d solemn as became the
death-place of the Bruce--Ben Lomond, with its hoary head swathed in
impenetrable clouds--and lo! the ocean and the isles. Not a Glasgow man
in the committee-room but yearned with love and admiration towards the
gifted speaker, who certainly did make out a case for the Queen of the
West such as no matter-of-fact person could possibly have believed. And
all this was done by merely substituting a Claude Lorraine glass for our
ordinary dingy atmosphere. The outline was most correct and graphic, but
the secret lay in the handling and distribution of the colours. I shall
not wonder if the whole committee, clerk included come down this autumn
to catch a glimpse of that terrestrial paradise.

Such is a brief and unexaggerated abstract of the transactions of these
railway committees; and you may judge for yourself how far the members
are likely to understand the true circumstances of the case from
evidence so singularly conflicting. Sometimes three or four days are
wasted before they can even comprehend the precise position of the lines
which they are required to consider, and, after all, these impressions
must be of the haziest description. For my own part, I think the
legislature has made a most palpable mistake in not intrusting such
important functions to parties who possess competent local knowledge;
and I am satisfied that the result of the present session has proved the
insufficiency of the system. I demur altogether to the propriety of
devolving upon Members of Parliament the duties of a civil jury. They
have surely enough to do in weighing and determining the larger
questions of policy, without entering into the minute details
necessarily involved in the consideration of railways, roads, bridges,
and canals. These should be transferred to parties conversant with such
subjects, and responsible to the public for their decisions. Besides
this, the direct pecuniary loss to Scotland by the present system of
sending witnesses to London--though personally I have no reason to
complain--is quite enormous, and demands attention in a national point
of view. It is calculated that not less than a million and a half
sterling, has been expended in the course of last year in carrying the
Scottish bills through Parliament, and by far the greater part of this
sum has been absorbed by plethoric London, and cannot by possibility
return. Now, the whole annual value of the lands and houses in Scotland
does not exceed