But it is with reference to the general politics of Scotland as centring in the Athens, that this system of burghal election exerts its most pernicious and permanent influence; for whoever chooses to go to the expense, (and where very weighty purses are not run against each other that is by no means great,) can purchase the votes of Scotch provosts, bailies, and counsellors, with as much ease and certainty as he could do the necks of as many geese. No doubt there are temporary and local exceptions, just as there have been wise legislators, upright judges, and generous commanders, in the very worst systems of despotism; but those exceptions, from all that I could ever learn, have been so few in number, and so far between, both in space and in time, as not to diminish the truth of the general likeness. If indeed any other proof, than a knowledge of the system, and a sight of the men, were wanted, to show how extremely convenient a tool those Scotch burghal magistrates are, in the hands of whatever party has the political influence in Scotland for the time, that proof would be found in the great pertinacity with which the official men of the Athens have fought for the preservation of the system, and the miserable sophistications to which they have been obliged to have recourse in order so to disguise it as that it might be at all palatable to the better informed or more liberal official men in England. Within the last thirty years, the burgesses of Scotland have made two strong and almost unanimous efforts to shake it off. They have shown how ruinous it is to themselves, how degrading to the magisterial office, and how ill in accordance with that freedom which England boasts. But the lords advocate and other keepers of--what shall I say?--Ay--their own places, have worked about it and about it; and “darkened counsel by words without knowledge,” till some unfortunate circumstance of the times has enabled them to couple the attempt at its destruction with that with which it has no connexion--sedition and rebellion against the British government. The one attempt was spoiled by the breaking out of the French Revolution, and the disturbances which at that time took place in Scotland; and the subsequent attempt failed in consequence of those grumblings of the people, which were occasioned by a time of scarcity of provisions and want of employment.