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In the neighbourhood of Heriot's Hospital is the Charity Workhouse, for the support of the aged and infirm poor. It was established in 1742. I was informed that it contained about 700 persons, of both sexes, including children, when I visited it. Its funds arise from a tax of two per cent. on the valued rents of the city, collections at the church doors, charitable donations, and voluntary contributions; and there are two other workhouses nearly upon the same plan, which I did not visit. In these establishments the Scotch have departed from their accustomed mode of supporting their poor, by relieving them in the bosom of their own families, as afterwards noticed, and I could not help thinking the departure an unwise one. The poor thus aggregated together are never so clean or so comfortable as when the hand of Charity reaches them in their own homes; more objects of pity may be there maintained, because the expense of a costly establishment is avoided, and the cases of those who are entitled to relief may be more accurately investigated. However, subject to these remarks, the internal arrangements and regulations bespoke much care and humanity.

I was much pleased with the Institution for the Relief of the indigent and industrious Blind. This establishment is very well conducted. The objects of it are taught to make baskets, foot-mats, &c. They are not boarded in the

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BLIND MAN'S WIT.

house, but have a weekly allowance, in proportion to their earnings. Seven persons, who have been instructed here, have commenced business on their own account with considerable success. Their skill and quickness are truly surprising. I have long regarded the blind as objects, more entitled to our care than to our commiseration. If we contrast the almost invariably happy gaiety of their temper with the ennui which so often depresses those to whom nature has imparted the power of sight, I think the latter are in general more deserving of the compassion of the former. I remember being once much struck with the pleasantry of a blind man upon his own infirmity: he was a petty coalmerchant, and managed his concerns with uncommon punctuality. Upon a bill being tendered to him for payment, he asked how it was drawn. The holder of it replied, "that it was drawn upon him at ten days after sight."--"Oh, then," said he, laughing heartily, "my good Sir, you can never expect me to pay it, for do you not perceive that I am stone blind?"

CHAP. VIII.

THE MARKETS OF EDINBURGH-ROSES

AND STRAWBERRIESANECDOTE OF ABUNDANCE-JUDICIAL ESTABLISHMENT-THE

COURT OF SESSION-REMARKS UPON THE JUDGES-THE COURT OF JUSTICIARY-THE CIRCUIT COURT-THE COURT OF EXCHEQUER THE FACULTY OF ADVOCATES-WRITERS TO THE SIGNET -THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE-SCOTTISH LAWYERS DISTINGUISHED FOR THEIR GENIUS AND LEARNING THE ADVOCATES' LIBRARY-THE PARLIAMENT-HOUSE-THE TOLBOOTH-ANECDOTE-PRIVILEGE OF THE SCOTTISH EXECUTIONER-ROYAL MONUMENTS

FAREWELL-MORTUARY

FEW AND BAD-THE SCOTTISH CHURCH-ANECDOTE OF JOHN KNOX-THE ORGANWHISTLING KIRKS-WHIMSICAL SPIRITUAL SONGS-JEWS-CATHOLICS.

THE markets of Edinburgh, which are situated on a descending terrace on the north side of the High-street, are abundantly supplied with fish, flesh, and fowl. The vegetables are peculiarly excellent. A sea-weed, called dulse, which grows on the rocks on the coast near Edinburgh, and which is used by the farmers for manure, without undergoing the least preparation, is much eaten and relished by the poor people, to whom a large handful is sold for a penny. The dulse, the water, and the salt sellers, (the latter being women who carry the article about in creels or baskets,) are

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ROSES AND STRAWBERRIES.

amongst the petty venders who most arrest the attention of a stranger in the streets. In a most abundant supply of roses and strawberries, Edinburgh much resembles Paris: the latter are brought (in baskets which hold a Scottish pint) by carts to market; and it is estimated that upwards of 100,000 Scottish, or 400,000 English pints, are annually sold, during the season, in Edinburgh and the environs. The fruitmarket is held in the centre of the city, in stalls arranged round the Trone Church. Wall and hot-house fruit are sold in the pastry-shops. Upon the whole, the fruit of Scotland, with the exception of gooseberries and strawberries, is far inferior to that of the south.

Although the markets are so abundantly supplied, the articles for sale are far from being set out with that neatness and order, and strong temptation to purchase, so much noticed and valued in the English markets. It is recorded, as a proof of the uncommon fertility of the surrounding country, that in 1781, when Admiral Parker's fleet, and a Jamaica fleet, consisting together of 15 sail of the line, 9 frigates, and about 600 merchantmen, and having on board about 20,000 men, lay nearly two months in Leith Roads, they were well supplied with every species of provision without raising the markets; and the crews of the Jamaica fleet, who were very scorbutic, were restored to health by the plentiful supplies of strawberries and fresh vegetables which the Edinburgh markets afforded.

JUDICIAL ESTABLISHMENTS.

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I was unfortunate in not being in Edinburgh a little longer before the commencement of the summer vacation. I lost much intellectual gratification by not having it in my power to witness the distinguished talents of the Scottish pleaders. However, I had an opportunity of attending the trial of a young man for a felony, before the Court of Justiciary, and was much struck with the dignity and impressive conduct of the court and of the proceedings. The prisoner was not in irons, but was guarded by two attendants of the court. In a similar manner, in France, the criminals are always conducted to the tribunal by two gens d'armes, without irons. In England they are seldom or never put upon their trial without them.

A very brief account of the great judicial establishments of Scotland, now that they are expected to undergo a material change, may not be uninteresting to the reader who has neither leisure nor inclination to take an elaborate view of them. They are composed of a civil, a criminal, and a revenue, or exchequer court. The supreme civil court is the Court of Session, or the Lords of Council and Session, established in 1522, after the model of the ancient French parliaments. The judges of this court are fifteen in number, who are generally selected from the Faculty of Advocates; but persons from the Society of Writers to the Signet, the first class of agents who conduct causes without being pleaders, may also be chosen to this high office, under

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