on the bench under the title of lord Arniston. His high character and great natural abilities, were thought sufficient to counterbalance the disadvantage arising from the want of a professional education. But he held this appointment only for a short time. For Charles II. having been induced by the unsettled slate of Scotland, to require that all persons holding office, should subscribe a declaration, importing that they held it unlawful to enter into leagues or covenants, and abjuring the "national and solemn league and covenant," the judges of the court of session were required to subscribe this test under pain of deprivation of office. The majority of them complied; but Sir James Dundas refused, unless he should be allowed to add, "in so far as such leagues might lead to deeds of actual rebellion." Government, however, would consent to no such qualification; and lord Arniston was consequently deprived of his gown. The king himself had proposed as an expedient for obviating the scruples of the recusant judges, that they should subscribe the test publicly, but should be permitted to make a private declaration of the sense in which they understood it. Most of them availed themselves of this device, but lord Arniston rejected it, making the following manly answer to those of his friends who urged him to comply—"I have repeatedly told you, that in this affair I have acted from conscience: I will never subscribe that declaration unless I am allowed to qualify it; and if my subscription is to be public, I cannot be satisfied that the salvo should be latent." His seat on the bench was kept vacant for three years, in the hope, apparently, that he might be prevailed on to yield to the solicitations which, during that interval, were unceasingly, but in vain addressed to him, not only by his friends and brother judges, but by the king's ministers. He had retired to his family seat of Arniston, where he spent the remainder of his life in the tranquil enjoyment of the country, and in the cultivation of literature, and the society of his friends. He died in the year 1679, and was succeeded in his estates by his eldest son Robert, the subject of the immediately succeeding notice.
DUNDAS, Robert, of Arniston, son of Sir James, by Marion, daughter of lord Boyd, was bred to the profession of the law, and for many years represented the county of Edinburgh in the Scottish parliament. In the year 1689, immediately after the revolution, he was raised to the bench of the court of session by king William, and took the title of lord Arniston. He continued to fill that station with great honour and integrity during the long period of thirty-seven years; and died in the year 1727, leaving his son Robert, by Margaret, daughter of Robert Sinclair of Stevenston,[1] to succeed him in his estates, and to follow his footsteps in the legal profession.
DUNDAS, Robert, of Arniston, F. R. S. Edinburgh, third lord of session of the family, and first lord president, was born on the 9th December, 1685. Although at no time distinguished for laborious application to study, yet he had obtained a general acquaintance with literature, while his remarkable acuteness, and very extensive practice, rendered him a profound lawyer. He became a member of the faculty of advocates in 1709, and in 1717, while the country was recovering from the confusion occasioned by the rebellion of 1715, he was selected, on account of his firmness and moderation, to fill the responsible office of solicitor-general for Scotland, which he did with much ability and forbearance. In 1720, he was presented to the situation of lord advocate; and in 1722, was returned member to the British parliament for the county of Edinburgh. In parliament he was distinguished by a vigilant attention to Scottish affairs, and by that steady and patriotic regard to the peculiar interests of his native country, which has been all along one of the most remarkable character-
- ↑ It is from this lady, familiarly termed Meg Sinclair, that the peculiar talent of the family is said to have been derived.
