gave to it a guilty colour, that, by the judicious stratagem of a right system, it would never have had. And, sooth to say, through the whole course of my public life, I met with no greater difficulties and trials, than in cleansing myself from the old habitudes of office. For I must, in verity, confess, that I myself partook, in a degree, at my beginning, of the caterpillar nature, &c.-While, therefore, I think it has been of a great advantage to the public to have survived that method of administration in which the like of Bailie M Lucre was engendered, I would not have it understood that I think the men who held the public trust in those days a whit less honest than the men of my own time. The spirit of their own age was upon them, as that of ours is upon us; and their ways of working the wherry entered more or less into all their trafficking, whether for the commonality, or for their own particular behoof and advantage.

"I have been thus large and frank in my reflections anent the death of the Bailie, because, poor man, he had outlived the times for which he was qualified; and instead of the merriment and jocularity that his wily by-hand ways used to cause among his neighbours, the rising generation began to pick and dab at him, in such a manner, that, had he been much longer spared, it is to be feared he would not have been allowed to enjoy his earnings both with ease and honour."

The Provost, pp. 171-174.

Accordingly, afterwards, when a corps of volunteers was raised in his Burgh, he ob

serves

man to prosperity, in the sequestered traffic of private life."-Ibid. pp. 315, 316.

Trusting that these lessons from a person of such prudence, experience, and loyalty, will not be lost on his successors, we shall now indulge ourselves by quoting a few specimens of what will generally be regarded as his more interesting style; and, with our usual predilection for the tragic vein, shall begin with the following very touching account of the execution of a fair young woman for the murder of her new-born infant.

"The heinousness of the crime can by no possibility be lessened; but the beauty of the mother, her tender years, and her light-headedness, had won many favourers, and there was a great leaning in the hearts of all the town to compassionate her, especially when they thought of the ill example that had been set to her in the walk and conversation of her mother. It was not, however, within the power of the magistrates to overlook the accusation; so we were obligated to cause a precognition to be taken, and the search left no doubt of the wilfulness of the murder. Jeanie was in consequence removed to the Tolbooth, where she lay till the Lords were coming to Ayr, when she was sent thither to stand her trial before them; but, from the hour she did the deed, she never spoke.

"Her trial was a short procedure, and she was cast to be hanged-and not only to be hanged, but ordered to be executed in our town, and her body given to the doctors to make an Atomy. The exe"I kept myself aloof from all handling in thecution of Jeanie was what all expected would hap pecuniaries of the business; but I lent a friendly pen; but when the news reached the town of the countenance to every feasible project that was likely other parts of the sentence, the wail was as the to strengthen the confidence of the King in the sough of a pestilence, and fain would the council loyalty and bravery of his people. For by this have got it dispensed with. But the Lord Advocate time I had learnt, that there was a wakerife Comwas just wud at the crime, both because there had mon Sense abroad among the opinions of men; been no previous concealment, so as to have been and that the secret of the new way of ruling the an extenuation for the shame of the birth, and be world was to follow, not to control, the evident cause Jeanie would neither divulge the name of the dictates of the popular voice; and I soon had rea-father, nor make answer to all the interrogatories son to felicitate myself on this prudent and season- that were put to her, standing at the bar like a able discovery; for it won me great reverence dumbie, and looking round her, and at the judges, among the forward young men, who started up at like a demented creature-and beautiful as a Flan the call of their country. The which, as I tell ders baby! It was thought by many that her ad frankly, was an admonition to me, that the peremp-vocate might have made great use of her visible tory will of authority was no longer sufficient for the rule of mankind; and, therefore, I squared my after conduct more by a deference to public opinion, than by any laid down maxims and principles of my own. The consequence of which was, that my influence still continued to grow and gather strength in the community, and I was enabled to accomplish many things that my predecessors would have thought it was almost beyond the compass of manliness, as the judge himself said to the jury. to undertake."-Ibid. pp. 208-217.

Upon occasion of his third and last promomotion to the Provostry, he thus records his own final conversion.

consternation, and plead that she was by herself; for in truth she had every appearance of being so. He was, however, a dure man, no doubt well enough versed in the particulars and punctualities of the law for an ordinary plea, but no of the right sort of knowledge and talent to take up the case of a forlorn lassie, misled by ill example and a winsome nature, and clothed in the allurement of love.

