Tag Archives: 18th century

George Abercromby of Tullibody (1705-1800)

About Abercromby

  • Regius Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations  at Edinburgh, 1735-1759

Teaching

  • Lectured on Grotius, De Jure Belli et Pacis [Grant, Story 315;* Cairns, ‘First’ 19-20*]
  • Private lectures on Grotius from the late 1730s to the early 1750s [Emerson, Academic 261*]

*For references, please see the Site Bibliography.

Allan Maconochie (bap. 1748, d. 1816)

About Maconochie

  • Student at Edinburgh in the 1760s where he took classes of Adam Ferguson (ODNB*)
  • Founding member, along with John Bruce, of the Speculative Society (ODNB*)
  • Admitted advocate 1770 (ODNB*)
  • Bought the Regius Chair from James Balfour for £1522:18:2  (Grant, Story 316*)
  • Regius Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations at Edinburgh, 1779-1796; advertised classes each year (ODNB*)
  • Resigned his professorship when he was called to the Bench as Lord Meadowbank in 1796 (ODNB*)

Teaching

  • General class concluded with ‘the general principles of municipal law, political oeconomy, and the law of nations’ (Arnot quoted in Cairns, ‘First’ 32*)
  • ‘It is evident that by now the nature of what was taught from the chair had changed from the rational type of natural law associated with the Dutch author and his immediate successors. Instead, Maconochie started with examination of human nature, a natural history of man’. (Cairns, ‘First’ 33-34*)
  • For his teaching see Cairns, ‘First’ 30-38*

Publications, Manuscripts and other Resources

  • Advertisement: Mr Maconochie advocate, professor of public law, proposes to open his class next winter. The intended course will treat the history and principles of universal and political law, according to the following arrangement. (Edinburgh, 1780) ESTC N61378

NPG D31949; Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank by John Kay

Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank
by John Kay
etching, 1799
NPG D31949
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Commons Licence

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Adam Smith (1723-1790)

NB: This page is under construction (Sept 2013)

About Smith

  • Taught by Francis Hutcheson
  • Used Hutchson’s Philosophiae moralis institutio compendiara, ethicis & jurisprudentiae naturalis elementa continuen as his textbook when covering for the ill Thomas Craigie in 1751 (Ross, Life of Adam Smith 112*)
  • Professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow, 1752-1764

Teaching

  • Letter from A Smith, Edinburgh, 5 Sept 1751, to Dr William Cullen: ‘You mention natural jurisprudence & politics as parts of his lecture which it would be most agreeable for me to take upon…’ University of Glagsow, Special Collections MS Cullen 1157
  • Followed Hutcheson‘s curriculum (Cairns, ‘Ethics’ 166*)
  • Ethics course published as The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) (Cairns, ‘Ethics’ 166*)
  • Course on political regulation published as The Wealth of Nations (1776) (Cairns, ‘Ethics’ 166*)

Publications, Manuscripts and other Resources

  • ‘Juris Prudence or Notes from the Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue, and Arms delivered in the University of Glasgow by Adam Smith, Professor of Moral Philosophy. MDCCLXVI [1766]'(Manuscript fair copy of notes taken by an unidentified student in 1763) University of Glasgow, Special Collections MS Gen 109
  • A Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (London and Edinburgh, 1759).
  • A Smith, Lectures On Jurisprudence, ed RL Meek, DD Raphael and PG Stein, vol. V of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982). [contains two reports dated 1762-63 and 1766 of Smith’s lectures on jurisprudence at Glasgow University].

Links

Brief Adam Smith biography at Northern Lights: The Scottish Enlightenment.

