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his master's question with professional gravity-" An' he's to live like ane of us, sir, by what comes frae his mouth, he's right to put sae muckle into it. I ne'er saw sic a keen set lad."" I asked you," said the Sheriff, hiding an extra dimple in his sleek face, "whether his appearance and dimensions are such as would be decent in my office, and suited to his profession?"—" He'll do well enow," answered honest Muc klequack" he has made an unco stir among the old rats in the barn-Its my thinking, sir, he would dieve a whole synod of elders."—Elliot stopped him by issuing his command for the youth's introduction, and presently a stranger stood before him, whose dress, though gentlemanly, was soiled, as it seemed, by a long journey on foot, and unsuited to the singular delicacy of his form and aspect. "Your name is Milton?" said the Sheriff, smiling at his visitor's resemblance to that soft and blooming beauty which the great bard is said to have possessed when a female troubadour left her tablets by his side to express its effect. The youth's eye had indeed that tender brightness and transparency observed in early portraits of Milton in his boyhood, shaded by the same kind of waving hair, whose rich tint was hardly required to embellish by contrast the extreme fairness of his cheek. The Sheriff thought that such must be the eye which, according to Scotch proverb, may "split a stone," and addressed his enquiries with more blandishment than success. Young Milton's tone was coldly reserved, and his answers only amounted to repetitions that he had no friends or home, and would consider humble and gratuitous employment as bounty till his abilities had been manifested.

The Sheriff had seen something more in Mucklequack ́s evasive answers than the mere dryness of privileged humour; and having dismissed the petitioner with a request to await his determination till the next morning, he began a private aud, close scrutiny with his servant. But the servitor of the law had been too long acquainted with demurs and detours to yield his secret casily and Elliot needed all his skill to wring from him that Milton was the offending and discarded son of a neighbouring gentle man, whose inflexible character was well supported by his ample fortune. He discovered also that no slight error could have caused the total dismission

of an only son loved even to dotage. and generally expected to enjoy all that the courtesy of Scotch laws allows a reputed father to bestow. The Sheriff formed his own opinion, and mounted his horse to visit Cunningham of Blackire himself.

A large round promontory, single and detached from the long link of heathy bills behind and opposite, and still more distinguished by a black covering of forest-trees, gave its name to Cunning. ham's mansion. As Elliot plunged into the road which led him into its depths of shade, he mused on the fittest means of introducing his purpose to a father whose character was too upright to permit a suspicion of unjustified resentment, and too stern to allow easy atonement. His meditations were ended by Cunningham's approach on horseback, They were little more than strangers to each other's persons, but, as is usual in remote districts, fully acquainted with the situation and repute each possessed. The Sheriff's heart and countenance were well suited to an intercessor, and he opened his mission with the gentlest caution towards the feelings of an angry parent and the safety of a son who had thrown himself on his protection. Cun-. ningham of Blackire listened courte ously but unmoved, and answered in ambiguous hints respecting the punishment due to felony, and the scandal of insulting a young female under her guardian's roof. "Let him work, sir!" he suddenly exclaimed, with an almost purple flush of indignation— "wiser laws than our's have deemed labour a more useful punishment than imprisonment or death."-" Blackire," replied the Sheriff gravely, “I have been compelled to study buman nature, and cannot believe that the miseries heaped on a young mind will fertilize it as the most disgustful compost enriches the earth. This coarse thought is itself a sample of the fruits which such cultivation produces. Hard and insulting usage in youth removes the soft bloom both of virtue and beauty; and for myself," he added, biding his earnest purpose in a facetious air, “I would prefer a foot with a corn or chilblain to one made callous by going bare through stony paths. The corn would shrink from too rough approach, and the chilblain might be cured by gentle warmth, but the hard bare foot would probably go through mire and thorns without feeling."

Blackire made no reply, and turned his horse into another road, while Sheriff Elliot directed his homewards, weighing the indirect accusations he had heard, and endeavouring to guess the person who had suffered these supposed outrages.

