ALEXANDER, a celebrated critic and civilian, was the son of John Cunningham, minister of Cumnock, in Ayrshire, and the owner of a small estate, named Block, and situated in the same county. He was Cunningham.

The time of his birth and the place of his education have not hitherto been ascertained. The earliest employment in which we find him engaged was that of tutor to Lord George Douglas, who was a younger son of the first duke of Queensberry, and died in the year 1693. It was probably through the influence of this noble family that he was appointed professor of the civil law in the university of Edinburgh. In 1698 the Scottish parliament voted a salary of one hundred and fifty pounds sterling to Alexander Cunningham, as professor of the civil law, "nominat et designat ad illud professionem." The act was to continue in force during the period of five years; and the same provision in his favour was, for the same period, renewed in 1704. On the 18th of October 1710, the magistrates of Edinburgh, without recognizing any former appointment, nominated James Craig professor of the civil law. He was a descendant of the famous Sir Thomas Craig, and is said to have filled his situation in a manner not unworthy of his ancestor. The city magistrates, regarding themselves as the proper patrons of the university, have always entertained the greatest jealousy of any interference on the part of the crown; and as Cunningham must have held a royal professorship, they would studiously decline to recognize his appointment. The payment of his salary must have ceased at the expiration of the second term of five years, that is, in 1709; and it was in the course of the ensuing year that the magistrates established another chair; nor is it superfluous to mention that this new foundation took place after the death of the duke of Queensberry, who had acted as her majesty's commissioner at the important crisis of the union.

So early as the year 1590, the judges, the magistrates, and the advocates and clerks to the signet, had raised a fund of L3000 for the endowment of a professorship of law in the university of Edinburgh; each of these three parties contributing an equal portion. Adam Newton, an Cunningham advocate, was first appointed to the office; but having neglected to obtain the approbation of the magistrates, he was dismissed in the year 1594. He afterwards procured better employment, and successively became tutor and secretary to Prince Henry. In the professorship he was succeeded by Hadrian Damman of Bisterveld, who was born in the neighbourhood of Ghent, and there was for some time employed in teaching the classics; he retained the chair for a few years, and was afterwards resident of the States-General at the court of Scotland. In the year 1597, after his resignation, the interest of one third of the sum formerly contributed was allotted for a professor of humanity, and the interest of the remainder for the maintenance of six exhibitors. Newton and Damman had both taught humanity, without reading any public lectures on law. After the more recent foundation of a law-professorship, the resort of Scottish students to the foreign universities became somewhat less frequent, but the practice was never entirely discontinued; and of the present race of lawyers, several have studied at Leyden, Utrecht, and Göttingen.

It is highly probable that Cunningham had completed his academical course at Leyden or Utrecht. He had equally devoted his attention to the studies of philology and the civil law, which at that period were not very vigorously cultivated in his native country; and he at length fixed his residence in Holland, where those studies were prosecuted with uncommon ardour and success. A late writer has erroneously described him as an advocate; in the records of the faculty for that period, we find no advocate of the same name. He now settled at the Hague, where he appears to have resided during the remainder of his life; but we can discover no evidence of his having there taught "both the civil and canon laws." He apparently lived in Holland as a private gentleman, sup-

