Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/257

Rh After he had completed his studies at Oxford, he turned his attention to law, not, however, to follow it as a profession, but to be aided by the light it threw on our national institutions. In 1775 he became a member of the faculty of advocates, and was afterwards called to the English bar. In the following year he married Sarah, only daughter and heiress of Alexander Maitland, Esq., of Stoke-Newington, Middlesex, by whom he had two daughters, one of them being Miss Hannah Sinclair, authoress of the excellent letters "On the Principles of the Christian Faith;" the other, Janet, who was married to Sir James Colquhoun, of Luss, Bart. In 1780 Mr. Sinclair was elected member of parliament for the county of Caithness, an honour which was repeated in the years 1790, 1802, and 1807. But as this county enjoyed the privilege of only an alternate representation, he was elected during the intervals for the boroughs of Lostwithiel in Cornwall, and Petersfield in Hampshire.

Mr. Sinclair had not been long in parliament when he began to take an active part in the important questions of the day. It was not, however, by mere forensic eloquence, for his strength did not lie in oratory; his reflective mind and profound calculations were better suited for the silence of the press than the arena of parliamentary debate. Accordingly, in 1782, he published a tract, entitled "Lucubrations during a Short Recess ; with some Thoughts on the Means of Improving the Representation of the People." This work, upon a theme at that time so dreaded, excited great attention, and called forth not a few replies, among which especially was one from Lord Camelford. In the same year he published another pamphlet, entitled "Thoughts on the Naval Strength of the British Empire, in answer to the late Lord Mulgrave, one of the Lords of the Admiralty." At this time our warfare by sea was carried on with such timid caution, and our naval victories were so few, that the national faith in our "wooden walls" was sorely depressed; while Lord Mulgrave had predicted that, in the event of a continental peace, the united navies of France and Spain would be more than a match for that of Britain. Mr. Sinclair endeavoured to prove the superiority of our fleets above those of the enemy, and to explain the causes of that superiority; while the subsequent victories of Nelson showed that the argument was a sound one. Another tract, which he published about the same period, bore the title of "Considerations on Militias and Standing Armies," and was the substance of those considerations upon the subject which he had brought before the ministers of the day. His suggestions were favourably received, and some of the more important adopted. His last published production, during this stage of his authorship, was "The Propriety of Retaining Gibraltar, Impartially Considered." This, like the foregoing tracts, was published without the author's name, and had the honour of being attributed to the first Lord Camelford.

It was not, however, with political authorship alone that Mr. Sinclair was wholly occupied at this season; for, in 1782, a public emergency occurred that called forth the utmost of his philanthropic care. This was a season of famine in Scotland, on account of the lateness of the summer, so that, at the close of September, the oats and barley were still green, while, at the commencement of next month, the winter began with such sudden intensity, that both field and garden produce was blighted as in an instant; one night often sufficed to annihilate the subsistence of whole districts. In some parishes the oats were reaped, or rather excavated from ice and snow in the middle of November, and in others, so late as the following February. The consequence was, that many