only son, and of course a spoiled urchin, to the forms of the little republic ?-why, Alan. And who taught me to pin a losen, head a bicker, and hold the bannets ?-Alan once more. If I became the pride of the Yards, and the dread of the hucksters in the High-School wynd, it was under thy patronage; and, but for thee, I had been contented with humbly passing through the Cowgate Port, without climbing over the top of it, and had never seen the Kittle nine-steps * nearer than from Bareford's Parks. You taught me to keep my fingers off the weak, and to clench my fist against the strong,-to carry no tales out of school-to stand forth like a true man-obey the stern order of a Pande manum, and endure my

• A pass on the very brink of the Castle-rock, by which it is just possible for a goat, or a High-School boy, to turn the corner of the building where it rises from the edge of the precipice. This was so favourite a feat with the hell and neck boys" of the higher classes, that at one time sentinels were posted to prevent its repetition. The manning the Cowgate Port, especially in snow-ball time, was also a chofce amusement, as it offered an inaccessible station for the boys who used these missiles to the an. noyance of the passengers. The gateway is now down; and proba bly most of its garrison lie as low as the fortress.

pawmies without wincing, like one that is determined not to be the better for them. In a word, before I knew thee, I knew nothing.

At College it was the same. When I was incorrigibly idle, your example and encouragement roused me to mental exertion, and shewed me the way to intellectual enjoyment. You made me an historian, a metaphysician, (invita Minerva,)— nay, by heaven! you had almost made an advocate of me as well as of yourself. Yes, rather than part with you, Alan, I attended a weary season at the Scotch Law Class; a wearier at the Civil; and with what excellent advantage, my note-book filled with caricatures of the professors and my fellow-students, is it not yet extant to testify?

Thus far have I held on with thee untired;

and, to say truth, purely and solely that I might travel the same road with thee. But it will not do, Alan. By my faith, man, I could as soon think of being one of those ingenious traders who cheat little Master Jackies on the outside of the partition with tops, balls, batts, and battledores,

as a member of the long-robed fraternity within, who impose on grown country gentlemen with bouncing brocards of law.* Now, don't you read this to your worthy father, Alan-he loves me well enough, I know, of a Saturday night; but he thinks me but idle company for any other day of the week. And here, I suspect, lies your real objection to taking a ramble with me through the southern counties in this delicious weather. I know the good gentleman has hard thoughts of me for being so unsettled as to leave Edinburgh before the Session rises; perhaps, too, he quarrels a little-I will not say, with my want of ancestry, but with my want of connections. He reckons me a lone thing in this world, Alan, and so, in good truth, I am; and it seems a reason to him why

The Hall of the Parliament House of Edinburgh was, in former days, divided into two unequal portions by a partition, the inner side of which was consecrated to the use of the gentlemen of the law; while the outer division was occupied by the stalls of stationers, toymen, and the like, as in a modern bazaar. From the old play of the Plain Dealer, it seems such was formerly the case with Westminster-Hall. Minos has now purified his courts in both cities from all traffick but his own.

you should not attach yourself to me, that I can claim no interest in the general herd.

Do not suppose I forget what I owe him, for permitting me to shelter for four years under his roof: My obligations to him are not the less, but the greater, if he never heartily loved me. He is angry, too, that I will not, or cannot, be a lawyer, and, with reference to you, considers my disinclination that way as pessimi exempli, as he might say.

But he need not be afraid that a lad of your steadiness will be influenced by such a reed shaken by the winds as I am. You will go on doubting with Dirleton, and resolving these doubts with Stewart, until the cramp speech has been spoken more solito from the corner of the bench, and with covered head-until you have sworn to defend the liberties and privileges of the College of Justice -until the black gown is hung on your shoulders, and you are free as any of the Faculty to sue or defend. Then will I step forth, Alan, and in a character, which even your father will allow may be more useful to you than had I shared this splendid termination of your legal studies. In a

word, if I cannot be a counsel, I am determined to be a client-a sort of person without whom a lawsuit would be as dull as a supposed case. Yes, I am determined to give you your first fee. One can easily, I am assured, get into a lawsuit-it is only the getting out which is sometimes found troublesome ;-and, with your kind father for an agent, and you for my counsel learned in the law, and the worshipful Master Samuel Griffiths to back me, a few sessions shall not tire my pȧtience. In short, I will make my way into Court, even if it should cost me the committing a delict, or at least a quasi delict.-You see all is not lost of what Erskine wrote, and Wallace taught.

Thus far I have fooled it off well enough; and yet, Alan, all is not at ease within me. I am affected with a sense of loneliness, the more depressing that it seems to me to be a solitude peculiarly my own. In a country where all the world have a circle of consanguinity, extending to sixth cousins at least, I am a solitary individual, having only one kind heart to throb in unison with

my own. If I were condemned to labour for my bread, methinks I should less regard this peculiar spe