title to a free earth. One generation cannot encumber a succeeding generation.

"And the condition required is, such a system as shall secure to the successive individuals of the race their share of the common property, and the opportunity, without interference, of making as much private property as their skill and enterprise would enable them to make.

"The actual division of the soil need never be anticipated, nor would such a division be just, if the divided portions were made the property legally of individuals, for they could never be so morally.

"If, then, successive generations of men cannot have their fractional share of the actual soil, how can the division of the advantages of the natural earth be effected?

"By the division of its annual value or rent; that is, by making the rent of the soil the common property of the nations. That is, as the taxation is the common property of the State, by taking the whole of the taxes out of the rents of the soil, and thereby abolishing all other kinds of taxation whatever. And thus all industry would be absolutely emancipated from every burden, and every man would reap such natural reward as his skill, industry, or enterprise rendered legitimately his, according to the natural law of free competition. This we maintain to be the only theory that will satisfy the requirements of the problem of natural property.'

" 34

Again: "Taxation can only be on land or labour. These are the two radical elements that can be subjected to taxation, capital being originally derived from one or the other. Capital is only hoarded labour or hoarded rent; and as all capital must be derived from the one source or the other, all taxation of capital is only taxation of land or labour. Consequently, all taxation of whatever kind is: 1st, taxation of labour, that is, a deduction from the natural remuneration which God intended the labourer to derive from his exertions; or, 2nd, taxation of land, that is, the appropriation of the current value of the natural earth to the expenses of the State.

"Now, labour is essentially private property, and land is not essentially private property, but, on the contrary, is the common

34

Pp. 384, 387. In a note he says:-"We have no hesitation whatever in predicting that all civilised communities must ultimately abolish all revenue restrictions on industry, und draw the whole taxation from the rents of the soil. And this because the rents of the soil are the common produce of the whole labour of a community."

inheritance of every generation of mankind. Where the land is taxed, no man is taxed, nor does the taxation of land interfere in any way whatever with the progress of human industry. On the contrary, the taxation of land, rightly directed, might be made to advance the condition of the country to a high degree of prosperity." 35

He was excessively fond of generalising, and frequently attempted it with matters which were not properly prepared for the process; as suggested in the following paragraph: "But beneath the outward variety of man's historic representations, can we not plunge below the surface and seize some stable element, some scheme, some law, some generalised fact, some plan or principle on which the drama has been constructed, some permanent truth that evolves amid all the apparent diversity of images? Can we not transform the real elements as they appear into some abstract form that enables us to state them in a rational equation? Can we not apprehend the essential character of the changes, as well as their empirical character, and derive instruction for the reason, as well as materials for the memory and the understanding?"

His intellect was essentially deductive and logical. He loved to handle a principle, an idea, or a formula; but his mastery of method and expository powers were excellent. He is the author of several other important works, which I can only name: Elements of Political Science, 1854; and Logic of the Christian Faith, 1856.

George Gilfillan was born at Comrie, Perthshire, on the 30th January, 1813, where his father was minister of the Scottish Secession Church. He entered the University of Glasgow at the age of fourteen. After finishing his course of study in the University, he passed through the course of training in the Divinity Hall of the Secession Church. He was licensed to preach the Gospel in April 1835. For some time he passed from church to church preaching for ministers, or as a candidate in vacancies. In March 1836, he was ordained minister of the School Wynd church in Dundee, which was one of the early Secession congregations. The same year, on the 23rd of November, he married Margaret Valentine, who proved throughout his life an admirable help-meet.

He was a stalwart man. His erect figure, and massive head, the bold lustre of his eyes, and the sharp intellectual expression of his countenance, at once gave a striking impression of strength. He was a man of great energy, and marked ability. His intellectual faculties

35 Pp. 389-390.

were naturally strong; yet his analytic power was not very remarkable. Perhaps, his position and the circumstances of his life were unfavourable to the development of the analytic side of the mind, while his feelings, sentiments, and emotions were exceedingly strong, and his sympathies wide and varied. His mind was impulsive and fervid. In the pulpit he delivered his sermons with great energy and vehemence, and soon became a popular preacher. He was also much esteemed as a popular lecturer, and his service was often solicited in different quarters of Scotland and beyond it. Between the years 1839-48 he delivered some twenty lectures at the Watt Institution in Dundee, on such varied subjects as "The Relation of Religion to Painting," "The Genius of Byron," "Modern British Literature," and various other themes. His popularity increased and extended, and for many years he was one of the most prominent men of Dundee.

He had an aspiration for distinction and literary fame. His literary activity was wonderful, and embraced a wide variety of subjects. Many of his early efforts first appeared in magazines and newspapers :-In Edinburgh University Magazine, The Dumfries Herald, Hogg's Instructor, Tait's Magazine, British Quarterly Review, Eclectic Review, The Critic, The Scottish Review, and other periodicals; and at a later stage of his life, he was a large contributor to the columns of the Dundee Advertiser and the People's Friend. His papers in the above, were chiefly biographical and critical sketches, and reviews of books.

