was not the less Supreme, nor were the lawyers less able or less eminent men on that account. I daresay many of our forms appear just as absurd to the Americans.

Mr. Vance, ex-Governor of the same State, said jocosely, when this subject was mooted, "Don't go away with the notion that we discard forms. Judge B, sir, is as great a stickler for forms as any man in your country. One day a soldier, who had been battered considerably in the war, was brought in as a witness. The Judge told him to hold up his right hand.

"Can't do it, sir," said the man.

“Got a shot in that arm, sir."

"Then hold up your left."

The man said he had got a shot in that arm also.

“Then,” said the Judge, sternly, “You must hold up your leg. No man can be sworn, sir, in this Court by law, unless he holds up something!"

DAVID MACRAE.

CLIV.

DEFENCE OF QUEEN CAROLINE.

Such, my lords, is the case now before you! Such is the evidence in support of this measure

-evidence inadequate to prove a debt-impotent to deprive of a civil right—ridiculous to convict of the lowest offence-scandalous if brought forward to support a charge of the highest nature which the law knows-monstrous to ruin the honour, to blast the name of an English Queen! What shall I say, then, if this is the proof by which an act of judicial legislation, a parliamentary sentence, an ex post facto law, is sought to be passed against this defenceless woman? My lords, I pray you to pause. I do earnestly beseech you to take heed! You are standing upon the brink of a precipice-then beware! It will go forth your judgment, if sentence shall go against the Queen. But it will be the only judgment you ever pronounced, which, instead of reaching its object, will return and bound back upon those who give it.

Save the country, my lords, from the horrors of this catastrophe-save yourselves from this peril-rescue that country, of which you are the ornaments, but in which you can flourish no longer, when severed from the people, than the blossom when cut off from the roots and the stem of the tree. Save that country, that you may continue to adorn it-save the Crown, which is in jeopardy-the Aristocracy, which is shaken-save the Altar, which must stagger with the blow that rends its kindred Throne! You have said, my lords, you have willed--the

Church and the King have willed-that the Queen should be deprived of its solemn service. She has, instead of that solemnity, the heartfelt prayers of the people. She wants no prayer of mine. But I do here pour forth my humble supplications at the Throne of Mercy, that that mercy may be poured down upon the people, in a larger measure than the merits of their rulers may deserve, and that your hearts may be turned to justice!

BROUGHAM.

CLV.

DEATH OF MORRIS.

It was under the burning influence of revenge, that the wife of Macgregor commanded that the hostage exchanged for her husband's safety should be brought into her presence. I believe her sons had kept this unfortunate wretch out of her sight, for fear of the consequences; but, if it was so, their humane precaution only postponed his fate. They dragged forward at her summons a wretch already half-dead with terror, in whose agonised features I recognised, to my horror and astonishment, my old acquaintance Morris.

He fell prostrate before the female chief, with an effort to clasp her knees, from which she drew back, as if his touch had been pollution;

so that all he could do, in token of the extremity of his humiliation, was to kiss the hem of her plaid. I never heard entreaties for life poured forth with such agony of spirit. The ecstacy of fear was such that, instead of paralysing his tongue, as on ordinary occasions, it even rendered him eloquent, and, with cheeks as pale as ashes, hands compressed in agony, eyes that seemed to be taking their last look of all mortal objects, he protested, with the deepest oaths, his total ignorance of any design on the life of Rob Roy, whom he swore he loved and honoured as his own soul. In the inconsistency of his terror, he said he was but the agent of others, and he muttered the name of Rashleigh.

He prayed but for life-for life he would give all he had in the world: it was but life he asked -life, if it were to be prolonged under tortures and privations; he asked only breath, though it should be drawn in the damps of the lowest caverns of their hills. It is impossible to describe the scorn, the loathing, and contempt with which the wife of Macgregor regarded this wretched petitioner for the poor boon of existence.

"I could have bid you live," she said, “had life been to you the same weary and wasting burden that it is to me--that it is to every noble and generous mind. But you-wretch! you could creep through the world unaffected by its various disgraces, its ineffable miseries,

its constantly accumulating masses of crime and sorrow-you could live and enjoy yourself, while the noble-minded are betrayed—while nameless and birthless villains tread on the neck of the brave and long-descended — you could enjoy yourself, like a butcher's dog in the shambles, battening on garbage, while the slaughter of the brave went on around you! This enjoyment you shall not live to partake of; you shall die, base dog, and that before yon cloud has passed over the sun!"

She gave a brief command in Gaelic to her attendants, two of whom seized upon the prostrate suppliant and hurried him to the brink of a cliff which overhung the flood. He set up the most piercing and dreadful cries that fear ever uttered-I may well term them dreadful, for they haunted my sleep for years afterwards. As the murderers, or executioners, call them as you will, dragged him along, he recognised me even in that moment of horror, and exclaimed, in the last articulate words I ever heard him utter: "Oh, Mr. Osbaldiston, save me! save me!"

I was so much moved by this horrid spectacle, that, although in momentary expectation of sharing his fate, I did attempt to speak in his behalf; but, as might have been expected, my interference was sternly disregarded. The victim was held fast by some, while others, binding a large heavy stone in a plaid, tied it

I