served only to bewilder and lead them astray. The probability is, as we have already hinted, that the measure would soon have been abandoned, as impracticable, and the bill repealed. But the waters would not have quietly returned to their former channel. Not to mention the mischief which in the interim many individuals must have suffered, the foundation of ancient establishments would have been broken up; principles, hitherto venerated as sacred, would have been violated; while a precedent, was given to injudicious and intemperate tampering, that, at some future period, might have led to novelties equally great, and equally hazardous. In other respects, too, the country must have been injured. A number of offices were to be erected, some of them offensive from their splendour, and all of them united together, productive of great public expence; the holders of which, though the duties to be performed came to an end, had a right to expect indemnification from the state. We have mentioned, that the bill was brought into the House of Lords on the 16th of February, 1807, by Lord Grenville, who was then prime minister; to the purity of whose motives, we join our feeble voice to that of the country, in yielding our most unqualified assent. In the course of the following month, from circumstances into which it would be preposterous here to enter, a complete change took place in his majesty's councils; in May the parliament was dissolved; and no serious attempt was made to revive a discussion that must have proved fruitless. Soon after the new parliament met, the Lord Chancellor Eldon laid before the House of Lords a new plan for attaining the same desirable end, under the form of a bill, entitled, "An Act touching the Administration of Justice in Scotland, and touching appeals to the House of Lords." The progress of this bill, it is now unnecessary to trace. It was introduced into the House on the 10th of August, 1807, and immediately printed and circulated; the consideration of it was reassumed during the next session of parliament, in the beginning of 1808; and, after some slight opposition in both Houses, it finally passed into a law in the month of July, 1808. We must preface our examination of this statute, by offering our tribute of praise to the spirit in which it was framed. The object of its author plainly was to avoid the danger of precipitate and extensive change in an established system of law, and to obtain the sanction of the legislature to a reform, which, if it failed in the trial, might be abandoned without inconvenience, or, in the event of a more favourable result, might be adopted as the basis of farther improvement. As a reason for making some new arrangements in the Court of Session, and to facilitate the dispatch of business, the act assigns the great extension of commerce, manufactories, and population, and the great multiplication of transactions in Scotland, which have greatly increased the number of law-suits brought into that court. It provides, that, in future, the Court shall sit in two divisions; one consisting of the Lord President of the College of Justice, and seven of the Ordinary Lords of Session; and the other, of the Lord Justice Clerk, and six of the Ordinary Lords. One judge of each division is directed to officiate weekly, as Ordinary, in the Outer-House and Bill-Chamber.- The Judges, in their respective divisions, or their quorum, which is four, possess the same power that formerly belonged to the whole Court. The Presidents have one voice, but not a casting voice: in case of an equality, the cause remains for subsequent discussion; and, if the voices shall again be equal, one of the Lords Ordinary, of the same division, in the order of seniority as Judges, is to be called in, to be at the discussion, and to have a vote. In cases of importance and difficulty, it is declared lawful for either Division to state questions of law arising on such cases, for the opinion of the Judges of the other; and all causes may, at the option of the party instituting them, be brought before either of the Courts. These are the most material provisions in the first part of the bill. The second respected appeals to the House of Lords. No appeal was allowed against judgments of a Lord Ordinary, or interlocutory judgments, as distinguished from judg ments on the whole merits of the cause, except by permission of the Division. On lodging an appeal, a copy of the petition of appeal is directed to be laid before the Division to which the cause belongs; and authority is given to them to regulate all matters relative to interim possession, or execution, and payment of costs; such regulations or orders not being competent to be appealed from. These enactments, important as they are, did not provide an effectual remedy to all the evils experienced in the administration of justice, and still less did they afford an opportunity of realizing those views which speculative men had entertain ed for improving the whole system. The bill, therefore, farther empow ered his majesty to issue a commission in favour of persons who shall make enquiry into the forms of the courts, the fees of clerks, the proceedings of inferior courts, and other matters. They were likewise appointed to make enquiry how far it might be of evident utility to introduce into the proceedings of the Court of Session, or any other court in Scotland, trial by jury, in any and what cases of a civil nature, and in what manner and form that mode of trial could be most usefully established:-The report to be made to his majesty, and afterwards to be laid before both Houses of Parliament. We regret, that, in one important particular, this statute is equally deficient with Lord Grenville's bill, no provision being made for diminishing the number of judges. It may be still competent, under the commission, to establish constantly, in the Outer-House, a certain number of the judges to be hereafter appointed to try causes individually; but, tho' we are aware of the benefit of this arrangement, we think that a diminution in the number of judges is an essential part of any plan of radical and complete reform. The objections formerly urged to the separation into three chambers, render it unnecessary for us to state our entire approbation of the arrangement made by this act: and the experience that has ensued, completely demonstrates that this arrangement is right; for the arrears left by the undivided court, were exhausted within a year after the statute passed, and the whole judicial business is now conducted without fatigue to the judges, and to the satisfaction of the country. The branch of the bill respecting appeals, seems as well calculated to prevent frivolous appeals, and to secure the rights of parties presenting appeals, as any regulation affecting the Court of Session that can be devised. The complete remedy is to be sought elsewhere. It is farther proper to mention, that, by an act which passed during the same session of