Chapter VI: Part 6

HAMILTON, JAMES HAMILTON, 1ST DUKE OF (1606-1649), Scottish nobleman, son of James, 2nd marquess of Hamilton, and of the Lady Anne Cunningham, daughter of the earl of Glencairn, was born on the 19th of June 1606. As the descendant and representative of James Hamilton, 1st earl of Arran, he was the heir to the throne of Scotland after the descendants of James VI.[1] He married in his fourteenth year May Feilding, aged seven, daughter of Lord Feilding, afterwards 1st earl of Denbigh, and was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he matriculated on the 14th of December 1621. He succeeded to his father's titles on the latter's death in 1625. In 1628 he was made master of the horse and was also appointed gentleman of the bedchamber and a privy councillor. In 1631 Hamilton took over a force of 6000 men to assist Gustavus Adolphus in Germany. He guarded the fortresses on the Oder while Gustavus fought Tilly at Breitenfeld, and afterwards occupied Magdeburg, but his army was destroyed by disease and starvation, and after the complete failure of the expedition Hamilton returned to England in September 1634. He now became Charles I.'s chief adviser in Scottish affairs. In May 1638, after the outbreak of the revolt against the English Prayer-Book, he was appointed commissioner for Scotland to appease the discontents. He described the Scots as being "possessed by the devil," and instead of doing his utmost to support the king's interests was easily intimidated by the covenanting leaders and persuaded of the impossibility of resisting their demands, finally returning to Charles to urge him to give way. It is said that he so far forgot his trust as to encourage the Scottish leaders in their resistance in order to gain their favour.[2] On the 27th of July Charles sent him back with new proposals for the election of an assembly and a parliament, episcopacy being safeguarded but bishops being made responsible to future assemblies. After a wrangle concerning the mode of election he again returned to Charles. Having been sent back to Edinburgh on the 17th of September, he brought with him a revocation of the prayer-book and canons and another covenant to be substituted for the national covenant. On the 21st of November Hamilton presided over the first meeting of the assembly in Glasgow cathedral, but dissolved it on the 28th on its declaring the bishops responsible to its authority. The assembly, however, continued to sit notwithstanding, and Hamilton returned to England to give an account of his failure, leaving the enemy triumphant and in possession. War was now decided upon, and Hamilton was chosen to command an expedition to the Forth to menace the rear of the Scots. On arrival on the 1st of May 1639 he found the plan impossible, despaired of success, and was recalled in June. On the 8th of July, after a hostile reception at Edinburgh, he resigned his commissionership. He supported Strafford's proposal to call the Short Parliament, but otherwise opposed him as strongly as he could, as the chief adversary of the Scots; and he aided the elder Vane, it was believed, in accomplishing Strafford's destruction by sending for him to the Long Parliament. Hamilton now supported the parliamentary party, desired an alliance with his nation, and persuaded Charles in February 1641 to admit some of their leaders into the council. On the death of Strafford Hamilton was confronted by a new antagonist in Montrose, who detested both his character and policy and repudiated his supremacy in Scotland. On the 10th of August 1641 he accompanied Charles on his last visit to Scotland. His aim now was to effect an alliance between the king and Argyll, the former accepting Presbyterianism and receiving the help of the Scots against the English parliament, and when this failed he abandoned Charles and adhered to Argyll. In consequence he received a challenge from Lord Ker, of which he gave the king information, and obtained from Ker an apology. Montrose wrote to Charles declaring he could prove Hamilton to be a traitor. The king himself spoke of him as being "very active in his own preservation." Shortly afterwards the plot--known as the "Incident"--to seize Argyll, Hamilton and the latter's brother, the earl of Lanark, was discovered, and on the 12th of October they fled from Edinburgh. Hamilton returned not long afterwards, and notwithstanding all that had occurred still retained Charles's favour and confidence. He returned with him to London and accompanied him on the 5th of January 1642 when he went to the city after the failure to secure the five members. In July Hamilton went to Scotland on a hopeless mission to prevent the intervention of the Scots in the war, and a breach then took place between him and Argyll. When in February 1643 proposals of mediation between Charles and the parliament came from Scotland, Hamilton instigated the "cross petition" which demanded from Charles the surrender of the annuities of tithes in order to embarrass Loudoun, the chief promoter of the project, to whom they had already been granted. This failing, he promoted a scheme for overwhelming the influence and votes of Argyll and his party by sending to Scotland all the Scottish peers then with the king, thereby preventing any assistance to the parliament coming from that quarter, while Charles was to guarantee the establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland only. This foolish intrigue was strongly opposed by Montrose, who was eager to strike a sudden blow and anticipate and annihilate the plans of the Covenanters. Hamilton, however, gained over the queen for his project, and in September was made a duke, while Montrose was condemned to inaction. Hamilton's scheme, however, completely failed. He had no control over the parliament. He was unable to hinder the meeting of the convention of the estates which assembled without the king's authority, and his supporters found themselves in a minority. Finally, on refusing to take the Covenant, Hamilton and Lanark were obliged to leave Scotland. They arrived at Oxford on the 16th of December. Hamilton's conduct had at last incurred Charles's resentment and he was sent, in January 1644, a prisoner to Pendennis Castle, in 1645 being removed to St Michael's Mount, where he was liberated by Fairfax's troops on the 23rd of April 1646. Subsequently he showed great activity in the futile negotiations between the Scots and Charles at Newcastle. In 1648, in consequence of the seizure of Charles by the army in 1647, Hamilton obtained a temporary influence and authority in the Scottish parliament over Argyll, and led a large force into England in support of the king on the 8th of July. He showed complete incapacity in military command; was kept in check for some time by Lambert; and though outnumbering the enemy by 24,000 to about 9000 men, allowed his troops to disperse over the country and to be defeated in detail by Cromwell during the three days August 17th-19th at the so-called battle of Preston, being himself taken prisoner on the 25th. He was tried on the 6th of February 1649, condemned to death on the 6th of March and executed on the 9th.

