for several years. It may be mentioned that in 1745, Robertson hastened as a volunteer into Edinburgh, when it was threatened by the Highland army; and when it was agreed in the panic to surrender the city, he formed one of a band who proceeded to Haddington and offered themselves to General Cope, who, however, declined the offer, as they had not had any military drill or discipline. He performed his pastoral duties with exemplary fidelity, and exhibited in the pulpit a higher style and better elocution than had been customary in many Scottish parishes. Yet the more polished sermon, which became afterwards so common, failed to make the same impression that more direct, quaint, and rugged discourses had done in a former age. In the year 1752 Robertson was a member of the general assembly, and he then began to unfold and defend those views of church polity which characterized the so-called moderate party; upholding the law of patronage against all modification, ordaining ministers against the resolute opposition of vacant parishes, and sternly enacting that no clergyman, whatever be his personal convictions, should be excused from taking his official part in this ungracious work. His measures, at first unsuccessful, soon triumphed, and as a first result of that triumph, the minister of Carnock was selected as an example. Gillespie, quiet but firm, was summarily deposed, and he became the founder of the Relief, a large and influential body forming one of the constituent elements of the United Presbyterian church. Dr. Robertson's eloquence and influence marked him as the leader of the assembly, a distinction which he enjoyed with unimpaired prerogative for many years. In 1755 Dr. Robertson preached before the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, and published the discourse. It is a historical survey of the state of the world at the time of Christ's appearance, and though not distinguished for great depth or comprehensiveness, it is a clear, animated, impressive, and successful sermon, which at once attained great popularity. His tastes were more literary than theological, and we find him an active member of the select society consisting of many eminent men, founded for the discussion of questions of taste, philosophy, and general literature. Wedderburn, afterwards lord chancellor; Home—Lord Kames; Sir Gilbert Elliot, Lord Monboddo, and others, were principal speakers. Lord Hailes, Carlyle of Inveresk, and Ferguson, were members too, and so were Hume and Adam Smith, but they were always silent during a debate. The sensation created by the clerical patronage of Home and his tragedy of Douglas, is well known. Dr. Robertson bravely shielded his friend the author, and some of the other offenders, who were thought to outrage public decorum by their unabashed appearance in a theatre. The "History of Scotland" had been commenced as early as 1753; the work was quietly and systematically carried on for several years, and it was published in two volumes quarto in 1759. During the time that his work was proceeding through the press, he was translated to a pastoral charge in Edinburgh, first to Lady Yester's, thence to Greyfriars, and about the same time he received the degree of D.D. from the university. The success of the "History" was immediate. It met with universal eulogy; Horace Walpole, Warburton, Lord Mansfield, Bishop Douglas, Hurd, and Burke extolled its merits. It brought its author numerous congratulations and £600, and it passed through fourteen editions in his lifetime. During the year of its publication he became chaplain of Stirling castle; next year, in 1762, one of his majesty's chaplains-in-ordinary for Scotland; in 1762 principal of the university of Edinburgh; and two years later, by royal appointment, historiographer for Scotland, with a salary of £200 a year. His own merits and Lord Bute's influence brought him this rapid succession of promotions. Preferment in the English church was offered him, but the offer was decidedly refused. Dr. Robertson's next subject was the "History of the Reign of Charles V.," which was published in 1769 in three volumes quarto. It was floated on a high tide of popularity, and merited all the eulogiums pronounced upon it. The first chapter is unique for its rapid, comprehensive, and eloquent account of the political affairs and parties in Europe; presenting a vivid picture of society in its different divisions, and showing the variety of causes whose concurrent influence brought Europe into the condition it presented at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The entire work is the result of calm and thoughtful research, expressed in a vigorous and graceful style, which if it never rises into enthusiasm, never sinks into insipidity. The copyright of this work brought the author £4500, the largest sum ever paid up to that period for a single work. After this, at the urgent solicitation of friends and at the wish of the king, he seems to have entertained the idea of writing a history of England, but the work was never commenced. In 1777 appeared the "History of America," in two volumes quarto, for the copyright of which he received £2400. In honour of a work, in which they had a national interest, the Royal Academy of History at Madrid elected him an honorary member. His next and last work, "Historical Disquisition, concerning the Knowledge which the Ancients had of India," was published in 1791. It had been suggested to him by the perusal of Major Rennell's Memoirs of a Map of Hindostan, and in its own sphere of investigation it has no rival. Immediately after the publication of this work, his health became seriously affected. He was seized with jaundice, the result or concomitant of liver disease. He felt that his time had come, and he contemplated his end with serene resignation. During the later period of his illness he was removed to Grange house, in the vicinity of Edinburgh, and he spent many hours in a garden attached to his dwelling. It was spring, and he took special interest in the opening blossoms of the fruit-trees; often with a smile to friends or visitors with whom he was in conversation, contrasting his interest in their progress with the event which was to happen ere the fruit should appear. Early in June, 1793, he was wholly confined to bed, and he died on the 11th of that month, in the seventy-first year of his age.
