tinel office became the subject of great excitement in Glasgow. For when Mr. Robert Alexander made his appearance in that office on Monday forenoon, and found the Safe prostrate, and the letters and papers abstracted, or taken away, he, in a great rage, taxed his partner Borthwick, with the crime of theft; and applied for, and actually got out a warrant, to seize Borthwick on that charge. On that warrant, Borthwick was seized accordingly, and taken before the Magistrates; but he told without any disguise, the plain artless story we have given, and the Magistrates consented that he should be liberated on his own parole, to appear again, if wanted. He now wished to pay a visit to some friends at Dundee, for a short period, and thither he went, fairly and openly. But the Lord Advocate, Sir William Rae, the personal friend of Sir Alex. Boswell, and with him in Parliament, alarmed and appalled by what he had learned had taken place in Glasgow, applied for a Justiciary warrant against Borthwick, such were the despotic powers of the Lord Advocates in those days, and it is the fact, that Borthwick was seized in Dundee, by a messenger-at-arms from Edinburgh, handcuffed, and placed in irons; and in the custody of that messenger, and two concurrents, armed with loaded pistols, he was taken not to Glasgow in the first instance, but to Edinburgh,-denied all access to his friends or agents, and bail peremptorily refused to be taken for him. We can prove this, and much more, by records too well authenticated, we are sorry to say. He (Borthwick) was afterwards transmitted "in safe custody" to Glasgow, with an indictment in his hands, to stand trial on the 22d day of March, 1822, before the Circuit Court of Justiciary in Glasgow, for the crime of theft from lockfast places, which was then deemed to be a capital crime, by

the law of Scotland. The "theft," all the while, consisted in taking away the aforesaid letters and papers in the way we have truly stated. When Mr. Borthwick was brought in custody to the Glasgow criminal bar, to answer that charge, which he was prepared and ready to do by his eminent Counsel, Mr. Henry Cockburn, who came out specially from Edinburgh to defend him, the diet to the amazement of everybody, was abruptly deserted pro loco et tempore, by his Majesty's Advocate; and the buffetted-about Mr. Borthwick, was re-committed to his criminal cell, in Glasgow Jail, on a fresh warrant, worse by far than his imprisonment under the caption for £50, for then he had his ale and porter whenever he chose to call for them, but now he had nothing but cold water, not always very fresh, and his "coggie" of meal brose doled out to him once in the day-all the allowance for supposed criminal prisoners in those times it is infinitely better now, whether wisely or not, we shall not presume to say, there are so many disquisitions on that theme, pro and con. It is, however, shocking to think, that we have seen prisoners-some of them perfectly innocent— lying on the cold flag stones of the cells in the old prison of Glasgow, six feet by four, in the depths of winter, without bed or blanket, or light of any kind from any window; and when we occasionally visited the poor maniacs' cells in the old Town's Hospital of Glasgow, (fronting the Clyde) worse by far, than the above "model prison" of Glasgow, as it was called-for here they were chained together, and sometimes cruelly whipped,-we thought that death itself would have been a blessed relief for many of them. So true it is, that

"Man's inhumanity to man,

Makes countless thousands mourn."

But this is another digression, which we really cannot help, because we proceed, according as our memory, governed invariably by the truth, seems to guide us.

When the knowledge of the above fact transpired in Edinburgh, that Mr. Stuart of Dunearn had challenged Sir Alex. Boswell to mortal combat, the case of Mr. Borthwick, interesting as it was, became of secondary importance; though there is scarcely any doubt, that but for that challenge, it would in all human probability have been attended with the most fatal consequences to Borthwick himself, such was the state of the law and the temper of the times, and the mode of selecting Juries in Scotland. But the Crown lawyers were soon very glad to allow him to be released from prison; for if they had persisted in bringing him to trial, pending the indictment for the duel, he would, it was thought, have made other discoveries infinitely more disgraceful than those attaching to Sir Alexander Boswell.

