of the Faculty of
Advocates. This was in 1832, so that he was in his twenty-seventh year.

Up till now he had consecrated his whole talents and energies to the
pursuit of literary eminence, his greatest works being his well-known
poem on "Mary, Queen of Scots," and his vindication of the same
unfortunate monarch in a masterly history of her life. These works were
to him a labour of love, for he has always manifested a deep sympathy
with the misfortunes of the unhappy Mary Stuart. It is even said that it
was to his intense devotion to her memory, and his beautiful poem on her
life, that he was indebted for his wife, who claimed some remote
connection with the Queen of Scots, through Donald Dhu, of whom she was
a descendant. Mrs. Bell, we believe, was a daughter of Captain Stuart of
Sheerglass, on the banks of the Garry, opposite Athole, and _en passant_
we may remark that her forefathers took a prominent part in the battle
of Killiecrankie. As an advocate, Sheriff Bell never held a
distinguished position. He was, perhaps, too far advanced in life before
he joined the bar. Be that as it may, he was one of a numerous circle of
_literati_ who lived contemporary with and subsequent to himself, to
whom the bar never brought any laurels; but after all, he made better
progress in the Court of Session than Professor Blackie, whose briefs
were so terribly akin to angels' visits that he has been heard to
declare himself that his practice as an advocate never brought him so
much as L40 a-year. Nor was his success less than that of Professor
Wilson, Professor Ferries, Professor Aytoun, Professor Innes, Sir
William Hamilton, Hilburton, Spalding, and others whom we might mention,
who have stamped the English literature with the sign-manual of their
genius, and whose names will be held in remembrance and honour long
after those of the most distinguished lawyers of the age shall have
passed to the limbo of oblivion. Advocates who also followed the
profession of _litterateurs_, and were addicted to _belles lettres_,
often experienced unfair treatment at the hands of the agents or
writers by whom counsel is usually retained. They were not considered
safe men. And if they were not completely ostracised from legal life,
they were so far tabooed and kept at a distance that their emoluments
from their legal practice could not, if they had depended solely upon
that source of income, have held body and soul together. Besides this,
the Edinburgh