Note 245 — BOSWELLIANA. (continued 2)

Second son of the Rev. Robert Wallace, D.D., George Wallace was born at Moffat in 1730. Admitted advocate in 1754, he attained considerable eminence in his profession. He published “A System of the Principles of the Law of Scotland,” vol. i., Edinb., 1760, folio; “Thoughts on the Origin of Feudal Powers, and the Descent of Ancient Peerages in Scotland,” Edinb., 1783, 4to.; “The Nature and Descent of Ancient Peerages, addressed to the Earl of Mansfield,” Edinb., 1785, 8vo.; “Prospects from Hills in Fife,” 3rd edit., Edinb., 1802, 8vo. The last work is composed in verse, the author remarking in the preface that the “Prospects” were mostly composed many years ago to afford their “author an occasional relief from the austerity and vexations of a profession very remote from poetry.” Mr. Wallace died on the 15th March, 1805, in his seventy-fifth year. His father, Dr. Robert Wallace, successively minister at Moffat and in the city of Edinburgh, was founder of the Philosophical Society, which afterwards merged into the Royal Society of Edinburgh. An expert mathematician, he assisted Dr. Alexander Webster in making calculations connected with the establishment of the Ministers Widows’ Fund. He died in 1771.