Hamilton, during his unfortunate career, had often been suspected of betraying the king's cause, and, as an heir to the Scottish throne, of intentionally playing into the hands of the Covenanters with a view of procuring the crown for himself. The charge was brought against him as early as 1631 when he was levying men in Scotland for the German expedition, but Charles gave no credence to it and showed his trust in Hamilton by causing him to share his own room. The charge, however, always clung to him, and his intriguing character and hopeless management of the king's affairs in Scotland gave colour to the accusation. There seems, however, to be no real foundation for it. His career is sufficiently explained by his thoroughly weak and egotistical character. He took no interest whatever in the great questions at issue, was neither loyal nor patriotic, and only desired peace and compromise to avoid personal losses. "He was devoid of intellectual or moral strength, and was therefore easily brought to fancy all future tasks easy and all present obstacles insuperable."[3] A worse choice than Hamilton could not possibly have been made in such a crisis, and his want of principle, of firmness and resolution, brought irretrievable ruin upon the royal cause.

Hamilton's three sons died young, and the dukedom passed by special remainder to his brother William, earl of Lanark. On the latter's death in 1651 the Scottish titles reverted to the 1st duke's daughter, Anne, whose husband, William Douglas, was created (third) duke of Hamilton.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Article in the _Dict. of Nat. Biog._ by S. R. Gardiner;
_History of England and of the Civil War_, by the same author;
_Memoirs of the Dukes of Hamilton_, by G. Burnet; _Lauderdale Papers_
(Camden Society, 1884-1885); _The Hamilton Papers_, ed. by S. R.
Gardiner (Camden Society, 1880) and _addenda_ (Camden Miscellany, vol.
ix., 1895); _Thomason Tracts_ in the British Museum, 550 (6), 1948
(30) (account of his supposed treachery), and 546 (21) (speech on the
scaffold). (P. C. Y.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1]

James, Lord Hamilton = Princess Mary Stuart,
(d. 1479). | daughter of James II.
|
James, Lord Hamilton and 1st earl of Arran
(d. c. 1529).
|
James, duke of Chatelherault, and 2nd earl of Arran
(d. 1575).
|
James, 3rd earl of Arran
(d. 1609).
|
John, 1st marquess of Hamilton
(d. 1604).
|
James, 2nd marquess of Hamilton
(d. 1625).
|
James, 3rd marquess and 1st duke of Hamilton.

[2] See S. R. Gardiner in the _Dict. of Nat. Biography_.

[3] See S. R. Gardiner in the _Dict. of Nat. Biography_.

HAMILTON, JOHN (c. 1511-1571), Scottish prelate and politician, was a natural son of James Hamilton, 1st earl of Arran. At a very early age he became a monk and abbot of Paisley, and after studying in Paris he returned to Scotland, where he soon rose to a position of power and influence under his half-brother, the regent Arran. He was made keeper of the privy seal in 1543 and bishop of Dunkeld two years later; in 1546 he followed David Beaton as archbishop of St Andrews, and about the same time he became treasurer of the kingdom. He made vigorous efforts to stay the growth of Protestantism, but with one or two exceptions "persecution was not the policy of Archbishop Hamilton," and in the interests of the Roman Catholic religion a catechism called _Hamilton's Catechism_ (published with an introduction by T. G. Law in 1884) was drawn up and printed, possibly at his instigation. Having incurred the displeasure of the Protestants, now the dominant party in Scotland, the archbishop was imprisoned in 1563. After his release he was an active partisan of Mary queen of Scots; he baptized the infant James, afterwards King James VI., and pronounced the divorce of the queen from Bothwell. He was present at the battle of Langside, and some time later took refuge in Dumbarton Castle. Here he was seized, and on the charge of being concerned in the murders of Lord Darnley and the regent Murray he was tried, and hanged on the 6th of April 1571. The archbishop had three children by his mistress, Grizzel Sempill.

