Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/309

Rh sent to the grammar school, then taught by Mr Dick, who afterwards obtained a chair in the university. While he continued at school, he made a rapid progress, and was generally at the head of his class. At the age of nine years, he exhibited so much precocity of talent as to compose a sermon, superior in his father's opinion to many sermons he had heard from the pulpit; and the late countess of Buchan was so much pleased with it, that she requested it might be dedicated to her, and carried it to London with her, with the intention of having it printed. The intention, however, without any loss to the world we presume, was never brought into act. He entered upon his academical course in the eleventh year of his age, and in all the different classes maintained a decided superiority. His tasks he performed always with ease; and he was highly respected by all the professors under whom he studied. At fourteen years of age, he had completed his philosophical course, and was made a master of arts; and, having determined to devote himself to the church, entered upon the study of theology in his fifteenth year. During the second session of his theology, the earl of Kinnoul, having been appointed chancellor of the university of St Andrews, gave for the encouragement of learners, a number of prizes, to be bestowed on the most deserving in the various classes. These prizes his lordship distributed to the successful candidates with his own hand; and young Hill, having gained one of them, though he had to contend with many that were greatly his seniors, attracted the particular notice of his lordship, who from that moment took a warm interest in his success in life, giving him directions for his conduct, and aid for the prosecution of his schemes, with the warmth of a parent rather than the cold and stately formality of a patron. During his college vacations, he was in the habit of visiting frequently at Temple, his uncle, Dr M'Cormick, the biographer of Carstairs, by whom he was introduced to the metropolitan of the Scottish church, principal Robertson, and by the principal he was recommended as tutor to the eldest son of Pryce Campbell, M. P., and at that time one of the lords of the treasury. In consequence of this appointment, he repaired to London in November, 1767, not having completed his seventeenth year. Such a series of fortunate incidents occurs in the lives of few individuals. "Educated," says his biographer, "in the genuine principles of whiggism, he considered the great design of government to be the promotion of the liberty and the happiness of the people;" but in the close of the very same paragraph this writer introduces the subject of his panegyric saying to his mother, "as I have seen nothing but mobbing and the bad effects of faction since I came to England, I am very moderate, and think it the duty of an honest man to support almost any ministry." Mr Hill was, indeed, a whig of a somewhat odd kind; the man whom he most admired was lord North, and the objects of his aversion and his vituperation were the American colonists, Messrs Beckford, Wilkes, and the other members of the opposition in the house of commons.

Mr Hill, while at St Andrews, had been an ambitious member of those associations generally formed at colleges for the purpose of exercising the talent of speech, and he was not long in London till he found his way into the Robin Hood Debating Society, where he even then consulted his interest by defending the measures of administration. His account of this society gives no very high idea of its members. " Last night I went to the Robin Hood Society and was very highly entertained there. We had speakers of all kinds, shoemakers, weavers, and quakers, whose constant topic was the dearness of provisions. There were one or two who spoke very comically, and with a great deal of humour. But what surprised me much, I heard one of the easiest and most masterly speakers that ever I heard in my life. His dress was rather shabby, but he is a constant attendant and by long practice has greatly improved. I