mr
Scroope, in which he says that one of his proposals "was disliked by certain
chiefs, from its being a child of mine."
Notwithstanding the immense good which he thus accomplished, and the great
judgment and forbearance he evinced in pushing his improvements, it is
amusing to observe the errors into which he fell, with respect to what are
now some of the clearest principles of taxation, and of political economy.
These, in general, were the common errors of too much regulation; errors,
which it requires the firmest hold of the latest discoveries in these
sciences to resist, and which were peculiarly liable to beset a man, who had
been obliged to do so much himself in the way of direction and planning. One
example may suffice—being the strongest we have been able to find. In order
to encourage agriculture, by promoting the use of malt, he presented to
government a long detailed scheme, for preventing, or rather punishing, the
use of tea.
"The cause," says he, "of the mischief we complain of, is evidently the
excessive use of tea; which is now become so common, that the meanest
familys, even of labouring people, particularly in burroughs, make their
morning’s meal of it, and thereby wholly disuse the ale, which heretofore
was their accustomed drink: and the same drug supplies all the labouring
woemen with their afternoon’s entertainments, to the exclusion of the
twopenny."
The remedy for this, is, to impose a prohibitory duty on tea, and a penalty
on those who shall use this seducing poison, "if they belong to that class
of mankind in this country, whose circumstances do not permit them to come
at tea that pays the duty." The obvious difficulty attending this scheme
strikes him at once; and he removes it by a series of provisions, calculated
to describe those who are within the tea line, and those who are beyond it.
The essence of the system is, that when any person is suspected, "the onus
probandi of the extent of his yearly income may be laid on him;" and that
his own oath may be demanded, and that of the prosecutor taken. "These
provisions," the worthy author acknowledges, "are pretty severe;" and most
of his readers may be inclined to think them pretty absurd. But it must be
recollected, that he is not the only person, (especially about his own time,
when the first duty of a statesman was to promote the malt tax), who has
been eloquent and vituperative on the subject of this famous plant. Its
progress, on the contrary, has been something like the progress of truth;
suspected at first, though very palatable to those who had courage to taste
it; resisted as it encroached; abused as its popularity seemed to spread;
and establishing its triumph at last, in cheering the whole land, from the
palace to the cottage, only by the slow and resistless efforts of time, and
its own virtues. Nor are the provisions for enforcing his scheme so
extraordinary as may at first sight appear. The object of one half of our
existing commercial regulations, is to insure the use of our own produce,
and the encouragement of our own industry; and his personal restrictions,
and domiciliary visits, are utterly harmless, when compared with many excise
regulations of the present day; and still more so, when contrasted with
certain parts of the recent system for levying the tax upon property. We
have noticed the example, chiefly for the sake of showing that Forbes’s
views were as sound upon these subjects, as those of the persons by whom he
has been succeeded; and that, if we could oftener withdraw our eyes from the
objects of their habitual contemplation, we should oftener see the folly of
many things which appear to us correct, merely because they are common.
Being appointed president of the court of session in 1737, he applied
himself with great zeal to a duty which has conferred lasting service on his
country that of improving the regulations of his court. Previously, the
chief judge, by having it in his power to postpone a cause, or to call it at
his pleasure, was enabled sometimes to choose a particular time for its
decision, when certain judges whom he knew to have made up their minds, were
absent. Forbes put an end to this flagrant error in the constitution of the
court, by rendering it impossible for the judges to take up a case except as
it stood on the roll. He also exerted himself to prevent any accumulation of
undetermined causes.
The character of the highlanders and the improvement of the highlands, had
all along been objects of the first magnitude with the lord president, nor
did he lose sight of them, when his elevation to the first place in Scottish
society brought him to be conversant with others equally important. Viewing
the aspect of the political horizon, and aware that the clans in such times
as appeared to be approaching, could scarcely fail to fall into the hands of
political agitators, he digested a plan (the very same for which Chatham
received so much applause for carrying into effect), for embodying the most
disaffected of them into regiments, under colonels of tried loyalty, but
officered by their own chieftains, who would thus be less liable to be
tampered with by the emissaries of the Stuarts, and be insensibly led to
respect an order of things which, it might be presumed, they disliked,
chiefly because they did not comprehend it, and from which as yet they did
not suppose they had derived any benefit. This proposal the lord president
communicated to the lord justice clerk, Milton, who reported it to lord Ilay,
by whom it was laid before Sir Robert Walpole, who at once comprehended and
admired it. When, however, he laid it before the council, recommending it to
be carried into immediate effect, the council declared unanimously against
it. "Were the plan of the Scottish judge," said they, "adopted, what would
the patriots say? Would they not exclaim, Sir Robert Walpole had all along a
design upon the constitution? He has already imposed upon us a standing
army, in addition to which he is now raising an army of barbarians, for the
sole purpose of enslaving the people of England." Walpole was too well
acquainted with the temper of the patriots, as they called themselves, not
to feel the full force of this reasoning, and the measure was given up,
though he was fully convinced that it was conceived in wisdom, and would
have been infallibly successful in its operation.
