KENNEDY, Thomas Francis (1788-1879), a distinguished Scottish Liberal politician, was born near Ayr in 1788. He studied for the bar and passed advocate in 1811. But, having been elected M.P. for the Ayr burghs in 1818, he devoted the greater part of his life to the promotion of those political reforms which the long misgovernment of Scotland by the Tory party had rendered necessary. In this patriotic work he was greatly assisted by Lord Cockbum, then Mr Henry Cockbum, and a volume of correspondence published by Kennedy in 1874 forms a curious and interesting record of the consultations of the two friends on measures which they regarded as requisite for the political regeneration of their native country. One of the first measures of improvement to which he directed his attention was the withdrawal of the power of nominating juries from the judges, and the imparting of a right of peremptory challenge to prisoners. It cost Kennedy several years of persistent urgency upon the legislature before this most reasonable demand was conceded, but at length his energy and perseverance succeeded. Among other subjects he directed his attention to the improvement of the parish schools, of pauper administration, and of several of the corrupt forms of legal procedure which then prevailed. To him also was in a great measure due the freedom which the Scottish people obtained from the domination of certain aristocratic families which had long proved a dead weight on the progress of Liberal principles in Scotland. In the construction of the Scottish Reform Act Kennedy took a very prominent part, and indeed he and Lord Cockburn may almost be regarded as its authors. After the accession of the Whigs to office in 1832 he held various important offices in the ministry, and most of the measures ...