parliament, it was provided, that no stipend of any clergyman, which had been augmented prior to its date, should be again augmented until the expiration of 15 years from the date of the decree granting him the augmentation; and that such stipends as should be augmented after the bill received the royal assent, should not be increased for 20 years subsequent to the decree of augmentation. Although it would be presumptuous to offer any opinion on the matters remitted to the commissioners, who have not yet made their report, we cannot conclude without expressing an earnest hope, that the trial by jury will be extended to some cases which at present are decided by the Court of Session. The prevailing sentiment undoubtedly is, that this mode of procedure is of evi dent utility in certain descriptions of causes; and, in deference to the public opinion, the experiment ought to be tried. In the cases to which it is suited, and we are persuaded there are such, it would serve the ends of justice, with little delay or expence to the parties, and it would most certainly tend to liberalize the profession of the law. We would extend it to all criminal actions; to all actions founded on delinquency; and other questions, depending on an issue in fact, might be settled by the verdict of a jury, provided the Court shall, in its discretion, deem that mode of investigation practicable. We shall offer no apology for the freedom with which we have investigated both these legislative measures. We have been actuated by no motive we are ashamed to avow. We are unalterably attached to that system of jurisprudence, under the protection of which, our native country has advanced from poverty and rudeness, to prosperity and civilization ; and, if we cannot improve, we would at least preserve, our undoubted and invaluable inheritance, without waste or dilapidation. HISTORY OF THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. WHEN we take a historical survey of the human species, one of the most striking objects which presents itself is, the inequality of their progress towards knowledge and refinement. During whole ages the hu man intellect seems as it were asleep, scarcely an additional fact is added to the stock of knowledge, and no effectual steps taken to ameliorate the condition of humanity. Reason appears, even in the best informed, with the imbecility of childhood. Mankind hardly venture upon speculation, or if a solitary individual here and there attempt to cultivate his understanding, reveries and absurdities engross his attention, and he only distinguishes himself from his contemporaries by marking with greater precision and certainty the miserable state of the intellectual powers of his time. Other periods are marked by the peculiar activity of the human mind; by the firm and accelerated pace in which it marches on towards improvement; by the splendid discoveries which mark its progress; by the accumulation of every species of knowledge; and by the increase of the power and the comforts of society. These alternate periods of activity and sleep may be distinctly seen in the history of Europe. In Asia, the other division of civilized society, the case has been different. The southern nations of that vast and delightful region, at a very early period, made considerable progress in the arts, and even in various departments of useful and speculative science; but here their progress stopped short. They can scarcely, indeed, be said to have declined. Every succeeding race acquired the very same quantity of knowledge which had distinguished their predecessors. But with this quantity they have remained almost uniformly satisfied, without making any attempts to add to the stock, or improve upon the exertions of their ancestors. In Asia, the human mind can scarcely be called progressive. The understanding has been bound down by cords, formed at a very early period, and which posterity has neither had the ability nor the inclination to break. In tracing the history of the human understanding, we must turn away from these feeble nations, the cradle, indeed, of the human race, and where the mind at first seems to have advanced with uncommon rapidity, but where, from causes which it is not our object at present to trace, it was early shackled, and where it has been kept ever since in a state of total inactivity. We must turn to Europe, a quarter of the world, small, indeed, in point of size, but vast and most important in the history of the human intellect. a In ancient Europe, Greece forms by far the most prominent figure. That small country, placed in one of the most delightful climates in the world; early acquainted with letters, and happy in a language admirably adapted for every purpose of science and of fine writing, at once copious, melodious, and precise; divided into great number of small states, most of which, from various causes, got rid of the petty tyrants by whom they were originally enslaved, and established in their place free and independent cities; obliged to contend with a neighbouring despotic empire, infinitely their superior in population and in wealth, early acquired an activity and energy of mind extremely favourable to the cultivation and improvement of the understanding. Whether the Greeks borrowed the first rude germs of the different sciences which they cultivated from the Egyptians, the Chaldees, and the Phoninicians, as is generally admitted, is not, in reality, an enquiry of much importance. They soon, at any rate, far surpassed these nations, and repaid, with accumulated interest, the treasures which they had originally imported. Mathematics is the science which the Greeks cultivated most, and which, perhaps, upon the whole, does them the greatest credit. That rigid and elegant mode of demonstration which distinguishes the ancient geometry, and of which we have so admirable a specimen in the books of Euclid, seems to have been their invention. They ascertained the properties of plain figures and of regular solids with the completest success; and no one can contemplate the splendid discoveries of Archimedes and Apollonius, without feeling the highest admiration for these immortal and illustrious men. The imperfect state of their notation of numbers, and the consequent difficulties which attended all their calculations, prevented them from establishing a regular analytical method, or from making such discoveries in algebra as rendered it of great utility in advancing the other branches of mathematics; but even in that branch of the science, their discoveries were important. Next after mathematics, astronomy was the science which owed its greatest improvement to the Greeks. That delightful and sublime science, on which navigation, and consequently commerce, in a great measure depends, is supposed to have originated in Egypt and Persia. Though the Greek sages turned their attention to it at an early period of their history, it was late, not indeed till after the time of Alexander the Great, |