JAMES GIBSON, Bart., who bore a great part in the political history of Scotland, and a part even more influential than was conspicuous, was born in St John Street, Edinburgh, on the 11th October 1765. He was the second son of William Gibson, Esq., by Mary Cecilia, daughter of James Balfeur, Esq. of Pilrig, and grandson of John Gibson, Esq. of Durie, by Helen Carnichael, sister of John, fourth Earl of Hyndford. His ancestor Sir Alexander Gibson of Durie, one of the senators of the College of Justice, under the title of Lord Durie, having married in 1595 Margaret, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Craig of Riccarton (see CRAIG, Sir T.), in 1822 he succeeded under entail to the estate of Riccarton, in Mid-Lothian, with which he took the name of Craig. He entered on business for himself as a law agent in Edinburgh before he was twenty-one; and almost simultaneously began to take a part in the politics of the day. Of his professional career it is not fitting to say more here than that it was eminently successful; and that during the sixty-four years of its continuance he gained professionally the confidence of many of the chief of those with whom otherwise he was at war. As a politician, the qualities of courage, capacity, energy, and disinterestedness, were all necessarily inferred in the side and the share he took. In the political state of Scotland at that time, there was nothing to be gained, but much to be risked, by the profession or even suspicion of Whiggery; and nothing could be accomplished save by great labour and hardship. In illustration of this, reference may be made to the case mentioned by Sir James himself, in a published letter, written in 1849, of an attempt made by him and others to celebrate, by a dinner, in Edinburgh, the fall of the Bastile in 1789; when only twenty-four persons (several of whom subsequently rose to high eminence in various departments) could be got together, whose names were taken down by the police as they entered, while the sheriff of the county and another official person were subsequently discovered, in an adjoining apartment, noting down as much of the proceedings as could be overheard through the partition. In 1794 the trials and severe sentences of Muir, Gerrald, and other persons engaged in the same object as Sir James, though in a different combination, only confirmed him in his course. Holding steadily on his way, and working energetically, he was by common assent assigned from the first a leadership, which he held until the last; it being his remarkable fortune to be the father and preceptor of the modern Whig party of Scotland, and to outline almost all his political children and pupils. It was a chief characteristic of his public career, that while ready for every danger, he rather shunned éclat, speaking little, but working indomitably. For forty years, uncheered by success, he lent himself unsparingly in time, strength, and purse, inspiriting the timid, sheltering the weak, and (to an extent unsuspected at the time even by those with whom he was in closest alliance) aiding and recompensing the martyred. He had passed sixty-five years of age before the work in which he had been so resolute a labourer fructified in the "Reform" era of 1830-2. During all that critical period, when the country seemed day after day on the brink of revolutionary tumult, Sir James Gibson-Craig was in Scotland the centre-figure of the mass of the population, as he had been for more than forty years previous of the small band maintaining the doctrines which had at last sprung into such fierce popularity. His work now was to restrain the many, instead as heretofore to incite and convince a few; and he was known to spend almost an entire night on the streets of Edinburgh, going about from group to group, enjoining order and patience with as much energy and authority as he had been wont among his small party to urge courage and advance. To his influence, hard won and energetically exercised, is ascribed in a large measure the result of Scotland having got through that crisis without either wavering or outbreak. At this time he received the only honour or reward he could ever be prevailed upon to accept for himself or his family, and was made a baronet of the United Kingdom in 1831. The Reform struggle over, he was content to let much of the work, now become easy and gainful, fall into other hands. But he never lost either his zeal or his influence, and on several occasions during the next twenty years he reappeared in his place as a leader with all his wonted vigour. These occasions arose out of what he thought dangers to the cause of religious liberty, of which, like most of his school, he had a thorough comprehension and strong love. Some of those related to questions merely local in their incidents, though not in their principle—such as an attempt to exclude an eminent citizen of Edinburgh from the chief magistracy on the ground of his being a dissenter; but one requires mention as more important and memorable. In the latter part of what is known as the "non-intrusion controversy," which resulted in the disruption of the Established Church of Scotland, Sir James thought it his duty to take part against the Non-intrusion party, not apparently on the ground of the original question, but on the ground that there was encroachment and danger in the claim of the church courts to a power of interpreting the statutes co-ordinately with the courts of law. Sir James was mainly instrumental in getting up a great public meeting in Edinburgh on this subject, the aim of which is indicated by a sentence in the speech of the chairman (Lord Dunfermline, a contemporary and life-long politically of Sir James):—"The question is, whether the state is to control the church in what it is fit and proper the church should be by law controlled in; or whether the church is to control the state by asserting her supremacy in all matters which she thinks fit to declare come under her jurisdiction." The course then taken by Sir James was counter to that adopted by the law-officers and other leading members of the Scottish Whig party, and indeed may be said to mark a distinction between the old and the new sections of that party. The older Whigs having, as in the case of the Roman Catholics, stood up against the intrusion of the state into things religious, were equally jealous of the intrusion of the church upon the state.