1 Inquisitiones Abbreviatio, vol. i. Ayr, 612. 2 Wood's Peerage of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 390. 3 Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. x. p. 176; vol. xi. p. 203. On the 19th of August 1696, a petition from Alexander Cunningham, "for encouraging a design of illustrating the civil law," had been remitted to the committee for the security of the kingdom. Vol. x. p. 145.—About this period, several advocates began to read private lectures on the civil law. One of these was Alexander Drummond, who in the year 1699 inserted the following advertisement in an Edinburgh newspaper: "These are to give advertisement to all persons who are desirous to be instructed in the knowledge of the Institutions and Pandects of the Civil Law, and the laws of this kingdom, or either of the two, or both, that Mr Alexander Drummond of Eastfield, Advocate, does profess to teach the same; and by reason of a singular method he uses in teaching of the civil law, he undertakes to perfite and accomplish any of a middle capacity, more in a year's time, then others have been by being abroad and out of the country 3 years. How profitable and advantageous this may tend to the kingdom in general, he leaves it to every one to judge. He is to be spoke with at his lodging in the foot of the Blackfriars Wind." Another private lecturer on the civil and municipal laws was John Spottiswoode; and their example was followed by John Cunningham, who published his inaugural lecture under the title of "Joannis Cunningham, J.Cit. Oratio inauguralis, recitata Edinburgi cum titule: Juris Civili decrese corpore." Edinb. 4to. This publication is without a date, but it probably appeared about the same period with "A Discourse by Mr John Cunningham, Advocate, at the Beginning of his Lessons on the Scots Law." Edinb. 1705, 4to. He was the second son of Sir John Cunningham of Caprington, Bart. an eminent lawyer. (Douglas's Baronage of Scotland, p. 267.) 4 Register of the Town Council, vol. xxxix. p. 948. 5 Tytler's Account of the Life and Writings of Sir Thomas Craig, p. 321. Edinb. 1823, 12mo. 6 Adam Newton was the son of a baker in Edinburgh. Though a layman, he held the deanery of Durham from 1606 to 1620, when he resigned it; and during the latter year he was created a baronet. He translated into Latin King James's treatise against Vorstius, and the first six books of Paolo Sarpi's history of the council of Trent. The last two books were translated by Dr Bedell. (Birch's Life of Prince Henry, p. 14, 216. Lond. 1709, 8vo.) "Sic se gestit," says Dempster, "ut moderatione summa cum maximum locum occuparit, majorem mereri censeretur." (Hist. Ecclesiast. Gentis Scotorum, p. 505.) 7 Sanderus de Gandavensibus Eruditionis Fama claris, p. 3. Antwerp. 1624, 4to. Andreae Bibliotheca Belgica, p. 9. edit. Lovan. 1643, 4to.—According to these writers, Damman was invited to Scotland by Buchanan. In this country he appears to have accepted the estate; for in his metaphorise of Du Bartas, he describes himself as Dominus de Pare-hill. He married Margaret, a grand-daughter of John Stewart, earl of Buchan, but she left no issue. (Wood's Peerage, vol. i. p. 265.) The literary historians of Flanders mention some of his poems as having been printed on the continent; and after his settlement in Scotland, he published the following works: Scholasticon, Edinb. 1695, 4to. Historiae, libri septem; e Guilielmi Salustii De du Bartas Septimana, poema Francico, liberum tractat et multa locis insert. Edinb. 1690, 8vo. Both these volumes were printed by Waldegrave. The first of them contains one Greek and six Latin poems, all relating to the royal nuptials, and the reception and coronation of the queen. 8 Crawford's Hist. of the University of Edinburgh, p. 34, 40. 9 A letter of Jacobus Gronovius, dated at Leyden on the 9th of May 1687, contains the following passage: "Cunninghamus ubi haret, postquam ex hac urbe discessit, mullo labore petui inquire, nisi quod populares quidam ejus dicant Germanicum liter ab eo susceputum, non allicubi fixisse mansionem: unde tuas ad eum literas etiamnum detineo." (Clarorum Belgarum ad Ant. Maglia- becum Epistolae, tom. ii. p. 168. Florent. 1745, 2 tom. 8vo.) As we have other evidence of the civilian's acquaintance with Gronovius, we suppose him to be the individual here mentioned. Cunningham, posted by the rent of his estate, and probably by an annuity from the noble family with which he had been connected. From a notice which occurs in a work of Best, published in the year 1707, it may perhaps be inferred that he was then residing in that country; and a letter of Cuper, dated on the 12th of November 1709, mentions him as having been residing at the Hague.

His edition of Horace made its appearance in the year 1721, but long before that period he enjoyed a very high reputation as a classical scholar. His notes are brief, and relate to the various readings; but he announced his intention of preparing another edition, illustrated with more copious annotations; and at the same time he published a separate volume, consisting of animadversions on the notes and emendations of Bentley, whose edition of Horace had been printed ten years before. To this volume, which displays much learning and sagacity, and evinces the author to have studied the art of criticism with uncommon assiduity and success, he has prefixed an address to Dr Bentley, whom he everywhere treats with much freedom, and even severity. Bentley was a man of great vigour of intellect, and of erudition not less accurate than extensive; of the Greek language he possessed a masterly knowledge; and he had studied the ancient metres with a degree of nicety unknown to former critics. His principal defect seems to have been a want of taste; for when he quits the mechanism and analogy of language, and the mere structure of verse, he cannot be regarded as a very safe guide in subjects of polite literature. His conjectural emendations, particularly of the Greek poets, often display singular felicity; but on some occasions they are chiefly remarkable for their audacity. Many of his rash conjectures on Horace are very successfully exposed by Cunningham. One of the emendations on which he seems to congratulate himself with most complacency, is the substitution of ter natos in the subsequent verse of the Art of Poetry:

