Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/313

Rh for with only one or two occasional exceptions, his papers prove that he had scarcely an associate, either in his patriotic toils or enjoyments. However, it is sometimes true in the political, as it generally is in the commercial world, that supply is created by demand; and the very degradation of the country held out an immense reward to the man who should raise it up. No man, especially the hired servant of a disputed monarchy, could have achieved this work, except one whose heart was as amiable as his judgment was sound, and whose patriotism was as pure as it was strong. Forbes cultivated all these qualities, and not only directed the spirit of the nation, but conciliated its discordant members with a degree of skill that was truly astonishing.

The leading objects of his official and parliamentary life were suggested to him by the necessities of the country, and they are thus ably summed up in the work just quoted:—

1. To extinguish the embers of rebellion, by gaining over the Jacobites. He did not try to win them, however, in the ordinary way in which alleged rebels are won ; but by showing them what he called the folly of their designs, by seeking their society, by excluding them from no place for which their talents or characters gave them a fair claim, and, above all, by protecting them from proscription. It is delightful to perceive how much this policy, equally the dictate of his heart and of his head, made him be consulted and revered even by his enemies; and how purely he kept his private affections open to good men, and especially to old friends, in spite of all political acrimony or alienation. He derived from this habit one satisfaction, which seems to have greatly diverted him, that of being occasionally abused by both sides, and sometimes suspected of secret jacobitism by his own party.

2. Having thus, by commanding universal esteem as an upright and liberal man, enabled himself to do something for the country at large, his next object seems to have been, to habituate the people to the equal and regular control of the laws. It may appear at first sight unnecessary or inglorious to have been reduced to labour for an end so essential and obvious in all communities as this. But the state of Scotland must be recollected. The provincial despotism of the barons was common and horrid. Old Lovat, for example, more than once writes to him, as lord advocate, not to trouble himself about certain acts of violence done in his neighbourhood, because he was very soon to take vengeance with his own hands.

Nor was this insubordination confined to individuals or to the provinces, for it seems to have extended to the capital, and to have touched the seats of justice.-There is a letter from Forbes to Mr Scroope, in the year 1732, in which he complains "that it would surely provoke any man living, as it did me, to see the last day of our term in exchequer. The effect of every verdict we recovered from the crown, stopt upon the triflingest pretences that false popularity and want of sense could suggest. If some remedy be not found for this evil we must shut up shop. It's a pity, that when we have argued the jurys out of their mistaken notices of popularity, the behaviour of the court should give any handle to their relapsing." He persevered to prevent this by argument, and by endeavouring to get the laws, especially those concerning the revenue, altered, so as to be less unacceptable to the people.

It is chiefly on account of his adherence to this principle, that it is important to notice this subject as a distinct part of his system. If he had been disposed to govern, as is usual in turbulent times, by mere force, he had pretences enough to have made scarlet uniforms deform every hamlet in the kingdom.—But, ex-