MEMOIR OF SIR JAMES DALRYMPLE. 1 *

Tars is a very elaborate monograph, having special interest and value for the Scotch lawyer and the minute student of Scotch history, but, through want of first-rate political prominence of the subject and abstruseness of the legal parts of the work, and absence, it must be added, of graces of style, not likely to be very attractive to the general reader. Laborious accuracy and exhaus- tiveness of detail are too often incompatible with a flowing, agreeable style. Lord Macaulay's eloquence would frequently break down under all the involutions and qualifications necessary for a perfectly accurate character or complete statement. Except in some very strong well-known instances of de- cided, but not deliberate, perversion, we are, on the whole, surprised by the generally accurate results of Lord Macaulay's rapid intuitions and striking generalisations. He did not want laboriousness, and he was a man of conscience ; but his imagination was too strong for him. We cannot agree in Mr. Mackay's strong condemnation of Lord Macaulay's estimate of Lord Stair. It is not without fault or error ; there is over-coloured censure, and the effect is heightened against Stair by some rhetorical flourishes and imaginative touches. But we doubt if there is much substantial injustice in the character. Lord Macaulay's idea of him as a politician is that, without being dis- honest, he was cold, cautious, canny, and careful of his worldly fortunes, that his religiousness did not exclude worldly wisdom, and that he was a man who could content himself with not par- ticipating in misgovernment and cruelty, while without zeal to remonstrate and resist in scorn of consequence. There are touches in Lord Macaulay's character as to which we are quite willing to believe Mr. Mackay that there is no proof, as, for instance, when Lord Macaulay states that Stair was regarded with suspicion by his fellow-exiles in Holland, or again, when he insinuates a mask of piety in the . words, "he made a high profession of religion, prayed much, and observed weekly days of fasting and humiliation." Stair, there is no doubt, was a rigid and sincere Presbyterian, but he was also a knowing, worldly man. Mr. Mackay candidly suggests that the praises of Stair's piety by Presbyterian and Nonconformist divines may have been overcharged, because, " notwithstanding their democratic Church policy, they have sometimes a liking for pious rank." We are bound to say that Mr. Mackay shows much fairness of disposition.

* Memoir of Sir James Dalmnnye, First Viscount Stair. By 1E. J. Cl. Mackay. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas. 1873.

He is not altogether free from signs (and what biographer is?) of the biographer-disease. But he is, on the whole, fair, and evi- dently always desires to be so. He has lost his temper when he accuses Lord Macaulay of " selecting from every quarter the blackest colours to paint the character of Stair." It would not be supposed, on such a statement, that the brilliant, if not always accurate historian, bad spoken of Stair as " the greatest of Scottish jurists," and as having " presided with unrivalled ability in the Court of Session." The worst that Lord Macaulay says of him is that he " did not, as far as we can now judge, fall short of that very low standard of morality which was generally attained by politicians of his age and nation ; in force of mind and extent of knowledge he was superior to them all." The history of Scotland, during the period in which Stair figured, is indeed a heart- sickening series of local contentions, personal rivalries, and mis- government differing in different hands only in degree.

James Dalrymple, the future Viscount Stair, was born in Ayr- shire in May, 1619, where his father was laird of a small inherited estate, Stair, which in due time descended to James, the only son. He passed a distinguished course at Glasgow, and was first on the list of graduates of Arts in 1637. In 1639, when the Scotch Covenanters went to war with Charles the First, James Dal- rymple commanded a troop on the side of the Covenant. He continued to serve as a soldier till the beginning of 1641. In this year he -was elected a Regent in Glasgow University, and he appeared as a candidate at the competitive examination for this office dressed in buff and scarlet, his uniform as captain. He now taught philosophy and logic, and he held this professorial office till the end of 1647. Forty years after, when an exile in Holland, he published a remarkable philosophical treatise, the Physiologia Nova Experimentalis, which procured the praise of Bayle, and showed how neither cares of politics, nor legal and judicial labours, had prevented his vigorous mind from sedulous pursuit of the philosophical studies of his younger life.

