HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM (1788-1856).--Metaphysician, _b._ in Glasgow, in the Univ. of which his _f._ and grandfather successively filled the Chair of Anatomy and Botany, _ed._ there and at Balliol Coll., Oxf., was called to the Scottish Bar, at which he attained little practice, but was appointed Solicitor of Teinds. In 1816 he established his claim to the baronetcy of H. of Preston. On the death of Dr. Thomas Brown in 1820, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Chair of Moral Philosophy in Edin., but in the following year he was appointed Prof. of History. It was not until 1829 that he gave full proof of his remarkable powers and attainments as a philosopher in a famous article in the _Edinburgh Review_, a critique of Victor Cousin's doctrine of the Infinite. This paper carried his name over Europe, and won for him the homage of continental philosophers, including Cousin himself. After this H. continued to contribute to the _Review_, many of his papers being translated into French, German, and Italian. In 1852 they were _coll._ with notes and additions, and _pub._ as _Discussions in Philosophy and Literature_, _etc._ In 1836 H. was elected Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at Edinburgh, which office he held with great reputation until his death, after which the lectures he had delivered were edited and _pub._ by Prof. Mansel and Veitch. His _magnum opus_ was his edition of the _Works of Dr. Thomas Reid_, left unfinished, and completed by Mansel. H. was the last, and certainly the most learned and accomplished, of the Scottish school of philosophy, which he considered it his mission to develop and correlate to the systems of other times and countries. He also made various important contributions to the science of logic. During his later years he suffered from paralysis of one side, which, though it left his mind unaffected, impaired his powers of work. A Memoir of H. by Prof. Veitch appeared in 1869. HANNA, WILLIAM (1808-1882).--Divine and biographer, _s._ of Samuel H., Prof. of Divinity in the Presbyterian Coll., Belfast, was _b._ there, became a distinguished minister of the Free Church of Scotland, and colleague of Dr. T. Guthrie (_q.v._). He wrote an admirable _Life of Dr. Chalmers_, whose son-in-law he was, and ed. his works. He also ed. the _Letters of Thomas Erskine of Linlathen_ (_q.v._), and wrote various theological works. HANNAY, JAMES (1827-1873).--Novelist and journalist, was _b._ at Dumfries, and after serving for some years in the navy took to literature, and became ed. of the _Edinburgh Courant_. He wrote two novels, _Singleton Fontenoy_ (1850), and _Eustace Conyers_ (1855); also _Lectures on Satire and Satirists_, and _Studies on Thackeray_. For the last five years of his life he was British Consul at Barcelona.