It is said that Newton often spent the night in all manner of convivial indulgences--drove home about seven o’clock in the morning--slept two hours--and mounting the bench at the usual time, showed himself perfectly well qualified to perform his duty. His Lordship was also so exceedingly fond of card-playing that it was humorously remarked, “Cards were his profession, and the law only his amusement.” Newton resided for many years at No. 22 York Place, Edinburgh. His portrait by Raeburn--“just awakened from clandestine slumber on the bench,” as Stevenson describes it--is one of the most popular of that master’s works. * * * * * JOHN CLERK, Lord Eldin (1757-1832), the eldest son of John Clerk of Eldin, the author of the well-known “Essay on Naval Tactics,” and his wife, Susannah Adam, the sister of the celebrated architects of that name, was born in April, 1757. He was educated with the view of entering the Indian Civil Service, but, his attention having been turned to the legal profession, he was eventually apprenticed to a Writer to the Signet. After serving his indentures, he practised for a year or two as an accountant. Then, having qualified himself for the bar, he was admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates on 3rd December, 1785. Clerk speedily rose to distinction in his profession and acquired so extensive a practice that, it is said, at one period of his career he had nearly one-half of the business of the Court upon his hands. On 11th March, 1806, on the resignation of Robert Blair of Avonton, he was appointed Solicitor-General for Scotland, an appointment which he held during the twelve months that the Whig party was in office. “Had his judgment been equal to his talent,” writes Lord Cockburn, “few powerful men could have stood before him. For he had a strong, working, independent, ready head, which had been improved by various learning, extending beyond his profession into the fields of general literature, and into the arts of painting and sculpture. Honest, warm-hearted, generous, and simple, he was a steady friend, and of the most touching affection in all the domestic relations. The whole family was deeply marked by an hereditary caustic humour, and none of its members more than he” (“Life of Jeffrey,” vol. i., p. 200).