Though his advice was neglected, the event showed that his suspicions were
well founded. The disturbed state of Europe encouraged the jacobites,
particularly in the highlands, to sign an association for the restoration of
the pretender, which was sent to him at Rome, in the year 1742. During the
following years, there was a perpetual passing and repassing between the
court of France, the pretender, and the association, without the knowledge
of the most vigilant observers on the part of the government. So cautiously,
indeed, did the highland chieftains conduct themselves, that even the lord
president, who was intimately acquainted with their characters and
propensities, seems to have been perfectly unaware of any immediate rising,
when he was acquainted by a letter from Macleod of Macleod, that Charles was
actually arrived, and had by young Clanronald summoned himself and Sir
Alexander Macdonald to join his standard. The truth was, both Macleod and
Macdonald had pledged themselves to prince Charles; but a French army to
accompany him, and military stores, were positive parts of the engagement,
which, not being fulfilled, led them to hesitate, and they were willing to
fortify their hesitation by the advice of the president, whom they had long
found to be an excellent counsellor, and whose views upon the subject they
were probably anxious in a covert way to ascertain. Macleod of course wrote
to the president, that such a person was on the coast, with so many Irish or
French officers, stating them greatly beyond the real number, and he adds,
"His views, I need not tell you, was to raise all the highlands to assist
him—Sir Alexander Macdonald and I not only gave no sort of countenance to
these people, but we used all the interest we had with our neighbours, to
follow the same prudent method, and I am persuaded we have done it with that
success, that not a man north of the Grampians will give any sort of
assistance to this mad rebellious attempt—As it can be of no use to the
pubic to know whence you have this information, it is, I fancy, needless to
mention either of us; but this we leave in your own breast as you are a much
better judge of what is or what is not proper to be done. I have wrote to
none other, and as our friendship and confidence in you is without reserve,
so we doubt not of your supplying our defects properly—Sir Alexander is here
and has seen this scrawl—Young Clanronald has been here with us, and has
given us all possible assurances of his prudence." The above letter was
dated August 3d, 1745, and speaks of Charles as only on the coast, though he
had in reality landed, and the assurance of young Clanronald’s prudence was
a perfect farce. It was indeed, for obvious reasons, the aim of the rebels
to lull the friends of government in their fatal security, and we have no
doubt that Clanronald acting upon this principle, gave the assurance to
Macleod and Macdonald for the very purpose of being communicated to the lord
president, and it has been supposed that the misstatements in this letter
laid the foundation for that pernicious counsel which sent Sir John Cope to
the north, leaving the low country open to Charles, in consequence of which
he overcame at once the most serious difficulties he had to contend with,
want of provisions and want of money, made himself master of the capital of
Scotland, and, to the astonishment of himself, as well as of all Europe,
penetrated into the very heart of England.
Being now certain that there was danger, though its extent was cautiously
concealed from him, the lord president, after pointing out to the marquis of
Tweeddale, who at that time was a principal manager in Scottish affairs, a
few things necessary to be done in order to give full effect to his
exertions, hastened to the north, and arrived at Culloden house on the 13th
of August, six days before Charles unfurled his standard in Glenfinnin, and
while many of his most devoted admirers were yet at a great loss whether to
come forward to his assistance, or to remain undeclared till circumstances
should enable them more accurately to calculate probabilities. To all these
nothing could have been more unwelcome than the presence of the lord
president, to whom they, almost to a man, were under personal obligations.