Cunningham was a bachelor like himself, and had no female guest at present, except an orphan neice under pupillage, and her governess. Common rumour had indicated that he wished to unite his ward and his acknowledged son, who could have had no temptation, therefore, to any clandestine or injurious act; and how could theft be plausibly imputed to the presumptive heir of such abundance! Elliot returned embarrassed and undecided to his home, where his suitor awaited him with a calm countenance, which he examined strictly while he announced the failure of his mediation: But," he added, your father sends you this purse Would he give me another blow?" said Milton Cunningham, and, as he recoiled from it, bis countenance darkened into a startling resemblance of his father's. The Sheriff, still influenced in his favour by feelings which he chose neither to resist nor define, forbore any farther comment, and detained him under his roof, without distinctly expressing his opinions or designs. On the sixth day, a cadet's commission arrived from London, followed by suitable equipment, appearing to proceed from his father. Young Milton received them with a cold and stub born sulfenness, which induced the Sheriff to change his measures. Without preamble, he began by a sudden and direct appeal to his conscience, for the same reason that men attack marble with iron, and hard metals with a file. He named the broad and heavy charge indicated by his father, and the rumours which his silent obstinacy warranted, He intimated, that the noblest and strongest self-command was shewn by meeting the enquiry, and enduring the censure even of a judge too austere. Milton answered coldly, but with singular expression, "A lie has no feet" -and began to prepare for his long

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ready, and the Sheriff's eyes moistened as they took their last glance, Milton stepped back, and put a small sealed packet into his hand. "It is addressed," said he, "to the donor of all I now possess, and I know, though I have not expressed, how much I owe him. Let him preserve this till my return, or till he hears of my death."-" Only say that your accuser is mistaken!" returned the Sheriff eagerly-but Milton shook his head, and leaped into the boat in silence. His youth, his affecting countenance, and even his obduracy, gave him a kind of mysterious hold on his patron's mind, which retained all the legendary romance of the Border Elliots, blended with the favish kindness of unoccupied affections. He hoarded the packet entrusted to him with inviolable reverence to its seals; and perceiving by its address that Mil ton recognized his benefactor, he thought of him incessantly with that gladdening warmth which the grateful give to the beneficent.

Three years passed away without any communication between the father and son, or any apparent change in the former's inflexible resentment. Nor was there any material alteration in his family affairs and general conduct, except more ostentatious splendor on some occasions, and querulous litigation on others. A summons had been issued against him for "count and reckoning" by the tutors and curators of a young heritor; or, as English lawyers would phrase it, for an adjustment of accompts with a minor's guardians. Though the subject of dispute seemed trifling at first, other claims and unexpected pleas became entangled with it, till the dissolution of Cunningham's large property seemed inevitable. Many pitied the disastrous progress of a litigating spirit, and a few were anxious to preserve Cunningham's mind from ruinous despondency. Neil Elliot stood aloof, half-resenting the ill-success of his mediation, and more than half-suspecting some deeper cause for his neighbour's dejection. He always believed that wounds of the mind, whether given by grief or guilt, resemble those of the body, where time makes a callus of an outward hurt, but a cancer of a hidden one. Therefore he preferred open faults and grievances to any disguise, and sought no intimacy with a man whose impenetrable character seemed like the smooth stone laid over

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a grave. He was musing on this subject by his bed-chamber lamp, when a courier brought a special message from Cunningham of Blackire, requiring his professional aid and instant presence. He obeyed immediately, not doubting that this late summons proceeded from his death-bed, and would be followed by some decisive communication respecting his son. Elliot's amazement was extreme when he found Blackire in apparent health, and received his injunctions to fill up a stamped paper with a marriage contract, after which the kirk-minister would perform the ceremony.-"Are you not aware," said Elliot," that such a ceremony precludes in Scotland the necessity of any written precognition, as it will invest all this woman's offspring, though of prior birth, with the rights of legitimacy?"-" She has but one," replied Cunningham, casting down his eyes; " and I only wish by the terms of a settlement to bar her claims on my estate."-Elliot smiled at the evasion, rightly judging that her demands would be of little importance, to an estate which would be soon surrendered to his creditors. "Then," be answered, "if you only wish to exclude her from the law's allowance of onethird of your rents and moveables, it, will be sufficient to sign a settlement without any pretence of a precontract, which, however sanctioned by the courtesy of Scotland, will seem, in this instance, only a deliberate and needless falsehood."-A dark flash escaped Cunningham's eyes, but his determined aspect remained, and he replied, "My heirs at law are among my persecutors, and I have resolved to defeat them by giving my son rights beyond dispute, if enforced by an attested acknowledgment of private marriage.”~Elliot was silenced, for he saw under this affectation of spleen a revival of his parental love, which sought to disguise itself even in hatred to his heirs at law. Therefore he prepared a contract, with a full and formal preamble, stating au irregular marriage twenty years antecedent to this date between the parties; and Cunningham ushered bit into another apartment to witness its completion. His chosen bride, the mother of his son, awaited him there with the kirk minister, and received Elliot as a total stranger, but the first glance at her face convinced him it was one he well remembered. His sur