NPG D16843; Adam Smith by John Kay

Adam Smith
by John Kay
etching, 1790
NPG D16843
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Commons Licence

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Francis Horner (1778-1817)

About Horner

  • Educated at Edinburgh High School (For Horner and his legal contemporaries there see Old and New Edinburgh)
  • Matriculated University of Edinburgh, 1792
  • Studied law in England but corresponded with friends in Scotland about intellectual interests including natural law (Horner, Memoirs 16-18*)
  • Advocate, 1800
  • One of the founders of the Edinburgh Review
  • MP

Natural Law in Horner’s Memoirs

  • ‘Next to law, political philosophy, history and natural jurisprudence are to be my principal objects of pursuit. To these I shall give most of my evenings for six months to come….[T]he last branch is that of natural jurisprudence, where I shall have rather to think for myself than derive much light from books. I understand from Reddie that the best he has met with is a treatise by Cocceius, published in his edition of Grotius. This I shall read, and just as I have time, the work of Grotius himself…’ (Horner, Memoirs 53*)
  • ‘When Grotius, and of course his followers, talk of the law of nature, it is evident that they stagger beween the Roman law, which they knew too familiarly, and the institutions of savage life, which they had not philosophy enough to understand. Who had that was born before Montesquieu?’ (Horner, Memoirs 65*)

NPG 485; Francis Horner by Sir Henry Raeburn

Francis Horner
by Sir Henry Raeburn
oil on canvas, 1812
NPG 485
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Creative Commons Licence

*For references, please see the Site Bibliography.

Archibald Arthur (1744-1797)

About Arthur

  • Taught by Adam Smith
  • Won prize at Glasgow for essay, ‘On the importance of natural philosophy’
  • Glasgow University Librarian: A Arthur, ed., Catalogus impressorum librorum in bibliotheca Universitatis Glasguensis (1791)

Teaching

  • Successor of Thomas Reid as Professor of Moral Philosophy (taught TR’s classes from 1780)
  • ‘His public classes, which owed much to Reid and Smith, covered three main areas: natural theology, ethics, and a combination of natural jurisprudence and politics.’ (ODNB*)

Publications, Manuscripts and other Resources

  • A Arthur, Discourses on theological and literary subjects by the late Rev. Archibald Arthur … ; with an account of some particulars in his life and character, by William Richardson (Glasgow 1803)
  • A Arthur, Essays, literary and theological: in fourteen discourses by the late Archibald Arthur, … With a biographical memoir of the author, by William Richardson, new edn (Glasgow 1812; repr 1817)
  • ‘Archibald Arthur’s notes on Thomas Reid’s lectures’ (1765), Glasgow, Mitchell Library MS 891086
  • A Arthur, ‘A discourse on the evidence of wisdom in nature’ [Juvenile composition, possibly a prize essay, not in his Discourses of 1803 or Essays of 1817], University of Glasgow, Special Collections, MS Gen 742
  • W Gossip, ‘Lectures on Moral Philosophy, given in the University of Glasgow, by Archibald Arthur, and taken down by William Gossip, 1787-88’, 4 vols., University of Glasgow, Special Collections, MS Gen 284-87
  • J Wilson, ‘Lectures on Moral Philosophy delivered at the College of Glasgow by Mr Arthur: written by John Wilson, Schoolmaster in Tarbolton (1790), Glasgow, Mitchell Library MS 76281-82
  • J Neilson, ‘Notes, taken by James Neilson from Mr Arthur’s lectures on Natural Jurisprudence, given in the University of Glasgow, from 10 March 1788 to […] 1788’, University of Glasgow, Special Collections, MS Gen 832

*For references, please see the Site Bibliography.

Adam Ferguson (1723-1816)

About Ferguson

  • Chair of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy, Edinburgh
  • Tutor to the Earl of Bute’s family

Publications, Manuscripts, and other Resources

  • A Ferguson, Analysis of pneumatics and moral philosophy For the use of students in the College of Edinburgh (Edinburgh 1766)
  • A Ferguson, Institutes of Moral Philosophy for the Use of Students in the College of Edinburgh (Edinburgh 1769)

Links

Short Adam Ferguson biography at Northern Lights: The Scottish Enlightenment.