"On the night before the day of execution, she was brought over in a chaise from Ayr between two town-officers, and placed again in our hands, and still she never spoke. Nothing could exceed the compassion that every one had for poor Jeanie; so she was na committed to a common cell, but "When I returned home to my own house, I laid in the council room, where the ladies of the retired into my private chamber for a time, to con- town made up a comfortable bed for her, and some sult with myself in what manner my deportment of them sat up all night and prayed for her: But should be regulated; for I was conscious that here-her thoughts were gone, and she sat silent. In the tofore I had been overly governed with a disposition to do things my own way; and although not in an avaricious temper, yet something, I must confess, with a sort of sinister respect for my own interests. It may be, that standing now clear and free of the world. I had less incitement to be so grippy, and so was thought of me, I very well know; but in so briety and truth I conscientiously affirm, and herein record, that I had lived to partake of the purer spirit which the great mutations of the age had conjured into public affairs; and I saw that there was a necessity to carry into all dealings with the concerns of the community, the same probity which helps a

morning, by break of day, her wanton mother that had been trolloping in Glasgow came to the Tol booth door, and made a dreadful wally waeing; and the ladies were obligated, for the sake of peace, to bid her be let in. But Jeanie noticed her not, still sitting with her eyes cast down, waiting the coming on of the hour of her doom..

"There had not been an execution in the town in the memory of the oldest person then living; the last that suffered was one of the martyrs in the time of the persecution, so that we were not skilled in the business, and had besides no hangman, but were necessitated to borrow the Ayr one. Indeed,

I being the youngest bailie, was in terror that the could extend the arm of protection. Seeing no obligation might have fallen on me. A scaffold abatement of the wrath of heaven, that howled was erected at the Tron just under the Tolbooth and roared around us, I put on my big coat, and windows, by Thomas Gimblet, the Master-of-work, taking my staff in my hand, having tied down my who had a good penny of profit by the job; for he hat with a silk handkerchief, towards gloaming I contracted with the town council, and had the boards walked likewise to the kirkyard, where I beheld after the business was done to the bargain; but such an assemblage of sorrow, as few men in situThomas was then deacon of the wrights, and him-ation have ever been put to the trial to witness. self a member of our body.

"In the morning, the weather was blasty and sleety, waxing more and more tempestuous, till about mid-day, when the wind checked suddenly round from the nor-east to the sou-west, and blew a gale, as if the prince of the powers of the air was doing his utmost to work mischief. The rain blattered, the windows clattered, the shop shutters flapped, pigs from the lum-heads came rattling down like thunder-claps, and the skies were dismal both with cloud and carry. Yet, for all that, there was in the streets a stir and a busy visitation between neighbours, and every one went to their high windows to look at the five poor barks, that were wars-in ling against the strong arm of the elements of the storm and the ocean.

Still the lift gloomed, and the wind roared; and it was as doleful a sight as ever was seen in any town afflicted with calamity, to see the sailor's wives, with their red cloaks about their heads, followed by their hirpling and disconsolate bairns, going one after another to the kirkyard, to look at the vessels where their helpless breadwinners were battling with the tempest. My heart was really sorrowful, and full of a sore anxiety to think of what might happen to the town, whereof so many were in peril, and to whom no human magistracy

has not failed through any deficiency of his, has been prevented, we think, from succeeding by the very nature of the subject.

The next in order, we believe, is "Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life," an affected, or at least too poetical a title,—and, standing before a book, not very natural, but bright with the lights of poetry. It is a collection of twenty-five stories or little pieces, half novels half idylls, characteristic of Scottish scenery and manners-mostly pathetic, and mostly too favourable to the country to which they relate. They are, on the whole, we think, very beautifully and sweetly written, and in a soft spirit of humanity and gentleness. But the style is too elaborate and uniform;— there is occasionally a good deal of weakness and commonplace in the passages that are most emphatically expressed, and the poetical heightenings are often introduced where they hurt both the truth and the simplicity of the picture. Still, however, they have their foundation in a fine sense of the peculiarities of our national character and scenery, and a deep feeling of their excellence and beautyand, though not executed according to the dictates of a severe or correct taste, nor calculated to make much impression on those who have studied men and books, "with a learned spirit of observation," are yet well fitted to minister delight to less fastidious spirits,and to revive, in many world-wearied hearts, those illusions which had only been succeeded by illusions less innocent and attractive, and those affections in which alone there is neither