prise and consternation were inexpressible, and must have been observed, if, with presence of mind which far surpassed his, she had not immediately begun the business of signature. How could Elliot act in this terrible dis lemma? The subtle spirit which could confront him without shrinking, might devise falsehoods sufficient to baile his allegations, and her willing dupe would probably sustain her. Before he had determined, the time of action was past; the minister performed the brief cere mony of a Scotch marriage, and the unwilling witness hastened away, bitterly feeling that he might have escaped reproach himself if he had resisted the first proposal of a false precontractif, in short, he had not been tempted. to abet evil by a remote hope of good.. It was not too late, perhaps, to defeat. this precognition, as even the cour-, teous laws of Scotland cannot support one, if the circumstances of the parties at the period of the pretended date were such as to render a legal contract, impossible. But the disgrace and misery of an investigation would fall hea-, viest on the innocent, and it was easy: to perceive that the blandishments of a base woman had utterly bewildered and subdued Blackire's violent spirit, as a, skein of thread entangles the crocodile's. teeth. He coutented himself, therefore, with hoping that he knew the worst consequences:-a hope always deceit. ful, and a kind of knowledge never. granted to those who deviate even a single step from the right path.

Another year passed, and the Sheriff was seated by his fire side, comparing the civil institutes of various countries, with a remorseful recollection. that, by unguardedly availing himself. of one, be had swept away the lineal. succession of an honourable family, established a profligate woman in its highest place, and given the rights of inheritance to a very doubtful claimant. He had once deemed the marriagelaws of England too rigid to afford refuge to early and innocent affections;, and he had thought their formalities often urged imprudence into guilt; but he now gave more, bitter blame to those of Scotland, which render. rashness irretrievable, and artifice casy. He sighed to think the medium was not. yet found between statutes that make vice desperate, and those that give it a premium and a privilege and wiser casuists might have doubted whether,

moral order is most injured by laws too rigorous to be enforced, or by others whose force is a protection to offenders.

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In the midst of these professional musings, Milton Cunningham was suddenly announced, and entered, after an absence of four years from his native country. There was an eager expression of enquiry in his countenance, which the Sheriff understood more fully than he could answer, for he was uncertain whether Milton had yet to learn that his father was dead insolvent, and his mother a disgraced fugitive. know all," said Milton, imagining that he interpreted all his friend's embarrassment-" but the letter!—have you preserved the letter "The Sheriff answered by taking it from its repository:-"Break the seal," added his visitor in a faltering voice-" the time is cóme." Elliot instantly obeyed, and saw a promissory note of ancient date for three thousand pounds, with these words in the envelope;

"The guardian of an orphan neice found this note, executed by himself to her father, in her possession. His affairs were involved - his exigencies pressing; she was under his roof, and in his power -be extorted it from her, but an unexpected witness interrupted him, and secured it. An honest and powerful advocate might give her redress-a son cannot."

The Sheriff, raising his eyes from this statement, fixed them stedfastly on Milton, and saw its truth in the noble agony his countenance expressed. " Speak, sir, I beseech you," he said, after a long pause-speak to me as a lawyer, not as a friend, and let me hear the worst. I have sinned, I know-and have beggared the owner of this note, perhaps, by concealing it but my father!"

he stopped, and burst into tears. The Sheriff replied with moist eyes"As a lawyer, I must tell you, the statute of Limitations has invalidated this note; and even if its date was less remote, it could give no claim on your late father's real estate, which has been surrendered to satisfy special debts. In law, therefore, the purchaser of his land cannot be charged with this, and the unfortunate creditor will find redress difficult: but as a friend I may add, that there are other chances. Your father's uncle died last night unmarried and intestate-his personal pro. perty is ample, and to that, at least,

you may lay claim in England, by virtue of your legalized birth, and atone for this transaction."-" My birth!" repeated the young man, starting "it was never publicly legalized. "It is true," said Elliot-" My clerk and myself were the only witnesses, and the officiating minister is dead with out registering the fact-but I possess a precognition-a contract sufficient in all its forms.”—Milton seized it with flashing eyes, and read the whole eagerly"Is there no public record?-no other proof?"-" None," returned Elliot, chilled by the joy he betrayed-“ unless this can be justified, your cousin is your uncle's heiress." There perishes the obstacle then!" said Milton, throwing it into the fire-" she will be indemnified fourfold for the lost note, and my father's name will be saved!" -The Sheriff laid his hand on Milton's head with an involuntary gesture of benediction-"You have atoned nobly:-but you shall not be disinherited. I am the purchaser of Blackire's estate, and that it may satisfy every claim of honour and justice, it is your's. May his fate be a powerful example!? He was once a proud an honest man, yet he became an attester of falsehoods, a ruffian, and a robber, to enrich a rapacious courtezan and a stranger's sọn ... ...I am your father!"

