Alison, ARCHIBALD

Alison, ARCHIBALD, born at Edinburgh in 1757, studied at Glasgow University and Balliol College, Oxford, and in 1784 received Anglican orders. He had held several preferments, including a prebend of Salisbury, and the perpetual curacy of Kenley, in Shropshire, when in 1800 he removed to Edinburgh, and served there as an Episcopal minister till 1831. He died 17th May 1839. Alison was best known by his Essays on the Nature and Principles of Taste (1790), whose second edition, in 1811, gave occasion to an admiring article by Jeffrey, in the Edinburgh Review. They advocate the 'association' theory of the sublime and beautiful, and are written much in the style of Blair, as are also 2 vols. of Alison's Sermons (1814–15).—His son, WILLIAM PULTENEY ALISON, born in 1790, was professor of the institutes of medicine in the university of Edinburgh from 1822 to 1856. In 1840 he published a pamphlet to show how the inadequate provision for the poor in Scotland led to desolating epidemics; and he was also author of a dozen other medical and miscellaneous works. He died September 1859.—A younger son was SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON, the historian. Born at Kenley, Shropshire, in 1792, he entered Edinburgh University in 1805, and in 1814 was called to the Scottish bar. Three years after, he was making £600 a year, and this large income allowed him to form a fine library, and make four continental tours, till, in 1822, he was appointed advocate-depute, an office he held till 1830. He now began to appear as a writer on law, politics, and literature. His Principles of the Criminal Law of Scotland (2 vols. 1832–33) is still a standard authority. In 1834 Sir Robert Peel appointed him sheriff of Lanarkshire, and thenceforth he resided at Possil House, Glasgow. In 1845 he was elected Lord Rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen; of Glasgow University in 1851; and a baronetcy was conferred on him in 1852. He died 23d May 1867. His History of Europe during the French Revolution (10 vols. 1833–42) narrates the events from 1789 to 1815, and was continued under the title of The History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon to the Accession of Louis Napoleon (9 vols. 1852–59). He also published Lives of Marlborough, Castlereagh, and Sir Charles Stewart, The Principles of Population, Free Trade and Protection, England in 1815 and 1845, &c., besides contributing for many years to Blackwood's Magazine a series of tedious articles on Tory politics. It is difficult to characterise Sir Archibald's magnum opus, The History of Europe. Designed 'to prove that Providence was on the side of the Tories,' it is a work of immense industry, of respectable accuracy, of occasional animation, and very tolerable candour; but its style is excessively wordy, and even when animated, is never picturesque. Neither has he much insight into events or characters. Nevertheless, as his work supplied a felt want, and is sufficiently entertaining for a large class of readers, it met with an excessive popularity. It has gone through numerous editions, and has been translated into German, French, Arabic, and other languages. See Sir Archibald's Autobiography (2 vols. 1883).—His son, SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON, G.C.B., born at Edinburgh in 1826, was educated at Glasgow and Edinburgh universities, and entered the army in 1846. He served in the Crimean war; the Indian Mutiny, losing his left arm at the relief of Lucknow; the Ashanti expedition; and the Egyptian campaign, leading the Highland brigade at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. He was gazetted general in 1888, and from 1885 to 1889 held the command at Aldershot. He is author of a treatise On Army Organisation (1869).