picture of the manners and characters of those ancient times, and partly to trace the effects of the true faith on the feelings and affections of those who first embraced it, in the dangers and darkness of expiring Paganism. It is a work to be excepted certainly from our general remark, that the productions before us were imitations of the celebrated novels to which we have so often made reference, and their authors disciples of that great school. Such as it is, Valerius is undoubtedly original; or at least owes nothing to that new source of inspiration. It would be more plausible to say, that the author had borrowed something from the travels of Anacharsis, or the ancient romance of Heliodorus and Charielea-or the later effusions of M. Chateaubriand. In the main, however, it is original; and it is written with very considerable power and boldness. But we cannot, on the whole, say that it has been successful; and even greater powers could not have insured success for such an undertaking. We must know the daily life and ordinary habits of the people in whose domestic adventures we take an interest :and we really know nothing of the life and habits of the ancient Romans and primitive Christians. We may patch together a cento out of old books, and pretend that it exhibits a view of their manners and conversation: | But the truth is, that all that is authentic in such a compilation can amount only to a few fragments of such a picture; and that any thing like a complete and living portrait must be made up by conjecture, and inferences drawn at hazard. Accordingly, the work be-illusion nor disappointment. fore us consists alternately of enlarged transcripts of particular acts and usages, of which accounts have been accidentally transmitted to us, and details of dialogue and observation in which there is nothing antique or Roman but the names,-and in reference to which, the assumed time and place of the action is felt as a mere embarrassment and absurdity. To avoid or disguise this awkwardness, the "It was on a fierce and howling winter day that only resource seems to be, to take shelter in I was crossing the dreary moor of Auchindown, on my way to the Manse of that parish, a solitary pea vague generality of talk and description,-destrian. The snow, which had been incessantly and to save the detection of the modern in falling for a week past, was drifted into beautiful his masquerade of antiquity, by abstaining but dangerous wreaths, far and wide, over the from every thing that is truly characteristic melancholy expanse-and the scene kept visibly either of the one age or the other, and conseshifting before me, as the strong wind that blew from quently from every thing by which either masses, and heaved them up and down in endless every point of the compass struck the dazzling character or manners can be effectually de- transformation. There was something inspiriting lineated or distinguished. The very style of in the labour with which, in the buoyant strength the work before us affords a curious example of youth, I forced my way through the storm-and of the necessity of this timid indefiniteness, I could not but enjoy those gleamings of sunlight under such circumstances, and of its awkward opening in the sky, and gave a character of cheerthat ever and anon burst through some unexpected effect. To exclude the tone of modern times, fulness, and even warmth, to the sides or summits it is without idiom, without familiarity, with- of the stricken hills. As the momentary cessations out any of those natural marks by which of the sharp drift allowed my eyes to look onwards alone either individuality of character, or the and around, I saw here and there up the little openstamp and pressure of the time, can possibly ing valleys, cottages just visible beneath the black stems of their snow-covered clumps of trees, or bebe conveyed, and runs on, even in the gay side some small spot of green pasture kept open for and satirical passages, in a rumbling, round- the sheep. These intimations of life and happiness about, rhetorical measure, like a translation came delightfully to me in the midst of the desola from solemn Latin, or some such academical tion; and the barking of a dog, attending some exercitation. It is an attempt, in short, which, Shepherd in his quest on the hill, put fresh vigour though creditable to the spirit and talents of into my limbs, telling me that, lonely as I seemed to be, I was surrounded by cheerful though unseen the author, we think he has done wisely in company, and that I was not the only wanderer not seeking to repeat,-and which, though it over the snows.

As the author's style of narration is rather copious, we cannot now afford to present our readers with any of his stories-but, as a specimen of his tone and manner of composition, we may venture on one or two of his introductory descriptions. The following, of a snowy morning, is not the least characteristic.

"As I walked along, my mind was insensibly filled with a crowd of pleasant images of rural winter life, that helped me gladly onwards over many miles of moor. I thought of the severe but cheerful labours of the barn-the mending of farm-gear by the fireside the wheel turned by the foot of old age, less for gain than as a thrifty pastime-the skilful mother, making auld claes look amaist as weel's the new-the ballad unconsciously listened to by the family, all busy at their own tasks round the singing maiden-the old traditionary tale told by some wayfarer hospitably housed till the storm should blow by-the unexpected visit of neighbours, on need or friendship-or the footstep of lover undeterred by the snow-drifts that have buried up his flocks; but above all, I thought of those hours of religious worship that have not yet escaped from the domestic life of the Peasantry of Scotland-of the sound of psalms that the depth of snow cannot deaden to the ear of Him to whom they are chanted and of that sublime Sabbath-keeping, which, on days too tempestuous for the kirk, changes the cottage of the Shepherd into the Temple of God.

With such glad and peaceful images in my heart, I travelled along that dreary moor, with the cutting wind in my face, and my feet sinking in the snow, or sliding on the hard blue ice beneath it-as cheerfully as I ever walked in the dewy warmth of a summer morning, through fields of fragrance and of flowers. And now I could discern, within half an hour's walk before me, the spire of the church, close to which stood the Manse of my aged friend and benefactor. My heart burned within me as a sudden gleam of stormy sunlight tipt it with fire and I felt, at that moment, an inexpressible sense of the sublimity of the character of that grayheaded Shepherd who had, for fifty years, abode in the wilderness, keeping together his own happy little flock."-Lights and Shadows, pp. 131-133.

many spirits all joining togetner from every point of heaven: It died away-and then the rushing of rain was heard through the darkness; and, in a few minutes, down came all the mountain torrents in their power, and the sides of all the steeps were suddenly sheeted, far and wide, with waterfalls. The element of water was let loose to run its rejoicing race-and that of fire lent it illumination, whether sweeping in floods along the great open straths, or tumbling in cataracts from cliffs overhanging the eagle's eyrie.

