1773-1850.] LORD JEFFREY. MISCELLANEOUS SPEECHES. LORD JEFFREY. FRANCIS, LORD JEHigh Sch was born at ghdinburgh in 1773. le was educated at the High School of Edinburgh, at Glasgow University, at Oxford, and at the University of Edinburgh. In 1794 he was called to the Scottish bar. Before he had made his way to an extensive practice, he united with a few friends in establishing the Edinburgh Review, of which he continued sole editor for twenty-seven years. In 1829, by which time he had occupied for some years the head of his profession, he was chosen Dean of the Faculty. On the formation of the Whig ministry, in 1830, he was made Lord Advocate, sitting in the House of Commons first for the Perth district of burghs, and for Malton, and afterwards for the city of Edinburgh. In 1834 he was promoted to the bench; and he is generally allowed to rank amongst the ablest of Scottish judges. His death took place on the 26th of January, 1850. In explanation of the following, it may be mentioned that Sir Walter Scott and Sir James Mackintosh were competitors for the office of Lord Rector of Glasgow University in the session of 1822-23. Jeffrey, the rector for the two previous sessions, justified his vote in the words given below. Sir James Mackintosh and Sir Walter Scott. I THINK it right to explain, in a few words, the grounds upon which I, with the great majority of those who now hear me, have on this occasion given to Sir James Mackintosh a preference over his illustrious competitor. Between two such candidates it might well have been thought difficult to choose; and, if the result of our decision had been supposed to depend on any comparative estimate of their general merits, I should certainly have felt the task of selection to be one of infinitely greater difficulty and delicacy than that which we have actually had to discharge. Sir Walter Scott, in point of inventive genius, of discrimination of character, of mastery over the passions and feelings of his readers, is undoubtedly superior, not only to his distinguished competitor in this day's election, but probably to any other name in the whole range of our recent or ancient literature; and to these great gifts and talents I know that he adds a social and generous disposition, which endears him to all who have access to his person, and has led him to make those splendid qualities subservient to the general diffusion of kind and elevated sentiments. By this happy use of those rare endowments, he has deservedly attained to a height of popularity and an extent of fame, to which there is no parallel in our remembrance, and to which, as individuals, we must each of us contribute our own share of willing and grateful admiration. But what I wish to impress upon you is, that those high qualities are rather titles to general glory than to academic honours; and, being derived far more from "the prodigality of nature" than the successful pursuits of study, have their appropriate reward rather in popular renown, than in the suffrages of societies dedicated and set apart for the encouragement of learning and science. The world at large is Sir Walter Scott's university, in which he studies, and in which he teaches, and every individual who reads is a concurrent suffragan for the honours he has earned from the public. We, however, are not met to-day merely as a portion of that public, or to express as individuals what we owe to its benefactors. We are met as members of a learned body, a society consecrated to the cultivation of those severer studies in which the perseverance of the young should be stimulated by the honours which they help to confer on those who have made the greatest advances; and, acting in this capacity and with a due sense of the ends of the institution in which we are united, we ought, it seems to me, on an occasion like this, to take care that we are not too much dazzled by the blaze of that broader and more extended fame which fills the world beyond us. Now, it appears to me that, in all the attainments which are to be honoured in a seat of learning, Sir James Mackintosh is as clearly superior to his competitor as he is inferior in the qualities that entitle to popular renown. In profound and exact scholarship—in learning, properly so called, in all its variety and extent-in familiarity with all the branches of philosophy-in historical research-in legislative skill, wisdom and caution—in senatorial eloquence, and in all the amenities of private life and character, I know no man (taking all those qualifications together) not merely to be preferred, but to be compared to him whom we have this day agreed to honour and invite among us. And, considering him as a great example of the utility and beauty of those attainments which we are here incorporated to cultivate and exalt, I cannot but feel that we have done right in giving him the preference upon the occasion, over that other distinguished person to whom he has this day been opposed, and who would undoubtedly have done honour to the situation for which he was proposed. The great comfort in such a competition as that in which we have been engaged is, that it cannot terminate in any choice that shall not be a subject of congratulation; and it is only in looking to him who has not been elected that there can be any room for feelings of regret. I have thus endeavoured to explain the motives which have induced me to concur with the majority of my co-electors-less for the sake of |