HAMILTON, PATRICK (1504-1528), Scottish divine, second son of Sir Patrick Hamilton, well known in Scottish chivalry, and of Catherine Stewart, daughter of Alexander, duke of Albany, second son of James II. of Scotland, was born in the diocese of Glasgow, probably at bis father's estate of Stanehouse in Lanarkshire. He was educated probably at Linlithgow. In 1517 he was appointed titular abbot of Ferne, Ross-shire; and it was probably about the same year that he went to study at Paris, for his name is found in an ancient list of those who graduated there in 1520. It was doubtless in Paris, where Luther's writings were already exciting much discussion, that he received the germs of the doctrines he was afterwards to uphold. From Alexander Ales we learn that Hamilton subsequently went to Louvain, attracted probably by the fame of Erasmus, who in 1521 had his headquarters there. Returning to Scotland, the young scholar naturally selected St Andrews, the capital of the church and of learning, as his residence. On the 9th of June 1523 he became a member of the university of St Andrews, and on the 3rd of October 1524 he was admitted to its faculty of arts. There Hamilton attained such influence that he was permitted to conduct as precentor a musical mass of his own composition in the cathedral. But the reformed doctrines had now obtained a firm hold on the young abbot, and he was eager to communicate them to his fellow-countrymen. Early in 1527 the attention of James Beaton, archbishop of St Andrews, was directed to the heretical preaching of the young priest, whereupon he ordered that Hamilton should be formally summoned and accused. Hamilton fled to Germany, first visiting Luther at Wittenberg, and afterwards enrolling himself as a student, under Franz Lambert of Avignon, in the new university of Marburg, opened on the 30th of May 1527 by Philip, landgrave of Hesse. Hermann von dem Busche, one of the contributors to the _Epistolae obscurorum virorum_, John Frith and Tyndale were among those whom he met there. Late in the autumn of 1527 Hamilton returned to Scotland, bold in the conviction of the truth of his principles. He went first to his brother's house at Kincavel, near Linlithgow, in which town he preached frequently, and soon afterwards he married a young lady of noble rank, whose name has not come down to us. Beaton, avoiding open violence through fear of Hamilton's high connexions, invited him to a conference at St Andrews. The reformer, predicting that he was going to confirm the pious in the true doctrine by his death, resolutely accepted the invitation, and for nearly a month was permitted to preach and dispute, perhaps in order to provide material for accusation. At length, however, he was summoned before a council of bishops and clergy presided over by the archbishop; there were thirteen charges, seven of which were based on the doctrines affirmed in the _Loci communes_. On examination Hamilton maintained that these were undoubtedly true. The council condemned him as a heretic on the whole thirteen charges. Hamilton was seized, and, it is said, surrendered to the soldiery on an assurance that he would be restored to his friends without injury. The council convicted him, after a sham disputation with Friar Campbell, and handed him over to the secular power. The sentence was carried out on the same day (February 29, 1528) lest he should be rescued by his friends, and he was burned at the stake as a heretic. His courageous bearing attracted more attention than ever to the doctrines for which he suffered, and greatly helped to spread the Reformation in Scotland. The "reek of Patrick Hamilton infected all it blew on." His martyrdom is singular in this respect, that he represented in Scotland almost alone the Lutheran stage of the Reformation. His only book was entitled _Loci communes_, known as "Patrick's Places." It set forth the doctrine of justification by faith and the contrast between the gospel and the law in a series of clear-cut propositions. It is to be found in Foxs's _Acts and Monuments_.

HAMILTON, ROBERT (1743-1829), Scottish economist and mathematician, was born at Pilrig, Edinburgh, on the 11th of June 1743. His grandfather, William Hamilton, principal of Edinburgh University, had been a professor of divinity. Having completed his education at the university of Edinburgh, where he was distinguished in mathematics, Robert was induced to enter a banking-house in order to acquire a practical knowledge of business, but his ambition was really academic. In 1769 he gave up business pursuits and accepted the rectorship of Perth academy. In 1779 he was presented to the chair of natural philosophy at Aberdeen University. For many years, however, by private arrangement with his colleague Professor Copland, Hamilton taught the class of mathematics. In 1817 he was presented to the latter chair.

Hamilton's most important work is the _Essay on the National Debt_,
which appeared in 1813 and was undoubtedly the first to expose the
economic fallacies involved in Pitt's policy of a sinking fund. It is
still of value. A posthumous volume published in 1830, _The Progress
of Society_, is also of great ability, and is a very effective
treatment of economical principles by tracing their natural origin and
position in the development of social life. Some minor works of a
practical character (_Introduction to Merchandise_, 1777; _Essay on
War and Peace_, 1790) are now forgotten.

HAMILTON, THOMAS (1789-1842), Scottish writer, younger brother of the philosopher, Sir William Hamilton, Bart., was born in 1789. He was educated at Glasgow University, where he made a close friend of Michael Scott, the author of _Tom Cringle's Log_. He entered the army in 1810, and served throughout the Peninsular and American campaigns, but continued to cultivate his literary tastes. On the conclusion of peace he withdrew, with the rank of captain, from active service. He contributed both prose and verse to _Blackwood's Magazine_, in which appeared his vigorous and popular military novel, _Cyril Thornton_ (1827). His _Annals of the Peninsular Campaign_, published originally in 1829, and republished in 1849 with additions by Frederick Hardman, is written with great clearness and impartiality. His only other work, _Men and Manners in America_, published originally in 1833, is somewhat coloured by British prejudice, and by the author's aristocratic dislike of a democracy. Hamilton died at Pisa on the 7th of December 1842.

HAMILTON, WILLIAM (1704-1754), Scottish poet, the author of "The Braes of Yarrow," was born in 1704 at Bangour in Linlithgowshire, the son of James Hamilton of Bangour, a member of the Scottish bar. As early as 1724 we find him contributing to Allan Ramsay's _Tea Table Miscellany_. In 1745 Hamilton joined the cause of Prince Charles, and though it is doubtful whether he actually bore arms, he celebrated the battle of Prestonpans in verse. After the disaster of Culloden he lurked for several months in the Highlands and escaped to France; but in 1749 the influence of his friends procured him permission to return to Scotland, and in the following year he obtained possession of the family estate of Bangour. The state of his health compelled him, however, to live abroad, and he died at Lyons on the 25th of March 1754. He was buried in the Abbey Church of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh. He was twice married--"into families of distinction" says the preface of the authorized edition of his poems.

Hamilton left behind him a considerable number of poems, none of them except "The Braes of Yarrow" of striking originality. The collection is composed of odes, epitaphs, short pieces of translation, songs, and occasional verses. The longest is "Contemplation, or the Triumph of Love" (about 500 lines). The first edition was published without his permission by Foulis (Glasgow, 1748), and introduced by a preface from the pen of Adam Smith. Another edition with corrections by himself was brought out by his friends in 1760, and to this was prefixed a portrait engraved by Robert Strange.