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Walter Anderson (1723-1800)

About Anderson

  • Graduated MA from the University of Edinburgh in 1742 (ODNB*)
  • Historian and Church of Scotland Minister (ODNB*)

Publications

  • W Anderson, Dissertatio philosophica inauguralis, de naturali hominum ad societatem propensione. Quam, favente numine, ut in artibus liberalibus & disciplinis philosophicis magister rite renuncietur, ex auctoritate reverendi admodum viri, D. Gulielmi Wishart, S.T.D. academiæ Edinburgenæ præfecti: nec non amplissimi senatus academici, & nobilissima faculratis arrium, decreto, eruditorum examini, in auditorio publico academiæ, ad 18 diem Martii, hora 10. Antemeridianâ, subjiciet Gualterus Anderson, A. & R. (Edinburgi: In Ædibus R. Flaminii & A. Alisoni, MDCCXLII. [1742]) [4],16p. ;  4⁰. (ESTC)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

James Balfour of Pilrig (1705-1795)

About Balfour

  • Regius Professor of the Law of Nature and Nations, 1764-1779
  • Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh, 1754-1764 but notably unsuccessful as a teacher (ODNB*); lectured on Pufendorf (Haakonssen, ‘Natural’ 262*)

Teaching

  • Not known if he lectured as Regius Professor (Grant*); but his class was advertised in The Edinburgh Advertiser: ‘UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH…III. LAW. The Law Classes will be opened on Tuesday the 19th of November, as follows: [ …] The Law of Nature and Nations, Mr. Balfour.’ [Vol. XXX, no 1532 (1 Sept 1778) 151 col. 2]

Publications, Manuscripts and other Resources

  • J Balfour, A delineation of the nature and obligation of morality. With reflexions upon Mr Hume’s book, intitled, An inquiry concerning the principles of morals (Edinburgh [1753]; 2nd edn, Edinburgh, 1763)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

John Stevenson (1695-1775)

About Stevenson

  • Chair of logic and rhetoric at Edinburgh

Teaching

  • Used Heineccius, Elementa philosophiae rationalis et moralis as a textbook when Alexander Carlyle studied there in 1735 (Haakonnsen, Natural law 89*)
  • Innovations: first in Scotland to lecture on rhetoric in English, introduced study of belles-lettres and literary style (ODNB*)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.

