ROBERTSON, WILLIAM, the
historian of Scotland and Charles V., was born in the manse of the parish of
Borthwick, Mid Lothian, in the year 1721. His father, also named William,
was at first minister of that parish, and finally of the Old Gray Friars’
church, Edinburgh; his mother was Eleanor Pitcairne, daughter of David
Pitcairne, Esq. of Dreghorn. By his father, he was descended from the
Robertsons of Gladney, in the county of Fife, a branch of the ancient house
of Strowan. Dr Robertson received the first rudiments of his education at
the school of Dalkeith, under the tuition of Mr Leslie, then a celebrated
teacher. In 1733, he removed with his father’s family to Edinburgh, and,
towards the end of that year, commenced his course of academical study. From
this period till 1759, when he published his Scottish History, there
occurred nothing beyond the natural progress of events in the life of a
young man devoted to the Scottish church as a profession. During this long
space of time, he was silently pursuing his studies, and labouring in
retirement and obscurity on that work, which was afterwards to bring both
fame and fortune to his humble door. Yet, though he thus permitted so large
a portion of his life to pass without making any effort to distinguish
himself, it was not because he was not desirous of an honourable distinction
amongst men; but because he had wisely determined to do something worthy of
a lasting reputation, and to do it deliberately, to secure, in short, a firm
footing, before he stretched out his hand to seize the golden fruit of
popular applause. That he was early imbued with literary ambition, and that
of the most ardent kind, is, notwithstanding the long obscurity to which he
was content to submit, sufficiently evident from the motto which he was in
the habit of prefixing to his commonplace books, while only in the
fourteenth or fifteenth year of his age. The motto was Vita sine literis
mors est; a sentiment which adhered to him through life.
Having completed his studies
at the university, he was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Dalkeith
in 1741, and in 1743 he was presented to the living of Gladsmuir, in East
Lothian, by the earl of Hopetoun. This appointment came opportunely; for
soon after he obtained it, his father and mother died within a few hours of
each other, leaving a family of six daughters and a younger brother, almost
wholly dependent upon him for support. With that generosity of disposition
and warmth of affection, which are not deterred by personal considerations
from discharging an imperative duty, he instantly invited his father’s
family to his humble residence at Gladsmuir, where, we are credibly
informed, his professional income hardly exceeded £60 a-year. Nor did his
benevolence stop here. He undertook the education of his sisters, and on
their account delayed a matrimonial union which he had long desired, but
which he did not carry into effect until he saw them all respectably settled
in the world. This accomplished, he, in 1751, married his cousin, Miss Mary
Nisbet, daughter of the reverend Mr Nisbet, one of the ministers of
Edinburgh. Previously to this, a remarkable instance of the enthusiasm of
his disposition, and of the warmth of his patriotic feelings, occurred. When
the capital of Scotland was threatened by the Highland army in 1745, Dr
Robertson hastened into the city, and joined the ranks of the volunteers,
who had been called up for its defence; and, when it was resolved to
surrender the town without resistance, he was one of a small band who
proceeded to Haddington, where general Cope then lay, and made offer of
their services to that commander. The general, fortunately for Dr Robertson
and his party, declined to admit them into his disciplined ranks, alleging
that their want of that essential qualification might throw his men into
disorder; and they thus escaped the dangers and disgrace which afterwards
befell his army at Prestonpans. This rebuff terminated the historian’s
experience of military life. He returned to the discharge of the sacred
duties of his calling, and to the peaceful enjoyment of his literary
pursuits. In his parish he was exceedingly beloved. The amenity of his
manners, the purity and uprightness of his conduct, had secured him the
esteem and veneration of all; while the eloquence and elegant taste which he
displayed in his sermons, procured him a high degree of respect from the
neighbouring clergy. These qualifications as a preacher, he had been at much
pains to acquire, and he had early aimed at introducing a more refined
taste, and a more persuasive eloquence, into pulpit oratory, than were then
generally to be found. With this view he had, during the last two or three
years of his attendance at college, maintained a connexion with a society,
whose objects were to cultivate the arts of elocution, and to acquire the
habit of extemporary debate. Dr Robertson himself had the principal share in
forming this society, and he was fortunate in the selection of its members,
the greater part of them having afterwards arrived at distinction in the
different walks of life which they pursued.
