chute, and open himself to the new rhetorician with something of the reposing confidence due to an old and tried associate and adviser. As for causes in the Criminal Court, wherein mere argument is not all that is necessary, or such causes in the Jury Court as give occasion for any appeal to the feelings and affections-I fancy, there are few who have heard both of them that would not assign the palm to Mr Cockburn without the smallest hesitation. Whether from the natural constitution of Mr Jeffrey's mind, or from the exercises and habits in which he has trained and established its energies, it would seem as if he had himself little sympathy for the more simple and unadorned workings of the affections; and accordingly he has, and deserves to have, little success, when he attempts to command and controul those workings for purposes immediately his own. I have never seen any man of genius fail so miserably in any attempt, as he does whenever he strives to produce a pathetic effect by his eloquence. It is seen and felt in a moment, that he is wandering from his own wide and fertile field of dominion, and every heart which he would invade, repells him with coldness. It is not by an artificial piling together of beautiful words, and beautiful images, that one can awe into subjection the rebellious pride of man's bosom. It is not by such dazzling spells as these, that a speaker or a writer can smite the rock, and "Wake the sacred source of sympathetic tears." Mr Jeffrey is the Prince of Rhetoricians; but Mr Cockburn, in every other respect greatly his inferior, is more fortunate here. He is an Orator, and the passions are the legitimate and willing subjects of his deeper sway. As the Stagyrite would have expressed it, he has both the πιεις ήθικη and the πιςις παθετικη ; but Mr Jeffrey has no pretensions to the possession of either. P. M. 79 LETTER XXXVI. TO THE SAME. FAR inferior to Mr Cockburn, or to any of the three gentlemen I first described, as a speaker,but far above Mr Cockburn, and far above Mr Jeffrey, as a lawyer, is Mr James Moncrieff, without all doubt at this moment the most rising man at the Scottish Bar. This gentleman is son to Sir Henry Moncrieff, a well-known leader of the Scottish Church, of whom I shall, perhaps, have occasion to speak at length hereafter. He has a countenance full of the expression of quicksightedness and logical power, and his voice and manner of delivering himself, are such as to add much to this the natural language of his countenance. He speaks in a firm, harsh tone, and his phraseology aspires to no merit beyond that of closeness and precision. And yet, although entirely without display of imagination, and al though apparently scornful to excess of every merely ornamental part of the rhetorical art, it is singular that Mr Moncrieff should be not only a fervid and animated speaker, but infinitely more keen and fervid throughout the whole tenor of his discourse, and more given to assist his words by violence of gesture, than any of the more imaginative speakers whom I have already endeavoured to describe. When he addresses a jury, he does not seem ever to think of attacking their feelings; but he is determined and resolved, that he will omit no exertion which may enable him to get the command over their reason. He plants himself before them in an attitude of open defiance; he takes it for granted that they are against him; and he must, and will, subdue them to his power. Wherever there is room to lay a finger, he fixes a grappling-iron, and continues to tear and tug at every thing that opposes him, till the most stubborn and obstinate incredulity is glad to purchase repose by assenting to all he demands. It cannot be said, that there is much pleasure to be had from listening to this pleader; but it is always an inspiriting thing to witness the exertion of great energies, and no man who is fond of excitement will complain of his entertainment. His choleric demeanour gives a zest to the dryness of the discussions in which he is commonly to be found engaged. His unmusical voice has so much nerve and vigour in its discords, that after hearing it on several occasions, I began to relish the grating effect it produces upon the tympanum-as a child gets fond of pepper-corns, after two or three burnings of its mouth. And as acquired tastes are usually more strong than natural ones, I am not disposed to wonder that Mr Moncrieff should have some admirers among the constant attendants upon the Scottish courts, who think him by far the most agreeable speaker of all that address them. They may say of him, as my friend Charles Lloyd says of tobacco, "Roses-violets-but toys For the smaller sort of boys— It is not, however, as a speaker, that Mr Moncrieff has his greatest game before him. Mr Clerk has past his grand climacteric; and unless universal rumour say falsely, Mr Cranstoun is about to retire. There is no question, that whenever either of these leaders is removed, his baton of command must come into the strenuous grasp |