In 1643 he had married a lady who brought him an estate of £500 a year, and so made him independent of his office of Regent. Margaret Ross was her name; she was a woman of remarkable character and ability, and was regarded in those benighted days of Scotland as a witch, and tales of her witchcraft abounded among her husband's many and virulent enemies. Mr. Mackay can find no fault with Lord Macaulay's allusion to this painful subject :—" His wife, a woman of great ability, art, and spirit, was popularly nick-named the Witch of Endor. It was gravely said that she had cast fearful spells on those whom she hated, and that she had been seen in the likeness of a cat seated on the cloth of State by the side of the Lord High Commissioner." An awful spell was thought to lie on James Dairymple's house, and many calamities which befel his children were regarded as proofs of his wife's diabolical agencies. A sad tragedy, still enveloped in mystery, befell a daughter, Janet, on her marriage in 1669. Scott wove many traditions into a story little likely to be accurate in the Bride of Lammermoor. What is certain is that there was a violent scene in the bridal chamber on the night after the marriage, and that the bride died soon after. Lord Macaulay says that the bride " had poniarded her bridegroom on the wedding night." Mr. Mackay is not justified in representing this statement as a suggestion that the lady had murdered her husband. There is no doubt that he lived long after ; he might have been wounded with a poniard. Other stories represent the bridegroom as having inflicted terrible wounds on her. Mr. Mackay's industry has not succeeded in unravelling the horrible mystery. Bishop Burnet in a sensational passage has related all the calamities of Stair's family :—

" This family has risen the" fastest, and yet has had the greatest misfortunes of any in Scotland. His eldest son, the Viscount [query Master] of Stair, rode over a child, and dashed out its brains ; and he had two sons, who, in their play, found and charged a pistol, with which the one shot the other dead. Another of the President's sons, being in a fever, snatched at somewhat that lay by him, and swallowed it down, which proved to be cantharides, intended for a viscatory plaster, with which he was ulcerated all within, and died in extreme misery ; another of his sons, in a fit, fell into the fire, which burnt out half his face. His daughters have had extraordinary fits, in which they have jumped over high walla ; and one of them died in an odd manner."

This last was Janet, whose marriage-tragedy is variously told. Another daughter, Sarah, married to Lord Crichton, eldest son of the Earl of Dumfries, was thought to have an evil spirit which gave her power to leap over walls:—

" Who without wings can with her rumple flye, No midding foull did ever mount so high; Can skip o'er mountains, over steeples soars, A way to petticoats ne'er known before."

These lines are from a satire by Sir William Hamilton, of

Whitelaw, afterwards a judge, and a disreputable one, and a rival of Sir Hugh Dalrymple, Stair's grandson, for the office of Presi- dent of the Court of Session, on Stair's death. It is true that Stair's grandson, John, the future Field-Marshal, shot his elder brother by accident, when they were boys. Mr. Mackay can tell us nothing about Burnet's other stories ; he confines himself to saying that " there may or may not have been some foundation in fact." James Dalrymple, Viscount Stair, was, it is clear, sorely tried in his family. But these misfortunes were very amply compensated by the prosperity of his five sons who survived him, and many of their descendants. The eldest son, called Master of Stair during his father's lifetime, was made an Earl in 1703 ; but there was a stain on his name, not to be effaced by rank, through his chief part in the massacre of Glencoe. This Earl's eldest son, the second Earl, was a military associate of Marlborough, a distinguished Field-Marsha], and distinguished also as an Ambassador to France. A great-grandson of Viscount Stair, descending from his fifth son, was Sir David Dalrymple, Lord Hailes ; and a great-great-grandson, descending from his second son, was Sir John Dalrymple, the historian.

James Dalrymple's marriage in 1643 with the lady who passed for a witch diverted us from the straight course of his biography. He gave up his Regency in Glasgow University at the close of 1647, and was admitted an advocate in February, 1648. He was now close upon twenty-nine. He became an active politician, and was sent as secretary to the Commission of the Scotch Parlia- ment sent to Charles II. at the Hague in March, 1649, to invite him over to Scotland as proclaimed King. The King would not then accept the Scotch Parliament's terms. In March, 1650, Dalrymple went again as secretary to a second Commission sent on like errand to Charles at Breda ; and Charles now came over, and subscribed the Covenant. In 1657, Dalrymple was made a judge by Cromwell, on the strong recommendation of Monk, who described him as " a person fit to be a judge, being a very honest man, a good lawyer, and one of considerable estate. There is scarce a Scotchman or Englishman who bath been much in Scot- land but knows him, of whom your Highness may inquire further

concerning him." He had thus made his mark in nine years after he was admitted advocate. Monk had much consulted Dalrymple in political affairs. With Monk's favour, and his own reputation as a lawyer and a politician, it is not surprising that after the Restoration Dalrymple was continued as a judge. But he refused to sign the declaration against the Covenant, and forfeited his office ; the King sent for him, and permitted him to sign

