BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 89
XO. ccrr.
SIR ILAY CAMPBELL, BART.,
LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COURT OF SESSION.
THOSEw ho recollect the late SIR ILAYCA MPBELLw ill at once recognise an
excellent likeness in this etching. He is represented as proceeding to the Parliament
House, a partial view of which, prior to the late extensive alterations,
is afforded in the background. It was then the custom of the senators to walk
to Court in the mornings with nicely powdered wigs, and a small cocked hat in
their hands.
Mr. Campbell was the eldest son of Archibald Campbell, Esq., of Succoth,
W.S.;’ his mother, Helen Wallace, was the daughter and representative of
Wallace of Ellerslie. He was born at Edinburgh in 1734, and admitted to the
bar in 1757. He early acquired extensive practice, and was one of the counsel
for the defender in the great Douglas Cause. He entered warmly into the
spirit of this important contest, which for a time engossed the whole of public
attention. As an instance of his enthusiasm, it may be mentioned, that
immediately after the decision in the House of Lords, he posted without delay
to Edinburgh, where, arriving before the despatch, he was the first to announce
the intelligence to the assembled crowds on the streets. At the Cross the
young lawyer took off his hat, and waving it in the air, exclaimed-“ Douglas
for ever !”’ He was responded to by a joyous shout from the assembled multitude,
who, unyoking the horses from his carriage, drew him in triumph to his
house in James’s Court.a
During the long period Mr. Campbell remained at the bar, he enjoyed a
continued increase of business ; and there was almost no case of any importance
in which he was not engaged or consulted. His written pleadings are remarkable
for their excellence; “many of them are perfect modeIs of perspicuity,
force, and elegance.”
In 1783 he was appointed Solicitor-General; in 1784, Lord Advocate; and
the same year was returned Member of Parliament for the Glasgow district of
The following notice of this gentleman’s demise occum in the Edinburgh Magazine for 1790 :-
“Mr. Archibald Campbell of Snccoth, father to the Lord President, and the oldest Clerk to His
Majesty’s Signet, being admitted in 1728.”
g The popular feeling waa strong in favour of the ultimately successful claimant, about whose case
there was a eufficient degree of romance to create extreme interest. At the present date, when the
whole facta and circumstances are fairly weighed, it may be doubted whether the original decision
ought to have been reversed.
His father, who then held the situation of one of the Principal Clerks of Session, resided in
James’s Court.
VOL. 11. N
His father was a writer in Edinburgh.