very ill-used and much-injured man. Nine artists out of and to overhear his sarcastic laughter and abusive lanten who have induced him to sit for his portrait, were vile guage, without having to undergo the additional torture of daubers. They have not hit the expression. None but this prolonged yell; and, before many days had elapsed, the hand of a master can do it justice. It is a common my dislike for the author of these nuisances settled into a thing for some disappointed emigrant to spend a few most deadly hatred. Towards an ordinary parrot I could weeks in New York, or Boston, or Philadelphia, and, not have entertained so much ill-will, but there was a sumixing with none but the lower orders of society, fancy perior intelligence, and spirit of villany, and turn for rehe is qualified to descant upon the habits and customs of partee, about the present one, which were amazingly prothe American people-or, at all events, he describes the voking, and I felt strongly disposed to take down some disgusting propensities of the few dirty fellows he has met | portion of his consequence. And yet, how to accomplish with, and leads us to suppose that Americans are all alike. this was the question, for (as I had already observed) the Would a traveller from the United States be justified in moment a hand was slily raised to offer Nabob (that was judging of our English aristocracy by the manners and the bird's name) chastisement, Nabob's sagacity foreconversation of the passengers he encounters in a third- warned him of the danger, and he would utter a shout class railway carriage, or one of our penny city omnibuses? that penetrated the remotest corner of the house, and was There are low and vulgar persons in all countries. We sure to bring the elderly maiden lady instantly to his reshould quit the tavern, the cheap boarding-house, the lief. In vain, therefore, did I, and the most wicked of the public thoroughfare, and enter the homes and cultivate the three young ladies, and Mr Molson, and the old gentleman acquaintance of the higher classes. Still, even then, it with the bald head, sigh, in the absence of his mistress, to would become us to be extremely cautious how we judge, be revenged upon the green parrot. There appeared to be and what we write, for no man is without his prejudices, no punishment for him short of poison, and we dreaded the and they are sure to colour his views and opinions. It is idea of that, lest some disaffected person should succeed in one of the most merciful features of our British law, that tracing the murder to our door. no prisoner shall be condemned until he is unanimously pronounced guilty by twelve of his countrymen. If a prisoner, a felon, is shown this handsome indulgence, shall a gentleman, a friend, a relative, be treated with less? Since it comes to the point, I do not believe, for the reason I have just stated, that any one man ought, or has s right, to pronounce a verdict in a matter of the kind. He may think what he pleases for himself, but not for the nation, who are too apt (more particularly since abuse has grown fashionable) to have a leaning to the side of sarcasm and ill-nature.

Such being my sentiments, therefore, I shall not be called upon, nor do I consider myself at liberty, to indulge in any severe strictures upon the habits and customs of the American people. I have no hesitation in saying, however (for, as the remark will injure nobody, I need not suppress it), that there are, in proportion, as many polite, elegant, and clever persons, of both sexes, in New York, as there are in either London or Edinburgh. I can furthermore vouch, too, that the American ladies have no improper affectation of modesty, and that the more select of the gentlemen do not carry tobacco-boxes.

I was much pleased with my new acquaintances. They consisted of five lady and three gentlemen boarders. Of the former, four were young, sprightly, handsome, and musical; and of the latter, one was a fine old man, with a perfectly bald head, and the most benevolent expres sion of countenance imaginable. He had a brother who stood high in Congress, and a son with the American army in Mexico. This old gentleman had travelled over half the globe, and his heart and mind were stored with every kind feeling, and every beautiful image. Of the remaining two boarders, one was a sober, plodding merchant, said to be realising great sums of money; and the other, a slight, dapper youth of two-and-twenty, who had fallen desperately in love with one of the handsome young ladies before mentioned, and appeared to be labouring under a painful hopelessness of success. His name was Molson. The young ladies were introduced to me as the Miss Fitzherberts. The bald gentleman was addressed by the name of Merrivale. They called the merchant Mr Headley. There is no happiness, however, without alloy. With all my new friends, and especially the lady part of them, I was quite charmed, but the green parrot and I were soon at open war, for he had one strain, among his selection of homely airs, to which I was seized with an immediate antipathy. This was a long shrill screech-a sort of warwhoop in miniature-that pierced the brain, and set the teeth horribly on edge. The maiden lady, too, seemed to think highly of the performance, and, much to my mortification, even encouraged him in it. It was quite enough to witness this ungainly bird's excessive nonchalance, and gouty walk, and his ugly clamber up the side of the cage,

HEAP THE SEVENTY FIRST.

