Political science having long been the favourite study of Dr. Somerville, it may readily be supposed that he took a deep interest in all that concerned the French Revolution. But he was not one of those, who hailed the dawn of liberty in that enslaved and benighted land; on the contrary, he beheld it as the harbinger of evil to the whole of civilised Europe; while, from the dissensions to which this event gave rise in his own country, he augured the downfall of that constitution in Church and State which he had so ably vindicated in his writings, and which he regarded as the ne plus ultra of perfection. An alarmist on principle, he involved in one sweeping condemnation all who entertained views different from his own on this subject; and the wild impracticable theorist - the temperate and philosophical advocate for reform-were with him equally objects of reprobation.*

So omnipotent, indeed, is the sway of prejudice over minds otherwise liberal and highly enlightened, that when foreign aggression and internal faction led to those sanguinary scenes in France, which the philanthropist so much deplored, and which finally led to the extinction of the new-born liberties of that ill-fated land, Dr. Somerville pertinaciously continued to regard those evils as the necessary sequence of the principles of freedom, which they, in fact, so manifestly belied and so grossly outraged. With equal justice might he have charged to the mild and forbearing doctrines of Christianity, the persecutions and cruelties perpetrated by bigotry and intolerance in the name of a self-denying Master.

Always strict in the performance of his pastoral duties, he was now more especially zealous to enforce, both in his public discourses, and in his private intercourse with his parishioners, a reverence for the existing establishments, both in Church and in State; but, so far as the present writer knows, he took no share whatever in the political disquisitions with which the press teemed at this period of national excitation.

*The Vindicia Gallica of Sir James Mackintosh found as little favour in his eyes as the Rights of Man.

Whether cool and dispassionate reflection tended to correct his first hasty estimate of the political events of this period, we know not, but Dr. Somerville certainly lived to behold a great and beneficial change effected in the state of society, which may in a great measure be traced to the impetus imparted to the public mind by those events which were to him, at the time they occurred, objects of such unfeigned alarm.

Even in the remote border-parish of which he so long filled the office of pastor, individuals might be pointed out, who hold an influential rank amongst their townsmen, and even exercise the duties of the magistracy, whose attention was first awakened to the interests, the trade, and the civil polity of their country, by the discussions consequent on the French revolution.

But to return, the strictly professional writings of Dr. Somerville were not numerous; "Two Sermons communicated to the Scotch Preacher," "A Collection of Sermons" published in 1815, and one "On the Nature and Obligation of an Oath," which appeared in the "Scottish Pulpit” at a later period, comprise, we believe, nearly the whole of his works on religious subjects.

The style of those sermons is plain, simple, and perspicuous; they breathe throughout a spirit of sincere and deepfelt piety, and forcibly inculcate the obligations and practice of morality, by arguments drawn from the sacred writings.

The same chaste simplicity of style, the same spirit of sincere piety which characterise Dr. Somerville's written sermons, pervaded his discourses from the pulpit. His manner was impressive sometimes animated; and though his voice was neither powerful nor finely modulated, these defects were in a great measure remedied by an uncommonly distinct and emphatic articulation.

Devoted through a long life to the pursuits of literature, Dr. Somerville numbered amongst his friends many of the eminent scholars and divines of his native Scotland; and during his occasional visits to the British metropolis, he was

introduced to several of the distinguished literati of the South.*

Superior to the mean jealousy and petty envy which too often prevail amongst the votaries of science and learning, Dr. Somerville was at all times, and on every occasion, eager to do justice to the talents and merit of his gifted contemporaries. No man could be more enthusiastically alive to the transcendant genius of Burns, or more feelingly deplore the moral aberrations of that inspired bard. In the dark hour of John Logan's eventful life, he stretched towards him the supporting hand of friendship; and shielded him, in some measure, from the attacks of bigotry and illiberality, by the weight and influence of his own pure and unimpeachable cha

racter.

A gold-headed cane, the parting gift of the grateful poet, when he bade a lasting adieu to Scotland, Dr. Somerville highly prized, and always carried in his hand when walking. But though the reverend historian survived most of the valued friends of his youth and manhood, he lived to behold many of the rising generation attain under his eye to great eminence in various departments of learning and the arts †; and, unlike most men at his advanced age, he continued to feel a lively interest in the progressive improvements of society.

