esteemed by historical students. He was gifted with the critical faculty in a high degree, and the power of discriminating and estimating historical evidence. Lord Hailes was also the author of a number of legal and antiquarian treatises; of the Remains of Christian Antiquity, containing translations from the Fathers, etc., and of An Inquiry into the secondary causes assigned by Gibbon for the rapid spread of Christianity.

Dr. Adam Ferguson's Essay on the History of Civil Society appeared in 1766, and his History of the Progress and Termination of the Roman Republic in 1783. In the first named work, he introduced the method of studying mankind in groups, and of tracing the gradual progress of entire societies, or what is now called the science of sociology. As already stated, Ferguson's views of the progress of mankind and the gradual growth of social institutions, approached nearer to the modern conception of the historical development of the human race than those of any of his predecessors. In his History of the Roman Republic he showed much careful research, skilful arrangement, and just philosophical reflections. But his style, though exceedingly clear and vigorous, is rather compressed and sententious.

Dr. William Russell 7 was a native of Selkirkshire, and raised himself to literary distinction in the midst of many difficulties. He was the author of a useful History of Modern Europe, of which the first two volumes appeared in 1779, and three others in 1784, bringing it down to 1763. This history was long popular, and continuations have been made to it by Dr. Coote and others.

8

Dr. Robert Watson, professor of rhetoric in the University of St. Andrews, is the author of a History of Philip II. of Spain, which was published in 1776, and was intended as a continuation of Robertson's History of Charles V. He also left unfinished a History of Philip III., which was completed by Dr. Thomson, and published in 1783.

Dr. John Gillies, historiographer for Scotland to His Majesty George III., wrote The History of Ancient Greece, its Colonies and Conquests, which appeared in 1784. It is a work which exhibits historic ability and research. The sixth edition of it was issued in four volumes in 1820. He was the author also of a View of the Reign of Frederic II. of Prussia; a History of the World from the Reign of Alex

7 Born in 1741; died 1793.

9 Born in 1747; died 1836.

8 Born in 1730; died 1780.

ander to Augustus, which was published in 1807-10; and produced English Translations of Aristotle's Ethics, Politics, and Rhetoric.

To his translation of the Rhetoric he prefixed a long introduction in which, after showing its importance as a work of taste and criticism, and its connection with Aristotle's other writings, he opened an attack on modern philosophy in general, and on the Scottish School in particular. He animadverts adversely on the views of Adam Smith, Reid, Lord Kames, and especially on the writings of Dugald Stewart. Their views he maintained were all wrong, while those of the mighty Stagirite were alone right.

George Chalmers, 10 a native of Fochabers, in Morayshire, is the author of a number of works on various subjects. His History of the United Colonies, from the Settlement to the Peace of 1763, appeared in 1780; among his other writings may be mentioned, a Life of Sir David Lindsay, with an edition of his works, and a Life of Mary Queen of Scots drawn from the State Papers. But his greatest work is Caledonia, the first volume of which was published in 1807; other two large volumes were issued in his lifetime, but it was left unfinished. This work contains a mass of minute antiquarian details of the early periods of Scottish history, together with topographical and historical accounts of the different counties; it embodies a vast collection of facts and incidents of much value, but there is little method in it, and his style is not attractive. A new edition of it has recently been published by Mr. Gardner, which includes a large quantity of MS. prepared by Chalmers, but left unprinted when he died, thus completing the work as far as possible.

Malcolm Laing 11 is the author of a History of Scotland. He was educated for the Scottish bar, and passed advocate in 1785. In 1800

10 Born 1742; died 1825.

11 Born in 1762; died 1818. There are other historical writers of more or less note, a few of whom I can only briefly mention. Ruddiman, the eminent Latin grammarian, edited an edition of Buchanan's History of Scotland, and published several historical memoirs. Dr. Alexander Adam, rector of the High School of Edinburgh, is the author of Roman Antiquities and A Summary of Geography and History, etc. John Pinkerton was a native of Edinburgh, born in 1758, and died at Paris in 1825. He distinguished himself by the vehement controversial tone of his historical writings, and by the obstinacy of his unreasoned notions; still, he was an industrious collector of forgotten fragments of ancient history.

His first historical effort was a Dissertation on the Origin of the Goths, in which he enounced the strange theory which he maintained to the end of his days, namely, that the Celts of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland are savages, and

his History of Scotland, from the Union of the Crowns in 1603 to the Union of the Kingdoms in 1707, was published. It is an able work, and of very high historical value. He possessed analytic and critical powers which enabled him to estimate evidence at its value; and notwithstanding his strong Whig opinions, and his love of liberty, his historical integrity is unimpeachable. But he attacked Macpherson, the translator of Ossian, with unmerciful severity. Though a clear and vigorous thinker, he was not a great master of historic style.

SECTION II.

Historical Literature of the Nineteenth Century.

The nineteenth century has been remarkable for an increasing interest in all departments of historical literature; for more thorough research, critical examination of evidence, more exhaustive treatment, and withal a perceptible broadening and deepening of historic conceptions. The methods of investigating historical subjects, and social phenomena, have undergone a marked change within the present century; and, as a consequence, the opinions and the convictions of the people have also been greatly modified.

