If there be any one class of documents from which, more than from any other, we may hope to draw evidence of the accuracy of Byron's assertion, that "Truth is strange, stranger than fiction!" they are surely the records of judicial proceedings both in civil and criminal matters; while, as Mr. Burton well observes in the preface to the two volumes which have called forth this remark, _Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland_, "there can be no source of information more fruitful in incidents which have the attraction of picturesqueness, along with the usefulness of truth." In submitting therefore to the public the materials of this nature--some drawn from manuscript authorities, some again from those works which, being printed for Subscription Clubs, may be considered as privately printed, and inaccessible to the majority of readers--which had accumulated on his hands while in the pursuit of other inquiries connected with the history of Scotland, Mr. Burton has produced two volumes which will be read with the deepest interest. The narratives are of the most varied character; and while some give us strange glimpses of the workings of the human heart, and show us how truly the Prophet spoke when he described it as being "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" and some exhibit humiliating pictures of the fallibility of human judgment, others derive their chief interest from revealing collaterally "the social secrets of the day,--from the state mysteries, guarded by the etiquette and policy of courts, down to those characteristics of humble life which are removed from ordinary notice by their native obscurity." Greater dramatic power on the part of Mr. Burton might have given additional attraction to his narratives; but though the want of this power is obvious, they form two volumes which will be perused with great curiosity and interest even by the most passionless of readers. Speaking of the use of Records reminds us that our valued cotemporary _The Athenæum_ has anticipated us in a purpose we have long entertained, of calling the attention of historical inquirers to the vast amount of new material for illustrating English history to be found in Sir F. Palgrave's _Calendar of the "Baga de Secretis,"_ printed by him in several of his Reports, as Deputy Keeper of the Records. As _The Athenæum_ has however entered upon the subject, we cannot do better than refer our readers to its columns.