In 1850 James Paterson edited _The Poems and Songs of William
Hamilton_. This volume contains several poems till then unpublished,
and gives a life of the author.

HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM (1730-1803), British diplomatist and archaeologist, son of Lord Archibald Hamilton, governor of Greenwich hospital and of Jamaica, was born in Scotland on the 13th of December 1730, and served in the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards from 1747 to 1758. He left the army after his marriage with Miss Barlow, a Welsh heiress from whom he inherited an estate near Swansea upon her death in 1782. Their only child, a daughter, died in 1775. From 1761 to 1764 he was member of parliament for Midhurst, but in the latter year he was appointed envoy to the court of Naples, a post which he held for thirty-six years--until his recall in 1800. During the greater part of this time the official duties of the minister were of small importance. It was enough that the representative of the British crown should be a man of the world whose means enabled him to entertain on a handsome scale. Hamilton was admirably qualified for these duties, being an amiable and accomplished man, who took an intelligent interest in science and art. In 1766 he became a member of the Royal Society, and between that year and 1780 he contributed to its Philosophical Transactions a series of observations on the action of volcanoes, which he had made, or caused to be made, at Vesuvius and Etna. He employed a draftsman named Fabris to make studies of the eruption of 1775 and 1776, and a Dominican, Resina, to make observations at a later period. He published several treatises on earthquakes and volcanoes between 1776 and 1783. He was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Dilettanti, and a notable collector. Many of his treasures went to enrich the British Museum. In 1772 he was made a knight of the Bath. The last ten years of his life presented a curious contrast to the elegant peace of those which had preceded them. In 1791 he married Emma Lyon (see the separate article on Lady Hamilton). The outbreak of the French Revolution and the rapid extension of the revolutionary movement in Western Europe soon overwhelmed Naples. It was a misfortune for Sir William that he was left to meet the very trying political and diplomatic conditions which arose after 1793. His health had begun to break down, and he suffered from bilious fevers. Sir William was in fact in a state approaching dotage before his recall, a fact which, combined with his senile devotion to Lady Hamilton, has to be considered in accounting for his extraordinary complaisance in her relations with Nelson. He died on the 6th of April 1803.

See E. Edwards, _Lives of the Founders of the British Museum_ (London,
1870); and the authorities given in the article on Emma, Lady
Hamilton.

HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM, Bart. (1788-1856), Scottish metaphysician, was born in Glasgow on the 8th of March 1788. His father, Dr William Hamilton, had in 1781, on the strong recommendation of the celebrated William Hunter, been appointed to succeed _his_ father, Dr Thomas Hamilton, as professor of anatomy in the university of Glasgow; and when he died in 1790, in his thirty-second year, he had already gained a great reputation. William Hamilton and a younger brother (afterwards Captain Thomas Hamilton, q.v.) were thus brought up under the sole care of their mother. William received his early education in Scotland, except during two years which he spent in a private school near London, and went in 1807, as a Snell exhibitioner, to Balliol College, Oxford. He obtained a first-class _in literis humanioribus_ and took the degree of B.A. in 1811, M.A. in 1814. He had been intended for the medical profession, but soon after leaving Oxford he gave up this idea, and in 1813 became a member of the Scottish bar. His life, however, was mainly that of a student; and the following years, marked by little of outward incident, were filled by researches of all kinds, through which he daily added to his stores of learning, while at the same time he was gradually forming his philosophic system. Investigation enabled him to make good his claim to represent the ancient family of Hamilton of Preston, and in 1816 he took up the baronetcy, which had been in abeyance since the death of Sir Robert Hamilton of Preston (1650-1701), well known in his day as a Covenanting leader.

Two visits to Germany in 1817 and 1820 led to his taking up the study of German and later on that of contemporary German philosophy, which was then almost entirely neglected in the British universities. In 1820 he was a candidate for the chair of moral philosophy in the university of Edinburgh, which had fallen vacant on the death of Thomas Brown, colleague of Dugald Stewart, and the latter's consequent resignation, but was defeated on political grounds by John Wilson (1785-1854), the "Christopher North" of _Blackwood's Magazine_. Soon afterwards (1821) he was appointed professor of civil history, and as such delivered several courses of lectures on the history of modern Europe and the history of literature. The salary was L100 a year, derived from a local beer tax, and was discontinued after a time. No pupils were compelled to attend, the class dwindled, and Hamilton gave it up when the salary ceased. In January 1827 he suffered a severe loss in the death of his mother, to whom he had been a devoted son. In March 1828 he married his cousin Janet Marshall.

