ampled persecution, to which the writer, though an Englishman, had been exposed by this officer. That by a prostitution of his public duties, he (Mackcoull) had been illegally imprisoned, stripped of his property, and subjected to a six year's litigation of abuse, irrelevancy, and calumny. Then follow some remarks on the saleable nature of the Procurator's ·Office, and his unconstitutional nomination.

"The high and extravagant price given, almost monthly, by culprit offenders, and Scottish bankers, to the Police of Bow-street, for furnishing and sending down into Scotland some ill-fated Englishman, whose supposed guilt shall, with the operation and abuse of Scottish law, prevent detection in their more legitimate channels, has, I sus pect, rather generated than suppressed these crimes. No crime has, of late, become so frequent as that of robbery of the Scottish banks; and while the stale averment, that the crime has been committed by Englishmen entering their Banks with false keys, is pleaded to Scottish judges, it excludes the more legitimate presumption that the pretended theft may have been committed by Scotchmen entering their banks with their own keys." P. 288.

The letter concludes with the customary fifth-act, drumand-trumpet flourish of Magna Charta, and the Habeas Corpus Act; earnestly imploring redress and justice, and demanding relief from the operation of an odious and corrupt authority, &c. &c. &c.

The situation of the bank at this time was curious.

"Unless they proved Mackcoull's participation in the robbery, and that the notes with which the bills were purchased were part of those stolen from their bank they behoved to deliver up to Mackcoull the said bills, amounting to £991 odd, and interest at 5 per cent., from May 1813-to lose all the expense they had been at in claiming their own property, and pay all Mack coull's expenses (amounting to nearly £1000) in prosecuting them, besides the disgrace of losing the action-an action, we believe, without a parallel in the annals of any court in Europe;-a public depredatora convicted rogue and vagabond-going at large in the metropolis of Scotland, without any lawful trade or employment, denouncing courts, magistrates, and private individuals, and prosecuting, with their own money, in the supreme court of that country, a respectable banking company, for attempting to keep a part of their property of which he had robbed them, and which was actually found in his possession. But this was not all: Mackcoull's intentions were, if he succeeded in the Jury Court, to follow up the decision with an action of damages, in which, it is the opinion of many, he would also have been successful!" P. 185.

On the 11th of May, 1820, the three following issues were tried.

1st. Was the defendant guilty of stealing, or carrying away from the premises of the said Banking Company the property charged?

2d. Whether he received the money, or any part of it? "3d. Whether the notes found on his person, or traced to his possession, are the same that were stolen from the said bankinghouse?" P. 202.

Mackcoull, to the astonishment of all present, took his place in Court. The trial deserves to be read at length. By the most indefatigable exertion, Mr. Denovan, whom we have before mentioned, had succeeded in bringing up a train of witnesses, who identified Mackcoull as one of three persons travelling from Glasgow to London two days after the robbery; and detailed a variety of collateral circumstances, amounting, in the aggregate, to the strongest proof of his guilt. To complete the evidence, Scoltock, the blacksmith, upon whose absence Mackcoull implicitly relied, was placed in the box.

"On hearing his name, Mackcoull rose from his seat, and at. tempted to get out of court; but the crowd was so great, that he found it impossible to reach the door before Scoltock appeared. "The instant he saw him he changed colour, and sunk by the side of the wall in a kind of faint. He was assisted out of court, and did not again make his appearance for some time." P. 249.

The Jury found for the prosecutor on all three issues, and Mackcoull was tried for the robbery before the High Court of Justiciary on the 19th of June. The same facts were proved by the same witnesses, with one or two additions, and a verdict of guilty was recorded without hesitation.

"On being carried back to the jail, his whole stock of fortitude and resolution left him. He appeared to be overwhelmed with despair, and observed to the governor, with much emotion, that had the eye of God not been upon him, such a connected chain of evi dence never could have been brought forward.'" P. 274.

A respite for a month was received for him on the XIVth of July, and three weeks afterwards a reprieve during pleasure.

"After the month of August, Mackcoull fell into a natural decline, which affected his mental faculties so much that he became altogether silly and childish. He was haunted in his sleep by frightful dreams and visions, and frequently started up with such dreadful cries, and horrible expressions and imprecations, that none of the other felons could remain in the cell with him. He was visited occasionally, not only by the regular Ordinary of the jail, but also

by several eminent divines, to all of whom he behaved with becom ing respect, but generally refused or declined to enter with them on: religious subjects. Sometimes, however, it is said he attributed this obduracy to the want of a religious education, and the very slight acquaintance he had with the Bible. Previous to his death, he was so much emaciated, that those who saw him at the trial could not again recognize him; while, from the time of his conviction, it was remarked, that his hair began to change colour:-At that period it was jet black, but, in the course of three months, it became silver grey. He died in the County Jail of Edinburgh, on the 22d day of December, 1820, and was decently interred, at the expense of his wife, in the Calton Burying-ground." P. 279.

