Shepherdess of the Alps: but what raised his popularity to the highest pitch throughout the whole of Greece, was his patriotic poetry, written in a style somewhat rude, but admirably adapted to inflame the imagination of the Grecian youth, and to inspire them with the most ardent love of their country, and with the strongest hatred of Moslemin tyranny and domination. His imitation of the celebrated Marseillais Hymn, (Allons, enfans de la Patrie, &c.) which the heroes and patriots of Greece still chant when marching to combat their oppressors, and his fine Highland song, TÓTE Tahnxágia và Lovμs 'sτa Bouvá, (Heroes! how long shall we dwell on the mountains?) are, of all his poetical effusions, those which have excited the most enthusiasm, and produced the most powerful effect upon the spirit of the Grecian youth, naturally ardent, impetuous, and penetrated with a deep admiration of the splendid achievements which adorn the pages of their ancient history. Rhigas also published a map of Greece, in twelve sheets, engraved at Vienna at the expence of his associates, in which he marked, not only by their present, but also by their ancient names, all those places celebrated in the annals of Greece. This map, which, besides other ornaments, contains facsimiles of a great number of medals, laid the foundation of Rhigas' reputation among the literati of Europe; and though by no means free from faults and inaccuracies, is altogether a production worthy of its justlycelebrated author.

But this indefatigable and extraordinary man, who, by the force of his genius alone, laid the foundation of the Greek Revolution, or rather was its principal author, terminated his career in a tragical manner, the victim of the most detestable treachery and baseness. An execrable ruffian, who had been admitted to his confidence, thinking to make his fortune by sacrificing his honour, denounced the unfortunate Rhigas, and eight of his friends, as conspirators against the Austrian Government; in consequence of which, the Emperor had them arrested, and, with the exception of three, who were naturalized Austrians, delivered over

to the Turkish authorities. All the Journals of Europe were filled with execrations against the atrocious cruelty of delivering up, to certain death, upon the testimony of an informer, men who were convicted of no crime, and who had, in fact, lived in the most rigid observance of the laws of the country which had afford. ed them an asylum. Of this abomi nable act, the Moniteur (year VI., 1798, No. 271,) speaks in the following terms, under the rubric of Sem. lin: "Nous avons vu passer par cette ville les huit Grecs qui avaient été arrêtés à Vienne, comme auteurs d'écrits seditieux, et livrés à la Porte, comme sujets du Grand Seigneur. Ils été liés deux à deux, et escortés par vingt-quatre soldats, deux caporaux, un officier superieur, et un commissaire. L'âme du parti auquel ces Grecs appartenaient, etait Rhigas, riche negociant, natif de Thessalie, passioné jusqu'au délire pour la delivrance de sa malheureuse patrie, *jàdis habitée par des hommes libres. Quelque tems avant que la police de Vienne eût donné des ordres pour l'arrêter, Rhigas, averti par quelque pressentiment, s'éloigna de cette ville; mais il fut pris à Trieste, où il se donna un coup de poignard. Son bras trahit sa volonté: le coup ne fut pas mortel. Il est au nombre des huit Grecs arrêtés, dont cinq seront livrés à la Porte, les trois autres, en qualité de sujets de l'empereur, ayant été condamnés à un bannissment perpétuel. Rhigas n'etait pas seul à la tête du parti qu'il avait formé; il était puissamment secondé par Mav. royeni, neveu du fameux Hospodar de ce nom; mais Mavroyeni, qui partit l'an passé est tranquille à Paris, tandis que l'infortuné Rhigas marche au supplice."

Rhigas, and his companions in misfortune, vainly requested, as a special favour, that they might not be delivered up to the ferocious agents of the Government of Constantinople, but suffer death, surrounded by their families and their friends: their entreaties were disregarded. Happily, however, their conductors, dreading that Passwan Oglon might succeed in rescuing these honourable victims, threw them into the Danube, and thus spared them the horrible torments that awaited their arrival in

the capital. This catastrophe, which deeply affected all Greece, and caused a considerable sensation throughout Europe, took place about the middle of the month of May 1798, Rhigas being then in the forty-fifth year of his age. After this fatal event, Anthime, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and Dean of the Greek Prelates,-a personage held in great veneration, and enjoying powerful influence,-published, by order of the Porte, a Paternal Circular, addressed to all the Greeks, and printed at Constantinople, (See Decade Philosophique. VIIe année, 4e trim. p. 218.) In this production, dictated by Selim III., then Grand Signior, the Patriarch counselled all those who professed the Greek faith, to remain faithful to the Sublime Porte, to consider the Grand Signior as their legitimate Sovereign, &c. &c.

