The very distinguished critic, Francis Jeffrey, was first introduced to the world, in which he was to enact so conspicuous and influential a part, on the 23d of October, 1773. His birthplace was Edin-burgh, where his father, who had been educated to the law, held one of the deputy-clerkships in the Court of Session, in which the son was destined to preside as a judge.

The interesting story of the latter navmg been in extreme peril of falling a victim to a fire that broke out in his father's house when he was quite an infant, and of his having owed his safety from the flames to a slator, whose timely service he afterwards requited, in the hour of need, by gratuitous and suc-cessful professional exertions, turns out to be without foundation in fact. Having, by the usual process, learned his alphabet at home, Jeffrey was sent to a private school; and though a "little tiny boy," was remarked for his intellectual vigour, even before he had doffed the petticoats.

When eight years old he was placed at the High School of the northern capital - the most celebrated and time-honoured institution of the kind in his native country - where the old and somewhat whole-some system of flagellation seems to have been carried out, to such an extent as his learned biographer thinks the criminal law would not now tolerate. There, for four years, he continued learning Latin; and was noticed as a little, anxious, clever boy, who always stood near the top of the class, and never lost a place without a becoming display of feeling. At. the end of that time he was passed on to the rector's class, consisting of more than a hundred boys, and remained there for two years more; though without performing any of those miracles which not unfre-quently mark the boyhood of brightening genius However, the master was one who delighted to detect and encourage youthful talent; and Jeffrey, throughout life, held him in grateful remembrance. Though reading was not, at that date, a very favourite amusement among the boys Jeffrey, besides some books of travel and natural history, diligently perused Hume's "History of England," and Middleton's "Life of Cicero,"- no doubt with great benefit.

When he was in his thirteenth year his mother, a woman of maternal excellence, and much beloved by her children, died while her son was on a visit to some friends, about seventeen miles from Edinburgh The news of her dangerous illness reached the family in which he was staying too late to admit of his being conveyed home the same night, and it was, therefore, deemed prudent to conceal the sad intelligence from him till next day; but, having suspected it from some cause, he set off in the morning before day-break, and walked all the way.

Shortly after this mournful event, which cast a deep gloom over their circle, he had one day the advantage, which his countrymen prize so highly, of looking with his young eyes on that rustic bard of whom Scotland is, and may well be, proud. While standing in the High Street, staring at a man whose appearance struck him as uncommon, a passer-by tapped him on the shoulder, and exclaimed with enthusiasm, "Ay, laddie! ye may weel look at that man. That's the poet Burns!" Jeffrey never had a second opportunity; but, ere long, he had an adventure with a scarcely less celebrated personage. This was the biographer of Johnson, whom he had the memorable distinction of assisting to carry to bed in a condition which may be more decorously imagined than described. Next morning he was rewarded by the renowned individual - who had, mean-time, been informed of the service - clapping him patronisingly on the head, complimenting him on being a very promising lad, and adding, by way of incitement, "If you go on as you've begun, you may live to be a Bozzy yourself yet!" Luckily, the object of his approval had a higher career before him

In the beginning of the year 1787 Jeffrey was sent to the College at Glasgow, which was preferred to the other northern seats of learning on account of the Oxford exhibitions. He remained there for two sessions, displaying, according to a fellow-student, a degree of quickness which some were inclined to call by a harsher name, and cultivating a very black, un-reasonable moustache, which covered the whole of his upper lip, and exposed him to the laughter and raillery of his companions. Notwithstanding this harmless vanity, he was by no means deficient in the spirit of defiance, as he proved by his strong opposition to the election of the apostle of political economy, Adam Smith, as Lord Rector of the University, which depended on the votes of the professors and students. People were, in no small degree, surprised to see a dark-visaged lad in that peculiar state of excitement which is so apt to make us mistake friends for foes, eloquently haranguing some boys on the green against the impropriety of voting for the learned author of the "Wealth of Nations."

In the next session, however, he exhibited his characteristics in a much more brilliant and satis-factory manner. In a debating society he won honour as one of the most successful speakers -criticism and metaphysics being the principal sub-jects on which his eloquence expatiated. Moreover, one of the professors, being in the habit of making each of his pupils write an essay, and then delivering it into the hands of another to be criticised, gave Jeffrey an opportunity of first exercising those remarkable powers, in after years so terrible to many a hapless adventurer in the fields of literature. On this occasion his remarks were of so merciless a nature, that the professor, in returning the essay to its author, charitably muttered something deprecatory of the ruthless severity that had been made use of. This year he made a most creditable figure in the logic class, and was considered the ablest youth it contained. A party of the students, anxious for their improvement in recitation, formed themselves into an elocution club, which met every Monday evening. They even aspired to a dramatic performance, fixed upon a play and selected an apartment within the College as a fitting theatre: but the authorities interfered, and put a stop to the scheme, and thus raised the bitter ire of Jeffrey, who, in the last page of his "Notes on Lectures," denounced their conduct, in taking such a step, as "the meanest, most illiberal, and despicable!"

