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These do not profess to monopolize all the means tion; the number of great names, in all departnts, which would be have grown up without their sphere of protectic more than enough to give such pretensions the were they so audacious as to set them forth. But thy pfess to educate a certain number of persons, of a cerain lass, in a certain set of principles, which have been onncted with that class throughout all the best years of cupistry—and which, through the persons of that class in femer times, have become identified with our national exispce, and must everywhere be recognized as entering largy and powerfully into the formation of our national characte In a word, they are designed to keep up the race of Enish gentlemen, imbued with those thoughts and feelings, wh that illumination and that belief, which, as exemplified both in the words and in the actions of preceding years, aing rendered the name which they bear second to nor, perhaps, superior to any which the world has ever witnesed.

Instead then of joining in wh that senseless spirit of railing, wherewith Scotchmen ar too often accustomed to talk of the English, and Englishma of the Scottish Universities, I please myself in thinking thathe two institutions have different objects, and that they areboth excellent in their different ways. That each system nght borrow something with advantage from the other, is vry possible, but I respect both of them too much to be fond of hasty and rash experiments. In our great empire we hare need of many kinds of men; it is necessary that we should possess, within our own bounds, the means of giving to each kind that sort of preparation which may best fit them for the life to which they are destined. So there be no want of unity in the general character and feeling of the whole nation, considered as acting together, the more ways the intellect of the nation has, in which to shoot itself out and display its energies, the better will it be:-the greater the variety of walks of exertion and species of success, the greater the variety of stimulus applied; and the greater that spirit of universal activity, without which minds become stagnant like fish pools, the greater is our hope of long and proudly preserving our high place in the estima

tion of the world.

I shall return to the Universities in my next.

P. M.

LETTER XVIII.

TO LADY JOHNES.

DEAR AUNT,

IF you meet viti Mr. David Williams, of Yris, he will tell you that I send him long letter, every other day, filled with histories of dinner arties, and sketches of the Edinburgh Literati; and yet, sth is my diligence in my vocation of tourist, I am laying ustores of anecdotes about the northern beau monde, and mang drawings in crayon, of the northern beauties, which, I atter myself, will be enough to amuse your ladyship half the autumn, after I return to you. There is a very old rule, to de lie the Romans when you are in Rome; and the only mert lay claim to on the present occasion, resolves itself into a rid observance of this sage precept. It is the fashion here forevery man to lead two or three different kinds of lives all at oce, and I have made shift to do somewhat like my neighburs. In London, a lawyer is a lawyer, and he is nothing mre; for going to the play or the House of Commons, now nd then, can scarcely be considered as any serious interrupion of his professional habits and existence. In London, in lke manner, a gay man is nothing but a gay man ; for, howeve, he may attempt to disguise the matter, whatever he does out of the world of gaiety is intended only to increase his consequence in it. But here I am living in a city, which thrives both by law and by gaieties, and, would you believe it?-a very great share of the practice of both of these mysteries lies in the very same hands. It is this, so far as I can judge, which constitutes what the logicians would call the differential quality of the society of Edinburgh. It is at this time of the year at least, a kind of melange of London, Bath, and Cheltenham; and I am inclined to think, that, upon due examination, you would find it to be in several particulars, a more agreeable place than any of these. In many other particulars, I think any rational person would pronounce it, without difficulty, to be more absurd than any of them.

The removal of the residence of the sovereign has had the effect of rendering the great nobility of Scotland very indifferent about the capital. There is scarcely one of the Pre

miere Noblesse, I am told, that retains even the appearance of supporting a house in Edinburgh; and by far the greater part of them are quite as ignorant of it, as of any other provincial town in the island. The Scotch courts of law, however, are all established in this place, and this has been sufficient to enable Edinburgh to keep the first rank among the cities of Scotland, which, but for them, it seems extremely unlikely she should have been able to accomplish. For the more the commercial towns thrive, the more business is created for this legal one; and the lawyers of Edinburgh may be said to levy a kind of custom upon every bale of goods that is manufactured in this part of the island, and a no less regular excise upon every article of merchandize that is brought into it from abroad. In this way, (to such wonderful exactness has the matter been brought,) it may be said, that every great merchant in Glasgow pays large salaries to some two or three members of the law in Edinburgh, who conduct the numerous litigations that arise out of a flourishing business with great civility; and with greater civility still, the more numerous litigations which attend the untwisting and dissevering of the Gordian knot of mercantile difficulties and embarrassments. And so, indeed, there is scarcely much exaggeration in the common saying, that every house which a man, not a lawyer, builds out of Edinburgh, enables a man, who is a lawyer, to build another equally comfortable in Edinburgh.

