Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/170

306 Besides his political and historical works, Dr Somerville wrote "Two Sermons communicated to the Scotch Preacher;" "A Collection oi Sermons," pub- lished in 1815; and a sermon "On the Nature and Obligation of an Oath," which appeared in the "Scottish Pulpit." He died, after a few days' illness, at Jedburgh, on the 16th May, 1830, at the good old age of ninety, and in the sixty-fourth year of his ministry. His faculties were fresh to the last; and on the Sunday previous to his death, he had preached, and administered the sacrament. Of his opinions and domestic character, the following paragraphs from the memoir above referred to, are descriptive. "Political science having long been the favourite study of Dr Somerville, it may readily be supposed that he took a deep interest in all that concerned the French Revolution. But he was not one of those who hailed the dawn of liberty in that enslaved and benighted land; on the contrary, he beheld it as the harbinger of evil to the whole of civilized Europe; while, from the dissensions to which this event gave rise in his own country, he augured the downfall of that constitution, in church and state, which he had so ably vindicated in his writings, and which he regarded as the ne plus ultra of perfection. An alarmist on principle, he involved in one sweeping condemnation, all who entertained vieus different from his own on tliis subject; and the wild impracticable theorist the temperate and philosophical advocate for reform were with him equally objects of reprobation." * * * "Devoted through a long life to the pursuits of literature, Dr Somerville numbered among his friends many of the eminent scholars and divines of his native Scotland; and, during his occasional visits to the British metropolis, he was introduced to several of the distinguished literati of the south. Superior to the mean jealousy and petty envy, which too often prevail among the votaries of science and learning, Dr Somerville was at all times, and on every occasion, eager to do justice to the talents and merits of his gifted contemporaries. No man could be more enthusiastically alive to the transcendant genius of Burns, or more feelingly deplore the moral aberrations of that inspired bard. In the dark hour of John Logan's eventful life, he stretched towards him the supporting hand of friendship, and shielded him, in some measure, from the attacks of bigotry and illibernlity, by the weight and influence of his own pure and unimpeachable character. A gold-headed cane, the parting gift of the grateful poet, when he bade a lasting adieu to Scotland, Dr Somerville highly prized, and always carried in his hand when walking."

SPOTSWOOD,, superintendent of Lothian, was descended of the ancient Merse family of Spotswood of that ilk, and was born in the year 1510. His father, William Spotswood, was killed at the battle of Flodden, leaving him an orphan at little more than three years of age. The place at which he was educated, and the person who taught him in his early years, are equally unknown to us. We have, indeed, discovered no further notice of him, till 1 534, (June 27.) when, at the very late age of four and twenty, he was entered a student in the university of Glasgow. There was perhaps, however, some peculiarity in his case, for he became bachelor in the very next year (February 8, 1535); a circumstance which we can only account for, on the supposition that he had either made very remarkable proficiency in his studies, or attended some of the other universities previously. Spotswood, it is believed, intended to prosecute the study of divinity; but he became disgusted with the cruelty of the catholic clergy, manifested most probably in the condemnation of liussell and Kennedy, who were burned for heresy at Glasgow, about 1538. In that year, he left his native country, apparently horrified at the spectacle he had witnessed, and at other instances of barbarity which he must have heard of, and retired into England. At London, he became acquainted with archbishop Cranmer, to