(Henry), Lord Kames, an eminent Scottish lawyer, and author of many celebrated works on various subjects, was descended of a very honourable and ancient family, and born in the year 1696. Lord Kames's grandfather, Henry Home, was a younger son of Sir John Home of Renton, who held the high office of lord justice-clerk, or chief criminal judge of Scotland, in the year 1663. He received the estate of Kames from his uncle George, brother to the then lord justice-clerk. The family of Renton is descended from that of the earls of Home, the representatives of the ancient princes of Northumberland, as appears from the records of the Lion Office.

The county of Berwick in Scotland has the honour of having given birth to this great and useful member of society. In early youth he was lively, and eager in the acquisition of knowledge. He never attended a public school; but was instructed in the ancient and modern languages, as well as in several branches of mathematics, and the arts necessarily connected with that science, by Mr Wingate, a man of considerable parts and learning, who spent many years as preceptor or private tutor to Mr Home.

After studying, with acuteness and diligence, at the university of Edinburgh, the civil law, and the municipal law of his own country, Mr Home early perceived that a knowledge of these alone is not sufficient to make an accomplished lawyer. An acquaintance with the forms and practical business of courts, and especially of the supreme court, as a member of which he was to seek for fame and emolument, he considered as essentially necessary to qualify him to be a complete barrister. He accordingly attended for some time the chamber of a writer to the signet, where he had an opportunity of learning the styles of legal deeds, and the modes of conducting different species of business. This wise step, independently of his great genius and unwearied application, procured him, after his admission to the bar, peculiar respect from the court, and proportional employment in his profession of an advocate. Whoever peruses the law-papers composed by Mr Home when a young man, will perceive an uncommon elegance of style, besides great ingenuity of reasoning, and a thorough knowledge of the law and constitution of his country. These qualifications, together with the strength and vivacity of his natural abilities, soon raised him to be an ornament to the Scottish bar; and, on the 2d day of February 1752, he was advanced to the bench as one of the judges of the court of session, under the title of Lord Kames.

Before this period, however, notwithstanding the unavoidable labours of his profession, Mr Home had favoured the world with several useful and ingenious works. In the year 1728, he published Remarkable Decisions of the Court of Session from 1716 to 1728, in one vol. folio.—In 1732 appeared Essays upon several subjects in law, viz. Fust tertii; Beneficium calendarum actio-num; Vinco Vincentem; and Preception; in one volume 8vo. This first produce of his original genius, and of his extensive views, excited not only the attention, but the admiration of the judges, and of all the other members of the college of justice. This work was succeeded, in the year 1741, by Decisions of the Court of Session from its first institution to the year 1740, abridged and digested under proper heads, in form of a Dictionary, in two volumes folio: A very laborious work, and of the greatest utility to every practical lawyer. In 1747 appeared Essays upon several subjects concerning British Antiquities, viz. 1. Introduction of the feudal law into Scotland. 2. Constitution of parliament. 3. Honour, Dignity. 4. Succession, or Defect; with an appendix upon hereditary and indefeasible rights, composed anno 1745, and published 1747, in one volume 8vo. In a preface to this work, Lord Kames informs us, that in the years 1745 and 1746, when the nation was in great suspense and distraction, he retired to the country; and in order to banish as much as possible the uneasiness of his mind, he contrived the plan, and executed this ingenious performance.

Though not in the order of time, we shall continue the list of all our author's writings on law, before we proceed to his productions on other subjects. In 1757, he published The Statute law of Scotland abridged, with historical notes, in one volume 8vo; a most useful and laborious work. In the year 1759, he presented to the public a new work under the title of Hydro- Home rical Law Tracts, in one vol. 8vo. It contains fourteen interesting tracts, viz. History of the Criminal Law;—History of Promises and Covenants;—History of Property;—History of Securities upon and for Payment of Debt;—History of the Privilege which an Heir-apparent in a feudal holding has to continue the Possession of his Ancestor;—History of Royalties, and of the Privilege of repleging;—History of Courts;—History of Brieves;—History of Process in absence;—History of Execution against Moveables and Land for Payment of Debt;—History of Personal Execution for Payment of Debt;—History of Execution for obtaining Payment after the Death of the Debtor;—History of the limited and universal Representation of Heirs;—Old and New Extent. In 1769, he published, in one volume folio, The Principles of Equity; a work which shows both the fertility of the author's genius and his indefatigable application. In 1766, he gave to the public another volume in folio of Remarkable Decisions of the Court of Session, from 1730 to 1752. In 1777, appeared his Elucidations respecting the Common and Statute Law of Scotland, in one volume 8vo. This book contains many curious and interesting remarks upon some intricate and dubious points which occur in the law of Scotland. In 1780, he published a volume in folio of Select Decisions of the Court of Session from 1752 to 1768.

