HOME, Henry, Lord Kames, an eminent Scottish lawyer, and author of many celebrated works on various subjects, was descended of an ancient family, and born in Berwickshire in the year 1696. In his early youth he was lively, and eager in the acquisition of knowledge. He never attended a public school, but was instructed in the ancient and modern languages, as well as in several branches or mathematics, and the arts necessarily connected with that science, by Mr Wingate, a man of considerable parts and learning, who spent many years as preceptor or private tutor to young Home.

After studying at the university of Edinburgh, the civil law, and the municipal jurisprudence of his own country, Mr Home early perceived that a knowledge of these alone was not sufficient to form an accomplished lawyer. An acquaintance with the forms and practical business of courts, and especially of the supreme court, as a member of which he was to seek for fame and emolument, he considered as essentially necessary to qualify him to become a finished bar- 1 ister. He accordingly attended for some time the chamber of a writer to the signet, where he had an opportunity of learning the styles of legal deeds, and the modes of conducting different species of business. This wise step, independently of his great genius and unwearied application, procured him, after his admission to the bar, peculiar respect from the court, and proportional employment in his profession of advocate. These qualifications, together with the strength and vivacity of his natural abilities, soon rendered him an ornament of the Scottish bar; and, on the 2d day of February 1752, he was advanced to the bench as one of the judges of the Court of Session, under the assumed title of Lord Kames.

Before this period, however, notwithstanding the unavoidable labours of his profession, Mr Home had favoured the world with several useful and ingenious works. In the year 1728 he published Remarkable Decisions of the Court of Session from 1716 to 1728, in one volume folio. In 1732 appeared Essays upon several subjects in law, viz. Jus tertii, Beneficium cedendarum Actionum, Vinco Vincentem, and Prescription, in one volume 8vo. The first produce of his genius excited not only the attention, but the admiration of the judges, and of all the other members of the College of Justice. This work was succeeded, in the year 1741, by Decisions of the Court of Session from its first institution to the year 1740, abridged and digested under proper heads, in the form of a Dictionary, in two volumes folio; a very laborious work, and of the greatest utility to every practical lawyer. In 1747 appeared Essays upon several subjects concerning British antiquities, viz. 1. Introduction of the Feudal Law into Scotland; 2. Constitution of Parliament; 3. Honour, Dignity; and, 4. Succession or Descent, with an appendix upon hereditary and indefeasible right, composed in 1745, and published 1747, one vol. 8vo. Though not in the order of time, we shall continue the list of all our author’s writings on law, before we proceed to his productions on other subjects. In 1757, he published the Statute Law of Scotland Abridged, with historical notes, in one volume 8vo; a most useful and laborious work. In the year 1759, he presented to the public a new and very interesting work under the title of Historical Law Tracts, in two volumes 8vo. In 1760, he published, in one volume folio, the Principles of Equity; a work which shows both the fertility of the author’s genius and his indefatigable application. In 1766, he gave to the public another volume in folio of Remarkable Decisions of the Court of Session from 1730 to 1752. In 1777, appeared his Elucidations respecting the Common and Statute Law of Scotland, in one volume 8vo. This book contains many curious and interesting remarks upon some intricate and dubious points which occur in the law of Scotland. In 1780, he published a volume in folio of Select Decisions of the Court of Session from 1752 to 1768.

But Lord Kames’s mind was much inclined to metaphysical disquisitions. When a young man, he had corresponded with Berkeley bishop of Cloyne, Dr Butler bishop of Durham, Dr Samuel Clarke, and many other ingenious and learned men both in Britain and Ireland. The year 1751 gave birth to the first fruits of his lordship’s metaphysical studies, in an octavo volume, published under the title of Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion. It contained, in more explicit terms than perhaps any other work of a religious theist then known in Scotland, a statement of the doctrine of philosophical necessity, than which it is scarcely possible to conceive any more irrational and un philosophi cal, or more essentially adverse to the best interests of morality and religion. Lord Kames continued an advocate of this doctrine until the day of his death; but in a subsequent edition of the Essays, he exhibited a remarkable proof of his candour and liberality of sentiment, by altering some expressions, which, contrary to his intention, had given offence. In 1761, he published an Introduction to the Art of Thinking, in one volume 12mo. This small book was originally intended for the instruction of his [7:11:537]own family. His Elements of Criticism appeared in 1762, in three volumes 8vo. This valuable work was intended to show that the art of criticism is founded on the principles of human nature. Before it was published, Rollin’s book on the belles-lettres, a dull performance, from which a student could derive little advantage, was generally recommended; but after the Elements of Criticism appeared, the work of Rollin lost its hold of the public.

A further proof of the various pursuits of this active mind was given in the year 1772, when his lordship published a work in one volume 8vo, under the title of The Gentleman Farmer, being an attempt to improve Agriculture by subjecting it to the Test of Rational Principles. In the year 1773, he favoured the world with Sketches of the History of Man, in two vols. 4to. These sketches contain much useful information, and, like all his lordship’s performances, are lively and entertaining. They were republished in four vols. 8vo.

We now come to Lord Kames’s last work, to which he modestly gives the title of Loose Hints upon Education, chiefly concerning the cultivation of the heart. It was published in the year 1781, in one volume 8vo, when the venerable author was in the eighty-fifth year of his age. Though his lordship chose to call it Loose Flints, the intelligent reader will perceive in this composition an uncommon activity of mind, at an age so far advanced beyond the usual period of human life, and an earnest desire to form the minds of youth to honour, virtue, industry, and a veneration of the Deity.

Besides the books which we have enumerated, Lord Kames published many temporary and fugitive pieces in different periodical works. In the Essays Physical and Literary, published by a society of gentlemen in Edinburgh, we find compositions of his lordship on the Laws of Motion, on the Advantages of Shallow Ploughing, and on Evaporation, all exhibiting evident marks of original thinking.

Lord Kames was as remarkable for public spirit as for mental activity and great exertion. For a long tract of time he had the principal management of all the societies and boards for promoting the trade, fisheries, and manufactures in Scotland; and, as conducive to those ends, he was a strenuous advocate for making and repairing turnpike roads throughout every part of the country. He was in some measure the parent of what was called the Physical and Literary Society, which was afterwards incorporated into the Royal Society of Edinburgh. From what has been said concerning the various productions of his genius, it is obvious that there could be few idle moments in his protracted life. His mind, either teeming with new ideas, or pursuing active and laborious occupations, found incessant employment. In his temper he was naturally warm, though kind and affectionate. In the friendships he formed he was ardent, zealous, and sincere. So far from being inclined to irréligion, as some ignorant bigots insinuated, few men possessed a more devout habit of thought. A constant sense of the presence of the Deity, and a veneration for Providence, dwelt upon his mind. From this source arose that propensity which appears in all his writings, of investigating final causes, and tracing the wisdom of the Supreme Author of nature. Lord Kames died on the 27 th of December 1782. As he had no marked disease, but the debility necessarily resulting from extreme old age, a few days before his death he went to the Court of Session, addressed all the judges separately, told them he was speedily to depart, and took 3 solemn and an affectionate farewell. A full account of his Life and Writings, including much of the Literary History of Scotland, was published by the late Lord Woodhouselee, in two vols. 4to, 1807.