_Criminal Trials quam
primum_. Also, an absolutely correct text of the Scots judiciary oath.

Also, in case Pitcairn does not come down late enough, I wish as full a
report as possible of a Scotch murder trial between 1790-1820.
Understand, _the fullest possible_.

Is there any book which would guide me as to the following facts?

The Justice-Clerk tries some people capitally on circuit. Certain
evidence cropping up, the charge is transferred to the J.-C.'s own son.
Of course, in the next trial the J.-C. is excluded, and the case is
called before the Lord-Justice General.

Where would this trial have to be? I fear in Edinburgh, which would not
suit my view. Could it be again at the circuit town?

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

TO SIDNEY COLVIN

[_Nov. 30, 1892._]

MY DEAR COLVIN,--Another grimy little odd and end of paper, for which
you shall be this month repaid in kind, and serve you jolly well
right.... This is a strange life I live, always on the brink of
deportation, men's lives in the scale--and, well, you know my character:
if I were to pretend to you that I was not amused, you would justly
scorn me. The new house is roofed; it will be a braw house, and what is
better, I have my yearly bill in, and I find I can pay for it. For all
which mercies, etc. I must have made close on L4,000 this year all told;
but, what is not so pleasant, I seem to have come near to spending them.
I have been in great alarm, with this new house on the cards, all
summer, and came very near to taking in sail, but I live here so
entirely on credit, that I determined to hang on.

_Dec. 1st._--I was saying yesterday that my life was strange and did not
think how well I spoke. Yesterday evening I was briefed to defend a
political prisoner before the Deputy Commissioner. What do you think of
that for a vicissitude?

_Dec. 3rd._--Now for a confession. When I heard you and Cassells had
decided to print _The Bottle Imp_ along with _Falesa_, I was too much
disappointed to answer. _The Bottle Imp_ was the _piece de resistance_
for my volume, _Island Nights' Entertainments_. However, that volume
might have never got done; and I send you two others in case they should
be in time.

First have _The Beach of Falesa_.

Then a fresh false title: ISLAND NIGHTS' ENTERTAINMENTS; and then

_The Bottle Imp_: a cue from an old melodrama.

_The Isle of Voices._

_The Waif Woman_; a cue from a _saga_.

Of course these two others