In 1829 his career of authorship began with the appearance of the well-known essay on the "Philosophy of the Unconditioned" (a critique of Comte's _Cours de philosophie_)--the first of a series of articles contributed by him to the _Edinburgh Review_. He was elected in 1836 to the Edinburgh chair of logic and metaphysics, and from this time dates the influence which, during the next twenty years, he exerted over the thought of the younger generation in Scotland. Much about the same time he began the preparation of an annotated edition of Reid's works, intending to annex to it a number of dissertations. Before, however, this design had been carried out, he was struck (1844) with paralysis of the right side, which seriously crippled his bodily powers, though it left his mind wholly unimpaired. The edition of Reid appeared in 1846, but with only seven of the intended dissertations--the last, too, unfinished. It was his distinct purpose to complete the work, but this purpose remained at his death unfulfilled, and all that could be done afterwards was to print such materials for the remainder, or such notes on the subjects to be discussed, as were found among his MSS. Considerably before this time he had formed his theory of logic, the leading principles of which were indicated in the prospectus of "an essay on a new analytic of logical forms" prefixed to his edition of Reid. But the elaboration of the scheme in its details and applications continued during the next few years to occupy much of his leisure. Out of this arose a sharp controversy with Augustus de Morgan. The essay did not appear, but the results of the labour gone through are contained in the appendices to his _Lectures on Logic_. Another occupation of these years was the preparation of extensive materials for a publication which he designed on the personal history, influence and opinions of Luther. Here he advanced so far as to have planned and partly carried out the arrangement of the work; but it did not go further, and still remains in MS. In 1852-1853 appeared the first and second editions of his _Discussions in Philosophy, Literature and Education_, a reprint, with large additions, of his contributions to the _Edinburgh Review_. Soon after, his general health began to fail. Still, however, aided now as ever by his devoted wife, he persevered in literary labour; and during 1854-1855 he brought out nine volumes of a new edition of Stewart's works. The only remaining volume was to have contained a memoir of Stewart, but this he did not live to write. He taught his class for the last time in the winter of 1855-1856. Shortly after the close of the session he was taken ill, and on the 6th of May 1856 he died in Edinburgh.

Hamilton's positive contribution to the progress of thought is
comparatively slight, and his writings, even where reinforced by the
copious lecture notes taken by his pupils, cannot be said to present a
comprehensive philosophic system. None the less he did considerable
service by stimulating a spirit of criticism in his pupils, by
insisting on the great importance of psychology as opposed to the
older metaphysical method, and not least by his recognition of the
importance of German philosophy, especially that of Kant. By far his
most important work was his "Philosophy of the Unconditioned," the
development of the principle that for the human finite mind there can
be no knowledge of the Infinite. The basis of his whole argument is
the thesis, "To think is to condition." Deeply impressed with Kant's
antithesis between subject and object, the knowing and the known,
Hamilton laid down the principle that every object is known only in
virtue of its relations to other objects (see RELATIVITY OF
KNOWLEDGE). From this it follows limitless time, space, power and so
forth are humanly speaking inconceivable. The fact, however, that all
thought seems to demand the idea of the infinite or absolute provides
a sphere for faith, which is thus the specific faculty of theology. It
is a weakness characteristic of the human mind that it cannot conceive
any phenomenon without a beginning: hence the conception of the causal
relation, according to which every phenomenon has its cause in
preceding phenomena, and its effect in subsequent phenomena. The
causal concept is, therefore, only one of the ordinary necessary forms
of the cognitive consciousness limited, as we have seen, by being
confined to that which is relative or conditioned. As regards the
problem of the nature of objectivity, Hamilton simply accepts the
evidence of consciousness as to the separate existence of the object:
"the root of our nature cannot be a lie." In virtue of this assumption
Hamilton's philosophy becomes a "natural realism." In fact his whole
position is a strange compound of Kant and Reid. Its chief practical
corollary is the denial of philosophy as a method of attaining
absolute knowledge and its relegation to the academic sphere of mental
training. The transition from philosophy to theology, i.e. to the
sphere of faith, is presented by Hamilton under the analogous relation
between the mind and the body. As the mind is to the body, so is the
unconditioned Absolute or God to the world of the conditioned.
Consciousness, itself a conditioned phenomenon, must derive from or
depend on some different thing prior to or behind material phenomena.
Curiously enough, however, Hamilton does not explain how it comes
about that God, who in the terms of the analogy bears to the
conditioned mind the relation which the conditioned mind bears to its
objects, can Himself be unconditioned. He can be regarded only as
related to consciousness, and in so far is, therefore, not absolute or
unconditioned. Thus the very principles of Hamilton's philosophy are
apparently violated in his theological argument.

Hamilton regarded logic as a purely formal science; it seemed to him
an unscientific mixing together of heterogeneous elements to treat as
parts of the same science the formal and the material conditions of
knowledge. He was quite ready to allow that on this view logic cannot
be used as a means of discovering or guaranteeing facts, even the most
general, and expressly asserted that it has to do, not with the
objective validity, but only with the mutual relations, of judgments.
He further held that induction and deduction are correlative processes
of formal logic, each resting on the necessities of thought and
deriving thence its several laws. The only logical laws which he
recognized were the three axioms of identity, non-contradiction, and
excluded middle, which he regarded as severally phases of one general
condition of the possibility of existence and, therefore, of thought.
The law of reason and consequent he considered not as different, but
merely as expressing metaphysically what these express logically. He
added as a postulate--which in his theory was of importance--"that
logic be allowed to state explicitly what is thought implicitly."

In logic, Hamilton is known chiefly as the inventor of the doctrine of
the "quantification of the predicate," i.e. that the judgment "All A
is B" should really mean "All A is _all_ B," whereas the ordinary
universal proposition should be stated "All A is _some_ B." This view,
which was supported by Stanley Jevons, is fundamentally at fault since
it implies that the predicate is thought of in its extension; in point
of fact when a judgment is made, e.g. about men, that they are mortal
("All men are mortal"), the intention is to _attribute a quality_
(i.e. the predicate is used in connotation). In other words, we are
not considering the question "what kind are men among the various
things which must die?" (as is implied in the form "all men are some
mortals") but "what is the fact about men?" We are not stating a mere
identity (see further, e.g., H. W. B. Joseph, _Introduction to Logic_,
1906, pp. 198 foll.).

