We are now arrived at the second great literary epoch of the capital of Scotland.In the first, that of the last half of the previous century, had appeared a number of grave and thinking men, each striking out a path for himself.This second consisted of a brilliant circle of writers, critics, and talkers.They formed a club of which Scott, Jeffrey, Stewart, Playfair, Sydney Smith, Brougham, the " Man of Feeling," Cockburn, {342} Horner, Alison, and Thomas Brown were members.In this circle, the two most eminent men were Walter Scott, the poet and reputed novelist, and Francis Jeffrey, the critic." Edinburgh was at that time, to a far greater extent than it is now the resort of the families of the gentry, who used to leave their country residences and enjoy the gayety and the fashion which their presence tended to promote.Many of the curious characters and habits of the preceding age -- the last purely Scotch age that Scotland was destined to see-still lingered among us." After this time the ambitious youths of Scotland trooped to London, and left Edinburgh as specially a lawyers' city, relieved by a healthy mixture of university professors, of eminent doctors, and high-class teachers.When Jeffrey's professional income became large, he had as his residence Craigcrook, three miles north west of Edinburgh, on the eastern slope of the Corstorphine Hill, and he lived there thirty-four seasons.Thither a select but miscellaneous band of visitors resorted on the Saturday afternoons " The Craigcrook party began to assemble about three, each taking to his own enjoyment.The bowling-green was sure to have its matches in which the host joined with skill and keenness;the garden had its loiterers; the wall, not forgetting the wall of yellow roses, their worshippers; the hill its prospect seekers.The banquet that followed was generous;the-wines never spared, but rather too various; mirth unrestrained except by propriety; the talk always good, but never ambitious, and those listening in no disrepute."As he had promoted the cause of parliamentary reform so steadily and consistently, there was an appropriateness in his being sent to the House of Commons, where he spoke in behalf of the Reform Bill, and, after the Reform Bill passed, in his being the representative of the city of Edinburgh.One of the great speeches in behalf of the bill was by him, and he carried through the Scotch Reform Bill and the Borough Reform measure.Still his career in Parliament was not eminently successful.I remember that, when he was first sent to St.Stephen's, the question was eagerly discussed in Edinburgh, whether their great literary critic was likely to prove a parliamentary states man and orator, when Chalmers decided, " he wants momentum." He retired from the House of Commons in 1834, and became a judge, his decisions being always wise and weighty.In particular {343} he defended the ancient rights and the independence of the church of Scotland in a very able paper, showing that he had a very clear apprehension of the distinction between the spiritual and temporal powers.When between four and five hundred ministers threw up their livings rather than submit to have the spiritual privileges of the church and the liberties of the people trampled on, he exclaimed: " I am proud of my country." He died January, 1850, giving so far as is known no religious sign either in life or in death.
