Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/157

Rh had remained undeveloped; for he had no sooner taken his seat as president, than he devoted himself to the duties of his office with an ardour which had been rarely exhibited by the ablest and most diligent of his predecessors; and with a perseverance which continued unabated until his death. So unwearied and anxious was his application to the business of the court, that he succeeded in disposing of an arrear of causes which had accumulated during a period of five sessions. This task he accomplished in the course of the summer session of 1760, and that without interrupting or impeding the current business of the court; and while he presided, no similar arrear ever occurred.

President Dundas was distinguished by great dignity and urbanity. In delivering his opinions on the bench, he was calm and senatorial ; avoiding the error into which the judges in Scotland are too apt to fall, namely, that of expressing themselves with the impatience and vehemence of debaters eager to support a particular side, or to convince or refute their opponents in an argument. Impressed with a conviction that such a style is ill suited for the bench, president Dundas confined himself to a calm and dispassionate summary of the leading facts of the case, followed by an announcement, in forcible, but unadorned language, of the legal principle which ought, in his apprehension, to rule the decision. To the bar, he conducted himself with uniform attention and respect; a demeanour, on the part of the bench, to which, in former times, the Scottish bar was but little accustomed ; and even at this day, the deportment of the Scottish judges 'to the counsel practising before them, is apt to surprise those who have had opportunities of observing the courtesy uniformly displayed by the English judges in their intercourse with the bar. President Dundas listened with patience to the reasonings of counsel; he neither anticipated the arguments of the pleader, nor interrupted him with questions; but left him to state his case without interference, unless when matter evidently irrelevant was introduced, or any offence committed against the dignity of the court. In this last particular, he was sufficiently punctilious, visiting the slightest symptom of disrespect to the bench, with the severest animadversion. While he was thus constant in his anxiety to improve the administration of justice, and to insure due respect for his own court, he was scrupulously attentive in reviewing the decisions, and watchful in the superintendance of the conduct of the inferior judges. He also treated with the greatest rigour every instance of malversation or chicanery in the officers or inferior practitioners in the courts. No calumnious or iniquitous prosecution, and no attempt to pervert the forms of law, to the purposes of oppression, eluded his penetration, or escaped his marked reprehension.

A disregard or contempt for literary attainments has been brought as a charge against president Dundas; and a similar charge was, with less justice, afterwards made against his celebrated brother, lord Melville. This peculiarity was the more remarkable in the president, because in early life he had prosecuted those studies which are usually termed literary, with advantage and success. In his youth he had made great proficiency in classical learning; and as his memory retained faithfully whatever he had once acquired, it was not unusual with him, even towards the close of his life, in his speeches from the bench to cite and apply, with much propriety, the most striking passages of the ancient authors.

Having attained the advanced age of 75 years, president Dundas was seized with a severe and mortal illness, which, although of short continuance, was violent in its nature; and he died at his house in Adam Square, Edinburgh, on the 13th of December, 1787; having borne his sufferings with great magnanimity. He retained the perfect enjoyment of his faculties until his death, and was in the active discharge of his official duties down till the date of his last illness. He was interred in the family burial-place at Borthwick. The body was