Lovat waited upon and dined with his lordship the very day after his
arrival, and requested his advice, assuring him that his wishes, as well as
his interest, still led him to support the present royal family. Macleod of
Macleod and Sir Alexander Macdonald of Skye also wrote to him, immediately
on his arrival, in a loyal strain, though their presence was certainly
expected at the unfurling of the insurgent standard at Glenfinnin, which was
so soon to take place. The letters are not so very explicit as might have
been wished, and, till the advice and the presence of the lord president
encouraged them, these gentlemen were undoubtedly not cordial for the
government. Lovat most certainly was not, and had Charles, according to his
advice, come east by Inverness, he would no doubt have joined him on the
instant. But the clans having rushed down into the Lowlands, while Sir John
Cope, with the whole regular troops that were in Scotland, came north, added
weight to the lord president’s remonstrances, and for a time neutralized all
who were not previously committed, till the unfortunate affair of Gladamuir
gave a new impulse to their hopes. Sir Alexander Macdonald and Macleod of
Macleod were assured by a special messenger, that their past conduct was not
imputed to any want of zeal for the cause or want of affection to the person
of Charles, who considered their services to be now more useful to him than
ever, and was ready to receive them as his best friends. Lovat had a message
of the same kind, and, sure that now his right master, as he called him,
would prevail, "set himself to forward the marching of his Frasers without
delay. Still he continued his correspondence with the president, and
laboured hard to keep up the farce of loyalty, as did Macleod of Macleod at
the very moment when he was pledging his faith to that arch hypocrite to
send his Macleods to join the Frasers, the Mackintoshes and the Mackensies
at Corryarrack, within a given number of days. Happily for Macleod, he was
greatly under the influence of Sir Alexander Macdonald, whose judgment the
lord president had completely opened upon the subject, and he not only did
not fulfil his engagement with Lovat, but actually raised and headed his men
to fight on the opposite side.
The Frasers, in the mean time, formed a scheme for seizing upon the house of
Culloden, and either killing or making the president a prisoner. The
execution of this plot was intrusted to the laird of Foyers, who made the
attempt on the night of Tuesday, the 15th of October, the day when the clans
were engaged upon honour to assemble at the pass of Corryarrack, for the
purpose of reinforcing the army of Charles at Edinburgh. The president;
however, who, had arms been his profession, would probably have been as
celebrated a soldier as he was a lawyer, knew his situation, and the men he
lived among, better than to suffer himself to be so surprised. The castle
itself was naturally strong; several pieces of cannon were planted upon its
rampart; and it was occupied by a garrison, able and willing to defend it;
so that, leaving behind them one of their number wounded, the assailants
were obliged to content themselves with carrying off some sheep and cattle,
and robbing the gardener and the house of an honest weaver, who, it would
appear, lived under the protection of the president. Like all other
projectors of wicked things which fail in the execution, Lovat seems to have
been very much ashamed of this affair, and he was probably the more so, that
the Macleods, the Macdonalds, &c., who, that same day, were to have joined
his clan at Corryarrack, had not only not kept, their word, but were
actually on the road to take their orders from the president, which
compelled him once more to send, in place of troops, an apology to Charles,
with an abundance of fair promises, in which he was at all times
sufficiently liberal. The president had assured him, that, by killing and
eating his sheep in broad daylight, the men who had made the attack upon his
house were all known, but that if they did no more harm he forgave them;
only he wished they would send back the poor gardener and weaver their
things, and if they sent not back the tenant his cattle, they knew he must
pay for them. Lovat, with well-affected concern, and high eulogiums upon his
lordship’s goodness, declares the actors in this villanous attempt to have
been ruffians without the fear of God or man, and that he has ordered his
son and Gortuleg to send back all the plunder, particularly his lordship’s
sheep, which he was ready to give double value for, rather than that his
lordship should want them, and, in case they should not be found, offered to
divide with him one hundred fat wedders, seeing that he was under greater
obligations to him and his family than all the sheep, oxen cows, and horses,
he ever possessed, were worth; "And I beg, my lord," he adds, "that you may
not be in the least apprehensive that any of those rogues or any in my
country go and disturb your tenants, for I solemnly swore to Gortuleg that,
if any villain or rascal of my country durst presume to hurt or disturb any
of your lordship’s tenants, I would go personally, though carried in a
litter, and see them seized and hanged. So, my dear lord, I beg you may have
no apprehension that any of your tenants will meet with disturbance, so long
as I live in this country; and I hope that my son that represents me will
follow my example, so let monarchies, government, and commonwealths take up
fits of revolutions and wars, for God’s sake, my dear lord, let us live in
good friendship and peace together." It was but a short time when, after the
retreat from England, Charles was met at Glasgow by a messenger from Lovat,
requesting him to send north a party to seize Inverness, and, if possible
secure the lord president, who, he affirmed, had done him more harm than any
man living, having, by his influence, prevented more than ten thousand men
from joining him. Circumstances of another kind than Lovat’s advice or
request brought Charles to Inverness, and the lord president, along with
lord Loudon was under the necessity of taking refuge in the island of Skye,
where he remained till after the battle of Culloden, when he returned to
reap, as many other good men have done, neglect and ingratitude for all his
services. Of these services and of this neglect, the reader will not be
displeased to find the following graphic description from his own pen. It is
a letter to Mr George Ross, then at London, inclosing letters on the same
subject to Mr Pelham, Mr Scroope, and the duke of Newcastle, date,
Inverness, May 13th, 1746.
