ten millions, (in 1843, it was little more than
nine)--an amount which is totally inadequate to afford so prodigious a
deduction as this, for the mere purpose of procuring authority to carry
our own schemes into execution. That the seventh part of the rental of a
country should be drawn away from it, and expended beyond its
boundaries, in the course of simple preliminary investigations, is not
only an exorbitant abuse, but, to my mind, a clear demonstration of the
total falsity of the system. It may have worked tolerably when there was
less work to do; but the amazing increase of private bills during the
last few years must render a new arrangement necessary. I wish our
countrymen would be a little more alive to the vast benefit of local
institutions in a pecuniary point of view. Can there be any doubt, that,
if the details connected with all the private bills applicable to
Scotland, were referred to a paid board of commissioners sitting
permanently in Edinburgh, whose judgment of course would be subject to
the review of Parliament, the business would be got through, not only
more cheaply, but with greater satisfaction and dispatch? I cannot see
why London should be entitled to this exclusive monopoly, or the
principle of centralization pushed so far as to injure the extremities
of the empire. The private committee business has already become an
absolute nuisance to the whole bulk of the members. It is a function for
which few of them have been educated, which is in itself highly
distasteful, and, moreover, interferes most materially with their public
duties. Let them, then, be freed from this thraldom, and Scotland will
have no reason to complain. We don't ask for any power of legislation;
we only require that within and among ourselves the necessary
investigations shall be made. This can be done in Edinburgh quite as
well as in London; and very sorely does our poor Metropolis stand in
need of such indigenous support. Dublin has its viceregal court, and
therefore can make some stand against centralization. Edinburgh has
nothing left her except the courts of law, which have been pared down by
ignorant experimentalists to the smallest possible substance. All that
could be taken from her has been transferred to London. Her local
boards, her officers of state, have vanished one by one; and scarce any
remonstrance has been made against these useless and unjustifiable
aggressions.

I find myself getting into the Malagrowther