versus Nibble, decided towards the close of the last summer session, that a document of debt, otherwise valid, subscribed by one who had no right to adhibit the copartnery firm, could form no ground of action, nor constitute a claim against the funds of the society. Nay more, I have been, under the advice of eminent counsel, led to entertain doubts, whether a party so using and subscribing a social firm, which firm hath an actual existence, and thus, for the purpose of deceit, imitating that which really is, may not be justly deemed and considered guilty of forgery, and in danger of undergoing a criminal prosecution, the result whereof I leave you, dear Public, to imagine. The prospect of the possibility of such a

termination to my labours threw me, for a space, into a fever of anxiety and doubt; nor did a more minute examination of the position in which I stood at all tend to lessen that fever. Forgery, as our institutional writers have set forth, consists in the fact of imitating the subscription of another, and putting that false name or subscription to a writing, combined with the fact of putting, or attempting to put that writing to use—which last ingredient, I am told by the eminent counsel aforesaid, is an essential of the crime. In former days, by statute of Alexander II. — an excellent and good prince, whose remains now rest in peace at Melrose the perpetrator of this crime, being convicted, was punished by

amputation of his right hand an infliction that I should be sorely unwilling to undergo, even considering the mutilated state of that member, and that the sentence, as I might say were I inclined to be facetious on such a subject, could only be half complied with, in respect that I possess but half a right hand, and thus, by logical deduction, the law should be cheated of half its due. In more modern days, the trial might proceed before the Session, either per modum simplicis querela that is, summarily, without any summons, or, in a more regular manner by a formal summons of improbation. either of these cases, dear Public, the power of the Session, however, extended no farther than to inflict an

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arbitrary punishment the which might be imposed indifferently upon the body or goods of the offender. But even this of itself was no light matter; for who can say to what extent the chattels of the culprit might have been confiscated? or where is he who can tell with how many stripes his body might have been visited? But a still more grievous matter remained behind. Failing the Session, the culprit was liable to be seized upon and tried by the Justiciary; and being there convicted, the mercy of modern days hath ordained that the crime shall be visited with no less a punishment than what hath been facetiously, but methinks somewhat indecorously, termed fitting the neck of the individual with a hempen cra

vat. It was, no doubt, keeping these matters in view, although the knowledge of the same has been but recently added to mine own stock of literary and antiquarian research, it was, no doubt, I say, keeping these matters in view, that mine inestimable partner and no one had a better knowledge of the powers wherewith, either by statute or common law, he was invested in his zeal for the welfare of the concern, in terms most plain, but scarcely pleasant, gave me to understand, that, in the event of the stipulations of our copartnery being trenched upon in this particular, he would not hesitate to procure my name struck from the half-pay establishment, and my annuity cut off — that is, I presume, obtain me punished