and family join me in best wishes to Mrs Crawfurd and you; and I am, dear sir, your's most truly,

"J. L. Crawfurd, Esq."

"GEORGE CHRISTIE."

Are our readers yet sufficiently satisfied of Buckton's vile and dishonourable dereliction of duty-of his open, fraudulent, and deep designs, and of his determination completely to upset he claims of his client altogether? We think that they must be already as convinced of it as Mr Crawfurd's best friends and himself could wish. The greater part of this memoir teems with indubitable proofs of Buckton's extraordinary conduct towards his client, since the very first day in which he took charge of that important case. It is almost useless to go any further upon that head; but as the following letter has been just put into our hands, we will insert it, as it goes to shew how every good man smypathised with Mr Crawfurd in the extreme distress, and extreme losses, which have been imposed on him, and made complete by that tyrant. The reader will likewise see, that it was written after the affair of the St Martin's registry, of which hereafter.

"Glasgow, 25th May 1824.

"Dear Sir,—I received your letter of the 15th inst. and was sorry to observe you have been so annoyed, vexed, and disappointed, on account of a wretch, who seems determined by every dishonourable means, to prevent you of getting your own. I trust in God, you will ultimately triumph over all your enemies. I am glad to observe you have got such a hold of their villany; the circumstance of the erasure is certainly the best in favour of your claim, of any thing that has yet appeared.

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Certainly Buckton was fully persuaded of its being a forgery, before he intimated it to be genuine to the committee; if this be the case, Buckton has played a disgraceful part. Were there any persons with Buckton, when he saw the books, and are you sure it was erased before he saw it? It is most unaccountable that Buckton would give the committee such a statement, when he must have been sensible it was a palpable forgery. I think your claim is completely established by this

discovery; and I trust you will be now enabled to follow it up with spirit. I think when the case is now made so clear, that your agent should carry it through. I know its often the way here, agents in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, in far more unlikely causes than yours, to carry the client through, and get payment after. Had I L.500 now to spare, I most willingly would advance it, to enable you to get possession of your honours and estates, which you have been so shamefully deprived of; but this is out of my power at present. You have persevered wonderfully; you must still continue to do so; and, with the blessing of God, you will get off victorious. Buckton's conduct in the west country was most certainly notorious. I am,

Sir, your obedient servant,

"John L. Crawfurd, Esq."

"J. HUTCHISON."

The writer of this letter having taken a peculiar interest in Mr Crawfurd's affairs, and even to such a degree, that not resting quite satisfied with the account which he received from him on this event, that he, Mr Hutchison, started off to London, to obtain a sight of this curiosity, in the St Martin's church registry; and on his arrival, immediately repaired thither, and being so perfectly satisfied with the reality of its being as we have represented a little further on, that he called on Mr Mann, then Mr Crawfurd's solicitor, and presented him with a certain sum of money, to help in prosecuting for the L.1200 worth of plate before mentioned.

It is necessary to inform our readers, that a Mr James Dobie, writer in the town of Beith, attended Messrs Buckton and Bowie in this mock investigation, no doubt having been employed by these gentleman, to answer their own views. We yet cannot proceed on our journey to London, until we detail a circumstance connected with this matter, which entirely refers to Mr James Dobie, writer in Beith.

We have already given a hint of Mr Dobie's conversion from the faith which he entertained of Mr Crawfurd's claims since 1810, by the doctrine of our celebrated James Buckton, the London solicitor. To be the

more explicit, we will again commence at the very root of the matter, on Messrs Buckton and Bowie's arrival in the town of Beith.

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Beith, Saracen's Head, Jan. 5, 1824. "Messrs Buckton and Bowie have arrived at this place: they purpose devoting this evening entirely to a correspondence and conference with Mr Dobie. If, therefore, Mr and Mrs Crawfurd will be here by halfpast nine o'clock to-morrow morning, they will be glad to see them, and the copy of Bradley's correspondence with his wife, &c. &c.

"JAMES BUCKTON."

The town of Beith is about two and a half miles N. E. of Kilbirnie. We beg to observe, that Mr Crawfurd's residence at Kilbirnie, was, at that period, the most comfortable of any other in that part of the neighbourhood of Beith and Kilbirnie; and as the witnesses who expected to have been examined, lived chiefly in that part, Mr Crawfurd thought that his house was the only place where those dignified gentlemen should have come direct to, and have stopped; and, as already mentioned, he and his lady refused to attend the summons.

