8th October 1831. The English Bill thrown out by the House of Lords, ANFORD LIBRA CHAPTER XII. THE REBELLION OF 1745. CHARLES ERSKINE of Tinwald became Lord Advocate when Duncan Forbes was appointed President of the Court. He came of an old family. His grandfather, the Honourable Sir Charles Erskine of Alva, fourth son of John Earl of Mar and Lady Marie Stewart, daughter of the Duke of Lennox, married Mary Hope, second daughter of Lord Advocate Sir Thomas Hope. Of this marriage was born Sir John Erskine of Alva, father of Charles Erskine of Tinwald. Erskine is said to have studied for the Church; but he soon abandoned the idea of taking orders. When only in his twenty-fifth year he was appointed one of the Regents of the University of Edinburgh. He held this office, in which he taught Logic, Ethics, Metaphysics, and Natural Philosophy, until 1707, when he was made Professor of Public Law in the University of Edinburgh. He then resolved to be an advocate, and was called to the bar on the 14th of July 1711.2 For a short time after he was called he continued to give lectures; but his practice soon occupied the whole of his time.3 In 1714 he was an Advocate 1 This was a Crown appointment. The only other professorship, in the University of Edinburgh, in the gift of the Crown was that of Church History. 2 Memoirs of Kames, i. 37, 38; Brunton and Haig, 513. 3 The Scots Courant of 12th to 14th Nov. 1711 contains the following advertisement: "Mr. Charles Erskine, her Majesty's Professor of Public Law in the University of Edinburgh, designs to begin his private Lectures on the Laws of VOL. II. A Depute.1 He became one of the leaders of the bar; purchased the estate of Tinwald in Dumfriesshire; and in April 1722 was returned to Parliament as member for that county. In May 1725, when Forbes became Lord Advocate, Erskine was appointed Solicitor-General. Hitherto the only counsel allowed to plead within the bar had been the Lord Advocate; but on this occasion a change was made. The new Solicitor-General presented to the Court a warrant under the Sign-Manual, subscribed by the Secretary of State for Scotland, in these terms: "Whereas we have appointed Mr. Charles Areskine, advocate, to be sole Solicitor for that part of Great Britain called Scotland, and we being pleased to show him a further mark of our royal favour, it is our will and pleasure that a seat be placed for him within the bar of your Court, where and from whence he may be at liberty to plead cases in your presence; and we do hereby direct you to cause such to be placed accordingly."2 His At the general elections of 1727 and 1734 he was returned for Dumfriesshire. In 1737 he succeeded Forbes as Lord Advocate, and strenuously supported the Scottish policy of the Walpole Ministry till 1741. At the general election of that year Sir John Douglas of Kelhead became member for Dumfriesshire; and Lord Advocate Erskine was returned for the Sutherlandshire district of burghs. election was, however, declared void in the following year, and he resigned office. His successor was Robert Craigie of Glendoick, to whom he wrote the following letter of congratulation:-"It's commonly believed we love our heirs but seldom our successors; and sometimes we don't our heirs Nature and Nations, on Friday next, at 5 a'clock in the Afternoon, at his Lodgings in Fraser's Land." 1 His appointment was peculiar. He was made Advocate-Depute, for the Western Circuit, by a Commission from Queen Anne, granted under the Privy Seal. West Circuit Record, 1st May 1714. 2 Books of Sederunt, 10th June 1725. 3 Parl. Papers, 1878, lxii. ii. 70, 83. 4 These burghs were Dornoch, Tain, Dingwall, Wick, and Kirkwall. |