From this sketch of Lord Kames's compositions and collections with a view to improve and elucidate the laws of Scotland, the reader may form some idea of his great industry, and of his anxious desire to promote the honour and welfare of his country. It remains to be remarked, that in the supreme court there, the law writings of Lord Kames are held in equal estimation, and quoted with equal respect, as those of Coke or Blackstone in the courts of England.

Lord Kames's mind was very much inclined to metaphysical disquisitions. When a young man, in order to improve himself in his favourite study, he corresponded with the famous Berkeley bishop of Cloyne, Dr Butler bishop of Durham, Dr Samuel Clark, and many other ingenious and learned men both in Britain and Ireland. The letters of correspondence, we are happy to learn, have been carefully preserved by his son and heir George Home-Drummond, Esq; of Blair-Dummond.

The year 1751 gave birth to the first fruits of his Lordship's metaphysical studies, under the title of Essays on the Principles of Morality and natural Religion, in two parts. Though a small volume, it was replete with ingenuity and acute reasoning, excited general attention, and gave rise to much controversy. It contained, in more explicit terms than perhaps any other work of a religious tenor then known in Scotland, the doctrine which has of late made so much noise under the appellation of philosophical necessity. The same thing had indeed been taught by Hobbes, by Collins, and by the celebrated David Hume, Esq; but as those authors either were professed infidels, or were supposed to be such, it excited, as coming from them, no wonder, and provoked for a time very little indignation. But when a writer, who exhibited no symptoms of extravagant scepticism, who intimated nothing against the truth of revelation in general, and who inculcated with earnestness the great duties of morality and natural religion, advanced at the same time so uncommon a doctrine as that of Home's necessity; a number of pens were immediately drawn against him, and for a while the work and its author were extremely obnoxious to a great part of the Scottish nation. On the other hand, there were some, and those not totally illiterate, who, confounding necessity with predestination, complimented Mr Home on his masterly defence of the established faith; and though between these two schemes there is no sort of resemblance, except that the future happiness or misery of all men is, according to both, certainly fore-known and appointed by God; yet we remember, that a professor in a dissenting academy so far mistook the one for the other, that he recommended to his pupils the Essays on morality and natural religion, as containing a complete vindication of the doctrine of Calvin. For this mistake he was dismissed from his office, and excluded from the communion of the sect to which he belonged. Lord Kames, like many other great and good men, continued a Nonconformist to the day of his death; but in a subsequent edition of the essays, he exhibited a remarkable proof of his candor and liberality of sentiment, by altering the expressions, which, contrary to his intention, had given such general offence.

In 1761, he published an Introduction to the Art of Thinking, in one volume 12mo. This small but valuable book was originally intended for the instruction of his own family. The plan of it is both curious, amusing, and highly calculated to catch the attention and to improve the minds of youth. It consists of maxims collected from Rochefoucauld and many other authors. To illustrate these maxims, and to rivet their spirit and meaning in the minds of young persons, his Lordship has added to most of them beautiful stories, fables, and historical anecdotes.

In the department of belles lettres, his Elements of Criticism appeared in 1762, in three volumes 8vo. This valuable work is the first and a most successful attempt to show, that the art of criticism is founded on the principles of human nature. Such a plan, it might be thought, should have produced a dry and phlegmatic performance. Lord Kames, on the contrary, from the sprightliness of his manner of treating every subject he handled, has rendered the Elements of Criticism not only highly instructive, but one of the most entertaining books in our language. Before this work was published, Rollin's Belles Lettres, a dull performance, from which a student could derive little advantage, was universally recommended as a standard; but, after the Elements of Criticism were presented to the public, Rollin instantly vanished, and gave place to greater genius and greater utility. With regard to real instruction and genuine taste in composition of every kind, a student, a gentleman, or a scholar, can in no language find such a fertile field of information. Lord Kames, accordingly, had the happiness of seeing the good effects of his labours, and of enjoying for twenty years a reputation which he so justly merited.