Passing on to the more strictly personal or private qualities of Sir James Gibson-Craig, it would be a great mistake to assume, from the boldness and sternness of his political career, that he was of obtrusive temperament or habit. On the contrary, he was essentially modest—manly, it is true, and with a somewhat fierce impatience of everything like meanness and dissimulation; but, while firmly adhering to his own position, never forgetful of what was due to others, thus doing much to conciliate those opponents, especially of the higher class, with whom he happened to come into personal contact. In the whole circle of domestic relations he was in a remarkable degree gentle and faithful; he met his duties in public, but sought his delights at home. "Seeing Sir James Craig," says Lord Cockburn (Life of Jeffrey), "in his fields and among his villagers, or by his fireside, was one of the sights that show how, in right natures, the kind affections can survive public contentions." His personal habits, as might be inferred, were active, and, to the utmost extent consistent with the diversified nature of his labours, methodical. Till upwards of eighty, he was an early riser, going through a con- siderable amount of business before breakfast; and he was all his life attached to athletic sports and rural pursuits. He died March 6, 1850, in the eighty-fifth year of his age, with his mind still active and undimmed. His last public act was attendance at a meeting regarding a monument to his personal and political friend Lord Jeffrey, at which he caught the cold that initiated his fatal illness. Opinions, of course, do and will differ as to the policy and measures of which Sir James Gibson-Craig was a champion, but not as to his having done much public work from pure motives; and his services are not the less worthy of record that his part was not that of orator or parliamentary leader, and that he was content to do what he thought his duty, careless alike of display, dissuasion, and reward.

Craig, John, a Scottish mathematician of the age of Newton, and one of the earliest writers on the fluxionary or differential calculus in this country. Newton no doubt had long been in possession of the principles of this calculus before his modesty allowed him to give his discoveries to the world, and he even revised one of Craig's treatises previously to publication in 1685, the year after Leibnitz had announced his discovery in the Leipsic Transactions. During his residence at Cambridge, similarity of pursuit had made Craig acquainted with that truly great man; and on his return to Scotland he enjoyed the intimate friendship of the accomplished Dr Pitcairn, and of David Gregory, professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh, and afterwards Savilian professor of astronomy at Oxford. His investigations, however, with the new calculus, subjected him to the severe strictures of the distinguished John Bernouilli, but obtained for him the support of Leibnitz, whose approbation may be considered as exempt at least from that national partiality with which he himself charges Craig. But whatever praise may be due to Craig for his mathematical inquiries, it must be allowed that his Principia of the Christian religion, by a misapplication of the doctrine of probability to human testimony, rest on premises which lead to conclusions alike dangerous and absurd. Having assumed the position that human testimony can only amount to probability, and that this probability diminishes as the distance of time from the event increases; he readily obtains the startling and fallacious, though calculated, result of a period when faith would become evanescent, and disappear from the earth. If, however, it may be allowed to form an opinion of Craig's character from a letter to Dr Cheyne, there may perhaps be some justice in attributing the erroneous principles of this work rather to theoretical mistake than to wrong intention. He seems ultimately to have been a Fellow of the Royal Society, and vicar of Gillingham, Dorsetshire, but for some years he resided in London, where he died in 1731.

