Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/82

142 power was upon him; and, being excluded, he, together with the dukes of Hamilton, Queensberry, and Montrose, the earl of Stair, and other Scottish noblemen, entered into a concert with the leading English members of the opposition, in order to bring the machinations unsparingly used to control the election of the peers in Scotland, to light, and their authors to punishment. Sir Robert Walpole's better fortune, however, prevailed against it, as it did against a similar project in 1739." The earl of Marchmont died in January, 1740, and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Hugh, who was destined to exhibit the extraordinary spectacle of a family, maintaining, in the third generation, the same talent, judgment, and worth which had distinguished the two preceding.

HUME,, third and last earl of Marchmont, was born at Edinburgh on the 15th February, 1708, and soon became remarkable for the precocity of his intellect, and the versatility of his genius. His mind was equally directed to the acquisition of scholastic erudition and political knowledge, and on all subjects he was supposed to be excelled by few or none of his time. In 1734, when only twenty-six years of age, he was chosen member for the county of Berwick, and entered the House of Commons as lord Polwarth, at the same time that his younger and twin brother, Mr Hume Campbell, came forward as representative for the burghs of the district. The injustice and neglect which Sir Robert Walpole had shown to lord Marchmont, was speedily avenged by the trouble which these young men gave to his government. The former soon attained the first place in the opposition ; and how keenly his attacks were felt by the ministry is shown in a remark made by the latter person, to the effect that "there were few things he more ardently desired than to see that young man at the head of his family," and thus deprived of a seat in the house. This wish was soon gratified, for his father dying in 1740, lord Polwarth succeeded as earl of Marchmont, nor did he again enter the walls of parliament until the year 1750, when a vacancy occurring in the representation of the Scottish peerage, he was almost unanimously elected. From his talents as a speaker, his extensive information, and active business habits, he acquired great influence in the upper house, and was constantly re-chosen at every general election, during the long period of 34 years. He was appointed first lord of police in 1747, and keeper of the great seal of Scotland, in January, 1764, the latter of which he held till his death. The estimation in which his lordship was held by his contemporaries may be judged of by the circumstance of his living on terms of the strictest intimacy with the celebrated lord Cobham, (who gave his bust a place in the Temple of Worthies at Stow,) Sir William Wyndham, lord Bolingbroke, the duchess of Marlborough, Mr Pope, and other eminent persons of that memorable era. The duchess appointed him one of her executors, and bequeathed him a legacy of 2,500 for his trouble, and as a proof of her esteem. Mr Pope likewise appointed him one of his executors, leaving him a large-paper edition of Thuanus, and a portrait of lord Bolingbroke, painted by Richardson. The poet likewise immortalized him, by introducing his name into the well-known inscription in the Twickenham grotto: —

His lordship's library contained one of the most curious and valuable collections of books and manuscripts in Great Britain ; all of which he bequeathed at his death to his sole executor, the right honourable George Rose.

His lordship was twice married; first, in 1731, to Miss Western of London, by whom he had four children, a son (who died young), and three daughters; the youngest of whom was afterwards married to Walter Scott, Esq. of Harden. Upon the death of his wife, in 1747, he next year married a Miss Elizabeth