and intricate matters to the bottom was well known, and his manner of expression, elegant and concise, was admirably suited to the chair of authority. That his legal opinions had always been found to be sound, was also generally believed; yet it has been candidly admitted, that he was, as a judge, neither so useful nor so highly venerated as the extent of his knowledge and his unquestioned integrity led his friends to expect. The same minute attention to forms, which had in some degree impeded his progress at the bar, accompanied him to the bench, and excited sometimes the merriment of lighter minds. It is to be noticed, however, that too little regard has been, on some occasions, in the very venerable court of session, paid to forms ; and that forms, apparently trifling, have seldom, in legal proceedings, been disregarded, without in some degree
affecting the interests of truth and justice. It has also been remarked, that such was the opinion which the other judges entertained of the accuracy, diligence, and dignified character of lord Hailes, that, in the absence of the lord president,
he was almost always placed in the chair. After having acted as a lord of session for ten years, lord Hailes was, in the year 1776, nominated one of the lords of justiciary, in which capacity he commanded the respect of all men. Fully impressed with a sense of the importance of his office in the criminal court, all his singularities seemed to forsake him. Before the time of Hailes, it had been too much the case in the Scottish criminal courts, for the judge to throw all the weight of his influence into the scale of the crown. Lord Hailes, imitating the judges of England, threw his into the scale of the prisoner, especially when the king's counsel seemed to be overpowering, or when there was any particular intricacy in the case. It is to be regretted, that, in almost all of our courts of justice, oaths are administered in a manner highly indecorous, tending rather to derogate from the importance of that most solemn act. In this respect, lord Hailes was the very model of perfection. Rising slowly from his seat, with a gravity peculiarly his own, he pronounced the words in a manner so serious as to impress the most profligate mind with the conviction that he was himself awed with the immediate presence of that awful Majesty, to
whom the appeal was made. When the witness was young, or appeared to be ignorant, his lordship was careful, before putting the oath, to point out its nature and obligations in a manner the most perspicuous and affecting. It is perhaps impossible for human vigilance or sagacity, altogether to prevent perjury in courts of justice j but he was a villain of no common order, that could perjure himself in the presence of lord Hailes. In all doubtful cases it was his lordship's invariable practice, to lean to the side of mercy; and when it became his painful duty to pass sentence of death upon convicted criminals, he did so in a strain so pious and so pathetic, as often to overwhelm in a flood of tears the promiscuous multitudes that are wont to be assembled on such occasions. In the discharge of this painful part of his duty, lord Hailes may have been equalled, but he was certainly, in this country at least, never surpassed.
While lord Hailes was thus diligent in the discharge of the public duties of his high place, he was, in those hours which most men find it necessary to devote to rest and recreation, producing works upon all manner of subjects, exceeding in number, and surpassing in value, those of many men whose lives have been wholly devoted to literature. Of these, as they are in few hands, though some of them at least are exceedingly curious and highly interesting, we shall present the reader with such notices as our limits will permit, in the order in which they were published. His first work seems to have been Sacred Poems, a Collection of Translations and Paraphrases from the Holy Scriptures, by various authors, Edinburgh, 1751, 12mo, dedicated to Charles, lord Hope, with a preface of ten pages. The next was, The Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus, the son