The philosopher to whom above all others Hamilton professed allegiance
was Aristotle. His works were the object of his profound and constant
study, and supplied in fact the mould in which his whole philosophy
was cast. With the commentators on the Aristotelian writings, ancient,
medieval and modern, he was also familiar; and the scholastic
philosophy he studied with care and appreciation at a time when it had
hardly yet begun to attract attention in his country. His wide reading
enabled him to trace many a doctrine to the writings of forgotten
thinkers; and nothing gave him greater pleasure than to draw forth
such from their obscurity, and to give due acknowledgment, even if it
chanced to be of the prior possession of a view or argument that he
had thought out for himself. Of modern German philosophy he was a
diligent, if not always a sympathetic, student. How profoundly his
thinking was modified by that of Kant is evident from the tenor of his
speculations; nor was this less the case because, on fundamental
points, he came to widely different conclusions.

Any account of Hamilton would be incomplete which regarded him only as
a philosopher, for his knowledge and his interests embraced all
subjects related to that of the human mind. Physical and mathematical
science had, indeed, no attraction for him; but his study of anatomy
and physiology was minute and experimental. In literature alike
ancient and modern he was widely and deeply read; and, from his
unusual powers of memory, the stores which he had acquired were always
at command. If there was one period with the literature of which he
was more particularly familiar, it was the 16th and 17th centuries.
Here in every department he was at home. He had gathered a vast amount
of its theological lore, had a critical knowledge especially of its
Latin poetry, and was minutely acquainted with the history of the
actors in its varied scenes, not only as narrated in professed
records, but as revealed in the letters, table-talk, and casual
effusions of themselves or their contemporaries (cf. his article on
the _Epistolae obscurorum virorum_, and his pamphlet on the Disruption
of the Church of Scotland in 1843). Among his literary projects were
editions of the works of George Buchanan and Julius Caesar Scaliger.
His general scholarship found expression in his library, which, though
mainly, was far from being exclusively, a philosophical collection. It
now forms a distinct portion of the library of the university of
Glasgow.

His chief practical interest was in education--an interest which he
manifested alike as a teacher and as a writer, and which had led him
long before he was either to a study of the subject both theoretical
and historical. He thence adopted views as to the ends and methods of
education that, when afterwards carried out or advocated by him, met
with general recognition; but he also expressed in one of his articles
an unfavourable view of the study of mathematics as a mental
gymnastic, which excited much opposition, but which he never saw
reason to alter. As a teacher, he was zealous and successful, and his
writings on university organization and reform had, at the time of
their appearance, a decisive practical effect, and contain much that
is of permanent value.

His posthumous works are his _Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic_, 4
vols., edited by H. L. Mansel, Oxford, and John Veitch (_Metaphysics_,
1858; _Logic_, 1860); and _Additional Notes to Reid's Works_, from
Sir W. Hamilton's MSS., under the editorship of H. L. Mansel, D.D.
(1862). _A Memoir of Sir W. Hamilton_, by Veitch, appeared in 1869.

HAMILTON, WILLIAM GERARD (1729-1796), English statesman, popularly known as "Single Speech Hamilton," was born in London on the 28th of January 1729, the son of a Scottish bencher of Lincoln's Inn. He was educated at Winchester and at Oriel College, Oxford. Inheriting his father's fortune he entered political life and became M.P. for Petersfield, Hampshire. His maiden speech, delivered on the 13th of November 1755, during the debate on the address, which excited Walpole's admiration, is generally supposed to have been his only effort in the House of Commons. But the nickname "Single Speech" is undoubtedly misleading, and Hamilton is known to have spoken with success on other occasions, both in the House of Commons and in the Irish parliament. In 1756 he was appointed one of the commissioners for trade and plantations, and in 1761 he became chief secretary to Lord Halifax, the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, as well as Irish M. P. for Killebegs and English M. P. for Pontefract. He was chancellor of the exchequer in Ireland in 1763, and subsequently filled various other administrative offices. Hamilton was thought very highly of by Dr Johnson, and it is certain that he was strongly opposed to the British taxation of America. He died in London on the 16th of July 1796, and was buried in the chancel vault of St Martin's-in-the-fields.

Two of his speeches in the Irish House of Commons, and some other
miscellaneous works, were published after his death under the title
_Parliamentary Logick_.

HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM ROWAN (1805-1865), Scottish mathematician, was born in Dublin on the 4th of August 1805. His father, Archibald Hamilton, who was a solicitor, and his uncle, James Hamilton (curate of Trim), migrated from Scotland in youth. A branch of the Scottish family to which they belonged had settled in the north of Ireland in the time of James I., and this fact seems to have given rise to the common impression that Hamilton was an Irishman.

His genius first displayed itself in the form of a wonderful power of acquiring languages. At the age of seven he had already made very considerable progress in Hebrew, and before he was thirteen he had acquired, under the care of his uncle, who was an extraordinary linguist, almost as many languages as he had years of age. Among these, besides the classical and the modern European languages, were included Persian, Arabic, Hindustani, Sanskrit and even Malay. But though to the very end of his life he retained much of the singular learning of his childhood and youth, often reading Persian and Arabic in the intervals of sterner pursuits, he had long abandoned them as a study, and employed them merely as a relaxation.

His mathematical studies seem to have been undertaken and carried to their full development without any assistance whatever, and the result is that his writings belong to no particular "school," unless indeed we consider them to form, as they are well entitled to do, a school by themselves. As an arithmetical calculator he was not only wonderfully expert, but he seems to have occasionally found a positive delight in working out to an enormous number of places of decimals the result of some irksome calculation. At the age of twelve he engaged Zerah Colburn, the American "calculating boy," who was then being exhibited as a curiosity in Dublin, and he had not always the worst of the encounter. But, two years before, he had accidentally fallen in with a Latin copy of _Euclid_, which he eagerly devoured; and at twelve he attacked Newton's _Arithmetica universalis_. This was his introduction to modern analysis. He soon commenced to read the _Principia_, and at sixteen he had mastered a great part of that work, besides some more modern works on analytical geometry and the differential calculus.