I used to delight in a summer morning ramble about the streets of New York. I always met with something novel and amusing. No wonder the houses look so clean, and the windows so bright. They are well washed every day. There is a plentiful supply of water running past each door, and a servant has merely to fit the hose upon the pipe, and direct it over the whole premises. I have seen fifteen or twenty housemaids at a time performing this refreshing operation, and appearing to enjoy the thing all the while very much. Nor is this the only use to which the water may be applied. I have seen obstinate and persevering pigs driven from door-steps; and a dirty fellow, who was too lazy to resort to soap and towel, washed quite white, by a similar process. He has got a friend to play upon him, and gone away afterwards if not a better, certainly a cleaner man. I have also seen horses brought to undergo a like ablution, and it was entertaining to me to observe how the animals, particularly in hot weather, appeared to relish it; turning first this way, and then that; now presenting their heads to the stream, and now their tails; and whisking the latter in a perfect ecstasy of delight. I have, moreover, observed them glance at other horses that were passing, with a look that seemed to say, 'You have no idea of the luxury of this; try it.'

There is an absence of formality, a sort of freemasonry of good fellowship and kind feeling, among the Americans. that cannot fail to gratify a stranger. In the summer season it is a common thing, in the more retired streets and squares, for the people to bring their arm-chairs out to the fronts of their houses, and sit there enjoying the coolness of the evening. A door-step will sometimes present a whole family group, who are sure to be safe from both observation and insult. They are seen, and yet not noticed. The only rudeness they suffer is from the mosquitoes, which bite rather boldly after a shower. Indeed, the mosquitoes are a great nuisance at all times. They fix themselves quietly upon your chin, or your forehead, or your wrists, and ply their pumps until their dainty little stomachs are quite full, then they go away in a state of repletion, and hang themselves by one leg to the ceiling until their appetites return. If you open a window at night, the room is instantly swarming with mosquitoes, and there is a sound as though forty gentlemen were blowing key-bugles in an adjoining parlour. You need not think of retiring to rest unless your bed is provided with mosquito curtains.

facetious over it, and you cannot grumble. I once saw a stout old gentleman (a member of Congress, I had no doubt) leaving a crowd with a smile upon his face. All his pockets, of which he had about nine, lined with brown holland, had been turned inside out, and he looked, as he made away, with the wind flapping them backwards and forwards, like a fine fish with a rather bountiful supply of

fins.

them the temptation to get at the goods of others by violent or fraudulent means, and to keep far from their minds all the inducements to hypocrisy and deceit.-Cobbett.

THE VALUE OF ENERGY.

kindred energy in others, touches springs of infinite power, He who, by an intellectual and moral energy, awakens scribed, begins an action which will never end. One gives impulse to faculties to which no bound can be pregreat and kindling thought from a retired and obscure person may live when thrones are fallen, and the memory of those who filled them obliterated; and, like an undying fire, may illuminate and quicken all future generations.

THE WANTS OF THE AGE.

When I spoke in high terms of the cleanliness of the American houses and door-steps, I did not mean to imply that my approbation extended as far as the middle of any of the streets, which, owing to some want of vigilance on the part of those who should look after them, are made the repositories of every kind of offal and filth. There needs reform here. It is no uncommon occurrence for small-pox, fevers, plagues, and other diseases, to be viewed as angry visitations of Providence, when, in reality, they are no- thought, should the church study for truth-for the simple With an enlarged charity, and patient and laborious thing more than the natural result of some popular indis- truth of God; for scriptural truth, as it is found revealed cretion similar to the one of which we are now treating in the sacred pages; for divine truth, as it flowed from I have no doubt that the city pigs, who are permitted the the lips of Jesus; assured that other foundation can no free perambulation of all the streets and thoroughfares, would obstinately oppose any innovations that came in is more needed at the present period, nothing can be more man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Nothing the shape of sanitary reform; but, as the purity and whole-needed in any period, than a living faith in Christ Jesus. someness of the air that the people breathe should be the The church should welcome his words with profoundest first consideration, the sooner the nuisance is removed gratitude; and bow in reverence before him, as the perthe pleasanter will be the general aspect of things, and (it fect incarnation of wisdom and love; diligently and deoccurs to me) the more salubrious the climate. teachings, his miracles, and his cross; looking at the Savoutly searching the grand purposes of his mission, in his viour himself as the best interpreter of his religion; and believing that in him is an inexhaustible fountain of spiritual life. In proportion as the church is thus faithful, the truth will shine more and more fully upon the world. Not bursting upon it, perhaps, at once; not, indeed, to be ushered in, as amid the thunders of Sinai, or with the trump of the archangel; but it will be spread abroad like the morning light, and the world will rejoice in its beams.