Et male tornatos incidi reddere versus.

A reading more repugnant to every principle of taste could not easily have been devised; and yet his learned correspondent Gruvius speaks of it in the following terms: "Eam qui videt et non probat, est in his litteris cecior est quavis talpa. Quid enim torno cum incude?" Bentley professes to be offended with the incongruity of Horace's metaphor, and he asks the same question with Gruvius; but he perceives no incongruity in an animal being produced at three births, and being moreover hammered upon an anvil. Cunningham, who was fully aware of this absurdity, has unnecessarily adopted the reading formatos, which appears somewhat flat. There is in reality no occasion for any change: when an artist has turned a piece of iron without being able to give it the shape or polish which he intended, he very naturally brings it back to the anvil, and a second time prepares it for the lathe. The metaphor therefore which occurs in this passage, is at once consistent and expressive. The vanity and arrogance with which Bentley exercised his critical functions, are likewise exposed by this formidable antagonist. Cunningham appears to have been the friend of Le Clerc, and on that account he may have pointed his animadversions with more keenness.

Cunningham's animadversions excited no ordinary degree of attention, and he was acknowledged to be the most able of Bentley's critical antagonists. Jani, a recent editor of the odes of Horace, speaks of him in the following terms: "Omnium doctissime in hoc castigando versatus est Alexander Cunninghamius, vir summus et doctissimus, unus omnium qui in Horatium scripsissent critorum principes, ipsique Bentleyo, si quid intelligo, anteferendus." Emendationes autem ejus fatendum est omnium doctissimae esse ac ingeniosissimas, sepe, si ad leges artis criticas excitantur, pro unice veris lectionibus habendas. Sepius tamen non minor in his, quam in Beletianis, audacia est, sed illa melior profecto aliorum indocta modestia." This estimate differs very widely from that of Wakefield, who styles Cunningham "ille criticus illaudabilis," and repeatedly honours him with some of the peculiar graces of his elocution. Of his own character as a critic, the greatest of living scholars has pronounced no very favourable opinion. Klotz remarks that Sandon has pilfered much from both Bentley and Cunningham.

The Scottish critic appears to have been intimately connected with most of the eminent scholars and civilians who then flourished in Holland. In France he had several learned correspondents; and from a passage in his animadversions, it may be inferred that he was acquainted with Addison. Duker and various other critics mention him in friendly terms. When Otto published his great collection of tracts on the civil law, he professed to have been chiefly indebted to Bynkershoek, Cunningham, and Brenkman. "Post virum illum primarium, alios quoque recolere juvat, qui re et judicio suo hoc opus instruerunt. Hos inter hand postremum locum obtinuit Alexander Cunninghamius, et Henricus Brenkmannus, viri clarissimi, et optima fide de republica literaria pariter ac jurisprudentia merentes, qui repetitis deliberationibus ad decimum librorum institutis, adhaerent, dignoscere caus quid solidum crepit." The chief labour of Cunningham's life was a critical edition of the Pandects, which however he did not live to publish. Of this long-meditated edition great expectations were formed. In a letter addressed to Cuper in the year 1709, Leibnitz, having mentioned his own project of remodelling the Pandects, expresses a wish to have his labours associated with those of Cunningham. "Nempe cuique auctoris libro sua redita sunt verba in Pandectas Justiniani relata. Tantum jam reliquum est, ut edantur huc Redigesta, sed sine ali-

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1 Sed et insuper," says Best, "se quid dubites, idem mihi adsereravit vir doctissimus Cunninghamius, natione Scotus, qui praecipua ingenii monumenta, quibus jurisprudentiam archetissime sibi devinxit, non diutius, ut speramus, eruditio orbis invidebit, quam ipsum sepsum percontatus didicisset ab accuratisimo Jacobo Gronovio." (Ratio Emendandi Leges, p. 17. Ultraj. 1707, 8vo.) See likewise the preface to Wieling's Lectiones Juris Civilis libri duo, edit. Truj. ad Rhen. 1740, 8vo.

