commissioners, usually a nobleman of high rank, represents the king. A moderator is chosen by the assembly, who presides and regulates the proceedings. This is the high court of appeals from the other ecclesiastical courts, and its decisions are final. Its au thority extends over Scotland. 2d. Provincial Synods are composed of delegates from a number of adjacent presbyteries, over which they have power. 3d. Presbyteries are composed of delegates from a number of adjacent parishes. They inspect the behavior of the ministers and elders of their respective bounds, ordain pastors, examine and licence schoolmasters, &c. 4th. The Kirk Session, composed of the minister, elders, and deacons of a parish, is the lowest ecclesiastical court. It has the superintendence of the poor, visits the sick, and assists the clergyman in his clerical functions.

The following is a view of the ecclesiastical establishment of Scotland, as divided into synods and presbyteries, with the number of ministers in each synod, in 1803.

These 936 clergymen are settled over 877 churches, 31 of the churches being collegiate. The Scotch clergy deserve the highest praise, as men of enlightened minds, and unblemished life.

The Seceders are also very numerous. The Burghers have about 100 ministers, and each has, at a medium, a congregation of about 1000. The number of the Antiburghers is less.

Government. The government of Scotland, since the union, has been blended with that of England.

The Scots are represented in the imperial parliament by 16 peers, elected by the nobility by writ at the calling of every parliament, who sit and vote in the house of lords. To the house of commons, Scotland sends 45 members, viz. 30 knights of the shires, and 15 from the royal boroughs.

Laws. The law of Scotland differs essentially from that of England. Of common law there is hardly a trace, while the civil and canon laws may be said to form the two pillars of Scottish judicature. The modes of procedure have, however, the advantage of being free from many of those legal fictions, which disgrace the laws of some other countries.

Population. The population of Scotland, in 1755, was 1,265,380; in 1798, 1,527.892; and in 1801, 1,604,826. The increase in 46 years was 339,446, or a little more than 26 and per cent.

The army, navy, revenues, political importance and relations of Scotland, are now inseparably intermingled with those of England.

Manners and Customs. The manners and customs of the Scots begin to be much assimilated with those of the English.

In the luxuries of the table the superior classes rival the English. The sobriety of the lower classes is in general exemplary. They are ambitious to appear with their families in decent clothes on Sundays and other holidays. This may be regarded as a striking characteristic of the Scottish peasantry, who prefer the lasting decencies of life to momentary gratifications. To this praise may be added, that of intelligence, arising from the diffusion of education, which is such, that even the miners in the south possess a circulating library.

Language. The Scottish language falls under two divisions, that of the Lowlands, consisting of the ancient Scandinavian dialect, blended with the Anglo-Saxon, and that of the Highlands, which is Irish.

Literature. One of the earliest native writers is Thomas of Erceldon, called the Rhymer, who flourished about the year 1270, and wrote a metrical romance, called Sir Tristram, now unfortunately lost.

The Scottish muse continued to warble till the middle of the seventeenth century, when religious fanaticism extinguished all the arts and sciences. In more modern times the names of Thomson, Biair, Armstrong, Beattie, Burns, &c. are universally known.

The other departments of science are of yet more recent cultivation in Scotland; even theology seems unknown till the beginning of the sixteenth century; and of medicine there is no trace til! the seventeenth; while Edinburgh now ranks among the first medical schools of Europe. Natural philosophy and history were totally neglected till after the Restoration; yet Scotland can now produce able writers in almost every branch, and equal progress has been made in moral philosophy.

Education. The mode of education pursued in Scotland is highly laudable, and to judge from its effects is, perhaps, the best practical system pursued in any country in Europe. The superior advantage of the Scottish education consists in every country parish possessing a schoolmaster, as uniformly as a clergyman; at least the rule is general, and the exceptions are rare. In the Highlands the poor children attend to the flocks in the summer, and the school in the winter. There is no country on the globe, except

New-England, in which the education of the poor is so universally attended to.

