and we as little doubt that the author will, ere long, have an opportunity of considering the propriety of remedying these defects. We observe, moreover, that he seems to labour under the cruel and unsightly affliction of translating all the passages he quotes, with a stern and rigorous precision. Dr M. must be perfectly aware, that a literal is not on that account always an accurate translation. The idiom of an author is sometimes as little to be accommodated in the trammels of another language, as a modern toxopholite would find himself in the habiliments of an ancient archer; and though it may be very essential to the author's purpose, to render names and terms strictly, in order to analyze, derive and understand them, that can be no reason why the rest of the passage should be put in the same species of pillory. The pillory, indeed, is too mild a designation for the punishment to which some of the extracts have been submitted; for, seeing that they are englished into the same number of lines (in many instances), to the great discomfiture of all the perspicuity and arrangement which the original writer may have proposed to himself, they may rather be said to have been laid upon the bed of Procrustes. We mean nothing harsh to Dr M. by these observations; on the contrary, nothing so strongly induces us to press upon him the expediency of allowing himself a little more freedom, in his treatment of poets, historians and chroniclers, as the incontestable evidence of his ability to do so, which he has furnished in the pleasing and elegant Preface to his book. To these suggestions we would add, that a copious index would be extremely useful.

Having thus endeavoured to convey to the reader some idea of the merits and execution-though we can give but a slight impression indeed, of the interest of Dr Meyrick's work,-we may be allowed a remark or two upon a subject immediately connected with his subject. We mean the future arrangement and appropriation of the Horse-armoury, or, more properly speaking, of all the old armour and arms in the Tower of London, to which, now that the spirit of collecting these proud and frowning relics, is (as we trust) awakened, we hope to see added, very shortly, from their ruined but lordly prisons, in all parts of the kingdom, still more antient memorials of illustrious nobles and victorious captains.

Long before the sagacity and indefatigable research of Dr M. had enabled us to detect in something like detail, the multifarious absurdities which are inflicted by the plethoric yeomen of that fortress, upon all the victims, old and young, of the

Royal Collection. We could not help suspecting that most egregious forgeries were every day fabricated by our scarlet friends for the delusion of the unwary. * It was difficult at least to suppose, that the same armourer worked for William the Conqueror and Queen Elizabeth; and though we have (upon holidays) a large faith for seeming discrepancies, and a becoming acquiescence in apparent anachronisms, we have been compelled to shake our heads at some two or three of the Tower legends, touching the right property of various suits of armour, more or less remarkable; and the actual effect of certain arms, and other munition of war' which have long been deposited in their present sanctuary, in an inglorious but innocent repose. There is a story attached to a wonder-working mortar, aged about three centuries,—that is too long to be repeated here, but would have overmatched the respectful credulity of Sir Roger de Coverley himself. And we could never see, without feelings of considerable indignation, the heroic bosom of the proud Elizabeth, incased in that which is impudently asserted to have been HER Corselet, but which is now ascertained to have originally protected the sitting part of her jolly Sire. We need not, however, be at much trouble in stating reasons for a re-arrangement of the collection in the Tower. The gross ignorance which is displayed-not only by those who exhibit it, but by those who originally got it up, as it is termed-must shock every man of the least historical information; and when we find, upon the indisputable data, which are adduced for this opinion, by Dr Meyrick- that the Tower of London contains no armour of a date anterior to the reign of Henry VII.,' it is too much to be called upon to accept a long line of wooden-steeded monarchs, commencing with the Norman, as bearing their own genuine panoply of battle.

There is something so noble and generous in the associations which an inspection of the armour of our ancestors excites in us, that it may be doubted whether a superb collection of this kind be not rather matter of state policy, than a mere splendid appendage to the dignity of the Crown. If the recollection of the glory of past ages can be thus evidenced, as it were, to the senses;-if the ambition of young and ardent spi

* Dr Meyrick, having lately inspected the Arsenal, &c., at Vienna, has subjoined to his work an Account of the Little Belvidere and the Ambras Collections of Armour, from which it appears, that the art of humbugging' is not peculiar to Great Britain.

VOL. XXXIX. NO. 78.

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rits can be aroused, by the visible presence and actual contact of those arms in which the Plantagenets and the Tudors,-the scions of York and Lancaster,-the De Veres, the De Mowbrays, the Douglases,-the Clares and the Nevilles,-the Talbots, the Percys and the Devereux,-have earned in blood the green laurels which yet flourish, after the lapse of centuries, above their graves;-if that honourable emulation, which, scorning the sordid aids of interest and intrigue, would work its own passage to honour and distinction, is animated by the memory of those brave soldiers who conquered renown, and bore away their rewards on the sands of Palestine, in the fastnesses of Wales, among the mountains of Asturia, in the plains of France, and on the moors of Scotland;-of how great moment is it that these venerable remains should be properly ordered and arranged, so that the enthusiasm of imitation may not be checked by any obtrusive and uneasy doubt, whether (for example) that which is shown for the helmet of the fifth Harry be not in reality the morion of one of King Charles's troopers? We say nothing of the national disgrace that attaches to the circumstance of countenancing any flagrant errors in that which may be called a national collection. There can be little difficulty, experienced in the emendation of those errors, now that our author has discovered, furnished and proved the rules, by which every requisite inquiry can be satisfactorily and immediately answered. If, however, there should be, it is impossible to doubt, from the scientific zeal, and the tone of liberal feeling, by which the book before us is distinguished, that Dr Meyrick would willingly contribute to such an object, the benefit-not only of his extraordinary knowledge, but also of his good taste.

