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some suchlike disorder peculiar to the climate, crossed his threshold -it's by the Lord's appointment these plagues are sent, so we never should repine, though we may take the chastisement to heart-wife, and bairns, and a', were stricken down, and the auld man found himself alone in the midst of strangers. It seems his wife was a Roman Catholic; so the priests gathered round him, doubtless with an eye to the siller. I have heard of such doings, Norman, even in a Protestant land; but he was owre pawky a carle to believe in their saints' miracles, or ony nonsense o' the kind; and though he could not help coming down with a round sum for masses, which, considering all things, was but a reasonable concession, deil a dollar could they extract from him for candlesticks, or endowment for their nunneries or convents. Maybe he ken'd better than I do what sort of hizzies they keep under lock and key.

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Richard Beaton !" I exclaimed, "not surely the gentleman whose name is so well known in connection with railway enterprises?"

"The very same," replied Mr Shearaway, "and I mean no disparagement to him when I say that I wish with all my heart that he were known for something better. Mony a poor chield who crows crouse enough this day will live to curse the hour when he was tempted, by the example of grand speculators like Beaton, to meddle with the rails. But that's neither here nor there. I was saying that these two were the only near relations of the Mexican merchant; and to them and their heirs he left his fortune in equal shares, naming Mr Beaton as executor. That is the secret of the advertisement, which seems to have created a grand stir among the Sinclairs, for Mr Poins tells me that he was

just deluged with applications on their behalf."

"But is he now satisfied that I am the proper claimant ?"

"Make yourself easy on that score. The certificates are quite satisfactory, and supersede the necessity for a service. Mr Poins, who, let me tell you, is a very sensible man-I'm to dine with him on Thursday-is prepared to advise Mr Beaton to proceed to an immediate settlement."

"What a strange story this is!” said I, half unconscious that I was speaking aloud. "A cousin, of whose existence I was wholly unaware, leaves me a fortune, in conjunction with the man whose goodwill I am most anxious to propitiate !"

"I'm sorry to hear you say that, Norman-very sorry indeed!" said Mr Shearaway, earnestly. "What in the world can you have to do with such a character as Mr Beaton? Lordsake, laddie! don't walk by his advice, else you'll have a toom purse before you ken that it ever was full!"

"You need not be alarmed, Mr Shearaway. I assure you I am in no such danger."

"Not alarmed! It's easy for you to say that; but if I was to see you venturing on the ice of Duddingston Loch before the frost was a day auld, I trow I would have reason to feel alarmed—and yet it would be safer for you to try that, than to trust yourself on the slide of speculation. You might scramble out with a wet jacket from the one, but the other ends in a hole deep as perdition, into which you will cowp, head over heels, and never more be seen! No danger? I wonder, Norman, to hear you speak in that rash kind of way! There's aye danger when you have to deal with a character that seeks to beguile ye; as the piper of Bervie found to his cost when he supped sowens with the Water-Kelpie!"

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Why, Mr Shearaway," said I, "your extreme earnestness would almost lead me to suspect that you had suffered in your own person."

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"And did you ever hear me pretend to be ony wiser than my neighbours?" replied Shearaway. "It's precisely because I know from sad experience what is the upshot of speculation, that I speak so confi

dently this day; and thankful may I be that the tide did not run then so strong as it does now, else I would have been clean swept away altogether. But this is no time for sic clavers. I'se warrant you would like to be left by yourself to think about the golden eggs."

"I would much rather profit by your experiences, Mr Shearaway. You can break off, you know, should you find me an inattentive listener." "Infandum jubes renovare dolorem! It's like ripping up an old sore," said Shearaway. "But lads like you can be none the waur of hearing of the misfortunes of their elders. One reason why almost everybody has run mad just now, is because the public have had a long rest from speculation; few remember what came of it at the last spurt, and even of them some are none the wiser. The notion of making a fortune, by buying and selling, in four-and-twenty hours, had clean gone out, at least with us in the north. We were doubtless becoming a wealthier people than we were before, but that was by dint of work and saving, without which no country can ever attain to prosperity.

"However, about twenty years ago there was got up a great cry for improvement. Folks began to think that many things which their fathers neither missed nor wanted, were downright necessaries of life; and they were not far wrong either, for science has made most wonderful discoveries, and doubtless will make many more. It's a silly thing to set one's face against improvement that's just the act of a savage-but it's even sillier to run away altogether with the harrows, and to rush headlong into new schemes without the benefit of experience. Well, there came among us a set of projectors, men who were always finding out something of immense advantage to the public, but never making anything for themselves; indeed, I never knew a projector yet but was as poor as Lazarus. However, they had the gift of the gab; and one of them— he came originally from Banff, and his name was James Divetts-was the most wonderful creature for scheming that I ever encountered. He had his pockets stuffed with all sorts of plans

for increasing the national wealth, and all that was wanted was capital, which, he said, could easily be raised by the formation of joint-stock companies. Mines were to be drained, canals dug, peats made into coal and candles, gas pumped into bottles and sold for so much a gallon; and heaven knows what more beside; and for every such adventure the return was to be at least twenty and sometimes fifty per cent.

