sioned profligate, whose wit only rendered his vices more culpable, and whose good temper only rendered them more dangerous-why should he be selected for such a mark of distinguishing and hallowing remembrance as this? I should have been better pleased to see Scotland atoning by some such symbol of reverence for her sad offences against his father. I shall conduct you into the interior of the Parliament-House in my next letter. P. M.. LETTER XXIX. TO THE SAME. AFTER passing through one or two dark and dungeon-like lobbies or anti-chambers, or by whatever more appropriate name they may be designated, one enters by a low pair of folding-doors, into what is called the Outer-House, wherein all civil cases are tried, in the first instance, by individual Judges, or Lords Ordinaries, before being submitted to the ultimate decision either of the whole Bench, or of one of its great Divisions, On being admitted, one sees a hall of very spacious dimensions, which, although not elegant in its finishing or decorations, has nevertheless an air of antique grandeur about it, that is altogether abundantly striking. The roof is very fine, being all of black oak, with the various arches of which it is composed resting one upon another, exactly as in Christ-Church Hall. The area of this hall is completely filled with law-practitioners, consisting of Solicitors and Advocates, who move in two different streams, along the respective places which immemorial custom has allotted to them on the floor. The crowd which is nearest the door, and in which I first found myself involved, is that of the Solicitors, Agents, Writers or Men of Business, (for by all these names are they called.) Here is a perfect whirl of eagerness and activity-every face alert, and sharpened into the acutest angles. Some I could see were darting about among the different bars, where pleadings were going forward, like midshipmen in an engagement, furnishing powder to the combatants. They brought their great guns, the advocates, to bear sometimes upon one Judge, and sometimes upon another; while each Judge might be discovered sitting calmly, like a fine piece of stone-work amidst the hiss of bombs and the roar of forty-pounders. In the meantime, the "men of business," who were not immediately occupied in this way, paced rapidly along-each borne on his particular wave of this great tide of the affairs of men, but all having their faces well turned up above the crowd, and keeping a sharp look-out. This was, I think, their general attitude. It reminded me of trouts bobbing near the surface of a stream, all equally sharp-set and anxious for a snap at whatever is going. Any staring or idle person must have appeared quite out of place among them, like a fixed point among Epicurus's concourse of atoms; and indeed I think, after I began to collect myself a little, I could easily observe that I myself, standing firm in the midst of the hubbub, with my arms folded ut mos est, attracted some notice from a few of those that were hurrying past me, to and fro, and ever and anon. Whether I looked like a client either in esse or in posse, I know not, but "Some fell to such perusal of my face, As they would draw me';" while I, in the mean time, could begin to discover here and there a few persons of more quiescent demeanour, who looked like some of those unfortunates, at whose expense this superb scene of motion is maintained and kept in action. Money may be compared to a momentum or impetus, of which one body loses as much as it imparts to another. The client, after having transferred a certain impetus to his agent, loses part of bis alacrity, and is apt to stand still in the Parliament-House, with a rather disconsolate air; while he sees his agent (consolatary spectacle !) inspired with the momentum of which he himself is devested, and spinning about in every sort of curve, ellipsis, aud parabola. The anxious gaze with which these individuals seemed to be contemplating the toss and tumult around them, formed a sufficient distinction between them and the cool, unconcerned, calmly perspicacious Dr. Morris. It was evident, that they could not at all enter, with any delight kindred to mine, into the sentiment of the luxurious Epicn rean, ان. 1 "Suave mari magno turbantibus æquora ventis, 179 Such of these litigants, again, as had come from the country, could be easily pointed out from among the other clients. Here and there I noticed a far-travelled Gaffer, conspicuous for his farmer's coat of grey, or lightest cærulean tincturehis staff in his ungloved horny fingers-and his clouted shoon, or tall, straight, discoloured pair of top-boots, walking about without reflecting,-to judge from his aspect---that the persons by whom he was surrounded had mouths which would make very little of demolishing a litigious farmer, with his whole stock and plenishing, and leaving no more vestige of him than remained of Acteon, after he fell in with those very instruments which he himself had been wont to employ in the chase. He need only look about him, and see the whole pack. Here are, "Pamphagus et Dorceus et Oribasus; Arcades omnes; If he