Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/192

252 pluralities, to which he had, on all occasions, been a determined adversary; when he opened the second day's debate by a forcible speech on the impolicy of uniting professorships with church livings; which, considering his great age, was viewed at the time as a very remarkable effort, and was listened to with profound attention.

In 1824, after having taught for fully half a century, he thought himself fairly entitled to retire from his labours. Those who attended the class during that last session did not perceive any abatement either of his zeal or energy; and during that winter he was not absent from his class a single hour. But he foresaw that the time could not be far distant when these exertions must cease, and he preferred retiring before he was actually compelled to do so by the infirmities of age. At the end of that session, he accordingly requested his colleagues to select a person to fill his place; declaring that he left the arrangement entirely to them, and that he would not interfere either directly or indirectly in the appointment, farther than by expressing an earnest wish that they might select one who would take a zealous interest in the prosperity of the class, and would continue the same system of active employment on the part of the students which had been found to be attended with so much benefit Their choice fell upon the Rev. Robert Buchanan, minister of Peebles, who had himself carried off the first honour at this class, whose literary attainments are of a high order, and who zealously continues to follow out the same system of daily examinations and regular exercises, which was introduced by his predecessor.

Upon the occasion of his retirement from public teaching, a number of those who had been his pupils determined to show their respect by giving him a public dinner in the town hall of Glasgow, which was attended by upwards of two hundred gentlemen, many of whom came from a great distance to evince their respect for their venerable instructor. Mr Mure of Caldwell, his earliest pupil, was in the chair, and the present Marquis of Breadalbane, who had been peculiarly under his charge at Glasgow college, and to whom he was very much attached, came from a great distance to officiate as croupier.

Mr Jardine survived about three years after his retirement from public duties; during which time he resided as usual during winter in college, and continued to take an active interest in the affairs of the society. While attending the General Assembly in May, 1826, he was seized with a bilious attack—almost the first illness he ever experienced—from which he never completely recovered, and he sank under the infirmities of age on the 27th of January, 1827, having just completed his 85th year; contemplating his dissolution with the composure of a Christian, and expressing his gratitude to the author of his being for the many blessings which had fallen to his lot; of which he did not consider as the least the numerous marks of esteem and regard evinced by his old pupils, with whom he was ever delighted to renew a kindly intercourse. His death was deeply regretted by the society of which he had been so long a member, and by the inhabitants of Glasgow, where he was very generally respected and esteemed.

In 1776, Mr Jardine married Miss Lindsay of Glasgow, whom he survived about twelve years, and by whom he had one son, John Jardine, advocate, who held the office of sheriff of Ross and Cromarty, and died in 1850.

JOHNSTON, (, of Warriston, (a judge by the designation of lord Warriston,) an eminent lawyer and statesman, was the son of James Johnston of Beirholm in Annandale, a descendant of the family of Johnston in Aberdeenshire, and who for some time followed a commercial life in Edinburgh, being mentioned in a charter of 1608, as "the king's merchant." The mother of the subject of our memoir was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Craig, the first great lawyer produced by Scotland, and whose life has already been given in the