"The English folk have a notion that we are very canny and cautious in the north, and so we are in the way of regular business; but when it comes to speculation, we can be just as daft as our neighbours. The Darien project, that was started before the Union, was as wild a scheme as ever was set on foot; and I've heard it said that there was not a single man in Scotland, gentle or simple, but suffered from that awful failure. Thrift is a very good thing, and a praiseworthy, but it by no means implies a want of appetite for gain.

"Money was plenty at the time of which I speak, and the banks ready to give accommodation and discount bills-maybe readier than they should have been, for there was a hantle of loose paper flying about-so a plausible fellow like James Divetts found many a listener. I had saved two or three thousand pounds; but I began to be ashamed of myself for letting my money be at ordinary interest, when it might be fructifying tenfold if invested in some of the new projects; so, like a fool as I was, I began to dabble a little, just by way of experiment, but not intending to go very far.

"But it is the first dip that settles the business. I went on from one thing to another, until I had drawn out my whole capital, which was a mad-like thing for a man in business to do; and in return for my hardwon money I got shares in the OilGas, Stockbridge Market, and Caledonian Dairy Companies, besides some distilleries, and a grand national concern for reclaiming the Muir of Rannoch. I was a director in some of them, and had to attend board meetings, which took up one half of my valuable time; and when I was

alone, instead of thinking about my proper day's work, or taking up a book as I used to do, I found myself calculating contingent profits on the backs of old letters, and squaring accounts, as if I had direct dealings with the Old Enemy, and had to post up our transactions in my ledger. I began to feel perfectly miserable. I very seldom went now to the Whist Club, where we played for half-crown points; and as for a social supperparty, I was fit for nothing of the kind.

"To make a long story short, I had to pay for my folly. The crash came before there was even a possibility of a dividend; and all our grand schemes melted into nothing, like snow off a dike in February. Not one sixpence did I recover; on the contrary, I was glad to escape without bankruptcy, when many better men than myself went to the wall. That's the reason why I dread speculation, and would warn you against it.

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But I see by your eye, Norman, that you are paying little attention to what I say; and I surmise, from the motion of your fingers, that you are calculating the probable interest of forty thousand pounds. Don't commit a blunder, as the weaver did, who added the year of the Lord at the top of the page to the amount of his profits. Lads of your age always reckon upon five per cent, whereas four is the outside you can get, if you wish for perfect security. Now, laddie, good-bye. I've been talking to you this last half-hour about my own affairs, to keep you from thinking too much at first about this accession of wealth, just as one of these newfangled doctors wraps his patient in a wet sheet to keep down the symptoms of fever. And now that your business is so far disposed of, I shall

e'en go on a different errand, and look after Jamie Littlewoo."

I believe that the announcement of any great change of fortune induces a kind of torpor and stagnation of the mental powers. As in a dream the fairest visions are always accompanied by a certain sense of unreality, so does any sudden event affecting our future career perplex us by its novelty, and throw us into a state of bewilderment. I seemed to have lost for a time the power of looking forward. I hardly even thought of the amount of the fortune that had so unexpectedly devolved upon me. One idea alone took possession of my mind, and that was the reviving hope that I might yet approach Mary Beaton and tell her of my love, without at any rate incurring the charge of inordinate presumption. For the distance between us, though still great, was now materially lessened. I was of her kindred; and could her father, however arrogant or supercilious he might be, entirely ignore that claim upon his notice?

To the habitual reader of romance, such an avowal as this may appear utterly preposterous, because, according to the received dogma, there can be no love without a certain amount of love-making; and I have not ventured in the foregoing part of my narrative to assert that Miss Beaton had distinguished me by even so slight a recognition as a smile. She knew nothing of my homage-she perhaps hardly remembered my name; her affections, for anything I knew to the contrary, might be bestowed upon another. Therefore was I not a fool to persist in such vain idolatry, and to indulge in such fantastic dreams? I answer-No; for true love is in its nature intrepid, and there is no obstacle so serious that it will not endeavour to surmount.

Printed by William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh.

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THERE is much good parliamentary work done every year, of which the outside Public takes little account. What is done, or left undone, in the great national debating-hall by gaslight, is matter of general notoriety-reported in every newspaper, and considered and discussed by every reader; but what is done quietly by daylight in close committee-rooms "up-stairs," is known only to the few. As the hardest work, however, of individual members is often done in those rooms, so, often, is the aggregate utility of a session to be found rather in the growth of good work done in those rooms than in the more ostentatious proceedings of the "House." The "wool" is often most plentiful where the "cry" is least sonorous.

