Kings of Spain had ufurped the eftates of his ancestors, who, he faid, had formerly reigned in Arragon; and she, haughty and vain-glorious, conceived the hope of feeing him reinftated by the power and intereft of her father. The last fickness of this princess was dreadful. She had got cold after a delivery, and languifhed about a month, when he died with fome figus of repentance. She was regretted by nobody, not even by her father. She entrusted a certain person with a box of jewels of great value for Riom, who was abfent, but the matter being discovered, they were feized by the regent as her heir. The other children of the regent were still at that time (1715) under age. Charlotte Elizabeth of Bavaria, dowager of Monfieur, only brother of the late king and mother of the regent, ftill kept her court at the Palais royal, at the age of feventy, and kept it with dignity. She had preferved all the decencies and all the etiquette of the old Court; fhe liked its pomp, its pleasures, and its shows; she had likewife preferved whatever was blunt and favage in the manners of her youth, and of her native country, for The was entirely German in her principles and difcourfe. She was frank, and fincere, without difguife, without prudery, and always the declared enemy of Madame de Maintenon, whom she never called any thing but the old faw, the forcerefs, the bigst, the widow Scarron. The king's favourite bore all this with feeming patience, becaufe fhe was fenfible fhe had alienated the king's heart from Madame. This princefs wore a perriwig like a man; fhe kept a pack of hounds, went a hunting, handled the fword and the gun, and all forts of arms. She was palionately fond of the regent her fon, becaufe fhe faw in him a great many qualities which he had only of her, and her attachment fhewed itself even in favour of all the illegitimate children of that prince, whom the took care of. When fhe was at home alone, fhe spent her time in writing letters to all the courts of Germany, and faid fhe had in her life addreffed to them anecdotes of the Court of France, that would have made more than ten volumes in folio. She lived on the coarseft fare, and her health was fo vigorous, that at the age of fixty fhe had not once been fick. After the death of the King, she went, out of decency, to vifit Madame de Maintenon; but the reproached her bitterly with having ravished from her the confidence of the king, and of having endeavoured to prevail with him, on the death of.Monfieur, to fend her to a convent. Anecdotes of Law, and of the beginnings of his Syftem †. AW was the fon of a filverfmith in Edinburgh, who left him a fmall patrimony, which he diffipated in a fhort time, and then lived by gaming and cheating. The parliament of Scotland, being at that period engaged in discovering the means of fupplying the kingdom with money, and of facilitating the circulation of fpecie, he propofed his pernicious fyftem to that body. The parliament, however, forefeeing that, in the end, it would oblige people to take paper inftead of coin, and would give reality to obje&s which could have none intrinfically but from the confidence of the public, decreed that a scheme which tended to establish credit upon a fiction, was pernicious to morality, contrary to the laws, and dangerous to the state. + From the fame. Law, Law, afterwards prevailed on a perfon, who had formerly been fecretary to Turenne, to write to Pelletier, then comptroller general, with a propofal for enriching Louis XIV. and preventing his fubjects for ever from revolting against their lawful fove reigns. This new fyftem was rejected in France. Law now took it into his head to travel, that he might present his plans himfelf. He was tall, well made, and graceful; and was a man of abilities. He was accompanied in his travels by a woman whom he had carried off from her husband in England, and by whom he had a fon and a daughter. He had killed a man in this latter kingdom, and having been condemned to death for the murder, he was conftantly in danger of being taken and hanged. The regent at laft obtained his pardon, when the Abbé Dubois went to London to negociate the league against Spain. In his flight from juftice he had vifi. ted Italy, and had been banished from Venice and Genoa, because he contrived to drain the youth of these cities of their money, by his fuperiority in calculation, that is, by being a cheat and a fharper. He wandered over all Italy, living on the event of the moft fingular bets and wagers, which feemed to be advantageous to those who were curious after novelty; but which were always of the most certain fuccefs with regard to him. He arrived at Turin, and propofed his fyftem to the Duke of Savoy, who faw at once that, by deceiving his fubjects, he would in a fhort time have the whole money of the kingdom in his poffeffion: but that fagacious prince afking him how his fubjects were to pay their taxes when all their money should be gone, Law was difconcerted, not expecting fuch a question. The Duke, two days afterwards, relating to the deputies from Geneva how he had difmiffed this adventurer, they were fo pleased with his question, that they fent an account of it to their republic, who caufed to be registered in the records of their city, a fentiment so worthy of the beft of kings, whofe wealth certainly confifts in that of their fubjects. Having been condemned to death in England, banished from Italy, and repulfed at Turin, Law proceeded to Paris, where he was already known as a mad projector. In the