EIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 447
Mr, Fletcher lived to overcome the prejudices entertained against his party, and
to enjoy the emoluments arising from a very extensive practice, without any
sacrifice or change in the principles he had avowed in early life. So late as
1818 he was present at a meeting in Edinburgh, held for the purpose of petitioning
Parliament against the much-reprobated ‘‘ gagging bills ” of Lord
Castlereagh. “ When Mr. Fletcher appeared,” says a newspaper report of the
day, “he entered the place of meeting, accompanied by his two sons. His
venerable appearance, his infirm health, and his high character for consistency
and purity of public principle, combined to produce a strong sensation on the
assembly. He was loudly cheered ; and a place near the chairman was assigned
to him, that he might distinctly hear the proceedings.”
In 1816, owing to declining health, Mr. Fletcher gave up his professional
pursuits, and retired for some time to Parkhall, a farm he had purchased in
Stirlingshire. Here he spent several years, and regained, in some measure,
his usual health. In 1822 he passed the winter with his family among his
friends at York; and while there wrote and printed a Dialogue between a
Whig and a Radical Reformer, in which he combated the principle of annual
parliaments and universal suffrage, but advocated constitutional reform on its
broadest basis.
Mr. Fletcher died at Auchindinny House, about eight miles to the south of
Edinburgh, on the 20th of December 1828.’
No. CCCXXI.
. REV. JAMES-FRANCIS GRANT,
OF ST. GEORGE’S CHAPEL, YORK PLACE, EDINBURGH.
MR. GRANT, second son of Sir Archibald Grant, the third Baronet of Mony
musk: was born in 1760, and educated at the High School and University of
this city. Having taken orders as a clergyman of the Episcopalian Church, he
was for a few years assistant to the Rev. Alexander Duncan, incumbent of St.
George’s Chapel, York Place ; and while there was much esteemed as a man
of worth and talent. His sermons, if not remarkable for eloquence, were
always concise and impressive.
‘‘ Mr. Archibald Fletcher,” says Lord Brougham, “was a learned, experienced, and industrious
lawyer, one of the most npright men that ever adorned the profession, and a man of such stern and
resolute firmness in public principle, as is very rarely found united with the amiable character which
e‘n deared him to private society.”
a Sir Archibald married Miss Callender, only child of Dr. Callender of Jamaica, and daughter
of the then Lady Grant. Sir Archibald resided for many years in Minto House, which at that time
entered from the Horse Wynd.