V.

To the Editor of the European Magazine.

SIR,

Topening a volume of your Maga

HE other day, on promiscuously

zine for February 1817 (page 124), I met with a letter of "Thos. Hoppkyns's," on Mr. Kean's new reading of this line from Macbeth,

"Hang out our banners on the outward walls."

So it is in Manley Wood's edition, and not as Mr. H. has extracted it into his article.-This communication is, Sir, I admit, rather antiquated in point of time, but to that same principle or privilege which induced your notice of Mr. H. I appeal.-Mr. H. has rummaged up grist for his humour, and I hope I may be indulged in a short paragraph to show it false. He pertinaciously insists, that the text of the bard is mere jargon, and I as pertinaciously insist it is perfect sensenay, that if the word "out" were omitted (as he would have), I say the

line would be incorrect; and I consider Mr. H.'s emendation a mere "flight of fancy." He seems to think, that if the banners were hung on the outward walls, ex necessitate they would be hung on the outer side; but that no more follows, than that Mr. H. in going to Hampstead, would, by the same necessity, be obliged to go through Tottenham-court-road. The sense, Sir, in the original reading, is, that the banners should be exhibited; and to be so, Macbeth required them to be hung with out the outer walls. The expression is an exactness of speech, and, instead of being a fault, is a beauty much to be admired. If the language were-"6 "Hang the banners on the outward walls," the direction would be without the excellent minutiæ it now possesses, and then, it would be quibbled with for not expressing the position.

I am, Sir,

Your's, &c.

24th Feb. 1818. A GENTLEMAN.

1 ON PUBLIC PUNISHMENT. To the Editor of the European Magazine.

SIR,

A VERY enlightened character (Sir

S. Romilly) not long since laid before the public some excellent remarks, in a pamphlet entitled "Observations on the Criminal Law of England as it relates to Capital Punish ments, and on the Mode in which it is administered," designedly to shew how often justice passes unheeded from unwise classification of punishments to offences. The pamphlet I presume to have been universally read, so I refer to it by the title only. Now, Sir, it bas often occurred to my mind question able-whether public and formal executions of culprits is of benefit or prejudice to the community. That public good was intended is beyond a doubt; but how far the design is effected at this day, is, I think, a question, and one of vital importance; and the more so, from the known laxity of our criminal law, or perhaps the observance of it; but either way it is of the same cousequence. Public exposition of punishment I take to have been once considered to operate on the spectators as an example or threat in terrorem, and per the force of that example a check to others against the perpetration of crime. But, Sir, of this effect I at this time am very suspicious; and that I may not

seem so without reason, or probablecause, I propose to put my subject to the test by a two-fold thesis-First, By supposing a spectator to inquire of himself, after witnessing these exhibitions, whe ther he would be sure of the same punishment if he so offended; and. 2dly, (putting aside the uncertainty of the law), Whether these exhibitions awaken the spectators to any sense or feeling of moral, religious, or civil duty? Now, Sir, as to the first test, the notorious forbearance of the injured to prosecute

the reluctance of juries to find a capital offence-and, finally, the frequent mitigations of punishments, are circumstances separately moving every iniquitous person, old and young, promptly and decidedly to answer in the negative, and each one thinks himself without the probability of sharing the same punishment for his offences; and of all the impressions that these spectacles make, I venture to say, example is the least: nay, that such a thought is so distant, that the fate of the culprit is not ascribed to legal punishment, but is adjudged the issue of "bad luck," or " bad management of his matters," and from which scene the spectator returns unawed, and unconvinced of the certainty of the same punishment for is transgressions. Whence, then, it may be inquired, is the good of this exposure, considered as example?On the second branch of my subject I am equally fearful a most unequivocal negative may be given in answer. I never have had resolution to witness one of these appalling spectacles; but I dare affirm, that were any of the spectators to be asked “their thoughts" on the scene they had witnessed, the answer would import "obdurate gratification," and unasked would follow a narrative of the culprit's hardihood in “giving” up the ghost. To these conclusions I cannot think it at all neces sary any of us should be eye-witnesses -the accounts of the demeanour of the spectators at these scenes, so repeatedly given, and the last week's papers alone, speak volumes in proof of absent feelings and pity in the spectators; for in the latter pages it was said, the populace gazed upon a spectacle horrible-most horrible without betraying the slightest sensation of sympathy or pity: and as a further fact in proof that example is disdained, I have myself a partial instance; for on one of these ill-fated mornings, I chanced to cross

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