not, as formerly, lead a monastic life, immured within the precincts of college buildings. A Professor is now appointed for each separate department of knowledge in the curriculum, instead of the students being conducted through the whole four years of their course by a single teacher; and we may give a proof that the change was a recent one, by stating that the last of this race of Professors, of universal knowledge, is still living in the North, in the enjoyment of a green old age. Let us hope that the third change is at hand, by which a sectarian Test will disappear, and fit intrants, as well as fit occupants, be secured for the godly upbringing of the "youthhead" of our land. In an especial manner we call upon the advisers of Her Majesty to co-operate in the abolition of this TEST, which has failed in the purpose of excluding those unfriendly to a Church ordained by national compact, "to remain and continue unalterable," but which has been altered by Government in its essential characters. Let them consult the dignity of the Crown, by abolishing a Test which ROYAL VISITERS were bound, by oath, to maintain and enforce, but who have not only winked at its evasion generally, but have, by their presentations, countenanced its transgression, and retained in their councils those who avowedly despised it. Especially, we call upon Dissenters in Scotland, and Episcopalians in England, to see justice done to the followers of their respective creeds, and neither directly nor indirectly aid in upholding a Test, by the recognition of which they virtually declare, that all of their communion are unfit for holding any office in the Universities and Colleges of Scotland, or worthy to be entrusted with the education of youth. THE NORTH BRITISH REVIEW. FEBRUARY, 1850. ART. I.-A Letter to the Lord Provost on the Best Ways of Spoiling the Beauty of Edinburgh. By LORD COCKBURN. In common with every "right Edinburgh man," we read the pamphlet thus whimsically entitled, not only with that pleasure which, from its singularly original and characteristic style, it must have occasioned even to a stranger, but with feelings of civic satisfaction and pride. We deem it nothing more than proper and seemly, on the part of a community so highly favoured, that a sense of the "hourly luxuries" to which Lord Cockburn refers, should thus from time to time be publicly avowed; and we regard it as a subject of no improper gratulation that one so gifted and so beloved, should have found time, in the midst of the engrossing duties of a high and responsible station, to offer, even in these few printed pages, a passing tribute to the beauty of our town. Strange as it may seem to those of our readers whose imaginations have been in the habit of wandering to other lands in search of beautiful cities, we are willing to incur the charge of local vanity which may attach to the expression of our opinion, that in point of position, at all events, Edinburgh is not only unsurpassed, but is unrivalled by any city in Europe, with the possible exceptions of Corinth and Constantinople. To Rome, notwithstanding the seven hills, it is unquestionably superior both in picturesqueness and variety, and we prefer it to " Firenze la Bella," to Genoa, and even to Naples. Venice is more singular, but we suspect our good citizens, accustomed to the free exercise of their limbs, would soon feel the monotony of a dwelling in the sea. Vienna, the gay and cheerful Vienna that VOL. XII. NO. XXIV. U was, (and we hope that is again,) cannot vie with it; much less the sandy and arid Berlin. The vaunted capital of our Gallic neighbours has no upland range whereon her children might woo the genius of liberty, as they sing the Marseillaise to the mountain wind,-no castled crag to remind them of that ultimate appeal from anarchy, of which they are often forgetful, and its river, beautiful though it be, is but a sorry substitute for that noble arm of the ever living sea, which stretches around us its protection, whilst it brings us its treasures. With the tame surface of London, its besmoked and besooted parks, its neverending squalid suburbs, its mean brick-built streets, and the singular infelicity of its architectural monuments, to say nothing of the vulgar bustle of its countless money-making and moneyspending millions, we deign not for a moment to compare our bold, grand, poor little town; and Dublin is only a more comely because less plethoric reproduction of her English mother. Nor is it by comparison alone that we contrive to glorify ourselves. Sometimes we take an absolute instead of a relative view of the matter, and we say, not only has nature been thus bountiful to us beyond others, but she has positively adorned our city and its vicinity with nearly every charm which belongs to this region of the globe. When the man of Edinburgh issues from his door, be he poor or rich, if he be but the uncontrolled master of one short hour, he has only to consult his caprice as to whether it shall be spent in wandering luxuriously between corn fields, rich as those of Lombardy, and even more fruitful, under trees that would do no discredit to the shady Albano; in scampering like a chamois hunter along breezy cliffs, where the moss and the rock-rose find a scanty nurture; or in inhaling the invigorating breath of the "gladsome ocean," and in cheering his spirits by the contemplation of "Ships, and waves, and ceaseless motion, All this is" hourly" offered to him-the dweller in a city,-the hand-worker or the head-worker, as the case may be; and thus living and enjoying, if he sighs for the smoky chimney, with its unblessed wealth, we will not grieve for his departure for a scene more worthy of his genius. But though we go along with Lord Cockburn, and if we possessed his eloquence, would be disposed almost to go beyond him, in what he has said of the matchless beauty of our city, we are far from joining with him in thinking that we must quietly sit down and reconcile ourselves to the fact, that to this, and to this alone, we not only do, but ever must, owe our social importance. True Position of Edinburgh. 