Temperate and active in his habits, one of his favourite relaxations from study was superintending the cultivation of his glebe. He was partial to the exercise of walking, being

At the Chapter Coffee-House, a mutual acquaintance introduced him to Peter Pindar, then in the zenith of his fame; but the conversation of Dr. Wolcot left, on the whole, rather an unpleasant impression on the mind of the Scotch Divine.

The able biographer of the late Rev. John Nicol, of Innerleithen, was one of those; and while writing this hasty sketch, a wish has arisen in the mind of the author, that a Critical Review of the Life and Times of the Historian of William and Anne may at some future period appear from the pen of the liberal and enlightened pastor of Craig.

Dr. Somerville took a lively interest in the agricultural improvements, which, during the last fifty years, have so greatly enriched and embellished his native country. He furnished the Statistical Survey of the Parish of Jedburgh to Sir John Sinclair's collection; and on the attempt to introduce the culture of the tobacco

rather a timid rider, for which he used to account from having, when a student, received a severe contusion on the head by a fall from his horse. This accident occurred in Edinburgh, opposite the residence of the Rev. Mr. Bain, at that time the head of the Relief Secession. In his family the patient was attended for several months, with a kindness and humanity which made a deep and lasting impression on his mind. Often has the present writer heard him express the pleasure and improvement he had reaped from the enlightened conversation of his worthy host, during a long and tedious convalescence.

Dr. Somerville was extremely sensitive to praise, but not the most tolerant of censure; he was a warm friend, and if the vivacity of his feelings sometimes led him to form hasty or erroneous judgments, he never obstinately shut his ears against conviction, or hesitated to acknowledge an error when convinced it was such.

Of a cheerful temper, he mingled freely in society, and partook with much zest of the innocent pleasures of life; but never, amidst the hilarity of the social hour, did he deviate from that strict propriety of conduct becoming his sacred profession. With his brethren of the Presbytery he lived in habits of intimacy and friendship, and maintained, as far as circumstances permitted, the relations of good fellowship with the Dissenting pastors in the town and neighbourhood of Jedburgh, ever regarding them as fellow-labourers in the vineyard of his Divine Master, however they might differ in unessential forms and modes of worship.

plant into Roxburghshire, during the American war, Dr. S. was amongst the first to afford it a fair trial.

The crop he raised on his glebe far exceeded his most sanguine anticipations, and promised an ample remuneration for the risk and trouble, when an act of Parliament not only prohibited its future growth, but compelled the cultivators to dispose of the standing crops to Government at the low price of 4d. per pound. Shortly after the passing of this arbitrary act, one of those tremendous hailshowers, not unfrequent in Teviotdale, occurred; and as Dr. S. viewed from his own window the tall luxuriant plants beaten down and damaged by the weight of the hailstones, he clasped his hands together, exclaiming, " Government and Nature war against us," and turned away to conceal his severe disappointment.

But it was in his intercourse with the young that Dr. Somerville's piety and goodness of heart shone forth with the brightest lustre. To them he always depicted religion under a smiling aspect, calculated to heighten all the innocent enjoyments, and to afford the only solid consolation under the inevitable evils and misfortunes of this imperfect state of existence. In his public discourses, and in his private conversation, he uniformly marked with the sternest reprobation aught that tended to sully the purity or unhinge the principles of the youthful mind.

After a few days' illness, the life of this venerable divine terminated at Jedburgh on the 16th of May, 1830, in the ninetieth year of his age, and the sixty-fourth of his ministry. He retained complete possession of his faculties to the last; and, on the foregoing Sunday, preached and administered the sacrament to his congregation with his usual pious earnestAs he had been, in a peculiar manner, the child of the Presbytery of Jedburgh, so at his death he might be emphatically termed not only its father, but the father of the Scottish Church, having survived, we believe, all his contemporaries of the ministry at the period of his ordination.

ness.

Soon after his settlement at Minto, Dr. Somerville married the daughter of Mr. Charters, who held, we believe, some office in the Board of Excise, by whom he had a family of three sons and four daughters. This union was dissolved several years ago by the death of Mrs. Somerville. His eldest son, William, began his career in life, like his father, as a private tutor in the family of the late Lord Minto; but on the present inheritor of that title being sent to Eton, he turned his attention to the study of medicine. After serving some time in the Medical Staff of the army on different foreign stations, Dr. William Somerville returned to Britain, and, in addition to his half-pay, had sufficient interest to obtain the appointment of Physician to Chelsea College. His second son, Samuel, was cut off by a lingering disease in the prime of life; the youngest son died in early infancy. His three