I WENT often to the Assembly during its sittings; but, in general, I found the business in which they were engaged of a nature so dull, that I was contented to make my visits short. It was only on one day that I was induced to prolong my stay during the whole sederunt—and, in truth, I am given to understand, that it is only when subjects of the sort then discussed come before them, that, even among the clergy themselves, much interest or attention is excited. On entering the house, indeed, I could not but remark, that the rows set apart for Members of Assembly were garnished with a plentiful admixture of persons, obviously of a totally different description from those with whose faces I had formed some acquaintance on the “day of prayers.” Here and there among the sober clergymen, on either side of the house, might be seen scattered knots of young men, who wore indeed black coats, but whose whole air and mien were decidedly the reverse of clerical. Not a few of their faces, moreover, were already familiar to me, although I could not at first bring myself to believe that they were actually the same faces I had so often speculated upon, among the far different accompaniments of the Outer-House and its side-bars. A friend, however, to whom I applied for information, told me at once that my suspicions were perfectly well founded, and that the young gentlemen whose unecclesiastical appearance had struck my observation, were no other than so many juvenile advocates, to whom it would seem their respective Presbyteries and Boroughs in the country had entrusted the duties of representing them in the General Assembly of the Church. You have heard, no doubt, that a certain number of Lay Elders are admitted to the counsels of all the Ecclesiastical Courts in Scotland—but nobody certainly would have suspected that such a venerable designation could be applied to such persons as these young limbs of the law.