Paton at Dumfries, for her use. I told you, you remember, that I had disbursed near that sum for you when I was last abroad; which, however, considering all that I owe you, I should never once have mentioned, if necessity had not compelled me. I had not saved one farthing in my last jaunt, and at the same time I found myself obliged to do something for so near a relation, who, by reason of continual sickness, can do little for herself. My dearest J. I have nothing to add, but that you continue to live with your Father as you are now doing, and to follow his advice in all things, as the best and sincerest you can use. Read history and morality for use, and other things for amusement only. Cultivate friendship with the Gentlemen of yourNeighbourhood; make yourself agreeable to your relations; and think not of any jaunts either to Holland or London, till you come up as Member of Parliament. Thomson* cursed like a heathen, that you came not when your Father went out: perhaps it was not then proper; but now, as you will be settled in the World, and as the Capt will probably have his turn served by the time this Parliament is dissolved, I would have you think seriously of it; and be preparing things de longue main, by rendering yourself popular and agreeable to the Country. It gives a Man a certain distinction, and enables him to serve his friends; if he is an honest Man, gains him universal esteem; and as your Father has served the Goverm all along upon such generous terms, I think it were no unreasonable expectation in you, to hope for some easy place in the Revenue, or so. When you once have a family, you will find what a difference 4 or 500. ❤ Ann. will make in your affairs. But all this you ought to keep secret, and mention to your Father only, upon a proper occasion.

My kind love to D' Frazer & my Brother Baillie. I embrace you with my inmost

soul, and ever am

Yours,

Stradishall, 15th Aug. 1738.

No. CXC.

P. M.

Offer from the Duke of Argyll of a Commission in the Blues, to the President's Son. My Lord,

24 Sept 1738. THE Duke of Argyll intended to have wrote to you himself to-day; but some Company coming in hindered it; and not to lose any time, he has commanded me to acquaint you, that he has just received advice of the death of the Quarter-Master to the King's troop, in the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, of wh his Grace is Captain; and desires to know if you please to let your Son accept of it. The Quarter-Masters of that Regiment are on a different footing from other Regiments; they have the King's Comission, & severall people of quality have been quarter-masters in it; particularly, lately, Captain Fielding, Lord Denbigh's Brother, who purchased a Company of foot with what he sold that Comission for; and that if your Son takes it, it may be a means of getting forward if an opportunity offers, or he may afterwards do as he or you thinks. proper; and it is his Grace's opinion he should take it. My Lord Duke desires you will let him have your Answer as soon as possible.

I am with all respect,

Yo' Lordship's Most Obedient & most humble Servant,
JAMES COCKBURN.

I had forgot to tell yor Ldsp, that the pay of the Quarter-master is eight shillings & sixpence a day.

No. CXCI.

The Lord President to The Duke of Argyll, dated Culloden, 6th October 1738. My Lord,

LAST post brought me your Grace's Commands, in a Letter from Mr Cockburn, of the 24th of September; ordering me to acquaint you, without loss of time, whether I would consent to my Son's accepting a quartermastership in your Troop.

It would be to no purpose for me to attempt to express my Gratitude for your goodness to me, since you know, better than I can well tell you, how my heart is strung; and it was to as litle purpose, if your Grace will pardon me to say so, to have asked my consent to my Son's accepting what you thought proper for him; what is usefull and reputable for him in that way you know infinitely better than I do; and I am confident the friendship with which you have honoured me, will always guide you in what you propose for him. The possession of your Grace's good will upon principles that I think honest has been the chief pleasure-nay, indeed, the pride of my life. Now if my Son, tho' not at present so perfect as I could wish him, should under your Eye improve, so as to share any part of your favour, as I am confident he is honest and has an hereditary veneration for your Grace, it would cut off all further sollicitude about the things of this World; and I shall dy, whenever that shall be my Lot, with great tranquillity. If what your Grace proposes succeed, you will be so good as to cause some one give me notice when I should order him to wait on you. I am at present confined to my Chamber by a sore shin I had some days ago leaping over a Ditch I am makeing; but I am in hopes of being soon at liberty, when I shall move Southward. I am most faithfully, as I ever have been, Your Grace's

No.CXCII.

The Lord President to Capt. Alex' Forbes, Royal Gray Dragoons.

Dear Sandy,

D. F.

What

YOURS of the 19th of July, touching the effects of your Brother William, and your Purpose of vesting that and your own money in Land, is now before me. you find in his Inventary, that ther is 4,000l. of his money in my hands, is true; he remitted it when he resolved to leave India; and I, by a Letter to him, acknowledged the receipt of it, which Letter may probably have come to your hands.

