Cockburn's Millennium

<p>Henry Cockburn (1779-1854), a leading Scottish Whig of the nineteenth century, author of the classic <b>Memorials of His Time</b>, is perhaps the least-known of Scotland''s famous men. ''Small, solid and genuine'', in Carlyle''s phrase, Cockburn gave himself to a variety of pursuits. As Advocate, Court of Session judge, orator, historian and poet, he fought for, and drafted, the Scottish Reform Bill of 1832 - with its momentous extension of the franchise - and he played a scarcely less significant part in the Victorian contest between Kirk and Judiciary. He broke with his father''s principles, those of a sensible strong-minded lawyer and leading Scottish Tory, and became a ''man of sense'' himself - an Edinburgh patriarch and sage, but of romantic sensibility, who would turn away from public commitments to take pleasure in the past and the pastoral seclusion of the neighbouring Pentland Hills.<br><br>Karl Miller''s sustained study of Cockburn, the first of its kind, was published in 1975. It makes use of manuscript materials to present a new picture of Cockburn''s career and mental life, and presents him as one of a generation of thinkers and artists who succeeded to the Scottish Enlightenment. <br><br><b>Cockburn''s Millennium</b> contains rich digressions on the outlook of the Scottish Whigs, on the world of the Edinburgh review, and on the Tory world-picture by which Cockburn and his friends were confronted and which included the genius of Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg. Cockburn is the protagonist of a work which ranges with penetration and wit over important issues of Scottish life and culture.</p>