The first of Dr Robertson’s
publications was a sermon which he preached in the year 1755, before the
Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge.
This sermon possesses a
singular degree of merit, and exhibits all the felicities of composition and
strength of reasoning, for which his after productions are so remarkable.
That he himself had a favourable opinion of this sermon, appears from a
letter written by him to his son-in-law, Mr John Russell, on June 16, 1788,
along with which he had sent him, "as a monument of his friendship and
attachment," a very handsomely bound copy of his works, as "I wish you to
possess them in their most perfect form, as I purpose they should be
transmitted to posterity;" and he adds, "my solitary sermon, naked as it
came into the world, accompanies its well-drest brothers, but though the
least of my works, I would not have you esteem it the last in merit."
A few years afterwards, he
made his appearance in the debates of the General Assembly, where his
eloquence acquired for him the ascendancy which he long maintained as a
leader in the church courts. It is remarkable that one of the first uses he
made of his influence in the General Assembly, was to defend his
co-presbyter Home from the censures of the church, for his having written
the tragedy of Douglas. Dr Robertson could, indeed, scarcely have done less,
after having himself taken part in the rehearsal of the piece, in common
with Blair and Carlyle, as has already been narrated in our memoir of Home.
He exerted himself warmly in behalf of his peccant brother; and it is
allowed that his arguments and eloquence had a great effect in softening the
vengeance of the General Assembly. As the play-going portion of the public
sympathized but little in the feelings of the clergy on this subject, and
felt besides a strong prejudice in favour of Mr Home, these efforts of Dr
Robertson were exceedingly grateful to that party, amongst whom his defence
had the effect of acquiring for him an extensive popularity.
In the mean time, his
"History of Scotland, during the Reigns of Mary and James VI.," which, in
the midst of all his other avocations, he had been noiselessly, but
assiduously bringing forward, approached to a close, and he was about to
commit to the caprice of popular taste and opinion, the labours and the hope
of years. On the final completion of that work, he proceeded to London, to
make arrangements regarding its publication; and in February, 1759, it
appeared. The effect which it produced, was instantaneous and extraordinary.
Letters of congratulation, of admiration, and of praise, poured in upon its
author from all quarters, and many of them from the most eminent men of the
time, all outvying each other in the language of panegyric and compliment.
Nor was it praise alone that attended his literary success; the work cleared
to its author no less a sum than £600; preferment also immediately followed,
and changed at once the whole complexion of his fortunes. While his work was
going through the press, he had received a presentation to one of the
churches of Edinburgh, to which he removed with his family; and in the same
year in which the work was published, he was appointed chaplain of Stirling
castle; in two years afterwards, he was nominated one of his majesty’s
chaplains in ordinary for Scotland; in the following year, he was elected
principal of the university of Edinburgh; and in two years more, appointed
by the king, as historiographer for Scotland, with a salary of two hundred
pounds a-year. From being an obscure country clergyman, he was now become
one of the most conspicuous men in the kingdom. His society and
correspondence were courted by the noble and the wealthy, and his self love
was flattered by encomiums and eulogiums from the dignified and learned.
[His friend, Dr. Carlyle, thus sarcastically remarks the rush of honours
with which his merits were rewarded, in a letter to the reverend Thomas
Hepburn, (author of a curious and clever jeu d’esprit, entitled "Mago-Pico,")
dated Musselburgh, Sep. 5, 1763:--"Robertson has managed with great address.
He is principal, chaplain, minister, historiographer, and historian; that is
to say, he has 50 pounds a-year, and a house certain, besides what he can
make by his books. It was taken for gratned that he was to resign his
charge, on being appointed historiographer with 200 pounds salary; but that
he will do at his leisure. It is also supposed by his patrons, that he is to
write the history of Brtain in ten volumes quarto. This also, I presume
(dreadful task!) he will execute at his leisure.