About this period he was also engaged in preparation for entrance at Trinity College, Dublin, and had therefore to devote a portion of his time to classics. In the summer of 1822, in his seventeenth year, he began a systematic study of Laplace's _Mecanique Celeste_. Nothing could be better fitted to call forth such mathematical powers as those of Hamilton; for Laplace's great work, rich to profusion in analytical processes alike novel and powerful, demands from the most gifted student careful and often laborious study. It was in the successful effort to open this treasure-house that Hamilton's mind received its final temper, "Des-lors il commenca a marcher seul," to use the words of the biographer of another great mathematician. From that time he appears to have devoted himself almost wholly to original investigation (so far at least as regards mathematics), though he ever kept himself well acquainted with the progress of science both in Britain and abroad.

Having detected an important defect in one of Laplace's demonstrations, he was induced by a friend to write out his remarks, that they might be shown to Dr John Brinkley (1763-1835), afterwards bishop of Cloyne, but who was then the first royal astronomer for Ireland, and an accomplished mathematician. Brinkley seems at once to have perceived the vast talents of young Hamilton, and to have encouraged him in the kindest manner. He is said to have remarked in 1823 of this lad of eighteen: "This young man, I do not say _will be_, but _is_, the first mathematician of his age."

Hamilton's career at College was perhaps unexampled. Amongst a number of competitors of more than ordinary merit, he was first in every subject and at every examination. He achieved the rare distinction of obtaining an _optime_ for both Greek and for physics. How many more such honours he might have attained it is impossible to say; but he was expected to win both the gold medals at the degree examination, had his career as a student not been cut short by an unprecedented event. This was his appointment to the Andrews professorship of astronomy in the university of Dublin, vacated by Dr Brinkley in 1827. The chair was not exactly offered to him, as has been sometimes asserted, but the electors, having met and talked over the subject, authorized one of their number, who was Hamilton's personal friend, to urge him to become a candidate, a step which his modesty had prevented him from taking. Thus, when barely twenty-two, he was established at the Observatory, Dunsink, near Dublin. He was not specially fitted for the post, for although he had a profound acquaintance with theoretical astronomy, he had paid but little attention to the regular work of the practical astronomer. And it must be said that his time was better employed in original investigations than it would have been had he spent it in observations made even with the best of instruments,--infinitely better than if he had spent it on those of the observatory, which, however good originally, were then totally unfit for the delicate requirements of modern astronomy. Indeed there can be little doubt that Hamilton was intended by the university authorities who elected him to the professorship of astronomy to spend his time as he best could for the advancement of science, without being tied down to any particular branch. Had he devoted himself to practical astronomy they would assuredly have furnished him with modern instruments and an adequate staff of assistants.

In 1835, being secretary to the meeting of the British Association which was held that year in Dublin, he was knighted by the lord-lieutenant. But far higher honours rapidly succeeded, among which we may merely mention his election in 1837 to the president's chair in the Royal Irish Academy, and the rare distinction of being made corresponding member of the academy of St Petersburg. These are the few salient points (other, of course, than the epochs of his more important discoveries and inventions presently to be considered) in the uneventful life of this great man. He retained his wonderful faculties unimpaired to the very last, and steadily continued till within a day or two of his death, which occurred on the 2nd of September 1865, the task (his _Elements of Quaternions_) which had occupied the last six years of his life.

The germ of his first great discovery was contained in one of those
early papers which in 1823 he communicated to Dr Brinkley, by whom,
under the title of "Caustics," it was presented in 1824 to the Royal
Irish Academy. It was referred as usual to a committee. Their report,
while acknowledging the novelty and value of its contents, and the
great mathematical skill of its author, recommended that, before being
published, it should be still further developed and simplified. During
the next three years the paper grew to an immense bulk, principally by
the additional details which had been inserted at the desire of the
committee. But it also assumed a much more intelligible form, and the
grand features of the new method were now easily to be seen. Hamilton
himself seems not till this period to have fully understood either the
nature or the importance of his discovery, for it is only now that we
find him announcing his intention of applying his method to dynamics.
The paper was finally entitled "Theory of Systems of Rays," and the
first part was printed in 1828 in the _Transactions of the Royal Irish
Academy_. It is understood that the more important contents of the
second and third parts appeared in the three voluminous supplements
(to the first part) which were published in the same _Transactions_,
and in the two papers "On a General Method in Dynamics," which
appeared in the _Philosophical Transactions_ in 1834-1835. The
principle of "Varying Action" is the great feature of these papers;
and it is strange, indeed, that the one particular result of this
theory which, perhaps more than anything else that Hamilton has done,
has rendered his name known beyond the little world of true
philosophers, should have been easily within the reach of Augustin
Fresnel and others for many years before, and in no way required
Hamilton's new conceptions or methods, although it was by them that he
was led to its discovery. This singular result is still known by the
name "conical refraction," which he proposed for it when he first
predicted its existence in the third supplement to his "Systems of
Rays," read in 1832.

