I think the profession makes a very tyrannical use of all these advantages. Not contented with being first, it is obvious they would fain be alone in the eye of admiration; and they seem to omit no opportunity of adding the smallest piece of acquisition to the already over-stretched verge of their empire. It is easy to see that they look upon the whole city as nothing more than one huge Inn of Court, set apart from end to end for the purposes of their own peculiar accommodation; and they strut along the spacious and crowded streets of this metropolis, with the same air of conscious possession and conscious dignity, which one meets with in London among the green and shadowy alleys of the Temple Gardens. Such is their satisfied assurance of the unrivalled dignity and importance of their calling, that they hold themselves entitled, wherever they are, to make free use not only of allusions, but of phrases, evidently borrowed from its concerns; and such has been the length of time during which all these instruments of encroachment have been at work, that memory of their commencement and just sense of their tendency have alike vanished among the greater part of those in whose presence the scene of their habitual operation is laid. Even the women appear to think it quite necessary to succumb to the prevailing spirit of the place; and strive to acquire for themselves some smattering of legal phrases, with which to garnish that texture of political, critical, and erotical common-places, which they share with the Masters and Misses of other cities, wherein the pretensions of the Gens Togata are kept somewhat more within the limits of propriety. My friend Wtells me, that, in the course of a love-correspondence, which once, by some unfortunate accident, got into general circulation in Edinburgh, among many other truly ludicrous exemplifications of the use of the legal style of courtship, there was one letter from the Strephon to the Phyllis, which began with, "Madam-in answer to your duplies, received of date as per margin." But this, no doubt, is one of W's pleasant exaggerations.

Although, however, the whole of the city, and the whole of its society, be more than enough redolent of the influence of this profession, it is by no means to be denied, that a very great share of influence is most justly due to the eminent services which its members have rendered, and are at the present time rendering to their country. It is not to be denied, that the Scottish lawyers have done more than any other class of

their fellow-citizens, to keep alive the sorely threatened spirit of national independence in the thoughts and in the feelings of their countrymen. It is scarcely to be denied, that they have for a long time furnished, and are at this moment furnishing, the only example of high intellectual exertion, (beyond the case of mere individuals,) in regard to which Scotland may challenge a comparison with the great sister-state, which has drawn so much of her intellect and her exertion into the overwhelming and obscuring vortex of ber superiority. It is a right and a proper thing, then, that Scotland should be proud of her Bar-and, indeed, when one reflects for a moment, what an immense overshadowing proportion of all the great men she has produced have belonged, or at this moment do belong to this profession, it is quite impossible to be surprised or displeased, because so just a feeling may have been carried a little beyond the limit of mere propriety. It is not necessary to go back into the remote history of the Bar of Scotland, although, I believe, there is in all that history no one period devoid of its appropriate honours. One generation of illustrious men, connected with it throughout the whole, or throughout the greater part of their lives, has only just departed, and the memory of them and their exertions is yet fresh and unfaded. Others have succeeded to their exertions and their honours, whom they that have seen both, admit to be well worthy of their predecessors. Indeed, it is not necessary to say one word more concerning the present state of the profession than this-that, in addition to many names which owe very great and splendid reputation to the Bar alone, the gown is worn at this moment by two persons, whom all the world must admit to have done more than all the rest of their contemporaries put together, for sustaining and extending the bonours of the Scottish name-both at home and abroad. You need scarcely be told, that I speak of Mr. Walter Scott and Mr. Jeffrey. The former of these bas, indeed, retired from the practice of the Bar; but he holds a high office in the Court of Session. The other is in the full tide of professional practice, and of a professional celebrity, which could scarcely be obscured by any thing less splendid, than the extra-professional reputation which has been yet longer associated with his name--and which, indeed, is obviously of a much higher, as well as of a much more enduring character, than any reputation which any profession, properly so called, ever can have the power to bestow.

