Born April, 30, 1823, his Grace is the second son of the sixth Duke of Argyll, by his marriage with Joan, daughter of John Glassel, Esq., his father's second wife. The present Duke is the thirty-second Knight of Lochow, and the thirtieth Campbell in the direct line of descent. He showed from an early age the remarkable aptitude for business and the literary capacity which have since distinguished him in so eminent a degree, his first work being published before he was 20. While Marquis of Lorne he took an active part in the great controversy relating to patronage in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which culminated in the Disruption of 1843. His Grace was one of the first to denounce the obnoxious system of patronage, and he lent his great influence and high social position to the party of which Dr. Chalmers was the recognised head, giving it an importance which it might never otherwise have acquired. But his Grace did more than aid the Secession by his social influence; he also rendered yeoman service to that movement by his able pen. One of his first productions was a _brochure_ "On the Duty and Necessity of Immediate Legislative Interposition on behalf of the Church of Scotland as determined by considerations of Constitutional Law." In this publication the writer gave an historical view of the Church of Scotland, particularly in reference to its constitutional power in matters ecclesiastical. In another pamphlet, written in the course of the same year, and entitled "A Letter to the Rev. Thomas Chalmers, D.D., on the present position of Church affairs in Scotland, and the causes which have led to it," his Grace vindicated the right of the Church to legislate for itself, condemned the movement then in progress among certain members of the General Assembly to establish the Free Church by a secession from the Establishment, and expressed his dissent from Dr. Chalmers' view that "lay patronage and the integrity of the spiritual independence of the Church has been proved to be, like oil and water, immiscible." In an essay entitled "Presbytery Examined," published in 1848, the Duke entered upon a critical and historical review of the ecclesiastical history of Scotland since the Reformation, which was favourably criticised at the time, and received from every theological party in Scotland a good deal of attention. His "Reign of Law," may, however, be considered his _chef d'oeuvre_ as a literary effort. First contributed to the pages of _Good Words_, the "Reign of Law" was re-published in a separate form in 1866, and since then it has enjoyed a large sale and a high reputation.