adstone. One could wish to see some proof that it was duly appreciated
in a little more attention being given to Scottish business in
Parliament, and also in an increased measure of respect being shown to
those measures of reform in which our agricultural population justly
feel so great an interest. Thus far, it must be confessed, the farmers
of Scotland have met with but a poor return for their fidelity; and we
cannot wonder if we perceive amongst them symptoms of discontent that
may ultimately lead to bitter estrangement.

HENRY GLASSFORD BELL.

Of Henry Glassford Bell, the Sheriff of Lanarkshire, we may say, as
Macaulay said of Johnston, "We are familiar with his personal
appearance, as with the faces that have surrounded us from childhood."
For nearly half-a-century he has been a foremost citizen in Glasgow.
During that long period he has taken an active interest in all that
relates to the welfare of the city. Not in Law alone, but in Music,
Literature, Painting, and the Fine Arts generally, he is regarded as an
authority. In short, he is the intellectual king of the city, although
he differs from a monarch _de jure_ in his accessibility to all ranks
and conditions of men, and in the homage and respect which are
universally and spontaneously paid to his high personal qualities. His
experience is a direct reversal of the ordinary rule, that "a prophet
hath honour save in his own country and in his own house." In tracing
the lines of Sheriff Bell's biography, we are entering upon a fertile
but hitherto unoccupied field. A man of rare gifts, and one of whose
happiest literary productions it may safely be predicated that they will
live in the literature of his country, he has now for upwards of thirty
years relinquished the pursuit of _belles lettres_, thereby sacrificing
the world-wide fame as an author to which, in the early part of his
career, he seemed likely to attain. But if he has failed to achieve a
niche in the Temple of Fame, he has at least secured a permanent place
in the respect of the legal profession, and in the esteem of his
fellow-citizens. If the scope of his mind has been narrowed by the
arduous and incessant labour devolved upon him by his official position,
he has yet been enabled to lead a life of more than ordinary usefulness;
and future generations will probably listen with wonder and admiration,
when they hear of the extraordinary amount of hard and irksome labour
which, when the eight