of the
same time, whose influence was combined in this matter with Erskine's;
but his was that which continued to be exerted the longest, and always
in the same direction. That it was not accompanied with entire
success, the readers of The Doom of Devorgoil, to say nothing of minor
blemishes in far better works, must acknowledge.

These German studies divided Scott's attention with the business of
the courts of law, on which he was at least a regular attendant during
the winter of 1792-93.

In March, when the Court rose, he proceeded into Galloway, where he
had not before been, in order to make himself acquainted with the
persons and localities mixed up with the case of a certain Rev. Mr.
M'Naught, minister of Girthon, whose trial, on charges of habitual
drunkenness, singing of lewd and profane songs, dancing and toying at
a penny-wedding with a "sweetie wife" (that is, an itinerant vender of
gingerbread, etc.), and moreover of promoting irregular marriages as a
justice of the peace, was about to take place before the General
Assembly of the Kirk.

As his "Case for M'Naught," dated May, 1793, is the first of his legal
papers that I have discovered, and contains several characteristic
enough turns, I make no apology for introducing a few extracts:--

At the head of the first class of offences stands the
extraordinary assertion, that, being a Minister of the Gospel,
the respondent had illegally undertaken the office of a justice
of peace. It is, the respondent believes, the first time that
ever the undertaking an office of such extensive utility was
stated as a crime; for he humbly apprehends, that by conferring
the office of a justice of the peace upon clergymen, their
influence may, in the general case, be rendered more extensive
among their parishioners, and {p.188} many trifling causes be
settled by them, which might lead the litigants to enormous
expenses, and become the subject of much contention before other
courts. The duty being only occasional, and not daily, cannot be
said to interfere with those of their function; and their
education, and presumed character, render them most proper for
the office. It is indeed alleged that the Act 1584, chap. 133,
excludes clergymen from acting under a commission of the peace.
This Act, however, was passed at a time when it was of the
highest importance to the Crown to wrench from t