summons, or with the opposite party, and between them the matter sometimes lies over for an almost incredible length of time.

The pursuer of a suspension seldom or never inclines to go on further, after his letters are expeded. And the forms of court are such that the pursuer of a summons, may allow it to ly over for a year without executing, and for another year without calling it.after it is executed.

Being once called, either a suspension or a summons, rem ins in force for 40 years, and does not even require a summons of wakening, if moved in once a year. After an action too is enrolled and even called before the judge, great delay may ensue. Procefs may be sisted until a relative action be raisand brought into court; or avisandum may be made and the process not be transmitted; or any other measure of delay may be adopted, that happens to be suggested either by ingenuity and art in the one party or by want of vigour and exertion in the other; in place of the cause being pleaded and forewarded in the manner it ought.

These are bad forms, my Lord, in a court of law where both parties may be, and often are equally prone to delay. If the forms were better, the judg es would have lfs drudgery, and we thould have lefs cause to complain of their slowness in advising their causes. LENTULUS.

I am &c.

CHARACTER OF A PROFESSOR IN A CELEBRATED UNIVERSITY, BY A FOREIGN LADY ON A VISIT TO SCOTLAND

Translated from the French by ARCTICUS. As you seem so highly pleased with the extract I

sent you last autumn, from the correspondence of a foreign lady on a visit to Scotland, I fhall endeavour to translate the character she drew at that time, of a particular friend of her husband, as I think with you that the fair sex have a manner peculiar to themselves, of seeing and describing objects, and that with a delicacy of thought and stile, which we masculine mortals never can come up to.

Edinburgh June the 20th, 1786. You possibly may think, my good lord and master, in all your masculine pride, that we pretty triflers, as you are arrogantly pleased to call us, are incapable of appreciating the lords of the creation (another poetic licence you are pleased to take when talking of your precious selves;) but to fhow how much you are mistaken I will paint your own friend in such true colours, and give such a likeness of him that you shall be forced to call out with Pilate

Behold the man.

His first appearance is rather a little stately, which a stranger might take for pride, especially as it is accompanied with rather a cold manner; but that apparent coldness which I have so often bantered him upon, is but the effect of the little desire he has to

Dec. 18. fhine; for I verily believe he never in his life, laid a plan either to shine or captivate, although he does both every day of it. It is only the imprefsion made on him by others, that beams in his eyes, and animates his modest figure. You must therefore interest and rouse his attention, if you wish to enjoy all the amiability of his character, for till you have vanquished that natural indolence of disposition, or as I have named it above, that little desire to shine, he is rather a spectator, than an actor in mixed company. But your trouble is well recompensed when you have gained that point, as it is then that his countenance exprefses every sentiment that pafses in his mind; and surely never were the expressions of the heart, more true, or more touching, than in your friend, during these moments; although you must keep them alive, for if an instant left to himself he falls back again into that state of seeming apathy, which must imprefs a stranger, as it did me at first, with the idea of indifference, although in fact, no man means lefs to fhow neglect to those he converses with, as he is really a compound of sensibility and philanthropy, insomuch that I am convinced the misfortunes of his friends must be calamities to himself.

I never saw him witty merely for the sake of being so it would seem on the contrary, as if all his ideas took origin from the objects which present in the moment, for he has none of those flathes of artificial fire, depending on a play of words, and smartnefs of expression, which we too often confound with withis is of the genuine kind, arising from bril

liancy of ideas, and exprefsed in a natural language just calculated to convey them; nay, it is evidently the production of genius, joined to an intuitive manner of extracting Attic salt, from whatever, is under discussion; so that we neither perceive in the instantaneous operation, the efforts of reason or art.— Like the giant of romance he feels not his own strength, being never obliged to make an exertion, or put it to trial. All the virtues of this worthy man have the same stamp, so that he excels by dint of merit, whilst claiming none.

It is not in the great world, nor in a large circle he discovers all the riches of his mind, but in a small company of friends and intimates; except unfortunately a stranger fhould intrude, when he fhrinks back like the snail into his shell, and leaves such a vacuum as is not easily filled up.

It is admirable to see such a man leave his profound speculations and studies, to enter into all the badinage of youth, as he often does in his own family, or where he is very intimate; indeed he has neither the pedantry nor pretensions of the learned of certain countries which I have visited in my travels; and I must pay you a compliment on the manners of those of yours in general, who afsume nothing, and are not to be distinguished in society from other well bred gentlemen, either by starch or learned jargon.

But to finish the picture of your friend, as I know my painting amuses you, no one obliges with more noblenefs and generosity; as every thing he does proceeds from la plus belle ame que fût jamais.

Dec. 18: The beauty of this last phrase I do not pretend to be able to equal in our language, so have left it in the original; we might say, from the noblest soul ever man pofsefsed, but that wants in my opinion the charming simplicity and delicacy of the French sentence. However, pofsibly you may be more fortunate in a synonyme than your correspondent,

ARCTICUS.

ALLADIN THE PERSIAN, AN EASTERN TALE:
Continued from p. 218.

CHAPTER VIII.

The travels of Alladin.

ALLADIN had yielded to the advice of his friends, and had set out with the Calender. They had travelled through many provinces, made themselves acquainted with their different productions, and their commerce; and also examined with attention the manners of the inhabitants, and the conduct of the governors, the greater part of whom appeared to him made up of vanity and indolence, eager to grasp at power, in order to delegate it to subalterns: contented to have the outward fhew of authority, they thought they fulfilled all their duties, by giving grand entertainments to the principal inhabitants of the principal cities, which they pafsed rapidly through, and where the people were eager to present them with petitions which they never read. He saw that the farther power was extended the more opprefsive it became, and that frequently the whole turned on the will or activity of the lowest scribe.