The latter gentleman (in all other respects, a most amiable and accomplished man, inheriting all the talents of Johnson's biographer,) peremptorily refused, as we have already stated, to make any apology whatever to Mr. Stuart; and now the affair between them came to a most serious and dreadful crisis.

Mr. Stuart, a still more amiable man, but driven to this necessity, wrote out his fatal and written challenge. It was approved of by his friend and seconder, the then Right Hon. the Earl of Rosslyn, who was the intimate friend of the illustrious Duke of Wellington, and afterwards one of the Duke's Cabinet Ministers. With that challenge, the Earl of Rosslyn sought out Sir Alexander Boswell in his club in Edinburgh, and had an interview

with him. Sir Alexander perceived he had now no alternative. He therefore speedily hastened to his own friend, the Hon. John Douglas, brother of the then Marquis of Queensberry, and secured him to act as his seconder. Somehow or other, this challenge transpired in Edinburgh, within a few hours afterwards, and reached the ears of the Hon. Adam Duff, the then Sheriff of that county. The Sheriff promptly issued his warrant, and had the parties instantly seized, and bound under heavy penalties to keep the peace. This was done in the hope -it proved vain-of preventing the contemplated duel. The Sheriff's warrant could only apply to his own jurisdiction within the County of Edinburgh. The parties, therefore, either on Monday night, or early on Tuesday morning, crossed the Firth of Forth, with all expedition, and landed with their seconds and other attendants, in the county of Fife. At eleven o'clock on Tuesday morning, with no Sheriff or other officer, or obstruction of any kind in view, they assembled by appointment, in a field near the village of Auchtertool, three or four miles inland from Aberdour, opposite to Leith. It was indeed a memorable meeting, hardly yet to be forgotten in Scotland. The chief parties, viz., Mr. Stuart and Sir Alex. Boswell, were soon placed at a distance of twelve paces from each other, with loaded pistols in their hands. We leave the Earl of Rosslyn to tell the tale himself, as it will be found in another page. Both parties immediately fired. Stuart stood skaithless; but the bullet of his pistol pierced the body of Sir Alex. Boswell, who fell to the ground mortally wounded; and he died in the course of the following day. The news of that event, so slow was the communication in those days, did not reach Glasgow till the Friday following. It created, as may be supposed,

a great sensation not only in Edinburgh and Glasgow, but over the realm.

Borthwick's trial being expected to take place in Glasgow on the following week, a tremendous uproar again occurred about it. We have a copy of his original indictment before us, and in it, we observe that the name of Mr. James Napier stands prominently as a witness for the Crown. We extract the following from the Glasgow Courier of Tuesday, the 23d April, 1822:

"The general belief (says the Courier) that Borthwick's trial would come on yesterday, brought a great concourse of people to the vicinity of the Court-House, at an early hour. The persons assembled would have filled the Justiciary Hall ten times over. The interest excited by the expectation that this important case would come on then, was so great, that the door-keepers were unable without great inconvenience to the parties, to pass the Jury, the Counsel, and the prisoner's agents, who, as usual are admitted by tickets. Under these circumstances, Bailie Craigie, the Acting Chief-Magistrate, and Dr. Cleland, found it necessary to attend at the principal gate an hour before the opening of the Court, by which order was preserved, and free admission procured for those who had tickets, and the public generally, till the Court was filled. The crowd was kept from pressing on the gates by files of horse and artillery.”

Notwithstanding of this great preparation, the Advocate-Depute, as we have already stated, much to the chagrin and disappointment of many parties, deserted the diet pro loco et tempore; and some time afterwards, Mr. Borthwick was liberated from prison. He was, in fact, liberated without bail or caution of any kind at all. But he remonstrated to Parliament, and craved redress. His petition to that effect, which we have often revised, was ably and energetically presented and supported by the Hon. James Abercromby, afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons, and created Lord Dunfermline; and after a