From this period he exercised not only extraordinary diligence, but systematic regularity, in pursuing his studies, and cultivating his literary powers, accompanying all his labours with composition, in tended not for display, but with a view to that self-culture so necessary even to men endowed with the highest natural faculties. This laudable practice, which was adhered to almost daily, is attested by the multifarious mass of papers on every kind of subject, which are still preserved, consisting of notes of lectures, translations, speeches, tales, and poems; nearly all the prose -productions being of a critical character, and, as if by way of preparation for his subsequent high position, terminating with a sharp and acute criticism on their own defects. It was by such means that he corrected his errors and blemishes of style, and brought to maturity that peculiar acumen afterwards so forcibly displayed in the pages of the "Edinburgh Re-view."

Of his papers written at Glasgow, only four remain in existence; but they are stated to be wonderful performances for a youth of his age. It may not be out of place to mention that he was subject to what he considered feelings of superstitious fear, to cure himself of which he used to walk at the mystic hour of midnight round the graveyard of the ancient and venerable cathedral, familiarised by the genius of Scott to all readers of "Rob Roy."

In May 1789 he returned to Edinburgh, whose localities, for the next two years, he only exchanged for visits to a relative in the county of Stirling, which were the occasion of much delightful enjoyment, and ever remembered as comprising the happiest days of his youth- restless with the fever of eloquence, recognising no prospect of a vent; and conscious of a daring intellect, which perceived little hope of a career. But at what he fondly calls the "dear, retired, adored, little window" of his garret in the Lawnmarket, where his father resided, he laboured assiduously in silence, composed, created, and criticised according to his own desires, and prepared himself for the arrival of that brighter day, which is almost sure to come to those who are careful to fit themselves for the duties that accompany it.

In the autumn of 1791 Jeffrey was entered at Oxford, his father having escorted him thither. They loitered and visited so many places of interest by the way, that it was a full fortnight before their destination was reached. But the rich south, which is supposed to have so strong an attraction for his countrymen, seems to have had no charms whatever for him. Lord Mansfield and others never availed themselves of the privilege of setting foot on their native soil after they had left it; hut scarcely had Jeffrey separated from his father when he conceived a strong dislike to everything and everybody about the new scene of his studies. More grateful to his tastes was the little garret in the Lawnmarket of his dear native town than the classic regions by the Isis. His letters to a sister breathe nothing but discontent, loneliness, and melancholy, and it was with a joy, which he was far from con cealing, that he terminated his short residence in June 1792. He was, it would really seem, too much, of a Scotchman to relish life elsewhere than in his native land; hut he was extremely ambitious to get rid of his northern accent, and acquire" an English tongue." In this, the extent of his success fully justified the remark of the late Lord Holland, that "though he had lost the broad Scotch at Oxford, he had only gained the narrow English."

Jeffrey was now nineteen, and entertained serious intentions of devoting his whole talents and energies to literature - poetry being the crutch on which he chiefly relied. Even for years after he had been admitted to the Scottish bar, he meditated a re-moval to London with this view. At length, in

1802, the establishment of the "Edinburgh Re-view" afforded him a proper stage for the display of his literary powers. He contributed no less than two hundred articles to this potent organ of public opinion, and continued its editor till his election as Dean of Faculty, in 1829 - with what tact, talent, and judgment, the influence it exercised during that long and troubled period sufficiently proves. His labours as editor must have been gigantic, especially when joined with those undergone in his professional pursuits.

On the accession of Earl Grey to power, in 1830, Jeffrey became Lord-Advocate for Scotland, and in 1834 was raised to the bench.

He died in January 1850, in his seventy-seventh year, and was, by his own desire, buried in the Dean Cemetery, near Edinburgh, on the 31st of that month.

The history of his youthful career is extremely valuable, as showing distinctly that study, diligence, and steady industry, are essential for qualifying men, of even the most acute and unquestionable talents, to exercise them with credit to themselves and advantage to others.