The park, situated near, and running for some distance parallel with, Broadway, is a cool and agreeable retreat in summer. It boasts many shady trees and pleasant promenades, as well as a delicious fountain, which flings its spray to the height of (if I recollect aright) more than thirty feet. This fountain was a great favourite of mine, and I have sat looking at it frequently for more than two hours at a time. To me there is always something soothing and grateful in the sight of water-whether thrown up in a sparkling shower to the blue sky, as at present; or dancing merrily down the mossy side of some quiet lane, and making music among the pebbles as it goes; or gliding peacefully along the margin of a green meadow; or leaping furiously from rock to rock; or precipitating itself, a mass of foam, from the top of some high steep into the dark abyss below. How often, too, when far at sea, have I stolen from my hammock in the dead of night, and sat, like a ghost, upon the taffrail of our good ship, as she breasted the buffets of the gale, and rode gallantly on her course over the moonlit billows!

RISING IN THE WORLD.

You should bear constantly in mind that nine-tenths of us are, from the very nature and necessities of the world, born to gain our livelihood by the sweat of the brow. What reason have we, then, to presume that our children are not to do the same? If they be, as now and then one will be, endowed with extraordinary powers of mind, those extraordinary powers of mind may have an opportunity of developing themselves; and, if they never have that opportunity, the harm is not very great to us or to them. Nor does it hence follow that the descendants of labourers are always to be labourers. The path upward is steep and long, to be sure. Industry, care, skill, excellence in the present parent, lay the foundation of a rise, under more favourable circumstances, for the children. The children of these take another rise; and, by and by, the descendants of the present labourer become gentlemen. This is the natural progress. It is by attempting to reach the top at a single leap, that so much misery is produced in the world. Society may aid in making the labourers virtuous and happy, by bringing children up to labour with steadiness, with care, and with skill; to show them how to do as many useful things as possible; to do them all in the best manner; to set them an example in industry, sobriety, cleanliness, and neatness; to make all these habitual to them, so that they never shall be liable to fall into the contrary; to let them always see a good living proceeding from labour, and thus to remove from

-Waterston.

THUNDER OF WATERFALLS.

Dr Tyndall, in the Philosophical Magazine,' No. 2, makes the following observations on the production of bubbles in connection with the origin of the sound of agitated water:-When the smoke is projected from the lips of a tobacco-smoker, a little explosion usually accompanies the puff; but the nature of this is in a great measure dependent on the state of the lips at the time, whether they be dry or moist. The sound appears to be chiefly due to the sudden bursting of the film which connects both lips. If an inflated bladder be jumped upon, it will emit an explosion as loud as a pistol-shot. Sound, to some extent, always accompanies the sudden liberation of compressed air. And this fact is also exhibited in the deportment of a jet. If the surface of the fluid on which it falls intersects its limpid portion, the jet enters silently, and no bubbles, as before remarked, are produced. The moment, however, after the bubbles make their appear. ance, an audible rattle also commences, which becomes louder and louder as the mass of the jet is increased. The very nature of the sound pronounces its origin to be the bursting of the bubbles; and to the same cause the rippling of streams and the sound of breakers appear to be almost exclusively due. I have examined a stream or two, and in all cases where a ripple made itself heard I have discovered bubbles. The impact of water against water is a comparatively subordinate cause, and could never of itself occasion the murmur of a brook, or the musical roar of the ocean. It is the same as regards waterfalls. Were Niagara continuous and without lateral vibration, it would be as silent as a cataract of ice. It is possible, I believe, to get behind the descending water at one place; and, if the attention of travellers were directed to the subject, the mass might perhaps be seen through. For in all probability it also has its contracted sections;' after passing which it is broken into detached masses, which, plunging successively upon the air-bladders formed by their precursors, suddenly liberate their contents, and thus create the thunder of the waterfall.

FURTHER REMINISCENCES OF THE COURT OF

SESSION IN THE DECADE OF 1820-30.

