admired and pursued it. The answer is obvious:-The style, in its full merit, is comprehensible to every body. The sublime and the beautiful are unperceived by the vulgar; these higher excellencies are reserved for the enjoyment of higher minds. But every spectator can judge of the accuracy with which a crying child, or a pair of fire-tongs, is delineated. The subject most easily understood will always be most popular; and a ballad-singer in the street can collect greater crowds, by chaunting the comic songs of a Sadler's Wells burletta, than he would draw together by repeating the text of Macbeth.

Mr Woodforde had several works. One of the most conspicuous, and which indeed was placed in a very attractive situation, was a design from the Lay of the Last Minstrel. The lines that suggested it are to be found in the introduction to that poem.

The way was long, the wind was cold:
The minstrel was infirm and old :'
His withered cheek and tresses gray,
Seemed to have known a better day:
His harp, his sole remaining joy,
Was carried by an orphan boy.

Perhaps, the character of the minstrel, in this picture, is a little too wild and fierce for the old man represented by these lines of Mr Scott; whose minstrel, till roused by the stimulating attentions of the noble hostess, and warmed by the flow of his own song, appears to have nothing of that fiery soul which glares in the expression of the countenance painted by Mr Woodforde. The original minstrel appears, indeed, in every instance, the brother of a gentle race tenderness, descriptive sweetness, and simple, soft feeling, are the characteristics of his muse; her inspirations do not disturb his

frame with oracular dilatations; or, to use an allusion more congenial with a Scottish subject, he never boils with the agitations of a second sight. But the character of the young attendant, the orphan boy, has every thing that the imagination can desire, of beauty and enthusiasm. The cold breeze blows among his short but floating locks, and the dreariness of the external scene forms an

admirable contrast with that fervour of youthful feeling which glows upon his fair face. The picture, on the whole, has very great effect, and exhibits an undeniable proof of vivid genius.

A genius of a kind somewhat different, but in no wise inferior, is to be seen in another work of the same artist. It is the Zara of Collins:

Farewell the youth whom sighs could not detain,

Whom Zara's breaking heart implored in vain;

Yet, as thou goest, may every blast arise Weak and unfelt, as these rejected sighs.

She sits upon a bank, with her arm resting on her knee, and supporting her cheek. The placid sor▾ row of her fascinating countenance speaks with irresistible tenderness to the heart. The whole style and expression of her face and figure are lovely; and we can only wonder what materials could have constituted the frame of that youth whom such a creature's sighs could not detain.

Of the exhibitors in the Model Academy, the principal were, Mr Nollekens, Mr Westmacott, Mr Bacon, and Mr Flaxman. Mr Nollekens attracted great attention, by busts of several distinguished political men: Mr Westmacott, by a bust, and by a basso relievo, called a filial tribute: Mr Bacon, by several busts, and by his monument for a deceased

officer: Mr Flaxman, by a basso relievo.

The exhibition at the British Institution was not extremely striking. Perhaps, the most remarkable work was Mr Westall's painting of the Shepherds in a Storm. Having, at so considerable a length, discussed the merits of the principal exhibitors at the Royal Academy, we have left ourselves no room for a detailed notice of this secondary gallery. For the present, we must content ourselves with observing, that, upon the plan on which the artists now proceed, this gallery can never be very well furnished; for nobody seems to think of sending a picture thither, unless it be hanging on hand. The work is sent to Somerset-house, if it be thought good enough; but if not, it comes to the British Gallery. If the artist does think his work good enough for Somerset-house, and yet is disappointed of a purchaser, the rejected picture is sent, at second hand, to the Gallery. Now and then, to be sure, a picture that is really

good finds no purchaser at the Academy; but this is a rare occurrence; and certainly, with the exception of the landscapes, the pictures are of a merit materially inferior to those of Somerset-house.

The Water-Colour exhibition, in Bond-street, contained many ingenious works. Mr Glover and Mr Heaphy were among the most conspicuous artists. There was another exhibition of water-colour drawings in Lower Brook-street; and here the most praise-worthy works were—a view of a Fish-Market on the coast, by Mr S. Owen; the First Shilling, by Mr W. J. Thomson; and a small landscape, after Wilson, by Mrs Green.

In some future year, when the more important concerns of the Royal Academy shall allow us room, we may probably make some observations on the considerable painters at the British Institution; and on the Water-Colour artists, who do not exhibit also at Somerset-house.

IN the Historical Department of the present Register, we have endeavoured, as is necessary at the commencement of such an undertaking, to lay before our readers a summary of the most remarkable events which have occurred in the period to which it relates; accompanied with such a sketch of the predisposing causes as might enable them fully to understand the events themselves, and duly to appreciate the political consequences to which they may be expected to lead. In framing this summary, it will not be imagined that the changes proposed, and those actually adopted, in the administration of justice in this our native country, should have escaped our recollection. They were too interesting to us as Scotsmen, and, if w do not egregiously misapprehend its import and bearings, the system, at one time under the contemplation of the legislature, was by far too important to every person who under

stands the value of the constitution under which he lives, to have justified us in passing over the subject in total silence, or in bestowing on it that subordinate degree of attention which a slight change in one department of the municipal law of this part of the empire ought to attract, in a work professedly national.

