He was well acquainted with the title-page of Blackstone's _Commentaries_, and _argal_ (as the gravedigger in _Hamlet_ says) he was not a person to be laughed at.' He attended the Parliament House in the character of a critic, and could give you stale sneers at all the celebrated speakers.

He was the terror of essayists at the Speculative or the Forensic.

In social qualities he seems to have stood unrivalled.
Even in the police-office we find him shining with undiminished lustre.
'If a _Charlie_ should find him rather noisy at an untimely hour, and venture to take him into custody, he appears next morning like a Daniel come to judgment.

He opens his mouth to speak, and the divine precepts of unchanging justice and Scots law flow from his tongue.

The magistrate listens in amazement, and fines him only a couple of guineas.' Such then were our predecessors and their College Magazine.