of the most
ardent imagination. Magna est veritas, et prævalebit.«
    »I have understood,« said I, encouraged by the affability of my rattling
entertainer, »that less of this interest must attach to Scottish jurisprudence
than to that of any other country. The general morality of our people, their
sober and prudent habits« -
    »Secure them,« said the barrister, »against any great increase of
professional thieves and depredators, but not against wild and wayward starts of
fancy and passion, producing crimes of an extraordinary description, which are
precisely those to the detail of which we listen with thrilling interest.
England has been much longer a highly civilised country; her subjects have been
very strictly amenable to laws administered without fear or favour, a complete
division of labour has taken place among her subjects, and the very thieves and
robbers form a distinct class in society, subdivided among themselves according
to the subject of the depredations, and the mode in which they carry them on,
acting upon regular habits and principles, which can be calculated and
anticipated at Bow Street, Hatton Garden, or the Old Bailey. Our sister kingdom
is like a cultivated field, - the farmer expects that, in spite of all his care,
a certain number of weeds will rise with the corn, and can tell you beforehand
their names and appearance. But Scotland is like one of her own Highland glens,
and the moralist who reads the records of her criminal jurisprudence, will find
as many curious anomalous facts in the history of mind, as the botanist will
detect rare specimens among her dingles and cliffs.«
    »And that's all the good you have obtained from three perusals of the
Commentaries on Scottish Criminal Jurisprudence?« said his companion. »I suppose
the learned author very little thinks that the facts which his erudition and
acuteness have accumulated for the illustration of legal doctrines, might be so
arranged as to form a sort of appendix to the half-bound and slip-shod volumes
of the circulating library.«
    »I'll bet you a pint of claret,« said the elder lawyer, »that he will not
feel sore at the comparison. But as we say at the bar, I beg I may not be
interrupted; I have much more to say, upon my Scottish collection of Causes
Célèbres. You will please recollect the scope and motive given for the
contrivance and execution of many extraordinary and daring crimes, by the long
civil dissensions of Scotland - by the hereditary jurisdictions, which, until
1748, rested the investigation of crimes in judges, ignorant, partial, or
interested