uitable to his
social position, and while at the University of St. Andrews was the
fellow-student and personal friend of young Thomas Chalmers, who
afterwards became one of the most eloquent pulpit orators of modern
times.[4] Robert was the eldest son of his parents, and, being heir to
the paternal estates, he grew up to manhood with the expectation of one
day succeeding to wealth and station in society. He was put to no
profession, and after leaving college, devoted himself to no settled
pursuit. He was on visiting terms with the resident gentry of his native
shire, and took some interest in local military matters. In 1806 he
offered to take charge of an expedition for the invasion of Paris, being
probably impelled thereto by the mad attempt of Lord Camelford several
years before. He was full of energy and robust health, bountiful and
generous to the poor of the parish, a practical philanthropist,
possessed of great intelligence and a genuine love for his kind; but
withal somewhat flighty and erratic, of impetuous temper, deficient in
tact and discretion, and given to revery and theorizing. He was, in
short, a bundle of contradictions, some of his idiosyncrasies being
doubtless inherited from his father, who was a generous and high-minded
but unpractical man. The sire would seem to have been conscious of his
son's weaknesses. "Robert," he was wont to say, "will hurt himself, but
do good to others." The son studied deeply the economical side of the
pauper question, and his researches in this direction brought him into
intimate relations with that eminent writer Mr. Arthur Young,[5] at
whose suggestion he was appointed to conduct an inquiry into the
condition of the poor in England. By virtue of this appointment he
travelled, chiefly on foot, through the most important agricultural
districts of the island, after which he was pronounced by competent
authorities to be the best-informed man in the kingdom respecting the
poor of Great Britain. As I have said elsewhere: "He was consulted by
members of Parliament, political economists, parish overseers, and even
by members of the Cabinet, as to the best means for reforming the poor
laws, and was always ready to spend himself and his substance for the
public good."[6]

Having married and settled down on one of his father's estates, he took
upon himself various offices of public usefulness and philanthropy. His
enterprise and public spirit caused him to be much looked up to by t