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Smith appear without a competitor, as the first BOOK and most original philosophers of the age. The history of England was investigated by Hume, not with the eyes of a patriot but of a philosopher; and from each author whom he consulted, selecting alternately the choicest diction, he constructed an artful narrative, in which strength, precision, elegance, and a copious simplicity are infinitely diversified ; a narrative interspersed throughout with the most profound reflections; and, though partial, perhaps, to a particular system or party, enriched with the most philosophical views of the arguments and peculiar opinions of the times. Less acute, argumentative, and profound, but more correct, inventive, and uniformly elegant, Robertson aspired to the native graces of the English language, and added the rare praise of laborious fidelity to the palm of history which Buchanan originally conferred on Scotland. Their steps were followed by others with unequal success; but a few original authors communicate their taste and literature, if not a portion of their

97 Compare with Clarendon, for example, Hume's narrative of the assassination of Buckingham. The orations of ancient history are justly exploded, as an ornament destitute of verisimilitude, and derived originally from the rhetorical schools. Hume's history is liable perhaps to a similar objection; that the views and arguments assigned to each party are too refined and philosophical for the age to which they are ascribed.

BOOK divine spirit to their age or nation; and, instead XI. of that classical erudition which adorns England,

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but which is apt, perhaps, to degenerate into verbal or at least grammatical disquisition, philosophy, moral and political, is cultivated in Scotland, whose authors are still distinguished by their science, and by an original freedom of thought and discussion.

The administration of justice was improved by the union. When hereditary jurisdictions were abolished, each county was relieved from the most vexatious oppression, and thirty sheriffships at the disposal of government, soon reconciled the disaffected bar. The supreme judges, whom the government had no interest to bias, ceased to participate in domestic faction; but the court of session was indebted to Forbes for its present purity, which succeeding presidents were assiduous to preserve. Perhaps the least violent, and the most salutary improvement in the administration of justice, is to open the courts of justiciary and exchequer, under able judges, to the same causes which are competent to the session; that when the subjects are admitted, in civil questions, to the cheap and expeditious alternative of a jury trial, the mutual emulation of the three courts may introduce the same simplicity and dispatch into the, forms of judicial procedure 98.

98 See Considerations for Dividing the Court of Session into Classes or Chambers, and the Revival of Jury Trial in Civil Actions; by the late lord Swinton.

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The presbyterian church, so conspicuous in the BOOK history of the former century, has excited little attention during the present. The rights of par Religion. tronage were restored in the last years of queen Ann. A public toleration was granted to episcopal ministers, using the liturgy, and accepting the oaths to government, which were artfully imposed on the presbyterian clergy, with an implied acknowledgment, to which it was difficult to submit, that the successor to the crown must profess the same communion with the church of England. The obvious design of the tories in these acts, was to supplant the presbyterians in ecclesiastical government; but the last act has disarmed the intolerance of the clergy, while the first has introduced a mild and more liberal spirit into the established church. While the choice of a pastor was lodged with the parish, the clergy were reduced to the necessity of low adulation; and, to preserve their influence over the people, they were obliged to cultivate the most popular and fanatical arts. Grace and zeal were invariably preferred to moderation and learning; but the clergy recommended to the notice of the patrons by more laudable arts, acquired more liberal and enlightened ideas. The austere and morose enthusiasm of their order has been gradually refined; but it may be questioned whether the revival of patronage has contributed much to their influence, or

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BOOK dence on the patron is slight, or of short duration; and when their former connexion with the pro1755. prietors was dissolved, a pernicious emulation was naturally excited, productive of litigious and endless disputes. The adherents of patronage, in opposition to the popular or wild presbyterians, arranged themselves on the side of the court; but within a few years the intolerance even of those moderate presbyterians occasioned a wide and memorable secession, which undermines and threatens, at some future period, to overturn their establishment. Whatever fanaticism remains in Scotland is preserved by the Scceders, who adhere to the covenants and austere morals of the old presbyterians; and though divided among themselves, have continued rapidly to encrease, while episcopacy, destitute of enthusiasm for its basis, has almost disappeared.

Conclusion.

But the beneficial effects of the union were peculiarly reserved for the present reign. The progress of industry and trade was immense; new manufactures, particularly of silk, were introduced with success; the Scots employed in the seven years war, returned from abroad with the means or spirit to improve their estates; and the rapid cultivation of the country has redoubled the produce and the value of the soil. Before the commencement of the American war, the merchants of Glasgow had engrossed the chief trade in tobacco for exportation. The interruption of trade

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during that disastrous war, directed their capital, BOOK and the national industry, to the improvement of domestic arts; and from the perfection of modern machinery, the cotton manufacture, a recent acquisition, in all its branches so prodigiously increased, already rivals and supplants the productions of the ancient looms of Indoftan. Doubtless much is to be ascribed to the spirit and progressive state of the nation; but without an union, its unavailing efforts would have still been discountenanced by the commercial jealousy, and depressed by the influence of the English government. The recent benefits of the union are truly inestimable; and if its articles, which are too numerous, and on some occasions preclusive of improvement, have ever been infringed from inadvertence, a British parliament can have few temptations to depart from them by design. National animosities are at length obliterated; and though still regarded as scarcely naturalized, the Scots assimilate so fast to the language, the manners, and the taste of the English, that the two nations cease to be distinguished in the subsequent history of the British empire.

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