; and there
were card-parties, assemblies once a fortnight, or oftener;
and the young people danced there also, and others played at
cards, and there were various refreshments, such as tea and
coffee, and butter and bread, and I believe, but I am not
sure, porter and negus, and likewise small beer. And it was
at one of these assemblies that Mrs. Douglas called Mrs.
Chalmers very improper names. And Mrs. Chalmers brought an
action of defamation before the Commissaries, and it came by
advocation into this Court, and your Lordships allowed a
proof of the _veritas convicii_, and it lasted a very long
time, and in the end answered no good purpose even to the
defender herself, while it did much hurt to the pursuer's
character. I am therefore for REFUSING such a proof in this
case, and I think the petitioner in this case and his Beetle
have been slandered, and the petition ought to be seen.

"LORD METHVEN.--If I understand this--a--a--a--interlocutor,
it is not said that the--a--a--a--a--Egyptian Lice are
Beetles, but that they may be, or--a--a--a--a--resemble
Beetles. I am therefore for sending the process to the
Ordinary to ascertain the fact, as I think it depends upon
that whether there be--a--a--a--a--_convicium_ or not. I
think also the petitioner should be ordained
to--a--a--a--produce his Beetle, and the defender an Egyptian
Louse or _Pediculus_, and if he has not one, that he should
take a diligence--a--a--a--against havers to recover Lice of
various kinds; and these may be remitted to Dr. Monro, or Mr.
Playfair, or to some other naturalist, to report upon
the subject.

"Agreed to."

This is clearly a Reminiscence of a bygone state of matters
in the Court of Session. I think every reader in our day, of
the once famous Beetle case, will come to the conclusion
that, making all due allowance for the humorous embellishment
of the description, and even for some exaggeration of
caricature, it describes what was once a real state of
matters, which, he will be sure, is real no more. The day of
Judges of the Balmuto-Hermand-Polkemmet class has passed
away, and is become a Scottish _Reminiscence_. Having thus
brought before my readers some Reminiscences of past times
from the Courts of Justice, let me advert to one which