It might then remain to be considered, whether the Tower of London will be a fitting depository for such a collection, when its arrangement shall have been so remodelled. But we are spared the necessity of pursuing this consideration by the reiterated complaints that are heard, in every Session of Parliament, -that room is wanted at the Tower for the ordnance stores. But it does appear to us, that it would be at once a saving of vast expense, an improvement in the magazine of ordnance stores,and an admirable ornament to the chief treasure of art and science in this country,—if the whole of the armour and arms in the Tower of London, that are not efficient for the purposes of modern warfare, and are in any degree remarkable either for their beauty or their curiosity, were removed to the British Museum. The munificent donation by his present Majesty of the late King's library, has rendered additional buildings necessary for

its accommodation; and, seeing that the extensive fabric which has been projected on that account, by the classical genius of Mr Smirke, is already commenced, and promises to be of prodigious capacity:-surely its walls must be the most fitting assylum for the war and time-worn habiliments of the old and redoubted Barons of England. In the immediate vicinity of the ancient trophies of Marathon, and the rust-eaten arms of the legionaries who fought under the standards of Agricola and Severus, let the swords and helmets be deposited of the more modern, but not less valiant warriors, who achieved the battles of Crecy and Agincourt-of Ascalon, and Chalons, and Najara.

ART. V. Essays on Constitutional Law and the Forms of Process; containing Suggestions for shortening the Duration, and lessening the Offence, of Judicial Procedure in the different Courts in Scotland. By WILLIAM RITCHIE, Solicitor of Supreme Courts in Scotland, &c.

SEASON

EASONS of political commotion, though often the only opportunities allowed for the adjustment of political rights, certainly are not the best fitted for their wise and deliberate settlement. It was, therefore, fortunate for England, that the encroachments of the Stuarts, which at last made rebellion a virtue, did not take place till after the Constitution had been in a great measure matured. This gave the people certain great and fixed points to look to; and made them feel, that all they had to do, in order to secure a good practical Government, was to put down the usurpations by which the forms and the principles they had long been possessed of had been recently invaded. The Revolution did not create their liberties, but only restored and defined them. It was not so with Scotland. With reference to public freedom, her Government had always been very defective in theory, and generally utterly detestable in practice; in so much, that, even although she had been exempted from the tyranny under which the sister kingdom suffered, she could not have gone on, as England with the same exemption might, increasing for ages in happiness and security. She had not succeeded in organizing even the elementary forms of a free constitution, and had never been accustomed to the regular enjoyment of popular rights.

One bad effect of this was, that when the Revolution came, its object being not so much to new-model the constitution of either quarter of the Island, as to undo recent usurpations, it left Scotland, no doubt, infinitely better than she was before, but still

in a very defective condition. The abuses to which this part of the kingdom had been subjected, were so cruel and monstrous, that the people were induced to think, that if they got rid of these, every thing else was unimportant, or might be tolerated. If they had had more experience, they would have taken that occasion to make a thorough revision of their whole system; but they were so far behind in the science of liberty, that they aimed at little more than putting a period to the existing troubles; which indeed were so frightful, that even sagacious men may well be excused for having allowed them to absorb all their thoughts. But this was unfortunate; for it not only left defects. in the fabric of the government, which, it might easily have been seen, must always be dangerous to liberty, but it left these to be confirmed by the circumstance, that they could not afterwards be changed without interfering with what had been understood to be a general settlement of all complaints.

The Union afforded a fit opportunity for supplying this omission. But it also was lost; and chiefly from the same cause. The nation was not sufficiently advanced, and was too much occupied with immediate grievances, to enable its leading men to perceive, or at least to have any chance of correcting,--imperfections which, by that time, it might otherwise have been confidently anticipated that a future age would suffer from and object to. Accordingly, though the Union and its terms were keenly contested for many months, it is surprising how little discussion seems to have taken place on questions connected with the preservation of public liberty. Those who were pledged to support the measure, seem to have been only anxious to carry it any how; those who took an interest in the terms, aimed only at commercial or fiscal advantages;-while those who were altogether hostile, wasted themselves in idle declamation about the independence of their ancient mother Caledonia; and there does not appear to have been a single person who had vigilance and sagacity enough to look forward to the future operation of the different parts of the government they were bequeathing to their country, or to think how little they were securing for distant ages, when the recent atrocities. would all be matters of tradition, and new grounds of alarm for tyranny in a different shape might arise. The result was, that we were left infinitely too much at the mercy of the dangerous forms and flexible principles to which we had been anciently accustomed; and, accordingly, that the only substantial progress that Scotland has made in purely political improvement since the junction of the kingdoms, has been owing indirectly to its enjoying the protection of the English Parlia