his view all the chequered joys and griefs of humanity. I remember, David, once upon a time being called upon to visit Miss Barbara B, who had got a fit of the tooth-ache. Her colour was gone, her cheek was swollen, her eye distorted and diminished, her whole countenance disfigured— and her person, under the influence of pain, appeared in the most unfavourable point of view, so that she inspired for the time no other feeling but that of compassion. I drew her tooth, (for you know an M. D. must not stand upon his P's and Q's in Cardigan,) and went off. Some-time after I was invited to her marriage, when I found my worthy friend, the Rev. Mr. David Williams, had been engaged to perform the ceremony. The damsel had now recovered her looks, and stood blushing before the priest, in all the attractiveness of youth and high health. When the service was concluded, my reverend friend was the first, if I mistake not, to salute the rosy lips of the bride, after which he was presented with a tall bumper of Madeira, and a huge slice of cake, stuffed with almonds, which so engrossed his attention, that he could make no articulate reply for some minutes to the simplest question. Upon observing all which, I shook my head sagaciously, saying inwardly, "Ah, David, thou hast chosen a profession, which, like the magic of the poet, introduces you to the 'gayest, happiest attitudes of things.""

Ever your's,

P. M.

P. S. In my next I shall introduce you to the Presbyterian Convocation, in the aisle of St. Giles's.

LETTER LVIII.

TO THE SAME.

MY DEAR WILLIAMS,

THERE was such a crowd of people of all ages and conditions about the gate, that, in spite of all our pomp of macers and pages, we had some difficulty in getting access to the interior of the edifice-and after we had got within its walls, we had still a new set of difficulties to encounter in the lobbies of its interior, before the aisle set apart for the purposes of the General Assembly received our train. Nay, even within the aisle itself, the squeeze of ministers and elders, bustling to their places, was another source of delay. At last, however, the Commissioner mounted his throne, which is a huge elbow chair, placed under a red canopy, at one side of the room, and we, who had come thither as part of his retinue, found ourselves accommodated on his right, where, according to custom, a certain number of benches had been left vacant for our reception. My foot, in the meantime, had received a sad squeeze on the most tender part of its convalescent surface, and some minutes elapsed after I was seated, before I found myself in a condition to survey the scene before me, with any thing like the usual Morrisian eye of collectedness and coolness.

The Assembly aisle is a square apartment, vaulted overhead like the rest of the Cathedral, but divided from its nave by a long dark lobby or two below, and above, by some galleries with glass-folding doors, through which a certain portion of the profanum vulgus may make shift to thrust their noses, and contemplate somewhat of the venerable scene. Opposite to this side, in the space between two tall shapeless windows, is situated the canopy as aforesaid, elevated considerably above the area of the place-from whence, "high on a throne of royal state," the Commissioner looks down in theoretic calmness upon the more active part of the

Convocation-his throne being surrounded with a due complement of awkward, chubby-cheeked pages, in long red coats, and serving-men, of different descriptions, in the colours of his own livery. Among these attendants of the mimic monarch, I could not help recognising, with some emotions of merriment, Duncan M'Nab, and various of the cadies, his brethren-for, certainly, my old friends cut a strange enough figure in their new and gorgeous costumes of blue and red, some clad like beef-eaters, and some like lackies, but all powdered as finely as butter and flour could make them, and all squeezing, or attempting to squeeze their weather-beaten features into an expression of decorum and gravity, little consistent with the usual habits either of their minds or their occupations. I should, perhaps, make an exception in favour of Duncan; for I must admit, that this crafty Celt bore his new honours-bag, buckles, and all-with a measure of meek composure in his aspect, which showed that he had taken the metamorphosis in comparative tranquillity of spirit. And, after all, perhaps, the powdered young puppies of plebeian pages, with their cheese-toasters bruising each others shins ever and anon, were the most absurd part of the whole group. So much for what Homer would have called," aμ Toy Barina." Immediately under, and with his back towards the Commissioner, sits the Moderator, or Clerical President of the Assembly. A green table before him is surrounded by several clerks, arrayed in Geneva cloaks and bands, and a few of the more leading members of either party in the Kirk, "in close recess and secret conclave sitting." From this table the benches rise in all directions upwards, lodging, row upon row, the ordinary stipendiarii of the ecclesiastical host. The arrangement of these, however, is, although tumultuous, by no means fortuitous. They stick, on the contrary, with the most senatorial pertinacity each to his own side of the Senate-house-the right side of the throne being occupied exclusively by the Moderates, while, on the left hand, sit, equally pure and uncontaminated, the representatives. of the Wildmen. Some

tiny galleries, on either side, are appropriated to the use of ministers not actually members of the Assembly, and preachers and students of divinity, who come thither partly to suck in wisdom from the droppings of the "great consult"-partly, no doubt, if one may judge from their lean and scarecrow physiognomies, to indulge in fond dreams of future repletion, inspired by the contemplation of the goodly paunches of the beneficed brethren

A thousand demi-gods on golden seats,

Frequent and full—

Above these again, high up on either side, is another gallery, set apart not for the gods, but the goddesses—where among others of the fair visitors,

whose eyes

Reign influence and dispense the prize,"

I could perceive the sagacious countenances of some dozen or more of the Bas-blues of Auld Reekie. I know not whether, in this quarter also, the division of parties be as strictly observed as in the lower regions of the place. I could not pretend, at least, to distinguish prima facie the Moderates from the Wild of the womankind; but, perhaps, Muretus would have remarked that the majority of the "Mulieres Doctæ," preferred the left side of the throne.*

But, perhaps, in truth, these noms de guerre, by which the two rival parties which have sprung up among the descendants of John Knox are distinguished, may be almost as inappropriate in the lower as in the upper parts of the aisle. I was a stranger to the existence of the parties themselves, or very nearly so, till I came into Scotland, and even now I am much at a loss to know what are the distinguishing tenets to which they respectively adhere. They are both, in profession at least, sound Calvinists-for whatever may be

* See Muretus. Opuscula, tom. XIII. p. 374.

said of our XXXIX Articles, not even Paley himself could have pretended to consider the "Confession of Faith," as a specimen of peace-promoting ambiguity and vagueness. Every thing is laid down there as broadly and firmly as if Calvin himself had held the pen, the very morning after the burning of Servetus; and the man who holds a living in the Scottish Kirk, cannot possibly do so with common honesty, unless he be a firm believer in the whole of a theological system-which, whatever may be thought of it in some other respects, must at least be admitted to be a far more rational thing than our English high-churchmen would wish us to believe-which, at all events, possesses the merit of singular compactness and harmony within itself-and which, moreover, can number among its defenders in past times, not a few, to whom, whether considered as divines or as authors, none of the theologians of these latter days on either side of the Tweed, are worthy, as the phrase runs, of holding the candle. So far as doctrine is concerned, the two parties therefore profess themselves to be agreed; and, indeed, I believe the great leaders on either side of the Kirk have a pride in showing themselves at all times in their sermons, to be alike the genuine disciples of their Institute. The truth, however, may perhaps be, that wherever the business of any polity, civil or ecclesiastical, is conducted in popular assemblies of debate, the infirmities of human nature make it necessary that at least two parties should exist; and when once they do exist, it is odds but they will find some feasible pretences for their separation. Of old, as you well know, the whole of the Presbyterian ministers were Whigsand it was only by means of the stubborn zeal with which they adhered to the political principles of that state party, that they were enabled to revive so often, and at last to establish on its present firm basis, a system of church government, long so odious to the holders of the executive power. But after the oppressive measures, under which the internal spirit of their sect long throve and prospered, exactly in proportion as its external circumstances suffered-after these had