When he was about twenty-two he contributed to the
Edinburgh Review an article on Spanish literature. His first independent publication was
Brief Remarks on the Chronology of the Egyptian Dynasties (against Champollion), issued in 1829; (London, 8vo). It was followed in 1832 by
A Dissertation on the Calendar and Zodiac of Ancient Egypt (Edinburgh, 8vo). In 1838, Mure began a tour in Greece, leaving
Ancona for
Corfu on 17 February. He studied the 'topography of Ithaca, and visited Acarnania, Delphi, Boeotia, Attica, and the Peloponnese. He published an interesting
Journal of a Tour in Greece and the Ionian Islands in 1842 (Edinburgh, 8vo). His principal work,
A Critical History of the Language and Literature of Antient Greece, was issued 1850–7, London, 8vo ; 2nd edit. 1859, 8vo ; it consists of five volumes, but deals only with a part of the subject, viz. the early history of writing, Homer, Hesiod, the early lyric poets and historians Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. It contains no account of the dramatists, orators, or any literature subsequent to 380 B.C. Mure also published
The Commercial Policy of Pitt and Peel, 1847, 8vo ;
Selections from the Family Papers [of the Mures] preserved at Caldwell,Maitland Club, 1854, 8vo ; ''Remarks on the Appendices to the second vol. 3rd edit, of Mr. Grote's History of Greece,
London, 1851, 8vo; and National Criticism in 1858'' (on a criticism of Mure's 'History of the Literature of Greece'), London, 1858, 8vo.
Political career He was M.P. for
Renfrewshire from 1846 to 1855 in the conservative interest, but seldom spoke in the house. He was created D.C.L. by Oxford University on 9 June 1833. He was a man of commanding presence, winning manners, and kindly disposition. He was, like his father, for many years colonel of the Renfrewshire militia, and, like his father and grandfather, was
Lord Rector of Glasgow University from 1847 to 1848. ==Personal life==