soon fancy themselves under the influence of inspiration, and feel as if they had been intended for some high destiny; that they will desert or disgrace the station of life allotted to them by Providence, and perish upon the dunghill as vagabonds, or by the gallows as forgers. The poor of Scotland seem to have decided this important question: they can read, and yet are loyal; they can write, and yet are honest; they can calculate, and yet are virtuous. By the wise and salutary diffusion of education, particularly in parts which appear to be impenetrable to civilization, upon the sides of frightful mountains, or in dismal glens seldom visited by the rays of Heaven, the astonished and admiring traveller beholds a spectacle at once gratifying and af fecting. In a hut of branches and sods, when the hour of labour is over, the young, enlightened by those institutions which do honour to human nature, are seen instructing those who are younger, or consoling the last hours of venerable and sightless age by reading aloud the Scriptures, or some pious book, printed in their own language; yet in this sorry dwelling the benighted traveller may rest in safety amid the howling storm; not a hand will be extend. ed to him but in kindness, not a voice will be raised but to charm his car with the song of other times, or, if he understands the language, to store his mind with the wild, romantic, and beautiful effusions of the Gaelic Muse.'

Sir John discusses the advantages of the Caledonian canal, which is an undertaking truly Roman; remarks on the vitrified forts, as they are called; and enters into a brief account of the Gaelic language.. Diverging to the west, he then skirts the shores of Loch Ness; of which such a description is given as must excite a wish in the lovers of the picturesque to behold the scene itself:

The ride to Dores, the first and a very short stage, is extremely beautiful; in my way I passed by a Druid's temple, the form of which every one is familiar with. Near this place, upon the top of a hill, the vast watery expanse of Loch Ness, unbroken by islands, twenty-four miles long, and nearly straight from south-west to north-east, opened upon me with all its grandeur. Cultivated fields and a forest of pine formed a corresponding fore ground; rocks and mountains-some huge, bare and rugged, and gashed by wintry torrents-others adorned with woods of fir and birch, and all blending with perfect harmony of colouring, in which the heathy purple and a soft yellow seemed to have most diffusionhung awfully over, or rose with a majestic sweep from the sides of the watery vista, hiding their sublime summits in the clouds. Over many a mile of water the eye beheld its surface, here gently agitated by a partial breeze, there as tranquil as a mirror, reflecting upon its bosom huge fragments of the adjoining crags or mountains; whilst, far in the west, this graceful and sublime scene faded in the sombre mist of distance, and in the darkness of cloud collected from the Atlantic. The prospect led my mind to reflect upon the bright and shaded vi cissitudes of life, ending in the gloom of the grave,"

As the tourist proceeds towards Oban, where he embarks for the Western Isles, he experiences all the inconvenience of the very humid atmosphere to which that part of the island is subject. Incessant rains, however, do not so far disconcert him as to relax his mind from its sprightly tone, or from that habit of observation which is so necessary in a gleaner of knowlege for future travellers. He describes the Highlands as commencing at Dumbarton, near the mouth of the Clyde, and comprizing the mountainous parts of Scotland from thence to the north and north-west, including the Hebrides.' To afford a picture of the character and civilization of the inhabitants of this sublime and romantic district, a variety of anecdotes and family sketches are supplied; and it is intimated that, notwithstanding the drain occasioned by emigration to America, the population is increased. Of the improvement of the Highlands in the article of inns, and of the hospitality of the gentry, Sir Johnmakes a very favourable representation: but, according to his account of a Mull equipage, that island is not yet" a land of bridles and saddles." We envied him his visit to Staffa, though it was performed in the rain; since a sight of Fingal's cave, which he not inaptly terms the sublime cathedral of nature,' would well remunerate us for the "pelting of the pitiless storm."

"Littora Skia" the knight did not explore, having, in the island of Mull, imbibed sufficient experience of Hybridean humidity. Quitting the family of Ulva-house, where he had been kindly entertained, he seeks the Highland terra firma; and, passing up Loch Linnhe by the beautiful island of Lismore, he arrives at Airds, and thence proceeds to Inverarycastle, Loch Lomond, Ross, Dumbarton, Killin, and Dunkeld, in the route to Glasgow, which is the last place noted in this tour. The account of this celebrated and thriving city is included in a single chapter: but, in taking leave of Scotland, the author ventures a poetic flight, presenting us with some tolerable lines on the Caledonian harp; the neglect of which, in favour of the unharmonious bag-pipe, he more than once laments.

We have stumbled on several literal errors in this volume, and on a few expressions which are not strictly English; such as gratifications which are violent to sobriety." We shall not specify them, because they may easily be discovered in correcting the book for a second edition: but, without a hint, Sir John may not perhaps discover that at p. 27 he has given the kind-hearted wish of Henry IVth of France to Frederick the Great of Prussia. At p. 471, the tourist must be mistaken, when he speaks of the south-east side of the island of Mull as being nearly opposite to Oban.

On

On a principle of public spirit, we would not discourage works of this kind. Whatever leads to a familiar knowlegę of the state and resources of our own island, or excites an emulation of improvement, and induces people of fortune to explore our home-beauties, must be serviceable to the empire.

The plates inserted in this volume exhibit views of Edin burgh, Jedburgh, Esk river, Stirling-castle, Perth, Aberdeen, Inverness, Inverary-castle, Dumbarton, Killin, Dunkeld, and Glasgow, executed from drawings by Sir John Carr, which are creditable to his taste and execution as an artist.

ART. III. A Letter to the Livery of London, relative to the Views of the Writer in executing the Office of Sheriff. By Sir Richard Phillips, Knt., one of the (late) Sheriffs of London and Middlesex. Crown 8vo. pp. 294. 48. Boards. Sold by all the Booksellers.