A still farther proof of the genius and various pursuits of this active mind was given in the year 1772, when his Lordship published a work in one volume 8vo, under the title of The Gentleman Farmer, being an attempt to improve Agriculture by subjecting it to the test of rational principles. Our limits do not permit us to give details; but, with regard to this book, we must must inform the public, that all the intelligent farmers in Scotland uniformly declare, that, after perusing Young, Dickson, and a hundred other writers on agriculture, Lord Kames's Gentleman Farmer contains the best practical and rational information on the various articles of husbandry which can anywhere be obtained. As a practical farmer, Lord Kames has given many obvious proofs of his skill. After he succeeded, in right of his lady, to the ample estate of Blair-Dummond in the county of Perth, he formed a plan for turning a large moor, consisting of at least 1500 acres, into arable land. His Lordship had the pleasure, before he died, to see the plan successfully, though only partially, executed. The same plan is now carrying on in a much more rapid manner by his son George Drummond, Esq. But as this is not a proper place for details of this nature, we must refer the reader to the article Moss; where a particular account of this extraordinary, but extensively useful, operation shall be given.

In the year 1773, Lord Kames favoured the world with Sketches of the History of Man, in 2 vols 4to. This work consists of a great variety of facts and observations concerning the nature of man; the produce of much and profitable reading. In the course of his studies and reasonings, he had amassed a vast collection of materials. These, when considerably advanced in years, he digested under proper heads, and submitted them to the consideration of the public. He intended that this book should be equally intelligible to women as to men; and, to accomplish this end, when he had occasion to quote ancient or foreign books, he uniformly translated the passages. The Sketches contain much useful information; and, like all his Lordship's other performances, are lively and entertaining.

We now come to Lord Kames's last work, to which he modestly gives the title of Loose Hints upon Education, chiefly concerning the Culture of the Heart. It was published in the year 1781, in one vol. 8vo, when the venerable and astonishing author was in the 85th year of his age. Though his Lordship chose to call them Loose Hints, the intelligent reader will perceive in this composition an uncommon activity of mind at an age so far advanced beyond the usual period of human life, and an earnest desire to form the minds of youth to honour, to virtue, to industry, and to a veneration of the Deity.

Besides the books we have enumerated, Lord Kames published many temporary and fugitive pieces in different periodical works. In the Essays Physical and Literary, published by a society of gentlemen in Edinburgh, we find compositions of his Lordship On the Laws of Motion, On the Advantages of Shallow Ploughing, and on Evaporation; all of which exhibit evident marks of genius and originality of thinking.

How a man employed through life in public busines, and in busines of the first importance, could find leisure for so many different pursuits, and excel in them (a), it is not easy for a meaner mind to form even a conception. Much, no doubt, is to be attributed to the superiority of his genius; but much must likewise have been the result of a proper distribution of his time. He rose early; when in the vigour of life at four o'clock, in old age at six; and studied all morning. When the court was fitting, the duties of his office employed him from eight or nine till twelve or one; after which, if the weather permitted, he walked for two hours with some literary friends, and then went home to dinner. Whilst he was on the bench, and we believe when he was at the bar, he neither gave nor accepted invitations to dinner during the term or session; and if any friend came uninvited to dine with him, his Lordship displayed his usual cheerfulness and hospitality, but always retired with his clerk as soon as he had drunk a very few glasses of wine, leaving his company to be entertained by his lady. The afternoon was spent as the morning had been, in study. In the evening he went to the theatre or the concert, from which he returned to the society of some men of learning, with whom he sat late, and displayed such talents for conversation as are not often found. It is observed by a late celebrated author, that "to read, write, and converse, in due proportions, is the busines of a man of letters; and that he who hopes to look back hereafter with satisfaction upon past years, must learn to know the value of single minutes, and endeavour to let no particle of time fall useless to the ground." It was by practising these lessons that Lord Kames rose to literary eminence, in opposition to all the obstructions which the tumult of public busines could place in his way.

