vehicle that was not in common ufe among the ancients, he confidered as an engine of effeminacy and floth, which it was difgraceful for a man to make ufe of in travelling. To be dragged at the tail of a horfe, inftead of mounting upon his back, feemed, in his eyes, to be a truly ludicrous degradation of the genuine dignity of human nature. In all his journies, therefore, between Edinburgh and London, he was wont to ride on horfeback, with a fingle fervant attending him. He continued this practice, without finding it too fatiguing for his ftrength, till he was upwards of eighty years of age. Within these few years, on his return from a laft vifit, which he made on purpose to take leave, before his death, of all his old friends in London, he became exceedingly ill upon the road, and was unable to proceed; and had he not been overtaken by a Scotch friend, who prevailed upon him to travel the remainder of the way in a carriage, he might, perhaps, have actually perished by the way fide, or breathed his laft in fome dirty inn. Since that time, he has not again attempted an equestrian journey to London.

In London, his vifits were exceedingly acceptable to all his friends, whether of the literary or fashionable world. He delighted to fhew himself at Court; and the King is faid to have taken a pleasure in converfing with the old man with a distinguishing notice that could not but be very flattering to him. He used to mingle, with great fatisfaction, with the learn. ed and the ingenious, at the houfe of Mrs Montague. However, after the death of his friend, Mr Harris, he found a very fenfible diminution of the pleasure he had been wont to enjoy in the fociety of London.

A conftitution of body, naturally framed to wear well and laft long, was ftrengthened to Lord Monboddo by exercife, guarded by temperance, and by a tenor of mind too firm to

be deeply broken in upon by those paflions which confume the principles of life. In the country he has always used much the exercises of walking in the open air, and of riding. The cold bath was a means of preserving the health, to which he had recourfe in all feasons, amid every feverity of the weather, under every inconvenience of indifpofition or business, with a perfeverance invincible. He has been accustomed, alike in winter and in fummer, to rife at a very early hour in the morning, and, without lofs of time, to betake himself to ftudy or wholefome exercife. It is faid, that he has even found the ufe of what he called the air bath, or the practice of occafionally walking about, for fome minutes, naked, in a room filled with fresh and cool air, to be highly falutary.

His eldest daughter became, many years fince, the wife of Kirkpatrick Williamfon, Efq. a Gentleman who holds a refpectable office in the Court of Seffion, and is univerfally beloved and efteemed. His fecond daughter, in perfonal lovelinefs one of the finest women of the age, was beheld in every public place with general admiration, and was fought in marriage by many fuiters. Her mind was endowed with all her father's benevolence of temper, and with all his tafte for elegant literature, without any portion of his whim and caprice. It was her chief delight to be the nurse and the companion of his declining age.

It is fhe who is elegantly praifed. in one of the papers of the Mirror, as rejecting the moft flattering and advantageous opportunities of fettlement in marriage, that the might amuse a father's loneliness, nurse the fickly infirmity of his age and cheer him with all the tender cares of filial affection and felf-denial. Her prefence contributed to draw around him, in his houfe, and at his table, all that was truly refpectable among the youth of his country. She mingled in the

world

world of fashion, without fharing its follies; and heard thofe flatteries which are there addreffed to youth and beauty, without being betrayed to that light and telfifh vanity which is often the only fentiment that fills the heart of the high-praised beauty. She delighted in reading, in literary converfation, in poetry, and in the fine arts, without contracting, from this taste, any of that pedantic selfconceit and affectation which ufually characterize literary ladies, and whofe prefence often frightens away the domeftic virtues, the graces, the delicaeies, and all the more interefting charms of the fex. When Burns, the well-known Scottish poet, first arrived from the plough in Ayrshire to pub lih his poems in Edinburgh, there was none by whom he was more zealously patronized than by Lord Monboddo and his lovely daughter. No man's feelings were ever more powerfully or exquifitely alive than thofe of the ruftic bard, to the emotions of gratitude, or to the admiration of the good and fair. In a poem which he at that time wrote, as a panegyrical addrefs to Edinburgh, he took occafion to celebrate the beauty and excellence of Mifs Burnet, in, perhaps,

the fineft ftanza of the whole :

"Fair Burnet ftrikes th' adoring eye; "Heav'n's beauties on my fancy fhine, "I See the Sire of Love on high,

"And own his work, indeed, divine 2

She was the ornament of the ele

gant fociety of the city in which she comfort of his domeftic life in his de refided, her father's pride, and the clining years. Every amiable and every noble fentiment was familiar to her heart, every female virtue was exemplified in her life. Yet, this woman, thus lovely, thus elegant, thus wife and virtuous, whofe life, for the confolation of her father, fhould have

been prolonged till fhe had clofed his dying eyes in peace; who, for a bleffing to fociety, fhould have been fpared till he had fet the same example in the difcharge of the duties

of a wife and mother which he had

exhibited in performing thofe of a daughter:-this woman was cut off in father bereft of the laft tender tie the flower of her age, and left her which bound him to fociety and to life. She died about fix years fince, of a confumption; a difeafe that in loveliest and most promifing among Scotland proves too often fatal to the the fair and the young. Neither his of the feelings of extreme old age, philofophy, nor the neceffary torpor were capable of preventing Lord affected by fo grievous a lofs; and Monboddo from being very deeply from that time he began to droop exceedingly in his health and fpirits.

