while the stale averment, that the crime has been committed by Englishmen entering their banks with false keys, is pleaded to Scottish judges, it excludes the more legitimate presumption that the pretended theft may have been committed by Scotchmen entering their banks with their own keys." P. 288.

The letter concludes with the customary fifth act, drum and trumpet flourish of Magna Charta, and the Habeas Corpus Act; earnestly imploring redress and justice, and demanding relief from the operation of an odious and corrupt authority, &c. &c. &c.

The situation of the bank at this time was curious.

“Unless they proved Mackcoull's participation in the robbery, and that the notes with which the bills were purchased were part of those stolen from their bank they behoved to deliver up to Mackcoull the said bills, amounting to 9911. odd, and interest at 5 per cent., from May, 1813—to lose all the expense they had been at in claiming their own property, and pay all Mackcoull's expenses (amounting to nearly 10001.) in prosecuting them, besides the disgrace of losing the action-an action, We believe, without a parallel in the annals of any court in Europe ;-a public depredator-a convicted rogue and vagabond-going at large in the metropolis of Scotland, without any lawful trade or employment, denouncing courts, magistrates, and private individuals, and prosecuting, with their own money, in the supreme court of that country, a respectable banking company, for attempting to keep a part of their property of which he had robbed them, and which was actually found in his possession. But this was not all: Mackcoull's intentions were, if he succeeded in the Jury Court, to follow up the decision with an action of damages, in which, it is the opinion of many, he would also have been successful ” P. 185.

On the 11th of May, 1820, the three following issues were tried.

“ * 1st. Was the defendant guilty of stealing, or carrying away from the premises of the said Banking Company the property charged ?

« «2d. Whether he received the money, or any part of it?

« « 3d. Whether the notes found on his person, or traced to his possession, are the same that were stolen from the said banking house ?!” P. 202.

Mackcoull, to the astonishment of all present, took his place in court. The trial deserves to be.read at length. By the most indefatigable exertion, Mr. "Denovan, whom we have before mentioned, had succeeded in bringing up a train of witnesses, who identified Mackcoull as one of three persons travelling from Glasgow to London two days after the robbery; and detailed a variety of collateral circumstances, amounting, in the aggregate, to the strongest proof of his guilt. To complete the evidence, Scoltock, the blacksmith, upon whose absence Mackcoull implicitly relied, was placed in the box.

“On hearing his name, Mackcoull rose from his seat, and attempted to get out of court; but the crowd was so great, that he found it impossible to reach the door before Scoltock appeared. The instant he saw him, he changed colour, and sunk by the side of the wall in a kind of faint. He was assisted out of court, and did not again make his appearance for some time.” P. 249.

The jury found for the prosecutor on all three issues, and Mackcoull was tried for the robbery before the High Court of Justiciary on the 19th of June. The same facts were proved by the same witnesses, * with one or two additions, and a verdict of guilty was recorded without hesitation.

“On being carried back to the jail, his whole stock of fortitude and resolution left him. lle appeared to be overwhelmed with despair, and observed to the governor, with much emotion, that had the eye of God not been upon him,

1

such a connected chain of evidence never could have been brought forward." P. 274.

A respite for a month was received for him on the 14th of July, and three weeks afterwards a reprieve during pleasure.

“ After the month of August, Mackcoull fell into a natural decline, which affected his mental faculties so much that he became altogether silly and childish. He was haunted in his sleep by frightful dreams and visions, and frequently started up with such dreadful cries, and horrible expressions and imprecations, that none of the other felons could remain in the cell with him. He was visited occasionally, not only by the regular Ordinary of the jail, but also by several eminent divines, to all of whom he behaved with becoming respect, but generally refused or declined to enter with them on religious subjects. Sometimes, however, it is said he attributed this obduracy to the want of a religious education, and the very slight acquaintance he had with the Bible. Previous to his death, he was so much emaciated, that those who saw him at the trial could not again recognise him; while, from the time of his conviction, it was remarked, that his hair began to change colour:-At that period it was jet black, but, in the course of three months, it became silver grey. He died in the County Jail of Edinburgh, on the 22d day of December, 1820, and was decently interred, at the expense of his wife, in the Calton Burying-ground.” P. 279.