To give a proper delineation of the public and private character of Lord Kames, would far exceed our limits. The writer of this article, however, who had the honour of an intimate acquaintance with this great and good man for more than twenty years, must be indulged in adding a few facts which fell under his own observation.

Lord Kames was remarkable for public spirit, to which he conjoined activity and great exertion. He for a long tract of time had the principal management of all the societies and boards for promoting the trade, fisheries, and manufactures, in Scotland. As conducive to those ends, he was a strenuous advocate for making and repairing turnpike roads through every part of the country. He had likewise a chief lead in the distribution and application of the funds arising from the estates in Scotland which had unfortunately been annexed to the crown. He was no less zealous in supporting, both with his writings and personal influence, literary associations. He was in some measure the parent of what was called the Physical and Literary Society. This society was afterwards incorporated

(a) Upon reflecting on the studiousness of Lord Kames's disposition, and his numerous literary productions, the reader will naturally recall to his mind a striking similarity between his Lordship and the laborious Pliny the Elder. In a letter from Pliny the Younger to Macer, the following passage occurs, which is equally applicable to both: Nonne videtur tibi, recordanti quantum legerit, quantum scripserit, nec in officiis ullis, nec in amicitia principum jutte? which is thus translated by Melmoth: "When you reflect on the books he has read and the volumes he has written, are you not inclined to suspect, that he never was engaged in the affairs of the public, or the service of his prince?" rated into the Royal Society of Edinburgh, which received a charter from the crown, and which is daily producing marks of genius, as well as works of real utility.

As a private and domestic gentleman, Lord Kames was admired by both sexes. The vivacity of his wit and of his animal spirits, even when advanced in years, rendered his company not only agreeable, but greatly solicited by the literati, and courted by ladies of the highest rank and accomplishments. He told very few stories; and rarely, if ever, repeated the same story to the same person. From the necessity of retailing anecdotes, the miserable refuse of those who, without genius, attempt to shine in conversation, the abundance of his own mind set him free; for his wit or his learning always suggested what the occasion required. He could with equal ease and readiness combat the opinions of a metaphysician, unravel the intricacies of law, talk with a farmer on improvements in agriculture, or estimate with a lady the merits of the dress in fashion. Instead of being jealous of rivals, the characteristic of little minds, Lord Kames fostered and encouraged every symptom of merit that he could discover in the scholar, or in the lowest mechanic. Before he succeeded to the estate of Blair-Dummond, his fortune was small. Notwithstanding this circumstance, he, in conjunction with Mrs Drummond, his respectable and accomplished spouse, did much more service to the indigent than most families of greater opulence. If the present necessity was pressing, they gave money. They did more: When they discovered that male or female petitioners were capable of performing any art or labour, both parties exerted themselves in procuring that species of work which the poor people could perform. In cases of this kind, which were very frequent, the lady took charge of the women and his Lordship of the men. From what has been said concerning the various and numerous productions of his genius, it is obvious that there could be few idle moments in his long protracted life. His mind was incessantly employed; either teeming with new ideas, or pursuing active and laborious occupations. At the same time, with all this intellectual ardour, one great feature in the character of Lord Kames, beside his literary talents and his public spirit, was a remarkable innocence of mind. He not only never indulged in detraction, but when any species of scandal was exhibited in his company, he either remained silent, or endeavoured to give a different turn to the conversation. As natural consequences of this amiable disposition, he never meddled with politics, even when parties ran to indecent lengths in this country; and, what is still more remarkable, he never wrote a sentence, notwithstanding his numerous publications, without a direct and a manifest intention to benefit his fellow-creatures. In his temper he was naturally warm, though kindly and affectionate. In the friendships he formed, he was ardent, zealous, and sincere. So far from being inclined to irreligion, as some ignorant bigots insinuated, few men possessed a more devout habit of thought. A constant sense of Deity, and a veneration for Providence, dwelt upon his mind. From this source arose that propensity which appears in all his writings, of investigating final causes, and tracing the wisdom of the Supreme Author of nature. But here we must stop. Lord Kames, to the great regret of the public, died on the 27th day of December 1782. As he had no marked disease but the debility necessarily resulting from extreme old age, a few days before his death he went to the Court of Session, addressed all the judges separately, told them he was speedily to depart, and took a solemn and an affectionate farewell.