2 Lettres de Gravina, tom. ii. Amst. 1742, 4to.

3 See the Bibliotheca Critica, vol. iii. part. ii. p. 123.

4 Jani de Horatii Editionibus, p. xxxviii. See likewise his preface to the second volume. Gebauer has remarked of Cunningham, "solutis critici fusae studiosissimae." (Narratio de Henrico Brenkmanno, p. 10. Gottingae, 1764, 4to.)

5 Wakefield ad Lucretium, lib. v. v. 205.

6 In quo viso," says Hermann, "quomum quantum ingenii, tantum effrenate temeritatis, Graecae autem linguae haud accuratior quam Latinae cognitio sit, debet ille aliquam sane, sed non eam auctoritate habere, quam apud nostrates, nimirum sequitur exterrum judices, consequutus est." (Pref. in Euripidis Hecubam, p. iv. Lipsiae, 1800, 8vo.)

7 Klotzii Vindiciae Q. Horatii Flacci, p. 206. Bremae, 1764, 8vo.

8 Some of his letters to J. P. d'Orville may be found in the appendix to the second edition of Dr Irving's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of George Buchanan, p. 417. Edinb. 1817, 8vo.

9 Cunninghamii Animadversiones, p. 214.

10 Dukeri pref. in Florum. Lugd. Bat. 1722, 8vo.

11 Thesaurus Juris Romani, tom. i. pref. Cunningham died in the year 1730. The auction of his library commenced on the 20th of November, and he may be supposed to have died some months before that period. His collection of books was very curious and valuable, particularly in the departments of philology and jurisprudence. The printed catalogue describes it as a most splendid library, and mentions that the greater part of the books were in gilt vellum or calf. His real and personal property descended to his nephew, the Rev. George Logan, A.M., afterwards one of the ministers of Edinburgh. The estate of Block was at that time worth between fifty and sixty pounds a year, and may at present be worth five times as much. With respect to his papers, we find some information in a letter from Sir John Pringle to Forbes of Culloden.

"I wrote to Mr Logan of Dunbar, as I told you I would do, both in your name and mine, about his uncle Mr Cunningham's papers, and I have since had an evening's conversation with him; the sum of which was, that his uncle has not left one single scrape of any thing ready for the press, or even in any tolerable order. His notes on Horace are written on the margin of six volumes, whereof three are the text of Horace as he published it, and the other three are his animadversions on Bentley. The use of these I am promised again next week: the lord have mercy on the patients till I have done with them! His notes on Phaedrus are likewise only on the margins of two editions of Phaedrus; but he thinks them fuller than the others, and is talking of giving them to Mr Ruddiman, if he will be at pains to put them in order and publish them. He has marginal notes upon several other authors, as Virgil, Statius, Quintilian, Cicero; any of which he offers to send me after I have done with Horace. His notes on the Corpus are larger than any of the rest, and not written on the margin, as the rest. His copy of the Corpus is interleaved with clean paper; so that there is a leaf of written notes for every printed leaf. He told me the Advocats Library has applied to him to have it, but he has given the curators no answer as yet, nor did he seem determined when he spoke to me.—What will surprise you most is, that he has left nothing of his scheme of the Christian religion. Mr Logan told me he had inquired at him about it when he was in his perfect senses, but that he declared to him that he had never put it in writing, and that he would dictate it to him any day, for he had it all in his head, and that it could be contained in four or five sheets of paper; however, every day that Logan pressed him to do it, he found always some reason for shifting it, till he was incapable of doing anything."

This letter is dated at Edinburgh on the 13th of January 1731; and on the 2d of February, he writes thus: "I have got two Cunningham volumes of Horace, with Cunningham's marginal notes; but the hand is so bad, and the lines so close on one another, that I have difficulty to make sense of them, tho' I perceive no sigla, or secret marks, among them. However, I design to give true pains, and you will see probably the fruit of my labours when you return."