Besides communications to the Leipsic Acta Eruditorum, his contributions to the London Philosophical Transactions from 1697 to 1712 embrace essays on quadratures, length of curve lines, logarithmic curve and construction of logarithms, solutions of the problems of the solid of least resistance and of the line of swiftest descent, as well as of the problem of John Bernouilli. His separately published writings, now chiefly interesting with reference to the progress of mathematical science, are, 1. Methodus figurarum lineis rectis et curvis quadraturas determinandi, London, 1658, 4to. 2. Tractatus Mathematicus de figurarum curvilinarum quadraturis et locis geometricis, London, 1693, 4to. 3. Theologiae Christianae Principia Mathematica, London, 1699 (reprinted, with a refutation, at Leipzig, 1755). 4. De Calculo Fluentium Libri duo, quibus subjunguntur libri duo de Optica Analytica, 1718. (r.a.)

Craig, Sir Thomas, of Riccarton, one of the ablest lawyers whom his country has produced, appears to have been the eldest son of William Craig of Craigfintray, afterwards called Craigston, in the county of Aberdeen. The period of his birth is uncertain; but as he was sent to the university of St Andrews in 1552, we may suppose him to have been born about the year 1538. He was entered at St Leonard's College, and took the degree of A.B. in 1555; but as his name does not occur in the list of masters, he is supposed to have left the university before he had completed the ordinary course of study. For those destined for the legal profession, it was then the usual practice to finish their education in some of the French universities, which about that period attained to the highest eminence as schools of the civil and canon law. A similar practice prevailed almost universally till the earlier part of the last century; and a writer in the reign of Charles the First thought it not a little "strange to see one man admitted to teach the laws, who was never out of the countre studieing and learning the laws." The law of Scotland is to a great extent founded on the principles of the civil law; and as at an early period, when the students of law were very few in number, the professors were without a sufficient excitement to exertion, the Scottish youth were compelled to seek for able preceptors in other countries. The reputation of Cujacius, Donellus, Govea, Balduinus, Contius, Hotman, and many other great names, elevated the French schools of law beyond all competition. Their celebrity, however, was at length eclipsed by the more modern universities of Holland; and our countrymen then resorted to Leyden and Utrecht, instead of Bourges and Toulouse. Craig, as we are informed, completed his academical studies in France, and he has himself made more than one allusion to his connexion with the university of Paris. But at Paris the civil law was not then publicly taught; and it is scarcely to be doubted that he repaired to some other university, in order to acquire this branch of knowledge. His skill in the civil and the canon law was united with great proficiency in classical learning, for which we may conjecture that he was in no small degree indebted to the discipline of Paris, where philological studies were then cultivated with very eminent success.

Craig, having attained manhood, was admitted an advocate in the month of February 1563. In 1564 he was appointed the deputy of the justice-general, Archibald Earl of Argyle. It belonged to his office to try the highest offences; and his name very frequently occurs in the criminal records of that period, which have now been rendered more accessible by the labours of Mr Pitcairn. This distinguished lawyer appears to have steered a prudent course in the midst of those disorders which prevailed in Scotland during a great part of his life; he appears to have devoted himself with great assiduity to the studies and duties of his profession; and, shunning the dangerous path of political ambition, to have sought a more pleasing solace of the mind in his recreations with the Muses. He published several Latin poems, which were afterwards inserted in the Delicia Poetarum Scotorum, and which are allowed to evince