with a qualification, which proved the eagerness of the King's advisers to retain him, and satisfied an easy and elastic conscience. Dalrymple's great abilities secured him the favour of Lauderdale, the Scotch Secretary, and one of the most abandoned of the bad statesmen of that age. He was made a Baronet in 1664. In 1670 he was appointed one of the Scotch Commissioners to confer with English Commissioners for a Union of England and Scotland ; the Commission came to no conclusion. In the next year he was made President of the Court of Session and a Privy Councillor ; he held the high post of President for ten years. In 1681 he was superseded by the Duke of York. In retirement at Carscreoch, a country seat in Galloway, and at Stair, his patrimonial estate, he now produced his great judicial work, the Institutions of the Laws of Scotland; but Claverhouse made Scotland too hot for him, and in fear he fled to Holland, near the end of 1682. He took up his residence at Leyden, and here he remained till the Revolution of 1688, when he accompanied William to England. He was William's chief counsellor in Scotch affairs, remaining for a time in London ; while his son, the Master of Stair, a very able lawyer and politician, was made Lord Advocate. He was soon restored

to his old post as President of the Court of Session. He was made a Viscount of. the United-Kingdom in 1690. In the following year his son became Secretary of State for Scotland, superseding Lord Melville. We quote here a favourable specimen of Mr. Mackay's writing :— " Stair had now reached the summit of his prosperity. He was tasting with the intense pleasure which only a restored exile feels the sweets of home. He saw the triumph of the principles for which he had suffered. The friend of the King, he himself held the highest judicial, and his eldest son the highest political, office in his native country. His other sons were provided for in the public service, and had proved themselves worthy of the offices they hold. His grandson, whose education he had watched, was already beginning to display the talents which were to add a new lustre to the name of Stair. Though he had many enemies, he might view their attacks with unconcern, for they were the fruit of malevolence and disappointed ambition. He might reasonably look forward to some years of useful activity, and then to quit the scene of his labours with a name posterity would hold in honour.

"'But human promise, 0 how short of shine! How topple down the crags of hope we rear!'

His closing years were destined to be clouded bjf a severe private sorrow, —the death of his wife ; and by the great crime which sullied the fame of William, disgraced the Master of Stair, and has cast a shade over his own character,—the Massacre of Glencoe."

Viscount Stair died on November 25, 1695. The Royal Com- mission for inquiry into the Glencoe crime had made its report a few months before, severely condemning his son. He was in his seventy-seventh year when he died. The terrible grief at the in- criminations of his son told on his aged frame. We believe that Lord Macaulay has, on the whole, judged fairly Stair's character. An acute, vigorous, and philosophical mind was not attended by a moral character of great altitude. Bishop Burnet describes him as " a man of great temper, and of a very mild deportment, but a false and cunning man." A laudatory notice of him by Sir George Mackenzie, a judicial colleague, and servile, unscrupulous politician, quite tallies with Burnet's and Macaulay's estimates : —"And really Stair was a gentleman of an equal wit and universal learning, but most remarkable from being so free from passion that most men thought this equality of spirit a mere hypo- crisy in him. This meekness fitted him extremely to be a president,. for he thereby received calmly all men's information, and by it he was capable to hear without disorder or confusion what the advo- cates represented ; but that which I admired most in him was that in ten years' intimacy I never heard him speak unkindly of those who had injured him." Stair had abundant self-command.

We part from Mr. Mackay with much respect for diligence and fairness. We can conceive the fascination of this subject for a Scotch advocate. Mr. Mackay has relied on a statement of Burnet that after the Restoration the original Covenant could not found (p. 70, note). Mrs. Everett Green has calendared a letter of William Ryley; Clerk of the Records, of September 7, 1660, saying that "he was highly commended by Lord New- burgh, Sir John Robinson, and Lord Middleton, for finding the Covenant ; they say it shall be burned by the hangman. Told them that Lord Lauderdale was displeased ; they said it mattered not if it were hanged about his neck, if he favoured it." Mr. Mackay states, not mentioning his authority, but doubtless correctly, that eighty-five hogsheads of the Scotch registers were lost on their way to Scotland by the shipwreck of the vessel in which they were despatched. It may interest him to know, from other letters of Ryley, calendared by Mrs. Everett Green, that there were found in a warehouse in St. Katharine's 107 hogs- heads, 12 chests, 5 trunks, and 4 barrels of registers, books, warrants, &c., Records of Scotland, which were delivered exempt from all fees to John Young, deputed to receive them by Sir Archibald Primrose, Registrar of Scotland (Mrs. Everett Green's State Papers, Domestic Series, 1660-1, pp. 260, 402, 419).