had once fairly got into difficulties, and "a poinding" had gone out against him, the following would also apply; "Ille fugit per quæ fuerat loca sæpe secutus Neither Pamphagus, nor Labros, nor Ladon of the "substricta ilia," nor Leucon with the white wig, nor Asbolus with the black hair, nor the swift feet of Pterelas, nor the keen nostrils of Agre, nor the sharp bark of Hylactor, will relax into quiescence at his bidding, whose petitions had so often been sufficient to set all their energies in motion. How little will the memory of all his fees avail? how cruelly must he feel their fangs, whose snarling threats and tearing onset had afforded to himself so much matter of gratulation and applause, when some other was the victim! Contrasted with the elder and maturer "men of business," who are generally attired in sober hues, the rising generation of Dandy-Clerks make a very shining appearance.—The dust of a process newly awakened from its sleep of lustrums is a sad thing on a snow-white pair of breeches; but it is amazing how clean and brilliant these young gentlemen contrive to look, and they deserve the utmost credit for it; for besides the venerable powder of resuscitated papers and documents, no trifling quantity of dust must be brought into the Parliament-House by the shoes of the multitude resorting thither, and kept flying about by the stir of their tumultuous parade. They are really the finest beaux I have seen in this city, or so at least they appeared to be, under the favourable circumstances of contrast in which I saw them. Their bright olive surtonts, with glossy collars of velvet-their smart green riding jackets,-their waistcoats beaming in all the diversified dazzle of stripe and spot,―their neckcloths à la Waterloo or à la Belcher-all these rainbows of glory could not fail to charm the eye with a delightful sense of splendour, among such an immense hazy atmosphere of rusty black broadcloth, and tattered bombazeens. The military swagger affected by some of these spruce scribes, and the ferocious audacity with which they seemed to be hurling their bunches of briefs from one desk to another, formed an equally striking contrast to the staid and measured step of the meditating pale-faced counsellors up to the ears in occupation on the one side,and the careless pococurante lounge of their less busy juniors on the other. What a fine subject all this might have been for poor Bunbury! I wonder what made your friend Rose say, "Your Dandy's at a discount out of London." The Advocates, in the midst of their peripatecism, receive their fair proportion of all the dust that is flying, and thus, perhaps, some young men of their body may have an opportunity of acquiring a fie sober brown, to which their complexions might not have been very likely to attain through the medium of hard study. Upon the whole, they are a well thriven looking race of juvenile jurisconsults; but I certainly could not see many heads among them which Dr. Spurzheim would think of setting down as belonging to so many future Voets and Poitiers. For the most part, however, they are at least so candid as to wear their own hair, and so to afford the initiated a fair opportunity of inspecting their various conformations of cranium. A few, indeed, bury all beauties and defects in that old bird's-nest of horse-hair and pomatum, which is in this place usually adhered to by the seniors alone; for you must know the costume of the Scottish Bar is far from being regulated in the same uniform manner with that of Westminster-Hall; and those advocates, who hold no official situation under the crown, are at liberty to pace the floor of the Parliament House with or without wigs, exactly as it may please their fancy. I confess I should think it were better, either that all had wigs, or that all wanted them; for at present the mixture of bushy heads of hair, à la Berlin, or à la Cossack, with stiff rows of curls, toupees, and three tails, presents a broken and pyebald sort of aspect, to which my southern optics cannot easily reconcile themselves. Perhaps it were best to reinstate the wig in its full rights, and make it a sine qua non in the wardrobe of every counsellor; for if it be fairly allowed to disappear, the gown will probably follow; and in process of time, we may see the very Judges, like those Mr. Fearon saw in Connecticut, giving decisions in loose great coats, and black silk neckcloths. Another circumstance that offended me in the appearance of the barristers, is their total want of rule in regard to their nether integuments. I, that have been a Pro-proctor in my day, cannot away with boots, trowsers, and gaiters, worn under a gown. I think a gown implies dress, and that the advocates should wear nothing but black breeches and stockings when in court, as is the case in the south. These are very small matters; but it is astonishing how much effect such small matters produce in the general appearance of a Court of Justice-where, indeed, above all places in the world, propriety of appearance, in regard even to the most minute things, should always be studiously considered. Ever yours, P. M. |