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1 Quo tempore (1685) Cantabrigiae commemoratus D. Newtonum rogavi, ut eadem, praesum praeo committeretur perlegere dignaretur, quodque ille pro summa sua humanitate fecit. (Pref. ad Lect. De Calculo Fluent.) 2 In patriam postea redacti magno milii intercedebat familiaritas eruditissimo medico D. Pitcairnio et D. D. Gregorio. (Pref. De Calculo Fluent.) 3 Si Dominus Craigius librum Cheynii ludat, non miror; ludatus ab ipso et Scotis loquens de Sco. (Comm. Phil. Ep. 167.) 4 Phil. Transact., 1703. 5 Phil. Transact., 1712. 6 Spalding's History of the Troubles in Scotland, vol. I, p. 179. Edinb., 1828-9, 2 vols. 4to. The individual to whom he alludes is James Sandland, professor of the canon, and afterwards of the civil law, in King's College, Aberdeen. 7 "En enim estate sapere, nisi Romano jure, homines non videbantur." (Gadendam, Hist. Juris Climebrici, p. 54. Hamb. 1770, 8vo.) no mean portion of poetical spirit. His earliest publication bears the title of "Henrici illustrissimi Dux Albaniae, Comitis Rossiae, &c. et Mariæ serenissimae Scootorum Reginae Epithalamium." Impressum Edinburgi per Robertum Lekprevik, 1565, 8vo. This poem, relating to a very insignificant subject, is not inserted in the collection. Here we find another poem, entitled "Jacobi serenissimi Scootorum Principis, Duxis Rothessiae, Genethlasium," which must likewise have been printed, although we have not been able to trace it, in a separate form.

A few years after he was called to the bar, he married Helen, the daughter of Heriot of Trabroun in the county of Haddington. His wife was probably the cousin of Buchanan, whose mother, Agnes Heriot, belonged to the same family. At the age of 34, his eldest son, Sir Lewis Craig, was raised to the bench in February 1604 by the title of Lord Wrightslands. It was then customary for the judges to wear their hats on the bench; but whenever Craig had occasion to plead before his son, the latter sat uncovered, and listened to him with filial reverence. We may reasonably suppose that the same interest which had raised the son, might as easily have raised the father to the bench; but the modesty of his disposition perhaps led him to prefer a less elevated station? nor is it improbable that the salary of a judge would not have exceeded the emoluments of his extensive practice, added to those of his different appointments. He is not mentioned as the deputy of the justice-general after the close of the year 1573; and in the course of the following year he appears as sheriff of Edinburgh, so that he probably resigned the one office on being nominated to the other. At a much later period, namely in 1606, he is described as advocate of the church. This seems to complete the catalogue of his regular preferments, but we likewise find his name inserted in occasional commissions of importance.

The greatest of his literary labours was his treatise on the feudal law. Such an undertaking was at that period attended with many difficulties. The municipal law had not received any considerable degree of cultivation; of systematic treatises it possessed few or none; written authorities of every kind were scanty and inaccessible; and the gathering of materials must therefore have been a little tedious and laborious. The feudal law, with its general principles, was taught in the foreign universities as a necessary branch of jurisprudence, and the foreign lawyers, particularly those of Italy and France, had published a great variety of works on the subject; but it was Craig's special object to illustrate the principles of that law as they had been applied and modified in his native country, and in this department he was without a model and without a precursor. It is not therefore surprising, though it may justly be regretted, that he was unable to amass such a stock of materials as prepared him for throwing a clear and steady light on the progress of feudal rights and tenures from the earliest times. The character of his work is likewise affected by his patriotic zeal to facilitate the union of the two kingdoms, by assimilating their national laws and customs. "Sir Thomas Craig," says another antiquary, "who is always instructive when he deals with the feudal customs of his own times, is seldom so when he goes back into history." This remark of Dr Stuart may perhaps appear sufficiently just and discriminating. The value and importance of Craig's Jus Feudale is admitted by every competent judge, nor has it been superseded by any subsequent treatise: with the exception of Bruce's compendium, no professed work on the same subject has since made its appearance. The author was evidently a man of superior talents, as well as of extensive learning; and it may perhaps be affirmed, without much hazard of refutation, that no other Scottish lawyer can so safely be brought into comparison with Lord Stair.

