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  and a youth named Alexander Scott. He was strikingly handsome, and had great athletic power. The neglect of an eccentric tutor left him to manage his own studies. Though not a finished scholar of the English public school pattern, he gained the reputation of being 'the most learned Aristotelian in Oxford.' The modern examination system at Oxford had been recently started. The list of books in which Hamilton offered himself was considered to be unprecedented ; and a note of them was kept by his examiner, Thomas Gaisford [q. v.] (, Life of Hamilton, p. 58). He was first class in literis humanioribus in the Michaelmas term 1810, but did not obtain a fellowship, on account, it is suggested, of the unpopularity of the Scots. He graduated B.A. in 1811, M. A. in 1814.

Hamilton had made some studies with a view to the medical profession at Edinburgh and Oxford, and Dr. Baillie, who had known his father, promised to help him. He took lodgings in Brompton with his friend Scott, who died of consumption in 1812. Hamilton had already decided to change medicine for law. He returned to Scotland, became an advocate in July 1813, and henceforward lived at Edinburgh. His mother settled there in 1815, and her son lived with her successively in Hill Street, Howe Street, and Great King Street. After being called to the bar, Hamilton spent much labour upon studying his own genealogy. He was enabled in 1816 to present a case to a jury before the sheriff of Edinburgh, and was'adj udged 'heir male in general' to Sir Robert Hamilton of Preston (1650-1701) [q. v.] ; their common ancestor being a John Hamilton who died before 1522. The baronetcy being granted to the heirs-male general of Sir William Hamilton (elder brother of Robert), created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1673, Hamilton henceforth styled himself Sir William, baronet of Preston and Fingalton. Hamilton is said to have been a good lawyer in antiquarian cases. But he was not a fluent speaker ; he would not condescend to the minuter matters of the law, and he preferred the Advocates' Library to the Parliament House. For whatever reasons he never obtained a large practice, and as a whig was out of the road to preferment. He became known in Edinburgh literary circles, though he saw little of Scott or of Jeffrey, its most prominent leaders. De Quincey on coming to Edinburgh in 1814 was introduced to him by Wilson (Christopher North), and says that he was then regarded as 'a monster of erudition,' and respected for his 'elevation of character.' He preserved his intimacy with Lockhart till, for some unexplained reason, probably connected with Lockhart's toryism and contributions to 'Blackwood's Magazine,' they broke finally about 1818.

He had visited Germany with Lockhart in 1817 to examine a library at Leipzig with a view to its purchase by the Faculty of Advocates. He went there again upon legal business in 1820. These were his only visits to the continent. At the first date he was still a beginner in the study of German. He attacked the language systematically on his second visit, and joined a club formed in Edinburgh for the circulation of German periodicals. Upon the death of Thomas Brown (1778-1820) [q. v.], the colleague of Dugald Stewart 'in the Edinburgh chair of moral philosophy Hamilton offered himself as a candidate, and received strong support from Stewart, Jeffrey, and some of his Oxford contemporaries. The town council, however, elected his opponent, John Wilson, by a majority of twenty-one to eleven. The election was determined by political considerations (see {sc|Mrs. Gordon's}} Christopher North, 1859, p. 217). Scott strongly supported Wilson upon that ground. Hamilton's very superior qualifications were only known by private report. He afterwards said that he lost his chance by refusing to state, in compliance with a hint from 'a most influential quarter,' that he did not belong to the whig party (, p. 260). His friendship with Wilson was not weakened by the contest.

In 1821 Hamilton was elected to the professorship of civil history, for which the Faculty of Advocates nominated two candidates to the town council. Upon their advice the council appointed Hamilton, jointly with the previous occupant of the chair, William Fraser Tytler. The salary was 100l. a year, payable from a local duty on beer, and after a time not paid at all. Attendance on the classes was optional, and Hamilton seems to have done well by attracting a class varying from thirty to fifty. The numbers, however, diminished, and when his pay ceased he gave up lecturing. He was at this time much interested in phrenology, then popularised in Edinburgh by George Combe [q. v.] He made various anatomical researches, and reached conclusions entirely hostile to the claims of phrenologists. He read papers upon this subject to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1826 and 1827, which led to a controversial correspondence with Combe.

The death of his mother in January 1827 profoundly affected him. They had been on terms of more than the ordinary affection from his childhood. In 1828 he moved into a smaller house in Manor Place, where he was 