Mr. Denovan's journal of his expedition to London, in order to obtain evidence, as given in the Appendix, is a most curious document: and we know not whether most to be struck by the sagacity of the inquirer, or the many singular accidents (if we must so call them) by which he was enabled to connect the links of his chain of evidence. Mackcoull indeed, in the course of his journey, appears to have behaved with extraordinary want of caution, displaying the notes with a degree of hardihood, which is only to be accounted for by the flush of triumph which he must have felt at his recent success. At Bow-street, Mr. Denovan's first care was to get possession of the false keys which had been already found in Scoltock's shop; and, by the assistance of Lavender, the officer, they were at length discovered in a back closet, which is the customary receptacle of the implements of crime. In this blue chamber of horrors, the wished-for box was placed in most appropriate company; covered by the bloody jacket and the maul of the assassin of the Marrs and Williamsons, and the poker from which Mr. and Mrs. Bonar met their death. An account, exceeding £2000 had been opened by Mackcoull, under the name of James Ibell, with Messrs. Marsh and Sibbald, the bankers. The extract, which Mr. Denovan obtained from the books of these gentlemen, presented some well known names. Among them. were Mackcoull's brother, sister, and two mistresses; Sutton, a man who lives by melting silver plate, and altering the names and numbers of watches, (christening and bishoping), Goodman, a noted coach robber, and Ings, the ferocious butcher, who suffered with Thistlewood.

We need not draw the moral which the life of this unhappy man suggests. It is given in a few words, at the conclusion of the memoir.

His whole life may thus be considered as one uninterrupted

career of villany almost without a parallel. That he did not expiate his crimes on a gibbet, was merely owing to circumstances which are not worth explaining;-but, during the period of his imprisonment, he suffered many deaths. Of the fatal tree he spoke without fear; but the dread of a future tribunal paralized his understanding-He saw and trembled at the approach of that unerring shaft which no earthly ruler could control; while the horrors of his mind, by affecting the nervous system, accelerated his dissolution: -the retrospect of his life often obtruded itself with new modifications of insupportable reflection-the prospect of futurity he could only contemplate with fearful apprehension :-He felt the wakening of a seared conscience, from which there was no retreat-He crawled about, grinding his teeth-his intervals of slumber were broken and interrupted with the most frightful visions; and he saw the hairs of his head become grey with anguish! The picture is too hor rible to finishTo religion he was a stranger-a total stranger in this hour of need: he felt not her soothing influence-he cherished not the hope of forgiveness or mercy-Unhappy man! he looked to God as to a cruel and vindictive ruler, at whose hands he could only expect the full punishment of his crimes-his resignation was despair!" P. 280.

ART. IV. Sermons. By Edward Maltby, D.D. Vol. 2. 8vo. 596 pp. Cadell. 1822.

THE first volume of Dr. Maltby's Sermons has already fallen under our notice *; and we then endeavoured to convey to our readers a fair and candid opinion of its contents; neither passing over in silence those passages which seemed to us to require animadversion, nor expressing our sentiments in terms at which the learned author could justly take offence. We remarked, that Dr. Maltby had not touched upon many. important points of doctrine, which the subjects he had undertaken to discuss seemed almost of necessity to involve; and that opportunities which might have been usefully employed in clearing the sacred text from difficulty, or illustrating it by the skilful use of those stores of theological learning to which his classical attainments afforded him easy access, appeared to us to have been neglected. We are sorry to say that the present volume does not supply these. deficiencies.

British Critic, Vol. xiv. Nov. 1820.

Dr. Maltby has here presented us with a second selection from his sermons, consisting of twenty-four discourses, composed on many different occasions, and delivered to congregations of various characters and attainments. Seven of them were preached before the University of Cambridge, others were composed to serve the interests of charitable or religious institutions, and the greater part were probably intended for the edification of a country parish. But, strange as it may appear, the reader would be disappointed who should consult these volumes for evidence of the reverend Preacher's sentiments, not merely on those controverted questions which have agitated the peace of the Church in our own times, but on some most important points of doctrine which at all times the Church is bound to maintain, and has maintained steadily, and, as we believe, triumphantly. Dr. Maltby declares himself to be an enemy to controversy; and we have already said all that we consider necessary to be observed on the choice which he has thus made, of leaving to others that earnest contention for the Faith, which some of the mildest as well as the ablest Divines of our Church have considered it to be their indispensable duty to maintain. But surely, controversy may be avoided, without passing over in guarded, and sometimes injurious silence, every doctrine which the perversity of some, or the prejudices of others have made the subject of controversial discussion. The great characteristic truths of Christianity may be plainly inculcated, without adverting to the doubts of the sceptic, or the misconceptions of the heretic. It is not necessary to shrink from the delivery of the whole council of God to those for whose spiritual instruction we are bound to provide, because that counsel has, in some important branches of it, been made the subject of perverse disputings, by men of corrupt minds, or insufficient attainments. We now complain of what Dr. Maltby has omitted, not of what he has done. We are bound to receive these volumes as examples of his labours as a Christian teacher; and we lament to say that, from such teaching, the hungry soul would sometimes depart unsatisfied. Of moral instruction there is indeed no lack; but if the morals of Dr. Maltby's parishioners are built upon those great principles of the faith of Jesus Christ, which, in our estimation, afford the only sure foundation on which Christian obedience can rest; we regret that he should have deemed it expedient to withhold from the world every specimen of the manner in which these principles have been taught. We have read this volume with patient attention; nay, we will add with an anxious desire to find in it some explicit d