Universities. There are four universities in Scotland, three on the eastern coast, St. Andrew's, Aberdeen and Edinburgh; and one on the western, that of Glasgow, all celebrated, particularly the two last.

Cities and Towns. EDINBURGH, the capital, is comparatively of modern name and note. Its population including the port of Leith, was, in 1678, computed at 35,500; in 1755, at 70,430; and in 1791, at 84,886.

The whole number of inhabitants in the old and and new town of Edinburgh together with the suburbs and the sea ports of north and south Leith were found by actual enumeration in 1801 to amount to 82,560.

The arrivals and clearances at Leith Harbor, exceed the num ber of 1700 vessels of various descriptions. The commerce has been stated at half a million annually.

The houses in the old town are sometimes of remarkable height, not less than thirteen or fourteen floors, a singularity ascribed to the wish of the ancient inhabitants, of being under the protection of the castle. The new town is deservedly celebrated for regularity and elegance, the houses being all of free-stone, and some of them ornamented with pillars and pilasters.

The second city in Scotland is Glasgow. The population in 1755, was computed at 23,546, including the suburbs; the number in 1791, was 61,945; and in 1801, 77,385. The ancient city was rather venerable than beautiful, but recent improvements have rendered it one of the neatest cities in Scotland. Its western situation exposes it to frequent rains, a disadvantage recompensed by its favorable position for commerce with America and the West-Indies. Its commerce has arisen to great extent since the year 1718, when the first ship that belonged to Glasgow crossed the Atlantic.

Perth is an ancient town, pleasantly situated on the western bank of the Tay; and has been known in commerce since the thirteenth century. Linen forms the staple manufacture, to the annual amount of about 160,000l. There are also manufactures of leather and paper. Perth displays few public edifices worth notice. In habitants, about 23,000.

About 18 miles nearer the mouth of the Tay, stands Dundee, in the county of Angus, a neat modern town. The frith of Tay is here between two and three miles broad; and there is a good road for shipping to the east of the town, as far as Broughty-castle. The population is 26,084; the public edifices are neat and commodious. In 1792, the vessels belonging to the port, amounted to 116. The staple manufacture is linen, to the annual value of about 80,000l. canvass, &c. about 40,000l. Colored thread also forms a considerable article, computed at 33,000l. and tanned leather at 14,000/.

Aberdeen first rises to notice in the eleventh century. The population in 1795 was computed at 24,498, and in 1801 at 27,509,

Though the harbor be not remarkably commodious, it has a con siderable trade, the chief exports being salmon and woollen goods. Greenock and Port-Glasgow, are considerable towns, which have arisen to celebrity, by sharing in the trade of Glasgow. Greenock contains 17,458 inhabitants; Port-Glasgow about 3,865. Paisley, in the same county, is celebrated by its manufacture of muslins, lawns, and gauzes, to the annual amount, it is said, of 660,000. The population amounts to 31,179. Dumbarton, on the opposite shore of the Clyde, contains about 2,541 souls, and is also subservient in the manufactures of Glasgow.

Inland Navigation. The most remarkable inland navigation in Scotland, is the excellent and extensive canal from the Forth to the Clyde, commenced in 1768, from a survey by Smeaton four years before. Its depth is seven feet; its breadth at the surface fifty-six feet; the locks are seventy-five feet long, and their gates twenty feet wide. It is raised from the Carron by twenty locks, in a tract of ten miles, to the amazing height of 155 feet above the medium full sea mark. At the twentieth lock begins the canal of partition on the summit, between the east and west seas; which canal of partition continues eighteen miles on a level, terminating at Hamilton-hill, a mile N. W. of the Clyde, at Glasgow. In some places the canal is carried through mossy ground, and in others through solid rock. In the fourth mile of the canal there are ten locks, and a fine aqueduct bridge, which crosses the great road leading from Edinburgh to Glasgow. At Kirkintullock, the canal is carried over the water of Logie, on an aqueduct bridge, the arch of which is ninety feet broad. There are in the whole eighteen draw bridges, and fifteen acqueduct bridges, of considerable size, besides small ones and tunnels.