"Honest David Home (Hume),
with the heart of all others that rejoices most at the prosperity of his
friends, was certainly a little hurt with this last honour conferred on
Robertson. A lucky accident has given him relief. The earl of Hertford is
appointed ambassador to France; not very capable himself, they have loaded
him with an insignificant secretary, one Charles Bunbury, who, for the sake
of pleasure, more than the thousand a-year, solicited for the office.
Hertford knew David, and some good genius prompted to ask him to go along
and manage the business. It is an honourable character,--he will see his
friends in France; if he tires he can return when he pleases. Bunbury will
probably tire first, and then David will become secretary!" – Thorpe’s
Catalogue of Autographs, 1833.]
Some of his advisers, in the
warmth of their zeal, thinking that the Scottish church was too limited a
field for a man of his talents, proposed to him to seek in the English
church for rewards befitting his high merits. Into this proposal, however Dr
Robertson did not enter, but continued to abide by both the country and the
religion of his fathers; a line of conduct consistent with the purity and
dignity of his character.
The success of his "History
of Scotland," now urged him on to further efforts, and he lost no time in
looking out for another subject to work upon. After some deliberation, and
carefully weighing the merits of several, he at length fixed upon a "History
of the Reign of Charles V." This work, which appeared in 1769, in three
volumes quarto, still further increased the reputation of its author, [In
consequence of the great success of his History of Scotland, Dr Robertson
received for Charles V. from the booksellers, no less than 4,500 pounds,
then supposed to be the largest sum ever paid for the copyright of a single
book.] and was received with equally flattering marks of
approbation as his Scottish history. Hume, his contemporary and intimate
friend, and who, superior to the low jealousy which would have seized upon a
mean mind, on witnessing the success of a rival historian, had always been
amongst the first to come forward and acknowledge his merits, thus speaks of
the work, as it passed through his hands in sheets direct from the printing
office: "They even excel, and I think in a sensible degree, your History of
Scotland. I propose to myself great pleasure, in being the only man in
England, during some months, who will be in the situation of doing you
justice; after which, you may certainly expect that my voice will be drowned
in that of the public." Mr Hume was not mistaken in this
anticipation. Congratulatory and complimentary letters again flowed in upon
the historian from all quarters, and his fame not only spread rapidly
wherever the language in which he wrote was understood, but by a felicitous
translation of his Charles V., by M. Suard, he became equally well known
throughout all France.
Previously to his undertaking
the Life of Charles V., Dr Robertson had been urgently entreated by his
friends, and had even the wishes of the monarch conveyed to him on the
subject, to undertake a history of England. This, though promised the
support of government while he should be engaged in the work, he declined,
from motives of delicacy towards his friend Mr Hume, who was already
employed on a history of that kingdom. He was afterwards, however, prevailed
upon to entertain the idea, from the consideration that his work would not
appear for many years after Mr Hume’s, and that it would necessarily be so
different as to have an entirely separate and distinct claim on public
favour, without any encroachment on the portion due to the merits of Mr
Hume. The work, however, was never undertaken, nor is it now known what were
the causes which prevented it. His biographer, Mr Dugald Stewart,
conjectures that the resignation of lord Bute, who had always been a warm
and steady friend of Dr Robertson, might have contributed to alter his view,
with regard to the writing a history of England; but he acknowledges his
inability to discover any certain or positive reason for the interruption of
its execution.
Eight years after the
publication of Charles V., (1777,) Dr Robertson produced the History of
America, a work which fully maintained the author’s high reputation, and
procured him a repetition of all those gratifying marks of both public and
private approbation which had attended his former works. One of these was
his election as an honorary member by the Royal Academy of History in
Madrid. This learned body at the same time appointed one of its members to
translate the work into Spanish, and a considerable progress was made in the
translation, when the jealousy of the Spanish government interfered to
prevent it from proceeding any further.
