Millar lost a daughter by consumption in 1791, and his wife in 1795. His eldest son, John, a promising young man, went to the bar, and married the daughter of Dr. Cullen. He published a book upon the ‘Law relating to Insurances’ in 1787. Ill-health and the unpopularity of the whiggism which he inherited from his father induced him to emigrate in the spring of 1795 to America, where he died soon afterwards from a sunstroke.
Three sons and six daughters survived their father. Of these James became professor of mathematics at Glasgow; the second, William [q. v.], is separately noticed; the third was a writer to the signet. One daughter was married to James Mylne, professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow, and another to Dr. John Thomson, by whom she was mother of Allan Thomson, professor of surgery at Edinburgh. He left his manuscripts to his eldest son, to Professor Mylne, and to John Craig, his nephew, by whom some were published in 1803.
Millar was a man of strong sense and singularly sanguine temperament; vivacious and fond of argument, consistent in his opinions, and a severe judge of the consistency of others. He was well read in English literature, had strong social and domestic sympathies, was playful and fond of children, and was eminently capable of attracting the affection of friends and pupils, though a little formal in his manners and reserved in expressions of feeling. Among his intimate friends was John Moore [q. v.], the author of ‘Zeluco,’ and his pupil, the Earl of Lauderdale, upon whose economical speculations he had considerable influence, and to whom he paid an annual visit. There is a medallion portrait of Millar by James Tassie in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
Millar's works are:
- ‘The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks, or an Enquiry into the circumstances which gave rise to influence and authority in the different Members of Society,’ London, 4to, 1771. A fourth edition was published at Edinburgh in 1806, with a ‘Life’ by John Craig. This interesting book shows the influence of Montesquieu, and especially of Hume, whose essay upon ‘The Populousness of Ancient Nations’ is similar in design. J. F. Maclennan says of it (Studies in Ancient History, 1871, p. 420 n.): ‘The reader will find an admirable review of the facts connected with this matter and with gynaikocracy in Professor Millar's “Origin of Ranks,” a work in which Bachofen [author of ‘Das Mutterrecht’] has almost been anticipated, and that by a treatment of the facts in every sense strictly scientific.’ It was translated into German at Leipzig in 1772, and into French by Dominique Joseph Garat, minister of justice, in 1792.
- ‘Historical View of the English Government from the Settlement of the Saxons in Britain to the Accession of the House of Stewart,’ 1787; 2nd edit. 1790. A third edition, with additions from his manuscripts, was published in 1803, in 4 vols. 8vo, with the addition to the previous title, ‘To which are subjoined some Dissertations connected with the History of the Government from the Revolution to the Present Time.’ The first two volumes are the original work. A fourth edition appeared in 1818. The book had a high reputation, and was praised by Jeffrey in the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ iii. 154–81.
Both books were greatly admired by James Mill (Bain, Mill, p. 56), and John Stuart Mill acknowledged that there was great similarity between some of Millar's historical speculations and Guizot's (Macvey Napier, Correspondence, p. 510). Hallam, in the preface to his ‘Middle Ages,’ says that the history is pleasing from its ‘liberal spirit,’ but that Millar is too fond of ‘theorising upon an imperfect induction, and very often upon a total misapprehension of particular facts.’ It was, however, almost the only book upon the subject when Hallam wrote.
[Life, by John Craig, prefixed to Origin of Ranks, 1806; Scots Mag. 1801, pp. 527–8; A. Carlyle's Autobiog. 1860, p. 492; Life of Lord Minto, 1879, ii. 26; Edinburgh Review, iii. 154–81, iv. 83–92 (articles by Jeffrey upon the ‘History’ and the ‘Life’).]
MILLAR, JOHN, M.D. (1733–1805), medical writer, born in Scotland in 1733, graduated M.D. at Edinburgh. He commenced practice at Kelso, but on being appointed, in August 1774, physician to the Westminster General Dispensary, he settled in Pall Mall, London, and became an active promoter of the Medical Society of London, instituted in 1773. He died on 25 Feb. 1805 in Shepherd Street, Mayfair (Scots Mag. 1805, p. 237). By his wife Isabella, sister of Admiral Brisbane, he had two sons (Burke, Landed Gentry, 1886, p. 211). John, the eldest, was a lieutenant in the English navy, but died at Revel on 29 May 1804 in command of a 74-gun ship in the service of the emperor of Russia (Gent. Mag. 1804, pt. ii. p. 784); the youngest, a ship-surgeon, was drowned in early youth at sea (Millar, Observations on the Change of Public Opinion, Pref. p. cxxviii).
Millar was an excellent physician, especially for women and children, but was eccentric and irritable. His chief works are:
- ‘Observations on the Asthma and on the