"Dear George, my peregrinations are now over. Some account of my adventures
you surely have had from different hands; to give an exact one is the work
of more time than I can at present afford. The difficulties I had to
struggle with were many; the issue, on the main, has been favourable; and
upon a strict review, I am satisfied with my own conduct. I neither know nor
care what critics, who have enjoyed ease, in safety, may think. The
commissions for the independent companies I disposed of in the way that, to
me seemed the most frugal and profitable to the public; the use they have
already been of to the public is very great, preventing any accession of
strength to the rebels, before they marched into England, was no small
service; the like prevention, in some degree, and the distraction of their
forces, when the duke was advancing, was of considerable use; and now they
are, by the duke, employed under the command of E. Loudon, in Glengarry, and
must be the hands by which the rebels are to be hunted in their recesses. My
other letter of this date gives the reason why the returns of the officers’
names, &c. was not soonest made. I hope the certificate will be sufficient
to put them upon the establishment, and to procure the issuing of money for
them. The returns of the several companies in the military way E. Loudon
will take care of. What distressed us most in this country, and was the real
cause why the rebels came to head after their flight from Stirling, was the
want of arms and money, which, God knows, had been enough called for and
expected. Had these come in time, we could have armed a force sufficient to
have prevented them looking at us on this side Drumachter. The men were
prepared, several hundreds assembled in their own counties, and some
hundreds actually on the march; but unluckily the ship that brought the few
arms that were sent, and the sum of money that came, did not arrive in our
road sooner than the very day on which the rebels made themselves master of
the barrack of Ruthven. It was then too late to fetch unarmed men from
distances, it was even unsafe to land the arms and the money; so we were
forced to suffer them remain on board and to retreat with the force we had
to preserve them for the further annoyance of the enemy. Another ill
consequence, the scrimping us of money had, was that,—as there were a great
many contingent services absolutely necessary, and as all the money that
could be raised upon lord Loudon’s credit and mine was not sufficient to
answer these extraordinary services,—we were obliged to make free with the
cash remitted for the subsistence of the companies. This at the long run
will come out as broad as it is long when accounts are made up and
allowances made for the contingent expense, but in the meantime it saddles
us with the trouble of settling and passing an account.
"If any one will reflect on the situation I was in, and consider what I had
to do, he will soon be convinced that the expense I laid out could not be
small. So far as I could command money of my own, you will easily believe it
was employed without hesitation; and of that I say nothing at present. But
when the expedient proposed by the marquis of Tweeddale of taking bills to
be drawn on Mr Pelham failed, I had no resource but to take up money where I
could find it, from well disposed persons, on my own proper notes. That
money so picked up was at the time of great service; and now that peace is
restored, the gentlemen with great reason expect to be repaid. You can guess
how ill I like a dun, and I should hope now that the confusions are over,
there can be no great difficulty in procuring me a remittance, or leave to
draw upon Mr Pelham or some other proper person, to the extent of the sum
thus borrowed, which does not exceed one thousand five hundred pounds
sterling. I am heartily tired of this erratic course I have been in, but as
the prevention of any future disturbance, is a matter of great moment, and
which requires much deliberation and some skill, if those on whom it lies to
frame the scheme, for that purpose, imagine I can be of any use to them, I
should not grudge the additional fatigue of another journey; but it is not
improbable their resolutions may be already taken," &c. There is in this
letter an honest feeling, and a frankly expressed conviction of the value of
his services; and though possessed with a prophetic anticipation of their
being latterly to be overlooked, an equally open and straight forwardly
expressed determination to continue them as long as they should be useful to
his country, strongly indicative of that high minded devotion to the best
interests of his species, which peculiarly characterized this great man. At
the same time, there is manifested the most delicate feeling with regard to
the money part of the transaction. What portion, and that was a large one,
had been advanced from his own treasury he makes for the present no account
of; but he pleads in the most gentlemanly manner in behalf of those who had
assisted him at the time, and could scarcely be expected to have the same
disinterested regard to the public service, and the same degree of
philosophic patience. They expect with reason, he remarks, to be paid, and
he interposes in the most delicate manner, his own repugnance to be dunned,
as the most pressing of all arguments in their favour. Surely never was so
small a request, and so exceedingly well founded, so modestly prepared, yet
never perhaps did a reasonable one meet with a more careless reception.