life time of Louis XIV. he had prefented his fchemes to Defmareft and to Chamillard, who had rejected fuch innovations. He now propofed them to the Duc d'Orleans, who defired Noailles to examine them, to be as favourable in his report as poffible, and to remark fuch of them as were practicable. Noailles called in the affiftance of feveral merchants and bankers who were averfe to the fyftem. Law then propofed the establishment of å bank, compofed of a company, with a stock of fix millions. Such an institution promifed to be very advantageous to commerce. An arret of the 2d March 1716 eftablished this bank, by authority, in favour of Law and his affociates; two hundred thousand shares were inftituted of one thoufand livres each; Law depofited in it to the value of two or three thousand crowns which he had accumulated in Italy, by gaming or cheating. This eftablifhment very much difpleafed the bankers, becaufe at the beginning bufinefs was tranfacted here at a very fmall premium, which the old financiers had charged very highly. Many people had at firft little confidence in this bank, but when it was found that the payments were made with quicknefs and punctuality, they began to prefer its notes to ready money. Such was the commencement of Law's bank. Noailles and Rouiller purged the plans of that adventurer from whatever was rafh or unjuft in them, and left nothing but what tended to facilitate commerce. Account Account of the Right Honourable Sir Thomas Miller of Glenlee, Bart. Lord Prefident of the Court of Seffion, and F. R. S. Edinburgh. By David Hume, Efq. [From Tranf. of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.] T has often occurred to me, as a hard circumftance in the lot of thofe who follow the active employments of life, that however great their eminence, however useful their labours, nay, however rate and excellent their talents, the remembrance of them dies among their countrymen at large, almost as foon as they themselves are gone; and even with thofe of their own profeffions fcarcely furvives for more than a fingle generation. The records of the Royal Society are therefore in this refpect valuable, that they afford the means of refcuing from oblivion, thofe of our Members who, by their profeffional eminence and fervices, have merited the gratitude and remembrance of their country, though their line of life did not permit them to attain distinction of another kind, by any literary work or difcovery in fcience. I thought it would be univerfally felt and allowed, that the late Sir Thomas Miller, (at one time a Vice Prefident of this Society), moft juftly fell under the above defcription of a fingularly useful man, and fit to be commemorated. And in this perfuafion, I have prepared a fhort account of him, now to be fubmitted to your confideration. Sir Thomas Miller of Glenlee, late Lord Prefident of the Court of Seffion, was the fecond fon of William Miller writer to the Signet, who was himself the fecond fon of Matthew Miller of Glenlee, and fucceeded to that eftate, along with the lands of on the death of his el Barkimming, der brother. Sir Thomas was born on the 3d of November 1717. He received the first rudiments of his education at Glasgow, and afterwards went thro' VOL. XII. No. 67. B the ufual courfe of academical ftudies in the University of that place; where he acquired a relish of the purfuits of literature and fcience, that never forfook him, and efpecially a fondness for the Greek and Roman claffics, which, even in the bafieft periods of his life, he occafionally found opportunities to indulge. Horace was almost his conftant companion; and even in his latt years, after his promotion to the mott laborious office in the law, Homer, during a vacation, was often on his table. Another branch of knowledge for which he there imbibed an early predilection, was that of Ethics, or Moral Philofophy. This he had the advantage of ftudying under the celebrated Dr Hutchefon, of whom he was a favourite pupil. The warmth of eloquence with which this Philofopher poured forth his lectures, attached to him extremely all thofe of his hearers who had any liking to the fubje&t he treated, or wre fufceptible of being moved; and Mr Miller, in particular, contracted not only a high admiration of his talents, but fuch love to him as a man, that long after his death, and when he himself had grown old, he could not mention his name but in terms of gratitude and veneration, equal to thofe in which the difciples of Socrates fpoke of their mafter. Like Socrates too, Dr Hutchefon taught his difciples to value Ethics beyond all other fciences; and with Mr Miller this preference was fo ftrong, that he used habitually in converfation, when diftinguishing it from the reft, to give it the appellation of Philofophy. Having thus, by the improvement of his tafte, and the acquifition of a philofophic fpirit, made the beft preparation for eminence in any liberal employment, employment, he decided for the Bar, the profeffio to which thofe accomplishments lend the most diftinguished luitre of any, and where they moft materially contribute to the advance net of the perfon poffeffed of them. For fome time he had hefitated between this profeffion and his father's; and it is faid to have been in a great measure owing to the state of his health, that he gave up thoughts of the latter. When he had refolved on going to the Bar, he fixed his refidence at Edinburgh, and devoted himself to the ftudy of the law, with that zeal and earneftnefs with which, during