Mr. Denovan's journal of his expedition to London, in order to obtain evidence, as given in the Appendix, is a most curious document: and we know not whether most to be struck by the sagacity of the inquirer, or the many singular accidents (if we must so call them) by which he was enabled to connect the links of his chain of evidence. Mackcoull indeed, in the course of his journey, appears to have behaved with extraordinary want of caution, displaying the notes with a degree of hardihood, which is only to be accounted for by the flush of triumph which he must have felt at his recent success. At Bowstreet, Mr. Denovan's first care was to get possession of the false keys which had been already found in Scoltock's shop; and, by the assistance of Lavender, the officer, they were at length discovered in a back closet, which is the customary receptacle of the implements of crime. In this blue chamber of horrors, the wished-for box was placed in most appropriate company; covered by the bloody jacket and the maul of the assassin of the Marrs and Williamsons, and the poker from which Mr. and Mrs. Bonar met their death. An account, exceeding €2000, had been opened by Mackcoull, under the name of James Ibell, with Messrs. Marsh and Sibbald, the bankers. The extract, which Mr. Denovan obtained from the books of these gentlemen, presented some well known names. Among them were Mackcoull's brother, sister, and two mistresses; Sutton, a man who lives by melting silver plate, and altering the names and numbers of watches (christening and bishoping); Goodman, a noted coach robber, and Ings, the ferocious butcher, who suffered with Thistlewood.

We need not draw the moral which the life of this unhappy man suggests. It is given in a few words, at the conclusion of the memoir.

“ His whole life may thus be considered as one uninterrupted career of villany almost without a parallel. That he did not expiate his crimes on a gibbet, was merely owing to circumstances which are not worth explaining;-but, during the period of his imprisonment, he suffered many deaths. Of the

fatal tree he spoke without fear; but the dread of a future tribunal paralyzed his understanding :--He saw and trembled at the approach of that unerring shaft which no earthly ruler could control; while the horrors of his mind, by affecting the nervous system, accelerated his dissolution :-the retrospect of his life often obtruded itself with new modifications of insupportable reflection-the prospect of futurity he could only

contemplate with fearful apprehension:--He felt the wakening of a seared conscience, from which there was no retreat-He crawled about, grinding his teeth—his intervals of slumber were broken and interrupted with the most frightful visions; and he saw the hairs of his head become grey with anguish! The picture is too horrible to finish-To religion he was a stranger-a total stranger in this hour of need: he felt not her soothing influence-he cherished not the hope of forgiveness or mercy-Unhappy man! he looked to God as to a cruel and vindictive ruler, at whose hands he could only expect the full punishment of his crimes—his resignation was despair!” P. 280,

FROM THE ECLECTIC REVIEW

CRANIOLOGY. Viewing the protuberances of the Craniologist simply in the light of physiognomical indications, to which certain internal organs are supposed to correspond, the chief objection to the hypothesis is, not that it necessarily tends to Materialism, but that, as a system, it wants probability, consistency, and evidence. It is a mere hypothesis, that different departments of the brain are appropriated to particular functions of thought. There is nothing irrational, indeed, in the supposition, that different pairs or sets of nerves may have an office as separate and peculiar, as those which transmit the mysteriously modified sensations of sight, hearing, and touch. In which case, although the faculties may not be local, any more than sight can be said to reside in the eye, yet, the mechanism adapted to those faculties, and instrumentally necessary to certain evolutions of thought, may be local, and its healthful action be dependant on the structure. Since, however, the anatomist has never been able to detect in the brain itself, any exuberances of shape or size answering to the protuberances detected in the cranium, it is incredible that the external marks should be caused by imperceptible and undiscovered modifications of the internal organs. That they even indicate their local situation, would be a most singular fact, could it be established. But this would not prove a necessary correspondence between the size of the bump or knob, and the development of the internal organ; any more than a large nose or full eyes infallibly indicate nicety of smell or strong sight. In fact, could the physiognomical truth of the system be established,

-were the knobs an infallible index to the innate propensities,-the brain might have, after all, nothing to do with them. "Like other physiognomical appearances indicative of varieties of temperament or of intellectual character, they might be known as rules of observation, while the coincidence should remain wholly unaccounted for. The shape of the skull

, confessedly, does not answer to the external figure of the brain : it cannot, therefore, be determined by it. These convex knobs are not concavities designed to make room for its action. They can only be considered as hieroglyphic sculptures on the case which encloses the machinery; and if Dr. Spurzheim can decipher them, well and good. But he must not call them organs, or take it for granted that there are local organs answering to every knob.

