more conspicuous than under his predecessor. Of his expertness in business,
and general powers of management, the very highest sense was entertained by
the public, though differences of opinion latterly threatened to divide his supporters.
In 1807 Dr Hill had a severe attack, from which it was apprehended he would not recover; contrary to all expectation he did recover, and the following year, on the death of Dr Adamson, he was presented to the first ecclesiastical charge in the city of St Andrews. Eight years after, namely, in 1816, we find him as active in the General Assembly as at any former period of his life. Shortly after this time, however, he was attacked with slight shocks of apoplexy, which impaired his speech, and unfitted him for his accustomed exercises. He was no more Heard in the assembly house; but he continued to preach occasionally to his own congregation till the year 1819, when he was laid aside from all public duty. He died on the 19th of December that year, in the seventieth year of his age, and thirty-ninth of his ministry.
Dr Hill married in 1782, Miss Scott, daughter to Mr Scott, a citizen of Edinburgh, who had chosen St Andrews as his place of retirement in his old age, after he had given up business. By this lady, who survived him, Dr Hill had a large family, several of whom are yet alive. His eldest son is Dr Alexander Hill, professor of divinity in the university of Glasgow. In a life of principal Hill, it would be unpardonable to pass over his various publications, some of which possess high excellence. We cannot, however, afford room for criticism, and shall merely notice them in a general way. Single sermons seem to have been his first publications, though they are mentioned by his biographer in a very indistinct manner. One of these, preached before the sons of the clergy, seems to have been sent to the bishop of London, whose commendation it received. Another, from the text, "Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord?" was published in the year 1792, as a sedative to the popular excitement produced by the French revolution. The sermon was an unmeasured panegyric on the existing order of things in Great Britain, and had, for a short time, an immense popularity. "I believe it will be agreeable to you," writes his bookseller, "to inform you that I have had success with respect to your sermon, beyond my most sanguine imagination. I have written a hundred letters upon the subject, and have got all the capital manufacturers in Scotland to enter into my idea. I have printed off ten thousand copies of the coarse, and one thousand copies of the fine. I have got letters of thanks from many capital persons, with proper compliments to you. * * * I congratulate you upon the extensive circulation of the sermon, for never was such a number of a sermon sold in this country before, and I flatter myself it will, in a great measure, answer the purpose for which it was intended." The following year he published a third sermon, " Instructions afforded by the present war to the people of Great Britain." In 1795, he published a volume of sermons, which is said to have met with limited success. Several years after, Dr Hill published "Theological Institutes," containing Heads of his Lectures on Divinity, a work which continues to be highly estimated as a theological text-book; "a View of the Constitution of the Church of Scotland;" and "Counsels respecting the duties of the Pastoral Office." This last is an interesting and valuable work. In 1812, he published, "Lectures, upon portions of the Old Testament, intended to illustrate Jewish history and Scripture characters." To this work is prefixed the following dedication: "To the congregation which attends the author's ministry, this specimen of a Course of Lectures, in which he led them through the Books of the Old Testament, is, with the most grateful sense of their kindness, and the most affectionate wishes for their welfare, respectfully inscribed." There