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THE Court of Session of Scotland, some twenty and odd years ago, presented a very different aspect from what it now does, considered either as an edifice or a tribunal, the sitting-place of judges or the aggregate judges themselves. A remark to this effect has been already made in the present journal, in a former article on the subject. The names of Walter Scott and Francis Jeffrey, of Cranston, Moncrieff, and Cockburn, were there introduced, and some account of the individuals given, as they appeared in this legal arena about the date mentioned. The highest civil judicatory of Scotland was long composed of fifteen judges, called by the natives of the north The Auld Feifteen,' or (somewhat contemptuously at times) The Paper Lords.' They also got the name of Lords of Seat' (Session), to mark them from the Lords of State,' or ordinary hereditary peers of the land. The functions of the 'Fifteen' were always (or long) so far divided, some of them hearing causes in the first instance (now commonly called Outer House Procedure), and others hearing them in the second and final instance (called Inner House Procedure). The judges now number but thirteen; and, of these, four sit in the First Division of the Inner House, and four in the Second Division. The Lord President is head of one, and the Lord Justice-Clerk of the other, of these divisions. The other five judges are called Lords Ordinary, and preside over the various branches of Outer House business.

Revenons à nos moutons. This phrase-which, by the way, took its origin from an episode in Rabelais, where an actual shepherd recalls himself and others to their duty by the damnable iteration' of Return we to our sheep'-indicates here figuratively, that it is time to revert to my promised reminiscences of the third decade of this current century. On the judgment-seat of one of the recesses of the Outer House, mentioned as containing the little open courts of the Ordinaries, there used to sit, on my early visits to the scene, an old senator of most remarkable appearance. Certainly, he was the ugliest mortal (at least, at this time) whom I have ever beheld in the whole course of my life. His features seemed to have been made coarse by nature, the nose, in particular, being a thick, bulbous, wide-nostriled protuberance, somewhat carbuncular (or rather what the Scots call blae) in hue; while the mouth was also gross and unshapely. To the deep native 'ruts' or indentations, visible chiefly around the latter organ, age had by this time added its most disfiguring lines, the brow being but one mass of strong corrugations. The expression did not mend the features. Sarcasm sat, in its bitterest shape, in the cold, twinkling, grey eye; and a perpetual curl hung about nose and lips, reminding one most forcibly of the emphatic phrase, 'a Satanic smile.' The ample forehead formed the only redeeming peculiarity about this singular visage, though the multiplicitous furrows marred greatly the effect of that counterbalancing advantage. How very singular, in all, this visage really and truly was, may perhaps be best evidenced by the fact, that I positively could not at first believe the countenance to be natural, or to wear its natural look. I absolutely adopted the idea that the individual was 'making faces' for the time being at those before him. Of course, I was soon undeceived on this score, and became satisfied that 'the lurking devil' in that sneer was native to the region, or held its place, at least, by the prescriptive right of long tenure. The personage thus portrayed, somewhat lengthily, to the reader, was John Clerk, Lord Eldin.

Such is the state of matters in the Session Court nowa-days; and many a successive improvement on the various places of sitting, Outer and Inner-on the benches of the judges, and accommodations for the auditory tells us that the High Court of Scotland has progressed of late with the rest of the world. The great hall of the Outer House is substantially the same, indeed, as it was twenty and odd years since; but new floorings, roofings, pannellings, paintings, and gildings, have altered it much John Clerk was a younger son of the famous author of in appearance, and made it really a most magnificent ves- 'Naval Tactics-that remarkable work, in which a civilian tibule, if such it should be called. The Lords Ordinary, taught to seamen the greatest secret of their own profes besides, sit now in handsome chambers, completely retired sion, and by acting on which Rodney and other naval from the open hall. Formerly, they sat in small recesses, captains won their chief victories. The secret lay simply scooped out from the sides of the hall, and undivided from in splitting the centre of the enemy's line; and Clerk, in it by partitions of any kind. Two of these, in fact, yet disclosing it, stood much in the position of Columbus with remain, and are yet used for certain sections of Outer the egg. John Clerk the son, afterwards Lord Eldin, beHouse business, though it seems almost miraculous that longed by birth to the order of small gentry, his family judges there seated should be able to hear one word ad- being cadets of the Pennycuick Clerks. Having great nadressed to them. During the busy session time, that hall is tural abilities to back his fair share of influence, he soon so densely crowded with advocates, agents, clients, clerks, won a name at the bar, and rose into high practice finally. and visiters, that to pass from one end to another is like Adopting the side of the Whigs in politics, he became segoing through a round of the boyish game of Thread-the-cond only to the Honourable Henry Erskine in importNeedle.' When you open the door of entrance, a noise ance among that party in Scotland. These two Whig assails your hearing, not to be matched in intensity by leaders, as it chanced somewhat singularly, were also the cumulative buzz of a score of ragged schools, all doing the greatest wits of the Scottish bar in their day. Votheir best to make believe that they are conning their les- lumes almost have been made up of their alleged good sons busily. The ceaseless bruit of walking, talking, and things. I, alas! was fortuned to hear no good things laughing-the monotonous bawling of criers and macers from the lips of John Clerk personally, and can but rethe vociferations of Outer House pleaders, striving to over- member one reported saying of his, relating to his newly come all rival racketting-constitute, altogether, some- acquired senatorial title, which obtained currency about thing like what you might expect a bee-hive to be, if the the time spoken of. Lord Eldon was then Chancellor of bees had the tones of bears, and the season were that of the England; and Clerk happened to be told that people massacreing of the drones. Somehow, you get little or no would be apt to confound him with that learned Southron preparation outside for this noise; and the opening of the lord, from the similarity of their titles. "Well,' said hali-door gives a shock like a slap on the face. Nor is the John, 'the difference, on the whole, is all in my eye' (the eye spared any more than the ear. The mass of ever-i in Eldin). Lord Eldin was made Lord Eldin too late to moving figures-extensively black-robed and white-wigged -confuses the vision, and produces sensations very much akin to those of a bad dream, when some imaginary crime lies heavy on the conscience, or double Glo'ster weighs really heavy on the stomach. Such formerly was, such still is, and such, to all appearance, ever will be, the aspects of, and the impression made by, the Outer House or hall of the Scottish Court of Session.

