Henry Dundas was the Scottish Lord Advocate, an MP for Edinburgh and Midlothian, and the First Lord of the Admiralty. Dundas was a contentious figure, provoking controversies that resonate to this day. While Home Secretary in 1792, and first Secretary of State for War in 1796 he was instrumental in deferring the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. Slave trading by British ships was not abolished until 1807. As a result of this delay, more than half a million enslaved Africans crossed the Atlantic. Dundas also curbed democratic dissent in Scotland, and both defended and expanded British empire, imposing colonial rule on indigenous peoples. He was impeached in the United Kingdom for misappropriation of public money, and, although acquitted, he never held public office again.
Despite this, the Melville Monument at St Andrew Square was funded by voluntary contributions from British naval officers, petty officers, seamen, and marines and was erected in 1821, with the statue placed on top in 1827. In 2020 a plaque was installed beside the monument, dedicated to the memory of the more than half-a-million Africans whose enslavement was a consequence of Henry Dundas’ actions.
The accompanying text in the volume about the second figure, Robert Dundas states as follows:
"The second figure represents the Right Hon. ROBERT DUNDAS of Amiston, Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, in conversation with his uncle, who was also his father-in-law. He was born on the 6th of June 1758. He was educated for the legal profession, and became a member of the Faculty of Advocates in the year 1779; immediately after which he was appointed Procurator for the Church of Scotland. On the promotion of Sir Islay Campbell to the office of Lord Advocate, Mr. Dundas, then a very young man, succeeded him as Solicitor-General; and on the elevation of the former to the Presidency, the latter was appointed to supply his place as Lord Advocate, being then only in the 31st year of his age. This office he held for twelve years, during which time he sat in Parliament as member for the county of Edinburgh. On the resignation of Chief Baron Montgomery, in the year 1801, he was appointed his successor. His lordship held this office till within a short time of his death, which happened at Arniston on the 17th June 1819, in the sixty-second year of his age."
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