From feelings of this kind, it was, at one time, our intention to devote a portion of that division of our work, to which we have given the title of THE HISTORY OF EUROPE, to this important subject; but, on farther consideration, we became satisfied, that, for several reasons, this plan ought not to be adopted. There was some hazard that a full exposition of the subject of our enquiry, its origin and consequences, might not prove very interesting to a large class of readers; while, at the same time, we could not content ourselves with a slight and general revision, as if the

attention of the legislature had been directed to some insignificant arrangement in the proceedings of a petty territorial court, preserving inviolate the great principles and land-marks of the law. We have, therefore, set apart this section to a " View of the Changes proposed and adopted in the Administration of Justice in Scotland;" and shall attempt to lay before the public a sketch of the evils most severely felt in the system of Scottish jurisprudence, and of the remedies intended to remove those evils, which have, successively, been under the contemplation of the legislature; accompanied with such remarks as have occurred to us on the probable consequences of what has been done, and of what has been rejected.

It is not necessary for our present purpose to trace the history of the Court of Session, our supreme civil court, from its establishment, in 1532, and to explain the nature and extent of its jurisdiction, or the manner in which that jurisdiction is carried into effect. At the time when the first of the bills which have given rise to these observations was introduced into Parliament, and for nearly a century before it, this Court was composed of fourteen Ordinary Judges, (as they are termed,) and a Lord President. In this tribunal the cognizance of all personal and real rights was vested. The trial of public wrongs, or crimes and misdemeanours, belongs exclusively to the Court of Justiciary, and of revenue questions, to the Court of Exchequer; but over every other dispute which can occur in the multifarious intercourse of human society, whether they regard a man's property, his status, or his character, the Court of Session, either originally, or by appeal, has a supreme and universal jurisdiction. The system

of personal rights, recognized by that law which it administers, is founded on the law of Rome; that admirable code of equity, almost unknown to our neighbours of the sister kingdom, till the time of Lord Mansfield. Its real rights have the same roots with those of every other feudal nation. And all these the Court of Session decides without the assistance of a Jury.

Each of the fourteen Ordinary Judges may be said to form a separate and independent court; for, with certain minute exceptions, foreign to our present purpose, every cause is submitted to his opinion in the first instance; and his judgment, if not altered by his brethren sitting in what is termed the Inner House, has the force and effect of a decree of the Court of Session. The merits of the case are first stated in a writ, called a summon, sued out by the party by whom the action is instituted, and in defences for his adversary; both vaguely, incorrectly, and inartificially prepared. The cause is then pleaded, iva voce, by the counsel of the parties. If the issue chances to be precise, the Lord Ordinary may give his judgment; but it is seldom that the cause advances so rapidly in its progress. In some cases. the summons is to be altered in others, writings, material to one of the parties, are to be recovered. From the necessity of adducing a proof by witnesses; from difficulties arising in the discussion of the cause; from the reluctance of hazarding a judgment on an argument at the bar-a reluctance laudable in its motive, but productive of much inconvenience, of various descriptions; and often from pretexts, impossible to be parried, to which a litigant, anxious to delay an event, which, he is conscious, cannot be eva

ded, has recourse; the Judge orders the case o be stated in writing. A written argument is prepared, still more loose than the original summons and defences. In the preparation of this, a considerable time is almost always employed. Additional information may be thought necessary by the Judge; he has an unlimited power of reviewing his own judgments; and, when he has given his final determination, the losing party may remove his cause to the whole court, where the same sort of pleading goes on. He may then, if he thinks fit, betake himself to the House of Lords, which is the last round in the ladder of litigation.

In this rapid and general sketch of the mode of dispensing justice in our Supreme Civil Court, it must not be forgotten, that, in those cases which rest exclusively on parole evidence, the Court has no oppor unity of seeing and examining the witnesses, on whose testimony their judgment depends. Commissioners are appointed by the Court, or the Judge who has directed the proof to be taken. These Commissioners, as is unavoidable, are not all equally qualified for the discharge of the delicate and important duty assigned to them:--their province is to state the result of the evidence led in their presence; but they are not empowered either to bring witnesses before them, or to commit for prevarication or perjury. We are not disposed to enumerate all the consequences of this mode of procedure. To say nothing of the expence to both parties, or of the inconvenience produced by the mistakes, or indeci ion of the Commissioner, every one must be sensible that it is calculated to create difficulties, almost insurmountable, in the discovery of truth; and that it de

prives the Judge of all access to those minute and undescribable circumstances by which alone the credibility of the evidence laid before him can be correctly appreciated. To adopt a maxim, already applied to the subject we are considering, Alia est auctoritas præsentium testum, alia testimonirum quæ recitari solent.

The evils produced by these infallible recipes for misdecision were the subject of various publications, at the time the proposal for improving the administration of justice in Scotland was first submitted to the wisdom of the legislature; and we are not inclined, nor do we deem it necessary, to resume them in detail. It is evident, in the first place, that the establishment of one court, possessed of an exclusive jurisdiction, tended to repress that emulation to which all eminence in science, as well as all excellence in the inferior departments of life, may, perhaps, be ultimately referred. It is evident, in the second place, that, if, in the language of the English law, it be true, that multitudinem decem faciunt, a court of fif teen men, trained to polemical habits from their youth, is more fitted for the dexteri ies of a popular debate, than for the gravity and decorum of judicial deliberation. From these radical errors in the constitution of the Court, aided by the defects in the mode of pleading, and of adducing parole evidence, to which we have adverted, arose, uncertainty in the state of the law; the delay of justice; an expence, which either deprived the poor of their remedy, without a struggle, or which compelled them to withdraw from the field of litigation before the course was finished; and a want of confidence in the judgment of the Supreme Court, which sometimes induced parties to prefer a de