WHI

HILE Complaints have been general, and certainly not unfounded, concerning the progress of corruption in various branches of our government, all parties have united in their praises of the judicial administration. Suspicion and detection have mutually produced each other, unfortunately in almost every department: but our tribunals have continued. equally pure and unsuspected. If we were to investigate the causes of this high exemption, we apprehend that it would be found principally to result from the publicity of legal proceedings, and the constant recurrence to first principles which is necessarily involved in legal discussion. In every suit, criminal or civil, it is the interest of the losing party to discover some defect in the process to which he is amenable, some error in the application of the law which condemns him, or some deviation from the rule that governs his case: hence the Courts are frequently called to revise their own acts, to superintend the conduct of their officers, to examine the validity of their decisions, and to sift the very grounds of the law; and all these things occur within the observation of anxious parties concerned in the event, of an acute and scrutinizing profession, and of a public equally jealous and enlightened. Thus individual interest, the strongest and steadiest of motives, secures that perpetual vigilance, which has been truly called the condition on which God has granted liberty to man.

Yet whatever reason we may have for boasting of the honesty of verdicts, and the impartiality of judgments, it must be remembered that the subordinate functions of the law are necessarily executed by inferior agents, and without the advantage of notoriety or of public responsibility. Arrests, for

C 3

example,

example, must, from their nature, be privately made; and prisoners must be secluded from the general view of their fellow-citizens. The former present as many temptations to avarice as opportunities of extortion: while the abuses to which the latter are liable have a peculiar tendency to harden the heart and degrade the nature of man.

As the sheriff of a county has the legal custody of almost all the King's subjects who are deprived of their liberty, whether be-fore or after judgment, it appears well contrived for the purposes of inquiry and correction that the person holding that office should be annually changed; since inveterate abuses which might escape the animadversion of an established functionary, or in time find a road to conciliate his sufferance, would probably attract the notice of one who is newly invested with powers and duties, and lead him to adopt the necessary measures for reforming the evil. Such, however, has been the reluctance of sheriffs in general to perform this useful service, -a reluctance produced perhaps by the discordance of their former habits, by diffidence in the effect of their exertions, or by actual ignorance of the manner of conducting an office which is wholly intrusted to deputies, that we do not remember a single appeal to the public, similar to that of which we now proceed to lay the material parts before our readers.

In the autumn of 1807, the author of this letter to the Livery of the metropolis was appointed one of the sheriffs of London and Middlesex, in conjunction with a gentleman of the name of Smith; and both of them seem to have been equally desirous of asserting all the privileges of their office, and of exercising them in the manner most beneficial to the community. Their first act was to enlarge the list of freeholders, of whom the juries are composed; and the number of persons liable to serve on Special Juries was increased from 128 to 400. This is surely a matter of great importance, as it respects both the trial of causes and the general rights of the freeholders. All should take their turn of serving on juries to whom the constitution has committed the interests of their fellow-citizens; as well to insure a real and strict impartiality in every case, as to enable them to exercise the highest and most sacred privilege enjoyed by Englishmen. The number of those who may be called to decide the important questions between the Crown. and the subject, which occur in the Exchequer, ought to be sufficiently extensive to exclude all possibility of influence and all suspicion of a monopoly. In the various courts at Westminster Hall, the usual Special Jurymen are as well known as the officers of the Court; and, by a long attendance, they perhaps ultimately acquire the feelings and prejudices of

officers,

officers, instead of retaining the unbiasssed openness to con viction, and the disregard of every thing but justice, which would characterize men who were indifferently taken from the body of the freeholders. It is unhappily true that many are glad to be relieved from a burdensome duty, and are ready to plead the distance of their residence and various other reasons for avoiding it but the exercise of constitutional duties is the price of freedom, which every Englishman ought cheerfully to

pay.

On this subject, indeed, the Lord Chief Baron remarks, in a letter to Sir R. Phillips which reflects the highest honour on his liberality and politeness, that "some experience in serving upon Exchequer special juries is far from being detrimental to the public or defendants, inasmuch as the instructing jury after jury, in the conduct of many species of manufactures, and the laws on the subject, exposes both parties to the hazard of the points being ill-understood, or hastily determined by them." This difficulty, however, which would prove a great deal too much, is in our judgment inseparable. from the Trial by Jury. If verdicts were to rest on the experience and previous knowlege of those who deliver thein, and not on the evidence laid before them in each particular case, they might possibly be founded on more accurate information: but is not this utterly at variance with the notion of Trial by Jury? We are also inclined to suspect that the legal or scientific experience of permanent special jurymen, after all, would be far too imperfect to be safely trusted in the decision of causes; while it would often engender a certain half-witted obstinacy, which is not less troublesome to a judge than unfavourable to the demands of justice. Besides, succeeding juries are never composed of exactly the same twelve men, and a single new member, would require as much instruction as a new jury. The sheriff is, however, armed with very insufficient powers to compel an accurate return of all freeholders, who ought to be liable to serve on juries; and some farther legislative provision is necessary to secure an object, of which numerous acts of Parliament attest the importance and the difficulty.

The next act of Sheriffs Smith and Phillips was to protest against the employment of the House of Corection in Coldbath Fields, as a place of commitment. This prison may be properly used for carrying into effect a sentence of confinement, inflicted as punishment on a culprit ; but, as the sheriff has the legal custody of all persons who are detained for trial, and who ought to be discharged at the general gaol-delivery, it seems manifestly improper that such persons should be in the power of gaolers, over whom the sheriff has no controul.