Great rivers were suddenly flooded-and the little mountain rivulets, a few minutes before only silver threads, and in whose fairy basins the minnow played, were now scarcely fordable to shepherd's feet. It was time for the strongest to take shelter, and none now would have liked to issue from it; for while there was real danger to life and limb in the many ranging torrents, and in the lightning's flash, the imagination and the soul themselves were touched with awe in the long resounding glens, and beneath the savage scowl of the angry sky.

"It was not a time to be abroad: Yet all by herself was hastening down Glen-Nevis, from a shealing far up the river, a little Girl, not more than twelve years of age-in truth, a very child. Grief and fear, not for herself, but for another, bore her along as upon wings, through the storm; she crossed rivulets from which, on any other occasion, she would have turned back trembling; and she did not even hear many of the crashes of thunder that smote the smoking hills. Sometimes at a fiercer flash of lightning she just lifted her hand to her dazzled eyes, and then, unappalled. hurried on through the hot and sulphurous air. Had she been a maiden of that tender age from village or city, her course would soon have been fatally stopt short; but she had been born among the hills; had first learned to walk among the heather, holding by its mile had she tripped, young as she was, over moss blooming branches, and many and many a solitary and moor, glen and mountain, even like the roe that had its lair in the coppice beside her own beloved Shealing."—Ibid. pp. 369–372.

We must add a part of the story of a fair child's sickness, in the family of one of our cheerful and pious cottagers.

The next, of a summer storm among the mountains, is equally national and appropriate. "An enormous thunder-cloud had lain all day over Ben-Nevis, shrouding its summit in thick darkness, blackening its sides and base, wherever they were beheld from the surrounding country, with masses of deep shadow, and especially flinging down a weight of gloom upon that magnificent Glen that bears the same name with the Mountain; till "The surgeon of the parish lived some miles disnow the afternoon was like twilight, and the voice tant, but they expected him now every moment, of all the streams was distinct in the breathlessness and many a wistful look was directed by tearful eyes of the vast solitary hollow. The inhabitants of all along the moor. The daughter, who was out at the straths, vales, glens, and dells, round and about service, came anxiously home on this night, the the Monarch of Scottish mountains, had, during only one that could be allowed her, for the poor each successive hour, been expecting the roar of must work in their grief, and servants must do their thunder and the deluge of rain; but the huge con- duty to those whose bread they eat, even when na glomeration of lowering clouds would not rend ture is sick,-sick at heart. Another of the daugh asunder, although it was certain that a calm blue ters came in from the potatoe-field beyond the brae, sky could not be restored till all that dreadful as- with what was to be their frugal supper. The calm semblage had melted away into torrents, or been noiseless spirit of life was in and around the house, driven off by a strong wind from the sea. All the while death seemed dealing with one who, a few cattle on the hills, and on the hollows, stood still or days ago, was like light upon the floor, and the lay down in their fear,-the wild deer sought in sound of music, that always breathed up when most herds the shelter of the pine-covered cliffs-the wanted. Do you think the child is dying?' said raven hushed his hoarse croak in some grim cavern, Gilbert with a calm voice to the surgeon, who, on and the eagle left the dreadful silence of the upper his wearied horse, had just arrived from another heavens. Now and then the shepherds looked sick-bed, over the misty range of hills, and had from their huts, while the shadow of the thunder- been looking stedfastly for some minutes on the clouds deepened the hues of their plaids and tar- little patient. The humane man knew the family tans! and at every creaking of the heavy branches well, in the midst of whom he was standing, and of the pines, or wide-armed oaks in the solitude of replied, While there is life there is hope; but my their inaccessible birth-place, the hearts of the lone- pretty little Margaret is, I fear, in the last extremi ly dwellers quaked, and they lifted up their eyes to ty.' There was no loud lamentation at these words see the first wide flash-the disparting of the masses all had before known, though they would not of darkness and paused to hear the long loud rat-confess it to themselves, what they now were toldtle of heaven's artillery shaking the foundation of the everlasting mountains. But all was yet silent. "The peal came at last! and it seemed as if an earthquake had smote the silence. Not a tree-not a blade of grass moved; but the blow stunned, as it were, the heart of the solid globe. Then was there a low, wild, whispering, wailing voice, as of

and though the certainty that was in the words of the skilful man made their hearts beat for a little with sicker throbbings, made their pale faces paler, and brought out from some eyes a greater gush of tears, yet death had been before in this house, and in this case he came, as he always does, in awe, but not in terror.