THE 5.R.e BOOK OF SCOTLAND. BY WILLIAM CHAMBERS. Relate what Latium was, Declare the past and present state of things. DRYDEN's Virgil. EDINBURGH: ROBERT BUCHANAN, 26, GEORGE STREET; LONDON. MDCCCXXX. PREFACE. THE Volume now introduced to public notice, has been compiled with the view of furnishing for the first time to strangers and others, a connected comprehensive delineation of the chief Institutions in Scotland, as well as the more prominent and peculiar laws and usages by which this northern kingdom is still distinguished from the other portions of the British empire, and more especially from England; and, as such, to form a useful companion to the PICTURE OF Scotland. While the latter publication adheres principally to a description of things of a tangible nature, the present may be best depicted as an attempt to expose the mechanism regulating society in its public relations. In other words, while the one presents a luminous picture of the body of the country, the other aspires to exhibit the soul with which it has been endowed. Among the splendid array of works of living and dead authors, whose talents have been devoted to an illustration of the history, the topography, the statistics, and other interesting peculiarities of Scotland, it is somewhat surprising that no one is found wholly or even partially dedicated to the exposition of its Institutions, which, in many instances, differ as much from those of the sister country, as the mountainous and romantic regions of the north differ from the broad luxuriant meadows of the south, and are fully as much entitled to attract the curiosity and inquiry of the stranger. While the heights of hills-the appearance of "the outsides of the best houses"-and the number of pillars giving dignity and support to public buildings, |