Mr. Stewart had been long desirous to deliver a course of lectures on Political Economy, but it was generally understood that he was deterred from carry ing this design into effect by the peculiar character of the times in which he lived. In 1800, however, when the effervescence of political speculation had subsided, he gave a course of lectures on Political Economy, but we believe they were not repeated more than once in subsequent sessions.
In 1806, when an accidental circumstance led the English and the French governments into an amicable correspondence, the Earl of Lauderdale was sent to Paris to adjust the preliminaries of a general peace. This nobleman requested Mr. Stewart to accompany him as a friend, and they accordingly spent some time in the French metropolis. Here Mr. Stewart had an opportunity of seeing many of the eminent in dividuals with whom he had formed an acquaintance previous to the Revolution, and of being introduced to some of the great men who then adorned the science and literature of France.
While individuals of inferior talent, and of much in ferior claims, had received the most substantial re wards for their services, it had long been felt that a philosopher like Mr. Stewart, who derived so small an income from his professional occupations, should have been so long overlooked by his country. It fell, therefore, to be the especial duty of the administra tion of Mr. Fox and Lord Grenville, to correct the oversight of their predecessors. They created for Mr. Stewart the office of Gazette Writer for Scotland, a situation which, as it could be performed by deputy, required no personal labour, and which added largely to his income. The creation, or rather the revival of this office, excited a considerable difference of senti ment. It was agreed on all hands, that the distin guished individual on whom it was conferred, merited the highest recompense; but it was felt by the inde pendent men of all parties, that a liberal pension from the crown would have expressed in a more elegant manner the national gratitude; and would have placed Mr. Stewart's name more conspicuously in the list of those public servants, who are repaid in the evening of life for the devotion of their early days to the ho nour and interest of their country.
In the year 1808, Mr. Stewart sustained a severe domestic calamity in the loss of his second and young est son, who was cut off by consumption in the 18th year of his age, while pursuing his academical stu dies. To divert his thoughts from this deep affliction, N r. Stewart devoted himself to the composition of his Philosophical Essays, a work which appeared in 1810, went through three editions, and added greatly to his reputation. As the first part of this work is a com
mentary on some elementary and fundamental ques tions which divided the opinions of philosophers in the eighteenth century, Al r. Stewart regarded it as so far a continuation of his great plan, that he recommends his younger readers to peruse it after they have com pleted the first volume of his Philosophy of the Hu man Mind. About a year after the death of his son, Mr. Stewart resigned the Moral Philosophy Chair, and was re-appointed joint professor along with Dr. Thomas Brown. By this arrangement, which his ap pointment from Government allowed him to effect, lie was enabled to retire from the duties of active life, and to pursue in retirement those philosophical in quiries, of which he had yet published but a small part. Ile therefore quitted Edinburgh, and removed with his family to Kinneil House, near Borrostownness, a seat of the Duke of Hamilton, and about twenty miles from Edinburgh.
Although it was on Mr. Stewart's recommendation that Dr. Brown was raised to the Chair of Moral Phi losophy, yet the appointment did not prove to him a source of unmixed satisfaction. The fine poetical imagination of Dr. Brown, the quickness of his ap prehension, and the acuteness and ingenuity of his argument, were qualities but little suited to that patient and continuous research which the phenomena of the mind so peculiarly demand. He accordingly composed his lectures with the same rapidity that he would have done a poem, and chiefly from the re sources of his own highly gifted but excited mind. Difficulties which had appalled the stoutest intellects, yielded to his bold analysis, and, despising the patient formalities of a siege, he entered the temple of pneumatology by storm. When:Mr. Stewart was ap prised that his own favourite and best founded opin ions were controverted from the very chair which he had scarcely quitted; that the doctrines of his revered friend and master (Dr. Reid) were assailed with severe and not very respectful animadversions; and that views even of a doubtful tendency were freely ex pounded by his ingenious colleague, his feelings were stongly roused; and though they were long suppressed by the peculiar circumstances of his situation, yet he has given them full expression in a very interesting note in the third volume of his Elements, which is alike remarkable for the severity and delicacy of its reproof. Upon the death of Dr. Brown, on the 2d of April 1820, Mr. Stewart resigned the Chair of Moral Philosophy, and was succeeded by Professor Wilson, a man of varied and powerful intellect, admired as a poet, and distinguished as an orator.