Those gentlemen (if gentlemen they may be called) were not trifling in this matter. They came resolutely, in the true spirit in which they had made up their minds, and intended to act on their commission; and it also appears, that they considered it fully as prudent not to keep the finger wagging, but snap it off all at once; and, without either preface or preamble, informed their client, that they would, the first evening, hold a conference with Mr Dobie.

This is strange turning of the tables indeed :-it again brings to our remembrance, the circumstance of honest Captain Foulds, when returning from Ireland on Mr Crawfurd's business, he thought proper to go first to Messrs Hunter and Stewart, for the purpose of delivering up to those gentlemen the documents he obtained there, into the hands of Mr Crawfurd's enemies; but those worthies wait first upon those whom

they conceived to be his friends, that they might proselyte and make enemies of them; therefore, they would pass the first night with that gentleman, instead of consulting with Mr Crawfurd, who lived in the very same neighbourhood, as already stated. But, reader, patiently hear the strange consequence of this undue measure; a fact which is well worthy to stand as a finger post on this weary path of duplicity and deceit; and which exhibits a scene of treachery unexampled in the historic page.

Indulgent and sympathizing reader, we again court attention, while we narrate a most complicated piece of villany, in the circumstance of this unguarded conference betwixt Messrs Buckton, Bowie, and MrJames Dobie, the Beith writer. We are almost going a little out of our tract in order to state the following circumstance, but as it strikingly bears npon Messrs Buckton, Bowie, and Dobie's immediate movements, we hope it will apologise for this digression, which calls for publicity, and which we cannot consistently pass over.

Mr James Dobie has been a writer in the town of Beith for many years. That gentleman made himself acquainted with Mr Crawfurd's claims at an early period, and had opportunities of knowing that case superior to many other individuals. He always looked upon it as a well-founded cause, and from its very commencement Mr Dobie appeared much interested in it; so much so, that he was at all times ready to advise Mr Crawfurd or any of his agents, upon any legal or other matter respecting it; and, in consequence, corresponded both with Bell and Buckton on the business, at various periods, and always expressed himself in favour of the claim, in the most hopeful and sanguine manner, until the celebrated Messrs Buckton and Bowie arrived in Beith, as before mentioned.

Being very solicitous, and apparently deeply concerned about that disputed question, some time after Mr Crawfurd arrived at New South Wales; he (Mr Dobie) assisted in writing a pamphlet in defence of that cause, of which we will give an excerpt, and then leave our readers to judge of Mr Dobie's conduct after his conference with those two worthy solicitors.

Through their machinations, and the one night's conference with those gentlemen, Mr Dobie completely abdicated Mr Crawfurd's interest and was totally apostatized from all and every particle of faith which he at all times firmly exercised heretofore of Mr Crawfurd's pretensions ; which will appear by a letter he shortly after that period was moved to write, addressed to a Mr George Christie in the town of Paisley, of which the following is a true copy, and which we think it right to subjoin.

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Beith, 4th February 1824. "Sir, I have yours of yesterday. You must misapprehend Mr Bowie's expressions; he could not possibly mean to say, that I had expressed myself as totally unacquainted with Mr Crawfurd's case, for before Mr Buckton left London he knew of my name as having been consulted by Mr Crawfurd; and I told both Mr Bowie and him of all I had done in the matter from the first. It is impossible to recollect every word I said to these gentlemen; but I recollect saying, I certainly had not known Mr Crawfurd's case so well till now. And this is true, as appears to me, that the history of the Honourable James Crawfurd, third son of John, first Viscount of Garnock, as proved by the record of the country,* destroying the foundation of Mr Crawfurd's case. He was born in 1700; his father died in 1708, having executed bonds of provision to his younger children. In 1723, John, the immediate elder brother of James, and James himself, in their own name, and as trustees appointed by the Court of Session for their younger brothers' tutors, institute a process against Patrick, the second Viscount, for adjudgment or adjudging the estate of Glengarnock, Kilbirnie, for payment of their provisions. In this process they obtained decreet, I think, in 1725. This is, however, much against Mr Crawfurd's theory, which is, that James having shot a man in a duel, fled to Ireland in

* Qu. What records? Buckton's assertion, and Lady Mary's purse, were the only ones used at this period.