_Varieties_. Man to the plough, Wife to the sow, Son to the flail, Daughter to the pail, And your rents will be netted; But, man tally ho, Daughter piano, Son Greek and Latin, Wife silk and satin, And you’ll soon be gazetted. A SCENE IN A SCOTCH COURT OF JUSTICE IN 1757.—The Dean of Faculty at that time was Mr Lockhart, afterwards Lord Covington, a man of learning, but of a demeanour harsh and overbearing. It had ever been considered the duty of the chief of the body of advocates, freely elected to preside over them, to be particularly kind and protecting to beginners; but Lockhart treated all who came in contact with him in a manner equally offensive, although he had been engaged in a personal altercation with a gentleman out of court, who threatened to inflict personal chastisement upon him; and there were some circumstances in his domestic life supposed to render his reputation vulnerable. At last, four junior advocates, of whom Wedderburn, afterwards Lord Chancellor Loughborough, was one, entered into a mutual engagement that he among them who first had the opportunity should resent the arrogance of the Dean, and publicly insult him. It was by mere accident that the opportunity occurred to Wedderburn, who certainly made a good use of it. In the very end of July, or beginning of August, 1757, (the exact day I have not been able to ascertain), Wedderburn was opposed in the Inner House as counsel to Lockhart, and was called by him “a presumptuous boy,” experiencing from him even more than his wonted rudeness and superciliciousness. When the presumptuous boy came to reply, he delivered such a personal invective as never was before or since heard at the Scottish bar. A lively impression still remains of its character; but newspaper reporting was then unknown in Edinburgh, and oral tradition has preserved only one sentence of that which probably was the meditated part of the harangue:—“The learned Dean has confined himself on this occasion to vituperation; I do not say that he is capable of reasoning, but if tears would have answered his purpose, I am sure tears would not have been wanting.” Lockhart here started up and threatened him with vengeance. Wedderburn—“I care little, my Lords, for what may be said or done by a man who has been disgraced in his person and dishonoured in his bed.” Lord President Craigie, being afterwards asked why he had not sooner interfered, answered, “because Wedderburn made all the flesh creep on my bones.” But at last his Lordship declared in a firm tone, that “this was language unbecoming an advocate, and unbecoming a gentleman.” Wedderburn, now in a state of such excitement as to have lost all sense of decorum and propriety, exclaimed that “his