*

This cause, cries Hailes, to judge I can't pretend,
For justice, I see, wants an e at the end.

7

Lord Coalstont expressed his doubts and his fears,
And Strichent then in his weel weels and O dears;
This cause much resembles that of M'Harg,
And should go the same way says Lordy Barjarg.§

8

Let me tell you my Lords this cause is no joke;
Says with a horse laugh my Lord Elliock,||

for a horse? All which queries were politely and separately answered.

"Now Sir, pray what may be the toll for an ass?" " If your Lordship will take the trouble of passing thro' the toll, the keeper will inform you." Saying so, the Professor made a low bow and walked away, leaving the learned Lord far from comfortable. As, however, Kames relished a good thing, he took occasion after dinner to tell the story, praising the wit of the supposed idiot, when some one asked for a description of this clever fool, and having got it, he astonished the judge by telling him that this imagined natural was one of the cleverest men in Scotland, and the then Professor of Mathematics in the University of Aberdeen. His Lordship immediately expressed a wish to be introduced, and subsequently he and the Professor became very intimate.

Hailes. Sir David Dalrymple, Bart. one of the most upright and accomplished Judges that ever sat on the Scotish Bench. The annals of Scotland for the first time placed the early history of his native country on something like a solid foundation. He was remarkably critical and very severe on any omission or verbal inaccuracies in the papers before him.

† Coalston.-George Brown of Coalston, in the county of Haddington, appointed a Judge, 1756, died 1776. The Earl of Dalhousie, by the recent demise of his mother, is now in possession of the estate of Coalston, which she inherited from her father the Judge.

Strichen.-Alexander Fraser of Strichen, raised to the Bench 5th June 1730, and appointed a Lord of Justiciary 1736. His Lordship married Ann, Countess of Bute, in 1731, and by his Lady had one son, Alexander, whose grandson, Thomas Alexander, ultimately succeeded by a destination in the entail, to the Lovat estates, and was, in 1837, created a British Peer by the title of Lord Lovat. Lord Strichen died 15th February 1775.

§ Barjarg. James Erskine, who subsequently changed his title, as a Lord of Session, to Alva,—he was very diminutive in stature. He died in 1796.

Elliock.-James Veitch, made a Judge of the Court of Session in 1761. He died in 1793. He owed his elevation to the Bench more to his political influence than to his legal talents.

To have read all the papers I pretend not to brag,
Says my Lord Gardenstone* with a snuff and a wag.

9

Up rose the President+ and an angry man was he,
To alter this judgement I never can agree;
The east wing said yes, and the west wing cried not,
And it carried adhere by my Lord's casting vote.

10

This cause being somewhat knotty and perplext,

Their Lordships not knowing how they'd determine next;
And as the session was to rise so soon,

They superseded extract till the 12th of June.

PART SECOND.

1

Having lost it, so now we prepare for the summer,
And on the 12th of June presented a reclaimer;
But dreading a refuse, we gave Dundas‡ a fee,
And though it run nigh, it was carried to see.

2

In order to bring aid from usage bygone,

The answers were drawn by quondam Mess John ;§

He united with such art our law with the civil,

That the counsel, on both sides, would have seen him to the devil.

* Gardenstone.-Francis Garden became a Judge in 1764. He died in 1793. He was a clever but eccentric person, not overburdened with judicial wisdom. † Dundas. Robert Dundas, Esq. Lord President.

Dundas. Henry, first Viscount Melville.

§ Mess John.-John Erskine of Carnock, author of the Institute of the Law of Scotland.

3

The cause being called, my Lord Justice-Clerk,*

With all due respect, began a loud bark;

He appeal'd to his conscience, his heart, and from thence,
Concluded to alter, but to give no expense.

4

Lord Stonefield,+ unwilling his judgment to podder,
Or to be anticipate agreed with his brother;
But Monboddot was clear the bill to enforce,
Because, he observed, t'was the price of a horse.

5

Says Pitfours with a wink and his hat all a'gee,
I remember a case in the year twenty-three,
The magistrates of Banff contra Robert Carr,
I remember well, I was then at the bar.

6

Likewise my Lords in the case of Peter Caw,
Superflua non nocent was found to be law:

Lord Kennet|| also quoted the case of one Lithgow
Where a penalty in a bill was held pro non scripto.

7

Lord President brought his chair to the plum,

Laid hold of the bench and brought forward his bum:

Justice-Clerk.-Sir Thomas Miller of Glenlee, Bart. He was, upon the death of President Dundas, raised to the Presidency, (1788.) His Lordship held this high appointment but a short time, as he died in September 1789. He was the father of Lord Glenlee.

† Stonefield. John Campbell, who became a Judge of the Court of Session, and took that title.

Monboddo.-James Burnet, Esq. appointed 1767,—died 1799.

§ Pitfour.-James Ferguson of Pitfour raised to the Bench 1764,-died 1777. His eyesight was weak, in consequence of which he always wore his hat on the

Bench.

Kennet. Robert Bruce of Kennet, appointed a Judge 1764,-died 1785.

In these answers, my Lords, some freedoms have been used
Which I could point out, provided I chus'd.

8

I was for this interlocutor, my Lords I admit,
But am open to conviction as long's I here do sit;
To oppose your precedents I quote you some cases,
But Tait a priori hurried up the causes.

9

He prov'd it as clear as the sun in the sky

That their maxims of law could not here apply,

That the writing in question was neither bill nor band,
But something unknown in the law of the land.

10

The question adhere or alter, being put,

It carried to alter by a casting vote:

Baillie then mov'd.-In the bill there's a raze,

But by this time their Lordships had called a new cause.

VIII.

THE FACULTY GARLAND.

From a printed broadside dated 1785, said to have been composed on occasion of the application of Mr. John Pattison, to be admitted a Member of the Faculty of Advocates.†

Tait.

TUNE-The old woman of Grimstone.

Ye orators all,

Attend to my call,

Lest ye suffer a Jewish dispersion;

The Faculty, (sure,

To keep themselves pure,)

To rogues have ta'en up an aversion.

Alexander Tait, Clerk of Session.

+ Mr. John Pattison, son of the Rev. Mr. John Pattison, Minister of the Gos

pel in Edinburgh, was admitted Advocate 27th January 1787.

To wander about,

In a dirty black clout,

Tho' none are the fools to employ them;
They reckon of late

Privileges so great,

That they do not wish more to enjoy them.

The Advocates met,

The point to debate,
Upon this, so important occasion;

Knaves, Writers, and fools,

To bar by such rules,

As will not admit of evasion.

The first, I've heard say,

Who spoke, was C[harle]s Hay,*-
And this was the lawyer's beginning ;
Writers' prentices here

Should never appear,
Nor people who wear dirty linen.

Henry Erskine,+ I'm told,
Thought the candidate old,
If twenty and five they were past;
Tho' orator Tom,‡

Should a midshipman roam,

And not be a lawyer at last.

Says Bob, || since 'tis true,

I, at twenty and two,

Afterwards Lord Newton. He had, previously to passing Advocate, served an apprenticeship.

† Dean of Faculty at one time, and Lord Advocate during the Whig Administration.

His brother, afterwards Lord Chancellor.

Robert Dundas, Esq. Solicitor-General, then Lord Advocate, and finally Lord Chief Baron of Exchequer, which office he held till his death. He was a very amiable man.