The reputation of Dr
Robertson, however, did not rest alone upon his writings. His powerful and
persuasive eloquence had gained him an influence in the General Assembly,
which intimately and conspicuously associated his name with the
ecclesiastical affairs of the kingdom. He introduced and established a
system of subordination throughout the various gradations of ecclesiastical
judicatories, which had not been before exerted, and the neglect of which
had given rise to many unbecoming scenes in the settling of ministers;
scenes deemed at once highly derogatory to the dignity of the supreme court,
and subversive of all order in the church government of the kingdom.
Of his eloquence, a part of
his fame, as his biographer remarks, which must soon rest on tradition only,
the latter thus speaks: "I shall not be accused of exaggeration, when I say,
that, in some of the most essential qualifications of a speaker, he
was entitled to rank with the first names which have in our times adorned
the British senate." This is high praise; but when it is recollected who he
is that bestows it, there is little reason to doubt its justice.
In his preface to his History
of America, Dr Robertson had mentioned his intention of resuming the
subject; and it is known that, but for the colonial war, which was now
raging, he would have commenced a history of the British empire in that
continent. Having abandoned this design, he looked out for some other
subject worthy of his pen. Mr Gibbon recommended to him a history of
the Protestants in France, a subject which has since been illustrated by Dr
M’Crie, and several other persons suggested the History of Great Britain,
from the Revolution to the Accession of the House of
Hanover. It appears from a
letter to Dr Waddilour, dean of Rippon, dated July, 1778, that he had made
up his mind to encounter the responsibilities of such a task: but he very
early abandoned it, in consequence of a correspondence with his friend, Mr
James Macpherson, who, three years before, had published a history of the
same reigns, and whose feelings, he found, must be severely injured by his
attempting a rival work. As he was now approaching his sixtieth year, it is
probable that he was by no means eager to commence a new subject of study.
His circumstances, too, were independent; he had acquired fame sufficient to
gratify his most ambitious hopes: and thus were removed two of the greatest
incentives to literary exertion. His constitution, besides, was considerably
impaired by a long, sedentary, and studious life; and he probably conceived
that, after having devoted so large a portion of his existence to the
instruction and entertainment of others, he had a right to appropriate what
remained to himself.
In the year 1780, he retired
from the business of the ecclesiastical court, of which he had been so long
an ornament, but still continued to discharge the duties of his pastoral
office, and that with a diligence, always exemplary, which increased rather
than diminished with his growing infirmities. As long as his health
permitted, he preached every Sunday, and continued to do so occasionally
till within a few months of his death. In regard to his style of preaching,
his nephew, Lord Brougham, in his Life of the Principal, contained in his
"Lives of Men of Letters and Science who flourished in the time of George
III.," gives a very interesting account of it from his own personal
knowledge; and in particular of a sermon which he heard Dr Robertson preach
on November 5, 1788, the celebration of the centenary of the
Revolution.
Notwithstanding his
resolution to write no more for the public, the Principal was accidentally
led to the composition of another work. In perusing major Rennel’s "Memoirs
of a Map of Hindostan," he began to inquire into the knowledge which the
ancients had of that country, solely for his own amusement and information.
His ideas, as he himself remarks, gradually extended, and became more
interesting, till he at length imagined that the result of his researches
might prove amusing and instructive to others. In this way he was led to
publish his "Historical Disquisition concerning the Knowledge which the
Ancients had of India, and the progress of Trade with that Country, prior to
the Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope," which appeared in 1791 in quarto.
He had in the meanwhile enjoyed several years of good health and honoured
leisure, dividing the time which he could spare from his clerical duties
between the amusement of reading and the enjoyment of the society of his
friends. Immediately, however, on the termination of the above self-imposed
labour, his health became materially affected. Strong symptoms of jaundice
showed themselves, and laid the foundation of a lingering and fatal illness.