as the fingular preface prefixed thereto, has ever created fome doubts a

bout

terwards multiplied by a furreptitious one, which one of his amanuen. fes, Mr Brown, communicated to Sir Andrew Kennedy's eldeft fon, who, upon the quite contrary view to the defign of the original author, fold or gave other copies to other Noblemen and others, particularly to the Earl of Oxford. From one of these copies the Book was printed and pub. lished in London, immediately upon King George's acceffion to the throne; and because these Memoirs feverally reflect on the Scotch Whigs, called here Squadroni-Men, or fuch as made the Union, they all agree to father them upon Mr Lockhart, who oppofed that tranfaction more ftoutly and more violently than any other. The Editor of the Memoirs, in the Introduction he has prefixed to them, seems to embrace that opinion: but those who are well acquainted with that Gentleman, think him moft unfit for a work of fo nice a nature: both because he is a young man (not much above thirty), and confequently cannot relate, upon his own knowledge, matters that were tranfacted when he was a youth, and because he wants those advantages of education that qualify a man to be an author; being altogether ignorant of the Latin and polite modern languages; and fpeaking but indifferent English. Upon this confideration, fome are apt to believe, that Mr Lockhart collected the materials of these Memoirs, and that he afterwards caufed them to be digefted into form by his chaplain, Mr Gullen: but men of the best fenfe judge them to be the production of a Club, of whom Mr Dowgal Stewart of Blairhal, brother to the Earl Bute and a Lord of the Seffion deceased, was the Chief; and that he was affifted by Mr Lockhart, his chaplain Mr Gulen, Mr Houftoun, Mr Dundafs of Arnistoun, and fome others. If I can make a further discovery, I fhall forthwith communicate it to

you; and readily embrace all opportunities that may fall within my small fphere, to advance the reputation of your ufeful and entertaining Journal. 'I am, &c.'

"To this letter I fhall only add, that the Memoirs mentioned in it, and faid to be written by the Earl of Balcarras, were, about the beginning of this month, likewife publifhed by Mr Baker, with this title, An Ac count of the Affairs of Scotland, relating to the Revolution in 1688, as fent to the late King James II. whẹn in France, by the Right Honourable the Earl of B--,' &c. Both thefe and the other Memoirs, fa thered upon Mr Lockhart, contain a full account of Scotch affairs from the Revolution in 1688, to the difappointment of the Pretender's Invafion in 1708; and are so far entertaining and ufeful, both to the English and foreigners, as they contain bold, lively pictures and characters of the most confiderable perfons in Scotland, written by Scotchmen themfelves. How the latter can juftify to their own confciences the befpattering fo many men of honour, and the laying fuch a load of infamy on their own country, let themselves deter-' mine: I fhall only here take notice of two or three remarkable paffages in the Earl of Balcarras's Memoirs. The firft is page 108, 109, and 110, as follows: Next day (fays the Author) after the fight, an officer riding by the place where my Lord Dundee fell, found lying there a bundle of papers and commiffions which he had about him. Thofe who ftripped him thought them but of fmall concern, that they left them there lying. This officer, a little after fhewed them to feveral of your friends (meaning King James's, to whom thefe Memoirs are addreffed), among which there was one paper did no fmall prejudice to your affairs; and would have done much more,

had

*

their returning to their duty, but faid nothing of the inftructions, commiffions, and pernicious advices he had fent along, believing (as undoubtedly) it would have hindered us from joining with them, for by this we fhould have clearly feen it was only trying to make a better bargain for themselves, made them change parties, and not out of any fentiments of conviction, for having done amifs: but though it was very evident to us what disorders we would make among our enemies, and what profit to your party by going into the Parliament, yet to join with our mortal enemies, only to make the one half ruin the other; and to take the Oath of Allegiance to an Ufurper; and to comply with them in things that had always been against our principles, were fo hard to get over, that fome of us had greater difficulties to overcome them; nor even could any have done it, but the great defire we had to be inftruments of your Majefty's Refloration, and Ruin of your Enemies.' This, without any further comment, plainly fhews, that the Scotch Jacobites would stick at nothing that is bafe and infamous ? for what can be more fo than the breaking of folemn oaths?

had it not been carefully fuppreft. It was a letter of the Earl of Melfort's to my Lord Dundee, when he fent over your Majefty's Declaration, in which was contained not only an Indemnity, but a Tolerance, for all perfuafions. This the Earl of Melfort believed would be checking to Dundee, confidering his great hatred to fanaticks, for he writes, That, not withstanding of what was promifed in your Declaration, Indemnity and Indulgence, yet he had couched things fo, that you would break them when you pleased, nor would you think yourfelf obliged to ftand to them. This not only diffatisfied him, but also many of your friends, who thought a more ingenuous way of dealing better both for your honour and intereft which fhews how much the Declarations of injured Princes to their fubjects are to be depended upon.' The fecond paffage (page 119) acquaints us, That the Prince of Orange (fo the Author calls the late King William III.) was fo weary of the Scots, that he told Duke Hamilton, that he was fo much troubled about their debates, that he wished he were a thoufand miles from England, and that he were never King of it.' But here either the Author, or the tranfcribers of his manufcript, committed a miftake; for King William's faying was, 'That he wifhed Scotland were a thousand miles from England, and that Duke Hamilton were King of it.' The third paffage I fhall quote, is this (page 129, 130.): Sir James Montgomery, in the firft meeting we had with him, laid out the great advantages your intereft could obtain, if this fucceeded (viz. the Jacobites joining with the Williamites, in order to break the army.) The ftrength of his own party, and all the influence he had over them. He told us likewife of their fending a meffenger to your Majesty, with affurances of

F

Thefe memoirs, a few years after,

were