Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/84

144 of Granville, was compelled to retire by the Pelhams, the king consenting thereto very reluctantly, and when the dukes of Devonshire, Bedford, and Dorset, and the earls of Harrington and Chesterfield, came into office. The second period hegins in September, 1745, when news had just been received in London that the Pretender was near Edinburgh, and that it would probably be soon in his occupation. It closes in the February following, with the extraordinary events of that month, the resignation of the Pelharn ministry, and its re-establishment after the earl of Bath's and the earl of Granville's interregnum of three days. The third period commences in July, 1747, and terminates in March, 1748, soon after the earl of Chesterfield's resignation, and the duke of Bedford's appointment to succeed him as secretary of state.

HUME,, is noticed by various writers as the name of an individual who adorned the literature of his country at the close of the seventeenth century. Who or what he was, is not known: it is only probable, from the regularity with which certain first names occur in genealogies in connexion with surnames, that he belonged to the Polwarth branch of the family of Home, or Hume, as in that branch there were six or seven successive barons bearing the name of Patrick. This learned man is only known to have written the notes connected with the sixth edition of Milton's Paradise Lost, which was published in folio by Tonson in 1695, and is one of the most elegant productions of the British press that have ever appeared. It has been a matter of just surprise to several writers of Scottish biography, that absolutely nothing should have been handed down respecting this person, seeing that his notes evince a high degree of taste, and most extensive erudition, and are in fact the model of almost all commentaries subsequent to his time. " His notes," says an anonymous writer, "are always curious; his observations on some of the finer passages of the poet, show a mind deeply smit with an admiration for the sublime genius of their author; and there is often a masterly nervousness in his style, which is very remarkable for this age." But the ignorance of subsequent ages respecting the learned commentator is sufficiently accounted for by the way in which his name appears on the title-page, being simply in initials, with the affix Φίλοπσίητης;, and by the indifference of the age to literary history. It would appear that the commentary, learned and admirable as it is, speedily fell out of public notice, as in 1750, the Messrs Foulis of Glasgow published the first book of the Paradise Lost, with notes by Mr Callender of Craigforth, which are shown to be, to a great extent, borrowed from the work of Hume, without the most distant hint of acknowledgment.

HUNTER, (, a divine highly distinguished in literature, was born at Culross, in the year 1741. His parents, though in humble life, gave him a good education, which was concluded by an attendance at the university of Edinburgh. Here his talents and application attracted the notice of the professors, and at the early age of seventeen he was appointed tutor to Mr Alexander Boswell, who subsequently became a judge of the court of session, under the designation of lord Balmouto. He afterwards accepted the same office in the family of the earl of Dundonald at Culross abbey, and thus had the honour of instructing the late venerable earl, so distinguished by his scientific inquiries and inventions. In 1764, having passed the necessary trials with unusual approbation, he was licensed as a minister of the gospel, and soon excited attention to his pulpit talents. So highly were these in public esteem, that, in 1766, lie was ordained one of the ministers of South Leith, which has always been con-