Plata, the Brazils, and Peru, a barrier which the revolutionary spirit is not likely soon to transgress. It is believed, that the famous Artigas, who some time ago disappeared, is confined in the prisons of the Doctor, to whom he went to apply for assistance. During the year it had passed under the Government of Martin Rodriguez, Buenos Ayres had experienced no revolutions; confidence, credit, and commerce had returned. The question of' a confederacy with the provinces, of which each had its particular Government, continued, however, to be keenly agitated. The provincial Congress was opened on the 1st of May, in presence of the Envoys of the United States, Portugal, Chili, Peru, and Colombia. The Congress was chiefly occupied with internal ameliorations. The budget was presented on the 1st of July, from which it appears that the income was exactly equal to the expenditure, both being 1,064,880 dollars. An amnesty for all political offences was proposed and carried after a great deal of warm discussion; but less than three months after, a conspiracy having for its object to overthrow the Govern ment was discovered, and the heads of it punished. PART II. LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS. CHAPTER 1. BIOGRAPHY-POLITICAL. Lord Kinedder.-The Marquis of Londonderry-The Duke de Richelieu.Prince Hardenberg. LORD KINEDDER.-The following memoir of this eminent and accomplished person appeared immediately after his death, and was generally understood to have been drawn up by his friend, Mr Hay Donaldson, writer to the Signet, who, in the course of a few weeks from the time of his Lordship's death, was destined to follow him to the grave, having only a short while previous to his dissolution attained a situation of the highest importance; thus completing the melancholy parallel between him and his distinguished friend. "Lord Kinedder was born in 1769. He was the oldest surviving son of the Reverend William Erskine, a clergy man of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, who, during a long period of years, exercised his functions at the village of Muthill, in Perthshire, in the centre of a rich and populous neighbourhood. Mr Erskine was descended from the family of Erskine of Pittodrie, and was connected by his marriage with Miss Drummond of the house of Keltie, with many families of respectability in Perthshire. He died at a very advanced age, leaving an orphan family of two sons and a daughter. The eldest is the subject of the present sketch. The second for many years filled the distinguished and lucrative station of Member of the Supreme Council of Prince of Wales' Island. The only daughter became the wife, and is now the widow of the right honourable Archibald Colquhoun of Killermont, who was successively Lord Advocate and Lord Clerk Register of Scotland. "Lord Kinedder received the more important parts of his education at the University of Glasgow. His tutor was the ingenious, but unfortunate Andrew Macdonald, author of " Vimonda" and other dramatic and miscellaneous poetry. Lord Kinedder possessed many unpublished pieces of this unhappy bard, who afterwards died in London in great poverty. His pupil was much attached to his memory, and used to recite his poetry with much feeling. It is remembered by Lord Kinedder's companions, that he prosecuted his studies in every department with remarkable assiduity and success. The exact sciences, however, never enjoyed much of his favour. He early addicted himself to the pursuits of classical and polite literatute. These proved a delightful resource to him through life, and served greatly to lighten the toils of professional labour. Being destined to the Bar by the friends who superintended his education, he enjoyed, at Glasgow, the benefit of Professor Millar's instructions on general jurisprudence and public law. It is believed he was originally designed for the English Bar; at least he spent some time in chambers in the Temple, where he had, amongst other advantages, that of studying elocution, under the celebrated Mr Walker. These instructions gave the young student the advantage of speaking the English language with a correctness and elegance which was then little known at the Scottish Bar. His natural taste and feeling, with the advantages of Mr Walker's lessons, joined to a sweet, full, and flexible voice, rendered him a beautiful reader as well as a fine speaker, and he was always willing to contribute his powers to the amusement of the social circle. His studies in the municipal law of his own country were afterwards more fully assisted by the lectures of the eminent Professor Hume, whose retirement from the chair of Scottish Law in the University of Edinburgh has lately been the subject of such general regret. "Lord Kinedder was called to the Bar in 1790. It is too well known to the junior members of that profession, that to be admitted an advocate, is far from being necessarily the commencement of a professional life. Many young men of learning and talents, and who ultimately attain to the highest eminence, are doomed to pass the best years of their lives in a total vacuity of employment. Lord Kinedder's lot was different. A fortunate accident brought him from the beginning into full employment as an advocate. He had early obtained the notice and friendship of Mr Robert Mackintosh, an aged and acute lawyer, who at that time was invested with the management of the very extensive and complicated affairs of the York-Buildings Company. An important law-suit, in which the Company was a party, and which engaged in an extraordinary degree the public attention, was then about to be heard in presence of the whole Court. In consequence of indisposition, or some other impediment, the counsel who was to open the case on the part of the Company was under the necessity of returning his brief. Mr Mackintosh had so much confidence in the talents and judgment of his young friend, that he at once offered him this opportunity of distinguishing himself. Mr Erskine undertook this perilous duty with the utmost diffidence and hesitation; but he performed it in a manner which amply justified the opinion of his patron. His opening speech on that occasion is remembered to this day, as one of the most splendid and successful first ap pearances that ever had been made in |