At an early stage of this disease, he was impressed with the belief that his
death was not far distant; but, like his great contemporary Hume, he
contemplated its approach, not only without terror, but with cheerfulness
and complacency. In the latter part of his illness he was removed to Grange
House, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, in the vain hope that he might be
benefited by the free air of the country. He was still, however, able to
enjoy the beauties of the rural scenery around him, and that with all the
relish of his better days. Early in June, 1793, his increasing weakness
confined him to his couch; his articulation began to fail, and on the 11th
he died, in the seventy-first year of his age.
Dr Robertson’s talents were
not precocious. The early part of his career was wholly undistinguished by
any remarkable pre-eminence over his contemporaries; but his mind, though
silently and unobtrusively, was yet gradually advancing towards that high
intellectual station in which it first attracted the attention of the world.
He did not, with that ill-judged precipitancy by which authors have often
seriously suffered in their reputation and fortunes, come unfledged before
the world. As already remarked, he wisely refrained from stepping into the
arena of literary competition until he was completely accoutred for the
contest, and the success he met with was one result of this prudence and
forethought.
The friendship which
subsisted between Dr Robertson and Mr Hume is, perhaps, next to the genius
of these great men, the circumstance connected with them most deserving of
our admiration. Though both struggling forward in the same path of
historical composition, there were not only no mean jealousies in the race,
but each might be seen in turn helping forward the other, and a more
interesting sight than this cannot readily be conceived. The letters of Mr
Hume to Dr Robertson are full of amiable feeling, and of that light,
cheerful raillery, in which the historian of England so much delighted to
indulge, and which contrasted so pleasingly with the gravity and
dignity of his writings. "Next week," he says, in one of these
letters, "I am published, and then I expect a constant comparison will be
made between Dr Robertson and Mr Hume. I shall tell you in a few weeks which
of these heroes is likely to prevail. Meanwhile, I can inform both of them
for their comforts, that their combat is not likely to make half so much
noise as that between Broughton and the one-eyed coachman."
Dr Robertson in person was
rather above the middle size, with an apparently ordinary degree of physical
strength. His eye was intelligent, and his features regular and manly. "He
appeared," says his biographer, "to greatest advantage in his complete
clerical dress, and was more remarkable for gravity and dignity in
discharging the functions of his public stations, than for ease or grace in
private society." His moral character was unimpeachable. His manners were
mild and conciliating, and all his dispositions amiable. "He was," says Dr
Erskine, "temperate, without austerity; condescending and affable, without
meanness; and in expense, neither sordid nor prodigal. He could feel an
injury, yet bridle his passion; was grave, not sullen; steady, not
obstinate; friendly, not officious; prudent and cautious, not timid."
He left behind him three sons
and two daughters. The eldest son adopted the profession of the law, and
passed through its highest honours. His two younger sons entered the army.
His elder daughter was married to Mr Brydone, author of the Tour in Sicily
and Malta; the youngest, to John Russell, Esq., clerk to the signet. His two
younger sons rose to high rank in the army, and the elder of the two
especially distinguished himself in India under Lord Cornwallis.’
In the year 1781, Dr
Robertson was elected one of the foreign members of the Academy of Sciences
at Padua, and, in 1783, one of the foreign members of the Imperial Academy
of Sciences at St Petersburg. The empress Catherine was so much delighted
with his works, that she presented him, through Dr Rogerson, with a handsome
gold enamelled snuff-box, richly set with diamonds. He was the founder of
the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and exerted himself with his usual zeal, not
only in forming the plan of that institution, but in carrying it on after it
was established.
We are now going to bring you
some of the books he wrote...
Book 1
Book 2 Part 1
Book 2 Part 2
Book 3 Part 1
Book 3
Part 2
Book 4
Book 5
Book 6
Book 7 Volume II
Book 8
Volume VII
History of America
Preface
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Notes and Illustrations
India
See his book
about India here
William
Robertson’s Unfinished History of America
The Foundation of the British Empire in North America and the Scottish
Enlightenment by Florence Petroff (pdf) |