285 That if we refrain from "spoiling" our natural advantages, or at most if we avail ourselves of them by such moderate architectural and artistical embellishments as may be within the reach of a community never likely to be greatly distinguished for its wealth, we shall have done all that is in our power to render our little metropolis attractive to strangers, and agreeable to our selves. That we have little trade, and " mercifully almost no manufactures," are facts to which we have as little difficulty in reconciling ourselves as the learned Lord. The presence of such things would imply the destruction of almost all that we value in Edinburgh now; but is there no avenue to prosperity and importance, except through the crowded market-place,-no portal to dignity and grandeur which does not lead through the smoke of manufacturing chimneys? "There must be cities of refuge," says his Lordship, happily.-Refuge for whom? we would ask; and our past history and our present position, serve to answer the question with little hesitation. Lord Cockburn tells us that "we have supplied a greater number of eminent men to literature, to science, and the arts, than any other town in the empire, with the single exception of London" that "we have a College of still maintained celebrity;" and, lastly, that we have an "art, of which the brilliant rise within these last thirty years is the most striking circumstance in the modern progress of Scotland." Our refugees then, it would seem, in his Lordship's opinion, must be men" of literature, of science, and the arts" and we only regret that he did not find it convenient to dwell at greater length on an idea which, by one felicitous expression, he has thus, perhaps, almost accidentally stirred. It must be pretty plain to those who have paid any serious attention to the position which Edinburgh holds among the cities of this country, that her real importance depends on her becoming the abode of those who pave the way for action, rather than of those who act-of those who sketch out the campaign of the future from a study of the past, rather than of those who work in the trenches of the present. For the man of action we neither have, nor can create, a field; in this sense our city is not, and never again can become a metropolis. A few lawyers may find a sphere of reasonable activity in doing the public business of the country, and in their case the rewards of a successful performance of their duties may satisfy a moderate ambition. They may become respectable in the highest degree, but their profession, or the practice of it at all events, can bring them little glory beyond the limits of their native town-it leads to none of the higher state preferments, and the very possibility of attaining to a peerage (that ultimate goal of an English lawyer's ambition) by its means, is very unfairly, as it seems to us, cut off. For the politician there is no field whatever, beyond what every town of equal size in the empire presents. Even for the mere animal activity of the sporting man, our city offers no fitting arena. We are not rash enough to ride with him, nor rich enough to bet with him, and the very narration of his exploits we are frequently uncivil enough to treat as a bore. With the man of trade and commerce we have already, almost eagerly, consented to part company. But if thus we must take leave of the Tрактikos in all his departments, and must even, reluctantly it may be, bid adieu to the TOMTIKòs, with a friendly shake of the hand and a bon voyage, it is only in order that we may clasp the DewpηTicos more warmly in our embrace. Do we murmur against fate? We believe, on the contrary, that what she seems thus to dictate, is nothing more than what every Edinburgh man of the better sort has already a thousand times done in his heart. We wish nothing but success and prosperity to those whose pursuits are different from our own; nay, the immediate consequence of a recognition of our special department, as a thinking rather than an acting community, will be a heightening of our good-will, since it necessarily removes those feelings of rivalry which must have existed, had our objects of ambition been identical with those of our fellow-subjects of Glasgow or Birmingham. Nor is even sympathy cut off by the distinction for which we contend, for though dissimilar, our pursuits are by no means antagonistic. The political philosopher, the moralist, and the man of science, are indebted, one and all of them, in this country, chiefly to the trading and manufacturing communities, for the data from which they proceed and the tests to which they appeal. Were it not for this constant reference to experience and experiment, their labours must speedily terminate in a vague, as they would have arisen in an objectless, theorizing. If the whole world had resembled the society in which its author moved, the "Wealth of Nations" could not have been written. But even those pursuits which react most immediately on each other, are often by no means most successfully pursued, either by the same individual, or in the same circumstances. The quietest nook of a Cambridge cloister is a fitting retreat for an abstract mathematician, whilst the practical engineer, who is to test the value of his labours, finds a more congenial abode amid the cyclopean forges of Birmingham and Sheffield. Whilst we acknowledge our dependence upon, and profess our sympathy with, the operative portion of the community, we must, at the same time, recognise the distinction which exists between their function and our own. We must not be for ever affecting a desire ourselves to enter upon a career of enterprise at variance at once |