Upwards of a month elapsed before he had an answer from George Ross, with a
bill for five hundred pounds, which perhaps was not for his own use. It has
been generally said that he never received one farthing, and to his generous
spirit, if he received only this small portion, which we dare not affirm he
did, taken in connexion with the manner in which he did receive it, it must
have been nearly, if not more mortifying than if he had not. His grace of
Newcastle took no notice of his letter till he was under the necessity of
writing to him upon another subject, two months afterwards, and then in the
most cold and formal manner imaginable. Of any reply from Pelham and Scroope
we have not found a vestige, and would fondly hope that courtiers as they
were, they had so much grace remaining as to be unable to put pen to paper
upon a business so disgraceful.
To a mind so pure and so gentle as was that of president Forbes, this
ingratitude on the part of the government must have been exceedingly
painful; but we do not believe that it was the only or the principal thing
that weighed down his spirit. To the morality of courts and the gratitude of
courtiers he was in theory at least no stranger, and as a prudent and
practical man, must have been in some measure prepared to grapple with them;
but for the base duplicity and the ingratitude of his friends and neighbours,
many of whom had betrayed his confidence in the grossest manner, he could
scarcely be prepared, and they must have affected him deeply. These, while
they wrung his heart with the most pungent feelings of sorrow, furnished to
the ignorant, the suspicious, and the envious, fruitful topics of detraction
and misrepresentation, against which, he must have been aware, the best
intentions and the most upright actions have too often been found to afford
no protection. The care of the highlands had been imposed upon him for many
years, he had been a father and a friend to almost every principal family
they contained, and with few exceptions, these families had in return made
the strongest professions of loyalty to the government, and of friendship
and affection to himself. This they had done too, with such apparent
sincerity, as induced him to report them perfectly loyal, at the very moment
they were signing associations, purchasing arms, and ready to appear in the
field against the government. How must he have felt to see the very men he
had saved from total destruction, procured them the favourable notice of the
government, and even high and honourable situations, rushing, from mistaken
views of their own or their country’s interests, upon the ruin of both! It
was this, we have no doubt, gave the secret but incurable wound, which,
though he continued to perform the duties of his station with inflexible
firmness, and with imperturbable patience, brought him by slow degrees to an
untimely grave.
Though the lord president continued to discharge his office with his usual
fidelity and diligence, and though be uttered no complaints, it had long
been matter of grief to his friends to observe his health rapidly declining,
and in the month of November, it was judged necessary to send for his son
from England, who arrived only in time to receive his last advice and
blessing. He died on the 10th day of December, 1747, in the sixty-second
year of his age. The same day he died, the following memorandum was made by
his son: "My father entered into the everlasting life of God, trusting,
hoping, and believing through the blood of Christ, eternal life and
happiness. When I first saw my father upon the bed of death, his blessing
and prayer to me was—‘My dear John, you have just come in time to see me
die. May the great God of heaven and earth bless and preserve you! You have
come to a very poor fortune; partly through my own extravagance, and partly
through the oppression of power. I am sure you will forgive me, because what
I did was with a good intention. I know you to be an honest hearted lad.
Andrew Mitchell loves you affectionately; he will advise you, and do what he
can for you. I depend upon Scroope, too, which you may let him know. I will
advise you never to think of coming into parliament. I left some notes with
the two William Forbeses in case I had not seen you. They are two
affectionate lads, and will be able to help you in some affairs better than
you would have done yourself. John Hossack will help you in your affairs in
the north. My heart bleeds for poor John Steel; I recommended him to you.