Vol viii., p. 201.

do either honour to himself or service to the public. The exclusive party-system, which kept Scottish Whigs from office for a quarter of a century-with the two exceptions of Lords Gillies and Alloway, elevated to the bench in 1811 and 1813, through some freak of power, perhaps, or glimmering of shame-deprived John Clerk of the dues of merit and ability till he had reached the very verge of dotage. It was painful to see him labouring to overcome the defects of hearing and vision, amid the stupifying noise and confusion of that crowded hall. And the more

puzzled the best judges. The world at large thought them extemporaneous blunders; but Curran, for one, deemed them of closet-manufacture. A not dissimilar doubt might well exist as to some stories told of Lord Hermand. "The man, my lord,' is one of the most characteristic anecdotes about him on record. His lordship-who, by the way, was considered rather a strict criminal judge chanced to be on the bench at a provincial or circuit meeting of the Justiciary Court. A noise about the doors disturbed the proceedings. Macer, what's that?' cried Lord Hermand angrily.-'It's a man, my lord.' What does the man want ?' He is out, my lord, and wants in.' 'Then keep him out!' cried his lordship decisively. Again, a noise broke the peace of the court. Macer,' said Hermand, in fresh irritation, 'what's this now?'-'It's the man, my lord.' 'The same man?’—— 'Yes.' 'What does the man want now?'-'He's in, my lord, and he wants out.' ‘Keep him in,' roared his lordship, 'keep him in! Yet a third time the quiet of the court was invaded. 'Macer,' cried Lord Hermand, in a rage, 'is there to be nae end to this? What is the matter now?'-'It's the man, my lord,' responded the macer again. Being instantly called on by the bench to do so, the officer pointed out a decent-looking indvidual, stating that he was the man, and that he now desired to mount a window-sill, either to get out or see better. 'He wants to get up,' said the macer. 'Keep him down, then!' vociferated his lordship. The after tranquillity of the scene lasted not long. It was intruded on a fourth time; and, on being appealed to by Hermand, now in great wrath, as to the fresh cause of disturbance, the macer replied once more, almost despairingly, 'It's the man, my lord.' Driven out of all patience, the judge demanded where the culprit now was, and learned that he had at last got upon the window-sill, but wanted to be down again. He wants down,' said the poor macer.—