The industry of Dr. Robertson was great and conscientious. He never was in a hurry to publish. Years of calm, unwearied, sifting research preceded the publication of each of his works. He came to conclusions after a prolonged, careful, and minute survey of facts and premises. Personal investigation led with him to independent results. The style is always perspicuous, ornate, and of even flow; yet one wearies in travelling always over table-land, without a height to climb or a slope to descend. The rhythm and sustained elevation are uniform, and therefore often out of harmony with the events narrated or actions described. Paragraphs of singular and appropriate force and beauty everywhere occur, and character is often drawn with wonderful artistic skill. He is less compact and profound than Thucydides and Tacitus, but not so discursive as Livy; he wants the easy and natural grace of Hume, but he is not so sparkling, antithetic, and rhetorical as Gibbon. His pages are colourless, so far as his own passions are concerned. There are no flashes of enthusiasm, no sympathetic pulse is stirred, even when he relates the mighty work of Luther or describes the horrid butcheries of the Spanish invaders of America. He was of a somewhat stoical temperament, and his emotions were hidden under control. It is said that from his familiar intercourse with Hume, some doubted his Christianity, but for this there is no ground; his intercourse with Hume was only secular and literary. His evangelical colleague. Dr. Erskine, who preached his funeral sermon, speaks highly in favour of him. His theology was not profound. Keen spiritual sensibilities he had not; nay, it is sad to find him in correspondence with Gibbon, not only uttering no protest against the two famous chapters of the "Decline and Fall," which try to sap and undermine the christian faith of which he was a minister, but actually denouncing the bigotry of Lord Hailes and Bishop Watson, who had replied to the insidious sceptic. He unpardonably forgot his duty as a christian and a minister, in his admiration of literary excellence. Dr. Robertson was in politics a whig of the Revolution, and he had a great admiration of the American Washington. As his grandnephew Lord Brougham who heard the discourse, tells us, he preached in 1788 a centenary sermon in honour of the English revolution, in which he exulted in the near prospect of seeing so many millions in France freed from the fetters of arbitrary government. When an attempt was made in 1778 to repeal the most oppressive portion of the penal laws against Roman catholics, riots and burnings took place in Edinburgh, threatening letters were sent to the principal as a favourer of catholic claims, and his house was in danger of being assailed. At next meeting of the assembly he stood forth in self-vindication, and delivered a speech of surpassing power and eloquence, which is reported in the Scot's Magazine of that year. He continued to preach till near the close of his life, but his popularity as a preacher never equalled his popularity as a debater or historian. He preferred. Lord Brougham says, "moral to gospel subjects, as he wished to avoid the fanaticism of the evangelical party." Lord Cockburn, in his Memorials, describes him as a pleasant-looking old man, with an eye of great vividness, a large projecting chin, a small hearing trumpet fastened