That sum, as soon as I could, I applyed to pay off so much of my Brother's debt; and of course it carries interest from the time it was so applyed, which I cannot at present exactly recollect, till I come at my Papers. Ther will be no occasion for or Hugh to make up any title to it, other than the Will which you have already proved, and you may count upon it as so much Cash.

you

As for your purpose of laying out your money in Land, I approve of it in generall; but must insist with you not to be over hasty, and to look well before you leap. You can change hands whilst your Effects are in Money; but when you have once fettered them in Lands, you cannot so easily draw the Stake. In the Purchase of Land, you ought, according to my apprehension, to have two things in view: The one, to avoid settling in the neighbourhood of this City,, where lands are less improveable than they are at a greater distance, where they are dearer in the rate of purchase, and where they are eternally shifting Masters; occasioned chiefly by the mischievous turn to idleness. and expence, that the young Fry brought up in this neighbourhood are bred to: a

circumstance

circumstance which every one who sets up a family, whether he has Children of his own or no, ought to attend to. The other (and with respect to it I may possibly be partiall) is, that you ought to think of forcing as near as may be to the nest from which you came. Had S David & Co" Forbes, whom you came early enough into the world to be acquainted with, settled near the nest, they would have strengthened it, and made a much more considerable figure themselves than they now do, when lost in the crowd of much greater fortunes in Lothian and Fife, where their Successors have no friends to make them significant, or to support them; in short, dear Sandy, if we are near to one another, we may be useful to each other; but being separated, the memory of the relation is in a few generations lost, and ther springs little advantage to either in the mean time. Having said so much, you will easily observe that I am against your thinking of Carkerry, & positive in my opinion that you should look for a purchase in the North. Cromerty would answer that view well enough; but I take it, there is another Gentleman already in the Play, who has made consider able advances that way, and is likely to pay for it more than I should consent to your paying for Land: Gold may be too dear bought. But tho' there is nothing just at this moment fit for you in the Market, you may set your Mind at rest ther will very soon. The greatest part of my neighbours are in a very tottering condition. I am sorry that ther is no great appearance that Castlehill, Clava, and several others can keep their estates; and should these come into the Market, they would, I believe, answer your views, I am sure they would answer mine: I therefore think you ought to have some patience. William Forbes tells me, he can find hands for your Money, out of which you may easily call it when ther shall be occasion. The Interest will bring more Money into your Pocket than the rent of any Lands you can meet with; and I shall have it in my Eye, whenever any Lands fit for you, according to the views I have already explained, offer, to lay hold of them for your Service. In the mean time, show this to Hugh; compare Notes with him, and tell me whether you approve of my sentiments. I am just going North, after being wrought to a jelly by the Rascally Business I am tyed to.

Edinburgh, 7th August 1739.

I am, dear Sandy, truely yours,

DUN. FORBES.

No. CXCIII.

My Lord,

The Lord President to Lord Hardwicke.

THE latter end of June a Letter from M' Meriot, directed to the Lord President of the Session at Edinburgh, came to my hand, inclosing the Order made by the House of Peers on the Lords of Session in Scotland, to make up a Roll or List of the Peers of Scotland at the time of the Union, whose Peerages are still continueing; and to state in such Roll, or List, so far as the Lords of Session shall be able, the particular limitations of such Peerages; and to lay the same before the House in the next Session of Parliament.

When I have acquainted your Lop that our Records, through many Cross Accidents, at, & long before the Usurpation of Oliver Cromwell, are so broken and interrupted, that we cannot by their help come at the limitations of Peerages; and when you reflect, that we have no Authority to bring persons possest of or claiming Peerages before

before us, or to cause them exhibit their patents, or other titles, you will easiely see it is impossible for us to give to the Peers that satisfaction, which the Order seems to expect; and that nothing less than ane Act of Parliament, oblidgeing all Persons, ag' a Day certain, to claim & exhibite their Titles, can enable us to do it. I do not, however, wonder that such ane Order shou'd be thought of, by noble Lords, who do not know the state of our Records; but I am confident my Countryman, my Lord Ilay, has not been in the House when it was made; because he cou'd have satisfied them, the execution of it, as it stands, is impracticable.

Your Lop by this time sees the Court of Session can do nothing to purpose on this Order; but what I chiefly presume to give you trouble on is a matter meerly of form, which alarms some of us, and in which I, as your Old Friend Duncan Forbes, and not as President of the Court, beg your advice. We are, you must know, when we are seated, very high & mighty. Our Soveraigns, ever since the Union of the Crowns, when they had any Commands for us, did us the honour to write to us; and some of us imagine, that when the House of Lords are pleased to make any Order upon us (otherwise than in the ordinary course of Judgement on Appealls), it ought to be notyfied to us, and transmitted to us, in some way different from what on this occasion has been followed, a Letter from the Assistant Clerk.

