Cosmo Innes says of him--“If we did not know his unhappy end we should call Alexander Wight, the author of the ‘Law of Elections’ and ‘History of Parliament,’ the most sensible, dispassionate, and clear-headed of historical lawyers. He had great difficulties to contend with in writing too early for correct versions of our Acts of Parliament; and the curious charters appended to his volume lose much of their value by the extreme inaccuracy of the only readings which he could procure” (“Lectures on Scotch Legal Antiquities,” 1872, p. 11). Wight is mentioned in “The Court of Session Garland” (1839, p. 47). It is recorded by Chambers in his “Traditions of Edinburgh” (1825, vol. ii., p. 159) that Wight was one of the earliest settlers in the New Town, where he built one of the houses on the south side of St. Andrew Square. He chose the situation of his new residence with a view to having the ancient part of the city still within sight, and especially St. Giles’ steeple and clock, which had for many centuries directed the motions of his legal predecessors. In order to prevent the intermediate line of Princes Street from interrupting his beloved prospect, he purchased the feu of the ground which immediately intervened, and erected that house now occupied by the Sun Insurance Office (No. 40 Princes Street) upon it with a flat and low roof. * * * * * CHARLES HAY, Lord Newton (1747-1811), son of James Hay of Cocklaw, Writer to the Signet, was born in 1747. After the usual preparatory course of education, he passed as an advocate on 24th December, 1768, having just attained his majority; but, unlike most young practitioners, Hay had so thoroughly studied the principles of law that he was frequently heard to declare he was as good a lawyer at that time as he ever was at any later period. He soon became distinguished by his strong, natural abilities, as well as by his extensive knowledge of his profession, which embraced alike the minutest forms of the daily practice of the Court and the highest and most subtle points of jurisprudence. He was promoted by the Fox Administration to the bench on the death of David Smythe of Methven, and took his seat, with the judicial title of Lord Newton, on 7th March, 1806. This appointment was the only one which took place in the Court of Session during what was termed the reign of “The Talents”--a circumstance on which it is said he always professed to set a high value. Newton died unmarried at Powrie, in the county of Forfar, on the 19th of October, 1811. Hay was, during the whole course of his life, a staunch Whig of the old school. Whilst at the bar his opinions were probably never surpassed for their acuteness, discrimination, and solidity; and as a judge he showed that all this was the result of such a rapid and easy application of the principles of law as appeared more like the effect of tuition than of study and laborious exertion.