Thomas Muir of Huntershill - Graduation

Graduation

In 1782 at the age of 17 Muir graduated M.A. He was now influenced by the teachings of John Millar of Millheugh, Professor of Civil Law, and abandoned his studies for the Church. At the beginning of the 1783-4 term he was accepted as a student in Millar's classes on Law and Government, lectures known internationally. In politics Millar was a Republican Whig and a critic of the so-called ‘benevolent despotism’ of Henry Dundas. His target was Scottish political conservatism, in the form of the Faculty of Advocates, and he brought on young Whig advocates imbued with a due reverence for the law. Muir joined students’ clubs and societies in which the major topics of the day (American Independence, Patronage, and Burgh Reform) were debated.