did not tend to lead him within the devastating influence of either of the vortexes which whirled on the right hand and on the left. It was truly a decided step, so far as he was personally concerned. It was an exertion which cost him very dear, and which, the authour of this memoir perceived, had evidently given a strong tinge to Dr Adam's mind for all the remaining years of his life.

The horrible features, the ungovernable temper of the times to which our attention is now directed, cannot be more forcibly described than in the words of a celebrated lite

rary journal *. "In that day of alarm, we were reaping the bitter first fruits of the penitence of Mr Pitt, a new convert from the damnable heresy of reform, and performing his rigorous noviciate among the associated

* Edinburgh Review, No. 31. (April 1810.) The passage here quoted occurs in a masterly view of " the speeches of Lord Erskine when at the bar," &c. The writer of the article appears to possess all that enthusiastic eloquence and fire which distinguished the learn ed Lord.

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enemies of popular rights. In the fervour of that new-sprung zeal, an experiment was made on the temper and character of the nation, which nothing but the alarms transplanted from France could have made any mortal bold enough to have attempted. Friends of the constitution, as they were called, conveyed the dark hint, and carried the careless words of the supposed democrat from house to house, till at last his person was watched, his temper tried, the accents of discontent registered, as they were wrung from his lips, by every indignity which the persecution of society (if we may so speak) can inflict; and then his company shunned by the base and the cowardly, or only resorted to by the loyal, who had not yet fattened upon him, and had their fortunes still to make out of his life and conversation.

"We speak not from hearsay, or from fancy, but from distinct and personal recollection. We speak, indeed, from notes that

are still fresh and legible; for, turn which way we will, we now see almost all the places of profit and trust in this island, filled with persons for whose elevation we should find it hard to account, if we did not look back to their apprenticeships in 1794 and 1795. We speak from a feeling recollection; for where did this unutterable baseness, this infinite misery, this most humiliating curse, fall so heavily as in the very city where we now write?"

This latter paragraph teems with meaning. And are we really to believe that, not the mob, or the real rabble of the community, but the wealth, talents, and genius of this part of the isle, were fettered and pinned down to the ground, by such means as those which have been enumerated? Did any part of the inhabitants of Scotland become fit tools for the hands of some man of routine, some public officer, or crown-lawyer, at the beck of a confidential public minister, who, again, was at the same time a political adventurer? His

tory will, in after days, point out, whether, by such means, a Scotish jury became traitors to the common feelings and imprescriptible rights of their fellow-men; whether the people of Scotland became, for suppleness of conduct, and for canting loyalty, a reproach among the nations; and whether a man was rendered an exile and an outcast from society, for the same imputed actions which his peers in England would have sanctioned by their omnipotent verdict. The writer does not pretend to decide upon these points; it is not for such a purpose that he has brought them under the view of his readers, but only to vindicate the conduct of Dr Adam. Under the awful circumstances which have been detailed, he knew that it required the utmost prudence to regulate his proceedings. He was sensible that his private sentiments, as a patriot, were under no disguise; that they were known to many of the official persons in Scotland; that his public conduct, and even

his expressions, were narrowly observed by those tools of party, who would have gladly "hung the millstone of prejudice about his neck, to sink him ;" and, knowing all this, and considering the delicacy of his situation as a teacher of youth, he resolved to move with caution. Conscience told him, that in transactions of such deep importance to the community, in which the efforts of many able men had failed, and daily were failing, it would be criminal for him to interfere.. Expediency pointed out, from this same argument, how fool-hardy it would be for an individual to put his all in jeopardy, and to close for ever his prospects of usefulness in life, by rushing into a tempest, where skill and bravery could be of no avail. He well knew that no argument would convince political bigots, or knaves of any description, His determination, therefore, was wise, and, by acting in conformity, he neither endangered his per