Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/341

Rh to effect some important improvements in the system of judicature. He also, at this time, employed his leisure hours in recording the decisions of the court. As a member of the privy council, he was invariably the advocate, though not always successfully, of moderate measures, and he remonstrated as warmly as he durst against all who were of an opposite character. When the celebrated test oath was under consideration, in 1681, Dalrymple, for the purpose of confounding it altogether, suggested that John Knox's confession of faith should be sworn to as part of it. As this inculcated resistance to tyranny as a duty, he thought it would counterbalance the abjuration of that maxim contained in another part of the oath. The discrepancy passed unobserved, for not a bishop in parliament was so far acquainted with ecclesiastical history as to know the contents of that confession. However, inconsistent as it was, it was forced by the government down the throats of all persons in office, and thus became the occasion of much mischief. Lord Stair himself refused to take it, and accordingly had to retire from his offices. Before this period, he had prepared his celebrated work, "the Institutions of the Law of Scotland," which was now published. This work still continues to be the grand text-book of the Scottish lawyer. "It is not without cause," says Mr Brodie, in a late edition, "that the profound and luminous disquisitions of lord Stair have commanded the general admiration of Scottish lawyers. Having brought to the study of jurisprudence a powerful and highly cultivated intellect, he was qualified to trace every rule to principle. Vet such was his sterling practical good sense, that he rarely allowed himself to be carried away by theory, too frequently the failing of philosophic minds, less endowed with this cardinal virtue. His philosophy and learning have enabled him to enrich jurisprudence with a work, which, in embodying the rules of law, clearly developes the ground on which they are founded."

Lord Stair lived for about a year at his country seat in Wigtonshire, but experiencing much persecution from the government, found it necessary, in October, 1682, to take refuge in Holland. In his absence he was accused of high treason, on the grounds, that some of his tenants had been concerned in the insurrection at Bothwell bridge. An attempt, however, which was made to obtain a surrender of his person from Holland, proved abortive. From his retirement at Leyden, he sent forth his " Decisions," through the medium of the press at Edinburgh, the first volume appearing in 1684, and the second in 1687. In 1686, he published, at Leyden, a Latin treatise of much originality, under the title of "Fhysiologia Nova Experimental is." He also busied himself at this time in a work respecting the mutual obligations of the sovereign and his people, on which subject he entertained more liberal opinions than what were generally received in that age. This work, however, was never published. When the prince of Orange was about to sail for Britain, lord Stair requested to know what was the object of his expedition. The prince replied, that it was not personal aggrandizement, but "the glory of God, and the security of the protestant religion, then in imminent danger." The reply of lord Stair was a strange mixture of the sublime and ludicrous. Taking off his wig, and exhibiting his bald head, he said, "Though I be now in the seventieth year of my age, I am willing to venture that, (pointing to his head,) my own and my children's fortune, in such an undertaking." He accordingly accompanied the prince, and was rewarded, after the settlement of affairs under William and Mary, with a re-appointment to the presidency of the court of session, and a peerage under the title of viscount Stair. Though thus restored to his country, and to more than his former honours, the latter years of this great "man were not happy. He had never been the friend of the high church party, and therefore he could expect no favour from that class of malcontents under the revolution settlement.