The supplying the canal with water was of itself a very great work. One reservoir is above twenty-four feet deep, and covers a surface of fifty acres, near Kilsyth. Another, about seven miles north of Glasgow, consists of seventy acres, and is banked up at the sluice, twenty-two feet.

The distance between the Friths of Clyde, and Forth, by the nearest passage by sea, that of the Pentland Frith, is 600 miles, by this canal scarcely 100. On the 28th of July, 1790, the canal was completely open from sea to sea, when a hogshead of the water of Forth was poured into the Clyde, as a symbol of their junction The length of the canal is precisely thirty-five miles, and no work of the kind can be more ably finished.

Manufactures and Commerce. The general commerce of Scot land, though on a smaller scale, and with smaller capitals, is in most respects similar to that of England, and shares in the national prosperity. That of the capital, through Leith its port, has been estimated, at half a million yearly. The chief exports are linen, grain, iron, glass, lead, woollen stuffs, soap, &c. &c. The imports are wines, brandy; and from the West-Indies and America, rum, sugar, rice, indigo. Glasgow exports cottons of all kinds, muslins, lawns, gauzes, &c. glass, stockings, earthen ware, cordage, &c. candles, soap, iron, leather, &c. &c. The chief imports are tobac

-50, sugar, rum, and cotton, from the West-Indies; Irish beef, butcer, and linen; wines from Portugal and other countries.

The herring and salmon fisheries on the coast, the whale fishery in Greenland and Davis's Straits, and the cod fishery on the banks of Newfoundland, are productive of great wealth to Scotland, and have met with the direct patronage of the government. The exports of Scotland in 1800 amounted to £2,346,069; in 1805 to £2,504,867; and in 1809 to £4,383,100. In 1805 the trade employed 2581 vessels, amounting to 210,295 tons, and 15,160 sea

men.

The annual amount of the linen manufactures is said to be £750,000. Of woollens, Scotch carpets, cheap, neat and durable; caps, and stockings form the chief branch. The thread manufacture of Scotland is uncommonly excellent. The quantity of ardent spirits distilled in

The iron manufactures, particularly that at Caron, deserve also to be enumerated among the chief national advantages. In 1763, there were 396 four-wheeled carriages, and 462 two-wheeled, entitled to pay duty. In 1790, there were 1427 of the first kind, and >643 of the last.

Climate and Seasons. In the eastern parts, there is not so much humidity as in England, as the mountains on the west arrest the vapors from the Atlantic. On the other hand, the western counties are deluged with rain, an insuperable obstacle to the progress of agriculture. Even the winter is more distinguishable by the abundance of snow, than by the intensity of the frost; but in summer the heat of the sun is reflected with great power in the narrow vales between the mountains. These observations chiefly apply to the north and west. In the cast and south, the climate -differs but little from that of the north of England.

Face of the Country. The face of the country is in general mountainous, to the extent, perhaps, of two thirds; whence the population is of necessity thin, in comparison with the extent of territory. The eastern parts have little of uniform flatness, but are agreeably diversified with hill and dale. The rivers in general are remarkably pure and transparent, and their course rapid. The rich roughness of an English prospect, diversified with an abundance of wood, even in the hedge rows, is in Scotland rare, whence the nudity of the country makes a strong impression on the stranger. But the laudable exertions of many of the nobility and gentry, who plant trees by millions, will soon remove this reproach.

Rivers. The three chief rivers of Scotland, are the Forth, the Clyde, and the Tay.

Next in consequence and in fame, is the Tweed, a beautiful and pastoral stream, which, receiving the Teviot from the south, near Kelso, falls into the sea at Berwick.