James learned the intelligence of his death while on his journey to London, and immediately appointed the historian Spottiswoode to be his successor in the cathedral chair of Glasgow. Archbishop Spottiswoode characterises him as "a man honourably disposed, faithful to the Queen while she lived, and to the King her son; a lover of his country, and liberal, according to his means, to all his countrymen." His reputation, indeed, is singularly pure, when it is considered with what vigour he opposed the reformation. He appears to have been regarded by the opposite party as a conscientious, however mistaken man, and to have been spared accordingly all those calumnies and sarcasms with which party rage is apt to bespatter its opponents. Having enjoyed several livings in France, besides the less certain revenues of Glasgow, he died in possession of a fortune amounting to 80,000 livres, all of which he left to the Scots College, for the benefit of poor scholars of Scotland; a gift so munificent, that he was afterwards considered as the second founder of the institution, the first having been a bishop of Moray, in the year 1325. Besides all this wealth, he left an immense quantity of diplomatic papers, accumulated during the course of his legation at Paris; which, if they had been preserved to the present time, would unquestionably have thrown a strong light upon the events of his time.
BEATSON, Robert, LL.D. an ingenious and useful author, was as a native of Dysart, where he was born in 1742. Being educated with a view to the military profession, he obtained an ensigncy in 1756, at the commencement of the seven years' war. He served next year in the expedition to the coast of France, and afterwards, as lieutenant, in the attack on Martinique, and the taking of Guadaloupe. In 1766, he retired on half-pay, and did not again seek to enter into active life till the breaking out of the American war. Having failed on this occasion to obtain an appointment suitable to his former services, he resolved to apply himself to another profession that of literature for which he had all along had considerable taste. His publications were, 1, "A Political Index to the Histories of Great Britain and Ireland," 1 vol. 8vo. 1786, of which a third edition in 3 volumes was published at a late period of his life. This work consists chiefly of accurate and most useful lists of all the ministers and other principal officers of the state, from the earliest time to the period of its publication. 2, "Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain, from 1727 to the present time," 3 vols. 8vo. 1790; 2nd edition, 6 vols. 1804. 3, "View of the Memorable Action of the 27th of July, 1778," 8vo. 1791. 4, "Essay on the Comparative Advantages of Vertical and Horizontal Windmills," 8vo. 1798, 5, "Chronological Register of both Houses of Parliament, from 1706 to 1807," 3 vols. 8vo. 1807. Besides some communications to the board of agriculture, of which he was an honorary member. This laborious author enjoyed in his latter years the situation of barrack-master at Aberdeen, where, if we are not mistaken, he received his degree of LL.D. He died at Edinburgh, January 24, 1818.
BEATTIE, James, poet and moral philosopher, was born on the 25th October, 1735, at Laurencekirk, then an obscure hamlet in Kincardineshire. His father, James Beattie, was a small shop-keeper in the village, and at the same time rented a little farm in the neighbourhood. His mother's name was Jean Watson, and they had six children, of whom the subject of this article was the youngest. The father was a man of information, and of character superior to his condition, and the mother was also a person of abilities; on the early death of her husband, she carried on the business of his shop and farm, with the assistance of her eldest son, and thus was able to rear her family in a comfortable manner.
Beattie, who, from his earliest years, was considered a child of pro-