his whole life, he was remarkable for following every object that had at once determined his choice *. Yet with all his diligence in this neceffary occupation, as the turn of his mind led him to no bafe or trifling purfaits, he was able to find time, and neglected not to employ it, for cultivating the humaner and more liberal ft die Even at this time, he continued to read the claffics extenfively, particularly the better Greek authors, having for his affiftant the late Mr George Muirhead, afterwards Profeffor of Humanity at Glafgow, whofe reputation as a claffical fcholar is well known. In the mouth of July 1742 he was called to the Bar. Where he had not long continued, before the most favourable opinion came to be entertained, among the perfons beft entitled to judge, of the proficiency he. had made in the knowledge of the law, and of his excellent qualifications, both for counfel and debate. His elocution was copious and eafy; his felection of argument judicious, and his mode of prefenting it, in the highest degree perfpicuous and plain; and he accompanied it with a manner of delivery fo weighty and feryent, as carried home to the hearer the impreffion of his own belief in No wonder then, that thus qualified, and regulated by fentiments fo refpectable, he quickly rofe to a high degree of employment in his profeffion, though he had among his cotemporaries, for rivals in the public favour, men of the greatest acuteness and fplendour of parts. Hence alfo he, at an early period of life, entered the career of public offices and honour in the department of the law. In the year 1748, on the new 'arrangement of the office of Sheriff, (which has been attended with fo many falutary confequences) he was pitched upon as a fit perfon for one of thofe appointments. The county which Government His usual hour of going to bed at this period was four of the morning. Government had deftined for him, was that of Inverness, in those times of recent diforder and rebellion, accounted the most important of any; and what required the fteadieft and moft able fuperintendence. But this appointment, though more advantageous, he declined; because his friend the Earl of Selkirk had recommended him to Government for the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, and it had been understood between him and the Earl that he was to accept it. The duties of this office he performed with great punctuality, and to the entire fatisfaction of the district entrusted to his charge; and he continued to hold it till the year 1755, when he refigned, and was named Solicitor of Excife-an office in thofe days generally held by a lawyer. In the year 1759, on the promo tion of Mr Pringle (afterwards Lord Alemore) to the Bench, he reaped the fruit of the public favour, in being appointed his Majesty's SolicitorGeneral for Scotland. In the year 1760, he fucceeded the late Prefident Dundas as his Majesty's Advocate for Scotland, and in the following year he was chofen to ferve in Parliament for the burgh of Dumfries. While in thefe ftations, Mr Miller, whofe modefty and difcretion were equal to his ability, did not think it fo much incumbent on him to take an active fhare in the debates of the Affembly, as to regulate his voice according to his opinion of the public good. The fingle occafion that call ed him up as a fpeaker, was indeed of a very interefting kind, and became a fignal proof of the independence of his fpirit, and fincere concern in the grandeur and profperity of the British empire. This was the repeal of the American flamp act; a meafure in which Mr Miller's fagacity forefaw the miferable train of confequences that have fince enfued from it, and which, though fupported by all the in fluence of the then Ministry, he accordingly both voted againft, and gave his reafons to the Hoafe for oppofing-A moft refpectable and truly patriotic piece of conduct, and of which he reaped a juft, but unlookedfor reward, in the friendship and efteem of the Marquis of Rockingham; who, however loath to have an opponent in the principal fervant of the Crown for Scotland, yet, fatisfied that he had taken this line from the pureft and moft difinterefted motives, continued him in his public station, and ever after honoured him with his par ticular attention. In the year 1766, on the death of Lord Minto, he was appointed Lord Juftice Clerk; which office both beftows the Prefidency of the highest Criminal Tribunal, and a feat as an ordinary Judge in the fupreme Civil Court. In thefe high ftations, he fully juftified the choice that had been made of him, and foon, by his fcrupulous attendance on the Court, and affiduous labour in the dispatch of bufinefs, gained a high place in the efteem and confidence of the public, as a man deeply impreffed with the importance of his duties, and actuated by a warm and steady zeal confcientioufly to difcharge them. And this tafk he accomplished, in the civil department, in fuch a manner, as both added credit to the Court of which he was a member, and was of the moft effential fervice to the interefts of law and justice. For befides the learning and experience, acquired by long study and extenfive pras ice, he was poffeffed of many other more material qualifications, which added much to the power of thofe attainments, and peculiarly fitted him for the important charge of deciding on the rights of his fellow-citizens. B 2 He was happy in a great natural temperance of difpofition and foundnefs of judgment. Whence, though he was well able to pursue an intri cate |
