Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/272

566 subjection to the powers above them, there never, perhaps, was a heart more alive than his to the domestic interests of the poor, or a mind more actively bent upon improving both their physical and moral condition. He was one of the first men in this country who promoted a system of feeding the poor, in times of severe distress, by cheap and wholesome soups. And, in the famine of 1800, few men were more active in behalf of the starving population. He also took an early interest in the system of charity schools, being of opinion, that the true way of improving the condition of the people, was to enlighten their minds. In 1803, he was instrumental in founding a school in Orchard street, Westminster, in which three or four hundred children of both sexes were taught the rudiments of human knowledge. He also published, in 1806, a work entitled, "A New System of Education for the Labouring People," which obtained an extensive circulation. Two years afterwards, appeared his "Treatise on Indigence," in which the institution of a provident bank is strongly urged.

In 1797, Mr Colquhoun was honoured with the degree of LL.D., by the university of Glasgow, in consequence of his services in that part of the kingdom. Throughout the course of his long and useful life, he received many other testimonies of the public approbation. His last work appeared in 1814, under the title, "A Treatise on the Population, Wealth, Power, and Resources of the British Empire, in every quarter of the world, including the East Indies." Dr Colquhoun's publications in all amount to twenty; and of these an accurate list is given in the Annual Obituary for 1812. After having been concerned in public life for about thirty-nine years, during which he had transacted business with eight or ten successive administrations, in 1817 he tendered his resignation as a magistrate, in consequence of his increasing years and infirmities: this, however, was not accepted by lord Sidmouth, until the subsequent year, when the secretary of state for the home department expressed the high sense entertained of his long and faithful services by his majesty's government. Dr Colquhoun died of a schirrous stomach, April 25, 1820, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.

The character of Dr Colquhoun has been thus drawn by Dr Lettsom: "When the importance of the morals of the community, with its influence on individual as well as general happiness is duly considered, one cannot but contemplate a public character, who, with unceasing exertion, endeavours to promote every virtuous and charitable sentiment, with gratitude and reverence; a magistrate clothed with power to enforce obedience, but possessing benevolence more coercive than power; who is eminently vigilant to arrest in its progress every species of vice, and commiserates, as a man humanized by Christian amenities, every deviation from rectitude, and reforms while he pities such is a being clothed with robes of divinity. In this point of view, I, indeed, saw my friend, Patrick Colquhoun, Esq., whose exertions point to every direction where morals require correction, or poverty and distress the aid of active benevolence. As an indefatigable magistrate, and an able writer in general, Mr Colquhoun is well known throughout Europe. I introduce him in this place, as the founder and promoter of various institutions for supplying the poor, in distress, with cheap and nutritious articles of food, to an extent truly astonishing, and without which famine must have been superadded to poverty. The enumeration alone of my friend's publications must evince the activity of his benevolence, with which his time and fortune have ever kept pace. May the reader endeavour to emulate his virtues! He will then not only diffuse happiness among the community, particularly the lower classes, but ensure the supreme enjoyment of it in his individual capacity."