And if they were not completely ostracised from legal life, they were so far tabooed and kept at a distance that their emoluments from their legal practice could not, if they had depended solely upon that source of income, have held body and soul together. Besides this, the Edinburgh bar at that time could boast of a most unusual combination of legal talent. Some of the ablest lawyers of this or any other age were at that time practising in the Parliament House. And the eminence of not a few men was so great as to leave a long way behind others who, like Sheriff Bell, would now be considered above the average in their profession. The young advocate of 1872 has not to encounter such intellectual giants as Patrick Robertson, Jeffrey, Cockburn, Rutherford, M'Neil, Moncrieff, Hope, and other contemporaries of Bell, who shed the lustre of their genius upon the law of Scotland, and secured for the Court of Session a reputation higher, perhaps, than even Westminster Hall has ever been able to attain. At this time, and throughout the whole of his literary career, Sheriff Bell was an uncompromising Tory. He never took any prominent part in imperial politics, although in the Edinburgh Town Council, of which he was for some time a member--sitting as the representative of St. George's Ward--he entered into some fierce debates on the Annuity-tax with Duncan M'Laren. That obnoxious impost was even then, as it has subsequently been, a great bone of contention, and proved the _casus belli_ of many a wordy war. The embryo M.P. was generally, as we are well informed, more than a match for the young advocate, whom he overcame with those simple but effectual weapons--facts and figures. In 1836, Sheriff Bell stood as a candidate for the Logic Chair in Edinburgh University, his opponents being Mr. Isaac Taylor, author of the "Natural History of Enthusiasm;" Mr. George Combe, the phrenologist; and Sir William Hamilton. Previous to that time, Sir William had been Professor of Civil History in the University, and his candidature for the Logic Chair, which was strongly supported by Mr. Adam Black and Mr. Napier, editor of the _Edinburgh Review_, was successful.