most congruous to the first of these characters. But his downright strong sense made him a favourite, on the whole, even with the wordy and rhetorical followers of the law. In early days, he was a warm Tory, deeply imbued with the prejudices of birth, and quite disposed, in all ways, to support the party which made him Judge-Advocate of Scotland at the age of twenty-three. Indeed, after being appointed Lord-Advocate in 1801, he showed a fervour of zeal that alarmed Addington and the English ministers, and had well-nigh led himself into troublesome embroilments. He was a man, in truth, naturally of bold temper and free speech, and represented fairly that order of thick-and-thin sustainers of legitimate right and rule in all shapes, which survived in Scotland in full blow even when dying away in England. Pitt, for example, was much more of a roturier, or liberal, than Dundas; and hence have some called this Scottish colleague his worser genius. Be this as it may, Hope, with his high views, was as well out of Parliament. In the position of a civil and criminal judge in his native country, he stood clear of the thick of the political fight, and confined his displays of spirit mainly to the game of volunteering, or 'playing at soldiers,' then very popular over Britain. His eagerness on the Links was great, and proves the truth, so far, of what has been said about his primitive martial tendencies. However, calmed as he grew, comparatively, amid his judicial duties, President Hope continued to the last a high aristocrat in his political sentiments. He carried the same feelings into the affairs of private life. A member of his family, by Lady Charlotte Hope, his cousin, thought fit to fall in love with, and to marry, a respectable young person, who held a position somewhere betwixt that of a companion and dependent in the household of the wife of the president. The anger of the latter and his lady was strongly aroused, and bitterly evinced. Certain taunts regarding parental prospects destroyed, and 'lost outlay' on education and nurture,Then keep him up!' bawled Lord Hermand; 'keep him called forth an equal display of pride on the other side. The offending, individual had by this time earned money of his own, and he enclosed to the sire 'one thousand pounds' as a reimbursement for his schooling. Certainly, this was the more honourable description of pride. But the president, also, often evinced pride of a like honourable kind.

Beside the president, in my college-days, sat George Fergusson, Lord Hermand, the very last, almost, of the 'Pleydell' school of Scottish barristers. At the time spoken of, he was very old, and resembled a mummy much more than a man, his figure being spare in the extreme, his cheeks tanned an even brown, but sunken sorely, and his whole visage wrinkled to an extent perfectly fantastic. His lordship had been noted as a most acute lawyer in his prime and time, but eccentric to the last degree; and, in fact, a 'Pleydell' even exaggerated. So exquisitely to his mind did his lordship find the sketch of that very personage in Guy Mannering, and the description of High Jinks,' that he carried the novel about with him in his pocket for weeks, and gloated over it even in the open court. Nay, deeming some part of it apropos to a case before the court, he pulled out the work, and read the passage pro bono publico, all the spectators langhing heartily, and his learned brethren seeking to restrain him vainly. Not the worst point in the scene was, that the then unknown author had his seat at the elerk's table, exactly in front of the judicial bench, and could not fail to hear and enjoy every word of what passed. When I saw Lord Hermand, all marks of the naive humour said to have characterised him once had well-nigh fed. I remember chiefly his ands. He dwelt on the copulative in his sentences with a force and minuteness almost painful, because it was plain that the poor old judge was struggling to tie his sentences together in his mind, and had much ado to effect the union. In fact, at his best, his humour seemed to be akin to that of Sir Boyle Roche, and to consist in something very odd, said or done, either with consummate simplicity, or a perfect appearance thereof. The 'Irish bulls' of Sir Boyle, however,

up, though it should be to the day of judgment!' It is to be hoped that the punishment lasted but to the 'hour' of judgment. We hear no more, however, from the recorders of the story about the man incorrigible.

All the anecdotes told about Lord Hermand are of much the same class, it appearing ever doubtful from them whether he was most the laugher or the laughed at, whether he shared in the mirth, or caused it unconsciously. It is told that, on one occasion a person possessed of a musical snuff-box, by managing it well in court, nearly drove his lordship out of his wits, such articles being then rare novelties. His solemn appeals to his official, reiterated ever as the wag started his box anew, Macer, in the name of heaven, what's that?' were as laughable as those in the case of the man.

By the side of Lord Hermand, in the Session Court, there sat a very different man, in all respects. This was Adam Gillies, Lord Gillies, brother of the historian of Greece.

It has been mentioned that Lord Gillies was one of two Scottish lawyers who obtained seats on the bench in the time (1811) of Tory rule. He was so elevated, though he had not only evinced strong Whig principles throughout his career, but had even acted as counsel for some of the Scottish political martyrs of the Gerrald and Margarot epoch. This was a step of no common boldness in the days when it was taken; and, though Gillies won golden opinions by his conduct from one side, that was not the side on which worldly advancement lay. As David Cathcart, the other individual raised similarly to the bench, had also been counsel for the political martyrs, it has been supposed by some that they were made judges, not through a freak (as before suggested) or compunctious twinge on the part of power, but to get two dangerously able men quietly out of the field of Scottish politics. It is universally granted, that Lord Gillies was a man of no ordinary talents. He resembled President Hope in many respects, having a massive person, deep voice, and harsh mode of utterance. His words were not many, usually, but ever singularly forcible. He struck only one or two