The courts of justice with which all these eminent men are so closely connected, are placed in and about the same range of buildings, which in former times were set apart for the accommodation of the Parliament of Scotland. The main approach to these buildings lies through a small oblong square, which takes from this circumstance the name of "the Parliament Close." On two sides this Close is surrounded by houses of the same gigantic kind of elevation which I have already described to you, and in these, of old, were lodged a great proportion of the dignitaries and principal practitioners of the adjacent courts. At present, however, they are dedicated, like most of the houses in the same quarter of the city, to the accommodation of trades-people, and the inferior persons attached to the Courts of Law. The western side of the quadrangle, is occupied in all its length by the Church of St. Giles's, which in the latter times of Scottish Episcopacy possessed the dignity of a Cathedral, and which, indeed, has been the scene of many of the most remarkable incidents in the ecclesiastical history of Scotland. In its general exterior, this church presents by no means a fine specimen of the Gothic architecture, although there are several individual parts about the structure which display great beauty-the tower, above all, which rises out of the centre of the pile, and is capped with a very rich and splendid canopy in the shape of a Crown Imperial. This beautiful tower and canopy form a fine point in almost every view of the city of Edinburgh; but the effect of the whole building, when one hears and thinks of it as a Cathedral, is a thing of no great significance. The neighbourhood of the Castle would indeed take something from the impression produced by the greatest Ca thedral I am acquaiated with, were it placed on the site of St. Giles's; but nothing assuredly could have formed a finer accompaniment of softening and soothing interest to the haughty and imperious sway of that majestic fortress, than some large reposing mass of religious architecture, lifting itself, as if under its protection, out of the heart of the city which it commands. The only want, if want there be, in the whole aspect of this city, is, that of some such type of the grandeur of Religion rearing itself in the air, in somewhat of its due proportion of magnitude and magnificence. It is the only great city, the first impression of whose greatness is not blended with ideas suggested by the presence of some such edifice, piercing the sky in splendour or in gloom, far

above the frailer and lowlier habitations of those that come to worship beneath its roof. You remember those fine lines of Wordsworth, when, talking of the general external aspect of England, he says—

"Not wanting at wide intervals the bulk

Of ancient Minister, lifted above the clouds
Of the dense air, which town or city breeds,
To intercept the sun's glad beams."

I know not, indeed, that any advantages, even of natural grandeur of situation or scenery, can entirely make up for the want of some such effect as the poet would describe, in the general view of any city set apart for the dwelling-place of Men, and of Christians. It seems to be the most natural and proper of all things, that from whatever side the traveller approaches to a Christian city, his eye should be invited, nay, commanded, to repose on some majestic monument of its Faith and its Devotion.-Every one, for example, that has ever sailed up the Thames-the only avenue that is worthy of LONDON-must recollect what a grand mixture of feelings arose within him, when-beyond forests of masts, and above one dark, impenetrable, and limitless ocean of smoke,--he saw for the first time the holy dome of St. Paul's, hung afar off, serene and golden among the clouds. What a calm radiance of sanctity and sublimity does that mighty temple appear to diffuse over the huge city, stretched out in endless pomp and endless darkness at its feet! How that one supreme presence sheds gracefulness and majesty over all that is done beneath its shadow!

There is a plan in agitation at present for erecting a splendid church in Edinburgh, as a great National Monument, in memory of the events of the late war, and already I find a large sum of money has been subscribed for carrying this plan into execution. I heartily wish it speedy and entire success. The sketch which I have seen of the intended edifice, appears to me to be one of the finest things that architectural genius has for many ages produced. In front, there is a portico, as grand as that of the Pantheon; behind this, a dome of most majestic height and dimension is lifted above a hall, around the exterior of which, tier above tier, and line within line of massy columns, are seen swelling or diminishing in endless variety of classical splendour. This ball is destined for the reception of statues and inscriptions, and it

forms the entrance way into a stately church, which shoots out from the side opposite to the portico. Where it is pro posed to place this fine edifice, I know not; but wherever it is placed, so it be placed at all, it cannot fail to add immeasurably to the effect of the finest situation, and the finest city in the world. But I have wandered widely from St. Giles's and the Parliament Close.

The southern side of the square, and a small part of the eastern side, are filled with venerable Gothic buildings, which for many generations have been devoted to the accommodation of the Courts of Law, but which are now entirely shut out from the eye of the public, by a very ill-conceived and tasteless front-work of modern device, including a sufficient allowance of staring square windows, and Ionic pillars and pilasters. What beauty the front of the structure may have possessed in its original state, I have no means of ascertaining; but Mr. Wsighs every time we pass through the Close, as pathetically as could be wished, over "the glory that hath departed." At all events, there can be no question, that the present frontispiece is every way detestable. It is heavy and clumsy in itself; and extremely ill chosen, moreover, whether one considers the character and appearance the hall to which it gives access, or the aspect of the cathedral, and the old buildings in immediate juxta-position without. Had it been resolved to remove entirely the seat of the Courts of Law, and provide for them more convenient and more extensive accommodation in some mo modern part of the city, I am informed the money that has been thrown away within the last thirty years upon repairs and alterations, none of which have added any thing to the beauty or much to the convenience of the old Courts, would have been abundantly sufficient to cover the expense of building the new.

of

Right in front of the main entrance to the Courts as they stand, a fine equestrian statue of Charles II. enjoys a much more conspicuous situation than the merits of its original seem at all entitled to claim-more particularly from the people of Scotland. I think it rather unfortunate that this should be the only statue which salutes the public eye in the streets of Edinburgh. To say the truth, he is the only one of all our monarchs for whose character I think it impossible to feel one touch of sympathy or respect. Even his more unfortunate brother had honesty of principle, and something of the feelings of an Englishman. But why should the poor pen