Was Solicitor-General designed,

And in office could thrive;

It is plain twenty-five

Is old age-and decay of the mind.

Quoth sweet William Charles,*

We can't admit carles

Who keep company blackguard and low;
Had the Justice e'er been

With a gentleman seen,

It had been a most singular show.

Says J[ami]e C[olquhou]n,†
We'll degenerate soon,

If we do not watch over the forum ;
Reformers and thieves

Will soon be sherives,
And buy up the causes before 'em.

Says old M'[Intosh,+

If we bring in such trash,

William Charles Little, Esq. who was alleged not to have been very select in his society, and not over scrupulous as a Justice of the Peace.

† Sir James Colquhoun, Bart. of Luss, Principal Clerk of Session, and Sheriff of Dumbartonshire. He was one of the odd characters of the time, and was much teazed by the wags of the Parliament House. On one occasion whilst Henry Erskine was at the Inner-House Bar during the advising of some important case, he amused himself by making faces at Sir James, who was sitting at the clerk's table, beneath the Judges, his victim was much annoyed at the strange conduct of the tormenting lawyer, and unable to bear it, disturbed the gravity of the Court, by rising and exclaiming, "My Lord, My Lord, I wish you "would speak to Harry, he's aye making faces at me,"-Harry, however, looked as grave as a judge. Peace ensued, and the advising went on, when Sir James casting his eyes towards the bar, witnessed a new grimace from his tormentor, and convulsed Bench, Bar, and Audience by roaring out "there, there, my Lord, "see he's at it again." Sir James, notwithstanding his simplicity in ordinary matters, had much worldly wisdom, for no one knew better how to take care of his money than he did.

Robert Macintosh, Esq. an eminent lawyer; he had been a writer in the country, and was much employed in election cases.

Without either kin, or connections :
Country Procu❜tors next,

Will be Advocates fixt,

And then play the rogue at elections.

The chief thing, says C[orbe]t,*.
Oh! I cannot absorb it,-

Illiterate fellows to ask in :

I'm affraid we shall see

People take our degree,

With no other knowledge than Erskine.

With additional scouring

In his mouth, J[oh]n M'[Lauri]n,+
His sentiments thus did portray:
Contemptuous looks,

Bawdy poems, or books,

Should bar up the candidate's way.

Honest plain I[sla]y C[ampbel]1,||
Who likes every sham ill,

No quibblers I'll have, he did say ;
For they never will stick,

By cheat, lie, or trick,

To wrest the just cause the wrong way.

Says bluff Robert B[lai]r,§

With a fierce haughty stare,

• Robert Corbet, Esq. afterwards Solicitor for Teinds; his father was Provost of Dumfries. He was a good lawyer, and for many years a most popular pleader in the General Assembly.

† Afterwards Lord Dreghorn.

This is allusive to a poem entitled the Keekiad, written upon a domestic incident that occurred in the family of Mr. Jollie, a respectable Edinburgh tailor. Afterwards Lord President. He was created a Baronet upon leaving the

Bench.

§ Son of the Author of the Grave, and Lord President of the Court of Session.

All the pride of the church in his eyes,—
Let us keep away all

The Divinity Hall,

And those who religion despise.

Young Small Trash the third,*
Now put in a word,

To shew them John Bruce'st fine logic;
He swore by the wig,

That made him look big,

He'd have nobody grave, stiff, or tragic.‡

Great H[enr]y D[unda]s,||

He no turncoat was,

(Tho' many did think it a gibe,—)
That would shift wind, and veer,

Like the vane on a spire,

To the offerer of the best bribe.

Quoth the lean demon Hugo,§
Since to make new laws you go,
Out, out of the Faculty close 'em ;
Whose malicious heart,

In dark corner apart,
Can dictate a carmen famosum

Says rumbling S[inclair, T

With a voice like a tinkler,

Charles Hope, Esq. now Lord President of the Court of Session.

†This gentleman obtained the office of King's Printer, besides the easy appointment of Keeper of the State Paper Office. He died some years since, leaving an immense fortune, now inherited by Mrs. Tindall Bruce.

Mr. Bruce had great merit in his pupil, for there is not aJudge in the Court of Session who delivers an opinion more logically, or with more dignity, than the now venerable individual referred to.

64.

Lord Advocate, but better known as the first Viscount Melville.

§ Hugo Arnot, Esq. of Balcormo, author of the History of Edinburgh, see page

Robert Sinclair, Esq. afterwards a principal Clerk of Session. 9th September 1802.

He died

It has been wittily said, that it is not more true that every man is born in sin, than that he is born in criticism ; and indeed, whoever attentively considers the manners and spirit of the present age, will discover a variety of illustrations in support of the truth of this aphorism. Hence the reformation in the internal government of the royal boroughs, and the incomparable blacking for the shoes; the performances of Mrs. Siddons, as well as the very facetious and highflavoured jokes of Mr. Humphreys the equestrian clown, have all of them been handled with a becoming gravity, and the respective merits of each fairly and critically discussed, by certain ingenious gentlemen, to whose recondite labours the public are unspeakably indebted.

In compliance with the advice given by Sallust, in his exordium to the history of Catiline's conspiracy, I am desirous of not passing my life in silence, and therefore I have, for

Robert Dundas, Lord President.

some time past, turned my attention to the composition of a treatise, which I call Directions to certain members of the College of Justice, and which I fondly flatter myself will hand down my name to posterity, along with those Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo.

Of this stupendous work I now present you with a specimen. I have, you will observe, begun with the seedlings in this great forest, and mean to proceed progressively upwards, till I comprehend the timber trees. This plan I have adopted as the most simple, and at the same time the most methodical; for you will perceive, that it embraces “ the ge"neral camp, pioneers and all," ab ovo usque ad mala. Without further preface therefore, I submit to your readers my Chapter first, containing

DIRECTIONS TO WRITERS' APPRENTICES

Quæque ipse miserrima vidi

Et quorum pars magna fui.

WHEN your master gives you a paper to copy, if you should observe, in going through it, any repetitions or tautologies, of which your business will furnish you with many examples, you need not, if you are in a hurry to go out to any of your cronies, be at the trouble of copying all these, for such redundancies of expression are of no sort of use, except in increasing the expence to your master's clients, and they will thank you for omitting them.

When your master has drawn a paper, (if he is able to draw one,* and given it to you to make a fair copy of, cor

In olden times, unlike these more stirring days when intellect is so discursive, some stray agents might be found who were not peculiarly distinguished for their attainments, and who sometimes could not, as here anticipated, "draw" a paper. One of these, a worthy commonly yclept black John Fwho had

a capital business, and who left a good fortune behind him-in which last particular he did not resemble many of his successors was impressed with the idea (in consequence perhaps of his having the preceding evening been somewhat ex