History of the Fife Pitcairns

DR WILLIAM ROBERTSON. 491
In concluding this life of Dr Robertson, I will here
quote from the interesting paper written by Dugald
Stewart after his death, commenting on the value of his
historical researches. He says : —
In this respect he has certainly not been surpassed by any writer
of the present times ; nor would it perhaps be easy to name another
who has united to so luminous an arrangement of his materials, and
such masterly skill in adorning them, an equal degree of industry
and exactness in tracing them to their original sources. After a
minute examination of the most disputed passages of his first per-
formance, a late author has ventured to pronounce him "the
most faithful of Historians " ; and I have no doubt that this
honourable appellation will be sanctioned by those who shall
examine his other works with the same acuteness, accuracy, and
candour.
" The characteristic of Dr Robertson's eloquence was
persuasion — mild, rational, and conciliating, yet manly and
dignified. He was the acknowledged head of his party,
and generally spoke last in the debate — resuming the
arguments on both sides with such perspicuity of ar-
rangement and expression, such respect to his antag-
onists, and such an air of candour and earnestness in
everything he said, that he often united the suffrages
of the House in favour of the conclusions he wished to
establish.
" His assiduous attention, amidst his various occupations,
to the minutest duties of his office as head of the University
was very great — duties which nothing but his habits of
arrangement and the severest economy of his time could
have enabled him to discharge with so little appearance
of hurry or inconvenience. The valuable accession of
books which the public library received while under his
administration was chiefly owing to his prudent and exact
application of the very slender funds appropriated to that
establishment. The various societies, both literary and
medical, which in Edinburgh have long contributed so
essentially to the improvement of the rising generation,
were most of them either planned or reformed under his