A very small share of the profits set apart for the nourishment of this profession falls into the hands of the first branch of it-the Barristers. These are still, in general, although not so uniformly as in former times, younger sons of good families, who have their fortunes to make, but who have been brought up in a way more calculated to make them adepts in spending than in getting. The greater part of them, moreover seldom have any opportunity of realizing much money, were they inclined to do so; for, with the exception of some six or eight, who monopolize the whole of the large fees, and the far greater share of the small ones, the most of the advocates may think themselves extremely fortunate, if, after passing eight or ten years at the bar, they are able to make as much by their profession as may suffice for the support of a family, in the most quiet and moderate style of living. A vast number of those who come to the bar have no chance, almost no hope, of getting into any tolerable

practice; but as there are a great number of offices of various degrees of honour and emolument, which can only be filled by members of the Faculty of Advocates, they are contented to wear the gown year after year, in the expectation of at last being able to step into the possession of one of these births, by means of some connexions of blood, or marriage, or patronage. One should at first sight say, that this must be rather a heartless kind of drudgery; but, such as it is, it is submitted to by a very great number of well-educated and accomplished gentlemen, who not only keep each other in countenance with the rest of the world, but, what is much better, render this mode of life highly agreeable in itself. These persons constitute the chief community of loungers and talkers in Edinburgh; and such is the natural effect of their own family connexions, and the conventional kind of respect accorded to the name of their profession, that their influence may be considered as extending over almost the whole of the northern part of the island. They make the nearest approach, of any class of men now existing, to the modes of Templar-life described by Addison and Steele; for, as to the Temple wits and critics of our day, you know they are now sadly "shorn of their beams," and are, indeed, regarded by the ruling powers of the West-end-the of EV TEXEL, of Albemarle-street, &c.-as forming little better than a sort of upper form of the Cockney-school.

The chief wealth of the profession, however, if not the chief honour, is lodged with the attorneys, or, as they are here called, the Writers. Of these there is such an abundance in this city, that I cannot for my life understand by what means they all contrive to live; and those of them with whom I have become acquainted, I do assure you live well. They are sub-divided into various classes, of which the highest is that of the Writers or Clerks to the Signet, so called because they alone have the privilege of drawing particular kinds of deeds, to which the king's signet is affixed. Even of these there are many hundreds in actual practice at this moment, and many of them have realized large fortunes, and retired from business to enjoy the olium cum dignitate. It may be said, that almost every foot of land in Scotland pays something to the Writers to the Signet; for there is scarcely an estate in Scotland, the proprietor of which does not entrust the management of the whole of his affairs to one of their

order. The connexion which exists between them and the landed interest is thus of the most intimate nature. The country gentlemen of Scotland, from whatever causes, are generally very much in debt. Their writers, or, as they call them, their agents or doers, are of necessity acquainted with the many secrets which men in debt must have; they are themselves the bankers and creditors of their clients. In short, when a gentleman changes his man of business, his whole affairs must undergo a complete revolution and convulsion; and in Scotland, it is a much easier thing to get rid of one's wife, than of one's doer.

These advocates and rich writers may be considered as forming the nucleus of the society of Edinburgh. Their connexions of birth and business bind them so closely with the landed gentry, that these last come to Edinburgh principally in order to be in their neighbourhood; these again draw with them a part of the minor noblesse, and the whole of the idle military men who can afford it. Of late years also, the gentry of some of the northern English counties have begun to come hither, in preference to going to York as they used to do; and out of all this medley of materials, the actual mass of the society of Edinburgh is formed. I mean the winter society of Edinburgh; for, in the summer monthsthat is from April till Christmas--the town is commonly deserted by all, except those who have ties of real business to connect them with it. Nay, during a considerable portion of that time, it loses, as I am informed, the greater part even of its eminent lawyers, and has quite as green and desolate an appearance, as the fashionable squares in London have about the falling of the leaf.

The medley of people, thus brought together for a few months every year to inhabit a few streets in this city, cannot afford to split their forces very minutely, so as to form many different spheres of society, according to their opinions of their relative rank and importance. It is now admitted everywhere, that no party is worth the going to, unless it be a crowded one; now, it is not possible to form a party here that shall be at once select and crowded. The dough and the leaven must go together to make up the loaf, and the wives of the lords and lairds, and advocates, and writers, must be contented to club their forces, if they are to produce any thing that deserves the honourable name of a squeeze. Now