Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/159

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DUNDASSES OF ARNISTON.
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loved and lamented, than any preceding member of his family. This is the more remarkable, when it is borne in mind that he held the responsible office of lord advocate during a period of unexampled difficulty, and of great political excitement and asperity. His popularity, however, was not attributable to any want of firmness and resolution in the discharge of his public duties; but arose in a great measure, from his liberal toleration for difference in political opinion, at a time when that virtue was rare in Scotland ; and from his mild and gentlemanlike deportment, which was calculated no less to disarm his political opponents, than to endear him to his friends. It would have been impossible, perhaps, for any one of his professional contemporaries to have been the immediate agent of government in the trials of Muir, Skirving, and Palmer, without creating infinite public odium.

As chief baron, Mr Dundas was no less estimable. The Scottish court of exchequer never opened a very extensive field for the display of judicial talent; but wherever, in the administration of the business of that court, it appeared that the offender had erred from ignorance, or from misapprehension of the revenue statutes, we found the chief baron disposed to mitigate the rigour of the law, and to interpose his good offices on behalf of the sufferer. It was in private life, however, and within the circle of his own family and friends, that the virtues of this excellent man were chiefly conspicuous, and that his loss was most severely felt. Of him it may be said, as was emphatically said of one of his brethren on the bench "he died, leaving no good man his enemy, and attended with that sincere regret, which only those can hope for, who have occupied the like important stations, and acquitted themselves so well."

Chief baron Dundas married his cousin-german, the honourable Miss Dundas, daughter of Henry, the first lord viscount Melville, by whom he left three sons, and two daughters ; Robert, an advocate, and his successor in the estate of Arniston; Henry, an officer in the navy; and William Pitt. His eldest daughter is the wife of John Borthwick, esq. of Crookston.

Dundas, David, general Sir, was born near Edinburgh, about the year 1735. His father, who was a respectable merchant in Edinburgh, was of the family of Dundas of Dundas, the head of the name in Scotland; by the mother's side he was related to the first lord Melville. This distinguished member of a great family had commenced the study of medicine, but changing his intentions, he entered the army in the year 1752, under the auspices of his uncle, general David Watson. This able officer had been appointed to make a survey of the Highlands of Scotland, and he was engaged in planning and inspecting the military roads through that part of the country. While engaged in this arduous undertaking, he chose young Dundas, and the celebrated general Roy, afterwards quarter-master-general in Great Britain, to be his assistants. To this appointment was added that of a lieutenancy in the engineers, of which his uncle was at that time senior captain, holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the army.

In the year 1759, Dundas obtained a troop in the regiment of light horse raised by colonel Elliot, and with that gallant corps, he embarked for Germany, where he acted as aid-de-camp to colonel Elliot. In that capacity he afterwards accompanied general Elliot in the expedition sent out in the year 1762, under the command of the earl of Albemarle, against the Spanish colonies in the West Indies. On the 28th May, 1770, he was promoted to the majority of the 15th dragoons, and from that corps he was removed to the 2nd regiment of horse on the Irish establishment, of which he obtained the lieutenant-colonelcy.

It was to the ministerial influence of general Watson that colonel Dundas owed his rapid promotion ; and he now obtained, through the same interest, a staff appointment as quarter-master-general in Ireland. He was also allowed to