This Circular was completely refuted, and exposed, by a friend of Rhigas, in a publication entitled FRATERNAL CIRCULAR to all the Greeks, subjects of the Ottoman Empire, in reply to the PATERNAL CIRCULAR published at Constantinople, under the supposed name of the Venerable Patriarch of Jerusalem. In his preface, the author calls upon the Greeks to declare to the whole world, in refutation of the absurd circular above alluded to, that hatred of the ferocious Moslemins was deeply rooted in their hearts; and that, if they had not yet cast off the yoke which oppressed them, it was from no want of courage and determination, but because the jealousy of several of the powers of Europe had hitherto retarded the hour of liberty. He then deplores, in very pathetic

terms, the fate of Rhigas and his unfortunate companions. "Methinks," says he, "I behold angels descending from Heaven, holding in their hands immortal palms to crown these martyrs in the glorious cause of religion and liberty." And he concludes his preface in these impassioned words: "Oh, my beloved country, and ye, my beloved countrymen, descendants of the ancient Greeks, deign to receive kindly this fraternal circular, very different indeed from that which bears the false title of paternal. Let neither the sword nor the fire destroy in your hearts_the ardent love of your country, and an irreconcileable hatred of its oppressors. Have always present to your minds the evils of every kind which the ferocious nation of the Turks causes you every day to suffer. Recall the sublime expressions of our ancestors, for the purpose of animating one another against the Persians: 'Sons of the Greeks, arise, deliver your country, deliver your children, your wives, the gods of your fathers, the tombs of your ancestors. To-day we must combat for these sacred objects of our regard.' (Eschyl. Pers. v. 202, 4.) These are the words which I address to all the Greeks without distinction," &c. &c.

The death of Rhigas gave occasion to several small works written in modern Greek, of which the most remarkable is that which bears the title of Nomocratia, and is dedicated TO THE MANES OF RHIGAS, -of that unfortunate, but extraordinary man, who has left a name consecrated to immortality in the annals of modern Greece.

Of the date above-mentioned, however, a Treasury-warrant was issued, by which they were put on the establishment of the civil officers of Scotland, at certain salaries therein mentioned; and by another warrant, on 19th of January 1803, a slight augmentation was made to them. It will scarcely be credited, that, even by the last-mentioned augmentation, a great many of those Judges in Scotland were paid at the rate of only £.50, £.60, and £.80 per annum,—

seven per cent of a deduction being also retained out of those miserable allowances! Some amounted to the prodigious sum of £. 100, and not one exceeded that sum except the salaries of the Substitutes in Edinburgh and Glasgow, the former being £. 150 and the latter £.130, subject to the percentage of deduction. That men of education, or character and talent, should have been found, even in a country where all those qualities abound, who were willing to accept of such offices, is marvellous; and it redounds to the honour of the national character, that, in a great many instances, the duties were ably and honourably discharged,-yet these deties were generally subservient to other purposes, and were regarded by the possessors as secondary to their several and separate professional pursuits. It was not until 1811 that a further augmentation was made, £.240 being now the highest, and others still standing so low as £.50 and £.60. The average of the whole may be about £. 140 per annum; and it was only the other day that the deduction of seven per cent was discontinued. During the time of the Income-tax, these salaries, beggarly as they are, were diminished seven, teen per cent!

It needs no ghost to tell that this is a very inadequate provision for the provincial officiating Judges of a civilized country, rising in every department of national industry and wealth, and teeming, in consequence, with subjects of judicial investigation, proportioned, in some measure, to the multiplicity of its transactions. It is indeed utterly inadequate. The sum total of the salaries to about half a hundred Judges, who administer justice to the great body of the people of Scotland, does not amount to . 8000 per annum! The expence of the Popish College in Ireland alone is £.9500 a-year. This is liberality. But there is an old maxim, that we ought to be just before we be generous. There cannot be a doubt that a very considerable increase ought to be made to the salaries of the Sheriffs-Substitute, and that their situations ought to be made not only comfortable, but, in the fullest sense, independent. It were an easy task to point out, and to illus

