that the less is produced, but that the easier method of providing for the aggregate number has been followed. The great engine of facilitating ease of production is commerce, which makes the abundance of one place supply the deficiency of
another, in exchange for such necessaries and luxuries, as enable the dwellers on the fertile spot to bestow more of their time in cultivation than thay could do, were they obliged to provide these things for themselves. Hence it is pretty clear, that increase of populousness has accompanied modern commerce. Previously to the publication of this treatise, Hume had produced his invaluable critical essay on the populousness of ancient nations, in which, on politico-economical truths, he doubted the authenticity of those authorities on the populousness of antiquity, on many of which Wallace depended. In publishing his
book, Dr Wallace added a long supplement, discussing Hume's theory with
much learning and curious information, but leaving the grounds on which the
sceptic had doubted the good faith of the authorities unconfuted. Wallace's
treatise was translated into French, under the inspection of Montesquieu, and
was republished in 1809, with a life of the author. Dr Wallace's other published works, are "A Sermon, preached in the High Chursh of Edinburgh,
Monday, January 6, 1745-6, upon occasion of the Anniversary Meeting of (he
Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge;" in which he mingled, with a number of extensive statistical details concerning education, collected with his usual learning, and tinged with valuable remarks, a political attack on the Jacobite insurrection of the period, and the motives of its instigators,
"Characteristics of the Present Stale of Great Britain," published in 1758; and
"Various Prospects of Mankind, Nature, and Providence," published in 1761;
in which he discussed the abstruse subjects of liberty and necessity, the perfectibility of human nature, &c. He left behind him a 31S. essay on Taste, of considerable length, which was prepared for the press by his son, Mr George
Wallace, advocate, but never published. From the new aspect which modern
inquiries on this subject have assumed, in their adoption of the cumulative principle of association, this work can now be of littlo interest; but it may be worth
while to know, that his "Principles of Taste," or sources from whence the feeling
was perceived to emanate, were divided into, 1st, grandeur; 2nd, novelty; 3rd,
variety; 4th, uniformity, proportion, and order; 5th, symmetry, congruity, or propriety; and, 6th, similitude and resemblance, or contrast and dissimilitude.
Dr Wallace died on the 29th of July, 1771, in consequence of a cold, caught in being overtaken in a walk by a snow storm. His son George, already mentioned, is known as the author of a work on the Descent of ancient Peerages, and "Principles of the Law of Scotland," which has fallen into obscurity.
WARDLAW, Henry, bishop of St Andrews, and founder of the university there, was descended from the Wardlawe of Torry, in Fife, and was nephew to Walter Wardlaw, bishop of Glasgow, who was created a cardinal by pope Urban VI., in the year 1381. The subject of this memoir, having received the usual education of a churchman, was appointed, not improbably through the interest of his uncle, to the office of precentor in the cathedral church of Glasgow. He afterwards went to Avignon, probably on some mission from his dignified relative. While residing at the papal court there, Thomas Stewart, son to Robert II., king of Scotland, who had been elected bishop of St Andrews, died, and the subject of this memoir was preferred to the vacant see by pope Benedict XIII., in the year 1404. He returned to Scotland shortly after, bearing the additional title and office of pope's legate for Scotland. Being a man of strict morals, his first care was to reform the lives of the clergy, which had become profligate to an extreme degree. In the mean time, king Robert III. having lost his eldest son David, bv the treacherous cruelty of his brother