Craig did not himself commit his elaborate work to the press; and indeed the printing of any treatise on the law of Scotland seems to have been considered as almost sacrilegious on the part of the author. Nearly half a century after the author's death, it was published by Robert Barmet, who had married his grand-daughter, "Jus Feudale, tribus libris comprehensum," &c., Edinb. 1655, fol. Some copies bear the imprint of London. The editor has prefixed a preface, in which he speaks with learning and judgment of the author and his work. After a long interval appeared another edition, "cum praefatione Luderi Menckeni, J.Cit," Lipsiae, 1716, 4to. This was speedily followed by the latest and best edition; "editio tertia, prioribus multo emendator, opera et studio Jacobi Baillie, Advocati," Edinb. 1732, fol. Prefixed is an excellent portrait of the author, together with a short account of his life; and the typography of the edition is greatly superior to that of the other two. Of this work there are two manuscript copies in the Advocates' Library, and likewise two copies of "A Compendium Bibliorum of the most substantial Points relating to the Law;" extracted forth of the books of that learned jurisconsult D. T. C. treating upon the Feudal Law."

Another ample and elaborate work, undertaken about the same period, is his treatise entitled "De Jure Successionis Regni Angliae libri duo, adversus Sophismata cujdam partem Dolomani," Under the assumed name of Dolman, Robert Parsons had in the year 1594 published "A Conference about the next Succession to the Crown of England;" in which he chiefly aimed at superseding the claims of a Protestant successor to Queen Elizabeth. Although he did not proceed on the same philosophical principles, he arrived at a similar conclusion with Buchanan; namely, that all political power is derived from the people, and that the consent of the governed is an essential ingredient in all legitimate governments. This right of resisting kings was boldly taught by other Jesuits, and particularly by Mariana, well known as the historian of Spain, but all their better speculations are mingled with jealously notions of priestly power. Craig, adhering to the prevalent doctrines respecting the divine right of kings and the passive obedience of subjects, has at great length discussed the subject of regal succession and authority. Such a production cannot now be regarded as of much importance; but of so able a man, intimately acquainted with history, and with jurisprudence in all its branches, the labour could not be entirely fruitless. Parsons was likewise refuted by Peter Wentworth, Sir John Hayward, and other English writers.

King James succeeded very quietly to the throne of England, and the original of Craig's treatise De Jure Successionis it was not thought necessary to publish. Two transcripts of it have however recently come to light; one belongs to the Advocates' Library, another to the University Library, and a third to the writer of this notice. The second of these Gatherer describes as the original manuscript. The author's doctrines were afterwards found very palatable by the Jacobites; and the design of printing the work was formed by Dr Morro, who was principal of the university of Edinburgh at the period of the Revolution. He lost his preferments in the church and university, and being otherwise involved in the troubles of his party, he did not live to carry this design into execution. From the transcript which he had procured, a translation was however made and published (Lond. 1703, fol.) by his friend James Gatherer, who before the Revolution had been parish of Kilmaurs in Ayrshire, and who, having at length become bishop among the non-jurors, died in the month of February 1733. One biography of this bishop is left concerning upon him, and upon divers other divines, the degree of doctor.

Of a similar denomination is Craig's work entitled "De Unione Regnorum Britanniae Tractatus," which relates to a subject of great interest to his contemporaries, and which is written with the author's usual learning and ability. "In point of matter and style," says Mr Tytler, "in the importance of the subject to which it relates, the variety of historical illustrations, the sagacity of the po- Craig's critical remarks, and the insight into the mutual interests of the two countries which it exhibits, it perhaps deserves to rank the highest of all his works." This treatise has never been printed; but a manuscript, extending to 204 pages in folio, is preserved in the Advocates' Library. On the same subject, two similar discourses were published by Robert Pont, D.D., who was at once an officiating clergyman and a judge in the supreme court; and by David Hume of Godscroft, who is well known for his other writings in prose and verse. Craig performed another patriotic task by preparing a work which bears the following title: "De Homino Disputatio adversus eos qui Scotiam Fidem Anglicam Angli Regemque Scecorum eo nomine Hominum Anglo debere assentunt." This work is likewise preserved in manuscript in the same library; but long after the death of the author, a translation of it was published under the title of "Scotland's Sovereignty asserted, by George Ridpath," Lond. 1685, 8vo. Craig had vindicated the independence of the Scottish monarchy against the imputations of English historians, particularly Holinshed or his coadjutor Harrington, and the more recent attempt of Rymer is said to have been sufficiently repelled by Ridpath, who has shown that the supposed form of ancient homage bears several unequivocal marks of forgery. His publication was however followed by "Atwood's Superiority and direct Dominion of the Crown of England over the Crown and Kingdom of Scotland, asserted against Sir Thomas Craig," Lond. 1704, 8vo. This book was refuted by Anderson in 1705; and the superiority of the crown of England was re-asserted by Atwood in the course of the same year.

