In Architecture Scotland has produced, and the metropolis still boasts of, some very eminent names. Craig, Adam, and Baxter, stood a few years ago unrivalled in excellence; and their successors of the present day in the Scottish capital, Burn, Crichton, and Reid, promise the con tinuance of a genius for architectural decoration, beauty, and magnificence.

In Statuary Edinburgh cannot boast of having done much. There are however some artists in this line in the city whose talents are truly respectable. Of these Messrs. Gowans, Cummins, and Marshall are the chief.

A sketch of the progress and present state of Musical science in Edinburgh will be found in our account of the Amusements of the Scottish capital.

RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS.

BEFORE proceeding to give an account of the

Religious establishments of Edinburgh, it may be proper to prefix a short sketch of the progress of religion in Scotland, and the circumstances which gave rise to the present form of religious worship and church government.

At what time the Christian religion was first taught in North Britain is not with certainty known; though the venerable Bede and some of our ancient Scottish historians assert, that it was introduced into this country by one of the disciples of the apostle St. John. Christianity, it is said, was further confirmed by the emigrations from South Britain during the persecutions of Aurelius and Dioclesan. The arrival of St. Columbus in the Western Isles about the middle of the sixth century, whence he had come from Ire Fand to preach the gospel, may be regarded as

the first æra of the regular establishment and propagation of Christianity in Scotland. St. Columbus fixed himself in I-colm-kill, that farfamed island," once the luminary of the Caledonian regions," as Dr. Johnson expresses it, "whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion." The disciples of St. Columbus, who were called Culdees, were a regular clergy, differing from the church of Rome in the tonsure, in the observance of Easter, and in many other respects.

Thus was Christianity established in Scotland as a national religion, independent of the church of Rome. It flourished in its native simplicity till the period when Palladius, the first bishop sent to Britain by the pope, found means to introduce the tenets and ceremonies of the Romish church; which in the end involved this country in the same darkness which overspread Europe for many ages. The Culdees, however, notwithstanding the oppression of the Roman clergy, long retained their original simple manners; and a few cells belonging to them as a distinct order, remained so late as the fourteenth century. About this period, their remains seem to have been obli ferated, and the Romish religion reigned univer

sally in Scotland until the memorable period of the Reformation.

Scotland, however, was not so dependent upon the pope, nor was such blind obedience paid to his commands here as in other countries. The Scottish monarchs sometimes braved the thunder of ecclesiastical censure, and even possessed the right of presentation to vacant bishoprics; a right which the church arrogated to herself in most other countries.

About the beginning of the sixteenth century, the spread of knowledge, by the establishment of universities and the discovery of the art of printing, had begun to open the minds of men on the superstitions and corruptions of the church of Rome. The sale of absolutions, dispensations, and indulgencies, in the pontificate of John de Medicis, in order to recruit the exhausted resources of the apostolic revenue, led, though in directly to the great work of reformation. The unequal distribution of these indulgencies seems to have been the ostensible cause of precipitating the downfal of the Romish church. Martin Lu ther, an Augustine monk of Wurtemberg in Sax+ ony, had the honour and the merit of first opposing this scandalous system. By unwearied diligence, address, and a courage superior to dif. culties, he shook the tottering church to its

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foundations, and made the authority of the Vati can to tremble.

The labours of Luther soon opened the eyes of many in Germany. In England, the former: defender of the catholic faith, (Henry VIII.) renounced the doctrines, and disclaimed all connection with the court of Rome; and his nephew James V. did not in Scotland oppose the propa-. gation of the new doctrines. These now conti nued to spread rapidly; the Scottish clergy were alarmed; and violence was used to stop the dissemination of truths which they could not silencė by argument. Among those who most violently opposed the reformed decrines was cardinal Beaton, who pursued its professors with the most unrelenting rigour. The first who suffered in the protestant cause in Scotland was Patrick Hamilton, abbot of Ferne in Ross-shire. This perso had at home imbibed a tincture of the new opinions, and afterwards in Germany, at the fountain-head of reformation, had their truth and importance confirmed. Returning home, ha openly avowed his conviction, for which he was brought to trial, found guilty, and was burnt for heresy in the city of St. Andrews, on the 1st of March 1527. Several others after this period also suffered in the cause of reformation. But neither the torture of the rack, nor the terror of the fag