When I was in the north I paid some considerably large sums that I never
dreamed of before, towards defraying the charges occasioned by the
rebellion. There is but one thing I repent me of in my whole life,—not to
have taken better care of you. May the great God of heaven and earth bless
and preserve you! I trust in the blood of Christ. Be always religious, fear
and love God. You may go, you can be of no service to me here." This shows
how deeply this first of patriots felt the unrequited sacrifices he had made
for his country, though he had never allowed these feelings to interfere
with the discharge of his public duties. His fears were certainly not
without foundation, for his estate, in consequence of the sacrifices he had
made, was encumbered with debts to the amount of thirty thousand pounds
sterling; and for several years after his death, there did not appear to be
any possibility of going on with it, but by selling the one half to preserve
the other. Matters, however, proceeded at Culloden much better than was
expected. In 1749, the government bestowed a pension of four hundred pounds
sterling 6-year upon John Forbes, the lord president’s son, a worthy man,
but possessed of no great talents for public business; and warned by the
example, and profiting by the prudent advice of his father, he spent his
days in retirement, probably with a higher enjoyment of life than if he had
been surrounded with all the splendours of the most exalted station, and in
less than thirty years, had not only cleared his estate of all encumbrances,
but added to it considerably, by the purchase of contiguous lands, and thus,
in his case, were verified the words of inspiration, "The good man is
merciful and lendeth, and his seed is blessed."
Though the signal services of the lord president Forbes were overlooked by
those who ought most highly to have esteemed them, and whose proper province
it was to have rewarded them, they were not lost sight of by his grateful
countrymen, all of whom seem to have regarded his death as a national
calamity. He had been a public character upwards of thirty years, during
which, scarcely one motion had been made for the public benefit but what had
originated with, or had received its most powerful support from him. In the
infant manufactures of his country he took unceasing interest, and his
upright and pure spirit breathed into her tribunals of justice an order and
an equitable impartiality to which they were before total strangers, and
which to this day happily never has forsaken them. Besides the new order of
court, as to the hearing of causes, which he had the merit of introducing,
and which has been already alluded to, he wrought great and happy changes in
the manner of the judges. Before his time, the senators often delivered
their opinions with a warmth that was highly indecorous, detracting greatly
from the dignity of the court and the weight and authority of its decisions:
this, by the candour, the strict integrity, and the nice discernment,
combined, with that admirable command of temper, which marked his character,
he was enabled completely to overcome, and to introduce in its place a
dignified urbanity and a gentlemanly deference among the members of court to
the opinions of each other, which succeeding, lords president have found no
difficulty to sustain.
The following character has been drawn of him by a late historian, with
which we shall conclude this memoir. "In person, the lord president Forbes
was elegant and well formed, his countenance open and animated, his manner
dignified, but easy and prepossessing. His natural talents were of the very
first order, enlarged by an excellent education, completely disciplined and
fully matured by habits of intense study, and of minute, and at the same
time extensive observation; and they were all employed most honourably and
conscientiously in the real business of life. His learning was profound and
extensive, beyond that of his compeers; and, in forcible, manly, and
persuasive eloquence at the Scottish bar, he had no competitor. Yet with all
this vast and visible superiority, he was never dogmatical. His was not the
paltry ambition that could gratify itself by uttering tiny conceits or
sparkling witticisms; nor did he ever, like too many who have shone in his
profession, attempt to dispose of an unmanageable subject by heaping upon it
a mountain of words, or enveloping it in a whirlwind of bombast and
nonsense; every thing like artifice he held in abhorrence; and truth and
justice being at all times the objects he aimed at, the law of kindness was
ever on his lips, and an impress of candour and sincerity gave an oracular
dignity to every sentiment which he uttered. Of the volume of inspiration,
which he could consult with advantage in the original tongues, he was a
diligent student; and that he had experienced its transforming influence in
no mean degree was evident from the tone of his mind, and the whole tenor of
his life and conversation. Like another of Scotland’s most eminent
benefactors, John Knox,—with whom alone, from the magnitude and for the
difficulty of his services, though they were considerably dissimilar, he
deserves to be compared—he probably felt himself called upon rather for
active personal exertion than for those efforts of mind, which can be well
and successfully made only in the seclusion of the closet, and through the
medium of the press; of course his writings are not numerous, but they
exhibit, particularly his Thoughts on Religion; Natural and Revealed, strong
traces of a pure, a pious, and an original mind. In private life he was
every thing that is amiable—as a husband and a father, affectionately
tender—as a friend, generous in the extreme, often distressing himself that
he might fully and seasonably perform the duties implied in the character.
His neighbours he was always ready to oblige; and merit of every description
found in him a prompt, a steady, and a disinterested patron. He was sprung
from a family whose hospitality had been proverbial for ages; and when his
health, which was generally delicate, and his numerous avocations would
permit, few men could enjoy a bottle and a friend with a more exquisite
relish. To be of his party, in these moments of relaxation, was a felicity
eagerly coveted by the greatest and the wittiest men of his age; and to sum
up all in one word, such was the sterling worth of his character, that he
was universally feared by the bad, and as universally loved by the good of
all parties." |
