In spite of every artifice, however, the ferment of the public mind gradually subsided.

The Government, after some hesitation, ventured to open the Courts of justice which the Estates had closed.

The Lords of Session appointed by the King took their seats; and Sir James Dalrymple presided.

The Club attempted to induce the advocates to absent themselves from the bar, and entertained some hope that the mob would pull the judges from the bench.

But it speedily became clear that there was much more likely to be a scarcity of fees than of lawyers to take them: the common people of Edinburgh were well pleased to see again a tribunal associated in their imagination with the dignity and prosperity of their city; and by many signs it appeared that the false and greedy faction which had commanded a majority of the legislature did not command a majority of the nation, [380].