His speculations on the evidences of the Christian religion are mentioned in a letter from T. Burnet to Locke, dated at London on the 17th of March 1699. "I thought once of sending this packet with Mr Cunningham, who told me at my chambers some days ago he was to go out to you; but now, after waiting longer than his set time, I was resolved to delay no longer. I wish you would indulge him, before he leaves you, to piece together his proofs of the Christian religion, that the world may enjoy that light he hath so long promised."

What became of the papers mentioned by Pringle, we have not been able to ascertain. In the Advocates Library there are copies of Vinnius's first edition of the Institutes, and Best's Ratio Emendandi Leges, with manuscript notes ascribed to Cunningham: they were presented in the year 1763 by David Clerk, M.D. the son of another physician to be afterwards mentioned. The greater part of the notes was apparently written by some other person. We subjoin a list of the publications which bear Cunningham's name.

1. Alexandri Cunningamii Animadversiones in Richardi Bentleii Notas et Emendationes ad Q. Horatium Flaccum. Hagae Comitum, apud Thomam Jonsonium, 1721, 8vo. 2. Q. Horatii Flacci Poemata: ex antiquis codd. et certis observationibus emendavit, variaque scriptorum et impressorum lectiones adjectit Alexander Cunningamius. Hagae Comitum, apud Thomam Jonsonium, 1721, 8vo. 3. P. Virgili Maronis Bucolica, Georgica, et Æneis, ex recensione Alexandri Cunningamii Scotti, cujus emendationes subjiciuntur. Edinburgi, apud G. Hamilton et J. Balfour, 1743, 8vo. 4. Phædri Augusti Liberti Fabularum Æsopiarum libri quinque, ex emendatione Alexandri Cunningamii Scotti. Accedunt Publii Syri, et aliorum veterum Sententiae. Edinburgi, apud G. Hamilton et J. Balfour, Academiae Typographos, 1757, 8vo.

Of this posthumous edition of Virgil, the preface was written by John Clerk, M.D., who is described as a physician of great learning and eminence, and of whom Dr Cullen has left an interesting account. He likewise published the edition of Phaedrus, which contains a preface by the editor, but is without annotations. Some of the conjectural emendations are considered by Schwabe as too bold, and others as unnecessary. It appears from one of Drakenborch's letters to La Croze, that Cunningham had formed the design of attacking Bentley's edition of that poet, but finally abandoned it, lest he should interfere with a similar design of his friend Burman.

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1 Lettres de Gisbert Cuper, p. 233. 2 Bibliotheca Cunningamia, continens selectissimos rarissimosque omni in lingua Libros: hos annes multo judicio, vigilantia, ac laboris coligit celeberrimus ac eruditissimus vir D. Alexander Cunningamius, Jurisconsultus et Polyhistor eximius. Lugd. Bat. 1730, 8vo. p. 130. 3 Culloden Papers, p. 190–1. Lond. 1815, 4to. 4 See Lord King's Life of John Locke, p. 403. Lond. 1829, 4to.—The writer of the letter, who speaks of his chambers like a lawyer, was perhaps Sir Thomas Barnet, a son of the bishop of Salisbury. 5 Ruddimanni Bibliotheca Rossiana, p. 10. Edinb. 1757, 8vo. 6 See Dr Thomson's Account of the Life, Lectures, and Writings of William Cullen, M.D. vol. i. p. 525. 7 Catalogue of the Library of the learned Dr John Clerk, Physician in Edinburgh, and of Dr David Clerk, his son, p. 72. Edinb. 1768, 8vo. 8 Notitia Litteraria de Phædro, p. 104, prefixed to Schwabe's second edition. Brunsviga, 1806, 2 tom. 8vo. 9 Thesauri Epistolici Lacroziani tom. i. p. 124. Lipsiae, 1742–6, 3 tom. 4to.—One of the Cunninghams is mentioned in a letter from Colonel Codrington to Dr Charlett, written in June 1702. (Letters written by eminent Persons, vol. i. p. 133. Lond. 1813, 3 vols. 8vo.) The editor of Horace is said to have assisted in revising a French translation (Haye, 1725, 2 tom. 4to) of the first