The first portion of his Gallery of Literary Portraits was published in 1845, the second in 1849, and the third in 1854; and in 1857 the whole appeared in two volumes. The work consists of biographical and critical sketches, which in the last edition were arranged under five divisions thus :-Poets, French Revolutionists, Novelists, Critics, Miscellaneous Writers, and Sacred Authors. These sketches are vivid. and graphic. His Bards of the Bible appeared in 1850, and was pretty successful. The Martyrs, Heroes, and Bards of the Scottish Covenant was published in 1852, and became the most popular of his works. His History of a Man appeared in 1856. This is a rather singular book-mainly autobiographical, but also presenting fictitious elements and sharp criticism. In 1857 his Christianity and our Era was published. It is a work of considerable power, and presents his views touching the signs of the "Second Advent of Christ." His Poem entitled Night, on which he had spent much labour, appeared in 1867.

From time to time he published a considerable number of his lectures and sermons. He edited a series of the British Poets; wrote a Life of Sir Walter Scott, published in 1870; a Life of the Rev. Dr. Wm. Anderson in 1873; and a Life of Burns for the National Edition of the Poet's works, published in 1878. His command of language was copious, and his descriptive power excellent. His style, however, is very unequal, loose, and discursive; yet many vivid, striking, and pathetic passages occur in his writings. His criticism though often telling, and sometimes stinging, is not of the highest character, for the natural bent of his mind hardly permitted him to calmly examine evidence, or estimate all the essential points.

Personally, he was a kind-hearted man. He was ever ready to assist those in whom he saw the buds of genius or talent. His death, which occurred suddenly on the 13th of August 1878, was mourned as a public loss to Scotland.

Dr. John Brown, a son of Professor Brown of the U. P. Church, was a medical practitioner in Edinburgh. In 1858 he published a volume entitled Hora Subseciva, consisting of essays on Locke and Sydenham; Rab and his Friends, and other papers; and in 1861 he issued a second series of sketches of a similar character. These volumes are exceedingly interesting.

William Minto was born at Nether Auchentoul, in the parish of Alford, Aberdeenshire, on the 10th of October, 1845. He was educated at the parish schools of Alford and Tough, and subsequently at the Gordon Schools in Huntly, under the Rev. John Macdonald, who trained him in classics. He entered the University of Aberdeen in 1861, where he had a very distinguished career. In 1865 he graduated with highest honours in classics, second in mental philosophy, and second in mathematics; he also gained the Ferguson Scholarship for classics. In the summer of 1866 he went to Merton College, Oxford, and obtained an exhibition of £80, but he left Oxford in the end of the year and returned to Scotland. For a short time he acted as assistant to Mr. Thomson, Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Aberdeen, and afterward as Professor Bain's assistant in teaching the English class. In 1872 his volume, entitled A Manual of English Prose Literature appeared, and the same year he was appointed Examiner in Mental Philosophy in the University of Aberdeen.

In 1873 he went to London, obtained an appointment on the staff of the Examiner, and engaged in literary work. The following year

he became editor of this paper, but it ceased to be issued in 1880. Minto then entered warmly into political writing upon the controversy of the time for the columns of the Daily News and the Pall Mall Gazette. He worked assiduously. Besides writing for newspapers, his interesting volume, Characteristics of English Poets, was published in 1874, and his volume on Defoe in the "English Men of Letters Series in 1879." He contributed twenty-six articles to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, which are mainly of a biographical and critical character. He also contributed a considerable number of articles on various subjects to the Fortnightly Review, The Nineteenth Century, Blackwood's Magazine, and other periodicals. Upon the retirement of Dr. Bain from the Chair of Logic and English Literature in the University of Aberdeen in 1880, Minto was appointed his successor. He earnestly devoted attention to the subjects assigned to his chair, and proved in every respect an excellent teacher. His manner and tact won the affection of the students, and his faculty of interesting and instructing them was characteristic and thoroughly successful. He held the Chair for thirteen years, and took his share in the business of the Senatus and the University. He took a keen interest in educational matters, and frequently delivered lectures outside the University. Under the auspices of the Local Examination Committee of the Senatus Academicus, he delivered a course of lectures in the Music Hall of Aberdeen, on "The Literature of the Georgian Era," in which he treated the writings of the poets and novelists of the eighteenth century, and the early part of the nineteenth.36

He was always a hard worker. As stated in a preceding chapter, he wrote three novels. In 1887 he edited a complete edition of Sir Walter Scott's Poems. He edited the Autobiographical Notes of the Life of William B. Scott (a painter and writer) which was published in 1892; and is a work of much interest and value. He had just corrected the last proofs of his volume on Logic-Inductive and Deductive, before his death. He had been in weak health for some months and confined to his house, but his mind continued active and hopeful to the last. He died on the 1st of March 1893, in the fortyeighth year of his age.

John Veitch was born in Peebles on the 29th of October, 1829. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he came

36 These "Lectures" were edited by Professor Knight, with a biographical introduction, and published in 1894.