Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/61

Rh predated, than generally falls to the lot of a mere forensic pleader. He was early connected with the proceedings of this great case, in the Tournelle process in France, where he appeared as senior to his future friend and literary associate, the classical Burnet of Monboddo, and is generally reported to have left behind him a high opinion of his learning, and the powers of his eloquence, even when clothed in a foreign language. He became connected with the case on its transference to England, but amidst its multifarious changes, he was raised to the bench as successor to lord Woodhall on the 3rd of July, 1764, in time to act as a judge on the case, then very different in its aspect and material from what it was when he performed the part of a counsel.

In 1762, Mr Garden had purchased the estate of Johnston, in Kincardineshire, and in 1765, he commenced those improvements on his estate, which, if not among the most brilliant acts of his life, are perhaps among those which deserve to be longest and best remembered. At the time when the estate of Johnston was purchased, the village of Lawrencekirk, if a village it could then be called, contained but fifty-four inhabitants, living there, not because it was a centre of commercial or industrial circulation, but because chance had brought a few houses to be built in each other's vicinity. Lord Gardenstone caused a new line of street to be planned out on his own property; he gave extremely moderate leases of small farms, and ground for building upon, to the last, for the period of 100 years; he established a linen manufactory, built an inn, and with a singular attention to the minute comforts and happiness of his rising flock, seldom equalled by extensive projectors, he founded a library for the use of the villagers. To assist the progress of society in reducing men dispersed over the country into the compact limits of a town, is an easy, and generally a profitable process, but to found towns or villages where there is no previous spirit of influx, is working to a certain degree against nature, and can only be accomplished by labour and expense. Although the benevolent mind of lord Gardenstone, caused a mutual understanding and kindness betwixt himself and his tenants, which mere commercial speculators fail in producing, yet many of his best formed plans for the prosperity of the village proved unavailing, and he was frequently subject to disappointment and needless expense. He seems, however, to have felt the pleasure of being kind without profiting himself. At much expense he supported a printfield and manufacture of stockings, and purchased a royal charter erecting Lawrencekirk into a burgh of barony, with a regular magistracy. He had the satisfaction before his death to find the population increase to five hundred souls, and in a letter to the inhabitants which he published late in life, he says, "I have tried in some measure a variety of the pleasures which mankind pursue; but never relished any thing so much as the pleasure arising from the progress of my village."

In 1776, lord Gardenstone, in addition to his seat on the civil bench, was appointed to fill the office of a lord commissioner of justiciary, or ordinary judge in the criminal court, as successor to lord Pitfour. Nine years afterwards, having succeeded, by the death of his elder brother, to the extensive estate of Troup, he relieved himself for ever from some of his laborious judicial duties, and for a time from them all, and resolved to attempt to recruit his failing constitution, by making a pleasure tour through the continent. Accordingly, in 1786, he passed into France by Dover, visiting Paris and Lyons, remaining during part of the winter at Marseilles. In the ensuing spring he passed to Geneva, where he saw the ruined remnant of Voltaire's village at Ferney, from which he was able to draw a comparison much in favour of his own, where the people enjoyed permanent political rights, which would render them independent of any future superior who might not be disposed to imitate