trate by examples, the pernicious and degrading consequences which have arisen from this beggarly mode of paying public officers. But every one knows enough of human nature to know, that poverty tends to chill and to crush the spirit of man, and to place him in situations that are unseemly, and extremely prejudicial to that pure and inflexible frame of mind which peculiarly adorns the judgment-seat, however humble that seat may be. There are, indeed, individuals, who, maugre all the temptations and influences which "poperty with empty hands" communicates to the human heart, are no respecters of persons, and no trucklers to pride and pretension; there are many such, we know, in the situation of Sheriffs-Substitute in Scotland. But this is not the average portion of human nature; and it is not to be calculated upon by any wise statesman, who rests his estimates on the general case, and not on the exceptions. Even although individuals were incorruptible and firm, beyond the reach of bias, from the contingencies connected with narrow circumstances, there is, in the meanness of pecuniary remuneration, a quality, which, in the common estimation of society, places its receiver in a scale of respectability, according to its amount. Perhaps this ought not to be the case; but we must take mankind as we find them. Perhaps, too, the nature of the office or employment, independently of its payment, may, with some, give a dignity to its functions, which may tend to counteract the depressing principle. But this is too slender a theory to hold by; and we may be assured, that, on this subject, there is a vulgar in all classes of society, who will always regard the respectability of an office, as indicated chiefly by the amount of the pecuniary recompence which its functionaries enjoy. If, therefore, the respectability, and consequent usefulness, of our inferior Judges, be an object worth attending to, a handsome-a decent salary, at least, is indispensably requisite for the attainment of that end.

But there is another amendment, on the existing state of things, which is not less called for than an increase of salary, that this situation of

Sheriff-Substitute should be rendered permanent and sure-ad vitam aut culpam. At present, the case is very different. A Sheriff-Substitute is appointed by the Depute, -and this is a most fair and reasonable exercise of patronage, on which there is no occasion for any change. But he can remove the Substitute at his pleasure. He can remove him without any complaint, and any cause. He may remove him even on account of his good qualities. He may remove him to gratify a political faction, or a malignant individual. He may remove him to curry favour, or to avert hostility to himself. He may 66 turn him off," to shew that he has the power of doing so,—and he may do all this without deigning to say why or wherefore ! On the appointment of a Substitute, he must be approved of by two out of three of the presiding Judges in the Supreme Courts. This is required by the Treasury-warrant of March 1811. But there is no mode of trial prescribed or known for Sheriffs-Substitute; and they may be removed by the fiat of the Depute, without seeing any accusation, or without any reason being assigned for their deprivation. In a word, a Sheriff - Substitute is perhaps the greatest slave in Scotland: he is the only British Judge who is put beyond the pale and protection of the law, and who may, by an arbitrary dash of his superior's pen, be turned adrift in an instant, on the wide world, without any reason, or any specified fault. This is an hideous evil.

We have often inquired upon what principle this arrangement rests. We have never, however, got any satisfactory reason, or any thing resembling a reason. Such a precarious and degrading tenure of office is indeed an evil, in which not the Sheriff's-Substitute only, but the public have a most material interest. To the former it is a very serious thing that they are exposed to distress, if not to ruin, without any known and recognised form of trial. If a SheriffDepute commit an official fault, there are certain modes of procedure pointed out by the Jurisdiction Act, and known to the common law, by which he may be proceeded against. But

the Substitute has not the benefit of this law and this procedure; he is liable to be condemned unheard, and the humble bread of his children torn from their lips, at the instigation, perhaps, of some skulking coward, who dares not meet the injured man in the face of day. It is said, indeed, that Sheriff-Deputies are responsible for their Substitutes. But this is a mere shadow. To what effect are they responsible? Have they ever been sued for the official errors of their Substitutes? How many cases have occurred since the Jurisdiction Act was passed? There is no occasion for such nominal responsibility-for it is only nominal. Let every man answer for his own misdeeds.

It may be said that a Substitute accepts of his commission with this qualification on its face. Undoubtedly he does; in many cases he may be willing to encounter it; and therefore, in such cases, he can have no right to complain. But there is another view of the matter. A Substitute may be exceedingly happy to take a commission from a Deputy, whom he knows to be a man of honour, and a lover of justice: he has perfect reliance on that individual. But that individual may have a successor of a very opposite description. Death, resignation, or changes of various kinds, may remove the original Depute, and place another in his stead. Circumstances are then altered. The Substitute may now be advanced in life,-he may have abandoned all other pursuits, and spent twenty years of the prime of his days in an irreproachable discharge of public duties,--he may be re-appointed by the new Depute, and honoured with his smiles and his applause ;-but a cloud may come some trifle, which a man of sense would smile at and despise, may be magnified and discoloured,and, consulting temporary expediency more than justice, the Depute may say to his Substitute, Pray walk off, Sir; you are a very honest and zealous judge; therefore walk off, Sir." Ought such things to be?

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But if this be a distressing state of matters for the Substitutes themselves, it is altogether pernicious, as far as the public are concerned.

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