before age had unfitted him for its duties, or impaired his intellectual vigour. On the 24th December, therefore, he fulfilled this resolution of self-denial by tendering his resignation of the mastership, on which occasion he received, among other well-deserved eulogiums, the following from the bar of the court, through Sir Arthur Pigott, the speaker appointed for the occasion: "The
promptitude and wisdom of your decisions have been as highly conducive to the benefit of the suitors, as they have been eminently promotive of the general administration of equity. In the performance of your important and arduous
duties, you have exhibited an uninterrupted equanimity, and displayed a temper never disturbed, and a patience never wearied ; you have evinced an uniform and impartial attention to those engaged in the discharge of their professional duties here, and who have had the opportunity, and enjoyed the advantage of observing that conduct in the dispensation of justice, which has been conspicuously
calculated to excite emulation, and to form an illustrious example for imitation."
During the sixteen years of life that were still continued to him, Sir William Grant abstained from public affairs, devoting himself wholly to intellectual recreations, and the society of congenial company, in the neighbourhood of Walthamstow, and during the two last years of his life at Barton House, Dawlish, the residence of his sister, the widow of Admiral Schanck. He was never married. His death occurred on the 25th of May, 1832, when, he had reached the age of seventy-eight years.
H.
HALDANE, James Alexander.—It seldom happens that when a great work is to be accomplished, in which co-operated effort is required, the same family which produced the originator should also furnish the effectual seconder of the movement. From this general rule the family of Haldane of Airthrey is an honoured exception; for while Robert was building churches over the whole extent of Scotland, his younger brother, James, was ably preparing the way by preaching in its most destitute localities, and reviving that religious spirit which had sunk for years into cold apathy and indifference.
James Alexander Haldane was born at Dundee, on the 14th of July, 1768, within a fortnight after the death of his father. He also lost his mother when he had only reached his sixth year. After attending the High School of Edinburgh with his brother, and distinguishing himself not only by holding a high place in the class, but being foremost in every school-boy frolic and adventure, he went to the "university, which he attended for three years, until he had completed his studies in Latin and Greek, and gone through the curriculum of logic, metaphysics, mathematics, and natural philosophy. Having thus established a sufficient groundwork for future self-improvement, and made a tour through the north of England, he joined, at the age of seventeen, the service for which he had been early destined, by entering as midshipman the Duke of Montrose, East Indiaman, bound to Bombay and China. This department of naval life ranked high at a period when the monopoly of the East India Company, and the risks of war, made their ships be manned and armed on a scale approaching that of the royal navy. By a family compact it had also been agreed, that as soon as he was qualified by age and service, he should succeed to the command