The step from optics to dynamics in the application of the method of
"Varying Action" was made in 1827, and communicated to the Royal
Society, in whose _Philosophical Transactions_ for 1834 and 1835 there
are two papers on the subject. These display, like the "Systems of
Rays," a mastery over symbols and a flow of mathematical language
almost unequalled. But they contain what is far more valuable still,
the greatest addition which dynamical science had received since the
grand strides made by Sir Isaac Newton and Joseph Louis Lagrange. C.
G. J. Jacobi and other mathematicians have developed to a great
extent, and as a question of pure mathematics only, Hamilton's
processes, and have thus made extensive additions to our knowledge of
differential equations. But there can be little doubt that we have as
yet obtained only a mere glimpse of the vast physical results of which
they contain the germ. And though this is of course by far the more
valuable aspect in which any such contribution to science can be
looked at, the other must not be despised. It is characteristic of
most of Hamilton's, as of nearly all great discoveries, that even
their indirect consequences are of high value.

The other great contribution made by Hamilton to mathematical science,
the invention of Quaternions, is treated under that heading. The
following characteristic extract from a letter shows Hamilton's own
opinion of his mathematical work, and also gives a hint of the devices
which he employed to render written language as expressive as actual
speech. His first great work, _Lectures on Quaternions_ (Dublin,
1852), is almost painful to read in consequence of the frequent use of
italics and capitals.

"I hope that it may not be considered as unpardonable vanity or
presumption on my part, if, as my own taste has always led me to feel
a greater interest in _methods_ than in _results_, so it is by
METHODS, rather than by _any_ THEOREMS, which _can_ be separately
_quoted_, that I desire and hope to be remembered. Nevertheless it is
only human nature, to derive _some_ pleasure from being cited, now and
then, even about a 'Theorem'; especially where ... the quoter can
enrich the subject, by combining it with researches of _his own_."

The discoveries, papers and treatises we have mentioned might well
have formed the whole work of a long and laborious life. But not to
speak of his enormous collection of MS. books, full to overflowing
with new and original matter, which have been handed over to Trinity
College, Dublin, the works we have already called attention to barely
form the greater portion of what he has published. His extraordinary
investigations connected with the solution of algebraic equations of
the fifth degree, and his examination of the results arrived at by N.
H. Abel, G. B. Jerrard, and others in their researches on this
subject, form another grand contribution to science. There is next his
great paper on _Fluctuating Functions_, a subject which, since the
time of J. Fourier, has been of immense and ever increasing value in
physical applications of mathematics. There is also the extremely
ingenious invention of the hodograph. Of his extensive investigations
into the solution (especially by numerical approximation) of certain
classes of differential equations which constantly occur in the
treatment of physical questions, only a few items have been published,
at intervals, in the _Philosophical Magazine_. Besides all this,
Hamilton was a voluminous correspondent. Often a single letter of his
occupied from fifty to a hundred or more closely written pages, all
devoted to the minute consideration of every feature of some
particular problem; for it was one of the peculiar characteristics of
his mind never to be satisfied with a general understanding of a
question; he pursued it until he knew it in all its details. He was
ever courteous and kind in answering applications for assistance in
the study of his works, even when his compliance must have cost him
much time. He was excessively precise and hard to please with
reference to the final polish of his own works for publication; and it
was probably for this reason that he published so little compared with
the extent of his investigations.

Like most men of great originality, Hamilton generally matured his
ideas before putting pen to paper. "He used to carry on," says his
elder son, William Edwin Hamilton, "long trains of algebraical and
arithmetical calculations in his mind, during which he was unconscious
of the earthly necessity of eating; we used to bring in a 'snack' and
leave it in his study, but a brief nod of recognition of the intrusion
of the chop or cutlet was often the only result, and his thoughts went
on soaring upwards."

For further details about Hamilton (his poetry and his association
with poets, for instance) the reader is referred to the _Dublin
University Magazine_ (Jan. 1842), the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (Jan.
1866), and the _Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society_
(Feb. 1866); and also to an article by the present writer in the
_North British Review_ (Sept. 1866), from which much of the above
sketch has been taken. His works have been collected and published by
R. P. Graves, _Life of Sir W. R. Hamilton_ (3 vols., 1882, 1885,
1889). (P. G. T.)

HAMILTON, a town of Dundas and Normanby counties, Victoria, Australia, on the Grange Burne Creek, 197-1/2 m. by rail W. of Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 4026. Hamilton has a number of educational institutions, chief among which are the Hamilton and Western District College, one of the finest buildings of its kind in Victoria, the Hamilton Academy, and the Alexandra ladies' college, a state school, and a Catholic college. It has a fine racecourse, and pastoral and agricultural exhibitions are held annually, as the surrounding district is mainly devoted to sheep-farming. Mutton is frozen and exported. Hamilton became a borough in 1859.

HAMILTON (GRAND or ASHUANIPI), the chief river of Labrador, Canada. It rises in the Labrador highlands at an elevation of 1700 ft., its chief sources being Lakes Attikonak and Ashuanipi, between 65 deg. and 66 deg. W. and 52 deg. and 53 deg. N. After a precipitous course of 600 m. it empties into Melville Lake (90 m. long and 18 wide), an extension of Hamilton inlet, on the Atlantic. About 220 m. from its mouth occur the Grand Falls of Labrador. Here in a distance of 12 m. the river drops 760 ft., culminating in a final vertical fall of 316 ft. Below the falls are violent rapids, and the river sweeps through a deep and narrow canyon. The country through which it passes is for the most part a wilderness of barren rock, full of lakes and lacustrine rivers, many of which are its tributaries. In certain portions of the valley spruce and poplars grow to a moderate size. From the head of Lake Attikonak a steep and rocky portage of less than a mile leads to Burnt Lake, which is drained into the St Lawrence by the Romaine river.