l the new actor might satisfy the London
critics, he did not come up to the standard of the Edinburgh drama.
Indeed, Mr. Bell made the drama a special study, and his opinion on any
new play or actor was always asked and listened to with the utmost
deference. He was on very intimate terms with the late Mr. William H.
Murray, manager of the "Royal," and through him furnished a number of
prologues for that theatre in its palmiest days. He also established for
himself a high reputation as a lecturer on the Fine Arts; and his
prelections on music, poetry, sculpture, painting, and the drama were
universally admitted to be of a high order of merit. Until the present
hour, Sheriff Bell continues to manifest a great attachment to the Fine
Arts, and amid the pressure of his official duties, he often finds
leisure to visit the theatres either in Glasgow or in Edinburgh.

In 1839, Mr. Bell was appointed a Sheriff-Substitute of Lanarkshire,
with a salary of L400 per annum. The appointment lay with Sir Archibald
Alison, who is said to have been favourably impressed with his
successor's conduct while acting as junior counsel for the Glasgow
cotton-spinners when they were brought to trial in the spring of 1838
for conspiracy. When Mr. Bell became Sheriff-Substitute, the duties of
the office were very light compared with what they are at the present
time. For a number of years his only colleague was the late Mr. George
Skene, who subsequently became Professor of Law in Glasgow University.
Indeed, the duties of the Sheriffs continued to be comparatively easy up
to 1853, when the passing of the Sheriff Court Act, which compelled
Sheriffs to take all notes of evidence in their own handwriting,
rendered the work much more laborious. Their salaries were raised from
time to time, in proportion to the increased irksomeness and
responsibility of their duties; and it is a fact worth noting, that
whereas Mr. Bell, as Sheriff-Substitute, had only L400, Mr. Dickson, in
the same sphere of labour, has now L1400 per annum.

On the death of Sir Archibald Alison in 1867, Mr. Bell was appointed
Sheriff-Principal. One of his first acts upon his promotion was so
graceful in itself and so creditable to his good taste that we cannot
refrain from referring to it here. To external appearance, Sheriff Bell
has little of the _suaviter in modo_ about him; and while acting as
Sheriff-Substitute, he gave offence to several of the agents practising
in the local cou