EDINBURGH-PARLIAMENT-HOUSE.

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opposite to the portico. Where it is proposed to place this fine edifice, I know not; but whereever it is placed, so it be placed at all, it cannot fail to add immeasurably to the effect of the finest situation, and the finest city in the world. But I have wandered widely from St Giles's and the Parliament Close.

The southern side of the square, and a small part of the eastern side, are filled with vene. rable Gothic buildings, which for many generarations have been devoted to the accommodation of the Courts of Law, but which are now entirely shut out from the eye of the public, by a very ill-conceived and tasteless front-work of modern device, including a sufficient allowance of staring square windows, and Ionic pillars and pilasters. What beauty the front of the structure may have possessed in its original state, I have no means of ascertaining; but Mr W every time we pass through the Close, as pathetically as could be wished, over" the glory that hath departed." At all events, there can be no question, that the present frontispiece is every way detestable. It is heavy and clumsy in itself; and extremely ill chosen, moreover, whether one considers the character and appearance of the hall to which it gives access, or the aspect of

sighs

the cathedral, and the old buildings in immediate juxta-position without. Had it been resolved to remove entirely the seat of the Courts of Law, and provide for them more convenient and more extensive accommodation in some more modern part of the city, I am informed the money that has been thrown away within the last thirty years upon repairs and alterations, none of which have added anything to the beauty or much to the convenience of the old Courts, would have been abundantly sufficient to cover the expense of building the new.

Right in front of the main entrance to the Courts as they stand, a fire equestrian statue of Charles II. enjoys a much more conspicuous situation than the merits of its original seem at all entitled to claim-more particularly from the people of Scotland. I think it rather unfortunate that this should be the only statue which salutes the public eye in the streets of Edinburgh. To say the truth, he is the only one of all our monarchs for whose character I think it impossible to feel one touch of sympathy or respect. Even his more unfortunate brother had honesty of principle, and something of the feelings of an Englishman. But why should the poor pensioned profligate, whose wit only rendered

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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.

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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 foldingdoors, 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