Great King Street1 SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON. 195
Royal Circus, was built in 1820, and in the following
year it was proposed to erect at the west
end of it an equestrian statue to the memory of
George III., for which subscription lists had been
opened, but the project was never carried out.
In Great King Street have resided, respectively
in Nos. 3, 16, and 72, three men who are of mark
and fame-Sir Robert Christison, Sir William
Hamilton, and Sir William Allan.
When the future baronet occupied No. 3, he
was Doctor Christison, and Professor of medical
jurisprudence. Born in June, 1797, and son of the
late Alexander Christison, Professor of Humanity
in the University of Edinburgh, he became a student
there in 1811, and passed with brilliance through
the literary and medical curriculum, and after
graduating in 1819, he proceeded to London and
Paris, where, under the celebrated M. Orfila, he
applied himself to the study of toxicology, the
department of medical science in which he became
so deservedly famous.
Soon after his return home to Scotland he commenced
practice in his native capital, and in 1822
was appointed Professor of Medical Jurisprudence
in the University, and was promoted in 1832 to
the chair of materia medica. He contributed
various articles to medical journals on professional
subjects, and wrote several books, among others
an exhaustive ? Treatise on Poisons,? still recognised
as a standard work on that subject, and of
more than European reputation.
At the famous trial of Palmer, in 1856, Dr.
Christison went to London, and gave such valuable
evidence that Lord Campbell cornplimented him
on the occasion, and the ability he displayed was
universally recognised and applauded. He was
twice President of the Royal College of Physicians,
Edinburgh-the first time being in 1846-and was
appointed Ordinary Physician to the Queen for
Scotland. He received the degree of D.C.L. from
Oxford in 1866, was created a baronet in 1871~ and
was made LL.D. of Edinburgh Universityin 1872.
He resigned his chair in 18.77, and died in 188%
In No. 16 lived and died Sir William Hamilton,
Bart., of Preston and Fingalton, Professor of Logic
and Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh
from 1836 to 1856, and Fellow of the Scottish
Society of Antiquaries. He had previously resided
in Manor Place. He was called to the Scottish bar
in 1815, at the same time with Duncan McNeill,
the future Sir Archibald Alison, John Wilson, and
others, and in 1816 assumed the baronetcy as
twenty-fourth male representative of Sir John Fitz-
Gilbert de Hamilton, who was the second son of
Sir Gilbert, who came into Scotland in the time of
Alexander III., and from whom the whole family
of Hamilton are descended. The baronetcy is in
remainder to heirs male general, but was not assumed
from the death of the second baronet
in 1701 till 1806. It was a creation of 1673.
With his brother Thomas lie became one of the
earliest contributors to the columns of Blucku~oad?s
MRgazine.
Besides ?? Cyril Thornton,? one of the best military
novels in the language, Thomas Hamilton
was author of ?LAnnals of the Peninsular Campaign?
and of ? Men and Manners in America?
In ? Peter?s Letters? heis describedas ?afine-looking
young officer, whom the peace has left at liberty
to amuse himself in a more pleasant way than he
was accustomed to, so long as Lord Wellington
kept the field. He has a noble, grand, Spaniardlooking
head, and a tall giaceful person, which he
swings about in a style of knowingness that might
pass muster even in the eye of old Potts. The
expression of his features is so very sombre that
I should never have guessed him to be a playful
writer (indeed, how could I have guessed such
a person to be a writer at all?). Yet such is
the case. Unless I am totally misinformed, he is
the author of a thousand beautiful jeux $esprit
both in prose and verse, which I shall point out
to you more particularly when we meet.? He
had served in the 29th Regiment of Foot during
the long war with France, and died in his fiftythird
year, in 1842,
In April, 1820, when the chair of moral
philosophy in the University of Edinburgh fell
vacant by the death of Dr. Thomas Browne, the
successor of Dugald Stewart, Sir William Hamilton
became a candidate together with Johr:
Wilson. Others were mentioned as possible competitors,
among them Sir James Macintosh and
Mr. Malthus, but it soon became apparent that
the struggle-one which had few parallels even in
the past history of that University-lay between
the two first-named. ? Sir William was a Whig ;
Wilson was a Tory of the most unpardonable
description,? says Mrs. Gordon in her ?Memou,?
and the Whig side was strenuously supported in
the columns of the Srotsnian-?and privately,? she
adds, ?in every circle where the name of Blackl~
lood was a name of abomination and of fear.?
But eventually, in the year of Dr. Browne?s death,
Wilson was appointed to the vacant chair, and
among the first to come to hear, and applaud to
the echo, his earliest lectures, was Sir William
Hamilton.
In 1829 t k latter married his cousin, Miss
Marshall, daughter of hlr. Hubert Marshall, and
