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Kay's Originals Vol. 2

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 251 thus remind you of your duty, and of your responsibility, without at the eame time being reminded of my own; and I am not vain enough to think that such responsibility is less necessary for me than for you. Perhaps the higher the office, and the greater the power, it is the more useful that frequent opportunities should recur of reminding Magistrates that their power is conferred on them for the benefit of others ; and that, in the exercise of it, they are accountable to their superiors.” Next addressing “ the gentlemen Sheriffs, the Lord Provost and Magistrates,” his lordship adverted to the assize in which they had just been engaged ; and, from a list of commitments and prosecutions officially transmitted to him, enlarged at considerable length on the vast disproportion of crime in England and Scotland. He said it had been stated by a political writer, that one Quarter Sessions at Manchester sends more criminals for transportation than all Scotland in a year.’ This enviable inferiority of his native country he attributed to its laws and institutions-the education of youth-a resident clergy-and the maintenance of religion. ‘‘ Let us then, gentlemen, be thankful for the blessings we enjoy. While we venerate the general constitution of England, by our union with which our liberties have been secured on a surer basis than by the old constitution of Scotland, let us not undervalue our local laws and institutions, by which essential advantages are given to us, and which we ought not rashly to endanger by attempting violent innovations, the full bearing of which it is impossible to foresee.” Alluding to the Revolution in France, and the war then waging with Napoleon- a war in which, his lordship observed, “ our very existence as a nation is at stake,” he concluded his energetic appeal as follows :- “ Let us, than, maintain our Constitution as it stands, satisfied with the liberty we have, and dreading, from the example of France, that an attempt at perfect freedom may land us in the extremity of slavery and debasement. Above all, let us maintain our Constitution from foreign invasion. If subjection to a foreign foe be, and it is, the most dreadful calamity which can befall a people, even when its own Government is bad, think what wonld be the misery of conquest to us. Language never uttered-imagination never conceived-humanity never endured the horrors which await us, if subdued by the arms of France. To be utterly extirpated would be mercy, compared with the outrages we must suffer ! Let, then, the resolution of us all be fixed as yours-to bring this contest to a happy termination, m perish in the attempt. Hardships and privations we may expect ; but, when we compare them with those we shall avoidwhen we consider them as the price, and the cheap price, of liberty such as ours-for ourselves and our children, I trust that we shall bear them with cheerfulness, and receive our reward iu the gratitude of posterity.” The address of the Lord Justice-clerk was listened to with profound attention. The peculiar interest which it excited is of course referable to the then state of the country-agitated as it was by the fear of an immedirtte invasion from the armies of France. It is at all events highly creditable to the spirit and eloquence of the Judge. On the death of Lord President Blair, in 1811, the Right Hon. Charles Hope was promoted to his place. On taking his seat, 12th November of that year, he entered into a warm and feeling panegyric of his gifted predecessor. It is a remarkable fact, that the whole criminal trials in Scotland, at the autumn circuit in 1808, amounted only to eighteen ; and throughout the year they were no more than eighty ! Now, however, they are seldom less than‘seventy at a single circuit in Glasgow alone ; and the yearly average for the whole of Scotland may be stated 89 not under six hundred,
Volume 9 Page 333
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