Timeline: Natural Law in Scotland, 1750-1799

date
Publication, Appointment, Lecture, or Other Event
1751 Thomas Reid, regent at Aberdeen (-1764)
1751 Adam Smith uses Hutcheson’s Philosophiae moralis institution compendaria, ethicis & jursiprudentiae naturalis elementa continuen while covering for the ill Thomas Craigie
1751 Henry Home, ‘Of the foundations and principles of the law of nature’ in Essays on the principles of morality and natural religion (Essay changes title in 3rd edn to ‘Foundation and principles of morality’)
1751 Andrew MacDowell (later Lord Bankton), An institute of the laws of Scotland in civil rights: with observations upon the agreement or diversity between them and the laws of England. In four books (Edinburgh)
1751 Hugo Grotius, Samuel Clark, and John Locke, Synopsis compendiaria librorum Hugonis Grotii de jure belli et pacis: Samuelis Clarkii de dei existentiâ et attributis, et Joannis Lockii de intellectu humano (Cambridge, Oxford, London, Edinburgh)
1752 Adam Smith, professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow (-1764)
1752 J J Burlamaqui, The principles of politic law: being a sequel to The principles of natural law, tr Mr Nugent (London)
1753 Francis Hutcheson, A short introduction to moral philosophy, in three books: containing the elements of ethicks and the law of nature (2nd edn, Glasgow)
1754 David Fordyce, Elements of moral philosophy (London); based on his ethics lectures
1754 Thomas Rutherforth, Institutes of natural law: being the substance of a course of lectures on Grotius de Jure belli et pacis (Cambridge)
1755 Francis Hutcheson, A system of moral philosophy (Glasgow)
1756 Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, Johann Gottlieb Heineccius, Jo. Gotl. Heineccii, jurisconsulti et antecessoris, elementa philosophiae rationalis, ex principiis admodum evidentibus justo ordine adornata. Praemissa est historia philosophica (Edinburgi: apud G. Hamilton & J. Balfour Academiae Typographos)
1758 David Hume proposes Adam Smith as Regius Professor at Edinburgh but nothing comes of it; Adam Ferguson proposed but nothing comes of it (Cairns, ‘First’*)
1759 Adam Smith, The theory of moral sentiments (London and Edinburgh)
1759 Robert Bruce, Regius Professor at Edinburgh (-1764); Advertises ‘Course of Lectures upon GROTIUS DE JURE BELLI AC PACIS’
1760 Hugonis Grotii de jure belli ac pacis librorum III compendium in usum studiosae juventutis Academiae Edinensis (Edinburgh)
1760 Faculty of Advocates recommends attendance at courses in natural law for candidates
1760 James Beattie, Professor of moral philosophy and logic at Marishal College (-1797)
1761 John Millar, Regius professor of civil law at Glasgow (-1801)
1762 Candidates for admission to the Faculty of Advocates to be examined ‘upon the Law of Nature & Nations’
1764 James Balfour, Regius Professor at Edinburgh (-1779); advertised classes but not successful as a treacher – rising competition John Millar at from Glasgow Law School
1764 Thomas Reid, professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow (-1780)
1765 Glasgow: ‘Millar turned the second of the annual courses on the Institutes into a presentation of natural jurisprudence modelled on the theory of his mentor, Adam Smith’ (Cairns, ‘First’*); recommended Cocceji and Heineccius
1766 Adam Ferguson, Analysis of pneumatics and moral philosophy (Edinburgh)
1769 Adam Ferguson, Institutes of Moral Philosophy for the Use of Students in the College of Edinburgh (Edinburgh)
1773 John Erskine, An institute of the law of Scotland. In four books. In the order of Sir George Mackenzie’s Institutions of that law (Edinburgh)
1779 Allan Maconochie, Regius Professor at Edinburgh (-1796); change in natural law from Grotian rationalism to exploration of human nature (Cairns, ‘First’*)
1780 Allan Maconochie, Mr [sic] Maconochie advocate, professor of public law, proposes to open his class next winter. The intended course will treat of the history and principles of universal and political law, according to the following arrangement (Edinburgh)
1780 Archibald Arthur, professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow (-1797); lectures on natural jurisprudence
1786 John Bruce, Elements of the science of ethics, on the principles of natural philosophy (London; Edinburgh)
1788 Thomas Reid, ‘Of systems of natural jurisprudence’ in Essays on the active powers of man (Edinburgh), pp. 387-94
1790 William Laurence Brown (1755-1830) professor of natural law at Utrecht
1790 James Beattie, Elements of Moral Science (London) [natural law does not feature much]
1790s Francis Horner studies natural law texts as a student
1792 Adam Ferguson, Principles of moral and political science (Edinburgh)
1792 William Druthin, ‘On a course of reading’ in The Bee (ed. James Anderson), vol. 8, p. 128: ‘Natural law, and moral philosophy – Paley’s principles of moral and political philosophy; or Berlamaqui’s natural and political law, (translated by Nugent,) or Rutherford’s institutes of natural and political law.’ (Edinburgh)
1793 Dugald Stewart, Outlines of Moral Philosophy for the Use of Students in the University of Edinburgh
1793 William Laurence Brown, An essay on the natural equality of men; on the rights that result from it, and on the duties which it imposes: To which a Silver Medal was adjudged by the Teylerian Society at Haarlem, April 1792. Corrected and enlarged. By William Lawrence Brown, D. D. Professor Of Moral Philosophy, And The Law Of Nature, And Of Ecclesiastical History; And Minister Of The English Church At Utrecht (Edinburgh)
1796 Robert Hamilton, Regius Professor at Edinburgh (-1831) but may not have ever taught
1797 Robert Heron, Abstract of a course of lectures on law, natural and positive (Edinburgh)
1799 James Mackintosh, A discourse on the study of the law of nature and nations (London; repr. Edinburgh, 1835)
1799 Helvétius, The true meaning of the system of nature: translated from the French (Glasgow)

*For references, see the Site Bibliography.