cle in which we justified the sentence pronounced on the
atheist Patterson. The other formed part of a purely historic
reference--in an article on Puseyism, written ere the Free Church had
any existence--to the Canterburianism of the times of Charles I., and
the fate of that unhappy monarch. We thought not of threatening the
aristocracy when quoting the one passage, nor yet of foreboding evil
to the existing dynasty when writing the other. On exactly the same
principle on which these passages have been instanced to our
disadvantage, the description of the _Holoptychius Nobilissimus_,
which appeared a few years ago in the _Witness_, might be paraded as a
personal attack on Sir James Graham; and the remarks on the
construction of the _Pterichthys_, as a gross libel on the Duke of
Buccleuch. It is, we hold, not a little to the credit of the
_Witness_, that, in order to blacken its character, means should be
resorted to of a character so disreputable and dishonest. From truth
and fair statement it has all to hope, and nothing to fear.

_June 14, 1848._

BAILLIE'S LETTERS AND JOURNALS.

This is at once the handsomest and one of the best editions of the
curious and very interesting class of works to which it belongs, that
has yet been given to the public. It is scarce possible to appreciate
too highly the tact, judgment, and research displayed by the editor;
and rarely indeed, so far as externals are concerned, has the
typography of Scotland appeared to better advantage. It is a book
decked out for the drawing-room in a suit of the newest pattern,--a
tall, modish, well-built book, that has to be fairly set a-talking ere
we discover from its tongue and style that it is a production not of
our own times, but of the times of Charles and the Commonwealth. The
good, simple minister of Kilwinning would fail to recognise himself in
its fair open pages, that more than rival those of his old _Elzevirs_.
For his old-fashioned suit of home-spun grey, we find him sporting
here a modern dress-coat of Saxony broadcloth, and a pair of
unexceptionable cashmere trousers; and it is not until we step forward
and address the worthy man, and he turns upon us his broad, honest
face, that we see the grizzled moustache and peaked beard, and
discover that his fears are still actively engaged regarding the
prelatic leanings of Charles II., 'now at Breda;' though perchance not
quite without hope that the counsel of the 'wise and godly youth'