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The past session, so famous for much cry, has not been wholly barren of wool. If we will condescend to

look for it "up-stairs," we may find that much useful work has been done. Of this it is no part of our present business to take stock-we have only to do with one item in the account. A Select Committee, of which Lord Stanley was chairman, and Mr Monckton Milnes,* Colonel Sykes, Sir W. Hayter, Sir Stafford Northcote, and others, were members, sat at intervals during the months of March, April, May, and June, to take evidence and to report upon the subject of "Civil Service Appointments;" and in July their Report was given in. The Committee "directed their inquiries to two points." They "endeavoured to ascertain, first, what has been the actual working of the system of junior appointments now in force, and its effect upon the public service; and, secondly, what proposals for its improvement have been suggested by those most competent to

* Mr Milnes, since this article has been in type, has publicly repudiated, in a speech at Pontefract, all concern in the Committee's Report. He says that he had the honour to be in a minority. The following remarks are so much in accordance with what we have written on the subject of competitive examinations, that we are glad to give them a place here:-"During the late session I served upon several committees, one upon the question of opening the Civil Service to competition. I was in a minority in that committee, because I do not think it an enormous advantage to set every young man thinking how he may become an exciseman. (A laugh, and "Hear, hear.") The effect of directing the attention of every family to the public service must have a tendency to extend that service, whereas we ought to do all we can to diminish its cost. I desire to see the work of every public office done diligently and honourably, but I do not wish to have this expensive machinery for the examination of the Civil Service. I believe, too, that the operation of the present VOL. LXXXVIII.—NO. DXLI.

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form an opinion." The witnesses examined were some of the most distinguished members of the permanent Civil Service of the countryMr Maitland, Mr Horace Mann, Sir Benjamin Hawes, Mr Trevor, Sir Thomas Freemantle, Mr Corbett, Mr Timm, Mr Sargent, Major Graham, Mr Romilly, Mr Waddington, Mr Lingen, Sir R. Bromley, Mr Hammond, Mr Waldrom, Mr Headlam, Mr Merivale, Mr Chester; and the Civil Service Commissioners, Sir J. S. Lefevre and Sir E. Ryan. The Report of the Committee is now before us; and as the subject is one in which we have on more than one occasion endeavoured to interest our readers, we need offer no apology for returning to it and examining the contents of a document of such great and growing public importance.

And, in doing so, we shall observe as far as possible the two divisions of the subject to which the Committee have confined their inquiries. Firstly, the "actual working of the system of appointments now in force, and its effect upon the public service." But here a difficulty at once presents itself in the fact that there really is no system at all. A candidate for civil employment in the service of the State may be appointed on the simple nomination of the responsible minister in whose gift the appointment may be; or he may receive not an absolute appointment, but a nomination to compete for an appointment with a limited number of competitors; or the appointment may be thrown into the open market, and he may compete for it without any nomination at all. The only general condition is, that the candidate for public employment shall pass an examination of some kind or other. This condition of satisfactory examination

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is the only systematised part of the matter. The rule of appointment under this condition appears to be simple ministerial nomination, whilst competition, either limited or general, is the exception. "It appears," says the report before us, that the total number of nominations to which the order in council of 1854 has been applied was, up to the end of 1859, 10,860. Of these nominations, 8039 were of one candidate only. The competitors have been 2821 for 732 appointments, or nearly four to one. In the last year, 1859, they were 1179 for 259 appointments; but this average includes 391 persons who competed for nine clerkships at the India Office, on the only occasion on which the principle of an entirely open competition has been practically tested." This solitary exception of open competition was an experiment inaugurated by the Chairman of the Committee, whose report we are considering, when that excellent and most conscientious young statesman held the office of Secretary of State for India under Lord Derby's Government. We speak, of course, with reference to the English Civil Service; for the principle of open competition has been for some years applied to the Indian Civil Service, with what results we are not yet in a position to declare.

Nor can the results of the experiment of limited competition, so far as the general efficiency of the service is concerned, be said to have been rendered apparent by the few years of trial to which the competi tion system has hitherto been subjected. But still there are indications of the practical working of the scheme, which, if not conclusive, are at least suggestive; and it does not appear that they are such as to

system causes great unhappiness in private families. The number of young men who do not succeed must be very great, and I consider it anything but an advantage that they should enter life with a sense of disappointment and failure. I know that this is not the opinion of some of the best of my contemporaries. Earl de Grey and Lord Stanley, for example, are most earnest advocates of this system. Indeed, to such an extent have these noblemen carried their advocacy, that a foreigner was induced to believe that both of them had attained their official position -the one as Under-Secretary for War, and the other as the late Secretary of State for India-by having shown in a public competition that they were better informed on these subjects than anybody else. (A laugh.) I am not sure whether the foreign gentleman did not also believe that members of Parliament were elected by the same process." (Laughter.)

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