He was the first who called public attention to the suffering and horrors of the East African slave trade, which he continued to expose throughout his life; and his whole career was a noble struggle for the enlightenment, improvement, and civilisation of the natives of Africa.

Before closing this chapter, it seems requisite to give a brief account of the rise of newspapers and periodical literature. During Cromwell's rule in Scotland there were some reprints of English news published in Edinburgh; after the Restoration two attempts were made to issue newspapers, but neither of them continued long. The first regular Scottish newspaper was the Edinburgh Gazette, established in 1699. The first Glasgow newspaper, called the Glasgow Courant, containing the occurrences both at home and abroad, appeared on the 14th of November, 1715; it was published thrice a week, but only lived about seven months. The second newspaper published in Glasgow appeared on the 20th of July, 1741, under the name of the Glasgow Journal, and it continued to be issued for upwards of half a century. On the 14th of October, 1745, the first number of the second Glasgow Courant was issued; and in 1783 the Glasgow Advertiser first appeared.37 The Aberdeen Journal appeared in 1748. Newspapers continued slowly to increase in number till the end of the century; but it is chiefly within the last fifty years, and especially since the abolition of the stamp duty in 1855, and the duty on paper in 1861, that the newspaper press has attained its great development.

The class of what may be called literary periodical papers, as distinguished from newspapers, began to appear in Scotland early in the eighteenth century. In 1711, a paper of this description was published in Edinburgh, and continued through thirty weekly numbers, under the name of The Tatler. Soon after this a number of periodical papers appeared, and disappeared again, but few of them had much merit. The Echo ran its weekly numbers from 1729 to 1733; The Review appeared in 1737; and The Letters of the Critical Club in 1738; The Mirror and Lounger, a periodical published in Edinburgh, attained a higher reputation. In January, 1739, the first number of The Scots Magazine appeared, and was continued till 1826. It contains a store of events, facts, interesting pictures of manners, characters, and incidents, extending over a period of well-nigh a century.

Macgregor's History of Glasgow, pp. 295, 335, 336, 386.

1

I have already referred to the establishment of the Edinburgh Review, and the influence which it wielded. Blackwood's Magazine first appeared in 1817, and Tait's Magazine in 1833; and about the latter date the Messrs. Chambers began to issue their instructive and cheap periodical publications, many of which attained a wide circulation. There are now magazines devoted to almost every department of knowledge, and to nearly every variety of opinion and doctrine; even every party and interest deem it necessary to be represented in the periodical press.

The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica was published in 1771, in four volumes, under the editorship of Mr. William Smellie. The second edition of this work was begun in 1776, and it extended to ten volumes, embracing biography and history. The third edition, enlarged to eighteen volumes, was completed in 1797; and which contained many original treatises on physical science, and able and valuable articles by Professor Robison, Dr. Doig, and the ingenious editor of the later volumes-the Rev. Dr. George Gleig. Two supplementary volumes were afterwards added to the work. The fourth edition, under the editorship of Dr. James Miller, was finished in 1810, enriched by several scientific treatises and many valuable articles by William Wallace, professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh. The next two editions were nearly nominal reprints; but the supplement projected by Mr. Constable contained contributions from many of the most emiment writers of the timeSir Walter Scott, Jeffrey, James Mill, Dr. Thomas Young, Playfair, Leslie, Mackintosh, Dugald Stewart, 87 M. Arago, M. Biot, and others. The seventh edition under the editorship of Mr. Napier, ably assisted by Dr. James Browne, was completed in 1842, in twenty-one volumes; and contained many new and valuable articles, along with the supplements mentioned above. The eighth edition of this great national work was completed in 1861; and the ninth edition, under the editorship of accomplished and learned gentlemen, was completed in 1888.

The Edinburgh Encyclopædia, under the editorship of Sir David

37 Large sums were paid to some of these writers for their Dissertations and Articles. Dugald Stewart was to receive £1000 for his Dissertation on Metaphysical Philosophy, and Playfair for one on the Progress of Natural Philosophy £500; Stewart actually received £1600, and Playfair would have received an additional £500 had he lived to complete his Dissertation. Such large sums had never before been given for literary work in Scotland.