Archbishop Nicolson mentions an historical production of the same learned author. "I have likewise seen an abstract of a book on the same subject, by Mr Thomas Craig, the great civilian, entitled De Scotiae Origine; but where the book itself may be found, I know not." And here we complete the enumeration of his writings in prose.

Towards the close of his life, he again indulged his poetical vein. He wrote some commendatory verses, which are prefixed to Thomas Jack's "Onomasticum Posticum," Edinb. 1592, 4to. And seven years later, he wrote a short elegy on the death of Rollock, which, with many similar contributions, is subjoined to George Robertson's Vita et Mortis D. Roberti Rolloci Scotti Narratio," Edinb. 1599, 8vo. During one and the same year, he published three different poems. "Ad sereniss. et potentiss. Principem Jacobum Sextum, e sua Scotia decedentem, Paratenebat," Exeudebat Robertus Waldegrave, 1603, 4to. "Ad serenissimum Britanniarum Principem Henricum, e Scotia decedentem, Propempticon," Edinburgi exeudebat Robertus Chartieris, 1603, 4to. "Ser. eximiss. et invictiss. Principis, Jacobi Britanniarum et Galliarum Regis, 2v. epigrammata," Exeudebat Robertus Chartieris, 1603, 4to.

In the year 1604, Craig was nominated among the Scottish commissioners empowered to treat respecting the projected union of the two kingdoms. One of his associates was Sir John Skene, who had likewise contributed to illustrate the jurisprudence of his native country. The Scottish and the English commissioners met at Westminster, but their deliberations were not attended with any important consequences. This visit afforded him an opportunity of cultivating an acquaintance with Camden, and other learned men; and James determined to elevate him to the rank of knighthood; but Craig secretly withdrew himself, in order to avoid the intended ceremony. The king, however, commanded that he should be styled and reputed a knight; and accordingly his name is generally accompanied with a title which he himself had no wish to assume.

Sir Thomas Craig died Feb. 26, 1608. His death was bewailed in Latin verse by his learned countryman Dempster, who, like himself, was a poet as well as a lawyer. He left behind him an estimable character and a fair estate. He was celebrated for his liberal style of hospitality, and for his zealous adherence to the Protestant faith. He had four sons and three daughters. Sir Lewis Craig, whom we have already mentioned as his eldest son, died in the year 1622.

The second, James Craig, of Castle-Craig and Craigston in the kingdom of Ireland, was killed during the insurrection of 1641; and dying without issue, he bequeathed his estates to his next brother, John Craig, an eminent physician. Cassendi informs us that in the year 1592 Craig, a Scottish physician, published a tract against Tycho Brahe, under the title of "Capranariae Restitutio, seu, Cometaeum in Athera Sublimationis Refutatio;" and that an answer to it was written by Christianus Longomontanus. The Danish astronomer himself published a Responso Apologetica ad quendam Scotum, Aristotelicam Philosophum, et Medicum Galenicum. This is supposed to have been the third son, Dr Craig, who was successively physician in ordinary to King James, and first physician to King Charles. The youngest son was Robert Craig, whose son acquired by marriage the estate of Ramorgrie in Fifeshire. Margaret, the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas, became the wife of Sir Alexander Gibson of Durie; and from this marriage is descended the late possessor of the estate of Riccarton, Sir James Gibson Craig, Bart. Elizabeth, his second daughter, married James Johnston of Warriston; and their son Sir Archibald Johnston acted a conspicuous part in the proceedings of his own unhappy times: their daughter Rachel was married to Robert Burnet of Cramond, a judge in the Court of Session, and the father of Gilbert Burnet, the celebrated Bishop of Salisbury. Craig's third daughter, Janet, was married to John Belches of Tofts, and their son Sir Alex. Belches was likewise raised to the bench. (D.L.)