Dr. Thomas M'Crie 12 is best known as the author of the Life of John Knox, and the Life of Andrew Melville. The first appeared in 1813, and has passed through many editions; the second has not been so popular, though it is an able work. He also wrote Memoirs of Veitch and Brysson, two Scottish ministers and supporters of the Covenant. He composed able and valuable Histories of the Reformation in Italy and in Spain, and various other sketches and papers. Dr. M'Crie was gifted with a vigorous intellect, and all his writings display much varied and careful research, and a masterly literary

have been savages since the world began. He next produced an Inquiry into the History of Scotland preceding the Reign of Malcolm III., in which he argued at great length on the history of the Goths, and the conquests which he asserts they achieved over the Celts in their progress through Europe. In 1796, he issued a History of Scotland during the Reign of the Stuarts, the most valuable of all his works. He also edited, but very indifferently, a series of Ancient Lives of Scottish Saints under the title Vita Antique Sanctorum Scotia, a revised and enlarged edition of which has recently been issued.

Born 1772; died 1835.

ability. His style is clear, animated, and easy; and his works are highly esteemed by all students of history.

Mr. James Mill attained distinction as a historian as well as a philosopher and a political writer; he was a man of great intellectual power. 13 His History of British India, which was begun in 1806, was published in 1817-18, in five volumes, and is probably the ablest work on our Indian Empire which has yet appeared. His analytic powers and grasp of principles enabled him to master social phenomena, which less gifted minds fail to see or to seize.

John Dunlop, Esq., a Scottish advocate and sheriff of Renfrewshire, wrote a History of Fiction, which appeared in 1814, in three volumes. It is a work of much merit and value. He also wrote a History of Roman Literature, from the earliest period to the close of the Augustan age, in three volumes. His latest work was Memoirs of Spain during the Reigns of Philip IV. and Charles II., which was published in 1834, in two volumes. He died in 1842.

Patrick F. Tytler 14 was the author of a History of Scotland, and other works-chiefly of a biographical character. His History of Scotland embraces the period from the accession of Alexander III. to the union of the Crowns of England and Scotland in 1603. The first volume was published in 1828, and the others followed at intervals till the work was completed in nine volumes. It is a work of high historical value. His pages evince the results of much original research and great industry. Many documents and State papers were printed for the first time in the appendices to the volumes. His style is plain and animated, but somewhat diffuse and redundant.

Sir Archibald Alison was a son of the Rev. Archibald Alison, as already incidentally mentioned, and was born in 1792. He was educated in Edinburgh, studied law, and was called to the Scottish bar in 1814. He was appointed sheriff of Lanarkshire in 1832, and was created a baronet in 1852. The idea of his History of Europe was conceived when on a visit to Paris in the eventful year of 1814; and henceforth he devoted much research and study to its preparation.

13 An excellent account of his life and writings, by Dr. Bain, has been published.

14 Tytler belonged to the family of Woodhouselee, whom I have already mentioned in a preceding section. In the latter years of his life he enjoyed a pension of £200 per annum. He died in December, 1849; and an interesting account of his life has been published by the Rev. John Burgon, M.A., in 1859.

The work covers the period from the commencement of the French Revolution in 1789 to the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815. Its first instalment appeared in 1833, and the concluding volumes in 1844. It has since gone through nine or ten editions. It contains a vast store of facts and details relating to a very important and memorable period of modern history. In the later years of his active life, he produced a continuation of his History to the accession of Louis Napoleon in 1852, in eight volumes, which appeared at intervals from 1852 to 1859. But the continuation is not equal in accuracy and merit to the earlier history, and some of his peculiar opinions are pushed to greater extremes. In politics he was a firm Conservative, and a strong opponent of Free Trade. Sir Archibald died in May, 1867.

Alison's History of Europe, as might be expected in so wide and great a subject, has merits and defects. His exertions in personal observation of many of the localities of the events and scenes which he described, his industry in collecting available materials, and his patient and careful researches, are great merits, which imparted a freshness to his narrative and an animation to his descriptions rarely met with in any history. His mastery of method and arrangement was also creditable; but on the other hand, his style has often been severely animadverted on-he has been charged with verbosity and excessive pomp, with being careless, turgid, and obscure. On the whole, the work has been exceedingly popular, it has been translated into all European languages; this, however, may be partly accounted for by the intensely absorbing interest of the period and the events of which it treats. Although Alison cannot be called a great historian, still he has produced an interesting work.

Thomas Carlyle was a noted man of genius and a voluminous writer. He was a son of a farmer, and born on the 4th of December, 1795, at the village of Ecclefechan, in Annandale, a beautiful pastoral district, rich in Border traditions, old castles, and historic associations. He was educated at the Grammar School of Annan, and the University of Edinburgh. At the University he was distinguished in mathematics, and subsequently he acted as teacher of mathematics in Annan, and afterwards in Kirkcaldy. In 1818 he went to Edinburgh, where he had the use of the University Library, and he then wrote a number of short biographies and other articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopædia. He wrote a Life of Schiller, and also commenced to translate German works. In 1824 he translated