Brewster, was commenced in 1808, and completed in 1830, in eighteen quarto volumes. The scientific portions of this work are valuable, and were long highly appreciated.

The first edition of Chambers' Cyclopædia of English Literature was published in 1843; and several revised and enlarged editions have since been issued, in two large volumes. It is a useful and generally accurate work. The later editions had the benefit of the extensive information and the fine literary taste of the late Mr. Robert Carruthers, of Inverness, who thoroughly revised the whole work. The Messrs. Chambers have also published an Encyclopædia, which is very highly esteemed as a work of reference. A new and revised edition of this excellent work has just been completed.

So much for the modern literature of Scotland.

CHAPTER XLIV.

Progress of Science in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.

SECTION I.

Physical Science.

T should be understood that the aim of this chapter is not to present a history of science, but chiefly to indicate what Scotland has contributed to the science of the period, and to show the importance of science as a factor in advancing civilisation. It will, therefore, in the first place, touch on the significance and progress of mathematical science; in the second, on physical science, or natural philosophy; and in the third, on mechanical science, or science in relation to its practical application.

From an early period various conceptions of the universe have been entertained; even Newton's conception of it and his system founded on the theory of gravitation are not quite satisfactory. Hence his followers for a long time mainly occupied themselves in defending and explaining his system; they were loth to recognise that either his method or system was susceptible of improvement or extension-they adhered to his conclusions with extreme tenacity and superstitious veneration. While, in other parts of Europe, Descartes' theory of the universe held the field, the earliest recorded recognition of Newton's principles in France was in a memoir by Lonville, which appeared in a volume of the Academy of Sciences for the year 1720; and the first French astronomer who ventured on a defence of the theory of gravitation was Maupertius, in his work on the figures of the celestial bodies, published in 1732. He compared the theories of Descartes and Newton, and came to a conclusion in favour of the latter. It was Voltaire, however, that really diffused a knowledge of Newton's system in France, by the publication, in 1738, of his clear exposition of Newton's discoveries in optics and astronomy. Henceforth in France the Newtonian system prevailed over the theory of Descartes.

The controversy touching the priority of the invention of the calculus between Newton and Leibnitz was an unfortunate affair, as

it arose from trivial incidents. In short, from the first Leibnitz admitted Newton's priority in forming the conception of the calculus ; but he maintained, what was doubtless true, his own originality in the invention of the differential calculus. This branch of mathematical analysis was not much advanced by Newton and the English geometers of his time; as Newton himself was fond of geometrical forms and the synthetical method of statement. His treatise on Fluxions was not published till after his death in 1736. When, however, it became known that the differential calculus was rapidly circulating on the Continent and so little was Newton's method known, that Leibnitz was regarded throughout Europe as its original inventor the followers of Newton began to feel that this impression was unjust towards their great teacher, and hence the bitterness of the controversy which ensued. The result was a wide alienation between the English and foreign mathematicians, which had a pernicious effect on science. "Each party became the exclusive supporters of the two great luminaries of their respective countries. The British mathematicians, in particular, adhered with the most rigid pertinacity to the very letter of Newton's methods; and were, with few exceptions, completely ignorant both of the original investigations of the other party, and of the improvements upon them which were being rapidly introduced.

"The difference in name and notation between the two methods, though in itself a trivial circumstance, was yet far from unimportant in some of the consequences which may be fairly traced to it. It tended in some measure to foster and increase the dissension between the two schools, and their ignorance of each other's researches ; while the diversity itself between the two methods, though in reality little more than nominal, became also a topic of no small dispute and controversy. But much as these differences were on all grounds to be lamented, the loss in point of scientific advantages, it must with shame be confessed, were almost entirely on the side of Britain." "1

If we reflect upon the past three centuries and ask what were the most requisite means of aiding men in their investigation of nature and the explanation of the phenomena of the universe, the answer must be mathematical science. In astronomy and in other branches of physical science, mathematics are indispensable; for as the universe exists in space and time-the two concepts which

1 Powell's History of the Physical and Mathematical Sciences, p. 363. 1834.