Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/60

406 make ancient bacchanalians look back with bitterness on their youthful frolics, did his ever contented mind lose its equanimity. If he was no longer able to indulge himself, he bore the indulgences of others with charity. His mind was of the same overflowing description, and continued, after the body was disabled, to perform its part in the social circle. Many characteristic anecdotes have been preserved of his convivial propensities during his early practice at the bar. On one occasion, during the time when prince Charles Edward was in possession of Edinburgh, he and a Mr Cunningham (afterwards general) are said to have so far preferred wine and oysters, to watching and warding, that, when sent as a patrol by Sir John Cope, to watch the coast towards Musselburgh, instead of proving a protection to the army, they were themselves taken prisoners, just when the feast was at its highest, by a single individual, who happened to be prowling in the neighbourhood. It must, however, be allowed, that at that period, there were not many inducements to exertion held out to Scotsmen of the higher rank. There were few men eminent for their genius, or even for the more passive acquirements of classical learning, which distinguished the neighbouring country. The bar was the only profession which, from its respectability and emoluments, offered itself as a resource to the younger sons of the landed proprietors, then sufficiently poor; and while the learning and information at that time required by its members in their professional capacity were not great, the jealousy of England, just after the Union, allowed but to one family in Scotland, the rational prospect that time and labour might be well spent in preparing for the duties of a statesman. The state of the country and its political influence were singularly discouraging to the upper classes, and from many naturally active spirits being left unemployed, they turned to indolence or unprofitable amusements those talents which might have rendered them the best ornaments of their country. The nation had then, indeed, begun by degrees to shake off its lethargy, and by the time the subject of this memoir had advanced a little in life, he became one of the most admired and beloved social members of a circle of illustrious philosophers and historians, whose names are dear to the memory of their countrymen, as those who first roused their slumbering energies.

On the 14th of July, 1744, Mr Garden was made sheriff of Kincardineshire, and he soon after showed the soundness of his perception and the liberality of his mind, by stretching forth his hand to assist the modest talent and elegant taste of the author of the Minstrel. To those who may, from its lingering remnants at the present time, have formed any idea of the, stately coldness preserved by the higher classes in Scotland towards their inferiors, in the middle of the eighteenth century, it will operate as no small evidence of the discernment and kindness of the judge, that he began his acquaintance with the poet and philosopher, when that individual was only a cotter boy sitting in a field writing with a pencil. In August, 1759, Mr Garden was chosen one of the legal assessors of the town of Edinburgh; and as a higher .step in professional advancement, in April, 1761, accepted office in the latter days of Mr Pitt's administration, as joint solicitor-general of Scotland, along with Mr James Montgomery, afterwards lord chief baron. What were his professional attainments as a lawyer, it is at this distance of time difficult to determine, as he has left behind him no professional work, the only index which can lead to a knowledge of his mere technical attainments as a barrister. As a pleader, however, we know he was highly estimated as his connexion with a renowned lawsuit, which spread its fame over all Europe, and created in Scotland a ferment of disputation inferior only to the heat of religious controversy, has well shown. The appearance made by Mr Garden in the Douglas cause rendered his name better known, and his talents more ap-