of the existence of strong intellectual predispositions and animal propensities in mankind, we entertain no doubt. We are also tempted to believe that there is some correctness in Dr. Spurzheim's craniological observations in regard to the signs of many of those propen

sities; that they have some foundation in fact. For otherwise, we should find it impossible to account for the vast number of instances in which his craniological rules have led to the detection of individual characteristics. The coincidences have been too numerous and striking to admit of being slightly disposed of. Because they have been employed to prove too much, it does not follow that they prove nothing. What we chiefly dislike in the system is, the mixing up of intellectual with moral predispositions, and connecting the latter also with the brain. The classification is unnatural, and, we think, unsound. An organization adapted to the faculty of constructiveness, or to that of calculation, or to that of imaginative combination, we can understand. But organs of benevolence, of veneration, or of other moral qualities, appear to us terms without meaning: So far as the predisposition to good or evil qualities has any existence in the physical constitution of man, (and since it exists in the brute animal, we see no room for denying that it may have a physical origin,) such predisposition must be regarded as having a connexion with the temperament, not with the cerebral structure. On this point, we are sorry to be at issue with Mr. Abernethy, who expresses his satisfaction with Gall and Spurzheim's arrangement, because it places the sentiments and dispositions in their real situation-the head.' And he expresses his surprise that an anatomist so eminent as Bichat, should represent the heart to be the seat of feeling, the head of thought. We will not contend about the exact seat of feeling; but of this we are well persuaded, that what Bichat calls the organic life, is chiefly implicated, as a system of functions, in those predispositions to certain passions or tempers which frequently discover themselves before thought could possibly give birth to them. And we entertain no doubt that the simple circumstance of health in the very earliest stages of life,-by which we mean, the vigorous and harmonious play of all the animal functions,-has much more to do with the future disposition, than is generally suspected.

That the intelligence which produces emotion is received by the brain, and that it secondarily affects the heart, we admit. But then, the brain, not being the seat of emotion, cannot be the seat of those dispositions and feelings which determine the degree and character of emotion. The organs of such dispositions are not, therefore, to be sought for in the brain.

There seems nothing incredible in the notion, that the head would prove to be, could we but make it out, the physiognomical index to the whole organization. We see in the amplitude of the forehead the marks of intellectual capacity; in the development of the lips, the signs of a sanguine or of a phlegmatic temperament; in the lower parts of the face, the strength of the animal propensities. Why should the knobs on the surface of the head, any more than the features of the face, be considered as indications relating only to the bruin? As physiognomical signs, they might be found to relate equally to the functions of the organic system to the size of the liver, the force of the heart, or the texture and actions of the bowels. These are the real organs of jealousy, benevolence, decision, and heroism; and we see no reason why they should not have their representative knobs, as well as the intellectual organs of the brain. It appears to us a great mistake to hunt in the medullary membrane for the organs

of emotion, which lie much lower down in the system. These discover themselves in the configuration of the face; why may not the stomach and the liver have their share in determining also the shape of the cranium?

The signs, then, even of moral qualities or dispositions, may occupy the situation assigned them on the surface of the brain-box, though we cannot tell how they got there. The strange and revolting juxta-position, however, of some of these knobs, makes much against the correctness of the arrangement. The nomenclature of the system, too, is, in reference to the indications of moral organs, both offensively injudicious and liable to perversion. This remark applies more especially to the organ of veneration. The notion of an organization exciting in us reverence for the Deity, strikes us as grossly improper, Reverence for the Deity has assuredly not its place in the brain ; and although certain natural turns of mind must be allowed to be more favourable than others to the cultivation of piety, we cannot believe that these are indicated by any knob on the top of the head.

On the whole, the system of Gall and Spurzheim, considered as an organological system, we consider as having no better foundation than imperfect induction and gratuitous supposition. But it has been charged with consequences which do not attach to it, supposing it to be true, and has given rise to unfounded alarms and unjust aspersions. As a physiognomical system, we think it embodies a number of curious facts, mixed up with much that is uncertain, and with not a little that is, in terms, absurd. Let it be pursued, however, as a branch of phy. siognomy, and we see no objection to the study; although whether it will ever assume the true character of a science, seems very questionable.

a

a

FROM THE BRITISH REVIEW,

The Poems of Caius Valerius Catullus, translated, with a Preface and

Notes, by the Hon. George Lamb. In 2 vols. 12mo. Murray, 1821.

It is not without reason that translators from ancient authors have complained of the difficulties that have beset them. The idioms of the respective languages appear sometimes, as if by an effort, to keep at a distance from each other, so that no artifice or contrivance cap bring them cordially together. It is to little purpose that rules are laid down for the guidance of those who hazard their reputation in so fearful an enterprise. Even those who legislate most upon this subject are not unfrequently the first to violate their own enactments. For this reason, in no department of letters have there been so many adventures, and so many miscarriages. They who have best succeed ed in this narrow and circumscribed path of exertion, have merely danced with less awkwardness in their fetters. Fetters they still are; and so rarely are the graceful attitudes of unrestrained nature, the flow, the ease, the happy negligence of the original, achieved in a translation, that we habitually suffer the perplexities of the task to affix limits to our wishes, and are content to lower our standard of excellence from that which we conceive or wish for, to that which is more attainable.