Orders made by the Lords on the Judges of England require no Notification, because the judges either are, or are supposed to be, in the House; but that not being our case, some form of Notification ought to be established.

Orders made in Causes at Appeall are brought back to us with the cause, are part thereof, & regulate our proceedings.

I can recollect but one instance since the Union, until this time, in which the House of Lords made any such Order as I now speak of on the Court of Session; and that was on occasion of the Act of Parliament of the 4th of the late King, which created to the Court of Session a new jurifdiction, of hearing and determineing all exceptions taken by Persons interested in Estates supposed to be forfeited, ag' the late Commissioners of Inquiry, &c. In execution of this Act, the Court of Session proceeded to give judgment in many cases which the House of Lords thought did not fall within the jurisdiction then given to them; and therefore the Lords ordered the Court of Session to lay before their Lõp', their reasons for takeing upon them to proceed in these Cases. This Order was transmitted (as I have been told by my Brethren) by the late Lord Macclesfield, then Lord Chancellor, and the Answer of the Court was returned to his Lop; tho' I can neither find the Order nor the Ans', nor the Lord Chancellor's Letter, in our books. of Sederunt: in such Order was the Business of the Court keept at that time.

For my own part, I must confess to your Lop, that I am altogether unacquainted with matters of form, or rather punctilios of this kind, and as litle disposed as any man to lay any stres upon them. But if it should be your Lop Opinion, as I must own, so far as I have been able to form any, it is mine, that this Order, and future Orders of this kind, should be transmitted in a manner different from that in which this has been sent to us, it will be easie to sett the matter to Rights; and if the contrary shall be your Opinion, the reasons of it will very much determine mine. I beg that your Lop may, with the same freedom that you have at all times honoured me with, give me your sentiments on this subject, however triffleing it may seem to be; knowing that it will go no further than for the regulation of my private conduct. Some of my Brethren were desireous that I, as President, shou'd write to your Lop in form; but that I absolutely declined, because it might be unfitt for your Lop to return me any answer in that Capacity. What you may be pleased to say, in return to this, will be for me and for me only.

I am ashamed for have [having] detained you so long on a subject that is so inconsiderable, compared with what dayly occupys you; but I know you will pardon me, because

Edin' 7th August 1739.

I am most faithfully your Lõp's, &c.

No. CXCIV.

My Lord,

From Lord Hardwicke to the Lord President."

Carshalton, Sep 27th 1739.

I RECEIVED the honour of your Lordship's letter of the 31" August, which should have been sooner acknowledged, if I had not been making use of the Leisure of this short vacation in moving about from one place to another. Your Lordship's notion of the propriety of avoiding such disputes as that now under consideration, is perfectly agreeable to your usual prudence and candour; and my mind entertained not the least doubt of what was your own opinion about the conduct which the Court ought to hold on this occasion, even before you particularly stated it to me. As to the right of the case, I will own with great freedom, that I think no point of Right is concerned in it, and am not able to add any thing to what I took the liberty to offer to your Lordship's Consideration in my former letter*, especially being at present in the Country at a distance (I thank God) from all Journals, and books of that nature. But as to the difference (whereon your Brethren seem to found themselves) between the Courts of England and your Court, in respect of the presumption that the English Judges are always present in the House of Lords, it seems to be far from being decisive in this case. Thus much is certain, that the English Judges are called by writ, and have a right to be there; but it is settled by constant and ancient practice, that only two of them attend daily by rotation; and the House frequently makes orders for the attendance of all the Judges, sometimes of the Judges of one particular Court, and sometimes of such as are not gone the Circuits. These Orders are never signified by the Lord on the Woolsack, but always delivered by the lowest Officers of the House; tho' when an Order is made on any particular Lord, who is absent, either to attend the House or for any other purpose, such Order is always transmitted to him by letter from the Speaker. This shews that the non-transmission of the Orders of the House by the Speaker, to the English Judges, doth not arise from their being presumed to be present; for so, à fortiori, are all the Peers, and yet Orders made upon them are constantly so notified.

1

If the supposition of the English Judges being present, is compared to the Case of a party in a Cause depending, who, after appearance, is always supposed to be in Court, that also would not, according to our rules, afford any argument why the Orders of the House should not so be notified to them; for, with us, Orders made in a Cause must be served either upon the Party or his Agent before he is obliged to obey them, or can be subjected to the penalty of a contempt for not doing it; unless in some few special Cases.

Your Lordship is pleased to make a very polite acknowledgement of my offer to receive the answer of the Court, if sent up to me, and to deliver it to the House with my own hands. You may be assured that I shall never be wanting in my regard to so.